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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/2688-0.txt b/2688-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..89b21d0 --- /dev/null +++ b/2688-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8047 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Clue of the Twisted Candle, by Edgar Wallace + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Clue of the Twisted Candle + +Author: Edgar Wallace + +Posting Date: December 11, 2008 [EBook #2688] +Release Date: June, 2001 +Last Updated: March 16, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CLUE OF THE TWISTED CANDLE *** + + + + +Produced by An Anonymous Project Gutenberg Volunteer + + + + + +THE CLUE OF THE TWISTED CANDLE + +By Edgar Wallace + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +The 4.15 from Victoria to Lewes had been held up at Three Bridges in +consequence of a derailment and, though John Lexman was fortunate enough +to catch a belated connection to Beston Tracey, the wagonette which was +the sole communication between the village and the outside world had +gone. + +“If you can wait half an hour, Mr. Lexman,” said the station-master, “I +will telephone up to the village and get Briggs to come down for you.” + +John Lexman looked out upon the dripping landscape and shrugged his +shoulders. + +“I'll walk,” he said shortly and, leaving his bag in the +station-master's care and buttoning his mackintosh to his chin, he +stepped forth resolutely into the rain to negotiate the two miles which +separated the tiny railway station from Little Tracey. + +The downpour was incessant and likely to last through the night. +The high hedges on either side of the narrow road were so many leafy +cascades; the road itself was in places ankle deep in mud. He stopped +under the protecting cover of a big tree to fill and light his pipe and +with its bowl turned downwards continued his walk. But for the +driving rain which searched every crevice and found every chink in his +waterproof armor, he preferred, indeed welcomed, the walk. + +The road from Beston Tracey to Little Beston was associated in his mind +with some of the finest situations in his novels. It was on this road +that he had conceived “The Tilbury Mystery.” Between the station and the +house he had woven the plot which had made “Gregory Standish” the most +popular detective story of the year. For John Lexman was a maker of +cunning plots. + +If, in the literary world, he was regarded by superior persons as a +writer of “shockers,” he had a large and increasing public who were +fascinated by the wholesome and thrilling stories he wrote, and who +held on breathlessly to the skein of mystery until they came to the +denouement he had planned. + +But no thought of books, or plots, or stories filled his troubled mind +as he strode along the deserted road to Little Beston. He had had two +interviews in London, one of which under ordinary circumstances would +have filled him with joy: He had seen T. X. and “T. X.” was T. X. +Meredith, who would one day be Chief of the Criminal Investigation +Department and was now an Assistant Commissioner of Police, engaged in +the more delicate work of that department. + +In his erratic, tempestuous way, T. X. had suggested the greatest idea +for a plot that any author could desire. But it was not of T. X. that +John Lexman thought as he breasted the hill, on the slope of which was +the tiny habitation known by the somewhat magnificent title of Beston +Priory. + +It was the interview he had had with the Greek on the previous day which +filled his mind, and he frowned as he recalled it. He opened the little +wicket gate and went through the plantation to the house, doing his +best to shake off the recollection of the remarkable and unedifying +discussion he had had with the moneylender. + +Beston Priory was little more than a cottage, though one of its walls +was an indubitable relic of that establishment which a pious Howard had +erected in the thirteenth century. A small and unpretentious building, +built in the Elizabethan style with quaint gables and high chimneys, +its latticed windows and sunken gardens, its rosary and its tiny meadow, +gave it a certain manorial completeness which was a source of great +pride to its owner. + +He passed under the thatched porch, and stood for a moment in the broad +hallway as he stripped his drenching mackintosh. + +The hall was in darkness. Grace would probably be changing for dinner, +and he decided that in his present mood he would not disturb her. He +passed through the long passage which led to the big study at the back +of the house. A fire burnt redly in the old-fashioned grate and the snug +comfort of the room brought a sense of ease and relief. He changed his +shoes, and lit the table lamp. + +The room was obviously a man's den. The leather-covered chairs, the big +and well-filled bookcase which covered one wall of the room, the +huge, solid-oak writing-desk, covered with books and half-finished +manuscripts, spoke unmistakably of its owner's occupation. + +After he had changed his shoes, he refilled his pipe, walked over to the +fire, and stood looking down into its glowing heart. + +He was a man a little above medium height, slimly built, with a breadth +of shoulder which was suggestive of the athlete. He had indeed rowed 4 +in his boat, and had fought his way into the semi-finals of the +amateur boxing championship of England. His face was strong, lean, yet +well-moulded. His eyes were grey and deep, his eyebrows straight and a +little forbidding. The clean-shaven mouth was big and generous, and the +healthy tan of his cheek told of a life lived in the open air. + +There was nothing of the recluse or the student in his appearance. He +was in fact a typical, healthy-looking Britisher, very much like any +other man of his class whom one would meet in the mess-room of the +British army, in the wardrooms of the fleet, or in the far-off posts of +the Empire, where the administrative cogs of the great machine are to be +seen at work. + +There was a little tap at the door, and before he could say “Come in” it +was pushed open and Grace Lexman entered. + +If you described her as brave and sweet you might secure from that brief +description both her manner and her charm. He half crossed the room to +meet her, and kissed her tenderly. + +“I didn't know you were back until--” she said; linking her arm in his. + +“Until you saw the horrible mess my mackintosh has made,” he smiled. “I +know your methods, Watson!” + +She laughed, but became serious again. + +“I am very glad you've come back. We have a visitor,” she said. + +He raised his eyebrows. + +“A visitor? Whoever came down on a day like this?” + +She looked at him a little strangely. + +“Mr. Kara,” she said. + +“Kara? How long has he been here?” + +“He came at four.” + +There was nothing enthusiastic in her tone. + +“I can't understand why you don't like old Kara,” rallied her husband. + +“There are very many reasons,” she replied, a little curtly for her. + +“Anyway,” said John Lexman, after a moment's thought, “his arrival is +rather opportune. Where is he?” + +“He is in the drawing-room.” + +The Priory drawing-room was a low-ceilinged, rambling apartment, +“all old print and chrysanthemums,” to use Lexman's description. Cosy +armchairs, a grand piano, an almost medieval open grate, faced with +dull-green tiles, a well-worn but cheerful carpet and two big silver +candelabras were the principal features which attracted the newcomer. + +There was in this room a harmony, a quiet order and a soothing quality +which made it a haven of rest to a literary man with jagged nerves. Two +big bronze bowls were filled with early violets, another blazed like a +pale sun with primroses, and the early woodland flowers filled the room +with a faint fragrance. + +A man rose to his feet, as John Lexman entered and crossed the room with +an easy carriage. He was a man possessed of singular beauty of face and +of figure. Half a head taller than the author, he carried himself with +such a grace as to conceal his height. + +“I missed you in town,” he said, “so I thought I'd run down on the off +chance of seeing you.” + +He spoke in the well-modulated tone of one who had had a long +acquaintance with the public schools and universities of England. There +was no trace of any foreign accent, yet Remington Kara was a Greek and +had been born and partly educated in the more turbulent area of Albania. + +The two men shook hands warmly. + +“You'll stay to dinner?” + +Kara glanced round with a smile at Grace Lexman. She sat uncomfortably +upright, her hands loosely folded on her lap, her face devoid of +encouragement. + +“If Mrs. Lexman doesn't object,” said the Greek. + +“I should be pleased, if you would,” she said, almost mechanically; “it +is a horrid night and you won't get anything worth eating this side of +London and I doubt very much,” she smiled a little, “if the meal I can +give you will be worthy of that description.” + +“What you can give me will be more than sufficient,” he said, with a +little bow, and turned to her husband. + +In a few minutes they were deep in a discussion of books and places, and +Grace seized the opportunity to make her escape. From books in general +to Lexman's books in particular the conversation flowed. + +“I've read every one of them, you know,” said Kara. + +John made a little face. “Poor devil,” he said sardonically. + +“On the contrary,” said Kara, “I am not to be pitied. There is a great +criminal lost in you, Lexman.” + +“Thank you,” said John. + +“I am not being uncomplimentary, am I?” smiled the Greek. “I am merely +referring to the ingenuity of your plots. Sometimes your books baffle +and annoy me. If I cannot see the solution of your mysteries before the +book is half through, it angers me a little. Of course in the majority +of cases I know the solution before I have reached the fifth chapter.” + +John looked at him in surprise and was somewhat piqued. + +“I flatter myself it is impossible to tell how my stories will end until +the last chapter,” he said. + +Kara nodded. + +“That would be so in the case of the average reader, but you forget that +I am a student. I follow every little thread of the clue which you leave +exposed.” + +“You should meet T. X.,” said John, with a laugh, as he rose from his +chair to poke the fire. + +“T. X.?” + +“T. X. Meredith. He is the most ingenious beggar you could meet. We were +at Caius together, and he is by way of being a great pal of mine. He is +in the Criminal Investigation Department.” + +Kara nodded. There was the light of interest in his eyes and he would +have pursued the discussion further, but at the moment dinner was +announced. + +It was not a particularly cheerful meal because Grace did not as usual +join in the conversation, and it was left to Kara and to her husband +to supply the deficiencies. She was experiencing a curious sense of +depression, a premonition of evil which she could not define. Again and +again in the course of the dinner she took her mind back to the events +of the day to discover the reason for her unease. + +Usually when she adopted this method she came upon the trivial causes +in which apprehension was born, but now she was puzzled to find that a +solution was denied her. Her letters of the morning had been pleasant, +neither the house nor the servants had given her any trouble. She was +well herself, and though she knew John had a little money trouble, +since his unfortunate speculation in Roumanian gold shares, and she half +suspected that he had had to borrow money to make good his losses, yet +his prospects were so excellent and the success of his last book +so promising that she, probably seeing with a clearer vision the +unimportance of those money worries, was less concerned about the +problem than he. + +“You will have your coffee in the study, I suppose,” said Grace, “and +I know you'll excuse me; I have to see Mrs. Chandler on the mundane +subject of laundry.” + +She favoured Kara with a little nod as she left the room and touched +John's shoulder lightly with her hand in passing. + +Kara's eyes followed her graceful figure until she was out of view, +then: + +“I want to see you, Kara,” said John Lexman, “if you will give me five +minutes.” + +“You can have five hours, if you like,” said the other, easily. + +They went into the study together; the maid brought the coffee +and liqueur, and placed them on a little table near the fire and +disappeared. + +For a time the conversation was general. Kara, who was a frank admirer +of the comfort of the room and who lamented his own inability to secure +with money the cosiness which John had obtained at little cost, went on +a foraging expedition whilst his host applied himself to a proof which +needed correcting. + +“I suppose it is impossible for you to have electric light here,” Kara +asked. + +“Quite,” replied the other. + +“Why?” + +“I rather like the light of this lamp.” + +“It isn't the lamp,” drawled the Greek and made a little grimace; “I +hate these candles.” + +He waved his hand to the mantle-shelf where the six tall, white, waxen +candles stood out from two wall sconces. + +“Why on earth do you hate candles?” asked the other in surprise. + +Kara made no reply for the moment, but shrugged his shoulders. Presently +he spoke. + +“If you were ever tied down to a chair and by the side of that chair was +a small keg of black powder and stuck in that powder was a small candle +that burnt lower and lower every minute--my God!” + +John was amazed to see the perspiration stand upon the forehead of his +guest. + +“That sounds thrilling,” he said. + +The Greek wiped his forehead with a silk handkerchief and his hand shook +a little. + +“It was something more than thrilling,” he said. + +“And when did this occur?” asked the author curiously. + +“In Albania,” replied the other; “it was many years ago, but the devils +are always sending me reminders of the fact.” + +He did not attempt to explain who the devils were or under what +circumstances he was brought to this unhappy pass, but changed the +subject definitely. + +Sauntering round the cosy room he followed the bookshelf which filled +one wall and stopped now and again to examine some title. Presently he +drew forth a stout volume. + +“'Wild Brazil',” he read, “by George Gathercole-do you know Gathercole?” + +John was filling his pipe from a big blue jar on his desk and nodded. + +“Met him once--a taciturn devil. Very short of speech and, like all men +who have seen and done things, less inclined to talk about himself than +any man I know.” + +Kara looked at the book with a thoughtful pucker of brow and turned the +leaves idly. + +“I've never seen him,” he said as he replaced the book, “yet, in a +sense, his new journey is on my behalf.” + +The other man looked up. + +“On your behalf?” + +“Yes--you know he has gone to Patagonia for me. He believes there is +gold there--you will learn as much from his book on the mountain systems +of South America. I was interested in his theories and corresponded +with him. As a result of that correspondence he undertook to make a +geological survey for me. I sent him money for his expenses, and he went +off.” + +“You never saw him?” asked John Lexman, surprised. + +Kara shook his head. + +“That was not--?” began his host. + +“Not like me, you were going to say. Frankly, it was not, but then I +realized that he was an unusual kind of man. I invited him to dine with +me before he left London, and in reply received a wire from Southampton +intimating that he was already on his way.” + +Lexman nodded. + +“It must be an awfully interesting kind of life,” he said. “I suppose he +will be away for quite a long time?” + +“Three years,” said Kara, continuing his examination of the bookshelf. + +“I envy those fellows who run round the world writing books,” said John, +puffing reflectively at his pipe. “They have all the best of it.” + +Kara turned. He stood immediately behind the author and the other +could not see his face. There was, however, in his voice an unusual +earnestness and an unusual quiet vehemence. + +“What have you to complain about!” he asked, with that little drawl of +his. “You have your own creative work--the most fascinating branch of +labour that comes to a man. He, poor beggar, is bound to actualities. +You have the full range of all the worlds which your imagination +gives to you. You can create men and destroy them, call into existence +fascinating problems, mystify and baffle ten or twenty thousand people, +and then, at a word, elucidate your mystery.” + +John laughed. + +“There is something in that,” he said. + +“As for the rest of your life,” Kara went on in a lower voice, “I think +you have that which makes life worth living--an incomparable wife.” + +Lexman swung round in his chair, and met the other's gaze, and there was +something in the set of the other's handsome face which took his breath +away. + +“I do not see--” he began. + +Kara smiled. + +“That was an impertinence, wasn't it!” he said, banteringly. “But then +you mustn't forget, my dear man, that I was very anxious to marry your +wife. I don't suppose it is secret. And when I lost her, I had ideas +about you which are not pleasant to recall.” + +He had recovered his self-possession and had continued his aimless +stroll about the room. + +“You must remember I am a Greek, and the modern Greek is no philosopher. +You must remember, too, that I am a petted child of fortune, and have +had everything I wanted since I was a baby.” + +“You are a fortunate devil,” said the other, turning back to his desk, +and taking up his pen. + +For a moment Kara did not speak, then he made as though he would say +something, checked himself, and laughed. + +“I wonder if I am,” he said. + +And now he spoke with a sudden energy. + +“What is this trouble you are having with Vassalaro?” + +John rose from his chair and walked over to the fire, stood gazing down +into its depths, his legs wide apart, his hands clasped behind him, and +Kara took his attitude to supply an answer to the question. + +“I warned you against Vassalaro,” he said, stooping by the other's side +to light his cigar with a spill of paper. “My dear Lexman, my fellow +countrymen are unpleasant people to deal with in certain moods.” + +“He was so obliging at first,” said Lexman, half to himself. + +“And now he is so disobliging,” drawled Kara. “That is a way which +moneylenders have, my dear man; you were very foolish to go to him at +all. I could have lent you the money.” + +“There were reasons why I should not borrow money from you,”, said John, +quietly, “and I think you yourself have supplied the principal reason +when you told me just now, what I already knew, that you wanted to marry +Grace.” + +“How much is the amount?” asked Kara, examining his well-manicured +finger-nails. + +“Two thousand five hundred pounds,” replied John, with a short laugh, +“and I haven't two thousand five hundred shillings at this moment.” + +“Will he wait?” + +John Lexman shrugged his shoulders. + +“Look here, Kara,” he said, suddenly, “don't think I want to reproach +you, but it was through you that I met Vassalaro so that you know the +kind of man he is.” + +Kara nodded. + +“Well, I can tell you he has been very unpleasant indeed,” said John, +with a frown, “I had an interview with him yesterday in London and it +is clear that he is going to make a lot of trouble. I depended upon the +success of my play in town giving me enough to pay him off, and I very +foolishly made a lot of promises of repayment which I have been unable +to keep.” + +“I see,” said Kara, and then, “does Mrs. Lexman know about this matter?” + +“A little,” said the other. + +He paced restlessly up and down the room, his hands behind him and his +chin upon his chest. + +“Naturally I have not told her the worst, or how beastly unpleasant the +man has been.” + +He stopped and turned. + +“Do you know he threatened to kill me?” he asked. + +Kara smiled. + +“I can tell you it was no laughing matter,” said the other, angrily, +“I nearly took the little whippersnapper by the scruff of the neck and +kicked him.” + +Kara dropped his hand on the other's arm. + +“I am not laughing at you,” he said; “I am laughing at the thought of +Vassalaro threatening to kill anybody. He is the biggest coward in the +world. What on earth induced him to take this drastic step?” + +“He said he is being hard pushed for money,” said the other, moodily, +“and it is possibly true. He was beside himself with anger and anxiety, +otherwise I might have given the little blackguard the thrashing he +deserved.” + +Kara who had continued his stroll came down the room and halted in front +of the fireplace looking at the young author with a paternal smile. + +“You don't understand Vassalaro,” he said; “I repeat he is the greatest +coward in the world. You will probably discover he is full of firearms +and threats of slaughter, but you have only to click a revolver to see +him collapse. Have you a revolver, by the way?” + +“Oh, nonsense,” said the other, roughly, “I cannot engage myself in that +kind of melodrama.” + +“It is not nonsense,” insisted the other, “when you are in Rome, et +cetera, and when you have to deal with a low-class Greek you must use +methods which will at least impress him. If you thrash him, he will +never forgive you and will probably stick a knife into you or your wife. +If you meet his melodrama with melodrama and at the psychological moment +produce your revolver; you will secure the effect you require. Have you +a revolver?” + +John went to his desk and, pulling open a drawer, took out a small +Browning. + +“That is the extent of my armory,” he said, “it has never been fired and +was sent to me by an unknown admirer last Christmas.” + +“A curious Christmas present,” said the other, examining the weapon. + +“I suppose the mistaken donor imagined from my books that I lived in +a veritable museum of revolvers, sword sticks and noxious drugs,” said +Lexman, recovering some of his good humour; “it was accompanied by a +card.” + +“Do you know how it works?” asked the other. + +“I have never troubled very much about it,” replied Lexman, “I know that +it is loaded by slipping back the cover, but as my admirer did not send +ammunition, I never even practised with it.” + +There was a knock at the door. + +“That is the post,” explained John. + +The maid had one letter on the salver and the author took it up with a +frown. + +“From Vassalaro,” he said, when the girl had left the room. + +The Greek took the letter in his hand and examined it. + +“He writes a vile fist,” was his only comment as he handed it back to +John. + +He slit open the thin, buff envelope and took out half a dozen sheets of +yellow paper, only a single sheet of which was written upon. The letter +was brief: + + “I must see you to-night without fail,” ran the scrawl; “meet me + at the crossroads between Beston Tracey and the Eastbourne + Road. I shall be there at eleven o'clock, and, if you want to + preserve your life, you had better bring me a substantial + instalment.” + +It was signed “Vassalaro.” + +John read the letter aloud. “He must be mad to write a letter like +that,” he said; “I'll meet the little devil and teach him such a lesson +in politeness as he is never likely to forget.” + +He handed the letter to the other and Kara read it in silence. + +“Better take your revolver,” he said as he handed it back. + +John Lexman looked at his watch. + +“I have an hour yet, but it will take me the best part of twenty minutes +to reach the Eastbourne Road.” + +“Will you see him?” asked Kara, in a tone of surprise. + +“Certainly,” Lexman replied emphatically: “I cannot have him coming up +to the house and making a scene and that is certainly what the little +beast will do.” + +“Will you pay him?” asked Kara softly. + +John made no answer. There was probably 10 pounds in the house and a +cheque which was due on the morrow would bring him another 30 pounds. +He looked at the letter again. It was written on paper of an unusual +texture. The surface was rough almost like blotting paper and in some +places the ink absorbed by the porous surface had run. The blank sheets +had evidently been inserted by a man in so violent a hurry that he had +not noticed the extravagance. + +“I shall keep this letter,” said John. + +“I think you are well advised. Vassalaro probably does not know that he +transgresses a law in writing threatening letters and that should be a +very strong weapon in your hand in certain eventualities.” + +There was a tiny safe in one corner of the study and this John opened +with a key which he took from his pocket. He pulled open one of the +steel drawers, took out the papers which were in it and put in their +place the letter, pushed the drawer to, and locked it. + +All the time Kara was watching him intently as one who found more than +an ordinary amount of interest in the novelty of the procedure. + +He took his leave soon afterwards. + +“I would like to come with you to your interesting meeting,” he said, +“but unfortunately I have business elsewhere. Let me enjoin you to take +your revolver and at the first sign of any bloodthirsty intention on the +part of my admirable compatriot, produce it and click it once or twice, +you won't have to do more.” + +Grace rose from the piano as Kara entered the little drawing-room and +murmured a few conventional expressions of regret that the visitor's +stay had been so short. That there was no sincerity in that regret Kara, +for one, had no doubt. He was a man singularly free from illusions. + +They stayed talking a little while. + +“I will see if your chauffeur is asleep,” said John, and went out of the +room. + +There was a little silence after he had gone. + +“I don't think you are very glad to see me,” said Kara. His frankness +was a little embarrassing to the girl and she flushed slightly. + +“I am always glad to see you, Mr. Kara, or any other of my husband's +friends,” she said steadily. + +He inclined his head. + +“To be a friend of your husband is something,” he said, and then as if +remembering something, “I wanted to take a book away with me--I wonder +if your husband would mind my getting it?” + +“I will find it for you.” + +“Don't let me bother you,” he protested, “I know my way.” + +Without waiting for her permission he left the girl with the unpleasant +feeling that he was taking rather much for granted. He was gone less +than a minute and returned with a book under his arm. + +“I have not asked Lexman's permission to take it,” he said, “but I am +rather interested in the author. Oh, here you are,” he turned to John +who came in at that moment. “Might I take this book on Mexico?” he +asked. “I will return it in the morning.” + +They stood at the door, watching the tail light of the motor disappear +down the drive; and returned in silence to the drawing room. + +“You look worried, dear,” she said, laying her hand on his shoulder. + +He smiled faintly. + +“Is it the money?” she asked anxiously. + +For a moment he was tempted to tell her of the letter. He stifled the +temptation realizing that she would not consent to his going out if she +knew the truth. + +“It is nothing very much,” he said. “I have to go down to Beston Tracey +to meet the last train. I am expecting some proofs down.” + +He hated lying to her, and even an innocuous lie of this character was +repugnant to him. + +“I'm afraid you have had a dull evening,” he said, “Kara was not very +amusing.” + +She looked at him thoughtfully. + +“He has not changed very much,” she said slowly. + +“He's a wonderfully handsome chap, isn't he?” he asked in a tone of +admiration. “I can't understand what you ever saw in a fellow like me, +when you had a man who was not only rich, but possibly the best-looking +man in the world.” + +She shivered a little. + +“I have seen a side of Mr. Kara that is not particularly beautiful,” she +said. “Oh, John, I am afraid of that man!” + +He looked at her in astonishment. + +“Afraid?” he asked. “Good heavens, Grace, what a thing to say! Why I +believe he'd do anything for you.” + +“That is exactly what I am afraid of,” she said in a low voice. + +She had a reason which she did not reveal. She had first met Remington +Kara in Salonika two years before. She had been doing a tour through the +Balkans with her father--it was the last tour the famous archeologist +made--and had met the man who was fated to have such an influence upon +her life at a dinner given by the American Consul. + +Many were the stories which were told about this Greek with his +Jove-like face, his handsome carriage and his limitless wealth. It +was said that his mother was an American lady who had been captured by +Albanian brigands and was sold to one of the Albanian chiefs who fell +in love with her, and for her sake became a Protestant. He had been +educated at Yale and at Oxford, and was known to be the possessor of +vast wealth, and was virtually king of a hill district forty miles out +of Durazzo. Here he reigned supreme, occupying a beautiful house which +he had built by an Italian architect, and the fittings and appointments +of which had been imported from the luxurious centres of the world. + +In Albania they called him “Kara Rumo,” which meant “The Black Roman,” + for no particular reason so far as any one could judge, for his skin was +as fair as a Saxon's, and his close-cropped curls were almost golden. + +He had fallen in love with Grace Terrell. At first his attentions had +amused her, and then there came a time when they frightened her, for the +man's fire and passion had been unmistakable. She had made it plain to +him that he could base no hopes upon her returning his love, and, in a +scene which she even now shuddered to recall, he had revealed something +of his wild and reckless nature. On the following day she did not see +him, but two days later, when returning through the Bazaar from a dance +which had been given by the Governor General, her carriage was stopped, +she was forcibly dragged from its interior, and her cries were stifled +with a cloth impregnated with a scent of a peculiar aromatic sweetness. +Her assailants were about to thrust her into another carriage, when a +party of British bluejackets who had been on leave came upon the scene, +and, without knowing anything of the nationality of the girl, had +rescued her. + +In her heart of hearts she did not doubt Kara's complicity in this +medieval attempt to gain a wife, but of this adventure she had told +her husband nothing. Until her marriage she was constantly receiving +valuable presents which she as constantly returned to the only address +she knew--Kara's estate at Lemazo. A few months after her marriage she +had learned through the newspapers that this “leader of Greek society” + had purchased a big house near Cadogan Square, and then, to her +amazement and to her dismay, Kara had scraped an acquaintance with her +husband even before the honeymoon was over. + +His visits had been happily few, but the growing intimacy between +John and this strange undisciplined man had been a source of constant +distress to her. + +Should she, at this, the eleventh hour, tell her husband all her fears +and her suspicions? + +She debated the point for some time. And never was she nearer taking him +into her complete confidence than she was as he sat in the big armchair +by the side of the piano, a little drawn of face, more than a little +absorbed in his own meditations. Had he been less worried she might have +spoken. As it was, she turned the conversation to his last work, the +big mystery story which, if it would not make his fortune, would mean a +considerable increase to his income. + +At a quarter to eleven he looked at his watch, and rose. She helped him +on with his coat. He stood for some time irresolutely. + +“Is there anything you have forgotten?” she asked. + +He asked himself whether he should follow Kara's advice. In any +circumstance it was not a pleasant thing to meet a ferocious little +man who had threatened his life, and to meet him unarmed was tempting +Providence. The whole thing was of course ridiculous, but it was +ridiculous that he should have borrowed, and it was ridiculous that the +borrowing should have been necessary, and yet he had speculated on the +best of advice--it was Kara's advice. + +The connection suddenly occurred to him, and yet Kara had not directly +suggested that he should buy Roumanian gold shares, but had merely +spoken glowingly of their prospects. He thought a moment, and then +walked back slowly into the study, pulled open the drawer of his desk, +took out the sinister little Browning, and slipped it into his pocket. + +“I shan't be long, dear,” he said, and kissing the girl he strode out +into the darkness. + + +Kara sat back in the luxurious depths of his car, humming a little tune, +as the driver picked his way cautiously over the uncertain road. The +rain was still falling, and Kara had to rub the windows free of the mist +which had gathered on them to discover where he was. From time to time +he looked out as though he expected to see somebody, and then with a +little smile he remembered that he had changed his original plan, and +that he had fixed the waiting room of Lewes junction as his rendezvous. + +Here it was that he found a little man muffled up to the ears in a big +top coat, standing before the dying fire. He started as Kara entered and +at a signal followed him from the room. + +The stranger was obviously not English. His face was sallow and peaked, +his cheeks were hollow, and the beard he wore was irregular-almost +unkempt. + +Kara led the way to the end of the dark platform, before he spoke. + +“You have carried out my instructions?” he asked brusquely. + +The language he spoke was Arabic, and the other answered him in that +language. + +“Everything that you have ordered has been done, Effendi,” he said +humbly. + +“You have a revolver?” + +The man nodded and patted his pocket. + +“Loaded?” + +“Excellency,” asked the other, in surprise, “what is the use of a +revolver, if it is not loaded?” + +“You understand, you are not to shoot this man,” said Kara. “You are +merely to present the pistol. To make sure, you had better unload it +now.” + +Wonderingly the man obeyed, and clicked back the ejector. + +“I will take the cartridges,” said Kara, holding out his hand. + +He slipped the little cylinders into his pocket, and after examining the +weapon returned it to its owner. + +“You will threaten him,” he went on. “Present the revolver straight at +his heart. You need do nothing else.” + +The man shuffled uneasily. + +“I will do as you say, Effendi,” he said. “But--” + +“There are no 'buts,'” replied the other harshly. “You are to carry out +my instructions without any question. What will happen then you shall +see. I shall be at hand. That I have a reason for this play be assured.” + +“But suppose he shoots?” persisted the other uneasily. + +“He will not shoot,” said Kara easily. “Besides, his revolver is not +loaded. Now you may go. You have a long walk before you. You know the +way?” + +The man nodded. + +“I have been over it before,” he said confidently. + +Kara returned to the big limousine which had drawn up some distance from +the station. He spoke a word or two to the chauffeur in Greek, and the +man touched his hat. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +Assistant Commissioner of Police T. X. Meredith did not occupy offices +in New Scotland Yard. It is the peculiarity of public offices that they +are planned with the idea of supplying the margin of space above +all requirements and that on their completion they are found wholly +inadequate to house the various departments which mysteriously come into +progress coincident with the building operations. + +“T. X.,” as he was known by the police forces of the world, had a big +suite of offices in Whitehall. The house was an old one facing the Board +of Trade and the inscription on the ancient door told passers-by that +this was the “Public Prosecutor, Special Branch.” + +The duties of T. X. were multifarious. People said of him--and like most +public gossip, this was probably untrue--that he was the head of the +“illegal” department of Scotland Yard. If by chance you lost the keys of +your safe, T. X. could supply you (so popular rumour ran) with a burglar +who would open that safe in half an hour. + +If there dwelt in England a notorious individual against whom the police +could collect no scintilla of evidence to justify a prosecution, and if +it was necessary for the good of the community that that person should +be deported, it was T. X. who arrested the obnoxious person, hustled +him into a cab and did not loose his hold upon his victim until he had +landed him on the indignant shores of an otherwise friendly power. + +It is very certain that when the minister of a tiny power which shall be +nameless was suddenly recalled by his government and brought to trial +in his native land for putting into circulation spurious bonds, it was +somebody from the department which T. X. controlled, who burgled His +Excellency's house, burnt the locks from his safe and secured the +necessary incriminating evidence. + +I say it is fairly certain and here I am merely voicing the opinion of +very knowledgeable people indeed, heads of public departments who speak +behind their hands, mysterious under-secretaries of state who discuss +things in whispers in the remote corners of their clubrooms and the more +frank views of American correspondents who had no hesitation in putting +those views into print for the benefit of their readers. + +That T. X. had a more legitimate occupation we know, for it was that +flippant man whose outrageous comment on the Home Office Administration +is popularly supposed to have sent one Home Secretary to his grave, who +traced the Deptford murderers through a labyrinth of perjury and who +brought to book Sir Julius Waglite though he had covered his trail of +defalcation through the balance sheets of thirty-four companies. + +On the night of March 3rd, T. X. sat in his inner office interviewing a +disconsolate inspector of metropolitan police, named Mansus. + +In appearance T. X. conveyed the impression of extreme youth, for his +face was almost boyish and it was only when you looked at him closely +and saw the little creases about his eyes, the setting of his straight +mouth, that you guessed he was on the way to forty. In his early days +he had been something of a poet, and had written a slight volume +of “Woodland Lyrics,” the mention of which at this later stage was +sufficient to make him feel violently unhappy. + +In manner he was tactful but persistent, his language was at times +marked by a violent extravagance and he had had the distinction of +having provoked, by certain correspondence which had seen the light, +the comment of a former Home Secretary that “it was unfortunate that +Mr. Meredith did not take his position with the seriousness which was +expected from a public official.” + +His language was, as I say, under great provocation, violent and +unusual. He had a trick of using words which never were on land or sea, +and illustrating his instruction or his admonition with the quaintest +phraseology. + +Now he was tilted back in his office chair at an alarming angle, +scowling at his distressed subordinate who sat on the edge of a chair at +the other side of his desk. + +“But, T. X.,” protested the Inspector, “there was nothing to be found.” + +It was the outrageous practice of Mr. Meredith to insist upon his +associates calling him by his initials, a practice which had earnt +disapproval in the highest quarters. + +“Nothing is to be found!” he repeated wrathfully. “Curious Mike!” + +He sat up with a suddenness which caused the police officer to start +back in alarm. + +“Listen,” said T. X., grasping an ivory paperknife savagely in his hand +and tapping his blotting-pad to emphasize his words, “you're a pie!” + +“I'm a policeman,” said the other patiently. + +“A policeman!” exclaimed the exasperated T. X. “You're worse than a pie, +you're a slud! I'm afraid I shall never make a detective of you,” he +shook his head sorrowfully at the smiling Mansus who had been in the +police force when T. X. was a small boy at school, “you are neither Wise +nor Wily; you combine the innocence of a Baby with the grubbiness of a +County Parson--you ought to be in the choir.” + +At this outrageous insult Mr. Mansus was silent; what he might have +said, or what further provocation he might have received may be never +known, for at that moment, the Chief himself walked in. + +The Chief of the Police in these days was a grey man, rather tired, with +a hawk nose and deep eyes that glared under shaggy eyebrows and he was a +terror to all men of his department save to T. X. who respected nothing +on earth and very little elsewhere. He nodded curtly to Mansus. + +“Well, T. X.,” he said, “what have you discovered about our friend +Kara?” + +He turned from T. X. to the discomforted inspector. + +“Very little,” said T. X. “I've had Mansus on the job.” + +“And you've found nothing, eh?” growled the Chief. + +“He has found all that it is possible to find,” said T. X. “We do not +perform miracles in this department, Sir George, nor can we pick up the +threads of a case at five minutes' notice.” + +Sir George Haley grunted. + +“Mansus has done his best,” the other went on easily, “but it is rather +absurd to talk about one's best when you know so little of what you +want.” + +Sir George dropped heavily into the arm-chair, and stretched out his +long thin legs. + +“What I want,” he said, looking up at the ceiling and putting his hands +together, “is to discover something about one Remington Kara, a wealthy +Greek who has taken a house in Cadogan Square, who has no particular +position in London society and therefore has no reason for coming +here, who openly expresses his detestation of the climate, who has +a magnificent estate in some wild place in the Balkans, who is an +excellent horseman, a magnificent shot and a passable aviator.” + +T. X. nodded to Mansus and with something of gratitude in his eyes the +inspector took his leave. + +“Now Mansus has departed,” said T. X., sitting himself on the edge of +his desk and selecting with great care a cigarette from the case he took +from his pocket, “let me know something of the reason for this sudden +interest in the great ones of the earth.” + +Sir George smiled grimly. + +“I have the interest which is the interest of my department,” he said. +“That is to say I want to know a great deal about abnormal people. We +have had an application from him,” he went on, “which is rather unusual. +Apparently he is in fear of his life from some cause or other and wants +to know if he can have a private telephone connection between his house +and the central office. We told him that he could always get the nearest +Police Station on the 'phone, but that doesn't satisfy him. He has made +bad friends with some gentleman of his own country who sooner or later, +he thinks, will cut his throat.” + +T. X. nodded. + +“All this I know,” he said patiently, “if you will further unfold the +secret dossier, Sir George, I am prepared to be thrilled.” + +“There is nothing thrilling about it,” growled the older man, rising, +“but I remember the Macedonian shooting case in South London and I don't +want a repetition of that sort of thing. If people want to have blood +feuds, let them take them outside the metropolitan area.” + +“By all means,” said T. X., “let them. Personally, I don't care where +they go. But if that is the extent of your information I can supplement +it. He has had extensive alterations made to the house he bought in +Cadogan Square; the room in which he lives is practically a safe.” + +Sir George raised his eyebrows. + +“A safe,” he repeated. + +T. X. nodded. + +“A safe,” he said; “its walls are burglar proof, floor and roof are +reinforced concrete, there is one door which in addition to its ordinary +lock is closed by a sort of steel latch which he lets fall when he +retires for the night and which he opens himself personally in the +morning. The window is unreachable, there are no communicating doors, +and altogether the room is planned to stand a siege.” + +The Chief Commissioner was interested. + +“Any more?” he asked. + +“Let me think,” said T. X., looking up at the ceiling. “Yes, the +interior of his room is plainly furnished, there is a big fireplace, +rather an ornate bed, a steel safe built into the wall and visible from +its outer side to the policeman whose beat is in that neighborhood.” + +“How do you know all this?” asked the Chief Commissioner. + +“Because I've been in the room,” said T. X. simply, “having by an +underhand trick succeeded in gaining the misplaced confidence of Kara's +housekeeper, who by the way”--he turned round to his desk and scribbled +a name on the blotting-pad--“will be discharged to-morrow and must be +found a place.” + +“Is there any--er--?” began the Chief. + +“Funny business?” interrupted T. X., “not a bit. House and man are quite +normal save for these eccentricities. He has announced his intention of +spending three months of the year in England and nine months abroad. He +is very rich, has no relations, and has a passion for power.” + +“Then he'll be hung,” said the Chief, rising. + +“I doubt it,” said the other, “people with lots of money seldom get +hung. You only get hung for wanting money.” + +“Then you're in some danger, T. X.,” smiled the Chief, “for according to +my account you're always more or less broke.” + +“A genial libel,” said T. X., “but talking about people being broke, I +saw John Lexman to-day--you know him!” + +The Chief Commissioner nodded. + +“I've an idea he's rather hit for money. He was in that Roumanian gold +swindle, and by his general gloom, which only comes to a man when he's +in love (and he can't possibly be in love since he's married) or when +he's in debt, I fear that he is still feeling the effect of that rosy +adventure.” + +A telephone bell in the corner of the room rang sharply, and T. X. +picked up the receiver. He listened intently. + +“A trunk call,” he said over his shoulder to the departing commissioner, +“it may be something interesting.” + +A little pause; then a hoarse voice spoke to him. “Is that you, T. X.?” + +“That's me,” said the Assistant Commissioner, commonly. + +“It's John Lexman speaking.” + +“I shouldn't have recognized your voice,” said T. X., “what is wrong +with you, John, can't you get your plot to went?” + +“I want you to come down here at once,” said the voice urgently, and +even over the telephone T. X. recognized the distress. “I have shot a +man, killed him!” + +T. X. gasped. + +“Good Lord,” he said, “you are a silly ass!” + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +In the early hours of the morning a tragic little party was assembled in +the study at Beston Priory. John Lexman, white and haggard, sat on the +sofa with his wife by his side. Immediate authority as represented by +a village constable was on duty in the passage outside, whilst T. X. +sitting at the table with a writing pad and a pencil was briefly noting +the evidence. + +The author had sketched the events of the day. He had described his +interview with the money-lender the day before and the arrival of the +letter. + +“You have the letter!” asked T. X. + +John Lexman nodded. + +“I am glad of that,” said the other with a sigh of relief, “that will +save you from a great deal of unpleasantness, my poor old chap. Tell me +what happened afterward.” + +“I reached the village,” said John Lexman, “and passed through it. There +was nobody about, the rain was still falling very heavily and indeed I +didn't meet a single soul all the evening. I reached the place appointed +about five minutes before time. It was the corner of Eastbourne Road +on the station side and there I found Vassalaro waiting. I was rather +ashamed of myself at meeting him at all under these conditions, but I +was very keen on his not coming to the house for I was afraid it would +upset Grace. What made it all the more ridiculous was this infernal +pistol which was in my pocket banging against my side with every step I +took as though to nudge me to an understanding of my folly.” + +“Where did you meet Vassalaro?” asked T. X. + +“He was on the other side of the Eastbourne Road and crossed the road +to meet me. At first he was very pleasant though a little agitated but +afterward he began to behave in a most extraordinary manner as though he +was lashing himself up into a fury which he didn't feel. I promised him +a substantial amount on account, but he grew worse and worse and then, +suddenly, before I realised what he was doing, he was brandishing a +revolver in my face and uttering the most extraordinary threats. Then it +was I remembered Kara's warning.” + +“Kara,” said T. X. quickly. + +“A man I know and who was responsible for introducing me to Vassalaro. +He is immensely wealthy.” + +“I see,” said T. X., “go on.” + +“I remembered this warning,” the other proceeded, “and I thought it +worth while trying it out to see if it had any effect upon the little +man. I pulled the pistol from my pocket and pointed it at him, but that +only seemed to make it--and then I pressed the trigger.... + +“To my horror four shots exploded before I could recover sufficient +self-possession to loosen my hold of the butt. He fell without a word. +I dropped the revolver and knelt by his side. I could tell he was +dangerously wounded, and indeed I knew at that moment that nothing would +save him. My pistol had been pointed in the region of his heart....” + +He shuddered, dropping his face in his hands, and the girl by his side, +encircling his shoulder with a protecting arm, murmured something in his +ear. Presently he recovered. + +“He wasn't quite dead. I heard him murmur something but I wasn't able +to distinguish what he said. I went straight to the village and told the +constable and had the body removed.” + +T. X. rose from the table and walked to the door and opened it. + +“Come in, constable,” he said, and when the man made his appearance, +“I suppose you were very careful in removing this body, and you took +everything which was lying about in the immediate vicinity'?” + +“Yes, sir,” replied the man, “I took his hat and his walkingstick, if +that's what you mean.” + +“And the revolver!” asked T. X. + +The man shook his head. + +“There warn't any revolver, sir, except the pistol which Mr. Lexman +had.” + +He fumbled in his pocket and pulled it out gingerly, and T. X. took it +from him. + +“I'll look after your prisoner; you go down to the village, get any help +you can and make a most careful search in the place where this man +was killed and bring me the revolver which you will discover. You'll +probably find it in a ditch by the side of the road. I'll give a +sovereign to the man who finds it.” + +The constable touched his hat and went out. + +“It looks rather a weird case to me,” said T. X., as he came back to the +table, “can't you see the unusual features yourself, Lexman! It isn't +unusual for you to owe money and it isn't unusual for the usurer to +demand the return of that money, but in this case he is asking for +it before it was due, and further than that he was demanding it with +threats. It is not the practice of the average money lender to go after +his clients with a loaded revolver. Another peculiar thing is that if he +wished to blackmail you, that is to say, bring you into contempt in +the eyes of your friends, why did he choose to meet you in a dark and +unfrequented road, and not in your house where the moral pressure would +be greatest? Also, why did he write you a threatening letter which would +certainly bring him into the grip of the law and would have saved you a +great deal of unpleasantness if he had decided upon taking action!” + +He tapped his white teeth with the end of his pencil and then suddenly, + +“I think I'll see that letter,” he said. + +John Lexman rose from the sofa, crossed to the safe, unlocked it and +was unlocking the steel drawer in which he had placed the incriminating +document. His hand was on the key when T. X. noticed the look of +surprise on his face. + +“What is it!” asked the detective suddenly. + +“This drawer feels very hot,” said John,--he looked round as though to +measure the distance between the safe and the fire. + +T. X. laid his hand upon the front of the drawer. It was indeed warm. + +“Open it,” said T. X., and Lexman turned the key and pulled the drawer +open. + +As he did so, the whole contents burst up in a quick blaze of flame. It +died down immediately and left only a little coil of smoke that flowed +from the safe into the room. + +“Don't touch anything inside,” said T. X. quickly. + +He lifted the drawer carefully and placed it under the light. In the +bottom was no more than a few crumpled white ashes and a blister of +paint where the flame had caught the side. + +“I see,” said T. X. slowly. + +He saw something more than that handful of ashes, he saw the deadly +peril in which his friend was standing. Here was one half of the +evidence in Lexman's favour gone, irredeemably. + +“The letter was written on a paper which was specially prepared by a +chemical process which disintegrated the moment the paper was exposed +to the air. Probably if you delayed putting the letter in the drawer +another five minutes, you would have seen it burn before your eyes. As +it was, it was smouldering before you had turned the key of the box. The +envelope!” + +“Kara burnt it,” said Lexman in a low voice, “I remember seeing him take +it up from the table and throw it in the fire.” + +T. X. nodded. + +“There remains the other half of the evidence,” he said grimly, and when +an hour later, the village constable returned to report that in spite +of his most careful search he had failed to discover the dead man's +revolver, his anticipations were realized. + +The next morning John Lexman was lodged in Lewes gaol on a charge of +wilful murder. + + +A telegram brought Mansus from London to Beston Tracey, and T. X. +received him in the library. + +“I sent for you, Mansus, because I suffer from the illusion that you +have more brains than most of the people in my department, and that's +not saying much.” + +“I am very grateful to you, sir, for putting me right with +Commissioner,” began Mansus, but T. X. stopped him. + +“It is the duty of every head of departments,” he said oracularly, “to +shield the incompetence of his subordinates. It is only by the adoption +of some such method that the decencies of the public life can be +observed. Now get down to this.” He gave a sketch of the case from start +to finish in as brief a space of time as possible. + +“The evidence against Mr. Lexman is very heavy,” he said. “He borrowed +money from this man, and on the man's body were found particulars of the +very Promissory Note which Lexman signed. Why he should have brought it +with him, I cannot say. Anyhow I doubt very much whether Mr. Lexman will +get a jury to accept his version. Our only chance is to find the Greek's +revolver--I don't think there's any very great chance, but if we are to +be successful we must make a search at once.” + +Before he went out he had an interview with Grace. The dark shadows +under her eyes told of a sleepless night. She was unusually pale and +surprisingly calm. + +“I think there are one or two things I ought to tell you,” she said, as +she led the way into the drawing room, closing the door behind him. + +“And they concern Mr. Kara, I think,” said T. X. + +She looked at him startled. + +“How did you know that?” + +“I know nothing.” + +He hesitated on the brink of a flippant claim of omniscience, but +realizing in time the agony she must be suffering he checked his natural +desire. + +“I really know nothing,” he continued, “but I guess a lot,” and that was +as near to the truth as you might expect T. X. to reach on the spur of +the moment. + +She began without preliminary. + +“In the first place I must tell you that Mr. Kara once asked me to marry +him, and for reasons which I will give you, I am dreadfully afraid of +him.” + +She described without reserve the meeting at Salonika and Kara's +extravagant rage and told of the attempt which had been made upon her. + +“Does John know this?” asked T. X. + +She shook her head sadly. + +“I wish I had told him now,” she said. “Oh, how I wish I had!” She wrung +her hands in an ecstasy of sorrow and remorse. + +T. X. looked at her sympathetically. Then he asked, + +“Did Mr. Kara ever discuss your husband's financial position with you!” + +“Never.” + +“How did John Lexman happen to meet Vassalaro!” + +“I can tell you that,” she answered, “the first time we met Mr. Kara +in England was when we were staying at Babbacombe on a summer +holiday--which was really a prolongation of our honeymoon. Mr. Kara came +to stay at the same hotel. I think Mr. Vassalaro must have been there +before; at any rate they knew one another and after Kara's introduction +to my husband the rest was easy. + +“Can I do anything for John!” she asked piteously. + +T. X. shook his head. + +“So far as your story is concerned, I don't think you will advantage him +by telling it,” he said. “There is nothing whatever to connect Kara with +this business and you would only give your husband a great deal of pain. +I'll do the best I can.” + +He held out his hand and she grasped it and somehow at that moment +there came to T. X. Meredith a new courage, a new faith and a greater +determination than ever to solve this troublesome mystery. + +He found Mansus waiting for him in a car outside and in a few minutes +they were at the scene of the tragedy. A curious little knot of +spectators had gathered, looking with morbid interest at the place where +the body had been found. There was a local policeman on duty and to him +was deputed the ungracious task of warning his fellow villagers to keep +their distance. The ground had already been searched very carefully. The +two roads crossed almost at right angles and at the corner of the cross +thus formed, the hedges were broken, admitting to a field which had +evidently been used as a pasture by an adjoining dairy farm. Some rough +attempt had been made to close the gap with barbed wire, but it was +possible to step over the drooping strands with little or no difficulty. +It was to this gap that T. X. devoted his principal attention. All the +fields had been carefully examined without result, the four drains which +were merely the connecting pipes between ditches at the sides of the +crossroads had been swept out and only the broken hedge and its tangle +of bushes behind offered any prospect of the new search being rewarded. + +“Hullo!” said Mansus, suddenly, and stooping down he picked up something +from the ground. + +T. X. took it in his hand. + +It was unmistakably a revolver cartridge. He marked the spot where +it had been found by jamming his walking stick into the ground and +continued his search, but without success. + +“I am afraid we shall find nothing more here,” said T. X., after half +an hour's further search. He stood with his chin in his hand, a frown on +his face. + +“Mansus,” he said, “suppose there were three people here, Lexman, the +money lender and a third witness. And suppose this third person for some +reason unknown was interested in what took place between the two men and +he wanted to watch unobserved. Isn't it likely that if he, as I think, +instigated the meeting, he would have chosen this place because this +particular hedge gave him a chance of seeing without being seen?” + +Mansus thought. + +“He could have seen just as well from either of the other hedges, with +less chance of detection,” he said, after a long pause. + +T. X. grinned. + +“You have the makings of a brain,” he said admiringly. “I agree with +you. Always remember that, Mansus. That there was one occasion in your +life when T. X. Meredith and you thought alike.” + +Mansus smiled a little feebly. + +“Of course from the point of view of the observer this was the worst +place possible, so whoever came here, if they did come here, dropping +revolver bullets about, must have chosen the spot because it was +get-at-able from another direction. Obviously he couldn't come down the +road and climb in without attracting the attention of the Greek who was +waiting for Mr. Lexman. We may suppose there is a gate farther along the +road, we may suppose that he entered that gate, came along the field by +the side of the hedge and that somewhere between here and the gate, he +threw away his cigar.” + +“His cigar!” said Mansus in surprise. + +“His cigar,” repeated T. X., “if he was alone, he would keep his cigar +alight until the very last moment.” + +“He might have thrown it into the road,” said Mansus. + +“Don't jibber,” said T. X., and led the way along the hedge. From where +they stood they could see the gate which led on to the road about a +hundred yards further on. Within a dozen yards of that gate, T. X. found +what he had been searching for, a half-smoked cigar. It was sodden with +rain and he picked it up tenderly. + +“A good cigar, if I am any judge,” he said, “cut with a penknife, and +smoked through a holder.” + +They reached the gate and passed through. Here they were on the road +again and this they followed until they reached another cross road that +to the left inclining southward to the new Eastbourne Road and that to +the westward looking back to the Lewes-Eastbourne railway. The rain had +obliterated much that T. X. was looking for, but presently he found a +faint indication of a car wheel. + +“This is where she turned and backed,” he said, and walked slowly to the +road on the left, “and this is where she stood. There is the grease from +her engine.” + +He stooped down and moved forward in the attitude of a Russian dancer, +“And here are the wax matches which the chauffeur struck,” he counted, +“one, two, three, four, five, six, allow three for each cigarette on a +boisterous night like last night, that makes three cigarettes. Here is +a cigarette end, Mansus, Gold Flake brand,” he said, as he examined it +carefully, “and a Gold Flake brand smokes for twelve minutes in normal +weather, but about eight minutes in gusty weather. A car was here for +about twenty-four minutes--what do you think of that, Mansus?” + +“A good bit of reasoning, T. X.,” said the other calmly, “if it happens +to be the car you're looking for.” + +“I am looking for any old car,” said T. X. + +He found no other trace of car wheels though he carefully followed +up the little lane until it reached the main road. After that it was +hopeless to search because rain had fallen in the night and in the early +hours of the morning. He drove his assistant to the railway station in +time to catch the train at one o'clock to London. + +“You will go straight to Cadogan Square and arrest the chauffeur of Mr. +Kara,” he said. + +“Upon what charge!” asked Mansus hurriedly. + +When it came to the step which T. X. thought fit to take in the +pursuance of his duty, Mansus was beyond surprise. + +“You can charge him with anything you like,” said T. X., with fine +carelessness, “probably something will occur to you on your way up to +town. As a matter of fact the chauffeur has been called unexpectedly +away to Greece and has probably left by this morning's train for the +Continent. If that is so, we can do nothing, because the boat will have +left Dover and will have landed him at Boulogne, but if by any luck you +get him, keep him busy until I get back.” + +T. X. himself was a busy man that day, and it was not until night was +falling that he again turned to Beston Tracey to find a telegram waiting +for him. He opened it and read, + +“Chauffeur's name, Goole. Formerly waiter English Club, Constantinople. +Left for east by early train this morning, his mother being ill.” + +“His mother ill,” said T. X. contemptuously, “how very feeble,--I should +have thought Kara could have gone one better than that.” + +He was in John Lexman's study as the door opened and the maid announced, +“Mr. Remington Kara.” + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +T. X. folded the telegram very carefully and slipped it into his +waistcoat pocket. + +He favoured the newcomer with a little bow and taking upon himself the +honours of the establishment, pushed a chair to his visitor. + +“I think you know my name,” said Kara easily, “I am a friend of poor +Lexman's.” + +“So I am told,” said T. X., “but don't let your friendship for Lexman +prevent your sitting down.” + +For a moment the Greek was nonplussed and then, with a little smile and +bow, he seated himself by the writing table. + +“I am very distressed at this happening,” he went on, “and I am +more distressed because I feel that as I introduced Lexman to this +unfortunate man, I am in a sense responsible.” + +“If I were you,” said T. X., leaning back in the chair and looking +half questioningly and half earnestly into the face of the other, “I +shouldn't let that fact keep me awake at night. Most people are murdered +as a result of an introduction. The cases where people murder total +strangers are singularly rare. That I think is due to the insularity of +our national character.” + +Again the other was taken back and puzzled by the flippancy of the man +from whom he had expected at least the official manner. + +“When did you see Mr. Vassalaro last?” asked T. X. pleasantly. + +Kara raised his eyes as though considering. + +“I think it must have been nearly a week ago.” + +“Think again,” said T. X. + +For a second the Greek started and again relaxed into a smile. + +“I am afraid,” he began. + +“Don't worry about that,” said T. X., “but let me ask you this question. +You were here last night when Mr. Lexman received a letter. That he did +receive a letter, there is considerable evidence,” he said as he saw +the other hesitate, “because we have the supporting statements of the +servant and the postman.” + +“I was here,” said the other, deliberately, “and I was present when Mr. +Lexman received a letter.” + +T. X. nodded. + +“A letter written on some brownish paper and rather bulky,” he +suggested. + +Again there was that momentary hesitation. + +“I would not swear to the color of the paper or as to the bulk of the +letter,” he said. + +“I should have thought you would,” suggested T. X., “because you see, +you burnt the envelope, and I presumed you would have noticed that.” + +“I have no recollection of burning any envelope,” said the other easily. + +“At any rate,” T. X. went on, “when Mr. Lexman read this letter out to +you...” + +“To which letter are you referring?” asked the other, with a lift of his +eyebrows. + +“Mr. Lexman received a threatening letter,” repeated T. X. patiently, +“which he read out to you, and which was addressed to him by Vassalaro. +This letter was handed to you and you also read it. Mr. Lexman to your +knowledge put the letter in his safe--in a steel drawer.” + +The other shook his head, smiling gently. + +“I am afraid you've made a great mistake,” he said almost +apologetically, “though I have a recollection of his receiving a letter, +I did not read it, nor was it read to me.” + +The eyes of T. X. narrowed to the very slits and his voice became +metallic and hard. + +“And if I put you into the box, will you swear, that you did not see +that letter, nor read it, nor have it read to you, and that you have no +knowledge whatever of such a letter having been received by Mr. Lexman?” + +“Most certainly,” said the other coolly. + +“Would you swear that you have not seen Vassalaro for a week?” + +“Certainly,” smiled the Greek. + +“That you did not in fact see him last night,” persisted T. X., “and +interview him on the station platform at Lewes, that you did not after +leaving him continue on your way to London and then turn your car and +return to the neighbourhood of Beston Tracey?” + +The Greek was white to the lips, but not a muscle of his face moved. + +“Will you also swear,” continued T. X. inexorably, “that you did not +stand at the corner of what is known as Mitre's Lot and re-enter a gate +near to the side where your car was, and that you did not watch the +whole tragedy?” + +“I'd swear to that,” Kara's voice was strained and cracked. + +“Would you also swear as to the hour of your arrival in London?” + +“Somewhere in the region of ten or eleven,” said the Greek. + +T. X. smiled. + +“Would you swear that you did not go through Guilford at half-past +twelve and pull up to replenish your petrol?” + +The Greek had now recovered his self-possession and rose. + +“You are a very clever man, Mr. Meredith--I think that is your name?” + +“That is my name,” said T. X. calmly. “There has been, no need for me to +change it as often as you have found the necessity.” + +He saw the fire blazing in the other's eyes and knew that his shot had +gone home. + +“I am afraid I must go,” said Kara. “I came here intending to see Mrs. +Lexman, and I had no idea that I should meet a policeman.” + +“My dear Mr. Kara,” said T. X., rising and lighting a cigarette, “you +will go through life enduring that unhappy experience.” + +“What do you mean?” + +“Just what I say. You will always be expecting to meet one person, and +meeting another, and unless you are very fortunate indeed, that other +will always be a policeman.” + +His eyes twinkled for he had recovered from the gust of anger which had +swept through him. + +“There are two pieces of evidence I require to save Mr. Lexman from very +serious trouble,” he said, “the first of these is the letter which was +burnt, as you know.” + +“Yes,” said Kara. + +T. X. leant across the desk. + +“How did you know?” he snapped. + +“Somebody told me, I don't know who it was.” + +“That's not true,” replied T. X.; “nobody knows except myself and Mrs. +Lexman.” + +“But my dear good fellow,” said Kara, pulling on his gloves, “you have +already asked me whether I didn't burn the letter.” + +“I said envelope,” said T. X., with a little laugh. + +“And you were going to say something about the other clue?” + +“The other is the revolver,” said T. X. + +“Mr. Lexman's revolver!” drawled the Greek. + +“That we have,” said T. X. shortly. “What we want is the weapon which +the Greek had when he threatened Mr. Lexman.” + +“There, I'm afraid I cannot help you.” + +Kara walked to the door and T. X. followed. + +“I think I will see Mrs. Lexman.” + +“I think not,” said T. X. + +The other turned with a sneer. + +“Have you arrested her, too?” he asked. + +“Pull yourself together!” said T. X. coarsely. He escorted Kara to his +waiting limousine. + +“You have a new chauffeur to-night, I observe,” he said. + +Kara towering with rage stepped daintily into the car. + +“If you are writing to the other you might give him my love,” said T. +X., “and make most tender enquiries after his mother. I particularly ask +this.” + +Kara said nothing until the car was out of earshot then he lay back +on the down cushions and abandoned himself to a paroxysm of rage and +blasphemy. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +Six months later T. X. Meredith was laboriously tracing an elusive line +which occurred on an ordnance map of Sussex when the Chief Commissioner +announced himself. + +Sir George described T. X. as the most wholesome corrective a public +official could have, and never missed an opportunity of meeting his +subordinate (as he said) for this reason. + +“What are you doing there?” he growled. + +“The lesson this morning,” said T. X. without looking up, “is maps.” + +Sir George passed behind his assistant and looked over his shoulder. + +“That is a very old map you have got there,” he said. + +“1876. It shows the course of a number of interesting little streams in +this neighbourhood which have been lost sight of for one reason or +the other by the gentleman who made the survey at a later period. I +am perfectly sure that in one of these streams I shall find what I am +seeking.” + +“You haven't given up hope, then, in regard to Lexman?” + +“I shall never give up hope,” said T. X., “until I am dead, and possibly +not then.” + +“Let me see, what did he get--fifteen years!” + +“Fifteen years,” repeated T. X., “and a very fortunate man to escape +with his life.” + +Sir George walked to the window and stared out on to busy Whitehall. + +“I am told you are quite friendly with Kara again.” + +T. X. made a noise which might be taken to indicate his assent to the +statement. + +“I suppose you know that gentleman has made a very heroic attempt to get +you fired,” he said. + +“I shouldn't wonder,” said T. X. “I made as heroic an attempt to get him +hung, and one good turn deserves another. What did he do? See ministers +and people?” + +“He did,” said Sir George. + +“He's a silly ass,” responded T. X. + +“I can understand all that”--the Chief Commissioner turned round--“but +what I cannot understand is your apology to him.” + +“There are so many things you don't understand, Sir George,” said T. X. +tartly, “that I despair of ever cataloguing them.” + +“You are an insolent cub,” growled his Chief. “Come to lunch.” + +“Where will you take me?” asked T. X. cautiously. + +“To my club.” + +“I'm sorry,” said the other, with elaborate politeness, “I have lunched +once at your club. Need I say more?” + +He smiled, as he worked after his Chief had gone, at the recollection +of Kara's profound astonishment and the gratification he strove so +desperately to disguise. + +Kara was a vain man, immensely conscious of his good looks, conscious of +his wealth. He had behaved most handsomely, for not only had he accepted +the apology, but he left nothing undone to show his desire to create a +good impression upon the man who had so grossly insulted him. + +T. X. had accepted an invitation to stay a weekend at Kara's “little +place in the country,” and had found there assembled everything that +the heart could desire in the way of fellowship, eminent politicians +who might conceivably be of service to an ambitious young Assistant +Commissioner of Police, beautiful ladies to interest and amuse him. Kara +had even gone to the length of engaging a theatrical company to play +“Sweet Lavender,” and for this purpose the big ballroom at Hever Court +had been transformed into a theatre. + +As he was undressing for bed that night T. X. remembered that he had +mentioned to Kara that “Sweet Lavender” was his favorite play, and he +realized that the entertainment was got up especially for his benefit. + +In a score of other ways Kara had endeavoured to consolidate the +friendship. He gave the young Commissioner advice about a railway +company which was operating in Asia Minor, and the shares of which stood +a little below par. T. X. thanked him for the advice, and did not take +it, nor did he feel any regret when the shares rose 3 pounds in as many +weeks. + +T. X. had superintended the disposal of Beston Priory. He had the +furniture removed to London, and had taken a flat for Grace Lexman. + +She had a small income of her own, and this, added to the large +royalties which came to her (as she was bitterly conscious) in +increasing volume as the result of the publicity of the trial, placed +her beyond fear of want. + +“Fifteen years,” murmured T. X., as he worked and whistled. + +There had been no hope for John Lexman from the start. He was in debt +to the man he killed. His story of threatening letters was not +substantiated. The revolver which he said had been flourished at him +had never been found. Two people believed implicitly in the story, and a +sympathetic Home Secretary had assured T. X. personally that if he could +find the revolver and associate it with the murder beyond any doubt, +John Lexman would be pardoned. + +Every stream in the neighbourhood had been dragged. In one case a small +river had been dammed, and the bed had been carefully dried and sifted, +but there was no trace of the weapon, and T. X. had tried methods more +effective and certainly less legal. + +A mysterious electrician had called at 456 Cadogan Square in Kara's +absence, and he was armed with such indisputable authority that he +was permitted to penetrate to Kara's private room, in order to examine +certain fitments. + +Kara returning next day thought no more of the matter when it was +reported to him, until going to his safe that night he discovered that +it had been opened and ransacked. + +As it happened, most of Kara's valuable and confidential possessions +were at the bank. In a fret of panic and at considerable cost he had +the safe removed and another put in its place of such potency that the +makers offered to indemnify him against any loss from burglary. + +T. X. finished his work, washed his hands, and was drying them when +Mansus came bursting into the room. It was not usual for Mansus to +burst into anywhere. He was a slow, methodical, painstaking man, with a +deliberate and an official, manner. + +“What's the matter?” asked T. X. quickly. + +“We didn't search Vassalaro's lodgings,” cried Mansus breathlessly. “It +just occurred to me as I was coming over Westminster Bridge. I was on +top of a bus--” + +“Wake up!” said T. X. “You're amongst friends and cut all that 'bus' +stuff out. Of course we searched Vassalaro's lodgings!” + +“No, we didn't, sir,” said the other triumphantly. “He lived in Great +James Street.” + +“He lived in the Adelphi,” corrected T. X. + +“There were two places where he lived,” said Mansus. + +“When did you learn this?” asked his Chief, dropping his flippancy. + +“This morning. I was on a bus coming across Westminster Bridge, and +there were two men in front of me, and I heard the word 'Vassalaro' and +naturally I pricked up my ears.” + +“It was very unnatural, but proceed,” said T. X. + +“One of the men--a very respectable person--said, 'That chap Vassalaro +used to lodge in my place, and I've still got a lot of his things. What +do you think I ought to do?'” + +“And you said,” suggested the other. + +“I nearly frightened his life out of him,” said Mansus. “I said, 'I am a +police officer and I want you to come along with me.'” + +“And of course he shut up and would not say another word,” said T. X. + +“That's true, sir,” said Mansus, “but after awhile I got him to talk. +Vassalaro lived in Great James Street, 604, on the third floor. In fact, +some of his furniture is there still. He had a good reason for keeping +two addresses by all accounts.” + +T. X. nodded wisely. + +“What was her name?” he asked. + +“He had a wife,” said the other, “but she left him about four months +before he was killed. He used the Adelphi address for business purposes +and apparently he slept two or three nights of the week at Great James +Street. I have told the man to leave everything as it is, and that we +will come round.” + +Ten minutes later the two officers were in the somewhat gloomy +apartments which Vassalaro had occupied. + +The landlord explained that most of the furniture was his, but that +there were certain articles which were the property of the deceased +man. He added, somewhat unnecessarily, that the late tenant owed him six +months' rent. + +The articles which had been the property of Vassalaro included a tin +trunk, a small writing bureau, a secretaire bookcase and a few clothes. +The secretaire was locked, as was the writing bureau. The tin box, which +had little or nothing of interest, was unfastened. + +The other locks needed very little attention. Without any difficulty +Mansus opened both. The leaf of the bureau, when let down, formed +the desk, and piled up inside was a whole mass of letters opened and +unopened, accounts, note-books and all the paraphernalia which an untidy +man collects. + +Letter by letter, T. X. went through the accumulation without finding +anything to help him. Then his eye was attracted by a small tin case +thrust into one of the oblong pigeon holes at the back of the desk. This +he pulled out and opened and found a small wad of paper wrapped in tin +foil. + +“Hello, hello!” said T. X., and he was pardonably exhilarated. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +A Man stood in the speckless courtyard before the Governor's house at +Dartmoor gaol. He wore the ugly livery of shame which marks the convict. +His head was clipped short, and there was two days' growth of beard upon +his haggard face. Standing with his hands behind him, he waited for the +moment when he would be ordered to his work. + +John Lexman--A. O. 43--looked up at the blue sky as he had looked so +many times from the exercise yard, and wondered what the day would bring +forth. A day to him was the beginning and the end of an eternity. He +dare not let his mind dwell upon the long aching years ahead. He dare +not think of the woman he left, or let his mind dwell upon the agony +which she was enduring. He had disappeared from the world, the world he +loved, and the world that knew him, and all that there was in life; all +that was worth while had been crushed and obliterated into the granite +of the Princetown quarries, and its wide horizon shrunken by the gaunt +moorland with its menacing tors. + +New interests made up his existence. The quality of the food was one. +The character of the book he would receive from the prison library +another. The future meant Sunday chapel; the present whatever task they +found him. For the day he was to paint some doors and windows of an +outlying cottage. A cottage occupied by a warder who, for some reason, +on the day previous, had spoken to him with a certain kindness and a +certain respect which was unusual. + +“Face the wall,” growled a voice, and mechanically he turned, his hands +still behind him, and stood staring at the grey wall of the prison +storehouse. + +He heard the shuffling feet of the quarry gang, his ears caught the +clink of the chains which bound them together. They were desperate men, +peculiarly interesting to him, and he had watched their faces furtively +in the early period of his imprisonment. + +He had been sent to Dartmoor after spending three months in Wormwood +Scrubbs. Old hands had told him variously that he was fortunate or +unlucky. It was usual to have twelve months at the Scrubbs before +testing the life of a convict establishment. He believed there was some +talk of sending him to Parkhurst, and here he traced the influence which +T. X. would exercise, for Parkhurst was a prisoner's paradise. + +He heard his warder's voice behind him. + +“Right turn, 43, quick march.” + +He walked ahead of the armed guard, through the great and gloomy gates +of the prison, turned sharply to the right, and walked up the village +street toward the moors, beyond the village of Princetown, and on the +Tavistock Road where were two or three cottages which had been lately +taken by the prison staff; and it was to the decoration of one of these +that A. O. 43 had been sent. + +The house was as yet without a tenant. + +A paper-hanger under the charge of another warder was waiting for the +arrival of the painter. The two warders exchanged greetings, and the +first went off leaving the other in charge of both men. + +For an hour they worked in silence under the eyes of the guard. +Presently the warder went outside, and John Lexman had an opportunity of +examining his fellow sufferer. + +He was a man of twenty-four or twenty-five, lithe and alert. By no means +bad looking, he lacked that indefinable suggestion of animalism which +distinguished the majority of the inhabitants at Dartmoor. + +They waited until they heard the warder's step clear the passage, and +until his iron-shod boots were tramping over the cobbled path which led +from the door, through the tiny garden to the road, before the second +man spoke. + +“What are you in for?” he asked, in a low voice. + +“Murder,” said John Lexman, laconically. + +He had answered the question before, and had noticed with a little +amusement the look of respect which came into the eyes of the +questioner. + +“What have you got!” + +“Fifteen years,” said the other. + +“That means 11 years and 9 months,” said the first man. “You've never +been here before, I suppose?” + +“Hardly,” said Lexman, drily. + +“I was here when I was a kid,” confessed the paper-hanger. “I am going +out next week.” + +John Lexman looked at him enviously. Had the man told him that he had +inherited a great fortune and a greater title his envy would not have +been so genuine. + +Going out! + +The drive in the brake to the station, the ride to London in creased, +but comfortable clothing, free as the air, at liberty to go to bed and +rise when he liked, to choose his own dinner, to answer no call save the +call of his conscience, to see--he checked himself. + +“What are you in for?” he asked in self-defence. + +“Conspiracy and fraud,” said the other cheerfully. “I was put away by +a woman after three of us had got clear with 12,000 pounds. Damn rough +luck, wasn't it?” + +John nodded. + +It was curious, he thought, how sympathetic one grows with these +exponents of crimes. One naturally adopts their point of view and sees +life through their distorted vision. + +“I bet I'm not given away with the next lot,” the prisoner went on. +“I've got one of the biggest ideas I've ever had, and I've got a real +good man to help me.” + +“How?” asked John, in surprise. + +The man jerked his head in the direction of the prison. + +“Larry Green,” he said briefly. “He's coming out next month, too, and we +are all fixed up proper. We are going to get the pile and then we're off +to South America, and you won't see us for dust.” + +Though he employed all the colloquialisms which were common, his tone +was that of a man of education, and yet there was something in his +address which told John as clearly as though the man had confessed as +much, that he had never occupied any social position in life. + +The warder's step on the stones outside reduced them to silence. +Suddenly his voice came up the stairs. + +“Forty-three,” he called sharply, “I want you down here.” + +John took his paint pot and brush and went clattering down the +uncarpeted stairs. + +“Where's the other man?” asked the warder, in a low voice. + +“He's upstairs in the back room.” + +The warder stepped out of the door and looked left and right. Coming up +from Princetown was a big, grey car. + +“Put down your paint pot,” he said. + +His voice was shaking with excitement. + +“I am going upstairs. When that car comes abreast of the gate, ask no +questions and jump into it. Get down into the bottom and pull a sack +over you, and do not get up until the car stops.” + +The blood rushed to John Lexman's head, and he staggered. + +“My God!” he whispered. + +“Do as I tell you,” hissed the warder. + +Like an automaton John put down his brushes, and walked slowly to the +gate. The grey car was crawling up the hill, and the face of the driver +was half enveloped in a big rubber mask. Through the two great goggles +John could see little to help him identify the man. As the machine came +up to the gate, he leapt into the tonneau and sank instantly to the +bottom. As he did so he felt the car leap forward underneath him. Now +it was going fast, now faster, now it rocked and swayed as it gathered +speed. He felt it sweeping down hill and up hill, and once he heard a +hollow rumble as it crossed a wooden bridge. + +He could not detect from his hiding place in what direction they were +going, but he gathered they had switched off to the left and were making +for one of the wildest parts of the moor. Never once did he feel the car +slacken its pace, until, with a grind of brakes, it stopped suddenly. + +“Get out,” said a voice. + +John Lexman threw off the cover and leapt out and as he did so the car +turned and sped back the way it had come. + +For a moment he thought he was alone, and looked around. Far away in +the distance he saw the grey bulk of Princetown Gaol. It was an accident +that he should see it, but it so happened that a ray of the sun fell +athwart it and threw it into relief. + +He was alone on the moors! Where could he go? + +He turned at the sound of a voice. + +He was standing on the slope of a small tor. At the foot there was a +smooth stretch of green sward. It was on this stretch that the people of +Dartmoor held their pony races in the summer months. There was no sign +of horses; but only a great bat-like machine with out-stretched pinions +of taut white canvas, and by that machine a man clad from head to foot +in brown overalls. + +John stumbled down the slope. As he neared the machine he stopped and +gasped. + +“Kara,” he said, and the brown man smiled. + +“But, I do not understand. What are you going to do!” asked Lexman, when +he had recovered from his surprise. + +“I am going to take you to a place of safety,” said the other. + +“I have no reason to be grateful to you, as yet, Kara,” breathed Lexman. +“A word from you could have saved me.” + +“I could not lie, my dear Lexman. And honestly, I had forgotten the +existence of the letter; if that is what you are referring to, but I am +trying to do what I can for you and for your wife.” + +“My wife!” + +“She is waiting for you,” said the other. + +He turned his head, listening. + +Across the moor came the dull sullen boom of a gun. + +“You haven't time for argument. They discovered your escape,” he said. +“Get in.” + +John clambered up into the frail body of the machine and Kara followed. + +“This is a self-starter,” he said, “one of the newest models of +monoplanes.” + +He clicked over a lever and with a roar the big three-bladed tractor +screw spun. + +The aeroplane moved forward with a jerk, ran with increasing gait for a +hundred yards, and then suddenly the jerky progress ceased. The machine +swayed gently from side to side, and looking over, the passenger saw the +ground recede beneath him. + +Up, up, they climbed in one long sweeping ascent, passing through +drifting clouds till the machine soared like a bird above the blue sea. + +John Lexman looked down. He saw the indentations of the coast and +recognized the fringe of white houses that stood for Torquay, but in an +incredibly short space of time all signs of the land were blotted out. + +Talking was impossible. The roar of the engines defied penetration. + +Kara was evidently a skilful pilot. From time to time he consulted +the compass on the board before him, and changed his course ever so +slightly. Presently he released one hand from the driving wheel, and +scribbling on a little block of paper which was inserted in a pocket at +the side of the seat he passed it back. + +John Lexman read: + + “If you cannot swim there is a life belt under your seat.” + +John nodded. + +Kara was searching the sea for something, and presently he found it. +Viewed from the height at which they flew it looked no more than a white +speck in a great blue saucer, but presently the machine began to dip, +falling at a terrific rate of speed, which took away the breath of the +man who was hanging on with both hands to the dangerous seat behind. + +He was deadly cold, but had hardly noticed the fact. It was all so +incredible, so impossible. He expected to wake up and wondered if the +prison was also part of the dream. + +Now he saw the point for which Kara was making. + +A white steam yacht, long and narrow of beam, was steaming slowly +westward. He could see the feathery wake in her rear, and as the +aeroplane fell he had time to observe that a boat had been put off. Then +with a jerk the monoplane flattened out and came like a skimming bird to +the surface of the water; her engines stopped. + +“We ought to be able to keep afloat for ten minutes,” said Kara, “and by +that time they will pick us up.” + +His voice was high and harsh in the almost painful silence which +followed the stoppage of the engines. + +In less than five minutes the boat had come alongside, manned, as Lexman +gathered from a glimpse of the crew, by Greeks. He scrambled aboard +and five minutes later he was standing on the white deck of the yacht, +watching the disappearing tail of the monoplane. Kara was by his side. + +“There goes fifteen hundred pounds,” said the Greek, with a smile, “add +that to the two thousand I paid the warder and you have a tidy sum-but +some things are worth all the money in the world!” + + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +T. X. came from Downing Street at 11 o'clock one night, and his heart +was filled with joy and gratitude. + +He swung his stick to the common danger of the public, but the policeman +on point duty at the end of the street, who saw him, recognized and +saluted him, did not think it fit to issue any official warning. + +He ran up the stairs to his office, and found Mansus reading the evening +paper. + +“My poor, dumb beast,” said T. X. “I am afraid I have kept you waiting +for a very long time, but tomorrow you and I will take a little journey +to Devonshire. It will be good for you, Mansus--where did you get that +ridiculous name, by the way!” + +“M. or N.,” replied Mansus, laconically. + +“I repeat that there is the dawn of an intellect in you,” said T. X., +offensively. + +He became more serious as he took from a pocket inside his waistcoat a +long blue envelope containing the paper which had cost him so much to +secure. + +“Finding the revolver was a master-stroke of yours, Mansus,” he said, +and he was in earnest as he spoke. + +The man coloured with pleasure for the subordinates of T. X. loved him, +and a word of praise was almost equal to promotion. It was on the advice +of Mansus that the road from London to Lewes had been carefully covered +and such streams as passed beneath that road had been searched. + +The revolver had been found after the third attempt between Gatwick and +Horsley. Its identification was made easier by the fact that Vassalaro's +name was engraved on the butt. It was rather an ornate affair and in its +earlier days had been silver plated; the handle was of mother-o'-pearl. + +“Obviously the gift of one brigand to another,” was T. X.'s comment. + +Armed with this, his task would have been fairly easy, but when to this +evidence he added a rough draft of the threatening letter which he had +found amongst Vassalaro's belongings, and which had evidently been taken +down at dictation, since some of the words were misspelt and had been +corrected by another hand, the case was complete. + +But what clinched the matter was the finding of a wad of that peculiar +chemical paper, a number of sheets of which T. X. had ignited for the +information of the Chief Commissioner and the Home Secretary by simply +exposing them for a few seconds to the light of an electric lamp. + +Instantly it had filled the Home Secretary's office with a pungent +and most disagreeable smoke, for which he was heartily cursed by his +superiors. But it had rounded off the argument. + +He looked at his watch. + +“I wonder if it is too late to see Mrs. Lexman,” he said. + +“I don't think any hour would be too late,” suggested Mansus. + +“You shall come and chaperon me,” said his superior. + +But a disappointment awaited. Mrs. Lexman was not in and neither the +ringing at her electric bell nor vigorous applications to the knocker +brought any response. The hall porter of the flats where she lived +was under the impression that Mrs. Lexman had gone out of town. She +frequently went out on Saturdays and returned on the Monday and, he +thought, occasionally on Tuesdays. + +It happened that this particular night was a Monday night and T. X. +was faced with a dilemma. The night porter, who had only the vaguest +information on the subject, thought that the day porter might know more, +and aroused him from his sleep. + +Yes, Mrs. Lexman had gone. She went on the Sunday, an unusual day to +pay a week-end visit, and she had taken with her two bags. The porter +ventured the opinion that she was rather excited, but when asked to +define the symptoms relapsed into a chaos of incoherent “you-knows” and +“what-I-means.” + +“I don't like this,” said T. X., suddenly. “Does anybody know that we +have made these discoveries?” + +“Nobody outside the office,” said Mansus, “unless, unless...” + +“Unless what?” asked the other, irritably. “Don't be a jimp, Mansus. Get +it off your mind. What is it?” + +“I am wondering,” said Mansus slowly, “if the landlord at Great James +Street said anything. He knows we have made a search.” + +“We can easily find that out,” said T. X. + +They hailed a taxi and drove to Great James Street. That respectable +thoroughfare was wrapped in sleep and it was some time before the +landlord could be aroused. Recognizing T. X. he checked his sarcasm, +which he had prepared for a keyless lodger, and led the way into the +drawing room. + +“You didn't tell me not to speak about it, Mr. Meredith,” he said, in an +aggrieved tone, “and as a matter of fact I have spoken to nobody except +the gentleman who called the same day.” + +“What did he want?” asked T. X. + +“He said he had only just discovered that Mr. Vassalaro had stayed with +me and he wanted to pay whatever rent was due,” replied the other. + +“What like of man was he?” asked T. X. + +The brief description the man gave sent a cold chill to the +Commissioner's heart. + +“Kara for a ducat!” he said, and swore long and variously. + +“Cadogan Square,” he ordered. + +His ring was answered promptly. Mr. Kara was out of town, had indeed +been out of town since Saturday. This much the man-servant explained +with a suspicious eye upon his visitors, remembering that his +predecessor had lost his job from a too confiding friendliness with +spurious electric fitters. He did not know when Mr. Kara would return, +perhaps it would be a long time and perhaps a short time. He might come +back that night or he might not. + +“You are wasting your young life,” said T. X. bitterly. “You ought to be +a fortune teller.” + +“This settles the matter,” he said, in the cab on the way back. “Find +out the first train for Tavistock in the morning and wire the George +Hotel to have a car waiting.” + +“Why not go to-night?” suggested the other. “There is the midnight +train. It is rather slow, but it will get you there by six or seven in +the morning.” + +“Too late,” he said, “unless you can invent a method of getting from +here to Paddington in about fifty seconds.” + +The morning journey to Devonshire was a dispiriting one despite the +fineness of the day. T. X. had an uncomfortable sense that something +distressing had happened. The run across the moor in the fresh spring +air revived him a little. + +As they spun down to the valley of the Dart, Mansus touched his arm. + +“Look at that,” he said, and pointed to the blue heavens where, a mile +above their heads, a white-winged aeroplane, looking no larger than a +very distant dragon fly, shimmered in the sunlight. + +“By Jove!” said T. X. “What an excellent way for a man to escape!” + +“It's about the only way,” said Mansus. + +The significance of the aeroplane was borne in upon T. X. a few minutes +later when he was held up by an armed guard. A glance at his card was +enough to pass him. + +“What is the matter?” he asked. + +“A prisoner has escaped,” said the sentry. + +“Escaped--by aeroplane?” asked T. X. + +“I don't know anything about aeroplanes, sir. All I know is that one of +the working party got away.” + +The car came to the gates of the prison and T. X. sprang out, followed +by his assistant. He had no difficulty in finding the Governor, a +greatly perturbed man, for an escape is a very serious matter. + +The official was inclined to be brusque in his manner, but again the +magic card produced a soothing effect. + +“I am rather rattled,” said the Governor. “One of my men has got away. I +suppose you know that?” + +“And I am afraid another of your men is going away, sir,” said T. X., +who had a curious reverence for military authority. He produced his +paper and laid it on the governor's table. + +“This is an order for the release of John Lexman, convicted under +sentence of fifteen years penal servitude.” + +The Governor looked at it. + +“Dated last night,” he said, and breathed a long sigh of relief. “Thank +the Lord!--that is the man who escaped!” + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +Two years after the events just described, T. X. journeying up to London +from Bath was attracted by a paragraph in the Morning Post. It told him +briefly that Mr. Remington Kara, the influential leader of the Greek +Colony, had been the guest of honor at a dinner of the Hellenic Society. + +T. X. had only seen Kara for a brief space of time following that +tragic morning, when he had discovered not only that his best friend had +escaped from Dartmoor prison and disappeared, as it were, from the world +at a moment when his pardon had been signed, but that that friend's wife +had also vanished from the face of the earth. + +At the same time--it might, as even T. X. admitted, have been the +veriest coincidence that Kara had also cleared out of London to reappear +at the end of six months. Any question addressed to him, concerning the +whereabouts of the two unhappy people, was met with a bland expression +of ignorance as to their whereabouts. + +John Lexman was somewhere in the world, hiding as he believed from +justice, and with him was his wife. T. X. had no doubt in his mind as to +this solution of the puzzle. He had caused to be published the story +of the pardon and the circumstances under which that pardon had been +secured, and he had, moreover, arranged for an advertisement to be +inserted in the principal papers of every European country. + +It was a moot question amongst the departmental lawyers as to whether +John Lexman was not guilty of a technical and punishable offence for +prison breaking, but this possibility did not keep T. X. awake at +nights. The circumstances of the escape had been carefully examined. The +warder responsible had been discharged from the service, and had almost +immediately purchased for himself a beer house in Falmouth, for a sum +which left no doubt in the official mind that he had been the recipient +of a heavy bribe. + +Who had been the guiding spirit in that escape--Mrs. Lexman, or Kara? + +It was impossible to connect Kara with the event. The motor car had +been traced to Exeter, where it had been hired by a “foreign-looking +gentleman,” but the chauffeur, whoever he was, had made good his +escape. An inspection of Kara's hangars at Wembley showed that his two +monoplanes had not been removed, and T. X. failed entirely to trace +the owner of the machine he had seen flying over Dartmoor on the fatal +morning. + +T. X. was somewhat baffled and a little amused by the disinclination +of the authorities to believe that the escape had been effected by +this method at all. All the events of the trial came back to him, as he +watched the landscape spinning past. + +He set down the newspaper with a little sigh, put his feet on the +cushions of the opposite seat and gave himself up to reverie. Presently +he returned to his journals and searched them idly for something +to interest him in the final stretch of journey between Newbury and +Paddington. + +Presently he found it in a two column article with the uninspiring +title, “The Mineral Wealth of Tierra del Fuego.” It was written +brightly with a style which was at once easy and informative. It told of +adventures in the marshes behind St. Sebastian Bay and journeys up the +Guarez Celman river, of nights spent in primeval forests and ended in +a geological survey, wherein the commercial value of syenite, porphyry, +trachite and dialite were severally canvassed. + +The article was signed “G. G.” It is said of T. X. that his greatest +virtue was his curiosity. He had at the tip of his fingers the names +of all the big explorers and author-travellers, and for some reason he +could not place “G. G.” to his satisfaction, in fact he had an absurd +desire to interpret the initials into “George Grossmith.” His inability +to identify the writer irritated him, and his first act on reaching his +office was to telephone to one of the literary editors of the Times whom +he knew. + +“Not my department,” was the chilly reply, “and besides we never give +away the names of our contributors. Speaking as a person outside the +office I should say that 'G. G.' was 'George Gathercole' the explorer +you know, the fellow who had an arm chewed off by a lion or something.” + +“George Gathercole!” repeated T. X. “What an ass I am.” + +“Yes,” said the voice at the other end the wire, and he had rung off +before T. X. could think of something suitable to say. + +Having elucidated this little side-line of mystery, the matter passed +from the young Commissioner's mind. It happened that morning that his +work consisted of dealing with John Lexman's estate. + +With the disappearance of the couple he had taken over control of +their belongings. It had not embarrassed him to discover that he was an +executor under Lexman's will, for he had already acted as trustee to the +wife's small estate, and had been one of the parties to the ante-nuptial +contract which John Lexman had made before his marriage. + +The estate revenues had increased very considerably. All the vanished +author's books were selling as they had never sold before, and the +executor's work was made the heavier by the fact that Grace Lexman +had possessed an aunt who had most inconsiderately died, leaving a +considerable fortune to her “unhappy niece.” + +“I will keep the trusteeship another year,” he told the solicitor who +came to consult him that morning. “At the end of that time I shall go to +the court for relief.” + +“Do you think they will ever turn up?” asked the solicitor, an elderly +and unimaginative man. + +“Of course, they'll turn up!” said T. X. impatiently; “all the heroes of +Lexman's books turn up sooner or later. He will discover himself to us +at a suitable moment, and we shall be properly thrilled.” + +That Lexman would return he was sure. It was a faith from which he did +not swerve. + +He had as implicit a confidence that one day or other Kara, the +magnificent, would play into his hands. + +There were some queer stories in circulation concerning the Greek, +but on the whole they were stories and rumours which were difficult to +separate from the malicious gossip which invariably attaches itself to +the rich and to the successful. + +One of these was that Kara desired something more than an Albanian +chieftainship, which he undoubtedly enjoyed. There were whispers of +wider and higher ambitions. Though his father had been born a Greek, he +had indubitably descended in a direct line from one of those old Mprets +of Albania, who had exercised their brief authority over that turbulent +land. + +The man's passion was for power. To this end he did not spare himself. +It was said that he utilized his vast wealth for this reason, and none +other, and that whatever might have been the irregularities of his +youth--and there were adduced concrete instances--he was working toward +an end with a singleness of purpose, from which it was difficult to +withhold admiration. + +T. X. kept in his locked desk a little red book, steel bound and triple +locked, which he called his “Scandalaria.” In this he inscribed in his +own irregular writing the titbits which might not be published, and +which often helped an investigator to light upon the missing threads +of a problem. In truth he scorned no source of information, and was +conscienceless in the compilation of this somewhat chaotic record. + +The affairs of John Lexman recalled Kara, and Kara's great reception. +Mansus would have made arrangements to secure a verbatim report of the +speeches which were made, and these would be in his hands by the night. +Mansus did not tell him that Kara was financing some very influential +people indeed, that a certain Under-secretary of State with a great +number of very influential relations had been saved from bankruptcy by +the timely advances which Kara had made. This T. X. had obtained through +sources which might be hastily described as discreditable. Mansus knew +of the baccarat establishment in Albemarle Street, but he did not know +that the neurotic wife of a very great man indeed, no less than the +Minister of Justice, was a frequent visitor to that establishment, and +that she had lost in one night some 6,000 pounds. In these circumstances +it was remarkable, thought T. X., that she should report to the police +so small a matter as the petty pilfering of servants. This, however, +she had done and whilst the lesser officers of Scotland Yard were +interrogating pawnbrokers, the men higher up were genuinely worried by +the lady's own lapses from grace. + +It was all sordid but, unfortunately, conventional, because highly +placed people will always do underbred things, where money or women +are concerned, but it was necessary, for the proper conduct of the +department which T. X. directed, that, however sordid and however +conventional might be the errors which the great ones of the earth +committed, they should be filed for reference. + +The motto which T. X. went upon in life was, “You never know.” + +The Minister of Justice was a very important person, for he was a +personal friend of half the monarchs of Europe. A poor man, with two or +three thousand a year of his own, with no very definite political +views and uncommitted to the more violent policies of either party, he +succeeded in serving both, with profit to himself, and without earning +the obloquy of either. Though he did not pursue the blatant policy +of the Vicar of Bray, yet it is fact which may be confirmed from +the reader's own knowledge, that he served in four different +administrations, drawing the pay and emoluments of his office from each, +though the fundamental policies of those four governments were distinct. + +Lady Bartholomew, the wife of this adaptable Minister, had recently +departed for San Remo. The newspapers announced the fact and spoke +vaguely of a breakdown which prevented the lady from fulfilling her +social engagements. + +T. X., ever a Doubting Thomas, could trace no visit of nerve specialist, +nor yet of the family practitioner, to the official residence in Downing +Street, and therefore he drew conclusions. In his own “Who's Who” T. +X. noted the hobbies of his victims which, by the way, did not always +coincide with the innocent occupations set against their names in the +more pretentious volume. Their follies and their weaknesses found a +place and were recorded at a length (as it might seem to the uninformed +observer) beyond the limit which charity allowed. + +Lady Mary Bartholomew's name appeared not once, but many times, in the +erratic records which T. X. kept. There was a plain matter-of-fact and +wholly unobjectionable statement that she was born in 1874, that she was +the seventh daughter of the Earl of Balmorey, that she had one daughter +who rejoiced in the somewhat unpromising name of Belinda Mary, and such +further information as a man might get without going to a great deal of +trouble. + +T. X., refreshing his memory from the little red book, wondered what +unexpected tragedy had sent Lady Bartholomew out of London in the middle +of the season. The information was that the lady was fairly well off at +this moment, and this fact made matters all the more puzzling and +almost induced him to believe that, after all, the story was true, and a +nervous breakdown really was the cause of her sudden departure. He sent +for Mansus. + +“You saw Lady Bartholomew off at Charing Cross, I suppose?” + +Mansus nodded. + +“She went alone?” + +“She took her maid, but otherwise she was alone. I thought she looked +ill.” + +“She has been looking ill for months past,” said T. X., without any +visible expression of sympathy. + +“Did she take Belinda Mary?” + +Mansus was puzzled. “Belinda Mary?” he repeated slowly. “Oh, you mean +the daughter. No, she's at a school somewhere in France.” + +T. X. whistled a snatch of a popular song, closed the little red book +with a snap and replaced it in his desk. + +“I wonder where on earth people dig up names like Belinda Mary?” he +mused. “Belinda Mary must be rather a weird little animal--the Lord +forgive me for speaking so about my betters! If heredity counts for +anything she ought to be something between a head waiter and a pack of +cards. Have you lost anything'?” + +Mansus was searching his pockets. + +“I made a few notes, some questions I wanted to ask you about and +Lady Bartholomew was the subject of one of them. I have had her under +observation for six months; do you want it kept up?” + +T. X. thought awhile, then shook his head. + +“I am only interested in Lady Bartholomew in so far as Kara is +interested in her. There is a criminal for you, my friend!” he added, +admiringly. + +Mansus busily engaged in going through the bundles of letters, slips +of paper and little notebooks he had taken from his pocket, sniffed +audibly. + +“Have you a cold?” asked T. X. politely. + +“No, sir,” was the reply, “only I haven't much opinion of Kara as a +criminal. Besides, what has he got to be a criminal about? He has all +that he requires in the money department, he's one of the most popular +people in London, and certainly one of the best-looking men I've ever +seen in my life. He needs nothing.” + +T. X. regarded him scornfully. + +“You're a poor blind brute,” he said, shaking his head; don't you know +that great criminals are never influenced by material desires, or by +the prospect of concrete gains? The man, who robs his employer's till +in order to give the girl of his heart the 25-pearl and ruby brooch her +soul desires, gains nothing but the glow of satisfaction which comes to +the man who is thought well of. The majority of crimes in the world are +committed by people for the same reason--they want to be thought well +of. Here is Doctor X. who murdered his wife because she was a drunkard +and a slut, and he dared not leave her for fear the neighbours would +have doubts as to his respectability. Here is another gentleman who +murders his wives in their baths in order that he should keep up some +sort of position and earn the respect of his friends and his associates. +Nothing roused him more quickly to a frenzy of passion than the +suggestion that he was not respectable. Here is the great financier, who +has embezzled a million and a quarter, not because he needed money, +but because people looked up to him. Therefore, he must build +great mansions, submarine pleasure courts and must lay out huge +estates--because he wished that he should be thought well of. + +Mansus sniffed again. + +“What about the man who half murders his wife, does he do that to be +well thought of?” he asked, with a tinge of sarcasm. + +T. X. looked at him pityingly. + +“The low-brow who beats his wife, my poor Mansus,” he said, “does so +because she doesn't think well of him. That is our ruling passion, +our national characteristic, the primary cause of most crimes, big or +little. That is why Kara is a bad criminal and will, as I say, end his +life very violently.” + +He took down his glossy silk hat from the peg and slipped into his +overcoat. + +“I am going down to see my friend Kara,” he said. “I have a feeling that +I should like to talk with him. He might tell me something.” + +His acquaintance with Kara's menage had been mere hearsay. He had +interviewed the Greek once after his return, but since all his efforts +to secure information concerning the whereabouts of John Lexman and +his wife--the main reason for his visit--had been in vain, he had not +repeated his visit. + +The house in Cadogan Square was a large one, occupying a corner site. It +was peculiarly English in appearance with its window boxes, its discreet +curtains, its polished brass and enamelled doorway. It had been the +town house of Lord Henry Gratham, that eccentric connoisseur of wine and +follower of witless pleasure. It had been built by him “round a +bottle of port,” as his friends said, meaning thereby that his first +consideration had been the cellarage of the house, and that when those +cellars had been built and provision made for the safe storage of his +priceless wines, the house had been built without the architect's being +greatly troubled by his lordship. The double cellars of Gratham House +had, in their time, been one of the sights of London. When Henry Gratham +lay under eight feet of Congo earth (he was killed by an elephant +whilst on a hunting trip) his executors had been singularly fortunate +in finding an immediate purchaser. Rumour had it that Kara, who was +no lover of wine, had bricked up the cellars, and their very existence +passed into domestic legendary. + +The door was opened by a well-dressed and deferential man-servant and +T. X. was ushered into the hall. A fire burnt cheerily in a bronze grate +and T. X. had a glimpse of a big oil painting of Kara above the marble +mantle-piece. + +“Mr. Kara is very busy, sir,” said the man. + +“Just take in my card,” said T. X. “I think he may care to see me.” + +The man bowed, produced from some mysterious corner a silver salver +and glided upstairs in that manner which well-trained servants have, +a manner which seems to call for no bodily effort. In a minute he +returned. + +“Will you come this way, sir,” he said, and led the way up a broad +flight of stairs. + +At the head of the stairs was a corridor which ran to the left and to +the right. From this there gave four rooms. One at the extreme end of +the passage on the right, one on the left, and two at fairly regular +intervals in the centre. + +When the man's hand was on one of the doors, T. X. asked quietly, “I +think I have seen you before somewhere, my friend.” + +The man smiled. + +“It is very possible, sir. I was a waiter at the Constitutional for some +time.” + +T. X. nodded. + +“That is where it must have been,” he said. + +The man opened the door and announced the visitor. + +T. X. found himself in a large room, very handsomely furnished, but just +lacking that sense of cosiness and comfort which is the feature of the +Englishman's home. + +Kara rose from behind a big writing table, and came with a smile and a +quick step to greet the visitor. + +“This is a most unexpected pleasure,” he said, and shook hands warmly. + +T. X. had not seen him for a year and found very little change in this +strange young man. He could not be more confident than he had been, nor +bear himself with a more graceful carriage. Whatever social success he +had achieved, it had not spoiled him, for his manner was as genial and +easy as ever. + +“I think that will do, Miss Holland,” he said, turning to the girl who, +with notebook in hand, stood by the desk. + +“Evidently,” thought T. X., “our Hellenic friend has a pretty taste in +secretaries.” + +In that one glance he took her all in--from the bronze-brown of her hair +to her neat foot. + +T. X. was not readily attracted by members of the opposite sex. He was +self-confessed a predestined bachelor, finding life and its incidence +too absorbing to give his whole mind to the serious problem of marriage, +or to contract responsibilities and interests which might divert his +attention from what he believed was the greater game. Yet he must be a +man of stone to resist the freshness, the beauty and the youth of this +straight, slender girl; the pink-and-whiteness of her, the aliveness +and buoyancy and the thrilling sense of vitality she carried in her very +presence. + +“What is the weirdest name you have ever heard?” asked Kara laughingly. +“I ask you, because Miss Holland and I have been discussing a begging +letter addressed to us by a Maggie Goomer.” + +The girl smiled slightly and in that smile was paradise, thought T. X. + +“The weirdest name?” he repeated, “why I think the worst I have heard +for a long time is Belinda Mary.” + +“That has a familiar ring,” said Kara. + +T. X. was looking at the girl. + +She was staring at him with a certain languid insolence which made him +curl up inside. Then with a glance at her employer she swept from the +room. + +“I ought to have introduced you,” said Kara. “That was my secretary, +Miss Holland. Rather a pretty girl, isn't she?” + +“Very,” said T. X., recovering his breath. + +“I like pretty things around me,” said Kara, and somehow the complacency +of the remark annoyed the detective more than anything that Kara had +ever said to him. + +The Greek went to the mantlepiece, and taking down a silver cigarette +box, opened and offered it to his visitor. Kara was wearing a grey +lounge suit; and although grey is a very trying colour for a foreigner +to wear, this suit fitted his splendid figure and gave him just that +bulk which he needed. + +“You are a most suspicious man, Mr. Meredith,” he smiled. + +“Suspicious! I?” asked the innocent T. X. + +Kara nodded. + +“I am sure you want to enquire into the character of all my present +staff. I am perfectly satisfied that you will never be at rest until you +learn the antecedents of my cook, my valet, my secretary--” + +T. X. held up his hand with a laugh. + +“Spare me,” he said. “It is one of my failings, I admit, but I have +never gone much farther into your domestic affairs than to pry into the +antecedents of your very interesting chauffeur.” + +A little cloud passed over Kara's face, but it was only momentary. + +“Oh, Brown,” he said, airily, with just a perceptible pause between the +two words. + +“It used to be Smith,” said T. X., “but no matter. His name is really +Poropulos.” + +“Oh, Poropulos,” said Kara gravely, “I dismissed him a long time ago.” + +“Pensioned hire, too, I understand,” said T. X. + +The other looked at him awhile, then, “I am very good to my old +servants,” he said slowly and, changing the subject; “to what good +fortune do I owe this visit?” + +T. X. selected a cigarette before he replied. + +“I thought you might be of some service to me,” he said, apparently +giving his whole attention to the cigarette. + +“Nothing would give me greater pleasure,” said Kara, a little eagerly. +“I am afraid you have not been very keen on continuing what I hoped +would have ripened into a valuable friendship, more valuable to me +perhaps,” he smiled, “than to you.” + +“I am a very shy man,” said the shameless T. X., “difficult to a fault, +and rather apt to underrate my social attractions. I have come to you +now because you know everybody--by the way, how long have you had your +secretary!” he asked abruptly. + +Kara looked up at the ceiling for inspiration. + +“Four, no three months,” he corrected, “a very efficient young lady +who came to me from one of the training establishments. Somewhat +uncommunicative, better educated than most girls in her position--for +example, she speaks and writes modern Greek fairly well.” + +“A treasure!” suggested T. X. + +“Unusually so,” said Kara. “She lives in Marylebone Road, 86a is the +address. She has no friends, spends most of her evenings in her room, +is eminently respectable and a little chilling in her attitude to her +employer.” + +T. X. shot a swift glance at the other. + +“Why do you tell me all this?” he asked. + +“To save you the trouble of finding out,” replied the other coolly. +“That insatiable curiosity which is one of the equipments of your +profession, would, I feel sure, induce you to conduct investigations for +your own satisfaction.” + +T. X. laughed. + +“May I sit down?” he said. + +The other wheeled an armchair across the room and T. X. sank into it. +He leant back and crossed his legs, and was, in a second, the +personification of ease. + +“I think you are a very clever man, Monsieur Kara,” he said. + +The other looked down at him this time without amusement. + +“Not so clever that I can discover the object of your visit,” he said +pleasantly enough. + +“It is very simply explained,” said T. X. “You know everybody in town. +You know, amongst other people, Lady Bartholomew.” + +“I know the lady very well indeed,” said Kara, readily,--too readily +in fact, for the rapidity with which answer had followed question, +suggested to T. X. that Kara had anticipated the reason for the call. + +“Have you any idea,” asked T. X., speaking with deliberation, “as to why +Lady Bartholomew has gone out of town at this particular moment?” + +Kara laughed. + +“What an extraordinary question to ask me--as though Lady Bartholomew +confided her plans to one who is little more than a chance +acquaintance!” + +“And yet,” said T. X., contemplating the burning end of his cigarette, +“you know her well enough to hold her promissory note.” + +“Promissory note?” asked the other. + +His tone was one of involuntary surprise and T. X. swore softly to +himself for now he saw the faintest shade of relief in Kara's face. The +Commissioner realized that he had committed an error--he had been far +too definite. + +“When I say promissory note,” he went on easily, as though he had +noticed nothing, “I mean, of course, the securities which the debtor +invariably gives to one from whom he or she has borrowed large sums of +money.” + +Kara made no answer, but opening a drawer of his desk he took out a key +and brought it across to where T. X. was sitting. + +“Here is the key of my safe,” he said quietly. “You are at liberty to go +carefully through its contents and discover for yourself any promissory +note which I hold from Lady Bartholomew. My dear fellow, you don't +imagine I'm a moneylender, do you?” he said in an injured tone. + +“Nothing was further from my thoughts,” said T. X., untruthfully. + +But the other pressed the key upon him. + +“I should be awfully glad if you would look for yourself,” he said +earnestly. “I feel that in some way you associate Lady Bartholomew's +illness with some horrible act of usury on my part--will you satisfy +yourself and in doing so satisfy me?” + +Now any ordinary man, and possibly any ordinary detective, would have +made the conventional answer. He would have protested that he had no +intention of doing anything of the sort; he would have uttered, if +he were a man in the position which T. X. occupied, the conventional +statement that he had no authority to search the private papers, and +that he would certainly not avail himself of the other's kindness. +But T. X. was not an ordinary person. He took the key and balanced it +lightly in the palm of his hand. + +“Is this the key of the famous bedroom safe?” he said banteringly. + +Kara was looking down at him with a quizzical smile. “It isn't the safe +you opened in my absence, on one memorable occasion, Mr. Meredith,” he +said. “As you probably know, I have changed that safe, but perhaps you +don't feel equal to the task?” + +“On the contrary,” said T. X., calmly, and rising from the chair, “I am +going to put your good faith to the test.” + +For answer Kara walked to the door and opened it. + +“Let me show you the way,” he said politely. + +He passed along the corridor and entered the apartment at the end. The +room was a large one and lighted by one big square window which was +protected by steel bars. In the grate which was broad and high a huge +fire was burning and the temperature of the room was unpleasantly close +despite the coldness of the day. + +“That is one of the eccentricities which you, as an Englishman, will +never excuse in me,” said Kara. + +Near the foot of the bed, let into, and flush with, the wall, was a big +green door of the safe. + +“Here you are, Mr. Meredith,” said Kara. “All the precious secrets of +Remington Kara are yours for the seeking.” + +“I am afraid I've had my trouble for nothing,” said T. X., making no +attempt to use the key. + +“That is an opinion which I share,” said Kara, with a smile. + +“Curiously enough,” said T. X. “I mean just what you mean.” + +He handed the key to Kara. + +“Won't you open it?” asked the Greek. + +T. X. shook his head. + +“The safe as far as I can see is a Magnus, the key which you have been +kind enough to give me is legibly inscribed upon the handle 'Chubb.' My +experience as a police officer has taught me that Chubb keys very rarely +open Magnus safes.” + +Kara uttered an exclamation of annoyance. + +“How stupid of me!” he said, “yet now I remember, I sent the key to my +bankers, before I went out of town--I only came back this morning, you +know. I will send for it at once.” + +“Pray don't trouble,” murmured T. X. politely. He took from his pocket +a little flat leather case and opened it. It contained a number of steel +implements of curious shape which were held in position by a leather +loop along the centre of the case. From one of these loops he extracted +a handle, and deftly fitted something that looked like a steel awl +to the socket in the handle. Looking in wonder, and with no little +apprehension, Kara saw that the awl was bent at the head. + +“What are you going to do?” he asked, a little alarmed. + +“I'll show you,” said T. X. pleasantly. + +Very gingerly he inserted the instrument in the small keyhole and turned +it cautiously first one way and then the other. There was a sharp click +followed by another. He turned the handle and the door of the safe swung +open. + +“Simple, isn't it!” he asked politely. + +In that second of time Kara's face had undergone a transformation. The +eyes which met T. X. Meredith's blazed with an almost insane fury. With +a quick stride Kara placed himself before the open safe. + +“I think this has gone far enough, Mr. Meredith,” he said harshly. “If +you wish to search my safe you must get a warrant.” + +T. X. shrugged his shoulders, and carefully unscrewing the instrument he +had employed and replacing it in the case, he returned it to his inside +pocket. + +“It was at your invitation, my dear Monsieur Kara,” he said suavely. “Of +course I knew that you were putting a bluff up on me with the key and +that you had no more intention of letting me see the inside of your safe +than you had of telling me exactly what happened to John Lexman.” + +The shot went home. + +The face which was thrust into the Commissioner's was ridged and veined +with passion. The lips were turned back to show the big white even +teeth, the eyes were narrowed to slits, the jaw thrust out, and almost +every semblance of humanity had vanished from his face. + +“You--you--” he hissed, and his clawing hands moved suspiciously +backward. + +“Put up your hands,” said T. X. sharply, “and be damned quick about it!” + +In a flash the hands went up, for the revolver which T. X. held was +pressed uncomfortably against the third button of the Greek's waistcoat. + +“That's not the first time you've been asked to put up your hands, I +think,” said T. X. pleasantly. + +His own left hand slipped round to Kara's hip pocket. He found something +in the shape of a cylinder and drew it out from the pocket. To his +surprise it was not a revolver, not even a knife; it looked like a small +electric torch, though instead of a bulb and a bull's-eye glass, there +was a pepper-box perforation at one end. + +He handled it carefully and was about to press the small nickel knob +when a strangled cry of horror broke from Kara. + +“For God's sake be careful!” he gasped. “You're pointing it at me! Do +not press that lever, I beg!” + +“Will it explode!” asked T. X. curiously. + +“No, no!” + +T. X. pointed the thing downward to the carpet and pressed the knob +cautiously. As he did so there was a sharp hiss and the floor was +stained with the liquid which the instrument contained. Just one gush +of fluid and no more. T. X. looked down. The bright carpet had already +changed colour, and was smoking. The room was filled with a pungent and +disagreeable scent. T. X. looked from the floor to the white-faced man. + +“Vitriol, I believe,” he said, shaking his head admiringly. “What a dear +little fellow you are!” + +The man, big as he was, was on the point of collapse and mumbled +something about self-defence, and listened without a word, whilst T. +X., labouring under an emotion which was perfectly pardonable, described +Kara, his ancestors and the possibilities of his future estate. + +Very slowly the Greek recovered his self-possession. + +“I didn't intend using it on you, I swear I didn't,” he pleaded. +“I'm surrounded by enemies, Meredith. I had to carry some means of +protection. It is because my enemies know I carry this that they fight +shy of me. I'll swear I had no intention of using it on you. The idea is +too preposterous. I am sorry I fooled you about the safe.” + +“Don't let that worry you,” said T. X. “I am afraid I did all the +fooling. No, I cannot let you have this back again,” he said, as the +Greek put out his hand to take the infernal little instrument. “I must +take this back to Scotland Yard; it's quite a long time since we had +anything new in this shape. Compressed air, I presume.” + +Kara nodded solemnly. + +“Very ingenious indeed,” said T. X. “If I had a brain like yours,” he +paused, “I should do something with it--with a gun,” he added, as he +passed out of the room. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + + “My dear Mr. Meredith, + + “I cannot tell you how unhappy and humiliated I feel that my + little joke with you should have had such an uncomfortable + ending. As you know, and as I have given you proof, I have + the greatest admiration in the world for one whose work for + humanity has won such universal recognition. + + “I hope that we shall both forget this unhappy morning and + that you will give me an opportunity of rendering to you in + person, the apologies which are due to you. I feel that + anything less will neither rehabilitate me in your esteem, + nor secure for me the remnants of my shattered self-respect. + + “I am hoping you will dine with me next week and meet a most + interesting man, George Gathercole, who has just returned + from Patagonia,--I only received his letter this morning-- + having made most remarkable discoveries concerning that + country. + + “I feel sure that you are large enough minded and too much a + man of the world to allow my foolish fit of temper to + disturb a relationship which I have always hoped would be + mutually pleasant. If you will allow Gathercole, who will + be unconscious of the part he is playing, to act as + peacemaker between yourself and myself, I shall feel that + his trip, which has cost me a large sum of money, will not + have been wasted. + + “I am, dear Mr. Meredith, + + “Yours very sincerely, + + “REMINGTON KARA.” + +Kara folded the letter and inserted it in its envelope. He rang a bell +on his table and the girl who had so filled T. X. with a sense of awe +came from an adjoining room. + +“You will see that this is delivered, Miss Holland.” + +She inclined her head and stood waiting. Kara rose from his desk and +began to pace the room. + +“Do you know T. X. Meredith?” he asked suddenly. + +“I have heard of him,” said the girl. + +“A man with a singular mind,” said Kara; “a man against whom my +favourite weapon would fail.” + +She looked at him with interest in her eyes. + +“What is your favourite weapon, Mr. Kara?” she asked. + +“Fear,” he said. + +If he expected her to give him any encouragement to proceed he was +disappointed. Probably he required no such encouragement, for in the +presence of his social inferiors he was somewhat monopolizing. + +“Cut a man's flesh and it heals,” he said. “Whip a man and the memory +of it passes, frighten him, fill him with a sense of foreboding and +apprehension and let him believe that something dreadful is going to +happen either to himself or to someone he loves--better the latter--and +you will hurt him beyond forgetfulness. Fear is a tyrant and a despot, +more terrible than the rack, more potent than the stake. Fear +is many-eyed and sees horrors where normal vision only sees the +ridiculous.” + +“Is that your creed?” she asked quietly. + +“Part of it, Miss Holland,” he smiled. + +She played idly with the letter she held in her hand, balancing it on +the edge of the desk, her eyes downcast. + +“What would justify the use of such an awful weapon?” she asked. + +“It is amply justified to secure an end,” he said blandly. “For +example--I want something--I cannot obtain that something through the +ordinary channel or by the employment of ordinary means. It is essential +to me, to my happiness, to my comfort, or my amour-propre, that that +something shall be possessed by me. If I can buy it, well and good. If +I can buy those who can use their influence to secure this thing for me, +so much the better. If I can obtain it by any merit I possess, I utilize +that merit, providing always, that I can secure my object in the time, +otherwise--” + +He shrugged his shoulders. + +“I see,” she said, nodding her head quickly. “I suppose that is how +blackmailers feel.” + +He frowned. + +“That is a word I never use, nor do I like to hear it employed,” he +said. “Blackmail suggests to me a vulgar attempt to obtain money.” + +“Which is generally very badly wanted by the people who use it,” said +the girl, with a little smile, “and, according to your argument, they +are also justified.” + +“It is a matter of plane,” he said airily. “Viewed from my standpoint, +they are sordid criminals--the sort of person that T. X. meets, I +presume, in the course of his daily work. T. X.,” he went on somewhat +oracularly, “is a man for whom I have a great deal of respect. You will +probably meet him again, for he will find an opportunity of asking you a +few questions about myself. I need hardly tell you--” + +He lifted his shoulders with a deprecating smile. + +“I shall certainly not discuss your business with any person,” said the +girl coldly. + +“I am paying you 3 pounds a week, I think,” he said. “I intend +increasing that to 5 pounds because you suit me most admirably.” + +“Thank you,” said the girl quietly, “but I am already being paid quite +sufficient.” + +She left him, a little astonished and not a little ruffled. + +To refuse the favours of Remington Kara was, by him, regarded +as something of an affront. Half his quarrel with T. X. was that +gentleman's curious indifference to the benevolent attitude which Kara +had persistently adopted in his dealings with the detective. + +He rang the bell, this time for his valet. + +“Fisher,” he said, “I am expecting a visit from a gentleman named +Gathercole--a one-armed gentleman whom you must look after if he comes. +Detain him on some pretext or other because he is rather difficult to +get hold of and I want to see him. I am going out now and I shall be +back at 6.30. Do whatever you can to prevent him going away until +I return. He will probably be interested if you take him into the +library.” + +“Very good, sir,” said the urbane Fisher, “will you change before you go +out?” + +Kara shook his head. + +“I think I will go as I am,” he said. “Get me my fur coat. This beastly +cold kills me,” he shivered as he glanced into the bleak street. “Keep +my fire going, put all my private letters in my bedroom, and see that +Miss Holland has her lunch.” + +Fisher followed him to his car, wrapped the fur rug about his legs, +closed the door carefully and returned to the house. From thence onward +his behaviour was somewhat extraordinary for a well-bred servant. That +he should return to Kara's study and set the papers in order was natural +and proper. + +That he should conduct a rapid examination of all the drawers in Kara's +desk might be excused on the score of diligence, since he was, to some +extent, in the confidence of his employer. + +Kara was given to making friends of his servants--up to a point. In his +more generous moments he would address his bodyguard as “Fred,” and +on more occasions than one, and for no apparent reason, had tipped his +servant over and above his salary. + +Mr. Fred Fisher found little to reward him for his search until he came +upon Kara's cheque book which told him that on the previous day the +Greek had drawn 6,000 pounds in cash from the bank. This interested him +mightily and he replaced the cheque book with the tightened lips and +the fixed gaze of a man who was thinking rapidly. He paid a visit to +the library, where the secretary was engaged in making copies of Kara's +correspondence, answering letters appealing for charitable donations, +and in the hack words which fall to the secretaries of the great. + +He replenished the fire, asked deferentially for any instructions and +returned again to his quest. This time he made the bedroom the scene of +his investigations. The safe he did not attempt to touch, but there +was a small bureau in which Kara would have placed his private +correspondence of the morning. This however yielded no result. + +By the side of the bed on a small table was a telephone, the sight of +which apparently afforded the servant a little amusement. This was +the private 'phone which Kara had been instrumental in having fixed to +Scotland Yard--as he had explained to his servants. + +“Rum cove,” said Fisher. + +He paused for a moment before the closed door of the room and smilingly +surveyed the great steel latch which spanned the door and fitted into +an iron socket securely screwed to the framework. He lifted it +gingerly--there was a little knob for the purpose--and let it fall +gently into the socket which had been made to receive it on the door +itself. + +“Rum cove,” he said again, and lifting the latch to the hook which held +it up, left the room, closing the door softly behind him. He walked down +the corridor, with a meditative frown, and began to descend the stairs +to the hall. + +He was less than half-way down when the one maid of Kara's household +came up to meet him. + +“There's a gentleman who wants to see Mr. Kara,” she said, “here is his +card.” + +Fisher took the card from the salver and read, “Mr. George Gathercole, +Junior Travellers' Club.” + +“I'll see this gentleman,” he said, with a sudden brisk interest. + +He found the visitor standing in the hall. + +He was a man who would have attracted attention, if only from the +somewhat eccentric nature of his dress and his unkempt appearance. He +was dressed in a well-worn overcoat of a somewhat pronounced check, he +had a top-hat, glossy and obviously new, at the back of his head, and +the lower part of his face was covered by a ragged beard. This he was +plucking with nervous jerks, talking to himself the while, and casting a +disparaging eye upon the portrait of Remington Kara which hung above the +marble fireplace. A pair of pince-nez sat crookedly on his nose and +two fat volumes under his arm completed the picture. Fisher, who was an +observer of some discernment, noticed under the overcoat a creased blue +suit, large black boots and a pair of pearl studs. + +The newcomer glared round at the valet. + +“Take these!” he ordered peremptorily, pointing to the books under his +arm. + +Fisher hastened to obey and noted with some wonder that the visitor did +not attempt to assist him either by loosening his hold of the volumes +or raising his hand. Accidentally the valet's hand pressed against the +other's sleeve and he received a shock, for the forearm was clearly an +artificial one. It was against a wooden surface beneath the sleeve +that his knuckles struck, and this view of the stranger's infirmity was +confirmed when the other reached round with his right hand, took hold of +the gloved left hand and thrust it into the pocket of his overcoat. + +“Where is Kara?” growled the stranger. + +“He will be back very shortly, sir,” said the urbane Fisher. + +“Out, is he?” boomed the visitor. “Then I shan't wait. What the devil +does he mean by being out? He's had three years to be out!” + +“Mr. Kara expects you, sir. He told me he would be in at six o'clock at +the latest.” + +“Six o'clock, ye gods'.” stormed the man impatiently. “What dog am I +that I should wait till six?” + +He gave a savage little tug at his beard. + +“Six o'clock, eh? You will tell Mr. Kara that I called. Give me those +books.” + +“But I assure you, sir,--” stammered Fisher. + +“Give me those books!” roared the other. + +Deftly he lifted his left hand from the pocket, crooked the elbow by +some quick manipulation, and thrust the books, which the valet most +reluctantly handed to him, back to the place from whence he had taken +them. + +“Tell Mr. Kara I will call at my own time--do you understand, at my own +time. Good morning to you.” + +“If you would only wait, sir,” pleaded the agonized Fisher. + +“Wait be hanged,” snarled the other. “I've waited three years, I tell +you. Tell Mr. Kara to expect me when he sees me!” + +He went out and most unnecessarily banged the door behind him. Fisher +went back to the library. The girl was sealing up some letters as he +entered and looked up. + +“I am afraid, Miss Holland, I've got myself into very serious trouble.” + +“What is that, Fisher!” asked the girl. + +“There was a gentleman coming to see Mr. Kara, whom Mr. Kara +particularly wanted to see.” + +“Mr. Gathercole,” said the girl quickly. + +Fisher nodded. + +“Yes, miss, I couldn't get him to stay though.” + +She pursed her lips thoughtfully. + +“Mr. Kara will be very cross, but I don't see how you can help it. I +wish you had called me.” + +“He never gave a chance, miss,” said Fisher, with a little smile, “but +if he comes again I'll show him straight up to you.” + +She nodded. + +“Is there anything you want, miss?” he asked as he stood at the door. + +“What time did Mr. Kara say he would be back?” + +“At six o'clock, miss,” the man replied. + +“There is rather an important letter here which has to be delivered.” + +“Shall I ring up for a messenger?” + +“No, I don't think that would be advisable. You had better take it +yourself.” + +Kara was in the habit of employing Fisher as a confidential messenger +when the occasion demanded such employment. + +“I will go with pleasure, miss,” he said. + +It was a heaven-sent opportunity for Fisher, who had been inventing +some excuse for leaving the house. She handed him the letter and he read +without a droop of eyelid the superscription: + +“T. X. Meredith, Esq., Special Service Dept., Scotland Yard, Whitehall.” + +He put it carefully in his pocket and went from the room to change. +Large as the house was Kara did not employ a regular staff of servants. +A maid and a valet comprised the whole of the indoor staff. His cook, +and the other domestics, necessary for conducting an establishment of +that size, were engaged by the day. + +Kara had returned from the country earlier than had been anticipated, +and, save for Fisher, the only other person in the house beside the +girl, was the middle-aged domestic who was parlour-maid, serving-maid +and housekeeper in one. + +Miss Holland sat at her desk to all appearance reading over the +letters she had typed that afternoon but her mind was very far from the +correspondence before her. She heard the soft thud of the front door +closing, and rising she crossed the room rapidly and looked down through +the window to the street. She watched Fisher until he was out of sight; +then she descended to the hall and to the kitchen. + +It was not the first visit she had made to the big underground room with +its vaulted roof and its great ranges--which were seldom used nowadays, +for Kara gave no dinners. + +The maid--who was also cook--arose up as the girl entered. + +“It's a sight for sore eyes to see you in my kitchen, miss,” she smiled. + +“I'm afraid you're rather lonely, Mrs. Beale,” said the girl +sympathetically. + +“Lonely, miss!” cried the maid. “I fairly get the creeps sitting here +hour after hour. It's that door that gives me the hump.” + +She pointed to the far end of the kitchen to a soiled looking door of +unpainted wood. + +“That's Mr. Kara's wine cellar--nobody's been in it but him. I know +he goes in sometimes because I tried a dodge that my brother--who's a +policeman--taught me. I stretched a bit of white cotton across it an' it +was broke the next morning.” + +“Mr. Kara keeps some of his private papers in there,” said the girl +quietly, “he has told me so himself.” + +“H'm,” said the woman doubtfully, “I wish he'd brick it up--the same +as he has the lower cellar--I get the horrors sittin' here at night +expectin' the door to open an' the ghost of the mad lord to come +out--him that was killed in Africa.” + +Miss Holland laughed. + +“I want you to go out now,” she said, “I have no stamps.” + +Mrs. Beale obeyed with alacrity and whilst she was assuming a hat--being +desirous of maintaining her prestige as housekeeper in the eyes of +Cadogan Square, the girl ascended to the upper floor. + +Again she watched from the window the disappearing figure. + +Once out of sight Miss Holland went to work with a remarkable +deliberation and thoroughness. From her bag she produced a small purse +and opened it. In that case was a new steel key. She passed swiftly down +the corridor to Kara's room and made straight for the safe. + +In two seconds it was open and she was examining its contents. It was +a large safe of the usual type. There were four steel drawers fitted at +the back and at the bottom of the strong box. Two of these were unlocked +and contained nothing more interesting than accounts relating to Kara's +estate in Albania. + +The top pair were locked. She was prepared for this contingency and a +second key was as efficacious as the first. An examination of the first +drawer did not produce all that she had expected. She returned the +papers to the drawer, pushed it to and locked it. She gave her attention +to the second drawer. Her hand shook a little as she pulled it open. It +was her last chance, her last hope. + +There were a number of small jewel-boxes almost filling the drawer. She +took them out one by one and at the bottom she found what she had been +searching for and that which had filled her thoughts for the past three +months. + +It was a square case covered in red morocco leather. She inserted her +shaking hand and took it out with a triumphant little cry. + +“At last,” she said aloud, and then a hand grasped her wrist and in a +panic she turned to meet the smiling face of Kara. