"i told you that there was a man at the palazzo named salvolio.
salvolio was a man who had been undergoing a life sentence in oneof the prisons of southern italy. in some mysterious fashion heescaped and got across the adriatic in a small boat. how karafound him i don't know. salvolio was a very uncommunicativeperson. i was never certain whether he was a greek or an italian.
all that i am sure about is that he was the most unmitigatedvillain next to his master that i have ever met.
"he was a quick man with his knife and i have seen him kill one ofthe guards whom he had thought was favouring me in the matter ofdiet with less compunction than you would kill a rat.
"it was he who gave me this scar," john lexman pointed to hischeek. "in his master's absence he took upon himself the task ofconducting a clumsy imitation of kara's persecution. he gave me,too, the only glimpse i ever had of the torture poor graceunderwent. she hated dogs, and kara must have come to know thisand in her sleeping room - she was apparently better accommodatedthan i - he kept four fierce beasts so chained that they couldalmost reach her.
"some reference to my wife from this low brute maddened me beyondendurance and i sprang at him. he whipped out his knife andstruck at me as i fell and i escaped by a miracle. he evidentlyhad orders not to touch me, for he was in a great panic of mind,as he had reason to be, because on kara's return he discovered thestate of my face, started an enquiry and had salvolio taken to thecourtyard in the true eastern style and bastinadoed until his feetwere pulp.
"you may be sure the man hated me with a malignity which almostrivalled his employer's. after grace's death kara went awaysuddenly and i was left to the tender mercy of this man.
evidently he had been given a fairly free hand. the principalobject of kara's hate being dead, he took little further interestin me, or else wearied of his hobby. salvolio began hispersecutions by reducing my diet. fortunately i ate very little.
nevertheless the supplies began to grow less and less, and i wasbeginning to feel the effects of this starvation system when therehappened a thing which changed the whole course of my life andopened to me a way to freedom and to vengeance.
"salvolio did not imitate the austerity of his master and inkara's absence was in the habit of having little orgies of hisown. he would bring up dancing girls from durazzo for hisamusement and invite prominent men in the neighbourhood to hisfeasts and entertainments, for he was absolutely lord of thepalazzo when kara was away and could do pretty well as he liked.
on this particular night the festivities had been more thanusually prolonged, for as near as i could judge by the day-lightwhich was creeping in through my window it was about four o'clockin the morning when the big steel-sheeted door was opened andsalvolio came in, more than a little drunk. he brought with him,as i judged, one of his dancing girls, who apparently wasprivileged to see the sights of the palace.
"for a long time he stood in the doorway talking incoherently in alanguage which i think must have been turkish, for i caught one ortwo words.
"whoever the girl was, she seemed a little frightened, i could seethat, because she shrank back from him though his arm was abouther shoulders and he was half supporting his weight upon her.
there was fear, not only in the curious little glances she shot atme from time to time, but also in the averted face. her story iwas to learn. she was not of the class from whence salvolio foundthe dancers who from time to time came up to the palace for hisamusement and the amusement of his guests. she was the daughterof a turkish merchant of scutari who had been received into thecatholic church.
"her father had gone down to durazzo during the first balkan warand then salvolio had seen the girl unknown to her parent, andthere had been some rough kind of courtship which ended in herrunning away on this very day and joining her ill-favoured loverat the palazzo. i tell you this because the fact had some bearingon my own fate.
"as i say, the girl was frightened and made as though to go fromthe dungeon. she was probably scared both by the unkempt prisonerand by the drunken man at her side. he, however, could not leavewithout showing to her something of his authority. he camelurching over near where i lay, his long knife balanced in hishand ready for emergencies, and broke into a string ofvituperations of the character to which i was quite hardened.
"then he took a flying kick at me and got home in my ribs, butagain i experienced neither a sense of indignity nor any greathurt. salvolio had treated me like this before and i had survivedit. in the midst of the tirade, looking past him, i was a newwitness to an extraordinary scene.
"the girl stood in the open doorway, shrinking back against thedoor, looking with distress and pity at the spectacle whichsalvolio's brutality afforded. then suddenly there appearedbeside her a tall turk. he was grey-bearded and forbidding. shelooked round and saw him, and her mouth opened to utter a cry, butwith a gesture he silenced her and pointed to the darknessoutside.
"without a word she cringed past him, her sandalled feet making nonoise. all this time salvolio was continuing his stream of abuse,but he must have seen the wonder in my eyes for he stopped andturned.
