Читать книгу The Ostrekoff Jewels онлайн

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"I am interested in that frontier incident," he observed. "The mob might naturally imagine, or their leaders might imagine, that you were bringing away papers of great importance in the satchels they wished to search. Knowing you to be a protégé and a close friend of the Prince's, they might even go so far as to imagine that you had stretched the bounds of diplomatic privileges and were taking Royalist property or communications out of the city."

"I have no means of knowing what was in their thoughts," Haven replied coldly. "I only know that they were a damned unpleasant crowd."

A somewhat curious silence reigned for a few minutes. From the stove upon the hearth came the roar and the sizzle of the pine logs and the occasional howling of the wind down the huge chimney. Alexis' footsteps upon the terrace were as monotonous as the ticking of a clock. There was no other sound. Each of the two men suddenly realised that he was being watched by the other. Patinsky, with a little start, leaned forward and poured more whisky into his glass.