CHAPTER XXI
THE NARRATIVE OF JOHN LEXMAN
"I am, as you may all know, a writer of stories which depend for theirsuccess upon the creation and unravelment of criminological mysteries.The Chief Commissioner has been good enough to tell you that my storieswere something more than a mere seeking after sensation, and that Iendeavoured in the course of those narratives to propound obscure butpossible situations, and, with the ingenuity that I could command, tooffer to those problems a solution acceptable, not only to the generalreader, but to the police expert.
"Although I did not regard my earlier work with any great seriousnessand indeed only sought after exciting situations and incidents, I cansee now, looking back, that underneath the work which seemed at the timepurposeless, there was something very much like a scheme of studies.
"You must forgive this egotism in me because it is necessary thatI should make this explanation and you, who are in the main policeofficers of considerable experience and discernment, should appreciatethe fact that as I was able to get inside the minds of the fictitiouscriminals I portrayed, so am I now able to follow the mind of the manwho committed this murder, or if not to follow his mind, to recreate thepsychology of the slayer of Remington Kara.
"In the possession of most of you are the vital facts concerning thisman. You know the type of man he was, you have instances of his terribleruthlessness, you know that he was a blot upon God's earth, a viciouswicked ego, seeking the gratification of that strange blood-lust andpain-lust, which is to be found in so few criminals."
John Lexman went on to describe the killing of Vassalaro.
"I know now how that occurred," he said. "I had received on the previousChristmas eve amongst other presents, a pistol from an unknown admirer.That unknown admirer was Kara, who had planned this murder some threemonths ahead. He it was, who sent me the Browning, knowing as he didthat I had never used such a weapon and that therefore I would be charyabout using it. I might have put the pistol away in a cupboard outof reach and the whole of his carefully thought out plan would havemiscarried.
"But Kara was systematic in all things. Three weeks after I received theweapon, a clumsy attempt was made to break into my house in the middleof the night. It struck me at the time it was clumsy, because theburglar made a tremendous amount of noise and disappeared soon afterhe began his attempt, doing no more damage than to break a window inmy dining-room. Naturally my mind went to the possibility of a furtherattempt of this kind, as my house stood on the outskirts of the village,and it was only natural that I should take the pistol from one of myboxes and put it somewhere handy. To make doubly sure, Kara came downthe next day and heard the full story of the outrage.
"He did not speak of pistols, but I remember now, though I did notremember at the time, that I mentioned the fact that I had a handyweapon. A fortnight later a second attempt was made to enter the house.I say an attempt, but again I do not believe that the intention was atall serious. The outrage was designed to keep that pistol of mine in aget-at-able place.
"And again Kara came down to see us on the day following the burglary,and again I must have told him, though I have no distinct recollectionof the fact, of what had happened the previous night. It would have beenunnatural if I had not mentioned the fact, as it was a matter which hadformed a subject of discussion between myself, my wife and the servants.
"Then came the threatening letter, with Kara providentially at hand. Onthe night of the murder, whilst Kara was still in my house, I went outto find his chauffeur. Kara remained a few minutes with my wife andthen on some excuse went into the library. There he loaded the pistol,placing one cartridge in the chamber, and trusting to luck that I didnot pull the trigger until I had it pointed at my victim. Here he tookhis biggest chance, because, before sending the weapon to me, he had hadthe spring of the Browning so eased that the slightest touch set itoff and, as you know, the pistol being automatic, the explosion of onecartridge, reloading and firing the next and so on, it was probablythat a chance touch would have brought his scheme to nought--probably mealso.
"Of what happened on that night you are aware."
He went on to tell of his trial and conviction and skimmed over the lifehe led until that morning on Dartmoor.
"Kara knew my innocence had been proved and his hatred for me beinghis great obsession, since I had the thing he had wanted but no longerwanted, let that be understood--he saw the misery he had planned forme and my dear wife being brought to a sudden end. He had, by theway, already planned and carried his plan into execution, a system oftormenting her.
"You did not know," he turned to T. X., "that scarcely a month passed,but some disreputable villain called at her flat, with a story that hehad been released from Portland or Wormwood Scrubbs that morning andthat he had seen me. The story each messenger brought was one sufficientto break the heart of any but the bravest woman. It was a story ofill-treatment by brutal officials, of my illness, of my madness, ofeverything calculated to harrow the feelings of a tender-hearted andfaithful wife.