"the old turk took one stride forward, encircled his body with hisleft arm, and there they stood grotesquely like a couple who weregoing to start to waltz. the turk was a head taller than salvolioand, as i could see, a man of immense strength.
"they looked at one another, face to face, salvolio rapidlyrecovering his senses . . . and then the turk gave him a gentlepunch in the ribs. that is what it seemed like to me, butsalvolio coughed horribly, went limp in the other's arms anddropped with a thud to the ground. the turk leant down soberlyand wiped his long knife on the other's jacket before he put itback in the sash at his waist.
"then with a glance at me he turned to go, but stopped at the doorand looked back thoughtfully. he said something in turkish whichi could not understand, then he spoke in french.
"'who are you?' he asked.
"in as few words as possible i explained. he came over and lookedat the manacle about my leg and shook his head.
"'you will never be able to get that undone,' he said.
"he caught hold of the chain, which was a fairly long one, boundit twice round his arm and steadying his arm across his thigh, heturned with a sudden jerk. there was a smart 'snap' as the chainparted. he caught me by the shoulder and pulled me to my feet.
" 'put the chain about your waist, effendi,' he said, and he tooka revolver from his belt and handed it to me.
"'you may need this before we get back to durazzo,' he said. hisbelt was literally bristling with weapons - i saw three revolversbeside the one i possessed - and he had, evidently come preparedfor trouble. we made our way from the dungeon into theclean-smelling world without.
"it was the second time i had been in the open air for eighteenmonths and my knees were trembling under me with weakness andexcitement. the old man shut the prison door behind us and walkedon until we came up to the girl waiting for us by the lakeside.
she was weeping softly and he spoke to her a few words in a lowvoice and her weeping ceased.
"'this daughter of mine will show us the way,' he said, 'i do notknow this part of the country - she knows it too well.'
"to cut a long story short," said lexman, "we reached durazzo inthe afternoon. there was no attempt made to follow us up andneither my absence nor the body of salvolio were discovered untillate in the afternoon. you must remember that nobody but salvoliowas allowed into my prison and therefore nobody had the courage tomake any investigations.
"the old man got me to his house without being observed, andbrought a brother-in-law or some relative of his to remove theanklet. the name of my host was hussein effendi.
"that same night we left with a little caravan to visit some ofthe old man's relatives. he was not certain what would be theconsequence of his act, and for safety's sake took this trip,which would enable him if need be to seek sanctuary with some ofthe wilder turkish tribes, who would give him protection.
"in that three months i saw albania as it is - it was anexperience never to be forgotten!
"if there is a better man in god's world than hiabam husseineffendi, i have yet to meet him. it was he who provided me withmoney to leave albania. i begged from him, too, the knife withwhich he had killed salvolio. he had discovered that kara was inengland and told me something of the greek's occupation which ihad not known before. i crossed to italy and went on to milan.
there it was that i learnt that an eccentric englishman who hadarrived a few days previously on one of the south american boatsat genoa, was in my hotel desperately ill.
"my hotel i need hardly tell you was not a very expensive one andwe were evidently the only two englishmen in the place. i coulddo no less than go up and see what i could do for the poor fellowwho was pretty well gone when i saw him. i seemed to rememberhaving seen him before and when looking round for someidentification i discovered his name i readily recalled thecircumstance.
"it was george gathercole, who had returned from south america.
he was suffering from malarial fever and blood poisoning and for aweek, with an italian doctor, i fought as hard as any man couldfight for his life. he was a trying patient," john lexman smiledsuddenly at the recollection, "vitriolic in his language,impatient and imperious in his attitude to his friends. he was,for example, terribly sensitive about his lost arm and would notallow either the doctor or my-self to enter the room until he wascovered to the neck, nor would he eat or drink in our presence.
yet he was the bravest of the brave, careless of himself and onlyfretful because he had not time to finish his new book. hisindomitable spirit did not save him. he died on the 17th ofjanuary of this year. i was in genoa at the time, having gonethere at his request to save his belongings. when i returned hehad been buried. i went through his papers and it was then that iconceived my idea of how i might approach kara.
"i found a letter from the greek, which had been addressed tobuenos ayres, to await arrival, and then i remembered in a flash,how kara had told me he had sent george gathercole to southamerica to report upon possible gold formations. i was determinedto kill kara, and determined to kill him in such a way that imyself would cover every trace of my complicity.
