CHAPTER XXIII. COUNTER-PLANS
The hour was late by now, but Dunn felt no inclination for sleep, andthere was no need for him to return indoors as yet, since Deede Dawson,who always locked up the house himself, never did so till past midnight.Till the small hours, very often he was accustomed to sit up absorbed inthose chess problems, the composing and solving of which were his greatpassion, so that, indeed, it is probable that under other circumstanceshe might have passed a perfectly harmless and peaceful existence, knownto wide circles as an extraordinarily clever problemist and utterlyunknown elsewhere.
But the Fate that is, after all, but man's own character writ large,had decreed otherwise. And the little, fat, smiling man bending over histravelling chess board on which he moved delicately to and fro the tinyred and white men of carved ivory, now and again removing a piece andlaying it aside, had done as much with as little concern to his fellowcreatures from the very beginning of his terrible career.
Outside, leaning on the gate where Deede Dawson had left him, Dunn wasdeep in thought that was not always very comforting, for there wasvery much in all this laid out for him to accomplish that he did notunderstand and that disturbed him a good deal.
A careful, cautious "Hist!" broke in upon his thoughts, and in aninstant he stiffened to close attention, every nerve on the alert.
The sound was repeated, a faint and wary footstep sounded, and in thedarkness a form appeared and stole slowly nearer.
Dunn poised for a moment, ready for attack or retreat, and then all atonce his tense attitude relaxed.
"You, Walter," he exclaimed. "That's good! But how did you get here? Andhow did you know where I was?"
The new-comer drew a little nearer and showed the tall, thin form ofWalter Dunsmore to whom Dunn had spoken at Wreste Abbey.
"I had to come," he murmured. "I couldn't rest without seeing you. Youupset me the other day, saying what you did. Isn't it very dangerousyour being here? Suppose Deede Dawson--"
"Oh, if he suspected, there would soon be an end of me," answered Dunngrimly. "But I think I'm going to win--at least, I did till tonight."
"What's happened?" the other asked sharply and anxiously.
"He has been telling me his plans," answered Dunn. "He has told meeverything--he has put himself entirely in my power--he has done what Ihave been waiting and hoping for ever since I came here. He has givenme his full confidence at last, and I never felt more uneasy or lesscertain of success than I do at this moment."
"He has told you--everything?" Walter Dunsmore asked. "Everything,except who is behind it all," answered Dunn. "I asked him who he wasacting for, and he refused to say. But we shall know that tomorrow,for he told me something almost as good--he told me where this employerwould be at four o'clock tomorrow afternoon. So then we shall have him,unless Deede Dawson was lying."
"Of course, it all depends on finding that out," remarked Walterthoughtfully. "Finding out his identity."
"Yes, that's the key move to the problem," Dunn said. "And tomorrow weshall know it, if Deede Dawson was speaking the truth just now."
"I should think he was," said Walter slowly. "I should think it iscertain he was. You may depend on that, I think."
"I think so, too," agreed Dunn. "But how did you find out where I was?"
"You know that day you came to Wreste Abbey? There was some fellow youhad with you who told the landlord of the Chobham Arms, so I easilyfound out from him," answered Walter.
"Anyhow, I'm glad you're here," Dunn said. "I was wondering how to getin touch with you. Well, this is Deede Dawson's plan in brief. Tomorrow,at four in the afternoon, Rupert Dunsmore is to be killed--and I'veundertaken to do the deed."
"What do you mean?" exclaimed Walter, starting.
"I've promised that if Deede Dawson will bring me face to face withRupert Dunsmore, I'll murder him," answered Dunn, laughing softly.
"A fairly safe offer on your part, isn't it?" observed Walter. "Atleast, unless there's any saving clause about mirrors."
"Oh, none," answered Dunn. "I told Deede Dawson Rupert Dunsmore was myworst enemy, and that's true enough, for I think every man's worst enemyis himself."
"I wish I had none worse," muttered Walter.
