When she shut the door Mallow
looked at Jennings. "I don't know what all this means," he
said.
"I have told you," replied Jennings, rather impatiently, "the
letter I sent you was to bring you here. The struggle was a
feigned one on my side to make Maraquito defend you. I knew
she would never let you be worsted if she could help; exactly
as I knew you would never consent to play such a trick on
her."
"Certainly not. With all her faults, she loves me."
"So well that she will kill Juliet Saxon rather than see her
in your arms. Don't frown, Mallow, Maraquito is a dangerous
woman, and it is time she was laid by the heels. You don't
know what I have found out."
"Have you learned who killed Miss Loach?"
"No. But I am on the way to learn it. I'll tell you
everything another time. Meanwhile, I must get this woman
safely locked up. Confound her, she is a long time."
"She may have escaped," said Mallow, as Jennings knocked at
the door.
"I don't see how she can. There are men at the front door and
at a secret entrance she used to enter as Mrs. Herne." He
knocked again, but there was no reply. Finally Jennings grew
exasperated and tried to open the door. It was locked. "I
believe she is escaping," he said, "help me, Mallow."
The two men put their shoulders to the door and burst it in.
When they entered the bedroom it was empty. There was no sign
of Maraquito anywhere, and no sign, either, of how she had
managed to evade the law.
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