THE STEEL SAFE
Don Juan's conduct upon our arrival in London was both a revelation and
a surprise to me.
First, following a custom, now long established for diplomatists, he
put up at Claridge's.
From that famous hotel I had the pleasure of accompanying him at his
request on a series of visits.
The first was an appointment at the Foreign Office, and there he was
closeted with the Secretary of State for a solid two hours, while I was
kicking my heels in a waiting-room. His last words to me had been
exceedingly disappointing.
"You must forgive me for not taking you with me, Anstruther," he said,
"but the matter I am engaged upon is of such an exceedingly
confidential nature that I dare not disclose it to any one, except the
Ministers themselves."
I simply bowed my acquiescence and said nothing.
But being left alone in the waiting-room, which was liberally supplied
with writing materials, I industriously filled up my time by writing
letters.
First, of course, to Dolores, whom I had left but an hour before at
Claridge's, and to whom I yet felt constrained to pour forth my soul on
paper.
The feeling, I have no doubt, was a mutual one, as when I returned to
my hotel to dress, there was handed to me as usual a letter from
Dolores, giving me an account of her morning's proceedings.
Having disposed of my letter to her on this particular morning, I wrote
to my cousin St. Nivel.
"As for solving the mystery of the old lady at Bath and her casket," I
wrote, "whether she is alive or dead, and why she sent me to Valoro,
_all_, my dear Jack, are to me at the present moment as great a mystery
as the reason why His Serene Highness the Duke of Rittersheim should
want to shoot me at a _battue_ down in Norfolk!
"I go about with Don Juan d'Alta, and I might just as well be walking
about with one of the lions in Trafalgar Square for all the information
I get out of him. His is the silence of the old diplomatist."
To Ethel I sent my love; she was pretty well informed of our movements,
as she and Dolores had become fast friends, and corresponded twice or
thrice a week.
From the Foreign Office Don Juan walked me over to the Home Office, and
there he had a lengthy interview with the Home Secretary of fully an
hour's duration. Finally, we went to Scotland Yard, and there I
thought we should never get away at all; I, of course, being "in
waiting" all the time.
But there was one consolation which Dolores and I had had ever since we
set foot on board the _Oceana_ on our return, and that was, we did not
care how soon Don Juan knew of our betrothal; we only waited for the
old gentleman to be rid of his mysterious business to declare ourselves.
For myself, I had but little anxiety as to the result. I had caught
him looking at us on board the steamer, when we were together, openly
lovemaking, and his expression then had been wistful, but not unkind
nor unfavourable. Therefore, I had great hope.
"If he will not give his consent, darling," my little sweetheart had
whispered often in my ear, "I shall tell him that I will go and be a
nun."
"But you _won't_, will you, little one?" I always asked anxiously, "you
won't go and leave me?"
And then she would generally make the naïve confession--
"I would rather marry _you_, dear, than be a nun."
After ringing the changes between the Foreign Office, the Home Office,
and Scotland Yard for a week, Don Juan suddenly expressed his
determination to go down to Bath. I was asked to secure rooms for them
at the "Magnifique"; it was to be a fairly long stay, and Dolores was
going too.
The proceedings at Bath mystified me more than ever. The first thing
that happened, when we were installed at the "Magnifique," was, that
Inspector Bull accompanied the head of the police on a visit of
ceremony and absolutely raised his hat to _me_ on discovering that I
was _à la suite_ of Don Juan d'Alta! I was never more thunderstruck in
my life, and was hardly able to return such an unexpected act of
courtesy, through astonishment.
The next thing was a ceremonious visit to Cruft's Folly in a motor car.
There we found the inspector keeping guard over a curious array of
articles assembled on a table on the ground floor of the tower; they
were a most extraordinary collection. First, there was a lady's
handkerchief, and I identified it at once as a fellow one to that which
I had found in the still warm bed of the old lady in Monmouth Street.
"Are you quite certain," inquired Don Juan, when I had told him about
it in answer to his question. "Are you certain the handkerchief you
found was like this?"
"As certain as I stand here," I answered; "if there is any doubt about
it I can get the other, for it is only at the hotel."
