CHAPTER XXIX

LINK SETS A TRAP

In the course of their acquaintance, Diana had put up with a great deal

from the little American adventuress, owing to her position of

stepmother, but when she heard her accusing the man she had ruined of

murder, the patience of Miss Vrain gave way. She rose quickly, and

walking over to where Lydia was shrinking in her chair, towered in

righteous indignation above the shameless little woman.

"You lie, Mrs. Vrain!" she said in a low, distinct voice, with a flushed

face and indignation in her eyes. "You know you lie!"

"I--I only repeat what Ferruci told me," whimpered Lydia, rather alarmed

by the attitude of her stepdaughter. "I'm sure I hope Mark didn't kill

the man, but Ercole said that he was in Jersey Street for that purpose."

"It is not true! My father was in the asylum at Hampstead!"

"Indeed he wasn't--not at the time Clear was killed!" protested Lydia.

"He was not put into the asylum until at least two weeks after

Christmas. Is that not so, Mr. Denzil?"

"It is so," assented Lucian gravely, "but even admitting so much, it is

impossible to believe that Mr. Vrain was in Jersey Street. For many

months before Christmas he was in charge of Mrs. Clear, at Bayswater."

"So Ercole said," replied Lydia, "but he used to get away from Mrs.

Clear at times, and had to be brought back."

"He wandered when he got the chance," said Lucian, with hesitation. "I

admit as much."

"Well, then, when he was not at Bayswater he used to live in Jersey

Street as Wrent. Ferruci found him out there, and tried to get him to go

back, and he took Mrs. Clear several times to the same place in order to

persuade him to return to Bayswater. That was why Mrs. Clear visited

Jersey Street. Oh, Mark played his part there as Mr. Wrent, I guess;

there ain't no two questions about that," finished Lydia triumphantly.

"He is the assassin, you bet!"

"I don't believe it!" cried Diana furiously. "Why, my father is too weak

in the head to have the will, let alone the courage, to masquerade like

that. He is like a child in leading-strings."

"That's his cunning, Diana. He's 'cute enough to pretend madness, so

that he won't be hanged!"

"It is impossible that Vrain can be Wrent," said Lucian decidedly. "I

agree with Miss Vrain; he is too weak and irresponsible to carry out

such a deed. Besides, I don't see how you prove him guilty of the

murder; you do not even know that he could enter the Silent House by the

secret way."

"I don't know anything about it, except what Count Ferruci told me,"

said Lydia obstinately. "And he said that Vrain, as Wrent, killed Clear.

But you can easily prove if it's true or not."

"How can we prove it?" asked Diana coldly.

"By laying a trap for Mark. You know--at least Ercole told me, and I

suppose Mrs. Clear told you--that she corresponded with Mark--Wrent, I

mean--in the agony column of the _Daily Telegraph_.

"By means of a cypher? Yes, I know that, but she hasn't received any

answer yet."

"Of course not," replied Lydia, with triumph, "because Wrent--that's

Mark, you know--is in the asylum, and can't answer her."

"This is all nonsense!" broke in Lucian, impatient of this cobweb

spinning. "I don't believe a word of Ferruci's story. If Vrain lived in

Jersey Street as Wrent, why should Mrs. Clear visit him?"

"To get him back to Bayswater."

"Nonsense! nonsense! And even admitting as much, why should Mrs. Clear,

in the newspapers, correspond in cypher with a man whom she not only

knows is in an asylum as her husband, but who can be seen by her at any

time?"

"I quite agree with you, Lucian," cried Diana emphatically. "Count

Ferruci told a pack of falsehoods to Mrs. Vrain! The thing is utterly

absurd!"

"Oh, I guess I'm not so easily made a fool of as all that!" cried Lydia,

firing up. "If you don't believe me, lay the trap I told you of. Let

Mark go free out of the asylum; get Mrs. Clear, with her cypher and

newspapers, to ask him to meet her in the house where Clear was

murdered, and then you'll see if Mark won't turn up in his character of

Wrent."

"He will not!" cried Diana vehemently. "He will not!"

