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Updated: May 4, 2025
"Money can buy immunity from arrest in every country in Europe, and especially De Gex's money, for it can be distributed in secret by his agents. No. If we are to be successful we must lay our plans just as cleverly as he lays his. We must allow him to believe that we are entirely unsuspicious of his plotting. That is our only way." I realized that there was much truth in his argument.
"Then I will remain here and watch De Gex's departure," he said. "Yes. But be very careful of yourself," I urged. "Keep your revolver handy, for you never know when an attack may be made upon you. These fellows, though great men in the eyes of the world, employ desperate characters to do their dirty work." "I'm quite alive to that fact, Hugh," replied my friend.
Rivero sat amazed when I described my chance meeting with Gaston Suzor, and the clever manner in which I had been inveigled into De Gex's house in Stretton Street. Indeed, on comparing Gabrielle's story with my own, I now saw that at the time I entered the house both she and the girl Engledue were in their normal health.
At last, by skirting a shrubbery in almost pitch darkness, and scratching my hands and face badly, I succeeded in gaining the rear of the little marble temple, and on hearing De Gex's voice I drew back and waited, scarce daring to breathe. I could hear my own heart beat as I listened intently to certain words distinctly audible. "Then you think he has suspicions eh, Moroni?
I was compelled to draw back and watch them from a distance, hoping that I might be successful in following them to their destination. It certainly was strange that the girl who was so much like Gabrielle Engledue should be there in Florence, within a mile or two of De Gex's villa!
"And so do I," I said, laughing. "But, tell me, where is the young lady who used to live here Mr. De Gex's niece?" "His niece! I don't think he has a niece." "Miss Gabrielle Engledue." "Who's she? I've never heard of her," was the man's reply. I described her, but he shook his head. "To my knowledge Mr. De Gex hasn't got a niece," he said. "Were you here five weeks ago?" I inquired.
I know a Gabrielle Gabrielle Tennison an old schoolfellow of mine." "A tall, dark-haired girl?" "Yes, she is rather tall, and dark-haired." "Isn't her real name Engledue?" I asked quickly. "Not to my knowledge." "Is she not Mr. De Gex's niece?" "He has no niece, has he? except, of course, Lady Shalford, whom I know quite well." "Where is Gabrielle Tennison?" "In London I believe."
I was only too keenly alive to my own very precarious position. Yet I was emboldened by De Gex's agitation, and the pallor in his sallow cheeks. He was, no doubt, feeling very uneasy. And even a millionaire can feel uneasy when faced with a witness of his own offence. "Mr. De Gex, I am not talking rubbish," I said in all seriousness.
But slowly, piece by piece, I have been steadily working upon the mystery of certain amazing occurrences at De Gex's house in Stretton Street. By slow degrees, and after travelling up and down Europe, I have at last succeeded in finding just a streak of daylight through the impenetrable barrier so cleverly contrived in order to mystify and mislead me.
If he had been found in De Gex's room at the Ritz one could have understood it." I smiled. The Chief of Police never suspected the true facts of the case, facts within my own knowledge, which were of such an amazing and startling character that I hesitated to relate them. When I left my friend I again sought Hambledon and told him all I had learnt. "H'm!" he grunted.
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