impressive than any words.
CHAPTER THIRTY.
THE MOTIVE AND THE MORAL.
On the following night we took leave of the strong, big-handed monk onthe railway platform in Lucca, and entered the train on the first stageof our journey back to England. He was to return at once to his hermitcell above the swirling Serchio, and remain, as before, the silentguardian of that great secret which, had it been revealed, would haveastounded the world.
Anxiety consumed us, knowing not how Mabel had fared. Yet with theknowledge that the baneful influence of the adventurer Dawson had beennow removed, we returned home somewhat easier in mind. I was wealthy,it was true, rich beyond my wildest dreams, yet the hope of thepossession of Mabel as my wife, that had been the mainspring of my life,had been snapped, and in those pensive hours as the sleeping-car expresstore northward across the plains of Lombardy and through Switzerland andFrance, my despairing thoughts were all of her and of her future.
A cab took us direct from Charing Cross to Great Russell Street, where Ifound a note from her dated from Grosvenor Square, asking me to callthere on the instant of our return. This I did after a hasty wash, andCarter showed me unceremoniously and at once up to that bigwhite-and-gold drawing-room so familiar to me.
In a few moments she entered, looking sweet and charming in hermourning, a smile upon her lips, her hand extended to me in gladwelcome. Her face, I thought, betrayed a keen anxiety, and the pallorof her cheeks showed how sorely her heart was torn by grief and terror.
"Yes, Mabel, I am back again," I said, holding her hand and gazing intoher eyes. "I have discovered your father's secret!"
"What?" she cried in eager surprise, "you have? Tell me what it is--dotell me," she urged breathlessly.
I first obtained from her a promise of secrecy, and then, standing withher, I described our visit to the lonely hermit's cell, our reception bythe monk Antonio, and our subsequent discoveries.
She listened in blank amazement at my story of the hidden treasure ofthe Vatican, until I described the attack made upon me by Dawson, andits tragic sequel, whereupon she cried--
"Then if that man is dead--actually dead--I am free!"
"How? Explain!" I demanded.
"Well, now that circumstances have combined to thus liberate me, I willconfess to you," she responded after a brief pause. Her face hadsuddenly flushed and glancing across at the door, she first reassuredherself that it was closed. Then in a deep, intense voice she said,looking straight into my face with those wonderful eyes of hers, "I havebeen the victim of a foul, base plot which I will explain, so that,knowing the whole truth, you may be able to judge how I have suffered,and whether I have not acted from a sense of right and duty. Fordevilish cunning and ingenuity the conspiracy against me surely has noequal, as you will see. I have only now succeeded in discovering thereal truth and the deep hidden motive behind it all. My first meetingwith Herbert Hales was apparently accidental, in Widemarsh Street,Hereford. I was only a girl just finishing my schooldays, and as fullof romantic ideas concerning men as all girls are. I saw him often, andalthough I knew that he picked up a precarious living on race-courses, Iallowed him to court me. At first I confess that I fell deeply in lovewith him, a fact which he did not fail to detect, and during that summerat Mayvill I met him secretly on many evenings in the park. After wehad thus been acquainted about three months, he one night suggested thatwe should marry, but by that time, having detected that his love for mewas only feigned, I refused. Evening after evening we met, but Isteadfastly declined to marry him, until one night he showed himself inhis true colours, for to my abject amazement he told me that he was wellacquainted with my father's life-story, and further he alleged thatthere was one dark incident connected with it--namely that my father, inorder to possess himself of the secret by which he had gained hiswealth, had murdered the Italian seaman, Pensi, on board the _AnnieCurtis_ off the Spanish coast. I refused to hear such a terribleallegation, but to my surprise he caused me to meet my father's friend,the man Dawson, by appointment, and the last-named declared that he wasthe actual witness of my father's crime. When we were alone that samenight as we walked by a bypath across the park he put his intentions tome plainly--namely, that I should be compelled to accept him as myhusband, and marry him is secret against my father's knowledge.Otherwise he would give information to the police regarding theallegation against my father."
