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肩書を与える: The 事件／事情／状勢 at the Semiramis Hotel
Author: A.E.W. Mason
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The 事件／事情／状勢 at the Semiramis Hotel

by

A.E.W. Mason

BOOK 2 IN THE INSPECTOR HANAUD SERIES

First published by Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1917
Collected in The Four Corners Of The World, 1917

I

Mr. Ricardo, when the excitements of the 郊外住宅 Rose were done with, returned to Grosvenor Square and 再開するd the busy, unnecessary life of an amateur. But the studios had lost their savour, artists their attractiveness, and even the ロシアの オペラ seemed a trifle flat. Life was altogether a 失望; 運命／宿命, like an actress at a restaurant, had taken the 木造の pestle in her 手渡す and stirred all the sparkle out of the シャンペン酒; Mr. Ricardo languished--until one unforgettable morning.

He was sitting disconsolately at his breakfast-（米）棚上げする／（英）提議する when the door was burst open and a square, stout man, with the blue, shaven 直面する of a French comedian, flung himself into the room. Ricardo sprang に向かって the new-comer with a cry of delight.

"My dear Hanaud!"

He 掴むd his 訪問者 by the arm, feeling it to make sure that here, in flesh and 血, stood the man who had introduced him to the acutest sensations of his life. He turned に向かって his butler, who was still bleating expostulations in the doorway at the unceremonious irruption of the French 探偵，刑事.

"Another place, Burton, at once," he cried, and as soon as he and Hanaud were alone: "What good 勝利，勝つd blows you to London?"

"商売／仕事, my friend. The 見えなくなる of bullion somewhere on the line between Paris and London. But it is finished. Yes, I take a holiday."

A light had suddenly flashed in Mr. Ricardo's 注目する，もくろむs, and was now no いっそう少なく suddenly 消滅させるd. Hanaud paid no attention whatever to his friend's 失望. He pounced upon a piece of silver which adorned the tablecloth and took it over to the window.

"Everything is as it should be, my friend," he exclaimed, with a grin. "Grosvenor Square, the Times open at the money column, and a 誤った antique upon the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する. Thus I have dreamed of you. All Mr. Ricardo is in that 宣告，判決."

Ricardo laughed nervously. Recollection made him 用心深い of Hanaud's sarcasms. He was shy even to 抗議する the genuineness of his silver. But, indeed, he had not the time. For the door opened again and once more the butler appeared. On this occasion, however, he was alone.

"Mr. Calladine would like to speak to you, sir," he said.

"Calladine!" cried Ricardo in an extreme surprise. "That is the most 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の thing." He looked at the clock upon his mantelpiece. It was barely half-past eight. "At this hour, too?"

"Mr. Calladine is still wearing evening dress," the butler 発言／述べるd.

Ricardo started in his 議長，司会を務める. He began to dream of 可能性s; and here was Hanaud miraculously at his 味方する.

"Where is Mr. Calladine?" he asked.

"I have shown him into the library."

"Good," said Mr. Ricardo. "I will come to him."

But he was in no hurry. He sat and let his thoughts play with this 出来事/事件 of Calladine's 早期に visit.

"It is very 半端物," he said. "I have not seen Calladine for months--no, nor has anyone. Yet, a little while ago, no one was more often seen."

He fell 明らかに into a muse, but he was 単に 捜し出すing to 刺激する Hanaud's curiosity. In this 試みる／企てる, however, he failed. Hanaud continued placidly to eat his breakfast, so that Mr. Ricardo was compelled to volunteer the story which he was 燃やすing to tell.

"Drink your coffee, Hanaud, and you shall hear about Calladine."

Hanaud grunted with 辞職, and Mr. Ricardo flowed on:

"Calladine was one of England's young men. Everybody said so. He was going to do very wonderful things as soon as he had made up his mind 正確に／まさに what sort of wonderful things he was going to do. 一方／合間, you met him in Scotland, at Newmarket, at Ascot, at Cowes, in the box of some 広大な／多数の／重要な lady at the オペラ--not before half-past ten in the evening there--in any 罰金 house where the candles that night happened to be lit. He went everywhere, and then a day （機の）カム and he went nowhere. There was no スキャンダル, no trouble, not a whisper against his good 指名する. He 簡単に 消えるd. For a little while a few people asked: 'What has become of Calladine?' But there never was any answer, and London has no time for unanswered questions. Other 約束ing young men dined in his place. Calladine had joined the 抱擁する legion of the Come-to-nothings. No one even seemed to pass him in the street. Now 突然に, at half-past eight in the morning, and in evening dress, he calls upon me. 'Why?' I ask myself."

Mr. Ricardo sank once more into a reverie. Hanaud watched him with a broadening smile of pure enjoyment.

"And in time, I suppose," he 発言／述べるd casually, "you will perhaps ask him?"

Mr. Ricardo sprang out of his 提起する／ポーズをとる to his feet.

"Before I discuss serious things with an 知識," he said with a scathing dignity, "I make it a 支配する to 生き返らせる my impressions of his personality. The cigarettes are in the 水晶 box."

"They would be," said Hanaud, unabashed, as Ricardo stalked from the room. But in five minutes Mr. Ricardo （機の）カム running 支援する, all his composure gone.

"It is the greatest good fortune that you, my friend, should have chosen this morning to visit me," he cried, and Hanaud nodded with a little grimace of 辞職.

"There goes my holiday. You shall 命令（する） me now and always. I will make the 知識 of your young friend."

He rose up and followed Ricardo into his 熟考する／考慮する, where a young man was nervously pacing the 床に打ち倒す.

"Mr. Calladine," said Ricardo. "This is Mr. Hanaud."

The young man turned 熱望して. He was tall, with a noticeable elegance and distinction, and the 直面する which he showed to Hanaud was, in spite of its agitation, remarkably handsome.

"I am very glad," he said. "You are not an 公式の／役人 of this country. You can advise--without yourself taking 活動／戦闘, if you'll be so good."

Hanaud frowned. He bent his 注目する，もくろむs uncompromisingly upon Calladine.

"What does that mean?" he asked, with a 公式文書，認める of sternness in his 発言する／表明する.

"It means that I must tell someone," Calladine burst out in quivering トンs. "That I don't know what to do. I am in a difficulty too big for me. That's the truth."

Hanaud looked at the young man 熱心に. It seemed to Ricardo that he took in every excited gesture, every twitching feature, in one 包括的な ちらりと見ること. Then he said in a friendlier 発言する／表明する:

"Sit 負かす／撃墜する and tell me"--and he himself drew up a 議長，司会を務める to the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する.

"I was at the Semiramis last night," said Calladine, 指名するing one of the 広大な／多数の／重要な hotels upon the 堤防. "There was a fancy-dress ball."

All this happened, by the way, in those far-off days before the war--nearly, in fact, three years ago today--when London, flinging aside its reticence, its shy self-consciousness, had become a city of carnivals and masquerades, rivalling its 隣人s on the Continent in the spirit of its gaiety, and 越えるing them by its stupendous 高級な. "I went by the merest chance. My rooms are in the Adelphi Terrace."

"There!" cried Mr. Ricardo in surprise, and Hanaud 解除するd a 手渡す to check his interruptions.

"Yes," continued Calladine. "The night was warm, the music floated through my open windows and stirred old memories. I happened to have a ticket. I went."

Calladine drew up a 議長，司会を務める opposite to Hanaud and, seating himself, told, with many nervous starts and in troubled トンs, a story which, to Mr. Ricardo's thinking, was as fabulous as any out of the "Arabian Nights."

"I had a ticket," he began, "but no 支配. I was その結果 stopped by an attendant in the lounge at the 最高の，を越す of the staircase 主要な 負かす／撃墜する to the ballroom.

"'You can 雇う a 支配 in the cloakroom, Mr. Calladine,' he said to me. I had already begun to 悔いる the impulse which had brought me, and I welcomed the excuse with which the absence of a 衣装 供給するd me. I was, indeed, turning 支援する to the door, when a girl who had at that moment run 負かす／撃墜する from the stairs of the hotel into the lounge, cried gaily: 'That's not necessary'; and at the same moment she flung to me a long scarlet cloak which she had been wearing over her own dress. She was young, fair, rather tall, わずかな／ほっそりした, and very pretty; her hair was drawn 支援する from her 直面する with a 略章, and rippled 負かす／撃墜する her shoulders in 激しい curls; and she was dressed in a satin coat and 膝-breeches of pale green and gold, with a white waistcoat and silk stockings and scarlet heels to her satin shoes. She was as straight-四肢d as a boy, and exquisite like a 人物／姿／数字 in Dresden 磁器. I caught the cloak and turned to thank her. But she did not wait. With a laugh she ran 負かす／撃墜する the stairs a supple and 向こうずねing 人物／姿／数字, and was lost in the throng at the doorway of the ballroom. I was stirred by the prospect of an adventure. I ran 負かす／撃墜する after her. She was standing just inside the room alone, and she was gazing at the scene with parted lips and dancing 注目する，もくろむs. She laughed again as she saw the cloak about my shoulders, a delicious gurgle of amusement, and I said to her:

"'May I dance with you?'

"'Oh, do!' she cried, with a little jump, and clasping her 手渡すs. She was of a high and joyous spirit and not difficult in the 事柄 of an introduction. 'This gentleman will do very 井戸／弁護士席 to 現在の us,' she said, 主要な me in 前線 of a 破産した／（警察が）手入れする of the God Pan which stood in a niche of the 塀で囲む. 'I am, as you see, straight out of an オペラ. My 指名する is Celym鈩e or anything with an eighteenth century sound to it. You are--what you will. For this evening we are friends.'

"'And for to-morrow?' I asked.

"'I will tell you about that later on,' she replied, and she began to dance with a light step and a passion in her dancing which earned me many an envious ちらりと見ること from the other men. I was in luck, for Celym鈩e knew no one, and though, of course, I saw the 直面するs of a 広大な／多数の／重要な many people whom I remembered, I kept them all at a distance. We had been dancing for about half an hour when the first queerish thing happened. She stopped suddenly in the 中央 of a 宣告，判決 with a little gasp. I spoke to her, but she did not hear. She was gazing past me, her 注目する，もくろむs wide open, and such a rapt look upon her 直面する as I had never seen. She was lost in a miraculous 見通し. I followed the direction of her 注目する，もくろむs and, to my astonishment, I saw nothing more than a stout, short, middle-老年の woman, egregiously over-dressed as Marie Antoinette.

"'So you do know someone here?' I said, and I had to repeat the words はっきりと before my friend withdrew her 注目する，もくろむs. But even then she was not aware of me. It was as if a 発言する／表明する had spoken to her whilst she was asleep and had 乱すd, but not wakened her. Then she （機の）カム to--there's really no other word I can think of which 述べるs her at that moment--she （機の）カム to with a 深い sigh.

"'No,' she answered. 'She is a Mrs. Blumenstein from Chicago, a 未亡人 with ambitions and a 広大な／多数の／重要な 取引，協定 of money. But I don't know her.'

"'Yet you know all about her,' I 発言／述べるd.

"'She crossed in the same boat with me,' Celym鈩e replied. 'Did I tell you that I landed at Liverpool this morning? She is staying at the Semiramis too. Oh, let us dance!'

"She twitched my sleeve impatiently, and danced with a 肉親，親類d of 暴力／激しさ and wildness as if she wished to banish some 悪意のある thought. And she did undoubtedly banish it. We supped together and grew confidential, as under such 条件s people will. She told me her real 指名する. It was Joan Carew.

