Sartoris sat a huddled heap on the floor, with his white snarling face
looking out like the head of an angry snake. He was not in the least
afraid, and yet the expression of his eyes told that he knew everything
was over. As he struggled painfully to his feet, Mary ran forward and
guided him to a chair. He did not thank her by so much as a gesture. All
the care and tenderness was wasted upon that warped nature.
"If I were not a cripple," he snarled, "this would never have happened.
And yet a cursed bag of aching bones has got the better of you all, ay,
and would have kept the better, too, if I could only have moved about
like the rest. But you are not going to get me to say anything if I sit
here all night."
It was a strange scene, altogether,--Sartoris a huddled heap, cursing
and snarling in his chair, the man Reggie and the woman Cora standing
by, with uneasy grins on their faces, trying to carry it off in a spirit
of false bravado. To the right of them stood Bentwood, now quite sober
and shaking, and Richford sullen and despairing. Beatrice was in the
shadow behind Mark Ventmore. Mary moved forward, followed by Berrington.
"What is the charge?" the man Reggie asked. "What have we done?"
Field shrugged his shoulders. Really the question did not deserve a
reply. Sartoris took up the same line in his snarling voice.
"That's what we want to know," he said. "What is the charge? If you have
a warrant, read it aloud. We have every right to know."
"I have a warrant so far as you are concerned," Field replied. "For the
present, you are charged with forgery and uttering a certain document,
purporting to be an assignment of mining interests in Burmah from Sir
Charles Darryll to yourself. The document is in my pocket, and I can
produce it for your inspection, if you like. I need not tell you that
there will be other charges later on, but these will suffice for the
present."
"That does not touch us, at all," the woman Cora said.
"I am arresting you on my own responsibility," Field said curtly. "If I
have made any mistake, then you can bring an action for illegal
detention later on. Colonel Berrington, we are wasting time here. Had we
not better get on with our search?"
Berrington nodded approval. There was an exulting gleam in his eyes that
betokened the discovery of something out of the common. Mary crossed the
room rapidly and threw herself in an utter abandonment of grief at her
brother's feet.
"Oh, why don't you tell them everything?" she cried. "Why don't you tell
the whole truth and save yourself? I have friends here, more than one,
who care for me, and who for my sake would do much to save you from the
shame and humiliation that lie before you. I know much, but I do not
know all. For the sake of the old name----"
"Burn the old name," Sartoris said. "What has it done for me? You have
been a good sister to me, but your attentions have been a little
embarrassing sometimes. And if you had hoped to change me, you had your
trouble for your pains. You may put me on the rack and torture me, but
not one word do I say."
"It seems so hard, so very hard," Mary moaned. "And when I look back to
the time----"
"Oh, never mind looking back to any time," Sartoris muttered. "The
game's up, I tell you. I have been beaten, and there's an end of it. I
should play the same hand again if I had the chance, so make no mistake
about that. Wheel me as far as the dining-room."
"It will not be of the slightest use," Berrington said in a cold, clear
voice. "I know that you would blow the whole lot of us to Eternity if
you got the chance, as a kind of revenge for our victory, but I have put
an end to that. You will find all the wires disconnected from your
battery. After that you are quite free to go into the dining-room."
Sartoris grinned and displayed his teeth in an evil smile. Heaven only
knows what new form of villainy he was plotting. And he would cheerfully
have blown up the house and destroyed everybody there, including
himself, if he had had the opportunity to complete his revenge.
"We are wasting time," Field said. "Take all the prisoners away, except
Dr. Bentwood. I have very good reasons for asking him to remain."
Bentwood smiled in a mean and sinister way. He had tried to hide himself
in a corner of the room. There was something so cringing and fawning
about the fellow that Berrington longed to kick him. Sartoris spoke in a
waspish whisper:
"So the land lies in that quarter," he said. "We have an informer
amongst us. If I had known that before, my good Bentwood,--if I had
known that before!"
Big as he was, Bentwood looked small and mean at that moment.
"You are quite mistaken," he cried. "You are altogether wrong, my dear
Carl. I am as much of a prisoner as any of you. I was taken in fair
fight outside after a desperate struggle. What have I to gain by an
attitude of unreasonable obstinacy?"
"Oh, nothing," Sartoris replied. "But you can make things easy for
yourself by affording the police information. You will probably get off
with ten years. I would fight the thing out to the bitter end and chance
it. But you and I are made of different stuff."
Mark Ventmore, watching the two men, thought so too, but he said
nothing. One was a mere bag of bones, the other a fine figure of a man,
but Mark would have preferred the cripple, who made no sign and showed
no feeling as he tottered to the door, between the policemen. Mary would
have said something to him, but he waved her back.
