The Castle Of The Shadows

iness than eating and drinking. But certain that nobody was within hearing distance, Loria squandered

arted, no doubt. I'm half mad, I think, Lady Gardiner. For four nights I haven't slept; for

so much?" ex

so much. You

t can't be all a bubble, or you wouldn't buy eighty-pound pr

t hasn't bee

same. You can't be a fortune-hunter, like many agre

ould end by being her lover. She is the most beautiful girl on earth,

lians can lo

t you disliked me; but to-day you are different. I was as desperately in need of help as a drowning

Kate, half believing that she told the truth; for there was a certain magnetic pow

w questions. What have I done to c

dd going on-something which interests her s

She was angry because I was unwilling to go into-that valley. But afterward, when she learned how intimately I had

and Virginia and Sir Roger were on the balcony. Of course, I didn't mean to listen, but I couldn't find the fan at first, and I didn't like to startle them by suddenly switching on the light, so I-er-I

low voice. "But go on. Did Sir Roger Broo

es

honourable English gentleman, who traduces a man behin

your friendship was not worth much, since you believed Maxime Dalahaid

can do. Did he give her all the

t time. Besides, I had wanted to know, and I couldn't think of

e had, she would never have wishe

tterly of you

it would be better for Miss Beverly to have nothing to do with that family. They bring unhappiness to all who come near them. It is as if they were under a curse, which every one connected with t

hasn't been more than o

the things I wished t

r looking everywhere, they were together, so absorbed in what they were saying that I believe if a revolver had been fired within a dozen yards of them they would hardly have heard it. At luncheon that same day, Sir Roger was telling me how he had seen

find out what that was, I might

d have much to do with you. You remember, perhaps, that you came while we were at luncheon the day after our ride into the Valley of the Shadow, and proposed that we should all go to Monte Carlo on your mot

lled my

e believed Maxime Dalahaide was innocent. She demanded of Roger-who has spent a good deal of time in France, you know, and is supposed to be well up in French law-whether it wouldn't be possible to have the case brought up again, with the best lawyers in the country, expense to be no object. When Roger had shown her that the thing couldn't be done, and there was no use discussing it, she wanted him to say that by setting some wonderful d

she repl

es, except incidentally about the chateau, which she actually means to buy, and have restored in time to come to it, if she likes, next

nterest herself in this cold-blooded murderer, whose best friends turned from him in horror at his crime? Is it pure philanthropy? Has the

hat somehow sounded-dead. She did not mention her brother, and seemed so reserved that I should think it would be difficult to break the ice with her. Indee

r passed throug

portrait?" he asked i

opped in the room. I suppose a morbid sort of curiosity regarding a murderer

ined silent, his fac

as watching Loria as she spoke, and thrilled a little at the look in his eyes as he turned them upon her. "Oh, these Italians!" she thought. "The

gain on this earth-not even to himself, since the wors

another," Kate reflected dreamily. Aloud she went on: "It seems ridiculous to say so, but I believe that Virginia is making a hero of him. She has ne

ens! You be

oss it by accident. Yes, she is thinking of him, but it is only a girl's foolish, romantic fancy, of course-a spoilt child, crying for the moon, because it's the one thing that no adoring person can get for her. I shouldn't worry abo

ime ago she would not have cared for a yachting trip, unless I wer

s also to b

re not

make a decent excus

n, goes w

r Roger Broom. She isn't

Roger Broom, then,

her minority, or what remained of it after her father's death; now she has had her one-and-twentieth birthday, and is her own mistress. I fancied that she intended to remain so for a time, unless she lost her head-or her heart-and Sir Roger, nice as he is, is scarcely the man to make

ll me where t

t Naples, Greece, and Egypt, and Virginia answered that it would be 'something of the sort'-answered evasively, saying nothing was decided yet; and so the conversation w

oman. "A yacht with four cannon!

ident; they would not have them removed, but they had no intention of making use of them. Still, there's no doubt tha

not wish to go

changed. That day when we rode up the Valley of the Shadow, a

mea

a different man since he went

oria's forehead. "He m

our expression and accen

. A man can't be in love with

e is to be of the party; and in that case I should be the odd woman. Not that it matters to me. George was pleasant to flirt with but I should not marry again, unless I married money. Virginia's great fortune comes from her father, Geor

wn together. "She was reading a book about Noumea," he

am to help you, you must

ent there, to see him. Bah! T

e they are undertaking will be no more startling than an attempt to r

are going, and let me know. A hundred diamond serpents would n

y will

ucceed. You often speak, half-jestingly, of being poor. I have money-I don't say enough; who has enough? But I am not a poor man. Watch Virginia for me; watch Sir Roger Broom. Let me know where this yacht is taking you, whom she carries, all that happens on boar

more than an hour, for Virginia's carriage, which she lent me, has just driven up to the door. Whenever there is a new development of this mystery, which interests us both, y

to her door by the Marchese Loria's valet. Inside was the diamond ser

me time it had been for sale, lying in harbour at Nice; but it had been too costly a toy; the cannon with which it was armed were worth only the price of old iron to most buyers of yachts. They were equally useless to Miss Beverly and her party, as she and George

Beverly ostentatiously bought thin summer clothing, saying that it would be summer weather on the sea before she bade good-bye to the water. Still, Virginia announced

to earn a thousand pounds she would have moved heaven and earth to go, for more an

had said little, but his face was expressive, and Kate was of opinion that he would have said a great deal more, had not some strong motive restrained him. Perhaps, she thought, this mot

d between them had been a forbidden love. But if the truth about the ya

Englishmen, were engaged, and the Bella Cuba steamed into the harbour at Mentone, exactly one mon

med to endure. Nevertheless, when Virginia hinted that, if she chose to think better of her decision, it was not yet to

o inspect the accommodation, she was surprised to be shown only five passenger cabins. Still, as she had been informed that there w

lained Virginia. "We shall be so long at se

Virginia's Celestine had made herself agreeably useful. "We shall have nothi

gold painted doors, and stopped suddenly at a sixth, the only on

d sweetly; "else what becomes of the symmetry? Now, if only it wer

eyes very bright, her cheeks very red. "And if

could the cabin not be used, and why had Virginia suddenly grown cross at the bare suggestion that it should be? Was it possible that Madeleine Dalahaide was going after all, that her presence was to be kept secret from Kate until

I shouldn't wonder," she said reflectively, "if the whole mystery of this trip

start?" asked

at five in t

cuse to go on board i

I could say I had lost something, and hoped that I'd left it on the Bella Cuba. Or perhaps I could slip on board without saying anything until

f there isn't one already on t

woke before she had made it her own. She was up early in the morning, and went out, saying, as if carelessly, to Celestine, that she must buy a few la

this will do i

eturned t

at and was rowed out to the Bella Cuba

nd ring which I think I dropped in my cab

roken the seal on the envelope, and taken out a small, peculiarly shaped steel implement. With a quick glance