Bess, fancying she should be de trop, went on upstairs to the little room which she and her husband occupied, and where he had been unsuspected and secure ever since that eventful night in Hyde Park.
Their troubles were soon to be over now, and they were patient, for George had, through Heckett, acquired, sufficient evidence to prove how the whole scheme was concocted.
Heckett, who knew how near his end was, had agreed to confess everything, and to leave the proof of what he stated with George, so that he might use them. He had ascertained through the police that an accomplice giving evidence which would secure the capture of the gold robbers would be pardoned, and on the morrow justice was to have the whole plot laid in her hands.
‘To-morrow,’ said George, as Bess came into the room. ‘Tomorrow is here, Bess, already. In twelve hours the first step will have been taken to prove my innocence and take this horrible shame from my name. Once free from this odious stigma, I can work, my darling, and make a home for you, where, with God’s help, we shall be happier than had we had the lands and the fortune my poor father willed away to the stranger—to come into the hands of the very man who was the ruin of his son. But to-morrow we shall strike the first blow for freedom. Nay, today. What time is it?’
‘Past one,’ answered Bess; ‘and there’s Mr. Egerton come with a strange gentleman to see Heckett.’
‘It’s about this business, I expect,’ answered George. ‘Heigho! I’m tired. Let’s go to sleep, and wake to find the new day dawned—the day that is to do so much for us.’
While the escaped convict was conversing so hopefully above, the astonished Heckett found Marston by his side below.
Weak as he was, he rapped out an oath as he saw his would-be assassin enter the room.
It was a stormy interview at first, but gradually Heckett calmed down. In his confidence he had told Egerton everything, and now Egerton urged him to accept Marston’s proposition, and hold his peace. What good would Heckett do himself? He would have his revenge, that was true—but what use was revenge to a dying man?
Heckett listened calmly at last, and when Egerton had finished and Marston had added his argument, letting Heckett see pretty plainly that he could not injure him without injuring Egerton also, and dropping something more than a hint that the old story of Ralph Egerton’s death in Heckett’s gambling-house might have to be gone into too, if he were forced into a corner—when all this had been said, Heckett closed his eyes, and lay back on his pillow thinking.