and his promise carried but little weight in the eyes of the management.
Bark looked curiously at the dreadful wreck opposite him with his head
cocked on one side.
"Shall I risk it or not?" he asked. "You are on the verge of a bad
breakdown, if ever man was, and it is a toss-up what the stuff will do
for you. It will pull your wits together and make a man of you; on the
other hand, it may send you climbing up the gaspipes under the
impression that you are a monkey. I know all about it. I have been
there myself."
This coarse badinage passed over Swift's head. He pressed his hand to
his burning throat and once more asked piteously for drink. Bark
relented.
"All right," he said. "Let him have it. We have all got to take risks
sometimes. There, do you feel better now?"
Like a man dying of thirst in a desert, Swift reached out an eager,
trembling hand for the potent yellow fluid and poured it down his throat
at one fell swoop. Then gradually but surely a little colour crept back
into his cheeks. His hands ceased to twitch and the horrible spasmodic
jerkings of his lips left his mouth firm and straight.
"Ah, that's better," he said, with the air of a man escaping from
physical pain. "Now I am ready to talk. What is it you want? Haven't
you done mischief enough already? You have managed to knock Arnold Rent
out of time, and that ought to be sufficient. What can I do for you?"
Grey started as these words fell upon his ears. He knew now how the
latter's state of mind had been brought about. He saw Bark and his
companion cross the bar and take their places in one of the cabins
higher up the room. Bark called for more refreshment, but he was
careful to specify the exact quantity which Swift was to consume, with
the promise of more when their business was concluded. There was a
certain amount of risk attached to it, but Grey felt he must establish
himself in the next cabin so that he might hear what was going on.
While the barman's back was turned, Grey crept noiselessly across the
floor and disappeared in the cabin next to that occupied by Bark and his
companion. The little man apparently was bent on business only, for the
first words he uttered took him straight to the point.
"Oh, you know what I want," he said. "I want you to tell me how that
affair was managed. It doesn't matter so long as I can get about
without any danger. Now, you needn't look at me like that, pretending
to be innocent, because you know where the jewels are hidden."
"What jewels?" Swift asked. "What do you mean?"
"Mean!" Bark echoed. "Why, what I say."
"There seems to be some misunderstanding," Swift murmured. "I give you
my word, I don't know anything about any jewels. This is the first time
that I have heard them mentioned. Oh, I am all right now. My head is
as clear as yours. But, so far as any gems are concerned, you are
talking clean over my head."
Bark hesitated for a moment, then laughed with the air of a man who is
rather pleased with himself.
"So much the better," he said. "Sometimes a little knowledge is a
dangerous thing. I believe what you say, and, seeing that you don't
know, I am not going to enlighten you. And now we come to another
matter. You are a scientist and so is Arnold Rent. It wouldn't be any
exaggeration to say that you are two of the cleverest of the new school
of investigators in England. If you kept off the drink and Arnold Rent
had not been an extravagant fool you might have startled Europe before
now. You could have made Edison look like an ignorant schoolboy. But I
didn't bring you here for the purposes of flattery. I mean to ask you
questions and see that you answer them. Question number one--did you
ever hear of intermittent electricity, and what does it mean?"
A sharp exclamation broke from Swift.
"You don't know what you are talking about," he cried.
"Ah, well, that's just why I am asking questions, my friend," Bark
sneered. "But, as it happens, I have dabbled in science and am not
quite such a fool as I look. I know you can send messages by wireless
telegraphy, and before very long wireless telephones will be a back
number. This being so, why shouldn't we have wireless electricity?
Suppose you put a battery of five hundred volts over yonder where the
barman is---- Oh, by the way, would five hundred volts cause a fatal
shock to anybody who came in contact with the current?"
A choking sort of sound proceeded from Swift. Evidently he had some
difficulty in getting out his words. Grey, listening behind the
partition, understood him to say that the shock of five hundred volts
would be fatal in certain conditions.
"Well, I know that," Bark said impatiently. "What conditions would the
force be fatal under?"
"Some people might suffer with impunity," Swift said hoarsely. "On the
other hand, it would simply shrivel up others, and, in any case, no one
could withstand it if they stood----"
Swift paused. It seemed almost impossible for him to speak further.
