CHAPTER XXXVI
Meanwhile Berrington had stepped aside after having arranged to giveField the signal. And Berrington had made a discovery, the importance ofwhich it was impossible to overestimate. For the moment it had almostdeprived him of the power of thinking about anything else, but now itcame to him that Beatrice might be in some little danger.
In the first place, the girl was in possession of a parcel of valuablediamonds, the possession of which the others knew of and coveted. Therascals were in a tight place now, and they would not stick at much tomake their escape. If they were short of funds the diamonds inBeatrice's pocket would come in useful. But Berrington, like the coolsoldier that he was, had decided not to spoil the thing by an eagerhaste. There was plenty of assistance outside, and besides, he had atrusty revolver in his pocket. He stood now in the hall where he was ina position to hear all that was going on.
Beatrice had rushed to the door and beat her hands upon it. She waspulled away more or less roughly by the man called Reggie, but she didnot seem to notice it.
"Am I mad or dreaming?" she said as she pressed her hands to herforehead. "I could have sworn that I heard a voice calling me, avoice----"
"All nonsense," said Sartoris hoarsely. "You are overstrung, and yourimagination is too real for you. Did any of the rest of you hear avoice?"
The other two denied that they had heard anything. Beatrice broke outscornfully----
"It is a lie," she said. "You all heard it. Everybody heard it. If not,why are you all so white, and why do you all look so curiously at oneanother?"
It was quite true, and Sartoris had no reply for the moment. He seemedto be struggling to regain his lost self-possession. Then he glanced atthe man called Reggie, who shrugged his shoulders. Sartoris was himselfagain by this time.
"It was certainly an effect of the imagination," he cried. "Let us talkof other things. My dear young lady, my friends here have been goodenough to betray the fact that you have a lot of valuable diamonds inyour pocket. Is that a fact?"
Beatrice scorned to lie, and now in any case it would have been useless.She looked from one to the other and wondered what had become ofBerrington. Berrington was listening outside the door and feeling thatthe time for him to interfere was close at hand.
"It is exactly as these people say," Beatrice admitted.
"It is very good of them to take all this trouble," Sartoris said in asulky voice. "Because of those stones in your pocket they are hereto-night. They followed you here, because they are both lovers of thatkind of thing. Out of purely disinterested motives, they had made uptheir minds not to tell me, but a little indiscretion on the part of myfair lady prevented that silent policy from becoming a success."
"What's all this about?" Cora asked uneasily.
"Why ask?" Sartoris said with contempt. "So that was your game, eh? Fillyour own pockets and leave the rest of us to look after ourselves. Gooff together and try the air of South America once more, you reptiles!"
The other two said nothing. They had a proper respect for the keenintelligence of Carl Sartoris, and they knew that he had found them out.There was a queer gleam in his eyes.
"We will have a friendly discussion on the ethics of the case some othertime," he said with an ominous frown. "Meanwhile I think you can leavethe matter to me. My dear young lady, I should very much like to seethose diamonds."
"I regret that I cannot accommodate you," Beatrice said. "In the firstplace they are not mine."
"No, but they belong to Stephen Richford, which is much the same thing."
"Again I am sorry to have to disagree with you," Beatrice went onquietly. "The man who calls himself my husband has ended his careerdisgracefully. He has been guilty of fraudulent conduct, and even at thepresent moment he may be in the hands of the police."
Beatrice spoke more truly than she had imagined. She was not in theleast frightened, and yet she knew perfectly well that these peoplewould not stick at trifles.
"My husband came to me to-night," she said. "He came and asked me forthese gems. He wanted to turn them into money to fly with; he desired tohave a luxurious retreat. I might have parted with them but for onething--he seemed to have no sorrow for those that he had robbed. So Ideclined to part with the diamonds. I am going to keep them and handthem over to my husband's creditors. I took them from the safe in myhotel, fearing that there would be complications, but I was wrong, and Iam sorry that I did so."
"And why are you sorry?" Sartoris asked.
"Because the stones were far safer there than they are here," Beatricesaid.
There was no mistaking the girl's insinuation; even Sartoris reddened.
"So you mean to say that you suspect me?" he asked.
"Most certainly I do," Beatrice said boldly. "I have only to look intoyour face to see that. You are all three together; there is no honestybetween you. You are not even loyal to each other. And I know who youare and what part you all played in the removal of my father's body fromthe hotel. You who call yourself Sartoris, are the little cripple of theblack hansom cab, you others are the rogues who posed as Countess de laMoray and General Gastang. And if those diamonds are to become yourproperty, you must take them by force."
"_Le brave chien_," the woman sneered. "Well, I suppose what must be,must. Who will do it?"
"Who better than yourself?" Sartoris asked. "I had rather not lay handson a woman, but----"
"There is no necessity. The painful thing is not going to be done atall. It is well that I am here to shield your consciences from such anoutrage."
