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diff --git a/32007-0.txt b/32007-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b67fac7 --- /dev/null +++ b/32007-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10627 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Spiritualists and the Detectives, by Allan Pinkerton + +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 Spiritualists and the Detectives + +Author: Allan Pinkerton + +Release Date: April 16, 2010 [EBook #32007] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SPIRITUALISTS AND THE DETECTIVES *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, S.D., and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + +ALLAN PINKERTON'S + +DETECTIVE STORIES. + +*** + +VOL. V. + +THE SPIRITUALISTS AND DETECTIVES. + + + + +ALLAN PINKERTON'S + +GREAT DETECTIVE BOOKS. + +*** + + + 1.--MOLLIE MAGUIRES AND DETECTIVES. + 2.--STRIKERS, COMMUNISTS, AND DETECTIVES. + 3.--CRIMINAL REMINISCENCES AND DETECTIVES. + 4.--THE MODEL TOWN AND DETECTIVES. + 5.--SPIRITUALISTS AND DETECTIVES. + 6.--EXPRESSMAN AND DETECTIVES. + 7.--THE SOMNAMBULIST AND DETECTIVES. + 8.--CLAUDE MELNOTTE AS A DETECTIVE. + 9.--MISSISSIPPI OUTLAWS AND DETECTIVES. + 10.--GYPSIES AND DETECTIVES. + 11.--BUCHOLZ AND DETECTIVES. + 12.--THE RAILROAD FORGER AND DETECTIVES. + 13.--BANK ROBBERS AND DETECTIVES. + 14.--BURGLAR'S FATE AND DETECTIVES. + 15.--A DOUBLE LIFE AND DETECTIVES. + + *** + + These wonderful Detective Stories by Allan Pinkerton are + having an unprecedented success. Their sale far + exceeding one hundred thousand copies. "The + interest which the reader feels from the outset + is intense and resistless; he is swept along + by the narrative, held by it, whether + he will or no." + + *** + + All beautifully illustrated, and published uniform with this + volume. Price $1.50 each. Sold by all booksellers, and + sent _free_ by mail, on receipt of price, by + + G. W. CARLETON & CO., Publishers, + New York. + + + + + THE + SPIRITUALISTS + AND + THE DETECTIVES. + + BY + + ALLAN PINKERTON, + + AUTHOR OF + "THE EXPRESSMAN AND THE DETECTIVE," "CLAUDE MELNOTTE AS + A DETECTIVE," "THE SOMNAMBULIST AND THE DETECTIVE," + "THE MODEL TOWN AND THE DETECTIVES," ETC. + + [Illustration] + + NEW YORK: + _G. W. Dillingham, Publisher_, + SUCCESSOR TO G. W. CARLETON & CO. + LONDON: S. LOW, SON & CO. + MDCCCLXXXIX. + + + COPYRIGHTED, 1876, BY + ALLAN PINKERTON + + TROW'S + PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING CO., + PRINTERS AND STEREOTYPERS, + _205-213 East 12th St._, + NEW YORK. + + + + +CONTENTS. + +*** + + +CHAPTER I. + + "Kal'm'zoo!"-- The Home of the Nettletons.-- Lilly + Nettleton.-- A wild Heart and a burning Brain. 13 + +CHAPTER II. + + The "Circuit-Rider."-- Mr. Pinkerton and these Gospel + Knights-Errant in the early Days.-- The Rev. Mr. Bland + appears.-- "And Satan came also!"-- A "charge" is + established.-- A Compact "where the golden maple-leaves + fall."-- Bland departs.-- "The scared form of a young + Woman steals away from her Home!" 19 + +CHAPTER III. + + Lilly in Detroit.-- First and last Remorse.-- The reverend + Villain and his Victim enjoy the Hospitality of the + Michigan Exchange Hotel.-- A Scene.-- "Bland, am I to go + to your Mother's, as you promised?"-- The Clergyman(?) + "crazed."-- Everything, save Respectability.-- A Woman's + Will.-- And a Man's Cajolement. 27 + +CHAPTER IV. + + Tells how the Rev. Mr. Bland preached a Funeral Sermon.-- + Shows a dainty Cottage, holding more than the Neighbors + knew.-- Installs Lilly as a Clergyman's Mistress.-- + Reverts to a Desolate Home.-- Introduces Dick Hosford, a + returned "Forty-Niner," who begins a despairing Search.-- + And shows that unholy, as well as true Love, does not + always run smoothly. 33 + +CHAPTER V. + + Reckless Fancies.-- The "Cursed Church Interests."-- Bland's + "little Bird" becomes a busy Bird.-- Merges into a great + Raven of the Night.-- Gathers together Valuables.-- And + while a folded Handkerchief lies across the Clergyman's + Face, steals away into the Storm and the Night.-- Gone!-- + "Are ye all dead in there?"-- Drifting together.-- "Don't + give the Gal that Ticket!"-- A great-hearted Man.-- The + Rev. Bland officiates at a Wedding.-- Competence and + Contentment. 39 + +CHAPTER VI. + + Mr. Pinkerton is called upon.-- Mr. Harcout, a + ministerial-looking Man, with an After-dinner Voice, + appears.-- A Case with a Woman in it, as is usually + the case.-- Mr. Pinkerton hesitates.-- An anxious + Millionaire. 47 + +CHAPTER VII. + + In Council.-- Mr. Lyon the Millionaire, with Mr. Harcout the + Adventurer and Adviser, appear together.-- How Mr. Lyon + became Mrs. Winslow's Victim.-- "Our blessed Faith" and + the Woman's strange Power.-- A Tender Subject.-- Deep + Games.-- A One Hundred Thousand Dollar Suit for Breach + of Promise of Marriage.-- A good deal of Money.-- All + liable to err.-- A most magnificent Woman.-- The "Case" + taken. 55 + +CHAPTER VIII. + + The Case begun.-- Mr. Pinkerton makes a preliminary + Investigation at Rochester.-- Mrs. Winslow, Trance + Medium.-- A Ride to Port Charlotte.-- Harcout as a + Barnacle.-- Much married.-- Mr. Pinkerton visits the + Mediums.-- Drops in at a Washington Hall Meeting.-- Sees + the naughty Woman.-- And returns to New York convinced + that the Spiritualistic Adventuress is a Woman of + remarkable Ability. 65 + +CHAPTER IX. + + "Our Case."-- Harcout's Egotism and Interference.-- The + strange Chain of Evidence.-- A Trail of Spiritualism, + Lust, and Licentiousness.-- Superintendent Bangs locates + the Detectives.-- A pernicious System.-- Three Old Maids + named Grim.-- Mr. Bangs baffled by Mr. Lyon, who won't be + "worried."-- One Honest Spiritualistic Doctor.-- The Trail + secured.-- A Tigress.-- Mr. Bangs "goes West." 75 + +CHAPTER X. + + Rochester.-- A Profitable Field for Mrs. Winslow.-- Her + sumptuous Apartments.-- The Detectives at Work.-- Mrs. + Winslow's Cautiousness.-- Child-Training.-- Mysterious + Drives.-- A dapper little Blond Gentleman.-- Two Birds + with one Stone.-- A French Divinity.-- Le Compte. 87 + +CHAPTER XI. + + The Half-way House.-- A jolly German Landlord.-- Detective + Fox runs down Le Compte.-- A "Positive, Prophetic, Healing + and Trance Medium."-- Harcout the Adviser reappears, and + is anxious lest Mr. Lyon be drawn into some terrible + Confession.-- Mr. Pinkerton decides to know more about Le + Compte.-- And with the harassed Mr. Lyon interviews him.-- + Treachery and Blackmail.-- "A much untractable Man."-- + Light shines upon Mrs. Winslow.-- Another Man.-- Mr. + Pinkerton mad. 98 + +CHAPTER XII. + + The Raven of the Detroit Cottage in another Character.-- Mrs. + Winslow yearns for a retired Montreal Banker.-- Love's + Rivalry.-- A mysterious Note.-- The Response.-- Another + Trip to Port Charlotte by four Hearts that beat as one.-- + What Mr. Pinkerton, as one of the party, sees and hears.-- + "Jones of Rochester."-- Le Compte and Mrs. Winslow resolve + to fly to Paris, "the magnificent, the beautiful, the + sublime!"-- "My God, are they all that way?" 114 + +CHAPTER XIII. + + Mr. Pinkerton again interviews Le Compte.-- And very much + desires to wring his Neck.-- A Bargain and Sale.-- Le + Compte's Story-- "Little by Little, Patience by + Patience."-- A Toronto Merchant in Mrs. Winslow's Toils.-- + Detective Bristol, "the retired Banker," in Clover.-- + Tabitha, Amanda, and Hannah individually and + collectively woo him.-- Ancient Maidens full of Soul.-- + A Signal. 128 + +CHAPTER XIV. + + Mr. Bangs on the Trail in the West.-- Terre Haute and its + Spiritualists.-- Mrs. Deck's Boarding-house.-- The + Nettleton Family broken up.-- Back at the Michigan + Exchange.-- Mother Blake's Recital.-- Through Chicago to + Wisconsin.-- A disheartening Story.-- The practical result + of Spiritualism. 141 + +CHAPTER XV. + + A Chicago Divorce "Shyster."-- Hosford found.-- His pathetic + Narrative.-- More Facts. 151 + +CHAPTER XVI. + + Mrs. Winslow's Signal answered.-- She endeavors to win + Bristol, and shows that they are "Affinities."-- Detective + Fox mystified.-- An Evening with the One fair Woman.-- + Closer Intimacies.-- A Journey proposed.-- Detective + Bristol as a Lover. 162 + +CHAPTER XVII. + + Careful Work.-- Bristol's Trick on the Bell-boy at Queen's + Hotel, Toronto.-- The old Merchant.-- In the Toils.-- A + Face at the Transom.-- A cowardly Puppet before a brazen + Adventuress.-- The Horrors of Blackmail.-- "Furnished + Rooms to Rent." 175 + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + Harcout again.-- "Things going slow."-- A Bit of personal + History.-- A new Tenant.-- Detective Generalship.-- + Mrs. Winslow fears she is watched.-- Mr. Pinkerton + cogitates. 186 + +CHAPTER XIX. + + Mrs. Winslow becomes confidential.-- Some of her Exploits.-- + Her Plans.-- A Sample of Legal Pleading.-- A fishy + Story.-- The Adventuress as a Somnambulist.-- Detective + Bristol virtuously indignant.-- Failing to win the + "Retired Banker," Mrs. Winslow assails Detective Fox with + her Charms. 197 + +CHAPTER XX. + + A Female Spiritualist's Ideas of Political and Social + Economy.-- The Weaknesses of Judges.-- Legal Acumen of the + Adventuress.-- An unfriendly Move.-- Harcout attacked.-- + Lilly Nettleton and the Rev. Mr. Bland again together.-- A + Whirlwind. 209 + +CHAPTER XXI. + + Mrs. Winslow, under the Influence of "Spirits" of an earthly + Order, becomes romantic, religious, and poetical.-- A + Trance.-- Detective Bristol also proves a Poet.-- A Drama + to be written. 220 + +CHAPTER XXII. + + Mr. Pinkerton decides to favor Mrs. Winslow with a Series of + Annoyances.-- The mysterious Package.-- The Detectives + labor under well-merited Suspicion.-- "My God! what's + that?"-- The deadly Phial.-- This Time a Mysterious Box.-- + Its suggestive Contents.-- "The Thing she was."-- Tabitha, + Amanda, and Hannah assaulted.-- A Punch and Judy + Show. 230 + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + Cast down.-- "Trifles."-- A charitable Offering.-- + Dreariness.-- Going Crazy.-- An interrupted Seance.-- A + new Form of the Devil.-- The Red-herring Expedition and + its Result.-- A mad Dutchman.-- Desolation.-- An order + for a Coffin.-- The sympathizing Undertaker, Mr. + Boxem. 244 + +CHAPTER XXIV. + + Breaking up.-- Doubts and Queries.-- Suspected + Developments.-- The Detectives completely outwitted.-- On + the Trail again.-- From Rochester to St. Louis.-- A + prophetic Hotel Clerk.-- More Detectives and more Need for + them.-- Lightning Changes. 269 + +CHAPTER XXV. + + Still foiled.-- Mr. Pinkerton perplexed over the Character of + the Adventuress.-- Her wonderful recuperative Powers.-- A + lively Chase.-- Another unexpected Move.-- The Detectives + beaten at every Point.-- From Town to Town.-- Mrs. + Winslow's Shrewdness.-- Among the Spiritualists at Terre + Haute.-- Plotting.-- The beautiful Belle Ruggles.-- A wild + Night in a ramshackle old Boarding-House.-- Blood-curdling + "Manifestations."-- Moaning and weeping for Day.-- + Outwitted again.-- Mr. Pinkerton makes a chance + Discovery.-- Success. 285 + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + Shows how Mrs. Winslow makes a new Move.-- Also introduces + the famous Evalena Gray, Physical Spiritual Medium, at her + sumptuous Apartments on West Twenty-first Street, New + York.-- Reminds the Reader of the Aristocratic Classes + deluded by Spiritualism.-- Describes a Seance and explains + the "Rope-trick," and other Spiritualistic Sleight-of-hand + Performances. 307 + +CHAPTER XXVII. + + After the Seance.-- Daddy, the "Accommodation Husband."-- The + two fascinating Swindlers in Council.-- Miss Evalena's + European Career.-- How the Millionaire Brewer was baited + and played with.-- A Bit of Criminal History.-- A choice + Pair.-- Mrs. Winslow's Aspirations and Resolves. 326 + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + + Mrs. Winslow demonstrates her Legal Ability.-- The "Breach of + Promise Trial."-- A grand Rally of the Spiritualistic + Friends of the Adventuress.-- The Jury disagree.-- Mrs. + Winslow convicted at St. Louis of Common Barratry.-- An + honest Judge's Rebuke.-- A new Trial.-- The Spiritualistic + Swindler overthrown.-- Remorse and Wretchedness. 341 + + + + +PREFACE. + + +I wish to anticipate any adverse criticism that may be made upon the +following pages, by being as frank with the public as I trust the +critics will be fair with me. + +Therefore I must say at the beginning that I expect many well-meaning +people to differ with me as to the propriety of giving this book to the +public; but I am exceedingly hopeful that that difference will not +amount to a serious condemnation. Nor can I think it will when I +earnestly assert that I have caused its publication out of as honest a +motive as I ever possessed; and I am sure that whatever the American +people have come to think of me in other respects, they are pretty +certain of my honesty. + +The incidents related are true, though, out of a proper regard for my +patrons and many who do not sustain that relation, but who unavoidably +become identified in numberless ways with my operations in ferreting out +crime and criminals, I have deemed it best to locate the story in a city +several hundred miles from the place where the occurrences really +transpired, and, for the same reason, have given the characters +fictitious names; but the incidents are exact parallels of the original +facts, and in many cases are literal transcripts of, while in every +instance they agree with, the records of the case as minutely reported +during its progress. + +By way of further explanation, I desire to remind my readers how very +difficult it is for those not familiar with the detective business to +realize the masses of iniquity we are often obliged to unearth, +unpalatable as the work may be and is. But while, from the nature of my +business, my records are necessarily so exhaustive, and have been made +so thoroughly minute, as to contain simply everything, good or bad, +regarding an operation, and are, therefore, as records, reliable and +true--though they thus become repositories of much that is vile--I have +striven in every instance, while relating the truth and nothing but the +truth, to speak of unpleasant things in as delicate a manner as +possible, and in a way which, while plain enough to convey with proper +force and directness the moral lessons that these developments cannot +fail to impress upon the minds of all readers, might still leave no +unclean thought behind them; and the only sense in which a charge that +my "Detective Stories" were in any respect untrue might be sustained, +would be in the fact that I have in numberless instances, for the very +good reason mentioned, told immeasurably less, and never more, than the +whole truth. + +I make no assumption of having given in this book an exhaustive _exposé_ +of modern spiritualism, and I wish it as well remembered that I have no +more prejudice against the good there is in that ism than I have +against the good there is in any other ism; but my experience with these +people, which has been large, has invariably been against their honesty +or social purity. + +So far as there being anything about Spiritualism to compel awe or +attract any but weak-minded or "weak-moraled" people, the assumption is +simply absurd; for the few illustrations given in the following pages +will show how utterly preposterous the claim of supernatural power is, +as applied to the _cause_ of these "manifestations," which are not, in +themselves, first-class tricks, but which, when made mysterious and +enshrouded with the element of superstitious fear--which all of us in +some measure possess--lead crowds of inconsiderate people into unusual +eccentricities, if not eventually into insane asylums, as in some +painful instances of which the public are already well aware. + +In my exceptionally strange avocation I have been enabled to view this +entire matter from the side which the public cannot reach--the side +where the fraud of it all is so apparent that it becomes disgustingly +monotonous and common; and as a matter of duty to those who are half +inclined to accept Spiritualism as a divine revelation and blessed +experience, I have given but a single case--a sample of hundreds of +others--which illustrates the despicable character of many, if not a +majority, of Spiritualism's public champions and private disciples; only +adding that in this instance the picture does not show a thousandth part +of the hideousness of the original. + +The Judge Williams mentioned as having presided at Batavia, N. Y., is +no myth, but an eminent jurist at present sitting upon the bench of one +of the most important courts in the country. He has not only furnished a +copy of his scathing remarks to the Winslow-Lyon jury upon their +disagreement, as related, but will vouch for the correctness of much of +this narrative, as most of the facts mentioned came under his personal +observation. + +I have given them to the public trusting they will fill some good place +in the world, and assist in removing from the minds of those who are +occupying the debatable ground regarding the question of the genuineness +of Spiritualism and Spiritualistic "manifestations" the superstitious +fear and the sensuous fascination which have heretofore bound and held +them. + + ALLAN PINKERTON. + +CHICAGO, January, 1877. + + + + +THE SPIRITUALISTS + +AND + +THE DETECTIVES. + +*** + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + "Kal'm'zoo!"-- The Home of the Nettletons.-- Lilly + Nettleton.