Chapter 21

JUSTICE.

There was a long pause, a sinister lull in the tempest of passion which was raging in that quiet, prosaic room. Gasping with impotent passion, Maunders lay, resting his head against the door, an obstacle which prevented the guilty woman from escaping. Not that she attempted to escape. With a deadly white face, with steady, cold, malignant eyes, like those of a snake, and with a contemptuous smile on her thin lips. The Spider, visible at last in all her brazen wickedness, stood defiantly at bay. Towton, with Ida clinging to his arm almost terrified out of her senses, stared aghast at the evil being who had been such a curse to many. The ominous silence was like the year-long moment before the bursting of a bomb.

Ida, with chattering teeth and trembling limbs, was the first to recover the use of her tongue; but she could scarcely form the words. "Oh, God! oh, God!" she whimpered, hiding her face on her lover's breast; "it's too awful. I never thought--I never thought--oh--oh--oh!" She broke down with a strange, hysterical, choking cry, and would have fallen to the ground but that the Colonel placed her gently in a near chair.

Then he turned with military precision to face Miss Hest. "You are The Spider?" he asked in dry, precise tones, and now entirely master of himself.

"Yes," she replied coolly, and her mouth closed with a triumphant snap.

"You infernal fiend----"

"Gently! Gently! Hard names break no bones, Colonel. You should be more of a man than to throw words at a woman."

"Are you a woman?"

"Yes," gasped Maunders, raising himself on his elbow and wiping the froth from his pale lips; "she is Frances Hest right enough. Her brother is a myth invented by herself to mask her devilries. But Frances or Francis--she is The Spider!"

"I did not mean that exactly," said Towton in his hard voice; "but I asked if one capable of the enormities credited to The Spider can possibly be a woman."

"I am The Spider," said Miss Hest with a shrug. "There is your answer."

"You are a demon."

"More names! Really, Colonel Towton, you are very childish. You sink to the level of that fool," and she pointed scornfully to Ida, who was weeping in the chair as though her heart would break.

"To think that I should have been her friend," moaned Ida with a fresh burst of tears and hiding her face.

"You little fool," said Frances in a gentle, dangerous voice. "I have been a better friend to you than you think. But that I pitied you as being a poor, weak, silly worm, I would have murdered you long ago."

"You murdered my father," shivered Ida, not daring to meet the cold eyes which rested on her prostrate form.

"Martin Dimsdale was not your father."

"You--you--you murdered him."

"Yes, I did."

"What!" Towton could scarcely believe his ears. "You admit the crime?"

Frances yawned ostentatiously. "If I admit that I am The Spider it follows that I must have murdered Dimsdale."

"Well, no," replied Towton, truthfully and justly. "You may have employed Hokar to strangle him."

"That is very good of you," said Frances satirically, "but I don't place my own sins on the shoulders of others. Hokar taught me how to strangle in the Thug fashion certainly, but he did not kill Dimsdale. I did."

"Still, I don't believe that the murder was premeditated," insisted Towton.

"Upon my word," said Miss Hest good-humouredly and as coolly as though she were gossiping over a cup of tea, "one would think you were counsel for the defence. No, you are right. I did not intend to murder Dimsdale. Having got you out of the way----"

"You mean that you got Vernon out of the way?"

"Of course," assented Frances, sitting down and crossing her legs in a gentlemanly fashion; "but you must excuse my bad memory, as I have so much to think of. I got Vernon out of the way, as I overheard, and Maunders there overheard, the arrangement for a trap. We were both on the verandah."

"And I was with you," wailed Ida, shivering again. "So you were," said Miss Hest raising her eyebrows, "but you heard nothing. Maunders caught a word or two through the open window of the library and warned me. While you, my dear Ida, were talking to him I stole round the corner and listened. Knowing all about the trap, I had Vernon decoyed to the Kensington house, and at the appointed time I went into the library, masked and cloaked, as were the other guests at the ball. Dimsdale was waiting for me. I stole up behind him and slipped a handkerchief round his neck."

