The Third Round

by Sapper

  He glanced at the haggard, staring eyes of the man confronting him; he noted the twitching hands, and he made up his mind. After all, it was easy to go from kindness to threats, whereas the converse was difficult. And though he had reluctantly to admit to himself that burning a man’s arm on red-hot metal can hardly be regarded as the act of a personal friend, there was no good worrying about it. It had been done, and could not be undone. All that he could do now was to try to efface the recollection of it as far as possible.

  “Sit down, Professor,” he said gently. “I feel that I owe you some explanation.”

  With a groan the other sank back into his chair.

  “Will you have a cigar?” went on Mr Robinson easily, holding out his case. “You don’t smoke? You should. Most soothing to the nerves. In the first place I must apologise for not having made things clearer to you before, but this slight contretemps with Drummond has kept me rather fully occupied. Now I want you to recall to your mind the interviews that you had with Sir Raymond Blantyre.”

  “I recall them perfectly,” answered the Professor, and Mr Robinson noted with quiet satisfaction that he seemed to be less agitated.

  “He offered you, did he not? a large sum of money for the suppression of your secret, which you refused – and very rightly refused. But, my dear Professor, do you really imagine for a moment that an unscrupulous blackguard of his type was going to lie down and accept your refusal? If you chose to refuse the money, so much the better for him; but whether you refused or accepted, he intended to suppress you. And but for me” – he paused impressively – “he would have done.”

  Professor Goodman passed a bewildered hand across his forehead.

  “But for me,” repeated Mr Robinson, “you would now be dead – foully murdered. You have never in your life – and I trust you never will again – been in such deadly peril as you were in a few days ago. Indeed, if it were known now that you were alive, I fear that even I would be powerless to save you.”

  He drew carefully at his cigar; then he leaned forward and touched the Professor on the knee.

  “Have you ever heard of a man called Peterson?”

  “Never,” returned the other.

  “No – probably not. You and he hardly move in the same circles. Peterson, of course, is only one of the many names by which that arch-devil is known. He is a King of Criminals – a man without mercy – a black-hearted villain.” Mr Robinson’s voice shook with the intensity of his emotion. “And to that man Sir Raymond Blantyre went with a certain proposal. Do you know what that proposal was? It concerned you and your death. You were to be murdered before you gave your secret to the world.”

  “The villain!” cried Professor Goodman, in a shaking voice. “To think that I’ve had him to dinner, and that his wife is a friend of ours.”

  Mr Robinson smiled pityingly.

  “My dear Professor,” he said, “I’m afraid that your life has been lived far apart from the realities of the world. Do you really suppose that such a trifle as that would have weighed for one instant with Sir Raymond Blantyre? However, I will get on with my explanation. It matters not how I discovered these things: I will merely say that for twenty years now I have dogged this man Peterson as his shadow. He did me the greatest wrong one man can do another: I won’t say any more.”

  Mr Robinson choked slightly.

  “I have dogged him, Professor,” he went on after a while, “as I say, for twenty years, hoping – always hoping – that the time would come for my revenge. I have lived for nothing else; I have thought of nothing else. But one thing I was determined on – that my revenge when it did come should be a worthy one. A dozen times could I have given him away to the police, but I stayed my hand. When it came, I wanted the thing to be more personal. And at last the opportunity did come. It came with you.”

  “With me?” echoed Professor Goodman. “How can I have had anything to do with your revenge on this man?”

  “That is what I am just going to explain to you,” continued Mr Robinson. “In this man Peterson, Sir Raymond Blantyre had encountered a blackguard far more subtle than himself. Peterson was perfectly prepared to murder you – but he had no intention of murdering the secret of your process. That he proposed to keep for himself – so that he could continue blackmailing Sir Raymond. You see the manner of blackguard he is. It was a scheme after his own heart, and I made up my mind to strike at last. Apart from frustrating the monstrous crime of murdering you, I should achieve an artistic revenge.”

  He again pulled thoughtfully at his cigar.

  “Now pay close attention, Professor. Scheidstrun the German scientist made an appointment to see you, didn’t he?”

  “He was with me when I was chloroformed,” cried the other.

  Mr Robinson smiled.

  “No, he wasn’t. A man you thought was Scheidstrun was with you.”

  “But – good heavens!” gasped the Professor. “I met him in the hall. I was late, I remember…”

  “And, as you say, you met him in the hall talking to your maidservant.”

  “But how on earth did you know that?”

  “Because the man you met in the hall was not Scheidstrun – but me.” He laughed genially at the amazement on the other’s face. “It’s a shame to keep you mystified any further; I will explain everything. It was Peterson who made the original appointment with you, writing in Scheidstrun’s hand. What he intended to do I know not; how he intended to murder you I am not prepared to say. But the instant I discovered about it, I realised that there was not a moment to be lost. So I took the liberty, my dear Professor, of posing over the telephone as your secretary. I rang up Peterson, and speaking in an assumed voice I postponed his appointment with you until the following day. And then I took his place. I may say that I am not unskilled in the art of disguise, and I knew I could make myself up to resemble Scheidstrun quite sufficiently well to deceive you.”

