Corner House — Chapter XXIII, Ten Minutes Past Twelve; Chapter XXIV, Treasure Trove; Chapter XXV, A Check
CHAPTER XXIII. TEN MINUTES PAST TWELVE.
Mr. Garrett Charlton sat in Lawrence's chamber the same evening impatiently waiting for him in response to a telegram.
It was already long past eleven, and the visitor was thinking of departing, when Lawrence came in.
He had evidently hurried fast, for he was out of breath.
He signified to his companion to sit down, and lighted a cigarette.
"I couldn't possibly come before," he said.
"I've been busy all the evening on this business, and as it was I had to leave a little matter to chance.
I fancy that you will not be sorry that I persuaded you to stay in London."
"To me it is the gloomiest place in the world," said Charlton.
"That I can easily understand.
But you are still of the same opinion--you still value the good name of your dead wife?"
"I would give all I possess in the world to clear it, Lawrence."
"It shall be done; I pledge you my word that it shall be done.
I have the key to this mystery--I have had it from the first.
That is why I persuaded you not to go away again, and not to let anybody know you were in London.
But we have by no means done with the corner house yet.
We are going to spend an hour or so there this very night."
Charlton looked up in quick surprise.
"You and I are going there secretly?"
he asked.
"Do you mean now?"
"As soon as I have finished this cigarette," Lawrence said, coolly.
"We may be too late to see the beginning of the play, but I have faith in my assistant.
Now, come along.
You have brought your latchkey as I asked you?"
Charlton nodded.
He was a man of few words.
He said nothing when Lawrence gave him a pair of goloshes to put over his boots, and in silence the two set out for Raven Street.
The place was practically deserted as they came to the house, so that to enter without being seen was a matter of no difficulty.
"We are in time," Lawrence whispered, "in good time.
I felt sure I could trust the one I picked out to assist me.
If I had not been detained I should have been here before.
There is not much for us to do."
"Are we waiting for somebody?"
Charlton asked.
"That's it.
For the present we have to sit here in the passage with the kitchen door open and watch for the faint gleam of light in the courtyard.
It is safe to have a light there because there are blank walls on either side.
I think, I rather think, that I am going to astonish you presently."
Charlton said nothing, but from the sound of his laboured breathing it was evident that the spirit of adventure was upon him.
They sat there for some time with the two doors open, so that they might see through the grimy windows into the courtyard beyond.
It was weary work, and the minutes passed slowly.
"I'm not a patient man," Lawrence muttered, "but I could manage with a cigarette.
Under the circumstances, perhaps I had better not."
Charlton's heavy breathing ceased for a moment.
"I have good sight," he said.
"And unless I am greatly mistaken I saw a figure cross the dim light given by yonder window.
There it is again."
It was like a shadow and quite as noiseless.
Lawrence pressed the slide of his repeater.
The rapid little pulse beat twelve and then stopped.
"Between midnight and a quarter past," he muttered.
"That's about the time.
We had better creep a little closer to the window.
That's one advantage of being in a house in the dark--you can see everything that is going on outside without being spotted by anybody.
Come along and see what you shall see."
They reached the kitchen window and looked out.
There was a figure there, and what looked like another one in the background.
A lantern stood on the flags; the first figure pitched something on the ground that looked like a coil of rope.
"What on earth is that?"
Charlton asked.
"A rope," Lawrence replied.
"Can't you guess what that rope is for?"
"I am afraid I am utterly in the dark, Lawrence," said Charlton.
"Are you?
There is a well in that courtyard.
And if perchance anything valuable got into that well, I should say that a rope would be the best way of getting it out.
Now do you understand."
Charlton nodded.
It had been his whim and mood after the tragic death of his wife to leave those fatal jewels where that wicked woman had dropped them.
So far as he was concerned the cause of all the trouble might be at the bottom of the sea.
They were gone, and only he and another person knew the secret of their hiding place.
That she might come back and try to regain them he never troubled himself about.
Even if it had occurred to him, he would not have moved in the matter.
"That fiend probably told some accomplice," he said.
Lawrence chuckled.
He could see further than his companion.
He could see the figure of a woman dressed in foreign fashion with a shawl over her head.
She had long fair hair.
Her back was to the window all this time.
"The Spaniard with the mantilla," Lawrence whispered, "the evil genius of the house.
We shall see something more presently.
Not that we are going to interfere.
On the whole, I rather want these people to get the jewels."
Charlton said nothing.
He was deeply interested.
The man outside raised the lantern, and the dim light fell upon the ghastly outline of Charlton's white set face as he pressed against the panes.
At the same instant the woman chanced to glance in the same direction.
Charlton gripped Lawrence's arm with convulsive force.
"Man," he said sternly, "that fiend of a woman was my dead wife's late companion."
[Illustration: "Charlton's white set face as he pressed against the panes."
