Zertho gave her a single glance full of hatred, then, with a gesture of
impatience after a few quick words, turned to make his exit. As he did
so, however, he found himself face to face with a man who, standing in
the doorway, resolutely barred his passage.
He stood glaring at him as one stupefied. The man was Max Richards.
"No," the latter said. "Now that you have chosen to call here uninvited
it is at least polite to remain at the invitation of your hostess."
"Let me pass!" he cried threateningly.
"I shall not!" Richards answered with firmness, his back to the
half-closed door, while Brooker stood watching the scene, himself full
of fear and dismay.
"This is a conspiracy!" Zertho exclaimed, his trembling hands clenched,
his face livid.
"Listen!" Mariette cried, her cheeks flushed with excitement as she
stepped boldly forward and faced him. "This is a counterplot only to
combat your dastardly intrigue. The innocent shall no longer suffer for
the sins of the guilty."
"The guilty!" he echoed, with an insolent laugh. "You mean yourself!"
"I am not without blame, I admit," she answered quickly, her flashing
eyes darting him an angry look. "Nevertheless, I have to-day determined
to make atonement; to end for ever this conspiracy of silence." Then,
turning to Liane, who was standing whitefaced and aghast, she said,
"First, before I speak, it will be necessary for you to make confession.
Explain to George of what nature is this bond which holds you to yonder
man."
"No, I--I cannot," she protested, covering her face with her hands.
"But it is necessary," she urged. "Speak! Fear nothing. Then the
truth shall be made known."
The slim, fair-faced girl stood with bent head, panting and irresolute,
while all waited for the words to fall from her dry, white lips. At
last, with eyes downcast, she summoned courage, and in a low, hoarse
voice said,--
"Zertho compelled me to accept him because--because he can prove that my
father murdered Charles Holroyde."
"Your father a murderer!" her lover echoed. "Impossible."
"Let me speak," Mariette interrupted, hastily. "Two winters ago I met
in Nice a wealthy young Englishman named Holroyde. We saw one another
often at Monte Carlo, and our acquaintance ripened into love. He
offered me marriage, and I accepted; but one night, after winning a
considerable sum, he returned to Nice about eleven o'clock, was waylaid
in a narrow lane running from the Promenade des Anglais into the Rue de
France, robbed and murdered. Thus was the man I loved cruelly snatched
from me just at the moment when happiness was in my reach; just within a
few weeks of making me his wife. This villa, which I have since bought,
he designated as our home, and this ring upon my finger is the one he
gave me. The crime, enshrouded in mystery, has not yet been forgotten
either by the police or the people of Nice. It seemed amazing that such
a dastardly assassination could take place so swiftly without a single
person hearing any cry, yet the police had no clue. The murderer, who
had no doubt accompanied or followed his victim from Monte Carlo, must
have struck him down with unerring blow and escaped, leaving no trace
behind. Yet there was nevertheless a witness of the deed--a witness who
is present."
"A witness!" gasped Liane.
"Yes," Mariette said. "Max Richards will tell you what he saw."
The man indicated, still standing with his back to the door, smiled
triumphantly at Zertho, then said,--
"Yes, it is true. I witnessed the murder of Charles Holroyde. On that
night I had left the Cafe de la Regence, and crossing the road overtook,
in the Avenue de la Gare, Nelly Bridson, Captain Brooker's adopted
daughter. We had met before on several occasions, and after she had
told me that she had been to a chemist's to obtain something for Liane,
who was not well, I offered, as it was late, to accompany her as far as
her house in the Rue Dalpozzo. To this she made no objection, and we
walked together along the Rue de France as far as the corner of the
street wherein she lived. The moon, however, was bright upon the sea,
and at my suggestion she consented to accompany me for a stroll along
the Promenade. To reach the latter we had to pass through a narrow
lane, which we had just entered, when we saw straight before us figures
of men struggling together. Instantly I dragged Nelly back into the
deep shadow where we could see without being observed. Suddenly I heard
one of the men cry in English `My God! I'm stabbed!' and he staggered
back and fell. Then, discerning for the first time that the man had
been attacked by two assailants, I rushed forward, but already they had
bent and secured the contents of their victim's pocket, and as I
approached one of them threw the knife away. That man I recognised in
the moonlight as Captain Brooker!"
A low groan escaped the lips of the pale-faced, agitated man who had
been thus denounced, and he stood paralysed by fear, clutching the back
of a chair for support.
"The man, however, who threw away the knife he had snatched up, was not
the murderer," Richards continued, in a clear, calm voice. "Both Nelly
and myself were afterwards in complete accord that it was his companion
who had, in the melee, struck the fatal blow. The murderer was the man
there--Zertho d'Auzac."
"It's a lie!" cried the man indicated, "a foul, abominable falsehood!
Brooker crept up behind him and tried to gag him with a scarf, when,
finding that he was too powerful for him, he struck him full in the
breast. In an instant he was dead."
"Your story is an entire fabrication," Richards answered, in a
deprecatory tone. "We were both quite close to you, and saw your
murderous face in the moonlight at the moment when you killed your
victim. To us it seemed as though you alone had acted with
premeditation, and that instead of assisting you, Brooker was
endeavouring to release Holroyde, for I heard him cry in dismay, `Good
God! Zertho, what are you doing?' It was you who bent and secured the
notes, while Brooker snatched up the knife, held it for an instant in
hesitation, then seeing me approach in the darkness, flung it away and
fled after you. I sped along the Promenade for some distance, leaving
Nellie beside the prostrate man, but you both escaped, and when I
returned she had gone. She had, I suppose, rushed home, fearing to be
discovered there. But the young Englishman was already lifeless,
therefore I left the spot hurriedly. Next morning, when the town was in
a state of great excitement over the murdered Englishman, Nelly called
at my rooms and begged me to say nothing to the police, because she felt
certain the Captain would be arrested and convicted as an accessory.
