"
"What did she pay you?" asked Harley.
"Pay me?" muttered Meyer, pulled up thus shortly in the midst of
his statement.
"Pay you. Exactly. Don't argue; answer."
The man delivered himself of a guttural, choking sound, and
finally:
"She promised one hundred pounds," he confessed hoarsely.
"But you surely did not accept a mere promise? Out with it.
What did she give you?"
"A ring," came the confession at last.
"A ring. I see. I will take it with me if you don't mind. And
now, finally, what was it that she left behind?"
"Ah, Gott!" moaned the man, dropping into a chair and resting his
arms upon the table. "It is all a great panic, you see. I hurry
her out by the back stair from this landing and she forgets her
bag."
"Her bag? Good."
"Then I clear away the remains of dinner so I can say Mr. De Lana
is dining alone. It is as much my interest as the lady's."
"Of course! I quite understand. I will trouble you no more, Mr.
Meyer, except to step into your office and to relieve you of that
incriminating evidence, the lady's bag and her ring."
IV
THE SLANTING EYES
"Do you understand, Knox?" said Harley as the cab bore us toward
Hamilton Place. "Do you grasp the details of this cunning
scheme?"
"On the contrary," I replied, "I am hopelessly at sea.
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