“You will not call any one until you have heard me out,” Dmitri said deliberately. “I have the signed confession and all the correspondence that passed between you and Georges Yaranek.”
The Marchese moved away from Carlota to the table. She turned to Griffeth in relief, both of them listening in silent amazement to Dmitri’s story.
“This man, Ogden Ward, is not the person he seems to be,” he said almost gayly, yet with accusation. “He is not your silent, stern capitalist and banker, your international pawn-broker who can kill or save a nation by his munificent charity. He is also of a most exquisite artistic temperament, a nature which responds to the richest and priceless in art and beauty. He will have only the best, your Mr. Ward. And this is known all over the world by those who live upon loot for gold. It was not enough that Count Jurka should recover the missing crown jewels. He must convert them into cash for use in the royalist cause. And through his own researches he discovered another on the same trail, the trail of the Zarathustra ruby. This was Ogden Ward, who wished to add it to his collection, together with the Orient pearls and other rubies of the set. Jurka had not been dispatched upon this secret mission alone. Always, in such cases, there are two set forth together, that one may succeed if one should fail. Steccho had told me this, and of the court chamberlain’s trusted attendant and courier, Georges Yaranek. He is very clever, but he is nervous. When he discovered the two dead bodies he lost his nerve. And he left behind two most important things, the wallet of Jurka, and this letter in the dead hand of my friend.”
From the inner hatband of his soft felt hat he removed the crumpled paper Steccho’s hand had groped for in death, and smoothing it out, he read it gently, from a student comrade. He had written briefly, fatalistically. There could be nothing worse than all that had gone before.
Your mother is dead these five months, one of many aged who died from starvation. Maryna is lost. I have made careful inquiries, but can only ascertain that she appealed to Jurka’s agent in this district at the time of the demonstration made by the royalist faction, and was taken with other girls from Rigl and adjacent villages to the mountain camps by the soldiers. None returned alive.
“Jurka tricked the boy,” Dmitri said quietly. “He needed him in the work here and promised in return full protection to his mother and sister by the queen’s own secret agents. This letter came to Steccho through my hands the night he took the jewels. He came to me and told what he had seen in the Trelango apartment. Shall I speak in detail?” He smiled most courteously at Ward.
“What you say is immaterial. I was called by Miss Trelango herself that night to complete a business transaction. I had advanced certain sums for her musical education and training under certain conditions to which she had agreed. She broke these conditions. It was her own suggestion that she pay back in full her obligations to me with the jewels.”
“Which were worth, let us say, about fifty times the amount you had advanced, eh?” Dmitri supplemented. “Ah, you are a financier and a very fine appraiser of values, Mr. Ward, in jewels and—otherwise. With Miss Trelango’s own testimony and my own as to what my friend told me he saw and heard, there might be a difference of opinion on the price of rubies, yes?”
“Dmitri, let me end this,” demanded Griffeth hoarsely. “I can’t be quiet any longer.”
“My boy, you are under arrest, and one call from Mr. Ward will bring his friends below. Not that I think he would call, but he might. Let me finish my story first that all may be clear to Mr. Ward, so he will not think we are deceiving him in any way. I myself told Steccho to give the jewels back to whomever he had stolen them from and to leave the service of Count Jurka. He said he could not afford to jeopardize the safety and lives of his mother and sister. This letter cleared up that point in his mind. I know he had called at the Hotel Dupont before coming to me and had left word for Jurka that he had fulfilled his mission. As you know, their two bodies were found dead in the boy Steccho’s room. I myself notified Mr. Ward of this as soon as I found it out, did I not?”