CHAPTER XXXVIII
"THAT MAN'S VOICE!"
Stokes the chauffeur had driven Murie and Hamilton in the car down tothe village, where the last-named, after a conversation with the policeinspector, went to the "Strathavon Arms," together with two constableswho happened to be off duty, in plain clothes.
They found Krail sitting in the bar, calmly smoking, awaiting a messagefrom his accomplice.
Upon Hamilton's recognition he was, after a brief argument, arrested onthe charge of theft from Glencardine, placed in the car between the twostalwart Scotch policemen, and conveyed in triumph to the castle, much,of course, against his will. He demanded to be taken straight to thepolice station; but as Sir Henry had ordered him to be brought toGlencardine, and as Sir Henry was a magistrate, the inspector was boundto obey his orders.
The man's cruel, colourless eyes seemed to contract closer as he sat inthe car with his enemy Hamilton facing him. He had never dreamed thatthey would ever meet again; but, now they had, he saw that the game wasup. There was no hope of escape. He was being taken to meet Sir HenryHeyburn, the very last man in all the world he wished to face. Hissallow countenance was drawn, his lips were thin and bloodless, and uponhis cheeks were two red spots which showed that he was now in a deadlyterror.
Gabrielle, who had been weeping at the knees of her father, heard thewhirr of the car coming up the drive; and, springing to the window,witnessed the arrival of the party.
A moment later, Krail, between the two constables, and with the localinspector standing respectfully at the rear, stood in the big, longlibrary into which the blind man was led by his daughter.
When all had assembled, Sir Henry, in a clear, distinct voice, said, "Ihave had you arrested and brought here in order to charge you withstealing certain documents from my safe yonder, which you opened bymeans of a duplicate key. Your accomplice Flockart has given evidenceagainst you; therefore, to deny it is quite needless."
"Whatever he has said to you is lies," the foreigner replied, his accentbeing the more pronounced in his excitement. "I know nothing about it."
"If you deny that," exclaimed Hamilton quickly, "you will perhaps alsodeny that it was you who secretly poisoned Miss Bryant in the PontarmeForest, even though I myself saw you at the spot; and, further, that awitness has been found who actually saw you substitute the wine-bottles.You intended to kill me!"
"What ridiculous nonsense you are talking!" cried the accused, who wasdressed with his habitual shabby gentility. "The girl yonder,mademoiselle, killed Miss Bryant."
"Then why did you make that deliberate attempt upon my life atFotheringhay?" demanded the girl boldly. "Had it not been for Mr.Hamilton, who must have seen us together and guessed that you intendedfoul play, I should certainly have been drowned."
"He believed that you knew his secret, and he intended, both on his ownbehalf and on Flockart's also, to close your lips," Murie said. "Withyou out of the way, their attitude towards your father would have beeneasier; but with you still a living witness there was always danger tothem. He thought your death would be believed to be suicide, for he knewyour despondent state of mind."
Sir Henry stood near the window, his face sphinx-like, as though turnedto stone.
"She fell in," was his lame excuse.
"No, you threw me in!" declared the girl. "But I have feared you untilnow, and I therefore dared not to give information against you. Ah, Godalone knows how I have suffered!"
"You dare now, eh?" he snarled, turning quickly upon her.
"It really does not matter what you deny or what you admit," Hamiltonremarked. "The French authorities have applied for your extradition toFrance, and this evening you will be on your way to the extraditioncourt at Bow Street, charged with a graver offence than the burglary atthis house. The Surete of Paris make several interesting allegationsagainst you--or against Felix Gerlach, which is your real name."
"Gerlach!" cried the blind man in a loud voice, groping forward. "Ah,"he shrieked, "then I was not mistaken when--when I thought I recognisedthe voice! That man's voice! _Yes, it is his--his!_"
In an instant Krail had sprung forward towards the blind and defencelessman, but his captors were fortunately too quick and prevented him. Then,at the inspector's orders, a pair of steel bracelets were quickly placedupon his wrists.
