The Benevent Treasure

Chapter Forty-one

Joseph came into the drawing-room, his dark skin yellow and damp with sweat. Miss Olivia was working at her embroidery. She looked up and said sharply,

‘What is the matter?’

‘They are down in the cellar – they have found the opening!’

‘Impossible!’

His voice grated.

‘I tell you they have found it! The Inspector came up – he went to the bedroom and fetched the constable. I followed them to the top of the cellar stairs. From there I can see that the secret door is open and that they are all there. The Inspector and the young man stay, and the others go down into the passage. You know what they will find. What do we do – what do we say?’

She looked at him directly.

‘Do? Say? We have only to be perfectly clear and firm, and to be very much surprised. There are some passages in the house which have always been a family secret, but we do not know of any others – if there is one in the cellar, we know nothing about it. There have been stories about a treasure, but I have never believed them. If there was anyone so foolish as to go looking for it, he did so at his own risk. If he met with a fatal accident, it was without any knowledge or responsibility of mine. And if Miss Sayle was foolish enough to follow his example, I cannot hold myself responsible for that.’

‘She will say – ’

‘She can say anything she likes, and she can prove nothing at all. She will say she drank a glass of milk and after that she remembers nothing. And the answer is that she was walking in her sleep. It is either that, or she has made up the whole story. She has found out something about the passages – she has been working on the family papers, and she takes it into her head to explore at night when everybody is asleep. A much more likely story than that she was drugged and shut up there in the dark to die.’

He said in an approving voice,

‘It is a good story – if they will believe it.’ Then, after a pause, ‘Anna is the one I am afraid of.’

‘She is a fool – and she knows nothing.’

He said in what was almost a pettish voice,

‘She looks at me as if – as if – ’

‘As if what?’

‘As if she found me – horrible!’

Her glance just touched him scornfully.

‘Perhaps she does – perhaps – ’ She spoke suddenly and vehemently. ‘How did my sister die?’

He stood his ground.

‘I have told you. She walked in her sleep. I followed her in case she should come to harm. She was wringing her hands and saying, “I can’t find him – I can’t find him!” She went down into the cellar and opened the secret door. I could not let her down into such a place alone – I went after her. When she came to where the Treasure is she saw Mr. Alan lying there, and she cried out. His hand was on the necklace, and she went to take hold of it. The lid of the chest came down and struck her, and she died. I pushed it up, and I pulled her away, but she was dead. I came and told you, and we carried her to where she was found. You know all this.’ There was a sense of unbearable strain. They were too much intent upon one another to have been aware that the door behind the tall black lacquer screen had opened. There was no design in that soft opening. It was not Miss Silver’s wont to enter or leave a room with any jarring sound, but when she heard Miss Olivia say, ‘How did my sister die?’ she came no more than one step inside the door and put up a hand to check the advance of Mr. Tampling, who was immediately behind her. They stood there upon the thresh-hold, listening, and heard Joseph tell his tale, and when he had said, ‘You know all this,’ they heard Miss Olivia answer him. The words came tense with feeling.

‘I know what you have told me.’

Joseph said, ‘I have told you the truth.’

Within the room, and beyond their sight, Miss Olivia let the embroidery-frame drop upon her knee. The hand which held the needle came down too, the thread of scarlet silk trailing. She said,

‘You are lying.’

‘Madam!’

Her eyes were on him, sombre and intent.

‘You are lying. You say she was walking in her sleep. I have seen her walk like that, and so have you. Are you going to tell me that she took a torch in her hand to light her through a dream? But you say you saw her go down into the cellar and open the secret door. There are lights in the house, but what light is there in that dark place?’

He said on a stubborn note,

‘I had a torch.’

‘I tell you, you had not! You would not have dared to follow her with a torch in your hand – you would not have dared!’

‘Do you think I followed her in the dark?’

‘I do not! It was she who had the torch. And she was not walking in her sleep, she was awake, because it had come to her that Mr. Alan must be there. I did not think that she would ever dare to go into that place alone. She had gone once with me, and she came near to fainting with fright. I did not think she would ever go alone.’

He said with impatience,

‘What does it matter who had the torch? The rest is as I said.’

‘No.’

The word was like a blow and he exclaimed against it.

‘Is this a time to question and to quarrel? We have to know what we are to do, what we are to say.’

‘I must have the truth from you. My sister did not die as you have said. There was no hand there for her to touch – there were only bones. Do you ask me to believe that she would have touched dead bones? I tell you she would have fainted, or she would have screamed and run away. And she would have done nothing to set off the spring and let down the lid of the chest upon her head. I think she cried out and turned to run away. I think you tried to stop her, perhaps to reason with her, and she would not listen. I think you had to stop her because you could not stop her mouth. I think she died because you knew what she might tell.’

He cried out.

‘I never laid a hand on Mr. Alan!’

‘There was no need to lay a hand upon him. He snatched at the Treasure and it killed him, as it has killed before, and may again.’

His voice rose.

‘And who showed him the way to the Treasure? It was not Miss Cara! And who else knew the secret? Only you, madam – only you! You showed him how to open the door, and if the Treasure had not killed him he would have died down there as Miss Sayle was meant to die! No food, no water, and no way out – it would not have taken long!’

There was a silence. Miss Olivia broke it.

‘If you had not followed me that night you would have known nothing, and you could have done nothing. You have been a long time in my service. Not as long as Anna, but long enough. I think you killed my sister. How do you expect me to reward you for that?’

He stood staring at her. She went on in the same toneless voice.

‘If my plan had succeeded, I would have rewarded you and sent you away, but now – if Candida lives, there is nothing for either of us. She will have Underhill, and she will marry and have children to come after her. She should have been dead, but I think she is alive, and there is nothing more that I can do. So you shall have your reward for killing my sister.’

It was when Joseph cried out that he had never laid a hand on Alan Thompson that Inspector Rock came up quietly behind Miss Silver and Mr. Tampling. At Miss Olivia’s words he pushed past the end of the screen and strode into the room.