"'I have come over to get an 約束／交戦 if I can at Covent Garden. I am supposed to sing all 権利. But I don't know anyone. I have been brought up in Italy.'

"'You have some letters of introduction, I suppose?' I asked.

"'Oh, yes. One from my teacher in Milan. One from an American 経営者／支配人.'

"In my turn I told her my 指名する and where I lived, and I gave her my card. I thought, you see, that since I used to know a good many operatic people, I might be able to help her.

"'Thank you,' she said, and at that moment Mrs. Blumenstein, followed by a party, 主として those （競技場の）トラック一周-dog young men who always seem to gather about that 肉親，親類d of person, （機の）カム into the supper-room and took a （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する の近くに to us. There was at once an end of all 信用／信任s--indeed, of all conversation. Joan Carew lost all the lightness of her spirit; she talked at 無作為の, and her 注目する，もくろむs were drawn again and again to the grotesque 名誉き損，中傷 on Marie Antoinette. Finally I became annoyed.

"'Shall we go?' I 示唆するd impatiently, and to my surprise she whispered passionately:

"'Yes. Please! Let us go.'

"Her 発言する／表明する was 現実に shaking, her small 手渡すs clenched. We went 支援する to the ballroom, but Joan Carew did not 回復する her gaiety, and half-way through a dance, when we were 近づく to the door, she stopped 突然の--extraordinarily 突然の.

"'I shall go,' she said 突然の. 'I am tired. I have grown dull.'

"I 抗議するd, but she made a little grimace.

"'You'll hate me in half an hour. Let's be wise and stop now while we are friends,' she said, and whilst I 除去するd the 支配 from my shoulders she stooped very quickly. It seemed to me that she 選ぶd up something which had lain hidden beneath the 単独の of her slipper. She certainly moved her foot, and I certainly saw something small and 有望な flash in the palm of her glove as she raised herself again. But I imagined 単に that it was some 反対する which she had dropped.

"'Yes, we'll go,' she said, and we went up the stairs into the ロビー. Certainly all the sparkle had gone out of our adventure. I 認めるd her 知恵.

"'But I shall 会合，会う you again?' I asked.

"'Yes. I have your 演説（する）／住所. I'll 令状 and 直す／買収する，八百長をする a time when you will be sure to find me in. Good-night, and a thousand thanks. I should have been bored to 涙／ほころびs if you hadn't come without a 支配.'

"She was speaking lightly as she held out her 手渡す, but her 支配する 強化するd a little and--clung. Her 注目する，もくろむs darkened and grew troubled, her mouth trembled. The 影をつくる／尾行する of a 広大な／多数の／重要な trouble had suddenly の近くにd about her. She shivered.

"'I am half inclined to ask you to stay, however dull I am; and dance with me till daylight--the 安全な daylight,' she said.

"It was an 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の phrase for her to use, and it moved me.

"'Let us go 支援する then!' I 勧めるd. She gave me an impression suddenly of someone やめる forlorn. But Joan Carew 回復するd her courage. 'No, no,' she answered quickly. She snatched her 手渡す away and ran lightly up the staircase, turning at the corner to wave her 手渡す and smile. It was then half-past one in the morning."

So far Calladine had spoken without an interruption. Mr. Ricardo, it is true, was bursting to break in with the most important questions, but a salutary 恐れる of Hanaud 抑制するd him. Now, however, he had an 適切な時期, for Calladine paused.

"Half-past one," he said sagely. "Ah!"

"And when did you go home?" Hanaud asked of Calladine.

"True," said Mr. Ricardo. "It is of the greatest consequence."

Calladine was not sure. His partner had left behind her the strangest medley of sensations in his breast. He was puzzled, haunted, and charmed. He had to think about her; he was a trifle uplifted; sleep was impossible. He wandered for a while about the ballroom. Then he walked to his 議会s along the echoing streets and sat at his window; and some time afterwards the hoot of a モーター-horn broke the silence and a car stopped and whirred in the street below. A moment later his bell rang.

He ran 負かす／撃墜する the stairs in a queer excitement, 打ち明けるd the street door and opened it. Joan Carew, still in her masquerade dress with her scarlet cloak about her shoulders, slipped through the 開始.

"Shut the door," she whispered, 製図／抽選 herself apart in a corner.

"Your cab?" asked Calladine.

"It has gone."

Calladine latched the door. Above, in the 井戸／弁護士席 of the stairs, the light spread out from the open door of his flat. 負かす／撃墜する here all was dark. He could just see the 微光 of her white 直面する, the glitter of her dress, but she drew her breath like one who has run far. They 機動力のある the stairs 慎重に. He did not say a word until they were both 安全に in his parlour; and even then it was in a low 発言する／表明する.

"What has happened?"

"You remember the woman I 星／主役にするd at? You didn't know why I 星／主役にするd, but any girl would have understood. She was wearing the loveliest pearls I ever saw in my life."

Joan was standing by the 辛勝する／優位 of the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する. She was tracing with her finger a pattern on the cloth as she spoke. Calladine started with a horrible presentiment.

"Yes," she said. "I worship pearls. I always have done. For one thing, they 改善する on me. I 港／避難所't got any, of course. I have no money. But friends of 地雷 who do own pearls have いつかs given theirs to me to wear when they were going sick, and they have always got 支援する their lustre. I think that has had a little to do with my love of them. Oh, I have always longed for them--just a little string. いつかs I have felt that I would have given my soul for them."

She was speaking in a dull, monotonous 発言する／表明する. But Calladine 解任するd the ecstasy which had shone in her 直面する when her 注目する，もくろむs first had fallen on the pearls, the longing which had swept her やめる into another world, the passion with which she had danced to throw the obsession off.

"And I never noticed them at all," he said.

"Yet they were wonderful. The colour! The lustre! All the evening they tempted me. I was furious that a fat, coarse creature like that should have such exquisite things. Oh, I was mad."

She covered her 直面する suddenly with her 手渡すs and swayed. Calladine sprang に向かって her. But she held out her 手渡す.

"No, I am all 権利." And though he asked her to sit 負かす／撃墜する she would not. "You remember when I stopped dancing suddenly?"

"Yes. You had something hidden under your foot?"

The girl nodded.

"Her 重要な!" And under his breath Calladine uttered a startled cry.

For the first time since she had entered the room Joan Carew raised her 長，率いる and looked at him. Her 注目する，もくろむs were 十分な of terror, and with the terror was mixed an incredulity as though she could not かもしれない believe that that had happened which she knew had happened.

"A little Yale 重要な," the girl continued. "I saw Mrs. Blumenstein looking on the 床に打ち倒す for something, and then I saw it 向こうずねing on the very 位置／汚点／見つけ出す. Mrs. Blumenstein's 控訴 was on the same 床に打ち倒す as 地雷, and her maid slept above. All the maids do. I knew that. Oh, it seemed to me as if I had sold my soul and was 存在 paid."

Now Calladine understood what she had meant by her strange phrase--"the 安全な daylight."

"I went up to my little 控訴," Joan Carew continued. "I sat there with the 重要な 燃やすing through my glove until I had given her time enough to 落ちる asleep"--and though she hesitated before she spoke the words, she did speak them, not looking at Calladine, and with a shudder of 悔恨 making her 自白 完全にする. "Then I crept out. The 回廊（地帯） was dimly lit. Far away below the music was throbbing. Up here it was as silent as the 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な. I opened the door--her door. I 設立する myself in a ロビー. The 控訴, though bigger, was arranged like 地雷. I slipped in and の近くにd the door behind me. I listened in the 不明瞭. I couldn't hear a sound. I crept 今後 to the door in 前線 of me. I stood with my fingers on the 扱う and my heart （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing 急速な／放蕩な enough to choke me. I had still time to turn 支援する. But I couldn't. There were those pearls in 前線 of my 注目する，もくろむs, lustrous and wonderful. I opened the door gently an インチ or so--and then--it all happened in a second."

Joan Carew 滞るd. The night was too 近づく to her, its memory too poignant with terror. She shut her 注目する，もくろむs tightly and cowered 負かす／撃墜する in a 議長，司会を務める. With the movement her cloak slipped from her shoulders and dropped on to the ground. Calladine leaned 今後 with an exclamation of horror; Joan Carew started up.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Nothing. Go on."

"I 設立する myself inside the room with the door shut behind me. I had shut it myself in a spasm of terror. And I dared not turn 一連の会議、交渉／完成する to open it. I was helpless."

"What do you mean? She was awake?"

Joan Carew shook her 長，率いる.

"There were others in the room before me, and on the same errand--men!"

Calladine drew 支援する, his 注目する，もくろむs searching the girl's 直面する.

"Yes?" he said slowly.

"I didn't see them at first. I didn't hear them. The room was やめる dark except for one jet of 猛烈な／残忍な white light which （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 upon the door of a 安全な. And as I shut the door the jet moved 速く and the light reached me and stopped. I was blinded. I stood in the 十分な glare of it, drawn up against the パネル盤s of the door, shivering, sick with 恐れる. Then I heard a 静かな laugh, and someone moved softly に向かって me. Oh, it was terrible! I 回復するd the use of my 四肢s; in a panic I turned to the door, but I was too late. Whilst I fumbled with the 扱う I was 掴むd; a 手渡す covered my mouth. I was 解除するd to the centre of the room. The jet went out, the electric lights were turned on. There were two men dressed as apaches in velvet trousers and red scarves, like a hundred others in the ballroom below, and both were masked. I struggled furiously; but, of course, I was like a child in their しっかり掴む. 'Tie her 脚s,' the man whispered who was 持つ／拘留するing me; 'she's making too much noise.' I kicked and fought, but the other man stooped and tied my ankles, and I fainted."

Calladine nodded his 長，率いる.

"Yes?" he said.

"When I （機の）カム to, the lights were still 燃やすing, the door of the 安全な was open, the room empty; I had been flung on to a couch at the foot of the bed. I was lying there やめる 解放する／自由な."

"Was the 安全な empty?" asked Calladine suddenly.

"I didn't look," she answered. "Oh!"-- and she covered her 直面する spasmodically with her 手渡すs. "I looked at the bed. Someone was lying there--under a sheet and やめる still. There was a clock ticking in the room; it was the only sound. I was terrified. I was going mad with 恐れる. If I didn't get out of the room at once I felt that I should go mad, that I should 叫び声をあげる and bring everyone to find me alone with--what was under the sheet in the bed. I ran to the door and looked out through a slit into the 回廊（地帯）. It was still やめる empty, and below the music still throbbed in the ballroom. I crept 負かす／撃墜する the stairs, 会合 no one until I reached the hall. I looked into the ballroom as if I was searching for someone. I stayed long enough to show myself. Then I got a cab and （機の）カム to you."

A short silence followed. Joan Carew looked at her companion in 控訴，上告. "You are the only one I could come to," she 追加するd. "I know no one else."

Calladine sat watching the girl in silence. Then he asked, and his 発言する／表明する was hard:

"And is that all you have to tell me?"

"Yes."

"You are やめる sure?"

Joan Carew looked at him perplexed by the 緊急 of his question. She 反映するd for a moment or two.

"やめる."

Calladine rose to his feet and stood beside her.

"Then how do you come to be wearing this?" he asked, and he 解除するd a chain of platinum and diamonds which she was wearing about her shoulders. "You weren't wearing it when you danced with me."

Joan Carew 星／主役にするd at the chain.

"No. It's not 地雷. I have never seen it before." Then a light （機の）カム into her 注目する，もくろむs. "The two men--they must have thrown it over my 長，率いる when I was on the couch--before they went." She looked at it more closely. "That's it. The chain's not very 価値のある. They could spare it, and--it would 告発する／非難する me--of what they did."

