Mr. Marx's SecretOppenheim, E. Phillips (Edward Phillips)
General
Mr. Marx's Secret
Oppenheim, E. Phillips (Edward Phillips)
Detective and mystery stories; Fiction
"Well, of course, when Cecil began talking about this man Hart's
disappearance," I continued, "and I heard a good deal about it at Little
Drayton, I began to think about this lunatic whom no one knew anything
about. I put down the exact dates, and I found that Hart must have left
Little Drayton about a week before the first attack on Mr. Marx by the
unknown madman. Of course, this by itself was scarcely worth thinking
about, but the strangest part of it is to come. More out of curiosity
than anything, I asked to see a photograph of Mr. Hart. His daughter took
us into the sitting-room to look at one and to her amazement found it
gone. All search was unavailing. Someone had taken it away. Well, I found
out where it had been taken and went to order a copy. It was no use. The
negative had been sold to the same person who alone could have entered
Miss Hart's sitting-room and abstracted the photograph. That person was
Leonard de Cartienne, and he has been in communication with Mr. Marx, the
man whom the lunatic tried to murder. Can you make anything of that,
sir?"
Apparently Mr. Ravenor had made something of it. He was leaning a little
forward in his chair and at the sight of his face a great fear came upon
me.
A ghastly change had crept into it. His eyes were burning with a dry,
fierce fire, and the pallor extended even to his lips.
He sat forward, with his long, wasted fingers, stretched out convulsively
before his face, like a man who sees a hideous vision pass before his
sight and yet remains spellbound, powerless to speak, or move, or break
away from the loathsome spectacle.
Sickly beads of perspiration stood out upon his clammy forehead and his
dry lips were moving, although no sound came from them.
I gazed at him in a speechless horror, and as I looked the room and all
its contents seemed to swim around me. What could Mr. Ravenor have found
so awful in the story which I had told and how could it concern him?
Suddenly he rose from his seat and stood over me. I was more than ever
alarmed at his strange expression.
"There is a third connection," he said hoarsely. "Do you remember that a
man called to see me, whom I declined to admit, on the night of your
first visit here? When I changed my mind he had disappeared."
I gave a little cry and felt my blood run cold.
"Mr. Marx had something to do with that," I faltered out. "I met him
under the trees in the avenue and he was horribly frightened to see me. I
had heard a cry. I was listening."
Mr. Ravenor stretched out his hand to the bell and rang it violently. We
sat in silence, dreading almost to look at one another until it was
answered.
"Go to Mr. Marx's room and bid him come here at once," Mr. Ravenor
commanded.
The man bowed and withdrew. When he reappeared he carried in his hand a
letter.
"Mr. Marx left this on his desk for you, sir," he said.
"Left it! Where is he? Is he not in the Castle?" questioned Mr. Ravenor
sharply.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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