Chapter 27 Chapter Twenty Six

"You're right. My real name is Harry Lucas. My father was an ex-soldier who came to Rhodesia to farm. He died when I was in my second year at Cambridge." "Do you like him?" I asked suddenly. "I have no idea." Then he went on, blushing and in a tone of sudden intensity: "Why would I say that? I love my father. The last time I saw him, we said nasty things to each other, and we had big fights about my licentiousness and my debts, but I cared about the old man. I now know how much I care—but it's too late," he went on more calmly: "I met another man at Cambridge—"

"Little Erzri?" "Yes—little Ozri. His father, as you know, was one of the greats in South Africa. My friend and I, we were adrift together for a time. We had a common love for South Africa, and we Both had a preference for untrodden parts of the world. After he left Cambridge, Ezri had one last quarrel with his father. The old man had paid his debts twice and refused to help him any more. Pay any debts. There was a heated scene between them, and Lauros finally declared—he couldn't bear it any more—he wouldn't do anything for his son anymore, he had to fend for himself for a while. As a result, as you know, the two Young people went together to prospect for diamonds in South America. I don't want to go into details about my days in South America now, but we had a great time there. Hard, you know, but a good life—a life far from Ordinary, do-it-yourself scramble for survival—and, man, that's where friends are made. There's a knot between us that only death can tear us apart. Well, like Colonel Race Told you, our efforts were not in vain. We were in the heart of the British Guiana forest and found Kimberley II. I can't describe to you how ecstatic we were. It wasn't actually the money for the discovery On value - you know, Erzri is more into money, and he knows he's going to be a millionaire when his father dies, while Lucas has always been poor and used to it. No, it's not because of the money ’s sake, but pure joy of discovery.” He paused, then nodded in an almost apologetic way:

"You don't mind if I tell you this way? It's like I was a total outsider. That's how I feel now when I think about those two boys. I almost forget that one of them was me - Harry Rayburn." "Tell me any way you like," I said.He went on: "We came to Kimberley - overjoyed with what we had found. We took a selection of diamonds to hand over to the experts. Then - at the hotel in Kimberley - we met her - " I felt a little stiff all over, and the hand on the doorpost tightened unexpectedly. "Anida Gerubber—that's her name. She's an actress, quite young and very pretty. She was brought up in South Africa, but I think her mother must be Hungarian. There is something about her a mysterious legend, and that of course increased her appeal to two bohemian, away-from-home boys. We both fell in love with her right away, and pursued each seriously. It was the first love between us. Shadow—but that didn't weaken our friendship. I'm convinced that both of us were willing to back out so the other could win. But that wasn't her goal. Later I sometimes wondered why it wasn't, because Sir Lauros Erdsley's only son, she would have been an ideal match, but the truth was that she had been married - to a sorter who worked in the De Beers diamond field - although no one knew it. She pretended to be very interested in what we had found, and we told her everything, even showing her the diamonds. Delilah--she should be named after the temptress, Samson's concubine--and she pretended very good!

"The De Beers diamond theft happened and the police came to us like a bolt out of the blue and they found the diamond. We laughed it off at first - the whole thing was so ridiculous. Then the diamond went to court - and needless to say, Those were the diamonds stolen by De Beers. Annida Gerber was missing. She had successfully dropped her bag and completed her mission. And we argued in court that the diamonds were not ours but were Ridicule as a joke. "Sir Lauros Erdsley was very influential, and he succeeded in getting the case out of prosecution - but it made the two young men, who were accused of unwarranted theft, disgraced, and it also made the The old man was heartbroken. He had a very unpleasant meeting with his son, and he condemned him as much as he could. He had done his best to save the family's reputation, but since that day, his son was no longer His son died. He kicked him out of the house. And the boy, always a proud young fool, kept silent, unable to argue his innocence under his father's disbelieving face. He went away angrily— —His friends were waiting for him. A week later, the war broke out. Those two comrades joined the army. You know what happened after that. The best friend was killed, partly because he went crazy and risked unnecessary It was caused by danger. He washed his notoriety and died...