-- A wild Heart and a burning Brain. + + +Most commercial and uncommercial travellers filling the swift shuttles +of transit between the East and the West will remember that while +passing through Michigan, over the Central road, the brakeman has +shrieked the legend "Kal'm'zoo!" at them as the train rushed into one of +the prettiest little cities in the country. There is nothing +particularly picturesque about Kalamazoo, unless the wondering face of +some harmless lunatic, on parole from the Asylum which stands so +gloomily among the hills beyond the town, the solemn visage of some +Baptist University student, who with his toast, tea and Thucydides, has +become grave and attenuated, or the plump form of some "seminary girl" +who _will_ look at the incoming trains, and flout her handkerchief too, +in spite of parents, principals, and all the proprieties, and the +ordinary ebb and flow of the life of a stirring provincial town, may be +so considered. Neither is there anything particularly interesting about +Kalamazoo, save its native, quiet beauty. It meets life easily, and, +like a happily-disposed tradesman, takes its full measure of traffic and +enjoyment with undisturbed tranquillity, cultivating neat yards and +streets, the social graces, and occasionally the arts, with a lazy sort +of satisfaction that is pleasant to look upon and contemplate. + +Standing at any street-corner of the city, you will see wide avenues of +fine business houses or elegant residences, and, where the latter, a +wealth of neatly-trimmed shrubbery, and long lines of overarching maple +trees merging into pretty vistas which seem to invite you beyond to the +beautiful hills, uplands and valleys, with their murmuring streams, +sloping farms and well-kept homes, where both plenty and contentment +seem to be waiting to give you a right hearty welcome. + +About twenty-five years ago, when the country was much newer, and the +sturdy farmers that have made this great West blossom so magically until +it has become the whole world's storehouse, were held closely to their +arduous work by the hard hand of necessity and toil, a few miles up the +river from the then little village of Kalamazoo might have been seen a +comfortable log farm-house which nestled within a pretty ravine sloping +down to the banks of the lazily-flowing stream. It was a plain, homely +sort of a place, but there was an air of thrift and cleanliness about +the locality that told of earnest toil and its sure reward. + +The farm was of that character generally described as "openings;" here a +clump of oak, beech, and maple trees, there a rich stretch of +meadow-land; beyond, a series of hills extending to the uplands, the +bases of which were girted with groves, and whose summits were composed +of a warm, rich, stony loam, where the golden seas of ripening grain, +touched by passing zephyrs, waved and shimmered in the glowing summer +sun; while where the river wound along towards the villages below, there +was a dense growth of elm, maple, and beech trees, standing there dark +and sombre, save where the glintings of sunlight pierced their foliaged +armor, like grim sentinels of the centuries. + +This was the home of Robert Nettleton, a plain and uneducated farmer, +who had several years before removed from the East with his family, and +with them was slowly accumulating a competence for his declining days. + +Robert Nettleton's family consisted of himself, his wife, and their +three children. He was looked upon by his neighbors as somewhat erratic +and strange, being repelling in his manner, and at times sullen and +reticent. He went about his duties in a severe way, and at all times +compelled the strictest obedience from each member of his family. On the +contrary, his wife was a meek-eyed little woman, patient and +long-suffering, and was looked upon in the neighborhood as a nonentity +from her unresisting, broken-down demeanor, save in times of sickness +and trouble, when she was immediately in great demand, as she had little +to say, but much to do, and had an effective method of noiseless, tender +watching and nursing at command, which was at all times ungrudgingly +employed. + +The children consisted of one boy and two girls, the eldest of whom, now +in her eighteenth year, little dreamed of the despicable commotion she +was to create in after-life, and was the reigning belle of the +community, though she always kept the country bumpkins at a respectful +distance and was feared by fully as many as she was admired, from her +impetuous, imperious ways, that brooked no opposition or hinderance. One +would have to travel a long distance to find a more attractive figure +and face than those possessed by this country girl. She was somewhat +above the medium height, a living model for a Venus, supple and lithe as +the willows that grew upon the banks of the winding stream, and so +physically powerful that she had already gained some notoriety among her +acquaintances through having soundly shaken the pedagogue of the +district school, and afterwards pitched him through the window into an +adjacent snow-drift, where he had remained buried to his middle, his +legs wildly waving signals of distress, until she had just as +impulsively released him. + +Although somewhat strange and unusual, her features, while not +strikingly beautiful, were still singularly attractive. Her head, which +was large and seemingly well provided with faculties of quick +perception, was covered with a wondrous wealth of black hair, so heavy +and luxurious as to be almost unmanageable, and which, when not in +restraint, fell about her form, hiding it completely, nearly to her +feet. Her forehead was full and prominent, while her eyes, large and +rather deeply set, and fringed with heavy lashes, were of that peculiar +gray color which at times may be touched by all shades, while a trace of +blue always predominates. There was nothing worth remarking about other +portions of her face, save that, critically examined, too much of it +seemed to have got into her chin, and her upper lip had a strange habit +of hugging her brilliantly white teeth too closely, and then curling +upward before meeting the lower one, where sometimes crimson and ashy +paleness played like quick and cruel lightning, a key to the slumbering +devils within her. At these times, too, there was a certain light in her +eyes that an observing person would feel a peculiar dread of awakening, +though usually her face showed a complete repose, and it would have been +difficult to decide whether she was a very ordinary or a very +extraordinary character. + +Still, with her magnificent figure and strangely attractive face, she +was a young woman to strongly draw just two classes of men towards +her--students of character and students of form. The first she +invariably disappointed and repelled, always awakening the indefinable +dread I have mentioned, while her presence among the latter class as +swiftly opened the floodgates of passion to swiftly sweep the better +nature and all good resolves before it. So, with her peculiarly +unfortunate construction, it is not strange that, on arriving at that +period of life when the almost omnipotent power of a self-willed woman +begins to develop and hint at the possibilities beyond the threshold of +the strange life her inexperienced feet had just reached, Lilly +Nettleton should have felt an oppressive sense of littleness in the +quiet community in which she lived, and experienced a burning desire to +cast these humble associations from her, to compel admiration and +conquer whoever and whatever she might meet in the wide, wide world +beyond. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + The "Circuit-Rider."-- Mr. Pinkerton and these Gospel + Knights-Errant in the early Days.-- The Rev. Mr. Bland + appears.-- "And Satan came also!"-- A "charge" is + established.-- A Compact "where the golden maple-leaves + fall."-- Bland departs.-- "The scared form of a young + Woman steals away from her Home!" + + +During the summer the presiding elder of the Kalamazoo district decided +to bid for the benighted souls that dwelt in Mr. Nettleton's +neighborhood, and made arrangements to "supply" the school-house at the +corners where Lilly had distinguished herself in giving the schoolmaster +a cold bath in the snow-bank, with circuit-riders, or with young +clergymen who had just graduated and were supposed to be in training for +more extended fields of labor. + +At that time the system of salvation as carried on by the Methodist +Church--which must certainly be credited with a vast amount of push and +energy in furthering its peculiar plan of redemption--outside of the +large cities was almost exclusively one which necessitated the +employment of circuit-riders, as they were then called, and are now +called in some portions of the extreme west. They were usually men of +great suavity of manner, personal bravery, unbounded zeal, and +remarkable religious enthusiasm. They trusted principally in the Lord, +but also placed implicit confidence in the extraordinary hospitality of +the plain pioneer people with whom they came in contact, who, if not +prepared to accept everything told them, responded to their strenuous +efforts for their salvation by an unqualified welcome; so that the +appearance of the circuit-rider, or "supply," was not only cause for +unusual Bible catechism and hymn reading, but also a signal for culinary +preparations on a grand scale, to which, as a rule, the hen-roost +materially contributed. + +Time and time again, in the early days, have I journeyed with these +Gospel Knights-errant, listening to their interesting adventures, almost +as strange as my own, and their simple tales of blessed experiences; +often tarrying with them at their "stations," and for some good purpose, +best known to myself, joining in their efforts to sow seed meet unto +repentance as we crossed the beautiful streams and broad prairies of +Illinois; and as we journeyed along so pleasantly together the thought +that my comrade was giving his whole life to the work of saving sin-sick +souls, while mine was as irrevocably devoted to bringing many of them to +summary justice, has flashed across my mind with such startling force, +that the dramatic nature of the life we live was presented to me more +powerfully than I have since seen it shown before the footlights of any +of the grandest theatres of the world. + +As the Nettleton family had belonged to that church in the East, and had +also attended service at the village when the roads and weather were +favorable, they were, of course, leaders in the plan to secure +"meetings" nearer home; and when the good brother made his appearance +one pleasant autumn Saturday afternoon, as was natural, he directed his +faithful Rozinante to the comfortable log-house by the river, where both +it and its reverend rider were given a genuine welcome. + +The new preacher was none of your soiled, worked-out, toiling +itinerants. He was a young clergyman, scarcely thirty years old, and +just from college; tall, well-formed, with a florid, smoothly-shaven +face, and plenty of hair and hallelujah about him. He could tell you all +about the stars, and just as easily point out the merits or demerits in +your plate of mutton or porter-house; and, being of this tropical +nature, if there were two things above any other two things in life for +which he had a penchant, they were a spirited nag and a spirited woman. +In fact, he had accepted the ministry just the same as he would have +accepted any other profession, merely as a makeshift, and had submitted +to being ground through the theological mill, and afterwards to this +backwoods breaking-in process, simply because his widowed mother, a +Detroit lady, was immensely pious and also immensely wealthy; and if he +should become a noted minister, he would get all her property, which +otherwise would go to the good cause direct, but which, once in his +hands, would enable him to gratify his elegant tastes and do as he +pleased generally. + +So, being a thorough judge of women, he was at once more interested in +Lilly Nettleton than in the welfare of the souls of the Nettleton +neighborhood; and after a bountiful supper had been disposed of, and +the family were gathered upon the verandah for a pleasant chat with the +minister in the long, hazy September sunset, and the Rev. Mr. Bland--for +that was the young clergyman's name--had flattered Mr. Nettleton on the +merits of his pretty farm, Mrs. Nettleton upon her elegant cooking, and +the younger children upon their various degrees of perfection, he passed +directly to the subject which most occupied his mind, and in a +patronizing way, evidently with a view of attracting Lilly's attention +without arousing the suspicions of her honest parents, said: + +"By the way, Mr. Nettleton, your beautiful daughter here--ah, what may I +call her? thank you, Lilly; and a very appropriate name, too--is the +perfect image of a very dear friend of ours--my mother's and my own--in +Detroit." + +There was certainly a flush on Lilly's face deeper than could have been +put there by the red glow of the setting sun. Mr. Bland did not fail to +notice it either; and as there was no response to his remark, he +continued, occasionally glancing at Lilly, who, though apparently only +interested in her needle-work, drank in every word that fell from the +reverend gentleman's lips. + +"In fact," said the minister, "the resemblance is quite striking, though +I really think your daughter Lilly is the finer-looking of the +two--indeed, has quite an intellectual face, and would, I am sure, make +a thorough student." + +"But she won't go to school here," interrupted Mr. Nettleton; while the +strange light came into Lilly's eyes and the crimson and ashy paleness +played upon the curled lips. + +"But, Brother Nettleton, you must remember that we are not all similarly +created. The world must have its hewers of wood and drawers of water, +but it must also have its grand minds to direct----" + +"I can do all the directin' necessary here," bluntly persisted Mr. +Nettleton. + +"Of course, of course," pleasantly continued Mr. Bland, talking _at_ +Lilly, though answering her father; "but I hope Lilly can some time have +those advantages which would certainly cause her to shine in +society----" + +"And despise her home!" said Mr. Nettleton, bitterly. + +The storm was still playing fiercely over Lilly's face, and her heaving +bosom told how hard a struggle was necessary to restrain her from then +and there saying or doing some reckless thing, and then rushing away +into the woods and the night to escape the restraint that set so heavily +upon her imperious spirit. + +"No, I think not," replied Mr. Bland soothingly. "I am a pretty good +judge of human nature, though a young man, and am sure that Lilly has a +kind heart and will prove a blessing to your later years. Our dear +Detroit friend was also a little spirited, but she is now one of the +leaders of Sunday-school and church society, and is much sought +after--yes, much sought after," repeated Mr. Bland slowly, as he saw its +effect upon Lilly. + +The clergyman's good opinion of their daughter made the simple parents +really happy; but she knew as well as he what it was all said for, and +she already hated the flippant Mr. Bland, for her quick woman's +instinct--they never reason--had analyzed him thoroughly. But her heart +throbbed at the idea of being considered "fine-looking," and her brain +burned with the desire to also become "sought after." Yes, young and +inexperienced as she was, she was old in the crime of impure thought and +unbridled ambition, and was ready to lend herself to any scheme, however +questionable, that might offer release, or give promise of the +gratification of her passion for notoriety, and ruling or ruining +anything with which she came in contact. + +After this the evening passed pleasantly to the old people, who, after a +time, went into the house to attend to their several duties; and also to +the young people, Mr. Bland and Lilly, who, without any effort on the +part of either, had arrived at a thorough understanding--so much so, +indeed, that when the voice of Mr. Nettleton was heard apprising Mr. +Bland that he would show him to his room whenever he desired to retire, +he quietly stepped near to where Lilly was sitting in the weird +moonlight, and taking her pretty, warm hand within his own, said +rapidly, but in a low voice: + +"My dear Lilly, I have a deep interest in you; your people cannot +understand it, and, should they know it, would only suspect me, and +watch and restrain you. _Make_ an opportunity for us to be together +alone. I will remain until you accomplish it; and--" Mr. Nettleton's +step was now heard in the hall--"quick, Lilly! do we understand each +other?" + +She gave him a look that would have withered any but a lecherous +villain as he was; but he met it in kind, as she whispered "Yes!" and +added, disengaging herself as Bland stealthily stepped back and +carelessly leaned against the door: + +"What book did you say?" + +"Ah, yes--'hem! 'Young's Night Thoughts.' It is a pure book, and would +not only cultivate your mind, but aid you in the common duties of life. +I will send it to you, and you can read it aloud to your parents. I know +they will enjoy it too! Ha! Mr. Nettleton, excuse me Lilly, of course +you will join us at prayers?" + +She had been taught her first lesson, was an apt scholar, too; and as +the man of God on his bended knees prayed that all blessings might +descend upon this happy home, however much his cursed soul might have +been stung by the devilish hypocrisy of the hour, there was not a pang +of remorse in her heart for the bold step she knew she had taken. + +Lilly did not attend service at the school-house on Sabbath, and made +her appearance but once or twice during the day, feigning illness; but +on Monday she was about the house fresh and rosy as ever, and the first +opportunity that offered suggested to Bland the propriety of asking her +out for a boat-ride on the river, which he did in the afternoon during +Mr. Nettleton's absence, his meek wife thinking it a great honor to the +family, and in her poor mother's heart, no doubt, praying that the good +man might so soften her proud daughter's heart that she might be +bettered, and eventually led to the source of all good. + +Whether he did or not, if the reader of this book could have followed +the couple up the winding river to a secluded spot where the golden +maple-leaves fell upon the stream and were borne away in silence, +whatever of mad passion or reckless guilt might have been discovered, +just before they stepped into the boat to float with the tide back to +the dishonored home, a certain Rev. Mr. Bland might have been seen +placing in Lilly Nettleton's shameless hand a roll of bills, and heard +to say to the same person: + +"Be sure, now--next Sunday night. Row down to Kalamazoo in this boat, +and take the late night train for Detroit. Go to the Michigan Exchange +Hotel, where I will meet you Monday evening!" + +So the little neighborhood had had its "religious supply," but had also +had its loss; for, as the weird moonlight of the next Sunday evening +fell upon the quiet log farm-house, built strange forms among the +moaning, almost leafless trees, and pictured upon the river's bosom a +thousand ghostly figures, the scared form of a young woman stole away +from her home, glided to the murmuring stream, sprang into the little +boat, and was borne away to the hell of her future just as noiselessly +but just as resistlessly as the river itself pushed onward to the great +lakes, and was swept from thence to the ultimate, all-absorbing sea! + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + Lilly in Detroit.-- First and last Remorse.-- The reverend + Villain and his Victim enjoy the Hospitality of the + Michigan Exchange Hotel.-- A Scene.-- "Bland, am I to go + to your Mother's, as you promised?"-- The Clergyman(?) + "crazed."-- Everything, save Respectability.