CHAPTER XXI
[DONNA MARIA EXPLAINS]
For once in his life Torry was dumbfounded. He sat with staring eyes, his mouth open, and his face red, gasping like a fish out of water. Of all the names connected with the Grent case Frederick Leighbourne was the last he expected to hear.
"It is impossible," said he, on recovering his speech.
"It is the truth; the manager of the Hampstead bank told me so. He knows Leighbourne, and said that Leighbourne had no wish to deny who he was."
Torry jumped up and made for the door, dragging Darrel along with him. "Come on," said he quickly; "we must see Leighbourne at once."
"Do you intend to arrest him?"
"If I see cause to."
"You'll see no cause of his shewing," retorted Darrel, as they went downstairs and hailed a cab.
"The man will lie freely."
"Naturally, to save his own neck."
"What! You don't think Leighbourne killed Grent?"
"I don't think anything about it," was Torry's impatient response. "I am not capable of thinking, as the news has taken me by surprise. Oh, what ignorant fools the best of us are! Well, we will see if Leighbourne, junior, has an explanation."
As it turned out young Frederick had an explanation on the tip of his tongue, and a very feasible one it proved to be. In place of shrinking from an inquiry into the motives of his conduct, he assumed an attitude of outraged virtue, and courted Torry's questions. By his own explanation there was never so upright and badly treated a gentleman as Frederick Leighbourne, Esquire.
"You dare to connect me with the committal of this crime because I changed the notes!" he cried, white with suppressed fury. "What right have you, or either one of you, to make so scandalous a statement?"
"You changed the notes," said Torry feebly, wondering if he was wrong in suspecting the man.
"Yes, sir I did. I changed the notes at the request of Mr. Grent."
"At the request of Mr. Grent?" repeated Darrel.
"Why?"
"Because Captain Manuel, who gave Grent the notes, wished it."
"That isn't true!" cried Torry. "Manuel was as astonished as I, that the notes had been changed."
"I don't know about that," retorted Leighbourne sullenly. "All I know is that a fortnight before his murder, Mr. Grent asked me down to Wray House and told me that he wanted my assistance in some rather delicate business. As he was my partner and my father's, I of course, professed my willingness to serve him. Do you blame me?"
"No; quite right, quite natural. But what was the business?"
"Mr. Grent explained that when in Peru he had become mixed up with some native society. This year the Government of the Republic tried to break it up and seize the funds, so the members fled to other countries with the moneys of the society. One of these members was Captain Manuel, who brought to England the sum of ten thousand pounds, which he changed into English bank-notes valued at five hundred pounds each. As he knew that Grent sympathised with the aims of the society----"
"What were the aims of the society?" interrupted Darrel.
"Some patriotic rubbish of restoring the Inca rule," said Leighbourne crossly. "But at all events, Grent sympathised with this aim, so Manuel asked him to take charge of the money, and it was kept down in Wray House. Then, according to Grent's story, Manuel came to him, and said he was afraid that the Peruvian Government might discover the numbers of the notes and render them valueless by explaining to the English Government that they were forfeited moneys. To prevent this he asked Grent to change the notes for others of a like value but different numbers. Grent, being so well known in the banking world, was unwilling to change the notes personally, so he asked me to do so. I agreed and I did so."
"Why did you not change them at the bank of England?"
"Manuel objected to that being done, on account of the Peruvian Government, so by Grent's directions, I went round to several suburban banks and so explained the matter that I got all the notes changed without difficulty. I gave them all back to Grent, who kept them at Wray House; then, on the Friday before he intended to start for Italy, he brought them up here and gave them to Vass to put in the safe. That is all I know."
"And quite sufficient," said Torry wrathfully. "Why did you not tell us all this before?"
"For two reasons. One was that Grent asked me to hold my tongue; the other because I was afraid lest you should accuse me of being concerned in this murder, as you have done," finished Leighbourne, with a scowl.
"Well, well," said Torry good-humouredly, "you have defended yourself very well against the implied accusation."
"Implied accusation!" echoed Frederick, with scorn.
"My very words," retorted Torry drily. "I did not accuse you of being an accessory to the crime or the criminal himself. I did not even ask you if you had stolen the notes. I merely asked how it came about that you changed them."
"Well, now you know," said Leighbourne insolently; "and as I have explained myself, perhaps you and your friend will take yourself off."
Deeming this rude speech unworthy of reply, Darrel left the room without taking leave of the banker, but Torry halted at the door to fire a parting shot.
"Young man," said he, wagging an admonitory forefinger at Leighbourne, "pride goes before a fall; remember that," and leaving the young man to digest this unpalatable proverb at his leisure, Torry followed the novelist.
