Latest / The Three Just Men / Joan A Prisoner

Transcript

Joan A Prisoner · The Three Just Men

• 0:00
  Chapter thirty of The Three Just Men by Edgar Wallace. This LibriVox recording is
• 0:06
  in the public domain. Joan a prisoner, dazed with grief, not knowing,
• 0:13
  not seeing, not caring, not daring to think. Joan suffered herself
• 0:18
  to be led quickly into the obscurity of the side street, and did not
• 0:22
  even realize that Auberjan's big limousine had drawn up by the sidewalk. Get in,
• 0:27
  said the woman harshly. Joam was pushed through the door and guided to
• 0:31
  a seat by somebody who was already in the machine. She collapsed in a
• 0:35
  corner, moaning, as the door slammed and the car began to move.
• 0:39
  Where are we going? Let me get back to him. The gracious lady
• 0:44
  will please restrain her grief, said a hateful voice, and she swung round
• 0:48
  and stared unseeingly to the place. Whence the voice had come. The curtains
• 0:53
  of the car had been drawn. The interior was as black as pitch.
• 0:58
  You, you beast, she gasped. It's you, is it? Girtha
• 1:03
  you murdering beast. She struck at him feebly, but he caught her wrist.
• 1:08
  The gracious lady will most kindly restrain her grief. He said, suaftly,
• 1:12
  the hair Newton is not dead. It was a little trick in order
• 1:15
  to baffle certain interferes. You're lying, You're lying, she screamed, struggling
• 1:22
  to escape from those hands of steel. He's dead. You know he's dead,
• 1:26
  and you killed him, you snake man. The gracious lady must believe
• 1:32
  me, said Girtha earnestly. They were passing through a public part of the
• 1:36
  town, and at any moment a policeman might hear her shrieks. If hair
• 1:40
  Newton had not pretended to be hurt, he would have been arrested. He
• 1:42
  follows in the next car. You're trying to quiet me, she said,
• 1:48
  but I won't be quiet. And then a hand came over her mouth and
• 1:52
  pressed her head back against the cushions. She struggled desperately, but two fingers
• 1:57
  slid up her face and compressed her nostrils. She was being suffocated. She
• 2:01
  struggled to free herself from the tentacle hold of him, and then slipped into
• 2:06
  unconsciousness. Girther felt the straining figure go limp and removed his hands. She
• 2:10
  did not feel the prick of the needle on her wrist. Though the drugging
• 2:15
  was clumsily performed in the darkness and in a card that was swaying from side
• 2:19
  to side, He felt her pulse. His long fingers pressed her throat,
• 2:23
  and felt the throb of the carrotid artery, propping her so that she could
• 2:25
  not fall. Andre Girthur sank back luxuriously into a corner of the limousine and
• 2:30
  lit a cigar. The journey was soon over. In a very short time.
• 2:36
  They were bumping down Hangman's lane and turned so abruptly into the factory grounds
• 2:39
  that one of the mud guards buckled to the impact of the gate post.
• 2:45
  It must have been two hours after the departure of her companion when Mirabel,
• 2:50
  lying on her bed half dozing, was wakened by her books slipping to the
• 2:53
  floor, and sat up quickly to meet the uprising stare of the man whom,
• 2:58
  of all men in the world she disliked most. Cordially, doctor Aberjon
• 3:02
  had come noiselessly into the room, and under his arm was a pile of
• 3:06
  books. I have brought these for you, he said in his booming voice,
• 3:10
  and stacked them neatly on the table. She did not answer novels of
• 3:15
  a frivolous kind, such as you will enjoy, he said, unconscious of
• 3:20
  the fence, I desired the seller of the books to pick them for me.
• 3:23
  Fiction, stories of adventure and of amorous exchanges. These will occupy your
• 3:29
  mind, though to me they would be the merest rubbish and nonsense. She
• 3:32
  stood silently, her hands clasped behind her, watching him. He was neater
• 3:38
  than usual, and resumed the frack Coady wore the day she had first met
• 3:42
  him. How long ago, that seemed his collar was stiffly white, and
• 3:46
  if his cravat was more gorgeous than as usually seen in a man correctly arrayed,
• 3:51
  had had the complimentary value of being new. He held in his hand
• 3:55
  a small bouquet of flowers, tightly packed their stems and clothes in silver foil,
• 4:00
  a white paper frill, supplying an additional expression of gentility. These are
• 4:05
  for you, he jerked out his hand towards her. Mirabelle looked at the
• 4:11
  flowers, but did not take them. He seemed in no way disconcert it,
• 4:15
  either by her silence or by the antagonism which her attitude implied, But
• 4:19
  laying the flowers on top of the books, he clasped his hands before him
• 4:24
  and addressed her. He was nervous for some reason. The skin of his
• 4:28
  forehead was furrowing and smoothing with grotesque rapidity. She watched the contortions, fascinated
• 4:34
  to every man. He began, there comes a moment of domestic allurement.
