Owing to an act that he could not disclose to his friends in front of Lalita, he had good reason to believe that he had outwitted Ukwatte and that, if the contract were presented, he could render it invalid. Hence his refusal to substitute for it a Deed of Gift. But, counting the contract out, that would still leave Lalita in possession of the jewels, and the thought that he should receive five thousand pounds in addition riled the Duke exceedingly. Desperately he sought a way to prevent his enemy from achieving such a triumph; but in vain.
Simon, determined to save him from himself, pigheadedly rejected his protest. Yet Fate still had a card up her sleeve to produce a new situation.
To get the piece of paper from the desk Lalita pushed his pistol back into its holster. As he opened the desk a cheerful voice said, ‘Hello, folks! What’s going on here?’
None of them had been looking in the direction of the door. But now the eyes of all of them swivelled towards it. For the third time that night someone had unexpectedly come on the scene. In the doorway stood a huge man. A smile was on his face and in his hand he firmly held an automatic.
It was that big, ugly, attractive American—who in the nineteen-thirties had been the most sought-after bachelor between Long Island and Juan les Pins—Rex Mackintosh Van Ryn.
14
The Battle Continues
Lalita had two weapons within a few inches of his right hand: his own automatic in its holster and Douglas’s revolver thrust through his Sam Browne belt. But it was at him that Rex’s big pistol was pointing, so he dared not make a grab at either. Mirabelle might still have given trouble had she been sitting sideways on to Rex and swiftly snatched up her little nickel-plated weapon from the lower shelf on the telephone table. But her chair had its back to the door; so, automatically, on hearing Rex’s voice she jerked her head right round. Before she could do more than give a gasp it was Douglas who had snatched up her pistol.
Rex’s smile broadened into a grin and he said to Simon, ‘Better relieve our friend in uniform of his artillery; then we can talk.’
As Simon moved sideways towards Lalita, so as not to obstruct Rex’s line of fire, de Richleau chuckled, ‘My dear Rex. How good to see you. Your arrival could not have been more opportune. It enables me to secure twenty-five thousand pounds’ worth of jewels which are my property.’ As he spoke he picked up the leather case from the table.
‘No! They are mine!’ Lalita expostulated violently. But Simon had already taken his automatic from its holster and with it gave him a hard jab in the ribs.
‘Hold your tongue,’ he snapped, ‘or it’ll be the worse for you.’ With his free hand he drew Douglas’s revolver from Lalita’s belt and passed it to its owner. Then to Rex he said:
‘Greyeyes is right. Your turning up couldn’t have been better timed if we’d planned it. ‘Nother couple of minutes and I’d have signed away five thousand pounds to this dirty crook. But what sort of miracle enabled you to pull us out of this muddle?’
‘Yes,’ added the Duke. ‘How did you learn that we were here and involved in an extremely unpleasant business?’
Now that both Lalita and Mirabelle had been disarmed, Rex casually tucked his automatic away in an armpit holster and advanced into the room. Had Lalita attempted anything, the American was so big and strong that he could have strangled him with one hand. Shrugging his mighty shoulders, he said:
‘It’s quite simple. Truss and I … I think I told you I’d brought Truss along on this trip … didn’t get in from Trinco’ till round eleven o’clock. When we’d checked in at the American Embassy and had a wash I called you at the Galle Face, but only to be told that you were both out. We had drinks with our host and nattered till well after midnight. Then, assuming you’d have got back, I called the hotel again. Still no dice. Knowing Greyeyes doesn’t keep late hours these days I became a bit puzzled. After that I made quite a nuisance of myself trying to find out where you’d gone.
‘They gave to the effect that Greyeyes came down from his room round quarter after ten and went off in a private car with an Indian driver, which seemed pretty queer to me. Then that you, Simon, got back a bit past eleven, but went out again in a mighty hurry. At the risk of rousing young Fleur from her beauty sleep I decided to call her. By then it was close on one, but it didn’t take long for her to put me in the picture. The poor child was near hysterical with worry, so I sent Truss off to hold her hand till I’d found out what was cooking.
