CHAPTER XIX
Through the mistaken efforts of Isidore Bamberger, justice had gotherself into difficulties, and it was as well for her reputation,which is not good nowadays, that the public never heard what happenedon that night at Craythew, how the three best men who had beenavailable at headquarters were discomfited in their well-meant attemptto arrest an innocent man, and how they spent two miserable hourstogether locked up in a dark winding staircase. For it chanced, asit will chance to the end of time, that the doctor was out when thebutler telephoned to him; it happened, too, that he was far from home,engaged in ushering a young gentleman of prosperous parentage intothis world, an action of which the kindness might be questioned,considering that the poor little soul presumably came straight fromparadise, with an indifferent chance of ever getting there again. Sothe doctor could not come.
The three men were let out in due time, however, and as no trace of awarrant could be discovered at that hour, Logotheti and Griggs beingalready sound asleep, and as Lord Creedmore, in his dressing-gown andslippers, gave them a written statement to the effect that Mr. VanTorp was no longer at Craythew, they had no choice but to return totown, rather the worse for wear. What they said to each other by theway may safely be left to the inexhaustible imagination of a gentleand sympathising reader.
Their suppressed rage, their deep mortification, and their profounddisgust were swept away in their overwhelming amazement, however,when they found that Mr. Rufus Van Torp, whom they had sought inDerbyshire, was in Scotland Yard before them, closeted with theirChief and explaining what an odd mistake the justice of two nationshad committed in suspecting him to have been at the MetropolitanOpera-House in New York at the time of the explosion, since he hadspent that very evening in Washington, in the private study of theSecretary of the Treasury, who wanted his confidential opinion on aquestion connected with Trusts before he went abroad. Mr. Van Torpstuck his thumbs into his waistcoat pockets and blandly insisted thatthe cables should be kept red-hot--at international expense--till themember of the Cabinet in Washington should answer corroborating thestatement. Four o'clock in the morning in London was only eleveno'clock of the previous evening, Mr. Van Torp explained, and it wasextremely unlikely that the Secretary of the Treasury should be inbed so early. If he was, he was certainly not asleep; and with thefacilities at the disposal of governments there was no reason why theanswer should not come back in forty minutes.
It was impossible to resist such simple logic. The lines were clearedfor urgent official business between London and Washington, and inless than an hour the answer came back, to the effect that Mr. RufusVan Torp's statement was correct in every detail; and without anyinterval another official message arrived, revoking the requestfor his extradition, which 'had been made under a most unfortunatemisapprehension, due to the fact that Mr. Van Torp's visit to theSecretary of the Treasury had been regarded as confidential by thelatter.'
Scotland Yard expressed its regret, and Mr. Van Torp smiled and beggedto be allowed, before leaving, to 'shake hands' with the three men whohad been put to so much inconvenience on his account. This democraticproposal was promptly authorised, to the no small satisfaction andprofit of the three haggard officials. So Mr. Van Torp went away,and in a few minutes he was sound asleep in the corner of his bigmotor-car on his way back to Derbyshire.
Lady Maud found Margaret and Logotheti walking slowly together underthe trees about eleven o'clock on the following morning. Some of thepeople were already gone, and most of the others were to leave in thecourse of the day. Lady Maud had just said good-bye to a party of tenwho were going off together, and she had not had a chance to speak toMargaret, who had come down late, after her manner. Most great singersare portentous sleepers. As for Logotheti, he always had coffee in hisroom wherever he was, he never appeared at breakfast, and he got ridof his important correspondence for the day before coming down.
'I've had a letter from Threlfall,' he said as Lady Maud came up. 'Iwas just telling Miss Donne about it. Feist died in Dr. Bream's Homeyesterday afternoon.'
'Rather unfortunate at this juncture, isn't it?' observed Margaret.
But Lady Maud looked shocked and glanced at Logotheti as if asking aquestion.
'No,' said the Greek, answering her thought. 'I did not kill him, poordevil! He did it himself, out of fright, I think. So that side of theaffair ends. He had some sealed glass capsules of hydrocyanide ofpotassium in little brass tubes, sewn up in the lining of a waistcoat,and he took one, and must have died instantly. I believe the stuffturns into prussic acid, or something of that sort, when you swallowit--Griggs will know.'
'How dreadful!' exclaimed Lady Maud. 'I'm sure you drove him to it!'
'I'll bear the responsibility of having rid the world of him, if Idid. But my share consisted in having given him opium and then stoppedit suddenly, till he surrendered and told the truth--or a large partof it--what I have told you already. He would not own that he killedMiss Bamberger himself with the rusty little knife that had a few redsilk threads sticking to the handle. He must have put it back into hiscase of instruments as it was, and he never had the courage to lookat it again. He had studied medicine, I believe. But he confessedeverything else, how he had been madly in love with the poor girl whenhe was her father's secretary, and how she treated him like a servantand made her father turn him out, and how he hated Van Torp furiouslyfor being engaged to marry her. He hated the Nickel Trust, too,because he had thought the shares were going down and had riskedthe little he had as margin on a drop, and had lost it all by theunexpected rise. He drank harder after that, till he was getting sillyfrom it, when the girl's death gave him his chance against Van Torp,and he manufactured the evidence in the diary he kept, and went toBamberger with it and made the poor man believe whatever he invented.He told me all that, with a lot of details, but I could not make himadmit that he had killed the girl himself, so I gave him his opium andhe went to sleep. That's my story. Or rather, it's his, as I got itfrom him last Thursday. I supposed there was plenty of time, but Mr.Bamberger seems to have been in a hurry after we had got Feist intothe Home.'
