The colonel thought there was something vaguely familiar about the figure, but he was not certain.He tried to get near enough to her, in a casual walk up and down the deck, to view her countenance, but, either by accident or design, she turned away and looked over the rail.He was close enough, however, to note that the shawl was of fine texture and of apeculiar pattern.
Retiring again to his corner in the stern of the boat, and noting that the woman kept her place there, Colonel Ashley waited in patience.And he had his reward.
The Allawanrda was whistling to tell the deck hands to cast off the mooring ropes, when LeGrand Blossom came running down the inclined gangway and got on board.He seemed in a hurry and excited, and, apparently unaware of the presence of the detective in the dark corner, he went directly to the woman in the shawl.The boat began to move from her slip.
"Did you think I was never coming?" asked LeGrand Blossom.
"No, I was detained," the woman answered, and at the sound of her voice Colonel Ashley started and uttered a smothered exclamation."I but just arrived," the woman went on."Did you bring it?""Hush!Yes.Not so loud.Some one may hear you.""There is no one here.One man, with a heavy beard, passed by me as I came on board.At first I thought it was you, disguised, but when I saw it was not I kept to myself.There is no one here.""I hope not," murmured LeGrand Blossom, as he looked cautiously around.The after deck was but dimly lighted.
For a time the woman and man talked in tones so low that the detective could hear nothing, and he dared not leave his hidden corner to come closer.
But, just as the Allawanda was nearing her slip on the other side, the man spoke in louder tones."And so we come to the end!" he said.
"No, please don't say that!" begged the woman.
"I must," Blossom answered."We can't go on this way any longer.Here is what I promised you.It is all I can raise, and I had a hard time doing that.Every one is suspicious, and that detective is all eyes and ears.It is the best I can do.You must not bother me any more."The lights from a passing boat fell on the couple as they stood close to the rail, and, from his vantage point in the darkness, the colonel saw LeGrand Blossom hand the woman in the shawl a package.She took it eagerly, and thrust it into her bosom.Then, turning to the man, shesaidreproachfully:
"You say this is the end.Then you don't love me any more?" LeGrand Blossom did not answer for a moment.
"You don't - do you?" the woman insisted."No," was the slow reply."I might as well be brutally frank about it, and say I don't.And you don't care either.""Oh, I do!I do!" she eagerly protested.
"No, you only think you do.It is better for both of us to have it end this way.But let us make sure that it is an end.There must be no more of it.I have given you all I can.You must go away as you promised.""Yes, I suppose I must," and her voice was broken."Oh, I wish I had never met you!""Perhaps it would have been better that way," was Blossom's cold response."However, it's too late for that now.Good-bye," he added, as the boat was grating her way along the Loch Harbor slip."I'm not going to get off.Don't telephone me again.This is all I can ever give you.""Oh, yes, I suppose, now you've finished, you can get rid of me.Well, let it be so," she said bitterly.And then, as the boat bumped to a landing she cried: "If I could only find - "But the rattle of the chains and the clatter of the wheels on the ferry bridge drowned her voice.She rushed away from LeGrand Blossoms's side and, clutching her shawl close around her as if to make sure of the package the man had given her, she disappeared into the interior of the ferryboat.
Colonel Ashley started to follow, but as LeGrand Blossom remained on board he decided to watch him instead of the woman, though he was vaguely disquieted trying to remember where he had heard her voice before.
