 Chapter 22 of The Clue of the Twisted Candle This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Ian Skillan Glasgow The Clue of the Twisted Candle by Edgar Wallace Chapter 22 After a while, Lexman resumed his story. I told you that there was a man at the Palazzo named Salvolio. Salvolio was a man who had been undergoing a life sentence in one of the prisons of southern Italy. In some mysterious fashion he escaped and crossed the Adriatic on a small boat. How can I find him? I don't know. Salvolio was a very uncommunicative person. I was never certain whether he was a Greek or an Italian. All I am sure about is that he was the most unmitigated villain next to his master that I've ever met. He was a quick man with his knife and I've seen him kill one of the guards whom I had thought was favouring me in the matter of diet with less compunction than you would kill a rat. It was he who gave me the scar, John Lexman pointed to his cheek. In his master's absence he took upon himself the task of conducting a clumsy imitation of Kara's persecution. He gave me too the only glimpse I ever had of the torture of poor grace on the wind. She hated dogs and Kara must have come to know this. And in her sleeping room she was apparently better accommodated than I. He kept four fierce beasts so chained that they could almost reach her. Some reference to my wife from this low brute maddened me beyond endurance and I sprang at him. He whipped out his knife and he struck at me as I fell and I escaped by a miracle. He evidently had orders not to touch me for he was in a great panic of mind as he had reason to be. Because in Kara's return he discovered the state of my face started an inquiry and had Salvolio taken to the courtyard in the true Eastern fashion and bashed in adode until his feet were pulp. You may be sure the man hated me with a malignity which almost rivaled his employers. After Grace's death Kara went away suddenly and I was left to the tender mercy of this man. Evidently he had been given a fairly free hand. The principal object of Kara's hate being dead he took little further interest in me or else weiried of his hobby. Salvolio began his persecution by reducing my diet. Fortunately I ate very little. Nevertheless the supplies began to grow less and less and I was beginning to feel the effects of this starvation system when there happened a thing which changed the whole course of my life and opened to me a way to freedom and to vengeance. Salvolio did not imitate the austerity of his master and in Kara's absence was in the habit of having little orgies of his own. He would bring up dancing girls from Durazzo for his amusement and invite prominent men in the neighbourhood to his feasts and entertainments for he was absolutely lord of the plato when Kara was away and could do pretty well as he liked. On this particular night the festivities had been more than usually prolonged for as near as I could judge by the daylight which was creeping in through my window it was about four o'clock in the morning when the big steel sheet of door was opened and Salvolio came in more than a little drunk. He brought with him as I judged one of his dancing girls who apparently was privileged to see the sights of the palace. For a long time he stood in the doorway talking incoherently in a language which I think must have been Turkish for I caught one or two words. Whoever the girl was she seemed a little frightened I could see that because she shrank back from him. His arm was about his shoulders and he was half supporting his weight upon her. There was fear not only in the curious little glances he thought it made from time to time but also in the averted face. Her story I was to learn. She was not of the class from when Salvolio found the dancers who from time to time came up to the palace for his amusement on the amusement of his guests. She was the daughter of a Turkish merchant of Skutari who had been received into the Catholic Church. Her father had gone down to Durazzo during the first Balkan war and then Salvolio had seen the girl unknown to her parent and there had been some rough kind of courtship which ended her running away on this very day and joining her ill favoured lover at the Palazzo. I tell you this because the fact is some bearing on my own fate. As I say, the girl was frightened and made as though to go from the dungeon. She was probably scared both by the unkempt prisoner and by the drunken man at her side. He however could not leave without showing to her something of his authority. He came lurching over near where I lay his long knife balanced in his hand ready for emergencies and broke into a string of vituperations of the character to which he was quite hardened. Then he took a flying kick at me and got home in my ribs but again I experienced neither a sense of indignity nor any great hurt. Salvolio had treated me like this before and had survived it in the midst of the tirade looking past him. I was a new witness to an extraordinary scene. The girl stood in the open doorway shrinking back against the door looking with distress and pity at the spectacle which Salvolio's brutality afforded. Then suddenly there appeared beside her a tall Turk. He was grey-bearded and forbidding. She looked round and saw him and