"Yes, that's very good 推論する／理由ing," said Calladine coldly.

Joan Carew looked quickly up into his 直面する.

"Oh, you don't believe me," she cried. "You think--oh, it's impossible." And, 持つ／拘留するing him by the 辛勝する／優位 of his coat, she burst into a 嵐／襲撃する of 熱烈な 否定s.

"But you went to steal, you know," he said gently, and she answered him at once:

"Yes, I did, but not this." And she held up the necklace. "Should I have stolen this, should I have come to you wearing it, if I had stolen the pearls, if I had"--and she stopped--"if my story were not true?"

Calladine 重さを計るd her argument, and it 影響する／感情d him.

"No, I think you wouldn't," he said 率直に.

Most 罪，犯罪s, no 疑問, were brought home because the 犯罪の had made some incomprehensibly stupid mistake; incomprehensibly stupid, that is, by the 基準s of normal life. にもかかわらず, Calladine was inclined to believe her. He looked at her. That she should have 殺人d was absurd. Moreover, she was not making a parade of 悔恨, she was not playing the unctuous penitent; she had 産する／生じるd to a 誘惑, had got herself into desperate 海峡s, and was at her wits' ends how to escape from them. She was frank about herself.

Calladine looked at the clock. It was nearly five o'clock in the morning, and though the music could still be heard from the ballroom in the Semiramis, the night had begun to 病弱な upon the river.

"You must go 支援する," he said. "I'll walk with you."

They crept silently 負かす／撃墜する the stairs and into the street. It was only a step to the Semiramis. They met no one until they reached the 立ち往生させる. There many, like Joan Carew in masquerade, were standing about, or walking hither and thither in search of carriages and cabs. The whole street was in a bustle, what with drivers shouting and people coming away.

"You can slip in unnoticed," said Calladine as he looked into the thronged 中庭. "I'll telephone to you in the morning."

"You will?" she cried 熱望して, 粘着するing for a moment to his arm.

"Yes, for 確かな ," he replied. "Wait in until you hear from me. I'll think it over. I'll do what I can."

"Thank you," she said fervently.

He watched her scarlet cloak flitting here and there in the （人が）群がる until it 消えるd through the doorway. Then, for the second time, he walked 支援する to his 議会s, while the morning crept up the river from the sea.

* * * * *

This was the story which Calladine told in Mr. Ricardo's library. Mr. Ricardo heard it out with 変化させるing emotions. He began with a thrill of 期待 like a man on a dark threshold of 広大な／多数の／重要な excitements. The setting of the story 控訴，上告d to him, too, by a sort of brilliant bizarrerie which he 設立する in it. But, as it went on, he grew puzzled and a trifle disheartened. There were 欠陥s and chinks; he began to 泡 with unspoken 批評s, then swift and clever thrusts which he dared not 配達する. He looked upon the young man with disfavour, as upon one who had half opened a door upon a theatre of 広大な／多数の／重要な 約束 and shown him a spectacle not up to the 示す. Hanaud, on the other 手渡す, listened imperturbably, without an 表現 upon his 直面する, until the end. Then he pointed a finger at Calladine and asked him what to Ricardo's mind was a most irrelevant question.

"You got 支援する to your rooms, then, before five, Mr. Calladine, and it is now nine o'clock いっそう少なく a few minutes."

"Yes."

"Yet you have not changed your 着せる／賦与するs. Explain to me that. What did you do between five and half-past eight?"

Calladine looked 負かす／撃墜する at his rumpled shirt 前線.

"Upon my word, I never thought of it," he cried. "I was worried out of my mind. I couldn't decide what to do. Finally, I 決定するd to talk to Mr. Ricardo, and after I had come to that 結論 I just waited impatiently until I could come 一連の会議、交渉／完成する with decency."

Hanaud rose from his 議長，司会を務める. His manner was 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な, but 伝えるd no 選び出す／独身 hint of an opinion. He turned to Ricardo.

"Let us go 一連の会議、交渉／完成する to your young friend's rooms in the Adelphi," he said; and the three men drove thither at once.

II

Calladine 宿泊するd in a corner house and upon the first 床に打ち倒す. His rooms, large and square and lofty, with Adams mantelpieces and a delicate tracery upon their 天井s, breathed the grace of the eighteenth century. 幅の広い high windows, embrasured in 厚い 塀で囲むs, overlooked the river and took in all the 日光 and the 空気／公表する which the river had to give. And they were furnished fittingly. When the three men entered the parlour, Mr. Ricardo was astounded. He had 推定する／予想するd the untidy litter of a man run to seed, the neglect and the dust of the recluse. But the room was as clean as the deck of a ヨット; an Aubusson carpet made the 床に打ち倒す luxurious underfoot; a few coloured prints of real value decorated the 塀で囲むs; and the mahogany furniture was polished so that a lady could have used it as a mirror. There was even by the newspapers upon the 一連の会議、交渉／完成する （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する a 磁器 bowl 十分な of fresh red roses. If Calladine had turned hermit, he was a hermit of an 異常に fastidious type. Indeed, as he stood with his two companions in his dishevelled dress he seemed やめる out of keeping with his rooms.

"So you live here, Mr. Calladine?" said Hanaud, taking off his hat and laying it 負かす／撃墜する.

"Yes."

"With your servants, of course?"

"They come in during the day," said Calladine, and Hanaud looked at him curiously.

"Do you mean that you sleep here alone?"

"Yes."

"But your valet?"

"I don't keep a valet," said Calladine; and again the curious look （機の）カム into Hanaud's 注目する，もくろむs.

"Yet," he 示唆するd gently, "there are rooms enough in your 始める，決める of 議会s to house a family."

Calladine coloured and 転換d uncomfortably from one foot to the other.

"I prefer at night not to be 乱すd," he said, つまずくing a little over the words. "I mean, I have a liking for 静かな."

Gabriel Hanaud nodded his 長，率いる with sympathy.

"Yes, yes. And it is a difficult thing to get--as difficult as my holiday," he said ruefully, with a smile for Mr. Ricardo. "However"--he turned に向かって Calladine--"no 疑問, now that you are at home, you would like a bath and a change of 着せる／賦与するs. And when you are dressed, perhaps you will telephone to the Semiramis and ask 行方不明になる Carew to come 一連の会議、交渉／完成する here. 一方／合間, we will read your newspapers and smoke your cigarettes."

Hanaud shut the door upon Calladine, but he turned neither to the papers nor the cigarettes. He crossed the room to Mr. Ricardo, who, seated at the open window, was 急落（する），激減（する）d 深い in reflections.

"You have an idea, my friend," cried Hanaud. "It 需要・要求するs to 表明する itself. That sees itself in your 直面する. Let me hear it, I pray."

Mr. Ricardo started out of an absorption which was altogether assumed.

"I was thinking," he said, with a faraway smile, "that you might disappear in the forests of Africa, and at once everyone would be very busy about your 見えなくなる. You might leave your village in Leicestershire and live in the 霧s of Glasgow, and within a week the whole village would know your 郵便の 演説（する）／住所. But London--what a city! How different! How indifferent! Turn out of St. James's into the Adelphi Terrace and not a soul will say to you: 'Dr. Livingstone, I 推定する?'"

"But why should they," asked Hanaud, "if your 指名する isn't Dr. Livingstone?"

Mr. Ricardo smiled indulgently.

"Scoffer!" he said. "You understand me very 井戸／弁護士席," and he sought to turn the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議するs on his companion. "And you--does this room 示唆する nothing to you? Have you no ideas?" But he knew very 井戸／弁護士席 that Hanaud had. Ever since Hanaud had crossed the threshold he had been like a man 刺激するd by a 麻薬. His 注目する，もくろむs were 有望な and active, his 団体／死体 警報.

"Yes," he said, "I have."

He was standing now by Ricardo's 味方する with his 手渡すs in his pockets, looking out at the trees on the 堤防 and the 船s swinging 負かす／撃墜する the river.

"You are thinking of the strange scene which took place in this room such a very few hours ago," said Ricardo. "The girl in her masquerade dress making her 自白 with the stolen chain about her throat----"

Hanaud looked backwards carelessly. "No, I wasn't giving it a thought," he said, and in a moment or two he began to walk about the room with that curiously light step which Ricardo was never able to reconcile with his cumbersome 人物／姿／数字. With the heaviness of a 耐える he still padded. He went from corner to corner, opened a cupboard here, a drawer of the bureau there, and--stooped suddenly. He stood 築く again with a small box of morocco leather in his 手渡す. His 団体／死体 from 長，率いる to foot seemed to Ricardo to be 表明するing the question, "Have I 設立する it?" He 圧力（をかける）d a spring and the lid of the box flew open. Hanaud emptied its contents into the palm of his 手渡す. There were two or three sticks of 調印（する）ing-wax and a 調印（する）. With a shrug of the shoulders he 取って代わるd them and shut the box.

"You are looking for something," Ricardo 発表するd with sagacity.

"I am," replied Hanaud; and it seemed that in a second or two he 設立する it. Yet--yet--he 設立する it with his 手渡すs in his pockets, if he had 設立する it. Mr. Ricardo saw him stop in that 態度 in 前線 of the mantelshelf, and heard him utter a long, low whistle. Upon the mantelshelf some photographs were arranged, a box of cigars stood at one end, a 調書をとる／予約する or two lay between some delicate ornaments of 磁器, and a small engraving in a thin gilt でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れる was propped at the 支援する against the 塀で囲む. Ricardo 調査するd the shelf from his seat in the window, but he could not imagine which it was of these 反対するs that so drew and held Hanaud's 注目する，もくろむs.

Hanaud, however, stepped 今後. He looked into a vase and turned it upside 負かす／撃墜する. Then he 除去するd the lid of a porcelain cup, and from the very look of his 広大な／多数の／重要な shoulders Ricardo knew that he had discovered what he sought. He was 持つ／拘留するing something in his 手渡すs, turning it over, 診察するing it. When he was 満足させるd he moved 速く to the door and opened it 慎重に. Both men could hear the splashing of water in a bath. Hanaud の近くにd the door again with a nod of contentment and crossed once more to the window.

"Yes, it is all very strange and curious," he said, "and I do not 悔いる that you dragged me into the 事件／事情／状勢. You were やめる 権利, my friend, this morning. It is the personality of your young Mr. Calladine which is the 利益／興味ing thing. For instance, here we are in London in the 早期に summer. The trees out, freshly green, lilac and flowers in the gardens, and I don't know what tingle of hope and 期待 in the sunlight and the 空気／公表する. I am middle-老年の--yet there's a 暴動 in my 血, a 再度捕まえる of 青年, a belief that just 一連の会議、交渉／完成する the corner, beyond the reach of my 注目する，もくろむs, wonders wait for me. Don't you, too, feel something like that? 井戸／弁護士席, then--" and he heaved his shoulders in astonishment.

"Can you understand a young man with money, with fastidious tastes, good-looking, hiding himself in a corner at such a time--except for some overpowering 推論する／理由? No. Nor can I. There is another thing--I put a question or two to Calladine."

"Yes," said Ricardo.

"He has no servants here at night. He is やめる alone and--here is what I find 利益／興味ing--he has no valet. That seems a small thing to you?" Hanaud asked at a movement from Ricardo. "井戸／弁護士席, it is no 疑問 a trifle, but it's a 重要な trifle in the 事例／患者 of a young rich man. It is 一般に a 調印する that there is something strange, perhaps even something 悪意のある, in his life. Mr. Calladine, some months ago, turned out of St. James's into the Adelphi. Can you tell me why?"