Bark laughed in a sneering manner.
"Well, go on," he said encouragingly. "Don't be afraid. I suppose what
you mean to infer is that the dose would be absolutely fatal if any one
was wet or stood on wet ground?"
"That's it," Swift replied. "Quite correct."
"Very good," Bark replied. "We are getting on. Now listen to me and
answer me carefully. On your oath, have you discovered the secret of
wireless electricity or not?"
*CHAPTER XL*
*"INFIRM OF PURPOSE"*
The affair was getting interesting. The conversation was proceeding,
too, on lines more or less as Grey had expected. He had thought the
whole matter out, weighing up the pros and cons of the situation, but
the more he debated the thing in his mind the more sure was he that he
was on the right track. But for a miscalculation on the part of certain
people the mystery of the sundial might have sunk into eternal oblivion.
By the irony of fate the very man who could piece together the tangled
sections of the puzzle was at hand to do so. For the most part, people
regarded the tragedy which had involved the lives of mistress and maid
as little more than coincidence. But there were others who, from the
first, had insisted that there was mystery calling for solution. Grey
was now in possession of information calculated to startle the public,
and plenty of newspapers would have been only too pleased to pay a fancy
price for what he had to sell. There was one flaw, and only one, in his
line of argument, but that for the present was absolutely fatal--he was
still in the dark as to how the thing had been brought about.
As to the main issue, he was clear enough in his mind. He knew that to
all intents and purposes his information was not of the kind which would
have been likely to satisfy a judge and jury. But it seemed that he was
about to pick up the missing link, and he listened all the more eagerly
to what was going on in the next compartment. Bark put his strange
question again. He still appeared to be anxious to know if there was
such a thing as intermittent electricity. And still Swift preserved the
same strange silence. But Bark was not to be put off by the sullen
reticence of his companion.
"Take your time, my buck," he said. "Don't hurry. Don't commit
yourself to anything likely to be used in evidence against you
afterwards."
"Why do you want to know?" Swift demanded fiercely.
Bark laughed in a wholly good-natured manner. He appeared to be
exceedingly sure of his ground.
"Well, let us say that I am a humble seeker after knowledge," he said.
"Because I am a wanderer on the face of the earth it doesn't follow that
I lack scientific yearnings. If I had been caught young enough I should
have been an eminent scientist myself before now. I have worked out
many clever little things which would astonish you if you knew. But
ever since Marconi invented wireless telegraphy and the other man hit
upon telephones without lines I have been dreaming of wireless
electricity. Mind you, it is bound to come sooner or later, and it is
all the more likely to arrive because it is so impossible."
"Then why worry about it?" Swift murmured.
"My dear fellow, you have answered your own question. Because the thing
is impossible, it is so easy. I don't mind admitting that I have tried
a few experiments myself, but hitherto without success. Still, it won't
be so very long before the whole world is lighted with a fluid which
will supply burners without wires. Sounds fascinating, doesn't it? At
any rate, it fascinated me to the exclusion of everything else. I tried
to puzzle it out in the same way that Marconi puzzled out his invention.
In my mind's eye, I could see a big fire station, say where my glass is,
and a big factory where yours stands. By the use of powerful induction
coils it seemed to me that I could force the power into the factory
lamps without the aid of wires. Isn't that the way they propose to work
telephones?"
"I don't know anything about it," Swift said sullenly.
"Oh, yes, you do," Bark said, with sudden impatience. "You know all
about it. And, what's more, a successful attempt has been made within a
mile or so of this very spot. More than once, when I was trying my
experiments, it occurred to me to come to England to discuss the matter
with Arnold Rent. I didn't do so for reasons which I will not go into
now. But when business compelled me to come to this country and see
Rent, I wasn't surprised to find that he was working on precisely the
same thing. But you know that just as well as I do. What is the good
of pretending you don't?"
"It pleases you to say so," Swift murmured.
"Yes, and it will please me to prove it before long, if you take that
line. Mind you, I should not have known it if it hadn't been for a mere
accident. Perhaps you will deny that there is any connection between
what we are talking about and the mysterious death of my sister, to say
nothing of Mrs. Charlock?"
