Chapter XXXVII
Probably Jean Briggerland never gave a more perfect representation ofshocked surprise than when old Jaggs announced that he was Jack Glover.
"Mr. Glover," she said incredulously.
"If you'll be kind enough to release my hands," said Jack savagely, "Iwill convince you."
Jean, all meekness, obeyed, and presently he stood up with a groan.
"You've nearly blinded me," he said, turning to the glass.
"If I'd known it was you----"
"Don't make me laugh!" he snapped. "Of course you knew who it was!" Hetook off the wig and peeled the beard from his face.
"Was that very painful?" she asked, sympathetically, and Jack snorted.
"How was I to know that it was you?" she demanded, virtuously indignant,"I thought you were a wicked old man----"
"You thought nothing of the sort, Miss Briggerland," said Jack. "Youknew who I was, and you guessed why I had taken on this disguise. I wasnot many yards from you when it suddenly dawned upon you that I couldnot sleep at Lydia Meredith's flat unless I went there in the guise ofan old man."
"Why should you want to sleep at her flat at all?" she asked innocently."It doesn't seem to me to be a very proper ambition."
"That is an unnecessary question, and I'm wasting my time when I answeryou," said Jack sternly. "I went there to save her life, to protect heragainst your murderous plots!"
"My murderous plots?" she repeated aghast. "You surely don't know whatyou're saying."
"I know this," and his face was not pleasant to see. "I have sufficientevidence to secure the arrest of your father, and possibly yourself. Formonths I have been working on that first providential accident ofyours--the rich Australian who died with such remarkable suddenness. Imay not get you in the Meredith case, and I may not be able to jail youfor your attacks on Mrs. Meredith, but I have enough evidence to hangyour father for the earlier crime."
Her face was blank--expressionless. Never before had she been brought upshort with such a threat as the man was uttering, nor had she ever beenin danger of detection. And all the time she was eyeing him so steadily,not a muscle of her face moving, her mind was groping back into thepast, examining every detail of the crime he had mentioned, seeking forsome flaw in the carefully prepared plan which had brought a good man toa violent and untimely end.
"That kind of bluff doesn't impress me," she said at last. "You're in apoor way when you have to invent crimes to attach to me."
"We'll go into that later. Where is Lydia?" he said shortly.
"I tell you I don't know, except that she has gone out for a drive. Iexpect her back very soon."
"Is your father with her?"
She shook her head.
"No, father went out early. I don't know who gave you authority tocross-examine me. Why, Jack Glover, you have all the importance of aFrench examining magistrate," she smiled.
"You may learn how important they are soon," he said significantly."Where is your chauffeur, Mordon?"
"He is gone, too--in fact, he is driving Lydia. Why?" she asked with alittle tightening of heart. She had only just been in time, she thought.So they had associated Mordon with the forgery!
His first words confirmed this suspicion.
"There is a warrant for Mordon which will be executed as soon as hereturns," said Jack. "We have been able to trace him in London and alsothe woman who presented the cheque. We know his movements from the timehe left Nice by aeroplane for Paris to the time he returned to Nice. Thepeople who changed the money for him will swear to his identity."
If he expected to startle her he was disappointed. She raised hereyebrows.
"I can't believe it is possible. Mordon was such an honest man," shesaid. "We trusted him implicitly, and never once did he betray ourtrust. Now, Mr. Glover," she said coolly, "might I suggest that aninterview with a gentleman in my bedroom is not calculated to increasemy servants' respect for me? Will you go downstairs and wait until Icome?"
"You'll not attempt to leave this house?" he said, and she laughed.
"Really, you're going on like one of those infallible detectives onereads about in the popular magazines," she said a little contemptuously."You have no authority whatever to keep me from leaving this house andnobody knows that better than you. But you needn't be afraid. Sit on thestairs if you like until I come down."
When he had gone she rang the bell for her maid and handed her anenvelope.
"I shall be in the saloon, talking to Mr. Glover," she said in a lowvoice. "I want you to bring this in and say that you found it in thehall."
"Yes, miss," said the woman.
