Hatless, hungry and half fainting, I drove in a cab to my old friend Dr
Landsell in Kensington, who examined my wound, pronounced that it was
not dangerous, bathed and dressed it. I accepted his invitation to
lunch, but, although he expressed surprise how I could have received
such a blow, I did not deem it wise to satisfy his curiosity. We parted
about three o'clock, for I had resolved to see Grindlay, and was anxious
to tell him of my discovery and seek his aid.
I was compelled, however, to call at my chambers to obtain a hat and
exchange my torn coat for another, and as I alighted in Shaftesbury
Avenue I recollected that before consulting the detective I ought first
to ascertain whether Dora had returned home. The mysterious shriek of
despair I had heard might have been hers! She might still be imprisoned
in the house!
Ascending the stairs, I entered my chambers with my latch-key, and
strode straight towards my sitting-room. To my amazement two persons
were awaiting me. Upon the threshold I stood gazing inquiringly at
them.
Ensconced in my arm-chair sat Lady Fyneshade, while on the opposite side
of the room, his bony hands clasped behind his back, stood her companion
Markwick.
As I entered Mabel gave vent to a cry that betrayed alarm, and rose
quickly to her feet, while her companion stood staring at me
open-mouthed, with an expression of mingled fear and astonishment. Both
glared at me as if I were an apparition.
But only for a single instant. Markwick's face relaxed into a forced
smile, while Mabel, laughing outright, stretched forth her hand frankly,
exclaiming:
"Here you are at last, Stuart! How are you?"
I greeted her rather coldly, but she chattered on, telling me that
Saunders had asked them in, saying that he expected me to return every
moment. They had, it seems, already waited half an hour, and were just
about to depart. Few words I addressed to the man who had first led me
to the mysterious house in Gloucester Square. I merely greeted him,
then turned again to Mabel. The strange expression on both their faces
when I had entered puzzled me. There was, I felt certain, some deep
motive underlying their call.
But successfully concealing my suspicions and addressing Mabel, I said
as pleasantly as I could:
"It is not often you favour me with a visit nowadays."
"My time is unfortunately so much taken up," she answered, with a smile.
"But I wanted to see you very particularly to-day."
"What about?" I asked, seating myself on the edge of the table, my back
towards her silent escort, while she in her turn sank back into her
chair.
"About Fyneshade," she answered. "You remember all I told you on the
afternoon when you called on me. Well, I have discovered he is back in
London, but he has not returned home, and a letter to his club has
elicited no reply."
"You want to see him?"
"I do. If he will hear me I can at once clear myself. You are one of
my oldest friends and know the little differences that exist between us,
therefore I seek your assistance to obtain an interview with him.
Invite him here, send me word the day and hour, and I will come also."
I hesitated. Her request was strange, and more curious that it should
be made before the very man who, although hated by Fyneshade, was
nevertheless his friend.
"I have no desire to interfere between husband and wife," I answered
slowly. "But if any effort of mine will secure a reconciliation, I
shall be only too pleased to do my best on your behalf."
"Ah!" she cried, a weight apparently lifted from her mind. "You are
always loyal, Stuart; you are always generous to your friends. I know
if you ask Fyneshade he will call on you. A letter to White's will find
him." Markwick, his hands still clasped behind his back, seeming taller
and more slim than usual in his perfect-fitting, tightly-buttoned
frock-coat, had crossed to the window, and was gazing abstractedly out
upon the never-ceasing tide of London traffic below. He took no
interest whatever in our conversation, but fidgeted about as if anxious
to get away.
Mabel and I talked of various matters, when I suddenly asked her about
Dora.
"Ma is coming to town with her this week," the Countess answered. "I
had a letter from her a few days ago, and it appears that the
house-party at Blatherwycke has been an unqualified success."
"Bethune has been there, I suppose," I hazarded, laughing.
"Bethune!" she echoed. "Why, haven't you heard of him lately?"
"Not for several weeks. He is somewhere in Wales."
"I think not," she said. "From what I have heard from Ma, he arrived
late one night at Blatherwycke, met Dora clandestinely somewhere on the
Bulwick Road, and, wishing her farewell, left next day for the
Continent. Since that nobody has heard a single word about him."
"Not even Dora?" I inquired, greatly surprised that Jack should have
left again without a word to me.