"What are you going to do?" asked the latter, when they were in the street.
"I am going to see Captain Manuel, and see if he really countenanced the changing of the bank-notes," replied Torry; "and you?"
"I intend to go at once to Wray House and see Miss Sandoval."
"You wish to find out what she knows?"
"Yes. I'll try and persuade her to tell me the truth."
"You'll be a clever man if you do that, sir. Well, good-bye and good luck," and Torry turned away. "I say!" he called out.
"Yes," said Darrel, with his foot on the step of a hansom.
The detective retraced his steps, and spoke in a low tone. "I am convinced of one thing," he said hastily. "Grent had those notes changed so that he could bolt with them. I don't believe Manuel asked him to change them.
"Leighbourne says he did."
"Yes, because Grent told him to say so. That good man deceived both Manuel and Leighbourne. He had the notes on him when he was murdered."
"Oh," sighed Darrel, with a groan, "how you hold to that theory!"
"Because it is a true one," said Torry sharply, "and sooner or later I am sure we shall be able to prove it is a fact. Good-bye."
Frank shrugged his shoulders and drove off to Waterloo Station, where in half an hour he took a fast train to Wraybridge. He had not much faith in Torry's theory, as, with his trained sense of logical argument, he could not see how Grent, in the face of Vass's assertion, could have become possessed of the money. He tried to think about the matter, but love, as usual, interfered with business, and when he recollected that he would soon see Donna Maria he surrendered himself to delicious fancies about the coming interview. She--Frank had got the length of calling Donna Maria "she"--she would be cold, she would be amicable, she would smile, she would frown, she would do a hundred and one contradictory things not likely to occur. Truly Frank Darrel was a very foolish young gentleman to indulge in so confused a reverie. But he was only twenty-five and he was in love--two excuses that cover the follies of the majority of mortals.
Shewn into the presence of his goddess, the worshipper grew red and confused, rather to the surprise of Donna Maria as she had no notion of the inflamed state of his heart. To put him at his ease, she sought to induce speech by asking him what he wished to see her about. Then Frank became more confused than ever, for he did not very well know how to begin. However, as a beginning had to be made, he spoke to the point and in a brusque way, by reason of his modesty.
"I have come to tell you how the case is getting on," he said hurriedly.
"That is very kind of you," replied Donna Maria, half smiling at his humour, although she secretly wondered what could be the cause of it. "Has anything been discovered about my poor uncle's murder?"
"Not so much that, as about the bank-notes."
"The bank-notes?" Donna Maria turned pale and spoke nervously.
"Yes, the ten thousand pounds which was stolen from the safe. The money has been returned to Captain Manuel."
Donna Maria rose suddenly. "It can't be!" she cried, making a step towards the astonished Frank. "I tell you it can't be!"
"But it is, Miss Sandoval. Captain Manuel has the money now in his possession."
"Then the assassin of my uncle has been arrested?"
"No, I'm sorry to say he has----"
"Not arrested?" cried Donna Maria, her colour rising and her eyes sparkling, "and the money returned?"
"The money was returned by an unknown man," said Frank, "and he went away after delivering the parcel of notes at Captain Manuel's hotel."
"Then that was the assassin. He took the money from my uncle's dead body. In fact, I believe he killed Mr. Grent in order to rob him."
"But how can that be?" cried Darrel, much perplexed. "Mr. Grent left the money in his private safe, and did not come back to get it. How could he have been in possession of the money on that night?"
Maria passed her hand across her forehead and sighed. "True! True! What am I to do? Oh,"--she wrung her hands--"If I could only speak!"
"You must speak," said Frank, seizing his opportunity, "or else condemn an innocent man."
"An innocent man? Who?"
"Mr. Frederick Leighbourne. We have found out that he changed some of the notes, so it is just possibly that he may be accused of the robbery."
"No, no," cried Maria, much agitated, "it cannot be. Mr. Leighbourne did not take that money out of the safe, I can prove it."
"Then do so, and save him from possible arrest."
The girl looked wildly round the room, then she ran to the window, sprang back to open the door and close it again; finally she paused before Frank and seized his hand. The touch thrilled him.
"Mr. Darrel," she said hurriedly, "you are a gentleman, and I will trust you. I have kept silent out of fear of the Blue Mummy Society, but I shall do so no longer. Mr. Leighbourne did not take the money out of the safe, but I can tell you who did."
"Captain Manuel?" asked Darrel with a start.
"No," she said slowly. "Maria Sandoval!"
"You! You!"
"I--I took the money and gave it to Mr. Grent."