Part 30 (1/2)

”I was in the hall when you called, and I heard you. Gastrell, Mrs.

Stapleton, and Miss Challoner were also in the house. They are there now, but to-night they go to Paris--they will cross from Newhaven to Dieppe. It was to tell you they were going to Paris that I wished to speak to you now--at least that was one reason.”

”And what are the other reasons?” I asked, with an affectation of indifference that I was far from feeling.

”I want money, Mr. Berrington, that is one other reason,” the stranger said quickly. ”You can afford to pay for information that is worth paying for. I know everything about you, perhaps more than you yourself know. If you pay me enough, I can probably protect myself against these people who until yesterday were my friends, but are now my enemies. And I can put you in possession of facts which will enable you, if you act circ.u.mspectly, presently to get the entire gang arrested.”

”At what time do the three people you have just named leave for Paris?”

I asked, for the news that Connie Stapleton and Dulcie were going to France together had given me a shock.

”To-night, at nine.”

”Look here,” I exclaimed, turning upon him sharply, ”tell me everything you know, and if it is worth paying for I'll pay.”

In a few minutes the stranger had put several startling facts into my possession. Of these the most important were that on at least four occasions Connie Stapleton had deliberately exercised a hypnotic control over Dulcie, and thus obtained even greater influence over her than she already possessed; that Jack Osborne, whom I had always believed to be wholly unsusceptible to female influence, was fast falling in love, or, if not falling in love, becoming infatuated with Jasmine Gastrell--the stranger declared that Mrs. Gastrell had fallen in love with him, but that I could not believe; that an important member of this notorious gang of criminals which mixed so freely in Society was Sir Roland's wastrel brother, Robert, of whom neither Sir Roland nor any member of his family had heard for years; and that Mrs. Stapleton intended to cause Dulcie to become seriously ill while abroad, then to induce Sir Roland to come to France to see her, and finally to marry him on the other side of the Channel in the small town where she intended that Dulcie should be taken ill. There were reasons, he said, though he would not reveal them then, why she wished to marry Sir Roland on the Continent instead of in England, and she knew of no other way of inducing him to cross the Channel but the means she intended to employ.

The man hardly stopped speaking when I sprang to my feet.

”How much do you want for the information you have given me?” I exclaimed, hardly able to conceal the intense excitement I felt.

He named a high figure, and so reckless did I feel at that instant that I told him I would pay the amount to him in gold--he had stipulated for gold--if he would call at my flat in South Molton Street at five o'clock on the following afternoon.

His expressions of grat.i.tude appeared, I must say, to be most genuine.

”And may I ask,” he said, ”what you propose to do now?”

”Propose to do!” I cried. ”Why, go direct to Willow Road, of course, force an entrance, and take Miss Challoner away--by force, if need be.”

”You propose to go there alone?”

”Yes. For the past fortnight I have somehow suspected there might be some secret understanding between Mr. Osborne and Mrs. Gastrell--they have been so constantly together, though he has more than once a.s.sured me that his intimacy was only with a view to obtaining her confidence. I don't know why I should believe your word, the word of a stranger, in preference to his, but now you tell me what you have told me I remember many little things which all point to the likelihood of your statement that he is in love with Mrs. Gastrell being true.”

”I wouldn't go alone, Mr. Berrington,” the stranger said in a tone of warning. ”You don't know the people you have to deal with as I know them. If you would like to come to Paris with me to-night I could show you something that would amaze you--and you would come face to face there with Connie Stapleton and Miss Challoner, and others. Be advised by me, and do that. I am telling you to do what I know will be best for you. I don't ask you to pay me until we return to England.”

I paused, uncertain what to decide. Thoughts crowded my brain.

Supposing, after all, that this were a ruse to entrap me. Supposing that Dulcie were not going to Paris. But no, the man's statements seemed somehow to carry conviction.

”If we cross by the same boat as they do,” I said suddenly, ”we shall be recognized.”

He smiled grimly.

”Not if you disguise yourself as you did at Hugesson Gastrell's the other night,” he said.

”Good heavens!” I exclaimed, ”how do you know that?”

He looked to right and left, then behind him. n.o.body was near. Then, raising his hat, like lightning he pulled off his wig, eyebrows and moustache, whiskers and beard, crammed them into his jacket pocket, and, with his hat on the back of his head, sat back looking at me with a quiet smile of amus.e.m.e.nt.

”Preston!” I gasped. ”Good heavens, man, how do you do it?”

Producing his cigarette case, in silence he offered me a cigarette. Then he spoke--now in his natural voice.