CHAPTER XVIII
WATCHING
It was not difficult for Jessie to guess the identity of the man whoaddressed her. Only a man who loved and felt sure that he was loved inreturn would have spoken to a girl like that. This was Charles Maxwellbeyond a doubt. Nice-looking enough, Jessie thought, with a pleasing,amiable face--perhaps a trifle too amiable, but there was no mistakingthe power in the lines of the mouth.
"What are you doing here like this?" he asked. "Heavens! has all theworld gone mad to-night?"
The bitterness of despair rang in the speaker's voice. Jessie noticedthat Maxwell was dressed not in the least like men in his positionusually dress at that time of the night. He wore a grey flannel suit anda panama hat pulled down over his eyes.
"I came on urgent business," Jessie said. "I presume that you are Mr.Maxwell?"
"Why should I deny it?" the other asked. "I am Charles Maxwell, and themost miserable dog in London. But I am forgetting. Why do you ask mesuch a foolish question, Vera?"
"Because I want to be quite sure of my ground," Jessie said. "Andbecause I am not Miss Vera Galloway at all. If you look at me veryclosely you will see that for yourself."
Maxwell stared at Jessie in a dull, wooden kind of way, as if the wholething were past his comprehension.
"Yes," he said, "there is a difference, but it is so subtle that even Ishould not have noticed it unless you had called my attention to it. ButI know who you are now. You are Miss Harcourt, daughter of ColonelHarcourt, late of the --th. I have often told Vera of the wonderfullikeness between you. If you should ever meet her in private life----"
"I have met her, I am personating her at the present moment," Jessiewhispered.
"Amazing!" Maxwell exclaimed. "But I understood that you were--that youhad been--in short----"
"Engaged in a Bond Street shop," Jessie finished the sentence. "So I wastill to-day, when I was discharged through no fault of my own. MissGalloway sent for me to take her place. Secretly I have played her partall this evening. And she went away dressed in my simple blackclothes----"
"But why?" Maxwell demanded jealously. "Why all this absurd mystery?"
"Surely you can guess? Why do you look so suspicious? I am notaltogether in Miss Galloway's confidence, but I understand that shewanted to save somebody whom she loved--somebody that was in trouble. Itrequires no great intelligence to guess that you were the person inquestion. It was all connected with those papers missing from theForeign Office."
"I know no more about it than the dead," Maxwell said vehemently. "Thepapers in question--and others--were as much in Lancing's custody asmine. It was he who was to blame, though I admit that I locked thepapers away to-night after Lord Merehaven had done with them. When I sawthe _Mercury_ I was horror-stricken. I guessed exactly what hadhappened."
"How could you guess what had happened?" Jessie asked.
"Because I have had my suspicions for some time," Maxwell said. "Idismissed those suspicions as unworthy of me and insulting to CaptainLancing. I know that he was greatly infatuated with Countess Saens, whoma Mr. Lechmere, a late Queen's Messenger, had warned me against as nobetter than a Russian spy. Lancing was mad over her. There is not theslightest doubt that she induced Lancing to let her have those papers tocopy. Then she refused to return them, and Lancing committed suicide.That is what I make of it."
"The sensational report in the _Mercury_ went farther than that," Jessiesaid. "It is assumed that you are a party to the conspiracy, and thatyou fled to Paris. Is that true, or going to be true?"
"As heaven is my witness, no," Maxwell said in a hoarse whisper. "When Ihad made up my mind what had happened, I determined to get possession ofthose papers. I vanished, saying that I was called suddenly to Paris.For the last four hours I have been dogging Countess Saens. I followedher here, and I am not going to lose sight of her until she is safely athome. And when she is once safely at home, I am going to do a desperateand daring thing. What is she doing here?"
Jessie made no reply for the moment. She had pulled her wrap over herface again so that she should not be recognized. She was watching themovements of Countess Saens breathlessly. The woman had passed up thesteps into the big hall beyond the swinging glass doors. She seemed tobe arguing with a porter, who shook his head in an emphatic way.Evidently the countess was angry; so much could be seen from hergestures and the shake of her shoulders.
"She is trying to see a patient at irregular hours," Jessie said, "andthe porter is adamant. I pray from the bottom of my heart that she mayfail."
"Is this another piece in the puzzle?" Maxwell asked hopelessly.
"It is the key-piece of the problem," said Jessie. "Ah, the porter isnot to be moved. He has sent off an under porter, possibly to call oneof the house surgeons. See, the countess sits down."
Surely enough the countess had flung herself angrily into a seat. Nobodyseemed to care much about her, for she waited ten minutes without anysign of anybody in authority. Meanwhile Jessie was making Maxwell _aufait_ with the situation.
"You threatened some dangerous and desperate enterprise a little lateron," she said. "I suppose that is a supreme effort to try and get thosepapers?"
"You have guessed it," Maxwell said grimly. "If I could do that, thewhole situation would be saved. We could do anything; we could point toLancing's suicide as the result of reckless gambling. Mind you, thatwould be more or less true. If Lancing had not been desperatelysituated, he would never have yielded to the countess's fascinations andsold those precious documents."
"Yes, yes," Jessie interrupted. "But unless I am greatly mistaken, youhave been forestalled. Somebody else has already removed the documentsfrom Countess Saens's custody."
"You don't really mean that! What was it--a case of diamond cutdiamond?"
"Yes, but not quite in the way you imagine. Those papers were stolen inturn from Countess Saens to-night, taken from a drawer in her bedroom byMiss Galloway."
Maxwell pressed his hands to his head. The situation was too much forhim. He groaned for an explanation.
"I can only surmise," Jessie said. "But presently you will have to admitthat I have very strong grounds for my surmises. In some way MissGalloway obtained a clue to what was about to happen. That is why I wascalled in to take her place, so that she could have an hour or twowithout being suspected. An hour or so ago Countess Saens's maid came toMerehaven House with the information that there had been a burglary inthe countess's bedroom, but that nothing besides some papers seemed tobe missing. That those papers were important could be guessed by theghastly yet furious expression on the lady's face. The maid was pressedfor a description of the thief--who, by the by, was a woman. And thenand there the maid pitched upon _me_. She declared point blank that itwas I who committed the burglary. What do you think of that?"
"You are a clever young lady," Maxwell said hoarsely. "Pray go on."
"The maid stuck to her guns, though everybody laughed at her. She saidthe thief was dressed in plain black, and as I was in evening dress, andhad been seen all the evening, those who heard were amused. But _I_understood. In my plain black dress Miss Galloway had gone to thecountess's house and stolen those papers. The thing was as clear asdaylight to anybody behind the scenes. Under the circumstances, yourprospective burglary would be so much loss of time."
"I quite understand that," Maxwell muttered. "It is exceedingly cleverof you to read between the lines so clearly. Vera has done this for mysake. But how did she know--how could she possibly tell what was goingto happen, and when those papers were to be found? Of course, _I_guessed where the trouble lay directly I saw the _Mercury_ paragraph,but Vera! And she never takes the slightest interest in politics. Whatare you looking at?"
Once more Jessie was staring intently past the swinging doors of thehospital into the big hall beyond. The countess had now risen from herchair and was facing a little man with a bald head and gold-rimmedspectacles, who appeared to be explaining something to her. Jessie couldsee him bow and shake his head. Her breath
came very fast.
"Why are you so interested in the countess's present action?" Maxwellasked.
"Because she has come here to try and see a patient," Jessie whisperedintently. "From the bottom of my heart, I pray that she may fail. If shesucceeds we are ruined, you are ruined. For the patient is no other thanVera Galloway."