The Riddle of the Ring

Waikato Times, Volume 96, Issue 15101, 23 November 1922, Page 3

The Riddle of the Ring

m By WILLIAM LE QUEUX,

(All Rights Reserved.)

Author of "Fatal Fingers," Doctor," Eto. CHAPTER XXVI. Thraldom. He turned and gazed upon her with a, dark, sinister glance. He saw that she was his enemy—and, indeed, a most formidable one. But his native cunning asserted itself, and he merely dismissed her allegations with an impatient »wave of the hand. Yet she stood facing him, flushed behind her white tulle veil, indignant, full of bitter reproach and t deadly hatred. I

"Ah,!" he said, with a si;;h. "Why cannot you be more reasonable? Surely I am treating 'you well—allowing you thus to lead your own life as you are doing; allowing you to enjoy London, and taking care not to betray your secret."

'"You compelled me to pay, this hateful visit," she declared quickly. "In itself, this very fact would compromise me in the eyes of my enemies." "Well," he said, in a hard voice, "I called you here because I wanted to say one thing —a word concerning your friend, Charles Underbill."

Mention of the name caused her to start perceptibly. She held her breath and her hands trembled, but no word passed her lips. "Yes," laughed Ahmed Amin, "I see that you have no inclination to discuss the young man—but I have. Remember what I said to you some time ago," he exclaimed. He had crossed the room, and as he advanced towards her he seized her wrists roughly and looked straight into her face with his slightly bloodshot eyes. "Let me go!" she gasped. "You hurt me." "I want you to listen to me!" he cried. "Two and a half years ago, when you begged upon your knees tor freedom, I gave it to you on one condition—that you took your English maid, Snell, and that you travelled alone; that you made 'no friends, cither men or women. It was a condition which you accepted. You wanted your freedom, just as you had always been used to it. ' Oriental life did not suit you. It never suits you Christian women," he added, with a sneer. 'Well,' was I not generous? I gave you all you wished, and I promised I would not molest you, and that I would safeguard your secret. Have I not done so? Not a soul knows it—except Mr. Finlay."] "Yes; you have. But at what cost?" she cried. "At the cost of Richard Marchmont's life." "That man's death was your affair —not mine," he responded quickly. "If Underbill was jealous and killed his friend, it was only through you." "That's a lie!" she declared hotly. "A wicked lie! Mr. Underbill is not an assassin."

"The police are in search of him. If he is not guilty, then why has be so carefully hidden himself?"

I know that be is innocent."

"Oh, yes. Of course you know more of him than anyone else. He loves you!" cried the. man, pale with anger, as still grasping her wrists he shook her roughly.' , "Deny it —deny it if you can!" .

"Let me go!" she urged "You—you are hurting me. 'I shall shout for the servant's."

"Shout!" he hissed between his vyhite teeth, "I do not care. I gave you your freedom, and you have found a lover." . •

"And you,-Ahmed Amim, connived at the death of your agent, Richard Marchmont, merely because out of pity he protected me from you," she declared in a hard, bitter voice. "Wherever I went Richard Marchmont followed me and daily reported to you my doings, until—until at last I could bear it no longer and managed to elude his vigilance, I went into hiding, and neither you, nor the horde of spies whom you employed, could find me,. You thought that Snell would betray me, but she remained loyal. And you would never have found me even now, had I still remained In Liege. The man, now dead, discovered me in Paris, and knowing how I had been hunted down and persecuted by you, he confessed that though he was your servant yet he felt the greatest sympathy for me. Then, for the first time, I learned his true character, that although be was living upon your pay, yet he was nevertheless an honest man and a gentleman. He saw you, it seems, ,when you met me in the hotel garden at Luxor, and raised that knife against me!" "A most chivalrous person, I have since learnt," laughed Amim, still speaking Arabic. "And his chivalry cost him his life!"

"At your command. You knew that, while serving you, he sympathised with me. And in your madness you gave to some hireling the dastardly order which cost him his life."

"Really? You have adopted a most tragic attitude of late —since you met your friend Underbill," was his reply. "The police, after exhaustive inquiries, decided that he was the assassin ■ as no doubt he was. He believed Marchmont to be in love with you." "He believed nothing of the kind," she responded in quick defiance. "To him, Richard Marchmont's death is a complete mystery." "Then why did he fly from Monte Carlo? Remember, I know all the details."

"Yes, you, have spies everywhere. I am well aware of that—quite well aware of it. And those spies, in order to curry favour with you, will prevaricate in any way you desire." "I know of all that took place at Nice, and of your friend Underbill's declaration of love. You are to blame. Y'ou have broken your promise to me, you allowed him to declare his love," he said, looking her straight in the face, his eyes lit by anger.

"But I—l told him it was impossible," she faltered. "I —I didn't encourage him. It wascnot my fault if lie fell in love with me." "It was your fault, and in direct opposition to my orders to you," he said firmly. "1 gave you your liberty on certain conditions—and each of them you have broken. Therefore our compact is now at an end." \

She was silent for a few moments. She knew how completely she was in that man's power.

"At, an end!" she echoed; then sighing, she added: "I take it that you intend again to place your golden fetters upon me, eh?" "I do."

She moved across the room to the window—a slim, straight figure in her neat blue gown. Then suddenly she turned, and raising her pointed chin with the white tulle twisted light beneath it, said:

"If that is your decision, I, too, have decide^ l "

"Upon what?" "Ah!" she laughed hysterically, "that is my affair. You have declared that I have broken my parole, as military men call it. But .1 tell you I have not. And, further, I defy you 1" "Defy!" he echoed, taken aback by her sudden antagonistic demeanour. "Ah! that is a very dangerous word to use to me. Those who defy Ahmed Amim • always regret it — always."

"I'never shall. I have both right and justice on my side." "Neither right nor justice avail a woman in this modern world of ours. The only right to-day is money."

"And I have that also," she answer-

"The one fact that you must face is that Charles Underhiir is in love with you. That I will not allow. It must at once end," he said decisively. "And how, pray, can you prevent his affection for me—if he really entertains affection?" she asked, standing near the window, erect and superb in her defiance. "By means which you will very shortly realise," he laughed. "Means which will cause him deeply to regret that he ever made a declaration of love to you." . "He has no fear of you," she replied. "Probably not, because he is in ignorance. You do not deny that you love this man, therefore I intend to take a certain step which has been suggested to me." "By whom?" "By a person in my employ—a person who has followed Charles Underbill ever since that night when, after meeting you in Avignon, he left in a motor-car for Paris. This person is at this moment living in the same hotel as he, in an obscure country town here in England—where he believes himself effectually buried and his identity,:effaced." "You know where he is I" she gasped, her face pare as death. \

"I do. I have known his movements ever since he met you at the Hotel de l'Europe in Avignon. But I have kept my information to myself. Now, however, my intention is to inform the police where they may find him." And the man grinned, showing His white teeth in grim triumph. "He will be extradited back to Nice; there to take his trial for the murder of his friend Richard Marchmont." (To be continued to-morrow. >