The door had opened so suddenly that the man Reggie was almost carriedoff his feet, and Berrington stood in the room. Beatrice gave a suddensob of relief, for she had forgotten Berrington altogether in thetension of the moment. He stood there erect and upright, his face palewith anger and his eyes blazing like stars.
Sartoris burst out furiously and impatiently----
"Damnation!" he screamed. "I had clean forgotten all about this fellow.His very existence had passed altogether out of my mind."
"Then your memory is very short and very convenient," Berrington said."It is not so very long ago that my presence in the house wasexceedingly convenient to you."
"You saved my life for what it is worth," Sartoris growled sullenly.
"Well, it may be worth a great deal to the police," Berrington retorted."I saved your life, which was perhaps a foolish thing to do, especiallyas you had made preparations to sacrifice mine for so doing. Whilst yourhands have been so full, I have been making investigations in the house.Really, I have been very well repaid for my trouble."
Sartoris started and looked up uneasily. For once his ready tonguefailed him.
"Perhaps you had better be a little more explicit," he said.
"Time enough for that, presently. My first discovery was in connectionwith the dining-room fireplace. I fancy you know what I mean. The nextitem was connected with the stairs. You murderous dog, so that was thetrap you laid for me. I was not to go until you had seen me again. I wasto stay for the sake of your sister. Well, I am glad that I obeyed now.But my little discoveries did not end here. Mrs. Richford, what isthis?"
Berrington held out a strip of soiled linen and Beatrice took it in herhand.
"It looks like a collar," she said. "It is a collar. If you have made adiscovery, Colonel Berrington, I have made another. This collar belongsto my father; I marked it for him in some new ink that does not wantheating. Melanyl, I think they call it. It was one of a set of a dozencollars and I marked them all, the day of that fatal dinner party. Yousee that, as my father had had no valet of late----"
"You acted in his stead," Berrington said eagerly; "when did you markthis?"
"About half-past four on the day of the dinner party."
"Not long before your father went up to dress for dinner, I suppose?"
"Yes, it would be about that time. After marking the collars that hadjust come from the makers, I placed them in father's wardrobe in hisbedroom."
&n
bsp; "Then this is the very collar that he wore for the dinner party,"Berrington cried; "the very collar that he was wearing at the time hedisappeared. And the same collar I found not an hour ago in Mr.Sartoris's dining-room. Not in the dining-room proper, but in a kind ofvault under the floor. What is the explanation of this, I wonder?"
"If you are so cursedly clever," Sartoris sneered, "you had better findout for yourself. Get him out of the way, get both of them out of theway, get the diamonds, and let us disappear. The game is up so far asEngland is concerned. Get him out of the way."
Sartoris's voice had risen to a wild scream. He sent his chair rapidlyacross the room in the direction of the door. Berrington pulled him upsharp.
"No tricks," he said sternly. "Now none of those electrical contrivancesof yours. If you move so much as an inch further I'll shoot you like adog."
Sartoris pulled up suddenly. He did not need to look at Berrington'sface to feel sure that he was in deadly earnest. At the same time theman called Reggie leaped at Berrington's throat and bore him backwards.The assault was so sudden that Berrington dropped the revolver that hehad drawn, at the feet of Beatrice.
"Never mind about me," he called out. "Point the weapon upwards and pullthe trigger."
In a mechanical kind of way Beatrice did as she was told. As the weaponswayed, the trigger clicked, and the bullet, deflected on the table,snapped the back leg of Sartoris's chair clean off, so that he came ahuddled mass of bones to the floor. A report followed, and before thesmoke had fully cleared away from Beatrice's eyes it seemed to her thatthe room was full of people. There were three or four policemen inuniform, Field cool and collected, Richford white and sullen, with thetwitching face of Bentwood in the background.
As the man Reggie rose to his feet, the handcuffs were slipped over hiswrists, and the woman was treated in a similar fashion. Only Sartoris,being absolutely helpless, was spared the like indignity. Field lookedquite satisfied.
"Bagged the whole covey," he said. "Go and stand at the front door, oneof you, and see that nobody goes out. There may be others present, ofwhom we know nothing as yet. Now, Mr. Sartoris, I should like to have afew words with you touching the disappearance of Sir Charles Darryll."
"You think that I murdered him?" Sartoris sneered.
"Certainly not," Field replied. "You can't have murder without a corpse,and in this case we do not even pretend to look for the corpse."
"Or a body perhaps," Sartoris went on. He was quite the coolest personin the room. "Well, what do you want me to say or do? If you produce thecorpse----"
"As I said before, there is no corpse," Field said. "Colonel Berringtonseems to have discovered something. He may be able to help us if youwon't."
"I can help you," Berrington said in a thrilling voice, "beyond yourmost sanguine hopes."
The Slave of Silence Page 36
