An Eye for an Eye Part 35

"Yes," remarked Boyd. "At all hazards we must explore it."

"But how," I queried, "without tampering with the seal?"

His brow clouded for a few moments, then again he examined the seal and wire with the utmost care. He stood motionless, looking at it for fully a minute, then turning to the local officer, said--

"I'm going downstairs a moment. Don't touch it till I return."

We both sat upon an ottoman in the corridor for nearly a quarter of an hour, during which time we heard noises downstairs; until Boyd at last rejoined us with a look of satisfaction in his face, and bearing in his hands something which looked like a huge pair of rusty shears with wooden handles.

"I thought I'd find it," he observed, wiping the perspiration from his brow. His hands and face were blackened as though he had been groping in a cellar. "This is the seal," and opening his other hand he displayed an old discoloured pewter teaspoon, adding, "And here's a bit of lead--or what's as good."

I took the sealing machine from him and examined it carefully. It was red with dust, and had apparently been thrown aside and neglected for a long time.

"Now," said Boyd to his a.s.sistant, "I've lit a fire downstairs in the kitchen, and by the time we've done it'll be sufficiently fierce to melt the lead."

"Then you intend to break open the door?" I exclaimed.

He smiled, and for answer took from his pocket a champagne-knife, cutting the wire with a sharp click, untwisting it from the k.n.o.b, and placing it with its seal in his pocket.

In breathless eagerness we watched him push back the bolt, and stood expectant; but when he tried the door he found it to be still locked.

Again he went swiftly to work with his bunch of queer-looking keys, and at last he saw one of them gently turn, and he pushed wide open the door of the chamber of secrets.

Next second the bright light of Boyd's bull's-eye flashed into the interior, and all three of us fell back with exclamations of surprise and horror. Our discovery was truly astounding.

The horrible sight was most weird and terrifying. Upon the threshold I stood speechless, utterly unable to move, for the ghastly spectacle made my hair rise as my eyes became riveted upon the noisome interior of that long-closed chamber.

Our nostrils were filled with a foetid, nauseating smell of decay which burst upon us as the door was opened, and at the shock of witnessing the repulsive sight within, the candle I had held dropped from my trembling fingers and was extinguished. Slowly, however, I recovered it, taking a light from the one held by my friend's a.s.sistant, and then entered the place.

It was not a large room, but the shutters of the window had, we afterwards discovered, been secured by screws and strongly barred. In the centre was a square table, covered with dust, and several common wooden chairs stood around. In the empty rusted grate stood a kettle and a couple of cooking-pots, while upon a side table were a few plates and a couple of cups and saucers. Along one side stood an old camp bedstead, and lying upon it, half-covered with a dirty blanket, was a figure that had once been human but which was now a sight so gruesome and so horrible that even Boyd, used as he was to such things, drew away and held his handkerchief to his nose.

The features were beyond recognition, but by the shortness of the hair the body was evidently that of a man. One arm hung helpless, shrivelled and discoloured, while on the floor close by were the broken portions of a cup which had evidently fallen from the dead man's claw-like fingers.

"This is another facer!" Boyd exclaimed in a tone of absolute bewilderment. "I wonder who he was? It seems by the pots and plates that he was held a prisoner here--an invalid or imbecile, perhaps, unable to help himself. Evidently the servants knew nothing of him, for he cooked his food himself. Phew!" he added. "Let's get outside in the pa.s.sage to breathe. This air is enough to poison one."

Half-choked, we went outside, all three of us, and discussed the startling situation while breathing the purer air. I offered both my companions cigarettes, which they lit eagerly with myself.

Then, after a few minutes, we returned and resumed our investigations.

About the room were several books in French and German treating of political economy and other subjects, a couple of old newspapers, two or three novels, and a number of scientific books which showed their reader to be an educated man. The room had originally been a bathroom, we concluded, for there was a water-tap and a large pipe for waste, and this unfortunate man, whoever he was, had evidently not existed wholly in darkness, for on examining the shutters we found that one of the panels was movable, and at that spot the pane of gla.s.s was broken, thus admitting both light and air. Again, there was a small gas-stove ring, used so universally in London to boil kettles, and this was still connected by a flexible pipe to a gas bracket on the wall. Hence it was quite apparent that the room had been specially fitted for the occupation of the unknown man now dead.

Upon the dusty table were several pieces of writing-paper covered with some writing in German, a language which I unfortunately could not read, while beside them I picked up an object which held me amazed and astounded--a plain card similar to those we had found at Phillimore Place and among Eva's secret possessions.

Beyond those writings in German we found nothing else to give us a clue to whom the dead man might be, and even these writings were no proof as to his ident.i.ty. We found no writing materials there, hence our doubt that the writing had been traced by his hand.

Into every hole and crevice we peered, disturbing the rats who had scampered here and there on our unexpected intrusion, but discovering nothing else of especial interest, we, after about half an hour, went forth, glad to escape from the poisonous atmosphere. I closed and locked the door, when Boyd, cutting out a piece of bell-wire from one of the bedrooms, re-secured the bolt, and after melting the pewter spoon below in the kitchen fire, replaced the seal in such a manner that none could tell it had ever been disturbed.

