Page:Arthur Stringer - The Hand of Peril.djvu/55

, "and later on I'll tell you why. But did you get the girl?"

"Yes. Not as young as I wanted, though."

"Where have you quartered her?"

"She's at the Hotel des Palmes with her mother."

"With her mother?"

"Couldn't get her alone—she's only twelve. But she's small for her age. I gathered them up in Taormina. The mother was working at the Hotel Trinacria there. The father's a German named Vandersmissen, a tubercular chef, sent South, on his last legs. They're glad of the money!"

"But that mother!" demurred Kestner.

"I've rigged the woman out in a uniform as a German nurse."

"And the child?"

"Is dolled up the best the island could do. Neither speak a word of English. They're here waiting, meek but mystified. They'll do anything we want, in reason. And she's a pretty kid, yellow hair, blue eyes, German type. But they're costing us sixty francs a day."

"They'll be worth it!"

"But what's your plan?"

"My plan is simply this: Lambert knows I'm after him. He isn't quite sure how much I've found out about him and this daughter of his. He can't be certain if he's shadowed or not. And that's what he wants to make sure of. So he's posted the girl here at this miniature-painting business. He's made her into a wooden decoy-duck."

"But I can't see what he gains by that."