“I can guess the nature of the professional attentions you are giving him. But why were you so anxious that I should not fall into the hands of the police?”
“Because I had certain plans in which you were concerned, and your premature arrest would have seriously interfered with them. Can’t you guess what they were?”
“The Duke has a goose to pick with me, I believe. At any rate, I understand he is not very benevolently disposed toward me.”
“You have been correctly advised. The Duke is a very thoroughgoing hater, as you will discover before we are through with you. Not only that, but he is an adept in the gentle art of mixing business and pleasure. He also knows how to bring down a flock of birds with a single stone. Take, for instance, the case of old Sylvanus Gage.”
“Yes,” murmured the Phantom, fixing the doctor with a keen gaze, “the Duke showed his genius there. He planned the murder very shrewdly so that the guilt would be fastened on me. It was an admirable way of getting revenge.”
The doctor smiled. “True, but it wasn’t so simple as all that. You are not giving the Duke half the credit he deserves. I told you that he always mixes business and pleasure. These walls are deaf, so there is no reason why I should not enlighten you. Gage had been for years a member of the Duke’s organization. It was through him the band disposed of the proceeds from its activities. It was a risky business and he lived in constant danger. Hence the tunnel, which gave him a convenient avenue of escape in emergencies. The housekeeper, an estimable soul, knew that her employer was conducting some sort of illegitimate business, and she assisted him in it to a certain extent, which explains any symptoms of bad conscience she may have shown. I don’t think, however, that she was aware of Gage’s membership in the Duke’s organization. Gage was a valuable man, but his insatiate greed led him astray. He double-crossed the band in financial transactions, and when called to task for his crooked work he threatened to cause trouble. To put it briefly, it was decided that he must be put out of the way.”
“I see.” The Phantom smiled, but his eyes were hard. “The Duke avenged himself on two persons with one stroke. He not only removed Gage, but arranged matters so that suspicion for the crime would fall on me.”
“Exactly. You are now beginning to appreciate the Duke’s many-sided talents. Of course, his main object was to repay you for the merciless joke you played on him when you put him and most of his gang behind bars. Where to find you was a poser. It was known that you had taken your treasures and gone into hiding somewhere, but no one seemed to have the faintest inkling of your whereabouts. Knowing your sensitiveness about such matters, the Duke guessed that the murder of Gage, with the circumstances pointing to you as its perpetrator, would smoke you out.”
“It was a good guess. I had to come out and clear myself, and that gave the Duke his chance. Now that you have me where you want me, what do you propose to do with me? Am I to be handed over to the police, or have you engaged passage for me on the Stygian ferry?”
The question seemed to amuse the doctor. “If we meant to hand you over to the police we would scarcely have gone to such great lengths to save you from arrest. What is to be done with you eventually hasn’t been decided as yet. The Duke’s orders are to dispose of you in whichever way will hurt you the most and give him the ultimate degree of revenge. There is a question involved in that. You are not the kind of man that fears death.”