AN OFFER FROM STRANGWISE
Desmond sprang for the window; but it was too late. Strangwise who had
not missed a syllable of the interrogatory was at the curtains in a
flash. As he plucked the hangings back, Desmond made a rush for him;
but Strangwise, wary as ever, kept his head and, drawing back, jabbed
his great automatic almost in the other’s face.
And then Desmond knew the game was up.
Barbara had collapsed in her chair. Her face was of an ivory pallor and
she seemed to have fallen back into the characteristic hypnotic trance.
As for Bellward, he had dropped on to a sofa, a loose mass, exhausted
but missing nothing of what was going forward, though, for the moment,
he seemed too spent to take any active part in the proceedings. In the
meantime Strangwise, his white, even teeth bared in a quiet smile, was
very steadily looking at his prisoner.
“Well, Desmond,” he said at last, “here’s a pleasant surprise! I
thought you were dead!”
Desmond said nothing. He was not a coward as men go; but he was feeling
horribly afraid just then. The deviltry of the scene he had just
witnessed had fairly unmanned him. The red and black setting of the
room had a suggestion of Oriental cruelty in its very garishness.
Desmond looked from Strangwise, cool and smiling, to Bellward, gross
and beastly, and from the two men to Barbara, wan and still and
defenceless. And he was afraid.
Then Bellward scrambled clumsily to his feet, plucking a revolver from
his inside pocket as he did so.
“You sneaking rascal,” he snarled, “we’ll teach you to play your dirty
tricks on us!”
He raised the pistol; but Strangwise stepped between the man and his
victim.
“Kill him!” cried Bellward, “and let’s be rid of him once and for all!”
“What” said Strangwise. “Kill Desmond? Ah, no, my friend, I don’t think
so!”
And he added drily:
“At least not quite yet!”
“But you must be mad,” exclaimed Bellward, toying impatiently with his
weapon, “you let him escape through your fingers before! I know his
type. A man like him is only safe when he’s dead. And if you won’t...”
“Now, Bellward,” said Strangwise not budging but looking the other
calmly in the eye, “you’re getting excited, you know.”
But Bellward muttered thickly:
“Kill him! That’s all I ask. And let’s get out of here! I tell you it
isn’t safe! Minna can shift for herself!” he added sulkily.
“As she has always done!” said a voice at the door. Mrs. Malplaquet
stood there, a very distinguished looking figure in black with a
handsome set of furs.
“But who’s this?” she asked, catching sight of Desmond, as she flashed
her beady black eyes round the group. Of Barbara she took not the
slightest notice. Desmond remarked it and her indifference shocked him
profoundly.
“Of course, you don’t recognize him!” said Strangwise. “This is Major
Desmond Okewood, more recently known as Mr. Basil Bellward!”
The woman evinced no surprise.
“So!” she said, “I thought we’d end by getting him. Well, Strangwise,
what are we waiting for? Is our friend to live for ever?”
“That’s what I want to know!” bellowed Bellward savagely.
“I have not finished with our friend here!” observed Strangwise.
“No, no,” cried Mrs. Malplaquet quickly, Strangwise, “you’ve had your
lesson. You’ve lost the jewel and you’re not likely to get it back
unless you think that this young man has come here with it on him. Do
you want to lose your life, the lives of all of us, as well? Come,
come, the fellow’s no earthly good to us! And he’s a menace to us all
as long as he’s alive!”
“Minna,” said Strangwise, “you must trust me. Besides...” he leaned
forward and whispered something in her ear. “Now,” he resumed aloud,
“you shall take Bellward downstairs and leave me to have a little chat
with our friend here.”
To Bellward he added:
“Minna will tell you what I said. But first,” he pointed to Barbara who
remained apparently lifeless in her chair, “bring her round. And then I
think she’d better go to bed.”
“But what about the treatment to-night” asked Mrs. Malplaquet.
Strangwise smiled mysteriously.
“I’m not sure that any further treatment will be required,” he said.
In the meantime, Bellward had leaned over the girl and with a few
passes of his hand had brought her back to consciousness. She sat up,
one hand pressed to her face, and looked about her in a dazed fashion.
On recognizing Desmond she gave a little cry.
“Take her away!” commanded Strangwise.
Bellward had unfastened the ropes binding her feet, and he and Mrs.
Malplaquet between them half-dragged, half-lifted the girl (for she was
scarcely able to walk) from the room.
When the door had closed behind them, Strangwise pointed to a chair and
pulled out his cigarette case. “Sit down, Desmond,” he said, “and let’s
talk. Will you smoke?”
He held out his case. A cigarette was the one thing for which Desmond
craved. He took one and lit it. Strangwise sat down on the other side
of a curiously carved ebony table, his big automatic before him.