‘I’ve not carried a gun for the whale of a while, but I thought it best to come armed, so I borrowed one, and a car, from the Embassy. After a few false casts the driver located this street and I left him at the end of the road. The front door of the house was ajar; so I gumshoed in and listened in the passage for a while to the decidedly acrimonious conversation going on in here. Through the crack on the hinged side of the door I could see a section of the room; and when our friend in the natty uniform put his gun back in its holster I judged it was time to make my bow to the assembled company. That’s all there is to it. Now, let’s have your end of the story.’
Between them, de Richleau and Simon told him what had taken place. He already knew about the Duke’s inheritance and the attempt by the d’Azavedos to get him killed during his previous visit to Ceylon; but as he heard of the plot to have him bitten to death by the cobra, the American’s big open face grew darker and darker. When they had done, he said tersely:
‘For sheer unadulterated villainy this beats all. But now we’ve the game in our hands I see no complications. Let the punishment fit the crime. This little Nazi-type so-called Colonel can weigh no more than a sack of potatoes. I’ll just sling him over my shoulder and bung him into the back room to keep his father and the cobra company. All the odds are he’ll be either dead or a loony come morning. But that’s not going to cost any of us a wink of sleep.’
‘No!’ screeched Lalita, wringing his hands. ‘No; no! You cannot do this! You say punishment fit crime, yes. But I have no hand in attempt to murder. I wish to keep stones—lifework of my father—and become owner of Olenevka; very natural. But no more; no more.’
De Richleau contemplated him for a moment with angry contempt, then said:
‘You had murder in your heart when you brought me here tonight. To be thrown to the cobra is the punishment you deserve and nothing would give me greater pleasure than to see you disposed of in that way. But, unfortunately, my friend is not right in assuming that if we did so there would be no complications.’
His glance had fallen on Mirabelle and Simon had had the same thought. ‘Certainly would be,’ he agreed, ‘as soon as the lady went to the police. She wasn’t in the murder plot; so we’ve nothing against her. And she’s nothing to fear from them. What is to stop her from charging us with having done in her boy friend?’
Mirabelle smiled at him. ‘Thank you for not holding against me that I come to Lalita’s help. And you are right. Harm him you dare not, for I have whip hand of you.’
With the same swift resilience that he had shown previously when matters turned in his favour, Lalita exclaimed, ‘You see! We still have best of you. Arrival of your big friend make no difference to situation. You give back jewels and sign I O U five thousand pounds. If not, soon as you gone I ring for police. Mrs. de Mendoza swear you break in and cause death of my father. I come later and find you here. But you hold me up, take stones and get away.’
‘Not so fast, sonny boy,’ said Rex laconically. ‘You’re wrong about my arrival on the scene making no difference. Before, you had the drop on my friends and could have held them here while you called the cops. But now it’s I who have the drop on you. We can quit this place when we like and by the time the cops come on the scene there’ll be nothing to show that any of us have ever been here.’
‘You not get away with that,’ Lalita declared angrily. ‘No, not when I make accusation. How you prove you not been here? Past three hours where you all been? How you make alibi?’
It was the subtle-minded Duke who
provided the answer. ‘The flaw in your case will be the fact that you cannot produce the Indian driver who brought me here. That is unless you own to his having been yourself. To do so would be to admit that you were here tonight before your father’s death, and so involved in the plot to murder me.’
After a moment de Richleau went on, ‘There is, too, a way in which we can provide ourselves with a perfectly satisfactory alibi. We shall say that on Mr. Van Ryn’s arrival in Colombo tonight, he was anxious to hold a conference on urgent business with Mr. Aron and myself. It was he who telephoned me at the Galle Face and we decided that the most suitable place to hold this conference was at the house of my solicitor, Mr. Rajapakse. Mr. Van Ryn then sent a car, the driver of which cannot be traced, to pick me up and take me there. As Mr. Aron was dining out, I left a message for him to follow me as soon as he came in, which he did. We shall be able to produce the taxi driver who took him there, and no-one will ever be able to prove that it was not there that all of us spent the past three hours.’
