"That, your honour," summed up Mr. Munger, "is my statement. To prove the regularity of the warrant, and the validity of the evidence upon which it was issued, I propose first to show that the lady calling herself Patricia Hildreth is, in propriâ personâ, Adèle Lallovich, and that by her marriage with Stevan Lallovich, she became de facto a Russian subject, and is therefore answerable to Russian authority. To do this, I will avail myself of the precedent established for this case, by taking informal evidence upon it. I will therefore ask Count Mellikoff to come forward."
[1] The late Mr. W. M. Tweed.
CHAPTER VII.
NON-COMMITTAL.
As Vladimir Mellikoff stepped out from the group of men surrounding him and took the place indicated by Mr. Munger, a low murmur of disapproval surged up from the highly wrought crowd of listeners and onlookers, at the sound of which his colourless face flushed, for one brief second, while the dark eyes in the cavernous sockets gleamed intemperately, and the mouth beneath the dark beard and moustache tightened visibly.
He gave his evidence quietly and dispassionately, but with great deliberation, his restless eyes glancing now at Miss Hildreth's calm, unmoved face, now at John Mainwaring's dark, shapely, outlined countenance, and back again to Mr. Munger's beetling brow and heavy frown.
Each word he uttered told with distinct force against Patricia, and gathering confidence as he went on, Count Vladimir carried the wavering opinions of the public with him.
Ably interrogated, he proved the presence of Miss Hildreth in St. Petersburg at the time of Count Stevan's murder, her acquaintance with him, and her precipitate and mysterious flight from the Russian capital the morning after the perpetration of the crime. He next proved that a lady, calling herself Adèle Lamien, had taken passage and sailed in a steamship of the International Line from London for New York; that, on the ship's arrival at the latter port, Miss Hildreth was found to be among the passengers, while Adèle Lamien was missing. Miss Hildreth's friends were kept in ignorance of her arrival for several days, and when questioned regarding her sudden and unexpected return, she displayed the greatest reticence.
He, Vladimir Mellikoff, had arrived in New York somewhat later in the same month of February, but, owing to various causes of delay, he made no progress in his mission for several weeks; and, while waiting the further development of events, he had accepted an invitation extended to him by Mr. George Newbold, to pay him a visit at his country-house, the Folly, on Staten Island. The first evening of his arrival he met Miss Hildreth, and from something in her manner, he was led to observe her closely; these observations resulted in the conviction that she was playing a part, which it was vitally important she should succeed in. An unexpected clue to her secret had fallen into his hands that very evening; he had found beneath Miss Hildreth's chair, when she and the house party had withdrawn for the rehearsal, a fine cambric handkerchief, edged with lace and embroidered in a monogram, A. de L.; the very counterpart, in fact, of the one left by the criminal in her precipitate flight from the rooms of the murdered Stevan Lallovich, the only point of difference being that the one now in his possession did not have the written initials P. H. upon it.