• 4:40
  Even to the scientific mind, absorbed in its colossal problems, there was this
• 4:45
  desire for family life and for the haven of rest which is called marriage.
• 4:49
  He paused, as though he expected her to offer some comment upon his platitude.
• 4:56
  Man alone, he went on, when she did not speak, as
• 4:59
  a ste pablish an artificial and unnatural convention that at a certain age a man
• 5:03
  should marry a woman of that same age. Yet it has been proved by
• 5:09
  history that happy marriages are often between a man who is, in the eyes
• 5:12
  of the world old and a lady who was youthful. She was gazing at
• 5:17
  him in dismay. Was he proposing to her? The idea was incredible,
• 5:23
  almost revolting. He must have read in her face the thoughts that were uppermost
• 5:27
  in her mind, the loathing, the sense of repulsion which filled her.
• 5:30
  And Eddie went on unabashed. I am a man of great riches. You
• 5:35
  are a girl of considerable poverty. But because I saw you one day in
• 5:41
  your poor house, looking gracious lady, like a lily growing amidst foul weedze,
• 5:46
  my heart went out to you, and for this reason I brought you
• 5:48
  to London, spending many thousands of pounds in order to give myself the pleasure
• 5:53
  of your company. I don't think you need to go any further, doctor
• 5:57
  Objon, she said, quietly. Your proposing marriage as I think you are.
• 6:02
  He nodded emphatically. Such is my honorable intention, he said. I
• 6:09
  would never marry you in any circumstances. She said, not even if I
• 6:13
  had met you under the happiest conditions. The question of your age, she
• 6:16
  nearly added, end of your appearance, But her natural kindness prevented that cruel
• 6:20
  thrust, though it would not have hurt him in the slightest degree, has
• 6:26
  nothing whatever to do with my decision. I do not even like you,
• 6:29
  and have never liked you, mister Oberton, doctor, he corrected, and
• 6:33
  in spite of her woeful plight, she could have laughed at this insistence upon
• 6:38
  the ceremonial title young miss. I cannot woo you in the way of my
• 6:43
  dear and sainted brother, who was all for ladies and had a beautiful manner.
• 6:47
  She was amazed to hear that he had a brother at all, and
• 6:50
  was almost a relief to know that he was dead, martyred at the hands
• 6:55
  of wicked and cunning murderers, slain in his prime by the assassin's histol.
• 7:00
  His voice trembled and broke. For that sainted life, I will some day
• 7:04
  take vengeance. It was not wholly curiosity that impelled her to ask who killed
• 7:10
  him, Leon Gonzalez. The words in his lips became the grating of a
• 7:15
  file, killed, murdered, and even his beautiful picture destroyed in that terrible
• 7:21
  fire. Had he save that, my heart would have been soft towards him.
• 7:27
  He checked himself, evidently realizing that he was getting away from the object
• 7:30
  of his call. Think over this matter, young lady. Read the romantic
• 7:35
  books and the amorous books, and then perhaps you will not think it is
• 7:39
  so terrible a fate to drift at moonlight through the canals of Venice, with
• 7:43
  the moon above and the gondoliers. He wagged his head sentimentally. There is
• 7:49
  no book which will change my view. Doctor, She said, I cannot
• 7:54
  understand why you propose such an extraordinary course. But I would rather die than
• 7:58
  marry you. His cold eyes filled her with a quick terror. There are
• 8:03
  worse things than death, which is but sleep, Many worse things, young
• 8:07
  miss. Tomorrow, I shall come for you, and we will go into
• 8:11
  the country where you will say yes and no according to my desire. I
• 8:16
  have many what is the word certificates of marriage, for I am too clever
• 8:20
  a man to leave myself without alternatives. This was true. He had residential
• 8:26
  qualifications in at least four counties, and at each he had given legal notice
• 8:30
  of his intended marriage. Not tomorrow or any other day, nothing would induce
• 8:35
  me. His eyebrows went almost to the top of his head. So he
• 8:41
  said with such significance that her blood ran cold. There are worse men than
• 8:46
  the hair doctor. He raised a long finger, warningly, terrible men with
• 8:50
  terrible minds. You have met girth. She did not answer this. Yes,
• 8:56
  yes, you danced with him A nice man? Is he not too
• 8:58
  lay? Dies? Yet this same girther, I will tell you something.
