"It happens to be the truth," said Hughes. "The American has
confessed as much to me."
"Then," said Bray to me, and his little blinking eyes were on me
with a narrow calculating glance that sent the shivers up and down
my spine, "you are under arrest. I have exempted you so far because
of your friend at the United States Consulate. That exemption ends
now."
I was thunderstruck. I turned to the colonel, the man who had
suggested that I seek him out if I needed a friend--the man I had
looked to to save me from just such a contingency as this. But his
eyes were quite fishy and unsympathetic.
"Quite correct, Inspector," he said. "Lock him up!" And as I began
to protest he passed very close to me and spoke in a low voice: "Say
nothing. Wait!"
I pleaded to be allowed to go back to my rooms, to communicate with
my friends, and pay a visit to our consulate and to the Embassy; and
at the colonel's suggestion Bray agreed to this somewhat irregular
course. So this afternoon I have been abroad with a constable, and
while I wrote this long letter to you he has been fidgeting in my
easy chair. Now he informs me that his patience is exhausted and
that I must go at once. So there is no time to wonder; no time to
speculate as to the future, as to the colonel's sudden turn against
me or the promise of his whisper in my ear.
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