May 16, 2025 • 21 mins
Dive into the mysterious world of the Domino Club, where a case of opium poisoning is anything but simple. Following the murder of Dr. Weathered, our protagonist is plunged into a twisted game with stakes running high - a stolen case book that threatens the entirety of London society. Guided by Zenobia Salome, the Leopardess, and a poison unknown even to renowned expert Sir Frank Tarleton, the narrative unfolds through the eyes of an unwilling participant in this deadly charade. Unravel the mystery as we delve into the darkest corners of the human heart, exposing the dreadful lengths one might go to protect their secrets. This gripping detective story, with its unique psychoanalytical perspective, will keep you on the edge of your seat, challenging even the most seasoned mystery enthusiasts.
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Chapter eleven of the Club of Masks. This is a
LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
The Club of Masks by Alan Upward, chapter eleven. What
the cipher meant Tyberton Castle was less than an hour's
(00:23):
dry from Hereford by motor. I had to conceal my
knowledge of the neighborhood from Tarleton, who left the arrangements
in my hands, and questioned the man who waited on
us at breakfast, as if I were entirely ignorant of
where the castle lay and how to reach it. No breakfast,
no man was a favorite maxim of the physicians, and
(00:44):
he did full justice to the fresh trout, the kidneys
and bacon, and the new laid eggs put before us. Well.
I had to force myself to swallow a few mouthfuls. However,
the meal was over at last, and at ten o'clock
we were seated in the car provided by the hotel,
speeding along the road I had last trodden backward with
despair in my heart. It seemed to me that every
(01:05):
tree was eloquent, and that every cottage on the way
remembered me and wondered at my coming back. As we
came near the village, I was tempted to shrink back
in my corner of the car and hide my face,
lest the villager should recognize it and greet me. I
had to tell myself that the real test would come presently.
I had never crossed the threshold of the castle. I
(01:26):
had never ventured into the park in the daytime. But
there is no such thing as privacy on the country side,
and every hedge has eyes and ears. And it was
certain that my comings and goings had been watched, and
that every child on the earl of Ledbury's estate, and
every servant in his house knew more about me than
his lordship did. Tarleton was delighted with the scenery. What
(01:49):
pleased him still more was the absence of all traffic.
We did not meet one vehicle in the road except
the farmer's cart. This is the least known beauty spot
in England, he cried with enthusiasm. Those hills yonder must
be in Radnorshire, a county whose existence I have always doubted.
This is the old Welsh march where the Britons stayed
(02:10):
the sacks in advance at last, and kept their freedom
in wild whales. What a contrast between this and Tarifa Road, Chelsea.
The reminder came just in time. I had been on
the point of telling him that King Arthur's tombs stood
on the crest of one of the hills that overlooked
the Golden Valley. I bit my lip, thankful that I
hadn't betrayed myself. We went through the sleepy village, bringing
(02:34):
out one or two women with babies in their arms
to the garden gates. Then we turned into the park
and saw the rabbit scampering to the right and left
as we crossed the fern covered slopes. This is a
true haunt of ancient peace, murmured the consultant wistfully. This
is the sort of place I want to end my
days in, and we have come to disturb it, perhaps
(02:55):
to bring disaster and disgrace. I should be glad if
we could turn back now and go way again. I
turned to him expectantly. His words had echoed my own
thoughts so closely that I half hoped to find him
ready to act upon them. But the frown on his
brow and the stern set of his mouth told me
that I was deluding myself. The car drew up at
(03:16):
the main entrance to the castle. The ivy clad ruins
to which the building owed its name, were almost screened
from view by the huge red brick front of a
dull edifice dating from the reign of George the Second.
The mansion had been put up out of ostentation, at
a cost from which the estate had never recovered, and
every Earl of Ledbury since had cursed his ancestor's extravagance.
(03:38):
I know that the present Earl found it hard to
pay the interest on his mortgages, and that he lived
in one corner of the vast house, leading long corridors
and whole suites of rooms to the spiders and rats.
We got out, and Sir Frank Tarlton gave his card
in mind to the man who came down the steps
to receive us. His suit of black was threadbare, and
(03:59):
his coat looked as if it had been thrust on
hastily at the sound of our approach. Please take our
cards to Lady Violet Bredwardine and ask her Ladyship if
we can see her in private on urgent business. The
servant stared at the message His eyes wandered from Tarleton
to me, and I thought there was a vague recognition
in them when they met mine. But his manner was
(04:21):
respectful and demure. I am sorry, sir, but I believe
her ladyship is out. I will inquire if you wish.
He seemed to be hesitating whether to ask us inside.
Sir Frank seized on the opening. I shall be glad
if you will find out when she is likely to
be in. Her ladyship is staying in the castle. I suppose, Oh, yes, sir.