her mouth opened to her to a cry but with a gesture he silenced her and pointed to the darkness outside. She cringed past him her sandals feet making no noise. All this time Salvolio was continuing his stream of abuse but he must have seen the wonder in my eyes for he stopped and turned. The old Turk took one stride forward and circled his body with his left arm and there they stood grotesquely like a couple who were going to waltz. The Turk was a head taller than Salvolio and as I could see a man of immense strength. They looked at one another face to face Salvolio rapidly recovering his senses and then the Turk gave him a gentle punch in the ribs. That's what it seemed like to me but Salvolio coughed horribly went limp in the other's arms and dropped with a third to the ground. The Turk lent down soberly and wiped his long knife on the other's jacket before he put it back in the sash at his waist. Then with a glance at me he turned to go but stopped at the door and looked back thoughtfully. He said something in Turkish which I couldn't understand. Then he spoke in French. Who are you? he asked. In a few words as possible I explained. He came over and looked at the manacle about my leg and Chucky's head. You'll never be able to get that on, they said. He caught hold of the chain which was a fairly long one bound at twice round his arm and steadying his arm across his thigh. He turned with a sudden jerk. There was a smart snap as the chain parted. He caught me by the shoulder, pulled me to my feet. Put the chain about your waist offender, he said. And he took a revolver from his belt and handed it to me. You may need this before we get back to Yoratso, he said. His belt was literally bristling with weapons. I saw three revolvers besides the one I possessed and he had evidently come prepared for trouble. We made our way out from the dungeon into the clean smelling world without. It was the second time I had been in the open air for 18 months. My knees were trembling under me with the weakness and excitement. The old man shut the prison door behind us and walked on until we came to the girl waiting for us by the next side. She was weeping softly. And he spoke our few words in a low voice in our weeping ceased. This daughter of mine will show us the way, he said. I don't know this part of the country, she knows it too well. To cut a long story short, said Lexman, we reached Yoratso in the afternoon. There was no attempt meant to follow us up and neither my absence nor the body of Salvolio were discovered until late in the afternoon. You must remember that nobody but Salvolio was allowed into my prison and therefore nobody had the courage to make any investigations. The old man got me to his house without being observed and brought me a brother-in-law or some other relative of his to remove the anklet. The name of my host was a sane offender. That same night we left with a little caravan to visit some of the old man's relatives. He was not certain what would be the consequence of his act and for safety's sake took this trip which would navel him if need be to seek sanctuary with some of the wilder Turkish tribes who would give him protection. In that three months I saw Albania as it is. It was an experience, never to be forgotten. If there's a better man in God's world than he, Abum, has sane offender, I've yet to meet him. It was he who provided me with money to leave Albania. I begged from him to the knife with which he had killed Salvolio. He had discovered that Kara was in England and told me something of the Greek's occupation which I had not known before. I crossed to Italy and went on to Milan. There it was that I learnt that an eccentric Englishman who had arrived a few days previously in one of the South American boats at Genoa was in my hotel desperately ill. My hotel I need to hardly tell you was not a very expensive one and we were evidently the only two Englishmen in the place. I could do no less than go up and see what I could do for the poor fellow who was pretty well gone when I saw him. I seem to remember having seen him before and when looking around for some identification I discovered his name. It was George Galerko who had returned from South America. He was suffering from malarial fever and blood poisoning and for a week with an Italian doctor I fought as hard as any man could fight for his life. He was a trying patient, John Lexman smiled suddenly at the recollection, vitriolic in his language, impatient and imperious in his attitude to his friends. He was, for example, terribly sensitive about his lost arm and wouldn't allow either the doctor or myself to enter the room until he was covered to the neck, nor would he eat or drink in her presence. Yet he was the bravest of the brave, careless of himself and only fretful because he had not time to finish his new book. His indomitable spirit did not save him. He died on the 17th of January of this year. I was in general at the time having gone there at his request to save his belongings. When I returned he had been buried. I went through his papers and it was then that I conceived my idea of how I might approach Kara. I found a letter from the Greek which had been addressed to Buenos Aires to await her arrival. And then I remembered in a flash how Kara