CHAPTER THIRTY
NEARING THE TRUTH!
It was one o'clock when Mr. Maverick Narkom, pacing uneasily up and downthe narrow strip of turf just outside the boundary wall of WutheringGrange, saw the door at the wall angle flash open and shut again, andwithout so much as a murmur of sound looked up to find Cleek standingwithin a few paces of him.
"My dear fellow! Gad, I never was so glad to see anybody in all mydays," exclaimed the superintendent, swooping down on him in a littlewhirlwind of excitement. "Cinnamon! You'll never guess what's happened,Cleek, never! After all my instructions, those blundering idiots oflocal police were too late to catch Margot and her crew at Wimbledon,the house where young Raynor visited, as you wrote me. I went downmyself directly Dollops brought me your note, but it was too late, thepolice had frightened her in some way----"
"It does not matter," said Cleek calmly. "I have come to the end of theriddle."
"The end?" gasped Mr. Narkom. "The end! Man alive, tell me who----"
"Patience, my friend; perhaps I ought not to have said that yet, somefew things remain to be discovered, but the first thing to do is tocarry out the murderer's message before it is too late, or the lettersget into the wrong hands."
"Whose letters?" exclaimed Mr. Narkom, naturally bewildered.
"The woman who lured Count de Louvisan, though that is not his name, tohis death, Lady Clavering----"
"Lady Clav---- Heavens, man, what possible motive could she have?"
"We shall see, my friend, if my ideas are right. Call up Lennard and thelimousine and let us go down to the cottage. With one more thread in myhand, and then to-night will see the knot unravelled."
With this Mr. Narkom was fain to be content, and once in the car, thefew minutes that elapsed before they reached Gleer Cottage were passedin silence. At the gate, when the limousine drew up, Cleek arousedhimself from his reverie.
"Mr. Narkom, get the constables stationed on duty near that room out ofthe way. Put them outside somewhere where they won't be able to see orhear what goes on at the back of the house. Then make an excuse ofhaving to examine the body in reference to some new evidence that's justcropped up. I'll join you there in one minute."
Mr. Narkom gave a nod of comprehension and vanished up the path, leavinghis great ally to carry out his plans in his own inimitable fashion.
That was the last the superintendent saw of him until full twentyminutes later when, with his customary soundlessness, he came up out ofthe gloom of the neglected garden, entered the rear door of the cottage,and joined him in the room where the body of the dead man still hung,spiked to the wall, with knees bent, head lolling, and the lantern inNarkom's hand splashing a grotesque shadow of him on the side of thechimney breast.
Cleek walked over to that ghastly human crucifix and regarded the deadman bitterly, his lips puckered, and his whole expression one ofunspeakable contempt.
"So it has come to this at last, has it, De Morcerf?" he said, halfaudibly. "Well, was it worth the price, do you think? Peace to you, or,at least, such peace as you deserve. You've paid your scot and passedout eternally. As for the rest---- Mr. Narkom!"
"Yes, old chap?"
"I noticed last night, when I was down on my knees following the trailof the _Huile Violette_, that there was a section of the flooring whichhas evidently been raised lately, as it was fastened down with newnails. Locate the place for me--it's over their somewhere--and standthere while I do a little measuring and counting."
Narkom moved over in the direction indicated, searched about for a timewith a magnifying glass, and finally announced the discovery of theplace he had been set to look for.
"Good heavens above, old chap, how you notice things! Fancy yourremarking that when you were looking for something totally different! Isay what on earth are you doing?"
