Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-10-05
CHAPTER XIII.
The Next Move.


asked You look as if you had a
ghost. Is there anything new in this ghast-
| ly business? Have the police solved the
! problem?"
'On the contrary, the problem gets more
bewldering every hour" Walter said las
you know, l was going to talk over our side
of the puzzle with Inspector Dallas, and he
gave me some startling information. As
| soon ever l mentioned the Flavio bust
ness he told me that he had made dis
| cpvery which connected It closely with the
| death of poor Louis Delahay. 1t appears
| that there is in England at the present mo-
| ment an Italian detective, called Eerti,- who
had the Flavio affair in hand"
Il recollect the name perfectly well,
Ravenspur murmured.
1T appears that BERT has seen Mrs.
Delahay since the inquest. He was rather
| Interested in the affair and he contrived to
get a sight Of Mrs. Delahay. And now
comes the most extraordinary feature OF
| the story. Berti is absolutely certain that
| Mrs. Delahay is no other than Carlotta.
| Countess Flavo"
impossible" Ravenspur cried. The
| man is mistaken"
He is prepared to swear to his state
| ment, any way Walter said. And, after
all, l don't see why it should be impossible.
In fact 1t is not in the least Impossible.
and I'll tell you why. After this amazing
thing came out l thought 1t my duty to go
back to the hotel and see Mrs. Delahay. l
told her what Berti said. and taxed her
with being principal in the Flavio
tragedy"
And she denied 1t promptly, of course?"
She did She told me quite calmly that
she had never heard of the Flavio affair.
l confess her words staggered me, because
! they were 50 calm and self-possessed. l
watched her narrowly when l was speak
ing, and she never much as changed
color. Even when told her the story she
appeared to be as mystified and puzzled as
ever. She said, she has always said,
that for the best part of her life she has
been more or less a recluse and altogether
out of touch with the worlds happenings.
You see, Berti was SO confident and Mrs.
Delahay self-possessed that l was utter
ly puzzled
There is nothing to be puzzled about"
Ravenspur said. The Italian detective has
made mistake His recoliections OF Car
lotta Flavio's features after eighteen years
have become blurred For goodness sake,
don't let us harp upon this absurdty. Sure
ly there are enough complications without
this
so l thought at first Walter said. But
you will recolect telling me the story of
your friend Count Flavio and his unhappy
marriage. There were two Descartis-Car-
lotta, who married your friend, and Maria,
who disappeared and not heard of for
years. Now isn't 1t rather significant,
bearing in mind what Berti says that Mrs.
Delahay's name should be Maria?"
Ravenspur looked up with startled ex-
preston.
well, yes" he exclaimed But l see
you have more to tell me. Will you please
go on?''
7 am coming to the interesting part
pared to believe that Mrs. Delahay knew
nothing of the Flavio affair. 1 was by no
means satisfied. l felt that there must be
something in the Italians story. l was
certain of it when Mrs Deahay admitted
that her maiden name was Descarti Oh.
please let me finish 1t was Mrs. Della
hays sister Carlotta who was the wife of
your friend the count. Hence the very
not seen the countess, but her sister. The
strong likeness between them would &C
count for the misunderstanding"
land this is really fact?' Ravenspur
cried. Strange that it should not have
come out before
But why should it. my dear uncle? You
say that you never Count Flavio's
wife. You have not the slightest idea what
she was like. All you know is that she was
an exceedingly bad woman, and that you
rescued her child from questionable fu-
ture. On the other hand. Maria Delahay
is secluded from the world for eighteen
years. She is told by her parents that her
sister Is dead. She knows nothing Of the
terrible Flavio scandal. This is a fact, be-
cause she told me SO herself. Indeed, we
had it all out. She has to come back to
the world again when her parents die. She
is compelled to get her own living. 1t is
ONLY natural that she should change her
name. and there you are"
Lord Ravenspur pondered over the mat
ter for some time in silence.
You saw a great deal more Of the Della
HAYS than 1 did" he said. Practically l
have not seen them together at all. Now
how do they strike youi 1 mean, before
their marriage. did you think that the
woman really cared anything for our poor
friend?"
Il am sure she did, Walter said en-
phatically. "Of course there was no pas
sionate attachment between them; they
%l,-% ID
tain that Maria Delahay's affection was
sincere enough. After what I have seen
the last day or two, l decline to believe
that she had anything to do with her hus-
bands death. l believed her when she said
she never saw him from the time she Lett
the hotel till she found him dead in the
studio
Delahay the witness Stevens saw that night
in Fitzjohn Square, then it must have been
her sister Carlotta."
my word that never occurred to mev
Walter cried. And yet the solution is as
simple as it Is probable. l wonder il it Is
possible to obtain a photograph of the
countess?"
'There were plenty of them published at
the time of the trial. Ravenspur said. "Of
course l mean In the illustrated papers.
have got the whole of them somewhere up
newspaper photographs. as they are rarely
any use. I'll go and see If can find one.
Rayenspur turned hurriedly and left the
room. He was gone some considerable
time, leaving Walter to stand there and
ponder over the result of his nights ad-
venture The more he thought the matter
over the more complicated it became. He
put the thing away from him almost petu-
iantly He was suddenly conscious of the
fact that the music in the drawing room
was very soft and soothing. Then 1t
flashed across him that Vera had some
thing to say. Ravenspur might be little
time longer, and there was no opportunity
like the present.
only a portion of the drawing room lights
were on, together with the piano candles.
and Vera sat there half in the shadow,
misunderstanding figure enough. in her white
dress AS Walter approached he could see
that her face was very pale and that her
ewes showed signs of recent tears.
"What is the matter?" he asked. What
fresh trouble is this?''
Vera's hands fell away from the keys.
She rose from her seat.
ut is not altogether fresh trouble" she
murmured; lit is only the old one become
more acute. Do you remember my telling
you the other day that felt how impos-
sible it is for me to remain here any
Io,rar1 Eut I nuSt away"