The House of Whispers

"Yes, but–"

"Sir Henry," Walter said in a quiet tone, "this gentleman sent by the Baron is his secretary, the same Mr. Edgar Hamilton of whom Gabrielle has just been speaking."

"Ah, then, perhaps he can furnish us with further facts regarding this most extraordinary statement of my daughter's," the blind man exclaimed.

"Gabrielle has just told her father the truth regarding a certain tragic occurrence in the Forest of Pontarmé. Explain to us all you know, Edgar."

"What I know," said Hamilton, "is very quickly told. Has Miss Heyburn mentioned the man Krail?"

"Yes, I have told them about him," the girl answered.

"You have, however, perhaps omitted to mention one or two small facts in connection with the affair," he said. "Do you not remember how, on that eventful afternoon in the forest, when searching for us, you first encountered Krail walking with this man Flockart at some distance from the others?"

"Yes, I recollect."

"And do you remember that when we returned to sit down to luncheon Flockart insisted that I should take the seat which was afterwards occupied by the unfortunate Miss Bryant? Do you recollect how I spread a rug for her at that spot and preferred myself to stand? The reason of their invitation to me to sit there I did not discover until afterwards. That wine had been prepared for me, not for her."

"For you!" the girl gasped, amazed.

"Yes. The plot was undoubtedly this—"

"There was no plot," protested Flockart, interrupting. "This girl killed Edna Bryant through intense jealousy."

"I repeat that there was a foul and ingenious plot to kill me, and to entrap Miss Heyburn," Hamilton said. "It was, of course, clear that Miss Heyburn was jealous of the girl, for she had written to her mother making threats against Miss Bryant's life. Therefore, the plot was that I should drink the fatal wine, and that Miss Gabrielle should be declared to be the murderess, she having intended the wine to be partaken of by the girl she hated with such deadly hatred. The marked cordiality of Krail and Flockart that I should take that seat aroused within me some misgivings, although I had never dreamed of this dastardly and cowardly plot against me—not until I saw the result of their foul handiwork."

"It's a lie! You are trying to implicate Krail and myself! The girl is the only guilty person. She placed the wine there!"

"She did not!" declared Hamilton boldly. "She was not there when the bottle was changed by Krail, but I was!"

"If what you say is true, then you deliberately stood by and allowed the girl to drink."

"I watched Krail go to the spot where luncheon was laid out, but could not see what he did. If I had done so I should have saved the girl's life. You were a few yards off, awaiting him; therefore you knew his intentions, and you are as guilty of that girl's tragic death as he."

"What!" cried Flockart, his eyes glaring angrily, "do you declare, then, that I am a murderer?"

"You yourself are the best judge of your own guilt," answered Hamilton meaningly.

"I deny that Krail or myself had any hand in the affair."

"You will have an opportunity of making that denial in a criminal court ere long," remarked the Baron's secretary with a grim smile.

"What," gasped Lady Heyburn's friend, his cheeks paling in an instant, "have you been so indiscreet as to inform the police?"

"I have—a week ago. I made a statement to M. Hamard of the Sûreté in Paris, and they have already made a discovery which you will find of interest and somewhat difficult to disprove."

"And pray what is that?"

Hamilton smiled again, saying, "No, my dear sir, the police will tell you themselves all in due course. Remember, you and your precious friend plotted to kill me."

"But why, Mr. Hamilton?" inquired the blind man. "What was their motive?"

"A very strong one," was the reply. "I had recognised in Krail a man who had defrauded the Baron de Hetzendorf of fifty thousand kroners, and for whom the police were in active search, both for that and for several other serious charges of a similar character. Krail knew this, and he and his friend—this gentleman here—had very ingeniously resolved to get rid of me by making it appear that Miss Gabrielle had poisoned me by accident."

"A lie!" declared Flockart fiercely, though his efforts to remain imperturbed were now palpable.

