This man, whom he knew from
Camilla's own story to be curiously deficient in ordinary human
sentiments, had arranged a sham suicide for the benefit of the general
public. He had let Hugo into the secret of that deception, but only to
cheat him with another deception, and a more monstrous one. The brain
that could conceive the fiction of suicide in the vault--a fiction
which, while lulling Hugo into a false security as regards Camilla's
safety, at the same time poisoned his happiness--such a brain might be
capable of unimagined horrors. Sane or mad, the mere existence of that
brain was a menace before which Hugo trembled. He realized that Ravengar
had been consummately acting during the latter part of their interview
on the first day of the sale, and again consummately acting when he
spoke to Hugo on the telephone. Ravengar had, beyond doubt, deliberately
set himself to lure Camilla back to England, and he had succeeded.
Beyond doubt, all her movements had been spied and marked, and Ravengar
had been in a position to complete his arrangements--whatever his
arrangements were--at leisure and with absolute freedom. She had taken a
room in Horseferry Road, and he had followed.... What was the sequel to
be?
That she was in his power at that moment Hugo could not question.
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