"I think you haven't, old chap," Dunn said smilingly. "But come acrossthe road. It'll be safer on the common. Deede Dawson is so cunningone is never safe from him. One can never be sure he isn't creeping upbehind."
"Well, I daresay it's wise to take every precaution," observed Walter."But I can't imagine either him or any one else getting near you withoutyour knowledge."
Robert Dunn,--or rather, Rupert Dunsmore, as was his name by right ofbirth--laughed again to himself, very softly in the darkness.
"Perhaps not," he said. "But I take no chances I can avoid with DeedeDawson. Come along."
They crossed the road together and sat down on the common at an openspot, where none could well approach them unheard or unseen. Dunn laidhis hand affectionately on Walter's shoulder as they settled themselves.
"Old chap," he said. "It was good of you to come here. You've run somerisk. It's none too safe near Bittermeads. But I'm glad to see you,Walter. It's a tremendous relief after all this strain of doubt andwatching and suspicion to be with some one I know--some one I cantrust--some one like you, Walter."
In the darkness, Walter put out his hand and took Dunn's and held it fora moment.
"I have been anxious about you," he said. Dunn returned the pressurewarmly.
"I know," he said. "Jove, old chap, it's good to see you again. Youdon't know what it's like after all this long time, feeling that everystep was a step in the dark, to be at last with a real friend again."
"I think I can guess," Walter said softly.
Dunn shook his head.
"No one could," he said. "I tell you I've doubted, distrusted, suspectedtill I wasn't sure of my own shadow. Well, that's all over now. Tomorrowwe can act."
"Tell me what I'm to do," Walter Dunsmore said.
"There's a whole lot I don't understand yet," Dunn continued slowly."I suppose it was that that was making me feel so jolly down beforeyou came. I don't feel sure somehow--not sure. Deede Dawson is such acunning brute. He seems to have laid his whole hand bare, and yet theremay be cards up his sleeve still. Besides, his plan he told me aboutseems so bald. And I don't understand why he should think he is sosure of what I--I mean, of what Rupert--it's a bit confusing to have adouble identity--is going to do. He says he is sure Rupert Dunsmoreis to be at the Brook Bourne Spring tomorrow at four. He says hisinformation is certain, and that he has full knowledge of what RupertDunsmore is going to do, which is more than I have. But what can it bethat's making him so sure?"
"That's probably simple enough," said Walter. "You said you suspectedthere was a leakage from Burns & Swift's office, and you told Burns tomake misleading statements about your movements occasionally when he wasdictating his letters. Well, I expect this is one."
"That may be; only Deede Dawson seems so very sure," answered Dunn. "Butwhat's specially important is his saying that his employer, whoever itis, who is behind all this, will be there too."
"A meeting? Is that it?" exclaimed Walter.
"No, that's not the idea," answered Dunn. "You see, the idea is thatRupert Dunsmore will be there at four, and that I'm to be there inambush to murder myself. Whoever is behind all this will be theretoo--to see I carry out my work properly. And that gives us our chance."
"Oh, that's good," exclaimed Walter. "We shall have him for certain."
"That's what I want you to see to," said Dunn. "I want you to have menyou can trust well hidden all round, ready to collar him. And I want youto have all the roads leading to Ottam's Wood well watched and every onegoing along them noted. You understand?"
"That's quite easy," declared Walter. "I can promise not a soul will getinto Ottam's Wood without being seen, and I'll make very sure indeed ofgetting hold of any one hiding anywhere near Brook Bourne Spring. Andonce we've done that--once we
know who it is--"
"Yes," agreed Dunn. "We shall be all right then. That is the one thingnecessary to know--the key move to the problem--the identity of who itis pulling the strings. He must be a clever beggar; anyhow, I mean tosee him hang for it yet."
"I daresay he's clever," agreed Walter. "He is playing for big stakes.Anyhow, we'll have him tomorrow all right; that seems certain--at last."
