Page:Alice Stuyvesant - The Vanity Box.djvu/242

 As he remarked, "the game s up"; abandoning pretence, or any thought of escape, if he had had it, Ian Barr stood firmly by Nora s side.

"Who are you, and what do you want?" he asked.

"I am Michel, of Scotland Yard," returned the other, shortly; and with a pang Nora recognized him as the fussy little French tourist, "travelling for his health." "I have been following you for some time."

"You have been following me!" she exclaimed. "You coward—you sneak!"

"We get called hard names occasionally, but they break no bones," was Michel's nonchalant answer. "I'm very sorry, though, Miss Verney, to cause you annoyance."

"Please leave us, Nora," said Ian Barr.

"No, I can't. I couldn't bear it! Please don't send me away yet," she implored him, and for the moment Barr yielded.

"I suppose you want me as a witness in the Hereward case," he said to the detective. "Is that it?"

That's what you were wanted for at the time of the first inquest," replied Michel. "It's more serious now. Owing to certain circumstances, there's a warrant out for your arrest in England."

"This isn't England."

"No. But you are charged with the murder of Lady Hereward; and you must know there's extradition for the crime of murder.