The Apache knows the swell
mobsman can outwit him. The swell mobsman knows the Apache will
assassinate him at the first hint of a suspicion of his good faith. So
they rarely if ever make use of each other."
"You say 'rarely.' But possibly in this instance?"
"I think not. Dupont was employed as your chauffeur, you've told me,
upwards of a month. He had ample opportunity to familiarise himself
with the premises and pass the information on, if acting in connivance
with those others. But we know he didn't, or they would never have
shown themselves here in order to secure information they couldn't have
got otherwise."
"I see, monsieur," said the woman. "Then you think the thief may have
been any one of the Monk party--"
"Or several of them acting in concert," Lanyard interrupted, smiling.
"Or Albert."
"Not Dupont. Unless I underestimate him gravely he is incapable of such
finesse. He is a thug first, a thief afterwards. He would have killed
me out of hand if it had been he who had me at his mercy, down here, in
the dark. Nor would he have been able to open the safe without using an
explosive.
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