-- A Woman's + Will-- And a Man's Cajolement. + + +To the imagination of the wayward country girl Detroit was a great city, +and as she was whirled into the depot, where she saw the rushing river +beyond, and was hustled hither and thither by the clamorous cabmen, a +sense of giddiness came upon her, and for the first, and undoubtedly +last time, she yearned for the quiet of the old log farm-house by the +pleasant river. + +Perhaps the old forms and faces called to her imploringly, pleading with +her, as only the simple things of home, however plain and commonplace, +can plead with the wandering one; and in a swift, agonized longing for +the restfulness which the meanest virtue gives, but which had forever +fled from her, the thought, if not the words: + + "Of all sad words of tongue or pen + The saddest are these: It might have been"-- + +sped through her mind in a pitiful way; but just as she had almost +resolved to return to her parents, ask their forgiveness, and disclose +the character of the reverend villain, a man approached her, who, +saying he was "from Bland," conducted her to a carriage in waiting and +conveyed her to the Michigan Exchange Hotel, where she was fictitiously +registered, and the clerk informed that her brother would call for her +in the evening. + +She had been assigned a very pretty room, elegantly furnished, and the +windows gave her a view of the river and the shipping, with Windsor and +the bluff hills of Canada beyond. It was all beautiful and wonderful to +her--the hotel a palace, the river, with its great steamers, vessels, +and ferries--a fairy scene; and Windsor, with the broken country beyond, +all covered by the soft, blue, gossamer veil of early autumn--a +beautiful dream! + +With her thoroughly unprincipled nature there was a lazy sort of +enjoyment in all this; and when her dinner was brought to her room, as +had been previously ordered by the hackman, and she was gingerly served +by an ordinarily nimble waiter, but who took every possible occasion to +illustrate the fact that he was cultivated and she was not, she received +the attention in as dignified a manner as though born to rule, and had +been accustomed to the service of menials from infancy. + +The afternoon wore away, and as the gas-lights began to flare out upon +the city, a gentle tap was heard at her door, and a moment after, before +an invitation to enter had been given, the oily Bland slid into Lilly's +apartment, closed the door after him, and turned the key in the lock. +Then he walked right over to where Lilly was sitting upon the sofa, and +took her in his arms, saying: + +"Well, I see my dearest Lilly has kept her word." + +She allowed him to fondle her just long enough to dare to repel him +gently, and answered: + +"After what passed by the river, I could not do otherwise than keep my +word. Yes, your 'dearest Lilly' has kept her word. And what now, Mr. +Bland?" + +Seeing that she was disposed to ask leading questions, he changed the +subject laughingly. + +"Why, some supper, of course," and immediately rang the bell, ordering +of the servant, who appeared directly, a sumptuous spread, not +forgetting a bottle of wine. + +During the preparation of the meal Lilly stepped to the window, and +pressing her restless face against the panes, seemed intently regarding +the dancing lights upon the broad river, while Bland whistled softly, +and warmed his delicate, pliable hands at the coals in the fireplace, +which gave to the chilly evening a pleasant, cheery glow. Suddenly she +stepped close to him, leaned her head in her left hand, her elbow +resting upon the marble mantel, while with her right hand she firmly +grasped his shoulder. She then said, in a quiet, determined way: + +"Bland, am I to go to your mother's, as you promised?" + +[Illustration: _"Bland, am I to go to your mother's as you +promised?"--_] + +She said this in such a resolute, icy way, and her hand rested upon his +shoulder so heavily, that, for the first time, he looked at her as if +satisfied that he had a beautiful tigress in keeping, and it might +possibly require supreme will force to control her. + +"No, Lilly, you will not go to my mother's." + +"Then I will go home." + +"You will not go home. You will remain here." + +"Bland, no person on God's earth shall say 'will' to me. That is just as +certain as the course of that river!" and her long, trembling forefinger +swept towards the rushing stream. + +The appearance of the waiter with supper quieted the conversation, which +was becoming stormy, and it was only resumed when Bland saw that Lilly +was mellowing under the influence of the wine, which thrilled through +her veins, pushing the rich, healthy blood to her cheeks, and lighting +her great gray eyes with a wonderful lustre. It could not be said that +he loved the girl, but he had a mad passion for her which was simply +overwhelming at these times when, untutored and uncultivated as she was, +she became truly queenly in appearance. + +It was a dainty little supper served upon a dainty little table, and +they were sitting very closely together, and Bland, after feasting his +eyes upon her magnificent form for a time, drew her into his arms +impulsively, kissing her again and again, calling her endearing names, +and promising her everything that could come to the tongue of a talented +man made wild by wine and a woman. + +"Lilly, you have crazed me--ruined me!" he said, excitedly. "You know +what I profess to be--a Christian minister! God forgive me for my cursed +weakness, but you have me in your power!" + +Although her face rested against his, and their hot cheeks burned +together, the old wicked light gleamed in her eyes, and the crimson and +ashy paleness played upon the curled lip. If it all could have been seen +by the reverend gentleman, it would have sobered him. The words "in your +power" had flung the lightning into Lilly Nettleton's face. Power, +power, power! No matter how secured; no matter what the result. The very +word maddened her, made a scheming devil of her, but also made her ready +for any proposition Bland might offer, as it swiftly came into her mind +that the deeper she sank with him the greater would be her power over +him. + +"Well?" she said, reassuringly. + +"'Well?'--I am at your mercy. A knowledge of what has passed between us +would be my ruin; your ruin also. We have done what cannot be undone; +yes," he continued passionately, and drawing her closer to him, "what I +would not undo!" + +"Well?" It was tenderly said, and gave him courage. + +"I am rich, or will be, Lilly." + +"If you are careful," she added with a light laugh. + +"Exactly. I can do a great deal for you, and will----" + +"Conditionally?" + +"Yes, conditionally. The conditions are that you live quietly at an +elegant place to which we will shortly be driven. You will be mistress +of the place; that is, you will have everything you can desire----" + +"Save respectability, Mr. Bland?" + +She was shrewder than he--in fact, his master already; but hinted at +the sale of her soul so heartlessly that it shocked even him. + +"You had 'respectability' at home, Lilly; and," glancing at her plain +garments, which were a burlesque upon her beautiful figure, "and old +clothes, and surveillance, and restraint, and----" + +"Bland," she said, springing to her feet with such violence as to send +him sprawling to the floor, from which he stared in amazement at her +magnificent form, which trembled like a leaf, while the wicked lightning +gleamed from her eyes, and swift shuttles of color flashed back and +forth upon her lips; "Bland, be careful! Never speak to me again of the +meanness of my home. The meanness of your black heart is a million times +greater. You have something more than a country girl to deal with, sir; +you have a woman and a woman's will. It is enough that I have sold my +body and soul for what you can, or might, give me. I bargained for no +contempt; and, Bland," she continued, advancing towards him fiercely as +he regained his feet and retreated from her in dismay, "as sure as there +is a heaven, and as sure as there ought to be a hell for such as we, if +you begin it, I will kill you! Yes," she hissed, "I will kill you!" and +then, woman-like, having passed the climax of feeling and expression, +she threw herself on the bed for a good cry, while Bland, with wine and +words and countless caresses, soothed her wild spirit, bringing her back +to pliant good nature, where she was as putty in his dexterous hands. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + Tells how the Rev. Mr. Bland preached a Funeral Sermon.-- + Shows a dainty Cottage, holding more than the Neighbors + knew.-- Installs Lilly as a Clergyman's Mistress.-- + Reverts to a Desolate Home.-- Introduces Dick Hosford, a + returned "Forty-Niner," who begins a despairing Search.-- + And shows that unholy, as well as true Love, does not + always run smoothly. + + +Shortly afterwards a closed cabriolet containing two persons was rapidly +driven from the Michigan Exchange up Wisconsin street, from thence into +Griswold, and out towards the suburbs, finally drawing up before a neat +cottage-house, where the lights, peeping around the edges of the drawn +curtains, showed the place to be in a state of preparation. + +A man and a woman quickly alighted from the carriage, and as the woman, +apparently a young one, though closely veiled, stepped to the gate, +opened it and waited for her escort, the gentleman said in a low tone to +the coachman: + +"James, drive to the house and inform mother that while down town this +evening I received an unexpected call to Ann Arbor, to preach a funeral +sermon over the remains of an old student-friend at the University, and +that I may not be home until late to-morrow evening;" then, after +handing James some coin, "you understand, James?" + +James thought he understood, grinned grimly, put the money in his pocket +and drove away. + +"Remember, Lilly," said Bland, stepping to the gate and taking her arm, +"you are Lilly Mercer here." + +"Yes, Bland." + +"And you are never to mention anything regarding yourself to the lady +who owns this place." + +"I think I can keep my own counsel." + +"And, if any inquiries are made here, by any person whatever, regarding +myself, you are to be innocently and utterly ignorant." + +"And what are you to do?" asked Lilly, naïvely. + +"I?--why I am to do well by you." + +"Just so long as you do that, Bland, you are perfectly safe!" + +She had taken to dictating also; but it was a pretty little cottage and +grounds, and a feeling of satisfaction at being their mistress, even if +it necessitated being his mistress, came over her that made her affable +and winning, if she did occasionally say things that hinted at a stormy +future. + +They strolled up the broad brick walk, he thrilled with his magnificent +capture, and she just as satisfied with the power she had attained over +one so high socially, and who stood in such near prospect of obtaining +vast wealth. Instead of entering the house at its little front door with +its highly ornamented porch, they opened the door of a little +trellis-worked addition to the cottage, which was now covered by an +almost leafless mass of vines, and passed to a side entrance, where a +gentle pull of the bell caused the immediate appearance of a very fat +and very flabby woman of middle age, who at once conducted them to a +suite of rooms, consisting of a parlor and a large sleeping-room, +between which, in place of the original folding-doors, had been +substituted rich hangings sufficiently drawn apart to admit of the +passage of one person, and which, with the tastefully draped windows, +the deeply-framed pictures, the vari-colored marble mantels and +fireplaces, the heavy, yielding carpet giving back no sound to the +foot-fall, and the great easy-chairs into which one sank as into pillows +of down, gave the rooms the hintings of such luxuriousness that Lilly +was completely dazzled and bewildered with the unexpected elegance, and +the, to her, never before realized splendor. + +"Mother Blake," said Bland, "this is Lilly Mercer, who is my friend, and +whom you are to make comfortable." + +Mother Blake, as if realizing that her duties began whenever Bland +spoke, majestically crossed the room, sat down beside Lilly and +immediately kissed her very affectionately, merely remarking, "And a +very nice girl she is, too, Mr. Bland." + +"That'll do, mother. You may get us a small bottle of wine, and then go +to bed. It's getting late, and you know you need a good deal of sleep." + +Mother Blake chuckled, and shook from it as though her enjoyment of any +sort of pleasantry came to the surface only in a series of ripples over +her great fat body, instead of in echoes of enjoyment from her great fat +throat. But it might have been merely a habit with its origin in the +necessities of her quiet mode of life; and, doing as requested, only +lingered to fasten back the curtain so that the low, luxurious bed came +temptingly into view, after which she beamingly backed out of the room, +wishing the couple "a pleasant night, and many of 'em!" + +If shame hovered over this pretty place, it did not pale the amber glow +of the sparkling wine; it came not into the ruddy coals upon the hearth, +which gave forth their glowing warmth just as cheerily as from any other +hearth in the broad land; it never dimmed the light from the gilded +chandeliers; it put no crimson flush upon the faces which touched each +other with an even flow of blood, nor quickened the pulses of the hands +that as often met; and God only knows whether, when, as sleep came down +upon the city, and the man and woman rested in each other's arms upon +the bed beyond the rich curtains (which, as the light in the fireplaces +grew or waned, never contained one ghostly rustle or semblance), there +was even a guilty dream to mark its presence! + +But what of the inmates of the old log farm-house by the pleasant river? + +The morning came, and the agonized parents found that their daughter had +gone. Robert Nettleton set his teeth and swore that he would never +search for her, while his poor wife was completely broken and crushed as +much from the agonized fears that flooded into her heart as from the +actual loss of her child. + +The most dejected member of the household, however, was a new-comer, one +Dick Hosford, who years before had drifted into the Nettleton family and +had been brought up by them until, becoming a stout young man, he was +borne away in the gold excitement with the "Forty-niners" to California, +where by hard work and no luck whatever, being an honest, simple soul, +he had got together a few thousand dollars; with no announcement of his +proposed return, had come back as far as Terre Haute, Indiana, where he +had purchased a snug farm, and immediately turned his footsteps towards +Mr. Nettleton's, arriving there the very morning after Lilly's +departure, as he said, "to marry the gal, but couldn't find her +shadder." + +He was simply inconsolable, and it took off the keen edge of the +parents' grief somewhat to find that another shared it with them, and +even seemed to feel that it was all his own. + +So it was arranged that the inquisitive neighbors should only know that +Lilly had "gone to town for a week or two," while Dick Hosford should go +to Chicago, and then back east as far as Detroit, making diligent search +for something even more tangible than the "shadder" of the lost girl; +and as he said good-by to the Nettletons with quivering lips and +suspiciously dimmed eyes, he added: + +"Bob Nettleton, and mother--for you've always been a half-dozen mothers +to me--don't ye never expect to see me back to these yer diggin's +'thout I bring the gal. I've sot my heart onto her; and" with an oath +that the Recording Angel as surely blotted out as Uncle Toby's, for it +was only the clinching of a brave determination, "I'll have her if I +find her in a----" He stopped suddenly as he saw the pain in their +faces, shook their hands in a way that told them more than his simple +words ever could have expressed, and trudged away with as little +certainty of finding whom he sought, save by accident--or, if found, of +securing the prize for himself, unless through her whim--as of ever +himself becoming anything save the honest, faithful, gullible soul that +he was. + +At Detroit, Mother Blake had orders to provide Lilly Mercer, her latest +charge, with a suitable wardrobe and some fine pieces of jewelry, which +was accordingly done; and in the novelty of her transformation, which +really made her a beautiful young woman, her ardor of fondness for Bland +was certainly sufficient to gratify both his vanity and passion to the +fullest extent. But, to some women, both passion and finery must be +frequently renewed in order to insure constancy; and while Bland was as +hopelessly in her toils as ever, as she had always despised him and now +despised his offerings, which were neither so numerous or costly as at +first, she became almost unmanageable, caused Mother Blake great +perturbation of spirit, and led Bland a deservedly stormy life. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + Reckless Fancies.-- The "Cursed Church Interests."-- Bland's + "little Bird" becomes a busy Bird.-- Merges into a great + Raven of the Night.-- Gathers together Valuables.-- And + while a folded Handkerchief lies across the Clergyman's + Face, steals away into the Storm and the Night.-- Gone!-- + "Are ye all dead in there?"-- Drifting together.-- "Don't + give the Gal that Ticket!"-- A great-hearted Man.-- The + Rev. Bland officiates at a Wedding.-- Competence and + Contentment. + + +A few weeks later, one November evening, the first snow-storm of the +year came hurrying and skurrying down upon the city. The streets seemed +filled with that thrilling, electric life which comes with the first +snow-flakes, and as they tapped their ghostly knuckles against the panes +of Lilly Mercer's boudoir, the weird _staccato_ passed into her restless +spirit and filled her mind with wild, reckless fancies. The storm had +beaten up against the cottage but a little time until it brought Bland +with it. + +He came to tell his Lilly, he said, that the cursed church interests +would compel him to go to the West, to be absent for several weeks. In +mentioning the fact he sat down by the fireplace and gave her some money +for use while he was away, and also counted over quite an amount which +he had provided for his travelling expenses. + +He also told her that he should leave the next evening, and would, +after a little time, of course, return for the night, as he could never +go on so long a journey without spending the parting hours with his +little bird, as he had come to call her. + +His little bird had sat remarkably passive during all this, but now +fluttered about him with cooings and regrets innumerable, and seemed to +still be in a flutter of excitement when he had gone; for, after walking +up and down the rooms for a time, she flung some wrappings about her, +and quickly glided out among the pelting flakes that hid her among the +hurrying thousands upon the streets and within the shops, until she as +rapidly returned. + +Within the warm nest again, there was a note to be written, and several +feathery but valuable trifles to be got together. In fact, Bland's +little bird was a busy bird, until when, at a late hour, he came back to +its unusually tender ways and wooings, and was soon slumbering beside +it. + +Then the little bird became a great raven of the night, and stole +quietly about the apartments, gathering together, quite like any other +raven, everything that pleased its fancy, including even the money that +was to have been used in the "cursed church interests," and the gold +watch that ticked away at its sleeping owner's head, but not loud enough +to awaken him, for he slept with a peculiar heaviness, and, strangely +enough, with a folded handkerchief across his face. But the raven of the +cottage, in a quiet way that ravens have, never ceased gathering what +pleased it, until the early hours of morning, when, kissing its beak to +the bed and the sleeper, and flinging upon the bed a little note which +read: + + _A double exposé if you like._ + + LILLY "MERCER."-- + +took itself and its gathered treasures out into the storm and the night. + +The storm was gone when the chloroformed man awoke, and the bright sun +pushed through the shutters upon his feverish face. Slowly and with +great effort he groped his way back to consciousness, and with a thrill +of fear reached out his hand for his little bird, and to reassure +himself that what was flooding furiously into his mind was untrue, and +was but some horrible nightmare that her dear touch would drive away. +But the place where she had lain was as cold and empty as her own +heartless heart; and as he faintly called, "Lilly! oh, Lilly!" the very +realistic voice of Mother Blake was heard in the hall, and her very +realistic fists banging away against the door. + +"Say, Bland, are ye all dead in there? Lord! it's broad noon!" + +All dead? No; but far better so, as the Rev. Mr. Bland with a mighty +effort sprang from the bed and saw the gas-light struggling with the +sunlight, the dead ashes in the fireplace, and himself in the great +mirror, a dishonored, despoiled, deserted roué, drugged, robbed and +defied by the simple maiden from the log farm-house by the pleasant +river. + +The same evening two persons on wonderfully different missions drifted +into the depot and transfer-house at Detroit, and mingled with the great +throng that the east and the west continually throw together at this +point. One was a handsome, apparently self-possessed young lady, who +attended to her baggage personally, and moved about among the crowds +with apparent unconcern; though, closely watched, her face would have +shown anxiety and restlessness. The other was a gaunt, though solidly +built young fellow, whose clothes, although of good material, had the +appearance of having been thrown at him and caught with considerable +uncertainty upon his bony angles. He wandered about in a dejected way, +looking hither and thither as if forever searching for some one whose +discovery had become improbable, but who should not escape if an honest +search by an honest, simple fellow as he seemed to be, could avail +anything. By one of those unexplainable coincidences, or fatuities, as +some are pleased to term them, these two persons--the one desirous of +avoiding a crowd, and the other anxious to ascertain whom every throng +contained--approached the ticket-office from different directions at the +same moment. + +He at the gent's window heard her at the ladies' window say to the +agent, "Yes, to Buffalo, if you please;" and he jumped as though he had +been lifted by an explosion. He peered through the window and saw her +face at the other window, and without waiting to step around to her, +yelled to the agent like a madman: "Say, you, mister!