--_Page 124_] CHAPTER XXIV. TREASURE TROVE.
Just as she was, with her lace and silks and long flowing train, Leona Lalage raced down the garden.
With a bitter little smile she wondered what her Society friends would say if they could see her at this moment.
The thorns of a rose bush caught a drooping mass of frippery and tore it away, but the woman paid no heed.
Her dressmaker's bill need never be paid.
She came at length breathless with running to the end of the garden.
A
little green gate led to the lane which divided Lytton Avenue from the corner house.
It was absolutely quiet there.
Leona Lalage could catch just the faintest humming noise, then a glaring white eye flamed out.
Behind it was a black motor and the form of Balmayne.
"Never can trust a woman as to time," he growled.
There was not the faintest shadow of politeness in his manner now.
"Didn't I say twelve sharp?"
"I was detained," the Countess gasped.
"After all, what are a few minutes?"
"Everything.
Maitrank reaches Charing Cross in a little over half an hour, and it is absolutely imperative that I should see the arrival and find out where he stays.
I suppose you can see that?"
The Countess had no more to say.
She held out her hand silently.
She tore all her long train of lace and silk away as if it had been rags, she buttoned a cloak over her dress; a blonde wig and lace shawl over her head completed the disguise.
"Come along," she said.
"I've got the key of the courtyard.
Not that we are in the least likely to find anything there?"
"And why not?"
Balmayne growled.
"Stranger things have happened.
I
know a poor man at this minute who owns one of the richest gold mines in the world.
He won't work it because when the gold was found he quarrelled with his partner on the spot and killed him.
That's a fact."
"I'd get it out of him," Leona said between her teeth.
"I'd like to bind him and torture him bit by bit until he yelled out the truth.
Well, Charlton was always a strange man, and the jewels may be there yet.
That is one of the reasons why I took up my abode in Lytton Avenue."
"One of the reasons," Balmayne said sardonically.
"Never mind that, we know too much about one another to say much.
I'll open the door whilst you push the motor in.
Quiet as the grave."
It was very quiet and still there when once the gates were closed.
Balmayne took one of the lamps from the motor and extinguished the other.
In the centre of the place was the well, partially covered over by a flat stone.
There was a windlass, but no rope.
Balmayne produced one.
Very carefully he fitted it to the windlass.
His dark eyes gleamed and dilated.
Quickly he lowered the rope till the bulge of it showed that the bottom was reached.
He wound up the rope again, and as he did so a grunt of satisfaction escaped him.
It was far better than he had expected.
"Here's a piece of rare good luck," he exclaimed.
"Why, the well is dry."
"I always heard that there was only a foot or two of water in there," the Countess said.
"It was never used in my time--people don't care to drink well water in London.
Still, it is a slice of luck, as you say."
"Got to get down there all the same," Balmayne grunted.
"I'll make a loop in the rope and put my foot in it.
You used to be pretty strong at one time.
I suppose you can manage to let me down safely?"
Leona smiled with contempt as she surveyed the slim figure before her.
She was always proud of her strength.
She bared her beautiful white arm and showed the strong sinews and muscles under the skin.
"You need not be afraid," she said.
"If I couldn't--ah!"
She broke off, her voice rose to a scream.
She grew whiter far than the linen about her shoulders.
Balmayne laid his hand on her mouth in an instant.
"Fool," he exclaimed, hoarsely.
"Do you want to bring the police upon me?"
Leona pointed to the window, against which Charlton's face had been pressed a moment before.
The dimness of it, the stern accusing eyes made up a picture so grim, so ghostly, that the woman's heart turned to water within her.
The fear of yesterday took the strength out of her limbs.
"The face," she gasped, "the face of Charlton.
At the window.
It was just for an instant, and seemed to read my soul.
Can't you see it?"
Balmayne could see nothing, and said so bluntly.
As a matter of fact, the face was gone.
But the terror of the Countess still remained.
"Of course, there was no face there," Balmayne flared out.
"That's the worst of doing this kind of thing with a woman--one never knows when she's going to have an attack of nerves.
The idea of Charlton standing at the window and knowing what we are going to do is too good.
Pull yourself together."
The trembling fit passed away, the woman was herself again.
All the same, Balmayne was not without misgiving as he put his foot in the loop.
But the crank of the windlass turned steadily and smoothly, the stone walls slid by, and presently the adventurer stood at the bottom of the well.
There was no water, nothing but a slight dampness underfoot.
A moment later and Balmayne was up again.
Leona Lalage looked at him enquiringly.
He had no breath to speak.
With gleaming eyes Balmayne held two rusty old cases over his head.
Leona grasped the motor lamp, and Balmayne forced back the clasps of the cases.
"Got them," he croaked, "What do you think of this, my noble Countess?"
A stream of living fire, a ripple of all the colours of the rainbow.
Balmayne shut the cases as if jealous of the eyes of the night.