Jean proceeded leisurely to her toilet. In the struggle her dress hadbeen torn, and she changed it for a pale green silk gown, and Jack,pacing in the hall below, was on the point of coming up to discover ifshe had made her escape, when she sailed serenely down the stairs.
"I should like to know one thing, Mr. Glover," she said as she went intothe saloon. "What do you intend doing? What is your immediate plan? Areyou going to spirit Lydia away from us? Of course, I know you're in lovewith her and all that sort of thing."
His face went pink.
"I am not in love with Mrs. Meredith," he lied.
"Don't be silly," she said practically, "of course you're in love withher."
"My first job is to get that money back, and you're going to help me,"he said.
"Of course I'm going to help you," she agreed. "If Mordon has been sucha scoundrel, he must suffer the consequence. I'm sure that you are tooclever to have made any mistake. Poor Mordon. I wonder what made him doit, because he is such a good friend of Lydia's, and seriously, Mr.Glover, I do think Lydia is being indiscreet."
"You made that remark before," he said quietly. "Now perhaps you'llexplain what you mean."
She shrugged her shoulders.
"They are always about together. I saw them strolling on the lawn lastnight till quite a late hour, and I was so scared lest Mrs.Cole-Mortimer noticed it too----"
"Which means that Mrs. Cole-Mortimer did not notice it. You're clever,Jean! Even as you invent you make preparations to refute any evidencethat the other side can produce. I don't believe a word you say."
There was a knock at the door and the maid entered bearing a letter on asalver.
"This was addressed to you, miss," she said. "It was on the halltable--didn't you see it?"
"No," said Jean in surprise. She took the letter, looked down at theaddress and opened it.
He saw a look of amazement and horror come to her face.
"Good God!" gasped Jean.
"What is it?" he said, springing up.
She stared at the letter again and from the letter to him.
"Read it," she said in a hollow voice.
"_Dear Mademoiselle_,
"_I have returned from London and have confessed to Madame Meredith that I have forged her name and have drawn L100,000 from her bank. And now I have learnt that Madame Meredith loves me. There is only one end to this--that which you see----_"
Jack read the letter twice.
"It is in his writing, too," he muttered. "It's impossible, incredible!I tell you I've had Mrs. Meredith under my eyes all the time she hasbeen here. Is there a letter from her?" he asked suddenly. "But no, itis impossible, impossible!"
"I haven't been into her room. Will you come up with me?"
He followed her up the stairs and into Lydia's big bedroom, and thefirst thing that caught his eye was a sealed letter on a table near thebed. He picked it up. It was addressed to him, in Lydia's handwriting,and feverishly he tore it open.
His face, when he had finished reading, was as white as hers had been.
"Where have they gone?" he asked.
"They went to San Remo."
"By car?"
"Of course."
Without a word he turned and ran down the stairs out of the house.
The taxi that had brought him in the role of Jaggs had gone, but downthe r
oad, a dozen yards away, was the car he had hired on the day hecame to Monte Carlo. He gave instructions to the driver and jumped in.The car sped through Mentone, stopped only the briefest while at theCustoms barrier whilst Jack pursued his inquiries.
Yes, a lady had passed, but she had not returned.
How long ago?
Perhaps an hour; perhaps less.
At top speed the big car thundered along the sea road, twisting andturning, diving into valleys and climbing steep headlands, and thenrounding a corner, Jack saw the car and a little crowd about it. Hisheart turned to stone as he leapt to the road.
He saw the backs of two Italian gendarmes, and pushing aside the littleknot of idlers, he came into the centre of the group and stopped. Mordonlay on his face in a pool of blood, and one of the policemen was holdingan ivory-handled revolver.
"It was with this that the crime was committed," he said in floridItalian. "Three of the chambers are empty. Now, at whom were the othertwo discharged?"
Jack reeled and gripped the mud-guard of the car for support, then hiseyes strayed to the opening in the wall which ran on the seaward side ofthe road.
He walked to the parapet and looked over, and the first thing he saw wasa torn hat and veil, and he knew it was Lydia's.