"Measuring," replied Cleek, stepping off the distance between the spotwhere the body hung and that where Narkom knelt. "Three feet, one yard;three yards---- No, that won't do. 'Nine feet from the body' doesn'twork out, so it's not that. Nine paces are impossible--room's tooshort--and nine boards---- Hum-m-m! That's poorer than the rest--doesn'tgo half the way. Clearly then, if my theory is correct, it's _not_ thebody that's the starting point. How about the mantelpiece then? Let'shave a try. Nine feet? No go! Nine boards, then? Oh, piffle! that'sworse than ever. It leads off in a totally different direction. But stopa bit! These boards run up and down the room, not across it; and as itis undoubted that the measurement goes to the left, why, two and fourmake six. Hum-m-m! Six feet from the corner of the mantelpieceto----Hullo! that brings me exactly opposite to where you stand, doesn'tit? And counting the board between us runs to--one, two, three, four,five, six, seven, eight, nine! Exactly nine boards across the room! Gotit, by Jupiter! Three paces from the body bring one to the mantelpiece.And paces are usually designated in a diagram by X's. And nine boardsacross the room does the trick! Letters, she said, letters! That was thefirst clue. Letters that might fall into Margot's hands; and as thatdead wretch was Margot's ally once upon a time, and might threaten togive the things over to her if his demands were not acceded to----Victoria! He will have hidden them there, unless I'm the biggest kind ofan ass, and can no longer put two and two together!"
Speaking, he moved rapidly across the room to the spot where Narkomstood, knelt, and in five minutes' time had the board up. Under it therelay something tied up in an old white silk handkerchief; and when theknots of that were unfastened three thick packets of yellow,time-discoloured letters, tied up with old neckties and frayed silkenshoelaces, tumbled out upon the floor. One and all were addressed to "M.Anatole de Villon," and were written in a woman's hand.
Cleek snapped the binding of the first bundle, looked at the signatureappended to the letters, and then passed them over to Narkom.
"There is the answer to the riddle," he said. "Poor soul--poor, poorunhappy soul! Under God, she shall suffer no more from this night on!And he would have sold her--sold her for money had he lived."
Narkom made no reply in words. He simply glanced at the signatureattached to the first letter, then sucked in his breath with a sort ofshuddering sigh, and grew very, very still.
"Let's get out!" said Cleek in a sharp, biting voice. "I can't breathein the presence of that dead beast any longer. 'Who breaks pays!' Yes,by God, he does!"
He turned and got out of the room, out of the house, and forged backthrough the darkness toward the spot where the limousine waited.
Halfway up the lane Narkom overtook him.
"Cleek, dear chap," he said, plucking him by the sleeve, "in the name ofheaven, what is to be done now? The man is my friend. He believes inher; he loves her; and on my soul I believe that she loves him. Dear oldchap, isn't there something better and nobler than human justice,something higher than the laws of man?"
"Yes," said Cleek, "a great deal higher. There's God and there'shumanity. The woman has paid and paid and paid, as erring women mustalways do; but if I can help it, she shall pay no longer. I tell you Iwill compound a felony that her secret may be kept."
"And I'll assist you in it, old chap; I'll compound it with you!" saidNarkom with quiet impressiveness. "Not because the man is my friend,Cleek, but because--oh, well, because the woman is a _woman_!"
"And they have a hard road to travel at best," supplemented Cleek. "Solet's give a sorely tried one a lift and a bit of sunlight on the long,dark way! You see how it came about, do you not? She made theappointment with him to meet her at Gleer Cottage because it was alonely as well as a convenient spot. I dare say that when he learnedthe character of the place it struck him as being a safe one in which tohide the letters in case of any attempt being made to steal them fromhim. When he set out earlier than the appointed hour for that purpose,the--well, _the other party_ was on the watch and saw where they wereput, yet didn't have an opportunity to remove them at once, so markedthe clue down in that particular manner on the dead man's bosom, inorder to tell Margot that she had been avenged and the letters hidden
. Iwill tell you the story presently, but first let us get back to GeneralRaynor."
"Raynor!" ejaculated Mr. Narkom, "Surely it was not he who----"
"Committed the murder," finished Cleek. "No, luckily for him, he foundit already committed. No, it is these letters that he wanted. Here weare at the limousine at last, thank fortune. The Grange, Lennard, asfast as you can make it, my lad."
Lennard got there in record time, depositing them at the gates insomething less than a quarter of an hour later. And here Dollops, whowas patiently waiting in the shadow of the wall, rose to meet them asthey alighted.
