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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/16127.txt b/16127.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..beaa664 --- /dev/null +++ b/16127.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8596 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Diamond Cross Mystery, by Chester K. +Steele + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Diamond Cross Mystery + Being a Somewhat Different Detective Story + + +Author: Chester K. Steele + + + +Release Date: June 25, 2005 [eBook #16127] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DIAMOND CROSS MYSTERY*** + + +E-text prepared by Al Haines + + + +THE DIAMOND CROSS + +Being a Somewhat Different Detective Story + +by + +CHESTER K. STEELE + +Author of "The Mansion of Mystery," etc. + +International Fiction Library +Cleveland New York +Press Of +The Commercial Bookbinding Co. +Cleveland + +1918 + + + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + I. The Ticking Watch + II. King's Dagger + III. The Fisherman + IV. Spotty + V. Amy's Appeal + VI. Grafton's Search + VII. The Colonel is Surprised + VIII. The Diamond Cross + IX. Indicted + X. The Death Watch + XI. No Alimony + XII. The Odd Coin + XIII. Singa Phut + XIV. The Hidden Wires + XV. A Dog + XVI. The Colonel Wonders + XVII. "A Jolly Good Fellow" + XVIII. Amy's Test + XIX. Word From Spotty + XX. In The Shadows + XXI. Swirling Waters + XXII. His Last Case + + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE TICKING WATCH + +There was only one sound which broke the intense stillness of the +jewelry shop on that fateful April morning. That sound was the ticking +of the watch in the hand of the dead woman. + +Outside, the rain was falling. Not a heavy downpour which splashed +cheerfully on umbrellas and formed swollen streams in the gutters, +whence they rushed toward the sewer basins, carrying with them an +accumulation of sticks, leaves and dirt. Not a windy, gusty rain, that +made a man glad to get indoors near a genial fire, with his pipe and a +book. + +It was a drizzle; a steady, persistent drizzle, which a half-hearted +wind blew this way and that, as though neither element cared much for +the task in hand--that of thoroughly soaking the particular part of the +universe in the neighborhood of Colchester and taking its own time in +which to do it. + +Early in the unequal contest the sun had given up its effort to pierce +through the leaden clouds, and had taken its beams to other places--to +busy cities, to smiling country villages and farms. Above, around, +below, on all sides, soaking through and through, drizzling it, soaking +it, sprinkling it, half-hiding it in fog and mist, the rain enveloped +Colchester--a sodden, damp garment. + +Early paper boys slunk along the slippery streets, trying to protect +their limp wares from becoming mere blotters. The gongs of the few +trolley cars that were sent out to take the early toilers to their +tasks rang as though covered with a blanket of fog. The thud of the +feet of the milkmen's horses was muffled, and the rattle of bottles +seemed to come from afar off, as though over some misty lake. + +James Darcy, shivering as he arose, silently protesting, from his warm +bed, pulled on his garments audibly grumbling, the grumble becoming a +voiced protest as he shuffled in his slippers along the corridor above +the jewelry shop and went down the private stairs into the main +sales-room. + +The electric light in front of the massive safe seemed to lear at him +with a bleared eye like that of a toper, who, having spent the night in +convivial company, found himself, most unaccountably, on his own +doorstep in the gray dawn. + +"Raining!" murmured James Darcy, as he reached over to switch on the +light above the little table where he set precious stones into gold and +platinum of rare and beautiful designs. "Raining and cold! I wish the +steam was on." + +The fog from outside seemed to have penetrated into the jewelry shop. +It swirled about the gleaming showcases, reflected from the cut glass, +danced away from the silver cups, broke into points of light from the +times of forks, became broad splotches on the blades of knives, and, +perchance, made its way through the cracks into the safe, where it +bathed the diamonds, the rubies, the sapphires, the aqua marines, the +pearls, the jades, and the bloodstones in a white mist. The +bloodstones-- + +Strange that James Darcy should have thought of them as he looked at +the rain outside, heard its drip, drip, drip on the windows, and saw +the fog and swirls of mist inside and without the store. Strange +and-- + +First, as he gazed at the prostrate body--the horrid red blotch like a +gay ribbon in the white hair--he thought the small, insistent sound +which seemed to fill the room was the beating of her heart. Then, as +he listened, his ears attuned with fear, he knew it was the ticking of +the watch in the hand of the dead woman. + +James Darcy rubbed his eyes, as though to clear them from the fog. He +rubbed them again--he passed his hand before his face as if cobwebs had +drifted there--he touched his ears, which seemed not a part of himself. + +"Tick-tick! Tick-tick! Tick-tick!" + +The sound seemed to grow louder. It was not her heart! + +"Hello! Come here, somebody! Amelia! what's the matter? Sallie! +Sallie Page! Wake up! Hello, somebody! She's dead! Killed! There's +been a murder! I must get the police!" + +James Darcy started to cross the room to reach and fling open the front +door leading to the street, that he might call the alarm to others than +the deaf cook, who had not yet come downstairs. Mrs. Darcy's maid had +gone away the previous evening, and was not expected in until noon. It +was too early for any of the jewelry clerks to report. Yet Darcy felt +he must have some one with him. + +To cross the store to reach the door meant stepping over the body--the +grotesquely twisted body, with the white, upturned face and the little +spot of red, near where the silver comb had fallen from the silvered +hair. And so Darcy changed his mind--he ran to the side door, fumbled +with the lock, flung back the portal, and then rushed out in the rain +and drizzle, the fog streaming after mm as he parted the mist like +long, white streamers of ribbon, such as they suspend at the door for +the very young or the aged. + +"Hello! Hello!" shouted Darcy into the silent rain and mist of the +early morning street, now deserted save for himself. + +The glistening asphalt, the gleaming trolley rails, the dark and damp +buildings seemed to echo back his words. + +"Hello! Hello!" + +"Police!" voiced James Darcy. "There's been a murder!" + +"A murder!" echoed the mist. + +There was silence after this, and Darcy looked up and down the street. +Not a person--not a vehicle--was in sight. No one looked from the +stores or houses on either side or across from the jewelry shop. + +Then a rattling milk wagon swung around the corner. It was followed by +another. + +"Hello! Hello! there--you!" called Darcy hoarsely. + +"What's the matter?" asked the first man, as he swung down from his +vehicle with a wire carrier filled with bottles in his hand. + +"Somebody's been hurt--killed--a relative of mine! I want to tell the +police. It's in that jewelry store," and he pointed back toward it, +for he had run down the street a little way. + +"Oh, I see! Darcy's! She's killed you say?" + +"I'm afraid so." + +"Accident?" + +"I don't know. Looks to me more like murder!" + +The milkman whistled, set his collection of bottles back in his wagon, +and hurried with Darcy toward the store. The other man, bringing his +rattling vehicle to a stop, followed. + +"Where is she?" whispered Casey, as soon as he reached the side of his +business rival, Tremlain. + +"On the floor--right in the middle--between the showcases," answered +Darcy, and he, too, whispered. It seemed the right thing to do. +"There--see her!" + +He pointed a trembling finger. + +"Lord! Her head's smashed!" exclaimed Casey. "Look at the blood!" + +"I--I don't want to look at it," murmured Darcy, faintly. + +"Hark!" cautioned Tremlain. "What's that noise?" + +They all listened--they all heard it. + +"It's a watch ticking," answered Darcy. "First I thought it was her +heart beating--it sounded so. But it's only a watch." + +"Maybe so," assented Casey. "We'd better make sure before we telephone +for the police. She may only have fallen and cut her head." + +"You--you go and see," suggested Tremlain. "I--I don't like to go near +her--I never could bear the sight of dead folks--not even my own +father. You look!" + +Casey hesitated a moment, and then stepped closer to the body. He +leaned over it and put the backs of his hard fingers on the white, +wrinkled and shrunken cheeks. They were cold and wax-like to his touch. + +"She's dead," he whispered softly. "Better get the police right away." + +"Murdered?" asked Tremlain, who had remained beside Darcy near the +showcase where the silver gleamed. + +"I don't know. Her head's cut bad, though there's not so much blood as +I thought at first. We mustn't touch the body--that's the law. Got to +leave it until the coroner sees it. Where's the telephone?" + +"Right back here," answered Darcy eagerly. "Police headquarters number +is--" + +"I know it," interrupted Casey. "I had to call 'em up once when I had +a horse stole. I'll get 'em. What's that watch ticking?" he asked, +pausing. "Oh, it's in her hand!" and the other two looked and saw, +clasped close in the palm of the woman lying huddled on the floor, a +watch of uncommon design. It was ticking loudly. + +"What makes it sound so plain?" asked Tremlain. + +"Cause it's so quiet in here," answered Casey. "It'll be noisy enough +later on, though! But it's so quiet--that's what makes the ticking of +the watch sound so plain." + +"It is quiet," observed Tremlain. "But in a jewelry store there's +always a lot of clocks making a noise and--Say!" he suddenly cried, +"there's not a clock in this place ticking--notice that? Not a clock +ticking! They've all stopped!" + +"You're right!" exclaimed Casey. "The watch is the only thing going in +the whole place!" + +The milkmen looked quickly at Darcy. + +"Yes, the clocks have all stopped," he said, wetting his lips with his +tongue. "I didn't notice it before, though I did hear the watch in her +hand ticking--I thought it was her heart beating--I guess I said that +before--I don't know what I am saying. This has upset me frightfully." + +"I should think it would," agreed Casey. "Funny thing about the clocks +all stopping, though. S'pose they all ran down at once?" + +"They couldn't," Darcy answered, "I wound the regulator only +yesterday," and he pointed to the tall timepiece in the show +window--the solemn-ticking clock by which many passersby set their +watches. "The other clocks--" + +"And they've all stopped at different times!" added Tremlain. "That's +funny, too." + +If anything could be funny in that place of death, this fact might be. +And it was a fact. Of the many clocks in the store not one was +ticking, and all pointed to different hours. The big regulator +indicated 10:22; a chronometer in a showcase was five hours and some +minutes ahead of that. The clock over Darcy's work table noted the +hour of 7:56. Some cheaper clocks, alarms among them, on the shelves, +which were usually going, showed various hours. + +They had all stopped. Only the watch in the dead woman's hand was +ticking, and that showed approximately the right time--a little after +six o'clock. + +"Well, we've got to get the police," said Casey. "Then I've got to +travel on--customers waiting for me." + +"You--you won't leave me here alone--will you?" asked Darcy. + +"Isn't there any one else in the house?" asked Tremlain, for the +living-rooms were above the jewelry store--a substantial brown stone +building of the style of three decades ago. + +"Only Sallie Page, the cook. She's deaf, and she'll be more of a +nuisance than a help. Mrs. Darcy's maid won't be in until noon. I +don't want to be left--" + +"Oh, you won't be alone long," observed Casey. "The police will be +here as soon as we send 'em word. And here's a crowd outside already." + +There was one--made up of men and boys with, here and there, a factory +girl on her way to work. They had seen the two milk wagons in front of +the jewelry store--the store which, though most of the more valuable +pieces were in the safe--still showed in the gleaming windows much that +caught the eye of the passerby. Some one sensed the unusual. Some one +stopped--then another. Some one had caught sight, on peering into the +store, of the prostrate figure with that blotch of red in the white +hair. + +The crowd, increasing each minute, pressed against the still locked +front doors. Those in the van flattened their noses against the glass +in grotesque fashion. + +"Hurry and get the police!" begged Darcy. + +Casey was about to telephone, when Tremlain, who had gone out into the +alley from the side door, hurried back to report: + +"Here comes a cop now. Saw the crowd I guess. We can just tell him +what we saw, Casey, and then slide along. I'm late as it is." + +"So'm I!" + +The policeman, his heavy-soled shoes creaking importantly, came along +the street, hurrying not in the least. He knew whatever it was would +keep for him. + +"What's the row?" demanded Patrolman Mulligan. + +"Looks like the old lady was murdered," Casey answered. "I was just +going to telephone to headquarters." He told briefly what he knew, +which was corroborated by Tremlain, then the two left to cover their +routes, after giving their addresses to the policeman. + +The crowd grew larger. From outside it looked like a convention of +umbrellas. The rain still drizzled and turned to steam and mist as it +warmed on the many bodies in the throng--a mist that mingled with that +of the rain itself. In spite of the storm, the crowd grew and +remained. Those who might be late at bench, lathe or loom unheeded the +passing of time. It was not every day they could be so close to a +murder. + +The crowd filled the entire space in front of the jewelry store. The +bolder spirits rattled the knob of the locked portals, and tapped on +the glass that was now misty and grimy from hands and noses pressed +against it. The crowd began to surge into the alley, whence a side +door gave entrance into Mrs. Darcy's place. Some even ventured to +press into the store itself--the store where the silent figure lay +huddled between the showcases. + +"Now then slide out of here--take a walk!" advised Mulligan, as he +shoved out some of the men and boys who had entered. "Get out! You +can read all about it in the papers. The reporters'll be here soon +enough," he added with a wink at Darcy. "I'll lock the door and keep +the crowd out. The sleuths can knock when they get here. Where's your +'phone. I'll have to report to the station." + +Darcy pointed to the telephone, and the policeman, showing no more than +a passing interest in the body, at which he glanced casually as he +passed, called up his precinct and reported, being told to remain on +guard until relieved. + +"How'd it happen?" he asked, as he came back from the instrument and +leaned against a showcase containing much glittering silver. "Who did +it--when--how?" + +"I haven't the least idea," replied Darcy, turning away so as not to +see the faces now pressed against both the front and side doors, each +being locked from the inside. "I found her just as she is now, and +called in the milkmen, who happened to be passing. I had come down to +the store early to do a little repair job, and the first thing I saw +was--her!" + +"What time did it happen?" + +"I don't even know that. All the clocks have stopped. I don't usually +wind the watches that are left for repair, unless I'm regulating them, +and I haven't any like that in now. The only thing going is that one +watch. + +"What one watch? I do hear something ticking," and the policeman +looked at Darcy. "What watch?" + +"The one--in her hand." + +"Oh, I see! Hum! Well, we'll leave that for the county physician. +He'll be here pretty soon I guess. They'll notify him from the +precinct. Now how about last night--was there any row--any noise? Did +you hear anything?" + +"I didn't hear anything--much. There's always a lot of noise around +here until after midnight--theaters and moving picture places let out +about 11:30. I awoke once in the night. But I guess that doesn't +matter." + +"Anybody else in the house besides you?" and the policeman yawned--for +he had gone out on dog-watch--and looked into the wet, shiny, +drizzle-swept street. + +"Only Sallie Page, the cook. I'll call her. There's Mrs. Darcy's +maid--Jane Metson. But she went away yesterday afternoon and won't be +back until about noon. It's past time Sallie was down to get +breakfast. I'll call her--" + +Darcy made a move as though to go to the rear of the store, whence a +side door gave entrance to the stairs leading to the rooms above. + +"I'll go with you," said Mulligan, and he shoved himself to an erect +posture by forcing his elbows against the showcase on which he had been +leaning in a manner to give himself as much rest as possible without +sitting down--it was a way he had, acquired from long patrolling of +city streets. + +"You--you'll go with me?" faltered Darcy. + +"Yes, to call the cook. _She_ won't run away," and he nodded toward +the dead woman. + +"Oh!" There was a world of meaning in Darcy's interjection. "You mean +that I--" + +"I don't mean nothin'!" broke in Mulligan. "I leave that to the +gum-shoe men. Come on, if you want to call what's-her-name!" + +It took some little time, by calling and pounding outside her door, to +arouse deaf Sallie Page, and longer to make her understand that she was +wanted. Then, just as Darcy had expected, she began to cry and moan +when she heard her mistress was dead, and refused to come from her +room. She had served the owner of the jewelry store for more than a +score of years. + +"Hark!" exclaimed Mulligan, as he and Darcy came downstairs after +having roused Sallie Page. "What's that?" + +"Some one is knocking," remarked his companion. + +"Maybe it's the men from headquarters." + +It was--Carroll and Thong, who always teamed it when there was a case +of sufficient importance, as this seemed to be. They were insistently +knocking at the side door, having forced their way through the crowd +that was still there--larger than ever, maintaining positions in spite +of the dripping, driving, drizzling rain. + +"Killed, eh?" murmured Carroll, as he bent over the body. + +"Gun?" asked Thong, who was making a quick visual inventory of the +interior of the place. + +"No; doesn't seem so. Looks more like her head's been busted in. Hit +with something. Doc Warren can 'tend to that end of it. Now let's get +down to business. Who found her this way?" + +"I did," answered Darcy. + +"And who are you?" + +"Her second cousin. Her name was Mrs. Amelia Darcy, and her husband +and my father were first cousins. I have worked for her about seven +years--ever since just after her husband died. She continued his +business. It's one of the oldest in the city and--" + +"Yes, I know all about that. Robbery here once--before your time. We +got back some of the stuff for the old lady. She treated us pretty +decent, too. When'd you find her like this?" + +"About half an hour ago. I got up a little before six o'clock to do +some repair work on a man's watch. He wanted to get the early train +out of town." + +"I see! And you found the old lady like this?" asked Carroll. + +"Just like this--yes. Then I called in the milkmen--" + +"I saw them," interrupted Mulligan. "I know 'em. They're all right, +so I let 'em go. We can get 'em after they finish their routes." + +"Um," assented Thong. "Anything gone from the store?" he asked Darcy. + +"I haven't looked." + +"Better take a look around. It's probably a robbery. You know the +stock, don't you?" + +"As well as she did herself. I've been doing the buying lately." + +"Well, have a look. Who's that at the door?" he asked sharply, for a +knock as of authority sounded--different from the aimless and impatient +kickings and tappings of the wet throng outside. + +"It's Daley from the Times," reported Mulligan, peering out. "He's all +right. Shall I let him in?" + +"Oh, yes, I guess so," assented Carroll, with a glance at Thong, who +confirmed, by a nod of his head, what his partner said. "He'll give us +what's right. Let him in." + +The reporter entered, nodded to the detectives, gave a short glance at +the body, a longer one at Darcy, poked Mulligan in the ribs, lighted a +cigarette, which he let hang from one lip where it gyrated in eccentric +circles as he mumbled: + +"What's the dope?" + +"Don't know yet," answered Carroll. "The old lady's dead--murdered it +looks like--and--" + +"What's that?" interrupted Thong. "What's that ticking sound?" + +"It's the watch--in her hand," replied Darcy, and his voice was a +hoarse whisper. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +KING'S DAGGER + +Carroll and Thong, proceeding along the lines they usually followed in +cases like this, keeping to the rules which had come to them through +the instructions of superior officers, and some which they had worked +out for themselves, had, in a comparatively short time, ascertained the +name, age and somewhat of the personal history of Mrs. Amelia Darcy, +together with that of her cousin, as the detectives called him, though +the relationship was not as close as that. + +Mrs. Darcy, who was sixty-five years of age, had carried on the jewelry +business of her husband, Mortimer Darcy, after his death, which +preceded her more tragic one by about seven years. Mortimer Darcy had +been a diamond salesman for a large New York house in his younger days, +and had come to be an expert in precious stones. Many good wishes, and +not a little trade, had gone to him from his former employers, and some +of their customers bought of him when he went into business for himself +in the thriving city of Colchester. + +Knowing that to start anew in a strange town would mean uphill work for +him and his wife, Mortimer Darcy had awaited an opportunity to buy the +business of a man whom he had known for a number of years and to whom +he had sold many diamonds and other stones. This man--Harrison Van +Doren by name--had what was termed the best jewelry trade in +Colchester. The "old" families--not that any of them could trace their +ancestry back very far--liked to say that "we get all our stuff at Van +Doren's." + +This name, on little white plush-lined boxes, containing pins or +sparkling rings, came to mean almost as much as some of the more +expensive names in New York. Young ladies counted it a point in the +favor of their lovers if the engagement circlet came from Van Doren's. +And Mortimer Darcy, knowing the value of that class of trade, had, when +he purchased Mr. Van Doren's business fostered that spirit. Mrs. +Darcy, on the death of her husband, had further catered to it, so that +the Darcy establishment, though it was not the richest or most showy in +Colchester, was safely counted the most exclusive--that is, it had a +full line of the best goods, be it clocks or diamonds, and it had what, +in bygone days, was called a "carriage trade," but which is now +referred to as "automobile." + +That is to say, those, aside from a casual trade with people who +dropped in as they might have done to a grocery, to get what they +really needed in the way of jewelry, came in gasolene or electric cars +where their ancestors had come with horses and carriage. + +So Darcy's jewelry store was known, and though a bit old-fashioned in a +way, was favorably known, not only to the older members of the rich +families of the place, but to the younger set as well. The pretty +girls and their well-groomed companions of the "Assembly Ball" set +liked to stop in there for their rings, brooches, scarf pins or cuff +links, and very frequent were the rather languid orders: + +"You may send it, charge." + +It was to that class of trade that Mrs. Darcy catered. She understood +it, and it understood her. That was enough. She took a personal +interest in the business to the extent of being in the store almost +every day, as her husband had been before her, to advise and be +available for consultation, whether it was the buying of a gold +teething ring for the newest member of the family, an engagement ring +for the latest debutante, a watch for "son," attaining his majority, or +perhaps new gold glasses for grandpapa or grandmama. + +The store was not a large one, and four clerks, one a young woman, with +James Darcy and an assistant, who looked after the repair work and made +anything unusual in the way of pins or rings, constituted the force. +But Mrs. Darcy was as good as a clerk herself, and during the holiday +rush she was in the store night and day. This was the easier for her, +since she owned the building in which her display was kept, and lived +in a quiet and tastefully furnished apartment over the store. + +On the death of her husband, she had sent for his second cousin, who at +that time was in the employ of a well-known New York jewelry house, and +he agreed to come to her. + +Rather more than a repair man and clerk was James Darcy. He was an +expert jewelry designer and a setter of precious stones; and often, +when some fastidious customer did not seem to care for what was shown +from the glittering trays in the showcases, Mrs. Darcy or one of her +clerks would say: + +"We will have Mr. Darcy design something different for you." + +"That's what I want," the customer would say--"something +different--something you don't see everywhere." + +And so the Darcy trade had grown and prospered. + +"Well, let's hear what you have to say," said Carroll, after James +Darcy had given what the detectives considered was, for the time, a +sufficient history of himself and his relative, and had hastily gone +over such of the stock as was kept outside the safe. The latter had +not been forced open--it did not take long to ascertain that. "Is +anything gone?" + +"I can't say for sure," answered the young man--he was this side of +thirty. His long, artistic fingers were trembling, and he felt weak +and faint. "But if there has been a robbery they didn't get much. The +safe hasn't been opened, and the best of the goods--all the diamonds +and other stones--are in that. Nothing seems to be gone from the +cases, though I'd have to make a better search, and go over the +inventory, to make certain." + +"Well, let that go for the time. How'd you find things when you came +downstairs? What happened during the night? Any of the doors or +windows forced?" and the detective fairly shot these questions at Darcy, + +"I think not. The front door was locked, just as it is now. I went +out the side one. That was locked with the spring catch from the +inside." + +"Wasn't it bolted?" came sharply from Thong. + +"I didn't notice about that. You see, I was all excited like--" + +"Yes," assented Thong. + +"There's a bolt on the door!" Carroll snapped. + +"Yes, but Mrs. Darcy may have slipped it back herself. She was down +first, though why, I can't say. She seldom came down ahead of me, +especially of late years. I generally opened the store. The clerks +report at eighty-thirty--there's some of 'em now." + +More knockings had sounded on the front door, and the faces of two +young men peered in through the misty glass, the crowd having made a +lane for them on learning that they worked in the place of death. + +"Let 'em in, sure!" assented Thong. "We got to talk to all of 'em! +Let 'em in!" + +Darcy did so, Mulligan helping him keep back the crowd of curious ones. + +"Here comes Miss Brill," said one of the men clerks to Darcy. "What's +the matter? Is Mrs. Darcy--?" + +"Dead! Killed, I'm afraid! The store won't open to-day, but the +police want to see every one. Oh, Miss Brill, come in!" and he held +out his hand to the one young woman clerk, who drew back in horrified +fright as she saw the silent figure on the floor. + +"Oh--Oh!" she gasped, and then she went into hysterics, adding to the +excitement and giving Mulligan a bad five minutes while he fought to +keep the crowd from surging in. + +But when Miss Brill had been carried to a rear room and quieted, and +when the shades had been drawn to keep the curious ones from peering +in, the questioning of Darcy was resumed. + +"Did you come directly down to the store from your room?" asked Thong. + +"Yes. As soon as I awakened." + +"Where is your room?" + +"In the rear, on the second floor--the one next above. Mrs. Darcy has +her rooms in front. Then come those of her maid, Jane Metson. Sallie +Page sleeps on the top floor where the janitor's family lives, and he, +of course, sleeps up there also." + +"I see," murmured Carroll. "Then you came downstairs and found Mrs. +Darcy lying here--dead?" + +"I wasn't sure she was dead--" + +"Oh, she was _dead_ all right," broke in Thong. "No question about +that. Did you hear anything?" + +"Only the watch ticking in her hand. First I thought it was her heart +beating." + +"No, I mean did you hear anything in the night?" went on the detective. +"Any queer noise? It's mighty funny if there was murder done and no +robbery. But of course she might have heard a noise if you didn't, and +she might have come down to find out what it was about. She might have +caught a burglar at work, and he may have killed her to get away. But +if it was a burglar it's funny you didn't hear any noise--like a fall, +or something. How about that, Mr. Darcy?" + +"Well, no. I didn't exactly hear anything. I went to bed about half +past ten, after working at my table down here awhile." + +"Was Mrs. Darcy in bed then?" Thong asked. + +"I couldn't say. She had gone to her apartment, but I don't have to +pass near that to get to my room. I came straight up and went to bed." + +"At ten o'clock, you say?" + +"A little after. It may have been a quarter to eleven." + +"And you didn't hear anything all night?" Carroll shot this question +at Darcy suddenly. + +"No--no--not exactly, I did hear _something_--it wasn't exactly a +noise--and yet it was a noise." + +"What kind of talk is that?" demanded Thong roughly. "Either it was a +noise or it wasn't! Now which was it?" + +"Well, if you call a clock striking a noise, then it was one." + +"Oh, a clock struck!" and Thong settled back in his chair more at his +ease. His manner seemed to indicate that he was on the track of +something. + +"Yes, a clock struck. It was either three or four, I can't be sure +which," Darcy replied. "You know when you awaken in the night, and +hear the strokes, you can't be sure you haven't missed some of the +first ones. I heard three, anyhow, I'm sure of that." + +"Well, put it down as three," suggested Thong. "Was it the striking of +the clock that awakened you?" + +"No, not exactly. It was more as if some one had been in my room." + +"Some one in your room!" exclaimed both detectives. They were +questioning Darcy in the living-room of Mrs. Darcy's suite, the clerks +being detained downstairs by Mulligan. The county physician, who was +also the coroner, had not yet arrived. + +"Yes, at first I thought some one had been in my room, and then, after +I thought about it, I wasn't quite sure. All I know is I slept quite +soundly--sounder than usual in fact, and, all at once, I heard a clock +strike." + +"Three or four," murmured Thong. + +"Yes; three anyhow--maybe four. Something awakened me suddenly; but +what, I can't say. I remember, at the time, it felt as though +something had passed over my face." + +"Like a hand?" suggested Carroll. + +"Well, I couldn't be sure. It may have been I dreamed it." + +"But what did it _feel_ like?" insisted Thong. + +"Well, like a cloth brushing my face more than like a hand--or it may +have been a hand with a glove on it. Yes, it may have been that. Then +I tried to arouse myself, but I heard the wind blowing and a sprinkle +of rain, and, as my window was open, I thought the curtain might have +blown across my face. That would account for it I reasoned, so--" + +"Yes, it _may_ have been the curtain," said Thong, slowly. "But what +did you do?" + +"Nothing. I lay still a little while, and then I went to sleep again. +I was only awake maybe two or three minutes." + +"You didn't call Mrs. Darcy?" + +"No." + +"Nor the servant--what's her name? Sallie?" + +"No. There wasn't any use in that. She's deaf." + +"And you didn't call the janitor?" + +"No. I wasn't very wide awake, and I didn't really attach any +importance to it until after I saw her--dead." + +"Um! Yes," murmured Carroll. "Well, then you went to sleep again. +What did you do next?" + +"I awakened with a sudden start just before six o'clock. I had not set +an alarm, though I wanted to get up early to do a little repair job I +had promised for early this morning. But I have gotten so in the habit +of rousing at almost any hour I mentally set for myself the night +before, that I don't need an alarm clock. I had fixed my mind on the +fact that I wanted to get up at five-thirty, and I think it was just a +quarter to six when I got up. I was anxious to finish the repair job +for a man who was to leave on an early train this morning. He may be +in any time now, and I haven't it ready for him." + +"What sort of a repair job?" asked Carroll. + +"On a watch." + +"Where's the watch now?" and the detective flicked the ashes from a +cigar the reporter had given him. Daley was down in the jewelry store, +interviewing the clerks while Darcy was on the grill up above. + +"The watch," murmured Darcy. "It--it's in her hand," and he nodded in +the direction of the silent figure downstairs. + +"The watch that is still ticking?" + +"Yes, but the funny part of it is that the watch wasn't going last +night, when I planned to start work on it. I forget just why I didn't +do it," and Darcy seemed a bit confused, a point not lost sight of by +Carroll. "I guess it must have been because I couldn't see well with +the electric light on my work table," went on the jewelry worker. +"I've got to get that fixed. Anyhow I didn't do anything to the +Indian's watch more than look at it, and I made up my mind to rise +early and hurry it through. So I didn't even wind it. I can't +understand what makes it go, unless some one got in and wound it--and +they wouldn't do that." + +"Whose watch is it?" asked Thong. + +"It belongs to Singa Phut." + +"Singa Phut!" ejaculated Carroll. "Crimps, what a name! Who belongs +to it?" + +"Singa Phut is an East Indian," explained Darcy. "He has a curio store +down on Water Street. We have bought some odd things from him for our +customers, queer bead necklaces and the like. He left the watch with +my cousin, who told me to repair it. It needed a new case-spring and +some of the screws were loose." + +"How did Mrs. Darcy come to have the watch in her hand?" Carroll +demanded. + +"That I couldn't say." + +"What sort of a man is this Indian--Singa--Singa--" began Thong, +hesitatingly. + +"Singa Phut is a quiet, studious Indian," answered Darcy. "He has not +lived here very long, but I knew him in New York. He has done business +with me for some years." + +"Is he all right--safe--not one of them gars--you know, the fellows +that use a silk cord to strangle you with?" asked Thong, who had some +imagination regarding garroters. + +"Not at all like that," said Darcy, and there was the trace of a smile +on his face. "He is a gentleman." + +"Oh," said Carroll and Thong in unison. + +There came another knock on the side door downstairs. There was less +of a crowd about now, and Mulligan did not have to keep back a rush as +he opened the portal. + +"Dr. Warren," reported the policeman, calling upstairs to Carroll and +Thong. + +"The county physician," explained Carroll. "Better come down and meet +him, Mr. Darcy. He'll want to ask you some questions. Then we'll have +another go at you. Got to ask a lot of questions in a case like this," +he half apologized. + +"Oh, sure," assented the jewelry worker. + +"Doc Warren, eh," mused Thong to his partner, as Darcy preceded them +downstairs. "Now we'll know what killed her, and we'll have something +to start on--maybe." + +"I think we've got something already," observed Carroll. + +"Oh, yes--maybe--and then--again--maybe _not_. Come on!" + +"Morning boys! Nice crisp day--if you say it quick!" cried the county +physician, as he shook the rain from his coat and tossed his auto +gloves on a shiny glass showcase. "Second time this week you've got me +out of bed before my time. What's the matter, if they've got to have a +murder, with doing it in the afternoon? I like my sleep!" + +He was smiling and cheerful, was Dr. Warren. Murders and autopsies +were all in the day's work with him. He had been county physician for +a number of years. + +"Hum, yes! quite an old lady," he mused as he took off his coat, which +Carroll held for him. The doctor rolled up his shirt sleeves and +stooped down. "Head's badly cut--let's see what we have here. Let's +have a light, it's too dark to see." + +One of the clerks switched on more electric lights, and they glinted +and sparkled on the silver and cut glass. They flashed on the white, +still face, and the gleams seemed to be swallowed up in that red blotch +in the snowy hair. + +"Um, yes! Depressed fracture. Bad place, too. Shouldn't wonder but +what it had done the trick. Might have been from a black-jack?" and he +glanced questioningly at the detectives. + +Carroll shook his head in negation. + +"That'll crack a skull, but it won't draw blood--not if it's used +right," and he brought from his hip pocket one of the weapons in +question--a short, stout flexible reed, covered with leather, the end +forming a pocket in which was a chunk of lead. + +"I'll gamble it wasn't one of _them_," said Carroll. + +"Maybe not," assented the doctor. "Let's look a bit further." + +He glanced at the floor about the body, peered around the edge of a +showcase, underneath which there was a space for refuse--odds and ends, +discarded wrapping paper and the like--a place into which neither of +the detectives had, as yet, glanced. Dr. Warren uttered an +exclamation, and drew out a metal statue, about two feet high. + +It was that of a hunter, standing as though he had just delivered a +shot, and was peering to see the effect. The butt of his gun projected +behind him, and as Dr. Warren moved the statue into the light of the +jewelry store chandeliers, they all saw, clinging to the stock of the +gun, some straggling, white hairs. + +"That's what did it!" exclaimed the county physician. "I'll wager, +when I try, I can fit that gun butt into the depression of the +fracture. The burglar--or whoever it was--swung this statue as a club. +It would make a deadly one, using the foot end for a handle," and Dr. +Warren waved the ornament in the air over the dead woman's head to +illustrate what he meant. + +"Don't!" muttered Darcy in a strained voice. + +"Don't what?" asked the physician sharply. + +"Use the statue that way." + +"Why not?" + +"Well--er--I--we were going to buy it for our new home. But now-- +Oh, I never want to see it in the house! I couldn't bear to look at +it--nor could she!" + +"She? We? What do you mean?" asked Carroll quickly. "Say, do you +know something about this killing that you're keeping back from us?" + +He took a step nearer Darcy--a threatening step it would seem, from the +fact that the jewelry worker drew back as if in alarm. + +"No, I don't know anything," said Darcy in a low voice. + +"Then what's this talk about the statue--not wanting it in the +house--_whose_ house?" + +"The house I hope to live in with my wife--Miss Amy Mason," answered +Darcy, and he spoke in calm contrast to his former excitement, "We are +going to be married in the fall," he went on. "I had asked Mrs. Darcy +to set that statue aside for me. Miss Mason admired it, and I planned +to buy it. We had the place all picked out where it would stand. +But--now--" + +He did not finish, but a shudder seemed to shake his frame. + +"It would be a rather grewsome object to have around after it had +killed the old lady," murmured the reporter. "But are you sure it did, +Doc?" + +"Pretty sure, yes. I never make a statement, though, until after the +autopsy. No telling what that may develop. I'll get at it right away. +I guess you remember that Murray case," he went on, to no one in +particular. "There they all thought the man was murdered, when, as a +matter of fact he had been taken with a heart spell, fell downstairs, +and a knife he had in his hand pierced his heart." + +"That wasn't your case, Doc," observed Carroll. + +"No, it was before my time. But I remember it. That's why I'm saying +nothing until I've made an examination. Better 'phone the morgue +keeper," he went on, "and have them come for the body." + +"Have you--have you got to take her away?" faltered Darcy. + +"Yes. I'm sorry, but it wouldn't do--here," and the doctor motioned to +the glittering array of cut glass and plate. "You won't keep the store +open?" he inquired. + +"No. I'll put a notice in the door now," and Darcy wrote out one which +a clerk affixed to the front door for him. + +"Well, that's all I can do now," Dr. Warren said, after his very +perfunctory examination. "The rest will have to be at the morgue. Got +a place where I can wash my hands?" he asked. + +Darcy indicated a little closet near his work bench. Dr. Warren soon +resumed his coat, accepted a cigarette from Daley, slipped into his +still damp rain-garment and was soon throbbing down the street in his +automobile, having announced that he was going to breakfast and would +perform the autopsy immediately afterward. + +Soon a black wagon rattled up to the jewelry store, bringing fresh +acquisitions to the crowd, which persisted in staying in spite of the +rain, which had now changed from a drizzle to a more pronounced +downpour. + +More reporters came, and Daley fraternized with them, the newspaper men +aside from the police and Jim Holiday, a detective from Prosecutor +Bardon's office, being the only people admitted to the shop, when the +clerks had been sent home. + +The morgue keeper's men lifted the fast stiffening body and were about +to place it in the wicker carrier when Carroll, who was watching them +rather idly, uttered an exclamation. + +"What's up?" asked Thong quickly. He had been strolling about the +shop, and had come to a stop near Darcy's work table--a sort of bench +against the wall, and behind one of the showcases. The bench was +fitted with a lathe, and on it were parts of watches, like the dead +specimens preserved in alcohol in a doctor's office. "What's up, Bill?" + +"Look!" exclaimed Carroll, pointing. + +The men from the morgue had the body raised in the air. And then, in +the gleam from the electric lights there was revealed underneath and in +the left side of the dead woman a clean slit through her light dress--a +slit the edges of which were stained with blood. + +"Another wound!" exclaimed Daley, his newspaper instincts quickly +aroused by this addition of evidence of mystery. "This is getting +interesting!" + +"It's a cut--a deep one, too," murmured Carroll, as he drew nearer to +look. "Wonder what did it?" + +"Shouldn't wonder but it was done with this!" and Thong held out, on +the palm of his large hand, a slender dagger, on the otherwise bright +blade of which were some dark stains. + +"Where'd you get it?" demanded Carroll. + +"Over on the watch repair table." + +Darcy gasped. + +"Is that your dagger?" snapped Carroll at the jewelry worker. + +"It isn't a dagger--it's a paper-cutter--a magazine knife." + +"Well, whatever it is, who owns it?" The words were as crisp as the +steel of the stained blade. + +Darcy stared at the keen knife, and then at the dead woman. + +"Who owns it?" and the question snapped like a whip. + +"I don't! It was left here by--" + +There was a commotion at the side door, which had been opened by +Mulligan in order that the men might carry out the body of Mrs. Darcy. +There was a shuffling of feet, and a rather thick and unsteady voice +asked: + +"Whash matter here? Place on fire? Looks like devil t'pay! Let me +in. Shawl right, offisher. Got a right t' come in, I have! I got +something here. 