The Princess Ar-Lassi smiled sweetly at them all inclusively. It appeared she had shed her accent for good, for she said: “You’ll be surprised at what I want, Mr. Hanscom. I want a hundred thousand dollars — in cash!”
Hanscom’s face grew apoplectic. He exploded: “What!”
Thane started to laugh, while Gates looked bewildered. Only Rice did not seem surprised. In his face “X” saw a dawning comprehension.
The princess nodded. “A hundred thousand dollars. You can have Mr. Gates, there, take it out of one of his slush funds. It’ll never be missed. And you can be thankful I am so modest in my demands!”
Rice allowed himself a thin smile. “Perhaps you will tell us, princess, why you think we are going to give you a hundred thousand dollars?”
“Of course I’ll tell you. I thought you knew. You’re going to give me that money so that I’ll feel well disposed toward you; so that I won’t talk about — things!”
Thane said coldly, “Are you trying to blackmail us, princess? You — the fiancée of the governor-elect?”
She shrugged. “You should know better than anyone, Senator Thane, that I will never be able to marry the — governor-elect!”
“What — what do you mean?” Thane became blustery. “Are you insinuating—”
“That you have been planning to murder my — fiancée! You hired Killer Kyle to do it. Don’t deny it. Kyle is right here on the estate now.”
Hanscom heaved his heavy body in the chair, and tried to bluff. “You’re crazy!” he cried. “Go and tell the newspapers; go and tell everybody. Let them come here and look. They’ll find nothing.”
“Of course not, Mr. Hanscom. By that time you’ll have got rid of the evidence — that bullet-riddled hearse, for instance. But there are things you can’t get rid of. Suppose I went to Mr. Linton, of the Liberal Party, and told him that Judge Farrell—”
Rice cried out, “Stop! Never mention that!”
Her eyes glowed. “Now, I think, we understand each other. You are ruthless, unscrupulous men, working for power — power that almost slipped out of your fingers last week — power that may be wrested from your hands tomorrow, tonight, if you are not careful. And you may lose more — you may lose your lives — the way Michael Crome lost his!
“How would you like to have your bodies swell up — you, and you, and you,” she indicated Rice, Hanscom, Gates, in turn, “the way Crome’s did, until your throats are closed and you can breathe no longer! That is your danger!”
Gates had gone white while she talked. Now he gasped, cried weakly, “Enough! Enough! Let’s give her the money. Anything! Only stop her! Stop her!”
Hanscom growled at him, “Shut up!”
Rice’s lips curled in scorn. “I’ll stop her! The way I stop them all when they talk too much!” He slipped open a drawer of the desk, and put out his hand for the gun that lay there.
But the princess was quicker than he. Her handbag snapped open, and her ugly black automatic appeared in her hand, pointing at Rice.
“Close that drawer!” she ordered. “And leave the gun in it!”
Rice swore under his breath, and obeyed.
The princess now swung the gun so that it menaced everybody in the room.
“X” knew that she was dangerous, ruthless, cruel, as she stood there with narrowed eyes behind the automatic. He remained motionless, allowing the strange play to go on in the hope of learning more from the excited, unguarded reactions of these people.
THE princess said, “Rice, I could kill you now, and it would be self-defense. These men can testify that you went for your gun.”
“You’re crazy!” Rice snarled. “Why should they testify to that? They’re my friends!”
“Your friends? They are also the — governor-elect’s friends. You are his friend. Yet you hired Kyle to kill him. Just so, they would be glad to see me kill you. Senator Thane would become acting governor; Hanscom would be rid of a blundering fool; Gates doesn’t care as long as he can get his bills through the legislature — and anyway, he’s scared of his shadow; he’d fall in line.”
Rice’s face had become ashen. He said nothing, watched her in silence.
She went on. “But I am interested in only one thing — I want to get as much out of this as I can. Frankly, I don’t care who is governor. I don’t care if you finally eliminate — Farrell. I’ll keep my hands off — I’ll even help you — if I get one hundred thousand dollars! Perhaps,” she leaned forward as she spoke the next words, “I would even tell you where to find the body of—”
“God! Stop!” Gates blurted. “Don’t say it! The walls may have ears!”
Secret Agent “X” stiffened. Whose body had she meant? Was it the governor-elect’s? It could hardly be, from the tenor of the previous conversation. Had there been another murder, as yet unreported? Was the body being held over the heads of these men as a club, a menace?
“X” began to feel that the key to the sinister mystery that lay over this place was in the hands of no one person; that each held a thread of clue. That there were dark cross-currents of greed, of desire for power, of hate, all working against each other.
He was piecing together things he had heard so far, things he had seen; but he was no nearer a solution than when he had set out to drag information from Kyle. In fact, the more he learned, the more confusing it seemed. This missing body that the princess had mentioned was a factor he had not been aware of at all.
He set himself to listen more closely, in the hope of catching a further clue from an inflection of voice, from an unguarded remark. And suddenly he stiffened. The door behind the princess was slowly opening as she spoke. Engaged as she was, in holding the four men at bay with her automatic, she did not hear it.
But Rice saw the door move, and said nothing. “X” could tell when Hanscom and Thane noticed it, for they both started perceptibly, then, studiously tried to appear natural. Gates was too nervous to notice anything.
In the narrow opening of the door appeared the ugly face of Fleer. He stared into the room, as if not thoroughly comprehending the situation.
Rice gave him his cue. He said to the woman, “We are all helpless while you threaten us with that gun, princess.” He spoke very loud, looking at the part of Fleer’s face that showed in the open crack of the door.
Fleer took the cue. He pushed the door open noiselessly, crept up on the princess. She was saying, “You’d better decide quickly. There isn’t—”
THAT was as far as she got. Fleer pounced upon her gun hand, and twisted it mercilessly, until she dropped the automatic, uttering an involuntary cry of pain.
Rice yanked open the drawer and snatched up the gun he had tried to get before. “Good work, Fleer,” he said, with a thin smile. “Stand away from her!”
Fleer backed away.
The princess stood silent, rubbing her wrist where the marks of Fleer’s hand showed.
Rice said to her, “And now, princess, you see what a mistake it was to come here and threaten us. In this game you are only allowed one mistake.”
Hanscom took the cigar out of his mouth, breathed a sigh of relief.
Gates was silent, eyes wide, fidgeting nervously.
Thane said, “What are we going to do with her?”
“There is only one thing to do with her,” Rice answered. “The same thing we’re going to do with Kyle. We can’t afford—”
Fleer interrupted him, excitedly. “Say, boss! That’s what I come to tell you! Kyle’s gone! He broke out of the coffin somehow, an’ knocked out Jurgen. He’s loose some place in the grounds, an’ he has Jurgen’s gun!”
That announcement started a small panic in the room. Only the princess was cool.