_ CHAPTER XXIV. CONCLUSION
Shirley made some investigations in a private reading room of the Public Library: there was much good treasure there, not salable over the counter of a grocery store, mayhap, but unusually valuable in the high grade work which was his specialty. In an old volume enumerating the noble families of Austro-Hungary he found two distinguished lines, "Laschlas" and "Rozi."
From the library he went to a cable office where he sent a message to the chief of police of Budapesth inquiring about the remaining members of the families. The old volume in the library was thirty-four years behind the times: it was the only record obtainable in America.
After a couple of hours, which he devote to some personal matters, he received a response to his inquiry. When translated from the Hungarian it read thus:
"Professor Montague Shirley, College Club, N.Y., U.S.A.
Families extinct except Countess Laschlas, and son Count Rozi Laschlas, reported killed in Albanian revolution.
Csherkini, Minister of Justice."
The criminologist was happy. Here was a weapon which he had not yet used. Now he turned his steps towards the Tombs, for an interview with the prisoner.
After some parley with the warden, he was admitted for a visit to Reginald Warren. That gentleman's fury was rekindled at the sight of the club man who had been so instrumental in his downfall. But a cunning smile played over the features of the criminal.
"So, you have come to gloat over your work, Shirley? Well, it is a game two can play."
"Yes? I am always interested in sport. I came to see if there was anything I could do for you in your confinement," was the unruffled reply.
"You will be busy with your own affairs," retorted Warren. "I have been busy writing my confession. Here is the manuscript. I will baffle all your efforts to hush up the affairs of the 'Lobster Club.' Furthermore, my confession," (and he exultantly waved a mass of manuscript at his visitor,) "will send young Van Cleft to prison for perjury on the certificate of his father's death. Captain Cronin, that prince of blockheads, will share the same fate. Professor MacDonald, who I know very well signed the death certificates, will be disgraced and driven from professional standing. You will be implicated in this plot to thwart justice. With the German university thoroughness to which you so sarcastically referred, I have written down the facts as carefully as though I were preparing a thesis for a doctor's degree!"
He laughed maliciously, studying the effect of his words. He was disappointed. Shirley's bland manner changed not a whit. Instead the criminologist offered him a cigarette.
"You might as well smoke now--as later!" and there was a wealth of innuendo in the emphasis. "Is that all you are going to do, to square your accounts?"
"By no means! As my trump card, I have implicated Miss Helene Marigold in the various exploits which have been so successful now. She is unknown in New York--I investigated that matter. She will have a fine task in proving an alibi, after the careful preparation I have made. In fact, I accuse her of being the mistress of my dead con'federate--"
Shirley sprang to his feet, and the rage which was shown in his strong features brought a leer to the face of the other.
"Strike me," continued the tormentor. "All I have to do is to call the guard. I have been busy thinking since they locked me up here. There is nothing more to do to me than the electric chair--but, I am not finished yet."
The criminologist controlled himself with difficulty. He realized that an altercation with the prisoner would shatter his whole case, like a house of cards blown down by a vagrant breeze. He sat down again, the mask of calm indifference playing over his features.
"And what then?"
"Is not that sufficient to interest you? It will be another month before my trial, and my literary work has just begun. The newspapers are filled with war news, which have ceased to be a nine days' wonder. I shall provide them with material which will be the story of the age! Another month, and then?"
The prisoner lit the cigarette which he had accepted, and stretched back in the plain wooden chair to enjoy the misery of his victim.
"But, a month--let me see? That would enable me to do some corresponding myself, wouldn't it?" and Shirley took out a memorandum book. "You have degraded a splendid intellect, a gallant spirit and brought disgrace upon yourself, for this miserable ending. You have ruthlessly murdered others, caring naught for the misery and wretchedness of those left behind. Has it been worth it all, Warren?"
The other's eyes twinkled, as he nodded.
"A wonderful game. And I haven't completed the score, even now."
