UNSEALED LIPS
Bell gave a gesture of relief as the door closed upon Henson. Heritage
looked like a man who does not quite understand.
"I haven't quite got the hang of it yet," he said. "Was that done for
my benefit?"
"Of course it was," Bell replied. "Henson found out that Van Sneck was
here, as he was certain to do sooner or later. He comes here to make
inquiries and finds you; also he comes to spy out the land. Now, without
being much of a gambler, I'm willing to stake a large sum that he
introduced the subject of your old trouble?"
"He invariably did that," Heritage admitted.
"Naturally. That was part of the game. And you told him that you had got
over your illness and that you were going to do the operation. And you
told him how. Where were you when the little conversation between Henson
and yourself took place?"
"He was asked into the dining-room."
"And then you told him everything. Directly Henson's eyes fell upon that
wall-plug he knew how to act. He made up his mind that the electric light
should fail at a critical moment. Hence the dramatic 'accident' with the
cycle. Once Henson had got into the house the rest was easy. He had only
to wet his fingers and press them hard against the two wires in the
wallplug and out pops the light, in consequence of the fuses blowing out.
I don't know where Henson learnt the trick, but I do know that I was a
fool not to think of it. You see, the hall light being dropped through
from the floor above was on another circuit. If it hadn't been we should
have had our trouble with Van Sneck for nothing."
"He would have died?" David asked.
The two doctors nodded significantly.
"What a poisonous scoundrel he is!" David cried. "Miss Chris Henson does
not hesitate to say that he was more or less instrumental in removing two
people who helped her and her sister to defeat Henson, and now he makes
two attacks on Van Sneck's life. Really, we ought to inform the police
what has happened and have him arrested before he can do any further
mischief. Penal servitude for life would about fit the case."
Van Sneck was jealously guarded by Heritage and Bell for the next few
hours. He awoke the next morning little the worse for the operation. His
eyes were clear now; the restless, eager look had gone from them.
"Where am I?" he demanded. "What has happened?"
Bell explained briefly. As he spoke his anxiety passed away. He saw that
Van Sneck was following quite intelligently and rationally.
"I remember coming here," the Dutchman said. "I can't recall the rest
just now. I feel like a man who is trying to piece the fragments of a
dream together."
"You'll have it all right in an hour or two," Bell said, with an
encouraging smile. "Meanwhile your breakfast is ready. Yes, you can smoke
afterwards if you like. And then you shall tell me all about Reginald
Henson. As a matter of fact, we know all about it now."
"Oh," Van Sneck said, blankly. "You do, eh?"
"Yes, even to the history of the second Rembrandt, and the reason why
Henson stabbed you and gave you that crack over the head. If you tell me
the truth you are safe; if you don't--why, you stand a chance of joining
Henson in the dock."
Bell went off, leaving Van Sneck to digest this speech at his leisure.
Van Sneck lay back on his bed, propped up with pillows, and smoked many
cigarettes before he expressed a desire to see Bell again. The latter
came in with Steel; Heritage had gone elsewhere.
"This gentleman is Mr. Steel?" Van Sneck suggested.
Bell responded somewhat drily that it was. "But I see you are going to
tell us everything," he went on. "That being so, suppose you begin at the
beginning. When you sold that copy of the 'Crimson Blind' to Lord
Littimer had you the other copy?"
"Ach, you have got to the bottom of things, it seems," Van Sneck gurgled.
"Yes, and I have saved your life, foolish as it might seem," Bell
replied. "You came very near to losing it the second attempt last night
at Henson's hands. Henson is done for, played out, burst up. We can
arrest him on half-a-dozen charges when we please. We can have you
arrested any time on a charge of conspiracy over those pictures--"
"Of which I am innocent; I swear it," Van Sneck said, solemnly. "Those
two Rembrandts--they fell into my hands by what you call a slice of good
luck. I am working hand in glove with Henson at the time, and show him
them. I suggest Lord Littimer as a purchaser. He would, perhaps, buy the
two, which would be a little fortune for me. Then Henson, he says, 'Don't
you be a fool, Van Sneck. Suppress the other; say nothing about it. You
get as much from Littimer for the one as you get for the two, because
Lord Littimer think it unique.'"
"That idea commended itself to a curio dealer?" Bell suggested, drily.
"But yes," Van Sneck said, eagerly. "Later on we disclose the other and
get a second big price. And Lord Littimer he buy the first copy for a
long price."
"After which you discreetly disappear," said Steel. "Did you steal those
pictures?"
"No," Van Sneck said, indignantly. "They came to me in the way of honest
business--a poor workman who knows nothing of their value, and takes
fifteen marks for them."
"Honest merchant," David murmured. "Pray go on."