"The blackguard!" I cried.
Continuing, she said, "He pointed out how Dawson, my father's closestfriend, was the actual witness, and so completely did I find myself andmy father's reputation in his unscrupulous hands, that I was compelled,after a week of vain resistance, to accept his condition of secrecy andconsent to the odious marriage. From that moment, although I returnedhome the instant we were made man and wife, I was completely in hispower, and had to pay blackmail to him at every demand. After he hadsecured me as his victim, his true passionate instincts--those of a manwho lived by his wits and to whom a woman's heart was of no account--were almost instantly revealed, and from that moment until the present,although believed to be a single girl, and chaperoned to all sorts offunctions in the brightest set in London, yet I lived in mortal terrorof the man who was by law my husband."
She paused to gain breath, and I saw that her lips were white, and thatshe was trembling.
"Fortunately," she went on at last, "you were able to rescue me,otherwise the plot would have been successful in every particular.Until yesterday, I was entirely unaware of the real motive of forcing meinto that marriage, but now it is revealed I can see the deep cunning ofthe master mind that planned it. Herbert Hales, it seems, first soughtme out because of a chance remark of old Mr. Hales regarding my father'sgreat and mysterious fortune. An adventurer, he saw that he mightcontract marriage with myself, as heiress to my father's possessions.When we had been acquainted about a month, Dawson chanced to be overfrom Italy, staying with us at Mayvill for a few days, and one eveningwhile out shooting wood pigeons he discovered us walking together at theedge of the wood skirting the park. The instant he saw us he formed adevilish design, and next day, set about making inquiries regardingHales, and, ascertaining the character of the man, met him and made acurious compact with him to the effect that if he, Dawson, so arrangedmatters that a secret marriage was contracted between myself and Hales,the latter was, in the case of my father's death, to receive the sum oftwo thousand a year in lieu of any claim against the estate on hiswife's behalf. He pointed out to Hales that by a secret marriage withme he would obtain a source of continual revenue, as I dare not refusehis demands for money, because if I, on my part, exposed the secret ofour union, he could at once take up his correct position as the husbandof the millionaire's daughter. This having been arranged, he told Halesmany true facts concerning my father's life at sea in order to misleadme, but added an allegation which, being corroborated by himself, Iunfortunately believed to be true, that my father had committed murderin order to obtain that little pack of cards with the cipher upon them.Dawson, who had quickly judged the character of Hales, secretly aidedhim to get me completely in his power, although, of course, I wasentirely unaware of it. His motive in securing my marriage in suchcompulsory circumstances was a far-seeing one, for he recognised thathad I married the man I loved, my husband would, on my father's death,see that my rights as heiress were properly established, while if, onthe other hand, I were Hales' wife, afraid to acknowledge my matrimonial_mesalliance_, and Hales was by the compact entirely in his power, hewould in the end obtain complete possession of my father's money. Heknew, of course, that his position as one of the holders of the secretof the Vatican treasure, as it now turns out to be, made it imperativefor my father to leave the management of my affairs in his hands, andtherefore he took every precaution to secure complete possession upon mypoor father's death. The ingenious manner in which he secretly placedHerbert Hales in possession of certain facts which, I believed, wereonly known to my father and myself, the subtle manner in which hec
orroborated his own untruth, alleging that my father was guilty of acrime, and the secrecy with which he aided Hales to marry me under sheercompulsion were, I can now see, marvels of clever conspiracy. I feared,nay, I felt convinced all along, that the terrible secret of my fatheras known to Hales was the awful truth, and it is only yesterday that,with the aid of old Mr. Hales, I succeeded in discovering in a backstreet in Grimsby a man named Palmer, who was seaman on board the _AnnieCurtis_ and present at the Italian's death. He tells me that theallegation against my father is absolutely false, and that on thecontrary he was the man's best and kindest friend, and in acknowledgmentof this, the Italian gave him the little chamois leather bag containingthe cards. My fears as to the secret having been obtained by foul playare therefore entirely set at rest; and the