'Svaluable, too! Don't want that all burned--spoil +shings have 'em burned. + +"'Lo, Darcy!" went on a young man, who walked unsteadily into the +jewelry store. "Wheresh tha' paper cutter I left for you t' 'grave +Pearl's name on? Got take it home now. Got take her home +some--someshing--square myself. Been out al'night--you know how +'tish! Take wifely home li'l preshent--you know how 'tish. Gotta +please wifely when you--hic--been out al' night. Wheresh my +gold-mounted paper cutter, Darcy?" + +"Harry King, and stewed to the gills again!" murmured Pete Daley. +"Wow! he has some bun on!" + +"Wheresh my paper cutter, Darcy?" went on King, smiling in a fashion +meant to be merry, but which was fixed and glassy as to his eyes. +"Wheresh my li'l preshent for wifely? Got her name all 'graved on it +nice an' pretty? Thash what'll square wifely when I been +out--hic--al'night. Wheresh my paper cutter, Darcy, ol' man?" + +Silently the jewelry worker pointed to the stained dagger--it was +really that, though designed for a paper cutter. The detective held it +out, and the red spots on it seemed to show brighter in the gleam of +the electric lights. + +"Is that your knife, Harry King?" demanded Thong. + +"Sure thash mine! Bought it in li'l ole N' York lash week. Didn't +have no name on it--brought it here for my ole fren', Darcy, t' +engrave. Put wifely's name on--her namesh Pearl--P-e-a-r-l!" and he +spelled it out laboriously and thickly. + +"My wife--she likes them things. Me--I got no use for 'em. Gimme +oyster fork--or clam, for that matter--an' a bread n' butter knife--'n +I'm all right. But gotta square wife somehow. Take her home nice +preshent. Thatsh me--sure thash mine!" and carefully trying to balance +himself, he reached forward as though to take the stained dagger from +the hand of the detective. + +"You got Pearl's name 'graved on it, Darcy, ole man?" asked King, +thickly, licking his hot and feverish lips. + +"No," answered the jewelry worker, hollowly. + +Then Harry King, seemingly for the first time, became aware that all +was not well in the place he had entered. He turned and saw the body +of the murdered woman as the men from the morgue Started out with it. +He started back as though some one had struck him a blow. + +"Is she--is she dead?" he gasped. "Dead--Mrs. Darcy?" + +"Looks that way," said Carroll in cool tones. "You'd better come in +here and sit down a while, Harry," he went on, and he led the unsteady +young man to the rear room, while the men from the morgue carried out +the lifeless body. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE FISHERMAN + +From a little green book, which, from the evidence of its worn covers, +seemed to have been much read, the tall, military-appearing occupant of +a middle seat in the parlor car of the express to Colchester scanned +again this passage: + +"And if you rove for perch with a minnow, then it is best to be alive, +you sticking your hook through his back fin, or a minnow with the hook +in his upper lip, and letting him swim up and down about mid-water, or +a little lower, and you still keeping him about that depth with a cork, +which ought to be a very little one; and the way you are to fish for +perch with a small frog--" + +"Ah-a-a-a!" + +It was a long-drawn exclamation of anticipatory delight, and into the +eyes of the military-looking traveler there appeared a soft and gentle +light, as though, in fancy, he could look off across sunlit meadows to +a stream sparkling beneath a blue sky, white-studded with fleecy +clouds, where there was a soft carpet of green grass, shaded by a noble +oak under which he might lounge and listen to the wind rustling the +newly-born leaves. + +"Ah-a-a-a!" + +"Beg pardon, sir, but I--" + +"What?" + +The military-appearing man sat up with a jerk into sudden stiffness, +while the soft light died out of his eyes. + +"New York papers?" + +"Don't want the New York papers--any of them!" + +The man, after a swift glance from his green-covered book, again let +his eyes seek its pages. The ghost of a smile flickered around his +lips. + +"Chicago, then. The latest--" + +". . . your hook being fastened through the skin of his leg, toward the +upper part of it; and lastly I will give you--" + +"Something livelier in the way of reading, sir, if you wish it!" broke +in the voice of the newsboy who had stopped beside the parlor-car chair +of the military-looking traveler, interrupting the reading of the +little green-covered book. "I have a new detective story--" + +"Look here! If you interrupt me again when I'm reading my Izaak Walton +I'll have you put off the train! Gad! I will, sir, if I have to do it +myself!" + +The military-appearing traveler snapped the green book against the palm +of one hand with a report like that of a pistol, thereby causing an old +lady, asleep in a chair across the aisle, to awaken with a start. + +"Are we in? Have we arrived? Is this Colchester?" she asked, sitting +up and looking about in startled surprise, her bonnet very much askew. +The newsboy, with an abashed air, slid down the aisle. + +"Madam, I sincerely beg your pardon," said the tall man who had caused +the commotion. He arose, his green book in one hand, and bowed his +apologies. "I regret exceedingly that I startled you. But that +insufferable young puppy had the extreme audacity to inflict himself on +me when I was reading, and I lost my temper. I am sorry but I--" + +"You didn't strike him, did you?" asked the old lady, reproachfully. + +"No, madam. Though such conduct would have been justified on my part, +I merely spoke to him. It was this--this book that I used rather +roughly and which awakened you." + +"Then aren't we at Colchester yet?" + +"No, madam. It is some little ride yet. If you will allow me I shall +be happy to let you know when we arrive. And if you are without any +one to help you off with your luggage, as it is raining and likely to +continue--" + +"Oh, thank you, sir, but Jabez will meet me. I must have dozed off, +and when I heard that noise--" + +"Which I regret exceedingly, madam," interposed the military-appearing +traveler with another bow. + +The old lady again composed herself. The tall man bowed again, resumed +his seat and tried to read, but his feelings had been too much ruffled, +it was evident, to allow a peaceful resumption of his former mood. + +"The idea! The very idea!" he murmured, speaking to the window, +against the glass of which the raindrops were now dashing impotently, +and as though angry at not being admitted to the warmth and light of +the car. For dusk had fallen and the electric lights were aglow in the +Pullman, making it a very cosy place in contrast to the damp and muddy +country through which the train was rushing. + +"Gad! what's the world coming to when a man can't read what he likes +without every whippersnapper interrupting him with--Shag! I say, +Shag!" he went on, raising his voice from a murmured whisper to a +louder command. "Porter, send my man here! Where's that rascal Shag?" + +"Yes, sah, Colonel! I'm right yeah! Yeah I is, Colonel!" and a negro, +with a picturesque fringe of white, kinky hair, shuffled from the +porter's quarters, where he had been enjoying a quiet chat with the +black knight of the whisk broom. "What is you' desire, Colonel?" + +"I want peace and quiet, Shag! That's what I want! Twice I've tried +to read my book undisturbed, and that insufferable train-boy--that +rascal who probably doesn't know an ant-fly from a piece of cheese--has +bothered me with books and papers. He ought to know I've vowed not to +look at a paper for two weeks, and, as for books--" + +Colonel Robert Lee Ashley closed his volume, which bore, in gold +letters on the front green cover the words: "Walton's Complete Angler," +and laughed silently, the wrinkles of his face and around his +steel-blue eyes sending the frown scurrying for some unseen trench. + +"Shag," asked the colonel, still chuckling, "what do you think that +nincompoop had the infernal audacity to offer me in the way of a book?" + +"I ain't got no idea, Colonel--not th' leastest in th' world!" + +"He offered me a--detective story, Shag!" + +"Oh, mah good Lord, Colonel! Not _really_?" + +"Yes, he did, Shag! A detective story!" + +"Oh, mah good Lord!" + +Shag, which was all Colonel Ashley ever called his servant, though the +colored valet rejoiced in the prefixes of George Washington, threw up +his hands in horror, and shook his head. The colonel, after a period +of silent, chuckling mirth, opened his book again and read: + +"And, after this manner, you may catch a trout in a hot evening. When, +as you walk by a brook, and shall hear or see him leap at flies, then +if you get a grasshopper--" + +"Gad! that's the life!" softly voiced the colonel. Then, turning to +the still waiting Shag, he went on: "There's nobody in the wide world +who can bring peace and quiet to an angry mind like my friend Izaak +Walton, is there, Shag?" + +"No, sah, Colonel, they isn't! _Nobody_!" + +"Of course not! Gad! I'm glad you agree with me, Shag!" + +"Yes, sah, Colonel." + +"Um! Here, you go and give that newsboy a quarter. Tell him I didn't +mean anything; but never again must he interrupt me when he sees me +with Walton in my hand. Anything but that! It's positively indecent!" + +"Yes, sah, Colonel. I done tell him that." + +"And it--it's sacrilegious, Shag!" + +"Yes, sah, Colonel; 'tis that!" + +"Well, tell him so, and give him a half dollar. Now don't disturb me +again until we get to Colchester. How's the weather, Shag?" + +"Well, sah, Colonel, it's--it's sorter--moist, Colonel!" + +"Um! Well, it'll be better by to-morrow, I expect, when we go fishing. +And be careful of my rods when you take the grips off. If you so much +as scratch the tip of even my oldest one, I--I'll--well, you know what +I'll do to you, Shag!" + +"Yes, sah, I knows, Colonel!" + +"Very well. Give that boy a dollar. Maybe he never read Walton, and +that's why he's so ignorant." + +Colonel Ashley settled back in his chair, and, with unfurrowed brow, +read on: + +". . . you shall see or hear him leap at flies, then if you get a +grasshopper, put it on your hook with your line about two yards long, +standing behind a bush or tree where his hole is--" + +Once more the colonel was happy. + +Shag sought out the discomfited newsboy, and, chuckling as had his +master, handed the lad a dollar. + +"Say, what's this for?" questioned the lad, in astonishment. + +"Colonel done say to give it to you fo' hurtin' yo' feelin's." + +"He did! Great! Say, does he want a book--a, paper? Say, I got a +swell detective story--" + +The boy started out of the compartment. + +"Oh, mah good Lord! Fo' th' love of honey cakes, don't!" gasped Shag, +grabbing him just in time. "Does yo' know who the colonel is?" + +"No, but he's mighty white if he wants to buy a dollar's worth of books +and papers. I haven't sold much on this trip, but if he--" + +"But he don't want to, boy! Don't you understan'? Jes' listen to me +right now! De colonel don't want nothin' but Walton an' his angle +worms!" + +"Who's Walton? What road's he travel on?" + +"He don't travel. He's daid, I reckon. But he done writ a book on +fishin' poles, an' dat's all the colonel reads when he ain't workin' +much. It's a book 'bout angle worms as neah as I kin make out." + +"You mean Izaak Walton's Complete Angler, I guess," said a man, who +passed by just then on his way to the smoking compartment, and he +smiled genially at Shag. + +"Dat's it, yes, sah! I knowed it had suffin t' do wif angle worms. +Well, boy, dat book's all de colonel ever reads when he's vacationin', +an' dat's whut he's doin' now--jest vacationin'. + +"When we start away dis mawnin' he say to me, the colonel did: 'Now, +Shag, I don't want t' be boddered wif nuffin'. I don't want t' read no +papers. I don't want t' heah 'bout no battles, murder an' sudden +deaths. I jest wants peace an' quiet an' fish!' He done come up heah +t' go fishin' laik he go t' lots other places, though he ain't been +heah fo' good many years. An' boy, he specially tell me _not_ t' let +him be boddered wif book agents." + +"I ain't a book agent," objected the train-boy. + +"I knows you ain't," admitted Shag. "I knows yo' ain't, but yo' sells +books, an' dat's whut's de trouble. Whut kind of a book did yo' offer +de colonel jest now?" + +"A detective story. And say! it's a swell one, let me tell you!" + +"Oh, mah good Lord!" ejaculated Shag. "Dat's de wustest ever!" and he +doubled up with silent mirth. + +"Why, what's the matter with that?" asked the boy. "I've seen heaps of +men read detective stories. Judge Dolan--he rides on my train a +lot--and he's always askin' what I got new in detective stuff." + +"Um, yep! Well, dat may be all right fo' Judge Dolan," went on Shag, +slowly recovering from his fit of chuckling, "but mah marster don't +want none of dat kind of readin'." + +"Why?" asked the boy. + +Shag's answer was given in a peculiar manner. He looked around +carefully, and saw that the strange man had moved on and they were +alone. Then, leaning toward the newsboy and whispering, the negro said: + +"My marster, Colonel Brentnall--dat ain't his real name, but it's de +one he goes by sometimes--he don't care fo' no detective stories 'cause +he done make his livin' an' mine too, at detectin'. He says he don't +ever want t' read 'em, 'cause dey ain't at all like whut happens. De +colonel was one of de biggest private detectives in de United States, +boy! He's sorter retired now, but still he's chock full of crimes, +murder an' stuff laik dat, an' dat's why he done sent yo' away sorter +rough-laik." + +"You say he's a private detective?" asked the boy, his eyes opening +wide. + +"Dat's whut he is." + +"And his name is Colonel Brentnall?" + +"Well, honey, dat ain't his real name. He don't laik t' use dat +promiscuious laik, 'cause so many folks bodder him. If I was t' tell +yo' his real name yo'd open yo' eyes wider yet. But take it from me," +went on Shag, "he don't need no books t' make excitin' readin' fo' him! +He's been froo it fo' yeahs!" + +"Sufferin' tadpoles!" murmured the boy. "And to think I was offering +_him_ a detective yarn! Say, no wonder he flew at me!" + +"He didn't mean nothin'," said Shag, still chuckling as he thought of +the scene. "It's jest his way." + +The train rumbled on through the early night, and in his comfortable +chair Colonel Ashley read his Walton, the ingratiating humor of the +dear, old fisherman gradually dispelling all other thoughts. + +Colonel Ashley at this stage of his career, was almost an international +figure. Having served with distinction in the Spanish-American war, +among his exploits being the capture of a number of spies in a +sensational manner, he had become the head of the police department in +a large city in the East. + +He had continued the work begun in the army--a branch of the secret +service--and had built up the city's detective department in an almost +marvelous manner, he himself being one of its keenest sleuths. +Desiring more time to devote to the detection of crimes of other than +ordinary interest, and realizing that the routine of police work was +too hampering for him, the colonel had opened an office in New York, +where, straightway, he received from the government and private persons +more work than he could well attend to. Now that he was getting old, +he had some able assistants, but most cases still received his own +attention at some stage of their development. This was characteristic +of the colonel. He was always going to retire, in fact he said he had, +but, somehow or other, it was like a singer's farewell, always +postponed. + +"And now, Shag, don't forget what I told you," he said to his attendant +as the train drew into Colchester. "Don't you so much as scratch the +varnish on the tip of one of my rods. And if you let me hear a whisper +of anything bordering on a case you and I part company--do you hear?" + +"I heahs yo' Colonel!" and the negro saluted, for the detective still +clung to many of his military associations. Then, having kept his +promise in seeing that the old lady was safely helped from the train, +Colonel Ashley followed his valet, burdened with bags and rods. + +The fishing rods Shag carried, he must have managed to transport safely +to the hotel the colonel was to occupy for a two weeks' vacation and +rest, for the military detective was smiling and good-natured when he +took them from their cases and gently placed them on the bed. + +"Anything else, Colonel?" asked Shag, when he had laid out his master's +clothes, and was preparing to go to his own apartment in an annex to +the hotel. + +"No, I guess that's all, Shag. But what's your hurry? You aren't +usually in such haste to leave me, even if you have laid out all my +duds. What's the matter? Got some friends in town?" + +"Oh, no, sah, Colonel! No, indeedy! 'tain't dat at all!" + +"Well, what is it? Why are you in such haste to get away?" + +"Um! Ah! Well, I don't laiks fo' t' tell yo' Colonel!" and Shag +seemed uneasy. + +"You don't like to tell me? Look here, you black rascal! don't try to +hide anything from me, do you hear? You know me, and--" + +"Oh, indeedy I does know yo', Colonel! Dat's jest why I don't wan t' +tell yo'! It--it's 'bout one ob dem t'ings!" + +"What things? Shag, you rascal, look here! Have you been buying a +newspaper?" + +"Ye--ye--yes, sah, Colonel, I has! But I done bought it fo' mahse'f. +Deed an' I wasn't goin' t' let yo' hab so much as a snift at it, +Colonel! De train-boy, whut yo' gib a dollar t', he handed it t' me +when I was gittin' off. It's one ob de papers gotten out right yeah in +dis city, an'--" + +"Well, out with it, Shag! What's in it that's so mighty interesting?" + +"Er--Colonel--yo' see--yo' done tole me--" + +"Oh, out with it, Shag! I'll forgive you, I suppose. What is it?" + +"Well, Colonel, sah, de paper done got in it an 'count ob a strange an' +mysterious murder case, an'--" + +"I knew it! I knew it! I could almost have taken my oath on it!" +cried the excitable colonel. "Here I come to this place to have some +quiet fishing in the suburbs, to get a complete rest, and yet not be +too far from civilization, and no sooner do I get off the train than +there's a murder mystery thrust right under my nose! Right under my +nose! By Gad! I knew it!" + +Shag stood, resting his weight first on one foot and then on the other, +his head bowed. He was trying to keep from slipping from under his +vest, where he had hidden it, a newspaper, with glaring, black +headlines. Shag looked timidly at his master. + +Colonel Ashley paced up and down the room, pausing now and then to +listen to the dash of rain against the windows, for the storm, bearing +out its promise of the morning, had lasted all day, changing from a +drizzle to a downpour and from a downpour to a drizzle with dismal +repetition. The colonel glanced at Shag, and then, drawing from an +inner pocket the little green book, read: + +"Hunting is a game for princes and noble persons. It hath been highly +prized in all ages. It was one of the qualifications--" + +The detective snapped the book shut, and tossed it on the bed. + +"Shag!" he exploded. + +"Yes, sah, Colonel." + +"You've often heard me talk of fishing and hunting, haven't you?" + +"Deed an' I has, Colonel; many a time! Yes, sah!" + +"Humph! Yes! Well, detective work is a sort of hunt, isn't it, Shag?" + +"Yes, sah, Colonel. Dat's jest what it is! Many an' many a time I'se +done heah yo' say yo's goin' out t' hunt dis man or dat woman!" + +"Very good, Shag. And it's a sort of fishing, too, isn't it?". + +"Yes, sah, Colonel! More as once I'se heah yo' say as how yo' had t' +fish an' fish an' _fish_ t' git a bit of a clew." + +"I see you remember, Shag. Well, now, you black rascal, did you say +you've got a newspaper with an account in it of a strange and +mysterious murder right here in _this_ city?" + +"Yes, sah, Colonel! Right yeah in Colchester, where we done come t' +hab puffick rest an' quiet an' fishin', just laik yo' done said on de +train." + +"Humph! A murder mystery right here in town. I thought I heard the +newsboys shouting something about it at the station. But I didn't +listen. Who's killed, Shag?" + +"Why, Colonel, sah, it's a poor ole lady, an'--" + +"Stop, Shag! Not another word! How dare you try to get me interested +in a case when I told you if you so much as breathed anything about one +I'd horsewhip you! I told you that, didn't I?" + +"Deed an' yo' did, Colonel!" + +The detective paced up and down the room. He reached for the little +green book. Then, as if in desperation, he turned to the shrinking +negro and went on: + +"You say there's a mystery about it, Shag?" + +"Yes, sah, Colonel. Yes, sah!" and he made a motion toward the paper +that was slipping from under his vest. + +"Stop it!" cried the colonel. "I came here to fish and read Izaak +Walton in the shade of a big tree along some quiet brook. If you so +much as bring a paper into this room I'll send you back to Virginia +where you belong, Shag!" + +"Yes, sah, Colonel!" + +The military-looking detective resumed his pacing of the room, his +hands behind his back clasping and unclasping nervously. + +"Shag!" he suddenly called. + +"Yes, sah, Colonel." + +"Is it much of a mystery--I mean--er--anything but the usual blood and +thunder stuff?" + +"Why, Colonel," began the black man eagerly, "it's de beatenist mystery +dat ever was--all 'bout a murdered jewelry lady, what's got her haid +busted in with a big gold statue, an' a gold knife stab in her side, +an' a watch shut up tight in her hand, tickin' an' tickin' an' +_tickin'_, laik it was her heart beatin', an' her cousin done find her +in a pool of blood on de floor, an' de clocks all stopped, an' a rich +young spendthrift comes in an' claims de dagger, an' de detectives--" + +"Shag!" fairly shouted his master. + +"Yes, sah, Colonel!" + +"Out of the room this instant, and don't you dare come back until I +send for you!" + +"Yes, sah, Colonel." + +The old colored man turned slowly to the door. His manner was +dejected. Evidently he had given serious offense. + +Silently he turned the knob, but, before he had stepped over the +threshhold, he heard a voice calling softly: + +"Shag!" + +"Yes, sah, Colonel." + +"Eh--Shag--before you go, you--er--you might leave me that paper I see +under your vest. I may have occasion to--to glance at it, to see what +to-morrow's weather is going to be for fishing." + +"Yes, sah, Colonel." + +And, with a carefully concealed grin on his face, Shag drew the +black-lettered paper from under his waistcoat, and laid it on the bed +beside the "Complete Angler." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +SPOTTY + +"Well, now," observed Detective Thong, and, somehow or other, his voice +sounded really cheerful, "let's see where we're at, Mr. Darcy. Have +you looked over the stock all you want to?" + +They were in a room in the rear of the jewelry store--the city and +county detectives, the reporters and James Darcy--with Policeman +Mulligan on guard near the cut glass and silver gleaming in the +showcases. On guard near a dark red stain in the floor, scarcely +dry--it was still soaking into the wood. The body of the murdered +woman had been taken away, followed by a sigh of relief from James +Darcy, who, try as he did, could not keep his eyes from seeking it. + +"The stock is checked up as well as I can do it in a short time," +replied the jewelry worker, who had spent some time going over the +store under the watchful eyes of Carroll and Thong. "I'm not sure +anything is taken. If there is, as I said, it can't be much. But I'll +go over everything more carefully, checking up the books. That will +take a few days, but I can do it while I'm here arranging for the +funeral." + +"Not here you can't do it," broke in Carroll, with a short laugh. + +"Not here?" There was startled amazement in Darcy's question. + +"No." + +"Why not?" + +"Because you won't be here. You'd better come with us. You'll have +to, in fact. The captain'll want to have a talk with you, and I guess +the prosecutor the same. How about it, Jim?" and he looked over at +Haliday, from the Court House. He was examining the side door leading +to the alley. + +"Oh, sure! he'll have to be held--as a witness, anyhow," was the easy +answer, and in the same breath he added: "Not a mark! Not a scratch on +the place! It was an inside job all right!" + +"Held? I'll have to be--held?" faltered Darcy. + +"Of course," said Thong. "And, while you're at it, take a friend's +advice, and keep your mouth shut." + +"You mean anything I say might--might be used--against me?" + +"Oh, I wouldn't put it that way exactly. That's moving picture +stuff--theater business, you know. We don't go in for that--not me and +Carroll. But don't talk too much. Of course you'll have to answer a +lot of questions, and the easier you do the better for you. But wait +until they're asked. Maybe it's against my interests to say that, but +I've sort of took a notion to you. Now you'd better get ready to +leave." + +"You mean lock the place up?" + +"Oh, no, somebody'll have to stay here." + +"Not me!" interrupted Mulligan. "I haven't had my breakfast. I was +jest comin' in off dog-watch when I happened to see what was goin' on +here--the crowd an' everythin'. I ain't goin' to stay!" + +"Well, 'phone in then and get somebody," advised Carroll testily. +"Somebody's got to be here until we can look around more." + +"I'll stay for a while." said Haliday. "I'd like to look about a bit +myself. I'll probably have to get the case ready for the prosecutor." + +"Well, let's be going then," suggested Thong. "Shall I ring for the +wagon?" + +His partner shook his head after a look at Darcy. + +"The trolley'll be all right for him," he said in a whisper. "We can +get out the back way and avoid the crowd," for the street in front of +the jewelry store was still thronged, in spite of the ever increasing +rain. "As for King, he's asleep, and I guess we can put him to bed +here. If we try to carry him out there'll be more of a push than there +is now. Let him sleep it off," and he glanced at a huddled figure in a +corner chair. + +"Who's asleep?" broke in the thick voice of the wastral. "Whash matter +you fellers, anyhow? Man comes in get li'l preshent for his wife--wife +sits up all night waitin'--she's 'titled to li'l preshent. Wheresh my +gold knife, Darcy? I give it to you--have 'grave--Pearl's +name--wheresh my knife?" + +"You can have it pretty soon," promised Thong. "Look here, Harry, my +boy. You're pretty drunk, for a fact, but do you happen to know where +you were and what you did last night--and early this morning? Try to +think--it may mean a lot to you!" and he spoke earnestly. "Where were +you--what did you do?" + +"What I did?" He blinked his eyes rapidly, to rid them of the water +which poured forth in an effort to assuage their drink-inflamed +condition, and regarded those about him with half-drunken gravity. +"What I did? You want to know--what--what I did?" + +"Yes. Where were you, and what did you do?" asked Carroll easily. + +"Hu! Got drunk, thash what I did. Can't you see? I'm drunk yet, but +I don't care! Ha! Had one swell time, thash what I did! One whale of +a good time! It was _some_ night--a wet night--believe me--a wet +night--awful wet. Never had so mush fun--never! We got ole Doc +Harrison stewed to the gills--hones' we did--stewed like--like +prunes--apricots! Ho! Thash what we did!" + +"Guess he wasn't the only one," observed Carroll grimly. "Now, look +here, King. You're pretty drunk yet, but maybe you can get this +through your noodle. There's been some nasty business, and you may, or +may not, know something about it, though I don't believe you do, for +you're so pickled now that you must have been loading up ever since +last week. But you've got to answer some questions--when you're +able--and it's a question of holding you here or--taking you with us. +How about it?" + +"Look here!" snarled King, and his voice rang out with sudden energy. +"Who you talkin' to?" + +"Now take it easy, Harry," advised Thong. "We're talking to you, of +course." + +Harry King seemed to begin the process of sobering up. His eyes lost +something of their bleary, misunderstanding look, and took on a +dangerous glint. The detectives knew him for a spendthrift, who had +been in more than one questionable escapade. He had a violent temper, +drunk or sober, once it was roused, and it did not take much liquor to +make him a veritable devil. Though after his first wild burst he +became maudlin and silly. King came of a good family, but his +relatives had cast him off after his midnight marriage to an actress of +questionable morals, with whom it was not a first offense, and he now +lived, after his own peculiar fashion, on the income of an estate +settled on him in his better days by an aunt. Now and then he managed +to get larger advances than the stipulated sum from a rascally lawyer, +who took a chance of reimbursing himself a hundred per cent. when Harry +King should come to the end of his rope--a time which seemed not far +off, if the present were any indication. He was to inherit the bulk of +his fortune when he became thirty-five years of age. He was now +thirty-three, but the pace he was going and keeping made his chances of +living out the stated allotment seem meager. + +"I'm talking to you, Harry, my boy," went on the detective, "and I +advise you, for your own good, to keep a civil tongue in your head. If +you don't, you may get into trouble. There's been a murder--" + +"A murder!" King's voice was more certain now. + +"Yes. You saw the body carried out--or are you still so drunk you +can't remember? It was Mrs. Darcy--the lady who owned this jewelry +store, you know. Now pull yourself together. You've got to come with +us and explain a little about this knife of yours. She was stabbed +with that." + +"With my knife--that paper cutter dagger I was giving as a present +to--to my wife?" King's voice was sobering more now. + +"That's the idea, Harry." + +"But I brought that knife to Darcy to have him engrave it." + +"That may be. It was used to cut the old lady, though, and laid back +on Darcy's work-table. Come now--brace up, and tell us all you know +about it." + +"Oh, I--I can brace up all right. So the old lady's dead, is she? +Killed--stabbed! Too bad! Many's the trinket I've bought of her +for--for--well, some of the girls, you know," and he winked +suggestively at the detectives. "Old lady Darcy's dead! Say, look +here, boys!" he exclaimed with a sudden change of manner, as something +seemed to penetrate to his sodden brain, "you--you don't for a minute +think I did this--do you?" and he sat up straight for the first time. + +"Never mind what we think," said Carroll. "We're not paid for telling +it--like the reporters," and he grinned at Daley of the Times. "We +want to get at the facts. Are you in condition to talk?" + +"Not here!" interrupted Thong quickly, with a glance at the newspaper +men, which they were quick to interpret. "Oh, it's all right, boys," +went on the detective. "We'll let you in for anything that's going as +soon as we can--you know that." + +"Sure," agreed Daley. "But don't keep us waiting all day. The presses +are like animals--they have to be fed, you know. First editions don't +wait for gum-shoe men, even if they're of the first water. And I've +got a city editor who has a temper like a bear with a sore nose in +huckleberry time. So loosen up as soon as you can." + +They took King and Darcy to police headquarters in a taxicab which +King, with still half-drunken gravity, insisted on paying for. + +Colonel Ashley--or Colonel Brentnall as he had registered at the +hotel--having, by means of a more or less adroit bit of camouflage, +obtained possession of the newspaper containing an account of the +murder of Mrs. Darcy, and of the holding of her cousin and Harry King +on suspicion, tossed the journal on the bed beside his well-worn copy +of the "Complete Angler." Then, to demonstrate his complete mastery +over himself, he picked up the book, never so much as glancing at the +black headlines, and read: + +". . . I have found it to be a real truth that the very sitting by the +river's side is not only the quietest and fittest place for +contemplation, but will invite the angler to it; . . ." + +"I'm a fool!" exploded the colonel. "I came here to fish, and, first +click of the reel, I go nosing around on the trail of a murder, when I +vowed I wouldn't even dream of a case. I won't either,--that's flat! +I'll get my rods in shape to go fishing to-morrow. It may clear. Then +Shag and I--" + +Slowly the book slipped from his hand. It fell on the bed with a soft +thud, and a breeze from the partly opened window ruffled a page of the +newspaper. The colonel, looking guiltily around the room, walked +nearer to the bed, and then, as stealthily as though committing a +theft, he picked up the _Times_. Softly he exclaimed: + +"Gad! what's the use?" + +A moment later, pulling his chair beneath an electric light, he began +to read the account of the murder. + +Pete Daley's story of the finding of the dead body of the owner of the +jewelry store was a graphic bit of work. He described how Darcy, +coming down in the gray dawn, had discovered the woman lying stark and +cold, her head crushed and a stab wound in her side. + +None of the details was lacking, though the gruesomeness was skilfully +covered with some well-done descriptive writing. The wounds seemed to +have been inflicted at the same time--one by the metal statue of a +hunter found on the floor near the body, the other by a dagger-like +paper cutter, admitted to be owned by Harry King, but which, with the +blade blood-stained, was found on the jewelry bench of her cousin James +Darcy. + +The solution of the murder mystery depended on the answers to two +questions, the reporter pointed out. First, which wound killed Mrs. +Darcy? Second, who inflicted either or both wounds? + +There were ramifications from these beginnings--such as the motive for +the crime; whether or not there had been a robbery; and, if so, by whom +committed. Then, to get to the more personal problem, did either King +or Darcy commit the murder, and, if so, why? + +"Um," mused the colonel, reading the _Times_ on the evening of the day +the crime was discovered. "It may turn out to be a mystery after all, +in spite of the two men who are held. Let's see now," and he went on +with his perusal of the paper. + +The autopsy had been performed, and Dr. Warren had said either wound +might have caused death; for the skull was badly fractured, and vital +organs had been pierced by the dagger, which the papers called it, +though it really was a paper cutter of foreign make. + +King and Darcy were not, as yet, formally, arrested, being "detained," +merely, at police headquarters as witnesses, though there was no +question but that suspicion was cast on both. Under the law a formal +charge must be made against them within twenty-four hours, and unless +this was done King's lawyer threatened to bring _habeas corpus_ +proceedings for his client. + +"Oh, there'll be a charge made before then all right," said Thong +easily, when the legal shyster had, with threatening finger under the +detective's nose, made much of this point. "I'm not saying it will be +against your man, Mr. Fussell, but there'll be a charge made all right." + +It is needless to say that both suspected men protested they knew +nothing about the killing. King was frank enough--sober now--to say he +had been drunk all night--spending the hours with boon companions in a +notorious resort, a statement which seemed capable enough of proof. + +Darcy told over and over again how he had come downstairs to find his +relative stretched on the floor of the shop, and, aside from that +little restless period of the night, he had heard no disturbance. +Sallie Page could tell nothing, the maid was out of the city, and none +of the clerks knew more of what had happened than they were told. + +Playing up Darcy's story, Daley and some of the other reporters +speculated on whether or not a burglar might have entered the store, +leaving no trace of his uncanny skill, and, in his wanderings about the +place, have entered Darcy's room. He might even have attempted to +chloroform the jewelry worker, it was suggested, and perhaps did, +slightly. Then, descending to the store, the intruder might have +started to loot the safe when he was disturbed by Mrs. Darcy, who may +have come down to see what the unusual noise was. + +Such, at least, was a theory, and one several took stock in. At any +rate Darcy, after having been aroused, by what he knew not, had gone to +sleep again, only to awaken to hurry down to do the repair work on the +watch of the East Indian--the watch that was found so uncannily ticking +in the otherwise silent jewelry store, clasped in the hand of the dead +woman. It was mentioned that Singa Phut was being kept under +observation, though no suspicion attached to him. + +Darcy had at first nervously, and then indignantly, protested his +innocence, King continually doing the latter. Naturally there +followed, even with the faint suspicions so far engendered, the +question as to what the possible object for the crime could have been, +presuming either man had been involved. + +It was known that King was constantly in debt, in spite of his +allowance and the more substantial advances he received from time to +time. He had patronized the jewelry store, and he admitted owing Mrs. +Darcy quite a large sum for a brooch he had purchased for his wife some +time before. It was, of course, possible, that he had, in his drunken +state, gone to the store to get the paper cutter, which some peculiar +kink or twist in his drink-inflamed brain had caused him to remember at +an odd time. Or perhaps he had run short of money when playing cards, +and have gone to Mrs. Darcy's store to borrow or see if he could not +get something on which he might raise cash. + +Harry King was known to have been gambling the night before, the game +lasting until nearly morning, and at one stage, when King was "broke," +he had excused himself, gone out into the night alone, and had come +back well supplied with funds. Asked jokingly by his cronies where he +had got the money, he had said "a lady" gave it to him. He resumed +play, only to lose, and had staggered out into the gray dawn, which was +the last his companions had seen of him. He next appeared at the +jewelry store after the murder. + +Sobered, King's explanation was that "a lady" had really given him the +money, but who she was, or why she gave him funds at two o'clock in the +morning, he would not say. He admitted calling at the jewelry store +somewhere around eleven o'clock at night for the purpose of seeing if +the engraving on the paper cutter had been finished. King was not so +very drunk then, he said. He was just "starting in." + +The store was closed, he said, but he added a bit of testimony that +caused Colonel Ashley, and others, to think a bit. + +King said that, though the front doors to the store were locked, he, +knowing the place well, had gone around to the side door in the alley, +thinking that might not yet be fastened. He hoped, he said, to be able +to get in and procure the present for his wife. But this door, too, +was locked, though, through the glass he could see a light in the rear +room. And he could hear voices, which were raised louder than ordinary. + +The voices, King added, were those of Mrs. Darcy and her cousin, James +Darcy, and it was evident that a quarrel was in progress. Asked as to +the nature of the dispute King had said he had heard mentioned several +times the name "Amy." There was also something said about money and an +"electric lathe." + +Naturally there was an inquiry as to who "Amy" was, and what was meant +by the electric lathe. Darcy answered with seeming frankness that the +Amy in question was Miss Mason, daughter of Adrian Mason, wealthy +stockman of Pompey, a village about ten miles from Colchester. Mr. +Mason had what was often referred to as a "show place," with blooded +horses and cattle, and he was quite a financial figure in Monroe +county, of which Colchester was the county seat. + +Besides this, Amy was well off in her own right, her uncle having left +her a half interest in a valuable mine. + +James Darcy and Amy Mason were engaged to be married, though this fact +was known to but few, and made quite a sensation when Darcy admitted it +after his arrest. He and Amy had known each other since childhood, and +when small had lived near each other. + +Mr. Mason, in spite of his wealth, was a democratic man, and though he +knew, and Amy also, that she might have married wealth and position, +both were "passed up," to quote the stockman himself, in favor of a +real love match. For that is what it was. + +"He's a _man_, that's what James Darcy is!" Amy's father had said, when +some one hinted that he had neither wealth nor family of which to +boast. "He's a _man_! He's got all the family he needs. What's a +family good for, anyhow, after you're grown up? As for money, I've got +more than I need, and Amy's got a little nest-egg of her own. Besides, +Darcy can earn his living, which is a hanged sight more than some of +these dancing lizards can do if they were put to it." + +It developed that the words over Amy which had occurred, just before +the murder, between James Darcy and his cousin, had to do with the +difference in the worldly prospects of the two young people. Mrs. +Darcy had rather laughed at him, James said, for thinking of marrying a +girl so much wealthier than he was. + +"What did you tell her?" asked Carroll. "I mean your cousin." + +"I told her I could support my wife decently well, if not in such state +as that to which she was accustomed in her father's house. As for +style, neither Miss Mason nor I care for it. And, if things go right, +I may be able to bring her as much wealth as she has herself." + +"How do you mean if things go right?" asked the detective. + +"Well, if I can perfect the electric lathe I am trying to patent," was +the answer. + +"Oh, so that's what King heard about an electric lathe?" + +"I suppose so. It's no great secret. I've been working on it for some +time, but my cousin objected to my spending my time that way. She +thought I should devote it all to her interests, even outside the shop. +I told her I had my own future to look to, and we often had words about +that. Last night's quarrel wasn't the first, though she was especially +bitter over my work on the lathe. I have been giving it more time than +usual because it is nearly finished, and I want to get it ready to show +at a big Eastern jewelry convention." + +"And what was the talk about money?" + +"Well, Mrs. Darcy owed me about a thousand dollars. I had done some +special work on making necklaces for her customers, and she had +promised, if they were pleased, to pay me extra for the exclusive +designs I got up. The customers were pleased, and they paid her extra +for the ornaments. So I demanded that