The Mystery Queen Page 25

  “I know that as well as you do,” said Miss Armour, cheerfully, “thanks to this idiot here. However, he shall pay for his meddling.”

  “But if the police—”

  “If you don’t get out,” interrupted Queen Beelzebub, in a cold fury, “I shall prick you with the lancet—you know what that means.”

  “It would be better than the other thing,” moaned Mrs. Jarsell, clinging to the door, which she had opened.

  “What other thing?” inquired Halliday, on the alert for information.

  Queen Beelzebub replied. “You shall know before you die! Eliza, will you go and send those telegrams, you silly fool? If you don’t obey me—” the woman’s face took on such a wicked expression that Mrs. Jarsell, with a piteous cry, fled, hastily closing the door after her. Then Miss Armour drank a little of the wine that was on the table beside her and looked smilingly at her prisoner. “I never could make anything of Eliza,” she explained, “always a whimpering cry-baby. I wouldn’t have had her in the society but that I wished to use this house, which belongs to her, and of course when we started her money was useful.”

  Halliday being alone, glanced around to see if he could escape. He could not attack Miss Armour, old and feeble as she was, because of the poisoned piece of steel which she had concealed about her. He had seen the effects on Sir Charles Moon, and did not wish to risk so sudden a death. For the sake of Lillian it was necessary that he should live, since, if he did not, there was no one left to protect her; therefore he did not think of meddling with Queen Beelzebub, but cast an anxious look at windows and door. Escape that way was equally impossible, as all were guarded. There seemed to be nothing for it but to wait and take what chance offered itself later. He could see none at the moment. The position was unpleasant, especially when he remembered that he was to be tortured, but his manhood prevented his showing the least sign of fear. To intimate that he cared nothing for her threats he took out his pipe and tobacco pouch.

  “Do you mind my smoking, Miss Armour?”

  “Not at all, unless you would rather eat. There’s food on the table behind you. Oh,” she laughed, when she saw the expression on his face, as he glanced round, “don’t be alarmed, I don’t intend to poison you! That death will be too easy. You can eat and drink and smoke with perfect safety. I intend to end your life in a less merciful manner.”

  “Well,” said Dan, going to the table, and taking a sandwich together with a glass of port wine, “I think you are spiteful enough to give me a bad time before dying, so I am quite sure that I can eat and drink with safety!”

  “Oh, what a pity; what a pity,” said Miss Armour, thoughtfully, when the young man returned to his seat and began to make a hurried meal.

  “What’s a pity?” asked Dan, carelessly.

  “That you and I should be enemies. I gave you the chance to be friendly with me, you know, but you wouldn’t take it. Yet I admire you, and have always admired you. You have courage, brains, coolness, and persistence. These are valuable qualities such as I needed for a member of my society. If I had not seen that you possessed them and wished to make use of them by binding you to my society, I should have ended your life long ago.”

  “As Sir Charles Moon’s life was ended; as Durwin’s life was cut short; as Penn was disposed of, and as Lord Curberry was dispatched.”

  “Well, no. Curberry poisoned himself because he feared that everything was about to come out.”

  “As it will.”

  “Probably,” said Queen Beelzebub, indifferently, “but there are yet some hours before the end. No, my friend, you will not die like those you have mentioned. Your cleverness demands a more ingenious death.”

  “You are a very clever woman,” said Dan, finishing his glass of port.

  “I am. You will admire my cleverness when you—” she checked herself and laughed. “I knew a Chinese mandarin once and he told me many things, Mr. Halliday. You can guess what he told me.”

  “Something about torture?” said Dan, lighting his pipe, “quite so. You go to the Chinese to learn how to hurt a man. I thought you were more original.”

  Miss Armour sneered. “Isn’t this indifference rather overdone, Mr. Halliday?”

  “Well, it is a trifle. I’m in a blue funk, and can you blame me,” he shuddered; “a man doesn’t like to die by inches, you know. However, as we understand one another, suppose we while away the time by your telling me how you came to start this damned gang of yours.”

