A TERRIBLE NIGHT
Louis disappeared from the room for the moment. I heard the outer door
softly opened and closed. Then he came back into the sitting-room,
followed by the man who had stood by our side at Charing Cross
Station. The latter looked around the room quickly, and seemed
disappointed to find it empty.
"I understood that Mr. Delora was here," he said.
"Mr. Delora is in his bedroom," Louis answered. "He is here, and
perfectly willing to see you. But it is against the doctor's orders,
and my instructions were that I was to warn you not to excite him. You
must speak slowly, and you may have to repeat anything which you wish
him to understand."
"Who are you?" the newcomer asked.
"I am Mr. Delora's servant," Louis answered.
The newcomer looked a little puzzled.
"Surely I have seen you before somewhere!" he exclaimed.
"It is very possible," Louis answered. "I am also a waiter in the cafe
below, but I come from South America, and Mr. Delora, when he is over,
is always kind to me. I spend most of my time, now that he is ill, up
here looking after him."
The newcomer shook his head thoughtfully.
"What is your name?" he asked.
"Louis," was the quiet answer.
"Then, my friend Louis," the newcomer said, "understand me plainly. I
am not here to be bamboozled, or to give you an opportunity for
exercising any ability you may possess in the art of lying. I am here
to see Delora, and if he is here, see him I will and must! If he is
not here, well, it will come later. There is no roof nor any walls in
London which will enclose that man and keep him from me!"
"Mr. Delora has no desire to hide himself from any one," Louis
answered calmly.
"That is a statement which I may be permitted to doubt!" the visitor
answered. "Is that the door of his sleeping chamber? If so, I am going
in!"
He pointed to the door, through the transept of which I was looking
into the sitting-room. Louis moved on one side.
"That is Mr. Delora's room," he said softly. "Perhaps you had better
let me be sure that he is awake."
"You need not trouble," the other answered. "If he is asleep I shall
wake him. If he is awake he will know very well that there is no
escaping me."
He turned away from Louis. His hand was already outstretched toward
the handle of my door. Then I saw Louis snatch the Malacca cane from
its place and swing it behind his body. He was already poised for the
blow--a blow which would have killed any man breathing--when I sprang
to the ground and flung open the door.
"Look out!" I cried.
The newcomer sprang on one side. Louis, disturbed by my cry, lost his
nerve, and the blow fell upon a small side table, smashing it through,
and sending splinters flying into the air. Both men looked at me in
the blankest of amazement. I came out into the sitting-room.
"You coward!" I said to Louis.
He shrank back against the wall. He still held the stick in his hand,
but he showed not a sign of fight. The other man stood with clenched
fists, as though about to spring upon him, but I stepped between them.
"In the first place," I said to the newcomer, "you had better look
into that room. You will see that Mr. Delora is not there. I can
assure you, from my own knowledge, that he has never been there. When
you have finished, come back and tell me what you want with him."
Louis was still staring at me in amazement. The idea that I had
discovered his attempt to make a cat's-paw of me was dawning upon him
slowly, but knowing nothing of the transept, he could not account for
my unexpected appearance. For once, at any rate, he had lost his
nerve. I could see that he was shaking with fear.
"Come, Louis," I said, "put my stick down and talk like a man, if you
can."
The stick fell from his fingers. He had scarcely strength enough left
to hold it. Then the man who had been examining Delora's room came
back and stepped past Louis up to me.
"I do not know why you are here, sir," he said. "You may be mixed up
in this affair or you may not be. But if you are, let me warn you that
you are on the wrong side. You saw his attempt?" he added, pointing
to Louis. "I am going to wring the life out of him. He deserves it."
"No!" I answered, holding him back. "We will have no violence
here. Louis has a little account to settle with me yet."
"He has a more serious one with me," the other muttered.
"Settle it when and where you will," I said, "but not here. As for me,
I have no longer any interest in or concern with any of you. I came
into this thing by accident, and to-night I go out of it. You, sir,
must leave the hotel at once. I do not know your name or anything
about you. It is not my concern. If you have anything to say to
Louis, choose another time."
He looked at me curiously. I could see that with every nerve in his
body he was longing to spring upon Louis.
"You seem to be a masterful person, sir," he said. "Why should I obey
you?"
"Because I saved your life, for one thing," I answered, "and because I
will allow no violence in this room, for another. And if you need a
third reason," I added, "because I have the advantage of you in
strength. You need not be afraid of my further interference," I
continued. "I shall leave London to-morrow, and I hope that I may
never see one of you again. Now will you go?"
