Page:The Death-Doctor.djvu/240

228 "Well," and she hesitated, her fine dark eyes turned upon mine. "Well—do you leave it to me to suggest a way out?" she asked slowly.

"You did so on a previous occasion," I remarked.

A silence fell between us, broken only by the loud solemn tick of the old grandfather's clock in the corner.

"He is coming to visit me at Coombe next Saturday. Perhaps he—well, he might be taken seriously ill during his stay with me. Who knows?"

And in her eyes showed a queer, eager look. She was a woman of nerve and determination.

"Why is he visiting you?"

"It is a purely friendly visit—to talk over the future. By tacit agreement our engagement is at an end, of course."

"He has no love for you, eh?"

"None. He never had. He was after my money—by fair means or foul. That's all."

"And when he has bled you for all you are worth, he will just go to the Captain and tell him the whole story."

"That is my firm belief. For that reason I make the suggestion that certain means—may—be—found—eh?"