"But what about the treatment to-night" asked Mrs. Malplaquet.
Strangwise smiled mysteriously.
"I"m not sure that any further treatment will be required," he said.
In the meantime, Bellward had leaned over the girl and with a few pa.s.ses of his hand had brought her back to consciousness. She sat up, one hand pressed to her face, and looked about her in a dazed fashion. On recognizing Desmond she gave a little cry.
"Take her away!" commanded Strangwise.
Bellward had unfastened the ropes binding her feet, and he and Mrs. Malplaquet between them half-dragged, half-lifted the girl (for she was scarcely able to walk) from the room.
When the door had closed behind them, Strangwise pointed to a chair and pulled out his cigarette case. "Sit down, Desmond," he said, "and let"s talk. Will you smoke?"
He held out his case. A cigarette was the one thing for which Desmond craved. He took one and lit it. Strangwise sat down on the other side of a curiously carved ebony table, his big automatic before him.
"I guess you"re sharp enough to know when you"re beaten, Desmond," he said. "You"ve put up a good fight and until this afternoon you were one up on me. I"ll grant you that. And I don"t mind admitting that you"ve busted up my little organization--for the present at any rate. But I"m on top now and you"re in our power, old man."
"Well," replied Desmond shortly, "what are you going to do about it?"
"I"m going to utilize my advantage to the best I know how,"
retorted Strangwise, snapping the words, "that"s good strategy, isn"t it, Desmond? That"s what Hamley and all the military writers teach, isn"t it? And I"m going to be frank with you. I suppose you realize that your life hung by a thread in this very room only a minute ago. Do you know why I intervened to save you?"
Desmond smiled. All his habitual serenity was coming back to him.
He found it hard to realize that this old brother officer of his, blowing rings of cigarette smoke at him across the table, was an enemy.
"I don"t suppose it was because of the love you bear me," replied Desmond.
And he rubbed the b.u.mp on his head.
Strangwise noted the action and smiled.
"Listen here," he resumed, planking his hands down on the table and leaning forward, "I"m ready and anxious to quit this spying business. It was only a side line with me anyway. My main object in coming to this country was to recover possession of that diamond star. Once I"ve got it back, I"m through with England..."
"But not with the army," Desmond broke in, "thank G.o.d, we"ve got a swift way with traitors in this country!"
"Quite so," returned the other, "but you see, my friend, the army hasn"t got me. And I have got you! But let us drop talking plat.i.tudes," he went on. "I"m no great hand at driving a bargain, Desmond--few army men are, you know--so I won"t even attempt to chaffer with you. I shall tell you straight out what I am ready to offer. You were given the job of breaking up this organization, weren"t you?"
Desmond was silent. He was beginning to wonder what Strangwise was driving at.
"Oh, you needn"t trouble to deny it. I never spotted you, I admit, even when the real Bellward turned up: that idea of putting your name in the casualty list as "killed" was a masterstroke; for I never looked to find you alive and trying to put it across me. But to return to what I was saying--your job was to smash my little system, and if you pull it off, it"s a feather in your cap. Well, you"ve killed two of my people and you"ve arrested the ringleader."
"Meaning Behrend?" asked Desmond.
"Behrend be hanged! I mean Nur-el-Din!"
"Nur-el-Din was not the ringleader," said Desmond, "as well you know, Strangwise!"
"Your employers evidently don"t share your views, Desmond," he replied, "all the doc.u.ments were found on Nur-el-Din!"
"Bah!" retorted Desmond, "and what of it? Mightn"t they have been planted on her in order to get her arrested to draw the suspicion away from the real criminal, yourself?"
Strangwise laughed a low, mellow laugh.
"You"re devilish hard to convince," he remarked. "Perhaps you"ll change your mind about it when I tell you that Nur-el-Din was sentenced to death by a general court-martial yesterday afternoon."
The blow struck Desmond straight between the eyes. The execution of spies followed hard on their conviction, he knew. Was he too late?
"Has... has she... has the sentence already been carried out?" he asked hoa.r.s.ely.
Strangwise shrugged his shoulders.
