THE TRUTH AT LAST.
Some minutes later Robert Melray opened the door which led to the
outer office, and said to his head clerk, "Mr. Cray, will you be good
enough to ask Mr. Dyson to step this way?"
When Richard Dyson entered the private office he had no prevision that
he was wanted about anything more important than some ordinary
business detail. Long immunity from suspicion had bred in him the
belief that his dark secret was buried out of sight for ever. He
glanced round as he entered. He had not the remotest suspicion that
the high screen in the corner hid Denia from his view.
"Sit there," said Robert, pointing to the chair vacated by Denia a
minute before. There was something in his tone which caused Dyson to
glance keenly at him, something which warned him to be on his guard.
The two had not met since the latter's return from his leave of
absence.
"Since I saw you last to speak to," began Robert, regarding the other
with a cold steady gaze, "certain facts have come to my knowledge
which have shocked and surprised me far more than I could express to
you in any words. In order that you need be under no misapprehension
as to how much, or how little, I know of the circumstances in
question, I will at once enlighten you on the point. Being in want of
money for some purpose of which I know nothing, you abstracted my
brother's life policy from the safe, and on the security of it
obtained an advance of three hundred pounds from Mr. Noyes of
Solchester. But, in order to carry out your nefarious purpose, you
were compelled to forge James's signature to three several documents.
Of the means by which you contrived to make Mr. Noyes believe that he
was dealing with my brother in person, I will say nothing. Whether it
was your intention ultimately to redeem the policy and put it back in
the place whence you had taken it, or whether----"
"Certainly it was my intention to redeem the policy and replace it in
the safe, without, as I hoped, anyone being the wiser," broke in Dyson
a little impetuously. He was pale, but composed.
Robert's exordium had allowed time for his nerves to recover from any
shock which the latter's opening words might have caused them. "The
three hundred pounds was only borrowed for a term of four months, by
the end of which time I had every reason to believe that I should be
in ample funds. I may add that my difficulties were the result of some
unfortunate operations on the Stock Exchange, but latterly I had hit
on a good thing and I felt no doubt whatever about being able shortly
to far more than recoup myself for all my losses."
"I will refrain from asking you how you proposed to yourself to get
out of the clutches of Mr. Noyes, and to redeem the policy in case
your expectations should come to nothing. But, in all likelihood, that
was a contingency which you never cared to face. In any case, it is a
matter of no consequence at this time of day; so, if you have no
objection, we will now come to the events of the 18th of September."
Dyson started visibly and bit his under-lip hard, as he might have
done had he been on the point of undergoing a surgical operation.
"For reasons best known to yourself," resumed Robert in the same
quiet, passionless voice in which he had spoken before, "you arrived
back from your holiday on Friday evening, although you were not due at
business till the following Monday. While on your way to your lodgings
you came face to face with my brother, and in consequence, doubtless,
of certain representations on his part, you accompanied him back to
his office--to this very room, in point of fact. A quarter of an hour
later you surprised Mrs. Melray in her sitting-room. In explanation of
your intrusion you gave her to understand that, through some
mischance, my brother had met his death at your hands, and you
appealed to her to help to save you from the consequences of your rash
act. To that appeal she responded by finding you, unknown to anyone,
shelter and food for three nights and two days; by which means you
were enabled to appear at the office on Monday morning as if you had
but just got back from your holiday. Now, Richard Dyson, I demand of
you that you shall account to me for my brother! I hint no threats,
but it must be plain to you on the verge of what a precipice you are
standing. Let me have the truth about what happened just as it did
happen. I ask for no more and I have a right to look for no less."
It would not be easy to describe with what a strange confluence of
emotions Dyson had listened to the growing indictment. Wonder as
whence and how Robert had gleaned his information was, perhaps, his
predominant feeling just then. Could it be possible, he asked himself,
that Denia had turned traitor and betrayed him? But such was his faith
in the sincerity of her love for him that he dismissed the thought
almost as soon as it was formed. But it was no time for indulging in
futile speculations. Robert Melray was waiting with bent brows.
