Читать книгу The Shadow Crook - Aidan de Brune - Страница 9

Table of Contents

"My dear Norma, a dealer sells to the best advantage he can obtain."

"A dealer? A. blackmailer!" Every muscle of the girl's body was shaken with emotion. "You promised your silence if I would compensate you for the loss of your pearls—at your extravagant valuation. I promised I would and I have kept my part of the bargain. In a month or so I will pay you the balance of the sum still owing. Then I hope never to see your evil face again."

"A hope, I flatter myself, your loving husband will not share." The fixed smile on the lips of Abel Mintos broadened. "I had hoped the famous and beautiful Norma Etheringham and I could have become good—er—friends."

"Friends? With you?" There was loathing in the girl's tones. "Tell me, Abel Mintos, what have you come here for?"

"Shall I say, curiosity?" Mintos rose from his chair and passed to where the girl sat. "No. Here it is possible to tell the truth. Norma, why did you take this flat? Who is the 'friend' you are waiting for here—at this time of the night?"

"What do you mean?" There was a horrified understanding in the girl's eyes.

"What I say. Do you take me an innocent in this world? Bah! I find you in this building—in this flat—and you tell me you are waiting for a friend. Do you think I don't understand that every word you say!—everything around me—does not shriek the truth? You are here to meet a lover! Can you deny it?"

"You lie!"

"Lie, do I?" The man laughed sardonically. "Lie, when every fibre of my body has ached for you from the moment I first saw you. Yes, Norma, I traced you down after your father went behind prison bars. I wanted my pearls, or their price. I guessed there was money about and that his schoolgirl daughter would have the control of it. I found you, the wife of a rich man. I—"

"Blackmailed me."

"I wanted my own—or you—and that road led to one, or both." Mintos bent over the girl, cowering in the deep chair. "When I found you I knew it was you I wanted. I have watched and waited—waited while that fool, Etheringham, talked and groused. Watched—until I traced you here, and knew I had won. Norma, you have come here to meet some lover, but you will send him away. Yes, I have come here, and you shall send him away, and we—"

"Never!" Norma sprang to her feet, fending away the man's clutching hands. "You don't know—you don't understand. I—"

"What would Stanley think if he came here? Look around you, Norma. This house, with its reputation, not only in this neighbourhood, but throughout Sydney. This room, with the table set for a supper for lovers. Would he believe you—jealous beast, as you know him to he? You know you dare not challenge me."

"You beast! You coward!" Norma, her hands clasped over her slender breasts, faced the man defiantly.

"Oh, if I only could—"

"But you cannot!" The man's squat hand shot out and closed over her arm. "Damn the pearls! They're yours. I'll find them and you shall wear them on your beautiful white neck. Damn the sapphires! You—"

"The sapphires are not yours to dispose of! Thank Heaven, for that. If they were, I suppose you would be blackmailing me for them, as well as the pearls."

"Are they not?" The Jew's lips were but few inches from the girl's face. "Are they not? But a few weeks ago my agents in Melbourne offered Mrs. Kynaston a sum of money for the reversion of the sapphires, if ever found. She jumped at the chance to get something for her jewels. To-day the sapphires belong to me."

With a sudden wrench Norma freed herself and darted to the other side of the table. Mintos made a futile grab at her, then straightened himself and laughed.

"The pearls and the sapphires! Norma, do you know those sapphires are valued at five thousand pounds? Am I to add that to what you owe me for the White Trinity? Be reasonable, girl! I'll wipe out that debt. I'll find the jewels and give them to you. See, I'll give you a cheque now for what you have paid me for the pearls. Take it, Norma, and give me in exchange—the key of the flat."

"You —— thing!" White with rage the girl moved around the table until she stood facing the leering man. "But you shall know, and then—" With a quick movement she thrust the man to one side and flung open the door.

"Dad! Come here! Abel Mintos, of Broome, is here and would like to see you."

She retreated a few steps and stood waiting. Mintos had turned and was pulling at his little moustache with frowning impatience. There was a long wait and then from the room walked the old man, looking from Norma to the Jew in puzzled astonishment.

"Good God!" Mintos retreated almost to the wall. "Stacey Carr, and alive!"

"Dad!" The girl spoke hysterically. "Look at him, this man! Years ago he sought me out and threatened unless I compensated him for his loss of the White Trinity he would expose me to my husband, as your daughter. Now, he comes here, spying on me and offering to relinquish his so-called claims—the claims I have almost liquidated, and more—to give me the Kynaston sapphires, if—if—Oh, I can't say it. It's too horrible!"

"Stacey Carr!" The Jew was looking at the man before him, triumph growing in his small glittering eyes. "By Jove, the game's in my hands! Stacey Carr, the crook, who died in gaol—free and in the company of his daughter!"

For minutes there followed a deathly silence, broken by peals of hysterical laughter from the girl. Slowly the eyes of the Jew turned to her, a shade of perplexity dimming the glow of triumph. Again, he turned to stare at the ex-convict.

"Stacey Carr, by all that's wonderful." Mintos' voice rose high in a paean of triumph. "Now I have you, Norma Etheringham. Now you lie in the hollow of my hand. Stacey Carr, the—"

"Excuse me. Not Stacey Carr, but Frederick Mayne, late chief accountant of the Western States Assurance Company, convicted three years ago of fraud and embezzlement."

Norma turned, in wide-eyed wonderment. Just within the door of the room stood a man dressed in a worn, brown overcoat, a dark grey hat pulled low over his eyes. The collar of the overcoat was fastened well across the lower part of his face so that little but the eyes were visible.

"Who are you?" The Jew took a step towards the man, to halt suddenly at the imperative motion of the newcomer's hand, holding a small automatic.

"Does that concern you?" The Shadow Crook's voice was low and easy. "A moment ago you were concerned with our friend on the other side of the room. You named him Stacey Carr, but Stacey Carr died in prison, yesterday."

"It's a lie!" Mintos stepped forward again, in spite of the threatening gun. "I'll swear he is Stacey Carr and so will the police when I fetch them."

"Will you fetch them?" A hint of laughter ran through the master-crook's voice. "Prove it. The police will tell you he is Frederick Mayne. They will prove him so. Then they will turn their attention to you, Abel Mintos. They will want to know your interest in this matter. They will want to know the secret history of the White Trinity. They will ask you where they can find Sani Kai, the pearl diver, who brought the White Trinity from the bottom of the ocean. They may want to know why Abel Mintos recently purchased the Kynaston sapphires from their former own er while they are still missing, after nearly five years."

As the crook spoke his fingers stole towards the light switch near where he was standing. With the last words he plunged the room into sudden darkness. Mintos—with a howl of rage sprang forward and threw on the lights. The room was empty and the door shut. He flung it open and sped into the hall. The door to the corridor stood ajar.