"No," replied Mr. Ricardo. "Can you?"

Hanaud stretched out a 手渡す. In his open palm lay a small 一連の会議、交渉／完成する hairy bulb about the size of a big button and of a colour between green and brown.

"Look!" he said. "What is that?"

Mr. Ricardo took the bulb wonderingly.

"It looks to me like the fruit of some 肉親，親類d of cactus."

Hanaud nodded.

"It is. You will see some マリファナs of it in the hothouses of any really good botanical gardens. Kew has them, I have no 疑問. Paris certainly has. They are labelled. 'Anhalonium Luinii.' But amongst the Indians of Yucatan the 工場／植物 has a simpler 指名する."

"What 指名する?" asked Ricardo.

"Mescal."

Mr. Ricardo repeated the 指名する. It 伝えるd nothing to him whatever.

"There are a good many bulbs just like that in the cup upon the mantelshelf," said Hanaud.

Ricardo looked quickly up.

"Why?" he asked.

"Mescal is a 麻薬."

Ricardo started.

"Yes, you are beginning to understand now," Hanaud continued, "why your young friend Calladine turned out of St. James's into the Adelphi Terrace."

Ricardo turned the little bulb over in his fingers.

"You make a decoction of it, I suppose?" he said.

"Or you can use it as the Indians do in Yucatan," replied Hanaud. "Mescal enters into their 宗教的な 儀式s. They sit at night in a circle about a 解雇する／砲火／射撃 built in the forest and chew it, whilst one of their number （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域s perpetually upon a 派手に宣伝する."

Hanaud looked 一連の会議、交渉／完成する the room and took 公式文書，認めるs of its luxurious carpet, its delicate 任命s. Outside the window there was a 雷鳴 in the streets, a clamour of 発言する／表明するs. Boats went 速く 負かす／撃墜する the river on the ebb. Beyond the 集まり of the Semiramis rose the 広大な／多数の／重要な grey-white ドーム of St. Paul's. Opposite, upon the Southwark bank, the 巨大（な） sky-調印するs, the big Highlander drinking whisky, and the 残り／休憩（する） of them waited, gaunt 骸骨／概要s, for the night to limn them in 解雇する／砲火／射撃 and give them life. Below the trees in the gardens rustled and waved. In the 空気／公表する were the uplift and the sparkle of the young summer.

"It's a long way from the forests of Yucatan to the Adelphi Terrace of London," said Hanaud. "Yet here, I think, in these rooms, when the servants are all gone and the house is very 静かな, there is a little corner of wild Mexico."

A look of pity （機の）カム into Mr. Ricardo's 直面する. He had seen more than one young man of 広大な／多数の／重要な 約束 slacken his 持つ／拘留する and let go, just for this 推論する／理由. Calladine, it seemed, was another.

"It's like bhang and kieff and the 残り／休憩（する） of the devilish things, I suppose," he said, indignantly 投げ上げる／ボディチェックするing the button upon the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する.

Hanaud 選ぶd it up.

"No," he replied. "It's not やめる like any other 麻薬. It has a 質 of its own which just now is of particular importance to you and me. Yes, my friend"--and he nodded his 長，率いる very 本気で--"we must watch that we do not make the big fools of ourselves in this 事件／事情／状勢."

"There," Mr. Ricardo agreed with an ineffable 空気／公表する of 知恵, "I am 完全に with you."

"Now, why?" Hanaud asked. Mr. Ricardo was at a loss for a 推論する／理由, but Hanaud did not wait. "I will tell you. Mescal intoxicates, yes--but it does more--it gives to the man who eats of it colour-dreams."

"Colour-dreams?" Mr. Ricardo repeated in a wondering 発言する／表明する.

"Yes, strange heated charms, in which violent things happen vividly amongst 有望な colours. Colour is the gift of this little prosaic brown button." He spun the bulb in the 空気／公表する like a coin, and catching it again, took it over to the mantelpiece and dropped it into the porcelain cup.

"Are you sure of this?" Ricardo cried excitedly, and Hanuad raised his 手渡す in 警告. He went to the door, opened it for an インチ or so, and の近くにd it again.

"I am やめる sure," he returned. "I have for a friend a very learned 化学者／薬剤師 in the Coll鑒e de フラン. He is one of those 熱中している人s who must 実験 upon themselves. He tried this 麻薬."

"Yes," Ricardo said in a quieter 発言する／表明する. "And what did he see?"

"He had a 見通し of a wonderful garden bathed in sunlight, an old garden of gorgeous flowers and emerald lawns, ponds with golden lilies and 厚い イチイ hedges--a garden where peacocks stepped indolently and groups of gay people fantastically dressed quarrelled and fought with swords. That is what he saw. And he saw it so vividly that, when the vapours of the 麻薬 passed from his brain and he waked, he seemed to be coming out of the real world into a world of 転換ing illusions."

Hanaud's strong 静かな 発言する／表明する stopped, and for a while there was a 完全にする silence in the room. Neither of the two men stirred so much as a finger. Mr. Ricardo once more was conscious of the thrill of strange sensations. He looked 一連の会議、交渉／完成する the room. He could hardly believe that a room which had been--nay was--the home and 神社 of mysteries in the dark hours could wear so 有望な and innocent a freshness in the sunlight of the morning. There should be something 悪意のある which leaped to the 注目する，もくろむs as you crossed the threshold.

"Out of the real world," Mr. Ricardo 引用するd. "I begin to see."

"Yes, you begin to see, my friend, that we must be very careful not to make the big fools of ourselves. My friend of the Coll鑒e de フラン saw a garden. But had he been sitting alone in the window-seat where you are, listening through a summer night to the music of the masquerade at the Semiramis, might he not have seen the ballroom, the ダンサーs, the scarlet cloak, and the 残り／休憩（する） of this story?"

"You mean," cried Ricardo, now 公正に／かなり startled, "that Calladine （機の）カム to us with the ガス／煙s of mescal still working in his brain, that the 誤った world was the real one still for him."

"I do not know," said Hanaud. "At 現在の I only put questions. I ask them of you. I wish to hear how they sound. Let us 推論する／理由 this problem out. Calladine, let us say, takes a 広大な／多数の／重要な 取引，協定 more of the 麻薬 than my professor. It will have on him a more powerful 影響 while it lasts, and it will last longer. Fancy dress balls are familiar things to Calladine. The music floating from the Semiramis will 生き返らせる old memories. He sits here, the 野外劇／豪華な行列 takes 形態／調整 before him, he sees himself taking his part in it. Oh, he is happier here sitting 静かに in his window-seat than if he was 現実に at the Semiramis. For he is there more intensely, more vividly, more really, than if he had 現実に descended this staircase. He lives his story through, the story of a heated brain, the scene of it changes in the way dreams have, it becomes 悲劇の and 悪意のある, it 抑圧するs him with horror, and in the morning, so obsessed with it that he does not think to change his 着せる／賦与するs, he is knocking at your door."

Mr. Ricardo raised his eyebrows and moved.

"Ah! You see a 欠陥 in my argument," said Hanaud. But Mr. Ricardo was 用心深い. Too often in other days he had been leaped upon and trounced for a careless 発言／述べる.

"Let me hear the end of your argument," he said. "There was then to your thinking no 誘惑 of jewels, no 窃盗, no 殺人--in a word, no Celym鈩e? She was born of recollections and the music of the Semiramis."

"No!" cried Hanaud. "Come with me, my friend. I am not so sure that there was no Celym鈩e."

With a smile upon his 直面する, Hanaud led the way across the room. He had the 劇の instinct, and rejoiced in it. He was going to produce a surprise for his companion and, savouring the moment in 前進する, he managed his 影響s. He walked に向かって the mantelpiece and stopped a few paces away from it.

"Look!"

Mr. Ricardo looked and saw a 幅の広い Adams mantelpiece. He turned a bewildered 直面する to his friend.

"You see nothing?" Hanaud asked.

"Nothing!"

"Look again! I am not sure--but is it not that Celym鈩e is 提起する／ポーズをとるing before you?"

Mr. Ricardo looked again. There was nothing to 直す／買収する，八百長をする his 注目する，もくろむs. He saw a 調書をとる／予約する or two, a cup, a vase or two, and nothing else really 推定する／予想する a very pretty and 明らかに 価値のある piece of--and suddenly Mr. Ricardo understood. Straight in 前線 of him, in the very centre of the mantelpiece, a 人物／姿／数字 in painted 磁器 was leaning against a 磁器 stile. It was the 人物／姿／数字 of a perfectly impossible courtier, feminine and exquisite as could be, and apparelled also even to the scarlet heels 正確に／まさに as Calladine had 述べるd Joan Carew.

Hanaud chuckled with satisfaction when he saw the 表現 upon Mr. Ricardo's 直面する.

"Ah, you understand," he said. "Do you dream, my friend? At times--yes, like the 残り／休憩（する） of us. Then recollect your dreams? Things, people, which you have seen perhaps that day, perhaps months ago, pop in and out of them without making themselves prayed for. You cannot understand why. Yet いつかs they 削減（する） their strange capers there, 論理（学）上, too, through subtle 協会s which the dreamer, once awake, does not apprehend. Thus, our friend here sits in the window, intoxicated by his 麻薬, the music plays in the Semiramis, the curtain goes up in the heated theatre of his brain. He sees himself step upon the 行う／開催する／段階, and who else 会合，会うs him but the 磁器 人物／姿／数字 from his mantelpiece?"

Mr. Ricardo for a moment was all enthusiasm. Then his 疑問 returned to him.

"What you say, my dear Hanaud, is very ingenious. The 人物／姿／数字 upon the mantelpiece is also 極端に 納得させるing. And I should be 絶対 納得させるd but for one thing."

"Yes?" said Hanaud, watching his friend closely.

"I am--I may say it, I think, a man of the world. And I ask myself"--Mr. Ricardo never could ask himself anything without assuming a manner of extreme pomposity--"I ask myself, whether a young man who has given up his social 関係, who has become a hermit, and still more who has become the slave of a 麻薬, would 保持する that scrupulous carefulness of his 団体／死体 which is 示すd by dressing for dinner when alone?"

Hanaud struck the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する with the palm of his 手渡す and sat 負かす／撃墜する in a 議長，司会を務める.

"Yes. That is the weak point in my theory. You have 攻撃する，衝突する it. I knew it was there--that weak point, and I wondered whether you would 掴む it. Yes, the 消費者s of 麻薬s are careless, untidy--even unclean as a 支配する. But not always. We must be careful. We must wait."

"For what?" asked Ricardo, beaming with pride.

"For the answer to a telephone message," replied Hanaud, with a nod に向かって the door.

Both men waited impatiently until Calladine （機の）カム into the room. He wore now a 控訴 of blue serge, he had a clearer 注目する，もくろむ, his 肌 a healthier look; he was altogether a more reputable person. But he was plainly very ill at 緩和する. He 申し込む／申し出d his 訪問者s cigarettes, he 提案するd refreshments, he 避けるd 完全に and awkwardly the 反対する of their visit. Hanaud smiled. His theory was working out. Sobered by his bath, Calladine had realised the foolishness of which he had been 有罪の.

"You telephone, to the Semiramis, of course?" said Hanaud cheerfully.

Calladine grew red.

"Yes," he stammered.

"Yet I did not hear that 容積／容量 of 'Hallos' which に先行するs telephonic 関係 in your country of leisure," Hanaud continued.

"I telephoned from my bedroom. You would not hear anything in this room."

"Yes, yes; the 塀で囲むs of these old houses are solid." Hanaud was playing with his 犠牲者. "And when may we 推定する／予想する 行方不明になる Carew?"