"Very well," replied the old gentleman with an air of satisfaction,
making a note in a book, "that settles that matter. Now for the next.
Have you ever seen that silver cigarette box before?"
I took up the article he referred to, which was standing by the
handkerchief on the table, and examined it; it might, or might not,
have been that case from which I took a cigarette in the old lady's
room on the occasion of my first visit. I told them so.
"You cannot swear to it?" asked the old Don.
"No," I answered, "I cannot swear to it; it may be the case, and it may
not."
"Now, Inspector," he said, turning to the police officer, "kindly show
Mr. Anstruther _that_."
He pointed to a bundle lying on the table, the last of the articles,
and the inspector took it up, and slowly unfolded it. _It was a lady's
quilted white silk dressing-gown, and the whole of the bosom of it was
deeply stained with what was evidently dried blood._
I turned in triumph to the police officer.
"_That_ is the dressing-gown worn by the old lady the last time I saw
her lying bleeding on her bed in the basement of 190 Monmouth Street.
I told you of it at the time, and you would not believe it."
Don Juan appeared exceedingly interested at this exhibit, and leant
over it with his gold pince-nez held to his eyes.
"Ah!" he remarked at last, removing his glasses with a sigh, "then I
suppose that is all you have to show Mr. Anstruther, Inspector?"
The inspector gathered up the articles ceremoniously before he answered.
"That is all we 'ave to exhibit to Mr. Anstruther _at present_," he
said.
Mr. Bull was not going to commit himself.
From Cruft's Folly we went straight to 190 Monmouth Street, and there
we found the sergeant's wife in her Sunday clothes to do honour to the
occasion; the baby as usual dangled easily from her arm.
Descending to the basement, I was astonished to find a well-known
gentleman waiting us in the room with so many sad remembrances for me.
This gentleman was a Mr. Fowler, and I knew him to be one of the Crown
solicitors. His presence there, however, was accounted for when Don
Juan asked me for the key of the steel safe, which I still had in my
possession.
Under the circumstances I felt fully justified in giving it to him.
"Now, Anstruther," he said cheerfully, "I will get you to show me and
Mr. Fowler the secret of the panel."
The broken glass had been already cleared from the frame over the
mantelpiece; therefore, as soon as I touched the carved rose on the
left-hand side, the framework moved up. I touched the spring beneath
and the door in the wall flew open; there within was the steel safe,
exactly as I had seen it last, Don Juan turned to me with a look of
solicitude.
"Don't feel offended, Anstruther," he began, "at what I was going to
say, but it is essential that I should open this safe in the presence
of Mr. Fowler alone."
As he took the key from my hands and inserted it in the lock, I bowed
and left them.
For half an hour I paced the passage without or wandered through the
back door into the neglected garden, which I found abutted on a disused
graveyard--a very common object, met with often in startlingly unlikely
places in one's walks in Bath.
It was on my return from one of these little rambles that I found the
door of the old lady's sitting-room open, and Don Juan and Mr. Fowler
superintending the removal of the safe by two porters; a third
gentleman had now joined the party.
"This is Mr. Symonds of the Bank of England," said the old Don
ceremoniously. "He has very kindly undertaken the removal of this safe
to London."
I was getting now so used to the Don's mysterious movements that even
this did not surprise me. I noticed, however, that the safe had been
very carefully _sealed_ in addition to being locked. The safe was
carried up to the street and placed on the front seat of a large motor
car which was waiting.
In this the representative of the Bank of England quickly entered, and
two very unmistakable detectives who had been standing by mounted on
the front seat, then the motor puffed away.
"They won't stop now," remarked Mr. Fowler, "until they reach
Threadneedle Street."
Within a quarter of an hour Don Juan and I were back in his private
room at the hotel.
"Thank God!" he exclaimed as we entered, "my mind is now cleared from
that terrible anxiety, and I can rest in peace."
I looked very hard at the old gentleman as he sank into an arm-chair,
but I did not agree with him.
"Excuse me, Don Juan," I said, "I have another very serious matter to
trouble you with."