(04:43):
The answer was given readily. We have come down from
London on purpose to see her. They told us at
Grosvenor Place that her ladyship had come here. I think
it was on Wednesday. The man bowed. That is quite right, sir,
her ladyship arrived on Wednesday evening. I stole an anxious
glance at my chief. It was a complete confirmation of
(05:04):
the inspector's report. If Lady Violet had arrived at the
castle in the evening, she could not have been back
in town the same night. The alibi stood firm. Tarleton
drew out his watch as though to consult it before
deciding what to do next. Suddenly he snapped out, there's
no mistake. I suppose her Ladyship couldn't have been in
London a Wednesday night. The man was taken off his guard,
(05:28):
and if he had been lying, he could hardly have
failed to show some confusion. But the only feeling he
manifested was one of resentment at the question. I'm positive
of what I say, sir, but her Ladyship hasn't authorized
me to answer questions of utter movements, the consultant put
on the air of a man who was made a slip. No, no,
of course not. I meant to ask her Ladyship herself.
(05:51):
He turned to me, what do you say, cacilis, Shall
we wait inside or shall we go for a stroll
and come back again. I had laid my plans in
the expectation that Lady Violet would be out, and I
was ready with a suggestion. I made it with my
heart in my mouth. I think one of us ought
to wait here, Sir Frank, the other might walk round
(06:11):
the park and perhaps meet Lady Violet. Sir Frank seemed
to find the proposal quite natural, very good. I shall
be glad to stretch my legs for an hour, so
I'll leave you here and come back again. This was
an unforeseen check. I have been so sure of being
the one to go out into the grounds if I
could effect the separation that I hadn't thought of the alternative.
(06:34):
My only chance now was to slip out as soon
as Tarleton's back was turned. I looked at the servant
and fancied that his eye rested on me with a
more friendly air than on my companion. Would you like
to wait inside, sir, he asked. I hesitated, but I
had to choose between trusting him and trusting the chauffeur
who had driven us out from Hereford, and he had
(06:54):
impressed me favorably. I followed him into the castle while
Tarleton moved off down an avenue of beaches in the park.
The servant brought me through a dreary hall full of
old sous of armor in ancient high backed chairs, but
lacking in those little touches of modern comfort that are
needed to make such a place homelike and attractive to
the eye. He opened a door towards the inner end
(07:17):
and ushered me into a gloomy library fitted up with
great bookcase. As it looked as if they were never opened,
stuffed with huge leather bound volumes of the kind that
no human being any longer wants to read. The whole
room reminded me of the fairy tale of the Sleeping
Beauty in the Wood. It seemed to breathe of the
eighteenth century, as though its life had been arrested then,
(07:39):
and no one had trodden the faded carpet had taken
down one of the dusty tomes for a hundred long
years since. The man servant had taken up a silver
plate as we passed through the hall and laid our
cards on it. He now asked, shall I take these
cards to his lordship? Sir? He must have seen me
start at the question. I put my hand into my pocket,
(07:59):
sir ching his face carefully. The while there is no
occasion for that, I said, our business with her ladyship
is private, and she may not wish his Lordship to
be troubled with it. I took out a note before adding,
perhaps you remember my face. The man looked pleased. His
chances of adding to his wages can't have been very
(08:19):
many in that lonely mansion. It seemed to me, moreover,
that he was genuinely attached to his young mistress. Why yes, sir,
I did have a thought, as I had seen you
here before you were staying at the Moorfield Farm. If
I recollect rightly, sir, three years ago or might before.
I nodded, and the piece of paper passed silently from
(08:41):
my hand to his. I've come to do a service
to Lady Violet if I can. I told him her
ladyship knows I am coming, and she has gone out
to meet me. I want you to let me out
the back of the castle so that I can join
her and say nothing to the friend who has come
with me or anybody else. He gave me a quick
look of intelligence. I understand, sir. He led the way
(09:05):
out of the library again and along a corridor still
more deserted and dismal than the hall. It ended at
a locked and barred door, which he unfastened with some effort.
