England -- Fiction; Political fiction; Politicians -- Fiction; Spy stories
"Everyone will," Sonia retorted quickly. "See, here is the proof," and
she drew from her pocket a well-worn suede glove of dark grey, which I
recognised at once as being one of the kind always worn by Dudley. "The
splinter of glass is still inside."
The man who had led the double life of spy and legislator, and who had
amassed a great fortune in his speculations in African gold, stood
livid, with terror-stricken eyes riveted upon the evidence of his crime,
like one transfixed.
"The Tzar will have no further employment for a murderer," exclaimed
Ella at last. "Neither will the House of Commons permit a spy to sit in
its midst. When I consented to enter the Secret Service of His Majesty,
it was with one object--to obtain permission to marry. This I have
attained, and because of Geoffrey's generosity and free forgiveness I
have now no further fear of the opinion of the world or of revelations
by a man who is proved to be a murderer. At last I have secured freedom
from your hateful tie."
"Then you intend to denounce me?" Beck cried, glancing round with a
wild, hunted look.
"Twenty-four hours from now I shall place Lord Warnham in possession of
the whole of these curious facts. If you are still upon English soil,
you will be arrested for the murder of my friend," I answered calmly.
"I see plainly how, while I left you alone with the dead man, you placed
in his pocket the brass seal found upon him, and how cleverly you
managed to introduce the bogus passport and evidences of forgery among
his possessions. Yours was a devilish ingenuity, indeed."
"If I fly you will not follow?" he gasped eagerly.
"Wherever you may hide you will be followed by your guilt," I answered.
"A murderer can hope for no forgiveness from his fellow-men."
With his chin sunk upon his breast, and his wild eyes downcast, he stood
in silence, leaning heavily against the wall. Then, slowly, with a
final look upon him, I passed out behind my wife and the pale-faced
woman who had so clearly substantiated her terrible charge. The
vengeance he had sought to bring upon Ella had fallen upon him and
completely crushed him.
In the library at Berkeley Square on the following afternoon I explained
the whole of the startling facts, to the wizened, ascetic old Earl, who
sat speechless in amazement when he realised that Andrew Beck was
actually a foreign spy. It was during the conversation that followed I
learnt that the man who had been loved by Sonia was Cecil Bingham, the
young country gentleman who, known to both, had sought to assist Ella in
unearthing the identity of Dudley's murderer. Sonia had misjudged my
wife entirely, for she had never denounced her to Cecil, and the latter,
being at that moment a guest in the Earl's house, was sent for, and
before us all the pair became reconciled.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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