A DARK PLOT
"So Vrain is alive, after all!" was Lucian's comment on the speech of
Jorce, "and he is here under your charge? Jove! it's wonderful! Diana
was right, after all!"
"Diana? Who is Diana?" queried Jorce, then held up his hand to stop his
visitor from replying. "Wait! I know! Vrain mentioned his daughter
Diana."
"Yes, she is the daughter of Vrain, and she believes her father to be
alive."
"On what grounds?"
"Because the dead man, whom, until lately, she believed to be Mr. Vrain,
had one of his little fingers missing. That fact came to her knowledge
only a week ago. When it did, she declared that the deceased could not
be her father."
"H'm!" said Jorce thoughtfully, "I am quite in the dark as to why Mr.
Vrain was put under my charge."
"Because Ferruci wished to marry his widow."
"I see! Ferruci substituted another man for my patient and had him
killed."
"Evidently," replied Lucian; "but I am almost as much in the dark as
you are, Dr. Jorce. Tell me how Vrain came to be placed here, and,
exchanging confidence for confidence, I'll let you know all I have
discovered since the death of the man in Geneva Square who called
himself Berwin."
"That is a fair offer," replied Jorce, clearing his throat, "and one
which I willingly accept. I do not wish you to think that I am in league
with Signor Ferruci. What I did was done honestly. I am not afraid of
telling my story."
"I am sure of that," said Lucian heartily. "I guessed that Ferruci had
not trusted you altogether, from the time he feigned that your evidence
was needed only to decide a bet."
"Trust me!" echoed Jorce, with scorn. "He never trusted me at all. He is
too cunning for that. However, you shall hear."
"I'm all attention, Doctor."
"A week before last Christmas, Signor Ferruci called to see me, and
explained that he was interested in a gentleman called Michael Clear,
whom he had met some years before in Italy. Clear, he said, had been
most intimate with him, but later on had indulged so much in the morphia
habit that their friendship had terminated with high words. Afterwards,
Clear had returned to England, and Ferruci lost sight of him for some
months. Then he visited England, and one day found Clear in the street,
looking ill and wretched. The man had become a confirmed morphiamaniac,
and the habit had weakened his brain. The Count pitied the poor
creature, according to his own story, and took him to his home, the
whereabouts of which Clear was happily able to remember."
"Where is the house?" asked Lucian, taking out his pocketbook.
"Number 30, St. Bertha's Road, Bayswater," replied Jorce; and when the
barrister, for his private information, had made a note of the address,
he continued: "It then appeared that Clear was married. The wife told
Ferruci that she was afraid of her husband, who, in his fits of
drink--for he drank likewise--often threatened to kill her. They had
lost their money, and the poor woman was at her wit's end what to do.
Ferruci explained to me that out of friendship he was most anxious to
befriend Clear, and stated that Mrs. Clear wished to get her husband
cured. He proposed, therefore, to put Clear into my asylum, and pay on
behalf of the wife."
"A very ingenious and plausible plan," said Lucian. "Well, Doctor, and
what did you say?"
"I agreed, of course, provided the man was certified insane in the usual
way. Ferruci then departed, promising to bring Mrs. Clear to see me. He
brought her late on Christmas Eve, at ten--"
"Ah!" interrupted Lucian, "did she wear a black gauze veil with velvet
spots?"
"She did, Mr. Denzil. Have you met her?"
"No, but I have heard of her. She was the woman who visited Wrent in
Jersey Street. No doubt Ferruci was waiting for her in the back yard."
"Who is Wrent?" asked Jorce, looking puzzled.
"Don't you know the name, Doctor?"
"No."
"Did Mrs. Clear never mention it?"
"Never."
"Nor Ferruci?"
"No. I never heard the name before," replied Jorce complacently.
"Strange!" said Denzil reflectively. "Yet Wrent seems to be at the
bottom of the whole plot. Well, never mind, just now. Please continue,
my dear Doctor. What did Mrs. Clear say?"
"Oh, she repeated Ferruci's story, amplified in a feminine fashion. She
was afraid of Michael, who, when excited with morphia or drink, would
snatch up a knife to attempt her life. Twice she had disarmed him, and
now she was tired and frightened. She was willing for him to go into my
asylum since Count Ferruci had so kindly consented to bear the expense,
but she wished to give him one more chance. Then, as it was late, she
stayed here all night. So did the Count, and on Christmas Day they went
away."
"When did they come back?"
"About a fortnight later, and they brought with them the man they both
called Michael Clear."
"What is he like?"
"An old man with a white beard."
"Is he mad?" asked Lucian bluntly.
"He is not mad now, only weak in the head," replied Jorce
professionally, "but he was certainly mad when he arrived. The man's
brain is wrecked by morphia."
"Not by drink?"
"No; although it suited Mrs. Clear and Ferruci to say so. But Clear, as
I may call him, was very violent, and quite justified Mrs. Clear's
desire to sequester him. She told me that he often imagined himself to
be other people. Sometimes he would feign to be Napoleon; again the
Pope; so when he, a week after he was in the asylum, insisted that he
was Mark Vrain, I put it down to his delusion."
"But how could you think he had come by the name, Doctor?"