"I can't say," replied Calladine. "It's very strange. She is not in the hotel. I am afraid that she has gone away, fled."

Mr. Ricardo and Hanaud 交流d a look. They were both 満足させるd now. There was no word of truth in Calladine's story.

"Then there is no 推論する／理由 for us to wait," said Hanaud. "I shall have my holiday after all." And while he was yet speaking the 発言する／表明する of a newsboy calling out the first 版 of an evening paper became distantly audible. Hanaud broke off his 別れの（言葉，会）. For a moment he listened, with his 長，率いる bent. Then the 発言する／表明する was heard again, 混乱させるd, indistinct; Hanaud 選ぶd up his hat and 茎 and, without another word to Calladine, raced 負かす／撃墜する the stairs. Mr. Ricardo followed him, but when he reached the pavement, Hanaud was half 負かす／撃墜する the little street. At the corner, however, he stopped, and Ricardo joined him, coughing and out of breath.

"What's the 事柄?" he gasped.

"Listen," said Hanaud.

At the 底（に届く） of Duke Street, by Charing Cross 駅／配置する, the newsboy was shouting his wares. Both men listened, and now the words （機の）カム to them mispronounced but decipherable.

"Mysterious 罪，犯罪 at the Semiramis Hotel."

Ricardo 星／主役にするd at his companion.

"You were wrong then!" he cried. "Calladine's story was true."

For once in a way Hanaud was やめる disconcerted.

"I don't know yet," he said. "We will buy a paper."

But before he could move a step a taxi-cab turned into the Adelphi from the 立ち往生させる, and wheeling in 前線 of their 直面するs, stopped at Calladine's door. From the cab a girl descended.

"Let us go 支援する," said Hanaud.

III

Mr. Ricardo could no longer complain. It was half-past eight when Calladine had first 乱すd the 形式順守s of his house in Grosvenor Square. It was barely ten now, and during that short time he had been flung from surprise to surprise, he had looked 地下組織の on a morning of fresh summer, and had been thrilled by the contrast between the queer, 悪意のある life below and within and the open call to joy of the green world above. He had passed from incredulity to belief, from belief to incredulity, and when at last incredulity was 堅固に 設立するd, and the story to which he had listened 証明するd the emanation of a drugged and heated brain, lo! the facts buffeted him in the 直面する, and the story was shown to be true.

"I am alive once more," Mr. Ricardo thought as he turned 支援する with Hanaud, and in his excitement he cried his thought aloud.

"Are you?" said Hanaud. "And what is life without a newspaper? If you will buy one from that remarkably raucous boy at the 底（に届く） of the street I will keep an 注目する，もくろむ upon Calladine's house till you come 支援する."

Mr. Ricardo sped 負かす／撃墜する to Charing Cross and brought 支援する a copy of the fourth 版 of the 星／主役にする. He 手渡すd it to Hanaud, who 星／主役にするd at it doubtfully, 倍のd as it was.

"Shall we see what it says?" Ricardo asked impatiently.

"By no means," Hanaud answered, waking from his reverie and tucking briskly away the paper into the tail pocket of his coat. "We will hear what 行方不明になる Joan Carew has to say, with our minds undisturbed by any 発見s. I was wondering about something 全く different."

"Yes?" Mr. Ricardo encouraged him. "What was it?"

"I was wondering, since it is only ten o'clock, at what hour the first 版s of the evening papers appear."

"It is a question," Mr. Ricardo replied sententiously, "which the greatest minds have failed to answer."

And they walked along the street to the house. The 前線 door stood open during the day like the 前線 door of any other house which is let off in 始める，決めるs of rooms. Hanaud and Ricardo went up the staircase and rang the bell of Calladine's door. A middle-老年の woman opened it.

"Mr. Calladine is in?" said Hanaud.

"I will ask," replied the woman. "What 指名する shall I say?"

"It does not 事柄. I will go straight in," said Hanaud 静かに. "I was here with my friend but a minute ago."

He went straight 今後 and into Calladine's parlour. Mr. Ricardo looked over his shoulder as he opened the door and saw a girl turn to them suddenly a white 直面する of terror, and flinch as though already she felt the 手渡す of a constable upon her shoulder. Calladine, on the other 手渡す, uttered a cry of 救済.

"These are my friends," he exclaimed to the girl, "the friends of whom I spoke to you"; and to Hanaud he said: "This is 行方不明になる Carew."

Hanaud 屈服するd.

"You shall tell me your story, mademoiselle," he said very gently, and a little colour returned to the girl's cheeks, a little courage 生き返らせるd in her.

"But you have heard it," she answered.

"Not from you," said Hanaud.

So for a second time in that room she told the history of that night. Only this time the sunlight was warm upon the world, the comfortable sounds of life's 決まりきった仕事 were borne through the windows, and the girl herself wore the inconspicuous blue serge of a thousand other girls 進行中で that morning. These trifles of circumstance took the 辛勝する／優位 of sheer horror off her narrative, so that, to tell the truth, Mr. Ricardo was a trifle disappointed. He 手配中の，お尋ね者 a 盛り上がり 動機 in his music, 反して it had begun at its fortissimo. Hanaud, however, was the perfect listener. He listened without stirring and with most compassionate 注目する，もくろむs, so that Joan Carew spoke only to him, and to him, each moment that passed, with greater 信用／信任. The life and sparkle of her had gone altogether. There was nothing in her manner now to 示唆する the waywardness, the gay irresponsibility, the radiance, which had attracted Calladine the night before. She was just a very young and very pretty girl, telling in a low and remorseful 発言する／表明する of the 悲劇の 窮地 to which she had brought herself. Of Celym鈩e all that remained was something exquisite and 壊れやすい in her beauty, in the slimness of her 人物／姿／数字, in her daintiness of 手渡す and foot--something almost of the hot-house. But the story she told was, 詳細（に述べる） for 詳細（に述べる）, the same which Calladine had already 関係のある.

"Thank you," said Hanaud when she had done. "Now I must ask you two questions."

"I will answer them."

Mr. Ricardo sat up. He began to think of a third question which he might put himself, something uncommonly subtle and searching, which Hanaud would never have thought of. But Hanaud put his questions, and Ricardo almost jumped out of his 議長，司会を務める.

"You will 許す me. 行方不明になる Carew. But have you ever stolen before?"

Joan Carew turned upon Hanaud with spirit. Then a change swept over her 直面する.

"You have a 権利 to ask," she answered. "Never." She looked into his 注目する，もくろむs as she answered. Hanaud did not move. He sat with a 手渡す upon each 膝 and led to his second question.

"早期に this morning, when you left this room, you told Mr. Calladine that you would wait at the Semiramis until he telephoned to you?"

"Yes."

"Yet when he telephoned, you had gone out?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I will tell you," said Joan Carew. "I could not 耐える to keep the little diamond chain in my room."

For a moment even Hanaud was surprised. He had lost sight of that 複雑化. Now he leaned 今後 anxiously; indeed, with a greater 苦悩 than he had yet shown in all this 事件／事情／状勢.

"I was terrified," continued Joan Carew. "I kept thinking: 'They must have 設立する out by now. They will search everywhere.' I didn't 推論する／理由. I lay in bed 推定する／予想するing to hear every moment a loud knocking on the door. Besides--the chain itself 存在 there in my bedroom--her chain--the dead woman's chain--no, I couldn't 耐える it. I felt as if I had stolen it. Then my maid brought in my tea."

"You had locked it away?" cried Hanaud.

"Yes. My maid did not see it."

Joan Carew explained how she had risen, dressed, wrapped the chain in a pad of cotton-wool and enclosed it in an envelope. The envelope had not the stamp of the hotel upon it. It was a rather large envelope, one of a packet which she had bought in a （人が）群がるd shop in Oxford Street on her way from Euston to the Semiramis. She had bought the envelopes of that particular size in order that when she sent her letter of introduction to the Director of the オペラ at Covent Garden she might enclose with it a photograph.

"And to whom did you send it?" asked Mr. Ricardo.

"To Mrs. Blumenstein at the Semiramis. I printed the 演説（する）／住所 carefully. Then I went out and 地位，任命するd it."

"Where?" Hanaud 問い合わせd.

"In the big letter-box of the 地位，任命する Office at the corner of Trafalgar Square."

Hanaud looked at the girl はっきりと.

"You had your wits about you, I see," he said.

"What if the envelope gets lost?" said Ricardo.

Hanuad laughed grimly.

"If one envelope is 配達するd at its 演説（する）／住所 in London to-day, it will be that one," he said. "The news of the 罪，犯罪 is published, you see," and he swung 一連の会議、交渉／完成する to Joan.

"Did you know that, 行方不明になる Carew?"

"No," she answered in an awe-stricken 発言する／表明する.

"井戸／弁護士席, then, it is. Let us see what the special 捜査官／調査官 has to say about it." And Hanaud, with a 審議 which Mr. Ricardo 設立する やめる excruciating, spread out the newspaper on the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する in 前線 of him.

IV

There was only one new fact in the couple of columns 充てるd to the mystery. Mrs. Blumenstein had died from chloroform 毒（薬）ing. She was of a stout habit, and the thieves were not 技術d in the 行政 of the an誑thetic.

"It's 殺人 非，不，無 the いっそう少なく," said Hanaud, and he gazed straight at Joan, asking her by the direct 召喚するs of his 注目する，もくろむs what she was going to do.

"I must tell my story to the police," she replied painfully and slowly. But she did not hesitate; she was 発表するing a meditated 計画（する）.

Hanaud neither agreed nor 異なるd. His 直面する was blank, and when he spoke there was no 真心 in his 発言する／表明する. "井戸／弁護士席," he asked, "and what is it that you have to say to the police, 行方不明になる? That you went into the room to steal, and that you were attacked by two strangers, dressed as apaches, and masked? That is all?"

"Yes."

"And how many men at the Semiramis ball were dressed as apaches and wore masks? Come! Make a guess. A hundred at the least?"

"I should think so."

"Then what will your 自白 do beyond--I 引用する your English idiom--putting you in the coach?"

Mr. Ricardo now smiled with 救済. Hanaud was taking a 限定された line. His knowledge of idiomatic English might be incomplete, but his heart was in the 権利 place. The girl traced a vague pattern on the tablecloth with her fingers.

"Yet I think I must tell the police," she repeated, looking up and dropping her 注目する，もくろむs again. Mr. Ricardo noticed that her eyelashes were very long. For the first time Hanaud's 直面する relaxed.

"And I think you are やめる 権利," he cried heartily, to Mr. Ricardo's surprise. "Tell them the truth before they 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑う it, and they will help you out of the 事件／事情／状勢 if they can. Not a 疑問 of it. Come, I will go with you myself to Scotland Yard."

"Thank you," said Joan, and the pair drove away in a cab together.

Hanaud returned to Grosvenor Square alone and lunched with Ricardo.

"It was all 権利," he said. "The police were very 肉親，親類d. 行方不明になる Joan Carew told her story to them as she had told it to us. Fortunately, the envelope with the aluminium chain had already been 配達するd, and was in their 手渡すs. They were much mystified about it, but 行方不明になる Joan's story gave them a reasonable explanation. I think they are inclined to believe her; and, if she is speaking the truth, they will keep her out of the 証言，証人／目撃する-box if they can."

"She is to stay here in London, then?" asked Ricardo.