"Oh!" The Colonel was revolted. "And you say that the crime was not premeditated?"

"I say truly. I simply prepared to strangle him slightly should he have made an outcry. Remember, I was in a dangerous position and could not stand on ceremony. Had Dimsdale given me the money and permitted me to leave by the window I would have spared his life. As it was, he saw me in the mirror, which was directly in front of him."

"But you were masked: he could not recognise you?"

"I am coming to that. He waited for a moment, until I made my demand for the money, then suddenly threw back his hand, and before I guessed his intention he tore the mask from my face. When he recognised me I was obliged, for my own safety, to strangle him. As the handkerchief was in position I simply tightened it, and he was soon dead. Then I searched for the money, but, not being able to find it, I resumed my mask and returned to the ballroom. Maunders, of course, was with me all the time, and awaited my return."

"I did not know that you had committed a murder," said Maunders gloomily.

"No, I did not tell you at the time: it would have spoilt your pleasure. But when Ida learned the truth by entering the library you guessed what had taken place. I kept you with me for your own sake, to provide an _alibi_ should you be suspected, as I feared Vernon might be clever enough to guess that you had something to do with it. As a matter of fact, he did hint at it when he called many days later, but I was enabled to say that you were with me all the time, and so he was put off the scent."

"I remember," murmured the Colonel to himself, but not so low as not to be overheard by Miss Hest's marvellously sharp ears. "Vernon was quite satisfied when you provided the _alibi_ for Maunders. He never suspected _you_."

"No one ever suspected me," said Frances coolly. "There is no need for me to speak of my own cleverness. Anyone who can baffle the police as I have done has no need to boast."

"But why, in heaven's name, with your abilities, did you embark on such an evil course?" asked Towton amazed at her _sang-froid_.

"Fate, Fortune, Destiny: what name you will," said Miss Hest carelessly. "But you have tried to exonerate me, Colonel, and because of that you shall hear the whole story," and, leaning forward, she pulled the bell-rope.

"Remember, I shall repeat all you say to the police," warned Towton.

"I am not afraid of the police," retorted Frances with a shrug; "all my plans are made--to escape. As that fool," she pointed to Maunders lying sullenly on the floor, "has betrayed me twice I give him to you as a sacrifice. But I shall never stand in the dock, you may be sure."

"Will you kill yourself?" cried Ida, terrified at this strength of mind.

"No, my dear. I am too much in love with life. You shall know my plan presently. Meantime, you shall hear how I came to be a blackmailer, as you have already heard why I murdered Dimsdale, to my misfortune."

"To your misfortune, indeed! sharply.

"You may well say so, Colonel. I never intended to soil my hands with blood, least of all with that of a man whom I liked and who was kind to me. Don't sigh, Ida; after all, I did not shed his blood, as I merely strangled him. But that death brought you and Vernon in chase of me, Colonel, and so I am hunted down. Still, had Maunders been true, I should have been safe. You knew Francis Hest as the criminal, thanks to Maunders. I merged the brother in the sister and made everything safe. Now," she shrugged her shoulders, "I must flit."

"You shall go to prison with me," panted Maunders furiously.

"I think not," rejoined Miss Hest contemptuously. "Don't you know me well enough yet to be aware that I provide against all contingencies. Come in!" she added, raising her voice, and, when the door opened, looked at Towton. "I shall ask my old nurse, Miss Jewin, to relate the beginning of my career; at a later time I can take up the tale, and then our tumbled-down friend yonder can finish the story. Sarah, enter and close the door."

Miss Sarah Jewin was peaked-faced and white, with thin lips, scanty grey hair and cold grey eyes. She was thin and bony and very tall, so that in her plain black dress she looked like a line--length without breadth. As she entered Maunders with a groan hoisted himself into a chair. Miss Jewin had already pushed him aside when she entered the room and, in place of replying to her mistress, stood looking at his scowling, haggard face with a look of consternation. Maunders replied to the look with petty triumph.