  “But why on earth didn’t you tell me at the time?” said Professor Goodman, peering at the speaker suspiciously.

  Once again the other laughed.

  “My dear fellow, surely Mrs Goodman must, during the course of your married life, have let you into the secret of one of your characteristics. Or has she been too tactful? You are, as I think you must admit yourself, a little obstinate, aren’t you?” He dropped his tone of light banter, and became serious. “I don’t think – in fact, I know you don’t realise the deadly peril you were in. Even had I succeeded in convincing you on the matter, and you had agreed to come away and hide yourself, you would not have consented to the destruction of your laboratory. And that was essential. As long as Peterson thought you were alive he would have found you wherever you had hidden yourself. It was therefore of vital importance that he should think you dead – as he does now. Big issues, my dear Professor, require big treatments.”

  Mr Robinson, having delivered himself of this profound utterance, leaned back in his chair and gazed at his listener. Bland assurance radiated from his mutton-chop whiskers, but his mind was busy. How was the old fool taking it? He still had his trump card to play, but he wanted that to win the game without possibility of failure. And as his mental metaphors grew a little mixed, he realised that it must fall on carefully prepared soil.

  Professor Goodman stirred uneasily in his chair.

  “I really can hardly believe all this,” he said at length. “Why is all this deception necessary? Why have I to pose as your brother? And why, above all, have you tortured me?”

  “Let me answer your last point first if I can,” said Mr Robinson. “And yet I can’t. Even if I can persuade you to forgive me, I never shall be able to forgive myself. Sudden anger, Professor, makes men do strange things – dreadful things. And I was furious with rage when I found that you had deliberately failed in the experiment. I realise now that I should have explained everything to you to s
tart with. But I suppose my hatred of Peterson and my wish for revenge blinded me to other things. Everything, as I have told you, is subservient to that in my mind. Bringing you here, making you pose as my brother – what was all that done for except to throw that devil off the scent should he by any chance suspect? And at present he does not. He believes that the secret for which he would have given untold gold has perished with you. He is angry, naturally, at what he considers a buffet of fate, but that is no use to me as a revenge. He must know that it was not fate – but I who wrecked his scheme. He must know that not only has he lost the secret forever – but that I have got it. There will be my revenge for which I have waited twenty years.” His eyes glistened, and he shook his fists in the air. “And then and not till then will it be safe for you to go back and join your wife.”

  Professor Goodman leapt from his chair.

  “You mean that?” he cried. “You will let me go?”

  Mr Robinson gazed at him in pained surprise; then he bowed his head.

  “I deserve it,” he said in a low voice. “I deserve your bad opinion of me, firstly for not having told you, but especially for my vile and inexcusable loss of temper. But surely you can never have believed I was going to keep you here for good. Why” – he gave a little pained laugh – “it’s almost as if you thought I was a murderer. Foolish I may have been, obsessed with one idea, but I never thought that you would think quite as badly of me as that. After all, believe me or not as you like, I saved your life.”

  He rose from his chair and paced thoughtfully up and down the room.

  “No, no, my dear fellow – please reassure yourself on that point. The very instant it is safe for you to do so, you shall return to your wife.”

  “But when will it be safe?” cried the Professor excitedly.

  “When Peterson knows that your secret is in my possession, and that therefore murdering you will avail him nothing,” answered Mr Robinson calmly.

  “But how do I know you will keep your word?”

  “You don’t,” said the other frankly. “You’ve got to trust me. At the same time I beg of you to use your common sense. Of what possible advantage is it to me to keep you here? I shall have to trust you to take no steps to incriminate me, and that I am fully prepared to do. My quarrel is not with you, Professor; nor is it with that young man Drummond. But quite by accident he got between me and my life’s object – and he had to be removed. So is it fair to Mrs Goodman to keep her in this dreadful sorrow for one moment longer than is necessary? The very instant you have given me your secret, and your word of honour that you will say nothing to the police, you have my word of honour that you are free to go.”

  “But what do you propose to do with my secret when you’ve got it?” asked the Professor. He was watching his captor with troubled eyes, wondering what to believe.

  “Do with it?” cried the other exultantly. “I propose to seek out Peterson and let him know that I have got what he has missed. And if you but knew the man, you would realise that no more wonderful revenge could be thought of.”

  “Yes, yes – I see all that,” said the Professor irritably. “But in the event of my giving the secret to the world – what then?”

  Mr Robinson curbed a rising desire to throttle the old man in the chair. Never had his self-control been so severely tried as it was now; precious moments were flying when every one was of value. But true to his new policy he kept every hint of irritation out of his voice as he answered.

  “I shall have to have your promise also on that point, Professor. For one year you will have to keep your discovery to yourself. That will be sufficient for my revenge.”

  He realised that had he made no proviso of that sort it would have been enough to raise the other’s suspicions, for Professor Goodman was no fool. He also realised that if he made the period too long the other’s inherent pig-headedness might tempt him to refuse. So he compromised on a year, and to his intense relief it looked as if the old man was inclined to consider it favourably. He still sat motionless, but his brow was wrinkled in thought, and he drummed incessantly with his fingers on the arms of his chair.