This is the way into the ruins, he explained. You
can pass out from them into a path that leads
through the home meadows up to the Moorfield Farm. It's
a public footpath, and if anyone sees you, they'll think
(09:26):
you've been exploring the ruins from outside. Nothing could have
suited it better with my plans. I knew the path,
and knew that at a certain point another diverge from it,
and led there were well remembered wood, to the barn
where I had asked Violet Bredwarding to meet me. I
passed out into the castle grounds and clambered over the
crumbling walls and fallen stones till I found myself on
(09:48):
the path. And now every step became tragical. I was
treading on the ashes of the fire, in which two
hearts had been scorched and branded with a mark that
could never be effaced. The grass beside the narrow footway
seemed to be stained with blood. I drew my breath
in pain as I mounted the slope toward the lonely
little farmhouse in which I had passed the most glorious
(10:10):
and most miserable hours of my life. When I came
to the gate into the wood, I stopped and leant
upon it, panting and hardly able to proceed. The wood
was haunted by ghosts more dreadful to me than any
spirits of the dead, the ghosts of passion and of pain,
the ghosts of love and hatred, of that most terrible
of all hatred, which is born of love betrayed. I
(10:33):
shuddered as I thrust open the gate and stepped beneath
the trees. A somber fird drooped like a weeping willow
over one spot where the way was crossed by a
trickling spring that plunged and disappeared down a steep gully,
choke with brambles and dark ferns. But there was a
worse point than that to pass. A tall beech sent
out its roots on to the path, and on the
(10:54):
smooth rind of its trunk were cut two initial letters
entwined of thee, and a bee very knife that escored them.
There lay in my pocket. I had never parted with it.
What madness had tempted me to blazon our secret to
the inquisitive countryside, I had used one precaution. I had
cut the proclamation of our love on the side of
(11:15):
the trunk that was hidden from the public way. Now,
when I reached the tree, I forced to pass us
through the undergrowth to see how time and weather had
dealt with that vain memorial. A bitter shock awaited me.
Every vestige of the monogram had been destroyed by deep
cuts and slashes, in the bark. Only a confused web
of scars and scratches marked the place. The tree's wound
(11:37):
seemed to reproduce the wounds upon two hearts. My head
drooped as I dragged myself up the rest of the
ascent and came out of the wood on the open
hill side. The view was exquisite. The hills of three
fair counties stretched away to the horizon, and at their
feet the silver wide clasped the rich cornfields and pastures
in its shining arms. But the whole prospect was darkened
(12:01):
over my eyes by an invisible cloud. I turned to
the spot where, scarcely a hundred yards away, there rose
out of the bracken the high gray walls of the
forsaken barn. Its desolation seemed symbolical. When it was built
centuries ago, the surrounding land had borne crops worth harvesting,
instead of the thin grass and waste of bracken that
(12:21):
now surrounded it. On all sides. Traditions spoke of a
time not remote when the hills swarmed with folk engaged
in tilling the hard soil, their ruined cottages still lying,
the lanes that crept along the crest and peeped out
of the sheltered nooks. The virgin prairies of the new
world had tempted some of them away. Others had migrated
to the mining valleys, whose smoke could almost be seen
(12:43):
from where I stood. So the gray, ancient barn stood empty,
its wooden doors dangling helpless from their rusty stables, and
the wind whistling through the narrow slits that showed like
the arrow holes of a Norman keep. I made my
way across the standing bracken that rose up to my shoulders,
and gained the open doorway, but there was no one within.
(13:05):
A solitary sheep started up from the litter of chaff
that strewed the floor, and bounded out through an opening
in the opposite wall, leaving me alone. And now I
began to repent that I had named as the meeting place,
the spot where we had parted in such misery those
three years ago. I turned with a pang from the
scene and avanced slowly towards the brow of the hill,
(13:26):
just below the crest. Seated on a moss covered stone
beside a spring, I found her, Violet Bredardine rose and
stood where she was more like a statue than a
living woman. Her light ringlets breaking from beneath the quaint
straw helmet surrounded her face like a halo, and made
it seem more than ever like the face of the
(13:46):
child angel she had seen to me when I saw
her first. Even then, there had been a wistful look
in her innocent blue eyes, as though the child angel
had lost her way in this troubled earth of ours
and was seeking pitifully for some escape. And I dreamt,
in my madness, I had dreamt that I could offer
her the help she needed and change the sadness of
(14:08):
her life into joy. I strode towards her, all the
old passionate impulses of the past flooding my heart like wine,
and cried violet. She shrank back, as if I had
struck her, and the soft eyes flashed with anger. How
dare you? How dare you ask me to meet you
like this? I stopped ashame in an instant. My sudden
(14:31):
emotion was chilled. I felt myself a criminal facing my judge.
Forgive me, I stammered. I was obliged to speak to
you before I saw Sir Frank Tarleton. I had to
explain to you who he was, and what he was
going to ask you? She interrupted me with a gesture
of scorn. She pointed to the roof of the barn,
just visible over the crest of the slope from where
(14:52):
we stood. How dared you ask me to meet you?
There was there no other place? Her voice shook. How
could you be so brutal to remind me to drag
me back to the one spot on earth that I
was trying to forget? The reproach pierced me like a knife.
She was right, What was I but a brute? What
(15:14):
else has any man in dealing with the mystery of
a woman's heart, with those delicate fibers which our rude
touch so often bruises and wrens unawares. I could have
thrown myself at her feet and begged her to trample
the life out of me. But there would have been
no reparation in that. There was none in anything that
I could think of doing. It was a case of
(15:34):
least said, soonest, mended. I had to leave the wound
I had given her to heal itself, and meanwhile tried
to render her the only service that was in my power.