"Yes, I will go!" he said. "Let me tell you this, sir," he added, as
he neared the door. "Your decision is a wise one. If you knew whose
cause you had been aiding, whose tool you had very nearly become, I
think that your manner would be a little more apologetic."
"I have your word, sir, that you will leave the hotel?" I asked.
"At once," the other answered.
We heard him close the outer door and depart. Then I turned to Louis.
"Louis," I said, "so this is your adventure! This is the way you
proposed to make use of me! You got me into that room and drugged
me. I was to lie there while you murdered that man with my weapon.
Then you would creep away, and in the morning there was I and the dead
man! I was to be the tool,--the girl there the lure. It was well
worked out, Louis, but it was a coward's plan and a coward's trick!"
I reached out my hand and took him by the collar. I felt as though I
were grasping some unclean insect, from whom the sting might shoot out
at any moment.
"Have you anything to say?" I asked.
"You do not understand," he said, in a low tone. "I did not mean to
put this thing upon you. I meant, perhaps, to disable that man who has
just left. If you knew his history and mine, you would not wonder at
it. But I meant to see that he was safely removed."
"Then why did you bring me down into that room," I asked, "under a
false pretence? Why did you use that murderous cane of mine for your
crime? Why did you insist upon it that I should be seen dining with
the girl--God knows who she is!--who is in that room?"
"I can explain everything," Louis said. "I am confused! I cannot help
it--you came so unexpectedly!"
"Unexpectedly indeed," I answered, "because I poured your whiskey and
soda out of the window, and because I took an antidote to your coffee!"
"You speak of things which I do not understand," Louis declared.
"Oh! tell me no more lies!" I exclaimed. "Listen! You see I have you
by the collar, and I have my cane. Now I am going to beat you till
every bone in your body aches, till you will not be able to crawl
about, until you tell me the real history of these things. For every
lie--if I know it to be a lie--I shall strike you. Tell me who that
man Delora is? Tell me who the girl is, posing as his niece, who meets
you here after midnight? Tell me the name of that man who has just
left us? Tell me how you are all bound together, and what your quarrel
is? And tell me where Delora is now?"
"I have no strength," he gasped. "You are too rough. Let me sit down
quietly. I must think."
"No!" I answered. "Speak! Speak now!"
I raised the stick as though to strike him. Then I saw a sudden change
in his face. I looked toward the door. Almost as I did so I heard the
faint flutter of moving draperies. Felicia stood there looking in upon
us, her hands uplifted, her face full of terror.
"It is Capitaine Rotherby!" she cried. "Tell me, then, what has
happened? Capitaine Rotherby!"
She came a little toward us, but I think that she read in my face
something of what I was feeling, for she stopped suddenly and her lips
quivered.
"What has happened?" she demanded. "Will neither of you tell me? Is my
uncle worse? Has any one--any one tried to do him an injury?"
"Nothing is the matter," I answered, "except that we have come to an
end of this tissue of lies and plots and counterplots. There is no
uncle of yours in that room, nor ever has been. The man who was to
have been murdered here has gone. And for the rest, I saw you here
with Louis and I heard your conversation less than an hour ago."
"You saw us?" she gasped.
"From the transept there," I answered, pointing towards it. "I was
brought into that room to personate your uncle, to receive an attack
which was meant for him--a very clever scheme! I was drugged, and was
to have lain there to cover this fellow's crime. But there, I don't
suppose that I need tell you any of these things!" I added brutally.
She looked at me with horror.
"You do not believe--" she gasped.
"Oh! I believe nothing," I answered,--"nothing at all! Every word I
have been told by both of you is a lie! Your lives are lies! God
knows why I should ever have believed otherwise!" I said, looking at
her.
"Let me go," Louis pleaded, "and you shall hear the truth."
"I shall be more likely to feel the knife you have in your pocket," I
answered contemptuously, for I had seen his left hand struggling
downward for the last few moments. "Oh! I'll let you go! I have no
interest in any of you,--no interest in your cursed conspiracy,
whatever it may be! Keep your story. I don't care to hear it. Lie
there and talk to your accomplice!"
I sent him reeling across the room till he fell in the corner. Then I
walked out, closing the sitting-room door behind me,--out into the
corridor and up the stairs into my own room. Then I locked and bolted
my own door and looked at my watch. It was a quarter to three. I took
a Bradshaw from my bookcase, packed a few clothes myself, set an alarm
clock for seven o'clock in the morning, and turned into bed. I told
myself that I would not think. I told myself that there was no such
person in the world as Felicia, that she had never lived, that she was
only part of this nightmare from which I was freeing myself! I told
myself that I would go to sleep, and I stayed awake until
daylight. All the time there was only one thought in my brain!