A sudden exclamation broke from Swift. He seemed to be startled and
alarmed. From his hiding-place Grey could almost imagine the satisfied
grin on Bark's face.
"Take your time," the latter said playfully. "I won't hurry you, for we
sha'n't part till I get to the bottom of this business. I asked you a
plain question and I mean to have a plain answer. Have you or has
Arnold Rent made any startling discovery in the direction of
intermittent electricity? Is the thing within the range of practical
politics?"
It was a long time before Swift replied. Grey could hear him playing
with his glass. He could hear the uneasy shuffle of the unfortunate
man's body. When the electrician did speak his voice was both timid and
hesitating.
"You have no business to ask me this," he said. "If we have made the
discovery you speak of, it lies entirely between Arnold Rent and myself.
A discovery like that means a huge fortune to the author. The richest
man in the world would be a pauper alongside the man who could reduce
such a discovery to practical uses."
"What a chap it is to talk!" Bark said impatiently. "Why don't you come
to the point? You know perfectly well that you dare not refuse the
information I am after."
"We won't go into that," said Swift, with some attempt at dignity. "You
will, perhaps, be disappointed to hear that I know nothing about
intermittent electricity. If there has been a discovery in that
direction, it is Rent's and not mine. He is a far cleverer man than I
am. I am a child compared with him."
"Not if you kept off the drink," Bark said impatiently.
"Well, I didn't keep off the drink. What's more, I never shall. And
eventually it will be the death of me," Swift said, with a snarl. "For
a long time past I have known that my employer was on the verge of a
fresh and startling plunge into the sea of discovery. To some extent
Rent confided in me, but exactly what he was after he kept to himself.
But by piecing one or two little bits of information together I arrived
at the conclusion that wireless electricity was the goal. I could tell
that from certain new pieces of machinery which were set up in the
office. Of course, I said nothing. I knew it was useless to ask
questions. And, besides, I felt that sooner or later I should be taken
into my employer's confidence. I gathered that things were progressing
in a satisfactory manner, when, all at once, the whole scheme of
experiments was abandoned and the machinery was destroyed. And now you
know pretty well as much as I can tell you."
Bark chuckled unpleasantly.
"I don't think so," he replied. "Still, I am going to take your word
for it as far as it goes. I should like to know the exact date that the
machinery was destroyed."
"How could I tell you that?" Swift demanded. "It happened some time
ago."
"I have no doubt," Bark went on, in the same sardonic way. "That I am
quite prepared to believe. But let me refresh your memory. Isn't it a
fact that the machinery was destroyed and the experiments came to an
abrupt conclusion on the day following my sister's death? Didn't Arnold
Rent come down to the office that same day and break up all his
machinery, with the excuse that he had made a mistake in his
calculations and would have to begin all over again? I don't say that
those were the precise words, though I am prepared to swear that that
was the purport of them."
"Rent told you himself, then," Swift exclaimed.
"No, he didn't," Bark chuckled. "But you have just done so. Come,
don't pretend you are ignorant of what I am driving at. Tell me all I
want to know, and it will be the best day's work you ever did in your
life. If you will make a clean breast of the whole thing I will put a
thousand pounds in your pocket. A little later I'll pay you double that
sum. Think what that will mean to you! You could set up for yourself.
You could go off to America and make a fortune. All you have to do is
to keep straight and you'll be a millionaire in five years. That is the
prospect, on the one hand. But there is another point of view which I
want to present to your notice. Which would you rather have--the career
I have indicated, or find yourself laid by the heels, charged with being
accessory before and after the fact to a deliberate and cold-blooded
murder? I don't want to speak more plainly."
A strange, inarticulate cry rose from the compartment; there was a
sudden rush on the part of Swift, and a moment later he blundered
headlong through the door into the darkness.
"That's all right," Bark said, _sotto voce_. "I think I've touched him
on the raw. The next time we meet he will tell me everything. He will
be like wax in my hands in future."
