The trio at the very moment of their sudden acquisition of Nardini"s dishonestly obtained wealth had been entrapped.
"We"re discovered!" I heard Miller cry in English.
"Whoever has found us has locked us in!"
It never occurred to them that the cupboard and the door were connected, or that Nardini had invented such an ingenious contrivance in order to entrap any thief who might discover his secret.
"We must get out of this as quickly as possible!" Gavazzi exclaimed breathlessly. "Let"s make the division of the money afterwards."
"The window!" suggested the younger man, but a rapid examination proved it to be too strongly barred.
I heard them within the room consulting with each other as to what could be done, and was amused at their chagrin, having discovered the dead man"s h.o.a.rd only to be so unexpectedly imprisoned with the wealth upon them.
The two Italians showered fierce imprecations upon whoever had bolted them in, and vowed that the police should never take them alive. They knew, too well, the serious charge they would have to face, for they knew that the body of the detective left in charge would be discovered behind the side door.
A heavy piece of furniture was brought to play upon the study door, but the sound made as they battered with it revealed to them that they were endeavouring to break down iron.
"Hush!" cried Miller suddenly. "We mustn"t make a noise like that.
There are probably _contadini_ living in the vicinity, and it will awaken them."
"Bah!" responded the doctor. "They"ll only believe that it"s a ghost.
Here the _contadini_ are most superst.i.tious."
"But the _carabinieri_ are not," remarked the young accomplice apprehensively. "My own idea is that we"ve been followed. I noticed a man in a dark suit looking very hard at us when we left the train."
"What kind of man?" the doctor inquired quickly.
"Looked like an Inglese signore, rather tall, about thirty, and wore a dark suit."
"Why in the name of Fate didn"t you mention it to us at the time?" cried Miller. "An Inglese! Who could he possibly be? Have you ever seen him before?"
"Never."
"Then he may have followed us here and alarmed the _carabinieri_!"
gasped the doctor. "We must escape--before they arrest us!"
I saw that the young thief had noticed me when I had followed them out into the darkness from the station at Tivoli. He would therefore recognise me if we met again.
They would, no doubt, make a desperate attempt at escape. Yet should I raise the alarm and call the police? Was it policy on my part to do so?
If Lucie"s father were arrested, Lucie herself must surely be implicated, and perhaps through Gordon-Wright my own dear love might also find herself in the criminal"s dock.
The mystery had grown so complicated and so inexplicable that I feared to take any step towards the denunciation of the thieves.
My only policy was to wait and to watch.
I recollected Ella"s appeal to me to remain silent concerning the scoundrel under whose ba.n.a.l thrall she had so mysteriously fallen, and I feared that if I made my statement it might lead to the fellow"s arrest.
What, I wondered, was the true explication of the mystery of the unknown girl being found in that room wherein the three thieves were entrapped?
Who was she? What did Lucie know concerning her?
A great fear possessed me that the police, in searching, would discover Lucie in Leghorn, though in Italy the detectives always find more difficulty in tracing foreigners than the Italians themselves. Every Italian, when he moves his habitation even from one street to the other, is compelled to give notice to the police. But not so the large foreign floating population who are for ever moving over the face of what is essentially a tourists" country.
Another great crash upon the door awakened me to a sense of my peril, should these men succeed in escaping. With as little compunction as they had struck down the guard, they would, I knew, strike me down, and even though I had a revolver they were three to one. Besides, a pistol is no use against a knife in the hands of such an expert as the young thief in the grey hat whom they had so swiftly taken into their confidence.
With regret that they had seized that large amount in money, and yet in the hope that they might regain their liberty and remain for some time longer--at least until I had learned the truth concerning my well-beloved--I crept softly back along the great salon, feeling my way before me with my hands. So thick was the carpet that my feet fell noiselessly, and my escape was rendered all the more easy by the noise the men were making by trying to batter down the door.
Swiftly I retraced my steps along the corridors, through the picture-gallery and the older wing of the great house, until I came to the long dim stone corridor. I shuddered as I pa.s.sed into it, for there lay still undiscovered, and in the same position in which the a.s.sa.s.sins had left it, the body of the unfortunate police agent who had been left in charge of the fugitive"s property which had been seized by the Government. On tiptoe I approached it, and bending, replaced the revolver.
Then with a final glance at the evidence of a horrible deed--a deed committed for the l.u.s.t of gold--I crept out into the early morning air which blew fresh and cool from over the mountains, causing the leaves of the vines to rustle while a loose sun-shutter creaked mournfully as it swung to and fro overhead.
Retracing my steps through the vineyard I gained the high-road, when the fancy took me to ascend to the back of the villa and listen if I could hear the imprisoned intruders.
Hardly had I reached the top of the hill when the truth was revealed to me, as I expected. Their voices could be distinctly heard, for one of those strongly barred windows that looked out upon the roadway was that of the room wherein the absconding ex-Minister had concealed the money he had filched from the public purse.
I halted in the darkness beneath the window, trying to catch the drift of the conversation, and even while I stood there one of them pulled aside the heavy curtains and allowed a stream of light to fall across the roadway. It was surely an injudicious action, yet they could not examine the bars without so doing.
Standing back in the shadow I saw them open the window and feel the strength of that thick prison-like grating, the defence in those turbulent days when the place had been a miniature fortress.
"Without a file, it"s impossible to break them," declared Gavazzi, in a tone of deep disappointment. "But we must get out somehow. Every moment"s delay places us in graver peril. What shall we do?"
I saw that their position was utterly hopeless. They had been caught like rats in a trap. Therefore I crept along under the old stone wall of the villa and made my way down the hill in the direction of where the electric street lamps of the town of Tivoli were shining.
It was, I saw by my watch, already half-past two.
After walking near half a mile, at a bend in the road two carabineers in uniform, with their guns slung upon their shoulders, emerged suddenly upon me and called me to halt.
Imagine my confusion. I held my breath, and perhaps it was fortunate for me that the darkness hid the pallor of my face.
"Who are you?" demanded one of the rural guards in Italian, with a strong northern accent. He was Piedmontese, I think.
"I am an Englishman," I answered, quite frankly, but making a strenuous effort to remain calm.
"So I hear by your speech," the man replied gruffly. "And what are you doing here? The English don"t usually walk about here at this hour?"
"I"ve walked from Palestrina, and lost myself in the darkness. Is that Tivoli down yonder?"
"Yes it is. But what"s your name?" he inquired, as though my quick reply had aroused his suspicions. I regretted my words next instant. I intended to mislead the man, but he evidently did not believe me. I saw that if I was not now perfectly frank I might be arrested on suspicion and detained in the carabineer barracks until morning.
I recognised into what deadly peril my intrepidity had now led me. If they detained me the discovery of the tragedy and robbery at the Villa Verde would certainly be made, and I should find myself implicated with those three a.s.sa.s.sins. The circ.u.mstantial evidence against me would be very strong, and it might be many months before I regained my freedom.
In such circ.u.mstances I should, alas! lose my Ella for ever!
"My name is G.o.dfrey Leaf, native of London," was my reply.
"And what brings you here? You certainly haven"t walked from Palestrina. You"d be more dusty than you are."
"Of course he would," remarked the man"s companion, shifting his carbine to his other shoulder. "He"s lying."
"Well," I said, feigning to be insulted by the fellow"s inquiries, "why should I tell you my business? It is no affair of yours, surely. Do you think I"m an a.s.sa.s.sin, or on my way to rob some _contadini_ of his poultry?"