"Gerlach! Felix Gerlach!" repeated the blind Baronet as though tohimself, as he heard the snap of the lock upon the prisoner's wrists.
The fellow burst out into a peal of harsh, discordant laughter. He wasendeavouring to retain a defiant attitude even then.
"You apparently know this man, dad?" Gabrielle exclaimed in surprise.
"Know him!" echoed her father hoarsely. "Know Felix Gerlach! Yes, I havebitter cause to remember the man who stands there before you accused ofthe crime of murder."
Then he paused, and drew a long breath.
"I unmasked him once, as a thief and a swindler, and he swore to beavenged," said the Baronet in a bitter voice. "It was long ago. He cameto me in London and offered me a concession which he said he hadobtained from the Ottoman Government for the construction of a railroadfrom Smyrna to the Bosphorus. The documents appeared to be all right andin order, and after some negotiations he sold the concession to me andreceived ten thousand pounds in cash of the purchase-money in advance. Aweek afterwards I discovered that, though the concession had beengranted by the Minister of Public Works at the Sublime Porte, it hadbeen sold to the Eckmann Group in Vienna, and that the papers I heldwere merely copies with forged signatures and stamps. I applied to thepolice, this man was arrested in Hamburg, and brought back to London,where he was tried, and, a previous conviction having been provedagainst him, sent to penal servitude for seven years. In the dock at theOld Bailey he swore to be avenged upon me and upon my family."
"And he seems to have kept his word," Walter remarked.
"When he came out of prison he found me in the zenith of my politicalcareer," Sir Henry went on. "On that well-remembered night of my speechat the Albert Hall I can only surmise that he went there, heard me, andprobably became fiercely resentful that he had found a man cleverer thanhimself. The fact remains that he must have gone in a cab in front of mycarriage to Park Street, alighted before me, and secreted himself withinthe portico. It was midnight, and the street was deserted. My carriagestopped, I got out, and it then drove on to the mews. I was in the actof opening the door with my latch-key when, by an unknown hand, therewas flung full into my eyes some corrosive fluid which burned terribly,and caused me excruciating pain. I heard a man's exultant voice cry,'There! I promised you that, and you have it!' The voice I recognised asthat of the blackguard standing before you. Since that moment," he addedin a blank, hoarse voice, "I have been totally blind!"
"You got me seven years!" cried the foreigner with a harsh laugh, "sothink yourself very lucky that I didn't kill you."
"You placed upon me an affliction, a perpetual darkness, that to a manlike myself is almost akin to death," replied his accuser very gravely."Secure from recognition, you wormed yourself into the confidence of mywife, for you were bent upon ruining her also; and you took as partnerin your schemes that needy adventurer Flockart. I now see it all quiteplainly. Hamilton had recognised you as Gerlach, and you thereforeformed a plot to get rid of him and throw the crime upon my poorunfortunate daughter, even though she was scarcely more than a child. Inall probability, Lady Heyburn, in telling the girl the story regardingMurie and Miss Bryant, believed it, and if so she would also suspect mydaughter to be the actual criminal."
"This is all utterly astounding, dad!" cried Gabrielle. "If you knew whoit was who deliberately blinded you, why didn't you prosecute him?"
"Because there was no witness of his dastardly act, my child. And Imyself never saw him. Therefore I was compelled to remain in silence,and allow the world to believe my affliction due to natural causes," washis blank response.
The sallow-faced foreigner laughed again, laughed in the face of the manwhose eyesight he had so
deliberately taken. He could not speak. Whathad he to say?
"Well," remarked Hamilton, "we have at least the satisfaction of knowingthat both this man and his accomplice will stand their trial for theirheartless crime in France, and that they will meet their just punishmentaccording to the laws of God and of man."
"And I," added Walter, in a voice broken by emotion, as he again tookGabrielle's hand tenderly, "have the supreme satisfaction of knowingthat my darling is cleared of a foul, dastardly, and terrible charge."