"Oh, yes; she is not to go. She will 現在の her letters at the オペラ House and 安全な・保証する an 約束／交戦, if she can. The 犯罪のs might be なぎd その為に into a belief that the girl had kept the whole strange 出来事/事件 to herself, and that there was nowhere even a knowledge of the disguise which they had used." Hanaud spoke as carelessly as if the 事柄 was not very important; and Ricardo, with an unusual flash of shrewdness, said:

"It is （疑いを）晴らす, my friend, that you do not think those two men will ever be caught at all."

Hanaud shrugged his shoulders.

"There is always a chance. But listen. There is a room with a hundred guns, one of which is 負担d. Outside the room there are a hundred pigeons, one of which is white. You are taken into the room blind-倍の. You choose the 負担d gun and you shoot the one white pigeon. That is the value of the chance."

"But," exclaimed Ricardo, "those pearls were of 広大な／多数の／重要な value, and I have heard at a 裁判，公判 専門家 証拠 given by pearl merchants. All agree that the pearls of 広大な／多数の／重要な value are known; so, when they come upon the market----"

"That is true," Hanaud interrupted imperturbably. "But how are they known?"

"By their 負わせる," said Mr. Ricardo.

"正確に／まさに," replied Hanaud. "But did you not also hear at this 裁判，公判 of yours that pearls can be peeled like an onion? No? It is true. 除去する a 肌, two 肌s, the 負わせる is altered, the pearl is a trifle smaller. It has lost a little of its value, yes--but you can no longer identify it as the so-and-so pearl which belonged to this or that 暴君, was stolen by the vizier, bought by Messrs. Lustre and Steinopolis, of Hatton Garden, and subsequently sold to the 豊富な Mrs. Blumenstein. No, your pearl has 消えるd altogether. There is a new pearl which can be 貿易（する）d." He looked at Ricardo. "Who shall say that those pearls are not already in one of the queer little 支援する streets of Amsterdam, を受けるing their 変形?"

Mr. Ricardo was not 説得するd because he would not be. "I have some experience in these 事柄s," he said loftily to Hanaud. "I am sure that we shall lay our 手渡すs upon the 犯罪のs. We have never failed."

Hanaud grinned from ear to ear. The only experience which Mr. Ricardo had ever had was 伸び（る）d on the shores of Geneva and at Aix under Hanaud's tuition. But Hanaud did not argue, and there the 事柄 残り／休憩（する）d.

The days flew by. It was London's play-time. The green and gold of 早期に summer 深くするd and darkened; wondrous warm nights under England's pale blue sky, when the streets rang with the joyous feet of 青年, led in （疑いを）晴らす 夜明けs and lovely glowing days. Hanaud made 知識 with the wooded reaches of the Thames; Joan Carew sang "Louise" at Covent Garden with 著名な success; and the 事件／事情／状勢 of the Semiramis Hotel, in the minds of the few who remembered it, was already 追加するd to the long 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる） of unfathomed mysteries.

But に向かって the end of May there occurred a startling 開発. Joan Carew wrote to Mr. Ricardo that she would call upon him in the afternoon, and she begged him to 安全な・保証する the presence of Hanaud. She （機の）カム as the clock struck; she was pale and agitated; and in the room where Calladine had first told the story of her visit she told another story which, to Mr. Ricardo's thinking, was yet more strange and--yes--yet more 怪しげな.

"It has been going on for some time," she began. "I thought of coming to you at once. Then I wondered whether, if I waited--oh, you'll never believe me!"

"Let us hear!" said Hanaud 根気よく.

"I began to dream of that room, the two men disguised and masked, the still 人物／姿／数字 in the bed. Night after night! I was terrified to go to sleep. I felt the 手渡す upon my mouth. I used to catch myself 落ちるing asleep, and walk about the room with all the lights up to keep myself awake."

"But you couldn't," said Hanaud with a smile. "Only the old can do that."

"No, I couldn't," she 認める; "and--oh, my nights were horrible until"--she paused and looked at her companions doubtfully--"until one night the mask slipped."

"What--?" cried Hanaud, and a 公式文書，認める of sternness rang suddenly in his 発言する／表明する. "What are you 説?"

With a desperate 急ぐ of words, and the colour staining her forehead and cheeks, Joan Carew continued:

"It is true. The mask slipped on the 直面する of one of the men--of the man who held me. Only a little way; it just left his forehead 明白な--no more."

"井戸／弁護士席?" asked Hanaud, and Mr. Ricardo leaned 今後, swaying between the 緊縮 of 批評 and the 願望（する） to believe so thrilling a 発覚.

"I waked up," the girl continued, "in the 不明瞭, and for a moment the whole scene remained vividly with me--for just long enough for me to 直す／買収する，八百長をする 明確に in my mind the 人物／姿／数字 of the apache with the white forehead showing above the mask."

"When was that?" asked Ricardo.

"A fortnight ago."

"Why didn't you come with your story then?"

"I waited," said Joan. "What I had to tell wasn't yet helpful. I thought that another night the mask might slip lower still. Besides, I--it is difficult to 述べる just what I felt. I felt it important just to keep that photograph in my mind, not to think about it, not to talk about it, not even to look at it too often lest I should begin to imagine the 残り／休憩（する） of the 直面する and find something familiar in the man's carriage and 形態／調整 when there was nothing really familiar to me at all. Do you understand that?" she asked, with her 注目する，もくろむs 直す／買収する，八百長をするd in 控訴，上告 on Hanaud's 直面する.

"Yes," replied Hanaud. "I follow your thought."

"I thought there was a chance now--the strangest chance- -that the truth might be reached. I did not wish to spoil it," and she turned 熱望して to Ricardo, as if, having 説得するd Hanaud, she would now turn her 殴打／砲列s on his companion. "My whole point of 見解（をとる） was changed. I was no longer afraid of 落ちるing asleep lest I should dream. I wished to dream, but----"

"But you could not," 示唆するd Hanaud.

"No, that is the truth," replied Joan Carew. "反して before I was anxious to keep awake and yet must sleep from sheer 疲労，（軍の）雑役, now that I tried consciously to put myself to sleep I remained awake all through the night, and only に向かって morning, when the light was coming through the blinds, dropped off into a 激しい, dreamless slumber."

Hanaud nodded.

"It is a very perverse world, 行方不明になる Carew, and things go by contraries."

Ricardo listened for some 公式文書，認める of irony in Hanaud's 発言する／表明する, some look of 不信 in his 直面する. But there was neither the one nor the other. Hanaud was listening 根気よく.

"Then （機の）カム my rehearsals," Joan Carew continued, "and that wonderful オペラ drove everything else out of my 長，率いる. I had such a chance, if only I could make use of it! When I went to bed now, I went with that haunting music in my ears--the call of Paris--oh, you must remember it. But can you realise what it must mean to a girl who is going to sing it for the first time in Covent Garden?"

Mr. Ricardo saw his 適切な時期. He, the connoisseur, to whom the psychology of the green room was as an open 調書をとる／予約する, could answer that question.

"It is true, my friend," he 知らせるd Hanaud with 静かな 当局. "The 広大な／多数の／重要な march of events leaves the artist 冷淡な. He lives aloof. While the tumbrils 雷鳴 in the streets he 追加するs a delicate 色合い to the picture he is engaged upon or 解任するs his 勝利 in his last 広大な／多数の／重要な part."

"Thank you," said Hanaud 厳粛に. "And now 行方不明になる Carew may perhaps 再開する her story."

"It was the very night of my d饕ut," she continued. "I had supper with some friends. A 広大な／多数の／重要な artist. Carmen Valeri, honoured me with her presence. I went home excited, and that night I dreamed again."

"Yes?"

"This time the chin, the lips, the 注目する，もくろむs were 明白な. There was only a 黒人／ボイコット （土地などの）細長い一片 across the middle of the 直面する. And I thought--nay, I was sure--that if that （土地などの）細長い一片 消えるd I should know the man."

"And it did 消える?"

"Three nights afterwards."

"And you did know the man?"

The girl's 直面する became troubled. She frowned.

"I knew the 直面する, that was all," she answered. "I was disappointed. I had never spoken to the man. I am sure of that still. But somewhere I have seen him."

"You don't even remember when?" asked Hanaud.

"No." Joan Carew 反映するd for a moment with her 注目する，もくろむs upon the carpet, and then flung up her 長，率いる with a gesture of despair. "No. I try all the time to remember. But it is no good."

Mr. Ricardo could not 抑制する a movement of indignation. He was 存在 played with. The girl with her fantastic story had worked him up to a real pitch of excitement only to make a fool of him. All his earlier 疑惑s flowed 支援する into his mind. What if, after all, she was 巻き込むd in the 殺人 and the 窃盗? What if, with a perverse cunning, she had told Hanaud and himself just enough of what she knew, just enough of the truth, to 説得する them to 保護する her? What if her frank 自白 of her own overpowering impulse to steal the necklace was nothing more than a subtle 控訴，上告 to the sentimental pity of men, an 控訴，上告 based upon a wider knowledge of men's 証拠不十分s than a girl of nineteen or twenty せねばならない have? Mr. Ricardo （疑いを）晴らすd his throat and sat 今後 in his 議長，司会を務める. He was girding himself for a singularly searching interrogatory when Hanaud asked the most irrelevant of questions:

"How did you pass the evening of that night when you first dreamed 完全にする the 直面する of your 加害者?"

Joan Carew 反映するd. Then her 直面する （疑いを）晴らすd.

"I know," she exclaimed. "I was at the オペラ."

"And what was 存在 given?"

"The Jewels of the Madonna."

Hanaud nodded his 長，率いる. To Ricardo it seemed that he had 推定する／予想するd 正確に that answer.

"Now," he continued, "you are sure that you have seen this man?"

"Yes."

"Very 井戸／弁護士席," said Hanaud. "There is a game you play at children's parties--is there not?--animal, vegetable, or mineral, and always you get the answer. Let us play that game for a few minutes, you and I."

Joan Carew drew up her 議長，司会を務める to the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する and sat with her chin propped upon her 手渡すs and her 注目する，もくろむs 直す／買収する，八百長をするd on Hanaud's 直面する. As he put each question she pondered on it and answered. If she answered doubtfully he 圧力（をかける）d it.

"You crossed on the Lucania from New York?"

"Yes."

"Picture to yourself the dining-room, the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議するs. You have the picture やめる （疑いを）晴らす?"

"Yes."

"Was it at breakfast that you saw him?"

"No."

"At 昼食?"

"No."

"At dinner?"

She paused for a moment, 召喚するing before her 注目する，もくろむs the travellers at the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議するs.

"No."

"Not in the dining-（米）棚上げする／（英）提議する at all, then?"

"No."

"In the library, when you were 令状ing letters, did you not one day 解除する your 長，率いる and see him?"

"No."

"On the promenade deck? Did he pass you when you sat in your deck-議長，司会を務める, or did you pass him when he sat in his 議長，司会を務める?"

"No."

Step by step Hanaud took her 支援する to New York to her hotel, to 旅行s in the train. Then he carried her to Milan where she had 熟考する／考慮するd. It was 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の to Ricardo to realise how much Hanaud knew of the curriculum of a student aspiring to grand オペラ. From Milan he brought her again to New York, and at the last, with a start of joy, she cried: "Yes, it was there."

Hanaud took his handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his forehead.

"Ouf!" he grunted. "To concentrate the mind on a day like this, it makes one hot, I can tell you. Now, 行方不明になる Carew, let us hear."

It was at a concert at the house of a Mrs. Starlingshield in Fifth Avenue and in the afternoon. Joan Carew sang. She was a stranger to New York and very nervous. She saw nothing but a もや of 直面するs whilst she sang, but when she had finished the もや （疑いを）晴らすd, and as she left the improvised 行う／開催する／段階 she saw the man. He was standing against the 塀で囲む in a line of men. There was no particular 推論する／理由 why her 注目する，もくろむs should 選び出す／独身 him out, except that he was 支払う／賃金ing no attention to her singing, and, indeed, she forgot him altogether afterwards.