"Now don't you trouble about me any more," he said. "I shall be safe for
some years to come, the law will see to that. We shall never meet again,
for the simple reason that a physique like mine will not stand the
prison treatment. I shall die there. Good bye."
Mary kept back her tears. She would have felt better if she could have
seen even the slightest trace of remorse in her brother.
"Marry Berrington," he said. "He has been pretty faithful to you and you
will be alone in the world now. You should think yourself lucky with a
man like that to fall back upon. I have to say adieu to the lot of you."
Sartoris was gone at last. In fact the whole lot were packed on the
motor car which the police had sent down at Field's instigation. Being a
cripple, Sartoris had been accommodated in the seat by the driver. With
her eyes heavy with tears, Mary watched them depart. Sartoris was
fatally correct in his prophecy; it was the last time that Mary was
destined to see him. He had always recognised the fact that jail would
be the death of him. He had the germs of a disease in his breast that he
had only kept at bay by constant occupation and mental activity. Mary
never looked upon the face of her brother in the flesh again.
Field turned to Berrington and drew a long breath.
"The atmosphere smells all the sweeter for the loss of that lot," he
said. "My word, this has been an anxious night for me. I don't know when
I have felt so nervous. But I see that you have made a discovery,
Colonel Berrington. What is it?"
"It seems to me that I have made more than one," Berrington said. "In
the first place my suspicion that the body of Sir Charles Darryll was
brought here has been confirmed. To begin with, I have got to the bottom
of that mysterious dining-room business. Come this way and I will show
you. Bentwood and that officer of yours had better stay here for the
moment."
"Anything that I can do for you, gentlemen," Bentwood said meekly. "Any
information that lies in my power. You have only to command me, and I
will respond."
"Presently," Field said contemptuously. "We will question you later on.
Then you shall tell me all about that secret Eastern drug that you
understand so well, and what effect it is likely to have on a sleeping
man."
Bentwood gave a gasp, and his face grew livid. It was evident that Field
had struck and tapped a mine that the doctor had considered to be hidden
from everybody. Then Bentwood sat down moodily and looked into the fire.
Berrington led the way into the dining-room, where he proceeded to
explain everything in relation to the room under the floor and the vault
in connection therewith. Field was particularly interested. All this
worked out beautifully with his theory.
"I expect the body was concealed here," he said. "The thing has been
well worked out. But do you suppose that Sartoris went to all this
trouble and expense for the simple reason----"
"He didn't," Berrington explained. "Miss Sartoris, or Miss Grey as I
prefer to call her, told me all about that. The house was taken four
years ago and occupied by an American electrical engineer whom Sartoris
knew quite well. It was he who put in all these dodges. When he died,
Sartoris took the place, doubtless feeling that he might be able to use
the mysteries here to good effect. I don't suppose at that time that he
knew anything about the full value of Sir Charles Darryll's concessions.
But once he had to take action, then this room came in very usefully."
"Do you know why they brought the body here?" Field asked.
"Yes, I have a pretty good idea on that score. Sir Charles had certain
papers in his room in the _Royal Palace Hotel_, and these people wanted
to gain possession of them. The robbery was fixed to take place on the
night of that dinner party. Mind you, Richford did not know anything
about that, because Sartoris had kept him in the dark. Bentwood was to
work it. Bentwood was to administer the drug, but he gave too much. The
consequence was an overdose, as you may gather."
Field smiled peculiarly, but he gave no hint as to the extent of his own
discovery.
"These people did not want a _post mortem_," Berrington said. "They did
not desire that any traces of that practically unknown drug should be
discovered."
"And you think that they all ran that risk to guard their secret?" asked
Field. "Well, you have provided me with one or two surprises, but I am
going to provide you with as many before we go to bed. Have you
discovered anything further?"
"Oh, yes," said Berrington, "this collar, for instance. I am in a
position to prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that Sir Charles wore it
on the night of the dinner party. I found that down here in this very
vault. No further proof is wanted that the body was here. But what
puzzles me is this: we were so quickly on the spot that those rascals
had not the slightest chance of disposing of the corpse. What then has
become of it--why can't we find it? Now that one knows all about the
ruby mines and the concessions--which appear to me to be very
valuable--the mystery becomes tolerably clear. But the corpse, where is
it?"
"Are you quite sure that there is a corpse?" asked Field drily. "Let us
go and ask Bentwood."
Bentwood sat up and smiled as his two chief tormentors came back. He was
ready to afford any information that the gentlemen required.
"It is not much that I am going to ask," said Field. "Only this: Please
take us at once to the spot where we can find the body of Sir Charles
Darryll."
Bentwood jumped nimbly to his feet. The question seemed to fairly
stagger him. If he had thought of concealing anything, he abandoned the
idea now.
"Come this way, gentlemen," he said. "You are too many for me
altogether. I wish to heaven that I had kept my medical discoveries to
myself."