A SHOCK FOR THE PRINCESS
It was not a pleasant task, but it had to be done. Fortunately it was
possible to do everything discreetly and in order, for the vaults were
large, and there was not the slightest chance that any of the household
would come near.
The bodies were laid out there and the key turned upon them. Geoffrey
looked at his companions and inquired what was to be done next.
"Inform the head of the house and send for the police", Tchigorsky said;
"so far as I can see, it will be impossible to keep the matter a secret.
Nor are we to blame. Those men came here for no good purpose, and we
took steps to prevent them from entering the house.
"Unfortunately, we forgot there would be an exceptionally high tide
to-day, and consequently they have paid the penalty of their folly. But
we can't bury these two fellows as we did the others."
"Hadn't we better search them?" Ralph suggested. "They came in response
to the note sent them by their mistress. The note was opened and read.
One of them is sure to have the letter on his person."
"Then let the police find it," Tchigorsky said promptly. "It will be the
link in the evidence that we require. When you and I come to tell our
story, Ralph, and the police find that letter, the net around Princess
Zara will be complete. I have only to produce that diary and the case is
finished."
Ralph nodded approval. Five minutes later and the head of the house,
seated over a book in the library, was exceedingly astonished to see
Ralph and Geoffrey, followed by Tchigorsky, enter the room.
He swept a keen glance over their faces; he saw at once they had news of
grave import for him.
"I do not understand," he said. "Dr. Tchigorsky, I am amazed. I was
under the impression that you were dead and buried."
"Other people shared the same opinion, sir," Tchigorsky said coolly.
"The great misfortune of another man was my golden opportunity. It was
necessary for certain people to regard me as dead--your enemies
particularly. But perhaps I had better explain."
"It would be as well," Ravenspur murmured.
Tchigorsky proceeded to clear the mystery of Voski's death. He had to
tell the whole story, beginning at Lassa and going on to the end.
Ravenspur listened with the air of a man who dreams. To a man used all
his life to the quiet life of an English shire it seemed impossible to
believe that such things could be. And why should these people persecute
him; why should they come here? What did those men mean by drowning
themselves in the vaults?
"They came here at the instigation of Mrs. May," Tchigorsky said.
"But I don't see how that lady comes to be in it at all."
"You will in a minute," said Tchigorsky grimly. "You will when I tell
you that Mrs. May and Princess Zara are one and the same person."
Ravenspur gasped. The bare idea of having such a woman under his roof
filled him with horror. Even yet he could not understand his danger.
"But why does she come?" he demanded. "For revenge on you two?"
"Oh, no. My being here was a mere coincidence. Of course, the princess
would have removed me sooner or later. Ralph, strange to say, she does
not recognize at all, possibly because he has disguised himself with
such simple cleverness. Princess Zara came here to destroy your
family."
"In the name of Heaven, why?"
"Partly for revenge, partly for money. I told you all about her husband,
who was an English officer. I told you why she had married him. When she
discovered the papers she wanted, then she killed him and returned to
her own people, giving out that she and her husband had perished up
country in a fearful cholera epidemic. She wanted money. Why not kill
off her husband's family one by one so that finally the estates should
come to her? Mr. Ravenspur, surely you have guessed who was the English
officer Princess Zara married?"
Ravenspur staggered back as before a heavy blow. The illuminating flash
almost stunned him. He fell gasping into a chair.
"My son, Jasper," he said hoarsely. "That fiend is his widow."
"And Marion's mother," Ralph croaked.
Geoffrey was almost as much astonished as his grandfather. He wondered
why he had not seen all this before. Once explained, the problem was
ridiculously simple. Ravenspur covered his face with his hands.
"Marion must not know," he said. "It would kill her."
"She knows already," Tchigorsky said. "That woman has great influence
over her child. And the idea was for the child to get everything. The
others were to be killed off until she was the only one left. With this
large fortune at command Zara meant to be another Queen of Sheba. And
she would have succeeded, too."
