The Golden Bat by Fred M. White — Read

For the first time for some days, Ray felt himself justified in taking an hour or two off and devoting that opportunity to his own more or less private affairs. In the first place, he was particularly anxious to see Angela again, and that for more reasons than one. But he was not going to call at Silverdale Mansions. He might have done so but for his conversation with Cranston a little earlier in the day. On the occasion of his visit to Silverdale Mansions he had used his eyes to the best advantage and had been no less suspicious because he already had some sort of a grip on the character of the man he was approaching. And, therefore, when he had found himself confronted at the door of the flat by the butler, he had taken a swift mental photograph of that individual. And, sooth to say, the impression on his mind had been anything but a favourable one. And now he knew, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that this same man Easton had been Keen's right hand man in all the former's rascalities on the other side of the world.

It would, therefore, be somewhat rash on his part if he called at the flat to see Angela and was confronted on the doorstep, as he would be, by Thomas Easton. He had gone there once merely as an enthusiastic amateur in entomology intent on imparting information to the great John Everard Moon himself, and there, apparently, the business had ended. He had no sort of pretext now for knocking at Keen's front door, and, perhaps, identifying himself with Scotland Yard. You never know how much these sort of people guessed, and the slightest slip might prove fatal to all his plans. So he would have to hang about in the neighbourhood, mostly in a bookseller's shop, under pretence of buying something, and keeping his eye open on the street. He knew that Angela had no friends, but on the other hand, he knew that, on most fine afternoons, she walked for an hour or so in Kensington Gardens, and on this fact he was proceeding. Then, after a delay of an hour or so, his patience was rewarded. He saw Angela pass the shop, and followed her at a discreet distance until she reached one of her favourite spots in the gardens, and sat down. It was rather a secluded corner, and, anyhow, Ray knew that he had not been followed.