The Ashiel Mystery, Mrs. Charles Bryce [e novels to read online .txt] 📗

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letter of introduction from our ambassador in Russia. It was not until my

sister invited her down to Scotland that I heard anything about her. Not,

in fact, till the day before she arrived, for I always tell my sister to

ask any girls she pleases to Inverashiel, and she very seldom bothers me

about it. You can imagine my feelings when I heard that Julia Romaninov

was expected within a few hours, and had indeed already started from

London. It was too late to try and stop her, and my first impulse was

flight. But on second thoughts I changed my mind, and stayed. Time had

dulled the feelings with which I had contemplated her share in the

tragedy that attended her birth, and I was not without a certain

curiosity to see this young creature for whose existence I was

responsible.

 

"I waited; she came; she stayed six weeks. You know the result. My sister

liked her; my nephews, my other guests, every one, except myself, was

charmed with her. And I, for some reason, could never stand the girl. I

told myself over and over again that it was mere prejudice; the remains

of the violent opposition I felt towards her when she was unknown to me;

a survival, unconscious and unwilling, of the hatred I had allowed myself

to nourish for the baby of a day old, which had made it impossible that

she and I should inhabit the same town when she was no more than a child

in pinafores. But I could not reason myself out of my dislike, and it

culminated a few weeks ago when I found that my sister was anxious to

have her with us in the North again this autumn. As you remember, I came

to you, and told you the facts. I made you understand how repulsive it

was to me to think that this girl might be my child, and begged you to

sift the matter as far as was possible, and to find out if there were not

a chance that I was mistaken in thinking it was Countess Romaninov who

had been Lena Meredith's friend."

 

"Yes," said Gimblet, "and all I could discover at first was that the two

ladies had indeed been acquainted. It is difficult to get at the truth

when both of them have been dead for so many years, and when you will not

allow me so much as to hint that you feel any interest in the matter.

People are shy of answering questions relating to the private affairs of

their friends when they think they are prompted by idle curiosity, and in

this case it seems very doubtful whether anyone even knows the answers.

But in the course of my inquiries I soon discovered the fact that Mrs.

Meredith herself had adopted a child, and it certainly seems more than

possible that it may have been yours and her friend's. As far as I can

find out, both these young ladies are of about the same age, but no one

seems to know exactly when either of them first appeared on the scene. If

we can only get hold of the nurses! But at present I can find no trace of

them, and you won't let me advertise."

 

"Gimblet, I shall be ever grateful to you," repeated Lord Ashiel. "I had

no idea that Mrs. Meredith had adopted a child. I never saw her again, as

I have told you, and only heard vaguely that she had married and was

living abroad. I purposely avoided asking for news of her. I wished to

forget everything that was past. As if that had been possible!"

 

"I hoped," said Gimblet, "that you would have seen some strong likeness

in this young lady to yourself, or to your first wife. That would have

clinched the matter to all intents and purposes. But, as things are, I

shouldn't build too much on the hope that she is your daughter. It may

turn out to be the girl adopted by Countess Romaninov."

 

"I hope not, I hope not," said Lord Ashiel earnestly. "I have got her to

promise to come to Scotland, and in a few days I may get some definite

clue as to which of them it is. It is a very odd coincidence that both

the girls bear names so much like that of my poor wife's." He paused

reflectively, and then added, "In the meantime you will go on with your

inquiries, will you not?"

 

"I will," said Gimblet. "And I hope for better luck."

 

A silence followed. Lord Ashiel half rose to go, then sat down again.

Evidently he had something more to say, but hesitated to say it. At

last he spoke:

 

"When I was at St. Petersburg, twenty years ago, I was aroused to a

state of excitement and indignation by the social and political evils

which were then so much in evidence to the foreigner who sojourned in the

country of the Czars. I was young and impressionable, impulsive and

unbalanced in my judgments, I am afraid; at all events I resented certain

seeming injustices which came to my notice, and my resentment took a

practical and most foolish form. To be short, I was so ill-advised as to

join a secret society, and have done nothing but regret it ever since."

 

"I can well understand your regretting it," said the detective. "People

who join those societies are apt to find themselves let in for a good

deal more than they bargained for."

 

"It was so, at all events so far as I am concerned," said Lord Ashiel, "I

had, you may be sure, only the wildest idea of what serious and extremely

unpleasant consequences my unreflecting action would entail. Withdrawal

from these political brotherhoods is to all intents and purposes a

practical impossibility; but, in a sense, I withdrew from all

participation in its affairs as soon as I realized to what an extent the

theories of its leaders, as to the best means to adopt by which to

rectify the injustices we all agreed in deploring, differed from my own

ideas on the subject. And I should not have been able to withdraw, even

in the negative way I did, if accident had not put into my hand a weapon

of defence against the tyranny of the Society."