"Saved," he said.
"Take these and hide them, take the rope and hide that.
I must be off to Charing Cross like the wind.
This is, perhaps, the best night's work I have had in my experience.
Now begone."
A
moment later and the courtyard was deserted.
CHAPTER XXV. A CHECK.
"No you don't," said Lawrence coolly.
"Of course, it would be a very dramatic finish to the night's adventure, but I can't permit it.
Go easy."
Charlton gave up the struggle.
Those jewels, the cause of all his misfortunes, had lain there at the bottom of the well where he had intended them to stay.
He hated the very mention of them.
Had not diamonds inspired some of the most awful crimes since crime began?
They should stay there for all time, those stones with the blood upon them, but now, when they were being carried off by the woman who had robbed him of all that life holds dear, Charlton's passion flared out.
He would have followed those people and demanded them.
But Lawrence held him back until his passion was spent.
He yielded suddenly.
"After all it matters little," he said.
"It matters a great deal," Lawrence replied.
"You want your jewels back----" "My dear sir, the first beggar in the street can have them for all I care."
"Well, you don't want those people to get them.
Neither will they for long.
It is all part of my little scheme.
If you had dashed out just now you would certainly have caused a great sensation, and there would have been a great gap in the dazzling ranks of fashion, but you would have ruined my plans."
"But will those people be punished eventually?"
"Of course they will.
But there are viler crimes than the theft of diamonds.
There is the conspiracy to rob a good man of his good name, to make the lives of that man and the girl he is going to marry dark for the sake of a passing caprice.
I tell you this has been done, and a murder has been committed in the doing of it.
And I am going to get to the bottom of the foul tangle."
It was not the usual voice of Gilbert Lawrence that spoke.
There was a dogged grimness about him that would have surprised his friends.
"Let us light the gas and smoke here for a time," he said.
"There is not the slightest chance of those people coming back, and there are no windows overlooking this one.
I have a good deal to say to you."
Charlton made no objection.
He was evidently in the company of a man who knew quite well what he was doing.
"I will be guided entirely by you," he said.
"You tell me that that vile woman will be punished, and I believe you.
Strange that she should be mixed up with the lives of people you care for also.
You must have been sure of your ground to let her escape you tonight."
Lawrence flicked the ash from his cigarette.
"I am," he said.
"See, I am familiar with her plot before she carried it out.
As I told you before, the whole thing is founded on a novel of mine which has yet to be published.
How she got the thing is a mystery.
But she has got it.
It could not possibly have been a coincidence."
"If you know where she lives----" Charlton began.
"My dear sir, I know who she is.
From the very moment that Bruce told his strange story I felt pretty certain that the Spanish business was a disguise."
"But it is no disguise.
My wife's companion was a Spanish blonde."
"Then during the time that woman was in your house she wore a wig.
You may make yourself pretty clear on that point.
The creature you saw tonight in the courtyard has no doubt passed at different times under many names, but to the world she is at present known as Countess Lalage."
"I have heard of her.
But she is very rich."
"So most people think.
To my mind she is a brilliant adventuress.
With beauty and brains and audacity a woman like that never need want for money.
Of course, the crash will come sooner or later, but meanwhile she is having a good time.
But you are going to see my patience rewarded.
A murder has been committed here, and that woman knows all about it.
Out of that murder came the terrible charge that hangs over my friend Bruce, and she knows all about that.
I know all about it, too, but knowing and proving are two very different things.
It is a fight in the dark between us, but I am going to win at the finish."
"You wouldn't force her to confess?"
"Not a woman like that.
Get her back to the wall and she will be dangerous.
Bless the man, if she knew I was her antagonist she would not hesitate to ask me to dinner and poison me over one of her excellent dishes.
When I strike I must strike her down to the ground.
My lines are laid pretty carefully, and she is going into them one by one.
She walked into one of them tonight."
"Did you know that she was coming here?"
"My dear sir, I was the means of letting her know the jewels were still in the well.
She is very hard up for money--I found that out at her house the other night--and that is why I waited here this evening.
She is playing out my story, you see.
And she has gone off for the present with your diamonds."
"Which will be a powerful weapon in her hands."
Lawrence laughed silently.
He seemed to be intensely amused about something.
He took a flat brown paper parcel from his pocket.
"You saw those people go off with the diamonds," he said.
"You saw those gems flash and dazzle in the light of the lamp.
I am going to give you a surprise now, and the surprise of our predatory friends will come later on.
Your wife's gems were three rows of diamonds and a collar of the same set plain in silver."
"How did you know that?"
Charlton asked.
Lawrence proceeded to unpack his parcel.
Inside were two cases which he opened and exposed in the light of the flaming gas.
"Will you have the goodness to look at these," he asked.
Charlton did so.
There was a blank surprise on his face.
"I should like to know what you make of them," said Lawrence.