--don't give the +gal that ticket. It's a mistake. She's going 'tother way;" and shoving +his gaunt head and shoulders into the window and wildly gesticulating to +the young lady, as the agent in a scared way saw the muscular intruder +hovering over his tickets and money-box, he continued excitedly: + +"Say, Lil, old gal! Lil Nettleton!--Dick--Dick Hosford, ye know! Ain't I +tellin' the truth? ain't it all a mistake, and ain't you goin' the other +way--with _me_, ye know--yes, 'long with Dick?" + +[Illustration: _"Say, you?--mister?--don't give the gal that ticket! +It's all a mistake!"--_] + +Lilly Nettleton, for it was no other, nodded to the agent--who returned +the money--and quickly stepped around to help Dick disengage himself +from the window, and then quickly drew him away from the crowd which the +little episode had collected, sat down beside him, and, heartily +laughing at his ludicrous appearance, said, "Why, Dick, where under +heaven did _you_ come from?" + +"Lil, gal," said poor Dick, wiping the tears of joy out of his eyes, "I +come all the way from Californy fur ye, found ye gone and the old folks +all bust and banged up about it. Fur six weary weeks I've been huntin', +huntin' ye up and down, here and yon, and was goin' back to Terre Haute, +sell the d----d farm I bought fur ye, and skip back to the Slope to kill +Injuns, or somethin', to drown my sorrow, fur I told the old folks I'd +bring ye back, or never set foot in them diggin's agin'!" + +Lilly looked at the great-hearted man beside her in a strange, +calculating kind of a way, never touched by his tenderness and simple +sacrifice, but moving very closely to him in a winsome way that quite +overcame him. + +"And I come to marry ye, Lil," persisted Dick, anxiously. + +"To marry me, Dick?" + +"Yes, and bought ye a purty farm at Terre Haute." + +"A farm, Dick?" + +"Yes, Lil, a farm, with as snug a little house as ye ever sot eyes on." + +"But where did you get so much money? You never wrote anything about +it." + +"No, I wanted to kinder surprise ye; but I got it honest--got it honest; +with these two hands, Lil, that'll work for ye all yer life like a +nigger, if ye'll only come 'long with me and never go gallavantin' any +more." + +"And won't you ask me any questions or allow them--at home, Dick--to ask +any, and take me just as I am?" + +"Just as ye are; fur better, or fur wus, Lil." + +"And marry me here, now, before we go home?" + +"Marry ye, Lil? I'd marry ye if I'd a found ye in a----; I won't give it +a name, Lil. I didn't to them, and I won't to you." + +She gave him her hand as firmly and frankly as though she had been a +pure woman, and said, "I'm yours, Dick. We'll be married here, +to-morrow." + +She took charge of all the arrangements; called a cab which took them to +the Michigan Exchange; sent Dick off to his room with orders to secure a +license the first thing in the morning; wrote two notes to a certain +person, one addressed to Mother Blake, and the other to _his_ +post-office box, ordering them posted that night; and went to her room +to sleep the sleep of the just, which, contrary to general belief, also +often comes to the unjust. + +Early in the morning, Dick came with the license and suggested securing +the services of a preacher; but Lilly said that she had arranged that +matter already, and had got a clergyman who, she was sure, would not +disappoint them; and promptly at two o'clock in the afternoon +courteously admitted the Rev. Mr. Bland, whom she had given the choice +of officiating or an exposure, and who performed the ceremony in a pale, +trembling way as the wicked old light gleamed in her great, gray eyes, +and the swift shuttles of color played over her curled lip. + +That night found the newly-wedded couple whirling back to Kalamazoo, +where they arrived the next morning and were driven out to the +farm-house, where they were joyfully welcomed, and where Dick Hosford in +his blunt way announced that he had "found Lil workin' away like a good +girl, had married her and took a little bridal 'tower,' and had come +back to have no d----d questions asked." + +So in a few days the young couple bade the Nettletons good-by and were +soon after installed in the pleasant farm-house near Terre Haute, where +the years passed on happily enough and brought them competence and +contentment and three children, who for a long time never knew the +meaning of the strange light in the eyes, or the swift colors on the +lips, of the mother who cared for them with an apparent full measure of +kindness and affection. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + Mr. Pinkerton is called upon.-- Mr. Harcout, a + ministerial-looking Man, with an After-dinner Voice, + appears.-- A Case with a Woman in it, as is usually the + case.-- Mr. Pinkerton hesitates.-- An anxious Millionaire. + + +One hot July afternoon in 186-, I was sitting in my private office at my +New York Agency, located then, and now, at the corner of New Street and +Exchange Place, in the very heart of the money and stock battles of +Gotham, pretty well tired out from a busy day's work in carrying to +completion some of the vast transactions that had accumulated during the +war, and which were in turn waiting for my professional services to +unravel. + +It had been a terribly hot day, and the city seemed like a vast caldron +filled with a million boiling victims; and now that the day's labor was +nearly over, I was principally employed in an attempt to keep cool, but +finding it impossible with everybody about me, settled myself in my +easy-chair at the window to watch the Babel of brokers below. + +From such an altitude, where one can look down soberly upon these madmen +and see their wild antics, when for the moment they are absolutely +insane in their thirst for gold, never halting at the most extreme +recklessness even though they know it may compel wholesale ruin, it is +easy to realize how isolated cases occur where the whole human nature +yields to greed, and sweeps on to the certain accomplishment of crime +for its satisfaction. + +Just after a particularly heavy "rush" had been made, resulting in a few +broken limbs and numberless tattered hats and demolished garments, and +the bulls and bears were gathered about in knots excitedly talking over +their profit and loss, and wiping the great beads of perspiration, from +their lobster-like faces, I noticed an important-looking gentleman turn +into New Street from the direction of Broadway, and after edging through +the crowds, occasionally halting to ask a question in the politest +possible manner--the replies and gestures to which seemed to indicate +that he was seeking my agency, which afterwards proved true--this vision +of precision and politeness passed from my sight into Exchange Place, +and in a few moments after I was informed that a gentleman desired to +see me on very important business. + +After ascertaining who the gentleman was, and already knowing him to be +a harmless sort of an adventurer, and under the particular patronage of +a wealthy Rochester gentleman, I admitted him and he was introduced as +Mr. Harcout, of Rochester and New York. + +Mr. Harcout was a character in his way, and deserving of some notice. He +was a tall, heavily-built, obese gentleman of about forty-five years of +age, impressive, important, and supremely polite. His face was a strange +combination of imbecility and assumption; while his head, which was +particularly developed in the back part, indicating low instincts that +were evidently only repressed as occasion required, was consistent with +the formation of his square, flat forehead, which sloped back at a +suspiciously sharp angle from a pair of little, gray, expressionless +eyes, which from the lack of intelligence behind them would look you out +of face without blinking. His nose was straight and solidly set below, +like some sharp instrument, to assist him in getting on in the world. +His lips, though not unusually gross or sensual, had a way of opening +and closing, during the pauses of conversation with a persistency of +assertion that had the effect of keeping in the mind of the average +listener that great weight should be attached to what Mr. Harcout had +said, or was about to say; and at the same time, as also when he +patronizingly smiled, which was almost constantly, disclosed a set of +teeth of singular regularity and dazzling whiteness. A pair of very +large ears, closely-cut and neatly-trimmed hair, and a whitish-olive +complexion that suggested sluggish blood and a lack of fine +organization, complete the sketch of his face, but could never give the +full effect of the grandeur of his assumption and manners, which were a +huge burlesque on chivalric courtliness. As he entered the room his +gloved hand swept to the rim of his faultless silk hat, and removed it +with an indescribably graceful gesture that actually seemed to make the +hat say, "Ah! my very dear sir, while I belong to a gentleman of the +vastest importance imaginable, be assured that we are both +inexpressibly honored by this interview!" Nor were these all of his +strikingly good points. He was a man that was always dressed in a suit +of the finest procurable cloth, most artistically fitted to his +commanding figure, and never a day passed when there was not an +exquisite favor in the neat button-hole of his collar. When he had +become seated in a most dignified and engaging manner, he had a neat +habit of showing his little foot encased in patent leather so shining +that, at a pinch, it might have answered for a mirror, by carelessly +throwing his right leg over his left knee, so that he could keep up an +incessant tapping upon his boot with the disengaged glove which his left +hand contained; and, with his head thrown slightly back and to one side, +emphasized his remarks in a graceful and convincing way with the digit +finger of his soft white right hand. Altogether he would have passed for +a person of considerable importance and good commercial and social +standing; but to one versed in character-reading he gave the impression +that he might at one time have been an easy-going clergyman, who had +lapsed into some successful insurance or real estate agency that had +been unexpectedly profitable; or, at least, was a man who had thoroughly +and artistically acquired the science of securing an elegant livelihood +through the confidence he could readily inspire in others. + +"Ah! Mr. Pinkerton, I am very glad to see you--very glad to see you; in +fact, I take it as a peculiar honor, though my business with you is of +an unpleasant nature," said Mr. Harcout, settling into his chair with a +kind of bland and amiable dignity. + +I saw that he was making a great effort to please me, and told him +pleasantly that it was quite natural for people to visit me on +unpleasant business. + +"Thank you, thank you," he replied in his rich, after-dinner voice, that +seemed to come with his winning smile to his lips through a vast measure +of good-fellowship and great-heartedness. "I feel that I am occupying a +peculiar position, both painful and embarrassing to me: first, as the +friend and agent of a wealthy man who is also an acquaintance of yours, +and operates on the Produce Exchange, here; and second, in being obliged +to ascertain whether you will take our case without your becoming too +fully aware of the particulars, in the event of your refusal." + +"Well," said I encouragingly, highly enjoying his embarrassment and +assumed importance, "if you will give me a general outline of the +matter, I will take it into consideration; and, in any event, you can +rest assured that our walls have no ears to what our patrons have to say +within them." + +"Well, then," replied Harcout with a winning smile, "to be honest with +you, Mr. Pinkerton, there's a woman in our case; yes--though I'm very +sorry to say it--the case is almost entirely a woman case." + +"In that event, Mr. Harcout, I must plainly say to you that I don't like +those cases at all. I have all the business that I can attend to, and +even more than I sometimes desire; and I really think you had better +secure the services of some other person." + +"Pray don't say so; pray don't say so, Mr. Pinkerton. Ah! what _could_ +induce you to take the case?" + +"No sum of money," I replied, "unless I was fully assured that it was +all right--that is, had the right on your side. Almost without exception +these cases with women in them, where men become jealous of their +mistresses, mistresses of their men, wives of their husbands, husbands +of their wives, or when the lively and vigorous mother-in-law lends +spice to life, and, indeed, all those troubles arising from social +abuses, are a disgrace to every one connected with them." + +Harcout seemed quite disappointed that I did not express more avidity to +transact the business he proffered, but continued in his blandest +manner: + +"Still, supposing, although we were not altogether in the right, we were +endeavoring to defend ourselves against a vile woman who had manipulated +circumstances so that she had us greatly in her power?" + +"I should still feel a great reluctance in taking the case. All my life +I have had one steady aim before me, and that has been to purify and +ennoble the detective service; and I am sure that all this sort of +business is degrading in the extreme to operatives engaged upon it." + +"Very good, very good. But, Mr. Pinkerton, supposing the person pursued +was worth two or three millions of dollars; that after the parties had +met in a casual way, and, through a strange and unexplainable feeling of +admiration mingled with awe which she had compelled in him, she had +acquired a familiarity with his habits, business, and vast wealth, and +had from that time schemingly begun a plan of operations to entrap him +into marrying her, working upon his rather susceptible temperament +through his peculiar religious belief, in order to gain power over him, +and then, failing to secure him as a husband, had for some time pursued +a system of threats and quiet, persistent robbery, constantly becoming +more brazen and impudent, until he could bear it no longer, when he had +refused to see her or submit to further blackmail, whereupon she had +heartlessly attempted his social and financial ruin, by bringing a suit +against him for $100,000 damages for breach of promise of marriage?" + +This extended conundrum flushed Harcout, and his magnificent silk +handkerchief came gracefully into use to very gently and delicately +absorb the perspiration that had started upon his porous face. + +"Mr. Harcout," I still insisted, "I should then require to be +unqualifiedly assured that the woman in question was not a young woman +who had really been led to believe the promise of some man old enough to +be her father, and who should accept the consequences of his +indiscretion philosophically." + +"Exactly, exactly," responded Harcout, quite uneasily, though with an +evident endeavor at pleasantry; "and quite noble of you, too, Mr. +Pinkerton! Really, I had not anticipated finding such delicate honor +among detectives!" and he laughed a low, musical laugh which seemed to +come gurgling up from his capacious middle. + +I told him he might term it "delicate honor" or whatever he liked; that +I had made thorough justice a strict business principle, and found that +it won, too; but that, with the understanding that he had fairly +represented the case, I would give it my consideration and apprise him +of my decision the next day, giving him an appointment for that purpose; +after which, while verbosely expressing the hope that I would assist +him, he bowed himself out in a very impressive manner, passed into the +street, which was now nearly as quiet as the Trinity Church-yard close +by, and immediately went to the St. Nicholas, where he flourishingly +reported the interview to the anxious millionaire, who thanked fortune +for such a powerful and majestic friend. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + In Council.-- Mr. Lyon the Millionaire, with Mr. Harcout the + Adventurer and Adviser, appear together.-- How Mr. Lyon + became Mrs. Winslow's Victim.-- "Our blessed Faith" and + the Woman's strange Power.-- A Tender Subject.-- Deep + Games.-- A One Hundred Thousand Dollar Suit for Breach of + Promise of Marriage.-- A good deal of Money.-- All liable + to err.-- A most magnificent Woman.