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"So he hit upon this novel expedient: each member was trained to be a distinct identity. None of them was to pretend he was related to the others, except when they met for their yearly reunion. The mother came to England and established herself as a maiden lady of independent means. The boys went to different schools under different names, and as they grew up they were entered in different professions. Crayley became a landed proprietor; they bought him a farm, which he mismanaged on behalf of the family; they bought a house on the river for him, and his job was to travel the Continent, get in touch with wealthy people, and not only procure their signatures but learn everything there was to be learnt about their private lives.

"Henry became a lawyer; a practice was bought for him, but this did not happen until after the second son, Cravel, was established as proprietor of Heartsease. In this role, not only did he turn over his capital at a profit, but a home was found for the one daughter of the marriage, Alice. Cravel was the right-hand man of his father. Jackson Crayley, as we called him, was the family fool. He bungled everything— I am telling you now what I have learnt from Arnold. He even brought about his father's death by his stupidity in passing him the pistol the moment he was arrested. His mother hated him, for some reason which even Arnold doesn't understand, and eventually was to achieve his death.

"Crayley was a good fellow who hated his work, and sought every opportunity of shaking himself free from the trammels of his horrible association and living a decent life. In this he was seconded by his sister Alice. These two were great friends. But the strong man, after his father's death, was Cravel, though it was Miss Revelstoke, as we called her, who employed the riff-raff of the underworld to carry out the work of the Terrible People; she who, in a man's garb and wearing a white wig, hired the thugs. But it was Cravel who was near at hand to kill the assassin, whether he failed or succeeded.

"Cravel had bad sight, or he would have done his own shooting. On the morning Arnold came back from Chelmsford Jail, he was shadowed by Henry on a motorcycle, Henry's task being to bomb my son's car if the marksman failed to get him. It was fairly simple, wasn't it, Arnold?"

Betcher Long nodded.

"Yes; they had a greengrocer's Ford in the cut road, and as soon as Harry the Lancer was dead, the car went on, picked up Henry and his motor-cycle, and got clean away."

"One by one they killed the men who had brought their father to his death, and Cravel was the leading spirit. He had taken a doctor's degree before his father gave him the money to buy Heartsease, and there can be little doubt that he infected the judge and organized the artistic accident which ended the life of the counsel; but it was he and Henry who lay in wait for Wallis, the hangman.

"Poor Jackson Crayley! He bungled all things. Even his heliographed signal was a blunder, for it nearly cost Cravel his liberty. And all the time, behind Cravel and behind Henry, was the directing force and generalissimo of Colville Gardens!"

"Was it due to any machinations that I became her secretary?" asked the fascinated girl.

Sir Godley shook his head.

"It was an accident that she employed you, but once you were in her house she searched to find a use for you. It was the day you visited Monkford that Miss Revelstoke decided how you were to be employed. You have told us how, when you came back, she said that Monkford had rung up and had been loud in his praise of you.

Monkford had not touched the telephone. And then this was followed up by the arrival of the mysterious ring— Monkford again. All this was intended to give plausibility to the will, which had already been drawn up by Henry and the signature forged.

"Unfortunately for the wretched woman, the ring she gave you was one which Arnold had seen on a picture of her when she was a girl. The identical setting, the identical ring. It was that clue which put him on the trail. When he came to me with a description of the jewel, I was able to tell him that it was the identical ring that I bought for the woman the first day we arrived in Copenhagen!

"Alice Long has been able to tell us what happened the afternoon before Monkford's murder. Henry and Crayley— I suspect Henry as being the prime mover— carried a story to Monkford to this effect, that Arnold had been spreading stories about Monkford and you, Nora. Monkford was naturally furious. Though he may have liked you, he had not the slightest idea of love or marriage. He was, in fact, a confirmed bachelor. But they needed this attitude of his to prevent his consulting with Arnold. That was the devilish ingenuity of it. They knew that if he was sore with Betcher he would keep my son at a distance, and they wanted him kept at a distance until their wicked work was finished. How he died, you know. The telephone was probably the invention of Cravel, who was an ingenious workman.

