Kitabı oku: «King of the Castle», sayfa 27
The visitor took in her agitation directly.
“Sort of body who will try to screen him,” he said to himself.
“What is the meaning of this intrusion?” said Claude, trying to be calm.
“Business, ma’am. Sorry to trouble you. Where’s Mr Glyddyr?”
“Mr Glyddyr is out.”
The man smiled pityingly.
“You will excuse me, ma’am – Mrs Glyddyr?”
“Yes; I’m Mrs Glyddyr.”
“Servant did not say he was out. Too ill to go out. Where is he, please? You see I know.”
“I told you Mr Glyddyr was out. What do you want?”
“Business, ma’am – important business. Must see him at once.”
“You must call when he is at home.”
“Sorry to be rude to a lady, but your face, ma’am, says he is at home, and will not show up.”
“What do you want?”
The man looked sharply round, and his eyes rested on the ajar door of the safe, with its casing of books, its old purpose being now at an end.
“Way into another room,” he said to himself; “he’s there. – I want Mr Glyddyr,” he continued firmly. “Now, look here, ma’am; I can feel for you, though I am a police officer, but I have my duty to do.”
“Your duty?”
“Yes, ma’am, my duty; and Mr Glyddyr is in there; he may as well come out like a gentleman, and let it all be quietly done. He must know that the game is up, and that any attempt at getting away from me is worse than folly. Will you let me pass?”
“Stop!” cried Claude excitedly, as, like lightning, thought after thought flashed through her mind; for at that moment she heard a cough and a step that she recognised only too well. And this man – police – it must be to arrest.
“Tell me,” she cried quickly, “what is it? Why have you come?”
“I’ll tell Mr Glyddyr himself, ma’am, please. Stand aside. I don’t want to be rude, but I’ve got my duty to do, and do it I will.”
He passed Claude sharply, brushing against her arm, and seized the thick door to draw it open, while the thought flashed through her brain —
“I am his wife. I prayed for a way to win his love – to give him mine. This man will arrest him, and I must save him if I can.”
Without pausing to consider as to the folly of her impulse, she turned on the man as he threw open the door and bent forward, and, thrusting with all her might, she sent him staggering in.
The door closed upon him with a loud clang.
“He is my husband,” panted Claude, mad with dread and excitement. “O Heaven help me! what has he done?”
At that moment, wild with jealous rage and doubt, Glyddyr came into the room, and ended, as she clung to him, speechless with emotion, by striking her savagely with such force as he possessed.
Claude uttered a low moan, and fell insensible across the entrance to the safe; while, after wrenching out the key, Glyddyr hurried panting from the library, closed and locked the door, and stood thinking.
“Yes,” he said, with a malignant look; “I’ll do that. Witnesses – witnesses! They shall all know.”
He crossed the hall to the drawing-room, and dragged at the bell so violently that, as he returned, the servants came hurrying through the swing-door.
“Here, quick, I want you,” he said hoarsely. “Ah, just in time,” he cried, as at that moment the entrance door was darkened, and Mary Dillon entered, with Trevithick trying to detain her, and closely followed by Sarah Woodham. “Better and better,” he said, with a grin. “This way – this way, witnesses, please.”
He unlocked and threw open the library door, and drew back for the others to go past.
“John Trevithick, quick! there is something wrong,” cried Mary, as she ran in – to shriek wildly and loudly, “Help! he has murdered her!”
“You villain!” roared Trevithick, seizing Glyddyr, but he wrested himself free.
“Bah! great idiot!” he cried. “There, look, she is only fainting – with joy, can’t you see?” he continued, as Claude uttered a sigh, and moved one hand. “Now then, witnesses,” he cried, with a savage laugh, “I have been out; I have just returned. This is my dear wife, who wishes for a divorce; and this,” he almost yelled, as he threw open the great book-covered door of the safe, “is our dear friend Mr – ”
He ceased speaking, with the malignant grin frozen upon his face, as the quick, stern-looking man staggered panting, half-suffocated from the safe, stared wildly for a few moments, and then, before Glyddyr could realise his position, recovered himself sufficiently to clap his hand upon the scoundrel’s shoulder.
“Mr Parry Glyddyr,” he cried, “you are my prisoner. I arrest you for murder!”
Volume Three – Chapter Nineteen.
Two Wives
Chris Lisle caught Trevithick, too, by the shoulder as he was leaving Danmouth that day, and, half wild with excitement, implored him to say whether the rumour was true.
“True enough, Mr Lisle. Mr Glyddyr is arrested, and his friend, who is believed to be an accomplice, was taken yesterday in London.”