"Gawd's truth, gov'ner, is it you at last? I've been nigh off my biscuitwonderin' wot 'ad become of you, sir," he began as he approached; andwould probably have said more but that Cleek interrupted him.
"No time for talking now, Dollops," said he. "We are at the end of thetrail and even moments count. Into the limousine with you, my lad, andlet Lennard drive you over to Clavering Close. Ask for Miss Lorne whenyou get there, and give her this message. Say that she and LadyKatharine are to stop where they are until I come for them in person.Understand?"
"Yes, sir. And when I've done that, wot next, if you please?"
"Go home and go to bed; that's all. Good-night. Cut along!"
The boy and the limousine were gone like a flash.
"Come along, Mr. Narkom. Let us go and pay our respects to the General,"said Cleek; then he pushed open the gates and passed into the grounds,with the agitated superintendent trotting along by his side.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
HOW THE TRUTH WAS TOLD
In the closed and curtained library General Raynor paced up and down,silent, anxious, alone, his nerves raw, his face haggard, his eyesbrightening with expectancy every time a breeze shook or bellied thedraperies hanging over the open window, but dimming again when theysagged back into position without anything coming of their disturbance.
"Waiting, you see," said Cleek in a whisper as he and Narkom emergedfrom the screen of the trees, and saw the chink of light made by thewind-blown curtains, and the shadow which moved back and forth andmomentarily blotted it. "Poor old chap! He must be suffering torments.Come on! Step lightly! Make no noise until we are at the window's ledge.This is the end of his waiting at last!"
Evidently the General was of that opinion, also, when, a few momentslater, he heard a footstep on the gravel, and, halting to listen and tomake sure, heard that footstep come on and up the terrace steps. With aquick intaking of the breath and a whispered, "Is it you? Is it you atlast?" he moved fleetly to the window, twitched aside the curtains, andlet the guarded light streak outward into the night.
It fell full upon two men--Cleek and Narkom--standing within an arm'sreach of the indrawn sashes and the divided drapery.
A flash of sudden pallor, followed quickly by an angry flush, passedover the General's face as he saw and recognized Cleek.
"Really, Mr. Barch, this is carrying your little pleasantries too far,"he rapped out in a voice that had a little tremble in it. "Will youallow me to say that we are not accustomed to guests who get up andprowl about the place at all hours of the night, and turn up suddenly athalf-past one in the morning with uninvited acquaintances."
"Quite so," said Cleek, "but the law is no respecter of any man'sconvenience, General."
"The law? The law?" The General's sudden fright was pitiful. He droppedback a step under the shock of the thing, and all the colour drained outof his lips and cheeks. "What utter absurdity! What have I to do withthe law? What have you, Mr. Barch?"
"Cleek, if you want the truth of it, General--Cleek of the Forty Faces,Cleek of Scotland Yard. It's time to lay aside the mask of 'PhilipBarch' forever."
"Cleek? Cleek?" The General's cry was scarcely more than a shrillwhisper. "God! You that man? You? And all the time you have been here inmy house. Oh, my God! is this the end?"
"Yes, I fear it is, General," said Cleek in reply, as he stepped pasthim and moved into the room. "If you dance to the devil's music in youryouth, my friend, be sure he will come round with the hat in the days ofyour age! Last night one of the follies of your youth came to itsinevitable end: last night a man was murdered who---- Stop! Doors won'tlead a man out of his retribution. Come away from that one. Thegentleman who is with me, General, is Mr. Maverick Narkom,superintendent of Scotland Yard. Isn't that enough to show you howimpossible it is to evade what is to be? Besides, why should you want toget out of the room? It's not your life that's in danger, it's yourhonour; and there's no need to make any attempt to prevent either yourwife or your son learning that when both are deep in the drugged sleepto which you sent them."
"My God!" The General collapsed into a chair.
"That's right," said Cleek. "Sit down to it, General, for it is likelyto be a strength-sapping time. I've something to say to you; and Mr.Narkom has still something to hear. But first, for the sake ofemergencies, and to have things handy if required, allow me to take acertain precaution."
