The Lost Million

by William Le Queux

And must have taken it away with him when he fled from Aix."

  Then, suddenly recollecting that curious whistle of his, I realised howShaw had used it in order to recall the great spider.

  "Put out the light, Cardew," I said. "Have your torch ready. I have anidea."

  "But--" he hesitated, in apprehension.

  "Have no fear. We want to see the hideous thing again--and to kill it,"I said.

  The next second the room was once more in darkness, and after a fewmoments I began to imitate softly that peculiar whistle that I hadlearnt from Shaw.

  Then we waited in breathless silence, not moving a muscle.

  Again and again I whistled, but we could hear no movement. The hugespider was, we felt assured, somewhere in the room, but where we couldnot discover.

  "Switch on the light," I cried at last, and in a second the place becameilluminated again, when, to our surprise, halfway down thepink-and-white cretonne curtains at the head of the bed the uglyarachnid, with its long claws, stood revealed and startled at the suddenturning on of the light.

  He had crept slowly down from the small canopy above the bed, seekingthe place where I had lain.

  In an instant he turned to ascend the curtain again, but we were tooquick for him, for with two or three sharp cuts with our sticks webrought him down, and he was quickly stretched dead upon the floor.

  I went forth boldly to search for Shaw, but could not find him. Hisroom was in disorder, for he had apparently seized some things, packedhurriedly and left.

  The car we heard leaving the house while we were in Asta's bedroom hadevidently been his!

  He had escaped at the very moment when we had discovered the ingeniousmeans by which he had committed his crimes.

  We called the three doctors and showed them the huge dead spider. Then,in a moment, all three agreed that Guy Nicholson had succumbed to itsbite, and examination of poor unconscious Asta's hair showed plainlywhere she, too, had been bitten just above the right ear. The trio ofmedical men stood utterly astounded. No time, however, was lost by SirGeorge in applying various antidotes and restoratives, and by dawn hecame to me with the joyful news that she had taken a turn for thebetter.

  Our knowledge of the real cause of the ailment had only been gained inthe very nick of time.

  Further examination of the walls of Asta's room resulted in the amazingdiscovery that the door of a cupboard in the wall beside the fireplacewas warped and when closed left a space of an inch open at the bottom.The cupboard was lined inside with wood panelling, and in one panel atthe back a tiny trapdoor about four inches square had been cut, so thatit could be removed from within the corresponding cupboard which was inShaw's room adjoining.

  Investigation showed that the cupboard in question was the one securedby those two patent locks, and on breaking it open we found that in itShaw had kept the venomous spider, for both water and food were there,as well as a thick india-rubber glove which he no doubt used when hewished to handle his hideous pet, and a small wire cage in which itcould be carried.

  In order to release it into Asta's room he had only to move the smallpiece of cut panel in the back of its place of imprisonment, and, gladto escape, the thing would pass through, as no doubt it had done on thenight when my well-beloved had been attacked.

  To recall it, Shaw had only to whistle. The spider knew the call.

  After the attack upon Asta the scoundrel had evidently lost the reptilein the confusion, and disliking the light it had found refuge on thesmall cretonne canopy fixed against the ceiling, over the head of thebed.

  Knowledge that its bite had not proved fatal, as in Nicholson's case,and that Asta might recover and describe what she had seen, togetherwith the fact that he had been unable to induce his pet to return tohim, had terrified him, and he had escaped.

  Quickly I telephoned to the police in Northampton, and very soon twoofficers came out on bicycles, and to them we made a statement. Then,an hour later, a hue-and-cry was flashed across the wires for theassassin's arrest.

  Slowly--very slowly--Asta recovered consciousness, but I was not allowedto see her, nor was she allowed, indeed, to speak.

  Yet the knowledge that my beloved would again be given back to life was,in itself, all-sufficient for me.

  I had at least solved two points in that amazing mystery of avarice andcunning. I had discovered the cruel ingenious manner in which GuyNicholson had been killed because of the knowledge he had accidentallygained, and I had also established the fact that Shaw intended that poorAsta should succumb.

