Oh! I have
realized the hold he has upon me, Lucy! I know what it means, this
disappearance of all the others who used to sell what Kazmah sells. If
I am to suffer, he shall not escape! I swear it. Either he listens to
me tonight or I go straight to the police!"
"Be calm, little girl," whispered Sir Lucien, and he laid his hand
upon her shoulder.
But she leapt up, her pupils suddenly dilating and her delicate
nostrils twitching in a manner which unmistakably pointed to the
impossibility of thwarting her if sanity were to be retained.
"Ring him up, Lucy," she repeated in a low voice. "He is there. Now
that I have someone behind me I see my way at last!"
"There may, nevertheless, be a better way," said Sir Lucien; but he
added quickly: "Very well, dear, I will do as you wish. I have a
little cocaine, which I will give you."
He went out to the telephone, carefully closing the study door.
That he had counted upon the influence of the drug to reduce Rita to a
more reasonable frame of mind was undoubtedly the fact, for presently
as they proceeded on foot towards old Bond Street he reverted to
something like his old ironical manner. But Rita's determination was
curiously fixed. Unmoved by every kind of appeal, she proceeded to the
appointment which Sir Lucien had made--ignorant of that which Fate
held in store for her--and Sir Lucien, also humanly blind, walked on
to meet his death.
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