"No," said Ruck, with an expression of disgust. "I have done many criminal things in my time, but my hands are free from blood. This man was always employed to punish any traitor. I took him down to kill Alpenny, but Mr. Paslow, as I say, saved us the trouble. I was alone outside the counting-house as Waterloo and the other man locked the door from the inside, and then escaped by the underground passage. When I was going away amidst the storm I saw you enter the great gates----"
"Ah!" Beatrice started up. "You were the tall man in the cloak with the black patch?"
"I was," admitted the Major coolly; "so now you know the whole story.--Waterloo, you can go."
The little man seemed glad to get away from the calm, searching eye of the Major, and with a final leer at Beatrice he slunk out of the door. When alone with the girl, Ruck turned to her again. "Well?" he asked.
"What do you want me to do?"
"You must get your mother to return the necklace to you, and go back to The Camp. I shall meet you there in a couple of days--in the evening. At any moment the police may get to know of the Gang's movements, and then we will be raided. I have had several warnings. There are traitors about; but I won't punish them. Since Alpenny's death things have gone wrong. I have not the head to command, as had that old scoundrel; I confess it freely. However, I have collected what money I could, and I am going to America. I want the Obi necklace also, which will bring me in ten thousand pounds. I'll settle in Mexico and live a decent life--retire, as it were," said the Major jocularly, "on my money."
"And if I get the necklace?"
"Then I'll say nothing about Vivian Paslow's guilt, or about your mother's complicity in the death of your father."
"She never killed him," said Beatrice weakly. "She felt crushed by the things she had been told."
"I am not so sure of that. If she did not kill him herself, she knows who did. I wanted the necklace," said the Major brutally, "and not her. However, Alpenny got ahead of me. But he's dead; and now you know my terms. I must have that necklace."