Maurice Leblanc - The Secret of Sarek

"So are you!"

"Oh, I am neither modest nor silent; and that's why I admire All's Well. Here, All's Well, come along with me and, for goodness' sake, stop sitting up! You might have to do it all night, for they will be shedding tears together for hours, the mother and son…"

[Pg 349]

The Crystal Stopper was running on the surface of the water. Don Luis sat talking, with Stephane, Patrice and All's Well, who were gathered round him:

"What a swine that Vorski is!" he said. "I've seen that breed of monster before, but never one of his calibre."

"Then, in that case…" Patrice Belval objected.

"In that case?" echoed Don Luis.

"I repeat what I've said already. You hold a monster in your hands and you let him go free! To say nothing of its being highly immoral, think of all the harm that he can do, that he inevitably will do! It's a heavy responsibility to take upon yourself, that of the crimes which he will still commit."

"Do you think so too, Stephane?" asked Don Luis.

"I'm not quite sure what I think," replied Stephane, "because, to save Francois, I was prepared to make any concession. But, all the same…"

"All the same, you would rather have had another solution?"

"Frankly, yes. So long as that man is alive and free, Madame d'Hergemont and her son will have everything to fear from him."

[Pg 350]"But what other solution was there? I promised him his liberty in return for Francois' immediate safety. Ought I to have promised him only his life and handed him over to the police?"

"Perhaps," said Captain Belval.

"Very well. But, in that case, the police would institute enquiries, and by discovering the fellow's real identity bring back to life the husband of Veronique d'Hergemont and the father of Francois. Is that what you want?"

"No, no!" cried Stephane, eagerly.

"No, indeed," confessed Patrice Belval, a little uneasily. "No, that solution is no better; but what astonishes me is that you, Don Luis, did not hit upon the right one, the one which would have satisfied us all."

"There was only one solution," Don Luis Perenna said, plainly. "There was only one."

"Which was that?"

"Death."

There was a pause. Then Don Luis resumed:

"My friends, I did not form you into a court simply as a joke; and you must not think that your parts as judges are played because the trial seems to you to be over. It is still going on; and the court has not risen. That is why I want you to answer me honestly: do you consider that Vorski deserves to die?"

"Yes," declared Patrice.

And Stephane approved:

"Yes, beyond a doubt."

"My friends," Don Luis continued, "your verdict is not sufficiently solemn. I beseech you to utter it formally and conscientiously, as though you were[Pg 351] in the presence of the culprit. I ask you once more: what penalty did Vorski deserve?"

They raised their hands and, one after the other, answered:

"Death."

Don Luis whistled. One of the Moors ran up.

"Two pairs of binoculars, Hadji."

The man brought the glasses and Don Luis handed them to Stephane and Patrice:

"We are only a mile from Sarek," he said. "Look towards the point: the boat should have started."

"Yes," said Patrice, presently.

"Do you see her, Stephane?"

"Yes, only…"

"Only what?"

"There's only one passenger."

"Yes," said Patrice, "only one passenger."

They put down their binoculars and one of them said:

"Only one has got away: Vorski evidently. He must have killed Otto, his accomplice."

"Unless Otto, his accomplice, has killed him," chuckled Don Luis.

"What makes you say that?"

"Why, remember the prophecy made to Vorski in his youth: 'Your wife will die on the cross and you will be killed by a friend.'"

"I doubt if a prediction is enough."

"I have other proofs, though."

"What proofs?"

"They, my friends, form part of the last problem we shall have to elucidate together. For instance, what is your idea of the manner in which[Pg 352] I substituted Elfride Vorski for Madame d'Hergemont?"

Stephane shook his head:

"I confess that I never understood."

"And yet it's so simple! When a gentleman in a drawing-room, in a white tie and a tail-coat, performs conjuring-tricks or guesses your thoughts, you say to yourself, don't you, that there must be some artifice beneath it all, the assistance of a confederate? Well, you need seek no farther where I'm concerned."

"What, you had a confederate?"

"Yes, certainly."

"But who was he?"

"Otto."

"Otto? But you never left us! You never spoke to him, surely?"

"How could I have succeeded without his help? In reality, I had two confederates in this business, Elfride and Otto, both of whom betrayed Vorski, either out of revenge or out of greed. While you, Stephane, were luring Vorski past the Fairies' Dolmen, I accosted Otto. We soon struck a bargain, at the cost of a few bank-notes and in return for a promise that he would come out of the adventure safe and sound. Moreover I informed him that Vorski had pouched the sisters Archignat's fifty thousand francs."

"How did you know that?" asked Stephane.

"Through my confederate number one, through Elfride, whom I continued to question in a whisper while you were looking out for Vorski's coming and who also, in a few brief words, told me what she knew of Vorski's past."

[Pg 353]"When all is said, you only saw Otto that once."

"Two hours later, after Elfride's death and after the fireworks in the hollow oak, we had a second interview, under the Fairies' Dolmen. Vorski was asleep, stupefied with drink, and Otto was mounting guard. You can imagine that I seized the opportunity to obtain particulars of the business and to complete my information about Vorski with the details which Otto for two years had been secretly collecting about a chief whom he detested. Then he unloaded Vorski's and Conrad's revolvers, or rather he removed the bullets, while leaving the cartridges. Then he handed me Vorski's watch and note-book, as well as an empty locket and a photograph of Vorski's mother which Otto had stolen from him some months before, things which helped me next day to play the wizard with the aforesaid Vorski in the crypt where he found me. That is how Otto and I collaborated."

"Very well," said Patrice, "but still you didn't ask him to kill Vorski?"

"Certainly not."

"In that case, how are we to know that…"

"Do you think that Vorski did not end by discovering our collaboration, which is one of the obvious causes of his defeat? And do you imagine that Master Otto did not foresee this contingency? You may be sure that there was no doubt of this: Vorski, once unfastened from his tree, would have made away with his accomplice, both from motives of revenge and in order to recover the sisters Archignat's fifty thousand francs. Otto got the start of him. Vorski was there, helpless, lifeless, an easy prey. He struck him a blow. I will go farther and[Pg 354] say that Otto, who is a coward, did not even strike him a blow. He will simply have left Vorski on his tree. And so the punishment is complete. Are you appeased now, my friends? Is your craving for justice satisfied?"

Patrice and Stephane were silent, impressed by the terrible vision which Don Luis was conjuring up before their eyes.

"There," he said, laughing, "I was right not to make you pronounce sentence over there, when we were standing at the foot of the oak, with the live man in front of us! I can see that my two judges might have flinched a little at that moment. And so would my third judge, eh, All's Well, you sensitive, tearful fellow? And I am like you, my friends. We are not people who condemn and execute. But, all the same, think of what Vorski was, think of his thirty murders and his refinements of cruelty and congratulate me on having, in the last resort, chosen blind destiny as his judge and the loathsome Otto as his responsible executioner. The will of the gods be done!"