Part 37 (1/2)
”Yes. I was dining there. But she only told me half an hour ago, just as I was coming away, and I rushed home to get at the telephone.”
It occurred to Marcello that Kalmon need not have driven all the way to Via Sicilia from the Forum of Trajan merely for the sake of telephoning.
”But what is the hurry?” asked Marcello. ”Do sit down and explain! I heard this afternoon that you had strong suspicions as to Folco's part in what happened to me.”
”Something more than suspicions now,” Kalmon answered, settling his big frame in a deep chair before the tire; ”but I am afraid he has escaped.”
”Escaped? He has not the slightest idea that he is suspected!”
”How do you know? Don't you see that as he is guilty, he must have soon begun to think that the change in your manner toward him was due to the fact that you suspected him, and that you turned him out because you guessed the truth, though you could not prove it?”
”Perhaps,” Marcello admitted, in a rather preoccupied tone. ”The young lady seems to have repeated to her mother everything I said this afternoon,” he added with evident annoyance. ”Did the Contessa tell you why I quarrelled with Folco to-day?”
”No. She merely said that there had been angry words and that you had asked him to leave the house. She herself was surprised, she said, and wondered what could have brought matters to a crisis at last.”
Marcello's face cleared instantly. Aurora had not told any one that he had quarrelled with his stepfather about her; that was quite evident, for there were not two more truthful people in the world than the Contessa and Kalmon, whose bright brown eyes were at that moment quietly studying his face.
”Not that the fact matters in the least,” said the Professor, resting his feet on the fender and exposing the broad soles of his wet walking-boots to the flame. ”The important fact is that the man has escaped, and we must catch him.”
”But how are you so sure that it was he that attacked me? You cannot arrest a man on suspicion, without going through a great many formalities. You cannot possibly have got an eye-witness to the fact, and so it must be a matter of suspicion after all, founded on a certain amount of rather weak circ.u.mstantial evidence. Now, if it was he that tried to kill me, he failed, for I am alive, and perfectly well. Why not let him alone, since I have got rid of him?”
”For a very good reason, which I think I had better not tell you.”
”Why not?”
”I am not sure what you would do if you were told it suddenly. Are your nerves pretty good? You used to be a delicate boy, though I confess that you look much stronger now.”
”You need not fear for my nerves,” Marcello answered with a short laugh.
”If they are sound after what I have been through in the last two years they will stand anything!”
”Yes. Perhaps you had better know, though I warn you that what I am going to say will be a shock to you, of which you do not dream.”
”You must be exaggerating!” Marcello smiled incredulously. ”You had better tell me at once, or I shall imagine it is much worse than it is.”
”It could not be,” Kalmon answered. ”It is hard even to tell, and not only because what happened was in a distant way my fault.”
”Your fault? For heaven's sake tell me what the matter is, and let us be done with it!”
”Corbario wanted to get possession of your whole fortune. That is why he tried to kill you.”
”Yes. Is that all? You have made me understand that already.”
”He had conceived the plan before your mother's death,” said Kalmon.
”That would not surprise me either. But how do you know it?”
”Do you remember that discovery of mine, that I called 'the sleeping death'?”
”Yes. What has that to do with it?” Marcello's expression changed.
”Corbario stole one of the tablets from the tube in my pocket, while I was asleep that night.”