And that man was
still a shadow to her! So little did she know of him that she was even
ignorant at that moment of his place of abode.
She rose and paced the room with the noiseless, negligent grace of a
wild creature of the forest in its cage. "How can I reach him in
the dark?" she said to herself. "How can I find out--?" She stopped
suddenly. Before the question had shaped itself to an end in her
thoughts, Captain Wragge was back in her mind again.
A man well used to working in the dark; a man with endless resources
of audacity and cunning; a man who would hesitate at no mean employment
that could be offered to him, if it was employment that filled his
pockets--was this the instrument for which, in its present need, her
hand was waiting? Two of the necessities to be met, before she could
take a single step in advance, were plainly present to her--the
necessity of knowing more of her father's brother than she knew now;
and the necessity of throwing him off his guard by concealing herself
personally during the process of inquiry. Resolutely self-dependent as
she was, the inevitable spy's work at the outset must be work delegated
to another. In her position, was there any ready human creature within
reach but the vagabond downstairs? Not one.
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