E. Phillips Oppenheim

“ I had been working for months at a small dressmaker's in Kensington, earning barely enough to keep myself, slinking to work in the morning and slinking home at night, terrified alike of Michael, the man whom I had once loved, and of Norman Greyes, the man who, without the slightest effort on his part, had attained such a strange and commanding influence over my thoughts and life. ”

“ I was walking up and down the deck with the doctor, and we heard scraps of their conversation as we passed—an assignation for the morrow evening at Marseilles, proposed boldly enough by Mr. Popple, and assented to by a timorous but eloquent flash of the eyes by Louisa. After dinner they took their coffee out on deck. Their heads were even closer together, their voices dropped. People, as they passed, began to smile. It was obvious that an affair was in progress. I was surprised, therefore, to hear Mr. Popple suddenly address the doctor, who had joined me again for a few minutes. ”

“ DURING the third week of March, after a somewhat restless few months of travel in Egypt and Algeria, I reached Monte Carlo to find a telegram from my friend Rimmington, begging me to come at once to Marseilles. I realized that there could be but one reason for such a request, and in less than twelve hours I found myself with Rimmington and Monsieur Demayel, the chief of the Marseilles police, ransacking the contents of a small villa in the suburbs of Marseilles, which had lately been the scene of one of those crimes for which the place was fast gaining an unenviable notoriety. ”

“ There was a peal of mocking laughter, and I knew that the other woman must have been standing over her.
“Liar!” Louisa exclaimed. “Tell us why you came to Marseilles, and why Rimmington, the English detective, has followed. Tell us who called your new lover, Norman Greyes, from Monte Carlo?”
“I know nothing of any of those things,” was the weak reply. “My uncle left me two hundred and fifty pounds—Soale, the gardener, who once worked for you, Michael. I came to Marseilles for a rest and a holiday.” ”

“ Louisa Martin looked at me covertly. There was a flash of triumph in her half-closed eyes.
“So!” she murmured. “I do not think that Mr. Popple will follow me about Marseilles.”
“Do you mean that you have poisoned him?” I gasped.
She looked at me with a queer little smile.
“Some,” she said, “prefer to shoot. I choose the way of safety.”
Then I knew that Michael had told her everything. In that moment, all that I had ever felt of love for him turned to hate....
Illustration: Janet was lying on the ground; Louisa leaned over her. Michael was already halfway through the trapdoor. ”

“ Here are two at the present moment on their way to Marseilles to visit the man whom you call Michael. Louisa Martin has been followed from New York by a United States detective who has been hunting Michael for years, and it was Janet Soale's visit to Marseilles which changed suspicion into conviction with our friend Rimmington here. My predecessor used always to say: 'Give the man rope. Follow the woman.'”
WE reached Bandol just before dusk and found the Villa Violette on the outskirts of the town—a secluded little house, built amongst some rocks on the extreme edge of the bay. ”

“ I asked.
“I believe,” he replied, “that Michael was married many years ago to this woman, Louisa Martin. Janet Soale may have got to know of this. She may be coming out to try and discover the truth. It is certain that for many months she has not been in communication with Michael.”
The chief of the police gazed thoughtfully out of the window.
“It is a curious circumstance,” he remarked, “in the lives of most of the great criminals of modern days, that their end has been brought about by their exciting the jealousy of women. ”

“ To the best of my belief I had never seen her before; yet it was a clear and unmistakable fact that in this hotel room at Gibraltar I had suddenly come into contact with a woman who hated me.
We somehow or other found places at a table. My immediate neighbor was an elderly American gentleman who had once or twice spoken to me on the voyage, but who seemed to spend most of his time seeking former business associates. He had, he told me, been a manufacturer of boots and shoes in a place called Lynn. His name was Frank Popple. ”

“ Rimmington said, watching me closely, “Janet Soale sailed from Tilbury for Marseilles. The woman who was Michael's companion in New York, who goes by the name of Louisa Martin, after traveling from America to Havre, joined the same steamer at Gibraltar, having evidently chosen a circuitous route to avoid suspicion. Those two women are both on their way to Marseilles; they are due to arrive, in fact, tonight—and will be closely watched. ”

“ Monsieur Santel here,” he added, turning to his companion, “will take command of the expedition. Lund is in one of the cars outside. A sufficient force of gendarmes have already penetrated secretly into the Quartier. It remains only for me to wish you good fortune.”
In the car which we found waiting for us, we passed from the broad thorough fares of the city to a region of increasing squalor and ugliness. Furtive eyes followed our automobile lustfully because it meant wealth. It was difficult to imagine that this was a street in a civilized city. ”

“ The young man who has acted as my secretary for five years has absconded. It is proved that he has been in league with a great criminal organization ever since he has held his post. It is he, without a doubt, who warned the man whom you call Michael. Worse than that, his report to me that the Carlyon would not reach dock until tonight was a lie. She arrived this morning and landed her passengers this afternoon. ”

“ They were shadowed, fortunately, by Lund, the American detective who followed Louisa Martin over, and who reports that his life was attempted last night. This woman Martin, it seems, has an evil reputation. She has been in prison twice in her younger days in Paris, and she was tried for murder seven years ago. She is desperately cruel, but of desperate courage. reports that there is ill blood between the two women. He is convinced that the Englishwoman, Janet Soale, as she called herself on the steamer, has been decoyed into some place to meet Michael. ”

“ I inquired.
“He descended through the trapdoor from the room in which you found him,” Monsieur Demayel explained, “by means of a rope ladder, to a narrow inlet of the harbor, which at full tide is directly underneath. He secured the trapdoor behind him by means of a bolt, got into a petrol launch and apparently made his way across the bay. The launch was discovered next day upon the beach, and there is a theory that he was washed overboard by a heavy sea. ”

“ Henri Guy, French-Colonial, bachelor, 5 ft. 6 inches, morose, gray hair and beard, physical appearance described elsewhere, address, Villa Violette, Bandol. Has large correspondence, subscribes to English newspapers, among them “Golf Illustrated.” Has small car and has been seen on Hyères golf-links. “And finally?” I asked.
“The person in question,” M. Demayel continued, “is reported to have changed at the Casino at Bandol last evening one of the mille notes stolen from the house we visited this afternoon.” ”

“ Demayel directed the gendarme, “and take this woman and the man to Marseilles. Nothing more will happen here. As for us,” he went on, turning to Rimmington and myself, “we must now await the arrival of the steamer at Marseilles tonight. One of the two women, if not both, will lead us to the man we seek.” ”