The Cardinal Moth by Fred M. White
*CHAPTER XXI.*
*DENVERS LEARNS SOMETHING.*
Frobisher was first to recover himself. There were beads of moisture onhis forehead, his teeth were ground together, but he forced a smile tohis lips. Then he laughed in a low chuckling fashion, as if somethingsubtle had greatly amused him. Lefroy stood there, glowering.
"I'm not going to be put off like that," he said. "The thing'simpossible."
Isa Benstein ignored the speaker altogether. She was lying back in herchair as if bored with the whole proceedings. The lights were gleamingon her jewels and her beautiful, tranquil face.
"Don't lose your head," Frobisher said, still laughing in the samenoiseless way. "Surely you're not so accomplished a liar that youhaven't learned to know the truth when you see it. I pay Mrs. Bensteinthe compliment of believing every word that she says. We have exposedour hands for nothing, and been outwitted by a very clever woman.You'll gain nothing by losing your temper."
"Who could she have passed the jewel on to?" Lefroy growled.
"Ah, that is the point! Knowing nobody here and all! Madame, I kissyour hand. You have made Clement Frobisher look and feel like a fool.It is a sensation I have not experienced since I left school. I believeevery word that you say, nay, if I let myself go I could be furiouslyangry with myself. Lefroy, you had better go, there is nothing to begained by staying here. After all----"
Frobisher paused, and Mrs. Benstein, with her head serenely tiltedupwards, finished the sentence.
"After all, the Shan of Koordstan is in no better plight than he wasbefore. Whoever has possession of the stone, it is assuredly not theShan."
Lefroy strode off and clanged the door behind him. Frobisher lighted afresh cigarette. He had been found out in a singularly rascally action,but that did not disturb his equanimity in the least.
"You must be having a particularly pleasant evening," he said.
"The most enjoyable I ever remember." Isa Benstein smiled frankly. "Inthe first place, I have created a sensation and scored a most decidedsuccess. To a woman that is like a foretaste of Paradise. Then, again,I have been involuntarily forced to become the central figure of a mostexciting intrigue. I love intrigues and mystery to my finger-tips. Iwas to have been the puppet, and yet I have beaten you all along theline. Oh, yes, I am likely to remember this evening for some time tocome."
"I suppose so," Frobisher grinned. "If I had known I would have lentyou a prize ruby and the Blue Stone might have remained where it was.If I had made you my ally----"
"Impossible," Isa Benstein said, curtly. "I should never have trustedyou."
Frobisher laughed as if the candour appealed to him.
"I bear no malice," he said. "I love a strong foe. But I wish I hadlent you my big ruby, all the same. You must accept a souvenir of thatkind in memory of this eventful evening. I'll fetch you some uncutstones from which I shall be proud for you to make your choice.Meanwhile I shall leave you to admire my orchids. You can't very wellrun off with my Cardinal Moth."
"I should like to examine it closer," Isa Benstein said.
It was easily done. Frobisher merely pulled a lever and the frameworkupon which the Cardinal Moth was roped came down to within a few feet ofthe ground.
Mrs. Benstein caressed the blossoms tenderly. Such a wealth of bloom hadnever been seen before. She stood with them all about her like thegoddess Flora, the ropes touched her bare arms, the flowers nodded inher face.
"I'll not be long," Frobisher croaked as he stooped and touched one ofthe shining taps near the floor. "My word, what a picture for an artistyou make!"
He crept away gently, leaving his guest amidst the nodding blooms. Theywere so fascinating that Mrs. Benstein could think of nothing else forthe moment. She had quite forgotten the events of the evening. Sheturned her lips to a cluster of the glorious blooms.
"They are like beautiful, fascinating snakes," she said to herself. "Nowonder the man dares run the risk of having this bewildering beauty inhis house. Like lovely snakes, the hiss and all complete."
There was a sudden hiss of escaping steam, and the whole of the droppedtrellis-work was enveloped in mist. The mass seemed to move as if ithad been endowed with life or as if a strong breeze had swept over it.Then without the slightest warning a grip like a vice caught IsaBenstein below and above the elbow, pressing her forearm and causing herto wince with the horrible pain.
So tight was the grip that she could not turn or move. She stood therewrithing in agony, and yet too fascinated to call out. The bonescreaked and cracked, and still the pain grew greater; it seemedimpossible that any human fingers could grip flesh and blood like that.Were all the weird legends clinging round the Cardinal Moth true, IsaBenstein caught herself wondering in a faint, dizzy way?
Then she braced herself up and struggled violently. It wascharacteristic of the woman that she uttered no cry. As she drooped andher eyes grew cloudy she had a faint vision of a face under a turban,and then there came a sound of swiftly rushing feet. The platformseemed to rise with a sudden jerk. Isa Benstein was wrenched from herfeet, the weight of her body told, the arm came away with a cruel dragfrom the vice-like grip, and she fell a huddled, shimmering heap on thefloor.
"I hope you are not much hurt," a voice whispered in her ear. "It wasdreadful."
Isa Benstein scrambled to her feet breathless, dizzy, and writhing withpain. But her quick eyes were clear now, and she recognised the Shan'scompanion, whom she knew to be Angela's lover. His face was white andquivering; there was a nameless horror in his eyes.
"You saw it," Mrs. Benstein said. "What was it?"
"I cannot tell you yet," Harold said. "It was too dreadful, too awful.The shock of discovery almost unmanned me for a moment. We will speakabout that presently. How did you happen to be just where you stood?"