"That was Kara's scheme. Not to hurt with the whip or with the knife,but to cut deep at the heart with his evil tongue, to cut to the rawplaces of the mind. When he found that I was to be released,--he mayhave guessed, or he may have discovered by some underhand method; that apardon was about to be signed,--he conceived his great plan. He had lessthan two days to execute it.
"Through one of his agents he discovered a warder who had been in sometrouble with the authorities, a man who was avaricious and was even thenon the brink of being discharged from the service for trafficking withprisoners. The bribe he offered this man was a heavy one and the warderaccepted.
"Kara had purchased a new monoplane and as you know he was an excellentaviator. With this new machine he flew to Devon and arrived at dawn inone of the unfrequented parts of the moor.
"The story of my own escape needs no telling. My narrative really beginsfrom the moment I put my foot upon the deck of the Mpret. The firstperson I asked to see was, naturally, my wife. Kara, however, insistedon my going to the cabin he had prepared and changing my clothes, anduntil then I did not realise I was still in my convict's garb. Aclean change was waiting for me, and the luxury of soft shirts andwell-fitting garments after the prison uniform I cannot describe.
"After I was dressed I was taken by the Greek steward to the largerstateroom and there I found my darling waiting for me."
His voice sank almost to a whisper, and it was a minute or two before hehad mastered his emotions.
"She had been suspicious of Kara, but he had been very insistent. He haddetailed the plans and shown her the monoplane, but even then she wouldnot trust herself on board, and she had been waiting in a motor-boat,moving parallel with the yacht, until she saw the landing and realized,as she thought, that Kara was not playing her false. The motor-boat hadbeen hired by Kara and the two men inside were probably as well-bribedas the warder.
"The joy of freedom can only be known to those who have suffered thehorrors of restraint. That is a trite enough statement, but when one isdescribing elemental things there is no room for subtlety. The voyagewas a fairly eventless one. We saw very little of Kara, who did notintrude himself upon us, and our main excitement lay in the apprehensionthat we should be held up by a British destroyer or, that when wereached Gibraltar, we should be searched by the Brit's authorities. Karahad foreseen that possibility and had taken in enough coal to last himfor the run.
"We had a fairly stormy passage in the Mediterranean, but after thatnothing happened until we arrived at Durazzo. We had to go ashore indisguise, because Kara told us that the English Consul might see us andmake some trouble. We wore Turkish dresses, Grace heavily veiled and Iwearing a greasy old kaftan which, with my somewhat emaciated face andmy unshaven appearance, passed me without comment.
"Kara's home was and is about eighteen miles from Durazzo. It is not onthe main road, but it is reached by following one of the rocky mountainpaths which wind and twist among the hills to the so
uth-east of thetown. The country is wild and mainly uncultivated. We had to passthrough swamps and skirt huge lagoons as we mounted higher and higherfrom terrace to terrace and came to the roads which crossed themountains.
"Kara's, palace, you could call it no less, is really built within sightof the sea. It is on the Acroceraunian Peninsula near Cape Linguetta.Hereabouts the country is more populated and better cultivated. Wepassed great slopes entirely covered with mulberry and olive trees,whilst in the valleys there were fields of maize and corn. The palazzostands on a lofty plateau. It is approached by two paths, which can beand have been well defended in the past against the Sultan's troopsor against the bands which have been raised by rival villages with theobject of storming and plundering this stronghold.
"The Skipetars, a blood-thirsty crowd without pity or remorse, werefaithful enough to their chief, as Kara was. He paid them so well thatit was not profitable to rob him; moreover he kept their own turbulentelements fully occupied with the little raids which he or his agentsorganized from time to time. The palazzo was built rather in the Moorishthan in the Turkish style.
"It was a sort of Eastern type to which was grafted an Italianarchitecture--a house of white-columned courts, of big paved yards,fountains and cool, dark rooms.
"When I passed through the gates I realized for the first time somethingof Kara's importance. There were a score of servants, all Eastern,perfectly trained, silent and obsequious. He led us to his own room.
"It was a big apartment with divans running round the wall, the mostornate French drawing room suite and an enormous Persian carpet, one ofthe finest of the kind that has ever been turned out of Shiraz. Here,let me say, that throughout the trip his attitude to me had beenperfectly friendly and towards Grace all that I could ask of my bestfriend, considerate and tactful.