"No. Dora, silly little goose, is crying her eyes out and quite
spoiling her complexion. Their engagement is absolutely ridiculous."
"She loves him," I observed briefly.
"Nowadays a woman does not marry the man she loves. She does not learn
to love until after marriage, and then, alas! her flirtation is not with
her husband."
I sighed. There was much truth in what this smart woman of the world
said. It is only among the middle classes that persons marry for love.
The open flirtation in Belgravia would be voted a scandal if it occurred
in Suburbia. There is one standard of morals in Mayfair, another in
Mile End.
By dint of artful questioning I endeavoured to glean from her whether
she knew the reason of Jack's departure, but either by design or from
ignorance she was as silent as the sphinx.
"The only other fact I know beyond what I have already told you," she
replied, "was contained in a paragraph in the Morning Post, which stated
that Captain Bethune, the well-known soldier-novelist, had left London
for the Balkan States, in order to obtain material for a new romance
upon which he is actively engaged. Really, novelists obtain as much
advertisement and are quite as widely known as princes of reigning
houses."
Markwick at that moment turned quickly and expressed a fear that he must
be going, as he had an appointment in the City, while Mabel, rising,
stretched forth her small hand in farewell, and urging me not to forget
to arrange a meeting with Fyneshade, accompanied her companion out.
When they had gone I stood for a long time gazing down into the street,
pondering deeply. I could not discern the object of their visit, nor
why that curious expression should have crossed their faces when I
appeared. The reason they had called was, however, quite apparent half
an hour later, for, to my abject dismay, I found that the little cabinet
in which I had kept the fragments of paper I had discovered in Jack's
chambers on the night of the tragedy had been wrenched open, the papers
turned over hurriedly, and the whole of the letters abstracted.
Markwick had stolen them! I now recollected, quite distinctly, that at
the moment I entered he had his hands behind his back endeavouring to
conceal something.
I started forward to go and inform the police, but remembering that ere
long I should place Grindlay in possession of all the tangled chain of
facts, I rang the bell for Saunders instead.
"What time did Lady Fyneshade arrive," I asked, when he had responded to
my summons.
"About half an hour before you returned, sir."
"Were they alone in this room the whole time?"
"Yes, sir. Her ladyship went to the piano and played several songs."
His words convinced me. Mabel had strummed on the piano in order to
drown the sound of the breaking open of the cabinet.
For what reason, I strove to imagine, had Markwick obtained the letters?
How, indeed, could he have known their hiding-place, or that they were
in my possession?
I felt absolutely certain that, having satisfied themselves of my
absence, they had entered in order to obtain possession of those
half-charred letters, and that on my unexpected return Mabel, in order
to cover their confusion, had skillfully concocted an object for their
visit. She had tricked me cleverly, and although half mad with anger at
my loss, I could not help admiring her extraordinary self-possession and
the calm circumstantial manner in which she had lied to me.
Business London had drawn its whirling fevered day to a close when I
entered one of the bare waiting-rooms at New Scotland Yard, and sent my
card to Inspector Grindlay. I had not long to wait, for in a few
minutes he came in, greeting me bluffly with a hearty hand-shake,
expressing pleasure that I had called.
"I want to consult you, Grindlay," I said seriously. "I have made a
discovery."
"A discovery!" he laughed. "What is it, some mechanical invention?"
"No. A body!"
"A body!" he echoed, arching his thick, dark brows, and regarding me
keenly.
"Yes," I said. "I want to tell you all about it, for I've come to seek
your assistance. Shall we be disturbed?"
He crossed the room, locked the door, and then, motioning me to a chair,
took one himself on the opposite side of the small table, and announced
his readiness to hear my story.
Commencing at the beginning, I described my meeting with Sybil at
Bagneres de Luchon, my love for her, the midnight marriage, and her
death.
"What name did she give you?" he inquired interrupting me.
"I understood that her name was Henniker," I replied. "Sybil Henniker."
He inclined his head. Proceeding I told him of the subsequent strange
events, the finding of the wreath upon her grave with my card, whereon
was written the words, "Seek and you may find," of the discovery of her
photograph in the shop in Regent Street, together with that of Gilbert
Sternroyd.
