The Closed Book: Concerning the Secret of the Borgias

“Undoubtedly,” she answered. But on quickly examining the hands of the dead men I discovered no marks there. “Ah?” she wailed; “you do not know. I am doomed to die, and no power can now save me.”

I did not mention my own symptoms for fear of increasing her alarm, but merely said:

“If you really believe you have been poisoned secretly, I think I can give you something which may be of benefit. We must not, however, lose an instant, but go to the nearest chemist’s.”

“No medicine is of avail against this. I have fallen a victim, as I knew I must, sooner or later. In half an hour I shall be dead,” she added hoarsely, gazing fixedly at the almost imperceptible scratch upon her delicate white flesh. “Ah! why did I come to this house of death when I suspected – nay, when I knew too well – the doom of those who enter here!”

“Come, Lady Judith!” I cried quickly. “Do not linger a moment. I feel sure that your case is not so utterly hopeless as you think. Come at once to a chemist’s.” And taking her forcibly by the arm I led her downstairs and out into the street.

There was no cab in sight, but I knew there was a chemist’s in Theobald’s Road, next door to the public-house where I had had refreshment on that first night of my return to London.

On entering the shop I seated her and quickly obtained a hypodermic syringe. Then, taking from my pocket the old green glass phial wherein the Borgia antidote was still hermetically sealed, I broke it open, half filled the tiny syringe with the dark-brown fluid, and injected it into her left arm. It was, indeed, fortunate that I had kept it in my pocket instead of placing it in the case with the other objects.

“What is that?” she inquired; but, promising to explain all later, I administered to myself an injection of the precious compound.

She felt better almost instantly, she said, and I myself began to derive great benefit from it. The sharp pains in my limbs grew easier, and the drowsiness that had already come over me was dispelled. It acted like magic, and, whatever was its nature, it had, after lying concealed through three centuries, lost none of its potency in counteracting the effects of a powerful venom.

As we had descended the stairs my quick eye had detected a sharp steel point slightly protruding from the polished mahogany handrail. The colour of the wood was darker there, as though stained by some liquid that had been applied to the point from time to time. Was it possible that the steel point was actually envenomed with evil intent? It certainly seemed so.

Yet the mysterious death of those two men who had been my enemies was certainly not attributable to the same cause, for the skin upon their hands was quite uninjured.

I examined my own hand while I gave some fictitious explanation to the chemist, whose curiosity had been aroused by my actions. The skin was cut slightly for quite two inches across, like the scratch of a pin, and yet I had felt nothing until Lady Judith had directed my attention to it. The venom, whatever it was, had the effect of producing insensibility in the actual part lacerated. It was true that the little crystal bottle discovered at Threave had been stolen from Dover Street; but although the antidote had acted so successfully, I could not believe that the actual liquid from that bottle had been used to envenom us. There was some further and deeper explanation, for had not the woman I loved admitted that she was aware how those who entered that gloomy, dismal house were doomed, and that the sign of the bear cub was synonymous with death?

Presently, when Judith felt better, we went forth again into the street. It was our duty to inform the police of the mysterious tragedy that had been enacted in Harpur Street, yet she pointed out that in the circumstances it would be far better to allow the discovery to be made by others. Some passer-by would undoubtedly notice that an entry had been made by the kitchen window, a search would be instituted for thieves, and the truth would then be revealed.

“But will you not tell me all you know regarding that strange place and its inmates?” I demanded.

“Later on, when I am certain of what has happened to my father,” was her response. “I shudder to think how near to death we both have been. You have saved my life, Mr Kennedy.”

“It was my duty. I, too, was envenomed by the same secret means. We might both have succumbed, just as those two men have done, had it not been for the fortunate circumstance of my possession of an antidote.”

“Ah?” she sighed. “Death comes sooner or later to those who visit that fatal house.” Then she added, “Let us take a cab home. I’m unnerved by what we have just discovered, for it renders the mystery greater.”

“Is it then a mystery – even to you?”

“Yes, even to me,” she answered; and then lapsed into silent thought.

When, a quarter of an hour later, we entered the hall at Grosvenor Street, the footman handed her a telegram, which she scanned, and quickly handed to me to read. It ran as follows:

“Abbey treasure discovered at Crowland this morning by the rector and Kennedy’s friends. Have been present at excavations. Arrive home at 4:30. Tell Kennedy. – Glenelg.”

