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THE STRETTON STREET
AFFAIR
BY
WILLIAM LE QUEUX
AUTHOR OF "THE DOCTOR OF PIMLICO," "THE INTRIGUERS,"
"MADEMOISELLE OF MONTE CARLO"
NEW YORK
THE MACAULAY COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1922
BY WILLIAM LE QUEUX
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
_BY THE SAME AUTHOR_
THE DOCTOR OF PIMLICO
THE INTRIGUERS
MADEMOISELLE OF MONTE CARLO
[Illustration: "Gabrielle, my poor niece," he cried. "She's
dead--dead!"]
CONTENTS
PAGE
PROLOGUE 11
CHAPTER
I INTRODUCES OSWALD DE GEX 20
II THE SISTER'S STORY 37
III WHO WAS GABRIELLE ENGLEDUE? 48
IV FACING THE MUSIC 59
V THE CITY OF THE LILY 69
VI ANOTHER PUZZLE 80
VII THE MILLIONAIRE'S APPREHENSIONS 91
VIII LITTLE MRS. CULLERTON 102
IX SOME PLAIN SPEAKING 113
X MONSIEUR SUZOR AGAIN 122
XI THE ABSOLUTE FACTS 132
XII "RED, GREEN AND GOLD!" 143
XIII SOME INTERESTING REVELATIONS 153
XIV THE GATE OF THE SUN 163
XV THE INTRUDER 172
XVI ANOTHER STRANGE DISCLOSURE 182
XVII WHAT THE PROFESSOR FOUND 192
XVIII MORE ABOUT THE MYSTERY-MAN 202
XIX THE TRACK OF DESPUJOL 212
XX MADEMOISELLE JACQUELOT 222
XXI AT THE HÔTEL LUXEMBOURG 232
XXII GABRIELLE AT HOME 243
XXIII THE DEATH-DRUG 253
XXIV YET ANOTHER MYSTERY 263
XXV WHAT THE VALET KNEW 272
XXVI MORE ABOUT MATEO SANZ 284
XXVII A CURIOUS STORY 293
XXVIII LOVE THE CONQUEROR 299
XXIX ANOTHER PLOT 311
CONCLUSION 316
THE STRETTON STREET AFFAIR
PROLOGUE
IS ABOUT MYSELF
The whole circumstances of the Stretton Street Affair were so
complicated and so amazing from start to finish that, had the facts
been related to me, I confess I should never have for a moment given
them credence.
That they were hard, undeniable facts, presenting a problem both
startling and sensational, the reader will quickly learn from this
straightforward narrative--an open confession of what actually
occurred.
In all innocence, and certainly without any desire to achieve that
ephemeral notoriety which accrues from having one's portrait in the
pictorial press and being besieged by interviewers in search of a
"story," I found myself, without seeking adventure, one of the chief
actors in a drama which was perhaps one of the strangest and most
astounding of this our twentieth century.
I almost hesitate to set down the true facts, so utterly amazing are
they. Indeed, as I sit in the silence of this old brown room in a
low-built and timbered Surrey farmhouse, with pen and paper before me,
I feel that it is only by a miracle that I have been spared to narrate
one of the most complex and ingenious plots which the human mind,
with malice aforethought, ever conceived.
I ought, I suppose, in opening to tell you something concerning
myself. Hugh Garfield is my name; my age twenty-nine, and I am the son
of the late Reverend Francis Garfield, rector of Aldingbourne and
minor canon of Chichester. In the war I served with the Royal Air
Force and obtained my pilot's certificate. I went to France and
afterwards to Italy, and on being demobilized returned to my work as
an electrical engineer in the employ of Messrs. Francis and Goldsmith,
the well-known firm whose palatial offices are in Great George Street,
Westminster, quite close to the Institute of Electrical Engineers.
Though I had obtained my Degree in Science I was at the time employed
a good deal upon clerical work. Five years of war had, of course, been
something of a set-back to my career, but in our reputable firm our
places had been kept open for us--for those who returned, and we were,
alas! only three out of twenty-eight.
Perhaps it was that having done my duty and obtained my captaincy and
a Military Cross, the loyal, old-fashioned firm regarded me with
considerable favour. At any rate, it set its face against anything
German, even in the post-war days when the enemy sent its Ambassador
to the Court of St. James, and we weakheartedly reopened trade with
the diabolical Huns and allowed them to dump in their cheap and nasty
goods just as though no war had happened.
Messrs. Francis and Goldsmith was a private firm, and the principals
were both fine, patriotic Britons. Though electrical appliances were
coming from Germany wholesale, and being put in to the market at
prices with which British firms could never hope to compete, yet they
stuck to their old resolution when in 1918 they had joined the
Anti-German Union of "No German Goods."
Would that all other firms, electrical and otherwise, had done
likewise!
Before I describe the amazing adventures which befell me I suppose I
ought to tell you the exact circumstances. I had an excellent business
appointment, with a salary which was quite adequate for my modest
needs as a bachelor. Further, my Aunt Emily had died and left me quite
a comfortable little fortune in addition. I shared a small flat in
Rivermead Mansions, just over Hammersmith Bridge, with another
bachelor, a young solicitor--a dark-haired, clean-shaven, alert fellow
named Henry Hambledon, who had created quite a good practice, with
only small fees of course, at the Hammersmith Police Court and its
vicinity.
