The Wiles of the Wicked Part 45

"But I knew not what I was doing," I hastened to declare. "I loved you always--always. My brain had been injured by that blow, and all my tastes and feelings thereby became inverted."

"I remained in England a few weeks longer, wandering aimlessly hither and thither, and then at last returned to Vienna and plunged into the vortex of gaiety at Court, in order to forget my sorrow."

"And that woman Grainger? What of her?"

"She left my service about a month after that night when you met with your accident at The Boltons. I have not seen her since."

I then related how for the past month I had been closely watching her, and repeated the conversation I had overheard at Hull between her and her visitors on the previous night.

"The woman, after leaving my service, has, it seems, somehow become an agent of the Bulgarian Government. She knows the truth," she said decisively. "We must obtain it from her."

"It was a woman who struck the young Prince down!" I exclaimed quickly.

"Of that I am certain."

My wife reflected for a brief instant.

"Perhaps," she said. "That woman was jealous of the attention he paid me."

CHAPTER THIRTY.

CONCLUSION.

"Mrs Slade is still in her room, sir, but she's not alone; her maid arrived from London last night," answered the chambermaid at the _North-Eastern Hotel_ at Hull, when on the following morning, I made inquiry.

I had been accompanied from King's Cross by Mabel and the police-agent, Hickman, and we stood together in the hotel corridor prior to entering the woman's room. Hickman, whom I had all along believed to be deeply implicated in the plot, if not the actual murderer, was, I found, a clever detective of English birth, who had for some years been an officer of the Prefecture of Police in Vienna, but who had latterly been attached to the Austro-Hungarian Emba.s.sy in Belgrave Square, and entrusted with the personal safety of the Emperor's daughter. The revelations I had made utterly amazed him. By the last post on the previous night Mabel had received the letter written from Hull which merely asked for an interview, and we had all three set forth, determined to secure the arrest of the writer.

With that object we entered her sitting-room without a word of warning.

She was sitting at the table writing, but in an instant sprang to her feet, with a cry of profound alarm. When her eyes wandered from Mabel to Hickman and myself, her cheeks blanched. She apparently guessed our purpose.

"You have expressed a desire to meet me," Mabel said determinedly. "So I have come to you."

"And--and these gentlemen?" Edna inquired, glancing at us, puzzled.

"They are present to hear what you have to say to me."

She was taken aback.

"I--I have nothing to say to your Highness," the woman faltered. "I merely wished to know whether, when in London, I might call."

"Then listen," exclaimed Mabel. "The truth is known, and it is useless for you to further conceal it. If you have nothing to say, Mr Hickman will at once call in the police, and I shall charge you with the murder of the Prince."

"The murder of the Prince!" she gasped, white to the lips. "I--did not commit the crime. I can prove that I didn't!"

Her hands were trembling, and she stood beside the table, steadying herself by it. There was a haunted look in those cold grey eyes. Our sudden descent upon her had taken her utterly by surprise.

"Then let us hear your statement," my love said in a hard voice quite unusual to her. "Let it be the truth, or I shall charge you now, at once, with the capital offence. The Prince was murdered in my house, and with your knowledge. Do you deny that?"

"No," she cried hoa.r.s.ely, "I do not deny it."

A long silence ensued. The woman Grainger--or Slade, as she was known there--hung her head.

Hickman spoke authoritatively, demanding full explanation, but she maintained a dogged silence. A sudden fire flashed in her eyes--the fire of defiance and hatred.

"Then, as you refuse to speak," said Mabel at length, "you will have no further opportunity until you stand in the criminal dock."

"No, no!" cried the wretched woman quickly. "Hear me! I will tell you all--everything. Listen," she implored. "Do not call the police ere I have explained my exact position, and how the tragedy occurred."

"Proceed," Mabel said harshly. "We are all attention."

"You will remember that three days before the tragedy your Highness left London suddenly because of the illness of the Emperor, and I remained in charge of the household. It was on a Sunday you left, and you had invited the young Prince to dine on the following Wednesday evening. On the afternoon following your departure a visitor was announced. His name was Petrovitch Gechkuloff, a Bulgarian gentleman whom I knew slightly, he having been a visitor at the house in Vienna where I had previously been in service as English governess. He asked me whether I wished to earn a thousand pounds, and then, under promise of strictest secrecy, unfolded to me an ingenious and extraordinary scheme. He was acting, he said, together with Danilo Roesch, the Bulgarian Minister of Finance, whom he would later introduce to me, in the interests of the People's Party in the Sobranje, and they desired the young Prince Alexander to sign a certain deed. He told me nothing of the contents of the doc.u.ment, but asked me to a.s.sist them. I was to send no notice of your Highness's departure to the Prince, but, on the contrary, when he arrived on the Wednesday evening I was to entertain him, make some excuse for your Highness's absence, and afterwards introduce the Minister Roesch and his friend. There was nothing risky about the proceedings, he declared most emphatically. The pair merely wished to obtain the young Prince's signature."

"But did not this request strike you as extraordinary?" asked Mabel.

"You knew the Prince quite well."

