he went straight back to his flat on the avenue of the grand army, and the girl could see by his face that something had happened.
“you might pack my bag, will you?” he said almost brusquely. “i have a letter or two to write. i’m going to london. important business has arisen, and i may be gone some time.”
wisely she asked no questions, but carried out his instructions. when she came back from the room with a little gripsack packed, he was blotting the envelope of the last letter.
“post these after i have gone,” he said.
“shall i come down to the station and see you off?”
he shook his head.
“the less you and i are seen together, the better, i think,” he said with a faint smile.
he opened a drawer of his desk and took out a cash-box. from this he extracted a thick wad of notes, and, counting them rapidly, he tossed a respectable bundle into her lap.
“you may want this,” he said. “you know you have a regular income, but you must keep in touch with the lyonnais. for the moment i should advise you to go to”—he looked at the ceiling for inspiration—“to nice or monte carlo. keep away from the tables,” he added humorously.
“but—but,” said the bewildered girl, “for how long will you be gone? can’t i come with you?”
“that is impossible,” he said sharply. “you must go to the south of france, leave by to-night’s train. give your address to nobody, and take another name if necessary.”
“are things very wrong?”
“pretty bad,” he said. “but don’t worry. i may be gone for a year, even more. there are plenty of things you can do, but don’t go back into the profession yet awhile.”
“i thought of taking up cinema work,” she said.
he nodded.
“you might do worse than go to america—if i am a long time gone.”
he stuffed the remainder of the notes into his pocket, picked up his bag, and with no other farewell than a curt nod, left her.
she was only to see him once again in her life-time.
he crossed the channel by the night boat and came to london in the early hours of the morning. he drove straight away to his hotel, had a bath and shaved. his plan was fairly well formed. everything depended upon the charity which messrs. solomon brothers might display towards his strange lapse.
at breakfast he read in the times that “mr. justice maxell took his seat upon the bench” on the previous day, and that paragraph, for some reason, seemed to cheer him.
at ten o’clock he was in the city. at half-past ten he was interviewing the senior partner of solomon brothers, a man with an expressionless face, who listened courteously to the somewhat lame excuses which cartwright offered.
“it was a mistake of a blundering clerk,” said cartwright airily. “as soon as i discovered the error, i came back to london to withdraw all the money which had been subscribed.”
“it is a pity you didn’t come back yesterday, mr. cartwright,” said solomon.
“what do you mean?”
“i mean,” said the other, “that we have already placed this matter in the hands of our solicitors. i suggest that you had better interview them.”
cartwright made a further pilgrimage to the solicitors of solomon brothers, and found them most unwilling to see him. that was an ominous sign, and he went back to his office in victoria street conscious that a crisis was at hand. at any rate, the girl was out of the way; but, what was more important, she, one of the principal witnesses in so far as brigot and his property were concerned, was not available for those who might bring a charge against him. she was his wife, and her lips were sealed, and this consequence of his marriage was one which he had not wholly overlooked when he had contracted his strange alliance.
what a fool he had been! the property might have been transferred and in his hands, if he had not antagonised a wretched little spanish theatrical manager. but, he reflected, if he had not antagonised that manager, he would not have possessed the instrument for extracting the transfer from the amorous brigot.
at the top of a heap of letters awaiting him was one written in a firm boyish hand, and cartwright made a little grimace, as though for the first time recognising his responsibility.
“take a chance anderson; my lad, you will have to take a chance,” he said, and pushed the letter aside unopened.
he lunched at his club, sent a brief letter to maxell, and returned to his office at two in the afternoon. his clerk told him that a man was waiting for him in the inner office. cartwright hesitated with his hand on the door; then, setting his teeth, he stepped in.
the stranger rose.
“are you mr. alfred cartwright?” he asked.
“that is my name,” replied cartwright.
“i am inspector guilbury, of the city police,” said the stranger, “and i shall take you into custody on charges under the companies act, and a further charge of conspiracy to defraud.”
cartwright laughed.