"At last," agreed Dunn, with a long-drawn sigh. "Ugh! it's all been sucha nightmare. It's been pretty awful, knowing there was some one--notable to guess who. Ever since you discovered that first attempt, eversince we became certain there was a plot going on to clear out every onein succession to the Chobham estates--and that was jolly plain, thoughthe fools of police did babble about no evidence, as if pistol bulletscome from nowhere and poisoned cups of tea--"
"Ah, I was to blame there, that was my fault," said Walter. "You see, wehad no proof about the shooting, and when I had spilt that tea, no proofof poison either. I shall always regret that."
"A bit of bad luck," Dunn agreed. "But accidents will happen. Anyhow, itwas clear enough some one was trying to make a jolly clear sweep. It maybe a madman; it may be some one with a grudge against us; it may be, aspoor Charley thought, some one in the line of succession, who is justclearing the way to inherit the title and estates himself. I wish I knewwhat made Charley suspicious of Deede Dawson in the first place."
"You don't know that?" Walter asked.
"No, he never told me," answered Dunn. "Poor Charley, it cost him hislife. That's another thing we must find out--where they've hidden hisbody."
"He was sure from the first," remarked Walter, "that it was a conspiracyon the part of some one in the line of succession?"
"Yes," agreed Dunn. "It's likely enough, too. You see, ever since thatbig family row and dispersion eighty years ago, a whole branch ofthe family has been entirely lost sight of. There may be half a dozenpossible heirs we know nothing about. Like poor John Clive. I daresay ifwe had known of his existence we should have begun by suspecting him."
"There's one thing pretty sure," remarked Walter. "If these pleasantlittle arrangements did succeed, it would be a fairly safe guess thatthe inheritor of the title and estates was the guilty person. It mightbe brought home to him, too."
"Perhaps," agreed Dunn dryly. "But just a trifle too late to interest mefor one. And I don't mean to let the dad or uncle be sacrificed if I canhelp it. I failed with Clive, poor fellow, but I don't mean to again,and I don't see how we can. Deede Dawson has exposed his hand. Now wecan play ours."
"But what are you going to do?" Walter asked. "Are you going to followout his instructions?"
"To the letter," Dunn answered. "We are dealing with very wary,suspicious people, and the least thing might make them take alarm. Theimportant point, of course, is the promise that Deede Dawson's employerwill be at Brook Bourne Spring tomorrow afternoon. That's our trumpcard. Everything hangs on that. And to make sure there's no hitch, Ishall do exactly what I've been told to do. I expect I shall be watched.I shall be there at four o'clock, and ten minutes after I hope we shallhave laid hands on--whoever it is."
Walter nodded.
"I don't see how we can fail," he said.
CHAPTER XXIV. AN APHORISM
"No," Dunn agreed after a long pause. "No, I don't see myself howfailure is possible; I don't see what there is to go wrong. All thesame, I shan't be sorry when it's all over; I suppose I'm nervous,that's the truth of it. But Deede Dawson's hardly the sort of man Ishould have expected to lay all his cards on the table so openly."
"Oh, I think that's natural enough," answered Walter. "Quite natural--hethinks you are in with him and he tells you what he wants you to do. ButI don't quite see the object of your visit to the Abbey the other day.You gave me the shock of my life, I think. I hadn't the least idea whoyou were--that beard makes a wonderful difference."
Dunn laughed quietly.
"It's a good disguise," he admitted. "I didn't quite know myselffirst time I looked in a mirror. We went to the Abbey to prepare for aburglary there."
"Oh, is that on the cards, too?" exclaimed Walter. "I didn't expectthat."