You can say nothing to me that I don't deserve
nothing that is severe enough, I answered, I can only
plead that I was distracted by anxiety on your account.
(15:54):
The indignation in her face turned to terror. What do
you mean you wrote to me that I had none,
nothing more to fear. I said, nothing more to fear
from doctor Weatherid. That was all I thought it safe
to put in a letter, And when I wrote it,
I hoped that I could protect you from any further trouble.
But other things have happened since there were complications in
(16:16):
the case that I couldn't explain without seeing you, and
Sir Frank Carleton has come down here to see if
you can throw light on them. Sir Frank Carleton, who
is he? He is the principal medical adviser to the
Home Office. I am his assistant. But I don't understand.
She stared at me in natural wonder. Why should he
(16:36):
be mixed up in it? Have you told him anything nothing?
You may be assured of that, But I must tell
you what has happened, whether it is dead dead. The
blue eyes expanded for a moment in a gleam of relief,
almost of exultation. The instant after they froze dreadfully Bertrande,
(16:57):
You killed him, she whispered. I shook my head earnestly. No.
I should have killed him if there had been no
other way to save you from him. And I don't
believe any honest man or woman would have blamed me
if I had. But it wasn't necessary. My only object
was to destroy the record of your confession, the statement
that had placed you in his power. All I did
(17:20):
was to drug him enough to make him insensible and
take his keys. When I left the club at three
o'clock in the morning, he was still alive. He was
found dead where I left him two hours afterwards. Violet
hardly seemed to be listening. Her eyes were still fixed
on me like two blue stones. You did it, she repeated, Dully,
you killed him for my sake. Even in the midst
(17:43):
of the intense strain, those last three words thrilled me
with secret joy. Heaven forgive me for wishing for an
instant that they were true. I could have brought myself
to accept a terrible possibility which had been haunting me
ever since the voice of Inspector Charles had told me
through the telephone that whether it was a corpse, the
possibility that I had administered a fatal dose. But I
(18:07):
saw that Violet was on the verge of breaking down.
For her sake far more than my own, I must
banish that theory from the field. No, I assured her again,
that is out of the question. Sir Frank Tarleton is
the greatest living authority on poisons, and he has been
engaged for the last three days in trying to ascertain
the cause of death. I have been by his side
(18:29):
the whole time, assisting him, and I know that his
suspicions point in another direction altogether. I broke off to
catch her in my arms as she swayed forward. I
was just in time. I laid her gently on the
moss and sprinkled her face with water from the spring,
the sweet face that I would have given all I
possessed to sprinkle with kisses instead. Luckily, the collapse was
(18:51):
only momentary. Molly was still bending over her. She opened
her lips to say, go on, tell me everything. I
waited till she had recovered strength enough to sit up.
It would have done harm to wait longer. It was
necessary for her to know exactly how matters stood. Doctor
Weatherett had other victims beside you, and other enemies beside me.
(19:14):
The police are on the trail of some of them,
and Sir Frank has obtained an important clue which may
lead us to the true cause of death. But meanwhile,
notice has been attracted to the costume in which I
went to the Domino club that night. Father began to
look frightened. The one I lent you. You ought to
have destroyed it, she said, excitedly. It is very fortunate
(19:36):
I didn't, I returned soothingly. It has come out that
it was the costume you generally wore, and you remember,
that was why you lent it to me, so that
weather it should think I was you. Anyhow, it has
been traced to you, and if you couldn't produce it,
you would be called on to account for its disappearance.
Do you see that? Yes? I see that. But surely
(19:58):
if they know the costume was mine, they must believe
that I was there that night? My God, did they
suspect me of the murder? I was agonized by her terror?
They know you to be innocent. Your innocence has been proved,
I cried out fiercely. You have what the law calls
on alibi. You are more than a hundred miles away
when the crime was committed. If there was a crime,
(20:21):
good heavens, Violet, can you believe that I shouldn't have
given myself up to justice the very moment it was
necessary to clear you? Her expression softened more than I
could have hoped. I know that, bertrand she said in
a low voice, Only I dun't understand why you were here.
What does Sir Frank Tarleton want with me? He wanted
(20:42):
two things moments to make sure that you really were
here on Wednesday night. He is now quite satisfied of that.
