CHAPTER XV
PUT TO THE QUESTION
The noise of the report had not yet died away, and the cloud of smokegot wholly clear of the muzzle of the Baron's revolver, when the doorof the room was thrown open to admit some one, who in low, clear,even, authoritative tones, asked a question--
"Who's making this noise?"
Whether the Baron's aim had this time been truer there was, as yet, noevidence to show. Cyril had, at any rate, escaped uninjured. At thesound of the voice, which, although it had been heard by him soseldom, had already become too familiar, he glanced round towards thequestioner. It was Lawrence. He stood just inside the door, lookingfrom the Baron to the involuntary target of that gentleman's littlepleasantries. Close behind him were two men, whom Paxton immediatelyrecognised as old acquaintances; the one was the individual who hadtaken a bed for the night at Makell's Hotel, who had shown such apertinacious interest in his affairs, and whom he had afterwardssuspected of an attempt to effect an entrance through his bedroomdoor; the second was the person who, the next morning, had followedhim to the Central Station, and of whose too eager attentions he hadrid himself by summoning a constable.
In the looks which Lawrence directed towards the Baron there seemed tobe something both of reproach and of contempt.
"Pray, what is the meaning of this?"
The Baron made a movement in the air with one hand, then pointed withit to the revolver which he held in the other.
"My friend, it is only a little practice which I have--that is all! Itis necessary that I keep my hand well in--not so--eh?"
Lawrence's voice as he replied was alive with quiet scorn.
"I would suggest that you should choose a more appropriate occasion onwhich to indulge yourself in what you call a little practice. Did itnot occur to you, to speak of nothing else, that it might be as wellto make as little, instead of as much, noise as you convenientlycould?" He went and stood in front of Mr. Paxton. "I am sorry, sir,that we should meet again under such disagreeable conditions; but, asyou are aware, the responsibility for what has occurred cannot,justly, be laid either on my friends or on myself."
Paxton's reply was curt. The abrupt, staccato, contemptuous tone inwhich he spoke was in striking contrast to Lawrence's mellifluousmurmurings.
"I am aware of nothing of the sort."
Lawrence moved his head with a slight gesture of easy courtesy, whichmight, or might not, have been significative of his acquiescence inthe other's point-blank contradiction.
"What is that upon your face--blood?"
"That is proof positive of your bungling friend's bad markmanship. Hewould, probably, have presented me with a few further proofs of hisincapacity had you postponed your arrival for a few minutes longer."
Lawrence repeated his former courteous inclination.
"My friend is a man of an unusual humour. Apt, occasionally, like therest of us, to rate his capacities beyond their strict deserts." Heturned to the two men who had come with him into the room. "Untie Mr.Paxton's legs." Then back again to Cyril. "I regret, sir, that it isimpossible for me, at the moment, to extend the same freedom to yourarms and hands. But it is my sincerest trust that, in a very fewminutes, we may understand each other so completely as to place it inmy power to restore you, without unnecessary delay, to that positionin society from which you have been withdrawn."
Although Paxton was silent outwardly, his looks were eloquent of thefeelings with which he regarded the other's well-turned phrases. Whenhis legs had been freed, the two newcomers, standing on either side ofhim as if they had been policemen, urged him forward, until he stoodin front of the heavy table which occupied the centre of the room. Onthe other side of the table Lawrence had already seated himself on theonly chair which the place contained. The Baron, still holding hisrevolver, had perched himself on a corner of the table itself.Lawrence, leaning a little forward on his chair, with one arm restingon the table, never lost his bearing of apparent impartiality, and,while he spoke with an air of quiet decision, never showed signs of aruffled temper.
"I have already apologised to you, sir, for the discomforts which youmay have endured; but, as you are aware, those discomforts you havebrought upon yourself."
Paxton's lips curled, but he held his peace.
"My friends and I are in the position of men who make war uponsociety. As is the case in all wars, occasions arise on whichexceptional measures have to be taken which, though unpleasant for allthe parties chiefly concerned, are inevitable. You are an example ofsuch an occasion."
Cyril's reply was sufficiently scornful.
