helpless heap, and I stood dazed and horrified at theawful tragedy. A moment later I heard a movement behind me, and startedto see a stranger standing there--an Englishman. He had closed the doorbehind him, and we were alone with the dead man. `I charge you with themurder of my friend,' he said gravely. `I saw you fire. You did thisout of jealousy. You met at Nice eighteen months ago. Manuel is thelover of the girl who lives at Enghien, and is your friend! I saw youtogether yesterday in the Rue Rivoli!'
"I fell back and stared at him utterly speechless. Then I protestedthat he had committed suicide, but he pointed out that I still held therevolver. `No,' he added, `I saw you fire! I am witness that youmurdered poor Manuel, who met you on the Riviera and fell violently inlove with you.' I asked the stranger if he really meant what healleged, but he only smiled mysteriously and said:--`As no one seems tohave been awakened, perhaps it will save you much trouble if you placethe revolver near the body and allow the authorities to believe in yourtheory of suicide. I am English, like yourself, and in our country nogentleman betrays a woman.' `Then you withdraw this allegation?' Iasked. But he urged me to fly quickly, while there was time, and takingthe weapon he placed it on the floor close to the dead man's right hand.Because I allowed him to do this, I committed myself, and was lost.But at that moment I was so upset that I knew not what I did. I slippedout of the door and down the corridor, and from that instant I never sawthe mysterious stranger again until--until about four months ago."
"And who was he?" I asked eagerly. "What was his name?"
"He proved to be Gordon-Wright alias Lieutenant Shacklock, and manyother names. He called upon me in Ireland and claimed acquaintance.Then, judge my astonishment when, a week later, he told me that I mustmarry him or he would denounce me to Lucie as the murderess of herlover!"
"The scoundrel!" I cried. "Then he actually held both of youenthralled?"
"Yes, Godfrey," she exclaimed, in that soft sweet voice that alwayscharmed me so. "It was true that I had previously met Manuel Carrera inNice, but he certainly was never my lover, as he alleged. But now Ihave told you the truth you can easily see why I dare not speak while helived, for he would have brought against me a cruel charge of jealousmurder which he might easily have substantiated."
Our eyes met, and her gaze wavered.
"Why--how could he?" inquired Sammy.
"Because early next morning I found out the number of his room and mostfoolishly wrote to him urging him to keep the secret that I had been inthe dead man's room. This letter, combined with his testimony, wouldhave been, no doubt, sufficient to condemn me. Again, the night you metme at Studland he followed me out and found me almost the moment afterwe parted. He taunted me with that letter, and we struggled for itspossession."
"I recollect!" Sammy exclaimed. "It was I who was one of the first toenter poor Carrera's room, and I remember the revolver lay in a positionthat much puzzled the police. They questioned the servants if it hadbeen moved. That fellow Shacklock, who was living in the hotel,evidently stole the contents of the poor fellow's despatch-box andhanded them to Himes, who came that evening to call upon him. It is anold trick of hotel thieves: the man who commits the theft remains in thehotel and expresses the greatest indignation and sympathy with thevictim, while his accomplice gets safely away across the frontier withthe booty."
"And this is the actual truth!" I cried, staring at her amazed.
"The truth, Godfrey--the whole truth!" declared Ella, in a falteringtone, her cheeks flushed with shame. "You must have mistrusted me, butthough bound to that blackguard by a secret my love for you has, Iswear, ever been unwavering. Surely you must have seen what I havesuffered," she cried. "That man who has now met with such an untimelyend wished to marry me for my position, and because--"
"Because you are beautiful, my sweetheart!" I said, holding her in myarms and kissing her fondly. "I know. I see it all now."
"And--and you really forgive me, Godfrey?" she asked seriously.
"For what?"
"For refusing to tell you this."
"You were silent, darling, because you were that man's victim. Youfeared to speak. But his own enemy has fortunately released you. Thethieves have quarrelled among themselves--and fatally. We can nowafford to watch in silence."