• 9:03
  He seated himself on a corner of the table and began talking until she covered
• 9:09
  her ears with her hands and hid her white face from him. They would
• 9:13
  have killed him for that, he said, when her hands came down.
• 9:16
  But Girther was too clever, and the poor German peasants too stupid. You
• 9:20
  shall remember that, shall you not. He did not wait for her answer.
• 9:26
  With a stiff bow, he strutted out of the room and up the
• 9:28
  stairs. There came the thud of the trap falling, and the inevitable rumble
• 9:31
  of the concrete barrel. He had some work to do, heavy work for
• 9:37
  a man who found himself panting when he climbed stairs. And though four of
• 9:41
  his best and most desperate men were waiting in his parlor, drinking his whiskey
• 9:45
  and filling the little room with their rank cigar smoke, he preferred to tackle
• 9:48
  this task, which he had already begun as soon as night fell, without
• 9:52
  their assistance or knowledge. On the edge of the deep hole in his grounds,
• 9:56
  where the wild convulvulust grew amid the rusty corners of discarded tins and oil
• 10:01
  barrels, was a patch of earth that yielded easily to the spade. When
• 10:07
  the factory had been built, the depression had been bigger, but the builders
• 10:11
  had filled in half the hole with the light soil that they had dug out
• 10:13
  of the factory's foundations. He took a spade which he had left in the
• 10:18
  factory, and skirting the saucer shaped depression, he reached a spot where a
• 10:22
  long trench had already been dug, taking off his fine coat and waistcoat,
• 10:28
  unfastening cravating collar, and carefully depositing them upon the folded coat. He continued
• 10:33
  his work, stopping now and again to wipe the streaming brow. He had
• 10:37
  to labor in the dark, but this was no disadvantage. He could feel
• 10:41
  the edges of the pit. In an hour, the top of the trench
• 10:45
  was level with his chin, and stooping to clear the bottom of loose soil.
• 10:48
  He climbed up with greater difficulty than he had anticipated, and was only
• 10:54
  after the third attempt, and he managed to reach the top out of breath
• 10:58
  in short of temper, he dressed again, and with his electric torch,
• 11:01
  surveyed the pit he had made and grunted his satisfaction. He was keenly sensitive
• 11:07
  to certain atmospheres and needed no information about the change which had come over his
• 11:11
  subordinates. In their last consultation. Girther had been less subsequious, had even
• 11:16
  smoked in his presence without permission. Absent mindedly, perhaps, but the offense
• 11:22
  was there, and doctor Aberjon, on the point of smacking his face for
• 11:26
  his insolence, heard a warning voice within himself, which had made his hand
• 11:31
  drop back at his side. Or was it the look he saw in Gerther's
• 11:33
  face. The man was beyond the point where he could discipline him in the
• 11:37
  old Junker way. For although doctor Aberjon condemned all things to Tonic, he
• 11:43
  had a sneaking reverence for the military cast of that nation. He left the
• 11:48
  spade sticking in a heap of turned earth. He would need that again and
• 11:52
  shortly, unless Garther failed somehow. He did not anticipate a failure in this
• 11:58
  instance, mister Monte and Newton had not yet grown suspicious, would not be
• 12:03
  on his guard. His easy acceptance of the theater ticket showed his mind in
• 12:07
  this respect. The four men in his room rose respectfully as he came in.
• 12:11
  The air was blue with smoke, and Leucuccini offered a rough apology.
• 12:16
  He had been released that morning from detention, for Meadows had found it difficult
• 12:20
  to frame a charge which did not expose the full activities of the police and
• 12:24
  the part they were playing in relation to Mirabelle Lester. Evidently, Cuccini had
• 12:30
  been reproaching in his own peculiar way and in his own unprincipled language. The
• 12:35
  cowardice of his three companions for the atmosphere seemed tense when the doctor returned.
• 12:41
  Yet, as was subsequently proved, the appearance of discord was deceptive, but
• 12:46
  indeed had been staged for their host's benefit. I've just been telling these birds,
• 12:50
  began Cuccini. Oh shut up, lou growled one of his friends.