"Ah! Sternroyd!" he repeated, as soon as I mentioned the name. "And
you bought those portraits. Have you still got them?"
I drew them from my pocket and handed them across to him. As he gazed
at Sybil's picture he twirled his moustache, thoughtfully knitting his
brow.
But my tongue's strings were now loosened, and I confessed how I had
discovered the young millionaire lying dead in Jack Bethune's flat, and
how, on my second visit to the place, I found the body removed, and
afterward encountered my friend, who would not allow me to enter one of
his rooms.
"You think he was concealing the body there?" he asked, glancing up from
the paper whereon he had scribbled some brief memoranda.
"I fear to think anything, lest it should add to the evidence against
him. He has left England again."
"Yes," the detective replied; "we are aware of that. He has eluded us."
"Then you also suspect him?" I cried.
For answer he only shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows.
Continuing my story, I detailed the conversation I had overheard at
Blatherwycke between Markwick and the Countess, described my visit to
the house in Gloucester Square, my encounter with Dora, the subsequent
discovery of a body, and the theft of the half-burnt letters from my own
room.
When I had concluded he was silent for a long time. My story was
evidently more startling and complicated than he had expected, and he
was apparently weighing the evidence against the man suspected.
"You say you still have the key of this house in your possession." I
nodded.
"Very well. We will search the place as a preliminary."
"When?"
"At once. I must have a few words with the Chief first; but if you
don't mind waiting ten minutes or so. I'll be ready to go with you."
He brought me a newspaper, and for about a quarter of an hour I idled
over it, until he again returned, accompanied by one of his men, who
carried in his hand a small crowbar, a police bull's-eye, and a box of
matches. These he placed carefully in his pocket, while Grindlay
glanced through some papers, and in a few minutes we all three entered a
cab, and drove rapidly to Radnor Place, alighting at some little
distance from the house.
Noiselessly I opened the great hall-door and we entered. When I had
closed the door again, the inspector turned to his companion, saying:
"Remain here, and make no noise. It seems to me probable that some
person may be concealed here. Detain anyone who attempts to get out."
"Very well, sir," the man answered, giving his superior the crowbar,
lantern, and matches; and in a few moments I led Grindlay down to the
cellar in which I had been imprisoned.
We found it without difficulty, and on entering I saw that the trunk
containing the body was in the same position in which I had left it.
Eagerly the detective advanced, pushed the lid aside, and directed the
light upon its contents.
"It's been put in face downwards," he said, as I stood back, dreading to
gaze upon a sight that I knew must be horrible. "It's a man, evidently,
but in a fearful state of decomposition. Come, lend me a hand. We must
turn the box over, and get out of this place quickly. The smell is
enough to give anybody a fever."
Thus requested, I placed my hand at the end of the box, and together we
emptied it out upon the flags.
The sight was awful. The face was so terribly decomposed that it was
absolutely unrecognisable; but the detective's keen eye noticed a gleam
of gold amid the horrible mass of putrefaction, and, stooping, drew
forth from the mass of decaying clothes a watch and chain. He rubbed
the watch upon a piece of old rag lying on the rubbish heap, then held
it close to the light. The back was elaborately engraved, and I saw
there was a monogram.
"Initials," exclaimed the detective calmly. "This watch has already
been described. It is his watch, and the letters are `G.S.'--Gilbert
Sternroyd."
"Gilbert!" I gasped. "Can it really be Sternroyd?" I cried, my eyes
fixed upon the black awful heap.
"No doubt whatever. The man is in evening dress. On his finger,
there--can't you see it glittering?--is the diamond ring that Spink's
supplied him with six weeks before his disappearance. This discovery at
least proves the theory I have held all along, that he has been
murdered."
"By whom?"
"We have yet to discover that," he rejoined. "Do you know what
connection your friend Bethune had with this house?"
"None, as far as I am aware," I replied.
"It is apparent though, that he was well acquainted with the lady to
whom you were married here."
I admitted the truth of these words, but he did not pursue the subject
further.
Kneeling beside the body he took from its withered hand the ring he had
indicated and slipped it into his pocket, afterward examining the
remains rather minutely. Then, rising, he made a cursory examination of
the heap of lumber, looked at the narrow crevice above, and at last
suggested that we should set forth to make a thorough search of the
place.