"Yes. I knew she would be very anxious."
He put the pinned set of tickets, etc., into the portfolio, under a couple of papers, and leant back, with his fingers interlocked, and stared at me with frowning intentness. "You"re not a fool, my boy, and you must see that your zeal on that young lady"s account is likely to rouse a lot of suspicion. What do the von Reblings say about it?"
"They are extremely anxious that she should be allowed to go home."
"Umph!" a grunt and a nod, both of which were repeated. "And where did you go next after leaving them?"
I started and hesitated.
"Are you going to tell me the whole truth? We get to know many strange things here, you know."
"I went to see a man named Graun----"
"I know you did. You were followed and he was questioned. I won"t ask you why you got what you did from him; but don"t attempt to use it. Now go on about this other affair. Just everything; everything, and quite frankly."
"I will, sir. Let me get my thoughts in order again. You"ve taken me considerably by surprise." I paused a few seconds and then told him exactly what had occurred, from the moment of my receiving the telephone call, down to my discovery of von Erstein"s ring under Anna"s body.
He jumped up excitedly at that. "Why didn"t you tell me that first?" he cried. "There isn"t a moment to lose. I must see about it instantly;"
and he hurried out of the room.
For the second time the tickets were within reach and I was alone in the room. He had apparently forgotten them in his excitement, and that I had only to stretch out my hand and secure them. Or had he gone out deliberately intending to give me the chance? He knew how eager I was to get away; the old Jew"s tale must have shown that.
I didn"t hesitate this time. I whipped them out of the portfolio and pocketed them. Had I better bolt, or stay to face him? A mighty difficult question. If I ran away, he might suspect; if I stayed, there was a chance that he might not miss them. If they were missed, they wouldn"t be worth a pfennig. We should certainly be stopped at the station; there would be a scene and Nessa would be hopelessly compromised. That was unthinkable.
There was nothing for it, therefore, but to stay and face it out. It wasn"t easy to do; and nothing in the world except the thought of the consequences to Nessa, could have glued me to my chair for the minutes I had still to wait for von Gratzen. It was a positive relief when the strain ended and he came back.
He was looking very grave and stern, and there were still traces of the excitement he had shown when he had left me.
How I watched him! The next moment would decide everything for me. He was thinking closely, paused with his hand to his forehead when halfway to the desk, nodded in response to a thought, and went on to his chair.
I had to hold my breath, as he sat down and laid his hand on the portfolio. I was ready to throw up the sponge as he slightly lifted the top paper and toyed with it.
The thought flashed through my head that the only thing left was to admit everything; who I was; why I had come; why I was so eager to get away; and then ask him to help me in return for what I had done in the Unterga.s.se affair.
But the moment for that hadn"t come yet at all events. Whether he noticed the absence of the tickets it was impossible to say. He appeared to be entirely lost in thought; he was staring abstractedly at nothing; not once had I seen his eyes drop to the desk; not so much as a side glance came my way; but then he was such a wily old beggar that that might all have been pretence to mislead me.
After a time that seemed hours to me, he nodded to himself again, took the hand from the papers to pa.s.s it across his forehead, and smiled. A smile of infinite meaning it was too. Then he closed the portfolio and put it away in a drawer.
"Now tell me the rest, boy," he said, turning to look at me for the first time. "Hallo, you look a little done up. Room too hot? Open the window a bit."
I jumped at the excuse to get out of range of his keen eyes for an instant. He might well say it was hot, for the strain had brought the perspiration in great beads on my forehead.
"Stand there a while and get a breath of the fresh air. A thing like this is sure to shake you up," he added.
Did he know? Was this intended to give me an opportunity of pulling myself together? Had he noticed everything and been thinking out some further subtle move in the game? Who could tell?
"Better?" he asked, as I returned to my seat. "There"s no hurry. I"ve put off my other matters and shall have to keep you here for an hour or so. I"ll tell you why presently. Oh, by the way, you"d better give me the card you got from old Graun. It may help you if I"m able to say you gave it to me; and, of course, it"s no use to you now."
Was this his way of telling me that he knew? was the question in my mind as I gave it him. Then I resumed the story of the afternoon.
"You brought that card case away?" he shot in when I mentioned it.
"Yes. I have it here. Will you take it?"
"Perhaps I"d better," he replied after a pause, and then opened the drawer containing the portfolio, tossed it in carelessly, and let me finish the rest of the story without interruption, when he once more lapsed into close thought.
Von Welten came in before he spoke and handed him a note. "Not a second later than seven o"clock, mind, von Welten. Not a second, mind," he said when he had read the letter. "That"ll do;" and we were alone again.
"Now I"ll tell you something in my turn," he said. "You have rendered us a very great service; a much greater service than you can imagine.
You have only made one mistake, for you ought to have hurried to me as fast as possible from that woman"s rooms; but you"re evidently lucky, for no harm has been done."
"I don"t quite understand, sir," I stammered in surprise.
"I"m going to explain it to you. In the first place let me tell you I believe absolutely that you have told me the truth--about this murder, I mean--perhaps not in everything else."
"There is only one thing, and if you wish----"
"Don"t interrupt me, boy. I don"t like it," he exclaimed testily. "It puts me out. Now about this affair. We know all about this woman, Anna Hilden. That isn"t her name at all; but that doesn"t matter now. She is, or was, one of von Erstein"s mistresses; not the only one, by the way. The real Anna Hilden was another--years ago, of course--and that is how he knew all about that sale of the secret information to France."
I had not said anything about that and he noticed my start.
"You needn"t be astonished. I tell you we know many things here. It is our business to know them. The man who betrayed us in that affair was von Erstein himself, and you, if you are really La.s.sen, were merely the go-between and scapegoat. But he was too cunning for us to be able to prove a thing against him. There are many things we think we know about him and can"t prove, and others we don"t wish to prove," he said, with a very meaning side glance.
"I can understand that."
"We"ll hope you don"t come under either head, my boy. Well, we"ve been waiting for von Erstein, and now, thanks to you, we"ve got him. This woman went to him to-day after you left her; she was with him a considerable time; she left in great agitation; and he followed later to the flat which had been taken for this affair of yours. That he murdered her, there is no doubt, after what you"ve told me; but it"s got to be proved. You won"t be sorry if it is, probably."
"He ought to be hanged," I exclaimed impulsively.
He fixed his keen eyes on me, and in an instant I saw what I had done and that this was one of his infernal traps.
"You"re either forgetting yourself, or beginning to remember things, aren"t you?" he asked deliberately, with one of his queer inscrutable smiles. "It"s in England that they hang murderers, you know."
I could have cursed myself for the idiotic slip, as his eyes bored right into my brain.
CHAPTER XX
VON GRATZEN"S WILINESS
Abashed and confused by this unexpected trap, I sat cudgelling my wits for something to say, and at last stammered out, "I--I meant lynched, hanged on the nearest lamp-post, sir."
It was the lamest of lame dogs; but he appeared satisfied. He leant back in his chair. "Oh, I see. Yes, of course. Your American experiences, I expect. Well, we can talk about that another time. I was going to say that in von Erstein we have to deal with a very cunning individual indeed, and I shall expect you to help us. One of the necessary steps may be your arrest."
"Arrest!" I echoed in dismay.
"I said arrest. It may be necessary. It is essential he should not believe that a jot of suspicion attaches to him. You"ll appreciate that?"