Part 14 (1/2)
”I don't believe it,” he exclaimed at length. ”You tell me what you know!”
”All that you yourself suspected, and made yourself ill with suspecting--and couldn't sleep for suspecting--long ago!”
Pitiful tone and tender hand carried a heavier conviction than the words. And now it was the patient who had sunk into the chair, the doctor bending over his bowed and quivering shoulders.
[Ill.u.s.tration: ”Mark my words closely”]
”You are not the first man, my dear Edenborough,” he went on, ”who would seem to have been betrayed in cold blood by a woman--by _the_ woman.
Mark my words closely. I say it seems so. I would not condemn the greatest malefactor unheard. I meant to hear Miss Trevellyn first--feeling in my bones, against all reason, that there may still be some unimaginable explanation. But, if the worst be true of her, then the best is true of you; for you are the first man I have known bear the brunt as you have borne it, my very dear fellow!”
”What makes you suspect her?” groaned Edenborough to the ground.
”It's not a case of suspicion--don't deceive yourself as to that, Edenborough. I _know_ that Miss Trevellyn produced--and parted with--those last two sketches about which there's been all the trouble.
I only _suspect_ that she got you to show her the originals, almost as soon as they were made, on the plea of her tremendous interest in the Navy.”
”Quite true; she did,” said Edenborough, but as though he did not appreciate what he was saying, as though something else had stuck in his mind. ”But it _was_ a tremendous interest!” he exclaimed, jumping up.
”It was her father's interest; his life, indeed! Isn't it inconceivable that his daughter--apart from everything else I've found her--that she of all people should do a thing like this?”
”I am afraid the inconceivable happens almost as often as the unexpected,” said Dollar, with a sigh. ”Criminology, indeed, prepares us for little else. Think of the perfectly good mothers who have flown to infanticide as the first relief of a mind unhinged! The inversion of the ruling pa.s.sions is one of the sure symptoms of insanity.”
”But of course she's mad,” cried Edenborough, ”if she's guilty at all.
But that's what I can't and won't believe. I can believe it one minute but not the next, just as I've suspected and laughed at my suspicions all this nightmare time. One look in her face has always been enough, and would be at this minute.”
”Well, we shall soon see,” said Dollar, glancing at the clock. ”But I can only warn you that my evidence is overwhelming.”
”Let's have it, then; what is your evidence?” demanded Edenborough, in a fresh fit of stone-blind defiance.
”My dear fellow, you force my hand!” said Dollar. ”G.o.d knows you have a right--and it can't make matters worse than they are. My evidence consists of a full and circ.u.mstantial confession by a scoundrel to whom I took your own dislike at sight, and whose career I have spent the week investigating. I needn't tell you I mean the infamous Rocchi.”
”Rocchi!” whispered Edenborough at the second attempt, as though his very tongue rejected the abhorrent name. Yet now he stood perfectly still, like a man who sees at last. ”Well,” he added in an ominously rational voice, ”I must live long enough to send _him_ to h.e.l.l, whatever else I do.”
”You will have to find him first,” said Dollar. ”He has gone back to his paymasters--not his own countrymen--they kicked him out long ago. I've taken it on myself to do the same, instead of handing him over to the police and doing an infinite deal more harm than good.”
But Edenborough was not listening to a word; he was talking to himself, and he talked aloud as soon as he was given a chance.
”Now we know why she was so keen on my wretched job ... on the whole Navy?... No, not a life-long fraud like that.... And she pretended to dislike that brute as much as I did! I believe she did, too, but for his waltzing.... No, never jealous of him, and I'm not now ... but so much the worse, so much the more d.a.m.nably cold-blooded!”
Dying philosopher could not have displayed a more acute detachment. But the last touch was lost upon Dollar, whose expectant ear had caught the ting of an electric bell.
”Edenborough,” he said, in the voice of urgent conciliation, ”the time has come for you to show what's in you. So far you have kept your head and played the man; keep it now, and you will play the hero! I still can't imagine what Miss Trevellyn can have to say for herself--but I implore you to hear her out, for I believe she is being admitted at this moment.”
”Lucy--here--and you expected her?”
”I told you I had another appointment. But you were here first, one thing led to another, and it may be better as it is. You were bound to have this out between you--and to-day. If you wish me to be present--but no human being can help!”
”Unless it's you!” suggested Edenborough in a panic-stricken whisper. ”I can't face her alone--I can't trust myself!”
Dollar took no notice of a knock at the door. ”Edenborough, you must,”
he said gently; ”and whatever she may have to say--much or little, and it may be much--you must hear patiently to the end. It's your duty, man!