The other is to ask you if you can explain
something that has puzzled us in whether it's appointment book,
whenever your name appears, it is followed by a number,
and we don't know why. Violet lowered her eyes with
a frown. He gave me that number to sign my
(21:05):
letters by when I wrote to him. He told me
that it would help me to write more freely if
I used a number instead of a name. I started
in alarm, But why should you need that? What were
the letters about? The poor girl's eyes still refused to
meet mine. He made me tell him the whole story
in letters. He said that was the only way to
(21:27):
get it off my mind. I clenched my teeth together
to keep myself from uttering a word. The doctor's safe
had been opened and his case book destroyed uselessly. End
of Chapter eleven.
Chapter eleven of the Club of Masks. This is a
LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
The Club of Masks by Alan Upward, chapter eleven. What
the cipher meant Tyberton Castle was less than an hour's
(00:23):
dry from Hereford by motor. I had to conceal my
knowledge of the neighborhood from Tarleton, who left the arrangements
in my hands, and questioned the man who waited on
us at breakfast, as if I were entirely ignorant of
where the castle lay and how to reach it. No breakfast,
no man was a favorite maxim of the physicians, and
(00:44):
he did full justice to the fresh trout, the kidneys
and bacon, and the new laid eggs put before us. Well.
I had to force myself to swallow a few mouthfuls. However,
the meal was over at last, and at ten o'clock
we were seated in the car provided by the hotel,
speeding along the road I had last trodden backward with
despair in my heart. It seemed to me that every
(01:05):
tree was eloquent, and that every cottage on the way
remembered me and wondered at my coming back. As we
came near the village, I was tempted to shrink back
in my corner of the car and hide my face,
lest the villager should recognize it and greet me. I
had to tell myself that the real test would come presently.
I had never crossed the threshold of the castle. I
(01:26):
had never ventured into the park in the daytime. But
there is no such thing as privacy on the country side,
and every hedge has eyes and ears. And it was
certain that my comings and goings had been watched, and
that every child on the earl of Ledbury's estate, and
every servant in his house knew more about me than
his lordship did. Tarleton was delighted with the scenery. What
(01:49):
pleased him still more was the absence of all traffic.
We did not meet one vehicle in the road except
the farmer's cart. This is the least known beauty spot
in England, he cried with enthusiasm. Those hills yonder must
be in Radnorshire, a county whose existence I have always doubted.
This is the old Welsh march where the Britons stayed
(02:10):
the sacks in advance at last, and kept their freedom
in wild whales. What a contrast between this and Tarifa Road, Chelsea.
The reminder came just in time. I had been on
the point of telling him that King Arthur's tombs stood
on the crest of one of the hills that overlooked
the Golden Valley. I bit my lip, thankful that I
hadn't betrayed myself. We went through the sleepy village, bringing
(02:34):
out one or two women with babies in their arms
to the garden gates. Then we turned into the park
and saw the rabbit scampering to the right and left
as we crossed the fern covered slopes. This is a
true haunt of ancient peace, murmured the consultant wistfully. This
is the sort of place I want to end my
days in, and we have come to disturb it, perhaps
(02:55):
to bring disaster and disgrace. I should be glad if
we could turn back now and go way again. I
turned to him expectantly. His words had echoed my own
thoughts so closely that I half hoped to find him
ready to act upon them. But the frown on his
brow and the stern set of his mouth told me
that I was deluding myself. The car drew up at
(03:16):
the main entrance to the castle. The ivy clad ruins
to which the building owed its name, were almost screened
from view by the huge red brick front of a
dull edifice dating from the reign of George the Second.
The mansion had been put up out of ostentation, at
a cost from which the estate had never recovered, and
every Earl of Ledbury since had cursed his ancestor's extravagance.
(03:38):
I know that the present Earl found it hard to
pay the interest on his mortgages, and that he lived
in one corner of the vast house, leading long corridors
and whole suites of rooms to the spiders and rats.
We got out, and Sir Frank Tarlton gave his card
in mind to the man who came down the steps
to receive us. His suit of black was threadbare, and
(03:59):
his coat looked as if it had been thrust on
hastily at the sound of our approach. Please take our
cards to Lady Violet Bredwardine and ask her Ladyship if
we can see her in private on urgent business. The
servant stared at the message His eyes wandered from Tarleton
to me, and I thought there was a vague recognition
in them when they met mine. But his manner was
(04:21):
respectful and demure. I am sorry, sir, but I believe
her ladyship is out. I will inquire if you wish.
He seemed to be hesitating whether to ask us inside.
Sir Frank seized on the opening. I shall be glad
if you will find out when she is likely to
be in. Her ladyship is staying in the castle. I suppose, Oh, yes, sir.
