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Updated: May 27, 2025
I thought of Lola and wondered whether she had returned home from a visit she was paying in Devonshire, and whether, by her watchfulness, she had gained any inkling of the nature of this latest plot. Little Lady Lydbrook had now become my constant companion.
The planned robbery had, however, gone wrong and we had been compelled to return to London. Then Rayne had conceived the sinister idea of sending me to Lady Lydbrook who was not Sir Owen's wife at all but one of his agents like myself, and whose real name was Betty Tressider a girl-thief whose chief possession was a rope of imitation pearls.
I had learned that Lady Lydbrook was under the influence of that ill-dressed man who spoke so well, and whom I at first took to be an undergraduate or perhaps a hospital student. It was a point to report to Rayne.
In the lounge I sank into a seat in a hidden corner and lit a cigarette. Presently I heard the swish of a woman's skirt behind me, and rising, peered out. It was Lady Lydbrook on her way out. She was carrying the cheque to the mysterious stranger! Alone in my room that night I threw myself into a chair and pondered deeply.
My ever-present hope was to be able one day to extricate Lola from that atmosphere of criminality and mystery in which she lived, that environment of stealthy plotting and malice aforethought. On the evening of my arrival there happened to be a dance in the hotel, and watching, I saw Lady Lydbrook enter the ballroom.
They were chatting merrily, quite unconscious of the fact that I was watching them. Her companion was dark and exceedingly well dressed. I learnt from the waiter that Sir Owen Lydbrook was not with his wife, and that the name of her companion was Miss Elsie Wallis. "I fancy she's on the stage, sir," the man added confidently. "Only I don't know her stage name. They've been 'ere nearly a month.
It was an old invention of thieves and possessed no originality. I wondered that Rayne's friends employed such a contrivance, which, of course, was useful when it became necessary that valuable objects should disappear. "Well, and what of it?" I asked, as, opening the case, he took out my collar-box and replaced it upon the table. "I am told that you are on very friendly terms with Lady Lydbrook.
The devilish cunning of Rudolph Rayne was indeed well illustrated by the clever trap which he had set for me by the instrumentality of that pretty woman-thief, Betty Tressider, who called herself Lady Lydbrook. I now realized by Rayne's overbearing attitude that he had, by a ruse, succeeded in his object in compelling me to become an active accomplice of the gang.
Her friend, Elsie Wallis, had apparently become on friendly terms with a tall, slim, dark-haired young man who often took her out in his car, while on several occasions Lady Lydbrook had accepted my invitation for an afternoon run and tea somewhere.
Now at the hotel," he went on, "there is staying Lady Lydbrook, wife of the great Sheffield ironmaster. I want you to scrape up acquaintance with her." "Why?" I asked. "For reasons best known to myself," he snapped. "It's nice weather just now, and you ought to enjoy yourself at Eastbourne. It's a smart place for an English resort, and there's lots going on there.
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