"You will be given due opportunity of disproving my allegations," Hamilton said. "You, coward that you are, placed the guilt upon an innocent, inexperienced girl. Why? Because, with Lady Heyburn's connivance, you with your cunning accomplice Krail were endeavouring to discover Sir Henry's business secrets in order, first, to operate upon the valuable financial knowledge you would thus gain, and so make a big coup; and, secondly, when you had done this, it was your intention to expose the methods of Sir Henry and his friends. Ah! don't imagine that you and Krail have not been very well watched of late," laughed Hamilton.

"Do you allege, then, that Lady Heyburn is privy to all this?" asked the blind man in distress.

"It is not for me to judge, sir," was Hamilton's reply.

"I know! I know how I have been befooled!" cried the poor helpless man, "befooled because I am blind!"

"Not by me, Sir Henry," protested Flockart.

"By you and by every one else," he cried angrily. "But I know the truth at last—the truth how my poor little daughter has been used as an instrument by you in your nefarious operations."

"But–"

"Hear me, I say!" went on the old man. "I ask my daughter to forgive me for misjudging her. I now know the truth. You obtained by some means a false key to my safe, and you copied certain documents which I had placed there in order to entrap any who might seek to learn my secrets. You fell into that trap, and though I confess I thought that Gabrielle was the culprit, on Murie's behalf, I only lately found out that you and your accomplice Krail were in Greece endeavouring to profit by knowledge obtained from here, my private house."

"Krail has been living in Auchterarder of late, it appears," Hamilton remarked, "and it is evidently he who, gaining access to the house one night recently, used his friend's false key, and obtained those confidential Russian documents from your safe."

"No doubt," declared Sir Henry. Then, again addressing Flockart, he asked, "Where are those documents which you and your scoundrelly accomplice have stolen, and for the return of which you are trying to make me pay?"

"I don't know anything about them," answered Flockart sullenly, his face livid.

"He'll know more about them when he is taken off by the two detectives from Edinburgh who hold the extradition warrant," Hamilton remarked with a grim smile.

The fellow started at those words. His demeanour was that of a guilty man. "What do you mean?" he gasped, white as death. "You—you intend to give me into custody? If you do, I warn you that Lady Heyburn will suffer also."

"She, like Miss Gabrielle, has only been your tool," Hamilton declared. "It was she who, under compulsion, has furnished you with means for years, and whose association with you has caused something little short of a scandal. Times without number she has tried to get rid of you and your evil influence in this household, but you have always defied her. Now," he said firmly, looking the other straight in the face, "you have upon you those stolen documents which you have, by using an assumed name and a false address, offered to sell back to their owner, Sir Henry. You have threatened that if they are not purchased at the exorbitant price you demand you will sell them to the Russian Ministry of Finance. That is the way you treat your friend and benefactor, the man who is blind and helpless! Come, give them back to Sir Henry, and at once."

"You must ask Krail," stammered the man, now so cornered that all further excuse or denial had become impossible.

"That's unnecessary. I happen to know that those papers are in your pocket at this moment, a fact which shows how watchful an eye we've been keeping upon you of late. You have brought them here so that your friend Krail may come to terms with Sir Henry for their repossession. He arrived from London with you, and is at the 'Strathavon Arms' in the village, where he stayed before, and is well known."

"Flockart," demanded the blind man very seriously, "you have papers in your possession which are mine. Return them to me."

A dead silence fell. All eyes save those of Sir Henry were turned upon the man who until that moment had stood so defiant and so full of sarcasm. But in an instant, at mention of Krail's presence in Auchterarder, his demeanour had suddenly changed. He was full of alarm.

"Give them to me and leave my house," Sir Henry said, holding up his thin white hand.

"I—I will—on one condition: if I may be allowed to go."

"We shall not prevent you leaving," was the Baronet's calm reply.

The man fumbled nervously in the inner pocket of his coat, and at last brought out a sealed and rather bulgy foolscap envelope.