“That tall young fellow’s here,” she announced. “What about it?”
“You can show him in,” her employer directed, “but remember my instructions.”
“That’s all right,” the girl assured him. “You’re afraid he’s going to cut up rough. If I hear a noise, I’m to fetch a policeman. I get a box of chocolates if the policeman gets here in time to save you from being laid out.”
Mr. Felix Main shivered.
“You are very unfeeling, Mabel,” he complained. “Do take this matter seriously. The young man is sure to fancy himself aggrieved. He is strong and young; I am neither. You don’t want to come in and find me battered to death, do you?”
“I’ll fetch the policeman like a streak,” she promised. “Just bang the bell, that’s all.”
She departed, and a moment later Charles entered on her heels. He could scarcely wait for the door to be closed. So far it had been a wonderful morning. One of the great fears of their lives had been removed for ever. If only this other thing could be arranged.
“Have you done anything with the stones, Main?” he asked breathlessly.
“Very little as yet,” the detective admitted, taking up a pencil and tracing some hieroglyphics on a scrap of paper. “Not much time, you see. These affairs—”
“Look here,” Charles interrupted, “I have the chance to get away to America—passage bought and everything. Leaving to-morrow from Southampton. Once there, I shall drop away down south. I want to make a deal with you.”
“In what way?” was the cautious query.
“The necklace is insured for thirty thousand pounds and is very likely worth far more,” the young man continued. “You think you can probably get twenty thousand for it. That would be ten thousand each. Now, can you find five thousand certain to-day —well, before eleven o’clock to-morrow morning— If so, I’ll give you the rest. There’s a deal for you. With five thousand I can start down in Buenos Ayres—that’s the place I want to get to. I know I’m safe here, thanks to your cleverness, but I’ve got nervous. I want to get right away from the whole thing. I don’t want to see a newspaper, don’t want to know anything that happens. I want to wipe out this year from my mind altogether.”
Mr. Felix Main scratched his chin reflectively.
“And this man Drayton,” he questioned thoughtfully, “he is to hang then?”
Charles stared at him in amazement.
“What is the matter with you?” he demanded. “We’ve talked that out. The fellow was a burglar, anyhow. He’d have shot first if he could, I expect.”
“He had no gun,” Felix Main said slowly.
“What the hell are you talking about that for now?” Charles broke in angrily. “That’s finished with. The thing is, can you raise five thousand pounds? If you can, the necklace is yours. You ought to clear at least fifteen thousand pounds.” Felix Main shook his head.
“No,” he replied, “I could not find anything like such a sum. I am a very poor man, Mr. de Suess. Five thousand pounds is a great deal to me.”
“Find me three then,” Charles proposed, “and send the rest on.”
“I cannot find you even three,” the other declared, his right hand resting upon the drawer. “I cannot find you any more at all.”
The young man glared at him across the table.
“Just what do you mean?” he demanded.
“I will explain,” Felix Main said, his narrow eyes watching every movement of his vis-a-vis. “I have been very worried since you confided to me your story and the necklace—very worried indeed. In the first place, in helping you to escape I am letting another man who is innocent, at any rate of this particular crime, be hanged. That is not a very good thing—not sporting, eh? In the second place, I am running a great risk in handling the disposal of this necklace, Mr. de Suess. There is nothing against me at police headquarters at present. I am a respectable man living a respectable life. I am summoned sometimes on the jury. I have my vote, my little house in the country. I have come to the conclusion, Mr. de Suess, that I must not risk my character in a transaction of this sort.”
“Will you leave off talking b——y rot and tell me what you mean?” Charles interrupted thickly.
“I do not like your language, Mr. de Suess,” Felix Main objected, “but I will tell you what I have determined to do. Scotland Yard is offering a reward of ten thousand pounds for the recovery of the necklace. I have recovered the necklace. I have decided to claim the reward and remain on the right side of the law.”
Charles stared at him, still not fully comprehending all that was in the man’s mind.
“But I never agreed to your doing anything of the sort,” he protested. “We ought to get a lot more than that out of it. Besides, it is dangerous. From whom did you say that you had received the necklace?”
“Scotland Yard is never too inquisitive in matters of that sort,” Felix Main murmured. “Besides, the Marquis wants the necklace back very badly. It is an heirloom.”
“Well, you had no right to make up your mind to do anything of the sort without consulting me,” Charles grumbled, “but so long as it’s done, I suppose it’s done. What about my five thousand pounds? After all, perhaps this is the quickest way of touching the money.”
“Your five thousand pounds?” the other queried gently.
Then the whole hideous truth dawned upon Charles. He half rose to his feet, and Mr. Felix Main’s hand disappeared entirely now into the interior of the drawer.
“Do you mean that you are going to try to cheat me, that you are going to keep the necklace, collect the whole of the reward for yourself—my necklace, the necklace that I risked everything for—”
“I am going to keep the whole of the ten thousand pounds,” Felix Main announced, with a coolness which surprised himself. “Now, what are you going to do about it? You cannot go to the law, and if you try to kill me, well, I shall kill you first.”
The gun was out now, but a second later it was lying harmlessly upon the floor. Felix Main had made his calculations without taking into consideration his own very flabby nerve. His last words, the sight of the gun, and Charles was on him like a tiger. The arm from which the gun was wrenched was afterwards proved to be broken. Weakened though he was drink and debauches of every sort, at that moment the young Russian was as strong as a lion. He was across the desk, and Felix Main felt a grip upon his throat which was like the grip of death. His collar was burst away, Charles raised him up and shook him as an angry tiger might have done an offending jackal. Then he set him down for a moment, still with a grip like the grip of metal upon his throat.
“You’re killing me!” Main gasped, the blood rushing up even to his eyes. “You’re killing me!”
“My God, what else do you think I’m going to do?” the young man muttered, as he bent a little closer over his victim. “You spawn of the devil! You foul little cheat! Do you think I’m taking risks of my life and leaving you to mock at me? You are going to send me to the gallows, eh? And stick to the ten thousand pounds! A wonderful scheme, Mr. Felix Main. But you will never spend a penny of that ten thousand pounds. They will never let you take that with you down to hell.”
The man was almost unconscious, a poor, lifeless pulp in the hands of his assailant.
“I’ll pay—I’ll give you all,” he choked. “I’ll tell nothing.”
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