CHAPTER XXVI.

THE WOMAN SPY.

“Juno again,” the detective had mused, when he heard that statement; but he did not say it aloud, although he did question the ambassador on one more point which the mention of her name had brought to his mind.

“Your letter to me implied that you had some reason to suspect Turnieff; if not of the theft itself, then of something. What was it, and why did you select him?” he asked.

“I do not suspect Turnieff, and I do not wish to be so understood. My belief in him is as thorough as it can be, and I would require positive proof to convince me of his disloyalty. Yet, Mr. Carter, in a case of this kind, one suspects everybody.”

“Well, go on, please. Tell me exactly why you mentioned him to me in your letter, in the manner you used; why you thought it necessary to write a special letter to me about it.”

“I had two reasons,” the ambassador replied, without hesitation. “I will give them to you exactly as they occurred to me.”

“Please.”

“There is no one in this household who is so near to me in a confidential capacity as Turnieff—not even my secretary. I have always, ever since he has been with me, intended to employ him as one of the messengers, when the time should come to send the documents to my august master.”

“Well?”

“It has been necessary that one member of my household should know that I had a secret mission, in addition to my regular one. Turnieff does not know, has not known, and would never know until after its completion, what that mission is. But he does know what the name of the country is which you and I have designated by the name of Siam. Now, that is one point, and it is every bit as far as it goes. It would break Turnieff’s heart if he believed that I had suggested that much about him.”

“But there is more?”

“Yes; on an entirely different basis.”

“Well, what is it?”

“It refers to that woman who has purchased the title, or has married it, or has procured it in some way that makes it hers, and gives her a right to use it—Countess Narnine.”

“Juno,” said Nick.

“Yes. That is the first name she claims. I never heard that it is hers, more than many of the others she has made use of in the past.”

“In what way do you associate Turnieff with her? Why should any association with her by him give rise to suspicion against him?”

“I have said that it does not amount to suspicion against him; only that I must search in every direction around me, Mr. Carter.”

“Yes. I understand.”

“Well, I will speak of the woman first before I refer to him in connection with her.”

“Very well.”

“Once upon a time, to my certain knowledge, that woman served Russia in the capacity of secret agent. On that occasion she was sent to Paris, in company with the father of Turnieff. There were strange things that happened there. The woman evidently sold out to others, although it could never be established that she did so—and actually she finally succeeded in proving the charge against another. You may rest assured that that other person died very suddenly—as she would have done, had she not established her innocence.”

“I don’t go in for assassination, prince.”

“Nor I. But sudden deaths happen frequently among traitors in the secret-agent business, nevertheless. The woman has been in the service of other countries since then, we have reason to think, although we do not know it. Just now she appears to have somehow succeeded to great wealth, and to be living on her income, which seems large. There is not a thing or a circumstance to disprove that view. Nevertheless, she is here, and there is no reason on earth why she should be here, unless it is in the interests of Siam.”

“Well?”

“She is cleverer than the cleverest. She is almost uncanny in her abilities and profound astuteness. While I haven’t a thing to bear me out in what I say, I haven’t a doubt on earth that she is, at this moment, a Siamese spy.”

“And as such——”

“Wait; I haven’t quite got to that yet. During that Paris experience of hers, to which I just now referred, when she was an aid to my friend Alexis Turnieff, the father of my military aide, he was killed. It was said that he shot himself. Circumstances surrounding the affair upheld that view of the matter; but those who knew the man personally knew then, and know now, that he was not the man to have taken his own life. He was the soul of honor and uprightness. A large fortune in cash and jewels disappeared at the time of his death, and was stolen—if it can be said that things are stolen when they are taken by the people to whom they really belong.

“But that money and the jewels had been forfeited to the throne. Ah, well! That is political history, and has nothing to do with the things I am telling you; only I wished to say that the jewels and money probably found its way to just the hands where Russia did not wish it to go.

“Now, Mr. Carter, I have always believed, and I believe now, that ‘The Leopard’ caused the death of Prince Turnieff, if she did not actually shoot him herself—and I more than half believe that.”

