The Secret Of Chimneys Part 32

'I never deny anything that amuses me,' he said lightly. 'But the accusation is really too ridiculous.'

'Ah! you think so?' The Frenchman leant forward. His face was twitching painfully, and yet he seemed perplexed and baffled - as though something in Anthony's manner puzzled him. 'What if I tell you, monsieur, that this time - this time - I run out to get King Victor, and nothing shall stop me!'

'Very laudable,' was Anthony's comment. 'You've been out to get him before, though, haven't you, Lemoine? And he's got the better of you. Aren't you afraid that that may happen again? He's a slippery fellow, by all accounts.'

The conversation had developed into a duel between the detective and Anthony. Everyone else in the room was conscious of the tension. It was a fight to a finish between the Frenchman, painfully in earnest, and the man who smoked so calmly and whose words seemed to show that he had not a care in the world.

'If I were you, Lemoine,' continued Anthony, 'I should be very, very careful Watch your step, and all that sort of thing.'

'This time,' said Lemoine grimly, 'there will be no mistake.'

'You seem very sure about, it all,' said Anthony. 'But there s such a thing as evidence, you know.'

Lemoine smiled, and something in his smile seemed to attract Anthony's attention. He sat up and stubbed out his cigarette.

'You saw that note I wrote just now?' said the French detective. 'It was to my people at the inn. Yesterday I received from France the fingerprints and the Bertillon measurements of King Victor - the so-called Captain O'Neill. I have asked for them to be sent up to me here. In a few minutes we shall know whether you are the man!'

Anthony stared steadily at him. Then a little smile crept over his face.

'You're really rather clever, Lemoine. I never thought of that. The doc.u.ments will arrive, you will induce me to dip my fingers in the ink, or something equally unpleasant, and you will measure my ears and look for my distinguishing marks. And if they agree -'

'Well,' said Lemoine, 'if they agree - eh?'

Anthony leaned forward in his chair. 'Well, if they do agree,' he said very gently. What then?'

'What then?' The detective seemed taken aback. 'But - I shall have proved then that you are King Victor!' But for the first time, a shade of uncertainty crept into his manner.

'That will doubtless be a great satisfaction to you, ' said Anthony. 'But I don't quite see where it's going to hurt me. I'm not admitting anything, but supposing, just for the argument, that I was King Victor- I might be trying to repent, you know.'

'Repent?'

'That's the idea. Put yourself in King Victor's place, Lemoine. Use your imagination. You've just come out of prison. You're getting on in life. You've lost the first fine rapture of the adventurous life. Say, even that you meet a beautiful girl. You think of marrying and settling down somewhere in the country where you can grow vegetable marrows. You decide from henceforth to lead a blameless life. Put yourself in King Victor's place. Can't you imagine feeling like that?'

'I do not think that I should feel like that,' said Lemoine with a sardonic smile.

'Perhaps you wouldn't,' admitted Anthony. 'But then you're not King Victor, are you? You can't possibly know what he feels like.'

'But it is nonsense, what you are saying there,' spluttered the Frenchman.

'Oh, no, it isn't. Come now, Lemoine, if I'm King Victor, what have you against me after all? You could never get the necessary evidence in the old, old days, remember. I've served my sentence, and that's all there is to it. I suppose you could arrest me for the French equivalent of "Loitering with intent to commit a felony", but that would be poor satisfaction, wouldn't it?'

'You forget,' said Lemoine. 'America! How about this business of obtaining money under false pretences, and pa.s.sing yourself of as Prince Nicholas Obolovitch?'

'No good, Lemoine,' said Anthony, 'I was nowhere near America at the time. And I can prove that easily enough. If King Victor impersonated Prince Nicholas in America, then I'm not King Victor. You're sure he was impersonated? That it wasn't the man himself?'

Superintendent Battle suddenly interposed.

'The man was an impostor all right, Mr Cade.'

'I wouldn't contradict you, Battle,' said Anthony. 'You have such a habit of being always right. Are you equally sure that Prince Nicholas died in the Congo?'

Battle looked at him curiously.

'I wouldn't swear to that, sir. But it's generally believed.'

'Careful man. What's your motto? Plenty of rope, eh? I've taken a leaf out of your book. I've given M. Lemoine plenty of rope. I've not denied his accusation. But, all the same, I'm afraid he's going to be disappointed. You see I always believe in having something up one's sleeve. Antic.i.p.ating that some little unplessantness might arise here, I took the precaution to bring a trump card along with me. It - or rather he - is upstairs.'

'Upstairs?' said Lord Caterham very interested.

