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Updated: May 29, 2025
And that was what Desmond Okewood thought as a few hours later he found himself with Maurice Strangwise in the stalls of the vast Palaceum auditorium. In the unwonted luxury of evening clothes he felt clean and comfortable, and the cigar he way smoking was the climax of one of Julien's most esoteric efforts. The cards on either side of the proscenium opening bore the words: "Deputy Turn."
"As far as I can recollect just as the maid opened the door to Captain Strangwise, Nur-el-Din was impressing on me again to take great care of the package. I don't think she actually mentioned the box but I remember her pointing at my bag where I had put the package." "The maid didn't see Nur-el-Din give you the box?" "No, I'm sure of that. The room was empty save for us two.
In the meantime Strangwise, his white, even teeth bared in a quiet smile, was very steadily looking at his prisoner. "Well, Desmond," he said at last, "here's a pleasant surprise! I thought you were dead!" Desmond said nothing. He was not a coward as men go; but he was feeling horribly afraid just then. The deviltry of the scene he had just witnessed had fairly unmanned him.
Of Barbara she took not the slightest notice. Desmond remarked it and her indifference shocked him profoundly. "Of course, you don't recognize him!" said Strangwise. "This is Major Desmond Okewood, more recently known as Mr. Basil Bellward!" The woman evinced no surprise. "So!" she said, "I thought we'd end by getting him. Well, Strangwise, what are we waiting for? Is our friend to live for ever?"
"I'm going to utilize my advantage to the best I know how," retorted Strangwise, snapping the words, "that's good strategy, isn't it, Desmond? That's what Hamley and all the military writers teach, isn't it? And I'm going to be frank with you. I suppose you realize that your life hung by a thread in this very room only a minute ago. Do you know why I intervened to save you?" Desmond smiled.
"But he was also an inconvenient witness of her dealings with Strangwise," retorted Francis. "If either Nur-el-Din or Strangwise have regained possession of the Star of Poland, Des, I fear the worst for Barbara Mackwayte. Come in!" The corporal stood, saluting, at the door. "Mr. Matthews on the telephone, sir!"
"You let me go free of course, I take it that my liberty includes the release of Miss Mackwayte as well and in addition, you hand over to me your two accomplices, Bellward and the Malplaquet woman. That is your offer, isn't it? Well, what do you want from me in exchange?" "The Star of Poland!" said Strangwise in a low voice. "But," Desmond began.
All his life it had been his practice to take a risk, for such is the Irish temperament if the object to be attained in any way justified it; and he was determined to avoid at all costs the chance of a meeting with Strangwise.
Desmond laughed. "It's not the silence of consent," he said, "but if you want me to be quite frank about Strangwise, Chief, I don't mind telling you I don't like him overmuch. We were very intimate in France. We were in some very tight corners together and he never let me down. He showed himself to be a very fine fellow, indeed. There are points about him I admire immensely.
"... I shall do the rest!" he added. "Ah!" Mrs. Malplaquet drew a deep sigh of admiration. "That's a clever idea. He is so ruse, this Strangwise. You are quite right, Bellward, he never admits himself beaten. And he never is! But tell me," she added, "what about Nur-el-Din? They'll nab her, eh?"
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