“I guess you’re sharp enough to know when you’re beaten, Desmond,” he
said. “You’ve put up a good fight and until this afternoon you were one
up on me. I’ll grant you that. And I don’t mind admitting that you’ve
busted up my little organization—for the present at any rate. But I’m
on top now and you’re in our power, old man.”
“Well,” replied Desmond shortly, “what are you going to do about it?”
“I’m going to utilize my advantage to the best I know how,” retorted
Strangwise, snapping the words, “that’s good strategy, isn’t it,
Desmond? That’s what Hamley and all the military writers teach, isn’t
it? And I’m going to be frank with you. I suppose you realize that your
life hung by a thread in this very room only a minute ago. Do you know
why I intervened to save you?”
Desmond smiled. All his habitual serenity was coming back to him. He
found it hard to realize that this old brother officer of his, blowing
rings of cigarette smoke at him across the table, was an enemy.
“I don’t suppose it was because of the love you bear me,” replied
Desmond.
And he rubbed the bump on his head.
Strangwise noted the action and smiled.
“Listen here,” he resumed, planking his hands down on the table and
leaning forward, “I’m ready and anxious to quit this spying business.
It was only a side line with me anyway. My main object in coming to
this country was to recover possession of that diamond star. Once I’ve
got it back, I’m through with England...”
“But not with the army,” Desmond broke in, “thank God, we’ve got a
swift way with traitors in this country!”
“Quite so,” returned the other, “but you see, my friend, the army
hasn’t got me. And I have got you! But let us drop talking platitudes,”
he went on. “I’m no great hand at driving a bargain, Desmond—few army
men are, you know—so I won’t even attempt to chaffer with you. I shall
tell you straight out what I am ready to offer. You were given the job
of breaking up this organization, weren’t you?”
Desmond was silent. He was beginning to wonder what Strangwise was
driving at.
“Oh, you needn’t trouble to deny it. I never spotted you, I admit, even
when the real Bellward turned up: that idea of putting your name in the
casualty list as ‘killed’ was a masterstroke; for I never looked to
find you alive and trying to put it across me. But to return to what I
was saying—your job was to smash my little system, and if you pull it
off, it’s a feather in your cap. Well, you’ve killed two of my people
and you’ve arrested the ringleader.”
“Meaning Behrend?” asked Desmond.
“Behrend be hanged! I mean Nur-el-Din!”
“Nur-el-Din was not the ringleader,” said Desmond, “as well you know,
Strangwise!”
“Your employers evidently don’t share your views, Desmond,” he replied,
“all the documents were found on Nur-el-Din!”
“Bah!” retorted Desmond, “and what of it? Mightn’t they have been
planted on her in order to get her arrested to draw the suspicion away
from the real criminal, yourself?”
Strangwise laughed a low, mellow laugh.
“You’re devilish hard to convince,” he remarked. “Perhaps you’ll change
your mind about it when I tell you that Nur-el-Din was sentenced to
death by a general court-martial yesterday afternoon.”
The blow struck Desmond straight between the eyes. The execution of
spies followed hard on their conviction, he knew. Was he too late?
“Has... has she... has the sentence already been carried out?” he asked
hoarsely.
Strangwise shrugged his shoulders.
“My information didn’t go as far as that!” he replied. “But I expect
so. They don’t waste much time over these matters, old man! You see,
then,” he continued, “you’ve got the ringleader, and you shall have the
other two members of the organization and save your own life into the
bargain if you will be reasonable and treat with me.”
Desmond looked straight at him; and Strangwise averted his eyes.
“Let me get this right,” said Desmond slowly. “You let me go free—of
course, I take it that my liberty includes the release of Miss
Mackwayte as well—and in addition, you hand over to me your two
accomplices, Bellward and the Malplaquet woman. That is your offer,
isn’t it? Well, what do you want from me in exchange?”
“The Star of Poland!” said Strangwise in a low voice.
“But,” Desmond began. He was going to add “I haven’t got it,” but
checked himself in time. Why should he show his hand?
Strangwise broke in excitedly.
“Man,” he cried, “it was grandly done. When first I discovered the gem,
I opened the package in which the silver box was wrapped and took the
jewel from its case to make sure that it was there. Then I sealed it up
again, silver box and all, with the firm intention that no other hand
should break the seals but the hand of His Imperial Highness the Crown
Prince when I reported to him that I had fulfilled my mission. So you
will understand that I was loth to open it to satisfy those blockheads
that evening at the Mill House.