‘Oh, damn’ fine cheat,’ Lalita scowled. ‘But lies, lies, lies. And your word only against Mrs. Mendoza and mines. We trip you up somewhere. You see. Cars outside here all night. How explain? Police no fools. They go into this very thorough. I see to that.’
Douglas gave the Duke an anxious look. ‘I’m afraid we are back where we started—or rather where we were before Mr. Van Ryn came on the scene. His having actually telephoned the Galle Face much later and asked for you could upset the alibi you suggest. Then the case against you would look very black. If the police are going to be called in I’d much prefer that we did it ourselves and came clean.’
‘That,’ retorted the Duke sharply, ‘is out of the question. And I have already told you why.’
Mirabelle gave a low laugh. ‘You are wise, old gentleman. You have not forgot I hear you confess to Ukwatte’s murder. Much better leave jewels with Lalita and go home to good sleep in bed. Police station is bad place.’
‘And I O U five thousand pounds.’ Lalita was grinning now. ‘Rajapakse say right. We back where we was. You leave both and I keep quiet. Otherwise …’
‘I’ll be damned if I do!’ De Richleau, taking up the fight again, cut him short.
‘Then you very foolish. I make report. Tomorrow inquiry start. Soon you is committed for trial and see inside of prison.’
Simon and Douglas again became extremely perturbed and as Rex followed the argument he had ceased to smile. Lalita might also be imprisoned while awaiting trial on counter charges, but that would not help the Duke. Through their minds ran swift thoughts of cells, damp and dark—or perhaps like ovens owing to the sweltering heat outside—anyway filthy, lice-ridden and horribly uncomfortable; of food, barely fit for human consumption and certainly nauseating to anyone who had been accustomed to living well; of warders, uncouth, brutalised by their work, and now inclined to be deliberately vicious against any prisoner of the old ruling class. De Richleau’s friends knew that a week of such a life must prove fatal to him, and that even a few hours of it might be sufficient to bring about his death.
The Duke knew that, too, but it went utterly against his nature to leave Lalita in complete possession of the field, and he still believed that Lalita would not gamble his whole career simply to spite an enemy, so he said calmly:
‘If Mr. Aron is foolish enough to make you a present of five thousand pounds I cannot stop him. But I am keeping the jewels.’
For a moment Lalita was silent. Behind the thick lenses of his glasses his dark eyes went from one to another of the faces of the people round him, then he declared, ‘Five thousand too little. Must be more; much more. Twenty-five. The value of jewels.’
De Richleau hid his sudden elation. Since Lalita was willing to give up the jewels, he had been bluffing. He would never have agreed to do that unless he had grave fears for himself should the whole matter be brought into the open. Now determined to press him further, the Duke said:
‘Mr Aron has already told you that five thousand is the most he can raise.’
For Lalita to be willing to surrender the jewels on terms had also revealed to the astute Simon his reluctance to make trouble; so, anxious as he was to make a deal that would place de Richleau out of danger, for the moment he refrained from raising his bid.
But Rex, now as fearful as the others that the Duke might be sent, even temporarily, to prison, sprang into the breach. ‘If it’s a question of money,’ he said quickly, ‘I’ll find——’
‘No, Rex!’ de Richleau cut him short. ‘You are not a rich man and you have a large family to support. I forbid both you and Simon to impoverish yourselves on my account.’
Rex had difficulty in keeping his face from expressing amazement. Simon’s mouth was, as usual, a little open, but his eyes did not even flicker. As Rex was a millionaire with only one son, and Simon was very rich, both realised at once that the old fox from Corfu must be playing one of his deep games.
It was Lalita who broke the short silence that followed. Hammering on the top of the oak desk with his fist, he cried, ‘I will not be made monkey of! I am injured party. My father dead, you take stones and I am offer only five thousand pounds. Police make trouble for everyone, self included. That I know. Death for Duke if he go to prison, yes. But bad business for me too, I admit. Both sides tell many lies. Some on both sides found out. Who wins? No one; like atom bomb war. That we make deal is sense. But only if fair. You give me blood-money. Good blood-money. If not I face what come to self for sake of revenge, and old Duke die.’
