CHAPTER THIRTY CONCLUSION About ten days afterwards I one morning received by post a brief note from Guertin, written from the Prefecture in Paris, urging me to go at once to the Victoria Hotel at Varenna, on the Lake of Como, where, if I waited in the name of Brown, my patience would be rewarded. And there, sure enough, six days later, as I sat one evening in my private sitting-room, the door suddenly opened and my well-beloved, in a dark travelling gown, sprang forward and embraced me, sobbing for very joy. Can I adequately describe the happiness of that reunion. Of what I uttered I have no recollection, for I held her closely in my arms as I kissed her hot tears away. A man stood by--a tall, silent, gentlemanly man, whose hair was grey, and whose face as he advanced beneath the strong light showed traces of disguise. "I am Philip Poland--Sonia's father," he exclaimed in a low voice. Whereupon I took the hand of the escaped prisoner, and expressed the utmost satisfaction at that meeting, for he had risked his liberty to come there to me. "Sonia has told me everything," he said; "and I can only regret that those blackguards have treated you and her as they have. But Guertin, who is a humane man, even though he be a detective, has tracked them down, and only yesterday I heard Du Cane--the man who made that false charge against myself, and stepped into my shoes; the man who intended that my poor girl should marry that young scoundrel Forbes--has been discovered in Breslau, and is being extradited to England." "On the night of your arrest, Mr. Poland, a mystery occurred," I said presently, as we sat together exchanging many confidences, as I held my dear wife's soft little hand in mine. "Yes," he replied. "It was only while I was out at Devil's Island that I learnt the truth. Du Cane, intending to get me out of the way, hit upon a very ingenious plan of sending a man made up as Guertin--whom I only knew by sight--to see me and suggest suicide rather than arrest. This man--a person named Lefevre--came and made the suggestion. He did not know that Du Cane had written anonymously to the Prefecture, and never dreamed that Guertin himself would follow him so quickly. On leaving, he apparently hung about watching the result of his dastardly mission, when Harriman--or Bell as we knew him--walked up the drive, in order to call in secret upon me. He espied a man whom he recognized as Guertin peering in at the window, and, creeping up behind him, struck him down before he could utter a word. Afterwards he slipped away, believing that he had killed our arch-enemy, the chief of the _surete_. Presently, however, the body of the unfortunate Lefevre was found by Guertin himself, who had come to arrest me." "And Harriman admitted this!" I exclaimed.