"I had to go away. Some youthful foolishness over some garnets raked up
after many years. The police came down upon me so suddenly that I got
away with the skin of my teeth. I leave the other Rembrandt, everything,
behind me. I do not know that Henson he give me away so that he can steal
the other Rembrandt."
"So you have found that out?" said Bell. "Who told you?"
"I learn that not so long ago. I learn it from a scoundrel called
Merritt, a tool of Henson. He tells me to go to Littimer Castle to
steal the Rembrandt for Henson, because Dr. Bell, he find _my_
Rembrandt. Then I what you call pump Merritt, and he tells me all about
the supposed robbery at Amsterdam and what was found in the portmanteau
of good Dr. Bell yonder. Then I go to Henson and tell him what I find
out, and he laughs. Mind you, that was after I came here from Paris on
business for Henson."
"About the time you bought that diamond-mounted cigar-case?" David
asked, quietly.
Van Sneck nodded. He was evidently impressed by the knowledge possessed
by his questioners.
"That's it," he said. "I buy it because Henson ask me to. Henson say he
make it all right about the Rembrandt, and that if I do as I am told he
give me £500. His money is to come on a certain day, but I pump and I
pump, and I find that there is some game against Mr. Steel, who is a
great novelist."
"That is very kind of you," David said, modestly.
"One against Miss Enid Henson," Van Sneck went on. "I met that young lady
once and I liked her; therefore, I say I will be no party to getting her
into trouble. And Henson says I am one big fool, and that he is only
giving Mr. Steel a lesson in the art of minding his own business. So I
ask no further questions, though I am a good bit puzzled. With the last
bank-notes I possess I go to a place called Walen's and buy the
cigar-case that Henson says. I meet him and hand over the case and ask
him for my money. Henson swears that he has no money at all, not even
enough to repay me the price of the cigar-case. He has been disappointed.
And I have been drinking. So I swear I will write and ask Mr. Steel to
see me, and I do so."
"And you get an answer?" David asked.
"Sir, I do. You said you would see me the same night. It was a forgery?"
"It was. Henson had anticipated something like that. I know all about the
forgery, how my notepaper was procured, and when the forgery was written.
But that has very little to do with the story now. Please go on."
Van Sneck paused before he proceeded.
"I am not quite sober," he said. "I am hot with what I called my
wrongs. I come here and ring the bell. The hall was in darkness. There
was a light in the conservatory, but none in the study. I quite
believed that it was Mr. Steel who opened the door and motioned me
towards the study. Then the door of the study closed and locked behind
me, and the electric light shot up. When I turned round I found myself
face to face with Henson."
Van Sneck paused again and shuddered at some hideous recollection.
His eyes were dark and eager; there was a warm moisture like varnish
on his face.
"Even that discovery did not quite sober me," he went on. "I fancied it
was some joke, or that perhaps I had got into the wrong house. But no,
it was the room of a literary gentleman. I--I expected to see Mr. Steel
come in or to try the door. Henson smiled at me. Such a smile! He asked
me if I had the receipt for the cigar-case about me, and I said it was
in my pocket. Then he smiled again, and something told me my life was
in danger.
"I was getting pretty sober by that time. It came to me that I had been
lured there; that Henson had got into the house during the absence of the
owner. It was late at night in a quiet house, and nobody had seen me
come. If that man liked to kill me he could do so and walk out of the
house without the faintest chance of discovery. And he was twice my size,
and a man without feeling. I looked round me furtively lor a weapon.
"He saw my glance and understood it, and smiled again. I was trembling
from head to foot now with a vague, nameless terror. From the very first
I knew that I had not the smallest chance. Henson approached me and laid
his hand on my shoulder. He wanted something, he gave that something a
name. If I passed that something over to him I was free, if not--
"Well, gentlemen, I didn't believe him. He had made a discovery that
frightened me. And I had what he wanted in my pocket. If I had handed it
over to him he would not have spared me. As he approached me my foot
slipped and I stumbled into the conservatory. I fell backwards. And then
I recovered myself and defied Henson.
"'Fool,' he hissed, 'do you want to die?'
"But I knew that I should die in any case. Even then I could smile to
myself as I thought how I could baffle my foe. Once, twice, three times
he repeated his demands, and each time I was obdurate. I knew that he
would kill me in any case.
"He came with a snarl of rage; there was a knife in his hand. I hurled
a flower-pot at his head and missed him. The next instant and he had me
by the throat. I felt his knife between my shoulders, then a stunning
blow on the head, and till I woke here to-day I cannot recollect a
single thing."
Van Sneck paused and wiped his face, wet with the horror of the
recollection. David Steel gave Bell a significant glance, and the
latter nodded.
"Was the thing that Henson wanted a ring?" Steel asked, quietly.