-- The "Case" taken. + + +In the meantime I had a conversation on the subject with my General +Superintendent, Mr. Bangs, in which we weighed the case thoroughly in +all its bearings. I held, as I always do in such cases, if further +investigation proved that the woman was one whose youth, or even +inexperience, was such as to make it probable that she had been met by a +man whose position had dazzled and bewildered her, and who, from his +wealth and opportunities for exerting the immense influence of wealth, +had led her to believe that he loved her, and had had such attention +lavished upon her as had awakened in her heart an affection for him +which should deserve some consideration, and that finally, after +accomplishing his purpose, he had flung her from him, as was an +every-day occurrence, it was a case which I could under no circumstances +touch; its justice ought only to be determined in the courts. + +On the other hand, I argued that if this troublesome woman was grown in +years, had arrived at a mature age, and had deliberately planned to +secure a certain power over Harcout's friend in the questionable manner +ascribed--had, in fact, used the "black arts" upon him, and in every +manner possible fascinated him irresistibly, and wrung from him promises +and pledges which no man in his sane moments would give, in order +through this dishonorably-gained power to secure him for a husband--or +worse, in the event of failing in this, of levying upon his wealth for +the dishonor she had herself compelled, it was a case where I had a +right to interfere in the best interests of society, as the professional +female blackmailer is below pity, ought to be beyond protection of any +sort whatever, has forfeited all the actual and poetical regard due her +sex, and should be in every instance remorselessly hunted down. + +This conclusion was easily arrived at; for at each of my agencies all +that is necessary for a decision upon a desired investigation is that my +local superintendent shall sift the matter, to prove beyond the shadow +of a doubt that the vast power of the detective service under my control +shall not, under any circumstances, be prostituted to the assistance of +questionable enterprises, or the furtherance of dishonorable schemes. + +Accordingly, when Mr. Harcout wafted himself into my office the next +day, like a fragrance-laden zephyr of early summer, I informed him that +he could depend on my assistance to discover the history and antecedents +of the woman; but that I should have to reserve the privilege of +discontinuing the service, should it at any time transpire that my +operatives were being employed for the purpose of discouraging a +defenceless woman in securing the justice due her. + +It was arranged that Harcout was to call the next day with his patron, +the persecuted millionaire, and he also expressed a desire to defer a +settlement of the case in detail until that time, which was quite +agreeable to me, as I wished to see the parties together and closely +observe them, as well as their statements. + +The next afternoon Mr. Harcout's elegant card was delivered to me, with +the message that his friend was also with him. I ordered that they +should be at once admitted, and in a moment the two gentlemen were +ushered into my private office. I immediately recognized the elder of +the two as J. H. Lyon, one of the wealthiest elevator owners and millers +of Rochester, a quiet, shrewd, calculating business man, who had amassed +vast wealth, or the reputation of its possession, and its consequent +commercial respect and credit. + +He was a short, small-sized man, dressed in plain but rich garments, and +wore no jewelry save a massive solitaire diamond ring. His head, which +seemed to contain an average brain, was solidly set on a great, heavy +neck, that actually continued to the top of the back of his head without +a curve or depression. His hair, and beard--which was shaven away from +his lower lip to the curve of his chin--had a shaggy sort of look, +though generally well kept, and were considerably tinged with gray; +while his eyebrows were remarkably long, irregular, and forbidding. His +eyes were medium-sized, of a grayish-brown color, and under the heavy +shade of the brows somewhat keen and restless. His cheek-bones were +quite prominent, and below them his cheeks sank away noticeably, which +served to more strikingly show the upward turn of his nose and his full +lips and broad, sensual mouth, which, with its half-shown, irregular +teeth and ever-present tobacco-stains (for he smoked or chewed +incessantly), gave him a face quite unlike those ordinarily supposed to +be captivating to women. With his broad, bony hands, large, ill-shaped +feet, and retiring, hesitating way, as if never exactly certain of +anything, he was truly a great contrast to the pompous, elegant +gentleman who seemed to have taken him under his fatherly protection. + +Lyon slid into his seat in a nervous, diffident way; while Harcout, who +had just drawn his chair between us, as if he desired it understood that +he did not propose to yield his office of general manager of this +vitally important affair under any circumstances, beamed on his friend +reassuringly. + +After a few remarks on the current topics of the day, and before they +were themselves aware of it, we were getting along swimmingly towards an +understanding of the subject-matter--Lyon, who had removed his cigar, +fairly eating an immense amount of fine-cut as the voluble Harcout +rattled away about the bold, bad woman who had entrapped him. + +"Why, my dear Mr. Pinkerton, it's a terrible matter--an infamous +affair! My friend here, Mr. Lyon, is quite nettled about it--I might +say, quite cut up. You can see for yourself, sir, that it's wearing on +him." This with a deprecating wave of his hand towards Lyon, who +nervously gazed out of the window from under his shaggy brows. + +I merely said that these things _were_ sometimes a little wearing. + +"But you see, Mr. Pinkerton, this is a peculiarly cruel case--a +peculiarly cruel case. Hem! _I_ know what is cruel in this respect, as I +was once victimized by very much the same sort of a female, though she +was _much younger_. Why, do you know, sir," and here the sympathetic +Harcout's voice fell into a solemn murmur, "that my friend's beloved +wife was scarcely at rest beneath the daisies when this Mrs. Winslow +began worming herself into the confidence of my somewhat impressible +friend here?" + +I made no answer, and only took a memorandum of the facts developed, not +forgetting Harcout's statement that he had once been victimized by very +much the same sort of a female. + +"She came to Rochester as a shining light among the exponents of our +blessed faith----" + +"And what may your religion be?" I asked. + +"We believe in the constant communication between mortals and the +occupants of the beautiful spirit home beyond the river." + +"Exactly," said I, noticing the remarkable development at the back of +their heads and about their mouths. + +"And our friend here, Mr. Lyon," continued Harcout, with his eyes +devoutly raised to the ceiling, "met her at one of our pleasant +seances." + +I made another note at this point. + +"To be frank--'hem! it's my nature to be frank--" then turning his face +to me and raising his eyebrows inquiringly--"I suppose, Mr. Pinkerton, +it is quite desirable that I should be so?" To which I responded, +"Necessarily so," when he resumed: "To be frank, then, Mr. Lyon was +wonderfully interested in her. In fact, the woman _has_ a strange power +of compelling admiration and even fear--shall I say fear, Mr. Lyon?" + +"Guess that's about right," said Mr. Lyon tersely. + +"Admiration and fear," repeated Mr. Harcout, as if thinking of something +long gone by, while Lyon chewed more fiercely than ever. "Indeed, Mr. +Pinkerton, she's a superb woman--a superb woman; but a she-devil for all +that!" + +I noticed that Harcout's fervor seemed to have come from some similar +experience, and I noted both it and his heated estimate of Mrs. Winslow, +although he remarked that he had never met her. + +"Well, my friend here was irresistibly drawn to her, and he has told me +that for a time it seemed that he had found his real affinity. You felt +that way, didn't you, Lyon?" + +Lyon nodded and chewed rapidly. + +"But for a long time the more my friend endeavored to secure her favor, +the more she seemed to draw away from and avoid him, though constantly +making opportunities to more deeply impress him with her most splendid +physical and mental qualities. My friend recollects now, though he gave +it no attention at the time, that she shrewdly drew from him much +information regarding his family affairs, habits, business relations, +and wealth; and as she was, or pretended to be, a medium of great power, +at those times when he sought her professional services she worked upon +his feelings in such a peculiar manner as to completely upset him." + +Here Mr. Lyon offered an extended remark for the first time, and said: +"The truth is, Mr. Pinkerton, this is a subject that I am particularly +tender upon. I think under certain circumstances I could really have +made the woman my wife;" then turning to his agent, he said, "Harcout, +cut it short." + +"But," Harcout protested, "we can't cut it short. Mr. Pinkerton wants +facts--he must have facts. Well, at one time Mr. Lyon felt a real +affection for the woman, which does him honor--is no disgrace to him; +but after a time began to suspect, and eventually to feel sure, that +Mrs. Winslow was playing a deep game; indeed, had originally come to +Rochester for that purpose; and while he still regarded her highly on +account of her fine qualities, refrained from seeking her society, which +at once seemed to awaken a violent and uncontrollable passion for him in +her heart. She sought him everywhere and compelled him to visit her +frequently, lavishing the wildest affection upon him, which he +delicately repelled--delicately repelled; and, as she represented +herself in straitened circumstances, charitably assisted her just as he +would have done any other person in want--any other person in want; but, +you see, Mrs. Winslow presumed upon this, accused him of having broken +her heart, and was now cruelly deserting her after he had taught her to +worship him." + +Mr. Lyon's nervous face presented a singular combination of pride at his +own powers, chagrin at his predicament, and a general protest that the +tender privacies of a millionaire should be thus disclosed. + +"In this way," continued Harcout, "she so worked upon his kindly +feelings that he really gave her large sums of money--large sums of +money." + +"A good deal of money," interrupted Mr. Lyon. + +"But finally," pursued Harcout, "my friend saw that he must discontinue +his charity altogether, and through my advice--hem! through my advice, +he did. Mrs. Winslow then became very impudent indeed, and annoyed my +friend beyond endurance, until he was forced to refuse to recognize her, +and gave orders that she should be denied admission to his office. But, +being a very talented woman----" + +"She _is_ talented," said Lyon, with a start. + +"She has found means to continue her operations against him incessantly, +demanding still larger sums of money, and has engaged counsel to act for +her. Hem!--under my advice, quite recently Mr. Lyon, by paying her five +thousand dollars, secured from her a relinquishment of all claims +against him, rather than oblige a public scandal. But now Mrs. Winslow +claims that this was secured by fraud, and after making another +fruitless demand for ten thousand dollars, which--hem! Mr. Lyon resisted +through my advice, last week began suit against him for one hundred +thousand dollars for breach of promise of marriage. And a hundred +thousand dollars is a big sum of money, Mr. Pinkerton." + +"A big sum of money," echoed Lyon. + +"But of course," continued Harcout, inserting his thumbs in the +arm-holes of his vest and looking the very picture of injured virtue, +"Mr. Lyon cares nothing for that amount. It is the principle of the +thing. It is the stain upon his good name that he desires to +prevent--and these juries are confoundedly unreliable." + +"Confoundedly unreliable," repeated Lyon, chewing nervously. + +"Therefore," said Harcout, "really believing, as we do, that we--hem! +that is, Mr. Lyon, of course--is the victim of a designing woman who +really means to wrongfully compel the payment of a large sum of money +and ruin my friend in the estimation of the public, we are anxious that +you should set about ascertaining everything concerning her for use as +evidence in the case." + +After asking them a few questions touching facts I desired to ascertain, +the interview terminated with the understanding that Harcout should act +for Mr. Lyon unqualifiedly in the matter, and call at my office as +often as desirable to listen to reports of the progress of my +investigations into the life and history of Mrs. Winslow. I was +satisfied that not half the truth had been given me, and I was more than +ever convinced of this fact when Lyon called me to one side as the +lordly Harcout passed out, and said to me hurriedly: + +"Don't be too hard upon the woman, Mr. Pinkerton. You know we are _all_ +liable to err; and--and, by Jupiter! Mrs. Winslow is certainly a most +magnificent woman--a _most_ magnificent woman," and then chewed himself +out after his courtly henchman. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + The Case begun.-- Mr. Pinkerton makes a preliminary + Investigation at Rochester.-- Mrs. Winslow, Trance + Medium.-- A Ride to Port Charlotte.-- Harcout as a + Barnacle.-- Much married.-- Mr. Pinkerton visits the + Mediums.-- Drops in at a Washington Hall Meeting.-- Sees + the naughty Woman.-- And returns to New York convinced + that the Spiritualistic Adventuress is a Woman of + remarkable Ability. + + +As the interview related in the previous chapter occurred on Friday, and +I could not attend to the matter at once, I was obliged to wait until +the following Sunday evening, when I quietly took the western-bound +express, which brought me to Rochester the following noon, where I +engaged rooms at the Brackett House under an assumed name, and +immediately began a preliminary examination on my own account, having +directed my New York Superintendent to inform either Lyon or Harcout, in +the event of their calling at the agency, that I could not be seen +regarding their matter for a few days, as I had suddenly been called +South on important business. + +My object in doing this was to look over the ground at Rochester myself, +and get an unbiased idea of the whole matter, so that I could properly +proceed with the work, being satisfied that this was the only way to +secure a basis to operate upon, as I was sure that I had not got at the +bottom facts in the late interview. I invariably insist on having all +the facts, and always take measures to secure them before any decided +move is made. + +As a rule, however, in cases of this kind, it is almost impossible to +secure what the detective absolutely needs from the parties from whom +the information should come; as it is a principle of human nature +possessed by us all, to be very frank about our merits, and quite +careful about mentioning anything that might be construed into either a +lack of judgment or principle. + +I found that the New York papers were already publishing specials +concerning the matter, with solemn editorials regarding the perfidy of +man, the constancy of woman, and the general cussedness of both; and +that at Rochester the knowledge of the commencement of the suit had just +got into the papers, and consequently, into everybody's mouth; and was +creating a great sensation, as Lyon was known to the whole city as one +of its richest citizens, "though a little off on Spiritualism lately," +as the talk went; and Mrs. Winslow had also become quite notorious from +her magnificent figure and winning manner, her equally notorious +mediumistic powers, and through her prominent connection with the more +_material_ believers in spiritual phenomena; or, to be plain, that vast +majority of so-called spiritualists whose only visible means of support +are in excellently humbugging their brethren or sisters, or any other +portion of the gullible world with whom they come in contact. + +Nearly every Rochester paper contained the advertisement of Mrs. +Winslow, trance medium, and I concluded that either the lady had been +unusually successful in her trance business, or that her levies upon +Lyon had been remunerative--perhaps both--to pay for such extensive +advertising. + +After dinner I took a stroll and found that the lady occupied very +luxurious apartments on South St. Paul street, near Meech's Opera-house, +a location well adapted for her business. I also ordered a carriage and +drove out to Port Charlotte--a magnificent drive through a lovely +country dotted with fine farm-houses and the splendid suburban +residences of wealthy Rochester citizens--and, as a casual stranger, +inspected Lyon's warehouses and elevators, the largest and most +expensive at the Port, returning to the Brackett House in time to eat a +hearty supper. + +After supper, without any effort, and without disclosing my identity, I +got into conversation with the genial landlord of the house, who gave +me--as a part of my entertainment, I presume--a rich account of Lyon's +business relations, and particularly of his personal habits, painted in +entirely different colors than by the blarneying tongue of Harcout; and +also spoke of the latter as "a d----d barnacle," who had in some +unexplainable way fastened himself upon Lyon and was living like a +prince off the "old fool," as he called him. He also told me +confidentially that he believed Mrs. Winslow to be a woman of +questionable character; as, when she first came to the city, she had +stopped at his hotel, and had advertised her mediumistic powers so +largely that it had brought a class of men there whom he thought, from +his personal knowledge of their habits, to be more interested in +inquiries into the mysteries of the _present_ than of the hereafter, +until he had become so anxious as to the reputation of his house that he +had informed the lady of the preference of her absence to her company; +whereupon she had raised such a storm about his ears that he was only +too glad to compromise by letting her go, bag and baggage, without +paying her bill, which was a large one and of a month's standing. + +I also gained from him the opinion that she had been married a +half-dozen times, or as often as had suited her convenience; and that he +had only a day or so previous conversed with a gentleman from some part +of the West, who had told him that somebody in Rochester had assisted +her in procuring her a divorce from her husband. I made a note of all +these points after I had retired to my room, and felt quite satisfied +with the day's work. + +The next day, with a gentleman at the hotel with whom I had become +acquainted, representing myself as a person of means who might possibly +make an investment at Rochester, I visited Lyon's mills, and +incidentally became quite well informed as to his financial and social +standing. + +The latter was a little peculiar. His wife, a most estimable lady, had +died a few years previous, and it appeared that during her life the Lyon +family were among the aristocrats of the city; but at her death, and +Lyon's subsequent dabbling in Spiritualism, they had been gradually +dropped from the visiting lists, and nothing remained of the former home +circle save a gaunt, grim mother-in-law, who vainly waged war against +the loose habits, laxity of morals, and general degeneracy that had come +with the new order of things. + +I also secured the addresses of all the professional mediums, +fortune-tellers, and astrologers of the city, and during that day and +the next visited their rooms, claiming to be a devoted believer in +Spiritualism, having my fortune told at various places, and picking up a +good deal of information regarding the fascinating Mrs. Winslow, which +tended to prove her a remarkably talented woman, capable of not only +attending to her mediumistic duties, but also of carrying on litigation +of various kinds in different parts of the country. My investigations +also showed that these different "doctors" and "doctresses," claiming to +perform almost miraculous cures and their ability to foretell the fates +of others through the aid of this supernatural spirit-power, were quite +like other people in their bickerings and jealousies, and, as a rule, +they gave each other quite as bad names as the public generally gave +them; and that Mrs. Winslow could not have been considered exactly the +pink of perfection if judged even by those of her own persuasion, as one +vaguely hinted at her having played the same game on other parties. +Another was sure she had been a camp-follower during the war. Another +assured me that she had similar suits at Louisville, Cincinnati, and St. +Louis. Still another was quite certain that she was only a common +woman. Altogether, according to these reports, which were easily enough +secured, as her case against Lyon was the engrossing subject of the hour +at Rochester, it appeared that the ravishing Mrs. Winslow held her +place, such as it was, in the world more through her supreme will power, +and the respect through fear she unconsciously inspired in others, than +through any of the tenderer graces or a superabundance of personal +purity. + +From cautious inquiries and the wonderful amount of street, saloon, and +hotel talk which the affair was causing, I also ascertained that Mrs. +Winslow had made her appearance in Rochester some years before; some +said