"From whom?" interrupted Frank.
"From Lydia Hargone. Oh, you may look surprised, but that woman has acted like a traitress to all. She deceived Donna Maria for Blake, she deceived Blake for Grent, she sold Grent for Leighbourne, and I shouldn't be surprised if she ended in selling him to the gallows. But to continue. I fancy Leighbourne was the man who went with Julia at the instigation of the perfidious Lydia. He hoped to make ten thousand pounds at one haul, and killed Grent to get it. Then Julia, to whom the money had been given, ran off with it to Vass. Leighbourne followed and murdered her, but found, too late, that his crime was useless--that Vass had bolted with the money. What does he do? He waits a reasonable time, and acts a part to avert suspicion, then he writes this letter to Vass asking for an appointment. He means to get that money out of Vass or kill him."
"But Vass has not the money."
"Of course not; but who knows that he returned it? You, I, Manuel, Vass, and Donna Maria, not Leighbourne. Depend upon it, Mr. Darrel, we'll have Leighbourne in gaol to-morrow night, and this mystery which has baffled us for so long, will be at an end."
"Well," said Darrel thoughtfully, "your argument is ingenious. Let us hope it will prove true."
"Wait till to-morrow night," said Torry drily, and took his leave, satisfied that he was the smartest detective in London, and the cleverest man in the wide world.
Darrel passed the rest of that day, and most of the next, in speculating on the probable result of this expedition. He could not deny that Torry's theory was ingenious and feasible, but thought that he was too sanguine. It seemed madness that a man guilty of a double crime should thrust himself willingly in the way of danger and risk betrayal. To be sure, he knew that Vass had stolen the money, and believed that he still had it in his possession, so he, no doubt, believed that terror of arrest and the desire to keep his spoil, might influence the secretary in holding his tongue. If the assassin knew that the money had been returned, and that Vass had repented of his iniquity, he might have been chary of risking a meeting; but he was ignorant, and therefore, rash, and there was every probability that he would be arrested. With arrest would come confession, and so the mystery of the dual crime would be solved. Still, the truth had evaded detection so many times, that Darrel could hardly bring himself to believe that it was about to be brought to light. He thought it possible but improbable.
The next night, shortly after ten o'clock, he met Torry, who was accompanied by two constables in plain clothes, and the four men walked to Hyde Park. The night was moonless, but there was a faint glitter of starlight, and a certain luminosity in the atmosphere. There were a great many people in the streets, but when they turned into the Park itself, they found it almost deserted--at all events, in the vicinity of the Achilles Statue.
"I wonder that the man appointed a meeting with Vass in so public a place," whispered Darrel to Torry, as they took up their position in the blackness under the trees.
"The more public the place, the safer it is," replied Torry oracularly. "Hush, there is Vass."