The Mansion of Mystery Part 50

"I'm glad to see you up and looking so well," he said pleasantly. "I was afraid your running away would hurt you."

"I--I must thank you for what you have done for me, Mr. Styles," she answered.

"Oh, that's all right, Miss Margaret. I'd do as much for you any day.

I think it's a bloomin' shame the way you have been treated."

"Well, I suppose it cannot be helped. But I must be getting back soon.

You will show me the road?"

"Don't be in a hurry to go. You're not strong enough to go.

Besides--" the Englishman paused impressively. "What's the use of going back? Don't you know things look beastly black for you?"

"Perhaps, but I am not afraid--now. I am not guilty, Mr. Styles."

"Of course not! Of course not! I knew that from the start. But things do look black, no use of talking. I want to help you." He came closer, at which she retreated a step.

"Thank you, but I do not see what you can do. I must go back and give myself up. I--I was not myself when I ran away. It was a very foolish thing to do."

"If you go back, do you know what they will do? They will surely hang you?"

"Oh, merciful Heaven? Do not say that!"

"I wouldn't if it wasn't so. But I've been talking to the coroner and the chief of police, and they have all of the evidence as straight as a string."

"I am innocent."

"I feel that you are, and that is why I side with you. Besides, you know my feeling for you. I've loved you for a long time--I told you so before." He took hold of her arm. "If you'll do what I wish, I'll see to it that you escape--that you are never bothered any more."

"How can you do that?"

"Never mind how it can be done. Promise to give up Case, and be my wife, and I will attend to all of the rest. And I'll promise you more than that. Listen, do you know that I am immensely wealthy? It is so, and I can easily prove it. Look here." He drew a big roll of bank bills from his pocket, each bill of a large denomination. "I have ten thousand dollars here. It shall be yours for the taking--if you will marry me. I can easily raise five times this amount in forty-eight hours. We can go to Europe, or Australia, or anywhere we wish. Isn't that far better than to stay here, to be hung by a lot of country b.u.mpkins, who don't understand the matter at all?"

She put up her hands, and waved him away. Then she burst into tears.

"Don't speak so, please don't! I--I cannot bear it, I have gone through so much already!"

"Won't you listen to reason?" Matlock Styles' face darkened. "I am giving you everything I have, my wealth, my honor, everything! Can a man do more than that? I love you--love you more than Raymond Case ever did, or will."

She wrung her hands and his dark eyes seemed to pierce her very soul.

She felt faint and sank on a bench.

"Come, will you accept, Margaret?"

"No, no, I cannot!"

"But think of what is before you."

"If I tried to escape, they would soon be on my track--"

"No, I can prevent that."

"How?"

"Because the world will know that you are innocent."

She gave a start and looked at him wildly, pleadingly.

"Then you know the real murderer?" she panted.

"If I answer that question, will you become my wife?"

Again she shrank back.

"You know the murderer," she repeated. "Perhaps you committed the foul deeds yourself."

He took a step back as if struck a blow. Then he recovered quickly and smiled a bitter smile.

"No, I was not near the place, I can prove it. Besides, your folks and myself were on good terms. There is somebody else, who was around the house when the affair happened--somebody you know well, a person who would know all about the drug with which your father and Mrs. Langmore were killed."

"Who was it?"

"Will you consent to marry me?"

"Tell me first."

"No, afterwards."

"You are fooling me."

"I swear I am not, Margaret. Marry me, and I will clear you as surely as the sun is s.h.i.+ning."

"And if I refuse?"

He came and caught her by the arm, his face blazing with sudden pa.s.sion.

"Do not dare to do that! Don't you understand the matter? You are in my power--in my power absolutely. I can hand you over to the police whenever I will."

"That will not be such a hards.h.i.+p. I said I was going back."

"Bah! If I tell them that I caught you, that you begged me to let you get away--that you even said you would marry me, if I would aid you, what then? Everybody will think you guilty, and Raymond Case will never come near you again."

"You--you monster!"

"Perhaps I am a monster when aroused. You had better think this matter over."

"I do not want to think it over. My mind is made up. I shall never marry you, never, no matter what happens. I loathe and despise you!"

There was a moment of silence, and his dark face turned a sickly white and then red. He breathed heavily through his set teeth.