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The man who can carry through a carefully premeditated scene with an air of complete unpremeditation has an immense advantage. "Mr. Lester," he began, "I understand that you are the administrator of the estate of the late Philip Vantine?" "Our firm is," I corrected. "But you, personally, have been attending to his business?" "Yes." "He was a collector of old furniture, I believe?" "Yes."
I suppose he consulted an attorney, learned the hopeless nature of his case, and took the first train back to Osage City. He did not even wait for the funeral. Few people, indeed, put themselves out for it. There was a sprinkling of old family friends, representatives of the museum and of various charities in which Vantine had been interested, a few friends of his own, and that was all.
"You, of course, have personal knowledge of all this?" "Certainly. Mr. Vantine himself told me the story." "Very well, sir," but his eyes dwelt lovingly upon the Boule cabinet. "That is a very handsome piece," he added. "I am sorry the museum is not to get it." "Perhaps you can buy it from M. Armand," I suggested, but the curator laughed and shook his head. "No," he said, "we couldn't afford it.
He had dropped out of the world with scarcely a ripple; of all who had known him, I dare say Parks felt his departure most. For Vantine had been, in a sense, a solitary man; not many men nodded oftener during a walk up the Avenue, and yet not many dined oftener alone; for there was about him a certain self-detachment which discouraged intimacy.
Where had she concealed herself? How was she able to strike so surely? Above all, why should she have chosen Philip Vantine, of all men, for her victim Philip Vantine, who had never injured any woman and then I paused. For I realised that I knew nothing of Vantine, except what he had chosen to tell me. Parks would know. And then I shrank from the thought. Must we probe that secret?
"Ask her, madame, for what purpose she called at this house, night before last, and saw Philip Vantine in this room." "I did not!" shrieked the girl, her face ablaze. "It is a lie!" "She does not need to tell!" went on Godfrey inexorably. "Any fool could guess. She came for the letters! She had resolved herself to blackmail you, madame!" "It is a lie!" shrieked the girl again.
Him he had a certain right to kill according to thieves' ethics, anyway. His own life has been in peril scores of times, but he has never killed a man to save himself. Put that down to his credit." "But Drouet and Vantine," I objected. "An accident for which he was in no way responsible," said Godfrey promptly. "You mean he didn't kill them?" "Most certainly not.
Vantine was passed without question!" "Yes," agreed M. Pigot, a little bitterly. "It was a most clever plan; and now, no doubt, Crochard can sell the brilliants at his leisure." "Not if you've got a good description of them," protested Grady. "I'll make it a point to warn every dealer in the country; I'll keep my whole force on the job; I'll get Chief Wilkie to lend me some of his men...."
Vantine really paid the duty only on the cabinet he purchased, since that was the one shown on his manifest. The other fellow must have paid the duty on the cabinet he brought in; so I didn't see that there was anything coming to Vantine's estate. There is probably something due the government, for the cabinet Vantine brought in was, of course, much more valuable than his manifest showed."
What ugly skeleton was to be dragged from its closet? But if a woman killed Vantine, the same woman also killed d'Aurelle. Where was her hiding-place? From what ambush did she strike? I glanced about the room, as a tremor of horror seized me. I arose, shaking, from the chair and groped my way toward the door.
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