“Look?” she cried in wild excitement. “My dear father is safe after all! He has apparently been helping your companions to search, and the hidden treasure has actually been discovered.”

I stood with the telegram in my hand, utterly staggered.

She refused to make any further explanation without her father’s consent, and as it was then half-past three o’clock, I was compelled to await the Earl’s return. In wonder whether any message had been sent me from my friends at Crowland, I took a cab to Dover Street, where the porter handed me a telegram from Walter also announcing the great find, and saying that he was returning to London with the Earl, and would meet me at Grosvenor Street.

Therefore, in hot haste, I drove back to Judith, and sat with her in the cozy little room she used as boudoir until there came a loud ring at the door, and the two men entered.

“Father!” cried Judith, springing up and throwing her arms round his neck. “We are safe – safe at last!”

“Safe?” he echoed. “How? What has occurred?”

“Both men are dead,” she declared. “They are lying dead in that room at Harpur Street. Mr Kennedy has broken into the place, and we have both seen them.”

“Dead!” gasped the Earl, gazing fixedly at his daughter. “Who could have killed them?”

“Ah! who knows?” she cried. “But I feared for you, knowing their deep cunning. Yet they have fortunately fallen victims, and you – whom they intended should die – have escaped.”

“Really, Lady Judith, this is very extraordinary!” exclaimed Walter Wyman. “Cannot you explain matters? Who are these men who are dead?”

“Selby and the hunchback,” was her reply. “Ask Mr Kennedy. He will tell you.”

Walter then turned to me, and I briefly explained our gruesome discovery and our very narrow escape from death. He stood aghast, and then in turn told me how they had recovered the whole of the abbey treasure, corresponding almost item for item with the list given in The Closed Book. As soon as they had started excavating, aided by a dozen labourers, Lord Glenelg had approached, introduced himself, and to their amazement, had rendered valuable assistance. At first of course, they had been mistrustful, recollecting the midnight search of some weeks ago; but at last, assured of his lordship’s good will, and that his interest was that of an enthusiastic antiquary, his friendship was accepted.

He had expressed a wish to Walter to meet me, and that was the reason the pair had travelled up to London, leaving the valuable treasure recovered in the hands of the rector, Fred, and Sammy Waldon.

“If, as you assure me, both men are dead, Mr Kennedy, I see no reason for any further secrecy,” exclaimed the Earl, turning his grey face towards me at last, and standing with one hand tenderly upon his daughter’s shoulder. “Judith would perhaps explain matters to you better than I can; but as she desires it, I will relate the facts as far as they are known to me.”

Her sweet gaze met mine, and I saw that she was breathless and nervous, as though in dread of the truth being told. Her face was white and attentive; and she half-clung to her father, as though relying upon his paternal protection. She seemed apprehensive as if, even now, she would withhold her strange secret from me.

Chapter Thirty Nine

Contains Lord Glenelg’s Story

There was a long and painful pause.

“Eight years ago I was living with my wife and Judith at the Villa Carracci, in the Val d’Ema, close to Florence, and first met the hunchback Graniani, or Fra Francesco, as he was then called, for he was then a monk at the Certosa Monastery at Galuzzo,” said Lord Glenelg in a hard, strained voice. “He came to beg alms of me; our conversation ran upon books and ancient manuscripts, and I found, to my surprise, that he was very well versed in the study of palaeography. Discovering that I was a collector, he invited me to the monastery one day, and there exhibited the treasures of the library, including a very remarkable manuscript of Arnoldus. Away at Sienna there lived an English friend of this hunchback, named Selby, of whom he often spoke. One afternoon, when visiting the Certosa, I was introduced to this man, and found him to be a person whose past history was somewhat shady, and who was living in Sienna in strict privacy. It struck me from the first that the fellow, like lots of others one meets in Italy and elsewhere, had got into some trouble in England, and lived abroad to avoid arrest. On several occasions we met, and I could not help suspecting that there was some extraordinary bond of friendship existing between that hunchback monk and my dark-faced, oily-looking compatriot, who lived the life of a hermit, sometimes in Pisa, at others in Sienna, and frequently in Rome.

“My wife frequently gave alms to Fra Francesco, hence the lay brother was a constant caller, and was in the habit of bringing us in return presents of grapes, figs, and salads from the monastery garden. I, too, became interested in him, for his knowledge was several times of great assistance to me in my palaeographical studies in the Laurenziana Library and the archives of the Palazzo Vecchio. So, gradually, his connection with the adventurous Englishman passed out of my mind.