"You are right, Warren. There is one soul more whom you have not affected. It is too bad that you were not killed in the Albanian revolution,--then you would have been on record as a hero instead of the vilest scoundrel in Christendom."
Had the death-dealing current of the electric chair been turned upon Warren he could not have been more startled, as he sprang up. His pallid face seemed to turn a sickly green, as his dark eyes opened in galvanized amazement.
"Albanian--what do you mean? I never saw Albania!"
"You will never see it again. You will never see Budapesth again, either," was the menacing continuation of the criminologist's methodical speech. "But a very old lady, the Countess Laschlas, will see the accounts of her son's wretched death, in the New York papers which will be sent to her, in care of the American consul!"
It was merely a deductive guess: but the shot struck the center of the bull's-eye. Warren, alias Count Laschlas, staggered back, and his nervous fingers touched the chilling surface of the stone wall. He dropped his eyes, and then strove to regain his nonchalance. It was a pitiable failure.
"Just as you have dealt to the children of others, so will you deal with your own mother, the last of a distinguished line of aristocrats. I swear, by the memory of my own dead parents, that I will avenge the misery you have given to the innocent. The good Book says, the sins of the fathers shall be visited upon the children even unto the third and the fourth generation. But life to-day has taught me that the sins of the children are visited upon the fathers and the mothers--especially, the sweet, loving, trusting mothers! As I value my honor, Reginald Warren, or Count Rozi, I will see to it that your mother shall know every detail of the whole miserable career of her son. That is my answer to your alleged confession. If there is a hereafter, from which you may observe that which follows your death, you will be able to see through eternity the earthly punishment which has been visited upon the one person whom you love and respect."
The criminal's ashen face was buried in his hands.
Great sobs emanated from his white lips, as his shoulders heaved in a paroxysm.
Shirley had struck the Achilles tendon--the hardest wretch in the world had one, as he knew!
"Oh--oh--" he moaned, "the poor little mutter. She has forgiven so much, suffered so much. You can't do it. You won't do it!" He fell to his knees, clawing at the criminologist's garments with his trembling hands, the tears streaming down his face.
"What about those who have seen no compassion from you?" cried Shirley in a terrible voice. "Your vanity, your self-worship! Do they not comfort you now? This is only the suffering of another which you contemplate! Why all these hysterics?"
Warren, groveling on the floor of the reception-room, was a picture of abject, horrid soul-torture. At last, through the subtlety of this unconventional sleuth, along methods which were never dreamed of in the ordinary police category, he had been broken on the wheel which he had himself so cunningly constructed!
"And if that mother dies, cursing your memory with her last breath, cursing the love of the father, of her husband, of the ancestors, all responsible for your being in the world today, what will you think, when you watch from the other side of that great unseen wall?"
"Oh, Shirley! I can't. See--I'll destroy this stuff. I'll keep silent about the others. I mean it. Here: I tear it up now and give you the pieces to burn!"
Warren, maddened by his fears, nervously tore the sheets into bits and pressed the remnants into the criminologist's hands.
"Will you promise to keep my identity a secret?"
"I will not send word to Budapesth. You have a bad record in Paris, and other parts of the world. But, if you play fair on the confidential nature of this case, saving the innocent from disgrace and shame, I will see that the story never reaches your mother. There is no need to ask this on your honor--that does not count."
Warren winced at this final thrust. He turned toward Shirley, eagerly.
