第68章 CHAPTER XXXIV(2)

"Lucille," he said, "you force me to disclose something which I have kept so far to myself. I wished to spare you anxiety, but you must understand that your safety depends upon your remaining in this house, and in keeping apart from all association with - your husband."

"You will find it difficult," she said, "to convince me of that."

"On the contrary," he said, "I shall find it easy - too easy, believe me. You will remember my finding you at the wine-shop of Emil Sachs?"

"Yes!"

"You refused to tell me the object of your visit. It was foolish, for of course I was informed. You procured from Emil a small quantity of the powder prepared according to the recipe of Herr Estentrauzen, and for which we paid him ten thousand marks. It is the most silent, the most secret, the most swift poison yet discovered."

"I got it for myself," she said coldly. "There have been times when I have felt that the possession of something of that sort was an absolute necessity;"

"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 wineglass 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 glass, 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 Wineglass. 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 surreptitious 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!"