The Golden Face Part 13

"Mr. Hargreave?" he asked with a foreign accent. "Or is it Cottingham?"

"Which you please," I replied in a low voice, laughing.

"I have this to hand to you," he said as he produced the portion of the visiting-card which I found fitted exactly to that which I had received from Rayne.

"Well?" I asked, inviting him to a chair and afterwards turning the key in the door. "What message have you for me?" Then I noticed for the first time that he bore in his hand a small brown leather attache-case.

"I know you well by name, Mr. Hargreave," he said. "You are one of us, I know. Therefore 'The Golden Face' sends you a message."

"Have you seen him?" I asked.

"No," was his reply. "Though we have been in a.s.sociation for several years, I always receive messages through Vincent Duperre."

I knew that only too well. Rudolph Rayne took the most elaborate precautions to preserve a clean pair of hands himself, no matter what dirty work he planned to be carried out by others.

"Duperre saw me in London yesterday, gave me that piece of card, and told me to come here and explain matters," the Italian went on in a low voice. "You see this case. I am to hand it to you," and as he took it, he touched the bottom, which I saw was hinged and fell inwards in two pieces, both of which sprang back again into their places by means of strong springs. My small collar-box stood upon the dressing-table.

"You see how it works," he said, and placing the attache-case over the collar-box, he s.n.a.t.c.hed it up and the collar-box had disappeared inside! It was an old invention of thieves and possessed no originality. I wondered that Rayne's friends employed such a contrivance, which, of course, was useful when it became necessary that valuable objects should disappear.

"Well, and what of it?" I asked, as, opening the case, he took out my collar-box and replaced it upon the table.

"I am told that you are on very friendly terms with Lady Lydbrook. Our friend old Hesketh has been here and watched your progress--a grey-mustached man with a slight limp. I dare say you may have noticed him."

I recollected the silent watcher who I had feared might be a detective, and who had recently left the hotel. So Rayne had set secret watch upon my movements--a fact which irritated me.

"Yes. I know Sir Owen's wife," I said. "Why?"

"Possibly you don't know that she has in a small dark-green morocco case a rope of pearls worth twenty thousand, as well as some other magnificent jewels. Haven't you seen her wearing her pearls?"

"I have," I said, "but I put them down as artificial ones."

"No--every one of them is real! They were a present to her from her husband on her marriage," said the foreigner, his dark eyes glowing as he spoke. "We want them," he whispered eagerly. "And as you know her, you'll have to get them."

"I shall do no such thing!" I protested quickly. "I may be employed by Mr. Rayne, but I'm not paid to commit a theft."

My visitor looked me very straight in the face with his searching eyes, and after a moment's pause, asked:

"Is that really your decision? Am I to report that to Duperre--that you refuse?"

"If you want to steal the woman's pearls why don't you do it yourself?" I suggested.

"Because I am not her friend. You have called at her room for her, Hesketh has reported. You would not be suspected, being her friend,"

he added with sly persuasiveness.

"No. Tell them I refuse!" I cried, furious that such a proposition should be put to me.

The foreigner, in whom I now recognized a polished international crook, shrugged his shoulders and elevated his eyebrows. Then he asked:

"Will you not reconsider your decision, Signor Hargreave? I fear this refusal will mean a great deal to you. When 'The Golden Face' becomes hostile he always manages to put those who disobey him into the hands of the police. And I have knowledge that he intends you to act in this case as he directs, or--well, I fear that some unpleasantness will arise for you!"

"What do you threaten?" I demanded angrily. "I don't know who you are--and I don't care! One fact is plain, that you, like myself, are an agent of the man of abnormal brain known as 'The Golden Face,' but I tell you I refuse to become a jewel-thief."

"Very well, if that is your irrevocable decision I will return to-morrow and report," he answered in very good English, though he was typically Italian. "But I warn you that mischief is meant if you do not obey. Duperre told me so. Like myself you are paid to act as directed and to keep a silent tongue. Only six months ago Jean Durand, in Paris, refused to obey a demand, and to-day he is in the convict prison in Toulon serving a sentence of seven years. He attempted to reveal facts concerning 'The Golden Face,' but the judge at the Seine a.s.sizes ridiculed the idea of our head director living respected and unsuspected in England. You may believe yourself safe and able to adopt a defiant att.i.tude, but I, for one, can tell you that such a policy can only bring upon you dire misfortune. Once one becomes a servant of 'The Golden Face' one remains so always, extremely well paid and highly prosperous providing one is alert and shrewd, but ruined and imprisoned if one either makes a slip or grows defiant. I hope you will understand me, signor. I have been given a master-key to the hotel. It will open Lady Lydbrook's door. Here it is."