"Yes, I got out," he said, rubbing the ragged beard which disfigured his well-moulded chin. "I wrenched a bar out of the window and climbed down by the ivy. Now the murder's out, and you and your hellish mistress are about to be brought to book."

"Don't mind him, Sarah," said Frances lazily and leaning back in her chair to light a cigarette; "you are safe and so am I. Let the fool talk. In the meantime, tell Colonel Towton here how I came to England and how you knew that Ida was merely Dimsdale's adopted daughter."

"I thought you wanted these things kept secret," said Miss Jewin in dismay and turning pale with dread at the situation in which she found herself.

"The time for secrets is past, Sarah. Shortly, thanks to your having allowed Maunders to escape and to Colonel Towton's sense of justice, the hue and cry will be out against the whole of us. Is Hokar at his post?"

"Yes. He went away when you gave orders."

"That's all right. I'll escape, sure enough, and so will you. We'll leave Maunders behind to face justice: he can declare himself to be The Spider instead of me if he chooses."

"Oh!" Miss Jewin started back looking terrified. "Do they know----"

"Maunders has told them, you dear old idiot. But there's no time to be lost, Sarah; tell your story."

"And be frank," broke in the Colonel, who was truly amazed at Miss Hest's cool composure. "If you turn King's evidence you may receive a short sentence for your complicity."

Sarah Jewin folded her arms primly. "Begging your pardon, sir, but I won't receive any sentence at all. I am quite sure that Miss Frances will save me from going to prison."

"I fail to see how she can save herself, let alone you," said Towton coldly. "My horse is at the door. After placing Miss Dimsdale in safety I shall ride to Gatehead and send for the police. You needn't chuckle, Miss Hest, and think you will escape meantime. I shall raise the village and you will be carefully watched."

"You can act as you please," said Frances coolly. "I am not The Spider for nothing, and I shall baffle you as I have baffled others. Meantime since you were so just to me, I shall satisfy your curiosity, which I am sure is very great. Sarah, tell your story."

"One moment," said Towton, turning to the prim woman, "you lured Vernon into the kitchen of that empty Kensington house?"

She dropped an ironical curtsey. "Yes, sir. Miss Frances was pleased that I managed so cleverly."

Ida stared wide-eyed at the shameless looks and speech of the housekeeper, and Towton frowned. That these creatures should so audaciously confess their crimes when they knew he would shortly summon the police puzzled him greatly. Also, remembering the wonderful craft of The Spider, he felt uneasy as to what might happen, but he could not conjecture in what way she could extricate herself and her accomplice from the trap in which they were safely caught. However, he made no comment on Miss Jewin's insolence, but merely ordered her to proceed.

"About thirty-five years ago," said Miss Jewin, plunging into her story without any preliminary explanation, "I was in India and nurse to Mrs. Hest, who was the wife of Captain Theodore Hest, stationed at Bombay. The Captain's father, who lived here, was angry when his son went into the Army, and cut him off with a shilling, but my master believed that if a son were born to inherit the estates his father would relent. When my mistress's baby proved to be a girl he was much disappointed. However, as his father was old and might die before he found out the trick, he sent home news that the baby was a boy, and had her baptised Francis."

"So you see," broke in Miss Hest who was smoking quietly, "that my real name is Francis, and by law I am a man. As a woman I am Frances, so there is merely the difference of one letter. Go on, Sarah."

"She," said Miss Jewin, pointing to her mistress, "was dressed as a boy and brought up as a boy, so that the estates might come to her. My master's father relented when he heard that he had, as he supposed, a grandson, and made a will in the boy's favour."

"The boy, you understand, Colonel, being a girl--myself," said Frances for the sake of clearness.

"I quite understand," said the Colonel frowning. "Go on."

