the other, after a minute’s pause. “Or else you are just a fool. Don’t you understand that I have got you—got you in the hollow of my hand? That you’re absolutely in my power? That no one who knows you is ever likely to see you again?”
“Can’t we cut out the melodrama?” asked Tommy plaintively. “Have I got to say ‘You villain, I’ll foil you yet?’ That sort of thing is so very much out of date.”
“What about the girl?” said the other, watching him. “Doesn’t that move you?”
“Putting two and two together during my enforced silence just now,” said Tommy, “I have come to the inevitable conclusion that that chatty lad Harker is another of the doers of desperate deeds, and that therefore my unfortunate secretary will shortly join this little tea party.”
“Right as to one point, but wrong on the other. Mrs. Beresford—you see I know all about you— Mrs. Beresford will not be brought here. That is a little precaution I took. It occurred to me that just probably your friends in high places might be keeping you shadowed. In that case, by dividing the pursuit, you could not both be trailed. I should still keep one in my hands. I am waiting now—”
He broke off, as the door opened. The chauffeur spoke.
“We’ve not been followed, sir. It’s all clear.”
“Good. You can go, Gregory.”
The door closed again.
“So far, so good,”