Page:Lady Molly of Scotland Yard.pdf/189

A CASTLE IN BRITTANY, to spy on Lady Molly, and to offer me a bribe.

Now for some clever tactics on my part.

"Can you prevent your friend from being at the château to-morrow before one o'clock?" asked the Marquise.

"Easily," I replied calmly.

"How?"

"She is ill, as you know. The doctor has ordered her a sleeping draught. I administer it. I can arrange that she has a strong dose in the morning instead of her other medicine. She will sleep till the late afternoon."

I rattled this off glibly in my best French. Madame la Marquise heaved a deep sigh of relief.

"Ah! that is good!" she said. "Then listen to me. Do as I tell you, and to-morrow you will be richer by fifty thousand francs. Come to the château in the morning, dressed in your friend's clothes. My son will be there; together you will assist at the opening of the secret doors, and when my son has wound up the old clock himself, he will place fifty thousand francs in your hands."

"But Monsieur le Curé?" I suggested tentatively.

"He is ill," she replied curtly.

But as she spoke these three words there was such an evil sneer in her face, such a look of cruel triumph in her eyes, that all my worst suspicions were at once confirmed.

Had these people's unscrupulous rapacity indeed 157