'Yes, he's been having rather a trying time of it lately, poor fellow. Got a nasty b.u.mp on the head from someone. I've been looking after him.'

Suddenly the deep voice of Mr Isaacstein broke in: 'Can we guess who he is?'

'If you like,' said Anthony, 'but -'

Lemoine interrupted with sudden ferocity: 'All this is foolery. You think to outwit me yet again. It may be true what you say - that you were not in America. You are too clever to say it if it were not true. But there is something else. Murder! Yes, murder. The murder of Prince Michael. He interfered with you that night as you were looking for the jewel.'

'Lemoine, have you ever known King Victor do murder?' Anthony's voice rang out sharply. 'you know as well - better than I do, that he has never shed blood.'

'Who else but you could have murdered him?' cried Lemoine. 'Tell me that!'

The last word died on his tips, as a shrill whistle sounded from the terrace outside. Anthony sprang up, all his a.s.sumed nonchalance laid aside.

'You ask me who murdered Prince Michael?' he cried. 'I won't tell you - I'll show you. That whistle was the signal I've been waiting for. The murderer of Prince Michael is in the library now.'

He sprang out through the window, and the others followed him as he led the way round the terrace, until they came to the library window. He pushed the window, and it yielded to his touch.

Very softly he held aside the thick curtain, so that they could look into the room.

Standing by the bookcase was a dark figure, hurriedly pulling out and replacing volumes, so absorbed in the task that no outside sound was heeded.

And then, as they watching, trying to recognize the figure that was vaguely silhouetted against the light of the electric torch it carried, someone sprang past them with a sound like the roar of a wild beast.

The torch fell to the ground, was extinguished, and the sounds of a terrible struggle filled the room. Lord Caterham groped his way to the lights and switched them on. Two figures were swaying together. And as they looked the end came. The short sharp crack of a pistol shot, and the small figure crumbled up and fell. The other figure turned and faced them - it was Boris, his eyes alight with rage.

'She killed my master,' he growled. 'Now she tries to shoot me. I would have taken the pistol from her and shot her, but it went off in the struggle. St Michael directed it. The evil woman is dead.'

'A woman?' cried George Lomax.

They drew nearer. On the floor, the pistol still clasped in her hand, and an expression of deadly malignity on her face, lay Mademoiselle Brun.

Chapter 28.

KING VICTOR.

'I suspected her from the first,' explained Anthony. 'There was a light in her room on the night of the murder. Afterwards, I wavered. I made inquiries about her in Brittany, and came back satisfied that she was what she represented herself to be. I was a fool. Because the Comtesse de Breteuil had employed a Mademoiselle Brun and spoke highly of her, it never occurred to me that the real Mademoiselle Brun might have been kidnapped on her way to her new post, and that it might be a subst.i.tute taking her place. Instead I shifted my suspicions to Mr Fish. It was not until he had followed me to Dover, and we had had a mutual explanation, that I began to see clearly. Once I knew that he was a Pinkerton's man, trailing King Victor, my suspicions swung back again to their original object.

'The thing that worried me most was that Mrs Revel had definitely recognized the woman. Then I remembered that it was only after I had mentioned her being Madame de Breteuil's governess. And all she had said was that that accounted for the fact that the woman's face was familiar to her. Superintendent Battle will tell you that a deliberate plot was formed to keep Mrs Revel from coming to Chimneys. Nothing more nor less than a dead body, in fact. And though the murder was the work of the Comrades of the Red Hand, punishing supposed treachery on the part of the victim, the staging of it, and the absence of the Comrade's sign-manual, pointed to some abler intelligence directing operations. From the first, I suspected some connection with Herzoslovakia. Mrs Revel was the only member of the house party who had been to the country. I suspected at first that someone was impersonating Prince Michael, but that proved to be a totally erroneous idea. When I realized the possibility of Mademoiselle Brun's being an impostor, and added to that the fact that her face was familiar to Mrs Revel, I began to see daylight. It was evidently very important that she should not be recognized, and Mrs Revel was the only person likely to do so.'

'But who was she?' said Lord Caterham. 'Someone Mrs Revel had known in Herzoslovakia?'

'I think the Baron might be able to tell us,' said Anthony.

'I?' The Baron stared at him, then down at the motionless figure.

'Look well,' said Anthony. 'Don't be put off by the makeup. She was an actress once, remember.'

The Baron stared again. Suddenly he started.

'G.o.d in heaven,' he breathed, 'it is not possible.'

'What is not possible?' asked George. 'Who is the lady? You recognize her, Baron?'