"It was the money which tempted me," the wretched woman cried. "I hesitated for some time, and at last yielded. The Prince arrived, and although greatly surprised and disappointed to find your Highness absent, remained and dined with myself and the man Gechkuloff, of whom he, of course, knew nothing save that he was one of his father's subjects. Near the conclusion of dinner we witnessed a cab accident opposite the window, a blind gentleman--Mr Heaton--being run over, and I ordered the people to carry him into the drawing-room. Dr Slater was fetched, and having bandaged his head, told us to let him remain quiet for an hour or so, then left. In the meantime the Bulgarian Minister, Roesch, arrived, apparently in a great hurry, was introduced, and had a long interview with the Prince in private. Afterwards we adjourned into the library. Some champagne was drunk, and the three men smoked, speaking often in their own language, so that I might not understand all that was said. Subsequently the deed was produced, and after a considerable amount of hesitation and many promises on the part of the Minister of Finance, his Highness signed it. Then a witness was required. Gechkuloff whispered to me the suggestion that the signature of Mr Heaton, who was lying in the adjoining room half conscious, should be obtained, and having made him believe that he was signing a birthday book I got from him the desired signature. Shortly afterwards, while sitting at the piano playing I felt a heavy blow, which for a few moments stunned me. Then gazing through into the adjoining room I saw two figures struggling--the Prince and a woman. For a few seconds he held her tightly, but with a furious twist she freed herself and struck him full in the chest with the small dagger in her hand. He staggered and fell backward upon the couch dying. The scene struck terror into the hearts of all of us, the two men standing near me rigid in amazement. The woman closed and locked the door communicating between the two rooms, and left the house, while a few minutes later we also followed."

"You saw the woman's face?" inquired Hickman.

"Most certainly," she answered. Then, continuing, said, "The tragic _denouement_ was so unexpected and startling that at first neither man appeared to know how to act. Quickly, however, they saw that suspicion of the murder must fall upon them, owing, I suppose, to the part they had played in Bulgarian politics, and they at once made it imperative that I should join in and carry out their scheme. As together we hurried along Gilston Road, they confessed to me how they had contemplated the a.s.sa.s.sination of the young Prince after he had signed the doc.u.ment, in order to remove the heir to the throne, and thus strengthen the hands of the People's Party. They explained how they had discovered a cellar beside the Thames, close to the Turpentine Factory at Battersea Bridge, and had intended that on the Prince emerging from the house at The Boltons he should be accosted by a man in police uniform, and asked to walk to the police-station, only to find himself entrapped. Now they pointed out that the witness to the crime was the blind gentleman who had met with the accident, and as his signature was upon the doc.u.ment executed, it was necessary that he should be silenced."

"They intended to kill me!" I cried.

"Most a.s.suredly," she responded, turning towards me. "When you emerged from the house you were met by the man who acted the part of police-constable, a London ruffian, and being blind, at once fell into the trap. I saved you, for I saw that by securing your silence in exchange for your life I should also secure you as an agent who might be useful to the two men into whose clutches I had so suddenly and hopelessly fallen. This proved correct, for ere long your a.s.sistance became of greatest use. On the morning when we parted, accompanied by Gechkuloff, I visited your chambers, and made a search there to ascertain who and what you were. Having once embarked on the conspiracy with these two men, whom I found were powerful factors in Bulgarian politics, I was compelled to a.s.sist them in disposing of the body--which was placed in the cellar beside the Thames, and allowed to float out with the tide. Then, having sent the servants on holiday, I removed the blood-stains, and worked the crochet cover for the couch."

"You told me that those stains were of coffee that you had spilled there," Mabel said.

"True," she answered. "But I was compelled to deceive you. I left you soon afterwards, for by Roesch's influence I became appointed English governess to the two youngest children of Prince Ferdinand, and it was while at Sofia that I suggested to the Minister of Finance the scheme for placing the concessions in the hands of Mr Heaton, whom I had heard was now suffering from an unaccountable loss of memory, and recollected nothing of the past. The subject was mooted to Prince Ferdinand, who in all good faith empowered me to treat with Mr Heaton, and before long several formidable concessions were floated in the City. The most remarkable thing was Mr Heaton's absolute ignorance of all the past.

He was as wax in the hands of the two men who had become my masters.

Only at the last coup, when they desired to raise a loan of half a million sterling, intending to appropriate it to their own uses, did he refuse to render us further a.s.sistance. It was as though his memory had suddenly returned to him, and he suspected."

"My memory had then returned," I said briefly, marvelling at her remarkable narrative. "But what reason had the men in making those elaborate preparations for the a.s.sa.s.sination of the Prince?"

"There were two reasons. One was that by the execution of the deed they were empowered to raise upon post-obits large sums, repayable when the young Prince came to the accession, and, secondly, they had found out that he had, by some means, discovered the huge defalcations which had been made in the Ministry of Finance at Sofia, and feared that he might expose them."

"But you say that, although they had intention of a.s.sa.s.sinating him, they did not actually do so?" Hickman observed.

"No. They were not the actual a.s.sa.s.sins."

"Then who was?" demanded Mabel.

The woman stood in silence, her lips hard-set, her face drawn.

"The truth must be told," she said at last. "It is, I suppose, useless to try and conceal it now."

And with a sudden movement she flung open the door leading to a small ante-chamber, crying in a hoa.r.s.e, desperate voice--

"Enter! The guilty one is there?"