Octave Uzanne roused himself.
"My career has not been brilliant," he said slowly, and with bitterness.
"It is only remarkable by reason of its direful tragedy. All of us
keep a debtor and creditor account with Fortune, and, _ma foi_! my
balance has always been on the wrong side. Seven years ago I left the
university at Bordeaux with honours. My father was a Senator, and my
elder brother was already an _attache_ at our Embassy in London. In
order to study English, with the object of entering the diplomatic
service, I went over to reside with him, and it was he who, one night,
when leaving a theatre, introduced me to the goddess at whose shrine I
bowed--and worshipped. We became companions, afterwards lovers. Did
she love me? Yes. Though she was a butterfly of Society, though it is
through her that I am compelled to lead this life of desert-wandering, I
will never believe ill of her. Never! Violet Hanbury--why should I
conceal her name--had a--"
"Violet Hanbury?" I cried, starting and looking to his face. "Do you
mean the Honourable Violet Hanbury, daughter of Lord Isleworth?"
"The same," he replied quickly. "What!--are you acquainted with her?"
"Well, scarcely," I answered. "I--I merely know her by repute. I have
seen her photograph in London shop-windows among the types of English
beauty."
I did not tell him all I knew. Vi Hanbury, the beauty of a season, had
been mixed up in some unenviable affair. The matter, I remembered, had
been enshrouded in a good deal of mystery at the time, but gossips'
tongues had not been idle.
"Ah!" he continued, enthusiastically; "I have no need then to describe
her, for you know how handsome she is. Well--we loved one another; but
it was the old story. Her parents forbade her to hold communication
with me for two reasons--firstly, because I was not wealthy, and
secondly, because they were determined that she should marry Henri de
Largentiere, a sallow, wizened man old enough to be her father, but who
had been Minister of Education in the Brisson Cabinet."
"Yes," I said; "the engagement was discussed a good deal in the clubs
after its announcement in the _Morning Post_."
"Engagement? _Sacre_!" he exclaimed, with anger. "She was snatched
from me and given to that old imbecile. I was compelled to fly from her
and leave her, a pure and honest woman, at their mercy, because--
because--"
He paused for a moment. His voice had faltered and the words seemed to
choke him. Flinging away his cigarette viciously, he took a gulp from
the tin cup beside him, then, continuing, said--
"Because Violet's cousin, Jack Fothergill, who was one of her most
ardent admirers and had declared his love, was discovered one night dead
in his chambers in St James's Street--he had been murdered!"
"Murdered?" I ejaculated. "I don't remember hearing of it. I must
have been abroad at the time."
"Yes," he said, speaking rapidly. "Jack Fothergill was brutally done to
death with a knife that penetrated to the heart. But that was not all:
the stiletto left sticking in the wound was discovered to be mine, a
gold pencil-case belonging to me was found upon the floor, and the valet
gave information to the police that at ten o'clock that night he had
opened the door to allow me to depart!"
In the moonlight his eyes had a fierce glitter in them and his bare
brown arms were thrust through the folds of his burnouse as he
gesticulated to emphasise his words. There was a silence over the camp,
but the gay cafe-chantant song of Mdlle. Duclerc, with which one of the
Spahis was entertaining his comrades, sounded shrill and tuneful in the
clear bright air--
"Je jou' tres bien d' la mandoline,
Ca fait moins d' train que le tambourin;
Puisque quand on a la jambe fine,
Ca permet d' la faire voir un brin."
"Strangely enough," my companion continued, after a pause; "I remained
that night with a friend, and judge my horror and amazement when next
morning I read in the newspapers of the tragedy, and learned that I was
suspected of the crime! It was true that I had called upon the murdered
man just before ten o'clock, that the pencil-case had been in my pocket,
but of the murder I was entirely innocent. Yet how could I prove an
alibi, especially when the doctor had given an opinion that death had
occurred at ten o'clock--the hour I left! The police were searching for
me, but through that long and terrible day I remained in hiding. Once
or twice I was tempted to give myself up and bravely face the awful
charge; but there was one thing which prevented this. All interest in
life had been crushed from my heart by an announcement of two lines in
the same issue of the paper, stating that a marriage had been arranged
and would shortly take place between Violet and De Largentiere. My
hopes were shattered, for my love had been cast aside. She had actually
accepted the man she had professed to hate!"
"But did you not clear yourself?" I asked. "Surely you could easily
have done so?"
"How could I? Were not the suspicions rendered more justifiable by
reason of my visit just prior to the crime. Again, I had not returned
to my chambers that night, so day after day I remained in hiding.
Though innocent, I was not wholly prepared to meet the charge, for I saw
clearly that Jack and I had fallen victims of a foul plot. The crime
that cost my friend his life was attributed to jealousy on my part, and
with an incentive thus invented, I clearly saw that the circumstantial
evidence was strong enough to convict me. I sought my brother's
assistance, and, half mad with terror and despair, I escaped from
England. To return to France would be to run into the arms of the
police, so I resolved to come here and in the wild life of the desert to
bury the past."
"But by whom was your friend Fothergill stabbed?" I asked.
"Let me tell you," he replied. "Since that day, when like a criminal I
fled from the trial I was afraid to face, I have learned only one fact,
though not until a year ago did it come to my knowledge. It appears
that on the evening of the murder, Fothergill wrote telling me that
during a visit to Paris he had discovered certain details connected with
the relations between Mariette Lestrade, a pretty singer whose _chansons
de poirrot_ were well known at the Moulin Rouge and Ambassadeurs and the
ex-Minister of Education. He had that day called at Long's Hotel, in
Bond Street, where the General was staying, and in the course of a
stormy interview threatened that if he still continued his suit, he
would expose his secret attachment to this star of the cafe-concert, and
take his cousin to her, so that she might investigate for herself. Lord
Isleworth's daughter would have a handsome dowry which was much needed
to renovate the departed splendour of the ex-Minister's estate in the
Charente, therefore he was obstinate, laughed, snapped his fingers, and
defied Jack. This interview took place at four o'clock in the
afternoon, and Jack wrote to me from the Naval and Military Club,
telling me everything, and stating that De Largentiere had threatened
his life. This letter was delivered at my chambers the same night, but
I was not there, nor did I return, therefore my brother took charge of
it and after nearly two years it reached me out here, unopened."
"In face of such evidence as that," I said, "the identity of the actual
murderer is not very far to seek."
"No," he said, in a low, harsh tone.
"Why do you not take that letter, face the charge against you, and bring
the criminal to his punishment?"
"Why?" he echoed, starting to his feet and looking me full in the face.
"Why do I not denounce him, and return to civilisation? Because," he
said slowly, in a voice trembling with emotion, "because Violet--the
woman I love--is Madame de Largentiere. I think only of her. I adore
her still. She shall never know of her husband's terrible secret. Her
innocent children shall never be branded as the spawn of a murderer!"
As he spoke, there was a bright flash in the dark clump of aloes
immediately opposite us, and at the same instant the report of a rifle
fired at close quarters caused me to start violently.
Octave Uzanne threw up his arms with a loud piercing cry, and, reeling,
fell heavily backward, struck down by a coward's bullet!