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +She felt her knees shake under her and thought she was going to swoon. +She put out her disengaged hand to steady herself, and if the face which +was turned to him was pale, there was a steadfast resolution in her dark +eyes. + +“Let me relieve you of that, Miss Holland,” said Kara, in his silkiest +tones. + +He wrenched rather than took the box from her hand, replaced it +carefully in the drawer, pushed the drawer to and locked it, examining +the key as he withdrew it. Then he closed the safe and locked that. + +“Obviously,” he said presently, “I must get a new safe.” + +He had not released his hold of her wrist nor did he, until he had +led her from the room back to the library. Then he released the girl, +standing between her and the door, with folded arms and that cynical, +quiet, contemptuous smile of his upon his handsome face. + +“There are many courses which I can adopt,” he said slowly. “I can +send for the police--when my servants whom you have despatched so +thoughtfully have returned, or I can take your punishment into my own +hands.” + +“So far as I am concerned,” said the girl coolly, “you may send for the +police.” + +She leant back against the edge of the desk, her hands holding the edge, +and faced him without so much as a quaver. + +“I do not like the police,” mused Kara, when there came a knock at the +door. + +Kara turned and opened it and after a low strained conversation he +returned, closing the door and laid a paper of stamps on the girl's +table. + +“As I was saying, I do not care for the police, and I prefer my own +method. In this particular instance the police obviously would not serve +me, because you are not afraid of them and in all probability you are +in their pay--am I right in supposing that you are one of Mr. T. X. +Meredith's accomplices!” + +“I do not know Mr. T. X. Meredith,” she replied calmly, “and I am not in +any way associated with the police.” + +“Nevertheless,” he persisted, “you do not seem to be very scared of them +and that removes any temptation I might have to place you in the hands +of the law. Let me see,” he pursed his lips as he applied his mind to +the problem. + +She half sat, half stood, watching him without any evidence of +apprehension, but with a heart which began to quake a little. For three +months she had played her part and the strain had been greater than +she had confessed to herself. Now the great moment had come and she had +failed. That was the sickening, maddening thing about it all. It was +not the fear of arrest or of conviction, which brought a sinking to +her heart; it was the despair of failure, added to a sense of her +helplessness against this man. + +“If I had you arrested your name would appear in all the papers, of +course,” he said, narrowly, “and your photograph would probably adorn +the Sunday journals,” he added expectantly. + +She laughed. + +“That doesn't appeal to me,” she said. + +“I am afraid it doesn't,” he replied, and strolled towards her as though +to pass her on his way to the window. He was abreast of her when he +suddenly swung round and catching her in his arms he caught her close +to him. Before she could realise what he planned, he had stooped swiftly +and kissed her full upon the mouth. + +“If you scream, I shall kiss you again,” he said, “for I have sent the +maid to buy some more stamps--to the General Post Office.” + +“Let me go,” she gasped. + +Now for the first time he saw the terror in her eyes, and there surged +within him that mad sense of triumph, that intoxication of power which +had been associated with the red letter days of his warped life. + +“You're afraid!” he bantered her, half whispering the words, “you're +afraid now, aren't you? If you scream I shall kiss you again, do you +hear?” + +“For God's sake, let me go,” she whispered. + +He felt her shaking in his arms, and suddenly he released her with a +little laugh, and she sank trembling from head to foot upon the chair by +her desk. + +“Now you're going to tell me who sent you here,” he went on harshly, +“and why you came. I never suspected you. I thought you were one of +those strange creatures one meets in England, a gentlewoman who prefers +working for her living to the more simple business of getting married. +And all the time you were spying--clever--very clever!” + +The girl was thinking rapidly. In five minutes Fisher would return. +Somehow she had faith in Fisher's ability and willingness to save her +from a situation which she realized was fraught with the greatest danger +to herself. She was horribly afraid. She knew this man far better than +he suspected, realized the treachery and the unscrupulousness of him. +She knew he would stop short of nothing, that he was without honour and +without a single attribute of goodness. + +He must have read her thoughts for he came nearer and stood over her. + +“You needn't shrink, my young friend,” he said with a little chuckle. +“You are going to do just what I want you to do, and your first act will +be to accompany me downstairs. Get up.” + +He half lifted, half dragged her to her feet and led her from the room. +They descended to the hall together and the girl spoke no word. Perhaps +she hoped that she might wrench herself free and make her escape into +the street, but in this she was disappointed. The grip about her arm was +a grip of steel and she knew safety did not lie in that direction. She +pulled back at the head of the stairs that led down to the kitchen. + +“Where are you taking me?” she asked. + +“I am going to put you into safe custody,” he said. “On the whole I +think it is best that the police take this matter in hand and I shall +lock you into my wine cellar and go out in search of a policeman.” + +The big wooden door opened, revealing a second door and this Kara +unbolted. She noticed that both doors were sheeted with steel, the outer +on the inside, and the inner door on the outside. She had no time to +make any further observations for Kara thrust her into the darkness. He +switched on a light. + +“I will not deny you that,” he said, pushing her back as she made a +frantic attempt to escape. He swung the outer door to as she raised her +voice in a piercing scream, and clapping his hand over her mouth held +her tightly for a moment. + +“I have warned you,” he hissed. + +She saw his face distorted with rage. She saw Kara transfigured with +devilish anger, saw that handsome, almost godlike countenance thrust +into hers, flushed and seamed with malignity and a hatefulness beyond +understanding and then her senses left her and she sank limp and +swooning into his arms. + + +When she recovered consciousness she found herself lying on a plain +stretcher bed. She sat up suddenly. Kara had gone and the door was +closed. The cellar was dry and clean and its walls were enamelled white. +Light was supplied by two electric lamps in the ceiling. There was a +table and a chair and a small washstand, and air was evidently supplied +through unseen ventilators. It was indeed a prison and no less, and in +her first moments of panic she found herself wondering whether Kara had +used this underground dungeon of his before for a similar purpose. + +She examined the room carefully. At the farthermost end was another +door and this she pushed gently at first and then vigorously without +producing the slightest impression. She still had her bag, a small +affair of black moire, which hung from her belt, in which was nothing +more formidable than a penknife, a small bottle of smelling salts and +a pair of scissors. The latter she had used for cutting out those +paragraphs from the daily newspapers which referred to Kara's movements. + +They would make a formidable weapon, and wrapping her handkerchief round +the handle to give it a better grip she placed it on the table within +reach. She was dimly conscious all the time that she had heard something +about this wine cellar--something which, if she could recollect it, +would be of service to her. + +Then in a flash she remembered that there was a lower cellar, which +according to Mrs. Beale was never used and was bricked up. It was +approached from the outside, down a circular flight of stairs. There +might be a way out from that direction and would there not be some +connection between the upper cellar and the lower! + +She set to work to make a closer examination of the apartment. + +The floor was of concrete, covered with a light rush matting. This she +carefully rolled up, starting at the door. One half of the floor was +uncovered without revealing the existence of any trap. She attempted to +pull the table into the centre of the room, better to roll the matting, +but found it fixed to the wall, and going down on her knees, she +discovered that it had been fixed after the matting had been laid. + +Obviously there was no need for the fixture and, she tapped the floor +with her little knuckle. Her heart started racing. The sound her +knocking gave forth was a hollow one. She sprang up, took her bag from +the table, opened the little penknife and cut carefully through the thin +rushes. She might have to replace the matting and it was necessary she +should do her work tidily. + +Soon the whole of the trap was revealed. There was an iron ring, which +fitted flush with the top and which she pulled. The trap yielded and +swung back as though there were a counterbalance at the other end, as +indeed there was. She peered down. There was a dim light below--the +reflection of a light in the distance. A flight of steps led down to the +lower level and after a second's hesitation she swung her legs over the +cavity and began her descent. + +She was in a cellar slightly smaller than that above her. The light +she had seen came from an inner apartment which would be underneath the +kitchen of the house. She made her way cautiously along, stepping on +tip-toe. The first of the rooms she came to was well-furnished. There +was a thick carpet on the floor, comfortable easy-chairs, a little +bookcase well filled, and a reading lamp. This must be Kara's +underground study, where he kept his precious papers. + +A smaller room gave from this and again it was doorless. She looked in +and after her eyes had become accustomed to the darkness she saw that it +was a bathroom handsomely fitted. + +The room she was in was also without any light which came from the +farthermost chamber. As the girl strode softly across the well-carpeted +room she trod on something hard. She stooped and felt along the +floor and her fingers encountered a thin steel chain. The girl was +bewildered-almost panic-stricken. She shrunk back from the entrance +of the inner room, fearful of what she would see. And then from the +interior came a sound that made her tingle with horror. + +It was a sound of a sigh, long and trembling. She set her teeth and +strode through the doorway and stood for a moment staring with open eyes +and mouth at what she saw. + +“My God!” she breathed, “London. . . . in the twentieth century. . . !” + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +Superintendent Mansus had a little office in Scotland Yard proper, +which, he complained, was not so much a private bureau, as a +waiting-room to which repaired every official of the police service +who found time hanging on his hands. On the afternoon of Miss Holland's +surprising adventure, a plainclothes man of “D” Division brought to +Mr. Mansus's room a very scared domestic servant, voluble, tearful and +agonizingly penitent. It was a mood not wholly unfamiliar to a police +officer of twenty years experience and Mr. Mansus was not impressed. + +“If you will kindly shut up,” he said, blending his natural politeness +with his employment of the vernacular, “and if you will also answer +a few questions I will save you a lot of trouble. You were Lady +Bartholomew's maid weren't you?” + +“Yes, sir,” sobbed the red-eyed Mary Ann. + +“And you have been detected trying to pawn a gold bracelet, the property +of Lady Bartholomew?” + +The maid gulped, nodded and started breathlessly upon a recital of her +wrongs. + +“Yes, sir--but she practically gave it to me, sir, and I haven't had my +wages for two months, sir, and she can give that foreigner thousands +and thousands of pounds at a time, sir, but her poor servants she can't +pay--no, she can't. And if Sir William knew especially about my lady's +cards and about the snuffbox, what would he think, I wonder, and I'm +going to have my rights, for if she can pay thousands to a swell like +Mr. Kara she can pay me and--” + +Mansus jerked his head. + +“Take her down to the cells,” he said briefly, and they led her away, a +wailing, woeful figure of amateur larcenist. + +In three minutes Mansus was with T. X. and had reduced the girl's +incoherence to something like order. + +“This is important,” said T. X.; “produce the Abigail.” + +“The--?” asked the puzzled officer. + +“The skivvy--slavey--hired help--get busy,” said T. X. impatiently. + +They brought her to T. X. in a condition bordering upon collapse. + +“Get her a cup of tea,” said the wise chief. “Sit down, Mary Ann, and +forget all your troubles.” + +“Oh, sir, I've never been in this position before,” she began, as she +flopped into the chair they put for her. + +“Then you've had a very tiring time,” said T. X. “Now listen--” + +“I've been respectable--” + +“Forget it!” said T. X., wearily. “Listen! If you'll tell me the whole +truth about Lady Bartholomew and the money she paid to Mr. Kara--” + +“Two thousand pounds--two separate thousand and by all accounts-” + +“If you will tell me the truth, I'll compound a felony and let you go +free.” + +It was a long time before he could prevail upon her to clear her +speech of the ego which insisted upon intruding. There were gaps in her +narrative which he bridged. In the main it was a believable story. Lady +Bartholomew had lost money and had borrowed from Kara. She had given as +security, the snuffbox presented to her husband's father, a doctor, by +one of the Czars for services rendered, and was “all blue enamel and +gold, and foreign words in diamonds.” On the question of the amount Lady +Bartholomew had borrowed, Abigail was very vague. All that she knew was +that my lady had paid back two thousand pounds and that she was still +very distressed (“in a fit” was the phrase the girl used), because +apparently Kara refused to restore the box. + +There had evidently been terrible scenes in the Bartholomew menage, +hysterics and what not, the principal breakdown having occurred when +Belinda Mary came home from school in France. + +“Miss Bartholomew is home then. Where is she?” asked T. X. + +Here the girl was more vague than ever. She thought the young lady had +gone back again, anyway Miss Belinda had been very much upset. Miss +Belinda had seen Dr. Williams and advised that her mother should go away +for a change. + +“Miss Belinda seems to be a precocious young person,” said T. X. “Did +she by any chance see Mr. Kara?” + +“Oh, no,” explained the girl. “Miss Belinda was above that sort of +person. Miss Belinda was a lady, if ever there was one.” + +“And how old is this interesting young woman?” asked T. X. curiously. + +“She is nineteen,” said the girl, and the Commissioner, who had pictured +Belinda in short plaid frocks and long pigtails, and had moreover +visualised her as a freckled little girl with thin legs and snub nose, +was abashed. + +He delivered a short lecture on the sacred rights of property, paid the +girl the three months' wages which were due to her--he had no doubt as +to the legality of her claim--and dismissed her with instructions to go +back to the house, pack her box and clear out. + +After the girl had gone, T. X. sat down to consider the position. He +might see Kara and since Kara had expressed his contrition and was +probably in a more humble state of mind, he might make reparation. Then +again he might not. Mansus was waiting and T. X. walked back with him to +his little office. + +“I hardly know what to make of it,” he said in despair. + +“If you can give me Kara's motive, sir, I can give you a solution,” said +Mansus. + +T. X. shook his head. + +“That is exactly what I am unable to give you,” he said. + +He perched himself on Mansus's desk and lit a cigar. + +“I have a good mind to go round and see him,” he said after a while. + +“Why not telephone to him?” asked Mansus. “There is his 'phone straight +into his boudoir.” + +He pointed to a small telephone in a corner of the room. + +“Oh, he persuaded the Commissioner to run the wire, did he?” said T. X. +interested, and walked over to the telephone. + +He fingered the receiver for a little while and was about to take it +off, but changed his mind. + +“I think not,” he said, “I'll go round and see him to-morrow. I don't +hope to succeed in extracting the confidence in the case of Lady +Bartholomew, which he denied me over poor Lexman.” + +“I suppose you'll never give up hope of seeing Mr. Lexman again,” smiled +Mansus, busily arranging a new blotting pad. + +Before T. X. could answer there came a knock at the door, and a +uniformed policeman, entered. He saluted T. X. + +“They've just sent an urgent letter across from your office, sir. I said +I thought you were here.” + +He handed the missive to the Commissioner. T. X. took it and glanced at +the typewritten address. It was marked “urgent” and “by hand.” He +took up the thin, steel, paper-knife from the desk and slit open the +envelope. The letter consisted of three or four pages of manuscript and, +unlike the envelope, it was handwritten. + +“My dear T. X.,” it began, and the handwriting was familiar. + +Mansus, watching the Commissioner, saw the puzzled frown gather on +his superior's forehead, saw the eyebrows arch and the mouth open +in astonishment, saw him hastily turn to the last page to read the +signature and then: + +“Howling apples!” gasped T. X. “It's from John Lexman!” + +His hand shook as he turned the closely written pages. The letter was +dated that afternoon. There was no other address than “London.” + +“My dear T. X.,” it began, “I do not doubt that this letter will give +you a little shock, because most of my friends will have believed that I +am gone beyond return. Fortunately or unfortunately that is not so. For +myself I could wish--but I am not going to take a very gloomy view since +I am genuinely pleased at the thought that I shall be meeting you again. +Forgive this letter if it is incoherent but I have only this moment +returned and am writing at the Charing Cross Hotel. I am not staying +here, but I will let you have my address later. The crossing has been +a very severe one so you must forgive me if my letter sounds a little +disjointed. You will be sorry to hear that my dear wife is dead. She +died abroad about six months ago. I do not wish to talk very much about +it so you will forgive me if I do not tell you any more. + +“My principal object in writing to you at the moment is an official +one. I suppose I am still amenable to punishment and I have decided to +surrender myself to the authorities to-night. You used to have a most +excellent assistant in Superintendent Mansus, and if it is convenient to +you, as I hope it will be, I will report myself to him at 10.15. At any +rate, my dear T. X., I do not wish to mix you up in my affairs and if +you will let me do this business through Mansus I shall be very much +obliged to you. + +“I know there is no great punishment awaiting me, because my pardon was +apparently signed on the night before my escape. I shall not have much +to tell you, because there is not much in the past two years that I +would care to recall. We endured a great deal of unhappiness and death +was very merciful when it took my beloved from me. + +“Do you ever see Kara in these days? + +“Will you tell Mansus to expect me at between ten and half-past, and if +he will give instructions to the officer on duty in the hall I will come +straight up to his room. + +“With affectionate regards, my dear fellow, I am, + +“Yours sincerely, + +“JOHN LEXMAN.” + + +T. X. read the letter over twice and his eyes were troubled. + +“Poor girl,” he said softly, and handed the letter to Mansus. “He +evidently wants to see you because he is afraid of using my friendship +to his advantage. I shall be here, nevertheless.” + +“What will be the formality?” asked Mansus. + +“There will be no formality,” said the other briskly. “I will secure the +necessary pardon from the Home Secretary and in point of fact I have it +already promised, in writing.” + +He walked back to Whitehall, his mind fully occupied with the momentous +events of the day. It was a raw February evening, sleet was falling +in the street, a piercing easterly wind drove even through his thick +overcoat. In such doorways as offered protection from the bitter +elements the wreckage of humanity which clings to the West end of +London, as the singed moth flutters about the flame that destroys it, +were huddled for warmth. + +T. X. was a man of vast human sympathies. + +All his experience with the criminal world, all his disappointments, +all his disillusions had failed to quench the pity for his unfortunate +fellows. He made it a rule on such nights as these, that if, by chance, +returning late to his office he should find such a shivering piece of +jetsam sheltering in his own doorway, he would give him or her the price +of a bed. + +In his own quaint way he derived a certain speculative excitement from +this practice. If the doorway was empty he regarded himself as a winner, +if some one stood sheltered in the deep recess which is a feature of the +old Georgian houses in this historic thoroughfare, he would lose to the +extent of a shilling. + +He peered forward through the semi-darkness as he neared the door of his +offices. + +“I've lost,” he said, and stripped his gloves preparatory to groping in +his pocket for a coin. + +Somebody was standing in the entrance, but it was obviously a very +respectable somebody. A dumpy, motherly somebody in a seal-skin coat and +a preposterous bonnet. + +“Hullo,” said T. X. in surprise, “are you trying to get in here?” + +“I want to see Mr. Meredith,” said the visitor, in the mincing affected +tones of one who excused the vulgar source of her prosperity by +frequently reiterated claims to having seen better days. + +“Your longing shall be gratified,” said T. X. gravely. + +He unlocked the heavy door, passed through the uncarpeted passage--there +are no frills on Government offices--and led the way up the stairs to +the suite on the first floor which constituted his bureau. + +He switched on all the lights and surveyed his visitor, a comfortable +person of the landlady type. + +“A good sort,” thought T. X., “but somewhat overweighted with lorgnettes +and seal-skin.” + +“You will pardon my coming to see you at this hour of the night,” she +began deprecatingly, “but as my dear father used to say, 'Hopi soit qui +mal y pense.'” + +“Your dear father being in the garter business?” suggested T. X. +humorously. “Won't you sit down, Mrs. ----” + +“Mrs. Cassley,” beamed the lady as she seated herself. “He was in the +paper hanging business. But needs must, when the devil drives, as the +saying goes.” + +“What particular devil is driving you, Mrs. Cassley?” asked T. X., +somewhat at a loss to understand the object of this visit. + +“I may be doing wrong,” began the lady, pursing her lips, “and two +blacks will never make a white.” + +“And all that glitters is not gold,” suggested T. X. a little wearily. +“Will you please tell me your business, Mrs. Cassley? I am a very hungry +man.” + +“Well, it's like this, sir,” said Mrs. Cassley, dropping her erudition, +and coming down to bedrock homeliness; “I've got a young lady stopping +with me, as respectable a gel as I've had to deal with. And I know +what respectability is, I might tell you, for I've taken professional +boarders and I have been housekeeper to a doctor.” + +“You are well qualified to speak,” said T. X. with a smile. “And what +about this particular young lady of yours! By the way what is your +address?” + +“86a Marylebone Road,” said the lady. + +T. X. sat up. + +“Yes?” he said quickly. “What about your young lady?” + +“She works as far as I can understand,” said the loquacious landlady, +“with a certain Mr. Kara in the typewriting line. She came to me four +months ago.” + +“Never mind when she came to you,” said T. X. impatiently. “Have you a +message from the lady?” + +“Well, it's like this, sir,” said Mrs. Cassley, leaning forward +confidentially and speaking in the hollow tone which she had decided +should accompany any revelation to a police officer, “this young lady +said to me, 'If I don't come any night by 8 o'clock you must go to T. X. +and tell him--'!” + +She paused dramatically. + +“Yes, yes,” said T. X. quickly, “for heaven's sake go on, woman.” + +“'Tell him,'” said Mrs. Cassley, “'that Belinda Mary--'” + +He sprang to his feet. + +“Belinda Mary!” he breathed, “Belinda Mary!” In a flash he saw it all. +This girl with a knowledge of modern Greek, who was working in Kara's +house, was there for a purpose. Kara had something of her mother's, +something that was vital and which he would not part with, and she +had adopted this method of securing that some thing. Mrs. Cassley +was prattling on, but her voice was merely a haze of sound to him. +It brought a strange glow to his heart that Belinda Mary should have +thought of him. + +“Only as a policeman, of course,” said the still, small voice of his +official self. “Perhaps!” said the human T. X., defiantly. + +He got on the telephone to Mansus and gave a few instructions. + +“You stay here,” he ordered the astounded Mrs. Cassley; “I am going to +make a few investigations.” + +Kara was at home, but was in bed. T. X. remembered that this +extraordinary man invariably went to bed early and that it was his +practice to receive visitors in this guarded room of his. He was +admitted almost at once and found Kara in his silk dressing-gown lying +on the bed smoking. The heat of the room was unbearable even on that +bleak February night. + +“This is a pleasant surprise,” said Kara, sitting up; “I hope you don't +mind my dishabille.” + +T. X. came straight to the point. + +“Where is Miss Holland!” he asked. + +“Miss Holland?” Kara's eyebrows advertised his astonishment. “What an +extraordinary question to ask me, my dear man! At her home, or at the +theatre or in a cinema palace--I don't know how these people employ +their evenings.” + +“She is not at home,” said T. X., “and I have reason to believe that she +has not left this house.” + +“What a suspicious person you are, Mr. Meredith!” Kara rang the bell and +Fisher came in with a cup of coffee on a tray. + +“Fisher,” drawled Kara. “Mr. Meredith is anxious to know where Miss +Holland is. Will you be good enough to tell him, you know more about her +movements than I do.” + +“As far as I know, sir,” said Fisher deferentially, “she left the house +about 5.30, her usual hour. She sent me out a little before five on a +message and when I came back her hat and her coat had gone, so I presume +she had gone also.” + +“Did you see her go?” asked T. X. + +The man shook his head. + +“No, sir, I very seldom see the lady come or go. There has been no +restrictions placed upon the young lady and she has been at liberty to +move about as she likes. I think I am correct in saying that, sir,” he +turned to Kara. + +Kara nodded. + +“You will probably find her at home.” + +He shook his finger waggishly at T. X. + +“What a dog you are,” he jibed, “I ought to keep the beauties of my +household veiled, as we do in the East, and especially when I have a +susceptible policeman wandering at large.” + +T. X. gave jest for jest. There was nothing to be gained by making +trouble here. After a few amiable commonplaces he took his departure. He +found Mrs. Cassley being entertained by Mansus with a wholly fictitious +description of the famous criminals he had arrested. + +“I can only suggest that you go home,” said T. X. “I will send a police +officer with you to report to me, but in all probability you will find +the lady has returned. She may have had a difficulty in getting a bus on +a night like this.” + +A detective was summoned from Scotland Yard and accompanied by him Mrs. +Cassley returned to her domicile with a certain importance. T. X. looked +at his watch. It was a quarter to ten. + +“Whatever happens, I must see old Lexman,” he said. “Tell the best men +we've got in the department to stand by for eventualities. This is going +to be one of my busy days.” + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +Kara lay back on his down pillows with a sneer on his face and his brain +very busy. What started the train of thought he did not know, but at +that moment his mind was very far away. It carried him back a dozen +years to a dirty little peasant's cabin on the hillside outside Durazzo, +to the livid face of a young Albanian chief, who had lost at Kara's whim +all that life held for a man, to the hateful eyes of the girl's father, +who stood with folded arms glaring down at the bound and manacled figure +on the floor, to the smoke-stained rafters of this peasant cottage and +the dancing shadows on the roof, to that terrible hour of waiting when +he sat bound to a post with a candle flickering and spluttering lower +and lower to the little heap of gunpowder that would start the trail +toward the clumsy infernal machine under his chair. He remembered the +day well because it was Candlemas day, and this was the anniversary. He +remembered other things more pleasant. The beat of hoofs on the rocky +roadway, the crash of the door falling in when the Turkish Gendarmes +had battered a way to his rescue. He remembered with a savage joy the +spectacle of his would-be assassins twitching and struggling on the +gallows at Pezara and--he heard the faint tinkle of the front door bell. + +Had T. X. returned! He slipped from the bed and went to the door, opened +it slightly and listened. T. X. with a search warrant might be a source +of panic especially if--he shrugged his shoulders. He had satisfied T. +X. and allayed his suspicions. He would get Fisher out of the way that +night and make sure. + +The voice from the hall below was loud and gruff. Who could it be! Then +he heard Fisher's foot on the stairs and the valet entered. + +“Will you see Mr. Gathercole now!” + +“Mr. Gathercole!” + +Kara breathed a sigh of relief and his face was wreathed in smiles. + +“Why, of course. Tell him to come up. Ask him if he minds seeing me in +my room.” + +“I told him you were in bed, sir, and he used shocking language,” said +Fisher. + +Kara laughed. + +“Send him up,” he said, and then as Fisher was going out of the room he +called him back. + +“By the way, Fisher, after Mr. Gathercole has gone, you may go out for +the night. You've got somewhere to go, I suppose, and you needn't come +back until the morning.” + +“Yes, sir,” said the servant. + +Such an instruction was remarkably pleasing to him. There was much that +he had to do and that night's freedom would assist him materially. + +“Perhaps” Kara hesitated, “perhaps you had better wait until eleven +o'clock. Bring me up some sandwiches and a large glass of milk. Or +better still, place them on a plate in the hall.” + +“Very good, sir,” said the man and withdrew. + +Down below, that grotesque figure with his shiny hat and his ragged +beard was walking up and down the tesselated hallway muttering to +himself and staring at the various objects in the hall with a certain +amused antagonism. + +“Mr. Kara will see you, sir,” said Fisher. + +“Oh!” said the other glaring at the unoffending Fisher, “that's very +good of him. Very good of this person to see a scholar and a gentleman +who has been about his dirty business for three years. Grown grey in his +service! Do you understand that, my man!” + +“Yes, sir,” said Fisher. + +“Look here!” + +The man thrust out his face. + +“Do you see those grey hairs in my beard?” + +The embarrassed Fisher grinned. + +“Is it grey!” challenged the visitor, with a roar. + +“Yes, sir,” said the valet hastily. + +“Is it real grey?” insisted the visitor. “Pull one out and see!” + +The startled Fisher drew back with an apologetic smile. + +“I couldn't think of doing a thing like that, sir.” + +“Oh, you couldn't,” sneered the visitor; “then lead on!” + +Fisher showed the way up the stairs. This time the traveller carried +no books. His left arm hung limply by his side and Fisher privately +gathered that the hand had got loose from the detaining pocket +without its owner being aware of the fact. He pushed open the door and +announced, “Mr. Gathercole,” and Kara came forward with a smile to +meet his agent, who, with top hat still on the top of his head, and his +overcoat dangling about his heels, must have made a remarkable picture. + +Fisher closed the door behind them and returned to his duties in the +hall below. Ten minutes later he heard the door opened and the booming +voice of the stranger came down to him. Fisher went up the stairs to +meet him and found him addressing the occupant of the room in his own +eccentric fashion. + +“No more Patagonia!” he roared, “no more Tierra del Fuego!” he paused. + +“Certainly!” He replied to some question, “but not Patagonia,” he paused +again, and Fisher standing at the foot of the stairs wondered what had +occurred to make the visitor so genial. + +“I suppose your cheque will be honoured all right?” asked the visitor +sardonically, and then burst into a little chuckle of laughter as he +carefully closed the door. + +He came down the corridor talking to himself, and greeted Fisher. + +“Damn all Greeks,” he said jovially, and Fisher could do no more than +smile reproachfully, the smile being his very own, the reproach being on +behalf of the master who paid him. + +The traveller touched the other on the chest with his right hand. + +“Never trust a Greek,” he said, “always get your money in advance. Is +that clear to you?” + +“Yes, sir,” said Fisher, “but I think you will always find that Mr. Kara +is always most generous about money.” + +“Don't you believe it, don't you believe it, my poor man,” said the +other, “you--” + +At that moment there came from Kara's room a faint “clang.” + +“What's that?” asked the visitor a little startled. + +“Mr. Kara's put down his steel latch,” said Fisher with a smile, “which +means that he is not to be disturbed until--” he looked at his watch, +“until eleven o'clock at any rate.” + +“He's a funk!” snapped the other, “a beastly funk!” + +He stamped down the stairs as though testing the weight of every tread, +opened the front door without assistance, slammed it behind him and +disappeared into the night. + +Fisher, his hands in his pockets, looked after the departing stranger, +nodding his head in reprobation. + +“You're a queer old devil,” he said, and looked at his watch again. + +It wanted five minutes to ten. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +“IF you would care to come in, sir, I'm sure Lexman would be glad to +see you,” said T. X.; “it's very kind of you to take an interest in the +matter.” + +The Chief Commissioner of Police growled something about being paid to +take an interest in everybody and strolled with T. X. down one of the +apparently endless corridors of Scotland Yard. + +“You won't have any bother about the pardon,” he said. “I was dining +to-night with old man Bartholomew and he will fix that up in the +morning.” + +“There will be no necessity to detain Lexman in custody?” asked T. X. + +The Chief shook his head. + +“None whatever,” he said. + +There was a pause, then, + +“By the way, did Bartholomew mention Belinda Mary!” + +The white-haired chief looked round in astonishment. + +“And who the devil is Belinda Mary?” he asked. + +T. X. went red. + +“Belinda Mary,” he said a little quickly, “is Bartholomew's daughter.” + +“By Jove,” said the Commissioner, “now you mention it, he did--she is +still in France.” + +“Oh, is she?” said T. X. innocently, and in his heart of hearts he +wished most fervently that she was. They came to the room which Mansus +occupied and found that admirable man waiting. + +Wherever policemen meet, their conversation naturally drifts to “shop” + and in two minutes the three were discussing with some animation and +much difference of opinion, as far as T. X. was concerned, a series +of frauds which had been perpetrated in the Midlands, and which have +nothing to do with this story. + +“Your friend is late,” said the Chief Commissioner. + +“There he is,” cried T. X., springing up. He heard a familiar footstep +on the flagged corridor, and sprung out of the room to meet the +newcomer. + +For a moment he stood wringing the hand of this grave man, his heart too +full for words. + +“My dear chap!” he said at last, “you don't know how glad I am to see +you.” + +John Lexman said nothing, then, + +“I am sorry to bring you into this business, T. X.,” he said quietly. + +“Nonsense,” said the other, “come in and see the Chief.” + +He took John by the arm and led him into the Superintendent's room. + +There was a change in John Lexman. A subtle shifting of balance which +was not readily discoverable. His face was older, the mobile mouth a +little more grimly set, the eyes more deeply lined. He was in evening +dress and looked, as T. X. thought, a typical, clean, English gentleman, +such an one as any self-respecting valet would be proud to say he had +“turned out.” + +T. X. looking at him carefully could see no great change, save that down +one side of his smooth shaven cheek ran the scar of an old wound; which +could not have been much more than superficial. + +“I must apologize for this kit,” said John, taking off his overcoat and +laying it across the back of a chair, “but the fact is I was so bored +this evening that I had to do something to pass the time away, so I +dressed and went to the theatre--and was more bored than ever.” + +T. X. noticed that he did not smile and that when he spoke it was slowly +and carefully, as though he were weighing the value of every word. + +“Now,” he went on, “I have come to deliver myself into your hands.” + +“I suppose you have not seen Kara?” said T. X. + +“I have no desire to see Kara,” was the short reply. + +“Well, Mr. Lexman,” broke in the Chief, “I don't think you are going to +have any difficulty about your escape. By the way, I suppose it was by +aeroplane?” + +Lexman nodded. + +“And you had an assistant?” + +Again Lexman nodded. + +“Unless you press me I would rather not discuss the matter for some +little time, Sir George,” he said, “there is much that will happen +before the full story of my escape is made known.” + +Sir George nodded. + +“We will leave it at that,” he said cheerily, “and now I hope you have +come back to delight us all with one of your wonderful plots.” + +“For the time being I have done with wonderful plots,” said John Lexman +in that even, deliberate tone of his. “I hope to leave London next week +for New York and take up such of the threads of life as remain. The +greater thread has gone.” + +The Chief Commissioner understood. + +The silence which followed was broken by the loud and insistent ringing +of the telephone bell. + +“Hullo,” said Mansus rising quickly; “that's Kara's bell.” + +With two quick strides he was at the telephone and lifted down the +receiver. + +“Hullo,” he cried. “Hullo,” he cried again. There was no reply, only +the continuous buzzing, and when he hung up the receiver again, the bell +continued ringing. + +The three policemen looked at one another. + +“There's trouble there,” said Mansus. + +“Take off the receiver,” said T. X., “and try again.” + +Mansus obeyed, but there was no response. + +“I am afraid this is not my affair,” said John Lexman gathering up his +coat. “What do you wish me to do, Sir George?” + +“Come along to-morrow morning and see us, Lexman,” said Sir George, +offering his hand. + +“Where are you staying!” asked T. X. + +“At the Great Midland,” replied the other, “at least my bags have gone +on there.” + +“I'll come along and see you to-morrow morning. It's curious this should +have happened the night you returned,” he said, gripping the other's +shoulder affectionately. + +John Lexman did not speak for the moment. + +“If anything happened to Kara,” he said slowly, “if the worst that was +possible happened to him, believe me I should not weep.” + +T. X. looked down into the other's eyes sympathetically. + +“I think he has hurt you pretty badly, old man,” he said gently. + +John Lexman nodded. + +“He has, damn him,” he said between his teeth. + +The Chief Commissioner's motor car was waiting outside and in this T. +X., Mansus, and a detective-sergeant were whirled off to Cadogan Square. +Fisher was in the hall when they rung the bell and opened the door +instantly. + +He was frankly surprised to see his visitors. Mr. Kara was in his room +he explained resentfully, as though T. X. should have been aware of the +fact without being told. He had heard no bell ringing and indeed had not +been summoned to the room. + +“I have to see him at eleven o'clock,” he said, “and I have had standing +instructions not to go to him unless I am sent for.” + +T. X. led the way upstairs, and went straight to Kara's room. He +knocked, but there was no reply. He knocked again and on this failing to +evoke any response kicked heavily at the door. + +“Have you a telephone downstairs!” he asked. + +“Yes, sir,” replied Fisher. + +T. X. turned to the detective-sergeant. + +“'Phone to the Yard,” he said, “and get a man up with a bag of tools. We +shall have to pick this lock and I haven't got my case with me.” + +“Picking the lock would be no good, sir,” said Fisher, an interested +spectator, “Mr. Kara's got the latch down.” + +“I forgot that,” said T. X. “Tell him to bring his saw, we'll have to +cut through the panel here.” + +While they were waiting for the arrival of the police officer T. X. +strove to attract the attention of the inmates of the room, but without +success. + +“Does he take opium or anything!” asked Mansus. + +Fisher shook his head. + +“I've never known him to take any of that kind of stuff,” he said. + +T. X. made a rapid survey of the other rooms on that floor. The room +next to Kara's was the library, beyond that was a dressing room which, +according to Fisher, Miss Holland had used, and at the farthermost end +of the corridor was the dining room. + +Facing the dining room was a small service lift and by its side a +storeroom in which were a number of trunks, including a very large one +smothered in injunctions in three different languages to “handle with +care.” There was nothing else of interest on this floor and the upper +and lower floors could wait. In a quarter of an hour the carpenter had +arrived from Scotland Yard, and had bored a hole in the rosewood panel +of Kara's room and was busily applying his slender saw. + +Through the hole he cut T. X. could see no more than that the room was +in darkness save for the glow of a blazing fire. He inserted his hand, +groped for the knob of the steel latch, which he had remarked on his +previous visit to the room, lifted it and the door swung open. + +“Keep outside, everybody,” he ordered. + +He felt for the switch of the electric, found it and instantly the room +was flooded with light. The bed was hidden by the open door. T. X. took +one stride into the room and saw enough. Kara was lying half on and half +off the bed. He was quite dead and the blood-stained patch above his +heart told its own story. + +T. X. stood looking down at him, saw the frozen horror on the dead man's +face, then drew his eyes away and slowly surveyed the room. There in the +middle of the carpet he found his clue, a bent and twisted little candle +such as you find on children's Christmas trees. + + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +It was Mansus who found the second candle, a stouter affair. It lay +underneath the bed. The telephone, which stood on a fairly large-sized +table by the side of the bed, was overturned and the receiver was on the +floor. By its side were two books, one being the “Balkan Question,” + by Villari, and the other “Travels and Politics in the Near East,” by +Miller. With them was a long, ivory paper-knife. + +There was nothing else on the bedside-table save a silver cigarette +box. T. X. drew on a pair of gloves and examined the bright surface for +finger-prints, but a superficial view revealed no such clue. + +“Open the window,” said T. X., “the heat here is intolerable. Be very +careful, Mansus. By the way, is the window fastened?” + +“Very well fastened,” said the superintendent after a careful scrutiny. + +He pushed back the fastenings, lifted the window and as he did, a harsh +bell rang in the basement. + +“That is the burglar alarm, I suppose,” said T. X.; “go down and stop +that bell.” + +He addressed Fisher, who stood with a troubled face at the door. When +he had disappeared T. X. gave a significant glance to one of the waiting +officers and the man sauntered after the valet. + +Fisher stopped the bell and came back to the hall and stood before the +hall fire, a very troubled man. Near the fire was a big, oaken writing +table and on this there lay a small envelope which he did not remember +having seen before, though it might have been there for some time, for +he had spent a greater portion of the evening in the kitchen with the +cook. + +He picked up the envelope, and, with a start, recognised that it was +addressed to himself. He opened it and took out a card. There were only +a few words written upon it, but they were sufficient to banish all the +colour from his face and set his hands shaking. He took the envelope and +card and flung them into the fire. + +It so happened that, at that moment, Mansus had called from upstairs, +and the officer, who had been told off to keep the valet under +observation, ran up in answer to the summons. For a moment Fisher +hesitated, then hatless and coatless as he was, he crept to the door, +opened it, leaving it ajar behind him and darting down the steps, ran +like a hare from the house. + +The doctor, who came a little later, was cautious as to the hour of +death. + +“If you got your telephone message at 10.25, as you say, that was +probably the hour he was killed,” he said. “I could not tell within half +an hour. Obviously the man who killed him gripped his throat with his +left hand--there are the bruises on his neck--and stabbed him with the +right.” + +It was at this time that the disappearance of Fisher was noticed, but +the cross-examination of the terrified Mrs. Beale removed any doubt that +T. X. had as to the man's guilt. + +“You had better send out an 'All Stations' message and pull him in,” + said T. X. “He was with the cook from the moment the visitor left until +a few minutes before we rang. Besides which it is obviously impossible +for anybody to have got into this room or out again. Have you searched +the dead man?” + +Mansus produced a tray on which Kara's belongings had been disposed. +The ordinary keys Mrs. Beale was able to identify. There were one or two +which were beyond her. T. X. recognised one of these as the key of the +safe, but two smaller keys baffled him not a little, and Mrs. Beale was +at first unable to assist him. + +“The only thing I can think of, sir,” she said, “is the wine cellar.” + +“The wine cellar?” said T. X. slowly. “That must be--” he stopped. + +The greater tragedy of the evening, with all its mystifying aspects had +not banished from his mind the thought of the girl--that Belinda Mary, +who had called upon him in her hour of danger as he divined. Perhaps--he +descended into the kitchen and was brought face to face with the +unpainted door. + +“It looks more like a prison than a wine cellar,” he said. + +“That's what I've always thought, sir,” said Mrs. Beale, “and sometimes +I've had a horrible feeling of fear.” + +He cut short her loquacity by inserting one of the keys in the lock--it +did not turn, but he had more success with the second. The lock snapped +back easily and he pulled the door back. He found the inner door bolted +top and bottom. The bolts slipped back in their well-oiled sockets +without any effort. Evidently Kara used this place pretty frequently, +thought T. X. + +He pushed the door open and stopped with an exclamation of surprise. The +cellar apartment was brilliantly lit--but it was unoccupied. + +“This beats the band,” said T. X. + +He saw something on the table and lifted it up. It was a pair of +long-bladed scissors and about the handle was wound a handkerchief. It +was not this fact which startled him, but that the scissors' blades were +dappled with blood and blood, too, was on the handkerchief. He unwound +the flimsy piece of cambric and stared at the monogram “B. M. B.” + +He looked around. Nobody had seen the weapon and he dropped it in his +overcoat pocket, and walked from the cellar to the kitchen where Mrs. +Beale and Mansus awaited him. + +“There is a lower cellar, is there not!” he asked in a strained voice. + +“That was bricked up when Mr. Kara took the house,” explained the woman. + +“There is nothing more to look for here,” he said. + +He walked slowly up the stairs to the library, his mind in a whirl. That +he, an accredited officer of police, sworn to the business of criminal +detection, should attempt to screen one who was conceivably a criminal +was inexplicable. But if the girl had committed this crime, how had she +reached Kara's room and why had she returned to the locked cellar! + +He sent for Mrs. Beale to interrogate her. She had heard nothing and +she had been in the kitchen all the evening. One fact she did reveal, +however, that Fisher had gone from the kitchen and had been absent a +quarter of an hour and had returned a little agitated. + +“Stay here,” said T. X., and went down again to the cellar to make a +further search. + +“Probably there is some way out of this subterranean jail,” he thought +and a diligent search of the room soon revealed it. + +He found the iron trap, pulled it open, and slipped down the stairs. He, +too, was puzzled by the luxurious character of the vault. He passed from +room to room and finally came to the inner chamber where a light was +burning. + +The light, as he discovered, proceeded from a small reading lamp which +stood by the side of a small brass bedstead. The bed had recently been +slept in, but there was no sign of any occupant. T. X. conducted a very +careful search and had no difficulty in finding the bricked up door. +Other exits there were none. + +The floor was of wood block laid on concrete, the ventilation was +excellent and in one of the recesses which had evidently held at so +time or other, a large wine bin, there was a prefect electrical cooking +plant. In a small larder were a number of baskets, bearing the name of +a well-known caterer, one of them containing an excellent assortment of +cold and potted meats, preserves, etc. + +T. X. went back to the bedroom and took the little lamp from the table +by the side of the bed and began a more careful examination. Presently +he found traces of blood, and followed an irregular trail to the outer +room. He lost it suddenly at the foot of stairs leading down from the +upper cellar. Then he struck it again. He had reached the end of his +electric cord and was now depending upon an electric torch he had taken +from his pocket. + +There were indications of something heavy having been dragged across the +room and he saw that it led to a small bathroom. He had made a cursory +examination of this well-appointed apartment, and now he proceeded to +make a close investigation and was well rewarded. + +The bathroom was the only apartment which possess anything resembling a +door--a two-fold screen and--as he pressed this back, he felt some +thing which prevented its wider extension. He slipped into the room and +flashed his lamp in the space behind the screen. There stiff in death +with glazed eyes and lolling tongue lay a great gaunt dog, his yellow +fangs exposed in a last grimace. + + +About the neck was a collar and attached to that, a few links of broken +chain. T. X. mounted the steps thoughtfully and passed out to the +kitchen. + +Did Belinda Mary stab Kara or kill the dog? That she killed one hound or +the other was certain. That she killed both was possible. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +After a busy and sleepless night he came down to report to the Chief +Commissioner the next morning. The evening newspaper bills were filled +with the “Chelsea Sensation” but the information given was of a meagre +character. + +Since Fisher had disappeared, many of the details which could have +been secured by the enterprising pressmen were missing. There was no +reference to the visit of Mr. Gathercole and in self-defence the press +had fallen back upon a statement, which at an earlier period had crept +into the newspapers in one of those chatty paragraphs which begin “I saw +my friend Kara at Giros” and end with a brief but inaccurate summary of +his hobbies. The paragraph had been to the effect that Mr. Kara had been +in fear of his life for some time, as a result of a blood feud which +existed between himself and another Albanian family. Small wonder, +therefore, the murder was everywhere referred to as “the political crime +of the century.” + +“So far,” reported T. X. to his superior, “I have been unable to trace +either Gathercole or the valet. The only thing we know about Gathercole +is that he sent his article to The Times with his card. The servants of +his Club are very vague as to his whereabouts. He is a very eccentric +man, who only comes in occasionally, and the steward whom I interviewed +says that it frequently happened that Gathercole arrived and departed +without anybody being aware of the fact. We have been to his old +lodgings in Lincoln's Inn, but apparently he sold up there before he +went away to the wilds of Patagonia and relinquished his tenancy. + +“The only clue I have is that a man answering to some extent to his +description left by the eleven o'clock train for Paris last night.” + +“You have seen the secretary of course,” said the Chief. + +It was a question which T. X. had been dreading. + +“Gone too,” he answered shortly; “in fact she has not been seen since +5:30 yesterday evening.” + +Sir George leant back in his chair and rumpled his thick grey hair. + +“The only person who seems to have remained,” he said with heavy +sarcasm, “was Kara himself. Would you like me to put somebody else on +this case--it isn't exactly your job--or will you carry it on?” + +“I prefer to carry it on, sir,” said T. X. firmly. + +“Have you found out anything more about Kara?” + +T. X. nodded. + +“All that I have discovered about him is eminently discreditable,” + he said. “He seems to have had an ambition to occupy a very important +position in Albania. To this end he had bribed and subsidized the +Turkish and Albanian officials and had a fairly large following in that +country. Bartholomew tells me that Kara had already sounded him as to +the possibility of the British Government recognising a fait accompli in +Albania and had been inducing him to use his influence with the Cabinet +to recognize the consequence of any revolution. There is no doubt +whatever that Kara has engineered all the political assassinations which +have been such a feature in the news from Albania during this past year. +We also found in the house very large sums of money and documents which +we have handed over to the Foreign Office for decoding.” + +Sir George thought for a long time. + +Then he said, “I have an idea that if you find your secretary you will +be half way to solving the mystery.” + +T. X. went out from the office in anything but a joyous mood. He was +on his way to lunch when he remembered his promise to call upon John +Lexman. + +Could Lexman supply a key which would unravel this tragic tangle? He +leant out of his taxi-cab and redirected the driver. It happened that +the cab drove up to the door of the Great Midland Hotel as John Lexman +was coming out. + +“Come and lunch with me,” said T. X. “I suppose you've heard all the +news.” + +“I read about Kara being killed, if that's what you mean,” said the +other. “It was rather a coincidence that I should have been discussing +the matter last night at the very moment when his telephone bell rang--I +wish to heaven you hadn't been in this,” he said fretfully. + +“Why?” asked the astonished Assistant Commissioner, “and what do you +mean by 'in it'?” + +“In the concrete sense I wish you had not been present when I returned,” + said the other moodily, “I wanted to be finished with the whole sordid +business without in any way involving my friends.” + +“I think you are too sensitive,” laughed the other, clapping him on the +shoulder. “I want you to unburden yourself to me, my dear chap, and tell +me anything you can that will help me to clear up this mystery.” + +John Lexman looked straight ahead with a worried frown. + +“I would do almost anything for you, T. X.,” he said quietly, “the more +so since I know how good you were to Grace, but I can't help you in this +matter. I hated Kara living, I hate him dead,” he cried, and there was +a passion in his voice which was unmistakable; “he was the vilest thing +that ever drew the breath of life. There was no villainy too despicable, +no cruelty so horrid but that he gloried in it. If ever the devil were +incarnate on earth he took the shape and the form of Remington Kara. He +died too merciful a death by all accounts. But if there is a God, this +man will suffer for his crimes in hell through all eternity.” + +T. X. looked at him in astonishment. The hate in the man's face took +his breath away. Never before had he experienced or witnessed such a +vehemence of loathing. + +“What did Kara do to you?” he demanded. + +The other looked out of the window. + +“I am sorry,” he said in a milder tone; “that is my weakness. Some day I +will tell you the whole story but for the moment it were better that +it were not told. I will tell you this,” he turned round and faced the +detective squarely, “Kara tortured and killed my wife.” + +T. X. said no more. + +Half way through lunch he returned indirectly to the subject. + +“Do you know Gathercole?” he asked. + +T. X. nodded. + +“I think you asked me that question once before, or perhaps it was +somebody else. Yes, I know him, rather an eccentric man with an +artificial arm.” + +“That's the cove,” said T. X. with a little sigh; “he's one of the few +men I want to meet just now.” + +“Why?” + +“Because he was apparently the last man to see Kara alive.” + +John Lexman looked at the other with an impatient jerk of his shoulders. + +“You don't suspect Gathercole, do you?” he asked. + +“Hardly,” said the other drily; “in the first place the man that +committed this murder had two hands and needed them both. No, I only +want to ask that gentleman the subject of his conversation. I also want +to know who was in the room with Kara when Gathercole went in.” + +“H'm,” said John Lexman. + +“Even if I found who the third person was, I am still puzzled as to how +they got out and fastened the heavy latch behind them. Now in the old +days, Lexman,” he said good humouredly, “you would have made a fine +mystery story out of this. How would you have made your man escape?” + +Lexman thought for a while. + +“Have you examined the safe!” he asked. + +“Yes,” said the other. + +“Was there very much in it?” + +T. X. looked at him in astonishment. + +“Just the ordinary books and things. Why do you ask?” + +“Suppose there were two doors to that safe, one on the outside of the +room and one on the inside, would it be possible to pass through the +safe and go down the wall?” + +“I have thought of that,” said T. X. + +“Of course,” said Lexman, leaning back and toying with a salt-spoon, +“in writing a story where one hasn't got to deal with the absolute +possibilities, one could always have made Kara have a safe of that +character in order to make his escape in the event of danger. He might +keep a rope ladder stored inside, open the back door, throw out his +ladder to a friend and by some trick arrangement could detach the ladder +and allow the door to swing to again.” + +“A very ingenious idea,” said T. X., “but unfortunately it doesn't work +in this case. I have seen the makers of the safe and there is nothing +very eccentric about it except the fact that it is mounted as it is. Can +you offer another suggestion?” + +John Lexman thought again. + +“I will not suggest trap doors, or secret panels or anything so banal,” + he said, “nor mysterious springs in the wall which, when touched, reveal +secret staircases.” + +He smiled slightly. + +“In my early days, I must confess, I was rather keen upon that sort +of thing, but age has brought experience and I have discovered the +impossibility of bringing an architect to one's way of thinking even in +so commonplace a matter as the position of a scullery. It would be much +more difficult to induce him to construct a house with double walls and +secret chambers.” + +T. X. waited patiently. + +“There is a possibility, of course,” said Lexman slowly, “that the +steel latch may have been raised by somebody outside by some ingenious +magnetic arrangement and lowered in a similar manner.” + +“I have thought about it,” said T. X. triumphantly, “and I have made the +most elaborate tests only this morning. It is quite impossible to raise +the steel latch because once it is dropped it cannot be raised again +except by means of the knob, the pulling of which releases the catch +which holds the bar securely in its place. Try another one, John.” + +John Lexman threw back his head in a noiseless laugh. + +“Why I should be helping you to discover the murderer of Kara is beyond +my understanding,” he said, “but I will give you another theory, at the +same time warning you that I may be putting you off the track. For God +knows I have more reason to murder Kara than any man in the world.” + +He thought a while. + +“The chimney was of course impossible?” + +“There was a big fire burning in the grate,” explained T. X.; “so big +indeed that the room was stifling.” + +John Lexman nodded. + +“That was Kara's way,” he said; “as a matter of fact I know the +suggestion about magnetism in the steel bar was impossible, because I +was friendly with Kara when he had that bar put in and pretty well know +the mechanism, although I had forgotten it for the moment. What is your +own theory, by the way?” + +T. X. pursed his lips. + +“My theory isn't very clearly formed,” he said cautiously, “but so far +as it goes, it is that Kara was lying on the bed probably reading one +of the books which were found by the bedside when his assailant suddenly +came upon him. Kara seized the telephone to call for assistance and was +promptly killed.” + +Again there was silence. + +“That is a theory,” said John Lexman, with his curious deliberation +of speech, “but as I say I refuse to be definite--have you found the +weapon?” + +T. X. shook his head. + +“Were there any peculiar features about the room which astonished you, +and which you have not told me?” + +T. X. hesitated. + +“There were two candles,” he said, “one in the middle of the room and +one under the bed. That in the middle of the room was a small Christmas +candle, the one under the bed was the ordinary candle of commerce +evidently roughly cut and probably cut in the room. We found traces of +candle chips on the floor and it is evident to me that the portion which +was cut off was thrown into the fire, for here again we have a trace of +grease.” + +Lexman nodded. + +“Anything further?” he asked. + +“The smaller candle was twisted into a sort of corkscrew shape.” + +“The Clue of the Twisted Candle,” mused John Lexman “that's a very good +title--Kara hated candles.” + +“Why?” + +Lexman leant back in his chair, selected a cigarette from a silver case. + +“In my wanderings,” he said, “I have been to many strange places. I +have been to the country which you probably do not know, and which the +traveller who writes books about countries seldom visits. There are +queer little villages perched on the spurs of the bleakest hills you +ever saw. I have lived with communities which acknowledge no king and +no government. These have their laws handed down to them from father to +son--it is a nation without a written language. They administer +their laws rigidly and drastically. The punishments they award are +cruel--inhuman. I have seen, the woman taken in adultery stoned to death +as in the best Biblical traditions, and I have seen the thief blinded.” + +T. X. shivered. + +“I have seen the false witness stand up in a barbaric market place +whilst his tongue was torn from him. Sometimes the Turks or the piebald +governments of the state sent down a few gendarmes and tried a sort +of sporadic administration of the country. It usually ended in the +representative of the law lapsing into barbarism, or else disappearing +from the face of the earth, with a whole community of murderers eager +to testify, with singular unanimity, to the fact that he had either +committed suicide or had gone off with the wife of one of the townsmen. + +“In some of these communities the candle plays a big part. It is not the +candle of commerce as you know it, but a dip made from mutton fat. Strap +three between the fingers of your hands and keep the hand rigid with two +flat pieces of wood; then let the candles burn down lower and lower--can +you imagine? Or set a candle in a gunpowder trail and lead the trail to +a well-oiled heap of shavings thoughtfully heaped about your naked feet. +Or a candle fixed to the shaved head of a man--there are hundreds of +variations and the candle plays a part in all of them. I don't know +which Kara had cause to hate the worst, but I know one or two that he +has employed.” + +“Was he as bad as that?” asked T. X. + +John Lexman laughed. + +“You don't know how bad he was,” he said. + +Towards the end of the luncheon the waiter brought a note in to T. X. +which had been sent on from his office. + +“Dear Mr. Meredith, + +“In answer to your enquiry I believe my daughter is in London, but I did +not know it until this morning. My banker informs me that my daughter +called at the bank this morning and drew a considerable sum of money +from her private account, but where she has gone and what she is doing +with the money I do not know. I need hardly tell you that I am very +worried about this matter and I should be glad if you could explain what +it is all about.” + +It was signed “William Bartholomew.” + +T. X. groaned. + +“If I had only had the sense to go to the bank this morning, I should +have seen her,” he said. “I'm going to lose my job over this.” + +The other looked troubled. + +“You don't seriously mean that.” + +“Not exactly,” smiled T. X., “but I don't think the Chief is very +pleased with me just now. You see I have butted into this business +without any authority--it isn't exactly in my department. But you have +not given me your theory about the candles.” + +“I have no theory to offer,” said the other, folding up his serviette; +“the candles suggest a typical Albanian murder. I do not say that it +was so, I merely say that by their presence they suggest a crime of this +character.” + +With this T. X. had to be content. + +If it were not his business to interest himself in commonplace +murder--though this hardly fitted such a description--it was part of +the peculiar function which his department exercised to restore to Lady +Bartholomew a certain very elaborate snuff-box which he discovered in +the safe. + +Letters had been found amongst his papers which made clear the part +which Kara had played. Though he had not been a vulgar blackmailer he +had retained his hold, not only upon this particular property of Lady +Bartholomew, but upon certain other articles which were discovered, +with no other object, apparently, than to compel influence from quarters +likely to be of assistance to him in his schemes. + +The inquest on the murdered man which the Assistant Commissioner +attended produced nothing in the shape of evidence and the coroner's +verdict of “murder against some person or persons unknown” was only to +be expected. + +T. X. spent a very busy and a very tiring week tracing elusive clues +which led him nowhere. He had a letter from John Lexman announcing the +fact that he intended leaving for the United States. He had received a +very good offer from a firm of magazine publishers in New York and was +going out to take up the appointment. + +Meredith's plans were now in fair shape. He had decided upon the line +of action he would take and in the pursuance of this he interviewed his +Chief and the Minister of Justice. + +“Yes, I have heard from my daughter,” said that great man uncomfortably, +“and really she has placed me in a most embarrassing position. I cannot +tell you, Mr. Meredith, exactly in what manner she has done this, but I +can assure you she has.” + +“Can I see her letter or telegram?” asked T. X. + +“I am afraid that is impossible,” said the other solemnly; “she begged +me to keep her communication very secret. I have written to my wife and +asked her to come home. I feel the constant strain to which I am being +subjected is more than human can endure.” + +“I suppose,” said T. X. patiently, “it is impossible for you to tell me +to what address you have replied?” + +“To no address,” answered the other and corrected himself hurriedly; +“that is to say I only received the telegram--the message this morning +and there is no address--to reply to.” + +“I see,” said T. X. + +That afternoon he instructed his secretary. + +“I want a copy of all the agony advertisements in to-morrow's papers +and in the last editions of the evening papers--have them ready for me +tomorrow morning when I come.” + +They were waiting for him when he reached the office at nine o'clock +the next day and he went through them carefully. Presently he found the +message he was seeking. + +B. M. You place me awkward position. Very thoughtless. Have +received package addressed your mother which have placed in mother's +sitting-room. Cannot understand why you want me to go away week-end +and give servants holiday but have done so. Shall require very full +explanation. Matter gone far enough. Father. + +“This,” said T. X. exultantly, as he read the advertisement, “is where I +get busy.” + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +February as a rule is not a month of fogs, but rather a month of +tempestuous gales, of frosts and snowfalls, but the night of February +17th, 19--, was one of calm and mist. It was not the typical London fog +so dreaded by the foreigner, but one of those little patchy mists which +smoke through the streets, now enshrouding and making the nearest object +invisible, now clearing away to the finest diaphanous filament of pale +grey. + +Sir William Bartholomew had a house in Portman Place, which is a wide +thoroughfare, filled with solemn edifices of unlovely and forbidding +exterior, but remarkably comfortable within. Shortly before eleven on +the night of February 17th, a taxi drew up at the junction of Sussex +Street and Portman Place, and a girl alighted. The fog at that moment +was denser than usual and she hesitated a moment before she left the +shelter which the cab afforded. + +She gave the driver a few instructions and walked on with a firm step, +turning abruptly and mounting the steps of Number 173. Very quickly she +inserted her key in the lock, pushed the door open and closed it behind +her. She switched on the hall light. The house sounded hollow and +deserted, a fact which afforded her considerable satisfaction. She +turned the light out and found her way up the broad stairs to the first +floor, paused for a moment to switch on another light which she knew +would not be observable from the street outside and mounted the second +flight. + +Miss Belinda Mary Bartholomew congratulated herself upon the success of +her scheme, and the only doubt that was in her mind now was whether +the boudoir had been locked, but her father was rather careless in such +matters and Jacks the butler was one of those dear, silly, old men who +never locked anything, and, in consequence, faced every audit with a +long face and a longer tale of the peculations of occasional servants. + +To her immense relief the handle turned and the door opened to her +touch. Somebody had had the sense to pull down the blinds and the +curtains were drawn. She switched on the light with a sigh of relief. +Her mother's writing table was covered with unopened letters, but she +brushed these aside in her search for the little parcel. It was not +there and her heart sank. Perhaps she had put it in one of the drawers. +She tried them all without result. + +She stood by the desk a picture of perplexity, biting a finger +thoughtfully. + +“Thank goodness!” she said with a jump, for she saw the parcel on the +mantel shelf, crossed the room and took it down. + +With eager hands she tore off the covering and came to the familiar +leather case. Not until she had opened the padded lid and had seen the +snuffbox reposing in a bed of cotton wool did she relapse into a long +sigh of relief. + +“Thank heaven for that,” she said aloud. + +“And me,” said a voice. + +She sprang up and turned round with a look of terror. + +“Mr.--Mr. Meredith,” she stammered. + +T. X. stood by the window curtains from whence he had made his dramatic +entry upon the scene. + +“I say you have to thank me also, Miss Bartholomew,” he said presently. + +“How do you know my name?” she asked with some curiosity. + +“I know everything in the world,” he answered, and she smiled. Suddenly +her face went serious and she demanded sharply, + +“Who sent you after me--Mr. Kara?” + +“Mr. Kara?” he repeated, in wonder. + +“He threatened to send for the police,” she went on rapidly, “and I told +him he might do so. I didn't mind the police--it was Kara I was afraid +of. You know what I went for, my mother's property.” + +She held the snuff-box in her outstretched hand. + +“He accused me of stealing and was hateful, and then he put me +downstairs in that awful cellar and--” + +“And?” suggested T. X. + +“That's all,” she replied with tightened lips; “what are you going to do +now?” + +“I am going to ask you a few questions if I may,” he said. “In the first +place have you not heard anything about Mr. Kara since you went away?” + +She shook her head. + +“I have kept out of his way,” she said grimly. + +“Have you seen the newspapers?” he asked. + +She nodded. + +“I have seen the advertisement column--I wired asking Papa to reply to +my telegram.” + +“I know--I saw it,” he smiled; “that is what brought me here.” + +“I was afraid it would,” she said ruefully; “father is awfully +loquacious in print--he makes speeches you know. All I wanted him to say +was yes or no. What do you mean about the newspapers?” she went on. “Is +anything wrong with mother?” + +He shook his head. + +“So far as I know Lady Bartholomew is in the best of health and is on +her way home.” + +“Then what do you mean by asking me about the newspapers!” she demanded; +“why should I see the newspapers--what is there for me to see?” + +“About Kara?” he suggested. + +She shook her head in bewilderment. + +“I know and want to know nothing about Kara. Why do you say this to me?” + +“Because,” said T. X. slowly, “on the night you disappeared from Cadogan +Square, Remington Kara was murdered.” + +“Murdered,” she gasped. + +He nodded. + +“He was stabbed to the heart by some person or persons unknown.” + +T. X. took his hand from his pocket and pulled something out which was +wrapped in tissue paper. This he carefully removed and the girl watched +with fascinated gaze, and with an awful sense of apprehension. Presently +the object was revealed. It was a pair of scissors with the handle +wrapped about with a small handkerchief dappled with brown stains. She +took a step backward, raising her hands to her cheeks. + +“My scissors,” she said huskily; “you won't think--” + +She stared up at him, fear and indignation struggling for mastery. + +“I don't think you committed the murder,” he smiled; “if that's what +you mean to ask me, but if anybody else found those scissors and had +identified this handkerchief you would have been in rather a fix, my +young friend.” + +She looked at the scissors and shuddered. + +“I did kill something,” she said in a low voice, “an awful dog... I +don't know how I did it, but the beastly thing jumped at me and I just +stabbed him and killed him, and I am glad,” she nodded many times and +repeated, “I am glad.” + +“So I gather--I found the dog and now perhaps you'll explain why I +didn't find you?” + +Again she hesitated and he felt that she was hiding something from him. + +“I don't know why you didn't find me,” she said; “I was there.” + +“How did you get out?” + +“How did you get out?” she challenged him boldly. + +“I got out through the door,” he confessed; “it seems a ridiculously +commonplace way of leaving but that's the only way I could see.” + +“And that's how I got out,” she answered, with a little smile. + +“But it was locked.” + +She laughed. + +“I see now,” she said; “I was in the cellar. I heard your key in the +lock and bolted down the trap, leaving those awful scissors behind. I +thought it was Kara with some of his friends and then the voices died +away and I ventured to come up and found you had left the door open. +So--so I--” + +These queer little pauses puzzled T. X. There was something she was not +telling him. Something she had yet to reveal. + +“So I got away you see,” she went on. “I came out into the kitchen; +there was nobody there, and I passed through the area door and up the +steps and just round the corner I found a taxicab, and that is all.” + +She spread out her hands in a dramatic little gesture. + +“And that is all, is it?” said T. X. + +“That is all,” she repeated; “now what are you going to do?” + +T. X. looked up at the ceiling and stroked his chin. + +“I suppose that I ought to arrest you. I feel that something is due from +me. May I ask if you were sleeping in the bed downstairs?” + +“In the lower cellar?” she demanded,--a little pause and then, “Yes, I +was sleeping in the cellar downstairs.” + +There was that interval of hesitation almost between each word. + +“What are you going to do?” she asked again. + +She was feeling more sure of herself and had suppressed the panic which +his sudden appearance had produced in her. He rumpled his hair, a gross +imitation, did she but know it, of one of his chief's mannerisms and she +observed that his hair was very thick and inclined to curl. She saw also +that he was passably good looking, had fine grey eyes, a straight nose +and a most firm chin. + +“I think,” she suggested gently, “you had better arrest me.” + +“Don't be silly,” he begged. + +She stared at him in amazement. + +“What did you say?” she asked wrathfully. + +“I said 'don't be silly,'” repeated the calm young man. + +“Do you know that you're being very rude?” she asked. + +He seemed interested and surprised at this novel view of his conduct. + +“Of course,” she went on carefully smoothing her dress and avoiding his +eye, “I know you think I am silly and that I've got a most comic name.” + +“I have never said your name was comic,” he replied coldly; “I would not +take so great a liberty.” + +“You said it was 'weird' which was worse,” she claimed. + +“I may have said it was 'weird,”' he admitted, “but that's rather +different to saying it was 'comic.' There is dignity in weird things. +For example, nightmares aren't comic but they're weird.” + +“Thank you,” she said pointedly. + +“Not that I mean your name is anything approaching a nightmare.” He made +this concession with a most magnificent sweep of hand as though he were +a king conceding her the right to remain covered in his presence. “I +think that Belinda Ann--” + +“Belinda Mary,” she corrected. + +“Belinda Mary, I was going to say, or as a matter of fact,” he +floundered, “I was going to say Belinda and Mary.” + +“You were going to say nothing of the kind,” she corrected him. + +“Anyway, I think Belinda Mary is a very pretty name.” + +“You think nothing of the sort.” + +She saw the laughter in his eyes and felt an insane desire to laugh. + +“You said it was a weird name and you think it is a weird name, but I +really can't be bothered considering everybody's views. I think it's a +weird name, too. I was named after an aunt,” she added in self-defence. + +“There you have the advantage of me,” he inclined his head politely; “I +was named after my father's favourite dog.” + +“What does T. X. stand for?” she asked curiously. + +“Thomas Xavier,” he said, and she leant back in the big chair on +the edge of which a few minutes before she had perched herself in +trepidation and dissolved into a fit of immoderate laughter. + +“It is comic, isn't it?” he asked. + +“Oh, I am sorry I'm so rude,” she gasped. “Fancy being called Tommy +Xavier--I mean Thomas Xavier.” + +“You may call me Tommy if you wish--most of my friends do.” + +“Unfortunately I'm not your friend,” she said, still smiling and wiping +the tears from her eyes, “so I shall go on calling you Mr. Meredith if +you don't mind.” + +She looked at her watch. + +“If you are not going to arrest me I'm going,” she said. + +“I have certainly no intention of arresting you,” said he, “but I am +going to see you home!” + +She jumped up smartly. + +“You're not,” she commanded. + +She was so definite in this that he was startled. + +“My dear child,” he protested. + +“Please don't 'dear child' me,” she said seriously; “you're going to be +a good little Tommy and let me go home by myself.” + +She held out her hand frankly and the laughing appeal in her eyes was +irresistible. + +“Well, I'll see you to a cab,” he insisted. + +“And listen while I give the driver instructions where he is to take +me?” + +She shook her head reprovingly. + +“It must be an awful thing to be a policeman.” + +He stood back with folded arms, a stern frown on his face. + +“Don't you trust me?” he asked. + +“No,” she replied. + +“Quite right,” he approved; “anyway I'll see you to the cab and you can +tell the driver to go to Charing Cross station and on your way you can +change your direction.” + +“And you promise you won't follow me?” she asked. + +“On my honour,” he swore; “on one condition though.” + +“I will make no conditions,” she replied haughtily. + +“Please come down from your great big horse,” he begged, “and listen +to reason. The condition I make is that I can always bring you to an +appointed rendezvous whenever I want you. Honestly, this is necessary, +Belinda Mary.” + +“Miss Bartholomew,” she corrected, coldly. + +“It is necessary,” he went on, “as you will understand. Promise me that, +if I put an advertisement in the agonies of either an evening paper +which I will name or in the Morning Port, you will keep the appointment +I fix, if it is humanly possible.” + +She hesitated a moment, then held out her hand. + +“I promise,” she said. + +“Good for you, Belinda Mary,” said he, and tucking her arm in his he +led her out of the room switching off the light and racing her down the +stairs. + +If there was a lot of the schoolgirl left in Belinda Mary Bartholomew, +no less of the schoolboy was there in this Commissioner of Police. He +would have danced her through the fog, contemptuous of the proprieties, +but he wasn't so very anxious to get her to her cab and to lose sight of +her. + +“Good-night,” he said, holding her hand. + +“That's the third time you've shaken hands with me to-night,” she +interjected. + +“Don't let us have any unpleasantness at the last,” he pleaded, “and +remember.” + +“I have promised,” she replied. + +“And one day,” he went on, “you will tell me all that happened in that +cellar.” + +“I have told you,” she said in a low voice. + +“You have not told me everything, child.” + +He handed her into the cab. He shut the door behind her and leant +through the open window. + +“Victoria or Marble Arch?” he asked politely. + +“Charing Cross,” she replied, with a little laugh. + +He watched the cab drive away and then suddenly it stopped and a figure +lent out from the window beckoning him frantically. He ran up to her. + +“Suppose I want you,” she asked. + +“Advertise,” he said promptly, “beginning your advertisement 'Dear +Tommy.”' + +“I shall put 'T. X.,'” she said indignantly. + +“Then I shall take no notice of your advertisement,” he replied and +stood in the middle of the street, his hat in his hand, to the intense +annoyance of a taxi-cab driver who literally all but ran him down and in +a figurative sense did so until T. X. was out of earshot. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + +Thomas Xavier Meredith was a shrewd young man. It was said of him by +Signor Paulo Coselli, the eminent criminologist, that he had a gift of +intuition which was abnormal. Probably the mystery of the twisted candle +was solved by him long before any other person in the world had the +dimmest idea that it was capable of solution. + +The house in Cadogan Square was still in the hands of the police. To +this house and particularly to Kara's bedroom T. X. from time to +time repaired, and reproduced as far as possible the conditions which +obtained on the night of the murder. He had the same stifling fire, the +same locked door. The latch was dropped in its socket, whilst T. X., +with a stop watch in his hand, made elaborate calculations and acted +certain parts which he did not reveal to a soul. + +Three times, accompanied by Mansus, he went to the house, three times +went to the death chamber and was alone on one occasion for an hour and +a half whilst the patient Mansus waited outside. Three times he emerged +looking graver on each occasion, and after the third visit he called +into consultation John Lexman. + +Lexman had been spending some time in the country, having deferred his +trip to the United States. + +“This case puzzles me more and more, John,” said T. X., troubled out +of his usual boisterous self, “and thank heaven it worries other people +besides me. De Mainau came over from France the other day and brought +all his best sleuths, whilst O'Grady of the New York central office paid +a flying visit just to get hold of the facts. Not one of them has +given me the real solution, though they've all been rather +ingenious. Gathercole has vanished and is probably on his way to some +undiscoverable region, and our people have not yet traced the valet.” + +“He should be the easiest for you,” said John Lexman, reflectively. + +“Why Gathercole should go off I can't understand,” T. X. continued. +“According to the story which was told me by Fisher, his last words to +Kara were to the effect that he was expecting a cheque or that he had +received a cheque. No cheque has been presented or drawn and apparently +Gathercole has gone off without waiting for any payment. An examination +of Kara's books show nothing against the Gathercole account save the +sum of 600 pounds which was originally advanced, and now to upset all my +calculations, look at this.” + +He took from his pocketbook a newspaper cutting and pushed it across the +table, for they were dining together at the Carlton. John Lexman picked +up the slip and read. It was evidently from a New York paper: + +“Further news has now come to hand by the Antarctic Trading Company's +steamer, Cyprus, concerning the wreck of the City of the Argentine. It +is believed that this ill-fated vessel, which called at South American +ports, lost her propellor and drifted south out of the track of +shipping. This theory is now confirmed. Apparently the ship struck an +iceberg on December 23rd and foundered with all aboard save a few men +who were able to launch a boat and who were picked up by the Cyprus. The +following is the passenger list.” + +John Lexman ran down the list until he came upon the name which was +evidently underlined in ink by T. X. That name was George Gathercole and +after it in brackets (Explorer). + +“If that were true, then, Gathercole could not have come to London.” + +“He may have taken another boat,” said T. X., “and I cabled to the +Steamship Company without any great success. Apparently Gathercole was +an eccentric sort of man and lived in terror of being overcrowded. +It was a habit of his to make provisional bookings by every available +steamer. The company can tell me no more than that he had booked, but +whether he shipped on the City of the Argentine or not, they do not +know.” + +“I can tell you this about Gathercole,” said John slowly and +thoughtfully, “that he was a man who would not hurt a fly. He was +incapable of killing any man, being constitutionally averse to taking +life in any shape. For this reason he never made collections of +butterflies or of bees, and I believe has never shot an animal in +his life. He carried his principles to such an extent that he was a +vegetarian--poor old Gathercole!” he said, with the first smile which T. +X. had seen on his face since he came back. + +“If you want to sympathize with anybody,” said T. X. gloomily, +“sympathize with me.” + +On the following day T. X. was summoned to the Home Office and went +steeled for a most unholy row. The Home Secretary, a large and worthy +gentleman, given to the making of speeches on every excuse, received +him, however, with unusual kindness. + +“I've sent for you, Mr. Meredith,” he said, “about this unfortunate +Greek. I've had all his private papers looked into and translated and in +some cases decoded, because as you are probably aware his diaries and +a great deal of his correspondence were in a code which called for the +attention of experts.” + +T. X. had not troubled himself greatly about Kara's private papers but +had handed them over, in accordance with instructions, to the proper +authorities. + +“Of course, Mr. Meredith,” the Home Secretary went on, beaming across +his big table, “we expect you to continue your search for the murderer, +but I must confess that your prisoner when you secure him will have a +very excellent case to put to a jury.” + +“That I can well believe, sir,” said T. X. + +“Seldom in my long career at the bar,” began the Home Secretary in +his best oratorical manner, “have I examined a record so utterly +discreditable as that of the deceased man.” + +Here he advanced a few instances which surprised even T. X. + +“The man was a lunatic,” continued the Home Secretary, “a vicious, evil +man who loved cruelty for cruelty's sake. We have in this diary alone +sufficient evidence to convict him of three separate murders, one of +which was committed in this country.” + +T. X. looked his astonishment. + +“You will remember, Mr. Meredith, as I saw in one of your reports, that +he had a chauffeur, a Greek named Poropulos.” + +T. X. nodded. + +“He went to Greece on the day following the shooting of Vassalaro,” he +said. + +The Home Secretary shook his head. + +“He was killed on the same night,” said the Minister, “and you will have +no difficulty in finding what remains of his body in the disused house +which Kara rented for his own purpose on the Portsmouth Road. That he +has killed a number of people in Albania you may well suppose. Whole +villages have been wiped out to provide him with a little excitement. +The man was a Nero without any of Nero's amiable weaknesses. He was +obsessed with the idea that he himself was in danger of assassination, +and saw an enemy even in his trusty servant. Undoubtedly the chauffeur +Poropulos was in touch with several Continental government circles. You +understand,” said the Minister in conclusion, “that I am telling you +this, not with the idea of expecting you, to relax your efforts to find +the murderer and clear up the mystery, but in order that you may know +something of the possible motive for this man's murder.” + +T. X. spent an hour going over the decoded diary and documents and left +the Home Office a little shakily. It was inconceivable, incredible. Kara +was a lunatic, but the directing genius was a devil. + +T. X. had a flat in Whitehall Gardens and thither he repaired to change +for dinner. He was half dressed when the evening paper arrived and +he glanced as was his wont first at the news' page and then at the +advertisement column. He looked down the column marked “Personal” + without expecting to find anything of particular interest to himself, +but saw that which made him drop the paper and fly round the room in a +frenzy to complete his toilet. + +“Tommy X.,” ran the brief announcement, “most urgent, Marble Arch 8.” + +He had five minutes to get there but it seemed like five hours. He +was held up at almost every crossing and though he might have used his +authority to obtain right of way, it was a step which his curious sense +of honesty prevented him taking. He leapt out of the cab before it +stopped, thrust the fare into the driver's hands and looked round for +the girl. He saw her at last and walked quickly towards her. As he +approached her, she turned about and with an almost imperceptible +beckoning gesture walked away. He followed her along the Bayswater Road +and gradually drew level. + +“I am afraid I have been watched,” she said in a low voice. “Will you +call a cab?” + +He hailed a passing taxi, helped her in and gave at random the first +place that suggested itself to him, which was Finsbury Park. + +“I am very worried,” she said, “and I don't know anybody who can help me +except you.” + +“Is it money?” he asked. + +“Money,” she said scornfully, “of course it isn't money. I want to show +you a letter,” she said after a while. + +She took it from her bag and gave it to him and he struck a match and +read it with difficulty. + +It was written in a studiously uneducated hand. + + “Dear Miss, + + “I know who you are. You are wanted by the police but I + will not give you away. Dear Miss. I am very hard up and + 20 pounds will be very useful to me and I shall not trouble + you again. Dear Miss. Put the money on the window sill of + your room. I know you sleep on the ground floor and I will + come in and take it. And if not--well, I don't want to make + any trouble. + + “Yours truly, + + “A FRIEND.” + +“When did you get this?” he asked. + +“This morning,” she replied. “I sent the Agony to the paper by telegram, +I knew you would come.” + +“Oh, you did, did you?” he said. + +Her assurance was very pleasing to him. The faith that her words implied +gave him an odd little feeling of comfort and happiness. + +“I can easily get you out of this,” he added; “give me your address and +when the gentleman comes--” + +“That is impossible,” she replied hurriedly. “Please don't think I'm +ungrateful, and don't think I'm being silly--you do think I'm being +silly, don't you!” + +“I have never harboured such an unworthy thought,” he said virtuously. + +“Yes, you have,” she persisted, “but really I can't tell you where I am +living. I have a very special reason for not doing so. It's not myself +that I'm thinking about, but there's a life involved.” + +This was a somewhat dramatic statement to make and she felt she had gone +too far. + +“Perhaps I don't mean that,” she said, “but there is some one I care +for--” she dropped her voice. + +“Oh,” said T. X. blankly. + +He came down from his rosy heights into the shadow and darkness of a +sunless valley. + +“Some one you care for,” he repeated after a while. + +“Yes.” + +There was another long silence, then, + +“Oh, indeed,” said T. X. + +Again the unbroken interval of quiet and after a while she said in a low +voice, “Not that way.” + +“Not what way!” asked T. X. huskily, his spirits doing a little +mountaineering. + +“The way you mean,” she said. + +“Oh,” said T. X. + +He was back again amidst the rosy snows of dawn, was in fact climbing +a dizzy escalier on the topmost height of hope's Mont Blanc when she +pulled the ladder from under him. + +“I shall, of course, never marry,” she said with a certain prim +decision. + +T. X. fell with a dull sickening thud, discovering that his rosy snows +were not unlike cold, hard ice in their lack of resilience. + +“Who said you would?” he asked somewhat feebly, but in self defence. + +“You did,” she said, and her audacity took his breath away. + +“Well, how am I to help you!” he asked after a while. + +“By giving me some advice,” she said; “do you think I ought to put the +money there!” + +“Indeed I do not,” said T. X., recovering some of his natural dominance; +“apart from the fact that you would be compounding a felony, you would +merely be laying out trouble for yourself in the future. If he can get +20 pounds so easily, he will come for 40 pounds. But why do you stay +away, why don't you return home? There's no charge and no breath of +suspicion against you.” + +“Because I have something to do which I have set my mind to,” she said, +with determination in her tones. + +“Surely you can trust me with your address,” he urged her, “after all +that has passed between us, Belinda Mary--after all the years we have +known one another.” + +“I shall get out and leave you,” she said steadily. + +“But how the dickens am I going to help you?” he protested. + +“Don't swear,” she could be very severe indeed; “the only way you can +help me is by being kind and sympathetic.” + +“Would you like me to burst into tears?” he asked sarcastically. + +“I ask you to do nothing more painful or repugnant to your natural +feelings than to be a gentleman,” she said. + +“Thank you very kindly,” said T. X., and leant back in the cab with an +air of supreme resignation. + +“I believe you're making faces in the dark,” she accused him. + +“God forbid that I should do anything so low,” said he hastily; “what +made you think that?” + +“Because I was putting my tongue out at you,” she admitted, and the taxi +driver heard the shrieks of laughter in the cab behind him above the +wheezing of his asthmatic engine. + +At twelve that night in a certain suburb of London an overcoated man +moved stealthily through a garden. He felt his way carefully along the +wall of the house and groped with hope, but with no great certainty, +along the window sill. He found an envelope which his fingers, somewhat +sensitive from long employment in nefarious uses, told him contained +nothing more substantial than a letter. + +He went back through the garden and rejoined his companion, who was +waiting under an adjacent lamp-post. + +“Did she drop?” asked the other eagerly. + +“I don't know yet,” growled the man from the garden. + +He opened the envelope and read the few lines. + +“She hasn't got the money,” he said, “but she's going to get it. I must +meet her to-morrow afternoon at the corner of Oxford Street and Regent +Street.” + +“What time!” asked the other. + +“Six o'clock,” said the first man. “The chap who takes the money must +carry a copy of the Westminster Gazette in his hand.” + +“Oh, then it's a plant,” said the other with conviction. + +The other laughed. + +“She won't work any plants. I bet she's scared out of her life.” + +The second man bit his nails and looked up and down the road, +apprehensively. + +“It's come to something,” he said bitterly; “we went out to make our +thousands and we've come down to 'chanting' for 20 pounds.” + +“It's the luck,” said the other philosophically, “and I haven't done +with her by any means. Besides we've still got a chance of pulling of +the big thing, Harry. I reckon she's good for a hundred or two, anyway.” + +At six o'clock on the following afternoon, a man dressed in a dark +overcoat, with a soft felt hat pulled down over his eyes stood +nonchalantly by the curb near where the buses stop at Regent Street +slapping his hand gently with a folded copy of the Westminster Gazette. + +That none should mistake his Liberal reading, he stood as near as +possible to a street lamp and so arranged himself and his attitude that +the minimum of light should fall upon his face and the maximum upon +that respectable organ of public opinion. Soon after six he saw the girl +approaching, out of the tail of his eye, and strolled off to meet her. +To his surprise she passed him by and he was turning to follow when an +unfriendly hand gripped him by the arm. + +“Mr. Fisher, I believe,” said a pleasant voice. + +“What do you mean?” said the man, struggling backward. + +“Are you going quietly!” asked the pleasant Superintendent Mansus, “or +shall I take my stick to you'?” + +Mr. Fisher thought awhile. + +“It's a cop,” he confessed, and allowed himself to be hustled into the +waiting cab. + +He made his appearance in T. X.'s office and that urbane gentleman +greeted him as a friend. + +“And how's Mr. Fisher!” he asked; “I suppose you are Mr. Fisher still +and not Mr. Harry Gilcott, or Mr. George Porten.” + +Fisher smiled his old, deferential, deprecating smile. + +“You will always have your joke, sir. I suppose the young lady gave me +away.” + +“You gave yourself away, my poor Fisher,” said T. X., and put a strip +of paper before him; “you may disguise your hand, and in your extreme +modesty pretend to an ignorance of the British language, which is +not creditable to your many attainments, but what you must be awfully +careful in doing in future when you write such epistles,” he said, “is +to wash your hands.” + +“Wash my hands!” repeated the puzzled Fisher. + +T. X. nodded. + +“You see you left a little thumb print, and we are rather whales on +thumb prints at Scotland Yard, Fisher.” + +“I see. What is the charge now, sir!” + +“I shall make no charge against you except the conventional one of being +a convict under license and failing to report.” + +Fisher heaved a sigh. + +“That'll only mean twelve months. Are you going to charge me with this +business?” he nodded to the paper. + +T. X. shook his head. + +“I bear you no ill-will although you tried to frighten Miss Bartholomew. +Oh yes, I know it is Miss Bartholomew, and have known all the time. The +lady is there for a reason which is no business of yours or of mine. +I shall not charge you with attempt to blackmail and in reward for my +leniency I hope you are going to tell me all you know about the Kara +murder. You wouldn't like me to charge you with that, would you by any +chance!” + +Fisher drew a long breath. + +“No, sir, but if you did I could prove my innocence,” he said earnestly. +“I spent the whole of the evening in the kitchen.” + +“Except a quarter of an hour,” said T. X. + +The man nodded. + +“That's true, sir, I went out to see a pal of mine.” + +“The man who is in this!” asked T. X. + +Fisher hesitated. + +“Yes, sir. He was with me in this but there was nothing wrong about the +business--as far as we went. I don't mind admitting that I was planning +a Big Thing. I'm not going to blow on it, if it's going to get me into +trouble, but if you'll promise me that it won't, I'll tell you the whole +story.” + +“Against whom was this coup of yours planned?” + +“Against Mr. Kara, sir,” said Fisher. + +“Go on with your story,” nodded T. X. + +The story was a short and commonplace one. Fisher had met a man who knew +another man who was either a Turk or an Albanian. They had learnt that +Kara was in the habit of keeping large sums of money in the house and +they had planned to rob him. That was the story in a nutshell. Somewhere +the plan miscarried. It was when he came to the incidents that occurred +on the night of the murder that T. X. followed him with the greatest +interest. + +“The old gentleman came in,” said Fisher, “and I saw him up to the +room. I heard him coming out and I went up and spoke to him while he was +having a chat with Mr. Kara at the open door.” + +“Did you hear Mr. Kara speak?” + +“I fancy I did, sir,” said Fisher; “anyway the old gentleman was quite +pleased with himself.” + +“Why do you say 'old gentleman'!” asked T. X.; “he was not an old man.” + +“Not exactly, sir,” said Fisher, “but he had a sort of fussy irritable +way that old gentlemen sometimes have and I somehow got it fixed in my +mind that he was old. As a matter of fact, he was about forty-five, he +may have been fifty.” + +“You have told me all this before. Was there anything peculiar about +him!” + +Fisher hesitated. + +“Nothing, sir, except the fact that one of his arms was a game one.” + +“Meaning that it was--” + +“Meaning that it was an artificial one, sir, so far as I can make out.” + +“Was it his right or his left arm that was game!” interrupted T. X. + +“His left arm, sir.” + +“You're sure?” + +“I'd swear to it, sir.” + +“Very well, go on.” + +“He came downstairs and went out and I never saw him again. When you +came and the murder was discovered and knowing as I did that I had my +own scheme on and that one of your splits might pinch me, I got a bit +rattled. I went downstairs to the hall and the first thing I saw lying +on the table was a letter. It was addressed to me.” + +He paused and T. X. nodded. + +“Go on,” he said again. + +“I couldn't understand how it came to be there, but as I'd been in the +kitchen most of the evening except when I was seeing my pal outside to +tell him the job was off for that night, it might have been there before +you came. I opened the letter. There were only a few words on it and I +can tell you those few words made my heart jump up into my mouth, and +made me go cold all over.” + +“What were they!” asked T. X. + +“I shall not forget them, sir. They're sort of permanently fixed in my +brain,” said the man earnestly; “the note started with just the figures +'A. C. 274.'” + +“What was that!” asked T. X. + +“My convict number when I was in Dartmoor Prison, sir.” + +“What did the note say?” + +“'Get out of here quick'--I don't know who had put it there, but I'd +evidently been spotted and I was taking no chances. That's the whole +story from beginning to end. I accidentally happened to meet the young +lady, Miss Holland--Miss Bartholomew as she is--and followed her to her +house in Portman Place. That was the night you were there.” + +T. X. found himself to his intense annoyance going very red. + +“And you know no more?” he asked. + +“No more, sir--and if I may be struck dead--” + +“Keep all that sabbath talk for the chaplain,” commended T. X., and they +took away Mr. Fisher, not an especially dissatisfied man. + +That night T. X. interviewed his prisoner at Cannon Row police station +and made a few more enquiries. + +“There is one thing I would like to ask you,” said the girl when he met +her next morning in Green Park. + +“If you were going to ask whether I made enquiries as to where your +habitation was,” he warned her, “I beg of you to refrain.” + +She was looking very beautiful that morning, he thought. The keen air +had brought a colour to her face and lent a spring to her gait, and, as +she strode along by his side with the free and careless swing of youth, +she was an epitome of the life which even now was budding on every tree +in the park. + +“Your father is back in town, by the way,” he said, “and he is most +anxious to see you.” + +She made a little grimace. + +“I hope you haven't been round talking to father about me.” + +“Of course I have,” he said helplessly; “I have also had all the +reporters up from Fleet Street and given them a full description of your +escapades.” + +She looked round at him with laughter in her eyes. + +“You have all the manners of an early Christian martyr,” she said. “Poor +soul! Would you like to be thrown to the lions?” + +“I should prefer being thrown to the demnition ducks and drakes,” he +said moodily. + +“You're such a miserable man,” she chided him, “and yet you have +everything to make life worth living.” + +“Ha, ha!” said T. X. + +“You have, of course you have! You have a splendid position. Everybody +looks up to you and talks about you. You have got a wife and family who +adore you--” + +He stopped and looked at her as though she were some strange insect. + +“I have a how much?” he asked credulously. + +“Aren't you married?” she asked innocently. + +He made a strange noise in his throat. + +“Do you know I have always thought of you as married,” she went on; “I +often picture you in your domestic circle reading to the children from +the Daily Megaphone those awfully interesting stories about Little +Willie Waterbug.” + +He held on to the railings for support. + +“May we sit down?” he asked faintly. + +She sat by his side, half turned to him, demure and wholly adorable. + +“Of course you are right in one respect,” he said at last, “but you're +altogether wrong about the children.” + +“Are you married!” she demanded with no evidence of amusement. + +“Didn't you know?” he asked. + +She swallowed something. + +“Of course it's no business of mine and I'm sure I hope you are very +happy.” + +“Perfectly happy,” said T. X. complacently. “You must come out and see +me one Saturday afternoon when I am digging the potatoes. I am a perfect +devil when they let me loose in the vegetable garden.” + +“Shall we go on?” she said. + +He could have sworn there were tears in her eyes and manlike he thought +she was vexed with him at his fooling. + +“I haven't made you cross, have I?” he asked. + +“Oh no,” she replied. + +“I mean you don't believe all this rot about my being married and that +sort of thing?” + +“I'm not interested,” she said, with a shrug of her shoulders, “not very +much. You've been very kind to me and I should be an awful boor if I +wasn't grateful. Of course, I don't care whether you're married or not, +it's nothing to do with me, is it?” + +“Naturally it isn't,” he replied. “I suppose you aren't married by any +chance?” + +“Married,” she repeated bitterly; “why, you will make my fourth!” + +She had hardy got the words out of her mouth before she realized her +terrible error. A second later she was in his arms and he was kissing +her to the scandal of one aged park keeper, one small and dirty-faced +little boy and a moulting duck who seemed to sneer at the proceedings +which he watched through a yellow and malignant eye. + +“Belinda Mary,” said T. X. at parting, “you have got to give up your +little country establishment, wherever it may be and come back to the +discomforts of Portman Place. Oh, I know you can't come back yet. That +'somebody' is there, and I can pretty well guess who it is.” + +“Who?” she challenged. + +“I rather fancy your mother has come back,” he suggested. + +A look of scorn dawned into her pretty face. + +“Good lord, Tommy!” she said in disgust, “you don't think I should keep +mother in the suburbs without her telling the world all about it!” + +“You're an undutiful little beggar,” he said. + +They had reached the Horse Guards at Whitehall and he was saying +good-bye to her. + +“If it comes to a matter of duty,” she answered, “perhaps you will do +your duty and hold up the traffic for me and let me cross this road.” + +“My dear girl,” he protested, “hold up the traffic?” + +“Of course,” she said indignantly, “you're a policeman.” + +“Only when I am in uniform,” he said hastily, and piloted her across the +road. + +It was a new man who returned to the gloomy office in Whitehall. A man +with a heart that swelled and throbbed with the pride and joy of life's +most precious possession. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + + +T. X. sat at his desk, his chin in his hands, his mind remarkably busy. +Grave as the matter was which he was considering, he rose with alacrity +to meet the smiling girl who was ushered through the door by Mansus, +preternaturally solemn and mysterious. + +She was radiant that day. Her eyes were sparkling with an unusual +brightness. + +“I've got the most wonderful thing to tell you,” she said, “and I can't +tell you.” + +“That's a very good beginning,” said T. X., taking her muff from her +hand. + +“Oh, but it's really wonderful,” she cried eagerly, “more wonderful than +anything you have ever heard about.” + +“We are interested,” said T. X. blandly. + +“No, no, you mustn't make fun,” she begged, “I can't tell you now, but +it is something that will make you simply--” she was at a loss for a +simile. + +“Jump out of my skin?” suggested T. X. + +“I shall astonish you,” she nodded her head solemnly. + +“I take a lot of astonishing, I warn you,” he smiled; “to know you is to +exhaust one's capacity for surprise.” + +“That can be either very, very nice or very, very nasty,” she said +cautiously. + +“But accept it as being very, very nice,” he laughed. “Now come, out +with this tale of yours.” + +She shook her head very vigorously. + +“I can't possibly tell you anything,” she said. + +“Then why the dickens do you begin telling anything for?” he complained, +not without reason. + +“Because I just want you to know that I do know something.” + +“Oh, Lord!” he groaned. “Of course you know everything. Belinda Mary, +you're really the most wonderful child.” + +He sat on the edge of her arm-chair and laid his hand on her shoulder. + +“And you've come to take me out to lunch!” + +“What were you worrying about when I came in?” she asked. + +He made a little gesture as if to dismiss the subject. + +“Nothing very much. You've heard me speak of John Lexman?” + +She bent her head. + +“Lexman's the writer of a great many mystery stories, but you've +probably read his books.” + +She nodded again, and again T. X. noticed the suppressed eagerness in +her eyes. + +“You're not ill or sickening for anything, are you?” he asked anxiously; +“measles, or mumps or something?” + +“Don't be silly,” she said; “go on and tell me something about Mr. +Lexman.” + +“He's going to America,” said T. X., “and before he goes he wants to +give a little lecture.” + +“A lecture?” + +“It sounds rum, doesn't it, but that's just what he wants to do.” + +“Why is he doing it!” she asked. + +T. X. made a gesture of despair. + +“That is one of the mysteries which may never be revealed to me, +except--” he pursed his lips and looked thoughtfully at the girl. “There +are times,” he said, “when there is a great struggle going on inside +a man between all the human and better part of him and the baser +professional part of him. One side of me wants to hear this lecture of +John Lexman's very much, the other shrinks from the ordeal.” + +“Let us talk it over at lunch,” she said practically, and carried him +off. + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + +One would not readily associate the party of top-booted sewermen who +descend nightly to the subterranean passages of London with the stout +viceconsul at Durazzo. Yet it was one unimaginative man who lived in +Lambeth and had no knowledge that there was such a place as Durazzo who +was responsible for bringing this comfortable official out of his bed in +the early hours of the morning causing him--albeit reluctantly and with +violent and insubordinate language--to conduct certain investigations in +the crowded bazaars. + +At first he was unsuccessful because there were many Hussein Effendis +in Durazzo. He sent an invitation to the American Consul to come over to +tiffin and help him. + +“Why the dickens the Foreign Office should suddenly be interested in +Hussein Effendi, I cannot for the life of me understand.” + +“The Foreign Department has to be interested in something, you know,” + said the genial American. “I receive some of the quaintest requests +from Washington; I rather fancy they only wire you to find if they are +there.” + +“Why are you doing this!” + +“I've seen Hakaat Bey,” said the English official. “I wonder what +this fellow has been doing? There is probably a wigging for me in the +offing.” + +At about the same time the sewerman in the bosom of his own family was +taking loud and noisy sips from a big mug of tea. + +“Don't you be surprised,” he said to his admiring better half, “if I +have to go up to the Old Bailey to give evidence.” + +“Lord! Joe!” she said with interest, “what has happened!” + +The sewer man filled his pipe and told the story with a wealth of +rambling detail. He gave particulars of the hour he had descended the +Victoria Street shaft, of what Bill Morgan had said to him as they were +going down, of what he had said to Harry Carter as they splashed along +the low-roofed tunnel, of how he had a funny feeling that he was going +to make a discovery, and so on and so forth until he reached his long +delayed climax. + +T. X. waited up very late that night and at twelve o'clock his patience +was rewarded, for the Foreign Office messenger brought a telegram to +him. It was addressed to the Chief Secretary and ran: + +“No. 847. Yours 63952 of yesterday's date. Begins. Hussein Effendi a +prosperous merchant of this city left for Italy to place his daughter in +convent Marie Theressa, Florence Hussein being Christian. He goes on to +Paris. Apply Ralli Theokritis et Cie., Rue de l'Opera. Ends.” + +Half an hour later T. X. had a telephone connection through to Paris +and was instructing the British police agent in that city. He received a +further telephone report from Paris the next morning and one which +gave him infinite satisfaction. Very slowly but surely he was gathering +together the pieces of this baffling mystery and was fitting them +together. Hussein Effendi would probably supply the last missing +segments. + +At eight o'clock that night the door opened and the man who represented +T. X. in Paris came in carrying a travelling ulster on his arm. T. +X. gave him a nod and then, as the newcomer stood with the door open, +obviously waiting for somebody to follow him, he said, + +“Show him in--I will see him alone.” + +There walked into his office, a tall man wearing a frock coat and a red +fez. He was a man from fifty-five to sixty, powerfully built, with a +grave dark face and a thin fringe of white beard. He salaamed as he +entered. + +“You speak French, I believe,” said T. X. presently. + +The other bowed. + +“My agent has explained to you,” said T. X. in French, “that I desire +some information for the purpose of clearing up a crime which has +been committed in this country. I have given you my assurance, if that +assurance was necessary, that you would come to no harm as a result of +anything you might tell me.” + +“That I understand, Effendi,” said the tall Turk; “the Americans and the +English have always been good friends of mine and I have been frequently +in London. Therefore, I shall be very pleased to be of any help to you.” + +T. X. walked to a closed bookcase on one side of the room, unlocked it, +took out an object wrapped in white tissue paper. He laid this on the +table, the Turk watching the proceedings with an impassive face. Very +slowly the Commissioner unrolled the little bundle and revealed at +last a long, slim knife, rusted and stained, with a hilt, which in its +untarnished days had evidently been of chased silver. He lifted the +dagger from the table and handed it to the Turk. + +“This is yours, I believe,” he said softly. + +The man turned it over, stepping nearer the table that he might secure +the advantage of a better light. He examined the blade near the hilt and +handed the weapon back to T. X. + +“That is my knife,” he said. + +T. X. smiled. + +“You understand, of course, that I saw 'Hussein Effendi of Durazzo' +inscribed in Arabic near the hilt.” + +The Turk inclined his head. + +“With this weapon,” T. X. went on, speaking with slow emphasis, “a +murder was committed in this town.” + +There was no sign of interest or astonishment, or indeed of any emotion +whatever. + +“It is the will of God,” he said calmly; “these things happen even in a +great city like London.” + +“It was your knife,” suggested T. X. + +“But my hand was in Durazzo, Effendi,” said the Turk. + +He looked at the knife again. + +“So the Black Roman is dead, Effendi.” + +“The Black Roman?” asked T. X., a little puzzled. + +“The Greek they call Kara,” said the Turk; “he was a very wicked man.” + +T. X. was up on his feet now, leaning across the table and looking at +the other with narrowed eyes. + +“How did you know it was Kara?” he asked quickly. + +The Turk shrugged his shoulders. + +“Who else could it be?” he said; “are not your newspapers filled with +the story?” + +T. X. sat back again, disappointed and a little annoyed with himself. + +“That is true, Hussein Effendi, but I did not think you read the +papers.” + +“Neither do I, master,” replied the other coolly, “nor did I know that +Kara had been killed until I saw this knife. How came this in your +possession!” + +“It was found in a rain sewer,” said T. X., “into which the murderer had +apparently dropped it. But if you have not read the newspapers, Effendi, +then you admit that you know who committed this murder.” + +The Turk raised his hands slowly to a level with his shoulders. + +“Though I am a Christian,” he said, “there are many wise sayings of my +father's religion which I remember. And one of these, Effendi, was, 'the +wicked must die in the habitations of the just, by the weapons of the +worthy shall the wicked perish.' Your Excellency, I am a worthy man, +for never have I done a dishonest thing in my life. I have traded fairly +with Greeks, with Italians, have with Frenchmen and with Englishmen, +also with Jews. I have never sought to rob them nor to hurt them. If I +have killed men, God knows it was not because I desired their death, but +because their lives were dangerous to me and to mine. Ask the blade all +your questions and see what answer it gives. Until it speaks I am as +dumb as the blade, for it is also written that 'the soldier is the +servant of his sword,' and also, 'the wise servant is dumb about his +master's affairs.'” + +T. X. laughed helplessly. + +“I had hoped that you might be able to help me, hoped and feared,” he +said; “if you cannot speak it is not my business to force you either by +threat or by act. I am grateful to you for having come over, although +the visit has been rather fruitless so far as I am concerned.” + +He smiled again and offered his hand. + +“Excellency,” said the old Turk soberly, “there are some things in life +that are well left alone and there are moments when justice should be so +blind that she does not see guilt; here is such a moment.” + +And this ended the interview, one on which T. X. had set very high +hopes. His gloom carried to Portman Place, where he had arranged to meet +Belinda Mary. + +“Where is Mr. Lexman going to give this famous lecture of his?” was the +question with which she greeted him, “and, please, what is the subject?” + +“It is on a subject which is of supreme interest to me;” he said +gravely; “he has called his lecture 'The Clue of the Twisted Candle.' +There is no clearer brain being employed in the business of criminal +detection than John Lexman's. Though he uses his genius for the +construction of stories, were it employed in the legitimate business +of police work, I am certain he would make a mark second to none in +the world. He is determined on giving this lecture and he has issued a +number of invitations. These include the Chiefs of the Secret Police of +nearly all the civilized countries of the world. O'Grady is on his way +from America, he wirelessed me this morning to that effect. Even the +Chief of the Russian police has accepted the invitation, because, as you +know, this murder has excited a great deal of interest in police circles +everywhere. John Lexman is not only going to deliver this lecture,” he +said slowly, “but he is going to tell us who committed the murder and +how it was committed.” + +She thought a moment. + +“Where will it be delivered!” + +“I don't know,” he said in astonishment; “does that matter?” + +“It matters a great deal,” she said emphatically, “especially if I want +it delivered in a certain place. Would you induce Mr. Lexman to lecture +at my house?” + +“At Portman Place!” he asked. + +She shook her head. + +“No, I have a house of my own. A furnished house I have rented at +Blackheath. Will you induce Mr. Lexman to give the lecture there?” + +“But why?” he asked. + +“Please don't ask questions,” she pleaded, “do this for me, Tommy.” + +He saw she was in earnest. + +“I'll write to old Lexman this afternoon,” he promised. + +John Lexman telephoned his reply. + +“I should prefer somewhere out of London,” he said, “and since Miss +Bartholomew has some interest in the matter, may I extend my invitation +to her? I promise she shall not be any more shocked than a good woman +need be.” + +And so it came about that the name of Belinda Mary Bartholomew was added +to the selected list of police chiefs, who were making for London at +that moment to hear from the man who had guaranteed the solution of +the story of Kara and his killing; the unravelment of the mystery which +surrounded his death, and the significance of the twisted candles, which +at that moment were reposing in the Black Museum at Scotland Yard. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + + +The room was a big one and most of the furniture had been cleared out +to admit the guests who had come from the ends of the earth to learn the +story of the twisted candles, and to test John Lexman's theory by their +own. + +They sat around chatting cheerfully of men and crimes, of great coups +planned and frustrated, of strange deeds committed and undetected. +Scraps of their conversation came to Belinda Mary as she stood in the +chintz-draped doorway which led from the drawing-room to the room she +used as a study. + +“... do you remember, Sir George, the Bolbrook case! I took the man at +Odessa....” + +“... the curious thing was that I found no money on the body, only a +small gold charm set with a single emerald, so I knew it was the girl +with the fur bonnet who had...” + +“... Pinot got away after putting three bullets into me, but I dragged +myself to the window and shot him dead--it was a real good shot...!” + +They rose to meet her and T. X. introduced her to the men. It was at +that moment that John Lexman was announced. + +He looked tired, but returned the Commissioner's greeting with a +cheerful mien. He knew all the men present by name, as they knew him. He +had a few sheets of notes, which he laid on the little table which had +been placed for him, and when the introductions were finished he went to +this and with scarcely any preliminary began. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + +THE NARRATIVE OF JOHN LEXMAN + +“I am, as you may all know, a writer of stories which depend for their +success upon the creation and unravelment of criminological mysteries. +The Chief Commissioner has been good enough to tell you that my stories +were something more than a mere seeking after sensation, and that I +endeavoured in the course of those narratives to propound obscure but +possible situations, and, with the ingenuity that I could command, to +offer to those problems a solution acceptable, not only to the general +reader, but to the police expert. + +“Although I did not regard my earlier work with any great seriousness +and indeed only sought after exciting situations and incidents, I can +see now, looking back, that underneath the work which seemed at the time +purposeless, there was something very much like a scheme of studies. + +“You must forgive this egotism in me because it is necessary that +I should make this explanation and you, who are in the main police +officers of considerable experience and discernment, should appreciate +the fact that as I was able to get inside the minds of the fictitious +criminals I portrayed, so am I now able to follow the mind of the man +who committed this murder, or if not to follow his mind, to recreate the +psychology of the slayer of Remington Kara. + +“In the possession of most of you are the vital facts concerning this +man. You know the type of man he was, you have instances of his terrible +ruthlessness, you know that he was a blot upon God's earth, a vicious +wicked ego, seeking the gratification of that strange blood-lust and +pain-lust, which is to be found in so few criminals.” + +John Lexman went on to describe the killing of Vassalaro. + +“I know now how that occurred,” he said. “I had received on the previous +Christmas eve amongst other presents, a pistol from an unknown admirer. +That unknown admirer was Kara, who had planned this murder some three +months ahead. He it was, who sent me the Browning, knowing as he did +that I had never used such a weapon and that therefore I would be chary +about using it. I might have put the pistol away in a cupboard out +of reach and the whole of his carefully thought out plan would have +miscarried. + +“But Kara was systematic in all things. Three weeks after I received the +weapon, a clumsy attempt was made to break into my house in the middle +of the night. It struck me at the time it was clumsy, because the +burglar made a tremendous amount of noise and disappeared soon after +he began his attempt, doing no more damage than to break a window in +my dining-room. Naturally my mind went to the possibility of a further +attempt of this kind, as my house stood on the outskirts of the village, +and it was only natural that I should take the pistol from one of my +boxes and put it somewhere handy. To make doubly sure, Kara came down +the next day and heard the full story of the outrage. + +“He did not speak of pistols, but I remember now, though I did not +remember at the time, that I mentioned the fact that I had a handy +weapon. A fortnight later a second attempt was made to enter the house. +I say an attempt, but again I do not believe that the intention was at +all serious. The outrage was designed to keep that pistol of mine in a +get-at-able place. + +“And again Kara came down to see us on the day following the burglary, +and again I must have told him, though I have no distinct recollection +of the fact, of what had happened the previous night. It would have been +unnatural if I had not mentioned the fact, as it was a matter which had +formed a subject of discussion between myself, my wife and the servants. + +“Then came the threatening letter, with Kara providentially at hand. On +the night of the murder, whilst Kara was still in my house, I went out +to find his chauffeur. Kara remained a few minutes with my wife and +then on some excuse went into the library. There he loaded the pistol, +placing one cartridge in the chamber, and trusting to luck that I did +not pull the trigger until I had it pointed at my victim. Here he took +his biggest chance, because, before sending the weapon to me, he had had +the spring of the Browning so eased that the slightest touch set it +off and, as you know, the pistol being automatic, the explosion of one +cartridge, reloading and firing the next and so on, it was probably +that a chance touch would have brought his scheme to nought--probably me +also. + +“Of what happened on that night you are aware.” + +He went on to tell of his trial and conviction and skimmed over the life +he led until that morning on Dartmoor. + +“Kara knew my innocence had been proved and his hatred for me being +his great obsession, since I had the thing he had wanted but no longer +wanted, let that be understood--he saw the misery he had planned for +me and my dear wife being brought to a sudden end. He had, by the +way, already planned and carried his plan into execution, a system of +tormenting her. + +“You did not know,” he turned to T. X., “that scarcely a month passed, +but some disreputable villain called at her flat, with a story that he +had been released from Portland or Wormwood Scrubbs that morning and +that he had seen me. The story each messenger brought was one sufficient +to break the heart of any but the bravest woman. It was a story of +ill-treatment by brutal officials, of my illness, of my madness, of +everything calculated to harrow the feelings of a tender-hearted and +faithful wife. + +“That was Kara's scheme. Not to hurt with the whip or with the knife, +but to cut deep at the heart with his evil tongue, to cut to the raw +places of the mind. When he found that I was to be released,--he may +have guessed, or he may have discovered by some underhand method; that a +pardon was about to be signed,--he conceived his great plan. He had less +than two days to execute it. + +“Through one of his agents he discovered a warder who had been in some +trouble with the authorities, a man who was avaricious and was even then +on the brink of being discharged from the service for trafficking with +prisoners. The bribe he offered this man was a heavy one and the warder +accepted. + +“Kara had purchased a new monoplane and as you know he was an excellent +aviator. With this new machine he flew to Devon and arrived at dawn in +one of the unfrequented parts of the moor. + +“The story of my own escape needs no telling. My narrative really begins +from the moment I put my foot upon the deck of the Mpret. The first +person I asked to see was, naturally, my wife. Kara, however, insisted +on my going to the cabin he had prepared and changing my clothes, and +until then I did not realise I was still in my convict's garb. A +clean change was waiting for me, and the luxury of soft shirts and +well-fitting garments after the prison uniform I cannot describe. + +“After I was dressed I was taken by the Greek steward to the larger +stateroom and there I found my darling waiting for me.” + +His voice sank almost to a whisper, and it was a minute or two before he +had mastered his emotions. + +“She had been suspicious of Kara, but he had been very insistent. He had +detailed the plans and shown her the monoplane, but even then she would +not trust herself on board, and she had been waiting in a motor-boat, +moving parallel with the yacht, until she saw the landing and realized, +as she thought, that Kara was not playing her false. The motor-boat had +been hired by Kara and the two men inside were probably as well-bribed +as the warder. + +“The joy of freedom can only be known to those who have suffered the +horrors of restraint. That is a trite enough statement, but when one is +describing elemental things there is no room for subtlety. The voyage +was a fairly eventless one. We saw very little of Kara, who did not +intrude himself upon us, and our main excitement lay in the apprehension +that we should be held up by a British destroyer or, that when we +reached Gibraltar, we should be searched by the Brit's authorities. Kara +had foreseen that possibility and had taken in enough coal to last him +for the run. + +“We had a fairly stormy passage in the Mediterranean, but after that +nothing happened until we arrived at Durazzo. We had to go ashore in +disguise, because Kara told us that the English Consul might see us and +make some trouble. We wore Turkish dresses, Grace heavily veiled and I +wearing a greasy old kaftan which, with my somewhat emaciated face and +my unshaven appearance, passed me without comment. + +“Kara's home was and is about eighteen miles from Durazzo. It is not on +the main road, but it is reached by following one of the rocky mountain +paths which wind and twist among the hills to the south-east of the +town. The country is wild and mainly uncultivated. We had to pass +through swamps and skirt huge lagoons as we mounted higher and higher +from terrace to terrace and came to the roads which crossed the +mountains. + +“Kara's, palace, you could call it no less, is really built within sight +of the sea. It is on the Acroceraunian Peninsula near Cape Linguetta. +Hereabouts the country is more populated and better cultivated. We +passed great slopes entirely covered with mulberry and olive trees, +whilst in the valleys there were fields of maize and corn. The palazzo +stands on a lofty plateau. It is approached by two paths, which can be +and have been well defended in the past against the Sultan's troops +or against the bands which have been raised by rival villages with the +object of storming and plundering this stronghold. + +“The Skipetars, a blood-thirsty crowd without pity or remorse, were +faithful enough to their chief, as Kara was. He paid them so well that +it was not profitable to rob him; moreover he kept their own turbulent +elements fully occupied with the little raids which he or his agents +organized from time to time. The palazzo was built rather in the Moorish +than in the Turkish style. + +“It was a sort of Eastern type to which was grafted an Italian +architecture--a house of white-columned courts, of big paved yards, +fountains and cool, dark rooms. + +“When I passed through the gates I realized for the first time something +of Kara's importance. There were a score of servants, all Eastern, +perfectly trained, silent and obsequious. He led us to his own room. + +“It was a big apartment with divans running round the wall, the most +ornate French drawing room suite and an enormous Persian carpet, one of +the finest of the kind that has ever been turned out of Shiraz. Here, +let me say, that throughout the trip his attitude to me had been +perfectly friendly and towards Grace all that I could ask of my best +friend, considerate and tactful. + +“'We had hardly reached his room before he said to me with that bonhomie +which he had observed throughout the trip, 'You would like to see your +room?' + +“I expressed a wish to that effect. He clapped his hands and a big +Albanian servant came through the curtained doorway, made the usual +salaam, and Kara spoke to him a few words in a language which I presume +was Turkish. + +“'He will show you the way,' said Kara with his most genial smile. + +“I followed the servant through the curtains which had hardly fallen +behind me before I was seized by four men, flung violently on the +ground, a filthy tarbosch was thrust into my mouth and before I knew +what was happening I was bound hand and foot. + +“As I realised the gross treachery of the man, my first frantic thoughts +were of Grace and her safety. I struggled with the strength of three +men, but they were too many for me and I was dragged along the passage, +a door was opened and I was flung into a bare room. I must have been +lying on the floor for half an hour when they came for me, this time +accompanied by a middle-aged man named Savolio, who was either an +Italian or a Greek. + +“He spoke English fairly well and he made it clear to me that I had to +behave myself. I was led back to the room from whence I had come and +found Kara sitting in one of those big armchairs which he affected, +smoking a cigarette. Confronting him, still in her Turkish dress, was +poor Grace. She was not bound I was pleased to see, but when on +my entrance she rose and made as if to come towards me, she was +unceremoniously thrown back by the guardian who stood at her side. + +“'Mr. John Lexman,' drawled Kara, 'you are at the beginning of a great +disillusionment. I have a few things to tell you which will make you +feel rather uncomfortable.' It was then that I heard for the first time +that my pardon had been signed and my innocence discovered. + +“'Having taken a great deal of trouble to get you in prison,' said Kara, +'it isn't likely that I'm going to allow all my plans to be undone, and +my plan is to make you both extremely uncomfortable.' + +“He did not raise his voice, speaking still in the same conversational +tone, suave and half amused. + +“'I hate you for two things,' he said, and ticked them off on his +fingers: 'the first is that you took the woman that I wanted. To a man +of my temperament that is an unpardonable crime. I have never wanted +women either as friends or as amusement. I am one of the few people in +the world who are self-sufficient. It happened that I wanted your wife +and she rejected me because apparently she preferred you.' + +“He looked at me quizzically. + +“'You are thinking at this moment,' he went on slowly, 'that I want her +now, and that it is part of my revenge that I shall put her straight in +my harem. Nothing is farther from my desires or my thoughts. The Black +Roman is not satisfied with the leavings of such poor trash as you. I +hate you both equally and for both of you there is waiting an experience +more terrible than even your elastic imagination can conjure. You +understand what that means!' he asked me still retaining his calm. + +“I did not reply. I dared not look at Grace, to whom he turned. + +“'I believe you love your husband, my friend,' he said; 'your love will +be put to a very severe test. You shall see him the mere wreckage of the +man he is. You shall see him brutalized below the level of the cattle +in the field. I will give you both no joys, no ease of mind. From this +moment you are slaves, and worse than slaves.' + +“He clapped his hands. The interview was ended and from that moment I +only saw Grace once.” + +John Lexman stopped and buried his face in his hands. + +“They took me to an underground dungeon cut in the solid rock. In many +ways it resembled the dungeon of the Chateau of Chillon, in that its +only window looked out upon a wild, storm-swept lake and its floor was +jagged rock. I have called it underground, as indeed it was on that +side, for the palazzo was built upon a steep slope running down from the +spur of the hills. + +“They chained me by the legs and left me to my own devices. Once a day +they gave me a little goat flesh and a pannikin of water and once a week +Kara would come in and outside the radius of my chain he would open a +little camp stool and sitting down smoke his cigarette and talk. My +God! the things that man said! The things he described! The horrors he +related! And always it was Grace who was the centre of his description. +And he would relate the stories he was telling to her about myself. I +cannot describe them. They are beyond repetition.” + +John Lexman shuddered and closed his eyes. + +“That was his weapon. He did not confront me with the torture of my +darling, he did not bring tangible evidence of her suffering--he just +sat and talked, describing with a remarkable clarity of language which +seemed incredible in a foreigner, the 'amusements' which he himself had +witnessed. + +“I thought I should go mad. Twice I sprang at him and twice the chain +about my legs threw me headlong on that cruel floor. Once he brought the +jailer in to whip me, but I took the whipping with such phlegm that it +gave him no satisfaction. I told you I had seen Grace only once and this +is how it happened. + +“It was after the flogging, and Kara, who was a veritable demon in his +rage, planned to have his revenge for my indifference. They brought +Grace out upon a boat and rowed the boat to where I could see it from my +window. There the whip which had been applied to me was applied to her. +I can't tell you any more about that,” he said brokenly, “but I wish, +you don't know how fervently, that I had broken down and given the dog +the satisfaction he wanted. My God! It was horrible! + +“When the winter came they used to take me out with chains on my legs +to gather in wood from the forest. There was no reason why I should be +given this work, but the truth was, as I discovered from Salvolio, that +Kara thought my dungeon was too warm. It was sheltered from the winds +by the hill behind and even on the coldest days and nights it was not +unbearable. Then Kara went away for some time. I think he must have gone +to England, and he came back in a white fury. One of his big plans had +gone wrong and the mental torture he inflicted upon me was more acute +than ever. + +“In the old days he used to come once a week; now he came almost every +day. He usually arrived in the afternoon and I was surprised one night +to be awakened from my sleep to see him standing at the door, a lantern +in his hand, his inevitable cigarette in his mouth. He always wore the +Albanian costume when he was in the country, those white kilted skirts +and zouave jackets which the hillsmen affect and, if anything, it added +to his demoniacal appearance. He put down the lantern and leant against +the wall. + +“'I'm afraid that wife of yours is breaking up, Lexman,' he drawled; +'she isn't the good, stout, English stuff that I thought she was.' + +“I made no reply. I had found by bitter experience that if I intruded +into the conversation, I should only suffer the more. + +“'I have sent down to Durazzo to get a doctor,' he went on; 'naturally +having taken all this trouble I don't want to lose you by death. She +is breaking up,' he repeated with relish and yet with an undertone of +annoyance in his voice; 'she asked for you three times this morning.' + +“I kept myself under control as I had never expected that a man so +desperately circumstanced could do. + +“'Kara,' I said as quietly as I could, 'what has she done that she +should deserve this hell in which she has lived?' + +“He sent out a long ring of smoke and watched its progress across the +dungeon. + +“'What has she done?' he said, keeping his eye on the ring--I shall +always remember every look, every gesture, and every intonation of his +voice. 'Why, she has done all that a woman can do for a man like me. She +has made me feel little. Until I had a rebuff from her, I had all the +world at my feet, Lexman. I did as I liked. If I crooked my little +finger, people ran after me and that one experience with her has broken +me. Oh, don't think,' he went on quickly, 'that I am broken in love. I +never loved her very much, it was just a passing passion, but she killed +my self-confidence. After then, whenever I came to a crucial moment +in my affairs, when the big manner, the big certainty was absolutely +necessary for me to carry my way, whenever I was most confident of +myself and my ability and my scheme, a vision of this damned girl rose +and I felt that momentary weakening, that memory of defeat, which made +all the difference between success and failure. + +“'I hated her and I hate her still,' he said with vehemence; 'if +she dies I shall hate her more because she will remain everlastingly +unbroken to menace my thoughts and spoil my schemes through all +eternity.' + +“He leant forward, his elbows on his knees, his clenched fist under his +chin--how well I can see him!--and stared at me. + +“'I could have been king here in this land,' he said, waving his hand +toward the interior, 'I could have bribed and shot my way to the throne +of Albania. Don't you realize what that means to a man like me? There is +still a chance and if I could keep your wife alive, if I could see her +broken in reason and in health, a poor, skeleton, gibbering thing that +knelt at my feet when I came near her I should recover the mastery of +myself. Believe me,' he said, nodding his head, 'your wife will have the +best medical advice that it is possible to obtain.' + +“Kara went out and I did not see him again for a very long time. He sent +word, just a scrawled note in the morning, to say my wife had died.” + +John Lexman rose up from his seat, and paced the apartment, his head +upon his breast. + +“From that moment,” he said, “I lived only for one thing, to punish +Remington Kara. And gentlemen, I punished him.” + +He stood in the centre of the room and thumped his broad chest with his +clenched hand. + +“I killed Remington Kara,” he said, and there was a little gasp of +astonishment from every man present save one. That one was T. X. +Meredith, who had known all the time. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + + +After a while Lexman resumed his story. + +“I told you that there was a man at the palazzo named Salvolio. Salvolio +was a man who had been undergoing a life sentence in one of the prisons +of southern Italy. In some mysterious fashion he escaped and got across +the Adriatic in a small boat. How Kara found him I don't know. Salvolio +was a very uncommunicative person. I was never certain whether he was +a Greek or an Italian. All that I am sure about is that he was the most +unmitigated villain next to his master that I have ever met. + +“He was a quick man with his knife and I have seen him kill one of the +guards whom he had thought was favouring me in the matter of diet with +less compunction than you would kill a rat. + +“It was he who gave me this scar,” John Lexman pointed to his cheek. +“In his master's absence he took upon himself the task of conducting +a clumsy imitation of Kara's persecution. He gave me, too, the only +glimpse I ever had of the torture poor Grace underwent. She hated dogs, +and Kara must have come to know this and in her sleeping room--she was +apparently better accommodated than I--he kept four fierce beasts so +chained that they could almost reach her. + +“Some reference to my wife from this low brute maddened me beyond +endurance and I sprang at him. He whipped out his knife and struck at +me as I fell and I escaped by a miracle. He evidently had orders not to +touch me, for he was in a great panic of mind, as he had reason to be, +because on Kara's return he discovered the state of my face, started +an enquiry and had Salvolio taken to the courtyard in the true eastern +style and bastinadoed until his feet were pulp. + +“You may be sure the man hated me with a malignity which almost rivalled +his employer's. After Grace's death Kara went away suddenly and I was +left to the tender mercy of this man. Evidently he had been given a +fairly free hand. The principal object of Kara's hate being dead, +he took little further interest in me, or else wearied of his hobby. +Salvolio began his persecutions by reducing my diet. Fortunately I ate +very little. Nevertheless the supplies began to grow less and less, and +I was beginning to feel the effects of this starvation system when there +happened a thing which changed the whole course of my life and opened to +me a way to freedom and to vengeance. + +“Salvolio did not imitate the austerity of his master and in Kara's +absence was in the habit of having little orgies of his own. He would +bring up dancing girls from Durazzo for his amusement and invite +prominent men in the neighbourhood to his feasts and entertainments, for +he was absolutely lord of the palazzo when Kara was away and could do +pretty well as he liked. On this particular night the festivities had +been more than usually prolonged, for as near as I could judge by the +day-light which was creeping in through my window it was about four +o'clock in the morning when the big steel-sheeted door was opened and +Salvolio came in, more than a little drunk. He brought with him, as I +judged, one of his dancing girls, who apparently was privileged to see +the sights of the palace. + +“For a long time he stood in the doorway talking incoherently in a +language which I think must have been Turkish, for I caught one or two +words. + +“Whoever the girl was, she seemed a little frightened, I could see that, +because she shrank back from him though his arm was about her shoulders +and he was half supporting his weight upon her. There was fear, not only +in the curious little glances she shot at me from time to time, but also +in the averted face. Her story I was to learn. She was not of the class +from whence Salvolio found the dancers who from time to time came up to +the palace for his amusement and the amusement of his guests. She was +the daughter of a Turkish merchant of Scutari who had been received into +the Catholic Church. + +“Her father had gone down to Durazzo during the first Balkan war and +then Salvolio had seen the girl unknown to her parent, and there had +been some rough kind of courtship which ended in her running away on +this very day and joining her ill-favoured lover at the palazzo. I tell +you this because the fact had some bearing on my own fate. + +“As I say, the girl was frightened and made as though to go from the +dungeon. She was probably scared both by the unkempt prisoner and by the +drunken man at her side. He, however, could not leave without showing to +her something of his authority. He came lurching over near where I lay, +his long knife balanced in his hand ready for emergencies, and broke +into a string of vituperations of the character to which I was quite +hardened. + +“Then he took a flying kick at me and got home in my ribs, but again I +experienced neither a sense of indignity nor any great hurt. Salvolio +had treated me like this before and I had survived it. In the midst of +the tirade, looking past him, I was a new witness to an extraordinary +scene. + +“The girl stood in the open doorway, shrinking back against the door, +looking with distress and pity at the spectacle which Salvolio's +brutality afforded. Then suddenly there appeared beside her a tall Turk. +He was grey-bearded and forbidding. She looked round and saw him, and +her mouth opened to utter a cry, but with a gesture he silenced her and +pointed to the darkness outside. + +“Without a word she cringed past him, her sandalled feet making no +noise. All this time Salvolio was continuing his stream of abuse, but he +must have seen the wonder in my eyes for he stopped and turned. + +“The old Turk took one stride forward, encircled his body with his left +arm, and there they stood grotesquely like a couple who were going to +start to waltz. The Turk was a head taller than Salvolio and, as I could +see, a man of immense strength. + +“They looked at one another, face to face, Salvolio rapidly recovering +his senses... and then the Turk gave him a gentle punch in the ribs. +That is what it seemed like to me, but Salvolio coughed horribly, went +limp in the other's arms and dropped with a thud to the ground. The Turk +leant down soberly and wiped his long knife on the other's jacket before +he put it back in the sash at his waist. + +“Then with a glance at me he turned to go, but stopped at the door and +looked back thoughtfully. He said something in Turkish which I could not +understand, then he spoke in French. + +“'Who are you?' he asked. + +“In as few words as possible I explained. He came over and looked at the +manacle about my leg and shook his head. + +“'You will never be able to get that undone,' he said. + +“He caught hold of the chain, which was a fairly long one, bound it +twice round his arm and steadying his arm across his thigh, he turned +with a sudden jerk. There was a smart 'snap' as the chain parted. He +caught me by the shoulder and pulled me to my feet. 'Put the chain +about your waist, Effendi,' he said, and he took a revolver from his +belt and handed it to me. + +“'You may need this before we get back to Durazzo,' he said. His belt +was literally bristling with weapons--I saw three revolvers beside the +one I possessed--and he had, evidently come prepared for trouble. We +made our way from the dungeon into the clean-smelling world without. + +“It was the second time I had been in the open air for eighteen months +and my knees were trembling under me with weakness and excitement. The +old man shut the prison door behind us and walked on until we came up to +the girl waiting for us by the lakeside. She was weeping softly and he +spoke to her a few words in a low voice and her weeping ceased. + +“'This daughter of mine will show us the way,' he said, 'I do not know +this part of the country--she knows it too well.' + +“To cut a long story short,” said Lexman, “we reached Durazzo in the +afternoon. There was no attempt made to follow us up and neither my +absence nor the body of Salvolio were discovered until late in the +afternoon. You must remember that nobody but Salvolio was allowed +into my prison and therefore nobody had the courage to make any +investigations. + +“The old man got me to his house without being observed, and brought a +brother-in-law or some relative of his to remove the anklet. The name of +my host was Hussein Effendi. + +“That same night we left with a little caravan to visit some of the old +man's relatives. He was not certain what would be the consequence of +his act, and for safety's sake took this trip, which would enable him +if need be to seek sanctuary with some of the wilder Turkish tribes, who +would give him protection. + +“In that three months I saw Albania as it is--it was an experience never +to be forgotten! + +“If there is a better man in God's world than Hiabam Hussein Effendi, +I have yet to meet him. It was he who provided me with money to leave +Albania. I begged from him, too, the knife with which he had killed +Salvolio. He had discovered that Kara was in England and told me +something of the Greek's occupation which I had not known before. I +crossed to Italy and went on to Milan. There it was that I learnt that +an eccentric Englishman who had arrived a few days previously on one of +the South American boats at Genoa, was in my hotel desperately ill. + +“My hotel I need hardly tell you was not a very expensive one and we +were evidently the only two Englishmen in the place. I could do no less +than go up and see what I could do for the poor fellow who was pretty +well gone when I saw him. I seemed to remember having seen him before +and when looking round for some identification I discovered his name I +readily recalled the circumstance. + +“It was George Gathercole, who had returned from South America. He was +suffering from malarial fever and blood poisoning and for a week, with +an Italian doctor, I fought as hard as any man could fight for his +life. He was a trying patient,” John Lexman smiled suddenly at the +recollection, “vitriolic in his language, impatient and imperious in his +attitude to his friends. He was, for example, terribly sensitive about +his lost arm and would not allow either the doctor or my-self to enter +the room until he was covered to the neck, nor would he eat or drink in +our presence. Yet he was the bravest of the brave, careless of himself +and only fretful because he had not time to finish his new book. His +indomitable spirit did not save him. He died on the 17th of January of +this year. I was in Genoa at the time, having gone there at his request +to save his belongings. When I returned he had been buried. I went +through his papers and it was then that I conceived my idea of how I +might approach Kara. + +“I found a letter from the Greek, which had been addressed to Buenos +Ayres, to await arrival, and then I remembered in a flash, how Kara had +told me he had sent George Gathercole to South America to report upon +possible gold formations. I was determined to kill Kara, and determined +to kill him in such a way that I myself would cover every trace of my +complicity. + +“Even as he had planned my downfall, scheming every step and covering +his trail, so did I plan to bring about his death that no suspicion +should fall on me. + +“I knew his house. I knew something of his habits. I knew the fear in +which he went when he was in England and away from the feudal guards who +had surrounded him in Albania. I knew of his famous door with its steel +latch and I was planning to circumvent all these precautions and bring +to him not only the death he deserved, but a full knowledge of his fate +before he died. + +“Gathercole had some money,--about 140 pounds--I took 100 pounds of +this for my own use, knowing that I should have sufficient in London +to recompense his heirs, and the remainder of the money with all such +documents as he had, save those which identified him with Kara, I handed +over to the British Consul. + +“I was not unlike the dead man. My beard had grown wild and I knew +enough of Gathercole's eccentricities to live the part. The first step +I took was to announce my arrival by inference. I am a fairly good +journalist with a wide general knowledge and with this, corrected by +reference to the necessary books which I found in the British Museum +library, I was able to turn out a very respectable article on Patagonia. + +“This I sent to The Times with one of Gathercole's cards and, as you +know, it was printed. My next step was to find suitable lodgings between +Chelsea and Scotland Yard. I was fortunate in being able to hire a +furnished flat, the owner of which was going to the south of France for +three months. I paid the rent in advance and since I dropped all the +eccentricities I had assumed to support the character of Gathercole, I +must have impressed the owner, who took me without references. + +“I had several suits of new clothes made, not in London,” he smiled, +“but in Manchester, and again I made myself as trim as possible to avoid +after-identification. When I had got these together in my flat, I +chose my day. In the morning I sent two trunks with most of my personal +belongings to the Great Midland Hotel. + +“In the afternoon I went to Cadogan Square and hung about until I saw +Kara drive off. It was my first view of him since I had left Albania and +it required all my self-control to prevent me springing at him in the +street and tearing at him with my hands. + +“Once he was out of sight I went to the house adopting all the style and +all the mannerisms of poor Gathercole. My beginning was unfortunate for, +with a shock, I recognised in the valet a fellow-convict who had +been with me in the warder's cottage on the morning of my escape from +Dartmoor. There was no mistaking him, and when I heard his voice I was +certain. Would he recognise me I wondered, in spite of my beard and my +eye-glasses? + +“Apparently he did not. I gave him every chance. I thrust my face into +his and on my second visit challenged him, in the eccentric way which +poor old Gathercole had, to test the grey of my beard. For the moment +however, I was satisfied with my brief experiment and after a reasonable +interval I went away, returning to my place off Victoria Street and +waiting till the evening. + +“In my observation of the house, whilst I was waiting for Kara to +depart, I had noticed that there were two distinct telephone wires +running down to the roof. I guessed, rather than knew, that one of these +telephones was a private wire and, knowing something of Kara's fear, I +presumed that that wire would lead to a police office, or at any rate +to a guardian of some kind or other. Kara had the same arrangement in +Albania, connecting the palazzo with the gendarme posts at Alesso. This +much Hussein told me. + +“That night I made a reconnaissance of the house and saw Kara's window +was lit and at ten minutes past ten I rang the bell and I think it was +then that I applied the test of the beard. Kara was in his room, the +valet told me, and led the way upstairs. I had come prepared to deal +with this valet for I had an especial reason for wishing that he should +not be interrogated by the police. On a plain card I had written the +number he bore in Dartmoor and had added the words, 'I know you, get out +of here quick.' + +“As he turned to lead the way upstairs I flung the envelope containing +the card on the table in the hall. In an inside pocket, as near to my +body as I could put them, I had the two candles. How I should use them +both I had already decided. The valet ushered me into Kara's room and +once more I stood in the presence of the man who had killed my girl and +blotted out all that was beautiful in life for me.” + +There was a breathless silence when he paused. T. X. leaned back in his +chair, his head upon his breast, his arms folded, his eyes watching the +other intently. + +The Chief Commissioner, with a heavy frown and pursed lips, sat stroking +his moustache and looking under his shaggy eyebrows at the speaker. The +French police officer, his hands thrust deep in his pockets, his head +on one side, was taking in every word eagerly. The sallow-faced Russian, +impassive of face, might have been a carved ivory mask. O'Grady, +the American, the stump of a dead cigar between his teeth, shifted +impatiently with every pause as though he would hurry forward the +denouement. + +Presently John Lexman went on. + +“He slipped from the bed and came across to meet me as I closed the door +behind me. + +“'Ah, Mr. Gathercole,' he said, in that silky tone of his, and held out +his hand. + +“I did not speak. I just looked at him with a sort of fierce joy in my +heart the like of which I had never before experienced. + +“'And then he saw in my eyes the truth and half reached for the +telephone. + +“But at that moment I was on him. He was a child in my hands. All the +bitter anguish he had brought upon me, all the hardships of starved days +and freezing nights had strengthened and hardened me. I had come back to +London disguised with a false arm and this I shook free. It was merely a +gauntlet of thin wood which I had had made for me in Paris. + +“I flung him back on the bed and half knelt, half laid on him. + +“'Kara,' I said, 'you are going to die, a more merciful death than my +wife died.' + +“He tried to speak. His soft hands gesticulated wildly, but I was half +lying on one arm and held the other. + +“I whispered in his ear: + +“'Nobody will know who killed you, Kara, think of that! I shall go scot +free--and you will be the centre of a fine mystery! All your letters +will be read, all your life will be examined and the world will know you +for what you are!' + +“I released his arm for just as long as it took to draw my knife and +strike. I think he died instantly,” John Lexman said simply. + +“I left him where he was and went to the door. I had not much time to +spare. I took the candles from my pocket. They were already ductile from +the heat of my body. + +“I lifted up the steel latch of the door and propped up the latch with +the smaller of the two candles, one end of which was on the middle +socket and the other beneath the latch. The heat of the room I knew +would still further soften the candle and let the latch down in a short +time. + +“I was prepared for the telephone by his bedside though I did not +know to whither it led. The presence of the paper-knife decided me. I +balanced it across the silver cigarette box so that one end came under +the telephone receiver; under the other end I put the second candle +which I had to cut to fit. On top of the paper-knife at the candle end +I balanced the only two books I could find in the room, and fortunately +they were heavy. + +“I had no means of knowing how long it would take to melt the candle +to a state of flexion which would allow the full weight of the books to +bear upon the candle end of the paper-knife and fling off the receiver. +I was hoping that Fisher had taken my warning and had gone. When I +opened the door softly, I heard his footsteps in the hall below. There +was nothing to do but to finish the play. + +“I turned and addressed an imaginary conversation to Kara. It was +horrible, but there was something about it which aroused in me a curious +sense of humour and I wanted to laugh and laugh and laugh! + +“I heard the man coming up the stairs and closed the door gingerly. What +length of time would it take for the candle to bend! + +“To completely establish the alibi I determined to hold Fisher in +conversation and this was all the easier since apparently he had not +seen the envelope I had left on the table downstairs. I had not long +to wait for suddenly with a crash I heard the steel latch fall in its +place. Under the effect of the heat the candle had bent sooner than I +had expected. I asked Fisher what was the meaning of the sound and he +explained. I passed down the stairs talking all the time. I found a cab +at Sloane Square and drove to my lodgings. Underneath my overcoat I was +partly dressed in evening kit. + +“Ten minutes after I entered the door of my flat I came out a beardless +man about town, not to be distinguished from the thousand others who +would be found that night walking the promenade of any of the great +music-halls. From Victoria Street I drove straight to Scotland Yard. It +was no more than a coincidence that whilst I should have been speaking +with you all, the second candle should have bent and the alarm be given +in the very office in which I was sitting. + +“I assure you all in all earnestness that I did not suspect the cause of +that ringing until Mr. Mansus spoke. + +“There, gentlemen, is my story!” He threw out his arms. + +“You may do with me as you will. Kara was a murderer, dyed a hundred +times in innocent blood. I have done all that I set myself to do--that +and no more--that and no less. I had thought to go away to America, but +the nearer the day of my departure approached, the more vivid became +the memory of the plans which she and I had formed, my girl... my poor +martyred girl!” + +He sat at the little table, his hands clasped before him, his face lined +and white. + +“And that is the end!” he said suddenly, with a wry smile. + +“Not quite!” T. X. swung round with a gasp. It was Belinda Mary who +spoke. + +“I can carry it on,” she said. + +She was wonderfully self-possessed, thought T. X., but then T. X. never +thought anything of her but that she was “wonderfully” something or the +other. + +“Most of your story is true, Mr. Lexman,” said this astonishing girl, +oblivious of the amazed eyes that were staring at her, “but Kara +deceived you in one respect.” + +“What do you mean?” asked John Lexman, rising unsteadily to his feet. + +For answer she rose and walked back to the door with the chintz curtains +and flung it open: There was a wait which seemed an eternity, and then +through the doorway came a girl, slim and grave and beautiful. + +“My God!” whispered T. X. “Grace Lexman!” + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + + +They went out and left them alone, two people who found in this moment +a heaven which is not beyond the reach of humanity, but which is seldom +attained to. Belinda Mary had an eager audience all to her very self. + +“Of course she didn't die,” she said scornfully. “Kara was playing on +his fears all the time. He never even harmed her--in the way Mr. Lexman +feared. He told Mrs. Lexman that her husband was dead just as he told +John Lexman his wife was gone. What happened was that he brought her +back to England--” + +“Who?” asked T. X., incredulously. + +“Grace Lexman,” said the girl, with a smile. “You wouldn't think it +possible, but when you realize that he had a yacht of his own and that +he could travel up from whatever landing place he chose to his house in +Cadogan Square by motorcar and that he could take her straight away into +his cellar without disturbing his household, you'll understand that the +only difficulty he had was in landing her. It was in the lower cellar +that I found her.” + +“You found her in the cellar?” demanded the Chief Commissioner. + +The girl nodded. + +“I found her and the dog--you heard how Kara terrified her--and I +killed the dog with my own hands,” she said a little proudly, and then +shivered. “It was very beastly,” she admitted. + +“And she's been living with you all this time and you've said nothing!” + asked T. X., incredulously. Belinda Mary nodded. + +“And that is why you didn't want me to know where you were living?” She +nodded again. + +“You see she was very ill,” she said, “and I had to nurse her up, and of +course I knew that it was Lexman who had killed Kara and I couldn't tell +you about Grace Lexman without betraying him. So when Mr. Lexman decided +to tell his story, I thought I'd better supply the grand denouement.” + +The men looked at one another. + +“What are you going to do about Lexman?” asked the Chief Commissioner, +“and, by the way, T. X., how does all this fit your theories!” + +“Fairly well,” replied T. X. coolly; “obviously the man who committed +the murder was the man introduced into the room as Gathercole and as +obviously it was not Gathercole, although to all appearance, he had lost +his left arm.” + +“Why obvious?” asked the Chief Commissioner. + +“Because,” answered T. X. Meredith, “the real Gathercole had lost his +right arm--that was the one error Lexman made.” + +“H'm,” the Chief pulled at his moustache and looked enquiringly round +the room, “we have to make up our minds very quickly about Lexman,” he +said. “What do you think, Carlneau?” + +The Frenchman shrugged his shoulders. + +“For my part I should not only importune your Home Secretary to pardon +him, but I should recommend him for a pension,” he said flippantly. + +“What do you think, Savorsky?” + +The Russian smiled a little. + +“It is a very impressive story,” he said dispassionately; “it occurs to +me that if you intend bringing your M. Lexman to judgment you are likely +to expose some very pretty scandals. Incidentally,” he said, stroking +his trim little moustache, “I might remark that any exposure which drew +attention to the lawless conditions of Albania would not be regarded by +my government with favour.” + +The Chief Commissioner's eyes twinkled and he nodded. + +“That is also my view,” said the Chief of the Italian bureau; “naturally +we are greatly interested in all that happens on the Adriatic littoral. +It seems to me that Kara has come to a very merciful end and I am not +inclined to regard a prosecution of Mr. Lexman with equanimity.” + +“Well, I guess the political aspect of the case doesn't affect us very +much,” said O'Grady, “but as one who was once mighty near asphyxiated +by stirring up the wrong kind of mud, I should leave the matter where it +is.” + +The Chief Commissioner was deep in thought and Belinda Mary eyed him +anxiously. + +“Tell them to come in,” he said bluntly. + +The girl went and brought John Lexman and his wife, and they came in +hand in hand supremely and serenely happy whatever the future might hold +for them. The Chief Commissioner cleared his throat. + +“Lexman, we're all very much obliged to you,” he said, “for a very +interesting story and a most interesting theory. What you have done, as +I understand the matter,” he proceeded deliberately, “is to put yourself +in the murderer's place and advance a theory not only as to how the +murder was actually committed, but as to the motive for that murder. It +is, I might say, a remarkable piece of reconstruction,” he spoke very +deliberately, and swept away John Lexman's astonished interruption with +a stern hand, “please wait and do not speak until I am out of hearing,” + he growled. “You have got into the skin of the actual assassin and have +spoken most convincingly. One might almost think that the man who +killed Remington Kara was actually standing before us. For that piece +of impersonation we are all very grateful;” he glared round over +his spectacles at his understanding colleagues and they murmured +approvingly. + +He looked at his watch. + +“Now I am afraid I must be off,” he crossed the room and put out his +hand to John Lexman. “I wish you good luck,” he said, and took both +Grace Lexman's hands in his. “One of these days,” he said paternally, “I +shall come down to Beston Tracey and your husband shall tell me another +and a happier story.” + +He paused at the door as he was going out and looking back caught the +grateful eyes of Lexman. + +“By the way, Mr. Lexman,” he said hesitatingly, “I don't think I should +ever write a story called 'The Clue of the Twisted Candle,' if I were +you.” + +John Lexman shook his head. + +“It will never be written,” he said, “--by me.” + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Clue of the Twisted Candle, by Edgar Wallace + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CLUE OF THE TWISTED CANDLE *** + +***** This file should be named 2688-0.txt or 2688-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/8/2688/ + +Produced by An Anonymous Project Gutenberg Volunteer + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/2688-0.zip b/2688-0.