As he spoke he moved over to the window, and switched the curtains overthem.
"General," he said, facing about again, "the laws of society, the lawswhich prevail in civilized communities, are pretty rotten things. If awoman errs in her youth she pays for it all her whole life long--insorrow, in tears, in never-ceasing disgrace. If the same law prevailedfor both sexes, and men had to pay for the sins of their youth as womenmust for theirs, how many of them think you would be out of sackclothto-day? Atonement is for the man, never for the woman. For Eve, youthmust stand always as a time of purity, unspotted by a single sin. ForAdam, it stands only as a time of folly that may be brushed aside and ofsin that may be outlived. Probably you were no worse in the days of youryouth, General, than ninety-nine men out of every hundred, but----" Hegave his shoulders a shrug, and broke off.
But of a sudden he reached round and took a packet of letters from thetail pockets of his evening coat, and threw them to the stricken man.
"Carry those things to Lady Clavering and let her burn them with her ownhands," he said. "They are letters which caused last night's crime--theletters of Mademoiselle Marise de Morcerf, a pretty school-girl, whowrote them in all innocence to Lieutenant Raynor out there in Malta, allthose years ago. They were stolen by the man who was christened underthe name of Anatole de Vellon, and died under that of Count Franz deLouvisan."
The General plucked up the letters with a wild sort of eagerness and satforward in his chair, breathing hard.
"You know then, you know?" he said, in a shaking voice, the pallor onhis face deepening until he was absolutely ghastly. "Is there, then, nokeeping anything from you, that you are able to unearth secrets such asthis--things that no one but our two wretched selves knew in all theworld? And you know how that man, that De Louvisan, had blackmailedher?"
"Yes, General, I know. But the source of my knowledge is by no means somiraculous as you seem to fancy. It came in part from those letters andin part from your guest, Lord St. Ulmer."
"St. Ulmer? St. Ulmer? What can he know of this? He is in no wayconcerned. He is little better than a stranger to me, despite hisrelationship to my wife."
"Nevertheless, he knows more than you fancy, General. He, too, was avisitor to Gleer Cottage last night. And he went, as you went, myfriend, determined to be rid of the danger of Count Franz de Louvisan'stongue, even if he had to descend to crime to do it."
"St. Ulmer! St. Ulmer!" repeated the General with an air ofbewilderment. "Why should he? What reason could he have for dreading theman?"
"A very good one, as you will see when I explain to you that St. Ulmer,as you call him, has no more right to the title than I myself!"
"An impostor!" gasped both the General and Mr. Narkom with one voice.
"Yes, an impostor," said Cleek quietly. "I recognized him directly I wasable to get face to face with him. He was known as Paul the Panther,though Paul Berton is his name, an Apache, a boon companion of Margot,the queen of the Apaches, and of Anatole de Villon, a cousin of thegreatest scoundrel in
Paris. This man Paul had been valet to the realLord St. Ulmer, probably engaged in Paris, and went with him to theArgentine. With him also Paul took the effects and credentials ofanother Apache, Ferdinand Lovetski, the maker of that special blacking,'Jetanola.' He had been killed for refusing to give up to the Apacheshis little fortune, and accordingly, Anatole annexed it without thepermission of Margot, and hence brought down on him her wrath. Hemanaged to slip away with his master, and whether he had any hand inkilling him in the Argentine, heaven alone knows. What is certain isthat he decided to return to Europe and finally to England as Lord St.Ulmer, and in this he succeeded. The old solicitor had died. Both youand your wife had seen but little of St. Ulmer in later years, so that,armed with all the papers and his own quick wits, it was not sodifficult as you would have imagined. Had it not been for the straymeeting with Anatole de Villon, who was himself masquerading here as theCount de Louvisan, all would have gone well. As it was, one roguethreatened the other, and De Louvisan held the trump cards. It was hisplan to marry Lady Katharine, and St. Ulmer had to submit, for fear notonly that he should be betrayed to the police as an impostor, but incase Anatole should give him up to Margot. He played on LadyKatharine's feelings, therefore, so as to make her give up youngClavering and marry the count. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, atthe last minute De Louvisan quarrelled with him; he had some otherplans, he said, connected with letters----"