• 12:54
  If that crazy man hadn't been shouting her name, we should not have gone
• 12:58
  back. He'd have wakened the dead, and our orders were to retire at
• 13:03
  the first serious sign of an alarm. That's right, doctor, isn't it
• 13:07
  Sure it's right, said the doctor blandly. Never be caught. That is
• 13:11
  a good motto. Cuccini was caught, and I give a year of my
• 13:16
  life to meet that Dago again, said Cuccini between his teeth. He was
• 13:20
  delightfully inconsistent, for he came into the category having been born in Milan and
• 13:26
  had had his early education in the Italian quarridor of Hartford, Connecticut. He'd
• 13:30
  have tortured me too. He was going to put lighted wax matches between my
• 13:33
  fingers, and then you've spilled it, accused one of the three. Hotly
• 13:39
  you talk about us bolting. Silence, roared the doctor. This is unseemly.
• 13:45
  I have forgiven everything that shall be enough for you all. I will
• 13:50
  hear no other word. Where is girthur Cuccini asked the question. He has
• 13:54
  gone away to night. He leaves for America. He may return, knows,
• 14:00
  but that is the intention snaking, asked somebody, and there was a
• 14:05
  little titter of laughter. Say doctor, how do you work that stunt?
• 14:09
  Kuccini leaned forward his cigar between his fingers, greatly intrigued. I saw no
• 14:13
  snakes down at Wrath Hall, and yet he was bitten, just as that
• 14:16
  yankee was bitten Washington. He will die, said the doctor complacently. He
• 14:22
  was absurdly jealous for the efficacy of his method. He was alive yesterday anyway,
• 14:28
  which shadowed him to the station. Then he was not bitten. No,
• 14:33
  that is impossible. When the snake bites, Ouberjon raised his palms and
• 14:37
  gazed piously at the ceiling. After that, there is nothing. No,
• 14:41
  no, my friend, you are mistaken. I tell you, I'm not
• 14:45
  making any mistakes, said the other doggedly. I was in the room,
• 14:48
  I tell you, soon after they brought him in, and I heard one
• 14:50
  of the busy say that his face was all wet. So said Auberjon dully,
• 14:56
  that is very bad. But how do you do? Do you shoot
• 15:01
  her something? Let us talk about eventual wealth and happiness, said the doctor.
• 15:05
  To night is a night of great joy for me. I will sing
• 15:09
  you a song then, to the amazement of the men, and to their
• 15:13
  great unhappiness. He sang, in a thin, reedy old voice, the
• 15:18
  story of a young peasant who had been thwarted in love and had thrown himself
• 15:20
  from a cliff into a seething waterfall. It was a lengthy song, intensely
• 15:26
  sentimental, and his voice held few of the qualities of music. The gang
• 15:31
  had never been set a more difficult job than to keep straight faces until he
• 15:35
  had finished. Gee, you're some artist, doctor, said the psychophantic Cuccini,
• 15:41
  and managed to get a simulation of envy into his voice. In my
• 15:45
  student days, that was a great singer, said the doctor modestly. Over
• 15:50
  the mantelpiece was a big old clock with a face so faded that only a
• 15:52
  portion of the letters remained. Its noisy ticking had usually a sedative effect on
• 15:58
  the doctor, but its main purpose and value was its accuracy. Every day
• 16:03
  it was corrected by a message Frum Greenwich, and as Auberjon's success as an
• 16:07
  organizer depended upon exact timing, it was one of his most valuable assets.
• 16:12
  He glanced up at the clock now and that gave Guccini his excuse. We'll
• 16:18
  beginning along, doctor, He said, you don't want anything to night.
• 16:21
  I like to get a cut at that Gonzales man. You won't leave me
• 16:25
  out if there's anything doing. Aberjon rose and wins out of the room without
• 16:30
  another word, For he knew that the rising of Guccini was a signal that
• 16:33
  not only was the business of the day finished, but also that the gang
• 16:37
  needed its pay. Every gang leader attended upon mister Aberjon once a week with
• 16:42
  his pay roll, and it was usually the custom of the hair doctor to
• 16:47
  bring his cash box into the room and extract sufficient to liquidate his indebtedness to
• 16:52
  the leader. It was a big box, and on pay day as this
• 16:56
  was filled to the top with bank notes and treasury bills. He brought it
• 17:00
  back. Now put it on the table, consulted the little slip that Cuccini
• 17:03
  offered to him, and taking out a pad of notes fastened about by a
• 17:07
  rubber band, he wetted his finger and thumb. You needn't count them,
• 17:12
  said Cuccini. We'll take the lot. The doctor turned to see that Cuccini
• 17:18
  was carelessly holding a gun in his hand. The fact is, doctor,
• 17:22
  said Cuccini, coolly. We've seen the red light, and if we don't
• 17:26
  skip now. While the skipping's good, there's going to be no place we
• 17:29
  can stay comfortable in this little island. And I guess we'll follow Garthur.