I first met Hambledon at the front--years ago it seems in these days
when events march on so rapidly. For nearly a year we were
brother-officers, until I was sent to Italy. We met again after the
Armistice and set up housekeeping together, our female "Kaiserin"
being a sharp-featured, grey-haired young lady of about fifty-five,
who "looked after us" very well, and though she possessed many
idiosyncrasies, did not rob us quite so openly as do most housekeepers
of the London bachelor's home.
Harry was one of the best of good fellows. He had seen a lot of
service ever since he had responded to his country's call and joined
up as a private. We always got on excellently together, so we had
furnished our pleasant little six-roomed, second-floor flat quite
comfortably, and as Harry had looked after the artistic side of its
furnishings--aided by a pal of his, an impecunious artist who lived
in Chelsea--it certainly was a very passable bachelor's snuggery.
The small front room commanded a view over the river with works,
wharves, and high factory chimneys on the Middlesex shore. To the
left, across the long suspension bridge, was Chiswick and Kew, while
to the right lay Putney and Chelsea. Before the house flowed the great
broad muddy river where once each year the University eights flashed
past, while ever and anon, year in, year out, noisy tugs towed strings
of black barges up and down the stream.
Away across the high-road to the left were the great reservoirs of
London's water works, a huge open space always fresh and breezy even
within a stone's throw of stifled Hammersmith, with its "tubes" and
its dancing-halls. Used as we both had been to years of roughing it,
the spot had taken our fancy, and we got on famously together. On most
evenings we were out, but sometimes, before we turned in, we would sit
and smoke and laugh over our stirring adventures and humorous
incidents in the war, and the "scraps" we had been safely through.
Since his demobilization Harry had fallen deeply in love with an
extremely pretty girl named Norah Peyton, who lived in a house
overlooking the Terrace Gardens at Richmond, and whose father was
partner in a firm of well-known importers in Mincing Lane. As for
myself, I was "unattached." Like every other young man of my age I
had, of course, had several little affairs of the heart, all of which
had, however, died within a few short weeks.
Now it happened that on the evening of the day prior to the opening of
this strange series of adventures which befell me, I was in the city
of York, whither I had gone on business for the firm, and as my
old-fashioned employers allowed first-class travelling expenses, I
entered an empty first-class compartment of the London express which
left York at six-twenty-three, and was due at King's Cross at
ten-thirty.
A few moments later a fellow-passenger appeared, a well-dressed,
middle-aged man, who asked me in French if the train went to London,
and on my replying in the affirmative, he thanked me profusely and
joined me.
"I regret, m'sieur, that I, alas! know so very leetle of your
Engleesh," he remarked pleasantly, and continued in French: "Sometimes
my ignorance places me in great difficulty when _en voyage_ here."
Knowing French fairly well we soon commenced to chat in that language.
He struck me as a man of considerable refinement and education.
Therefore it was no surprise to me when he told me that, as an
official at the head office of the Crédit Lyonnais in Paris, it was
his duty sometimes to visit their correspondents in the chief
commercial centres of Great Britain.
"I am on my way from Glasgow back to Paris," he said. "But I had to
break my journey in York this morning. I shall leave London for Paris
to-morrow. I shall travel by the air-route," he added; "it is so much
quicker, and far less fatiguing. I have been backwards and forwards to
the Croydon Aerodrome quite half a dozen times of late."
"Yes," I remarked. "Travel by aeroplane must be of very considerable
advantage to really busy men."
And thus we chatted until dinner was announced, and we went together
along the corridor to the restaurant-car, where we sat opposite each
other.
As the train sped along over the flat fertile country through
Doncaster and Grantham on that moonlit winter's night we sat
gossiping pleasantly, for I had looked forward to a lonely journey
back to London.
I have "knocked about" ever since the commencement of the war, but I
abhor a lonely four-hour railway journey. I had had enough of slow
railway journeys in France and elsewhere. But on that evening I
confess I was greatly taken with my fellow-traveller.
He had all the alertness and exquisite politeness of the Parisian, and
he compelled me to have a Benedictine at his expense. Then, as a _quid
pro quo_, he took one of my cigarettes.
Later, when we had concluded the usual and never-altering meal
provided by the Great Northern Railway Company--I often wonder who are
the culinary artists who devise those menus which face us on all
English trains--we returned to our compartment to stretch ourselves in
our corners and to smoke. Grantham we had passed and we were
approaching Peterborough, the old fen town with the ancient cathedral.
In French my friend the banker kept up a continuous chatter, even
though I was tired and drowsy. He had told me much concerning himself,
and I, in turn, told him of my profession and where I lived. I did not
tell him very much, for I am one of those persons who prefer to keep
themselves to themselves. I seldom give strangers any information.
After a time, indeed, I tired of him.
At last we entered King's Cross--a little late, as is usual on a long
run.
"I have to get to the Carlton," my companion said. "Of course there
will be no taxis. But are not you in London very badly served in that
respect? We, in Paris, have taxis at any hour. When your stations
close I find always a great difficulty in getting a conveyance. By
the way! Could you not dine with me to-morrow night?"
"I am sorry," I replied. "But I have arranged to visit my uncle in
Orchard Street."
Two minutes later the train drew up slowly, and wishing my
fellow-traveller _bon soir_, I expressed a hope that one day, ere
long, we might meet again. I had not given him my card, as our
acquaintance was only upon chance, and--well, after all, he was only a
passing foreigner.
Half an hour after I had stepped from the train, I was back again in
my cosy little flat in Rivermead Mansions, after a very strenuous day.