'Had you told Mr. Van Torp all this?' asked Lady Maud anxiously.
'No,' Logotheti answered. 'I was keeping the information ready in caseit should be needed.'
A familiar voice spoke behind them.
'Well, it's all right as it is. Much obliged, all the same.'
All three turned suddenly and saw that Mr. Van Torp had crept up whilethey were talking, and the expression of his tremendous mouth showedthat he had meant to surprise them, and was pleased with his successin doing so.
'Really!' exclaimed Lady Maud.
'Goodness gracious!' cried the Primadonna.
'By the Dog of Egypt!' laughed Logotheti.
'Don't know the breed,' answered Van Torp, not understanding, butcheerfully playful. 'Was it a trick dog?'
'I thought you were in London,' Margaret said.
'I was. Between one and four this morning, I should say. It's allright.' He nodded to Lady Maud as he spoke the last words, but he didnot seem inclined to say more.
'Is it a secret?' she asked.
'I never have secrets,' answered the millionaire. 'Secrets areeverything that must be found out and put in the paper right away,ain't they? But I had no trouble at all, only the bother of waitingtill the office got an answer from the other side. I happened toremember where I'd spent the evening of the explosion, that's all, andthey cabled sharp and found my statement correct.'
'Why did you never tell me?' asked Lady Maud reproachfully. 'You knewhow anxious I was!'
'Well,' replied Mr. Van Torp, dwelling long on the syllable, 'I didtell you it was all right anyhow, whatever they did, and I thoughtmaybe you'd accept the statement. The man I spent that evening with isa public man, and he mightn't exactly think our interview was anybodyelse's business, might he?'
'And you say you never keep a secret!'
The delicious ripple was in Lady Maud's sweet voice as she spoke.Perhaps
it came a little in spite of herself, and she would certainlyhave controlled her tone if she had thought of Leven just then. Butshe was a very natural creature, after all, and she could not andwould not pretend to be sorry that he was dead, though the manner ofhis end had seemed horrible to her when she had been able to thinkover the news, after Van Torp had got safely away. So far there hadonly been three big things in her life: her love for a man who wasdead, her tremendous determination to do some real good for hismemory's sake, and her deep gratitude to Van Torp, who had made thatgood possible, and who, strangely enough, seemed to her the onlyliving person who really understood her and liked her for her ownsake, without the least idea of making love. And she saw in him whatfew suspected, except little Ida and Miss More--the real humanity andfaithful kindness that dwelt in the terribly hard and coarse-grainedfighting financier. Lady Maud had her faults, no doubt, but she wastoo big, morally, to be disturbed by what seemed to Margaret Donne anintolerable vulgarity of manner and speech.
As for Margaret, she now felt that painful little remorse that hurtsus when we realise that we have suspected an innocent person ofsomething dreadful, even though we may have contributed to theultimate triumph of the truth. Van Torp unconsciously deposited a coalof fire on her head.
'I'd just like to say how much I appreciate your kindness in singinglast night, Madame da Cordova,' he said. 'From what you knew andtold me on the steamer, you might have had a reasonable doubt, and Icouldn't very well explain it away before. I wish you'd some day tellme what I can do for you. I'm grateful, honestly.'
Margaret saw that he was much in earnest, and as she felt that she haddone him great injustice, she held out her hand with a frank smile.
'I'm glad I was able to be of use,' she said. 'Come and see me intown.'
'Really? You won't throw me out if I do?'
Margaret laughed.
'No, I won't throw you out!'
'Then I'll come some day. Thank you.'
Van Torp had long given up all hope that she would ever marry him, butit was something to be on good terms with her again, and for the sakeof that alone he would have risked a good deal.
The four paired off, and Lady Maud walked in front with Van Torp,while Margaret and Logotheti followed more slowly; so the couples didnot long keep near one another, and in less than five minutes theylost each other altogether among the trees.
Margaret had noticed something very unusual in the Greek's appearancewhen they had met half an hour earlier, and she had been amazed whenshe realised that he wore no jewellery, no ruby, no emeralds, nodiamonds, no elaborate chain, and that his tie was neither green,yellow, sky-blue, nor scarlet, but of a soft dove grey which she likedvery much. The change was so surprising that she had been on the pointof asking him whether anything dreadful had happened; but just thenLady Maud had come up with them.
They walked a little way now, and when the others were out of sightMargaret sat down on one of the many boulders that strewed the park.Her companion stood before her, and while he lit a cigarette shesurveyed him deliberately from head to foot. Her fresh lips twitchedas they did when she was near laughing, and she looked up and met hiseyes.
'What in the world has happened to you since yesterday?' she asked ina tone of lazy amusement. 'You look almost like a human being!'
'Do I?' he asked, between two small puffs of smoke, and he laughed alittle.
'Yes. Are you in mourning for your lost illusions?'
'No. I'm trying "to create and foster agreeable illusions" in you.That's the object of all art, you know.'
'Oh! It's for me, then? Really?'
'Yes. Everything is. I thought I had explained that the other night!'His tone was perfectly unconcerned, and he smiled carelessly as hespoke.
'I wonder what would happen if I took you at your word,' saidMargaret, more thoughtfully than she had spoken yet.
'I don't know. You might not regret it. You might even be happy!'
There was a little silence, and Margaret looked down.
'I'm not exactly miserable as it is,' she said at last. 'Are you?'
'Oh no!' answered Logotheti. 'I should bore you if I were!'
'Awfully!' She laughed rather abruptly. 'Should you want me to leavethe stage?' she asked after a moment.
'You forget that I like the Cordova just as much as I like MargaretDonne.'
'Are you quite sure?'
'Absolutely!'
'Let's try it!'
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