"Harley," I said, speaking almost at random, "this promises to be the strangest case you have ever handled."
"Promises?" Paul Harley laughed shortly. "It _is_ the strangest case, Knox. It is a case of wheels within wheels, of mystery crowning mystery. Have you studied our host?"
"None at the moment; but I think one is slowly crystalizing."
"Hm," muttered Harley, as we paced slowly on amid the rose trees. "Of one thing I am satisfied."
"That Colonel Menendez is not afraid of Bat Wing, whoever or whatever Bat Wing may be."
"Certainly he is not afraid, Knox. He has possibly been afraid in the past, but now he is resigned."
"Good God, Harley, you are right!" I cried. "You are right! I saw it in his eyes as we left the library."
"You saw this in the Colonel's eyes?" he challenged.
"Which corroborates my theory," he said, softly; "for _I_ had seen it elsewhere."
"Knox"--Harley rested his hand upon my arm and looked about him cautiously--"_she knows._"
"That is the question which we are here to answer, but I am as sure as it is humanly possible to be sure of anything that whatever Colonel Menendez may tell us to-night, one point at least he will withhold."
"The meaning of the sign of the Bat Wing."
"He has told us that it is the death-token of Voodoo."
"Then you believe his explanation to be false?"
"Not necessarily, Knox. It may be what he claims for it. But he is keeping something back. He speaks all the time from behind a barrier which he, himself, has deliberately erected against me."
"I cannot understand why he should do so," I declared, as he looked at me steadily. "Within the last few moments I have become definitely convinced that his appeal to you was no idle one. Therefore, why should he not offer you every aid in his power?"
"The same thing," I continued, "applies to Madame de Stämer. If ever I have seen love-light in a woman's eyes I have seen it in hers, to-day, whenever her glance has rested upon Colonel Menendez. Harley, I believe she literally worships the ground he walks upon."
"She does, she does!" cried my companion, and emphasized the words with beats of his clenched fist. "It is utterly, damnably mystifying. But I tell you, she knows, Knox, she knows!"
"You mean she knows that he is a doomed man?"