had told me he had sent George Gather called to South America to report upon possible gold formations. I was determined to kill Kara and determined to kill him in such a way that I myself would cover every trace of my complicity. Even as he had planned my downfall, scheming every step and covering his trail so did I plan to bring about his death that no suspicion should follow me. I knew his house. I knew something of his habits. I knew the fear in which he went when he was in England and away from the feudal guards who had surrounded him in Albania. I knew of his famous door with its steel latch and I was planning to circumvent all these precautions and bring him not only the death he deserved but a full knowledge of his fate before he died. Gather called on some money about £140. I took £100 of this for my own use knowing that I should have sufficient London to recompense his heirs. The remainder of the money with all such documents as he had saved those which identified him with Kara, I handed over to the British consul. I was not unlike the dead man. My beard had grown wild. I knew enough of Gather called's eccentricities to live the part. The first step I took was to announce my arrival by inference. I'm a fairly good journalist with a wide general knowledge and with this corrected my reference to the necessary books which are found in the British Museum Library. I was able to turn out a very respectable article on Patagonia. This I sent to the Times with one of Gather called's cards and as you know it was printed. My next step was to find suitable lodgings between Chelsea and Scotland Yard. I was fortunate in being able to hire a furnished flat, the owner of which was going to the south of France for three months. I paid the rent in advance and since I dropped all the eccentricities I had assumed to support the character of Gather called, I must have impressed the owner who took me without references. I had several suits of new clothes made, not in London, it's my health, but in Manchester and again I made myself as trim as possible to avoid after identification. When I'd got these together in my flat I chose my day. In the morning I sent two trunks with most of my personal belongings to the Great Midland Hotel. In the afternoon I went to Cadogan Square and hung about until I saw Cara drive off. It was my first view of him since I'd left Albania and it required all my self-control to prevent me spraying at him in the street and tearing at him with my hands. Once he was out of sight I went to the house adopting all the style and all the mannerisms of poor Gather called. My beginning was unfortunate for the shock I recognised in the valley a fellow convict who had been with me in the warder's cottage in the morning of my escape from Dartmoor. There was no mistaking him and when I heard his voice I was certain would he recognise me, I wondered in spite of my beard and my eyeglasses. Apparently he did not. I gave him every chance, I thrust my face into his and visited challenge him in the eccentric way which poor old Gather called had to test the grey of my beard. For the moment however I was satisfied with my brief experiment and after a reasonable interval I went away returning to my place off Victoria Street and waiting till the evening. In my observation of the house whilst I was waiting for Cara to depart I had noticed that there were two distinct telephone wires running down to the roof. I guessed rather than knew that one of these telephones was a private wire and knowing something of Cara's fear I presumed that the wire would lead to a police office or at any rate to a Guardian of some kind or other. Cara had the same arrangement in Albenea connecting the Palazzo with the John Durham poster in Lasso. This much the Sen told me. That night I made a reconnaissance of the house and saw Cara's window was lit and at ten minutes past ten I rang the bell and I think it was then that I applied the test of the beard. Cara was in his room the valley told me and led the way upstairs. I had come prepared to deal with this valley for adding a special reason for wishing that he should not be interrogated by the police. On a plain card I had written the number he bought in Dartmoor and I added the words I know you get out of here quick. As he turned to lead the way upstairs I flung the envelope containing the card on the table in the hall. In an inside pocket as near to my body as I could put them I had the two candles. How should I use them both? I had already decided. The valley ushered me into Cara's room and once more I stood in the presence of the man who had killed my girl and blotted out all that was beautiful in life for me. There was a breathless silence when he paused. He actually in back in his chair his head up on his breast, his arms folded his eyes watching the other intensely. The chief commissioner with a heavy frown and pushed lips sat stroking his moustache and looking under his shaggy eyebrows at the speaker. The French police officer his hands thrust deep in his pockets his head on one side was taking in every word eagerly the cellophase Russian impassive of face might have been a carved ivory mask. O'Grady the American the stump of a dead cigar between his teeth shifted impatiently with every pause as though