"How can we tell?" he asked, with a gesture of despair.
"Explain," I urged. "Tell me quickly. How did it happen?"
Together we walked slowly out of the station-yard down in the direction of King"s Road, when he said:
"Well, the facts are briefly these. Last Monday--that is five days ago--Her Highness and Miss West had been over to Eastbourne by train to see an old schoolfellow of the Grand d.u.c.h.ess"s, a certain Miss Finlay-- with whom I have since had an interview. They lunched at Mrs Finlay"s house--one of those new ones on the road to Beachy Head--and left, together with Miss Finlay, to walk back to the station at half-past seven o"clock. Her Highness would not drive, but preferred to walk along the Promenade and up Terminus Road. When close to the station, Dmitri--who accompanied them--says that Her Highness stopped suddenly before a fancy needlework shop, while the other two went on. The Grand d.u.c.h.ess, before entering the shop, motioned to Dmitri to walk along to the station, for his surveillance, as you know, always irritated her.
Dmitri, therefore, strolled on--and--well, that was the last seen of her Highness!"
"Impossible!" I gasped.
"I have made every effort to trace her, but without avail," declared Hartwig in despair. "It appears that she purchased some coloured silks for embroidery, paid for them, and then went out quite calmly. The girl who served her recollects her customer being met upon the threshold by a man who raised his hat in greeting and spoke to her. But she could not see his face, nor could she, in the dusk, discern whether he were young or old. The young lady seemed to be pleased to meet him, and, very curiously, it struck her at the time that that meeting had been prearranged."
"Why?" I asked.
"Because she says that the young lady, while making her purchase, glanced anxiously at her gold wristlet-watch once or twice."
"She had a train to catch, remember."
"Yes. I put that point before the girl, but she remains unshaken in her conviction that Her Highness met the man there by appointment. In any case," he added, "we have been unable to discover any trace of her since."
I was silent for a moment.
"But, surely, Hartwig, this is a most extraordinary affair!" I cried.
"She may have been decoyed into the hands of Danilovitch!"
"That is, alas! what I very much fear," the police official admitted.
"This I believe to be some deeply-laid plot of Markoff"s to secure her silence. You have been across Siberia, and arrived too late, yet Her Highness is still in possession of the secret. She is the only living menace to Markoff. Is it not natural, therefore, that he should take steps to seal her lips?"
"We must discover her, Hartwig--we must find her, either alive or dead,"
I said resolutely.
This news staggered me, f.a.gged and worn out as I was. I had been compelled to leave Luba in the hands of the Governor-General, who had promised, because I was the guest of His Majesty, that he would do all in his power to render her lot less irksome. Indeed, she had been transferred to one of the rooms in the prison hospital in Yakutsk, and was under a wardress, instead of being guarded by those brutal, uncouth Cossacks.
But this sudden disappearance of Natalia just at the very moment when her presence was of greatest importance held me utterly bewildered. All my efforts had been in vain!
Should I telegraph the alarming news to the Emperor?
Hartwig explained to me how diligently he had searched, and at once I realised the expert method with which he was dealing with the remarkable affair, and the wide scope of his inquiry. No man in Europe was more fitted to inst.i.tute such a search. He had, in confidence, invoked the aid of New Scotland Yard, and being known by the heads of the Criminal Investigation Department, they had allowed him to direct the inquiry.
"At present," he said, "the papers are fortunately in entire ignorance of the matter. I have been very careful that nothing shall leak out, for the story would, of course, be a grand one for the sensational Press. The public, however, does not know whose ident.i.ty is hidden beneath the name of Gottorp, and no reporter dreams that a Russian Grand d.u.c.h.ess has been living _incognita_ in Brunswick Square," he added with a smile. "The Criminal Investigation Department have agreed with me that it would be unwise for a single word to leak out regarding the disappearance. Of course they incline to the theory of a secret lover-- but--"
"You suspect young Drury--eh?" I interrupted quickly.
"I hardly know what theory to form," he said with a puzzled air: "while the shopgirl in Eastbourne describes the appearance of the man"s back as exactly similar to that of Mr Drury, yet I cannot believe that he would willingly play us such a trick. I know him quite well, and I believe him to be a very honest, upright, straightforward young fellow."
"He knows nothing of Her Highness"s real ident.i.ty?" I asked anxiously, as we still strolled down towards the sea.
"Has no suspicion whatever of it. He believes Miss Gottorp to be the daughter of a Berlin brewer who died and left her a fortune. No," he went on, "I detect in this affair one of Markoff"s clever plots. She probably believed that she was to meet young Drury, and adopted that ruse to pause and speak with him--but--!"
"But what?" I asked, turning and looking into his grave face, revealed by the light of a shop window.
"Well--she was led into a trap," he said. "Decoyed away into one of the side streets, perhaps--and then--well, who knows what might have happened?"
"You have searched Eastbourne, I suppose?"
"The Criminal Investigation Department are doing so," he said. "I am making a perfectly independent inquiry."
"You have reported nothing yet to Petersburg--eh?"
"Not a word. What can I say? I have asked Miss West to refrain from uttering a syllable--also the Finlays have promised entire secrecy."
"There is a motive in her disappearance, Hartwig," I said. "What is it?"
"Ah! That"s just it, Mr Trewinnard," he replied. "Her Highness had no motive whatever to disappear. Mr Drury was always welcome at Brunswick Square, for Miss West entirely approved of him. Besides, his presence had prevented other flirtations. Therefore there was no reason that there should have been any clandestine meeting in Eastbourne."
"Then the only other suggestion is that of treachery."
"Exactly. And that is the correct one--depend upon it."
"If she has fallen into Markoff"s hands then she may be already dead!"
I gasped, staring at him. "If so, the secret will remain a secret for ever!"
For a moment the great detective remained silent. Then slowly he said:
"To tell the truth, that is exactly what I fear. Yes, I will try and suppress the horrible apprehension. It is too terrible."
"Danilovitch is unscrupulous," I said, "and he hates us."
"No doubt he does. He fears us, yet--" and he paused. "Yet a most curious point is the fact that Her Highness deliberately remained behind and sent Dmitri on, in order to be allowed opportunity to escape his vigilance."
"All cleverly planned by her enemies," I declared. "She was misled, and fell into some very cunningly-baited trap, without a doubt. Do you believe she is still in Eastbourne?"
"No."
"Neither do I," was my a.s.sertion. "She went to London, no doubt, for there she would be easily concealed--if death has not already overtaken her--as it has overtaken poor Madame de Rosen."
"I trust not," he said very thoughtfully. Then he added: "I have been thinking whether we might not again approach Danilovitch?"
"He is our enemy and hers. He will give us no satisfaction," I said.
"Certainly, whatever plot suggested by Markoff arose in his fertile brain. And his plots usually have the same result--the death of the victim. It may be so in this case," I added reflectively; "but I sincerely trust not."
Hartwig drew a long breath. His face clouded.
"Remember," he said, "it is to Markoff"s advantage--indeed to him her death means the suppression of some disgraceful truth. If she lives-- then his fall is imminent. I have foreseen this all along, hence my constant precaution, which, alas! was relaxed last Monday, because I had to go to London to consult the Amba.s.sador. They evidently were aware of that."
I explained the failure of my errand, whereat he drew a long breath and said:
"It almost seems, Mr Trewinnard, that our enemies have secured the advantage of us, after all. I really feel they have."