"One Sunday evening early in September," Chisholm continued at last, in
a hoarse, strained voice, low and yet distinct, "May had retired
immediately after dinner, owing to a headache, and I agreed to accompany
the colonel for a turn along the Esplanade, to smoke a cigar. The night
was hot and close, prophetic of a thunderstorm. As we sat together on a
seat close to the St. Leonard's Pier, chatting in the semi-darkness, he
suddenly broached a subject and made a suggestion, the astounding
audacity of which struck me absolutely dumb with horror. He explained
to me in confidence that he knew there had arrived at the Foreign Office
from Constantinople certain cipher despatches from Sir Henry Lygon, Her
Majesty's Ambassador to the Porte, and that he was prepared to pay
almost any price for copies of these documents. He pointed how easy it
would be for me, as private secretary to Lord Stockbridge, to photograph
them. He tempted me, saying that for such photographs I might name my
own price. Wild indignation seized me; but he only laughed and calmly
lit a fresh cigar, at the same time dropping a hint that my reward for
this suggested service would be his daughter's hand. May was in
ignorance of all this. She never knew that her father was a mean and
despicable spy who had constant relations with a foreign Power. I
refused, and we argued, he and I, until, what with his persuasions and
his promise that May should be my wife, he induced me to comply with his
audacious demand. He tempted me, and I fell. Next day, after the
exercise of not a little ingenuity, I succeeded in obtaining possession
of the despatches in question, took them to my rooms, and secured
photographs of each, returning the originals to their place within half
an hour. I developed the negatives in secret, made some hasty prints,
and delivered them to Lennox at Hastings three days later. By aid of
the powerful reading-glass which he had bought at an optician's in
Robertson Street, the cipher of the confidential despatches could be
distinctly read, a result which gave him the utmost satisfaction. I was
young, inexperienced, and did not then fully appreciate the gravity of
my offence. It was, However, certain that those into whose hands the
photographs eventually passed possessed a copy of the decipher used by
the British Foreign Office, for subsequent events proved that Tewfik
Pasha, the Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs, successfully used the
information in his diplomatic juggling with Russia. I never dreamed
that this untimely exposure of Britain's policy in the near East would
result in such a serious crisis as eventually came to pass; for my theft
was the cause of a grave misunderstanding between England, the Porte,
and the Triple Alliance; so serious, indeed, that a European war was
only narrowly averted by the tact of Lord Stockbridge, combined with
that of Count Murieff, the Russian Foreign Minister." Chisholm paused
again, with eyes downcast.
"Go on," she said brokenly. "Tell me all, Dudley--everything."
"I had believed that by doing this scoundrel Lennox a service I had
ingratiated myself with him," the despairing man continued after a
pause; "but, so far from this being the case, he told me on the
following day that it would be better if I remained apart from them, as
my too frequent visits might be suspected by the Foreign Office,
especially after what had transpired. May was still my unsophisticated
friend, and was quite unaware of the theft I had committed at her
father's bidding; but even in her I fancied I detected a change. It
required only this to tear down the last barrier between myself and my
conscience; the knowledge that I was a traitor to my Queen and country
began to pierce me like sword. Of a sudden, a fortnight after the
photographs had passed into the possession of Lennox, the spy settled
his daughter as a paying guest with a family living in Christchurch
Road, Tulse Hill, and then disappeared as completely as though the earth
had swallowed him; but not before he had written me a stiff letter
formally refusing his consent to my marriage with May. Then I saw how
cleverly I had been entrapped by the adventurer, who knew well that I
dared not expose him, for the sake of my own reputation. Soon
afterwards the general election was held, and, as a reward for my
services, which were believed, of course, to have been faithfully
rendered, I was given a safe seat at Albury. Then May and I drifted
apart, for she went to live with an aunt up at Berwick-on-Tweed, while I
entered enthusiastically upon a political career. The manner in which
Sir Henry Lygon's despatches had leaked out to England's enemies was a
puzzle to the Foreign Office and to the world; but as I possessed the
entire confidence of my chief I remained unsuspected, although my
treachery had cost the country dearly, for by it I had betrayed my
benefactor, Lord Stockbridge, and given to the wily Turk the whip hand
over Europe, enabling the Sultan to defy both England and Russia.
England had held the trump card in the diplomatic game, but by the
premature exposure of her hand all had been lost. Searching inquiries
were, of course, made by the cleverest detectives and agents of the
Intelligence Department, but the result was absolutely nil."
"There was considerable comment in the papers at the time," remarked
Claudia slowly. "I recollect Dick speaking of it as a mystery, and
condemning the apparent laxity of Foreign Office rules."
"Some months had gone by, and May's letters, which had been growing
perceptibly colder, at last ceased altogether," he continued, heedless
of her remark. "In order to become acquainted with my constituents I
had taken up my residence in my Parliamentary Division, at Godalming to
be exact, and it was my habit each afternoon to take long walks alone
through the woods and over the hills of that delightful neighbourhood.
