Page:William Le Queux - The Czar's Spy.djvu/122

110 "I cannot tell you until I hear your wishes," I said smiling, and yet puzzled at her attitude.

"It concerns the terrible discovery made up in Rannoch Wood," she said in a hoarse nervous voice at last. "That unknown man was murdered — stabbed to the heart."

"Well?"

"Well," she said, scarcely above a whisper, "I have suspicions."

"Of the murdered man's identity?"

"No. Of the assassin."

I glanced at her sharply and saw the intense look in her dark, wide-open eyes.

"You believe you know who dealt the blow?"

"I have a suspicion — that is all. Only I want you to help me, if you will."

"Most certainly," I responded. "But if you believe you know the assassin you probably know something of the victim?"

"Only that he looked like a foreigner."

"Then you have seen him?" I exclaimed, much surprised.

My remark caused her to hold her breath for an instant. Then she answered, rather lamely, it seemed to me:

"I saw him when the keepers brought the body to the castle."

Now, according to the account I had heard, the police had conveyed the dead man direct from the wood into Dumfries. Was it possible, therefore, that she had seen Olinto before he met with his sudden end?