 

Lord Ashiel paused hesitatingly, and Gimblet murmured encouragingly:

 

"And that was?"

 

"No," said Lord Ashiel, after a moment's silence, "I must not tell you

more. We are, I know, to all appearances, safe from eavesdroppers or

interruption; but, if a word of what I know were to leak out by some

incredible agency, my life would not be worth a day's purchase. As it is,

I am alarmed; I believe these people wish for my death. In fact, there is

no doubt on that subject. But they dare not attempt it openly. I have

told them that if I should die under suspicious circumstances of any

sort, the weapon I spoke of will inevitably be used to avenge my death,

and they know me to be a man of my word. For all these years that threat

has been my safeguard, but now I am beginning to think that they are

trying other means of getting me out of the way."

 

"It is a pity," said Gimblet, "that you do not speak to me more openly. I

think it is highly probable, from what I know of the methods resorted to

by Nihilists in general, that you may be in very grave danger. Indeed, I

strongly advise you to report the whole matter to the police."

 

"I wish I could tell you everything," said Lord Ashiel, "but even if I

dared, you must remember that I am sworn to secrecy, and I cannot see

that because I have, by doing so, placed myself in some peril, that on

that account I am entitled to break my word. No, I cannot tell you any

more, but in spite of that, I want you to do me a service."

 

"I am afraid I can't help you without fuller knowledge," said Gimblet.

"What do you think I can do?"

 

"You can do this," said Lord Ashiel. He put his hand in his pocket and

Gimblet heard a crackling of paper. "I am thinking out a hiding-place

for some valuable documents that are in my possession, and when I have

decided on it I will write to you and explain where I have put them,

using a cipher of which the key is enclosed in an envelope I have here

in my pocket, and which I will leave with you when I go. Take charge of

it for me, and in the course of the next week or so I will send you a

cipher letter describing where the papers are concealed. Do not read it

unless the occasion arises. I can trust you not to give way to

curiosity, but if anything happens to me, if I die a violent death, or

equally if I die under the most apparently natural circumstances, I want

you to promise you will investigate those circumstances; and, if

anything should strike you as suspicious in connection with what I have

told you, you will be able to interpret my cipher letter, find the

document I have referred to, and act on the information it contains.

Will you undertake to do this for me?"

 

"I will, certainly," Gimblet answered readily, "but I hope the occasion

will not arise. I beg you to break a vow which was extorted from you by

false representations and which cannot be binding on you. Do confide

fully in me; I do not at all like the look of this business."

 

"No, no," replied Lord Ashiel, smiling. "You must let me be the judge of

whether my word is binding on me or not. As you say, I hope nothing will

happen to justify my perhaps uncalled-for nervousness. In any case it

will be a great comfort and relief to me to know that, if it does, the

scoundrels will not go unpunished."

 

"They shall not do that," said Gimblet fervently. "You can make your mind

easy on that score, at least. But I advise you to send your documents to

the bank. They will be safer there than in any hiding-place you can

contrive."

 

"I might want to lay my hand upon them at any moment," said Lord

Ashiel, "and I admit I don't like parting with my only weapon of

defence. Still, I dare say you are right really, and I will think it

over. But mind, I don't want you to take any steps unless, you can

satisfy yourself that these people have a hand in my death. Please be

very careful to make certain of that. My health is not good, and grows

worse. I may easily die without their interference; but I suspect that,

if they do get me, they will manage the affair so that it has all the

look of having been caused by the purest misadventure. That is what I

fear. Not exactly murder; certainly no violent open assault. But we are

all liable to suffer from accidents, and what is to prevent my meeting

with a fatal one? That is more the line they will adopt, if, as I

imagine, they have decided on my death."

 

"If ever there were a case in which prevention is better than cure," said

Gimblet, "I think you will own that we have it here. If I had some hint

of the quarter from which you expect danger, I might at least suggest

some rudimentary precautions. What kind of 'accident' do you imagine

likely to occur?"

 

"That I can't tell," replied Lord Ashiel. "I only know that these enemies

of mine are resourceful people, who are apt to make short work of anyone

whose existence threatens their safety or the success of their designs. I

am, by your help, taking a precaution to ensure that I shall not die

unavenged. They must be taught that murder cannot be committed in this

country with impunity. And I am very careful not to trust myself out of

England. If I crossed the Channel it would be to go to my certain death.

Otherwise I should have gone myself to see Sir Arthur Byrne. But in this

island the man who kills even so unpopular a person as a member of the

House of Lords does not get off with a few years' imprisonment, as he may

in some of the continental countries; and the Nihilists, for the most

part, know that as well as I do."

 

Gimblet followed Lord Ashiel into the hall with the intention of showing

him out of the flat, but the sudden sound of the door bell ringing made

him abandon this courtesy and retreat to shelter.

 

He did not wish to be denied all possibility of refusing an interview to

some one