"At Ulster Gardens. I will drive you there."
The barrister smiled. "You are going to bed, I tell you. Give me a few lines of introduction to Miss Talbot."
The earl"s face had brightened at the prospect of meeting his _fiancee_ under the favourable conditions of Brett"s presence. But he yielded with good grace, and promptly sat down to write a brief note explanatory of the barrister"s ident.i.ty and position in the inquiry.
The two parted at the door, and a hansom rapidly brought Brett to the residence of Sir Hubert Fitzjames.
A stately footman took Reggie"s card and its accompanying letter, placed them on a salver with a graceful turn of his wrist, which oddly suggested a similar turn in his nose, and said:
"Miss Talbot is not at home, sir."
"Yes, she is," answered Brett, paying the driver of the hansom.
The footman deigned to exhibit astonishment. Here was a gentleman--one obviously accustomed to the manners of Society--who declined to accept the courteous disclaimer of an unexpected visit.
"Miss Talbot is not receiving visitors," he explained.
"Exactly. Take that card and the letter to Miss Talbot and bring me the answer."
Jeames was no match for his antagonist. He silently showed the way into a reception room and disappeared. A minute later he announced, with much deference, that Miss Talbot would see Mr. Brett in the library, and he conducted this mysterious visitor upstairs.
On rejoining b.u.t.tons in the hall he solemnly observed:
"That"s a swell cop who is with the missus--shining topper, b.u.t.ton-hole, buckskin gloves, patent leathers, all complete. Footmen ain"t in it with the force, nowadays."
Jeames expanded his magnificent waistcoat with a heavy sigh over this philosophical dictum, the poignancy of which was enhanced by his knowledge that the upper housemaid had taken to conversing with a mounted policeman in the Park during her afternoons off.
The apartment in which Brett found himself gave ready indications of the character of its tenants. Tod"s "Rajasthan" jostled a volume of the Badminton Library on the bookshelves, a copy of the Allahabad _Pioneer_ lay beside the _Field_ and the _Times_ on the table, and many varieties of horns made trophies with quaint weapons on the walls.
A complete edition of Ruskin, and some exquisite prints of Rossetti"s best known works, supplied a different set of emblems, whilst the room generally showed signs of daily occupation.
"Anglo-Indian uncle, artistic niece," was the barrister"s rapid comment, but further a.n.a.lysis was prevented by the entrance of Miss Edith Talbot.
The surprise of the pair was mutual.
Brett expected to see a young, pretty and clever girl, vain enough to believe she had brains, and sufficiently well endowed with that rare commodity to be able to twist the good-natured Earl of Fairholme round her little finger.
Young, not more than twenty--unquestionably beautiful, with the graceful contour and delicately-balanced features of a portrait by Romney--Edith Talbot bore few of the marks that pa.s.s current as the outward and visible signs of a modern woman of Society. That she should be self-possessed and dressed in perfect taste were as obvious adjuncts of her character as that each phase of her clear thought should reflect itself in a singularly mobile face.
To such a woman pretence was impossible, the polite fictions of fashionable life impossible. Brett readily understood why the Earl of Fairholme had fallen in love with this fair creature. He had simply bent in worship before a G.o.ddess of his own creed.
To the girl, Brett was equally a revelation.
Fairholme"s introductory note described the barrister as "the smartest criminal lawyer in London--one whose aid would be invaluable." She expected to meet a sharp-featured, wizened, elderly man, with gold-rimmed eye-gla.s.ses, a queer voice and a nasty habit of asking unexpected questions.
In place of this commonplace personality, she encountered a handsome, well-groomed gentleman--one who won confidence by his intellectual face, and retained it by invisibly establishing a social equality.
Fortunately, there is yet in Britain an aristocracy wherein good birth is synonymous with good breeding--a freemasonry whose pa.s.swords cannot be simulated, nor its membership bought.
Brett read the wonder in the girl"s eyes, and hastened to explain.
