"Do you think the police have any accurate idea of what happened?" Lady Beltham asked abruptly.
"No," said Gurn after a moment's hesitation. "They think I killed him with the mallet. They have not found out that I had to strangle him. As far as I know, they found no marks of my hands on his throat. At all events, they could not have been clear, for his collar--you understand." The man spoke of his crime without the least sign of remorse or repugnance now; his only dread was lest he should be caught. "But, none the less, they have identified me. That detective Juve is very clever."
"We did not have enough presence of mind," Lady Beltham said despairingly. "We ought to have led them to suspect someone else: have made them think that it was, say, Fantômas."
"Not that!" said Gurn nervously; "don't talk about Fantômas! We did all we could. But the main thing now is that I should escape them. I had better get away,--across the Channel,--across the Atlantic,--anywhere. But--would you come too?"
Lady Beltham did not hesitate. She flung her arms around the neck of the man who had murdered her own husband, and yielded to a paroxysm of wild passion.
"You know that I am yours, wherever you may go. Shall it be to-morrow? We can meet--you know where--and arrange everything for your flight."
"My flight?" said Gurn, with reproachful emphasis on the pronoun.
"For our flight," she replied, and Gurn smiled again.
"Then that is settled," he said. "I have seen you, and I am happy! Good-bye."
He made a step towards the door, but Lady Beltham stayed him gently.
"Wait," she said. "Walter shall let you out of the house. Do not say anything: I will explain; I will invent some story to satisfy the servants as to your coming here, and also to justify your being allowed to go."
They clung to one another in a parting caress. Lady Beltham tore herself away.
She stole to the door and unlocked it noiselessly, then crossed the room and rang the bell placed near the fireplace. Resuming her impassive mask, and the haughty air and attitude of cold indifference that were in such utter contrast to her real character, she waited, while Gurn stood upright and still in the middle of the room.
"Take that man to the door, and let no harm be done to him," said Lady Beltham proudly and authoritatively. "He is free."