“After about a year a crushing blow fell upon me. I had been into Florence one morning making some researches in the archives, and on my return discovered my poor wife seated in her little salon stark and dead. She had, it seemed, received Fra Francesco in the hall, he having called with a present of grapes, and she had given him a few lire. The grapes had been taken to the dining-room, and she had gone straight to her own boudoir and must have there expired without being able to call assistance. The medical examination was a searching one; but it was found that death was due to sudden heart failure. Fra Francesco explained at the inquiry that my wife seemed quite in her usual health when she had given him alms, and that she had told him to call again on the following Monday. Selby was in Florence, and called to condole with me on the day my poor wife was interred in the English cemetery. After that I took Judith, and we became wanderers, travelling about hither and thither across the Continent. People believed me eccentric because I had closed Twycross and my town house here and preferred life in hotels with constant change.” He sighed, adding: “But they knew not that I travelled with one fixed object; that often when my friends supposed me to be thousands of miles away I was living here in secrecy, going forth only at night for fear of recognition. The object of this you will see later.”

“Ah, yes!” interrupted Lady Judith, her face a trifle paler, “an object that is now happily accomplished.”

“My daughter, here, was but a girl when my poor wife died,” went on his lordship, speaking in that mechanical, reflective tone that he had used all along, relating a painful history only from a sense of duty. “For the first three years she was, on and off, at a convent at Angers, and then as my constant companion lived a life of continual travel – an existence which has happily ended this very day. Well, I need not describe our weary wanderings, our swift movements from one city to another, nor our constant subterfuges for disguise. It is sufficient for me to come to these present days.

“By careful inquiries and personal observation I was aware that Fra Francesco had, about a year after my wife’s death, been forced to leave the Order owing to irreligious conduct, and that both he and the man Selby – who I had discovered was a chemist of considerable ability and had been lecturer at one of the London hospitals – were in possession of some profound secret. The pair travelled together very frequently, staying at the best hotels, such as the Langham in London, the Chatham in Paris, the Metropole in Vienna, Shepheard’s in Cairo, the Métropole at Monte Carlo, the Grand at Rome, the houses of the first order in Bombay, Sydney, San Francisco, and New York. Indeed, the pair made a world tour, and, strangely enough, in several places where they went some person of affluence, man or woman, expired suddenly, the doctors attributing death to the same vague cause as that of my poor wife’s disease – heart failure.

“Thus my suspicion became confirmed that this unfrocked monk and his shady companion had actually discovered some secret poison which, like the venom of the Borgias, while defying detection, could be used in the same subtle way and with the same deadly effect. The suspicion had been aroused by my discovering among my dead wife’s papers a note written to her by Fra Francesco just prior to her death, which showed that she had, by some means, become acquainted with their secret discovery, and knew the reason of the death of a small landed proprietor named Bardi, whose estate joined that of the Villa Caracci. It was undoubtedly because of this discovery of their dastardly crime and fear of denunciation that my poor wife was secretly assassinated.”

“Then you have watched these men for seven years?” I exclaimed, in utter amazement at these revelations.

“I have,” was his hard answer. “I followed them everywhere, secretly noting how ingeniously and unsuspectedly they dealt death and were gradually enriching themselves without any fear of detection, for they were clever enough never to be associated with the actual fatality. Indeed, they could so regulate their poison, whatever it was, that death would occur almost instantly, or, if they so desired, not for several days, robbery, of course, being always the motive. Under a dozen aliases they made their dastardly progress, striking death in seven different instances within my own knowledge, without compassion or remorse.

“Among the persons who fell their victims were the well-known stockbroker Clement Harrison, of Wall Street, New York, whose sudden death in Paris you will probably recollect; a woman named Blacker, maid to the Duchess of Cornwall, from whom they stole a quantity of diamonds which the unfortunate woman had in her keeping in the Hotel Métropole in Vienna; a banker named Lefevre, who died suddenly in his offices in the Boulevard Haussmann; and a Polish prince named Lebitski, who expired mysteriously at the same hotel in which they were staying at Sydney.

“I enumerate these just to show you the progress of their atrocious crimes. From the last-named victim they obtained at least thirty thousand pounds in cash and securities; and yet, although I felt absolutely certain of their guilt, I was utterly powerless to denounce them, because never once had there been the slightest suspicion of poisoning. Indeed, in several cases, in order to satisfy the police, the viscera had been analysed, and all idea of venom utterly set aside.”