Truly our midnight search had been a fruitful one. What might next transpire I dreaded to think. All was so mysterious, so utterly astounding, that I had become entirely bewildered.

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

IN DEFIANCE OF THE LAW.

The discovery of the horror concealed within that closed room opened out an entirely fresh development of the mystery. On discussing it with Boyd after we had stealthily left the house we were in complete agreement that the dead man must have either been in hiding there, or else, being an imbecile, had been kept under restraint. The fact of the door being barred on the outside strengthened Boyd's belief in the latter theory, while I made the suggestion that he might have been imprisoned and died of starvation.

"No," Boyd answered, "I don't agree with you there, for it is quite plain that Lady Glaslyn must have been aware of his presence, and perhaps, indeed, arranged the room. There is every evidence that he was supplied with food at intervals, and cooked it himself, which shows that, even if an invalid, he was sufficiently active. My idea is that he may have been some relation whose demented condition her ladys.h.i.+p wished to keep from her friends and other members of the family, and that having died suddenly she was compelled to lock and seal the door, dreading the publicity of a coroner's inquiry, when the truth must have been made public."

"True," I said. "That's, of course, a very feasible theory. But if she were in the secret, Eva, too, must have known."

"Of course," he said. "She can tell us everything if she chooses. It's a pity that the dead man's face is unrecognisable."

"Again, is it not strange that we should have found in there one of those same cards?"

"Yes, rather," responded my friend. "But at present it is useless to advance all kinds of wild theories. We must stick closely to facts if we would succeed. We have to-night made certain discoveries, startling enough in all conscience, and among them have elucidated the secret which Lady Glaslyn has hidden from every one. Now we must seek to discover the motive which caused her to apply that seal to the door, as well as ascertaining the reason her daughter has that mysterious drug among her possessions, together with the photographs of the two unknown victims."

"I wonder how long it is since the man died in that room," I said.

"What a horrible existence he must have led shut up there, gaining all his light and air through a broken pane of gla.s.s. He was studious, at any rate, judging from the character of the books with which he had been supplied."

"And a linguist too," Boyd remarked, remembering that the books were in other languages besides English.

"Strange that the curiosity of the servants was not aroused," I said.

"They would be certain to wonder what was in a room sealed up as that is."

"To satisfy them would be easy enough," the detective answered. "Her ladys.h.i.+p undoubtedly told them that certain family heirlooms, old furniture, or something, was stowed away there, and that the seal had been placed upon them by the trustees, or somebody. Trust a woman for an excuse," and he smiled grimly.

We walked on together for some time in complete silence. The young day grew wider and brighter and redder in the sky. We had pa.s.sed through Twickenham, and now, in the dawn, were making our way towards Richmond, whence we could catch the early workmen's train to Waterloo.

"You must keep your friend Cleugh in entire ignorance of all this. Tell him you've been out to visit some friends, say at Ealing or Uxbridge, or somewhere, and that they compelled you to stay the night. If he were to know, the whole result of our investigations might be rendered abortive."

"Of course I'll do as you wish," I answered. "But I can't for the life of me see why you entertain any suspicion of d.i.c.k. He's been all along eager and ready to a.s.sist me to clear up the mystery. To publish the details of the curious affair seems his one object." Boyd smiled again with veiled sarcasm.

"And a very interesting story he'll have for publication, it appears to me," he said, laughing. Then he added after a second's pause, "One of the oddest facts in the whole affair is that the pair we found dead in Phillimore Place have never been missed by their friends."

"Or the dead man at The Hollies, for the matter of that," I added.

"Yes," he said in dubious tone. "There are yet some facts which we must learn ere we can piece the queer puzzle together and read the whole.

Only then can we discover who was the man whom Lady Glaslyn has so carefully hidden. It's a devilish funny business, to say the least."

"Has it occurred to you that she may have left not intending to return?"

I asked.

"Well, no," he responded. "I scarcely think she has flown, or her daughter would have secured the contents of her escritoire. She evidently believes her secret quite safe, and is therefore entirely fearless." The Richmond Road with its many trees was pleasant in that hour when the clear rose-flush of dawn was still in the sky, and as we walked the cool wind rose fragrant with the smell of the wet gra.s.s, refres.h.i.+ng after the foetid atmosphere of that closed room and its gruesome occupant.

We chatted on, discussing the startling discoveries we had made, he giving me certain instructions, until we got to the station and entered a compartment. The latter being crowded with workmen, further conversation on the subject was precluded.

Soon after six I returned to Grey's Inn, and making an excuse to d.i.c.k for my absence, s.n.a.t.c.hed an hour's sleep before going down to my office.

My heart was hard; my blood fire. Fate had been merciless.

"I began to think something had happened, old chap," d.i.c.k had said when I had entered his room and awakened him. He sat up in bed and looked at me rather strangely, I thought. Then he added: "You don't seem as though you've had much sleep, wherever you've been."

In my excitement I had quite forgotten that my clothes were dirty and torn, and my face unwashed, and I fancied that his pointed remark caused a slight flush to rise to my cheeks.