(04:43):
The answer was given readily. We have come down from
London on purpose to see her. They told us at
Grosvenor Place that her ladyship had come here. I think
it was on Wednesday. The man bowed. That is quite right, sir,
her ladyship arrived on Wednesday evening. I stole an anxious
glance at my chief. It was a complete confirmation of
(05:04):
the inspector's report. If Lady Violet had arrived at the
castle in the evening, she could not have been back
in town the same night. The alibi stood firm. Tarleton
drew out his watch as though to consult it before
deciding what to do next. Suddenly he snapped out, there's
no mistake. I suppose her Ladyship couldn't have been in
London a Wednesday night. The man was taken off his guard,
(05:28):
and if he had been lying, he could hardly have
failed to show some confusion. But the only feeling he
manifested was one of resentment at the question. I'm positive
of what I say, sir, but her Ladyship hasn't authorized
me to answer questions of utter movements, the consultant put
on the air of a man who was made a slip. No, no,
of course not. I meant to ask her Ladyship herself.
(05:51):
He turned to me, what do you say, cacilis, Shall
we wait inside or shall we go for a stroll
and come back again. I had laid my plans in
the expectation that Lady Violet would be out, and I
was ready with a suggestion. I made it with my
heart in my mouth. I think one of us ought
to wait here, Sir Frank, the other might walk round
(06:11):
the park and perhaps meet Lady Violet. Sir Frank seemed
to find the proposal quite natural, very good. I shall
be glad to stretch my legs for an hour, so
I'll leave you here and come back again. This was
an unforeseen check. I have been so sure of being
the one to go out into the grounds if I
could effect the separation that I hadn't thought of the alternative.
(06:34):
My only chance now was to slip out as soon
as Tarleton's back was turned. I looked at the servant
and fancied that his eye rested on me with a
more friendly air than on my companion. Would you like
to wait inside, sir, he asked. I hesitated, but I
had to choose between trusting him and trusting the chauffeur
who had driven us out from Hereford, and he had
(06:54):
impressed me favorably. I followed him into the castle while
Tarleton moved off down an avenue of beaches in the park.
The servant brought me through a dreary hall full of
old sous of armor in ancient high backed chairs, but
lacking in those little touches of modern comfort that are
needed to make such a place homelike and attractive to
the eye. He opened a door towards the inner end
(07:17):
and ushered me into a gloomy library fitted up with
great bookcase. As it looked as if they were never opened,
stuffed with huge leather bound volumes of the kind that
no human being any longer wants to read. The whole
room reminded me of the fairy tale of the Sleeping
Beauty in the Wood. It seemed to breathe of the
eighteenth century, as though its life had been arrested then,
(07:39):
and no one had trodden the faded carpet had taken
down one of the dusty tomes for a hundred long
years since. The man servant had taken up a silver
plate as we passed through the hall and laid our
cards on it. He now asked, shall I take these
cards to his lordship? Sir? He must have seen me
start at the question. I put my hand into my pocket,
(07:59):
sir ching his face carefully. The while there is no
occasion for that, I said, our business with her ladyship
is private, and she may not wish his Lordship to
be troubled with it. I took out a note before adding,
perhaps you remember my face. The man looked pleased. His
chances of adding to his wages can't have been very
(08:19):
many in that lonely mansion. It seemed to me, moreover,
that he was genuinely attached to his young mistress. Why yes, sir,
I did have a thought, as I had seen you
here before you were staying at the Moorfield Farm. If
I recollect rightly, sir, three years ago or might before.
I nodded, and the piece of paper passed silently from
(08:41):
my hand to his. I've come to do a service
to Lady Violet if I can. I told him her
ladyship knows I am coming, and she has gone out
to meet me. I want you to let me out
the back of the castle so that I can join
her and say nothing to the friend who has come
with me or anybody else. He gave me a quick
look of intelligence. I understand, sir. He led the way
(09:05):
out of the library again and along a corridor still
more deserted and dismal than the hall. It ended at
a locked and barred door, which he unfastened with some effort.
This is the way into the ruins, he explained. You
can pass out from them into a path that leads
through the home meadows up to the Moorfield Farm. It's
a public footpath, and if anyone sees you, they'll think
(09:26):
you've been exploring the ruins from outside. Nothing could have
suited it better with my plans. I knew the path,
and knew that at a certain point another diverge from it,
and led there were well remembered wood, to the barn
where I had asked Violet Bredwarding to meet me. I
passed out into the castle grounds and clambered over the
crumbling walls and fallen stones till I found myself on
(09:48):
the path. And now every step became tragical. I was
treading on the ashes of the fire, in which two
hearts had been scorched and branded with a mark that
could never be effaced. The grass beside the narrow footway
seemed to be stained with blood. I drew my breath
in pain as I mounted the slope toward the lonely
little farmhouse in which I had passed the most glorious
(10:10):
and most miserable hours of my life. When I came
to the gate into the wood, I stopped and leant
upon it, panting and hardly able to proceed. The wood
was haunted by ghosts more dreadful to me than any
spirits of the dead, the ghosts of passion and of pain,
the ghosts of love and hatred, of that most terrible
of all hatred, which is born of love betrayed. I
(10:33):
shuddered as I thrust open the gate and stepped beneath
the trees. A somber fird drooped like a weeping willow
over one spot where the way was crossed by a
trickling spring that plunged and disappeared down a steep gully,
choke with brambles and dark ferns. But there was a
worse point than that to pass. A tall beech sent
out its roots on to the path, and on the
(10:54):
smooth rind of its trunk were cut two initial letters
entwined of thee, and a bee very knife that escored them.