"You don't understand me at that, Shirley. I have had a curious career. Somewhere I inherited a strain of criminality--you know how many ancestors a man has in ten generations. I was a member of a poor but prominent family. The government paid for my education in the best universities of Europe, for I was to hold a position under the Emperor, which had been held in my family for generations. But I was ruined by the extravagances and the excesses which I learned from the rich young men whom I met. I studied feverishly, yet was able to waste much time with the gilded fools, by my ability to learn more quickly. The result was that I could not be contented with the small salary of my government office. I had to keep up appearances with my companions. So, I drifted into gambling, into sharp tricks--then became a mercenary soldier, an officer, in the continuous revolutions of the southeastern part of Europe. I sank deeper and at last, in one serious escapade, I managed to have myself reported dead, so as to quiet the heartaches of my mother, who believed I was killed on the battlefield. There is the miserable story--or all I will tell. They caught me in Paris and a girl betrayed part of my name--fortunately they did not hunt me up, so my mother was saved that disgrace. Will you keep the secret now, on our understanding?"
"I give you my word for that, Warren." Shirley rose, putting the torn-up papers into his pockets. "I am sorry for the past--but you have made the present for yourself. Good-bye."
Warren returned to his cell and the detective to the club house.
There he found an additional cable message. It said: "Countess Laschlas has been dead ten months." It was signed like the other.
Shirley tore up the message, and blinked more than seemed necessary.
"Poor little old lady, she knows it all now. I will not have to tell her."
* * *
That afternoon Shirley called again at the Hotel California for Helene.
"I want you to go to a sweet, old-fashioned English tea-room, where I may tell you the rest of the story. There will be no tango music, no cymbals, no tinkling cocktails, nor, champagne. Can you pour real tea?"
"I am an English girl. I have been five days without it."
As they were ensconced at the quaint little table, he realized how wondrously blended in her was that triad of feminine essential spirits: the eternal mother instinct, the sensuous strength of the wife-love and the wistful allurement of maiden tenderness.
"Does my great big boy wish three lumps of sugar, after his hard tasks?"
"He'll die in the flower of immaturity if he has too many sweets in one day."
He drew out his memorandum book, opening it to a closely-written page.
"Before the confections, I must hand in my report to the commanding officer."
"Advance three paces to the front, and hand over the details," and she added another lump of sugar, with a mischievous twinkle in the blue eyes.
"Very well, excellency. We transcribed the addresses of Warren's gangsters from his note-book, and they have all been arrested. The men we captured in the earlier skirmishes are all languishing in the tombs, as accomplices in his crime, as well as for their attempts against my own life. You will be astonished, Helene, at the revelations of his operations as shown by his bank-books, a translation of that diary and some of the letters which I took when I burglarized his rooms. I have sent a code letter to Phil, advising him to confess all, and that man's testimony adds to the corroboration. I went down to the District Attorney with a full statement of the facts, leaving nothing unbared. Like me, he agreed that it were best to let the law take its course, demanding the full penalty, and saving the honor of a dozen families who would have been dragged into the case, had not Warren laid himself liable by the murder of his confederate, Taylor. That young man was an electrical genius--with his brains misguided by his equally misdirected employer. There is no chance of a miscarriage of justice, and Warren had accumulated so much money that many of the victims of his organization can be reimbursed in full."
"You have handled all this with a suspicious skill for a lazy society man, with no experience in such matters."
Shirley understood the subtle sarcasm of the remark, but he proceeded unruffled, to lull her suspicious.
"I only tried to cover the points which meant happiness and peace of mind to others. It was merely a matter of common or garden horse sense, as we call it in America. Warren has been systematically robbing the rich men of New York for three years, under various subterfuges. No wonder he could afford such gorgeous collections of art, keeping aloof from his associates in crime. His treasures, like those in many European museums were bought with blood. It is curious how a complex case like this smooths itself out so simply when the key is obtained. And you, Helene, have been the genius to supply that key: my own work has been merely corroborative!"
He looked at the delicate features of the girl, remembering with a recurring thrill the margin by which they had escaped death in the cellar den of the conspirators.
"Cleary and Dick Holloway told me how cleverly you led the men to the Somerset where you followed my trail through the mole's passage. It was a frightful risk for you to take: Cleary should have had more sense and led the way himself."
Helene's lips pursed themselves into a tempting pout.
"Are you not happier that it was I, at that supreme moment?"
