An Imperial Marriage

by Arthur W. Marchmont

  CHAPTER XIII

  IN THE HOUSE OF DEATH

  As soon as I had shaken off the first stunning effect of the news of themurder, I did what I could to calm Hagar, and then asked her to returnwith me to the house. But this induced a fresh paroxysm of alarm.

  "No, no. They will take my life," she cried. "I dare not. I darenot."

  "I will see that no one harms you," I assured her. "I am armed, and bythis time they will have fled. There is no danger."

  I prevailed in the end, and together we went back to the house. Sheshuddered violently as we entered, and clung to my arm, shrinking andshaking and glancing about her in terror at every step.

  I knew where her father had kept his liquors, so I got her some brandyand made her drink a fairly stiff dose.

  "Where are your servants?" I asked.

  "One is ill, and the other has been away all the afternoon." Her lipstrembled and her voice quivered as she replied.

  "You must make an effort," I said sharply. "Tell me everything."

  "I cannot think. I cannot think," she moaned distractedly, and laid herhead on the table in an agony of wild grief.

  I gave her some more of the spirit, and as soon as she had drunk it Isaid as impressively as I could: "If you would revenge your father'sdeath, you must let me know everything at once. Revenge is still inyour power, remember. Your father would have had you think of that."

  The appeal had an immediate effect. She raised her head and her eyesflashed with a new light. "You are right," she cried in a strongvibrating tone. "I will never rest until he is revenged and hismurderers are punished. That I swear to my God!"

  She rose then and led me into the room where the body lay, just as ithad fallen, huddled up on the floor close to the table at which most ofthe old man's life had been spent.

  "The body lay, just as it had fallen huddled up on thefloor, close to the table." _Page_ 133]

  "You have had no doctor yet," I exclaimed, turning to the telephone.

  "I ran for my life the instant I discovered what had occurred."

  "What is your doctor's name?" I asked as I tried the telephone. Shetold me; but I could get no reply to my call. And then I discoveredthat the communication had been cut. A sinister and suggestivecircumstance.

  I knelt down by the body and made a rapid examination. He had beenstabbed from behind, and was long past all human help. The eyes werefast glazing and the body beginning to stiffen.

  As I was feeling the pulse a ring dropped from the hand, and intent onthe work of examination, I put it without thinking into my pocket.

  "When did it occur?"

  "I do not know. I was in my room upstairs and came down to speak to himabout--about my marriage to-morrow----" She paused and closed her eyesand clenched her hands for a moment, and then forced herself tocontinue. "I found him as you see. That was just before I ran out ofthe house in my panic and you met me. I remembered his warning to meand fled. I was mad for the time, I think."

  "What was his warning?"

  "It was after you left him this afternoon. Something you said made himspeak to me. He had had a letter threatening his life, and charging himwith treachery; and I was threatened also."

  I had been kneeling all this time by the body and now rose. "You haveno idea who can have done this?"

  "None. He told me he had an important interview to-night, and must notbe disturbed. That was why I did not come down earlier."

  "We must find out with whom," I replied. "And now we must have thepolice. Have you nerve enough to fetch them or shall we go together?"

  "Don't leave me."

  At that instant as we turned to leave, I heard a sound somewhere in thehouse. Hagar heard it also, and clutched my arm shaking like a leaf.

  "You say we are alone in the house?" I asked in a low tone.

  She nodded, her eyes strained in the direction of the sound.

  We stood listening intently.

  "They have come back in search of me," she whispered.

  "Then we shall find out who they are. Courage."

  I glanced round the room and motioned to her to hide behind the curtainswhich covered the deep window recess, and stood there with her.

  Two or three minutes of tense silence followed. Then we heard footstepsstealthily approaching the room. A pause, and then three men entered.One a grey-haired, distinguished-looking man well on in years; the othertwo younger and of a commoner type, swarthy, determined-looking men.

  From where they stood they could not see the body of the Jew, andjudging by their start at finding the room empty, I judged that they hadexpected to see Ziegler at his desk.

  Their words confirmed this.

  "Not here, the old fox," growled one.

  "Come away. Come away," said the elder man, laying his hand nervouslyon the arm of one of the others.

  "Not till this thing is settled," he replied, shaking off the other'shand impatiently. "I mean to have the truth out of the old rat, or hislife."

  "And the girl's too," added the other. "You know what we were toldabout them both. I shall wait for him."