"My dear sir, at that time the papers were full of the case and its
mystery, and as we have a reading-room in this asylum, I fancied that
Clear had seen the accounts, and had, as a delusion, called himself
Vrain. Afterwards he fell into a kind of comatose state, and for weeks
said very little. He was most abject and frightened, and responded in a
timid sort of way to the name of Clear. Naturally this confirmed me in
my belief that his calling himself Vrain was a delusion. Then he grew
better, and one day told me that his name was Vrain. Of course, I did
not believe him. Still, he was so persistent about the matter that I
thought there might be something in it, and spoke to Ferruci."
"What did he say?"
"He denied that the man's name was anything but Clear. That the wife
and two doctors--for the poor soul had been duly certified as
insane--had put him into the asylum; and altogether persisted so
strongly in his original story that I thought it was absurd to put a
crazy man's delusion against a sane man's tale. Besides, everything
regarding the certificate and sequestrating of Clear had been quite
legal. Two doctors--and very rightly, too--had certified to the insanity
of the man; and his wife--as I then believed Mrs. Clear to be--had
consented to his detention."
"What made you suspicious that there might be something wrong?" asked
Lucian eagerly.
"My visit to meet you, at Ferruci's request, to prove the alibi,"
responded Jorce. "I thought it was strange, and afterwards, when a
detective named Mr. Link, called, I thought it was stranger still."
"But you did not see Link?"
"No. I was in Italy then, but I heard of his visit. In Florence I heard
from a most accomplished gossip the whole story of Mr. Vrain's marriage
and the prior engagement of Mrs. Vrain to Ferruci. I guessed that there
might be some plot, but I could not quite understand how it was carried
out, save that Vrain--as I then began to believe Clear to be--had been
placed in my asylum under a false name. On my return I intended to see
you, when I was laid up in Florence with the fever. Now, however, that
we have met, tell me so much of the story as you know. Afterwards we
shall see Mr. Vrain."
Lucian was willing enough to show his confidence in Jorce, the more so
as he needed his help. Forthwith he told him all he knew, from the time
he had met Michael Clear, _alias_ Mark Berwin, _alias_ Mark Vrain, in
Geneva Square, down to the moment he had presented himself for
information at the gates of "The Haven." Doctor Jorce listened with the
greatest attention, his little face puckered up into a grim smile, and
shook his head when the barrister ended his recital.
"A bad world, Mr. Denzil, a bad world!" he said, rising. "Come with me,
and I'll take you to see my patient."
"But what do you think of it all?" said Denzil, eager for some comment.
"I'll tell you that," rejoined Jorce, "when you have heard the story of
Mr. Vrain."
In a few minutes Lucian was led by his guide into a pleasant room, with
French windows opening on to a wide verandah, and a sunny lawn set round
with flowers. Books were arranged on shelves round the walls, newspapers
and magazines were on the table, and near the window, in a comfortable
chair, sat an old man with a volume in his hand. As Jorce entered he
stood up and shuffled forward with a senile smile of delight.
Evidently--and with reason, poor soul--he considered the doctor his very
good friend.
"Well, well!" said the cheery Jorce, "and how are you to-day, Mr.
Vrain?"
"I feel very well," replied Vrain in a soft, weak voice. "Who is this,
Doctor?"
"A young friend of mine, Mr. Vrain. He wishes to hear your story."
"Alas! alas!" sighed Vrain, his eyes filling with tears, "a sad story,
sir."
The father of Diana was of middle height, with white hair, and a long
white beard which swept his chest. On his cheek Lucian saw the cicatrice
of which Diana had spoken, and mainly by which the dead man had been
falsely identified as Vrain. He was very like Clear in figure and
manner; but, of course, the resemblance in the face was not very close,
as Clear had been clean shaven, whereas the real Vrain wore a beard. The
eyes were dim and weak-looking, and altogether Lucian saw that Vrain was
not fitted to battle with the world in any way, and quite weak enough to
become the prey of villains, as had been his sad fate.
"My name is Mark Vrain, young sir," said he, beginning his story without
further preamble. "I lived in Berwin Manor, Bath, with my wife Lydia,
but she treated me badly by letting another man love her, and I left
her. Oh, yes, sir, I left her. I went away to Salisbury, and was very
happy there with my books, but, alas! I took morph----"
"Vrain!" said Jorce, holding up his finger, "no!"
"Of course, of course," said the old man, with a watery smile, "I mean I
was very happy there. But Signor Ferruci, a black-hearted villain"--his
face grew dark as he mentioned the name--"found me out and made me come
with him to London. He kept me there for months, and then he brought me
here."
"Kept you where, Mr. Vrain?" asked Lucian gently.
The old man looked at him with a vacant eye. "I don't know," he said in
a dull voice.
"You came here from Bayswater," hinted Jorce.
"Yes, yes, Bayswater!" cried Vrain, growing excited. "I was there with a
woman they called my wife. She was not my wife! My wife is fair, this
woman was dark. Her name was Maud Clear: my wife's name is Lydia."
"Did Mrs. Clear say you were her husband, Michael?"
"Yes. She called me Michael Clear, and brought me to stay with the
doctor. But I am not Michael Clear!"