"But I really cannot accede to this!" I declared. "Though I have fallen into a clever trap and have a.s.sisted in certain schemes, yet I have never acted as the actual thief."

"'The Golden Face,' whose marvelous activity and influence we must all admire, has decided that you must do so in this case," he said inexorably.

I craved time to consider the matter, and after some further conversation told him I would meet him near the bandstand on the sea-front at noon next day, for we did not want to be a.s.sociated in the hotel.

That night I slept but little, for I realized that if I refused I must a.s.suredly be cast into the melting-pot as one who might, in return, give Rayne away. I thought of Lola with whom I was so madly in love, and whom I intended to eventually rescue from the criminal atmosphere in which, though innocent, she was compelled to live.

I hated to take such a downward step, though the innocent-looking little attache-case with the steel grips and spring bottom was there by my bedside ready for use. I was torn between the path of honesty from which, alas! I had been slowly slipping ever since I had made that accursed compact with Rudolph Rayne, and my love for Lola, who had, I knew, every confidence in me, while at the same time she was growing highly suspicious of her father.

The reader will readily realize my feelings that night. I had taken a false step, and to withdraw would mean arrest, conviction and imprisonment, notwithstanding any disclosures I might make. Rudolph Rayne remained always with clean hands, the rich country gentleman and personal friend of certain Justices of the Peace, officials, and others, with whom he played golf and invited to his shooting parties on the Yorks.h.i.+re moors which he rented with money stolen in divers ways and in various cities.

So, to cut a long story short, I met the mysterious Italian crook next day--and I fell, for I took the master-key and agreed to attempt the theft of Lady Lydbrook's pearls!

I now saw through Rayne's devilish plot. I was to be used still further as his cat's-paw, and he had planned that because of my friends.h.i.+p with the pretty young woman, at his orders I was to steal her property.

I felt myself alone and in a cleft stick. That afternoon, as I sat at tea in the lounge with the woman whose jewels I was ordered to steal, I was torn by a thousand emotions, yet I pretended to be my usual self, and at my invitation she went out for a motor run between tea and dinner.

Though I laughed at my foolishness, I somehow suspected that she now viewed me with distinct misgiving. It now became necessary for me to prospect for the little morocco case in which I knew she kept her pearls. Therefore I at last summoned courage, and one evening, just before half-past seven, while she was dressing for dinner, I knocked and made excuse to ask her if she would go to the theater with me.

"Do come in," she cried, for she was already dressed in a bright sapphire-colored gown which greatly heightened her beauty. As she admitted me, I saw the little jewel-case standing upon a tiny side-table near the window. She was not wearing her beautiful rope of pearls, therefore they were, without a doubt, safe in the case.

She thanked me and accepted, so I quickly went downstairs and told the hall porter to telephone for two stalls.

That night, on arrival back at the hotel, it occurred to me that if the little jewel-case had been left where it was my chance had now arrived. I was being forced against my will to become a thief. Rayne, the man who held me in his grip, had driven me to it and had placed the means at my disposal. To refuse would mean arrest and the loss of Lola.

We sat down in the lounge and I called for drinks--she was thirsty and would like a lemon squash, she said. Before the waiter brought them, I made leisurely excuse to go to the bureau to see if there were any letters. Instead, I rushed up to my own room, obtained the "trick"

attache-case, and carrying it along to Lady Lydbrook's room, stealthily opened the door with the master-key which Ansaldi had given me.

All was dark within. I switched on the light, when, before me, upon the little table, I saw the small green jewel-box.

In an instant I placed the attache-case over it and next second it had disappeared.

But as I did so, I heard a movement behind me, and, on turning, to my breathless horror saw, standing before me, the pretty, fair-haired young woman whom I had robbed!

"Well, Mr. Cottingham--or whatever your name is," she exclaimed in a hard, altered voice as, closing the door behind her, she advanced to me with a fierce light in her eyes. "And what are you doing here, pray?"

Then, glancing at the table and noticing her jewel-case missing, she added:

"I see! You have sc.r.a.ped acquaintance with me in order to steal my jewels. You have them in that case in your hand!"

I stammered something. What it was I have no recollection. I only know that my words infuriated her, and she dashed out into the corridor to raise the alarm, leaving me in possession of the trick bag with the jewel-case inside.

I dashed after her, seizing her roughly by the waist as she ran down the corridor.