'No, no, it is not possible.' The Baron continued to mutter. 'She was killed. They were both killed. On the steps of the palace. Her body was recovered.'

'Mutilated and unrecognizable,' Anthony reminded him. She managed to put up a bluff. I think she escaped to America, and has spent a good many years lying low in deadly terror of the Comrades of the Red Hand. They promoted the revolution, remember, and, to use an expressive phrase, they always had it in for her. Then King Victor was released, and they planned to recover the diamond together. She was searching for it that night when she came suddenly upon Prince Michael, and he recognized her. There was never much fear of her meeting him in the ordinary way of things. Royal guests don't come in contact with governesses, and she could always retire with a convenient migraine, as she did the day the Baron was here.

'However, she met Prince Michael face to face when she least expected it. Exposure and disgrace stared her in the face. She shot him. It was she who placed the revolver in Isaacstein's suitcase, so as to confuse the trial, and she who returned the letters.'

Lemoine moved forward.

'She was coming down to search for the jewel that night, you say,' he said. 'Might she not have been going to meet her accomplice, King Victor, who was coming from outside? Eh? What do you say to that?'

Anthony sighed.

'Still at it, my dear Lemoine? How persistent you are! You won't take my hint that I've got a trump card up my sleeve?'

But George, whose mind worked slowly, now broke in.

'I am still completely at sea. Who was this lady, Baron? You recognize her, it seems?'

But the Baron drew himself up and stood very straight and stiff.

'You are in error, Mr Lomax. To my knowledge I have not this lady seen before. A complete stranger she is to me.'

'But -' George stared at him bewildered. The Baron took him into a corner of the room, and murmured something into his ear. Anthony watched with a good deal of enjoyment, George's face turning slowly purple, his eyes bulging, and all the incipient symptoms of apoplexy. A murmur of George's throaty voice came to him.

'Certainly... certainly... by all means... no need at all... complicate situation... utmost discretion.'

'Ah!' Lemoine hit the table sharply with his hand. 'I do not care about all this! The murder of Prince Michael - that was not my affair. I want King Victor.'

Anthony shook his head gently 'I'm sorry for you, Lemoine. You're really a very able fellow. But, all the same, you're going to lose the trick. I'm about to play my trump card.'

He stepped across the room and rang the bell. Tredwell answered it.

'A gentleman arrived with me this evening, Tredwell.'

'Yes, sir, a foreign gentleman.'

'Quite so. Will you kindly ask him to join us here as soon as possible?'

'Yes, sir.'

Tredwell withdrew.

'Entry of the trump card, the mysterious Monsieur X,' remarked Anthony. 'Who is he? Can anyone guess?'

'Putting two and two together,' said Herman Isaacstein, 'what with your mysterious hints this morning, and your att.i.tude this afternoon, I should say there was no doubt about it. Somehow or other you've managed to get hold of Prince Nicholas of Herzoslovakia.'

'You think the same, Baron?'

'I do. Unless yet another impostor you have put forward. But that I will not believe. With me, your dealings most honourable have been.'

'Thank you, Baron. I shan't forget those words. So you are all agreed?'

His eyes swept round the circle of waiting faces. Only Lemoine did not respond, but kept his eyes fixed sullenly on the table.

Anthony's quick ears had caught the sound of footsteps outside in the hall.

'And yet, you know,' he said with a queer smile, 'you're all wrong!'

He crossed swiftly to the door and flung it open.

A man stood on the threshold - a man with a neat black beard, eyegla.s.ses, and a foppish appearance slightly marred by a bandage round the head.

'Allow me to present you to the real Monsieur Lemoine of the Surete.'

There was a rush and a scuffle, and then the nasal tones of Mr Hiram Fish rose bland and rea.s.suring from the window: 'No, you don't, sonny - not this way. I have been stationed here this whole evening for the particular purpose of preventing your escape. You will observe that I have you covered well and good with this gun of mine. I came over to get you, and I've got you - but you sure are some lad!'

Chapter 29.

FURTHER EXPLANATIONS.

'You owe us an explanation, I think, Mr Cade,' said Herman Isaacstein, somewhat later in the evening.

'There's nothing much to explain,' said Anthony modestly. 'I went to Dover and Fish followed me under the impression that I was King Victor. We found a mysterious stranger imprisoned there, and as soon as we heard his story we knew where we were. The same idea again, you see. The real man kidnapped, and the false one - in this case King Victor himself - takes his place. But it seems that Battle here always thought there was something fishy about his French colleague, and wired to Paris for his fingerprints and other means of identification.'