She made a quick movement as though to arrest the flow of my words.
"You are, alas! right, M'sieu' Vidal," she replied. "Ah, if you only knew how I hate it all--how day by day, hour by hour--I fear that I may blunder and consequently find myself in the hands of the police--if----"
"Never, if you follow your uncle, Jules Jeanjean," I interrupted. "And, I suppose, you are still doing so?"
She sighed heavily, and a hard expression crossed her pretty face.
"Alas! I am forced to. You know the bitter truth, M'sieu' Vidal--the tragedy of my life."
For a few moments I remained silent, my eyes upon her.
I knew full well the strange, romantic story of that pretty French girl seated before me--the sweet, refined little person--scarcely more than a child--whose present, and whose future, were so entirely in the hands of that notorious criminal.
Why had I not telegraphed to the Paris police on discovering Jeanjean's presence in Cromer? For one reason alone. Because his arrest would also mean hers. He had too vowed in my presence that if he were ever taken alive, he would betray his niece, because she had once, in a moment of despair and horror, at one of his cold-blooded crimes, threatened to give him away.
As she sat there, her face sweet and soft as a child's, her blue eyes so clear and innocent, one would never dream that she was the cat's-paw of the most ingenious and dangerous association of jewel thieves in the whole of Europe.
Truly her story was a strange one--one of the strangest of any girl in the world.
She noticed my thoughtfulness, and suddenly put out her little hand until it touched mine; then, looking into my eyes, she asked, in a low, intense voice--
"I am thinking of you, Lola," I replied. "I am wondering what really happened in Cromer, back in the month of June. You are here to explain--eh? Will you tell me?"
Her brows contracted slightly, and she drew her hand back from mine.
"I don't. Explain it all to me in confidence," I urged. "You surely know me well enough to rely upon my keeping the secret."
"Ah, no!" she cried, starting up suddenly, a strange light of fear in her eyes. "Never, M'sieu' Vidal! I--I can tell you nothing of that--nothing more than what you already know. Please don't ask me--never ask me again, for I--I can't tell you! It was all too dastardly, too terrible!"