On the hall table lay a letter from my solicitors. I tore it open
eagerly and read that they regretted to inform me that certain
investments I had made a year before, with the money which my aunt had
left me, had not realized my expectations. In other words, I had lost
the whole of my money!
All I possessed was the salary paid me by Messrs. Francis and
Goldsmith.
My heart stood still. The blow staggered me. Yet, after all, I had
been a fool--a fact which my solicitors had hinted at the time.
I crushed the letter in my hand and passed on into the little
sitting-room.
Harry had gone out to a dance, and had left a scribbled note on the
table saying that he had his latchkey and would not be back until two
or so. He wished me "cheerio." So having smoked a final cigarette I
retired.
Next day I went to the office in Great George Street and reported upon
the business I had done in York--and good business it was, too, with
the Municipal Electric Supply--and in the evening I returned across
Hammersmith Bridge at about six o'clock.
At seven our buxom "Kaiserin" put our meal upon the table--a roast, a
sweet, and a wedge of Cheshire cheese. The mind of the dear old soul,
who had so many relations, never rose above the butcher's joint and
apple tart. Alas! that cooking is an art still unknown in our dear old
England. We sit at table only by Nature's necessity--not to enjoy the
kindly fruits of the earth as do other nations.
Yet what could we expect of the 'Ammersmith charlady who looked after
us?--and who, by the way, probably looked after her own pocket as
well.
The bachelor's housekeeper is always a fifteen puzzle--twelve for
herself and the remaining three for her employer. As sure as rain
comes in winter, so does the smug and sedate female who keeps house
for the unfortunate unattached male place the onus of housekeeping
bills upon him and reap the desserts of life for herself.
On that particular evening I felt very tired, for in the five days of
my absence many business matters had accumulated, and I had had much
to attend to.
Harry, who ate hurriedly--even gobbling his food--told me that he was
taking Norah to the theatre, hence, after dinner, I was left alone. I
read the evening paper when he had left, and then, at eight o'clock,
stretched myself, for it was time that I went out to my uncle's.
The evening was cold and bright, with twinkling stars which on
air-raid nights in London would have caused much perturbation among
average householders and their families.
Our "Kaiserin" had gone home, so I rose, put on my overcoat, switched
off the lights and descended the stairs to Hammersmith Bridge.
Thus, as you, my reader, will realize, I went out in the manner of a
million other men in London on that particular night of Wednesday, the
seventh of November.
And yet all unconsciously I plunged into a vortex of mystery and
uncertainty such as, perhaps, no other living man has ever
experienced.
Again I hesitate to pen these lines.
Yet, be patient, and I will endeavour, as far as I am able in these
cold printed pages, to reveal exactly what occurred, without any
exaggeration or hysterical meanderings. My only object being to
present to you a plain, straightforward, and unvarnished narrative of
those amazing occurrences, and in what astounding circumstances I
found myself.
Surely it was not any of my own seeking--as you will readily
understand. Because I performed what I believed to be a good
action--as most readers of these pages would have done in similar
circumstances--I was rewarded by unspeakable trouble, tribulation and
tragedy.
CHAPTER THE FIRST
INTRODUCES OSWALD DE GEX
I had promised to call upon Charles Latimer, my bachelor uncle, a
retired naval captain, a somewhat crusty old fellow who lived in
Orchard Street, which runs between Oxford Street and Portman Square. I
usually went there twice a week. With that intent I took a motor 'bus
from Hammersmith Broadway as far as Hyde Park Corner.
As I stepped off the 'bus rain began to fall, so turning up the collar
of my coat I hurried up Park Lane, at that hour half deserted.
When half-way up to Oxford Street I turned into one of the small,
highly aristocratic streets leading into Park Street as a short cut to
Orchard Street. The houses were all of them fine town mansions of the
aristocracy, most of them with deep porticos and deeper areas.
Stretton Street was essentially one inhabited by the highest in London
society. I had passed through it many times--as a Londoner does in
making short cuts--without even noticing the name. The Londoner's
geography is usually only by the landmarks of street corners and
"tube" stations.
As I hurried along through the rain, I suddenly heard a man's voice
behind me say:
"Excuse me, sir! But may I speak to you for just one second?"
I turned, and as I halted, a bare-headed young man-servant in livery,
with waistcoat of striped black-and-yellow, faced me.
"I'm sorry, sir," he exclaimed breathlessly, "but will you wait just a
moment?"
"What do you want?" I asked, surprised at being thus accosted.
"Would you oblige my master, sir?" inquired the young man eagerly. "He
is in some very great trouble. Only a moment, sir. Just come in and
see him. Do. Poor fellow! he's in great trouble. Do come in and see
him, sir," he begged.
Amazed at this appeal, and my curiosity aroused, I consented, and
followed the man back to a great stone-built mansion about fifty yards
away. The front door in its deep portico stood open, just as the
servant had left it when, apparently, he had dashed out into the
street to accost the first passer-by.
"I'm sure my master will be most grateful to you, sir," the young
footman said as I crossed the threshold.
We passed through a large square hall and up a great flight of
softly-carpeted stairs to the library on the first floor--a big,
sombre room, lined with books from floor to ceiling--evidently the den
of a studious man.
In the grate there burned a bright log fire, and on either side stood
two deep leather arm-chairs. It was a room possessing the acme of
cosiness and comfort. Over the fireplace was set a large circular
painting of the Madonna and Child--evidently the work of some Italian
master of the seventeenth century--while here and there stood several
exquisite bronzes.