"You don't suppose that your wind-bag phrases hoodwink me. You're ascoundrel; and, in consort with other scoundrels, you have takenadvantage of a gentleman. I prefer to put the matter into plainEnglish."
To this little outburst Lawrence paid no attention. For all the noticehe seemed to take of them the contemptuous words might have remainedunuttered.
"It is within your knowledge that, in pursuit of my profession, Iappropriated the Duchess of Datchet's diamonds. I do not wish toimpute to you, Mr. Paxton, acts of which you may have not been guilty;therefore I say that I think it possible it was by accident youacquired that piece of information. It is in the same spirit ofleniency that I add that, at the refreshment-rooms at the CentralStation, it was by mistake that you took my Gladstone bag in exchangefor your own. I presume that at this time of day you do not propose todeny that such an exchange was effected. In that Gladstone bag ofmine, which you took away with you by mistake instead of your own, asyou know, were the Datchet diamonds. What I have now to ask you todo--and I desire, I assure you, Mr. Paxton, to ask you with allpossible courtesy--is to return those diamonds at once to me, theirrightful owner."
"By what process of reasoning do you make out that you are therightful owner of the Datchet diamonds?"
"By right of conquest."
"Right of conquest! Then, following your own line of reasoning, eventaking it for granted that all you have chosen to say of me iscorrect, I in my turn have become their rightful owner."
"Precisely. But the crux of the position is this. If the duchess couldget me into her power she would stick at nothing to extort from me therestitution of the stones. In the same way, now that I have you in mypower, I intend to stick at nothing which will induce theirrestoration from you."
"The difference between you and myself is, shortly, this--you are athief, and I am an honest man."
"Pray, Mr. Paxton, what is your standard of honesty? If you wereindeed the kind of honest man that you would appear to wish us tobelieve you are, you would at once have handed the stones to thepolice, or even have restored them to the duchess."
"How do you know that I have not?"
"I will tell you how I know. If you had been so honest there would notbe in existence now a warrant to arrest you on the charge of stealingthem. Things being as they are, it happens that there is."
"It's an impudent lie!"
"Possibly you may believe it to be an impudent lie; still, it is thetruth. A warrant for your arrest has been granted to-day to yourfriend Ireland, of Scotland Yard, on his sworn information. I merelymention this as evidence that you have not handed the stones to thepolice, that you have not returned them to the duchess, but that youhave retained them in your possession with a view of using them forpurposes of your own, and that, therefore, your standard of moralityis about on a level with ours."
"What you say is, from first to last, a tissue of lies. You hound! Youknow that! Although it is a case of five to one, my hands are tied,and so it's safe to use what words you please."
Lawrence, coming closer to the table, leaned both his elbows on theboard, and crossed his arms in front of him.
"It seems, Mr. Paxton, as if you, a man of whose existence I wasunaware until the other day, have set yourself to disappoint me in twoof the biggest bids I have ever made for fortune and for happiness. Iam a thief. It has never been made sufficiently p
lain to me that thedifference between theft and speculation is such a vital one as toclearly establish the superiority of the one over the other. But evena thief is human--sometimes very human. I own I am. And it chancesthat, for some days now, I had begun to dream dreams of a most amusingkind--dreams of love--yes, and dreams of marriage. I chanced to meet acertain lady--I do not think, Mr. Paxton, that I need name any names?"
"It is a matter of indifference to me whether you do so or not."
"Thank you, very much. With this certain lady I found myself in love.I dreamt dreams of her--from which dreams I have recently arisen. Anew something came into my life. I even ventured, in my new-learnedpresumption, to ask her would she marry me. Then for the first time Ilearned that what I asked for already had been given, that what I solonged for already was your own. It is strange how much one suffersfrom so small a thing. You'd not believe it. In our first fall, then,it seems that you have thrown me.
"Then there is this business of the Datchet jewels. A man of yourexperience cannot suppose that an affair of this magnitude can bearranged and finished in a moment. It needs time, and carefulplanning, and other things to boot. I speak as one who knows. Supposeyou planned some big haul upon the Stock Exchange, collected yourresources, awaited the propitious second, and, when it came, broughtoff your coup. If in that triumphant moment some perfect stranger wereto carry off, from underneath your very nose, the spoils for which youhad risked so much, and which you regarded, and rightly regarded, asyour own, what would your feelings be towards such an one? Would younot feel, at least, that you would like to have his blood? If you havesufficient imagination to enable you to place yourself in such asituation, you will then be able to dimly realise what, at the presentmoment, our feelings are towards you."
