Then von Felsen arrived. He asked openly for Fräulein von Ringheim, and by my orders Ellen showed him into my room. He was a very different man from the shaken reed he had been when I had interviewed him at the club on the night of the Jew’s murder. He was now self-confident, resolved, and sure of himself on the strength of the cards he held.
On the other hand I endeavoured to express alarm and genuine apprehension.
"It is no use your denying that Fräulein Althea is here, Herr Bastable. I know it and the police know it. I shan’t go without seeing her."
"What are you going to do?" I asked, letting my eyes fall before his.
"That all depends on what she does. You have made a holy mess of things in your cleverness. Your house is watched by the police, and you can’t escape. If things go wrong, you’ll have to answer for having had the Baron here. I know he’s here, too."
"You are not going to play on a woman’s fears about her father, are you?" A spice of mild indignation in this. "As for me, you can’t harm me."
"Harm you? Can’t I?" he cried with a snort of anger. "Perhaps you’ll change your tone when I tell you, on my honour----"
"Never mind your honour," I cut in with a sneer which had the intended effect of adding anger to his bluster.
"When I leave this house I shall only have to hold up my finger and the lot of you will be inside the nearest gaol as quickly as you can be taken there by the police--you and Althea and her father and your sister too. You are all in this, you know. And if you provoke me, by Heaven I’ll do it at once."
I did not reply but sat looking down at the table in intense dismay.
"Now are you going to deny that she is in the house?" he cried triumphantly after a pause.
"No, I don’t deny it." The words seemed to be wrung from me, and I continued my stare of dismay at the table.
"I thought that would bring you to your senses. Where is she?"
"No, thank you. I don’t want you," he declared with a short laugh.
I sat down again. "I must think all this over," I murmured with a sigh of concern. "She’s in the drawing-room, the room at the top of the stairs."
"I’ll find it right enough, you bet." He went to the door and then turned for a last shot. "You understand, Bastable, if she says no, you’ll all sleep in gaol to-night."