"Mark, when he left me," went on the angry Lydia, "had plenty of hair,

and was clean shaven. Now--as Ferruci told me, for I haven't seen

him--he is bald, and wears a skull-cap of black velvet, and a white

beard. After Ercole told me about Jersey Street I went there to ask that

fat woman about Mark; she said he had gone away two days after

Christmas, and described him as an old man with a skull-cap and a white

beard."

"Oh!" cried Lucian, for he recollected that Rhoda gave the same

description.

"Ah! you know I speak the truth!" said Lydia, rising, "but I've had

enough of all this. I've lost my money, and I don't suppose I'll go back

to Mark. I've been treated badly all round, and I don't know what poppa

will say. But I'm going out of London to meet him."

"You said you did not know where your father was!" cried Diana

scornfully.

"I don't tell you everything, Diana," retorted Lydia, looking very

wicked, "but, if you must know, poppa went over to Paris last week, and

I'm going over there to meet him. He'll raise Cain for the way I've been

treated."

"Well," said Lucian, as she prepared to take her leave, "I hope you'll

get away."

"Do you intend to stop me, Mr. Denzil?" flashed out Mrs. Vrain,

furiously.

"Not I; but I'll give you a hint--the railway stations will be watched

by the police."

"For me?" said Lydia, with a scared expression. "Oh, sakes! it's awful!

and I've done nothing. It's not my fault if I got the assurance money. I

really thought that Mark was dead. But I'll try and get away to poppa;

he'll put things right. Good-bye, Mr. Denzil, and Diana; you've done me

a heap of harm, but I don't bear malice," and Mrs. Vrain rushed out of

the room in a great hurry to escape the chance of arrest hinted at by

Lucian. She had a sharp eye to her own safety.

Diana waited until the cab which Lydia had kept waiting was driving

away, and then turned with an anxious expression on her face to look at

Lucian. "My dear," she said, taking his arm, "what do you think of

Lydia's accusation?"

"Against your father?" said Lucian. "Why, I don't believe it!"

"Nor do I; but it will be as well to set the trap she suggests; for if

my father does not fall into it--and as he is not Wrent, I don't believe

he will--the real man may keep the appointment with Mrs. Clear."

"Whosoever Wrent is, I don't think he'll come again to the Silent

House," replied the barrister, shaking his head. "It would be thrusting

his head into the lion's jaws. If he is in London he'll see the death

of Ferruci described in the papers, and no doubt will guess that the

game is up; so he'll keep away."

"Nevertheless, we'll do as Lydia suggests," said Diana obstinately. "You

see Mr. Link and Mrs. Clear, and arrange about the cypher. Then my

father is to be discharged as cured to-morrow, and I'll let him go out

if he pleases. Of course, I'll follow him; then I'll be able to see if

he goes to Pimlico."

"But, Diana, suppose he does go to the Silent House, and proves to be

Wrent?"

"He won't do that, my dear. My father is no more Wrent than you are. I

believe Lydia speaks in the full belief that he is; but Ferruci, for his

own ends, lied to her. However, to trap the real man, let us do as Lydia

suggests. The idea is a good one."

"Well, we'll try," said Lucian, with a sigh. "But I do hope, Diana, that

this case will end soon. Every week there is some fresh development in a

new direction, and I am getting quite bewildered over it."

"It will end with the capture of Wrent, the assassin."

"I hope so; and God grant Wrent does not prove to be your father!"

"There is no fear of that," said Diana gravely. "My father is insane

more or less, but he is not a murderer. I am quite content to risk the

trap suggested by that woman."

Lucian did not at once adopt the plan to net Wrent--whosoever he might

be--invented by Lydia, and approved of by Diana. On the whole, he could

not bring himself to believe that a weak-headed, foolish old creature

like Vrain had masqueraded in Jersey Street as Wrent. Still there were

certain suspicious incidents which fitted in very neatly with Ferruci's

story. Mrs. Clear had stated that Vrain, when under her charge, escaped

several times, and had remained away for several days, until brought

back again by the Count. Again, the appearance of Wrent, as described by

Rhoda, was precisely the same as the looks of Vrain when Lucian saw him

in the Hampstead asylum; so it seemed that there might be some truth in

the story.

