Page:Biggers and Ritchie - Inside the Lines.djvu/46

  than against it. At Malta the arrest—the firing squad at dawn—and the English are convinced they've nipped something big in the bud, whereas they've only put out of the way a dangerous little weasel who's ready to bite any hand that feeds him."

Woodhouse's level glance never left the eyes of the woman called Louisa; it was alert, appraising.

"But if there should be some slip-up at Malta," he interjected. "If somehow this Capper should get through to Alexandria, wouldn't that make it somewhat embarrassing for me?"

"Not at all, my dear Woodhouse," she caught him up, with a little pat on his hand. "His instructions will be only to report to So-and-so at Alexandria; he will not have the slightest notion what work he is to do there. You can slip in unsuspected by the English, and the trick will be turned."

For a minute Woodhouse sat watching the cavortings of a dancer on the stage. Finally he put a question judiciously:

"The whole scheme, then, is"

"This," she answered quickly. "Captain Woodhouse—the real Woodhouse, you