"I was admiring the flowers. Sir Clement pulled down the frame for me,so that I could see better. He went away to get something that hewanted to show me, then there was that sudden grip."
"Which seemed to come out of a vapouring mist, did it not?" Harold askedhoarsely. "By accident I loosened the spring, and as the frame roseyour weight released you. Is not that so?"
Mrs. Benstein nodded; she had no words just for the moment. Now thatthe reaction had come she was feeling sick and faint with the pain.Harold's eyes were still distended with the horror of some awfuldiscovery.
"It is very strange," he said. "Sir Clement did not mean to come backto you, for he has just left the house. He slipped out with somecompanion whose face I did not see. But your arm is painful. Nothingbroken, I hope?"
Isa Benstein raised her lovely white arm to prove that such was not thecase. But there was a round red band, and here and there a thin redstream came from the broken skin.
"Would you mind keeping this to yourself for the present?" Harold asked."Believe me, there are urgent reasons why you should do so, reasons sourgent that I cannot go into them now. If you are silent we shall bringone of the greatest scoundrels to the gallows. If not----"
"I will be silent," Mrs. Benstein said, between her white set teeth."But if you could get me away to see a doctor, or if there is a doctorhere whom I could trust----"
"Of course there is, I must have been a fool not to have thought of itbefore. Sir James Brownsmith is the very man, and he is interested inthe case too. Nobody is likely to come in here."
Harold hurried away in search of Brownsmith, whom he had seen a littlewhile before. He found Angela and explained what he desired to her. Hehad hardly got back to the great conservatory before the great surgeonbustled in. Coolly enough Harold locked the door. There was no chanceof Sir Clement coming back yet. In a few words he gave a brief outlineof what had happened.
"It's part of the mystery," he said. "The same horrible mysteriousforce that brought that poor fellow at Streatham and Manfred to theirdeath."
"Good God!" Sir James cried. "Do you mean
"Certainly I have. That is why I wanted you above all men to see Mrs.Benstein. Oh, never mind who I am for the present. To the world I ammerely Aben Abdullah attached to the suite of the Shan of Koordstan, andI am popularly supposed to know very little English. Look to yourpatient, man."
Sir James passed the rudeness from a young man to one of his exaltedposition. Very tenderly and gently he examined the wounded arm. Buthis vivid interest was more than strictly professional.
"This is very strange," he said. "There are no bones broken, I am gladto say--nothing worse than a severe bruise. But I could not believe, Ishould utterly refuse to believe that a human hand could make such amark like that. Why, it would have to be as large as a shoulder ofmutton to grip the forearm and deltoid like that. Did you see yourassailant, Mrs. Benstein?"
"I saw nothing at all," Mrs. Benstein said, with a faint smile. "Therewas nobody to see."
Sir James shook his head, but Harold nodded as if he quite approved ofthe remark. Sir James was still carefully examining the round whitearm.
"The thing tallies," he said. "There are the same cruel marks, the sameindentations as from a coarse cloth. And also we have the same greatforce used. In the name of God, what is it, sir?"
Brownsmith spoke with a sudden horror upon him. Harold shook his head.
"I can sympathize with your feelings, Sir James," he said. "I came verynear to fainting myself when the full force of the thing dawned upon me.But for the present I prefer to keep silence. And I will ask you to besilent also. You would be playing into the hands of an utter scoundrelif the slightest inkling of Mrs. Benstein's accident were to leak out."
Brownsmith pursed up his lips and nodded.
"Then the best thing Mrs. Benstein can do is to go home," he said."Plenty of hot water fomentations for the present and something tofollow. I'll see that it is delivered to-night. But, seeing that Mrs.Benstein has to say good-night to her hostess, and seeing that her dressis so low in the sleeves----"
Isa Benstein solved the problem in her own swift, characteristicfashion. She tore her dress from the shoulder so that the gauzy fabrichung over and hid the cruel red seam on her arm.
"Ask Lady Frobisher to come here," she said. "Then call my car and fetchmy wraps. I quite see the necessity of making the thing look as naturalas possible."
It was all done so smoothly and easily that no suspicion was aroused.Mrs. Benstein had simply had an accident with her dress, an accidentthat necessitated her immediate return home. She had had a charmingevening, one that she was likely to remember for a long time. Hermanner was easy and natural; she gave no impression of one who hasescaped a nameless horror, perhaps a cruel death.
"I can slip away, thank you very much," she said. "Perhaps thegentleman who has been so kind will see me to my car. May I ask yourarm?"
Harold bowed profoundly. It was just the opportunity he required. Theythreaded their way through the guests along the brilliantly-lightedcorridor into the street where the car was waiting. Isa Benstein heldout her hand in a warm and friendly grip.
"I am going to help you and Miss Lyne, if I can," she said. "Ask MissLyne to come and see me the first thing in the morning. After she hasgone to bed to-night she will know and appreciate my request. Have youreally solved the mystery of the two tragedies?"
"I am absolutely certain of it," Harold replied. "See, there is SirClement and that fellow--Hamid Khan, the man who was in thesmoking-room, you know."
Mrs. Benstein looked eagerly out of the window. Her big eyes gleamed."It is as I expected," she said. "I have made a discovery also, Mr.Denvers. If you will call on me after eleven to-morrow you will hear ofsomething greatly to your advantage. Strange how fate seems to beplaying into our hands to-night."
The car moved forward, the speaker was gone.