To the surprise of his friends de Richleau nodded. ‘You are quite right. If either of us discloses what has happened here tonight he is going to suffer severely for it; so we should be wise to come to some arrangement. I think it would be best, though, if we forget all this business about I O Us and Deeds of Gift by which I should make over Olenevka to you as an act of restitution for injustice. Instead why should we not adhere to our original contract as though your father had no ulterior motive when he suggested it? The estate and mine are worth fifteen thousand pounds. You have a copy of the contract duly signed and witnessed. You can see for yourself that for me to contest it by declaring that it was extracted from me by threats would mean bringing about the police inquiries we both wish to avoid. Use it to claim Olenevka and, as per contract, I take away the jewels.’
After a moment’s consideration Lalita replied, ‘The idea is good. But it is not enough. Also I must have I O U five thousand pounds.’
‘No!’ said the Duke firmly. ‘You get Olenevka or nothing. Refuse my offer and I’ll take Mr. Rajapakse’s advice and call in the police myself. I am still strong enough to stand up to a short time in prison. Mr. Rajapakse will then get me out on bail. And I can’t be charged with murder. At worst it will be manslaughter. If I disclose this whole business to the police now I’ll have a better case than you have, and I’ll get you for complicity in attempted murder.’
‘The old Lord is right, Lalita,’ Mirabelle put in, after a puff at a newly lit cigarette. ‘He look very frail I know. But to fight you all this time he must inside be very tough. I think you come off worse than him in long run if you challenge him with police. Olenevka is good place. We be very happy there. You take and we forget altogether this bad night we have of much argument.’
Lalita gave her a long look then turned and nodded to the Duke. ‘O.K. I agrees. I settle for Olenevka.’
Frowning at him, Douglas said sharply, ‘You can consider yourself lucky. As a lawyer I am convinced that we could have torn to pieces any case you brought; and had it not been for the danger to my client, at his age, of spending even a few days in prison I am convinced that I could have got you a really stiff sentence.’
‘You disappointed, eh?’ Lalita scowled at him. ‘And think I come out of this well. But I do not think. I have Olenevka but he have stones; so I get bad end of stick. Ten thousand pounds of bad end. Perhaps much more as Olenevka not working good these days. This I not forget. Soon your Brit
ish friends go from Ceylon. But as Sinhalese with business here you stay put. For help you give these peoples sometime, not too long distant, I make you pay.’
With a shrug, Douglas turned to the others. ‘We had better not go off with their weapons. He’s quite capable of issuing a search warrant and, if they were found in the possession of one of us, bringing a charge of theft.’
De Richleau nodded. ‘As we leave you can throw them into the bushes in the garden, where it will take some time to find them.’ Then he pushed the jewel case into the pocket of his overcoat, picked up his Malacca cane, made a little formal bow to Mirabelle and led the way from the room.
A quarter of an hour later he and his friends were back at the Galle Face and assembled in his sitting room. Douglas was telephoning Fleur to let her know that all was well and that he would be home shortly, while Simon and Rex were mixing brandies and soda for them all. The Duke was slumped in an armchair, now looking very grey-faced and limp after the many hours of ordeal and strain he had been through.
Simon brought him a drink and, looking very concerned, said:
‘Place for you is bed. You can have your drink there. Come on. I’ll give you a hand to undress.’
‘No,’ replied the Duke. ‘There are one or two things we ought to settle. I’ll drink this here.’
Simon shook his head. ‘Plenty of time to hold an inquest on this filthy business tomorrow. Or later today, rather. You’re not to get up, though. We’ll all meet in your bedroom after lunch.’
‘Thanks for your concern, my son; but we must talk for a few minutes now. It’s about the Olenevka estate.’
‘What about it? Lalita will have it now, and good riddance. You always said it didn’t mean a thing to you, anyway.’
‘It doesn’t. Even so, I am determined that my would-be murderer shall not enjoy it.’
‘I don’t see how you can prevent him from doing so now,’ Douglas remarked. ‘That is, unless you mean to go back on your word and contest the contract on the grounds that it was improperly witnessed.’
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