The Sign of the Seven Sins
into my safe-keeping. I took it, for, truth to tell, I knew that he
could make some very unwelcome revelations to the police regarding
this place and the character of the play here. Therefore I decided
that, after all, silence was best, even though I held in my possession
the thimble which, I presume, in his hurry to escape from the room
fell upon the floor and rolled away. I took the notes, and for some
days kept them, but finding that the police were making such active
inquiries I returned them to him, and he then resolved upon giving them
to Miss Rosselli, either in order to further baffle the detectives or
to throw suspicion upon her. He told her some extraordinary story about
meeting in London, merely, of course, to put the police off the scent
and cause them to believe that the money was stolen by English thieves!
Soon afterwards I knew that M’sieur Cameron was aware of the manner
in which his friend had been cheated here, and then, in fear of being
arrested on suspicion, I fled to Russia, arranging with my friends to
return here on the first of May--to-day.”
“The date of your return I learnt from Laumont himself,” explained
Ernest, “for in the course of my inquiries immediately after the tragic
affair I found that he was your associate, and in order to divert
suspicion from himself he hinted at you as being the assassin.”
“He denounced me, not knowing that I held this evidence of his guilt in
my hand!” she cried, holding forth the finger with the curious-looking
thimble upon it. “Poor M’sieur Thorne is, I fear, not the first victim
who has fallen beneath the prick of this deadly instrument.”
“To whom do you refer?” inquired the detective quickly.
“To M’sieur Everton, the young Englishman, who was found dead one night
a year ago in the Avenue des Acacias.”
In an instant the man Laumont sprang at her with all the fury of a wild
beast, and clutching at her throat tried to strangle her. His eyes were
lit by the fierce fire of uncontrollable anger, his dark, bushy hair
giving his white face a wild and hideous look, and for an instant, in
the confusion before the detectives could throw themselves upon him,
it seemed as though he would tear limb from limb the woman who had
confessed.
For a moment the detectives and the pair were mixed in a struggling
mass, when suddenly a loud yell of pain escaped the wretched man, and
releasing his hold he drew back, with his left hand clasped upon his
wrist.
He staggered, swayed unevenly, uttering fierce and terrible
imprecations.
“Dieu!” he gasped. “You--_you’ve killed me_!”
What had happened was next instant plain. In the struggle the point of
his dastardly invention, which was still upon the woman’s finger, had
entered deeply the fleshy part of his wrist, injecting that poison that
was so swift, and to which there was no known antidote.
He staggered. Two detectives sprang forward to seize him, but ere they
could do so he reeled, clutched the air, and fell heavily backward,
overturning the small table beside which he had been standing.
The scene which ensued was ghastly. I shall remember it through all my
life.
Five minutes later, however, the wretched man who had thus brought
card-sharping and murder to a fine art had breathed his last in
frightful agony, his ignominious career ended by his own diabolical
invention.
CHAPTER XXI
CONTAINS THE CONCLUSION
Need I dwell further upon the stirring events of that night? It is
assuredly sufficient to say that the arrests made by the police
numbered nearly forty persons, all of whom were charged with various
offences, in addition to being found in an illicit gaming-house. Many
of them, old offenders and desperate characters notwithstanding the
fact that they were outwardly respectable members of society, in due
course received long periods of imprisonment, but Julie Fournereau, in
consideration of the information she had given regarding poor Reggie’s
death, was dismissed with a fine of two thousand francs as owner of the
house in question, and has since disappeared into obscurity.
Ulrica arrived in Paris next day with Gerald, and was absolutely
dumfounded when we related the whole of the amazing story. That day
too proved the happiest in all my life! Need I relate how on the
following morning Ernest sought me and begged me to forgive? Or how,
with tears of joy, I allowed him to hold me once more in his strong
arms as of old and shower hot, fervent kisses upon my brow? No. If I
were to commence to relate the joys that have now come to me I should
far exceed the space of a single volume. It is enough that you, reader,
to whom I have made confession, should know that within a fortnight we
all returned to New York by way of Liverpool, and that while Ulrica
became engaged to Gerald and soon afterwards married him with the old
man’s heartiest approval, Ernest again asked me to become his wife--a
contract which was fulfilled amid great éclat within a month of our
arrival back in Washington.
Ulrica tells me that she is no longer world-weary, living only for
excitement, as in those fevered days by-gone, but that her life is full
of a peaceful happiness that cannot be surpassed. Nevertheless I cannot
really bring myself to believe that she is any happier than I am with
Ernest, for the estrangement has rendered him all the more dear to me,
and we are indeed supremely content in each other’s perfect love. Mrs.
Thorne has returned to her home in Philadelphia, fully satisfied at
having cleared up the mystery surrounding poor Reggie’s tragic death,
while old Benjamin Keppel, of Pittsburg, still spends his winters in
rather lonely grandeur in his great white villa amid the palms outside
Nice, working in secret at his ivory-turning and giving at intervals
those princely entertainments for which he has become so famed in the
cosmopolitan society which suns itself upon the Riviera.
As for Ernest and myself, we have not visited Nice since, for we retain
a far too vivid recollection of those dark days of doubt, desperation,
and despair--and of our strange and tragic meeting at The Sign of the
Seven Sins.
THE END.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.
Perceived typographical errors have been corrected.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.
Archaic or variant spelling has been retained.