He was placed in a cell at Bow Street to await his appearance before
the stipendiary on the following day, but an hour later when the
warder went to him he found him dead. Upon the thumb of his left hand
was a slight punctured wound.
Rather than face a trial and the penalty for his crimes, he had killed
himself by that same most deadly drug by which he had sought to enrich
himself.
* * * * *
Next day all the world rang with the sensational news of the arrest
and suicide of the mighty millionaire of Europe, but De Gex had many
influential friends, hence to the public the actual truth was never
disclosed.
Mateo Sanz was extradited to Spain, where at the Assize Court at
Madrid he was, six months later, sentenced to death and in due course
executed, while Moroni, after many delays, as is usual in the Italian
Courts, was sentenced to fifteen years' imprisonment for being in the
possession of orosin, and also attempting to administer it. The charge
against him of having had a hand in the heartless murder of poor
Gabrielle Engledue was unfortunately not substantiated for lack of
evidence.
Though the police are still seeking everywhere for Gaston Suzor, he
has not up to the present been found. They, however, do not despair of
arresting him.
At first it was resolved to seek the man-servant Horton and arrest
him, but as it seemed that he had had no actual hand in the girl's
assassination, and as, moreover, the murderer had committed suicide,
his evidence was not required, the hue-and-cry after him was dropped.
And myself?
What need I say, except that to-day I am extremely happy. Owing to the
sudden great rise of some securities which my father left me I later
found myself quite well off. Indeed, upon the death of old Mr. Francis
a few months ago, I was able to purchase a partnership in the firm,
and I am thankful to say we are doing quite well in face of the
strenuous competition in electrical engineering.
Gabrielle Tennison, the sweet, open-hearted girl whom I first met
under such extraordinary circumstances, is now my wife. We live very
happily in a charming, old-world farmhouse embowered in roses and
honeysuckle, on the Portsmouth Road at Cobham, in Surrey.
Life nowadays is one of idyllic bliss, of perfect love and undisturbed
peace, different indeed from that fevered year of struggle, adventure,
travel and unrest during which I strove so steadily and with all my
might to avenge the crimes of Oswald De Gex, and to unravel that
tangled skein of the misdeeds of the international financier--the
Stretton Street Affair.
End of Project Gutenberg's The Stretton Street Affair, by William Le Queux
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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