“Well, the last night, after he had gone, she did write a letter and gave it to me to post. When I came back—”
“Whom was it addressed to?”
Blanche shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know, I can’t read. When I came back she was crying and getting a few duds together and I helped her.”
“Did she tell you where she was going?”
“Sure. To Europe. I saw her off the next day. She went in the sewerage.”
“In the steerage, do you mean?” asked Peacock. “But she hadn’t any money? Didn’t Loftus give her any?”
“She wouldn’t take his money, she threw it back at him. She would not take anything he had given her. She left a room full of dresses and jewelry. They are at the Arundel now. She told me—”
“Did you see her on board?”
Blanche nodded.
“Mightn’t she have left the ship before it sailed?”
“Yes, if she had wanted. I wouldn’t have stopped her. But I stood there and as the ship went out she waved her little hand at me and—and—”
“Do you remember the ship’s name?”
But now Blanche was weeping profusely.
“No matter,” said Peacock. “I can find out.”
He did. He found out, too, that when Loftus was shot Marie Leroy was on the high seas. And there he was without a clue. What is worse, there