There lay in my pocket. I had never parted with it.
What madness had tempted me to blazon our secret to
the inquisitive countryside, I had used one precaution. I had
cut the proclamation of our love on the side of
(11:15):
the trunk that was hidden from the public way. Now,
when I reached the tree, I forced to pass us
through the undergrowth to see how time and weather had
dealt with that vain memorial. A bitter shock awaited me.
Every vestige of the monogram had been destroyed by deep
cuts and slashes, in the bark. Only a confused web
of scars and scratches marked the place. The tree's wound
(11:37):
seemed to reproduce the wounds upon two hearts. My head
drooped as I dragged myself up the rest of the
ascent and came out of the wood on the open
hill side. The view was exquisite. The hills of three
fair counties stretched away to the horizon, and at their
feet the silver wide clasped the rich cornfields and pastures
in its shining arms. But the whole prospect was darkened
(12:01):
over my eyes by an invisible cloud. I turned to
the spot where, scarcely a hundred yards away, there rose
out of the bracken the high gray walls of the
forsaken barn. Its desolation seemed symbolical. When it was built
centuries ago, the surrounding land had borne crops worth harvesting,
instead of the thin grass and waste of bracken that
(12:21):
now surrounded it. On all sides. Traditions spoke of a
time not remote when the hills swarmed with folk engaged
in tilling the hard soil, their ruined cottages still lying,
the lanes that crept along the crest and peeped out
of the sheltered nooks. The virgin prairies of the new
world had tempted some of them away. Others had migrated
to the mining valleys, whose smoke could almost be seen
(12:43):
from where I stood. So the gray, ancient barn stood empty,
its wooden doors dangling helpless from their rusty stables, and
the wind whistling through the narrow slits that showed like
the arrow holes of a Norman keep. I made my
way across the standing bracken that rose up to my shoulders,
and gained the open doorway, but there was no one within.
(13:05):
A solitary sheep started up from the litter of chaff
that strewed the floor, and bounded out through an opening
in the opposite wall, leaving me alone. And now I
began to repent that I had named as the meeting place,
the spot where we had parted in such misery those
three years ago. I turned with a pang from the
scene and avanced slowly towards the brow of the hill,
(13:26):
just below the crest. Seated on a moss covered stone
beside a spring, I found her, Violet Bredardine rose and
stood where she was more like a statue than a
living woman. Her light ringlets breaking from beneath the quaint
straw helmet surrounded her face like a halo, and made
it seem more than ever like the face of the
(13:46):
child angel she had seen to me when I saw
her first. Even then, there had been a wistful look
in her innocent blue eyes, as though the child angel
had lost her way in this troubled earth of ours
and was seeking pitifully for some escape. And I dreamt,
in my madness, I had dreamt that I could offer
her the help she needed and change the sadness of
(14:08):
her life into joy. I strode towards her, all the
old passionate impulses of the past flooding my heart like wine,
and cried violet. She shrank back, as if I had
struck her, and the soft eyes flashed with anger. How
dare you? How dare you ask me to meet you
like this? I stopped ashame in an instant. My sudden
(14:31):
emotion was chilled. I felt myself a criminal facing my judge.
Forgive me, I stammered. I was obliged to speak to
you before I saw Sir Frank Tarleton. I had to
explain to you who he was, and what he was
going to ask you? She interrupted me with a gesture
of scorn. She pointed to the roof of the barn,
just visible over the crest of the slope from where
(14:52):
we stood. How dared you ask me to meet you?
There was there no other place? Her voice shook. How
could you be so brutal to remind me to drag
me back to the one spot on earth that I
was trying to forget? The reproach pierced me like a knife.
She was right, What was I but a brute? What
(15:14):
else has any man in dealing with the mystery of
a woman's heart, with those delicate fibers which our rude
touch so often bruises and wrens unawares. I could have
thrown myself at her feet and begged her to trample
the life out of me. But there would have been
no reparation in that. There was none in anything that
I could think of doing. It was a case of
(15:34):
least said, soonest, mended. I had to leave the wound
I had given her to heal itself, and meanwhile tried
to render her the only service that was in my power.
You can say nothing to me that I don't deserve
nothing that is severe enough, I answered, I can only
plead that I was distracted by anxiety on your account.