"even as he had planned my downfall, scheming every step andcovering his trail, so did i plan to bring about his death that nosuspicion should fall on me.
"i knew his house. i knew something of his habits. i knew thefear in which he went when he was in england and away from thefeudal guards who had surrounded him in albania. i knew of hisfamous door with its steel latch and i was planning to circumventall these precautions and bring to him not only the death hedeserved, but a full knowledge of his fate before he died.
"gathercole had some money, - about 140 pounds - i took 100pounds of this for my own use, knowing that i should havesufficient in london to recompense his heirs, and the remainder ofthe money with all such documents as he had, save those whichidentified him with kara, i handed over to the british consul.
"i was not unlike the dead man. my beard had grown wild and iknew enough of gathercole's eccentricities to live the part. thefirst step i took was to announce my arrival by inference. i am afairly good journalist with a wide general knowledge and withthis, corrected by reference to the necessary books which i foundin the british museum library, i was able to turn out a veryrespectable article on patagonia.
"this i sent to the times with one of gathercole's cards and, asyou know, it was printed. my next step was to find suitablelodgings between chelsea and scotland yard. i was fortunate inbeing able to hire a furnished flat, the owner of which was goingto the south of france for three months. i paid the rent inadvance and since i dropped all the eccentricities i had assumedto support the character of gathercole, i must have impressed theowner, who took me without references.
"i had several suits of new clothes made, not in london," hesmiled, "but in manchester, and again i made myself as trim aspossible to avoid after-identification. when i had got thesetogether in my flat, i chose my day. in the morning i sent twotrunks with most of my personal belongings to the great midlandhotel.
"in the afternoon i went to cadogan square and hung about until isaw kara drive off. it was my first view of him since i had leftalbania and it required all my self-control to prevent mespringing at him in the street and tearing at him with my hands.
"once he was out of sight i went to the house adopting all thestyle and all the mannerisms of poor gathercole. my beginning wasunfortunate for, with a shock, i recognised in the valet afellow-convict who had been with me in the warder's cottage on themorning of my escape from dartmoor. there was no mistaking him,and when i heard his voice i was certain. would he recognise me iwondered, in spite of my beard and my eye-glasses?
"apparently he did not. i gave him every chance. i thrust myface into his and on my second visit challenged him, in theeccentric way which poor old gathercole had, to test the grey ofmy beard. for the moment however, i was satisfied with my briefexperiment and after a reasonable interval i went away, returningto my place off victoria street and waiting till the evening.
"in my observation of the house, whilst i was waiting for kara todepart, i had noticed that there were two distinct telephone wiresrunning down to the roof. i guessed, rather than knew, that oneof these telephones was a private wire and, knowing something ofkara's fear, i presumed that that wire would lead to a policeoffice, or at any rate to a guardian of some kind or other. karahad the same arrangement in albania, connecting the palazzo withthe gendarme posts at alesso. this much hussein told me.
"that night i made a reconnaissance of the house and saw kara'swindow was lit and at ten minutes past ten i rang the bell and ithink it was then that i applied the test of the beard. kara wasin his room, the valet told me, and led the way upstairs. i hadcome prepared to deal with this valet for i had an especial reasonfor wishing that he should not be interrogated by the police. ona plain card i had written the number he bore in dartmoor and hadadded the words, 'i know you, get out of here quick.'
"as he turned to lead the way upstairs i flung the envelopecontaining the card on the table in the hall. in an insidepocket, as near to my body as i could put them, i had the twocandles. how i should use them both i had already decided. thevalet ushered me into kara's room and once more i stood ins thepresence of the man who had killed my girl and blotted out allthat was beautiful in life for me."there was a breathless silence when he paused. t. x. leaned backin his chair, his head upon his breast, his arms folded, his eyeswatching the other intently.
the chief commissioner, with a heavy frown and pursed lips, satstroking his moustache and looking under his shaggy eyebrows atthe speaker. the french police officer, his hands thrust deep inhis pockets, his head on one side, was taking in every wordeagerly. the sallow-faced russian, impassive of face, might havebeen a carved ivory mask. o'grady, the american, the stump of adead cigar between his teeth, shifted impatiently with every pauseas though he would hurry forward the denouement.
presently john lexman went on.
"he slipped from the bed and came across to meet me as i closedthe door behind me.
"'ah, mr. gathercole,' he said, in that silky tone of his, andheld out his hand.