"My information didn"t go as far as that!" he replied. "But I expect so. They don"t waste much time over these matters, old man! You see, then," he continued, "you"ve got the ringleader, and you shall have the other two members of the organization and save your own life into the bargain if you will be reasonable and treat with me."
Desmond looked straight at him; and Strangwise averted his eyes.
"Let me get this right," said Desmond slowly. "You let me go free--of course, I take it that my liberty includes the release of Miss Mackwayte as well--and in addition, you hand over to me your two accomplices, Bellward and the Malplaquet woman. That is your offer, isn"t it? Well, what do you want from me in exchange?"
"The Star of Poland!" said Strangwise in a low voice.
"But," Desmond began. He was going to add "I haven"t got it," but checked himself in time. Why should he show his hand?
Strangwise broke in excitedly.
"Man," he cried, "it was grandly done. When first I discovered the gem, I opened the package in which the silver box was wrapped and took the jewel from its case to make sure that it was there.
Then I sealed it up again, silver box and all, with the firm intention that no other hand should break the seals but the hand of His Imperial Highness the Crown Prince when I reported to him that I had fulfilled my mission. So you will understand that I was loth to open it to satisfy those blockheads that evening at the Mill House.
"I carried the package on me night and day and I could hardly believe my eyes when I discovered that a box of cigarettes had been subst.i.tuted for the silver casket containing the jewel. I then suspected that Barbara Mackwayte, in collusion with Nur-el-Din, whom she had visited at the d.y.k.e Inn that evening, had played this trick on me. But before I escaped from the Mill House I picked up one of the cigarettes which fell from the box when I broke the seals. Ah! There you made a slip, Desmond. When I looked at the cigarette I found it was a "Dionysus"--your own particular brand--why, I have smoked dozens of them with you in France. The sight of the familiar name reminded me of you and then I remembered your unexpected visit to me at the Nineveh when I was packing up to go away on leave the evening you were going back to France. I remembered that I had put the package with the jewel on my table for a moment when I was changing my tunic. Your appearance drove it out of my head for the time, and you utilized the chance to subst.i.tute a similar package for mine. It was clever, Desmond, "pon my word it was a stroke of genius, a master coup which in my country would have placed you at the very top of the tree in the Great General Staff!"
Desmond listened to this story in amazement. He did not attempt to speculate on the different course events would have taken had he but known that the mysterious jewel which had cost old Mackwayte his life, had been in his, Desmond"s, possession from the very day on which he had a.s.sumed the guise and habiliments of Mr. Bellward. He was racking his brains to think what he had done with the box of cigarettes he had purchased at the Dionysus shop on the afternoon of the day he had taken the leave train back to France.
He remembered perfectly buying the cigarettes for the journey.
But he didn"t have them on the journey; for the captain of the leave boat had given him some cigars as Desmond had nothing to smoke. And then with a flash he remembered. He had packed the cigarettes in his kit--his kit which had gone over to France in the hold of the leave boat? And to think that there was a 100,000 pound jewel in charge of the M.L.O. at a French port!
The idea tickled Desmond"s sense of humor and he smiled.
"Come," cried Strangwise, "you"ve heard my terms. This jewel, this Star of Poland, it is nothing to you or your Government. You restore it to me and I won"t even ask you for a safe conduct back to Germany. I"ll just slide out and it will be as if I had never been to England at all. As for my organization, you, Desmond Okewood, have blown it sky-high!"
He stretched out his hand to Desmond as though he expected the other to produce the gem from his pocket. But Desmond rose to his feet and struck the hand contemptuously on one side. The smile had vanished from his face.
"Are you sure that is all you have to say to me?" he asked.
Strangwise had stood up as well.
"Why, yes!" he said, "I think so!"
"Well, then," said Desmond firmly, "just listen to me for a moment! Here"s my answer. You"ve lost the jewel for good and all, and you will never get it back. Your offer to betray your accomplices to me in exchange for the Star of Poland is an empty one; for your accomplices will be arrested with you. And lastly I give you my word that I shall make it my personal duty to see that you are not shot by clean-handed British soldiers, but strung up by the neck by the common hangman--as the murderer that you are!"
Strangwise"s face underwent an extraordinary change. His suavity vanished, his easy smile disappeared and he looked balefully across the table as the other fearlessly confronted him.