Chris fell back, staring like one who has received some mental shock, and then walked slowly along the main street of the place to get to the bridge and go up the glen, so as to try and think quietly of all that it might mean to him.
As he went along he became dimly conscious of the fact that first one and then another touched his cap, or gave him a friendly nod; but he was too much dazed to pay any heed, and he could only come to one conclusion: that there must be as great a mistake here as there was over the rumour about himself.
“It is too horrible to be true,” he said, with a shudder.
At the Fort, Claude lay prostrate, unable to realise the truth of what had taken place, and shuddering from time to time as the terrible scene kept coming back.
“I would have spared her if I could,” Trevithick had whispered to Mary before leaving; “but it was better that she should suffer sharply for a time than all her life.”
Mary could not speak – she dared not trust herself for fear of saying words of which she would afterwards repent, for there was a great joy in her heart now that she knew the reason for Trevithick’s silence, and she could not even go to Sarah Woodham’s side, lest she should open her heart there.
Then came days of wild excitement in the place, with event after event occurring to keep the gossip at white heat. There were the examinations of Glyddyr, at which he preserved a stubborn silence. And a fresh excitement in the presence, at the second examination, of a handsome, sharp-looking woman fashionably dressed, who took up her abode after the examination at the hotel.
She had seated herself in the court by the help of a friendly – made friendly – policeman, where she could face Glyddyr; and when, at last, their eyes met, he started and changed colour, but composed himself directly, for another trouble was but a trifle compared to that overhanging his life.
It was no friendly look that he had encountered, neither was the keen glance directed at Gellow, who, upon the second morning, was placed beside Glyddyr in the dock. For Denise showed her teeth slightly in the malicious smile, watching and listening intently to the end.
“I did not know that I should find him through the newspapers,” she said to herself. “I was fooled by that man into believing that he was gone abroad, when I might have come down and seen this madam whom he has married. But it is well.”
Then came fresh fuel to keep the excitement at white heat. A gentleman was down from London, and it was known that orders had been given from high quarters that Gartram’s remains were to be taken from the vault. That there was to be a post mortem examination, and a great chemist in London was to assist in bringing the crime home to the prisoner under remand.
This was true enough, and Doctor Asher and his colleague were called upon to assist. Two other doctors were also going to be present, on behalf of the prisoner and the Government.
When Asher received his instructions he shuddered, and the paper dropped from his hand.
“It is too horrible!” he muttered. “I will not be dragged into it again.” But he had hardly uttered the words when his colleague arrived to talk the matter over with him.
“It is as horrible as it is absurd,” Asher said.
“Yes, but we have received our instructions, and cannot refuse.”
“But we performed our examination for the inquest,” protested Asher. “It is so unnecessary. The man is innocent. We know well enough the cause of death.”
The other shrugged his shoulders, and finally went away; while the next night it was being whispered, with bated breath, that the examination had been made, and there was talk of sealed bottles and the analytical chemist in London.
A week later, while the prisoners were lying under remand at the county gaol, Mrs Sarson tapped softly at Chris Lisle’s door, and entered.
He did not move, for he was thinking deeply of how he would give the world if he dared go to the Fort as a friend and say a few words to Claude.
“And I can make no sign; I dare make no sign,” he was muttering, as his landlady’s hand was laid upon his arm.
“I thought you’d like to hear the news, sir,” she said respectfully.
“Yes. What news?”
“I have just heard, sir, that Mrs Glyddyr is going over to Toxeter this morning to see Mr Glyddyr. Mr Trevithick has come to fetch her.”
A spasm ran through Chris, and he turned away his head.
“Yes,” he said; “suppose it is her duty.”
“And Doctor Asher is very bad indeed, sir, this morning, and two other doctors are there. He is worse than when I spoke to you last night.”
“Did you speak to me about him last night?”
“Why, surely, sir, you don’t forget? But I have heard this morning what is the matter.”
“Yes?” said Chris vacantly.
“It is very horrible, sir; but the new doctor told one of his patients that Doctor Asher’s knife slipped during the terrible examination of Mr Gartram the other day, and the cut has gone bad with some name he called it.”
“Blood poisoning!” exclaimed Chris, startled by the news; “how shocking.”
“Shocking indeed, sir. I didn’t think poor little Danmouth could have had such trouble as all this; but the Lord be thanked that the whole truth has come out at last, and you can hold up your head once more. Poor fellow!” she muttered softly, “he don’t seem to hear a word I said.”
But Chris had heard; and, as soon as he was alone, he slipped a small glass in his pocket, and tramped out to the back of the place, and up the highest piece of cliff, where he could lie upon his breast and watch the Fort.
