tanza shook his head slowly and sorrowfully. "terrible!" he murmured. "i wish we could find some way of keeping mrs. rent and miss hargrave out of this matter. but after what has taken place the thing is impossible. mrs. rent will have to give evidence, and so will miss hargrave. one is naturally loth to interfere with the course of justice. but if ever there was a case where a policy of silence would be pardonable, this assuredly is that case. only in one contingency the world need know nothing of this miserable affair."
"and what may that be?" grey asked.
"why, the death of arnold rent, of course. if he would considerately die, we should be perfectly justified in keeping our own counsel. why should the thing be dragged to light? why should the whole painful story be made public when the culprit is beyond the reach of the law? i think you will agree with me."
"oh, i do," grey confessed. "but please don't imagine that arnold is worse than he appears to be. you don't suppose that he is responsible for the death of mrs. charlock as well? that would be too dreadful."
"is there any other conclusion?" tanza asked.
"well, yes, in common justice to rent, there is. i believe that mrs. charlock's death was a sheer accident. let me retrace the ground, and i will show you what i mean. we will admit, if you like, that rent is a man without heart and without principle. we will make one exception, and that was his pure and disinterested affection for mrs. charlock. he was prepared to sacrifice his future for her sake. oh, yes, i know that he stole her diamonds. but no doubt that was in the early stage of his infatuation. afterwards he must be credited with good intentions. you see, he had removed the french maid, and the ground appeared to be clear. so deeply in love is he that he takes mrs. charlock to stay with his mother. mind you, in taking that step he knew what he was risking. he knew how strict and rigid his mother was, and how little versed she was in the ways of the world. these upright and honourable people are apt to be narrow-minded. and religion and charity are not always the same thing. i say that when rent took mrs. charlock into devonshire he was running the risk of losing every penny of his expectations. of course, there was the hope of conciliating his mother, but that was what one might call a sporting chance. as you know, the scheme was a failure, and mrs. charlock went away, posing as a martyr, prepared to accept any sacrifice rather than injure the prospects of the man who had befriended her. anyway, there was an end of her so far as the home in devonshire was concerned. now, if my theory is correct, there was a subsequent interview between mrs. charlock and rent, in which the situation was reviewed from a worldly point of view. you see, they were bound to face the situation sooner or later; in sporting parlance, the thing wasn't good enough for mrs. charlock, and she probably let rent know it in her sweet, unsophisticated way. no doubt he had time to think the matter over and began to grasp what he was sacrificing. whether they parted in friendly fashion or not doesn't matter. they did part, and mrs. charlock came back to her husband. before she started, rent doubtless did the fair thing and told her where her jewels were hidden. but there was one thing he forgot—he neglected to turn off those switches, and left the fountain in the same dangerous condition as when hortense met with her dreadful death. either that or swift had been experimenting with the apparatus. but the fact remains that the charge had not been drawn from the mine, and when mrs. charlock went to regain possession of her jewels she went to certain death. that is my rendering of the matter, though i may be wrong."
"i should think it exceedingly probable you are right," tanza said. "you have given me a sensible and logical account of what has happened, and i fail to see any flaw in your argument. we had better return to the yacht now, and later i will hand these stones to charlock. there ought to be enough here to free him from all his difficulties and enable him to come back to his own house. unless i am mistaken, he will be glad to resume possession once more."
"why should he be?" grey asked.
"because he is in love with ethel hargrave," tanza said. "one can see that with half an eye. and what is more, the girl is in love with him. but these things are in the air at present. so far as i am concerned, i should be disposed to keep our discovery a profound secret. that rascal bark will not dare to say anything, and i flatter myself i can find a way to keep swift's mouth closed. unfortunately, miss hargrave has made some discoveries, but we may be able to convince her that she has made a mistake. if arnold rent dies, which seems more than probable, we may save the scandal altogether. charlock we can trust."
they were back at the yacht again presently, still discussing the tragedy in which they were both profoundly interested. there was no sign of bark, and swift seemed to be decidedly better. after luncheon tanza had a long talk with him, and left him in appreciably higher spirits. just as the italian arrived on deck again an urgent message came for grey, saying that mr. rent desired to see him immediately.
grey found rent sitting in bed, propped up with pillows. it needed no practised eye to see that the end was near. mrs. rent and ethel were with the sufferer, and at a sign from him they left him and grey together. rent was very weak and low, yet there was a resolute look in his eyes, and he lost no time in coming directly to the point.
"you know why i sent for you?" he demanded.
"i can give a fair guess," grey murmured.
"ah, i am glad of that, because it will save me a deal of talking, and time is precious. tell me in a few words what you have discovered. it would be a kindness to speak frankly and openly to me."
"perhaps it would," grey said. "then i may say i have discovered everything. nothing is hidden from me."
"this is what i expected," the dying man murmured. "i have felt that ever since you have been in the neighbourhood. oh, i know what tanza was after. i have not been altogether blind. but i swear to you that so far as mrs. charlock was concerned i am absolutely and entirely innocent. it was a cruel misfortune—but go on, please. let me hear your story first."
"there is not much to tell," grey said, picking up the thread. "to begin with, i know all about your entanglement with the french maid. an accident put me on the track, but it is a waste of time to go into that. i know what happened between your workshop and the fountain. i know how you laid the trap which led hortense to her death. but perhaps i had better tell it to you just as i told it to tanza a little while ago."
grey proceeded over the familiar ground, the dying man following with rapt attention. at the end of the recital he nodded more or less approvingly.
"so far," he said, "you have not made a mistake. you have the thing as clear and plain as if you had been in my place. but you are wrong as far as mrs. charlock was concerned. i had disconnected the electrical apparatus which communicated with the fountain; indeed, i was going to destroy everything but for an accident which prevented me. i call it an accident for want of a better term. but now i see the hand of fate in it. i was playing with the apparatus one night when hortense's brother, bark, came into my office. he asked me for money, which i was not able to give him, and one word leading to another, the whole thing culminated in a serious quarrel. i was knocked down and sustained an injury to my head which, as you know, affected my brain. in most ways i was sane enough, but memory of the events of the past few days had been wholly blotted out. i was haunted by the feeling that i had left something undone, but i could not for the life of me recall what it was. you can imagine a murderer who has gone off and left a clue behind. that was the sensation that maddened me and spoilt all my rest till ethel hargrave found me poring over certain letters. it was only when she began to speak that remembrance came back to me swiftly and unexpectedly. ethel knew too much. i knew that i could not hope to silence her tongue. besides, she had already confessed all she had discovered to john charlock. then it was that a feeling of abject despair came over me, and in the madness of the moment i threw myself out of the window. when sense and reason returned once more everything was wonderfully clear again. i recalled the whole train of circumstances. and the more i pondered it the more hopeless my position seemed. i tell you, i was glad to know that i must die, that i was going to leave all this shame and misery behind me. and it is simply because i am dying that i sent for you to-day. i want you, if you can, to prevent a scandal. i want these dreadful things kept from my mother."