  “My dear young friend, I admire your courage so much, that I can refuse you nothing,” mocked Miss Armour, wincing as she moved her broken arm. “I really should be in bed with my hurt.”

  “You’ll get feverish if you don’t lay up,” Dan advised her.

  “Oh, I don’t think so. I know about other drugs than the Sumatra scent, Mr. Halliday. Of course, a broken arm,” she added with a sigh, “can’t be mended by all the drugs in the world. Time alone can put it right, and, thanks to you, I shan’t have time to get cured. If you had only fought with me intead of against me, this would not have happened. Well, my society—”

  “Yes. What about your society?” questioned Dan, politely and easily.

  Queen Beelzebub cast an admiring look in his direction and began to speak in a quiet lady-like manner, as though she were presiding at a tea-table, and the subject of conversation was quite an ordinary one. “I was left an orphan at an early age,” she said leisurely, “poor and honest and friendless. For years I led what you fools call a decent life, earning my bread by going out as a governess. But poverty and honesty did not please me, especially since the first was the outcome of the last. I never wished to marry, as I did not care for men. I did not wish for society, or fame, or flirtation, or indeed anything a woman usually longs for. I desired power!” and as she uttered the last word an infernal expression of pride came over her white and delicate face.

  “Power for a bad purpose?”

  “Well, you see, Mr. Halliday, I could not get power for a good one. The sole way in which I could obtain my ends was to appeal to people’s self-love. I read of those Italian societies, and the way in which they terrorised the world. Whatever the members of those societies want they get, because they work by blackmail, by threats, by the knife, and with poison. I always wished to found a society of that sort, but I noticed how frequently things went wrong because the members of various societies got mixed up with women, or drank too much, or gave themselves away in a moment of profligacy.”

  “Ah,” Dan smoked calmly, “now I understand why your rules were so stringent.”

  “You speak of them in the past tense,” said Miss Armour, curiously.

  “Well,” Dan pressed down the tobacco in his pipe, “the society is done for; it’s gastados, used up, bust, and all the rest of it. Well?”

  “Well,” echoed the woman, passing over his remark with a sneer. “I wished to collect a body of men and women who were to live like saints and use all the power such self-denial gave them to gain all they wanted for themselves.”

  “A devilishly clever scheme.”

  “But not original, like my tortures,” Queen Beelzebub assured him. “In Australia—Sydney, New South Wales—I fancy there are societies who have the same rules. They call such an organisation there a ‘Push!’ I think.”

  Dan nodded. “I have heard of such things.”

  “Well, then—to make a long story short, as I want to go to bed, and can’t enjoy your delightful society much longer—I intended to work on those lines. Years and years ago Mrs. Jarsell was a favourite pupil of mine. We parted and she married a man with money. He died,” Miss Armour laughed, “in fact, since he treated Eliza badly, I got rid of him.”

  “Oh, so that is the hold you have on her.”

  “Quite so. I met her again and got rid of the husband. He left her his money and I came to live with Eliza as a companion. For a time we went into London society, and I soon managed to get a few people together by appealing to their egotism. Some kicked at my
ideas—others did not, and in the end I collected quite a large number. Then I made Eliza take this house as it struck me that aeroplanes might be utilised for criminal purposes. I don’t say that when this idea came to me aeroplanes were so good as they are now, but I believed that aviation would improve, and that the air would be conquered. Chance brought Vincent into my life. He became a member of the Society of Flies, and manufactured the machines. He also learned me how to handle them—”

  “I am bound to say that he had an excellent pupil,” put in Dan, politely.

  “Thank you,” Miss Armour smiled and nodded. “I fancy I am pretty good. But you see that by using an aeroplane I was able to get up and down to London without people knowing. I was, so to speak, in two places at once, by travelling fast, and so could prove an alibi easily.”

  “Then Durwin?”

  “No. Eliza murdered him. She went up in an aeroplane along with Vincent, since she is too silly to handle one herself. To kill Moon—that was my work because he learned too much and refused to join me—I went to town by train in the character of the false Mrs. Brown. Penn was killed by Curberry, who had to obey me, or suffer himself. Oh, I assure you I am quite autocratic, Mr. Halliday,” finished the woman merrily.

