The Blue Diamond (30 page)

Sir Arthur shivered a little, but he did not speak. The thought struck him that Gregory's tone was strangely altered—that his accent was now undeniably that of a gentleman, a man of education.

“It is pretty well over with me now,” the voice that was at once so familiar and so strange went on. “Well, it was the only way, and I'm not sorry now that I took it, for I shall see her again soon. It is, as she said, that no one else shall be punished for what I did that I must speak. But perhaps if I tell you how it was with Hilda from the beginning you will understand better. Her father had been a man of good birth who broke his wife's heart—she died when their only child was born. He was turned out of the Army, and finally sentenced to a long period of imprisonment for fraud. Hilda never knew the meaning of the word home. In her childhood she was neglected and half-starved, beaten and sworn at when her father had bad luck, and left to do what she could when things went well with him.

“Later on as she grew up he realized that her beauty was a valuable asset, and then no expense was spared on the girl. The best masters were given her for accomplishments, she had carte blanche with her dress. When I first saw her twelve years ago she was eighteen, and a veritable angel of loveliness, with her fair face and wealth of golden hair. Her father was using her as a decoy for his gambling tables. I was then, as I have been for years, a gambler, a black-leg, a thief, one shunned by every honest man. I had believed my heart to be as hard as a millstone, but I suppose there was a weak spot left, and I fell desperately in love with Hilda St. Leger, as she was called then. Doctor, you must make my strength last out for what I have to say, please.”

He drank eagerly from the glass Dr. Grieve held to his lips, and then sank back with a sigh of relief.

“That is better. That wasn't strange, perhaps, but the queerest thing was that she fell in love with me. Her father did not make any objection; already he and I had been partners in many a doubtful deed and I fancy he saw that the girl would still be useful to him. For a little while after we were married I tried to keep straight for her sake, but the world is slow to believe in repentance or amendment, and I went back to my old courses. My father-in-law and I entered into a partnership, and for a time all went well.

“Then, in an evil hour, we thought of the great Blue Diamond of the Hargreaves; in his younger days my father-in-law had known the Hargreaves—it must have been a likeness to him that Lady Laura saw in Hilda—and from that moment our whole thoughts were given up to planning how we could best make it our own, and at last my father-in-law evolved a scheme that we ultimately adopted. Before we put the plan into execution, however, my father-in-law was run over by a motor-omnibus and fatally injured. There were others in the scheme then, and we had to go on. It was while going to see her father in the hospital that Hilda was met by Nurse Marston, and thus recognized by her when she came here.”

“I don't see that all this is to any purpose,” said Sir Arthur. “It is extremely painful to me to have to listen to it, and I should prefer her name kept out of it as much as possible.”

“Don't I tell you this is her wish, not mine?” the dying man retorted. “It was her wish that you should hear how Nurse Marston died; or rather she made me promise to make it clear that the man whose name has been widely connected with the mystery, Mr. Garth Davenant, had nothing to do with it. There didn't seem to me to be any satisfactory way of doing it but this, so I took it.”

Again he paused; the Doctor held something to his lips. He drew himself up.

“That is putting new life into me, doctor. Well, our plans prospered beyond our expectations. Hilda had been established here more readily than I could have conceived possible. I had been fortunate enough to obtain the situation in the orchid-houses. A couple of my associates had been installed as my assistants. It only remained for Hilda to make herself sufficiently attractive to Sir Arthur to obtain from him the secret of the lock, and the game was ours.

“Just as we had reached this conclusion everything was knocked on the head by the sudden appearance of Nurse Marston on the scene. When I learned from Minnie Spencer, in the housekeeper's room that night, that Nurse Marston had recognized Hilda and asked for an interview with Lady Laura I knew that there was only one slender chance between us and ruin—and that was to get hold of the nurse before she saw Lady Laura. In order to gain my purpose I had been making love to Minnie Spencer for some time, and two or three times I had persuaded her to unlock the conservatory door and come and have a little chat with me while the family were at dinner.