"I swear to you, Anne, it was mainly because of him that I hated that woman. He loved her more deeply than I did. I was madly in love with her—I even thought I loved her sometimes. frightening to her—but to him it was a silent, deep emotion. She was the center of his whole being—and her betrayal of him uprooted his life. The blow made him Absolutely shocked and paralyzed." Harry paused.After a minute or two he continued: "As you know, I was reported as 'missing, presumed dead', an error I never bothered to correct. I came to this island under the alias Buck, which I have long known Island. At the beginning of the war, I had the confidence to prove my innocence, but now I have died. I feel 'what good is it'? My partner is dead, he and my living relatives have no One cares about it. I was supposed to be dead, too; let it stay that way. I live a peaceful life here, and I don't care whether I'm happy or not—a mind like still water. Now I see, though I wasn't Don't know - this is partly due to the effects of the war.

"Then one day, something suddenly woke me up again. I took a group of people on my boat, paddling along the river for sightseeing, and I stood on the steps to help them get on the boat, and suddenly a person exclaimed loudly. This makes All my attention was on him. He was a small, bearded man, and he looked at me as if I were a ghost, and his emotional response was so strong that it aroused my emotions. Curiosity. I inquired at the restaurant and learned that his name was Katong, he was from Kimberley, and that he was a diamond sorter employed by De Beers. For a moment, all the old feelings of injustice gnawed at me again. I Leave the island and go to Kimberley.

"Anyway, I could always get to know him a little better. In the end, I decided I had to force an interview with him. I carried a revolver, and I knew he was a timid coward just by glancing at him. When we were face to face, I found out he was afraid of me. Soon I forced him to tell me all he knew. He did some of the theft and Anida Gerber was his wife. He used to be with her in the hotel Having seen us at dinner, and having read in the papers that I was dead, he was greatly shocked by my presence in the Falls. He and Anida were married when they were very young, but she left soon after. She joined a bad organization, he told me - and this is the first time I've heard of the 'Colonel. Assure me, I believed him. He was by no means the type of successful criminal.

"I still felt he was holding back. To test him, I threatened to shoot him any moment, and that I now cared very little about the consequences for myself. In utter terror, he leaked another A story. It seems that Anida Gerber didn't trust the 'Colonel' very much. When she pretended to give him the diamonds she got in the hotel, she secretly kept some. Katong gave her technical guidance and told her what to do Keep those, if at any time these diamonds were presented, they had such an easily identifiable color and texture that De Beers experts would immediately admit that these diamonds had never passed through their hands. As a result, my diamonds The story of being swapped would be upheld, my guilt would be cleared, and the accusation of theft would be passed on to those who deserved it. I reasoned that, contrary to his usual style, this time the 'Colonel' himself was involved, so Anne Dar was relieved to have something on him that she could use against him whenever she needed to. Kathon suggested that I should negotiate with Anida Gerber, or Nadina—she called herself Natina now. Tina. Give her enough money that he thinks she'll be willing to sell the diamonds and betray her old employer. He'll telegraph her right away.

"I'm still suspicious of Caton. He's an easily intimidated man, but in fear he'll say things that make it hard to tell the truth from the fake. I went back to the hotel and waited. By the second Later that evening, I figured he'd gotten a call back. I went to him and they said Mr. Caton had left but would be back the next morning. I was immediately suspicious. I asked under a pseudonym that he was actually on A "Gillmorden Castle" bound for England was due to leave Cape Town in two days. I happened to be in Cape Town in just enough time to catch the same ship.

"I don't want Caton to find me on the ship. I was an actor for a while at Cambridge. It was easy for me to disguise myself as a middle-aged gentleman with a big beard. I carefully avoided Kathom, pretending to be sick, stayed in my cabin as long as possible. "I followed him easily when we arrived in London. He got off the boat and went straight into a hotel, and didn't come out until the next day. When it was almost one o'clock, he left the hotel and I followed him. Follow him. He goes straight to a real estate dealer in 'Knightsbridge' and asks for a nicer house on the river.