"Then my master and mistress were carried off within a month of one another by fever," continued Miss Jewin. "They died in Burmah, where the Captain had gone with his regiment. I then took charge of Miss Hest, who was always called Master Francis, and came to Gerby Hall. Old Mr. Hest, the grandfather, just lived six months longer, but he died under the impression that his grand-daughter was a grandson. Miss Frances thus became possessed of the property."

"Didn't the lawyer know that she was a girl?" asked Towton surprised.

"No. As she had always been brought up as a boy the deception was complete, sir," said Miss Jewin, using the word with shameless deliberation. "The lawyer came here and saw Miss Frances in her boy's clothes."

"And in this way," explained Miss Hest, "it became current gossip in the village that I had a twin brother."

"A twin sister, you mean?" said the Colonel doubtfully.

"Well, you might put it that way. At all events, everyone in Bowderstyke believes to this day that there is a boy and a girl, or, rather, a man and a woman Hest. I alternately wore male and female clothes."

"Why was there any need for you to wear female clothes at all?"

"That was my fault," said Miss Jewin quickly. "When the succession to the estates was settled I could not bear that Miss Frances should masquerade any longer as a boy. I therefore dressed her in girl's clothes, to which she was entitled, and invented the twin story. Sometimes she was a boy, so that the lawyers should not learn the truth, and sometimes a girl to please me. There's the whole story."

"Now it's my turn," said Frances, throwing away her cigarette. "When I grew up and learned how Sarah had muddled my sex in the eyes of the world I decided to make use of it in order to earn money."

"Why did you need money when you had the estates?" asked Towton briefly. "Oh, those were mortgaged up to the hilt, my dear sir. I wanted to be rich and to restore the Hest family to their old position For this reason I posed as a philanthropist and spent the money I did. What with the sums I have given in charity and the buildings I have constructed, and the dam, which is my work, I think, Colonel, that the Hests can hold their own with the Towtons. I hated to think that my family was down while yours was up."

"Oh," said the Colonel with contempt, "so it's a case of jealousy merely. All your philanthropy was a fraud?"

For the first time Frances coloured and rose out of her chair to reply with more emphasis. "No; you must not say that. I really have a mixed nature, and like to help people. My good qualities are the outcome of my evil ones. I wanted to aggrandize the Hests, certainly, since they were lords of Bowderstyke Valley, until your family robbed them of their property. But also I really wished to do good and help people. I think I succeeded."

"At the cost of murder," said Ida resentfully.

"That was a mistake," replied Frances glibly, "as I never intended to murder Dimsdale. When I went to London in my woman's dress, with very little money in my pocket, I simply intended to earn my fortune on the stage, and by reciting to make Francis Hest--my other self, who was supposed to live here--wealthy and popular. I found that the reciting did not pay and cast about for some better means of making money. Alternately I lived in London as Frances, and in Bowderstyke as Francis. But I could not gain my ends by honest means, and so was obliged to take to dishonest ways. If you wish to know the devil who tempted me to eat of the Tree of Knowledge, he is before you," and she pointed deliberately to Constantine.

"It's a lie," cried Maunders, starting to his feet with a fine appearance of indignation. "I met you three or four years ago in London and you discovered that I earned my living by telling fortunes as Diabella. That was all, except," he added, scowling, "that you blackmailed me."

"Quite so," said Miss Hest quietly. "I tried my 'prentice hand on you, and the means of making money in this way was so easy that I took it up as a trade and adopted you as a partner. Go on, Maunders, you tell the rest of the story so that everything may be made clear."

"There's nothing to tell," said Maunders doggedly, and casting down his eyes as he met Ida's sorrowful look, for he was not so entirely lost to all sense of shame as were the other two law-breakers. "You made me find out all manner of secrets from my clients by hinting at things and asking questions and by----"

"I know," interrupted Towton waving his hand. "I am aware of how fortune-tellers hint at a possibility and so find out the actual truth from their too credulous clients. No wonder The Spider learned much that people would fain have kept to themselves. Who told you about Dimsdale?"

