CHAPTER XXXIII
"Come!" said the Deputy-Minister peremptorily to Ucelli. "Meanwhile, Mr.Eversleigh, do you remain here till we return. I do not think you willhave to wait very long."
"Very well, signor," Gilbert replied, though he would have preferredaccompanying the two Italians.
"Come!" cried the Deputy once more to Ucelli.
But the Syndic had now found his tongue. He begged the Deputy to givehim a few moments' private conversation in the next room.
"You can say what you have to say here, surely. If you speak in our ownlanguage, Mr. Eversleigh will not understand you, so you will be quitesafe."
Ucelli urged that Mr. Eversleigh was evidently a highly intelligent man,and must have picked up some knowledge of Italian. Therefore, with allrespect to the Deputy-Minister, he ventured to think it possible Mr.Eversleigh might understand. And again he requested a private interview,which finally was granted to him.
The Deputy and the Syndic retired to an adjoining room, and left Gilbertalone with his thoughts.
His thoughts were a strange jumble. In the fore-ground of them wereSilwood, James Russell, the Syndic, and the Deputy-Minister, but behindthem were his father, Kitty, and Harry Bennet. As he sat there, they allpresently seemed to mingle, to become obscure, as in some feverishdream, and then to stand out sharp and clear again.
Perhaps half an hour had passed when there rang through the house thereport of a revolver, immediately followed by the sounds of a struggleand the cries and shouts of those engaged in it.
Gilbert sprang to his feet at once, and ran into the next room, fromwhich the noise had come.
There, on the floor, were Ucelli, and above him the Deputy-Ministerholding him by the throat. A little distance away lay a revolver; therewas the smell of burnt powder in the air, while the furniture of theapartment was in disorder.
"Get something," panted the Deputy, "with which we can bind and securehim, Mr. Eversleigh. Take that table-cover and tear it up--that willdo."
Gilbert, who had of course easily grasped the situation, did as he wasbid, and in two or three minutes the Syndic was bound hand and foot.
"You are not hurt?" Gilbert inquired of the Deputy. "I heard the soundof a shot."
"No; though it was not Ucelli's fault. He deliberately tried to kill me,but I was too quick for him," said the Deputy, still gasping. "I willtell you all when I have recovered a little."
And breathing heavily, he seated himself on a chair. Gilbert glanced atUcelli--the man's face was the colour of paper.
"First of all," said Signor Vinci, after an interval, "he tried to bribeme, and failing in that, sought to kill me, though what he hoped togain by killing me I cannot understand."
"It was the act of a madman."
"You would say he was driven to it by despair? That, perhaps, is theexplanation; or it may be he expected to make good his escape. But yousee what all this means? It means you are correct in what you havestated about Silwood. Ucelli has not made a confession--that is, adirect confession--but his conduct can bear no other interpretation."
"Yes," assented Gilbert.
"Our next step must be to get the grave opened, and then the case willbe complete. But first I will give Ucelli the opportunity of making afull confession."
The conversation between the Deputy-Minister and Gilbert had, up to thispoint, been in English. Turning to the Syndic, Signor Vinci asked him inhis own language if he wished to make a statement.
"What is the use?" asked Ucelli. "I have done for myself--the game isup!"
"That being so, why not make a clean breast of everything?"
"What good would that do me? You will, besides, lay a charge against meof trying to murder you, and I shall be condemned to a life-sentence."
The Deputy thought for a few seconds.
"You are determined to say nothing?" he asked Ucelli.
"I will confess all--but only if you will promise me one thing on yourhonour," said Ucelli, who had been thinking too.
"I cannot make terms with you."
"In this instance you can."
"To what do you refer?"
"If you will waive the charge against me of trying to kill you, I willdisclose everything. After all, I did not kill you; and if you willwithhold the charge of attempt to murder, I will open my lips."
"You ask a great deal!" cried Vinci, but he did not refuse the man. Asrapidly as he could, he told Gilbert of Ucelli's proposal, and said hewas disposed to accept it.
"You may be surprised," he said to Gilbert, who was indeed astonished."But I will tell you the reason. It is for your sake. If Ucelli makes afull confession, you will learn all you desire to know. Naturally, Ihave a desire that Ucelli should be punished for his attempt on my life,but I am willing to forego it. By so doing, and in this way obtainingthe confession, I acknowledge and repay the obligation you have placedthe Ministry of Justice under, for you have put into our hands the meansof convicting Ucelli. I am sure this is what the Minister, HisExcellency Signor Fava, would have me do."
"It is noble of you," said Gilbert, warmly, "to give up wreakingvengeance on your own account."
The Italian bowed and smiled pleasantly. He now addressed the Syndic,who had been watching the faces of the two others as they conversed,trying to gather from their expression what they were saying.
"I agree to your proposal," he said to Ucelli. "I will make no personalcharge against you. You, on your part, will tell us all--absolutely allwithout equivocation."
"Yes, Excellency, absolutely all," replied the Syndic, a little colourof hope coming into his pallid cheeks. "With your permission, I willspeak in French, which Mr. Eversleigh understands, as does yourExcellency, I doubt not."
"Let it be so," assented the Deputy. "Speak on!"
"I must go back some years, four or five," said Ucelli; "it was thenthat Silwood first came to Camajore. He made a stay of several weeks, inthe course of which he became intimate with me; he often spent theevenings here, playing chess, a game of which I am fond. His holiday atan end, he went back to England. I did not see him again till last July.I wondered at his coming when cholera was everywhere, but he had anobject in view--a scheme, which compelled him to run the risk."