Therefore, in obedience to her wish, I have kept my knowledge secret
until such time as I should choose to make the truth known."
"Is that the actual truth?" Brooker asked, agape in wonderment.
"It is the entire truth of what I saw with my own eyes--of what I am
prepared to swear in any court of justice."
"So confused were the memories of that terrible incident that I have all
along believed that I myself was the actual murderer," said the Captain.
"That night I had drunk more wine than usual, and remember very little
of the occurrence save that I held the knife in my hand, and that on the
following morning when I awoke I found my hands stained with blood,
while in my pocket were some of the stolen notes. Zertho told me, when
we met next day, that, in a frenzy of madness at having lost almost
every sou I possessed, I had attacked Holroyde suddenly, murdered him,
and filched his winnings from his pocket. He said, however, he would
preserve my secret, and did so until a few weeks ago, when Liane refused
to become his wife. Then he declared that if I did not compel her to
marry him he would denounce me. I begged him to at least spare Liane,
but he was inexorable. Therefore I was compelled to make confession to
her, and she, rather than I should pay the terrible penalty, sacrificed
all her love and happiness for my sake."
His voice was broken with emotion, and although his lips moved, he could
utter no further words.
George, standing beside his well-beloved, grasped her tiny hand and
pressed it tenderly. At last he knew the secret of her acceptance of
Zertho's offer, and recognised all the tortures she must have suffered
in order to save her father from degradation and shame.
"He lies!" Zertho cried, his sallow face bloodless. He saw how
ingeniously he had been entrapped. "It was he himself who killed
Holroyde."
"If so," exclaimed Max Richards, "why have you paid me so well for my
silence?"
He did not reply.
"You are silent," he went on. "Then I will tell you. You were shrewd
enough to see that while I held my tongue you would still hold Captain
Brooker in your power, and through the pressure you could place upon
him, secure Liane as your wife. I knew this all along, although you
believed me to be entirely ignorant of it. Still I allowed you to pay
me, and I can assure you that the money you gave me with such bad grace
often came in very useful," he laughed. "I am not a Prince, and
although I may be an adventurer, I thank Heaven I'm not an assassin."
"I paid you all you demanded, every penny, yet now you turn upon me. It
is the way of all blackmailers," Zertho cried, still livid with anger.
"I speak the truth in order to save from your merciless clutches one
woman whose fair name has never been besmirched. I speak for Liane's
sake."
Zertho turned from him with a fierce imprecation on his lips, declaring
that the whole story was a tissue of falsehoods, and denouncing his
companion Brooker as the actual assassin.
"You forget," said Richards, "that in addition to myself there was a
second witness, Nelly Bridson, the girl with whom your victim had
carried on a mild and harmless flirtation prior to meeting Mariette.
You forget that she was with me, and actually saw you commit the deed."
This truth rendered him voiceless.
"May I, in future, enjoy an absolutely clear conscience that I had no
hand in the actual crime?" the Captain asked earnestly, turning to
Richards.
"Certainly," he answered, quickly. "Both Nelly and myself saw every
movement clearly, for the moon was shining bright as day. We heard you
shout in horror and dismay to the assassin; we saw the blow struck; we
saw the theft committed, and watched you pick up the knife, which you
threw down again instantly at the moment when I rushed forward."
"I was, alas, only half-conscious of my actions," he answered. "But the
enormity of the crime must have sobered me instantly, for I remember a
man approaching--who it was I was not aware until this moment--and
knowing that we had been discovered and were in peril, flew for my life
back to the Promenade, reaching home by a circuitous route about
midnight."
"You need have no further fear of this man," Richards assured him. "His
plan was ingenious, to shift the crime from his own shoulders to yours,
and at the same time to marry Liane, but fortunately his own actions
convict him. Liane has shown bravery and self-denial, which should
further endear her to the heart of the man who loves her, and if the
truth I have told brings back her happiness and peace of mind I shall
not have spoken in vain."
"I have much to thank you for," Liane faltered, her face bright with a
new-born happiness. "You have indeed revived within me hope, life and
love. I knew this man was crafty and cruel, but I never dreamed that he
himself had committed the crime with which he charged my father. I saw
that he was inexorable and relentless, and was compelled to wrench
myself from George, whom I loved, and promise to become the wife of--of
this assassin."
"Assassin!" cried Zertho. "No, the prospect of becoming Princess
d'Auzac proved too attractive for you! It was because both you and your
father wanted money and position, that you were ready to become my
wife."
"We desired nothing from you," she answered proudly. "Both of us
detested you when you found us in England, and thrust yourself upon us.
Upon the gold of the guilty there always lies a curse."
But shrugging his shoulders contemptuously, he said nothing. He
fidgetted, anxious to escape, for although he preserved a calm,
insolent, almost indifferent manner, he nevertheless knew that
concealment of the truth was now no longer possible. At the very
instant when he had felt his position the most secure, his perfidy, his
cunning, and his crime had been laid bare before them all.
He clenched his hands, muttering an oath behind his set teeth, while his
dark eyes, with a glance of hatred in them, flashed with an unnatural
brilliance.
For a few moments no one spoke. The silence was complete save for the
roar of the waves on the rocks outside and the sobs that now and then
escaped Liane. She clung to George, burying her beautiful head upon his
shoulder.