The Mystery of Lincoln's Inn Part 55

"'Enough, enough!' he cried, jumping up. Then he stood for a moment struggling with himself as it were, clutched at his throat, staggered, and fell in a heap on the floor. I rushed forward to raise him, but he was already dead. When I saw he was dead, I was distraught. First I put on my disguise once more, and went forth into the night, reeling like a blind man. But a few minutes' thought induced me to return. I resolved to leave London by the earliest train, and did leave next morning."

Exhausted by this long effort, Silwood ceased speaking. Gilbert never doubted Silwood had spoken the truth. Besides, he had noticed how in several points his statements were confirmed by the evidence at the inquest on Morris Thornton. The explanation of the Mystery of Lincoln's Inn was, after all, curiously simple, once the facts were known in their entirety.

"I believe I have told you all," said Silwood, as Gilbert stood silently by his bed. "Is there anything you wish to ask me? If there is, ask it now, for I feel a dreadful weakness coming over me."

As the man spoke, a shiver shook him from head to foot.

"No. I think there is nothing else," said Gilbert, gently, his heart again softened.

"You will not forget your promise about my wife and child?" Silwood asked eagerly.

"I shall not."

"They need never know who Cooper Silwood was, need they?"

"Perhaps not," agreed Gilbert, but doubtingly.

"If you can, let them believe I am none other than the James Russell they love, and who loves----"

But Silwood's voice failed him; his eyes overflowed.

"Let us go," said Gilbert to Hankey.

"What an extraordinary man!" exclaimed Hankey to Gilbert, when they were in the open air. "Wonderfully bright, too, but he chose to run crooked, not straight. Yet there was good in the man--I suppose there is in every man."

"He was an evil, wicked man," said Gilbert, speaking of Silwood as one already dead, "but he was not all evil, all wicked."

CHAPTER x.x.xVIII

"What do you now intend to do?" asked the detective, after they had emerged from the hospital tent.

"Go back to St. Paul by the first train," Gilbert replied, "and see what are the contents of that compartment in the Minnesota Safety Deposit Vaults. I don't doubt Silwood told the truth, but I wish to have his statement confirmed."

"Naturally," remarked Hankey. "And after that?"

"I think of asking you, if you can manage it, to come with me to St.

Paul to-day. I should prefer to have you with me when I go to the Safety Deposit Vaults, where you are probably well known----"

The detective nodded.

"----thereafter, I propose that you should return here, and await events."

"Till Silwood is dead, I suppose you mean. And then?"

"Take care of Mrs. Russell and the child. If they wish to return to England, be kind enough to carry out their desire. You shall have enough funds from me for all purposes. If they elect to stay in this country, I want you to find them a home, and I will see that the income promised is remitted to you quarterly."

"Very good," said the detective. "My business in this matter is your business. I'll go and see if there's a train southwards soon."

But they had to wait some hours, and it was the morning of another day when they arrived in St. Paul.

Gilbert and the detective went to the Minnesota Safety Deposit Vaults, and on their representing they had received the key of the compartment from James Russell, no objection was made to their entering the place, and withdrawing the papers from the receptacle in which they were deposited. On inspection these papers were found to consist of Bank of England notes, of various values from 100 to 1000, amounting in all to 40,000; of gold bonds of half a dozen different American railroads, each bond of the value of a thousand dollars, coming in the aggregate to nearly a quarter of a million sterling; of bonds of the United States Government for more than 200,000; and of miscellaneous securities, the grand total being upwards of half a million sterling. One feature of all these certificates, bonds, and shares, was they were all payable to bearer, just as Silwood had said, as also, of course, were the Bank of England notes.

Half a million sterling!

Such was the vast sum Cooper Silwood had acc.u.mulated at the expense of the clients of Eversleigh, Silwood and Eversleigh.

Gilbert knew that the amount, roughly speaking, for which the firm was responsible was about 400,000. Here, then, was sufficient, and more, to satisfy all claims in full, and leave a good deal over for Mrs. James Russell and her son. Gilbert resolved that after the obligations of the firm were discharged, the balance should be placed in trust for her and the boy.

Having come to this conclusion, Gilbert sent Hankey back to the scene of the catastrophe. Then he despatched a brief cable to his brother Ernest, saying, "Russell found. Property recovered. Returning." He was afraid to put more than these few words into the message, lest by some mischance they should fall into the wrong hands.

Without delay, Gilbert left St. Paul for Chicago and New York, reaching the latter city in about forty hours safely. The possession of the equivalent of half a million in a bag, which he never for a moment let out of his sight, made him extremely anxious and uneasy. During the journey from St. Paul to New York he did not allow himself to sleep, but kept a determined eye on the bag. But no one suspected he was the bearer of such an amount of riches, and he pa.s.sed comparatively unnoticed from start to finish.

On reaching New York, he at once went to the office of the line by which he had come from England, and was pleased to hear that there was a ship going out that very day at two o'clock in the afternoon, and that he could sail on her if he wished. He replied that it would suit him admirably. After paying for his pa.s.sage, he produced the bag, and inquired if it could be placed in the ship's strong room, to which a.s.sent was given. Gilbert now felt his mind was at rest.

Yet during the voyage he was visited now and again by misgivings, as he had heard that even the strong rooms of Atlantic greyhounds have not always been burglar-proof. Then the ship was struck by a tempest in mid-ocean, and Gilbert was afraid both he and the treasure might go to the bottom. But at length the ship sailed into port, and there, at the side of the dock, was Ernest waiting for him.

After the two brothers had embraced, and Ernest, in reply to Gilbert's inquiry, had told him their father was in much the same condition as when Gilbert had seen him last, he produced a cablegram, addressed to Gilbert, which had been received at the office in Lincoln's Inn some five days before.

"It is about Silwood, I think," said Gilbert.

The cablegram was from Hankey; it ran as follows--

"Russell dead. Wife desires return England. Writing."

"Silwood is dead," said Gilbert, briefly.

"Dead! I never thought to hear that!" exclaimed Ernest.

"I have much to tell you, Ernie; but wait until we are in the train.

Besides, I must get a bag out of the ship's strong room. There may be some little delay over it; come with me."

Gilbert went back to the ship, whence, a short time afterwards, he issued, bearing the precious bag.

"Do you see this bag?" he said to his brother in a whisper. "It is worth half a million of money."

"Gilbert!"

"It is the truth; it contains Silwood's h.o.a.rd."

In silence the brothers pa.s.sed into the train for London. Once it was well under way, Gilbert told Ernest all that had happened.

"Fancy Silwood being so attached to his wife and child!" cried Ernest.

"What a strange mixture he was! And now he is dead--really dead this time! What a colossal failure he made of his life! And yet he could not have carried out his schemes with the success he did achieve had he not been a man of remarkable ability."