Dyson's face darkened as his thoughts concentred themselves on the
story he had to tell. "Yes," he presently began, facing Robert with
the quiet and collected air of one who has nothing to hide, "as you
have stated, I unexpectedly encountered cousin James on my way from
the railway station to my lodgings. Gripping me by the arm he said,
'So you are back, are you? That is well. I want particularly to speak
with you. Come with me at once to my office.' Nothing more was said,
but I pretty well guessed what was in the wind. As soon as we were
inside the office, with the door shut and the gas alight, he turned
upon me. As I surmised, he had found out about the abstraction of the
policy and the advance obtained by means of it from Noyes. I at once
admitted that it was an infamous return to have made for all that he
had done for me. I explained to him, as I have explained to you, by
what means it happened that I was temporarily 'cornered,' that not to
have raised the three hundred pounds meant exposure and ruin, and that
I had every expectation of being in a position to repay the amount
before the bill would fall due. But by this he had worked himself into
a passion and was no longer in a condition to listen to any excuses.
You cannot have forgotten to what ungovernable bursts of rage he would
give way on rare occasions, in one of which, when you were boys, I
have been told he all but strangled you, his brother.
"He had already opened the safe and brought thence the documents to
which I had forged his signature. Placing one finger on them as they
lay on the table, and speaking in coldly contemptuous tones, which
stung me far more than any invective on his part would have done, he
said: 'Here are the proofs of your guilt. Here is the evidence that
will condemn you to penal servitude. In less than an hour from now the
four walls of Merehampton gaol will hold your worthless carcase.' It
was a threat that maddened me. I dashed his hand aside and seized the
papers. With a cry like that of some wild animal, he sprang from his
chair and flung himself upon me. Although double my age, he was a much
more powerful and muscular man than I, and when once he had got his
fingers fixed firmly inside my necktie and was grinding his knuckles
into my throat, I was almost as powerless in his hands as a child
would have been. As it seems to me now, it was all the work of a few
seconds. Backward and forward we swayed and struggled, I trying
desperately, but vainly, with one hand to loosen his hold of me, but
still gripping the papers fast with my other hand; he, his eyes
glaring with a passion that was almost maniacal, and those terrible
knuckles still compressing my windpipe. I was being slowly but surely
choked. Vivid jets of flame began to dance and quiver before my eyes;
my heart laboured almost to the point of bursting; the papers dropped
from my fingers; I could feel myself being forced back against the
table till my spine was bent half double. Suddenly my fingers, wildly
clutching at nothing, came in contact with a heavy iron paperweight
and closed over it. With a last effort I struck with all my force at
my cousin's head. For aught I know, I may have struck more than once,
but in the very act consciousness left me.
"When I regained my senses, a quarter of an hour later, I was lying on
the floor. A little way off lay the body of my cousin--stone dead.
Hardly had I time to realise the horror of the situation before I
heard the voices of two men talking in the lane outside. With that,
the instinct of self-preservation came back in full force. As in a
flash, I seemed to see how hardly it would fare with me should I
chance to be found there. After picking up the papers which had cost
me so dearly, I put out the gas, and then a sudden impulse, for which
I am unable to account, decided me to--to---- But you know already
what befell afterwards."
"And the paperweight--what became of that?" demanded Robert Melray
after a short silence.
"I dropped it into the pocket of my coat and took it upstairs with me.
Later on I hid it away in the lumber-room where I myself was in hiding
at the time."
"You had better leave me now," said Robert presently. "I will see you
again later in the day. I must have time to think over what you have
told me and to decide upon some course of action which----"
But at this juncture there came a tap at the door, which was followed
by the intrusion of Mr. Cray's spectacled head. "I beg your pardon,
sir," said the chief clerk, "but Mr. Bayliss has been waiting some
time, and he says that if you can't see him at once, he will call
again to-morrow, or next day."
Now, Mr. Bayliss was the person with whom Robert was in negotiation
for the purchase of the business of Melray Brothers.
"I will see him now--at once," was his reply.
Richard Dyson stepped quietly out without a word more, as Robert went
forward into the outer office to greet his visitor. At the same moment
Denia slipped out of her hiding-place, and out of the room by the
other door, unseen and unheard by anyone.