In the window on the left was set a great carved Renaissance
writing-table, and upon it burned an electric lamp with an artistic
shade of emerald glass.
A few moments later a man in evening-dress entered hurriedly--almost
breathlessly. I judged him to be about forty-five, dark-haired and
decidedly handsome, but his complexion was a trifle sallow, and his
features had a decidedly Oriental cast.
He greeted me profusely in a quiet, highly refined voice. Though his
appearance was foreign, yet he was certainly English.
"I'm really awfully sorry to trouble you, sir," he said in a tone of
profuse apology, "but the fact is that I find myself in a state of
considerable perplexity. It is extremely good of you to consent to
accompany Horton back here. I only hope that I have not interfered
with any appointment you have to keep."
"Not at all," I replied, wondering who my host might be, for the whole
affair was so sudden and unexpected that I was bewildered.
"Do sit down, and have a cigar," said my unknown host cheerily, and he
took up a large silver box from a side table whereon was set a
decanter of whisky, a syphon of soda water and four glasses upon a
beautiful old tray of Georgian silver.
I selected a Corona, and sinking into the inviting chair, lit it,
while he also took a cigar, and having clipped off the end, lit up as
well.
We chatted affably, for my host was certainly geniality itself.
"This is quite an unexpected visit!" I remarked laughing, wondering
still why I had been called in.
"Yes," he said. "I should not have had the pleasure of your
acquaintance had it not been for the great trouble I have to-night,"
and he drew a deep sigh, while across his dark face passed an
expression of pain and regret. "Some men are happy, others are--are,
well, unfortunately unhappy in their domestic life. I, alas! am one
of the latter," he added.
"That is very regrettable," I said sympathetically.
"My wife," he said hoarsely after a pause, "my wife took out my little
boy this evening and deliberately left him in Westbourne Grove--just
in order to spite me! Then she rang me up from some call-office and
told me what she had done. Put yourself in my place," he said. "Would
you not be indignant? Would you not be filled with hatred--and----"
"I certainly should," was my reply. "I'm a bachelor, and sometimes
when I see so many unhappy marriages I fear to take the matrimonial
plunge myself."
"Ah! Take my advice and remain single as long as ever you can, my dear
sir. I--I haven't the pleasure of your name."
"Garfield--Hugh Garfield," I said.
"Mine is De Gex--Oswald De Gex," he said. "You may perhaps have heard
of me."
Heard of Oswald De Gex! Of course I had! He was reputed to be one of
the wealthiest of men, but he lived mostly in Paris or at his
magnificent villa outside Florence. It was common knowledge that he
had, during the war, invested a level million sterling in the War
Loan, while he was constantly giving great donations to various
charities. Somewhat eccentric, he preferred living abroad to spending
his time in England, because, it was said, of some personal quarrel
with another Member of the House of Commons which had arisen over a
debate soon after he had been elected.
I recollected, too, that his wife--whose handsome pictured face so
often appeared in the newspapers--was the daughter of a sporting
baronet, yet I had never heard any whisper of such matrimonial
troubles as he had just revealed to me.
He seemed a most easy-going man, whose clean-shaven face under the
softly shaded electric light did not now appear so sallow and foreign
as at first. His eyes were dark and rather deeply set, while his mouth
was narrow and refined, with a dimple in the centre of his chin. His
cast of features was certainly foreign, and handsome withal--a face
full of strength and character. When he spoke he slightly aspirated
his c's, and now and then he gesticulated when enthusiastic, due, of
course, to his long residence abroad.
Often I had read in the newspapers of the splendid mediæval castle
which he had bought from the Earl of Weymount, a castle perched high
upon the granite rocks facing the Channel, between the Lizard and St.
Ruan. He had spent a fortune in restoring it, yet he very seldom
visited it. The historic place, with its wind-swept surroundings, was
given over to his agent at Truro and to a caretaker.
As a matter of fact, I had once seen it while on a summer tour in
Cornwall five years before, a great square keep with four towers,
storm-worn and forbidding--one of the most perfect specimens of the
mediæval castles in England. I had been told by the man who drove the
hired car about its history, how in the early fourteenth century it
had been the home of William Auberville, a favourite of Edward II.
From the Aubervilles the old fortress had passed a century later into
the Weymount family, and had been their ancestral home for centuries.
I chanced to mention that I had seen the castle, whereupon the
millionaire smiled, and remarked:
"I fear that I've not been there lately. I am so very seldom in
England nowadays. Besides, the old place is so cold and gloomy. It is
draughty even on a summer's day. My wife liked it when we were
married--liked it until somebody told her of a family legend, how Hugh
de Weymount, in the fifteenth century, walled up his wife in the north
tower and left her to starve to death. Ever since she heard that story
she has hated the old place. But," he added with a hard laugh, "it is
most probably not true, and if the gallant knight actually did such a
thing, perhaps, after all, the lady deserved it!"
My friend certainly seemed soured against the opposite sex. And surely
he had just cause to be if his wife, in order to spite him, had
deliberately lost the heir, little Oswald De Gex, in Westbourne Grove.
It was a strange thing that the heir of one of the wealthiest men in
Britain should have been abandoned in Bayswater. As a bachelor, I
wondered as to the state of mind of the mother--a mother who could
take out her child on a winter's night, without hat or coat, and
deliberately cast him adrift just to annoy her husband.