"You know," said Maunders sullenly, "that woman there."

"Yes," said Miss Jewin, still prim and shameless. "When in Burmah with my master I heard about Mr. Dimsdale's love for Mrs. Menteith and how, when her husband died, he adopted the child. But I never said that Mr. Dimsdale delayed any expedition so as to get Mr. Menteith killed."

"No. I invented that and made Maunders tell it to you, Ida, and to you, Colonel, with the additions," put in Miss Hest, with great coolness. "Also, on finding out that Ida was not Dimsdale's daughter, I became alarmed as to the disposition of the property, therefore I made myself a friend of the family and secured the free run of the house."

"You intended to get my money?" asked Ida reproachfully.

"Certainly, my dear," replied Frances, raising her eyebrows. "Ten thousand a year was far too much for a chit like you to handle. I intended to get command of the whole lot. First I hunted in the dead of night for the will, and found it in the library desk. Then I made Maunders tell you that you were not Dimsdale's daughter, after the murder, so that you might be dependent on me, since I knew a secret which could rob you of the money. I had the secret told also to the Colonel so that he might learn he would only have a penniless wife should he marry you, my dear Ida."

"Did you think so meanly of me as that?" demanded Towton, colouring indignantly.

Miss Hest raised her eyebrows. "My dear sir, my experience of human nature has shown me that there is no mean trick which the majority of men will not commit for money. You, however, were in the minority, and so was Ida, as you both were honest. This upset my calculations, as I could not provide against the unseen in human nature. You, Colonel, still insisted upon marrying Ida, and she wished to hand over the money to Lady Corsoon. For this reason I was forced to play my last card and produce the will."

"But you did not intend to be found out as The Spider?"

"No, I did not," confessed Frances calmly. "When Maunders betrayed me at Isleworth you thought that The Spider was a man, which was exactly what I wanted and what I counted upon should such an event as unexpected betrayal happen. In the fog I dragged Maunders away, and we went to the house of a friend of mine whose name I don't intend you to know. I wired in cypher to Miss Jewin here to send a telegram to Francis Hest at Professor Gail's."

"We got that," said the Colonel quickly, "and it threw us off the scent."

"I thought it would," said Miss Hest coolly. "So while you were hunting for The Spider as a man in London I went down with Maunders--he was disguised as an old gentleman and I resumed my womanly dress. Then I wrote you on the plea of talking about Ida and asked after my pretended brother to still further puzzle you."

"You certainly succeeded," retorted Towton, trying to conceal his wonder at all this clever trickery; "but Ida was here and must have known that you were absent from the house as Francis."

"Oh, no. I appeared before her twice in this room, which is, as you see, not very well lighted, in my male disguise and with the painted scar on my face. She was entirely taken in."

"The very simplicity of your disguise took me in," said Ida angrily and wincing at having been so blinded. "Had you worn a beard or a wig I should have recognised you."

"I think not," said Miss Hest quietly and with an amused smile. "As the man I wore my hair somewhat long----"

"I noted that," said the Colonel quickly.

"How clever of you. Well, then, as a woman I merely knitted in false hair. I couldn't wear false hair as a man since Ida would then have been sharp enough to have recognised me. But plenty of women wear false plaits, so I was safe on that score: she never suspected me. My sole disguise was the cicatrice, skilfully painted, and the success of the whole business lay--as Ida has submitted--in its boldness and in the belief that I had a twin brother. I have always found," added Miss Hest musingly, "that the bolder one is the safer it is: audacity always scores. At all events, I so closely resembled my own true self that no one thought I was anyone else but what I represented myself to be. As Francis I told Ida that I was taking my sister away for a week, and so slipped up to London to meet Vernon at Lady Corsoon's and to be nearly trapped at Isleworth."

"What about Hokar and Bahadur?" asked the Colonel abruptly.