He did not wait long, for the carriage soon drew up to the front entrance, and directly after Trevithick appeared, leading out Claude, in deep mourning and thickly veiled. Then Mary came out, to step into the carriage; and it was driven away, while Sarah Woodham, thin and sallow-looking, stood on the steps watching till it had disappeared, and at last Chris saw her as she turned, holding her hands to her temples, as if they throbbed.
“Will she come back to-night?” said Chris to himself. “I’ll wait and see.”
A couple of hours later, Trevithick led Claude slowly up towards the prison gates, for his companion had to cling to his arm for support, and he could feel the struggle that was going on as she strove to perform this duty to her husband.
They were within about fifty yards of the place, when Claude reeled and would have fallen but for the lawyer’s strong arm.
“Take my advice,” he whispered gently. “You can do no good, and you are not strong enough to go through such an interview as this.”
“I am better now,” she said feebly. “A little faint, that is all.”
“Put it off till another day.”
“No,” she said more faintly. “It is a duty to him. I will not believe that it can be true.”
Trevithick was silent.
“Let us go on now,” she said; and they had nearly reached the prison gates when there was a quick step, and a tall, fashionably-dressed woman stepped before them.
“Where are you going?” she said sharply in a strangely accented way.
“To see Mr Glyddyr, madam,” said Claude, meekly. “I am his wife.”
“You! Bah! You are nothing, girl,” cried the woman, her dark eyes blazing with vindictive spite. “He is mine. He married me five years ago from his yacht, in Marseilles. Yes, I, Denise Leschalles. Yes. And you, my faith, what could I not do to you?”
Claude uttered a faint cry and threw up her veil, to gaze wildly at the woman.
“My faith, you look. Yes, I am his wife, I tell you again. You are nothing.”
“Woman, is this true?” said Trevithick sternly.
“Bah! I say it not again. Go ask him, but he will only lie. Aha! and he could leave me to marry that! She is poor and weak. Take her away. I have the power to go and see my husband. This woman shall not pass.”
“Tell me where you are staying,” whispered Trevithick quickly. “Ah, I remember now. I saw you at Danmouth, at the hotel.”
The woman made no reply, but went on up to the gate, while Claude clung to the strong arm which supported her.
“Mr Trevithick, can this be true?” she whispered.
“Heaven only knows,” he said; “but you cannot go there now.”
Chris Lisle’s watch proved to be far shorter than he could have hoped, his patience being rewarded by the sight of the young mistress of the Fort as she was supported back into her home.
Volume Three – Chapter Twenty.
The Truth
The next day was a more eventful one still in the annals of Danmouth, and people stood in knots about the place discussing the new horror.
Doctor Asher was dying, and his colleague had sent for the nearest magistrate that morning, to take down the dying man’s deposition in the presence of witnesses, Trevithick being of those summoned to the bed.
The deposition was brief, but convincing, telling how the dying man had, when attending Gartram, found in his pocket-book sundry directions to his executors, explaining how his wealth was bestowed. The temptation had been too great for him, and after waiting long for an opportunity, he had taken advantage one evening of being at the house to add a certain drug to the chloral Gartram was in the habit of taking from time to time.
“As a dying man about to appear before my Maker,” he said, “I swear I had no intention of taking his life. I wished to make his sleep so sure that I could easily take what notes I wished, and this I did, to the amount of forty thousand pounds, but I did not calculate that the drug would be so strong, and I was horrified when I found that I could not bring him back from his deadly sleep.”
“What was the drug?” asked the magistrate, in the midst of a terrible silence.
“Better that it should not be known,” said the dying man feebly. “I have told the truth. The money is in the iron safe in my study. All but a few hundred pounds or so I sent abroad, and a note or two I passed beside. I gave Glyddyr that one by mistake, and – ”
The words that would have followed were never uttered, for insensibility supervened, and Doctor Asher never spoke again.
The law moves slowly, but it is pretty sure, and in due course the two men accused of complicity in Gartram’s death were discharged without a stain upon their character, so it was said, but Glyddyr was re-arrested upon another charge.
A guilty conscience had kept him silent about the accusation of murder, for he had added to the draught Gartram was in the habit of taking, but other hands had thrown this away. Still, he had always suffered mentally from the idea that he had murdered the man who had chosen him as a son.
Against the charge of bigamy he fought savagely, for there was the impending punishment to dread, and the loss of an almost princely fortune; but Denise made good her claim. The pleas of her being an alien fell to the ground, and the law cut asunder the tie that held Claude Gartram to one who passed for ever from her sight. Glyddyr’s term of imprisonment was but short, for his health had been so shattered that he was shortly after set at liberty, to die in Denise’s arms.
Of the rest of the actors who played their parts in this life drama, no more need be said than is contained in the French proverb: Cela va sans dire.
