Why
had the masterful Eurasian retired to that retreat in company with his
black servitor? I thought of my own case, but it did not seem to
afford a strict analogy.
Then, who was the "niece" so closely guarded by Dr. Greefe? And if she
was none other than my late elegant visitor why had she sought the
interview? Not even my natural modesty, which in such matters I have
sometimes thought to be excessive, could conceal from me the fact that
she had found my society pleasing. But, since I had never seen her
before, did this theory account for her visit? Recalling again that
huskily caressing voice, I asked myself the question: _Had_ I seen her
before?
Perhaps the apparition of green eyes looking up to my window from the
lane below, which on the night of my arrival I had relegated to the
limbo of dreamland, had been verity and not phantasm. If that were so,
then the uncanny visitant to my cottage had pursued me to Upper
Crossleys!
Or could it be the fact that she had preceded me? Perhaps Gatton had
not confided the whole of his ideas to me--perhaps, as I had already
suspected, the heart of "the _Oritoga_ mystery" lay here and not in
London.
The result of my meditations was that I determined, in pursuit of my
original plan, first to call upon Mr. Edward Hines; and having
inquired of Martin the way to Leeways Farm, I took my stick and set
out.
CHAPTER XVI
THE GOLDEN CAT
It was a perfect morning and although the sun had not yet attained to
its full power it had dispersed the early mist and I knew that in
another hour or less the heat would once more have become tropical.
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