Detective and mystery stories; Murder -- Investigation -- Fiction
After breakfast he lay down again, and again began to smoke. For hours
he waited to hear his fate, sometimes stretched on his bed, sometimes
seated in the chair and occasionally walking up and down the confined
space of his cell. He could not disguise from himself that things were
desperate. His sole hope of escape lay with Mrs. Jarsell, and that was
but a slight one. Even though her remorse might wish to aid him, her
terror of Queen Beelzebub might be too strong to let her move in the
matter. Halliday was uncommonly brave and extraordinarily hopeful, yet
the perspiration beaded his forehead, and he shivered at the prospect
of torture. Without doubt he was in hell, and the devils presided over
by the infernal queen were waiting to inflict pains and penalties on
him. It terrified him to think that----
"But this won't do," said Dan to himself, as he heard the key
grate in the lock, late in the afternoon. "I must pull myself
together and smile. Whatever these beasts do to me, I must die game.
But--but--Lillian."
With a quiet smile he turned to greet Mrs. Jarsell, who did not look
him in the face, nor did she even speak. With a gesture, he was
invited to come out, and for the moment had a wild idea of escape as
soon as he reached the upper portion of that wicked house. But the
sight of the lancet in her hand prevented him from making a dash for
liberty. He knew that the merest scratch would make him a corpse, so
it was not worth while to risk the attempt. Only when he was at the
door of the barbaric sitting-room he whispered to Mrs. Jarsell, "You
will help me to escape. I know you will. Even now you are thinking of
ways and means."
"Perhaps," she gasped in a low whisper; then hastily flung open the
door and pushed him into the room.
With that word of hope ringing in his ears, Halliday faced his judges
with a smile on his lips. The room was filled with people, who greeted
his entrance with a roar of anger. He was spat upon, struck at, kicked
and shaken by those despairing creatures, whom he had brought to book.
Queen Beelzebub, seated in her big chair, at the end of the apartment,
smiled viciously when she saw his reception, but did not interfere for
some moments. Then she waved her hand.
"Let him be; let him be," she said, in her malicious, silvery voice;
"you shall have all the revenge you desire. But let everything be done
in order."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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