Once or twice I wondered how I stood legally. The man was dead, yet I had a faint suspicion that I had no legal right whatsoever to administer his estate. There might be a will somewhere, and if legatees came forward I might one day find myself in a very queer and awkward position.

But I told Sammy nothing of this. I deemed it best to preserve silence both as regards the money and the curious packet that I was to keep three years.

A week went by. The man who had given his name as Ma.s.sari had been interred, the expenses paid, and life at Mrs Gilbert's had resumed its normal quiet. Indeed, not until three days after the funeral were the other guests let into the tragic secret of the stranger's sudden death.

Then for a day or two the whole place was agog and various theories formed. In London a foreigner is always viewed with a certain amount of suspicion, perhaps on account of our insular proclivities, perhaps because the majority of Londoners know no other language beyond a smattering of elementary French.

Often and often, when alone in our little den at the back of the house, Sammy and I discussed the curious affair, but neither of us was able to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion.

To be in order, I called in a solicitor named Price whom I knew, and a week after Ma.s.sari's death we opened his portmanteaux together and examined the contents.

They presented several surprises. Sammy was, of course, with us, taking an eager interest in the affair and helping to examine the doc.u.ments which we found. He was of little use, however, for they were mostly in Italian, a language of which both my companions were almost entirely ignorant.

The first fact I established was that the name of the deceased was not Ma.s.sari but Giovanni Nardini. This surprised us all, for Nardini was very well-known in Italy, having held the portfolio of Justice in the Ministry overthrown only a week before, and having made himself conspicuous in his perpetual war with the Socialist party in the Chamber. Only two days ago I had read telegrams from Rome in the morning papers saying that there were serious charges against the Minister of appropriating the public funds while in office, and that the Government were considering what steps they should take for his prosecution.

I had never connected the notorious Minister of Justice Nardini with the stranger who had died so suddenly. Yet had not Lucie Miller told me that he was a person well-known in Italy?

"He was a thief who absconded, that's very evident," Sammy remarked dryly. "We shall perhaps find something interesting presently."

The lawyer Price and myself were seated at the table in the room where the ex-Minister had died, and we both carefully examined paper after paper, I reading aloud a rough translation.

Many of the doc.u.ments were, I recognised, of extreme importance to the Government. Some were the official records of sentences p.r.o.nounced by the Tribunal upon various persons and had evidently been extracted from the archives of the Ministry.

"I wonder what he intended to do with these?" Price remarked presently.

"Perhaps his idea was to sell them to the persons who had been condemned to enable them to destroy the record."

"Or perhaps he held them for the purposes of levying blackmail?" Sammy suggested. "No man, if he were leading an honest life, would like to have his police record hawked about."

"But here," I said, holding up a paper, "here are the confidential notes of the President of the Court of a.s.sizes at Milan concerning two very important cases, showing the lines on which the prosecution was to be conducted. These would surely be of the utmost value to the prisoners, for upon them they could form a complete defence. The prosecution is a political one, and the weak points in the evidence are indicated and commented upon. Yes," I added, "all these official doc.u.ments have been carried off because they could easily be turned into money. We shall be compelled to restore them to the Italian Government."

"His Excellency, when he fled from Rome, took care to carry away all he could that was of value," remarked the solicitor. "Fate, however, very quickly overtook him before he had time to negotiate any of the doc.u.ments."

The letters occupied us some considerable time. They were in two packets secured by broad elastic bands, and all were, without exception, letters from poor unfortunate victims who were in his clutches financially and who begged for further time in which to pay. Some of them, written in illiterate calligraphy, were heartrending appeals for wife, family, honour--even life. They were the collection of a hard-hearted man whose delight it was to crush and oppress rich and poor alike. The letters showed that. More than one was full of bitter reproach and withering sarcasm, revealing plainly that what the English girl had said concerning him was the actual truth.

And yet in my short acquaintance with him prior to his decease I had never dreamed that his character was as such.

Nevertheless at that moment, as I afterwards discovered, the Italian press was full of bitter abuse of the man who for the past four years or so had been one of the most popular in Italy. But he had been found out, and in ignorance of his death they were now hounding him down and appealing to the Government to arrest and prosecute him.

We had nearly completed our investigation, Price taking a careful inventory of the contents of the portmanteaux, when I discovered an envelope in which was a large yellow printed form filled in with a quant.i.ty of microscopic writing.

Within was a folded sheet of grey notepaper--a letter in Italian which I read eagerly, holding my breath, for what was contained there staggered me.

