If I could but discover the identity of La Gioia! That name rang in my
ears, sleeping or waking. La Gioia! La Gioia! Ever La Gioia!
Beryl held her in abject dread. Of that I knew from those words of here
I had overheard at Whitton. She had declared that she would commit
suicide rather than face her vengeance. What had rendered my adored one
so desperate?
As I sat over my lonely breakfast on the following morning, there being
already a couple of patients in the waiting-room--clerks who had come
for "doctors' certificates" to enable them to enjoy a day's repose--the
servant brought in the letters, among them being one for me which had
been forwarded from Shrewsbury by my mother.
The superscription was in a formal hand, and, on reading it, I was
surprised to find that it was from a firm of solicitors in Bedford Row,
stating that my uncle George, a cotton-spinner in Bury, had died,
leaving a will by which I was to receive the sum of one thousand pounds
as a legacy. I read the letter, time after time, scarcely able to
believe the good news.
But an hour later, when I sat in the dingy office in Bedford Row, and my
uncle's solicitor read a copy of the will to me, I saw that it was a
reality--a fact which was indeed, proved by the cheque for fifty pounds
which he handed me for my immediate use. I drove to the Joint Stock
Bank in Chancery Lane, cashed the draft, and returned to Bayswater with
five ten-pound notes in my pocket. From a state of penury I had, within
that single hour, become possessed of funds. True, I had always had
expectations from that quarter; but I had, like millions of other men,
never before been possessor of a thousand pounds. In a week or two the
money would be placed to my credit. To a man with only half a crown in
his pocket a thousand pounds appears a fortune.
I counted the crisp new notes in the privacy of the doctor's
sitting-room, then, locking three of them in my portmanteau, took a cab
down to Rowan Road to receive Bob's congratulations. He was delighted.
He sent Mrs Bishop out for a bottle of the best champagne procurable in
the neighbourhood, and we drank merrily to my future success. Then,
while smoking a cigarette over what remained of the wine, I related to
him my strange adventure of the previous night.
He sat listening to my story open-mouthed. Until I had concluded, he
uttered no word. Then gravely he exclaimed--
"The affair grows more and more amazing. But now, look here, Dick! Why
don't you take my advice, and drop the affair altogether?"
"Drop it? What do you mean? Remember Beryl!"
"I know," he answered. "But I can't help feeling that association with
those people is dangerous. They're a queer lot--a devilishly queer
lot!"
"Of course they're a queer lot," I said; "but I can't leave her to their
mercy. She's in deadly peril of her life; they intend to kill her."
A grave expression was on his face. "Do you think that last night's
curious phenomenon was actually an attempt to kill her?" he inquired.
"Without a doubt."
"Then, if so, how was it that you all experienced similar symptoms?
What's old Hoefer's theory?"
"He has none."
"He never has--or, at least, he pretends that he hasn't; he keeps all
his discoveries to himself. That's why he has always refused to write
any books. When he lectures he's always careful to keep his secrets to
himself."
"Yes; he's a queer old boy," I remarked, for his eccentricities were
many, and had often caused us much amusement at Guy's.
"I only wish, Dick, that you'd try to forget all about this tangled
affair," Bob said earnestly. "You're worrying yourself to death all to
no purpose."
"Why `all to no purpose'?" I echoed. "I am patient, and I shall
discover something one day."
"No," he said confidently. "You'll never discover anything--mark my
words."
"What makes you think that?"
"Because you are watched far too closely."
"Watched!" I cried in surprise. "Who watches me?"
"Several persons. Among them your wife herself."
"How do you know?"
"Because I saw her in this street, on the evening before last, evidently
in search of you. She passed several times, and glanced across here.
Yet she tells you--or, rather, her cousin tells you--that they were not
in London at that time."
"Are you certain?"
"Absolutely."
"But how did you recognise her?" I demanded eagerly. "Why, you've
never seen her!"
He started quickly. By the expression on his face I recognised in an
instant, that he had inadvertently betrayed to me the fact that they
were not strangers.
He knew her! And he had tried to dissuade me from following up the
slight clue I had obtained. With what motive? This man, whom I had
believed was my friend, had played me false.
The discovery was as a blow that staggered me.