he had hurried forward in an oomol. Presently John Lacksman went on he slipped from the bed and came across to meet me as I closed the door behind me. Mr. Gather Coley said in that silky tone of his and held out his hands. I didn't speak. I just looked at him the sort of fierce joy in my heart the like of which I had never before experienced and then he saw in my eyes the truth and half reached for the telephone. By that moment I was on him he was a child in my hands all the bitter anguish he had brought upon me all the hardship of starred days and freezing nights it strengthened and hardened me I'd come back to London disguised with a false arm and this I shook free it was merely a gauntlet of thin wood which I'd made for me in Paris I flung him back in the bed and half knelt half laid in him Kara I said you are going to die a more merciful death than my wife died he tried to speak his soft hands gesticulated wildly but I was half lying in one arm and held the other I whispered in his ear nobody will know who killed you Kara think of that I shall go scot-free and you will be the centre of a fine mystery all your letters will be read all your life will be examined and the world will know you for what you are I released his arm for just as long as it took to draw my knife and strike I think he died instantly John next one said simply I left him where he was and went to the door I had not much time to spare I took the candles from my pocket they were already ductile from the heat of my body I lifted up the steel latch of the door and propped up the latch of the smaller of the two candles one end of which was on the middle socket and the other beneath the latch the heat of the room I knew would still further soften the candle and let the latch down in a short time I was prepared for the telephone by his bedside though I didn't know whether it led the presence of the paper knife decided me I balanced it across the silver cigarette box so that one end came under the telephone receiver under the other end I put the second candle which I had to cut to fit on top of the paper knife at the candle end I balanced the only two books I could find in the room and fortunately they were heavy I had no means of knowing how long it would take to melt the candle to a state of flexion which would allow the full weight of the books to bear upon the candle end of the paper knife and fling off the receiver I was hoping that Fisher had taken my warning and had gone when I opened the door softly I heard his footsteps in the hall below there was nothing to do but finish the play I turned and addressed an imaginary conversation to Kara it was horrible but there was something about it which aroused me a curious sense of humour and I wanted to laugh and laugh and laugh I heard the man coming up the stairs and closed the door gingerly what length of time would it take for the candle to bend to completely establish the alibi I determined to hold Fisher in conversation and this was all the easier since apparently they had not seen the end I had left on the table downstairs I hadn't long to wait for suddenly with a crash I heard the steel latch fall in its place under the effect of the heat the candle had bent sooner than I expected I asked Fisher what was the meaning of the sound and he explained I passed down the stairs taking all the time I found a cabbage lawn square and drove to my lodging underneath my overcoat I was partly dressed in evening kit ten minutes later after I entered the door of my flat I found a beardless man about town not to be distinguished from the thousand others who would be found that night walking the promenade of any of the great music halls from Victoria Street I drove straight to Scotland Yard there was no more than a coincidence that whilst I should have been speaking with you all the second candle should have bent and the alarm be given in the very office in which I was sitting I assure you all in all endlessness that I did not suspect the cause of that ringing until Mr. Manson spoke there gentlemen is my story he threw out his arms you may do with me as you will Kara was a murderer died a hundred times in innocent blood I have done all that I set myself to do that and no more that and no less I had thought to go away to America but the nearer the day of my departure approached the more vivid became the memory of the plans which she and I had formed my girl my poor martyred girl he sat at the little table that his hands clasped before him his face lined in white and that is the end he said suddenly with her eyes smile and not quite TX it was Belinda May who spoke I can carry it on she said she was wonderfully self-possessed thought TX but then TX never thought anything of her but that she was wonderfully something or other most of your story is true Mr. Lexman she said this astonishing girl oblivious of the amazed eyes that were staring at her but Kara deceived you in one respect what do you mean asked your Lexman rising unsteadily to his feet for answer she rose and walked back to the door with the chinch curtains and flung it open there was a wait which seemed an eternity and then through the doorway came a girl slim and grave and beautiful my god this was TX Grace Lexman and of Chapter 22 Recording by Ian Skelan