CHAPTER LX.
CONCLUSION.
As the motor car containing Iris and the officers rolled away from Oscar Hilton’s home, Peter, the servant who had admitted Iris on the preceding evening, stood in the area looking after the vehicle with a perplexed and sorrowful expression on his good-natured face.
A stranger came up excitedly, threw a hasty glance at the departing machine, and with a nervous gesture turned toward the servant.
“I say, my man,” said the stranger, addressing Peter, “is this the residence of Mr. Hilton? I have been sent to see the sick lady—his wife.”
Peter’s thoughts were traveling after Iris, and he readily believed that the man was a new physician engaged by Mr. Hilton.
“If you will step this way, sir, I will escort you to Mrs. Hilton’s chamber.”
In less than five minutes the stranger was at the bedside of the stricken woman.
Mrs. Hilton opened her eyes, and shivered slightly as she met the man’s gaze. At first she did not recognize him. Then with a low moan she gasped:
“You? What do you want?”
“I see you recognize me, my dear wife,” replied the stranger, who was none other than Carleton Tresilian, alias Charles Broughton. “You are sick unto death, and I have come to torture you, to cause you some little bit of suffering in your dying moments to repay you for the intense suffering that you have caused me all these years. I am going to have my revenge. Listen while I tell you of my plans for vengeance.”