"Yes," answered Dunn. "My own idea is that Deede Dawson sees anopportunity for making a bit on his own. After all of us are disposed ofand his friend has got the title and estates, he won't dare to prosecuteof course, and so Deede Dawson thinks it a good opportunity to visitthe Abbey and pick up any pictures or heirlooms or so-so he can that itwould be almost impossible to dispose of in the ordinary way, but thathe expects he will be able to sell back at a good price to the new ownerof the property. I think he calculates that that gentleman will be readyto pay as much as he is asked. I don't know, but I think that's his ideafrom something he said the other day about the uselessness of even goodstuff from a big house unless you knew of a sure market, or could sellit back again to the owner."
"Jolly clever idea if it works all right," said Walter slowly. "I cansee Mr. Deede Dawson is a man who needs watching. And I suppose we hadbetter be on the look-out at the Abbey tomorrow night?"
"Evening," corrected Dunn. "It's planned for the dinner-hour."
"Right," said Walter. "We shall see some crowded hours tomorrow, Iexpect. Well, it's like this, as I understand it--we had better be sureeverything is quite clear. Their idea is that you will meet and murderRupert Dunsmore, who they have no notion is really your own self, atBrook Bourne Spring at four tomorrow afternoon, and the unknown somebodywho is behind all this business will be in hiding there to make sureyou do your work properly. Our idea is to watch all the roads leading toOttam's Wood and to have men in ambush near the spring to seize any onehiding there at that time. Then we shall know who is at the bottom ofall these plots and shall be able to smash the whole conspiracy. Inaddition, Deede Dawson and this other man you speak of, Allen, are goingto break into the Abbey tomorrow evening and we are to be ready for themand catch them in the act?"
"Yes," said Dunn, "that's the idea; you can manage all right?"
"Oh, yes," answered Walter. "It's all simple enough--you've planned itout so jolly well there's nothing much left for me to do. And I don'tsee what you're nervous about; there's nothing that can go wrong verywell--your plans are perfect, I think."
"It's easy enough to make plans when you know just what the other sideare going to do," observed Dunn. "There's one point more. Miss Cayley--Imentioned her in one of the notes I sent you through Burns."
"Yes, I remember--Deede Dawson's step-daughter," said Walter. "I supposeshe is in it?"
"She is not; she knows nothing," declared Dunn vehemently.
"But it was she who took away poor Charley's body, wasn't it?" askedWalter. "But for that you would have had evidence enough to act on atonce, wouldn't you?"
"She did not know what she was doing," Dunn replied. "And now she is indanger herself. I am convinced Deede Dawson is growing afraid of her,he dropped hints; I'm sure he is planning something, perhaps he meansto murder her as well. So besides these other arrangements I want to seethat there's a trustworthy man watching here. I don't anticipate thatthere's any immediate danger--it's almost certain that if he meansanything he will wait till he sees how this other business is turningout. But I want some one trustworthy to be at hand in case of need. Youwill see to that?"
"Oh, yes, I can spare Simmonds; I'll send him," answered Walter."Though, I must say, my dear chap, I don't think I should trouble muchabout that young lady. But it can be easily managed, in fact everythingyou want me to do is easy enough; I only wish some of it was a bitdifficult or dangerous."
"You're a good chap, Walter," said Dunn, putting his hand on the other'sshoulder again. "Well, I think it's all settled now. I tell you I'mlooking forward a good deal to four o'clock tomorrow afternoon. I feelas if I would give all I possess to know who it is."
"Don't make that offer," Walter said with a smile, "or the fates mayaccept it."
"I feel as though there's only one thing in the world I want one half somuch," Dunn sai
d. "As to know who this--devil is."
"Devil?" repeated Walter. "Well, yes, devil's a word like any other."
"I think it's justified in this case," said Dunn sternly. "Poor CharleyWright dead! One thing I can't understand about that is how they got himback here when you saw him in London when you did. But they're a cunninglot. They must have worked it somehow. Then Clive. I feel to blame forClive's death--as if I ought to have managed better and saved him. Nowthere's this other devilry they are planning. I tell you, Walter, Ifeel the whole world will be a sweeter place after four o'clock tomorrowafternoon."
