The Czar's Spy: The Mystery of a Silent LoveLe Queux, William
General
The Czar's Spy: The Mystery of a Silent Love
Le Queux, William
Spy stories
On we plodded in silence, our thoughts too full for words. Was it not
strange that the mysterious yachtsman should be her lover, and stranger
still that on recognizing me he should have escaped, not only from
Scotland, but away to the Continent?
Was not that, in itself, evidence of guilt and fear?
It was quite dark when I took leave of my bright little companion, who,
tired out and yet uncomplaining, pressed my hand and wished me good
fortune in my investigations.
"I shall await you to-morrow afternoon. Call and tell me everything,
won't you?"
I promised, and then she disappeared into the great stable-yard behind
the castle, while I went on down the dark road and then struck across
the open fields to my uncle's house.
At half-past nine that night I pulled up the dog-cart before the chief
police-station in Dumfries, and alighting at once sought the big fair
Highlander, Mackenzie, with whom I had had the consultation on the
previous day.
When we were seated in his room beneath the hissing gas-jet, I related
my adventure and the result of my investigation.
"What?" he cried, jumping up. "You've unearthed another body--a
woman's?"
"I have. And what is more, I can identify her," I replied. "Her name is
Armida, and she was wife of the murdered man Olinto Santini."
"Then both husband and wife were killed?"
"Without a doubt--a double tragedy."
"But the two men who concealed the body! Will you describe them?"
I did so, and he wrote at my dictation, afterwards remarking--
"We must find them." And calling in one of his sub-inspectors, he gave
him instructions for the immediate circulation of the description to all
the police-stations in the county, saying the two men were wanted on a
charge of willful murder.
When the official had gone out again and we were alone, Mackenzie turned
to me and asked--
"What induced you to search the wood? Why did you suspect a second
crime?"
His question nonplused me for the moment.
"Well, you see, I had identified the young man Olinto, and knowing him
to be married and devoted to his wife, I suspected that she had
accompanied him here. It was entirely a vague surmise. I wondered
whether, if the poor fellow had fallen a victim to his enemies, she had
not also been struck down."
His lips were pressed together in distinct dissatisfaction. I knew my
explanation to be a very lame one, but at all hazards I could not import
Muriel's name into the affair. I had given her my promise, and I
intended to keep it.
"Then the body is still in the glen, where you left it?"
"Yes. If you wish, I will take you to the spot. I can drive you and your
assistant up there."
"Certainly. Let us go," he exclaimed, rising at once and ringing his
bell.
"Get three good lanterns and some matches, and put them in this
gentleman's trap outside," he said to the constable who answered his
summons. "And tell Gilbert Campbell that I want him to go with me up to
Rannoch Wood."
"Yes, sir," answered the man; and the door again closed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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