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..bfea7f1 --- /dev/null +++ b/2688-0.zip diff --git a/2688-h.zip b/2688-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7b7ceaa --- /dev/null +++ b/2688-h.zip diff --git a/2688-h/2688-h.htm b/2688-h/2688-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5529ee9 --- /dev/null +++ b/2688-h/2688-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,10213 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + The Clue of the Twisted Candle, by Edgar Wallace + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +Project Gutenberg's The Clue of the Twisted Candle, by Edgar Wallace + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Clue of the Twisted Candle + +Author: Edgar Wallace + +Release Date: December 11, 2008 [EBook #2688] +Last Updated: March 16, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CLUE OF THE TWISTED CANDLE *** + + + + +Produced by An Anonymous Project Gutenberg Volunteer, and David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + THE CLUE OF THE TWISTED CANDLE + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Edgar Wallace + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <blockquote> + <p class="toc"> + <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VIII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER IX </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER X </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER XI </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER XII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER XIII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0014"> CHAPTER XIV </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0015"> CHAPTER XV </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0016"> CHAPTER XVI </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0017"> CHAPTER XVII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0018"> CHAPTER XVIII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0019"> CHAPTER XIX </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0020"> CHAPTER XX </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0021"> CHAPTER XXI </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0022"> CHAPTER XXII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0023"> CHAPTER XXIII </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h2> + CHAPTER I + </h2> + <p> + The 4.15 from Victoria to Lewes had been held up at Three Bridges in + consequence of a derailment and, though John Lexman was fortunate enough + to catch a belated connection to Beston Tracey, the wagonette which was + the sole communication between the village and the outside world had gone. + </p> + <p> + “If you can wait half an hour, Mr. Lexman,” said the station-master, “I + will telephone up to the village and get Briggs to come down for you.” + </p> + <p> + John Lexman looked out upon the dripping landscape and shrugged his + shoulders. + </p> + <p> + “I'll walk,” he said shortly and, leaving his bag in the station-master's + care and buttoning his mackintosh to his chin, he stepped forth resolutely + into the rain to negotiate the two miles which separated the tiny railway + station from Little Tracey. + </p> + <p> + The downpour was incessant and likely to last through the night. The high + hedges on either side of the narrow road were so many leafy cascades; the + road itself was in places ankle deep in mud. He stopped under the + protecting cover of a big tree to fill and light his pipe and with its + bowl turned downwards continued his walk. But for the driving rain which + searched every crevice and found every chink in his waterproof armor, he + preferred, indeed welcomed, the walk. + </p> + <p> + The road from Beston Tracey to Little Beston was associated in his mind + with some of the finest situations in his novels. It was on this road that + he had conceived “The Tilbury Mystery.” Between the station and the house + he had woven the plot which had made “Gregory Standish” the most popular + detective story of the year. For John Lexman was a maker of cunning plots. + </p> + <p> + If, in the literary world, he was regarded by superior persons as a writer + of “shockers,” he had a large and increasing public who were fascinated by + the wholesome and thrilling stories he wrote, and who held on breathlessly + to the skein of mystery until they came to the denouement he had planned. + </p> + <p> + But no thought of books, or plots, or stories filled his troubled mind as + he strode along the deserted road to Little Beston. He had had two + interviews in London, one of which under ordinary circumstances would have + filled him with joy: He had seen T. X. and “T. X.” was T. X. Meredith, who + would one day be Chief of the Criminal Investigation Department and was + now an Assistant Commissioner of Police, engaged in the more delicate work + of that department. + </p> + <p> + In his erratic, tempestuous way, T. X. had suggested the greatest idea for + a plot that any author could desire. But it was not of T. X. that John + Lexman thought as he breasted the hill, on the slope of which was the tiny + habitation known by the somewhat magnificent title of Beston Priory. + </p> + <p> + It was the interview he had had with the Greek on the previous day which + filled his mind, and he frowned as he recalled it. He opened the little + wicket gate and went through the plantation to the house, doing his best + to shake off the recollection of the remarkable and unedifying discussion + he had had with the moneylender. + </p> + <p> + Beston Priory was little more than a cottage, though one of its walls was + an indubitable relic of that establishment which a pious Howard had + erected in the thirteenth century. A small and unpretentious building, + built in the Elizabethan style with quaint gables and high chimneys, its + latticed windows and sunken gardens, its rosary and its tiny meadow, gave + it a certain manorial completeness which was a source of great pride to + its owner. + </p> + <p> + He passed under the thatched porch, and stood for a moment in the broad + hallway as he stripped his drenching mackintosh. + </p> + <p> + The hall was in darkness. Grace would probably be changing for dinner, and + he decided that in his present mood he would not disturb her. He passed + through the long passage which led to the big study at the back of the + house. A fire burnt redly in the old-fashioned grate and the snug comfort + of the room brought a sense of ease and relief. He changed his shoes, and + lit the table lamp. + </p> + <p> + The room was obviously a man's den. The leather-covered chairs, the big + and well-filled bookcase which covered one wall of the room, the huge, + solid-oak writing-desk, covered with books and half-finished manuscripts, + spoke unmistakably of its owner's occupation. + </p> + <p> + After he had changed his shoes, he refilled his pipe, walked over to the + fire, and stood looking down into its glowing heart. + </p> + <p> + He was a man a little above medium height, slimly built, with a breadth of + shoulder which was suggestive of the athlete. He had indeed rowed 4 in his + boat, and had fought his way into the semi-finals of the amateur boxing + championship of England. His face was strong, lean, yet well-moulded. His + eyes were grey and deep, his eyebrows straight and a little forbidding. + The clean-shaven mouth was big and generous, and the healthy tan of his + cheek told of a life lived in the open air. + </p> + <p> + There was nothing of the recluse or the student in his appearance. He was + in fact a typical, healthy-looking Britisher, very much like any other man + of his class whom one would meet in the mess-room of the British army, in + the wardrooms of the fleet, or in the far-off posts of the Empire, where + the administrative cogs of the great machine are to be seen at work. + </p> + <p> + There was a little tap at the door, and before he could say “Come in” it + was pushed open and Grace Lexman entered. + </p> + <p> + If you described her as brave and sweet you might secure from that brief + description both her manner and her charm. He half crossed the room to + meet her, and kissed her tenderly. + </p> + <p> + “I didn't know you were back until—” she said; linking her arm in + his. + </p> + <p> + “Until you saw the horrible mess my mackintosh has made,” he smiled. “I + know your methods, Watson!” + </p> + <p> + She laughed, but became serious again. + </p> + <p> + “I am very glad you've come back. We have a visitor,” she said. + </p> + <p> + He raised his eyebrows. + </p> + <p> + “A visitor? Whoever came down on a day like this?” + </p> + <p> + She looked at him a little strangely. + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Kara,” she said. + </p> + <p> + “Kara? How long has he been here?” + </p> + <p> + “He came at four.” + </p> + <p> + There was nothing enthusiastic in her tone. + </p> + <p> + “I can't understand why you don't like old Kara,” rallied her husband. + </p> + <p> + “There are very many reasons,” she replied, a little curtly for her. + </p> + <p> + “Anyway,” said John Lexman, after a moment's thought, “his arrival is + rather opportune. Where is he?” + </p> + <p> + “He is in the drawing-room.” + </p> + <p> + The Priory drawing-room was a low-ceilinged, rambling apartment, “all old + print and chrysanthemums,” to use Lexman's description. Cosy armchairs, a + grand piano, an almost medieval open grate, faced with dull-green tiles, a + well-worn but cheerful carpet and two big silver candelabras were the + principal features which attracted the newcomer. + </p> + <p> + There was in this room a harmony, a quiet order and a soothing quality + which made it a haven of rest to a literary man with jagged nerves. Two + big bronze bowls were filled with early violets, another blazed like a + pale sun with primroses, and the early woodland flowers filled the room + with a faint fragrance. + </p> + <p> + A man rose to his feet, as John Lexman entered and crossed the room with + an easy carriage. He was a man possessed of singular beauty of face and of + figure. Half a head taller than the author, he carried himself with such a + grace as to conceal his height. + </p> + <p> + “I missed you in town,” he said, “so I thought I'd run down on the off + chance of seeing you.” + </p> + <p> + He spoke in the well-modulated tone of one who had had a long acquaintance + with the public schools and universities of England. There was no trace of + any foreign accent, yet Remington Kara was a Greek and had been born and + partly educated in the more turbulent area of Albania. + </p> + <p> + The two men shook hands warmly. + </p> + <p> + “You'll stay to dinner?” + </p> + <p> + Kara glanced round with a smile at Grace Lexman. She sat uncomfortably + upright, her hands loosely folded on her lap, her face devoid of + encouragement. + </p> + <p> + “If Mrs. Lexman doesn't object,” said the Greek. + </p> + <p> + “I should be pleased, if you would,” she said, almost mechanically; “it is + a horrid night and you won't get anything worth eating this side of London + and I doubt very much,” she smiled a little, “if the meal I can give you + will be worthy of that description.” + </p> + <p> + “What you can give me will be more than sufficient,” he said, with a + little bow, and turned to her husband. + </p> + <p> + In a few minutes they were deep in a discussion of books and places, and + Grace seized the opportunity to make her escape. From books in general to + Lexman's books in particular the conversation flowed. + </p> + <p> + “I've read every one of them, you know,” said Kara. + </p> + <p> + John made a little face. “Poor devil,” he said sardonically. + </p> + <p> + “On the contrary,” said Kara, “I am not to be pitied. There is a great + criminal lost in you, Lexman.” + </p> + <p> + “Thank you,” said John. + </p> + <p> + “I am not being uncomplimentary, am I?” smiled the Greek. “I am merely + referring to the ingenuity of your plots. Sometimes your books baffle and + annoy me. If I cannot see the solution of your mysteries before the book + is half through, it angers me a little. Of course in the majority of cases + I know the solution before I have reached the fifth chapter.” + </p> + <p> + John looked at him in surprise and was somewhat piqued. + </p> + <p> + “I flatter myself it is impossible to tell how my stories will end until + the last chapter,” he said. + </p> + <p> + Kara nodded. + </p> + <p> + “That would be so in the case of the average reader, but you forget that I + am a student. I follow every little thread of the clue which you leave + exposed.” + </p> + <p> + “You should meet T. X.,” said John, with a laugh, as he rose from his + chair to poke the fire. + </p> + <p> + “T. X.?” + </p> + <p> + “T. X. Meredith. He is the most ingenious beggar you could meet. We were + at Caius together, and he is by way of being a great pal of mine. He is in + the Criminal Investigation Department.” + </p> + <p> + Kara nodded. There was the light of interest in his eyes and he would have + pursued the discussion further, but at the moment dinner was announced. + </p> + <p> + It was not a particularly cheerful meal because Grace did not as usual + join in the conversation, and it was left to Kara and to her husband to + supply the deficiencies. She was experiencing a curious sense of + depression, a premonition of evil which she could not define. Again and + again in the course of the dinner she took her mind back to the events of + the day to discover the reason for her unease. + </p> + <p> + Usually when she adopted this method she came upon the trivial causes in + which apprehension was born, but now she was puzzled to find that a + solution was denied her. Her letters of the morning had been pleasant, + neither the house nor the servants had given her any trouble. She was well + herself, and though she knew John had a little money trouble, since his + unfortunate speculation in Roumanian gold shares, and she half suspected + that he had had to borrow money to make good his losses, yet his prospects + were so excellent and the success of his last book so promising that she, + probably seeing with a clearer vision the unimportance of those money + worries, was less concerned about the problem than he. + </p> + <p> + “You will have your coffee in the study, I suppose,” said Grace, “and I + know you'll excuse me; I have to see Mrs. Chandler on the mundane subject + of laundry.” + </p> + <p> + She favoured Kara with a little nod as she left the room and touched + John's shoulder lightly with her hand in passing. + </p> + <p> + Kara's eyes followed her graceful figure until she was out of view, then: + </p> + <p> + “I want to see you, Kara,” said John Lexman, “if you will give me five + minutes.” + </p> + <p> + “You can have five hours, if you like,” said the other, easily. + </p> + <p> + They went into the study together; the maid brought the coffee and + liqueur, and placed them on a little table near the fire and disappeared. + </p> + <p> + For a time the conversation was general. Kara, who was a frank admirer of + the comfort of the room and who lamented his own inability to secure with + money the cosiness which John had obtained at little cost, went on a + foraging expedition whilst his host applied himself to a proof which + needed correcting. + </p> + <p> + “I suppose it is impossible for you to have electric light here,” Kara + asked. + </p> + <p> + “Quite,” replied the other. + </p> + <p> + “Why?” + </p> + <p> + “I rather like the light of this lamp.” + </p> + <p> + “It isn't the lamp,” drawled the Greek and made a little grimace; “I hate + these candles.” + </p> + <p> + He waved his hand to the mantle-shelf where the six tall, white, waxen + candles stood out from two wall sconces. + </p> + <p> + “Why on earth do you hate candles?” asked the other in surprise. + </p> + <p> + Kara made no reply for the moment, but shrugged his shoulders. Presently + he spoke. + </p> + <p> + “If you were ever tied down to a chair and by the side of that chair was a + small keg of black powder and stuck in that powder was a small candle that + burnt lower and lower every minute—my God!” + </p> + <p> + John was amazed to see the perspiration stand upon the forehead of his + guest. + </p> + <p> + “That sounds thrilling,” he said. + </p> + <p> + The Greek wiped his forehead with a silk handkerchief and his hand shook a + little. + </p> + <p> + “It was something more than thrilling,” he said. + </p> + <p> + “And when did this occur?” asked the author curiously. + </p> + <p> + “In Albania,” replied the other; “it was many years ago, but the devils + are always sending me reminders of the fact.” + </p> + <p> + He did not attempt to explain who the devils were or under what + circumstances he was brought to this unhappy pass, but changed the subject + definitely. + </p> + <p> + Sauntering round the cosy room he followed the bookshelf which filled one + wall and stopped now and again to examine some title. Presently he drew + forth a stout volume. + </p> + <p> + “'Wild Brazil',” he read, “by George Gathercole-do you know Gathercole?” + </p> + <p> + John was filling his pipe from a big blue jar on his desk and nodded. + </p> + <p> + “Met him once—a taciturn devil. Very short of speech and, like all + men who have seen and done things, less inclined to talk about himself + than any man I know.” + </p> + <p> + Kara looked at the book with a thoughtful pucker of brow and turned the + leaves idly. + </p> + <p> + “I've never seen him,” he said as he replaced the book, “yet, in a sense, + his new journey is on my behalf.” + </p> + <p> + The other man looked up. + </p> + <p> + “On your behalf?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes—you know he has gone to Patagonia for me. He believes there is + gold there—you will learn as much from his book on the mountain + systems of South America. I was interested in his theories and + corresponded with him. As a result of that correspondence he undertook to + make a geological survey for me. I sent him money for his expenses, and he + went off.” + </p> + <p> + “You never saw him?” asked John Lexman, surprised. + </p> + <p> + Kara shook his head. + </p> + <p> + “That was not—?” began his host. + </p> + <p> + “Not like me, you were going to say. Frankly, it was not, but then I + realized that he was an unusual kind of man. I invited him to dine with me + before he left London, and in reply received a wire from Southampton + intimating that he was already on his way.” + </p> + <p> + Lexman nodded. + </p> + <p> + “It must be an awfully interesting kind of life,” he said. “I suppose he + will be away for quite a long time?” + </p> + <p> + “Three years,” said Kara, continuing his examination of the bookshelf. + </p> + <p> + “I envy those fellows who run round the world writing books,” said John, + puffing reflectively at his pipe. “They have all the best of it.” + </p> + <p> + Kara turned. He stood immediately behind the author and the other could + not see his face. There was, however, in his voice an unusual earnestness + and an unusual quiet vehemence. + </p> + <p> + “What have you to complain about!” he asked, with that little drawl of + his. “You have your own creative work—the most fascinating branch of + labour that comes to a man. He, poor beggar, is bound to actualities. You + have the full range of all the worlds which your imagination gives to you. + You can create men and destroy them, call into existence fascinating + problems, mystify and baffle ten or twenty thousand people, and then, at a + word, elucidate your mystery.” + </p> + <p> + John laughed. + </p> + <p> + “There is something in that,” he said. + </p> + <p> + “As for the rest of your life,” Kara went on in a lower voice, “I think + you have that which makes life worth living—an incomparable wife.” + </p> + <p> + Lexman swung round in his chair, and met the other's gaze, and there was + something in the set of the other's handsome face which took his breath + away. + </p> + <p> + “I do not see—” he began. + </p> + <p> + Kara smiled. + </p> + <p> + “That was an impertinence, wasn't it!” he said, banteringly. “But then you + mustn't forget, my dear man, that I was very anxious to marry your wife. I + don't suppose it is secret. And when I lost her, I had ideas about you + which are not pleasant to recall.” + </p> + <p> + He had recovered his self-possession and had continued his aimless stroll + about the room. + </p> + <p> + “You must remember I am a Greek, and the modern Greek is no philosopher. + You must remember, too, that I am a petted child of fortune, and have had + everything I wanted since I was a baby.” + </p> + <p> + “You are a fortunate devil,” said the other, turning back to his desk, and + taking up his pen. + </p> + <p> + For a moment Kara did not speak, then he made as though he would say + something, checked himself, and laughed. + </p> + <p> + “I wonder if I am,” he said. + </p> + <p> + And now he spoke with a sudden energy. + </p> + <p> + “What is this trouble you are having with Vassalaro?” + </p> + <p> + John rose from his chair and walked over to the fire, stood gazing down + into its depths, his legs wide apart, his hands clasped behind him, and + Kara took his attitude to supply an answer to the question. + </p> + <p> + “I warned you against Vassalaro,” he said, stooping by the other's side to + light his cigar with a spill of paper. “My dear Lexman, my fellow + countrymen are unpleasant people to deal with in certain moods.” + </p> + <p> + “He was so obliging at first,” said Lexman, half to himself. + </p> + <p> + “And now he is so disobliging,” drawled Kara. “That is a way which + moneylenders have, my dear man; you were very foolish to go to him at all. + I could have lent you the money.” + </p> + <p> + “There were reasons why I should not borrow money from you,”, said John, + quietly, “and I think you yourself have supplied the principal reason when + you told me just now, what I already knew, that you wanted to marry + Grace.” + </p> + <p> + “How much is the amount?” asked Kara, examining his well-manicured + finger-nails. + </p> + <p> + “Two thousand five hundred pounds,” replied John, with a short laugh, “and + I haven't two thousand five hundred shillings at this moment.” + </p> + <p> + “Will he wait?” + </p> + <p> + John Lexman shrugged his shoulders. + </p> + <p> + “Look here, Kara,” he said, suddenly, “don't think I want to reproach you, + but it was through you that I met Vassalaro so that you know the kind of + man he is.” + </p> + <p> + Kara nodded. + </p> + <p> + “Well, I can tell you he has been very unpleasant indeed,” said John, with + a frown, “I had an interview with him yesterday in London and it is clear + that he is going to make a lot of trouble. I depended upon the success of + my play in town giving me enough to pay him off, and I very foolishly made + a lot of promises of repayment which I have been unable to keep.” + </p> + <p> + “I see,” said Kara, and then, “does Mrs. Lexman know about this matter?” + </p> + <p> + “A little,” said the other. + </p> + <p> + He paced restlessly up and down the room, his hands behind him and his + chin upon his chest. + </p> + <p> + “Naturally I have not told her the worst, or how beastly unpleasant the + man has been.” + </p> + <p> + He stopped and turned. + </p> + <p> + “Do you know he threatened to kill me?” he asked. + </p> + <p> + Kara smiled. + </p> + <p> + “I can tell you it was no laughing matter,” said the other, angrily, “I + nearly took the little whippersnapper by the scruff of the neck and kicked + him.” + </p> + <p> + Kara dropped his hand on the other's arm. + </p> + <p> + “I am not laughing at you,” he said; “I am laughing at the thought of + Vassalaro threatening to kill anybody. He is the biggest coward in the + world. What on earth induced him to take this drastic step?” + </p> + <p> + “He said he is being hard pushed for money,” said the other, moodily, “and + it is possibly true. He was beside himself with anger and anxiety, + otherwise I might have given the little blackguard the thrashing he + deserved.” + </p> + <p> + Kara who had continued his stroll came down the room and halted in front + of the fireplace looking at the young author with a paternal smile. + </p> + <p> + “You don't understand Vassalaro,” he said; “I repeat he is the greatest + coward in the world. You will probably discover he is full of firearms and + threats of slaughter, but you have only to click a revolver to see him + collapse. Have you a revolver, by the way?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, nonsense,” said the other, roughly, “I cannot engage myself in that + kind of melodrama.” + </p> + <p> + “It is not nonsense,” insisted the other, “when you are in Rome, et + cetera, and when you have to deal with a low-class Greek you must use + methods which will at least impress him. If you thrash him, he will never + forgive you and will probably stick a knife into you or your wife. If you + meet his melodrama with melodrama and at the psychological moment produce + your revolver; you will secure the effect you require. Have you a + revolver?” + </p> + <p> + John went to his desk and, pulling open a drawer, took out a small + Browning. + </p> + <p> + “That is the extent of my armory,” he said, “it has never been fired and + was sent to me by an unknown admirer last Christmas.” + </p> + <p> + “A curious Christmas present,” said the other, examining the weapon. + </p> + <p> + “I suppose the mistaken donor imagined from my books that I lived in a + veritable museum of revolvers, sword sticks and noxious drugs,” said + Lexman, recovering some of his good humour; “it was accompanied by a + card.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you know how it works?” asked the other. + </p> + <p> + “I have never troubled very much about it,” replied Lexman, “I know that + it is loaded by slipping back the cover, but as my admirer did not send + ammunition, I never even practised with it.” + </p> + <p> + There was a knock at the door. + </p> + <p> + “That is the post,” explained John. + </p> + <p> + The maid had one letter on the salver and the author took it up with a + frown. + </p> + <p> + “From Vassalaro,” he said, when the girl had left the room. + </p> + <p> + The Greek took the letter in his hand and examined it. + </p> + <p> + “He writes a vile fist,” was his only comment as he handed it back to + John. + </p> + <p> + He slit open the thin, buff envelope and took out half a dozen sheets of + yellow paper, only a single sheet of which was written upon. The letter + was brief: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “I must see you to-night without fail,” ran the scrawl; “meet me + at the crossroads between Beston Tracey and the Eastbourne + Road. I shall be there at eleven o'clock, and, if you want to + preserve your life, you had better bring me a substantial + instalment.” + </pre> + <p> + It was signed “Vassalaro.” + </p> + <p> + John read the letter aloud. “He must be mad to write a letter like that,” + he said; “I'll meet the little devil and teach him such a lesson in + politeness as he is never likely to forget.” + </p> + <p> + He handed the letter to the other and Kara read it in silence. + </p> + <p> + “Better take your revolver,” he said as he handed it back. + </p> + <p> + John Lexman looked at his watch. + </p> + <p> + “I have an hour yet, but it will take me the best part of twenty minutes + to reach the Eastbourne Road.” + </p> + <p> + “Will you see him?” asked Kara, in a tone of surprise. + </p> + <p> + “Certainly,” Lexman replied emphatically: “I cannot have him coming up to + the house and making a scene and that is certainly what the little beast + will do.” + </p> + <p> + “Will you pay him?” asked Kara softly. + </p> + <p> + John made no answer. There was probably 10 pounds in the house and a + cheque which was due on the morrow would bring him another 30 pounds. He + looked at the letter again. It was written on paper of an unusual texture. + The surface was rough almost like blotting paper and in some places the + ink absorbed by the porous surface had run. The blank sheets had evidently + been inserted by a man in so violent a hurry that he had not noticed the + extravagance. + </p> + <p> + “I shall keep this letter,” said John. + </p> + <p> + “I think you are well advised. Vassalaro probably does not know that he + transgresses a law in writing threatening letters and that should be a + very strong weapon in your hand in certain eventualities.” + </p> + <p> + There was a tiny safe in one corner of the study and this John opened with + a key which he took from his pocket. He pulled open one of the steel + drawers, took out the papers which were in it and put in their place the + letter, pushed the drawer to, and locked it. + </p> + <p> + All the time Kara was watching him intently as one who found more than an + ordinary amount of interest in the novelty of the procedure. + </p> + <p> + He took his leave soon afterwards. + </p> + <p> + “I would like to come with you to your interesting meeting,” he said, “but + unfortunately I have business elsewhere. Let me enjoin you to take your + revolver and at the first sign of any bloodthirsty intention on the part + of my admirable compatriot, produce it and click it once or twice, you + won't have to do more.” + </p> + <p> + Grace rose from the piano as Kara entered the little drawing-room and + murmured a few conventional expressions of regret that the visitor's stay + had been so short. That there was no sincerity in that regret Kara, for + one, had no doubt. He was a man singularly free from illusions. + </p> + <p> + They stayed talking a little while. + </p> + <p> + “I will see if your chauffeur is asleep,” said John, and went out of the + room. + </p> + <p> + There was a little silence after he had gone. + </p> + <p> + “I don't think you are very glad to see me,” said Kara. His frankness was + a little embarrassing to the girl and she flushed slightly. + </p> + <p> + “I am always glad to see you, Mr. Kara, or any other of my husband's + friends,” she said steadily. + </p> + <p> + He inclined his head. + </p> + <p> + “To be a friend of your husband is something,” he said, and then as if + remembering something, “I wanted to take a book away with me—I + wonder if your husband would mind my getting it?” + </p> + <p> + “I will find it for you.” + </p> + <p> + “Don't let me bother you,” he protested, “I know my way.” + </p> + <p> + Without waiting for her permission he left the girl with the unpleasant + feeling that he was taking rather much for granted. He was gone less than + a minute and returned with a book under his arm. + </p> + <p> + “I have not asked Lexman's permission to take it,” he said, “but I am + rather interested in the author. Oh, here you are,” he turned to John who + came in at that moment. “Might I take this book on Mexico?” he asked. “I + will return it in the morning.” + </p> + <p> + They stood at the door, watching the tail light of the motor disappear + down the drive; and returned in silence to the drawing room. + </p> + <p> + “You look worried, dear,” she said, laying her hand on his shoulder. + </p> + <p> + He smiled faintly. + </p> + <p> + “Is it the money?” she asked anxiously. + </p> + <p> + For a moment he was tempted to tell her of the letter. He stifled the + temptation realizing that she would not consent to his going out if she + knew the truth. + </p> + <p> + “It is nothing very much,” he said. “I have to go down to Beston Tracey to + meet the last train. I am expecting some proofs down.” + </p> + <p> + He hated lying to her, and even an innocuous lie of this character was + repugnant to him. + </p> + <p> + “I'm afraid you have had a dull evening,” he said, “Kara was not very + amusing.” + </p> + <p> + She looked at him thoughtfully. + </p> + <p> + “He has not changed very much,” she said slowly. + </p> + <p> + “He's a wonderfully handsome chap, isn't he?” he asked in a tone of + admiration. “I can't understand what you ever saw in a fellow like me, + when you had a man who was not only rich, but possibly the best-looking + man in the world.” + </p> + <p> + She shivered a little. + </p> + <p> + “I have seen a side of Mr. Kara that is not particularly beautiful,” she + said. “Oh, John, I am afraid of that man!” + </p> + <p> + He looked at her in astonishment. + </p> + <p> + “Afraid?” he asked. “Good heavens, Grace, what a thing to say! Why I + believe he'd do anything for you.” + </p> + <p> + “That is exactly what I am afraid of,” she said in a low voice. + </p> + <p> + She had a reason which she did not reveal. She had first met Remington + Kara in Salonika two years before. She had been doing a tour through the + Balkans with her father—it was the last tour the famous archeologist + made—and had met the man who was fated to have such an influence + upon her life at a dinner given by the American Consul. + </p> + <p> + Many were the stories which were told about this Greek with his Jove-like + face, his handsome carriage and his limitless wealth. It was said that his + mother was an American lady who had been captured by Albanian brigands and + was sold to one of the Albanian chiefs who fell in love with her, and for + her sake became a Protestant. He had been educated at Yale and at Oxford, + and was known to be the possessor of vast wealth, and was virtually king + of a hill district forty miles out of Durazzo. Here he reigned supreme, + occupying a beautiful house which he had built by an Italian architect, + and the fittings and appointments of which had been imported from the + luxurious centres of the world. + </p> + <p> + In Albania they called him “Kara Rumo,” which meant “The Black Roman,” for + no particular reason so far as any one could judge, for his skin was as + fair as a Saxon's, and his close-cropped curls were almost golden. + </p> + <p> + He had fallen in love with Grace Terrell. At first his attentions had + amused her, and then there came a time when they frightened her, for the + man's fire and passion had been unmistakable. She had made it plain to him + that he could base no hopes upon her returning his love, and, in a scene + which she even now shuddered to recall, he had revealed something of his + wild and reckless nature. On the following day she did not see him, but + two days later, when returning through the Bazaar from a dance which had + been given by the Governor General, her carriage was stopped, she was + forcibly dragged from its interior, and her cries were stifled with a + cloth impregnated with a scent of a peculiar aromatic sweetness. Her + assailants were about to thrust her into another carriage, when a party of + British bluejackets who had been on leave came upon the scene, and, + without knowing anything of the nationality of the girl, had rescued her. + </p> + <p> + In her heart of hearts she did not doubt Kara's complicity in this + medieval attempt to gain a wife, but of this adventure she had told her + husband nothing. Until her marriage she was constantly receiving valuable + presents which she as constantly returned to the only address she knew—Kara's + estate at Lemazo. A few months after her marriage she had learned through + the newspapers that this “leader of Greek society” had purchased a big + house near Cadogan Square, and then, to her amazement and to her dismay, + Kara had scraped an acquaintance with her husband even before the + honeymoon was over. + </p> + <p> + His visits had been happily few, but the growing intimacy between John and + this strange undisciplined man had been a source of constant distress to + her. + </p> + <p> + Should she, at this, the eleventh hour, tell her husband all her fears and + her suspicions? + </p> + <p> + She debated the point for some time. And never was she nearer taking him + into her complete confidence than she was as he sat in the big armchair by + the side of the piano, a little drawn of face, more than a little absorbed + in his own meditations. Had he been less worried she might have spoken. As + it was, she turned the conversation to his last work, the big mystery + story which, if it would not make his fortune, would mean a considerable + increase to his income. + </p> + <p> + At a quarter to eleven he looked at his watch, and rose. She helped him on + with his coat. He stood for some time irresolutely. + </p> + <p> + “Is there anything you have forgotten?” she asked. + </p> + <p> + He asked himself whether he should follow Kara's advice. In any + circumstance it was not a pleasant thing to meet a ferocious little man + who had threatened his life, and to meet him unarmed was tempting + Providence. The whole thing was of course ridiculous, but it was + ridiculous that he should have borrowed, and it was ridiculous that the + borrowing should have been necessary, and yet he had speculated on the + best of advice—it was Kara's advice. + </p> + <p> + The connection suddenly occurred to him, and yet Kara had not directly + suggested that he should buy Roumanian gold shares, but had merely spoken + glowingly of their prospects. He thought a moment, and then walked back + slowly into the study, pulled open the drawer of his desk, took out the + sinister little Browning, and slipped it into his pocket. + </p> + <p> + “I shan't be long, dear,” he said, and kissing the girl he strode out into + the darkness. + </p> + <p> + Kara sat back in the luxurious depths of his car, humming a little tune, + as the driver picked his way cautiously over the uncertain road. The rain + was still falling, and Kara had to rub the windows free of the mist which + had gathered on them to discover where he was. From time to time he looked + out as though he expected to see somebody, and then with a little smile he + remembered that he had changed his original plan, and that he had fixed + the waiting room of Lewes junction as his rendezvous. + </p> + <p> + Here it was that he found a little man muffled up to the ears in a big top + coat, standing before the dying fire. He started as Kara entered and at a + signal followed him from the room. + </p> + <p> + The stranger was obviously not English. His face was sallow and peaked, + his cheeks were hollow, and the beard he wore was irregular-almost + unkempt. + </p> + <p> + Kara led the way to the end of the dark platform, before he spoke. + </p> + <p> + “You have carried out my instructions?” he asked brusquely. + </p> + <p> + The language he spoke was Arabic, and the other answered him in that + language. + </p> + <p> + “Everything that you have ordered has been done, Effendi,” he said humbly. + </p> + <p> + “You have a revolver?” + </p> + <p> + The man nodded and patted his pocket. + </p> + <p> + “Loaded?” + </p> + <p> + “Excellency,” asked the other, in surprise, “what is the use of a + revolver, if it is not loaded?” + </p> + <p> + “You understand, you are not to shoot this man,” said Kara. “You are + merely to present the pistol. To make sure, you had better unload it now.” + </p> + <p> + Wonderingly the man obeyed, and clicked back the ejector. + </p> + <p> + “I will take the cartridges,” said Kara, holding out his hand. + </p> + <p> + He slipped the little cylinders into his pocket, and after examining the + weapon returned it to its owner. + </p> + <p> + “You will threaten him,” he went on. “Present the revolver straight at his + heart. You need do nothing else.” + </p> + <p> + The man shuffled uneasily. + </p> + <p> + “I will do as you say, Effendi,” he said. “But—” + </p> + <p> + “There are no 'buts,'” replied the other harshly. “You are to carry out my + instructions without any question. What will happen then you shall see. I + shall be at hand. That I have a reason for this play be assured.” + </p> + <p> + “But suppose he shoots?” persisted the other uneasily. + </p> + <p> + “He will not shoot,” said Kara easily. “Besides, his revolver is not + loaded. Now you may go. You have a long walk before you. You know the + way?” + </p> + <p> + The man nodded. + </p> + <p> + “I have been over it before,” he said confidently. + </p> + <p> + Kara returned to the big limousine which had drawn up some distance from + the station. He spoke a word or two to the chauffeur in Greek, and the man + touched his hat. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER II + </h2> + <p> + Assistant Commissioner of Police T. X. Meredith did not occupy offices in + New Scotland Yard. It is the peculiarity of public offices that they are + planned with the idea of supplying the margin of space above all + requirements and that on their completion they are found wholly inadequate + to house the various departments which mysteriously come into progress + coincident with the building operations. + </p> + <p> + “T. X.,” as he was known by the police forces of the world, had a big + suite of offices in Whitehall. The house was an old one facing the Board + of Trade and the inscription on the ancient door told passers-by that this + was the “Public Prosecutor, Special Branch.” + </p> + <p> + The duties of T. X. were multifarious. People said of him—and like + most public gossip, this was probably untrue—that he was the head of + the “illegal” department of Scotland Yard. If by chance you lost the keys + of your safe, T. X. could supply you (so popular rumour ran) with a + burglar who would open that safe in half an hour. + </p> + <p> + If there dwelt in England a notorious individual against whom the police + could collect no scintilla of evidence to justify a prosecution, and if it + was necessary for the good of the community that that person should be + deported, it was T. X. who arrested the obnoxious person, hustled him into + a cab and did not loose his hold upon his victim until he had landed him + on the indignant shores of an otherwise friendly power. + </p> + <p> + It is very certain that when the minister of a tiny power which shall be + nameless was suddenly recalled by his government and brought to trial in + his native land for putting into circulation spurious bonds, it was + somebody from the department which T. X. controlled, who burgled His + Excellency's house, burnt the locks from his safe and secured the + necessary incriminating evidence. + </p> + <p> + I say it is fairly certain and here I am merely voicing the opinion of + very knowledgeable people indeed, heads of public departments who speak + behind their hands, mysterious under-secretaries of state who discuss + things in whispers in the remote corners of their clubrooms and the more + frank views of American correspondents who had no hesitation in putting + those views into print for the benefit of their readers. + </p> + <p> + That T. X. had a more legitimate occupation we know, for it was that + flippant man whose outrageous comment on the Home Office Administration is + popularly supposed to have sent one Home Secretary to his grave, who + traced the Deptford murderers through a labyrinth of perjury and who + brought to book Sir Julius Waglite though he had covered his trail of + defalcation through the balance sheets of thirty-four companies. + </p> + <p> + On the night of March 3rd, T. X. sat in his inner office interviewing a + disconsolate inspector of metropolitan police, named Mansus. + </p> + <p> + In appearance T. X. conveyed the impression of extreme youth, for his face + was almost boyish and it was only when you looked at him closely and saw + the little creases about his eyes, the setting of his straight mouth, that + you guessed he was on the way to forty. In his early days he had been + something of a poet, and had written a slight volume of “Woodland Lyrics,” + the mention of which at this later stage was sufficient to make him feel + violently unhappy. + </p> + <p> + In manner he was tactful but persistent, his language was at times marked + by a violent extravagance and he had had the distinction of having + provoked, by certain correspondence which had seen the light, the comment + of a former Home Secretary that “it was unfortunate that Mr. Meredith did + not take his position with the seriousness which was expected from a + public official.” + </p> + <p> + His language was, as I say, under great provocation, violent and unusual. + He had a trick of using words which never were on land or sea, and + illustrating his instruction or his admonition with the quaintest + phraseology. + </p> + <p> + Now he was tilted back in his office chair at an alarming angle, scowling + at his distressed subordinate who sat on the edge of a chair at the other + side of his desk. + </p> + <p> + “But, T. X.,” protested the Inspector, “there was nothing to be found.” + </p> + <p> + It was the outrageous practice of Mr. Meredith to insist upon his + associates calling him by his initials, a practice which had earnt + disapproval in the highest quarters. + </p> + <p> + “Nothing is to be found!” he repeated wrathfully. “Curious Mike!” + </p> + <p> + He sat up with a suddenness which caused the police officer to start back + in alarm. + </p> + <p> + “Listen,” said T. X., grasping an ivory paperknife savagely in his hand + and tapping his blotting-pad to emphasize his words, “you're a pie!” + </p> + <p> + “I'm a policeman,” said the other patiently. + </p> + <p> + “A policeman!” exclaimed the exasperated T. X. “You're worse than a pie, + you're a slud! I'm afraid I shall never make a detective of you,” he shook + his head sorrowfully at the smiling Mansus who had been in the police + force when T. X. was a small boy at school, “you are neither Wise nor + Wily; you combine the innocence of a Baby with the grubbiness of a County + Parson—you ought to be in the choir.” + </p> + <p> + At this outrageous insult Mr. Mansus was silent; what he might have said, + or what further provocation he might have received may be never known, for + at that moment, the Chief himself walked in. + </p> + <p> + The Chief of the Police in these days was a grey man, rather tired, with a + hawk nose and deep eyes that glared under shaggy eyebrows and he was a + terror to all men of his department save to T. X. who respected nothing on + earth and very little elsewhere. He nodded curtly to Mansus. + </p> + <p> + “Well, T. X.,” he said, “what have you discovered about our friend Kara?” + </p> + <p> + He turned from T. X. to the discomforted inspector. + </p> + <p> + “Very little,” said T. X. “I've had Mansus on the job.” + </p> + <p> + “And you've found nothing, eh?” growled the Chief. + </p> + <p> + “He has found all that it is possible to find,” said T. X. “We do not + perform miracles in this department, Sir George, nor can we pick up the + threads of a case at five minutes' notice.” + </p> + <p> + Sir George Haley grunted. + </p> + <p> + “Mansus has done his best,” the other went on easily, “but it is rather + absurd to talk about one's best when you know so little of what you want.” + </p> + <p> + Sir George dropped heavily into the arm-chair, and stretched out his long + thin legs. + </p> + <p> + “What I want,” he said, looking up at the ceiling and putting his hands + together, “is to discover something about one Remington Kara, a wealthy + Greek who has taken a house in Cadogan Square, who has no particular + position in London society and therefore has no reason for coming here, + who openly expresses his detestation of the climate, who has a magnificent + estate in some wild place in the Balkans, who is an excellent horseman, a + magnificent shot and a passable aviator.” + </p> + <p> + T. X. nodded to Mansus and with something of gratitude in his eyes the + inspector took his leave. + </p> + <p> + “Now Mansus has departed,” said T. X., sitting himself on the edge of his + desk and selecting with great care a cigarette from the case he took from + his pocket, “let me know something of the reason for this sudden interest + in the great ones of the earth.” + </p> + <p> + Sir George smiled grimly. + </p> + <p> + “I have the interest which is the interest of my department,” he said. + “That is to say I want to know a great deal about abnormal people. We have + had an application from him,” he went on, “which is rather unusual. + Apparently he is in fear of his life from some cause or other and wants to + know if he can have a private telephone connection between his house and + the central office. We told him that he could always get the nearest + Police Station on the 'phone, but that doesn't satisfy him. He has made + bad friends with some gentleman of his own country who sooner or later, he + thinks, will cut his throat.” + </p> + <p> + T. X. nodded. + </p> + <p> + “All this I know,” he said patiently, “if you will further unfold the + secret dossier, Sir George, I am prepared to be thrilled.” + </p> + <p> + “There is nothing thrilling about it,” growled the older man, rising, “but + I remember the Macedonian shooting case in South London and I don't want a + repetition of that sort of thing. If people want to have blood feuds, let + them take them outside the metropolitan area.” + </p> + <p> + “By all means,” said T. X., “let them. Personally, I don't care where they + go. But if that is the extent of your information I can supplement it. He + has had extensive alterations made to the house he bought in Cadogan + Square; the room in which he lives is practically a safe.” + </p> + <p> + Sir George raised his eyebrows. + </p> + <p> + “A safe,” he repeated. + </p> + <p> + T. X. nodded. + </p> + <p> + “A safe,” he said; “its walls are burglar proof, floor and roof are + reinforced concrete, there is one door which in addition to its ordinary + lock is closed by a sort of steel latch which he lets fall when he retires + for the night and which he opens himself personally in the morning. The + window is unreachable, there are no communicating doors, and altogether + the room is planned to stand a siege.” + </p> + <p> + The Chief Commissioner was interested. + </p> + <p> + “Any more?” he asked. + </p> + <p> + “Let me think,” said T. X., looking up at the ceiling. “Yes, the interior + of his room is plainly furnished, there is a big fireplace, rather an + ornate bed, a steel safe built into the wall and visible from its outer + side to the policeman whose beat is in that neighborhood.” + </p> + <p> + “How do you know all this?” asked the Chief Commissioner. + </p> + <p> + “Because I've been in the room,” said T. X. simply, “having by an + underhand trick succeeded in gaining the misplaced confidence of Kara's + housekeeper, who by the way”—he turned round to his desk and + scribbled a name on the blotting-pad—“will be discharged to-morrow + and must be found a place.” + </p> + <p> + “Is there any—er—?” began the Chief. + </p> + <p> + “Funny business?” interrupted T. X., “not a bit. House and man are quite + normal save for these eccentricities. He has announced his intention of + spending three months of the year in England and nine months abroad. He is + very rich, has no relations, and has a passion for power.” + </p> + <p> + “Then he'll be hung,” said the Chief, rising. + </p> + <p> + “I doubt it,” said the other, “people with lots of money seldom get hung. + You only get hung for wanting money.” + </p> + <p> + “Then you're in some danger, T. X.,” smiled the Chief, “for according to + my account you're always more or less broke.” + </p> + <p> + “A genial libel,” said T. X., “but talking about people being broke, I saw + John Lexman to-day—you know him!” + </p> + <p> + The Chief Commissioner nodded. + </p> + <p> + “I've an idea he's rather hit for money. He was in that Roumanian gold + swindle, and by his general gloom, which only comes to a man when he's in + love (and he can't possibly be in love since he's married) or when he's in + debt, I fear that he is still feeling the effect of that rosy adventure.” + </p> + <p> + A telephone bell in the corner of the room rang sharply, and T. X. picked + up the receiver. He listened intently. + </p> + <p> + “A trunk call,” he said over his shoulder to the departing commissioner, + “it may be something interesting.” + </p> + <p> + A little pause; then a hoarse voice spoke to him. “Is that you, T. X.?” + </p> + <p> + “That's me,” said the Assistant Commissioner, commonly. + </p> + <p> + “It's John Lexman speaking.” + </p> + <p> + “I shouldn't have recognized your voice,” said T. X., “what is wrong with + you, John, can't you get your plot to went?” + </p> + <p> + “I want you to come down here at once,” said the voice urgently, and even + over the telephone T. X. recognized the distress. “I have shot a man, + killed him!” + </p> + <p> + T. X. gasped. + </p> + <p> + “Good Lord,” he said, “you are a silly ass!” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER III + </h2> + <p> + In the early hours of the morning a tragic little party was assembled in + the study at Beston Priory. John Lexman, white and haggard, sat on the + sofa with his wife by his side. Immediate authority as represented by a + village constable was on duty in the passage outside, whilst T. X. sitting + at the table with a writing pad and a pencil was briefly noting the + evidence. + </p> + <p> + The author had sketched the events of the day. He had described his + interview with the money-lender the day before and the arrival of the + letter. + </p> + <p> + “You have the letter!” asked T. X. + </p> + <p> + John Lexman nodded. + </p> + <p> + “I am glad of that,” said the other with a sigh of relief, “that will save + you from a great deal of unpleasantness, my poor old chap. Tell me what + happened afterward.” + </p> + <p> + “I reached the village,” said John Lexman, “and passed through it. There + was nobody about, the rain was still falling very heavily and indeed I + didn't meet a single soul all the evening. I reached the place appointed + about five minutes before time. It was the corner of Eastbourne Road on + the station side and there I found Vassalaro waiting. I was rather ashamed + of myself at meeting him at all under these conditions, but I was very + keen on his not coming to the house for I was afraid it would upset Grace. + What made it all the more ridiculous was this infernal pistol which was in + my pocket banging against my side with every step I took as though to + nudge me to an understanding of my folly.” + </p> + <p> + “Where did you meet Vassalaro?” asked T. X. + </p> + <p> + “He was on the other side of the Eastbourne Road and crossed the road to + meet me. At first he was very pleasant though a little agitated but + afterward he began to behave in a most extraordinary manner as though he + was lashing himself up into a fury which he didn't feel. I promised him a + substantial amount on account, but he grew worse and worse and then, + suddenly, before I realised what he was doing, he was brandishing a + revolver in my face and uttering the most extraordinary threats. Then it + was I remembered Kara's warning.” + </p> + <p> + “Kara,” said T. X. quickly. + </p> + <p> + “A man I know and who was responsible for introducing me to Vassalaro. He + is immensely wealthy.” + </p> + <p> + “I see,” said T. X., “go on.” + </p> + <p> + “I remembered this warning,” the other proceeded, “and I thought it worth + while trying it out to see if it had any effect upon the little man. I + pulled the pistol from my pocket and pointed it at him, but that only + seemed to make it—and then I pressed the trigger.... + </p> + <p> + “To my horror four shots exploded before I could recover sufficient + self-possession to loosen my hold of the butt. He fell without a word. I + dropped the revolver and knelt by his side. I could tell he was + dangerously wounded, and indeed I knew at that moment that nothing would + save him. My pistol had been pointed in the region of his heart....” + </p> + <p> + He shuddered, dropping his face in his hands, and the girl by his side, + encircling his shoulder with a protecting arm, murmured something in his + ear. Presently he recovered. + </p> + <p> + “He wasn't quite dead. I heard him murmur something but I wasn't able to + distinguish what he said. I went straight to the village and told the + constable and had the body removed.” + </p> + <p> + T. X. rose from the table and walked to the door and opened it. + </p> + <p> + “Come in, constable,” he said, and when the man made his appearance, “I + suppose you were very careful in removing this body, and you took + everything which was lying about in the immediate vicinity'?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, sir,” replied the man, “I took his hat and his walkingstick, if + that's what you mean.” + </p> + <p> + “And the revolver!” asked T. X. + </p> + <p> + The man shook his head. + </p> + <p> + “There warn't any revolver, sir, except the pistol which Mr. Lexman had.” + </p> + <p> + He fumbled in his pocket and pulled it out gingerly, and T. X. took it + from him. + </p> + <p> + “I'll look after your prisoner; you go down to the village, get any help + you can and make a most careful search in the place where this man was + killed and bring me the revolver which you will discover. You'll probably + find it in a ditch by the side of the road. I'll give a sovereign to the + man who finds it.” + </p> + <p> + The constable touched his hat and went out. + </p> + <p> + “It looks rather a weird case to me,” said T. X., as he came back to the + table, “can't you see the unusual features yourself, Lexman! It isn't + unusual for you to owe money and it isn't unusual for the usurer to demand + the return of that money, but in this case he is asking for it before it + was due, and further than that he was demanding it with threats. It is not + the practice of the average money lender to go after his clients with a + loaded revolver. Another peculiar thing is that if he wished to blackmail + you, that is to say, bring you into contempt in the eyes of your friends, + why did he choose to meet you in a dark and unfrequented road, and not in + your house where the moral pressure would be greatest? Also, why did he + write you a threatening letter which would certainly bring him into the + grip of the law and would have saved you a great deal of unpleasantness if + he had decided upon taking action!” + </p> + <p> + He tapped his white teeth with the end of his pencil and then suddenly, + </p> + <p> + “I think I'll see that letter,” he said. + </p> + <p> + John Lexman rose from the sofa, crossed to the safe, unlocked it and was + unlocking the steel drawer in which he had placed the incriminating + document. His hand was on the key when T. X. noticed the look of surprise + on his face. + </p> + <p> + “What is it!” asked the detective suddenly. + </p> + <p> + “This drawer feels very hot,” said John,—he looked round as though + to measure the distance between the safe and the fire. + </p> + <p> + T. X. laid his hand upon the front of the drawer. It was indeed warm. + </p> + <p> + “Open it,” said T. X., and Lexman turned the key and pulled the drawer + open. + </p> + <p> + As he did so, the whole contents burst up in a quick blaze of flame. It + died down immediately and left only a little coil of smoke that flowed + from the safe into the room. + </p> + <p> + “Don't touch anything inside,” said T. X. quickly. + </p> + <p> + He lifted the drawer carefully and placed it under the light. In the + bottom was no more than a few crumpled white ashes and a blister of paint + where the flame had caught the side. + </p> + <p> + “I see,” said T. X. slowly. + </p> + <p> + He saw something more than that handful of ashes, he saw the deadly peril + in which his friend was standing. Here was one half of the evidence in + Lexman's favour gone, irredeemably. + </p> + <p> + “The letter was written on a paper which was specially prepared by a + chemical process which disintegrated the moment the paper was exposed to + the air. Probably if you delayed putting the letter in the drawer another + five minutes, you would have seen it burn before your eyes. As it was, it + was smouldering before you had turned the key of the box. The envelope!” + </p> + <p> + “Kara burnt it,” said Lexman in a low voice, “I remember seeing him take + it up from the table and throw it in the fire.” + </p> + <p> + T. X. nodded. + </p> + <p> + “There remains the other half of the evidence,” he said grimly, and when + an hour later, the village constable returned to report that in spite of + his most careful search he had failed to discover the dead man's revolver, + his anticipations were realized. + </p> + <p> + The next morning John Lexman was lodged in Lewes gaol on a charge of + wilful murder. + </p> + <p> + A telegram brought Mansus from London to Beston Tracey, and T. X. received + him in the library. + </p> + <p> + “I sent for you, Mansus, because I suffer from the illusion that you have + more brains than most of the people in my department, and that's not + saying much.” + </p> + <p> + “I am very grateful to you, sir, for putting me right with Commissioner,” + began Mansus, but T. X. stopped him. + </p> + <p> + “It is the duty of every head of departments,” he said oracularly, “to + shield the incompetence of his subordinates. It is only by the adoption of + some such method that the decencies of the public life can be observed. + Now get down to this.” He gave a sketch of the case from start to finish + in as brief a space of time as possible. + </p> + <p> + “The evidence against Mr. Lexman is very heavy,” he said. “He borrowed + money from this man, and on the man's body were found particulars of the + very Promissory Note which Lexman signed. Why he should have brought it + with him, I cannot say. Anyhow I doubt very much whether Mr. Lexman will + get a jury to accept his version. Our only chance is to find the Greek's + revolver—I don't think there's any very great chance, but if we are + to be successful we must make a search at once.” + </p> + <p> + Before he went out he had an interview with Grace. The dark shadows under + her eyes told of a sleepless night. She was unusually pale and + surprisingly calm. + </p> + <p> + “I think there are one or two things I ought to tell you,” she said, as + she led the way into the drawing room, closing the door behind him. + </p> + <p> + “And they concern Mr. Kara, I think,” said T. X. + </p> + <p> + She looked at him startled. + </p> + <p> + “How did you know that?” + </p> + <p> + “I know nothing.” + </p> + <p> + He hesitated on the brink of a flippant claim of omniscience, but + realizing in time the agony she must be suffering he checked his natural + desire. + </p> + <p> + “I really know nothing,” he continued, “but I guess a lot,” and that was + as near to the truth as you might expect T. X. to reach on the spur of the + moment. + </p> + <p> + She began without preliminary. + </p> + <p> + “In the first place I must tell you that Mr. Kara once asked me to marry + him, and for reasons which I will give you, I am dreadfully afraid of + him.” + </p> + <p> + She described without reserve the meeting at Salonika and Kara's + extravagant rage and told of the attempt which had been made upon her. + </p> + <p> + “Does John know this?” asked T. X. + </p> + <p> + She shook her head sadly. + </p> + <p> + “I wish I had told him now,” she said. “Oh, how I wish I had!” She wrung + her hands in an ecstasy of sorrow and remorse. + </p> + <p> + T. X. looked at her sympathetically. Then he asked, + </p> + <p> + “Did Mr. Kara ever discuss your husband's financial position with you!” + </p> + <p> + “Never.” + </p> + <p> + “How did John Lexman happen to meet Vassalaro!” + </p> + <p> + “I can tell you that,” she answered, “the first time we met Mr. Kara in + England was when we were staying at Babbacombe on a summer holiday—which + was really a prolongation of our honeymoon. Mr. Kara came to stay at the + same hotel. I think Mr. Vassalaro must have been there before; at any rate + they knew one another and after Kara's introduction to my husband the rest + was easy. + </p> + <p> + “Can I do anything for John!” she asked piteously. + </p> + <p> + T. X. shook his head. + </p> + <p> + “So far as your story is concerned, I don't think you will advantage him + by telling it,” he said. “There is nothing whatever to connect Kara with + this business and you would only give your husband a great deal of pain. + I'll do the best I can.” + </p> + <p> + He held out his hand and she grasped it and somehow at that moment there + came to T. X. Meredith a new courage, a new faith and a greater + determination than ever to solve this troublesome mystery. + </p> + <p> + He found Mansus waiting for him in a car outside and in a few minutes they + were at the scene of the tragedy. A curious little knot of spectators had + gathered, looking with morbid interest at the place where the body had + been found. There was a local policeman on duty and to him was deputed the + ungracious task of warning his fellow villagers to keep their distance. + The ground had already been searched very carefully. The two roads crossed + almost at right angles and at the corner of the cross thus formed, the + hedges were broken, admitting to a field which had evidently been used as + a pasture by an adjoining dairy farm. Some rough attempt had been made to + close the gap with barbed wire, but it was possible to step over the + drooping strands with little or no difficulty. It was to this gap that T. + X. devoted his principal attention. All the fields had been carefully + examined without result, the four drains which were merely the connecting + pipes between ditches at the sides of the crossroads had been swept out + and only the broken hedge and its tangle of bushes behind offered any + prospect of the new search being rewarded. + </p> + <p> + “Hullo!” said Mansus, suddenly, and stooping down he picked up something + from the ground. + </p> + <p> + T. X. took it in his hand. + </p> + <p> + It was unmistakably a revolver cartridge. He marked the spot where it had + been found by jamming his walking stick into the ground and continued his + search, but without success. + </p> + <p> + “I am afraid we shall find nothing more here,” said T. X., after half an + hour's further search. He stood with his chin in his hand, a frown on his + face. + </p> + <p> + “Mansus,” he said, “suppose there were three people here, Lexman, the + money lender and a third witness. And suppose this third person for some + reason unknown was interested in what took place between the two men and + he wanted to watch unobserved. Isn't it likely that if he, as I think, + instigated the meeting, he would have chosen this place because this + particular hedge gave him a chance of seeing without being seen?” + </p> + <p> + Mansus thought. + </p> + <p> + “He could have seen just as well from either of the other hedges, with + less chance of detection,” he said, after a long pause. + </p> + <p> + T. X. grinned. + </p> + <p> + “You have the makings of a brain,” he said admiringly. “I agree with you. + Always remember that, Mansus. That there was one occasion in your life + when T. X. Meredith and you thought alike.” + </p> + <p> + Mansus smiled a little feebly. + </p> + <p> + “Of course from the point of view of the observer this was the worst place + possible, so whoever came here, if they did come here, dropping revolver + bullets about, must have chosen the spot because it was get-at-able from + another direction. Obviously he couldn't come down the road and climb in + without attracting the attention of the Greek who was waiting for Mr. + Lexman. We may suppose there is a gate farther along the road, we may + suppose that he entered that gate, came along the field by the side of the + hedge and that somewhere between here and the gate, he threw away his + cigar.” + </p> + <p> + “His cigar!” said Mansus in surprise. + </p> + <p> + “His cigar,” repeated T. X., “if he was alone, he would keep his cigar + alight until the very last moment.” + </p> + <p> + “He might have thrown it into the road,” said Mansus. + </p> + <p> + “Don't jibber,” said T. X., and led the way along the hedge. From where + they stood they could see the gate which led on to the road about a + hundred yards further on. Within a dozen yards of that gate, T. X. found + what he had been searching for, a half-smoked cigar. It was sodden with + rain and he picked it up tenderly. + </p> + <p> + “A good cigar, if I am any judge,” he said, “cut with a penknife, and + smoked through a holder.” + </p> + <p> + They reached the gate and passed through. Here they were on the road again + and this they followed until they reached another cross road that to the + left inclining southward to the new Eastbourne Road and that to the + westward looking back to the Lewes-Eastbourne railway. The rain had + obliterated much that T. X. was looking for, but presently he found a + faint indication of a car wheel. + </p> + <p> + “This is where she turned and backed,” he said, and walked slowly to the + road on the left, “and this is where she stood. There is the grease from + her engine.” + </p> + <p> + He stooped down and moved forward in the attitude of a Russian dancer, + “And here are the wax matches which the chauffeur struck,” he counted, + “one, two, three, four, five, six, allow three for each cigarette on a + boisterous night like last night, that makes three cigarettes. Here is a + cigarette end, Mansus, Gold Flake brand,” he said, as he examined it + carefully, “and a Gold Flake brand smokes for twelve minutes in normal + weather, but about eight minutes in gusty weather. A car was here for + about twenty-four minutes—what do you think of that, Mansus?” + </p> + <p> + “A good bit of reasoning, T. X.,” said the other calmly, “if it happens to + be the car you're looking for.” + </p> + <p> + “I am looking for any old car,” said T. X. + </p> + <p> + He found no other trace of car wheels though he carefully followed up the + little lane until it reached the main road. After that it was hopeless to + search because rain had fallen in the night and in the early hours of the + morning. He drove his assistant to the railway station in time to catch + the train at one o'clock to London. + </p> + <p> + “You will go straight to Cadogan Square and arrest the chauffeur of Mr. + Kara,” he said. + </p> + <p> + “Upon what charge!” asked Mansus hurriedly. + </p> + <p> + When it came to the step which T. X. thought fit to take in the pursuance + of his duty, Mansus was beyond surprise. + </p> + <p> + “You can charge him with anything you like,” said T. X., with fine + carelessness, “probably something will occur to you on your way up to + town. As a matter of fact the chauffeur has been called unexpectedly away + to Greece and has probably left by this morning's train for the Continent. + If that is so, we can do nothing, because the boat will have left Dover + and will have landed him at Boulogne, but if by any luck you get him, keep + him busy until I get back.” + </p> + <p> + T. X. himself was a busy man that day, and it was not until night was + falling that he again turned to Beston Tracey to find a telegram waiting + for him. He opened it and read, + </p> + <p> + “Chauffeur's name, Goole. Formerly waiter English Club, Constantinople. + Left for east by early train this morning, his mother being ill.” + </p> + <p> + “His mother ill,” said T. X. contemptuously, “how very feeble,—I + should have thought Kara could have gone one better than that.” + </p> + <p> + He was in John Lexman's study as the door opened and the maid announced, + “Mr. Remington Kara.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IV + </h2> + <p> + T. X. folded the telegram very carefully and slipped it into his waistcoat + pocket. + </p> + <p> + He favoured the newcomer with a little bow and taking upon himself the + honours of the establishment, pushed a chair to his visitor. + </p> + <p> + “I think you know my name,” said Kara easily, “I am a friend of poor + Lexman's.” + </p> + <p> + “So I am told,” said T. X., “but don't let your friendship for Lexman + prevent your sitting down.” + </p> + <p> + For a moment the Greek was nonplussed and then, with a little smile and + bow, he seated himself by the writing table. + </p> + <p> + “I am very distressed at this happening,” he went on, “and I am more + distressed because I feel that as I introduced Lexman to this unfortunate + man, I am in a sense responsible.” + </p> + <p> + “If I were you,” said T. X., leaning back in the chair and looking half + questioningly and half earnestly into the face of the other, “I shouldn't + let that fact keep me awake at night. Most people are murdered as a result + of an introduction. The cases where people murder total strangers are + singularly rare. That I think is due to the insularity of our national + character.” + </p> + <p> + Again the other was taken back and puzzled by the flippancy of the man + from whom he had expected at least the official manner. + </p> + <p> + “When did you see Mr. Vassalaro last?” asked T. X. pleasantly. + </p> + <p> + Kara raised his eyes as though considering. + </p> + <p> + “I think it must have been nearly a week ago.” + </p> + <p> + “Think again,” said T. X. + </p> + <p> + For a second the Greek started and again relaxed into a smile. + </p> + <p> + “I am afraid,” he began. + </p> + <p> + “Don't worry about that,” said T. X., “but let me ask you this question. + You were here last night when Mr. Lexman received a letter. That he did + receive a letter, there is considerable evidence,” he said as he saw the + other hesitate, “because we have the supporting statements of the servant + and the postman.” + </p> + <p> + “I was here,” said the other, deliberately, “and I was present when Mr. + Lexman received a letter.” + </p> + <p> + T. X. nodded. + </p> + <p> + “A letter written on some brownish paper and rather bulky,” he suggested. + </p> + <p> + Again there was that momentary hesitation. + </p> + <p> + “I would not swear to the color of the paper or as to the bulk of the + letter,” he said. + </p> + <p> + “I should have thought you would,” suggested T. X., “because you see, you + burnt the envelope, and I presumed you would have noticed that.” + </p> + <p> + “I have no recollection of burning any envelope,” said the other easily. + </p> + <p> + “At any rate,” T. X. went on, “when Mr. Lexman read this letter out to + you...” + </p> + <p> + “To which letter are you referring?” asked the other, with a lift of his + eyebrows. + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Lexman received a threatening letter,” repeated T. X. patiently, + “which he read out to you, and which was addressed to him by Vassalaro. + This letter was handed to you and you also read it. Mr. Lexman to your + knowledge put the letter in his safe—in a steel drawer.” + </p> + <p> + The other shook his head, smiling gently. + </p> + <p> + “I am afraid you've made a great mistake,” he said almost apologetically, + “though I have a recollection of his receiving a letter, I did not read + it, nor was it read to me.” + </p> + <p> + The eyes of T. X. narrowed to the very slits and his voice became metallic + and hard. + </p> + <p> + “And if I put you into the box, will you swear, that you did not see that + letter, nor read it, nor have it read to you, and that you have no + knowledge whatever of such a letter having been received by Mr. Lexman?” + </p> + <p> + “Most certainly,” said the other coolly. + </p> + <p> + “Would you swear that you have not seen Vassalaro for a week?” + </p> + <p> + “Certainly,” smiled the Greek. + </p> + <p> + “That you did not in fact see him last night,” persisted T. X., “and + interview him on the station platform at Lewes, that you did not after + leaving him continue on your way to London and then turn your car and + return to the neighbourhood of Beston Tracey?” + </p> + <p> + The Greek was white to the lips, but not a muscle of his face moved. + </p> + <p> + “Will you also swear,” continued T. X. inexorably, “that you did not stand + at the corner of what is known as Mitre's Lot and re-enter a gate near to + the side where your car was, and that you did not watch the whole + tragedy?” + </p> + <p> + “I'd swear to that,” Kara's voice was strained and cracked. + </p> + <p> + “Would you also swear as to the hour of your arrival in London?” + </p> + <p> + “Somewhere in the region of ten or eleven,” said the Greek. + </p> + <p> + T. X. smiled. + </p> + <p> + “Would you swear that you did not go through Guilford at half-past twelve + and pull up to replenish your petrol?” + </p> + <p> + The Greek had now recovered his self-possession and rose. + </p> + <p> + “You are a very clever man, Mr. Meredith—I think that is your name?” + </p> + <p> + “That is my name,” said T. X. calmly. “There has been, no need for me to + change it as often as you have found the necessity.” + </p> + <p> + He saw the fire blazing in the other's eyes and knew that his shot had + gone home. + </p> + <p> + “I am afraid I must go,” said Kara. “I came here intending to see Mrs. + Lexman, and I had no idea that I should meet a policeman.” + </p> + <p> + “My dear Mr. Kara,” said T. X., rising and lighting a cigarette, “you will + go through life enduring that unhappy experience.” + </p> + <p> + “What do you mean?” + </p> + <p> + “Just what I say. You will always be expecting to meet one person, and + meeting another, and unless you are very fortunate indeed, that other will + always be a policeman.” + </p> + <p> + His eyes twinkled for he had recovered from the gust of anger which had + swept through him. + </p> + <p> + “There are two pieces of evidence I require to save Mr. Lexman from very + serious trouble,” he said, “the first of these is the letter which was + burnt, as you know.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” said Kara. + </p> + <p> + T. X. leant across the desk. + </p> + <p> + “How did you know?” he snapped. + </p> + <p> + “Somebody told me, I don't know who it was.” + </p> + <p> + “That's not true,” replied T. X.; “nobody knows except myself and Mrs. + Lexman.” + </p> + <p> + “But my dear good fellow,” said Kara, pulling on his gloves, “you have + already asked me whether I didn't burn the letter.” + </p> + <p> + “I said envelope,” said T. X., with a little laugh. + </p> + <p> + “And you were going to say something about the other clue?” + </p> + <p> + “The other is the revolver,” said T. X. + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Lexman's revolver!” drawled the Greek. + </p> + <p> + “That we have,” said T. X. shortly. “What we want is the weapon which the + Greek had when he threatened Mr. Lexman.” + </p> + <p> + “There, I'm afraid I cannot help you.” + </p> + <p> + Kara walked to the door and T. X. followed. + </p> + <p> + “I think I will see Mrs. Lexman.” + </p> + <p> + “I think not,” said T. X. + </p> + <p> + The other turned with a sneer. + </p> + <p> + “Have you arrested her, too?” he asked. + </p> + <p> + “Pull yourself together!” said T. X. coarsely. He escorted Kara to his + waiting limousine. + </p> + <p> + “You have a new chauffeur to-night, I observe,” he said. + </p> + <p> + Kara towering with rage stepped daintily into the car. + </p> + <p> + “If you are writing to the other you might give him my love,” said T. X., + “and make most tender enquiries after his mother. I particularly ask + this.” + </p> + <p> + Kara said nothing until the car was out of earshot then he lay back on the + down cushions and abandoned himself to a paroxysm of rage and blasphemy. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER V + </h2> + <p> + Six months later T. X. Meredith was laboriously tracing an elusive line + which occurred on an ordnance map of Sussex when the Chief Commissioner + announced himself. + </p> + <p> + Sir George described T. X. as the most wholesome corrective a public + official could have, and never missed an opportunity of meeting his + subordinate (as he said) for this reason. + </p> + <p> + “What are you doing there?” he growled. + </p> + <p> + “The lesson this morning,” said T. X. without looking up, “is maps.” + </p> + <p> + Sir George passed behind his assistant and looked over his shoulder. + </p> + <p> + “That is a very old map you have got there,” he said. + </p> + <p> + “1876. It shows the course of a number of interesting little streams in + this neighbourhood which have been lost sight of for one reason or the + other by the gentleman who made the survey at a later period. I am + perfectly sure that in one of these streams I shall find what I am + seeking.” + </p> + <p> + “You haven't given up hope, then, in regard to Lexman?” + </p> + <p> + “I shall never give up hope,” said T. X., “until I am dead, and possibly + not then.” + </p> + <p> + “Let me see, what did he get—fifteen years!” + </p> + <p> + “Fifteen years,” repeated T. X., “and a very fortunate man to escape with + his life.” + </p> + <p> + Sir George walked to the window and stared out on to busy Whitehall. + </p> + <p> + “I am told you are quite friendly with Kara again.” + </p> + <p> + T. X. made a noise which might be taken to indicate his assent to the + statement. + </p> + <p> + “I suppose you know that gentleman has made a very heroic attempt to get + you fired,” he said. + </p> + <p> + “I shouldn't wonder,” said T. X. “I made as heroic an attempt to get him + hung, and one good turn deserves another. What did he do? See ministers + and people?” + </p> + <p> + “He did,” said Sir George. + </p> + <p> + “He's a silly ass,” responded T. X. + </p> + <p> + “I can understand all that”—the Chief Commissioner turned round—“but + what I cannot understand is your apology to him.” + </p> + <p> + “There are so many things you don't understand, Sir George,” said T. X. + tartly, “that I despair of ever cataloguing them.” + </p> + <p> + “You are an insolent cub,” growled his Chief. “Come to lunch.” + </p> + <p> + “Where will you take me?” asked T. X. cautiously. + </p> + <p> + “To my club.” + </p> + <p> + “I'm sorry,” said the other, with elaborate politeness, “I have lunched + once at your club. Need I say more?” + </p> + <p> + He smiled, as he worked after his Chief had gone, at the recollection of + Kara's profound astonishment and the gratification he strove so + desperately to disguise. + </p> + <p> + Kara was a vain man, immensely conscious of his good looks, conscious of + his wealth. He had behaved most handsomely, for not only had he accepted + the apology, but he left nothing undone to show his desire to create a + good impression upon the man who had so grossly insulted him. + </p> + <p> + T. X. had accepted an invitation to stay a weekend at Kara's “little place + in the country,” and had found there assembled everything that the heart + could desire in the way of fellowship, eminent politicians who might + conceivably be of service to an ambitious young Assistant Commissioner of + Police, beautiful ladies to interest and amuse him. Kara had even gone to + the length of engaging a theatrical company to play “Sweet Lavender,” and + for this purpose the big ballroom at Hever Court had been transformed into + a theatre. + </p> + <p> + As he was undressing for bed that night T. X. remembered that he had + mentioned to Kara that “Sweet Lavender” was his favorite play, and he + realized that the entertainment was got up especially for his benefit. + </p> + <p> + In a score of other ways Kara had endeavoured to consolidate the + friendship. He gave the young Commissioner advice about a railway company + which was operating in Asia Minor, and the shares of which stood a little + below par. T. X. thanked him for the advice, and did not take it, nor did + he feel any regret when the shares rose 3 pounds in as many weeks. + </p> + <p> + T. X. had superintended the disposal of Beston Priory. He had the + furniture removed to London, and had taken a flat for Grace Lexman. + </p> + <p> + She had a small income of her own, and this, added to the large royalties + which came to her (as she was bitterly conscious) in increasing volume as + the result of the publicity of the trial, placed her beyond fear of want. + </p> + <p> + “Fifteen years,” murmured T. X., as he worked and whistled. + </p> + <p> + There had been no hope for John Lexman from the start. He was in debt to + the man he killed. His story of threatening letters was not substantiated. + The revolver which he said had been flourished at him had never been + found. Two people believed implicitly in the story, and a sympathetic Home + Secretary had assured T. X. personally that if he could find the revolver + and associate it with the murder beyond any doubt, John Lexman would be + pardoned. + </p> + <p> + Every stream in the neighbourhood had been dragged. In one case a small + river had been dammed, and the bed had been carefully dried and sifted, + but there was no trace of the weapon, and T. X. had tried methods more + effective and certainly less legal. + </p> + <p> + A mysterious electrician had called at 456 Cadogan Square in Kara's + absence, and he was armed with such indisputable authority that he was + permitted to penetrate to Kara's private room, in order to examine certain + fitments. + </p> + <p> + Kara returning next day thought no more of the matter when it was reported + to him, until going to his safe that night he discovered that it had been + opened and ransacked. + </p> + <p> + As it happened, most of Kara's valuable and confidential possessions were + at the bank. In a fret of panic and at considerable cost he had the safe + removed and another put in its place of such potency that the makers + offered to indemnify him against any loss from burglary. + </p> + <p> + T. X. finished his work, washed his hands, and was drying them when Mansus + came bursting into the room. It was not usual for Mansus to burst into + anywhere. He was a slow, methodical, painstaking man, with a deliberate + and an official, manner. + </p> + <p> + “What's the matter?” asked T. X. quickly. + </p> + <p> + “We didn't search Vassalaro's lodgings,” cried Mansus breathlessly. “It + just occurred to me as I was coming over Westminster Bridge. I was on top + of a bus—” + </p> + <p> + “Wake up!” said T. X. “You're amongst friends and cut all that 'bus' stuff + out. Of course we searched Vassalaro's lodgings!” + </p> + <p> + “No, we didn't, sir,” said the other triumphantly. “He lived in Great + James Street.” + </p> + <p> + “He lived in the Adelphi,” corrected T. X. + </p> + <p> + “There were two places where he lived,” said Mansus. + </p> + <p> + “When did you learn this?” asked his Chief, dropping his flippancy. + </p> + <p> + “This morning. I was on a bus coming across Westminster Bridge, and there + were two men in front of me, and I heard the word 'Vassalaro' and + naturally I pricked up my ears.” + </p> + <p> + “It was very unnatural, but proceed,” said T. X. + </p> + <p> + “One of the men—a very respectable person—said, 'That chap + Vassalaro used to lodge in my place, and I've still got a lot of his + things. What do you think I ought to do?'” + </p> + <p> + “And you said,” suggested the other. + </p> + <p> + “I nearly frightened his life out of him,” said Mansus. “I said, 'I am a + police officer and I want you to come along with me.'” + </p> + <p> + “And of course he shut up and would not say another word,” said T. X. + </p> + <p> + “That's true, sir,” said Mansus, “but after awhile I got him to talk. + Vassalaro lived in Great James Street, 604, on the third floor. In fact, + some of his furniture is there still. He had a good reason for keeping two + addresses by all accounts.” + </p> + <p> + T. X. nodded wisely. + </p> + <p> + “What was her name?” he asked. + </p> + <p> + “He had a wife,” said the other, “but she left him about four months + before he was killed. He used the Adelphi address for business purposes + and apparently he slept two or three nights of the week at Great James + Street. I have told the man to leave everything as it is, and that we will + come round.” + </p> + <p> + Ten minutes later the two officers were in the somewhat gloomy apartments + which Vassalaro had occupied. + </p> + <p> + The landlord explained that most of the furniture was his, but that there + were certain articles which were the property of the deceased man. He + added, somewhat unnecessarily, that the late tenant owed him six months' + rent. + </p> + <p> + The articles which had been the property of Vassalaro included a tin + trunk, a small writing bureau, a secretaire bookcase and a few clothes. + The secretaire was locked, as was the writing bureau. The tin box, which + had little or nothing of interest, was unfastened. + </p> + <p> + The other locks needed very little attention. Without any difficulty + Mansus opened both. The leaf of the bureau, when let down, formed the + desk, and piled up inside was a whole mass of letters opened and unopened, + accounts, note-books and all the paraphernalia which an untidy man + collects. + </p> + <p> + Letter by letter, T. X. went through the accumulation without finding + anything to help him. Then his eye was attracted by a small tin case + thrust into one of the oblong pigeon holes at the back of the desk. This + he pulled out and opened and found a small wad of paper wrapped in tin + foil. + </p> + <p> + “Hello, hello!” said T. X., and he was pardonably exhilarated. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VI + </h2> + <p> + A Man stood in the speckless courtyard before the Governor's house at + Dartmoor gaol. He wore the ugly livery of shame which marks the convict. + His head was clipped short, and there was two days' growth of beard upon + his haggard face. Standing with his hands behind him, he waited for the + moment when he would be ordered to his work. + </p> + <p> + John Lexman—A. O. 43—looked up at the blue sky as he had + looked so many times from the exercise yard, and wondered what the day + would bring forth. A day to him was the beginning and the end of an + eternity. He dare not let his mind dwell upon the long aching years ahead. + He dare not think of the woman he left, or let his mind dwell upon the + agony which she was enduring. He had disappeared from the world, the world + he loved, and the world that knew him, and all that there was in life; all + that was worth while had been crushed and obliterated into the granite of + the Princetown quarries, and its wide horizon shrunken by the gaunt + moorland with its menacing tors. + </p> + <p> + New interests made up his existence. The quality of the food was one. The + character of the book he would receive from the prison library another. + The future meant Sunday chapel; the present whatever task they found him. + For the day he was to paint some doors and windows of an outlying cottage. + A cottage occupied by a warder who, for some reason, on the day previous, + had spoken to him with a certain kindness and a certain respect which was + unusual. + </p> + <p> + “Face the wall,” growled a voice, and mechanically he turned, his hands + still behind him, and stood staring at the grey wall of the prison + storehouse. + </p> + <p> + He heard the shuffling feet of the quarry gang, his ears caught the clink + of the chains which bound them together. They were desperate men, + peculiarly interesting to him, and he had watched their faces furtively in + the early period of his imprisonment. + </p> + <p> + He had been sent to Dartmoor after spending three months in Wormwood + Scrubbs. Old hands had told him variously that he was fortunate or + unlucky. It was usual to have twelve months at the Scrubbs before testing + the life of a convict establishment. He believed there was some talk of + sending him to Parkhurst, and here he traced the influence which T. X. + would exercise, for Parkhurst was a prisoner's paradise. + </p> + <p> + He heard his warder's voice behind him. + </p> + <p> + “Right turn, 43, quick march.” + </p> + <p> + He walked ahead of the armed guard, through the great and gloomy gates of + the prison, turned sharply to the right, and walked up the village street + toward the moors, beyond the village of Princetown, and on the Tavistock + Road where were two or three cottages which had been lately taken by the + prison staff; and it was to the decoration of one of these that A. O. 43 + had been sent. + </p> + <p> + The house was as yet without a tenant. + </p> + <p> + A paper-hanger under the charge of another warder was waiting for the + arrival of the painter. The two warders exchanged greetings, and the first + went off leaving the other in charge of both men. + </p> + <p> + For an hour they worked in silence under the eyes of the guard. Presently + the warder went outside, and John Lexman had an opportunity of examining + his fellow sufferer. + </p> + <p> + He was a man of twenty-four or twenty-five, lithe and alert. By no means + bad looking, he lacked that indefinable suggestion of animalism which + distinguished the majority of the inhabitants at Dartmoor. + </p> + <p> + They waited until they heard the warder's step clear the passage, and + until his iron-shod boots were tramping over the cobbled path which led + from the door, through the tiny garden to the road, before the second man + spoke. + </p> + <p> + “What are you in for?” he asked, in a low voice. + </p> + <p> + “Murder,” said John Lexman, laconically. + </p> + <p> + He had answered the question before, and had noticed with a little + amusement the look of respect which came into the eyes of the questioner. + </p> + <p> + “What have you got!” + </p> + <p> + “Fifteen years,” said the other. + </p> + <p> + “That means 11 years and 9 months,” said the first man. “You've never been + here before, I suppose?” + </p> + <p> + “Hardly,” said Lexman, drily. + </p> + <p> + “I was here when I was a kid,” confessed the paper-hanger. “I am going out + next week.” + </p> + <p> + John Lexman looked at him enviously. Had the man told him that he had + inherited a great fortune and a greater title his envy would not have been + so genuine. + </p> + <p> + Going out! + </p> + <p> + The drive in the brake to the station, the ride to London in creased, but + comfortable clothing, free as the air, at liberty to go to bed and rise + when he liked, to choose his own dinner, to answer no call save the call + of his conscience, to see—he checked himself. + </p> + <p> + “What are you in for?” he asked in self-defence. + </p> + <p> + “Conspiracy and fraud,” said the other cheerfully. “I was put away by a + woman after three of us had got clear with 12,000 pounds. Damn rough luck, + wasn't it?” + </p> + <p> + John nodded. + </p> + <p> + It was curious, he thought, how sympathetic one grows with these exponents + of crimes. One naturally adopts their point of view and sees life through + their distorted vision. + </p> + <p> + “I bet I'm not given away with the next lot,” the prisoner went on. “I've + got one of the biggest ideas I've ever had, and I've got a real good man + to help me.” + </p> + <p> + “How?” asked John, in surprise. + </p> + <p> + The man jerked his head in the direction of the prison. + </p> + <p> + “Larry Green,” he said briefly. “He's coming out next month, too, and we + are all fixed up proper. We are going to get the pile and then we're off + to South America, and you won't see us for dust.” + </p> + <p> + Though he employed all the colloquialisms which were common, his tone was + that of a man of education, and yet there was something in his address + which told John as clearly as though the man had confessed as much, that + he had never occupied any social position in life. + </p> + <p> + The warder's step on the stones outside reduced them to silence. Suddenly + his voice came up the stairs. + </p> + <p> + “Forty-three,” he called sharply, “I want you down here.” + </p> + <p> + John took his paint pot and brush and went clattering down the uncarpeted + stairs. + </p> + <p> + “Where's the other man?” asked the warder, in a low voice. + </p> + <p> + “He's upstairs in the back room.” + </p> + <p> + The warder stepped out of the door and looked left and right. Coming up + from Princetown was a big, grey car. + </p> + <p> + “Put down your paint pot,” he said. + </p> + <p> + His voice was shaking with excitement. + </p> + <p> + “I am going upstairs. When that car comes abreast of the gate, ask no + questions and jump into it. Get down into the bottom and pull a sack over + you, and do not get up until the car stops.” + </p> + <p> + The blood rushed to John Lexman's head, and he staggered. + </p> + <p> + “My God!” he whispered. + </p> + <p> + “Do as I tell you,” hissed the warder. + </p> + <p> + Like an automaton John put down his brushes, and walked slowly to the + gate. The grey car was crawling up the hill, and the face of the driver + was half enveloped in a big rubber mask. Through the two great goggles + John could see little to help him identify the man. As the machine came up + to the gate, he leapt into the tonneau and sank instantly to the bottom. + As he did so he felt the car leap forward underneath him. Now it was going + fast, now faster, now it rocked and swayed as it gathered speed. He felt + it sweeping down hill and up hill, and once he heard a hollow rumble as it + crossed a wooden bridge. + </p> + <p> + He could not detect from his hiding place in what direction they were + going, but he gathered they had switched off to the left and were making + for one of the wildest parts of the moor. Never once did he feel the car + slacken its pace, until, with a grind of brakes, it stopped suddenly. + </p> + <p> + “Get out,” said a voice. + </p> + <p> + John Lexman threw off the cover and leapt out and as he did so the car + turned and sped back the way it had come. + </p> + <p> + For a moment he thought he was alone, and looked around. Far away in the + distance he saw the grey bulk of Princetown Gaol. It was an accident that + he should see it, but it so happened that a ray of the sun fell athwart it + and threw it into relief. + </p> + <p> + He was alone on the moors! Where could he go? + </p> + <p> + He turned at the sound of a voice. + </p> + <p> + He was standing on the slope of a small tor. At the foot there was a + smooth stretch of green sward. It was on this stretch that the people of + Dartmoor held their pony races in the summer months. There was no sign of + horses; but only a great bat-like machine with out-stretched pinions of + taut white canvas, and by that machine a man clad from head to foot in + brown overalls. + </p> + <p> + John stumbled down the slope. As he neared the machine he stopped and + gasped. + </p> + <p> + “Kara,” he said, and the brown man smiled. + </p> + <p> + “But, I do not understand. What are you going to do!” asked Lexman, when + he had recovered from his surprise. + </p> + <p> + “I am going to take you to a place of safety,” said the other. + </p> + <p> + “I have no reason to be grateful to you, as yet, Kara,” breathed Lexman. + “A word from you could have saved me.” + </p> + <p> + “I could not lie, my dear Lexman. And honestly, I had forgotten the + existence of the letter; if that is what you are referring to, but I am + trying to do what I can for you and for your wife.” + </p> + <p> + “My wife!” + </p> + <p> + “She is waiting for you,” said the other. + </p> + <p> + He turned his head, listening. + </p> + <p> + Across the moor came the dull sullen boom of a gun. + </p> + <p> + “You haven't time for argument. They discovered your escape,” he said. + “Get in.” + </p> + <p> + John clambered up into the frail body of the machine and Kara followed. + </p> + <p> + “This is a self-starter,” he said, “one of the newest models of + monoplanes.” + </p> + <p> + He clicked over a lever and with a roar the big three-bladed tractor screw + spun. + </p> + <p> + The aeroplane moved forward with a jerk, ran with increasing gait for a + hundred yards, and then suddenly the jerky progress ceased. The machine + swayed gently from side to side, and looking over, the passenger saw the + ground recede beneath him. + </p> + <p> + Up, up, they climbed in one long sweeping ascent, passing through drifting + clouds till the machine soared like a bird above the blue sea. + </p> + <p> + John Lexman looked down. He saw the indentations of the coast and + recognized the fringe of white houses that stood for Torquay, but in an + incredibly short space of time all signs of the land were blotted out. + </p> + <p> + Talking was impossible. The roar of the engines defied penetration. + </p> + <p> + Kara was evidently a skilful pilot. From time to time he consulted the + compass on the board before him, and changed his course ever so slightly. + Presently he released one hand from the driving wheel, and scribbling on a + little block of paper which was inserted in a pocket at the side of the + seat he passed it back. + </p> + <p> + John Lexman read: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “If you cannot swim there is a life belt under your seat.” + </pre> + <p> + John nodded. + </p> + <p> + Kara was searching the sea for something, and presently he found it. + Viewed from the height at which they flew it looked no more than a white + speck in a great blue saucer, but presently the machine began to dip, + falling at a terrific rate of speed, which took away the breath of the man + who was hanging on with both hands to the dangerous seat behind. + </p> + <p> + He was deadly cold, but had hardly noticed the fact. It was all so + incredible, so impossible. He expected to wake up and wondered if the + prison was also part of the dream. + </p> + <p> + Now he saw the point for which Kara was making. + </p> + <p> + A white steam yacht, long and narrow of beam, was steaming slowly + westward. He could see the feathery wake in her rear, and as the aeroplane + fell he had time to observe that a boat had been put off. Then with a jerk + the monoplane flattened out and came like a skimming bird to the surface + of the water; her engines stopped. + </p> + <p> + “We ought to be able to keep afloat for ten minutes,” said Kara, “and by + that time they will pick us up.” + </p> + <p> + His voice was high and harsh in the almost painful silence which followed + the stoppage of the engines. + </p> + <p> + In less than five minutes the boat had come alongside, manned, as Lexman + gathered from a glimpse of the crew, by Greeks. He scrambled aboard and + five minutes later he was standing on the white deck of the yacht, + watching the disappearing tail of the monoplane. Kara was by his side. + </p> + <p> + “There goes fifteen hundred pounds,” said the Greek, with a smile, “add + that to the two thousand I paid the warder and you have a tidy sum-but + some things are worth all the money in the world!” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VII + </h2> + <p> + T. X. came from Downing Street at 11 o'clock one night, and his heart was + filled with joy and gratitude. + </p> + <p> + He swung his stick to the common danger of the public, but the policeman + on point duty at the end of the street, who saw him, recognized and + saluted him, did not think it fit to issue any official warning. + </p> + <p> + He ran up the stairs to his office, and found Mansus reading the evening + paper. + </p> + <p> + “My poor, dumb beast,” said T. X. “I am afraid I have kept you waiting for + a very long time, but tomorrow you and I will take a little journey to + Devonshire. It will be good for you, Mansus—where did you get that + ridiculous name, by the way!” + </p> + <p> + “M. or N.,” replied Mansus, laconically. + </p> + <p> + “I repeat that there is the dawn of an intellect in you,” said T. X., + offensively. + </p> + <p> + He became more serious as he took from a pocket inside his waistcoat a + long blue envelope containing the paper which had cost him so much to + secure. + </p> + <p> + “Finding the revolver was a master-stroke of yours, Mansus,” he said, and + he was in earnest as he spoke. + </p> + <p> + The man coloured with pleasure for the subordinates of T. X. loved him, + and a word of praise was almost equal to promotion. It was on the advice + of Mansus that the road from London to Lewes had been carefully covered + and such streams as passed beneath that road had been searched. + </p> + <p> + The revolver had been found after the third attempt between Gatwick and + Horsley. Its identification was made easier by the fact that Vassalaro's + name was engraved on the butt. It was rather an ornate affair and in its + earlier days had been silver plated; the handle was of mother-o'-pearl. + </p> + <p> + “Obviously the gift of one brigand to another,” was T. X.'s comment. + </p> + <p> + Armed with this, his task would have been fairly easy, but when to this + evidence he added a rough draft of the threatening letter which he had + found amongst Vassalaro's belongings, and which had evidently been taken + down at dictation, since some of the words were misspelt and had been + corrected by another hand, the case was complete. + </p> + <p> + But what clinched the matter was the finding of a wad of that peculiar + chemical paper, a number of sheets of which T. X. had ignited for the + information of the Chief Commissioner and the Home Secretary by simply + exposing them for a few seconds to the light of an electric lamp. + </p> + <p> + Instantly it had filled the Home Secretary's office with a pungent and + most disagreeable smoke, for which he was heartily cursed by his + superiors. But it had rounded off the argument. + </p> + <p> + He looked at his watch. + </p> + <p> + “I wonder if it is too late to see Mrs. Lexman,” he said. + </p> + <p> + “I don't think any hour would be too late,” suggested Mansus. + </p> + <p> + “You shall come and chaperon me,” said his superior. + </p> + <p> + But a disappointment awaited. Mrs. Lexman was not in and neither the + ringing at her electric bell nor vigorous applications to the knocker + brought any response. The hall porter of the flats where she lived was + under the impression that Mrs. Lexman had gone out of town. She frequently + went out on Saturdays and returned on the Monday and, he thought, + occasionally on Tuesdays. + </p> + <p> + It happened that this particular night was a Monday night and T. X. was + faced with a dilemma. The night porter, who had only the vaguest + information on the subject, thought that the day porter might know more, + and aroused him from his sleep. + </p> + <p> + Yes, Mrs. Lexman had gone. She went on the Sunday, an unusual day to pay a + week-end visit, and she had taken with her two bags. The porter ventured + the opinion that she was rather excited, but when asked to define the + symptoms relapsed into a chaos of incoherent “you-knows” and + “what-I-means.” + </p> + <p> + “I don't like this,” said T. X., suddenly. “Does anybody know that we have + made these discoveries?” + </p> + <p> + “Nobody outside the office,” said Mansus, “unless, unless...” + </p> + <p> + “Unless what?” asked the other, irritably. “Don't be a jimp, Mansus. Get + it off your mind. What is it?” + </p> + <p> + “I am wondering,” said Mansus slowly, “if the landlord at Great James + Street said anything. He knows we have made a search.” + </p> + <p> + “We can easily find that out,” said T. X. + </p> + <p> + They hailed a taxi and drove to Great James Street. That respectable + thoroughfare was wrapped in sleep and it was some time before the landlord + could be aroused. Recognizing T. X. he checked his sarcasm, which he had + prepared for a keyless lodger, and led the way into the drawing room. + </p> + <p> + “You didn't tell me not to speak about it, Mr. Meredith,” he said, in an + aggrieved tone, “and as a matter of fact I have spoken to nobody except + the gentleman who called the same day.” + </p> + <p> + “What did he want?” asked T. X. + </p> + <p> + “He said he had only just discovered that Mr. Vassalaro had stayed with me + and he wanted to pay whatever rent was due,” replied the other. + </p> + <p> + “What like of man was he?” asked T. X. + </p> + <p> + The brief description the man gave sent a cold chill to the Commissioner's + heart. + </p> + <p> + “Kara for a ducat!” he said, and swore long and variously. + </p> + <p> + “Cadogan Square,” he ordered. + </p> + <p> + His ring was answered promptly. Mr. Kara was out of town, had indeed been + out of town since Saturday. This much the man-servant explained with a + suspicious eye upon his visitors, remembering that his predecessor had + lost his job from a too confiding friendliness with spurious electric + fitters. He did not know when Mr. Kara would return, perhaps it would be a + long time and perhaps a short time. He might come back that night or he + might not. + </p> + <p> + “You are wasting your young life,” said T. X. bitterly. “You ought to be a + fortune teller.” + </p> + <p> + “This settles the matter,” he said, in the cab on the way back. “Find out + the first train for Tavistock in the morning and wire the George Hotel to + have a car waiting.” + </p> + <p> + “Why not go to-night?” suggested the other. “There is the midnight train. + It is rather slow, but it will get you there by six or seven in the + morning.” + </p> + <p> + “Too late,” he said, “unless you can invent a method of getting from here + to Paddington in about fifty seconds.” + </p> + <p> + The morning journey to Devonshire was a dispiriting one despite the + fineness of the day. T. X. had an uncomfortable sense that something + distressing had happened. The run across the moor in the fresh spring air + revived him a little. + </p> + <p> + As they spun down to the valley of the Dart, Mansus touched his arm. + </p> + <p> + “Look at that,” he said, and pointed to the blue heavens where, a mile + above their heads, a white-winged aeroplane, looking no larger than a very + distant dragon fly, shimmered in the sunlight. + </p> + <p> + “By Jove!” said T. X. “What an excellent way for a man to escape!” + </p> + <p> + “It's about the only way,” said Mansus. + </p> + <p> + The significance of the aeroplane was borne in upon T. X. a few minutes + later when he was held up by an armed guard. A glance at his card was + enough to pass him. + </p> + <p> + “What is the matter?” he asked. + </p> + <p> + “A prisoner has escaped,” said the sentry. + </p> + <p> + “Escaped—by aeroplane?” asked T. X. + </p> + <p> + “I don't know anything about aeroplanes, sir. All I know is that one of + the working party got away.” + </p> + <p> + The car came to the gates of the prison and T. X. sprang out, followed by + his assistant. He had no difficulty in finding the Governor, a greatly + perturbed man, for an escape is a very serious matter. + </p> + <p> + The official was inclined to be brusque in his manner, but again the magic + card produced a soothing effect. + </p> + <p> + “I am rather rattled,” said the Governor. “One of my men has got away. I + suppose you know that?” + </p> + <p> + “And I am afraid another of your men is going away, sir,” said T. X., who + had a curious reverence for military authority. He produced his paper and + laid it on the governor's table. + </p> + <p> + “This is an order for the release of John Lexman, convicted under sentence + of fifteen years penal servitude.” + </p> + <p> + The Governor looked at it. + </p> + <p> + “Dated last night,” he said, and breathed a long sigh of relief. “Thank + the Lord!—that is the man who escaped!” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VIII + </h2> + <p> + Two years after the events just described, T. X. journeying up to London + from Bath was attracted by a paragraph in the Morning Post. It told him + briefly that Mr. Remington Kara, the influential leader of the Greek + Colony, had been the guest of honor at a dinner of the Hellenic Society. + </p> + <p> + T. X. had only seen Kara for a brief space of time following that tragic + morning, when he had discovered not only that his best friend had escaped + from Dartmoor prison and disappeared, as it were, from the world at a + moment when his pardon had been signed, but that that friend's wife had + also vanished from the face of the earth. + </p> + <p> + At the same time—it might, as even T. X. admitted, have been the + veriest coincidence that Kara had also cleared out of London to reappear + at the end of six months. Any question addressed to him, concerning the + whereabouts of the two unhappy people, was met with a bland expression of + ignorance as to their whereabouts. + </p> + <p> + John Lexman was somewhere in the world, hiding as he believed from + justice, and with him was his wife. T. X. had no doubt in his mind as to + this solution of the puzzle. He had caused to be published the story of + the pardon and the circumstances under which that pardon had been secured, + and he had, moreover, arranged for an advertisement to be inserted in the + principal papers of every European country. + </p> + <p> + It was a moot question amongst the departmental lawyers as to whether John + Lexman was not guilty of a technical and punishable offence for prison + breaking, but this possibility did not keep T. X. awake at nights. The + circumstances of the escape had been carefully examined. The warder + responsible had been discharged from the service, and had almost + immediately purchased for himself a beer house in Falmouth, for a sum + which left no doubt in the official mind that he had been the recipient of + a heavy bribe. + </p> + <p> + Who had been the guiding spirit in that escape—Mrs. Lexman, or Kara? + </p> + <p> + It was impossible to connect Kara with the event. The motor car had been + traced to Exeter, where it had been hired by a “foreign-looking + gentleman,” but the chauffeur, whoever he was, had made good his escape. + An inspection of Kara's hangars at Wembley showed that his two monoplanes + had not been removed, and T. X. failed entirely to trace the owner of the + machine he had seen flying over Dartmoor on the fatal morning. + </p> + <p> + T. X. was somewhat baffled and a little amused by the disinclination of + the authorities to believe that the escape had been effected by this + method at all. All the events of the trial came back to him, as he watched + the landscape spinning past. + </p> + <p> + He set down the newspaper with a little sigh, put his feet on the cushions + of the opposite seat and gave himself up to reverie. Presently he returned + to his journals and searched them idly for something to interest him in + the final stretch of journey between Newbury and Paddington. + </p> + <p> + Presently he found it in a two column article with the uninspiring title, + “The Mineral Wealth of Tierra del Fuego.” It was written brightly with a + style which was at once easy and informative. It told of adventures in the + marshes behind St. Sebastian Bay and journeys up the Guarez Celman river, + of nights spent in primeval forests and ended in a geological survey, + wherein the commercial value of syenite, porphyry, trachite and dialite + were severally canvassed. + </p> + <p> + The article was signed “G. G.” It is said of T. X. that his greatest + virtue was his curiosity. He had at the tip of his fingers the names of + all the big explorers and author-travellers, and for some reason he could + not place “G. G.” to his satisfaction, in fact he had an absurd desire to + interpret the initials into “George Grossmith.” His inability to identify + the writer irritated him, and his first act on reaching his office was to + telephone to one of the literary editors of the Times whom he knew. + </p> + <p> + “Not my department,” was the chilly reply, “and besides we never give away + the names of our contributors. Speaking as a person outside the office I + should say that 'G. G.' was 'George Gathercole' the explorer you know, the + fellow who had an arm chewed off by a lion or something.” + </p> + <p> + “George Gathercole!” repeated T. X. “What an ass I am.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” said the voice at the other end the wire, and he had rung off + before T. X. could think of something suitable to say. + </p> + <p> + Having elucidated this little side-line of mystery, the matter passed from + the young Commissioner's mind. It happened that morning that his work + consisted of dealing with John Lexman's estate. + </p> + <p> + With the disappearance of the couple he had taken over control of their + belongings. It had not embarrassed him to discover that he was an executor + under Lexman's will, for he had already acted as trustee to the wife's + small estate, and had been one of the parties to the ante-nuptial contract + which John Lexman had made before his marriage. + </p> + <p> + The estate revenues had increased very considerably. All the vanished + author's books were selling as they had never sold before, and the + executor's work was made the heavier by the fact that Grace Lexman had + possessed an aunt who had most inconsiderately died, leaving a + considerable fortune to her “unhappy niece.” + </p> + <p> + “I will keep the trusteeship another year,” he told the solicitor who came + to consult him that morning. “At the end of that time I shall go to the + court for relief.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you think they will ever turn up?” asked the solicitor, an elderly and + unimaginative man. + </p> + <p> + “Of course, they'll turn up!” said T. X. impatiently; “all the heroes of + Lexman's books turn up sooner or later. He will discover himself to us at + a suitable moment, and we shall be properly thrilled.” + </p> + <p> + That Lexman would return he was sure. It was a faith from which he did not + swerve. + </p> + <p> + He had as implicit a confidence that one day or other Kara, the + magnificent, would play into his hands. + </p> + <p> + There were some queer stories in circulation concerning the Greek, but on + the whole they were stories and rumours which were difficult to separate + from the malicious gossip which invariably attaches itself to the rich and + to the successful. + </p> + <p> + One of these was that Kara desired something more than an Albanian + chieftainship, which he undoubtedly enjoyed. There were whispers of wider + and higher ambitions. Though his father had been born a Greek, he had + indubitably descended in a direct line from one of those old Mprets of + Albania, who had exercised their brief authority over that turbulent land. + </p> + <p> + The man's passion was for power. To this end he did not spare himself. It + was said that he utilized his vast wealth for this reason, and none other, + and that whatever might have been the irregularities of his youth—and + there were adduced concrete instances—he was working toward an end + with a singleness of purpose, from which it was difficult to withhold + admiration. + </p> + <p> + T. X. kept in his locked desk a little red book, steel bound and triple + locked, which he called his “Scandalaria.” In this he inscribed in his own + irregular writing the titbits which might not be published, and which + often helped an investigator to light upon the missing threads of a + problem. In truth he scorned no source of information, and was + conscienceless in the compilation of this somewhat chaotic record. + </p> + <p> + The affairs of John Lexman recalled Kara, and Kara's great reception. + Mansus would have made arrangements to secure a verbatim report of the + speeches which were made, and these would be in his hands by the night. + Mansus did not tell him that Kara was financing some very influential + people indeed, that a certain Under-secretary of State with a great number + of very influential relations had been saved from bankruptcy by the timely + advances which Kara had made. This T. X. had obtained through sources + which might be hastily described as discreditable. Mansus knew of the + baccarat establishment in Albemarle Street, but he did not know that the + neurotic wife of a very great man indeed, no less than the Minister of + Justice, was a frequent visitor to that establishment, and that she had + lost in one night some 6,000 pounds. In these circumstances it was + remarkable, thought T. X., that she should report to the police so small a + matter as the petty pilfering of servants. This, however, she had done and + whilst the lesser officers of Scotland Yard were interrogating + pawnbrokers, the men higher up were genuinely worried by the lady's own + lapses from grace. + </p> + <p> + It was all sordid but, unfortunately, conventional, because highly placed + people will always do underbred things, where money or women are + concerned, but it was necessary, for the proper conduct of the department + which T. X. directed, that, however sordid and however conventional might + be the errors which the great ones of the earth committed, they should be + filed for reference. + </p> + <p> + The motto which T. X. went upon in life was, “You never know.” + </p> + <p> + The Minister of Justice was a very important person, for he was a personal + friend of half the monarchs of Europe. A poor man, with two or three + thousand a year of his own, with no very definite political views and + uncommitted to the more violent policies of either party, he succeeded in + serving both, with profit to himself, and without earning the obloquy of + either. Though he did not pursue the blatant policy of the Vicar of Bray, + yet it is fact which may be confirmed from the reader's own knowledge, + that he served in four different administrations, drawing the pay and + emoluments of his office from each, though the fundamental policies of + those four governments were distinct. + </p> + <p> + Lady Bartholomew, the wife of this adaptable Minister, had recently + departed for San Remo. The newspapers announced the fact and spoke vaguely + of a breakdown which prevented the lady from fulfilling her social + engagements. + </p> + <p> + T. X., ever a Doubting Thomas, could trace no visit of nerve specialist, + nor yet of the family practitioner, to the official residence in Downing + Street, and therefore he drew conclusions. In his own “Who's Who” T. X. + noted the hobbies of his victims which, by the way, did not always + coincide with the innocent occupations set against their names in the more + pretentious volume. Their follies and their weaknesses found a place and + were recorded at a length (as it might seem to the uninformed observer) + beyond the limit which charity allowed. + </p> + <p> + Lady Mary Bartholomew's name appeared not once, but many times, in the + erratic records which T. X. kept. There was a plain matter-of-fact and + wholly unobjectionable statement that she was born in 1874, that she was + the seventh daughter of the Earl of Balmorey, that she had one daughter + who rejoiced in the somewhat unpromising name of Belinda Mary, and such + further information as a man might get without going to a great deal of + trouble. + </p> + <p> + T. X., refreshing his memory from the little red book, wondered what + unexpected tragedy had sent Lady Bartholomew out of London in the middle + of the season. The information was that the lady was fairly well off at + this moment, and this fact made matters all the more puzzling and almost + induced him to believe that, after all, the story was true, and a nervous + breakdown really was the cause of her sudden departure. He sent for + Mansus. + </p> + <p> + “You saw Lady Bartholomew off at Charing Cross, I suppose?” + </p> + <p> + Mansus nodded. + </p> + <p> + “She went alone?” + </p> + <p> + “She took her maid, but otherwise she was alone. I thought she looked + ill.” + </p> + <p> + “She has been looking ill for months past,” said T. X., without any + visible expression of sympathy. + </p> + <p> + “Did she take Belinda Mary?” + </p> + <p> + Mansus was puzzled. “Belinda Mary?” he repeated slowly. “Oh, you mean the + daughter. No, she's at a school somewhere in France.” + </p> + <p> + T. X. whistled a snatch of a popular song, closed the little red book with + a snap and replaced it in his desk. + </p> + <p> + “I wonder where on earth people dig up names like Belinda Mary?” he mused. + “Belinda Mary must be rather a weird little animal—the Lord forgive + me for speaking so about my betters! If heredity counts for anything she + ought to be something between a head waiter and a pack of cards. Have you + lost anything'?” + </p> + <p> + Mansus was searching his pockets. + </p> + <p> + “I made a few notes, some questions I wanted to ask you about and Lady + Bartholomew was the subject of one of them. I have had her under + observation for six months; do you want it kept up?” + </p> + <p> + T. X. thought awhile, then shook his head. + </p> + <p> + “I am only interested in Lady Bartholomew in so far as Kara is interested + in her. There is a criminal for you, my friend!” he added, admiringly. + </p> + <p> + Mansus busily engaged in going through the bundles of letters, slips of + paper and little notebooks he had taken from his pocket, sniffed audibly. + </p> + <p> + “Have you a cold?” asked T. X. politely. + </p> + <p> + “No, sir,” was the reply, “only I haven't much opinion of Kara as a + criminal. Besides, what has he got to be a criminal about? He has all that + he requires in the money department, he's one of the most popular people + in London, and certainly one of the best-looking men I've ever seen in my + life. He needs nothing.” + </p> + <p> + T. X. regarded him scornfully. + </p> + <p> + “You're a poor blind brute,” he said, shaking his head; don't you know + that great criminals are never influenced by material desires, or by the + prospect of concrete gains? The man, who robs his employer's till in order + to give the girl of his heart the 25-pearl and ruby brooch her soul + desires, gains nothing but the glow of satisfaction which comes to the man + who is thought well of. The majority of crimes in the world are committed + by people for the same reason—they want to be thought well of. Here + is Doctor X. who murdered his wife because she was a drunkard and a slut, + and he dared not leave her for fear the neighbours would have doubts as to + his respectability. Here is another gentleman who murders his wives in + their baths in order that he should keep up some sort of position and earn + the respect of his friends and his associates. Nothing roused him more + quickly to a frenzy of passion than the suggestion that he was not + respectable. Here is the great financier, who has embezzled a million and + a quarter, not because he needed money, but because people looked up to + him. Therefore, he must build great mansions, submarine pleasure courts + and must lay out huge estates—because he wished that he should be + thought well of. + </p> + <p> + Mansus sniffed again. + </p> + <p> + “What about the man who half murders his wife, does he do that to be well + thought of?” he asked, with a tinge of sarcasm. + </p> + <p> + T. X. looked at him pityingly. + </p> + <p> + “The low-brow who beats his wife, my poor Mansus,” he said, “does so + because she doesn't think well of him. That is our ruling passion, our + national characteristic, the primary cause of most crimes, big or little. + That is why Kara is a bad criminal and will, as I say, end his life very + violently.” + </p> + <p> + He took down his glossy silk hat from the peg and slipped into his + overcoat. + </p> + <p> + “I am going down to see my friend Kara,” he said. “I have a feeling that I + should like to talk with him. He might tell me something.” + </p> + <p> + His acquaintance with Kara's menage had been mere hearsay. He had + interviewed the Greek once after his return, but since all his efforts to + secure information concerning the whereabouts of John Lexman and his wife—the + main reason for his visit—had been in vain, he had not repeated his + visit. + </p> + <p> + The house in Cadogan Square was a large one, occupying a corner site. It + was peculiarly English in appearance with its window boxes, its discreet + curtains, its polished brass and enamelled doorway. It had been the town + house of Lord Henry Gratham, that eccentric connoisseur of wine and + follower of witless pleasure. It had been built by him “round a bottle of + port,” as his friends said, meaning thereby that his first consideration + had been the cellarage of the house, and that when those cellars had been + built and provision made for the safe storage of his priceless wines, the + house had been built without the architect's being greatly troubled by his + lordship. The double cellars of Gratham House had, in their time, been one + of the sights of London. When Henry Gratham lay under eight feet of Congo + earth (he was killed by an elephant whilst on a hunting trip) his + executors had been singularly fortunate in finding an immediate purchaser. + Rumour had it that Kara, who was no lover of wine, had bricked up the + cellars, and their very existence passed into domestic legendary. + </p> + <p> + The door was opened by a well-dressed and deferential man-servant and T. + X. was ushered into the hall. A fire burnt cheerily in a bronze grate and + T. X. had a glimpse of a big oil painting of Kara above the marble + mantle-piece. + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Kara is very busy, sir,” said the man. + </p> + <p> + “Just take in my card,” said T. X. “I think he may care to see me.” + </p> + <p> + The man bowed, produced from some mysterious corner a silver salver and + glided upstairs in that manner which well-trained servants have, a manner + which seems to call for no bodily effort. In a minute he returned. + </p> + <p> + “Will you come this way, sir,” he said, and led the way up a broad flight + of stairs. + </p> + <p> + At the head of the stairs was a corridor which ran to the left and to the + right. From this there gave four rooms. One at the extreme end of the + passage on the right, one on the left, and two at fairly regular intervals + in the centre. + </p> + <p> + When the man's hand was on one of the doors, T. X. asked quietly, “I think + I have seen you before somewhere, my friend.” + </p> + <p> + The man smiled. + </p> + <p> + “It is very possible, sir. I was a waiter at the Constitutional for some + time.” + </p> + <p> + T. X. nodded. + </p> + <p> + “That is where it must have been,” he said. + </p> + <p> + The man opened the door and announced the visitor. + </p> + <p> + T. X. found himself in a large room, very handsomely furnished, but just + lacking that sense of cosiness and comfort which is the feature of the + Englishman's home. + </p> + <p> + Kara rose from behind a big writing table, and came with a smile and a + quick step to greet the visitor. + </p> + <p> + “This is a most unexpected pleasure,” he said, and shook hands warmly. + </p> + <p> + T. X. had not seen him for a year and found very little change in this + strange young man. He could not be more confident than he had been, nor + bear himself with a more graceful carriage. Whatever social success he had + achieved, it had not spoiled him, for his manner was as genial and easy as + ever. + </p> + <p> + “I think that will do, Miss Holland,” he said, turning to the girl who, + with notebook in hand, stood by the desk. + </p> + <p> + “Evidently,” thought T. X., “our Hellenic friend has a pretty taste in + secretaries.” + </p> + <p> + In that one glance he took her all in—from the bronze-brown of her + hair to her neat foot. + </p> + <p> + T. X. was not readily attracted by members of the opposite sex. He was + self-confessed a predestined bachelor, finding life and its incidence too + absorbing to give his whole mind to the serious problem of marriage, or to + contract responsibilities and interests which might divert his attention + from what he believed was the greater game. Yet he must be a man of stone + to resist the freshness, the beauty and the youth of this straight, + slender girl; the pink-and-whiteness of her, the aliveness and buoyancy + and the thrilling sense of vitality she carried in her very presence. + </p> + <p> + “What is the weirdest name you have ever heard?” asked Kara laughingly. “I + ask you, because Miss Holland and I have been discussing a begging letter + addressed to us by a Maggie Goomer.” + </p> + <p> + The girl smiled slightly and in that smile was paradise, thought T. X. + </p> + <p> + “The weirdest name?” he repeated, “why I think the worst I have heard for + a long time is Belinda Mary.” + </p> + <p> + “That has a familiar ring,” said Kara. + </p> + <p> + T. X. was looking at the girl. + </p> + <p> + She was staring at him with a certain languid insolence which made him + curl up inside. Then with a glance at her employer she swept from the + room. + </p> + <p> + “I ought to have introduced you,” said Kara. “That was my secretary, Miss + Holland. Rather a pretty girl, isn't she?” + </p> + <p> + “Very,” said T. X., recovering his breath. + </p> + <p> + “I like pretty things around me,” said Kara, and somehow the complacency + of the remark annoyed the detective more than anything that Kara had ever + said to him. + </p> + <p> + The Greek went to the mantlepiece, and taking down a silver cigarette box, + opened and offered it to his visitor. Kara was wearing a grey lounge suit; + and although grey is a very trying colour for a foreigner to wear, this + suit fitted his splendid figure and gave him just that bulk which he + needed. + </p> + <p> + “You are a most suspicious man, Mr. Meredith,” he smiled. + </p> + <p> + “Suspicious! I?” asked the innocent T. X. + </p> + <p> + Kara nodded. + </p> + <p> + “I am sure you want to enquire into the character of all my present staff. + I am perfectly satisfied that you will never be at rest until you learn + the antecedents of my cook, my valet, my secretary—” + </p> + <p> + T. X. held up his hand with a laugh. + </p> + <p> + “Spare me,” he said. “It is one of my failings, I admit, but I have never + gone much farther into your domestic affairs than to pry into the + antecedents of your very interesting chauffeur.” + </p> + <p> + A little cloud passed over Kara's face, but it was only momentary. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, Brown,” he said, airily, with just a perceptible pause between the + two words. + </p> + <p> + “It used to be Smith,” said T. X., “but no matter. His name is really + Poropulos.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, Poropulos,” said Kara gravely, “I dismissed him a long time ago.” + </p> + <p> + “Pensioned hire, too, I understand,” said T. X. + </p> + <p> + The other looked at him awhile, then, “I am very good to my old servants,” + he said slowly and, changing the subject; “to what good fortune do I owe + this visit?” + </p> + <p> + T. X. selected a cigarette before he replied. + </p> + <p> + “I thought you might be of some service to me,” he said, apparently giving + his whole attention to the cigarette. + </p> + <p> + “Nothing would give me greater pleasure,” said Kara, a little eagerly. “I + am afraid you have not been very keen on continuing what I hoped would + have ripened into a valuable friendship, more valuable to me perhaps,” he + smiled, “than to you.” + </p> + <p> + “I am a very shy man,” said the shameless T. X., “difficult to a fault, + and rather apt to underrate my social attractions. I have come to you now + because you know everybody—by the way, how long have you had your + secretary!” he asked abruptly. + </p> + <p> + Kara looked up at the ceiling for inspiration. + </p> + <p> + “Four, no three months,” he corrected, “a very efficient young lady who + came to me from one of the training establishments. Somewhat + uncommunicative, better educated than most girls in her position—for + example, she speaks and writes modern Greek fairly well.” + </p> + <p> + “A treasure!” suggested T. X. + </p> + <p> + “Unusually so,” said Kara. “She lives in Marylebone Road, 86a is the + address. She has no friends, spends most of her evenings in her room, is + eminently respectable and a little chilling in her attitude to her + employer.” + </p> + <p> + T. X. shot a swift glance at the other. + </p> + <p> + “Why do you tell me all this?” he asked. + </p> + <p> + “To save you the trouble of finding out,” replied the other coolly. “That + insatiable curiosity which is one of the equipments of your profession, + would, I feel sure, induce you to conduct investigations for your own + satisfaction.” + </p> + <p> + T. X. laughed. + </p> + <p> + “May I sit down?” he said. + </p> + <p> + The other wheeled an armchair across the room and T. X. sank into it. He + leant back and crossed his legs, and was, in a second, the personification + of ease. + </p> + <p> + “I think you are a very clever man, Monsieur Kara,” he said. + </p> + <p> + The other looked down at him this time without amusement. + </p> + <p> + “Not so clever that I can discover the object of your visit,” he said + pleasantly enough. + </p> + <p> + “It is very simply explained,” said T. X. “You know everybody in town. You + know, amongst other people, Lady Bartholomew.” + </p> + <p> + “I know the lady very well indeed,” said Kara, readily,—too readily + in fact, for the rapidity with which answer had followed question, + suggested to T. X. that Kara had anticipated the reason for the call. + </p> + <p> + “Have you any idea,” asked T. X., speaking with deliberation, “as to why + Lady Bartholomew has gone out of town at this particular moment?” + </p> + <p> + Kara laughed. + </p> + <p> + “What an extraordinary question to ask me—as though Lady Bartholomew + confided her plans to one who is little more than a chance acquaintance!” + </p> + <p> + “And yet,” said T. X., contemplating the burning end of his cigarette, + “you know her well enough to hold her promissory note.” + </p> + <p> + “Promissory note?” asked the other. + </p> + <p> + His tone was one of involuntary surprise and T. X. swore softly to himself + for now he saw the faintest shade of relief in Kara's face. The + Commissioner realized that he had committed an error—he had been far + too definite. + </p> + <p> + “When I say promissory note,” he went on easily, as though he had noticed + nothing, “I mean, of course, the securities which the debtor invariably + gives to one from whom he or she has borrowed large sums of money.” + </p> + <p> + Kara made no answer, but opening a drawer of his desk he took out a key + and brought it across to where T. X. was sitting. + </p> + <p> + “Here is the key of my safe,” he said quietly. “You are at liberty to go + carefully through its contents and discover for yourself any promissory + note which I hold from Lady Bartholomew. My dear fellow, you don't imagine + I'm a moneylender, do you?” he said in an injured tone. + </p> + <p> + “Nothing was further from my thoughts,” said T. X., untruthfully. + </p> + <p> + But the other pressed the key upon him. + </p> + <p> + “I should be awfully glad if you would look for yourself,” he said + earnestly. “I feel that in some way you associate Lady Bartholomew's + illness with some horrible act of usury on my part—will you satisfy + yourself and in doing so satisfy me?” + </p> + <p> + Now any ordinary man, and possibly any ordinary detective, would have made + the conventional answer. He would have protested that he had no intention + of doing anything of the sort; he would have uttered, if he were a man in + the position which T. X. occupied, the conventional statement that he had + no authority to search the private papers, and that he would certainly not + avail himself of the other's kindness. But T. X. was not an ordinary + person. He took the key and balanced it lightly in the palm of his hand. + </p> + <p> + “Is this the key of the famous bedroom safe?” he said banteringly. + </p> + <p> + Kara was looking down at him with a quizzical smile. “It isn't the safe + you opened in my absence, on one memorable occasion, Mr. Meredith,” he + said. “As you probably know, I have changed that safe, but perhaps you + don't feel equal to the task?” + </p> + <p> + “On the contrary,” said T. X., calmly, and rising from the chair, “I am + going to put your good faith to the test.” + </p> + <p> + For answer Kara walked to the door and opened it. + </p> + <p> + “Let me show you the way,” he said politely. + </p> + <p> + He passed along the corridor and entered the apartment at the end. The + room was a large one and lighted by one big square window which was + protected by steel bars. In the grate which was broad and high a huge fire + was burning and the temperature of the room was unpleasantly close despite + the coldness of the day. + </p> + <p> + “That is one of the eccentricities which you, as an Englishman, will never + excuse in me,” said Kara. + </p> + <p> + Near the foot of the bed, let into, and flush with, the wall, was a big + green door of the safe. + </p> + <p> + “Here you are, Mr. Meredith,” said Kara. “All the precious secrets of + Remington Kara are yours for the seeking.” + </p> + <p> + “I am afraid I've had my trouble for nothing,” said T. X., making no + attempt to use the key. + </p> + <p> + “That is an opinion which I share,” said Kara, with a smile. + </p> + <p> + “Curiously enough,” said T. X. “I mean just what you mean.” + </p> + <p> + He handed the key to Kara. + </p> + <p> + “Won't you open it?” asked the Greek. + </p> + <p> + T. X. shook his head. + </p> + <p> + “The safe as far as I can see is a Magnus, the key which you have been + kind enough to give me is legibly inscribed upon the handle 'Chubb.' My + experience as a police officer has taught me that Chubb keys very rarely + open Magnus safes.” + </p> + <p> + Kara uttered an exclamation of annoyance. + </p> + <p> + “How stupid of me!” he said, “yet now I remember, I sent the key to my + bankers, before I went out of town—I only came back this morning, + you know. I will send for it at once.” + </p> + <p> + “Pray don't trouble,” murmured T. X. politely. He took from his pocket a + little flat leather case and opened it. It contained a number of steel + implements of curious shape which were held in position by a leather loop + along the centre of the case. From one of these loops he extracted a + handle, and deftly fitted something that looked like a steel awl to the + socket in the handle. Looking in wonder, and with no little apprehension, + Kara saw that the awl was bent at the head. + </p> + <p> + “What are you going to do?” he asked, a little alarmed. + </p> + <p> + “I'll show you,” said T. X. pleasantly. + </p> + <p> + Very gingerly he inserted the instrument in the small keyhole and turned + it cautiously first one way and then the other. There was a sharp click + followed by another. He turned the handle and the door of the safe swung + open. + </p> + <p> + “Simple, isn't it!” he asked politely. + </p> + <p> + In that second of time Kara's face had undergone a transformation. The + eyes which met T. X. Meredith's blazed with an almost insane fury. With a + quick stride Kara placed himself before the open safe. + </p> + <p> + “I think this has gone far enough, Mr. Meredith,” he said harshly. “If you + wish to search my safe you must get a warrant.” + </p> + <p> + T. X. shrugged his shoulders, and carefully unscrewing the instrument he + had employed and replacing it in the case, he returned it to his inside + pocket. + </p> + <p> + “It was at your invitation, my dear Monsieur Kara,” he said suavely. “Of + course I knew that you were putting a bluff up on me with the key and that + you had no more intention of letting me see the inside of your safe than + you had of telling me exactly what happened to John Lexman.” + </p> + <p> + The shot went home. + </p> + <p> + The face which was thrust into the Commissioner's was ridged and veined + with passion. The lips were turned back to show the big white even teeth, + the eyes were narrowed to slits, the jaw thrust out, and almost every + semblance of humanity had vanished from his face. + </p> + <p> + “You—you—” he hissed, and his clawing hands moved suspiciously + backward. + </p> + <p> + “Put up your hands,” said T. X. sharply, “and be damned quick about it!” + </p> + <p> + In a flash the hands went up, for the revolver which T. X. held was + pressed uncomfortably against the third button of the Greek's waistcoat. + </p> + <p> + “That's not the first time you've been asked to put up your hands, I + think,” said T. X. pleasantly. + </p> + <p> + His own left hand slipped round to Kara's hip pocket. He found something + in the shape of a cylinder and drew it out from the pocket. To his + surprise it was not a revolver, not even a knife; it looked like a small + electric torch, though instead of a bulb and a bull's-eye glass, there was + a pepper-box perforation at one end. + </p> + <p> + He handled it carefully and was about to press the small nickel knob when + a strangled cry of horror broke from Kara. + </p> + <p> + “For God's sake be careful!” he gasped. “You're pointing it at me! Do not + press that lever, I beg!” + </p> + <p> + “Will it explode!” asked T. X. curiously. + </p> + <p> + “No, no!” + </p> + <p> + T. X. pointed the thing downward to the carpet and pressed the knob + cautiously. As he did so there was a sharp hiss and the floor was stained + with the liquid which the instrument contained. Just one gush of fluid and + no more. T. X. looked down. The bright carpet had already changed colour, + and was smoking. The room was filled with a pungent and disagreeable + scent. T. X. looked from the floor to the white-faced man. + </p> + <p> + “Vitriol, I believe,” he said, shaking his head admiringly. “What a dear + little fellow you are!” + </p> + <p> + The man, big as he was, was on the point of collapse and mumbled something + about self-defence, and listened without a word, whilst T. X., labouring + under an emotion which was perfectly pardonable, described Kara, his + ancestors and the possibilities of his future estate. + </p> + <p> + Very slowly the Greek recovered his self-possession. + </p> + <p> + “I didn't intend using it on you, I swear I didn't,” he pleaded. “I'm + surrounded by enemies, Meredith. I had to carry some means of protection. + It is because my enemies know I carry this that they fight shy of me. I'll + swear I had no intention of using it on you. The idea is too preposterous. + I am sorry I fooled you about the safe.” + </p> + <p> + “Don't let that worry you,” said T. X. “I am afraid I did all the fooling. + No, I cannot let you have this back again,” he said, as the Greek put out + his hand to take the infernal little instrument. “I must take this back to + Scotland Yard; it's quite a long time since we had anything new in this + shape. Compressed air, I presume.” + </p> + <p> + Kara nodded solemnly. + </p> + <p> + “Very ingenious indeed,” said T. X. “If I had a brain like yours,” he + paused, “I should do something with it—with a gun,” he added, as he + passed out of the room. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IX + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “My dear Mr. Meredith, + + “I cannot tell you how unhappy and humiliated I feel that my + little joke with you should have had such an uncomfortable + ending. As you know, and as I have given you proof, I have + the greatest admiration in the world for one whose work for + humanity has won such universal recognition. + + “I hope that we shall both forget this unhappy morning and + that you will give me an opportunity of rendering to you in + person, the apologies which are due to you. I feel that + anything less will neither rehabilitate me in your esteem, + nor secure for me the remnants of my shattered self-respect. + + “I am hoping you will dine with me next week and meet a most + interesting man, George Gathercole, who has just returned + from Patagonia,—I only received his letter this morning— + having made most remarkable discoveries concerning that + country. + + “I feel sure that you are large enough minded and too much a + man of the world to allow my foolish fit of temper to + disturb a relationship which I have always hoped would be + mutually pleasant. If you will allow Gathercole, who will + be unconscious of the part he is playing, to act as + peacemaker between yourself and myself, I shall feel that + his trip, which has cost me a large sum of money, will not + have been wasted. + + “I am, dear Mr. Meredith, + + “Yours very sincerely, + + “REMINGTON KARA.” + </pre> + <p> + Kara folded the letter and inserted it in its envelope. He rang a bell on + his table and the girl who had so filled T. X. with a sense of awe came + from an adjoining room. + </p> + <p> + “You will see that this is delivered, Miss Holland.” + </p> + <p> + She inclined her head and stood waiting. Kara rose from his desk and began + to pace the room. + </p> + <p> + “Do you know T. X. Meredith?” he asked suddenly. + </p> + <p> + “I have heard of him,” said the girl. + </p> + <p> + “A man with a singular mind,” said Kara; “a man against whom my favourite + weapon would fail.” + </p> + <p> + She looked at him with interest in her eyes. + </p> + <p> + “What is your favourite weapon, Mr. Kara?” she asked. + </p> + <p> + “Fear,” he said. + </p> + <p> + If he expected her to give him any encouragement to proceed he was + disappointed. Probably he required no such encouragement, for in the + presence of his social inferiors he was somewhat monopolizing. + </p> + <p> + “Cut a man's flesh and it heals,” he said. “Whip a man and the memory of + it passes, frighten him, fill him with a sense of foreboding and + apprehension and let him believe that something dreadful is going to + happen either to himself or to someone he loves—better the latter—and + you will hurt him beyond forgetfulness. Fear is a tyrant and a despot, + more terrible than the rack, more potent than the stake. Fear is many-eyed + and sees horrors where normal vision only sees the ridiculous.” + </p> + <p> + “Is that your creed?” she asked quietly. + </p> + <p> + “Part of it, Miss Holland,” he smiled. + </p> + <p> + She played idly with the letter she held in her hand, balancing it on the + edge of the desk, her eyes downcast. + </p> + <p> + “What would justify the use of such an awful weapon?” she asked. + </p> + <p> + “It is amply justified to secure an end,” he said blandly. “For example—I + want something—I cannot obtain that something through the ordinary + channel or by the employment of ordinary means. It is essential to me, to + my happiness, to my comfort, or my amour-propre, that that something shall + be possessed by me. If I can buy it, well and good. If I can buy those who + can use their influence to secure this thing for me, so much the better. + If I can obtain it by any merit I possess, I utilize that merit, providing + always, that I can secure my object in the time, otherwise—” + </p> + <p> + He shrugged his shoulders. + </p> + <p> + “I see,” she said, nodding her head quickly. “I suppose that is how + blackmailers feel.” + </p> + <p> + He frowned. + </p> + <p> + “That is a word I never use, nor do I like to hear it employed,” he said. + “Blackmail suggests to me a vulgar attempt to obtain money.” + </p> + <p> + “Which is generally very badly wanted by the people who use it,” said the + girl, with a little smile, “and, according to your argument, they are also + justified.” + </p> + <p> + “It is a matter of plane,” he said airily. “Viewed from my standpoint, + they are sordid criminals—the sort of person that T. X. meets, I + presume, in the course of his daily work. T. X.,” he went on somewhat + oracularly, “is a man for whom I have a great deal of respect. You will + probably meet him again, for he will find an opportunity of asking you a + few questions about myself. I need hardly tell you—” + </p> + <p> + He lifted his shoulders with a deprecating smile. + </p> + <p> + “I shall certainly not discuss your business with any person,” said the + girl coldly. + </p> + <p> + “I am paying you 3 pounds a week, I think,” he said. “I intend increasing + that to 5 pounds because you suit me most admirably.” + </p> + <p> + “Thank you,” said the girl quietly, “but I am already being paid quite + sufficient.” + </p> + <p> + She left him, a little astonished and not a little ruffled. + </p> + <p> + To refuse the favours of Remington Kara was, by him, regarded as something + of an affront. Half his quarrel with T. X. was that gentleman's curious + indifference to the benevolent attitude which Kara had persistently + adopted in his dealings with the detective. + </p> + <p> + He rang the bell, this time for his valet. + </p> + <p> + “Fisher,” he said, “I am expecting a visit from a gentleman named + Gathercole—a one-armed gentleman whom you must look after if he + comes. Detain him on some pretext or other because he is rather difficult + to get hold of and I want to see him. I am going out now and I shall be + back at 6.30. Do whatever you can to prevent him going away until I + return. He will probably be interested if you take him into the library.” + </p> + <p> + “Very good, sir,” said the urbane Fisher, “will you change before you go + out?” + </p> + <p> + Kara shook his head. + </p> + <p> + “I think I will go as I am,” he said. “Get me my fur coat. This beastly + cold kills me,” he shivered as he glanced into the bleak street. “Keep my + fire going, put all my private letters in my bedroom, and see that Miss + Holland has her lunch.” + </p> + <p> + Fisher followed him to his car, wrapped the fur rug about his legs, closed + the door carefully and returned to the house. From thence onward his + behaviour was somewhat extraordinary for a well-bred servant. That he + should return to Kara's study and set the papers in order was natural and + proper. + </p> + <p> + That he should conduct a rapid examination of all the drawers in Kara's + desk might be excused on the score of diligence, since he was, to some + extent, in the confidence of his employer. + </p> + <p> + Kara was given to making friends of his servants—up to a point. In + his more generous moments he would address his bodyguard as “Fred,” and on + more occasions than one, and for no apparent reason, had tipped his + servant over and above his salary. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Fred Fisher found little to reward him for his search until he came + upon Kara's cheque book which told him that on the previous day the Greek + had drawn 6,000 pounds in cash from the bank. This interested him mightily + and he replaced the cheque book with the tightened lips and the fixed gaze + of a man who was thinking rapidly. He paid a visit to the library, where + the secretary was engaged in making copies of Kara's correspondence, + answering letters appealing for charitable donations, and in the hack + words which fall to the secretaries of the great. + </p> + <p> + He replenished the fire, asked deferentially for any instructions and + returned again to his quest. This time he made the bedroom the scene of + his investigations. The safe he did not attempt to touch, but there was a + small bureau in which Kara would have placed his private correspondence of + the morning. This however yielded no result. + </p> + <p> + By the side of the bed on a small table was a telephone, the sight of + which apparently afforded the servant a little amusement. This was the + private 'phone which Kara had been instrumental in having fixed to + Scotland Yard—as he had explained to his servants. + </p> + <p> + “Rum cove,” said Fisher. + </p> + <p> + He paused for a moment before the closed door of the room and smilingly + surveyed the great steel latch which spanned the door and fitted into an + iron socket securely screwed to the framework. He lifted it gingerly—there + was a little knob for the purpose—and let it fall gently into the + socket which had been made to receive it on the door itself. + </p> + <p> + “Rum cove,” he said again, and lifting the latch to the hook which held it + up, left the room, closing the door softly behind him. He walked down the + corridor, with a meditative frown, and began to descend the stairs to the + hall. + </p> + <p> + He was less than half-way down when the one maid of Kara's household came + up to meet him. + </p> + <p> + “There's a gentleman who wants to see Mr. Kara,” she said, “here is his + card.” + </p> + <p> + Fisher took the card from the salver and read, “Mr. George Gathercole, + Junior Travellers' Club.” + </p> + <p> + “I'll see this gentleman,” he said, with a sudden brisk interest. + </p> + <p> + He found the visitor standing in the hall. + </p> + <p> + He was a man who would have attracted attention, if only from the somewhat + eccentric nature of his dress and his unkempt appearance. He was dressed + in a well-worn overcoat of a somewhat pronounced check, he had a top-hat, + glossy and obviously new, at the back of his head, and the lower part of + his face was covered by a ragged beard. This he was plucking with nervous + jerks, talking to himself the while, and casting a disparaging eye upon + the portrait of Remington Kara which hung above the marble fireplace. A + pair of pince-nez sat crookedly on his nose and two fat volumes under his + arm completed the picture. Fisher, who was an observer of some + discernment, noticed under the overcoat a creased blue suit, large black + boots and a pair of pearl studs. + </p> + <p> + The newcomer glared round at the valet. + </p> + <p> + “Take these!” he ordered peremptorily, pointing to the books under his + arm. + </p> + <p> + Fisher hastened to obey and noted with some wonder that the visitor did + not attempt to assist him either by loosening his hold of the volumes or + raising his hand. Accidentally the valet's hand pressed against the + other's sleeve and he received a shock, for the forearm was clearly an + artificial one. It was against a wooden surface beneath the sleeve that + his knuckles struck, and this view of the stranger's infirmity was + confirmed when the other reached round with his right hand, took hold of + the gloved left hand and thrust it into the pocket of his overcoat. + </p> + <p> + “Where is Kara?” growled the stranger. + </p> + <p> + “He will be back very shortly, sir,” said the urbane Fisher. + </p> + <p> + “Out, is he?” boomed the visitor. “Then I shan't wait. What the devil does + he mean by being out? He's had three years to be out!” + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Kara expects you, sir. He told me he would be in at six o'clock at + the latest.” + </p> + <p> + “Six o'clock, ye gods'.” stormed the man impatiently. “What dog am I that + I should wait till six?” + </p> + <p> + He gave a savage little tug at his beard. + </p> + <p> + “Six o'clock, eh? You will tell Mr. Kara that I called. Give me those + books.” + </p> + <p> + “But I assure you, sir,—” stammered Fisher. + </p> + <p> + “Give me those books!” roared the other. + </p> + <p> + Deftly he lifted his left hand from the pocket, crooked the elbow by some + quick manipulation, and thrust the books, which the valet most reluctantly + handed to him, back to the place from whence he had taken them. + </p> + <p> + “Tell Mr. Kara I will call at my own time—do you understand, at my + own time. Good morning to you.” + </p> + <p> + “If you would only wait, sir,” pleaded the agonized Fisher. + </p> + <p> + “Wait be hanged,” snarled the other. “I've waited three years, I tell you. + Tell Mr. Kara to expect me when he sees me!” + </p> + <p> + He went out and most unnecessarily banged the door behind him. Fisher went + back to the library. The girl was sealing up some letters as he entered + and looked up. + </p> + <p> + “I am afraid, Miss Holland, I've got myself into very serious trouble.” + </p> + <p> + “What is that, Fisher!” asked the girl. + </p> + <p> + “There was a gentleman coming to see Mr. Kara, whom Mr. Kara particularly + wanted to see.” + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Gathercole,” said the girl quickly. + </p> + <p> + Fisher nodded. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, miss, I couldn't get him to stay though.” + </p> + <p> + She pursed her lips thoughtfully. + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Kara will be very cross, but I don't see how you can help it. I wish + you had called me.” + </p> + <p> + “He never gave a chance, miss,” said Fisher, with a little smile, “but if + he comes again I'll show him straight up to you.” + </p> + <p> + She nodded. + </p> + <p> + “Is there anything you want, miss?” he asked as he stood at the door. + </p> + <p> + “What time did Mr. Kara say he would be back?” + </p> + <p> + “At six o'clock, miss,” the man replied. + </p> + <p> + “There is rather an important letter here which has to be delivered.” + </p> + <p> + “Shall I ring up for a messenger?” + </p> + <p> + “No, I don't think that would be advisable. You had better take it + yourself.” + </p> + <p> + Kara was in the habit of employing Fisher as a confidential messenger when + the occasion demanded such employment. + </p> + <p> + “I will go with pleasure, miss,” he said. + </p> + <p> + It was a heaven-sent opportunity for Fisher, who had been inventing some + excuse for leaving the house. She handed him the letter and he read + without a droop of eyelid the superscription: + </p> + <p> + “T. X. Meredith, Esq., Special Service Dept., Scotland Yard, Whitehall.” + </p> + <p> + He put it carefully in his pocket and went from the room to change. Large + as the house was Kara did not employ a regular staff of servants. A maid + and a valet comprised the whole of the indoor staff. His cook, and the + other domestics, necessary for conducting an establishment of that size, + were engaged by the day. + </p> + <p> + Kara had returned from the country earlier than had been anticipated, and, + save for Fisher, the only other person in the house beside the girl, was + the middle-aged domestic who was parlour-maid, serving-maid and + housekeeper in one. + </p> + <p> + Miss Holland sat at her desk to all appearance reading over the letters + she had typed that afternoon but her mind was very far from the + correspondence before her. She heard the soft thud of the front door + closing, and rising she crossed the room rapidly and looked down through + the window to the street. She watched Fisher until he was out of sight; + then she descended to the hall and to the kitchen. + </p> + <p> + It was not the first visit she had made to the big underground room with + its vaulted roof and its great ranges—which were seldom used + nowadays, for Kara gave no dinners. + </p> + <p> + The maid—who was also cook—arose up as the girl entered. + </p> + <p> + “It's a sight for sore eyes to see you in my kitchen, miss,” she smiled. + </p> + <p> + “I'm afraid you're rather lonely, Mrs. Beale,” said the girl + sympathetically. + </p> + <p> + “Lonely, miss!” cried the maid. “I fairly get the creeps sitting here hour + after hour. It's that door that gives me the hump.” + </p> + <p> + She pointed to the far end of the kitchen to a soiled looking door of + unpainted wood. + </p> + <p> + “That's Mr. Kara's wine cellar—nobody's been in it but him. I know + he goes in sometimes because I tried a dodge that my brother—who's a + policeman—taught me. I stretched a bit of white cotton across it an' + it was broke the next morning.” + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Kara keeps some of his private papers in there,” said the girl + quietly, “he has told me so himself.” + </p> + <p> + “H'm,” said the woman doubtfully, “I wish he'd brick it up—the same + as he has the lower cellar—I get the horrors sittin' here at night + expectin' the door to open an' the ghost of the mad lord to come out—him + that was killed in Africa.” + </p> + <p> + Miss Holland laughed. + </p> + <p> + “I want you to go out now,” she said, “I have no stamps.” + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Beale obeyed with alacrity and whilst she was assuming a hat—being + desirous of maintaining her prestige as housekeeper in the eyes of Cadogan + Square, the girl ascended to the upper floor. + </p> + <p> + Again she watched from the window the disappearing figure. + </p> + <p> + Once out of sight Miss Holland went to work with a remarkable deliberation + and thoroughness. From her bag she produced a small purse and opened it. + In that case was a new steel key. She passed swiftly down the corridor to + Kara's room and made straight for the safe. + </p> + <p> + In two seconds it was open and she was examining its contents. It was a + large safe of the usual type. There were four steel drawers fitted at the + back and at the bottom of the strong box. Two of these were unlocked and + contained nothing more interesting than accounts relating to Kara's estate + in Albania. + </p> + <p> + The top pair were locked. She was prepared for this contingency and a + second key was as efficacious as the first. An examination of the first + drawer did not produce all that she had expected. She returned the papers + to the drawer, pushed it to and locked it. She gave her attention to the + second drawer. Her hand shook a little as she pulled it open. It was her + last chance, her last hope. + </p> + <p> + There were a number of small jewel-boxes almost filling the drawer. She + took them out one by one and at the bottom she found what she had been + searching for and that which had filled her thoughts for the past three + months. + </p> + <p> + It was a square case covered in red morocco leather. She inserted her + shaking hand and took it out with a triumphant little cry. + </p> + <p> + “At last,” she said aloud, and then a hand grasped her wrist and in a + panic she turned to meet the smiling face of Kara. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER X + </h2> + <p> + She felt her knees shake under her and thought she was going to swoon. She + put out her disengaged hand to steady herself, and if the face which was + turned to him was pale, there was a steadfast resolution in her dark eyes. + </p> + <p> + “Let me relieve you of that, Miss Holland,” said Kara, in his silkiest + tones. + </p> + <p> + He wrenched rather than took the box from her hand, replaced it carefully + in the drawer, pushed the drawer to and locked it, examining the key as he + withdrew it. Then he closed the safe and locked that. + </p> + <p> + “Obviously,” he said presently, “I must get a new safe.” + </p> + <p> + He had not released his hold of her wrist nor did he, until he had led her + from the room back to the library. Then he released the girl, standing + between her and the door, with folded arms and that cynical, quiet, + contemptuous smile of his upon his handsome face. + </p> + <p> + “There are many courses which I can adopt,” he said slowly. “I can send + for the police—when my servants whom you have despatched so + thoughtfully have returned, or I can take your punishment into my own + hands.” + </p> + <p> + “So far as I am concerned,” said the girl coolly, “you may send for the + police.” + </p> + <p> + She leant back against the edge of the desk, her hands holding the edge, + and faced him without so much as a quaver. + </p> + <p> + “I do not like the police,” mused Kara, when there came a knock at the + door. + </p> + <p> + Kara turned and opened it and after a low strained conversation he + returned, closing the door and laid a paper of stamps on the girl's table. + </p> + <p> + “As I was saying, I do not care for the police, and I prefer my own + method. In this particular instance the police obviously would not serve + me, because you are not afraid of them and in all probability you are in + their pay—am I right in supposing that you are one of Mr. T. X. + Meredith's accomplices!” + </p> + <p> + “I do not know Mr. T. X. Meredith,” she replied calmly, “and I am not in + any way associated with the police.” + </p> + <p> + “Nevertheless,” he persisted, “you do not seem to be very scared of them + and that removes any temptation I might have to place you in the hands of + the law. Let me see,” he pursed his lips as he applied his mind to the + problem. + </p> + <p> + She half sat, half stood, watching him without any evidence of + apprehension, but with a heart which began to quake a little. For three + months she had played her part and the strain had been greater than she + had confessed to herself. Now the great moment had come and she had + failed. That was the sickening, maddening thing about it all. It was not + the fear of arrest or of conviction, which brought a sinking to her heart; + it was the despair of failure, added to a sense of her helplessness + against this man. + </p> + <p> + “If I had you arrested your name would appear in all the papers, of + course,” he said, narrowly, “and your photograph would probably adorn the + Sunday journals,” he added expectantly. + </p> + <p> + She laughed. + </p> + <p> + “That doesn't appeal to me,” she said. + </p> + <p> + “I am afraid it doesn't,” he replied, and strolled towards her as though + to pass her on his way to the window. He was abreast of her when he + suddenly swung round and catching her in his arms he caught her close to + him. Before she could realise what he planned, he had stooped swiftly and + kissed her full upon the mouth. + </p> + <p> + “If you scream, I shall kiss you again,” he said, “for I have sent the + maid to buy some more stamps—to the General Post Office.” + </p> + <p> + “Let me go,” she gasped. + </p> + <p> + Now for the first time he saw the terror in her eyes, and there surged + within him that mad sense of triumph, that intoxication of power which had + been associated with the red letter days of his warped life. + </p> + <p> + “You're afraid!” he bantered her, half whispering the words, “you're + afraid now, aren't you? If you scream I shall kiss you again, do you + hear?” + </p> + <p> + “For God's sake, let me go,” she whispered. + </p> + <p> + He felt her shaking in his arms, and suddenly he released her with a + little laugh, and she sank trembling from head to foot upon the chair by + her desk. + </p> + <p> + “Now you're going to tell me who sent you here,” he went on harshly, “and + why you came. I never suspected you. I thought you were one of those + strange creatures one meets in England, a gentlewoman who prefers working + for her living to the more simple business of getting married. And all the + time you were spying—clever—very clever!” + </p> + <p> + The girl was thinking rapidly. In five minutes Fisher would return. + Somehow she had faith in Fisher's ability and willingness to save her from + a situation which she realized was fraught with the greatest danger to + herself. She was horribly afraid. She knew this man far better than he + suspected, realized the treachery and the unscrupulousness of him. She + knew he would stop short of nothing, that he was without honour and + without a single attribute of goodness. + </p> + <p> + He must have read her thoughts for he came nearer and stood over her. + </p> + <p> + “You needn't shrink, my young friend,” he said with a little chuckle. “You + are going to do just what I want you to do, and your first act will be to + accompany me downstairs. Get up.” + </p> + <p> + He half lifted, half dragged her to her feet and led her from the room. + They descended to the hall together and the girl spoke no word. Perhaps + she hoped that she might wrench herself free and make her escape into the + street, but in this she was disappointed. The grip about her arm was a + grip of steel and she knew safety did not lie in that direction. She + pulled back at the head of the stairs that led down to the kitchen. + </p> + <p> + “Where are you taking me?” she asked. + </p> + <p> + “I am going to put you into safe custody,” he said. “On the whole I think + it is best that the police take this matter in hand and I shall lock you + into my wine cellar and go out in search of a policeman.” + </p> + <p> + The big wooden door opened, revealing a second door and this Kara + unbolted. She noticed that both doors were sheeted with steel, the outer + on the inside, and the inner door on the outside. She had no time to make + any further observations for Kara thrust her into the darkness. He + switched on a light. + </p> + <p> + “I will not deny you that,” he said, pushing her back as she made a + frantic attempt to escape. He swung the outer door to as she raised her + voice in a piercing scream, and clapping his hand over her mouth held her + tightly for a moment. + </p> + <p> + “I have warned you,” he hissed. + </p> + <p> + She saw his face distorted with rage. She saw Kara transfigured with + devilish anger, saw that handsome, almost godlike countenance thrust into + hers, flushed and seamed with malignity and a hatefulness beyond + understanding and then her senses left her and she sank limp and swooning + into his arms. + </p> + <p> + When she recovered consciousness she found herself lying on a plain + stretcher bed. She sat up suddenly. Kara had gone and the door was closed. + The cellar was dry and clean and its walls were enamelled white. Light was + supplied by two electric lamps in the ceiling. There was a table and a + chair and a small washstand, and air was evidently supplied through unseen + ventilators. It was indeed a prison and no less, and in her first moments + of panic she found herself wondering whether Kara had used this + underground dungeon of his before for a similar purpose. + </p> + <p> + She examined the room carefully. At the farthermost end was another door + and this she pushed gently at first and then vigorously without producing + the slightest impression. She still had her bag, a small affair of black + moire, which hung from her belt, in which was nothing more formidable than + a penknife, a small bottle of smelling salts and a pair of scissors. The + latter she had used for cutting out those paragraphs from the daily + newspapers which referred to Kara's movements. + </p> + <p> + They would make a formidable weapon, and wrapping her handkerchief round + the handle to give it a better grip she placed it on the table within + reach. She was dimly conscious all the time that she had heard something + about this wine cellar—something which, if she could recollect it, + would be of service to her. + </p> + <p> + Then in a flash she remembered that there was a lower cellar, which + according to Mrs. Beale was never used and was bricked up. It was + approached from the outside, down a circular flight of stairs. There might + be a way out from that direction and would there not be some connection + between the upper cellar and the lower! + </p> + <p> + She set to work to make a closer examination of the apartment. + </p> + <p> + The floor was of concrete, covered with a light rush matting. This she + carefully rolled up, starting at the door. One half of the floor was + uncovered without revealing the existence of any trap. She attempted to + pull the table into the centre of the room, better to roll the matting, + but found it fixed to the wall, and going down on her knees, she + discovered that it had been fixed after the matting had been laid. + </p> + <p> + Obviously there was no need for the fixture and, she tapped the floor with + her little knuckle. Her heart started racing. The sound her knocking gave + forth was a hollow one. She sprang up, took her bag from the table, opened + the little penknife and cut carefully through the thin rushes. She might + have to replace the matting and it was necessary she should do her work + tidily. + </p> + <p> + Soon the whole of the trap was revealed. There was an iron ring, which + fitted flush with the top and which she pulled. The trap yielded and swung + back as though there were a counterbalance at the other end, as indeed + there was. She peered down. There was a dim light below—the + reflection of a light in the distance. A flight of steps led down to the + lower level and after a second's hesitation she swung her legs over the + cavity and began her descent. + </p> + <p> + She was in a cellar slightly smaller than that above her. The light she + had seen came from an inner apartment which would be underneath the + kitchen of the house. She made her way cautiously along, stepping on + tip-toe. The first of the rooms she came to was well-furnished. There was + a thick carpet on the floor, comfortable easy-chairs, a little bookcase + well filled, and a reading lamp. This must be Kara's underground study, + where he kept his precious papers. + </p> + <p> + A smaller room gave from this and again it was doorless. She looked in and + after her eyes had become accustomed to the darkness she saw that it was a + bathroom handsomely fitted. + </p> + <p> + The room she was in was also without any light which came from the + farthermost chamber. As the girl strode softly across the well-carpeted + room she trod on something hard. She stooped and felt along the floor and + her fingers encountered a thin steel chain. The girl was bewildered-almost + panic-stricken. She shrunk back from the entrance of the inner room, + fearful of what she would see. And then from the interior came a sound + that made her tingle with horror. + </p> + <p> + It was a sound of a sigh, long and trembling. She set her teeth and strode + through the doorway and stood for a moment staring with open eyes and + mouth at what she saw. + </p> + <p> + “My God!” she breathed, “London. . . . in the twentieth century. . . !” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XI + </h2> + <p> + Superintendent Mansus had a little office in Scotland Yard proper, which, + he complained, was not so much a private bureau, as a waiting-room to + which repaired every official of the police service who found time hanging + on his hands. On the afternoon of Miss Holland's surprising adventure, a + plainclothes man of “D” Division brought to Mr. Mansus's room a very + scared domestic servant, voluble, tearful and agonizingly penitent. It was + a mood not wholly unfamiliar to a police officer of twenty years + experience and Mr. Mansus was not impressed. + </p> + <p> + “If you will kindly shut up,” he said, blending his natural politeness + with his employment of the vernacular, “and if you will also answer a few + questions I will save you a lot of trouble. You were Lady Bartholomew's + maid weren't you?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, sir,” sobbed the red-eyed Mary Ann. + </p> + <p> + “And you have been detected trying to pawn a gold bracelet, the property + of Lady Bartholomew?” + </p> + <p> + The maid gulped, nodded and started breathlessly upon a recital of her + wrongs. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, sir—but she practically gave it to me, sir, and I haven't had + my wages for two months, sir, and she can give that foreigner thousands + and thousands of pounds at a time, sir, but her poor servants she can't + pay—no, she can't. And if Sir William knew especially about my + lady's cards and about the snuffbox, what would he think, I wonder, and + I'm going to have my rights, for if she can pay thousands to a swell like + Mr. Kara she can pay me and—” + </p> + <p> + Mansus jerked his head. + </p> + <p> + “Take her down to the cells,” he said briefly, and they led her away, a + wailing, woeful figure of amateur larcenist. + </p> + <p> + In three minutes Mansus was with T. X. and had reduced the girl's + incoherence to something like order. + </p> + <p> + “This is important,” said T. X.; “produce the Abigail.” + </p> + <p> + “The—?” asked the puzzled officer. + </p> + <p> + “The skivvy—slavey—hired help—get busy,” said T. X. + impatiently. + </p> + <p> + They brought her to T. X. in a condition bordering upon collapse. + </p> + <p> + “Get her a cup of tea,” said the wise chief. “Sit down, Mary Ann, and + forget all your troubles.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, sir, I've never been in this position before,” she began, as she + flopped into the chair they put for her. + </p> + <p> + “Then you've had a very tiring time,” said T. X. “Now listen—” + </p> + <p> + “I've been respectable—” + </p> + <p> + “Forget it!” said T. X., wearily. “Listen! If you'll tell me the whole + truth about Lady Bartholomew and the money she paid to Mr. Kara—” + </p> + <p> + “Two thousand pounds—two separate thousand and by all accounts-” + </p> + <p> + “If you will tell me the truth, I'll compound a felony and let you go + free.” + </p> + <p> + It was a long time before he could prevail upon her to clear her speech of + the ego which insisted upon intruding. There were gaps in her narrative + which he bridged. In the main it was a believable story. Lady Bartholomew + had lost money and had borrowed from Kara. She had given as security, the + snuffbox presented to her husband's father, a doctor, by one of the Czars + for services rendered, and was “all blue enamel and gold, and foreign + words in diamonds.” On the question of the amount Lady Bartholomew had + borrowed, Abigail was very vague. All that she knew was that my lady had + paid back two thousand pounds and that she was still very distressed (“in + a fit” was the phrase the girl used), because apparently Kara refused to + restore the box. + </p> + <p> + There had evidently been terrible scenes in the Bartholomew menage, + hysterics and what not, the principal breakdown having occurred when + Belinda Mary came home from school in France. + </p> + <p> + “Miss Bartholomew is home then. Where is she?” asked T. X. + </p> + <p> + Here the girl was more vague than ever. She thought the young lady had + gone back again, anyway Miss Belinda had been very much upset. Miss + Belinda had seen Dr. Williams and advised that her mother should go away + for a change. + </p> + <p> + “Miss Belinda seems to be a precocious young person,” said T. X. “Did she + by any chance see Mr. Kara?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, no,” explained the girl. “Miss Belinda was above that sort of person. + Miss Belinda was a lady, if ever there was one.” + </p> + <p> + “And how old is this interesting young woman?” asked T. X. curiously. + </p> + <p> + “She is nineteen,” said the girl, and the Commissioner, who had pictured + Belinda in short plaid frocks and long pigtails, and had moreover + visualised her as a freckled little girl with thin legs and snub nose, was + abashed. + </p> + <p> + He delivered a short lecture on the sacred rights of property, paid the + girl the three months' wages which were due to her—he had no doubt + as to the legality of her claim—and dismissed her with instructions + to go back to the house, pack her box and clear out. + </p> + <p> + After the girl had gone, T. X. sat down to consider the position. He might + see Kara and since Kara had expressed his contrition and was probably in a + more humble state of mind, he might make reparation. Then again he might + not. Mansus was waiting and T. X. walked back with him to his little + office. + </p> + <p> + “I hardly know what to make of it,” he said in despair. + </p> + <p> + “If you can give me Kara's motive, sir, I can give you a solution,” said + Mansus. + </p> + <p> + T. X. shook his head. + </p> + <p> + “That is exactly what I am unable to give you,” he said. + </p> + <p> + He perched himself on Mansus's desk and lit a cigar. + </p> + <p> + “I have a good mind to go round and see him,” he said after a while. + </p> + <p> + “Why not telephone to him?” asked Mansus. “There is his 'phone straight + into his boudoir.” + </p> + <p> + He pointed to a small telephone in a corner of the room. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, he persuaded the Commissioner to run the wire, did he?” said T. X. + interested, and walked over to the telephone. + </p> + <p> + He fingered the receiver for a little while and was about to take it off, + but changed his mind. + </p> + <p> + “I think not,” he said, “I'll go round and see him to-morrow. I don't hope + to succeed in extracting the confidence in the case of Lady Bartholomew, + which he denied me over poor Lexman.” + </p> + <p> + “I suppose you'll never give up hope of seeing Mr. Lexman again,” smiled + Mansus, busily arranging a new blotting pad. + </p> + <p> + Before T. X. could answer there came a knock at the door, and a uniformed + policeman, entered. He saluted T. X. + </p> + <p> + “They've just sent an urgent letter across from your office, sir. I said I + thought you were here.” + </p> + <p> + He handed the missive to the Commissioner. T. X. took it and glanced at + the typewritten address. It was marked “urgent” and “by hand.” He took up + the thin, steel, paper-knife from the desk and slit open the envelope. The + letter consisted of three or four pages of manuscript and, unlike the + envelope, it was handwritten. + </p> + <p> + “My dear T. X.,” it began, and the handwriting was familiar. + </p> + <p> + Mansus, watching the Commissioner, saw the puzzled frown gather on his + superior's forehead, saw the eyebrows arch and the mouth open in + astonishment, saw him hastily turn to the last page to read the signature + and then: + </p> + <p> + “Howling apples!” gasped T. X. “It's from John Lexman!” + </p> + <p> + His hand shook as he turned the closely written pages. The letter was + dated that afternoon. There was no other address than “London.” + </p> + <p> + “My dear T. X.,” it began, “I do not doubt that this letter will give you + a little shock, because most of my friends will have believed that I am + gone beyond return. Fortunately or unfortunately that is not so. For + myself I could wish—but I am not going to take a very gloomy view + since I am genuinely pleased at the thought that I shall be meeting you + again. Forgive this letter if it is incoherent but I have only this moment + returned and am writing at the Charing Cross Hotel. I am not staying here, + but I will let you have my address later. The crossing has been a very + severe one so you must forgive me if my letter sounds a little disjointed. + You will be sorry to hear that my dear wife is dead. She died abroad about + six months ago. I do not wish to talk very much about it so you will + forgive me if I do not tell you any more. + </p> + <p> + “My principal object in writing to you at the moment is an official one. I + suppose I am still amenable to punishment and I have decided to surrender + myself to the authorities to-night. You used to have a most excellent + assistant in Superintendent Mansus, and if it is convenient to you, as I + hope it will be, I will report myself to him at 10.15. At any rate, my + dear T. X., I do not wish to mix you up in my affairs and if you will let + me do this business through Mansus I shall be very much obliged to you. + </p> + <p> + “I know there is no great punishment awaiting me, because my pardon was + apparently signed on the night before my escape. I shall not have much to + tell you, because there is not much in the past two years that I would + care to recall. We endured a great deal of unhappiness and death was very + merciful when it took my beloved from me. + </p> + <p> + “Do you ever see Kara in these days? + </p> + <p> + “Will you tell Mansus to expect me at between ten and half-past, and if he + will give instructions to the officer on duty in the hall I will come + straight up to his room. + </p> + <p> + “With affectionate regards, my dear fellow, I am, + </p> + <p> + “Yours sincerely, + </p> + <p> + “JOHN LEXMAN.” + </p> + <p> + T. X. read the letter over twice and his eyes were troubled. + </p> + <p> + “Poor girl,” he said softly, and handed the letter to Mansus. “He + evidently wants to see you because he is afraid of using my friendship to + his advantage. I shall be here, nevertheless.” + </p> + <p> + “What will be the formality?” asked Mansus. + </p> + <p> + “There will be no formality,” said the other briskly. “I will secure the + necessary pardon from the Home Secretary and in point of fact I have it + already promised, in writing.” + </p> + <p> + He walked back to Whitehall, his mind fully occupied with the momentous + events of the day. It was a raw February evening, sleet was falling in the + street, a piercing easterly wind drove even through his thick overcoat. In + such doorways as offered protection from the bitter elements the wreckage + of humanity which clings to the West end of London, as the singed moth + flutters about the flame that destroys it, were huddled for warmth. + </p> + <p> + T. X. was a man of vast human sympathies. + </p> + <p> + All his experience with the criminal world, all his disappointments, all + his disillusions had failed to quench the pity for his unfortunate + fellows. He made it a rule on such nights as these, that if, by chance, + returning late to his office he should find such a shivering piece of + jetsam sheltering in his own doorway, he would give him or her the price + of a bed. + </p> + <p> + In his own quaint way he derived a certain speculative excitement from + this practice. If the doorway was empty he regarded himself as a winner, + if some one stood sheltered in the deep recess which is a feature of the + old Georgian houses in this historic thoroughfare, he would lose to the + extent of a shilling. + </p> + <p> + He peered forward through the semi-darkness as he neared the door of his + offices. + </p> + <p> + “I've lost,” he said, and stripped his gloves preparatory to groping in + his pocket for a coin. + </p> + <p> + Somebody was standing in the entrance, but it was obviously a very + respectable somebody. A dumpy, motherly somebody in a seal-skin coat and a + preposterous bonnet. + </p> + <p> + “Hullo,” said T. X. in surprise, “are you trying to get in here?” + </p> + <p> + “I want to see Mr. Meredith,” said the visitor, in the mincing affected + tones of one who excused the vulgar source of her prosperity by frequently + reiterated claims to having seen better days. + </p> + <p> + “Your longing shall be gratified,” said T. X. gravely. + </p> + <p> + He unlocked the heavy door, passed through the uncarpeted passage—there + are no frills on Government offices—and led the way up the stairs to + the suite on the first floor which constituted his bureau. + </p> + <p> + He switched on all the lights and surveyed his visitor, a comfortable + person of the landlady type. + </p> + <p> + “A good sort,” thought T. X., “but somewhat overweighted with lorgnettes + and seal-skin.” + </p> + <p> + “You will pardon my coming to see you at this hour of the night,” she + began deprecatingly, “but as my dear father used to say, 'Hopi soit qui + mal y pense.'” + </p> + <p> + “Your dear father being in the garter business?” suggested T. X. + humorously. “Won't you sit down, Mrs. ——” + </p> + <p> + “Mrs. Cassley,” beamed the lady as she seated herself. “He was in the + paper hanging business. But needs must, when the devil drives, as the + saying goes.” + </p> + <p> + “What particular devil is driving you, Mrs. Cassley?” asked T. X., + somewhat at a loss to understand the object of this visit. + </p> + <p> + “I may be doing wrong,” began the lady, pursing her lips, “and two blacks + will never make a white.” + </p> + <p> + “And all that glitters is not gold,” suggested T. X. a little wearily. + “Will you please tell me your business, Mrs. Cassley? I am a very hungry + man.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, it's like this, sir,” said Mrs. Cassley, dropping her erudition, + and coming down to bedrock homeliness; “I've got a young lady stopping + with me, as respectable a gel as I've had to deal with. And I know what + respectability is, I might tell you, for I've taken professional boarders + and I have been housekeeper to a doctor.” + </p> + <p> + “You are well qualified to speak,” said T. X. with a smile. “And what + about this particular young lady of yours! By the way what is your + address?” + </p> + <p> + “86a Marylebone Road,” said the lady. + </p> + <p> + T. X. sat up. + </p> + <p> + “Yes?” he said quickly. “What about your young lady?” + </p> + <p> + “She works as far as I can understand,” said the loquacious landlady, + “with a certain Mr. Kara in the typewriting line. She came to me four + months ago.” + </p> + <p> + “Never mind when she came to you,” said T. X. impatiently. “Have you a + message from the lady?” + </p> + <p> + “Well, it's like this, sir,” said Mrs. Cassley, leaning forward + confidentially and speaking in the hollow tone which she had decided + should accompany any revelation to a police officer, “this young lady said + to me, 'If I don't come any night by 8 o'clock you must go to T. X. and + tell him—'!” + </p> + <p> + She paused dramatically. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, yes,” said T. X. quickly, “for heaven's sake go on, woman.” + </p> + <p> + “'Tell him,'” said Mrs. Cassley, “'that Belinda Mary—'” + </p> + <p> + He sprang to his feet. + </p> + <p> + “Belinda Mary!” he breathed, “Belinda Mary!” In a flash he saw it all. + This girl with a knowledge of modern Greek, who was working in Kara's + house, was there for a purpose. Kara had something of her mother's, + something that was vital and which he would not part with, and she had + adopted this method of securing that some thing. Mrs. Cassley was + prattling on, but her voice was merely a haze of sound to him. It brought + a strange glow to his heart that Belinda Mary should have thought of him. + </p> + <p> + “Only as a policeman, of course,” said the still, small voice of his + official self. “Perhaps!” said the human T. X., defiantly. + </p> + <p> + He got on the telephone to Mansus and gave a few instructions. + </p> + <p> + “You stay here,” he ordered the astounded Mrs. Cassley; “I am going to + make a few investigations.” + </p> + <p> + Kara was at home, but was in bed. T. X. remembered that this extraordinary + man invariably went to bed early and that it was his practice to receive + visitors in this guarded room of his. He was admitted almost at once and + found Kara in his silk dressing-gown lying on the bed smoking. The heat of + the room was unbearable even on that bleak February night. + </p> + <p> + “This is a pleasant surprise,” said Kara, sitting up; “I hope you don't + mind my dishabille.” + </p> + <p> + T. X. came straight to the point. + </p> + <p> + “Where is Miss Holland!” he asked. + </p> + <p> + “Miss Holland?” Kara's eyebrows advertised his astonishment. “What an + extraordinary question to ask me, my dear man! At her home, or at the + theatre or in a cinema palace—I don't know how these people employ + their evenings.” + </p> + <p> + “She is not at home,” said T. X., “and I have reason to believe that she + has not left this house.” + </p> + <p> + “What a suspicious person you are, Mr. Meredith!” Kara rang the bell and + Fisher came in with a cup of coffee on a tray. + </p> + <p> + “Fisher,” drawled Kara. “Mr. Meredith is anxious to know where Miss + Holland is. Will you be good enough to tell him, you know more about her + movements than I do.” + </p> + <p> + “As far as I know, sir,” said Fisher deferentially, “she left the house + about 5.30, her usual hour. She sent me out a little before five on a + message and when I came back her hat and her coat had gone, so I presume + she had gone also.” + </p> + <p> + “Did you see her go?” asked T. X. + </p> + <p> + The man shook his head. + </p> + <p> + “No, sir, I very seldom see the lady come or go. There has been no + restrictions placed upon the young lady and she has been at liberty to + move about as she likes. I think I am correct in saying that, sir,” he + turned to Kara. + </p> + <p> + Kara nodded. + </p> + <p> + “You will probably find her at home.” + </p> + <p> + He shook his finger waggishly at T. X. + </p> + <p> + “What a dog you are,” he jibed, “I ought to keep the beauties of my + household veiled, as we do in the East, and especially when I have a + susceptible policeman wandering at large.” + </p> + <p> + T. X. gave jest for jest. There was nothing to be gained by making trouble + here. After a few amiable commonplaces he took his departure. He found + Mrs. Cassley being entertained by Mansus with a wholly fictitious + description of the famous criminals he had arrested. + </p> + <p> + “I can only suggest that you go home,” said T. X. “I will send a police + officer with you to report to me, but in all probability you will find the + lady has returned. She may have had a difficulty in getting a bus on a + night like this.” + </p> + <p> + A detective was summoned from Scotland Yard and accompanied by him Mrs. + Cassley returned to her domicile with a certain importance. T. X. looked + at his watch. It was a quarter to ten. + </p> + <p> + “Whatever happens, I must see old Lexman,” he said. “Tell the best men + we've got in the department to stand by for eventualities. This is going + to be one of my busy days.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XII + </h2> + <p> + Kara lay back on his down pillows with a sneer on his face and his brain + very busy. What started the train of thought he did not know, but at that + moment his mind was very far away. It carried him back a dozen years to a + dirty little peasant's cabin on the hillside outside Durazzo, to the livid + face of a young Albanian chief, who had lost at Kara's whim all that life + held for a man, to the hateful eyes of the girl's father, who stood with + folded arms glaring down at the bound and manacled figure on the floor, to + the smoke-stained rafters of this peasant cottage and the dancing shadows + on the roof, to that terrible hour of waiting when he sat bound to a post + with a candle flickering and spluttering lower and lower to the little + heap of gunpowder that would start the trail toward the clumsy infernal + machine under his chair. He remembered the day well because it was + Candlemas day, and this was the anniversary. He remembered other things + more pleasant. The beat of hoofs on the rocky roadway, the crash of the + door falling in when the Turkish Gendarmes had battered a way to his + rescue. He remembered with a savage joy the spectacle of his would-be + assassins twitching and struggling on the gallows at Pezara and—he + heard the faint tinkle of the front door bell. + </p> + <p> + Had T. X. returned! He slipped from the bed and went to the door, opened + it slightly and listened. T. X. with a search warrant might be a source of + panic especially if—he shrugged his shoulders. He had satisfied T. + X. and allayed his suspicions. He would get Fisher out of the way that + night and make sure. + </p> + <p> + The voice from the hall below was loud and gruff. Who could it be! Then he + heard Fisher's foot on the stairs and the valet entered. + </p> + <p> + “Will you see Mr. Gathercole now!” + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Gathercole!” + </p> + <p> + Kara breathed a sigh of relief and his face was wreathed in smiles. + </p> + <p> + “Why, of course. Tell him to come up. Ask him if he minds seeing me in my + room.” + </p> + <p> + “I told him you were in bed, sir, and he used shocking language,” said + Fisher. + </p> + <p> + Kara laughed. + </p> + <p> + “Send him up,” he said, and then as Fisher was going out of the room he + called him back. + </p> + <p> + “By the way, Fisher, after Mr. Gathercole has gone, you may go out for the + night. You've got somewhere to go, I suppose, and you needn't come back + until the morning.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, sir,” said the servant. + </p> + <p> + Such an instruction was remarkably pleasing to him. There was much that he + had to do and that night's freedom would assist him materially. + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps” Kara hesitated, “perhaps you had better wait until eleven + o'clock. Bring me up some sandwiches and a large glass of milk. Or better + still, place them on a plate in the hall.” + </p> + <p> + “Very good, sir,” said the man and withdrew. + </p> + <p> + Down below, that grotesque figure with his shiny hat and his ragged beard + was walking up and down the tesselated hallway muttering to himself and + staring at the various objects in the hall with a certain amused + antagonism. + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Kara will see you, sir,” said Fisher. + </p> + <p> + “Oh!” said the other glaring at the unoffending Fisher, “that's very good + of him. Very good of this person to see a scholar and a gentleman who has + been about his dirty business for three years. Grown grey in his service! + Do you understand that, my man!” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, sir,” said Fisher. + </p> + <p> + “Look here!” + </p> + <p> + The man thrust out his face. + </p> + <p> + “Do you see those grey hairs in my beard?” + </p> + <p> + The embarrassed Fisher grinned. + </p> + <p> + “Is it grey!” challenged the visitor, with a roar. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, sir,” said the valet hastily. + </p> + <p> + “Is it real grey?” insisted the visitor. “Pull one out and see!” + </p> + <p> + The startled Fisher drew back with an apologetic smile. + </p> + <p> + “I couldn't think of doing a thing like that, sir.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, you couldn't,” sneered the visitor; “then lead on!” + </p> + <p> + Fisher showed the way up the stairs. This time the traveller carried no + books. His left arm hung limply by his side and Fisher privately gathered + that the hand had got loose from the detaining pocket without its owner + being aware of the fact. He pushed open the door and announced, “Mr. + Gathercole,” and Kara came forward with a smile to meet his agent, who, + with top hat still on the top of his head, and his overcoat dangling about + his heels, must have made a remarkable picture. + </p> + <p> + Fisher closed the door behind them and returned to his duties in the hall + below. Ten minutes later he heard the door opened and the booming voice of + the stranger came down to him. Fisher went up the stairs to meet him and + found him addressing the occupant of the room in his own eccentric + fashion. + </p> + <p> + “No more Patagonia!” he roared, “no more Tierra del Fuego!” he paused. + </p> + <p> + “Certainly!” He replied to some question, “but not Patagonia,” he paused + again, and Fisher standing at the foot of the stairs wondered what had + occurred to make the visitor so genial. + </p> + <p> + “I suppose your cheque will be honoured all right?” asked the visitor + sardonically, and then burst into a little chuckle of laughter as he + carefully closed the door. + </p> + <p> + He came down the corridor talking to himself, and greeted Fisher. + </p> + <p> + “Damn all Greeks,” he said jovially, and Fisher could do no more than + smile reproachfully, the smile being his very own, the reproach being on + behalf of the master who paid him. + </p> + <p> + The traveller touched the other on the chest with his right hand. + </p> + <p> + “Never trust a Greek,” he said, “always get your money in advance. Is that + clear to you?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, sir,” said Fisher, “but I think you will always find that Mr. Kara + is always most generous about money.” + </p> + <p> + “Don't you believe it, don't you believe it, my poor man,” said the other, + “you—” + </p> + <p> + At that moment there came from Kara's room a faint “clang.” + </p> + <p> + “What's that?” asked the visitor a little startled. + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Kara's put down his steel latch,” said Fisher with a smile, “which + means that he is not to be disturbed until—” he looked at his watch, + “until eleven o'clock at any rate.” + </p> + <p> + “He's a funk!” snapped the other, “a beastly funk!” + </p> + <p> + He stamped down the stairs as though testing the weight of every tread, + opened the front door without assistance, slammed it behind him and + disappeared into the night. + </p> + <p> + Fisher, his hands in his pockets, looked after the departing stranger, + nodding his head in reprobation. + </p> + <p> + “You're a queer old devil,” he said, and looked at his watch again. + </p> + <p> + It wanted five minutes to ten. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XIII + </h2> + <p> + “IF you would care to come in, sir, I'm sure Lexman would be glad to see + you,” said T. X.; “it's very kind of you to take an interest in the + matter.” + </p> + <p> + The Chief Commissioner of Police growled something about being paid to + take an interest in everybody and strolled with T. X. down one of the + apparently endless corridors of Scotland Yard. + </p> + <p> + “You won't have any bother about the pardon,” he said. “I was dining + to-night with old man Bartholomew and he will fix that up in the morning.” + </p> + <p> + “There will be no necessity to detain Lexman in custody?” asked T. X. + </p> + <p> + The Chief shook his head. + </p> + <p> + “None whatever,” he said. + </p> + <p> + There was a pause, then, + </p> + <p> + “By the way, did Bartholomew mention Belinda Mary!” + </p> + <p> + The white-haired chief looked round in astonishment. + </p> + <p> + “And who the devil is Belinda Mary?” he asked. + </p> + <p> + T. X. went red. + </p> + <p> + “Belinda Mary,” he said a little quickly, “is Bartholomew's daughter.” + </p> + <p> + “By Jove,” said the Commissioner, “now you mention it, he did—she is + still in France.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, is she?” said T. X. innocently, and in his heart of hearts he wished + most fervently that she was. They came to the room which Mansus occupied + and found that admirable man waiting. + </p> + <p> + Wherever policemen meet, their conversation naturally drifts to “shop” and + in two minutes the three were discussing with some animation and much + difference of opinion, as far as T. X. was concerned, a series of frauds + which had been perpetrated in the Midlands, and which have nothing to do + with this story. + </p> + <p> + “Your friend is late,” said the Chief Commissioner. + </p> + <p> + “There he is,” cried T. X., springing up. He heard a familiar footstep on + the flagged corridor, and sprung out of the room to meet the newcomer. + </p> + <p> + For a moment he stood wringing the hand of this grave man, his heart too + full for words. + </p> + <p> + “My dear chap!” he said at last, “you don't know how glad I am to see + you.” + </p> + <p> + John Lexman said nothing, then, + </p> + <p> + “I am sorry to bring you into this business, T. X.,” he said quietly. + </p> + <p> + “Nonsense,” said the other, “come in and see the Chief.” + </p> + <p> + He took John by the arm and led him into the Superintendent's room. + </p> + <p> + There was a change in John Lexman. A subtle shifting of balance which was + not readily discoverable. His face was older, the mobile mouth a little + more grimly set, the eyes more deeply lined. He was in evening dress and + looked, as T. X. thought, a typical, clean, English gentleman, such an one + as any self-respecting valet would be proud to say he had “turned out.” + </p> + <p> + T. X. looking at him carefully could see no great change, save that down + one side of his smooth shaven cheek ran the scar of an old wound; which + could not have been much more than superficial. + </p> + <p> + “I must apologize for this kit,” said John, taking off his overcoat and + laying it across the back of a chair, “but the fact is I was so bored this + evening that I had to do something to pass the time away, so I dressed and + went to the theatre—and was more bored than ever.” + </p> + <p> + T. X. noticed that he did not smile and that when he spoke it was slowly + and carefully, as though he were weighing the value of every word. + </p> + <p> + “Now,” he went on, “I have come to deliver myself into your hands.” + </p> + <p> + “I suppose you have not seen Kara?” said T. X. + </p> + <p> + “I have no desire to see Kara,” was the short reply. + </p> + <p> + “Well, Mr. Lexman,” broke in the Chief, “I don't think you are going to + have any difficulty about your escape. By the way, I suppose it was by + aeroplane?” + </p> + <p> + Lexman nodded. + </p> + <p> + “And you had an assistant?” + </p> + <p> + Again Lexman nodded. + </p> + <p> + “Unless you press me I would rather not discuss the matter for some little + time, Sir George,” he said, “there is much that will happen before the + full story of my escape is made known.” + </p> + <p> + Sir George nodded. + </p> + <p> + “We will leave it at that,” he said cheerily, “and now I hope you have + come back to delight us all with one of your wonderful plots.” + </p> + <p> + “For the time being I have done with wonderful plots,” said John Lexman in + that even, deliberate tone of his. “I hope to leave London next week for + New York and take up such of the threads of life as remain. The greater + thread has gone.” + </p> + <p> + The Chief Commissioner understood. + </p> + <p> + The silence which followed was broken by the loud and insistent ringing of + the telephone bell. + </p> + <p> + “Hullo,” said Mansus rising quickly; “that's Kara's bell.” + </p> + <p> + With two quick strides he was at the telephone and lifted down the + receiver. + </p> + <p> + “Hullo,” he cried. “Hullo,” he cried again. There was no reply, only the + continuous buzzing, and when he hung up the receiver again, the bell + continued ringing. + </p> + <p> + The three policemen looked at one another. + </p> + <p> + “There's trouble there,” said Mansus. + </p> + <p> + “Take off the receiver,” said T. X., “and try again.” + </p> + <p> + Mansus obeyed, but there was no response. + </p> + <p> + “I am afraid this is not my affair,” said John Lexman gathering up his + coat. “What do you wish me to do, Sir George?” + </p> + <p> + “Come along to-morrow morning and see us, Lexman,” said Sir George, + offering his hand. + </p> + <p> + “Where are you staying!” asked T. X. + </p> + <p> + “At the Great Midland,” replied the other, “at least my bags have gone on + there.” + </p> + <p> + “I'll come along and see you to-morrow morning. It's curious this should + have happened the night you returned,” he said, gripping the other's + shoulder affectionately. + </p> + <p> + John Lexman did not speak for the moment. + </p> + <p> + “If anything happened to Kara,” he said slowly, “if the worst that was + possible happened to him, believe me I should not weep.” + </p> + <p> + T. X. looked down into the other's eyes sympathetically. + </p> + <p> + “I think he has hurt you pretty badly, old man,” he said gently. + </p> + <p> + John Lexman nodded. + </p> + <p> + “He has, damn him,” he said between his teeth. + </p> + <p> + The Chief Commissioner's motor car was waiting outside and in this T. X., + Mansus, and a detective-sergeant were whirled off to Cadogan Square. + Fisher was in the hall when they rung the bell and opened the door + instantly. + </p> + <p> + He was frankly surprised to see his visitors. Mr. Kara was in his room he + explained resentfully, as though T. X. should have been aware of the fact + without being told. He had heard no bell ringing and indeed had not been + summoned to the room. + </p> + <p> + “I have to see him at eleven o'clock,” he said, “and I have had standing + instructions not to go to him unless I am sent for.” + </p> + <p> + T. X. led the way upstairs, and went straight to Kara's room. He knocked, + but there was no reply. He knocked again and on this failing to evoke any + response kicked heavily at the door. + </p> + <p> + “Have you a telephone downstairs!” he asked. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, sir,” replied Fisher. + </p> + <p> + T. X. turned to the detective-sergeant. + </p> + <p> + “'Phone to the Yard,” he said, “and get a man up with a bag of tools. We + shall have to pick this lock and I haven't got my case with me.” + </p> + <p> + “Picking the lock would be no good, sir,” said Fisher, an interested + spectator, “Mr. Kara's got the latch down.” + </p> + <p> + “I forgot that,” said T. X. “Tell him to bring his saw, we'll have to cut + through the panel here.” + </p> + <p> + While they were waiting for the arrival of the police officer T. X. strove + to attract the attention of the inmates of the room, but without success. + </p> + <p> + “Does he take opium or anything!” asked Mansus. + </p> + <p> + Fisher shook his head. + </p> + <p> + “I've never known him to take any of that kind of stuff,” he said. + </p> + <p> + T. X. made a rapid survey of the other rooms on that floor. The room next + to Kara's was the library, beyond that was a dressing room which, + according to Fisher, Miss Holland had used, and at the farthermost end of + the corridor was the dining room. + </p> + <p> + Facing the dining room was a small service lift and by its side a + storeroom in which were a number of trunks, including a very large one + smothered in injunctions in three different languages to “handle with + care.” There was nothing else of interest on this floor and the upper and + lower floors could wait. In a quarter of an hour the carpenter had arrived + from Scotland Yard, and had bored a hole in the rosewood panel of Kara's + room and was busily applying his slender saw. + </p> + <p> + Through the hole he cut T. X. could see no more than that the room was in + darkness save for the glow of a blazing fire. He inserted his hand, groped + for the knob of the steel latch, which he had remarked on his previous + visit to the room, lifted it and the door swung open. + </p> + <p> + “Keep outside, everybody,” he ordered. + </p> + <p> + He felt for the switch of the electric, found it and instantly the room + was flooded with light. The bed was hidden by the open door. T. X. took + one stride into the room and saw enough. Kara was lying half on and half + off the bed. He was quite dead and the blood-stained patch above his heart + told its own story. + </p> + <p> + T. X. stood looking down at him, saw the frozen horror on the dead man's + face, then drew his eyes away and slowly surveyed the room. There in the + middle of the carpet he found his clue, a bent and twisted little candle + such as you find on children's Christmas trees. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XIV + </h2> + <p> + It was Mansus who found the second candle, a stouter affair. It lay + underneath the bed. The telephone, which stood on a fairly large-sized + table by the side of the bed, was overturned and the receiver was on the + floor. By its side were two books, one being the “Balkan Question,” by + Villari, and the other “Travels and Politics in the Near East,” by Miller. + With them was a long, ivory paper-knife. + </p> + <p> + There was nothing else on the bedside-table save a silver cigarette box. + T. X. drew on a pair of gloves and examined the bright surface for + finger-prints, but a superficial view revealed no such clue. + </p> + <p> + “Open the window,” said T. X., “the heat here is intolerable. Be very + careful, Mansus. By the way, is the window fastened?” + </p> + <p> + “Very well fastened,” said the superintendent after a careful scrutiny. + </p> + <p> + He pushed back the fastenings, lifted the window and as he did, a harsh + bell rang in the basement. + </p> + <p> + “That is the burglar alarm, I suppose,” said T. X.; “go down and stop that + bell.” + </p> + <p> + He addressed Fisher, who stood with a troubled face at the door. When he + had disappeared T. X. gave a significant glance to one of the waiting + officers and the man sauntered after the valet. + </p> + <p> + Fisher stopped the bell and came back to the hall and stood before the + hall fire, a very troubled man. Near the fire was a big, oaken writing + table and on this there lay a small envelope which he did not remember + having seen before, though it might have been there for some time, for he + had spent a greater portion of the evening in the kitchen with the cook. + </p> + <p> + He picked up the envelope, and, with a start, recognised that it was + addressed to himself. He opened it and took out a card. There were only a + few words written upon it, but they were sufficient to banish all the + colour from his face and set his hands shaking. He took the envelope and + card and flung them into the fire. + </p> + <p> + It so happened that, at that moment, Mansus had called from upstairs, and + the officer, who had been told off to keep the valet under observation, + ran up in answer to the summons. For a moment Fisher hesitated, then + hatless and coatless as he was, he crept to the door, opened it, leaving + it ajar behind him and darting down the steps, ran like a hare from the + house. + </p> + <p> + The doctor, who came a little later, was cautious as to the hour of death. + </p> + <p> + “If you got your telephone message at 10.25, as you say, that was probably + the hour he was killed,” he said. “I could not tell within half an hour. + Obviously the man who killed him gripped his throat with his left hand—there + are the bruises on his neck—and stabbed him with the right.” + </p> + <p> + It was at this time that the disappearance of Fisher was noticed, but the + cross-examination of the terrified Mrs. Beale removed any doubt that T. X. + had as to the man's guilt. + </p> + <p> + “You had better send out an 'All Stations' message and pull him in,” said + T. X. “He was with the cook from the moment the visitor left until a few + minutes before we rang. Besides which it is obviously impossible for + anybody to have got into this room or out again. Have you searched the + dead man?” + </p> + <p> + Mansus produced a tray on which Kara's belongings had been disposed. The + ordinary keys Mrs. Beale was able to identify. There were one or two which + were beyond her. T. X. recognised one of these as the key of the safe, but + two smaller keys baffled him not a little, and Mrs. Beale was at first + unable to assist him. + </p> + <p> + “The only thing I can think of, sir,” she said, “is the wine cellar.” + </p> + <p> + “The wine cellar?” said T. X. slowly. “That must be—” he stopped. + </p> + <p> + The greater tragedy of the evening, with all its mystifying aspects had + not banished from his mind the thought of the girl—that Belinda + Mary, who had called upon him in her hour of danger as he divined. Perhaps—he + descended into the kitchen and was brought face to face with the unpainted + door. + </p> + <p> + “It looks more like a prison than a wine cellar,” he said. + </p> + <p> + “That's what I've always thought, sir,” said Mrs. Beale, “and sometimes + I've had a horrible feeling of fear.” + </p> + <p> + He cut short her loquacity by inserting one of the keys in the lock—it + did not turn, but he had more success with the second. The lock snapped + back easily and he pulled the door back. He found the inner door bolted + top and bottom. The bolts slipped back in their well-oiled sockets without + any effort. Evidently Kara used this place pretty frequently, thought T. + X. + </p> + <p> + He pushed the door open and stopped with an exclamation of surprise. The + cellar apartment was brilliantly lit—but it was unoccupied. + </p> + <p> + “This beats the band,” said T. X. + </p> + <p> + He saw something on the table and lifted it up. It was a pair of + long-bladed scissors and about the handle was wound a handkerchief. It was + not this fact which startled him, but that the scissors' blades were + dappled with blood and blood, too, was on the handkerchief. He unwound the + flimsy piece of cambric and stared at the monogram “B. M. B.” + </p> + <p> + He looked around. Nobody had seen the weapon and he dropped it in his + overcoat pocket, and walked from the cellar to the kitchen where Mrs. + Beale and Mansus awaited him. + </p> + <p> + “There is a lower cellar, is there not!” he asked in a strained voice. + </p> + <p> + “That was bricked up when Mr. Kara took the house,” explained the woman. + </p> + <p> + “There is nothing more to look for here,” he said. + </p> + <p> + He walked slowly up the stairs to the library, his mind in a whirl. That + he, an accredited officer of police, sworn to the business of criminal + detection, should attempt to screen one who was conceivably a criminal was + inexplicable. But if the girl had committed this crime, how had she + reached Kara's room and why had she returned to the locked cellar! + </p> + <p> + He sent for Mrs. Beale to interrogate her. She had heard nothing and she + had been in the kitchen all the evening. One fact she did reveal, however, + that Fisher had gone from the kitchen and had been absent a quarter of an + hour and had returned a little agitated. + </p> + <p> + “Stay here,” said T. X., and went down again to the cellar to make a + further search. + </p> + <p> + “Probably there is some way out of this subterranean jail,” he thought and + a diligent search of the room soon revealed it. + </p> + <p> + He found the iron trap, pulled it open, and slipped down the stairs. He, + too, was puzzled by the luxurious character of the vault. He passed from + room to room and finally came to the inner chamber where a light was + burning. + </p> + <p> + The light, as he discovered, proceeded from a small reading lamp which + stood by the side of a small brass bedstead. The bed had recently been + slept in, but there was no sign of any occupant. T. X. conducted a very + careful search and had no difficulty in finding the bricked up door. Other + exits there were none. + </p> + <p> + The floor was of wood block laid on concrete, the ventilation was + excellent and in one of the recesses which had evidently held at so time + or other, a large wine bin, there was a prefect electrical cooking plant. + In a small larder were a number of baskets, bearing the name of a + well-known caterer, one of them containing an excellent assortment of cold + and potted meats, preserves, etc. + </p> + <p> + T. X. went back to the bedroom and took the little lamp from the table by + the side of the bed and began a more careful examination. Presently he + found traces of blood, and followed an irregular trail to the outer room. + He lost it suddenly at the foot of stairs leading down from the upper + cellar. Then he struck it again. He had reached the end of his electric + cord and was now depending upon an electric torch he had taken from his + pocket. + </p> + <p> + There were indications of something heavy having been dragged across the + room and he saw that it led to a small bathroom. He had made a cursory + examination of this well-appointed apartment, and now he proceeded to make + a close investigation and was well rewarded. + </p> + <p> + The bathroom was the only apartment which possess anything resembling a + door—a two-fold screen and—as he pressed this back, he felt + some thing which prevented its wider extension. He slipped into the room + and flashed his lamp in the space behind the screen. There stiff in death + with glazed eyes and lolling tongue lay a great gaunt dog, his yellow + fangs exposed in a last grimace. + </p> + <p> + About the neck was a collar and attached to that, a few links of broken + chain. T. X. mounted the steps thoughtfully and passed out to the kitchen. + </p> + <p> + Did Belinda Mary stab Kara or kill the dog? That she killed one hound or + the other was certain. That she killed both was possible. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XV + </h2> + <p> + After a busy and sleepless night he came down to report to the Chief + Commissioner the next morning. The evening newspaper bills were filled + with the “Chelsea Sensation” but the information given was of a meagre + character. + </p> + <p> + Since Fisher had disappeared, many of the details which could have been + secured by the enterprising pressmen were missing. There was no reference + to the visit of Mr. Gathercole and in self-defence the press had fallen + back upon a statement, which at an earlier period had crept into the + newspapers in one of those chatty paragraphs which begin “I saw my friend + Kara at Giros” and end with a brief but inaccurate summary of his hobbies. + The paragraph had been to the effect that Mr. Kara had been in fear of his + life for some time, as a result of a blood feud which existed between + himself and another Albanian family. Small wonder, therefore, the murder + was everywhere referred to as “the political crime of the century.” + </p> + <p> + “So far,” reported T. X. to his superior, “I have been unable to trace + either Gathercole or the valet. The only thing we know about Gathercole is + that he sent his article to The Times with his card. The servants of his + Club are very vague as to his whereabouts. He is a very eccentric man, who + only comes in occasionally, and the steward whom I interviewed says that + it frequently happened that Gathercole arrived and departed without + anybody being aware of the fact. We have been to his old lodgings in + Lincoln's Inn, but apparently he sold up there before he went away to the + wilds of Patagonia and relinquished his tenancy. + </p> + <p> + “The only clue I have is that a man answering to some extent to his + description left by the eleven o'clock train for Paris last night.” + </p> + <p> + “You have seen the secretary of course,” said the Chief. + </p> + <p> + It was a question which T. X. had been dreading. + </p> + <p> + “Gone too,” he answered shortly; “in fact she has not been seen since 5:30 + yesterday evening.” + </p> + <p> + Sir George leant back in his chair and rumpled his thick grey hair. + </p> + <p> + “The only person who seems to have remained,” he said with heavy sarcasm, + “was Kara himself. Would you like me to put somebody else on this case—it + isn't exactly your job—or will you carry it on?” + </p> + <p> + “I prefer to carry it on, sir,” said T. X. firmly. + </p> + <p> + “Have you found out anything more about Kara?” + </p> + <p> + T. X. nodded. + </p> + <p> + “All that I have discovered about him is eminently discreditable,” he + said. “He seems to have had an ambition to occupy a very important + position in Albania. To this end he had bribed and subsidized the Turkish + and Albanian officials and had a fairly large following in that country. + Bartholomew tells me that Kara had already sounded him as to the + possibility of the British Government recognising a fait accompli in + Albania and had been inducing him to use his influence with the Cabinet to + recognize the consequence of any revolution. There is no doubt whatever + that Kara has engineered all the political assassinations which have been + such a feature in the news from Albania during this past year. We also + found in the house very large sums of money and documents which we have + handed over to the Foreign Office for decoding.” + </p> + <p> + Sir George thought for a long time. + </p> + <p> + Then he said, “I have an idea that if you find your secretary you will be + half way to solving the mystery.” + </p> + <p> + T. X. went out from the office in anything but a joyous mood. He was on + his way to lunch when he remembered his promise to call upon John Lexman. + </p> + <p> + Could Lexman supply a key which would unravel this tragic tangle? He leant + out of his taxi-cab and redirected the driver. It happened that the cab + drove up to the door of the Great Midland Hotel as John Lexman was coming + out. + </p> + <p> + “Come and lunch with me,” said T. X. “I suppose you've heard all the + news.” + </p> + <p> + “I read about Kara being killed, if that's what you mean,” said the other. + “It was rather a coincidence that I should have been discussing the matter + last night at the very moment when his telephone bell rang—I wish to + heaven you hadn't been in this,” he said fretfully. + </p> + <p> + “Why?” asked the astonished Assistant Commissioner, “and what do you mean + by 'in it'?” + </p> + <p> + “In the concrete sense I wish you had not been present when I returned,” + said the other moodily, “I wanted to be finished with the whole sordid + business without in any way involving my friends.” + </p> + <p> + “I think you are too sensitive,” laughed the other, clapping him on the + shoulder. “I want you to unburden yourself to me, my dear chap, and tell + me anything you can that will help me to clear up this mystery.” + </p> + <p> + John Lexman looked straight ahead with a worried frown. + </p> + <p> + “I would do almost anything for you, T. X.,” he said quietly, “the more so + since I know how good you were to Grace, but I can't help you in this + matter. I hated Kara living, I hate him dead,” he cried, and there was a + passion in his voice which was unmistakable; “he was the vilest thing that + ever drew the breath of life. There was no villainy too despicable, no + cruelty so horrid but that he gloried in it. If ever the devil were + incarnate on earth he took the shape and the form of Remington Kara. He + died too merciful a death by all accounts. But if there is a God, this man + will suffer for his crimes in hell through all eternity.” + </p> + <p> + T. X. looked at him in astonishment. The hate in the man's face took his + breath away. Never before had he experienced or witnessed such a vehemence + of loathing. + </p> + <p> + “What did Kara do to you?” he demanded. + </p> + <p> + The other looked out of the window. + </p> + <p> + “I am sorry,” he said in a milder tone; “that is my weakness. Some day I + will tell you the whole story but for the moment it were better that it + were not told. I will tell you this,” he turned round and faced the + detective squarely, “Kara tortured and killed my wife.” + </p> + <p> + T. X. said no more. + </p> + <p> + Half way through lunch he returned indirectly to the subject. + </p> + <p> + “Do you know Gathercole?” he asked. + </p> + <p> + T. X. nodded. + </p> + <p> + “I think you asked me that question once before, or perhaps it was + somebody else. Yes, I know him, rather an eccentric man with an artificial + arm.” + </p> + <p> + “That's the cove,” said T. X. with a little sigh; “he's one of the few men + I want to meet just now.” + </p> + <p> + “Why?” + </p> + <p> + “Because he was apparently the last man to see Kara alive.” + </p> + <p> + John Lexman looked at the other with an impatient jerk of his shoulders. + </p> + <p> + “You don't suspect Gathercole, do you?” he asked. + </p> + <p> + “Hardly,” said the other drily; “in the first place the man that committed + this murder had two hands and needed them both. No, I only want to ask + that gentleman the subject of his conversation. I also want to know who + was in the room with Kara when Gathercole went in.” + </p> + <p> + “H'm,” said John Lexman. + </p> + <p> + “Even if I found who the third person was, I am still puzzled as to how + they got out and fastened the heavy latch behind them. Now in the old + days, Lexman,” he said good humouredly, “you would have made a fine + mystery story out of this. How would you have made your man escape?” + </p> + <p> + Lexman thought for a while. + </p> + <p> + “Have you examined the safe!” he asked. + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” said the other. + </p> + <p> + “Was there very much in it?” + </p> + <p> + T. X. looked at him in astonishment. + </p> + <p> + “Just the ordinary books and things. Why do you ask?” + </p> + <p> + “Suppose there were two doors to that safe, one on the outside of the room + and one on the inside, would it be possible to pass through the safe and + go down the wall?” + </p> + <p> + “I have thought of that,” said T. X. + </p> + <p> + “Of course,” said Lexman, leaning back and toying with a salt-spoon, “in + writing a story where one hasn't got to deal with the absolute + possibilities, one could always have made Kara have a safe of that + character in order to make his escape in the event of danger. He might + keep a rope ladder stored inside, open the back door, throw out his ladder + to a friend and by some trick arrangement could detach the ladder and + allow the door to swing to again.” + </p> + <p> + “A very ingenious idea,” said T. X., “but unfortunately it doesn't work in + this case. I have seen the makers of the safe and there is nothing very + eccentric about it except the fact that it is mounted as it is. Can you + offer another suggestion?” + </p> + <p> + John Lexman thought again. + </p> + <p> + “I will not suggest trap doors, or secret panels or anything so banal,” he + said, “nor mysterious springs in the wall which, when touched, reveal + secret staircases.” + </p> + <p> + He smiled slightly. + </p> + <p> + “In my early days, I must confess, I was rather keen upon that sort of + thing, but age has brought experience and I have discovered the + impossibility of bringing an architect to one's way of thinking even in so + commonplace a matter as the position of a scullery. It would be much more + difficult to induce him to construct a house with double walls and secret + chambers.” + </p> + <p> + T. X. waited patiently. + </p> + <p> + “There is a possibility, of course,” said Lexman slowly, “that the steel + latch may have been raised by somebody outside by some ingenious magnetic + arrangement and lowered in a similar manner.” + </p> + <p> + “I have thought about it,” said T. X. triumphantly, “and I have made the + most elaborate tests only this morning. It is quite impossible to raise + the steel latch because once it is dropped it cannot be raised again + except by means of the knob, the pulling of which releases the catch which + holds the bar securely in its place. Try another one, John.” + </p> + <p> + John Lexman threw back his head in a noiseless laugh. + </p> + <p> + “Why I should be helping you to discover the murderer of Kara is beyond my + understanding,” he said, “but I will give you another theory, at the same + time warning you that I may be putting you off the track. For God knows I + have more reason to murder Kara than any man in the world.” + </p> + <p> + He thought a while. + </p> + <p> + “The chimney was of course impossible?” + </p> + <p> + “There was a big fire burning in the grate,” explained T. X.; “so big + indeed that the room was stifling.” + </p> + <p> + John Lexman nodded. + </p> + <p> + “That was Kara's way,” he said; “as a matter of fact I know the suggestion + about magnetism in the steel bar was impossible, because I was friendly + with Kara when he had that bar put in and pretty well know the mechanism, + although I had forgotten it for the moment. What is your own theory, by + the way?” + </p> + <p> + T. X. pursed his lips. + </p> + <p> + “My theory isn't very clearly formed,” he said cautiously, “but so far as + it goes, it is that Kara was lying on the bed probably reading one of the + books which were found by the bedside when his assailant suddenly came + upon him. Kara seized the telephone to call for assistance and was + promptly killed.” + </p> + <p> + Again there was silence. + </p> + <p> + “That is a theory,” said John Lexman, with his curious deliberation of + speech, “but as I say I refuse to be definite—have you found the + weapon?” + </p> + <p> + T. X. shook his head. + </p> + <p> + “Were there any peculiar features about the room which astonished you, and + which you have not told me?” + </p> + <p> + T. X. hesitated. + </p> + <p> + “There were two candles,” he said, “one in the middle of the room and one + under the bed. That in the middle of the room was a small Christmas + candle, the one under the bed was the ordinary candle of commerce + evidently roughly cut and probably cut in the room. We found traces of + candle chips on the floor and it is evident to me that the portion which + was cut off was thrown into the fire, for here again we have a trace of + grease.” + </p> + <p> + Lexman nodded. + </p> + <p> + “Anything further?” he asked. + </p> + <p> + “The smaller candle was twisted into a sort of corkscrew shape.” + </p> + <p> + “The Clue of the Twisted Candle,” mused John Lexman “that's a very good + title—Kara hated candles.” + </p> + <p> + “Why?” + </p> + <p> + Lexman leant back in his chair, selected a cigarette from a silver case. + </p> + <p> + “In my wanderings,” he said, “I have been to many strange places. I have + been to the country which you probably do not know, and which the + traveller who writes books about countries seldom visits. There are queer + little villages perched on the spurs of the bleakest hills you ever saw. I + have lived with communities which acknowledge no king and no government. + These have their laws handed down to them from father to son—it is a + nation without a written language. They administer their laws rigidly and + drastically. The punishments they award are cruel—inhuman. I have + seen, the woman taken in adultery stoned to death as in the best Biblical + traditions, and I have seen the thief blinded.” + </p> + <p> + T. X. shivered. + </p> + <p> + “I have seen the false witness stand up in a barbaric market place whilst + his tongue was torn from him. Sometimes the Turks or the piebald + governments of the state sent down a few gendarmes and tried a sort of + sporadic administration of the country. It usually ended in the + representative of the law lapsing into barbarism, or else disappearing + from the face of the earth, with a whole community of murderers eager to + testify, with singular unanimity, to the fact that he had either committed + suicide or had gone off with the wife of one of the townsmen. + </p> + <p> + “In some of these communities the candle plays a big part. It is not the + candle of commerce as you know it, but a dip made from mutton fat. Strap + three between the fingers of your hands and keep the hand rigid with two + flat pieces of wood; then let the candles burn down lower and lower—can + you imagine? Or set a candle in a gunpowder trail and lead the trail to a + well-oiled heap of shavings thoughtfully heaped about your naked feet. Or + a candle fixed to the shaved head of a man—there are hundreds of + variations and the candle plays a part in all of them. I don't know which + Kara had cause to hate the worst, but I know one or two that he has + employed.” + </p> + <p> + “Was he as bad as that?” asked T. X. + </p> + <p> + John Lexman laughed. + </p> + <p> + “You don't know how bad he was,” he said. + </p> + <p> + Towards the end of the luncheon the waiter brought a note in to T. X. + which had been sent on from his office. + </p> + <p> + “Dear Mr. Meredith, + </p> + <p> + “In answer to your enquiry I believe my daughter is in London, but I did + not know it until this morning. My banker informs me that my daughter + called at the bank this morning and drew a considerable sum of money from + her private account, but where she has gone and what she is doing with the + money I do not know. I need hardly tell you that I am very worried about + this matter and I should be glad if you could explain what it is all + about.” + </p> + <p> + It was signed “William Bartholomew.” + </p> + <p> + T. X. groaned. + </p> + <p> + “If I had only had the sense to go to the bank this morning, I should have + seen her,” he said. “I'm going to lose my job over this.” + </p> + <p> + The other looked troubled. + </p> + <p> + “You don't seriously mean that.” + </p> + <p> + “Not exactly,” smiled T. X., “but I don't think the Chief is very pleased + with me just now. You see I have butted into this business without any + authority—it isn't exactly in my department. But you have not given + me your theory about the candles.” + </p> + <p> + “I have no theory to offer,” said the other, folding up his serviette; + “the candles suggest a typical Albanian murder. I do not say that it was + so, I merely say that by their presence they suggest a crime of this + character.” + </p> + <p> + With this T. X. had to be content. + </p> + <p> + If it were not his business to interest himself in commonplace murder—though + this hardly fitted such a description—it was part of the peculiar + function which his department exercised to restore to Lady Bartholomew a + certain very elaborate snuff-box which he discovered in the safe. + </p> + <p> + Letters had been found amongst his papers which made clear the part which + Kara had played. Though he had not been a vulgar blackmailer he had + retained his hold, not only upon this particular property of Lady + Bartholomew, but upon certain other articles which were discovered, with + no other object, apparently, than to compel influence from quarters likely + to be of assistance to him in his schemes. + </p> + <p> + The inquest on the murdered man which the Assistant Commissioner attended + produced nothing in the shape of evidence and the coroner's verdict of + “murder against some person or persons unknown” was only to be expected. + </p> + <p> + T. X. spent a very busy and a very tiring week tracing elusive clues which + led him nowhere. He had a letter from John Lexman announcing the fact that + he intended leaving for the United States. He had received a very good + offer from a firm of magazine publishers in New York and was going out to + take up the appointment. + </p> + <p> + Meredith's plans were now in fair shape. He had decided upon the line of + action he would take and in the pursuance of this he interviewed his Chief + and the Minister of Justice. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, I have heard from my daughter,” said that great man uncomfortably, + “and really she has placed me in a most embarrassing position. I cannot + tell you, Mr. Meredith, exactly in what manner she has done this, but I + can assure you she has.” + </p> + <p> + “Can I see her letter or telegram?” asked T. X. + </p> + <p> + “I am afraid that is impossible,” said the other solemnly; “she begged me + to keep her communication very secret. I have written to my wife and asked + her to come home. I feel the constant strain to which I am being subjected + is more than human can endure.” + </p> + <p> + “I suppose,” said T. X. patiently, “it is impossible for you to tell me to + what address you have replied?” + </p> + <p> + “To no address,” answered the other and corrected himself hurriedly; “that + is to say I only received the telegram—the message this morning and + there is no address—to reply to.” + </p> + <p> + “I see,” said T. X. + </p> + <p> + That afternoon he instructed his secretary. + </p> + <p> + “I want a copy of all the agony advertisements in to-morrow's papers and + in the last editions of the evening papers—have them ready for me + tomorrow morning when I come.” + </p> + <p> + They were waiting for him when he reached the office at nine o'clock the + next day and he went through them carefully. Presently he found the + message he was seeking. + </p> + <p> + B. M. You place me awkward position. Very thoughtless. Have received + package addressed your mother which have placed in mother's sitting-room. + Cannot understand why you want me to go away week-end and give servants + holiday but have done so. Shall require very full explanation. Matter gone + far enough. Father. + </p> + <p> + “This,” said T. X. exultantly, as he read the advertisement, “is where I + get busy.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XVI + </h2> + <p> + February as a rule is not a month of fogs, but rather a month of + tempestuous gales, of frosts and snowfalls, but the night of February + 17th, 19—, was one of calm and mist. It was not the typical London + fog so dreaded by the foreigner, but one of those little patchy mists + which smoke through the streets, now enshrouding and making the nearest + object invisible, now clearing away to the finest diaphanous filament of + pale grey. + </p> + <p> + Sir William Bartholomew had a house in Portman Place, which is a wide + thoroughfare, filled with solemn edifices of unlovely and forbidding + exterior, but remarkably comfortable within. Shortly before eleven on the + night of February 17th, a taxi drew up at the junction of Sussex Street + and Portman Place, and a girl alighted. The fog at that moment was denser + than usual and she hesitated a moment before she left the shelter which + the cab afforded. + </p> + <p> + She gave the driver a few instructions and walked on with a firm step, + turning abruptly and mounting the steps of Number 173. Very quickly she + inserted her key in the lock, pushed the door open and closed it behind + her. She switched on the hall light. The house sounded hollow and + deserted, a fact which afforded her considerable satisfaction. She turned + the light out and found her way up the broad stairs to the first floor, + paused for a moment to switch on another light which she knew would not be + observable from the street outside and mounted the second flight. + </p> + <p> + Miss Belinda Mary Bartholomew congratulated herself upon the success of + her scheme, and the only doubt that was in her mind now was whether the + boudoir had been locked, but her father was rather careless in such + matters and Jacks the butler was one of those dear, silly, old men who + never locked anything, and, in consequence, faced every audit with a long + face and a longer tale of the peculations of occasional servants. + </p> + <p> + To her immense relief the handle turned and the door opened to her touch. + Somebody had had the sense to pull down the blinds and the curtains were + drawn. She switched on the light with a sigh of relief. Her mother's + writing table was covered with unopened letters, but she brushed these + aside in her search for the little parcel. It was not there and her heart + sank. Perhaps she had put it in one of the drawers. She tried them all + without result. + </p> + <p> + She stood by the desk a picture of perplexity, biting a finger + thoughtfully. + </p> + <p> + “Thank goodness!” she said with a jump, for she saw the parcel on the + mantel shelf, crossed the room and took it down. + </p> + <p> + With eager hands she tore off the covering and came to the familiar + leather case. Not until she had opened the padded lid and had seen the + snuffbox reposing in a bed of cotton wool did she relapse into a long sigh + of relief. + </p> + <p> + “Thank heaven for that,” she said aloud. + </p> + <p> + “And me,” said a voice. + </p> + <p> + She sprang up and turned round with a look of terror. + </p> + <p> + “Mr.—Mr. Meredith,” she stammered. + </p> + <p> + T. X. stood by the window curtains from whence he had made his dramatic + entry upon the scene. + </p> + <p> + “I say you have to thank me also, Miss Bartholomew,” he said presently. + </p> + <p> + “How do you know my name?” she asked with some curiosity. + </p> + <p> + “I know everything in the world,” he answered, and she smiled. Suddenly + her face went serious and she demanded sharply, + </p> + <p> + “Who sent you after me—Mr. Kara?” + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Kara?” he repeated, in wonder. + </p> + <p> + “He threatened to send for the police,” she went on rapidly, “and I told + him he might do so. I didn't mind the police—it was Kara I was + afraid of. You know what I went for, my mother's property.” + </p> + <p> + She held the snuff-box in her outstretched hand. + </p> + <p> + “He accused me of stealing and was hateful, and then he put me downstairs + in that awful cellar and—” + </p> + <p> + “And?” suggested T. X. + </p> + <p> + “That's all,” she replied with tightened lips; “what are you going to do + now?” + </p> + <p> + “I am going to ask you a few questions if I may,” he said. “In the first + place have you not heard anything about Mr. Kara since you went away?” + </p> + <p> + She shook her head. + </p> + <p> + “I have kept out of his way,” she said grimly. + </p> + <p> + “Have you seen the newspapers?” he asked. + </p> + <p> + She nodded. + </p> + <p> + “I have seen the advertisement column—I wired asking Papa to reply + to my telegram.” + </p> + <p> + “I know—I saw it,” he smiled; “that is what brought me here.” + </p> + <p> + “I was afraid it would,” she said ruefully; “father is awfully loquacious + in print—he makes speeches you know. All I wanted him to say was yes + or no. What do you mean about the newspapers?” she went on. “Is anything + wrong with mother?” + </p> + <p> + He shook his head. + </p> + <p> + “So far as I know Lady Bartholomew is in the best of health and is on her + way home.” + </p> + <p> + “Then what do you mean by asking me about the newspapers!” she demanded; + “why should I see the newspapers—what is there for me to see?” + </p> + <p> + “About Kara?” he suggested. + </p> + <p> + She shook her head in bewilderment. + </p> + <p> + “I know and want to know nothing about Kara. Why do you say this to me?” + </p> + <p> + “Because,” said T. X. slowly, “on the night you disappeared from Cadogan + Square, Remington Kara was murdered.” + </p> + <p> + “Murdered,” she gasped. + </p> + <p> + He nodded. + </p> + <p> + “He was stabbed to the heart by some person or persons unknown.” + </p> + <p> + T. X. took his hand from his pocket and pulled something out which was + wrapped in tissue paper. This he carefully removed and the girl watched + with fascinated gaze, and with an awful sense of apprehension. Presently + the object was revealed. It was a pair of scissors with the handle wrapped + about with a small handkerchief dappled with brown stains. She took a step + backward, raising her hands to her cheeks. + </p> + <p> + “My scissors,” she said huskily; “you won't think—” + </p> + <p> + She stared up at him, fear and indignation struggling for mastery. + </p> + <p> + “I don't think you committed the murder,” he smiled; “if that's what you + mean to ask me, but if anybody else found those scissors and had + identified this handkerchief you would have been in rather a fix, my young + friend.” + </p> + <p> + She looked at the scissors and shuddered. + </p> + <p> + “I did kill something,” she said in a low voice, “an awful dog... I don't + know how I did it, but the beastly thing jumped at me and I just stabbed + him and killed him, and I am glad,” she nodded many times and repeated, “I + am glad.” + </p> + <p> + “So I gather—I found the dog and now perhaps you'll explain why I + didn't find you?” + </p> + <p> + Again she hesitated and he felt that she was hiding something from him. + </p> + <p> + “I don't know why you didn't find me,” she said; “I was there.” + </p> + <p> + “How did you get out?” + </p> + <p> + “How did you get out?” she challenged him boldly. + </p> + <p> + “I got out through the door,” he confessed; “it seems a ridiculously + commonplace way of leaving but that's the only way I could see.” + </p> + <p> + “And that's how I got out,” she answered, with a little smile. + </p> + <p> + “But it was locked.” + </p> + <p> + She laughed. + </p> + <p> + “I see now,” she said; “I was in the cellar. I heard your key in the lock + and bolted down the trap, leaving those awful scissors behind. I thought + it was Kara with some of his friends and then the voices died away and I + ventured to come up and found you had left the door open. So—so I—” + </p> + <p> + These queer little pauses puzzled T. X. There was something she was not + telling him. Something she had yet to reveal. + </p> + <p> + “So I got away you see,” she went on. “I came out into the kitchen; there + was nobody there, and I passed through the area door and up the steps and + just round the corner I found a taxicab, and that is all.” + </p> + <p> + She spread out her hands in a dramatic little gesture. + </p> + <p> + “And that is all, is it?” said T. X. + </p> + <p> + “That is all,” she repeated; “now what are you going to do?” + </p> + <p> + T. X. looked up at the ceiling and stroked his chin. + </p> + <p> + “I suppose that I ought to arrest you. I feel that something is due from + me. May I ask if you were sleeping in the bed downstairs?” + </p> + <p> + “In the lower cellar?” she demanded,—a little pause and then, “Yes, + I was sleeping in the cellar downstairs.” + </p> + <p> + There was that interval of hesitation almost between each word. + </p> + <p> + “What are you going to do?” she asked again. + </p> + <p> + She was feeling more sure of herself and had suppressed the panic which + his sudden appearance had produced in her. He rumpled his hair, a gross + imitation, did she but know it, of one of his chief's mannerisms and she + observed that his hair was very thick and inclined to curl. She saw also + that he was passably good looking, had fine grey eyes, a straight nose and + a most firm chin. + </p> + <p> + “I think,” she suggested gently, “you had better arrest me.” + </p> + <p> + “Don't be silly,” he begged. + </p> + <p> + She stared at him in amazement. + </p> + <p> + “What did you say?” she asked wrathfully. + </p> + <p> + “I said 'don't be silly,'” repeated the calm young man. + </p> + <p> + “Do you know that you're being very rude?” she asked. + </p> + <p> + He seemed interested and surprised at this novel view of his conduct. + </p> + <p> + “Of course,” she went on carefully smoothing her dress and avoiding his + eye, “I know you think I am silly and that I've got a most comic name.” + </p> + <p> + “I have never said your name was comic,” he replied coldly; “I would not + take so great a liberty.” + </p> + <p> + “You said it was 'weird' which was worse,” she claimed. + </p> + <p> + “I may have said it was 'weird,”' he admitted, “but that's rather + different to saying it was 'comic.' There is dignity in weird things. For + example, nightmares aren't comic but they're weird.” + </p> + <p> + “Thank you,” she said pointedly. + </p> + <p> + “Not that I mean your name is anything approaching a nightmare.” He made + this concession with a most magnificent sweep of hand as though he were a + king conceding her the right to remain covered in his presence. “I think + that Belinda Ann—” + </p> + <p> + “Belinda Mary,” she corrected. + </p> + <p> + “Belinda Mary, I was going to say, or as a matter of fact,” he floundered, + “I was going to say Belinda and Mary.” + </p> + <p> + “You were going to say nothing of the kind,” she corrected him. + </p> + <p> + “Anyway, I think Belinda Mary is a very pretty name.” + </p> + <p> + “You think nothing of the sort.” + </p> + <p> + She saw the laughter in his eyes and felt an insane desire to laugh. + </p> + <p> + “You said it was a weird name and you think it is a weird name, but I + really can't be bothered considering everybody's views. I think it's a + weird name, too. I was named after an aunt,” she added in self-defence. + </p> + <p> + “There you have the advantage of me,” he inclined his head politely; “I + was named after my father's favourite dog.” + </p> + <p> + “What does T. X. stand for?” she asked curiously. + </p> + <p> + “Thomas Xavier,” he said, and she leant back in the big chair on the edge + of which a few minutes before she had perched herself in trepidation and + dissolved into a fit of immoderate laughter. + </p> + <p> + “It is comic, isn't it?” he asked. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, I am sorry I'm so rude,” she gasped. “Fancy being called Tommy Xavier—I + mean Thomas Xavier.” + </p> + <p> + “You may call me Tommy if you wish—most of my friends do.” + </p> + <p> + “Unfortunately I'm not your friend,” she said, still smiling and wiping + the tears from her eyes, “so I shall go on calling you Mr. Meredith if you + don't mind.” + </p> + <p> + She looked at her watch. + </p> + <p> + “If you are not going to arrest me I'm going,” she said. + </p> + <p> + “I have certainly no intention of arresting you,” said he, “but I am going + to see you home!” + </p> + <p> + She jumped up smartly. + </p> + <p> + “You're not,” she commanded. + </p> + <p> + She was so definite in this that he was startled. + </p> + <p> + “My dear child,” he protested. + </p> + <p> + “Please don't 'dear child' me,” she said seriously; “you're going to be a + good little Tommy and let me go home by myself.” + </p> + <p> + She held out her hand frankly and the laughing appeal in her eyes was + irresistible. + </p> + <p> + “Well, I'll see you to a cab,” he insisted. + </p> + <p> + “And listen while I give the driver instructions where he is to take me?” + </p> + <p> + She shook her head reprovingly. + </p> + <p> + “It must be an awful thing to be a policeman.” + </p> + <p> + He stood back with folded arms, a stern frown on his face. + </p> + <p> + “Don't you trust me?” he asked. + </p> + <p> + “No,” she replied. + </p> + <p> + “Quite right,” he approved; “anyway I'll see you to the cab and you can + tell the driver to go to Charing Cross station and on your way you can + change your direction.” + </p> + <p> + “And you promise you won't follow me?” she asked. + </p> + <p> + “On my honour,” he swore; “on one condition though.” + </p> + <p> + “I will make no conditions,” she replied haughtily. + </p> + <p> + “Please come down from your great big horse,” he begged, “and listen to + reason. The condition I make is that I can always bring you to an + appointed rendezvous whenever I want you. Honestly, this is necessary, + Belinda Mary.” + </p> + <p> + “Miss Bartholomew,” she corrected, coldly. + </p> + <p> + “It is necessary,” he went on, “as you will understand. Promise me that, + if I put an advertisement in the agonies of either an evening paper which + I will name or in the Morning Port, you will keep the appointment I fix, + if it is humanly possible.” + </p> + <p> + She hesitated a moment, then held out her hand. + </p> + <p> + “I promise,” she said. + </p> + <p> + “Good for you, Belinda Mary,” said he, and tucking her arm in his he led + her out of the room switching off the light and racing her down the + stairs. + </p> + <p> + If there was a lot of the schoolgirl left in Belinda Mary Bartholomew, no + less of the schoolboy was there in this Commissioner of Police. He would + have danced her through the fog, contemptuous of the proprieties, but he + wasn't so very anxious to get her to her cab and to lose sight of her. + </p> + <p> + “Good-night,” he said, holding her hand. + </p> + <p> + “That's the third time you've shaken hands with me to-night,” she + interjected. + </p> + <p> + “Don't let us have any unpleasantness at the last,” he pleaded, “and + remember.” + </p> + <p> + “I have promised,” she replied. + </p> + <p> + “And one day,” he went on, “you will tell me all that happened in that + cellar.” + </p> + <p> + “I have told you,” she said in a low voice. + </p> + <p> + “You have not told me everything, child.” + </p> + <p> + He handed her into the cab. He shut the door behind her and leant through + the open window. + </p> + <p> + “Victoria or Marble Arch?” he asked politely. + </p> + <p> + “Charing Cross,” she replied, with a little laugh. + </p> + <p> + He watched the cab drive away and then suddenly it stopped and a figure + lent out from the window beckoning him frantically. He ran up to her. + </p> + <p> + “Suppose I want you,” she asked. + </p> + <p> + “Advertise,” he said promptly, “beginning your advertisement 'Dear + Tommy.”' + </p> + <p> + “I shall put 'T. X.,'” she said indignantly. + </p> + <p> + “Then I shall take no notice of your advertisement,” he replied and stood + in the middle of the street, his hat in his hand, to the intense annoyance + of a taxi-cab driver who literally all but ran him down and in a + figurative sense did so until T. X. was out of earshot. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XVII + </h2> + <p> + Thomas Xavier Meredith was a shrewd young man. It was said of him by + Signor Paulo Coselli, the eminent criminologist, that he had a gift of + intuition which was abnormal. Probably the mystery of the twisted candle + was solved by him long before any other person in the world had the + dimmest idea that it was capable of solution. + </p> + <p> + The house in Cadogan Square was still in the hands of the police. To this + house and particularly to Kara's bedroom T. X. from time to time repaired, + and reproduced as far as possible the conditions which obtained on the + night of the murder. He had the same stifling fire, the same locked door. + The latch was dropped in its socket, whilst T. X., with a stop watch in + his hand, made elaborate calculations and acted certain parts which he did + not reveal to a soul. + </p> + <p> + Three times, accompanied by Mansus, he went to the house, three times went + to the death chamber and was alone on one occasion for an hour and a half + whilst the patient Mansus waited outside. Three times he emerged looking + graver on each occasion, and after the third visit he called into + consultation John Lexman. + </p> + <p> + Lexman had been spending some time in the country, having deferred his + trip to the United States. + </p> + <p> + “This case puzzles me more and more, John,” said T. X., troubled out of + his usual boisterous self, “and thank heaven it worries other people + besides me. De Mainau came over from France the other day and brought all + his best sleuths, whilst O'Grady of the New York central office paid a + flying visit just to get hold of the facts. Not one of them has given me + the real solution, though they've all been rather ingenious. Gathercole + has vanished and is probably on his way to some undiscoverable region, and + our people have not yet traced the valet.” + </p> + <p> + “He should be the easiest for you,” said John Lexman, reflectively. + </p> + <p> + “Why Gathercole should go off I can't understand,” T. X. continued. + “According to the story which was told me by Fisher, his last words to + Kara were to the effect that he was expecting a cheque or that he had + received a cheque. No cheque has been presented or drawn and apparently + Gathercole has gone off without waiting for any payment. An examination of + Kara's books show nothing against the Gathercole account save the sum of + 600 pounds which was originally advanced, and now to upset all my + calculations, look at this.” + </p> + <p> + He took from his pocketbook a newspaper cutting and pushed it across the + table, for they were dining together at the Carlton. John Lexman picked up + the slip and read. It was evidently from a New York paper: + </p> + <p> + “Further news has now come to hand by the Antarctic Trading Company's + steamer, Cyprus, concerning the wreck of the City of the Argentine. It is + believed that this ill-fated vessel, which called at South American ports, + lost her propellor and drifted south out of the track of shipping. This + theory is now confirmed. Apparently the ship struck an iceberg on December + 23rd and foundered with all aboard save a few men who were able to launch + a boat and who were picked up by the Cyprus. The following is the + passenger list.” + </p> + <p> + John Lexman ran down the list until he came upon the name which was + evidently underlined in ink by T. X. That name was George Gathercole and + after it in brackets (Explorer). + </p> + <p> + “If that were true, then, Gathercole could not have come to London.” + </p> + <p> + “He may have taken another boat,” said T. X., “and I cabled to the + Steamship Company without any great success. Apparently Gathercole was an + eccentric sort of man and lived in terror of being overcrowded. It was a + habit of his to make provisional bookings by every available steamer. The + company can tell me no more than that he had booked, but whether he + shipped on the City of the Argentine or not, they do not know.” + </p> + <p> + “I can tell you this about Gathercole,” said John slowly and thoughtfully, + “that he was a man who would not hurt a fly. He was incapable of killing + any man, being constitutionally averse to taking life in any shape. For + this reason he never made collections of butterflies or of bees, and I + believe has never shot an animal in his life. He carried his principles to + such an extent that he was a vegetarian—poor old Gathercole!” he + said, with the first smile which T. X. had seen on his face since he came + back. + </p> + <p> + “If you want to sympathize with anybody,” said T. X. gloomily, “sympathize + with me.” + </p> + <p> + On the following day T. X. was summoned to the Home Office and went + steeled for a most unholy row. The Home Secretary, a large and worthy + gentleman, given to the making of speeches on every excuse, received him, + however, with unusual kindness. + </p> + <p> + “I've sent for you, Mr. Meredith,” he said, “about this unfortunate Greek. + I've had all his private papers looked into and translated and in some + cases decoded, because as you are probably aware his diaries and a great + deal of his correspondence were in a code which called for the attention + of experts.” + </p> + <p> + T. X. had not troubled himself greatly about Kara's private papers but had + handed them over, in accordance with instructions, to the proper + authorities. + </p> + <p> + “Of course, Mr. Meredith,” the Home Secretary went on, beaming across his + big table, “we expect you to continue your search for the murderer, but I + must confess that your prisoner when you secure him will have a very + excellent case to put to a jury.” + </p> + <p> + “That I can well believe, sir,” said T. X. + </p> + <p> + “Seldom in my long career at the bar,” began the Home Secretary in his + best oratorical manner, “have I examined a record so utterly discreditable + as that of the deceased man.” + </p> + <p> + Here he advanced a few instances which surprised even T. X. + </p> + <p> + “The man was a lunatic,” continued the Home Secretary, “a vicious, evil + man who loved cruelty for cruelty's sake. We have in this diary alone + sufficient evidence to convict him of three separate murders, one of which + was committed in this country.” + </p> + <p> + T. X. looked his astonishment. + </p> + <p> + “You will remember, Mr. Meredith, as I saw in one of your reports, that he + had a chauffeur, a Greek named Poropulos.” + </p> + <p> + T. X. nodded. + </p> + <p> + “He went to Greece on the day following the shooting of Vassalaro,” he + said. + </p> + <p> + The Home Secretary shook his head. + </p> + <p> + “He was killed on the same night,” said the Minister, “and you will have + no difficulty in finding what remains of his body in the disused house + which Kara rented for his own purpose on the Portsmouth Road. That he has + killed a number of people in Albania you may well suppose. Whole villages + have been wiped out to provide him with a little excitement. The man was a + Nero without any of Nero's amiable weaknesses. He was obsessed with the + idea that he himself was in danger of assassination, and saw an enemy even + in his trusty servant. Undoubtedly the chauffeur Poropulos was in touch + with several Continental government circles. You understand,” said the + Minister in conclusion, “that I am telling you this, not with the idea of + expecting you, to relax your efforts to find the murderer and clear up the + mystery, but in order that you may know something of the possible motive + for this man's murder.” + </p> + <p> + T. X. spent an hour going over the decoded diary and documents and left + the Home Office a little shakily. It was inconceivable, incredible. Kara + was a lunatic, but the directing genius was a devil. + </p> + <p> + T. X. had a flat in Whitehall Gardens and thither he repaired to change + for dinner. He was half dressed when the evening paper arrived and he + glanced as was his wont first at the news' page and then at the + advertisement column. He looked down the column marked “Personal” without + expecting to find anything of particular interest to himself, but saw that + which made him drop the paper and fly round the room in a frenzy to + complete his toilet. + </p> + <p> + “Tommy X.,” ran the brief announcement, “most urgent, Marble Arch 8.” + </p> + <p> + He had five minutes to get there but it seemed like five hours. He was + held up at almost every crossing and though he might have used his + authority to obtain right of way, it was a step which his curious sense of + honesty prevented him taking. He leapt out of the cab before it stopped, + thrust the fare into the driver's hands and looked round for the girl. He + saw her at last and walked quickly towards her. As he approached her, she + turned about and with an almost imperceptible beckoning gesture walked + away. He followed her along the Bayswater Road and gradually drew level. + </p> + <p> + “I am afraid I have been watched,” she said in a low voice. “Will you call + a cab?” + </p> + <p> + He hailed a passing taxi, helped her in and gave at random the first place + that suggested itself to him, which was Finsbury Park. + </p> + <p> + “I am very worried,” she said, “and I don't know anybody who can help me + except you.” + </p> + <p> + “Is it money?” he asked. + </p> + <p> + “Money,” she said scornfully, “of course it isn't money. I want to show + you a letter,” she said after a while. + </p> + <p> + She took it from her bag and gave it to him and he struck a match and read + it with difficulty. + </p> + <p> + It was written in a studiously uneducated hand. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Dear Miss, + + “I know who you are. You are wanted by the police but I + will not give you away. Dear Miss. I am very hard up and + 20 pounds will be very useful to me and I shall not trouble + you again. Dear Miss. Put the money on the window sill of + your room. I know you sleep on the ground floor and I will + come in and take it. And if not—well, I don't want to make + any trouble. + + “Yours truly, + + “A FRIEND.” + </pre> + <p> + “When did you get this?” he asked. + </p> + <p> + “This morning,” she replied. “I sent the Agony to the paper by telegram, I + knew you would come.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, you did, did you?” he said. + </p> + <p> + Her assurance was very pleasing to him. The faith that her words implied + gave him an odd little feeling of comfort and happiness. + </p> + <p> + “I can easily get you out of this,” he added; “give me your address and + when the gentleman comes—” + </p> + <p> + “That is impossible,” she replied hurriedly. “Please don't think I'm + ungrateful, and don't think I'm being silly—you do think I'm being + silly, don't you!” + </p> + <p> + “I have never harboured such an unworthy thought,” he said virtuously. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, you have,” she persisted, “but really I can't tell you where I am + living. I have a very special reason for not doing so. It's not myself + that I'm thinking about, but there's a life involved.” + </p> + <p> + This was a somewhat dramatic statement to make and she felt she had gone + too far. + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps I don't mean that,” she said, “but there is some one I care for—” + she dropped her voice. + </p> + <p> + “Oh,” said T. X. blankly. + </p> + <p> + He came down from his rosy heights into the shadow and darkness of a + sunless valley. + </p> + <p> + “Some one you care for,” he repeated after a while. + </p> + <p> + “Yes.” + </p> + <p> + There was another long silence, then, + </p> + <p> + “Oh, indeed,” said T. X. + </p> + <p> + Again the unbroken interval of quiet and after a while she said in a low + voice, “Not that way.” + </p> + <p> + “Not what way!” asked T. X. huskily, his spirits doing a little + mountaineering. + </p> + <p> + “The way you mean,” she said. + </p> + <p> + “Oh,” said T. X. + </p> + <p> + He was back again amidst the rosy snows of dawn, was in fact climbing a + dizzy escalier on the topmost height of hope's Mont Blanc when she pulled + the ladder from under him. + </p> + <p> + “I shall, of course, never marry,” she said with a certain prim decision. + </p> + <p> + T. X. fell with a dull sickening thud, discovering that his rosy snows + were not unlike cold, hard ice in their lack of resilience. + </p> + <p> + “Who said you would?” he asked somewhat feebly, but in self defence. + </p> + <p> + “You did,” she said, and her audacity took his breath away. + </p> + <p> + “Well, how am I to help you!” he asked after a while. + </p> + <p> + “By giving me some advice,” she said; “do you think I ought to put the + money there!” + </p> + <p> + “Indeed I do not,” said T. X., recovering some of his natural dominance; + “apart from the fact that you would be compounding a felony, you would + merely be laying out trouble for yourself in the future. If he can get 20 + pounds so easily, he will come for 40 pounds. But why do you stay away, + why don't you return home? There's no charge and no breath of suspicion + against you.” + </p> + <p> + “Because I have something to do which I have set my mind to,” she said, + with determination in her tones. + </p> + <p> + “Surely you can trust me with your address,” he urged her, “after all that + has passed between us, Belinda Mary—after all the years we have + known one another.” + </p> + <p> + “I shall get out and leave you,” she said steadily. + </p> + <p> + “But how the dickens am I going to help you?” he protested. + </p> + <p> + “Don't swear,” she could be very severe indeed; “the only way you can help + me is by being kind and sympathetic.” + </p> + <p> + “Would you like me to burst into tears?” he asked sarcastically. + </p> + <p> + “I ask you to do nothing more painful or repugnant to your natural + feelings than to be a gentleman,” she said. + </p> + <p> + “Thank you very kindly,” said T. X., and leant back in the cab with an air + of supreme resignation. + </p> + <p> + “I believe you're making faces in the dark,” she accused him. + </p> + <p> + “God forbid that I should do anything so low,” said he hastily; “what made + you think that?” + </p> + <p> + “Because I was putting my tongue out at you,” she admitted, and the taxi + driver heard the shrieks of laughter in the cab behind him above the + wheezing of his asthmatic engine. + </p> + <p> + At twelve that night in a certain suburb of London an overcoated man moved + stealthily through a garden. He felt his way carefully along the wall of + the house and groped with hope, but with no great certainty, along the + window sill. He found an envelope which his fingers, somewhat sensitive + from long employment in nefarious uses, told him contained nothing more + substantial than a letter. + </p> + <p> + He went back through the garden and rejoined his companion, who was + waiting under an adjacent lamp-post. + </p> + <p> + “Did she drop?” asked the other eagerly. + </p> + <p> + “I don't know yet,” growled the man from the garden. + </p> + <p> + He opened the envelope and read the few lines. + </p> + <p> + “She hasn't got the money,” he said, “but she's going to get it. I must + meet her to-morrow afternoon at the corner of Oxford Street and Regent + Street.” + </p> + <p> + “What time!” asked the other. + </p> + <p> + “Six o'clock,” said the first man. “The chap who takes the money must + carry a copy of the Westminster Gazette in his hand.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, then it's a plant,” said the other with conviction. + </p> + <p> + The other laughed. + </p> + <p> + “She won't work any plants. I bet she's scared out of her life.” + </p> + <p> + The second man bit his nails and looked up and down the road, + apprehensively. + </p> + <p> + “It's come to something,” he said bitterly; “we went out to make our + thousands and we've come down to 'chanting' for 20 pounds.” + </p> + <p> + “It's the luck,” said the other philosophically, “and I haven't done with + her by any means. Besides we've still got a chance of pulling of the big + thing, Harry. I reckon she's good for a hundred or two, anyway.” + </p> + <p> + At six o'clock on the following afternoon, a man dressed in a dark + overcoat, with a soft felt hat pulled down over his eyes stood + nonchalantly by the curb near where the buses stop at Regent Street + slapping his hand gently with a folded copy of the Westminster Gazette. + </p> + <p> + That none should mistake his Liberal reading, he stood as near as possible + to a street lamp and so arranged himself and his attitude that the minimum + of light should fall upon his face and the maximum upon that respectable + organ of public opinion. Soon after six he saw the girl approaching, out + of the tail of his eye, and strolled off to meet her. To his surprise she + passed him by and he was turning to follow when an unfriendly hand gripped + him by the arm. + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Fisher, I believe,” said a pleasant voice. + </p> + <p> + “What do you mean?” said the man, struggling backward. + </p> + <p> + “Are you going quietly!” asked the pleasant Superintendent Mansus, “or + shall I take my stick to you'?” + </p> + <p> + Mr. Fisher thought awhile. + </p> + <p> + “It's a cop,” he confessed, and allowed himself to be hustled into the + waiting cab. + </p> + <p> + He made his appearance in T. X.'s office and that urbane gentleman greeted + him as a friend. + </p> + <p> + “And how's Mr. Fisher!” he asked; “I suppose you are Mr. Fisher still and + not Mr. Harry Gilcott, or Mr. George Porten.” + </p> + <p> + Fisher smiled his old, deferential, deprecating smile. + </p> + <p> + “You will always have your joke, sir. I suppose the young lady gave me + away.” + </p> + <p> + “You gave yourself away, my poor Fisher,” said T. X., and put a strip of + paper before him; “you may disguise your hand, and in your extreme modesty + pretend to an ignorance of the British language, which is not creditable + to your many attainments, but what you must be awfully careful in doing in + future when you write such epistles,” he said, “is to wash your hands.” + </p> + <p> + “Wash my hands!” repeated the puzzled Fisher. + </p> + <p> + T. X. nodded. + </p> + <p> + “You see you left a little thumb print, and we are rather whales on thumb + prints at Scotland Yard, Fisher.” + </p> + <p> + “I see. What is the charge now, sir!” + </p> + <p> + “I shall make no charge against you except the conventional one of being a + convict under license and failing to report.” + </p> + <p> + Fisher heaved a sigh. + </p> + <p> + “That'll only mean twelve months. Are you going to charge me with this + business?” he nodded to the paper. + </p> + <p> + T. X. shook his head. + </p> + <p> + “I bear you no ill-will although you tried to frighten Miss Bartholomew. + Oh yes, I know it is Miss Bartholomew, and have known all the time. The + lady is there for a reason which is no business of yours or of mine. I + shall not charge you with attempt to blackmail and in reward for my + leniency I hope you are going to tell me all you know about the Kara + murder. You wouldn't like me to charge you with that, would you by any + chance!” + </p> + <p> + Fisher drew a long breath. + </p> + <p> + “No, sir, but if you did I could prove my innocence,” he said earnestly. + “I spent the whole of the evening in the kitchen.” + </p> + <p> + “Except a quarter of an hour,” said T. X. + </p> + <p> + The man nodded. + </p> + <p> + “That's true, sir, I went out to see a pal of mine.” + </p> + <p> + “The man who is in this!” asked T. X. + </p> + <p> + Fisher hesitated. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, sir. He was with me in this but there was nothing wrong about the + business—as far as we went. I don't mind admitting that I was + planning a Big Thing. I'm not going to blow on it, if it's going to get me + into trouble, but if you'll promise me that it won't, I'll tell you the + whole story.” + </p> + <p> + “Against whom was this coup of yours planned?” + </p> + <p> + “Against Mr. Kara, sir,” said Fisher. + </p> + <p> + “Go on with your story,” nodded T. X. + </p> + <p> + The story was a short and commonplace one. Fisher had met a man who knew + another man who was either a Turk or an Albanian. They had learnt that + Kara was in the habit of keeping large sums of money in the house and they + had planned to rob him. That was the story in a nutshell. Somewhere the + plan miscarried. It was when he came to the incidents that occurred on the + night of the murder that T. X. followed him with the greatest interest. + </p> + <p> + “The old gentleman came in,” said Fisher, “and I saw him up to the room. I + heard him coming out and I went up and spoke to him while he was having a + chat with Mr. Kara at the open door.” + </p> + <p> + “Did you hear Mr. Kara speak?” + </p> + <p> + “I fancy I did, sir,” said Fisher; “anyway the old gentleman was quite + pleased with himself.” + </p> + <p> + “Why do you say 'old gentleman'!” asked T. X.; “he was not an old man.” + </p> + <p> + “Not exactly, sir,” said Fisher, “but he had a sort of fussy irritable way + that old gentlemen sometimes have and I somehow got it fixed in my mind + that he was old. As a matter of fact, he was about forty-five, he may have + been fifty.” + </p> + <p> + “You have told me all this before. Was there anything peculiar about him!” + </p> + <p> + Fisher hesitated. + </p> + <p> + “Nothing, sir, except the fact that one of his arms was a game one.” + </p> + <p> + “Meaning that it was—” + </p> + <p> + “Meaning that it was an artificial one, sir, so far as I can make out.” + </p> + <p> + “Was it his right or his left arm that was game!” interrupted T. X. + </p> + <p> + “His left arm, sir.” + </p> + <p> + “You're sure?” + </p> + <p> + “I'd swear to it, sir.” + </p> + <p> + “Very well, go on.” + </p> + <p> + “He came downstairs and went out and I never saw him again. When you came + and the murder was discovered and knowing as I did that I had my own + scheme on and that one of your splits might pinch me, I got a bit rattled. + I went downstairs to the hall and the first thing I saw lying on the table + was a letter. It was addressed to me.” + </p> + <p> + He paused and T. X. nodded. + </p> + <p> + “Go on,” he said again. + </p> + <p> + “I couldn't understand how it came to be there, but as I'd been in the + kitchen most of the evening except when I was seeing my pal outside to + tell him the job was off for that night, it might have been there before + you came. I opened the letter. There were only a few words on it and I can + tell you those few words made my heart jump up into my mouth, and made me + go cold all over.” + </p> + <p> + “What were they!” asked T. X. + </p> + <p> + “I shall not forget them, sir. They're sort of permanently fixed in my + brain,” said the man earnestly; “the note started with just the figures + 'A. C. 274.'” + </p> + <p> + “What was that!” asked T. X. + </p> + <p> + “My convict number when I was in Dartmoor Prison, sir.” + </p> + <p> + “What did the note say?” + </p> + <p> + “'Get out of here quick'—I don't know who had put it there, but I'd + evidently been spotted and I was taking no chances. That's the whole story + from beginning to end. I accidentally happened to meet the young lady, + Miss Holland—Miss Bartholomew as she is—and followed her to + her house in Portman Place. That was the night you were there.” + </p> + <p> + T. X. found himself to his intense annoyance going very red. + </p> + <p> + “And you know no more?” he asked. + </p> + <p> + “No more, sir—and if I may be struck dead—” + </p> + <p> + “Keep all that sabbath talk for the chaplain,” commended T. X., and they + took away Mr. Fisher, not an especially dissatisfied man. + </p> + <p> + That night T. X. interviewed his prisoner at Cannon Row police station and + made a few more enquiries. + </p> + <p> + “There is one thing I would like to ask you,” said the girl when he met + her next morning in Green Park. + </p> + <p> + “If you were going to ask whether I made enquiries as to where your + habitation was,” he warned her, “I beg of you to refrain.” + </p> + <p> + She was looking very beautiful that morning, he thought. The keen air had + brought a colour to her face and lent a spring to her gait, and, as she + strode along by his side with the free and careless swing of youth, she + was an epitome of the life which even now was budding on every tree in the + park. + </p> + <p> + “Your father is back in town, by the way,” he said, “and he is most + anxious to see you.” + </p> + <p> + She made a little grimace. + </p> + <p> + “I hope you haven't been round talking to father about me.” + </p> + <p> + “Of course I have,” he said helplessly; “I have also had all the reporters + up from Fleet Street and given them a full description of your escapades.” + </p> + <p> + She looked round at him with laughter in her eyes. + </p> + <p> + “You have all the manners of an early Christian martyr,” she said. “Poor + soul! Would you like to be thrown to the lions?” + </p> + <p> + “I should prefer being thrown to the demnition ducks and drakes,” he said + moodily. + </p> + <p> + “You're such a miserable man,” she chided him, “and yet you have + everything to make life worth living.” + </p> + <p> + “Ha, ha!” said T. X. + </p> + <p> + “You have, of course you have! You have a splendid position. Everybody + looks up to you and talks about you. You have got a wife and family who + adore you—” + </p> + <p> + He stopped and looked at her as though she were some strange insect. + </p> + <p> + “I have a how much?” he asked credulously. + </p> + <p> + “Aren't you married?” she asked innocently. + </p> + <p> + He made a strange noise in his throat. + </p> + <p> + “Do you know I have always thought of you as married,” she went on; “I + often picture you in your domestic circle reading to the children from the + Daily Megaphone those awfully interesting stories about Little Willie + Waterbug.” + </p> + <p> + He held on to the railings for support. + </p> + <p> + “May we sit down?” he asked faintly. + </p> + <p> + She sat by his side, half turned to him, demure and wholly adorable. + </p> + <p> + “Of course you are right in one respect,” he said at last, “but you're + altogether wrong about the children.” + </p> + <p> + “Are you married!” she demanded with no evidence of amusement. + </p> + <p> + “Didn't you know?” he asked. + </p> + <p> + She swallowed something. + </p> + <p> + “Of course it's no business of mine and I'm sure I hope you are very + happy.” + </p> + <p> + “Perfectly happy,” said T. X. complacently. “You must come out and see me + one Saturday afternoon when I am digging the potatoes. I am a perfect + devil when they let me loose in the vegetable garden.” + </p> + <p> + “Shall we go on?” she said. + </p> + <p> + He could have sworn there were tears in her eyes and manlike he thought + she was vexed with him at his fooling. + </p> + <p> + “I haven't made you cross, have I?” he asked. + </p> + <p> + “Oh no,” she replied. + </p> + <p> + “I mean you don't believe all this rot about my being married and that + sort of thing?” + </p> + <p> + “I'm not interested,” she said, with a shrug of her shoulders, “not very + much. You've been very kind to me and I should be an awful boor if I + wasn't grateful. Of course, I don't care whether you're married or not, + it's nothing to do with me, is it?” + </p> + <p> + “Naturally it isn't,” he replied. “I suppose you aren't married by any + chance?” + </p> + <p> + “Married,” she repeated bitterly; “why, you will make my fourth!” + </p> + <p> + She had hardy got the words out of her mouth before she realized her + terrible error. A second later she was in his arms and he was kissing her + to the scandal of one aged park keeper, one small and dirty-faced little + boy and a moulting duck who seemed to sneer at the proceedings which he + watched through a yellow and malignant eye. + </p> + <p> + “Belinda Mary,” said T. X. at parting, “you have got to give up your + little country establishment, wherever it may be and come back to the + discomforts of Portman Place. Oh, I know you can't come back yet. That + 'somebody' is there, and I can pretty well guess who it is.” + </p> + <p> + “Who?” she challenged. + </p> + <p> + “I rather fancy your mother has come back,” he suggested. + </p> + <p> + A look of scorn dawned into her pretty face. + </p> + <p> + “Good lord, Tommy!” she said in disgust, “you don't think I should keep + mother in the suburbs without her telling the world all about it!” + </p> + <p> + “You're an undutiful little beggar,” he said. + </p> + <p> + They had reached the Horse Guards at Whitehall and he was saying good-bye + to her. + </p> + <p> + “If it comes to a matter of duty,” she answered, “perhaps you will do your + duty and hold up the traffic for me and let me cross this road.” + </p> + <p> + “My dear girl,” he protested, “hold up the traffic?” + </p> + <p> + “Of course,” she said indignantly, “you're a policeman.” + </p> + <p> + “Only when I am in uniform,” he said hastily, and piloted her across the + road. + </p> + <p> + It was a new man who returned to the gloomy office in Whitehall. A man + with a heart that swelled and throbbed with the pride and joy of life's + most precious possession. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XVIII + </h2> + <p> + T. X. sat at his desk, his chin in his hands, his mind remarkably busy. + Grave as the matter was which he was considering, he rose with alacrity to + meet the smiling girl who was ushered through the door by Mansus, + preternaturally solemn and mysterious. + </p> + <p> + She was radiant that day. Her eyes were sparkling with an unusual + brightness. + </p> + <p> + “I've got the most wonderful thing to tell you,” she said, “and I can't + tell you.” + </p> + <p> + “That's a very good beginning,” said T. X., taking her muff from her hand. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, but it's really wonderful,” she cried eagerly, “more wonderful than + anything you have ever heard about.” + </p> + <p> + “We are interested,” said T. X. blandly. + </p> + <p> + “No, no, you mustn't make fun,” she begged, “I can't tell you now, but it + is something that will make you simply—” she was at a loss for a + simile. + </p> + <p> + “Jump out of my skin?” suggested T. X. + </p> + <p> + “I shall astonish you,” she nodded her head solemnly. + </p> + <p> + “I take a lot of astonishing, I warn you,” he smiled; “to know you is to + exhaust one's capacity for surprise.” + </p> + <p> + “That can be either very, very nice or very, very nasty,” she said + cautiously. + </p> + <p> + “But accept it as being very, very nice,” he laughed. “Now come, out with + this tale of yours.” + </p> + <p> + She shook her head very vigorously. + </p> + <p> + “I can't possibly tell you anything,” she said. + </p> + <p> + “Then why the dickens do you begin telling anything for?” he complained, + not without reason. + </p> + <p> + “Because I just want you to know that I do know something.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, Lord!” he groaned. “Of course you know everything. Belinda Mary, + you're really the most wonderful child.” + </p> + <p> + He sat on the edge of her arm-chair and laid his hand on her shoulder. + </p> + <p> + “And you've come to take me out to lunch!” + </p> + <p> + “What were you worrying about when I came in?” she asked. + </p> + <p> + He made a little gesture as if to dismiss the subject. + </p> + <p> + “Nothing very much. You've heard me speak of John Lexman?” + </p> + <p> + She bent her head. + </p> + <p> + “Lexman's the writer of a great many mystery stories, but you've probably + read his books.” + </p> + <p> + She nodded again, and again T. X. noticed the suppressed eagerness in her + eyes. + </p> + <p> + “You're not ill or sickening for anything, are you?” he asked anxiously; + “measles, or mumps or something?” + </p> + <p> + “Don't be silly,” she said; “go on and tell me something about Mr. + Lexman.” + </p> + <p> + “He's going to America,” said T. X., “and before he goes he wants to give + a little lecture.” + </p> + <p> + “A lecture?” + </p> + <p> + “It sounds rum, doesn't it, but that's just what he wants to do.” + </p> + <p> + “Why is he doing it!” she asked. + </p> + <p> + T. X. made a gesture of despair. + </p> + <p> + “That is one of the mysteries which may never be revealed to me, except—” + he pursed his lips and looked thoughtfully at the girl. “There are times,” + he said, “when there is a great struggle going on inside a man between all + the human and better part of him and the baser professional part of him. + One side of me wants to hear this lecture of John Lexman's very much, the + other shrinks from the ordeal.” + </p> + <p> + “Let us talk it over at lunch,” she said practically, and carried him off. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XIX + </h2> + <p> + One would not readily associate the party of top-booted sewermen who + descend nightly to the subterranean passages of London with the stout + viceconsul at Durazzo. Yet it was one unimaginative man who lived in + Lambeth and had no knowledge that there was such a place as Durazzo who + was responsible for bringing this comfortable official out of his bed in + the early hours of the morning causing him—albeit reluctantly and + with violent and insubordinate language—to conduct certain + investigations in the crowded bazaars. + </p> + <p> + At first he was unsuccessful because there were many Hussein Effendis in + Durazzo. He sent an invitation to the American Consul to come over to + tiffin and help him. + </p> + <p> + “Why the dickens the Foreign Office should suddenly be interested in + Hussein Effendi, I cannot for the life of me understand.” + </p> + <p> + “The Foreign Department has to be interested in something, you know,” said + the genial American. “I receive some of the quaintest requests from + Washington; I rather fancy they only wire you to find if they are there.” + </p> + <p> + “Why are you doing this!” + </p> + <p> + “I've seen Hakaat Bey,” said the English official. “I wonder what this + fellow has been doing? There is probably a wigging for me in the offing.” + </p> + <p> + At about the same time the sewerman in the bosom of his own family was + taking loud and noisy sips from a big mug of tea. + </p> + <p> + “Don't you be surprised,” he said to his admiring better half, “if I have + to go up to the Old Bailey to give evidence.” + </p> + <p> + “Lord! Joe!” she said with interest, “what has happened!” + </p> + <p> + The sewer man filled his pipe and told the story with a wealth of rambling + detail. He gave particulars of the hour he had descended the Victoria + Street shaft, of what Bill Morgan had said to him as they were going down, + of what he had said to Harry Carter as they splashed along the low-roofed + tunnel, of how he had a funny feeling that he was going to make a + discovery, and so on and so forth until he reached his long delayed + climax. + </p> + <p> + T. X. waited up very late that night and at twelve o'clock his patience + was rewarded, for the Foreign Office messenger brought a telegram to him. + It was addressed to the Chief Secretary and ran: + </p> + <p> + “No. 847. Yours 63952 of yesterday's date. Begins. Hussein Effendi a + prosperous merchant of this city left for Italy to place his daughter in + convent Marie Theressa, Florence Hussein being Christian. He goes on to + Paris. Apply Ralli Theokritis et Cie., Rue de l'Opera. Ends.” + </p> + <p> + Half an hour later T. X. had a telephone connection through to Paris and + was instructing the British police agent in that city. He received a + further telephone report from Paris the next morning and one which gave + him infinite satisfaction. Very slowly but surely he was gathering + together the pieces of this baffling mystery and was fitting them + together. Hussein Effendi would probably supply the last missing segments. + </p> + <p> + At eight o'clock that night the door opened and the man who represented T. + X. in Paris came in carrying a travelling ulster on his arm. T. X. gave + him a nod and then, as the newcomer stood with the door open, obviously + waiting for somebody to follow him, he said, + </p> + <p> + “Show him in—I will see him alone.” + </p> + <p> + There walked into his office, a tall man wearing a frock coat and a red + fez. He was a man from fifty-five to sixty, powerfully built, with a grave + dark face and a thin fringe of white beard. He salaamed as he entered. + </p> + <p> + “You speak French, I believe,” said T. X. presently. + </p> + <p> + The other bowed. + </p> + <p> + “My agent has explained to you,” said T. X. in French, “that I desire some + information for the purpose of clearing up a crime which has been + committed in this country. I have given you my assurance, if that + assurance was necessary, that you would come to no harm as a result of + anything you might tell me.” + </p> + <p> + “That I understand, Effendi,” said the tall Turk; “the Americans and the + English have always been good friends of mine and I have been frequently + in London. Therefore, I shall be very pleased to be of any help to you.” + </p> + <p> + T. X. walked to a closed bookcase on one side of the room, unlocked it, + took out an object wrapped in white tissue paper. He laid this on the + table, the Turk watching the proceedings with an impassive face. Very + slowly the Commissioner unrolled the little bundle and revealed at last a + long, slim knife, rusted and stained, with a hilt, which in its + untarnished days had evidently been of chased silver. He lifted the dagger + from the table and handed it to the Turk. + </p> + <p> + “This is yours, I believe,” he said softly. + </p> + <p> + The man turned it over, stepping nearer the table that he might secure the + advantage of a better light. He examined the blade near the hilt and + handed the weapon back to T. X. + </p> + <p> + “That is my knife,” he said. + </p> + <p> + T. X. smiled. + </p> + <p> + “You understand, of course, that I saw 'Hussein Effendi of Durazzo' + inscribed in Arabic near the hilt.” + </p> + <p> + The Turk inclined his head. + </p> + <p> + “With this weapon,” T. X. went on, speaking with slow emphasis, “a murder + was committed in this town.” + </p> + <p> + There was no sign of interest or astonishment, or indeed of any emotion + whatever. + </p> + <p> + “It is the will of God,” he said calmly; “these things happen even in a + great city like London.” + </p> + <p> + “It was your knife,” suggested T. X. + </p> + <p> + “But my hand was in Durazzo, Effendi,” said the Turk. + </p> + <p> + He looked at the knife again. + </p> + <p> + “So the Black Roman is dead, Effendi.” + </p> + <p> + “The Black Roman?” asked T. X., a little puzzled. + </p> + <p> + “The Greek they call Kara,” said the Turk; “he was a very wicked man.” + </p> + <p> + T. X. was up on his feet now, leaning across the table and looking at the + other with narrowed eyes. + </p> + <p> + “How did you know it was Kara?” he asked quickly. + </p> + <p> + The Turk shrugged his shoulders. + </p> + <p> + “Who else could it be?” he said; “are not your newspapers filled with the + story?” + </p> + <p> + T. X. sat back again, disappointed and a little annoyed with himself. + </p> + <p> + “That is true, Hussein Effendi, but I did not think you read the papers.” + </p> + <p> + “Neither do I, master,” replied the other coolly, “nor did I know that + Kara had been killed until I saw this knife. How came this in your + possession!” + </p> + <p> + “It was found in a rain sewer,” said T. X., “into which the murderer had + apparently dropped it. But if you have not read the newspapers, Effendi, + then you admit that you know who committed this murder.” + </p> + <p> + The Turk raised his hands slowly to a level with his shoulders. + </p> + <p> + “Though I am a Christian,” he said, “there are many wise sayings of my + father's religion which I remember. And one of these, Effendi, was, 'the + wicked must die in the habitations of the just, by the weapons of the + worthy shall the wicked perish.' Your Excellency, I am a worthy man, for + never have I done a dishonest thing in my life. I have traded fairly with + Greeks, with Italians, have with Frenchmen and with Englishmen, also with + Jews. I have never sought to rob them nor to hurt them. If I have killed + men, God knows it was not because I desired their death, but because their + lives were dangerous to me and to mine. Ask the blade all your questions + and see what answer it gives. Until it speaks I am as dumb as the blade, + for it is also written that 'the soldier is the servant of his sword,' and + also, 'the wise servant is dumb about his master's affairs.'” + </p> + <p> + T. X. laughed helplessly. + </p> + <p> + “I had hoped that you might be able to help me, hoped and feared,” he + said; “if you cannot speak it is not my business to force you either by + threat or by act. I am grateful to you for having come over, although the + visit has been rather fruitless so far as I am concerned.” + </p> + <p> + He smiled again and offered his hand. + </p> + <p> + “Excellency,” said the old Turk soberly, “there are some things in life + that are well left alone and there are moments when justice should be so + blind that she does not see guilt; here is such a moment.” + </p> + <p> + And this ended the interview, one on which T. X. had set very high hopes. + His gloom carried to Portman Place, where he had arranged to meet Belinda + Mary. + </p> + <p> + “Where is Mr. Lexman going to give this famous lecture of his?” was the + question with which she greeted him, “and, please, what is the subject?” + </p> + <p> + “It is on a subject which is of supreme interest to me;” he said gravely; + “he has called his lecture 'The Clue of the Twisted Candle.' There is no + clearer brain being employed in the business of criminal detection than + John Lexman's. Though he uses his genius for the construction of stories, + were it employed in the legitimate business of police work, I am certain + he would make a mark second to none in the world. He is determined on + giving this lecture and he has issued a number of invitations. These + include the Chiefs of the Secret Police of nearly all the civilized + countries of the world. O'Grady is on his way from America, he wirelessed + me this morning to that effect. Even the Chief of the Russian police has + accepted the invitation, because, as you know, this murder has excited a + great deal of interest in police circles everywhere. John Lexman is not + only going to deliver this lecture,” he said slowly, “but he is going to + tell us who committed the murder and how it was committed.” + </p> + <p> + She thought a moment. + </p> + <p> + “Where will it be delivered!” + </p> + <p> + “I don't know,” he said in astonishment; “does that matter?” + </p> + <p> + “It matters a great deal,” she said emphatically, “especially if I want it + delivered in a certain place. Would you induce Mr. Lexman to lecture at my + house?” + </p> + <p> + “At Portman Place!” he asked. + </p> + <p> + She shook her head. + </p> + <p> + “No, I have a house of my own. A furnished house I have rented at + Blackheath. Will you induce Mr. Lexman to give the lecture there?” + </p> + <p> + “But why?” he asked. + </p> + <p> + “Please don't ask questions,” she pleaded, “do this for me, Tommy.” + </p> + <p> + He saw she was in earnest. + </p> + <p> + “I'll write to old Lexman this afternoon,” he promised. + </p> + <p> + John Lexman telephoned his reply. + </p> + <p> + “I should prefer somewhere out of London,” he said, “and since Miss + Bartholomew has some interest in the matter, may I extend my invitation to + her? I promise she shall not be any more shocked than a good woman need + be.” + </p> + <p> + And so it came about that the name of Belinda Mary Bartholomew was added + to the selected list of police chiefs, who were making for London at that + moment to hear from the man who had guaranteed the solution of the story + of Kara and his killing; the unravelment of the mystery which surrounded + his death, and the significance of the twisted candles, which at that + moment were reposing in the Black Museum at Scotland Yard. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XX + </h2> + <p> + The room was a big one and most of the furniture had been cleared out to + admit the guests who had come from the ends of the earth to learn the + story of the twisted candles, and to test John Lexman's theory by their + own. + </p> + <p> + They sat around chatting cheerfully of men and crimes, of great coups + planned and frustrated, of strange deeds committed and undetected. Scraps + of their conversation came to Belinda Mary as she stood in the + chintz-draped doorway which led from the drawing-room to the room she used + as a study. + </p> + <p> + “... do you remember, Sir George, the Bolbrook case! I took the man at + Odessa....” + </p> + <p> + “... the curious thing was that I found no money on the body, only a small + gold charm set with a single emerald, so I knew it was the girl with the + fur bonnet who had...” + </p> + <p> + “... Pinot got away after putting three bullets into me, but I dragged + myself to the window and shot him dead—it was a real good shot...!” + </p> + <p> + They rose to meet her and T. X. introduced her to the men. It was at that + moment that John Lexman was announced. + </p> + <p> + He looked tired, but returned the Commissioner's greeting with a cheerful + mien. He knew all the men present by name, as they knew him. He had a few + sheets of notes, which he laid on the little table which had been placed + for him, and when the introductions were finished he went to this and with + scarcely any preliminary began. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0021" id="link2HCH0021"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXI + </h2> + <p> + THE NARRATIVE OF JOHN LEXMAN + </p> + <p> + “I am, as you may all know, a writer of stories which depend for their + success upon the creation and unravelment of criminological mysteries. The + Chief Commissioner has been good enough to tell you that my stories were + something more than a mere seeking after sensation, and that I endeavoured + in the course of those narratives to propound obscure but possible + situations, and, with the ingenuity that I could command, to offer to + those problems a solution acceptable, not only to the general reader, but + to the police expert. + </p> + <p> + “Although I did not regard my earlier work with any great seriousness and + indeed only sought after exciting situations and incidents, I can see now, + looking back, that underneath the work which seemed at the time + purposeless, there was something very much like a scheme of studies. + </p> + <p> + “You must forgive this egotism in me because it is necessary that I should + make this explanation and you, who are in the main police officers of + considerable experience and discernment, should appreciate the fact that + as I was able to get inside the minds of the fictitious criminals I + portrayed, so am I now able to follow the mind of the man who committed + this murder, or if not to follow his mind, to recreate the psychology of + the slayer of Remington Kara. + </p> + <p> + “In the possession of most of you are the vital facts concerning this man. + You know the type of man he was, you have instances of his terrible + ruthlessness, you know that he was a blot upon God's earth, a vicious + wicked ego, seeking the gratification of that strange blood-lust and + pain-lust, which is to be found in so few criminals.” + </p> + <p> + John Lexman went on to describe the killing of Vassalaro. + </p> + <p> + “I know now how that occurred,” he said. “I had received on the previous + Christmas eve amongst other presents, a pistol from an unknown admirer. + That unknown admirer was Kara, who had planned this murder some three + months ahead. He it was, who sent me the Browning, knowing as he did that + I had never used such a weapon and that therefore I would be chary about + using it. I might have put the pistol away in a cupboard out of reach and + the whole of his carefully thought out plan would have miscarried. + </p> + <p> + “But Kara was systematic in all things. Three weeks after I received the + weapon, a clumsy attempt was made to break into my house in the middle of + the night. It struck me at the time it was clumsy, because the burglar + made a tremendous amount of noise and disappeared soon after he began his + attempt, doing no more damage than to break a window in my dining-room. + Naturally my mind went to the possibility of a further attempt of this + kind, as my house stood on the outskirts of the village, and it was only + natural that I should take the pistol from one of my boxes and put it + somewhere handy. To make doubly sure, Kara came down the next day and + heard the full story of the outrage. + </p> + <p> + “He did not speak of pistols, but I remember now, though I did not + remember at the time, that I mentioned the fact that I had a handy weapon. + A fortnight later a second attempt was made to enter the house. I say an + attempt, but again I do not believe that the intention was at all serious. + The outrage was designed to keep that pistol of mine in a get-at-able + place. + </p> + <p> + “And again Kara came down to see us on the day following the burglary, and + again I must have told him, though I have no distinct recollection of the + fact, of what had happened the previous night. It would have been + unnatural if I had not mentioned the fact, as it was a matter which had + formed a subject of discussion between myself, my wife and the servants. + </p> + <p> + “Then came the threatening letter, with Kara providentially at hand. On + the night of the murder, whilst Kara was still in my house, I went out to + find his chauffeur. Kara remained a few minutes with my wife and then on + some excuse went into the library. There he loaded the pistol, placing one + cartridge in the chamber, and trusting to luck that I did not pull the + trigger until I had it pointed at my victim. Here he took his biggest + chance, because, before sending the weapon to me, he had had the spring of + the Browning so eased that the slightest touch set it off and, as you + know, the pistol being automatic, the explosion of one cartridge, + reloading and firing the next and so on, it was probably that a chance + touch would have brought his scheme to nought—probably me also. + </p> + <p> + “Of what happened on that night you are aware.” + </p> + <p> + He went on to tell of his trial and conviction and skimmed over the life + he led until that morning on Dartmoor. + </p> + <p> + “Kara knew my innocence had been proved and his hatred for me being his + great obsession, since I had the thing he had wanted but no longer wanted, + let that be understood—he saw the misery he had planned for me and + my dear wife being brought to a sudden end. He had, by the way, already + planned and carried his plan into execution, a system of tormenting her. + </p> + <p> + “You did not know,” he turned to T. X., “that scarcely a month passed, but + some disreputable villain called at her flat, with a story that he had + been released from Portland or Wormwood Scrubbs that morning and that he + had seen me. The story each messenger brought was one sufficient to break + the heart of any but the bravest woman. It was a story of ill-treatment by + brutal officials, of my illness, of my madness, of everything calculated + to harrow the feelings of a tender-hearted and faithful wife. + </p> + <p> + “That was Kara's scheme. Not to hurt with the whip or with the knife, but + to cut deep at the heart with his evil tongue, to cut to the raw places of + the mind. When he found that I was to be released,—he may have + guessed, or he may have discovered by some underhand method; that a pardon + was about to be signed,—he conceived his great plan. He had less + than two days to execute it. + </p> + <p> + “Through one of his agents he discovered a warder who had been in some + trouble with the authorities, a man who was avaricious and was even then + on the brink of being discharged from the service for trafficking with + prisoners. The bribe he offered this man was a heavy one and the warder + accepted. + </p> + <p> + “Kara had purchased a new monoplane and as you know he was an excellent + aviator. With this new machine he flew to Devon and arrived at dawn in one + of the unfrequented parts of the moor. + </p> + <p> + “The story of my own escape needs no telling. My narrative really begins + from the moment I put my foot upon the deck of the Mpret. The first person + I asked to see was, naturally, my wife. Kara, however, insisted on my + going to the cabin he had prepared and changing my clothes, and until then + I did not realise I was still in my convict's garb. A clean change was + waiting for me, and the luxury of soft shirts and well-fitting garments + after the prison uniform I cannot describe. + </p> + <p> + “After I was dressed I was taken by the Greek steward to the larger + stateroom and there I found my darling waiting for me.” + </p> + <p> + His voice sank almost to a whisper, and it was a minute or two before he + had mastered his emotions. + </p> + <p> + “She had been suspicious of Kara, but he had been very insistent. He had + detailed the plans and shown her the monoplane, but even then she would + not trust herself on board, and she had been waiting in a motor-boat, + moving parallel with the yacht, until she saw the landing and realized, as + she thought, that Kara was not playing her false. The motor-boat had been + hired by Kara and the two men inside were probably as well-bribed as the + warder. + </p> + <p> + “The joy of freedom can only be known to those who have suffered the + horrors of restraint. That is a trite enough statement, but when one is + describing elemental things there is no room for subtlety. The voyage was + a fairly eventless one. We saw very little of Kara, who did not intrude + himself upon us, and our main excitement lay in the apprehension that we + should be held up by a British destroyer or, that when we reached + Gibraltar, we should be searched by the Brit's authorities. Kara had + foreseen that possibility and had taken in enough coal to last him for the + run. + </p> + <p> + “We had a fairly stormy passage in the Mediterranean, but after that + nothing happened until we arrived at Durazzo. We had to go ashore in + disguise, because Kara told us that the English Consul might see us and + make some trouble. We wore Turkish dresses, Grace heavily veiled and I + wearing a greasy old kaftan which, with my somewhat emaciated face and my + unshaven appearance, passed me without comment. + </p> + <p> + “Kara's home was and is about eighteen miles from Durazzo. It is not on + the main road, but it is reached by following one of the rocky mountain + paths which wind and twist among the hills to the south-east of the town. + The country is wild and mainly uncultivated. We had to pass through swamps + and skirt huge lagoons as we mounted higher and higher from terrace to + terrace and came to the roads which crossed the mountains. + </p> + <p> + “Kara's, palace, you could call it no less, is really built within sight + of the sea. It is on the Acroceraunian Peninsula near Cape Linguetta. + Hereabouts the country is more populated and better cultivated. We passed + great slopes entirely covered with mulberry and olive trees, whilst in the + valleys there were fields of maize and corn. The palazzo stands on a lofty + plateau. It is approached by two paths, which can be and have been well + defended in the past against the Sultan's troops or against the bands + which have been raised by rival villages with the object of storming and + plundering this stronghold. + </p> + <p> + “The Skipetars, a blood-thirsty crowd without pity or remorse, were + faithful enough to their chief, as Kara was. He paid them so well that it + was not profitable to rob him; moreover he kept their own turbulent + elements fully occupied with the little raids which he or his agents + organized from time to time. The palazzo was built rather in the Moorish + than in the Turkish style. + </p> + <p> + “It was a sort of Eastern type to which was grafted an Italian + architecture—a house of white-columned courts, of big paved yards, + fountains and cool, dark rooms. + </p> + <p> + “When I passed through the gates I realized for the first time something + of Kara's importance. There were a score of servants, all Eastern, + perfectly trained, silent and obsequious. He led us to his own room. + </p> + <p> + “It was a big apartment with divans running round the wall, the most + ornate French drawing room suite and an enormous Persian carpet, one of + the finest of the kind that has ever been turned out of Shiraz. Here, let + me say, that throughout the trip his attitude to me had been perfectly + friendly and towards Grace all that I could ask of my best friend, + considerate and tactful. + </p> + <p> + “'We had hardly reached his room before he said to me with that bonhomie + which he had observed throughout the trip, 'You would like to see your + room?' + </p> + <p> + “I expressed a wish to that effect. He clapped his hands and a big + Albanian servant came through the curtained doorway, made the usual + salaam, and Kara spoke to him a few words in a language which I presume + was Turkish. + </p> + <p> + “'He will show you the way,' said Kara with his most genial smile. + </p> + <p> + “I followed the servant through the curtains which had hardly fallen + behind me before I was seized by four men, flung violently on the ground, + a filthy tarbosch was thrust into my mouth and before I knew what was + happening I was bound hand and foot. + </p> + <p> + “As I realised the gross treachery of the man, my first frantic thoughts + were of Grace and her safety. I struggled with the strength of three men, + but they were too many for me and I was dragged along the passage, a door + was opened and I was flung into a bare room. I must have been lying on the + floor for half an hour when they came for me, this time accompanied by a + middle-aged man named Savolio, who was either an Italian or a Greek. + </p> + <p> + “He spoke English fairly well and he made it clear to me that I had to + behave myself. I was led back to the room from whence I had come and found + Kara sitting in one of those big armchairs which he affected, smoking a + cigarette. Confronting him, still in her Turkish dress, was poor Grace. + She was not bound I was pleased to see, but when on my entrance she rose + and made as if to come towards me, she was unceremoniously thrown back by + the guardian who stood at her side. + </p> + <p> + “'Mr. John Lexman,' drawled Kara, 'you are at the beginning of a great + disillusionment. I have a few things to tell you which will make you feel + rather uncomfortable.' It was then that I heard for the first time that my + pardon had been signed and my innocence discovered. + </p> + <p> + “'Having taken a great deal of trouble to get you in prison,' said Kara, + 'it isn't likely that I'm going to allow all my plans to be undone, and my + plan is to make you both extremely uncomfortable.' + </p> + <p> + “He did not raise his voice, speaking still in the same conversational + tone, suave and half amused. + </p> + <p> + “'I hate you for two things,' he said, and ticked them off on his fingers: + 'the first is that you took the woman that I wanted. To a man of my + temperament that is an unpardonable crime. I have never wanted women + either as friends or as amusement. I am one of the few people in the world + who are self-sufficient. It happened that I wanted your wife and she + rejected me because apparently she preferred you.' + </p> + <p> + “He looked at me quizzically. + </p> + <p> + “'You are thinking at this moment,' he went on slowly, 'that I want her + now, and that it is part of my revenge that I shall put her straight in my + harem. Nothing is farther from my desires or my thoughts. The Black Roman + is not satisfied with the leavings of such poor trash as you. I hate you + both equally and for both of you there is waiting an experience more + terrible than even your elastic imagination can conjure. You understand + what that means!' he asked me still retaining his calm. + </p> + <p> + “I did not reply. I dared not look at Grace, to whom he turned. + </p> + <p> + “'I believe you love your husband, my friend,' he said; 'your love will be + put to a very severe test. You shall see him the mere wreckage of the man + he is. You shall see him brutalized below the level of the cattle in the + field. I will give you both no joys, no ease of mind. From this moment you + are slaves, and worse than slaves.' + </p> + <p> + “He clapped his hands. The interview was ended and from that moment I only + saw Grace once.” + </p> + <p> + John Lexman stopped and buried his face in his hands. + </p> + <p> + “They took me to an underground dungeon cut in the solid rock. In many + ways it resembled the dungeon of the Chateau of Chillon, in that its only + window looked out upon a wild, storm-swept lake and its floor was jagged + rock. I have called it underground, as indeed it was on that side, for the + palazzo was built upon a steep slope running down from the spur of the + hills. + </p> + <p> + “They chained me by the legs and left me to my own devices. Once a day + they gave me a little goat flesh and a pannikin of water and once a week + Kara would come in and outside the radius of my chain he would open a + little camp stool and sitting down smoke his cigarette and talk. My God! + the things that man said! The things he described! The horrors he related! + And always it was Grace who was the centre of his description. And he + would relate the stories he was telling to her about myself. I cannot + describe them. They are beyond repetition.” + </p> + <p> + John Lexman shuddered and closed his eyes. + </p> + <p> + “That was his weapon. He did not confront me with the torture of my + darling, he did not bring tangible evidence of her suffering—he just + sat and talked, describing with a remarkable clarity of language which + seemed incredible in a foreigner, the 'amusements' which he himself had + witnessed. + </p> + <p> + “I thought I should go mad. Twice I sprang at him and twice the chain + about my legs threw me headlong on that cruel floor. Once he brought the + jailer in to whip me, but I took the whipping with such phlegm that it + gave him no satisfaction. I told you I had seen Grace only once and this + is how it happened. + </p> + <p> + “It was after the flogging, and Kara, who was a veritable demon in his + rage, planned to have his revenge for my indifference. They brought Grace + out upon a boat and rowed the boat to where I could see it from my window. + There the whip which had been applied to me was applied to her. I can't + tell you any more about that,” he said brokenly, “but I wish, you don't + know how fervently, that I had broken down and given the dog the + satisfaction he wanted. My God! It was horrible! + </p> + <p> + “When the winter came they used to take me out with chains on my legs to + gather in wood from the forest. There was no reason why I should be given + this work, but the truth was, as I discovered from Salvolio, that Kara + thought my dungeon was too warm. It was sheltered from the winds by the + hill behind and even on the coldest days and nights it was not unbearable. + Then Kara went away for some time. I think he must have gone to England, + and he came back in a white fury. One of his big plans had gone wrong and + the mental torture he inflicted upon me was more acute than ever. + </p> + <p> + “In the old days he used to come once a week; now he came almost every + day. He usually arrived in the afternoon and I was surprised one night to + be awakened from my sleep to see him standing at the door, a lantern in + his hand, his inevitable cigarette in his mouth. He always wore the + Albanian costume when he was in the country, those white kilted skirts and + zouave jackets which the hillsmen affect and, if anything, it added to his + demoniacal appearance. He put down the lantern and leant against the wall. + </p> + <p> + “'I'm afraid that wife of yours is breaking up, Lexman,' he drawled; 'she + isn't the good, stout, English stuff that I thought she was.' + </p> + <p> + “I made no reply. I had found by bitter experience that if I intruded into + the conversation, I should only suffer the more. + </p> + <p> + “'I have sent down to Durazzo to get a doctor,' he went on; 'naturally + having taken all this trouble I don't want to lose you by death. She is + breaking up,' he repeated with relish and yet with an undertone of + annoyance in his voice; 'she asked for you three times this morning.' + </p> + <p> + “I kept myself under control as I had never expected that a man so + desperately circumstanced could do. + </p> + <p> + “'Kara,' I said as quietly as I could, 'what has she done that she should + deserve this hell in which she has lived?' + </p> + <p> + “He sent out a long ring of smoke and watched its progress across the + dungeon. + </p> + <p> + “'What has she done?' he said, keeping his eye on the ring—I shall + always remember every look, every gesture, and every intonation of his + voice. 'Why, she has done all that a woman can do for a man like me. She + has made me feel little. Until I had a rebuff from her, I had all the + world at my feet, Lexman. I did as I liked. If I crooked my little finger, + people ran after me and that one experience with her has broken me. Oh, + don't think,' he went on quickly, 'that I am broken in love. I never loved + her very much, it was just a passing passion, but she killed my + self-confidence. After then, whenever I came to a crucial moment in my + affairs, when the big manner, the big certainty was absolutely necessary + for me to carry my way, whenever I was most confident of myself and my + ability and my scheme, a vision of this damned girl rose and I felt that + momentary weakening, that memory of defeat, which made all the difference + between success and failure. + </p> + <p> + “'I hated her and I hate her still,' he said with vehemence; 'if she dies + I shall hate her more because she will remain everlastingly unbroken to + menace my thoughts and spoil my schemes through all eternity.' + </p> + <p> + “He leant forward, his elbows on his knees, his clenched fist under his + chin—how well I can see him!—and stared at me. + </p> + <p> + “'I could have been king here in this land,' he said, waving his hand + toward the interior, 'I could have bribed and shot my way to the throne of + Albania. Don't you realize what that means to a man like me? There is + still a chance and if I could keep your wife alive, if I could see her + broken in reason and in health, a poor, skeleton, gibbering thing that + knelt at my feet when I came near her I should recover the mastery of + myself. Believe me,' he said, nodding his head, 'your wife will have the + best medical advice that it is possible to obtain.' + </p> + <p> + “Kara went out and I did not see him again for a very long time. He sent + word, just a scrawled note in the morning, to say my wife had died.” + </p> + <p> + John Lexman rose up from his seat, and paced the apartment, his head upon + his breast. + </p> + <p> + “From that moment,” he said, “I lived only for one thing, to punish + Remington Kara. And gentlemen, I punished him.” + </p> + <p> + He stood in the centre of the room and thumped his broad chest with his + clenched hand. + </p> + <p> + “I killed Remington Kara,” he said, and there was a little gasp of + astonishment from every man present save one. That one was T. X. Meredith, + who had known all the time. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0022" id="link2HCH0022"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXII + </h2> + <p> + After a while Lexman resumed his story. + </p> + <p> + “I told you that there was a man at the palazzo named Salvolio. Salvolio + was a man who had been undergoing a life sentence in one of the prisons of + southern Italy. In some mysterious fashion he escaped and got across the + Adriatic in a small boat. How Kara found him I don't know. Salvolio was a + very uncommunicative person. I was never certain whether he was a Greek or + an Italian. All that I am sure about is that he was the most unmitigated + villain next to his master that I have ever met. + </p> + <p> + “He was a quick man with his knife and I have seen him kill one of the + guards whom he had thought was favouring me in the matter of diet with + less compunction than you would kill a rat. + </p> + <p> + “It was he who gave me this scar,” John Lexman pointed to his cheek. “In + his master's absence he took upon himself the task of conducting a clumsy + imitation of Kara's persecution. He gave me, too, the only glimpse I ever + had of the torture poor Grace underwent. She hated dogs, and Kara must + have come to know this and in her sleeping room—she was apparently + better accommodated than I—he kept four fierce beasts so chained + that they could almost reach her. + </p> + <p> + “Some reference to my wife from this low brute maddened me beyond + endurance and I sprang at him. He whipped out his knife and struck at me + as I fell and I escaped by a miracle. He evidently had orders not to touch + me, for he was in a great panic of mind, as he had reason to be, because + on Kara's return he discovered the state of my face, started an enquiry + and had Salvolio taken to the courtyard in the true eastern style and + bastinadoed until his feet were pulp. + </p> + <p> + “You may be sure the man hated me with a malignity which almost rivalled + his employer's. After Grace's death Kara went away suddenly and I was left + to the tender mercy of this man. Evidently he had been given a fairly free + hand. The principal object of Kara's hate being dead, he took little + further interest in me, or else wearied of his hobby. Salvolio began his + persecutions by reducing my diet. Fortunately I ate very little. + Nevertheless the supplies began to grow less and less, and I was beginning + to feel the effects of this starvation system when there happened a thing + which changed the whole course of my life and opened to me a way to + freedom and to vengeance. + </p> + <p> + “Salvolio did not imitate the austerity of his master and in Kara's + absence was in the habit of having little orgies of his own. He would + bring up dancing girls from Durazzo for his amusement and invite prominent + men in the neighbourhood to his feasts and entertainments, for he was + absolutely lord of the palazzo when Kara was away and could do pretty well + as he liked. On this particular night the festivities had been more than + usually prolonged, for as near as I could judge by the day-light which was + creeping in through my window it was about four o'clock in the morning + when the big steel-sheeted door was opened and Salvolio came in, more than + a little drunk. He brought with him, as I judged, one of his dancing + girls, who apparently was privileged to see the sights of the palace. + </p> + <p> + “For a long time he stood in the doorway talking incoherently in a + language which I think must have been Turkish, for I caught one or two + words. + </p> + <p> + “Whoever the girl was, she seemed a little frightened, I could see that, + because she shrank back from him though his arm was about her shoulders + and he was half supporting his weight upon her. There was fear, not only + in the curious little glances she shot at me from time to time, but also + in the averted face. Her story I was to learn. She was not of the class + from whence Salvolio found the dancers who from time to time came up to + the palace for his amusement and the amusement of his guests. She was the + daughter of a Turkish merchant of Scutari who had been received into the + Catholic Church. + </p> + <p> + “Her father had gone down to Durazzo during the first Balkan war and then + Salvolio had seen the girl unknown to her parent, and there had been some + rough kind of courtship which ended in her running away on this very day + and joining her ill-favoured lover at the palazzo. I tell you this because + the fact had some bearing on my own fate. + </p> + <p> + “As I say, the girl was frightened and made as though to go from the + dungeon. She was probably scared both by the unkempt prisoner and by the + drunken man at her side. He, however, could not leave without showing to + her something of his authority. He came lurching over near where I lay, + his long knife balanced in his hand ready for emergencies, and broke into + a string of vituperations of the character to which I was quite hardened. + </p> + <p> + “Then he took a flying kick at me and got home in my ribs, but again I + experienced neither a sense of indignity nor any great hurt. Salvolio had + treated me like this before and I had survived it. In the midst of the + tirade, looking past him, I was a new witness to an extraordinary scene. + </p> + <p> + “The girl stood in the open doorway, shrinking back against the door, + looking with distress and pity at the spectacle which Salvolio's brutality + afforded. Then suddenly there appeared beside her a tall Turk. He was + grey-bearded and forbidding. She looked round and saw him, and her mouth + opened to utter a cry, but with a gesture he silenced her and pointed to + the darkness outside. + </p> + <p> + “Without a word she cringed past him, her sandalled feet making no noise. + All this time Salvolio was continuing his stream of abuse, but he must + have seen the wonder in my eyes for he stopped and turned. + </p> + <p> + “The old Turk took one stride forward, encircled his body with his left + arm, and there they stood grotesquely like a couple who were going to + start to waltz. The Turk was a head taller than Salvolio and, as I could + see, a man of immense strength. + </p> + <p> + “They looked at one another, face to face, Salvolio rapidly recovering his + senses... and then the Turk gave him a gentle punch in the ribs. That is + what it seemed like to me, but Salvolio coughed horribly, went limp in the + other's arms and dropped with a thud to the ground. The Turk leant down + soberly and wiped his long knife on the other's jacket before he put it + back in the sash at his waist. + </p> + <p> + “Then with a glance at me he turned to go, but stopped at the door and + looked back thoughtfully. He said something in Turkish which I could not + understand, then he spoke in French. + </p> + <p> + “'Who are you?' he asked. + </p> + <p> + “In as few words as possible I explained. He came over and looked at the + manacle about my leg and shook his head. + </p> + <p> + “'You will never be able to get that undone,' he said. + </p> + <p> + “He caught hold of the chain, which was a fairly long one, bound it twice + round his arm and steadying his arm across his thigh, he turned with a + sudden jerk. There was a smart 'snap' as the chain parted. He caught me by + the shoulder and pulled me to my feet. 