"The Earl of Fairholme," said Brett, "thought I might be of some service in the matter of your brother"s strange disappearance, Miss Talbot. I am not a professional detective, but my friends are good enough to believe that I am very successful in unravelling mysteries that are beyond the ken of Scotland Yard. I have heard something of the facts in this present affair. Will you trust me so far as to tell me all that is known to you personally?"
"My uncle, General Fitzjames, has just gone to Scotland Yard," she began, timidly.
"Quite so. Perhaps you prefer to await his return?"
"Oh, no, I do not mean that. But it is so hard to know how best to act.
Uncle expects the police to accomplish impossibilities. He says that they should long since have found out what has become of Jack. Perhaps they may resent my interference."
"My interference, to be exact," said Reggie, with the pleasant smile that had fascinated so many women. Even Edith Talbot was not wholly proof against its magic.
"I, personally, have little faith in them," she confessed.
"I have none."
"Well, I will do as you advise."
"Then I recommend you to take me into your confidence. I know Scotland Yard and its methods. We do not follow the same path."
"I believe in you and trust you," said the girl.
So ingenuous was the look from the large, deep eyes which accompanied this declaration of confidence, that many men would have p.r.o.nounced Miss Talbot to be an experienced flirt. Brett knew better. He simply bowed his acknowledgements.
"What is it that you want to know?" she continued. "We ourselves are no better informed than the newspapers as to what has actually happened, save that four men have been killed as the result of a carefully-planned robbery. As for my brother----"
She paused and strove hard to force back her tears.
"Your brother has simply vanished, Miss Talbot. If the criminals did not scruple to leave four dead men behind, they would not draw the line at a fifth. The clear inference is that your brother is alive, but under restraint."
"I can see that it is possible he was alive until some time after the tragedy at Albert Gate. But--but--what connection can Jack have with the theft of diamonds worth millions? These people used him as their tool in some manner. Why should they spare him when success had crowned their efforts?"
"We are conversing in riddles. Will you explain?"
"You know that my brother is an a.s.sistant Under-Secretary in the Foreign Office?"
"Yes."
"Well, early in September, his chief placed him in charge of a special undertaking. The Sultan had decided to have a large number of rough diamonds cut and polished by the best European experts. They were all magnificent gems, exceedingly valuable it seems, being rare both in size and purity; but one of them was larger than any known diamond. Jack told me it was quite as big as a good-sized hen"s egg. Both it and the others, he said, had the appearance of lumps of alum; but the experts said that the smaller stones were worth more than a million sterling, whilst the price of the large one could not be fixed. No one but an Emperor or Sultan would buy it. His Excellency Mehemet Ali Pasha was the especial envoy charged with this mission, and he brought credentials to the Foreign Office asking for facilities to be given for its execution.
He and the two secretaries who accompanied him have been killed."
"Yes?" said Brett, whose eyes were fixed intently on the hearthrug.
"Jack was given the special duty of looking after Mehemet Ali and his companions during their residence in London. It was his business to afford them every a.s.sistance in his power, to procure them police protection, obtain for them the best advice attainable in the diamond trade, and generally place at their disposal all the resources which the British Government itself could command if it undertook such a curious task. He had been with them about a month--not hourly engaged, you understand, as once the preliminary arrangements were made, he had little further trouble--but he used to call there every morning and afternoon to see if he could render any a.s.sistance. Matters had progressed so favourably until the day before yesterday, that in another month he hoped to see the last of them. He was always saying that he would be glad when the business was ended, as he did not like to be officially connected with the fate of a few little bits of stone that happened to be so immensely valuable."
"Did your brother call there as usual on Monday afternoon?" said Brett.
"Yes; he came straight here from Albert Gate, and had tea with uncle and myself. He sat in the very chair and in the very position you now occupy. I can remember him saying: "By jove! the hen"s egg"--that is what he used to call the big diamond--"is turning out in fine style." He even discussed the possibility of bringing us to see the collection when it was finished and before it left this country."