Part 23 (1/2)
”There were three others, sahib, but they are gone,” he said simply. ”At sight of thy servant fear seemed to fall upon them, so that they fled across the _maidan_ like deer flushed by a cheetah. But this one was already climbed nigh to the window, so I followed, and choking him a little, brought him in.” And with his foot he slightly spurned the motionless form of his prisoner, whom the Duke and Forsyth recognized as the hero of the watch-spring saw who had been surprised cutting out the panel at Beaumanoir House a week before.
”Choked him a little!” said the General with a grim chuckle. ”You don't seem to have left much life in him, but it was no case for standing on ceremony. And now, madam,” continued the veteran, facing round to where Beaumanoir stood with his grip on Ziegler's collar, ”your disguise need hamper you no longer-that is, if you prefer to finish this business in your own person. Get the pull of your s.e.x, you know.”
”Yes, I guess that wig doesn't do justice to Cora Lestrade,” interjected Senator Sherman, and with a dexterous twirl of his wrist he jerked off the elaborate head-gear which had effectually transformed the das.h.i.+ng lady known as Mrs. Talmage Eglinton into a repulsive old man. But it was only when feminine instinct had prompted her with a swift application of her handkerchief to remove the purple stain that had added the semblance of disease to old age that the Duke recognized his guest.
”I do not understand,” he murmured, feebly.
And it seemed that Alec Forsyth, in spite of the part entrusted to him in the comedy of the crypt, had been ignorant of the ident.i.ty of his antagonist, for a cry of astonishment escaped him. On the other hand, the demure smile that played round Sybil Hanbury's pretty mouth betokened a closer intimacy with the foregoings of this wonderful development. Forsyth's sharp exclamation had the effect of rousing Azimoolah's captive from his swoon. The man raised himself on his elbow, and, grasping the situation, remained quietly watchful.
”And now, your Grace, before another word is said, let me shake you by the hand right here, and thank you for all the patient courage you have shown and all the danger you have incurred to baffle as waspish a gang as ever hailed from my side of the ditch,” said the Senator, suiting the action to the word, greatly to the embarra.s.sment of the Duke, and provoking a scornful laugh from the fantastic figure in male attire.
”Why, he was one of us,” she sneered. ”It was only when he found he had something to lose that he backed out.”
The Senator looked her up and down with a fine contempt.
”So much for a great reputation,” he said. ”My good Lestrade, the warders who told me you were the cleverest woman in Sing-Sing must have made a grievous error, for a really clever criminal would never have been cornered by a brave man pretending to join the confederacy. The Duke has not tripped once all through the affair, except that he has been a little too reckless in exposing his valuable life to peril. The result of his heroic conduct is that you are outwitted all along the line, and that the three millions are secure in that safe.”
This misdescription of the case, so adroitly near the mark and yet differing from the truth in the all-important word ”_pretending_,” made the Duke catch his breath. Somehow the matter which he had believed himself to be working single-handed seemed to have been taken out of his shaky grasp, and, shamed by the unmerited praise, he waited for the rejoinder of the adventuress. It came crisp and sharp.
”Then what you have to do is to call in the police and hand us over to justice,” she said defiantly. ”The authorities will be puzzled to find a reason for all you worthy amateurs bottling up your knowledge of a crime that would have shaken two continents. I think I shall be able to instruct my counsel so that by the time he has done with him his Grace won't be much of a hero.”
The Senator smiled superior.
”Ah!” he retorted, pleasantly; ”you might have tried that if you had had the chance. But then, you see, you won't have it. I'm only a visitor here-like yourself, his Grace's guest-but I believe the intention is that you and your friend, who really need not scowl so, are not to face a judge this time. General Sadgrove has charge of what we may call the liberation department, and he will enlighten you.”
The man Benzon, lying propped on his elbow, with Azimoolah standing over him statuesquely menacing, shot a sly glance of triumph at his confederate, but it met with only a sickly smile for a response.
Lestrade's eyes turned with shrinking expectancy to the General, her insolent demeanor having vanished, strangely enough, at the hint that she would not be detained.
”Yes, there will be no prosecution,” the General said, sternly. ”The Duke took the onus of defeating your aims upon him before he was called to his present high station, and his friends are unanimous that he ought not to pursue the matter now. You, Madame Lestrade, will be allowed to depart early to-morrow morning in the name you have chosen to a.s.sume; and you, sir, can go at once by the way you came-through the window.”
The man Benzon rose to his feet with alacrity, trying vainly to catch the eye of his accomplice, and shooting furtive glances at the package which she still carried. There was evidently something that he did not understand, and wanted to before he availed himself of the unexpected permission. There came a curious gleam into the General's eyes as he noticed this perplexity, and when he took up his parable again there was a ring in his voice that chained his hearers' attention. Sybil, too, leaned forward, watching the two bond-robbers alternately, as though expecting a surprise for them.
”Before you go I will explain what is puzzling you,” the General went on, addressing himself to Benzon, and pointing to the dummy package in Cora Lestrade's hand. ”You are under the impression that those are the bonds, and you are half inclined to think that we are letting you go in ignorance of what you believe to be the case-that the genuine bonds were handed to that lady in the crypt by the Duke. Know, then, that the Duke wasn't in the crypt at all, nor were any bonds handed over. His Grace's place was taken by Mr. Forsyth there, who succeeded in getting from her the spurious bonds and handed her in return a lot of blank paper.
See-examine it for yourself.”
And quickly possessing himself of the parcel, he held it for inspection.
A spasm crossed Benzon's sinister face, and there escaped him the involuntary cry:
”But you looked at the things, Cora, and p.r.o.nounced them correct. You said we were only coming here for the heirlooms in the safe; yet you must have known.”
”Quite so,” the General proceeded, disregarding a smothered remark from the female culprit. ”She knew that she had been hoodwinked, because she recognized my nephew under his disguise, and so at once examined the parcel. Thereupon she deceived you and her other a.s.sociates for a private reason that had nothing to do with the interests of your precious combination. Like to hear what that reason was?”
Benzon flung a reproachful, half-imploring look at his strangely garbed chief, as though seeking for a denial from her, but failing to catch her downcast eye, he gave a sullen a.s.sent to the question.
”Very well,” the General went on, inexorably. ”She withheld her confidence from her colleagues because she desired to save the life of Mr. Forsyth from the murderous vengeance of you gentlemen who are so handy with charcoal braziers and railway accidents. So she made a last desperate effort to obtain the bonds by persuading you to break into the safe under a false pretext-used you as tools, do you understand?-to repair her own breach of faith to you without having to confess it. Her idea was doomed to failure, anyway, for, apart from his Grace's vigilance, she was effectually watched by Miss Hanbury from the moment of her readmission into the house by that Frenchwoman. When 'Mrs.
Talmage Eglinton',”-with a fine scorn on the name-”crept out dressed like that, we wanted to see whether she would go straight to her room when she came back, don't you know.”
He paused, but not with an air of finality. No one had ever suspected Jem Sadgrove in the old days of an eye for dramatic effect. He must have been coached by somebody into leading up to the question now to be put with fierce insistence by the saturnine Benzon, and, to judge by the eager interest in Sybil's dilated eyes, that young lady had been the coach.