she keep her promise, but she +refused, pleading that many other customers owed her and times were +hard. I needed that thousand dollars to help complete my lathe model, +and--well, we had words over that, too." + +"Then, do I understand," summed up Carroll, "that the night Mrs. Darcy +was killed you had a quarrel with her over Miss Mason, and about the +money and because you spent too much time working on your patent lathe?" + +"Well, yes, though I don't admit I spent too much time, and I surely +will claim she owed me that money. As for Miss Mason--I'd prefer to +have her name left out," faltered the young jeweler. + +"We can't always have what we want," said Thong, dryly. "Was the +quarrel specially bitter?" + +"Not any more so than others. I had to speak a little loud, for my +cousin was getting a trifle deaf." + +"And after the quarrel you went to bed?" + +"Yes." + +"And you didn't see your cousin again until--when?" and Carroll looked +Darcy straight in the eyes. + +"Not until after she was--dead." + +"Um! I guess that's all now." + +They let the young man go, back to his room in police headquarters. It +was not a cell--yet, though it would seem likely to come to that, for +Thong observed to his partner as they went downstairs: + +"Well, there's a motive all right." + +"Three, if you like. But none of 'em hardly strong enough for murder." + +"Oh, I don't know. I hear he has quite a temper--different from Harry +King's, but enough, especially if he got riled about the old lady +talking against his girl. You never can tell." + +"No, that's so." + +Left alone, James Darcy threw himself into a chair and looked blankly +at the dull-painted wall. + +"This is fierce!" he murmured. "It will be a terrible blow to Amy! I +wonder--I wonder if she'll have anything to do with me after this? The +shame of it--the disgrace! Oh, Amy! if I could only know!" and he +reached out his hand as though to thrust them beyond the confines of +the walls. He bowed his head in his arms and was silent and motionless +a long time. + +Up in his hotel room, Colonel Ashley read the story of the case as +printed in the _Times_. + +"This does begin to get interesting," he mused, as he finished reading +the account. "There are three possible motives in Darcy's case, and +one in King's. And I've known murder to be done on slighter +provocation. Darcy might have resented being called a fortune hunter, +which, I suppose, is what the old lady meant, or he may have been stung +to sudden passion by the holding back of the thousand dollars and the +taunts about his lathe. Most inventors are crazy anyhow. + +"As for King--if he was drunk enough, and wanted money--or thought he +could get some diamonds--it might be--it might be. I wonder who his +lady friend is? He daren't tell, I suppose, on account of his wife. I +wonder--" + +"Oh, what am I bothering about it for, anyhow? I came here to rest and +fish, and I'm going to. I've resigned from detective work! There!" +He tossed the paper behind the bed. "I'll not look at another issue. +Now let's see how my rods are. I'm going to get an early start in the +morning, if this infernal rain lets up. Blast that Shag! He's jammed +a ferrule!" and, with blazing eyes, the colonel looked at one of the +joints of his choicest rod. A brass connection had been bent. + +"That's a shame! It'll never work that way--never! I've got to go out +and see if I can't get it mended. Wonder if there's a decent sporting +goods store in this part of town. I'll go out and have a look." + +He made himself ready, taking the two parts of the fishing rod with +him. Inquiry at the hotel desk supplied him with the information as to +the location of the store, and the detective was soon out in the wet +streets, breathing in deep of the damp air--for it was fresh and that +was what the colonel liked. + +Somehow or other the address of the jewelry store clung to his mind, +and, almost unconsciously, he found himself heading in that direction. + +"Well, I am a fool!" he murmured, as he passed the place, now ghostly +with its one light in front of the safe. The police had taken charge, +pending the arrival of a relative of Mrs. Darcy's. Inside, the cut +glass and silver gleamed as of old, but on the floor, sunk deep in the +grain of the wood now, was the spot of blood--fit to keep company with +the red rubies in the locked safe. + +"Quite a place," murmured the colonel, as he passed on toward the +sporting goods store. "Quite a place! Oh, hang it! I must get it out +of my mind!" + +In spite of his rather exacting demands regarding a ferrule for his +rod, he found what he wanted and, feeling quite satisfied now, as he +noted that the weather showed some slight signs of clearing, the +colonel started back for his hotel, walking slowly, for it was not yet +late. + +Just how it happened, not even Colonel Ashley, naturally the most +interested person, could tell afterward. But as the detective was +crossing a crowded street a big auto truck swung around a corner, and +he found himself directly in its path as he stepped off the curb. + +Active as he always kept himself, the old detective sprang back out of +the way. But fate, in the person of a small boy, had just a little +while before, dropped a banana skin on the streets. And the colonel +stepped squarely on this peeling, as he tried to retreat. + +There was a sudden sliding, an endeavor to retain his footing, and then +Colonel Ashley fell prostrate, his fishing rod pieces spinning from his +fingers. Down he went, and the truck thundered straight at him. + +It was almost upon him, and the big, solid, front tires were about to +crush him, in spite of the frantic efforts of the driver to swerve his +machine to one side, when a slim figure dashed from the crowd on the +sidewalk, and, with an indistinguishable cry, seized the colonel by the +shoulders, fairly dragging him with a desperate burst of strength from +the very path of death. + +There were gasps of alarm and sighs of relief. The driver of the truck +swore audibly, but it was more a prayer than an oath. The colonel, +grimy and muddy, was set on his feet by his rescuer, and several men +gathered about. The colonel was a bit-dazed, but not so much so that +he could not hear several murmur: + +"He saved his life all right!" + +Recovering his breath and the control of his nerves at about the same +time, the detective, his voice trembling in spite of himself, turned to +the man who had dragged him from almost under the big wheels and said: + +"Sir, you did save my life! You saved me from a horrible death, and +saying so doesn't begin to thank you or tell you what I mean. If +you'll have the goodness, sir, to call a taxi for me, and come with me +to my hotel, I can then--" + +The colonel came to a halting and sudden pause as he saw the face of +the slim little man who had saved him--a face covered with freckles, +which were splotched over the cheeks, the turned-up nose, and reaching +back to the wide-set ears. + +"Spotty!--Spotty Morgan!" gasped the detective, as he recognized a New +York gunman, who was supposed to have more than one killing to his +credit, or debit, according as you happen to reckon. + +"Spotty Morgan! You--you--here!" gasped the detective. + +The rescuer, who had been grinning cheerfully, went white under his +copper freckles. + +"My gawd! It's you! Colonel--" + +Further words were stopped by the detective's hand placed softly, +quickly, and so dexterously as hardly to be seen by those in the crowd, +over the mouth of the speaker. + +"No names--here!" whispered the colonel in the big ear of the man who +had saved him from death. + +The slim little man gave a wiggle like an eel, and would have darted +away through the crowd, but there was a vice-like grip on his shoulder +that he knew but too well. + +"Spotty, my name's Brentnall for the present," said the colonel, with a +grim smile. "And you'd better come with me. How about it?" + +Spotty Morgan hesitated a moment, nodded silently, and then, arm in arm +with the man whom he had pulled from the path of the big truck, went +down the street, the mist and rain swallowing them up. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +AMY'S APPEAL + +Tinkling glasses formed a friendly rampart between Colonel Ashley and +Spotty Morgan. Spotty looked narrowly and shrewdly at the detective. + +"I didn't expect to see you here," remarked the gunman, speaking out of +the side of his mouth, with scarcely a motion of his lips--a habit +acquired through long practice in preventing prison keepers from +finding out that he was disobeying the rules regarding silence. "Not +for a minute did I expect to run across you here, Colonel As--" + +"Not that name, Spotty, if you please," and the fisherman-detective +smiled in easy fashion. "You know my little habits in that regard. +I'm known here as Brentnall, and, if it's all the same to you, just use +that. As for you, if Spotty--" + +"Oh, that suits me as well as any other. I can change whenever I +like." Spotty raised a glass to his lips, and, with a murmured "here's +how," let the contents slide down his always-parched throat. + +"That's so, Spotty. Well, I didn't expect to see you here, I give you +my word. When did you leave New York?" + +"Well, I come away--" + +"Hold on!" interrupted the colonel. "Don't answer. I shouldn't have +asked. I forgot you saved my life just now. Gad! it isn't the first +time I've nearly passed over, but--not in that way!" and he reached for +his glass to conceal the shudder that passed over him as he thought of +the rumbling wheels of the thundering truck. + +"Well, Colonel, I--" + +"Never mind, Spotty. Perhaps the less you talk the better off you'll +be. Does anybody in town know you're here?" + +"Well, my picture--" + +"Yes, it is probably down at headquarters. But they're too busy to +look for it now. But they may--later. So far you haven't been +recognized then?" + +"Only by you, and it'd take a pretty clever guy--" + +"No compliments, Spotty. We've gotten over that. You disguised +yourself very well, but the freckles show through." + +"Yes, damn 'em!" heartily exploded the gunman. "I can't cover 'em up. +I've tried everything, but I guess I'll have to go togged up like a +colored man to fool the other bulls. As for you, Colonel--" + +"There you go again! Cut it out! This is business." + +"Yes, good business for you, but bad for me. I didn't think you'd get +after me so soon, Colonel!" + +"I'm not after you, Spotty." + +The detective spoke quietly, but the effect on the man sitting across +the table from him, in one of the less conspicuous cafes in Colchester, +had the effect of a shout. + +"Not after me? You _ain't_?" and Spotty drew away from the array of +glasses and bottles so suddenly that he overturned a tumbler with its +tinkling chunk of ice. "Not after me, Colonel?" + +"No, I came here for a quiet bit of fishing, and I just stumbled on +this case against my will. I'm not even working on it, and I'm not +going to. Nobody knows I'm in town except my man Shag--and you. I +know I can depend on Shag, and as for you--" + +"I'm with you till the cows come to roost, Colonel. I'm strong fer +you! I kin forget I ever saw you." + +"That's good. I thought you'd be that way. So, as no one knows I'm in +town (the colonel knew nothing of what Shag had said to the newsboy), I +can keep under cover and have my fishing as I like it--quiet. I don't +intend any one shall know I'm here, either. + +"Now, Spotty, I'm a plain-spoken man when there's occasion for it, and +this is one of those times, I guess. You saved my life just now, I +know that. Of course I realize I might just have been badly hurt, and +perhaps have lingered on in a hospital for some years--but that would +be worse than death. I consider that you saved my life. I couldn't +have moved out of the way of that truck any more than I could have +flown. I realize it more and more. You did me the biggest service one +man can do another, and I'm not going to forget it, Spotty." + +"No, I guess remembering is your long suit, Colonel." + +"Well, that's all in a day's work. I didn't forget you, Spotty. Now, +as I said, you saved my life. I believe in turning the tables, and +though I can't do for you what you did for me, maybe I can help in a +way." + +"You kin gamble on that, Colonel!" + +"Listen to me, Spotty," and the detective leaned forward and spoke in a +low, tense voice. "Just now, as I say, I'm not in this case. Not +being a public official, I'm not bound to use what knowledge or +suspicions I have regarding this matter, and I'm not particularly +interested--as yet. So I'm going to give you a chance, just as you +gave me mine now. It isn't exactly the same, for maybe you wouldn't +lose your life. You've been devilishly lucky, and gotten through more +narrow places than I'd ever give you credit for. + +"So it may seem that I'm not quite squaring the account, but it's all I +can do--now. I'm going to give you your chance. I'm not going to ask +you any questions. You know what you know and I know what I know. +Now, Spotty, streak it out of town as fast as a train can take you, +and--_don't come back_!" + +Spotty Morgan made little wet rings on the table with his empty glass. +A waiter, hovering near by, caught the glint of his eye and brought the +liquor. Then Spotty, after a libation, spoke. + +"Colonel," he said slowly, "most of what you has been spielin' is like +the lawyer guys git off in court. I don't quite tumble, but I take it +you mean you're goin' t' let me go." + +"That's it, Spotty! I'm going to let you go this time!" + +"No double crossin'?" + +"You know me better than that! I'll give you twenty-four hours to get +out of town. After that I may happen to know more than I know now, and +it would be my duty--whether I'm officially on the case or not--to +arrest you. + +"But now you're free. It's your life and liberty for mine--maybe not +quite an even exchange, since you'd have more than even chances if it +came to a trial, I suppose. But it's the best I can do. I'm giving +you this chance. I'd be a dirty dog if I didn't. But remember this, +Spotty! I give you only one chance, just as you gave me--just as you +took one and saved me. If I see you again, and this thing hangs over +you, I may have to pull you up." + +"All right, Colonel. That's a square deal. But don't worry. You +won't see me if I see you first. I didn't dream you'd be after me so +soon for the job I only done last night. I'd oughter cleared out, but +I was waitin' for a pal, an--Oh, well, it was just like you to come +around early." + +"Man, don't you understand? I'm not after you! I didn't for an +instant think you had a hand in it until just now. And I'm not +admitting, even yet, that you did have. I haven't done a tap of work +on the case, and I'm not going to. My advise to you is to get out of +town before I may get into this thing against my will. Skip, Spotty! +It's the only way I can pay my debt to you!" + +The colonel made as though to hold out his hand to the freckle-faced +man opposite him, and then changed the motion of his arm and picked up +his glass. + +"Skip, Spotty!" he murmured again. + +"All right, Colonel, I will! I know when the goin's good. So long. +And--thanks!" + +Spotty, still talking through the corner of his mouth, gave a quick +glance around the room and slid out of a side door like an eel, +disappearing into the rain and mist. + +For some little time the colonel sat before the glasses, in which the +cracked ice was rapidly melting. He, too, made little rings of water +on the table. + +"I wonder--" he mused, "I wonder if I did right." + +His hand sought his pocket, and came out empty. + +"I guess I must have left it on the bed," he murmured. "But I can +remember it." + +Then, as though reading from the little green book, he recited: + +"But if the old salmon gets to the sea . . . and he recovers his +strength, and comes next summer to the same river, if it be +possible. . ." + +"Spotty is a veritable salmon," mused the colonel, "even if he is +speckled like a trout. I wonder, if he gets into the sea of New York, +if I'll ever be able to land him? + +"Well, he gave me my life, and I just _had_ to give him a chance for +his. It was all I could do. Now to fish and forget everything!" + +It was a fair morning in April, with the sun just right, with the "wind +in the west when the fish bite best," and Colonel Robert Lee Ashley, +with the faithful Shag to carry his rods, creel and a lunch basket, +sallied forth from his hotel for a day beside a no-very-distant stream, +the virtues of which he had heard were most alluring as regarded trout. + +"Shag!" exclaimed the colonel, when they were tramping through a field +near the river, having reached that vantage point by a most prosaic +trolley car, "this is a beautiful day!" + +"It suah am, sah!" + +"And I'm going to catch some fine fish!" + +"I suah does hope so, Colonel!" + +"All right then! Now don't say another word until I speak to you. +We'll be there pretty soon, and if there's one thing more than another +that I hate, it's to have some one talking when I'm fishing." + +"Yes, sah, Colonel!" + +"Um! Well, see that you mind!" + +Selecting with care a fly from his numerous collection, and hoping the +appetites of the fish would incline them to consider it favorably that +morning, Colonel Ashley proceeded to make his casts, standing not far +from a bent, gnarled and twisted elm tree, that overhung the bank of +the stream where the current had cut into the soil, making a deep eddy, +in which a lazy trout might choose to lie in wait for some choice +morsel. + +Lightly as a falling feather, the fisherman let his fly come to rest on +the sun-lit water, and, hardly had it sent the first, few faint ripples +circling toward shore than there was a shrill song of the reel, and the +rod became a bent bow. + +"By the bones of Sir Izaak!" cried the colonel, "I've hooked one, Shag!" + +"De Lord be praised! So yo' has, Colonel!" cried the negro. + +"Shut up!" ordered the colonel, who was beginning to play his fish. +"Did I tell you to speak?" + +But Shag only laughed. He knew his master. + +After ten minutes of skilful work, during which time the trout nearly +got away by shooting under a submerged log like an undersea boat diving +beneath a battle cruiser, the colonel landed his fish, dropping it, +panting, on the green grass. Then he looked up at Shag and remarked: + +"Didn't I tell you this was a perfectly beautiful day?" + +"Yo' suah did, Colonel," was the chuckling answer. "Yo' suah did!" + +And so much at peace with himself and all the world was Colonel Robert +Lee Ashley just then that, when the crackling of the underbrush behind +him, a moment later, gave notice that some one was approaching, there +was even a smile on his face, though, usually, he could not bear to be +intruded upon when fishing. + +Rather idly the colonel, having mercifully killed his fish by a blow on +top of the head and slipped it into the grass-lined creel, looked up to +see approaching a young lady and a tall and somewhat lanky boy. There +was some thing vaguely familiar about the boy, though the fisherman did +not tax his mind with remembering, then, where or when he had seen him +before. + +"There he is," went the words of the boy, as he and the young woman +came in sight of the colonel and Shag--but it was at the detective the +lad pointed. "There he is!" + +The girl rushed impulsively forward, and, as she held out her hands in +a voiceless appeal, there was worry and anguish depicted on her face. + +"Are you Colonel Brentnall?" she asked. + +The colonel was sufficiently familiar with his alias not to betray +surprise when it was used. + +"I am," he said, and the peaceful, joyous look that had come into his +eyes when he had landed his fish gave way to a hard and professional +stare. + +"Oh, Colonel Brentnall! I've come to ask you to help me--help him! +You will, won't you? Don't say you won't!" + +The girl's face, her blue eyes, the outstretched hands, the very poise +of her lithe, young body voiced the appeal. + +"My dear young lady," began the colonel. But she interrupted with: + +"You're the detective, aren't you?" + +"Well--er--I--Say rather _a_ detective, for there are many, and I am +only one." + +"But you are the one from New York?" + +"I am though I don't know how you guessed it. I am not here +professionally, though--in fact, I've practically retired--and I would +much prefer--" + +"But you wouldn't refuse to help any one who needed it, would you? You +wouldn't, I'm sure!" and the girl smiled through the tears in her blue +eyes. + +"Oh, of course, as a matter of humanity, I would not refuse to help any +one. But, professionally--well, really, I'm not here in my detective +role. I really can not consider anything at this time. I don't want +to seem harsh, or impolite, but I can't--" + +"Not even for double your usual fee? Listen! I am prepared to pay +well for anything you can do for me--and him. My father is well off. +I have money in my own right. I'd spend the last dollar of that. And +dad said, when I told him where I was going--Dad said he'd do the +same. We both believe Jimmie is innocent, and we want to prove it to +everybody as soon as we can. That's why I came right on to see you. I +couldn't wait! Oh, perhaps I did wrong, coming this way--I'm sorry if +I've spoiled your fishing. But this is such--such a _big_ thing--it +means so much to him--to me! I--I--" + +She faltered, looking from Shag to the colonel and then to the +sympathetic colored man again, for on his face was a look of pity. + +"How did you know I was here?" asked Colonel Ashley. + +"I went to your hotel. The clerk told me you had come to this stream. +It's the only good one for trout around here besides the one on my +father's farm." + +"Has your father a trout stream?" and the eyes of the colonel took on a +kindly gleam. + +"He has, and it's well stocked. But please, won't you help me? You +are the only one who can!" + +"I'm not sure of that, my dear young lady. And, really, I hardly +understand what it's all about. You say the hotel clerk told you I was +here. I can understand that, for I asked him the best way to reach +this place. But how did you know I was a detective and stopping at the +Adams House?" + +"He told me!" She pointed to the lanky youth. + +The colonel and Shag turned their eyes on him. Shag gave a start of +surprise. The colonel began to leaf over the brain tablets of his +memory system. He was beginning to place the lad. + +"Mah good land of massy!" ejaculated the negro. "It's de train newsboy +whut yo' give a dollar to las' night, Colonel!" + +"The one who wanted to sell me a detective story?" + +"I'm him, Colonel Brentnall," answered the lad, a smile of triumph +lighting up his face. "Your man told me who you was, and I heard you +tell the taxi man where to drive you. I didn't think anything more +about it until I read about the murder." + +"The murder!" exclaimed the colonel. Somehow that seemed to follow him +as a Nemesis. + +"Yes--old Mrs. Darcy--the jewelry store lady," went on the boy. "This +young lady," and he nodded toward his companion, "when I told her--" + +"Perhaps you had better let me explain, Tom," broke in the girl. "You +see it's this way," she went on, addressing the colonel. "This boy is +Tom Tracy. He sells papers on the express. He was once a jockey for +my father, but he got hurt--stiff arm--and we had to get him something +else to do. Dad always looks out for his boys, and so Tom went on the +road." + +"I had to do _something_ that had motion in it," Tom explained in an +aside. + +"Yes, it was as near to horseback riding as he could come," said the +girl, and she smiled, though the grief did not leave her blue eyes. +"Well, as he has told you, he heard who you were, Colonel, from your +man. Then when he read about the murder, and found how--how close home +it came to _me_, he hurried out to our place and said I should engage +you to help--" + +"He's the biggest detective in New York!" broke in Tom. "And that's +what we need--a big New York detective!" + +"But what's it all about?" asked the colonel. "This is talking in +riddles, though I begin to see a little--" + +"I beg your pardon," said the girl. "I should have told you who I am. +My name is Amy Mason, and--" + +"Ah! You are engaged to be married to James Darcy, who +is--er--detained as a--er--as a _witness_ in the murder of his cousin?" + +"I am," and she seemed to glory in it. "As soon as I heard what had +happened--to him--I wanted to help. They would not let me see Jimmie +at police headquarters, but I sent word that dad and I were going to +work for him every minute." + +"That must have cheered him." + +"I hope it did. But I want to do more than that. I want to help him! +I want to get the best detective in the country to work on the case and +prove that Jimmie didn't do this--this terrible thing of which he is +accused." + +"He isn't exactly accused yet, as I understand it, Miss Mason." + +"Oh, well, it's just as bad. He is suspected. Why, Jimmie wouldn't +have caused Mrs. Darcy a moment of pain, to say nothing of striking +her--killing her! Oh, it's horrible--horrible!" and she covered her +face with her hands. + +"I don't quite understand," began the colonel, "why you came to me, or +how--" + +"I told her it was the only thing to do," broke in the newsboy. "Soon +as I read about Carroll and Thong being on the case I knew it would +take a fly one to put anything over on them. I tried on the train to +sell you a detective book, not knowing who you was. You treated me +white, and when I heard Miss Mason was in trouble--or her friend was--I +said to myself right away that you was the one to fix things. I went +out to her farm last night and she was all broke up." + +"It was a terrible shock to me when I heard Jimmie was under arrest," +said the girl. "I didn't know what to do. Tom, here, proposed coming +to see you, and when dad heard who you were, though we knew nothing of +you, he said the same thing. He told me I could have all the money I +wanted, and I have some of my own if his isn't enough." + +"It isn't always a question of money," began the colonel, gently. + +"I know!" broke in Amy. "But if I add the inducement of all the trout +fishing--" + +"You are strongly tempting me, my dear young lady. But finish your +story." + +"Well, there isn't much more to tell. Tom suggested that I come to see +you and ask you to take Mr. Darcy's case--to prove that he had no hand +in the murder--for I'm sure he did not. + +"Tom stayed at our house at Pompey all night. I wanted to come to your +hotel at once, but the storm got too bad, so I waited until this +morning, and then we motored in. We found you had gone fishing, and we +followed you here. It was, perhaps, not just the thing to do. But I +was so anxious! I want to tell Jimmie that something is being done for +him. You will help us, won't you?" and again she held out her hands +appealingly. + +"I don't know anything about police or detectives," she went on, "but +I'm sure there must be some way of proving that my--that Jimmie had no +hand in this. Some terrible thief--a burglar--must have killed Mrs. +Darcy. Oh, Colonel Brentnall, you will help us--won't you?" + +She stood there, a beautiful and pathetic picture. The wind sighed +through the trees and the murmur of the rippling water filled the air. + +"Please!" she whispered. Her hands seemed to waver. Her body swayed. + +"Shag, you black rascal!" cried the colonel. "The lady's going to +faint! Catch her!" + +"Yes, sah, Colonel!" + +"No! Stand back! I'll attend to her myself! I've given up detective +work, but--" + +And a moment later Amy Mason sank limply into the colonel's arms. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +GRAFTON'S SEARCH + +The funeral of Mrs. Darcy had been held, attended, as might be +supposed, by a large throng of the merely curious, as well as by some +of her distant kinsfolk, for she had few near ones. One of the +relatives was summoned to take charge of the store and her other +business affairs, for, a formal charge of murder having been made +against him, James Darcy was not permitted to attend the final +services, nor have anything more to do with the jewelry establishment. +Harry King, now painfully sober, was likewise held in jail, bail being +fixed, because of his uncertain character, at such a high figure that +he could not secure it. + +The police had been busy, the prosecutor's detectives also, but, so +far, the arrest of Darcy and King had been the only ones made. Singa +Phut, whose watch was found clasped in the dead woman's hand, had been +closely questioned, but had established a perfect _alibi_. + +And the testimony as to this came, not from persons of his own +nationality, but from business men and others, whose words could not be +doubted. So, in the opinion of the authorities, he was not worth +considering further. He admitted having left his watch at the shop to +be repaired, some days before the murder, and had not called at the +store since, except on the morning of the crime, and some time after +its discovery, to get his timepiece, which, of course, he was not then +allowed to take. + +Darcy had been formally charged with the crime of murder by the police +captain in whose precinct the happening occurred, and, no bail being +permissible in murder cases, he must, perforce, remain locked up until +his indictment and trial. He was transferred from the witness room of +police headquarters, the day of the funeral, to the less pleasant jail, +and put in a cell, as were the other unfortunates of that institution. + +Jay Kenneth, Darcy's lawyer, a young member of the bar, but +enthusiastic and a hard worker, had made a formal entry of a plea of +not guilty for his client, when the latter had been arraigned before +the upper court, and had asked for a speedy trial. + +And so, after the first few days of wonder and surmise and of +speculation as to whether Darcy or King might have committed the crime, +or perhaps some desperate burglar, the Darcy case was crowded off the +front page of the newspapers to give way to items of more or less local +interest in Colchester. + +Up and down the narrow cell paced James Darcy. His head was bowed, but +at times he raised it to look out through the barred door. All his +eyes encountered, though, was the white-washed wall opposite him--a +bare, white and glaring wall that made his eyes burn--a wall that +seemed to shut out hope itself--as if it were not enough that it had +been at the very bottom of Pandora's box. + +Up and down, down and up, now pausing to take his hands from their +strained position clasped behind his back that they might grasp the +cold bars of his cell door--slim white hands that had set many a +gleaming jewel in burnished gold or cold, glittering platinum, that it +might grace the person of some sweet woman. And now those white +fingers grasped cold steel, and a keeper, passing up and down on his +half-hourly rounds, wondered, grimly, if they had been stained with the +blood of Mrs. Darcy. + +But though the wall blocked his vision, Darcy saw through and beyond +it. He saw the glittering showcases in the store, with their arrays of +cut glass and silver. He saw the gleaming jewels in the safe. + +He saw, too, the stained and keen paper knife which the drunken King +had swaggered in to claim that gray morning. He saw the red spot on +the floor--the spot which, even now, in spite of many scrubbings, was +visible to the men and women who, now that the store was opened for +business again, walked in to select some piece of gold or silver, some +jewel for their own adornment or that of another. + +And the gray-haired woman, whose pride it had been to display her +beautiful wares to her friends and others, was all alone in a grave far +up on the hill--a hill which looked down on Colchester--which looked +down on the very store itself. + +All of this James Darcy saw, and more. + +There was a brisker step along the flagged corridor in front of the +cells of "murderers' row." Half a dozen men, and one woman, against +whom such a charge had been made--Darcy among them--looked up with an +interest they had not shown before. Did it mean a visitor for any of +them? Did it mean their lawyer was coming to bid them cheer up, or to +tell them it looked black for their chances? + +The step was that of the keeper of the outer gate--the larger and more +massively barred gate which gave entrance to the anteroom where, on +visiting days, even those charged with the highest degree of crime were +permitted to see their friends, relatives or counsel. + +"Some one to see you, Darcy!" called the keeper. + +There was the clang of the lock mechanism, and the door swung open. +Darcy's eyes brightened, those of the others in the same tier of cells +with him which, for the moment had lighted up, grew dull again. + +"My lawyer?" asked Darcy. + +"Yes. And there's a lady with him." + +"A lady?" + +"Yes. Come on!" + +Darcy caught sight of Amy before she saw him, for he approached from +behind a line of other prisoners exercising in the space before their +cells. She was with Kenneth. + +"Amy!" exclaimed Darcy, as he was allowed to step out into the +anteroom, closely followed by a keeper, while a detective from the +prosecutor's office stood near. "Amy!" and his eyes flowed. + +"Jimmie boy!" + +To the eternal credit of the keeper and the detective be it said that, +at this moment, they found something of great interest in the calendar +that hung on the opposite wall, while Kenneth talked earnestly with the +warden. And the prisoners beyond the barred door were too busy with +their exercise to look around. + +"Jimmie boy!" + +"Amy! You--you don't--" + +"Of course I don't! Didn't I tell you so in my letter?" + +"Yes, but--" + +"Now, that isn't the way to talk, especially when I have come to bring +you good news." + +"Good news? You mean your father--" + +"Oh, it isn't about dad! I told you he was as firm a believer in you +as I am--that he said he'd 'go the limit,' if you know what that means, +to get you free. Jimmie boy, when dad likes a person he likes him!" + +"I hope his daughter does the same." + +"Don't you know--_Jimmie_ boy?" + +The warden, the detective, the keeper and the lawyer--all now seemed +interested in that prosaic calendar. + +Amy had had but little chance to speak to Darcy since, his arrest. In +police headquarters he was kept in seclusion except as to his lawyer, +and events had followed one another so rapidly that there had been no +other opportunity until now, though the girl had sent him a hasty note +in which she said she knew he was innocent and that everything possible +was being done for him. + +"And now, Jimmie, for the good news. I have engaged the best detective +in this country for you," and she beckoned to the lawyer to come +forward. + +"The best detective?" + +"Yes. You need one as well as a lawyer. They're going to work +together--aren't you, Mr. Kenneth?" + +"Indeed a detective can help us best at this stage of the game, I +think, Mr. Darcy," was the lawyer's answer. "I can look after the +court proceedings, when it comes time for them, but what we want most +is evidence tending to show that some one else, and not you, committed +this crime." + +"As, most assuredly was the case!" and for the first time in days +Darcy's voice had its old ring and vigor in it. + +"Of course, Jimmie boy," murmured Amy. "Now let me tell you all about +it. They say I can't stay very long, so I'll have to talk fast, and +you must listen--mostly. Now what do you say to--Colonel Ashley?" and +Amy looked triumphantly at her lover. + +"Colonel Ashley?" + +"Yes. As the detective who is going to help prove you innocent by +discovering the real--ugh! I hate to say it--_murderer_?" + +"Why, Colonel Ashley is one of the greatest detectives in the United +States--at least, he used to be. He must be pretty old now." + +"I know he is--but not too old to take hold. Now when he comes--" + +"But, Amy, my dear! You can't get _him_! Why, he's not only one of +the highest-priced detectives in the country, but he's retired I've +read, and I doubt if he'd take a case--" + +"He's going to take _your_ case, Jimmie boy!" and Amy smiled. + +"But how--how--" + +"I think we'll have to give Miss Mason credit for a whole lot in this +matter," broke in Kenneth. "She surprised me when she told me. And I +want to say that when the colonel gets going we'll have you out of here +in short order, Mr. Darcy!" + +"But I don't understand--" + +"That's what I came to tell you about, Jimmie boy! Now just keep quiet +and listen!" + +Thereupon Amy went on to relate all that had happened when she sought +out the fisherman at the trout brook--how she had been cared for by him +and Shag after her faint, and how, after some persuasion, the great +detective had agreed to take up the matter of seeking out the real +murderer of Mrs. Darcy. + +"He came here under a different name," Amy continued, "for he did not +want to be bothered with work. But Tom--he's the little jockey dad got +a place for as train-boy--met him on the express and learned that the +colonel was the great detective. Then Tom came and told me when he +read of your--of your--" + +"Oh, say _arrest_, Amy! I'm getting hardened to it by now." + +"Well, then, your--arrest. I hate the word! Tom came and told me and +said we must get Colonel Brentnall at once. That was the name he used, +but, now he has consented to take your case, he's Colonel Ashley again." + +"And what am I to do, Amy?" + +"Just what he tells you--nothing more or less. Tell him everything +from the beginning to the end. All about your quarrel with Mrs. +Darcy--I read in the papers you had one. Was that so?" + +"Yes, and, I am sorry to say, it was partly about you." + +"I don't mind, Jimmie boy. I know it couldn't have been very bad." + +"It wasn't. She--well, she sneered at you for thinking of marrying +me--a poor man--and--" + +"As if money counted, Jimmie boy!" cried the girl fondly. + +"I know. But it angered me, I admit. However, nothing more came of +that. And as for her finding fault with me about my electric lathe, +and about the money she owed me--well, that was a sort of periodic +disagreement." + +"Tell the colonel all about it." + +"I will. And are you sure your father--" + +"Dad's with me in this--with me and you! He'd have come to see you +himself to-day, but I said I wanted to see you first. He'll be along +soon. So you see, Jimmie boy, things aren't so bad as they seem, +though I hate it that you should be in this horrible place." + +"It is horrible, Amy. But now that I know you--you haven't given me +up--" + +"Don't _dare_ say such a thing, Jimmie boy!" and the girl's eyes +sparkled with a new light. + +"Well, it won't be so horrible from now on. And is the colonel really +going to take my case?" + +"Really and truly! I told him he _had_ to if he wanted to fish in +dad's trout stream," and she laughed--a strange sound in that gloomy +place. + +Then they talked about many things. James Darcy had read much of +Colonel Ashley's achievements in detective work, and the very magic of +the name was enough to give a prisoner courage. + +Soon it was time to leave, after Kenneth had conferred briefly with his +client. The prisoner went back to his little cell with a happier look +on his face than when he had left it. + + +As for Colonel Ashley, after he had revived Amy from her faint at the +stream, he had told Shag to take apart the fishing rod. + +"For, Shag, I guess I won't be needing it for a week or so," said the +old detective, and there was a mingling of two emotions in his voice. + +"Uh, ah!" murmured Shag, as, carefully, he put away the delicate rod +and reel. "It's either fishin' or detectin' wif de colonel, dat's whut +it suah am! Fishin' or detectin'! De colonel ain't one dat kin carry +watermelons on bof shoulders!" + +Returning from his fishing trip with the one, lone specimen, Colonel +Ashley, having escorted Amy Mason to her automobile, went back to the +hotel with Shag. + +"I might have known how it would be, Shag," he remarked, almost +mournfully. "I might have known I'd run into something when I came +here for rest." + +"Dat's right, Colonel. Yo' suah might! But who does yo' s'pect did +dish yeah killin'?" + +"It's too early yet to tell, Shag, and you know I don't make any +predictions. I want to get a few more facts." + +This the colonel proceeded to do. First having had himself accredited +as working in Darcy's behalf by being introduced by the accused man's +lawyer, the detective paid a visit to the jewelry store. The place was +in charge of Thomas Kettridge, a half uncle to Mrs. Darcy. + +The place had been opened for business again after the funeral, and +customers came in, carefully avoiding the place where a dark stain +could be seen in the floor--a stain made all the more conspicuous +because of the light-colored boards about it. + +The colonel made a careful examination of the premises, and had +described to him the exact position of the body, being told all that +went on that tragic morning. + +It was after this, and following some busy hours spent in various parts +of the city, that the defective sent to one of his trusted men in New +York this telegram: + + +"Spotty Morgan's vacation is over. Have him spend a few days with you +until I can invite him to my country place." + + +"I hate to do it, after what he did for me," mused the colonel with a +sigh. "But business is business from now on. I'm officially in the +case, and I wasn't before." + +Having sent the somewhat cryptic message, the old detective sat in his +room and took from his pocket a little green book. + +"Well, old friend, I guess I'm not going to have much use for you from +now on," he remarked dolefully. He glanced to where his rods and flies +were gathering dust. "Nor you, either," he went on. "Now for a last +glimpse--" + +He opened the book and read: + +"And now I shall tell you that the fishing with a natural fly is +excellent and affords much pleasure." + +"It won't do!" ejaculated the colonel as he closed the book and threw +it aside. + +One matter puzzled the colonel as well as the other detectives. There +was no sign of the jewelry store having been entered from the outside, +so that if a stranger had come in he must have done so when the doors +were unlocked or made a false key, or else he had forced a passage so +skilfully as to leave not a sign. + +Of course this was possible, and it added to the inference of some that +a burglar, used to such work, had entered the place, and, being +detected at work by Mrs. Darcy, had killed her. + +However, there was not so much as a cuff button missing, as far as +could be learned after the contents of the store had been checked up, +though of course an intruder might have been frightened off before he +had taken anything. + +Many of Darcy's friends could not help but admit that appearances were +against him. He and his cousin had quarreled, somewhat bitterly, over +money, and about his refusal to give up work on his electric lathe. +There was also King's testimony about words over Amy, though Darcy +contended that this talk was nothing more than his relative had +indulged in before regarding the unsuitableness of the match. Darcy +admitted resenting his cousin's imputation. + +All this Colonel Ashley had taken into consideration before he sent the +telegram. And, having done that, and having had a talk with Darcy at +the jail, as well as a consultation with the lawyer, having visited +Harry King and seen Singa Phut, the detective paid another visit to the +jewelry shop. + +"And what can I do for you to-day, Colonel?" asked Mr. Kettridge, who, +by this time, had the business running smoothly again. "Have you +gotten any further into the mystery?" + +"Not as far as I would like to get. I'm going to browse about here a +bit, if you have no objection." + +"Not at all. Make yourself at home." + +"I will. First, I'd like to see that statue--the one of the hunter, +with which it is supposed Mrs. Darcy was struck." + +"Oh, that is at the prosecutor's office--that and Harry King's +unfortunate paper knife." + +"So they are. I had forgotten. Well, I'll look about a bit then. +Don't pay any attention to me. I'll go and come as I please." + +And so he went, seemingly rather idly about the jewelry store, looking +and listening. + +It was not until the third day of his surveillance, during which +passage of time he had waited anxiously for a message from New York +without getting it, that the colonel felt his patience was about to be +rewarded. The detective was a fisherman in more ways than one. + +Trade had been rather brisk in the shop--possibly because of gruesome +curiosity--when, one afternoon, a man entered who seemed to know +several in the place. Yet he did not talk with them, beyond a mere +passing of the time of day, but went about nervously from showcase to +counter and repeated the journey. When Mr. Kettridge asked him at what +he desired to look he replied there was nothing in particular--that he +had in mind a gift, but, as yet, had decided on nothing. + +"Look about as you please," was the courteous invitation he received, +and the man availed himself of it. + +Of medium build, yet with the appearance of having lived more in the +open than does the average man, his face had, yet, a strange pallor not +in keeping with his robust frame. And his manner was certainly nervous. + +"Now what," mused the colonel to himself, "is _he_ fishing for?" + +That day there was more than the usual number of people in the +store--many of them undoubtedly curiosity seekers, who came into price +certain articles ostensibly, but who, really, wanted to stare at the +place where the bloodstains had been scrubbed away. + +And at this spot the robust man stared longer than did some of the +others, the colonel thought. Did he hope that some spirit of the poor, +murdered woman might still be lingering there, to whisper to him what +he sought to learn? + +"Who is that man?" asked Colonel Ashley of Mr. Kettridge, who had often +come to the shop during the holiday seasons to help Mrs. Darcy. + +"Oh, that's Mr. Grafton." + +"Mr. Grafton? Who is he?" + +"Aaron Grafton, one of Colchester's best and wealthiest citizens. He +owns the Emporium." + +"That big department store?" + +"Yes. He has built it up from a small establishment. I have known him +a number of years, and he knew Mrs. Darcy quite well. He often has +purchased diamonds here, though he is not married, and I don't know +that he is engaged--rather late in life, too, for him to be considering +that." + +"Oh, well, you never can tell," and the colonel smiled. + +"So that is Aaron Grafton!" he mused. "Well, Mr. Grafton, in spite of +the well known reputation you bear, I think you will stand a little +watching. I must not neglect the smallest clew in a case like this. +Yes, decidedly, I think you will bear watching!" + +For at that moment the merchant, after another round of the store, +seeking for something it seemed he could not find, turned and hurried +out, a much-troubled look on his face. Colonel Ashley followed. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE COLONEL IS SURPRISED + +"This," said Colonel Ashley to himself, as he glided rapidly along the +street, "is very much like old times--very much! I never expected to +do any shadowing again. What's that Walton says about man proposing +and Providence disposing? Or was it Walton? I must look it up. +Meanwhile--" + +Continuing his musing, and with a satisfied smile on his face, a smile +that might indicate that the colonel was not so very much averse to +giving over his fishing for the time being to take up his profession +once more, he followed Aaron Grafton as the merchant left the jewelry +store. + +"I wonder," mused the colonel, "what his object was in coming to the +Darcy place, and nosing around as he did? There must have been some +object. A man such as he is doesn't do things like that for fun. And +it wasn't mere curiosity, either. If it was, he'd have been at the +place before, when the evidences of the crime were there to be stared +at by those who care for such things. + +"And that Aaron Grafton hasn't been there since I was forced into this +thing, I'm positive. For I _was_ forced into it," grumbled the old +detective. "I just couldn't resist the pleading of her eyes. It isn't +the first time a man has made a fool of himself over a woman, and it +won't be the last. But maybe I'll make fools of some of these folks, +instead of being made a fool of myself. Fooled out of my fishing +though. By gad! that's what I have been! + +"But no matter. I must see what friend Aaron is up to and what his +little game is. Of course, he may have been at the store the day of +the murder--before I arrived. I must ask Darcy about that. Poor lad, +he's in tough luck--just when he ought to be thinking of getting +married. Well, I'll do what I can." + +There were few tricks known to modern detectives of which Colonel +Ashley was not master, among them being the ability to disguise +himself--not by clumsy beards and false moustaches, though he used them +at times--but by a few simple alterations to his face and carriage. + +Of course costume played its part when needed, but the time had not yet +come for that. He was now following Grafton without the latter being +aware of it--no very difficult matter in a city the size of Colchester, +and on one of its main streets. + +"I think I want to know a little more about him," mused the colonel. +"I'd like to have a talk with him, and see how he acts. But I won't +chance that yet. I'll play 'possum for a while." + +Having followed his man to the latter's store, and even inside it, +where he made a trifling purchase, and having seen Mr. Grafton enter +his private office, the detective paid a visit to Darcy in the jail. + +"How is she, Colonel?" were the first words of the prisoner, when they +were in the warden's office with a detective from the prosecutor's +office seated a few chairs away. It was only under such arrangements +that visitors were allowed to see the jewelry worker. "How is Amy?" + +"Why, she's very well, the last I saw of her. But I came to talk about +something else." + +"I suppose so. This horrible affair. But she still believes in me, +doesn't she?" he asked eagerly. + +"As much so as I do, my boy!" + +"Thank God for that! I don't know what I'd do if she went back on me! +I wouldn't want to live!" + +"Tush! Nonsense! Don't get sentimental!" + +"I can't help it, Colonel. But as long as Amy thinks I didn't do this +horrible thing--and God knows I didn't--and as long as you believe in +me--why I can stand it. Maybe it won't be for long." + +"Well, there's no use buoying you up with false hopes, Darcy. You'll +probably be here all summer." + +"I shan't mind if I'm proved innocent at last." + +"I hope we can manage that all right." + +"Then you do believe in me, Colonel?" + +"Of course I do! Otherwise, I wouldn't take up your case. Now don't +talk too much. I want to ask you a few questions. Answer them, and as +briefly as possible. I'll get you out of here as soon as I can. If I +hadn't been as slow as a carp I might have the right man here now in +your place." + +"What do you mean, Colonel?" + +"Eh? What's that? Did I say anything?" and the detective seemed +roused from a reverie, for he had spoken his last remarks in a low +voice. + +"You spoke about a carp--the right man--" + +"Oh, I--I was just thinking of something in Walton. Never mind me. +It's a bad habit I've been acquiring lately of thinking aloud. Now to +business!" and the colonel drew some papers from his pocket. + +Darcy looked at his new friend in some surprise. Certainly the colonel +had spoken as though he might, at one time, have had a chance to get +the "right man." Did that mean the real murderer? + +Darcy shook his head. His nerves were beginning to go back on him he +feared. + +"Do you know Aaron Grafton?" asked the colonel. + +"Oh, yes," replied Darcy. "Every one in town knows him as one of the +prominent merchants." + +"Was he at the store the day of the--the day Mrs. Darcy was killed?" + +"I don't remember. So many things happened--there were so many in the +place. As I think back, though, I don't remember seeing him." + +"Very good. Did he ever do any business with you--I mean buy anything +in the store?" + +"Why yes, I think very possibly he might. Most every one of prominence +in Colchester, at one time or another, has made purchases in our +store--some more, some less. No particular purchase made by Grafton +stands out in my mind, however." + +"How about having his watch repaired?" + +"I'd remember, I think, if I had fixed his watch. I'm sure I didn't. +He has a fine one, for I've seen him stop in front of our window and +compare his time with our chronometer." + +"I see. Now another matter. Can you, in any way, account for the fact +that so many of the clocks in the store--clocks that, as I understand +it, ordinarily go for many days--stopped at different hours the night +of the killing? Can you explain that?" + +Somewhat to the surprise of the colonel Darcy was silent for a moment. +Then the young man slowly answered: + +"No. No, I can't explain it. I don't know what did it." + +"Well, then I'll have to fish on that alone, I guess. I thought you, +knowing a lot about clock-works, might have some explanation. You know +most of the timepieces _were_ stopped--all of them, in fact, except the +watch in your cousin's hand?" + +"Yes, I remarked that at the time. That watch was going." + +"Yes, so you told me--you thought it was her heart beating." + +"I wish, oh, how I wish, it _had_ been!" exclaimed Darcy in tones of +despair. "If it had been I wouldn't be here. But it's too late to +think of that now." + +"Do you happen to know what became of that watch--the one in her hand? +It belonged to an East Indian, you said." + +"Yes, to Singa Phut. I was to make one little adjustment in it for +him, and he was to come in early to get it. It wasn't much. The hair +spring, I think, had become caught up and it ran very fast. I planned +to do it the night before, but the light was too poor. So I made up my +mind to get up early and attend to it. But I never got the chance. +No, I don't recall what happened to that watch. I suppose the +detectives have it." + +"The prosecutor did take it, but Singa Phut has it now." + +"He has!" cried Darcy. + +"Yes, he called at the court house and begged that it be given to him. +Said it was an ancient timepiece, which he had owned for many years, +and as it could have no connection with the crime they let him take it." + +"Oh, well, I suppose that was all right. No, Singa Phut didn't have a +thing to do with the killing, I'm positive of that." + +"And his _alibi_ is perfect," said the colonel. "Well, I guess you've +told me all I want to know. You haven't any reason to suspect any one, +have you, Darcy?" + +"Not a soul! God knows I wouldn't want to name any one, either, much +as I'd like to get out Of here myself." + +"Mrs. Darcy had no enemies?" + +"Not a one in the world that I know of. She was a friendly woman. Of +course, that was good business policy. No, she had no enemies. Most +people liked her." + +"So I've heard. Well, we'll get at the truth somehow. Now brace up." + +"I'm trying to, Colonel." + +"Well, try harder. When I go to see Miss Mason--" + +"You are going to see Amy?" cried the prisoner eagerly. + +"Yes. But if I have to tell her you looked as though you had lost +every last friend you had in the world--" + +"It's all right, Colonel. Tell her you saw me--laughing!" and Darcy +did manage to utter what _might_ pass for a laugh. It was a good +attempt. + +"Good! That's better, though there's room for improvement," said the +detective. "Now, I'll leave you. I have lots to do." + +"I'm sorry. Colonel, to put you to all this trouble--" + +"Pooh! Now I'm in it there's no trouble that's too much. I'll get +about the same fun out of this as I would if I fished--and I'll fish +with greater enjoyment later on--when I've cleared you." + +"I hope you do, Colonel. And if there's anything I can do--" + +"Thanks, but Miss Mason has already arranged to have me whip her +father's trout stream when this case is over, and that's reward enough +for me. Now, sir, one last word to you!" and the colonel assumed the +military appearance that so well befitted him. "Stop worrying!" + +"I'll try, Colonel!" + +"Don't try--do it." + +"One question." + +"Well, one only. What is it? + +"Do you think Mr. Grafton--" + +The detective smiled and shook his finger at Darcy. + +"You just let _me_ do the thinking!" he advised as he turned to go out. + +Colonel Ashley spent two busy days, most of his time being given over +to investigating Aaron Grafton. And the more he saw of that gentleman +the more the detective became convinced that the merchant knew +something of the crime. + +"I wouldn't admit, even to myself," mused the colonel, "that he had a +hand in it, or that he was an accessory before or after. But he +certainly knows something about it, and enough to make him worry. +That's what Aaron Grafton is doing--worrying. And he's worrying about +something that ought to be in the jewelry shop and isn't. Now, what is +it?" + +This, very evidently, was something for Colonel Ashley to discover, and +with all his skill he set himself to this task. For the time being he +dropped several other ends--tangled ends of the skein he hoped to +unravel--and devoted his time to Grafton. And, at the end of two days +the detective learned that the merchant was going to make a hurried +trip to New York--a trip not directly connected with his store, for +those trips were made at other times of the year. + +"Well, if he goes to New York I go too!" said the colonel grimly. + +And he went, on the same train with Aaron Grafton, though unknown to +the latter. + +It was a skilful bit of shadowing the detective did on the journey to +the metropolis, so skilful that, though the merchant plainly showed by +his nervousness that he thought he might have been followed, he did +not, seemingly, suspect the quiet man seated not far from him, reading +a little green book. The colonel had adopted a simple but effective +disguise. + +In New York, which was reached early in the morning, after a night +journey, the colonel again took up the trail, keeping near his man. + +"Follow that taxi," the colonel ordered the driver of his machine as it +rolled out of the Pennsylvania station, just a few lengths behind the +one in which Grafton rode. + +The following was well done, and, a little later the two machines drew +up in front of the big office building in which Colonel Ashley had his +headquarters. + +"Whew!" whispered the follower of Izaak Walton, "I wonder if he came +here to consult my agency?" + +All doubts were dissolved a moment later when, keeping somewhat in the +background, the detective heard the merchant ask the elevator starter +on which floor were the offices of Colonel Ashley's detective agency. + +"He _does_ want to see me!" excitedly thought the colonel. "What in +the world for? This is getting interesting! I've got to do a little +fine work now. He must never suspect, at least for a while, that I +have been in Colchester." + +Next to the elevator in which Aaron Grafton rode up was another. + +"Tom, you're an express for the time being!" whispered the colonel to +the operator. "There's a man headed for my offices, and I must get in +ahead of him. Here's a dollar!" + +"I get you, Colonel! Shoot!" + +And the car shot up with speed enough to cause the colonel to gasp, +used as he was to rapid motion. + +He had just time to slide into his quarters by a rear and private door, +to make certain changes in his appearance and be calmly sitting at his +desk smoking a cigar when his clerk brought in the card of Aaron +Grafton. + +"Tell him to come in," said the colonel, more and more surprised at the +turn affairs were taking. "I'll see this man myself," he continued, +speaking to the man into whose hands he had put the general direction +of the agency. "Say to Mr. Grafton," he said, turning to the clerk, +"that Colonel Ashley will see him in a moment." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE DIAMOND CROSS + +"Colonel Ashley?" There was a formal, questioning note in the +merchant's voice. + +"That is my name, yes, sir. Er--Mr. Grafton," and, as though to +refresh his memory, the colonel glanced at the card on his desk. + +"You are a private detective?" + +"Yes." + +Mr. Grafton was evidently sparring for time. He seemed uneasy--he +looked uneasy, and it required no very astute mind to know that he was +uneasy--out of his element. + +"For all the world like a gasping fish on the bank," was the simile the +colonel used. + +"I have a case I wish you would take up for me," went on the merchant. +"It is somewhat peculiar." + +"Most cases that come to us are," and the colonel smiled. + +"And it is delicate." + +"I could say that of nearly every one, also." + +"So that I may rely on your silence and--er--discretion?" + +"Sir!" + +The colonel fairly bristled. + +"I beg your pardon! I should not have asked that. But I am all upset +over this matter." + +"Then, sir, let me ease your mind by stating that whatever you tell me +will be in strict confidence, as far as lies in my power to so observe +it. I can not compound a felony, so if you have in mind the disclosure +of anything that would incriminate you--" + +"Incriminate me?" + +"Yes, or involve you in any way. If you have anything like that in +mind please don't tell me about it. I should feel obliged to make use +of my knowledge. But if it is a matter in which you wish my advice, +then--" + +"I certainly _do_ need advice, Colonel. I have often heard you spoken +of, and I have read of more than one of your cases. So when I got in +this--well, I may as well call it trouble--I at once thought of you. I +am fortunate, I believe, in seeing Colonel Ashley, himself, who, I +understood, had retired, or perhaps is about to retire. I came here +prepared to pay any reasonable amount," and the merchant drew out his +wallet. + +The colonel held up a protesting hand. + +"Please don't--not yet," he said. "I can not accept a retaining fee +until I have heard more of your case. It may be that I can not serve +you. Give me some inkling of what you want. I hope you are not in +serious trouble." + +"It is serious--for me." + +"Then I hope I can help you. Please be as frank as you think best. +The franker you are, the fewer questions I shall have to ask. Go on." + +"Well then, I want to find a certain valuable diamond cross." + +"A diamond cross?" + +"Yes. I don't know just what it is worth, but I believe a small +fortune." + +"And was it stolen from you?" + +"No. Though I do own a store where jewelry is sold, we don't carry an +expensive line. This cross belonged to a friend of mine. She had it +on when we were out walking together, and--well, it became damaged and +I asked her to let me take it to have it repaired." + +"Nothing very complicated or troublesome in that. I suppose the cross +was stolen from you while it was temporarily in your possession, and +you don't like to let your friend know, for fear she may suspect you. +Such things have happened. Did you ever read de Maupassant's 'Diamond +Necklace?'" + +"I never did." + +"I'd advise you to. Also Walton." + +"Is he a jeweler?" + +"Lord, no! But I beg your pardon. Let us keep to the subject. So you +don't dare tell your friend the diamond cross is gone?" + +"Oh, yes, she knows it." + +"Then why the worry, except about getting it back?" + +"Well, there are complications. You see her husband--" + +"Oh, ho!" + +There was a world of meaning in that exclamation. Aaron Grafton turned +a deep red and bit his lips. Colonel Ashley saw his annoyance. + +"Look here!" exclaimed the old detective. "I really shouldn't have +said that. But we detectives are used to all sorts of complications, +and, more than once, they have to do with women. Often enough there is +nothing more serious than a little indiscretion, but I can see where +outsiders might make trouble--particularly _husbands_. I take it then +that you and the lady were out together without her husband knowing it." + +"I _hope_ he doesn't know of it, for though, on my honor, there was +nothing wrong in our being together, it might be hard to make _him_ +believe that." + +"I quite agree with you--particularly if he were jealous, as many +husbands are. So you want me to try to get this diamond cross, +belonging to the married lady, back for you without her husband knowing +anything about it?" + +"That's it!" + +"Where were you when you were robbed of it?" + +"I wasn't robbed of it. I never said I was." + +"Oh, I beg your pardon, I must have inferred that. Please go on, and, +if you don't mind my asking you, kindly get to the point." + +"I beg your pardon. Perhaps I am beating about the bush. Well, I'll +be as frank as I can. Do you want me to give names?" + +"It would be better, since I already know yours. I shall keep them in +strict confidence, however, now that I am fairly well assured there is +no ulterior motive in your visit to me. Proceed." + +"Well, then, the diamond cross, which is worth I don't know how many +thousand dollars, belongs to Mrs. Cynthia Larch, the wife of Langford +Larch, who keeps a large hotel in--" + +"Colchester! I know the place. Go on!" interrupted Colonel Ashley. +"I have stopped there on fishing trips," he added, as his caller looked +a bit surprised. + +"Oh, I didn't know that. Well, this was Mrs. Larch's cross. It is a +family heirloom I believe, though many suppose her husband gave it to +her for a wedding present. That is not so, however. I know Cynthia +had the cross before she was married." + +"You call her Cynthia?" + +"I have known her since we were both children." + +"I see. Pray go on." + +"In fact we were sweethearts," continued Grafton, "and were engaged. +But the match was broken off by her father. I was only a struggling +clerk then, and never dreamed I would get on as I have. Nor did she, I +fancy, though she was willing to take me as I was. But her folks made +trouble. They brought such pressure to bear on her that she gave in +and married Larch, who was and is wealthy, but whose social position +was beneath hers. + +"Don't think I am telling you this out of mere jealousy," Aaron Grafton +went on, and his manner was earnest. "I loved her deeply and +sincerely. I do yet, but in a way that is perfectly right. I have not +told her so--but--" He was silent a moment. + +"I went away after she threw me over," he resumed. "I couldn't stand +it to be near her and see her going out--with him. But I came back. +Though the old wound still hurt, I tried not to let her see. We became +friends again--in fact we had never ceased to be friends. + +"Perhaps I have acted foolishly, but, of late, I have seen her quite +often. I began to feel that her married life was not happy. I took +pains to enquire, and learned that it was not. I tried to make her a +little happier by talking to her. Once or twice she met me and we +walked together in the woods." + +The colonel looked sharply at his caller. + +"Oh, for God's sake don't put any wrong construction on it! I'd give +my very life to make her happy, and do you think I'd--" + +"I don't doubt you for a moment, sir!" + +"Thank you," said Mr. Grafton. "It is good to know that there is still +some truth and honor in the world and that a man and woman can be +friends though the circumstances seem peculiar." + +He paused a moment to overcome his emotion and resumed: + +"Well, Cynthia and I are friends--good friends. It was to talk over +what course was best for her to pursue under certain circumstances that +she and I walked out together. We went in secret, for there are +gossiping and wagging tongues in Colchester as elsewhere, and if I, the +leading merchant in the town, was seen to be alone with pretty Cynthia +Larch, whose husband was a friend of judges and politicians who +frequent his hotel, there would be talk little short of scandal." + +"I quite agree with you. So you walked in secret?" + +"Yes. And it was while we were out together that the cross she was +wearing became unfastened and fell. I most clumsily, stepped on it, +greatly marring the setting. + +"She was distressed, of course, but I said I would take it to a +jeweler's and have it repaired without any one being the wiser. She +agreed that was best. So I took it--" + +"To Mrs. Darcy's place, and she was found murdered!" broke in the old +detective quickly. + +Aaron Grafton started from his chair. + +"How in the name of Heaven did you know that?" he cried. "I thought +that not a soul but I knew it. I did not even tell Cynthia!" + +"The explanation is simple," said the colonel. "I will be almost as +frank with you as you have been with me. I know more about you than +you think. Wait a moment." + +The colonel stepped into a closet. He made a few rapid changes in his +clothing and took off a tiny bit of eyebrow, which had been added to +his own a short time before. Then he confronted the merchant. + +"The man I saw in the jewelry store!" gasped Grafton. "I remember, +now, seeing you there the day I went to look for the diamond cross." + +"And didn't find it," said the detective. "I wondered what so +perturbed you, but now I know. At first I did think you might know +something of the murder--" + +"God forbid!" said the merchant earnestly and reverently. + +"Amen!" echoed the colonel. "You have told such a straightforward +story that I can not doubt you. That is why I revealed myself to you. +But you must keep my secret if I am to help you. I am known in +Colchester as Colonel Brentnall, having registered at the hotel under +that name. I will keep that name for the present. I followed you +here--in fact, I only entered this office a minute or two ahead of you. +So it was to find the diamond cross you visited the store of the +murdered woman?" + +"Yes. When I had damaged the cross by stepping on it, I thought my old +friend, Mrs. Darcy, would be the best one to keep my secret. I took +the cross to her the night before she was killed, and she promised to +have her cousin fix it without telling him whose it was and get it back +to me, secretly, in a day or so. + +"I thought Cynthia could then wear it again without her husband knowing +it had ever been out of her possession. But the murder changed all my +plans. As soon as I could, I went to the shop to look for the cross. +I thought perhaps it might have been put in one of the showcases, or +laid on the shelf, perhaps forgotten. Really I was so distressed, I +didn't know what to think. I did not want to tell any one what I was +looking for, so I went about quietly. But I could not find it. Then I +was obliged to ask Darcy about it, secretly, of course, and without +hinting as to the ownership. + +"But he had never seen it. He said Mrs. Darcy had not given it to him, +nor asked him to repair it. Nor was it in the shop, as far as he knew, +and he went over all the stock to furnish a list to the police, so they +could tell whether or not there had been a robbery." + +"And there was none?" + +"None, unless you call the taking of the diamond cross a theft. For +that alone is missing. And I'd give half my fortune to get it back. +Cynthia's husband may ask about it at any moment, and what excuse can +she give?" + +"It is rather a ticklish matter," agreed the detective. "Well, I'll +see what I can do. First I thought you wanted me to work on the murder +case. But as I am already engaged on that, to try to clear Darcy, I +can as well include the diamond cross mystery also. I wonder if they +have any connection." + +"I don't see how they can have. Mrs. Darcy may merely have put the +cross away secretly, and it may take a careful search of the place to +find it." + +"Maybe so. I'll have to nose around a bit." + +There came a knock on the office door. + +"Come!" called out the colonel. + +His clerk handed him a telegram. Tearing it open the detective read a +message from one of his agents in a distant western city: It said: + + +"Spotty Morgan arrested here to-day. Big diamond cross found on him. +Do you want him?" + + +"Do I want him?" fairly yelled the colonel. "I should say I did! +Here, get me Blake on the long distance. This is no time for a wire. +I've got to telephone!" And he hurried to a private booth in a back +office, leaving Grafton to himself. + +After he had telephoned. Colonel Ashley sat in silence in the booth, +musing. + +"Now I wonder," he said to himself, "if Grafton is telling me the +truth. Almost any one would believe his story--it sounds straight +enough--and yet I can't take any chances. I guess I mustn't lose sight +of you, Aaron Grafton. + +"And perhaps Larch isn't so bad a chap as you'd have me believe. Trust +a disgruntled lover for saying the worst about the other chap. Yes, I +can't afford to take any chances. You may know a bit more about this +murder than you're telling me, even considering the latest from my +friend Spotty. Yes, you may be playing a double game, Mr. Aaron +Grafton." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +INDICTED + +"Well, Spotty, I've got to hand it to you! Certainly you did put one +over on me!" + +"Not intentional, Colonel. So help me--not intentional!" + +"Well, maybe not, but I've got to hand it to you. If I didn't know +that slip of mine in front of the truck was pure accident, I'd say you +staged it just to make a good get-away." + +"I couldn't do that, Colonel." + +"I don't know, Spotty. You're a clever kid." + +"But I couldn't do that. I was on the level in saving you. You've got +to give me credit for that," pleaded the gunman. + +"I know you were, Spotty. And that's why I gave you a chance to get +away. But I never thought it was for a job like this--murder." + +"And it wasn't, Colonel--it wasn't! So help me, I never laid eyes on +the old lady--dead or alive! Murder? I should say not!" + +"Then how did you get that diamond cross? Answer me!" + +Colonel Ashley, with a dramatic gesture, pointed to the glittering +ornament that lay on the table between him and the New York crook. The +stones glittered in the electric lights of police headquarters, for it +was there, in the distant city, that this talk took place. + +Confirming over the long distance telephone the news given in his +agent's telegram, Colonel Ashley, without having revealed to Grafton +what new development had occurred, had made a quick trip to Lango, +where Spotty, in response to a quiet but general alarm sent out, had +been arrested. + +A diamond cross had been found in his possession, and was bent and +flattened--crushed by some heavy foot--though all the stones were +intact. + +Spotty admitted that the ornament might be the very one wanted, but he +absolutely refused to tell how he had come by it. He was most +emphatic, however, in denying that he had taken it from Mrs. Darcy, or +that he had even seen her or been to her store. + +"I'm a bad man, Colonel, you know that, and maybe if I was to go to the +chair--or the rope, according, to where I was caught--I wouldn't be +getting any more than was comin' to me. But, so help me, I never +croaked that old lady!" + +"Then how did you get that cross?" + +"I won't tell you!" + +"I'll make you, Spotty!" and there was a dangerous glint in the eyes of +the colonel. + +"You can't!" defied the crook. "There ain't a man livin' that can! Go +on with your third degree if you want to!" he sneered. "But for every +blow you strike--for every hour you keep me awake when I'm dead for +sleep--you'll be sorry, Colonel! You'll be sorry when you think of +what might have happened back there in Colchester!" + +"Spotty, you're right!" faltered the colonel. "I almost wish you +hadn't saved me. I've got to do my duty! I've got to break you if +need be, Spotty, to get at the truth. I want to know who killed Mrs. +Darcy and where you got that cross! I want to know, and, by gad! I'm +going to know!" + +"Not from me, Colonel! I never saw the old lady, dead or alive, and I +never knew until just now when you told me, that she'd ever had this +cross." + +"Who gave it to you?" + +"Colonel, did you ever know me to split on a pal unless he split first?" + +"No, Spotty. I never did." + +"Well, then, you stand a fine chance in getting me to do it now. Go to +it if you like. I'm through spielin'!" and the crook turned away with +an air of indifference. + +The colonel knew that Spotty never would tell, until he wanted to, but +it did not deter him. He "went at" Spotty. What happened in the quiet +room, near the police headquarter cells, need not form part of this +record. Enough to say that when they let Spotty go staggering back to +his dungeon, a wreck of a man physically and mentally for the time +being, he had not told. + +And the glittering stones in the crushed cross were not more silent +than he in his misery--deserved perhaps, but none the less misery. + +And when the colonel, rather upset himself by what he had been forced +to go through, started back for Colchester, he took with him the memory +of Spotty's rather sneering face and the echo of his words: + +"Well, Colonel, I didn't tell!" + +And he had not. The diamond cross still kept its mystery. + +Colonel Ashley fumed, fretted, and fidgeted until he was on the verge +of a sleepless night on his way back in the train. Then he bethought +himself of his little green book, and he read: + +"You are to know, then, that there is a night as well as a day fishing +for a trout, and that in the night the best trout come out of their +holes." + +"Ah, ha," mused the colonel. "I think I shall have to do a little +night fishing." + +So saying, having read a little farther in his Izaak Walton, he went +peacefully to his berth and awoke calmer and himself again. + +But if the colonel felt refreshed on reaching Colchester, it was not +because he felt that he was in a fair way to solve the problem--or, +rather, the many problems connected with the Darcy murder. + +"It's worse tangled than before," mused the old detective. "I wonder +if Grafton-- No, it couldn't be. But I must have a talk with his +friend Cynthia. Ticklish business when a man goes out walking with a +married woman and steps on her cross. There are complications and +complications. I wonder when I'll begin to unravel some of them?" + +For reasons of his own, the colonel said nothing to the police or +county authorities in Colchester about the arrest of Spotty, nor did he +mention that, nor the finding of the diamond cross, to Darcy or +Grafton. He wanted to be sure of his ground before he told of this end +of the affair. + +"I wish I knew what to make of Grafton," mused the colonel, "His share +in it--if share he had--is getting more complicated. Can he and Spotty +be up to some trick between them and did the gunman get away with the +cross? It wouldn't be the first time Spotty had hired out his services +to a man who wanted something desperate done! Now in this case, +Grafton may have wanted something from Mrs. Darcy she wasn't willing to +do. In that case--" + +The colonel shook his head. + +"I guess," he half-whispered, "that Shag was right. This is going to +be a mighty complicated case. Talk about a diamond cross, there may be +a double-cross in it on the part of Grafton. I must watch you a bit +closer, my friend." + +The colonel considered that he was working to clear Darcy, and he +wanted to do it in his own way. He was willing--perforce--that, for +the time, the young man be considered guilty. He could not help the +young man by making these few disclosures now. The prisoner would not +be released because Spotty or any one else was suspected, nor would he +be admitted to bail. In any case he must remain in jail. + +The Grand Jury was setting considering the evidence against the +prisoner, and against others accused of various crimes. + +"And I suppose they'll indite Darcy," mused the colonel. "It means +only another step, however, a step I have already counted on. It won't +help or hinder the solving of the mystery. Hang Spotty, anyhow! Why +couldn't he keep out of this? He surely has tangled it worse than +ever. I wonder if he's telling the truth when he says he didn't go +near the place? It was Spotty, or one of his kind, who got in and out +without leaving a trace. It took Spotty's skill. But--I don't know. +I must have another look around the jewelry store." + +A day or so after his return from the West, the colonel made a close +examination of the shop. Just what he was looking for he hardly knew, +but he was quite surprised when he discovered, connected with the main +lighting wires of the store, other wires which ran to various places in +the shelves and the show windows, where many of the clocks stood. + +"I wonder if that's a new kind of burglar alarm," thought the colonel. +"If it is, it's the first time I've ever seen one hooked up to the +electric light circuit. A bad thing in case of a short circuit. A +person might get a shock that would knock him down and--" + +Something seemed to give the colonel a new idea. He made a hurried +examination of the wires and then left the store, to be seen a little +later at the establishment of an electrician, where he stayed some time. + +It was late that afternoon, when the papers, in extra editions, +announced the indictment of James Darcy for the murder of his cousin. + +When Colonel Ashley returned to his hotel from the electrician's, he +found Amy Mason waiting for him. + +"Oh, Colonel! isn't this dreadful?" she exclaimed, holding out a paper. +"It's so--so--" + +"Tut, tut! my dear young lady, this is nothing! It is only a little +shoot on the main stem. Don't let it distress you. It was to be +expected." + +"I know! But it sounds so dreadful! Before, he was only suspected, +even though formally charged. Now it seems as if he were found +_guilty_!" + +"Far from it. The only evidence against him, just as it has been all +along, is circumstantial. They have yet to prove anything, and I don't +believe they can. Cheer up! I'll get him off yet!" + +"Are you sure, Colonel?" and her eyes were bright with unshed tears. + +"Sure? Why, of course I am!" + +And yet the colonel had to force himself a bit to make that sound +natural. Perhaps it was because he had said it so often and was tired. + +Or did it have anything to do with the strange wires that led to the +work table of James Darcy? + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE DEATH WATCH + +Doctor Warren, the county physician, stopping in at police +headquarters, as he often did on returning from his round of private +visits, to see if there were any official calls for him, encountered +Detective Carroll. + +"Hello, Doc!" was the genial greeting, for Doctor Warren was more than +a physician. He was a politician, and politics and the police were no +more divorced in Colchester than elsewhere. "Seen that colonel guy +to-day?" asked Carroll. + +"The colonel guy?" The doctor's voice showed his puzzlement. + +"Yes, the chap that's working with Kenneth on the Darcy case." + +"Seen him? No, I haven't." + +"He was here looking for you a little while ago. Seemed quite anxious +about meeting you. Here he is now. Say, if he lets out anything we +can use against Darcy--you know, legitimate stuff--pass it on to me and +Thong, will you? You know we've got to go on the stand, and, between +you and me, our case ain't any too strong." + +"That's right. I'll let you know what I hear," and the two ended their +half-whispered talk as Colonel Ashley entered police headquarters. + +It was his third visit to headquarters that day in search of Doctor +Warren, and he would state the object of his seeking to none other. +Now he smiled at the man he had been looking for. They had met +previously. + +"Ah, good afternoon, Doctor Warren. I've been looking for you," was +the colonel's greeting. "If you're not busy, sir, I'd like just a few +minutes of your time--officially, of course." + +"Always ready for duty, Colonel. I guess you military men know that we +doctors are in a sort of class with yourselves when it comes to that." + +"You're right. Now I won't be much more than a minute, and what I want +to ask you, I can propound right here as well as anywhere. You know +I'm working to save Darcy?" + +"So I've heard." + +"Well, you examined Mrs. Darcy soon after she was found dead. You may, +or you may not, have formed an opinion as to _who_ killed her, but I +judge you are positive as to _how_ she was killed--I mean the nature of +the wound." + +"There were two wounds you know--a fracture of the skull just back of +the right ear, and a stab wound in the left side which punctured the +heart. Either would have caused death." + +"Can you tell which killed her?" + +"I should say the stab wound, but I can not be positive. You +understand, Colonel, that I am to go on the stand for the prosecution +and tell all I know about this case." + +"Oh, yes, I realize that, of course. You are practically a witness +against Darcy. And I don't, for one moment, wish you to think that I +am trying to get advance information to use in his favor. This is +simply in the matter of justice, the ends of which I know you wish to +serve, as I do myself. So if I ask anything improper please stop me. +But since you will testify about these wounds, and since you have +already pretty well described them to the newspaper reporters, it can +do no harm to repeat the details to me." + +"None in the least, Colonel." + +"Then you feel sure the stab wound killed her?" + +"Reasonably so. Of course, as I said, either blow could have caused +death, but blows on the head, even when the skull is badly fractured, +as in this case, do not invariably cause death instantly. In fact the +victim usually lingers for several hours in an unconscious state. Not +so, however, in the case of a stab wound in or near the heart. That is +almost always fatal within a short space of time--a minute or two. So, +while it is possible that Mrs. Darcy was first stunned by a blow on the +head, which eventually would have killed her, I think death almost at +once followed the stab wound." + +"Could both have been delivered by the same person?" + +"Of course. First the blow on the head, followed by the stab wound." + +"And there were no other injuries on the body?" + +"None, except minor bruises caused by the fall to the floor. But they +were superficial." + +"Nothing else?" + +"No--um let me see--no, I think not." + +"Are you _sure_, Dr. Warren?" + +The colonel's voice had a strange ring in it. + +"Why, yes, I am sure. I was about to say that there was a slight +abrasion in the palm of the left hand, a sort of scratch or puncture, +as though from a pin, but as she was in the jewelry business and, as I +understand it, often made slight repairs herself to brooches and pins +brought in, this could easily be accounted for." + +"A slight abrasion in the left hand you say?" + +"Yes. But I don't attach any importance to that. It was so slight +that I and my assistant only gave it a passing glance. It hardly +penetrated the skin." + +"I see. In the left hand. This is the hand in which the ticking watch +was found, was it not?" + +"I believe so. The watch belonging to an Indian named Singa Phut. By +the way what became of him?" the doctor asked of Detective Carroll, who +had strolled out of the detectives' private room and was listening to +the conversation. + +"Oh, that gink? He made a big