Our hands clasped, our lips met, and our hearts beat in unison--heartsthat were true to each other with a love that was real love.
"Lucie," I said at last, turning to the despairing girl, who now knew,for the first time, her father's shameful secret, "there is one pointwhich is still a mystery. Have you any explanation to offer? At theVilla Verde, after Nardini's flight, a young lady, said to be a friendof yours, was found dead in his study. Who was she?"
"It was Alice Woodforde," she replied promptly. "Nardini had fallendeeply in love with her, and knowing that revelations and downfall wereimminent, and that he would be compelled to fly, he gave her in secretthis address in London. He begged her to return to England where theywould marry, and she, still in ignorance of his true character, gave herpromise. She showed me the address he had written down, asking me if Iknew in what part of London it was, and thinking it strange I made amental note of it. I saw that His Excellency was playing a double game,and suspected that he contemplated flight. In addition to this, oneevening, when her uncle the doctor was dining with my father and myselfshe related, with her natural innocence, how one afternoon, when a guestat the Villa Verde, she had entered the study unexpectedly and haddiscovered His Excellency with a secret cupboard in the wainscot opened,into which he was in the act of placing a packet of bank-notes.
"Now, Gavazzi, who had narrowly watched the situation, daily expectedHis Excellency to fly from Italy. He knew that his enemies had gainedthe ascendency, and that revelations to King Humbert were only a matterof hours. Therefore the moment his master had left Rome he went out toTivoli and discharged all the servants at the villa, paying them all offhandsomely. On the following day, as I understand from a letter I havefound among my father's papers, he went out there on the pretext of anecessity of obtaining certain important documents, taking Alice withhim. He entered the villa with his key, and when in the study suddenlydemanded that she should reveal the spot where the notes had beenconcealed. Being loyal to Nardini, whom she had promised to marry, sherefused. They were alone in the great house, and she, in defiance ofhim, declared that she would tell the man who was to be her husband. Aviolent scene then ensued. He threatened her and she grew furious, whenof a sudden she fell back in a dead faint. He laughed, and awaited herrecovery, still hoping to obtain from her the secret of the Minister'shoard. He waited until, in alarm, he saw a sudden change in her. Shegrew white and rigid. She suffered from a weak heart from her birth,and died of syncope. Poor Alice! the excitement had proved fatal!"
"But I can't understand this fellow Himes. Why is he so full of afierce revenge?" asked Sammy, whose manner towards Lucie was nowentirely changed. He saw that she had been the victim of a scoundrel,just as my dear love had been.
"Well, I think I can also explain that," she said. "My father, in orderthat nothing compromising might be found if the police ever searched ourapartments abroad, kept all his private papers in an old bureau atStudland. For several days I have been going through them, and theythrow light upon many things which have hitherto been to me mysteries.The reason of his rapid journeys hither and thither, the motives of hisfriendships and the causes of his hatreds are explained.
"Last winter, while we were in Rome, Lieutenant Shacklock, as he calledhimself, lived in style at the Grand, while Himes had a room at theQuirinale. To every one they appeared as strangers to each other, andonly met at our house. They both had committed a number of cleverrobberies of jewels and money, when Shacklock managed to ingratiatehimself with a wealthy American widow, a Mrs Clay Hamilton, and aftergiving several little dinner-parties and escorting her here and there hesucceeded, by a clever piece of trickery, in passing over her jewel-casefull of valuable gems to
Himes. The theft was quickly discovered, butno suspicion ever rested upon him. Indeed he actually went himself tothe Questura with Mrs Clay Hamilton and reported the theft to thepolice! The jewel-case was, however, already at our house when, on thefollowing night, the two men met.
"I was out at the theatre with Dr Gavazzi and Alice, but I can onlysuppose there must have been a violent quarrel over the distribution ofthe booty. At any rate, Himes declared that he would have nothingfurther to do with either my father or Shacklock, and next day left Romefor Paris. My father and Shacklock suspected that, out of spite, hemeant to expose them to Nardini or to the Rome police, therefore,knowing with what object he had gone to Paris,
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