"I just happened to see him 明確に and distinctly," she said. "He was tall, clean-shaven, rather dark, not 特に young--thirty-five or so, I should say--a man with a 激しい 直面する and beginning to grow stout. He moved away whilst I was 屈服するing to the audience, and I noticed him afterwards walking about, talking to people."

"Do you remember to whom?"

"No."

"Did he notice you, do you think?"

"I am sure he didn't," the girl replied emphatically. "He never looked at the 行う／開催する／段階 where I was singing, and he never looked に向かって me afterwards."

She gave, so far as she could remember, the 指名するs of such guests and singers as she knew at that party. "And that is all," she said.

"Thank you," said Hanaud. "It is perhaps a good 取引，協定. But it is perhaps nothing at all."

"You will let me hear from you?" she cried, as she rose to her feet.

"行方不明になる Carew, I am at your service," he returned. She gave him her 手渡す timidly and he took it cordially. For Mr. Ricardo she had 単に a 屈服する, a 屈服する which recognised that he 不信d her and that she had no 権利 to be 感情を害する／違反するd. Then she went, and Hanaud smiled across the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する at Ricardo.

"Yes," he said, "all that you are thinking is true enough. A man who slips out of society to indulge a passion for a 麻薬 in greater peace, a girl who, on her own 自白, tried to steal, and, to 栄冠を与える all, this fantastic story. It is natural to disbelieve every word of it. But we disbelieved before, when we left Calladine's 宿泊するing in the Adelphi, and we were wrong. Let us be 警告するd."

"You have an idea?" exclaimed Ricardo.

"Perhaps!" said Hanaud. And he looked 負かす／撃墜する the theatre column of the Times. "Let us distract ourselves by going to the theatre."

"You are the most irritating man!" Mr. Ricardo broke out impulsively. "If I had to paint your portrait, I should paint you with your finger against the 味方する of your nose, 説 mysteriously: 'I know,' when you know nothing at all."

Hanaud made a schoolboy's grimace. "We will go and sit in your box at the オペラ to-night," he said, "and you shall explain to me all through the beautiful music the theory of the tonic sol-fa."

They reached Covent Garden before the curtain rose. Mr. Ricardo's box was on the lowest tier and next to the omnibus box.

"We are 近づく the 行う／開催する／段階," said Hanaud, as he took his seat in the corner and so arranged the curtain that he could see and yet was hidden from 見解（をとる）. "I like that."

The theatre was 十分な; 立ち往生させるs and boxes shimmered with jewels and satin, and all that was famous that season for beauty and distinction had made its tryst there that night.

"Yes, this is wonderful," said Hanaud. "What オペラ do they play?" He ちらりと見ることd at his programme and cried, with a little start of surprise: "We are in luck. It is The Jewels of the Madonna."

"Do you believe in omens?" Mr. Ricardo asked coldly. He had not yet 回復するd from his rebuff of the afternoon.

"No, but I believe that Carmen Valeri is at her best in this part," said Hanaud.

Mr. Ricardo belonged to that 団体／死体 of critics which must needs spoil your enjoyment by comparisons and recollections of other 広大な／多数の／重要な artists. He was at a disadvantage certainly to-night, for the オペラ was new. But he did his best. He imagined others in the part, and when the 広大な／多数の／重要な scene （機の）カム at the end of the second 行為／法令／行動する, and Carmen Valeri, on 得るing from her lover the he murmured; and he was やめる 悩ますd with Hanaud, who sat with his オペラ glasses held to his 注目する，もくろむs, and every sense 明らかに concentrated on the 行う／開催する／段階. The curtains rose and rose again when the 行為／法令／行動する was 結論するd, and still Hanaud sat motionless as the Sphynx, 星／主役にするing through his glasses.

"That is all," said Ricardo when the curtains fell for the fifth time.

"They will come out," said Hanaud. "Wait!" And from between the curtains Carmen Valeri was led out into the 十分な glare of the footlights with the panoply of jewels flashing on her breast. Then at last Hanaud put 負かす／撃墜する his glasses and turned to Ricardo with a look of exultation and 本物の delight upon his 直面する which filled that season-worn dilettante with envy.

"What a night!" said Hanaud. "What a wonderful night!" And he 拍手喝采する until he 分裂（する） his gloves. At the end of the オペラ he cried: "We will go and take supper at the Semiramis. Yes, my friend, we will finish our evening like gallant gentlemen. Come! Let us not think of the morning." And boisterously he slapped Ricardo in the small of the 支援する.

In spite of his 誇る, however, Hanaud hardly touched his supper, and he played with, rather than drank, his brandy and soda. He had a little （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する to which he was accustomed beside a glass 審査する in the depths of the room, and he sat with his 支援する to the 塀で囲む watching the groups which 注ぐd in. Suddenly his 直面する lighted up.

"Here is Carmen Valeri!" he cried. "Once more we are in luck. Is it not that she is beautiful?"

Mr. Ricardo turned languidly about in his 議長，司会を務める and put up his eyeglass.

"So, so," he said.

"Ah!" returned Hanaud. "Then her companion will 利益／興味 you still more. For he is the man who 殺人d Mrs. Blumenstein."

Mr. Ricardo jumped so that his eyeglass fell 負かす／撃墜する and tinkled on its cord against the buttons of his waistcoat.

"What!" he exclaimed. "It's impossible!" He looked again. "Certainly the man fits Joan Carew's description. But--" He turned 支援する to Hanaud utterly astounded. And as he looked at the Frenchman all his earlier recollections of him, of his swift deductions, of the subtle imagination which his 激しい 団体／死体 so 井戸／弁護士席 隠すd, （人が）群がるd in upon Ricardo and 納得させるd him.

"How long have you known?" he asked in a whisper of awe.

"Since ten o'clock to-night."

"But you will have to find the necklace before you can 証明する it."

"The necklace!" said Hanaud carelessly. "That is already 設立する."

Mr. Ricardo had been longing for a thrill. He had it now. He felt it in his very spine.

"It's 設立する?" he said in a startled whisper.

"Yes."

Ricardo turned again, with as much 無関心／冷淡 as he could assume, に向かって the couple who were settling 負かす／撃墜する at their （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, the man with a surly 無関心／冷淡, Carmen Valeri with the radiance of a woman who has just 達成するd a 勝利 and is now 解放する／自由な to enjoy the fruits of it. Confusedly, recollections returned to Ricardo of questions put that afternoon by Hanaud to Joan Carew--subtle questions into which the 指名する of Carmen Valeri was continually entering. She was a woman of thirty, certainly beautiful, with a （疑いを）晴らす, pale 直面する and 注目する，もくろむs like the night.

"Then she is 巻き込むd too!" he said. What a change for her, he thought, from the 行う／開催する／段階 of Covent Garden to the felon's 独房, from the gay supper-room of the Semiramis, with its 有望な frocks and its babel of laughter, to the silence and the ignominious garb of the workrooms in Aylesbury 刑務所，拘置所!

"She!" exclaimed Hanaud; and in his passion for the contrasts of 演劇 Ricardo was almost disappointed. "She has nothing whatever to do with it. She

Hanaud stood up and shook 手渡すs with the director. He was of the world of 商売／仕事 rather than of art, and long experience of the ways of tenors and prima-donnas had given him a good-humoured cynicism.

"They are spoilt children, all tantrums and vanity," he said, "and they would 廃虚 you to keep a 競争相手 out of the theatre."

He told them anecdote upon anecdote.

"And Carmen Valeri," Hanaud asked in a pause; "is she troublesome this season?"

"America!" suddenly cried Ricardo; so suddenly that Clements looked at him in surprise.

"She was singing in New York, of course, during the winter," he returned. "井戸／弁護士席, she left him behind, and I was shaking 手渡すs with myself when he began to 取引，協定 the cards over there. She （機の）カム to me in a panic. She had just had a cable. She couldn't sing on Friday night. There was a 黒人／ボイコット knave next to the nine of diamonds. She wouldn't sing for worlds. And it was the first night of The Jewels of the Madonna! Imagine the 直す／買収する，八百長をする I was in!"

"What did you do?" asked Ricardo.

"The only thing there was to do," replied Clements with a shrug of the shoulders. "I cabled Favart some money and he dealt the cards again. She （機の）カム to me beaming. Oh, she had been so 苦しめるd to put me in the cart! But what could she do? Now there was a red queen next to the エース of hearts, so she could sing without a scruple so long, of course, as she didn't pass a funeral on the way 負かす／撃墜する to the オペラ house. Luckily she didn't. But my money brought Favart over here, and now I'm living on a 火山. For he's the greatest scoundrel unhung. He never has a farthing, however much she gives him; he's a blackmailer, he's a 詐欺師, he has no manners and no graces, he looks like a butcher and 扱う／治療するs her as if she were dirt, he never goes 近づく the オペラ except when she is singing in this part, and she worships the ground he walks on. 井戸／弁護士席, I suppose it's time to go."

The lights had been turned off, the 広大な／多数の／重要な room was emptying. Mr. Ricardo and his friends rose to go, but at the door Hanaud 拘留するd Mr. Clements, and they talked together alone for some little while, 大いに to Mr. Ricardo's annoyance. Hanaud's good humour, however, when he 再結合させるd his friend, was enough for two.

"I apologise, my friend, with my 手渡す on my heart. But it was for your sake that I stayed behind. You have a meretricious taste for melodrama which I 深く，強烈に 嘆き悲しむ, but which I mean to gratify. I せねばならない leave for Paris to-morrow, but I shall not. I shall stay until Thursday." And he skipped upon the pavement as they walked home to Grosvenor Square.

Mr. Ricardo 泡d with questions, but he knew his man. He would get no answer to any one of them to-night. So he worked out the problem for himself as he lay awake in his bed, and he （機の）カム 負かす／撃墜する to breakfast next morning 疲労，（軍の）雑役d but 勝利を得た. Hanaud was already chipping off the 最高の，を越す of his egg at the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する.

"So I see you have 設立する it all out, my friend," he said.

"Not all," replied Ricardo modestly, "and you will not mind, I am sure, if I follow the usual custom and wish you a good morning."

"Not at all," said Hanaud. "I am all for good manners myself."

Hanaud nodded his 長，率いる.

"正確に／まさに."

"No 疑問 Joan Carew noticed Carmen Valeri 特に, and so took mind--an 未開発の film."

Hanaud looked up in surprise, and the surprise flattered Mr. Ricardo. Not for nothing had he 投げ上げる／ボディチェックするd about in his bed for the greater part of the night.

"Then （機の）カム the 悲劇の night at the Semiramis. She does not consciously recognise her 加害者, but she dreams the scene again and again, and by a 過程 of unconscious cerebration the 人物／姿／数字 of the man becomes familiar. Finally she makes her d饕ut, is entertained at supper afterwards, and 会合，会うs once more Carmen Valeri."

"Yes, for the first time since Mrs. Starlingshield's party," interjected Hanaud.

"She dreams again, she remembers asleep more than she remembers when awake. The presence of Carmen Valeri at her supper-party has its 影響. By a 過程 of 協会, she 解任するs Favart, and the mask slips on the 直面する of her 加害者. Some days later she goes to the オペラ. She hears Carmen Valeri sing in The Jewels of the Madonna. No 疑問 the passion of her 事実上の／代理, which I am more 用意が出来ている to 認める this morning than I was last night, 影響する／感情s Joan Carew powerfully, emotionally. She goes to bed with her 長，率いる 十分な of Carmen Valeri, and she dreams not of Carmen Valeri, but of the man who is unconsciously associated with Carmen Valeri in her thoughts. The mask 消えるs altogether. She sees her 加害者 now, has his portrait limned in her mind, would know him if she met him in the street, though she does not know by what means she identified him."