"'We had hardly reached his room before he said to me with that bonhomiewhich he had observed throughout the trip, 'You would like to see yourroom?'
"I expressed a wish to that effect. He clapped his hands and a bigAlbanian servant came through the curtained doorway, made the usualsalaam, and Kara spoke to him a few words in a language which I presumewas Turkish.
"'He will show you the way,' said Kara with his most genial smile.
"I followed the servant through the curtains which had hardly fallenbehind me before I was seized by four men, flung violently on theground, a filthy tarbosch was thrust into my mouth and before I knewwhat was happening I was bound hand and foot.
"As I realised the gross treachery of the man, my first frantic thoughtswere of Grace and her safety. I struggled with the strength of threemen, but they were too many for me and I was dragged along the passage,a door was opened and I was flung into a bare room. I must have beenlying on the floor for half an hour when they came for me, this timeaccompanied by a middle-aged man named Savolio, who was either anItalian or a Greek.
"He spoke English fairly well and he made it clear to me that I had tobehave myself. I was led back to the room from whence I had come andfound Kara sitting in one of those big armchairs which he affected,smoking a cigarette. Confronting him, still in her Turkish dress, waspoor Grace. She was not bound I was pleased to see, but when onmy entrance she rose and made as if to come towards me, she wasunceremoniously thrown back by the guardian who stood at her side.
"'Mr. John Lexman,' drawled Kara, 'you are at the beginning of a greatdisillusionment. I have a few things to tell you which will make youfeel rather uncomfortable.' It was then that I heard for the first timethat my pardon had been signed and my innocence discovered.
"'Having taken a great deal of trouble to get you in prison,' said Kara,'it isn't likely that I'm going to allow all my plans to be undone, andmy plan is to make you both extremely uncomfortable.'
"He did not raise his voice, speaking still in the same conversationaltone, suave and half amused.
"'I hate you for two things,' he said, and ticked them off on hisfingers: 'the first is that you took the woman that I wanted. To a manof my temperament that is an unpardonable crime. I have never wantedwomen either as friends or as amusement. I am one of the few people inthe world who are self-sufficient. It happened that I wanted your wifeand she rejected me because apparently she preferred you.'
"He looked at me quizzically.
"'You are thinking at this moment,' he went on slowly, 'that I want hernow, and that it is part of my revenge that I shall put her straight inmy harem. Nothing is farther from my desires or my thoughts. The BlackRoman is not satisfied with the leavings of such poor trash as you. Ihate you both equally and for both of you there is waiting an experiencemore terrible than even your elastic imagination can conjure. Youunderstand what that means!' he asked me still retaining his calm.
"I did not reply. I dared not look at Grace, to whom he turned.
"'I believe you love your husband, my friend,' he said; 'your love willbe put to a very severe test. You shall see him the mere wreckage of theman he is. You shall see him brutalized below the level of the cattlein the field. I will give you both no joys, no ease of mind. From thismoment you are slaves, and worse than slaves.'
"He clapped his hands. The interview was ended and from that moment Ionly saw Grace once."
John Lexman stopped and buried his face in his hands.
"They took me to an underground dungeon cut in the solid rock. In manyways it resembled the dungeon of the Chateau of Chillon, in that itsonly window looked out upon a wild, storm-swept lake and its floor wasjagged rock. I have called it underground, as indeed it was on thatside, for the palazzo was built upon a steep slope running down from thespur of the hills.
"They chained me by the legs and left me to my own devices. Once a daythey gave me a little goat flesh and a pannikin of water and once a weekKara would come in and outside the radius of my chain he would open alittle camp stool and sitting down smoke his cigarette and talk. MyGod! the things that man said! The things he described! The horrors herelated! And always it was Grace who was the centre of his description.And he would relate the stories he was telling to her about myself. Icannot describe them. They are beyond repetition."
John Lexman shuddered and closed his eyes.
"That was his weapon. He did not confront me with the torture of mydarling, he did not bring tangible evidence of her suffering--he justsat and talked, describing with a remarkable clarity of language whichseemed incredible in a foreigner, the 'amusements' which he himself hadwitnessed.