The sequel to what I have already confessed to you," he said, after a
moment's pause, "occurred one autumn day when the trees were almost bare
and the woodland paths were covered with acorns and withered leaves. I
had been for a long stretch over the Hog's Back, having paid a visit to
my friend Machray, at Wanborough, and was returning by way of Compton,
and then across the meadows and up the hill towards the Charterhouse at
Godalming. The gusty wind was chilly and the wintry twilight was fading
as I passed Field Place and struck across the wide grass-lands to a
corner where the path was divided by a stile from a dense belt of wood,
the most lonely and secluded spot in the neighbourhood, and a popular
resort of rustic couples. As I leaped over the stile into the dark
pathway which led up a very steep incline through the wood, I was
startled by being suddenly confronted by a man whom, in an instant, I
recognised as Lennox. He had evidently been awaiting me there, for he
put his hand upon my shoulder, saying that he desired a few words with
me. With disgust and hatred I shook him off; but he resolutely placed
himself before me, saying that he desired of me one other service,
namely, that I should secure for him a copy of a certain document which
had that morning reached the Foreign Office by Queen's messenger from
the British Embassy in Paris. This I flatly refused; whereupon this
enemy of England, who had once held Her Majesty's commission, threatened
me with exposure and ruin if I did not at once comply with his demand.
My blood rose, and, by way of retort, I gave him to understand that I
would inform the police of his presence in England. High words and
bitter recriminations ensued. Suddenly, without the least warning, his
hand went swiftly to his hip, and I saw him draw a gleaming knife with
which next moment he rushed at me. The wild look in his face was
sufficient to show his evil intent, and in a second I drew from my
pocket the small revolver that I always carried. In the fierce and
desperate struggle we were well matched, and for some minutes we fought
for life. With wild and fearful oaths he tried time after time to
plunge his weapon into my heart, but only succeeded in twice gashing my
wrist. I carry the scars to this very day."
He drew up his shirt-cuff and showed her where his assailant's knife had
wounded him.
"Suddenly I felt my strength failing," he went on in a low, hard tone, a
wild look in his eyes. "Then, in a fury of hatred, I twisted my arm
from his sinewy grasp, and fired my revolver full at him. I must, I
think have emptied two, or even three, chambers. He fell forward dead--
with a curse upon his lips. I--I murdered him--in order to seal his
lips!"
"You, Dudley!" cried the pale, bewildered woman, swaying forward as
though she had received a blow. "You?--you killed him!"
"Yes, Claudia," said the guilty man, not daring to look her in the face,
"I have confessed to you my double crime. The truth now stands revealed
to you in all its naked hideousness. I, the man whom you have trusted
and loved for all these years, am a traitor, and worse--a murderer!"
She could not speak, her heart was too full of grief and suffering. She
covered her white face with her hands; low sobs escaped her, the
bitterest lamentations of a broken heart.
"And now let me conclude my story," he went on, his own heart almost
breaking because of her agony. "How I got away I cannot tell. I
remember but little, save that I rushed from the spot, tore across the
fields to Farncombe station, whence I took train to Waterloo. From the
accounts in the papers it appears that an hour later the body, stiff and
cold, was discovered by a pair of lovers walking together, and
information was given to the county constabulary. Nothing was found
upon the man to lead to his identification, and although the greatest
sensation was caused by the tragedy, Scotland Yard was utterly puzzled.
One miserable wretch, a tramp who had been seen loitering in the
neighbourhood, was arrested on suspicion, but was afterwards released.
Detectives searched diligently for some clue, but found nothing to help
them in regard to the identity of the murderer or to that of his victim,
who was buried in a nameless grave in Godalming Cemetery at the expense
of the parish. Imagine the awful remorse I suffered! For a few weeks I
remained in London with this terrible guilt weighing upon me, feverishly
scanning the papers, and preparing for a journey to the Far East. You
will recollect that you were in Pau, when I wrote announcing my sudden
departure."
"Yes," she murmured, "I remember. Dick's illness had then begun, and
the doctors had ordered him abroad."
"I feared to remain longer in England, and desired to place as great a
distance as possible between myself and the scene of my crime. I,
belauded by the newspapers as a coming man, was a traitor to my country
and a murderer. My conscience drove me to madness. I could not get rid
of the ever-recurring recollections of my crime. And so it has been
during these later years, whether I have travelled through the eternal
snows of the Himalayas, explored the forbidden lands of Bhutan or Nepal,
or sat on the Treasury Bench of the House. I have lived in constant
dread of denunciation and exposure. While in Calcutta, as the guest of
the Viceroy on my return from Chinese Turkestan, I learnt that May
Lennox had married a wealthy man named Brodie, and had gone to live up
at Kapurthala, in the Punjab. Since that day I have heard nothing of
her. Four years have passed since my return, years of awful anxiety and
mental strain that have made me old before my time; yet at last
Archibald Cator, the man from whom no state secret is safe--that
midnight visitor at Wroxeter--has discovered the truth. His secret
agents have penetrated to the archives of the Turkish Ministry of
Foreign Affairs in Constantinople, and from them have secured those
photographs, to which is attached a docket written in Turkish stating by
what channel they were secured. Thus from the carefully-guarded
storehouse of the Sultan's secrets has the evidence of my crime been
exposed, and my accusation is now at hand. Guilty of treason and of
murder I have lost your love, Claudia--I can hope for nothing, nothing.
My very name will become a reproach, and the very people who have so
often applauded me will now hate my memory as that of a betrayer. My
punishment is complete!" he cried wildly, in hoarse despair. "I have
sinned, and this is God's judgment!"