Make the appointment, Mr. Harleston."
"Will five o'clock this afternoon be convenient?"
"Perfectly--if it can't be sooner," she replied, after a momentary
pause. "And the place?"
"Where you will," he answered. He wanted her to fix it so that he could
judge of her good faith.
And she understood.
"I'm not arranging to have you throttled!" she laughed. "Let us say the
corridor of the Chateau--that is safe enough, isn't it?"
"Don't you know, Madame X, that Peacock Alley is one of the most
dangerous places in town?"
"Not for you, Mr. Harleston," she replied. "However--"
"Oh, I'll chance it; though it's a perilous setting with one of your
adorable voice--and the other things that simply must go with it."
"And lest the other things should not go with it," she added, "I'll wear
three American Beauties on a black gown so that you may know me."
"Good! Peacock Alley at five," he replied and snapped up the receiver.
III
VISITORS
"The affair promises to be quite interesting," he confided to the
paper-knife, with which he was spearing tiny holes in the blotter of the
pad. "Peacock Alley at five--but there are a few matters that come
first."
He went straight to the safe, unlocked it, took out the photograph, the
cipher message, and the handkerchief, carried these to the table and
placed them in a large envelope, which he sealed and addressed to
himself.
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