"I can say honestly that I had not the slightest idea of Miss Revelstoke's identity, even after I had heard of the ring, until one night I went out to post a letter and a taxi passed me, containing an old gentleman. The 'old gentleman's' hand was resting on the window ledge. As the car passed, I caught a glimpse of the face. For a second, the dark eyes rested on mine, and I nearly dropped. Not all these years could efface the memory of Alicia Ostrander, and instinctively I knew that Alicia Ostrander and Miss Revelstoke were one and the same person. There was no reason why I should associate them, but I did.

"My cab followed the other until it reached Colville Gardens, where it turned into a back mews, and now I was certain. I had a little talk with the cabman, and asked him if he was game to follow her machine that night if it came out again. He had a new car, and when I told him who I was, he said he was not only willing, but curious. I rather fancy that he suspected me of being something of a gay dog! Though I did not anticipate that she would appear again, whilst I was talking, her car came out of the mews, and passed me so closely that I saw the face of the driver.

"And now I was absolutely sure. It was raining, and that helped a lot to make my pursuit possible, for otherwise we should never have been able to keep up with the machine. It was easier outside of town, because the roads were slippery and both cars had to move with caution. I induced the driver, after considerable persuasion, to dim his lamps, but I might have saved myself the trouble, for she did not expect the pursuit, and I doubt very much if she once looked back. We came at last to a place which I guessed was the Heartsease of which I had heard so much. The car passed through the gate, and here I left the cabman and continued my journey on foot.

"The rain was heavy now, and I took up my position under a cedar which gave me some sort of protection. The woman had disappeared into the hotel, and then I saw a man come out and take the car away, presumably to the garage. I waited and waited feeling rather a fool, and wondering what my cabman was thinking of me, and at last decided that I'd be a sensible man if I went home to my alarmed household. I was walking down the drive when two brilliant lights appeared ahead of me, and I had just time to conceal myself when a big motor-ambulance flashed past and stopped, not in front of the portico, but at the side door where Miss Revelstoke had gone in.

"I walked back, keeping well to cover, and I saw them lift out a stretcher, and one of the men, who was, I think, Cravel, lift a figure in his arms and take it into the hotel. Almost at once the ambulance wheeled round and went back the way it had come. My curiosity was piqued, and though I am no longer young, a certain amount of athletic prowess remains with me. The front door of the hotel was closed, but there was a portico, and on top a small balcony. Here I narrowly escaped an accident which might have proved serious. Workmen had been digging in the grounds, and I all but stumbled into a deep hole. As it was, I took a bad fall on the grass, losing my glasses and ruining irretrievably my dress suit— which, of course, I was still wearing. Five minutes' strenuous work brought me to the top of the portico and to a window which I had no difficulty in forcing.

"I realized that my curiosity could be construed as being unpardonable, and that I might possibly find myself in a very embarrassing position. But in spite of this, I opened the window and stepped into what proved to be the corridor of the first floor. I heard voices somewhere, but the place was in darkness, and I felt my way along the wall, trying every door. They were all locked. I climbed to the second floor, and then I heard somebody speaking, and at the first sound of Miss Revelstoke's voice, my mind went back nearly thirty years, and I remembered the day when she had expressed her frank opinion of me on that dancing little packet-boat! But what she was saying interested me most; so cold-blooded, so horrible was her scheme that I felt my scanty hair rising. I decided I must find a hiding place, and tried the doors on that floor, but they were all locked. Making my way downstairs, I came to the hall which opens into the lounge, as you know, Arnold. The first thing I saw, by the faint light of a night lamp which was burning on a table, was the open door of the office. I went in, dared to switch on the light, knowing that generally in the manager's office some sort of key was found, and then, by great good luck, I saw the pass-key hanging on a small hook inside the roll-top desk. I took this and went up the stairs as fast as I could. I had reached the first landing when I saw a light above, and opening the nearest door, I slipped in and stood waiting until they had gone."