“go ahead,” he said.
all the week preceding the trial, cartwright’s heart was filled with warm, gratitude to his erstwhile friend. he did not doubt, when his solicitor told him that mr. justice maxell would try his case, that maxell had gone a long way out of his way to get himself appointed the old bailey judge. how like maxell it was—that queer, solemn stick—and how loyal!
cartwright had a feeling for maxell which he had never had before. at first he had feared the embarrassment which might be maxell’s at having to try a case in which an old friend was implicated, and had even hoped that the new judge would have nothing to do with the trial. he did not despair of maxell pulling strings on his behalf, and he realised that much could be done by judicious lobbying.
the charge against him was a grave one. he had not realised how serious it was until he had seen that respectful array of counsel in the lord mayor’s court, and had heard his misdemeanours reduced to cold legal phraseology. but he did not wholly despair. brigot had been coming to london to give evidence, and on his journey there had occurred an incident which suggested to the accused man that providence was fighting on his side. the spaniard had had a stroke in the train to calais, and the doctors reported that he might not recover. not that brigot’s evidence was indispensable. there was, apparently, a letter and two telegrams in existence, in the course of which brigot denied that he had ever parted with his property; and the onus lay upon cartwright to prove that he had acted in a bona fide manner—that was impossible of proof, and nobody knew this better than cartwright.
and ever his mind reverted to the singular act of generosity on the part of his old friend. he did not doubt for one moment that maxell had “worked” the case so that it fell to him to try it.
it was a bright morning in may when he came up the steps of the old bailey and took his place in the dock. almost immediately after, the judge and the sheriff entered from the door behind the plain oaken bench. how well the judicial robes became maxell, thought cartwright. he bowed slightly and received as slight a bow in reply. maxell was looking pale. his face was drawn, and there was resolution in his speech and in his eyes.
“before this case proceeds,” he said, “i wish to direct attention to a statement in one of the newspapers this morning, that i was associated with the accused in business, and that i am in some way involved, directly or indirectly, in the company promotion—either as a shareholder or an indirect promoter—which is the subject of the present charge. i wish to utter an emphatic denial to that statement.”
he spoke clearly and slowly and looked the prisoner straight in the eye, and cartwright nodded.
“i can only endorse your lordship’s statement,” he said emphatically. “your lordship has never had any dealings with me or any business transactions whatsoever.”
it was a minor sensation which provided a headline for the evening newspapers. the case proceeded. it was not particularly involved and the witnesses were few but vital. there were those business men who had subscribed or promised to subscribe to the syndicate. there was mr. solomon, who could give an account of his dealings with the prisoner. but, most damning of all, was a sworn statement made by brigot before an english solicitor, a commissioner of oaths. and it was such a statement which only documentary proof, produced by the accused man, could refute.
cartwright listened to the evidence untroubled of mind. he knew that his counsel’s speech, delivered with such force, was little less than an admission of guilt and a plea for mercy. the last word would be with the judge. a verdict of “guilty” there must necessarily be. but he thought that, when later his counsel pleaded for a minimum sentence, he saw a responsive look in the judge’s eyes.
the stigma of imprisonment did not greatly distress cartwright. he had lived on the narrow border-line of illegalities too long; he had weighed chances and penalties too nicely to bother about such ephemeral things as “honour.” his system of finance was reviewed, and certain minor charges arising out of the manipulation of funds were gone into. it was late in the evening when the judge began his summing up.
it was a fair, if a conventional address he delivered to the jury. obviously, thought cartwright, he could do nothing less than call attention to the serious nature of the charge, the interests involved, the betrayal of shareholders, and the like. on the whole, the summing up did not diminish the comforting sense that the worst that lay before him was a few months’ imprisonment and then a start in another land under another name. he never doubted his ability to make money. the summing up was ended, and the jury retired. they were gone twenty minutes, and when they came back it was a foregone conclusion what their verdict would be.
“do you find the prisoner at the bar guilty or not guilty?”
“guilty,” was the reply.
“and is that the verdict of you all?”
“it is.”
mr. justice maxell was examining his notes, and presently he closed the little book which he was consulting.
“the charge against alfred cartwright,” he said, “is one of the most serious which could be brought against a business man. the jury have returned a verdict of guilty, and i must say that i concur in that verdict. i am here in my place”—his voice shook a little—“to administer and maintain the laws of england. i must do all that in me is possible to preserve the purity of commercial life and the condition of english commercial honesty.”
cartwright waited for that “but”—it did not come.
“in view of the seriousness of the frauds and irregularities which the accused has committed, with a cynical disregard for the happiness or fortune of those people whose interests should have been his own, i cannot do less than pass a sentence which will serve as an example to all wrongdoers.”
cartwright gasped and gripped the edge of the dock.
“you, alfred cartwright,” said maxell, and again looked him straight in the eye, “will be kept in penal servitude for twenty years.”
cartwright swallowed something. then he leaned across the edge of the dock.
“you swine!” he said huskily, and then the warders dragged him away.
two days later there was a new sensation. the newspapers announced that mr. justice maxell had been compelled, on account of ill-health, to resign from the bench, and that his majesty had been pleased to confer a baronetcy of the united kingdom upon the ex-judge.
