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"'It is also the day set for my wedding to Miss Catherwood, said Estes, quietly. "Balencourt took it admirably. 'So you have obtained the decision at last, he said, smiling lightly. 'My felicitations. "Crawfurd rose to his feet. The jovial flush had strained away from his fat cheeks, and his jaw hung loose and pendulous.
Here, if anywhere, we might snap our fingers at the machinations of M. Balencourt and the mysterious 'Forty. It would be rather cold off the Maine coast during this unseasonable summer, but there were fireplaces in plenty and stacks of drift-wood. The only real difficulty lay in persuading my estimable sister to cut short her Newport visit and come to me a month earlier than usual.
"As for the rest, there was nothing to be done except to keep a couple of 'shadows' on Balencourt, and we had a full account of his movements by eight o'clock every night a regular ship's chart worked out with time-stamps and neat entries in red ink, after the accustomed fashion of Central Office men.
'The police, I said, vaguely, but Estes shook his head. "'It is but postponing the bad quarter of an hour, he said, gently, 'and I don't think that I could put up with this sort of thing indefinitely. Moreover, it wouldn't be fair to to Betty. "'No, he went on, 'it's better to have a limit set, just as it is now for at least Balencourt will keep his word.
To take advantage of an act of youthful folly "'You forget that it is his life or mine, interrupted Estes, quietly. "'But, George, it is unthinkable. When he knows but you did tell him about Betty "'That's just it, old chap. Balencourt asked her to marry him a week ago, just before I received the first red button. "The monstrousness of the thing struck me all of a heap.
Estes had said more than one imprudent thing that evening, and this time he had gone too far. I would have to get the boy away somehow. "There were three of us dining with Balencourt that evening at his chambers in the Argyle Estes, Crawfurd, and myself; and as usual we had had an excellent dinner, for Balencourt knew how to live. Who was Balencourt?
"'And I deny it, interrupted Estes, rudely, and stared straight at Balencourt. A quick glance answered his challenge; it was like the engaging of rapiers. "'Perhaps Mr. Estes desires proof, said Balencourt, slowly. "'I do. "'Let us say between "'To-night and the 1st of August. "'That will suit me perfectly. My passage is booked on the Teutoninc for the following Wednesday.
So May and the first two weeks in June dragged uneventfully along; the period of stress was already half over. Then came Monday, the 15th of June, and with it a little shock. Our man I mean Balencourt concluded to disappear, and he did it as effectually as though there were no such thing as a 'shadow' in existence.
When the head-sleuth came that night to report his discomfiture, I cut him short in his theorizing and asked for the facts. But there was only the one Balencourt was certainly non est, and that was all there was to say. Whereupon we banished the 'shadows' to the outer darkness whence they had come and convened our original council of war.
He pushed his chair noisily back, and we all rose. "'You won't wait for coffee? said our host. 'Just as you please. He touched the call-button, and Jarman entered to help us on with our top-coats. Par parenthese, how account for the anomaly of this scoundrel of a Balencourt possessing the most perfect of serving-men?
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