“It was not I who sent it,” said Ricardo eagerly.
He had no precise idea what Hanaud meant by his words; but he realised that the sooner he exculpated himself from the charge the better.
“Of course it was not you. I know that very well,” said Hanaud. He called for the bill. “When is that paper published?”
“At seven,” said Lemerre.
“They have been crying it in the streets of Geneva, then, for more than half an hour.”
He sat drumming impatiently upon the table until the bill should be brought.
“By Heaven, that’s clever!” he muttered savagely. “There’s a man who gets ahead of me at every turn. See, Lemerre, I take every care, every precaution, that no message shall be sent. I let it be known, I take careful pains to let it be known, that no message can be sent without detection following, and here’s the message sent by the one channel I never thought to guard against and stop. Look!”
The murder at the Villa Rose and the mystery which hid its perpetration had aroused interest. This new development had quickened it. From the balcony Hanaud could see the groups thickening about the boy and the white sheets of the newspapers in the hands of passersby.
“Everyone in Geneva or near Geneva will know of this message by now.”
“Who could have told?” asked Ricardo blankly, and Hanaud laughed in his face, but laughed without any merriment.
“At last!” he cried, as the waiter brought the bill, and just as he had paid it the light of a match flared up under the trees.
“The signal!” said Lemerre.
“Not too quickly,” whispered Hanaud.
With as much unconcern as each could counterfeit, the three men descended the stairs and crossed the road. Under the trees a fourth man joined them—he who had lighted his pipe.
“The coachman, Hippolyte,” he whispered, “bought an evening paper at the front door of the house from a boy who came down the street shouting the news. The coachman ran back into the house.”
“When was this?” asked Lemerre.
The man pointed to a lad who leaned against the balustrade above the lake, hot and panting for breath.
“He came on his bicycle. He has just arrived.”
“Follow me,” said Lemerre.
Six yards from where they stood a couple of steps led down from the embankment on to a wooden landing-stage, where boats were moored. Lemerre, followed by the others, walked briskly down on to the landing-stage. An electric launch was waiting. It had an awning and was of the usual type which one hires at Geneva. There were two sergeants in plain clothes on board, and a third man, whom Ricardo recognised.
“That is the man who found out in whose shop the cord was bought,” he said to Hanaud.
“Yes, it is Durette. He has been here since yesterday.”
Lemerre and the three who followed him stepped into it, and it backed away from the stage and, turning, sped swiftly outwards from Geneva. The gay lights of the shops and the restaurants were left behind, the cool darkness enveloped them; a light breeze blew over the lake, a trail of white and tumbled water lengthened out behind and overhead, in a sky of deepest blue, the bright stars shone like gold.
“If only we are in time!” said Hanaud, catching his breath.
“Yes,” answered Lemerre; and in both their voices there was a strange note of gravity.
Lemerre gave a signal after a while, and the boat turned to the shore and reduced its speed. They had passed the big villas. On the bank the gardens of houses—narrow, long gardens of a street of small houses—reached down to the lake, and to almost each garden there was a rickety landing-stage of wood projecting into the lake. Again Lemerre gave a signal, and the boat’s speed was so much reduced that not a sound of its coming could be heard. It moved over the water like a shadow, with not so much as a curl of white at its bows.
Lemerre touched Hanaud on the shoulder and pointed to a house in a row of houses. All the windows except two upon the second floor and one upon the ground floor were in absolute darkness, and over those upper two the wooden shutters were closed. But in the shutters there were diamond-shaped holes, and from these holes two yellow beams of light, like glowing eyes upon the watch, streamed out and melted in the air.
“You are sure that the front of the house is guarded?” asked Hanaud anxiously.
“Yes,” replied Lemerre.
Ricardo shivered with excitement. The launch slid noiselessly into the bank and lay hidden under its shadow. Hanaud turned to his associates with his finger to his lips. Something gleamed darkly in his hand. It was the barrel of his revolver. Cautiously the men disembarked and crept up the bank. First came Lemerre, then Hanaud; Ricardo followed him, and the fourth man, who had struck the match under the trees, brought up the rear. The other three officers remained in the boat.
Stooping under the shadow of the side wall of the garden, the invaders stole towards the house. When a bush rustled or a tree whispered in the light wind, Ricardo’s heart jumped to his throat. Once Lemerre stopped, as though his ears heard a sound which warned him of danger. Then cautiously he crept on again. The garden was a ragged place of unmown lawn and straggling bushes. Behind each one Mr. Ricardo seemed to feel an enemy. Never had he been in so strait a predicament. He, the cultured host of Grosvenor Square, was creeping along under a wall with Continental policemen; he was going to raid a sinister house by the Lake of Geneva. It was thrilling. Fear and excitement gripped him in turn and let him go, but always he was sustained by the pride of the man doing an out-of-the-way thing. “If only my friends