But the gentler sex in these days of drugs and dancing are, it must be
admitted, strangely abnormal. Women with crazes abound everywhere.
That women are emancipated from the almost Oriental thraldom in which
they lived in the days of Victoria the Good is a bright sign of our
times--the times of discovery, refinement, and mutual happiness of all
classes. But certain circles--those circles wherein women take drugs
to enable them to dance the better, circles where opium is smoked, and
where morals do not count, where religion is scoffed at and relegated
to the limbo of an out-of-date fiction, and where only the possessor
of money counts, there is a strange and mysterious phase of Society
indescribable by the pen. Only those who know of them by personal
experience--the experience of "fast living"--can understand it. And
even the man-about-town stands aghast at the ultra-modern crazes.
As we sat chatting in that quiet comfortable room, I confess that I
became rather fascinated by my host. Perhaps he was a trifle too
cynical at times, but his matrimonial trouble no doubt accounted for
it.
Suddenly he rose and stretched himself rather wearily, I thought. The
thin, delicate hand which held his cigar was long and tapering, and
upon his finger was an antique Florentine ring in the form of a small
emerald moth. I particularly noticed it as of very unusual pattern. I
recollected seeing one of the same design in the Louvre Museum in
Paris several years before.
"Ah!" he sighed. "I shall very soon leave London again--thank
goodness! Next week I return to Fiesole for the winter. I am no great
lover of London--are you, Mr.--Mr. Garfield?"
"My business as an electrical engineer keeps me in London," was my
reply. "Besides, I have recently sustained a very heavy financial
loss. If, however, I were independent I should certainly live in the
country. London has, to me, become unbearable since the war."
"Ah! I quite agree," replied my host. "All our fine British traditions
seem to have gone by the board. That, at least, is my own view. But
there--perhaps I am getting an old fogey."
"I don't think so," I replied. "Everyone who knows you, Mr. De Gex, is
well aware of your up-to-dateness, and your great generosity."
"Are they?" he asked, smiling wearily. "Personally I care very little.
Popularity and prosperity can be manufactured by any shrewd
press-agent employed at so much a year. Without publicity, the
professional man or woman would never obtain a hearing. These are the
days when incompetency properly boomed raises the incompetent to
greatness--and even to Cabinet rank. Neither would the society woman
ever obtain a friend without her boom," he went on. "Bah! I'm sick of
it all!" he added with a sweep of his thin white hand. "But it is
refreshing to talk with you, a stranger."
He was certainly frank in his criticisms, and I was not at all
surprised when he commenced to question me as to my profession, where
I lived, and what were my future plans.
I told him quite openly of my position, and that I lived in Rivermead
Mansions with my friend Hambledon; and I also mentioned again the
financial blow I had just received.
"Well," he said lazily, "I'm greatly indebted to you, Mr. Garfield,
for deigning to come in and see a much-worried man. Ah! you do not
know how I suffer from my wife's hatred of me. My poor little Oswald.
Fancy abandoning him in order that the police might find him. But
happily he is back. Think of the publicity--for the papers would have
been full of my son being lost." Then, after a pause, he added: "I
hope we shall see each other again before I go back to Italy."
At that moment, the butler, Horton, entered with a card upon a silver
salver, whereupon I rose to leave.
"Oh! don't go yet!" my host urged quickly, as he glanced at the card.
"Is he waiting?" asked Mr. De Gex, turning to his servant.
"Yes, sir."
"Oh, well. Yes, I'll see him," he said. And then, excusing himself, he
rose and left, followed by the man.
Why, I wondered, had I been invited there? It seemed curious that
this exceedingly rich man was bursting to confide his domestic
troubles to a perfect stranger.
I glanced around the handsome, well-furnished room.
Upon the writing-table lay a number of letters, and upon the red
blotting-pad was a big wad of Treasury notes, under an elastic band,
cast aside heedlessly, as rich men often do.
As I sat there awaiting my host's return, I recollected how, in the
previous year, I had seen in the pictorial press photographs of the
handsome Mrs. De Gex attired in jersey and breeches, with knitted cap
and big woollen scarf, lying upon her stomach on a sleigh on the
Cresta run. In another photograph which I recollected she was watching
some ski-ing, and still another, when she was walking in the park with
a well-known Cabinet Minister and his wife. But her husband never
appeared in print. One of his well-known idiosyncrasies was that he
would never allow himself to be photographed.
At the end of the room I noticed, for the first time, a pair of heavy
oaken folding-doors communicating with the adjoining apartment, and as
I sat there I fancied I heard a woman's shrill but refined voice--the
voice of a well-bred young woman, followed by a peal of light, almost
hysterical, laughter, in which a man joined.
My adventure was certainly a strange one. I had started out to visit
my prosaic old uncle--as I so often did--and I had anticipated a very
boring time. But here I was, by a most curious circumstance, upon
friendly terms with one of the richest men in England.
Further, he seemed to have taken an unusual fancy to me. Probably
because I had been sympathetic regarding the rescue of little Oswald
De Gex. But why he should have confided all this to me I failed to
realize.
As I sat there by the cheerful fire I heard the voices again raised
in the adjoining room--the voices of a man and a woman.
Suddenly a sweet perfume greeted my nostrils. At first it seemed like
that of an old-fashioned _pot-pourri_ of lavender, verbena and basalt,
such as our grandmothers decocted in their punch-bowls from dried
rose-leaves to give their rooms a sweet odour. The scent reminded me
of my mother's drawing-room of long ago.