from the east, and some from the West, but the preponderance of +evidence indicated that it had been from the West; that she had at once +allied herself with the spiritualists of the city, and Lyon had first +met or seen her at one of their seances or lectures; that he had at once +yielded to her charms, and begun visiting her for "advice," as it was +sarcastically reported, continuing the visits with such frequency and +regularity as to hasten the death of his wife, after which event he had +given his new affinity nearly his entire attention until she had come to +be commonly considered as his mistress; that she had frequently boasted +among her friends that she was to become Lyon's wife, and was even by +some called Mrs. Lyon, to which pleasant designation she made no murmur; +that she had made a common practice of visiting Lyon at his offices in +the Arcade, where she had been treated with considerable deference and +respect by his employees; and that during this period Mrs. Winslow had +made several trips to the West, evidently at Lyon's instigation, and +through his financial aid. + +I found also that she was as truly a believer in the farces others of +her profession enacted for her benefit as she was in the mediumistic +power she had persuaded herself that she possessed, and was consequently +a regular attendant at all the meetings and seances held in the city; +and as there was one to be held that evening at Washington Hall, I +decided to attend for the purpose of getting a good view of the lady +with whom, for a time, we should be obliged to keep close company. +Accordingly, at half-past seven o'clock I found the hall, which is but a +few blocks above the bridge on Main Street, and after purchasing a +ticket of a sleek, long-haired individual with deft fingers and a +restless eye, passed into the room, where there was already quite a +number of the faithful, all bearing unmistakable evidences of either +their peculiar faith, or the character of their business. + +As the exercises of the evening had not yet begun, those present were +gathered about the hall excitedly discussing the great sensation of the +hour, which was particularly interesting to them, as the parties to it +were both of their number, and from what I could gather they were about +evenly divided in their opinion as to the merits of the case--the male +portion of the assemblage warmly espousing the cause of Mrs. Winslow, +and the female portion as eagerly sympathizing with "poor dear Mr. +Lyon," and roundly condemning the naughty woman who had ensnared him and +was so relentlessly pursuing him. + +I was sure the naughty woman had now arrived, as there was a sudden +twisting of necks and buzzing of "That's her--that's her!" "There's Mrs. +Winslow!" and "Yes, that's Mrs. Lyon!" and the females that had given +Mrs. Winslow such a bad reputation a few moments before, now pressed +around her with sympathizing inquiries and loud protestations of regard, +quite like other ladies under similar circumstances. But the lady +appeared to be quite unconcerned as to their good or ill feeling towards +her, and swept up the aisle with a regal air, taking a seat so near me +and in such a position that I was able to make a perfect study of her +while apparently only absorbed in the wonderful revelation that fell +from the trance-speaker's lips. + +She appeared to be a lady of about thirty five years of age, and of a +very commanding appearance. She was not a beautiful woman, but there was +an indescribable something about her entire face and figure that was +strangely attractive. It was both the dignity of self-conscious power +and the peculiar attractiveness of a majestically formed woman. It could +not be said that there was a single beautiful feature about her face, +though it attracted and held every observer. Her head was large, well +formed, and covered with a wavy mass of black hair marvelous in its +richness of color and luxuriance. Her complexion was a clear, wax-like +white, singularly contrasting with her hair, delicately arching +eyebrows, and long, dark lashes, which heavily shaded great gray eyes +that were sometimes touched with a shading of blue, and occasionally +glowed with a light as keen, glittering, and cold as might flash from a +diamond or a dagger's point, which seemed to work in sympathy with the +rapid movement of her thin nostrils, and the swift shuttles of crimson +and paleness that darted over her curled upper lip, which, +notwithstanding this singularity, touched the full, pouting lower one +with a hint of wild and riotous blood. + +Although Mrs. Winslow was a woman who, being met in the better circles +of society, would have wonderfully interested every one with whom she +came in contact, in the circle within which she moved, and which, +unconsciously, seemed to be far beneath her, she surely commanded a +certain kind of respect, with a touch of fear, perhaps; and in any +circle of life was undoubtedly one in whom the ambition for power was +only equalled by the remorseless way with which she would wield it after +it had been gained. + +Not once during the whole evening did she by any movement of her person +or motion of her features give any further indication of her character; +and I could only leave the hall and return to my hotel, and from thence +immediately to New York, with the thorough conviction that Mrs. Winslow +was a remarkably shrewd woman; had systematically fastened herself upon +Lyon with the view of becoming his wife, or compelling him to divide his +immense wealth with her; would give us plenty to attend to, and had +easily gained a wonderful power over Lyon; which, even after her +repeated piracies upon him, and the evident knowledge he possessed of +her villainous character, was yet strong upon him. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + "Our Case."-- Harcout's Egotism and Interference.-- The + strange Chain of Evidence.-- A Trail of Spiritualism, + Lust, and Licentiousness.-- Superintendent Bangs locates + the Detectives.-- A pernicious System.-- Three Old Maids + named Grim.-- Mr. Bangs baffled by Mr. Lyon, who won't be + "worried."-- One Honest Spiritualistic Doctor.-- The Trail + secured.-- A Tigress.-- Mr. Bangs "goes West." + + +On my return to New York I found that the splendid Harcout had been +using the interim in a succession of heated rushes from the St. Nicholas +Hotel to the Agency, where he had given my superintendents and clerks +voluminous instructions as to how the investigation should be conducted, +and, in explaining his idea of how detectives should work up any case, +permeated the entire establishment with his fragrant pomposity. He was +also quite impatient that nothing had been done in "our case," as he +termed it, and I could only pacify him by assuring him that it should be +given my immediate attention. + +As soon as I could dispose of Harcout I held another consultation with +my General Superintendent, during which the information I had secured at +Rochester was analyzed and recorded, and which, with some other facts +already in possession of the Agency bearing on the case, we decided to +be sufficient to warrant a conclusion that Mrs. Winslow was not Mrs. +Winslow at all, but somebody else altogether, and had had as many +_aliases_ as a cat is supposed to have lives. It was also quite evident, +the more we looked into the matter and searched the records, that +certain other cities of the country had suffered from the much-named +Mrs. Winslow, and in many instances in a quite similar manner to that of +the Rochester infliction. + +Running through all the strange chain of evidence that the records of +our almost numberless operations gave, there were also found items which +told of a female not altogether unlike Mrs. Winslow, and there were in +them all traces of a woman absolutely heartless, cold, calculating, +cruel; now here under one name and in one guise, now there under another +name and in another guise, but forever upon that unrelenting search for +power and with that remorseless greed for gold, and also showing as +truly a trace of spiritualism, of lust, and of licentiousness. + +Of course the result of it all was only a question of time; only a +question of duration in villainy and shrewd human deviltry; a mere +question of how long supreme depravity would wear in a constant war upon +fairness, purity, and the conscience of society. It never wins--it +always loses, and, as certain as life or death, good or evil, reaches +its sure punishment here, whatever may be the result in that +undiscovered territory of the future which the preachers find happiness +and good incomes in quarrelling over. But as my long experience with +crime and criminals had proven to me the fact that one desperately bad +woman brings upon society vastly more misery than a hundred equally as +bad men, and being equally as certain that Mrs. Winslow was an +exceptionally bad woman, I felt no regret whatever in becoming her +Nemesis, and even experienced a peculiar degree of satisfaction in +inaugurating a crusade against her as a pitiless, heartless, dangerous +woman, utterly devoid of conscience, and without a single redeeming +trait of character. + +I accordingly detailed two of my operatives, Fox and Bristol, to proceed +to Rochester in charge of Superintendent Bangs, whom I gave instructions +to locate the men so that they could keep Mrs. Winslow under the +strictest surveillance, and make daily reports in writing to me +concerning her habits and associates, and operations of any character +whatever, using the telegraph freely if occasion required. I also +instructed him, after the men were located in Rochester, and he had +followed up the clue I had got for him as to Mrs. Winslow's western +exploits, to proceed to the West, taking all the time necessary, and +ascertain everything possible favorable or unfavorable to the woman; as +I held it to be not only a matter of utmost importance to thorough +detective work, but also a principle of common justice, that any +suspected person should receive the benefit of whatever good there is in +them. + +For these reasons I have always fought against the system of rewards for +the capture and conviction of supposed criminals. There could be nothing +more absolutely unjust. Under that system, through a combination of +circumstances, an innocent party is often deemed guilty of crime, and +the detective, anxious to secure professional honor and large +remuneration for small work, begins with the presumption of guilt, and +industriously piles up a mountain of presumptive and circumstantial +evidence that times without number has sent innocent persons to the +felon's cell or the hangman's noose. + +On arriving at Rochester the following Monday, Bangs took rooms at the +National Hotel, opposite the court-house--a house more a resort for +persons in attendance at the courts, and people visiting Rochester from +neighboring towns, than for fashionable people or commercial travellers; +while Fox settled himself at a little hotel nearly opposite Mrs. +Winslow's rooms on South St. Paul street, and Bristol found a home at a +little saloon, restaurant and boarding-house, kept by three old maids +named Grim, who were firm believers in Spiritualism--probably from never +having got any satisfaction out of life from any other religion--under +Washington Hall, on East Main street, a place given up to variety shows, +masked balls, sleight-of-hand performances, seances, and other +questionable entertainments; so that they were all within easy +communication, and could work to advantage. It was also arranged that +the reports of Fox and Bristol should be put in Mr. Bangs's hands, by a +mode of communication which would prevent their being seen together, +before being forwarded to me, so that their observations might be of +assistance in his securing necessary information for his western tour. + +While Bristol and Fox were watching the movements of the gay madam, +familiarizing themselves with the city, and getting on an easy footing +at their boarding-houses, Mr. Bangs set to work to ascertain if possible +in what part of the West Mrs. Winslow had operated. + +He first visited Mr. Lyon at his office in the Arcade, introducing +himself as Mr. Clement, one of my operatives, not giving his correct +name, as the newspaper reporters were flying around at a great rate for +items, and the appearance of a man so well known by reputation as Mr. +Bangs would have given their overcharged imaginations an opportunity to +flood over several columns of their respective papers. After being +seated in Lyon's private office Mr. Bangs, as Mr. Clement, began the +conversation: + +"Mr. Lyon, I am directed by Mr. Pinkerton to ascertain if possible from +you whether Mrs. Winslow has ever informed you of having at any previous +time resided in the West?" + +Lyon gave Bangs a cigar, lighted one for himself, and after puffing away +vigorously for a little time, replied: "Mr. Clement, I think she has +done so, but I can't recollect what the information was." + +"Couldn't you call to mind anything that would be of some little +assistance to us, Mr. Lyon?" + +"No," he nervously answered; "no, I think not. I have put this whole +matter away from me as much as possible." + +"We have positively ascertained," continued Bangs, looking searchingly +into Lyon's face, "that she recently secured a divorce from a former +husband. We also know that some one here in Rochester rendered her +substantial assistance. That person found, tracing her history would be +comparatively an easy matter." + +Lyon moved about uneasily, and finally through the clouds of smoke about +his head puffed out, "Indeed!" + +"Yes," replied Bangs, "and, Mr. Lyon, if we could get at the exact truth +about this part of it, I am sure it would not only greatly facilitate +our work, but also greatly lessen the expense of the operation." + +Lyon sat for a little time twisting his shaggy gray whiskers, and +finally said: "Mr. Clement, I insist on not being worried about this +business; perhaps Harcout didn't make that point quite clear. Harcout +_is_ a little flighty, but a noble fellow though, after all. I don't +hardly know what I would do without Harcout, Mr. Clement; he takes the +whole thing off my shoulders, as it were." + +Bangs saw that Lyon could have given him just what information he +needed, and also saw with equal certainty that he had fully decided to +throw the matter off his mind entirely, and compel us to gain whatever +necessary by hard work. He was also now satisfied of the truth of my +conviction, that Lyon had assisted Mrs. Winslow in this divorce matter, +and had been very much more intimate with her than he even desired us to +know. So he bade him good-day, returned to his hotel, and telegraphed +for instructions. I directed him to go ahead and use his own judgment +altogether, also suggesting that he should visit the different +clairvoyants and mediums, with a view of getting further information +which might be secured from their almost ceaseless chatter upon the +subject. + +As Rochester is as full of mediums as a thistle of thorns, this was a +kind of investigation which necessitated the expenditure of considerable +time, and three days had elapsed before any information of a +satisfactory nature was secured. He had expended quite a little fortune +in having his "horoscope cast," his fortune told, and his fate pointed +out with such unerring certainty by male and female seers of every name, +appearance and nature, that if any two of these predictions had borne +the slightest possible resemblance to each other, he would have been +horrified enough to have taken a last leap into the surging Genesee like +poor Sam Patch. But he persisted in the face of these terrible +revelations until he had found a certain Dr. Hubbard, who proved to be +one of the jolliest of the profession he had ever met. The Doctor was a +pleasant gentleman, and proved more pleasant than ever when Mr. Bangs +informed him that he did not desire any fortune-telling, predictions or +horoscopes, but was interested in the subject of Spiritualism, and had +been directed to him as one likely to give some information that could +be relied on, for which he would liberally remunerate him. + +As Mr. Bangs had some choice cigars, which he divided with the Doctor, +and the Doctor had some choice brandy, which he divided with Mr. Bangs, +they at once became easy together, and taking seats at the window +overlooking Main street, while watching the crowds below, were soon +chatting away quite unlike two people very badly affected with +spiritualistic tendencies. + +After a little time, however, the Doctor looked pretty sharply at Bangs, +and suddenly asked: "Well, who are you, anyhow?" + +"Who am I?" returned Bangs smilingly, "well, to be frank, I am Professor +Owen, of the Indiana State University." Bangs never blushed at the libel +on the kind old man bearing that name and title, and continued, "It is +our vacation now, and I am travelling a little in the East investigating +this subject. My brother is an enthusiastic believer in it, but I wished +other testimony." + +The Doctor seemed to think that the Professor took to the brandy and +cigars quite too familiarly for an educator, but the explanation +satisfied him, and he asked: "Professor, you want the whole truth, don't +you?" + +"Nothing but the truth," responded Bangs. + +Doctor Hubbard blew out a long series of rings and expressively followed +it with "Humbug!" + +"It can't be possible," persisted Bangs. + +"It oughtn't to be possible," urged the Doctor, "for a man of your +probable talent and position to be engaged in investigating what one +visit to any one of us should show to be the most infernal fraud ever +practised upon the public!" said the Doctor heatedly. + +Bangs expressed himself as surprised beyond measure. + +"Well," continued the Doctor earnestly, "you came to me like a man, +didn't you?" + +Bangs assured him that he was quite right. + +"And you came fair and square, without any ifs and ands, didn't you?" + +"All of that," responded Bangs. + +"And," continued the Doctor helping himself to the brandy, then excusing +himself and pushing it towards Bangs, who partook sparingly, "you didn't +want any fortune told, or predictions, or horoscopes, or any other +nonsense?" + +"Exactly," said Bangs. + +"And you said you'd pay me liberally for information, didn't you?" + +"Yes, and I'll be as good as my word," replied the assumed professor. + +"Well, then," continued the Doctor in a burst of good feeling, brandy +and honesty, "you see in me an unsuccessful physician, a disciple of +Æsculapius without followers. I graduated with high honors, hung out my +sign, sharpened my tools, moulded my pills, drank a toast to disease, +but waited in vain for patronage. As this became monotonous," continued +the Doctor, taking another pull at the brandy bottle, then wiping the +mouth and passing it to Mr. Bangs, who excused himself, "I glided into a +'specialist.' It required too much money to advertise, and the papers +slashed me villainously besides. _Then_ I became a Spiritualist--it's +the record of every one of us. You can see," and the Doctor waved his +hand towards the cosy appointments in a satisfied way, "I am pretty +comfortable now." + +"Yes, quite comfortable," said Bangs, wondering what the Doctor was +driving at. + +"So I am an enthusiastic Spiritualist," resumed the happy physician, +"for its profession has provided me with necessities, comforts, and even +luxuries." + +"Do you really effect any of the marvellous cures you advertise?" + +"Most assuredly," he replied. + +"And may I ask how?" interrogated Mr. Bangs. + +"In the good old-fashioned way--salts, senna, calomel, and the +blue-pill," said the