The Crime Club

d swiftly-dealt blows, such as he himself administered, but this declaration of Sir

a certain note of puzzlement and anxiety in i

is red beard, but his duck's-egg green

ow. Then the baronet's smile died, for, following the train of his suspicious thoughts, he instinctively grasped and held on to the idea that just as Me

disquieted

. Only the baronet's friends knew that they sometime

by every honourable man, should for a moment presume to reach out and touch the hand of Kathleen Carfax. Not for such a man as Melun was

lisation, day by day face Nature in its true, maternal, and therefore its feminine aspect. It was a long guess, but a shrewd guess, a

livened his brain still more, so that he watched, almost cat-like, the glance of Mel

ctively that he must move to the attack, but realised that a m

ilence-it is always the man who ha

un was not merely a blackmailer, but a prince among blackmailers. With infinite speed of thought he f

elun," he said, "what a pleasure it was

hade more obliquely, and his eyelids flicke

along his upper lip beneath his carefully-trimmed mo

and laughed almost gaily. "

" he said, "would dream of regarding Lady Kathleen Carfax as a possible wife unless he were

in Melun had got b

"to endow Lord Penshurst with

ham. "I endow you with an

d the heavy-lidded, slumberous eyes of Melun flickered and faltered bene

Long experience of this wicked world-by which I mean that particular kind of vulture-like humanity which preys upon better men tha

offence in the world. A blackmailer is always a coward, and a coward is invariably afraid of isola

Westerham and studied the white-pai

y on with his pitiles

New York was to sail on the same ship as myself, and, if poss

utually made in the past few minutes you have unearthed a

unearthed a fact which may be much to my benefit, and w

t was the baronet's move, and did not propose to hinder him in the making of it, inasmuch a

line of thought, I should say that you were the headpie

ecame fainter still. Westerham kne

uition as to what I should do myself were I placed in similar circumstances-it is probable t

taught me is that the robber is always poor. I come, th

The coldness left it. The sea-green eyes smiled with

Melun. "And

w that the ba

dred thousand pounds would not come amiss to you. Such a

lightest exclamation on the part of Melun; nor was he disappointed. A quic

face vanished again, and he looked

o speculates must spend his own money to gain other people's. A criminal-you must forgive the word, but it is nece

inactivity of your fellow criminals. A hundred thousand pounds is a good deal of money, and your gang

said Capt

m. "Then you acknowledge

none the less I, for my part, am prepared to take the word of a gentleman. Do you giv

following out my own particular ideas, and I know that you hav

ad him through and through, and that acknowledgment of his own baseness would

e moment Melun stood in the presence

ck, but your bad luck places you in my hands. In short, you can be delivered u

lun hesitated,

eadily, almost with insolence, "that

aid Westerham, "s

sent offer. You have divined my secret just as I have divined yours; it would

ost shyly out of the port-hole, which

few and far between. I never cared for an

his brea

ouder again, "that I should ever have set out fo

. Then his eyes grew wider

the scented drawing-rooms in the world? I began life, as they call it, in England, when I was young. What do you think I care for polo, for Hurlingham, for a stuffy reception in s

ghed s

ing hand towards the astonished captain, "that there is any soft, silk-bound

otion, all his muscles contracted. "I have learnt," he cried, "the lesson that life is no

ong, sinewy, brown hands,

make pleasure, but to fight-to wi

f man the captain did not understand; no man that he had as yet been acquainted with loos

no romance, in the bitter ga

rself at my disposal. For a hundred thousand pounds I expect not only your services, but th

he prying of the New York reporters I have had to sail on this ship in my own name. I did not wish it

ughed a litt

into London. No account of what I eat and do, and how many hours a

the eyes of the man who talked to him, he knew that he had to deal with the fierceness of a wild animal

ch a dress that no man will recognise me. I shall go straight to London and put up at Walter's Ho

disappear in that manner there will be

my own ends as I choose to follow them. For once I am going to prove

odded h

t. The day after you land in Liver

doubt your word. There is something which I have not

dare!" he added wi

ou," answered Captain Melun. "I am s

vast mistake,"

ed the door for