They all professed to be as mystified as ourselves now over the
outcome of the whole affair. He had not come back and there had
been no word from him.
"One thing is certain," remarked Craig, watching the faces before
him as he spoke. "Inez is gone. She has been spirited away without
even leaving a trace. Her maid Juanita told me that. Now if
Whitney is gone, too, it looks as if he had planned to double-
cross the whole crowd of you and leave you safely marooned up here
with nothing left but your common hatred of me. Much good may it
do you."
Lockwood clenched his fists savagely, not at Kennedy but at the
thought that Craig had suggested. His face set itself in tense
lines as he swore vengeance on all jointly and severally if any
harm came to Inez. I almost forgot my suspicions of him in
admiration.
"Nothing like this would ever have happened if she had stayed in
Peru," exclaimed Alfonso bitterly. "Oh, why did her father ever
bring her here to this land of danger?"
The idea seemed novel to me to look on America as a lawless,
uncultured country, until I reflected on the usual Latin-American
opinion of us as barbarians.
Lockwood frowned but said nothing, for a time. Then he turned
suddenly to the Senora, "You were intimate enough with him," he
said.
Pages:
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272