“That night I delayed her longer than usual, so that she had no time to fasten it after me, and I was thus able to get in later on. I stood in the conservatory waiting, and as Nurse Marston came into the small library by one door I opened the other. She started back, but I was prepared for her. I threw a chloroformed cloth over her head and seized her in my arms. Mind you, I did not intend any real harm to her—I simply meant to have her taken care of until the diamonds were ours and we were safely out of the country, and then she might have come back and said what she liked. If she had listened to me when I told her so she might have been alive now, but she struggled and fought like a wild cat. Once she got her head out of the cloth and screamed. You have heard cries spoken of. I rammed the cloth closer and closer to prevent her being heard, and carried her on through the shrubbery. At first, when I noticed how quietly she was lying in my arms, I thought it was only the chloroform taking effect, but when I was a safe distance from the house, and had met my confederate, we stopped to look. I found to my horror that it was all over with her—she was dead!”

“Ah, I thought that was how it was!” Superintendent Stokes remarked as he drew a long breath.

“We tried to restore her, but it was no use, and I had to realize that I had killed her without intending it, and was a murderer in fact if not in intention. Bad as I was, I had hitherto drawn the line at breaking the Sixth Commandment, and for a time I was utterly aghast. Then the question of concealing the body presented itself to me, and I recollected the Lover's Oak. Accident had revealed it to me some time before the fact that it was hollow, and I had several times thought that it might be a suitable place in which to conceal some of our booty—for, needless to say, we did not intend to content ourselves with merely the Blue Diamond; we should have levied toll on the plate as well. It now struck me that the body would be safer there than anywhere else. I hadn't reckoned for the vengeance of Heaven, you see!

“I think that is all. If in the servants' hall or elsewhere I have appeared to foster the suspicion against Mr. Garth Davenant it has been merely as a cover to our own designs for the time being, and with no desire to injure him eventually.”

Superintendent Stokes looked at his notebook.

“The tobacco-pouch?” he said.

The dark eyes opened once more and looked even faintly amused.

“I must have dropped it. Minnie worked it for me, after the pattern of that given by her mistress to Mr. Garth Davenant. She must have gone into the room and recognized it, and, fearing it might get me into trouble, annexed it. In the same way, remembering the conservatory door had been left open, when she came to look for Nurse Marston she bolted it, and thus fostered the idea that she might still be in the house. But I fancy Minnie has had her suspicions of me lately.”

“Hilda did not know!”

It was Sir Arthur's voice, husky and strained; it was more an assertion than a question, but Gregory chose to answer it.

“She had no idea at the time or till long afterwards. But naturally she could not help connecting me with the disappearance when she heard of it. Since the body was discovered she could not help knowing, and I fear—I fear it has made her very miserable—my poor Hilda!”

“Mrs. Leparge?” the superintendent interpolated tentatively.

“Well, you cannot expect me to inculpate my friends. It was difficult for me to see Hilda, and notes were dangerous. Mrs. Leparge brought a message.”

“I see; I surmised that,” the superintendent assented slowly. “Well, I think that is all clear—all the mystery is plain enough now.”

The unnaturally bright eyes gazed round.

“Then my task is over.”

“This paper must be signed and witnessed,” Mr. Lewis interpolated hurriedly. “I will read it over to you.”

It was a somewhat lengthy document and Mr. Lewis was a slow reader, so that this process took time.

When the document was brought to the dying man he scrawled his signature and then pushed the paper away from him almost convulsively, and fell back.

Like one in a dream Sir Arthur suffered Garth to lead him away. His uncle joined Mr. Pauncefort and Mr. Lewis as they stood in the passage outside. Thither Superintendent Stokes followed them after giving a few directions to his two subordinates, whom he left in the room. Mr. Gore turned to him at once.

“I was not prepared for this, superintendent—I was not indeed. I knew Mr. Garth Davenant had nothing to do with the murder, as some of these wiseacres have suggested, but I did think the poor thing had gone outside of her own free will to meet some one, and been the victim of foul play. I never dreamt that such a thing as this could happen in a respectable house. That little hussy who admitted the fellow—I hope she will get some punishment,” vindictively.