"Good heavens! I see now," gasped the General. "De Louvisan played adouble game. Those letters were mine. He had contrived to steal themfrom me in Malta. There is really no harm in them, but Marise--LadyClavering--and I, had fancied ourselves in love many years ago, and shewas afraid, needlessly perhaps, that Sir Philip Clavering, who is thevery soul of honour himself, would disown her and cut the friendshipbetween him and myself. We had each found our true mates, and it was anunutterable shock to both to find that this wretch had threatened toinform Sir Philip, or else hand over the letters to Margot to publish ather will. I nearly went mad when Marise told me that she was going tomeet him. I think I went off my head for a few minutes; at any rate, Idid one of those unaccountable things for which people who have mentallapses are noted. It was after bedtime, long after, when the messagearrived, and struck all my thoughts into a bewildering sort of chaos. Iremember hanging up the receiver and turning to the door, but from thatmoment there is a blank until I found myself standing before thedressing mirror in my own room, not in the act of disrobing, as I oughtproperly to have been doing at that hour and in that place, but dressingmyself as if for dinner! I think you are aware of the fact that I useblack cosmetic on my moustache, Mr. Cleek? When that mental lapse passedand I came to myself, there I was with my hair freshly combed and in thevery act of applying the cosmetic to my moustache. I don't know how Igot into the room or when--everything is a blank to me.
"A not unusual thing under the circumstances, General. These suddenshocks produce effects of that sort frequently. You were not reallyaccountable, not really aware of what you did, or why--that, I suppose,is the explanation of how, when you came to think of going to thecottage and facing the man, you ran out of the house with the stick ofcosmetic still in your hand. You did, did you not?"
"Yes, although I was not aware of it until I arrived at the place."
"Hum-m-m! So I imagined. And the A-string? How did you come to takethat?"
"The A-string, Mr. Cleek?"
"Yes, the bit of catgut. Shall I be out in my reckoning, General, if Isay that as you crept out of the house something fell either on yourhead or your hands, something which proved to be a long thick piece ofcatgut, and that, without realizing what you were doing, or why, youcarried that, too, with you?"
"Good heavens, how do you know these things? Nobody, nobody on God'searth could have told you that, Mr. Cleek, for no living soul was there.But that is exactly what did happen. When I got into the cottage andfound Lady Clavering----"
"With a pink gauze petticoat under a pale green satin dress?"
"Yes. When I got there and found her in conversation with that wretch,why, those two things--the cosmetic and the catgut--were still in myhand. I had no use for them, of course, and as soon as I realized that Iwas holding them I threw them aside."
"So I supposed," said Cleek. "And the assassin found them there,although he _might_ have had one of the articles upon his person; notlikely, but he _might_, for he, too, uses it."
"The assassin?" The General looked at him sharply. "You know that, too?Who is he? What was his motive? Why did he spike that body to the wall?"
"We will come to that in good time, General," replied Cleek. "For thepresent let us stick to _your_ connection with the case, please. Afteryou had given your promise to Lady Clavering not to return to GleerCottage, why, may I ask, did you break it and go back?"
