“Well, if she does,” remarked Flockart, with a shrug of the shoulders, “she’ll have to suffer with me.  You know where we should all find ourselves.”

The man pulled a wry face and puffed at his cigarette in silence.

“What does the girl do?” asked Flockart a few moments later.

“Well, she seems to have a pretty dull time with the old lady.  I stayed at the ‘Cardigan Arms’ at Woodnewton for two days—­a miserable little place—­and watched her pretty closely.  She’s out a good deal, rambling alone across the country with a collie belonging to a neighbouring farmer.  She’s the very picture of sadness, poor little girl!”

“You seem to sympathise with her, Krail.  Why, does she not stand between us and fortune?”

“She’ll stand between us and a court of assize if that woman acts the fool!” declared the shabby stranger, who moved so rapidly and whose vigilance seemed unequalled.

“If we go, she shall go also,” Flockart declared in a threatening voice.

“But you must prevent such a contretemps,” Krail urged.

“Ah, it’s all very well to talk like that!  But you know enough of her ladyship to be aware that she acts on her own initiative.”

“That shows that she’s no fool,” remarked the foreigner quickly.  “You who hold her in the hollow of your hand must prevent her from opening up to her husband.  The whole future lies with you.”

“And what is the future without money?  We want a few thousands for immediate necessities, both of us.  The woman’s allowance from her husband is nowadays a mere bagatelle.”

“Because he probably knows that some of her money has gone into your pockets, my dear boy.”

“No; he’s completely in ignorance of that.  How, indeed, could he know?  She takes very good care there’s no possibility of his finding out.”

“Well,” remarked the stranger, “that’s what I fear has happened, or may one day happen.  The fact is, caro mio, we are in a quandary at the present moment.  You were a bit too confident in dealing with those documents you found at Glencardine.  You should have taken her ladyship into your confidence and got her to pump her husband concerning them.  If you had, we shouldn’t have made the mess of it that we have done.”

“I must admit, Krail, that what you say is true,” declared the well-dressed man.  “You are such a philosopher always!  I asked you to come here in secret to explain the exact position.”

“It is one of peril.  We are checkmated.  Goslin holds the whole position in his hands, and will keep it.”

“Very fortunately for you he doesn’t, though we were very near exposure when I went out to Athens and made a fool of myself upon the report furnished by you.”

“I believed it to be a genuine one.  I had no idea that the old man was so crafty.”

“Exactly.  And if he displayed such clever ingenuity and forethought in laying a trap for the inquisitive, is it not more than likely that there may be other traps baited with equal craft and cunning?”