Gradually it became more and more pungent. It seemed as though some
pastille were burning somewhere, for soon it became almost sickening,
an odour utterly overbearing.
At the same time I felt a curious sensation creeping over me. Why I
could not tell.
I was both agitated and annoyed. I had only half finished my drink,
and it was certainly not alcohol that was affecting me. Rather it
seemed to be that curious old-world perfume which each moment grew
more pungent.
I struggled against it. What would my newly-found friend think if he
returned to find me overcome?
I gained my feet with difficulty and managed to walk across the
carpet, holding my breath.
Certainly my night's adventure was, to say the least, a curious one.
Yet in our post-war days in London the man who ventures about town
after dark can easily meet with as strange occurrences and narrow
escapes as ever were described by the pioneers of Central Africa. The
explorer Stanley himself declared that the African jungle was safer
than the crossing of the Strand.
I suppose I must have remained in the chair into which I again sank
for a further ten minutes. My head swam. My mental balance seemed to
have become strangely upset by that highly pungent odour of lavender
and verbena. I could even taste it upon my tongue, and somehow it
seemed to paralyse all my senses save two, those of sight and reason.
I had difficulty in moving my mouth, my fingers, and my shoulders, but
my sense of smell seemed to have become extremely acute. Yet my
muscles seemed rigid, although my brain remained perfectly clear and
unimpaired.
It was that scent of verbena--now terrible and detestable--a million
times more potent than any bath soap--which filled my nostrils so that
it seemed to choke me. I longed for fresh air.
By dint of persistent effort I rose, dragged myself across the room,
drew aside the heavy silken curtain, and opening the window leaned out
into the cold air, gasping for breath.
Where was Mr. De Gex?
For about five minutes I remained there, yet even the night air gave
me little relief. My throat had become contracted until I seemed to be
choking.
By the exercise of greater effort I staggered back, aghast at the
sudden and unaccountable attack, and pressed the electric bell beside
the fireplace to summon my host or the estimable Horton. Then I sank
back into the arm-chair, my limbs paralysed.
How long I remained there I cannot tell for that pungent odour had, at
last, dulled my brain. I had heard of cocaine, of opium, and of other
drugs, and it occurred to me that I might be under the influence of
one or the other of them. Yet the idea was absurd. I was Mr. De Gex's
guest, and I could only suppose that my sudden seizure was due to
natural causes--to some complication of a mental nature which I had
never suspected. The human brain is a very complex composition, and
its strange vagaries are only known to alienists.
I seemed stifled, and I sat clutching the arms of the big leather
chair when my host at last entered, smiling serenely and full of
apologies.
"I'm awfully sorry to have left you, Mr. Garfield, but my agent called
to do some very urgent business. Pray excuse me, won't you?"
"I--I'm awfully sorry!" I exclaimed. "But I--I don't feel very well. I
must apologize, Mr. De Gex, but would you ask your man to order me a
taxi? I--well, I've come over strangely queer since you've been out."
"Bah! my dear fellow," he laughed cheerily. "You'll surely be all
right in a few minutes. Stay here and rest. I'm sorry you don't feel
well. You'll be better soon. I'll order my car to take you home in
half an hour."
Then he crossed to the telephone, rang up a number, and ordered his
car to be at the house in half an hour.
Then he rang for Horton, who brought me a liqueur glass of old brandy,
which at my host's suggestion I swallowed.
Mr. De Gex, standing upon the thick Turkey hearthrug with his cigar
between his lips, watched me closely. Apparently he was considerably
perturbed at my sudden illness, for he expressed regret, hoping that
the brandy would revive me.
It, however, had the opposite effect. The strong perfume like
_pot-pourri_ had confused my senses, but the brandy dulled them still
further. I felt inert and unable to move a muscle, or even to exercise
my will power. Yet my sense of sight was quite unimpaired.
I recollect distinctly how the dark keen-faced aristocrat-looking man
stood before me alert and eager, as he gazed intently into my face as
though watching the progress of my seizure which had so completely
paralysed me.
Of a sudden a loud shriek sounded from the adjoining room--a woman's
wild shriek of terror.
My host's thin lips tightened.
The scream was repeated, and continued.
"Excuse me," he exclaimed as he left the room hastily.
I sat with ears alert. It was surely most strange that the well-known
millionaire, whose name was on everyone's lips, had confided in me as
he had done. Why had he done so?
The screams of terror continued for about half a minute. Then they
seemed stifled down to heavy sobbing. They seemed to be hysterical
sobs, as of someone who had suffered from some great shock.
I was full of wonderment. It was unusual, I thought, that such noises
should be heard in a sedate West End mansion.
There was a long-drawn-out sob, and then silence. A dead silence!
A few moments later Mr. De Gex came in looking very flushed and
excited.
"My troubles are ever on the increase," he exclaimed breathlessly.
"Come, Mr. Garfield. Come with me."
He assisted me to my feet and led me out into the corridor and into
the adjoining room.
To my surprise it was a great handsomely furnished bedroom with heavy
hangings of yellow silk before the windows, and a great dressing-table
with a huge mirror with side wings. Along one side were wardrobes
built into the wall, the doors being of satinwood beautifully inlaid.