My companions watched my change of countenance in wonder. And well, indeed, they might, for it was the appeal of a desperate woman, a letter that revealed to me an amazing truth--a letter signed "Lucie."

And when I had finished reading it, I sat there, staring as the written lines danced before my eyes, amazed, unable to utter a single word in response to their questions.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

DESCRIBES SOME CONFIDENTIAL DOc.u.mENTS.

I had no right to divulge the girl's secret to my two companions. I recognised this in an instant.

She had told me in confidence, and here was plain proof of what she had explained.

"What is it?" asked Price. "Something that surprises you?"

"Well, yes," I answered as carelessly as I could. "It's a letter from a woman."

"From Lucie Miller!" cried Sammy, whose sharp eyes had caught the signature. "What does she say? Tell us," he asked eagerly.

"No," I said firmly. "Recollect that whatever or whoever this man is, he is dead. Therefore let his private affairs rest. It is surely no concern of ours."

"No--of yours, perhaps," my friend laughed. "Remember what I told you about her."

"I recollect every word."

"And yet you are all the time anxious to meet her again, G.o.dfrey! Do you know, I really believe the girl has captivated you--like she has so many others."

"You don't take me for a fool--do you?" I snapped, rather annoyed.

"She was in distress and I am wondering if she has yet extricated herself."

Price made inquiry as to whom we were discussing, but in a few quick sentences I satisfied his curiosity.

"I should be very sorry if she ever comes here again," declared Sammy.

"I have no wish to meet her. The memory of my poor friend Carrera is far too painful."

"You believe, then, that his death was due to her--that she induced him to leave his jacket upon the lawn?"

"I make no direct charge, my dear fellow. I only say that she's daughter of one of the most ingenious `crooks' in Europe--a member, if not the actual leader, of one of the cleverest of the international gangs. They are possessed of ample means, and the police are no match for their ingenuity."

"You have your opinion, my dear old chap; I have mine," I said, glancing round the room and recollecting vividly how she had stood there and looked upon the white drawn face of the man who had refused to extricate her from her deadly peril.

He took up the yellow paper, glanced it over, and put it down again without being able to make anything out of it.

I said I would translate it later, and placed it aside, together with the strange letter of appeal.

Neither of my companions was very well satisfied, I could see. They wished to know what the mysterious Lucie had written, while I, on my part, was equally determined not to tell them. It was surely not fair to her to divulge what had been meant for Nardini's eye alone; therefore, I intended to keep possession of the letter, and to hand it to her to destroy, should we ever meet again.

Now that I recall those hours following the stranger's decease and the English girl's mysterious visit I cannot even now explain why I so suddenly commenced to take an interest in her. She was beautiful, it was true, but man-of-the-world that I was, and a constant wanderer across the face of Europe, I knew dozens of women quite as graceful, if not even more beautiful. Besides, there was the dark stigma upon her which Sammy had alleged, and which, by what I had now discovered, seemed fully borne out.

No. I think the mystery of the affair was responsible for my undue interest in her. Sammy, of course, put it down to her personal attractions, but he was decidedly and distinctly in error. She had told me of her perilous position, and of the dead man's refusal to a.s.sist her. Therefore it was but natural that I was curious to know how she fared.

Again, was she not in some mysterious way acquainted with a secret of my own life? Perhaps it was also that fact which caused me a longing to know the real truth concerning her.

There was certainly nothing of the adventuress about her. She was quiet, refined, graceful, neatly dressed, and spoke with easy, well-bred accents that were essentially those of a lady.

I do not think my worst enemy has ever declared me to be impressionable where women were concerned, for truth to tell, an incident that had occurred four years before had soured my life, and caused my resolution to ever remain a bachelor.

Ah! It was all over--the old story of the mad pa.s.sion of a man for one who proved--well, unworthy. Ah! how I had adored my Ella; how I worshipped the very ground upon which she trod; how I would have conquered the very world for her sake. Yes. I saw her now, so young in her white muslin dress with her gold-brown hair falling upon her shoulders, her laughing blue eyes, and the red rose in her breast as we walked that June afternoon along those white English cliffs with the blue Channel at our feet. That never-to-be-forgotten afternoon we pledged our love, our hot lips met in their first fierce caress, our hearts beat in unison. She was my all in all. For months we lived in a world that was entirely our own--a bright rosy world of high ideals and ineffable sweetness, for we loved, ay we loved in a manner, I believe, that man and maiden never loved before. Even the remembrance of it now was sweet and yet--ah! so intensely bitter.