'Put the chain about your waist, + Effendi,' he said, and he took a revolver from his belt and handed it to + me. + </p> + <p> + “'You may need this before we get back to Durazzo,' he said. His belt was + literally bristling with weapons—I saw three revolvers beside the + one I possessed—and he had, evidently come prepared for trouble. We + made our way from the dungeon into the clean-smelling world without. + </p> + <p> + “It was the second time I had been in the open air for eighteen months and + my knees were trembling under me with weakness and excitement. The old man + shut the prison door behind us and walked on until we came up to the girl + waiting for us by the lakeside. She was weeping softly and he spoke to her + a few words in a low voice and her weeping ceased. + </p> + <p> + “'This daughter of mine will show us the way,' he said, 'I do not know + this part of the country—she knows it too well.' + </p> + <p> + “To cut a long story short,” said Lexman, “we reached Durazzo in the + afternoon. There was no attempt made to follow us up and neither my + absence nor the body of Salvolio were discovered until late in the + afternoon. You must remember that nobody but Salvolio was allowed into my + prison and therefore nobody had the courage to make any investigations. + </p> + <p> + “The old man got me to his house without being observed, and brought a + brother-in-law or some relative of his to remove the anklet. The name of + my host was Hussein Effendi. + </p> + <p> + “That same night we left with a little caravan to visit some of the old + man's relatives. He was not certain what would be the consequence of his + act, and for safety's sake took this trip, which would enable him if need + be to seek sanctuary with some of the wilder Turkish tribes, who would + give him protection. + </p> + <p> + “In that three months I saw Albania as it is—it was an experience + never to be forgotten! + </p> + <p> + “If there is a better man in God's world than Hiabam Hussein Effendi, I + have yet to meet him. It was he who provided me with money to leave + Albania. I begged from him, too, the knife with which he had killed + Salvolio. He had discovered that Kara was in England and told me something + of the Greek's occupation which I had not known before. I crossed to Italy + and went on to Milan. There it was that I learnt that an eccentric + Englishman who had arrived a few days previously on one of the South + American boats at Genoa, was in my hotel desperately ill. + </p> + <p> + “My hotel I need hardly tell you was not a very expensive one and we were + evidently the only two Englishmen in the place. I could do no less than go + up and see what I could do for the poor fellow who was pretty well gone + when I saw him. I seemed to remember having seen him before and when + looking round for some identification I discovered his name I readily + recalled the circumstance. + </p> + <p> + “It was George Gathercole, who had returned from South America. He was + suffering from malarial fever and blood poisoning and for a week, with an + Italian doctor, I fought as hard as any man could fight for his life. He + was a trying patient,” John Lexman smiled suddenly at the recollection, + “vitriolic in his language, impatient and imperious in his attitude to his + friends. He was, for example, terribly sensitive about his lost arm and + would not allow either the doctor or my-self to enter the room until he + was covered to the neck, nor would he eat or drink in our presence. Yet he + was the bravest of the brave, careless of himself and only fretful because + he had not time to finish his new book. His indomitable spirit did not + save him. He died on the 17th of January of this year. I was in Genoa at + the time, having gone there at his request to save his belongings. When I + returned he had been buried. I went through his papers and it was then + that I conceived my idea of how I might approach Kara. + </p> + <p> + “I found a letter from the Greek, which had been addressed to Buenos + Ayres, to await arrival, and then I remembered in a flash, how Kara had + told me he had sent George Gathercole to South America to report upon + possible gold formations. I was determined to kill Kara, and determined to + kill him in such a way that I myself would cover every trace of my + complicity. + </p> + <p> + “Even as he had planned my downfall, scheming every step and covering his + trail, so did I plan to bring about his death that no suspicion should + fall on me. + </p> + <p> + “I knew his house. I knew something of his habits. I knew the fear in + which he went when he was in England and away from the feudal guards who + had surrounded him in Albania. I knew of his famous door with its steel + latch and I was planning to circumvent all these precautions and bring to + him not only the death he deserved, but a full knowledge of his fate + before he died. + </p> + <p> + “Gathercole had some money,—about 140 pounds—I took 100 pounds + of this for my own use, knowing that I should have sufficient in London to + recompense his heirs, and the remainder of the money with all such + documents as he had, save those which identified him with Kara, I handed + over to the British Consul. + </p> + <p> + “I was not unlike the dead man. My beard had grown wild and I knew enough + of Gathercole's eccentricities to live the part. The first step I took was + to announce my arrival by inference. I am a fairly good journalist with a + wide general knowledge and with this, corrected by reference to the + necessary books which I found in the British Museum library, I was able to + turn out a very respectable article on Patagonia. + </p> + <p> + “This I sent to The Times with one of Gathercole's cards and, as you know, + it was printed. My next step was to find suitable lodgings between Chelsea + and Scotland Yard. I was fortunate in being able to hire a furnished flat, + the owner of which was going to the south of France for three months. I + paid the rent in advance and since I dropped all the eccentricities I had + assumed to support the character of Gathercole, I must have impressed the + owner, who took me without references. + </p> + <p> + “I had several suits of new clothes made, not in London,” he smiled, “but + in Manchester, and again I made myself as trim as possible to avoid + after-identification. When I had got these together in my flat, I chose my + day. In the morning I sent two trunks with most of my personal belongings + to the Great Midland Hotel. + </p> + <p> + “In the afternoon I went to Cadogan Square and hung about until I saw Kara + drive off. It was my first view of him since I had left Albania and it + required all my self-control to prevent me springing at him in the street + and tearing at him with my hands. + </p> + <p> + “Once he was out of sight I went to the house adopting all the style and + all the mannerisms of poor Gathercole. My beginning was unfortunate for, + with a shock, I recognised in the valet a fellow-convict who had been with + me in the warder's cottage on the morning of my escape from Dartmoor. + There was no mistaking him, and when I heard his voice I was certain. + Would he recognise me I wondered, in spite of my beard and my eye-glasses? + </p> + <p> + “Apparently he did not. I gave him every chance. I thrust my face into his + and on my second visit challenged him, in the eccentric way which poor old + Gathercole had, to test the grey of my beard. For the moment however, I + was satisfied with my brief experiment and after a reasonable interval I + went away, returning to my place off Victoria Street and waiting till the + evening. + </p> + <p> + “In my observation of the house, whilst I was waiting for Kara to depart, + I had noticed that there were two distinct telephone wires running down to + the roof. I guessed, rather than knew, that one of these telephones was a + private wire and, knowing something of Kara's fear, I presumed that that + wire would lead to a police office, or at any rate to a guardian of some + kind or other. Kara had the same arrangement in Albania, connecting the + palazzo with the gendarme posts at Alesso. This much Hussein told me. + </p> + <p> + “That night I made a reconnaissance of the house and saw Kara's window was + lit and at ten minutes past ten I rang the bell and I think it was then + that I applied the test of the beard. Kara was in his room, the valet told + me, and led the way upstairs. I had come prepared to deal with this valet + for I had an especial reason for wishing that he should not be + interrogated by the police. On a plain card I had written the number he + bore in Dartmoor and had added the words, 'I know you, get out of here + quick.' + </p> + <p> + “As he turned to lead the way upstairs I flung the envelope containing the + card on the table in the hall. In an inside pocket, as near to my body as + I could put them, I had the two candles. How I should use them both I had + already decided. The valet ushered me into Kara's room and once more I + stood in the presence of the man who had killed my girl and blotted out + all that was beautiful in life for me.” + </p> + <p> + There was a breathless silence when he paused. T. X. leaned back in his + chair, his head upon his breast, his arms folded, his eyes watching the + other intently. + </p> + <p> + The Chief Commissioner, with a heavy frown and pursed lips, sat stroking + his moustache and looking under his shaggy eyebrows at the speaker. The + French police officer, his hands thrust deep in his pockets, his head on + one side, was taking in every word eagerly. The sallow-faced Russian, + impassive of face, might have been a carved ivory mask. O'Grady, the + American, the stump of a dead cigar between his teeth, shifted impatiently + with every pause as though he would hurry forward the denouement. + </p> + <p> + Presently John Lexman went on. + </p> + <p> + “He slipped from the bed and came across to meet me as I closed the door + behind me. + </p> + <p> + “'Ah, Mr. Gathercole,' he said, in that silky tone of his, and held out + his hand. + </p> + <p> + “I did not speak. I just looked at him with a sort of fierce joy in my + heart the like of which I had never before experienced. + </p> + <p> + “'And then he saw in my eyes the truth and half reached for the telephone. + </p> + <p> + “But at that moment I was on him. He was a child in my hands. All the + bitter anguish he had brought upon me, all the hardships of starved days + and freezing nights had strengthened and hardened me. I had come back to + London disguised with a false arm and this I shook free. It was merely a + gauntlet of thin wood which I had had made for me in Paris. + </p> + <p> + “I flung him back on the bed and half knelt, half laid on him. + </p> + <p> + “'Kara,' I said, 'you are going to die, a more merciful death than my wife + died.' + </p> + <p> + “He tried to speak. His soft hands gesticulated wildly, but I was half + lying on one arm and held the other. + </p> + <p> + “I whispered in his ear: + </p> + <p> + “'Nobody will know who killed you, Kara, think of that! I shall go scot + free—and you will be the centre of a fine mystery! All your letters + will be read, all your life will be examined and the world will know you + for what you are!' + </p> + <p> + “I released his arm for just as long as it took to draw my knife and + strike. I think he died instantly,” John Lexman said simply. + </p> + <p> + “I left him where he was and went to the door. I had not much time to + spare. I took the candles from my pocket. They were already ductile from + the heat of my body. + </p> + <p> + “I lifted up the steel latch of the door and propped up the latch with the + smaller of the two candles, one end of which was on the middle socket and + the other beneath the latch. The heat of the room I knew would still + further soften the candle and let the latch down in a short time. + </p> + <p> + “I was prepared for the telephone by his bedside though I did not know to + whither it led. The presence of the paper-knife decided me. I balanced it + across the silver cigarette box so that one end came under the telephone + receiver; under the other end I put the second candle which I had to cut + to fit. On top of the paper-knife at the candle end I balanced the only + two books I could find in the room, and fortunately they were heavy. + </p> + <p> + “I had no means of knowing how long it would take to melt the candle to a + state of flexion which would allow the full weight of the books to bear + upon the candle end of the paper-knife and fling off the receiver. I was + hoping that Fisher had taken my warning and had gone. When I opened the + door softly, I heard his footsteps in the hall below. There was nothing to + do but to finish the play. + </p> + <p> + “I turned and addressed an imaginary conversation to Kara. It was + horrible, but there was something about it which aroused in me a curious + sense of humour and I wanted to laugh and laugh and laugh! + </p> + <p> + “I heard the man coming up the stairs and closed the door gingerly. What + length of time would it take for the candle to bend! + </p> + <p> + “To completely establish the alibi I determined to hold Fisher in + conversation and this was all the easier since apparently he had not seen + the envelope I had left on the table downstairs. I had not long to wait + for suddenly with a crash I heard the steel latch fall in its place. Under + the effect of the heat the candle had bent sooner than I had expected. I + asked Fisher what was the meaning of the sound and he explained. I passed + down the stairs talking all the time. I found a cab at Sloane Square and + drove to my lodgings. Underneath my overcoat I was partly dressed in + evening kit. + </p> + <p> + “Ten minutes after I entered the door of my flat I came out a beardless + man about town, not to be distinguished from the thousand others who would + be found that night walking the promenade of any of the great music-halls. + From Victoria Street I drove straight to Scotland Yard. It was no more + than a coincidence that whilst I should have been speaking with you all, + the second candle should have bent and the alarm be given in the very + office in which I was sitting. + </p> + <p> + “I assure you all in all earnestness that I did not suspect the cause of + that ringing until Mr. Mansus spoke. + </p> + <p> + “There, gentlemen, is my story!” He threw out his arms. + </p> + <p> + “You may do with me as you will. Kara was a murderer, dyed a hundred times + in innocent blood. I have done all that I set myself to do—that and + no more—that and no less. I had thought to go away to America, but + the nearer the day of my departure approached, the more vivid became the + memory of the plans which she and I had formed, my girl... my poor + martyred girl!” + </p> + <p> + He sat at the little table, his hands clasped before him, his face lined + and white. + </p> + <p> + “And that is the end!” he said suddenly, with a wry smile. + </p> + <p> + “Not quite!” T. X. swung round with a gasp. It was Belinda Mary who spoke. + </p> + <p> + “I can carry it on,” she said. + </p> + <p> + She was wonderfully self-possessed, thought T. X., but then T. X. never + thought anything of her but that she was “wonderfully” something or the + other. + </p> + <p> + “Most of your story is true, Mr. Lexman,” said this astonishing girl, + oblivious of the amazed eyes that were staring at her, “but Kara deceived + you in one respect.” + </p> + <p> + “What do you mean?” asked John Lexman, rising unsteadily to his feet. + </p> + <p> + For answer she rose and walked back to the door with the chintz curtains + and flung it open: There was a wait which seemed an eternity, and then + through the doorway came a girl, slim and grave and beautiful. + </p> + <p> + “My God!” whispered T. X. “Grace Lexman!” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0023" id="link2HCH0023"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXIII + </h2> + <p> + They went out and left them alone, two people who found in this moment a + heaven which is not beyond the reach of humanity, but which is seldom + attained to. Belinda Mary had an eager audience all to her very self. + </p> + <p> + “Of course she didn't die,” she said scornfully. “Kara was playing on his + fears all the time. He never even harmed her—in the way Mr. Lexman + feared. He told Mrs. Lexman that her husband was dead just as he told John + Lexman his wife was gone. What happened was that he brought her back to + England—” + </p> + <p> + “Who?” asked T. X., incredulously. + </p> + <p> + “Grace Lexman,” said the girl, with a smile. “You wouldn't think it + possible, but when you realize that he had a yacht of his own and that he + could travel up from whatever landing place he chose to his house in + Cadogan Square by motorcar and that he could take her straight away into + his cellar without disturbing his household, you'll understand that the + only difficulty he had was in landing her. It was in the lower cellar that + I found her.” + </p> + <p> + “You found her in the cellar?” demanded the Chief Commissioner. + </p> + <p> + The girl nodded. + </p> + <p> + “I found her and the dog—you heard how Kara terrified her—and + I killed the dog with my own hands,” she said a little proudly, and then + shivered. “It was very beastly,” she admitted. + </p> + <p> + “And she's been living with you all this time and you've said nothing!” + asked T. X., incredulously. Belinda Mary nodded. + </p> + <p> + “And that is why you didn't want me to know where you were living?” She + nodded again. + </p> + <p> + “You see she was very ill,” she said, “and I had to nurse her up, and of + course I knew that it was Lexman who had killed Kara and I couldn't tell + you about Grace Lexman without betraying him. So when Mr. Lexman decided + to tell his story, I thought I'd better supply the grand denouement.” + </p> + <p> + The men looked at one another. + </p> + <p> + “What are you going to do about Lexman?” asked the Chief Commissioner, + “and, by the way, T. X., how does all this fit your theories!” + </p> + <p> + “Fairly well,” replied T. X. coolly; “obviously the man who committed the + murder was the man introduced into the room as Gathercole and as obviously + it was not Gathercole, although to all appearance, he had lost his left + arm.” + </p> + <p> + “Why obvious?” asked the Chief Commissioner. + </p> + <p> + “Because,” answered T. X. Meredith, “the real Gathercole had lost his + right arm—that was the one error Lexman made.” + </p> + <p> + “H'm,” the Chief pulled at his moustache and looked enquiringly round the + room, “we have to make up our minds very quickly about Lexman,” he said. + “What do you think, Carlneau?” + </p> + <p> + The Frenchman shrugged his shoulders. + </p> + <p> + “For my part I should not only importune your Home Secretary to pardon + him, but I should recommend him for a pension,” he said flippantly. + </p> + <p> + “What do you think, Savorsky?” + </p> + <p> + The Russian smiled a little. + </p> + <p> + “It is a very impressive story,” he said dispassionately; “it occurs to me + that if you intend bringing your M. Lexman to judgment you are likely to + expose some very pretty scandals. Incidentally,” he said, stroking his + trim little moustache, “I might remark that any exposure which drew + attention to the lawless conditions of Albania would not be regarded by my + government with favour.” + </p> + <p> + The Chief Commissioner's eyes twinkled and he nodded. + </p> + <p> + “That is also my view,” said the Chief of the Italian bureau; “naturally + we are greatly interested in all that happens on the Adriatic littoral. It + seems to me that Kara has come to a very merciful end and I am not + inclined to regard a prosecution of Mr. Lexman with equanimity.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, I guess the political aspect of the case doesn't affect us very + much,” said O'Grady, “but as one who was once mighty near asphyxiated by + stirring up the wrong kind of mud, I should leave the matter where it is.” + </p> + <p> + The Chief Commissioner was deep in thought and Belinda Mary eyed him + anxiously. + </p> + <p> + “Tell them to come in,” he said bluntly. + </p> + <p> + The girl went and brought John Lexman and his wife, and they came in hand + in hand supremely and serenely happy whatever the future might hold for + them. The Chief Commissioner cleared his throat. + </p> + <p> + “Lexman, we're all very much obliged to you,” he said, “for a very + interesting story and a most interesting theory. What you have done, as I + understand the matter,” he proceeded deliberately, “is to put yourself in + the murderer's place and advance a theory not only as to how the murder + was actually committed, but as to the motive for that murder. It is, I + might say, a remarkable piece of reconstruction,” he spoke very + deliberately, and swept away John Lexman's astonished interruption with a + stern hand, “please wait and do not speak until I am out of hearing,” he + growled. “You have got into the skin of the actual assassin and have + spoken most convincingly. One might almost think that the man who killed + Remington Kara was actually standing before us. For that piece of + impersonation we are all very grateful;” he glared round over his + spectacles at his understanding colleagues and they murmured approvingly. + </p> + <p> + He looked at his watch. + </p> + <p> + “Now I am afraid I must be off,” he crossed the room and put out his hand + to John Lexman. “I wish you good luck,” he said, and took both Grace + Lexman's hands in his. “One of these days,” he said paternally, “I shall + come down to Beston Tracey and your husband shall tell me another and a + happier story.” + </p> + <p> + He paused at the door as he was going out and looking back caught the + grateful eyes of Lexman. + </p> + <p> + “By the way, Mr. Lexman,” he said hesitatingly, “I don't think I should + ever write a story called 'The Clue of the Twisted Candle,' if I were + you.” + </p> + <p> + John Lexman shook his head. + </p> + <p> + “It will never be written,” he said, “—by me.” + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Clue of the Twisted Candle, by Edgar Wallace + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CLUE OF THE TWISTED CANDLE *** + +***** This file should be named 2688-h.htm or 2688-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/8/2688/ + +Produced by An Anonymous Project Gutenberg Volunteer, and David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Clue of the Twisted Candle + +Author: Edgar Wallace + +Posting Date: December 11, 2008 [EBook #2688] +Release Date: June, 2001 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CLUE OF THE TWISTED CANDLE *** + + + + +Produced by An Anonymous Project Gutenberg Volunteer + + + + + +THE CLUE OF THE TWISTED CANDLE + +By Edgar Wallace + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +The 4.15 from Victoria to Lewes had been held up at Three Bridges in +consequence of a derailment and, though John Lexman was fortunate enough +to catch a belated connection to Beston Tracey, the wagonette which was +the sole communication between the village and the outside world had +gone. + +"If you can wait half an hour, Mr. Lexman," said the station-master, "I +will telephone up to the village and get Briggs to come down for you." + +John Lexman looked out upon the dripping landscape and shrugged his +shoulders. + +"I'll walk," he said shortly and, leaving his bag in the +station-master's care and buttoning his mackintosh to his chin, he +stepped forth resolutely into the rain to negotiate the two miles which +separated the tiny railway station from Little Tracey. + +The downpour was incessant and likely to last through the night. +The high hedges on either side of the narrow road were so many leafy +cascades; the road itself was in places ankle deep in mud. He stopped +under the protecting cover of a big tree to fill and light his pipe and +with its bowl turned downwards continued his walk. But for the +driving rain which searched every crevice and found every chink in his +waterproof armor, he preferred, indeed welcomed, the walk. + +The road from Beston Tracey to Little Beston was associated in his mind +with some of the finest situations in his novels. It was on this road +that he had conceived "The Tilbury Mystery." Between the station and the +house he had woven the plot which had made "Gregory Standish" the most +popular detective story of the year. For John Lexman was a maker of +cunning plots. + +If, in the literary world, he was regarded by superior persons as a +writer of "shockers," he had a large and increasing public who were +fascinated by the wholesome and thrilling stories he wrote, and who +held on breathlessly to the skein of mystery until they came to the +denouement he had planned. + +But no thought of books, or plots, or stories filled his troubled mind +as he strode along the deserted road to Little Beston. He had had two +interviews in London, one of which under ordinary circumstances would +have filled him with joy: He had seen T. X. and "T. X." was T. X. +Meredith, who would one day be Chief of the Criminal Investigation +Department and was now an Assistant Commissioner of Police, engaged in +the more delicate work of that department. + +In his erratic, tempestuous way, T. X. had suggested the greatest idea +for a plot that any author could desire. But it was not of T. X. that +John Lexman thought as he breasted the hill, on the slope of which was +the tiny habitation known by the somewhat magnificent title of Beston +Priory. + +It was the interview he had had with the Greek on the previous day which +filled his mind, and he frowned as he recalled it. He opened the little +wicket gate and went through the plantation to the house, doing his +best to shake off the recollection of the remarkable and unedifying +discussion he had had with the moneylender. + +Beston Priory was little more than a cottage, though one of its walls +was an indubitable relic of that establishment which a pious Howard had +erected in the thirteenth century. A small and unpretentious building, +built in the Elizabethan style with quaint gables and high chimneys, +its latticed windows and sunken gardens, its rosary and its tiny meadow, +gave it a certain manorial completeness which was a source of great +pride to its owner. + +He passed under the thatched porch, and stood for a moment in the broad +hallway as he stripped his drenching mackintosh. + +The hall was in darkness. Grace would probably be changing for dinner, +and he decided that in his present mood he would not disturb her. He +passed through the long passage which led to the big study at the back +of the house. A fire burnt redly in the old-fashioned grate and the snug +comfort of the room brought a sense of ease and relief. He changed his +shoes, and lit the table lamp. + +The room was obviously a man's den. The leather-covered chairs, the big +and well-filled bookcase which covered one wall of the room, the +huge, solid-oak writing-desk, covered with books and half-finished +manuscripts, spoke unmistakably of its owner's occupation. + +After he had changed his shoes, he refilled his pipe, walked over to the +fire, and stood looking down into its glowing heart. + +He was a man a little above medium height, slimly built, with a breadth +of shoulder which was suggestive of the athlete. He had indeed rowed 4 +in his boat, and had fought his way into the semi-finals of the +amateur boxing championship of England. His face was strong, lean, yet +well-moulded. His eyes were grey and deep, his eyebrows straight and a +little forbidding. The clean-shaven mouth was big and generous, and the +healthy tan of his cheek told of a life lived in the open air. + +There was nothing of the recluse or the student in his appearance. He +was in fact a typical, healthy-looking Britisher, very much like any +other man of his class whom one would meet in the mess-room of the +British army, in the wardrooms of the fleet, or in the far-off posts of +the Empire, where the administrative cogs of the great machine are to be +seen at work. + +There was a little tap at the door, and before he could say "Come in" it +was pushed open and Grace Lexman entered. + +If you described her as brave and sweet you might secure from that brief +description both her manner and her charm. He half crossed the room to +meet her, and kissed her tenderly. + +"I didn't know you were back until--" she said; linking her arm in his. + +"Until you saw the horrible mess my mackintosh has made," he smiled. "I +know your methods, Watson!" + +She laughed, but became serious again. + +"I am very glad you've come back. We have a visitor," she said. + +He raised his eyebrows. + +"A visitor? Whoever came down on a day like this?" + +She looked at him a little strangely. + +"Mr. Kara," she said. + +"Kara? How long has he been here?" + +"He came at four." + +There was nothing enthusiastic in her tone. + +"I can't understand why you don't like old Kara," rallied her husband. + +"There are very many reasons," she replied, a little curtly for her. + +"Anyway," said John Lexman, after a moment's thought, "his arrival is +rather opportune. Where is he?" + +"He is in the drawing-room." + +The Priory drawing-room was a low-ceilinged, rambling apartment, +"all old print and chrysanthemums," to use Lexman's description. Cosy +armchairs, a grand piano, an almost medieval open grate, faced with +dull-green tiles, a well-worn but cheerful carpet and two big silver +candelabras were the principal features which attracted the newcomer. + +There was in this room a harmony, a quiet order and a soothing quality +which made it a haven of rest to a literary man with jagged nerves. Two +big bronze bowls were filled with early violets, another blazed like a +pale sun with primroses, and the early woodland flowers filled the room +with a faint fragrance. + +A man rose to his feet, as John Lexman entered and crossed the room with +an easy carriage. He was a man possessed of singular beauty of face and +of figure. Half a head taller than the author, he carried himself with +such a grace as to conceal his height. + +"I missed you in town," he said, "so I thought I'd run down on the off +chance of seeing you." + +He spoke in the well-modulated tone of one who had had a long +acquaintance with the public schools and universities of England. There +was no trace of any foreign accent, yet Remington Kara was a Greek and +had been born and partly educated in the more turbulent area of Albania. + +The two men shook hands warmly. + +"You'll stay to dinner?" + +Kara glanced round with a smile at Grace Lexman. She sat uncomfortably +upright, her hands loosely folded on her lap, her face devoid of +encouragement. + +"If Mrs. Lexman doesn't object," said the Greek. + +"I should be pleased, if you would," she said, almost mechanically; "it +is a horrid night and you won't get anything worth eating this side of +London and I doubt very much," she smiled a little, "if the meal I can +give you will be worthy of that description." + +"What you can give me will be more than sufficient," he said, with a +little bow, and turned to her husband. + +In a few minutes they were deep in a discussion of books and places, and +Grace seized the opportunity to make her escape. From books in general +to Lexman's books in particular the conversation flowed. + +"I've read every one of them, you know," said Kara. + +John made a little face. "Poor devil," he said sardonically. + +"On the contrary," said Kara, "I am not to be pitied. There is a great +criminal lost in you, Lexman." + +"Thank you," said John. + +"I am not being uncomplimentary, am I?" smiled the Greek. "I am merely +referring to the ingenuity of your plots. Sometimes your books baffle +and annoy me. If I cannot see the solution of your mysteries before the +book is half through, it angers me a little. Of course in the majority +of cases I know the solution before I have reached the fifth chapter." + +John looked at him in surprise and was somewhat piqued. + +"I flatter myself it is impossible to tell how my stories will end until +the last chapter," he said. + +Kara nodded. + +"That would be so in the case of the average reader, but you forget that +I am a student. I follow every little thread of the clue which you leave +exposed." + +"You should meet T. X.," said John, with a laugh, as he rose from his +chair to poke the fire. + +"T. X.?" + +"T. X. Meredith. He is the most ingenious beggar you could meet. We were +at Caius together, and he is by way of being a great pal of mine. He is +in the Criminal Investigation Department." + +Kara nodded. There was the light of interest in his eyes and he would +have pursued the discussion further, but at the moment dinner was +announced. + +It was not a particularly cheerful meal because Grace did not as usual +join in the conversation, and it was left to Kara and to her husband +to supply the deficiencies. She was experiencing a curious sense of +depression, a premonition of evil which she could not define. Again and +again in the course of the dinner she took her mind back to the events +of the day to discover the reason for her unease. + +Usually when she adopted this method she came upon the trivial causes +in which apprehension was born, but now she was puzzled to find that a +solution was denied her. Her letters of the morning had been pleasant, +neither the house nor the servants had given her any trouble. She was +well herself, and though she knew John had a little money trouble, +since his unfortunate speculation in Roumanian gold shares, and she half +suspected that he had had to borrow money to make good his losses, yet +his prospects were so excellent and the success of his last book +so promising that she, probably seeing with a clearer vision the +unimportance of those money worries, was less concerned about the +problem than he. + +"You will have your coffee in the study, I suppose," said Grace, "and +I know you'll excuse me; I have to see Mrs. Chandler on the mundane +subject of laundry." + +She favoured Kara with a little nod as she left the room and touched +John's shoulder lightly with her hand in passing. + +Kara's eyes followed her graceful figure until she was out of view, +then: + +"I want to see you, Kara," said John Lexman, "if you will give me five +minutes." + +"You can have five hours, if you like," said the other, easily. + +They went into the study together; the maid brought the coffee +and liqueur, and placed them on a little table near the fire and +disappeared. + +For a time the conversation was general. Kara, who was a frank admirer +of the comfort of the room and who lamented his own inability to secure +with money the cosiness which John had obtained at little cost, went on +a foraging expedition whilst his host applied himself to a proof which +needed correcting. + +"I suppose it is impossible for you to have electric light here," Kara +asked. + +"Quite," replied the other. + +"Why?" + +"I rather like the light of this lamp." + +"It isn't the lamp," drawled the Greek and made a little grimace; "I +hate these candles." + +He waved his hand to the mantle-shelf where the six tall, white, waxen +candles stood out from two wall sconces. + +"Why on earth do you hate candles?" asked the other in surprise. + +Kara made no reply for the moment, but shrugged his shoulders. Presently +he spoke. + +"If you were ever tied down to a chair and by the side of that chair was +a small keg of black powder and stuck in that powder was a small candle +that burnt lower and lower every minute--my God!" + +John was amazed to see the perspiration stand upon the forehead of his +guest. + +"That sounds thrilling," he said. + +The Greek wiped his forehead with a silk handkerchief and his hand shook +a little. + +"It was something more than thrilling," he said. + +"And when did this occur?" asked the author curiously. + +"In Albania," replied the other; "it was many years ago, but the devils +are always sending me reminders of the fact." + +He did not attempt to explain who the devils were or under what +circumstances he was brought to this unhappy pass, but changed the +subject definitely. + +Sauntering round the cosy room he followed the bookshelf which filled +one wall and stopped now and again to examine some title. Presently he +drew forth a stout volume. + +"'Wild Brazil'," he read, "by George Gathercole-do you know Gathercole?" + +John was filling his pipe from a big blue jar on his desk and nodded. + +"Met him once--a taciturn devil. Very short of speech and, like all men +who have seen and done things, less inclined to talk about himself than +any man I know." + +Kara looked at the book with a thoughtful pucker of brow and turned the +leaves idly. + +"I've never seen him," he said as he replaced the book, "yet, in a +sense, his new journey is on my behalf." + +The other man looked up. + +"On your behalf?" + +"Yes--you know he has gone to Patagonia for me. He believes there is +gold there--you will learn as much from his book on the mountain systems +of South America. I was interested in his theories and corresponded +with him. As a result of that correspondence he undertook to make a +geological survey for me. I sent him money for his expenses, and he went +off." + +"You never saw him?" asked John Lexman, surprised. + +Kara shook his head. + +"That was not--?" began his host. + +"Not like me, you were going to say. Frankly, it was not, but then I +realized that he was an unusual kind of man. I invited him to dine with +me before he left London, and in reply received a wire from Southampton +intimating that he was already on his way." + +Lexman nodded. + +"It must be an awfully interesting kind of life," he said. "I suppose he +will be away for quite a long time?" + +"Three years," said Kara, continuing his examination of the bookshelf. + +"I envy those fellows who run round the world writing books," said John, +puffing reflectively at his pipe. "They have all the best of it." + +Kara turned. He stood immediately behind the author and the other +could not see his face. There was, however, in his voice an unusual +earnestness and an unusual quiet vehemence. + +"What have you to complain about!" he asked, with that little drawl of +his. "You have your own creative work--the most fascinating branch of +labour that comes to a man. He, poor beggar, is bound to actualities. +You have the full range of all the worlds which your imagination +gives to you. You can create men and destroy them, call into existence +fascinating problems, mystify and baffle ten or twenty thousand people, +and then, at a word, elucidate your mystery." + +John laughed. + +"There is something in that," he said. + +"As for the rest of your life," Kara went on in a lower voice, "I think +you have that which makes life worth living--an incomparable wife." + +Lexman swung round in his chair, and met the other's gaze, and there was +something in the set of the other's handsome face which took his breath +away. + +"I do not see--" he began. + +Kara smiled. + +"That was an impertinence, wasn't it!" he said, banteringly. "But then +you mustn't forget, my dear man, that I was very anxious to marry your +wife. I don't suppose it is secret. And when I lost her, I had ideas +about you which are not pleasant to recall." + +He had recovered his self-possession and had continued his aimless +stroll about the room. + +"You must remember I am a Greek, and the modern Greek is no philosopher. +You must remember, too, that I am a petted child of fortune, and have +had everything I wanted since I was a baby." + +"You are a fortunate devil," said the other, turning back to his desk, +and taking up his pen. + +For a moment Kara did not speak, then he made as though he would say +something, checked himself, and laughed. + +"I wonder if I am," he said. + +And now he spoke with a sudden energy. + +"What is this trouble you are having with Vassalaro?" + +John rose from his chair and walked over to the fire, stood gazing down +into its depths, his legs wide apart, his hands clasped behind him, and +Kara took his attitude to supply an answer to the question. + +"I warned you against Vassalaro," he said, stooping by the other's side +to light his cigar with a spill of paper. "My dear Lexman, my fellow +countrymen are unpleasant people to deal with in certain moods." + +"He was so obliging at first," said Lexman, half to himself. + +"And now he is so disobliging," drawled Kara. "That is a way which +moneylenders have, my dear man; you were very foolish to go to him at +all. I could have lent you the money." + +"There were reasons why I should not borrow money from you,", said John, +quietly, "and I think you yourself have supplied the principal reason +when you told me just now, what I already knew, that you wanted to marry +Grace." + +"How much is the amount?" asked Kara, examining his well-manicured +finger-nails. + +"Two thousand five hundred pounds," replied John, with a short laugh, +"and I haven't two thousand five hundred shillings at this moment." + +"Will he wait?" + +John Lexman shrugged his shoulders. + +"Look here, Kara," he said, suddenly, "don't think I want to reproach +you, but it was through you that I met Vassalaro so that you know the +kind of man he is." + +Kara nodded. + +"Well, I can tell you he has been very unpleasant indeed," said John, +with a frown, "I had an interview with him yesterday in London and it +is clear that he is going to make a lot of trouble. I depended upon the +success of my play in town giving me enough to pay him off, and I very +foolishly made a lot of promises of repayment which I have been unable +to keep." + +"I see," said Kara, and then, "does Mrs. Lexman know about this matter?" + +"A little," said the other. + +He paced restlessly up and down the room, his hands behind him and his +chin upon his chest. + +"Naturally I have not told her the worst, or how beastly unpleasant the +man has been." + +He stopped and turned. + +"Do you know he threatened to kill me?" he asked. + +Kara smiled. + +"I can tell you it was no laughing matter," said the other, angrily, +"I nearly took the little whippersnapper by the scruff of the neck and +kicked him." + +Kara dropped his hand on the other's arm. + +"I am not laughing at you," he said; "I am laughing at the thought of +Vassalaro threatening to kill anybody. He is the biggest coward in the +world. What on earth induced him to take this drastic step?" + +"He said he is being hard pushed for money," said the other, moodily, +"and it is possibly true. He was beside himself with anger and anxiety, +otherwise I might have given the little blackguard the thrashing he +deserved." + +Kara who had continued his stroll came down the room and halted in front +of the fireplace looking at the young author with a paternal smile. + +"You don't understand Vassalaro," he said; "I repeat he is the greatest +coward in the world. You will probably discover he is full of firearms +and threats of slaughter, but you have only to click a revolver to see +him collapse. Have you a revolver, by the way?" + +"Oh, nonsense," said the other, roughly, "I cannot engage myself in that +kind of melodrama." + +"It is not nonsense," insisted the other, "when you are in Rome, et +cetera, and when you have to deal with a low-class Greek you must use +methods which will at least impress him. If you thrash him, he will +never forgive you and will probably stick a knife into you or your wife. +If you meet his melodrama with melodrama and at the psychological moment +produce your revolver; you will secure the effect you require. Have you +a revolver?" + +John went to his desk and, pulling open a drawer, took out a small +Browning. + +"That is the extent of my armory," he said, "it has never been fired and +was sent to me by an unknown admirer last Christmas." + +"A curious Christmas present," said the other, examining the weapon. + +"I suppose the mistaken donor imagined from my books that I lived in +a veritable museum of revolvers, sword sticks and noxious drugs," said +Lexman, recovering some of his good humour; "it was accompanied by a +card." + +"Do you know how it works?" asked the other. + +"I have never troubled very much about it," replied Lexman, "I know that +it is loaded by slipping back the cover, but as my admirer did not send +ammunition, I never even practised with it." + +There was a knock at the door. + +"That is the post," explained John. + +The maid had one letter on the salver and the author took it up with a +frown. + +"From Vassalaro," he said, when the girl had left the room. + +The Greek took the letter in his hand and examined it. + +"He writes a vile fist," was his only comment as he handed it back to +John. + +He slit open the thin, buff envelope and took out half a dozen sheets of +yellow paper, only a single sheet of which was written upon. The letter +was brief: + + "I must see you to-night without fail," ran the scrawl; "meet me + at the crossroads between Beston Tracey and the Eastbourne + Road. I shall be there at eleven o'clock, and, if you want to + preserve your life, you had better bring me a substantial + instalment." + +It was signed "Vassalaro." + +John read the letter aloud. "He must be mad to write a letter like +that," he said; "I'll meet the little devil and teach him such a lesson +in politeness as he is never likely to forget." + +He handed the letter to the other and Kara read it in silence. + +"Better take your revolver," he said as he handed it back. + +John Lexman looked at his watch. + +"I have an hour yet, but it will take me the best part of twenty minutes +to reach the Eastbourne Road." + +"Will you see him?" asked Kara, in a tone of surprise. + +"Certainly," Lexman replied emphatically: "I cannot have him coming up +to the house and making a scene and that is certainly what the little +beast will do." + +"Will you pay him?" asked Kara softly. + +John made no answer. There was probably 10 pounds in the house and a +cheque which was due on the morrow would bring him another 30 pounds. +He looked at the letter again. It was written on paper of an unusual +texture. The surface was rough almost like blotting paper and in some +places the ink absorbed by the porous surface had run. The blank sheets +had evidently been inserted by a man in so violent a hurry that he had +not noticed the extravagance. + +"I shall keep this letter," said John. + +"I think you are well advised. Vassalaro probably does not know that he +transgresses a law in writing threatening letters and that should be a +very strong weapon in your hand in certain eventualities." + +There was a tiny safe in one corner of the study and this John opened +with a key which he took from his pocket. He pulled open one of the +steel drawers, took out the papers which were in it and put in their +place the letter, pushed the drawer to, and locked it. + +All the time Kara was watching him intently as one who found more than +an ordinary amount of interest in the novelty of the procedure. + +He took his leave soon afterwards. + +"I would like to come with you to your interesting meeting," he said, +"but unfortunately I have business elsewhere. Let me enjoin you to take +your revolver and at the first sign of any bloodthirsty intention on the +part of my admirable compatriot, produce it and click it once or twice, +you won't have to do more." + +Grace rose from the piano as Kara entered the little drawing-room and +murmured a few conventional expressions of regret that the visitor's +stay had been so short. That there was no sincerity in that regret Kara, +for one, had no doubt. He was a man singularly free from illusions. + +They stayed talking a little while. + +"I will see if your chauffeur is asleep," said John, and went out of the +room. + +There was a little silence after he had gone. + +"I don't think you are very glad to see me," said Kara. His frankness +was a little embarrassing to the girl and she flushed slightly. + +"I am always glad to see you, Mr. Kara, or any other of my husband's +friends," she said steadily. + +He inclined his head. + +"To be a friend of your husband is something," he said, and then as if +remembering something, "I wanted to take a book away with me--I wonder +if your husband would mind my getting it?" + +"I will find it for you." + +"Don't let me bother you," he protested, "I know my way." + +Without waiting for her permission he left the girl with the unpleasant +feeling that he was taking rather much for granted. He was gone less +than a minute and returned with a book under his arm. + +"I have not asked Lexman's permission to take it," he said, "but I am +rather interested in the author. Oh, here you are," he turned to John +who came in at that moment. "Might I take this book on Mexico?" he +asked. "I will return it in the morning." + +They stood at the door, watching the tail light of the motor disappear +down the drive; and returned in silence to the drawing room. + +"You look worried, dear," she said, laying her hand on his shoulder. + +He smiled faintly. + +"Is it the money?" she asked anxiously. + +For a moment he was tempted to tell her of the letter. He stifled the +temptation realizing that she would not consent to his going out if she +knew the truth. + +"It is nothing very much," he said. "I have to go down to Beston Tracey +to meet the last train. I am expecting some proofs down." + +He hated lying to her, and even an innocuous lie of this character was +repugnant to him. + +"I'm afraid you have had a dull evening," he said, "Kara was not very +amusing." + +She looked at him thoughtfully. + +"He has not changed very much," she said slowly. + +"He's a wonderfully handsome chap, isn't he?" he asked in a tone of +admiration. "I can't understand what you ever saw in a fellow like me, +when you had a man who was not only rich, but possibly the best-looking +man in the world." + +She shivered a little. + +"I have seen a side of Mr. Kara that is not particularly beautiful," she +said. "Oh, John, I am afraid of that man!" + +He looked at her in astonishment. + +"Afraid?" he asked. "Good heavens, Grace, what a thing to say! Why I +believe he'd do anything for you." + +"That is exactly what I am afraid of," she said in a low voice. + +She had a reason which she did not reveal. She had first met Remington +Kara in Salonika two years before. She had been doing a tour through the +Balkans with her father--it was the last tour the famous archeologist +made--and had met the man who was fated to have such an influence upon +her life at a dinner given by the American Consul. + +Many were the stories which were told about this Greek with his +Jove-like face, his handsome carriage and his limitless wealth. It +was said that his mother was an American lady who had been captured by +Albanian brigands and was sold to one of the Albanian chiefs who fell +in love with her, and for her sake became a Protestant. He had been +educated at Yale and at Oxford, and was known to be the possessor of +vast wealth, and was virtually king of a hill district forty miles out +of Durazzo. Here he reigned supreme, occupying a beautiful house which +he had built by an Italian architect, and the fittings and appointments +of which had been imported from the luxurious centres of the world. + +In Albania they called him "Kara Rumo," which meant "The Black Roman," +for no particular reason so far as any one could judge, for his skin was +as fair as a Saxon's, and his close-cropped curls were almost golden. + +He had fallen in love with Grace Terrell. At first his attentions had +amused her, and then there came a time when they frightened her, for the +man's fire and passion had been unmistakable. She had made it plain to +him that he could base no hopes upon her returning his love, and, in a +scene which she even now shuddered to recall, he had revealed something +of his wild and reckless nature. On the following day she did not see +him, but two days later, when returning through the Bazaar from a dance +which had been given by the Governor General, her carriage was stopped, +she was forcibly dragged from its interior, and her cries were stifled +with a cloth impregnated with a scent of a peculiar aromatic sweetness. +Her assailants were about to thrust her into another carriage, when a +party of British bluejackets who had been on leave came upon the scene, +and, without knowing anything of the nationality of the girl, had +rescued her. + +In her heart of hearts she did not doubt Kara's complicity in this +medieval attempt to gain a wife, but of this adventure she had told +her husband nothing. Until her marriage she was constantly receiving +valuable presents which she as constantly returned to the only address +she knew--Kara's estate at Lemazo. A few months after her marriage she +had learned through the newspapers that this "leader of Greek society" +had purchased a big house near Cadogan Square, and then, to her +amazement and to her dismay, Kara had scraped an acquaintance with her +husband even before the honeymoon was over. + +His visits had been happily few, but the growing intimacy between +John and this strange undisciplined man had been a source of constant +distress to her. + +Should she, at this, the eleventh hour, tell her husband all her fears +and her suspicions? + +She debated the point for some time. And never was she nearer taking him +into her complete confidence than she was as he sat in the big armchair +by the side of the piano, a little drawn of face, more than a little +absorbed in his own meditations. Had he been less worried she might have +spoken. As it was, she turned the conversation to his last work, the +big mystery story which, if it would not make his fortune, would mean a +considerable increase to his income. + +At a quarter to eleven he looked at his watch, and rose. She helped him +on with his coat. He stood for some time irresolutely. + +"Is there anything you have forgotten?" she asked. + +He asked himself whether he should follow Kara's advice. In any +circumstance it was not a pleasant thing to meet a ferocious little +man who had threatened his life, and to meet him unarmed was tempting +Providence. The whole thing was of course ridiculous, but it was +ridiculous that he should have borrowed, and it was ridiculous that the +borrowing should have been necessary, and yet he had speculated on the +best of advice--it was Kara's advice. + +The connection suddenly occurred to him, and yet Kara had not directly +suggested that he should buy Roumanian gold shares, but had merely +spoken glowingly of their prospects. He thought a moment, and then +walked back slowly into the study, pulled open the drawer of his desk, +took out the sinister little Browning, and slipped it into his pocket. + +"I shan't be long, dear," he said, and kissing the girl he strode out +into the darkness. + + +Kara sat back in the luxurious depths of his car, humming a little tune, +as the driver picked his way cautiously over the uncertain road. The +rain was still falling, and Kara had to rub the windows free of the mist +which had gathered on them to discover where he was. From time to time +he looked out as though he expected to see somebody, and then with a +little smile he remembered that he had changed his original plan, and +that he had fixed the waiting room of Lewes junction as his rendezvous. + +Here it was that he found a little man muffled up to the ears in a big +top coat, standing before the dying fire. He started as Kara entered and +at a signal followed him from the room. + +The stranger was obviously not English. His face was sallow and peaked, +his cheeks were hollow, and the beard he wore was irregular-almost +unkempt. + +Kara led the way to the end of the dark platform, before he spoke. + +"You have carried out my instructions?" he asked brusquely. + +The language he spoke was Arabic, and the other answered him in that +language. + +"Everything that you have ordered has been done, Effendi," he said +humbly. + +"You have a revolver?" + +The man nodded and patted his pocket. + +"Loaded?" + +"Excellency," asked the other, in surprise, "what is the use of a +revolver, if it is not loaded?" + +"You understand, you are not to shoot this man," said Kara. "You are +merely to present the pistol. To make sure, you had better unload it +now." + +Wonderingly the man obeyed, and clicked back the ejector. + +"I will take the cartridges," said Kara, holding out his hand. + +He slipped the little cylinders into his pocket, and after examining the +weapon returned it to its owner. + +"You will threaten him," he went on. "Present the revolver straight at +his heart. You need do nothing else." + +The man shuffled uneasily. + +"I will do as you say, Effendi," he said. "But--" + +"There are no 'buts,'" replied the other harshly. "You are to carry out +my instructions without any question. What will happen then you shall +see. I shall be at hand. That I have a reason for this play be assured." + +"But suppose he shoots?" persisted the other uneasily. + +"He will not shoot," said Kara easily. "Besides, his revolver is not +loaded. Now you may go. You have a long walk before you. You know the +way?" + +The man nodded. + +"I have been over it before," he said confidently. + +Kara returned to the big limousine which had drawn up some distance from +the station. He spoke a word or two to the chauffeur in Greek, and the +man touched his hat. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +Assistant Commissioner of Police T. X. Meredith did not occupy offices +in New Scotland Yard. It is the peculiarity of public offices that they +are planned with the idea of supplying the margin of space above +all requirements and that on their completion they are found wholly +inadequate to house the various departments which mysteriously come into +progress coincident with the building operations. + +"T. X.," as he was known by the police forces of the world, had a big +suite of offices in Whitehall. The house was an old one facing the Board +of Trade and the inscription on the ancient door told passers-by that +this was the "Public Prosecutor, Special Branch." + +The duties of T. X. were multifarious. People said of him--and like most +public gossip, this was probably untrue--that he was the head of the +"illegal" department of Scotland Yard. If by chance you lost the keys of +your safe, T. X. could supply you (so popular rumour ran) with a burglar +who would open that safe in half an hour. + +If there dwelt in England a notorious individual against whom the police +could collect no scintilla of evidence to justify a prosecution, and if +it was necessary for the good of the community that that person should +be deported, it was T. X. who arrested the obnoxious person, hustled +him into a cab and did not loose his hold upon his victim until he had +landed him on the indignant shores of an otherwise friendly power. + +It is very certain that when the minister of a tiny power which shall be +nameless was suddenly recalled by his government and brought to trial +in his native land for putting into circulation spurious bonds, it was +somebody from the department which T. X. controlled, who burgled His +Excellency's house, burnt the locks from his safe and secured the +necessary incriminating evidence. + +I say it is fairly certain and here I am merely voicing the opinion of +very knowledgeable people indeed, heads of public departments who speak +behind their hands, mysterious under-secretaries of state who discuss +things in whispers in the remote corners of their clubrooms and the more +frank views of American correspondents who had no hesitation in putting +those views into print for the benefit of their readers. + +That T. X. had a more legitimate occupation we know, for it was that +flippant man whose outrageous comment on the Home Office Administration +is popularly supposed to have sent one Home Secretary to his grave, who +traced the Deptford murderers through a labyrinth of perjury and who +brought to book Sir Julius Waglite though he had covered his trail of +defalcation through the balance sheets of thirty-four companies. + +On the night of March 3rd, T. X. sat in his inner office interviewing a +disconsolate inspector of metropolitan police, named Mansus. + +In appearance T. X. conveyed the impression of extreme youth, for his +face was almost boyish and it was only when you looked at him closely +and saw the little creases about his eyes, the setting of his straight +mouth, that you guessed he was on the way to forty. In his early days +he had been something of a poet, and had written a slight volume +of "Woodland Lyrics," the mention of which at this later stage was +sufficient to make him feel violently unhappy. + +In manner he was tactful but persistent, his language was at times +marked by a violent extravagance and he had had the distinction of +having provoked, by certain correspondence which had seen the light, +the comment of a former Home Secretary that "it was unfortunate that +Mr. Meredith did not take his position with the seriousness which was +expected from a public official." + +His language was, as I say, under great provocation, violent and +unusual. He had a trick of using words which never were on land or sea, +and illustrating his instruction or his admonition with the quaintest +phraseology. + +Now he was tilted back in his office chair at an alarming angle, +scowling at his distressed subordinate who sat on the edge of a chair at +the other side of his desk. + +"But, T. X.," protested the Inspector, "there was nothing to be found." + +It was the outrageous practice of Mr. Meredith to insist upon his +associates calling him by his initials, a practice which had earnt +disapproval in the highest quarters. + +"Nothing is to be found!" he repeated wrathfully. "Curious Mike!" + +He sat up with a suddenness which caused the police officer to start +back in alarm. + +"Listen," said T. X., grasping an ivory paperknife savagely in his hand +and tapping his blotting-pad to emphasize his words, "you're a pie!" + +"I'm a policeman," said the other patiently. + +"A policeman!" exclaimed the exasperated T. X. "You're worse than a pie, +you're a slud! I'm afraid I shall never make a detective of you," he +shook his head sorrowfully at the smiling Mansus who had been in the +police force when T. X. was a small boy at school, "you are neither Wise +nor Wily; you combine the innocence of a Baby with the grubbiness of a +County Parson--you ought to be in the choir." + +At this outrageous insult Mr. Mansus was silent; what he might have +said, or what further provocation he might have received may be never +known, for at that moment, the Chief himself walked in. + +The Chief of the Police in these days was a grey man, rather tired, with +a hawk nose and deep eyes that glared under shaggy eyebrows and he was a +terror to all men of his department save to T. X. who respected nothing +on earth and very little elsewhere. He nodded curtly to Mansus. + +"Well, T. X.," he said, "what have you discovered about our friend +Kara?" + +He turned from T. X. to the discomforted inspector. + +"Very little," said T. X. "I've had Mansus on the job." + +"And you've found nothing, eh?" growled the Chief. + +"He has found all that it is possible to find," said T. X. "We do not +perform miracles in this department, Sir George, nor can we pick up the +threads of a case at five minutes' notice." + +Sir George Haley grunted. + +"Mansus has done his best," the other went on easily, "but it is rather +absurd to talk about one's best when you know so little of what you +want." + +Sir George dropped heavily into the arm-chair, and stretched out his +long thin legs. + +"What I want," he said, looking up at the ceiling and putting his hands +together, "is to discover something about one Remington Kara, a wealthy +Greek who has taken a house in Cadogan Square, who has no particular +position in London society and therefore has no reason for coming +here, who openly expresses his detestation of the climate, who has +a magnificent estate in some wild place in the Balkans, who is an +excellent horseman, a magnificent shot and a passable aviator." + +T. X. nodded to Mansus and with something of gratitude in his eyes the +inspector took his leave. + +"Now Mansus has departed," said T. X., sitting himself on the edge of +his desk and selecting with great care a cigarette from the case he took +from his pocket, "let me know something of the reason for this sudden +interest in the great ones of the earth." + +Sir George smiled grimly. + +"I have the interest which is the interest of my department," he said. +"That is to say I want to know a great deal about abnormal people. We +have had an application from him," he went on, "which is rather unusual. +Apparently he is in fear of his life from some cause or other and wants +to know if he can have a private telephone connection between his house +and the central office. We told him that he could always get the nearest +Police Station on the 'phone, but that doesn't satisfy him. He has made +bad friends with some gentleman of his own country who sooner or later, +he thinks, will cut his throat." + +T. X. nodded. + +"All this I know," he said patiently, "if you will further unfold the +secret dossier, Sir George, I am prepared to be thrilled." + +"There is nothing thrilling about it," growled the older man, rising, +"but I remember the Macedonian shooting case in South London and I don't +want a repetition of that sort of thing. If people want to have blood +feuds, let them take them outside the metropolitan area." + +"By all means," said T. X., "let them. Personally, I don't care where +they go. But if that is the extent of your information I can supplement +it. He has had extensive alterations made to the house he bought in +Cadogan Square; the room in which he lives is practically a safe." + +Sir George raised his eyebrows. + +"A safe," he repeated. + +T. X. nodded. + +"A safe," he said; "its walls are burglar proof, floor and roof are +reinforced concrete, there is one door which in addition to its ordinary +lock is closed by a sort of steel latch which he lets fall when he +retires for the night and which he opens himself personally in the +morning. The window is unreachable, there are no communicating doors, +and altogether the room is planned to stand a siege." + +The Chief Commissioner was interested. + +"Any more?" he asked. + +"Let me think," said T. X., looking up at the ceiling. "Yes, the +interior of his room is plainly furnished, there is a big fireplace, +rather an ornate bed, a steel safe built into the wall and visible from +its outer side to the policeman whose beat is in that neighborhood." + +"How do you know all this?" asked the Chief Commissioner. + +"Because I've been in the room," said T. X. simply, "having by an +underhand trick succeeded in gaining the misplaced confidence of Kara's +housekeeper, who by the way"--he turned round to his desk and scribbled +a name on the blotting-pad--"will be discharged to-morrow and must be +found a place." + +"Is there any--er--?" began the Chief. + +"Funny business?" interrupted T. X., "not a bit. House and man are quite +normal save for these eccentricities. He has announced his intention of +spending three months of the year in England and nine months abroad. He +is very rich, has no relations, and has a passion for power." + +"Then he'll be hung," said the Chief, rising. + +"I doubt it," said the other, "people with lots of money seldom get +hung. You only get hung for wanting money." + +"Then you're in some danger, T. X.," smiled the Chief, "for according to +my account you're always more or less broke." + +"A genial libel," said T. X., "but talking about people being broke, I +saw John Lexman to-day--you know him!" + +The Chief Commissioner nodded. + +"I've an idea he's rather hit for money. He was in that Roumanian gold +swindle, and by his general gloom, which only comes to a man when he's +in love (and he can't possibly be in love since he's married) or when +he's in debt, I fear that he is still feeling the effect of that rosy +adventure." + +A telephone bell in the corner of the room rang sharply, and T. X. +picked up the receiver. He listened intently. + +"A trunk call," he said over his shoulder to the departing commissioner, +"it may be something interesting." + +A little pause; then a hoarse voice spoke to him. "Is that you, T. X.?" + +"That's me," said the Assistant Commissioner, commonly. + +"It's John Lexman speaking." + +"I shouldn't have recognized your voice," said T. X., "what is wrong +with you, John, can't you get your plot to went?" + +"I want you to come down here at once," said the voice urgently, and +even over the telephone T. X. recognized the distress. "I have shot a +man, killed him!" + +T. X. gasped. + +"Good Lord," he said, "you are a silly ass!" + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +In the early hours of the morning a tragic little party was assembled in +the study at Beston Priory. John Lexman, white and haggard, sat on the +sofa with his wife by his side. Immediate authority as represented by +a village constable was on duty in the passage outside, whilst T. X. +sitting at the table with a writing pad and a pencil was briefly noting +the evidence. + +The author had sketched the events of the day. He had described his +interview with the money-lender the day before and the arrival of the +letter. + +"You have the letter!" asked T. X. + +John Lexman nodded. + +"I am glad of that," said the other with a sigh of relief, "that will +save you from a great deal of unpleasantness, my poor old chap. Tell me +what happened afterward." + +"I reached the village," said John Lexman, "and passed through it. There +was nobody about, the rain was still falling very heavily and indeed I +didn't meet a single soul all the evening. I reached the place appointed +about five minutes before time. It was the corner of Eastbourne Road +on the station side and there I found Vassalaro waiting. I was rather +ashamed of myself at meeting him at all under these conditions, but I +was very keen on his not coming to the house for I was afraid it would +upset Grace. What made it all the more ridiculous was this infernal +pistol which was in my pocket banging against my side with every step I +took as though to nudge me to an understanding of my folly." + +"Where did you meet Vassalaro?" asked T. X. + +"He was on the other side of the Eastbourne Road and crossed the road +to meet me. At first he was very pleasant though a little agitated but +afterward he began to behave in a most extraordinary manner as though he +was lashing himself up into a fury which he didn't feel. I promised him +a substantial amount on account, but he grew worse and worse and then, +suddenly, before I realised what he was doing, he was brandishing a +revolver in my face and uttering the most extraordinary threats. Then it +was I remembered Kara's warning." + +"Kara," said T. X. quickly. + +"A man I know and who was responsible for introducing me to Vassalaro. +He is immensely wealthy." + +"I see," said T. X., "go on." + +"I remembered this warning," the other proceeded, "and I thought it +worth while trying it out to see if it had any effect upon the little +man. I pulled the pistol from my pocket and pointed it at him, but that +only seemed to make it--and then I pressed the trigger.... + +"To my horror four shots exploded before I could recover sufficient +self-possession to loosen my hold of the butt. He fell without a word. +I dropped the revolver and knelt by his side. I could tell he was +dangerously wounded, and indeed I knew at that moment that nothing would +save him. My pistol had been pointed in the region of his heart...." + +He shuddered, dropping his face in his hands, and the girl by his side, +encircling his shoulder with a protecting arm, murmured something in his +ear. Presently he recovered. + +"He wasn't quite dead. I heard him murmur something but I wasn't able +to distinguish what he said. I went straight to the village and told the +constable and had the body removed." + +T. X. rose from the table and walked to the door and opened it. + +"Come in, constable," he said, and when the man made his appearance, +"I suppose you were very careful in removing this body, and you took +everything which was lying about in the immediate vicinity'?" + +"Yes, sir," replied the man, "I took his hat and his walkingstick, if +that's what you mean." + +"And the revolver!" asked T. X. + +The man shook his head. + +"There warn't any revolver, sir, except the pistol which Mr. Lexman +had." + +He fumbled in his pocket and pulled it out gingerly, and T. X. took it +from him. + +"I'll look after your prisoner; you go down to the village, get any help +you can and make a most careful search in the place where this man +was killed and bring me the revolver which you will discover. You'll +probably find it in a ditch by the side of the road. I'll give a +sovereign to the man who finds it." + +The constable touched his hat and went out. + +"It looks rather a weird case to me," said T. X., as he came back to the +table, "can't you see the unusual features yourself, Lexman! It isn't +unusual for you to owe money and it isn't unusual for the usurer to +demand the return of that money, but in this case he is asking for +it before it was due, and further than that he was demanding it with +threats. It is not the practice of the average money lender to go after +his clients with a loaded revolver. Another peculiar thing is that if he +wished to blackmail you, that is to say, bring you into contempt in +the eyes of your friends, why did he choose to meet you in a dark and +unfrequented road, and not in your house where the moral pressure would +be greatest? Also, why did he write you a threatening letter which would +certainly bring him into the grip of the law and would have saved you a +great deal of unpleasantness if he had decided upon taking action!" + +He tapped his white teeth with the end of his pencil and then suddenly, + +"I think I'll see that letter," he said. + +John Lexman rose from the sofa, crossed to the safe, unlocked it and +was unlocking the steel drawer in which he had placed the incriminating +document. His hand was on the key when T. X. noticed the look of +surprise on his face. + +"What is it!" asked the detective suddenly. + +"This drawer feels very hot," said John,--he looked round as though to +measure the distance between the safe and the fire. + +T. X. laid his hand upon the front of the drawer. It was indeed warm. + +"Open it," said T. X., and Lexman turned the key and pulled the drawer +open. + +As he did so, the whole contents burst up in a quick blaze of flame. It +died down immediately and left only a little coil of smoke that flowed +from the safe into the room. + +"Don't touch anything inside," said T. X. quickly. + +He lifted the drawer carefully and placed it under the light. In the +bottom was no more than a few crumpled white ashes and a blister of +paint where the flame had caught the side. + +"I see," said T. X. slowly. + +He saw something more than that handful of ashes, he saw the deadly +peril in which his friend was standing. Here was one half of the +evidence in Lexman's favour gone, irredeemably. + +"The letter was written on a paper which was specially prepared by a +chemical process which disintegrated the moment the paper was exposed +to the air. Probably if you delayed putting the letter in the drawer +another five minutes, you would have seen it burn before your eyes. As +it was, it was smouldering before you had turned the key of the box. The +envelope!" + +"Kara burnt it," said Lexman in a low voice, "I remember seeing him take +it up from the table and throw it in the fire." + +T. X. nodded. + +"There remains the other half of the evidence," he said grimly, and when +an hour later, the village constable returned to report that in spite +of his most careful search he had failed to discover the dead man's +revolver, his anticipations were realized. + +The next morning John Lexman was lodged in Lewes gaol on a charge of +wilful murder. + + +A telegram brought Mansus from London to Beston Tracey, and T. X. +received him in the library. + +"I sent for you, Mansus, because I suffer from the illusion that you +have more brains than most of the people in my department, and that's +not saying much." + +"I am very grateful to you, sir, for putting me right with +Commissioner," began Mansus, but T. X. stopped him. + +"It is the duty of every head of departments," he said oracularly, "to +shield the incompetence of his subordinates. It is only by the adoption +of some such method that the decencies of the public life can be +observed. Now get down to this." He gave a sketch of the case from start +to finish in as brief a space of time as possible. + +"The evidence against Mr. Lexman is very heavy," he said. "He borrowed +money from this man, and on the man's body were found particulars of the +very Promissory Note which Lexman signed. Why he should have brought it +with him, I cannot say. Anyhow I doubt very much whether Mr. Lexman will +get a jury to accept his version. Our only chance is to find the Greek's +revolver--I don't think there's any very great chance, but if we are to +be successful we must make a search at once." + +Before he went out he had an interview with Grace. The dark shadows +under her eyes told of a sleepless night. She was unusually pale and +surprisingly calm. + +"I think there are one or two things I ought to tell you," she said, as +she led the way into the drawing room, closing the door behind him. + +"And they concern Mr. Kara, I think," said T. X. + +She looked at him startled. + +"How did you know that?" + +"I know nothing." + +He hesitated on the brink of a flippant claim of omniscience, but +realizing in time the agony she must be suffering he checked his natural +desire. + +"I really know nothing," he continued, "but I guess a lot," and that was +as near to the truth as you might expect T. X. to reach on the spur of +the moment. + +She began without preliminary. + +"In the first place I must tell you that Mr. Kara once asked me to marry +him, and for reasons which I will give you, I am dreadfully afraid of +him." + +She described without reserve the meeting at Salonika and Kara's +extravagant rage and told of the attempt which had been made upon her. + +"Does John know this?" asked T. X. + +She shook her head sadly. + +"I wish I had told him now," she said. "Oh, how I wish I had!" She wrung +her hands in an ecstasy of sorrow and remorse. + +T. X. looked at her sympathetically. Then he asked, + +"Did Mr. Kara ever discuss your husband's financial position with you!" + +"Never." + +"How did John Lexman happen to meet Vassalaro!" + +"I can tell you that," she answered, "the first time we met Mr. Kara +in England was when we were staying at Babbacombe on a summer +holiday--which was really a prolongation of our honeymoon. Mr. Kara came +to stay at the same hotel. I think Mr. Vassalaro must have been there +before; at any rate they knew one another and after Kara's introduction +to my husband the rest was easy. + +"Can I do anything for John!" she asked piteously. + +T. X. shook his head. + +"So far as your story is concerned, I don't think you will advantage him +by telling it," he said. "There is nothing whatever to connect Kara with +this business and you would only give your husband a great deal of pain. +I'll do the best I can." + +He held out his hand and she grasped it and somehow at that moment +there came to T. X. Meredith a new courage, a new faith and a greater +determination than ever to solve this troublesome mystery. + +He found Mansus waiting for him in a car outside and in a few minutes +they were at the scene of the tragedy. A curious little knot of +spectators had gathered, looking with morbid interest at the place where +the body had been found. There was a local policeman on duty and to him +was deputed the ungracious task of warning his fellow villagers to keep +their distance. The ground had already been searched very carefully. The +two roads crossed almost at right angles and at the corner of the cross +thus formed, the hedges were broken, admitting to a field which had +evidently been used as a pasture by an adjoining dairy farm. Some rough +attempt had been made to close the gap with barbed wire, but it was +possible to step over the drooping strands with little or no difficulty. +It was to this gap that T. X. devoted his principal attention. All the +fields had been carefully examined without result, the four drains which +were merely the connecting pipes between ditches at the sides of the +crossroads had been swept out and only the broken hedge and its tangle +of bushes behind offered any prospect of the new search being rewarded. + +"Hullo!" said Mansus, suddenly, and stooping down he picked up something +from the ground. + +T. X. took it in his hand. + +It was unmistakably a revolver cartridge. He marked the spot where +it had been found by jamming his walking stick into the ground and +continued his search, but without success. + +"I am afraid we shall find nothing more here," said T. X., after half +an hour's further search. He stood with his chin in his hand, a frown on +his face. + +"Mansus," he said, "suppose there were three people here, Lexman, the +money lender and a third witness. And suppose this third person for some +reason unknown was interested in what took place between the two men and +he wanted to watch unobserved. Isn't it likely that if he, as I think, +instigated the meeting, he would have chosen this place because this +particular hedge gave him a chance of seeing without being seen?" + +Mansus thought. + +"He could have seen just as well from either of the other hedges, with +less chance of detection," he said, after a long pause. + +T. X. grinned. + +"You have the makings of a brain," he said admiringly. "I agree with +you. Always remember that, Mansus. That there was one occasion in your +life when T. X. Meredith and you thought alike." + +Mansus smiled a little feebly. + +"Of course from the point of view of the observer this was the worst +place possible, so whoever came here, if they did come here, dropping +revolver bullets about, must have chosen the spot because it was +get-at-able from another direction. Obviously he couldn't come down the +road and climb in without attracting the attention of the Greek who was +waiting for Mr. Lexman. We may suppose there is a gate farther along the +road, we may suppose that he entered that gate, came along the field by +the side of the hedge and that somewhere between here and the gate, he +threw away his cigar." + +"His cigar!" said Mansus in surprise. + +"His cigar," repeated T. X., "if he was alone, he would keep his cigar +alight until the very last moment." + +"He might have thrown it into the road," said Mansus. + +"Don't jibber," said T. X., and led the way along the hedge. From where +they stood they could see the gate which led on to the road about a +hundred yards further on. Within a dozen yards of that gate, T. X. found +what he had been searching for, a half-smoked cigar. It was sodden with +rain and he picked it up tenderly. + +"A good cigar, if I am any judge," he said, "cut with a penknife, and +smoked through a holder." + +They reached the gate and passed through. Here they were on the road +again and this they followed until they reached another cross road that +to the left inclining southward to the new Eastbourne Road and that to +the westward looking back to the Lewes-Eastbourne railway. The rain had +obliterated much that T. X. was looking for, but presently he found a +faint indication of a car wheel. + +"This is where she turned and backed," he said, and walked slowly to the +road on the left, "and this is where she stood. There is the grease from +her engine." + +He stooped down and moved forward in the attitude of a Russian dancer, +"And here are the wax matches which the chauffeur struck," he counted, +"one, two, three, four, five, six, allow three for each cigarette on a +boisterous night like last night, that makes three cigarettes. Here is +a cigarette end, Mansus, Gold Flake brand," he said, as he examined it +carefully, "and a Gold Flake brand smokes for twelve minutes in normal +weather, but about eight minutes in gusty weather. A car was here for +about twenty-four minutes--what do you think of that, Mansus?" + +"A good bit of reasoning, T. X.," said the other calmly, "if it happens +to be the car you're looking for." + +"I am looking for any old car," said T. X. + +He found no other trace of car wheels though he carefully followed +up the little lane until it reached the main road. After that it was +hopeless to search because rain had fallen in the night and in the early +hours of the morning. He drove his assistant to the railway station in +time to catch the train at one o'clock to London. + +"You will go straight to Cadogan Square and arrest the chauffeur of Mr. +Kara," he said. + +"Upon what charge!" asked Mansus hurriedly. + +When it came to the step which T. X. thought fit to take in the +pursuance of his duty, Mansus was beyond surprise. + +"You can charge him with anything you like," said T. X., with fine +carelessness, "probably something will occur to you on your way up to +town. As a matter of fact the chauffeur has been called unexpectedly +away to Greece and has probably left by this morning's train for the +Continent. If that is so, we can do nothing, because the boat will have +left Dover and will have landed him at Boulogne, but if by any luck you +get him, keep him busy until I get back." + +T. X. himself was a busy man that day, and it was not until night was +falling that he again turned to Beston Tracey to find a telegram waiting +for him. He opened it and read, + +"Chauffeur's name, Goole. Formerly waiter English Club, Constantinople. +Left for east by early train this morning, his mother being ill." + +"His mother ill," said T. X. contemptuously, "how very feeble,--I should +have thought Kara could have gone one better than that." + +He was in John Lexman's study as the door opened and the maid announced, +"Mr. Remington Kara." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +T. X. folded the telegram very carefully and slipped it into his +waistcoat pocket. + +He favoured the newcomer with a little bow and taking upon himself the +honours of the establishment, pushed a chair to his visitor. + +"I think you know my name," said Kara easily, "I am a friend of poor +Lexman's." + +"So I am told," said T. X., "but don't let your friendship for Lexman +prevent your sitting down." + +For a moment the Greek was nonplussed and then, with a little smile and +bow, he seated himself by the writing table. + +"I am very distressed at this happening," he went on, "and I am +more distressed because I feel that as I introduced Lexman to this +unfortunate man, I am in a sense responsible." + +"If I were you," said T. X., leaning back in the chair and looking +half questioningly and half earnestly into the face of the other, "I +shouldn't let that fact keep me awake at night. Most people are murdered +as a result of an introduction. The cases where people murder total +strangers are singularly rare. That I think is due to the insularity of +our national character." + +Again the other was taken back and puzzled by the flippancy of the man +from whom he had expected at least the official manner. + +"When did you see Mr. Vassalaro last?" asked T. X. pleasantly. + +Kara raised his eyes as though considering. + +"I think it must have been nearly a week ago." + +"Think again," said T. X. + +For a second the Greek started and again relaxed into a smile. + +"I am afraid," he began. + +"Don't worry about that," said T. X., "but let me ask you this question. +You were here last night when Mr. Lexman received a letter. That he did +receive a letter, there is considerable evidence," he said as he saw +the other hesitate, "because we have the supporting statements of the +servant and the postman." + +"I was here," said the other, deliberately, "and I was present when Mr. +Lexman received a letter." + +T. X. nodded. + +"A letter written on some brownish paper and rather bulky," he +suggested. + +Again there was that momentary hesitation. + +"I would not swear to the color of the paper or as to the bulk of the +letter," he said. + +"I should have thought you would," suggested T. X., "because you see, +you burnt the envelope, and I presumed you would have noticed that." + +"I have no recollection of burning any envelope," said the other easily. + +"At any rate," T. X. went on, "when Mr. Lexman read this letter out to +you..." + +"To which letter are you referring?" asked the other, with a lift of his +eyebrows. + +"Mr. Lexman received a threatening letter," repeated T. X. patiently, +"which he read out to you, and which was addressed to him by Vassalaro. +This letter was handed to you and you also read it. Mr. Lexman to your +knowledge put the letter in his safe--in a steel drawer." + +The other shook his head, smiling gently. + +"I am afraid you've made a great mistake," he said almost +apologetically, "though I have a recollection of his receiving a letter, +I did not read it, nor was it read to me." + +The eyes of T. X. narrowed to the very slits and his voice became +metallic and hard. + +"And if I put you into the box, will you swear, that you did not see +that letter, nor read it, nor have it read to you, and that you have no +knowledge whatever of such a letter having been received by Mr. Lexman?" + +"Most certainly," said the other coolly. + +"Would you swear that you have not seen Vassalaro for a week?" + +"Certainly," smiled the Greek. + +"That you did not in fact see him last night," persisted T. X., "and +interview him on the station platform at Lewes, that you did not after +leaving him continue on your way to London and then turn your car and +return to the neighbourhood of Beston Tracey?" + +The Greek was white to the lips, but not a muscle of his face moved. + +"Will you also swear," continued T. X. inexorably, "that you did not +stand at the corner of what is known as Mitre's Lot and re-enter a gate +near to the side where your car was, and that you did not watch the +whole tragedy?" + +"I'd swear to that," Kara's voice was strained and cracked. + +"Would you also swear as to the hour of your arrival in London?" + +"Somewhere in the region of ten or eleven," said the Greek. + +T. X. smiled. + +"Would you swear that you did not go through Guilford at half-past +twelve and pull up to replenish your petrol?" + +The Greek had now recovered his self-possession and rose. + +"You are a very clever man, Mr. Meredith--I think that is your name?" + +"That is my name," said T. X. calmly. "There has been, no need for me to +change it as often as you have found the necessity." + +He saw the fire blazing in the other's eyes and knew that his shot had +gone home. + +"I am afraid I must go," said Kara. "I came here intending to see Mrs. +Lexman, and I had no idea that I should meet a policeman." + +"My dear Mr. Kara," said T. X., rising and lighting a cigarette, "you +will go through life enduring that unhappy experience." + +"What do you mean?" + +"Just what I say. You will always be expecting to meet one person, and +meeting another, and unless you are very fortunate indeed, that other +will always be a policeman." + +His eyes twinkled for he had recovered from the gust of anger which had +swept through him. + +"There are two pieces of evidence I require to save Mr. Lexman from very +serious trouble," he said, "the first of these is the letter which was +burnt, as you know." + +"Yes," said Kara. + +T. X. leant across the desk. + +"How did you know?" he snapped. + +"Somebody told me, I don't know who it was." + +"That's not true," replied T. X.; "nobody knows except myself and Mrs. +Lexman." + +"But my dear good fellow," said Kara, pulling on his gloves, "you have +already asked me whether I didn't burn the letter." + +"I said envelope," said T. X., with a little laugh. + +"And you were going to say something about the other clue?" + +"The other is the revolver," said T. X. + +"Mr. Lexman's revolver!" drawled the Greek. + +"That we have," said T. X. shortly. "What we want is the weapon which +the Greek had when he threatened Mr. Lexman." + +"There, I'm afraid I cannot help you." + +Kara walked to the door and T. X. followed. + +"I think I will see Mrs. Lexman." + +"I think not," said T. X. + +The other turned with a sneer. + +"Have you arrested her, too?" he asked. + +"Pull yourself together!" said T. X. coarsely. He escorted Kara to his +waiting limousine. + +"You have a new chauffeur to-night, I observe," he said. + +Kara towering with rage stepped daintily into the car. + +"If you are writing to the other you might give him my love," said T. +X., "and make most tender enquiries after his mother. I particularly ask +this." + +Kara said nothing until the car was out of earshot then he lay back +on the down cushions and abandoned himself to a paroxysm of rage and +blasphemy. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +Six months later T. X. Meredith was laboriously tracing an elusive line +which occurred on an ordnance map of Sussex when the Chief Commissioner +announced himself. + +Sir George described T. X. as the most wholesome corrective a public +official could have, and never missed an opportunity of meeting his +subordinate (as he said) for this reason. + +"What are you doing there?" he growled. + +"The lesson this morning," said T. X. without looking up, "is maps." + +Sir George passed behind his assistant and looked over his shoulder. + +"That is a very old map you have got there," he said. + +"1876. It shows the course of a number of interesting little streams in +this neighbourhood which have been lost sight of for one reason or +the other by the gentleman who made the survey at a later period. I +am perfectly sure that in one of these streams I shall find what I am +seeking." + +"You haven't given up hope, then, in regard to Lexman?" + +"I shall never give up hope," said T. X., "until I am dead, and possibly +not then." + +"Let me see, what did he get--fifteen years!" + +"Fifteen years," repeated T. X., "and a very fortunate man to escape +with his life." + +Sir George walked to the window and stared out on to busy Whitehall. + +"I am told you are quite friendly with Kara again." + +T. X. made a noise which might be taken to indicate his assent to the +statement. + +"I suppose you know that gentleman has made a very heroic attempt to get +you fired," he said. + +"I shouldn't wonder," said T. X. "I made as heroic an attempt to get him +hung, and one good turn deserves another. What did he do? See ministers +and people?" + +"He did," said Sir George. + +"He's a silly ass," responded T. X. + +"I can understand all that"--the Chief Commissioner turned round--"but +what I cannot understand is your apology to him." + +"There are so many things you don't understand, Sir George," said T. X. +tartly, "that I despair of ever cataloguing them." + +"You are an insolent cub," growled his Chief. "Come to lunch." + +"Where will you take me?" asked T. X. cautiously. + +"To my club." + +"I'm sorry," said the other, with elaborate politeness, "I have lunched +once at your club. Need I say more?" + +He smiled, as he worked after his Chief had gone, at the recollection +of Kara's profound astonishment and the gratification he strove so +desperately to disguise. + +Kara was a vain man, immensely conscious of his good looks, conscious of +his wealth. He had behaved most handsomely, for not only had he accepted +the apology, but he left nothing undone to show his desire to create a +good impression upon the man who had so grossly insulted him. + +T. X. had accepted an invitation to stay a weekend at Kara's "little +place in the country," and had found there assembled everything that +the heart could desire in the way of fellowship, eminent politicians +who might conceivably be of service to an ambitious young Assistant +Commissioner of Police, beautiful ladies to interest and amuse him. Kara +had even gone to the length of engaging a theatrical company to play +"Sweet Lavender," and for this purpose the big ballroom at Hever Court +had been transformed into a theatre. + +As he was undressing for bed that night T. X. remembered that he had +mentioned to Kara that "Sweet Lavender" was his favorite play, and he +realized that the entertainment was got up especially for his benefit. + +In a score of other ways Kara had endeavoured to consolidate the +friendship. He gave the young Commissioner advice about a railway +company which was operating in Asia Minor, and the shares of which stood +a little below par. T. X. thanked him for the advice, and did not take +it, nor did he feel any regret when the shares rose 3 pounds in as many +weeks. + +T. X. had superintended the disposal of Beston Priory. He had the +furniture removed to London, and had taken a flat for Grace Lexman. + +She had a small income of her own, and this, added to the large +royalties which came to her (as she was bitterly conscious) in +increasing volume as the result of the publicity of the trial, placed +her beyond fear of want. + +"Fifteen years," murmured T. X., as he worked and whistled. + +There had been no hope for John Lexman from the start. He was in debt +to the man he killed. His story of threatening letters was not +substantiated. The revolver which he said had been flourished at him +had never been found. Two people believed implicitly in the story, and a +sympathetic Home Secretary had assured T. X. personally that if he could +find the revolver and associate it with the murder beyond any doubt, +John Lexman would be pardoned. + +Every stream in the neighbourhood had been dragged. In one case a small +river had been dammed, and the bed had been carefully dried and sifted, +but there was no trace of the weapon, and T. X. had tried methods more +effective and certainly less legal. + +A mysterious electrician had called at 456 Cadogan Square in Kara's +absence, and he was armed with such indisputable authority that he +was permitted to penetrate to Kara's private room, in order to examine +certain fitments. + +Kara returning next day thought no more of the matter when it was +reported to him, until going to his safe that night he discovered that +it had been opened and ransacked. + +As it happened, most of Kara's valuable and confidential possessions +were at the bank. In a fret of panic and at considerable cost he had +the safe removed and another put in its place of such potency that the +makers offered to indemnify him against any loss from burglary. + +T. X. finished his work, washed his hands, and was drying them when +Mansus came bursting into the room. It was not usual for Mansus to +burst into anywhere. He was a slow, methodical, painstaking man, with a +deliberate and an official, manner. + +"What's the matter?" asked T. X. quickly. + +"We didn't search Vassalaro's lodgings," cried Mansus breathlessly. "It +just occurred to me as I was coming over Westminster Bridge. I was on +top of a bus--" + +"Wake up!" said T. X. "You're amongst friends and cut all that 'bus' +stuff out. Of course we searched Vassalaro's lodgings!" + +"No, we didn't, sir," said the other triumphantly. "He lived in Great +James Street." + +"He lived in the Adelphi," corrected T. X. + +"There were two places where he lived," said Mansus. + +"When did you learn this?" asked his Chief, dropping his flippancy. + +"This morning. I was on a bus coming across Westminster Bridge, and +there were two men in front of me, and I heard the word 'Vassalaro' and +naturally I pricked up my ears." + +"It was very unnatural, but proceed," said T. X. + +"One of the men--a very respectable person--said, 'That chap Vassalaro +used to lodge in my place, and I've still got a lot of his things. What +do you think I ought to do?'" + +"And you said," suggested the other. + +"I nearly frightened his life out of him," said Mansus. "I said, 'I am a +police officer and I want you to come along with me.'" + +"And of course he shut up and would not say another word," said T. X. + +"That's true, sir," said Mansus, "but after awhile I got him to talk. +Vassalaro lived in Great James Street, 604, on the third floor. In fact, +some of his furniture is there still. He had a good reason for keeping +two addresses by all accounts." + +T. X. nodded wisely. + +"What was her name?" he asked. + +"He had a wife," said the other, "but she left him about four months +before he was killed. He used the Adelphi address for business purposes +and apparently he slept two or three nights of the week at Great James +Street. I have told the man to leave everything as it is, and that we +will come round." + +Ten minutes later the two officers were in the somewhat gloomy +apartments which Vassalaro had occupied. + +The landlord explained that most of the furniture was his, but that +there were certain articles which were the property of the deceased +man. He added, somewhat unnecessarily, that the late tenant owed him six +months' rent. + +The articles which had been the property of Vassalaro included a tin +trunk, a small writing bureau, a secretaire bookcase and a few clothes. +The secretaire was locked, as was the writing bureau. The tin box, which +had little or nothing of interest, was unfastened. + +The other locks needed very little attention. Without any difficulty +Mansus opened both. The leaf of the bureau, when let down, formed +the desk, and piled up inside was a whole mass of letters opened and +unopened, accounts, note-books and all the paraphernalia which an untidy +man collects. + +Letter by letter, T. X. went through the accumulation without finding +anything to help him. Then his eye was attracted by a small tin case +thrust into one of the oblong pigeon holes at the back of the desk. This +he pulled out and opened and found a small wad of paper wrapped in tin +foil. + +"Hello, hello!" said T. X., and he was pardonably exhilarated. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +A Man stood in the speckless courtyard before the Governor's house at +Dartmoor gaol. He wore the ugly livery of shame which marks the convict. +His head was clipped short, and there was two days' growth of beard upon +his haggard face. Standing with his hands behind him, he waited for the +moment when he would be ordered to his work. + +John Lexman--A. O. 43--looked up at the blue sky as he had looked so +many times from the exercise yard, and wondered what the day would bring +forth. A day to him was the beginning and the end of an eternity. He +dare not let his mind dwell upon the long aching years ahead. He dare +not think of the woman he left, or let his mind dwell upon the agony +which she was enduring. He had disappeared from the world, the world he +loved, and the world that knew him, and all that there was in life; all +that was worth while had been crushed and obliterated into the granite +of the Princetown quarries, and its wide horizon shrunken by the gaunt +moorland with its menacing tors. + +New interests made up his existence. The quality of the food was one. +The character of the book he would receive from the prison library +another. The future meant Sunday chapel; the present whatever task they +found him. For the day he was to paint some doors and windows of an +outlying cottage. A cottage occupied by a warder who, for some reason, +on the day previous, had spoken to him with a certain kindness and a +certain respect which was unusual. + +"Face the wall," growled a voice, and mechanically he turned, his hands +still behind him, and stood staring at the grey wall of the prison +storehouse. + +He heard the shuffling feet of the quarry gang, his ears caught the +clink of the chains which bound them together. They were desperate men, +peculiarly interesting to him, and he had watched their faces furtively +in the early period of his imprisonment. + +He had been sent to Dartmoor after spending three months in Wormwood +Scrubbs. Old hands had told him variously that he was fortunate or +unlucky. It was usual to have twelve months at the Scrubbs before +testing the life of a convict establishment. He believed there was some +talk of sending him to Parkhurst, and here he traced the influence which +T. X. would exercise, for Parkhurst was a prisoner's paradise. + +He heard his warder's voice behind him. + +"Right turn, 43, quick march." + +He walked ahead of the armed guard, through the great and gloomy gates +of the prison, turned sharply to the right, and walked up the village +street toward the moors, beyond the village of Princetown, and on the +Tavistock Road where were two or three cottages which had been lately +taken by the prison staff; and it was to the decoration of one of these +that A. O. 43 had been sent. + +The house was as yet without a tenant. + +A paper-hanger under the charge of another warder was waiting for the +arrival of the painter. The two warders exchanged greetings, and the +first went off leaving the other in charge of both men. + +For an hour they worked in silence under the eyes of the guard. +Presently the warder went outside, and John Lexman had an opportunity of +examining his fellow sufferer. + +He was a man of twenty-four or twenty-five, lithe and alert. By no means +bad looking, he lacked that indefinable suggestion of animalism which +distinguished the majority of the inhabitants at Dartmoor. + +They waited until they heard the warder's step clear the passage, and +until his iron-shod boots were tramping over the cobbled path which led +from the door, through the tiny garden to the road, before the second +man spoke. + +"What are you in for?" he asked, in a low voice. + +"Murder," said John Lexman, laconically. + +He had answered the question before, and had noticed with a little +amusement the look of respect which came into the eyes of the +questioner. + +"What have you got!" + +"Fifteen years," said the other. + +"That means 11 years and 9 months," said the first man. "You've never +been here before, I suppose?" + +"Hardly," said Lexman, drily. + +"I was here when I was a kid," confessed the paper-hanger. "I am going +out next week." + +John Lexman looked at him enviously. Had the man told him that he had +inherited a great fortune and a greater title his envy would not have +been so genuine. + +Going out! + +The drive in the brake to the station, the ride to London in creased, +but comfortable clothing, free as the air, at liberty to go to bed and +rise when he liked, to choose his own dinner, to answer no call save the +call of his conscience, to see--he checked himself. + +"What are you in for?" he asked in self-defence. + +"Conspiracy and fraud," said the other cheerfully. "I was put away by +a woman after three of us had got clear with 12,000 pounds. Damn rough +luck, wasn't it?" + +John nodded. + +It was curious, he thought, how sympathetic one grows with these +exponents of crimes. One naturally adopts their point of view and sees +life through their distorted vision. + +"I bet I'm not given away with the next lot," the prisoner went on. +"I've got one of the biggest ideas I've ever had, and I've got a real +good man to help me." + +"How?" asked John, in surprise. + +The man jerked his head in the direction of the prison. + +"Larry Green," he said briefly. "He's coming out next month, too, and we +are all fixed up proper. We are going to get the pile and then we're off +to South America, and you won't see us for dust." + +Though he employed all the colloquialisms which were common, his tone +was that of a man of education, and yet there was something in his +address which told John as clearly as though the man had confessed as +much, that he had never occupied any social position in life. + +The warder's step on the stones outside reduced them to silence. +Suddenly his voice came up the stairs. + +"Forty-three," he called sharply, "I want you down here." + +John took his paint pot and brush and went clattering down the +uncarpeted stairs. + +"Where's the other man?" asked the warder, in a low voice. + +"He's upstairs in the back room." + +The warder stepped out of the door and looked left and right. Coming up +from Princetown was a big, grey car. + +"Put down your paint pot," he said. + +His voice was shaking with excitement. + +"I am going upstairs. When that car comes abreast of the gate, ask no +questions and jump into it. Get down into the bottom and pull a sack +over you, and do not get up until the car stops." + +The blood rushed to John Lexman's head, and he staggered. + +"My God!" he whispered. + +"Do as I tell you," hissed the warder. + +Like an automaton John put down his brushes, and walked slowly to the +gate. The grey car was crawling up the hill, and the face of the driver +was half enveloped in a big rubber mask. Through the two great goggles +John could see little to help him identify the man. As the machine came +up to the gate, he leapt into the tonneau and sank instantly to the +bottom. As he did so he felt the car leap forward underneath him. Now +it was going fast, now faster, now it rocked and swayed as it gathered +speed. He felt it sweeping down hill and up hill, and once he heard a +hollow rumble as it crossed a wooden bridge. + +He could not detect from his hiding place in what direction they were +going, but he gathered they had switched off to the left and were making +for one of the wildest parts of the moor. Never once did he feel the car +slacken its pace, until, with a grind of brakes, it stopped suddenly. + +"Get out," said a voice. + +John Lexman threw off the cover and leapt out and as he did so the car +turned and sped back the way it had come. + +For a moment he thought he was alone, and looked around. Far away in +the distance he saw the grey bulk of Princetown Gaol. It was an accident +that he should see it, but it so happened that a ray of the sun fell +athwart it and threw it into relief. + +He was alone on the moors! Where could he go? + +He turned at the sound of a voice. + +He was standing on the slope of a small tor. At the foot there was a +smooth stretch of green sward. It was on this stretch that the people of +Dartmoor held their pony races in the summer months. There was no sign +of horses; but only a great bat-like machine with out-stretched pinions +of taut white canvas, and by that machine a man clad from head to foot +in brown overalls. + +John stumbled down the slope. As he neared the machine he stopped and +gasped. + +"Kara," he said, and the brown man smiled. + +"But, I do not understand. What are you going to do!" asked Lexman, when +he had recovered from his surprise. + +"I am going to take you to a place of safety," said the other. + +"I have no reason to be grateful to you, as yet, Kara," breathed Lexman. +"A word from you could have saved me." + +"I could not lie, my dear Lexman. And honestly, I had forgotten the +existence of the letter; if that is what you are referring to, but I am +trying to do what I can for you and for your wife." + +"My wife!" + +"She is waiting for you," said the other. + +He turned his head, listening. + +Across the moor came the dull sullen boom of a gun. + +"You haven't time for argument. They discovered your escape," he said. +"Get in." + +John clambered up into the frail body of the machine and Kara followed. + +"This is a self-starter," he said, "one of the newest models of +monoplanes." + +He clicked over a lever and with a roar the big three-bladed tractor +screw spun. + +The aeroplane moved forward with a jerk, ran with increasing gait for a +hundred yards, and then suddenly the jerky progress ceased. The machine +swayed gently from side to side, and looking over, the passenger saw the +ground recede beneath him. + +Up, up, they climbed in one long sweeping ascent, passing through +drifting clouds till the machine soared like a bird above the blue sea. + +John Lexman looked down. He saw the indentations of the coast and +recognized the fringe of white houses that stood for Torquay, but in an +incredibly short space of time all signs of the land were blotted out. + +Talking was impossible. The roar of the engines defied penetration. + +Kara was evidently a skilful pilot. From time to time he consulted +the compass on the board before him, and changed his course ever so +slightly. Presently he released one hand from the driving wheel, and +scribbling on a little block of paper which was inserted in a pocket at +the side of the seat he passed it back. + +John Lexman read: + + "If you cannot swim there is a life belt under your seat." + +John nodded. + +Kara was searching the sea for something, and presently he found it. +Viewed from the height at which they flew it looked no more than a white +speck in a great blue saucer, but presently the machine began to dip, +falling at a terrific rate of speed, which took away the breath of the +man who was hanging on with both hands to the dangerous seat behind. + +He was deadly cold, but had hardly noticed the fact. It was all so +incredible, so impossible. He expected to wake up and wondered if the +prison was also part of the dream. + +Now he saw the point for which Kara was making. + +A white steam yacht, long and narrow of beam, was steaming slowly +westward. He could see the feathery wake in her rear, and as the +aeroplane fell he had time to observe that a boat had been put off. Then +with a jerk the monoplane flattened out and came like a skimming bird to +the surface of the water; her engines stopped. + +"We ought to be able to keep afloat for ten minutes," said Kara, "and by +that time they will pick us up." + +His voice was high and harsh in the almost painful silence which +followed the stoppage of the engines. + +In less than five minutes the boat had come alongside, manned, as Lexman +gathered from a glimpse of the crew, by Greeks. He scrambled aboard +and five minutes later he was standing on the white deck of the yacht, +watching the disappearing tail of the monoplane. Kara was by his side. + +"There goes fifteen hundred pounds," said the Greek, with a smile, "add +that to the two thousand I paid the warder and you have a tidy sum-but +some things are worth all the money in the world!" + + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +T. X. came from Downing Street at 11 o'clock one night, and his heart +was filled with joy and gratitude. + +He swung his stick to the common danger of the public, but the policeman +on point duty at the end of the street, who saw him, recognized and +saluted him, did not think it fit to issue any official warning. + +He ran up the stairs to his office, and found Mansus reading the evening +paper. + +"My poor, dumb beast," said T. X. "I am afraid I have kept you waiting +for a very long time, but tomorrow you and I will take a little journey +to Devonshire. It will be good for you, Mansus--where did you get that +ridiculous name, by the way!" + +"M. or N.," replied Mansus, laconically. + +"I repeat that there is the dawn of an intellect in you," said T. X., +offensively. + +He became more serious as he took from a pocket inside his waistcoat a +long blue envelope containing the paper which had cost him so much to +secure. + +"Finding the revolver was a master-stroke of yours, Mansus," he said, +and he was in earnest as he spoke. + +The man coloured with pleasure for the subordinates of T. X. loved him, +and a word of praise was almost equal to promotion. It was on the advice +of Mansus that the road from London to Lewes had been carefully covered +and such streams as passed beneath that road had been searched. + +The revolver had been found after the third attempt between Gatwick and +Horsley. Its identification was made easier by the fact that Vassalaro's +name was engraved on the butt. It was rather an ornate affair and in its +earlier days had been silver plated; the handle was of mother-o'-pearl. + +"Obviously the gift of one brigand to another," was T. X.'s comment. + +Armed with this, his task would have been fairly easy, but when to this +evidence he added a rough draft of the threatening letter which he had +found amongst Vassalaro's belongings, and which had evidently been taken +down at dictation, since some of the words were misspelt and had been +corrected by another hand, the case was complete. + +But what clinched the matter was the finding of a wad of that peculiar +chemical paper, a number of sheets of which T. X. had ignited for the +information of the Chief Commissioner and the Home Secretary by simply +exposing them for a few seconds to the light of an electric lamp. + +Instantly it had filled the Home Secretary's office with a pungent +and most disagreeable smoke, for which he was heartily cursed by his +superiors. But it had rounded off the argument. + +He looked at his watch. + +"I wonder if it is too late to see Mrs. Lexman," he said. + +"I don't think any hour would be too late," suggested Mansus. + +"You shall come and chaperon me," said his superior. + +But a disappointment awaited. Mrs. Lexman was not in and neither the +ringing at her electric bell nor vigorous applications to the knocker +brought any response. The hall porter of the flats where she lived +was under the impression that Mrs. Lexman had gone out of town. She +frequently went out on Saturdays and returned on the Monday and, he +thought, occasionally on Tuesdays. + +It happened that this particular night was a Monday night and T. X. +was faced with a dilemma. The night porter, who had only the vaguest +information on the subject, thought that the day porter might know more, +and aroused him from his sleep. + +Yes, Mrs. Lexman had gone. She went on the Sunday, an unusual day to +pay a week-end visit, and she had taken with her two bags. The porter +ventured the opinion that she was rather excited, but when asked to +define the symptoms relapsed into a chaos of incoherent "you-knows" and +"what-I-means." + +"I don't like this," said T. X., suddenly. "Does anybody know that we +have made these discoveries?" + +"Nobody outside the office," said Mansus, "unless, unless..." + +"Unless what?" asked the other, irritably. "Don't be a jimp, Mansus. Get +it off your mind. What is it?" + +"I am wondering," said Mansus slowly, "if the landlord at Great James +Street said anything. He knows we have made a search." + +"We can easily find that out," said T. X. + +They hailed a taxi and drove to Great James Street. That respectable +thoroughfare was wrapped in sleep and it was some time before the +landlord could be aroused. Recognizing T. X. he checked his sarcasm, +which he had prepared for a keyless lodger, and led the way into the +drawing room. + +"You didn't tell me not to speak about it, Mr. Meredith," he said, in an +aggrieved tone, "and as a matter of fact I have spoken to nobody except +the gentleman who called the same day." + +"What did he want?" asked T. X. + +"He said he had only just discovered that Mr. Vassalaro had stayed with +me and he wanted to pay whatever rent was due," replied the other. + +"What like of man was he?" asked T. X. + +The brief description the man gave sent a cold chill to the +Commissioner's heart. + +"Kara for a ducat!" he said, and swore long and variously. + +"Cadogan Square," he ordered. + +His ring was answered promptly. Mr. Kara was out of town, had indeed +been out of town since Saturday. This much the man-servant explained +with a suspicious eye upon his visitors, remembering that his +predecessor had lost his job from a too confiding friendliness with +spurious electric fitters. He did not know when Mr. Kara would return, +perhaps it would be a long time and perhaps a short time. He might come +back that night or he might not. + +"You are wasting your young life," said T. X. bitterly. "You ought to be +a fortune teller." + +"This settles the matter," he said, in the cab on the way back. "Find +out the first train for Tavistock in the morning and wire the George +Hotel to have a car waiting." + +"Why not go to-night?" suggested the other. "There is the midnight +train. It is rather slow, but it will get you there by six or seven in +the morning." + +"Too late," he said, "unless you can invent a method of getting from +here to Paddington in about fifty seconds." + +The morning journey to Devonshire was a dispiriting one despite the +fineness of the day. T. X. had an uncomfortable sense that something +distressing had happened. The run across the moor in the fresh spring +air revived him a little. + +As they spun down to the valley of the Dart, Mansus touched his arm. + +"Look at that," he said, and pointed to the blue heavens where, a mile +above their heads, a white-winged aeroplane, looking no larger than a +very distant dragon fly, shimmered in the sunlight. + +"By Jove!" said T. X. "What an excellent way for a man to escape!" + +"It's about the only way," said Mansus. + +The significance of the aeroplane was borne in upon T. X. a few minutes +later when he was held up by an armed guard. A glance at his card was +enough to pass him. + +"What is the matter?" he asked. + +"A prisoner has escaped," said the sentry. + +"Escaped--by aeroplane?" asked T. X. + +"I don't know anything about aeroplanes, sir. All I know is that one of +the working party got away." + +The car came to the gates of the prison and T. X. sprang out, followed +by his assistant. He had no difficulty in finding the Governor, a +greatly perturbed man, for an escape is a very serious matter. + +The official was inclined to be brusque in his manner, but again the +magic card produced a soothing effect. + +"I am rather rattled," said the Governor. "One of my men has got away. I +suppose you know that?" + +"And I am afraid another of your men is going away, sir," said T. X., +who had a curious reverence for military authority. He produced his +paper and laid it on the governor's table. + +"This is an order for the release of John Lexman, convicted under +sentence of fifteen years penal servitude." + +The Governor looked at it. + +"Dated last night," he said, and breathed a long sigh of relief. "Thank +the Lord!--that is the man who escaped!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +Two years after the events just described, T. X. journeying up to London +from Bath was attracted by a paragraph in the Morning Post. It told him +briefly that Mr. Remington Kara, the influential leader of the Greek +Colony, had been the guest of honor at a dinner of the Hellenic Society. + +T. X. had only seen Kara for a brief space of time following that +tragic morning, when he had discovered not only that his best friend had +escaped from Dartmoor prison and disappeared, as it were, from the world +at a moment when his pardon had been signed, but that that friend's wife +had also vanished from the face of the earth. + +At the same time--it might, as even T. X. admitted, have been the +veriest coincidence that Kara had also cleared out of London to reappear +at the end of six months. Any question addressed to him, concerning the +whereabouts of the two unhappy people, was met with a bland expression +of ignorance as to their whereabouts. + +John Lexman was somewhere in the world, hiding as he believed from +justice, and with him was his wife. T. X. had no doubt in his mind as to +this solution of the puzzle. He had caused to be published the story +of the pardon and the circumstances under which that pardon had been +secured, and he had, moreover, arranged for an advertisement to be +inserted in the principal papers of every European country. + +It was a moot question amongst the departmental lawyers as to whether +John Lexman was not guilty of a technical and punishable offence for +prison breaking, but this possibility did not keep T. X. awake at +nights. The circumstances of the escape had been carefully examined. The +warder responsible had been discharged from the service, and had almost +immediately purchased for himself a beer house in Falmouth, for a sum +which left no doubt in the official mind that he had been the recipient +of a heavy bribe. + +Who had been the guiding spirit in that escape--Mrs. Lexman, or Kara? + +It was impossible to connect Kara with the event. The motor car had +been traced to Exeter, where it had been hired by a "foreign-looking +gentleman," but the chauffeur, whoever he was, had made good his +escape. An inspection of Kara's hangars at Wembley showed that his two +monoplanes had not been removed, and T. X. failed entirely to trace +the owner of the machine he had seen flying over Dartmoor on the fatal +morning. + +T. X. was somewhat baffled and a little amused by the disinclination +of the authorities to believe that the escape had been effected by +this method at all. All the events of the trial came back to him, as he +watched the landscape spinning past. + +He set down the newspaper with a little sigh, put his feet on the +cushions of the opposite seat and gave himself up to reverie. Presently +he returned to his journals and searched them idly for something +to interest him in the final stretch of journey between Newbury and +Paddington. + +Presently he found it in a two column article with the uninspiring +title, "The Mineral Wealth of Tierra del Fuego." It was written +brightly with a style which was at once easy and informative. It told of +adventures in the marshes behind St. Sebastian Bay and journeys up the +Guarez Celman river, of nights spent in primeval forests and ended in +a geological survey, wherein the commercial value of syenite, porphyry, +trachite and dialite were severally canvassed. + +The article was signed "G. G." It is said of T. X. that his greatest +virtue was his curiosity. He had at the tip of his fingers the names +of all the big explorers and author-travellers, and for some reason he +could not place "G. G." to his satisfaction, in fact he had an absurd +desire to interpret the initials into "George Grossmith." His inability +to identify the writer irritated him, and his first act on reaching his +office was to telephone to one of the literary editors of the Times whom +he knew. + +"Not my department," was the chilly reply, "and besides we never give +away the names of our contributors. Speaking as a person outside the +office I should say that 'G. G.' was 'George Gathercole' the explorer +you know, the fellow who had an arm chewed off by a lion or something." + +"George Gathercole!" repeated T. X. "What an ass I am." + +"Yes," said the voice at the other end the wire, and he had rung off +before T. X. could think of something suitable to say. + +Having elucidated this little side-line of mystery, the matter passed +from the young Commissioner's mind. It happened that morning that his +work consisted of dealing with John Lexman's estate. + +With the disappearance of the couple he had taken over control of +their belongings. It had not embarrassed him to discover that he was an +executor under Lexman's will, for he had already acted as trustee to the +wife's small estate, and had been one of the parties to the ante-nuptial +contract which John Lexman had made before his marriage. + +The estate revenues had increased very considerably. All the vanished +author's books were selling as they had never sold before, and the +executor's work was made the heavier by the fact that Grace Lexman +had possessed an aunt who had most inconsiderately died, leaving a +considerable fortune to her "unhappy niece." + +"I will keep the trusteeship another year," he told the solicitor who +came to consult him that morning. "At the end of that time I shall go to +the court for relief." + +"Do you think they will ever turn up?" asked the solicitor, an elderly +and unimaginative man. + +"Of course, they'll turn up!" said T. X. impatiently; "all the heroes of +Lexman's books turn up sooner or later. He will discover himself to us +at a suitable moment, and we shall be properly thrilled." + +That Lexman would return he was sure. It was a faith from which he did +not swerve. + +He had as implicit a confidence that one day or other Kara, the +magnificent, would play into his hands. + +There were some queer stories in circulation concerning the Greek, +but on the whole they were stories and rumours which were difficult to +separate from the malicious gossip which invariably attaches itself to +the rich and to the successful. + +One of these was that Kara desired something more than an Albanian +chieftainship, which he undoubtedly enjoyed. There were whispers of +wider and higher ambitions. Though his father had been born a Greek, he +had indubitably descended in a direct line from one of those old Mprets +of Albania, who had exercised their brief authority over that turbulent +land. + +The man's passion was for power. To this end he did not spare himself. +It was said that he utilized his vast wealth for this reason, and none +other, and that whatever might have been the irregularities of his +youth--and there were adduced concrete instances--he was working toward +an end with a singleness of purpose, from which it was difficult to +withhold admiration. + +T. X. kept in his locked desk a little red book, steel bound and triple +locked, which he called his "Scandalaria." In this he inscribed in his +own irregular writing the titbits which might not be published, and +which often helped an investigator to light upon the missing threads +of a problem. In truth he scorned no source of information, and was +conscienceless in the compilation of this somewhat chaotic record. + +The affairs of John Lexman recalled Kara, and Kara's great reception. +Mansus would have made arrangements to secure a verbatim report of the +speeches which were made, and these would be in his hands by the night. +Mansus did not tell him that Kara was financing some very influential +people indeed, that a certain Under-secretary of State with a great +number of very influential relations had been saved from bankruptcy by +the timely advances which Kara had made. This T. X. had obtained through +sources which might be hastily described as discreditable. Mansus knew +of the baccarat establishment in Albemarle Street, but he did not know +that the neurotic wife of a very great man indeed, no less than the +Minister of Justice, was a frequent visitor to that establishment, and +that she had lost in one night some 6,000 pounds. In these circumstances +it was remarkable, thought T. X., that she should report to the police +so small a matter as the petty pilfering of servants. This, however, +she had done and whilst the lesser officers of Scotland Yard were +interrogating pawnbrokers, the men higher up were genuinely worried by +the lady's own lapses from grace. + +It was all sordid but, unfortunately, conventional, because highly +placed people will always do underbred things, where money or women +are concerned, but it was necessary, for the proper conduct of the +department which T. X. directed, that, however sordid and however +conventional might be the errors which the great ones of the earth +committed, they should be filed for reference. + +The motto which T. X. went upon in life was, "You never know." + +The Minister of Justice was a very important person, for he was a +personal friend of half the monarchs of Europe. A poor man, with two or +three thousand a year of his own, with no very definite political +views and uncommitted to the more violent policies of either party, he +succeeded in serving both, with profit to himself, and without earning +the obloquy of either. Though he did not pursue the blatant policy +of the Vicar of Bray, yet it is fact which may be confirmed from +the reader's own knowledge, that he served in four different +administrations, drawing the pay and emoluments of his office from each, +though the fundamental policies of those four governments were distinct. + +Lady Bartholomew, the wife of this adaptable Minister, had recently +departed for San Remo. The newspapers announced the fact and spoke +vaguely of a breakdown which prevented the lady from fulfilling her +social engagements. + +T. X., ever a Doubting Thomas, could trace no visit of nerve specialist, +nor yet of the family practitioner, to the official residence in Downing +Street, and therefore he drew conclusions. In his own "Who's Who" T. +X. noted the hobbies of his victims which, by the way, did not always +coincide with the innocent occupations set against their names in the +more pretentious volume. Their follies and their weaknesses found a +place and were recorded at a length (as it might seem to the uninformed +observer) beyond the limit which charity allowed. + +Lady Mary Bartholomew's name appeared not once, but many times, in the +erratic records which T. X. kept. There was a plain matter-of-fact and +wholly unobjectionable statement that she was born in 1874, that she was +the seventh daughter of the Earl of Balmorey, that she had one daughter +who rejoiced in the somewhat unpromising name of Belinda Mary, and such +further information as a man might get without going to a great deal of +trouble. + +T. X., refreshing his memory from the little red book, wondered what +unexpected tragedy had sent Lady Bartholomew out of London in the middle +of the season. The information was that the lady was fairly well off at +this moment, and this fact made matters all the more puzzling and +almost induced him to believe that, after all, the story was true, and a +nervous breakdown really was the cause of her sudden departure. He sent +for Mansus. + +"You saw Lady Bartholomew off at Charing Cross, I suppose?" + +Mansus nodded. + +"She went alone?" + +"She took her maid, but otherwise she was alone. I thought she looked +ill." + +"She has been looking ill for months past," said T. X., without any +visible expression of sympathy. + +"Did she take Belinda Mary?" + +Mansus was puzzled. "Belinda Mary?" he repeated slowly. "Oh, you mean +the daughter. No, she's at a school somewhere in France." + +T. X. whistled a snatch of a popular song, closed the little red book +with a snap and replaced it in his desk. + +"I wonder where on earth people dig up names like Belinda Mary?" he +mused. "Belinda Mary must be rather a weird little animal--the Lord +forgive me for speaking so about my betters! If heredity counts for +anything she ought to be something between a head waiter and a pack of +cards. Have you lost anything'?" + +Mansus was searching his pockets. + +"I made a few notes, some questions I wanted to ask you about and +Lady Bartholomew was the subject of one of them. I have had her under +observation for six months; do you want it kept up?" + +T. X. thought awhile, then shook his head. + +"I am only interested in Lady Bartholomew in so far as Kara is +interested in her. There is a criminal for you, my friend!" he added, +admiringly. + +Mansus busily engaged in going through the bundles of letters, slips +of paper and little notebooks he had taken from his pocket, sniffed +audibly. + +"Have you a cold?" asked T. X. politely. + +"No, sir," was the reply, "only I haven't much opinion of Kara as a +criminal. Besides, what has he got to be a criminal about? He has all +that he requires in the money department, he's one of the most popular +people in London, and certainly one of the best-looking men I've ever +seen in my life. He needs nothing." + +T. X. regarded him scornfully. + +"You're a poor blind brute," he said, shaking his head; don't you know +that great criminals are never influenced by material desires, or by +the prospect of concrete gains? The man, who robs his employer's till +in order to give the girl of his heart the 25-pearl and ruby brooch her +soul desires, gains nothing but the glow of satisfaction which comes to +the man who is thought well of. The majority of crimes in the world are +committed by people for the same reason--they want to be thought well +of. Here is Doctor X. who murdered his wife because she was a drunkard +and a slut, and he dared not leave her for fear the neighbours would +have doubts as to his respectability. Here is another gentleman who +murders his wives in their baths in order that he should keep up some +sort of position and earn the respect of his friends and his associates. +Nothing roused him more quickly to a frenzy of passion than the +suggestion that he was not respectable. Here is the great financier, who +has embezzled a million and a quarter, not because he needed money, +but because people looked up to him. Therefore, he must build +great mansions, submarine pleasure courts and must lay out huge +estates--because he wished that he should be thought well of. + +Mansus sniffed again. + +"What about the man who half murders his wife, does he do that to be +well thought of?" he asked, with a tinge of sarcasm. + +T. X. looked at him pityingly. + +"The low-brow who beats his wife, my poor Mansus," he said, "does so +because she doesn't think well of him. That is our ruling passion, +our national characteristic, the primary cause of most crimes, big or +little. That is why Kara is a bad criminal and will, as I say, end his +life very violently." + +He took down his glossy silk hat from the peg and slipped into his +overcoat. + +"I am going down to see my friend Kara," he said. "I have a feeling that +I should like to talk with him. He might tell me something." + +His acquaintance with Kara's menage had been mere hearsay. He had +interviewed the Greek once after his return, but since all his efforts +to secure information concerning the whereabouts of John Lexman and +his wife--the main reason for his visit--had been in vain, he had not +repeated his visit. + +The house in Cadogan Square was a large one, occupying a corner site. It +was peculiarly English in appearance with its window boxes, its discreet +curtains, its polished brass and enamelled doorway. It had been the +town house of Lord Henry Gratham, that eccentric connoisseur of wine and +follower of witless pleasure. It had been built by him "round a +bottle of port," as his friends said, meaning thereby that his first +consideration had been the cellarage of the house, and that when those +cellars had been built and provision made for the safe storage of his +priceless wines, the house had been built without the architect's being +greatly troubled by his lordship. The double cellars of Gratham House +had, in their time, been one of the sights of London. When Henry Gratham +lay under eight feet of Congo earth (he was killed by an elephant +whilst on a hunting trip) his executors had been singularly fortunate +in finding an immediate purchaser. Rumour had it that Kara, who was +no lover of wine, had bricked up the cellars, and their very existence +passed into domestic legendary. + +The door was opened by a well-dressed and deferential man-servant and +T. X. was ushered into the hall. A fire burnt cheerily in a bronze grate +and T. X. had a glimpse of a big oil painting of Kara above the marble +mantle-piece. + +"Mr. Kara is very busy, sir," said the man. + +"Just take in my card," said T. X. "I think he may care to see me." + +The man bowed, produced from some mysterious corner a silver salver +and glided upstairs in that manner which well-trained servants have, +a manner which seems to call for no bodily effort. In a minute he +returned. + +"Will you come this way, sir," he said, and led the way up a broad +flight of stairs. + +At the head of the stairs was a corridor which ran to the left and to +the right. From this there gave four rooms. One at the extreme end of +the passage on the right, one on the left, and two at fairly regular +intervals in the centre. + +When the man's hand was on one of the doors, T. X. asked quietly, "I +think I have seen you before somewhere, my friend." + +The man smiled. + +"It is very possible, sir. I was a waiter at the Constitutional for some +time." + +T. X. nodded. + +"That is where it must have been," he said. + +The man opened the door and announced the visitor. + +T. X. found himself in a large room, very handsomely furnished, but just +lacking that sense of cosiness and comfort which is the feature of the +Englishman's home. + +Kara rose from behind a big writing table, and came with a smile and a +quick step to greet the visitor. + +"This is a most unexpected pleasure," he said, and shook hands warmly. + +T. X. had not seen him for a year and found very little change in this +strange young man. He could not be more confident than he had been, nor +bear himself with a more graceful carriage. Whatever social success he +had achieved, it had not spoiled him, for his manner was as genial and +easy as ever. + +"I think that will do, Miss Holland," he said, turning to the girl who, +with notebook in hand, stood by the desk. + +"Evidently," thought T. X., "our Hellenic friend has a pretty taste in +secretaries." + +In that one glance he took her all in--from the bronze-brown of her hair +to her neat foot. + +T. X. was not readily attracted by members of the opposite sex. He was +self-confessed a predestined bachelor, finding life and its incidence +too absorbing to give his whole mind to the serious problem of marriage, +or to contract responsibilities and interests which might divert his +attention from what he believed was the greater game. Yet he must be a +man of stone to resist the freshness, the beauty and the youth of this +straight, slender girl; the pink-and-whiteness of her, the aliveness +and buoyancy and the thrilling sense of vitality she carried in her very +presence. + +"What is the weirdest name you have ever heard?" asked Kara laughingly. +"I ask you, because Miss Holland and I have been discussing a begging +letter addressed to us by a Maggie Goomer." + +The girl smiled slightly and in that smile was paradise, thought T. X. + +"The weirdest name?" he repeated, "why I think the worst I have heard +for a long time is Belinda Mary." + +"That has a familiar ring," said Kara. + +T. X. was looking at the girl. + +She was staring at him with a certain languid insolence which made him +curl up inside. Then with a glance at her employer she swept from the +room. + +"I ought to have introduced you," said Kara. "That was my secretary, +Miss Holland. Rather a pretty girl, isn't she?" + +"Very," said T. X., recovering his breath. + +"I like pretty things around me," said Kara, and somehow the complacency +of the remark annoyed the detective more than anything that Kara had +ever said to him. + +The Greek went to the mantlepiece, and taking down a silver cigarette +box, opened and offered it to his visitor. Kara was wearing a grey +lounge suit; and although grey is a very trying colour for a foreigner +to wear, this suit fitted his splendid figure and gave him just that +bulk which he needed. + +"You are a most suspicious man, Mr. Meredith," he smiled. + +"Suspicious! I?" asked the innocent T. X. + +Kara nodded. + +"I am sure you want to enquire into the character of all my present +staff. I am perfectly satisfied that you will never be at rest until you +learn the antecedents of my cook, my valet, my secretary--" + +T. X. held up his hand with a laugh. + +"Spare me," he said. "It is one of my failings, I admit, but I have +never gone much farther into your domestic affairs than to pry into the +antecedents of your very interesting chauffeur." + +A little cloud passed over Kara's face, but it was only momentary. + +"Oh, Brown," he said, airily, with just a perceptible pause between the +two words. + +"It used to be Smith," said T. X., "but no matter. His name is really +Poropulos." + +"Oh, Poropulos," said Kara gravely, "I dismissed him a long time ago." + +"Pensioned hire, too, I understand," said T. X. + +The other looked at him awhile, then, "I am very good to my old +servants," he said slowly and, changing the subject; "to what good +fortune do I owe this visit?" + +T. X. selected a cigarette before he replied. + +"I thought you might be of some service to me," he said, apparently +giving his whole attention to the cigarette. + +"Nothing would give me greater pleasure," said Kara, a little eagerly. +"I am afraid you have not been very keen on continuing what I hoped +would have ripened into a valuable friendship, more valuable to me +perhaps," he smiled, "than to you." + +"I am a very shy man," said the shameless T. X., "difficult to a fault, +and rather apt to underrate my social attractions. I have come to you +now because you know everybody--by the way, how long have you had your +secretary!" he asked abruptly. + +Kara looked up at the ceiling for inspiration. + +"Four, no three months," he corrected, "a very efficient young lady +who came to me from one of the training establishments. Somewhat +uncommunicative, better educated than most girls in her position--for +example, she speaks and writes modern Greek fairly well." + +"A treasure!" suggested T. X. + +"Unusually so," said Kara. "She lives in Marylebone Road, 86a is the +address. She has no friends, spends most of her evenings in her room, +is eminently respectable and a little chilling in her attitude to her +employer." + +T. X. shot a swift glance at the other. + +"Why do you tell me all this?" he asked. + +"To save you the trouble of finding out," replied the other coolly. +"That insatiable curiosity which is one of the equipments of your +profession, would, I feel sure, induce you to conduct investigations for +your own satisfaction." + +T. X. laughed. + +"May I sit down?" he said. + +The other wheeled an armchair across the room and T. X. sank into it. +He leant back and crossed his legs, and was, in a second, the +personification of ease. + +"I think you are a very clever man, Monsieur Kara," he said. + +The other looked down at him this time without amusement. + +"Not so clever that I can discover the object of your visit," he said +pleasantly enough. + +"It is very simply explained," said T. X. "You know everybody in town. +You know, amongst other people, Lady Bartholomew." + +"I know the lady very well indeed," said Kara, readily,--too readily +in fact, for the rapidity with which answer had followed question, +suggested to T. X. that Kara had anticipated the reason for the call. + +"Have you any idea," asked T. X., speaking with deliberation, "as to why +Lady Bartholomew has gone out of town at this particular moment?" + +Kara laughed. + +"What an extraordinary question to ask me--as though Lady Bartholomew +confided her plans to one who is little more than a chance +acquaintance!" + +"And yet," said T. X., contemplating the burning end of his cigarette, +"you know her well enough to hold her promissory note." + +"Promissory note?" asked the other. + +His tone was one of involuntary surprise and T. X. swore softly to +himself for now he saw the faintest shade of relief in Kara's face. The +Commissioner realized that he had committed an error--he had been far +too definite. + +"When I say promissory note," he went on easily, as though he had +noticed nothing, "I mean, of course, the securities which the debtor +invariably gives to one from whom he or she has borrowed large sums of +money." + +Kara made no answer, but opening a drawer of his desk he took out a key +and brought it across to where T. X. was sitting. + +"Here is the key of my safe," he said quietly. "You are at liberty to go +carefully through its contents and discover for yourself any promissory +note which I hold from Lady Bartholomew. My dear fellow, you don't +imagine I'm a moneylender, do you?" he said in an injured tone. + +"Nothing was further from my thoughts," said T. X., untruthfully. + +But the other pressed the key upon him. + +"I should be awfully glad if you would look for yourself," he said +earnestly. "I feel that in some way you associate Lady Bartholomew's +illness with some horrible act of usury on my part--will you satisfy +yourself and in doing so satisfy me?" + +Now any ordinary man, and possibly any ordinary detective, would have +made the conventional answer. He would have protested that he had no +intention of doing anything of the sort; he would have uttered, if +he were a man in the position which T. X. occupied, the conventional +statement that he had no authority to search the private papers, and +that he would certainly not avail himself of the other's kindness. +But T. X. was not an ordinary person. He took the key and balanced it +lightly in the palm of his hand. + +"Is this the key of the famous bedroom safe?" he said banteringly. + +Kara was looking down at him with a quizzical smile. "It isn't the safe +you opened in my absence, on one memorable occasion, Mr. Meredith," he +said. "As you probably know, I have changed that safe, but perhaps you +don't feel equal to the task?" + +"On the contrary," said T. X., calmly, and rising from the chair, "I am +going to put your good faith to the test." + +For answer Kara walked to the door and opened it. + +"Let me show you the way," he said politely. + +He passed along the corridor and entered the apartment at the end. The +room was a large one and lighted by one big square window which was +protected by steel bars. In the grate which was broad and high a huge +fire was burning and the temperature of the room was unpleasantly close +despite the coldness of the day. + +"That is one of the eccentricities which you, as an Englishman, will +never excuse in me," said Kara. + +Near the foot of the bed, let into, and flush with, the wall, was a big +green door of the safe. + +"Here you are, Mr. Meredith," said Kara. "All the precious secrets of +Remington Kara are yours for the seeking." + +"I am afraid I've had my trouble for nothing," said T. X., making no +attempt to use the key. + +"That is an opinion which I share," said Kara, with a smile. + +"Curiously enough," said T. X. "I mean just what you mean." + +He handed the key to Kara. + +"Won't you open it?" asked the Greek. + +T. X. shook his head. + +"The safe as far as I can see is a Magnus, the key which you have been +kind enough to give me is legibly inscribed upon the handle 'Chubb.' My +experience as a police officer has taught me that Chubb keys very rarely +open Magnus safes." + +Kara uttered an exclamation of annoyance. + +"How stupid of me!" he said, "yet now I remember, I sent the key to my +bankers, before I went out of town--I only came back this morning, you +know. I will send for it at once." + +"Pray don't trouble," murmured T. X. politely. He took from his pocket +a little flat leather case and opened it. It contained a number of steel +implements of curious shape which were held in position by a leather +loop along the centre of the case. From one of these loops he extracted +a handle, and deftly fitted something that looked like a steel awl +to the socket in the handle. Looking in wonder, and with no little +apprehension, Kara saw that the awl was bent at the head. + +"What are you going to do?" he asked, a little alarmed. + +"I'll show you," said T. X. pleasantly. + +Very gingerly he inserted the instrument in the small keyhole and turned +it cautiously first one way and then the other. There was a sharp click +followed by another. He turned the handle and the door of the safe swung +open. + +"Simple, isn't it!" he asked politely. + +In that second of time Kara's face had undergone a transformation. The +eyes which met T. X. Meredith's blazed with an almost insane fury. With +a quick stride Kara placed himself before the open safe. + +"I think this has gone far enough, Mr. Meredith," he said harshly. "If +you wish to search my safe you must get a warrant." + +T. X. shrugged his shoulders, and carefully unscrewing the instrument he +had employed and replacing it in the case, he returned it to his inside +pocket. + +"It was at your invitation, my dear Monsieur Kara," he said suavely. "Of +course I knew that you were putting a bluff up on me with the key and +that you had no more intention of letting me see the inside of your safe +than you had of telling me exactly what happened to John Lexman." + +The shot went home. + +The face which was thrust into the Commissioner's was ridged and veined +with passion. The lips were turned back to show the big white even +teeth, the eyes were narrowed to slits, the jaw thrust out, and almost +every semblance of humanity had vanished from his face. + +"You--you--" he hissed, and his clawing hands moved suspiciously +backward. + +"Put up your hands," said T. X. sharply, "and be damned quick about it!" + +In a flash the hands went up, for the revolver which T. X. held was +pressed uncomfortably against the third button of the Greek's waistcoat. + +"That's not the first time you've been asked to put up your hands, I +think," said T. X. pleasantly. + +His own left hand slipped round to Kara's hip pocket. He found something +in the shape of a cylinder and drew it out from the pocket. To his +surprise it was not a revolver, not even a knife; it looked like a small +electric torch, though instead of a bulb and a bull's-eye glass, there +was a pepper-box perforation at one end. + +He handled it carefully and was about to press the small nickel knob +when a strangled cry of horror broke from Kara. + +"For God's sake be careful!" he gasped. "You're pointing it at me! Do +not press that lever, I beg!" + +"Will it explode!" asked T. X. curiously. + +"No, no!" + +T. X. pointed the thing downward to the carpet and pressed the knob +cautiously. As he did so there was a sharp hiss and the floor was +stained with the liquid which the instrument contained. Just one gush +of fluid and no more. T. X. looked down. The bright carpet had already +changed colour, and was smoking. The room was filled with a pungent and +disagreeable scent. T. X. looked from the floor to the white-faced man. + +"Vitriol, I believe," he said, shaking his head admiringly. "What a dear +little fellow you are!" + +The man, big as he was, was on the point of collapse and mumbled +something about self-defence, and listened without a word, whilst T. +X., labouring under an emotion which was perfectly pardonable, described +Kara, his ancestors and the possibilities of his future estate. + +Very slowly the Greek recovered his self-possession. + +"I didn't intend using it on you, I swear I didn't," he pleaded. +"I'm surrounded by enemies, Meredith. I had to carry some means of +protection. It is because my enemies know I carry this that they fight +shy of me. I'll swear I had no intention of using it on you. The idea is +too preposterous. I am sorry I fooled you about the safe." + +"Don't let that worry you," said T. X. "I am afraid I did all the +fooling. No, I cannot let you have this back again," he said, as the +Greek put out his hand to take the infernal little instrument. "I must +take this back to Scotland Yard; it's quite a long time since we had +anything new in this shape. Compressed air, I presume." + +Kara nodded solemnly. + +"Very ingenious indeed," said T. X. "If I had a brain like yours," he +paused, "I should do something with it--with a gun," he added, as he +passed out of the room. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + + "My dear Mr. Meredith, + + "I cannot tell you how unhappy and humiliated I feel that my + little joke with you should have had such an uncomfortable + ending. As you know, and as I have given you proof, I have + the greatest admiration in the world for one whose work for + humanity has won such universal recognition. + + "I hope that we shall both forget this unhappy morning and + that you will give me an opportunity of rendering to you in + person, the apologies which are due to you. I feel that + anything less will neither rehabilitate me in your esteem, + nor secure for me the remnants of my shattered self-respect. + + "I am hoping you will dine with me next week and meet a most + interesting man, George Gathercole, who has just returned + from Patagonia,--I only received his letter this morning-- + having made most remarkable discoveries concerning that + country. + + "I feel sure that you are large enough minded and too much a + man of the world to allow my foolish fit of temper to + disturb a relationship which I have always hoped would be + mutually pleasant. If you will allow Gathercole, who will + be unconscious of the part he is playing, to act as + peacemaker between yourself and myself, I shall feel that + his trip, which has cost me a large sum of money, will not + have been wasted. + + "I am, dear Mr. Meredith, + + "Yours very sincerely, + + "REMINGTON KARA." + +Kara folded the letter and inserted it in its envelope. He rang a bell +on his table and the girl who had so filled T. X. with a sense of awe +came from an adjoining room. + +"You will see that this is delivered, Miss Holland." + +She inclined her head and stood waiting. Kara rose from his desk and +began to pace the room. + +"Do you know T. X. Meredith?" he asked suddenly. + +"I have heard of him," said the girl. + +"A man with a singular mind," said Kara; "a man against whom my +favourite weapon would fail." + +She looked at him with interest in her eyes. + +"What is your favourite weapon, Mr. Kara?" she asked. + +"Fear," he said. + +If he expected her to give him any encouragement to proceed he was +disappointed. Probably he required no such encouragement, for in the +presence of his social inferiors he was somewhat monopolizing. + +"Cut a man's flesh and it heals," he said. "Whip a man and the memory +of it passes, frighten him, fill him with a sense of foreboding and +apprehension and let him believe that something dreadful is going to +happen either to himself or to someone he loves--better the latter--and +you will hurt him beyond forgetfulness. Fear is a tyrant and a despot, +more terrible than the rack, more potent than the stake. Fear +is many-eyed and sees horrors where normal vision only sees the +ridiculous." + +"Is that your creed?" she asked quietly. + +"Part of it, Miss Holland," he smiled. + +She played idly with the letter she held in her hand, balancing it on +the edge of the desk, her eyes downcast. + +"What would justify the use of such an awful weapon?" she asked. + +"It is amply justified to secure an end," he said blandly. "For +example--I want something--I cannot obtain that something through the +ordinary channel or by the employment of ordinary means. It is essential +to me, to my happiness, to my comfort, or my amour-propre, that that +something shall be possessed by me. If I can buy it, well and good. If +I can buy those who can use their influence to secure this thing for me, +so much the better. If I can obtain it by any merit I possess, I utilize +that merit, providing always, that I can secure my object in the time, +otherwise--" + +He shrugged his shoulders. + +"I see," she said, nodding her head quickly. "I suppose that is how +blackmailers feel." + +He frowned. + +"That is a word I never use, nor do I like to hear it employed," he +said. "Blackmail suggests to me a vulgar attempt to obtain money." + +"Which is generally very badly wanted by the people who use it," said +the girl, with a little smile, "and, according to your argument, they +are also justified." + +"It is a matter of plane," he said airily. "Viewed from my standpoint, +they are sordid criminals--the sort of person that T. X. meets, I +presume, in the course of his daily work. T. X.," he went on somewhat +oracularly, "is a man for whom I have a great deal of respect. You will +probably meet him again, for he will find an opportunity of asking you a +few questions about myself. I need hardly tell you--" + +He lifted his shoulders with a deprecating smile. + +"I shall certainly not discuss your business with any person," said the +girl coldly. + +"I am paying you 3 pounds a week, I think," he said. "I intend +increasing that to 5 pounds because you suit me most admirably." + +"Thank you," said the girl quietly, "but I am already being paid quite +sufficient." + +She left him, a little astonished and not a little ruffled. + +To refuse the favours of Remington Kara was, by him, regarded +as something of an affront. Half his quarrel with T. X. was that +gentleman's curious indifference to the benevolent attitude which Kara +had persistently adopted in his dealings with the detective. + +He rang the bell, this time for his valet. + +"Fisher," he said, "I am expecting a visit from a gentleman named +Gathercole--a one-armed gentleman whom you must look after if he comes. +Detain him on some pretext or other because he is rather difficult to +get hold of and I want to see him. I am going out now and I shall be +back at 6.30. Do whatever you can to prevent him going away until +I return. He will probably be interested if you take him into the +library." + +"Very good, sir," said the urbane Fisher, "will you change before you go +out?" + +Kara shook his head. + +"I think I will go as I am," he said. "Get me my fur coat. This beastly +cold kills me," he shivered as he glanced into the bleak street. "Keep +my fire going, put all my private letters in my bedroom, and see that +Miss Holland has her lunch." + +Fisher followed him to his car, wrapped the fur rug about his legs, +closed the door carefully and returned to the house. From thence onward +his behaviour was somewhat extraordinary for a well-bred servant. That +he should return to Kara's study and set the papers in order was natural +and proper. + +That he should conduct a rapid examination of all the drawers in Kara's +desk might be excused on the score of diligence, since he was, to some +extent, in the confidence of his employer. + +Kara was given to making friends of his servants--up to a point. In his +more generous moments he would address his bodyguard as "Fred," and +on more occasions than one, and for no apparent reason, had tipped his +servant over and above his salary. + +Mr. Fred Fisher found little to reward him for his search until he came +upon Kara's cheque book which told him that on the previous day the +Greek had drawn 6,000 pounds in cash from the bank. This interested him +mightily and he replaced the cheque book with the tightened lips and +the fixed gaze of a man who was thinking rapidly. He paid a visit to +the library, where the secretary was engaged in making copies of Kara's +correspondence, answering letters appealing for charitable donations, +and in the hack words which fall to the secretaries of the great. + +He replenished the fire, asked deferentially for any instructions and +returned again to his quest. This time he made the bedroom the scene of +his investigations. The safe he did not attempt to touch, but there +was a small bureau in which Kara would have placed his private +correspondence of the morning. This however yielded no result. + +By the side of the bed on a small table was a telephone, the sight of +which apparently afforded the servant a little amusement. This was +the private 'phone which Kara had been instrumental in having fixed to +Scotland Yard--as he had explained to his servants. + +"Rum cove," said Fisher. + +He paused for a moment before the closed door of the room and smilingly +surveyed the great steel latch which spanned the door and fitted into +an iron socket securely screwed to the framework. He lifted it +gingerly--there was a little knob for the purpose--and let it fall +gently into the socket which had been made to receive it on the door +itself. + +"Rum cove," he said again, and lifting the latch to the hook which held +it up, left the room, closing the door softly behind him. He walked down +the corridor, with a meditative frown, and began to descend the stairs +to the hall. + +He was less than half-way down when the one maid of Kara's household +came up to meet him. + +"There's a gentleman who wants to see Mr. Kara," she said, "here is his +card." + +Fisher took the card from the salver and read, "Mr. George Gathercole, +Junior Travellers' Club." + +"I'll see this gentleman," he said, with a sudden brisk interest. + +He found the visitor standing in the hall. + +He was a man who would have attracted attention, if only from the +somewhat eccentric nature of his dress and his unkempt appearance. He +was dressed in a well-worn overcoat of a somewhat pronounced check, he +had a top-hat, glossy and obviously new, at the back of his head, and +the lower part of his face was covered by a ragged beard. This he was +plucking with nervous jerks, talking to himself the while, and casting a +disparaging eye upon the portrait of Remington Kara which hung above the +marble fireplace. A pair of pince-nez sat crookedly on his nose and +two fat volumes under his arm completed the picture. Fisher, who was an +observer of some discernment, noticed under the overcoat a creased blue +suit, large black boots and a pair of pearl studs. + +The newcomer glared round at the valet. + +"Take these!" he ordered peremptorily, pointing to the books under his +arm. + +Fisher hastened to obey and noted with some wonder that the visitor did +not attempt to assist him either by loosening his hold of the volumes +or raising his hand. Accidentally the valet's hand pressed against the +other's sleeve and he received a shock, for the forearm was clearly an +artificial one. It was against a wooden surface beneath the sleeve +that his knuckles struck, and this view of the stranger's infirmity was +confirmed when the other reached round with his right hand, took hold of +the gloved left hand and thrust it into the pocket of his overcoat. + +"Where is Kara?" growled the stranger. + +"He will be back very shortly, sir," said the urbane Fisher. + +"Out, is he?" boomed the visitor. "Then I shan't wait. What the devil +does he mean by being out? He's had three years to be out!" + +"Mr. Kara expects you, sir. He told me he would be in at six o'clock at +the latest." + +"Six o'clock, ye gods'." stormed the man impatiently. "What dog am I +that I should wait till six?" + +He gave a savage little tug at his beard. + +"Six o'clock, eh? You will tell Mr. Kara that I called. Give me those +books." + +"But I assure you, sir,--" stammered Fisher. + +"Give me those books!" roared the other. + +Deftly he lifted his left hand from the pocket, crooked the elbow by +some quick manipulation, and thrust the books, which the valet most +reluctantly handed to him, back to the place from whence he had taken +them. + +"Tell Mr. Kara I will call at my own time--do you understand, at my own +time. Good morning to you." + +"If you would only wait, sir," pleaded the agonized Fisher. + +"Wait be hanged," snarled the other. "I've waited three years, I tell +you. Tell Mr. Kara to expect me when he sees me!" + +He went out and most unnecessarily banged the door behind him. Fisher +went back to the library. The girl was sealing up some letters as he +entered and looked up. + +"I am afraid, Miss Holland, I've got myself into very serious trouble." + +"What is that, Fisher!" asked the girl. + +"There was a gentleman coming to see Mr. Kara, whom Mr. Kara +particularly wanted to see." + +"Mr. Gathercole," said the girl quickly. + +Fisher nodded. + +"Yes, miss, I couldn't get him to stay though." + +She pursed her lips thoughtfully. + +"Mr. Kara will be very cross, but I don't see how you can help it. I +wish you had called me." + +"He never gave a chance, miss," said Fisher, with a little smile, "but +if he comes again I'll show him straight up to you." + +She nodded. + +"Is there anything you want, miss?" he asked as he stood at the door. + +"What time did Mr. Kara say he would be back?" + +"At six o'clock, miss," the man replied. + +"There is rather an important letter here which has to be delivered." + +"Shall I ring up for a messenger?" + +"No, I don't think that would be advisable. You had better take it +yourself." + +Kara was in the habit of employing Fisher as a confidential messenger +when the occasion demanded such employment. + +"I will go with pleasure, miss," he said. + +It was a heaven-sent opportunity for Fisher, who had been inventing +some excuse for leaving the house. She handed him the letter and he read +without a droop of eyelid the superscription: + +"T. X. Meredith, Esq., Special Service Dept., Scotland Yard, Whitehall." + +He put it carefully in his pocket and went from the room to change. +Large as the house was Kara did not employ a regular staff of servants. +A maid and a valet comprised the whole of the indoor staff. His cook, +and the other domestics, necessary for conducting an establishment of +that size, were engaged by the day. + +Kara had returned from the country earlier than had been anticipated, +and, save for Fisher, the only other person in the house beside the +girl, was the middle-aged domestic who was parlour-maid, serving-maid +and housekeeper in one. + +Miss Holland sat at her desk to all appearance reading over the +letters she had typed that afternoon but her mind was very far from the +correspondence before her. She heard the soft thud of the front door +closing, and rising she crossed the room rapidly and looked down through +the window to the street. She watched Fisher until he was out of sight; +then she descended to the hall and to the kitchen. + +It was not the first visit she had made to the big underground room with +its vaulted roof and its great ranges--which were seldom used nowadays, +for Kara gave no dinners. + +The maid--who was also cook--arose up as the girl entered. + +"It's a sight for sore eyes to see you in my kitchen, miss," she smiled. + +"I'm afraid you're rather lonely, Mrs. Beale," said the girl +sympathetically. + +"Lonely, miss!" cried the maid. "I fairly get the creeps sitting here +hour after hour. It's that door that gives me the hump." + +She pointed to the far end of the kitchen to a soiled looking door of +unpainted wood. + +"That's Mr. Kara's wine cellar--nobody's been in it but him. I know +he goes in sometimes because I tried a dodge that my brother--who's a +policeman--taught me. I stretched a bit of white cotton across it an' it +was broke the next morning." + +"Mr. Kara keeps some of his private papers in there," said the girl +quietly, "he has told me so himself." + +"H'm," said the woman doubtfully, "I wish he'd brick it up--the same +as he has the lower cellar--I get the horrors sittin' here at night +expectin' the door to open an' the ghost of the mad lord to come +out--him that was killed in Africa." + +Miss Holland laughed. + +"I want you to go out now," she said, "I have no stamps." + +Mrs. Beale obeyed with alacrity and whilst she was assuming a hat--being +desirous of maintaining her prestige as housekeeper in the eyes of +Cadogan Square, the girl ascended to the upper floor. + +Again she watched from the window the disappearing figure. + +Once out of sight Miss Holland went to work with a remarkable +deliberation and thoroughness. From her bag she produced a small purse +and opened it. In that case was a new steel key. She passed swiftly down +the corridor to Kara's room and made straight for the safe. + +In two seconds it was open and she was examining its contents. It was +a large safe of the usual type. There were four steel drawers fitted at +the back and at the bottom of the strong box. Two of these were unlocked +and contained nothing more interesting than accounts relating to Kara's +estate in Albania. + +The top pair were locked. She was prepared for this contingency and a +second key was as efficacious as the first. An examination of the first +drawer did not produce all that she had expected. She returned the +papers to the drawer, pushed it to and locked it. She gave her attention +to the second drawer. Her hand shook a little as she pulled it open. It +was her last chance, her last hope. + +There were a number of small jewel-boxes almost filling the drawer. She +took them out one by one and at the bottom she found what she had been +searching for and that which had filled her thoughts for the past three +months. + +It was a square case covered in red morocco leather. She inserted her +shaking hand and took it out with a triumphant little cry. + +"At last," she said aloud, and then a hand grasped her wrist and in a +panic she turned to meet the smiling face of Kara. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +She felt her knees shake under her and thought she was going to swoon. +She put out her disengaged hand to steady herself, and if the face which +was turned to him was pale, there was a steadfast resolution in her dark +eyes. + +"Let me relieve you of that, Miss Holland," said Kara, in his silkiest +tones. + +He wrenched rather than took the box from her hand, replaced it +carefully in the drawer, pushed the drawer to and locked it, examining +the key as he withdrew it. Then he closed the safe and locked that. + +"Obviously," he said presently, "I must get a new safe." + +He had not released his hold of her wrist nor did he, until he had +led her from the room back to the library. Then he released the girl, +standing between her and the door, with folded arms and that cynical, +quiet, contemptuous smile of his upon his handsome face. + +"There are many courses which I can adopt," he said slowly. "I can +send for the police--when my servants whom you have despatched so +thoughtfully have returned, or I can take your punishment into my own +hands." + +"So far as I am concerned," said the girl coolly, "you may send for the +police." + +She leant back against the edge of the desk, her hands holding the edge, +and faced him without so much as a quaver. + +"I do not like the police," mused Kara, when there came a knock at the +door. + +Kara turned and opened it and after a low strained conversation he +returned, closing the door and laid a paper of stamps on the girl's +table. + +"As I was saying, I do not care for the police, and I prefer my own +method. In this particular instance the police obviously would not serve +me, because you are not afraid of them and in all probability you are +in their pay--am I right in supposing that you are one of Mr. T. X. +Meredith's accomplices!" + +"I do not know Mr. T. X. Meredith," she replied calmly, "and I am not in +any way associated with the police." + +"Nevertheless," he persisted, "you do not seem to be very scared of them +and that removes any temptation I might have to place you in the hands +of the law. Let me see," he pursed his lips as he applied his mind to +the problem. + +She half sat, half stood, watching him without any evidence of +apprehension, but with a heart which began to quake a little. For three +months she had played her part and the strain had been greater than +she had confessed to herself. Now the great moment had come and she had +failed. That was the sickening, maddening thing about it all. It was +not the fear of arrest or of conviction, which brought a sinking to +her heart; it was the despair of failure, added to a sense of her +helplessness against this man. + +"If I had you arrested your name would appear in all the papers, of +course," he said, narrowly, "and your photograph would probably adorn +the Sunday journals," he added expectantly. + +She laughed. + +"That doesn't appeal to me," she said. + +"I am afraid it doesn't," he replied, and strolled towards her as though +to pass her on his way to the window. He was abreast of her when he +suddenly swung round and catching her in his arms he caught her close +to him. Before she could realise what he planned, he had stooped swiftly +and kissed her full upon the mouth. + +"If you scream, I shall kiss you again," he said, "for I have sent the +maid to buy some more stamps--to the General Post Office." + +"Let me go," she gasped. + +Now for the first time he saw the terror in her eyes, and there surged +within him that mad sense of triumph, that intoxication of power which +had been associated with the red letter days of his warped life. + +"You're afraid!" he bantered her, half whispering the words, "you're +afraid now, aren't you? If you scream I shall kiss you again, do you +hear?" + +"For God's sake, let me go," she whispered. + +He felt her shaking in his arms, and suddenly he released her with a +little laugh, and she sank trembling from head to foot upon the chair by +her desk. + +"Now you're going to tell me who sent you here," he went on harshly, +"and why you came. I never suspected you. I thought you were one of +those strange creatures one meets in England, a gentlewoman who prefers +working for her living to the more simple business of getting married. +And all the time you were spying--clever--very clever!" + +The girl was thinking rapidly. In five minutes Fisher would return. +Somehow she had faith in Fisher's ability and willingness to save her +from a situation which she realized was fraught with the greatest danger +to herself. She was horribly afraid. She knew this man far better than +he suspected, realized the treachery and the unscrupulousness of him. +She knew he would stop short of nothing, that he was without honour and +without a single attribute of goodness. + +He must have read her thoughts for he came nearer and stood over her. + +"You needn't shrink, my young friend," he said with a little chuckle. +"You are going to do just what I want you to do, and your first act will +be to accompany me downstairs. Get up." + +He half lifted, half dragged her to her feet and led her from the room. +They descended to the hall together and the girl spoke no word. Perhaps +she hoped that she might wrench herself free and make her escape into +the street, but in this she was disappointed. The grip about her arm was +a grip of steel and she knew safety did not lie in that direction. She +pulled back at the head of the stairs that led down to the kitchen. + +"Where are you taking me?" she asked. + +"I am going to put you into safe custody," he said. "On the whole I +think it is best that the police take this matter in hand and I shall +lock you into my wine cellar and go out in search of a policeman." + +The big wooden door opened, revealing a second door and this Kara +unbolted. She noticed that both doors were sheeted with steel, the outer +on the inside, and the inner door on the outside. She had no time to +make any further observations for Kara thrust her into the darkness. He +switched on a light. + +"I will not deny you that," he said, pushing her back as she made a +frantic attempt to escape. He swung the outer door to as she raised her +voice in a piercing scream, and clapping his hand over her mouth held +her tightly for a moment. + +"I have warned you," he hissed. + +She saw his face distorted with rage. She saw Kara transfigured with +devilish anger, saw that handsome, almost godlike countenance thrust +into hers, flushed and seamed with malignity and a hatefulness beyond +understanding and then her senses left her and she sank limp and +swooning into his arms. + + +When she recovered consciousness she found herself lying on a plain +stretcher bed. She sat up suddenly. Kara had gone and the door was +closed. The cellar was dry and clean and its walls were enamelled white. +Light was supplied by two electric lamps in the ceiling. There was a +table and a chair and a small washstand, and air was evidently supplied +through unseen ventilators. It was indeed a prison and no less, and in +her first moments of panic she found herself wondering whether Kara had +used this underground dungeon of his before for a similar purpose. + +She examined the room carefully. At the farthermost end was another +door and this she pushed gently at first and then vigorously without +producing the slightest impression. She still had her bag, a small +affair of black moire, which hung from her belt, in which was nothing +more formidable than a penknife, a small bottle of smelling salts and +a pair of scissors. The latter she had used for cutting out those +paragraphs from the daily newspapers which referred to Kara's movements. + +They would make a formidable weapon, and wrapping her handkerchief round +the handle to give it a better grip she placed it on the table within +reach. She was dimly conscious all the time that she had heard something +about this wine cellar--something which, if she could recollect it, +would be of service to her. + +Then in a flash she remembered that there was a lower cellar, which +according to Mrs. Beale was never used and was bricked up. It was +approached from the outside, down a circular flight of stairs. There +might be a way out from that direction and would there not be some +connection between the upper cellar and the lower! + +She set to work to make a closer examination of the apartment. + +The floor was of concrete, covered with a light rush matting. This she +carefully rolled up, starting at the door. One half of the floor was +uncovered without revealing the existence of any trap. She attempted to +pull the table into the centre of the room, better to roll the matting, +but found it fixed to the wall, and going down on her knees, she +discovered that it had been fixed after the matting had been laid. + +Obviously there was no need for the fixture and, she tapped the floor +with her little knuckle. Her heart started racing. The sound her +knocking gave forth was a hollow one. She sprang up, took her bag from +the table, opened the little penknife and cut carefully through the thin +rushes. She might have to replace the matting and it was necessary she +should do her work tidily. + +Soon the whole of the trap was revealed. There was an iron ring, which +fitted flush with the top and which she pulled. The trap yielded and +swung back as though there were a counterbalance at the other end, as +indeed there was. She peered down. There was a dim light below--the +reflection of a light in the distance. A flight of steps led down to the +lower level and after a second's hesitation she swung her legs over the +cavity and began her descent. + +She was in a cellar slightly smaller than that above her. The light +she had seen came from an inner apartment which would be underneath the +kitchen of the house. She made her way cautiously along, stepping on +tip-toe. The first of the rooms she came to was well-furnished. There +was a thick carpet on the floor, comfortable easy-chairs, a little +bookcase well filled, and a reading lamp. This must be Kara's +underground study, where he kept his precious papers. + +A smaller room gave from this and again it was doorless. She looked in +and after her eyes had become accustomed to the darkness she saw that it +was a bathroom handsomely fitted. + +The room she was in was also without any light which came from the +farthermost chamber. As the girl strode softly across the well-carpeted +room she trod on something hard. She stooped and felt along the +floor and her fingers encountered a thin steel chain. The girl was +bewildered-almost panic-stricken. She shrunk back from the entrance +of the inner room, fearful of what she would see. And then from the +interior came a sound that made her tingle with horror. + +It was a sound of a sigh, long and trembling. She set her teeth and +strode through the doorway and stood for a moment staring with open eyes +and mouth at what she saw. + +"My God!" she breathed, "London. . . . in the twentieth century. . . !" + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +Superintendent Mansus had a little office in Scotland Yard proper, +which, he complained, was not so much a private bureau, as a +waiting-room to which repaired every official of the police service +who found time hanging on his hands. On the afternoon of Miss Holland's +surprising adventure, a plainclothes man of "D" Division brought to +Mr. Mansus's room a very scared domestic servant, voluble, tearful and +agonizingly penitent. It was a mood not wholly unfamiliar to a police +officer of twenty years experience and Mr. Mansus was not impressed. + +"If you will kindly shut up," he said, blending his natural politeness +with his employment of the vernacular, "and if you will also answer +a few questions I will save you a lot of trouble. You were Lady +Bartholomew's maid weren't you?" + +"Yes, sir," sobbed the red-eyed Mary Ann. + +"And you have been detected trying to pawn a gold bracelet, the property +of Lady Bartholomew?" + +The maid gulped, nodded and started breathlessly upon a recital of her +wrongs. + +"Yes, sir--but she practically gave it to me, sir, and I haven't had my +wages for two months, sir, and she can give that foreigner thousands +and thousands of pounds at a time, sir, but her poor servants she can't +pay--no, she can't. And if Sir William knew especially about my lady's +cards and about the snuffbox, what would he think, I wonder, and I'm +going to have my rights, for if she can pay thousands to a swell like +Mr. Kara she can pay me and--" + +Mansus jerked his head. + +"Take her down to the cells," he said briefly, and they led her away, a +wailing, woeful figure of amateur larcenist. + +In three minutes Mansus was with T. X. and had reduced the girl's +incoherence to something like order. + +"This is important," said T. X.; "produce the Abigail." + +"The--?" asked the puzzled officer. + +"The skivvy--slavey--hired help--get busy," said T. X. impatiently. + +They brought her to T. X. in a condition bordering upon collapse. + +"Get her a cup of tea," said the wise chief. "Sit down, Mary Ann, and +forget all your troubles." + +"Oh, sir, I've never been in this position before," she began, as she +flopped into the chair they put for her. + +"Then you've had a very tiring time," said T. X. "Now listen--" + +"I've been respectable--" + +"Forget it!" said T. X., wearily. "Listen! If you'll tell me the whole +truth about Lady Bartholomew and the money she paid to Mr. Kara--" + +"Two thousand pounds--two separate thousand and by all accounts-" + +"If you will tell me the truth, I'll compound a felony and let you go +free." + +It was a long time before he could prevail upon her to clear her +speech of the ego which insisted upon intruding. There were gaps in her +narrative which he bridged. In the main it was a believable story. Lady +Bartholomew had lost money and had borrowed from Kara. She had given as +security, the snuffbox presented to her husband's father, a doctor, by +one of the Czars for services rendered, and was "all blue enamel and +gold, and foreign words in diamonds." On the question of the amount Lady +Bartholomew had borrowed, Abigail was very vague. All that she knew was +that my lady had paid back two thousand pounds and that she was still +very distressed ("in a fit" was the phrase the girl used), because +apparently Kara refused to restore the box. + +There had evidently been terrible scenes in the Bartholomew menage, +hysterics and what not, the principal breakdown having occurred when +Belinda Mary came home from school in France. + +"Miss Bartholomew is home then. Where is she?" asked T. X. + +Here the girl was more vague than ever. She thought the young lady had +gone back again, anyway Miss Belinda had been very much upset. Miss +Belinda had seen Dr. Williams and advised that her mother should go away +for a change. + +"Miss Belinda seems to be a precocious young person," said T. X. "Did +she by any chance see Mr. Kara?" + +"Oh, no," explained the girl. "Miss Belinda was above that sort of +person. Miss Belinda was a lady, if ever there was one." + +"And how old is this interesting young woman?" asked T. X. curiously. + +"She is nineteen," said the girl, and the Commissioner, who had pictured +Belinda in short plaid frocks and long pigtails, and had moreover +visualised her as a freckled little girl with thin legs and snub nose, +was abashed. + +He delivered a short lecture on the sacred rights of property, paid the +girl the three months' wages which were due to her--he had no doubt as +to the legality of her claim--and dismissed her with instructions to go +back to the house, pack her box and clear out. + +After the girl had gone, T. X. sat down to consider the position. He +might see Kara and since Kara had expressed his contrition and was +probably in a more humble state of mind, he might make reparation. Then +again he might not. Mansus was waiting and T. X. walked back with him to +his little office. + +"I hardly know what to make of it," he said in despair. + +"If you can give me Kara's motive, sir, I can give you a solution," said +Mansus. + +T. X. shook his head. + +"That is exactly what I am unable to give you," he said. + +He perched himself on Mansus's desk and lit a cigar. + +"I have a good mind to go round and see him," he said after a while. + +"Why not telephone to him?" asked Mansus. "There is his 'phone straight +into his boudoir." + +He pointed to a small telephone in a corner of the room. + +"Oh, he persuaded the Commissioner to run the wire, did he?" said T. X. +interested, and walked over to the telephone. + +He fingered the receiver for a little while and was about to take it +off, but changed his mind. + +"I think not," he said, "I'll go round and see him to-morrow. I don't +hope to succeed in extracting the confidence in the case of Lady +Bartholomew, which he denied me over poor Lexman." + +"I suppose you'll never give up hope of seeing Mr. Lexman again," smiled +Mansus, busily arranging a new blotting pad. + +Before T. X. could answer there came a knock at the door, and a +uniformed policeman, entered. He saluted T. X. + +"They've just sent an urgent letter across from your office, sir. I said +I thought you were here." + +He handed the missive to the Commissioner. T. X. took it and glanced at +the typewritten address. It was marked "urgent" and "by hand." He +took up the thin, steel, paper-knife from the desk and slit open the +envelope. The letter consisted of three or four pages of manuscript and, +unlike the envelope, it was handwritten. + +"My dear T. X.," it began, and the handwriting was familiar. + +Mansus, watching the Commissioner, saw the puzzled frown gather on +his superior's forehead, saw the eyebrows arch and the mouth open +in astonishment, saw him hastily turn to the last page to read the +signature and then: + +"Howling apples!" gasped T. X. "It's from John Lexman!" + +His hand shook as he turned the closely written pages. The letter was +dated that afternoon. There was no other address than "London." + +"My dear T. X.," it began, "I do not doubt that this letter will give +you a little shock, because most of my friends will have believed that I +am gone beyond return. Fortunately or unfortunately that is not so. For +myself I could wish--but I am not going to take a very gloomy view since +I am genuinely pleased at the thought that I shall be meeting you again. +Forgive this letter if it is incoherent but I have only this moment +returned and am writing at the Charing Cross Hotel. I am not staying +here, but I will let you have my address later. The crossing has been +a very severe one so you must forgive me if my letter sounds a little +disjointed. You will be sorry to hear that my dear wife is dead. She +died abroad about six months ago. I do not wish to talk very much about +it so you will forgive me if I do not tell you any more. + +"My principal object in writing to you at the moment is an official +one. I suppose I am still amenable to punishment and I have decided to +surrender myself to the authorities to-night. You used to have a most +excellent assistant in Superintendent Mansus, and if it is convenient to +you, as I hope it will be, I will report myself to him at 10.15. At any +rate, my dear T. X., I do not wish to mix you up in my affairs and if +you will let me do this business through Mansus I shall be very much +obliged to you. + +"I know there is no great punishment awaiting me, because my pardon was +apparently signed on the night before my escape. I shall not have much +to tell you, because there is not much in the past two years that I +would care to recall. We endured a great deal of unhappiness and death +was very merciful when it took my beloved from me. + +"Do you ever see Kara in these days? + +"Will you tell Mansus to expect me at between ten and half-past, and if +he will give instructions to the officer on duty in the hall I will come +straight up to his room. + +"With affectionate regards, my dear fellow, I am, + +"Yours sincerely, + +"JOHN LEXMAN." + + +T. X. read the letter over twice and his eyes were troubled. + +"Poor girl," he said softly, and handed the letter to Mansus. "He +evidently wants to see you because he is afraid of using my friendship +to his advantage. I shall be here, nevertheless." + +"What will be the formality?" asked Mansus. + +"There will be no formality," said the other briskly. "I will secure the +necessary pardon from the Home Secretary and in point of fact I have it +already promised, in writing." + +He walked back to Whitehall, his mind fully occupied with the momentous +events of the day. It was a raw February evening, sleet was falling +in the street, a piercing easterly wind drove even through his thick +overcoat. In such doorways as offered protection from the bitter +elements the wreckage of humanity which clings to the West end of +London, as the singed moth flutters about the flame that destroys it, +were huddled for warmth. + +T. X. was a man of vast human sympathies. + +All his experience with the criminal world, all his disappointments, +all his disillusions had failed to quench the pity for his unfortunate +fellows. He made it a rule on such nights as these, that if, by chance, +returning late to his office he should find such a shivering piece of +jetsam sheltering in his own doorway, he would give him or her the price +of a bed. + +In his own quaint way he derived a certain speculative excitement from +this practice. If the doorway was empty he regarded himself as a winner, +if some one stood sheltered in the deep recess which is a feature of the +old Georgian houses in this historic thoroughfare, he would lose to the +extent of a shilling. + +He peered forward through the semi-darkness as he neared the door of his +offices. + +"I've lost," he said, and stripped his gloves preparatory to groping in +his pocket for a coin. + +Somebody was standing in the entrance, but it was obviously a very +respectable somebody. A dumpy, motherly somebody in a seal-skin coat and +a preposterous bonnet. + +"Hullo," said T. X. in surprise, "are you trying to get in here?" + +"I want to see Mr. Meredith," said the visitor, in the mincing affected +tones of one who excused the vulgar source of her prosperity by +frequently reiterated claims to having seen better days. + +"Your longing shall be gratified," said T. X. gravely. + +He unlocked the heavy door, passed through the uncarpeted passage--there +are no frills on Government offices--and led the way up the stairs to +the suite on the first floor which constituted his bureau. + +He switched on all the lights and surveyed his visitor, a comfortable +person of the landlady type. + +"A good sort," thought T. X., "but somewhat overweighted with lorgnettes +and seal-skin." + +"You will pardon my coming to see you at this hour of the night," she +began deprecatingly, "but as my dear father used to say, 'Hopi soit qui +mal y pense.'" + +"Your dear father being in the garter business?" suggested T. X. +humorously. "Won't you sit down, Mrs. ----" + +"Mrs. Cassley," beamed the lady as she seated herself. "He was in the +paper hanging business. But needs must, when the devil drives, as the +saying goes." + +"What particular devil is driving you, Mrs. Cassley?" asked T. X., +somewhat at a loss to understand the object of this visit. + +"I may be doing wrong," began the lady, pursing her lips, "and two +blacks will never make a white." + +"And all that glitters is not gold," suggested T. X. a little wearily. +"Will you please tell me your business, Mrs. Cassley? I am a very hungry +man." + +"Well, it's like this, sir," said Mrs. Cassley, dropping her erudition, +and coming down to bedrock homeliness; "I've got a young lady stopping +with me, as respectable a gel as I've had to deal with. And I know +what respectability is, I might tell you, for I've taken professional +boarders and I have been housekeeper to a doctor." + +"You are well qualified to speak," said T. X. with a smile. "And what +about this particular young lady of yours! By the way what is your +address?" + +"86a Marylebone Road," said the lady. + +T. X. sat up. + +"Yes?" he said quickly. "What about your young lady?" + +"She works as far as I can understand," said the loquacious landlady, +"with a certain Mr. Kara in the typewriting line. She came to me four +months ago." + +"Never mind when she came to you," said T. X. impatiently. "Have you a +message from the lady?" + +"Well, it's like this, sir," said Mrs. Cassley, leaning forward +confidentially and speaking in the hollow tone which she had decided +should accompany any revelation to a police officer, "this young lady +said to me, 'If I don't come any night by 8 o'clock you must go to T. X. +and tell him--'!" + +She paused dramatically. + +"Yes, yes," said T. X. quickly, "for heaven's sake go on, woman." + +"'Tell him,'" said Mrs. Cassley, "'that Belinda Mary--'" + +He sprang to his feet. + +"Belinda Mary!" he breathed, "Belinda Mary!" In a flash he saw it all. +This girl with a knowledge of modern Greek, who was working in Kara's +house, was there for a purpose. Kara had something of her mother's, +something that was vital and which he would not part with, and she +had adopted this method of securing that some thing. Mrs. Cassley +was prattling on, but her voice was merely a haze of sound to him. +It brought a strange glow to his heart that Belinda Mary should have +thought of him. + +"Only as a policeman, of course," said the still, small voice of his +official self. "Perhaps!" said the human T. X., defiantly. + +He got on the telephone to Mansus and gave a few instructions. + +"You stay here," he ordered the astounded Mrs. Cassley; "I am going to +make a few investigations." + +Kara was at home, but was in bed. T. X. remembered that this +extraordinary man invariably went to bed early and that it was his +practice to receive visitors in this guarded room of his. He was +admitted almost at once and found Kara in his silk dressing-gown lying +on the bed smoking. The heat of the room was unbearable even on that +bleak February night. + +"This is a pleasant surprise," said Kara, sitting up; "I hope you don't +mind my dishabille." + +T. X. came straight to the point. + +"Where is Miss Holland!" he asked. + +"Miss Holland?" Kara's eyebrows advertised his astonishment. "What an +extraordinary question to ask me, my dear man! At her home, or at the +theatre or in a cinema palace--I don't know how these people employ +their evenings." + +"She is not at home," said T. X., "and I have reason to believe that she +has not left this house." + +"What a suspicious person you are, Mr. Meredith!" Kara rang the bell and +Fisher came in with a cup of coffee on a tray. + +"Fisher," drawled Kara. "Mr. Meredith is anxious to know where Miss +Holland is. Will you be good enough to tell him, you know more about her +movements than I do." + +"As far as I know, sir," said Fisher deferentially, "she left the house +about 5.30, her usual hour. She sent me out a little before five on a +message and when I came back her hat and her coat had gone, so I presume +she had gone also." + +"Did you see her go?" asked T. X. + +The man shook his head. + +"No, sir, I very seldom see the lady come or go. There has been no +restrictions placed upon the young lady and she has been at liberty to +move about as she likes. I think I am correct in saying that, sir," he +turned to Kara. + +Kara nodded. + +"You will probably find her at home." + +He shook his finger waggishly at T. X. + +"What a dog you are," he jibed, "I ought to keep the beauties of my +household veiled, as we do in the East, and especially when I have a +susceptible policeman wandering at large." + +T. X. gave jest for jest. There was nothing to be gained by making +trouble here. After a few amiable commonplaces he took his departure. He +found Mrs. Cassley being entertained by Mansus with a wholly fictitious +description of the famous criminals he had arrested. + +"I can only suggest that you go home," said T. X. "I will send a police +officer with you to report to me, but in all probability you will find +the lady has returned. She may have had a difficulty in getting a bus on +a night like this." + +A detective was summoned from Scotland Yard and accompanied by him Mrs. +Cassley returned to her domicile with a certain importance. T. X. looked +at his watch. It was a quarter to ten. + +"Whatever happens, I must see old Lexman," he said. "Tell the best men +we've got in the department to stand by for eventualities. This is going +to be one of my busy days." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +Kara lay back on his down pillows with a sneer on his face and his brain +very busy. What started the train of thought he did not know, but at +that moment his mind was very far away. It carried him back a dozen +years to a dirty little peasant's cabin on the hillside outside Durazzo, +to the livid face of a young Albanian chief, who had lost at Kara's whim +all that life held for a man, to the hateful eyes of the girl's father, +who stood with folded arms glaring down at the bound and manacled figure +on the floor, to the smoke-stained rafters of this peasant cottage and +the dancing shadows on the roof, to that terrible hour of waiting when +he sat bound to a post with a candle flickering and spluttering lower +and lower to the little heap of gunpowder that would start the trail +toward the clumsy infernal machine under his chair. He remembered the +day well because it was Candlemas day, and this was the anniversary. He +remembered other things more pleasant. The beat of hoofs on the rocky +roadway, the crash of the door falling in when the Turkish Gendarmes +had battered a way to his rescue. He remembered with a savage joy the +spectacle of his would-be assassins twitching and struggling on the +gallows at Pezara and--he heard the faint tinkle of the front door bell. + +Had T. X. returned! He slipped from the bed and went to the door, opened +it slightly and listened. T. X. with a search warrant might be a source +of panic especially if--he shrugged his shoulders. He had satisfied T. +X. and allayed his suspicions. He would get Fisher out of the way that +night and make sure. + +The voice from the hall below was loud and gruff. Who could it be! Then +he heard Fisher's foot on the stairs and the valet entered. + +"Will you see Mr. Gathercole now!" + +"Mr. Gathercole!" + +Kara breathed a sigh of relief and his face was wreathed in smiles. + +"Why, of course. Tell him to come up. Ask him if he minds seeing me in +my room." + +"I told him you were in bed, sir, and he used shocking language," said +Fisher. + +Kara laughed. + +"Send him up," he said, and then as Fisher was going out of the room he +called him back. + +"By the way, Fisher, after Mr. Gathercole has gone, you may go out for +the night. You've got somewhere to go, I suppose, and you needn't come +back until the morning." + +"Yes, sir," said the servant. + +Such an instruction was remarkably pleasing to him. There was much that +he had to do and that night's freedom would assist him materially. + +"Perhaps" Kara hesitated, "perhaps you had better wait until eleven +o'clock. Bring me up some sandwiches and a large glass of milk. Or +better still, place them on a plate in the hall." + +"Very good, sir," said the man and withdrew. + +Down below, that grotesque figure with his shiny hat and his ragged +beard was walking up and down the tesselated hallway muttering to +himself and staring at the various objects in the hall with a certain +amused antagonism. + +"Mr. Kara will see you, sir," said Fisher. + +"Oh!" said the other glaring at the unoffending Fisher, "that's very +good of him. Very good of this person to see a scholar and a gentleman +who has been about his dirty business for three years. Grown grey in his +service! Do you understand that, my man!" + +"Yes, sir," said Fisher. + +"Look here!" + +The man thrust out his face. + +"Do you see those grey hairs in my beard?" + +The embarrassed Fisher grinned. + +"Is it grey!" challenged the visitor, with a roar. + +"Yes, sir," said the valet hastily. + +"Is it real grey?" insisted the visitor. "Pull one out and see!" + +The startled Fisher drew back with an apologetic smile. + +"I couldn't think of doing a thing like that, sir." + +"Oh, you couldn't," sneered the visitor; "then lead on!" + +Fisher showed the way up the stairs. This time the traveller carried +no books. His left arm hung limply by his side and Fisher privately +gathered that the hand had got loose from the detaining pocket +without its owner being aware of the fact. He pushed open the door and +announced, "Mr. Gathercole," and Kara came forward with a smile to +meet his agent, who, with top hat still on the top of his head, and his +overcoat dangling about his heels, must have made a remarkable picture. + +Fisher closed the door behind them and returned to his duties in the +hall below. Ten minutes later he heard the door opened and the booming +voice of the stranger came down to him. Fisher went up the stairs to +meet him and found him addressing the occupant of the room in his own +eccentric fashion. + +"No more Patagonia!" he roared, "no more Tierra del Fuego!" he paused. + +"Certainly!" He replied to some question, "but not Patagonia," he paused +again, and Fisher standing at the foot of the stairs wondered what had +occurred to make the visitor so genial. + +"I suppose your cheque will be honoured all right?" asked the visitor +sardonically, and then burst into a little chuckle of laughter as he +carefully closed the door. + +He came down the corridor talking to himself, and greeted Fisher. + +"Damn all Greeks," he said jovially, and Fisher could do no more than +smile reproachfully, the smile being his very own, the reproach being on +behalf of the master who paid him. + +The traveller touched the other on the chest with his right hand. + +"Never trust a Greek," he said, "always get your money in advance. Is +that clear to you?" + +"Yes, sir," said Fisher, "but I think you will always find that Mr. Kara +is always most generous about money." + +"Don't you believe it, don't you believe it, my poor man," said the +other, "you--" + +At that moment there came from Kara's room a faint "clang." + +"What's that?" asked the visitor a little startled. + +"Mr. Kara's put down his steel latch," said Fisher with a smile, "which +means that he is not to be disturbed until--" he looked at his watch, +"until eleven o'clock at any rate." + +"He's a funk!" snapped the other, "a beastly funk!" + +He stamped down the stairs as though testing the weight of every tread, +opened the front door without assistance, slammed it behind him and +disappeared into the night. + +Fisher, his hands in his pockets, looked after the departing stranger, +nodding his head in reprobation. + +"You're a queer old devil," he said, and looked at his watch again. + +It wanted five minutes to ten. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +"IF you would care to come in, sir, I'm sure Lexman would be glad to +see you," said T. X.; "it's very kind of you to take an interest in the +matter." + +The Chief Commissioner of Police growled something about being paid to +take an interest in everybody and strolled with T. X. down one of the +apparently endless corridors of Scotland Yard. + +"You won't have any bother about the pardon," he said. "I was dining +to-night with old man Bartholomew and he will fix that up in the +morning." + +"There will be no necessity to detain Lexman in custody?" asked T. X. + +The Chief shook his head. + +"None whatever," he said. + +There was a pause, then, + +"By the way, did Bartholomew mention Belinda Mary!" + +The white-haired chief looked round in astonishment. + +"And who the devil is Belinda Mary?" he asked. + +T. X. went red. + +"Belinda Mary," he said a little quickly, "is Bartholomew's daughter." + +"By Jove," said the Commissioner, "now you mention it, he did--she is +still in France." + +"Oh, is she?" said T. X. innocently, and in his heart of hearts he +wished most fervently that she was. They came to the room which Mansus +occupied and found that admirable man waiting. + +Wherever policemen meet, their conversation naturally drifts to "shop" +and in two minutes the three were discussing with some animation and +much difference of opinion, as far as T. X. was concerned, a series +of frauds which had been perpetrated in the Midlands, and which have +nothing to do with this story. + +"Your friend is late," said the Chief Commissioner. + +"There he is," cried T. X., springing up. He heard a familiar footstep +on the flagged corridor, and sprung out of the room to meet the +newcomer. + +For a moment he stood wringing the hand of this grave man, his heart too +full for words. + +"My dear chap!" he said at last, "you don't know how glad I am to see +you." + +John Lexman said nothing, then, + +"I am sorry to bring you into this business, T. X.," he said quietly. + +"Nonsense," said the other, "come in and see the Chief." + +He took John by the arm and led him into the Superintendent's room. + +There was a change in John Lexman. A subtle shifting of balance which +was not readily discoverable. His face was older, the mobile mouth a +little more grimly set, the eyes more deeply lined. He was in evening +dress and looked, as T. X. thought, a typical, clean, English gentleman, +such an one as any self-respecting valet would be proud to say he had +"turned out." + +T. X. looking at him carefully could see no great change, save that down +one side of his smooth shaven cheek ran the scar of an old wound; which +could not have been much more than superficial. + +"I must apologize for this kit," said John, taking off his overcoat and +laying it across the back of a chair, "but the fact is I was so bored +this evening that I had to do something to pass the time away, so I +dressed and went to the theatre--and was more bored than ever." + +T. X. noticed that he did not smile and that when he spoke it was slowly +and carefully, as though he were weighing the value of every word. + +"Now," he went on, "I have come to deliver myself into your hands." + +"I suppose you have not seen Kara?" said T. X. + +"I have no desire to see Kara," was the short reply. + +"Well, Mr. Lexman," broke in the Chief, "I don't think you are going to +have any difficulty about your escape. By the way, I suppose it was by +aeroplane?" + +Lexman nodded. + +"And you had an assistant?" + +Again Lexman nodded. + +"Unless you press me I would rather not discuss the matter for some +little time, Sir George," he said, "there is much that will happen +before the full story of my escape is made known." + +Sir George nodded. + +"We will leave it at that," he said cheerily, "and now I hope you have +come back to delight us all with one of your wonderful plots." + +"For the time being I have done with wonderful plots," said John Lexman +in that even, deliberate tone of his. "I hope to leave London next week +for New York and take up such of the threads of life as remain. The +greater thread has gone." + +The Chief Commissioner understood. + +The silence which followed was broken by the loud and insistent ringing +of the telephone bell. + +"Hullo," said Mansus rising quickly; "that's Kara's bell." + +With two quick strides he was at the telephone and lifted down the +receiver. + +"Hullo," he cried. "Hullo," he cried again. There was no reply, only +the continuous buzzing, and when he hung up the receiver again, the bell +continued ringing. + +The three policemen looked at one another. + +"There's trouble there," said Mansus. + +"Take off the receiver," said T. X., "and try again." + +Mansus obeyed, but there was no response. + +"I am afraid this is not my affair," said John Lexman gathering up his +coat. "What do you wish me to do, Sir George?" + +"Come along to-morrow morning and see us, Lexman," said Sir George, +offering his hand. + +"Where are you staying!" asked T. X. + +"At the Great Midland," replied the other, "at least my bags have gone +on there." + +"I'll come along and see you to-morrow morning. It's curious this should +have happened the night you returned," he said, gripping the other's +shoulder affectionately. + +John Lexman did not speak for the moment. + +"If anything happened to Kara," he said slowly, "if the worst that was +possible happened to him, believe me I should not weep." + +T. X. looked down into the other's eyes sympathetically. + +"I think he has hurt you pretty badly, old man," he said gently. + +John Lexman nodded. + +"He has, damn him," he said between his teeth. + +The Chief Commissioner's motor car was waiting outside and in this T. +X., Mansus, and a detective-sergeant were whirled off to Cadogan Square. +Fisher was in the hall when they rung the bell and opened the door +instantly. + +He was frankly surprised to see his visitors. Mr. Kara was in his room +he explained resentfully, as though T. X. should have been aware of the +fact without being told. He had heard no bell ringing and indeed had not +been summoned to the room. + +"I have to see him at eleven o'clock," he said, "and I have had standing +instructions not to go to him unless I am sent for." + +T. X. led the way upstairs, and went straight to Kara's room. He +knocked, but there was no reply. He knocked again and on this failing to +evoke any response kicked heavily at the door. + +"Have you a telephone downstairs!" he asked. + +"Yes, sir," replied Fisher. + +T. X. turned to the detective-sergeant. + +"'Phone to the Yard," he said, "and get a man up with a bag of tools. We +shall have to pick this lock and I haven't got my case with me." + +"Picking the lock would be no good, sir," said Fisher, an interested +spectator, "Mr. Kara's got the latch down." + +"I forgot that," said T. X. "Tell him to bring his saw, we'll have to +cut through the panel here." + +While they were waiting for the arrival of the police officer T. X. +strove to attract the attention of the inmates of the room, but without +success. + +"Does he take opium or anything!" asked Mansus. + +Fisher shook his head. + +"I've never known him to take any of that kind of stuff," he said. + +T. X. made a rapid survey of the other rooms on that floor. The room +next to Kara's was the library, beyond that was a dressing room which, +according to Fisher, Miss Holland had used, and at the farthermost end +of the corridor was the dining room. + +Facing the dining room was a small service lift and by its side a +storeroom in which were a number of trunks, including a very large one +smothered in injunctions in three different languages to "handle with +care." There was nothing else of interest on this floor and the upper +and lower floors could wait. In a quarter of an hour the carpenter had +arrived from Scotland Yard, and had bored a hole in the rosewood panel +of Kara's room and was busily applying his slender saw. + +Through the hole he cut T. X. could see no more than that the room was +in darkness save for the glow of a blazing fire. He inserted his hand, +groped for the knob of the steel latch, which he had remarked on his +previous visit to the room, lifted it and the door swung open. + +"Keep outside, everybody," he ordered. + +He felt for the switch of the electric, found it and instantly the room +was flooded with light. The bed was hidden by the open door. T. X. took +one stride into the room and saw enough. Kara was lying half on and half +off the bed. He was quite dead and the blood-stained patch above his +heart told its own story. + +T. X. stood looking down at him, saw the frozen horror on the dead man's +face, then drew his eyes away and slowly surveyed the room. There in the +middle of the carpet he found his clue, a bent and twisted little candle +such as you find on children's Christmas trees. + + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +It was Mansus who found the second candle, a stouter affair. It lay +underneath the bed. The telephone, which stood on a fairly large-sized +table by the side of the bed, was overturned and the receiver was on the +floor. By its side were two books, one being the "Balkan Question," +by Villari, and the other "Travels and Politics in the Near East," by +Miller. With them was a long, ivory paper-knife. + +There was nothing else on the bedside-table save a silver cigarette +box. T. X. drew on a pair of gloves and examined the bright surface for +finger-prints, but a superficial view revealed no such clue. + +"Open the window," said T. X., "the heat here is intolerable. Be very +careful, Mansus. By the way, is the window fastened?" + +"Very well fastened," said the superintendent after a careful scrutiny. + +He pushed back the fastenings, lifted the window and as he did, a harsh +bell rang in the basement. + +"That is the burglar alarm, I suppose," said T. X.; "go down and stop +that bell." + +He addressed Fisher, who stood with a troubled face at the door. When +he had disappeared T. X. gave a significant glance to one of the waiting +officers and the man sauntered after the valet. + +Fisher stopped the bell and came back to the hall and stood before the +hall fire, a very troubled man. Near the fire was a big, oaken writing +table and on this there lay a small envelope which he did not remember +having seen before, though it might have been there for some time, for +he had spent a greater portion of the evening in the kitchen with the +cook. + +He picked up the envelope, and, with a start, recognised that it was +addressed to himself. He opened it and took out a card. There were only +a few words written upon it, but they were sufficient to banish all the +colour from his face and set his hands shaking. He took the envelope and +card and flung them into the fire. + +It so happened that, at that moment, Mansus had called from upstairs, +and the officer, who had been told off to keep the valet under +observation, ran up in answer to the summons. For a moment Fisher +hesitated, then hatless and coatless as he was, he crept to the door, +opened it, leaving it ajar behind him and darting down the steps, ran +like a hare from the house. + +The doctor, who came a little later, was cautious as to the hour of +death. + +"If you got your telephone message at 10.25, as you say, that was +probably the hour he was killed," he said. "I could not tell within half +an hour. Obviously the man who killed him gripped his throat with his +left hand--there are the bruises on his neck--and stabbed him with the +right." + +It was at this time that the disappearance of Fisher was noticed, but +the cross-examination of the terrified Mrs. Beale removed any doubt that +T. X. had as to the man's guilt. + +"You had better send out an 'All Stations' message and pull him in," +said T. X. "He was with the cook from the moment the visitor left until +a few minutes before we rang. Besides which it is obviously impossible +for anybody to have got into this room or out again. Have you searched +the dead man?" + +Mansus produced a tray on which Kara's belongings had been disposed. +The ordinary keys Mrs. Beale was able to identify. There were one or two +which were beyond her. T. X. recognised one of these as the key of the +safe, but two smaller keys baffled him not a little, and Mrs. Beale was +at first unable to assist him. + +"The only thing I can think of, sir," she said, "is the wine cellar." + +"The wine cellar?" said T. X. slowly. "That must be--" he stopped. + +The greater tragedy of the evening, with all its mystifying aspects had +not banished from his mind the thought of the girl--that Belinda Mary, +who had called upon him in her hour of danger as he divined. Perhaps--he +descended into the kitchen and was brought face to face with the +unpainted door. + +"It looks more like a prison than a wine cellar," he said. + +"That's what I've always thought, sir," said Mrs. Beale, "and sometimes +I've had a horrible feeling of fear." + +He cut short her loquacity by inserting one of the keys in the lock--it +did not turn, but he had more success with the second. The lock snapped +back easily and he pulled the door back. He found the inner door bolted +top and bottom. The bolts slipped back in their well-oiled sockets +without any effort. Evidently Kara used this place pretty frequently, +thought T. X. + +He pushed the door open and stopped with an exclamation of surprise. The +cellar apartment was brilliantly lit--but it was unoccupied. + +"This beats the band," said T. X. + +He saw something on the table and lifted it up. It was a pair of +long-bladed scissors and about the handle was wound a handkerchief. It +was not this fact which startled him, but that the scissors' blades were +dappled with blood and blood, too, was on the handkerchief. He unwound +the flimsy piece of cambric and stared at the monogram "B. M. B." + +He looked around. Nobody had seen the weapon and he dropped it in his +overcoat pocket, and walked from the cellar to the kitchen where Mrs. +Beale and Mansus awaited him. + +"There is a lower cellar, is there not!" he asked in a strained voice. + +"That was bricked up when Mr. Kara took the house," explained the woman. + +"There is nothing more to look for here," he said. + +He walked slowly up the stairs to the library, his mind in a whirl. That +he, an accredited officer of police, sworn to the business of criminal +detection, should attempt to screen one who was conceivably a criminal +was inexplicable. But if the girl had committed this crime, how had she +reached Kara's room and why had she returned to the locked cellar! + +He sent for Mrs. Beale to interrogate her. She had heard nothing and +she had been in the kitchen all the evening. One fact she did reveal, +however, that Fisher had gone from the kitchen and had been absent a +quarter of an hour and had returned a little agitated. + +"Stay here," said T. X., and went down again to the cellar to make a +further search. + +"Probably there is some way out of this subterranean jail," he thought +and a diligent search of the room soon revealed it. + +He found the iron trap, pulled it open, and slipped down the stairs. He, +too, was puzzled by the luxurious character of the vault. He passed from +room to room and finally came to the inner chamber where a light was +burning. + +The light, as he discovered, proceeded from a small reading lamp which +stood by the side of a small brass bedstead. The bed had recently been +slept in, but there was no sign of any occupant. T. X. conducted a very +careful search and had no difficulty in finding the bricked up door. +Other exits there were none. + +The floor was of wood block laid on concrete, the ventilation was +excellent and in one of the recesses which had evidently held at so +time or other, a large wine bin, there was a prefect electrical cooking +plant. In a small larder were a number of baskets, bearing the name of +a well-known caterer, one of them containing an excellent assortment of +cold and potted meats, preserves, etc. + +T. X. went back to the bedroom and took the little lamp from the table +by the side of the bed and began a more careful examination. Presently +he found traces of blood, and followed an irregular trail to the outer +room. He lost it suddenly at the foot of stairs leading down from the +upper cellar. Then he struck it again. He had reached the end of his +electric cord and was now depending upon an electric torch he had taken +from his pocket. + +There were indications of something heavy having been dragged across the +room and he saw that it led to a small bathroom. He had made a cursory +examination of this well-appointed apartment, and now he proceeded to +make a close investigation and was well rewarded. + +The bathroom was the only apartment which possess anything resembling a +door--a two-fold screen and--as he pressed this back, he felt some +thing which prevented its wider extension. He slipped into the room and +flashed his lamp in the space behind the screen. There stiff in death +with glazed eyes and lolling tongue lay a great gaunt dog, his yellow +fangs exposed in a last grimace. + + +About the neck was a collar and attached to that, a few links of broken +chain. T. X. mounted the steps thoughtfully and passed out to the +kitchen. + +Did Belinda Mary stab Kara or kill the dog? That she killed one hound or +the other was certain. That she killed both was possible. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +After a busy and sleepless night he came down to report to the Chief +Commissioner the next morning. The evening newspaper bills were filled +with the "Chelsea Sensation" but the information given was of a meagre +character. + +Since Fisher had disappeared, many of the details which could have +been secured by the enterprising pressmen were missing. There was no +reference to the visit of Mr. Gathercole and in self-defence the press +had fallen back upon a statement, which at an earlier period had crept +into the newspapers in one of those chatty paragraphs which begin "I saw +my friend Kara at Giros" and end with a brief but inaccurate summary of +his hobbies. The paragraph had been to the effect that Mr. Kara had been +in fear of his life for some time, as a result of a blood feud which +existed between himself and another Albanian family. Small wonder, +therefore, the murder was everywhere referred to as "the political crime +of the century." + +"So far," reported T. X. to his superior, "I have been unable to trace +either Gathercole or the valet. The only thing we know about Gathercole +is that he sent his article to The Times with his card. The servants of +his Club are very vague as to his whereabouts. He is a very eccentric +man, who only comes in occasionally, and the steward whom I interviewed +says that it frequently happened that Gathercole arrived and departed +without anybody being aware of the fact. We have been to his old +lodgings in Lincoln's Inn, but apparently he sold up there before he +went away to the wilds of Patagonia and relinquished his tenancy. + +"The only clue I have is that a man answering to some extent to his +description left by the eleven o'clock train for Paris last night." + +"You have seen the secretary of course," said the Chief. + +It was a question which T. X. had been dreading. + +"Gone too," he answered shortly; "in fact she has not been seen since +5:30 yesterday evening." + +Sir George leant back in his chair and rumpled his thick grey hair. + +"The only person who seems to have remained," he said with heavy +sarcasm, "was Kara himself. Would you like me to put somebody else on +this case--it isn't exactly your job--or will you carry it on?" + +"I prefer to carry it on, sir," said T. X. firmly. + +"Have you found out anything more about Kara?" + +T. X. nodded. + +"All that I have discovered about him is eminently discreditable," +he said. "He seems to have had an ambition to occupy a very important +position in Albania. To this end he had bribed and subsidized the +Turkish and Albanian officials and had a fairly large following in that +country. Bartholomew tells me that Kara had already sounded him as to +the possibility of the British Government recognising a fait accompli in +Albania and had been inducing him to use his influence with the Cabinet +to recognize the consequence of any revolution. There is no doubt +whatever that Kara has engineered all the political assassinations which +have been such a feature in the news from Albania during this past year. +We also found in the house very large sums of money and documents which +we have handed over to the Foreign Office for decoding." + +Sir George thought for a long time. + +Then he said, "I have an idea that if you find your secretary you will +be half way to solving the mystery." + +T. X. went out from the office in anything but a joyous mood. He was +on his way to lunch when he remembered his promise to call upon John +Lexman. + +Could Lexman supply a key which would unravel this tragic tangle? He +leant out of his taxi-cab and redirected the driver. It happened that +the cab drove up to the door of the Great Midland Hotel as John Lexman +was coming out. + +"Come and lunch with me," said T. X. "I suppose you've heard all the +news." + +"I read about Kara being killed, if that's what you mean," said the +other. "It was rather a coincidence that I should have been discussing +the matter last night at the very moment when his telephone bell rang--I +wish to heaven you hadn't been in this," he said fretfully. + +"Why?" asked the astonished Assistant Commissioner, "and what do you +mean by 'in it'?" + +"In the concrete sense I wish you had not been present when I returned," +said the other moodily, "I wanted to be finished with the whole sordid +business without in any way involving my friends." + +"I think you are too sensitive," laughed the other, clapping him on the +shoulder. "I want you to unburden yourself to me, my dear chap, and tell +me anything you can that will help me to clear up this mystery." + +John Lexman looked straight ahead with a worried frown. + +"I would do almost anything for you, T. X.," he said quietly, "the more +so since I know how good you were to Grace, but I can't help you in this +matter. I hated Kara living, I hate him dead," he cried, and there was +a passion in his voice which was unmistakable; "he was the vilest thing +that ever drew the breath of life. There was no villainy too despicable, +no cruelty so horrid but that he gloried in it. If ever the devil were +incarnate on earth he took the shape and the form of Remington Kara. He +died too merciful a death by all accounts. But if there is a God, this +man will suffer for his crimes in hell through all eternity." + +T. X. looked at him in astonishment. The hate in the man's face took +his breath away. Never before had he experienced or witnessed such a +vehemence of loathing. + +"What did Kara do to you?" he demanded. + +The other looked out of the window. + +"I am sorry," he said in a milder tone; "that is my weakness. Some day I +will tell you the whole story but for the moment it were better that +it were not told. I will tell you this," he turned round and faced the +detective squarely, "Kara tortured and killed my wife." + +T. X. said no more. + +Half way through lunch he returned indirectly to the subject. + +"Do you know Gathercole?" he asked. + +T. X. nodded. + +"I think you asked me that question once before, or perhaps it was +somebody else. Yes, I know him, rather an eccentric man with an +artificial arm." + +"That's the cove," said T. X. with a little sigh; "he's one of the few +men I want to meet just now." + +"Why?" + +"Because he was apparently the last man to see Kara alive." + +John Lexman looked at the other with an impatient jerk of his shoulders. + +"You don't suspect Gathercole, do you?" he asked. + +"Hardly," said the other drily; "in the first place the man that +committed this murder had two hands and needed them both. No, I only +want to ask that gentleman the subject of his conversation. I also want +to know who was in the room with Kara when Gathercole went in." + +"H'm," said John Lexman. + +"Even if I found who the third person was, I am still puzzled as to how +they got out and fastened the heavy latch behind them. Now in the old +days, Lexman," he said good humouredly, "you would have made a fine +mystery story out of this. How would you have made your man escape?" + +Lexman thought for a while. + +"Have you examined the safe!" he asked. + +"Yes," said the other. + +"Was there very much in it?" + +T. X. looked at him in astonishment. + +"Just the ordinary books and things. Why do you ask?" + +"Suppose there were two doors to that safe, one on the outside of the +room and one on the inside, would it be possible to pass through the +safe and go down the wall?" + +"I have thought of that," said T. X. + +"Of course," said Lexman, leaning back and toying with a salt-spoon, +"in writing a story where one hasn't got to deal with the absolute +possibilities, one could always have made Kara have a safe of that +character in order to make his escape in the event of danger. He might +keep a rope ladder stored inside, open the back door, throw out his +ladder to a friend and by some trick arrangement could detach the ladder +and allow the door to swing to again." + +"A very ingenious idea," said T. X., "but unfortunately it doesn't work +in this case. I have seen the makers of the safe and there is nothing +very eccentric about it except the fact that it is mounted as it is. Can +you offer another suggestion?" + +John Lexman thought again. + +"I will not suggest trap doors, or secret panels or anything so banal," +he said, "nor mysterious springs in the wall which, when touched, reveal +secret staircases." + +He smiled slightly. + +"In my early days, I must confess, I was rather keen upon that sort +of thing, but age has brought experience and I have discovered the +impossibility of bringing an architect to one's way of thinking even in +so commonplace a matter as the position of a scullery. It would be much +more difficult to induce him to construct a house with double walls and +secret chambers." + +T. X. waited patiently. + +"There is a possibility, of course," said Lexman slowly, "that the +steel latch may have been raised by somebody outside by some ingenious +magnetic arrangement and lowered in a similar manner." + +"I have thought about it," said T. X. triumphantly, "and I have made the +most elaborate tests only this morning. It is quite impossible to raise +the steel latch because once it is dropped it cannot be raised again +except by means of the knob, the pulling of which releases the catch +which holds the bar securely in its place. Try another one, John." + +John Lexman threw back his head in a noiseless laugh. + +"Why I should be helping you to discover the murderer of Kara is beyond +my understanding," he said, "but I will give you another theory, at the +same time warning you that I may be putting you off the track. For God +knows I have more reason to murder Kara than any man in the world." + +He thought a while. + +"The chimney was of course impossible?" + +"There was a big fire burning in the grate," explained T. X.; "so big +indeed that the room was stifling." + +John Lexman nodded. + +"That was Kara's way," he said; "as a matter of fact I know the +suggestion about magnetism in the steel bar was impossible, because I +was friendly with Kara when he had that bar put in and pretty well know +the mechanism, although I had forgotten it for the moment. What is your +own theory, by the way?" + +T. X. pursed his lips. + +"My theory isn't very clearly formed," he said cautiously, "but so far +as it goes, it is that Kara was lying on the bed probably reading one +of the books which were found by the bedside when his assailant suddenly +came upon him. Kara seized the telephone to call for assistance and was +promptly killed." + +Again there was silence. + +"That is a theory," said John Lexman, with his curious deliberation +of speech, "but as I say I refuse to be definite--have you found the +weapon?" + +T. X. shook his head. + +"Were there any peculiar features about the room which astonished you, +and which you have not told me?" + +T. X. hesitated. + +"There were two candles," he said, "one in the middle of the room and +one under the bed. That in the middle of the room was a small Christmas +candle, the one under the bed was the ordinary candle of commerce +evidently roughly cut and probably cut in the room. We found traces of +candle chips on the floor and it is evident to me that the portion which +was cut off was thrown into the fire, for here again we have a trace of +grease." + +Lexman nodded. + +"Anything further?" he asked. + +"The smaller candle was twisted into a sort of corkscrew shape." + +"The Clue of the Twisted Candle," mused John Lexman "that's a very good +title--Kara hated candles." + +"Why?" + +Lexman leant back in his chair, selected a cigarette from a silver case. + +"In my wanderings," he said, "I have been to many strange places. I +have been to the country which you probably do not know, and which the +traveller who writes books about countries seldom visits. There are +queer little villages perched on the spurs of the bleakest hills you +ever saw. I have lived with communities which acknowledge no king and +no government. These have their laws handed down to them from father to +son--it is a nation without a written language. They administer +their laws rigidly and drastically. The punishments they award are +cruel--inhuman. I have seen, the woman taken in adultery stoned to death +as in the best Biblical traditions, and I have seen the thief blinded." + +T. X. shivered. + +"I have seen the false witness stand up in a barbaric market place +whilst his tongue was torn from him. Sometimes the Turks or the piebald +governments of the state sent down a few gendarmes and tried a sort +of sporadic administration of the country. It usually ended in the +representative of the law lapsing into barbarism, or else disappearing +from the face of the earth, with a whole community of murderers eager +to testify, with singular unanimity, to the fact that he had either +committed suicide or had gone off with the wife of one of the townsmen. + +"In some of these communities the candle plays a big part. It is not the +candle of commerce as you know it, but a dip made from mutton fat. Strap +three between the fingers of your hands and keep the hand rigid with two +flat pieces of wood; then let the candles burn down lower and lower--can +you imagine? Or set a candle in a gunpowder trail and lead the trail to +a well-oiled heap of shavings thoughtfully heaped about your naked feet. +Or a candle fixed to the shaved head of a man--there are hundreds of +variations and the candle plays a part in all of them. I don't know +which Kara had cause to hate the worst, but I know one or two that he +has employed." + +"Was he as bad as that?" asked T. X. + +John Lexman laughed. + +"You don't know how bad he was," he said. + +Towards the end of the luncheon the waiter brought a note in to T. X. +which had been sent on from his office. + +"Dear Mr. Meredith, + +"In answer to your enquiry I believe my daughter is in London, but I did +not know it until this morning. My banker informs me that my daughter +called at the bank this morning and drew a considerable sum of money +from her private account, but where she has gone and what she is doing +with the money I do not know. I need hardly tell you that I am very +worried about this matter and I should be glad if you could explain what +it is all about." + +It was signed "William Bartholomew." + +T. X. groaned. + +"If I had only had the sense to go to the bank this morning, I should +have seen her," he said. "I'm going to lose my job over this." + +The other looked troubled. + +"You don't seriously mean that." + +"Not exactly," smiled T. X., "but I don't think the Chief is very +pleased with me just now. You see I have butted into this business +without any authority--it isn't exactly in my department. But you have +not given me your theory about the candles." + +"I have no theory to offer," said the other, folding up his serviette; +"the candles suggest a typical Albanian murder. I do not say that it +was so, I merely say that by their presence they suggest a crime of this +character." + +With this T. X. had to be content. + +If it were not his business to interest himself in commonplace +murder--though this hardly fitted such a description--it was part of +the peculiar function which his department exercised to restore to Lady +Bartholomew a certain very elaborate snuff-box which he discovered in +the safe. + +Letters had been found amongst his papers which made clear the part +which Kara had played. Though he had not been a vulgar blackmailer he +had retained his hold, not only upon this particular property of Lady +Bartholomew, but upon certain other articles which were discovered, +with no other object, apparently, than to compel influence from quarters +likely to be of assistance to him in his schemes. + +The inquest on the murdered man which the Assistant Commissioner +attended produced nothing in the shape of evidence and the coroner's +verdict of "murder against some person or persons unknown" was only to +be expected. + +T. X. spent a very busy and a very tiring week tracing elusive clues +which led him nowhere. He had a letter from John Lexman announcing the +fact that he intended leaving for the United States. He had received a +very good offer from a firm of magazine publishers in New York and was +going out to take up the appointment. + +Meredith's plans were now in fair shape. He had decided upon the line +of action he would take and in the pursuance of this he interviewed his +Chief and the Minister of Justice. + +"Yes, I have heard from my daughter," said that great man uncomfortably, +"and really she has placed me in a most embarrassing position. I cannot +tell you, Mr. Meredith, exactly in what manner she has done this, but I +can assure you she has." + +"Can I see her letter or telegram?" asked T. X. + +"I am afraid that is impossible," said the other solemnly; "she begged +me to keep her communication very secret. I have written to my wife and +asked her to come home. I feel the constant strain to which I am being +subjected is more than human can endure." + +"I suppose," said T. X. patiently, "it is impossible for you to tell me +to what address you have replied?" + +"To no address," answered the other and corrected himself hurriedly; +"that is to say I only received the telegram--the message this morning +and there is no address--to reply to." + +"I see," said T. X. + +That afternoon he instructed his secretary. + +"I want a copy of all the agony advertisements in to-morrow's papers +and in the last editions of the evening papers--have them ready for me +tomorrow morning when I come." + +They were waiting for him when he reached the office at nine o'clock +the next day and he went through them carefully. Presently he found the +message he was seeking. + +B. M. You place me awkward position. Very thoughtless. Have +received package addressed your mother which have placed in mother's +sitting-room. Cannot understand why you want me to go away week-end +and give servants holiday but have done so. Shall require very full +explanation. Matter gone far enough. Father. + +"This," said T. X. exultantly, as he read the advertisement, "is where I +get busy." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +February as a rule is not a month of fogs, but rather a month of +tempestuous gales, of frosts and snowfalls, but the night of February +17th, 19--, was one of calm and mist. It was not the typical London fog +so dreaded by the foreigner, but one of those little patchy mists which +smoke through the streets, now enshrouding and making the nearest object +invisible, now clearing away to the finest diaphanous filament of pale +grey. + +Sir William Bartholomew had a house in Portman Place, which is a wide +thoroughfare, filled with solemn edifices of unlovely and forbidding +exterior, but remarkably comfortable within. Shortly before eleven on +the night of February 17th, a taxi drew up at the junction of Sussex +Street and Portman Place, and a girl alighted. The fog at that moment +was denser than usual and she hesitated a moment before she left the +shelter which the cab afforded. + +She gave the driver a few instructions and walked on with a firm step, +turning abruptly and mounting the steps of Number 173. Very quickly she +inserted her key in the lock, pushed the door open and closed it behind +her. She switched on the hall light. The house sounded hollow and +deserted, a fact which afforded her considerable satisfaction. She +turned the light out and found her way up the broad stairs to the first +floor, paused for a moment to switch on another light which she knew +would not be observable from the street outside and mounted the second +flight. + +Miss Belinda Mary Bartholomew congratulated herself upon the success of +her scheme, and the only doubt that was in her mind now was whether +the boudoir had been locked, but her father was rather careless in such +matters and Jacks the butler was one of those dear, silly, old men who +never locked anything, and, in consequence, faced every audit with a +long face and a longer tale of the peculations of occasional servants. + +To her immense relief the handle turned and the door opened to her +touch. Somebody had had the sense to pull down the blinds and the +curtains were drawn. She switched on the light with a sigh of relief. +Her mother's writing table was covered with unopened letters, but she +brushed these aside in her search for the little parcel. It was not +there and her heart sank. Perhaps she had put it in one of the drawers. +She tried them all without result. + +She stood by the desk a picture of perplexity, biting a finger +thoughtfully. + +"Thank goodness!" she said with a jump, for she saw the parcel on the +mantel shelf, crossed the room and took it down. + +With eager hands she tore off the covering and came to the familiar +leather case. Not until she had opened the padded lid and had seen the +snuffbox reposing in a bed of cotton wool did she relapse into a long +sigh of relief. + +"Thank heaven for that," she said aloud. + +"And me," said a voice. + +She sprang up and turned round with a look of terror. + +"Mr.--Mr. Meredith," she stammered. + +T. X. stood by the window curtains from whence he had made his dramatic +entry upon the scene. + +"I say you have to thank me also, Miss Bartholomew," he said presently. + +"How do you know my name?" she asked with some curiosity. + +"I know everything in the world," he answered, and she smiled. Suddenly +her face went serious and she demanded sharply, + +"Who sent you after me--Mr. Kara?" + +"Mr. Kara?" he repeated, in wonder. + +"He threatened to send for the police," she went on rapidly, "and I told +him he might do so. I didn't mind the police--it was Kara I was afraid +of. You know what I went for, my mother's property." + +She held the snuff-box in her outstretched hand. + +"He accused me of stealing and was hateful, and then he put me +downstairs in that awful cellar and--" + +"And?" suggested T. X. + +"That's all," she replied with tightened lips; "what are you going to do +now?" + +"I am going to ask you a few questions if I may," he said. "In the first +place have you not heard anything about Mr. Kara since you went away?" + +She shook her head. + +"I have kept out of his way," she said grimly. + +"Have you seen the newspapers?" he asked. + +She nodded. + +"I have seen the advertisement column--I wired asking Papa to reply to +my telegram." + +"I know--I saw it," he smiled; "that is what brought me here." + +"I was afraid it would," she said ruefully; "father is awfully +loquacious in print--he makes speeches you know. All I wanted him to say +was yes or no. What do you mean about the newspapers?" she went on. "Is +anything wrong with mother?" + +He shook his head. + +"So far as I know Lady Bartholomew is in the best of health and is on +her way home." + +"Then what do you mean by asking me about the newspapers!" she demanded; +"why should I see the newspapers--what is there for me to see?" + +"About Kara?" he suggested. + +She shook her head in bewilderment. + +"I know and want to know nothing about Kara. Why do you say this to me?" + +"Because," said T. X. slowly, "on the night you disappeared from Cadogan +Square, Remington Kara was murdered." + +"Murdered," she gasped. + +He nodded. + +"He was stabbed to the heart by some person or persons unknown." + +T. X. took his hand from his pocket and pulled something out which was +wrapped in tissue paper. This he carefully removed and the girl watched +with fascinated gaze, and with an awful sense of apprehension. Presently +the object was revealed. It was a pair of scissors with the handle +wrapped about with a small handkerchief dappled with brown stains. She +took a step backward, raising her hands to her cheeks. + +"My scissors," she said huskily; "you won't think--" + +She stared up at him, fear and indignation struggling for mastery. + +"I don't think you committed the murder," he smiled; "if that's what +you mean to ask me, but if anybody else found those scissors and had +identified this handkerchief you would have been in rather a fix, my +young friend." + +She looked at the scissors and shuddered. + +"I did kill something," she said in a low voice, "an awful dog... I +don't know how I did it, but the beastly thing jumped at me and I just +stabbed him and killed him, and I am glad," she nodded many times and +repeated, "I am glad." + +"So I gather--I found the dog and now perhaps you'll explain why I +didn't find you?" + +Again she hesitated and he felt that she was hiding something from him. + +"I don't know why you didn't find me," she said; "I was there." + +"How did you get out?" + +"How did you get out?" she challenged him boldly. + +"I got out through the door," he confessed; "it seems a ridiculously +commonplace way of leaving but that's the only way I could see." + +"And that's how I got out," she answered, with a little smile. + +"But it was locked." + +She laughed. + +"I see now," she said; "I was in the cellar. I heard your key in the +lock and bolted down the trap, leaving those awful scissors behind. I +thought it was Kara with some of his friends and then the voices died +away and I ventured to come up and found you had left the door open. +So--so I--" + +These queer little pauses puzzled T. X. There was something she was not +telling him. Something she had yet to reveal. + +"So I got away you see," she went on. "I came out into the kitchen; +there was nobody there, and I passed through the area door and up the +steps and just round the corner I found a taxicab, and that is all." + +She spread out her hands in a dramatic little gesture. + +"And that is all, is it?" said T. X. + +"That is all," she repeated; "now what are you going to do?" + +T. X. looked up at the ceiling and stroked his chin. + +"I suppose that I ought to arrest you. I feel that something is due from +me. May I ask if you were sleeping in the bed downstairs?" + +"In the lower cellar?" she demanded,--a little pause and then, "Yes, I +was sleeping in the cellar downstairs." + +There was that interval of hesitation almost between each word. + +"What are you going to do?" she asked again. + +She was feeling more sure of herself and had suppressed the panic which +his sudden appearance had produced in her. He rumpled his hair, a gross +imitation, did she but know it, of one of his chief's mannerisms and she +observed that his hair was very thick and inclined to curl. She saw also +that he was passably good looking, had fine grey eyes, a straight nose +and a most firm chin. + +"I think," she suggested gently, "you had better arrest me." + +"Don't be silly," he begged. + +She stared at him in amazement. + +"What did you say?" she asked wrathfully. + +"I said 'don't be silly,'" repeated the calm young man. + +"Do you know that you're being very rude?" she asked. + +He seemed interested and surprised at this novel view of his conduct. + +"Of course," she went on carefully smoothing her dress and avoiding his +eye, "I know you think I am silly and that I've got a most comic name." + +"I have never said your name was comic," he replied coldly; "I would not +take so great a liberty." + +"You said it was 'weird' which was worse," she claimed. + +"I may have said it was 'weird,"' he admitted, "but that's rather +different to saying it was 'comic.' There is dignity in weird things. +For example, nightmares aren't comic but they're weird." + +"Thank you," she said pointedly. + +"Not that I mean your name is anything approaching a nightmare." He made +this concession with a most magnificent sweep of hand as though he were +a king conceding her the right to remain covered in his presence. "I +think that Belinda Ann--" + +"Belinda Mary," she corrected. + +"Belinda Mary, I was going to say, or as a matter of fact," he +floundered, "I was going to say Belinda and Mary." + +"You were going to say nothing of the kind," she corrected him. + +"Anyway, I think Belinda Mary is a very pretty name." + +"You think nothing of the sort." + +She saw the laughter in his eyes and felt an insane desire to laugh. + +"You said it was a weird name and you think it is a weird name, but I +really can't be bothered considering everybody's views. I think it's a +weird name, too. I was named after an aunt," she added in self-defence. + +"There you have the advantage of me," he inclined his head politely; "I +was named after my father's favourite dog." + +"What does T. X. stand for?" she asked curiously. + +"Thomas Xavier," he said, and she leant back in the big chair on +the edge of which a few minutes before she had perched herself in +trepidation and dissolved into a fit of immoderate laughter. + +"It is comic, isn't it?" he asked. + +"Oh, I am sorry I'm so rude," she gasped. "Fancy being called Tommy +Xavier--I mean Thomas Xavier." + +"You may call me Tommy if you wish--most of my friends do." + +"Unfortunately I'm not your friend," she said, still smiling and wiping +the tears from her eyes, "so I shall go on calling you Mr. Meredith if +you don't mind." + +She looked at her watch. + +"If you are not going to arrest me I'm going," she said. + +"I have certainly no intention of arresting you," said he, "but I am +going to see you home!" + +She jumped up smartly. + +"You're not," she commanded. + +She was so definite in this that he was startled. + +"My dear child," he protested. + +"Please don't 'dear child' me," she said seriously; "you're going to be +a good little Tommy and let me go home by myself." + +She held out her hand frankly and the laughing appeal in her eyes was +irresistible. + +"Well, I'll see you to a cab," he insisted. + +"And listen while I give the driver instructions where he is to take +me?" + +She shook her head reprovingly. + +"It must be an awful thing to be a policeman." + +He stood back with folded arms, a stern frown on his face. + +"Don't you trust me?" he asked. + +"No," she replied. + +"Quite right," he approved; "anyway I'll see you to the cab and you can +tell the driver to go to Charing Cross station and on your way you can +change your direction." + +"And you promise you won't follow me?" she asked. + +"On my honour," he swore; "on one condition though." + +"I will make no conditions," she replied haughtily. + +"Please come down from your great big horse," he begged, "and listen +to reason. The condition I make is that I can always bring you to an +appointed rendezvous whenever I want you. Honestly, this is necessary, +Belinda Mary." + +"Miss Bartholomew," she corrected, coldly. + +"It is necessary," he went on, "as you will understand. Promise me that, +if I put an advertisement in the agonies of either an evening paper +which I will name or in the Morning Port, you will keep the appointment +I fix, if it is humanly possible." + +She hesitated a moment, then held out her hand. + +"I promise," she said. + +"Good for you, Belinda Mary," said he, and tucking her arm in his he +led her out of the room switching off the light and racing her down the +stairs. + +If there was a lot of the schoolgirl left in Belinda Mary Bartholomew, +no less of the schoolboy was there in this Commissioner of Police. He +would have danced her through the fog, contemptuous of the proprieties, +but he wasn't so very anxious to get her to her cab and to lose sight of +her. + +"Good-night," he said, holding her hand. + +"That's the third time you've shaken hands with me to-night," she +interjected. + +"Don't let us have any unpleasantness at the last," he pleaded, "and +remember." + +"I have promised," she replied. + +"And one day," he went on, "you will tell me all that happened in that +cellar." + +"I have told you," she said in a low voice. + +"You have not told me everything, child." + +He handed her into the cab. He shut the door behind her and leant +through the open window. + +"Victoria or Marble Arch?" he asked politely. + +"Charing Cross," she replied, with a little laugh. + +He watched the cab drive away and then suddenly it stopped and a figure +lent out from the window beckoning him frantically. He ran up to her. + +"Suppose I want you," she asked. + +"Advertise," he said promptly, "beginning your advertisement 'Dear +Tommy."' + +"I shall put 'T. X.,'" she said indignantly. + +"Then I shall take no notice of your advertisement," he replied and +stood in the middle of the street, his hat in his hand, to the intense +annoyance of a taxi-cab driver who literally all but ran him down and in +a figurative sense did so until T. X. was out of earshot. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + +Thomas Xavier Meredith was a shrewd young man. It was said of him by +Signor Paulo Coselli, the eminent criminologist, that he had a gift of +intuition which was abnormal. Probably the mystery of the twisted candle +was solved by him long before any other person in the world had the +dimmest idea that it was capable of solution. + +The house in Cadogan Square was still in the hands of the police. To +this house and particularly to Kara's bedroom T. X. from time to +time repaired, and reproduced as far as possible the conditions which +obtained on the night of the murder. He had the same stifling fire, the +same locked door. The latch was dropped in its socket, whilst T. X., +with a stop watch in his hand, made elaborate calculations and acted +certain parts which he did not reveal to a soul. + +Three times, accompanied by Mansus, he went to the house, three times +went to the death chamber and was alone on one occasion for an hour and +a half whilst the patient Mansus waited outside. Three times he emerged +looking graver on each occasion, and after the third visit he called +into consultation John Lexman. + +Lexman had been spending some time in the country, having deferred his +trip to the United States. + +"This case puzzles me more and more, John," said T. X., troubled out +of his usual boisterous self, "and thank heaven it worries other people +besides me. De Mainau came over from France the other day and brought +all his best sleuths, whilst O'Grady of the New York central office paid +a flying visit just to get hold of the facts. Not one of them has +given me the real solution, though they've all been rather +ingenious. Gathercole has vanished and is probably on his way to some +undiscoverable region, and our people have not yet traced the valet." + +"He should be the easiest for you," said John Lexman, reflectively. + +"Why Gathercole should go off I can't understand," T. X. continued. +"According to the story which was told me by Fisher, his last words to +Kara were to the effect that he was expecting a cheque or that he had +received a cheque. No cheque has been presented or drawn and apparently +Gathercole has gone off without waiting for any payment. An examination +of Kara's books show nothing against the Gathercole account save the +sum of 600 pounds which was originally advanced, and now to upset all my +calculations, look at this." + +He took from his pocketbook a newspaper cutting and pushed it across the +table, for they were dining together at the Carlton. John Lexman picked +up the slip and read. It was evidently from a New York paper: + +"Further news has now come to hand by the Antarctic Trading Company's +steamer, Cyprus, concerning the wreck of the City of the Argentine. It +is believed that this ill-fated vessel, which called at South American +ports, lost her propellor and drifted south out of the track of +shipping. This theory is now confirmed. Apparently the ship struck an +iceberg on December 23rd and foundered with all aboard save a few men +who were able to launch a boat and who were picked up by the Cyprus. The +following is the passenger list." + +John Lexman ran down the list until he came upon the name which was +evidently underlined in ink by T. X. That name was George Gathercole and +after it in brackets (Explorer). + +"If that were true, then, Gathercole could not have come to London." + +"He may have taken another boat," said T. X., "and I cabled to the +Steamship Company without any great success. Apparently Gathercole was +an eccentric sort of man and lived in terror of being overcrowded. +It was a habit of his to make provisional bookings by every available +steamer. The company can tell me no more than that he had booked, but +whether he shipped on the City of the Argentine or not, they do not +know." + +"I can tell you this about Gathercole," said John slowly and +thoughtfully, "that he was a man who would not hurt a fly. He was +incapable of killing any man, being constitutionally averse to taking +life in any shape. For this reason he never made collections of +butterflies or of bees, and I believe has never shot an animal in +his life. He carried his principles to such an extent that he was a +vegetarian--poor old Gathercole!" he said, with the first smile which T. +X. had seen on his face since he came back. + +"If you want to sympathize with anybody," said T. X. gloomily, +"sympathize with me." + +On the following day T. X. was summoned to the Home Office and went +steeled for a most unholy row. The Home Secretary, a large and worthy +gentleman, given to the making of speeches on every excuse, received +him, however, with unusual kindness. + +"I've sent for you, Mr. Meredith," he said, "about this unfortunate +Greek. I've had all his private papers looked into and translated and in +some cases decoded, because as you are probably aware his diaries and +a great deal of his correspondence were in a code which called for the +attention of experts." + +T. X. had not troubled himself greatly about Kara's private papers but +had handed them over, in accordance with instructions, to the proper +authorities. + +"Of course, Mr. Meredith," the Home Secretary went on, beaming across +his big table, "we expect you to continue your search for the murderer, +but I must confess that your prisoner when you secure him will have a +very excellent case to put to a jury." + +"That I can well believe, sir," said T. X. + +"Seldom in my long career at the bar," began the Home Secretary in +his best oratorical manner, "have I examined a record so utterly +discreditable as that of the deceased man." + +Here he advanced a few instances which surprised even T. X. + +"The man was a lunatic," continued the Home Secretary, "a vicious, evil +man who loved cruelty for cruelty's sake. We have in this diary alone +sufficient evidence to convict him of three separate murders, one of +which was committed in this country." + +T. X. looked his astonishment. + +"You will remember, Mr. Meredith, as I saw in one of your reports, that +he had a chauffeur, a Greek named Poropulos." + +T. X. nodded. + +"He went to Greece on the day following the shooting of Vassalaro," he +said. + +The Home Secretary shook his head. + +"He was killed on the same night," said the Minister, "and you will have +no difficulty in finding what remains of his body in the disused house +which Kara rented for his own purpose on the Portsmouth Road. That he +has killed a number of people in Albania you may well suppose. Whole +villages have been wiped out to provide him with a little excitement. +The man was a Nero without any of Nero's amiable weaknesses. He was +obsessed with the idea that he himself was in danger of assassination, +and saw an enemy even in his trusty servant. Undoubtedly the chauffeur +Poropulos was in touch with several Continental government circles. You +understand," said the Minister in conclusion, "that I am telling you +this, not with the idea of expecting you, to relax your efforts to find +the murderer and clear up the mystery, but in order that you may know +something of the possible motive for this man's murder." + +T. X. spent an hour going over the decoded diary and documents and left +the Home Office a little shakily. It was inconceivable, incredible. Kara +was a lunatic, but the directing genius was a devil. + +T. X. had a flat in Whitehall Gardens and thither he repaired to change +for dinner. He was half dressed when the evening paper arrived and +he glanced as was his wont first at the news' page and then at the +advertisement column. He looked down the column marked "Personal" +without expecting to find anything of particular interest to himself, +but saw that which made him drop the paper and fly round the room in a +frenzy to complete his toilet. + +"Tommy X.," ran the brief announcement, "most urgent, Marble Arch 8." + +He had five minutes to get there but it seemed like five hours. He +was held up at almost every crossing and though he might have used his +authority to obtain right of way, it was a step which his curious sense +of honesty prevented him taking. He leapt out of the cab before it +stopped, thrust the fare into the driver's hands and looked round for +the girl. He saw her at last and walked quickly towards her. As he +approached her, she turned about and with an almost imperceptible +beckoning gesture walked away. He followed her along the Bayswater Road +and gradually drew level. + +"I am afraid I have been watched," she said in a low voice. "Will you +call a cab?" + +He hailed a passing taxi, helped her in and gave at random the first +place that suggested itself to him, which was Finsbury Park. + +"I am very worried," she said, "and I don't know anybody who can help me +except you." + +"Is it money?" he asked. + +"Money," she said scornfully, "of course it isn't money. I want to show +you a letter," she said after a while. + +She took it from her bag and gave it to him and he struck a match and +read it with difficulty. + +It was written in a studiously uneducated hand. + + "Dear Miss, + + "I know who you are. You are wanted by the police but I + will not give you away. Dear Miss. I am very hard up and + 20 pounds will be very useful to me and I shall not trouble + you again. Dear Miss. Put the money on the window sill of + your room. I know you sleep on the ground floor and I will + come in and take it. And if not--well, I don't want to make + any trouble. + + "Yours truly, + + "A FRIEND." + +"When did you get this?" he asked. + +"This morning," she replied. "I sent the Agony to the paper by telegram, +I knew you would come." + +"Oh, you did, did you?" he said. + +Her assurance was very pleasing to him. The faith that her words implied +gave him an odd little feeling of comfort and happiness. + +"I can easily get you out of this," he added; "give me your address and +when the gentleman comes--" + +"That is impossible," she replied hurriedly. "Please don't think I'm +ungrateful, and don't think I'm being silly--you do think I'm being +silly, don't you!" + +"I have never harboured such an unworthy thought," he said virtuously. + +"Yes, you have," she persisted, "but really I can't tell you where I am +living. I have a very special reason for not doing so. It's not myself +that I'm thinking about, but there's a life involved." + +This was a somewhat dramatic statement to make and she felt she had gone +too far. + +"Perhaps I don't mean that," she said, "but there is some one I care +for--" she dropped her voice. + +"Oh," said T. X. blankly. + +He came down from his rosy heights into the shadow and darkness of a +sunless valley. + +"Some one you care for," he repeated after a while. + +"Yes." + +There was another long silence, then, + +"Oh, indeed," said T. X. + +Again the unbroken interval of quiet and after a while she said in a low +voice, "Not that way." + +"Not what way!" asked T. X. huskily, his spirits doing a little +mountaineering. + +"The way you mean," she said. + +"Oh," said T. X. + +He was back again amidst the rosy snows of dawn, was in fact climbing +a dizzy escalier on the topmost height of hope's Mont Blanc when she +pulled the ladder from under him. + +"I shall, of course, never marry," she said with a certain prim +decision. + +T. X. fell with a dull sickening thud, discovering that his rosy snows +were not unlike cold, hard ice in their lack of resilience. + +"Who said you would?" he asked somewhat feebly, but in self defence. + +"You did," she said, and her audacity took his breath away. + +"Well, how am I to help you!" he asked after a while. + +"By giving me some advice," she said; "do you think I ought to put the +money there!" + +"Indeed I do not," said T. X., recovering some of his natural dominance; +"apart from the fact that you would be compounding a felony, you would +merely be laying out trouble for yourself in the future. If he can get +20 pounds so easily, he will come for 40 pounds. But why do you stay +away, why don't you return home? There's no charge and no breath of +suspicion against you." + +"Because I have something to do which I have set my mind to," she said, +with determination in her tones. + +"Surely you can trust me with your address," he urged her, "after all +that has passed between us, Belinda Mary--after all the years we have +known one another." + +"I shall get out and leave you," she said steadily. + +"But how the dickens am I going to help you?" he protested. + +"Don't swear," she could be very severe indeed; "the only way you can +help me is by being kind and sympathetic." + +"Would you like me to burst into tears?" he asked sarcastically. + +"I ask you to do nothing more painful or repugnant to your natural +feelings than to be a gentleman," she said. + +"Thank you very kindly," said T. X., and leant back in the cab with an +air of supreme resignation. + +"I believe you're making faces in the dark," she accused him. + +"God forbid that I should do anything so low," said he hastily; "what +made you think that?" + +"Because I was putting my tongue out at you," she admitted, and the taxi +driver heard the shrieks of laughter in the cab behind him above the +wheezing of his asthmatic engine. + +At twelve that night in a certain suburb of London an overcoated man +moved stealthily through a garden. He felt his way carefully along the +wall of the house and groped with hope, but with no great certainty, +along the window sill. He found an envelope which his fingers, somewhat +sensitive from long employment in nefarious uses, told him contained +nothing more substantial than a letter. + +He went back through the garden and rejoined his companion, who was +waiting under an adjacent lamp-post. + +"Did she drop?" asked the other eagerly. + +"I don't know yet," growled the man from the garden. + +He opened the envelope and read the few lines. + +"She hasn't got the money," he said, "but she's going to get it. I must +meet her to-morrow afternoon at the corner of Oxford Street and Regent +Street." + +"What time!" asked the other. + +"Six o'clock," said the first man. "The chap who takes the money must +carry a copy of the Westminster Gazette in his hand." + +"Oh, then it's a plant," said the other with conviction. + +The other laughed. + +"She won't work any plants. I bet she's scared out of her life." + +The second man bit his nails and looked up and down the road, +apprehensively. + +"It's come to something," he said bitterly; "we went out to make our +thousands and we've come down to 'chanting' for 20 pounds." + +"It's the luck," said the other philosophically, "and I haven't done +with her by any means. Besides we've still got a chance of pulling of +the big thing, Harry. I reckon she's good for a hundred or two, anyway." + +At six o'clock on the following afternoon, a man dressed in a dark +overcoat, with a soft felt hat pulled down over his eyes stood +nonchalantly by the curb near where the buses stop at Regent Street +slapping his hand gently with a folded copy of the Westminster Gazette. + +That none should mistake his Liberal reading, he stood as near as +possible to a street lamp and so arranged himself and his attitude that +the minimum of light should fall upon his face and the maximum upon +that respectable organ of public opinion. Soon after six he saw the girl +approaching, out of the tail of his eye, and strolled off to meet her. +To his surprise she passed him by and he was turning to follow when an +unfriendly hand gripped him by the arm. + +"Mr. Fisher, I believe," said a pleasant voice. + +"What do you mean?" said the man, struggling backward. + +"Are you going quietly!" asked the pleasant Superintendent Mansus, "or +shall I take my stick to you'?" + +Mr. Fisher thought awhile. + +"It's a cop," he confessed, and allowed himself to be hustled into the +waiting cab. + +He made his appearance in T. X.'s office and that urbane gentleman +greeted him as a friend. + +"And how's Mr. Fisher!" he asked; "I suppose you are Mr. Fisher still +and not Mr. Harry Gilcott, or Mr. George Porten." + +Fisher smiled his old, deferential, deprecating smile. + +"You will always have your joke, sir. I suppose the young lady gave me +away." + +"You gave yourself away, my poor Fisher," said T. X., and put a strip +of paper before him; "you may disguise your hand, and in your extreme +modesty pretend to an ignorance of the British language, which is +not creditable to your many attainments, but what you must be awfully +careful in doing in future when you write such epistles," he said, "is +to wash your hands." + +"Wash my hands!" repeated the puzzled Fisher. + +T. X. nodded. + +"You see you left a little thumb print, and we are rather whales on +thumb prints at Scotland Yard, Fisher." + +"I see. What is the charge now, sir!" + +"I shall make no charge against you except the conventional one of being +a convict under license and failing to report." + +Fisher heaved a sigh. + +"That'll only mean twelve months. Are you going to charge me with this +business?" he nodded to the paper. + +T. X. shook his head. + +"I bear you no ill-will although you tried to frighten Miss Bartholomew. +Oh yes, I know it is Miss Bartholomew, and have known all the time. The +lady is there for a reason which is no business of yours or of mine. +I shall not charge you with attempt to blackmail and in reward for my +leniency I hope you are going to tell me all you know about the Kara +murder. You wouldn't like me to charge you with that, would you by any +chance!" + +Fisher drew a long breath. + +"No, sir, but if you did I could prove my innocence," he said earnestly. +"I spent the whole of the evening in the kitchen." + +"Except a quarter of an hour," said T. X. + +The man nodded. + +"That's true, sir, I went out to see a pal of mine." + +"The man who is in this!" asked T. X. + +Fisher hesitated. + +"Yes, sir. He was with me in this but there was nothing wrong about the +business--as far as we went. I don't mind admitting that I was planning +a Big Thing. I'm not going to blow on it, if it's going to get me into +trouble, but if you'll promise me that it won't, I'll tell you the whole +story." + +"Against whom was this coup of yours planned?" + +"Against Mr. Kara, sir," said Fisher. + +"Go on with your story," nodded T. X. + +The story was a short and commonplace one. Fisher had met a man who knew +another man who was either a Turk or an Albanian. They had learnt that +Kara was in the habit of keeping large sums of money in the house and +they had planned to rob him. That was the story in a nutshell. Somewhere +the plan miscarried. It was when he came to the incidents that occurred +on the night of the murder that T. X. followed him with the greatest +interest. + +"The old gentleman came in," said Fisher, "and I saw him up to the +room. I heard him coming out and I went up and spoke to him while he was +having a chat with Mr. Kara at the open door." + +"Did you hear Mr. Kara speak?" + +"I fancy I did, sir," said Fisher; "anyway the old gentleman was quite +pleased with himself." + +"Why do you say 'old gentleman'!" asked T. X.; "he was not an old man." + +"Not exactly, sir," said Fisher, "but he had a sort of fussy irritable +way that old gentlemen sometimes have and I somehow got it fixed in my +mind that he was old. As a matter of fact, he was about forty-five, he +may have been fifty." + +"You have told me all this before. Was there anything peculiar about +him!" + +Fisher hesitated. + +"Nothing, sir, except the fact that one of his arms was a game one." + +"Meaning that it was--" + +"Meaning that it was an artificial one, sir, so far as I can make out." + +"Was it his right or his left arm that was game!" interrupted T. X. + +"His left arm, sir." + +"You're sure?" + +"I'd swear to it, sir." + +"Very well, go on." + +"He came downstairs and went out and I never saw him again. When you +came and the murder was discovered and knowing as I did that I had my +own scheme on and that one of your splits might pinch me, I got a bit +rattled. I went downstairs to the hall and the first thing I saw lying +on the table was a letter. It was addressed to me." + +He paused and T. X. nodded. + +"Go on," he said again. + +"I couldn't understand how it came to be there, but as I'd been in the +kitchen most of the evening except when I was seeing my pal outside to +tell him the job was off for that night, it might have been there before +you came. I opened the letter. There were only a few words on it and I +can tell you those few words made my heart jump up into my mouth, and +made me go cold all over." + +"What were they!" asked T. X. + +"I shall not forget them, sir. They're sort of permanently fixed in my +brain," said the man earnestly; "the note started with just the figures +'A. C. 274.'" + +"What was that!" asked T. X. + +"My convict number when I was in Dartmoor Prison, sir." + +"What did the note say?" + +"'Get out of here quick'--I don't know who had put it there, but I'd +evidently been spotted and I was taking no chances. That's the whole +story from beginning to end. I accidentally happened to meet the young +lady, Miss Holland--Miss Bartholomew as she is--and followed her to her +house in Portman Place. That was the night you were there." + +T. X. found himself to his intense annoyance going very red. + +"And you know no more?" he asked. + +"No more, sir--and if I may be struck dead--" + +"Keep all that sabbath talk for the chaplain," commended T. X., and they +took away Mr. Fisher, not an especially dissatisfied man. + +That night T. X. interviewed his prisoner at Cannon Row police station +and made a few more enquiries. + +"There is one thing I would like to ask you," said the girl when he met +her next morning in Green Park. + +"If you were going to ask whether I made enquiries as to where your +habitation was," he warned her, "I beg of you to refrain." + +She was looking very beautiful that morning, he thought. The keen air +had brought a colour to her face and lent a spring to her gait, and, as +she strode along by his side with the free and careless swing of youth, +she was an epitome of the life which even now was budding on every tree +in the park. + +"Your father is back in town, by the way," he said, "and he is most +anxious to see you." + +She made a little grimace. + +"I hope you haven't been round talking to father about me." + +"Of course I have," he said helplessly; "I have also had all the +reporters up from Fleet Street and given them a full description of your +escapades." + +She looked round at him with laughter in her eyes. + +"You have all the manners of an early Christian martyr," she said. "Poor +soul! Would you like to be thrown to the lions?" + +"I should prefer being thrown to the demnition ducks and drakes," he +said moodily. + +"You're such a miserable man," she chided him, "and yet you have +everything to make life worth living." + +"Ha, ha!" said T. X. + +"You have, of course you have! You have a splendid position. Everybody +looks up to you and talks about you. You have got a wife and family who +adore you--" + +He stopped and looked at her as though she were some strange insect. + +"I have a how much?" he asked credulously. + +"Aren't you married?" she asked innocently. + +He made a strange noise in his throat. + +"Do you know I have always thought of you as married," she went on; "I +often picture you in your domestic circle reading to the children from +the Daily Megaphone those awfully interesting stories about Little +Willie Waterbug." + +He held on to the railings for support. + +"May we sit down?" he asked faintly. + +She sat by his side, half turned to him, demure and wholly adorable. + +"Of course you are right in one respect," he said at last, "but you're +altogether wrong about the children." + +"Are you married!" she demanded with no evidence of amusement. + +"Didn't you know?" he asked. + +She swallowed something. + +"Of course it's no business of mine and I'm sure I hope you are very +happy." + +"Perfectly happy," said T. X. complacently. "You must come out and see +me one Saturday afternoon when I am digging the potatoes. I am a perfect +devil when they let me loose in the vegetable garden." + +"Shall we go on?" she said. + +He could have sworn there were tears in her eyes and manlike he thought +she was vexed with him at his fooling. + +"I haven't made you cross, have I?" he asked. + +"Oh no," she replied. + +"I mean you don't believe all this rot about my being married and that +sort of thing?" + +"I'm not interested," she said, with a shrug of her shoulders, "not very +much. You've been very kind to me and I should be an awful boor if I +wasn't grateful. Of course, I don't care whether you're married or not, +it's nothing to do with me, is it?" + +"Naturally it isn't," he replied. "I suppose you aren't married by any +chance?" + +"Married," she repeated bitterly; "why, you will make my fourth!" + +She had hardy got the words out of her mouth before she realized her +terrible error. A second later she was in his arms and he was kissing +her to the scandal of one aged park keeper, one small and dirty-faced +little boy and a moulting duck who seemed to sneer at the proceedings +which he watched through a yellow and malignant eye. + +"Belinda Mary," said T. X. at parting, "you have got to give up your +little country establishment, wherever it may be and come back to the +discomforts of Portman Place. Oh, I know you can't come back yet. That +'somebody' is there, and I can pretty well guess who it is." + +"Who?" she challenged. + +"I rather fancy your mother has come back," he suggested. + +A look of scorn dawned into her pretty face. + +"Good lord, Tommy!" she said in disgust, "you don't think I should keep +mother in the suburbs without her telling the world all about it!" + +"You're an undutiful little beggar," he said. + +They had reached the Horse Guards at Whitehall and he was saying +good-bye to her. + +"If it comes to a matter of duty," she answered, "perhaps you will do +your duty and hold up the traffic for me and let me cross this road." + +"My dear girl," he protested, "hold up the traffic?" + +"Of course," she said indignantly, "you're a policeman." + +"Only when I am in uniform," he said hastily, and piloted her across the +road. + +It was a new man who returned to the gloomy office in Whitehall. A man +with a heart that swelled and throbbed with the pride and joy of life's +most precious possession. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + + +T. X. sat at his desk, his chin in his hands, his mind remarkably busy. +Grave as the matter was which he was considering, he rose with alacrity +to meet the smiling girl who was ushered through the door by Mansus, +preternaturally solemn and mysterious. + +She was radiant that day. Her eyes were sparkling with an unusual +brightness. + +"I've got the most wonderful thing to tell you," she said, "and I can't +tell you." + +"That's a very good beginning," said T. X., taking her muff from her +hand. + +"Oh, but it's really wonderful," she cried eagerly, "more wonderful than +anything you have ever heard about." + +"We are interested," said T. X. blandly. + +"No, no, you mustn't make fun," she begged, "I can't tell you now, but +it is something that will make you simply--" she was at a loss for a +simile. + +"Jump out of my skin?" suggested T. X. + +"I shall astonish you," she nodded her head solemnly. + +"I take a lot of astonishing, I warn you," he smiled; "to know you is to +exhaust one's capacity for surprise." + +"That can be either very, very nice or very, very nasty," she said +cautiously. + +"But accept it as being very, very nice," he laughed. "Now come, out +with this tale of yours." + +She shook her head very vigorously. + +"I can't possibly tell you anything," she said. + +"Then why the dickens do you begin telling anything for?" he complained, +not without reason. + +"Because I just want you to know that I do know something." + +"Oh, Lord!" he groaned. "Of course you know everything. Belinda Mary, +you're really the most wonderful child." + +He sat on the edge of her arm-chair and laid his hand on her shoulder. + +"And you've come to take me out to lunch!" + +"What were you worrying about when I came in?" she asked. + +He made a little gesture as if to dismiss the subject. + +"Nothing very much. You've heard me speak of John Lexman?" + +She bent her head. + +"Lexman's the writer of a great many mystery stories, but you've +probably read his books." + +She nodded again, and again T. X. noticed the suppressed eagerness in +her eyes. + +"You're not ill or sickening for anything, are you?" he asked anxiously; +"measles, or mumps or something?" + +"Don't be silly," she said; "go on and tell me something about Mr. +Lexman." + +"He's going to America," said T. X., "and before he goes he wants to +give a little lecture." + +"A lecture?" + +"It sounds rum, doesn't it, but that's just what he wants to do." + +"Why is he doing it!" she asked. + +T. X. made a gesture of despair. + +"That is one of the mysteries which may never be revealed to me, +except--" he pursed his lips and looked thoughtfully at the girl. "There +are times," he said, "when there is a great struggle going on inside +a man between all the human and better part of him and the baser +professional part of him. One side of me wants to hear this lecture of +John Lexman's very much, the other shrinks from the ordeal." + +"Let us talk it over at lunch," she said practically, and carried him +off. + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + +One would not readily associate the party of top-booted sewermen who +descend nightly to the subterranean passages of London with the stout +viceconsul at Durazzo. Yet it was one unimaginative man who lived in +Lambeth and had no knowledge that there was such a place as Durazzo who +was responsible for bringing this comfortable official out of his bed in +the early hours of the morning causing him--albeit reluctantly and with +violent and insubordinate language--to conduct certain investigations in +the crowded bazaars. + +At first he was unsuccessful because there were many Hussein Effendis +in Durazzo. He sent an invitation to the American Consul to come over to +tiffin and help him. + +"Why the dickens the Foreign Office should suddenly be interested in +Hussein Effendi, I cannot for the life of me understand." + +"The Foreign Department has to be interested in something, you know," +said the genial American. "I receive some of the quaintest requests +from Washington; I rather fancy they only wire you to find if they are +there." + +"Why are you doing this!" + +"I've seen Hakaat Bey," said the English official. "I wonder what +this fellow has been doing? There is probably a wigging for me in the +offing." + +At about the same time the sewerman in the bosom of his own family was +taking loud and noisy sips from a big mug of tea. + +"Don't you be surprised," he said to his admiring better half, "if I +have to go up to the Old Bailey to give evidence." + +"Lord! Joe!" she said with interest, "what has happened!" + +The sewer man filled his pipe and told the story with a wealth of +rambling detail. He gave particulars of the hour he had descended the +Victoria Street shaft, of what Bill Morgan had said to him as they were +going down, of what he had said to Harry Carter as they splashed along +the low-roofed tunnel, of how he had a funny feeling that he was going +to make a discovery, and so on and so forth until he reached his long +delayed climax. + +T. X. waited up very late that night and at twelve o'clock his patience +was rewarded, for the Foreign Office messenger brought a telegram to +him. It was addressed to the Chief Secretary and ran: + +"No. 847. Yours 63952 of yesterday's date. Begins. Hussein Effendi a +prosperous merchant of this city left for Italy to place his daughter in +convent Marie Theressa, Florence Hussein being Christian. He goes on to +Paris. Apply Ralli Theokritis et Cie., Rue de l'Opera. Ends." + +Half an hour later T. X. had a telephone connection through to Paris +and was instructing the British police agent in that city. He received a +further telephone report from Paris the next morning and one which +gave him infinite satisfaction. Very slowly but surely he was gathering +together the pieces of this baffling mystery and was fitting them +together. Hussein Effendi would probably supply the last missing +segments. + +At eight o'clock that night the door opened and the man who represented +T. X. in Paris came in carrying a travelling ulster on his arm. T. +X. gave him a nod and then, as the newcomer stood with the door open, +obviously waiting for somebody to follow him, he said, + +"Show him in--I will see him alone." + +There walked into his office, a tall man wearing a frock coat and a red +fez. He was a man from fifty-five to sixty, powerfully built, with a +grave dark face and a thin fringe of white beard. He salaamed as he +entered. + +"You speak French, I believe," said T. X. presently. + +The other bowed. + +"My agent has explained to you," said T. X. in French, "that I desire +some information for the purpose of clearing up a crime which has +been committed in this country. I have given you my assurance, if that +assurance was necessary, that you would come to no harm as a result of +anything you might tell me." + +"That I understand, Effendi," said the tall Turk; "the Americans and the +English have always been good friends of mine and I have been frequently +in London. Therefore, I shall be very pleased to be of any help to you." + +T. X. walked to a closed bookcase on one side of the room, unlocked it, +took out an object wrapped in white tissue paper. He laid this on the +table, the Turk watching the proceedings with an impassive face. Very +slowly the Commissioner unrolled the little bundle and revealed at +last a long, slim knife, rusted and stained, with a hilt, which in its +untarnished days had evidently been of chased silver. He lifted the +dagger from the table and handed it to the Turk. + +"This is yours, I believe," he said softly. + +The man turned it over, stepping nearer the table that he might secure +the advantage of a better light. He examined the blade near the hilt and +handed the weapon back to T. X. + +"That is my knife," he said. + +T. X. smiled. + +"You understand, of course, that I saw 'Hussein Effendi of Durazzo' +inscribed in Arabic near the hilt." + +The Turk inclined his head. + +"With this weapon," T. X. went on, speaking with slow emphasis, "a +murder was committed in this town." + +There was no sign of interest or astonishment, or indeed of any emotion +whatever. + +"It is the will of God," he said calmly; "these things happen even in a +great city like London." + +"It was your knife," suggested T. X. + +"But my hand was in Durazzo, Effendi," said the Turk. + +He looked at the knife again. + +"So the Black Roman is dead, Effendi." + +"The Black Roman?" asked T. X., a little puzzled. + +"The Greek they call Kara," said the Turk; "he was a very wicked man." + +T. X. was up on his feet now, leaning across the table and looking at +the other with narrowed eyes. + +"How did you know it was Kara?" he asked quickly. + +The Turk shrugged his shoulders. + +"Who else could it be?" he said; "are not your newspapers filled with +the story?" + +T. X. sat back again, disappointed and a little annoyed with himself. + +"That is true, Hussein Effendi, but I did not think you read the +papers." + +"Neither do I, master," replied the other coolly, "nor did I know that +Kara had been killed until I saw this knife. How came this in your +possession!" + +"It was found in a rain sewer," said T. X., "into which the murderer had +apparently dropped it. But if you have not read the newspapers, Effendi, +then you admit that you know who committed this murder." + +The Turk raised his hands slowly to a level with his shoulders. + +"Though I am a Christian," he said, "there are many wise sayings of my +father's religion which I remember. And one of these, Effendi, was, 'the +wicked must die in the habitations of the just, by the weapons of the +worthy shall the wicked perish.' Your Excellency, I am a worthy man, +for never have I done a dishonest thing in my life. I have traded fairly +with Greeks, with Italians, have with Frenchmen and with Englishmen, +also with Jews. I have never sought to rob them nor to hurt them. If I +have killed men, God knows it was not because I desired their death, but +because their lives were dangerous to me and to mine. Ask the blade all +your questions and see what answer it gives. Until it speaks I am as +dumb as the blade, for it is also written that 'the soldier is the +servant of his sword,' and also, 'the wise servant is dumb about his +master's affairs.'" + +T. X. laughed helplessly. + +"I had hoped that you might be able to help me, hoped and feared," he +said; "if you cannot speak it is not my business to force you either by +threat or by act. I am grateful to you for having come over, although +the visit has been rather fruitless so far as I am concerned." + +He smiled again and offered his hand. + +"Excellency," said the old Turk soberly, "there are some things in life +that are well left alone and there are moments when justice should be so +blind that she does not see guilt; here is such a moment." + +And this ended the interview, one on which T. X. had set very high +hopes. His gloom carried to Portman Place, where he had arranged to meet +Belinda Mary. + +"Where is Mr. Lexman going to give this famous lecture of his?" was the +question with which she greeted him, "and, please, what is the subject?" + +"It is on a subject which is of supreme interest to me;" he said +gravely; "he has called his lecture 'The Clue of the Twisted Candle.' +There is no clearer brain being employed in the business of criminal +detection than John Lexman's. Though he uses his genius for the +construction of stories, were it employed in the legitimate business +of police work, I am certain he would make a mark second to none in +the world. He is determined on giving this lecture and he has issued a +number of invitations. These include the Chiefs of the Secret Police of +nearly all the civilized countries of the world. O'Grady is on his way +from America, he wirelessed me this morning to that effect. Even the +Chief of the Russian police has accepted the invitation, because, as you +know, this murder has excited a great deal of interest in police circles +everywhere. John Lexman is not only going to deliver this lecture," he +said slowly, "but he is going to tell us who committed the murder and +how it was committed." + +She thought a moment. + +"Where will it be delivered!" + +"I don't know," he said in astonishment; "does that matter?" + +"It matters a great deal," she said emphatically, "especially if I want +it delivered in a certain place. Would you induce Mr. Lexman to lecture +at my house?" + +"At Portman Place!" he asked. + +She shook her head. + +"No, I have a house of my own. A furnished house I have rented at +Blackheath. Will you induce Mr. Lexman to give the lecture there?" + +"But why?" he asked. + +"Please don't ask questions," she pleaded, "do this for me, Tommy." + +He saw she was in earnest. + +"I'll write to old Lexman this afternoon," he promised. + +John Lexman telephoned his reply. + +"I should prefer somewhere out of London," he said, "and since Miss +Bartholomew has some interest in the matter, may I extend my invitation +to her? I promise she shall not be any more shocked than a good woman +need be." + +And so it came about that the name of Belinda Mary Bartholomew was added +to the selected list of police chiefs, who were making for London at +that moment to hear from the man who had guaranteed the solution of +the story of Kara and his killing; the unravelment of the mystery which +surrounded his death, and the significance of the twisted candles, which +at that moment were reposing in the Black Museum at Scotland Yard. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + + +The room was a big one and most of the furniture had been cleared out +to admit the guests who had come from the ends of the earth to learn the +story of the twisted candles, and to test John Lexman's theory by their +own. + +They sat around chatting cheerfully of men and crimes, of great coups +planned and frustrated, of strange deeds committed and undetected. +Scraps of their conversation came to Belinda Mary as she stood in the +chintz-draped doorway which led from the drawing-room to the room she +used as a study. + +"... do you remember, Sir George, the Bolbrook case! I took the man at +Odessa...." + +"... the curious thing was that I found no money on the body, only a +small gold charm set with a single emerald, so I knew it was the girl +with the fur bonnet who had..." + +"... Pinot got away after putting three bullets into me, but I dragged +myself to the window and shot him dead--it was a real good shot...!" + +They rose to meet her and T. X. introduced her to the men. It was at +that moment that John Lexman was announced. + +He looked tired, but returned the Commissioner's greeting with a +cheerful mien. He knew all the men present by name, as they knew him. He +had a few sheets of notes, which he laid on the little table which had +been placed for him, and when the introductions were finished he went to +this and with scarcely any preliminary began. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + +THE NARRATIVE OF JOHN LEXMAN + +"I am, as you may all know, a writer of stories which depend for their +success upon the creation and unravelment of criminological mysteries. +The Chief Commissioner has been good enough to tell you that my stories +were something more than a mere seeking after sensation, and that I +endeavoured in the course of those narratives to propound obscure but +possible situations, and, with the ingenuity that I could command, to +offer to those problems a solution acceptable, not only to the general +reader, but to the police expert. + +"Although I did not regard my earlier work with any great seriousness +and indeed only sought after exciting situations and incidents, I can +see now, looking back, that underneath the work which seemed at the time +purposeless, there was something very much like a scheme of studies. + +"You must forgive this egotism in me because it is necessary that +I should make this explanation and you, who are in the main police +officers of considerable experience and discernment, should appreciate +the fact that as I was able to get inside the minds of the fictitious +criminals I portrayed, so am I now able to follow the mind of the man +who committed this murder, or if not to follow his mind, to recreate the +psychology of the slayer of Remington Kara. + +"In the possession of most of you are the vital facts concerning this +man. You know the type of man he was, you have instances of his terrible +ruthlessness, you know that he was a blot upon God's earth, a vicious +wicked ego, seeking the gratification of that strange blood-lust and +pain-lust, which is to be found in so few criminals." + +John Lexman went on to describe the killing of Vassalaro. + +"I know now how that occurred," he said. "I had received on the previous +Christmas eve amongst other presents, a pistol from an unknown admirer. +That unknown admirer was Kara, who had planned this murder some three +months ahead. He it was, who sent me the Browning, knowing as he did +that I had never used such a weapon and that therefore I would be chary +about using it. I might have put the pistol away in a cupboard out +of reach and the whole of his carefully thought out plan would have +miscarried. + +"But Kara was systematic in all things. Three weeks after I received the +weapon, a clumsy attempt was made to break into my house in the middle +of the night. It struck me at the time it was clumsy, because the +burglar made a tremendous amount of noise and disappeared soon after +he began his attempt, doing no more damage than to break a window in +my dining-room. Naturally my mind went to the possibility of a further +attempt of this kind, as my house stood on the outskirts of the village, +and it was only natural that I should take the pistol from one of my +boxes and put it somewhere handy. To make doubly sure, Kara came down +the next day and heard the full story of the outrage. + +"He did not speak of pistols, but I remember now, though I did not +remember at the time, that I mentioned the fact that I had a handy +weapon. A fortnight later a second attempt was made to enter the house. +I say an attempt, but again I do not believe that the intention was at +all serious. The outrage was designed to keep that pistol of mine in a +get-at-able place. + +"And again Kara came down to see us on the day following the burglary, +and again I must have told him, though I have no distinct recollection +of the fact, of what had happened the previous night. It would have been +unnatural if I had not mentioned the fact, as it was a matter which had +formed a subject of discussion between myself, my wife and the servants. + +"Then came the threatening letter, with Kara providentially at hand. On +the night of the murder, whilst Kara was still in my house, I went out +to find his chauffeur. Kara remained a few minutes with my wife and +then on some excuse went into the library. There he loaded the pistol, +placing one cartridge in the chamber, and trusting to luck that I did +not pull the trigger until I had it pointed at my victim. Here he took +his biggest chance, because, before sending the weapon to me, he had had +the spring of the Browning so eased that the slightest touch set it +off and, as you know, the pistol being automatic, the explosion of one +cartridge, reloading and firing the next and so on, it was probably +that a chance touch would have brought his scheme to nought--probably me +also. + +"Of what happened on that night you are aware." + +He went on to tell of his trial and conviction and skimmed over the life +he led until that morning on Dartmoor. + +"Kara knew my innocence had been proved and his hatred for me being +his great obsession, since I had the thing he had wanted but no longer +wanted, let that be understood--he saw the misery he had planned for +me and my dear wife being brought to a sudden end. He had, by the +way, already planned and carried his plan into execution, a system of +tormenting her. + +"You did not know," he turned to T. X., "that scarcely a month passed, +but some disreputable villain called at her flat, with a story that he +had been released from Portland or Wormwood Scrubbs that morning and +that he had seen me. The story each messenger brought was one sufficient +to break the heart of any but the bravest woman. It was a story of +ill-treatment by brutal officials, of my illness, of my madness, of +everything calculated to harrow the feelings of a tender-hearted and +faithful wife. + +"That was Kara's scheme. Not to hurt with the whip or with the knife, +but to cut deep at the heart with his evil tongue, to cut to the raw +places of the mind. When he found that I was to be released,--he may +have guessed, or he may have discovered by some underhand method; that a +pardon was about to be signed,--he conceived his great plan. He had less +than two days to execute it. + +"Through one of his agents he discovered a warder who had been in some +trouble with the authorities, a man who was avaricious and was even then +on the brink of being discharged from the service for trafficking with +prisoners. The bribe he offered this man was a heavy one and the warder +accepted. + +"Kara had purchased a new monoplane and as you know he was an excellent +aviator. With this new machine he flew to Devon and arrived at dawn in +one of the unfrequented parts of the moor. + +"The story of my own escape needs no telling. My narrative really begins +from the moment I put my foot upon the deck of the Mpret. The first +person I asked to see was, naturally, my wife. Kara, however, insisted +on my going to the cabin he had prepared and changing my clothes, and +until then I did not realise I was still in my convict's garb. A +clean change was waiting for me, and the luxury of soft shirts and +well-fitting garments after the prison uniform I cannot describe. + +"After I was dressed I was taken by the Greek steward to the larger +stateroom and there I found my darling waiting for me." + +His voice sank almost to a whisper, and it was a minute or two before he +had mastered his emotions. + +"She had been suspicious of Kara, but he had been very insistent. He had +detailed the plans and shown her the monoplane, but even then she would +not trust herself on board, and she had been waiting in a motor-boat, +moving parallel with the yacht, until she saw the landing and realized, +as she thought, that Kara was not playing her false. The motor-boat had +been hired by Kara and the two men inside were probably as well-bribed +as the warder. + +"The joy of freedom can only be known to those who have suffered the +horrors of restraint. That is a trite enough statement, but when one is +describing elemental things there is no room for subtlety. The voyage +was a fairly eventless one. We saw very little of Kara, who did not +intrude himself upon us, and our main excitement lay in the apprehension +that we should be held up by a British destroyer or, that when we +reached Gibraltar, we should be searched by the Brit's authorities. Kara +had foreseen that possibility and had taken in enough coal to last him +for the run. + +"We had a fairly stormy passage in the Mediterranean, but after that +nothing happened until we arrived at Durazzo. We had to go ashore in +disguise, because Kara told us that the English Consul might see us and +make some trouble. We wore Turkish dresses, Grace heavily veiled and I +wearing a greasy old kaftan which, with my somewhat emaciated face and +my unshaven appearance, passed me without comment. + +"Kara's home was and is about eighteen miles from Durazzo. It is not on +the main road, but it is reached by following one of the rocky mountain +paths which wind and twist among the hills to the south-east of the +town. The country is wild and mainly uncultivated. We had to pass +through swamps and skirt huge lagoons as we mounted higher and higher +from terrace to terrace and came to the roads which crossed the +mountains. + +"Kara's, palace, you could call it no less, is really built within sight +of the sea. It is on the Acroceraunian Peninsula near Cape Linguetta. +Hereabouts the country is more populated and better cultivated. We +passed great slopes entirely covered with mulberry and olive trees, +whilst in the valleys there were fields of maize and corn. The palazzo +stands on a lofty plateau. It is approached by two paths, which can be +and have been well defended in the past against the Sultan's troops +or against the bands which have been raised by rival villages with the +object of storming and plundering this stronghold. + +"The Skipetars, a blood-thirsty crowd without pity or remorse, were +faithful enough to their chief, as Kara was. He paid them so well that +it was not profitable to rob him; moreover he kept their own turbulent +elements fully occupied with the little raids which he or his agents +organized from time to time. The palazzo was built rather in the Moorish +than in the Turkish style. + +"It was a sort of Eastern type to which was grafted an Italian +architecture--a house of white-columned courts, of big paved yards, +fountains and cool, dark rooms. + +"When I passed through the gates I realized for the first time something +of Kara's importance. There were a score of servants, all Eastern, +perfectly trained, silent and obsequious. He led us to his own room. + +"It was a big apartment with divans running round the wall, the most +ornate French drawing room suite and an enormous Persian carpet, one of +the finest of the kind that has ever been turned out of Shiraz. Here, +let me say, that throughout the trip his attitude to me had been +perfectly friendly and towards Grace all that I could ask of my best +friend, considerate and tactful. + +"'We had hardly reached his room before he said to me with that bonhomie +which he had observed throughout the trip, 'You would like to see your +room?' + +"I expressed a wish to that effect. He clapped his hands and a big +Albanian servant came through the curtained doorway, made the usual +salaam, and Kara spoke to him a few words in a language which I presume +was Turkish. + +"'He will show you the way,' said Kara with his most genial smile. + +"I followed the servant through the curtains which had hardly fallen +behind me before I was seized by four men, flung violently on the +ground, a filthy tarbosch was thrust into my mouth and before I knew +what was happening I was bound hand and foot. + +"As I realised the gross treachery of the man, my first frantic thoughts +were of Grace and her safety. I struggled with the strength of three +men, but they were too many for me and I was dragged along the passage, +a door was opened and I was flung into a bare room. I must have been +lying on the floor for half an hour when they came for me, this time +accompanied by a middle-aged man named Savolio, who was either an +Italian or a Greek. + +"He spoke English fairly well and he made it clear to me that I had to +behave myself. I was led back to the room from whence I had come and +found Kara sitting in one of those big armchairs which he affected, +smoking a cigarette. Confronting him, still in her Turkish dress, was +poor Grace. She was not bound I was pleased to see, but when on +my entrance she rose and made as if to come towards me, she was +unceremoniously thrown back by the guardian who stood at her side. + +"'Mr. John Lexman,' drawled Kara, 'you are at the beginning of a great +disillusionment. I have a few things to tell you which will make you +feel rather uncomfortable.' It was then that I heard for the first time +that my pardon had been signed and my innocence discovered. + +"'Having taken a great deal of trouble to get you in prison,' said Kara, +'it isn't likely that I'm going to allow all my plans to be undone, and +my plan is to make you both extremely uncomfortable.' + +"He did not raise his voice, speaking still in the same conversational +tone, suave and half amused. + +"'I hate you for two things,' he said, and ticked them off on his +fingers: 'the first is that you took the woman that I wanted. To a man +of my temperament that is an unpardonable crime. I have never wanted +women either as friends or as amusement. I am one of the few people in +the world who are self-sufficient. It happened that I wanted your wife +and she rejected me because apparently she preferred you.' + +"He looked at me quizzically. + +"'You are thinking at this moment,' he went on slowly, 'that I want her +now, and that it is part of my revenge that I shall put her straight in +my harem. Nothing is farther from my desires or my thoughts. The Black +Roman is not satisfied with the leavings of such poor trash as you. I +hate you both equally and for both of you there is waiting an experience +more terrible than even your elastic imagination can conjure. You +understand what that means!' he asked me still retaining his calm. + +"I did not reply. I dared not look at Grace, to whom he turned. + +"'I believe you love your husband, my friend,' he said; 'your love will +be put to a very severe test. You shall see him the mere wreckage of the +man he is. You shall see him brutalized below the level of the cattle +in the field. I will give you both no joys, no ease of mind. From this +moment you are slaves, and worse than slaves.' + +"He clapped his hands. The interview was ended and from that moment I +only saw Grace once." + +John Lexman stopped and buried his face in his hands. + +"They took me to an underground dungeon cut in the solid rock. In many +ways it resembled the dungeon of the Chateau of Chillon, in that its +only window looked out upon a wild, storm-swept lake and its floor was +jagged rock. I have called it underground, as indeed it was on that +side, for the palazzo was built upon a steep slope running down from the +spur of the hills. + +"They chained me by the legs and left me to my own devices. Once a day +they gave me a little goat flesh and a pannikin of water and once a week +Kara would come in and outside the radius of my chain he would open a +little camp stool and sitting down smoke his cigarette and talk. My +God! the things that man said! The things he described! The horrors he +related! And always it was Grace who was the centre of his description. +And he would relate the stories he was telling to her about myself. I +cannot describe them. They are beyond repetition." + +John Lexman shuddered and closed his eyes. + +"That was his weapon. He did not confront me with the torture of my +darling, he did not bring tangible evidence of her suffering--he just +sat and talked, describing with a remarkable clarity of language which +seemed incredible in a foreigner, the 'amusements' which he himself had +witnessed. + +"I thought I should go mad. Twice I sprang at him and twice the chain +about my legs threw me headlong on that cruel floor. Once he brought the +jailer in to whip me, but I took the whipping with such phlegm that it +gave him no satisfaction. I told you I had seen Grace only once and this +is how it happened. + +"It was after the flogging, and Kara, who was a veritable demon in his +rage, planned to have his revenge for my indifference. They brought +Grace out upon a boat and rowed the boat to where I could see it from my +window. There the whip which had been applied to me was applied to her. +I can't tell you any more about that," he said brokenly, "but I wish, +you don't know how fervently, that I had broken down and given the dog +the satisfaction he wanted. My God! It was horrible! + +"When the winter came they used to take me out with chains on my legs +to gather in wood from the forest. There was no reason why I should be +given this work, but the truth was, as I discovered from Salvolio, that +Kara thought my dungeon was too warm. It was sheltered from the winds +by the hill behind and even on the coldest days and nights it was not +unbearable. Then Kara went away for some time. I think he must have gone +to England, and he came back in a white fury. One of his big plans had +gone wrong and the mental torture he inflicted upon me was more acute +than ever. + +"In the old days he used to come once a week; now he came almost every +day. He usually arrived in the afternoon and I was surprised one night +to be awakened from my sleep to see him standing at the door, a lantern +in his hand, his inevitable cigarette in his mouth. He always wore the +Albanian costume when he was in the country, those white kilted skirts +and zouave jackets which the hillsmen affect and, if anything, it added +to his demoniacal appearance. He put down the lantern and leant against +the wall. + +"'I'm afraid that wife of yours is breaking up, Lexman,' he drawled; +'she isn't the good, stout, English stuff that I thought she was.' + +"I made no reply. I had found by bitter experience that if I intruded +into the conversation, I should only suffer the more. + +"'I have sent down to Durazzo to get a doctor,' he went on; 'naturally +having taken all this trouble I don't want to lose you by death. She +is breaking up,' he repeated with relish and yet with an undertone of +annoyance in his voice; 'she asked for you three times this morning.' + +"I kept myself under control as I had never expected that a man so +desperately circumstanced could do. + +"'Kara,' I said as quietly as I could, 'what has she done that she +should deserve this hell in which she has lived?' + +"He sent out a long ring of smoke and watched its progress across the +dungeon. + +"'What has she done?' he said, keeping his eye on the ring--I shall +always remember every look, every gesture, and every intonation of his +voice. 'Why, she has done all that a woman can do for a man like me. She +has made me feel little. Until I had a rebuff from her, I had all the +world at my feet, Lexman. I did as I liked. If I crooked my little +finger, people ran after me and that one experience with her has broken +me. Oh, don't think,' he went on quickly, 'that I am broken in love. I +never loved her very much, it was just a passing passion, but she killed +my self-confidence. After then, whenever I came to a crucial moment +in my affairs, when the big manner, the big certainty was absolutely +necessary for me to carry my way, whenever I was most confident of +myself and my ability and my scheme, a vision of this damned girl rose +and I felt that momentary weakening, that memory of defeat, which made +all the difference between success and failure. + +"'I hated her and I hate her still,' he said with vehemence; 'if +she dies I shall hate her more because she will remain everlastingly +unbroken to menace my thoughts and spoil my schemes through all +eternity.' + +"He leant forward, his elbows on his knees, his clenched fist under his +chin--how well I can see him!--and stared at me. + +"'I could have been king here in this land,' he said, waving his hand +toward the interior, 'I could have bribed and shot my way to the throne +of Albania. Don't you realize what that means to a man like me? There is +still a chance and if I could keep your wife alive, if I could see her +broken in reason and in health, a poor, skeleton, gibbering thing that +knelt at my feet when I came near her I should recover the mastery of +myself. Believe me,' he said, nodding his head, 'your wife will have the +best medical advice that it is possible to obtain.' + +"Kara went out and I did not see him again for a very long time. He sent +word, just a scrawled note in the morning, to say my wife had died." + +John Lexman rose up from his seat, and paced the apartment, his head +upon his breast. + +"From that moment," he said, "I lived only for one thing, to punish +Remington Kara. And gentlemen, I punished him." + +He stood in the centre of the room and thumped his broad chest with his +clenched hand. + +"I killed Remington Kara," he said, and there was a little gasp of +astonishment from every man present save one. That one was T. X. +Meredith, who had known all the time. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + + +After a while Lexman resumed his story. + +"I told you that there was a man at the palazzo named Salvolio. Salvolio +was a man who had been undergoing a life sentence in one of the prisons +of southern Italy. In some mysterious fashion he escaped and got across +the Adriatic in a small boat. How Kara found him I don't know. Salvolio +was a very uncommunicative person. I was never certain whether he was +a Greek or an Italian. All that I am sure about is that he was the most +unmitigated villain next to his master that I have ever met. + +"He was a quick man with his knife and I have seen him kill one of the +guards whom he had thought was favouring me in the matter of diet with +less compunction than you would kill a rat. + +"It was he who gave me this scar," John Lexman pointed to his cheek. +"In his master's absence he took upon himself the task of conducting +a clumsy imitation of Kara's persecution. He gave me, too, the only +glimpse I ever had of the torture poor Grace underwent. She hated dogs, +and Kara must have come to know this and in her sleeping room--she was +apparently better accommodated than I--he kept four fierce beasts so +chained that they could almost reach her. + +"Some reference to my wife from this low brute maddened me beyond +endurance and I sprang at him. He whipped out his knife and struck at +me as I fell and I escaped by a miracle. He evidently had orders not to +touch me, for he was in a great panic of mind, as he had reason to be, +because on Kara's return he discovered the state of my face, started +an enquiry and had Salvolio taken to the courtyard in the true eastern +style and bastinadoed until his feet were pulp. + +"You may be sure the man hated me with a malignity which almost rivalled +his employer's. After Grace's death Kara went away suddenly and I was +left to the tender mercy of this man. Evidently he had been given a +fairly free hand. The principal object of Kara's hate being dead, +he took little further interest in me, or else wearied of his hobby. +Salvolio began his persecutions by reducing my diet. Fortunately I ate +very little. Nevertheless the supplies began to grow less and less, and +I was beginning to feel the effects of this starvation system when there +happened a thing which changed the whole course of my life and opened to +me a way to freedom and to vengeance. + +"Salvolio did not imitate the austerity of his master and in Kara's +absence was in the habit of having little orgies of his own. He would +bring up dancing girls from Durazzo for his amusement and invite +prominent men in the neighbourhood to his feasts and entertainments, for +he was absolutely lord of the palazzo when Kara was away and could do +pretty well as he liked. On this particular night the festivities had +been more than usually prolonged, for as near as I could judge by the +day-light which was creeping in through my window it was about four +o'clock in the morning when the big steel-sheeted door was opened and +Salvolio came in, more than a little drunk. He brought with him, as I +judged, one of his dancing girls, who apparently was privileged to see +the sights of the palace. + +"For a long time he stood in the doorway talking incoherently in a +language which I think must have been Turkish, for I caught one or two +words. + +"Whoever the girl was, she seemed a little frightened, I could see that, +because she shrank back from him though his arm was about her shoulders +and he was half supporting his weight upon her. There was fear, not only +in the curious little glances she shot at me from time to time, but also +in the averted face. Her story I was to learn. She was not of the class +from whence Salvolio found the dancers who from time to time came up to +the palace for his amusement and the amusement of his guests. She was +the daughter of a Turkish merchant of Scutari who had been received into +the Catholic Church. + +"Her father had gone down to Durazzo during the first Balkan war and +then Salvolio had seen the girl unknown to her parent, and there had +been some rough kind of courtship which ended in her running away on +this very day and joining her ill-favoured lover at the palazzo. I tell +you this because the fact had some bearing on my own fate. + +"As I say, the girl was frightened and made as though to go from the +dungeon. She was probably scared both by the unkempt prisoner and by the +drunken man at her side. He, however, could not leave without showing to +her something of his authority. He came lurching over near where I lay, +his long knife balanced in his hand ready for emergencies, and broke +into a string of vituperations of the character to which I was quite +hardened. + +"Then he took a flying kick at me and got home in my ribs, but again I +experienced neither a sense of indignity nor any great hurt. Salvolio +had treated me like this before and I had survived it. In the midst of +the tirade, looking past him, I was a new witness to an extraordinary +scene. + +"The girl stood in the open doorway, shrinking back against the door, +looking with distress and pity at the spectacle which Salvolio's +brutality afforded. Then suddenly there appeared beside her a tall Turk. +He was grey-bearded and forbidding. She looked round and saw him, and +her mouth opened to utter a cry, but with a gesture he silenced her and +pointed to the darkness outside. + +"Without a word she cringed past him, her sandalled feet making no +noise. All this time Salvolio was continuing his stream of abuse, but he +must have seen the wonder in my eyes for he stopped and turned. + +"The old Turk took one stride forward, encircled his body with his left +arm, and there they stood grotesquely like a couple who were going to +start to waltz. The Turk was a head taller than Salvolio and, as I could +see, a man of immense strength. + +"They looked at one another, face to face, Salvolio rapidly recovering +his senses... and then the Turk gave him a gentle punch in the ribs. +That is what it seemed like to me, but Salvolio coughed horribly, went +limp in the other's arms and dropped with a thud to the ground. The Turk +leant down soberly and wiped his long knife on the other's jacket before +he put it back in the sash at his waist. + +"Then with a glance at me he turned to go, but stopped at the door and +looked back thoughtfully. He said something in Turkish which I could not +understand, then he spoke in French. + +"'Who are you?' he asked. + +"In as few words as possible I explained. He came over and looked at the +manacle about my leg and shook his head. + +"'You will never be able to get that undone,' he said. + +"He caught hold of the chain, which was a fairly long one, bound it +twice round his arm and steadying his arm across his thigh, he turned +with a sudden jerk. There was a smart 'snap' as the chain parted. He +caught me by the shoulder and pulled me to my feet. 'Put the chain +about your waist, Effendi,' he said, and he took a revolver from his +belt and handed it to me. + +"'You may need this before we get back to Durazzo,' he said. His belt +was literally bristling with weapons--I saw three revolvers beside the +one I possessed--and he had, evidently come prepared for trouble. We +made our way from the dungeon into the clean-smelling world without. + +"It was the second time I had been in the open air for eighteen months +and my knees were trembling under me with weakness and excitement. The +old man shut the prison door behind us and walked on until we came up to +the girl waiting for us by the lakeside. She was weeping softly and he +spoke to her a few words in a low voice and her weeping ceased. + +"'This daughter of mine will show us the way,' he said, 'I do not know +this part of the country--she knows it too well.' + +"To cut a long story short," said Lexman, "we reached Durazzo in the +afternoon. There was no attempt made to follow us up and neither my +absence nor the body of Salvolio were discovered until late in the +afternoon. You must remember that nobody but Salvolio was allowed +into my prison and therefore nobody had the courage to make any +investigations. + +"The old man got me to his house without being observed, and brought a +brother-in-law or some relative of his to remove the anklet. The name of +my host was Hussein Effendi. + +"That same night we left with a little caravan to visit some of the old +man's relatives. He was not certain what would be the consequence of +his act, and for safety's sake took this trip, which would enable him +if need be to seek sanctuary with some of the wilder Turkish tribes, who +would give him protection. + +"In that three months I saw Albania as it is--it was an experience never +to be forgotten! + +"If there is a better man in God's world than Hiabam Hussein Effendi, +I have yet to meet him. It was he who provided me with money to leave +Albania. I begged from him, too, the knife with which he had killed +Salvolio. He had discovered that Kara was in England and told me +something of the Greek's occupation which I had not known before. I +crossed to Italy and went on to Milan. There it was that I learnt that +an eccentric Englishman who had arrived a few days previously on one of +the South American boats at Genoa, was in my hotel desperately ill. + +"My hotel I need hardly tell you was not a very expensive one and we +were evidently the only two Englishmen in the place. I could do no less +than go up and see what I could do for the poor fellow who was pretty +well gone when I saw him. I seemed to remember having seen him before +and when looking round for some identification I discovered his name I +readily recalled the circumstance. + +"It was George Gathercole, who had returned from South America. He was +suffering from malarial fever and blood poisoning and for a week, with +an Italian doctor, I fought as hard as any man could fight for his +life. He was a trying patient," John Lexman smiled suddenly at the +recollection, "vitriolic in his language, impatient and imperious in his +attitude to his friends. He was, for example, terribly sensitive about +his lost arm and would not allow either the doctor or my-self to enter +the room until he was covered to the neck, nor would he eat or drink in +our presence. Yet he was the bravest of the brave, careless of himself +and only fretful because he had not time to finish his new book. His +indomitable spirit did not save him. He died on the 17th of January of +this year. I was in Genoa at the time, having gone there at his request +to save his belongings. When I returned he had been buried. I went +through his papers and it was then that I conceived my idea of how I +might approach Kara. + +"I found a letter from the Greek, which had been addressed to Buenos +Ayres, to await arrival, and then I remembered in a flash, how Kara had +told me he had sent George Gathercole to South America to report upon +possible gold formations. I was determined to kill Kara, and determined +to kill him in such a way that I myself would cover every trace of my +complicity. + +"Even as he had planned my downfall, scheming every step and covering +his trail, so did I plan to bring about his death that no suspicion +should fall on me. + +"I knew his house. I knew something of his habits. I knew the fear in +which he went when he was in England and away from the feudal guards who +had surrounded him in Albania. I knew of his famous door with its steel +latch and I was planning to circumvent all these precautions and bring +to him not only the death he deserved, but a full knowledge of his fate +before he died. + +"Gathercole had some money,--about 140 pounds--I took 100 pounds of +this for my own use, knowing that I should have sufficient in London +to recompense his heirs, and the remainder of the money with all such +documents as he had, save those which identified him with Kara, I handed +over to the British Consul. + +"I was not unlike the dead man. My beard had grown wild and I knew +enough of Gathercole's eccentricities to live the part. The first step +I took was to announce my arrival by inference. I am a fairly good +journalist with a wide general knowledge and with this, corrected by +reference to the necessary books which I found in the British Museum +library, I was able to turn out a very respectable article on Patagonia. + +"This I sent to The Times with one of Gathercole's cards and, as you +know, it was printed. My next step was to find suitable lodgings between +Chelsea and Scotland Yard. I was fortunate in being able to hire a +furnished flat, the owner of which was going to the south of France for +three months. I paid the rent in advance and since I dropped all the +eccentricities I had assumed to support the character of Gathercole, I +must have impressed the owner, who took me without references. + +"I had several suits of new clothes made, not in London," he smiled, +"but in Manchester, and again I made myself as trim as possible to avoid +after-identification. When I had got these together in my flat, I +chose my day. In the morning I sent two trunks with most of my personal +belongings to the Great Midland Hotel. + +"In the afternoon I went to Cadogan Square and hung about until I saw +Kara drive off. It was my first view of him since I had left Albania and +it required all my self-control to prevent me springing at him in the +street and tearing at him with my hands. + +"Once he was out of sight I went to the house adopting all the style and +all the mannerisms of poor Gathercole. My beginning was unfortunate for, +with a shock, I recognised in the valet a fellow-convict who had +been with me in the warder's cottage on the morning of my escape from +Dartmoor. There was no mistaking him, and when I heard his voice I was +certain. Would he recognise me I wondered, in spite of my beard and my +eye-glasses? + +"Apparently he did not. I gave him every chance. I thrust my face into +his and on my second visit challenged him, in the eccentric way which +poor old Gathercole had, to test the grey of my beard. For the moment +however, I was satisfied with my brief experiment and after a reasonable +interval I went away, returning to my place off Victoria Street and +waiting till the evening. + +"In my observation of the house, whilst I was waiting for Kara to +depart, I had noticed that there were two distinct telephone wires +running down to the roof. I guessed, rather than knew, that one of these +telephones was a private wire and, knowing something of Kara's fear, I +presumed that that wire would lead to a police office, or at any rate +to a guardian of some kind or other. Kara had the same arrangement in +Albania, connecting the palazzo with the gendarme posts at Alesso. This +much Hussein told me. + +"That night I made a reconnaissance of the house and saw Kara's window +was lit and at ten minutes past ten I rang the bell and I think it was +then that I applied the test of the beard. Kara was in his room, the +valet told me, and led the way upstairs. I had come prepared to deal +with this valet for I had an especial reason for wishing that he should +not be interrogated by the police. On a plain card I had written the +number he bore in Dartmoor and had added the words, 'I know you, get out +of here quick.' + +"As he turned to lead the way upstairs I flung the envelope containing +the card on the table in the hall. In an inside pocket, as near to my +body as I could put them, I had the two candles. How I should use them +both I had already decided. The valet ushered me into Kara's room and +once more I stood in the presence of the man who had killed my girl and +blotted out all that was beautiful in life for me." + +There was a breathless silence when he paused. T. X. leaned back in his +chair, his head upon his breast, his arms folded, his eyes watching the +other intently. + +The Chief Commissioner, with a heavy frown and pursed lips, sat stroking +his moustache and looking under his shaggy eyebrows at the speaker. The +French police officer, his hands thrust deep in his pockets, his head +on one side, was taking in every word eagerly. The sallow-faced Russian, +impassive of face, might have been a carved ivory mask. O'Grady, +the American, the stump of a dead cigar between his teeth, shifted +impatiently with every pause as though he would hurry forward the +denouement. + +Presently John Lexman went on. + +"He slipped from the bed and came across to meet me as I closed the door +behind me. + +"'Ah, Mr. Gathercole,' he said, in that silky tone of his, and held out +his hand. + +"I did not speak. I just looked at him with a sort of fierce joy in my +heart the like of which I had never before experienced. + +"'And then he saw in my eyes the truth and half reached for the +telephone. + +"But at that moment I was on him. He was a child in my hands. All the +bitter anguish he had brought upon me, all the hardships of starved days +and freezing nights had strengthened and hardened me. I had come back to +London disguised with a false arm and this I shook free. It was merely a +gauntlet of thin wood which I had had made for me in Paris. + +"I flung him back on the bed and half knelt, half laid on him. + +"'Kara,' I said, 'you are going to die, a more merciful death than my +wife died.' + +"He tried to speak. His soft hands gesticulated wildly, but I was half +lying on one arm and held the other. + +"I whispered in his ear: + +"'Nobody will know who killed you, Kara, think of that! I shall go scot +free--and you will be the centre of a fine mystery! All your letters +will be read, all your life will be examined and the world will know you +for what you are!' + +"I released his arm for just as long as it took to draw my knife and +strike. I think he died instantly," John Lexman said simply. + +"I left him where he was and went to the door. I had not much time to +spare. I took the candles from my pocket. They were already ductile from +the heat of my body. + +"I lifted up the steel latch of the door and propped up the latch with +the smaller of the two candles, one end of which was on the middle +socket and the other beneath the latch. The heat of the room I knew +would still further soften the candle and let the latch down in a short +time. + +"I was prepared for the telephone by his bedside though I did not +know to whither it led. The presence of the paper-knife decided me. I +balanced it across the silver cigarette box so that one end came under +the telephone receiver; under the other end I put the second candle +which I had to cut to fit. On top of the paper-knife at the candle end +I balanced the only two books I could find in the room, and fortunately +they were heavy. + +"I had no means of knowing how long it would take to melt the candle +to a state of flexion which would allow the full weight of the books to +bear upon the candle end of the paper-knife and fling off the receiver. +I was hoping that Fisher had taken my warning and had gone. When I +opened the door softly, I heard his footsteps in the hall below. There +was nothing to do but to finish the play. + +"I turned and addressed an imaginary conversation to Kara. It was +horrible, but there was something about it which aroused in me a curious +sense of humour and I wanted to laugh and laugh and laugh! + +"I heard the man coming up the stairs and closed the door gingerly. What +length of time would it take for the candle to bend! + +"To completely establish the alibi I determined to hold Fisher in +conversation and this was all the easier since apparently he had not +seen the envelope I had left on the table downstairs. I had not long +to wait for suddenly with a crash I heard the steel latch fall in its +place. Under the effect of the heat the candle had bent sooner than I +had expected. I asked Fisher what was the meaning of the sound and he +explained. I passed down the stairs talking all the time. I found a cab +at Sloane Square and drove to my lodgings. Underneath my overcoat I was +partly dressed in evening kit. + +"Ten minutes after I entered the door of my flat I came out a beardless +man about town, not to be distinguished from the thousand others who +would be found that night walking the promenade of any of the great +music-halls. From Victoria Street I drove straight to Scotland Yard. It +was no more than a coincidence that whilst I should have been speaking +with you all, the second candle should have bent and the alarm be given +in the very office in which I was sitting. + +"I assure you all in all earnestness that I did not suspect the cause of +that ringing until Mr. Mansus spoke. + +"There, gentlemen, is my story!" He threw out his arms. + +"You may do with me as you will. Kara was a murderer, dyed a hundred +times in innocent blood. I have done all that I set myself to do--that +and no more--that and no less. I had thought to go away to America, but +the nearer the day of my departure approached, the more vivid became +the memory of the plans which she and I had formed, my girl... my poor +martyred girl!" + +He sat at the little table, his hands clasped before him, his face lined +and white. + +"And that is the end!" he said suddenly, with a wry smile. + +"Not quite!" T. X. swung round with a gasp. It was Belinda Mary who +spoke. + +"I can carry it on," she said. + +She was wonderfully self-possessed, thought T. X., but then T. X. never +thought anything of her but that she was "wonderfully" something or the +other. + +"Most of your story is true, Mr. Lexman," said this astonishing girl, +oblivious of the amazed eyes that were staring at her, "but Kara +deceived you in one respect." + +"What do you mean?" asked John Lexman, rising unsteadily to his feet. + +For answer she rose and walked back to the door with the chintz curtains +and flung it open: There was a wait which seemed an eternity, and then +through the doorway came a girl, slim and grave and beautiful. + +"My God!" whispered T. X. "Grace Lexman!