The Traitor's Gate by Edgar Wallace — Read

FIFTY THOUSAND POUNDS! She tried to flog up her enthusiasm for the project. Kishlastan had been generous, but he had always displayed evidence of weariness. He was a man without stamina, and now that he had found another and a more splendid vengeance on the people who had humiliated him, that source of income would dry up. The right or wrong of the deed she was to further did not bother Diana. She was chiefly concerned with the safety or danger of it. She had a vague, uneasy consciousness of a crime called "high treason," for which the penalties were devastating. And yet--her part was such a small one, and, true to his principles, Trayne would so carefully guard her that, at the worst, detection was very unlikely. On one thing she was determined. She would not see the book that Graham was reading nightly, nor allow herself to become acquainted with the details of the offence. Dick Hallowell--what unconscious part was he to play? The attempt had been fixed for the night he was on guard, and in a way she felt a malicious pleasure that he would be implicated. Dick would be furious if he ever came to hear of her little talk with the Colonel. She had scotched the marriage, at any rate.

Knowing something of his love for the regiment, she did not doubt that when he had to choose between this unknown girl with whom he had become infatuated, and his continuance with the battalion, he would choose for his career. An idea struck her, and, sitting down at her table, she wrote a little note, addressed it to Lieutenant R. H. Longfellow, and dispatched it to the Tower by special messenger. Perhaps Bobbie would not come. But she had known him in his Eton days and he had always been very nice to her. She wanted badly to get the atmosphere of the Tower; to discover just how Dick Hallowell felt towards her; and when, at four o'clock that afternoon, Dombret came in and announced the young officer, she greeted him with a warmth that was rather staggering to Bobbie Longfellow. He was not quite at his ease: she saw that at a glance, and it was not a hopeful sign. Bobbie was like a man caught in a furtive act, was stammering and apologetic for not having seen her for so long, and in the first breath announced that he had an engagement at five o'clock--an engagement which she guessed was wholly imaginary.