  "No, no. No bloodshed, no bloodshed, for Heaven's sake," cried the oldman with a gesture of protest and dismay.

  "My God! Look here!" This was from one of the two who had movedforward and was pointing at the dead body.

  The old man gave a cry of horror and sank into a chair covering his facein his clasped hands.

  "What can this mean?"

  His companions were standing by the body gazing at one another in blankwonderment and surprise. Then one of them stooped down and examined thecorpse.

  "Dead, sure enough; and murdered, too," he announced.

  He rose and they both looked round at the elder man. "Do you knowanything of this?" asked one.

  Without a word the man they addressed sprang up and rushed out of theroom.

  The two stared at one another again in silence.

  Then one of them laughed sneeringly.

  His companion winced. His nerves were not so tough.

  "What shall we do?" he asked rather huskily. He was beginning to shake.

  "Do? Why, what we came to do, of course. Find the old rat's daughterand finish the thing," he said brutally, and with an oath.

  Hagar was trembling like an aspen and her breath was so laboured andheavy that I made sure they would hear it.

  I pressed her arm to try and reassure her.

  "I think we'd better go," said the weaker fellow.

  A muttered oath at his cowardice was the response. "I'm going to searchthe house," declared his companion, and he began to glance round theroom.

  But the other went toward the door. "I'm going."

  At this moment Hagar could restrain her terror no longer, and a heavyhalf-sigh half-groan burst from her.

  Both men turned at once toward the curtains, and the bolder one put hishand to draw a weapon, knife or pistol; but before he could get it out,I stepped forward and covered him with my revolver.

  "The Englishman!" they both cried in a breath, and the man by the doordarted out of the room.

  His companion stood his ground and met my look steadily.

  "So it's your work, eh?"

  "Take your hand from that weapon of yours," I cried sternly.

  "What quarrel have you with me?"

  "Do as I say," I thundered.

  He took his hand from his pocket, shrugged his shoulders, anddeliberately turned his back on me and walked toward the door.

  His consummate coolness placed me in a dilemma. Shoot him down in coldblood I could not.

  Hagar's courage returned the instant she perceived that the advantagewas on my side. "Don't let him go," she said, and stepped forward.

  The fellow started at the sound of her voice and looked at her with anexpression of the bitterest malignity.

  "Stop, you," I cried.

  He faced me, laughed again with his former delibera
te coolness andpaused as if about to return. "Very well," he said slowly, with a shrugof indifference; and then, before I could guess his purpose, he sprangbackwards to the door and rushed out.

  As a matter of fact I was much relieved by his departure; but Hagar flewinto a passion and reproached me bitterly for having allowed him toescape. "He murdered my father and will kill me," she cried. "Youshould have shot him."

  It was clear from this that her agitation had been too great to admit ofher understanding the purport of what had passed while the three menwere together in the room.

  I did not stay to explain matters and let her reproaches pass withoutreply. "We must have the police here at once," I said. "You had bettercome with me."

  We went out to the front door, and seeing a police officer at a littledistance, I called him and told him what had occurred.

  He came in with us and made a rapid examination of the dead man. "Hehas been dead some time. When did it occur?"

  I told him all I knew of the affair: that Hagar had found her fatherdead; had fled from the house in fear; had taken me back; and the causeof our delay in telling the police, adding such a description as I couldof the men.

  Of course I quite expected him to suspect us of the deed, and was nottherefore in the least surprised when he replied that we should bedetained.

  "You had better go for one of your superior officers," I told him. "Wewill remain in the next room."

  "I'm not so sure of that," he replied knowingly.

  "Then send for some one. You can easily get a messenger in the street."

  I led Hagar into the next room, and he went out and did as I suggested.Then he came to us, and we waited for the arrival of the others. Hagarspoke to the officer, but I took no part in the conversation.

  I was completely mystified by the affair. I recalled all the events ofthe afternoon. Ziegler's singular hints of treachery; the others'suspicion of me; the fact of the threatening letter of which Hagar hadtold me: and all these things pointed clearly to the conclusion that themurder had been done by some one who suspected the Jew, and that it wasin revenge we should look for the motive.

  But the arrival of the three men, obviously bent upon doing that whichhad already been down, negatived any such conclusion absolutely, orappeared to do so.

  That they had expected to find the Jew still alive, there was not theshadow of a doubt. Their actions had shown this as plainly as theirwords had expressed it. They had come to obtain an explanation of thefacts which they held to justify their suspicions; and in default ofthat explanation being satisfactory, they were resolved to take hislife.