"I have told you in a measure, Mr. Cleek. I went back to make one lasteffort to move the man to pity. He must have been making use of the timefor some purpose of his own, not counting upon my coming back, for as Ireturned to the house I caught the distant sound of a hammer beingused, and he was savagely out of temper when he saw me. Springing at melike a wild animal, he cried out: 'Spying, were you? Damn you, I'llbrain you before you can give away what you saw. She shan't get shut ofme that way; nor shall you!' I ducked down under the sweep of the blowhe aimed at me, so that it whizzed past my head and the impetus of itcarried him half round; then, as he wheeled and gathered himself for asecond stroke, I half straightened and came at him with an upper cutthat landed squarely on the peak of his jaw and carried him off hisfeet. He went up and over, and the back of his head landed against theedge of the mantelpiece and stunned him. He dropped like a log. Ithought for the instant I had killed him, but a moment's examinationconvinced me that he was only stunned; indeed, was already showing signsof reviving; and I should certainly have stopped to see the matter outbut that I was sure I heard somebody moving in the garden, so as quicklyas I could, I got out and flew for dear life. I saw nobody and I heardnobody all the way back to this house, and you can guess my surprisewhen this morning brought news of the tragedy. I should have said tomyself that I had killed the man had he been found as I left him; butwhen I not only heard, but went and saw for myself, that he had beenfound nailed to the wall and marked with mysterious figures, I knew thatsome one else had slain him; and life has been a nightmare of terror andsuspense ever since."
"I can well believe it," said Cleek. "You have paid dearly for all yourfollies, General. But that is to be expected, for it is written, myfriend, that he who breaks _must_ pay. The laws of God are no more fixedin that respect than are the laws of man; and I, as the instrument ofthose man-made laws----" He shrugged his shoulders, and threw out bothhands with a sweeping and expressive movement. "Murder has been done,"he went on. "The law demands a life for a life, and my duty to the lawis to hang the murderer of that man, even though the victim may havemerited death twenty times over and the world be well rid of him.General"--he swung suddenly away from the chair against which he had allthe time been leaning with his back to it and his face toward theroom--"General, the law demands of the man-hunter that he shall be athing of iron, cold, passionless, inflexible, a mere machine for thecarrying out of its mandates, the probing of its riddles, the fulfilmentof its retribution. It allows him to possess no private sentiments, tomake no hero of a murderer, even though his crime be in the interest ofothers, and of itself brings good out of evil."
The General looked up at him, awed and silent. A strange and terribleimpressiveness was in Cleek's voice.
"General," he went on after a brief pause, "the bringing to justice ofthe Count de Louvisan's murderer must inevitably entail the exposure ofLady Clavering's secret and yours. That I would spare both you and her,if I could. The anguish you two have suffered I would let be the onlything that comes out of this crime if it were mine to say; but I am theinstrument of the law, and I must obey its dictates. I cannot shield theassassin, and I cannot shield you or her ladyship if this case has to bebrought up before
the courts. General, I know the murderer and I knowthe motive. It was a great one, that I grant you; and the carrying of itout was one of craft and cunning.
"As you have guessed, it was Paul Berton, alias St. Ulmer, who committedboth crimes; the killing of the keeper and De Louvisan. As you said justnow, Anatole had been playing a double game, and he had threatened tothrow over Lady Katharine and reveal the truth of the impostorship toMargot, thus earning his forgiveness from her for the stealing of thatother property, and if possible marrying her and sharing her rule. St.Ulmer came to the cottage in those few minutes before you and LadyClavering put in an appearance. He saw afterward what you did notsee--namely, what De Louvisan did in those few minutes you were absent.He saw, too, that length of catgut which you dropped, and when yourushed out, leaving the man unconscious, Paul Berton, or St. Ulmer,flashed into the room, caught that up and strangled the fellow where helay. He spiked him to the wall with the very hammer the hound hadassailed you with, and he would have accomplished all he had set out todo but for an accident. De Louvisan, or Anatole, had taken up a boardand hidden the letters beneath the floor. Paul had seen him do it andmeant to get them. But the noise he had made, he fancied, had attractedthe attention of either a constable or a Common keeper, for he heard thesound of some one stealing through the garden. That was Lady KatharineFordham walking in her sleep, poor girl. He had no time to lose, socaught up the stick of cosmetic you had dropped, and scrawled thosefigures on the dead man's shirt----"
"Their meaning, Cleek?" cried Narkom. "What was it?"
