The Yellow Face

by Fred M. White

"Yes," he said quite naturally, "I think it will be just as well if you called in the warder who is watching us through that grating in the door, and tell him everything that has happened."

Barmouth lost no time in doing so. There was a great tramping and commotion in the corridor outside, and presently Bates and the prison doctor rushed in. By this time Anstruther was seated on the only chair in the cell; there was a heavy bead of moisture on his face. He smiled faintly at Bates.

"It is exactly as Lord Barmouth has said," he explained. "When your people deprived me of everything that I possessed they forgot to remove a tiny pearl-headed pin from my scarf. It was only a very small pearl--you could have bought the thing in any West-End shop for a sovereign; but the gem was not so innocent as it appeared to be. Inside I had caused to be placed one spot of deadly poison no larger than a pin's head. I have had it there for years in case of an emergency. I have always had a presentiment that sooner or later the end would be thus, and I am much too active-minded a man to dare to pass years in jail. I should have gone mad under treatment like that. Therefore, you see I was quite ready for you. I had only to take that pin from my tie, and make the tiniest puncture in the tip of my tongue, then all I had to do was to crush the pearl within my teeth, and the thing was done. There need be no inquest; the poison in question was one spot from the fang of a cobra. See, the end is very near."

Anstruther staggered to his feet, threw his hands above his head, and collapsed in a heap on the floor. There was one fearful shuddering contortion of the muscles, and after that a rigid stillness. The prison doctor bent down, and examined the silent form carefully. He shook his head gravely.

"My services here are absolutely useless," he said. "The man is dead. I only wonder that he lived so long. It was a sad ending to what might have been a brilliant career."

"It was a brilliant career," Bates muttered. "We never had a detective in the Force as clever as Mr. Anstruther. Shall I call a cab for you, my lord? There is nothing to gain by your waiting any longer."

Barmouth nodded in an abstracted kind of way; he hardly appeared to heed what Bates was saying. In the same dreamy fashion he was driven homewards. On reaching Belgrave Square he found that Benin had gone off on some business, leaving Jack and Rigby behind him. In a few words he told the others what had happened. There was nothing more to be said on the matter, and no great feeling was expressed, seeing that Anstruther had never been anything else but an enemy to all of them.

"He seemed desirous of making amends at the last," Barmouth said. "For instance, he has shown us a way whereby my wife's unfortunate sister can be forever free of Padini. Also he informed me that Miss Claire Helmsley's fortune is absolutely intact. He was cynical to the last, and suggested that Jack here should marry the lady of his choice without delay."

"That is very good of him," Jack said drily. "But as far as I am concerned, I shall not be in the least sorry to hear that Claire has nothing. I do not want the suggestion made that I am in any way a fortune hunter. It is not a pleasant idea."

"What is the good of talking that nonsense," Rigby exclaimed. "My dear fellow, you are getting on splendidly with your literary work, and in a year or so from now your income will be quite equal to Miss Helmsley's. Besides, nobody who knew you would think of accusing you of fortune hunting. And so long as Miss Helmsley shares the opinions of your friends, I don't see that it in the least matters to anybody else."