  “One year,” he said at length. “For I warn you, sir, that all the Petersons in the world will not prevent me publishing my discovery then.”

  “One year will be sufficient,” said Mr Robinson quietly.

  “And will you on your side,” continued the Professor, “promise not to publish it before that date?”

  Mr Robinson concealed a smile.

  “I undoubtedly will promise that,” he answered.

  “And the instant you possess the secret I may go to my wife?”

  Mr Robinson’s pulse was beating a little quicker than normal. Could it be that he had succeeded in bluffing him?

  “As soon as Peterson knows that the secret of the process is mine – and that will be very soon – you may go. Before that it would not be safe.”

  “And if I refuse?”

  For a moment or two Mr Robinson did not reply; he seemed to be weighing his words with care.

  “Need we discuss that, Professor?” he said at length. “I have already told you the main – almost the sole – object of my life: revenge on this man Peterson. Rightly or wrongly, I have decided that this is my opportunity for obtaining it. I have gone to an immensity of trouble and risk to achieve my object, and though, as I said, I have no quarrel with you, yet, Professor, you are an essential part of my scheme. Without you I must fail; I make no bones about it. And I do not want to fail. So should you still refuse, your wife will go on thinking herself a widow until you change your mind. It rests with you and you alone.”

  His eyes, shrewd and penetrating, searched the old man’s face. Had he said enough, or had he said too much? Like an open book he read the other’s mind: saw doubt, indecision, despair, succeed one another in rapid succession. And then suddenly he almost stopped breathing. For the Professor had risen to his feet, and Mr Robinson knew that one way or the other he had come to a decision.

  “Very well, sir,” said the old man wearily. “I give in. It seems that the only way of setting my poor wife’s mind at rest as soon as possible is for me to trust you. I will tell you my process.”

  Mr Robinson drew in his breath in a little whistling hiss, but his voice was quite steady as he answered.

  “You have decided very wisely,” he remarked. “And since there is no time like the present, I think we will have a bottle of champagne and some sandwiches to fortify us, and then get on with the experiment at once.”

  “As you will,” said the Professor. “And then perhaps tomorrow you will let me go.”

  Mr Robinson glanced at his watch.

  “Today, Professor,” he remarked jovially. “It is past midnight. And I can promise you that should your experiment succeed, you will leave this house today.”

  He watched the champagne bring back some colour to the other’s cheeks, and then he produced his notebook.

  “To save time,” he said, “I propose to write down the name of each salt as you take it, and the amount you use. Does it make any difference in what order the salts are mixed?”

  “None whatever,” answered the Professor. “Provided they are all mixed properly. No chemical reaction takes place until the heat is applied.”

  “And to make it perfectly certain, you had better give me the formula for each salt at the same time,” continued Mr Robinson.

  At first the old man’s fingers trembled so much that he could hardly use the balance, but Mr Robinson betrayed no impatience. And after a while the enthusiasm of the scientist supplanted everything else, and the Professor became absorbed in his task. Entry after entry was made in Mr Robinson’s neat handwriting, and gradually the look of triumph deepened in his eyes. Success had come at last.

  Of pity for the poor old man opposite he felt no trace; pity w
as a word unknown in his vocabulary. And so for an hour in the silent house the murderer and his victim worked on steadily, until, at length, the last salt was mixed, the last entry made. The secret was in Mr Robinson’s possession. Not for another four hours would he be absolutely certain; the test of the electric furnace would furnish the only conclusive proof. But short of that he felt as sure as a man may feel that there had been no mistake this time, and his eyes were gleaming as he rose from the table.

  “Excellent, my dear Professor,” he murmured. “You have been lucidity itself. Now all that remains is to start up our current and await results.”

  “The results will be there,” answered the other. “That I know.”

  He opened the furnace door and placed the retort inside; then, switching on the current, he sank wearily into his chair.

  “You don’t think it will be long, do you, before you can convince this man Peterson?” he said with a pathetic sort of eagerness.

  “I can assure you that it won’t be,” returned the other, with an enigmatic smile. “I keep in very close touch with him.”

  “Because I would be prepared to run any risk in order to let my dear wife know that I am alive as soon as possible.”

  Mr Robinson nodded sympathetically.

  “Of course you would, my dear fellow. I quite understand that. But I feel that I must safeguard you even against your own inclinations. The instant, however, that I consider it safe, you shall go back.”

  “Can’t I even write to her?” queried the other.

  Mr Robinson affected to consider the point; then regretfully he shook his head.

  “No – not even that,” he answered. “I know this man Peterson too well. In fact, Professor, I am not even going to allow you to return to your wife from this house. It is better and safer for you that you should remain in ignorance of where you have been, and so I propose to take you for a short sea-voyage in my yacht and land you on another part of the coast. From the boat you will be able to radio to your wife, so that her mind will be set at rest. And then when you finally rejoin her, I would suggest your pleading sudden loss of memory to account for your mysterious disappearance.”