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + + +They went out and left them alone, two people who found in this moment +a heaven which is not beyond the reach of humanity, but which is seldom +attained to. Belinda Mary had an eager audience all to her very self. + +"Of course she didn't die," she said scornfully. "Kara was playing on +his fears all the time. He never even harmed her--in the way Mr. Lexman +feared. He told Mrs. Lexman that her husband was dead just as he told +John Lexman his wife was gone. What happened was that he brought her +back to England--" + +"Who?" asked T. X., incredulously. + +"Grace Lexman," said the girl, with a smile. "You wouldn't think it +possible, but when you realize that he had a yacht of his own and that +he could travel up from whatever landing place he chose to his house in +Cadogan Square by motorcar and that he could take her straight away into +his cellar without disturbing his household, you'll understand that the +only difficulty he had was in landing her. It was in the lower cellar +that I found her." + +"You found her in the cellar?" demanded the Chief Commissioner. + +The girl nodded. + +"I found her and the dog--you heard how Kara terrified her--and I +killed the dog with my own hands," she said a little proudly, and then +shivered. "It was very beastly," she admitted. + +"And she's been living with you all this time and you've said nothing!" +asked T. X., incredulously. Belinda Mary nodded. + +"And that is why you didn't want me to know where you were living?" She +nodded again. + +"You see she was very ill," she said, "and I had to nurse her up, and of +course I knew that it was Lexman who had killed Kara and I couldn't tell +you about Grace Lexman without betraying him. So when Mr. Lexman decided +to tell his story, I thought I'd better supply the grand denouement." + +The men looked at one another. + +"What are you going to do about Lexman?" asked the Chief Commissioner, +"and, by the way, T. X., how does all this fit your theories!" + +"Fairly well," replied T. X. coolly; "obviously the man who committed +the murder was the man introduced into the room as Gathercole and as +obviously it was not Gathercole, although to all appearance, he had lost +his left arm." + +"Why obvious?" asked the Chief Commissioner. + +"Because," answered T. X. Meredith, "the real Gathercole had lost his +right arm--that was the one error Lexman made." + +"H'm," the Chief pulled at his moustache and looked enquiringly round +the room, "we have to make up our minds very quickly about Lexman," he +said. "What do you think, Carlneau?" + +The Frenchman shrugged his shoulders. + +"For my part I should not only importune your Home Secretary to pardon +him, but I should recommend him for a pension," he said flippantly. + +"What do you think, Savorsky?" + +The Russian smiled a little. + +"It is a very impressive story," he said dispassionately; "it occurs to +me that if you intend bringing your M. Lexman to judgment you are likely +to expose some very pretty scandals. Incidentally," he said, stroking +his trim little moustache, "I might remark that any exposure which drew +attention to the lawless conditions of Albania would not be regarded by +my government with favour." + +The Chief Commissioner's eyes twinkled and he nodded. + +"That is also my view," said the Chief of the Italian bureau; "naturally +we are greatly interested in all that happens on the Adriatic littoral. +It seems to me that Kara has come to a very merciful end and I am not +inclined to regard a prosecution of Mr. Lexman with equanimity." + +"Well, I guess the political aspect of the case doesn't affect us very +much," said O'Grady, "but as one who was once mighty near asphyxiated +by stirring up the wrong kind of mud, I should leave the matter where it +is." + +The Chief Commissioner was deep in thought and Belinda Mary eyed him +anxiously. + +"Tell them to come in," he said bluntly. + +The girl went and brought John Lexman and his wife, and they came in +hand in hand supremely and serenely happy whatever the future might hold +for them. The Chief Commissioner cleared his throat. + +"Lexman, we're all very much obliged to you," he said, "for a very +interesting story and a most interesting theory. What you have done, as +I understand the matter," he proceeded deliberately, "is to put yourself +in the murderer's place and advance a theory not only as to how the +murder was actually committed, but as to the motive for that murder. It +is, I might say, a remarkable piece of reconstruction," he spoke very +deliberately, and swept away John Lexman's astonished interruption with +a stern hand, "please wait and do not speak until I am out of hearing," +he growled. "You have got into the skin of the actual assassin and have +spoken most convincingly. One might almost think that the man who +killed Remington Kara was actually standing before us. For that piece +of impersonation we are all very grateful;" he glared round over +his spectacles at his understanding colleagues and they murmured +approvingly. + +He looked at his watch. + +"Now I am afraid I must be off," he crossed the room and put out his +hand to John Lexman. "I wish you good luck," he said, and took both +Grace Lexman's hands in his. "One of these days," he said paternally, "I +shall come down to Beston Tracey and your husband shall tell me another +and a happier story." + +He paused at the door as he was going out and looking back caught the +grateful eyes of Lexman. + +"By the way, Mr. Lexman," he said hesitatingly, "I don't think I should +ever write a story called 'The Clue of the Twisted Candle,' if I were +you." + +John Lexman shook his head. + +"It will never be written," he said, "--by me." + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Clue of the Twisted Candle, by Edgar Wallace + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CLUE OF THE TWISTED CANDLE *** + +***** This file should be named 2688.txt or 2688.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/8/2688/ + +Produced by An Anonymous Project Gutenberg Volunteer + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +This Etext prepared by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer. + + + + + +THE CLUE OF THE TWISTED CANDLE + +by EDGAR WALLACE + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +The 4.15 from Victoria to Lewes had been held up at Three Bridges +in consequence of a derailment and, though John Lexman was +fortunate enough to catch a belated connection to Beston Tracey, +the wagonette which was the sole communication between the village +and the outside world had gone. + +"If you can wait half an hour, Mr. Lexman," said the +station-master, "I will telephone up to the village and get Briggs +to come down for you." + +John Lexman looked out upon the dripping landscape and shrugged +his shoulders. + +"I'll walk," he said shortly and, leaving his bag in the +station-master's care and buttoning his mackintosh to his chin, he +stepped forth resolutely into the rain to negotiate the two miles +which separated the tiny railway station from Little Tracey. + +The downpour was incessant and likely to last through the night. +The high hedges on either side of the narrow road were so many +leafy cascades; the road itself was in places ankle deep in mud. +He stopped under the protecting cover of a big tree to fill and +light his pipe and with its bowl turned downwards continued his +walk. But for the driving rain which searched every crevice and +found every chink in his waterproof armor, he preferred, indeed +welcomed, the walk. + +The road from Beston Tracey to Little Beston was associated in his +mind with some of the finest situations in his novels. It was on +this road that he had conceived "The Tilbury Mystery." Between the +station and the house he had woven the plot which had made +"Gregory Standish" the most popular detective story of the year. +For John Lexman was a maker of cunning plots. + +If, in the literary world, he was regarded by superior persons as +a writer of "shockers," he had a large and increasing public who +were fascinated by the wholesome and thrilling stories he wrote, +and who held on breathlessly to the skein of mystery until they +came to the denouement he had planned. + +But no thought of books, or plots, or stories filled his troubled +mind as he strode along the deserted road to Little Beston. He +had had two interviews in London, one of which under ordinary +circumstances would have filled him with joy: He had seen T. X. +and "T. X." was T. X. Meredith, who would one day be Chief of the +Criminal Investigation Department and was now an Assistant +Commissioner of Police, engaged in the more delicate work of that +department. + +In his erratic, tempestuous way, T. X. had suggested the greatest +idea for a plot that any author could desire. But it was not of +T. X. that John Lexman thought as he breasted the hill, on the +slope of which was the tiny habitation known by the somewhat +magnificent title of Beston Priory. + +It was the interview he had had with the Greek on the previous day +which filled his mind, and he frowned as he recalled it. He +opened the little wicket gate and went through the plantation to +the house, doing his best to shake off the recollection of the +remarkable and unedifying discussion he had had with the +moneylender. + +Beston Priory was little more than a cottage, though one of its +walls was an indubitable relic of that establishment which a pious +Howard had erected in the thirteenth century. A small and +unpretentious building, built in the Elizabethan style with quaint +gables and high chimneys, its latticed windows and sunken gardens, +its rosary and its tiny meadow, gave it a certain manorial +completeness which was a source of great pride to its owner. + +He passed under the thatched porch, and stood for a moment in the +broad hallway as he stripped his drenching mackintosh. + +The hall was in darkness. Grace would probably be changing for +dinner, and he decided that in his present mood he would not +disturb her. He passed through the long passage which led to the +big study at the back of the house. A fire burnt redly in the +old-fashioned grate and the snug comfort of the room brought a +sense of ease and relief. He changed his shoes, and lit the +table lamp. + +The room was obviously a man's den. The leather-covered chairs, +the big and well-filled bookcase which covered one wall of the +room, the huge, solid-oak writing-desk, covered with books and +half-finished manuscripts, spoke unmistakably of its owner's +occupation. + +After he had changed his shoes, he refilled his pipe, walked over +to the fire, and stood looking down into its glowing heart. + +He was a man a little above medium height, slimly built, with a +breadth of shoulder which was suggestive of the athlete. He had +indeed rowed 4 in his boat, and had fought his way into the +semi-finals of the amateur boxing championship of England. His +face was strong, lean, yet well-moulded. His eyes were grey and +deep, his eyebrows straight and a little forbidding. The +clean-shaven mouth was big and generous, and the healthy tan of +his cheek told of a life lived in the open air. + +There was nothing of the recluse or the student in his appearance. +He was in fact a typical, healthy-looking Britisher, very much +like any other man of his class whom one would meet in the +mess-room of the British army, in the wardrooms of the fleet, or +in the far-off posts of the Empire, where the administrative cogs +of the great machine are to be seen at work. + +There was a little tap at the door, and before he could say "Come +in" it was pushed open and Grace Lexman entered. + +If you described her as brave and sweet you might secure from that +brief description both her manner and her charm. He half crossed +the room to meet her, and kissed her tenderly. + +"I didn't know you were back until - " she said; linking her arm +in his. + +"Until you saw the horrible mess my mackintosh has made," he +smiled. "I know your methods, Watson!" + +She laughed, but became serious again. + +"I am very glad you've come back. We have a visitor," she said. + +He raised his eyebrows. + +"A visitor? Whoever came down on a day like this?" + +She looked at him a little strangely. + +"Mr. Kara," she said. + +"Kara? How long has he been here?" + +"He came at four." + +There was nothing enthusiastic in her tone. + +"I can't understand why you don't like old Kara," rallied her +husband. + +"There are very many reasons," she replied, a little curtly for +her. + +"Anyway," said John Lexman, after a moment's thought, "his arrival +is rather opportune. Where is he?" + +"He is in the drawing-room." + +The Priory drawing-room was a low-ceilinged, rambling apartment, +"all old print and chrysanthemums," to use Lexman's description. +Cosy armchairs, a grand piano, an almost medieval open grate, +faced with dull-green tiles, a well-worn but cheerful carpet and +two big silver candelabras were the principal features which +attracted the newcomer. + +There was in this room a harmony, a quiet order and a soothing +quality which made it a haven of rest to a literary man with +jagged nerves. Two big bronze bowls were filled with early +violets, another blazed like a pale sun with primroses, and the +early woodland flowers filled the room with a faint fragrance. + +A man rose to his feet, as John Lexman entered and crossed the +room with an easy carriage. He was a man possessed of singular +beauty of face and of figure. Half a head taller than the author, +he carried himself with such a grace as to conceal his height. + +"I missed you in town," he said, "so I thought I'd run down on the +off chance of seeing you." + +He spoke in the well-modulated tone of one who had had a long +acquaintance with the public schools and universities of England. +There was no trace of any foreign accent, yet Remington Kara was a +Greek and had been born and partly educated in the more turbulent +area of Albania. + +The two men shook hands warmly. + +"You'll stay to dinner?" + +Kara glanced round with a smile at Grace Lexman. She sat +uncomfortably upright, her hands loosely folded on her lap, her +face devoid of encouragement. + +"If Mrs. Lexman doesn't object," said the Greek. + +"I should be pleased, if you would," she said, almost +mechanically; "it is a horrid night and you won't get anything +worth eating this side of London and I doubt very much," she +smiled a little, "if the meal I can give you will be worthy of +that description." + +"What you can give me will be more than sufficient," he said, with +a little bow, and turned to her husband. + +In a few minutes they were deep in a discussion of books and +places, and Grace seized the opportunity to make her escape. From +books in general to Lexman's books in particular the conversation +flowed. + +"I've read every one of them, you know," said Kara. + +John made a little face. "Poor devil," he said sardonically. + +"On the contrary," said Kara, "I am not to be pitied. There is a +great criminal lost in you, Lexman." + +"Thank you," said John. + +"I am not being uncomplimentary, am I?" smiled the Greek. "I am +merely referring to the ingenuity of your plots. Sometimes your +books baffle and annoy me. If I cannot see the solution of your +mysteries before the book is half through, it angers me a little. +Of course in the majority of cases I know the solution before I +have reached the fifth chapter." + +John looked at him in surprise and was somewhat piqued. + +"I flatter myself it is impossible to tell how my stories will end +until the last chapter," he said. + +Kara nodded. + +"That would be so in the case of the average reader, but you +forget that I am a student. I follow every little thread of the +clue which you leave exposed." + +"You should meet T. X.," said John, with a laugh, as he rose from +his chair to poke the fire. + +"T. X.?" + +"T. X. Meredith. He is the most ingenious beggar you could meet. +We were at Caius together, and he is by way of being a great pal +of mine. He is in the Criminal Investigation Department." + +Kara nodded. There was the light of interest in his eyes and he +would have pursued the discussion further, but at the moment +dinner was announced. + +It was not a particularly cheerful meal because Grace did not as +usual join in the conversation, and it was left to Kara and to her +husband to supply the deficiencies. She was experiencing a +curious sense of depression, a premonition of evil which she could +not define. Again and again in the course of the dinner she took +her mind back to the events of the day to discover the reason for +her unease. + +Usually when she adopted this method she came upon the trivial +causes in which apprehension was born, but now she was puzzled to +find that a solution was denied her. Her letters of the morning +had been pleasant, neither the house nor the servants had given +her any trouble. She was well herself, and though she knew John +had a little money trouble, since his unfortunate speculation in +Roumanian gold shares, and she half suspected that he had had to +borrow money to make good his losses, yet his prospects were so +excellent and the success of his last book so promising that she, +probably seeing with a clearer vision the unimportance of those +money worries, was less concerned about the problem than he. + +"You will have your coffee in the study, I suppose," said Grace, +"and I know you'll excuse me; I have to see Mrs. Chandler on the +mundane subject of laundry." + +She favoured Kara with a little nod as she left the room and +touched John's shoulder lightly with her hand in passing. + +Kara's eyes followed her graceful figure until she was out of +view, then: + +"I want to see you, Kara," said John Lexman, "if you will give me +five minutes." + +"You can have five hours, if you like," said the other, easily. + +They went into the study together; the maid brought the coffee and +liqueur, and placed them on a little table near the fire and +disappeared. + +For a time the conversation was general. Kara, who was a frank +admirer of the comfort of the room and who lamented his own +inability to secure with money the cosiness which John had +obtained at little cost, went on a foraging expedition whilst his +host applied himself to a proof which needed correcting. + +"I suppose it is impossible for you to have electric light here," +Kara asked. + +"Quite," replied the other. + +"Why?" + +"I rather like the light of this lamp." + +"It isn't the lamp," drawled the Greek and made a little grimace; +"I hate these candles." + +He waved his hand to the mantle-shelf where the six tall, white, +waxen candles stood out from two wall sconces. + +"Why on earth do you hate candles?" asked the other in surprise. + +Kara made no reply for the moment, but shrugged his shoulders. +Presently he spoke. + +"If you were ever tied down to a chair and by the side of that +chair was a small keg of black powder and stuck in that powder was +a small candle that burnt lower and lower every minute - my God!" + +John was amazed to see the perspiration stand upon the forehead of +his guest. + +"That sounds thrilling," he said. + +The Greek wiped his forehead with a silk handkerchief and his hand +shook a little. + +"It was something more than thrilling," he said. + +"And when did this occur?" asked the author curiously. + +"In Albania," replied the other; "it was many years ago, but the +devils are always sending me reminders of the fact." + +He did not attempt to explain who the devils were or under what +circumstances he was brought to this unhappy pass, but changed the +subject definitely. + +Sauntering round the cosy room he followed the bookshelf which +filled one wall and stopped now and again to examine some title. +Presently he drew forth a stout volume. + +"'Wild Brazil'," he read, "by George Gathercole - do you know +Gathercole?" + +John was filling his pipe from a big blue jar on his desk and +nodded. + +"Met him once - a taciturn devil. Very short of speech and, like +all men who have seen and done things, less inclined to talk about +himself than any man I know." + +Kara looked at the book with a thoughtful pucker of brow and +turned the leaves idly. + +"I've never seen him," he said as he replaced the book, "yet, in a +sense, his new journey is on my behalf." + +The other man looked up. + +"On your behalf?" + +"Yes - you know he has gone to Patagonia for me. He believes +there is gold there - you will learn as much from his book on the +mountain systems of South America. I was interested in his +theories and corresponded with him. As a result of that +correspondence he undertook to make a geological survey for me. I +sent him money for his expenses, and he went off." + +"You never saw him?" asked John Lexman, surprised. + +Kara shook his head. + +"That was not - ?" began his host. + +"Not like me, you were going to say. Frankly, it was not, but +then I realized that he was an unusual kind of man. I invited him +to dine with me before he left London, and in reply received a +wire from Southampton intimating that he was already on his way." + +Lexman nodded. + +"It must be an awfully interesting kind of life," he said. "I +suppose he will be away for quite a long time?" + +"Three years," said Kara, continuing his examination of the +bookshelf. + +"I envy those fellows who run round the world writing books," said +John, puffing reflectively at his pipe. "They have all the best +of it." + +Kara turned. He stood immediately behind the author and the other +could not see his face. There was, however, in his voice an +unusual earnestness and an unusual quiet vehemence. + +"What have you to complain about!" he asked, with that little +drawl of his. "You have your own creative work - the most +fascinating branch of labour that comes to a man. He, poor +beggar, is bound to actualities. You have the full range of all +the worlds which your imagination gives to you. You can create +men and destroy them, call into existence fascinating problems, +mystify and baffle ten or twenty thousand people, and then, at a +word, elucidate your mystery." + +John laughed. + +"There is something in that," he said. + +"As for the rest of your life," Kara went on in a lower voice, "I +think you have that which makes life worth living - an +incomparable wife." + +Lexman swung round in his chair, and met the other's gaze, and +there was something in the set of the other's handsome face which +took his breath away. + +"I do not see - " he began. + +Kara smiled. + +"That was an impertinence, wasn't it!" he said, banteringly. "But +then you mustn't forget, my dear man, that I was very anxious to +marry your wife. I don't suppose it is secret. And when I lost +her, I had ideas about you which are not pleasant to recall." + +He had recovered his self-possession and had continued his aimless +stroll about the room. + +"You must remember I am a Greek, and the modern Greek is no +philosopher. You must remember, too, that I am a petted child of +fortune, and have had everything I wanted since I was a baby." + +"You are a fortunate devil," said the other, turning back to his +desk, and taking up his pen. + +For a moment Kara did not speak, then he made as though he would +say something, checked himself, and laughed. + +"I wonder if I am," he said. + +And now he spoke with a sudden energy. + +"What is this trouble you are having with Vassalaro?" + +John rose from his chair and walked over to the fire, stood gazing +down into its depths, his legs wide apart, his hands clasped +behind him, and Kara took his attitude to supply an answer to the +question. + +"I warned you against Vassalaro," he said, stooping by the other's +side to light his cigar with a spill of paper. "My dear Lexman, +my fellow countrymen are unpleasant people to deal with in certain +moods." + +"He was so obliging at first," said Lexman, half to himself. + +"And now he is so disobliging," drawled Kara. "That is a way +which moneylenders have, my dear man; you were very foolish to go +to him at all. I could have lent you the money." + +"There were reasons why I should not borrow money from you,", said +John, quietly, "and I think you yourself have supplied the +principal reason when you told me just now, what I already knew, +that you wanted to marry Grace." + +"How much is the amount?" asked Kara, examining his well-manicured +finger-nails. + +"Two thousand five hundred pounds," replied John, with a short +laugh, "and I haven't two thousand five hundred shillings at this +moment." + +"Will he wait?" + +John Lexman shrugged his shoulders. + +"Look here, Kara," he said, suddenly, "don't think I want to +reproach you, but it was through you that I met Vassalaro so that +you know the kind of man he is." + +Kara nodded. + +"Well, I can tell you he has been very unpleasant indeed," said +John, with a frown, "I had an interview with him yesterday in +London and it is clear that he is going to make a lot of trouble. +I depended upon the success of my play in town giving me enough to +pay him off, and I very foolishly made a lot of promises of +repayment which I have been unable to keep." + +"I see," said Kara, and then, "does Mrs. Lexman know about this +matter?" + +"A little," said the other. + +He paced restlessly up and down the room, his hands behind him and +his chin upon his chest. + +"Naturally I have not told her the worst, or how beastly +unpleasant the man has been." + +He stopped and turned. + +"Do you know he threatened to kill me?" he asked. + +Kara smiled. + +"I can tell you it was no laughing matter," said the other, +angrily, "I nearly took the little whippersnapper by the scruff of +the neck and kicked him." + +Kara dropped his hand on the other's arm. + +"I am not laughing at you," he said; "I am laughing at the thought +of Vassalaro threatening to kill anybody. He is the biggest +coward in the world. What on earth induced him to take this +drastic step?" + +"He said he is being hard pushed for money," said the other, +moodily, "and it is possibly true. He was beside himself with +anger and anxiety, otherwise I might have given the little +blackguard the thrashing he deserved." + +Kara who had continued his stroll came down the room and halted in +front of the fireplace looking at the young author with a paternal +smile. + +"You don't understand Vassalaro," he said; "I repeat he is the +greatest coward in the world. You will probably discover he is +full of firearms and threats of slaughter, but you have only to +click a revolver to see him collapse. Have you a revolver, by the +way?" + +"Oh, nonsense," said the other, roughly, "I cannot engage myself +in that kind of melodrama." + +"It is not nonsense," insisted the other, "when you are in Rome, +et cetera, and when you have to deal with a low-class Greek you +must use methods which will at least impress him. If you thrash +him, he will never forgive you and will probably stick a knife +into you or your wife. If you meet his melodrama with melodrama +and at the psychological moment produce your revolver; you will +secure the effect you require. Have you a revolver?" + +John went to his desk and, pulling open a drawer, took out a small +Browning. + +"That is the extent of my armory," he said, "it has never been +fired and was sent to me by an unknown admirer last Christmas." + +"A curious Christmas present," said the other, examining the +weapon. + +"I suppose the mistaken donor imagined from my books that I lived +in a veritable museum of revolvers, sword sticks and noxious +drugs," said Lexman, recovering some of his good humour; "it was +accompanied by a card." + +"Do you know how it works?" asked the other. + +"I have never troubled very much about it," replied Lexman, "I +know that it is loaded by slipping back the cover, but as my +admirer did not send ammunition, I never even practised with it." + +There was a knock at the door. + +"That is the post," explained John. + +The maid had one letter on the salver and the author took it up +with a frown. + +"From Vassalaro," he said, when the girl had left the room. + +The Greek took the letter in his hand and examined it. + +"He writes a vile fist," was his only comment as he handed it back +to John. + +He slit open the thin, buff envelope and took out half a dozen +sheets of yellow paper, only a single sheet of which was written +upon. The letter was brief: + + "I must see you to-night without fail," ran the scrawl; "meet me + at the crossroads between Beston Tracey and the Eastbourne +Road. I shall be there at eleven o'clock, and, if you want to +preserve your life, you had better bring me a substantial +instalment." + +It was signed "Vassalaro." + +John read the letter aloud. "He must be mad to write a letter +like that," he said; "I'll meet the little devil and teach him +such a lesson in politeness as he is never likely to forget." + +He handed the letter to the other and Kara read it in silence. + +"Better take your revolver," he said as he handed it back. + +John Lexman looked at his watch. + +"I have an hour yet, but it will take me the best part of twenty +minutes to reach the Eastbourne Road." + +"Will you see him?" asked Kara, in a tone of surprise. + +"Certainly," Lexman replied emphatically: "I cannot have him +coming up to the house and making a scene and that is certainly +what the little beast will do." + +"Will you pay him?" asked Kara softly. + +John made no answer. There was probably 10 pounds in the house +and a cheque which was due on the morrow would bring him another +30 pounds. He looked at the letter again. It was written on +paper of an unusual texture. The surface was rough almost like +blotting paper and in some places the ink absorbed by the porous +surface had run. The blank sheets had evidently been inserted by +a man in so violent a hurry that he had not noticed the +extravagance. + +"I shall keep this letter," said John. + +"I think you are well advised. Vassalaro probably does not know +that he transgresses a law in writing threatening letters and that +should be a very strong weapon in your hand in certain +eventualities." + +There was a tiny safe in one corner of the study and this John +opened with a key which he took from his pocket. He pulled open +one of the steel drawers, took out the papers which were in it and +put in their place the letter, pushed the drawer to, and locked +it. + +All the time Kara was watching him intently as one who found more +than an ordinary amount of interest in the novelty of the +procedure. + +He took his leave soon afterwards. + +"I would like to come with you to your interesting meeting," he +said, "but unfortunately I have business elsewhere. Let me enjoin +you to take your revolver and at the first sign of any +bloodthirsty intention on the part of my admirable compatriot, +produce it and click it once or twice, you won't have to do more." + +Grace rose from the piano as Kara entered the little drawing-room +and murmured a few conventional expressions of regret that the +visitor's stay had been so short. That there was no sincerity in +that regret Kara, for one, had no doubt. He was a man singularly +free from illusions. + +They stayed talking a little while. + +"I will see if your chauffeur is asleep," said John, and went out +of the room. + +There was a little silence after he had gone. + +"I don't think you are very glad to see me," said Kara. His +frankness was a little embarrassing to the girl and she flushed +slightly. + +"I am always glad to see you, Mr. Kara, or any other of my +husband's friends," she said steadily. + +He inclined his head. + +"To be a friend of your husband is something," he said, and then +as if remembering something, "I wanted to take a book away with me +- I wonder if your husband would mind my getting it?" + +"I will find it for you." + +"Don't let me bother you," he protested, "I know my way." + +Without waiting for her permission he left the girl with the +unpleasant feeling that he was taking rather much for granted. He +was gone less than a minute and returned with a book under his +arm. + +"I have not asked Lexman's permission to take it," he said, "but I +am rather interested in the author. Oh, here you are," he turned +to John who came in at that moment. "Might I take this book on +Mexico?" he asked. "I will return it in the morning." + +They stood at the door, watching the tail light of the motor +disappear down the drive; and returned in silence to the drawing +room. + +"You look worried, dear," she said, laying her hand on his +shoulder. + +He smiled faintly. + +"Is it the money?" she asked anxiously. + +For a moment he was tempted to tell her of the letter. He stifled +the temptation realizing that she would not consent to his going +out if she knew the truth. + +"It is nothing very much," he said. "I have to go down to Beston +Tracey to meet the last train. I am expecting some proofs down." + +He hated lying to her, and even an innocuous lie of this character +was repugnant to him. + +"I'm afraid you have had a dull evening," he said, "Kara was not +very amusing." + +She looked at him thoughtfully. + +"He has not changed very much," she said slowly. + +"He's a wonderfully handsome chap, isn't he?" he asked in a tone +of admiration. "I can't understand what you ever saw in a fellow +like me, when you had a man who was not only rich, but possibly +the best-looking man in the world." + +She shivered a little. + +"I have seen a side of Mr. Kara that is not particularly +beautiful," she said. "Oh, John, I am afraid of that man!" + +He looked at her in astonishment. + +"Afraid?" he asked. "Good heavens, Grace, what a thing to say! +Why I believe he'd do anything for you." + +"That is exactly what I am afraid of," she said in a low voice. + +She had a reason which she did not reveal. She had first met +Remington Kara in Salonika two years before. She had been doing a +tour through the Balkans with her father - it was the last tour +the famous archeologist made - and had met the man who was fated +to have such an influence upon her life at a dinner given by the +American Consul. + +Many were the stories which were told about this Greek with his +Jove-like face, his handsome carriage and his limitless wealth. +It was said that his mother was an American lady who had been +captured by Albanian brigands and was sold to one of the Albanian +chiefs who fell in love with her, and for her sake became a +Protestant. He had been educated at Yale and at Oxford, and was +known to be the possessor of vast wealth, and was virtually king +of a hill district forty miles out of Durazzo. Here he reigned +supreme, occupying a beautiful house which he had built by an +Italian architect, and the fittings and appointments of which had +been imported from the luxurious centres of the world. + +In Albania they called him "Kara Rumo," which meant "The Black +Roman," for no particular reason so far as any one could judge, +for his skin was as fair as a Saxon's, and his close-cropped curls +were almost golden. + +He had fallen in love with Grace Terrell. At first his attentions +had amused her, and then there came a time when they frightened +her, for the man's fire and passion had been unmistakable. She +had made it plain to him that he could base no hopes upon her +returning his love, and, in a scene which she even now shuddered +to recall, he had revealed something of his wild and reckless +nature. On the following day she did not see him, but two days +later, when returning through the Bazaar from a dance which had +been given by the Governor General, her carriage was stopped, she +was forcibly dragged from its interior, and her cries were stifled +with a cloth impregnated with a scent of a peculiar aromatic +sweetness. Her assailants were about to thrust her into another +carriage, when a party of British bluejackets who had been on +leave came upon the scene, and, without knowing anything of the +nationality of the girl, had rescued her. + +In her heart of hearts she did not doubt Kara's complicity in this +medieval attempt to gain a wife, but of this adventure she had +told her husband nothing. Until her marriage she was constantly +receiving valuable presents which she as constantly returned to +the only address she knew - Kara's estate at Lemazo. A few months +after her marriage she had learned through the newspapers that +this "leader of Greek society" had purchased a big house near +Cadogan Square, and then, to her amazement and to her dismay, Kara +had scraped an acquaintance with her husband even before the +honeymoon was over. + +His visits had been happily few, but the growing intimacy between +John and this strange undisciplined man had been a source of +constant distress to her. + +Should she, at this, the eleventh hour, tell her husband all her +fears and her suspicions? + +She debated the point for some time. And never was she nearer +taking him into her complete confidence than she was as he sat in +the big armchair by the side of the piano, a little drawn of face, +more than a little absorbed in his own meditations. Had he been +less worried she might have spoken. As it was, she turned the +conversation to his last work, the big mystery story which, if it +would not make his fortune, would mean a considerable increase to +his income. + +At a quarter to eleven he looked at his watch, and rose. She +helped him on with his coat. He stood for some time irresolutely. + +"Is there anything you have forgotten?" she asked. + +He asked himself whether he should follow Kara's advice. In any +circumstance it was not a pleasant thing to meet a ferocious +little man who had threatened his life, and to meet him unarmed +was tempting Providence. The whole thing was of course +ridiculous, but it was ridiculous that he should have borrowed, +and it was ridiculous that the borrowing should have been +necessary, and yet he had speculated on the best of advice - it +was Kara's advice. + +The connection suddenly occurred to him, and yet Kara had not +directly suggested that he should buy Roumanian gold shares, but +had merely spoken glowingly of their prospects. He thought a +moment, and then walked back slowly into the study, pulled open +the drawer of his desk, took out the sinister little Browning, and +slipped it into his pocket. + +"I shan't be long, dear," he said, and kissing the girl he strode +out into the darkness. + + +Kara sat back in the luxurious depths of his car, humming a little +tune, as the driver picked his way cautiously over the uncertain +road. The rain was still falling, and Kara had to rub the windows +free of the mist which had gathered on them to discover where he +was. From time to time he looked out as though he expected to see +somebody, and then with a little smile he remembered that he had +changed his original plan, and that he had fixed the waiting room +of Lewes junction as his rendezvous. + +Here it was that he found a little man muffled up to the ears in a +big top coat, standing before the dying fire. He started as Kara +entered and at a signal followed him from the room. + +The stranger was obviously not English. His face was sallow and +peaked, his cheeks were hollow, and the beard he wore was +irregular-almost unkempt. + +Kara led the way to the end of the dark platform, before he spoke. + +"You have carried out my instructions?" he asked brusquely. + +The language he spoke was Arabic, and the other answered him in +that language. + +"Everything that you have ordered has been done, Effendi," he said +humbly. + +"You have a revolver?" + +The man nodded and patted his pocket. + +"Loaded?" + +"Excellency," asked the other, in surprise, "what is the use of a +revolver, if it is not loaded?" + +"You understand, you are not to shoot this man," said Kara. "You +are merely to present the pistol. To make sure, you had better +unload it now." + +Wonderingly the man obeyed, and clicked back the ejector. + +"I will take the cartridges," said Kara, holding out his hand. + +He slipped the little cylinders into his pocket, and after +examining the weapon returned it to its owner. + +"You will threaten him," he went on. "Present the revolver +straight at his heart. You need do nothing else." + +The man shuffled uneasily. + +"I will do as you say, Effendi," he said. "But - " + +"There are no 'buts,' " replied the other harshly. "You are to +carry out my instructions without any question. What will happen +then you shall see. I shall be at hand. That I have a reason for +this play be assured." + +"But suppose he shoots?" persisted the other uneasily. + +"He will not shoot," said Kara easily. "Besides, his revolver is +not loaded. Now you may go. You have a long walk before you. +You know the way?" + +The man nodded. + +"I have been over it before," he said confidently. + +Kara returned to the big limousine which had drawn up some +distance from the station. He spoke a word or two to the +chauffeur in Greek, and the man touched his hat. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +Assistant Commissioner of Police T. X. Meredith did not occupy +offices in New Scotland Yard. It is the peculiarity of public +offices that they are planned with the idea of supplying the +margin of space above all requirements and that on their +completion they are found wholly inadequate to house the various +departments which mysteriously come into progress coincident with +the building operations. + +"T. X.," as he was known by the police forces of the world, had a +big suite of offices in Whitehall. The house was an old one +facing the Board of Trade and the inscription on the ancient door +told passers-by that this was the "Public Prosecutor, Special +Branch." + +The duties of T. X. were multifarious. People said of him - and +like most public gossip, this was probably untrue - that he was +the head of the "illegal" department of Scotland Yard. If by +chance you lost the keys of your safe, T. X. could supply you (so +popular rumour ran) with a burglar who would open that safe in +half an hour. + +If there dwelt in England a notorious individual against whom the +police could collect no scintilla of evidence to justify a +prosecution, and if it was necessary for the good of the community +that that person should be deported, it was T. X. who arrested the +obnoxious person, hustled him into a cab and did not loose his +hold upon his victim until he had landed him on the indignant +shores of an otherwise friendly power. + +It is very certain that when the minister of a tiny power which +shall be nameless was suddenly recalled by his government and +brought to trial in his native land for putting into circulation +spurious bonds, it was somebody from the department which T. X. +controlled, who burgled His Excellency's house, burnt the locks +from his safe and secured the necessary incriminating evidence. + +I say it is fairly certain and here I am merely voicing the +opinion of very knowledgeable people indeed, heads of public +departments who speak behind their hands, mysterious +under-secretaries of state who discuss things in whispers in the +remote corners of their clubrooms and the more frank views of +American correspondents who had no hesitation in putting those +views into print for the benefit of their readers. + +That T. X. had a more legitimate occupation we know, for it was +that flippant man whose outrageous comment on the Home Office +Administration is popularly supposed to have sent one Home +Secretary to his grave, who traced the Deptford murderers through +a labyrinth of perjury and who brought to book Sir Julius Waglite +though he had covered his trail of defalcation through the balance +sheets of thirty-four companies. + +On the night of March 3rd, T. X. sat in his inner office +interviewing a disconsolate inspector of metropolitan police, +named Mansus. + +In appearance T. X. conveyed the impression of extreme youth, for +his face was almost boyish and it was only when you looked at him +closely and saw the little creases about his eyes, the setting of +his straight mouth, that you guessed he was on the way to forty. +In his early days he had been something of a poet, and had written +a slight volume of "Woodland Lyrics," the mention of which at this +later stage was sufficient to make him feel violently unhappy. + +In manner he was tactful but persistent, his language was at times +marked by a violent extravagance and he had had the distinction of +having provoked, by certain correspondence which had seen the +light, the comment of a former Home Secretary that "it was +unfortunate that Mr. Meredith did not take his position with the +seriousness which was expected from a public official." + +His language was, as I say, under great provocation, violent and +unusual. He had a trick of using words which never were on land +or sea, and illustrating his instruction or his admonition with +the quaintest phraseology. + +Now he was tilted back in his office chair at an alarming angle, +scowling at his distressed subordinate who sat on the edge of a +chair at the other side of his desk. + +"But, T. X.," protested the Inspector, "there was nothing to be +found." + +It was the outrageous practice of Mr. Meredith to insist upon his +associates calling him by his initials, a practice which had earnt +disapproval in the highest quarters. + +"Nothing is to be found!" he repeated wrathfully. "Curious Mike!" + +He sat up with a suddenness which caused the police officer to +start back in alarm. + +"Listen," said T. X., grasping an ivory paperknife savagely in his +hand and tapping his blotting-pad to emphasize his words, "you're +a pie!" + +"I'm a policeman," said the other patiently. + +"A policeman!" exclaimed the exasperated T. X. "You're worse than +a pie, you're a slud! I'm afraid I shall never make a detective +of you," he shook his head sorrowfully at the smiling Mansus who +had been in the police force when T. X. was a small boy at school, +"you are neither Wise nor Wily; you combine the innocence of a +Baby with the grubbiness of a County Parson - you ought to be in +the choir." + +At this outrageous insult Mr. Mansus was silent; what he might +have said, or what further provocation he might have received may +be never known, for at that moment, the Chief himself walked in. + +The Chief of the Police in these days was a grey man, rather +tired, with a hawk nose and deep eyes that glared under shaggy +eyebrows and he was a terror to all men of his department save to +T. X. who respected nothing on earth and very little elsewhere. +He nodded curtly to Mansus. + +"Well, T. X.," he said, "what have you discovered about our friend +Kara?" + +He turned from T. X. to the discomforted inspector. + +"Very little," said T. X. "I've had Mansus on the job." + +"And you've found nothing, eh?" growled the Chief. + +"He has found all that it is possible to find," said T. X. "We do +not perform miracles in this department, Sir George, nor can we +pick up the threads of a case at five minutes' notice." + +Sir George Haley grunted. + +"Mansus has done his best," the other went on easily, "but it is +rather absurd to talk about one's best when you know so little of +what you want." + +Sir George dropped heavily into the arm-chair, and stretched out +his long thin legs. + +"What I want," he said, looking up at the ceiling and putting his +hands together, "is to discover something about one Remington +Kara, a wealthy Greek who has taken a house in Cadogan Square, who +has no particular position in London society and therefore has no +reason for coming here, who openly expresses his detestation of +the climate, who has a magnificent estate in some wild place in +the Balkans, who is an excellent horseman, a magnificent shot and +a passable aviator." + +T. X. nodded to Mansus and with something of gratitude in his eyes +the inspector took his leave. + +"Now Mansus has departed," said T. X., sitting himself on the edge +of his desk and selecting with great care a cigarette from the +case he took from his pocket, "let me know something of the reason +for this sudden interest in the great ones of the earth." + +Sir George smiled grimly. + +"I have the interest which is the interest of my department," he +said. "That is to say I want to know a great deal about abnormal +people. We have had an application from him," he went on, "which +is rather unusual. Apparently he is in fear of his life from some +cause or other and wants to know if he can have a private +telephone connection between his house and the central office. We +told him that he could always get the nearest Police Station on +the 'phone, but that doesn't satisfy him. He has made bad friends +with some gentleman of his own country who sooner or later, he +thinks, will cut his throat." + +T. X. nodded. + +"All this I know," he said patiently, "if you will further unfold +the secret dossier, Sir George, I am prepared to be thrilled." + +"There is nothing thrilling about it," growled the older man, +rising, "but I remember the Macedonian shooting case in South +London and I don't want a repetition of that sort of thing. If +people want to have blood feuds, let them take them outside the +metropolitan area." + +"By all means," said T. X., "let them. Personally, I don't care +where they go. But if that is the extent of your information I +can supplement it. He has had extensive alterations made to the +house he bought in Cadogan Square; the room in which he lives is +practically a safe." + +Sir George raised his eyebrows. + +"A safe," he repeated. + +T. X. nodded. + +"A safe," he said; "its walls are burglar proof, floor and roof +are reinforced concrete, there is one door which in addition to +its ordinary lock is closed by a sort of steel latch which he lets +fall when he retires for the night and which he opens himself +personally in the morning. The window is unreachable, there are +no communicating doors, and altogether the room is planned to +stand a siege." + +The Chief Commissioner was interested. + +"Any more?" he asked. + +"Let me think," said T. X., looking up at the ceiling. "Yes, the +interior of his room is plainly furnished, there is a big +fireplace, rather an ornate bed, a steel safe built into the wall +and visible from its outer side to the policeman whose beat is in +that neighborhood." + +"How do you know all this?" asked the Chief Commissioner. + +"Because I've been in the room," said T. X. simply, "having by an +underhand trick succeeded in gaining the misplaced confidence of +Kara's housekeeper, who by the way" - he turned round to his desk +and scribbled a name on the blotting-pad - "will be discharged +to-morrow and must be found a place." + +"Is there any -er -?" began the Chief. + +"Funny business?" interrupted T. X., "not a bit. House and man +are quite normal save for these eccentricities. He has announced +his intention of spending three months of the year in England and +nine months abroad. He is very rich, has no relations, and has a +passion for power." + +"Then he'll be hung," said the Chief, rising. + +"I doubt it," said the other, "people with lots of money seldom +get hung. You only get hung for wanting money." + +"Then you're in some danger, T. X.," smiled the Chief, "for +according to my account you're always more or less broke." + +"A genial libel," said T. X., "but talking about people being +broke, I saw John Lexman to-day - you know him!" + +The Chief Commissioner nodded. + +"I've an idea he's rather hit for money. He was in that Roumanian +gold swindle, and by his general gloom, which only comes to a man +when he's in love (and he can't possibly be in love since he's +married) or when he's in debt, I fear that he is still feeling the +effect of that rosy adventure." + +A telephone bell in the corner of the room rang sharply, and T. X. +picked up the receiver. He listened intently. + +"A trunk call," he said over his shoulder to the departing +commissioner, "it may be something interesting." + +A little pause; then a hoarse voice spoke to him. "Is that you, +T. X.?" + +"That's me," said the Assistant Commissioner, commonly. + +"It's John Lexman speaking." + +"I shouldn't have recognized your voice," said T. X., "what is +wrong with you, John, can't you get your plot to went?" + +"I want you to come down here at once," said the voice urgently, +and even over the telephone T. X. recognized the distress. "I +have shot a man, killed him!" + +T. X. gasped. + +"Good Lord," he said, "you are a silly ass!" + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +In the early hours of the morning a tragic little party was +assembled in the study at Beston Priory. John Lexman, white and +haggard, sat on the sofa with his wife by his side. Immediate +authority as represented by a village constable was on duty in the +passage outside, whilst T. X. sitting at the table with a writing +pad and a pencil was briefly noting the evidence. + +The author had sketched the events of the day. He had described +his interview with the money-lender the day before and the arrival +of the letter. + +"You have the letter!" asked T. X. + +John Lexman nodded. + +"I am glad of that," said the other with a sigh of relief, "that +will save you from a great deal of unpleasantness, my poor old +chap. Tell me what happened afterward." + +"I reached the village," said John Lexman, "and passed through it. +There was nobody about, the rain was still falling very heavily +and indeed I didn't meet a single soul all the evening. I reached +the place appointed about five minutes before time. It was the +corner of Eastbourne Road on the station side and there I found +Vassalaro waiting. I was rather ashamed of myself at meeting him +at all under these conditions, but I was very keen on his not +coming to the house for I was afraid it would upset Grace. What +made it all the more ridiculous was this infernal pistol which was +in my pocket banging against my side with every step I took as +though to nudge me to an understanding of my folly." + +"Where did you meet Vassalaro?" asked T. X. + +"He was on the other side of the Eastbourne Road and crossed the +road to meet me. At first he was very pleasant though a little +agitated but afterward he began to behave in a most extraordinary +manner as though he was lashing himself up into a fury which he +didn't feel. I promised him a substantial amount on account, but +he grew worse and worse and then, suddenly, before I realised what +he was doing, he was brandishing a revolver in my face and +uttering the most extraordinary threats. Then it was I remembered +Kara's warning." + +"Kara," said T. X. quickly. + +"A man I know and who was responsible for introducing me to +Vassalaro. He is immensely wealthy." + +"I see," said T. X., "go on." + +"I remembered this warning," the other proceeded, "and I thought +it worth while trying it out to see if it had any effect upon the +little man. I pulled the pistol from my pocket and pointed it at +him, but that only seemed to make it - and then I pressed the +trigger . . . . + +"To my horror four shots exploded before I could recover +sufficient self-possession to loosen my hold of the butt. He fell +without a word. I dropped the revolver and knelt by his side. I +could tell he was dangerously wounded, and indeed I knew at that +moment that nothing would save him. My pistol had been pointed in +the region of his heart . . . . " + +He shuddered, dropping his face in his hands, and the girl by his +side, encircling his shoulder with a protecting arm, murmured +something in his ear. Presently he recovered. + +"He wasn't quite dead. I heard him murmur something but I wasn't +able to distinguish what he said. I went straight to the village +and told the constable and had the body removed." + +T. X. rose from the table and walked to the door and opened it. + +"Come in, constable," he said, and when the man made his +appearance, "I suppose you were very careful in removing this +body, and you took everything which was lying about in the +immediate ate vicinity'?" + +"Yes, sir," replied the man, "I took his hat and his walkingstick, +if that's what you mean." + +"And the revolver!" asked T. X. + +The man shook his head. + +"There warn't any revolver, sir, except the pistol which Mr. +Lexman had." + +He fumbled in his pocket and pulled it out gingerly, and T. X. +took it from him. + +"I'll look after your prisoner; you go down to the village, get +any help you can and make a most careful search in the place where +this man was killed and bring me the revolver which you will +discover. You'll probably find it in a ditch by the side of the +road. I'll give a sovereign to the man who finds it." + +The constable touched his hat and went out. + +"It looks rather a weird case to me," said T. X., as he came back +to the table, "can't you see the unusual features yourself, +Lexman! It isn't unusual for you to owe money and it isn't +unusual for the usurer to demand the return of that money, but in +this case he is asking for it before it was due, and further than +that he was demanding it with threats. It is not the practice of +the average money lender to go after his clients with a loaded +revolver. Another peculiar thing is that if he wished to +blackmail you, that is to say, bring you into contempt in the eyes +of your friends, why did he choose to meet you in a dark and +unfrequented road, and not in your house where the moral pressure +would be greatest? Also, why did he write you a threatening +letter which would certainly bring him into the grip of the law +and would have saved you a great deal of unpleasantness if he had +decided upon taking action!" + +He tapped his white teeth with the end of his pencil and then +suddenly, + +"I think I'll see that letter," he said. + +John Lexman rose from the sofa, crossed to the safe, unlocked it +and was unlocking the steel drawer in which he had placed the +incriminating document. His hand was on the key when T. X. +noticed the look of surprise on his face. + +"What is it!" asked the detective suddenly. + +"This drawer feels very hot," said John, - he looked round as +though to measure the distance between the safe and the fire. + +T. X. laid his hand upon the front of the drawer. It was indeed +warm. + +"Open it," said T. X., and Lexman turned the key and pulled the +drawer open. + +As he did so, the whole contents burst up in a quick blaze of +flame. It died down immediately and left only a little coil of +smoke that flowed from the safe into the room. + +"Don't touch anything inside," said T. X. quickly. + +He lifted the drawer carefully and placed it under the light. In +the bottom was no more than a few crumpled white ashes and a +blister of paint where the flame had caught the side. + +"I see," said T. X. slowly. + +He saw something more than that handful of ashes, he saw the +deadly peril in which his friend was standing. Here was one half +of the evidence in Lexman's favour gone, irredeemably. + +"The letter was written on a paper which was specially prepared by +a chemical process which disintegrated the moment the paper was +exposed to the air. Probably if you delayed putting the letter in +the drawer another five minutes, you would have seen it burn +before your eyes. As it was, it was smouldering before you had +turned the key of the box. The envelope!" + +"Kara burnt it," said Lexman in a low voice, "I remember seeing +him take it up from the table and throw it in the fire." + +T. X. nodded. + +"There remains the other half of the evidence," he said grimly, +and when an hour later, the village constable returned to report +that in spite of his most careful search he had failed to discover +the dead man's revolver, his anticipations were realized. + +The next morning John Lexman was lodged in Lewes gaol on a charge +of wilful murder. + + +A telegram brought Mansus from London to Beston Tracey, and T. X. +received him in the library. + +"I sent for you, Mansus, because I suffer from the illusion that +you have more brains than most of the people in my department, and +that's not saying much." + +"I am very grateful to you, sir, for putting me right with +Commissioner," began Mansus, but T. X. stopped him. + +"It is the duty of every head of departments," he said oracularly, +"to shield the incompetence of his subordinates. It is only by +the adoption of some such method that the decencies of the public +life can be observed. Now get down to this." He gave a sketch of +the case from start to finish in as brief a space of time as +possible. + +"The evidence against Mr. Lexman is very heavy," he said. "He +borrowed money from this man, and on the man's body were found +particulars of the very Promissory Note which Lexman signed. Why +he should have brought it with him, I cannot say. Anyhow I doubt +very much whether Mr. Lexman will get a jury to accept his +version. Our only chance is to find the Greek's revolver - I +don't think there's any very great chance, but if we are to be +successful we must make a search at once." + +Before he went out he had an interview with Grace. The dark +shadows under her eyes told of a sleepless night. She was +unusually pale and surprisingly calm. + +"I think there are one or two things I ought to tell you," she +said, as she led the way into the drawing room, closing the door +behind him. + +"And they concern Mr. Kara, I think," said T. X. + +She looked at him startled. + +"How did you know that?" + +"I know nothing." + +He hesitated on the brink of a flippant claim of omniscience, but +realizing in time the agony she must be suffering he checked his +natural desire. + +"I really know nothing," he continued, "but I guess a lot," and +that was as near to the truth as you might expect T. X. to reach +on the spur of the moment. + +She began without preliminary. + +"In the first place I must tell you that Mr. Kara once asked me to +marry him, and for reasons which I will give you, I am dreadfully +afraid of him." + +She described without reserve the meeting at Salonika and Kara's +extravagant rage and told of the attempt which had been made upon +her. + +"Does John know this?" asked T. X. + +She shook her head sadly. + +"I wish I had told him now," she said. "Oh, how I wish I had!" +She wrung her hands in an ecstasy of sorrow and remorse. + +T. X. looked at her sympathetically. Then he asked, + +"Did Mr. Kara ever discuss your husband's financial position with +you!" + +"Never." + +"How did John Lexman happen to meet Vassalaro!" + +"I can tell you that," she answered, "the first time we met Mr. +Kara in England was when we were staying at Babbacombe on a summer +holiday - which was really a prolongation of our honeymoon. Mr. +Kara came to stay at the same hotel. I think Mr. Vassalaro must +have been there before; at any rate they knew one another and +after Kara's introduction to my husband the rest was easy. + +"Can I do anything for John!" she asked piteously. + +T. X. shook his head. + +"So far as your story is concerned, I don't think you will +advantage him by telling it," he said. "There is nothing whatever +to connect Kara with this business and you would only give your +husband a great deal of pain. I'll do the best I can." + +He held out his hand and she grasped it and somehow at that moment +there came to T. X. Meredith a new courage, a new faith and a +greater determination than ever to solve this troublesome mystery. + +He found Mansus waiting for him in a car outside and in a few +minutes they were at the scene of the tragedy. A curious little +knot of spectators had gathered, looking with morbid interest at +the place where the body had been found. There was a local +policeman on duty and to him was deputed the ungracious task of +warning his fellow villagers to keep their distance. The ground +had already been searched very carefully. The two roads crossed +almost at right angles and at the corner of the cross thus formed, +the hedges were broken, admitting to a field which had evidently +been used as a pasture by an adjoining dairy farm. Some rough +attempt had been made to close the gap with barbed wire, but it +was possible to step over the drooping strands with little or no +difficulty. It was to this gap that T. X. devoted his principal +attention. All the fields had been carefully examined without +result, the four drains which were merely the connecting pipes +between ditches at the sides of the crossroads had been swept out +and only the broken hedge and its tangle of bushes behind offered +any prospect of the new search being rewarded. + +"Hullo!" said Mansus, suddenly, and stooping down he picked up +something from the ground. + +T. X. took it in his hand. + +It was unmistakably a revolver cartridge. He marked the spot +where it had been found by jamming his walking stick into the +ground and continued his search, but without success. + +"I am afraid we shall find nothing more here," said T. X., after +half an hour's further search. He stood with his chin in his +hand, a frown on his face. + +"Mansus," he said, "suppose there were three people here, Lexman, +the money lender and a third witness. And suppose this third +person for some reason unknown was interested in what took place +between the two men and he wanted to watch unobserved. Isn't it +likely that if he, as I think, instigated the meeting, he would +have chosen this place because this particular hedge gave him a +chance of seeing without being seen?" + +Mansus thought. + +"He could have seen just as well from either of the other hedges, +with less chance of detection," he said, after a long pause. + +T. X. grinned. + +"You have the makings of a brain," he said admiringly. "I agree +with you. Always remember that, Mansus. That there was one +occasion in your life when T. X. Meredith and you thought alike." + +Mansus smiled a little feebly. + +"Of course from the point of view of the observer this was the +worst place possible, so whoever came here, if they did come here, +dropping revolver bullets about, must have chosen the spot because +it was get-at-able from another direction. Obviously he couldn't +come down the road and climb in without attracting the attention +of the Greek who was waiting for Mr. Lexman. We may suppose there +is a gate farther along the road, we may suppose that he entered +that gate, came along the field by the side of the hedge and that +somewhere between here and the gate, he threw away his cigar." + +"His cigar!" said Mansus in surprise. + +"His cigar," repeated T. X., "if he was alone, he would keep his +cigar alight until the very last moment." + +"He might have thrown it into the road," said Mansus. + +"Don't jibber," said T. X., and led the way along the hedge. From +where they stood they could see the gate which led on to the road +about a hundred yards further on. Within a dozen yards of that +gate, T. X. found what he had been searching for, a half-smoked +cigar. It was sodden with rain and he picked it up tenderly. + +"A good cigar, if I am any judge," he said, "cut with a penknife, +and smoked through a holder." + +They reached the gate and passed through. Here they were on the +road again and this they followed until they reached another cross +road that to the left inclining southward to the new Eastbourne +Road and that to the westward looking back to the Lewes-Eastbourne +railway. The rain had obliterated much that T. X. was looking +for, but presently he found a faint indication of a car wheel. + +"This is where she turned and backed," he said, and walked slowly +to the road on the left, "and this is where she stood. There is +the grease from her engine." + +He stooped down and moved forward in the attitude of a Russian +dancer, "And here are the wax matches which the chauffeur struck," +he counted, "one, two, three, four, five, six, allow three for +each cigarette on a boisterous night like last night, that makes +three cigarettes. Here is a cigarette end, Mansus, Gold Flake +brand," he said, as he examined it carefully, "and a Gold Flake +brand smokes for twelve minutes in normal weather, but about eight +minutes in gusty weather. A car was here for about twenty-four +minutes - what do you think of that, Mansus?" + +"A good bit of reasoning, T. X.," said the other calmly, "if it +happens to be the car you're looking for." + +"I am looking for any old car," said T. X. + +He found no other trace of car wheels though he carefully followed +up the little lane until it reached the main road. After that it +was hopeless to search because rain had fallen in the night and in +the early hours of the morning. He drove his assistant to the +railway station in time to catch the train at one o'clock to +London. + +"You will go straight to Cadogan Square and arrest the chauffeur +of Mr. Kara," he said. + +"Upon what charge!" asked Mansus hurriedly. + +When it came to the step which T. X. thought fit to take in the +pursuance of his duty, Mansus was beyond surprise. + +"You can charge him with anything you like," said T. X., with fine +carelessness, "probably something will occur to you on your way up +to town. As a matter of fact the chauffeur has been called +unexpectedly away to Greece and has probably left by this +morning's train for the Continent. If that is so, we can do +nothing, because the boat will have left Dover and will have +landed him at Boulogne, but if by any luck you get him, keep him +busy until I get back." + +T. X. himself was a busy man that day, and it was not until night +was falling that he again turned to Beston Tracey to find a +telegram waiting for him. He opened it and read, + +"Chauffeur's name, Goole. Formerly waiter English Club, +Constantinople. Left for east by early train this morning, his +mother being ill." + +"His mother ill," said T. X. contemptuously, "how very feeble, - I +should have thought Kara could have gone one better than that." + +He was in John Lexman's study as the door opened and the maid +announced, "Mr. Remington Kara." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +T. X. folded the telegram very carefully and slipped it into his +waistcoat pocket. + +He favoured the newcomer with a little bow and taking upon himself +the honours of the establishment, pushed a chair to his visitor. + +"I think you know my name," said Kara easily, "I am a friend of +poor Lexman's." + +"So I am told," said T. X., "but don't let your friendship for +Lexman prevent your sitting down." + +For a moment the Greek was nonplussed and then, with a little +smile and bow, he seated himself by the writing table. + +"I am very distressed at this happening," he went on, "and I am +more distressed because I feel that as I introduced Lexman to this +unfortunate man, I am in a sense responsible." + +"If I were you," said T. X., leaning back in the chair and looking +half questioningly and half earnestly into the face of the other, +"I shouldn't let that fact keep me awake at night. Most people +are murdered as a result of an introduction. The cases where +people murder total strangers are singularly rare. That I think +is due to the insularity of our national character." + +Again the other was taken back and puzzled by the flippancy of the +man from whom he had expected at least the official manner. + +"When did you see Mr. Vassalaro last?" asked T. X. pleasantly. + +Kara raised his eyes as though considering. + +"I think it must have been nearly a week ago." + +"Think again," said T. X. + +For a second the Greek started and again relaxed into a smile. + +"I am afraid," he began. + +"Don't worry about that," said T. X., "but let me ask you this +question. You were here last night when Mr. Lexman received a +letter. That he did receive a letter, there is considerable +evidence," he said as he saw the other hesitate, "because we have +the supporting statements of the servant and the postman." + +"I was here," said the other, deliberately, "and I was present +when Mr. Lexman received a letter." + +T. X. nodded. + +"A letter written on some brownish paper and rather bulky," he +suggested. + +Again there was that momentary hesitation. + +"I would not swear to the color of the paper or as to the bulk of +the letter," he said. + +"I should have thought you would," suggested T. X., "because you +see, you burnt the envelope, and I presumed you would have noticed +that." + +"I have no recollection of burning any envelope," said the other +easily. + +"At any rate," T. X. went on, "when Mr. Lexman read this letter +out to you . . ." + +"To which letter are you referring?" asked the other, with a lift +of his eyebrows. + +"Mr. Lexman received a threatening letter," repeated T. X. +patiently, "which he read out to you, and which was addressed to +him by Vassalaro. This letter was handed to you and you also +read it. Mr. Lexman to your knowledge put the letter in his safe +- in a steel drawer." + +The other shook his head, smiling gently. + +"I am afraid you've made a great mistake," he said almost +apologetically, "though I have a recollection of his receiving a +letter, I did not read it, nor was it read to me." + +The eyes of T. X. narrowed to the very slits and his voice became +metallic and hard. + +"And if I put you into the box, will you swear, that you did not +see that letter, nor read it, nor have it read to you, and that +you have no knowledge whatever of such a letter having been +received by Mr. Lexman?" + +"Most certainly," said the other coolly. + +"Would you swear that you have not seen Vassalaro for a week?" + +"Certainly," smiled the Greek. + +"That you did not in fact see him last night," persisted T. X., +"and interview him on the station platform at Lewes, that you did +not after leaving him continue on your way to London and then turn +your car and return to the neighbourhood of Beston Tracey?" + +The Greek was white to the lips, but not a muscle of his face +moved. + +"Will you also swear," continued T. X. inexorably, "that you did +not stand at the corner of what is known as Mitre's Lot and +re-enter a gate near to the side where your car was, and that you +did not watch the whole tragedy?" + +"I'd swear to that," Kara's voice was strained and cracked. + +"Would you also swear as to the hour of your arrival in London?" + +"Somewhere in the region of ten or eleven," said the Greek. + +T. X. smiled. + +"Would you swear that you did not go through Guilford at half-past +twelve and pull up to replenish your petrol?" + +The Greek had now recovered his self-possession and rose. + +"You are a very clever man, Mr. Meredith - I think that is your +name?" + +"That is my name," said T. X. calmly. "There has been, no need +for me to change it as often as you have found the necessity." + +He saw the fire blazing in the other's eyes and knew that his shot +had gone home. + +"I am afraid I must go," said Kara. "I came here intending to see +Mrs. Lexman, and I had no idea that I should meet a policeman." + +"My dear Mr. Kara," said T. X., rising and lighting a cigarette, +"you will go through life enduring that unhappy experience." + +"What do you mean?" + +"Just what I say. You will always be expecting to meet one +person, and meeting another, and unless you are very fortunate +indeed, that other will always be a policeman." + +His eyes twinkled for he had recovered from the gust of anger +which had swept through him. + +"There are two pieces of evidence I require to save Mr. Lexman +from very serious trouble," he said, "the first of these is the +letter which was burnt, as you know." + +"Yes," said Kara. + +T. X. leant across the desk. + +"How did you know?" he snapped. + +"Somebody told me, I don't know who it was." + +"That's not true," replied T. X.; "nobody knows except myself and +Mrs. Lexman." + +"But my dear good fellow," said Kara, pulling on his gloves, "you +have already asked me whether I didn't burn the letter." + +"I said envelope," said T. X., with a little laugh. + +"And you were going to say something about the other clue?" + +"The other is the revolver," said T. X. + +"Mr. Lexman's revolver!" drawled the Greek. + +"That we have," said T. X. shortly. "What we want is the weapon +which the Greek had when he threatened Mr. Lexman." + +"There, I'm afraid I cannot help you." + +Kara walked to the door and T. X. followed. + +"I think I will see Mrs. Lexman." + +"I think not," said T. X. + +The other turned with a sneer. + +"Have you arrested her, too?" he asked. + +"Pull yourself together!" said T. X. coarsely. He escorted Kara +to his waiting limousine. + +"You have a new chauffeur to-night, I observe," he said. + +Kara towering with rage stepped daintily into the car. + +"If you are writing to the other you might give him my love," said +T. X., "and make most tender enquiries after his mother. I +particularly ask this." + +Kara said nothing until the car was out of earshot then he lay +back on the down cushions and abandoned himself to a paroxysm of +rage and blasphemy. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +Six months later T. X. Meredith was laboriously tracing an elusive +line which occurred on an ordnance map of Sussex when the Chief +Commissioner announced himself. + +Sir George described T. X. as the most wholesome corrective a +public official could have, and never missed an opportunity of +meeting his subordinate (as he said) for this reason. + +"What are you doing there?" he growled. + +"The lesson this morning," said T. X. without looking up, "is +maps." + +Sir George passed behind his assistant and looked over his +shoulder. + +"That is a very old map you have got there," he said. + +"1876. It shows the course of a number of interesting little +streams in this neighbourhood which have been lost sight of for +one reason or the other by the gentleman who made the survey at a +later period. I am perfectly sure that in one of these streams I +shall find what I am seeking." + +"You haven't given up hope, then, in regard to Lexman?" + +"I shall never give up hope," said T. X., "until I am dead, and +possibly not then." + +"Let me see, what did he get - fifteen years!" + +"Fifteen years," repeated T. X., "and a very fortunate man to +escape with his life." + +Sir George walked to the window and stared out on to busy +Whitehall. + +"I am told you are quite friendly with Kara again." + +T. X. made a noise which might be taken to indicate his assent to +the statement. + +"I suppose you know that gentleman has made a very heroic attempt +to get you fired," he said. + +"I shouldn't wonder," said T. X. "I made as heroic an attempt to +get him hung, and one good turn deserves another. What did he do? +See ministers and people?" + +"He did," said Sir George. + +"He's a silly ass," responded T. X. + +"I can understand all that" - the Chief Commissioner turned round - +"but what I cannot understand is your apology to him." + +"There are so many things you don't understand, Sir George," said +T. X. tartly, "that I despair of ever cataloguing them." + +"You are an insolent cub," growled his Chief. "Come to lunch." + +"Where will you take me?" asked T. X. cautiously. + +"To my club." + +"I'm sorry," said the other, with elaborate politeness, "I have +lunched once at your club. Need I say more?" + +He smiled, as he worked after his Chief had gone, at the +recollection of Kara's profound astonishment and the gratification +he strove so desperately to disguise. + +Kara was a vain man, immensely conscious of his good looks, +conscious of his wealth. He had behaved most handsomely, for not +only had he accepted the apology, but he left nothing undone to +show his desire to create a good impression upon the man who had +so grossly insulted him. + +T. X. had accepted an invitation to stay a weekend at Kara's +"little place in the country," and had found there assembled +everything that the heart could desire in the way of fellowship, +eminent politicians who might conceivably be of service to an +ambitious young Assistant Commissioner of Police, beautiful ladies +to interest and amuse him. Kara had even gone to the length of +engaging a theatrical company to play "Sweet Lavender," and for +this purpose the big ballroom at Hever Court had been transformed +into a theatre. + +As he was undressing for bed that night T. X. remembered that he +had mentioned to Kara that "Sweet Lavender" was his favorite play, +and he realized that the entertainment was got up especially for +his benefit. + +In a score of other ways Kara had endeavoured to consolidate the +friendship. He gave the young Commissioner advice about a railway +company which was operating in Asia Minor, and the shares of which +stood a little below par. T. X. thanked him for the advice, and +did not take it, nor did he feel any regret when the shares rose 3 +pounds in as many weeks. + +T. X. had superintended the disposal of Beston Priory. He had the +furniture removed to London, and had taken a flat for Grace +Lexman. + +She had a small income of her own, and this, added to the large +royalties which came to her (as she was bitterly conscious) in +increasing volume as the result of the publicity of the trial, +placed her beyond fear of want. + +"Fifteen years," murmured T. X., as he worked and whistled. + +There had been no hope for John Lexman from the start. He was in +debt to the man he killed. His story of threatening letters was +not substantiated. The revolver which he said had been flourished +at him had never been found. Two people believed implicitly in +the story, and a sympathetic Home Secretary had assured T. X. +personally that if he could find the revolver and associate it +with the murder beyond any doubt, John Lexman would be pardoned. + +Every stream in the neighbourhood had been dragged. In one case a +small river had been dammed, and the bed had been carefully dried +and sifted, but there was no trace of the weapon, and T. X. had +tried methods more effective and certainly less legal. + +A mysterious electrician had called at 456 Cadogan Square in +Kara's absence, and he was armed with such indisputable authority +that he was permitted to penetrate to Kara's private room, in +order to examine certain fitments. + +Kara returning next day thought no more of the matter when it was +reported to him, until going to his safe that night he discovered +that it had been opened and ransacked. + +As it happened, most of Kara's valuable and confidential +possessions were at the bank. In a fret of panic and at +considerable cost he had the safe removed and another put in its +place of such potency that the makers offered to indemnify him +against any loss from burglary. + +T. X. finished his work, washed his hands, and was drying them +when Mansus came bursting into the room. It was not usual for +Mansus to burst into anywhere. He was a slow, methodical, +painstaking man, with a deliberate and an official, manner. + +"What's the matter?" asked T. X. quickly. + +"We didn't search Vassalaro's lodgings," cried Mansus +breathlessly. "It just occurred to me as I was coming over +Westminster Bridge. I was on top of a bus - " + +"Wake up!" said T. X. "You're amongst friends and cut all that +'bus' stuff out. Of course we searched Vassalaro's lodgings!" + +"No, we didn't, sir," said the other triumphantly. "He lived in +Great James Street." + +"He lived in the Adelphi," corrected T. X. + +"There were two places where he lived," said Mansus. + +"When did you learn this?" asked his Chief, dropping his +flippancy. + +"This morning. I was on a bus coming across Westminster Bridge, +and there were two men in front of me, and I heard the word +'Vassalaro' and naturally I pricked up my ears." + +"It was very unnatural, but proceed," said T. X. + +"One of the men - a very respectable person - said, 'That chap +Vassalaro used to lodge in my place, and I've still got a lot of +his things. What do you think I ought to do?'" + +"And you said," suggested the other. + +"I nearly frightened his life out of him," said Mansus. "I said, +'I am a police officer and I want you to come along with me.'" + +"And of course he shut up and would not say another word," said T. +X. + +"That's true, sir," said Mansus, "but after awhile I got him to +talk. Vassalaro lived in Great James Street, 604, on the third +floor. In fact, some of his furniture is there still. He had a +good reason for keeping two addresses by all accounts." + +T. X. nodded wisely. + +"What was her name?" he asked. + +"He had a wife," said the other, "but she left him about four +months before he was killed. He used the Adelphi address for +business purposes and apparently he slept two or three nights of +the week at Great James Street. I have told the man to leave +everything as it is, and that we will come round." + +Ten minutes later the two officers were in the somewhat gloomy +apartments which Vassalaro had occupied. + +The landlord explained that most of the furniture was his, but +that there were certain articles which were the property of the +deceased man. He added, somewhat unnecessarily, that the late +tenant owed him six months' rent. + +The articles which had been the property of Vassalaro included a +tin trunk, a small writing bureau, a secretaire bookcase and a few +clothes. The secretaire was locked, as was the writing bureau. +The tin box, which had little or nothing of interest, was +unfastened. + +The other locks needed very little attention. Without any +difficulty Mansus opened both. The leaf of the bureau, when let +down, formed the desk, and piled up inside was a whole mass of +letters opened and unopened, accounts, note-books and all the +paraphernalia which an untidy man collects. + +Letter by letter, T. X. went through the accumulation without +finding anything to help him. Then his eye was attracted by a +small tin case thrust into one of the oblong pigeon holes at the +back of the desk. This he pulled out and opened and found a small +wad of paper wrapped in tin foil. + +"Hello, hello!" said T. X., and he was pardonably exhilarated. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +A Man stood in the speckless courtyard before the Governor's house +at Dartmoor gaol. He wore the ugly livery of shame which marks +the convict. His head was clipped short, and there was two days' +growth of beard upon his haggard face. Standing with his hands +behind him, he waited for the moment when he would be ordered to +his work. + +John Lexman - A. O. 43 - looked up at the blue sky as he had +looked so many times from the exercise yard, and wondered what the +day would bring forth. A day to him was the beginning and the end +of an eternity. He dare not let his mind dwell upon the long +aching years ahead. He dare not think of the woman he left, or +let his mind dwell upon the agony which she was enduring. He had +disappeared from the world, the world he loved, and the world that +knew him, and all that there was in life; all that was worth while +had been crushed and obliterated into the granite of the +Princetown quarries, and its wide horizon shrunken by the gaunt +moorland with its menacing tors. + +New interests made up his existence. The quality of the food was +one. The character of the book he would receive from the prison +library another. The future meant Sunday chapel; the present +whatever task they found him. For the day he was to paint some +doors and windows of an outlying cottage. A cottage occupied by a +warder who, for some reason, on the day previous, had spoken to +him with a certain kindness and a certain respect which was +unusual. + +"Face the wall," growled a voice, and mechanically he turned, his +hands still behind him, and stood staring at the grey wall of the +prison storehouse. + +He heard the shuffling feet of the quarry gang, his ears caught +the clink of the chains which bound them together. They were +desperate men, peculiarly interesting to him, and he had watched +their faces furtively in the early period of his imprisonment. + +He had been sent to Dartmoor after spending three months in +Wormwood Scrubbs. Old hands had told him variously that he was +fortunate or unlucky. It was usual to have twelve months at the +Scrubbs before testing the life of a convict establishment. He +believed there was some talk of sending him to Parkhurst, and here +he traced the influence which T. X. would exercise, for Parkhurst +was a prisoner's paradise. + +He heard his warder's voice behind him. + +"Right turn, 43, quick march." + +He walked ahead of the armed guard, through the great and gloomy +gates of the prison, turned sharply to the right, and walked up +the village street toward the moors, beyond the village of +Princetown, and on the Tavistock Road where were two or three +cottages which had been lately taken by the prison staff; and it +was to the decoration of one of these that A. O. 43 had been sent. + +The house was as yet without a tenant. + +A paper-hanger under the charge of another warder was waiting for +the arrival of the painter. The two warders exchanged greetings, +and the first went off leaving the other in charge of both men. + +For an hour they worked in silence under the eyes of the guard. +Presently the warder went outside, and John Lexman had an +opportunity of examining his fellow sufferer. + +He was a man of twenty-four or twenty-five, lithe and alert. By +no means bad looking, he lacked that indefinable suggestion of +animalism which distinguished the majority of the inhabitants at +Dartmoor. + +They waited until they heard the warder's step clear the passage, +and until his iron-shod boots were tramping over the cobbled path +which led from the door, through the tiny garden to the road, +before the second man spoke. + +"What are you in for?" he asked, in a low voice. + +"Murder," said John Lexman, laconically. + +He had answered the question before, and had noticed with a little +amusement the look of respect which came into the eyes of the +questioner. + +"What have you got!" + +"Fifteen years," said the other. + +"That means 11 years and 9 months," said the first man. "You've +never been here before, I suppose?" + +"Hardly," said Lexman, drily. + +"I was here when I was a kid," confessed the paper-hanger. "I am +going out next week." + +John Lexman looked at him enviously. Had the man told him that he +had inherited a great fortune and a greater title his envy would +not have been so genuine. + +Going out! + +The drive in the brake to the station, the ride to London in +creased, but comfortable clothing, free as the air, at liberty to +go to bed and rise when he liked, to choose his own dinner, to +answer no call save the call of his conscience, to see - he +checked himself. + +"What are you in for?" he asked in self-defence. + +"Conspiracy and fraud," said the other cheerfully. "I was put +away by a woman after three of us had got clear with 12,000 +pounds. Damn rough luck, wasn't it?" + +John nodded. + +It was curious, he thought, how sympathetic one grows with these +exponents of crimes. One naturally adopts their point of view and +sees life through their distorted vision. + +"I bet I'm not given away with the next lot," the prisoner went +on. "I've got one of the biggest ideas I've ever had, and I've +got a real good man to help me." + +"How?" asked John, in surprise. + +The man jerked his head in the direction of the prison. + +"Larry Green," he said briefly. "He's coming out next month, too, +and we are all fixed up proper. We are going to get the pile and +then we're off to South America, and you won't see us for dust." + +Though he employed all the colloquialisms which were common, his +tone was that of a man of education, and yet there was something +in his address which told John as clearly as though the man had +confessed as much, that he had never occupied any social position +in life. + +The warder's step on the stones outside reduced them to silence. +Suddenly his voice came up the stairs. + +"Forty-three," he called sharply, "I want you down here." + +John took his paint pot and brush and went clattering down the +uncarpeted stairs. + +"Where's the other man?" asked the warder, in a low voice. + +"He's upstairs in the back room." + +The warder stepped out of the door and looked left and right. +Coming up from Princetown was a big, grey car. + +"Put down your paint pot," he said. + +His voice was shaking with excitement. + +"I am going upstairs. When that car comes abreast of the gate, +ask no questions and jump into it. Get down into the bottom and +pull a sack over you, and do not get up until the car stops." + +The blood rushed to John Lexman's head, and he staggered. + +"My God!" he whispered. + +"Do as I tell you," hissed the warder. + +Like an automaton John put down his brushes, and walked slowly to +the gate. The grey car was crawling up the hill, and the face of +the driver was half enveloped in a big rubber mask. Through the +two great goggles John could see little to help him identify the +man. As the machine came up to the gate, he leapt into the +tonneau and sank instantly to the bottom. As he did so he felt +the car leap forward underneath him. Now it was going fast, now +faster, now it rocked and swayed as it gathered speed. He felt it +sweeping down hill and up hill, and once he heard a hollow rumble +as it crossed a wooden bridge. + +He could not detect from his hiding place in what direction they +were going, but he gathered they had switched off to the left and +were making for one of the wildest parts of the moor. Never once +did he feel the car slacken its pace, until, with a grind of +brakes, it stopped suddenly. + +"Get out," said a voice. + +John Lexman threw off the cover and leapt out and as he did so the +car turned and sped back the way it had come. + +For a moment he thought he was alone, and looked around. Far away +in the distance he saw the grey bulk of Princetown Gaol. It was +an accident that he should see it, but it so happened that a ray +of the sun fell athwart it and threw it into relief. + +He was alone on the moors! Where could he go? + +He turned at the sound of a voice. + +He was standing on the slope of a small tor. At the foot there +was a smooth stretch of green sward. It was on this stretch that +the people of Dartmoor held their pony races in the summer months. +There was no sign of horses; but only a great bat-like machine +with out-stretched pinions of taut white canvas, and by that +machine a man clad from head to foot in brown overalls. + +John stumbled down the slope. As he neared the machine he stopped +and gasped. + +"Kara," he said, and the brown man smiled. + +"But, I do not understand. What are you going to do!" asked +Lexman, when he had recovered from his surprise. + +"I am going to take you to a place of safety," said the other. + +"I have no reason to be grateful to you, as yet, Kara," breathed +Lexman. "A word from you could have saved me." + +"I could not lie, my dear Lexman. And honestly, I had forgotten +the existence of the letter; if that is what you are referring to, +but I am trying to do what I can for you and for your wife." + +"My wife!" + +"She is waiting for you," said the other. + +He turned his head, listening. + +Across the moor came the dull sullen boom of a gun. + +"You haven't time for argument. They discovered your escape," he +said. "Get in." + +John clambered up into the frail body of the machine and Kara +followed. + +"This is a self-starter," he said, "one of the newest models of +monoplanes." + +He clicked over a lever and with a roar the big three-bladed +tractor screw spun. + +The aeroplane moved forward with a jerk, ran with increasing gait +for a hundred yards, and then suddenly the jerky progress ceased. +The machine swayed gently from side to side, and looking over, the +passenger saw the ground recede beneath him. + +Up, up, they climbed in one long sweeping ascent, passing through +drifting clouds till the machine soared like a bird above the blue +sea. + +John Lexman looked down. He saw the indentations of the coast and +recognized the fringe of white houses that stood for Torquay, but +in an incredibly short space of time all signs of the land were +blotted out. + +Talking was impossible. The roar of the engines defied +penetration. + +Kara was evidently a skilful pilot. From time to time he +consulted the compass on the board before him, and changed his +course ever so slightly. Presently he released one hand from the +driving wheel, and scribbling on a little block of paper which was +inserted in a pocket at the side of the seat he passed it back. + +John Lexman read: + + "If you cannot swim there is a life belt under your seat." + +John nodded. + +Kara was searching the sea for something, and presently he found +it. Viewed from the height at which they flew it looked no more +than a white speck in a great blue saucer, but presently the +machine began to dip, falling at a terrific rate of speed, which +took away the breath of the man who was hanging on with both hands +to the dangerous seat behind. + +He was deadly cold, but had hardly noticed the fact. It was all +so incredible, so impossible. He expected to wake up and wondered +if the prison was also part of the dream. + +Now he saw the point for which Kara was making. + +A white steam yacht, long and narrow of beam, was steaming slowly +westward. He could see the feathery wake in her rear, and as the +aeroplane fell he had time to observe that a boat had been put +off. Then with a jerk the monoplane flattened out and came like a +skimming bird to the surface of the water; her engines stopped. + +"We ought to be able to keep afloat for ten minutes," said Kara, +"and by that time they will pick us up." + +His voice was high and harsh in the almost painful silence which +followed the stoppage of the engines. + +In less than five minutes the boat had come alongside, manned, as +Lexman gathered from a glimpse of the crew, by Greeks. He +scrambled aboard and five minutes later he was standing on the +white deck of the yacht, watching the disappearing tail of the +monoplane. Kara was by his side. + +"There goes fifteen hundred pounds," said the Greek, with a smile, +"add that to the two thousand I paid the warder and you have a +tidy sum-but some things are worth all the money in the world!" + + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +T. X. came from Downing Street at 11 o'clock one night, and his +heart was filled with joy and gratitude. + +He swung his stick to the common danger of the public, but the +policeman on point duty at the end of the street, who saw him, +recognized and saluted him, did not think it fit to issue any +official warning. + +He ran up the stairs to his office, and found Mansus reading the +evening paper. + +"My poor, dumb beast," said T. X. "I am afraid I have kept you +waiting for a very long time, but tomorrow you and I will take a +little journey to Devonshire. It will be good for you, Mansus - +where did you get that ridiculous name, by the way!" + +"M. or N.," replied Mansus, laconically. + +"I repeat that there is the dawn of an intellect in you," said T. +X., offensively. + +He became more serious as he took from a pocket inside his +waistcoat a long blue envelope containing the paper which had cost +him so much to secure. + +"Finding the revolver was a master-stroke of yours, Mansus," he +said, and he was in earnest as he spoke. + +The man coloured with pleasure for the subordinates of T. X. loved +him, and a word of praise was almost equal to promotion. It was +on the advice of Mansus that the road from London to Lewes had +been carefully covered and such streams as passed beneath that +road had been searched. + +The revolver had been found after the third attempt between +Gatwick and Horsley. Its identification was made easier by the +fact that Vassalaro's name was engraved on the butt. It was +rather an ornate affair and in its earlier days had been silver +plated; the handle was of mother-o'-pearl. + +"Obviously the gift of one brigand to another," was T. X.'s +comment. + +Armed with this, his task would have been fairly easy, but when to +this evidence he added a rough draft of the threatening letter +which he had found amongst Vassalaro's belongings, and which had +evidently been taken down at dictation, since some of the words +were misspelt and had been corrected by another hand, the case was +complete. + +But what clinched the matter was the finding of a wad of that +peculiar chemical paper, a number of sheets of which T. X. had +ignited for the information of the Chief Commissioner and the Home +Secretary by simply exposing them for a few seconds to the light +of an electric lamp. + +Instantly it had filled the Home Secretary's office with a pungent +and most disagreeable smoke, for which he was heartily cursed by +his superiors. But it had rounded off the argument. + +He looked at his watch. + +"I wonder if it is too late to see Mrs. Lexman," he said. + +"I don't think any hour would be too late," suggested Mansus. + +"You shall come and chaperon me," said his superior. + +But a disappointment awaited. Mrs. Lexman was not in and neither +the ringing at her electric bell nor vigorous applications to the +knocker brought any response. The hall porter of the flats where +she lived was under the impression that Mrs. Lexman had gone out +of town. She frequently went out on Saturdays and returned on the +Monday and, he thought, occasionally on Tuesdays. + +It happened that this particular night was a Monday night and T. +X. was faced with a dilemma. The night porter, who had only the +vaguest information on the subject, thought that the day porter +might know more, and aroused him from his sleep. + +Yes, Mrs. Lexman had gone. She went on the Sunday, an unusual day +to pay a week-end visit, and she had taken with her two bags. The +porter ventured the opinion that she was rather excited, but when +asked to define the symptoms relapsed into a chaos of incoherent +"you-knows" and "what-I-means." + +"I don't like this," said T. X., suddenly. "Does anybody know that +we have made these discoveries?" + +"Nobody outside the office," said Mansus, "unless, unless . . . " + +"Unless what?" asked the other, irritably. "Don't be a jimp, +Mansus. Get it off your mind. What is it?" + +"I am wondering," said Mansus slowly, "if the landlord at Great +James Street said anything. He knows we have made a search." + +"We can easily find that out," said T. X. + +They hailed a taxi and drove to Great James Street. That +respectable thoroughfare was wrapped in sleep and it was some time +before the landlord could be aroused. Recognizing T. X. he +checked his sarcasm, which he had prepared for a keyless lodger, +and led the way into the drawing room. + +"You didn't tell me not to speak about it, Mr. Meredith," he said, +in an aggrieved tone, "and as a matter of fact I have spoken to +nobody except the gentleman who called the same day." + +"What did he want?" asked T. X. + +"He said he had only just discovered that Mr. Vassalaro had stayed +with me and he wanted to pay whatever rent was due," replied the +other. + +"What like of man was he?" asked T. X. + +The brief description the man gave sent a cold chill to the +Commissioner's heart. + +"Kara for a ducat!" he said, and swore long and variously. + +"Cadogan Square," he ordered. + +His ring was answered promptly. Mr. Kara was out of town, had +indeed been out of town since Saturday. This much the man-servant +explained with a suspicious eye upon his visitors, remembering +that his predecessor had lost his job from a too confiding +friendliness with spurious electric fitters. He did not know when +Mr. Kara would return, perhaps it would be a long time and perhaps +a short time. He might come back that night or he might not. + +"You are wasting your young life," said T. X. bitterly. "You +ought to be a fortune teller." + +"This settles the matter," he said, in the cab on the way back. +"Find out the first train for Tavistock in the morning and wire +the George Hotel to have a car waiting." + +"Why not go to-night?" suggested the other. "There is the +midnight train. It is rather slow, but it will get you there by +six or seven in the morning." + +"Too late," he said, "unless you can invent a method of getting +from here to Paddington in about fifty seconds." + +The morning journey to Devonshire was a dispiriting one despite +the fineness of the day. T. X. had an uncomfortable sense that +something distressing had happened. The run across the moor in +the fresh spring air revived him a little. + +As they spun down to the valley of the Dart, Mansus touched his +arm. + +"Look at that," he said, and pointed to the blue heavens where, a +mile above their heads, a white-winged aeroplane, looking no +larger than a very distant dragon fly, shimmered in the sunlight. + +"By Jove!" said T. X. "What an excellent way for a man to escape!" + +"It's about the only way," said Mansus. + +The significance of the aeroplane was borne in upon T. X. a few +minutes later when he was held up by an armed guard. A glance at +his card was enough to pass him. + +"What is the matter?" he asked. + +"A prisoner has escaped," said the sentry. + +"Escaped - by aeroplane?" asked T. X. + +"I don't know anything about aeroplanes, sir. All I know is that +one of the working party got away." + +The car came to the gates of the prison and T. X. sprang out, +followed by his assistant. He had no difficulty in finding the +Governor, a greatly perturbed man, for an escape is a very serious +matter. + +The official was inclined to be brusque in his manner, but again +the magic card produced a soothing effect. + +"I am rather rattled," said the Governor. "One of my men has got +away. I suppose you know that?" + +"And I am afraid another of your men is going away, sir," said T. +X., who had a curious reverence for military authority. He +produced his paper and laid it on the governor's table. + +"This is an order for the release of John Lexman, convicted under +sentence of fifteen years penal servitude." + +The Governor looked at it. + +"Dated last night," he said, and breathed a long sigh of relief. +"Thank the Lord! - that is the man who escaped!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +Two years after the events just described, T. X. journeying up to +London from Bath was attracted by a paragraph in the Morning Post. +It told him briefly that Mr. Remington Kara, the influential +leader of the Greek Colony, had been the guest of honor at a +dinner of the Hellenic Society. + +T. X. had only seen Kara for a brief space of time following that +tragic morning, when he had discovered not only that his best +friend had escaped from Dartmoor prison and disappeared, as it +were, from the world at a moment when his pardon had been signed, +but that that friend's wife had also vanished from the face of the +earth. + +At the same time - it might, as even T. X. admitted, have been the +veriest coincidence that Kara had also cleared out of London to +reappear at the end of six months. Any question addressed to him, +concerning the whereabouts of the two unhappy people, was met with +a bland expression of ignorance as to their whereabouts. + +John Lexman was somewhere in the world, hiding as he believed from +justice, and with him was his wife. T. X. had no doubt in his +mind as to this solution of the puzzle. He had caused to be +published the story of the pardon and the circumstances under +which that pardon had been secured, and he had, moreover, arranged +for an advertisement to be inserted in the principal papers of +every European country. + +It was a moot question amongst the departmental lawyers as to +whether John Lexman was not guilty of a technical and punishable +offence for prison breaking, but this possibility did not keep T. +X. awake at nights. The circumstances of the escape had been +carefully examined. The warder responsible had been discharged +from the service, and had almost immediately purchased for himself +a beer house in Falmouth, for a sum which left no doubt in the +official mind that he had been the recipient of a heavy bribe. + +Who had been the guiding spirit in that escape - Mrs. Lexman, or +Kara? + +It was impossible to connect Kara with the event. The motor car +had been traced to Exeter, where it had been hired by a +"foreign-looking gentleman," but the chauffeur, whoever he was, +had made good his escape. An inspection of Kara's hangars at +Wembley showed that his two monoplanes had not been removed, and +T. X. failed entirely to trace the owner of the machine he had +seen flying over Dartmoor on the fatal morning. + +T. X. was somewhat baffled and a little amused by the +disinclination of the authorities to believe that the escape had +been effected by this method at all. All the events of the trial +came back to him, as he watched the landscape spinning past. + +He set down the newspaper with a little sigh, put his feet on the +cushions of the opposite seat and gave himself up to reverie. +Presently he returned to his journals and searched them idly for +something to interest him in the final stretch of journey between +Newbury and Paddington. + +Presently he found it in a two column article with the uninspiring +title, "The Mineral Wealth of Tierra del Fuego." It was written +brightly with a style which was at once easy and informative. It +told of adventures in the marshes behind St. Sebastian Bay and +journeys up the Guarez Celman river, of nights spent in primeval +forests and ended in a geological survey, wherein the commercial +value of syenite, porphyry, trachite and dialite were severally +canvassed. + +The article was signed "G. G." It is said of T. X. that his +greatest virtue was his curiosity. He had at the tip of his +fingers the names of all the big explorers and author-travellers, +and for some reason he could not place "G. G." to his +satisfaction, in fact he had an absurd desire to interpret the +initials into "George Grossmith." His inability to identify the +writer irritated him, and his first act on reaching his office was +to telephone to one of the literary editors of the Times whom he +knew. + +"Not my department," was the chilly reply, "and besides we never +give away the names of our contributors. Speaking as a person +outside the office I should say that "G. G." was 'George +Gathercole' the explorer you know, the fellow who had an arm +chewed off by a lion or something." + +"George Gathercole!" repeated T. X. "What an ass I am." + +"Yes," said the voice at the other end the wire, and he had rung +off before T. X. could think of something suitable to say. + +Having elucidated this little side-line of mystery, the matter +passed from the young Commissioner's mind. It happened that +morning that his work consisted of dealing with John Lexman's +estate. + +With the disappearance of the couple he had taken over control of +their belongings. It had not embarrassed him to discover that he +was an executor under Lexman's will, for he had already acted as +trustee to the wife's small estate, and had been one of the +parties to the ante-nuptial contract which John Lexman had made +before his marriage. + +The estate revenues had increased very considerably. All the +vanished author's books were selling as they had never sold +before, and the executor's work was made the heavier by the fact +that Grace Lexman had possessed an aunt who had most in +inconsiderately died, leaving a considerable fortune to her +"unhappy niece." + +"I will keep the trusteeship another year," he told the solicitor +who came to consult him that morning. "At the end of that time I +shall go to the court for relief." + +"Do you think they will ever turn up?" asked the solicitor, an +elderly and unimaginative man. + +"Of course, they'll turn up!" said T. X. impatiently; "all the +heroes of Lexman's books turn up sooner or later. He will +discover himself to us at a suitable moment, and we shall be +properly thrilled." + +That Lexman would return he was sure. It was a faith from which +he did not swerve. + +He had as implicit a confidence that one day or other Kara, the +magnificent, would play into his hands. + +There were some queer stories in circulation concerning the Greek, +but on the whole they were stories and rumours which were +difficult to separate from the malicious gossip which invariably +attaches itself to the rich and to the successful. + +One of these was that Kara desired something more than an Albanian +chieftainship, which he undoubtedly enjoyed. There were whispers +of wider and higher ambitions. Though his father had been born a +Greek, he had indubitably descended in a direct line from one of +those old Mprets of Albania, who had exercised their brief +authority over that turbulent land. + +The man's passion was for power. To this end he did not spare +himself. It was said that he utilized his vast wealth for this +reason, and none other, and that whatever might have been the +irregularities of his youth - and there were adduced concrete +instances - he was working toward an end with a singleness of +purpose, from which it was difficult to withhold admiration. + +T. X. kept in his locked desk a little red book, steel bound and +triple locked, which he called his "Scandalaria." In this he +inscribed in his own irregular writing the titbits which might not +be published, and which often helped an investigator to light upon +the missing threads of a problem. In truth he scorned no source +of information, and was conscienceless in the compilation of this +somewhat chaotic record. + +The affairs of John Lexman recalled Kara, and Kara's great +reception. Mansus would have made arrangements to secure a +verbatim report of the speeches which were made, and these would +be in his hands by the night. Mansus did not tell him that Kara +was financing some very influential people indeed, that a certain +Under-secretary of State with a great number of very influential +relations had been saved from bankruptcy by the timely advances +which Kara had made. This T. X. had obtained through sources +which might be hastily described as discreditable. Mansus knew of +the baccarat establishment in Albemarle Street, but he did not +know that the neurotic wife of a very great man indeed, no less +than the Minister of Justice, was a frequent visitor to that +establishment, and that she had lost in one night some 6,000 +pounds. In these circumstances it was remarkable, thought T. X., +that she should report to the police so small a matter as the +petty pilfering of servants. This, however, she had done and +whilst the lesser officers of Scotland Yard were interrogating +pawnbrokers, the men higher up were genuinely worried by the +lady's own lapses from grace. + +It was all sordid but, unfortunately, conventional, because highly +placed people will always do underbred things, where money or +women are concerned, but it was necessary, for the proper conduct +of the department which T. X. directed, that, however sordid and +however conventional might be the errors which the great ones of +the earth committed, they should be filed for reference. + +The motto which T. X. went upon in life was, "You never know." + +The Minister of Justice was a very important person, for he was a +personal friend of half the monarchs of Europe. A poor man, with +two or three thousand a year of his own, with no very definite +political views and uncommitted to the more violent policies of +either party, he succeeded in serving both, with profit to +himself, and without earning the obloquy of either. Though he did +not pursue the blatant policy of the Vicar of Bray, yet it is fact +which may be confirmed from the reader's own knowledge, that he +served in four different administrations, drawing the pay and +emoluments of his office from each, though the fundamental +policies of those four governments were distinct. + +Lady Bartholomew, the wife of this adaptable Minister, had +recently departed for San Remo. The newspapers announced the fact +and spoke vaguely of a breakdown which prevented the lady from +fulfilling her social engagements. + +T. X., ever a Doubting Thomas, could trace no visit of nerve +specialist, nor yet of the family practitioner, to the official +residence in Downing Street, and therefore he drew conclusions. +In his own "Who's Who" T. X. noted the hobbies of his victims +which, by the way, did not always coincide with the innocent +occupations set against their names in the more pretentious +volume. Their follies and their weaknesses found a place and were +recorded at a length (as it might seem to the uninformed observer) +beyond the limit which charity allowed. + +Lady Mary Bartholomew's name appeared not once, but many times, in +the erratic records which T. X. kept. There was a plain +matter-of-fact and wholly unobjectionable statement that she was +born in 1874, that she was the seventh daughter of the Earl of +Balmorey, that she had one daughter who rejoiced in the somewhat +unpromising name of Belinda Mary, and such further information as +a man might get without going to a great deal of trouble. + +T. X., refreshing his memory from the little red book, wondered +what unexpected tragedy had sent Lady Bartholomew out of London in +the middle of the season. The information was that the lady was +fairly well off at this moment, and this fact made matters all the +more puzzling and almost induced him to believe that, after all, +the story was true, and a nervous breakdown really was the cause +of her sudden departure. He sent for Mansus. + +"You saw Lady Bartholomew off at Charing Cross, I suppose?" + +Mansus nodded. + +"She went alone?" + +"She took her maid, but otherwise she was alone. I thought she +looked ill." + +"She has been looking ill for months past," said T. X., without +any visible expression of sympathy. + +"Did she take Belinda Mary?" + +Mansus was puzzled. "Belinda Mary?" he repeated slowly. "Oh, you +mean the daughter. No, she's at a school somewhere in France." + +T. X. whistled a snatch of a popular song, closed the little red +book with a snap and replaced it in his desk. + +"I wonder where on earth people dig up names like Belinda Mary?" +he mused. "Belinda Mary must be rather a weird little animal - +the Lord forgive me for speaking so about my betters! If heredity +counts for anything she ought to be something between a head +waiter and a pack of cards. Have you lost anything'?" + +Mansus was searching his pockets. + +"I made a few notes, some questions I wanted to ask you about and +Lady Bartholomew was the subject of one of them. I have had her +under observation for six months; do you want it kept up?" + +T. X. thought awhile, then shook his head. + +"I am only interested in Lady Bartholomew in so far as Kara is +interested in her. There is a criminal for you, my friend!" he +added, admiringly. + +Mansus busily engaged in going through the bundles of letters, +slips of paper and little notebooks he had taken from his pocket, +sniffed audibly. + +"Have you a cold?" asked T. X. politely. + +"No, sir," was the reply, "only I haven't much opinion of Kara as +a criminal. Besides, what has he got to be a criminal about? He +has all that he requires in the money department, he's one of the +most popular people in London, and certainly one of the +best-looking men I've ever seen in my life. He needs nothing." + +T. X. regarded him scornfully. + +"You're a poor blind brute," he said, shaking his head; don't you +know that great criminals are never influenced by material +desires, or by the prospect of concrete gains? The man, who robs +his employer's till in order to give the girl of his heart the +25-pearl and ruby brooch her soul desires, gains nothing but the +glow of satisfaction which comes to the man who is thought well +of. The majority of crimes in the world are committed by people +for the same reason - they want to be thought well of. Here is +Doctor X. who murdered his wife because she was a drunkard and a +slut, and he dared not leave her for fear the neighbours would +have doubts as to his respectability. Here is another gentleman +who murders his wives in their baths in order that he should keep +up some sort of position and earn the respect of his friends and +his associates. Nothing roused him more quickly to a frenzy of +passion than the suggestion that he was not respectable. Here is +the great financier, who has embezzled a million and a quarter, +not because he needed money, but because people looked up to him. +Therefore, he must build great mansions, submarine pleasure courts +and must lay out huge estates - because he wished that he should +be thought well of. + +Mansus sniffed again. + +"What about the man who half murders his wife, does he do that to +be well thought of?" he asked, with a tinge of sarcasm. + +T. X. looked at him pityingly. + +"The low-brow who beats his wife, my poor Mansus," he said, "does +so because she doesn't think well of him. That is our ruling +passion, our national characteristic, the primary cause of most +crimes, big or little. That is why Kara is a bad criminal and +will, as I say, end his life very violently." + +He took down his glossy silk hat from the peg and slipped into his +overcoat. + +"I am going down to see my friend Kara," he said. "I have a +feeling that I should like to talk with him. He might tell me +something." + +His acquaintance with Kara's menage had been mere hearsay. He had +interviewed the Greek once after his return, but since all his +efforts to secure information concerning the whereabouts of John +Lexman and his wife - the main reason for his visit - had been in +vain, he had not repeated his visit. + +The house in Cadogan Square was a large one, occupying a corner +site. It was peculiarly English in appearance with its window +boxes, its discreet curtains, its polished brass and enamelled +doorway. It had been the town house of Lord Henry Gratham, that +eccentric connoisseur of wine and follower of witless pleasure. +It had been built by him "round a bottle of port," as his friends +said, meaning thereby that his first consideration had been the +cellarage of the house, and that when those cellars had been built +and provision made for the safe storage of his priceless wines, +the house had been built without the architect's being greatly +troubled by his lordship. The double cellars of Gratham House +had, in their time, been one of the sights of London. When +Henry Gratham lay under eight feet of Congo earth (he was killed +by an elephant whilst on a hunting trip) his executors had been +singularly fortunate in finding an immediate purchaser. Rumour +had it that Kara, who was no lover of wine, had bricked up the +cellars, and their very existence passed into domestic legendary. + +The door was opened by a well-dressed and deferential man-servant +and T. X. was ushered into the hall. A fire burnt cheerily in a +bronze grate and T. X. had a glimpse of a big oil painting of Kara +above the marble mantle-piece. + +"Mr. Kara is very busy, sir," said the man. + +"Just take in my card," said T. X. "I think he may care to see +me." + +The man bowed, produced from some mysterious corner a silver +salver and glided upstairs in that manner which well-trained +servants have, a manner which seems to call for no bodily effort. +In a minute he returned. + +"Will you come this way, sir," he said, and led the way up a broad +flight of stairs. + +At the head of the stairs was a corridor which ran to the left and +to the right. From this there gave four rooms. One at the +extreme end of the passage on the right, one on the left, and two +at fairly regular intervals in the centre. + +When the man's hand was on one of the doors, T. X. asked quietly, +"I think I have seen you before somewhere, my friend." + +The man smiled. + +"It is very possible, sir. I was a waiter at the Constitutional +for some time." + +T. X. nodded. + +"That is where it must have been," he said. + +The man opened the door and announced the visitor. + +T. X. found himself in a large room, very handsomely furnished, +but just lacking that sense of cosiness and comfort which is the +feature of the Englishman's home. + +Kara rose from behind a big writing table, and came with a smile +and a quick step to greet the visitor. + +"This is a most unexpected pleasure," he said, and shook hands +warmly. + +T. X. had not seen him for a year and found very little change in +this strange young man. He could not be more confident than he +had been, nor bear himself with a more graceful carriage. +Whatever social success he had achieved, it had not spoiled him, +for his manner was as genial and easy as ever. + +"I think that will do, Miss Holland," he said, turning to the girl +who, with notebook in hand, stood by the desk. + +"Evidently," thought T. X., "our Hellenic friend has a pretty taste +in secretaries." + +In that one glance he took her all in - from the bronze-brown of +her hair to her neat foot. + +T. X. was not readily attracted by members of the opposite sex. +He was self-confessed a predestined bachelor, finding life and its +incidence too absorbing to give his whole mind to the serious +problem of marriage, or to contract responsibilities and interests +which might divert his attention from what he believed was the +greater game. Yet he must be a man of stone to resist the +freshness, the beauty and the youth of this straight, slender +girl; the pink-and-whiteness of her, the aliveness and buoyancy +and the thrilling sense of vitality she carried in her very +presence. + +"What is the weirdest name you have ever heard?" asked Kara +laughingly. "I ask you, because Miss Holland and I have been +discussing a begging letter addressed to us by a Maggie Goomer." + +The girl smiled slightly and in that smile was paradise, thought +T. X. + +"The weirdest name?" he repeated, "why I think the worst I have +heard for a long time is Belinda Mary." + +"That has a familiar ring," said Kara. + +T. X. was looking at the girl. + +She was staring at him with a certain languid insolence which made +him curl up inside. Then with a glance at her employer she swept +from the room. + +"I ought to have introduced you," said Kara. "That was my +secretary, Miss Holland. Rather a pretty girl, isn't she?" + +"Very," said T. X., recovering his breath. + +"I like pretty things around me," said Kara, and somehow the +complacency of the remark annoyed the detective more than anything +that Kara had ever said to him. + +The Greek went to the mantlepiece, and taking down a silver +cigarette box, opened and offered it to his visitor. Kara was +wearing a grey lounge suit; and although grey is a very trying +colour for a foreigner to wear, this suit fitted his splendid +figure and gave him just that bulk which he needed. + +"You are a most suspicious man, Mr. Meredith," he smiled. + +"Suspicious! I?" asked the innocent T. X. + +Kara nodded. + +"I am sure you want to enquire into the character of all my +present staff. I am perfectly satisfied that you will never be at +rest until you learn the antecedents of my cook, my valet, my +secretary - " + +T. X. held up his hand with a laugh. + +"Spare me," he said. "It is one of my failings, I admit, but I +have never gone much farther into your domestic affairs than to +pry into the antecedents of your very interesting chauffeur." + +A little cloud passed over Kara's face, but it was only momentary. + +"Oh, Brown," he said, airily, with just a perceptible pause +between the two words. + +"It used to be Smith," said T. X., "but no matter. His name is +really Poropulos." + +"Oh, Poropulos," said Kara gravely, "I dismissed him a long time +ago." + +"Pensioned hire, too, I understand," said T. X. + +The other looked at him awhile, then, "I am very good to my old +servants," he said slowly and, changing the subject; "to what good +fortune do I owe this visit?" + +T. X. selected a cigarette before he replied. + +"I thought you might be of some service to me," he said, +apparently giving his whole attention to the cigarette. + +"Nothing would give me greater pleasure," said Kara, a little +eagerly. "I am afraid you have not been very keen on continuing +what I hoped would have ripened into a valuable friendship, more +valuable to me perhaps," he smiled, "than to you." + +"I am a very shy man," said the shameless T. X., "difficult to a +fault, and rather apt to underrate my social attractions. I have +come to you now because you know everybody - by the way, how long +have you had your secretary!" he asked abruptly. + +Kara looked up at the ceiling for inspiration. + +"Four, no three months," he corrected, "a very efficient young +lady who came to me from one of the training establishments. +Somewhat uncommunicative, better educated than most girls in her +position - for example, she speaks and writes modern Greek fairly +well." + +"A treasure!" suggested T. X. + +"Unusually so," said Kara. "She lives in Marylebone Road, 86a is +the address. She has no friends, spends most of her evenings in +her room, is eminently respectable and a little chilling in her +attitude to her employer." + +T. X. shot a swift glance at the other. + +"Why do you tell me all this?" he asked. + +"To save you the trouble of finding out," replied the other +coolly. "That insatiable curiosity which is one of the equipments +of your profession, would, I feel sure, induce you to conduct +investigations for your own satisfaction." + +T. X. laughed. + +"May I sit down?" he said. + +The other wheeled an armchair across the room and T. X. sank into +it. He leant back and crossed his legs, and was, in a second, the +personification of ease. + +"I think you are a very clever man, Monsieur Kara," he said. + +The other looked down at him this time without amusement. + +"Not so clever that I can discover the object of your visit," he +said pleasantly enough. + +"It is very simply explained," said T. X. "You know everybody in +town. You know, amongst other people, Lady Bartholomew." + +"I know the lady very well indeed," said Kara, readily, - too +readily in fact, for the rapidity with which answer had followed +question, suggested to T. X. that Kara had anticipated the reason +for the call. + +"Have you any idea," asked T. X., speaking with deliberation, "as +to why Lady Bartholomew has gone out of town at this particular +moment?" + +Kara laughed. + +"What an extraordinary question to ask me - as though Lady +Bartholomew confided her plans to one who is little more than a +chance acquaintance!" + +"And yet," said T. X., contemplating the burning end of his +cigarette, "you know her well enough to hold her promissory note." + +"Promissory note?" asked the other. + +His tone was one of involuntary surprise and T. X. swore softly to +himself for now he saw the faintest shade of relief in Kara's +face. The Commissioner realized that he had committed an error - +he had been far too definite. + +"When I say promissory note," he went on easily, as though he had +noticed nothing, "I mean, of course, the securities which the +debtor invariably gives to one from whom he or she has borrowed +large sums of money." + +Kara made no answer, but opening a drawer of his desk he took out +a key and brought it across to where T. X. was sitting. + +"Here is the key of my safe," he said quietly. "You are at +liberty to go carefully through its contents and discover for +yourself any promissory note which I hold from Lady Bartholomew. +My dear fellow, you don't imagine I'm a moneylender, do you?" he +said in an injured tone. + +"Nothing was further from my thoughts," said T. X., untruthfully. + +But the other pressed the key upon him. + +"I should be awfully glad if you would look for yourself," he said +earnestly. "I feel that in some way you associate Lady +Bartholomew's illness with some horrible act of usury on my part - +will you satisfy yourself and in doing so satisfy me?" + +Now any ordinary man, and possibly any ordinary detective, would +have made the conventional answer. He would have protested that +he had no intention of doing anything of the sort; he would have +uttered, if he were a man in the position which T. X. occupied, +the conventional statement that he had no authority to search the +private papers, and that he would certainly not avail himself of +the other's kindness. But T. X. was not an ordinary person. He +took the key and balanced it lightly in the palm of his hand. + +"Is this the key of the famous bedroom safe?" he said banteringly. + +Kara was looking down at him with a quizzical smile. "It isn't +the safe you opened in my absence, on one memorable occasion, Mr. +Meredith," he said. "As you probably know, I have changed that +safe, but perhaps you don't feel equal to the task?" + +"On the contrary," said T. X., calmly, and rising from the chair, +"I am going to put your good faith to the test." + +For answer Kara walked to the door and opened it. + +"Let me show you the way," he said politely. + +He passed along the corridor and entered the apartment at the end. +The room was a large one and lighted by one big square window +which was protected by steel bars. In the grate which was broad +and high a huge fire was burning and the temperature of the room +was unpleasantly close despite the coldness of the day. + +"That is one of the eccentricities which you, as an Englishman, +will never excuse in me," said Kara. + +Near the foot of the bed, let into, and flush with, the wall, was +a big green door of the safe. + +"Here you are, Mr. Meredith," said Kara. "All the precious +secrets of Remington Kara are yours for the seeking." + +"I am afraid I've had my trouble for nothing," said T. X., making +no attempt to use the key. + +"That is an opinion which I share," said Kara, with a smile. + +"Curiously enough," said T. X. "I mean just what you mean." + +He handed the key to Kara. + +"Won't you open it?" asked the Greek. + +T. X. shook his head. + +"The safe as far as I can see is a Magnus, the key which you have +been kind enough to give me is legibly inscribed upon the handle +'Chubb.' My experience as a police officer has taught me that +Chubb keys very rarely open Magnus safes." + +Kara uttered an exclamation of annoyance. + +"How stupid of me!" he said, "yet now I remember, I sent the key +to my bankers, before I went out of town - I only came back this +morning, you know. I will send for it at once." + +"Pray don't trouble," murmured T. X. politely. He took from his +pocket a little flat leather case and opened it. It contained a +number of steel implements of curious shape which were held in +position by a leather loop along the centre of the case. From one +of these loops he extracted a handle, and deftly fitted something +that looked like a steel awl to the socket in the handle. Looking +in wonder, and with no little apprehension, Kara saw that the awl +was bent at the head. + +"What are you going to do?" he asked, a little alarmed. + +"I'll show you," said T. X. pleasantly. + +Very gingerly he inserted the instrument in the small keyhole and +turned it cautiously first one way and then the other. There was +a sharp click followed by another. He turned the handle and the +door of the safe swung open. + +"Simple, isn't it!" he asked politely. + +In that second of time Kara's face had undergone a transformation. +The eyes which met T. X. Meredith's blazed with an almost insane +fury. With a quick stride Kara placed himself before the open +safe. + +"I think this has gone far enough, Mr. Meredith," he said harshly. +"If you wish to search my safe you must get a warrant." + +T. X. shrugged his shoulders, and carefully unscrewing the +instrument he had employed and replacing it in the case, he +returned it to his inside pocket. + +"It was at your invitation, my dear Monsieur Kara," he said +suavely. "Of course I knew that you were putting a bluff up on me +with the key and that you had no more intention of letting me see +the inside of your safe than you had of telling me exactly what +happened to John Lexman." + +The shot went home. + +The face which was thrust into the Commissioner's was ridged and +veined with passion. The lips were turned back to show the big +white even teeth, the eyes were narrowed to slits, the jaw thrust +out, and almost every semblance of humanity had vanished from his +face. + +"You - you - " he hissed, and his clawing hands moved suspiciously +backward. + +"Put up your hands," said T. X. sharply, "and be damned quick +about it!" + +In a flash the hands went up, for the revolver which T. X. held +was pressed uncomfortably against the third button of the Greek's +waistcoat. + +"That's not the first time you've been asked to put up your hands, +I think," said T. X. pleasantly. + +His own left hand slipped round to Kara's hip pocket. He found +something in the shape of a cylinder and drew it out from the +pocket. To his surprise it was not a revolver, not even a knife; +it looked like a small electric torch, though instead of a bulb +and a bull's-eye glass, there was a pepper-box perforation at one +end. + +He handled it carefully and was about to press the small nickel +knob when a strangled cry of horror broke from Kara. + +"For God's sake be careful!" he gasped. "You're pointing it at +me! Do not press that lever, I beg!" + +"Will it explode!" asked T. X. curiously. + +"No, no!" + +T. X. pointed the thing downward to the carpet and pressed the +knob cautiously. As he did so there was a sharp hiss and the +floor was stained with the liquid which the instrument contained. +Just one gush of fluid and no more. T. X. looked down. The +bright carpet had already changed colour, and was smoking. The +room was filled with a pungent and disagreeable scent. T. X. +looked from the floor to the white-faced man. + +"Vitriol, I believe," he said, shaking his head admiringly. "What +a dear little fellow you are!" + +The man, big as he was, was on the point of collapse and mumbled +something about self-defence, and listened without a word, whilst +T. X., labouring under an emotion which was perfectly pardonable, +described Kara, his ancestors and the possibilities of his future +estate. + +Very slowly the Greek recovered his self-possession. + +"I didn't intend using it on you, I swear I didn't," he pleaded. +"I'm surrounded by enemies, Meredith. I had to carry some means +of protection. It is because my enemies know I carry this that +they fight shy of me. I'll swear I had no intention of using it +on you. The idea is too preposterous. I am sorry I fooled you +about the safe." + +"Don't let that worry you," said T. X. "I am afraid I did all the +fooling. No, I cannot let you have this back again," he said, as +the Greek put out his hand to take the infernal little instrument. +"I must take this back to Scotland Yard; it's quite a long time +since we had anything new in this shape. Compressed air, I +presume." + +Kara nodded solemnly. + +"Very ingenious indeed," said T. X. "If I had a brain like yours," +he paused, "I should do something with it - with a gun," he added, +as he passed out of the room. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + + "My dear Mr. Meredith, + + "I cannot tell you how unhappy and humiliated I feel that my + little joke with you should have had such an uncomfortable + ending. As you know, and as I have given you proof, I have the + greatest admiration in the world for one whose work for +humanity has won such universal recognition. + + "I hope that we shall both forget this unhappy morning and that + you will give me an opportunity of rendering to you in person, + the apologies which are due to you. I feel that anything less + will neither rehabilitate me in your esteem, nor secure for me + the remnants of my shattered self-respect. + + "I am hoping you will dine with me next week and meet a most +interesting man, George Gathercole, who has just returned from +Patagonia, - I only received his letter this morning - having +made most remarkable discoveries concerning that country. + + "I feel sure that you are large enough minded and too much a man + of the world to allow my foolish fit of temper to disturb a +relationship which I have always hoped would be mutually +pleasant. If you will allow Gathercole, who will be +unconscious of the part he is playing, to act as peacemaker +between yourself and myself, I shall feel that his trip, which +has cost me a large sum of money, will not have been wasted. + + "I am, dear Mr. Meredith, + "Yours very sincerely, + "REMINGTON KARA." + +Kara folded the letter and inserted it in its envelope. He rang a +bell on his table and the girl who had so filled T. X. with a +sense of awe came from an adjoining room. + +"You will see that this is delivered, Miss Holland." + +She inclined her head and stood waiting. Kara rose from his desk +and began to pace the room. + +"Do you know T. X. Meredith?" he asked suddenly. + +"I have heard of him," said the girl. + +"A man with a singular mind," said Kara; "a man against whom my +favourite weapon would fail." + +She looked at him with interest in her eyes. + +"What is your favourite weapon, Mr. Kara?" she asked. + +"Fear," he said. + +If he expected her to give him any encouragement to proceed he was +disappointed. Probably he required no such encouragement, for in +the presence of his social inferiors he was somewhat monopolizing. + +"Cut a man's flesh and it heals," he said. "Whip a man and the +memory of it passes, frighten him, fill him with a sense of +foreboding and apprehension and let him believe that something +dreadful is going to happen either to himself or to someone he +loves - better the latter - and you will hurt him beyond +forgetfulness. Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than +the rack, more potent than the stake. Fear is many-eyed and sees +horrors where normal vision only sees the ridiculous." + +"Is that your creed?" she asked quietly. + +"Part of it, Miss Holland," he smiled. + +She played idly with the letter she held in her hand, balancing it +on the edge of the desk, her eyes downcast. + +"What would justify the use of such an awful weapon?" she asked. + +"It is amply justified to secure an end," he said blandly. "For +example - I want something - I cannot obtain that something +through the ordinary channel or by the employment of ordinary +means. It is essential to me, to my happiness, to my comfort, or +my amour-propre, that that something shall be possessed by me. If +I can buy it, well and good. If I can buy those who can use their +influence to secure this thing for me, so much the better. If I +can obtain it by any merit I possess, I utilize that merit, +providing always, that I can secure my object in the time, +otherwise - " + +He shrugged his shoulders. + +"I see," she said, nodding her head quickly. "I suppose that is +how blackmailers feel." + +He frowned. + +"That is a word I never use, nor do I like to hear it employed," +he said. "Blackmail suggests to me a vulgar attempt to obtain +money." + +"Which is generally very badly wanted by the people who use it," +said the girl, with a little smile, "and, according to your +argument, they are also justified." + +"It is a matter of plane," he said airily. "Viewed from my +standpoint, they are sordid criminals - the sort of person that T. +X. meets, I presume, in the course of his daily work. T. X.," he +went on somewhat oracularly, "is a man for whom I have a great +deal of respect. You will probably meet him again, for he will +find an opportunity of asking you a few questions about myself. I +need hardly tell you - " + +He lifted his shoulders with a deprecating smile. + +"I shall certainly not discuss your business with any person," +said the girl coldly. + +"I am paying you 3 pounds a week, I think," he said. "I intend +increasing that to 5 pounds because you suit me most admirably." + +"Thank you," said the girl quietly, "but I am already being paid +quite sufficient." + +She left him, a little astonished and not a little ruffled. + +To refuse the favours of Remington Kara was, by him, regarded as +something of an affront. Half his quarrel with T. X. was that +gentleman's curious indifference to the benevolent attitude which +Kara had persistently adopted in his dealings with the detective. + +He rang the bell, this time for his valet. + +"Fisher," he said, "I am expecting a visit from a gentleman named +Gathercole - a one-armed gentleman whom you must look after if he +comes. Detain him on some pretext or other because he is rather +difficult to get hold of and I want to see him. I am going out +now and I shall be back at 6.30. Do whatever you can to prevent +him going away until I return. He will probably be interested if +you take him into the library." + +"Very good, sir," said the urbane Fisher, "will you change before +you go out?" + +Kara shook his head. + +"I think I will go as I am," he said. "Get me my fur coat. This +beastly cold kills me," he shivered as he glanced into the bleak +street. "Keep my fire going, put all my private letters in my +bedroom, and see that Miss Holland has her lunch." + +Fisher followed him to his car, wrapped the fur rug about his +legs, closed the door carefully and returned to the house. From +thence onward his behaviour was somewhat extraordinary for a +well-bred servant. That he should return to Kara's study and set +the papers in order was natural and proper. + +That he should conduct a rapid examination of all the drawers in +Kara's desk might be excused on the score of diligence, since he +was, to some extent, in the confidence of his employer. + +Kara was given to making friends of his servants - up to a point. +In his more generous moments he would address his bodyguard as +"Fred," and on more occasions than one, and for no apparent +reason, had tipped his servant over and above his salary. + +Mr. Fred Fisher found little to reward him for his search until he +came upon Kara's cheque book which told him that on the previous +day the Greek had drawn 6,000 pounds in cash from the bank. This +interested him mightily and he replaced the cheque book with the +tightened lips and the fixed gaze of a man who was thinking +rapidly. He paid a visit to the library, where the secretary was +engaged in making copies of Kara's correspondence, answering +letters appealing for charitable donations, and in the hack words +which fall to the secretaries of the great. + +He replenished the fire, asked deferentially for any instructions +and returned again to his quest. This time he made the bedroom +the scene of his investigations. The safe he did not attempt to +touch, but there was a small bureau in which Kara would have +placed his private correspondence of the morning. This however +yielded no result. + +By the side of the bed on a small table was a telephone, the sight +of which apparently afforded the servant a little amusement. This +was the private 'phone which Kara had been instrumental in having +fixed to Scotland Yard - as he had explained to his servants. + +"Rum cove," said Fisher. + +He paused for a moment before the closed door of the room and +smilingly surveyed the great steel latch which spanned the door +and fitted into an iron socket securely screwed to the framework. +He lifted it gingerly - there was a little knob for the purpose - +and let it fall gently into the socket which had been made to +receive it on the door itself. + +"Rum cove," he said again, and lifting the latch to the hook which +held it up, left the room, closing the door softly behind him. He +walked down the corridor, with a meditative frown, and began to +descend the stairs to the hall. + +He was less than half-way down when the one maid of Kara's +household came up to meet him. + +"There's a gentleman who wants to see Mr. Kara," she said, "here +is his card." + +Fisher took the card from the salver and read, "Mr. George +Gathercole, Junior Travellers' Club." + +"I'll see this gentleman," he said, with a sudden brisk interest. + +He found the visitor standing in the hall. + +He was a man who would have attracted attention, if only from the +somewhat eccentric nature of his dress and his unkempt appearance. +He was dressed in a well-worn overcoat of a somewhat pronounced +check, he had a top-hat, glossy and obviously new, at the back of +his head, and the lower part of his face was covered by a ragged +beard. This he was plucking with nervous jerks, talking to +himself the while, and casting a disparaging eye upon the portrait +of Remington Kara which hung above the marble fireplace. A pair +of pince-nez sat crookedly on his nose and two fat volumes under +his arm completed the picture. Fisher, who was an observer of +some discernment, noticed under the overcoat a creased blue suit, +large black boots and a pair of pearl studs. + +The newcomer glared round at the valet. + +"Take these!" he ordered peremptorily, pointing to the books under +his arm. + +Fisher hastened to obey and noted with some wonder that the +visitor did not attempt to assist him either by loosening his hold +of the volumes or raising his hand. Accidentally the valet's hand +pressed against the other's sleeve and he received a shock, for +the forearm was clearly an artificial one. It was against a +wooden surface beneath the sleeve that his knuckles struck, and +this view of the stranger's infirmity was confirmed when the other +reached round with his right hand, took hold of the gloved left +hand and thrust it into the pocket of his overcoat. + +"Where is Kara?" growled the stranger. + +"He will be back very shortly, sir," said the urbane Fisher. + +"Out, is he?" boomed the visitor. "Then I shan't wait. What the +devil does he mean by being out? He's had three years to be out!" + +"Mr. Kara expects you, sir. He told me he would be in at six +o'clock at the latest." + +"Six o'clock, ye gods'." stormed the man impatiently. "What dog +am I that I should wait till six?" + +He gave a savage little tug at his beard. + +"Six o'clock, eh? You will tell Mr. Kara that I called. Give me +those books." + +"But I assure you, sir, - " stammered Fisher. + +"Give me those books!" roared the other. + +Deftly he lifted his left hand from the pocket, crooked the elbow +by some quick manipulation, and thrust the books, which the valet +most reluctantly handed to him, back to the place from whence he +had taken them. + +"Tell Mr. Kara I will call at my own time - do you understand, at +my own time. Good morning to you." + +"If you would only wait, sir," pleaded the agonized Fisher. + +"Wait be hanged," snarled the other. "I've waited three years, I +tell you. Tell Mr. Kara to expect me when he sees me!" + +He went out and most unnecessarily banged the door behind him. +Fisher went back to the library. The girl was sealing up some +letters as he entered and looked up. + +"I am afraid, Miss Holland, I've got myself into very serious +trouble." + +"What is that, Fisher!" asked the girl. + +"There was a gentleman coming to see Mr. Kara, whom Mr. Kara +particularly wanted to see." + +"Mr. Gathercole," said the girl quickly. + +Fisher nodded. + +"Yes, miss, I couldn't get him to stay though." + +She pursed her lips thoughtfully. + +"Mr. Kara will be very cross, but I don't see how you can help it. +I wish you had called me." + +"He never gave a chance, miss," said Fisher, with a little smile, +"but if he comes again I'll show him straight up to you." + +She nodded. + +"Is there anything you want, miss?" he asked as he stood at the +door. + +"What time did Mr. Kara say he would be back?" + +"At six o'clock, miss," the man replied. + +"There is rather an important letter here which has to be +delivered." + +"Shall I ring up for a messenger?" + +"No, I don't think that would be advisable. You had better take +it yourself." + +Kara was in the habit of employing Fisher as a confidential +messenger when the occasion demanded such employment. + +"I will go with pleasure, miss," he said. + +It was a heaven-sent opportunity for Fisher, who had been +inventing some excuse for leaving the house. She handed him the +letter and he read without a droop of eyelid the superscription: + +"T. X. Meredith, Esq., Special Service Dept., Scotland Yard, +Whitehall." + +He put it carefully in his pocket and went from the room to +change. Large as the house was Kara did not employ a regular +staff of servants. A maid and a valet comprised the whole of the +indoor staff. His cook, and the other domestics, necessary for +conducting an establishment of that size, were engaged by the day. + +Kara had returned from the country earlier than had been +anticipated, and, save for Fisher, the only other person in the +house beside the girl, was the middle-aged domestic who was +parlour-maid, serving-maid and housekeeper in one. + +Miss Holland sat at her desk to all appearance reading over the +letters she had typed that afternoon but her mind was very far +from the correspondence before her. She heard the soft thud of +the front door closing, and rising she crossed the room rapidly +and looked down through the window to the street. She watched +Fisher until he was out of sight; then she descended to the hall +and to the kitchen. + +It was not the first visit she had made to the big underground +room with its vaulted roof and its great ranges - which were +seldom used nowadays, for Kara gave no dinners. + +The maid - who was also cook - arose up as the girl entered. + +"It's a sight for sore eyes to see you in my kitchen, miss," she +smiled. + +"I'm afraid you're rather lonely, Mrs. Beale," said the girl +sympathetically. + +"Lonely, miss!" cried the maid. "I fairly get the creeps sitting +here hour after hour. It's that door that gives me the hump." + +She pointed to the far end of the kitchen to a soiled looking door +of unpainted wood. + +"That's Mr. Kara's wine cellar - nobody's been in it but him. I +know he goes in sometimes because I tried a dodge that my brother +- who's a policeman - taught me. I stretched a bit of white +cotton across it an' it was broke the next morning." + +"Mr. Kara keeps some of his private papers in there," said the +girl quietly, "he has told me so himself." + +"H'm," said the woman doubtfully, "I wish he'd brick it up - the +same as he has the lower cellar - I get the horrors sittin' here +at night expectin' the door to open an' the ghost of the mad lord +to come out - him that was killed in Africa." + +Miss Holland laughed. + +"I want you to go out now," she said, "I have no stamps." + +Mrs. Beale obeyed with alacrity and whilst she was assuming a hat +- being desirous of maintaining her prestige as housekeeper in the +eyes of Cadogan Square, the girl ascended to the upper floor. + +Again she watched from the window the disappearing figure. + +Once out of sight Miss Holland went to work with a remarkable +deliberation and thoroughness. From her bag she produced a small +purse and opened it. In that case was a new steel key. She +passed swiftly down the corridor to Kara's room and made straight +for the safe. + +In two seconds it was open and she was examining its contents. It +was a large safe of the usual type. There were four steel drawers +fitted at the back and at the bottom of the strong box. Two of +these were unlocked and contained nothing more interesting than +accounts relating to Kara's estate in Albania. + +The top pair were locked. She was prepared for this contingency +and a second key was as efficacious as the first. An examination +of the first drawer did not produce all that she had expected. +She returned the papers to the drawer, pushed it to and locked it. +She gave her attention to the second drawer. Her hand shook a +little as she pulled it open. It was her last chance, her last +hope. + +There were a number of small jewel-boxes almost filling the +drawer. She took them out one by one and at the bottom she found +what she had been searching for and that which had filled her +thoughts for the past three months. + +It was a square case covered in red morocco leather. She inserted +her shaking hand and took it out with a triumphant little cry. + +"At last," she said aloud, and then a hand grasped her wrist and +in a panic she turned to meet the smiling face of Kara. