Yes; I believe that."
"And your plan of campaign is based on this conclusion?"
"That's a big name"--Lanyard's smile was diffident, a plea for
suspended judgment on his lack of inventiveness--"for a lame idea. I
believe our only course is to let them believe they have been
successful in every way, and so lull them into carelessness with a
false sense of security."
A wrinkle appeared between the woman's eyebrows. "How do you propose to
accomplish that?" she asked in a voice that betrayed ready antagonism
to what her intuition foresaw.
"Very simply. They hoped to shift suspicion on to my shoulders. Well,
let them believe they have done so."
The waiting hostility developed in a sharp negative: "Ah, no!"
"But yes," Lanyard insisted. "It's so simple. Nobody here knows as yet
that your jewels have been stolen, only you and I. Very well: you will
not discover your loss and announce it till to-morrow morning. By that
time Andre Duchemin will have disappeared mysteriously. The room to
which he will retire to-night will be found vacant in the morning, his
bed unslept in. Obviously the scoundrel would not fly the chateau
between two suns without a motive.
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