"A very simple one. Part of the Apache cipher. I remembered itafterward, and translated it thus:
"2 X 4 X 1 X 2. Hiding X letters X Paul X Hiding
"You see he meant that if Margot should arrive on the scene, she shouldknow that it was he, Paul, who had avenged the gang and hidden theletters. By this he meant to win his own pardon from Margot. As ithappened, she had already taken fright and left the country. The numberscounted to nine, and I reckoned that Paul, noting this fact, must havetrusted to luck to Margot being sharp enough to take it as a measurementof some kind. I took it to be nine boards, and was right, as you know.
"He would probably have gone back for the letters afterward, but he hadno time; he fled across the Common, headlong into the arms of theCommon keeper, whom he shot at and knocked senseless, making use of theman's clothing, as we know. These he buried later in the old ruin, andthere you will find them, General."
An exclamation burst from the lips of General Raynor, followed by thesound of something more startling, that of a pistol shot.
"God! What was that!" the General breathed in a frightened whisper atthe sound of the explosion.
"The end of De Louvisan's murderer, General, I hope, and the everlastingshutting of the door on Lady Clavering's secret and yours," said Cleek."Come quickly, before the servants arrive on the scene."
He led the way out of the room, and up the stairs to where was Lord St.Ulmer's room. Cleek opened the door with the key which had evidentlyreposed in his own pocket. A strange sight met their eyes. It wasevident that St. Ulmer, or Paul Berton, had been left handcuffed andbound by ropes to the bedpost, but he had managed to evade his bondagesufficiently to get to a drawer in which must have been a loadedrevolver, and he had thus set himself free.
"Let the dead past bury its dead," said Cleek quietly. "The world needonly know that one impostor killed another, and finally shot himselfwhen the law discovered the truth."
He bent down and swiftly removed the handcuffs from the still figure,and the General gave vent to a deep sigh of relief just as the startledservants came flocking up the staircase.
The riddle of the night had been solved, and their secret lay buried inthe grave.
* * * * *
It was an hour afterward. In the seclusion of the General's study, heand Narkom and Cleek sat talking over the events of the night.
"You must not accord me too much honour, General," said Cleek. "Forafter all I did not ferret out the entire truth until I came face toface with Paul Berton, who told me the facts, under force, it is true.It was, as I have already explained, he who killed the poor Commonkeeper when that unfortunate man interrupted his headlong dash forfreedom. Then, General, borrowing a leaf from the book of a certainperson known as the 'Vanishing Cracksman,' with whom he had had somedealings in other days, he leaped upon the unfortunate man, beat him tothe ground, and hastily robbed him of his uniform. You know the rest:the assassin's blows were perhaps harder than he had intended, and soanother life was added to the list. I confess I was puzzled at first byLady Katharine's part in the affair and the ermine cloak, as I knewthere were at least two women on the Common that night. But I managed tolook into Mrs. Raynor's room in one of my rambles, and there I saw anermine cloak soiled at the edges. The maid told me, unconscious of doingeither harm or good, that she had just fetched it from Lady Katharine'sroom, as she had borrowed it a couple of days ago. I had already made upmy mind after overhearing a certain interview between the lovers, thatLady Katharine must have acquired the habit of walking in her sleep, andso that part of the mystery was made clear. But I am afraid I have givenyou an unpleasant time, General, and I have had to spy about a gooddeal. However, I think we may agree with the immortal Shakespeare thatafter all, 'All's well that ends well.'"
He turned and put out his hand suddenly, and the General, with a littlechoking sound, put his own into it and breathed hard. There was acurious misty something lurking in his eyes.
Cleek smiled.
"Good-night!" he said softly, "and good-bye. Mr. Narkom and I will motorback to town, and perhaps on our way will make a point of calling atClavering Close and break the news to Lady Katharine of her erstwhilefather's death. She cannot grieve deeply, poor girl, for that which shehas never known--a father's devotion, or a father's love; but it willend her suspense. Good-night, General, once more."
He waited a brief moment, and their eyes met in a look of perfectunderstanding; then with a nod to Narkom, who was standing in thebackground watching them, he spun on his heel and went out into thenight whose riddle he had solved, leaving behind him that which is aboveall earthly things: a perfect peace and a still greater gratitude.
THE END
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