"My dear Mr. Meredith,"I cannot tell you how unhappy and humiliated I feel that mylittle joke with you should have had such an uncomfortableending. As you know, and as I have given you proof, I have thegreatest admiration in the world for one whose work forhumanity has won such universal recognition.
"I hope that we shall both forget this unhappy morning and thatyou will give me an opportunity of rendering to you in person,the apologies which are due to you. I feel that anything lesswill neither rehabilitate me in your esteem, nor secure for methe remnants of my shattered self-respect.
"I am hoping you will dine with me next week and meet a mostinteresting man, George Gathercole, who has just returned fromPatagonia, - I only received his letter this morning - havingmade most remarkable discoveries concerning that country.
"I feel sure that you are large enough minded and too much a manof the world to allow my foolish fit of temper to disturb arelationship which I have always hoped would be mutuallypleasant. If you will allow Gathercole, who will beunconscious of the part he is playing, to act as peacemakerbetween yourself and myself, I shall feel that his trip, whichhas cost me a large sum of money, will not have been wasted.
"I am, dear Mr. Meredith,"Yours very sincerely,"REMINGTON KARA."Kara folded the letter and inserted it in its envelope. He rang abell on his table and the girl who had so filled T. X. with asense of awe came from an adjoining room.
"You will see that this is delivered, Miss Holland."She inclined her head and stood waiting. Kara rose from his deskand began to pace the room.
"Do you know T. X. Meredith?" he asked suddenly.
"I have heard of him," said the girl.
"A man with a singular mind," said Kara; "a man against whom myfavourite weapon would fail."She looked at him with interest in her eyes.
"What is your favourite weapon, Mr. Kara?" she asked.
"Fear," he said.
If he expected her to give him any encouragement to proceed he wasdisappointed. Probably he required no such encouragement, for inthe presence of his social inferiors he was somewhat monopolizing.
"Cut a man's flesh and it heals," he said. "Whip a man and thememory of it passes, frighten him, fill him with a sense offoreboding and apprehension and let him believe that somethingdreadful is going to happen either to himself or to someone heloves - better the latter - and you will hurt him beyondforgetfulness. Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible thanthe rack, more potent than the stake. Fear is many-eyed and seeshorrors where normal vision only sees the ridiculous.""Is that your creed?" she asked quietly.
"Part of it, Miss Holland," he smiled.
She played idly with the letter she held in her hand, balancing iton the edge of the desk, her eyes downcast.
"What would justify the use of such an awful weapon?" she asked.
"It is amply justified to secure an end," he said blandly. "Forexample - I want something - I cannot obtain that somethingthrough the ordinary channel or by the employment of ordinarymeans. It is essential to me, to my happiness, to my comfort, ormy amour-propre, that that something shall be possessed by me. IfI can buy it, well and good. If I can buy those who can use theirinfluence to secure this thing for me, so much the better. If Ican obtain it by any merit I possess, I utilize that merit,providing always, that I can secure my object in the time,otherwise"He shrugged his shoulders.
"I see," she said, nodding her head quickly. "I suppose that ishow blackmailers feel."He frowned.
"That is a word I never use, nor do I like to hear it employed,"he said. "Blackmail suggests to me a vulgar attempt to obtainmoney.""Which is generally very badly wanted by the people who use it,"said the girl, with a little smile, "and, according to yourargument, they are also justified.""It is a matter of plane," he said airily. "Viewed from mystandpoint, they are sordid criminals - the sort of person that T.
X. meets, I presume, in the course of his daily work. T. X., hewent on somewhat oracularly, "is a man for whom I have a greatdeal of respect. You will probably meet him again, for he willfind an opportunity of asking you a few questions about myself. Ineed hardly tell you - "He lifted his shoulders with a deprecating smile.
"I shall certainly not discuss your business with any person,"said the girl coldly.
"I am paying you 3 pounds a week, I think," he said. "I intendincreasing that to 5 pounds because you suit me most admirably.""Thank you," said the girl quietly, "but I am already being paidquite sufficient."She left him, a little astonished and not a little ruffled.
To refuse the favours of Remington Kara was, by him, regarded assomething of an affront. Half his quarrel with T. X. was thatgentleman's curious indifference to the benevolent attitude whichKara had persistently adopted in his dealings with the detective.
He rang the bell, this time for his valet.
"Fisher," he said, "I am expecting a visit from a gentleman namedGathercole - a one-armed gentleman whom you must look after if hecomes. Detain him on some pretext or other because he is ratherdifficult to get hold of and I want to see him. I am going outnow and I shall be back at 6.30. Do whatever you can to preventhim going away until I return. He will probably be interested ifyou take him into the library.""Very good, sir," said the urbane Fisher, "will you change beforeyou go out?"Kara shook his head.
"I think I will go as I am," he said. "Get me my fur coat. Thisbeastly cold kills me," he shivered as he glanced into the bleakstreet. "Keep my fire going, put all my private letters in mybedroom, and see that Miss Holland has her lunch."Fisher followed him to his car, wrapped the fur rug about hislegs, closed the door carefully and returned to the house. Fromthence onward his behaviour was somewhat extraordinary for awell-bred servant. That he should return to Kara's study and setthe papers in order was natural and proper.
That he should conduct a rapid examination of all the drawers inKara's desk might be excused on the score of diligence, since hewas, to some extent, in the confidence of his employer.
Kara was given to making friends of his servants - up to a point.
In his more generous moments he would address his bodyguard as"Fred," and on more occasions than one, and for no apparentreason, had tipped his servant over and above his salary.
Mr. Fred Fisher found little to reward him for his search until hecame upon Kara's cheque book which told him that on the previousday the Greek had drawn 6,000 pounds in cash from the bank. Thisinterested him mightily and he replaced the cheque book with thetightened lips and the fixed gaze of a man who was thinkingrapidly. He paid a visit to the library, where the secretary wasengaged in making copies of Kara's correspondence, answeringletters appealing for charitable donations, and in the hack wordswhich fall to the secretaries of the great.
He replenished the fire, asked deferentially for any instructionsand returned again to his quest. This time he made the bedroomthe scene of his investigations. The safe he did not attempt totouch, but there was a small bureau in which Kara would haveplaced his private correspondence of the morning. This howeveryielded no result.
By the side of the bed on a small table was a telephone, the sightof which apparently afforded the servant a little amusement. Thiswas the private 'phone which Kara had been instrumental in havingfixed to Scotland Yard - as he had explained to his servants.
"Rum cove," said Fisher.
He paused for a moment before the closed door of the room andsmilingly surveyed the great steel latch which spanned the doorand fitted into an iron socket securely screwed to the framework.
He lifted it gingerly - there was a little knob for the purpose -and let it fall gently into the socket which had been made toreceive it on the door itself.
"Rum cove," he said again, and lifting the latch to the hook whichheld it up, left the room, closing the door softly behind him. Hewalked down the corridor, with a meditative frown, and began todescend the stairs to the hall.
He was less than half-way down when the one maid of Kara'shousehold came up to meet him.
"There's a............