A FIND
David did not appear in the least surprised; indeed, he was long since
past that emotion. Before the bottom of the mystery was reached a great
many more strange things were pretty sure to happen.
"So you bought that cigar-case yourself?" he said.
"Indeed, I did," Ruth answered, eagerly. "Of course I have long known
you by name and I have read pretty well all your tales. I--I liked your
work so much."
David was flattered. The shy, sweet admiration in Ruth's eyes
touched him.
"And I was very glad to meet you," Ruth went on. "You see, we all liked
your stories. And we knew one or two people who had met you, and
gradually you became quite like a friend of ours--Enid and Chris and
myself, you understand. Then a week or two ago I came down to Brighton
with my uncle to settle all about taking the house here. And I happened
to be in Lockhart's buying something when you came in and asked to see
the cigar-case. I recognised you from your photographs, and I was
interested. Of course, I thought no more of it at the time, until Enid
came up to London and told me all about the synopsis, and how strangely
the heroine's case in your proposed story was like hers. Enid wondered
how you were going to get the girl out of her difficulty, and I jokingly
suggested that she had better ask you. She accepted the idea quite
seriously, saying that if you had a real, plausible way out of the
trouble you might help her. And gradually our scheme was evolved. You
were not to know, because of the possible danger to yourself."
"At the hands of Reginald Henson, of course?"
"Yes. Our scheme took a long time, but we got it worked out at last. We
decided on the telephone because we thought that we could not be traced
that way, never imagining for a moment that you could get the number of
your caller over the trunk line. Enid came up to town, and worked the
telephone, Chris was in No. 218, and I brought the money."
"You placed that cigar-case on my doorstep?"
"Yes, I was wound up for anything. It was I whom you saw riding the
bicycle through Old Steine; it was I who dropped the card of
instructions. It seems a shameful thing to say and to do now, but
I--well, I enjoyed it at the time. And I did it for the sake of my
friends. Do I look like that sort of a girl, Mr. Steel?"
David glanced into the beautiful shy eyes with just the suggestion of
laughter in them.
"You look all that is loyal and good and true," he exclaimed. "And I
don't think I ever admired you quite so much as I do at this moment."
Ruth laughed and looked down. There was something in David's glance that
thrilled her and gave her a sense of happiness she would have found it
hard to describe.
"I am so glad you do not despise me," she whispered.
"Despise you!" David cried. "Why? If you only knew how I, well, how I
loved you! Don't be angry. I mean every word that I say; my feelings for
you are as pure as your own heart. If you could care for me as you do for
those others I should have a friend indeed."
"You have made me care for you very much indeed, Mr. Steel," Ruth
whispered.
"Call me David..... How nice my plain name sounds from your lips. Ruth
and David. But I must hold myself in hand for the present. Still, I am
glad you like me."
"Well, you have been so good and kind. We have done you a great deal of
injury and you never blamed us. And you are just the man I have always
pictured as the man I could love ... David!"
"Well, it was only one little kiss, and I'm sure nobody saw us, dear. And
later on, when you are my wife--"
"Don't you think we had better keep to business for the present?" Ruth
said, demurely.
"Perhaps. There is one little point that you must clear up before we go
any farther. How did you manage to furnish those two big dining-rooms
exactly alike?"
"Why, the furniture is there. At the top of the house, in a large attic,
all the furniture is stored."
"But the agent told me it had been removed."
"He was wrong. You can't expect the agent to recollect everything about a
house. The place belonged to the lady whom we may call Mrs. Margaret
Henson at one time. When her home scheme fell through she sold one house
as it was. In the other she stored the furniture. Enid knew of all this,
of course. We managed to get a latch--key to fit 218, and Enid and a man
did the rest. Her idea was to keep you in the dark as much as possible.
After the interview the furniture was put back again, and there you are."
"Diplomatic and clever, and decidedly original, not to say feminine. In
the light of recently acquired knowledge I can quite see why your friends
desired to preserve their secret. But they need not have taken all those
precautions. Had they written--"
"They dared not. They were fearful as to what might become of the reply."
"But they might have come to me openly."
"Again, they dared not for your sake. You know a great deal, David, but
there is darkness and trouble and wickedness yet that I dare not speak
of. And you are in danger. Already Reginald Henson has shown you what
he can do."
"And yet he doesn't know everything," David smiled. "He may have stabbed
me in the back, but he is quite ignorant as to what advice I gave to Enid
Henson, which brings me back to the cigar-case. You saw me looking at it
in Lockhart's. Go on."
"Yes, I watched you with a great deal of curiosity. Finally you went off
out of the shop saying that you could not afford to buy the cigar-case,
and I thought no more of the matter for a time. Then we found out all
about your private affairs. Oh, I am ashamed almost to go on."
