The Opal Serpent Part 40

"I'll do that. Maud will lend me the money. Does he want all?"

"Oh, a couple of thousand will shut his mouth. I'll not see you left.

It's all right, so sit up and don't shake there like a jelly."

"You're very kind to me," said Hay, faintly.

"Don't you make any mistake. So far as I am concerned you might stick in the mud forever. I helped you, because I want you to help me. I'm in want of money--"

"I'll give you some."

"Picked from that girl's pockets," said Aurora, dryly, "no, thank you.

It might dirty my fingers. Listen--there's a reward offered for the discovery of the murderer of Aaron Norman. I want to get that thousand pounds, and you can help me to."

Hay started to his feet with amazement. Of all the requests she was likely to make he never thought it would be such a one. "Aaron Norman's murder," he said, "what do you know of that?"

"Very little, but you know a lot."

"I don't, I swear I don't."

"Pish," said Miss Qian, imperiously, "remember I've got the whip-hand, my boy. Just you tell me how Mrs. Krill came to strangle the--"

"Mrs. Krill?" Hay turned white again, and his eye-gla.s.s fell. "She had nothing to do with the matter. I swear--"

"Strikes me you swear too much, Mr. Hay. What about that opal brooch you stole from Beecot when he had the smash?"

"I didn't steal it. I never saw it at the time of the accident."

"Then you got that boy Tray to steal it."

"I knew nothing about the boy. Besides, why should I steal that opal serpent brooch?"

"You wanted to buy it from Beecot, anyhow?"

Hay looked puzzled. "Yes, for a lady."

"Mrs. Krill?"

"I admit that Mrs. Krill wanted it. She had a.s.sociations connected with that brooch."

"I know," interrupted Aurora, glancing at the clock, "don't waste time in talking of Lady Rachel Sandal's death--"

"How do you know about that?" stammered Hay, completely nonplussed.

"I know a mighty lot of things. I may as well tell you," added Miss Qian, coolly, "since you daren't split, that I've got a lot to do with the secret detective service business. I'm helping another to hunt out evidence for this case, and I guess you know a lot."

The man quailed. He knew that he did not stand well with the police and dreaded what this little fluffy woman should do. Aurora read his thoughts. "Yes," she said, "we know a heap about you at the Scotland Yard Office, and if you don't tell me all you know, I'll make things hot for you. This cheating to-night is only one thing. I know you are 'a man on the market,' Mr. Hay."

"What do you wish to hear?" asked Hay, collapsing.

"All about Mrs. Krill's connection with this murder."

"She has nothing to do with it. Really, she hasn't. Aaron Norman was her husband right enough--"

"And he ran away from her over twenty years ago. But who told Mrs. Krill about him?"

"I did," confessed Hay, volubly and seeing it was best for him to make a clean breast of it. "I met the Krills three years ago when I was at Bournemouth. They lived in Christchurch, you know."

"Yes. Hotel-keepers. Well, what then?"

"I fell in love with Maud and went to Christchurch to stop at 'The Red Pig.' She loved me, and in a year we became engaged. But I had no money to marry her, and she had none either. Then Mrs. Krill told me of her husband and of the death of Lady Rachel."

"Murder or suicide?"

"Suicide, Mrs. Krill said," replied Hay, frankly. "She told me also about the opal brooch and described it. I met Beecot by chance and greeted him as an old school-fellow. He took me to his attic and to my surprise showed me the opal brooch. I wanted to buy it for Mrs. Krill, but Beecot would not sell it. When next I met him, he told me that Aaron Norman had fainted when he saw the brooch. I thought this odd, and informed Mrs. Krill. She described the man to me, and especially said that he had but one eye. I went with Beecot to the Gwynne Street shop, and a single glance told me that Aaron Norman was Lemuel Krill. I told his wife, and she wanted to come up at once. But I knew that Aaron was reported rich--which I had heard through Pash--and as he was my lawyer, I suggested that the Krills should go and see him."

"Which they did, before the murder?"

"Yes. Pash was astonished, and when he heard that Mrs. Krill was the real wife, he saw that Aaron Norman, as he called himself, had committed bigamy, and that Sylvia--"

"Yes, you needn't say it," said Miss Qian, angrily, "she's worth a dozen of that girl you are going to marry. But why did you pretend to meet Mrs. Krill and her daughter for the first time at Pash's?"

"To blind Beecot. We were standing at the door when the two came out, and I pretended to see them for the first time. Then I told Beecot that I had been introduced to Maud at Pash's office. He's a clever chap, Beecot, and, being engaged to Sylvia Norman, I thought he might find out too much."

"About the murder?"

Hay rose and looked solemn. "I swear I know nothing of that," he said decidedly, "and the Krills were as astonished as I, when they heard of the death. They were going to see him by Pash's advice, and Mrs. Krill was going to prosecute him for bigamy unless he allowed her a good income. Death put an end to all that, so she made up the story of seeing the hand-bills, and then of course the will gave the money to Maud, who was engaged to me."

"The will or what was called a will, gave the money to Sylvia," said Aurora, emphatically; "but this brooch--you didn't take it?"

"No, I swear I didn't. Mrs. Krill wanted it, but I never knew it was of any particular importance. Certainly, I would never have risked robbing Beecot, and I never told that boy Tray to rob either."

"Then who took the brooch."

"I can't say. I have told you all I know."

"Hum," said Aurora, just like her brother, "that will do to-night; but if I ask any more questions you'll have to answer, so now you can go. By the way, I suppose the brooch made you stick to Beecot?"

"Yes," said Hay, frankly; "he was of no use to me. But while he had the brooch I stuck to him to get it for Mrs. Krill."

"Queer," said Aurora. "I wonder why she wanted it so much!" but this question Hay was unable to answer.

CHAPTER XXII

FURTHER EVIDENCE