“And you are attempting to tell me that young Turnieff believes that view of the case also.”

“I am attempting to tell you more than that. What I started to say was that ever since Countess Narnine appeared here, Turnieff has been a devotee at her shrine. He has fluttered around her like a moth around a candle flame. He has been in her train constantly. He goes nightly to her house; or, when he is not there, he is an attendant at functions where he knows she will be present.”

“Do you mean to tell me that he is in love with her?”

“No; not unless love and hate are akin. He is bent on vengeance for the untimely death of his father. That is why he pursues her.”

“Then how do you find a cause for suspicion against him in this matter, because of his intimacy with the countess?”

“Ah; there you have me again. I do not know. I cannot answer that question save in a most general way.”

“Well, in a general way, then.”

“I know that woman’s possibilities; I know her capabilities—or at least some of them. Wherever she is concerned, I am afraid; not for myself, for I think I am above and beyond her wiles; but for others.”

“Just what do you mean to imply, prince?”

“That Turnieff would be as clay in her hands, if she chose to exert herself against him; that she would play with him as a tigress might play with a tiny mouse—or as her namesake, the leopard, might toy with a kitten. With her, he is as a child in the hands of a giant.”

“Still I do not see——”

“No, nor do I. But I have heard it said that she has great powers of fascination; that strong men have gone down beneath her wiles; that she molds men as potters mold clay. May it not be that she has found a way to mold him, and to turn him into a traitor to me and to his emperor?”

“That is going rather far, isn’t it, prince?”

“Yes; too far. I admit that. But I try to look on every side. Mr. Carter, I would like to make a suggestion, if you will permit it. I have said that you should go your own way entirely about this case, but all the same there is one suggestion that I would like to make.”

“What is it? Make it by all means.”

“Go and see that woman. Manage to be introduced to her in such a way that she will be forced to receive you. Interest her. Study her. Try to read her. Try to fathom the unsounded depths of her. Then come to me and tell me about her.”

“You seem to have entire confidence that I may not become one of her many victims,” the detective remarked, with a smile.

“I had not thought of it; really. It had not occurred to me. Perhaps, after all, you had best keep away from her.”

The detective laughed outright.

“I observe, prince, that you do fear her. But I think that you need have no fear for me. I will confess to you that I have already seen her and know her. I have met her and talked with her, twice, in fact.”

“You have?”

“Yes; once in this country, when she happened to be a Mrs. Ledger Dinwiddie; once again in Paris—after that. But the fact remains that I can claim an old acquaintanceship with her, and that I do not think she will be inclined to deny it to me.”

“Ah! That is good—perhaps.”

“I think it is very good; for I entirely agree with you that she is in this city in the interests of Siam; that she has been sent here to discover your secrets; that she, and not the Delormes, husband and wife, engineered the theft of those papers—and that now she will be more eager than ever to get possession of the other half of them.”

“Then you will seek her?”

“I will.”

“Beware of her, Mr. Carter.”

“Forewarned is forearmed, you know, prince,” laughed the detective. “But that reminds me of something that I must say to you on that point.”

“Well?”

“I know the habits of you gentlemen, when a man like myself is engaged in your service. You have one of your regular spies watch that man. I will have none of that, prince. If I discover that it is done in my case—and I shall discover it if it is done—I will throw up your case on the instant, and have nothing more to do with it.”

“It shall not be done, Mr. Carter, I promise you.”

“Another thing: If you should get reports from any person that I seem to be worshiping at the shrine of the countess, along with Turnieff, you are to understand that it is a part of the game, and that I am doing it with my eyes wide open, although they may have the appearance of being closed all the time.”

“I will understand.”

“In the meantime let Turnieff continue as he has started out. Let him have his head and go as far as he likes. I may use him as a foil in what I intend to do.”

“But you are going to probe into the life of that woman; eh?”

“Yes; and so deeply that she will wince. So thoroughly that if she stole those documents we will recover possession of them; and that, too, very soon.”

“I wish I could be assured of that, Mr. Carter.”