褐衣男子33

 I was not summoned to Sir Eustace’s presence until late in the afternoon. Eleven-o’clock tea and a substantial lunch had been served to me in my own apartment, and I felt fortified for further conflict. 

Sir Eustace was alone. He was walking up and down the room, and there was a gleam in his eye and a restlessness in his manner which did not escape me. He was exultant about something. There was a subtle change in his manner towards me.

“I have news for you. Your young man is on his way. He will be here in a few minutes. Moderate your transports—I have something more to say. You attempted to deceive me this morning. I warned you that you would be wise to stick to the truth, and up to a certain point you obeyed me. Then you ran off the rails. You attempted to make me believe that the diamonds were in Harry Rayburn’s possession. At the time, I accepted your statement because it facilitated my task—the task of inducing you to decoy Harry Rayburn here. But, my dear Anne, the diamonds have been in my possession ever since I left the Falls—though I only discovered the fact yesterday.”

“You know!” I gasped.

“It may interest you to hear that it was Pagett who gave the show away. He insisted on boring me with a long pointless story about a wager and a tin of films. It didn’t take me long to put two and two together—Mrs. Blair’s distrust of Colonel Race, her agitation, her entreaty that I would take care of her souvenirs for her. The excellent Pagett had already unfastened the cases through an excess of zeal. Before leaving the hotel, I simply transferred all the rolls of films to my own pocket. They are in the corner there. I admit that I haven’t had time to examine them yet, but I notice that one is of a totally different weight to the others, rattles in a peculiar fashion, and has evidently been stuck down with seccotine, which will necessitate the use of a tin-opener. The case seems clear, does it not? And now, you see, I have you both nicely in the trap. . . . It’s a pity that you didn’t take kindly to the idea of becoming Lady Pedler.”

I did not answer. I stood looking at him.

There was the sound of feet on the stairs, the door was flung open, and Harry Rayburn was hustled into the room between two men. Sir Eustace flung me a look of triumph.

“According to plan,” he said softly. “You amateurs will pit yourselves against professionals.”

“What’s the meaning of this?” cried Harry hoarsely.

“It means that you have walked into my parlour—said the spider to the fly,” remarked Sir Eustace facetiously. “My dear Rayburn, you are extraordinarily unlucky.”

“You said I could come safely, Anne?”

“Do not reproach her, my dear fellow. That note was written at my dictation, and the lady could not help herself. She would have been wiser not to write it, but I did not tell her so at the time. You followed her instructions, went to the curio-shop, were taken through the secret passage from the back room—and found yourself in the hands of your enemies!”

Harry looked at me. I understood his glance and edged nearer to Sir Eustace.

“Yes,” murmured the latter, “decidedly you are not lucky! This is—let me see, the third encounter.”

“You are right,” said Harry. “This is the third encounter. Twice you have worsted me—have you never heard that the third time the luck changes? This is my round—cover him, Anne.”

I was all ready. In a flash I had whipped the pistol out of my stocking and was holding it to his head. The two men guarding Harry sprang forward, but his voice stopped them.

“Another step—and he dies! If they come any nearer, Anne, pull the trigger—don’t hesitate.”

“I shan’t,” I replied cheerfully. “I’m rather afraid of pulling it, anyway.”

I think Sir Eustace shared my fears. He was certainly shaking like a jelly.

“Stay where you are,” he commanded, and the men stopped obediently.

“Tell them to leave the room,” said Harry.

Sir Eustace gave the order. The men filed out, and Harry shot the bolt across the door behind them.

“Now we can talk,” he observed grimly, and coming across the room, he took the revolver out of my hand.

Sir Eustace uttered a sigh of relief and wiped his forehead with a handkerchief.

“I’m shockingly out of condition,” he observed. “I think I must have a weak heart. I am glad that revolver is in competent hands. I didn’t trust Miss Anne with it. Well, my young friend, as you say, now we can talk. I’m willing to admit that you stole a march upon me. Where the devil that revolver came from I don’t know. I had the girl’s luggage searched when she arrived. And where did you produce it from now? You hadn’t got it on you a minute ago?”

“Yes, I had,” I replied. “It was in my stocking.”

“I don’t know enough about women. I ought to have studied them more,” said Sir Eustace sadly. “I wonder if Pagett would have known that?”

Harry rapped sharply on the table.

“Don’t play the fool. If it weren’t for your grey hairs, I’d throw you out of the window. You damned scoundrel! Grey hairs, or no grey hairs, I——”

He advanced a step or two, and Sir Eustace skipped nimbly behind the table.

“The young are always so violent,” he said reproachfully. “Unable to use their brains, they rely solely on their muscles. Let us talk sense. For the moment you have the upper hand. But that state of affairs cannot continue. The house is full of my men. You are hopelessly outnumbered. Your momentary ascendency has been gained by an accident——”

“Has it?”

Something in Harry’s voice, a grim raillery, seemed to attract Sir Eustace’s attention. He stared at him.

“Has it?” said Harry again. “Sit down, Sir Eustace, and listen to what I have to say.” Still covering him with the revolver, he went on: “The cards are against you this time. To begin with, listen to that!”