*CHAPTER XLI*
*DAMNING PROOFS*
Morning had come at length, and, so far as Ethel Hargrave could judge,
Arnold Rent appeared to be none the worse for his adventure. He had
been brought back the night before by Grey, who did not wait to afford
any information, but merely said that he had found the sick man
wandering at large. Mrs. Rent was satisfied with this explanation,
being only too glad to have her son back again. It would be a lesson to
Ethel in future. As to the rest, the unfortunate lady decided that she
would look after her son, at any rate, between the hour of his return
and daybreak. All through the night Arnold Rent slept with the fatigue
of a man who is physically exhausted. When he awoke he did not appear
to have the smallest idea of the commotion he had caused on the previous
evening. Ethel crept into the room, anxious to see what she could do to
wipe out her failure of the night before. Mrs. Rent smiled at her
indulgently.
"I think I can leave him to you," she whispered. "I don't suppose you'll
be so careless again."
"Indeed I won't," Ethel said earnestly. "You can trust me, I am sure.
Go downstairs and get some breakfast and then lie down. Does he seem to
be any better?"
Mrs. Rent shook her head sadly.
"Not in the least," she murmured. "He is in the same sullen mood. He
seems still anxious over some trouble worrying him. My dear child, we
made a great mistake in coming here at all. At any rate, we ought to
have left at once and taken Arnold with us. He would have been far
better at our quiet house in Devonshire. All I can hope and pray for
now is that his memory will be quickly restored. And yet there are
moments when it seems to me that we are better off as we are. I begin
to dread the future. I am in hourly fear of some shocking exposure. I
do not know what it is, but I am sure that we are all going to suffer
before many days pass."
Ethel said nothing. She was not without the same dread herself. And,
moreover, she had information of which Mrs. Rent knew nothing. It was
impossible to hide from herself that the shadow of disgrace hung heavily
over the house of Rent. With a vivid recollection of last night's
scenes she could not delude herself with the feeling that all was going
right. What had Rent been doing in that silent and secretive way under
the roof of the man upon whom he had inflicted such a deadly injury?
Possibly he had not intended to do John Charlock the slightest harm. He
may have been actuated by the highest and most honourable intentions.
But the facts pointed in another direction. Moreover, why had he gone
off in his madness to the house of the man who should be his worst
enemy? It might be argued that the whole thing had happened in a moment
of frenzy, but there was no getting away from the fact that there was a
good deal of method behind it. And it was impossible, also, to pretend
that Arnold Rent's present mode and manner did not lack a shadow of
guilt or a suggestion of fear. The man was palpably frightened about
something. He acted very like a criminal who expects at any moment to
feel the grip of the law upon his shoulder. Ethel tried to put these
gloomy thoughts out of her mind. She spoke cheerfully to her patient,
who was already dressed and seated in an armchair, looking into the
fire.
"Do you feel better this morning?"
"There is nothing whatever the matter with me," Rent said moodily. "I
feel as well and fit for work as you do. Since I have been up I have
thought out a whole train of new experiments. I remember all that
happened to a certain point, and then for a few days everything is
blank. There is something I ought to do, something that I have left
undone which I dare not neglect any longer. If I could only think of it!
Oh, if I could only think of it, what a relief it would be!"
The words came from Rent in a tone of positive anguish. He paced up and
down the room with his hands locked behind his back. Ethel could see
how drawn and contracted his brows were. Beads of perspiration stood on
his forehead, his lips quivered, his whole body shook.
"You must try to put it out of your mind," the girl said. "You cannot
hope to get better as long as you distress yourself in this fashion.
And, besides, I don't suppose it is of any importance. If it is
business, somebody is bound to remind you sooner or later."
Rent laughed in a hollow fashion.
"Oh, it isn't business," he explained. "It is worse than that. It is
something that I am desperately afraid of, though I can't tell why. Do
you know what I feel like?"
The speaker paused abruptly in his walk and came to a standstill in
front of Ethel. He grasped her hands in his and pressed them with a
certain passion which filled her with pain.
"I feel like a man who has committed murder," he said. "I am like one
who has made away with a fellow-creature and hidden the body hurriedly
till I could find time to dispose of it. It is like some hideous
nightmare, some chapter from a weird novel. Imagine a man who has
killed a fellow-creature. Imagine that nobody knows who this
fellow-creature is. Try to think of a person who, once got rid of, no
one would be any the wiser for the loss. You may say the woman came to
my house late at night, if you like, after everybody had gone to bed....
