"I do not question you as to the reason for your getting it," he answered. "Very shortly afterwards you left your carriage in Pall Mall, and without even asking for your husband you called at his hotel--you stole up into his room."
"I took some roses there and left them," she said "What of that?"
"Only that you were the last person seen to enter Mr. Sabin"s rooms before Duson was found there dead. And Duson died from a dose of that same poison, a packet of which you procured secretly from Emil Sachs. An empty winegla.s.s was by his side--it was one generally used by Mr. Sabin.
I know that the English police, who are not so foolish as people would have one believe, are searching now for the woman who was seen to enter the sitting-room shortly before Mr. Sabin returned and found Duson there dead."
She laughed scornfully.
"It is ingenious," she admitted, "and perhaps a little unfortunate for me. But the inference is ridiculous. What interest had I in the man"s death?"
"None, of course!" the Prince said. "But, Lucille, in all cases of poisoning it is the wife of whom one first thinks!"
"The wife? I did not even know that the creature had a wife."
"Of course not! But Duson drank from Mr. Sabin"s gla.s.s, and you are Mr. Sabin"s wife. You are living apart from him. He is old and you are young. And for the other man--there is Reginald Brott. Your names have been coupled together, of course. See what an excellent case stands there. You procure the poison--secretly. You make your way to your husband"s room--secretly. The fatal dose is taken from your husband"s winegla.s.s. You leave no note, no message. The poison of which the man died is exactly the same as you procured from Sachs. Lucille, after all, do you wonder that the police are looking for a woman in black with an ermine toque? What a mercy you wore a thick veil!"
She sat down suddenly.
"This is hideous," she said.
"Think it over," he said, "step by step. It is wonderful how all the incidents dovetail into one another."
"Too wonderful," she cried. "It sounds like some vile plot to incriminate me. How much had you to do with this, Prince?"
"Don"t be a fool!" he answered roughly. "Can"t you see for yourself that your arrest would be the most terrible thing that could happen for us?
Even Sachs might break down in cross-examination, and you--well, you are a woman, and you want to live. We should all be in the most deadly peril. Lucille, I would have spared you this anxiety if I could, but your defiance made it necessary. There was no other way of getting you away from England to-night except by telling you the truth."
"Away from England to-night," she repeated vaguely. "But I will not go.
It is impossible."
"It is imperative," the Prince declared, with a sharp ring of authority in his tone. "It is your own folly, for which you have to pay. You went secretly to Emil Sachs. You paid surrept.i.tious visits to your husband, which were simply madness. You have involved us all in danger. For our own sakes we must see that you are removed."
"It is the very thing to excite suspicion--flight abroad," she objected.
"Your flight," he said coolly, "will be looked upon from a different point of view, for Reginald Brott must follow you. It will be an elopement, not a flight from justice."
"And in case I should decline?" Lucille asked quietly.
The Prince shrugged his shoulders.
"Well, we have done the best we can for ourselves," he said. "Come, I will be frank with you. There are great interests involved here, and, before all things, I have had to consider the welfare of our friends.
That is my duty! Emil Sachs by this time is beyond risk of detection.
He has left behind a letter, in which he confesses that he has for some time supplemented the profits of his wine-shop by selling secretly certain deadly poisons of his own concoctions. Alarmed at reading of the death of Duson immediately after he had sold a poison which the symptoms denoted he had fled the country. That letter is in the hands of the woman who remains in the wine-shop, and will only be used in case of necessity. By other means we have dissociated ourselves from Duson and all connection with him. I think I could go so far as to say that it would be impossible to implicate us. Our sole anxiety now, therefore, is to save you."
Lucille rose to her feet.
"I shall go at once to my husband," she said. "I shall tell him everything. I shall act on his advice."
The Prince stood over by the door, and she heard the key turn.
"You will do nothing of the sort," he said quietly. "You are in my power at last, Lucille. You will do my bidding, or--"
"Or what?"
"I shall myself send for the police and give you into custody!"
CHAPTER x.x.xV
The Prince crossed the hall and entered the morning-room. Felix was there and Raoul de Brouillac. The d.u.c.h.ess sat at her writing-table, scribbling a note. Lady Carey, in a wonderful white serge costume, and a huge bunch of Neapolitan violets at her bosom, was lounging in an easy-chair, swinging her foot backwards and forwards. The Duke, in a very old tweed coat, but immaculate as to linen and the details of his toilet, stood a little apart, with a frown upon his forehead, and exactly that absorbed air which in the House of Lords usually indicated his intention to make a speech. The entrance of the Prince, who carefully closed the door behind him, was an event for which evidently they were all waiting.
"My good people," he said blandly, "I wish you all a very good-morning."
There was a little murmur of greetings, and before they had all subsided the Duke spoke.
"Saxe Leinitzer," he said, "I have a few questions to ask you."
The Prince looked across the room at him.
"By all means, Duke," he said. "But is the present an opportune time?"
"Opportune or no, it is the time which I have selected," the Duke answered stiffly. "I do not altogether understand what is going on in this house. I am beginning to wonder whether I have been misled."
The Prince, as he twirled his fair moustache, glanced carelessly enough across at the d.u.c.h.ess. She was looking the other way.
"I became a--er--general member of this Society," the Duke continued, "sympathising heartily with its objects as explained to me by you, Prince, and believing, although to confess it is somewhat of a humiliation, that a certain amount of--er--combination amongst the aristocracy has become necessary to resist the terrible increase of Socialism which we must all so much deplore."
"You are not making a speech, dear," the d.u.c.h.ess remarked, looking coldly across the room at him. "We are all anxious to hear what the Prince has to say to us."
"Your anxiety," the Duke continued, "and the anxiety of our friends must be restrained for a few minutes, for there are certain things which I am determined to say, and to say them now. I must confess that it was at first a painful shock to me to realise that the time had come when it was necessary for us to take any heed of the uneducated rabble who seem born into the world discontented with their station in life, and instead of making honest attempts to improve it waste their time railing against us who are more fortunately placed, and in endeavours to mislead in every possible way the electorate of the country."
The Prince sighed softly, and lit a cigarette. Lady Carey and Felix were already smoking.
"However," the Duke continued, "I was convinced. I have always believed in the principle of watching closely the various signs of the times, and I may say that I came to the conclusion that a combination of the thinking members of the aristocratic party throughout the world was an excellent idea. I therefore became what is, I believe, called a general member of the Order, of which I believe you, Prince, are the actual head."
"My dear James," the d.u.c.h.ess murmured, "the Prince has something to say to us."
"The Prince," her husband answered coldly, "can keep back his information for a few minutes. I am determined to place my position clearly before all of you who are present here now. It is only since I have joined this Society that I have been made aware that in addition to the general members, of which body I believe that the d.u.c.h.ess and I are the sole representatives here, there are special members, and members of the inner circle. And I understand that in connection with these there is a great machinery of intrigue going on all the time, with branches all over the world, spies everywhere with unlimited funds, and with huge opportunities of good or evil. In effect I have become an outside member of what is nothing more nor less than a very powerful and, it seems to me, daring secret society."
"So far as you are concerned, Duke," the Prince said, "your responsibility ceases with ordinary membership. You can take no count of anything beyond. The time may come when the inner circle may be opened to you."
The Duke coughed.
"You misapprehend me," he said. "I can a.s.sure you I am not anxious for promotion. On the contrary, I stand before you an aggrieved person. I have come to the conclusion that my house, and the shelter of my wife"s name, have been used for a plot, the main points of which have been kept wholly secret from me."
The Prince flicked his cigarette ash into the grate.
"My dear Dorset," he said gently, "if you will allow me to explain--"