CHAPTER THIRTY
CONCLUSION
About ten days afterwards I one morning received by post a brief notefrom Guertin, written from the Prefecture in Paris, urging me to go atonce to the Victoria Hotel at Varenna, on the Lake of Como, where, ifI waited in the name of Brown, my patience would be rewarded.
And there, sure enough, six days later, as I sat one evening in myprivate sitting-room, the door suddenly opened and my well-beloved, ina dark travelling gown, sprang forward and embraced me, sobbing forvery joy.
Can I adequately describe the happiness of that reunion. Of what Iuttered I have no recollection, for I held her closely in my arms as Ikissed her hot tears away.
A man stood by--a tall, silent, gentlemanly man, whose hair was grey,and whose face as he advanced beneath the strong light showed tracesof disguise.
"I am Philip Poland--Sonia's father," he exclaimed in a low voice.Whereupon I took the hand of the escaped prisoner, and expressed theutmost satisfaction at that meeting, for he had risked his liberty tocome there to me.
"Sonia has told me everything," he said; "and I can only regret thatthose blackguards have treated you and her as they have. But Guertin,who is a humane man, even though he be a detective, has tracked themdown, and only yesterday I heard Du Cane--the man who made that falsecharge against myself, and stepped into my shoes; the man who intendedthat my poor girl should marry that young scoundrel Forbes--has beendiscovered in Breslau, and is being extradited to England."
"On the night of your arrest, Mr. Poland, a mystery occurred," I saidpresently, as we sat together exchanging many confidences, as I heldmy dear wife's soft little hand in mine.
"Yes," he replied. "It was only while I was out at Devil's Island thatI learnt the truth. Du Cane, intending to get me out of the way, hitupon a very ingenious plan of sending a man made up as Guertin--whom Ionly knew by sight--to see me and suggest suicide rather than arrest.This man--a person named Lefevre--came and made the suggestion. He didnot know that Du Cane had written anonymously to the Prefecture, andnever dreamed that Guertin himself would follow him so quickly. Onleaving, he apparently hung about watching the result of his dastardlymission, when Harriman--or Bell as we knew him--walked up the drive,in order to call in secret upon me. He espied a man whom he recognizedas Guertin peering in at the window, and, creeping up behind him,struck him down before he could utter a word. Afterwards he slippedaway, believing that he had killed our arch-enemy, the chief of the_surete_. Presently, however, the body of the unfortunate Lefevre wasfound by Guertin himself, who had come to arrest me."
"And Harriman admitted this!" I exclaimed.
"Yes. He admitted it to me upon his death-bed. He died of fever a weekbefore I made my dash for liberty. But," he added, "Sonia has told meof that dastardly attempt which those hell-fiends Reckitt and Forbesmade upon you in Porchester Terrace, and how they also tortured her.But they were fortunately alarmed and fled precipitately, leavingSonia unconscious."
"Yes," declared my sweet wife. "When I came to myself I recollected,in horror, what they had told me concerning the fate to which they hadabandoned you in the adjoining room, and with a great effort managedto free myself and seek you. I cut the straps which bound you, andsucceeded in killing the snake just in time to save you. Then I stoleaway and left, fearing that you might suspect me of having had somehand in the affair."
"And you saved my life, darling!" I exclaimed, kissing her fondly onthe lips.
Then, turning to Poland, I said--
"The police are hunting for you everywhere. Cannot you get to someplace where you are not liable to be taken back to France?"
"To-morrow, if I am fortunate," he said, with a faint smile, "Ireturn to the modest little villa I have rented on the hill-sideoutside Athens. In Greece one is still immune from arrest for offencesabroad."
"And I shall return to London with you, Owen. Father and I havetravelled to Trieste, and thence here, in order that I should rejoinyou, now that the danger is past."
"Ah! darling," I cried. "I never for one moment doubted you! Yet Iadmit that the circumstances once or twice looked very black andsuspicious."
"Alas! I could not prevent it," she declared; "I left you and joinedDad at the Coliseum, because I went in fear of some further attemptbeing made upon us, and I felt you and I would be safe if I were withhim. He had no idea when he met the others at Stamford that Forbes andReckitt and Du Cane had effected that _coup_ with the Archduchess'sjewels."
"No. I had no idea of it," said Poland. "My meeting with them was oneof farewell. I had already severed my connection with them three yearsago, before my arrest."
And then, after some further explanations, I clasped my loved one inmy arms and openly repeated my declaration of fervent love and fondaffection.
Of the rest, what need be said?
Sonia is now very happy, either down at Carrington or at WiltonStreet, for the black clouds which overshadowed the earlier days ofour marriage have rent asunder, and given place to all the sunshineand brightness of life and hope.
No pair could be happier than we.
Twice we have been to Athens as the guest of the tall, grey-hairedEnglishman who is such a thorough-going cosmopolitan, and who lives inGreece for the sake of the even climate and the study of itsantiquities. No one in the Greek capital recognizes Mr. Wilfrid Marshas the once-famous Louis Lessar.
And dear old Jack Marlowe, still our firm and devoted friend, is asfull of good-humoured philosophy as ever, and frequently our visitor.He still leads his careless existence, and is often to be seen idlingin the window of White's, smoking and watching the passers-by in St.James's Street.
You who read the newspapers probably know how Arnold Du Cane, aliasPennington, alias Winton, was recently sentenced at the Old Bailey tofifteen years, and the two young Frenchmen, Terassier and Brault, toseven years each, for complicity in the robbery on the Scotch express.
And probably you also read the account of how two mysteriousEnglishmen named Reckitt and Forbes, who had been arrested in Paris,had, somehow, prior to their extradition to England, managed to obtainpossession of blades of safety-razors, and with them had bothcommitted suicide.
In consequence of this there was no trial of the perpetrators ofthose brutal crimes in Porchester Terrace.
The whole affair was but a nine days' horror, and as the authoritiessaw that no good could accrue from alarming the public by furtherpublicity or inquiry, it was quickly "Hushed up."
THE END
_Richard Clay & Sons, Limited, London and Bungay._