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +She felt her knees shake under her and thought she was going to +swoon. She put out her disengaged hand to steady herself, and if +the face which was turned to him was pale, there was a steadfast +resolution in her dark eyes. + +"Let me relieve you of that, Miss Holland," said Kara, in his +silkiest tones. + +He wrenched rather than took the box from her hand, replaced it +carefully in the drawer, pushed the drawer to and locked it, +examining the key as he withdrew it. Then he closed the safe and +locked that. + +"Obviously," he said presently, "I must get a new safe." + +He had not released his hold of her wrist nor did he, until he had +led her from the room back to the library. Then he released the +girl, standing between her and the door, with folded arms and that +cynical, quiet, contemptuous smile of his upon his handsome face. + +"There are many courses which I can adopt," he said slowly. "I +can send for the police - when my servants whom you have +despatched so thoughtfully have returned, or I can take your +punishment into my own hands." + +"So far as I am concerned," said the girl coolly, "you may send +for the police." + +She leant back against the edge of the desk, her hands holding the +edge, and faced him without so much as a quaver. + +"I do not like the police," mused Kara, when there came a knock at +the door. + +Kara turned and opened it and after a low strained conversation he +returned, closing the door and laid a paper of stamps on the +girl's table. + +"As I was saying, I do not care for the police, and I prefer my +own method. In this particular instance the police obviously +would not serve me, because you are not afraid of them and in all +probability you are in their pay - am I right in supposing that +you are one of Mr. T. X. Meredith's accomplices!" + +"I do not know Mr. T. X. Meredith," she replied calmly, "and I am +not in any way associated with the police." + +"Nevertheless," he persisted, "you do not seem to be very scared +of them and that removes any temptation I might have to place you +in the hands of the law. Let me see," he pursed his lips as he +applied his mind to the problem. + +She half sat, half stood, watching him without any evidence of +apprehension, but with a heart which began to quake a little. For +three months she had played her part and the strain had been +greater than she had confessed to herself. Now the great moment +had come and she had failed. That was the sickening, maddening +thing about it all. It was not the fear of arrest or of +conviction, which brought a sinking to her heart; it was the +despair of failure, added to a sense of her helplessness against +this man. + +"If I had you arrested your name would appear in all the papers, +of course," he said, narrowly, "and your photograph would probably +adorn the Sunday journals," he added expectantly. + +She laughed. + +"That doesn't appeal to me," she said. + +"I am afraid it doesn't," he replied, and strolled towards her as +though to pass her on his way to the window. He was abreast of +her when he suddenly swung round and catching her in his arms he +caught her close to him. Before she could realise what he +planned, he had stooped swiftly and kissed her full upon the +mouth. + +"If you scream, I shall kiss you again," he said, "for I have sent +the maid to buy some more stamps - to the General Post Office." + +"Let me go," she gasped. + +Now for the first time he saw the terror in her eyes, and there +surged within him that mad sense of triumph, that intoxication of +power which had been associated with the red letter days of his +warped life. + +"You're afraid!" he bantered her, half whispering the words, +"you're afraid now, aren't you? If you scream I shall kiss you +again, do you hear?" + +"For God's sake, let me go," she whispered. + +He felt her shaking in his arms, and suddenly he released her with +a little laugh, and she sank trembling from head to foot upon the +chair by her desk. + +"Now you're going to tell me who sent you here," he went on +harshly, "and why you came. I never suspected you. I thought you +were one of those strange creatures one meets in England, a +gentlewoman who prefers working for her living to the more simple +business of getting married. And all the time you were spying - +clever - very clever!" + +The girl was thinking rapidly. In five minutes Fisher would +return. Somehow she had faith in Fisher's ability and willingness +to save her from a situation which she realized was fraught with +the greatest danger to herself. She was horribly afraid. She +knew this man far better than he suspected, realized the treachery +and the unscrupulousness of him. She knew he would stop short of +nothing, that he was without honour and without a single attribute +of goodness. + +He must have read her thoughts for he came nearer and stood over +her. + +"You needn't shrink, my young friend," he said with a little +chuckle. "You are going to do just what I want you to do, and +your first act will be to accompany me downstairs. Get up." + +He half lifted, half dragged her to her feet and led her from the +room. They descended to the hall together and the girl spoke no +word. Perhaps she hoped that she might wrench herself free and +make her escape into the street, but in this she was disappointed. +The grip about her arm was a grip of steel and she knew safety did +not lie in that direction. She pulled back at the head of the +stairs that led down to the kitchen. + +"Where are you taking me?" she asked. + +"I am going to put you into safe custody," he said. "On the whole +I think it is best that the police take this matter in hand and I +shall lock you into my wine cellar and go out in search of a +policeman." + +The big wooden door opened, revealing a second door and this Kara +unbolted. She noticed that both doors were sheeted with steel, +the outer on the inside, and the inner door on the outside. She +had no time to make any further observations for Kara thrust her +into the darkness. He switched on a light. + +"I will not deny you that," he said, pushing her back as she made +a frantic attempt to escape. He swung the outer door to as she +raised her voice in a piercing scream, and clapping his hand over +her mouth held her tightly for a moment. + +"I have warned you," he hissed. + +She saw his face distorted with rage. She saw Kara transfigured +with devilish anger, saw that handsome, almost godlike countenance +thrust into hers, flushed and seamed with malignity and a +hatefulness beyond understanding and then her senses left her and +she sank limp and swooning into his arms. + + +When she recovered consciousness she found herself lying on a +plain stretcher bed. She sat up suddenly. Kara had gone and the +door was closed. The cellar was dry and clean and its walls were +enamelled white. Light was supplied by two electric lamps in the +ceiling. There was a table and a chair and a small washstand, and +air was evidently supplied through unseen ventilators. It was +indeed a prison and no less, and in her first moments of panic she +found herself wondering whether Kara had used this underground +dungeon of his before for a similar purpose. + +She examined the room carefully. At the farthermost end was +another door and this she pushed gently at first and then +vigorously without producing the slightest impression. She still +had her bag, a small affair of black moire, which hung from her +belt, in which was nothing more formidable than a penknife, a +small bottle of smelling salts and a pair of scissors. The latter +she had used for cutting out those paragraphs from the daily +newspapers which referred to Kara's movements. + +They would make a formidable weapon, and wrapping her handkerchief +round the handle to give it a better grip she placed it on the +table within reach. She was dimly conscious all the time that she +had heard something about this wine cellar - something which, if +she could recollect it, would be of service to her. + +Then in a flash she remembered that there was a lower cellar, +which according to Mrs. Beale was never used and was bricked up. +It was approached from the outside, down a circular flight of +stairs. There might be a way out from that direction and would +there not be some connection between the upper cellar and the +lower! + +She set to work to make a closer examination of the apartment. + +The floor was of concrete, covered with a light rush matting. +This she carefully rolled up, starting at the door. One half of +the floor was uncovered without revealing the existence of any +trap. She attempted to pull the table into the centre of the +room, better to roll the matting, but found it fixed to the wall, +and going down on her knees, she discovered that it had been fixed +after the matting had been laid. + +Obviously there was no need for the fixture and, she tapped the +floor with her little knuckle. Her heart started racing. The +sound her knocking gave forth was a hollow one. She sprang up, +took her bag from the table, opened the little penknife and cut +carefully through the thin rushes. She might have to replace the +matting and it was necessary she should do her work tidily. + +Soon the whole of the trap was revealed. There was an iron ring, +which fitted flush with the top and which she pulled. The trap +yielded and swung back as though there were a counterbalance at +the other end, as indeed there was. She peered down. There was a +dim light below - the reflection of a light in the distance. A +flight of steps led down to the lower level and after a second's +hesitation she swung her legs over the cavity and began her +descent. + +She was in a cellar slightly smaller than that above her. The +light she had seen came from an inner apartment which would be +underneath the kitchen of the house. She made her way cautiously +along, stepping on tip-toe. The first of the rooms she came to +was well-furnished. There was a thick carpet on the floor, +comfortable easy-chairs, a little bookcase well filled, and a +reading lamp. This must be Kara's underground study, where he +kept his precious papers. + +A smaller room gave from this and again it was doorless. She +looked in and after her eyes had become accustomed to the darkness +she saw that it was a bathroom handsomely fitted. + +The room she was in was also without any light which came from the +farthermost chamber. As the girl strode softly across the +well-carpeted room she trod on something hard. She stooped and +felt along the floor and her fingers encountered a thin steel +chain. The girl was bewildered-almost panic-stricken. She shrunk +back from the entrance of the inner room, fearful of what she +would see. And then from the interior came a sound that made her +tingle with horror. + +It was a sound of a sigh, long and trembling. She set her teeth +and strode through the doorway and stood for a moment staring with +open eyes and mouth at what she saw. + +"My God!" she breathed, "London . . . . in the twentieth +century . . . !" + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +Superintendent Mansus had a little office in Scotland Yard proper, +which, he complained, was not so much a private bureau, as a +waiting-room to which repaired every official of the police +service who found time hanging on his hands. On the afternoon of +Miss Holland's surprising adventure, a plainclothes man of "D" +Division brought to Mr. Mansus's room a very scared domestic +servant, voluble, tearful and agonizingly penitent. It was a mood +not wholly unfamiliar to a police officer of twenty years +experience and Mr. Mansus was not impressed. + +"If you will kindly shut up," he said, blending his natural +politeness with his employment of the vernacular, "and if you will +also answer a few questions I will save you a lot of trouble. You +were Lady Bartholomew's maid weren't you?" + +"Yes, sir," sobbed the red-eyed Mary Ann. + +"And you have been detected trying to pawn a gold bracelet, the +property of Lady Bartholomew?" + +The maid gulped, nodded and started breathlessly upon a recital of +her wrongs. + +"Yes, sir - but she practically gave it to me, sir, and I haven't +had my wages for two months, sir, and she can give that foreigner +thousands and thousands of pounds at a time, sir, but her poor +servants she can't pay - no, she can't. And if Sir William knew +especially about my lady's cards and about the snuffbox, what +would he think, I wonder, and I'm going to have my rights, for if +she can pay thousands to a swell like Mr. Kara she can pay me +and - " + +Mansus jerked his head. + +"Take her down to the cells," he said briefly, and they led her +away, a wailing, woeful figure of amateur larcenist. + +In three minutes Mansus was with T. X. and had reduced the girl's +incoherence to something like order. + +"This is important," said T. X.; "produce the Abigail." + +"The - ?" asked the puzzled officer. + +"The skivvy - slavey - hired help - get busy," said T. X. +impatiently. + +They brought her to T. X. in a condition bordering upon collapse. + +"Get her a cup of tea," said the wise chief. "Sit down, Mary Ann, +and forget all your troubles." + +"Oh, sir, I've never been in this position before," she began, as +she flopped into the chair they put for her. + +"Then you've had a very tiring time," said T. X. "Now listen - " + +"I've been respectable - " + +"Forget it!" said T. X., wearily. "Listen! If you'll tell me +the whole truth about Lady Bartholomew and the money she paid to +Mr. Kara - " + +"Two thousand pounds - two separate thousand and by all accounts-" + +"If you will tell me the truth, I'll compound a felony and let you +go free." + +It was a long time before he could prevail upon her to clear her +speech of the ego which insisted upon intruding. There were gaps +in her narrative which he bridged. In the main it was a +believable story. Lady Bartholomew had lost money and had +borrowed from Kara. She had given as security, the snuffbox +presented to her husband's father, a doctor, by one of the Czars +for services rendered, and was "all blue enamel and gold, and +foreign words in diamonds." On the question of the amount Lady +Bartholomew had borrowed, Abigail was very vague. All that she +knew was that my lady had paid back two thousand pounds and that +she was still very distressed ("in a fit" was the phrase the girl +used), because apparently Kara refused to restore the box. + +There had evidently been terrible scenes in the Bartholomew +menage, hysterics and what not, the principal breakdown having +occurred when Belinda Mary came home from school in France. + +"Miss Bartholomew is home then. Where is she?" asked T. X. + +Here the girl was more vague than ever. She thought the young +lady had gone back again, anyway Miss Belinda had been very much +upset. Miss Belinda had seen Dr. Williams and advised that her +mother should go away for a change. + +"Miss Belinda seems to be a precocious young person," said T. X. +"Did she by any chance see Mr. Kara?" + +"Oh, no," explained the girl. "Miss Belinda was above that sort +of person. Miss Belinda was a lady, if ever there was one." + +"And how old is this interesting young woman?" asked T. X. +curiously. + +"She is nineteen," said the girl, and the Commissioner, who had +pictured Belinda in short plaid frocks and long pigtails, and had +moreover visualised her as a freckled little girl with thin legs +and snub nose, was abashed. + +He delivered a short lecture on the sacred rights of property, +paid the girl the three months' wages which were due to her - he +had no doubt as to the legality of her claim - and dismissed her +with instructions to go back to the house, pack her box and clear +out. + +After the girl had gone, T. X. sat down to consider the position. +He might see Kara and since Kara had expressed his contrition and +was probably in a more humble state of mind, he might make +reparation. Then again he might not. Mansus was waiting and T. +X. walked back with him to his little office. + +"I hardly know what to make of it," he said in despair. + +"If you can give me Kara's motive, sir, I can give you a +solution," said Mansus. + +T. X. shook his head. + +"That is exactly what I am unable to give you," he said. + +He perched himself on Mansus's desk and lit a cigar. + +"I have a good mind to go round and see him," he said after a +while. + +"Why not telephone to him?" asked Mansus. "There is his 'phone +straight into his boudoir." + +He pointed to a small telephone in a corner of the room. + +"Oh, he persuaded the Commissioner to run the wire, did he?" said +T. X. interested, and walked over to the telephone. + +He fingered the receiver for a little while and was about to take +it off, but changed his mind. + +"I think not," he said, "I'll go round and see him to-morrow. I +don't hope to succeed in extracting the confidence in the case of +Lady Bartholomew, which he denied me over poor Lexman." + +"I suppose you'll never give up hope of seeing Mr. Lexman again," +smiled Mansus, busily arranging a new blotting pad. + +Before T. X. could answer there came a knock at the door, and a +uniformed policeman, entered. He saluted T. X. + +"They've just sent an urgent letter across from your office, sir. +I said I thought you were here." + +He handed the missive to the Commissioner. T. X. took it and +glanced at the typewritten address. It was marked "urgent" and +"by hand." He took up the thin, steel, paper-knife from the desk +and slit open the envelope. The letter consisted of three or four +pages of manuscript and, unlike the envelope, it was handwritten. + +"My dear T. X.," it began, and the handwriting was familiar. + +Mansus, watching the Commissioner, saw the puzzled frown gather on +his superior's forehead, saw the eyebrows arch and the mouth open +in astonishment, saw him hastily turn to the last page to read the +signature and then: + +"Howling apples!" gasped T. X. "It's from John Lexman!" + +His hand shook as he turned the closely written pages. The letter +was dated that afternoon. There was no other address than +"London." + +"My dear T. X.," it began, "I do not doubt that this letter will +give you a little shock, because most of my friends will have +believed that I am gone beyond return. Fortunately or +unfortunately that is not so. For myself I could wish - but I am +not going to take a very gloomy view since I am genuinely pleased +at the thought that I shall be meeting you again. Forgive this +letter if it is incoherent but I have only this moment returned +and am writing at the Charing Cross Hotel. I am not staying here, +but I will let you have my address later. The crossing has been a +very severe one so you must forgive me if my letter sounds a +little disjointed. You will be sorry to hear that my dear wife is +dead. She died abroad about six months ago. I do not wish to +talk very much about it so you will forgive me if I do not tell +you any more. + +"My principal object in writing to you at the moment is an +official one. I suppose I am still amenable to punishment and I +have decided to surrender myself to the authorities to-night. You +used to have a most excellent assistant in Superintendent Mansus, +and if it is convenient to you, as I hope it will be, I will +report myself to him at 10.15. At any rate, my dear T. X., I do +not wish to mix you up in my affairs and if you will let me do +this business through Mansus I shall be very much obliged to you. + +"I know there is no great punishment awaiting me, because my +pardon was apparently signed on the night before my escape. I +shall not have much to tell you, because there is not much in the +past two years that I would care to recall. We endured a great +deal of unhappiness and death was very merciful when it took my +beloved from me. + +"Do you ever see Kara in these days? + +"Will you tell Mansus to expect me at between ten and half-past, +and if he will give instructions to the officer on duty in the +hall I will come straight up to his room. + +"With affectionate regards, my dear fellow, I am, +"Yours sincerely, + +"JOHN LEXMAN." + +T. X. read the letter over twice and his eyes were troubled. + +"Poor girl," he said softly, and handed the letter to Mansus. "He +evidently wants to see you because he is afraid of using my +friendship to his advantage. I shall be here, nevertheless." + +"What will be the formality?" asked Mansus. + +"There will be no formality," said the other briskly. "I will +secure the necessary pardon from the Home Secretary and in point +of fact I have it already promised, in writing." + +He walked back to Whitehall, his mind fully occupied with the +momentous events of the day. It was a raw February evening, sleet +was falling in the street, a piercing easterly wind drove even +through his thick overcoat. In such doorways as offered +protection from the bitter elements the wreckage of humanity which +clings to the West end of London, as the singed moth flutters +about the flame that destroys it, were huddled for warmth. + +T. X. was a man of vast human sympathies. + +All his experience with the criminal world, all his +disappointments, all his disillusions had failed to quench the +pity for his unfortunate fellows. He made it a rule on such +nights as these, that if, by chance, returning late to his office +he should find such a shivering piece of jetsam sheltering in his +own doorway, he would give him or her the price of a bed. + +In his own quaint way he derived a certain speculative excitement +from this practice. If the doorway was empty he regarded himself +as a winner, if some one stood sheltered in the deep recess which +is a feature of the old Georgian houses in this historic +thoroughfare, he would lose to the extent of a shilling. + +He peered forward through the semi-darkness as he neared the door +of his offices. + +"I've lost," he said, and stripped his gloves preparatory to +groping in his pocket for a coin. + +Somebody was standing in the entrance, but it was obviously a very +respectable somebody. A dumpy, motherly somebody in a seal-skin +coat and a preposterous bonnet. + +"Hullo," said T. X. in surprise, "are you trying to get in here?" + +"I want to see Mr. Meredith," said the visitor, in the mincing +affected tones of one who excused the vulgar source of her +prosperity by frequently reiterated claims to having seen better +days. + +"Your longing shall be gratified," said T. X. gravely. + +He unlocked the heavy door, passed through the uncarpeted passage +- there are no frills on Government offices - and led the way up +the stairs to the suite on the first floor which constituted his +bureau. + +He switched on all the lights and surveyed his visitor, a +comfortable person of the landlady type. + +"A good sort," thought T. X., "but somewhat overweighted with +lorgnettes and seal-skin." + +"You will pardon my coming to see you at this hour of the night," +she began deprecatingly, "but as my dear father used to say, 'Hopi +soit qui mal y pense.'" + +"Your dear father being in the garter business?" suggested T. X. +humorously. "Won't you sit down, Mrs.- " + +"Mrs. Cassley," beamed the lady as she seated herself. "He was in +the paper hanging business. But needs must, when the devil +drives, as the saying goes." + +"What particular devil is driving you, Mrs. Cassley?" asked T. +X., somewhat at a loss to understand the object of this visit. + +"I may be doing wrong," began the lady, pursing her lips, "and two +blacks will never make a white." + +"And all that glitters is not gold," suggested T. X. a little +wearily. "Will you please tell me your business, Mrs. Cassley? I +am a very hungry man." + +"Well, it's like this, sir," said Mrs. Cassley, dropping her +erudition, and coming down to bedrock homeliness; "I've got a +young lady stopping with me, as respectable a gel as I've had to +deal with. And I know what respectability is, I might tell you, +for I've taken professional boarders and I have been housekeeper +to a doctor." + +"You are well qualified to speak," said T. X. with a smile. "And +what about this particular young lady of yours! By the way what +is your address?" + +"86a Marylebone Road," said the lady. + +T. X. sat up. + +"Yes?" he said quickly. "What about your young lady?" + +"She works as far as I can understand," said the loquacious +landlady, "with a certain Mr. Kara in the typewriting line. She +came to me four months ago." + +"Never mind when she came to you," said T. X. impatiently. "Have +you a message from the lady?" + +"Well, it's like this, sir," said Mrs. Cassley, leaning forward +confidentially and speaking in the hollow tone which she had +decided should accompany any revelation to a police officer, "this +young lady said to me, 'If I don't come any night by 8 o'clock you +must go to T. X. and tell him - '!" + +She paused dramatically. + +"Yes, yes," said T. X. quickly, "for heaven's sake go on, woman." + +"'Tell him,'" said Mrs. Cassley, "'that Belinda Mary - ' " + +He sprang to his feet. + +"Belinda Mary!" he breathed, "Belinda Mary!" In a flash he saw it +all. This girl with a knowledge of modern Greek, who was working +in Kara's house, was there for a purpose. Kara had something of +her mother's, something that was vital and which he would not part +with, and she had adopted this method of securing that some thing. +Mrs. Cassley was prattling on, but her voice was merely a haze of +sound to him. It brought a strange glow to his heart that Belinda +Mary should have thought of him. + +"Only as a policeman, of course," said the still, small voice of +his official self. "Perhaps!" said the human T. X., defiantly. + +He got on the telephone to Mansus and gave a few instructions. + +"You stay here," he ordered the astounded Mrs. Cassley; "I am +going to make a few investigations." + +Kara was at home, but was in bed. T. X. remembered that this +extraordinary man invariably went to bed early and that it was his +practice to receive visitors in this guarded room of his. He was +admitted almost at once and found Kara in his silk dressing-gown +lying on the bed smoking. The heat of the room was unbearable +even on that bleak February night. + +"This is a pleasant surprise," said Kara, sitting up; "I hope you +don't mind my dishabille." + +T. X. came straight to the point. + +"Where is Miss Holland!" he asked. + +"Miss Holland?" Kara's eyebrows advertised his astonishment. +"What an extraordinary question to ask me, my dear man! At her +home, or at the theatre or in a cinema palace - I don't know how +these people employ their evenings." + +"She is not at home," said T. X., "and I have reason to believe +that she has not left this house." + +"What a suspicious person you are, Mr. Meredith!" Kara rang the +bell and Fisher came in with a cup of coffee on a tray. + +"Fisher," drawled Kara. "Mr. Meredith is anxious to know where +Miss Holland is. Will you be good enough to tell him, you know +more about her movements than I do." + +"As far as I know, sir," said Fisher deferentially, "she left the +house about 5.30, her usual hour. She sent me out a little before +five on a message and when I came back her hat and her coat had +gone, so I presume she had gone also." + +"Did you see her go?" asked T. X. + +The man shook his head. + +"No, sir, I very seldom see the lady come or go. There has been +no restrictions placed upon the young lady and she has been at +liberty to move about as she likes. I think I am correct in +saying that, sir," he turned to Kara. + +Kara nodded. + +"You will probably find her at home." + +He shook his finger waggishly at T. X. + +"What a dog you are," he jibed, "I ought to keep the beauties of +my household veiled, as we do in the East, and especially when I +have a susceptible policeman wandering at large." + +T. X. gave jest for jest. There was nothing to be gained by +making trouble here. After a few amiable commonplaces he took his +departure. He found Mrs. Cassley being entertained by Mansus with +a wholly fictitious description of the famous criminals he had +arrested. + +"I can only suggest that you go home," said T. X. "I will send a +police officer with you to report to me, but in all probability +you will find the lady has returned. She may have had a +difficulty in getting a bus on a night like this." + +A detective was summoned from Scotland Yard and accompanied by him +Mrs. Cassley returned to her domicile with a certain importance. +T. X. looked at his watch. It was a quarter to ten. + +"Whatever happens, I must see old Lexman," he said. "Tell the +best men we've got in the department to stand by for +eventualities. This is going to be one of my busy days." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +Kara lay back on his down pillows with a sneer on his face and his +brain very busy. What started the train of thought he did not +know, but at that moment his mind was very far away. It carried +him back a dozen years to a dirty little peasant's cabin on the +hillside outside Durazzo, to the livid face of a young Albanian +chief, who had lost at Kara's whim all that life held for a man, +to the hateful eyes of the girl's father, who stood with folded +arms glaring down at the bound and manacled figure on the floor, +to the smoke-stained rafters of this peasant cottage and the +dancing shadows on the roof, to that terrible hour of waiting when +he sat bound to a post with a candle flickering and spluttering +lower and lower to the little heap of gunpowder that would start +the trail toward the clumsy infernal machine under his chair. He +remembered the day well because it was Candlemas day, and this was +the anniversary. He remembered other things more pleasant. The +beat of hoofs on the rocky roadway, the crash of the door falling +in when the Turkish Gendarmes had battered a way to his rescue. +He remembered with a savage joy the spectacle of his would-be +assassins twitching and struggling on the gallows at Pezara and - +he heard the faint tinkle of the front door bell. + +Had T. X. returned! He slipped from the bed and went to the door, +opened it slightly and listened. T. X. with a search warrant +might be a source of panic especially if - he shrugged his +shoulders. He had satisfied T. X. and allayed his suspicions. He +would get Fisher out of the way that night and make sure. + +The voice from the hall below was loud and gruff. Who could it +be! Then he heard Fisher's foot on the stairs and the valet +entered. + +"Will you see Mr. Gathercole now!" + +"Mr. Gathercole!" + +Kara breathed a sigh of relief and his face was wreathed in +smiles. + +"Why, of course. Tell him to come up. Ask him if he minds seeing +me in my room." + +"I told him you were in bed, sir, and he used shocking language," +said Fisher. + +Kara laughed. + +"Send him up," he said, and then as Fisher was going out of the +room he called him back. + +"By the way, Fisher, after Mr. Gathercole has gone, you may go out +for the night. You've got somewhere to go, I suppose, and you +needn't come back until the morning." + +"Yes, sir," said the servant. + +Such an instruction was remarkably pleasing to him. There was +much that he had to do and that night's freedom would assist him +materially. + +"Perhaps" Kara hesitated, "perhaps you had better wait until +eleven o'clock. Bring me up some sandwiches and a large glass of +milk. Or better still, place them on a plate in the hall." + +"Very good, sir," said the man and withdrew. + +Down below, that grotesque figure with his shiny hat and his +ragged beard was walking up and down the tesselated hallway +muttering to himself and staring at the various objects in the +hall with a certain amused antagonism. + +"Mr. Kara will see you, sir," said Fisher. + +"Oh!" said the other glaring at the unoffending Fisher, "that's +very good of him. Very good of this person to see a scholar and a +gentleman who has been about his dirty business for three years. +Grown grey in his service! Do you understand that, my man!" + +"Yes, sir," said Fisher. + +"Look here!" + +The man thrust out his face. + +"Do you see those grey hairs in my beard?" + +The embarrassed Fisher grinned. + +"Is it grey!" challenged the visitor, with a roar. + +"Yes, sir," said the valet hastily. + +"Is it real grey?" insisted the visitor. "Pull one out and see!" + +The startled Fisher drew back with an apologetic smile. + +"I couldn't think of doing a thing like that, sir." + +"Oh, you couldn't," sneered the visitor; "then lead on!" + +Fisher showed the way up the stairs. This time the traveller +carried no books. His left arm hung limply by his side and Fisher +privately gathered that the hand had got loose from the detaining +pocket without its owner being aware of the fact. He pushed open +the door and announced, "Mr. Gathercole," and Kara came forward +with a smile to meet his agent, who, with top hat still on the top +of his head, and his overcoat dangling about his heels, must have +made a remarkable picture. + +Fisher closed the door behind them and returned to his duties in +the hall below. Ten minutes later he heard the door opened and +the booming voice of the stranger came down to him. Fisher went +up the stairs to meet him and found him addressing the occupant +of the room in his own eccentric fashion. + +"No more Patagonia!" he roared, "no more Tierra del Fuego!" he +paused. + +"Certainly!" He replied to some question, "but not Patagonia," he +paused again, and Fisher standing at the foot of the stairs +wondered what had occurred to make the visitor so genial. + +"I suppose your cheque will be honoured all right?" asked the +visitor sardonically, and then burst into a little chuckle of +laughter as he carefully closed the door. + +He came down the corridor talking to himself, and greeted Fisher. + +"Damn all Greeks," he said jovially, and Fisher could do no more +than smile reproachfully, the smile being his very own, the +reproach being on behalf of the master who paid him. + +The traveller touched the other on the chest with his right hand. + +"Never trust a Greek," he said, "always get your money in advance. +Is that clear to you?" + +"Yes, sir," said Fisher, "but I think you will always find that +Mr. Kara is always most generous about money." + +"Don't you believe it, don't you believe it, my poor man," said +the other, "you - " + +At that moment there came from Kara's room a faint "clang." + +"What's that?" asked the visitor a little startled. + +"Mr. Kara's put down his steel latch," said Fisher with a smile, +"which means that he is not to be disturbed until - " he looked at +his watch, "until eleven o'clock at any rate." + +"He's a funk!" snapped the other, "a beastly funk!" + +He stamped down the stairs as though testing the weight of every +tread, opened the front door without assistance, slammed it behind +him and disappeared into the night. + +Fisher, his hands in his pockets, looked after the departing +stranger, nodding his head in reprobation. + +"You're a queer old devil," he said, and looked at his watch +again. + +It wanted five minutes to ten. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +"IF you would care to come in, sir, I'm sure Lexman would be glad +to see you," said T. X.; "it's very kind of you to take an +interest in the matter." + +The Chief Commissioner of Police growled something about being +paid to take an interest in everybody and strolled with T. X. down +one of the apparently endless corridors of Scotland Yard. + +"You won't have any bother about the pardon," he said. "I was +dining to-night with old man Bartholomew and he will fix that up +in the morning." + +"There will be no necessity to detain Lexman in custody?" asked T. +X. + +The Chief shook his head. + +"None whatever," he said. + +There was a pause, then, + +"By the way, did Bartholomew mention Belinda Mary!" + +The white-haired chief looked round in astonishment. + +"And who the devil is Belinda Mary?" he asked. + +T. X. went red. + +"Belinda Mary," he said a little quickly, "is Bartholomew's +daughter." + +"By Jove," said the Commissioner, "now you mention it, he did - +she is still in France." + +"Oh, is she?" said T. X. innocently, and in his heart of hearts he +wished most fervently that she was. They came to the room which +Mansus occupied and found that admirable man waiting. + +Wherever policemen meet, their conversation naturally drifts to +"shop" and in two minutes the three were discussing with some +animation and much difference of opinion, as far as T. X. was +concerned, a series of frauds which had been perpetrated in the +Midlands, and which have nothing to do with this story. + +"Your friend is late," said the Chief Commissioner. + +"There he is," cried T. X., springing up. He heard a familiar +footstep on the flagged corridor, and sprung out of the room to +meet the newcomer. + +For a moment he stood wringing the hand of this grave man, his +heart too full for words. + +"My dear chap!" he said at last, "you don't know how glad I am to +see you." + +John Lexman said nothing, then, + +"I am sorry to bring you into this business, T. X.," he said +quietly. + +"Nonsense," said the other, "come in and see the Chief." + +He took John by the arm and led him into the Superintendent's +room. + +There was a change in John Lexman. A subtle shifting of balance +which was not readily discoverable. His face was older, the +mobile mouth a little more grimly set, the eyes more deeply lined. +He was in evening dress and looked, as T. X. thought, a typical, +clean, English gentleman, such an one as any self-respecting valet +would be proud to say he had "turned out." + +T. X. looking at him carefully could see no great change, save +that down one side of his smooth shaven cheek ran the scar of an +old wound; which could not have been much more than superficial. + +"I must apologize for this kit," said John, taking off his +overcoat and laying it across the back of a chair, "but the fact +is I was so bored this evening that I had to do something to pass +the time away, so I dressed and went to the theatre - and was more +bored than ever." + +T. X. noticed that he did not smile and that when he spoke it was +slowly and carefully, as though he were weighing the value of +every word. + +"Now," he went on, "I have come to deliver myself into your +hands." + +"I suppose you have not seen Kara?" said T. X. + +"I have no desire to see Kara," was the short reply. + +"Well, Mr. Lexman," broke in the Chief, "I don't think you are +going to have any difficulty about your escape. By the way, I +suppose it was by aeroplane?" + +Lexman nodded. + +"And you had an assistant?" + +Again Lexman nodded. + +"Unless you press me I would rather not discuss the matter for +some little time, Sir George," he said, "there is much that will +happen before the full story of my escape is made known." + +Sir George nodded. + +"We will leave it at that," he said cheerily, "and now I hope you +have come back to delight us all with one of your wonderful +plots." + +"For the time being I have done with wonderful plots," said John +Lexman in that even, deliberate tone of his. "I hope to leave +London next week for New York and take up such of the threads of +life as remain. The greater thread has gone." + +The Chief Commissioner understood. + +The silence which followed was broken by the loud and insistent +ringing of the telephone bell. + +"Hullo," said Mansus rising quickly; "that's Kara's bell." + +With two quick strides he was at the telephone and lifted down the +receiver. + +"Hullo," he cried. "Hullo," he cried again. There was no reply, +only the continuous buzzing, and when he hung up the receiver +again, the bell continued ringing. + +The three policemen looked at one another. + +"There's trouble there," said Mansus. + +"Take off the receiver," said T. X., "and try again." + +Mansus obeyed, but there was no response. + +"I am afraid this is not my affair," said John Lexman gathering up +his coat. "What do you wish me to do, Sir George?" + +"Come along to-morrow morning and see us, Lexman," said Sir +George, offering his hand. + +"Where are you staying!" asked T. X. + +"At the Great Midland," replied the other, "at least my bags have +gone on there." + +"I'll come along and see you to-morrow morning. It's curious this +should have happened the night you returned," he said, gripping +the other's shoulder affectionately. + +John Lexman did not speak for the moment. + +"If anything happened to Kara," he said slowly, "if the worst that +was possible happened to him, believe me I should not weep." + +T. X. looked down into the other's eyes sympathetically. + +"I think he has hurt you pretty badly, old man," he said gently. + +John Lexman nodded. + +"He has, damn him," he said between his teeth. + +The Chief Commissioner's motor car was waiting outside and in this +T. X., Mansus, and a detective-sergeant were whirled off to +Cadogan Square. Fisher was in the hall when they rung the bell +and opened the door instantly. + +He was frankly surprised to see his visitors. Mr. Kara was in his +room he explained resentfully, as though T. X. should have been +aware of the fact without being told. He had heard no bell +ringing and indeed had not been summoned to the room. + +"I have to see him at eleven o'clock," he said, "and I have had +standing instructions not to go to him unless I am sent for." + +T. X. led the way upstairs, and went straight to Kara's room. He +knocked, but there was no reply. He knocked again and on this +failing to evoke any response kicked heavily at the door. + +"Have you a telephone downstairs!" he asked. + +"Yes, sir," replied Fisher. + +T. X. turned to the detective-sergeant. + +"'Phone to the Yard," he said, "and get a man up with a bag of +tools. We shall have to pick this lock and I haven't got my case +with me." + +"Picking the lock would be no good, sir," said Fisher, an +interested spectator, "Mr. Kara's got the latch down." + +"I forgot that," said T. X. "Tell him to bring his saw, we'll +have to cut through the panel here." + +While they were waiting for the arrival of the police officer T. +X. strove to attract the attention of the inmates of the room, but +without success. + +"Does he take opium or anything!" asked Mansus. + +Fisher shook his head. + +"I've never known him to take any of that kind of stuff," he said. + +T. X. made a rapid survey of the other rooms on that floor. The +room next to Kara's was the library, beyond that was a dressing +room which, according to Fisher, Miss Holland had used, and at the +farthermost end of the corridor was the dining room. + +Facing the dining room was a small service lift and by its side a +storeroom in which were a number of trunks, including a very large +one smothered in injunctions in three different languages to +"handle with care." There was nothing else of interest on this +floor and the upper and lower floors could wait. In a quarter of +an hour the carpenter had arrived from Scotland Yard, and had +bored a hole in the rosewood panel of Kara's room and was busily +applying his slender saw. + +Through the hole he cut T. X. could see no more than that the room +was in darkness save for the glow of a blazing fire. He inserted +his hand, groped for the knob of the steel latch, which he had +remarked on his previous visit to the room, lifted it and the door +swung open. + +"Keep outside, everybody," he ordered. + +He felt for the switch of the electric, found it and instantly the +room was flooded with light. The bed was hidden by the open door. +T. X. took one stride into the room and saw enough. Kara was +lying half on and half off the bed. He was quite dead and the +blood-stained patch above his heart told its own story. + +T. X. stood looking down at him, saw the frozen horror on the dead +man's face, then drew his eyes away and slowly surveyed the room. +There in the middle of the carpet he found his clue, a bent and +twisted little candle such as you find on children's Christmas +trees. + + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +It was Mansus who found the second candle, a stouter affair. It +lay underneath the bed. The telephone, which stood on a fairly +large-sized table by the side of the bed, was overturned and the +receiver was on the floor. By its side were two books, one being +the "Balkan Question," by Villari, and the other "Travels and +Politics in the Near East," by Miller. With them was a long, +ivory paper-knife. + +There was nothing else on the bedside-table save a silver +cigarette box. T. X. drew on a pair of gloves and examined the +bright surface for finger-prints, but a superficial view revealed +no such clue. + +"Open the window," said T. X., "the heat here is intolerable. Be +very careful, Mansus. By the way, is the window fastened?" + +"Very well fastened," said the superintendent after a careful +scrutiny. + +He pushed back the fastenings, lifted the window and as he did, a +harsh bell rang in the basement. + +"That is the burglar alarm, I suppose," said T. X.; "go down and +stop that bell." + +He addressed Fisher, who stood with a troubled face at the door. +When he had disappeared T. X. gave a significant glance to one of +the waiting officers and the man sauntered after the valet. + +Fisher stopped the bell and came back to the hall and stood before +the hall fire, a very troubled man. Near the fire was a big, +oaken writing table and on this there lay a small envelope which +he did not remember having seen before, though it might have been +there for some time, for he had spent a greater portion of the +evening in the kitchen with the cook. + +He picked up the envelope, and, with a start, recognised that it +was addressed to himself. He opened it and took out a card. +There were only a few words written upon it, but they were +sufficient to banish all the colour from his face and set his +hands shaking. He took the envelope and card and flung them into +the fire. + +It so happened that, at that moment, Mansus had called from +upstairs, and the officer, who had been told off to keep the valet +under observation, ran up in answer to the summons. For a moment +Fisher hesitated, then hatless and coatless as he was, he crept to +the door, opened it, leaving it ajar behind him and darting down +the steps, ran like a hare from the house. + +The doctor, who came a little later, was cautious as to the hour +of death. + +"If you got your telephone message at 10.25, as you say, that was +probably the hour he was killed," he said. "I could not tell +within half an hour. Obviously the man who killed him gripped his +throat with his left hand - there are the bruises on his neck - +and stabbed him with the right." + +It was at this time that the disappearance of Fisher was noticed, +but the cross-examination of the terrified Mrs. Beale removed any +doubt that T. X. had as to the man's guilt. + +"You had better send out an 'All Stations' message and pull him +in," said T. X. "He was with the cook from the moment the visitor +left until a few minutes before we rang. Besides which it is +obviously impossible for anybody to have got into this room or out +again. Have you searched the dead man?" + +Mansus produced a tray on which Kara's belongings had been +disposed. The ordinary keys Mrs. Beale was able to identify. +There were one or two which were beyond her. T. X. recognised one +of these as the key of the safe, but two smaller keys baffled him +not a little, and Mrs. Beale was at first unable to assist him. + +"The only thing I can think of, sir," she said, "is the wine +cellar." + +"The wine cellar?" said T. X. slowly. "That must be - " he +stopped. + +The greater tragedy of the evening, with all its mystifying +aspects had not banished from his mind the thought of the girl - +that Belinda Mary, who had called upon him in her hour of danger +as he divined. Perhaps - he descended into the kitchen and was +brought face to face with the unpainted door. + +"It looks more like a prison than a wine cellar," he said. + +"That's what I've always thought, sir," said Mrs. Beale, "and +sometimes I've had a horrible feeling of fear." + +He cut short her loquacity by inserting one of the keys in the +lock - it did not turn, but he had more success with the second. +The lock snapped back easily and he pulled the door back. He +found the inner door bolted top and bottom. The bolts slipped +back in their well-oiled sockets without any effort. Evidently +Kara used this place pretty frequently, thought T. X. + +He pushed the door open and stopped with an exclamation of +surprise. The cellar apartment was brilliantly lit - but it was +unoccupied. + +"This beats the band," said T. X. + +He saw something on the table and lifted it up. It was a pair of +long-bladed scissors and about the handle was wound a +handkerchief. It was not this fact which startled him, but that +the scissors' blades were dappled with blood and blood, too, was +on the handkerchief. He unwound the flimsy piece of cambric and +stared at the monogram "B. M. B." + +He looked around. Nobody had seen the weapon and he dropped it in +his overcoat pocket, and walked from the cellar to the kitchen +where Mrs. Beale and Mansus awaited him. + +"There is a lower cellar, is there not!" he asked in a strained +voice. + +"That was bricked up when Mr. Kara took the house," explained the +woman. + +"There is nothing more to look for here," he said. + +He walked slowly up the stairs to the library, his mind in a +whirl. That he, an accredited officer of police, sworn to the +business of criminal detection, should attempt to screen one who +was conceivably a criminal was inexplicable. But if the girl had +committed this crime, how had she reached Kara's room and why had +she returned to the locked cellar! + +He sent for Mrs. Beale to interrogate her. She had heard nothing +and she had been in the kitchen all the evening. One fact she did +reveal, however, that Fisher had gone from the kitchen and had +been absent a quarter of an hour and had returned a little +agitated. + +"Stay here," said T. X., and went down again to the cellar to make +a further search. + +"Probably there is some way out of this subterranean jail," he +thought and a diligent search of the room soon revealed it. + +He found the iron trap, pulled it open, and slipped down the +stairs. He, too, was puzzled by the luxurious character of the +vault. He passed from room to room and finally came to the inner +chamber where a light was burning. + +The light, as he discovered, proceeded from a small reading lamp +which stood by the side of a small brass bedstead. The bed had +recently been slept in, but there was no sign of any occupant. T. +X. conducted a very careful search and had no difficulty in +finding the bricked up door. Other exits there were none. + +The floor was of wood block laid on concrete, the ventilation was +excellent and in one of the recesses which had evidently held at +so time or other, a large wine bin, there was a prefect electrical +cooking plant. In a small larder were a number of baskets, +bearing the name of a well-known caterer, one of them containing +an excellent assortment of cold and potted meats, preserves, etc. + +T. X. went back to the bedroom and took the little lamp from the +table by the side of the bed and began a more careful examination. +Presently he found traces of blood, and followed an irregular +trail to the outer room. He lost it suddenly at the foot of +stairs leading down from the upper cellar. Then he struck it +again. He had reached the end of his electric cord and was now +depending upon an electric torch he had taken from his pocket. + +There were indications of something heavy having been dragged +across the room and he saw that it led to a small bathroom. He +had made a cursory examination of this well-appointed apartment, +and now he proceeded to make a close investigation and was well +rewarded. + +The bathroom was the only apartment which possess anything +resembling a door - a two-fold screen and - as he pressed this +back, he felt some thing which prevented its wider extension. He +slipped into the room and flashed his lamp in the space behind the +screen. There stiff in death with glazed eyes and lolling tongue +lay a great gaunt dog, his yellow fangs exposed in a last grimace. + + +About the neck was a collar and attached to that, a few links of +broken chain. T. X. mounted the steps thoughtfully and passed out +to the kitchen. + +Did Belinda Mary stab Kara or kill the dog? That she killed one +hound or the other was certain. That she killed both was +possible. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +After a busy and sleepless night he came down to report to the +Chief Commissioner the next morning. The evening newspaper bills +were filled with the "Chelsea Sensation" but the information given +was of a meagre character. + +Since Fisher had disappeared, many of the details which could have +been secured by the enterprising pressmen were missing. There was +no reference to the visit of Mr. Gathercole and in self-defence +the press had fallen back upon a statement, which at an earlier +period had crept into the newspapers in one of those chatty +paragraphs which begin "I saw my friend Kara at Giros" and end +with a brief but inaccurate summary of his hobbies. The paragraph +had been to the effect that Mr. Kara had been in fear of his life +for some time, as a result of a blood feud which existed between +himself and another Albanian family. Small wonder, therefore, the +murder was everywhere referred to as "the political crime of the +century." + +"So far," reported T. X. to his superior, "I have been unable to +trace either Gathercole or the valet. The only thing we know +about Gathercole is that he sent his article to The Times with his +card. The servants of his Club are very vague as to his +whereabouts. He is a very eccentric man, who only comes in +occasionally, and the steward whom I interviewed says that it +frequently happened that Gathercole arrived and departed without +anybody being aware of the fact. We have been to his old lodgings +in Lincoln's Inn, but apparently he sold up there before he went +away to the wilds of Patagonia and relinquished his tenancy. + +"The only clue I have is that a man answering to some extent to +his description left by the eleven o'clock train for Paris last +night." + +"You have seen the secretary of course," said the Chief. + +It was a question which T. X. had been dreading. + +"Gone too," he answered shortly; "in fact she has not been seen +since 5:30 yesterday evening." + +Sir George leant back in his chair and rumpled his thick grey +hair. + +"The only person who seems to have remained," he said with heavy +sarcasm, "was Kara himself. Would you like me to put somebody +else on this case - it isn't exactly your job - or will you carry +it on?" + +"I prefer to carry it on, sir," said T. X. firmly. + +"Have you found out anything more about Kara?" + +T. X. nodded. + +"All that I have discovered about him is eminently discreditable," +he said. "He seems to have had an ambition to occupy a very +important position in Albania. To this end he had bribed and +subsidized the Turkish and Albanian officials and had a fairly +large following in that country. Bartholomew tells me that Kara +had already sounded him as to the possibility of the British +Government recognising a fait accompli in Albania and had been +inducing him to use his influence with the Cabinet to recognize +the consequence of any revolution. There is no doubt whatever +that Kara has engineered all the political assassinations which +have been such a feature in the news from Albania during this past +year. We also found in the house very large sums of money and +documents which we have handed over to the Foreign Office for +decoding." + +Sir George thought for a long time. + +Then he said, "I have an idea that if you find your secretary you +will be half way to solving the mystery." + +T. X. went out from the office in anything but a joyous mood. He +was on his way to lunch when he remembered his promise to call +upon John Lexman. + +Could Lexman supply a key which would unravel this tragic tangle? +He leant out of his taxi-cab and redirected the driver. It +happened that the cab drove up to the door of the Great Midland +Hotel as John Lexman was coming out. + +"Come and lunch with me," said T. X. "I suppose you've heard all +the news." + +"I read about Kara being killed, if that's what you mean," said +the other. "It was rather a coincidence that I should have been +discussing the matter last night at the very moment when his +telephone bell rang - I wish to heaven you hadn't been in this," +he said fretfully. + +"Why?" asked the astonished Assistant Commissioner, "and what do +you mean by 'in it'?" + +"In the concrete sense I wish you had not been present when I +returned," said the other moodily, "I wanted to be finished with +the whole sordid business without in any way involving my +friends." + +"I think you are too sensitive," laughed the other, clapping him +on the shoulder. "I want you to unburden yourself to me, my dear +chap, and tell me anything you can that will help me to clear up +this mystery." + +John Lexman looked straight ahead with a worried frown. + +"I would do almost anything for you, T. X.," he said quietly, "the +more so since I know how good you were to Grace, but I can't help +you in this matter. I hated Kara living, I hate him dead," he +cried, and there was a passion in his voice which was +unmistakable; "he was the vilest thing that ever drew the breath +of life. There was no villainy too despicable, no cruelty so +horrid but that he gloried in it. If ever the devil were +incarnate on earth he took the shape and the form of Remington +Kara. He died too merciful a death by all accounts. But if there +is a God, this man will suffer for his crimes in hell through all +eternity." + +T. X. looked at him in astonishment. The hate in the man's face +took his breath away. Never before had he experienced or +witnessed such a vehemence of loathing. + +"What did Kara do to you?" he demanded. + +The other looked out of the window. + +"I am sorry," he said in a milder tone; "that is my weakness. +Some day I will tell you the whole story but for the moment it +were better that it were not told. I will tell you this," he +turned round and faced the detective squarely, "Kara tortured and +killed my wife." + +T. X. said no more. + +Half way through lunch he returned indirectly to the subject. + +"Do you know Gathercole?" he asked. + +T. X. nodded. + +"I think you asked me that question once before, or perhaps it was +somebody else. Yes, I know him, rather an eccentric man with an +artificial arm." + +"That's the cove," said T. X. with a little sigh; "he's one of the +few men I want to meet just now." + +"Why?" + +"Because he was apparently the last man to see Kara alive." + +John Lexman looked at the other with an impatient jerk of his +shoulders. + +"You don't suspect Gathercole, do you?" he asked. + +"Hardly," said the other drily; "in the first place the man that +committed this murder had two hands and needed them both. No, I +only want to ask that gentleman the subject of his conversation. +I also want to know who was in the room with Kara when Gathercole +went in." + +"H'm," said John Lexman. + +"Even if I found who the third person was, I am still puzzled as +to how they got out and fastened the heavy latch behind them. Now +in the old days, Lexman," he said good humouredly, "you would have +made a fine mystery story out of this. How would you have made +your man escape?" + +Lexman thought for a while. + +"Have you examined the safe!" he asked. + +"Yes," said the other. + +"Was there very much in it?" + +T. X. looked at him in astonishment. + +"Just the ordinary books and things. Why do you ask?" + +"Suppose there were two doors to that safe, one on the outside of +the room and one on the inside, would it be possible to pass +through the safe and go down the wall?" + +"I have thought of that," said T. X. + +"Of course," said Lexman, leaning back and toying with a +salt-spoon, "in writing a story where one hasn't got to deal with +the absolute possibilities, one could always have made Kara have a +safe of that character in order to make his escape in the event of +danger. He might keep a rope ladder stored inside, open the back +door, throw out his ladder to a friend and by some trick +arrangement could detach the ladder and allow the door to swing to +again." + +"A very ingenious idea," said T. X., "but unfortunately it doesn't +work in this case. I have seen the makers of the safe and there +is nothing very eccentric about it except the fact that it is +mounted as it is. Can you offer another suggestion?" + +John Lexman thought again. + +"I will not suggest trap doors, or secret panels or anything so +banal," he said, "nor mysterious springs in the wall which, when +touched, reveal secret staircases." + +He smiled slightly. + +"In my early days, I must confess, I was rather keen upon that +sort of thing, but age has brought experience and I have +discovered the impossibility of bringing an architect to one's way +of thinking even in so commonplace a matter as the position of a +scullery. It would be much more difficult to induce him to +construct a house with double walls and secret chambers." + +T. X. waited patiently. + +"There is a possibility, of course," said Lexman slowly, "that the +steel latch may have been raised by somebody outside by some +ingenious magnetic arrangement and lowered in a similar manner." + +"I have thought about it," said T. X. triumphantly, "and I have +made the most elaborate tests only this morning. It is quite +impossible to raise the steel latch because once it is dropped it +cannot be raised again except by means of the knob, the pulling of +which releases the catch which holds the bar securely in its +place. Try another one, John." + +John Lexman threw back his head in a noiseless laugh. + +"Why I should be helping you to discover the murderer of Kara is +beyond my understanding," he said, "but I will give you another +theory, at the same time warning you that I may be putting you off +the track. For God knows I have more reason to murder Kara than +any man in the world." + +He thought a while. + +"The chimney was of course impossible?" + +"There was a big fire burning in the grate," explained T. X.; "so +big indeed that the room was stifling." + +John Lexman nodded. + +"That was Kara's way," he said; "as a matter of fact I know the +suggestion about magnetism in the steel bar was impossible, +because I was friendly with Kara when he had that bar put in and +pretty well know the mechanism, although I had forgotten it for +the moment. What is your own theory, by the way?" + +T. X. pursed his lips. + +"My theory isn't very clearly formed," he said cautiously, "but so +far as it goes, it is that Kara was lying on the bed probably +reading one of the books which were found by the bedside when his +assailant suddenly came upon him. Kara seized the telephone to +call for assistance and was promptly killed." + +Again there was silence. + +"That is a theory," said John Lexman, with his curious +deliberation of speech, "but as I say I refuse to be definite - +have you found the weapon?" + +T. X. shook his head. + +"Were there any peculiar features about the room which astonished +you, and which you have not told me?" + +T. X. hesitated. + +"There were two candles," he said, "one in the middle of the room +and one under the bed. That in the middle of the room was a small +Christmas candle, the one under the bed was the ordinary candle of +commerce evidently roughly cut and probably cut in the room. We +found traces of candle chips on the floor and it is evident to me +that the portion which was cut off was thrown into the fire, for +here again we have a trace of grease." + +Lexman nodded. + +"Anything further?" he asked. + +"The smaller candle was twisted into a sort of corkscrew shape." + +"The Clue of the Twisted Candle," mused John Lexman "that's a very +good title - Kara hated candles." + +"Why?" + +Lexman leant back in his chair, selected a cigarette from a silver +case. + +"In my wanderings," he said, "I have been to many strange places. +I have been to the country which you probably do not know, and +which the traveller who writes books about countries seldom +visits. There are queer little villages perched on the spurs of +the bleakest hills you ever saw. I have lived with communities +which acknowledge no king and no government. These have their +laws handed down to them from father to son - it is a nation +without a written language. They administer their laws rigidly +and drastically. The punishments they award are cruel - inhuman. +I have seen, the woman taken in adultery stoned to death as in the +best Biblical traditions, and I have seen the thief blinded." + +T. X. shivered. + +"I have seen the false witness stand up in a barbaric market place +whilst his tongue was torn from him. Sometimes the Turks or the +piebald governments of the state sent down a few gendarmes and +tried a sort of sporadic administration of the country. It +usually ended in the representative of the law lapsing into +barbarism, or else disappearing from the face of the earth, with a +whole community of murderers eager to testify, with singular +unanimity, to the fact that he had either committed suicide or had +gone off with the wife of one of the townsmen. + +"In some of these communities the candle plays a big part. It is +not the candle of commerce as you know it, but a dip made from +mutton fat. Strap three between the fingers of your hands and +keep the hand rigid with two flat pieces of wood; then let the +candles burn down lower and lower - can you imagine? Or set a +candle in a gunpowder trail and lead the trail to a well-oiled +heap of shavings thoughtfully heaped about your naked feet. Or a +candle fixed to the shaved head of a man - there are hundreds of +variations and the candle plays a part in all of them. I don't +know which Kara had cause to hate the worst, but I know one or two +that he has employed." + +"Was he as bad as that?" asked T. X. + +John Lexman laughed. + +"You don't know how bad he was," he said. + +Towards the end of the luncheon the waiter brought a note in to T. +X. which had been sent on from his office. + +"Dear Mr. Meredith, + +"In answer to your enquiry I believe my daughter is in London, +but I did not know it until this morning. My banker informs me +that my daughter called at the bank this morning and drew a +considerable sum of money from her private account, but where she +has gone and what she is doing with the money I do not know. I +need hardly tell you that I am very worried about this matter and +I should be glad if you could explain what it is all about." + +It was signed "William Bartholomew." + +T. X. groaned. + +"If I had only had the sense to go to the bank this morning, I +should have seen her," he said. "I'm going to lose my job over +this." + +The other looked troubled. + +"You don't seriously mean that." + +"Not exactly," smiled T. X., "but I don't think the Chief is very +pleased with me just now. You see I have butted into this +business without any authority - it isn't exactly in my +department. But you have not given me your theory about the +candles." + +"I have no theory to offer," said the other, folding up his +serviette; "the candles suggest a typical Albanian murder. I do +not say that it was so, I merely say that by their presence they +suggest a crime of this character." + +With this T. X. had to be content. + +If it were not his business to interest himself in commonplace +murder - though this hardly fitted such a description - it was +part of the peculiar function which his department exercised to +restore to Lady Bartholomew a certain very elaborate snuff-box +which he discovered in the safe. + +Letters had been found amongst his papers which made clear the +part which Kara had played. Though he had not been a vulgar +blackmailer he had retained his hold, not only upon this +particular property of Lady Bartholomew, but upon certain other +articles which were discovered, with no other object, apparently, +than to compel influence from quarters likely to be of assistance +to him in his schemes. + +The inquest on the murdered man which the Assistant Commissioner +attended produced nothing in the shape of evidence and the +coroner's verdict of "murder against some person or persons +unknown" was only to be expected. + +T. X. spent a very busy and a very tiring week tracing elusive +clues which led him nowhere. He had a letter from John Lexman +announcing the fact that he intended leaving for the United +States. He had received a very good offer from a firm of magazine +publishers in New York and was going out to take up the +appointment. + +Meredith's plans were now in fair shape. He had decided upon the +line of action he would take and in the pursuance of this he +interviewed his Chief and the Minister of Justice. + +"Yes, I have heard from my daughter," said that great man +uncomfortably, "and really she has placed me in a most +embarrassing position. I cannot tell you, Mr. Meredith, exactly +in what manner she has done this, but I can assure you she has." + +"Can I see her letter or telegram?" asked T. X. + +"I am afraid that is impossible," said the other solemnly; "she +begged me to keep her communication very secret. I have written +to my wife and asked her to come home. I feel the constant strain +to which I am being subjected is more than human can endure." + +"I suppose," said T. X. patiently, "it is impossible for you to +tell me to what address you have replied?" + +"To no address," answered the other and corrected himself +hurriedly; "that is to say I only received the telegram - the +message this morning and there is no address - to reply to." + +"I see," said T. X. + +That afternoon he instructed his secretary. + +"I want a copy of all the agony advertisements in to-morrow's +papers and in the last editions of the evening papers - have them +ready for me tomorrow morning when I come." + +They were waiting for him when he reached the office at nine +o'clock the next day and he went through them carefully. +Presently he found the message he was seeking. + +B. M. You place me awkward position. Very thoughtless. Have +received package addressed your mother which have placed in +mother's sitting-room. Cannot understand why you want me to go +away week-end and give servants holiday but have done so. Shall +require very full explanation. Matter gone far enough. Father. + +"This," said T. X. exultantly, as he read the advertisement, "is +where I get busy." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +February as a rule is not a month of fogs, but rather a month of +tempestuous gales, of frosts and snowfalls, but the night of +February 17th, 19--, was one of calm and mist. It was not the +typical London fog so dreaded by the foreigner, but one of those +little patchy mists which smoke through the streets, now +enshrouding and making the nearest object invisible, now clearing +away to the finest diaphanous filament of pale grey. + +Sir William Bartholomew had a house in Portman Place, which is a +wide thoroughfare, filled with solemn edifices of unlovely and +forbidding exterior, but remarkably comfortable within. Shortly +before eleven on the night of February 17th, a taxi drew up at the +junction of Sussex Street and Portman Place, and a girl alighted. +The fog at that moment was denser than usual and she hesitated a +moment before she left the shelter which the cab afforded. + +She gave the driver a few instructions and walked on with a firm +step, turning abruptly and mounting the steps of Number 173. Very +quickly she inserted her key in the lock, pushed the door open and +closed it behind her. She switched on the hall light. The house +sounded hollow and deserted, a fact which afforded her +considerable satisfaction. She turned the light out and found her +way up the broad stairs to the first floor, paused for a moment to +switch on another light which she knew would not be observable +from the street outside and mounted the second flight. + +Miss Belinda Mary Bartholomew congratulated herself upon the +success of her scheme, and the only doubt that was in her mind now +was whether the boudoir had been locked, but her father was rather +careless in such matters and Jacks the butler was one of those +dear, silly, old men who never locked anything, and, in +consequence, faced every audit with a long face and a longer tale +of the peculations of occasional servants. + +To her immense relief the handle turned and the door opened to her +touch. Somebody had had the sense to pull down the blinds and the +curtains were drawn. She switched on the light with a sigh of +relief. Her mother's writing table was covered with unopened +letters, but she brushed these aside in her search for the little +parcel. It was not there and her heart sank. Perhaps she had put +it in one of the drawers. She tried them all without result. + +She stood by the desk a picture of perplexity, biting a finger +thoughtfully. + +"Thank goodness!" she said with a jump, for she saw the parcel on +the mantel shelf, crossed the room and took it down. + +With eager hands she tore off the covering and came to the +familiar leather case. Not until she had opened the padded lid +and had seen the snuffbox reposing in a bed of cotton wool did she +relapse into a long sigh of relief. + +"Thank heaven for that," she said aloud. + +"And me," said a voice. + +She sprang up and turned round with a look of terror. + +"Mr. - Mr. Meredith," she stammered. + +T. X. stood by the window curtains from whence he had made his +dramatic entry upon the scene. + +"I say you have to thank me also, Miss Bartholomew," he said +presently. + +"How do you know my name?" she asked with some curiosity. + +"I know everything in the world," he answered, and she smiled. +Suddenly her face went serious and she demanded sharply, + +"Who sent you after me - Mr. Kara?" + +"Mr. Kara?" he repeated, in wonder. + +"He threatened to send for the police," she went on rapidly, "and +I told him he might do so. I didn't mind the police - it was Kara +I was afraid of. You know what I went for, my mother's property." + +She held the snuff-box in her outstretched hand. + +"He accused me of stealing and was hateful, and then he put me +downstairs in that awful cellar and - " + +"And?" suggested T. X. + +"That's all," she replied with tightened lips; "what are you going +to do now?" + +"I am going to ask you a few questions if I may," he said. "In +the first place have you not heard anything about Mr. Kara since +you went away?" + +She shook her head. + +"I have kept out of his way," she said grimly. + +"Have you seen the newspapers?" he asked. + +She nodded. + +"I have seen the advertisement column - I wired asking Papa to +reply to my telegram." + +"I know - I saw it," he smiled; "that is what brought me here." + +"I was afraid it would," she said ruefully; "father is awfully +loquacious in print - he makes speeches you know. All I wanted +him to say was yes or no. What do you mean about the newspapers?" +she went on. "Is anything wrong with mother?" + +He shook his head. + +"So far as I know Lady Bartholomew is in the best of health and is +on her way home." + +"Then what do you mean by asking me about the newspapers!" she +demanded; "why should I see the newspapers - what is there for me +to see?" + +"About Kara?" he suggested. + +She shook her head in bewilderment. + +"I know and want to know nothing about Kara. Why do you say this +to me?" + +"Because," said T. X. slowly, "on the night you disappeared from +Cadogan Square, Remington Kara was murdered." + +"Murdered," she gasped. + +He nodded. + +"He was stabbed to the heart by some person or persons unknown." + +T. X. took his hand from his pocket and pulled something out which +was wrapped in tissue paper. This he carefully removed and the +girl watched with fascinated gaze, and with an awful sense of +apprehension. Presently the object was revealed. It was a pair +of scissors with the handle wrapped about with a small +handkerchief dappled with brown stains. She took a step backward, +raising her hands to her cheeks. + +"My scissors," she said huskily; "you won't think - " + +She stared up at him, fear and indignation struggling for mastery. + +"I don't think you committed the murder," he smiled; "if that's +what you mean to ask me, but if anybody else found those scissors +and had identified this handkerchief you would have been in rather +a fix, my young friend." + +She looked at the scissors and shuddered. + +"I did kill something," she said in a low voice, "an awful dog ... +I don't know how I did it, but the beastly thing jumped at me and +I just stabbed him and killed him, and I am glad," she nodded many +times and repeated, "I am glad." + +"So I gather - I found the dog and now perhaps you'll explain why +I didn't find you?" + +Again she hesitated and he felt that she was hiding something from +him. + +"I don't know why you didn't find me," she said; "I was there." + +"How did you get out?" + +"How did you get out?" she challenged him boldly. + +"I got out through the door," he confessed; "it seems a +ridiculously commonplace way of leaving but that's the only way I +could see." + +"And that's how I got out," she answered, with a little smile. + +"But it was locked." + +She laughed. + +"I see now," she said; "I was in the cellar. I heard your key in +the lock and bolted down the trap, leaving those awful scissors +behind. I thought it was Kara with some of his friends and then +the voices died away and I ventured to come up and found you had +left the door open. So - so I - " + +These queer little pauses puzzled T. X. There was something she +was not telling him. Something she had yet to reveal. + +"So I got away you see," she went on. "I came out into the +kitchen; there was nobody there, and I passed through the area +door and up the steps and just round the corner I found a taxicab, +and that is all." + +She spread out her hands in a dramatic little gesture. + +"And that is all, is it?" said T. X. + +"That is all," she repeated; "now what are you going to do?" + +T. X. looked up at the ceiling and stroked his chin. + +"I suppose that I ought to arrest you. I feel that something is +due from me. May I ask if you were sleeping in the bed +downstairs?" + +"In the lower cellar?" she demanded, - a little pause and then, +"Yes, I was sleeping in the cellar downstairs." + +There was that interval of hesitation almost between each word. + +"What are you going to do?" she asked again. + +She was feeling more sure of herself and had suppressed the panic +which his sudden appearance had produced in her. He rumpled his +hair, a gross imitation, did she but know it, of one of his +chief's mannerisms and she observed that his hair was very thick +and inclined to curl. She saw also that he was passably good +looking, had fine grey eyes, a straight nose and a most firm chin. + +"I think," she suggested gently, "you had better arrest me." + +"Don't be silly," he begged. + +She stared at him in amazement. + +"What did you say?" she asked wrathfully. + +"I said 'don't be silly,'" repeated the calm young man. + +"Do you know that you're being very rude?" she asked. + +He seemed interested and surprised at this novel view of his +conduct. + +"Of course," she went on carefully smoothing her dress and +avoiding his eye, "I know you think I am silly and that I've got a +most comic name." + +"I have never said your name was comic," he replied coldly; "I +would not take so great a liberty." + +"You said it was 'weird' which was worse," she claimed. + +"I may have said it was 'weird,"' he admitted, "but that's rather +different to saying it was 'comic.' There is dignity in weird +things. For example, nightmares aren't comic but they're weird." + +"Thank you," she said pointedly. + +"Not that I mean your name is anything approaching a nightmare." +He made this concession with a most magnificent sweep of hand as +though he were a king conceding her the right to remain covered in +his presence. "I think that Belinda Ann - " + +"Belinda Mary," she corrected. + +"Belinda Mary, I was going to say, or as a matter of fact," he +floundered, "I was going to say Belinda and Mary." + +"You were going to say nothing of the kind," she corrected him. + +"Anyway, I think Belinda Mary is a very pretty name." + +"You think nothing of the sort." + +She saw the laughter in his eyes and felt an insane desire to +laugh. + +"You said it was a weird name and you think it is a weird name, +but I really can't be bothered considering everybody's views. I +think it's a weird name, too. I was named after an aunt," she +added in self-defence. + +"There you have the advantage of me," he inclined his head +politely; "I was named after my father's favourite dog." + +"What does T. X. stand for?" she asked curiously. + +"Thomas Xavier," he said, and she leant back in the big chair on +the edge of which a few minutes before she had perched herself in +trepidation and dissolved into a fit of immoderate laughter. + +"It is comic, isn't it?" he asked. + +"Oh, I am sorry I'm so rude," she gasped. "Fancy being called +Tommy Xavier - I mean Thomas Xavier." + +"You may call me Tommy if you wish - most of my friends do." + +"Unfortunately I'm not your friend," she said, still smiling and +wiping the tears from her eyes, "so I shall go on calling you Mr. +Meredith if you don't mind." + +She looked at her watch. + +"If you are not going to arrest me I'm going," she said. + +"I have certainly no intention of arresting you," said he, "but I +am going to see you home!" + +She jumped up smartly. + +"You're not," she commanded. + +She was so definite in this that he was startled. + +"My dear child," he protested. + +"Please don't 'dear child' me," she said seriously; "you're going +to be a good little Tommy and let me go home by myself." + +She held out her hand frankly and the laughing appeal in her eyes +was irresistible. + +"Well, I'll see you to a cab," he insisted. + +"And listen while I give the driver instructions where he is to +take me?" + +She shook her head reprovingly. + +"It must be an awful thing to be a policeman." + +He stood back with folded arms, a stern frown on his face. + +"Don't you trust me?" he asked. + +"No," she replied. + +"Quite right," he approved; "anyway I'll see you to the cab and +you can tell the driver to go to Charing Cross station and on your +way you can change your direction." + +"And you promise you won't follow me?" she asked. + +"On my honour," he swore; "on one condition though." + +"I will make no conditions," she replied haughtily. + +"Please come down from your great big horse," he begged, "and +listen to reason. The condition I make is that I can always bring +you to an appointed rendezvous whenever I want you. Honestly, +this is necessary, Belinda Mary." + +"Miss Bartholomew," she corrected, coldly. + +"It is necessary," he went on, "as you will understand. Promise +me that, if I put an advertisement in the agonies of either an +evening paper which I will name or in the Morning Port, you will +keep the appointment I fix, if it is humanly possible." + +She hesitated a moment, then held out her hand. + +"I promise," she said. + +"Good for you, Belinda Mary," said he, and tucking her arm in his +he led her out of the room switching off the light and racing her +down the stairs. + +If there was a lot of the schoolgirl left in Belinda Mary +Bartholomew, no less of the schoolboy was there in this +Commissioner of Police. He would have danced her through the fog, +contemptuous of the proprieties, but he wasn't so very anxious to +get her to her cab and to lose sight of her. + +"Good-night," he said, holding her hand. + +"That's the third time you've shaken hands with me to-night," she +interjected. + +"Don't let us have any unpleasantness at the last," he pleaded, +"and remember." + +"I have promised," she replied. + +"And one day," he went on, "you will tell me all that happened in +that cellar." + +"I have told you," she said in a low voice. + +"You have not told me everything, child." + +He handed her into the cab. He shut the door behind her and leant +through the open window. + +"Victoria or Marble Arch?" he asked politely. + +"Charing Cross," she replied, with a little laugh. + +He watched the cab drive away and then suddenly it stopped and a +figure lent out from the window beckoning him frantically. He ran +up to her. + +"Suppose I want you," she asked. + +"Advertise," he said promptly, "beginning your advertisement 'Dear +Tommy."' + +"I shall put 'T. X.,' " she said indignantly. + +"Then I shall take no notice of your advertisement," he replied +and stood in the middle of the street, his hat in his hand, to the +intense annoyance of a taxi-cab driver who literally all but ran +him down and in a figurative sense did so until T. X. was out of +earshot. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + +Thomas Xavier Meredith was a shrewd young man. It was said of him +by Signor Paulo Coselli, the eminent criminologist, that he had a +gift of intuition which was abnormal. Probably the mystery of the +twisted candle was solved by him long before any other person in +the world had the dimmest idea that it was capable of solution. + +The house in Cadogan Square was still in the hands of the police. +To this house and particularly to Kara's bedroom T. X. from time +to time repaired, and reproduced as far as possible the conditions +which obtained on the night of the murder. He had the same +stifling fire, the same locked door. The latch was dropped in its +socket, whilst T. X., with a stop watch in his hand, made +elaborate calculations and acted certain parts which he did not +reveal to a soul. + +Three times, accompanied by Mansus, he went to the house, three +times went to the death chamber and was alone on one occasion for +an hour and a half whilst the patient Mansus waited outside. +Three times he emerged looking graver on each occasion, and after +the third visit he called into consultation John Lexman. + +Lexman had been spending some time in the country, having deferred +his trip to the United States. + +"This case puzzles me more and more, John," said T. X., troubled +out of his usual boisterous self, "and thank heaven it worries +other people besides me. De Mainau came over from France the +other day and brought all his best sleuths, whilst O'Grady of the +New York central office paid a flying visit just to get hold of +the facts. Not one of them has given me the real solution, though +they've all been rather ingenious. Gathercole has vanished and is +probably on his way to some undiscoverable region, and our people +have not yet traced the valet." + +"He should be the easiest for you," said John Lexman, +reflectively. + +"Why Gathercole should go off I can't understand," T. X. +continued. "According to the story which was told me by Fisher, +his last words to Kara were to the effect that he was expecting a +cheque or that he had received a cheque. No cheque has been +presented or drawn and apparently Gathercole has gone off without +waiting for any payment. An examination of Kara's books show +nothing against the Gathercole account save the sum of 600 pounds +which was originally advanced, and now to upset all my +calculations, look at this." + +He took from his pocketbook a newspaper cutting and pushed it +across the table, for they were dining together at the Carlton. +John Lexman picked up the slip and read. It was evidently from a +New York paper: + +"Further news has now come to hand by the Antarctic Trading +Company's steamer, Cyprus, concerning the wreck of the City of the +Argentine. It is believed that this ill-fated vessel, which +called at South American ports, lost her propellor and drifted +south out of the track of shipping. This theory is now confirmed. +Apparently the ship struck an iceberg on December 23rd and +foundered with all aboard save a few men who were able to launch a +boat and who were picked up by the Cyprus. The following is the +passenger list." + +John Lexman ran down the list until he came upon the name which +was evidently underlined in ink by T. X. That name was George +Gathercole and after it in brackets (Explorer). + +"If that were true, then, Gathercole could not have come to +London." + +"He may have taken another boat," said T. X., "and I cabled to the +Steamship Company without any great success. Apparently +Gathercole was an eccentric sort of man and lived in terror of +being overcrowded. It was a habit of his to make provisional +bookings by every available steamer. The company can tell me no +more than that he had booked, but whether he shipped on the City +of the Argentine or not, they do not know." + +"I can tell you this about Gathercole," said John slowly and +thoughtfully, "that he was a man who would not hurt a fly. He was +incapable of killing any man, being constitutionally averse to +taking life in any shape. For this reason he never made +collections of butterflies or of bees, and I believe has never +shot an animal in his life. He carried his principles to such an +extent that he was a vegetarian - poor old Gathercole!" he said, +with the first smile which T. X. had seen on his face since he +came back. + +"If you want to sympathize with anybody," said T. X. gloomily, +"sympathize with me." + +On the following day T. X. was summoned to the Home Office and +went steeled for a most unholy row. The Home Secretary, a large +and worthy gentleman, given to the making of speeches on every +excuse, received him, however, with unusual kindness. + +"I've sent for you, Mr. Meredith," he said, "about this +unfortunate Greek. I've had all his private papers looked into +and translated and in some cases decoded, because as you are +probably aware his diaries and a great deal of his correspondence +were in a code which called for the attention of experts." + +T. X. had not troubled himself greatly about Kara's private papers +but had handed them over, in accordance with instructions, to the +proper authorities. + +"Of course, Mr. Meredith," the Home Secretary went on, beaming +across his big table, "we expect you to continue your search for +the murderer, but I must confess that your prisoner when you +secure him will have a very excellent case to put to a jury." + +"That I can well believe, sir," said T. X. + +"Seldom in my long career at the bar," began the Home Secretary in +his best oratorical manner, "have I examined a record so utterly +discreditable as that of the deceased man." + +Here he advanced a few instances which surprised even T. X. + +"The men was a lunatic," continued the Home Secretary, "a vicious, +evil man who loved cruelty for cruelty's sake. We have in this +diary alone sufficient evidence to convict him of three separate +murders, one of which was committed in this country." + +T. X. looked his astonishment. + +"You will remember, Mr. Meredith, as I saw in one of your reports, +that he had a chauffeur, a Greek named Poropulos." + +T. X. nodded. + +"He went to Greece on the day following the shooting of +Vassalaro," he said. + +The Home Secretary shook his head. + +"He was killed on the same night," said the Minister, "and you +will have no difficulty in finding what remains of his body in the +disused house which Kara rented for his own purpose on the +Portsmouth Road. That he has killed a number of people in Albania +you may well suppose. Whole villages have been wiped out to +provide him with a little excitement. The man was a Nero without +any of Nero's amiable weaknesses. He was obsessed with the idea +that he himself was in danger of assassination, and saw an enemy +even in his trusty servant. Undoubtedly the chauffeur Poropulos +was in touch with several Continental government circles. You +understand," said the Minister in conclusion, "that I am telling +you this, not with the idea of expecting you, to relax your +efforts to find the murderer and clear up the mystery, but in +order that you may know something of the possible motive for this +man's murder." + +T. X. spent an hour going over the decoded diary and documents and +left the Home Office a little shakily. It was inconceivable, +incredible. Kara was a lunatic, but the directing genius was a +devil. + +T. X. had a flat in Whitehall Gardens and thither he repaired to +change for dinner. He was half dressed when the evening paper +arrived and he glanced as was his wont first at the news' page and +then at the advertisement column. He looked down the column +marked "Personal" without expecting to find anything of particular +interest to himself, but saw that which made him drop the paper +and fly round the room in a frenzy to complete his toilet. + +"Tommy X.," ran the brief announcement, "most urgent, Marble Arch +8." + +He had five minutes to get there but it seemed like five hours. +He was held up at almost every crossing and though he might have +used his authority to obtain right of way, it was a step which his +curious sense of honesty prevented him taking. He leapt out of +the cab before it stopped, thrust the fare into the driver's hands +and looked round for the girl. He saw her at last and walked +quickly towards her. As he approached her, she turned about and +with an almost imperceptible beckoning gesture walked away. He +followed her along the Bayswater Road and gradually drew level. + +"I am afraid I have been watched," she said in a low voice. "Will +you call a cab?" + +He hailed a passing taxi, helped her in and gave at random the +first place that suggested itself to him, which was Finsbury Park. + +"I am very worried," she said, "and I don't know anybody who can +help me except you." + +"Is it money?" he asked. + +"Money," she said scornfully, "of course it isn't money. I want +to show you a letter," she said after a while. + +She took it from her bag and gave it to him and he struck a match +and read it with difficulty. + +It was written in a studiously uneducated hand. + + + +"Dear Miss, + +"I know who you are. You are wanted by the police but I will not +give you away. Dear Miss. I am very hard up and 20 pounds will +be very useful to me and I shall not trouble you again. Dear +Miss. Put the money on the window sill of your room. I know you +sleep on the ground floor and I will come in and take it. And if +not - well, I don't want to make any trouble. + + "Yours truly, + "A FRIEND." + +"When did you get this?" he asked. + +"This morning," she replied. "I sent the Agony to the paper by +telegram, I knew you would come." + +"Oh, you did, did you?" he said. + +Her assurance was very pleasing to him. The faith that her words +implied gave him an odd little feeling of comfort and happiness. + +"I can easily get you out of this," he added; "give me your +address and when the gentleman comes - " + +"That is impossible," she replied hurriedly. "Please don't think +I'm ungrateful, and don't think I'm being silly - you do think I'm +being silly, don't you!" + +"I have never harboured such an unworthy thought," he said +virtuously. + +"Yes, you have," she persisted, "but really I can't tell you where +I am living. I have a very special reason for not doing so. It's +not myself that I'm thinking about, but there's a life involved." + +This was a somewhat dramatic statement to make and she felt she +had gone too far. + +"Perhaps I don't mean that," she said, "but there is some one I +care for - " she dropped her voice. + +"Oh," said T. X. blankly. + +He came down from his rosy heights into the shadow and darkness of +a sunless valley. + +"Some one you care for," he repeated after a while. + +"Yes." + +There was another long silence, then, + +"Oh, indeed," said T. X. + +Again the unbroken interval of quiet and after a while she said in +a low voice, "Not that way." + +"Not what way!" asked T. X. huskily, his spirits doing a little +mountaineering. + +"The way you mean," she said. + +"Oh," said T. X. + +He was back again amidst the rosy snows of dawn, was in fact +climbing a dizzy escalier on the topmost height of hope's Mont +Blanc when she pulled the ladder from under him. + +"I shall, of course, never marry," she said with a certain prim +decision. + +T. X. fell with a dull sickening thud, discovering that his rosy +snows were not unlike cold, hard ice in their lack of resilience. + +"Who said you would?" he asked somewhat feebly, but in self +defence. + +"You did," she said, and her audacity took his breath away. + +"Well, how am I to help you!" he asked after a while. + +"By giving me some advice," she said; "do you think I ought to put +the money there!" + +"Indeed I do not," said T. X., recovering some of his natural +dominance; "apart from the fact that you would be compounding a +felony, you would merely be laying out trouble for yourself in the +future. If he can get 20 pounds so easily, he will come for 40 +pounds. But why do you stay away, why don't you return home? +There's no charge and no breath of suspicion against you." + +"Because I have something to do which I have set my mind to," she +said, with determination in her tones. + +"Surely you can trust me with your address," he urged her, "after +all that has passed between us, Belinda Mary - after all the years +we have known one another." + +"I shall get out and leave you," she said steadily. + +"But how the dickens am I going to help you?" he protested. + +"Don't swear," she could be very severe indeed; "the only way you +can help me is by being kind and sympathetic." + +"Would you like me to burst into tears?" he asked sarcastically. + +"I ask you to do nothing more painful or repugnant to your natural +feelings than to be a gentleman," she said. + +"Thank you very kindly," said T. X., and leant back in the cab +with an air of supreme resignation. + +"I believe you're making faces in the dark," she accused him. + +"God forbid that I should do anything so low," said he hastily; +"what made you think that?" + +"Because I was putting my tongue out at you," she admitted, and +the taxi driver heard the shrieks of laughter in the cab behind +him above the wheezing of his asthmatic engine. + +At twelve that night in a certain suburb of London an overcoated +man moved stealthily through a garden. He felt his way carefully +along the wall of the house and groped with hope, but with no +great certainty, along the window sill. He found an envelope +which his fingers, somewhat sensitive from long employment in +nefarious uses, told him contained nothing more substantial than a +letter. + +He went back through the garden and rejoined his companion, who +was waiting under an adjacent lamp-post. + +"Did she drop?" asked the other eagerly. + +"I don't know yet," growled the man from the garden. + +He opened the envelope and read the few lines. + +"She hasn't got the money," he said, "but she's going to get it. +I must meet her to-morrow afternoon at the corner of Oxford Street +and Regent Street." + +"What time!" asked the other. + +"Six o'clock," said the first man. "The chap who takes the money +must carry a copy of the Westminster Gazette in his hand." + +"Oh, then it's a plant," said the other with conviction. + +The other laughed. + +"She won't work any plants. I bet she's scared out of her life." + +The second man bit his nails and looked up and down the road, +apprehensively. + +"It's come to something," he said bitterly; "we went out to make +our thousands and we've come down to 'chanting' for 20 pounds." + +"It's the luck," said the other philosophically, "and I haven't +done with her by any means. Besides we've still got a chance of +pulling of the big thing, Harry. I reckon she's good for a +hundred or two, anyway." + +At six o'clock on the following afternoon, a man dressed in a dark +overcoat, with a soft felt hat pulled down over his eyes stood +nonchalantly by the curb near where the buses stop at Regent +Street slapping his hand gently with a folded copy of the +Westminster Gazette. + +That none should mistake his Liberal reading, he stood as near as +possible to a street lamp and so arranged himself and his attitude +that the minimum of light should fall upon his face and the +maximum upon that respectable organ of public opinion. Soon after +six he saw the girl approaching, out of the tail of his eye, and +strolled off to meet her. To his surprise she passed him by and +he was turning to follow when an unfriendly hand gripped him by +the arm. + +"Mr. Fisher, I believe," said a pleasant voice. + +"What do you mean?" said the man, struggling backward. + +"Are you going quietly!" asked the pleasant Superintendent Mansus, +"or shall I take my stick to you'?" + +Mr. Fisher thought awhile. + +"It's a cop," he confessed, and allowed himself to be hustled into +the waiting cab. + +He made his appearance in T. X.'s office and that urbane gentleman +greeted him as a friend. + +"And how's Mr. Fisher!" he asked; "I suppose you are Mr. Fisher +still and not Mr. Harry Gilcott, or Mr. George Porten." + +Fisher smiled his old, deferential, deprecating smile. + +"You will always have your joke, sir. I suppose the young lady +gave me away." + +"You gave yourself away, my poor Fisher," said T. X., and put a +strip of paper before him; "you may disguise your hand, and in +your extreme modesty pretend to an ignorance of the British +language, which is not creditable to your many attainments, but +what you must be awfully careful in doing in future when you write +such epistles," he said, "is to wash your hands." + +"Wash my hands!" repeated the puzzled Fisher. + +T. X. nodded. + +"You see you left a little thumb print, and we are rather whales +on thumb prints at Scotland Yard, Fisher." + +"I see. What is the charge now, sir!" + +"I shall make no charge against you except the conventional one of +being a convict under license and failing to report." + +Fisher heaved a sigh. + +"That'll only mean twelve months. Are you going to charge me with +this business?" he nodded to the paper. + +T. X. shook his head. + +"I bear you no ill-will although you tried to frighten Miss +Bartholomew. Oh yes, I know it is Miss Bartholomew, and have +known all the time. The lady is there for a reason which is no +business of yours or of mine. I shall not charge you with attempt +to blackmail and in reward for my leniency I hope you are going to +tell me all you know about the Kara murder. You wouldn't like me +to charge you with that, would you by any chance!" + +Fisher drew a long breath. + +"No, sir, but if you did I could prove my innocence," he said +earnestly. "I spent the whole of the evening in the kitchen." + +"Except a quarter of an hour," said T. X. + +The man nodded. + +"That's true, sir, I went out to see a pal of mine." + +"The man who is in this!" asked T. X. + +Fisher hesitated. + +"Yes, sir. He was with me in this but there was nothing wrong +about the business - as far as we went. I don't mind admitting +that I was planning a Big Thing. I'm not going to blow on it, if +it's going to get me into trouble, but if you'll promise me that +it won't, I'll tell you the whole story." + +"Against whom was this coup of yours planned?" + +"Against Mr. Kara, sir," said Fisher. + +"Go on with your story," nodded T. X. + +The story was a short and commonplace one. Fisher had met a man +who knew another man who was either a Turk or an Albanian. They +had learnt that Kara was in the habit of keeping large sums of +money in the house and they had planned to rob him. That was the +story in a nutshell. Somewhere the plan miscarried. It was when +he came to the incidents that occurred on the night of the murder +that T. X. followed him with the greatest interest. + +"The old gentleman came in," said Fisher, "and I saw him up to the +room. I heard him coming out and I went up and spoke to him while +he was having a chat with Mr. Kara at the open door." + +"Did you hear Mr. Kara speak?" + +"I fancy I did, sir," said Fisher; "anyway the old gentleman was +quite pleased with himself." + +"Why do you say 'old gentleman'!" asked T. X.; "he was not an old +man." + +"Not exactly, sir," said Fisher, "but he had a sort of fussy +irritable way that old gentlemen sometimes have and I somehow got +it fixed in my mind that he was old. As a matter of fact, he was +about forty-five, he may have been fifty." + +"You have told me all this before. Was there anything peculiar +about him!" + +Fisher hesitated. + +"Nothing, sir, except the fact that one of his arms was a game +one." + +"Meaning that it was - " + +"Meaning that it was an artificial one, sir, so far as I can make +out." + +"Was it his right or his left arm that was game!" interrupted T. +X. + +"His left arm, sir." + +"You're sure?" + +"I'd swear to it, sir." + +"Very well, go on." + +"He came downstairs and went out and I never saw him again. When +you came and the murder was discovered and knowing as I did that I +had my own scheme on and that one of your splits might pinch me, I +got a bit rattled. I went downstairs to the hall and the first +thing I saw lying on the table was a letter. It was addressed to +me." + +He paused and T. X. nodded. + +"Go on," he said again. + +"I couldn't understand how it came to be there, but as I'd been in +the kitchen most of the evening except when I was seeing my pal +outside to tell him the job was off for that night, it might have +been there before you came. I opened the letter. There were only +a few words on it and I can tell you those few words made my heart +jump up into my mouth, and made me go cold all over." + +"What were they!" asked T. X. + +"I shall not forget them, sir. They're sort of permanently fixed +in my brain," said the man earnestly; "the note started with just +the figures 'A. C. 274.' " + +"What was that!" asked T. X. + +"My convict number when I was in Dartmoor Prison, sir." + +"What did the note say?" + +"'Get out of here quick' - I don't know who had put it there, but +I'd evidently been spotted and I was taking no chances. That's +the whole story from beginning to end. I accidentally happened to +meet the young lady, Miss Holland - Miss Bartholomew as she is - +and followed her to her house in Portman Place. That was the +night you were there." + +T. X. found himself to his intense annoyance going very red. + +"And you know no more?" he asked. + +"No more, sir - and if I may be struck dead - " + +"Keep all that sabbath talk for the chaplain," commended T. X., +and they took away Mr. Fisher, not an especially dissatisfied man. + +That night T. X. interviewed his prisoner at Cannon Row police +station and made a few more enquiries. + +"There is one thing I would like to ask you," said the girl when +he met her next morning in Green Park. + +"If you were going to ask whether I made enquiries as to where +your habitation was," he warned her, "I beg of you to refrain." + +She was looking very beautiful that morning, he thought. The keen +air had brought a colour to her face and lent a spring to her +gait, and, as she strode along by his side with the free and +careless swing of youth, she was an epitome of the life which even +now was budding on every tree in the park. + +"Your father is back in town, by the way," he said, "and he is +most anxious to see you." + +She made a little grimace. + +"I hope you haven't been round talking to father about me." + +"Of course I have," he said helplessly; "I have also had all the +reporters up from Fleet Street and given them a full description +of your escapades." + +She looked round at him with laughter in her eyes. + +"You have all the manners of an early Christian martyr," she said. +"Poor soul! Would you like to be thrown to the lions?" + +"I should prefer being thrown to the demnition ducks and drakes," +he said moodily. + +"You're such a miserable man," she chided him, "and yet you have +everything to make life worth living." + +"Ha, ha!" said T. X. + +"You have, of course you have! You have a splendid position. +Everybody looks up to you and talks about you. You have got a +wife and family who adore you - " + +He stopped and looked at her as though she were some strange +insect. + +"I have a how much?" he asked credulously. + +"Aren't you married?" she asked innocently. + +He made a strange noise in his throat. + +"Do you know I have always thought of you as married," she went +on; "I often picture you in your domestic circle reading to the +children from the Daily Megaphone those awfully interesting +stories about Little Willie Waterbug." + +He held on to the railings for support. + +"May we sit down?" he asked faintly. + +She sat by his side, half turned to him, demure and wholly +adorable. + +"Of course you are right in one respect," he said at last, "but +you're altogether wrong about the children." + +"Are you married!" she demanded with no evidence of amusement. + +"Didn't you know?" he asked. + +She swallowed something. + +"Of course it's no business of mine and I'm sure I hope you are +very happy." + +"Perfectly happy," said T. X. complacently. "You must come out +and see me one Saturday afternoon when I am digging the potatoes. +I am a perfect devil when they let me loose in the vegetable +garden." + +"Shall we go on?" she said. + +He could have sworn there were tears in her eyes and manlike he +thought she was vexed with him at his fooling. + +"I haven't made you cross, have I?" he asked. + +"Oh no," she replied. + +"I mean you don't believe all this rot about my being married and +that sort of thing?" + +"I'm not interested," she said, with a shrug of her shoulders, +"not very much. You've been very kind to me and I should be an +awful boor if I wasn't grateful. Of course, I don't care whether +you're married or not, it's nothing to do with me, is it?" + +"Naturally it isn't," he replied. "I suppose you aren't married +by any chance?" + +"Married," she repeated bitterly; "why, you will make my fourth!" + +She had hardy got the words out of her mouth before she realized +her terrible error. A second later she was in his arms and he was +kissing her to the scandal of one aged park keeper, one small and +dirty-faced little boy and a moulting duck who seemed to sneer at +the proceedings which he watched through a yellow and malignant +eye. + +"Belinda Mary," said T. X. at parting, "you have got to give up +your little country establishment, wherever it may be and come +back to the discomforts of Portman Place. Oh, I know you can't +come back yet. That 'somebody' is there, and I can pretty well +guess who it is." + +"Who?" she challenged. + +"I rather fancy your mother has come back," he suggested. + +A look of scorn dawned into her pretty face. + +"Good lord, Tommy!" she said in disgust, "you don't think I should +keep mother in the suburbs without her telling the world all about +it!" + +"You're an undutiful little beggar," he said. + +They had reached the Horse Guards at Whitehall and he was saying +good-bye to her. + +"If it comes to a matter of duty," she answered, "perhaps you will +do your duty and hold up the traffic for me and let me cross this +road." + +"My dear girl," he protested, "hold up the traffic?" + +"Of course," she said indignantly, "you're a policeman." + +"Only when I am in uniform," he said hastily, and piloted her +across the road. + +It was a new man who returned to the gloomy office in Whitehall. +A man with a heart that swelled and throbbed with the pride and +joy of life's most precious possession. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + + +T. X. sat at his desk, his chin in his hands, his mind remarkably +busy. Grave as the matter was which he was considering, he rose +with alacrity to meet the smiling girl who was ushered through the +door by Mansus, preternaturally solemn and mysterious. + +She was radiant that day. Her eyes were sparkling with an unusual +brightness. + +"I've got the most wonderful thing to tell you," she said, "and I +can't tell you." + +"That's a very good beginning," said T. X., taking her muff from +her hand. + +"Oh, but it's really wonderful," she cried eagerly, "more +wonderful than anything you have ever heard about." + +"We are interested," said T. X. blandly. + +"No, no, you mustn't make fun," she begged, "I can't tell you now, +but it is something that will make you simply - " she was at a loss +for a simile. + +"Jump out of my skin?" suggested T. X. + +"I shall astonish you," she nodded her head solemnly. + +"I take a lot of astonishing, I warn you," he smiled; "to know you +is to exhaust one's capacity for surprise." + +"That can be either very, very nice or very, very nasty," she said +cautiously. + +"But accept it as being very, very nice," he laughed. "Now come, +out with this tale of yours." + +She shook her head very vigorously. + +"I can't possibly tell you anything," she said. + +"Then why the dickens do you begin telling anything for?" he +complained, not without reason. + +"Because I just want you to know that I do know something." + +"Oh, Lord!" he groaned. "Of course you know everything. Belinda +Mary, you're really the most wonderful child." + +He sat on the edge of her arm-chair and laid his hand on her +shoulder. + +"And you've come to take me out to lunch!" + +"What were you worrying about when I came in?" she asked. + +He made a little gesture as if to dismiss the subject. + +"Nothing very much. You've heard me speak of John Lexman?" + +She bent her head. + +"Lexman's the writer of a great many mystery stories, but you've +probably read his books." + +She nodded again, and again T. X. noticed the suppressed eagerness +in her eyes. + +"You're not ill or sickening for anything, are you?" he asked +anxiously; "measles, or mumps or something?" + +"Don't be silly," she said; "go on and tell me something about Mr. +Lexman." + +"He's going to America," said T. X., "and before he goes he wants +to give a little lecture." + +"A lecture?" + +"It sounds rum, doesn't it, but that's just what he wants to do." + +"Why is he doing it!" she asked. + +T. X. made a gesture of despair. + +"That is one of the mysteries which may never be revealed to me, +except - " he pursed his lips and looked thoughtfully at the girl. +"There are times," he said, "when there is a great struggle going +on inside a man between all the human and better part of him and +the baser professional part of him. One side of me wants to hear +this lecture of John Lexman's very much, the other shrinks from +the ordeal." + +"Let us talk it over at lunch," she said practically, and carried +him off. + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + +One would not readily associate the party of top-booted sewermen +who descend nightly to the subterranean passages of London with +the stout viceconsul at Durazzo. Yet it was one unimaginative man +who lived in Lambeth and had no knowledge that there was such a +place as Durazzo who was responsible for bringing this comfortable +official out of his bed in the early hours of the morning causing +him - albeit reluctantly and with violent and insubordinate +language - to conduct certain investigations in the crowded +bazaars. + +At first he was unsuccessful because there were many Hussein +Effendis in Durazzo. He sent an invitation to the American Consul +to come over to tiffin and help him. + +"Why the dickens the Foreign Office should suddenly be interested +in Hussein Effendi, I cannot for the life of me understand." + +"The Foreign Department has to be interested in something, you +know," said the genial American. "I receive some of the quaintest +requests from Washington; I rather fancy they only wire you to +find if they are there." + +"Why are you doing this!" + +"I've seen Hakaat Bey," said the English official. "I wonder what +this fellow has been doing? There is probably a wigging for me in +the offing." + +At about the same time the sewerman in the bosom of his own family +was taking loud and noisy sips from a big mug of tea. + +"Don't you be surprised," he said to his admiring better half, "if +I have to go up to the Old Bailey to give evidence." + +"Lord! Joe!" she said with interest, "what has happened!" + +The sewer man filled his pipe and told the story with a wealth of +rambling detail. He gave particulars of the hour he had descended +the Victoria Street shaft, of what Bill Morgan had said to him as +they were going down, of what he had said to Harry Carter as they +splashed along the low-roofed tunnel, of how he had a funny +feeling that he was going to make a discovery, and so on and so +forth until he reached his long delayed climax. + +T. X. waited up very late that night and at twelve o'clock his +patience was rewarded, for the Foreign Office' messenger brought a +telegram to him. It was addressed to the Chief Secretary and ran: + +"No. 847. Yours 63952 of yesterday's date. Begins. Hussein +Effendi a prosperous merchant of this city left for Italy to place +his daughter in convent Marie Theressa, Florence Hussein being +Christian. He goes on to Paris. Apply Ralli Theokritis et Cie., +Rue de l'Opera. Ends." + +Half an hour later T. X. had a telephone connection through to +Paris and was instructing the British police agent in that city. +He received a further telephone report from Paris the next morning +and one which gave him infinite satisfaction. Very slowly but +surely he was gathering together the pieces of this baffling +mystery and was fitting them together. Hussein Effendi would +probably supply the last missing segments. + +At eight o'clock that night the door opened and the man who +represented T. X. in Paris came in carrying a travelling ulster on +his arm. T. X. gave him a nod and then, as the newcomer stood +with the door open, obviously waiting for somebody to follow him, +he said, + +"Show him in - I will see him alone." + +There walked into his office, a tall man wearing a frock coat and +a red fez. He was a man from fifty-five to sixty, powerfully +built, with a grave dark face and a thin fringe of white beard. +He salaamed as he entered. + +"You speak French, I believe," said T. X. presently. + +The other bowed. + +"My agent has explained to you," said T. X. in French, "that I +desire some information for the purpose of clearing up a crime +which has been committed in this country. I have given you my +assurance, if that assurance was necessary, that you would come to +no harm as a result of anything you might tell me." + +"That I understand, Effendi," said the tall Turk; "the Americans +and the English have always been good friends of mine and I have +been frequently in London. Therefore, I shall be very pleased to +be of any help to you." + +T. X. walked to a closed bookcase on one side of the room, +unlocked it, took out an object wrapped in white tissue paper. He +laid this on the table, the Turk watching the proceedings with an +impassive face. Very slowly the Commissioner unrolled the little +bundle and revealed at last a long, slim knife, rusted and +stained, with a hilt, which in its untarnished days had evidently +been of chased silver. He lifted the dagger from the table and +handed it to the Turk. + +"This is yours, I believe," he said softly. + +The man turned it over, stepping nearer the table that he might +secure the advantage of a better light. He examined the blade +near the hilt and handed the weapon back to T. X. + +"That is my knife," he said. + +T. X. smiled. + +"You understand, of course, that I saw 'Hussein Effendi of +Durazzo' inscribed in Arabic near the hilt." + +The Turk inclined his head. + +"With this weapon," T. X. went on, speaking with slow emphasis, "a +murder was committed in this town." + +There was no sign of interest or astonishment, or indeed of any +emotion whatever. + +"It is the will of God," he said calmly; "these things happen even +in a great city like London." + +"It was your knife," suggested T. X. + +"But my hand was in Durazzo, Effendi," said the Turk. + +He looked at the knife again. + +"So the Black Roman is dead, Effendi." + +"The Black Roman?" asked T. X., a little puzzled. + +"The Greek they call Kara," said the Turk; "he was a very wicked +man." + +T. X. was up on his feet now, leaning across the table and looking +at the other with narrowed eyes. + +"How did you know it was Kara?" he asked quickly. + +The Turk shrugged his shoulders. + +"Who else could it be?" he said; "are not your newspapers +filled with the story?" + +T. X. sat back again, disappointed and a little annoyed with himself. + +"That is true, Hussein Effendi, but I did not think you read the +papers." + +"Neither do I, master," replied the other coolly, "nor did I know +that Kara had been killed until I saw this knife. How came this +in your possession!" + +"It was found in a rain sewer," said T. X., "into which the +murderer had apparently dropped it. But if you have not read the +newspapers, Effendi, then you admit that you know who committed +this murder." + +The Turk raised his hands slowly to a level with his shoulders. + +"Though I am a Christian," he said, "there are many wise sayings +of my father's religion which I remember. And one of these, +Effendi, was, 'the wicked must die in the habitations of the just, +by the weapons of the worthy shall the wicked perish.' Your +Excellency, I am a worthy man, for never have I done a dishonest +thing in my life. I have traded fairly with Greeks, with +Italians, have with Frenchmen and with Englishmen, also with Jews. +I have never sought to rob them nor to hurt them. If I have +killed men, God knows it was not because I desired their death, +but because their lives were dangerous to me and to mine. Ask the +blade all your questions and see what answer it gives. Until it +speaks I am as dumb as the blade, for it is also written that 'the +soldier is the servant of his sword,' and also, 'the wise servant +is dumb about his master's affairs.' " + +T. X. laughed helplessly. + +"I had hoped that you might be able to help me, hoped and feared," +he said; "if you cannot speak it is not my business to force you +either by threat or by act. I am grateful to you for having come +over, although the visit has been rather fruitless so far as I am +concerned." + +He smiled again and offered his hand. + +"Excellency," said the old Turk soberly, "there are some things in +life that are well left alone and there are moments when justice +should be so blind that she does not see guilt; here is such a +moment." + +And this ended the interview, one on which T. X. had set very high +hopes. His gloom carried to Portman Place, where he had arranged +to meet Belinda Mary. + +"Where is Mr. Lexman going to give this famous lecture of his?" +was the question with which she greeted him, "and, please, what is +the subject?" + +"It is on a subject which is of supreme interest to me;" he said +gravely; "he has called his lecture 'The Clue of the Twisted +Candle.' There is no clearer brain being employed in the business +of criminal detection than John Lexman's. Though he uses his +genius for the construction of stories, were it employed in the +legitimate business of police work, I am certain he would make a +mark second to none in the world. He is determined on giving this +lecture and he has issued a number of invitations. These include +the Chiefs of the Secret Police of nearly all the civilized +countries of the world. O'Grady is on his way from America, he +wirelessed me this morning to that effect. Even the Chief of the +Russian police has accepted the invitation, because, as you know, +this murder has excited a great deal of interest in police circles +everywhere. John Lexman is not only going to deliver this +lecture," he said slowly, "but he is going to tell us who +committed the murder and how it was committed." + +She thought a moment. + +"Where will it be delivered!" + +"I don't know," he said in astonishment; "does that matter?" + +"It matters a great deal," she said emphatically, "especially if I +want it delivered in a certain place. Would you induce Mr. +Lexman to lecture at my house?" + +"At Portman Place!" he asked. + +She shook her head. + +"No, I have a house of my own. A furnished house I have rented at +Blackheath. Will you induce Mr. Lexman to give the lecture +there?" + +"But why?" he asked. + +"Please don't ask questions," she pleaded, "do this for me, +Tommy." + +He saw she was in earnest. + +"I'll write to old Lexman this afternoon," he promised. + +John Lexman telephoned his reply. + +"I should prefer somewhere out of London," he said, "and since +Miss Bartholomew has some interest in the matter, may I extend my +invitation to her? I promise she shall not be any more shocked than +a good woman need be." + +And so it came about that the name of Belinda Mary Bartholomew was +added to the selected list of police chiefs, who were making for +London at that moment to hear from the man who had guaranteed the +solution of the story of Kara and his killing; the unravelment of +the mystery which surrounded his death, and the significance of +the twisted candles, which at that moment were reposing in the +Black Museum at Scotland Yard. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + + +The room was a big one and most of the furniture had been cleared +out to admit the guests who had come from the ends of the earth to +learn the story of the twisted candles, and to test John Lexman's +theory by their own. + +They sat around chatting cheerfully of men and crimes, of great +coups planned and frustrated, of strange deeds committed and +undetected. Scraps of their conversation came to Belinda Mary as +she stood in the chintz-draped doorway which led from the +drawing-room to the room she used as a study. + +". . . do you remember, Sir George, the Bolbrook case! I took the +man at Odessa . . . ." + +". . . the curious thing was that I found no money on the body, +only a small gold charm set with a single emerald, so I knew it +was the girl with the fur bonnet who had . . ." + +". . . Pinot got away after putting three bullets into me, but I +dragged myself to the window and shot him dead - it was a real +good shot . . . !" + +They rose to meet her and T. X. introduced her to the men. It was +at that moment that John Lexman was announced. + +He looked tired, but returned the Commissioner's greeting with a +cheerful mien. He knew all the men present by name, as they knew +him. He had a few sheets of notes, which he laid on the little +table which had been placed for him, and when the introductions +were finished he went to this and with scarcely any preliminary +began. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + +THE NARRATIVE OF JOHN LEXMAN + +"I am, as you may all know, a writer of stories which depend for +their success upon the creation and unravelment of criminological +mysteries. The Chief Commissioner has been good enough to tell +you that my stories were something more than a mere seeking after +sensation, and that I endeavoured in the course of those +narratives to propound obscure but possible situations, and, with +the ingenuity that I could command, to offer to those problems a +solution acceptable, not only to the general reader, but to the +police expert. + +"Although I did not regard my earlier work with any great +seriousness and indeed only sought after exciting situations and +incidents, I can see now, looking back, that underneath the work +which seemed at the time purposeless, there was something very +much like a scheme of studies. + +"You must forgive this egotism in me because it is necessary that +I should make this explanation and you, who are in the main police +officers of considerable experience and discernment, should +appreciate the fact that as I was able to get inside the minds of +the fictitious criminals I portrayed, so am I now able to follow +the mind of the man who committed this murder, or if not to follow +his mind, to recreate the psychology of the slayer of Remington +Kara. + +"In the possession of most of you are the vital facts concerning +this man. You know the type of man he was, you have instances of +his terrible ruthlessness, you know that he was a blot upon God's +earth, a vicious wicked ego, seeking the gratification of that +strange blood-lust and pain-lust, which is to be found in so few +criminals." + +John Lexman went on to describe the killing of Vassalaro. + +"I know now how that occurred," he said. "I had received on the +previous Christmas eve amongst other presents, a pistol from an +unknown admirer. That unknown admirer was Kara, who had planned +this murder some three months ahead. He it was, who sent me the +Browning, knowing as he did that I had never used such a weapon +and that therefore I would be chary about using it. I might have +put the pistol away in a cupboard out of reach and the whole of +his carefully thought out plan would have miscarried. + +"But Kara was systematic in all things. Three weeks after I +received the weapon, a clumsy attempt was made to break into my +house in the middle of the night. It struck me at the time it was +clumsy, because the burglar made a tremendous amount of noise and +disappeared soon after he began his attempt, doing no more damage +than to break a window in my dining-room. Naturally my mind went +to the possibility of a further attempt of this kind, as my house +stood on the outskirts of the village, and it was only natural +that I should take the pistol from one of my boxes and put it +somewhere handy. To make doubly sure, Kara came down the next day +and heard the full story of the outrage. + +"He did not speak of pistols, but I remember now, though I did not +remember at the time, that I mentioned the fact that I had a handy +weapon. A fortnight later a second attempt was made to enter the +house. I say an attempt, but again I do not believe that the +intention was at all serious. The outrage was designed to keep +that pistol of mine in a get-at-able place. + +"And again Kara came down to see us on the day following the +burglary, and again I must have told him, though I have no +distinct recollection of the fact, of what had happened the +previous night. It would have been unnatural if I had not +mentioned the fact, as it was a matter which had formed a subject +of discussion between myself, my wife and the servants. + +"Then came the threatening letter, with Kara providentially at +hand. On the night of the murder, whilst Kara was still in my +house, I went out to find his chauffeur. Kara remained a few +minutes with my wife and then on some excuse went into the +library. There he loaded the pistol, placing one cartridge in the +chamber, and trusting to luck that I did not pull the trigger +until I had it pointed at my victim. Here he took his biggest +chance, because, before sending the weapon to me, he had had the +spring of the Browning so eased that the slightest touch set it +off and, as you know, the pistol being automatic, the explosion of +one cartridge, reloading and firing the next and so on, it was +probably that a chance touch would have brought his scheme to +nought - probably me also. + +"Of what happened on that night you are aware." + +He went on to tell of his trial and conviction and skimmed over +the life he led until that morning on Dartmoor. + +"Kara knew my innocence had been proved and his hatred for me +being his great obsession, since I had the thing he had wanted but +no longer wanted, let that be understood - he saw the misery he +had planned for me and my dear wife being brought to a sudden end. +He had, by the way, already planned and carried his plan into +execution, a system of tormenting her. + +"You did not know," he turned to T. X., "that scarcely a month +passed, but some disreputable villain called at her flat, with a +story that he had been released from Portland or Wormwood Scrubbs +that morning and that he had seen me. The story each messenger +brought was one sufficient to break the heart of any but the +bravest woman. It was a story of ill-treatment by brutal +officials, of my illness, of my madness, of everything calculated +to harrow the feelings of a tender-hearted and faithful wife. + +"That was Kara's scheme. Not to hurt with the whip or with the +knife, but to cut deep at the heart with his evil tongue, to cut +to the raw places of the mind. When he found that I was to be +released, - he may have guessed, or he may have discovered by some +underhand method; that a pardon was about to be signed, - he +conceived his great plan. He had less than two days to execute +it. + +"Through one of his agents he discovered a warder who had been in +some trouble with the authorities, a man who was avaricious and +was even then on the brink of being discharged from the service +for trafficking with prisoners. The bribe he offered this man was +a heavy one and the warder accepted. + +"Kara had purchased a new monoplane and as you know he was an +excellent aviator. With this new machine he flew to Devon and +arrived at dawn in one of the unfrequented parts of the moor. + +"The story of my own escape needs no telling. My narrative really +begins from the moment I put my foot upon the deck of the Mpret. +The first person I asked to see was, naturally, my wife. Kara, +however, insisted on my going to the cabin he had prepared and +changing my clothes, and until then I did not realise I was still +in my convict's garb. A clean change was waiting for me, and the +luxury of soft shirts and well-fitting garments after the prison +uniform I cannot describe. + +"After I was dressed I was taken by the Greek steward to the +larger stateroom and there I found my darling waiting for me." + +His voice sank almost to a whisper, and it was a minute or two +before he had mastered his emotions. + +"She had been suspicious of Kara, but he had been very insistent. +He had detailed the plans and shown her the monoplane, but even +then she would not trust herself on board, and she had been +waiting in a motor-boat, moving parallel with the yacht, until she +saw the landing and realized, as she thought, that Kara was not +playing her false. The motor-boat had been hired by Kara and the +two men inside were probably as well-bribed as the warder. + +"The joy of freedom can only be known to those who have suffered +the horrors of restraint. That is a trite enough statement, but +when one is describing elemental things there is no room for +subtlety. The voyage was a fairly eventless one. We saw very +little of Kara, who did not intrude himself upon us, and our main +excitement lay in the apprehension that we should be held up by a +British destroyer or, that when we reached Gibraltar, we should be +searched by the Brit's authorities. Kara had foreseen that +possibility and had taken in enough coal to last him for the run. + +"We had a fairly stormy passage in the Mediterranean, but after +that nothing happened until we arrived at Durazzo. We had to go +ashore in disguise, because Kara told us that the English Consul +might see us and make some trouble. We wore Turkish dresses, +Grace heavily veiled and I wearing a greasy old kaftan which, with +my somewhat emaciated face and my unshaven appearance, passed me +without comment. + +"Kara's home was and is about eighteen miles from Durazzo. It is +not on the main road, but it is reached by following one of the +rocky mountain paths which wind and twist among the hills to the +south-east of the town. The country is wild and mainly +uncultivated. We had to pass through swamps and skirt huge +lagoons as we mounted higher and higher from terrace to terrace +and came to the roads which crossed the mountains. + +"Kara's, palace, you could call it no less, is really built within +sight of the sea. It is on the Acroceraunian Peninsula near Cape +Linguetta. Hereabouts the country is more populated and better +cultivated. We passed great slopes entirely covered with mulberry +and olive trees, whilst in the valleys there were fields of maize +and corn. The palazzo stands on a lofty plateau. It is +approached by two paths, which can be and have been well defended +in the past against the Sultan's troops or against the bands which +have been raised by rival villages with the object of storming and +plundering this stronghold. + +"The Skipetars, a blood-thirsty crowd without pity or remorse, +were faithful enough to their chief, as Kara was. He paid them so +well that it was not profitable to rob him; moreover he kept their +own turbulent elements fully occupied with the little raids which +he or his agents organized from time to time. The palazzo was +built rather in the Moorish than in the Turkish style. + +"It was a sort of Eastern type to which was grafted an Italian +architecture - a house of white-columned courts, of big paved +yards, fountains and cool, dark rooms. + +"When I passed through the gates I realized for the first time +something of Kara's importance. There were a score of servants, +all Eastern, perfectly trained, silent and obsequious. He led +us to his own room. + +"It was a big apartment with divans running round the wall, the +most ornate French drawing room suite and an enormous Persian +carpet, one of the finest of the kind that has ever been turned +out of Shiraz. Here, let me say, that throughout the trip his +attitude to me had been perfectly friendly and towards Grace all +that I could ask of my best friend, considerate and tactful. + +"'We had hardly reached his room before he said to me with that +bonhomie which he had observed throughout the trip, 'You would +like to see your room?' + +"I expressed a wish to that effect. He clapped his hands and a +big Albanian servant came through the curtained doorway, made the +usual salaam, and Kara spoke to him a few words in a language +which I presume was Turkish. + +"'He will show you the way,' said Kara with his most genial smile. + +"I followed the servant through the curtains which had hardly +fallen behind me before I was seized by four men, flung violently +on the ground, a filthy tarbosch was thrust into my mouth and +before I knew what was happening I was bound hand and foot. + +"As I realised the gross treachery of the man, my first frantic +thoughts were of Grace and her safety. I struggled with the +strength of three men, but they were too many for me and I was +dragged along the passage, a door was opened and I was flung into +a bare room. I must have been lying on the floor for half an hour +when they came for me, this time accompanied by a middle-aged man +named Savolio, who was either an Italian or a Greek. + +"He spoke English fairly well and he made it clear to me that I +had to behave myself. I was led back to the room from whence I +had come and found Kara sitting in one of those big armchairs +which he affected, smoking a cigarette. Confronting him, still in +her Turkish dress, was poor Grace. She was not bound I was +pleased to see, but when on my entrance she rose and made as if to +come towards me, she was unceremoniously thrown back by the +guardian who stood at her side. + +"'Mr. John Lexman,' drawled Kara, 'you are at the beginning of a +great disillusionment. I have a few things to tell you which will +make you feel rather uncomfortable.' It was then that I heard for +the first time that my pardon had been signed and my innocence +discovered. + +"'Having taken a great deal of trouble to get you in prison,' said +Kara, 'it isn't likely that I'm going to allow all my plans to be +undone, and my plan is to make you both extremely uncomfortable.' + +"He did not raise his voice, speaking still in the same +conversational tone, suave and half amused. + +"'I hate you for two things,' he said, and ticked them off on his +fingers: 'the first is that you took the woman that I wanted. To +a man of my temperament that is an unpardonable crime. I have +never wanted women either as friends or as amusement. I am one of +the few people in the world who are self-sufficient. It happened +that I wanted your wife and she rejected me because apparently she +preferred you.' + +"He looked at me quizzically. + +"'You are thinking at this moment,' he went on slowly, "that I +want her now, and that it is part of my revenge that I shall put +her straight in my harem. Nothing is farther from my desires or +my thoughts. The Black Roman is not satisfied with the leavings +of such poor trash as you. I hate you both equally and for both +of you there is waiting an experience more terrible than even your +elastic imagination can conjure. You understand what that means!' +he asked me still retaining his calm. + +"I did not reply. I dared not look at Grace, to whom he turned. + +"'I believe you love your husband, my friend,' he said; 'your love +will be put to a very severe test. You shall see him the mere +wreckage of the man he is. You shall see him brutalized below the +level of the cattle in the field. I will give you both no joys, +no ease of mind. From this moment you are slaves, and worse than +slaves.' + +"He clapped his hands. The interview was ended and from that +moment I only saw Grace once." + +John Lexman stopped and buried his face in his hands. + +"They took me to an underground dungeon cut in the solid rock. In +many ways it resembled the dungeon of the Chateau of Chillon, in +that its only window looked out upon a wild, storm-swept lake and +its floor was jagged rock. I have called it underground, as +indeed it was on that side, for the palazzo was built upon a steep +slope running down from the spur of the hills. + +"They chained me by the legs and left me to my own devices. Once +a day they gave me a little goat flesh and a pannikin of water and +once a week Kara would come in and outside the radius of my chain +he would open a little camp stool and sitting down smoke his +cigarette and talk. My God! the things that man said! The things +he described! The horrors he related! And always it was Grace +who was the centre of his description. And he would relate the +stories he was telling to her about myself. I cannot describe +them. They are beyond repetition." + +John Lexman shuddered and closed his eyes. + +"That was his weapon. He did not confront me with the torture of +my darling, he did not bring tangible evidence of her suffering - +he just sat and talked, describing with a remarkable clarity of +language which seemed incredible in a foreigner, the 'amusements' +which he himself had witnessed. + +"I thought I should go mad. Twice I sprang at him and twice the +chain about my legs threw me headlong on that cruel floor. Once +he brought the jailer in to whip me, but I took the whipping with +such phlegm that it gave him no satisfaction. I told you I had +seen Grace only once and this is how it happened. + +"It was after the flogging, and Kara, who was a veritable demon in +his rage, planned to have his revenge for my indifference. They +brought Grace out upon a boat and rowed the boat to where I could +see it from my window. There the whip which had been applied to +me was applied to her. I can't tell you any more about that," he +said brokenly, "but I wish, you don't know how fervently, that I +had broken down and given the dog the satisfaction he wanted. My +God! It was horrible! + +"When the winter came they used to take me out with chains on my +legs to gather in wood from the forest. There was no reason why I +should be given this work, but the truth was, as I discovered from +Salvolio, that Kara thought my dungeon was too warm. It was +sheltered from the winds by the hill behind and even on the +coldest days and nights it was not unbearable. Then Kara went +away for some time. I think he must have gone to England, and he +came back in a white fury. One of his big plans had gone wrong +and the mental torture he inflicted upon me was more acute than +ever. + +"In the old days he used to come once a week; now he came almost +every day. He usually arrived in the afternoon and I was +surprised one night to be awakened from my sleep to see him +standing at the door, a lantern in his hand, his inevitable +cigarette in his mouth. He always wore the Albanian costume when +he was in the country, those white kilted skirts and zouave +jackets which the hillsmen affect and, if anything, it added to +his demoniacal appearance. He put down the lantern and leant +against the wall. + +"'I'm afraid that wife of yours is breaking up, Lexman,' he +drawled; 'she isn't the good, stout, English stuff that I thought +she was.' + +"I made no reply. I had found by bitter experience that if I +intruded into the conversation, I should only suffer the more. + +"'I have sent down to Durazzo to get a doctor,' he went on; +'naturally having taken all this trouble I don't want to lose you +by death. She is breaking up,' he repeated with relish and yet +with an undertone of annoyance in his voice; "she asked for you +three times this morning.' + +"I kept myself under control as I had never expected that a man so +desperately circumstanced could do. + +"'Kara,' I said as quietly as I could, 'what has she done that she +should deserve this hell in which she has lived?' + +"He sent out a long ring of smoke and watched its progress across +the dungeon. + +"'What has she done?' he said, keeping his eye on the ring - I +shall always remember every look, every gesture, and every +intonation of his voice. 'Why, she has done all that a woman can +do for a man like me. She has made me feel little. Until I had a +rebuff from her, I had all the world at my feet, Lexman. I did as +I liked. If I crooked my little finger, people ran after me and +that one experience with her has broken me. Oh, don't think,' he +went on quickly, 'that I am broken in love. I never loved her +very much, it was just a passing passion, but she killed my +self-confidence. After then, whenever I came to a crucial moment +in my affairs, when the big manner, the big certainty was +absolutely necessary for me to carry my way, whenever I was most +confident of myself and my ability and my scheme, a vision of this +damned girl rose and I felt that momentary weakening, that memory +of defeat, which made all the difference between success and +failure. + +"'I hated her and I hate her still,' he said with vehemence; 'if +she dies I shall hate her more because she will remain +everlastingly unbroken to menace my thoughts and spoil my schemes +through all eternity.' + +"He leant forward, his elbows on his knees, his clenched fist +under his chin - how well I can see him! - and stared at me. + +"'I could have been king here in this land,' he said, waving his +hand toward the interior, 'I could have bribed and shot my way to +the throne of Albania. Don't you realize what that means to a man +like me? There is still a chance and if I could keep your wife +alive, if I could see her broken in reason and in health, a poor, +skeleton, gibbering thing that knelt at my feet when I came near +her I should recover the mastery of myself. Believe me,' he said, +nodding his head, 'your wife will have the best medical advice +that it is possible to obtain.' + +"Kara went out and I did not see him again for a very long time. +He sent word, just a scrawled note in the morning, to say my wife +had died." + +John Lexman rose up from his seat, and paced the apartment, his +head upon his breast. + +"From that moment," he said, "I lived only for one thing, to +punish Remington Kara. And gentlemen, I punished him." + +He stood in the centre of the room and thumped his broad chest +with his clenched hand. + +"I killed Remington Kara," he said, and there was a little gasp of +astonishment from every man present save one. That one was T. X. +Meredith, who had known all the time. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + + +After a while Lexman resumed his story. + +"I told you that there was a man at the palazzo named Salvolio. +Salvolio was a man who had been undergoing a life sentence in one +of the prisons of southern Italy. In some mysterious fashion he +escaped and got across the Adriatic in a small boat. How Kara +found him I don't know. Salvolio was a very uncommunicative +person. I was never certain whether he was a Greek or an Italian. +All that I am sure about is that he was the most unmitigated +villain next to his master that I have ever met. + +"He was a quick man with his knife and I have seen him kill one of +the guards whom he had thought was favouring me in the matter of +diet with less compunction than you would kill a rat. + +"It was he who gave me this scar," John Lexman pointed to his +cheek. "In his master's absence he took upon himself the task of +conducting a clumsy imitation of Kara's persecution. He gave me, +too, the only glimpse I ever had of the torture poor Grace +underwent. She hated dogs, and Kara must have come to know this +and in her sleeping room - she was apparently better accommodated +than I - he kept four fierce beasts so chained that they could +almost reach her. + +"Some reference to my wife from this low brute maddened me beyond +endurance and I sprang at him. He whipped out his knife and +struck at me as I fell and I escaped by a miracle. He evidently +had orders not to touch me, for he was in a great panic of mind, +as he had reason to be, because on Kara's return he discovered the +state of my face, started an enquiry and had Salvolio taken to the +courtyard in the true eastern style and bastinadoed until his feet +were pulp. + +"You may be sure the man hated me with a malignity which almost +rivalled his employer's. After Grace's death Kara went away +suddenly and I was left to the tender mercy of this man. +Evidently he had been given a fairly free hand. The principal +object of Kara's hate being dead, he took little further interest +in me, or else wearied of his hobby. Salvolio began his +persecutions by reducing my diet. Fortunately I ate very little. +Nevertheless the supplies began to grow less and less, and I was +beginning to feel the effects of this starvation system when there +happened a thing which changed the whole course of my life and +opened to me a way to freedom and to vengeance. + +"Salvolio did not imitate the austerity of his master and in +Kara's absence was in the habit of having little orgies of his +own. He would bring up dancing girls from Durazzo for his +amusement and invite prominent men in the neighbourhood to his +feasts and entertainments, for he was absolutely lord of the +palazzo when Kara was away and could do pretty well as he liked. +On this particular night the festivities had been more than +usually prolonged, for as near as I could judge by the day-light +which was creeping in through my window it was about four o'clock +in the morning when the big steel-sheeted door was opened and +Salvolio came in, more than a little drunk. He brought with him, +as I judged, one of his dancing girls, who apparently was +privileged to see the sights of the palace. + +"For a long time he stood in the doorway talking incoherently in a +language which I think must have been Turkish, for I caught one or +two words. + +"Whoever the girl was, she seemed a little frightened, I could see +that, because she shrank back from him though his arm was about +her shoulders and he was half supporting his weight upon her. +There was fear, not only in the curious little glances she shot at +me from time to time, but also in the averted face. Her story I +was to learn. She was not of the class from whence Salvolio found +the dancers who from time to time came up to the palace for his +amusement and the amusement of his guests. She was the daughter +of a Turkish merchant of Scutari who had been received into the +Catholic Church. + +"Her father had gone down to Durazzo during the first Balkan war +and then Salvolio had seen the girl unknown to her parent, and +there had been some rough kind of courtship which ended in her +running away on this very day and joining her ill-favoured lover +at the palazzo. I tell you this because the fact had some bearing +on my own fate. + +"As I say, the girl was frightened and made as though to go from +the dungeon. She was probably scared both by the unkempt prisoner +and by the drunken man at her side. He, however, could not leave +without showing to her something of his authority. He came +lurching over near where I lay, his long knife balanced in his +hand ready for emergencies, and broke into a string of +vituperations of the character to which I was quite hardened. + +"Then he took a flying kick at me and got home in my ribs, but +again I experienced neither a sense of indignity nor any great +hurt. Salvolio had treated me like this before and I had survived +it. In the midst of the tirade, looking past him, I was a new +witness to an extraordinary scene. + +"The girl stood in the open doorway, shrinking back against the +door, looking with distress and pity at the spectacle which +Salvolio's brutality afforded. Then suddenly there appeared +beside her a tall Turk. He was grey-bearded and forbidding. She +looked round and saw him, and her mouth opened to utter a cry, but +with a gesture he silenced her and pointed to the darkness +outside. + +"Without a word she cringed past him, her sandalled feet making no +noise. All this time Salvolio was continuing his stream of abuse, +but he must have seen the wonder in my eyes for he stopped and +turned. + +"The old Turk took one stride forward, encircled his body with his +left arm, and there they stood grotesquely like a couple who were +going to start to waltz. The Turk was a head taller than Salvolio +and, as I could see, a man of immense strength. + +"They looked at one another, face to face, Salvolio rapidly +recovering his senses . . . and then the Turk gave him a gentle +punch in the ribs. That is what it seemed like to me, but +Salvolio coughed horribly, went limp in the other's arms and +dropped with a thud to the ground. The Turk leant down soberly +and wiped his long knife on the other's jacket before he put it +back in the sash at his waist. + +"Then with a glance at me he turned to go, but stopped at the door +and looked back thoughtfully. He said something in Turkish which +I could not understand, then he spoke in French. + +"'Who are you?' he asked. + +"In as few words as possible I explained. He came over and looked +at the manacle about my leg and shook his head. + +"'You will never be able to get that undone,' he said. + +"He caught hold of the chain, which was a fairly long one, bound +it twice round his arm and steadying his arm across his thigh, he +turned with a sudden jerk. There was a smart 'snap' as the chain +parted. He caught me by the shoulder and pulled me to my feet. +" 'Put the chain about your waist, Effendi,' he said, and he took +a revolver from his belt and handed it to me. + +"'You may need this before we get back to Durazzo,' he said. His +belt was literally bristling with weapons - I saw three revolvers +beside the one I possessed - and he had, evidently come prepared +for trouble. We made our way from the dungeon into the +clean-smelling world without. + +"It was the second time I had been in the open air for eighteen +months and my knees were trembling under me with weakness and +excitement. The old man shut the prison door behind us and walked +on until we came up to the girl waiting for us by the lakeside. +She was weeping softly and he spoke to her a few words in a low +voice and her weeping ceased. + +"'This daughter of mine will show us the way,' he said, 'I do not +know this part of the country - she knows it too well.' + +"To cut a long story short," said Lexman, "we reached Durazzo in +the afternoon. There was no attempt made to follow us up and +neither my absence nor the body of Salvolio were discovered until +late in the afternoon. You must remember that nobody but Salvolio +was allowed into my prison and therefore nobody had the courage to +make any investigations. + +"The old man got me to his house without being observed, and +brought a brother-in-law or some relative of his to remove the +anklet. The name of my host was Hussein Effendi. + +"That same night we left with a little caravan to visit some of +the old man's relatives. He was not certain what would be the +consequence of his act, and for safety's sake took this trip, +which would enable him if need be to seek sanctuary with some of +the wilder Turkish tribes, who would give him protection. + +"In that three months I saw Albania as it is - it was an +experience never to be forgotten! + +"If there is a better man in God's world than Hiabam Hussein +Effendi, I have yet to meet him. It was he who provided me with +money to leave Albania. I begged from him, too, the knife with +which he had killed Salvolio. He had discovered that Kara was in +England and told me something of the Greek's occupation which I +had not known before. I crossed to Italy and went on to Milan. +There it was that I learnt that an eccentric Englishman who had +arrived a few days previously on one of the South American boats +at Genoa, was in my hotel desperately ill. + +"My hotel I need hardly tell you was not a very expensive one and +we were evidently the only two Englishmen in the place. I could +do no less than go up and see what I could do for the poor fellow +who was pretty well gone when I saw him. I seemed to remember +having seen him before and when looking round for some +identification I discovered his name I readily recalled the +circumstance. + +"It was George Gathercole, who had returned from South America. +He was suffering from malarial fever and blood poisoning and for a +week, with an Italian doctor, I fought as hard as any man could +fight for his life. He was a trying patient," John Lexman smiled +suddenly at the recollection, "vitriolic in his language, +impatient and imperious in his attitude to his friends. He was, +for example, terribly sensitive about his lost arm and would not +allow either the doctor or my-self to enter the room until he was +covered to the neck, nor would he eat or drink in our presence. +Yet he was the bravest of the brave, careless of himself and only +fretful because he had not time to finish his new book. His +indomitable spirit did not save him. He died on the 17th of +January of this year. I was in Genoa at the time, having gone +there at his request to save his belongings. When I returned he +had been buried. I went through his papers and it was then that I +conceived my idea of how I might approach Kara. + +"I found a letter from the Greek, which had been addressed to +Buenos Ayres, to await arrival, and then I remembered in a flash, +how Kara had told me he had sent George Gathercole to South +America to report upon possible gold formations. I was determined +to kill Kara, and determined to kill him in such a way that I +myself would cover every trace of my complicity. + +"Even as he had planned my downfall, scheming every step and +covering his trail, so did I plan to bring about his death that no +suspicion should fall on me. + +"I knew his house. I knew something of his habits. I knew the +fear in which he went when he was in England and away from the +feudal guards who had surrounded him in Albania. I knew of his +famous door with its steel latch and I was planning to circumvent +all these precautions and bring to him not only the death he +deserved, but a full knowledge of his fate before he died. + +"Gathercole had some money, - about 140 pounds - I took 100 +pounds of this for my own use, knowing that I should have +sufficient in London to recompense his heirs, and the remainder of +the money with all such documents as he had, save those which +identified him with Kara, I handed over to the British Consul. + +"I was not unlike the dead man. My beard had grown wild and I +knew enough of Gathercole's eccentricities to live the part. The +first step I took was to announce my arrival by inference. I am a +fairly good journalist with a wide general knowledge and with +this, corrected by reference to the necessary books which I found +in the British Museum library, I was able to turn out a very +respectable article on Patagonia. + +"This I sent to The Times with one of Gathercole's cards and, as +you know, it was printed. My next step was to find suitable +lodgings between Chelsea and Scotland Yard. I was fortunate in +being able to hire a furnished flat, the owner of which was going +to the south of France for three months. I paid the rent in +advance and since I dropped all the eccentricities I had assumed +to support the character of Gathercole, I must have impressed the +owner, who took me without references. + +"I had several suits of new clothes made, not in London," he +smiled, "but in Manchester, and again I made myself as trim as +possible to avoid after-identification. When I had got these +together in my flat, I chose my day. In the morning I sent two +trunks with most of my personal belongings to the Great Midland +Hotel. + +"In the afternoon I went to Cadogan Square and hung about until I +saw Kara drive off. It was my first view of him since I had left +Albania and it required all my self-control to prevent me +springing at him in the street and tearing at him with my hands. + +"Once he was out of sight I went to the house adopting all the +style and all the mannerisms of poor Gathercole. My beginning was +unfortunate for, with a shock, I recognised in the valet a +fellow-convict who had been with me in the warder's cottage on the +morning of my escape from Dartmoor. There was no mistaking him, +and when I heard his voice I was certain. Would he recognise me I +wondered, in spite of my beard and my eye-glasses? + +"Apparently he did not. I gave him every chance. I thrust my +face into his and on my second visit challenged him, in the +eccentric way which poor old Gathercole had, to test the grey of +my beard. For the moment however, I was satisfied with my brief +experiment and after a reasonable interval I went away, returning +to my place off Victoria Street and waiting till the evening. + +"In my observation of the house, whilst I was waiting for Kara to +depart, I had noticed that there were two distinct telephone wires +running down to the roof. I guessed, rather than knew, that one +of these telephones was a private wire and, knowing something of +Kara's fear, I presumed that that wire would lead to a police +office, or at any rate to a guardian of some kind or other. Kara +had the same arrangement in Albania, connecting the palazzo with +the gendarme posts at Alesso. This much Hussein told me. + +"That night I made a reconnaissance of the house and saw Kara's +window was lit and at ten minutes past ten I rang the bell and I +think it was then that I applied the test of the beard. Kara was +in his room, the valet told me, and led the way upstairs. I had +come prepared to deal with this valet for I had an especial reason +for wishing that he should not be interrogated by the police. On +a plain card I had written the number he bore in Dartmoor and had +added the words, 'I know you, get out of here quick.' + +"As he turned to lead the way upstairs I flung the envelope +containing the card on the table in the hall. In an inside +pocket, as near to my body as I could put them, I had the two +candles. How I should use them both I had already decided. The +valet ushered me into Kara's room and once more I stood in the +presence of the man who had killed my girl and blotted out all +that was beautiful in life for me." + +There was a breathless silence when he paused. T. X. leaned back +in his chair, his head upon his breast, his arms folded, his eyes +watching the other intently. + +The Chief Commissioner, with a heavy frown and pursed lips, sat +stroking his moustache and looking under his shaggy eyebrows at +the speaker. The French police officer, his hands thrust deep in +his pockets, his head on one side, was taking in every word +eagerly. The sallow-faced Russian, impassive of face, might have +been a carved ivory mask. O'Grady, the American, the stump of a +dead cigar between his teeth, shifted impatiently with every pause +as though he would hurry forward the denouement. + +Presently John Lexman went on. + +"He slipped from the bed and came across to meet me as I closed +the door behind me. + +"'Ah, Mr. Gathercole,' he said, in that silky tone of his, and +held out his hand. + +"I did not speak. I just looked at him with a sort of fierce joy +in my heart the like of which I had never before experienced. + +"'And then he saw in my eyes the truth and half reached for the +telephone. + +"But at that moment I was on him. He was a child in my hands. +All the bitter anguish he had brought upon me, all the hardships +of starved days and freezing nights had strengthened and hardened +me. I had come back to London disguised with a false arm and this +I shook free. It was merely a gauntlet of thin wood which I had +had made for me in Paris. + +"I flung him back on the bed and half knelt, half laid on him. + +"'Kara,' I said, 'you are going to die, a more merciful death than +my wife died.' + +"He tried to speak. His soft hands gesticulated wildly, but I was +half lying on one arm and held the other. + +"I whispered in his ear: + +"'Nobody will know who killed you, Kara, think of that! I shall +go scot free - and you will be the centre of a fine mystery! All +your letters will be read, all your life will be examined and the +world will know you for what you are!' + +"I released his arm for just as long as it took to draw my knife +and strike. I think he died instantly," John Lexman said simply. + +"I left him where he was and went to the door. I had not much +time to spare. I took the candles from my pocket. They were +already ductile from the heat of my body. + +"I lifted up the steel latch of the door and propped up the latch +with the smaller of the two candles, one end of which was on the +middle socket and the other beneath the latch. The heat of the +room I knew would still further soften the candle and let the +latch down in a short time. + +"I was prepared for the telephone by his bedside though I did not +know to whither it led. The presence of the paper-knife decided +me. I balanced it across the silver cigarette box so that one end +came under the telephone receiver; under the other end I put the +second candle which I had to cut to fit. On top of the +paper-knife at the candle end I balanced the only two books I +could find in the room, and fortunately they were heavy. + +"I had no means of knowing how long it would take to melt the +candle to a state of flexion which would allow the full weight of +the books to bear upon the candle end of the paper-knife and fling +off the receiver. I was hoping that Fisher had taken my warning +and had gone. When I opened the door softly, I heard his +footsteps in the hall below. There was nothing to do but to +finish the play. + +"I turned and addressed an imaginary conversation to Kara. It was +horrible, but there was something about it which aroused in me a +curious sense of humour and I wanted to laugh and laugh and laugh! + +"I heard the man coming up the stairs and closed the door +gingerly. What length of time would it take for the candle to +bend! + +"To completely establish the alibi I determined to hold Fisher in +conversation and this was all the easier since apparently he had +not seen the envelope I had left on the table downstairs. I had +not long to wait for suddenly with a crash I heard the steel latch +fall in its place. Under the effect of the heat the candle had +bent sooner than I had expected. I asked Fisher what was the +meaning of the sound and he explained. I passed down the stairs +talking all the time. I found a cab at Sloane Square and drove to +my lodgings. Underneath my overcoat I was partly dressed in +evening kit. + +"Ten minutes after I entered the door of my flat I came out a +beardless man about town, not to be distinguished from the +thousand others who would be found that night walking the +promenade of any of the great music-halls. From Victoria Street I +drove straight to Scotland Yard. It was no more than a +coincidence that whilst I should have been speaking with you all, +the second candle should have bent and the alarm be given in the +very office in which I was sitting. + +"I assure you all in all earnestness that I did not suspect the +cause of that ringing until Mr. Mansus spoke. + +"There, gentlemen, is my story!" He threw out his arms. + +"You may do with me as you will. Kara was a murderer, dyed a +hundred times in innocent blood. I have done all that I set +myself to do - that and no more - that and no less. I had thought +to go away to America, but the nearer the day of my departure +approached, the more vivid became the memory of the plans which +she and I had formed, my girl . . . my poor martyred girl!" + +He sat at the little table, his hands clasped before him, his face +lined and white. + +"And that is the end!" he said suddenly, with a wry smile. + +"Not quite!" T. X. swung round with a gasp. It was Belinda Mary +who spoke. + +"I can carry it on," she said. + +She was wonderfully self-possessed, thought T. X., but then T. X. +never thought anything of her but that she was "wonderfully" +something or the other. + +"Most of your story is true, Mr. Lexman," said this astonishing +girl, oblivious of the amazed eyes that were staring at her, "but +Kara deceived you in one respect." + +"What do you mean?" asked John Lexman, rising unsteadily to his +feet. + +For answer she rose and walked back to the door with the chintz +curtains and flung it open: There was a wait which seemed an +eternity, and then through the doorway came a girl, slim and +grave and beautiful. + +"My God!" whispered T. X. "Grace Lexman!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + + +They went out and left them alone, two people who found in this +moment a heaven which is not beyond the reach of humanity, but +which is seldom attained to. Belinda Mary had an eager audience +all to her very self. + +"Of course she didn't die," she said scornfully. "Kara was +playing on his fears all the time. He never even harmed her - in +the way Mr. Lexman feared. He told Mrs. Lexman that her husband +was dead just as he told John Lexman his wife was gone. What +happened was that he brought her back to England - " + +"Who?" asked T. X., incredulously. + +"Grace Lexman," said the girl, with a smile. "You wouldn't think +it possible, but when you realize that he had a yacht of his own +and that he could travel up from whatever landing place he chose +to his house in Cadogan Square by motorcar and that he could take +her straight away into his cellar without disturbing his +household, you'll understand that the only difficulty he had was +in landing her. It was in the lower cellar that I found her." + +"You found her in the cellar?" demanded the Chief Commissioner. + +The girl nodded. + +"I found her and the dog - you heard how Kara terrified her - and +I killed the dog with my own hands," she said a little proudly, +and then shivered. "It was very beastly," she admitted. + +"And she's been living with you all this time and you've said +nothing!" asked T. X., incredulously. Belinda Mary nodded. + +"And that is why you didn't want me to know where you were +living?" She nodded again. + +"You see she was very ill," she said, "and I had to nurse her up, +and of course I knew that it was Lexman who had killed Kara and I +couldn't tell you about Grace Lexman without betraying him. So +when Mr. Lexman decided to tell his story, I thought I'd better +supply the grand denouement." + +The men looked at one another. + +"What are you going to do about Lexman?" asked the Chief +Commissioner, "and, by the way, T. X., how does all this fit your +theories!" + +"Fairly well," replied T. X. coolly; "obviously the man who +committed the murder was the man introduced into the room as +Gathercole and as obviously it was not Gathercole, although to all +appearance, he had lost his left arm." + +"Why obvious?" asked the Chief Commissioner. + +"Because," answered T. X. Meredith, "the real Gathercole had lost +his right arm - that was the one error Lexman made." + +"H'm," the Chief pulled at his moustache and looked enquiringly +round the room, "we have to make up our minds very quickly about +Lexman," he said. "What do you think, Carlneau?" + +The Frenchman shrugged his shoulders. + +"For my part I should not only importune your Home Secretary to +pardon him, but I should recommend him for a pension," he said +flippantly. + +"What do you think, Savorsky?" + +The Russian smiled a little. + +"It is a very impressive story," he said dispassionately; "it +occurs to me that if you intend bringing your M. Lexman to +judgment you are likely to expose some very pretty scandals. +Incidentally," he said, stroking his trim little moustache, "I +might remark that any exposure which drew attention to the lawless +conditions of Albania would not be regarded by my government with +favour." + +The Chief Commissioner's eyes twinkled and he nodded. + +"That is also my view," said the Chief of the Italian bureau; +"naturally we are greatly interested in all that happens on the +Adriatic littoral. It seems to me that Kara has come to a very +merciful end and I am not inclined to regard a prosecution of Mr. +Lexman with equanimity." + +"Well, I guess the political aspect of the case doesn't affect us +very much," said O'Grady, "but as one who was once mighty near +asphyxiated by stirring up the wrong kind of mud, I should leave +the matter where it is." + +The Chief Commissioner was deep in thought and Belinda Mary eyed +him anxiously. + +"Tell them to come in," he said bluntly. + +The girl went and brought John Lexman and his wife, and they came +in hand in hand supremely and serenely happy whatever the future +might hold for them. The Chief Commissioner cleared his throat. + +"Lexman, we're all very much obliged to you," he said, "for a very +interesting story and a most interesting theory. What you have +done, as I understand the matter," he proceeded deliberately, "is +to put yourself in the murderer's place and advance a theory not +only as to how the murder was actually committed, but as to the +motive for that murder. It is, I might say, a remarkable piece of +reconstruction," he spoke very deliberately, and swept away John +Lexman's astonished interruption with a stern hand, "please wait +and do not speak until I am out of hearing," he growled. "You +have got into the skin of the actual assassin and have spoken most +convincingly. One might almost think that the man who killed +Remington Kara was actually standing before us. For that piece of +impersonation we are all very grateful;" he glared round over his +spectacles at his understanding colleagues and they murmured +approvingly. + +He looked at his watch. + +"Now I am afraid I must be off," he crossed the room and put out +his hand to John Lexman. "I wish you good luck," he said, and +took both Grace Lexman's hands in his. "One of these days," he +said paternally, "I shall come down to Beston Tracey and your +husband shall tell me another and a happier story." + +He paused at the door as he was going out and looking back caught +the grateful eyes of Lexman. + +"By the way, Mr. Lexman," he said hesitatingly, "I don't think I +should ever write a story called 'The Clue of the Twisted Candle,' +if I were you." + +John Lexman shook his head. + +"It will never be written," he said, " - by me." + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Clue of the Twisted Candle, by Edgar Wallace + diff --git a/old/clotc10.zip b/old/clotc10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d6c7c31 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/clotc10.zip |