That was a dull banging at the door below. There were shouts, oaths, and then a sound of firing. Sir Eustace paled.

“What’s that?”

“Race—and his people. You didn’t know, did you, Sir Eustace, that Anne had an arrangement with me by which we should know whether communications from one to the other were genuine? Telegrams were to be signed ‘Andy,’ letters were to have the word ‘and’ crossed out somewhere in them. Anne knew that your telegram was a fake. She came here of her own free will, walked deliberately into the snare, in the hope that she might catch you in your own trap. Before leaving Kimberley she wired both to me and to Race. Mrs. Blair has been in communication with us ever since. I received the letter written at your dictation, which was just what I expected. I had already discussed the probabilities of a secret passage leading out of the curio-shop with Race, and he had discovered the place where the exit was situated.”

There was a screaming, tearing sound, and a heavy explosion which shook the room.

“They’re shelling this part of the town. I must get you out of here, Anne.”

A bright light flared up. The house opposite was on fire. Sir Eustace had risen and was passing up and down. Harry kept him covered with the revolver.

“So you see, Sir Eustace, the game is up. It was you yourself who very kindly provided us with the clue of your whereabouts. Race’s men were watching the exit of the secret passage. In spite of the precautions you took, they were successful in following me here.”

Sir Eustace turned suddenly.

“Very clever. Very creditable. But I’ve still a word to say. If I’ve lost the trick, so have you. You’ll never be able to bring the murder of Nadina home to me. I was in Marlow on that day, that’s all you’ve got against me. No one can prove that I even knew the woman. But you knew her, you had a motive for killing her—and your record’s against you. You’re a thief, remember, a thief. There’s one thing you don’t know, perhaps. I’ve got the diamonds. And here goes——”

With an incredibly swift movement, he stooped, swung up his arm and threw. There was a tinkle of breaking glass, as the object went through the window and disappeared into the blazing mass opposite.

“There goes your only hope of establishing your innocence over the Kimberley affair. And now we’ll talk. I’ll drive a bargain with you. You’ve got me cornered. Race will find all he needs in this house. There’s a chance for me if I can get away. I’m done for if I stay, but so are you, young man! There’s a skylight in the next room. A couple of minutes’ start and I shall be all right. I’ve got one or two little arrangements all ready made. You let me out that way, and give me a start—and I leave you a signed confession that I killed Nadina.”

“Yes, Harry,” I cried. “Yes, yes, yes!”

He turned a stern face on me.

“No, Anne, a thousand times, no. You don’t know what you’re saying.”

“I do. It solves everything.”

“I’d never be able to look Race in the face again. I’ll take my chance, but I’m damned if I’ll let this slippery old fox get away. It’s no good, Anne. I won’t do it.”

Sir Eustace chuckled. He accepted defeat without the least emotion.

“Well, well,” he remarked. “You seem to have met your master, Anne. But I can assure you both that moral rectitude does not always pay.”

There was a crash of rending wood, and footsteps surged up the stairs. Harry drew back the bolt. Colonel Race was the first to enter the room. His face lit at the sight of us.

“You’re safe, Anne. I was afraid——” He turned to Sir Eustace. “I’ve been after you for a long time, Pedler—and at last I’ve got you.”

“Everybody seems to have gone completely mad,” declared Sir Eustace airily. “These young people have been threatening me with revolvers and accusing me of the most shocking things. I don’t know what it’s all about.”

“Don’t you? It means that I’ve found the ‘Colonel.’ It means that on January 8th last you were not at Cannes, but at Marlow. It means that when your tool, Madame Nadina, turned against you, you planned to do away with her—and at last we shall be able to bring the crime home to you.”

“Indeed? And from whom did you get all this interesting information? From the man who is even now being looked for by the police? His evidence will be very valuable.”

“We have other evidence. There is some one else who knew that Nadina was going to meet you at the Mill House.”

Sir Eustace looked surprised. Colonel Race made a gesture with his hand. Arthur Minks alias the Rev. Edward Chichester alias Miss Pettigrew stepped forward. He was pale and nervous, but he spoke clearly enough:

“I saw Nadina in Paris the night before she went over to England. I was posing at the time as a Russian Count. She told me of her purpose. I warned her, knowing what kind of man she had to deal with, but she did not take my advice. There was a wireless message on the table. I read it. Afterwards I thought I would have a try for the diamonds myself. In Johannesburg, Mr. Rayburn accosted me. He persuaded me to come over to his side.”

Sir Eustace looked at him. He said nothing, but Minks seemed visibly to wilt.

“Rats always leaving a sinking ship,” observed Sir Eustace. “I don’t care for rats. Sooner or later, I destroy vermin.”

“There’s just one thing I’d like to tell you, Sir Eustace,” I remarked. “That tin you threw out of the window didn’t contain the diamonds. It had common pebbles in it. The diamonds are in a perfectly safe place. As a matter of fact, they’re in the big giraffe’s stomach. Suzanne hollowed it out, put the diamonds in with cotton wool, so that they wouldn’t rattle, and plugged it up again.”

Sir Eustace looked at me for some time. His reply was characteristic:

“I always did hate that blinking giraffe,” he said. “It must have been instinct.”