"At any rate," said Walter, "I think we may be sure of one thing--afterfour o'clock tomorrow afternoon you will know all--all." He paused andrepeated, slightly varying the phrase: "Yes, after four o'clock tomorrowafternoon you will know everything--everything." He added in a briskertone: "There's nothing else to arrange?"
"No," said Dunn, "I don't think so, and I had better go now or DeedeDawson will be suspecting something. He'll want to know what I've beenstopping out so late for. Good-bye, old chap, and good luck."
They shook hands.
"Good-bye and good luck, Rupert, old man," Walter said. "You may dependon me--you know that."
"Yes, I do know that," Dunn answered.
They shook hands again, and Dunn said: "You've hurt your hand. It's tiedup. Is it anything much?"
"No, no," answered Walter with a little laugh. "A mere scratch. Iscratched it on a bit of wood, a lid that didn't fit properly."
"Well, good-bye and good luck," Dunn said again, and they parted, Walterdisappearing into the darkness and Dunn returning to the house.
Deede Dawson heard him enter, and he came to the door of the room inwhich he had been sitting.
"Oh, there you are," he said. "Been enjoying the night air or what?You've been a long time."
"I've been thinking," Dunn muttered in the heavy, sulky manner he alwaysassumed at Bittermeads.
"Not weakening, eh?" asked Deede Dawson.
"No," answered Dunn. "I'm not."
"Good," Deede Dawson exclaimed. "There's a lot to win, and no fear offailure. I don't see that failure's possible. Do you?"
"No," answered Dunn. "I suppose not."
"The mate's sure this time," Deede Dawson declared. "It's our turn tomove, and whatever reply the other side makes, we're sure of our matenext move. By the way, did you ever solve that problem I showed you theother day?"
"Yes, I think so," answered Dunn. "It was a long time before I could hiton the right move, but I managed it at last, I think."
"Come and show me, then," said Deede Dawson, bustling back into his roomand beginning to set up the pieces on his travelling chess-board. "Thiswas the position, wasn't it? Now, what's your move?"
Dunn showed him, and Deede Dawson burst into a laugh that had in it foronce a touch of honest enjoyment.
"Yes, that would do it, but for one thing you haven't noticed," he said."Black can push the pawn at KB7 and make it, not a queen, but a knight,giving check to your king and no mate for you next move."
"Yes, that's so," agreed Dunn. "I hadn't thought of that."
"Unexpected, eh? Making the pawn a knight?" smiled Deede Dawson. "But inchess, and in life, it's the unexpected you have to look out for."
"That's quite an aphorism," said Dunn. "It's true, too."
He went up to bed, but did not sleep well, and when at last he fell intoa troubled slumber, it seemed to him that Charley Wright and John Clivewere there, one on each side of him, and that they had come, not becausethey sought for vengeance, but because they wished to warn him of a doomlike their own that they could see approaching but he could not.
Toward's morning he got an hour's sound rest, and he was down stairs ingood time. He did not see Ella, but he heard her moving about, so knewthat she was safe as yet; and Deede Dawson gave him some elaborateparting instructions, a little money, and a loaded revolver.
"I don't know that I want that," said Dunn. "My hands will be all I needonce I'm face to face with Rupert Dunsmore."
"That's the right spirit," said Deede Dawson approvingly. "But thepistol may be useful too. You needn't use it if you can manage without,but you may as well have it. Good-bye, and the best of luck. Take careof yourself, and don't lose your head or do anything foolish."
"Oh, you can trust me," said Dunn.
"I think I can," smiled Deede Dawson. "I think I can. Good-bye. Becareful, avoid noise and fuss, don't be seen any more than you can help,and if you shoot, aim low."
"There's a vade mecum for the intending assassin," Dunn thought grimlyto himself, but he said nothing, gave the other a sullen nod, andstarted off on his strange and weird mission of murdering himself.He found himself wondering if any one else had ever been in such asituation. He did not suppose so.