"You imagine Mr. Henson to be a friend of yours?" Chris asked.
Merritt nodded and grinned. So long as he was useful to Henson he was fairly safe.
"Mr. Merritt," Chris asked, suddenly, "have you ever heard of Reuben Taylor?"
The effect of the question was electrical. Merritt"s square jaw dropped with a click, there was fear in the furtive eyes that he cast around him.
"I read about Reuben Taylor in one of our very smart papers lately,"
Chris went on. "It appears that Mr. Taylor is a person who n.o.body seems to have seen, but who from time to time does a vast service to the community at large. He is not exactly a philanthropist, for he is well rewarded for his labours both by the police and his clients. Suppose Mr.
Merritt here had done some wrong."
"A great effort of imagination," Littimer murmured, gently.
"Had done something wrong, and an enemy or quondam friend wants to "put him away." I believe that is the correct expression. In that case he does not go to the police himself, because he is usually of a modest and retiring disposition. No, he usually puts down a few particulars in the way of a letter and sends it to Reuben Taylor under cover at a certain address. Is not that quite correct, Mr. Merritt?"
"Right," Merritt said, hoa.r.s.ely. "Some day we shall find out who Taylor is, and--"
"Never mind that. Do you know that the night before your friend Mr.
Henson left the Castle he placed in the post-bag a letter addressed to Mr. Reuben Taylor? In view of what I read recently in the paper alluded to the name struck me as strange. Now, Mr. Merritt, is it possible that letter had anything to do with you?"
Merritt did not appear to hear the question. His eyes were fixed on s.p.a.ce; there was a sanguine clenching of his fists as if they had been about the throat of a foe.
"If I had him here," he murmured. "If I only had him here! He"s given me away. After all that I have done for him he"s given me away."
His listeners said nothing; they fully appreciated the situation.
Merritt"s presence at the Castle was both dangerous and hazardous for Henson.
"If you went away to-day you might be safe?" Chris suggested.
"Aye, I might," Merritt said, with a cunning grin in his eyes. "If I had a hundred pounds."
Chris glanced significantly at Littimer, who nodded and took up the parable.
"You shall have the money," he said. "And you shall go as soon as you have answered Miss Lee"s questions."
Merritt proclaimed himself eager to say anything. But Merritt"s information proved to be a great deal less than she had antic.i.p.ated.
"I stole that picture," Merritt confessed. "I was brought down here on purpose. Henson sent to London and said he had a job for me. It was to get the picture from Dr. Bell. I didn"t ask any questions, but set to work at once."
"Did you know what the picture was?" Chris asked.
"Bless you, yes; it was a Rembrandt engraving. Why, it was I who in the first place stole the first Rembrandt from his lordship yonder, in Amsterdam. I got into his lordship"s sitting-room by climbing down a spout, and I took the picture."
"But the other belonged to Van Sneck," said Chris.
"It did; and Van Sneck had to leave Amsterdam hurriedly, being wanted by the police. Henson told me that Van Sneck had a second copy of "The Crimson Blind," and I had to burgle that as well; and I had to get into Dr. Bell"s room and put the second copy in his portmanteau. Why?
Ask somebody wiser than me. It was all some deep game of Henson"s, only you may be pretty sure he didn"t tell _me_ what the game was. I got my money and returned to London, and till pretty recently I saw no more of Henson."
"But you came into the game again," said Littimer.
"Quite lately, your lordship. I went down to Brighton. I was told as Bell had got hold of the second Rembrandt owing to Henson"s carelessness, and that he was pretty certain to bring it here. He did bring it here, and I tried to stop him on the way, and he half killed me."
"Those half measures are so unsatisfactory," Littimer smiled.
Merritt grinned. He fully appreciated the humour of the remark.
"That attack and the way it was brought about were suggested by Henson,"
he went on. "If it failed, I was to come up to the Castle here without delay and tell Henson so. I came, and he covered my movements whilst I pinched the picture. I had been told that the thing was fastened to the wall, but a pair of steel pliers made no odds to that. I took the picture home, and two days later it vanished. And that"s all I know about it."
"Lame and impotent conclusion!" said Littimer.
"Wait a moment," Chris cried. "You found the diamond star which you p.a.w.ned--"
"At your request, miss. Don"t go for to say as you"ve forgotten that."
"I have forgotten nothing," Chris said, with a smile. "I want to know about the cigar-case."
Merritt looked blankly at the speaker. Evidently this was strange ground to him.
"I don"t know anything about that," he said. "What sort of a cigar-case?"
"Gun-metal set with diamonds. The same case or a similar one to that purchased by Van Sneck from Walen"s in Brighton. Come, rack your brains a bit. Did you ever see anything of Van Sneck about the time of his accident? You know where he is?"
"Yes. He"s in the County Hospital at Brighton, He was found in Mr.
Steel"s house nearly dead. It"s coming back to me now. A gun-metal cigar-case set in diamonds. That would be a dull thing with sparkling stones all over it. Of course! Why, I saw it in Van Sneck"s hands the day he was a.s.saulted. I recollect asking him where he got it from, and he said that it was a present from Henson. He was going off to meet Henson then by the corner of Brunswick Square."
"Did you see Van Sneck again that day?"
"Later on in the afternoon. We went into the Continental together. Van Sneck had been drinking."
"You did not see the cigar-case again?"
"No. Van Sneck gave me a cigar which he took from the common sort of case that they give away with seven cigars for a shilling. I asked him if he had seen Henson, and he said that he had. He seemed pretty full up against Henson, and said something about the latter having played him a scurvy trick and he didn"t like it, and that he"d be even yet. I didn"t take any notice of that, because it was no new thing for Henson to play it low down on his pals."
"Did anything else happen at that interview?" Chris asked, anxiously.
"Think! The most trivial thing to you would perhaps be of the greatest importance to us."
Merritt knitted his brows thoughtfully.
"We had a rambling kind of talk," he said. "It was mostly Van Sneck who talked. I left him at last because he got sulky over my refusal to take a letter for him to Kemp Town."
"Indeed! Do you recollect where that letter was addressed to?"
"Well, of course I"ve forgotten the address; but it was to some writing man--Stone, or Flint, or--"
"Steel, perhaps?"
"That"s the name! David Steel, Esq. Van Sneck wanted me to take that letter, saying as it would put a spoke in Reginald Henson"s wheel, but I didn"t see it. A boy took the letter at last."