Oscar the Detective Part 19

"You will be there at nine?"

"I will."

"I will meet you and be very much obliged to you," said our hero, and raising his hat like an Italian count he walked away.

Oscar understood his risk, but he understood more. He knew that he was on the track of some one. A great game had been played. He connected all the little incidents--the face at the window, the dark face of a man with glittering eyes, then the woman so handily on the stoop of an adjoining house. Then again her admissions to a false ident.i.ty, for our hero had invented both names that he had given the girl. All these little incidents proved that he had been observed, that he had aroused a suspicion as to his design, and that the observation and suspicion could only be aroused in one who feared something--possibly feared being seen and tracked.

After the girl had seen our hero pa.s.s from view, she entered the house at the window of which Oscar had seen the dark face. In the room was a desperate-looking man--a man one would fear to meet at night alone, for every lineament betrayed the man to be a desperate scoundrel.

When the girl returned the man asked, as she entered the room, he speaking in Italian:

"Who is he?"

"I do not know."

"What is his purpose?"

"I leave you to judge. I will repeat the conversation."

"Do so."

The girl exhibited a wonderful preciseness of memory by repeating every word that had pa.s.sed between herself and the stranger. The man listened, and when the recital was concluded he said:

"You are bright; you intended to be very cute, but alas! if he is a foe, as I believe he is, he invented those names. He knows you confessed to an ident.i.ty that is false, and therefore knows that there is something wrong."

"What will you do?"

"He is to meet you to-night?"

"Yes."

"You are to guide him to the house of Argetti."

"Yes."

"I will be Argetti and you shall introduce him to me. He will be led to the little cabin out on the marsh. I have had it fitted up for an emergency. After you have brought him to me you must be on the watch to learn if there are others at his back; if there is you must signal me, if not you must signal me."

"And then?"

The man laughed in a strange, weird manner and said:

"I have a grave under the cabin floor."

The girl's face a.s.sumed a very thoughtful expression.

"Well, what now?"

"You may be too rash."

"How?"

"I do not think there is any necessity for putting a body in the grave.

You can play a shrewder game."

"I can?"

"Yes."

"How?"

"Maintain the character of Argetti."

"That depends."

"Upon what?"

"The discoveries I make concerning this man?"

"He appears very harmless, very much of a gentleman. He may not intend harm. He may not be a foe."

"I would be glad to agree with you, but I have experience. If he were an American, I would believe as you do, but he is English."

"How do you know he is English?"

"By his dress and walk. I observed him very closely."

"Suppose he is English?"

"Then he has come over here to look for me."

"That man is not a detective."

"He is not?"

"No."

"How do you know?"

"He is a weak and very dainty young gentleman."

"Is he?"

"Yes."

"Well, I tell you that when one becomes a fugitive he must judge people by their acts, not by their looks; I believe the man is either a detective, or a detective's decoy. His innocent looks aid his trick, but I will know after he has visited me in the cabin."

"Oh, I hope you will do him no harm."