howl about getting back his watch, and +as he had a perfectly good _alibi_, and we could fasten nothing on him, +we give it back to him and told him to beat it. He did, I guess." + +"No, he is still in town," said Colonel Ashley. "I passed his place a +while ago. He has a pair of beautiful Benares candlesticks, in the +form of hooded cobra snakes, that I want to get. Singa Phut is still +in town." + +"Does that answer all your questions, Colonel?" inquired Dr. Warren. +"I'll tell you all I can, in reason, but if--" + +"Thank you! You've told me all I cared to know. I have some theories +I want to work on, and I'm not sure how they'll turn out." + +"I s'pose you think Darcy didn't do this job," cut in Carroll, rather +sneeringly. + +"I'm positive he didn't, sir!" and the colonel drew himself up and +looked uncompromisingly at the headquarters detective. "If I thought +he had done it, I would not be associated with his case." + +"You're going to have a sweet job proving he didn't do it," laughed the +officer. + +"Maybe," assented the colonel unruffled. + +"Who else could have croaked her?" pursued Carroll. "Here he goes and +has a quarrel with the old lady just before he goes to bed. He's sore +at her because he thinks she's keeping back part of his coin. Then +he's sore because she made some cracks about his girl--that's enough to +get any man riled. I don't blame Darcy for going off his nut. But he +shouldn't have croaked the old lady. He done it all right, and we got +the goods on him! You'll see!" + +"Well, it's your business, of course--yours and that of the +prosecutor--to prove him guilty," said the colonel. "And you can't +quarrel with me if I try to prove him innocent." + +"Sure not, Colonel. Every man's got to earn his bread and butter +somehow. Only I hate to see you kid yourself along believing this guy +didn't do the job. He done it, I tell you!" + +"Maybe," half assented the colonel. "Thank you, Dr. Warren. We shall +meet again," and, with a military salute, the colonel went out of +police headquarters. As he descended the steps he silently mused: + +"I wonder what Carroll and Thong would say if they knew about the +diamond cross, and heard that Spotty Morgan had it? I guess they would +change some of their theories then. Which reminds me that I have more +irons in the fire than I suspected. I must not lose sight of Cynthia. +She will be getting anxious about her diamonds, and I would like to see +what she says when she hears the truth." + +Though Colonel Ashley had given up all hopes of having a use for his +beloved fishing rods and flies, at least on this trip to Colchester, he +did not give up his perusal of Walton's book. + +It was one evening while sitting in his room at the hotel, idly turning +over the pages, hardly able to concentrate his mind on what he read for +much thinking of the diamond cross mystery, that his eye chanced on +page 170, where he saw the passage: + +"There be also three or four other little fish that I had almost +forgot, that are all without scales--" + +The book dropped from the detective's hand. + +"Gad!" he exclaimed. "That's what I've been forgetting--the _little_ +fish. I must get after some of them. They may turn the scale in our +favor. Little fish! That's it. Small fry, when you can't get big +ones! I wonder--" + +There was a knock at the door and Shag entered, bowing and saluting +military style at the same time. + +"Scuse me, Colonel, sah," he began, "but does yo' want t' heah any +news?" + +"Any news, Shag? What sort? Come, speak up, you rascal!" + +"Well, sah, Colonel, yo' done tell me, when we come heah, not t' +trouble yo' wif any detective news, but--" + +"Oh, that was before I got mixed up in this Darcy case, Shag. The +prohibition is off, so to speak. If you have any news--" + +"No, sah, Colonel, 'tisn't 'bout po' ole Miss Darcy--leastways not +_much_ about her. But dere's been annudder murder in town." + +"Another murder?" + +"Yes, Colonel. Boys on de streets yellin' extry papers now, all 'bout +de murder." + +"Who is it? Where? When did it happen?" + +"Jest 'bout a hour ago. It's a man--a Indian man whut kept a curiosity +shop--de same place where yo' an' me was lookin' at dem funny snake +candlesticks las' week." + +"Singa Phut's place? Great Scott, Shag! You don't mean to tell me, +_he's_ killed, do you?" + +"No, sah, Colonel! Dat Mr. Phut ain't killed. It's his partner. He's +got a funny name, too. Heah, I done brought yo' a paper," and Shag +pulled out an extra from under his vest, where he had carefully kept it +concealed until he had made sure of his master's frame of mind. + +The colonel scanned the front page with its black type eagerly. Surely +enough, there had been a murder. Shere Ali, Singa Phut's partner, had +been found lying on the floor of the little curiosity shop with his +head crushed in. + +"And in the dead man's hand was a ticking watch," read the colonel. + +For a moment he stared at the words. Then a light seemed to come over +his face. He crushed the paper in his hand, and then spread it out to +read again the startling news, while he murmured: + +"The watch of death!" + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +NO ALIMONY + +"Shag!" exclaimed the colonel. + +"Yes, sah!" + +"We're going fishing tomorrow!" + +"Is we, Colonel? Den I s'pects yo'll want t' git--" + +"Get everything ready, yes. We'll go again to that place where Miss +Mason found me. There's as good fish in that stream as any I didn't +catch, and I want to try my luck." + +"Yes, sah, Colonel. But, scuse me, didn't yo, figger on doin' some +detectin' an' give up fishin'?" and Shag, with the freedom of an old +servant, stood looking at his master as if not quite understanding the +new twist the affairs had taken. + +"That's all right, Shag. You do as I tell you. I'm going off fishing. +I may not catch anything--I may not want to after I get there. But for +a quiet place to think, give me a fishing excursion every time! And +I've got to do some tall thinking now. Get ready, Shag!" + +"Yes, sah, Colonel!" + +And, having put himself in a fair way, as he hoped, to solve some of +the problems connected with the Darcy case, Colonel Ashley went down to +police headquarters to learn more facts in connection with the murder +of the East Indian. + +Carroll and Thong were there, and if they did not exactly welcome the +colonel as a kindred spirit they at least accorded him the respect due +a fellow craftsman in the peculiar line where talent may be found most +unexpectedly. And Carroll and Thong who, with other headquarters men, +now knew the colonel's identity, were not above learning a trick or +two, even if they had to take them from the book of their rival. For +they recognized that the colonel would be against them and the +prosecutor's detectives when it came to the trial of James Darcy. + +"Well, boys, what's this I hear about another murder?" asked Colonel +Ashley when he had passed over some of his cigars, the flavor of which +the two headquarters men had been longing to taste again. + +"Some Dago had his head busted in," remarked Thong. "It isn't our +case, so we don't know much about it." + +"No? Who has it?" + +"Pinkus and Donovan; haven't they, Carroll?" + +"Yep." Carroll was too much engaged in watching the blue smoke curl +lazily upward from his cigar just then to say more. + +"Like to talk with 'em about it?" went on Thong, in friendlier tones. + +"If they're here, yes." + +"I think they just came in," said Thong, bringing his feet down with a +bang from the table on which he had had them elevated. "Are you going +to work on that case, Colonel?" + +"Oh, no. I was just interested, as Singa Phut was one concerned in +Mrs. Darcy's murder." + +"But he hadn't any more to do with it, Colonel, than that cat!" and +Carroll pointed to the headquarters cat which was sleeping near a +radiator, for the day had turned cold and steam was on in the place. + +"Perhaps not," admitted Colonel Ashley. "But there are some peculiar +coincidences and, if you don't mind, I'd like to see what I can find +out about them." + +"Go as far as you like, Colonel," returned Thong, needlessly generous. +"We've got our man, and that's all we want. The other isn't our case. +Oh, Donovan!" he called, as he saw a fellow sleuth passing through an +outer room. "Here's some one to see you," and the presentation was +quickly and informally made. The two men had seen each other before, +but had not spoken. + +"Glad to know you, Colonel Ashley," said Donovan. "I've read a lot +about you. You're on the Darcy case, they tell me." + +"In a way, yes. I'm working in the interests of the young man. But I +hear you have another murder." + +"Yes, but it's so plain there's no interest in it for you. All we want +to do--Pinkus and me--is to lay our hands on the Dago that done it and +got away. We'll get him, too, before many days. He's the kind of a +feller that can't hide very well, unless he goes and kills himself, and +he may do that." + +"How did it happen? And is there any truth in the newspaper story +about the same watch that was found in Mrs. Darcy's hand being found in +the hand of the dead man?" + +"Yes, that part's true enough, but that's all there is to it. It's +just one of them coincidences like. Singa Phut got back his watch +after the prosecutor decided he didn't need it for evidence. There +wasn't nothing that Singa had to do with the Darcy case anyhow, and he +seemed awful anxious to get back that watch. So it was turned over to +him." + +"But did he really kill his partner?" + +"Surest thing you know. Busted his head in with a heavy +candlestick--one of a pair. I've got 'em here, look," and, opening a +closet where he temporarily kept his collection of evidence, Donovan +took out a pair of heavy bronze candlesticks, in the form of hooded +cobras. + +"That's the one that did the business," said the headquarters +detective, showing one candlestick with something dark and unpleasant +on the heavier end. + +"Gad!" exclaimed the colonel. "The very pair I was going to buy!" + +"What! You buy?" cried Donovan. "Look here, Colonel! do you know +anything about this?" and the detective's professional instincts got +the upper hand of his friendliness. + +"Not the least in the world--not as much as you do," was the cool +answer. "I happened to see those candlesticks in the window of Singa +Phut's shop the other day, and I made up my mind to buy them when I had +a chance. Now, I'm afraid I won't. But how did it happen?" + +"Oh, well, there isn't much of a story to it," and Donovan's voice +showed his disappointment. "Phut--I don't know whether that's his +first or his last name--anyhow, he had a partner named Shere Ali. No +one knows much about Ali, for he came here just recently. Anyhow, he +and Phut didn't get along very well it seems. + +"Neighbors often heard 'em scrappin' a lot, and this afternoon they +went at it again hot and heavy. Then things quieted down, and nobody +heard anything more. Toward dark a man went in to buy a lamp. He +found the place without a light in it, stumbled over something on the +floor, and there was Ali's body, with the head busted in and this heavy +candlestick near it. + +"He raised the howl right off, and Pinkus and I got there as soon as we +could. Of course Phut was gone. But we'll get him!" + +"Then you think he did it?" + +"Sure he did! Who else?" + +"And the watch was in Ali's hand?" + +"Sure! Held so tight we could hardly get it out. In fact it was so +tight that he's cut his palm grabbin' hold of it. Maybe the fight was +about who owned the watch, for the Dagos talked in their foreign lingo +and none of the neighbors could tell what they were sayin'." + +"I see. And the watch? Have you it?" + +"Yes, it's here. Going yet, too. Hear it tick?" and Donovan held open +the door of his closet. From the place, in which hung odd coats, caps +and other garments, and from the shelf on which was a collection of +gruesome weapons, came an insistent ticking. + +"That's the watch," announced the headquarters detective, reaching in +for it. "Going yet--see?" and he held it out to Colonel Ashley. + +Somewhat to the surprise of Donovan the military detective accepted the +timepiece on his open palm, and so gingerly that it caused Donovan to +remark: + +"You're not as squeamish as all that, are you? Just because it was in +a dead man's hand--and in a woman's?" + +"Oh, not at all," was the quick answer. "But, as a matter of fact +these East Indians are often carriers of bubonic plague, you know, and +it's very contagious. Of course neither Shere Ali nor Singa Phut may +have had the germs about them, but I am a bit squeamish when it comes +to contagious diseases of that nature, and I wouldn't like to scratch +myself on that watch." + +"Scratch yourself--on a watch?" and Donovan's voice was plainly +skeptical. + +"Yes. It may have some rough edges on it. And I've read enough about +germs to know the danger. I'd advise you to be careful!" + +"Ha!" laughed Donovan shortly. "I should worry about that! The watch +don't figure in the case, except maybe they quarreled over who owned +it." + +Colonel Ashley said nothing. He was carefully examining the watch, +which he still held in the palm of the hand--holding it as carefully as +though indeed it might be laden with germs the least touch of which +against a tiny scratch might produce death. + +"Quite a curiosity," said the colonel at length. "If you don't mind, I +should like to examine this a bit." + +"You can't take it away," said Donovan. "I may need it as evidence +when we get Mr. Phut, or whatever the Dago's name is." + +"Oh, no, I wouldn't think of taking it away. I'll look at it here. +It seems to be a very old timepiece--one of the first made smaller +than the old 'Nuremberg eggs I fancy. Quite an interesting +study--watches--Donovan. Ever take it up?" and as the colonel +questioned he was looking at the Indian timepiece under a magnifying +glass he took from his pocket. + +"Who? Me study watches? I should say not! It keeps me busy enough +here without that." + +"Yes," went on the colonel musingly. "This is an old-timer. The first +watches, you know, Donovan, were really small clocks, and some were so +much like clocks that the folks who carried them had to hang them to +their belts instead of carrying them in their pockets. That was away +back in the fifteenth century." + +"Before the Big Wind in Ireland," suggested Thong with a nod at his +Irish compatriot. + +"Slightly," laughed the colonel. "But, all joking aside, this is quite +a wonderful piece of work. I shouldn't be surprised but what it dated +back to the time of Queen Elizabeth, though it has been repaired and +remodeled since then to make it more up to date. Probably new works +put in. Queen Elizabeth was very fond of watches and clocks, and her +friends, knowing that, used to present her with beautiful specimens. +Some of the watches of her day were made in the form of crosses, +purses, little books, and even skulls." + +"Pity this one wasn't made that way--like a skull," mused Carroll, +"seeing it's been in on two deaths here and no one knows how many +somewhere else." + +"That's right," agreed the colonel, as he continued to move his +magnifying glass over the surface of the still ticking watch. And a +close observer might have observed that he did not touch his bare +fingers to the timepiece, but poked it about, and touched it here and +there, with the end of a leadpencil. + +"Very interesting," observed the colonel, as he passed the watch back +to Donovan, still using only the flat, open palm of his hand on which +to rest it. "Very interesting. And, Donovan, take a friend's advice +and don't be too free with that watch." + +"Too free with it?" asked the surprised detective. + +"Yes. Don't scratch yourself on it, whatever you do." + +"Why not? Not that I'm likely to, for I never heard of being scratched +by a watch, but why not?" + +"Simply because this watch--" + +But at that moment the doorman of police headquarters stuck his head in +"Scotland Yard," as the patrolmen designated the inner sanctum where +the detectives had their rooms, and called: + +"Donovan!" + +"Hello," answered the sleuth. + +"Some one out here to see you." + +"All right--be there in a second. Excuse me," he murmured to the +colonel. "Be back in a minute." + +But it was in less time than that that he came returning on the run, +and his face showed excitement. + +"What's up?" asked Carroll. + +"Singa Phut," was the panting answer. "Friend of mine just tipped me +off where I can get him! See you later!" and, making sure that his +blackjack and revolver were in his pockets, Donovan hurried out, +followed by the colonel, whose hand had loosely closed over the ticking +watch which, unseen, went out with him. + +Later that night Singa Phut, a silent, shrinking and somewhat pathetic +figure, slept in a cell at police headquarters. Donovan, on the +information brought in by a stool-pigeon, had made the arrest and was +jubilant thereat. + + +Colonel Ashley, with Shag at the proper distance in the background, and +with Jay Kenneth as his invited guest, was sitting on the bank of a +little stream, fishing; or, at any rate, he was somewhat idly using a +rod and line to aid him in his thoughts. + +Following his visit to police headquarters and his return to the hotel, +he had called Kenneth on the telephone and arranged to spend a quiet +day with him in the fields near the stream. + +"I want to talk over Darcy's case with you," the colonel had said. + +And the two had talked, had thought, had talked again, and now were +silent for a time. + +"What are the chances of getting him off legally if we go at it from a +negative standpoint?" asked the colonel. "I mean, Mr. Kenneth, if we +call upon the prosecution to make out their best case, which they can +do only by circumstantial evidence, and then put our man on the stand, +to deny everything, to have him tell about the noise in the night, +about the curious sensation he experienced, about the possibility of +chloroform, call witnesses as to his good character--and so on--what +are the chances?" + +"Rather a hypothetical question, Colonel, but I should say it might be +a fifty-fifty proposition. At best he would get off with a Scotch +verdict of 'not proven,' but he doesn't want that, nor do I. And +you--" + +"I don't want it, either. But I want to know just where we stand. Now +I know. We've got to prove James Darcy innocent by establishing the +fact that some one else killed his cousin." + +"Exactly. And can it be done?" + +"It can, and I'm going to do it. But I need to do a little more +smoking-out first. Now I want to think. If you'll excuse me I'll +pretend I'm fishing, and I may catch something. In fact, I have a +feeling that I'll land my fish. And perhaps you have some other +problems that may be clarified by a dallying along this stream. Ah, +there's nothing like the philosophy of my friend Izaak Walton. I'd +recommend him to you instead of Blackstone." + +"Thanks!" laughed Kenneth. "I am not altogether unfamiliar with the +Complete Angler. And you are right. I have a little problem on my +hands." + +"What is it? Perhaps I can help you. The old adage of two heads, you +know--" + +"Yes. It still holds good. Well, the question I am trying to solve is +why did she say: 'No alimony!'" + +"'No alimony'?" repeated the colonel, puzzled. + +"Yes. Just that. As you may have guessed, it's a divorce case I have +just finished, and so quietly that it hasn't become public property +yet. When it does it will create a sensation." + +"No alimony, eh? I suppose the lady--there is a lady in it, of +course?" questioned the colonel. + +"Of course--as is usual in a divorce case. And there's no reason you +shouldn't know. It's Mrs. Larch, wife of Langford Larch, the wealthy +hotel owner. She has just been granted, on my application before the +vice chancellor, a separation from her husband, but she refused to +accept alimony, and for the life of me, with all Larch's wealth, I +can't see why. That's my problem, Colonel!" + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE ODD COIN + +Colonel Ashley fished for a time in silence, broken only by the gentle +snores of Shag, farther back in the field, and by the murmur of the +water. The old colored man, wrapped in a warm coat, for it was not +summer yet, seemed to be enjoying his siesta when, with a suddenness +that was startling in that solitude, the military detective uttered a +cry of: + +"I've got it!" + +"What?" called Kenneth. "The solution to my problem?" + +"No! My fish!" chuckled the colonel, as he skilfully played the +luckless trout, now struggling to get loose from the hook. + +And when the fish was landed, panting on the grass, and Shag had been +roused from his slumber to slip the now limp fish into the creel, +Colonel Ashley gave a sigh of relief and remarked: + +"I think I see it now." + +"The reason she asked no alimony?" inquired Kenneth. + +"No. I wasn't thinking of that. But I have been gathering up some +loose ends, and I think I know where to tie them together. However, +don't think I'm not interested in your case. I've fished enough for +to-day. Not that, ordinarily, I'm satisfied with one, but I'm not +working the rod now. I am, as Shag calls it, 'detectin',' and I just +came out here to clarify my thoughts. Having done that, I'm at your +service, if I can help." + +"Well, I don't know that you can. As I said, the facts of the +separation of the Larchs will soon be heralded all over the city, for +the final papers were filed to-day, and the reporters will be sure to +see them. So there is no harm in my telling you about it. It's a +plain and sordid story enough, with the exception of her refusal of +alimony, and that I can't understand. Do you care to hear about it?" + +"Certainly, my dear Kenneth." + +"It has no connection with the Darcy murder, and so I didn't mention it +to you before." + +"Go on." + +"It isn't generally known," went on the lawyer, "that the hotel +keeper's wife has left him. She went away a short time ago, and came +to me and told me her story. It was one of what at first might be +called refined cruelty on her husband's part, degenerating gradually +into that of the baser sort." + +"You don't mean that Larch struck her--that there was physical abuse, +do you?" asked the colonel. + +"That's what he did. He seems to have been decent for a while after +their marriage--which marriage was a mistake from the first--I can see +that now. I used to know Cynthia when she was a girl--she was the +daughter of Lodan Ratchford, and her mother had peculiar and, to my +mind, wrong ideas of social position and money. Well, poor Cynthia is +paying the penalty now. She was really forced into this marriage +which, to say the least, must have been distasteful to her. But I +don't suppose more than two or three know that." + +The colonel did not disclose the fact that it was no news to him. +Aaron Grafton's statement was being unexpectedly confirmed. He +remembered that Cynthia and Grafton had once been in love with each +other. + +"Well, when Cynthia came to me, in my capacity as lawyer as well as old +friend, I could hardly believe what she told me about her husband," +went on Kenneth. "She said he had struck her more than once, and she +could stand it no longer. + +"She wanted to apply for a divorce, but when I showed her that this +would bring about much publicity, and necessitate taking testimony on +both sides with possibly a long-dragged out case, she agreed merely to +ask for a separation now, on the accusation of cruel and inhuman +treatment. On those grounds I went before the vice chancellor, +prepared to prove my case by competent witnesses. But they were not +needed." + +"Why not?" + +"Because Larch made no defense. He let the case go by default, for +which I was glad, as it saved Cynthia from telling her story in open +court. Larch, by refusing to appear, practically admitted the charges +against him and did not oppose the separation. + +"Then came the matter of alimony, or, rather, I should call it separate +maintenance, as it is not alimony until a divorce is granted, and that +has not yet been done, though we may apply for that later. + +"I was prepared to ask the vice chancellor for a pretty stiff annual +sum for my client, for I know Larch is rich, when, to my surprise, she +would not permit it. She said if she left him it was for good and all, +and that she wanted none of his bounty. She had some means of her own, +she declared, and would work rather than accept a cent from him. + +"So I had to let her have her way, and we did not ask the court for +money, though I had no such squeamish feelings when it came to my +counsel fee. I got that out of Larch rather than his wife." + +"Did he pay it?" + +"No; but he will, or I'll sue him and get judgment. Oh, he'll pay all +right. He'll be so tickled to get out of paying his wife a monthly sum +that he'll settle with me. But I can't understand her attitude any +more than I can the change that came over him. For I really think he +loved Cynthia once. She was a beautiful girl, and is still a handsome +woman, though trouble has left its mark on her. Well, it's a queer +world anyhow!" + +"Isn't it?" agreed the colonel. "And it takes all sorts of persons to +make it up. I'm sorry I can't offer any explanation as to why your +client wouldn't accept money when she had a perfect right to it. +However, as you won your case I suppose it doesn't so much matter." + +"Not a great deal. Still I would like to know. There will be a +sensation when this comes out." + +And there was, when Daley, of the _Times_, scooped the other reporters +and sprang his sensational story of the separation of the Larchs, the +case having been heard in camera by the vice chancellor. + +The murder of Mrs. Darcy had, some time ago, been shifted off the front +page, though it would get back there when the young jeweler was tried. +As for the killing of Shere Ali, that occasioned only passing interest, +the murdered man not being well known. + +But the separation of Mr. and Mrs. Larch was different. The finely +appointed hotel kept by Larch, called the "Homestead," from the name of +an old inn of Colonial days which it replaced, was known for miles +around. It had a double reputation, so to speak. Though it had a +grill, in which, nightly, there gathered such of the "sports" of +Colchester as cared for that form of entertainment, the Homestead also +catered to gatherings of a more refined nature. Grave, and even +reverend, conventions assembled in its ballroom, and politicians of the +upper, if not better, class were frequently seen in its dining-room or +cafe. Being convenient to the courthouse, nearly all the judges and +lawyers took lunch there. The place was also the scene of more or less +important political dinners of the state, at which matters in no slight +degree affecting national policies were often whipped into shape. + +Larch himself was a peculiar character. In a smaller place he would +have been called a saloon keeper. Going a little higher up the scale +in population he might have been designated as a hotel proprietor. But +in Colchester, which was rather unique among cities, he was looked up +to as one of the substantial citizens of the place, for he owned the +Homestead, where Washington, when it was a wayside inn, had stopped one +night--at least such was the rumor--and families socially prominent, +some of whose members had very strong views on prohibition, did not +hesitate to attend balls given at the hotel. + +And it was this man, rich, it was said, handsome certainly, that +Cynthia Ratchford had married. There had been other lovers whom she +might have wedded, it was rumored, and more than one had remarked: + +"Why did she take him?" + +To this was the answer--whispered: + +"Money!" + +And, in a way, it was true. The family of Cynthia Larch--at least her +mother--was socially ambitious, and she saw that if her daughter became +the wife of Langford Larch his wealth, combined with her own family +connections, would give her a chance not only to shine in the way she +desired, but to eclipse some satellites who had outshone her in the +social firmament. She also saw an opportunity of paying old debts and +reaping some revenges. + +All of this she had done, in a measure. After the marriage, which was +a brilliant and gay one, if not happy, the Larch hotel--it could hardly +be called a home--became the scene of many festive occasions. A number +of entertainments were given, remarkable for the brilliant and +effective dresses of the women, the multiplicity and richness of the +food, and the variety of the wines. + +Langford Larch could not himself be called a drinking man. +Occasionally, as almost perforce he had to, he drank a little wine. +But he was never noticeably drunk. Nor was that side of his business +ever accentuated. + +Gradually there had come about little whispers that Cynthia Larch had +made a mistake in her marriage. There was little that was +tangible--mere gossip--a hint that she would have been happier with +some one else, though he had not so much money as had Larch. + +The rumors floated about a bit, seemed to sink, and then started off at +full steam just before the news of the separation became public. Then +it was said of Larch that, soon after the echoes of the wedding chimes +had died away, he had begun to treat his wife with refined +cruelty--that hidden away from the public, underneath his habitual +manner, there was the rawness of the brute. + +But, for a time, the entertainments were kept up, and Cynthia, lovelier +than ever, presided at her husband's table, graced it with her +presence, and laughed and smiled at the men and women who came to +partake of their lavish hospitality. + +But it was noticed that the older and more conservative families were +less often represented, and, when they were, it was by some of the +younger members, whose reputations were already smirched or who had not +yet acquired any, and were willing to "take a chance." + +And, also, old friends of Mrs. Larch observed that the smile did not +long linger on her face. And that behind the laughter in her eyes was +the shadow of a skeleton at the feast. Then came the legal separation +and the parting. Mrs. Larch, resuming, her maiden name, it was +announced, had gone to a quiet place to rest. + +To her few intimates it was known that Cynthia had gone to the little +village of Pompey, where her father owned a small summer home. As for +Larch, he met the various questions fired at him by his friends and +others at the Homestead, as well as he was able. It was all due to a +misunderstanding, he said. + +That was before the whole story of his cruel treatment of his wife +became known. For the papers of her testimony had been sealed, and it +was only by a sharp trick on the part of Daley that he got access to +them. Incidentally the vice chancelor was furious when it became known +that the documents had been inspected by a reporter, but then it was +too late. + +The story spread over half the front page of the _Times_, and it was +noted that the evening the paper came out a dinner which was to have +been given by the Lawyers' Club at the Homestead was unexpectedly +postponed. + +"It wouldn't do, you know, after that story came out, for me and the +vice chancellor who sat in the case, as well as other judges and +members of the bar, to be seen there," Kenneth explained to the colonel. + +Slowly and gradually, but none the less surely, a change came over the +Homestead. The gathering of congenial spirits, who knew they would be +undisturbed by a roistering element, grew less frequent in the grill +and Tudor rooms. And it was whispered about: + +"Larch is lushing!" + +Meanwhile Colonel Ashley was a very busy man, and to no one did he tell +very much about his activities. He saw Darcy frequently at the jail, +and to that young man's pleadings that something be done, always +returned the answer: + +"Don't worry! It will come out all right!" + +"But Amy--and the disgrace?" + +"She doesn't consider herself disgraced, and you shouldn't. The best +of police headquarters or prosecutor's detectives make mistakes. I'm +going to rectify them. But it will take time." + +"Do you know who killed my cousin?" + +"I think I do." + +"Then for the love of--" + +"I can't tell you yet, Darcy. All in good time. I've got to be sure +of my ground before I make too many moves. Oh, I know it's hard for +you to stay here, and hard to have the stigma attached to your name. +It's hard for Miss Mason, too, although she's bearing up like a major. +Gad, sir, that's what _she's_ doing! + +"You've got a friend in her of whom you may be proud. And her father, +too--he's with you from the drop of the flag, he told me. Quite a +racing man he is, a gentleman and a fine judge not only of whisky, +which is good in its place, but of horses and men, too. Darcy, you've +got good friends!" + +"I know it, Colonel, and I count you among the best." + +"Thanks. Then prove it by not asking me to play my hand before I have +all the cards I want. All in good time. I'm working several ends, and +they all must be fitted together, like the old jigsaw puzzle, before I +can act. Besides, anything I could say now wouldn't set you free. You +can't get out before a trial or before I can produce some one on whom I +can actually fasten the murder. And I can't do that yet. You aren't +the only suspect, though. There's Harry King, still locked up--" + +"No, he isn't, Colonel." + +"He isn't?" cried the old detective, and there was surprise in his +voice. + +"No. He was bailed out to-day. I thought you knew it." + +"I didn't. I'm glad you told me, though. So King got bail! Who put +it up? It was high!" + +"Larch!" + +"The hotel keeper?" + +"So I understand. They took Harry away a while ago. I wish I had been +in his shoes." + +"I'm glad you're not. I don't imagine, for a moment, that fool King +had a hand in this affair. In fact I know he didn't. But his are +pretty uncertain shoes to be in just the same. Now cheer up! This +setting him free on bail has given me a new angle to work on. So cheer +up, and I'll do the best I can for you. Any message you want to send +to Miss Mason?" + +"Only that I--" Darcy hesitated and grew red. + +"I guess I understand," said the colonel with a laugh. "I'll tell her!" + +The colonel spent that evening in the grill room of the Homestead. +Though it was not the same as it had been, and though patronage of the +better sort had fallen off considerably, it was still a jolly enough +sort of place of its character to be in. A number of "men about town," +as they liked to be called, were in, and Colonel Ashley was sipping his +julep when there entered Mr. Kettridge, the relative of Mrs. Darcy, +whose jewelry shop he was managing pending a settlement of her estate. + +"Good evening, Colonel," he called genially. "Will you join me in a +Welsh rabbit?" + +"Thank you, no. I'm afraid my digestion isn't quite up to that, as +I've had to cut out my fishing of late. But what do you say to a +julep?" + +"Delighted, I'm sure," and they sat down at one of the half-enclosed +tables in the grill and ordered food and drink. They had become +friends since the colonel's first visit to the store, and the +friendship had grown as they found they had congenial tastes. + +The evening passed pleasantly for them. They talked of much, including +the murder, and the colonel was more than pleased to find that the +jeweler had no very strong suspicion against young Darcy. + +"I've known him from a boy," said Mr. Kettridge, "and, though he has +his faults, a crime such as this would be almost impossible to him, no +matter what motive, such as the dispute over money or his sweetheart. +He may be guilty, but I doubt it." + +"My idea, exactly," returned the colonel. "Now as to certain matters +in the store on the morning of the murder. The stopped clocks, for +instance. Have you any theory--" + +Came, at that instant, fairly bursting into the quiet grill room, some +"jolly good fellows," to take them at their own valuation. There were +three of them, the center figure being that of Harry King, and he was +very much intoxicated. + +"Hello, Harry! Where have you been?" some one called. + +King regarded his questioner gravely, as though deeply pondering over +the matter. It was often characteristic of him that, though he became +very much intoxicated, yet, at times, under such conditions, Harry +King's language approached the cultured, rather than degenerated into +the common talk of the ordinary drunk. That is not always, but +sometimes. It happened to be so now. + +"I beg your pardon?" he said, in the cultured tones he knew so well how +to use, yet of which he made so little use of late. + +"I said, where have you been?" remarked the other. "We've missed you." + +"I have been spending a week end in the country," King remarked, with +biting sarcasm. "Found I was getting a bit stale in my golf, don't you +know--" there was a momentary pause while he regained the use of his +treacherous tongue, then he went on--"I caught myself foozling a few +putts, and I concluded I needed to work back up to form." + +There was a laugh at this, for scarcely one in the gilded grill but +knew where King had been, and whither he was going. But the laugh was +instantly hushed at the look that flashed from his eyes toward those +who had indulged in the mirth. + +King had a nasty temper that grew worse with his indulgence in drink, +and it was clear that he had been indulging and intended to continue. + +"I said I was--_golfing_," he went on, exceedingly distinctly, though +with an effort. "And now, Cat," and he nodded patronizingly to the +white-aproned and respectful bartender, "will you be kind enough to see +what my friends will be pleased to order that they may pour out a +libation to--let us say Polonius!" + +"Why Polonius?" some one asked. + +"Because, dear friend," replied King softly, "he somewhat resembles a +certain person here, who talks too much, but who is not so wise as he +thinks. And now--" he raised his glass--"to all the gods that on +Olympus dwell!" + +And they drank with him. + +Nodding and smiling at his friends, who thronged about him, standing +under the gay lights which reflected from costly oil paintings, Harry +King plunged his hand into his pocket to pay the bill, a check for +which the bartender had thrust toward him. + +"Gad, but he's got a wad!" somebody whispered, as King pulled forth a +great roll of bills, together with a number of gold and silver coins. + +There was a rattle of coins on the mahogany bar as King sought to +disentangle a single bill from the wadded-up currency in his pocket. + +Some coins fell to the floor and rolled in the direction of the table +whereat sat the colonel and Mr. Kettridge. The latter, with a pitying +smile on his face, leaned over to pick them up. As he did so, and +brought a piece of money up into the light, a curious look came over +his face. He stared at the coin. + +"What is it?" asked Colonel Ashley, noting the unusual look. + +"It's--it's an odd coin--an old Roman one--that Mrs. Darcy had in her +private collection, kept in the jewelry store safe," was the whispered +answer. "I went over them the other day and noticed some were missing, +though I saw them all when I paid a visit to her just a short time +before she was killed." + +"Was this odd coin in her collection?" asked the colonel, as he looked +at the piece which Kettridge handed him. It was of considerable value +to a collector. + +"That was hers," went on the jeweler. "It must have been taken from +her safe, for she had refused many offers to sell it. And now--" + +"Now Harry King has it!" exclaimed Colonel Ashley. "I think this will +bear looking into!