"When you were kind enough to let me have two of your men this morning," said Hughes, "I told you I contemplated the arrest of a lady.I have brought that lady to Scotland Yard with me." He stepped to the door, opened it and beckoned.A tall, blonde handsome woman of about thirty-five entered; and instantly to my nostrils came the pronounced odor of lilacs."Allow me, Inspector,"went on the colonel, "to introduce to you the Countess Sophie de Graf, late of Berlin, late of Delhi and Rangoon, now of 17 Leitrim Grove, Battersea Park Road."The woman faced Bray; and there was a terrified, hunted look in her eyes.
"You are the inspector?" she asked.
"I am," said Bray.
"And a man - I can see that," she went on, her flashing angrily at Hughes."I appeal to you to protect me from the brutal questioning of this - this fiend.""You are hardly complimentary, Countess," Hughes smiled."But Iam willing to forgive you if you will tell the inspector the story that you have recently related to me."The woman shut her lips tightly and for a long moment gazed into the eyes of Inspector Bray.
"He" - she said at last, nodding in the direction of Colonel Hughes - "he got it out of me - how, I don't know.""Got what out of you?" Bray's little eyes were blinking.
"At six-thirty o'clock last Thursday evening," said the woman, "Iwent to the rooms of Captain Fraser-Freer, in Adelphi Terrace.An argument arose.I seized from his table an Indian dagger that was lying there - I stabbed him just above the heart!"In that room in Scotland Yard a tense silence fell.For the first time we were all conscious of a tiny clock on the inspector's desk, for it ticked now with a loudness sudden and startling.I gazed at the faces about me.Bray's showed a momentary surprise - then the mask fell again.Lieutenant Fraser-Freer was plainly amazed.
On the face of Colonel Hughes I saw what struck me as an open sneer.
"Go on, Countess," he smiled.
She shrugged her shoulders and turned toward him a disdainful back.
Her eyes were all for Bray.
"It's very brief, the story," she said hastily - I thought almost apologetically."I had known the captain in Rangoon.My husband was in business there - an exporter of rice - and Captain Fraser-Freer came often to our house.We - he was a charming man, the captain - "Go on!" ordered Hughes.
"We fell desperately in love," said the countess."When he returned to England, though supposedly on a furlough, he told me he would never return to Rangoon.He expected a transfer to Egypt.So it was arranged that I should desert my husband and follow on the next boat.I did so - believing in the captain - thinking he really cared for me - I gave up everything for him.And then - "Her voice broke and she took out a handkerchief.Again that odor of lilacs in the room.
"For a time I saw the captain often in London; and then I began to notice a change.Back among his own kind, with the lonely days in India a mere memory - he seemed no longer to - to care for me.
Then - last Thursday morning - he called on me to tell me that he was through; that he would never see me again - in fact, that he was to marry a girl of his own people who had been waiting - "The woman looked piteously about at us.
"I was desperate," she pleaded."I had given up all that life held for me - given it up for a man who now looked at me coldly and spoke of marrying another.Can you wonder that I went in the evening to his rooms - went to plead with him - to beg, almost on my knees?
It was no use.He was done with me - he said that over and over.
Overwhelmed with blind rage and despair, I snatched up that knife from the table and plunged it into his heart.At once I was filled with remorse.I - ""One moment," broke in Hughes."You may keep the details of your subsequent actions until later.I should like to compliment you, Countess.You tell it better each time."He came over and faced Bray.I thought there was a distinct note of hostility in his voice.
"Checkmate, Inspector!" he said.Bray made no reply.He sat there staring up at the colonel, his face turned to stone.
"The scarab pin," went on Hughes, "is not yet forthcoming.We are tied for honors, my friend.You have your confession, but I have one to match it.""All this is beyond me," snapped Bray.
1
He walked to the window and then wheeled dramatically.
"The strangest part of it all is," he added, "that at six-thirty o'clock last Thursday evening, at an obscure restaurant in Soho - Frigacci's - these two people were having tea together !"I must admit that, as the colonel calmly offered this information, I suddenly went limp all over at a realization of the endless maze of mystery in which we were involved.The woman gave a little cry and Lieutenant Fraser-Freer leaped to his feet.
"How the devil do you know that?" he cried.
"I know it," said Colonel Hughes, "because one of my men happened to be having tea at a table near by.He happened to be having tea there for the reason that ever since the arrival of this lady in London, at the request of - er - friends in India, I have been keeping track of her every move; just as I kept watch over your late brother, the captain."Without a word Lieutenant Fraser-Freer dropped into a chair and buried his face in his hands.
"I'm sorry, my son," said Hughes."Really, I am.You made a heroic effort to keep the facts from coming out - a man's-size effort it was.But the War Office knew long before you did that your brother had succumbed to this woman's lure - that he was serving her and Berlin, and not his own country, England."Fraser-Freer raised his head.When he spoke there was in his voice an emotion vastly more sincere than that which had moved him when he made his absurd confession.
