Stolen Souls - BestLightNovel.com
You’re reading novel Stolen Souls Part 36 online at BestLightNovel.com. Please use the follow button to get notification about the latest chapter next time when you visit BestLightNovel.com. Use F11 button to read novel in full-screen(PC only). Drop by anytime you want to read free – fast – latest novel. It’s great if you could leave a comment, share your opinion about the new chapters, new novel with others on the internet. We’ll do our best to bring you the finest, latest novel everyday. Enjoy
"_Diable_! You?" cried Delbet, starting up in alarm.
"Ah, my husband!" gasped Valerie, covering her blanched face with her hands.
"_Sacre_! You shall die!" I shouted.
The tolling bell throbbed once again, and then--a short, sharp, loud report and a flash together. A little puff of blue-grey smoke floated ceilingward, a man's frightened cry pierced the night, and upon the harmonious colours of the flower-strewn carpet Valerie lay dead.
Rus.h.i.+ng to my wife's boudoir, I broke open her escritoire, bent upon ascertaining the nature of any letters she might have concealed there.
There were many. Ah, _Dieu_! When I think of the pa.s.sionate love-missives penned by the man whom I had implicitly trusted, and admitted to my home as a friend, my brain is lashed to frenzy.
One discovery I made was startling. Several of the letters bore the stamp of twenty-five centimes, and their envelopes were addressed to "Mademoiselle Halima Fathma, care of Hadj Ha.s.san, Douera Algerie."
Searching further, I discovered a full-length cabinet photograph, taken in Algiers. It was of Valerie dressed as the Sheikh's daughter, with the exception that the _adjar_, which had hidden the Arab girl's face, had been removed.
In my surprise I almost forgot the terrible tragedy.
Continuing the investigation of the odds and ends in her private drawer, I found an Arab head ornament and several bracelets. The pattern of the crescent-shaped sequins I recognised as the same as those worn by the mysterious Halima.
These discoveries, combined with the contents of the letters which I hastily scanned, left no doubt that Halima and Valerie were the same person; and, further, that Ha.s.san, the wealthy Sheikh of the Ahamellen, who had a house at Douera, was really her father; and that Monsieur de Noirville had brought her up, and educated her to the ways of civilised society.
When I had left for Algeria, it had been her caprice to follow me, and rejoin her people.
She had saved my life, yet I had killed her.
But though so fair, she was false--_false_!
Bah! How infernally bitter this cognac is!
One more gulp, and my body and soul will have parted. I shall be at rest.
Ah, well! Here's health to the cursed scoundrel who has wrecked my life. The gla.s.s is drained. The sediment was like gall.
How it burns!
I--I go. I trouble no one longer. _Au revoir. Adieu_!