"Yes," said Hanaud. "It is curious the brain working while the 団体／死体 sleeps, the dream 明らかにする／漏らすing what thought cannot 解任する."

Mr. Ricardo was delighted. He was taken 本気で.

For a few moments there was silence. Then Ricardo asked: "But have you 証拠 enough?"

"Yes."

"Your two 長，指導者 証言，証人／目撃するs, Calladine and Joan Carew-- you said it yourself--there are facts to discredit them. Will they be believed?"

"But they won't appear in the 事例／患者 at all," Hanaud said. "Wait, wait!" and once more he smiled. "By the way, what is the number of Calladine's house?"

Ricardo gave it, and Hanaud therefore wrote a letter. "It is all for your sake, my friend," he said with a chuckle.

"Nonsense," said Ricardo. "You have the spirit of the theatre in your bones."

"井戸／弁護士席, I shall not 否定する it," said Hanaud, and he sent out the letter to the nearest 中心存在-box.

Mr. Ricardo waited in a fever of impatience until Thursday （機の）カム. At breakfast Hanaud would talk of nothing but the news of the day. At 昼食 he was no better. The 事件／事情／状勢 of the Semiramis Hotel seemed a thousand miles from any of his thoughts. But at five o'clock he said as he drank his tea:

"You know, of course, that we go to the オペラ to- night?"

"Yes. Do we?"

"Yes. Your young friend Calladine, by the way, will join us in your box."

"That is very 肉親，親類d of him, I am sure," said Mr. Ricardo.

The two men arrived before the rising of the curtain, and in the （人が）群がるd ロビー a stranger spoke a few words to Hanaud, but what he said Ricardo could not hear. They took their seats in the box, and Hanaud looked at his programme.

"Ah! It is Il Ballo de Maschera to-night. We always seem to 攻撃する，衝突する upon something appropriate, don't we?"

Then he raised his eyebrows.

"Oh-o! Do you see that our pretty young friend, Joan Carew, is singing in the r?e of the page? It is a showy part. There is a particular melody with a long-支えるd trill in it, as far as I remember."

Mr. Ricardo was not deceived by Hanaud's 明らかな ignorance of the オペラ to be given that night and of the part Joan Carew was to take. He was, therefore, not surprised when Hanaud 追加するd:

"By the way, I should let Calladine find it all out for himself."

Mr. Ricardo nodded sagely.

"Yes. That is wise. I had thought of it myself." But he had done nothing of the 肉親，親類d. He was only aware that the (a)手の込んだ／(v)詳述する 行う／開催する／段階-管理／経営 in which Hanaud delighted was working out to the 願望（する）d 最高潮, whatever that 最高潮 might be. Calladine entered the box a few minutes later and shook 手渡すs with them awkwardly.

"It was 肉親，親類d of you to 招待する me," he said and, very ill at 緩和する, he took a seat between them and concentrated his attention on the house as it filled up.

"There's the 予備交渉," said Hanaud. The curtains divided and were festooned on either 味方する of the 行う／開催する／段階. The singers （機の）カム on in their turn; the page appeared to a burst of delicate 賞賛 (Joan Carew had made a small 指名する for herself that season), and with a stifled cry Calladine 発射 支援する in the box as if he had been struck. Even then Mr. Ricardo did not understand. He only realised that Joan Carew was looking extraordinarily 削減する and smart in her boy's dress. He had to look from his programme to the 行う／開催する／段階 and 支援する again several times before the 推論する／理由 of Calladine's exclamation 夜明けd on him. When it did, he was horrified. Hanaud, in his craving for 劇の 影響s, must have lost his 長，率いる altogether. Joan Carew was wearing, from the 略章 in her hair to the scarlet heels of her buckled satin shoes, the same dress as she had worn on the 悲劇の night at the Semiramis Hotel. He leaned 今後 in his agitation to Hanaud.

"You must be mad. Suppose Favart is in the theatre and sees her. He'll be over on the Continent by one in the morning."

"No, he won't," replied Hanaud. "For one thing, he never comes to Covent Garden unless one オペラ, with Carmen Valeri in the 長，指導者 part, is 存在 played, as you heard the other night at supper. For a second thing, he isn't in the house. I know where he is. He is 賭事ing in Dean Street, Soho. For a third thing, my friend, he couldn't leave by the nine o'clock train for the Continent if he 手配中の，お尋ね者 to. 手はず／準備 have been made. For a fourth thing, he wouldn't wish to. He has really remarkable 推論する／理由s for 願望（する）ing to stay in London. But he will come to the theatre later. Clements will send him an 緊急の message, with the result that he will go straight to Clements' office. 一方／合間, we can enjoy ourselves, eh?"

Never was the difference between the amateur dilettante and the 本物の professional more 明確に 展示（する）d than by the behaviour of the two men during the 残り／休憩（する） of the 業績／成果. Mr. Ricardo might have been sitting on a coal 解雇する／砲火／射撃 from his jumps and twistings; Hanaud stolidly enjoyed the music, and when Joan Carew sang her famous 単独の his 手渡すs clamoured for an encore louder than anyone's in the boxes. Certainly, whether excitement was keeping her up or no, Joan Carew had never sung better in her life. Her 発言する／表明する was （疑いを）晴らす and fresh as a bird's--a bird with a soul 奮起させるing its song. Even Calladine drew his 議長，司会を務める 今後 again and sat with his 注目する，もくろむs 直す／買収する，八百長をするd upon the 行う／開催する／段階 and やめる carried out of himself. He drew a 深い breath at the end.

"She is wonderful," he said, like a man waking up.

"She is very good," replied Mr. Ricardo, 訂正するing Calladine's 輸送（する）s.

"We will go 一連の会議、交渉／完成する to the 支援する of the 行う／開催する／段階," said Hanaud.

They passed through the アイロンをかける door and across the 行う／開催する／段階 to a long 回廊（地帯） with a 列／漕ぐ／騒動 of doors on one 味方する. There were two or three men standing about in evening dress, as if waiting for friends in the dressing-rooms. At the third door Hanaud stopped and knocked. The door was opened by Joan Carew, still dressed in her green and gold. Her 直面する was troubled, her 注目する，もくろむs afraid.

"Courage, little one," said Hanaud, and he slipped past her into the room. "It is 同様に that my ugly, familiar 直面する should not be seen too soon."

The door の近くにd and one of the strangers loitered along the 回廊（地帯） and spoke to a call-boy. The call-boy ran off. For five minutes more Mr. Ricardo waited with a （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing heart. He had the joy of a man in the centre of things. 外見 in London オペラ during the next season.

"We have to look ahead, my dear friend," said Clements, "and though I should be 極端に sorry----"

At that moment they were 正確に／まさに opposite Joan Carew's door. It opened, interrupted him in Mrs. Blumenstein's bedroom. There was no need for Joan to 行為／法令／行動する. In the presence of this man her 恐れる was as real as it had been on the night of the Semiramis ball. She trembled from 長，率いる to foot. Her 注目する，もくろむs の近くにd; she seemed about to swoon.

Favart 星／主役にするd and uttered an 誓い. His 直面する turned white; he staggered 支援する as if he had seen a ghost. Then he made a wild dash along the 回廊（地帯）, and was 掴むd and held by two of the men in evening dress. Favart 回復するd his wits. He 中止するd to struggle.

"What does this 乱暴／暴力を加える mean?" he asked, and one of the men drew a 令状 and notebook from his pocket.

"You are 逮捕（する）d for the 殺人 of Mrs. Blumenstein in the Semiramis Hotel," he said, "and I have to 警告する you that anything you may say will be taken 負かす／撃墜する and may be used in 証拠 against you."

"Preposterous!" exclaimed Favart. "There's a mistake. We will go along to the police and put it 権利. Where's your 証拠 against me?"

Hanaud stepped out of the doorway of the dressing-room.

"In the 所有物／資産／財産-room of the theatre," he said.

At the sight of him Favart uttered a violent cry of 激怒（する）. "You are here, too, are you?" he 叫び声をあげるd, and he sprang at Hanaud's throat. Hanaud stepped lightly aside. Favart was borne 負かす／撃墜する to the ground, and when he stood up again the 手錠s were on his wrists.

Favart was led away, and Hanaud turned to Mr. Ricardo and Clements.

"Let us go to the 所有物／資産／財産-room," he said. They passed along the 回廊（地帯）, and Ricardo noticed that Calladine was no longer with them. He turned and saw him standing outside Joan Carew's dressing-room.

"He would like to come, of course," said Ricardo.

"Would he?" asked Hanaud. "Then why doesn't he? He's やめる grown up, you know," and he slipped his arm through Ricardo's and led him 支援する across the 行う／開催する／段階. In the 所有物／資産／財産-room there was already a 探偵，刑事 in plain 着せる／賦与するs. Mr. Ricardo had still not as yet guessed the truth.

"What is it you really want, sir?" the 所有物／資産／財産- master asked of the director.

"Only the jewels of the Madonna," Hanaud answered.

The 所有物／資産／財産-master 打ち明けるd a cupboard and took from it the sparkling cuirass. Hanaud pointed to it, and there, lost amongst the 抱擁する glittering 石／投石するs of paste and 誤った pearls, Mrs. Blumenstein's necklace was entwined.

"Then that is why Favart （機の）カム always to Covent Garden when The Jewels of the Madonna was 存在 成し遂げるd!" exclaimed Ricardo.

Hanaud nodded.

"He （機の）カム to watch over his treasure."

Ricardo was piecing together the sections of the puzzle.

"No 疑問 he knew of the necklace in America. No 疑問 he followed it to England."

Hanaud agreed.

"Mrs. Blumenstein's jewels were やめる famous in New York."

"But to hide them here!" cried Mr. Clements. "He must have been mad."

"Why?" asked Hanaud. "Can you imagine a safer hiding-place? Who is going to burgle the 所有物／資産／財産-room of Covent Garden? Who is going to look for a priceless string of pearls amongst the 行う／開催する／段階 jewels of an オペラ house?"

"You did," said Mr. Ricardo.

"I?" replied Hanaud, shrugging his shoulders. "Joan Carew's dreams led me

"At the end of the second 行為／法令／行動する?" cried Ricardo suddenly. "I remember now."

"Yes," replied Hanaud. "But for that second 行為／法令／行動する the pearls would have stayed comfortably here all through the season. Carmen Valeri--a fool as I told you--would have 投げ上げる／ボディチェックするd them about in her dressing-room without a notion of their value, and at the end of July, when the 殺人 at the Semiramis Hotel had been forgotten, Favart would have taken them to Amsterdam and made his 取引."

"Shall we go?"

They left the theatre together and walked 負かす／撃墜する to the 取調べ／厳しく尋問する- room of the Semiramis. But as Hanaud looked through the glass door he drew 支援する.

"We will not go in, I think, eh?"

"Why?" asked Ricardo.

Hanaud pointed to a （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する. Calladine and Joan Carew were seated at it taking their supper.

"Perhaps," said Hanaud with a smile, "perhaps, my friend--what? Who shall say that the rooms in the Adelphi will not be given up?"

They turned away from the hotel. But Hanaud was 権利, and before the season was over Mr. Ricardo had to put his 手渡す in his pocket for a wedding 現在の.

THE END

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