The look which I had detected upon his face was an indefinable, an
indescribable look; but I had seen it in the eyes of one who had been
bitten by a poisonous reptile and who knew his hours to be numbered. It
was uncanny, unnerving; and whereas at first the atmosphere of Colonel
Menendez's home had seemed to be laden with prosperous security, now
that sense of ease and restfulness was gone--and gone for ever.
"Harley," I said, speaking almost at random, "this promises to be the
strangest case you have ever handled."
"Promises?" Paul Harley laughed shortly. "It _is_ the strangest
case, Knox. It is a case of wheels within wheels, of mystery crowning
mystery. Have you studied our host?"
"Closely."
"And what conclusion have you formed?"
"None at the moment; but I think one is slowly crystalizing."
"Hm," muttered Harley, as we paced slowly on amid the rose trees. "Of
one thing I am satisfied."
"What is that?"
"That Colonel Menendez is not afraid of Bat Wing, whoever or whatever
Bat Wing may be."
"Not afraid?"
"Certainly he is not afraid, Knox. He has possibly been afraid in the
past, but now he is resigned.
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