Anna the Adventuress

Anna stepped back bewildered, but the man held out his arms to her.

"I tell you it was a lie!" he shouted wildly. "Can't you believe me? I

am Meysey Hill. I am the richest man in England. I am the richest man

in the world. You love money. You know you do, Annabel. Never mind,

I've got plenty. We'll go to the shops. Diamonds! You shall have all

that you can carry away, sacks full if you like. Pearls too! I mean

it. I tell you I'm Meysey Hill, the railway man. Don't leave me. Don't

leave me in this beastly thing. Annabel! Annabel!"

His voice became a shriek. In response to an almost imperative gesture

from the nurse, Anna laid her hand upon his. He fell back upon the

pillows with a little moan, clutching the slim white fingers fiercely.

In a moment his grasp grew weaker. The perspiration stood out upon his

forehead. His eyes closed.

Anna stepped back at once with a little gasp of relief. The hand which

the man had been holding hung limp and nerveless at her side. She held

it away from her with an instinctive repulsion, born of her

unconquerable antipathy to the touch of strangers. She began rubbing

it with her pocket-handkerchief. The man himself was not a pleasant

object. Part of his head was swathed in linen bandages. Such of his

features as were visible were of coarse mould. His eyes were set too

close together. Anna turned deliberately away from the bedside. She

followed the official back into his room.

"Well?" he asked her tersely.

"I can only repeat what I said before," she declared. "To the best of

my belief, I have never seen the man in my life."

"But he recognized you," the official objected.

"He fancied that he did," she corrected him coolly. "I suppose

delusions are not uncommon to patients in his condition."

The official frowned.

"Your name and address in his pocket was no delusion," he said

sharply. "I do not wish to make impertinent inquiries into your

private life. Nothing is of any concern of ours except the discovery

of the man's identity. He was picked up from amongst the wreckage of a

broken motor on the road to Versailles last night, and we have

information that a lady was with him only a few minutes before the

accident occurred."

"You are very unbelieving," Anna said coldly. "I hope you will not

compel me to say again that I do not know the man's name, nor, to the

best of my belief, have I ever seen him before in my life."

The official shrugged his shoulders.

"You decline to help us in any way, then," he said. "Remember that the

man will probably die. He had little money about him, and unless

friends come to his aid he must be treated as a pauper."