(15:54):
The indignation in her face turned to terror. What do
you mean you wrote to me that I had none,
nothing more to fear. I said, nothing more to fear
from doctor Weatherid. That was all I thought it safe
to put in a letter, And when I wrote it,
I hoped that I could protect you from any further trouble.
But other things have happened since there were complications in
(16:16):
the case that I couldn't explain without seeing you, and
Sir Frank Carleton has come down here to see if
you can throw light on them. Sir Frank Carleton, who
is he? He is the principal medical adviser to the
Home Office. I am his assistant. But I don't understand.
She stared at me in natural wonder. Why should he
(16:36):
be mixed up in it? Have you told him anything nothing?
You may be assured of that, But I must tell
you what has happened, whether it is dead dead. The
blue eyes expanded for a moment in a gleam of relief,
almost of exultation. The instant after they froze dreadfully Bertrande,
(16:57):
You killed him, she whispered. I shook my head earnestly. No.
I should have killed him if there had been no
other way to save you from him. And I don't
believe any honest man or woman would have blamed me
if I had. But it wasn't necessary. My only object
was to destroy the record of your confession, the statement
that had placed you in his power. All I did
(17:20):
was to drug him enough to make him insensible and
take his keys. When I left the club at three
o'clock in the morning, he was still alive. He was
found dead where I left him two hours afterwards. Violet
hardly seemed to be listening. Her eyes were still fixed
on me like two blue stones. You did it, she repeated, Dully,
you killed him for my sake. Even in the midst
(17:43):
of the intense strain, those last three words thrilled me
with secret joy. Heaven forgive me for wishing for an
instant that they were true. I could have brought myself
to accept a terrible possibility which had been haunting me
ever since the voice of Inspector Charles had told me
through the telephone that whether it was a corpse, the
possibility that I had administered a fatal dose. But I
(18:07):
saw that Violet was on the verge of breaking down.
For her sake far more than my own, I must
banish that theory from the field. No, I assured her again,
that is out of the question. Sir Frank Tarleton is
the greatest living authority on poisons, and he has been
engaged for the last three days in trying to ascertain
the cause of death. I have been by his side
(18:29):
the whole time, assisting him, and I know that his
suspicions point in another direction altogether. I broke off to
catch her in my arms as she swayed forward. I
was just in time. I laid her gently on the
moss and sprinkled her face with water from the spring,
the sweet face that I would have given all I
possessed to sprinkle with kisses instead. Luckily, the collapse was
(18:51):
only momentary. Molly was still bending over her. She opened
her lips to say, go on, tell me everything. I
waited till she had recovered strength enough to sit up.
It would have done harm to wait longer. It was
necessary for her to know exactly how matters stood. Doctor
Weatherett had other victims beside you, and other enemies beside me.
(19:14):
The police are on the trail of some of them,
and Sir Frank has obtained an important clue which may
lead us to the true cause of death. But meanwhile,
notice has been attracted to the costume in which I
went to the Domino club that night. Father began to
look frightened. The one I lent you. You ought to
have destroyed it, she said, excitedly. It is very fortunate
(19:36):
I didn't, I returned soothingly. It has come out that
it was the costume you generally wore, and you remember,
that was why you lent it to me, so that
weather it should think I was you. Anyhow, it has
been traced to you, and if you couldn't produce it,
you would be called on to account for its disappearance.
Do you see that? Yes? I see that. But surely
(19:58):
if they know the costume was mine, they must believe
that I was there that night? My God, did they
suspect me of the murder? I was agonized by her terror?
They know you to be innocent. Your innocence has been proved,
I cried out fiercely. You have what the law calls
on alibi. You are more than a hundred miles away
when the crime was committed. If there was a crime,
(20:21):
good heavens, Violet, can you believe that I shouldn't have
given myself up to justice the very moment it was
necessary to clear you? Her expression softened more than I
could have hoped. I know that, bertrand she said in
a low voice, Only I dun't understand why you were here.
What does Sir Frank Tarleton want with me? He wanted
(20:42):
two things moments to make sure that you really were
here on Wednesday night. He is now quite satisfied of that.
The other is to ask you if you can explain
something that has puzzled us in whether it's appointment book,
whenever your name appears, it is followed by a number,
and we don't know why. Violet lowered her eyes with
a frown. He gave me that number to sign my
(21:05):
letters by when I wrote to him. He told me
that it would help me to write more freely if
I used a number instead of a name. I started
in alarm, But why should you need that? What were
the letters about? The poor girl's eyes still refused to
meet mine. He made me tell him the whole story
in letters. He said that was the only way to
(21:27):
get it off my mind. I clenched my teeth together
to keep myself from uttering a word. The doctor's safe
had been opened and his case book destroyed uselessly. End
of Chapter eleven.
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