  “I quite believe that,” said Halliday, drily, “but did all this villainy give you pleasure?”

  “Oh, yes,” Miss Armour’s nostrils again dilated, and her eyes again flashed triumphantly, “think of the power I held until you interfered. I pretended for greater safety to be paralysed, and no one ever connected a poor invalid lady with Queen Beelzebub.”

  “I did not, I assure you. I believed Queen Beelzebub to be Mrs. Jarsell.”

  “Eliza,” Miss Armour scoffed, “why, she’s a poor weak fool, and only did what I ordered her to do because I implicated her along with myself in the murder of her husband. However, she has been useful, as without her money I could not have started the business. Power!” she repeated, “yes, I have a great power. High or low, rich or poor, there was no one I could not remove if I chose. My subjects worked for me willingly, or unwillingly.”

  “You are a kind of ‘Old Woman of the Mountains’, like the gentleman of that name who invented the Assassins—that gang about the time of the Crusades.”

  “Quite so, although it is not polite of you to call me an old woman. By the way, I got Curberry his title by getting rid of his uncle and cousin.”

  “Yes. So he told me,” said Dan, marvelling that the woman could speak so calmly about her wickedness.

  “Oh, you are shocked,” she laughed gaily, “what a fool you are! I could tell you much concerning many murders and disappearances which the police knew nothing about. For some years I have ruled like a despot, and—and—well,” she yawned, “it’s all over. Oh, what a pity!”

  “I think not. People will sleep quieter when they know Queen Beelzebub and her demons are harmless.”

  “Harmless,” she echoed the word with a laugh, and touched a silver bell that stood at her elbow, “we shall all be harmless enough to-morrow, if indeed you speak truly, and your friend Laurance is coming up here with the police.”

  “He is, I assure you,” said Dan, wondering why she rang the bell; “but who are the members of your gang?”

  “You’ll see them to-morrow, when you afford sport for them,” said Queen Beelzebub in a weary way, and looked fagged out; “meanwhile, I must have you safely locked up,” and as she spoke, two big men entered the room.

  “Hang you, I shan’t!” began Dan, and sprang to his feet. But the two men had their hands on him; and shortly he was trussed up like a Christmas turkey.

  “You are less clever than I thought,” said Queen Beelzebub, sneering, “or you would not fight against impossibilities. Good night! Take him away.”

  And as they were commanded, the two big men took him away in silence.

  Chapter XX. QUEEN BEELZEBUB’S END

  Unable to resist superior force Dan ceased to struggle, thinking it was best to play a waiting game, until chance afforded him the opportunity of escape. Hitherto his good fortune had saved him from grave perils, and he trusted that finally it would prove strong enough to extricate him from this last difficulty. He was taken down a short flight of damp steps and thrust into what he took to be a disused coal-cellar. Here the two big men released him from his bonds and retired, locking the door behind them. Once or twice he asked questions, but receiving no reply he asked no more. They left a lantern for his use, and the light, although only that of a candle, was very acceptable in the cimmerian darkness of this underground dungeon. When left alone the prisoner stretched himself, swung his arms and stamped with his feet to get warm, after which he made an examination of his surroundings.

  Halliday found that the cellar was small with stone floor, stone roof, and stone walls, all more or less humid. Light and air came through a shaft on the right of the entrance, which was too narrow to permit of escape. Evidently the place had been used before as a prison, and no doubt for refractory members of the society, since there was some spare furniture. In one corner was a low bed, in another a deal table, in a third a wash-stand, and finally there was one kitchen chair on which Dan took his seat to think over matters. He had eaten, so did not feel hungry, and solaced himself with his pipe, a luxury for which he felt very grateful. It could not be said that his thoughts were pleasant; they could scarcely be so, under the circumstances, as there was no denying he was in a most uncomfortable plight.

