"She has threatened--eh?" he asked.
I nodded in the affirmative.
"Then does not that, in itself, justify my decision to see and question her?"
"No, it does not!" I protested. "She is not guilty, but this terrible dread and anxiety is, I know, gradually unbalancing her brain. She is a girl of calm determination, and if she believed that you suspected her she would be driven by sheer terror to carry out her threat."
He smiled.
"Most women threaten suicide at one time or other of their lives. Their thoughts seem to revert to romance as soon as they find themselves in a corner. No," he added. "I never believe in threats of suicide in either man or woman. Life is always too precious for that, and especially if a woman loves, as she does."
"You don"t know her."
"No, but I know women, Mr. Royle--I know all their idiosyncrasies as well as most men, I think," he said.
I begged him not to approach my well-beloved, but he was inexorable.
"I must see her--and I must know the truth," he declared decisively.
But I implored again of him, begging him to spare her--begged her life.
I had gripped him by the hand, and looking into his face I pointed out that I had done and was doing all I could to elucidate the mystery.
"At least," I cried, "you will wait until the fugitives are arrested!"
"There is only one--the impostor," he said. "There is no charge against the others."
"Then I will lay a charge to-night against the woman Petre and the man Ali of attempting to kill me." I said. "The two names can then be added to the warrant."
"Very well," he said. "We"ll go to the Yard, and I will take your information."
"And you will not approach Phrida until you hear something from Brussels--eh?" I asked persuasively. "In the meantime, I will do all I can. Leave Miss Shand to me."
"If I did it would be a grave dereliction of duty," he replied slowly.
"But is it a dereliction of duty to disregard allegations made by a woman who has fled in that man"s company, and who is, we now know, his accomplice?" I protested. "Did not you yourself tell me that you, at Scotland Yard, always regarded lightly any anonymous communication?"
"As a rule we do. But past history shows that many have been genuine," he said. "Before the commission of nearly all the Jack the Ripper crimes there were anonymous letters, written in red ink. We have them now framed and hanging up in the Black Museum."
"But such letters are not denunciations. They were promises of a further sensation," I argued. "The triumphant and gleeful declarations of the mad but mysterious a.s.sa.s.sin. No. Promise me, Edwards, that you will postpone this projected step of yours, which can, in any case, even though my love be innocent, only result in dire disaster."
He saw how earnest was my appeal, and realised, I think, the extreme gravity of the situation, and how deeply it concerned me. He seemed, also, to recognise that in discovering the name of the victim and in going a second time to Brussels, I had been able to considerably advance the most difficult inquiry; therefore, after still another quarter of an hour of persuasion, I induced him to withhold.
"Very well," he replied, "though I can make no definite promise, Mr.
Royle. I will not see the lady before I have again consulted with you.
But," he added, "I must be frank with you. I shall continue my investigations in that quarter, and most probably watch will be kept upon her movements."
"And if she recognises that you suspect her?" I gasped.
"Ah!" he exclaimed, with a slight shrug of the shoulders. "I cannot accept any responsibility for that. How can I?"
CHAPTER XXVIII.
FURTHER ADMISSIONS.
"The secret of Digby Kemsley is still a secret, and will ever remain a secret."
I recollected Mrs. Petre uttering those words to me as that dark-faced villain Ali had forced my inert head down upon the table.
Well, that same night when I had begged of Edwards my love"s life, I sat in his room at Scotland Yard and there made a formal declaration of what had happened to me on that well-remembered night outside Colchester. I formally demanded the arrest of the woman, of Ali, and of the young man-servant, all of whom had conspired to take my life.
The clerk calmly took down my statement, which Edwards read over to me, and I duly signed it.
Then, gripping his hand, I went forth into Parliament Street, and took a taxi to Cromwell Road.
I had not seen Phrida for several days, and she was delighted at my visit.
She presented a pale, frail, little figure in her simple gown of pale pink ninon, cut slightly open at the neck and girdled narrow with turquoise blue. Her skirt was narrow, as was the mode, and her long white arms were bare to the shoulders.
She had been curled up before the fire reading when I entered, but she jumped up with an expression of welcome upon her lips.
But not until her mother had bade me good-night and discreetly withdrew, did she refer to the subject which I knew obsessed her by night and by day.
"Well, Teddy," she asked, when I sat alone with her upon the pale green silk-covered couch, her little hand in mine, "Where have you been? Why have you remained silent?"
"I"ve been in Brussels," I replied, and then, quite frankly, I explained my quest after the impostor.
She sat looking straight before her, her eyes fixed like a person, in a dream. At last she spoke:
"I thought," she said in a strained voice, "that you would have shown greater respect for me than to do that--when you knew it would place you in such great peril!"
"I have acted in your own interests, dearest," I replied, placing my arm tenderly about her neck. "Ah! in what manner you will never know."
"My interests!" she echoed, in despair. "Have I not told you that on the day Digby Kemsley is arrested I intend to end my life," and as she drew a long breath, I saw in her eyes that haunted, terrified look which told me that she was driven to desperation.
"No, no," I urged, stroking her hair with tenderness. "I know all that you must suffer, Phrida, but I am your friend and your protector. I will never rest until I get at the truth."
"Ah! Revelation of the truth will, alas! prove my undoing!" she whispered, in a voice full of fear. "You don"t know, dear, how your relentless chase of that man is placing me in danger."
"But he is an adventurer, an impostor--a fugitive from justice, and he merits punishment!" I cried.
"Ah! And if you say that," she cried, wildly starting to her feet. "So do I! So do I!"
"Come, calm yourself, dearest," I said, placing my hand upon her shoulder and forcing her back into her chair. "You are upset to-night," and I kissed her cold, white lips. "May I ring for Mallock? Wouldn"t you like to go to your room?"