  The words and acts of the eldest of the men had proved that.

  The next question was whether their own thought was right--that some oneof their number had anticipated them. It was a plausible supposition.

  But there was another possible theory. The Jew was a man with manyenemies. He had been a hard man, and had been threatened more than onceby those who laid their ruin at his door. He carried many secrets, too;and it was easy to conceive that there were hundreds in Berlin who wouldwelcome his death.

  Had some such enemy dealt this secret stroke? It was a question whichcould only be answered after a strict search into the hiddenundercurrents of his life and business.

  To me his death was little short of a calamity. It threatened tooverthrow my whole plans. The suspicions of his good faith entertainedby his companions were almost sure to fall upon me; and in that case Ishould assuredly find myself shut out from the scheme on which I hadbuilt so much.

  It was this aspect of the affair which concerned me chiefly as we satwaiting for the arrival of the police, and I racked my wits in vain fora solution to the problems which it raised.

  When they arrived, Hagar and I were subjected to a searchingcross-examination at their hands: she in one room, I in another. I wasquestioned very closely as to my relations with Ziegler; and except thatI did not say a word as to the Polish intrigue, I gave as full andcomplete an account as possible. I had indeed nothing to conceal.

  I perceived that the questions were directed to elicit any possiblemotive on my part which could in any way connect me with the crime. Myreplies appeared to satisfy them, and I noticed that they were comparedwith the statements which had been obtained from Hagar.

  After the comparison had been made, the manner of the men questioning meunderwent a considerable change. Not a little to my relief.

  "We accept your statement, Herr Bastable; but of course you willunderstand that we were compelled to interrogate you closely as you werefound upon the scene of the murder. Now, I invite you to tell mefrankly of any circumstance which you think will tend to throw light onthe matter."

  "I am utterly baffled," I replied. "The only guess I can make is thatit may have been the work of some one whose hatred he has incurred as amoney-lender. He must have had many enemies."

  "His daughter believes it was the work of the men who came hereafterwards when you were here."

  "That is incredible"; and I gave my reasons, adding that Hagar had beenmuch too agitated to understand what had passed.

  "You know that he was associated with the Polish party of independence.She says so. Will you tell me all you know about that? Have you anyreason to believe that he contemplated betraying them in any way?"

  "None whatever. I knew that he was associated with them. I learnt thatsome time ago when I was on newspaper work here in Berlin."

  "I will be frank with you. It has been suggested to us, before this Imean, that you were associated with him in some such way, and that thatwas the cause of your recent visits to him. What do you say to that?"

  This was getting near home with a vengeance. "The only foundation forsuch a statement lies in the fact that he had asked me as a newspaperman, if I could make use of political information of importance if heobtained it for me. That is of course my business--provided of coursethat the information is authentic."

  "How was he to obtain it?"

  "That I can't say." I used the equivocation intentionally. "I know Iwas to pay for it, and to judge of its worth when I knew it."

  "How were you to receive it?"

  "He was to tell me the time and place and means and everything. Ishould of course have used my own discretion in handling it."

  "That lends itself to the fact that he did meditate some sort ofbetrayal. I presume the information related to his politicalassociations."

  "I scarcely think so in the sense you imply. More probably somethingthat would have helped his party. I do not know, as I have told you, theexact nature of the news, but I gathered of course that it must affectmy own country, seeing that it was as an English newspaper man heapproached me."

  "You have taken no other part in these Polish intrigues?"

  I smiled. "I am an Englishman, not a Pole; and have no other feeling intheir affairs beyond the natural English attitude toward any movementwhich has the liberty of the subject as its motive. But this wasbusiness, you understand."

  "One other question. You owed him no money?"

  "Not a mark. I never have. I am now a man of considerable meansindeed."

  He bowed and lifted his hands to signify that he had finished with me."I can go?" I asked.

  "Certainly."

  "And Fraeulein Ziegler? She is in need of a friend and I should like tohelp her if she wishes? It is the more terrible for her as she was tohave been married to-morrow."

  "Indeed? To whom?" he asked quickly.

  I regretted my indiscretion, but it was too late. "To Herr Hugo vonFelsen."

  "Ah. That explains. She asked to see him."

  "Can I see her?" I asked, and received a ready assent.

  I went to her with the mere intention of offering assistance, the lastthing in my thoughts being that a momentous discovery was to be theresult of the interview.