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +SINGA PHUT + +Mr. Kettridge, his eyes big with unconcealed wonder as he looked at the +odd coin, was eager to accost Harry King at once and demand to know +whence the roysterer had obtained it. In, fact, the jeweler half arose +from his chair, to approach the three swaggering men in the cafe +section of the grill, when Colonel Ashley laid a restraining hand on +the shoulder of his new friend. + +"It won't do now," he said gently. + +"Why not? I've got to find out how he came by that coin! It's a rare +and valuable one I tell you. It's worth all of a thousand dollars to a +collector. Lots of them would be glad to pay more. Its catalogue +price is a thousand. And now this drunken fool has it! He +must--Colonel, don't you see what this means?" + +"Yes, Mr. Kettridge, I can very easily see what it _might_ mean. But +King is in no condition now to approach on such a subject. There is a +saying that when the wine is in the wit is out, and it is generally +held, by some detectives, that then is the proper time to approach a +subject for information that would otherwise be withheld. But King is +in a sarcastic mood now, and sufficiently able to take care of himself +to be very suspicious if we began to question him, even under the guise +of friendship." + +"I suppose so," agreed the jeweler, "and yet--" + +"Oh, I wish I hadn't got into this!" suddenly exclaimed Colonel Ashley, +with almost a despairing gesture. "I started out for some quiet +fishing, which I very much needed, for I am getting too old for this +sort of thing. I ought never to have undertaken it! I'm almost +resolved to give it up. I believe I will!" he said suddenly, slapping +his hand on the table, at the sound of which a waiter hurried up. + +"No--nothing now," went on the colonel, waving the man away. "Yes, +I'll give this case up!" he went on, with a sigh. "In the morning I'll +get Shag to lay out my rods and we'll go fishing. I was foolish to let +myself be dragged into this. It would have been all right five years +ago. But now--well, I'm through--that's all!" + +Mr. Kettridge regarded his companion with amazement. + +"But what can we do without you?" he asked. "Oh, I'll send you one of +my best men," was the answer. "I'll wire for Kedge. You can rely on +him. He's solved more cases like this than I can remember. Yes, I'll +send for Kedge. This is no place for me. I'm too old." + +"Too old, Colonel?" + +"Yes, too old! And I've grown too fond of fishing. Yes, I'll let +Kedge finish this up. And yet--" + +The detective seemed to muse for a moment. Then he went on, half +murmuring to himself. + +"No, hang it all! Kedge has that bank case to look after. Anyhow, I +don't believe he'd figure this out right. Oh, well, I suppose there's +no help for it, I've got to keep on now that I've started. But it's my +last case! Positively my last case!" and once more he banged his hand +down on the table. + +Again the waiter glided up. He looked at the colonel expectantly, and +the latter stared at him uncomprehendingly for a moment. + +"Oh, yes," went on the detective. "You may bring me--er--just a small +glass of claret--a very small one." + +Mr. Kettridge gave his order, and then looked relieved. The colonel +had seemed very much in earnest. + +"Do you suppose," asked the jeweler, "that Harry King could have had +anything to do with this case?" + +"Of course it's possible, but, even so, we can easily make sure of him +and arrest him when we want him. To approach him now would only be to +defeat your own plan, that is if you have one. I confess this startles +me. I don't know what to make of it, and there's no use pretending +that I do. After all, detective work is the outcome of common sense +plus a sort of special intuition and knowledge. I have gotten to a +certain point, and now some of my theories are shattered. That is they +would be if I had been foolish enough to have formed arbitrary theories +that could not be changed. As it is, that's just what I have not done. +I am still open to argument and conviction, and this coin, which you +say belonged to Mrs. Darcy a few days before her death, and which now +makes its appearance in the hands of a drunken man who has been under +suspicion, makes cause for question. + +"But, my dear Mr. Kettridge, let us be reasonable. King will not run +away, and in his present condition he is likely to pick a quarrel with +you if you mention the murder to him. Consider, also, that it may be +he came into possession of this coin honestly." + +"How?" + +"He may have received it in change--here. He's spent enough money in +the place I suppose." + +"But if he got it here-- Great Scott! you don't suppose that Larch--" + +"I don't suppose anything yet, least of all regarding Larch. But +consider. This is a public place. A hundred persons--yes, two or +three hundred--come in here every day, spend money and receive change. +Now this coin, though to you and me it shows itself at once to be of +great antiquity, might easily be passed, in a hurry, or to one who had +not the full possession of his senses, as a silver half dollar, which +it somewhat resembles. In fact, I think I can persuade King that it +_was_ a half dollar he dropped." + +And, somewhat to the surprise of Mr. Kettridge, the colonel, who had +been watching King as the latter sought on the floor for his fallen +coins, walked up to the wastral and handed him a fifty-cent piece. + +"You dropped that, I believe," said Colonel Ashley, genially enough. + +"Thanks, old top! Perhaps I did. Have a drink?" + +"No, thank you!" + +With a friendly wave of his hand to the colonel, King slipped the half +dollar into his pocket with other loose change and turned to the glass +that awaited him. + +"You see," said the colonel to Mr. Kettridge. "He doesn't know he had +it--he doesn't know he lost it--he doesn't know you have it. Keep it, +I beg of you. We may need it." + +"But suppose King goes away?" + +"He won't. I'll take care of that. I'll telegraph for one of my best +men. I have a little more than I can look after personally." + +"What do you intend to do?" + +"Have King kept in sight. There are some others in this city I need to +shadow." + +"You don't mean Singa Phut?" + +"No, he's in custody. Besides, I've--Well, I guess I won't say what +conclusion I've come to regarding him. I might have to change it. He +is an interesting study. I haven't yet found a motive for his killing +of his partner--if he did it." + +"Who else could?" + +"There might be many. Just as there might be many ways to account for +King's having possession of this coin. He may have come by it in a way +that is easily explained, and if we, inferentially, accused him there +would be trouble." + +"I suppose so. Well, Colonel Ashley, I'll leave the case in your +hands. God knows, for the sake of the family name, I'd like to see +Darcy cleared. I don't believe he did it. Here, you keep this coin," +for the detective had offered it to his companion. "You may need it." + +"Yes. I may. And so it is worth a thousand dollars," mused the +colonel. "Just about the sum Darcy claimed from his cousin. I +wonder--Oh, but what's the use of wondering? I must make _certain_," +and he put the old Roman coin safely away in his wallet. + +The colonel and his friend finished their modest meal, and their more +modest potations, of no very strong liquids, and went out, leaving +Harry King and his companions to "make a night of it." + +Larch, whose face was unusually flushed, was endeavoring to bring the +young men to a less boisterous state, for he realized that his better +class of patrons did not like this sort of thing. + +But King was in jubilant mood. He had been released, under heavy bail, +it is true, when the hotel keeper gave a pledge for the appearance of +the young man when he was wanted. Harry was only held as a witness, so +far, but an important one, and because of his known characteristic of +suddenly disappearing at times a heavy bond had been required. + +Why Larch had gone on this bond did not make itself clear to Colonel +Ashley, and he set that down in his little red note book as one of the +matters needing to be cleared up. + +And so, wondering much, the colonel and Mr. Kettridge, the former with +the rare coin, went out into the cool and star-lit night, leaving +behind them the sounds of good-fellowship, of that particular brand, in +the Homestead. + +One of the first places the colonel visited the next day was the +jewelry shop. Matters there had nearly assumed their normal aspect. +Trade was about the same, under the skilful management of Mr. +Kettridge, and the cut glass and silver gleamed and glistened in the +showcases as though the former owner of it all had not been cruelly +slain. + +"Show you her collection of coins? Certainly," agreed Mr. Kettridge, +when the colonel told what he wanted. "As I said, I saw them, and +particularly the one we picked up last night, in her safe a week or so +before she was killed. I was on for a visit. And I know that a week +previous to that she had refused a thousand dollars for this particular +one. These coins were one of her hobbies," and he brought from the +safe the collection, which was of considerable value to a numismatist. + +"There seem to be others besides the Roman coin gone," said the +jeweler, "for I now miss many I used to see in her case. But, of +course, she may have sold them. I do remember the one King had, +though, and I'm sure she never sold that. It was taken close to the +time she was killed." + +Colonel Ashley, taking advantage of the time when the store was closed +for the night, minutely examined the safe, but could find no evidence +of its having been tampered with. + +"For what started out to be a simple murder case," mused the old +detective, as he went back to his hotel that night, "this one bids fair +to become quite complicated." + +An impulse--it was hardly more than that, and yet it had to do with the +matter in hand--sent the detective to police headquarters. + +"I think I'll ask Donovan what Singa Phut said when he was arrested and +charged with murdering his partner," said the colonel to himself. +"There's an end I haven't developed very much. And I would like to ask +that East Indian something about that queer watch." + +Donovan was at headquarters, it being his night "on," and he welcomed +the detective as some one with whom he might hold converse. + +"Have a talk with Singa Phut? Why sure, if it will do you any good," +said the headquarters man when the colonel had made known his desire. +"I was going to the jail on another matter, anyhow, and I might as well +kill two birds as one. They'll let you see him if I'm with you. +Otherwise you'd have to get an order from the prosecutor's office. +Come along." + +It was raining when they reached the jail, and the colonel, as he heard +the patter of drops, thought of the night he had first come to +Colchester. + +"There ought to be good fishing after this rain," said the colonel, +with a regretful sigh as he thought of his rods and flies. + +"Fishin'!" exclaimed Donovan. "Say, that's something I haven't done +since I was a kid! I used to like it, though. Well, here we are! +Looks like a party. What d'you s'pose the warden's all lit up for?" + +Certainly the gloomy jail was more brightly lighted than usual at +night, for the prisoners were locked in their cells and all +illumination, save the keepers' lights, put out at nine o'clock. + +"We want to see that Dago, you know--Singa Phut," said Donovan, as he +nodded to the deputy warden who answered their ring at the steel side +door. + +"Humph! Little too late," was the answer. + +"Too late! What d'you mean? He's gone?" + +"That's it." + +"On bail? No, it couldn't be with a murder charge!" expostulated +Donovan. "He can't be out! You're kiddin'!" + +"He's croaked!" answered the deputy warden. "We found him dead in his +cell half an hour ago." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE HIDDEN WIRES + +Donovan looked at the deputy as if about to dispute the statement. The +detective even opened his lips to speak, but no sound came through +them. Donovan sat down in a chair. + +"Do you mean--" he asked, passing his hand over his face, as though to +brush away unseen cobwebs. "Do you mean that he's _dead_?" + +"Sure," was the answer. "Croaked, I told you. Deader 'n a burned out +cigarette." + +"Well," observed Donovan dispassionately, "that's the limit!" + +"I agree with you," said the colonel, and there was a curious look on +his face. "Though if you mean it's the _end_ I beg to differ. It's +only the _beginning_." + +"How'd it happen?" asked Donovan sharply. + +"We don't know," was the answer. "The Dago was all right to-day, +except he seemed a little glummer than usual. He didn't eat any supper +though but that's nothing. Lots of times the birds in here get off +their feed," and the deputy warden made a comprehensive gesture. + +"He was locked up with the rest to-night and we got sort of quiet and +comfortable here and I was having a game of pinochle with Tom Doyle +when one of our boarders in murderers' row lets out a howl. Course I +went to see what it was, and there was the Dago--croaked!" + +"What did it?" asked Donovan. + +"We don't know. Doc Warren's in now giving him the once-over." + +"Did he have any visitors to-day?" asked the colonel. + +"Yes, a fellow like himself--Indian I reckon. But we didn't let him +further than the corridor. It wasn't visiting day for the fellows in +his row, so the Dago left a package and went away." + +"What was in the package?" the colonel questioned further. + +"Oh, just some cigarettes. Singa Phut didn't like the kind we keep, +and he had to have his own fancy kind. He's had 'em before, so we knew +they was all right." + +"Was that all?" + +"Every blessed thing that was in the package. So we let him have the +cigarettes. That was about four o'clock. He was dead at eight. Here +comes the doctor now. Maybe he can tell you something." + +Doctor Warren, rubbing his hands to get rid of the lint from the +warden's towel, came along settling himself into his coat which he had +removed the better to examine the body of the East Indian. + +"Well, Donovan," said the county physician, "your friend saved you the +trouble of convicting him." + +"Yep. But I'd a had him all right. I'd a sent him to the chair +without any trouble. But what ailed him, Doc?" + +"I can't say yet. Looks like a case of heart disease. I'll hold an +autopsy in the morning. He's dead all right." + +"I thought maybe some of the other prisoners might have got in and +croaked him," commented the headquarters detective. "Riley was saying +some one let out a yell." + +"That was Schmidt--fellow that killed his wife," interposed the deputy +warden. "He's in the cell next to where the Dago was. Schmidt said he +heard the foreigner breathing awful funny. It was his last breath all +right. He was dead when I got in, Doc." + +"Yes, they go quick that way." + +"Are you sure it was heart disease, Dr. Warren?" asked the colonel. + +"No, not at all. I just mentioned that as most probable. He didn't +look strong. I can't tell for a certainty until to-morrow." + +"Pardon me, Dr. Warren, for presuming on what is particularly your own +ground, but did you look to see if any of the cigarettes were left in +his cell?" + +"I didn't notice. If you want to take a look come on back. And I +don't in the least mind any suggestions from you, Colonel. I'm too +much interested in your work. In fact, I'd be glad to have you help in +this investigation if you think there's anything crooked." + +"Oh, not at all. Suicide is, of course, the most natural suspicion in +a case like this, and it isn't hard to conceal enough opium in a +cigarette to kill a dozen men." + +"Blazes! I never thought of that!" ejaculated the deputy. "Come on!" +and he led the way back to the cell. + +Singa Phut's body had been removed to another part of the jail. But +the cell was as it had been when the final summons came to the East +Indian. + +There were the few poor possessions he had been allowed to have with +him--simple and apparently safe enough. And, scattered on the floor, +were some of the cigarettes, made from strong Latakia tobacco, the +peculiar odor of which was, even yet, noticeable in the corners of the +cell. + +"He smoked some of 'em all right," observed the deputy. + +"Let's have a look," suggested the colonel. "If we had a better light +in here it might help." + +"I'll bring one of the two-hundred watt bulbs we use down in the +office," said the warden, who had joined the little group. There was +an electric light socket in each cell--recently installed as the result +of the agitation of a prison reform committee. The low-powered bulb +was taken out and the glaring nitrogen gas one substituted. It made +the cell very bright, and by the glare the colonel gathered up a number +of the cigarettes. Some had been smoked down to a mere stub; others +had not been lighted, and two or three were broken in half, neither end +showing signs of either having been scorched by a match or wet by the +lips of Singa Phut. + +"Queer he'd waste 'em that way," observed Donovan. "Usually they can't +get enough to smoke." + +"He didn't exactly waste them," said the colonel grimly, as he looked +at the divided but otherwise perfect cigarettes in his hand. + +"What do you call it then?" demanded the headquarters detective. + +"Well, I think he was looking for something in the cigarettes--and--he +found it." + +"What do you mean?" asked Dr. Warren. + +"Wait. Maybe I can show you." + +Colonel Ashley carefully gathered up all the cigarettes in the cell, a +number of them being perfect. With them, and the black butts, as well +as the broken paper tubes, he moved over to the small table in the +cell, and spread them out. + +Donovan reached under the colonel's arm and broke open one of the whole +cigarettes. "I don't see--" he began. "For the love of Mike look at +this!" he suddenly exclaimed. "There's a needle in this dope stick!" + +"And, if you value your life don't touch it!" cried the colonel. +"That's what I was looking for! Don't so much as scratch yourself the +hundredth part of an inch or-- Well, you saw Singa Phut," he ended +grimly. + +"Poisoned needle, Colonel?" asked Dr. Warren, as he shoved the +cigarette Donovan had broken toward the middle of the table. + +"That's what I suspect. If we had a cat now or a rat--" + +"Easy enough to get a rat," interposed the warden. "There's always +some of the beasts in the traps we set about. We catch 'em alive. I +don't like poison. Here, Riley, go and see if you can find a rat in +one of the traps. What you going to do, Colonel? Try it on him?" + +"If you have one, yes. You get my idea, I guess. Some one of Singa +Phut's Indian friends, knowing he would rather go out this way than pay +the penalty of his crime, brought in a package of his favorite +cigarettes. + +"In two, three, or in perhaps more of the 'dope sticks,' as my friend +Donovan calls them, he shoved a fine needle, the tip of which was +dipped in some swift, subtle Indian poison, the secret of which these +two alone, perhaps, knew. + +"With the cigarettes in his possession it was easy enough for Singa +Phut to smoke some and extract a needle from another. It was probably +marked in some secret way. More than one needle was sent to guard +against failure. But the first one must have worked. I'd like to find +it." + +"I'll have the cell swept for you," promised the warden as his deputy +went off to look for a rat. A keeper was summoned with a broom, and +brushed out the cell. It did not take long, for it was very clean. +Most of the debris was cigarette ash and scraps of paper and tobacco. +And it was in this debris, carefully poked over with a lead pencil, +that a needle was found. + +Colonel Ashley, using extreme care, laid the two together, after an +examination of the other unbroken cigarettes had disclosed the fact +that none of them concealed anything. + +"I got one, Warden! A beaut!" came Riley's voice from down the +corridor, and he came in with a wire cage containing a large rat which +cowered in one corner of his cell, even as Singa Phut had shrunk into +his when the end came. + +"How you going to get at him, Colonel?" asked the warden. "They're +nasty to handle. One of 'em nipped my dog fierce when I gave him a +chance at killing it a day or so ago." + +"I'm not going to let it out. If I had a stick, or something that I +could fasten the needle on, I could work a sort of javelin," remarked +the colonel. + +"I'll get you one," offered Riley, much interested in the coming +experiment. Donovan, too, looked on in startled wonder. + +A long, slender stick was brought and, using great care, with his +rubber gloves on that he used in autopsies, Doctor Warren fastened the +needle to the wand. Then Colonel Ashley thrust the improvised spear +through the wires of the cage and lightly punctured the rat, which gave +a protesting squeak. + +"It didn't hurt him much," observed the colonel, "and, if I have +guessed right, his death will be painless." + +"How soon?" asked Donovan. + +"I can't say, but it ought not be very long. The kind of poison they +use is calculated to work swiftly." + +In the glaring light from the nitrogen bulb they stood in the cell of +the dead man, gathered about the cage of the rat--a prison within a +prison. After the first start caused by the needle prick, the rodent +again shrank back into its corner. For perhaps ten minutes it remained +thus, and then it began to exhibit signs of uneasiness. It stood up on +its haunches and began to bite at the wires of the cage. It squeaked, +more as though uneasy than in pain, + +In another minute it began to run around the tin floor of its prison, +and then it suddenly stopped in its tracks, fell over in a lump and was +still. + +"Well, I'll be--" began Donovan, and then, with a look at the +colonel, he substituted: "This gets me! It sure does!" + +"It evidently went right to the heart, just as in Singa Phut's case," +observed the colonel grimly. + +"You were right," said Doctor Warren, "it was poison. He probably +jabbed himself with the point of the needle, and whatever was smeared +on it did the rest. I shall be interested in making the autopsy." + +"You will probably find very little trace of the poison," said the +colonel. "The kind they use is designed to disappear almost as soon as +it becomes effective. Still you may discover something." + +But Doctor Warren did not. Aside from a little scratch near the +prisoner's heart, where he had evidently dug the needle deep into his +skin, there was no sign that death was other than by natural causes. +The poison had gone directly into the blood, as does the venom of a +snake, and had brought death in the same way. In fact, it was the +opinion of Colonel Ashley that some form of snake poison was used, +though what it was, no one could say. + +And so passed out and beyond Singa Phut, and the charge of murder, +having been quashed by a higher tribunal than that of the county court, +the matter was soon forgotten. + +The colonel's theory, that some fellow countryman had supplied the East +Indian means of escaping the electric chair, was generally accepted. +And that Singa Phut was guilty of having killed his partner in a sudden +fit of passion following one of their frequent quarrels was also +believed by those who cared to exercise any thought in the matter. + +"But what gets me, though," said the colonel, "is where does Singa Phut +fit in with the watch in Mrs. Darcy's hand. That watch! Ah, there's a +link I haven't had time to examine as I'd like to. I must see to it." + +The colonel fell into a reverie. His eyes went to the closet where he +had put away his fishing rods. + +"Oh, friend Izaak!" he murmured, "How basely I have deserted you! But +I'm coming back. Yes, I'll stop this detective work. I'll wire for +Kedge to-night to come on and take up the case. He can do it as well +as I. I'll get Kedge!" + +He started for the telephone to dictate a telegram. And then, as he +chanced to look out of the window, a different expression came into his +face. + +Down on the sidewalk he saw Amy Mason walking slowly along. The girl's +pretty face was drawn and careworn. Evidently the anxiety over Darcy +was beginning to tell on her. + +The old detective shook his head slowly. + +"Oh, I suppose I can't back out now," he sighed. "I've gone too far. +It would look like quitting, and I never was a quitter!" + +He straightened up to his soldierly height. + +"Besides," he went on, "Kedge would only mix matters up now. He +wouldn't know what to do, even if I told him. Kedge is all right for +some things, but-- Oh, well, I'll keep on with the case!" + +This was the day following the discovery of the suicide of the East +Indian in his cell, and any intentions Colonel Ashley may have had of +subjecting to a close examination the queer watch had to be postponed. + +He had ventured to keep it after Donovan had shown it to him, ready to +make some plausible excuse if it was called for, but the arrest of the +East Indian, and the preparation of the case for trial, in connection +with the prosecutor's office, evidently made Donovan forget, for the +time being, that the watch was not among other criminal relics in his +closet. + +As a matter of fact, Colonel Ashley had had it in his possession since +that night Donovan went out with his friend, the stool pigeon. And +now, carrying out a plan he had made, the colonel, one bright May +morning, put the odd timepiece in his pocket and started for the Darcy +jewelry store, intending to have Kettridge look at the mechanism and +other parts of the watch. + +But when the detective reached the establishment he saw, to his +surprise, a great crowd gathered out in front--a crowd that needed the +services of several policemen to keep it from stopping traffic in the +roadway. + +"Hello! More trouble at the place," mused the colonel, quickening his +steps. "I wonder what's up this time?" + +He inquired casually from those on the outskirts of the throng, and +received enough information to justify the getting out of several extra +newspapers. + +"Burglar tried to blow up the safe and got blowed up himself." + +"Hold-up man shot three of the girls behind the diamond counter and +then killed himself." + +"Naw! Somebody tried to set fire to the place!" + +"Aw, only one of the girls fainted; that's all." + +These opinions came mostly from boys or young men. No one seemed to +know exactly what had happened. The colonel spied Mulligan, the +officer who had been the first official on the scene at the murder of +Mrs. Darcy, and nodded in friendly fashion. The bluecoat escorted the +colonel through the crowd into the store. + +"I guess you'll be interested," said Mulligan. + +"Yes, thank you. What is it?" + +"I didn't hear all the particulars. But Miss Brill, the young lady +clerk, received an electrical shock from some wires hidden under the +metal edge of one of the showcases, so Mr. Kettridge says, and she was +knocked down." + +"Killed?" + +"No, but her head struck on the edge of a case and she's badly cut. I +sent for the ambulance. It happened when the store was crowded and +made a bit of excitement." + +"I should think it would! Hidden electric wires!" and the colonel +thought of a certain discovery he had made. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +A DOG + +With the help of the police, and when the stricken, though not +dangerously injured, girl had been taken away in the ambulance, the +crowd was dispersed. It was then Colonel Ashley had a chance to speak +to Mr. Kettridge. + +"What's all this I hear?" asked the detective. + +"I don't know," and the manager smiled wearily. "If you heard all of +the rumors I did they would include everything from an I.W.W. plot to a +combined attack by New York gunmen." + +"But what was it?" + +"Well, one of our clerks, Miss Brill, was waiting on a customer at one +of the silver showcases. They are arranged with electric lights inside +that may be switched on when needed. + +"She turned on the current to illuminate the inside of the case, so +that her customer might make a selection to have spread out on top, +when, in some manner, Miss Brill received a severe electrical shock. +She was thrown backward to the floor, and her head struck a projecting +corner of one of the rear showcases. She was badly cut, but the +hospital doctor said there was no fracture." + +"Did she get shocked from the wires that run into the interior of the +case?" asked the detective. + +"No, and that's the queer part of it," said the manager. "She was +shocked while leaning against the silvered, metal edge of the glass +case, and, on examination, I find some hidden electrical wires +there--wires that must, in some way, have become crossed on the +lighting circuit. I didn't know the wires were there." + +"I did," said the colonel, quietly. + +"You did?" + +"Yes, when I tested them with an instrument I secured from an +electrician here in town the wires were dead. There was not the +slightest current in them. Either they have been changed lately, or +some sudden jar or misplacement brought them in contact with a live +circuit." + +"What were the wires for?" asked Mr. Kettridge. + +"That's what I've been wanting to find out. Originally I think they +were for some system of burglar alarm installed by Mrs. Darcy. But now +those wires run to the work bench that was used by James Darcy." + +"To his work bench?" The manager was obviously startled. + +"Yes. But don't jump at conclusions. You know he was working on an +electric lathe he hoped to patent. Those wires may be merely part of +his equipment," + +"Yes, and they may--wait a minute!" suddenly exclaimed the manager. "I +wonder--" + +From his private office, into which he had ushered the colonel, he +looked down the store. It was almost deserted now, save for a few +customers and the clerks. + +"It's the same place!" murmured the manager, + +"What is?" asked the detective. + +"Miss Brill was shocked, and fell at the very spot where the dead body +of Mrs. Darcy was found!" said Mr. Kettridge in a low, intense voice. +"Except for the fact that she fell behind the showcase and Mrs. Darcy +in front of it, the place is the same!" + +With a muttered exclamation the colonel got to his feet and also looked +out from the private office. + +"You're right," he admitted. "I wonder if that is a coincidence +or--something else. I must go to see Darcy." + +The prisoner was measurably startled when the detective told him the +latest development at the jewelry store. + +"Those were never my wires in the showcase!" cried the young man. "I +knew some were there, for we did have an antiquated burglar alarm +system when I first came to work for my cousin. I had another one put +in, and I supposed they had ripped out the old wires. But the wires I +used for my lathe experiments had no connection with those, I'm sure. +What is your theory?" + +"I have so many I don't know at which one to begin," admitted Colonel +Ashley. "But I was wondering if it was possible that the showcase +wires, which when I tested them were dead, could have, in some manner, +become charged, and have given Mrs. Darcy a shock that might have sent +her reeling to the floor, toppling the heavy statue over on her head, +and so killing her." + +"By _accident_ do you mean?" asked Darcy, his face lighting up with +hope. + +"Yes. This young lady received a severe blow on her head by her fall, +and your cousin--" + +"You forget the stab wound, Colonel." + +"No, I didn't exactly _forget_ it. I was wondering how we could +account for that if we accepted the shock theory. I guess we can't. +I'm still up against it. I've struck a snag--maybe a stone wall, +Darcy!" + +"Do you--do you think you can get over it, Colonel?" + +"By gad, sir! I will! That's all there is to it! _I will_!" + + +The silence of the colonel's room was broken by a peculiar scratching +at the door, interrupting his perusal of this passage: + +"I told you angling is an art, either by practice or long observation +or both. But take this for a rule--" + +"Come in!" invited the colonel, thinking it might be Shag, who +sometimes, for the lesser disturbance of his master's thoughts or +reading, thus announced himself. + +But there entered no black and smiling Shag, nor one of the hotel +employees, but a little dog which wagged its tail both in greeting to +the colonel, seated before a gas log in his room, and also as a sort of +applause for the dog itself, because it had succeeded in pushing open +the door which was left ajar, but which, nevertheless, was rather stiff +on the hinges. And Chet, the dog in question, was rather proud of his +achievement. Thus his wagged tail had a double meaning, so to speak. + +"Ah, Chet, you've come in for another talk, have you?" asked the +colonel as he leaned over to pat the dog's head. + +More wagging of the tail to indicate pleasure, satisfaction, and +whatever else dogs thus express. + +"Glad to see you," went on the colonel, as though talking to a human, +and, with more gyrations of the tail, which constituted Chet's side of +the talk with the colonel, the little creature sought a warm spot near +the gas log, stretched out and sighed long in contentment. + +Chet was the pet of a man--a permanent resident of the hotel--who had +the suite next Colonel Ashley's, and, early in his stay at the +hostelry, the detective had made friends with the little animal, which, +when Mr. Bland, its own master, was out, often came in to visit the +fisherman, just as he had done now. + +The colonel was thoroughly enjoying himself, for he had put aside, in +the perusal of Walton, all thoughts of the murder and its many +complications, when there came another interruption. This time it was +a ring of his room telephone. + +"There's a gentleman downstairs asking for you," came the word in +response to his answer to the summons. + +"Who is it? + +"Says I'm to tell you he's Mr. Young." + +"Oh, yes, Jack Young--send him up." The colonel closed the book with a +sigh of regret. + +"No use trying to read Izaak now," he murmured. "It would be a +sacrilege. I'll have to wait a bit. Wonder what Jack wants. Ah, come +in!" he called, as a discreet knock sounded on the half-opened door. +"Trouble?" + +"Not yet, Colonel, though there may be. Do you want me to follow King +out of town?" + +"Of course. Wherever he goes. Stick to him like a leech," and the +detective indicated a chair to his visitor. Jack Young was one of the +Ashley Agency's most trusted lieutenants. + +"I sent for you to have you shadow King," said the detective in a low +voice, seeing to it that the door was closed, "because I think we can +get something out of him." + +"Not a confession, surely!" exclaimed Young. + +"Well, if he gets drunk enough, yes. But not the kind of confession +that would be any use to us. What a man babbles when the wine is in +and the wit is out, wouldn't be much use in a court of law. But if you +can get him to tell anything about where he got that queer coin--the +one that used to be in Mrs. Darcy's collection--so much to the good. +But be foxy about it, Jack." + +"I will! What I came to see about is whether you want me to follow him +out of town. He's been cutting a pretty wide swath since he got out on +bail, and he's been having some pretty sporty times." + +"And you've been with him; is that it?" + +"To the best of my ability, yes," admitted Jack, as he patted Chet, +when the dog, that evidently had met him before, slid over to have his +ears pulled. + +"I have great faith in your ability, Jack. The point is to stick to +King. You managed to make friends with him?" + +"That wasn't hard. But I'll need a little money if I'm to keep up his +pace. That's why I came to you." + +"Perfectly right, Jack. Mason so thoroughly believes in the innocence +of Darcy, and he sticks by his daughter's engagement so well, that he'd +supply twice as much cash as was necessary to sift this to the bottom. +So here's some to enable you to keep up to King's pace." + +"Of course it's none of my business, Colonel, but I'd like to know a +little bit about how the wind blows. Do you really suspect him of the +murder?" + +"Jack, I don't know!" was the frank answer, as Chet went back to his +place by the gas log. "His having that odd coin was what put me on his +trail again, and I sent for you to shadow him, as I had too many other +irons in the fire. And you've done well. I guess there isn't much +that Harry has done since that night about a week ago, when I saw him +in the Homestead, that you don't know about." + +"I guess not, Colonel." + +"But, with it all, I'm not much nearer than I was at first." + +"How about Spotty?" + +"He won't say a word." + +"You tried the third degree on him, of course?" + +"I--er--I did and I didn't," the colonel answered, lamely. "You see, +you can't go too far with a man when he has saved your life." + +"But he may know all about it." + +"Possibly." + +"How about young Darcy?" + +The colonel did not answer at once. It was not until he had gone to a +closet and taken from it a package which he placed on a tabarette, on +which, near him, rested a box of cigars, that he spoke. Then he said: + +"If I could find out why Singa Phut used this watch I'd be in a better +position to answer," and from the package the detective took the +timepiece which he had kept after Donovan had given it to him to +examine. + +"You mean you're not sure about Darcy?" + +"Well, I thought I was. At first I had my doubts. Then, when I had +looked over the ground and talked with Miss Mason and him, I was +willing to take up his case just because I believed he had nothing to +do with the murder." + +The colonel, who had taken the watch from some tissue paper in which it +was wrapped, laid it down on the low stool, and turned his attention to +his visitor. Chet with a whine and stretch, indicating that he was +warmed and rested, and would not object to a little play, walked slowly +over toward the colonel. + +"But," went on the detective, "since the finding of the electric wires +running to Darcy's desk--Jack, I tell you what it is. You helped me +out wonderfully on that robbery of the Chatham bank, when the cashier +ran some wires to the time lock and had it open five hours ahead of +time, I wish you'd come and have a look at those wires with me. Maybe +you could give me a hint that would clear up some of the doubt I have +regarding Darcy." + +"All right, Colonel, I'll come. But I think I'd better follow King +now. He's got a date with Larch, the hotel keeper, and there may be +something in it." + +"Oh, go by all means! The wires will keep. Here, I'll give you an +idea about how they run," and the colonel drew a sort of diagram of the +jewelry store, indicating the showcase where the hidden wires had been +found, explaining to his man the effect on the young woman clerk who +had been shocked. + +Jack Young studied the diagram carefully and shook his head. The +colonel, meanwhile, sat back and waited. Chet was worrying the tissue +paper in which the Indian's watch was wrapped. + +"Well, Colonel, I'll tell you what it is," said Jack, after a series of +questions, "I'd have to see the place to get at any right idea of it. +Not to cast any aspersions on your ability as an artist, I can't just +make out how the wires run, from this sketch," and he smiled, after +having studied the drawings for perhaps ten minutes. + +"Don't blame you a bit!" laughed the colonel. "I never was much on +pencil work. But now you follow Harry King. If you need more money, +come to me," he added as he handed over a roll of bills. "And then +we'll have to go at those wires. I'm not so sure--" + +The colonel's remarks were interrupted by peculiar actions on the part +of Chet. The little animal appeared to have gotten something into his +mouth which bothered him. He was whining and pawing at his jaws. + +"Look at the dog, Colonel!" exclaimed Jack. "Look!" + +"Gad! he's got hold of the Indian's watch!" cried the detective. "He's +been worrying it as he would a bone, and he's got it in his mouth and +can't get it out! Easy there! don't touch it!" came the sharp command, +as Jack Young took a step forward, evidently with the intention of +helping the distressed animal. + +"What's the matter, Colonel?" asked Jack. "You don't want to see the +dog suffer, do you?" + +"No, but--there, he's got it out himself!" + +With an effort the dog had pawed from his mouth the watch, which, being +rather large and of peculiar shape, had for some time, been stuck in +his jaws. It rolled out on the floor, and the colonel stooped to pick +it up. But Jack noticed that his chief used a wad of the tissue paper +with which to handle the timepiece, which was no longer ticking. + +"What's the matter--'fraid of soiling your hands?" asked Jack with a +laugh. + +"Well, yes, in a way--" + +"Look at the dog's mouth! It's bleeding!" cried Jack, pointing. + +"I was afraid it would be," said the colonel, quietly. "Don't go near +him, Jack, for, unless I'm much mistaken--" + +The two men gazed at the dog. The little animal suddenly looked up at +them in a peculiar manner. It whined and its body was shaken as with a +cold shiver. A little blood was running down the lips which were now +foam-flecked. + +"The dog's going mad!" cried Jack. "Look out, Colonel, or--" + +"You needn't be afraid," was the calm answer, as the other turned +toward the door. "He'll never hurt any one. Ah, I thought so!" + +And, as the colonel spoke, Chet gave a shudder, fell over on his side +and, with a long sigh, lay very still. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE COLONEL WONDERS + +"What did that, Colonel? What devilish thing did that?" and with a +trembling finger Jack Young pointed to the body of the dead dog on the +floor of the detective's room. "What killed the poor brute?" + +"Unless I'm very much mistaken this did," was the answer in a low +voice, and the colonel, with the watch still wrapped carefully in the +wad of tissue paper, placed it on the table. + +"That ticker killed the dog? Nonsense! He didn't swallow it! He had +it in his mouth, but he got it out! That couldn't have killed him!" + +"I think it did though, Jack, just as it killed Shere Ali and just as--" + +"Do you mean--that's what killed Mrs. Darcy--that watch?" + +"I don't know yet, Jack." + +"But how could it? How could--" + +The visitor ceased his questions to watch the colonel, who had gone to +a closet and taken out a pair of rubber gloves. Putting them on, he +took the watch from its tissue paper wrappings, and then, holding it +under the gleaming light on his table, he gave a twist to the case, +pressed on a certain point in the rim with the end of his lead pencil +and a tiny needle shot out into view. + +"Look!" said the colonel to Jack Young. + +"Good Lord! An infernal machine in a watch!" + +"Not exactly an infernal machine, but a poisoned needle which only +required pressure on the rim of the case to shoot it out into the hand, +or whatever part of a person or animal was near it. Poor Chet, gnawing +the watch which he was playing with--worrying it as he would a +bone--must have bitten on the right place. The needle shot out, +pierced his tongue or lips and--the deadly poison did the rest!" + +"But, Colonel--this--this is the watch Mrs. Darcy had in her hand when +she was found dead!" + +"Yes," was the cool response. + +"And its the same one Shere Ali had in his hand when he was found dead!" + +"Yes." + +"But both of them had their heads smashed in!" + +"Yes, Jack." + +"But, Great Scott, Colonel! the watch can't do that as well as poison +to death! It's out of the question!" + +"Of course it is. I didn't claim the watch did anything like that. I +don't even claim the poison-needle watch killed Mrs. Darcy or Shere +Ali. But that it did kill Chet I'm certain." + +"I believe you're right there, Colonel Ashley. Poor little dog!" and +Jack, who loved animals, looked at the limp body. + +"I know I'm right, Jack. If I had seen, in time, that he had the watch +I'd have tried to get it away from him. But maybe it will turn out for +the best. In the interests of justice--" + +"Do you think this will help in solving the mystery?" + +"It may." + +"But I thought you said the poison-needle watch might not have killed +Mrs. Darcy?" + +"I'm not saying anything, Jack. It might, and might not." + +"But the blow on her head--the stab wound in her side--?" + +"Both could have been inflicted after the poison watch killed her--if +it did. Mind you, Jack, I'm making no statements. I am only +suggesting possibilities." + +"But-- Great Scott, Colonel--Shere Ali was killed in the same way! +He had the ticking watch in his hand, and his head was smashed in!" + +"Yes." + +"And of course _he_ may have been struck on his head after he died from +the poisoned watch?" + +"Exactly." + +"And this watch Darcy had in his possession to repair just before Mrs. +Darcy was found dead, and she had it in her hand and--say, Colonel, +where are we at?" and Jack Young looked hopelessly at his chief. + +"I don't know," was the measured answer. "I wish I did. There is only +one thing we can be sure of, and that is, no matter what part Darcy had +in the murder--if he had any--by means of this watch in the case of +Mrs. Darcy, he had none in Shere Ali's case, for Darcy was locked up +when that tragedy occurred." + +"That's so, Colonel. And yet-- Oh, well, what's the use of +speculating? What are you going to do next?" + +"I don't know. I wish--" + +There came another knock on the door and a voice asked: + +"Is Chet in here, Colonel? I generally find him with you when he isn't +in my room and--" + +Mr. Bland entered through the opened door, and from the figures of the +detective and his helper the eyes of Chet's owner went to that of the +motionless dog. Chet's master sensed something wrong, for with a cry +of his pet's name he hurried toward the stretched-out animal. + +"Don't!" exclaimed the colonel, reaching out a restraining hand. "The +dog has been poisoned, and with a poison so deadly that even some of +the foam from his lips, in a tiny scratch, might cause your death. +Don't touch him with bare hands." + +"Poisoned, Colonel! Chet poisoned?" + +Sorrowfully enough Colonel Ashley told how it had happened, showing the +poisoned watch, but not disclosing the fact that it was the one which +had figured in the deaths of Mrs. Darcy and Shere Ali. And as nothing +had yet been made public to the effect that the watch, which had had a +part in both cases, was more than an ordinary timepiece Mr. Bland did +not connect it with these two deaths. Colonel Ashley let it be +understood that the watch was a curiosity having to do with some case +he was investigating. + +"And if I had even dreamed that your dog would take it off the stool to +worry it, as he might a bone, I'd never have let him in here," said the +detective. "I can't tell you how sorry I am, Mr. Bland, for I loved +Chet almost as much as you did." + +"I know--I know! And he liked you. Poor little dog! Poor little dog!" + +Tenderly they bore him out, the colonel insisting that no one touch him +with ungloved hands, and a little later Chet was quietly buried. + +"But what are you going to do about that watch--and all that it means?" +asked Jack Young, later, when he was about to depart to take up the +shadowing of Harry King. + +"I'm going to see how it's made and try to learn whether or not Darcy +was aware of its deadly nature. If he was--" + +The colonel did not finish. + +"Well, I'll get on my way," said Jack, after a pause. "I'll keep in +touch with you, in case you need me." + +"And don't lose sight of Harry King," was the parting admonition. +"Something just as unexpected as this may turn up in his case," and the +colonel motioned to the watch. + +Left to himself, the detective looked at the timepiece on his table, +now silent in its tissue wrapping. The needle, which under the +magnifying glass was shown to be hollow, probably drawing the poison +from some receptacle inside the case, had slipped back out of sight +when the pressure was removed from the rim. + +"The watch of death!" mused the colonel. "I must see how you are made +inside, and I think I'd better have a professional perform an autopsy +on you. I'll send for Kettridge. He knows all about watches, though I +question if he ever saw one like this." + +The colonel was about to use his telephone when it rang and, answering +it, he was told that another visitor wished to see him. + +"Who is it?" he asked the clerk downstairs. + +"Mr. Aaron Grafton." + +"Send him up." + +Grafton was plainly nervous as he entered the room; and the colonel, +had he not been a man of experience, might have allowed this +nervousness to influence his judgment, and bring into too much +prominence the first suspicions the detective had felt regarding this +man. + +"Ah, Mr. Grafton, you wish to see me?" + +"Only for a moment, Colonel Ashley. I don't like to call on you thus +openly, for it might give rise to all sorts of questions, but--" + +"Oh, don't let that worry you. I'm a detective, and known as such now. +And you, as the owner of a large department store, where shop-lifting +and other crimes may be committed any day, are often in need of the +services of detectives, I should say." + +"I am, but--" + +"Well, don't worry. If any one knows of your coming to me they will +imagine you wish to consult me about something connected with your +store. So don't let that influence you. But has anything else +happened?" + +"Yes," answered Mr. Grafton, "there has." + +"What?" asked the colonel. + +"Well, I've come to say that I don't think I'll need your services any +more." + +"Not need them?" + +"No. And I wish to pay you and thank you. I'm ever so much obliged to +you for what you have done--" + +"But I haven't done anything yet. I haven't--Oh, I see. You are not +satisfied with my work on your behalf. Well, I can't say I blame you, +for really I haven't had time to give it as much consideration as I'd +like. Still that couldn't be helped and--" + +"Oh, don't misunderstand me, Colonel Ashley. I am not at all +dissatisfied," and Mr. Grafton held up a protesting hand. "The truth +is, I'll not need your services in helping me to recover the diamond +cross for Mrs. Larch--or Miss Ratchford, as she calls herself since the +separation. You can drop that case, Colonel." + +"Drop it?" + +"Yes, the diamond cross has been recovered. I just had a letter from +Cyn--from Miss Ratchford, saying she has the cross." + +"She has the missing diamond cross?" fairly cried the detective. + +"Yes." + +"Where did she get it. Could Spotty--" The colonel whispered the +last name to himself and then stopped short. + +"I don't know. I just had a telegram from her, and I am going to see +her now to learn the particulars," went on Aaron Grafton. "She is in +Pompey, you know--where she used to live as a girl, and where I-- +Well, I'm going to see her. I came to tell you the diamond cross +mystery is solved and if you will let me know what I owe you I'll send +you a check." + +"Oh, that part will be all right, Mr. Grafton. But I don't understand." + +"Nor do I," flung back Aaron Grafton over his shoulder, as he left the +colonel's room, rather hastily. "I'll tell you as soon as I've seen +Miss Ratchford. Good-bye!" and he was gone. + +For a moment the colonel remained motionless in the middle of the room. +Then a queer look came over his face as he murmured: + +"Now I wonder whether he's telling the truth--or lying! Is the diamond +cross in her possession, or did Grafton say that so I'd drop the case +and--leave him out of it? I wonder. And, by the same token of +wondering I think I'd better not let you get too far away from me, Mr. +Grafton. You will bear a little closer watching." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +"A JOLLY GOOD FELLOW" + +"Well," remarked Colonel Ashley briskly to himself, "there are two or +three things I've got to do, and do them right away. Which shall I +tackle first? I wonder if it won't be best to have Kettridge come here +and perform the autopsy on that watch," and he looked toward the closet +where he had placed the one that had belonged to Singa Phut. "If I can +look inside that, and see whether or not the mechanism is so obvious +that Darcy must have stumbled on it when he started to repair it--if he +did--then, well, that complicates matters. Yes, I think I must see +Kettridge." + +Once more the colonel started toward his room telephone, intending to +summon the jeweler, who was living over the store in Mrs. Darcy's rooms. + +The colonel paused at the instrument, recalling that, as he had been +about to use it before there had come in a call for him--the call +announcing the department-store keeper. + +But this time the instrument was mute, and the colonel had soon asked +central for the telephone in the apartments now occupied by Mr. +Kettridge. There was a period of waiting. + +"I am ringing Marcy 5426," announced the pleasant voice of the girl in +the central office. + +"Thank you," responded the detective. + +Another period of waiting, and again the announcement of the girl, +though the colonel had not manifested any impatience. + +"Very well," he responded. "There may be no one at home." + +It was evident, a little later, that at least no one intended to answer +the telephone, and the colonel hung up he receiver. + +"Well, Kettridge can wait," he murmured, as he carefully put away the +watch, thinking, with a sigh of regret, of poor little Chet. The dog +was a friendly animal and had made many friends in the hotel. + +"And so Miss Ratchford--to use her maiden name--has the diamond cross +back again," mused the colonel. "But how in the world could she get +it, when Spotty had it, and the police that are holding him have that, +and he's resisting extradition? Say, I wish I could go fishing!" and +the colonel shook his head in dogged impatience at the tangle into +which the affair had snarled itself. + +"Spotty must have robbed the jewelry store in spite of what he says +about it," mused the Colonel. "But if he did, and got the cross, even +if he didn't kill Mrs. Darcy, how in the world could he get the cross +back to her when the police took it away from him and when the last I +saw of it it was in the police headquarters safe? + +"This certainly gets me! Oh Shag! is that you?" called the colonel as +he heard some one moving out in the hall near his door. + +"Yes, sah, Colonel!" + +"You stay here until I come back. I'm going out, and I don't know what +time I'll be in. Be careful to get straight any messages that come in +over the wire, and if Jack Young calls up get the 'phone number of the +place where he is so I can call him." + +"Yes, sah, Colonel." + +"And, Shag!" + +"Yes, sah, Colonel!" + +"Hand me that little green book. I may have to be up all night, and I +want something to read that will keep me awake," and the colonel +slipped into his coat pocket the green volume. He was taking his +fishing by a sort of "correspondence school method" it will be observed. + +The detective busied himself about his apartment getting ready to go +out, and from a suitcase which was closed with a complicated lock he +took a number of articles which he stowed away in various pockets of +his garments. + +"Is yo' gwine be out all night, Colonel?" asked Shag. + +"I can't say. I'm going to do a bit of shadow work and it may take me +until sunrise. But you stay right here." + +"Yes, sah, Colonel. I will." + +"And now we'll see, Mr. Aaron Grafton," said the detective to himself, +as he prepared to leave, "whether you're telling the truth or not. I +think my one best bet is to follow you when you go to see Miss Cynthia!" + +But before the colonel could leave the room there sounded the insistent +ringing of his telephone bell. + +"I wonder if that can be Kettridge," he mused. "And yet he wouldn't +know that I had called him. Answer it, Shag," he directed. "It may be +some one I don't care to talk to now. Don't say I'm here until you +find out who it is." + +"Yes, sah, Colonel!" + +The colored servant unhooked the receiver and listened a moment. Then, +carefully covering the mouthpiece with his hand, he announced: + +"It's Mr. Young, Colonel!" + +"Is it! Good! Hold him! I'll talk with him!" + +Quickly crossing the room the detective spoke rapidly into the +instrument. + +"Hello, Jack! This is the colonel. Yes--what is it? He is? That's +unusual--for him. Guess he's going down and out by the wrong route! +Yes, I'll come right away! You follow King and I'll take the trail +after Larch. So he's boasting that-- Well, all sorts of things may +happen now. Yes, I'm on my way now. You follow King!" + +The detective remained motionless for a few seconds after he had +slipped the receiver into its hook. Then he said to Shag: + +"Do you know where I ought to be now?" + +The colored man paused a moment before replying. Then he played a +safety shot by answering: + +"No, sah, Colonel, I jest doesn't--zactly." + +"Well, I ought to be getting ready to go fishing. I'm sick of this +whole business. I'm going to quit! I never ought to have gone into +it. I'm too old. I told 'em that, but they wouldn't believe me." + +"Too old to go _fishin'_, sah, Colonel? No sah! You'll never be dat! +Never!" + +"Oh, I don't mean fishing, Shag! I mean I never ought to have been +mixed up with this affair--this detective business. I'm going to quit +now, Shag!" + +"Yes, sah, Colonel!" + +"Get me Kedge on the long distance." + +"Mr. Kedge, in N' York, sah?" + +"Yes. I'm going to turn this over to him. It's getting on my nerves. +I want to go fishing. I'll let him work out the rest of the problems. +Get Kedge on the wire." + +"Yes, sah, Colonel." + +The colored man went to the instrument, but before he had engaged the +attention of central his master called: + +"Oh, Shag!" + +"Yes, sah, Colonel." + +"Wait a minute. I suppose Kedge is very busy now?" + +"Well, yes, sah, I s'pects so. He had dat ar' animal case." + +"Oh, you mean Mr. Campbell's?" + +"Yes, sah! Dat's it. I knowed it was a camel or a elephant." + +"Yes, I suppose he's busy on that. So don't bother him. Anyhow, it +would take him as long to get here, pick up the loose ends, and start +out right, as it would take me to finish." + +"Mo' so, Colonel," voiced Shag. "A whole lot mo'." + +"Oh, well, hang it all! That's the way it is. I never can get a +little vacation. But now I'm in this game I suppose I might as well +stick! Never mind that call, Shag! I'll finish this." + +"Yes, sah, Colonel." + +A fact which the wise Shag had known all along. + + + "For it's always good weather, + When good fellows get together!" + +Over and over again the not unmusical strains welled out from one of +the private rooms, opening off the grill of the Homestead. At times +Larch stopped at the entrance, smiling good-naturedly, but with rather +a cynical look on his clean-chiseled but cruel face. More than once +his eyes sought those of Harry King, and the latter nodded and smiled. +He was spending money freely, but was keeping himself well in hand, +though a waiter was at his side more often than at the side of any of +the others. + +"How long has this been going on, Jack?" asked the colonel, who reached +the hotel soon after his talk with Shag. + +"All the afternoon, I guess, and it looks as if it would be all night." + +"So it does! I wish I'd never gotten into this mess, but I can't get +out now. Kedge would be sure to spoil it after I've started things +moving. What especially did you want to tell me?" + +"Well, King is in there, in his usual state--dignified, of course, but +how long he'll stay that way I can't tell. It's Larch that puzzles me." + +"Yes, it isn't usual for him to make such a congenial companion of +himself with his customers. But he's very different since his wife +separated from him. He doesn't hold himself so highly." + +"And it's telling on his business." + +"What do you mean?" + +"I mean that a number of his best friends are leaving him. The way it +used to be was that the Homestead was patronized by a good class of +people and organizations, some that even were opposed to the liquor +trade. They knew they could have it or not have it as they pleased. +But now Larch is catering more and more to parties that wouldn't come +here if there wasn't something strong to drink, and that's driving the +other sort away." + +"Yes, I've noticed that of late." + +"And that isn't all," went on Young. "Larch is going to come a +cropper, if I'm any judge." + +"What do you mean?" Again the Colonel seemed puzzled. + +"I mean he's going to smash financially. He's been making some poor +investments of late, as well as gambling heavily, and his money can't +last forever. He had a lot, but most of it is gone." + +"I hadn't heard that." + +"Well, it's true. He was well off when he married. That's the reason +he got such a pretty wife, I hear. Her folks were ambitious for her. +Well, she did shine for a while, for the Homestead was not an ordinary +hotel. It was more of a Colchester institution. But it's fast +becoming something else now. + +"Larch is being pressed for cash, and that may be one reason why he's +so thick with Harry King. King's got cash, if it can only be gotten +at. I overheard Larch sounding him as to the chances of raising a big +sum." + +"And what did King say?" + +"He agreed to try to get it for Larch. That's all I gathered then. +But I heard them talking of something else." + +"What?" + +"Larch dropped a hint that he and his wife might be reconciled." + +"The deuce you say!" + +"That's right, Colonel. I heard him telling King about it. Larch is +going to pay his wife a visit--going to call on her at her father's +place in Pompey. And he's going to take her out a present. I believe +that's the usual thing after a quarrel." + +"Possibly," admitted the colonel. "Oh, I wish I'd never mixed up in +this! I'm sorry for young Darcy, and I believe-- Oh, well, what's +the use of talking now! I'm in it and I must see it through. So Larch +is going to visit his wife?" + +"Yes. He's either sent her a present or is going to. I couldn't quite +catch which." + +"What sort of present, Jack?" + +"A diamond cross." + +"What?" and the colonel had suddenly to modulate his voice or he would +have attracted more attention that he cared to. "A diamond cross? Are +you sure about that, Young?" + +"Sure! Why not? I don't see anything queer there. He might buy her a +diamond cross as a sort of forgiveness gift. Same idea Harry King had +you know, but a little higher class, that's all. + +"You know, Colonel, these things are about alike. The man on Water +Street gets drunk and brings his wife home a quart of oysters as a +peace offering. The man on the boulevard does the same thing and +patches up the break with a pearl pendant. It's all the same, only +different." + +"Yes, I suppose so. I didn't know you were a philosopher, Jack." + +"I'm not. It's just common sense." + +"But a diamond cross! And if Larch is losing money--" + +"Oh, well, he may have held out some, or maybe the diamond cross isn't +so elaborate. You know they take a lot of little diamonds now, set 'em +in a cluster and make 'em look as good as a solitaire. Anyhow Larch +has been boasting to King that there's to be a diamond cross present. +And there's another angle to it." + +"What's that, Jack?" + +"Well, there's been some talk between Larch and King about some big +diamonds that have been sold of late. I couldn't catch whether King +had sold them or Larch. Anyhow they brought quite a sum of money. +Maybe they were stolen from the jewelry stock." + +"Not unless Mrs. Darcy had some of which James Darcy knew nothing." + +"Well, I saw Larch at one time, and Harry King at another, have one of +those white tissue paper packages that jewelers keep diamonds in. I +didn't get a glimpse at the stones themselves. I had to be a bit +cautious you know, and, even now, I think they're suspicious of me +here. If it wasn't that King drinks so much, though he manages to walk +and talk straight. I believe he'd try to pump me. Anyhow, I thought +I'd better let you know what I'd heard." + +"Jack, I'm glad you did. So Larch has sent, or is going to send, his +wife a diamond cross! Well, then, Grafton might be right about that +after all. Gad! this thing is getting mixed up! Now, Jack--" + +A waiter who knew the colonel, from the fact that the latter was a +striking figure and had been in the Homestead more than once, +approached the private room occupied by the detective and Jack Young +and announced: + +"Excuse me, Colonel, but you are wanted at the telephone." + +"All right. Where is it?" + +"You can come right in here and have the call transferred from our +central," and the man opened the door of a small booth. The Homestead +was honeycombed with private rooms, booths and telephones. + +"Yes, this is Colonel Ashley," announced the detective into the +instrument, when his identity had been questioned. "Who are you? Oh, +Shag! Yes, Shag, what is it? What's that--at the jewelry store you +say? Well, will this never end? Yes, I'll go there at once!" + +"What is it?" asked Jack, as the colonel hung up the receiver. + +"Why, Kettridge telephoned to my room, and Shag took the message and +repeated it to me. Sallie Page, the old servant of Mrs. Darcy has just +been killed by an electric shock in the jewelry store!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +AMY'S TEST + +However it was not quite as bad as that, though Sallie Page had +received a severe shock, and had been near to death. Prompt action on +the part of the physician on the hospital ambulance had started her +feeble heart, which had been affected by the current of electricity, to +beating. + +This, among other things, Colonel Ashley learned when he hastened to +the jewelry store from the Homestead, leaving at the latter place his +trusty lieutenant, Jack Young, to look after both Larch and Harry King, +neither of whom seemed likely to leave the place very soon. + +"Tell me more about it," said the colonel, when he was sitting with Mr. +Kettridge in the dimly-lighted jewelry shop after Sallie had been taken +to the hospital. "What shocked her?" + +"The same electric wires on the showcase that shocked Miss Brill the +other day. The electricians had been told to remove them, but had not +yet done so." + +"But I thought those wires were dead--cut--after the other accident, +Mr. Kettridge." + +"So they were. But they can be supplied with current from another +source, it seems, and I was the innocent cause of doing it." + +"You! How?" + +"By throwing over a switch on the work bench where James Darcy used to +busy himself!" + +"An electric switch on Darcy's work bench?" + +"Yes, come and see for yourself. I've sent for the electrician to come +and rip out everything. I'll have the place all wired over. It was a +makeshift job to begin with, and since Darcy complicated the wires with +some that he hoped to run his electric lathe with, there is no telling +when one may get a shock." + +"How did it happen?" asked the colonel, as the jeweler led the way to +that part of the store where Darcy had the repair bench, behind the +watch showcase. It was now close to midnight, and the excitement over +the accident to Sallie, which had occurred after the closing hour for +the store, had subsided, not as much of a crowd having gathered at that +time of the evening as would have done earlier. + +"Well, it happened this way," explained Kettridge. "We're going to +have a special sale of a medium-priced line of goods to-morrow. I was +getting ready for it after the clerks had gone--setting out the display +and the like--when I found I needed help. + +"It wasn't much--just the little odds and ends that a woman can do +better than a man when it comes to making things look fancy. I might +have telephoned for Miss Brill, but I didn't like to bring her back, as +she'd worked hard all day. + +"Then I thought of Sallie Page. It's true she's deaf, but she has been +in the family, so to speak, a long while, and she knows the shop and +the goods pretty well. She's quick if she is old, so I got her down +about nine o'clock and we started in." + +"Then exactly how it happened I don't know. I was puttering around the +work table where Darcy used to do his jewel setting and his repair +work, and Sallie was over near the showcase. I wanted more light on a +certain piece of jewelry I had in my hand, and I thoughtlessly threw +over a switch I saw on Darcy's table. It was a switch I hadn't noticed +before--in fact, I accidentally uncovered it by moving a collection of +his tools I hadn't previously disturbed. + +"No sooner had I closed the circuit than I heard a scream from Sallie +and saw her fall backwards. I had given her a shock without knowing +it." + +"That was queer," murmured the colonel. "Let me have a look at that +switch." + +"And, while you're about it, I'll look too," said another voice in the +dimly-lighted store, and, as the two turned in startled surprise, they +saw Detective Carroll smiling at them. + +"I heard there was another accident up here," he went on, still +smiling, "so I came to have a look. The side door was open and I +walked in. Guess you didn't hear me. These rubber heels don't make +much noise." + +"They don't, indeed, when you walk on them and not on the soles," +observed the colonel grimly. "The question is, what do you want to +see?" + +"The electric switch on Darcy's table," was the answer. "I couldn't +help hearing what you said, Mr. Kettridge," said Carroll, "and I don't +know as I would have tried not to if I could. This is important. I +rather guess it makes it look a bit bad for your friend, Colonel +Ashley," and there was a sneer in the words. + +"Well, I don't know," was the cool response. "The wires, as I +understand it, are to run an electric lathe, and they might easily have +become crossed." + +"Oh, yes, of course!" admitted Carroll. "And then, again, they might +have been crossed on purpose. It's a new stunt--electrically shocking +an old lady before you bang her over the head or stab her, but it's a +good one. I'll have a look at that switch. I thought maybe I might +find something interesting here when I heard about the shock to the old +servant, and I didn't miss my guess." + +There was nothing for the colonel or Mr. Kettridge to say or do, and +they remained passive while Carroll took his time looking about. Then +he telephoned for Haliday of the prosecutor's office, and also for the +chief electrician of the police signal system, and all three spent some +time looking at the wires and testing them. + +"What do you think about it?" asked Mr. Kettridge of the colonel, when +the store was again dim and quiet. + +"What do I think? I don't know! I'm going to have a talk with Darcy +in the morning, and if I find he's been deceiving me-- Well, I'll +drop his case, that's all." + +If Darcy simulated surprise when, the next morning at the jail, told by +the colonel of what had happened to Sallie Page, the prisoner was a +consummate actor, the detective thought. + +"Colonel Ashley!" Darcy exclaimed. "I never knew that my lathe wires +crossed or connected with any circuit that might shock a person. It is +true I had the wires run in secretly, as I didn't want my cousin to +know about them. She didn't favor my experiments on the electrical +lathe, and I had to keep quiet about it. + +"But I never strung those wires to shock her, and of course you can +easily imagine I never could plan to injure Sallie Page that way, or +the young lady who was knocked down the other day." + +"Well, Darcy, you may be telling the truth, and, again, you may not," +and the colonel's voice was as noncommittal as possible. "But I am +bound to point out to you that the prosecution will make the most of +this, and that--it looks bad for you." + +"I know it does, Colonel. But I had no more to do with my cousin's +death than Carroll or you. Nor have I the least suspicion who did kill +her. My God! what object would I have?" and he turned and paced up and +down. + +"Well I'll do the best I can," said the colonel. "But I must say it +looks black. Then you never knew your wires might, by the closing of +the switch on your table, shock some one standing near the show case?" + +"I never dreamed of it! The wires must have been changed since I used +them." + +"That will be looked into. And the stopping of the clocks? Could your +apparatus have done that?" + +"Never. It is true a strong electrical current might, under certain +circumstances, stop clocks, as well as start them. But it would not +stop all the clocks in the store--or all that were going--at different +hours." + +"Perhaps not. Well, I must see what I can do. Carroll and Thong, with +the prosecutor's men, will use this for all it is worth. We must +combat it somehow." + +"Please find a way, Colonel! I was so hopeful and--now--" + +The young man could not go on for a moment because of his emotion. + +"Amy--Miss Mason--how does _she_ take this?" he faltered. + +"She doesn't know it yet, I believe. It didn't get in this morning's +papers, but it will be in this afternoon's." + +"I wish you could see her and explain. I--I can't stand it to have her +lose faith in me." + +"I'll see what I can do. I'll put the best face on it I can for her." + +"And you yourself, Colonel! You--you don't believe me guilty because +of this new development, do you?" + +"If I did I wouldn't still be handling your case, Mr. Darcy," was the +answer. "But I don't say that there isn't something to explain. I am, +now, giving you the benefit of the doubt." + +"Then maybe Amy will do the same." + +It was not many hours before the colonel knew this point. The first +edition afternoon papers had not long been out when the detective, who +had gone to his hotel after an early morning visit to the jail, was +telephoned to by Miss Mason. + +"I happened to be in town, shopping," she said, and the agitation was +plainly audible in her voice, "when I saw this terrible thing about Mr. +Darcy's wires and poor Sallie. Is she in any danger, Colonel?" + +"I believe not." + +"That's good! May I come to see you? I have something important to +ask you." + +"Yes, or I will come to see you, Miss Mason." + +"No, I had rather come to your hotel, if you will meet me in the +ladies' parlor. It will be secluded enough at this time." + +And a little later Amy and the colonel were talking. The girl's +haggard look told plainly of her distress. + +"Tell me, frankly," she begged, "doesn't this make it look a little +worse for Mr. Darcy?" + +"Yes, Miss Mason, it does. I had best be frank with you. The +prosecutor is bound to show that the presence of the wires, controlled +by a switch from Mr. Darcy's table, were so arranged that he might +shock his cousin, or any one who put his hands on the showcase. And +they will, undoubtedly, argue that he planned this to make her +insensible for his own purposes, whether it was that he did it in a fit +of passion to kill her for his fancied troubles, or to cover up a +robbery. I am only making it thus bald that you may know and face the +worst." + +"I appreciate that, and I thank you. Then it does look bad for him?" + +"It does." + +"And how does he bear up under it?" + +"Very well. His chief anxiety is regarding you. I realize this is a +test of friendship, Miss Mason. A test of both the loyalty of yourself +and your father, and--" + +"Oh, you needn't worry about dad! He'll stick by Jimmie through thick +and thin, for he says he knows he's innocent," + +"And yourself? How does your loyalty meet the test?" + +Amy Mason drew herself up, a splendid figure of beautiful womanhood. +She flashed a look at the detective that made him stand to his full +military height and bearing, and then she said: + +"Do you think I'm going to let dad beat _me_? Oh, no, Colonel Ashley!" + +So Amy Mason met the test. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +WORD FROM SPOTTY + +"Well," remarked Jack Young, as he critically observed the smoke from +his cigar curling upward toward the ceiling in the colonel's hotel +room, "we have our work cut out for us all right." + +"I should say so!" agreed Mr. Kettridge, who sat before a little table, +on top of which were strewed parts of a watch. Mr. Kettridge had a +jeweler's magnifying glass stuck in one eye, and it gave him a most +grotesque appearance as he glanced from the wheels, springs and levers, +spread out in front of him, over to Colonel Ashley. + +"There is only one thing to do, gentlemen," observed the detective, who +had one finger keeping a certain place in a certain green book. "And +that is--" + +"Make an arrest at once!" exclaimed Young. "He may get away from us if +we don't, drunk as he is." + +"No, there's time enough for that," objected the colonel. "What I was +going to say is that we must take one thing at a time. Otherwise we'll +get into a tangle." + +"I think we're in one now," said Young. "For the life of me I can't +figure out who did the killing, and the only reason I said we ought to +arrest Harry King is because there's some game on between him and +Larch, and those diamonds King is trying to dispose of may be part of +some of those Mrs. Darcy had, and about which she never said anything. +If King took them, he may have killed the old lady and he ought to be +locked up and take his chance with Darcy." + +"If he did it--yes," admitted the colonel. "But I haven't said he +_did_. I haven't said Larch did it. I just don't know. Certainly +King and Larch have been pretty thick of late, and Larch's bailing +Harry out showed there was more than mere friendliness in it. And, as +you say, Jack, if King or Larch sold some loose diamonds, it looks as +though there was something wrong. But we don't want to make a mistake." + +"If we don't do something pretty soon they'll so fasten this crime on +Jimmie Darcy that you'll never be able to get him out of the tangle," +said Mr. Kettridge, as he poked a pair of pliers among the parts of the +watch. "Carroll and Thong, now that they know about the electrical +wires, think they have all the evidence they need, and the prosecutor +agrees with them, I guess." + +"Still, we may be able to combat that," observed the colonel. "Now let +me understand you about this watch, Mr. Kettridge. You don't believe +Darcy ever put that poison needle arrangement in it?" + +"No, I don't. That mechanism was built into the watch after it was +originally made, I'm sure. But even so it was done a number of years +ago. I can tell that by the type of small screws used. They don't +make that kind in this country. Darcy never could have got possession +of any, to say nothing of some of the other parts used." + +Following some days of strenuous work after Amy Mason had expressed her +belief in her lover's innocence in spite of the finding of the electric +wires, and had urged the detective to use every endeavor to clear +Darcy, the colonel had summoned Mr. Kettridge to hold a sort of autopsy +over the Indian watch which was still in possession of the old +detective. With the suicide of the East Indian the case had been +dropped by Donovan and the authorities, they taking it for granted that +Singa Phut had killed Shere Ali and then ended his own life, by help +from outside in getting poison. So if Donovan thought anything about +the watch, he said nothing. + +"Then you think Darcy is cleared of any connection with the poison +watch?" asked the colonel. + +"I think so--yes," answered the jeweler. "As a matter of fact, I don't +believe Jimmie did any repair work on it at all. Singa Phut brought it +in to have it fixed, it is true, but Jimmie was a great chap for +promising work and then not having it ready on time. I've known him to +do that more than once, and he lost Mrs. Darcy customers that way. He +probably promised Singa Phut to have the watch ready for him, and then, +either in working on his pet invention, the electric lathe, or because +of his quarrel with his cousin, forgot about the East Indian's watch. +He may, as he says, have gotten up early to redeem his promise to +repair it." + +"But he never did?" asked the colonel. + +"It bears no evidence of it," and the jeweler focused his glass on the +dismembered timepiece. + +"Do you think he knew the deadly nature of the watch?" went on the +detective. + +"It is doubtful. This watch is of peculiar construction. As I have +showed you, the poison needle could only be made to protrude when the +watch reached a certain time, which time could be set in advance as an +alarm clock is set. I think this is what happened, though I may be +wrong. + +"Singa Phut, for purposes of his own, had this poisoned watch in his +possession. He, of course, knew just what it would do, and how to set +it so that if a person, at a certain hour, took it into his or her +hands, and exerted any pressure on the rim, the needle would shoot out +and puncture the flesh. The poison on the point then caused death." + +"And very speedy death," added the colonel. "Witness what happened to +poor little Chet. The watch was wound up--I wound it myself as a +matter of fact, though I did not dream that the time mechanism had +anything to do with the poisoned needle. Then the dog, playing with +it, as he would with a bone, bit on the rim, just at the time when the +needle was set to operate. It shot out, punctured his lip, and Chet +died." + +"Did you know it was a poisoned watch?" asked Jack Young. + +"I had guessed that after what happened, and that is why I warned +Donovan to be careful. But, as I said, I thought it was like a sword +cane or a spring dagger--that only pressure on a certain part was +needed to force out the needle with its death-carrying smear of some +subtle Indian poison. I never dreamed it was like an alarm clock." + +"Well, it was," said Mr. Kettridge. "I can easily see all the parts, +now that I have taken it apart, and the time-setting arrangement is +very compact, simple and effective." + +"You were careful not to scratch yourself on the needle?" asked the +colonel quickly. + +"Oh, yes indeed! I took that out first. But do you think, Colonel, in +spite of what I have said about Jimmie not knowing how this watch +operated, and, presumably, not having done any work on it--do you think +he can have planned to kill Mrs. Darcy with it?" + +"Hardly. And yet it is possible that Mrs. Darcy may have been killed +by the watch." + +"Killed by it?--how?" gasped Jack Young. "I thought she was stabbed, +and her skull fractured." + +"She had both those injuries, it is true. But what is to have +prevented her from having been punctured by the watch just before she +received those hurts? + +"I mean in this way," went on the colonel. "We will assume that Singa +Phut, finding some trifling thing the matter with his devilish watch, +brought it to the Darcy shop, where he was fairly well known. + +"Darcy promised to fix the timepiece but neglected or forgot to do it, +leaving it on his table. Then, remembering it early in the +morning--perhaps feeling guilty at having spent part of the night +working on his electric lathe--he got up to do as he had promised, +and--" + +"Finds his cousin dead!" interrupted Mr. Kettridge. + +"So he _says_!" added Jack Young significantly. + +"Well, we won't go into that," observed the colonel. "I was going to +make another point. Leaving Darcy out of it, and assuming that he had +left the watch on his table intending to get up in the morning and fix +it, what is to have prevented Mrs. Darcy from coming down to her +store--say, before midnight, after Darcy left her. + +"She saw the watch on the table, and, picking it up, may have wound it. +This set in motion the death-dealing mechanism, and her hand may have +been punctured with the poison." + +"But, even then," put in Young, as he puffed out another cloud of +smoke, "if the poison from the watch killed her, why would any one +strike her on the head and stab her?" + +"That may have occurred just after her hand was punctured by the needle +of the watch," said the detective, "and before the poison had time to +work. It is not instantaneous." + +"But who would have struck or stabbed her after that?" asked Mr. +Kettridge. "I mean, of course, leaving Jimmie out, for I don't believe +he did it." + +"Could not Singa Phut have done it?" asked Colonel Ashley quietly. + +"Singa Phut!" cried both his auditors. + +"Yes. Suppose, after he had left the watch to be repaired with young +Darcy, the East Indian happened to think that he had not warned against +winding it up, which a jeweler would be most apt to do after making +repairs. Singa Phut had no reason for wishing harm to Darcy. He may +have come to the store late at night intending to warn him to be +careful." + +"Well, assuming that, what next?" asked Jack Young. + +"Well, Singa, coming say at eleven o'clock to the jewelry store, finds +Mrs. Darcy there. She has picked up the watch--she must have done +that, for it was in her hand. Singa sees it and fearful of what might +happen he rushes in and tries to take it away from her. She, thinking +him a thief, resists and he, fearful that he will be caught and +arrested as a robber, struggles to get the watch and to make his escape. + +"Now remember that he is of excitable nature, that he is a foreigner, +fearful of our laws, and that he knows the deadly nature of the poison +in the watch. Could not he have both struck Mrs. Darcy with the hunter +statue and stabbed her in trying to get away from her? That would +account for the killing." + +"But there would have been an alarm--the struggle would have made a +noise," objected Jack Young. + +"Yes, but there are not many people passing the store around midnight. +Every one in the place had gone to bed--the sleeping rooms are quite a +distance from the shop. Then, too, very little noise may have been +made. I remember in the Peal case two strong and vigorous men battled +at midnight, one killing the other, in a store on a main street in a +big city. But trolley cars and autos going past drowned all sounds of +the fight. It may have been so in this case." + +"Are you going to offer that to the jury to clear Darcy?" asked Mr. +Kettridge. + +"I may have to," was the colonel's answer. "How does it sound to you, +gentlemen?" + +"Very plausible," admitted Jack Young. "But what about the electric +wires on Darcy's table?" + +"They are a problem, I admit. However, though Carroll thinks he can +prove they were arranged deliberately to shock any one who, at the +proper moment, might touch the showcase, yet I think we can prove that +an accidental crossing of perfectly harmless wires to Darcy's lathe +with the city's electric light circuit may have caused the two +accidents. That is a point I have yet to consider. But we have +settled something regarding the watch, anyhow. Now, Jack, I want to +talk to you about Harry King." + +"He needs to be talked about," was the response. "I don't say he had +anything to do with the murder--especially not after what you have said +about Singa Phut. But Harry King needs watching." + +"I agree with you. You say he and Larch have been looking at a packet +of diamonds?" + +"Yes; diamonds wrapped in those little squares of white paper that +jewelers use. Looks like they'd been robbing a gem store." + +"You don't know of any diamonds missing from Mrs. Darcy's stock, do +you?" asked the colonel of Mr. Kettridge. "Mr. Young and I talked of +this before but didn't settle it." + +"No. But then she may have had a private stock of which Darcy nor I +knew nothing. It is a point worth looking into." + +"I agree with you. So stick to Harry, Jack, my boy." + +"He won't require much sticking to at present. He and Larch are both +so well pickled that they'll easily keep until morning." + +"Well, watch them after that. Maybe you'd better put up at the +Homestead." + +"I will, though I guess it won't be the Homestead long." + +"Why not?" + +"Well, Larch is going to lose it, I hear. It's mortgaged up to the +roof and he can't meet his payments. The old place has gone to the +bow-wows since he started drinking, gambling, speculating and since his +wife left him. All the decent crowd stopped coming." + +"Yes, I suppose so," agreed the colonel. "Well, keep watch of Harry +King. He may provide us with a clew that will make it possible to +prove Darcy innocent more directly than by the inference of Singa Phut." + +"And do you think Singa Phut killed his partner with the watch also, +Colonel?" asked Jack. + +"No. I imagine they quarreled over the possession of the watch, and +Shere Ali, perhaps forgetting the deadly nature of it, or knowing the +time mechanism was set not to go off for some hours, grabbed it away +from Singa. Then came a quarrel and the killing with the candlestick. +However I don't want to speculate too far afield. We have certain +matters settled at any rate." + +"Yes, and I'll get back to the Homestead and watch King," observed Jack +Young with a laugh. + +"And I must get back to the shop," said Mr. Kettridge. "I have some +work to do. Shall I leave the watch apart this way, Colonel?" + +"Yes, I may need it to show to the jury. Leave it as it is, but put it +under glass, and the needle away carefully. We may have to kill a rat +in court as we did in Singa Phut's cell." + +"I think we are coming on," mused Colonel Ashley, when his two visitors +had gone. "I am entitled to a bit of recreation," and, opening his +book, he read: + +"Thus you having found and fitted for the place and depth thereof, then +go home and prepare your ground-bait, which is, next to the fruit of +your labors, to be regarded." + +"I wonder," mused the colonel, "If my ground bait is all prepared? Am +I right or wrong? If I could see the diamond cross that Grafton says +Larch sent back to his wife--if I knew where he got it--" + +The telephone rang. + +"Yes, what is it?" + +"A telegram for you, Colonel." + +"Send it up!" + +Tearing open the envelope Colonel Ashley read: + + +"Spotty Morgan has confessed everything and agrees to extradition. +Shall we send him on?" + + +"Send him on? I should say so!" cried the colonel to himself, as he +made a grab for the telephone to dictate a message telling the police +of Sango, the Western city, to hold Spotty Morgan until he could come +for him. "And so Spotty has confessed? Well, that let's me out, even +if he did save my, life! But it was a close call!" + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +IN THE SHADOWS + +Colonel Ashley, after a night's sleep, was about to prepare for the +trip, when he thought of Darcy in jail. + +"I've got to send him word," he reasoned. "No, I'll let his sweetheart +take it to him. It will be all the sweeter. Here, Shag!" he called. + +"Yes, sah, Colonel! Whut is it?" + +"Get me an auto, Shag--any kind of car will do. I want to take a run +out to Pompey where Miss Mason lives. I won't trust the telephone, and +I'll have time enough before I leave for the West. Get an auto." + +"Yes, sah, Colonel!" and Shag hurried down to the hotel office. + +It was while getting into the machine that a message was handed the +colonel. Hastily he tore the note open. It was from James Darcy and +read: + + +"Have just been informed they are going to put me on trial to-morrow +for the murder of Mrs. Darcy. I don't know what this unexpected move +on the part of the prosecutor means, but I would like to see you." + + +"Whew!" whistled the colonel. "I never counted on _this_. Maybe the +prosecution