"i did not speak. i just looked at him with a sort of fierce joyin my heart the like of which i had never before experienced.
"'and then he saw in my eyes the truth and half reached for thetelephone.
"but at that moment i was on him. he was a child in my hands.
all the bitter anguish he had brought upon me, all the hardshipsof starved days and freezing nights had strengthened and hardenedme. i had come back to london disguised with a false arm and thisi shook free. it was merely a gauntlet of thin wood which i hadhad made for me in paris.
"i flung him back on the bed and half knelt, half laid on him.
"'kara,' i said, 'you are going to die, a more merciful death thanmy wife died.'
"he tried to speak. his soft hands gesticulated wildly, but i washalf lying on one arm and held the other.
"i whispered in his ear:
"'nobody will know who killed you, kara, think of that! i shallgo scot free - and you will be the centre of a fine mystery! allyour letters will be read, all your life will be examined and theworld will know you for what you are!'
"i released his arm for just as long as it took to draw my knifeand strike. i think he died instantly," john lexman said simply.
"i left him where he was and went to the door. i had not muchtime to spare. i took the candles from my pocket. they werealready ductile from the heat of my body.
"i lifted up the steel latch of the door and propped up the latchwith the smaller of the two candles, one end of which was on themiddle socket and the other beneath the latch. the heat of theroom i knew would still further soften the candle and let thelatch down in a short time.
"i was prepared for the telephone by his bedside though i did notknow to whither it led. the presence of the paper-knife decidedme. i balanced it across the silver cigarette box so that one endcame under the telephone receiver; under the other end i put thesecond candle which i had to cut to fit. on top of thepaper-knife at the candle end i balanced the only two books icould find in the room, and fortunately they were heavy.
"i had no means of knowing how long it would take to melt thecandle to a state of flexion which would allow the full weight ofthe books to bear upon the candle end of the paper-knife and flingoff the receiver. i was hoping that fisher had taken my warningand had gone. when i opened the door softly, i heard hisfootsteps in the hall below. there was nothing to do but tofinish the play.
"i turned and addressed an imaginary conversation to kara. it washorrible, but there was something about it which aroused in me acurious sense of humour and i wanted to laugh and laugh and laugh!
"i heard the man coming up the stairs and closed the doorgingerly. what length of time would it take for the candle tobend!
"to completely establish the alibi i determined to hold fisher inconversation and this was all the easier since apparently he hadnot seen the envelope i had left on the table downstairs. i hadnot long to wait for suddenly with a crash i heard the steel latchfall in its place. under the effect of the heat the candle hadbent sooner than i had expected. i asked fisher what was themeaning of the sound and he explained. i passed down the stairstalking all the time. i found a cab at sloane square and drove tomy lodgings. underneath my overcoat i was partly dressed inevening kit.
"ten minutes after i entered the door of my flat i came out abeardless man about town, not to be distinguished from thethousand others who would be found that night walking thepromenade of any of the great music-halls. from victoria street idrove straight to scotland yard. it was no more than acoincidence that whilst i should have been speaking with you all,the second candle should have bent and the alarm be given in thevery office in which i was sitting.
"i assure you all in all earnestness that i did not suspect thecause of that ringing until mr. mansus spoke.
"there, gentlemen, is my story!" he threw out his arms.
"you may do with me as you will. kara was a murderer, dyed ahundred times in innocent blood. i have done all that i setmyself to do - that and no more - that and no less. i had thoughtto go away to america, but the nearer the day of my departureapproached, the more vivid became the memory of the plans whichshe and i had formed, my girl . . . my poor martyred girl!"he sat at the little table, his hands clasped before him, his facelined and white.
"and that is the end!" he said suddenly, with a wry smile.
"not quite!" t. x. swung round with a gasp. it was belinda marywho spoke.
"i can carry it on," she said.
she was wonderfully self-possessed, thought t. x., but then t. x.
never thought anything of her but that she was "wonderfully"something or the other.
"most of your story is true, mr. lexman," said this astonishinggirl, oblivious of the amazed eyes that were staring at her, "butkara deceived you in one respect.""what do you mean?" asked john lexman, rising unsteadily to hisfeet.
for answer she rose and walked back to the door with the chintzcurtains and flung it open: there was a wait which seemed aneternity, anal then through the doorway came a girl, slim andgrave and beautiful.
"my god!" whispered t. x. "grace lexman!"