Ravenspur shuddered. He was torn by conflicting emotions. Perhaps
tenderness and sympathy for Marion were uppermost. How much did she
know? How much had she guessed? Was she entirely in the dark as to her
mother's machinations, or had she come resolved to protect the relatives
as much as possible?
Ravenspur poured out these questions one after another. Tchigorsky
could or would say nothing to relieve the other's feelings on these
points.
"What you ask has nothing to do with the case," he said. "I have proved
to you, I am prepared to prove in any court of law, how your family has
been destroyed and who is the author of the mischief.
"She is under your roof, where she is powerless to move. Her two
confederates lie dead in the vaults yonder. I have already explained to
you how it came about that the princess is here and how her infernal
apparatus failed. It now remains to call in the police."
"There will be a fearful scandal," Ravenspur groaned.
Tchigorsky glanced at him impatiently. The cosmopolitan knew a great
many things that were sealed books to Ravenspur--in point of knowledge
it was as a child alongside a great master; but Tchigorsky knew nothing
of family pride.
"Which will be forgotten in a week," he said emphatically. "And when the
thing is over you will be free again. You cannot realize what that means
as yet."
"No," Ravenspur said. "I cannot."
"Nevertheless, you can see for yourself that what I say is a fact,"
Tchigorsky resumed. "And as a county magistrate and a deputy-lieutenant
you would hardly venture to suggest that we should bury those bodies and
say nothing to anybody about it?"
Ravenspur nodded approval. A few minutes later a groom was carrying a
note to the police inspector at Alton. Ravenspur turned to Tchigorsky
with a manner more genial than he usually assumed.
"I have forgotten to thank you," he said. "And you, Ralph, have saved
the house. If you can forget the past----" He said no more, but his hand
went out. Ralph seemed to divine it and pressed it closely. There was no
word uttered on either side. But they both understood and Ralph smiled.
Geoffrey had never seen his uncle smile before. The expression of his
face was genial, almost handsome. His wooden look had utterly
disappeared and nobody ever saw it again. The transformation of Ralph
Ravenspur was not the least wonderful incident of the whole mysterious
affair.
The door opened and Vera came lightly into the room.
"What does all this mystery mean?" she asked. "Geoffrey, you are--Dr.
Tchigorsky!"
The last words came with a scream that might have been heard all over
the house. Tchigorsky closed the door and proceeded rapidly to explain.
But it was not the full explanation he had given to the others. There
was time enough for that.
Vera was too bewildered to ask questions. At a sign from Geoffrey she
slipped from the room. Then she recollected that she had come downstairs
on an errand of mercy. She promised to get a cup of tea for the woman
whom she still knew as Mrs. May. She procured the tea from the drawing
room and, in a dazed kind of state made her way up the stairs again.
Mrs. May was sitting up in bed. There was a pink spot on either cheek
and her dark eyes were blazing.
"I hope nothing is wrong," she said. "It might have been my fancy, but
it seemed to me that I heard you call Tchigorsky's name at the top of
your voice."
The suggestion was made with a fervent earnestness that the woman could
not repress. But Vera did not notice it.
"I did," she said. "I walked into the library, hearing voices there, and
in a chair Dr. Tchigorsky was seated. No wonder that I cried out. It was
a fearful shock. And when he began to talk I could not believe the
evidence of my senses."
"Then who was it that was buried?"
The woman asked the question mechanically. She knew perfectly well what
the reply would be; she knew that she had been discovered at last, and
that the murder of Voski had been turned to good purpose by Tchigorsky.
And she knew now who her new ally, Ben Heer, really was.
"Dr. Voski," Vera explained. "I have been hearing all about Lassa and a
certain Princess Zara, who seems to be a dreadful wretch. But I fear
that I am exciting you. And you haven't drunk your tea."
The woman gulped down her tea and then fell back on her bed, closing her
eyes. She wanted to be alone, to have time to think. Danger had
threatened her before, but not living, palpitating peril like this. Vera
crept away and the woman rose again, but she could not get from her bed.
Passionate, angry tears filled her eyes.
"That man has beaten me," she groaned. "It is finished for good and all.
But their revenge will not be of long duration."