His dexterity was astonishing, and seeing my
surprise he raised his heavy eyebrows, and:
"Practice makes perfect, is it not said?" he remarked.
He shrugged his shoulders and dropped the extinguished match in an ash
tray, whilst I studied him with increasing interest. Some dread, real
or imaginary, was oppressing the man's mind, I mused. I felt my
presence to be unwelcome, but:
"Very well," he began, suddenly. "I expect, Mr. Harley, that you will
be disposed to regard what I have to tell you rather as a symptom of
what you call nerves than as evidence of any agency directed against
me."
Paul Harley stared curiously at the speaker. "Do I understand you to
suspect that someone is desirous of harming you?" he enquired.
Colonel Menendez slowly nodded his head.
"Such is my meaning," he replied.
"You refer to bodily harm?"
"But yes, emphatically."
"Hm," said Harley; and taking out a tin of tobacco from a cabinet
beside him he began in leisurely manner to load a briar. "No doubt you
have good reasons for this suspicion?"
"If I had not good reasons, Mr. Harley, nothing could have induced me
to trouble you.
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