Helen rose, a faint flush of indignation in her cheeks. The next moment she sat down again, for she realized that Hawkes' argument was reasonable. The Gray Phantom's existence was precarious enough to warrant every conceivable precaution.
"I know Mr. Vanardy will see me if you tell him who I am," she declared, looking straight into the little man's eyes.
"Quite likely. But I have orders, and I dare not disregard them. Be good enough to answer one or two questions. To begin with, what is the nature of your business with Mr. Vanardy?"
Helen's patience was almost exhausted, but her sense of humor came to her rescue. Her lips began to twitch.
"Tell Mr. Vanardy," she said, "that the subject I wish to discuss with him has to do with a certain Mr. Shei."
The little man's eyes opened wide. She fancied his hand shook a trifle as he made an annotation on the pad he carried.
"Quite so," he murmured, quickly controlling himself. "You have come here on business connected with a certain Mr. Shei. Just one more question. Very few people know there is such a place as Azurecrest. How did you happen to find it?"
"Mr. Vanardy once gave me the directions. But you are exerting yourself needlessly, Hawkes. I am sure all that is necessary is to mention my name to Mr. Vanardy."
"Perhaps so." The humpback made another annotation on the pad, after which he put it in his pocket. "I'll repeat to Mr. Vanardy what you have just told me." He walked out of the room.
Helen could not tell why, but the silence that fell upon the room as the door closed impressed her uncomfortably. She did her best to muffle a faint inward whisper of warning, a premonition that something was wrong. Hawkes' questions had left a train of disturbing thoughts in her mind.
She waited a few minutes, then got up and began to pace the floor in an effort to quell a rising nervousness. She glanced at the pictures on the walls, but they did not seem to be the same as those that had hung there on her last visit, and they failed to interest her.
Presently she stepped to the window and looked out. The trees were nodding drowsily in the gentle night wind. The mist rising from the lowlands on all sides of the hill gave her a curious sense of remoteness from the world.