"Indeed I am: success was all the sweeter. There is remaining only one mystery which I must admit is still unsolved in this curious affair. And that is you. Who are you?"
She parried with the same question.
"I know your name, sir, but you profess to be a society butterfly, flitting from pleasure to dissipation, and back again. Tell me the truth, now, if ever."
"Why--gracious, Helene--of all the foolish questions!" He was adorably boyish in his confusion. She laughed gleefully, like a happy schoolgirl.
"Then, Monty Shirley, my score is better than yours, for I have every mystery cleared. But while I know all about you, what frightful chances you are taking with me!"
Shirley reddened, as he burned his finger with the match which had been raised to the end of his cigarette. He accused her of teasing, and she glanced happily at the iridiscent solitaire upon the third finger of her left hand.
"Dear boy, I realize that I understand about you what you cannot fathom with me. You are not a moth, but your self-sacrifice, and bravery in this case are professional: you worked on this case as you have on a hundred others: you are a very original and successful expert in criminology. And I am not more than half bad at observation and deduction, myself; now, am I, dear?"
Shirley gracefully admitted defeat, with a question: "Who are you, Helene? And who is dear old Jack?"
The roses blossomed in her cheeks as she answered: "Jack is a very sweet boy, ten years older than you in gray hair and the calendar, and infinitely younger in worldly wisdom and intellect. He is an English army officer, who was foolish enough to imagine he loved me, foolish enough to propose every three days for the last three years and foolish enough to bore me until in self-defense I escaped from his clutches. As for myself, at least I am not the young woman who can stand staying in that gaudy theatrical hotel for another day longer. I have done so many bold, unmaidenly things that you may believe it easy for me. It is not.
"I am truly a horrid, old-time, hoopskirt-minded prude. My first act of domestic tyranny is to make you find a sedate, prim place for my work and play, where I may know my own blushes when I see them in the mirror, and will have less occasion to deserve them!"
"Your work? What is that?"
"It is very hard work--with a typewriter, but not in code. I will not divulge my name until we tell it to the marriage license clerk. But Dick Holloway knows me, and I came to this country, partly to see him. I have written a few plays, which simple as they were, seemed to interest European audiences and critics. Some of my novels have strangely enough brought in royalties, despite the publishers! But, I became satiated with life in England and on the Continent. I came here because I felt that I needed life in a younger and newer country. I needed an emotional and physical awakening."
"You have not wasted any time in drowsiness since you reached America."
"No--and all because I went to Holloway's office that fateful morning, before I saw any one else in New York, to ask about a play which he is to produce this spring. I confess that it was my first experience as an actress. Will you forgive my deception?"
Shirley nodded, as he studied the animated face with a new interest. He admitted to himself that Holloway's prediction had come true--he had met his match.
"And so, my dear Helene (for such I shall always call you, whether your really, truly name be Mehitabel, Samantha or Sophronisa) you came here, went through all these horrors without a complaint, crushing the independence of my confirmed bachelorhood for the sake of what we newspaper men call copy?"
Helene nodded demurely.
"Yes, but it was such wonderful 'copy,' Monty boy."
The criminologist scowled over his cigarette, yet he could not feel as unhappy as he felt this defeat should make him.
"When will the 'copy' be ready for publication, my dear girl. It would be most interesting, I fancy."
Helene caught his hand, drawing it toward her throbbing heart. Her wet lips were almost touching his ear, as she confided, whisperingly, with the blue eyes averted: "Only published in editions de luxe: some bindings will be with blue ribbons, some with pink. All of them with flexible backs and gloriously illumined by the Master's brush. The authors' autographs will be on every copy to prove the collaboration, and every volume will be a poem in itself.... But there, Montague dear, I am a novelist--not a fortune-teller!"
"How can I forecast the exact dates of publication?"
[THE END]
Eustace Hale Ball's Book: Voice on the Wire; A novel of mystery
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