The dainty little face grew crimson; the hand in David's trembled.
"But we were desperate. And, after all, we were doing no harm. It was
just then that the idea of the cigar-case came into my mind. We knew that
if we could get you to take that money it would only be as a loan. I
suggested the gift of the case as a memento of the occasion. I purchased
that case with my own money and I placed it with its contents on the
doorstep of your house."
"Did you watch it all the time?"
"No, I didn't. But I was satisfied that nobody passed, and I was
sufficiently near to hear your door open at the hour appointed. Of
course, we had carefully rehearsed the telephone conversation, and I knew
exactly what to do."
David sat very thoughtfully for some little time.
"The case must have been changed," he said. "It is very difficult to say
how, but there is no other logical solution of the matter. At about
half-past twelve on that eventful night you placed on my doorstep a
gun-metal cigar-case, mounted in diamonds, that you had purchased from
Lockhart's?"
"Yes, and the very one that you admired. Of that I am certain."
"Very well. I take that case with me to 218, Brunswick Square, and I
bring it back again. Did I take it with me or not? Anyhow, it was found
on the floor beside the body. It never passed out of my possession to my
knowledge. Next day I leave it at the office of Messrs. Mossa and Mack,
and it gets into the hands of the police."
"Was it not possibly changed there, David?"
"No, because of the initials I had scratched inside it. And beyond all
question that case--the same case, mind you, that I picked up on my
doorstep--was purchased by the man now lying in the hospital here from
Walen's, in West Street. Now, how was the change made?"
"If I could only see my way to help you!"
"The change was made the day you bought the case. By the way, what
time was it?"
"I can't tell you the exact time," Ruth replied. "It was on the morning
of the night of your adventure."
"And you kept it by you all the time."
"Yes. It was in a little box sealed with yellow wax and tied with yellow
string. I went to 219 after I had made the purchase. My uncle was there
and he was using the back sitting-room as an office. He had brought a lot
of papers with him to go through."
"Ah! Did you put your package down?"
"Just for a moment on the table. But surely my uncle would not--"
"One moment, please. Was anybody with your uncle at the time?"
Ruth gave a sudden little cry.
"How senseless of me to forget," she cried. "My uncle was down merely for
the day, and, as he was very busy, he sent for Mr. Reginald Henson to
help him. I did not imagine that Mr. Henson would know anything. But even
now I cannot see what--"
"Again let me interrupt you. Did you leave the room at all?"
"Yes. It is all coming back to me now. My uncle's medicine was locked up
in my bag. He asked me to go for it and I went, leaving my purchase on
the table. It is all coming back to me now.... When I returned Mr. Henson
was quite alone, as somebody had called to see my uncle. Mr. Henson
seemed surprised to see me back so soon, and as I entered he crushed
something up in his hand and dropped it into the waste-paper basket. But
my parcel was quite intact."
"Yellow wax and yellow string and all?"
"Yes, so far as I remember. It was Mr. Henson who reminded my uncle about
his medicine."
"And when you were away the change was made. Strange that your uncle
should be so friendly with both Henson and Bell. Have they ever met under
your roof?"
"No," Ruth replied. "Henson has always alluded to Dr. Bell as a lost man.
He professes to be deeply sorry for him but he has declined to meet him.
Where are you going?"
"I am going with you to see if we can find anything in the waste-paper
basket at No. 219. Bell tells me that your servants have instructions to
touch no papers, and I know that the back sitting-room of your house is
used as a kind of office. I want, if possible, to find the paper that
Henson tried to hide on the day you bought the cigar-case."
The basket proved to be a large one, and was partially filled with
letters that had never been opened--begging-letters, Ruth said. For half
an hour David was engaged in smoothing out crumpled sheets of paper,
until at length his search was rewarded. He held a packet of note-paper,
the usual six sheets, one inside the other, that generally go to
correspondence sheets of good quality. It was crushed up, but Steel
flattened it out and held it up for Ruth's inspection.
"Now, here is a find!" he cried. "Look at the address in green at the
top: '15, Downend Terrace.' Five sheets of my own best notepaper, printed
especially for myself, in this basket! Originally this was a block of six
sheets, but the one has been written upon and the others crushed up like
this. Beyond doubt the paper was stolen from my study. And--what's this?"
He held up the thick paper to the light. At the foot of the top sheet was
plainly indented in outline the initials "D. S."
"My own cipher," David went on. "Scrawled in so boldly as to mark on the
under sheet of paper. Almost invariably I use initials instead of my full
name unless it is quite formal business."
"And what is to be done now?" Ruth asked.
"Find the letter forged over what looks like a genuine cipher," David
said, grimly.