picturesque gentleman would not have been in such a hurry to intervene.”
“I will tell you everything. The American Ambassador was on board. One day, as I was passing his cabin, I saw this woman inside, and she was doing something so extraordinary that I stopped to watch. She had a man’s boot in her hand—”
“A boot?” cried Tommy excitedly. “I’m sorry, Miss March, go on.”
“With a little pair of scissors, she was slitting up the lining. Then she seemed to push something inside. Just at that minute the doctor and another man came down the passage, and immediately she dropped back on the couch and groaned. I waited, and I gathered from what was being said that she had pretended to feel faint. I say pretended —because when I first caught sight of her, she was obviously feeling nothing of the kind.”
Tommy nodded.
“Well?”
“I rather hate to tell you the next part. I was—curious. And also I’d been reading silly books, and I wondered if she’d put a bomb or a poisoned needle or something like that in Mr. Wilmott’s boot. I know it’s absurd—but I did think so. Anyway, next time I passed the empty cabin, I slipped in, and examined the boot. I drew out from the lining a slip of paper. Just as I had it in my hand, I heard the steward coming, and I hurried out so as not to be caught. The folded paper was still in my hand. When I got into my own cabin, I examined it. Mr. Blunt, it was nothing but some verses from the Bible.”
“Verses from the Bible?” said Tommy, very much intrigued.
“At least I thought so at the time. I couldn’t understand it, but I thought perhaps it was the work of a religious maniac. Anyway, I didn’t feel it was