At the Villa Rose | Page 9

cried Harry Wethermill eagerly.
"Yes, on one condition--that you ask no questions, and answer none
unless I put them to you. Listen, watch, examine--but no interruptions!"
Hanaud's manner had altogether changed. It was now authoritative and
alert. He turned to Ricardo.
"You will swear to what you saw in the garden and to the words you
heard?" he asked. "They are important."
"Yes," said Ricardo.
But he kept silence about that clear picture in his mind which to him
seemed no less important, no less suggestive.
The Assembly Hall at Leamington, a crowded audience chiefly of

ladies, a platform at one end on which a black cabinet stood. A man,
erect and with something of the soldier in his bearing, led forward a girl,
pretty and fair-haired, who wore a black velvet dress with a long,
sweeping train. She moved like one in a dream. Some half-dozen
people from the audience climbed on to the platform, tied thy girl's
hands with tape behind her back, and sealed the tape. She was led to the
cabinet, and in full view of the audience fastened to a bench. Then the
door of the cabinet was closed, the people upon the platform descended
into the body of the hall, and the lights were turned very low. The
audience sat in suspense, and then abruptly in the silence and the
darkness there came the rattle of a tambourine from the empty platform.
Rappings and knockings seemed to flicker round the panels of the hall,
and in the place where the door of the cabinet should be there appeared
a splash of misty whiteness. The whiteness shaped itself dimly into the
figure of a woman, a face dark and Eastern became visible, and a deep
voice spoke in a chant of the Nile and Antony. Then the vision faded,
the tambourines and cymbals rattled again. The lights were turned up,
the door of the cabinet thrown open, and the girl in the black velvet
dress was seen fastened upon the bench within.
It was a spiritualistic performance at which Julius Ricardo had been
present two years ago. The young, fair-haired girl in black velvet, the
medium, was Celia Harland.
That was the picture which was in Ricardo's mind, and Hanaud's
description of Mme. Dauvray made a terrible commentary upon it.
"Easily taken by a new face, generous, and foolishly superstitious, a
living provocation to every rogue." Those were the words, and here
was a beautiful girl of twenty versed in those very tricks of imposture
which would make Mme. Dauvray her natural prey!
Ricardo looked at Wethermill, doubtful whether he should tell what he
knew of Celia Harland or not. But before he had decided a knock came
upon the door.
"Here is Perrichet," said Hanaud, taking up his hat. "We will go down
to the Villa Rose."

CHAPTER III
PERRICHET'S STORY
Perrichet was a young, thick-set man, with, a red, fair face, and a
moustache and hair so pale in colour that they were almost silver. He
came into the room with an air of importance.
"Aha!" said Hanaud, with a malicious smile. "You went to bed late last
night, my friend. Yet you were up early enough to read the newspaper.
Well, I am to have the honour of being associated with you in this
case."
Perrichet twirled his cap awkwardly and blushed.
"Monsieur is pleased to laugh at me," he said. "But it was not I who
called myself intelligent. Though indeed I would like to be so, for the
good God knows I do not look it."
Hanaud clapped him on the shoulder.
"Then congratulate yourself! It is a great advantage to be intelligent and
not to look it. We shall get on famously. Come!"
The four men descended the stairs, and as they walked towards the villa
Perrichet related, concisely and clearly, his experience of the night.
"I passed the gate of the villa about half-past nine," he said. "The gate
was dosed. Above the wall and bushes of the garden I saw a bright light
in the room upon the first floor which faces the road at the
south-western comer of the villa. The lower windows I could not see.
More than an hour afterwards I came back, and as I passed the villa
again I noticed that there was now no light in the room upon the first
floor, but that the gate was open. I thereupon went into the garden, and,
pulling the gate, let it swing to and latch. But it occurred to me as I did
so that there might be visitors at the villa who had not yet left, and for
whom the gate had been set open. I accordingly followed the drive
which winds round to the front door. The front door is not on