  But what was the motive of this double crime? That point was, initself, the most puzzling point of all.

  CHAPTER THIRTY.

  THE THIRD OF NOVEMBER.

  Through the whole of the following day I remained at the Hall, but asmay be imagined the consternation was great when it became known to theservants, and through them to the countryside, that Mr Harvey Shaw, theeminently respectable county magistrate, was being searched for by thepolice.

  Curious how quickly popularity disappears at the first breath ofscandal. The very persons who had been loudest in Shaw's praises werenow the first to hint at dark things and declare that they had all alongsuspected him of leading a double life.

  Sir George remained, but the two local practitioners went forth to dotheir daily rounds. Asta had greatly improved, and though ordered notto refer to the tragic events of the past few hours, I was allowed tosee her for five minutes about seven o'clock.

  Wan and very pale, she was in a blue silk dressing-jacket, propped upwith pillows. As I entered, she put out her small white hand and asingle trembling word, my name, escaped her lips.

  I saw in the shaded light that her big eyes were filled with tears--tears of joy by which mine were also dimmed.

  "I've--I've had such a bad dream!" she managed to say. "But, oh! MrKemball, how glad I am that it is only a dream, and that the doctor saysI am getting better."

  "I hope, Miss Seymour, that you'll be quite right and about again withina week," exclaimed Sir George cheerily.

  And hearing those words she turned her wonderful eyes full on mine.

  What words of sympathy and congratulation I uttered I scarcely know.How can I remember! I only recollect that when the great specialisttouched me upon the shoulder as sign to leave her bedside, I bent andkissed her soft white hand.

  All through the day and all that evening I remained eagerly expecting tohear news of Shaw's arrest. Yet, knowing what a past-master he was inthe art of evading the police, I despaired that he would ever be caughtand brought up for punishment.

  As I sat smoking in his armchair in the big morning-room I reflecteddeeply, and saw with what marvellous cunning and forethought he hadmisled Nicholson, Asta, myself--and, indeed, everybody--into a beliefthat he was devoted to the girl whom, so many years ago, he had adoptedand brought up as his own daughter.

  That decision to kill her lover and afterwards kill her was no suddenimpulse, but the result of a carefully thought-out and ingenious plan.Whether the huge tarantula had been put into my room at that French innwith evil intent, or whether it had got loose, and had concealed itselfthere, I could not determine. Yet in the case of Guy and Asta theremust, I decided, have been some very strong incentive--a motive whichnone had ever dreamed. As regards the incident at Scarborough, he musthave placed the tarantula in Asta's room in secret, and have succeededin regaining possession of it. Indeed, inquiry I afterwards made showedthat he had bribed one of the maid-servants while every one was absentto show him the house, his explanation being that he thought ofpurchasing it.

  Shaw was a master-criminal. Bold and defiant, yet he was at the sametime ever ready with means for escape, in case he was cornered. Hisexploit in the hotel at Aix showed how cunning and clever he was insubterfuge. He preserved a cloak of the highest respectability, and hadeven succeeded in being placed on the roll of Justices of the Peace--he,the man who regarded murder as the practice of a science, had actuallysentenced poachers, wife-beaters
, tramps, and drunkards to terms ofimprisonment?

  And yet so clever had he been that the Criminal Investigation Departmenthad never recognised in the wealthy tenant of Lydford Hall the fugitivefor whom they had so long been in search.

  A second night I remained there, so as to be near the woman I loved sofervently.

  Sir George gave me an assurance, as we sat together before we turned infor a few hours' sleep, that his patient was progressing favourably, andthat I might again see her the next day. Cardew also remained, and aswe three sat smoking we discussed the strange affair, wondering whatmotive the man Shaw could possibly have in attempting so ingeniously andin such cold blood a second crime. But we could arrive at no definiteconclusion. The whole affair was entirely shrouded in mystery.

  In the morning I was permitted to see Asta again. She seemed muchbetter and spoke quite brightly.

  "Mr Kemball," she said, after we had been chatting for some minutes,"I--I--I want to tell you