"Of course I will. I'll be there just after seven," he said, and, after leisurely finishing a cigarette, he left her.
Just before half-past seven he entered Ena Pollen's flat, where Lilla was already seated in the drawing-room. He wore a simple blue serge suit, for that night he had come straight from Hammersmith, and had not dressed to go to a restaurant or the theatre.
"Well?" he asked the Red Widow. "Anything fresh?"
"Nothing. I telephoned to Golder's Green an hour ago, and found Miss Propert was most despondent."
"Poor dear!" laughed Lilla. "What a pity! Her bill will be paid all right--so she needn't fret!"
Presently they sat down to a very pleasant little dinner, where, with sardonic laughter, the trio of death-dealers lifted their glasses of champagne to "dear Augusta's speedy recovery."
After dinner they returned to the drawing-room, where they took their liqueurs and coffee, all three being in excellent spirits.
The only serious moment was when the Red Widow suddenly remarked:
"I don't half like the situation concerning that young fellow Durrant! Do you know, I feel some strange presage of evil--I mean that we may have made a slip there."
"Slip!" laughed Boyne derisively. "Nothing of the kind, my dear Ena! I saw to that all right. And surely you can trust me?"
"No need to worry further about him. He won't trouble us any more."
"The next person to be silenced is that girl," Lilla said in a hard voice.
"Yes," was Boyne's slow reply. "I think I've formed a plan which will be just as successful as that we carried out concerning her too inquisitive lover."
And as he spoke, he blew a cloud of smoke from his lips and watched it curl towards the ceiling.
Suddenly--it was then about ten o'clock--almost as the words fell from his lips, the telephone bell rang sharply.
"Ah!" gasped Ena, springing up. "There you are! At last!"
"Yes," she replied, taking up the receiver. Then, listening, she exclaimed: "Oh! you, Miss Propert--well? Oh! How dreadful!--how very sad! She passed away ten minutes ago! Thank you so much for telling me. I'm so sorry--so very sorry!"
"You look sorry!" laughed Boyne. "Really, it is most distressing to think that we shall very soon draw ten thousand pounds!" he added mockingly, whereat the two women laughed gaily, for the coup so elaborately prepared had at last been brought off!