Page:Guy Boothby--A Bid for Fortune.djvu/250

240 you notice that young man's face when he entered the room and when I gave him the letter? There can be no doubt about it he is in the secret."

"You mean that he is in Nikola's employ? Then why don't you arrest him?"

"Because I want to be quite certain first. I said that about the money because, if he is Nikola's agent, he will carry the information to him, and by doing so keep your daughter in Sydney for at least a day longer. Do you see?"

"I do! and I admire your diplomacy. Now what is your plan?"

"May I first tell mine?" I said.

"Do!" said the inspector. "For mine is not quite matured yet."

"Well," I said; "my idea is this. I propose that Mr. Wetherell shall obtain from his bank a number of gold bags, fill them with lead discs to represent coin, and let it leak out before this man that he has got the money in the house. Then to-night Mr. Wetherell will set off for the water-side. I will row him down the harbour disguised as a waterman. We pick up the other boat as arranged in that letter. In the meantime you start from the other side in a police boat, pull up to meet us and arrest the man. Then we force him to disclose Miss Wetherell’s whereabouts, and act upon his information. What do you say?"

"It sounds feasible," said the inspector, and Mr. Wetherell nodded his head approvingly. At that moment the Marquis entered the room, looking in much better spirits than on the preceding night, and the conversation branched off into a different channel.

My plot seemed to commend itself so much to Mr. Wetherell's judgment that he ordered his carriage and