In the centre stood a handsome bed, and upon it lay a young and
beautiful girl wearing a dark blue serge walking dress of the latest
mode. Her hat was off, and across her dark hair was a band of black
velvet. The light, shining upon her white face--a countenance which
has ever since been photographed upon my memory--left the remainder of
the room in semi-darkness.
"My poor niece!" Mr. De Gex said breathlessly. "She--she has been
subject to fits of hysteria. The doctor has warned her of her heart.
You heard her cries. I--I believe she's dead!"
We both moved to the bed, my host still supporting me. I bent
cautiously and listened, but I could hear no sound of breathing. Her
heart has ceased to beat!
He took a hand mirror from the dressing-table and held it over her
mouth. When he withdrew it it remained unclouded.
"She's dead--_dead_!" he exclaimed. "And--well, I am in despair.
First, my wife defies me--and now poor Gabrielle is dead! How would
you feel?"
"I really don't know," I whispered.
"Come back with me into the library," he urged. "We can't speak here.
I--well--I want to be perfectly frank with you."
And he conducted me back to the room where we had been seated
together.
I had resumed my seat much puzzled and excited by the tragedy that had
occurred--the sudden death of my host's niece.
"Now, look here," exclaimed Mr. De Gex, standing upon the hearthrug,
his sallow face pale and drawn. "Your presence here is most opportune.
You must render me assistance in this unfortunate affair, Mr.
Garfield. I feel that I can trust you, and I--well, I hope you can
trust me in return. Will you consent to help me?"
"In what way?" I asked.
"I'm in a hole--a desperate hole," he said very anxiously. "Poor
Gabrielle has died, but if it gets out that her death is sudden, then
there must be a coroner's inquiry with all its publicity--photographs
in the picture-papers, and, perhaps, all sorts of mud cast at me. I
want to avoid all this--and you alone can help me!"
"How?" I inquired, much perturbed by the tragic occurrence.
"By giving a death certificate."
"But I'm not a doctor!"
"You can pass as one," he said, looking very straight at me. "Besides,
it is so easy for you to write out a certificate and sign it, with a
change of your Christian name. There is a Gordon Garfield in the
'Medical List.' Won't you do it for me, and help me out of a very
great difficulty? Do! I implore you," he urged.
"But--I--I----"
"Please do not hesitate. You have only to give the certificate. Here
is pen and paper. And here is a blank form. My niece died of heart
disease, for which you have attended her several times during the past
six months."
"I certainly have not!"
"No," he replied, grinning. "I am aware of that. But surely five
thousand pounds is easily earned by writing out a certificate. I'll
write it--you only just copy it," and he bent and scribbled some words
upon a slip of paper.
Five thousand pounds! It was a tempting offer in face of the fact that
I had just lost practically a similar sum.
"But how do I know that Miss----"
"Miss Engledue," he said.
"Well, how do I know that Miss Engledue has not--well, has not met
with foul play?" I asked.
"You don't, my dear sir. That I admit. Yet you surely do not suspect
me of murdering my niece--the girl I have brought up as my own
daughter," and he laughed grimly. "Five thousand pounds is a decent
sum," he added. "And in this case you can very easily earn it."
"By posing as a medical man," I remarked. "A very serious offence!"
Again my host smiled, and shrugged his shoulders.
"Well," he said, after a pause. "Here is the certificate for you to
copy. Reject my offer if you like; but I think you must agree that it
is a most generous one. To me, money is but little object. My only
concern is the annoying publicity which a coroner's inquiry must
bring."
I confess that I was wavering. The shrewd, clever man at once realized
the position, and again he conducted me to the chamber where the young
girl was lying cold and still.
I shall ever recollect that beautiful face, white and cold like
chiselled marble it seemed, for _rigor mortis_ was apparently already
setting in.
Back again in the library Oswald De Gex took from his safe a bundle of
hundred-pound Bank of England notes, and counted them out--fifty of
them.
He held them in his hand with a sheet of blank notepaper bearing an
address in Queen Anne Street, Cavendish Square, and a blank form. Thus
he tempted me--and--and at last I fell!
When I had written and signed the certificate, he handed me the bundle
of notes.
I now remember that, at that moment, he took some pastilles from his
pocket and placed one in his mouth. I thought perhaps they were throat
lozenges. Of a sudden, however, the atmosphere seemed to be
overpoweringly oppressive with the odour of heliotrope. It seemed a
house of subtle perfumes!
The effect upon me was that of delirious intoxication. I could hear
nothing and I could think of nothing.
My senses were entirely confused, and I became utterly dazed.
What did it all mean?
I only know that I placed the wad of bank notes in the inner pocket of
my waistcoat, and that I was talking to the millionaire when, of a
sudden, my brain felt as though it had suddenly become frozen.
The scent of verbena became nauseating--even intoxicating. But upon
Oswald De Gex, who was still munching his pastille, the odour
apparently had no effect.
All I recollect further is that I sank suddenly into a big arm-chair,
while my host's face grinned demoniacally in complete satisfaction. I
slowly lapsed into blank unconsciousness.
Little did I at the time dream with what amazing cleverness the trap
into which I had fallen had been baited.
But what happened to me further I will endeavour to describe to you.
CHAPTER THE SECOND
THE SISTER'S STORY
A strange sensation crept over me, for I suddenly felt that my
brain, dazed by that subtle odour of _pot-pourri_, was slowly
unclouding--ever so slowly--until, to my amazement, I found myself
seated upon a garden chair on a long veranda which overlooked a
sloping garden, with the blue-green sunlit sea beyond.