• 17:33
  One glance the doctor gave at the pistol, and then he resumed his counting
• 17:37
  as though nothing had happened. Twenty thirty forty fifty, Now quit that,
• 17:44
  said Kuccini roughly. I tell you you needn't count, my friend. I
• 17:49
  prefer to know what I'm going to lose. It is a pardonable piece of
• 17:53
  curiosity. He raised his hand to the wall where a length of cord hung,
• 17:57
  and pulled it at gently, without taking his eyes from the bank notes.
• 18:03
  What are you doing. Put up your hands, his Guccini, shoot
• 18:07
  I beg Auberjan threw a pad of notes on the table. There is your
• 18:11
  pay. He slammed down the lid of the box. Now you shall go,
• 18:15
  if you can go. Do you hear them? He raised his hand,
• 18:21
  and to the strained ears of the men, came a gentle rustling sound
• 18:23
  from the passage outside, as though somebody were dragging a piece of parchment along
• 18:27
  the floor. Do you hear You shall go if you can, said the
• 18:32
  doctor again, with amazing calmness. The snakes breathed, Guccini, going white,
• 18:37
  and the hand that held the pistol shook. Shoot them, my friends,
• 18:41
  sneered Aberjan. If you see them, shoot them. But you will
• 18:45
  not see them, my brave men, They will be where no eyes shall
• 18:51
  see them. Come or go. They may lie behind the picture. They
• 18:53
  may wait until the door is opened. And then Guccini's mouth was dry.
• 19:00
  Call um off, doctor, he said, tremulously, your gun on the
• 19:04
  table. Still the rustling sound was audible. Cuccini hesitated for a second,
• 19:11
  then obeyed and took up the notes. The other three men were huddled together
• 19:15
  by the fireplace, a picture of fear. Don't open the door, dock,
• 19:18
  said Kuccini, but Oberzon had already gripped a handle and turned it.
• 19:22
  They heard another door open and the click of the passage light as it had
• 19:26
  come on, and then he returned, If you go now, I shall
• 19:30
  not wish to see you again. Am I not a man whom all secrets
• 19:33
  are known? You are well aware. Euccini looked from the doctor to the
• 19:38
  door. Want us to go, he asked, troubled Oberjohn shrugged, as
• 19:45
  you wish? It was my desire that you should stay with me to night.
• 19:48
  There is big work and big money for all of you. The men
• 19:52
  were looking at one another uneasily. How long do you want us to stay,
• 19:56
  asked Cuccini, to night. Only if you wouldn't not prefer tonight would
• 20:02
  come the crisis. Auberjon had realized this since the day dawned for him.
• 20:07
  Well stay, where do we sleep? Parance er Oberzon beckoned them from the
• 20:11
  room, and they followed him into the laboratory. In the wall that faced
• 20:15
  them was a heavy iron door that opened into a concrete storehouse, where he
• 20:18
  kept various odds and ends of equipment, oil and spirit for his cars,
• 20:23
  and the little gas engine that worked a small dynamo in the laboratory and gave
• 20:26
  him, if necessary, a lighting plant independent of outside current. There were
• 20:33
  three long windows, heavily barred and placed just under the ceiling. Looks like
• 20:37
  the condemned cell to me, grumbled Cuccini. Suspiciously, are the bolts on
• 20:41
  the inside of a condemned cell? Asked Aberjan, Does the good Wharton give
• 20:45
  you the key as I give you? Cuccini took the key all right,
• 20:51
  he said, ungraciously. There are plenty of blankets here. Boys. I
• 20:55
  guess you want us where the police won't look. Eh, that is my
• 20:59
  intention, replied the doctor. Roberjon closed the door on them and re entered
• 21:03
  his study, his big mouth twitching with amusement. He pulled the cord again
• 21:07
  and closed the ventilator he had opened. It was only a few days before
• 21:11
  that he had discovered that there were dried leaves in the ventilator shaft, and
• 21:15
  that the opening of the inlet made them wrestle disturbingly for a man who was
• 21:21
  engaged in a profound study of the lesser known and therefore the more highly cultured
• 21:26
  philosophers. End of chapter thirty