"But it's impossible!" said Lucian to himself. "Vrain is half mad and

incapable of conducting his own life, or arranging so cleverly to commit

a crime. Also he had no money, and, had he lived in Jersey Street, would

not have been able to pay Mrs. Bensusan. There is something more in the

coincidence of this similarity of looks than meets the eye. I'll see

Link and hear what he has to say on the subject. It's time he found out

something."

The next day Lucian paid a visit to Link, but was not received very

amiably by that gentleman, who proved to be in a somewhat bad temper. He

was not altogether pleased with Lucian finding out more about the case

than he had discovered himself, and also--to further ruffle his

temper--the clever Lydia had given him the slip. He had called at her

Mayfair house with a warrant for her arrest, only to find out

that--having received timely warning from Ferruci's servant--she had

fled. In vain the railway stations had been watched. Lydia, taking the

hint given to her by Lucian, had baffled that peril by taking the Dover

train at a station outside London.

Lucian heard what Link had to say on the subject, but did not reveal the

fact that Lydia had paid a visit to Diana, or had gone to meet her

father at Dover. He did not want to give the little woman up to justice,

as he was beginning to believe her innocent; and that, in all truth, she

had known nothing of the Ferruci-Wrent conspiracy.

Therefore, giving no information to Link as to the little woman's

whereabouts, Denzil told--as coming from himself--his idea that Wrent

might fall into a trap set for him in the Pimlico House by means of Mrs.

Clear's cypher. Link listened to the tale attentively, and decided to

adopt the idea.

"It is a good one," he admitted generously, "and I'm not jealous enough

to cut off my nose to spite my face. You have had the better of me all

through this case, Mr. Denzil, and we have had words over it; but I'll

show you that I can appreciate your cleverness by adopting your plan."

"I am greatly obliged to you for your good opinion," said Lucian drily,

for he saw with some humour that Link was only too anxious to benefit by

the very cleverness of which he pretended to be so jealous. "And you

will see Mrs. Clear?"

"Yes; I'll see her at once, and get her to invite Wrent to Pimlico by

that cypher, with a threat that she will betray the whole plot if he

does not come."

"I daresay he knows already that Mrs. Clear is a traitress?"

"Impossible!" replied Link quickly. "I have kept Mrs. Clear's name out

of the papers. It is known that Ferruci is dead, and that Mrs. Vrain is

likely to be arrested in connection with her supposed husband's murder.

But the fact of Mrs. Clear putting the real Vrain into the asylum is not

known, nor, indeed, anything about the woman. If Wrent thinks she'll

tell tales, he'll meet her in their own hunting grounds in Geneva

Square, to make his terms. Hitherto he has not replied to her requests

for money, but now he'll think she is driven into a corner, and will fix

her up once and for all."

"Do you think that Wrent is Vrain?"

"Good Lord! no!" replied Link, staring. "What put that into your head?"

Lucian immediately told about the supposed connection between Vrain and

Wrent, but, suppressing that it was Lydia's or Ferruci's idea, based his

supposition on the fact of the resemblance between the two men. Link

heard the theory with scorn, and scouted the idea that the two men could

be one and the same.

"I've seen Vrain," said he. "The old man is as mad as a March hare and

as silly as a child. He's in his dotage, and could not possibly carry

out such a plan. But we can easily learn the truth."

"From whom?" asked Lucian.

"Ah, Mr. Denzil, you are not so clever as you think yourself," scoffed

Link. "Why, from Mrs. Clear, to be sure. She visited at Jersey Street,

and saw Wrent, and as Vrain was then with her in the character of her

husband, she'll be able to tell us if they are two men or one person."

"You are right, Link. I never thought of that."

"He! he! Then I can still teach you something," replied Link, in high

good humour at having for once scored off the too clever barrister, and

forthwith went off to see Mrs. Clear.

How this interview with that lady sped, or what she told him, he refused

to reveal to Lucian; but its result was that a cypher appeared in the

agony column of the _Daily Telegraph_, calling upon Wrent to meet her in

the Silent House in Pimlico, under the penalty of her telling the police

all she knew if he did not come. In the same issue of the paper in which

this message appeared there was a paragraph stating that Mrs. Vrain had

been arrested at Dover.