Of the lapse of time I have no idea to this day; nor have I any
knowledge of what happened to me.
All I am able to relate is the fact that I found myself in overcoat
and hat seated upon a long terrace in the noon sunlight of winter.
I gazed around, utterly astonished. The clothes I wore seemed coarse
and unfamiliar. My hand went to my chin, when I found that I had grown
a beard! My surroundings were strange and mysterious. The houses on
either side were white and inartistic, with sloping roofs and square
windows. They were foreign--evidently French!
The shrill siren of a factory sounded somewhere, releasing the
workers. Far away before me a steamer away on the horizon left a long
trail of smoke behind, while here and there showed the brown sails of
fishing boats.
I rose from my seat, filled with curiosity, and glanced at the house
before which I stood. It was a big square building of red brick with
many square windows. It seemed like a hospital or institution.
That it was the former was quickly revealed, for a few moments after I
had risen, a nursing-sister in a tri-winged linen head-dress appeared
and spoke kindly to me, asking in French how I felt on that glorious
morning.
"I am quite all right," was my reply in French. "But where am I?" I
inquired, utterly dazed.
"Never mind, m'sieur, where you are," replied the stout, middle-aged
woman in blue uniform and broad collar. "You have only to get better."
"But I am better," I protested. "I lost consciousness in London--and
now I awake here to find myself--where?"
"You are in good hands, so why trouble?" asked the Sister very kindly.
"You are upset, I know. Do not worry. Take things quite easily. Do not
try to recall the past."
"The past!" I cried. "What has passed--eh? What has happened since I
went through Stretton Street the other night?"
The Sister smiled at me. She seemed inclined to humour me--as she
would a child.
"Do not perturb yourself, I beg of you," she said in a sympathetic
voice. "There is really no need for it. Only just remain calm--and all
will be right."
"But you do not explain, Sister," I said. "Why am I here? And where am
I?" I asked, gazing vacantly around me.
"You are with friends--friends who have looked after you," was her
reply. "We are all very sorry for your motor accident."
"Motor accident!" I echoed. "I have had no motor accident."
Again the dark-eyed woman smiled in disbelief, and it annoyed me.
Indeed, it goaded me to anger.
"But you told us all about it. How you started out from the Quay at
Boulogne late at night to drive to Abbeville, and how your hired
chauffeur held you up, and left you at the roadside," she said. "Yet
the curious fact about your strange story is the money."
"Money! What money?" I gasped, utterly astounded by the Sister's
remark.
"The money they found upon you, a packet of bank notes. The police
have the five thousand pounds in English money, I believe."
"The police! Why?" I asked.
"No," she said, smiling, and still humouring me as though I were a
child. "Don't bother about it now. You are a little better to-day.
To-morrow we will talk of it all."
"But where am I?" I demanded, still bewildered.
"You are in St. Malo," was her slow reply.
"St. Malo!" I echoed. "How did I get here? I have no remembrance of
it."
"Of course you have not," replied the kindly woman in the cool-looking
head-dress. "You are only just recovering."
"From what?"
"From loss of memory, and--well, the doctors say you have suffered
from a complete nervous breakdown."
I was aghast, scarce believing myself to be in my senses, and at the
same time wondering if it were not all a dream. But no! Gradually all
the events of that night in Stretton Street arose before me. I saw
them again in every detail--Oswald De Gex, his servant, Horton, and
the dead girl, pale but very beautiful, as she lay with closed eyes
upon her death-bed.
I recollected, too, the certificate I had given for payment--those
notes which the police held in safe custody.
The whole adventure seemed a hideous nightmare. And yet it was all so
real.
But how did I come to be in St. Malo? How did I travel from London?
"Sister," I said presently. "What is the date of to-day?"
"The eleventh of December," she replied.
The affair at Stretton Street had occurred on the night of November
7th, over a month before!
"And how long have I been here?"
"Nearly three weeks," was her answer.
Was it really possible that I had been lost for the previous ten days
or so?
I tried to obtain some further facts from my nurse, but she refused to
satisfy my curiosity.
"I have been ordered by the doctors to keep you very quiet," she said.
"Please do not ask me to break my promise. You will be much better
to-morrow--and they will tell you everything."
"But mine is a strange case, is it not?" I asked.
"Very strange," she admitted. "We have all been much puzzled
concerning you."
"Then why not tell me all the circumstances now? Why keep me in
suspense?" I urged.
"Because you have not yet quite recovered. You are not entirely
yourself. Come," she added kindly, "let us take a little walk. It will
do you good for the weather is so lovely to-day."
At her suggestion I strolled by her side through the pleasant grounds
of the hospital, down into St. Malo, the busy streets of which were,
however, entirely unfamiliar to me. Yet, according to the Sister, I
had walked in them a number of times before. Still, I had no
recollection of doing so.
"I am taking you for your favourite stroll," she said, as we went down
one of the steep, tortuous streets to the little Place Châteaubriand
in front of the ancient castle, which, she told me, was now a
barracks.
Presently she mounted to the ramparts, and as we strolled round them,
I admired the beautiful view of the sea, the many islets, and the
curious appearance of the town. The tide was up, and the view on that
sunny December morning was glorious.
At one point where we halted my nurse pointed out the little summer
town of Dinard and St. Enogat, and told me the names of the various
islets rising from the sea, Les Herbiers, the Grand Jardin, La
Conchée, and all the rest.