"Since I saw you last to speak to," began Robert, regarding the other with a cold steady gaze, "certain facts have come to my knowledge which have shocked and surprised me far more than I could express to you in any words. In order that you need be under no misapprehension as to how much, or how little, I know of the circumstances in question, I will at once enlighten you on the point. Being in want of money for some purpose of which I know nothing, you abstracted my brother's life policy from the safe, and on the security of it obtained an advance of three hundred pounds from Mr. Noyes of Solchester. But, in order to carry out your nefarious purpose, you were compelled to forge James's signature to three several documents. Of the means by which you contrived to make Mr. Noyes believe that he was dealing with my brother in person, I will say nothing. Whether it was your intention ultimately to redeem the policy and put it back in the place whence you had taken it, or whether----"
"Certainly it was my intention to redeem the policy and replace it in the safe, without, as I hoped, anyone being the wiser," broke in Dyson a little impetuously. He was pale, but composed.
Robert's exordium had allowed time for his nerves to recover from any shock which the latter's opening words might have caused them. "The three hundred pounds was only borrowed for a term of four months, by the end of which time I had every reason to believe that I should be in ample funds. I may add that my difficulties were the result of some unfortunate operations on the Stock Exchange, but latterly I had hit on a good thing and I felt no doubt whatever about being able shortly to far more than recoup myself for all my losses."
"I will refrain from asking you how you proposed to yourself to get out of the clutches of Mr. Noyes, and to redeem the policy in case your expectations should come to nothing. But, in all likelihood, that was a contingency which you never cared to face. In any case, it is a matter of no consequence at this time of day; so, if you have no objection, we will now come to the events of the 18th of September."
Dyson started visibly and bit his under-lip hard, as he might have done had he been on the point of undergoing a surgical operation.
"For reasons best known to yourself," resumed Robert in the same quiet, passionless voice in which he had spoken before, "you arrived back from your holiday on Friday evening, although you were not due at business till the following Monday. While on your way to your lodgings you came face to face with my brother, and in consequence, doubtless, of certain representations on his part, you accompanied him back to his office--to this very room, in point of fact. A quarter of an hour later you surprised Mrs. Melray in her sitting-room. In explanation of your intrusion you gave her to understand that, through some mischance, my brother had met his death at your hands, and you appealed to her to help to save you from the consequences of your rash act. To that appeal she responded by finding you, unknown to anyone, shelter and food for three nights and two days; by which means you were enabled to appear at the office on Monday morning as if you had but just got back from your holiday. Now, Richard Dyson, I demand of you that you shall account to me for my brother! I hint no threats, but it must be plain to you on the verge of what a precipice you are standing. Let me have the truth about what happened just as it did happen. I ask for no more and I have a right to look for no less."
It would not be easy to describe with what a strange confluence of emotions Dyson had listened to the growing indictment. Wonder as whence and how Robert had gleaned his information was, perhaps, his predominant feeling just then. Could it be possible, he asked himself, that Denia had turned traitor and betrayed him? But such was his faith in the sincerity of her love for him that he dismissed the thought almost as soon as it was formed. But it was no time for indulging in futile speculations. Robert Melray was waiting with bent brows.
Dyson's face darkened as his thoughts concentred themselves on the story he had to tell. "Yes," he presently began, facing Robert with the quiet and collected air of one who has nothing to hide, "as you have stated, I unexpectedly encountered cousin James on my way from the railway station to my lodgings. Gripping me by the arm he said, 'So you are back, are you? That is well. I want particularly to speak with you. Come with me at once to my office.' Nothing more was said, but I pretty well guessed what was in the wind. As soon as we were inside the office, with the door shut and the gas alight, he turned upon me. As I surmised, he had found out about the abstraction of the policy and the advance obtained by means of it from Noyes. I at once admitted that it was an infamous return to have made for all that he had done for me. I explained to him, as I have explained to you, by what means it happened that I was temporarily 'cornered,' that not to have raised the three hundred pounds meant exposure and ruin, and that I had every expectation of being in a position to repay the amount before the bill would fall due. But by this he had worked himself into a passion and was no longer in a condition to listen to any excuses. You cannot have forgotten to what ungovernable bursts of rage he would give way on rare occasions, in one of which, when you were boys, I have been told he all but strangled you, his brother.
"He had already opened the safe and brought thence the documents to which I had forged his signature. Placing one finger on them as they lay on the table, and speaking in coldly contemptuous tones, which stung me far more than any invective on his part would have done, he said: 'Here are the proofs of your guilt. Here is the evidence that will condemn you to penal servitude. In less than an hour from now the four walls of Merehampton gaol will hold your worthless carcase.' It was a threat that maddened me. I dashed his hand aside and seized the papers. With a cry like that of some wild animal, he sprang from his chair and flung himself upon me. Although double my age, he was a much more powerful and muscular man than I, and when once he had got his fingers fixed firmly inside my necktie and was grinding his knuckles into my throat, I was almost as powerless in his hands as a child would have been. As it seems to me now, it was all the work of a few seconds. Backward and forward we swayed and struggled, I trying desperately, but vainly, with one hand to loosen his hold of me, but still gripping the papers fast with my other hand; he, his eyes glaring with a passion that was almost maniacal, and those terrible knuckles still compressing my windpipe. I was being slowly but surely choked. Vivid jets of flame began to dance and quiver before my eyes; my heart laboured almost to the point of bursting; the papers dropped from my fingers; I could feel myself being forced back against the table till my spine was bent half double. Suddenly my fingers, wildly clutching at nothing, came in contact with a heavy iron paperweight and closed over it. With a last effort I struck with all my force at my cousin's head. For aught I know, I may have struck more than once, but in the very act consciousness left me.
"When I regained my senses, a quarter of an hour later, I was lying on the floor. A little way off lay the body of my cousin--stone dead. Hardly had I time to realise the horror of the situation before I heard the voices of two men talking in the lane outside. With that, the instinct of self-preservation came back in full force. As in a flash, I seemed to see how hardly it would fare with me should I chance to be found there. After picking up the papers which had cost me so dearly, I put out the gas, and then a sudden impulse, for which I am unable to account, decided me to--to---- But you know already what befell afterwards."