*CHAPTER XXIV.*
*A WOMAN'S WAY.*
Frobisher sat there grinning with his teeth showing in a kind of smilingsnarl. The shining dome of his head exuded a beady moisture, his handcrooked upon the haft of a dessert-knife, as if it had been a dagger ofmelodrama. A dog sometimes looks like that when he is being whipped onthe chain. Nobody spoke for the moment.
There was not the faintest shadow of triumph on Mrs. Benstein's face.She merely smiled with the delighted air of a child who watched some newand fascinating game. In a businesslike way the Shan reached for HamidKhan's document and called for the wax.
"That is a very pretty and ingenious hiding-place," Mrs. Benstein saidat length. "No enemy would think of looking for it there. YourHighness has many enemies?"
"Ask Hamid Khan yonder," the Shan said crisply. "He can tell you."
The wretched Hamid wriggled and bowed. It was evident that he had beentaken quite by surprise. The Shan sealed the documents and carelesslytossed them across the table. The Blue Stone glittered there wellwithin the reach of Frobisher, and his fingers itched for it.
"Put the jewel away," he said hoarsely. "It is dangerous to leave itthere."
"A fresh hiding-place," the Shan laughed. "I feel quite nervous.Suppose that I get Parkford to take care of it for me until I get home.He is a man to be trusted, and not a man lightly to molest. Sir, willyou do me the favour?"
Parkford coolly dropped the gem into his waistcoat pocket. At the sametime he passed a folded strip of paper to Mrs. Benstein and noddedsignificantly. Then he rose.
"I am desolated," he said, "but really I have to leave. Denvers, a wordwith you."
The luncheon-party broke up upon this, Mrs. Benstein alone remaining.She had arranged to wait here for a friend, she explained. Frobisherslid away, followed by Hamid Khan, and outside Denvers put Angela into apassing taxi. He had work before him this afternoon.
"That was very neatly done," Parkford said to the Shan. "It was apleasure to see Frobisher's face. You saw me pass my cheque over toMrs. Benstein, who will hand it to her husband. If you take my adviceyou will allow me to deposit the Blue Stone with my bankers for thepresent. I am going that way, and I shall see that it is all safe."
"Put it where you like," the Shan said, recklessly. "It's all the sameto me, knowing as I do that I have an honest man to deal with. Thisrigid virtue of mine is undermining my constitution. I'll go off to theclub, and try and get a game of bridge. Dine with me to-night,Denvers?"
Denvers excused himself on the plea of urgent business; besides, it wasstrongly probable that His Highness of Koordstan would be beyondentertaining by dinner-time.
"You've got our dusky friend out of a tight place," Harold suggested.
"So I suppose," Parkford said, indifferently. "I like this kind ofintrigue, and I have a fancy for acting unofficially for the Government.Sometimes the hobby proves expensive, sometimes the information isvaluable. In this case I am going to make a good thing out of it. I amvery glad, for your sake, that you told Lord Rashburn all about it.It's given me a grip upon the Shan, and I'll see that you get yourconcessions. But we must discuss that another time."
Harold went on his way with hope rising high within him. He began tosee his way clear now, once the mystery of the Cardinal Moth wasfathomed. Lefroy passed him presently, and turned into the Belgrave.Harold wondered if this was the friend whom Mrs. Benstein was expecting.
It was. Lefroy came up to the table where Mrs. Benstein was seated andtook a chair by her side. There was no smile of welcome on her face.
"I am charmed to come at your summons," the Count said, placidly.
"That is very good of you," Mrs. Benstein said. "Whether you remain inthat frame of mind is quite another matter. I asked you to meet me herebecause my time is limited, and I have business close by. As you seefrom the table I have had guests to luncheon."
"I envy them from the bottom of my soul," Lefroy murmured.
"I would not waste envy on some of them, Count. For instance, Frobisherand Hamid Khan. The Shan of Koordstan came here as my guest; he put offimportant affairs of State to please me. But I was thoughtful. I saidthat Hamid Khan should come on here and bring the papers that herequired sealing with him."
"The documents that required the impress of the Blue Stone?" Lefroyasked.
"The same. Here is the wax cool and hard now upon the Limoges plate,and with which the deed was done. On the whole it was an interestingceremony, and nobody was more interested than Clement Frobisher. Neverhas that most beautiful smile been so much in evidence."
Lefroy coloured slightly. He was not so obviously at his ease now.
"Hamid Khan was also deeply moved," Mrs. Benstein went on. "Really, Ibelieve that both of the men I have mentioned expected that the BlueStone would not be produced in evidence. But it was. And where do youthink it came from? You can never guess, of course."
Lefroy muttered something to the effect that his talents did not lie inthat direction. He was conscious of a steely glitter in the eyes of thewoman he was near.
"Then I had better tell you," she went on. "He took the stone out of agreat purple orchid he was wearing. It was all the more strange thatjust before I broke that very flower from a cluster worn by Miss Lyne.Do you remember placing a cluster of those flowers in her hair at myrequest last night?"
"I remember that circumstance perfectly well, Mrs. Benstein."
"Well, it was one of the same cluster of flowers. And I feel quitecertain now that when at my request you adorned Miss Lyne last night inthe conservatory, the Blue Stone was hidden in that very blossom. Doesthat intelligence appeal to you in any way, Count Lefroy?"