has something up their sleeve they're waiting to spring. +They're trying to get ahead of me. Well, by gad, sir, they shan't! +I'll beat 'em yet. This trip West will have to wait. Shag, you keep +this auto here. I'm going into the hotel to telephone." + +"Yes, sah, Colonel!" + +Getting Kenneth on the wire, the detective ascertained that the message +from Darcy was correct--the trial was to go on unexpectedly. + +"I may be able to get a postponement," said the lawyer, "but it would +not be safe to count on it. We had better prepare our defense. Are +you all ready, Colonel?" + +"Not quite. I've got to get a certain man back here from the West, but +I can send for him. I'll not go myself, it's too risky. See what you +can do about getting a postponement. It will be so much better if we +can. I was going to tell Miss Mason to go and give some good news to +Darcy, but maybe I'd better wait now." + +"Can you produce the real murderer, Colonel Ashley?" + +"I can, Mr. Kenneth. Don't let that worry you. When I want him I can +lay my hands on the real murderer! He can't get away! We'll have our +little surprise, too!" + +"Good! That will make Darcy feel better. I think I'll go to see him!" + +"All right. And if you want to arrange for Miss Mason to visit him I +think it would be a good thing. He may never go to trial, and then +again he might, and, as you never can count on legal tangles, all the +sentiment you can work up in his favor will be so much gained. You +might let a discreet reporter know about Miss Mason's going to the +jail." + +"I will, Colonel, and thanks for the tip!" + +But James Darcy did not go to trial the next day. Up to the last +minute it looked as though he would, and he was even brought down from +jail to the courtroom where a great crowd had assembled in anticipation +of the opening of the now celebrated case. + +But, when the judge took his place on the bench, and the criers had +proclaimed silence, there was a whispered conference among the +prosecutor and his detectives, in which Carroll and Thong took part. +Then the judge was consulted and Darcy's lawyer was called to the +bench. He was observed to be protesting against something, and finally +the prosecutor went back to his seat at the table opposite the one +where Darcy sat with his counsel. + +"Have you any cases to move this morning, Mr. Prosecutor?" asked the +court in formal tones. + +"May it please your Honor," began Mr. Bardon, "I had hoped to move the +case of the State against James Darcy, indicted for murder, but, at the +last minute, I find that one of my important witnesses is unable to be +in attendance and, under those circumstances, I am compelled to ask for +an adjournment of two weeks. + +"I regret, as regards the counsel on the other side, having to do this, +as he assures me he is ready and anxious to go to trial, but it is +unavoidable, and I promise this, that if the witness referred to is not +here two weeks from to-day, I will go on with the case anyhow." + +"Have you anything to say, Mr. Kenneth?" asked the judge of Darcy's +lawyer. + +"Only that I regret the delay as much as does the prosecutor, and that +we will be ready any time. I should prefer to go on with the trial +now, but I realize that the matter is out my hands." + +"The case then stands adjourned for two weeks," announced the court, +and the officer, arising, announced: + +"The case of the State against James Darcy postponed for two weeks, and +all witnesses for the prosecution and for the defence will then appear +without further notice." + +There was a hum of disappointment, and most of the crowd filed out when +the prosecutor moved a case of assault and battery. Darcy, with a look +at Amy Mason, which she returned with one of assurance and confidence, +was taken back to jail. + +Colonel Ashley read: + +"Let your bait be as big a red worm as you can find." + +"Spotty is certainly red," mused the fisherman. He was sitting, after +the adjournment, in his hotel room. "Red and freckled. As for bait--" + +Musingly he closed the little green book and watched the smoke curl +lazily from his cigar. + +Several days went by. The colonel was seated in his hotel room, his +finger between the leaves of a little green book, smoking and reading. +The telephone rang sharply. + +"Hello. Oh, it's you, is it, Basset. So you got back with Spotty, did +you? Good! No trouble on the trip? Fine! All right, I'll wait here +for you. No, the trial went off for two weeks. You're in plenty of +time. I'll expect you soon. Good-bye." + +An hour later the man he had sent West to bring on Spotty Morgan +entered his room. This man, a detective from the colonel's office, +had been instructed by wire to go to a certain city and there, without +the formality of requisition papers, which Spotty more or less +generously waived, bring on the prisoner. + +"Well, what does he say, Basset?" asked the colonel, when he had +provided his man with a cigar. "What does he say?" and the voice was +eager. + +"Oh, he says he did it all right. And there's the cross," and Basset +tossed on the table beside the colonel a battered cross of gold in +which sparkled many stones with the limpid fire of hidden rainbows. + +"Did he give any particulars?" + +"Oh, yes, he come across with the whole story." + +"What made him hold back on me then? He might have known I'd find out. +Why didn't he confess to me, Basset?" + +"Well, I guess it's just as he says--he didn't want to split on a pal. +But when his pal went back on him--" + +"What do you mean--his pal went back on him?" asked the colonel, and +there was uneasiness in his voice. "And, while you're about it, +Basset, don't handle that cross so carelessly. It's worth several +thousand dollars--a small fortune maybe--and some of the stones may be +loose. They might fall out." + +"That wouldn't hurt, Colonel. I reckon maybe I did lose one or two on +the way back, careless like." + +"You lost some of those diamonds?" The colonel's voice was sharp. + +"Diamonds? Diamonds nothin'! Them's paste, Colonel. That's what made +Spotty sore. His pal done him dirt, and that's why he split. The +whole cross is made of phoney diamonds--paste!" + +"Paste diamonds! Spotty's pal fooled him! What do you mean?" gasped +the colonel, his apprehension growing. "Isn't this the diamond cross +that Mrs. Larch owned? And yet, if this is here, how could her husband +send it to her? And Spotty! Basset, what _does_ it all mean?" + +"Well, Colonel, I don't know whose cross this is, but whoever lost it +didn't lose much. It's worth about ten dollars, I guess, and say, if +ever there was a sore crook it's Spotty! He says when he and Blue Ike +planned to rob Grafton's store they thought there was some real jewelry +there." + +"Rob Grafton's store!" cried the colonel. "Didn't Spotty confess to +stealing this diamond cross from Mrs. Darcy, and killing her because +she wouldn't let him get away with it?" + +"Colonel this is the first I've come on the case, and all I know is I +was sent on to bring Spotty back. I wasn't told he was charged with +murder." + +"He wasn't exactly _charged_ with it, but-- Well, go on, what did he +confess to?" + +"Just robbery, that's all, and he didn't get much. He and Blue Ike +cracked a crib here one night. From what Spotty says they got in Aaron +Grafton's department store, opened the safe the way Ike always does, by +listening to the tumblers in the lock, and took out some jewelry. +There wasn't much--they picked the wrong safe I guess, but anyhow they +took this cross. Had a fight over it, too, and it got stepped on, or +banged up in some way, Spotty says. Then they heard a noise and +skipped. Spotty kept the cross, and thought he'd have enough salted +down, when he sold it, to live easy for a while. + +"He and Ike met out West and tried to sell the diamond cross to a fence +and got pinched as suspicious characters by the bulls who were making +their regular round of the pawnshops. Ike squealed on Spotty for +another job after they give him the third degree, and when Spotty heard +of that it made him sore, as it would anybody. Then when the two bulls +who pinched Spotty and Ike tested the diamonds in the cross and found +they was phoney--as they might have guessed coming from a department +store--Spotty was fit to be tied, he was so wild! So he up and +confessed. Said he knew you wanted him for the job and was sorry he +made so much trouble. To send word to you that he'd come on and stand +trial." + +"But, stars and stripes! I didn't want him for this little robbery +job!" cried the colonel, "I didn't even know he did it! I was after +him for the murder of Mrs. Darcy, where I thought he got the diamond +cross. And to think the jewels are paste!" and the colonel looked at +them sparkling in the electric light as bravely as though they were +worth a fortune instead of being what a poor shop girl might wear to a +bricklayer's ball. + +"Well, that's all I know about it," said Basset. "Spotty wanted me to +tell you he'd confessed, and he's dead sore on Blue Ike." + +For several seconds the colonel said nothing, and then he shook his +head as a dog might on emerging from deep water, and remarked: + +"Well, I've got to take another tack, I guess. Tell Spotty I'll +arrange to have him bailed. It'll be easy on a mere theft charge. But +how in thunder am I going to get Darcy off if I haven't any one to +offer--" + +The tinkle of the telephone bell interrupted the colonel's half-aloud +musing. + +"Hello," he said into the transmitter. "Oh, that you, Jack? Well, +what's up now?" + +For a moment the colonel listened intently, many emotions flashing +across his face. Basset toyed idly with the jeweled cross, which +sparkled as bravely as the real stones might have done. + +"Yes--yes," said the colonel impatiently. "Go on, Jack!" + +And in a few more seconds the colonel added: + +"All right! I'll get right after him! Out toward Pompey you say? All +right, I'll shadow him! By the way, Basset is here. He brought on +Spotty Morgan. Come on over to my room and have a talk with him. +He'll tell you the yarn--It'll surprise you--I haven't time. I'm going +to get right out!" and the receiver went on the hook with a bang. + +"Anything I can do, Colonel?" asked Basset. "I'm sorry to have to +disappoint you about this cross, but--" + +"Oh, that was my own fault, for taking too much for granted. I should +have asked Grafton more questions, and gotten a description of Mrs. +Larch's ornament. He never said anything to me about being robbed." + +"Maybe he didn't count this, it not being worth much," and Basset +flipped the sparkling cross half way across the table. + +"Maybe not, and yet--" + +But if the colonel had any thoughts regarding Aaron Grafton he kept +them to himself as he made ready to go out. + +"Know when you'll be back?" asked Basset. + +"No, I can't say. Make yourself at home here. I'll tell 'em at the +desk. Shag will be over presently. One of you stay here so I can +telephone in if I have to. You'd better plan to stay all night if I +don't get back." + +"Want to say where you're going?" + +"I suppose I'd better. I'm going to Pompey." + +"Out where you said Mrs. Larch is staying?" + +"Yes, only she doesn't call herself that now." + +"I understand." + +"She's taken her maiden name again since the separation. Yes, I'm +going to Pompey, and it may be night when I get there. I'll have to do +any shadowing among the shadows I guess, as I've often cast for trout. +But, dark or light, I think I'll bring home the right fish this time." + +And so, as the early shadows of the late afternoon were slanting over +Colchester the old detective boarded a train, keeping in view a +well-dressed, freshly-shaven individual, who, for all his slickness and +sleekness, seemed to have about him the air of a tiger. His hands, in +new gloves, slowly clasped and unclasped, as though he would have liked +to twine the fingers about the soft throat of a victim. + +"Yes," murmured the colonel, as he sank into his seat, "I think I'll +bring home the big fish this time." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +SWIRLING WATERS + +At the little station of Pompey the colonel saw his man leave the +train. For the wily fisherman to slip from the car on the other side +of the track and get behind a tool shanty, was the work of but a +moment, and as the train pulled out, and puffed on its way, the +detective, peering around the corner of the shed, which housed a +handcar and other tools of the section hands, had a glimpse of his +"fish," as he facetiously termed him, standing rather irresolutely on +the station platform. + +"Now for the next move," murmured the colonel. + +It was not long in being played. + +The man went inside the station, but the detective did not come from +his post of observation. The depot was so small that any one leaving +it, even on the side away from the tracks, would be seen as soon as he +had passed beyond the shadows. But the man evidently had no intention +of going away. He came out again on the front platform, accompanied by +a boy--one, seemingly, who ran errands and delivered telegrams when any +came to disturb the peaceful solitude of Pompey. + +"I must see that note!" murmured Colonel Ashley, as he saw one handed +to the boy. "If he goes in the direction I think he will, I'll get it +too! I think I know the lady to whom it is addressed." + +The boy talked with the man a little, nodded his head as if +understanding, and then started off up the tracks, toward a path that +led across a field and toward a cluster of village houses. + +"Just as I thought," the colonel whispered to himself. + +Keeping the tool-house between himself and the man now nervously pacing +the platform, the colonel walked rapidly away from the station, in the +direction taken by the boy. + +The boy's legs were short and vigorous, the colonel's long and no less +muscular, and, thanks to his devotion to Walton, which had taken him +tramping many miles over hilly trails, as well as across level meadows, +the old detective was soon able to overtake the lad, and at a point +impossible of observation from the station. + +"I say!" called the colonel. + +The boy stopped, and looked back questioningly. + +"Did you tell him where the best fishing was?" asked the colonel. + +"Fishing? Who?" + +"The gentleman who gave you that note. Is it possible he didn't +mention fishing?" + +"Naw! He didn't say nothin' about it. He just give me this letter, +and--" + +"Very likely he forgot about the fishing part," and the detective +smiled grimly. "Let me see it just a moment." + +Without hesitation the boy handed it over. Thought was hardly more +rapid than the colonel's perusal of the missive, and, as he gave it +back to the boy, he remarked: + +"It's all right. I didn't make any mistake. Now hurry, and you +needn't come back to the station right away." + +"But he told me to bring him an answer." + +"Oh, did he? Well, then I'll wait for you in the village and you can +let me see it first. Then I'll know all about the fishing and I can be +on hand with my friend. Trot along, Sonny. I'll meet you in the +village when you get the answer to the note. Then I'll know just where +to go fishing. How is it around here? Are there any good streams?" + +"Are there? Say, I've caught some of the biggest chubb--" + +"Ah, I thought I wasn't mistaken in thinking you a pupil in the school +of Izaak Walton." + +"Isaac Walton? Huh! That ain't our teacher's name!" + +"No, I suppose not," and the colonel smiled. "Well, hurry along Sonny, +and here's an extra quarter for you, I'll follow you and you can let me +see the answer before you go back to my friend. It would be too bad if +he and I went fishing in separate places. I want to be with him." + +"Where's your hooks and line?" asked the boy. + +"Oh, I have them in my pocket--the hooks and line," and the colonel +grimly tapped a pocket wherein something clicked metallicly. + +"You can cut a pole in the woods," said the boy. "I've done it lots of +times." + +"Of course," agreed the colonel, smiling. The boy sped away over the +fields. The detective followed more slowly until he reached the +collection of houses, and there he strolled along, inspecting the +different dwellings as though attracted by the quaint old village +street. + +It was not long before the boy returned, an envelope held conspicuously +in his hand. He smiled as he caught sight of the colonel. + +The shadows were lengthening. + +"It's too late for fishing now," observed the boy as, unwittingly, he +handed over the missive. "That is, unless you're going to set night +lines." + +"I may have to do that," the detective agreed. "But it won't be quite +dark yet for some time." + +He glanced quickly at the envelope. It bore no address on its plain, +white surface, and under pretence of turning, so as to take advantage +of the last golden glow in the west, the colonel quickly read the +letter. As he did so a look, almost of fright, came over his face. + +"I wonder if she'll keep her word," he murmured. "I wonder--" + +He slipped the letter quickly into another plain envelope, one of a +miscellaneous collection of papers in his pocket, and returned it to +the boy, retaining the covering he had been obliged to tear open, for +it had been sealed. + +"There you are," he said. "And you needn't say anything to my friend +about the fishing. I want to surprise him. Just don't say anything +about me. + +"And here's half a dollar, Sonny. Could I hire you to take me to that +brook you spoke of, where you say there are such big fish?" + +"Sure you could," the boy answered eagerly, as he pocketed the money. +"I know a lot about fishing." + +"All right. I may call on you. Trot along now, and remember--don't +say anything. This is to be a surprise!" + +"Sure, I know," and with a precocious wink the lad passed on into the +ever lengthening shadows. + +"I think," observed the colonel to himself, as he watched the boy +making his way back toward the station, "that I'll make a little change +in the old saying, and _follow_ the woman instead of _looking_ for her, +since I know where she is already." + +Back then to the peaceful little village went the fisherman, and, +reaching the house where the boy had left the note, taking therefrom +its answer, Colonel Ashley waited with all the patience that might +characterize a waiting beside some fishing stream. + +But his patience was not tried long, for presently a veiled woman +emerged from the house. She walked away rapidly the detective +following unseen. + +"She is going to meet him, just as she promised in the note, though it +must be galling to her pride," murmured the old detective. "I wonder +if she really believes he'll keep his word--or can keep it? Well, I'll +be there at the finish, and I think this _will_ be the finish," he went +on grimly, as he thrust his hand into his side pocket, where the +"hooks" jingled with grim music. + +As the woman walked on, she turned now and then and looked back along +the fast-darkening streets. + +For a moment the colonel was suspicious. + +"I wonder if she has seen me?" he murmured. + +He gave a quick, backward glance, and started as he saw another figure +not far behind him. + +"Can it be?" exclaimed the colonel. "No, it's Aaron Grafton," he +proceeded with an air of relief. "He must have been at her house, and +she has asked him to follow her, to make sure no harm is done. A bit +foolish of him, under the circumstances. But when a man's in love--" + +The colonel shrugged his shoulders and chuckled grimly. + +"However, I must take care that he does not see me." + +Slipping behind a tree, the colonel effected a change in hats, for he +always wore a soft one and carried several collapsible ones. Then, +buttoning his coat rather askew about him, to give a careless air to +his attire (the colonel, normally was one of the neatest men living) he +crossed to the other side of the street and then became the shadower of +two instead of one, for Aaron Grafton had passed on without, +apparently, noticing him. + +The woman was still in sight, and before she reached the station the +man who had sent the note came out and met her on the driveway. The +colonel looked back and saw Mr. Grafton dodging behind a tree. + +"He doesn't want to be seen, either," he mused. + +Relying on his simple but effective disguise, the colonel made bold to +walk within hearing distance of the man and woman, the latter having +come to a stiff halt when she saw the man advancing to meet her. + +"We can't talk here," said the dispatcher of the note. "Will you walk +a little way with me?" + +His tones had the cutting coldness of steel, and there was a sort of +restrained cruelty in his every action. + +"I suppose it would not be wise to be seen talking to you here," was +the woman's low reply. "And, believe me, I have no desire to be seen +with you again, ever. It was only your promise in the note that +brought me here. Are you prepared to keep it if I walk a way with you?" + +"I am! This is no more pleasant for me than for you, but it must be +done. Come!" + +He did not offer to touch her, nor did he turn his head more than half +way in speaking to her. He seemed to be controlling himself by an +effort, and she seemed to shrink away. Again she looked back, down the +fast-darkening street, as though to make sure there was a way of +escape--some one near on whom she could rely. + +"Don't worry. I'll be there when you have your little talk," whispered +the colonel to himself. + +"Suppose we walk up on The Heights," suggested the man. "We will not +be disturbed, and--" + +"Up there?" she gasped. + +"Why not?" he asked, as they walked on, and the colonel, affecting a +slowness in gait, heard the words. "Just because you used to walk +there in your--in other days," he substituted quickly, "is no reason +why you shouldn't now, is it?" + +"Only--_memories_!" Her voice was very low. + +"Memories? Bah!" The words were as though he spewed them from his +mouth like a bitter taste. "Come on!" and his tones were rough. + +The woman looked at him a moment with eyes that seemed to burn through +her veil, and then followed. The colonel passed on ahead, slouched +across the street once more, and lagged behind, so that he might follow. + +The couple turned toward the outskirts of the village, where, on a +hill, known locally as "The Heights" there was a grove of trees. Below +the hill, at one place cutting deep into it and making a precipitous +cliff, was a little river. At the point where the stream had bitten +into the hill it had washed for itself a defile, the bottom +rock-covered, so that the waters swirled over it in foam. + +The Heights was the favorite trysting place of lovers, and many were +the pleasant spots there. With evening coming on, it was almost sure +to be deserted, though later, if there was a moon, murmuring voices +would mingle with the eclipse of the swirling waters in the gully below. + +"Yes, it's a quiet place for a talk," mused the colonel. + +The man and woman passed on. Behind them came the shadower, and behind +him Aaron Grafton. + +Up The Heights walked the leading pair, seemingly unaware of the +presence of any one but themselves. Into the shadows they strolled, +still stiff and uncompromising, both of them. At last the woman, +halting near the edge of the cliff, beyond which the woods were +thicker, faced the man. + +"This is far enough," she said, and she turned so that the fast-fading +light of the west was on her veiled face. She did not raise the mesh. + +"Yes, this is far enough, I suppose," said the man, and there was a +sneer in his tones. "Too far, perhaps. But--" + +"I did not come here to discuss anything with you but the matter you +spoke of in your note," cut in the woman. "Did you bring my diamonds +as you promised?" + +"Yes, I have them." + +His voice was as cold as hers. + +"Then give them to me and let me go. I don't know why I consented to +meet you, except that you said you would give them only to me, +personally. And I don't, even for that, know why I came here. I--" + +"Possibly in memory of other days?" the man sneered. + +"Never!" she answered bitterly. "Oh, never that!" + +"Well, as you choose," he went on, with a slight shrug of the +shoulders. "But I have a few things I want to say to you, and I didn't +want the whole village babbling about it. Too many know me here, so I +kept out of sight as much as I could." + +"Say what you have to say, and quickly. Give me my diamonds, to which +I have a right, and let me go. That is all I ask of you." + +"I'm afraid it can't be done so quickly as all that," and the man +laughed cuttingly. "In the first place, I want you to sign a paper. I +have it with me, also a fountain pen. I've a flashlight to let you +read what you sign, in case it gets too dark." + +"Do you mean a receipt for the diamonds?" + +"Not exactly, Cynthia, I--" + +"Miss Ratchford, if you please!" she exclaimed. "Miss Ratchford to +you, always, after this!" + +"Oh, very well! Now look here! I'm done with soft words and +foolishness!" + +He took a sudden step nearer her, and she shrank back. Colonel Ashley, +who had worked himself to a position, where, hidden behind a screen of +bushes, he could see and hear, watched closely. + +"Foolishness?" the woman questioned. + +"Yes, foolishness! You know the trouble I'm in. I've got to have +money! You can get it for me!" + +"I?" + +"Yes. And, by the eternal, you've got to! Do you think I'm going to +ruin just because you couldn't stand a little rough treatment now and +then? Why, better women than you would be glad to come back to me. +I'll take you back!" + +"Take me back! Oh, my God!" + +"Cut out that hysterical stuff!" he ordered. "I'm desperate! I've got +to have money. I can raise it on a note if you'll sign it and put up +those bonds for security, and by--" + +He caught her wrist in a grip that made her wince with pain as he swung +her around to face him. + +"I've got to have your signature and the bonds!" he exclaimed in voice +tense with suppressed passion. + +"The bonds!" she exclaimed. "You know what almost became of them. I +let you raise money on them once, and almost lost them. Now you dare +ask me for them again?" + +"I do, and I'm going to enforce my demands! I've got to have money. I +darn't sell your diamonds--at least I don't want to. I'd rather you'd +have them," and he seemed to weaken as if with romance when it came to +this sentiment. "As for the bonds--" + +"You'll never touch them!" she cried, bitterly. "Isn't it enough that +you have ruined my life? Now you must--" + +"Oh, stop the theatrical business!" he sneered. "Pity you didn't go on +the stage. Now look here. This is your last chance. I'll give you +your diamonds if you'll sign this paper so I can get out of the tangle +I'm in. You've got to sign! It's your last chance. If you don't, by +all the--" + +She tore herself away from him, and turned to flee, but he was too +quick for her, and was about to encircle her in his arms when she +shrank back and gave a despairing cry. + +"Don't--don't touch me!" + +This seemed to madden the man, for he sprang toward her, fury and +threat in every gesture. + +"Aaron! Aaron! He's going to kill me!" screamed Cynthia. + +Thought was not quicker than the leaping forward of Colonel Ashley. +Out from the shadows he sprang, to whirl back the man who, with blazing +eyes and murderous hate written on his face, confronted Cynthia +Ratchford. + +"What--what's this?" snarled the man, struggling to retain his balance. +"What's this? Who the devil are you, to come between me and my--" + +"Don't dare profane that name!" warned the woman. "I--I-- Oh, +Aaron! where are you?" + +It was very dark now, under the trees. + +"Ha! So _that's_ who he is! Your old lover, Grafton! Well, I'll soon +finish him! I'll make him wish he hadn't come between us with his +protecting ways, and his diamond cross that he goes so secretly to have +mended. Bah! A pretty lover! Take that, you sneaking fool!" + +There was a sliver of flame in the darkness, and mingled with the +report came a cry of anguish and a woman's scream, as a heavy stick in +the hands of Colonel Ashley broke the hand that held the revolver. + +A little thud among the bushes told where the weapon had fallen, its +bullet cutting the tree branches overhead. + +"Oh--who--who are _you_?" gasped the woman, as the colonel stepped +between her and the man he had maimed. "I thought Mr. Grafton was--" + +"I think that is he coming now," said the old detective quietly, as the +sound of some one running up the path was borne to their strained +senses. + +"Look here!" snarled the man with the broken wrist, as he clasped it +with his other hand, "aren't you--" he started back as a last flicker +of the waning light fell across the colonel's face. "Who in the name +of all the devils in hades are you?" he cried. "What right have you--" + +"The right of the law," was the quiet answer. The colonel's hand +slipped into his pocket, where something metallic clicked. "The right +of the law. Langford Larch, I arrest you for the murder of Mrs. Amelia +Darcy!" + +It was so still for a moment that the rustle of a bird's wings in the +tree overhead sounded like the rushing of wind. Colonel Ashley, +drawing something from his pocket, took a step nearer the maimed man. +As he did so Larch laughed wildly. + +"Ah, so that's the game, is it?" he cried. "You have betrayed me, +Cynthia, you she-devil! You put up this little game with your lover +Grafton, did you? Well you--" + +"Langford, I never--!" + +"Bah! Well, I'll fool you all! Arrest me for murdering the old woman, +will you? Like hell you will!" + +He stepped back a pace, Colonel Ashley following. + +"Keep back!" cried Larch. "If you touch me--! I'm not afraid of you. +Yes, I did kill her! I didn't mean to, but I did. The game's up! I +can see that. But you'll never get me to the chair. I'll fool you +all! I'm not afraid to die!" + +Before the colonel or Aaron Grafton, who just then burst through the +bushes fringing the path, could make a move to prevent him, Langford +Larch, with a cry like that of a stricken beast, threw himself over the +edge of the rocky precipice, and his body went crashing down a hundred +feet into the swirling waters below. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +HIS LAST CASE + +Slowly the bruised and cut lips moved. Faintly came from the maimed +throat a hoarse whisper. + +"I--did--it! I know this is the end. I'll confess everything!" + +Before his death, which followed soon after he had been taken from the +swirling waters, Langford Larch made a complete confession, telling how +he had killed Mrs. Darcy. + +Swiftly went the news to the jail, and later to the courthouse, whence, +after a conference between the grave judge and a somewhat disappointed, +though perhaps gladly so, prosecutor of the pleas, James Darcy walked +forth a free man, honorably discharged from the custody of the court, +the indictment against him for murder quashed. + +Amy Mason was the first to greet her lover when he stepped away from +the bench of the judge, before which he stood to hear himself cleared +of the charge. + +"Oh, Jimmie boy! I'm so glad!" and her eyes beamed. + +"And so am I, Amy. If you knew what I have gone through--" + +"As if I didn't know, Jimmie boy! The colonel told me some of it."' + +"Did he? Isn't he a trump? Where is he now?" + +"Oh, dad carried him off for some long-delayed fishing," answered Amy, +as she and James Darcy left the courtroom before a throng, that could +not be restrained from cheering, despite the cries of "Silence!" on the +part of the constable. + +"But how did he know that Larch killed her?" asked Darcy, as he and Amy +rode away in her car, amid the cheers of the throng outside the county +building. + +"By the process of elimination, so he told dad. He never for an +instant really believed you guilty, Jimmie boy, even after the +discovery of the electric wires, though he let those two detectives +think he did." + +"And what about Singa Phut and Harry King?" + +"Oh, they were only incidents, so Colonel Ashley says," went on the +happy girl, as the automobile rolled along. "Even that funny Spotty +was 'eliminated', as our dear old fisherman calls it, when he explained +about the diamond cross. And as for Mr. Grafton, though he was mixed +up in the jewel part of the mystery, he was only acting to help Miss +Ratchford, as she wants to be called. Poor girl, she's had a hard +time, too! I hope she finds as much happiness as--" + +"As who?" asked Darcy, as Amy hesitated. + +"As I have," came the gentle answer, as Amy gazed with shining eyes at +the man beside her. + +Langford Larch told everything in the brief time left him between his +fatal leap and the passing of his soul to a higher judgment than that +of the county courts. Some time before the events leading to the +separation, a meeting between his wife and Grafton had been witnessed +by one of Larch's hotel employees, who told of it, magnifying its +importance. Larch's jealous disposition was inflamed, and there was a +stormy scene between him and his wife. He knocked her down, and that +was the end, as far as she was concerned. She told him she would leave +him. She admitted that she still cared for Grafton, but denied any +intimacy with him. Then came the legal separation. + +Before this, however, Larch had missed his wife's diamond cross, and +charged her with having disposed of it. During their final interview +she told the truth, of how it had been stepped on, and that Grafton had +taken it to be repaired. It was then that Larch saw his opportunity +for getting possession of the valuable stones, for his debts were +pressing, and, though it was suspected by few, he needed a large sum in +cash. + +One night, partly intoxicated, which was unusual for him, and perhaps +on this occasion done in desperation, Larch called at the jewelry +store. Mrs. Darcy happened to come downstairs as he arrived, and, +knowing him well, admitted him, though the store had long been closed. +In one hand she held the Indian watch, perhaps picked up idly from the +repair table. In the other hand was the diamond cross. + +This ornament Larch instantly demanded, but Mrs. Darcy refused to give +it up, not only on account of his condition, but because she did not +consider that he had any claim to it, knowing that it had been his +wife's before their marriage. + +Larch was insistent in his demands, and tried to take the diamond cross +from Mrs. Darcy. She resisted him in the dimly-lighted and deserted +store, and he caught up the paper-cutter dagger and threatened her. + +She backed away from him, toward the open safe, intending, it would +seem, to put the valuable ornament in there and lock it up, when Larch +struck at her. As he did so, he knocked down the heavy statue of the +hunter. It struck her on the head, inflicting what would have proved a +mortal blow, even without the knife thrust. + +As the statue fell Larch leaned forward to grasp it, he said, but he +slipped and the knife in his hand entered her side, and she fell on it, +driving it deeper in. Larch declared he never meant to kill, or even +seriously hurt, Mrs. Darcy. But he did kill her. + +Seeing her lying, as he then thought, only perhaps seriously wounded, +Larch, taking the diamond cross, staggered around the jewelry shop, and +then fled panic-stricken, went to the Homestead, and drank himself into +a stupor. + +Incidentally Larch's confession cleared up other matters, and shifted +certain responsibilities from various persons. The Indian watch, +though impregnated with poison, had nothing to do with the death of +Mrs. Darcy, though she might have been slightly scratched by the hidden +needle. And the money Harry King went out and got the night of the +murder was given him, as he boasted at the time, by a woman. He +refused to name her, but she was named later, when King's wife filed a +petition for a divorce--not her first by the way. + +"Well, Colonel," remarked Mr. Mason, as together they strolled toward a +trout stream, several days after the clearing up of the diamond cross +mystery, "I'm glad to know you had the same faith in young Darcy that I +had." + +"Oh, yes, there couldn't be any other way out. Jimmie boy, as your Amy +calls him--bless her heart--was a bit careless, but that was all. Some +of his wires that he rigged up for his electric lathe, secretly, did +get tangled with the heavily-charged conductors of the lighting system, +though he didn't know that. It may be they were responsible for the +shocks given. I didn't go into that deeply. And Darcy didn't repair +Singa Phut's watch when he said he would. It was in getting up early +to do this and have the timepiece ready when promised, that he +discovered his relative's dead body." + +"Where did Harry King get that odd coin which made it look bad in his +case for a while?" asked Mr. Mason. + +"Larch gave it to him, unsuspectingly enough, it seems. When Larch +went into Mrs. Darcy's store she had the tray of rare coins out of the +safe. She may have been going to put them away with the Indian watch +and the diamond cross, but she had no chance. And after Larch had +killed her, seeing the money, he picked up a handful, as he needed some +change. In a way the discovery of the odd coin helped in solving the +mystery, for I kept my helper, Jack Young, at the Homestead after that, +and it was hearing King and Larch talking about the diamond cross that +gave me just the clew I wanted. + +"Larch had taken out the valuable diamonds from the ornament, and had +disposed of them, in spite of what he said to his wife just before his +death, to get some much-needed money. He really did send her the +crushed gold setting, promising, in the letter he dispatched to her by +the boy I intercepted, to restore the diamonds to her if she would meet +him. + +"This she consented to do. As it happened, Aaron Grafton was calling +on her at the time, trying to find some means of helping her, for there +is the old-time love between them. And it was at her suggestion that +he followed her when I was shadowing Larch. Evidently Grafton didn't, +at that time, know it was only the crushed and diamondless cross that +Larch had sent back. And after he died and confessed, we found a paper +of imitation diamonds in his pocket that Larch had ready to use in +deceiving his wife if she had agreed to sign the papers he wanted her +to, so he could bolster up his failing business." + +"Well, he's out of the way now, and I hear the hotel has been sold." + +"Yes, Mr. Mason. And it will be, so I hear, once more the oldtime and +respectable resort it once was. As for Miss Ratchford, she has gone to +friends in California, and there, I understand, Mr. Grafton will +shortly follow. They are to be married in about a year. Mr. Grafton +is going to sell out his business. He told me he would not press the +charge against Spotty for stealing the imitation diamond cross. So +Spotty will soon be at liberty again." + +"I'm glad of that. He's a sport--in his own way." + +"Yes," agreed the colonel, + +"One point puzzles me," went on Mr. Mason, "and that is, why Cynthia--I +call her that for I've known her for years--why she didn't make Larch +support her after the separation. She could have had a regular divorce +and big alimony--that is if he could have paid." + +"Maybe that's it--he couldn't. Anyhow, she seems not to have wanted to +accept any of his money after he had spoiled her life. It was a +foolish marriage, though at the time it may have seemed advantageous to +her--or her mother. After the murder, or let us call it killing, for +Larch with his last breath protested he never meant it--after that, +which Cynthia seems to have guessed--she was even more strong in her +determination not to take any of his money. She was prepared, too, in +case Jimmie had been found guilty, to make a statement implicating her +husband, though, under the law she could not be compelled to testify +against him in a murder trial." + +"Well, I'm glad it's all over, Colonel," said Mr. Mason, with a sigh of +relief. "There are two happy ones, if ever there were any," and he +motioned to Amy and Darcy, walking slowly across the meadow in the +golden glow of the setting sun. + +"Yes, I'm glad I had a hand in helping them." + +The young people, turning, saw the two men, and Amy waved her hand. +Slowly she and her lover approached. + +"What luck, Colonel?" she asked gaily. + +"The very best! You didn't exaggerate when you spoke of your trout +stream." + +"I'm glad you like it. Jimmie and I were just talking about you." + +"I wondered why my ears burned," and the old detective laughed. + +"Colonel Ashley," put in Darcy, "there's just one thing I can't seem to +clear up in all this business." + +"What's that?" + +"Well, what made all the clocks stop at different times? I thought I +knew something of the jewelry business, but this puzzles me." + +"Just because it's so simple," laughed the detective. "Larch stopped +those of the clocks that didn't run down and stop themselves. He +figured out, crazily enough in his fear and drunken frenzy, that if no +clocks or watches were going no one would know exactly what time the +killing took place. So, after Mrs. Darcy was dead, he hurried about +the store, with no one in the wet and deserted street to watch him, +and, stopping the timepieces, moved the hands of many of them to suit +his fancy. But he forgot the ticking watch." + +"It was simple," murmured Darcy. "No wonder I didn't think of it. +Have you so simple a theory regarding the queer state I was in that +night--I mean awakening and going to sleep again after feeling +something brush my face?" + +"Not unless Larch tried to chloroform you after he had killed Mrs. +Darcy, and was afraid you might come down and discover what had +happened," answered the detective. "That will remain a mystery, but +its solution is not important." + +"Not as long as you have cleared Jimmie boy!" laughed Amy, and yet +there was a look of sadness on her face, for it had been an ordeal for +all of them. + +"Oh, well, he'd have been cleared anyhow, if the worst had come to the +worst," said the colonel. "However, now that it's all over, I can give +proper attention to my fishing." + +"And I," murmured James Darcy, "can--" + +But a soft hand over his lips prevented further utterance. + + +Lightly as a feather the colonel flicked a fly over the quiet pool +where the waters swirled in a lazy eddy. There was a splash in the +sun, a shrill song of the reel, and a fish leaped high in the air, +trying to shake the barb from its mouth. + +"No, you don't!" laughed the old detective. "I've hooked you this +time!" + +"As you hooked Langford Larch," murmured Jack Young, who sat on the +bank in the shade, while the colonel fished and Shag was setting out +lunch under the trees. + +"This _is_ my last case!" exclaimed the detective as he slipped his +prize into the grass-lined creel. "Positively my _last_! I never +would have gone on with this, even after I started, except for the +pleading of Miss Mason. But I'm through! No more detective cases for +me! I've retired!" + +Jack looked at the trim and upright figure and keen, handsome face, +neither of which showed the old colonel's age. Then the younger +detective glanced at Shag, winked an eye, and murmured: + +"Through until the next time; eh Shag?" + +"Yo' done said it!" exclaimed the colored man with a grin. "Now, sah, +Colonel, lunch am served!" + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DIAMOND CROSS MYSTERY*** + + +******* This file should be named 16127.txt or 16127.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/6/1/2/16127 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. 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