Chapter 23 of The Clue of the Twisted Candle This is a LibriVox recording or LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Larissa Jaworski Brisbane Australia March 2007 The Clue of the Twisted Candle by Edgar Wallace Chapter 23 She was alone, two people who found in this moment a heaven which is not beyond the reach of humanity but which is seldom attained to Belinda Mary had an eager audience all to her very self of course she didn't die she said scornfully Kara was playing on his fears all the time he never even harmed her in the way Mr. Lexman feared he told Mrs. Lexman that her husband was dead just as he told John Lexman his wife was gone what happened was that he brought her back to England who asked TX incredulously Grace Lexman said the girl with a smile you wouldn't think it possible but when you realise that he had a yacht of his own and that he could travel up from whatever landing place he chose to his house in Cadogan Square by motor car and that he could take her straight away into his cellar without disturbing the household you'll understand that the only difficulty he had was in landing her it was in the lower cellar that I found her you found her in the cellar demanded the chief commissioner the girl nodded I found her and the dog you heard how Kara terrified her and I killed the dog with my own hands she said a little proudly and then she shivered it was very beastly she admitted and she's been living with you all this time and you've said nothing asked TX incredulously Belinda Mary nodded and that is why you didn't want me to know you will see she was very ill she said and I had to nurse her up and of course I knew that it was Lexman who killed Kara and I couldn't tell you about Grace Lexman without betraying him so when Mr Lexman decided to tell his story I thought I'd better supply the grand denouement the men looked at each other what are you going to do about Lexman asked the chief commissioner and by the way TX how does all this fit your theories fairly well replied TX Cooley obviously the man who committed the murder was the man introduced into the room as Gathacole and obviously it was not Gathacole although to all appearance he had lost his left arm why obvious asked the chief commissioner because answered TX Meredith the real Gathacole had lost his right arm that was the one era Lexman made the chief pulled his mustache and looked inquiringly around the room we have to make up our minds quickly about Lexman he said what do you think Karl know the Frenchman shrugged his shoulders for my part I should only import tune your home secretary to pardon him but I should recommend him for a pension he sent flippantly what do you think Svorsky the Russian smiled a little it is very impressive story he said dispassionately it occurs to me that if you intend bringing this gentleman to judgment you are likely to expose some very pretty scandals incidentally he said striking his trim little mustache I might remark that any exposure which drew attention to the loyal conditions of Albania would not be regarded by my government with Svavor the chief commissioner's eyes twinkled and he nodded that is also my view said the chief of the Italian bureau naturally we are greatly interested on the Adriatic literal it seems to me that Cara has come to a very merciful end and I am not inclined to regard a prosecution of Mr. Lexman with equanimity well I guess the political aspect of the case doesn't affect us very much said O'Grady but as one who was once mighty near the exfixiated by stirring up the wrong kind of mud I should leave the matter where it is the chief commissioner was deep in thought Linda Mary eyed him anxiously tell them to come in he said bluntly the girl went and brought John Lexman and his wife and they came in hand in hand supremely and serenely happy whatever the future might hold for them the chief commissioner cleared his throat Lexman were all very much obliged to you he said for a very interesting story and a most interesting theory what you have done as I understand the matter it is a theory not only as to how the murder was actually committed but as to the motive for that murder it is I might say a remarkable piece of reconstruction he spoke very deliberately and swept away John Lexman's astonished interruption with a stern hand please wait and do not speak until I am out of hearing he growled you have got into the skin of the actual assassin and have spoken most convincingly one might almost think that the man who killed Remington Cara for that piece of impersonation we are all very grateful he glared around over his spectacles at his understanding colleagues and they murmured approvingly he looked at his watch now I am afraid I must be off he crossed the room and put out his hand to John Lexman I wish you good luck he said and took both Grace Lexman's hands in his one of these days he said paternally your husband shall tell me another happier story he paused at the door as he was going out and looking back caught the grateful eyes of Lexman by the way Mr Lexman he said hesitatingly I don't think I should ever write a story called the clue of the twisted candle if I were you John Lexman shook his head it will never be written he said by me the end of the clue of the twisted candle