"You are an exceedingly clever woman," the Count said hoarsely, but withsincere admiration. "So that is the way you baffled us last night. Andall the time I had actually the Blue Stone in my hand. And I'll swearthat Miss Lyne was not in the secret."
"She was not; her face would have betrayed her. Now you can imagine thepleasure with which I watched Sir Clement and Hamid Khan across theluncheon-table. And you call Frobisher a clever man!"
"He is by far and away the cleverest man I ever met, Madame."
"He is nothing of the kind," Mrs. Benstein said contemptuously. "Fordepth and cunning he has no equal, I admit. But intellect he haslittle, and imagination none at all. The fellow generally scoresbecause his plots, as a rule, are laid against honest people. But I sawthrough him from the first. He was going to make use of me--me! Iwould pit myself against him and win every time. If he had not beenprepared to play the bully and the coward last night I would have sparedhim, but not now. Before long that man will stand in the dock, and takeheed lest you stand there by his side."
Mrs. Benstein's voice had sunk to a hissing whisper, her eyes flashedwith passion.
"It is hard to know what I have done," Lefroy murmured.
"It would be hard to say what you have not done," was the swift reply."You, too, were ready last night to apply force to a desperate woman.But I beat you, and it is part of my revenge to tell you how the trickwas done. You will never have another chance to get possession of theBlue Stone and ruin the Shan by your plots together with Hamid Khan.You would have made use of me, now I am going to make use of you. Herecomes my husband. When he has done with you I shall dictate my terms.Meanwhile, if your nerves are not equal to the strain there are manykinds of wines here."
Lefroy declined the proffered hospitality. He began to feel like one ofhis own puppets as Benstein nodded ponderously and sat down. Theinterview had evidently been arranged for.
"I am glad of this opportunity for a little chat," Benstein said,ponderously. His fat cheeks were shaking, his hand was not quite sosteady as it might have been. He seemed to be fumbling for something inthe capacious pocket of a coat far too large for his bulky figure. "Iwas going to look you up, but my wife said she would arrange thematter."
"We have h
ad a lot of business transactions together," Lefroy suggested.
"But there is going to be no more, my friend," Benstein said. "You aretoo dangerous--you are too many for the old man whose sight is not whatit used to be. It is about those Koordstan possessions that you pledgedwith me for a large sum of money. I keep them by me, I regard them asgood business, until one day I show them to my wife. And what does shesay?"
"It is impossible to hazard the suggestion what so clever a woman wouldsay," Lefroy murmured.
"She says that the whole thing is forgery. Then I look quietly into thematter, and surely enough I find that the whole thing is a forgery. Istand to lose ten thousand pounds. My first impulse is to go off to thepolice and ask for a warrant to issue against you. When you take mymoney you take part of my body. Still, if you pay me the money now, Isay nothing further."
Lefroy nodded thoughtfully. He was not in the least abashed; he made noattempt to deny the truth of Aaron Benstein's accusation. He would haveto find the money, but how, was quite another matter.
"If you give me a little time," he said, "I shall hope to see my way."
"Ah! ah!--a little time--seven years perhaps the Judge will say. But Ileave it to my wife--she is the clever one. My dear, what shall I do?"
"At the present moment put on your hat and go back to the City," Mrs.Benstein said. "I fancy I shall know how to deal with Count Lefroy. Youcan't have your money back and your revenge as well. I fancy you cansafely leave me to settle matters."
Aaron Benstein was certain of it. He beamed proudly at his wife andkissed his fingers as he put on his hat and most obediently waddled outof the room. For a long while neither party at the table spoke.
"I'm afraid that I don't quite understand you," Lefroy ventured atlength.
"You are not meant to understand me," Isa Benstein retorted. "For thepresent you are going to be my puppet and dance when I pull the strings.Play me fair, and you shall not suffer for the wrong you have done myhusband; play me false, and you shall stand in the dock within an hourafter. Come, sir, it is the turn of the woman towards whom you andanother scoundrel last night would have shown personal violence had youdared. For the present I shall be content with plain replies to plainquestions. Do you know from whence Frobisher obtained the CardinalMoth?"
"I am not quite sure, but I can give a pretty good guess," Lefroy said.
"We shall come to that presently. Was Manfred well acquainted with theproperties of that accursed flower?"
"I should say not. Of course he had a good idea of its value and whatone could do with it."
"Quite so. Then I suppose that I am correct in assuming that on thenight of his death Manfred was party to a conspiracy to steal the orchidfrom Sir Clement Frobisher; in other words, he acted as your agent, andhe was killed in the act of purloining the flower?"
Lefroy wriggled uneasily and muttered something. But Mrs. Bensteinpinned him firmly down.
"I shall abandon you to your fate unless you speak frankly," she said."Was Manfred trying to steal the Cardinal Moth when he met with hisdeath?"
"You may take that for a fact," Lefroy said, as if the words weredragged from him.
"Very good. Manfred was going to steal the Moth which previously hadbeen stolen by Sir Clement's agent from somebody else. Who sold theMoth to Sir Clement?"
"I am not quite certain, but I believe it was Paul Lopez," said Lefroy.
Mrs. Benstein rose from her seat, and flicked a solitary crumb from herdress. On the whole she did not seem displeased with the day's work.
"Enough for the present," she said. "Take me out and see me into aswift taxi."