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Then we fled to Carlisle and on to Newcastle, and next morning were on board the yacht out in the North Sea, afterwards landing at Rotterdam. Those," she added, "are briefly the facts, as my poor father related them to me." "And what of poor Elma and of her secret? When, I wonder, shall I see her?" I cried in despair. "You will see her now, signore," answered Olinto.
But she'll make an appointment with me, no doubt." "Very well. Send a wire," I said. "And make it urgent. It will then be forwarded. But as regards Olinto? Would you like to see him? He might tell you more than he has told me." "No; by no means. He must not know that I have returned to London," declared my friend quickly. "You had better not see him you understand."
For two days I lounged about Westbourne Grove watching Ferrari's restaurant. In such a busy, bustling thoroughfare, with so many shop windows as excuses for loitering, the task was easy. I saw that Olinto came regularly at ten o'clock in the morning, worked hard all day, and left at nine o'clock at night, taking an omnibus home from Royal Oak.
Together we pulled it out, when, to my surprise, on wiping away the dirt from the hard waxen features, I recognized it as the body of Armida, the woman who had been my servant in Leghorn and who had afterwards married Olinto. Both had been assassinated! When Muriel gazed upon the dead woman's face she gave vent to an expression of surprise.
When we were seated in his room beneath the hissing gas-jet, I related my adventure and the result of my investigation. "What?" he cried, jumping up. "You've unearthed another body a woman's?" "I have. And what is more, I can identify her," I replied. "Her name is Armida, and she was wife of the murdered man Olinto Santini." "Then both husband and wife were killed?"
"Tell me, Olinto," I said as we moved forward again in the direction of Paddington Station, "have you any knowledge of a man named Leithcourt?" He started suddenly and looked at me. "I have heard of him," he answered very lamely. "And of his daughter Muriel?" "And also of her. But I am not acquainted with them nor, to tell the truth, do I wish to be." "Why?"
What were they, I wondered? Yet I could only wait until I received word to travel back to Russia and fetch her home. The Princess had promised to arrange everything. December came, and we still remained on at the hotel. Once Olinto had written me repeating his warning, but I did not heed it. I somehow distrusted the fellow.
When Hutcheson replied from Leghorn, and when I discovered where Olinto was employed, I might perhaps follow up the clues from that end. I might find his wife Armida and learn something of importance from her. So I was hopeful, and by reason of that hope remained silent. Muriel was untiring in her activity.
Rannoch Wood was already in its gold-brown glory of autumn, and as I stood with Muriel Leithcourt on the edge of it, near the spot where Olinto Santini had fallen, the morning sun was shining in a cloudless sky. True to her promise, she had sent me a note by one of the grooms asking me to help search for her bracelet, and I had driven over at once to Rannoch and found her alone awaiting me.
He was my servant for some years, and I naturally take an interest in him." "Santini?" he repeated. "Oh I you mean Olinto? He is not here yet. He comes at ten o'clock." This reply surprised me. I had expected the restaurant-keeper to express regret at his disappearance, yet he spoke as though he had been at work as usual on the previous day. "May I have a liqueur brandy?"
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