I feel that I owe you an
explanation." My companion's indignation was so great that I could see that he dared
not trust himself to reply. We walked on each side of the old
Professor, the astonished commissionaire bringing up the rear. When we
reached the violated case, Mortimer stopped and examined the
breastplate. Already one of the stones of the lower row had had its
setting turned back in the same manner as the others. My friend held
it up and glanced furiously at his prisoner. "How could you!" he cried. "How could you!" "It is horrible--horrible!" said the Professor. "I don't wonder at
your feelings. Take me to your room." "But this shall not be left exposed!" cried Mortimer. He picked the
breastplate up and carried it tenderly in his hand, while I walked
beside the Professor, like a policeman with a malefactor. We passed
into Mortimer's chambers, leaving the amazed old soldier to understand
matters as best he could. The Professor sat down in Mortimer's
arm-chair, and turned so ghastly a colour that for the instant all our
resentment was changed to concern. A stiff glass of brandy brought the
life back to him once more. "There, I am better now!" said he. "These last few days have been too
much for me. I am convinced that I could not stand it any longer. It
is a nightmare--a horrible nightmare--that I should be arrested as a
burglar in what has been for so long my own museum. And yet I cannot
blame you. You could not have done otherwise. My hope always was that
I should get it all over before I was detected. This would have been
my last night's work." "How did you get in?" asked Mortimer. "By taking a very great liberty with your private door. But the object
justified it. The object justified everything. You will not be angry
when you know everything--at least, you will not be angry with me. I
had a key to your side door and also to the museum door. I did not
give them up when I left. And so you see it was not difficult for me
to let myself into the museum. I used to come in early before the
crowd had cleared from the street. Then I hid myself in the mummy-case,
and took refuge there whenever Simpson came round. I could always hear
him coming. I used to leave in the same way as I came." "You ran a risk." "I had to." "But why? What on earth was your object--YOU to do a thing like that!" Mortimer pointed reproachfully at the plate which lay before him on the
table. "I could devise no other means. I thought and thought, but there was
no alternate except a hideous public scandal, and a private sorrow
which would have clouded our lives. I acted for the best, incredible
as it may seem to you, and I only ask your attention to enable me to
prove it." "I will hear what you have to say before I take any further steps,"
said Mortimer, grimly. "I am determined to hold back nothing, and to take you both completely
into my confidence. I will leave it to your own generosity how far you
will use the facts with which I supply you." "We have the essential facts already." "And yet you understand nothing. Let me go back to what passed a few
weeks ago, and I will make it all clear to you. Believe me that what I
say is the absolute and exact truth. "You have met the person who calls himself Captain Wilson. I say
'calls himself' because I have reason now to believe that it is not his
correct name. It would take me too long if I were to describe all the
means by which he obtained an introduction to me and ingratiated
himself into my friendship and the affection of my daughter. He
brought letters from foreign colleagues which compelled me to show him
some attention. And then, by his own attainments, which are
considerable, he succeeded in making himself a very welcome visitor at
my rooms. When I learned that my daughter's affections had been gained
by him, I may have thought it premature, but I certainly was not
surprised, for he had a charm of manner and of conversation which would
have made him conspicuous in any society. "He was much interested in Oriental antiquities, and his knowledge of
the subject justified his interest. Often when he spent the evening
with us he would ask permission to go down into the museum and have an
opportunity of privately inspecting the various specimens. You can
imagine that I, as an enthusiast, was in sympathy with such a request,
and that I felt no surprise at the constancy of his visits. After his
actual engagement to Elise, there was hardly an evening which he did
not pass with us, and an hour or two were generally devoted to the
museum. He had the free run of the place, and when I have been away
for the evening I had no objection to his doing whatever he wished
here. This state of things was only terminated by the fact of my
resignation of my official duties and my retirement to Norwood, where I
hoped to have the leisure to write a considerable work which I had
planned. "It was immediately after this--within a week or so--that I first
realized the true nature and character of the man whom I had so
imprudently introduced into my family. The discovery came to me
through letters from my friends abroad, which showed me that his
introductions to me had been forgeries. Aghast at the revelation, I
asked myself what motive this man could originally have had in
practising this elaborate deception upon me. I was too poor a man for
any fortune-hunter to have marked me down. Why, then, had he come? I
remembered that some of the most precious gems in Europe had been under
my charge, and I remembered also the ingenious excuses by which this
man had made himself familiar with the cases in which they were kept. He was a rascal who was planning some gigantic robbery. How could I,
without striking my own daughter, who was infatuated about him, prevent
him from carrying out any plan which he might have formed? My device
was a clumsy one, and yet I could think of nothing more effective. If
I had written a letter under my own name, you would naturally have
turned to me for details which I did not wish to give. I resorted to
an anonymous letter, begging you to be upon your guard. "I may tell you that my change from Belmore Street to Norwood had not
affected the visits of this man, who had, I believe, a real and
overpowering affection for my daughter. As to her, I could not have
believed that any woman could be so completely under the influence of a
man as she was. His stronger nature seemed to entirely dominate her. I had not realized how far this was the case, or the extent of the
confidence which existed between them, until that very evening when his
true character for the first time was made clear to me. I had given
orders that when he called he should be shown into my study instead of
to the drawing-room. There I told him bluntly that I knew all about
him, that I had taken steps to defeat his designs, and that neither I
nor my daughter desired ever to see him again.