"Not in so many words," rejoined Mrs. Jarsell deliberately, "but I can guess why you want my assistance, Mr. Vincent will give you a machine if I ask him."
"Oh, Eliza, you must," put in Miss Armour quickly. "Vincent will do anything for you, since you have helped him so much with money."
"I shall be delighted to help," said Mrs. Jarsell, in her quiet, slow manner; "you shall have the machine, Mr. Halliday, and I hope you will win the race and marry Miss Moon. But you are a bold man to offer to wed an heiress on £2,000. Don't you want more money?"
"I want heaps and heaps," said Dan laughing, "but I have no chance of getting it. However, two thousand will do to start with. Lillian--Miss Moon, that is--loves me well enough to marry me at once, even on the prize given by _The Moment_."
"Well, Eliza, will get you the machine, that is certain, Mr. Halliday. As to the rest, I have no doubt you will be successful and win the money; but you must have much more in order to marry Miss Moon, since I can see that you are much too honorable a man to live on her millions. The cards"--Miss Armour hastily put away her knitting and took a small box from a drawer in the tiny table which stood at her elbow--"my patience cards, Mr. Halliday, for you know, having few amusements, I am devoted to the game. Also I can tell fortunes. I shall tell yours," and she opened the box to take out two packs of cards.
"Dan isn't superstitious," laughed Freddy, and approached with Mildred.
"I don't know," said Halliday gravely. "I have known cases----"
"Well, have your fortune told now," broke in Mrs. Jarsell, going to the door, "it will amuse Miss Armour to reveal your future while I see about the tea. I am sure you young people must be hungry."
"But I haven't thanked you for your promise to get me the machine."
Mrs. Jarsell nodded in a friendly manner. "When you win the race and marry the young lady, you can thank me," she said, with ponderous playfulness. "Miss Armour will tell you if the Fates will be kind to you in both respects," and she disappeared to get the tea, or rather to instruct the red-robed servant to bring it in.
Meanwhile, Miss Armour, her mild face quite flushed with excitement, was spreading out the cards after Dan had shuffled them. She used only one pack, and Freddy looked on at the disposition of the colored oblongs with the deepest interest. Dan idly took up the unused pack, and the moment he brought them near his eyes to examine them, he became aware that there clung to them the same mysterious scent which Penn had stated came from Sumatra. New as he was to the detective business, he yet had enough sense to suppress his excitement at this discovery. Seeing that the ex-secretary had stated very positively that no one but himself in England possessed the perfume, it was strange indeed, that Dan should come across it in these wilds, and connected with the personal possessions of a harmless old lady, confined to her chair by partial paralysis. In spite of his coolness, he was so thunderstruck that he could scarcely stammer a reply to Miss Armour, when she asked him if his colored-card was clubs or spades. She saw his confusion immediately.