"I was also asking about the house at the counter next door when Annida Gerber, aka Nadina, walked in suddenly. Gorgeous, haughty, and almost as beautiful as ever. My God! How am I I hated her so much. There she was, the woman who ruined my life--she ruined my friend's better life than mine. I could hardly resist rushing to her then and strangled her so badly! For a moment I felt my blood flow back and I was filled with resentment. I could barely hear what the broker was saying. Then I heard her voice, high and clear, with an exaggerated foreign accent: 'Mill, Marlow's Mill Sir Eustace Peterler's estate. It seems to suit me. Anyway, I'll go and see.'" "The man gave her a certificate, and she went out with her usual insolence. She pretended not to know Kathom at all, but I was convinced that their meeting there was a premeditated one. Then I Jumping to conclusions, I didn't know Sir Eustace was in Cannay at the time, so I thought the house-hunting was just a cover-up to get to see him at the mill. I knew about the diamond theft He was in South Africa when it happened. I hadn't met him and immediately jumped to the conclusion that he was the mysterious 'Colonel' I'd been hearing about. "I followed both of them, and Nadina walked into the Hyde Park Hotel, and I quickened my pace to follow. She walked straight into the dining room, and I decided it was better not to risk being recognized by her at that point, or to keep following the card. Well done. I was hoping he was going to get the diamonds, so that I could suddenly appear in front of him, show my true colors, and scare him into telling the truth. I followed him into Hyde Park Corner Station. He stood alone. At the end of the platform. There was no one else but a girl standing nearby. I decided to go over and say hello. You know what happened further down. After seeing someone he thought was far away in South Africa. Shocked. He backed away in panic and fell onto the electric rails. He was a coward the whole time. I pretended to be a doctor and pressed his pocket. In his pocket was a wallet full of notes, a note or two letter, a roll of negatives—which I must have dropped somewhere afterwards—and a note stating an appointment on board the "Gillmorden Castle" on the 22nd. Between the hasty departures , I dropped this note too, but luckily I remembered the numbers written on it. "I hurried into the nearest toilet and quickly removed the make-up from my face. I didn't want to be followed for pickpocketing a dead man's pocket. Then I went back to the Hyde Park Hotel and Nadina was still eating lunch. I didn't have to. Tell me how I followed her to Marlowe. She went into the house, and I pretended to the cottage woman that I was with her. Then I went in too." He stopped.There was an oppressive silence. "You'll believe me, Anne, won't you? I swear to God, what I'm going to say next is absolutely true. I walked into that house after her with the intention of murdering her—and she was dead. Yes! I found her body in the upstairs room - OMG! Terrible. Dead - I just walked into the house a little over three minutes after her and there was no sign of anyone else in the house Of course I immediately understood the horror of my situation. The murderer had cleverly arranged a scapegoat, and the Colonel's methods were too clean. I was his victim again, how stupid I was, so easily and automatically. Step into his trap! "I hardly know what I did when I went down. I was going to walk out of the place pretending to be normal, but I knew that the murder would be discovered soon and that all descriptions of my appearance would be telegraphed everywhere. . "I hid for some days without daring to move. At last my chance came. I overheard a conversation in the street between two middle-aged gentlemen, one of whom was Sir Eustace Peterler. I The idea of ​​pretending to be his secretary immediately came to mind, and fragments of conversation I overheard gave me clues. Now I'm not so sure that Sir Eustace Peterler was the 'Colonel'. His house may have just happened to be Designated as an assassination site, for some motive beyond my comprehension." "Did you know," I interposed, "that the Pagetts were at Marlowe when the murder happened?" "That's right. I thought he was at Cannay with Sir Eustace." "He should have gone to Florence—but he didn't. I'm sure he was at Marlowe, but, of course, I can't prove it." "To think I never suspected Pagett until the night he tried to push you overboard. That guy is an amazing actor." "Yes, isn't it?" "That would explain the choice of 'The Mill'. Pagett could go in and out of that house unnoticed. Of course he had no objection to me being on board with Sir Eustace, and he didn't want me to be arrested immediately. You You know, Nadina apparently didn't go to the mill with the diamonds, as they expected. I guess the diamonds were in fact in the possession of Caton, and he hid them somewhere on the 'Gilmorden Castle,' They wanted me to know where the diamonds were hidden. 'Colonel' was restless every day he didn't find the diamonds, and was still in crisis--so he was in a hurry to get them at any cost. Where the hell did Caton hide them —if he did hide them—I have no idea." "That's another story," I said, "my story. I'll tell you now."