“I carried the package on me night and day and I could hardly believe
my eyes when I discovered that a box of cigarettes had been substituted
for the silver casket containing the jewel. I then suspected that
Barbara Mackwayte, in collusion with Nur-el-Din, whom she had visited
at the Dyke Inn that evening, had played this trick on me. But before I
escaped from the Mill House I picked up one of the cigarettes which
fell from the box when I broke the seals. Ah! There you made a slip,
Desmond. When I looked at the cigarette I found it was a
‘Dionysus’—your own particular brand—why, I have smoked dozens of them
with you in France. The sight of the familiar name reminded me of you
and then I remembered your unexpected visit to me at the Nineveh when I
was packing up to go away on leave the evening you were going back to
France. I remembered that I had put the package with the jewel on my
table for a moment when I was changing my tunic. Your appearance drove
it out of my head for the time, and you utilized the chance to
substitute a similar package for mine. It was clever, Desmond, ’pon my
word it was a stroke of genius, a master coup which in my country would
have placed you at the very top of the tree in the Great General
Staff!”
Desmond listened to this story in amazement. He did not attempt to
speculate on the different course events would have taken had he but
known that the mysterious jewel which had cost old Mackwayte his life,
had been in his, Desmond’s, possession from the very day on which he
had assumed the guise and habiliments of Mr. Bellward. He was racking
his brains to think what he had done with the box of cigarettes he had
purchased at the Dionysus shop on the afternoon of the day he had taken
the leave train back to France.
He remembered perfectly buying the cigarettes for the journey. But he
didn’t have them on the journey; for the captain of the leave boat had
given him some cigars as Desmond had nothing to smoke. And then with a
flash he remembered. He had packed the cigarettes in his kit—his kit
which had gone over to France in the hold of the leave boat? And to
think that there was a £100,000 jewel in charge of the M.L.O. at a
French port!
The idea tickled Desmond’s sense of humor and he smiled.
“Come,” cried Strangwise, “you’ve heard my terms. This jewel, this Star
of Poland, it is nothing to you or your Government. You restore it to
me and I won’t even ask you for a safe conduct back to Germany. I’ll
just slide out and it will be as if I had never been to England at all.
As for my organization, you, Desmond Okewood, have blown it sky-high!”
He stretched out his hand to Desmond as though he expected the other to
produce the gem from his pocket. But Desmond rose to his feet and
struck the hand contemptuously on one side. The smile had vanished from
his face.
“Are you sure that is all you have to say to me?” he asked.
Strangwise had stood up as well.
“Why, yes!” he said, “I think so!”
“Well, then,” said Desmond firmly, “just listen to me for a moment!
Here’s my answer. You’ve lost the jewel for good and all, and you will
never get it back. Your offer to betray your accomplices to me in
exchange for the Star of Poland is an empty one; for your accomplices
will be arrested with you. And lastly I give you my word that I shall
make it my personal duty to see that you are not shot by clean-handed
British soldiers, but strung up by the neck by the common hangman—as
the murderer that you are!”
Strangwise’s face underwent an extraordinary change. His suavity
vanished, his easy smile disappeared and he looked balefully across the
table as the other fearlessly confronted him.
“If you are a German, as you seem to be,” Desmond went on, “then I tell
you I shall never have guessed it until this interview between us. But
a man who can murder a defenceless old man and torture a young girl and
then propose to sell his pals to a British officer at the price of that
officer’s honor can only be a Hun! And you seem to be a pretty fine
specimen of your race!”
Strangwise mastered his rising passion by an obvious effort; but his
face was evil as he spoke.
“I put that Malplaquet woman off by appealing to her avarice,” he said,
“I’ve promised her and Bellward a thousand pounds apiece as their share
of my reward for recovering the jewel. I only have to say the word,
Okewood, and your number’s up! And you may as well know that Bellward
will try his hand on you before he kills you. If that girl had known
where the Star of Poland was, Bellward would have had it out of her!
Three times a day he’s put her into the hypnotic sleep. I warn you, you
won’t like the interrogatory!”
The door flew open and Bellward came in. He went eagerly to Strangwise.
“Well, have you got it!” he demanded.
“Have you anything further to say, Desmond?” asked Strangwise. “Perhaps
you would care to reconsider your decisions?”
Desmond shook his head.
“You’ve had my answer!” he said doggedly.
“Then, my friend,” said Strangwise to Bellward, “after dinner you shall
try your hand on this obstinate fool. But first we’ll take him
upstairs.”
He was close beside Desmond and as he finished speaking he suddenly
caught him by the throat and forced him back into the chair to which
Barbara had been tethered. To struggle was useless, and Desmond
suffered them to bind his arms and feet to the arms and legs of the
chair. Then the two men picked him up, chair and all, and bore him from
the room upstairs to the third floor. There they carried him into a
dark room where they left him, turning the key in the lock as they went
away.