Sir Godley smiled ruefully.

"My narrative might very easily have ended there. Putting out my foot, I touched nothing. I had a box of matches in my pocket, and one of these I struck, and for the first time saw the hole in the floor and in the roof above— the cavity above being covered by what looked to be the underside of a carpet. It was not very hard to guess that some structural alterations were in progress. The scaffold poles, the builders' tools which were lying in the room, all pointed to a very simple explanation.

"I had locked the door on the inside when I went in, and now I waited for a very considerable time, hoping that the three people who were in the hotel would go away. But throughout the night either one or the other seemed to be on the stairs or within listening distance. I could only speculate as to who was the unfortunate creature that had been brought in the ambulance, but I know now my speculations were exact. Hour after hour passed, and then, to my astonishment and joy, I heard Betcher's voice. As he went up the stairs, he passed within a few yards of me, and I waited, wondering exactly what would happen.

"After a long and bewildering silence, I heard steps in the room above, and his voice came clear. The hole in the ceiling of the room was, as you know, covered with carpet, and, strangely enough, the first thought I had, when I heard Arnold upstairs, was whether he would make a slip. I heard Arnold speak and Cravel answer, and then he moved toward the carpet, and I had opened my mouth to warn him, but the carpet doubled, something shot down in the dark, bounced off a piece of scaffolding, and knocked me flying. I just caught hold of him and pulled him to safety and for that reason he was not seen when Cravel looked down.

"I began to realize now that both I and my boy were in a peculiarly tight corner, and I was particularly grateful at the thought that in my hip pocket was a little automatic that I have been carrying for some considerable time Fortunately, Betcher was unconscious and could not betray his presence, and after half an hour of shuffling and walking and talking above the stairs, there was silence.

"There was no water; I could not dress his wound, but I could feel that he was not very badly hurt. I think he was more winded than wounded," Sir Godley chuckled, "and I'm rather glad he was, for by the time he had breath to speak, the people upstairs had gone. I told him who I was and what had happened, and told him about the pass-key.

"There was a window in the room, and through this I saw the car, which evidently held Miss Revelstoke and her son Henry, leave the place. Arnold's first thought was of you, Nora, and when, after a little wait, I saw Cravel driving my son's car away, we began a search of the house, starting at the bottom and gradually working up. It was a long business, and I had expected, for some reason, that you were in one of the rooms on the ground floor. I suppose it was, seeing you carried in unconscious, I imagined that it would be too much of a business to carry you upstairs.

"We had reached the first floor when he heard Cravel return, and again hid in No. 3. There was a long wait. Once Arnold thought he heard your voice, Nora, but that passed, and then Cravel went downstairs.

"'We'll risk it,' said Arnold, and up we went, and the first door we opened was that of Cravel's apartments.

"We wrapped you in a blanket and carried you downstairs, to No. 3. We could, of course, have confronted the man, but Betcher thought there was some danger, and that, in his desperation, Cravel might shoot. And then, most providentially, the Berkshire police arrived, in response to Rouch's telephone message, and it was when they came to No. 3 and Cravel had gone down to get his pass-key that Arnold unlocked the door from the inside, showing himself to the inspector and persuading him to hold this diabolical villain in conversation whilst we got you, Nora, my dear, to safety. And that's the story."

"And a darned good story, too," said Betcher. "If it has a fault, it is that it does not quite throw the highlights upon my acumen and valour, but I shall have plenty of time to impress those qualities upon you."

Nora smiled into his eyes.

Under her own hand, she had already instructed her lawyers not to ask for probate of the forged will. And really, as it proved, there was no necessity. On the day before her marriage, Sir Godley Long made a settlement upon her which startled even his son. And it took a whole lot to startle Betcher Long.

End

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23