"I thought I should go mad. Twice I sprang at him and twice the chainabout my legs threw me headlong on that cruel floor. Once he brought thejailer in to whip me, but I took the whipping with such phlegm that itgave him no satisfaction. I told you I had seen Grace only once and thisis how it happened.
"It was after the flogging, and Kara, who was a veritable demon in hisrage, planned to have his revenge for my indifference. They broughtGrace out upon a boat and rowed the boat to where I could see it from mywindow. There the whip which had been applied to me was applied to her.I can't tell you any more about that," he said brokenly, "but I wish,you don't know how fervently, that I had broken down and given the dogthe satisfaction he wanted. My God! It was horrible!
"When the winter came they used to take me out with chains on my legsto gather in wood from the forest. There was no reason why I should begiven this work, but the truth was, as I discovered from Salvolio, thatKara thought my dungeon was too warm. It was sheltered from the windsby the hill behind and even on the coldest days and nights it was notunbearable. Then Kara went away for some time. I think he must have goneto England, and he came back in a white fury. One of his big plans hadgone wrong and the mental torture he inflicted upon me was more acutethan ever.
"In the old days he used to come once a week; now he came almost everyday. He usually arrived in the afternoon and I was surprised one nightto be awakened from my sleep to see him standing at the door, a lanternin his hand, his inevitable cigarette in his mouth. He always wore theAlbanian costume when he was in the country, tho
se white kilted skirtsand zouave jackets which the hillsmen affect and, if anything, it addedto his demoniacal appearance. He put down the lantern and leant againstthe wall.
"'I'm afraid that wife of yours is breaking up, Lexman,' he drawled;'she isn't the good, stout, English stuff that I thought she was.'
"I made no reply. I had found by bitter experience that if I intrudedinto the conversation, I should only suffer the more.
"'I have sent down to Durazzo to get a doctor,' he went on; 'naturallyhaving taken all this trouble I don't want to lose you by death. Sheis breaking up,' he repeated with relish and yet with an undertone ofannoyance in his voice; 'she asked for you three times this morning.'
"I kept myself under control as I had never expected that a man sodesperately circumstanced could do.
"'Kara,' I said as quietly as I could, 'what has she done that sheshould deserve this hell in which she has lived?'
"He sent out a long ring of smoke and watched its progress across thedungeon.
"'What has she done?' he said, keeping his eye on the ring--I shallalways remember every look, every gesture, and every intonation of hisvoice. 'Why, she has done all that a woman can do for a man like me. Shehas made me feel little. Until I had a rebuff from her, I had all theworld at my feet, Lexman. I did as I liked. If I crooked my littlefinger, people ran after me and that one experience with her has brokenme. Oh, don't think,' he went on quickly, 'that I am broken in love. Inever loved her very much, it was just a passing passion, but she killedmy self-confidence. After then, whenever I came to a crucial momentin my affairs, when the big manner, the big certainty was absolutelynecessary for me to carry my way, whenever I was most confident ofmyself and my ability and my scheme, a vision of this damned girl roseand I felt that momentary weakening, that memory of defeat, which madeall the difference between success and failure.
"'I hated her and I hate her still,' he said with vehemence; 'ifshe dies I shall hate her more because she will remain everlastinglyunbroken to menace my thoughts and spoil my schemes through alleternity.'
"He leant forward, his elbows on his knees, his clenched fist under hischin--how well I can see him!--and stared at me.
"'I could have been king here in this land,' he said, waving his handtoward the interior, 'I could have bribed and shot my way to the throneof Albania. Don't you realize what that means to a man like me? There isstill a chance and if I could keep your wife alive, if I could see herbroken in reason and in health, a poor, skeleton, gibbering thing thatknelt at my feet when I came near her I should recover the mastery ofmyself. Believe me,' he said, nodding his head, 'your wife will have thebest medical advice that it is possible to obtain.'
"Kara went out and I did not see him again for a very long time. He sentword, just a scrawled note in the morning, to say my wife had died."
John Lexman rose up from his seat, and paced the apartment, his headupon his breast.
"From that moment," he said, "I lived only for one thing, to punishRemington Kara. And gentlemen, I punished him."
He stood in the centre of the room and thumped his broad chest with hisclenched hand.
"I killed Remington Kara," he said, and there was a little gasp ofastonishment from every man present save one. That one was T. X.Meredith, who had known all the time.