In White Raiment Page 4

for you, adoctor, to render her agony brief."

  "To speak plainly," I said, with rising indignation, "you wish me tokill her! You offer me twenty thousand pounds, not for marriage, butfor the committal of the capital sin."

  His thin lips twitched nervously and his brows contracted.

  "Ah!" he responded, still quite cool. "I think you view the matter in awrong light. There are various grades of murder. Surely it is no greatcrime, but rather a humane action, to put a dying girl out of heragony."

  "To shorten her life a single minute would be a foul assassination," Ireplied, regarding him with loathing. "And further, sir, you do notappear to fully realise your own position, or that it is a penal offenceto attempt to bribe a person to take another's life."

  He laughed a short, defiant laugh.

  "No, no," he said. "Please do not waste valuable time by idle chatterof that kind. I assure you that I have no fear whatever of the resultof my action. There is no witness here, and if you endeavoured to bringme before a judge, who, pray, would believe you?" There was some truthin those defiant words, and I saw by his attitude that he was not to betrifled with.

  "I take it that you have objects in both your propositions--in yourdaughter's marriage, and in her death?" I said, in a more conciliatorytone, hoping to learn something further of the motive of his dastardlyproposal.

  "My object is my own affair," he snapped.

  "And my conscience is my own," I said. "I certainly do not intend thatit shall be burdened by the crime for which you offer me this payment."

  He fixed me with flaming eyes. "Then you refuse?" he cried.

  "Most certainly I refuse," I responded. "Moreover, I intend to visityour daughter upstairs, and strive, if possible, to save her."

  "Save her?" he echoed. "You can't do that, unless you can performmiracles. But perhaps," he added with a sneer, "such a virtuous personas yourself may be able to work marvels."

  "I may be able to save her from assassination," I answered meaningly.

  "You intend to oppose me?"

  "I intend to prevent you from murdering your own daughter," I saidwarmly. "Further, I forbid you to enter her room again. I am a medicalman, and have been called in by you to attend her. Therefore, if youattempt to approach her I shall summon the police."

  "Rubbish!" he laughed, his sinister face now ashen pale. "You cannotprevent me from approaching her bedside."

  "I can, and I will," I said. "You have expressed a desire that sheshould, for some mysterious reasons, die before sunset. You would killher with your own hand, only you fear that when the doctor came to givehis certificate he might discover evidence of foul play."

  "Exactly," he responded with perfect coolness, thrusting his hands intohis pockets. "It is because of that I offer you twenty thousand pounds.I am prepared to pay for your scientific knowledge."

  "And for a death certificate?"

  "Of course."

  "Well, to speak plainly, I consider you an inhuman scoundrel," I said."If your daughter's dying hour is not sacred to you, then no man'shonour or reputation is safe in your hands."

  "I thank you for your compliment," he replied with a stiff bow. "But Imight reply that you yourself are not very remarkable for honour, havingin view the fact that, in the hope of gaining a sufficient price, youhave married a woman upon whom you have never set eyes."

  "You tempted me!" I cried furiously. "You held the money before mygaze and fascinated me with it until I was helpless in your power.Fortunately, however, the spell is broken by this inhuman suggestion ofyours, and I wash my hands clean of the whole affair."

  "Ah, my dear sir, that is not possible. Remember you are my daughter'shusband."

  "And yet you ask me to kill her."

  "Who has greater right to curtail her sufferings than her husband?"

  "And who has greater right to endeavour to save her life?"

  "But you cannot. It is impossible."

  "Why impossible?"

  "She is doomed."

  "By you. You have resolved that she shall not live till morning," Isaid, adding: "If, as you tell me, her mysterious illness must provefatal, I see no reason why you should offer me a bribe to encompass herdeath. Surely a few hours more or less are of no consequence."

  "But they are," he protested quickly. "She must die before sundown, Itell you."

  "Not if I can prevent it."

  "Then you will forgo the money I have offered you," he inquiredseriously.

  "I have no intention of touching a single farthing of it."

  "Until you are forced to."

  "Forced to!" I exclaimed. "I don't understand your meaning."

  "You will understand one day," he answered with a grin--"one day when itmay, perhaps, be too late. It would be best for us to act in unison, Iassure you."

  "For you, possibly; not for me."

  "No--for you," he said, fixing his crafty, evil-looking eyes upon me."You have taken one step towards the goal, and you cannot now draw back.You have already accepted your price--twenty thousand pounds."

  "Enough!" I cried indignantly. "If I were to give information to thepolice regarding this conversation, you would find yourself arrestedwithin an hour."

  "As I have already told you, my dear sir, I am not at all afraid of sucha contretemps; I am no blunderer, I assure you."

  "Neither am I," I answered quickly, resolving to remain there no longerdiscussing such a subject. From the first moment of our meeting I hadentertained a suspicion of him. Several facts were evident. He hadsome strong motive, first in marrying his daughter Beryl, secondly inencompassing her death before sundown, and thirdly in implicating me sodeeply that I should be unable to extricate myself from the net which heset to entrap me.

  A fourth fact, apparently small in itself, had caused me considerablereflection: the hand that I had held and on the finger of which I hadplaced the bond of matrimony, was in no sense chilly or clammy. It wasnot the wasted hand of a moribund invalid, but rather that of a healthyperson. While I had held it I felt and counted the pulsations. Thelatter had told me that my mysterious bride was without fever, and wasapparently in a normal state of health. It was curious that she shouldhave walked and acted involuntarily, if only half conscious of hersurroundings.

  The Tempter was endeavouring to deceive me in this particular. But itwas in vain.

  "Cannot we come to terms?" he asked in a low, earnest voice. "There issurely no object to be gained in our being enemies; rather let us acttogether in our mutual interests. Recollect that by your marriage youhave become my son-in-law and heir."

  "Your heir!" I echoed. I had not thought of that before. His housebetokened that he was wealthy. "You are very generous," I added, notwithout some sarcasm. "But I do not feel inclined to accept any suchresponsibility from one whose name even I do not know."

  "Of course," he said easily. "I was stupid not to introduce myself. Inthe excitement it quite slipped my memory. Pray forgive me. My name isWynd--Wyndham Wynd."

  "Well, Mr Wynd," I said with some forced politeness, "I think we may aswell conclude this interview. I wish to make the acquaintance of mywife."

  "Quite natural," he answered, smiling good-humouredly. "Quite naturalthat you should wish to see her; only I beg you, doctor, to prepare fordisappointment."

  "Your warning is unnecessary," I responded as carelessly as I could.

  My curiosity had been aroused by the healthfulness of that small,well-formed hand, and I intended to investigate for myself. That housewas, I felt certain, a house of mystery.

  I had turned towards the door, but in an instant he had reached it andstood facing me with his back to it resolutely, saying--

  "You will go to her on one condition--the condition I have alreadyexplained."

  "That I take her life seriously, and give a certificate of death fromnatural causes," I said. "No, Mr Wynd, I am no murderer."

  "Not if we add to the sum an extra five thousand?"

  "I will
not harm her for an extra fifty thousand. Let me pass!" Icried with fierce resolution.

  "When you have promised to accede to my request."

  "I will never promise that."

  "Then you will not enter her room again."

  Almost as the words left his lips there was a low tap at the door, andit opened, disclosing Davies, who announced--

  "The Major, sir."

  "Show him in."

  The visitor,