And then she dies and is laid in a quiet spot, which is not so quiet but
that people go there sometimes. The murderer dare not proceed further
at present, but in the morning he promises himself that he will sink the
body in a deep pool and then he will have no more anxiety on the matter.
And when he wakes up on the morrow he has forgotten what he has done
with the body. Don't laugh at me."
"I am not," Ethel said, trembling from head to foot with a fear she
could not repress. "I swear I am not laughing at you. But why let your
mind dwell upon such morbid subjects? You are the last man in the world
who is likely to be mixed up in a terrible thing like that. Try to
compose yourself."
But Rent was not to be turned so lightly aside.
"I don't know," he said. "There are thousands of cases on record of
sudden lapses of memory. Haven't you read of people whose minds suddenly
become blank as they are walking along the street? Why, I am a case in
point. What is the meaning of this extraordinary lapse? And why do I
feel this hideous impulse to go out and hide something? Why am I haunted
by the terror that I have brought myself within reach of the law? Oh,
the whole thing is ghastly, almost unbearable."
Rent broke off suddenly and flung himself headlong into his chair.
There was a change to sullenness in his manner. He waved Ethel aside
with the curt intimation that he wanted to be alone. Involuntarily he
had placed his hand in the breast-pocket of his coat and drawn thence
what appeared to be a packet of letters tied up with string. The packet
seemed to start some train of thought, for a bright light shone in his
eyes now, and he seemed on the point of grasping something which had
eluded him.
"Can I do anything for you?" Ethel asked.
"Leave me alone," Rent said hoarsely. "Where did I get these things?
How did they come into my possession? I thought they had been destroyed
long ago. Now, why don't you do as I tell you? Why are you standing
there gaping? I beg your pardon if I seem to be rude. But I am hardly
accountable for what I am saying. Now please go."
There was nothing for it but to obey, and Ethel went off to her own
room, the door of which she left open. Nothing unusual could happen so
long as she kept watch and ward and listened to what was taking place in
the opposite room. She had plenty to occupy her thoughts. She felt
incapable of sitting down to read or write. She could not forget what
Rent had been saying. She could not dismiss his burning words. She
began to wonder if he were mad, after all, or if, perhaps, there was
some dreadful chapter in his life which was still left unfinished and
which might sooner or later bring him into some serious trouble. And he
had not spoken like a madman, either, but rather like one who was
consumed with remorse, terror and anxiety. For the moment it seemed as
if he had torn aside the veil and allowed Ethel a glimpse into the past.
For a long time the girl sat deep in her own troubled thoughts and
anxious speculations.
An hour or two passed, then she felt the need of society, the necessity
for human companionship. Probably Mrs. Rent was down by this time. She
looked into Arnold's room as she passed. She saw that he was lying back
in his chair, fast asleep. He had untied the bundle of letters, which
seemed to have slipped off his knee and had fallen in a heap on the
floor. Mechanically, Ethel stooped to pick them up, her action dictated
simply by love of tidiness. Then a word or two caught her eye, and
before she knew what she was doing she was reading the letters.... When
she crept down the stairs, presently, her face was pale, her eyes were
dazed as if the light were too strong for them. She did not go into Mrs.
Rent's sitting-room. On the contrary, she put on her hat and jacket
mechanically and turned out of the house towards John Charlock's
residence.
*CHAPTER XLII*
*THE FIRE*
Late as it was, Malcolm Grey found Tanza still awake when he reached the
yacht. The little doctor was seated in his cabin smoking a strong cigar
and reading a scientific treatise, which he put aside directly Grey came
in. There was a gleam of pleased expectation in the Italian's eyes as
if he were looking forward to something in the way of information.
"Well," he said, "you are very late. It is daylight, and yet all this
time I have been sitting up for you. Something told me that it would be
worth the trouble, so I refrained from going to bed. Now, tell me what
you have been doing and what adventures have you had."
"Oh, they were exciting enough," Grey laughed. "And now that I have
taken you into my confidence I might as well finish my confession. I
have been passing an hour or so in the company of that engaging rascal
Bark and the unfortunate Swift."
"The three of you together?" Tanza asked.