“No, Rex, no!”
De Richleau roused himself and sighed. “As she was shot she fell over the precipice. I saw her body afterwards. There was no mistaking her lovely golden hair.”
“He fooled you too, then,” Marie-Lou cried excitedly. “Cristoval’s own men adored him. They reported to Mudra that he’d committed suicide while he was busy rigging Lucretia out in a fresh disguise.”
“Disguise?” echoed Richard, light dawning in his mind.
“Yes. She didn’t know then that he meant to take her place. A man called Sandoval smuggled her out of the monastery just before dawn and she was passing the foot of the cliff when Cristoval’s body came hurtling down within fifty yards of her. They were much of a height and to change her appearance he’d cut off her hair. It was the sight of her own hair, made up as a rough wig, and the oilskins on the body that told her what he’d done.”
“Holy snakes!” Rex cried. “She’s safe, then?”
“She’s down in my cabin, utterly prostrated by Cristoval’s death.”
Then a strange thing happened. In the ensuing silence, broken only by the hum of the yacht’s engines as she turned towards the Straits of Gibraltar and home, there came a fierce rasping sob. De Richleau, the iron man, had suddenly broken down. With a gasp that was half a moan he stood up, lurched towards the companion-way and staggered down it.
His friends stared after him in amazement, and Richard exclaimed, “Well, I’m damned! For weeks past I’ve known he was in love with her, but I’d no idea he’d got it as badly as all that.”
Marie-Lou reached up and put her arms round his neck. “You dear, stupid darling. Haven’t you realized it yet? I think I guessed from the very beginning, and when I saw her grey eyes last night I knew. Lucretia-José is his daughter.”
Albergo Cappuccini,
Amalfi,
Italy.
8 St. John’s Wood Park,
London,
England.
the end
Table of Contents
Chapter One – A Debt of Honour
Chapter Two – The Duke has a Very Queer Experience
Chapter Three – A Most Unexpected Encounter
Chapter Four – The Most Dangerous Woman in Europe
Chapter Five – The Other Side of the Picture
Chapter Six – The First Round
Chapter Seven – The Duke Makes Soup, but not for Supper.
Chapter Eight – Don Lluis Turns Burglar
Chapter Nine – The Succession of Culs de Sac
Chapter Ten – Death in Madrid
Chapter Eleven – The Price of Secrecy
Chapter Twelve – The Storm Breaks
Chapter Thirteen – The Miracle
Chapter Fourteen – Lady in Distress
Chapter Fifteen – Night of Horror
Chapter Sixteen – When Greek Meets Greek
Chapter Seventeen- Escape to Trouble
Chapter Eighteen – The Militiaman’s Bride
Chapter Nineteen – Back into the Maelstrom
Chapter Twenty – Just Sheer Bad Luck
Chapter Twenty-one – Out of the Frying Pan Into the Fire
Chapter Twenty-two – Out of the Fire Into the Boiling Oil
Chapter Twenty-three – The Blood Bath of Madrid
Chapter Twenty-four – The House of Mental Death
Chapter Twenty-five – The Scarlet Pimpernel of the Spanish Revolution
Chapter Twenty-six – De Richleau Speaks of Other Things than War
Chapter Twenty-seven – The Cat Jumps out of the Bag
Chapter Twenty-eight – The Treasure Hunt Begins
Chapter Twenty-nine – Armistice for Two
Chapter Thirty – The Break for Home
Chapter Thirty-one – Plot and Counter Plot
Chapter Thirty-two – Dark Stars in the Ascendant
Chapter Thirty-three – One Must Die
Chapter Thirty-four – Simon Aron goes to War
Chapter Thirty-five – Who Goes Home?
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