"Oh, Mr. Sharpin!" she said, "I am so sorry to see those two men!
Your sending for their assistance looks as if you were beginning
to be doubtful of success."
I privately winked at her (she is very good in allowing me to do
so without taking offense), and told her, in my facetious way,
that she labored under a slight mistake.
"It is because I am sure of success, ma'am, that I send for them.
I am determined to recover the money, not for my own sake only,
but for Mr. Yatman's sake--and for yours."
I laid a considerable amount of stress on those last three words.
She said: "Oh, Mr. Sharpin!" again, and blushed of a heavenly
red, and looked down at her work. I could go to the world's end
with that woman if Mr. Yatman would only die.
I sent off the two subordinates to wait until I wanted them at
the Avenue Road gate of the Regent's Park. Half-an-hour afterward
I was following the same direction myself at the heels of Mr.
Jay.
The two confederates were punctual to the appointed time. I blush
to record it, but it is nevertheless necessary to state that the
third rogue--the nameless desperado of my report, or, if you
prefer it, the mysterious "somebody else" of the conversation
between the two brothers--is--a woman! and, what is worse, a
young woman! and, what is more lamentable still, a nice-looking
woman! I have long resisted a growing conviction that, wherever
there is mischief in this world, an individual of the fair sex is
inevitably certain to be mixed up in it.
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