“I think she has had her punishment,” the superintendent said a little indulgently as he remembered pretty Minnie's changed appearance. “Though she would have spared us some trouble if she would have spoken out from the first. But I think the girl was terrified, and she had no idea how bad things were really. It was some words I overheard between her and Mr. Jim Gregory that put me on the right track though.”

“What! You suspected!” ejaculated Mr. Gore.

“I was pretty nearly certain,” said the superintendent slowly, “but I hadn't much proof, and it was no use speaking out too soon, and letting our birds escape.”

“I understood that you suspected Mr. Garth Davenant; I am sure my nephew informed me so.”

“I was inclined to do so at first,” the superintendent acknowledged frankly, “and I was a fool for my pains, as I soon found out. I made it my business to inquire into Mr. Garth Davenant's movements and—well, in short, I came to the conclusion that whoever was guilty I must look elsewhere for the murderer.”

“But what on earth—” Mr. Gore was unable apparently to get over his astonishment.

“Well, some little time ago I began to suspect the young lady was not quite truthful.”

“I should think so indeed. One would have thought anybody but an idiot would have seen that,” wrathfully interpolated Mr. Gore.

“You don't suppose that if I hadn't had a pretty good suspicion how the land lay here,” the superintendent went on, unheeding the interruption, “that Mr. Garth Davenant would have remained at liberty so long. No, no! In an ordinary case, with the evidence against him apparently so strong, he would have been arrested before now and brought up before the magistrates. There has been blame thrown upon me because he hasn't. But I knew he had nothing to do with it, and I had got my eye on the right men. Mr. Jim Gregory and his associates would have found themselves in a trap when they walked outside.”

“You don't mean that you were watching?”

Mr. Gore's opinion of the superintendent's intelligence went up by leaps and bounds.

Superintendent Stokes smiled a little.

“Certainly we were, sir. Otherwise we shouldn't have been on the spot when the alarm-bell rang. Yes, Sir Arthur's getting up when he did cost that girl's life; but, well, when all is said I dare say it is best for her as it is.”

“Much the best,” Mr. Gore echoed, rubbing his forehead.

“T
HERE IS
Minnie Spencer, off to her mother's. Miss Mavis has made her go. I heard her tell Mrs. Parkyn's she should. They say Minnie is afraid to put her head out of doors, she is that frightened of seeing Nurse Marston's ghost—and no wonder, I say. I am sure in her place I should be ashamed of showing my face in the streets after being made such a fool of.” Lizzie, the smart under-housemaid, giggled and glanced coquettishly at Tom Greyson—if rumour spoke true she would be in no wise averse to consoling the good-looking young gamekeeper.

Greyson did not smile back; he was looking away from the smiling prettiness of the girl confronting him down the avenue, where in the distance he could see a moving black speck—a speck that was Minnie Spencer.

“She wouldn't go in the shrubbery, not if it was ever so,” Lizzie went on, with a swift upturned glance at the young man's absent face. “Last night she scared us all, rushing out of the still-room, and saying as she had seen Nurse Marston in the bushes outside. I wouldn't have her conscience, that I wouldn't, not for the world! They say as her ladyship was all for dismissing her, but Miss Mavis wouldn't hear of it. She knew it would be difficult for Minnie to get another place—it isn't every mistress as would give a girl like her a chance.”

“Ah, another chance! That is what many of us would like in this life,” observed Greyson. “But I must be off,” and with a curt nod of farewell he moved away.

Lizzie Prentice looked after him resentfully.

“Pretty sort of boor he is! I shouldn't wonder if, after all, Minnie was well rid of him,” she muttered to herself as she turned back to the house.

All unconscious of the compliments that she was bestowing upon him, Tom Greyson strode across the park and through the Home Wood to his cottage.

He found the key hanging upon the nail and let himself in; the woman who looked after his cottage had gone home, but his tea stood ready for him on the round table, a bright fire burned on the hearth. It was a cheerful and homelike interior, but Greyson's face was dull and heavy as he threw himself down in his easy chair and whistled his dog to his knee. Presently he rose, and not without a certain awkwardness, yet with the air of a man who is accustomed to waiting upon himself, reached down his caddy and made himself a cup of tea.