"This thought grew upon the old woman until it seemed she could scarcely think of anything else. Her constant espionage finally attracted Miss Corbin's attention, as she told me at the Tillinghast after you left the room. In her turn she began to suspect and watch. With the feeling that the scapular should be well hidden, Nanon placed it in one of the candlesticks, cunningly calculating that as the article had once been searched, it would be passed by thereafter."
"And Miss Corbin saw her place it there," suggested Fuller, quickly.
"Exactly—and awaited an opportunity for obtaining possession of it."
"When did you first come to suspect that Nanon might have the paper?" asked the aide, with curiosity.
"At the time we hit upon the fact that the drawings received by Dr. Morse were meant to represent scapulars. What had actually happened at once began to take form in my mind. And feeling sure that the old woman had the paper safe, without, possibly, knowing of its existence, I made no attempt to obtain possession of it. And I did not fear Drevenoff's finding it, because I was convinced that they would never dream of her having it."
The speaker sat for some time smoking in silence; then he added:
"I was about ready to tell her what I knew, secure the paper and hand her over to Osborne on the day she paid me the visit. But the story she told rather gave the matter the air of further entanglement; and so, to learn first how deep was the apparent involvement of Miss Corbin and Warwick, I postponed the arrest."
"I should think, all things considered," said Fuller, "that you'd be rather glad that it happened so."
"I am," replied the secret agent. "She was without real guilt. And," with a nod to his aide, the meaning of which that young man did not fail to catch, "as there are but a few who are possessed of the facts she will, I think, continue to appear so."
FOOTNOTES:[1]For the details of the case of the numismatist Hume, see the first book of this series: "Ashton-Kirk, Investigator."
[1]For the details of the case of the numismatist Hume, see the first book of this series: "Ashton-Kirk, Investigator."
[1]For the details of the case of the numismatist Hume, see the first book of this series: "Ashton-Kirk, Investigator."