Paxton's voice, when he spoke, was, if possible, more contemptuousthan ever.
"I care nothing for your feelings."
"Precisely; and, by imparting to us that information, you make ourtask much easier. We, like others, can fight for our own hands--and weintend to. You see, Mr. Paxton, that, although I did the actualconveying of the diamonds, and therefore the major share of the spoilis mine, there were others concerned in the affair as well as myself,and they naturally regard themselves as being entitled to a share ofthe profits. You have, consequently, others to deal with as well asmyself, for we, to be plain, are many. And our desire is that youshould understand precisely what it is we wish to do. The first thingwhich we wish you to do is to tell us where, at the present moment,the diamonds are?"
"Then I won't, even supposing that I know!"
Lawrence went on without seeming to pay any heed to Cyril'sunqualified refusal--
"The second thing which we wish you to do--supposing you to haveplaced the diamonds where it will be difficult for us to reachthem--is to give us an authority which will be sufficient to enable usto demand, as your agents, if you choose, that the diamonds be handedto us without unnecessary delay."
"I will do nothing of the kind."
Again Lawrence seemed to allow the refusal to go unheeded.
"And we would like you to understand that, so soon as the diamonds arerestored to us, you will be free to go, and to do, and say exactlywhat you please, but that you will continue to be our prisoner tillthey are."
"If my freedom is dependent on my fulfilling the conditions which youwould seek to impose, I shall continue to be what you call yourprisoner until I die; but, as it happens, my freedom is contingent onnothing of the sort, as you will find."
"We would desire, also, Mr. Paxton, that you should be under nodelusion. It is far from being our intention that what, as you put it,we call your imprisonment should be a period of pleasant probation; onthe contrary, we intend to make it as uncomfortable as we can--which,believe me, is saying not a little."
"That, while I am at your mercy, you will behave in a cowardly andbrutal fashion I have no doubt whatever."
"More. We have no greater desire than you have yourself that youshould continue to be, what we call, our prisoner. With a view,therefore, to shortening the duration of your imprisonment we shallleave no stone unturned--even if we have to resort to all the torturesof the Spanish Inquisition--to extort from you the things which werequire."
Paxton laughed--shortly, dryly, scornfully.
"I don't know if your intention is to be impressive; if it is, I giveyou my word that you don't impress me a little bit. Your attempts towrap up your rascality in fine-sounding phrases strike me as beingtypical of the sort of man you are."
"Mr. Paxton, before we come to actual business, let me adviseyou--and, believe me, in this case my advice is quite unprejudiced--notto treat us to any more of this kind of talk! Can't you realise thatit is not for counters we are playing? That men of our sort, in ourposition, are not likely to stick at trifles? That it is a case of headyou lose, tails we win--for, while it is obviously a fact that we havenothing we can lose, it is equally certainly a fact that there isnothing you can gain? So learn wisdom; be wise in time; endeavour to bewhat I would venture to call conformable. Be so good as to give me yourclose attention. I should be extremely obliged, Mr. Paxton, if youwould give me an answer to the question which I am about to put to you.Where, at the present moment, are the Datchet diamonds?"
"I would not tell you even if I knew."
"You do know. On that point there can be no room for doubt. We mean toknow, too, before we've done with you. Is that your final answer?"
"It is."
"Think again."
"Why should I think?"
"For many reasons. I will give still another chance; I will repeat myquestion. Before you commit yourself to a reply, do consider. Tell mewhere, at the present moment, are the Datchet diamonds?"
"That I will never tell you."
Mr. Lawrence made a movement with his hands which denoted disapproval.
"Since you appear to be impervious to one sort of reasoning, perhapsyou may be more amenable to another kind. We will do our best to makeyou." Mr. Lawrence turned to the man who had been addressed asSkittles. "Be so good as to put a branding-iron into the fire, the oneon which there is the word 'thief.'"