  So Miss Armour, the delicate maiden lady, was Queen Beelzebub, and the imposing Mrs. Jarsell was only her tool. Dan was surprised when he reflected on this, and could not help admiring the infernal cunning of the woman who had arranged matters. Miss Armour was without doubt a born criminal, who much preferred doing evil to doing good. As Mrs. Jarsell’s companion, she could have led a blameless existence, surrounded by attention and comfort and luxury, but her craving for power had led her into dark paths. For all her care, she might have guessed that in a law-abiding country the truth of her murderous association would come to the notice of the authorities sooner or later. And when the knowledge had become public, with all her cunning she was unable to cope with the situation. Like the fox in the fable, her many wiles had proved useless, and here she was driven into a corner. What she intended to do Dan could not think. He did not see in what way she could escape punishment.

  Of course the young man was perfectly satisfied that Freddy was moving in the matter down south. According to instructions he must have gone to Lord Curberry’s house at Blackheath when he failed to receive news of his friend, and what he discovered there would assure him that it was time to take public action and inform the police of what was going on. The servants would be questioned and Curberry’s body would be examined, while the visit of the veiled woman and her flight in the aeroplane would be explained. Laurance would guess at once that the unknown lady was Queen Beelzebub attending to her iniquitous business, and an inquiry at the shed would soon inform him of the pursuit. Halliday believed that on the morrow Laurance, together with the police, would arrive at Sheepeak, and then the end would come. Meanwhile he was in great danger unless Freddy appeared in time to rescue him, for Miss Armour was very spiteful and her last act of power would undoubtedly be to murder him for the action he had taken in bringing about her downfall. But this had to be faced, and if death was certain, he hoped that it would be immediate, since even his brave nature quailed at the idea of suffering ingenious Chinese tortures. As to Lillian, Dan was quite sure she would not be harmed, because Queen Beelzebub had her hands full and would not have time to kill her. Indeed, if she decided to do so, it would not be easy for her to find anyone to execute her commands, for every member of the Society of Flies must by this time have become aware of the danger which threatened their organisation. Halliday believed that the telegrams alluded to by Miss Armour and which were to be sent by Mrs. Jarsell were intended to summon the members to a conference. Yet what use such a meeting would be, the young man could not th
ink. The net of the law would capture the entire gang without doubt. And yet Queen Beelzebub was so infernally cunning that Dan could not be sure she would not find some means of saving herself and her subjects, even at the eleventh hour.

  In thoughts such as these the night passed slowly and the hours seemed interminable. The candle in the lantern burned itself out, and he found himself in complete darkness, while the silence was only broken by the drip of water from the walls, or by his own breathing and restless movements. Dan felt as though he were in a tomb, and his lively imagination conjured up all kinds of horrors until, worn out, physically and mentally, he fell into a profound slumber. When he opened his eyes again it was dawn, for he saw the cold light streaming down through the air shaft. A glance at his watch assured him that it was seven o’clock, and he wondered if food would be brought to him shortly. As he had only eaten a sandwich and drank a glass of port wine since yesterday morning’s breakfast, he felt most uncommonly hungry, and in spite of the peril in which he stood he longed ardently for food. In the meantime, for comfort, he lighted his pipe again, sat on his bed, and watched the thin beam of sunlight move slowly across the stone floor of his cell. This was an unexpected adventure sure enough, and unpleasant as it was now, it promised to be still more unpleasant before it was concluded. All that Halliday could hope for was that Laurance with the police would arrive in time to save his life, and deliver him from imprisonment.

  At ten o’clock—Dan looked again at his watch when the door opened—Mrs. Jarsell entered with a tray, on which were two boiled eggs, bread and butter, and coffee. Placing this on the table she was about to leave, as she had entered, in silence, when Dan caught her dress. At once with a shiver she drew back and displayed the lancet tipped with the serpent-poison.

  “If you try to escape, I shall kill you,” she said in her heavy voice.

  Dan looked at her curiously, and saw that she was less imposing than ever for all her massive looks. All her self-restraint was gone, her eyes were red; her face was disfigured with tears; and her big body looked flabby and inert. A greater collapse or a more pitiful spectacle can scarcely be imagined, and Dan felt quite sorry for her, even though he knew she was banded against him with others to bring him to a cruel death. “I shall not try to escape,” he said, slowly; “that is, I shan’t try just now.”