"Hokar," said Miss Jewin, making the explanation instead of Frances, "was an old servant of Captain Hest's and came to England with me and the child. Later he sent for his nephew, who was Bahadur."

"Yes. And I gave them both to Maunders when I set him up in those splendid Egyptian rooms in Bond Street," observed her mistress. "They were not engaged to strangle people, as you may think, Colonel, but I merely wished them to add to the fantastical look of the place when fortunes were being told. That you were so nearly strangled, and Vernon also, was your own fault and his own. You should mind your own business, my friend."

"I am going to mind it now," said Towton with a frown; "but first tell me, since you are so frank, what about Lady Corsoon's jewels?"

"They are in this house. I gave them into Miss Jewin's possession."

"And Lady Corsoon can have them for one hundred pounds," said Miss Jewin.

"A very modest demand, Sarah," said Miss Hest approvingly, "but as the game is up I don't think you will get more. I shall leave you to arrange about getting the money and handing back the jewels. Lady Corsoon will be safe, and at a small loss. But I am glad to think that she will not get your money, Ida, dear."

"Don't speak to me," cried Ida starting to her feet. "The more you say the more I see how shamefully you have treated me."

"I have spared you," said Miss Hest coolly. "I could have stripped you entirely bare had I so chosen."

"No. By your own showing I was too clever for you."

"Why, that is true, and simply because you were honest. I always wished to keep on the right side of the law, or I could have got you to make a will in my favour, and then you would have been poisoned."

"How dare you?" shouted Towton, while Ida gave a faint cry.

"You have learned how much I dare," said Frances with an unpleasant look. "So, now the story is told, perhaps you will leave my house."

Colonel Towton walked towards the door with Ida on his arm and roughly pushed Miss Jewin aside. "I shall place Miss Dimsdale----"

"Miss Menteith," sneered Frances.

"In safety," continued Towton without noticing the interruption, "and then I shall ride for the police."

"I shall come, too," cried Maunders starting to his feet. "She will lock me up again and perhaps may kill me."

"Stay where you are," commanded Frances sharply. "I intend to----"

Maunders did not wait to hear the end of the sentence. Seeing that Towton and Ida blocked the door he made a rush at the nearest window and sprang out of it with a dexterity begotten of sheer fear. Whether Frances intended to take him with her when she fled, or whether she intended to murder him he could not say, but he preferred to trust in the mercy of the law rather than in that of the woman who had been his evil genius. Crazy with terror, he tumbled to the ground, and Towton, along with Ida, ran to the front door, to see him speeding across the grass. A moment later and Frances, with a revolver in her hand, leaped from the window in pursuit. From the expression on her face she evidently intended nothing less than murder.

Towton hastily unbuckled the bridle from the ring and flung himself on his horse. "Place your foot on my toe, Ida," he commanded; "up you get. There," he added, gathering up the reins as she sat on his saddle-bow and placed her arms round his neck; "now let us alarm the village. That poor devil will be shot if this fiendish woman is not arrested." And he rode forward at a moderately fast pace.

"She'll catch him," chuckled Sarah Jewin, who had come to the door and was looking out from under the palm of her hand. "Shoot, Miss Frances. Shoot!"

Maunders, finding that he was being chased, could not make directly for the gate and dodged behind some shrubs. Frances sighted him and fired a shot. It winged him, for he gave a yell of fear and ran directly towards her in the open. She fired another shot, which struck him in the breast, and he pitched forward at her feet. Just as she fired a third shot into his prostrate body there came a noise like thunder and a terrible cry from Miss Jewin.

"The signal! The signal! The dam's burst!" and she bolted into the house.

In a flash Towton comprehended and set spurs to his horse. Frances strove to fly, but Maunders with a last effort caught at her foot and she fell heavily, fighting for freedom like a wild cat. The next moment he had her by the throat. And in the distance a mighty roaring struck the ears of all as the flood came down gigantically.