She was silent for a moment. My question nonplussed her. I was, I confess, bitter because of the deliberate attempt to kill me.
“I will not allow any stranger to tamper with our Silver Spider!” she cried resentfully.
“Very well. Then I shall take my own course, and I shall inform your husband that you stole the Princess’s pearls, that your banker friend acts as intermediary in your clever thefts, and that Hauser disposes of the jewels in Amsterdam.”
“I—I——” she gasped.
“I know everything,” I said, while she looked around bewildered. “I know that you are playing a crooked game even with those who played straight with you before your marriage to the Marchese. He is in ignorance of your past. But I know it. Listen!” and I paused and looked straight into her eyes.
“You were a widow with a young daughter before you married the Marchese. That was nine years ago. To him you passed yourself off as the widow of an Italian advocate named Terroni, of Perugia; but you were not. You are Austrian. Your name is Frieda Hoheisel, and you were an adventuress and a thief! You married a certain man who is to-day in a monastery at Signa in the Val d’Arno, and though you pose as the loving wife of one of Italy’s premier admirals, you are a noted jewel-thief, and commit these robberies in order to supply your bogus banker friend Zuccari with funds. Now,” I added, “I will take the Princess’s necklace from the Silver Spider and you will, in my presence, pack it up and address it to her. I will post it.”
“Never! I risked too much to get it!” she cried, her face aflame.
“Very well. Then within an hour your husband and the police will know the truth. Remember, I have been suspected of making inquiries by your friends and have very nearly lost my life in consequence.”
“But—oh! I can’t——”
“You shall, woman!” I thundered. “You shall give back those stolen pearls!”