he had
served the eccentric friend and employer with whose interests he had been
associated more or less since his twenty-fifth year.

How disgusting would seem to Anita the inside history of the _Monarchic_
episode, upon which he had rather prided himself until love for her had
begun making subtle changes in his view of life. He and old Paul Van
Vreck had laughed together at the patent lock on which the agent
depended--a lock invented by the retired member of the firm himself,
and followed by a second invention, even more clever: a little instrument
designed to open a door in spite of it.

There had been the drug, too, which leaving no odour behind, had the same
effect as chloroform, and "took" even more quickly. Paul Van Vreck had
read of certain experiments made by a professor of chemistry in Tours,
had gone to France to see the man, had bought the formula, which had not
yet proved itself entirely successful; had added an ingredient on his own
account, and triumphed.

These parts of the complicated and well-fitting scheme had seemed
deliciously amusing to Knight in those days; that Van Vreck should use
his secret skill against his own brothers and nephews in the business
he had made; that the great expert should add to his fortune by stealing
from his own firm, or rather, from the great insurance company who would
repay their losses; that in such ways, with such money, he could add
treasures to his famous collection, practically at no expense to himself,
and have besides the exquisite pleasure of laughing in his sleeve at the
world.

It had all added zest to the work. And Knight had been pleased with some
small inventions of his own, praised by Van Vreck: a smart hiding-place
in the heel of a boot, almost impossible to detect, and another equally
convenient and invisible in the jet standard of Madalena de Santiago's
famous crystal. He had enjoyed the excitement when he and Madalena and
their two assistants, among the other passengers on board ship, had
consented to be searched for the missing jewels. And he had laughed
sneeringly at the credulity of those who believed in Madalena's
trumped-up vision "of the small fair man," the lighted life-preserver
dropped into the sea at night, and the yacht which sent out a boat to
pick it up.

For that other vision her crystal had supplied after the robbery in
Portman Square he was not responsible; but it was he who had suggested
the "pictures" for her to see on shipboard.