Here the Syndic paused, as if to collect his thoughts.
"You saw him again?" prompted the Deputy.
"Alas, yes! He came to me and tempted me, and I succumbed. For a sum ofmoney I agreed to assist him in his scheme. I knew I was doing acriminal act, but the bribe he offered me quieted all my scruples,"Ucelli resumed. "I am a poor man, and I fell!"
"How much did he offer you?" demanded Vinci.
"It was fifty thousand liras," replied Ucelli. "Imagine, Excellency, thetemptation to a poor man like myself!"
"Fifty thousand liras!" exclaimed the Deputy. "It is a large sum ofmoney."
"Fifty thousand liras," thought Gilbert; "how much is that in Englishmoney?" A mental calculation showed him that it was nearly two thousandpounds. Where, he wondered, had Silwood got such a sum? But Ucelli wasspeaking.
"Yes, he offered me fifty thousand liras," repeated the Syndic, "and Iswallowed the bait--like a fool. But I did not consent all at once. Iknew the proceeding he proposed was dangerous in the extreme; but heallayed my fears by declaring it was impossible that it should ever befound out."
The Syndic stopped, overcome with self-pity.
"Well," cried Vinci; "what next?"
"His proposal was that I should have him in my house here, and soonafter he was to pretend to be ill of cholera. After a short interval itwas to be given out that he had died, while I was to have an imaginarybody buried. There were so many deaths here at the time, andconsequently so much confusion, that there was no difficulty in carryingout his plan."
"So you were right," said the Deputy to Gilbert.
"I issued a false certificate, and at Silwood's dictation penned theletter sent to Mr. Eversleigh's father," went on the Syndic, now bent onleaving nothing untold. "And it was he who arranged I sho
uld have in mypossession the letters, money, clothes, and other articles whichbelonged to him."
"To give colour to the fiction of Silwood's death?" asked the Deputy.
"Precisely. I thought we had foreseen everything, and that discovery wasimpossible. Alas! but we are blind fools! I hoped, when inquiries came,I should be able to satisfy them easily. The two men who came to makeinquiries before Mr. Eversleigh, I had no difficulty with."
It was Gilbert's turn to be amazed.
"What?" he cried. "Two men before me! What do you mean?"
"Ah, you did not know of them?" said the Syndic. "One was a detective ofthe English police, the other was a journalist, but they went emptyaway."
"Do you know their names?"
"Am I likely to forget anything or anybody connected with this affair?"asked Ucelli. "No; the name of the detective was Brydges, of ScotlandYard; that of the other was Westgate, a man on the staff of a Londonjournal, the _Morning Call_."
The names conveyed no meaning to Gilbert, but he was filled with wonder.Thinking it over later, he saw it must have been suspected by othersthat Silwood was not dead, and he guessed these inquiries had been madein connection with the finding of Thornton's body in Silwood's rooms inLincoln's Inn. The knowledge that the detective and the journalist hadbeen at Camajore, however, gave him a bad turn; he was afraid to thinkwhat might have happened to his father if either of them had stumbled onthe truth.
"I know neither of them," said Gilbert to the Syndic.
"They got nothing from me," resumed Ucelli. "I felicitated myself ongetting rid of them without trouble. And then you came, Mr. Eversleigh,and I imagined you were as satisfied as they had been. I was a blindfool, a blind fool!"
"You see I was sure Silwood was not dead," remarked Gilbert.
"Do you know where he is?" eagerly inquired the Syndic.
"No, I don't; I hoped you would know."
The Syndic shook his head.
Signor Vinci darted an angry look at him.
"I don't know," persisted Ucelli, seeing the look.
"What occurred after the so-called death of Silwood?" asked the Deputy."How did he get out of the country? It's plain he did not go as Silwood.If he had plenty of money, as I suppose his giving you fifty thousandliras shows, he would be able to procure disguises, have his owncarriage, and journey as he liked."
"Mr. Silwood," replied Ucelli, "is undoubtedly a very rich man, as yousuggest. He had an abundance of money."
Gilbert startled the other two men by suddenly rising from his chairwith a vehement ejaculation.
"Silwood a rich man?" he cried.
"Beyond question, a very rich man."
Here was a new idea to Gilbert--new with a vengeance! Silwood rich!
Then what about Silwood's alleged losses on the Stock Exchange? he askedhimself. Were they fictitious too? Or--what?
"Silwood is rich," continued the Syndic, "but it took very little moneyto get him out of the country, as it happened. His scheme had takenaccount of that, and he brought with him a disguise--a disguise ascomplete as any I ever saw; no one could have recognized him in it. Bytaking off his wig, putting on a moustache, staining his face and hands,and touching up his cheeks with some paint, he became another manaltogether. Then he had clothes with him--such clothes, he told me, asany British workman might wear--and these he wore. The disguise wasperfect, and must have been carefully studied. In the night I guided himout of Camajore, and set him on the way to Lucca, which he reached;thence he went on to Genoa, where he took ship for England. But he wasdelayed at Genoa--there was an accident; how it came about is not known,but he was stabbed in the street."
"Stabbed in the street!" exclaimed Gilbert, on whom the full light wasnow breaking.
"Yes; he telegraphed for me to go to him, and I went. He said that toprosecute the man who had stabbed him would be fatal, and I arrangedthere should be no prosecution. Besides, his wound was not serious; hehad merely to lie quiet for some days."
"Under what name did Silwood go when he was thus disguised?" askedGilbert, though he knew what the reply would be.
"James Russell," said the Syndic.