“Yes, escape. Listen. My instructions are to afford you an easy opportunity of—well, of escaping the ignominy of arrest, exposure, trial, and penalty, by a very simple means—death by your own hand.”
“Suicide!” echoed Poland, after a painful pause. “Ah! I quite understand! The Government are not anxious that the scandal should be made public, eh?” he cried bitterly.
“I have merely told you my instructions,” was the detective’s response, as, with a quick, foreign gesture, he displayed on his left hand a curious old engraved amethyst set in a ring—probably an episcopal ring of ages long ago. “At midnight I have an appointment at the cross-roads, half-a-mile away, with Inspector Watts of Scotland Yard, who holds a warrant for your arrest and extradition to France. If you are still alive when we call, then you must stand your trial—that is all. Trial will mean exposure, and——”
“And my exposure will mean the downfall and ruin of those political thieves now in power—eh?” cried Poland. “They are not at all anxious that I should fall into the hands of the police.”
“And you are equally anxious that the world—and more especially your daughter—shall not know the truth,” remarked the detective, speaking in a meaning tone. “I have given you the alternative, and I shall now leave. At midnight I shall return—officially—when I hope you will have escaped by the loophole so generously allowed you by the authorities.”
“If I fled, would you follow?”
“Most certainly. It would be my duty. You cannot escape—only by death. I regret, m’sieur, that I have been compelled to put the alternative so bluntly, but you know full well the great issues at stake in this affair. Therefore I need say nothing further, except to bid you au revoir—till midnight.”
Then the portly man bowed—bowed as politely as though he were in the presence of a crowned head—and, turning upon his heel, left the room, followed by his host, who personally opened the door for him as he bade him good-night.
One hour’s grace had been given Philip Poland. After that, the blackness of death.