Doctor, laughing heartily. + +"And is not the aid of the spirits essential to your cures?" + +"A belief, or _faith_, that such an agency is used, does the whole +thing, Professor." + +"And is there no such thing?" persisted Bangs. + +"Just as much of it as there is faith in it; no more and no less." + +"Then the whole thing's a humbug, as you say?" + +"Just as thoroughly as is that woman," said the Doctor stoutly, pointing +to Mrs. Winslow, who at that moment was seen in the street below, being +driven towards the suburbs in a neat phaeton. + +Bangs, becoming suddenly interested, though repressing himself, +carelessly asked, "Who is she?" + +Here the Doctor executed a grimace which might mean a good deal, or +nothing at all, and said tersely: "She's a bouncer; don't you know her?" + +"No." + +"Why, that's Mrs. Winslow, old Lyons' soothing syrup; and old Lyon's +one of the children--'teething,'" added the Doctor with a hearty laugh. +"But she's a tigress!" + +Mr. Bangs leaned out of the window, took a good look at the tigress, and +then, as if endeavoring to recollect some former occurrence, said: "I +believe I have seen her somewhere before." + +"Quite so, quite so; undoubtedly you have." + +"And I think in the West, too," replied Mr. Bangs, trying hard to +remember, and handing the doctor a fresh cigar. + +"Exactly--Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Louisville--everywhere, in +fact. One might call her a social floater, and not be far out of the way +either. She used to live at Terre Haute." + +"Terre Haute? Why, of course! I knew I had seen her somewhere." + +"Yes, she lived a few miles out, up the Wabash river, for years. Her +husband's name was Oxford, or Hosford, or something of the kind." + +"Yes?" said Bangs. + +"Yes," replied the Doctor; "I didn't know her personally, but I knew +_of_ her there. That's where she first went off the hook--and--and +became one of us." + +"Is she a remarkable character?" asked Mr. Bangs. + +"A remarkable character? Why, sir, she's a wonderful woman--a perfect +Satan. I wouldn't have her get after me," said the Doctor, shaking his +head protestingly "for ten thousand dollars! Why, sir, that woman has +ruined more men and broken up more families than you could count." + +"And is _she_, too, a spiritualist?" asked Mr. Bangs. + +"A spiritualist? Why, of course she is; and, what is more, I sometimes +think she really believes in her own mummeries." + +"What has become of her family?" asked Bangs. + +"Oh, gone to the devil, I presume, just like everybody she has had +anything to do with--just as old Lyon is certain to do, too." + +"Then this Oxford or Hosford is not living at Terre Haute now?" + +"Couldn't tell you that," replied the Doctor; and then, suddenly +returning to the subject and putting the brandy-bottle into a little +closet with a slam as footsteps were heard coming up the stairs, "can I +be of any further service to you?" + +Mr. Bangs thought not, handed the good Doctor a five-dollar bill while +remarking that he would call again, both of which evidences of good +feeling pleased the latter immensely, and took his departure quite well +pleased with the result of his inquiries into the wonderful subject of +modern Spiritualism. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + Rochester.-- A Profitable Field for Mrs. Winslow.-- Her + sumptuous Apartments.-- The Detectives at Work.-- Mrs. + Winslow's Cautiousness.-- Child-Training.-- Mysterious + Drives.-- A dapper little Blond Gentleman.-- Two Birds + with one Stone.-- A French Divinity.-- Le Compte. + + +While Superintendent Bangs is on his hunting expedition in the West, we +will follow the fortunes of Mrs. Winslow in the beautiful city of +Rochester. + +There is hardly a city in the country better adapted for either the +pursuit of pleasure or wealth than Rochester. Everything combines to +make it so. It nestles in one of the most beautiful valleys in the +world, like the nest of a busy bird in a luxuriant meadow. There is the +sound of pleasant waters, the roar of a mighty cataract, the din of two +score busy mills, the music of the spindles, the cogs and the reels, the +clash and the clangor of the factories, the thunderings of the forges, +and the footfalls of a hundred thousand happy, contented people who have +wrung competence and even luxury from the hard hand of necessity and +toil. + +From the summit of Mount Hope Observatory, an elevation of nearly five +hundred feet above the lake, there is a grand picture whereon the eye +may rest. At your feet, and to the north, lies the busy city with the +noble Genesee winding rapidly through it, lending its half-million +horse-power force to the needs of labor, then plunging a hundred feet +downwards, eddying and rushing onward, plunging and eddying again and +again, until it sobers into a steady current northward towards Ontario +through a deep, dark gorge, looking like an ugly serpent trailing to the +lower inland sea where can be seen the city of Charlotte, formerly +called Port Genesee, the port of Rochester, beyond which, on a clear +day, may be seen countless dreamy sails, and steamers with their +trailing plumes of smoke, and still beyond appears the dim outlines of +the far-off Canadian shore. To the east, as far as can be discerned, +lies a country of the nature of "openings"--beautiful groves of trees, +magnificent farms, with the almost palatial homes of the owners, who +have become rich from the legacies of their ancestors with the added +thrift of scores of fruitful years. Southward for a half hundred miles, +stretches the beautiful valley of the Genesee, dimpled by lesser valleys +and a hundred sparkling brooks, and dotted by field and forest and +numberless groups of half-hidden houses, with outbuildings full to +bursting with the fruitage of the fields; while to the west along the +lake are low ranges of sand-hills, and south of these extending nearly +to Lake Erie is a beautiful prairie country, while with a glass can be +traced the ghostly mist perpetually hovering above Niagara. + +If this scene be inspiring to the looker-on, the intrinsic beauty of the +city, its unusual life, its fine public buildings, business houses, and +splendid private residences; its clean macadamized streets and broad, +brick walks, shaded with the trees of half a century's growth as in many +of the famous Southern cities; its numberless little parks or "places," +owned in common by the proprietors of the handsome residences which +surround them, and filled with rare shrubs, flowers, beautiful fountains +and costly statuary; the vast _parterres_ of flowers in the suburbs, +sending in upon every summer wind an Arabian wealth of exquisite +fragrance; the large summer gardens, where beer and Gambrinus reign +supreme; the enticing promenades, and the splendid drives in every +direction from the city--would give any one not completely at war with +every pleasant thing in life a genuine inspiration of pleasure and a +more than ordinary thrill of enjoyment. + +It is little wonder, then, that Mrs. Winslow found Rochester a +profitable field for operating in her peculiar double capacity of a +dashing adventuress and a trance medium. She found there not only men of +vast wealth, but of vast immorality, as is quite common all over the +world, and hundreds of firm believers in spiritualism, which was a +special peculiarity to Rochester. Among the first number there were many +who sought her for her charms of figure and manners, which were +certainly powerfully attractive, and which yielded her an elegant income +without positive public degradation, as no man of wealth and position +feels called upon to make known his own peccadilloes for the sake of +exposing the sharer of them, even though she be a dangerous woman; and +consequently there was only that universal verdict of evil against her +which society quite generally, and also quite correctly, pronounces on +forcibly circumstantial evidence. + +Her apartments were elegant, and even sumptuous; and though there was a +quite general understanding of her character among the epicurean +gentlemen of the city, she held them aloof with such freezing dignity +that they seldom presumed upon her acquaintance, and were even possessed +of a certain respect for her unusually rare shrewdness in preserving her +reputation, such as it was; so that her rooms, so far as the public were +able to ascertain, were only frequented by those who believed her to be +able to allay their sufferings, or open the gates of the undiscovered +country to their anxious, yearning eyes. + +A large amount of money had been paid her by Lyon to prevent a scandal. +The last sum was known to have been five thousand dollars, and it was +quite probable that if there had been an intimacy so ripe as to have +warranted the payment of this amount, still larger sums had doubtless +been expended in maturing so tender a relation. In any event it was +ascertained by Bristol and Fox that Mrs. Winslow had for some time been +living in elegance, though at the same time carefully, being given to no +particular excesses, and it was a matter for considerable speculation +whether she was now in the possession of much money or not. + +Fox affected the quiet, well-bred gentleman, expended sufficient money +among the boarders to make them talkative, and even confidential, and +in this way learned a great deal about the madam's habits and +peculiarities that was afterwards useful, though of no particular moment +at that time; while Bristol, who was a florid, well-kept Canadian +gentleman of about forty-five years of age, of a literary and poetical +turn, and with an easy habit of falling into the manner and brogue of an +Englishman, Scotchman, or Irishman, made himself immensely popular with +the old maids under Washington Hall, who in turn were enamored with his +good physical parts and blarneying tongue, and were at any time ready to +confide to him all they knew, and, in fact, a great deal more; so that, +as he professed to be an ardent Spiritualist, he was enabled to become +well informed concerning the leading persons of that persuasion in the +city, of whom he forwarded a complete list, with something of a history +of each; and while not becoming known to or personally familiar with any +one of them--which would have destroyed his usefulness, he was yet able +to keep track of nearly all that was said or done within the charmed +circle; as after each lecture, or seance, the economically-built and +antiquated maidens would retire to a little snuggery behind the +restaurant, to which they would invite the sympathetic Bristol, who was +old enough to protect them from scandal, and then and there, while +easing their by no means ravishing forms of portions of their garments +preparatory to the night's virtuous repose, over strong toast and weak +tea would rattle on in such a bewildering way about the events of the +evening and the good or bad characteristics of the faithful, that +Bristol figuratively, if not in fact, sat at the feet of a trinity of +oracles. + +His reports showed that while Mrs. Winslow was accepted among their +number without question, still there was but little known about her +previous history. I felt satisfied that this was true, and had only +stationed Bristol and Fox at Rochester for the purpose of keeping me +informed of her every movement, knowing well enough that after Bangs had +got a good start he would follow up her trail in the West as +remorselessly as I myself would have done. + +Mrs. Winslow seemed to be absolutely without associates, either from a +confirmed habit of suspicion of everybody which she seemed to possess, +or from a resolve to maintain as good a character as possible until the +Winslow-Lyon case should be heard in court, so that her evidence, and +particularly her reputation, might not be impeached or broken down; and +it required the constant attention of both Bristol and Fox to discover +in her anything of even a suspicious character, as the nature of her +mediumistic business--allowing as it did scores of visitors daily access +to her rooms, only one being admitted to the trance-room of her +apartments at a time--gave her a vast advantage over them. + +It was evident that she had in a measure persuaded herself that she had +a genuine cause of action against Lyon; or, that if she had not, she had +fully determined to make a big fight under any circumstances, as both +the prestige secured by the presumption of some shadow of a claim which +the mere pressing of it in court would give, and the assistance to her +which even a tithe of the damages she claimed would be, would not only +give her a degree of importance and respectability which would greatly +assist her in future operations, but would also yield her the means for +future comfort, without this terrible continued struggle for gold and +the happiness it is supposed to command. + +How vain such a hope! and how strange that, with the bitter reminder of +countless never-realized ambitions before them, the adventurer and the +criminal will go on and on, still clinging to the shadow of a hope that +by _some_ exceptional freak of fortune in their favor they may gain the +peace and quietness they so agonizedly long for, but which is just as +irrevocably decreed to be forever beyond their reach as were the +luscious fruits to escape the touch and taste of the condemned and +tortured Phrygian king. + +And right here, were I a preacher--being only a _doer_, however--I would +show the criminal neglect of parents, teachers and preachers in forever +warring for reformation, and never battling against the numberless packs +of little foxes of pride and covetousness of society, which drive weak +natures into a constant struggle to excel in power and display, eating +away at the vines until the life, like the fields, is left barren and +desolate, or is only a vast waste of thorns and noxious weeds. My +records are full of lives wrecked upon the glittering rocks built by +false pride and vanity and the greed for gold which society, and even +the aristocratic systems of modern religion compel. Whatever may be +preached, all this cursed assumption of what is not possessed without +years of honest, sturdy toil, is practised in the pulpit, the pew, the +palace, and the poverty-stricken hovel, permeating every stratum of +business, society and religion, until honorable action is at discount, +dishonesty commands a premium of gain and lachrymose sympathy, and the +whole world is being swiftly driven into a surging channel of fraud, +crime and debauchery that will require generations of something besides +splendid hypocrisy and luxurious cant to restrain and purify. + +With this digression, which I cannot well avoid, as it contains the +convictions based upon long years of close observation and peculiar +experience, I will return to the woman whom my operatives found so +difficult to analyze and trace out. + +Bangs's visit to Dr. Hubbard showed that she had a habit of driving out. +Bristol and Fox became acquainted with this fact at once and transmitted +it in their reports. It appeared that the carriage and driver were +secured at a livery stable near the opera house, a short distance from +her rooms and Fox's boarding-house. I instructed Fox to ascertain to +what points these trips were made, and if any one ever accompanied her. +Careful inquiries at this stable elicited nothing, as Mrs. Winslow's +custom was valuable, and even her driver proved close-mouthed upon the +subject. Accordingly, after Fox had discovered the general direction +taken by Mrs. Winslow and the usual streets frequented at starting, he +strolled out State Street and from thence into Lake View Avenue, which +is but a continuation of State Street. After he had walked some little +distance he was pleased to find that he had company in the person of a +dapper little blond gentleman who was somewhat in advance of him, but +who, though apparently enjoying the morning air, seemed both +apprehensive of being followed, and desirous of the appearance of some +one for whom he was waiting. His make-up gave him something of a foreign +air, and was the most exquisite imaginable. He was a slender, tender +nymph of the male order of fairies, with a face as delicate as a +woman's, with large, blue, expressive eyes, long, luxuriant hair, and as +neat a little moustache as was ever waxed to keep it from melting away +altogether. If his face and figure were neat enough for a millinery +window, his clothing was a model even for a Poole. His lustrous silk hat +scarcely outshone in richness his faultless dress-coat, which was +buttoned low, exposing a perfect duck vest, a spotless shirt-front and a +low, rolling Byron collar, with a delicate flowing tie; while his +pantaloons, which were of a mellow lavender color, seemed only to +increase the effect of his shapely legs, and by their graceful swell at +the instep only to stop to disclose a foot perfect enough for a model. +His jewelry consisted of a modest solitaire diamond pin, and a large +seal ring which he wore upon the little finger of his left hand. + +For some reason Fox felt interested in him, and resolved, though +looking for a quite different person, to watch him closely. So he passed +him without giving him an opportunity of seeing his face, and, taking a +position in the bar-room of a small beer-garden a little way beyond, +where he had a good view of the avenue, waited for developments which +were not long in taking place, as the neat little fellow arrived at the +garden a few minutes after Fox, and shortly after Mrs. Winslow's +carriage was seen coming from the direction of the city. Fox saw that he +was bringing two birds down with one stone, and anxiously watched Mrs. +Winslow and the little fop, feeling satisfied that their meeting at the +garden was pre-arranged, for as soon as her carriage came in sight, he +had noticed a look of satisfaction come over the man's face, and when it +was driven up to the door he stepped out nimbly, smiling and bowing like +a brisk wax figure at a show. + +The driver was at once discharged, and after watering the horse, +immediately started towards town on foot, occasionally looking over his +shoulder with a sardonic smile on his face, as if pleased at the loving +meeting at the garden, as that sort of thing probably brought him many +an honest penny; but no sooner had the driver turned his back on the +place than Mrs. Winslow said: + +"Come, Le Compte, get me a glass of brandy." + +Fox thought that pretty strong for a lady who had been damaged a hundred +thousand dollars by breach of promise of marriage, but held his peace, +and a paper before his face, while her admirer danced into the bar and +procured two glasses of brandy, which he took to the carriage upon a +little tray. + +"My dear, you were a little late, eh?" said Le Compte. + +"Ah, a French divinity," thought Fox. + +"Le Compte," replied Mrs. Winslow, handing him a bill with which to pay +for the refreshment, and paying no attention to the little fellow's +remark, "tell that d----d Dutchman that if he don't get some better +brandy, I'll never pay him another penny!" + +Fox also thought this pretty strong for the pure, broken-hearted maiden +Mrs. Winslow's bill of complaint against Lyon showed her to be, and he +accordingly made a note of the same, as her friend returned to the +bar-room and paid for the liquor, while saying to the landlord that the +madam desired him to say that the brandy was perfectly exquisite in +flavor. + +Presently Mrs. Winslow called out, "Come, Le Compte, get in here!" when +he ran out with the alacrity of a carriage spaniel, sprang into the +carriage, took the reins, and drove away towards the country, looking +like a pretty daisy in the shade of a gigantic sunflower. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + The Half-way House.-- A Jolly German Landlord.-- Detective + Fox runs down Le Compte.-- A "Positive, Prophetic, Healing + and Trance Medium."-- Harcout the Adviser reappears, and + is anxious lest Mr. Lyon be drawn into some terrible + Confession.-- Mr. Pinkerton decides to know more about Le + Compte.-- And with the harassed Mr. Lyon interviews him.-- + Treachery and Blackmail.-- "A much untractable Man."-- + Light shines upon Mrs. Winslow.-- Another Man.-- Mr. + Pinkerton mad. + + +Many other conveyances were passing to and fro, and Fox's first impulse +was to secure a seat in some one of them and follow the couple in the +direction they had taken. But he recollected that it might cause either +Mrs. Winslow, or the little fellow at her side to know him again, which +would prove disastrous, and he was consequently obliged to apply his +pump to the important little Dutchman who owned the half-way house, and +who was busying himself around the cool, pleasant bar-room, making the +place as attractive as possible, and singing lustily in his own +mother-tongue. + +"Good morning to you!" said Fox cheerily, stepping to the bar in a way +that indicated his desire to imbibe. + +"Good mornings mit yourself," answered the lively proprietor, getting +behind the bar nimbly; "Beer?" + +"Yes, thank you," replied Fox, "a schnit, if you please. Won't you +drink with me?" + +"Oh, ya, ya; I dank you; I dank you;" and there were as many smiles on +his honest face as bubbles upon his good beer. + +The glasses touched, Fox said, "Here's luck!" and the landlord met it +with "Best resbects, mister!" + +In good time two more schnits followed, and as the landlord was each +time requested to join with Fox, he was so pleased with his liberality +and apparent good feeling that he beamed all over like a sunny day in +June. + +"You have a beautiful place here," said Fox. + +"Oh, so, so!" answered the landlord with a quick, deprecatory shrug +which meant that he was very well satisfied with it. + +"I was never here before." + +"No?--So? I guess mebby I don't ever have seen you. Don't you leef py +Rochester?--no?" + +"No, I live in Buffalo, and I just came over to Rochester on a little +business. Having plenty of time, I thought I would stroll out a bit this +morning." + +"Ya, I get a good many strollers dot same way. Eferypody goes out by der +Bort." + +"The Bort?" + +"Ya, ya, der Bort--Bort Charlotte." + +"Is this the way to Charlotte?" + +"To be certainly. When you come five miles auf, den you stand by der +Bort, sure." + +"And so that is where the big woman and the little man were going?" +asked Fox carelessly. + +"Sure, sure," said the landlord with a knowing wink; and then taking a +very large pinch of snuff, and laying his forefinger the whole length of +his rosy nose, added with an air of great importance and mystery, "I +tell you, py Jupiter, I don't let somebody got rooms _here_!" + +"That's right, old fellow!" said Fox, slapping the honest beer-vender on +the shoulder. "Be unhappy and you will be virtuous!" + +"Vell," continued the Teuton, excitedly lapsing into his own vernacular, +"_es macht keinen unterschied_; I don't got mein leefing dot way. I--I +vould pe a bolitician first!" + +Fox expressed his admiration for such heroism, and purchased a cigar to +assist the landlord in his efforts to avoid the necessity of either +renting rooms to ladies and gentlemen of Mrs. Winslow's and Le Compte's +standing, or of accepting the more unfortunate emergency of becoming a +"bolitician." + +Then they both seated themselves outside the house, underneath the +shaded porch, and chatted away about current events, Fox all the time +directing the conversation in a manner so as to draw out the genial +Teuton on the subject which most interested him, and was successful to +the extent of learning that Le Compte was what the landlord termed a +"luffer," evidently meaning a loafer; that several months before, they +came there together desiring a room, which had been refused; but he had +directed them to the Port, where they had evidently been accommodated, +as they had after that, until this time, regularly went in that +direction, always stopping at his place for a glass of his best brandy; +and that they had also always came there together until within a few +weeks, since when, for some reason, this Le Compte had walked out to the +hotel, where she had overtaken him with her carriage and driver, when +the driver would be sent back to the city, and Le Compte taken in for +the drive to Charlotte, as Fox had seen. He also learned that on their +return, which was generally towards evening, the driver met them at the +same place, when the latter took the reins, and Le Compte, somewhat +soiled from his trip, walked into the city. + +Fox concluded that there would be no better time than the present to +learn something further concerning Le Compte, and after enjoying himself +in the vicinity for a short time, came back to the hotel, took a hearty +German dinner, and after another stroll secured a room for a short nap, +as he told the landlord, but really for the purpose of observation. +About six o'clock he saw the driver coming to the hotel from towards +Rochester, and in about a half an hour afterwards noticed the carriage +containing Mrs. Winslow and Le Compte coming down the road from +Charlotte. The couple seemed very gay and lively, and drove up to the +hotel with considerable dash and spirit. They both drank, as in the +morning, while the driver resumed his old place by the side of Mrs. +Winslow; and as they were about to depart, Fox heard the woman say to +Le Compte: "No, not again until Saturday; I'll try to be a little +earlier." Then the carriage went away, Le Compte loitering about for a +few minutes, after which he started off on a brisk walk towards town. + +As the evening was drawing on, Fox hurried down to the bar-room, paid +his bill, and bidding his host good-by, trudged on after the little +fellow, keeping him well in sight, though remaining some distance behind +to escape observation, but gradually closing in upon him, until, when +they had arrived within the thickly settled portion of the city, they +were trudging along quite convenient to each other. + +The lamps now began to flare out upon the town, and the gay shops were +lighted as Fox followed his man in and out, up and down the streets. Le +Compte first went to a restaurant just beyond the Arcade in Mill street, +where he got his supper, and afterwards promenaded about the streets in +an aimless sort of a way for some little time, after which he returned +to the Arcade and seemingly anxiously inquired for letters at the +post-office. He got several, but was evidently either disappointed at +what he had received, or at not receiving what he had expected. In any +event he cautiously peered into Lyon's closed offices, as if hoping to +find some one there. Disappointed in this also, he went directly to +State Street, near Main, where, after looking about for a moment, he +suddenly disappeared up a stairway leading to the upper stories of a +large brick block. Fox quickly followed, and was able to catch sight of +the little fellow just as he was entering a room at the side of the +hall. He waited until everything was quiet, and then approached the +door. The light from the single jet in the hallway was not sufficient +for the purpose, but with the aid of a lighted match he was able to +trace upon a neat card tacked to the door the inscription: + + B. JEROME LE COMPTE, + POSITIVE, PROPHETIC, HEALING AND TRANCE MEDIUM. + Psychrometrist, Clairvoyant, and Mineral Locater. + +As Fox had succeeded in "locating" his man, he returned to his +boarding-house, wrote out his report and posted it, and after carelessly +dropping into the restaurant under Washington Hall, where he took a dish +of ice-cream and found means to inform Bristol of the latest +development, he returned and retired for the night well satisfied with +his day's work, and fully resolved to be on hand for Saturday's sport at +Charlotte. + +I received Fox's report the next noon, and not a half-hour afterwards +the splendid Harcout came rushing in. + +"Pinkerton, Pinkerton," he exclaimed excitedly, "here's something which +we must attend to at once--at once, mind you, or--bless my soul! I'm +afraid I left it at the St. Nicholas. How could I be so careless!" + +Harcout grew red in the face and plunged into all his pockets wildly, +utterly regardless of his exquisite make-up, until quite exhausted. + +"Why, Harcout, you're excited. Tell me what's the matter, my man," said +I, reassuringly. + +"Matter? matter? everything's the matter. Here's something which should +be acted upon at once, and like an ass I've left it at the hotel. I'll +go back and get it immediately." + +"Get what?" I asked him. + +"Get a letter that I just received from Lyon. He's there all by himself, +and they will draw him into some terrible confession. But I--I must get +the letter," and Harcout grabbed his hat and gloves and started. + +"Hold on, Harcout," I called to him, "what is that you have in your +hand?" + +"In my hand? Oh, just a private note I got in the same mail." + +"Just look at it before you go," I suggested. + +Harcout stopped in the door, examined the letter, pulled another from +the inside of the envelope, and blurted out sheepishly: "Ah, bless my +soul!--Pinkerton, this is just what I wanted. Here, quick, read them +both." + +I took the letters as Harcout sat down and fanned himself with his +glove, and saw that they were dated from Rochester on the previous day. +The first one was from Lyon, in which he stated that he had received the +enclosed letter in the morning, probably shortly after Fox had strolled +out Lake View Avenue, also expressing a desire that Harcout should +submit it to me for advice as to the best course to be pursued, and have +the reply telegraphed. The enclosed letter was from Le Compte to Lyon, +insisting that he should immediately come to his rooms to receive +information of the greatest importance. I did not let Harcout know that +I had any information concerning Le Compte, but I saw that that portion +of Fox's report which stated that he had followed Le Compte to the +Arcade the previous evening, where the latter had anxiously inquired for +mail, and after that had taken a peep into Lyon's offices, agreed with +Lyon's letter as to the time when Le Compte probably expected an answer +from him. + +I was at loss to know what the dapper little fellow was driving +at--whether he and Mrs. Winslow were after further blackmail, or whether +he had secured some confession from her while she was lavishing her +favors and money upon him, which the treacherous little villain was +endeavoring to make bring a good price through Lyon's superstitious +faith in the power of those who claimed supernatural powers and a +profession of Spiritualism. + +I at once decided to go to Rochester and interview this new apparition +in the field in company with Lyon, and accordingly told Harcout that I +would do so, and would immediately telegraph to Lyon to that effect; +upon which he trotted away, announcing his determination to also +telegraph, so that Lyon might see that he was "attending closely to our +case," as he termed it. + +As soon as he had left, I indicted a dispatch to Lyon, asking him to +make an appointment with Le Compte for an interview on the next +afternoon, when I would be there to accompany him; and after getting my +supper, took the evening train and arrived at Rochester the next noon. + +After taking dinner at the Waverley, I immediately proceeded to Lyon's +offices. He seemed worried and anxious to see me, and felt extremely +alarmed about the whole matter, having as yet kept it from his attorney. +I had him send a message for him at once, and in a few minutes we were +all three in consultation. His attorney, a Mr. Balingal, thought we were +doing just right, and, on leaving, privately informed me that in no +event should I allow any person that professed mediumistic powers to +remain with Lyon alone, as he would be certain to do something which +would in some way compromise the case. + +A few minutes after Lyon's attorney had left, we took different routes, +arriving at the hallway leading to Le Compte's rooms on State street at +about the same time, ascending the staircase together. A negro, who had +borne a second and a more imperative message to Lyon, was in waiting at +the top, and smilingly showed us along the hall in the direction of +Number 28, which afterwards proved to be Le Compte's seance-room. The +little fellow himself here stepped out of an adjoining room with a very +insinuating smile upon his face, which suddenly changed to a look of +disappointment as he saw that Mr. Lyon had rather solidly-built company. + +As Mr. Lyon entered the room, this Monsieur Le Compte undertook to close +the door in my face; but I shoved myself into the room, and told the +mineral locater, etc., that I was a friend of Mr. Lyon's, and insisted +on being one of the party. + +Lyon began timidly looking around the gas lighted room--though it was +not after three o'clock--which was filled with the ordinary +paraphernalia for compelling awe and fear: "I understand you have some +business with me. My name is Lyon." + +"Yes, yes," he replied, "I have great business with you. But I can only +make you my _one_ confidant, Mr. Lyon." + +"Oh, well, well, now," I interrupted, with some assumed bravado, "this +sort of thing better play out before it begins. I am Mr. Lyon's friend, +and whatever you have to say to him will have to be said before me. +Isn't that so, Mr. Lyon?" + +Lyon assented feebly, and Le Compte asked: "Will you make me the +pleasure of your friend's name?" + +"No matter, no matter," said I quickly, for I knew how weak Lyon was. "I +am here as my friend's friend. He has nothing to say in this matter. You +will have to inform me of your business with Mr. Lyon." + +Le Compte suddenly arose from his chair, locked the door and put the key +in his pocket. He then went to the windows, which were slightly raised +on account of the heat, closed them, and lowered the curtains so as to +shut out the light completely. Just as he had completed the work, which +took him but a moment, I said to him sharply: "See here, sir, you will +make this room uncomfortably warm for yourself as well as us, if you are +not careful. Don't send us to perdition before our time, Le Compte." + +He made no answer, and looked exceedingly meek; but I saw that he was +determined to endeavor to play upon Lyon's feelings for future profit, +even if the present interview offered none. He immediately seated +himself at a table opposite us, and said to Lyon: "The clairvoyant state +I will go into before anything I can reveal." + +"Mr. Le Compte," I interrupted, noticing that Lyon was already weakening +before the scoundrel's assumption, "if you have got anything to say to +Mr. Lyon, go on and say it with your eyes open, like a man. We won't be +humbugged by you or any one else!" + +He did go on now, and with his eyes open, and said: "Well, gentlemen, I +know of this lady who troubles Mr. Lyon, and learn of much witnesses for +his help. But the clairvoyant state gave it to me." + +"No, no, my young fellow," said I, "we don't pay for that kind of +evidence. If you have any evidence in your possession which will be of +benefit to Mr. Lyon, I am prepared to receive and pay for it; but +clairvoyant evidence isn't worth a cent!" + +"Well," he replied, somewhat ruffled, "I can go on the jury and swear +clearly of this!" + +I then told him I was satisfied that he did not know the first +principles of law and evidence, and that the probability was that he had +no evidence in his possession at all. I spoke in a very loud tone of +voice, and evidently frightened the little fellow considerably. + +"You are much intractable--a much intractable man," he responded. "I +could tell about you greatly to convince you of my power; but it is +impossible in double presence." + +"All right," said I. "Mr. Lyon, I don't see as you have anything to do +with this interview, and I want you to go right back to your office and +remain there until I come!" + +Lyon got up in a scared kind of way, and started hesitatingly towards +the door, looking appealingly at me; but I paid no attention to it, and +the little Frenchman instantly arose and politely showed him out, saying +in a low voice: "My dear Mr. Lyon, it will be for your great interest to +make appointment without the boor." + +"Lyon will do nothing of the kind, you little villain," I said, as I saw +he was shrewdly arranging for future business. "The 'boor,' as you are +pleased to term me, has the whole charge of this business, and you will +transact it with him or nobody." + +Le Compte flushed, closed the door without another word, locked it, and +put the key in his pocket. + +I turned on him savagely with: "My friend, what do you mean? If you make +a single treacherous motion, you'll never get out of this room alive!" + +I was now thoroughly mad, and am sure that the little jackanapes saw it +and felt that I might possibly serve him as he deserved, for he quickly +and tremblingly said, "Oh, if that is the case, I have no objection if +you the key hold; but in clairvoyant state we shall be alone and +locked." + +There was a bed in the room, and I suggested that he looked flurried +and had better take a rest upon it while going on with his story; but he +seated himself at the opposite side of the table, and began putting his +hands upon his eyes and drawing them away with an indescribably +graceful, though rapid gesture. This he continued for some little time, +when he brought his hands down upon the table with considerable force. +Then he began the old humbug about my having had trouble with some one, +somewhere in the United States, at some time or other about something; +that there was another man of uncertain size, peculiar complexion, +unusual hair, singular face, and a strange, general appearance; and that +this difficulty was about money, he thought it would amount to from five +hundred to one thousand dollars, and that I would receive this sum +within a few weeks. As I said that this was absolutely true, he was +greatly encouraged, and went on for some time in an equally silly and +foolish manner. I stood it as long as I could, and finally said: + +"See here, my friend, you and I must talk business!" upon which he was +wide awake and quite ready to enter into earthly conversation. + +"Well, sir, what _could_ you want?" + +"I want this nonsense stopped," I replied rising, at which he also +jumped up nimbly. + +"Well," he said, "this woman"--evidently referring to Mrs. Winslow, +though no name had been mentioned--"once lived in Iowa with wrong +names!" + +"Oh, nonsense!" I replied, "I know that already." + +"But," he continued quickly, "I can furnish you the name of another +man--very rich, very rich he is, too--who should be by law more her +husband." + +"Well," said I angrily, though now fully believing the little fellow for +the first time, "write this out fully; give me the man's name, business +or occupation; his place of residence, his standing, etc.; how he became +acquainted with this woman and under what circumstances they lived +together, and when and where; and when you give me the information, if I +find it reliable, I will pay liberally for it. If not, I won't pay you a +cent. Now, do we understand each other?" + +"I think we do," he answered timidly. + +"Le Compte," said I sternly, "there's no use of your practising this +clairvoyant game any longer. You won't get a dollar out of it; not a +dollar. I understand all about it as well as you do. Now, have a care +about yourself, sir, or one of these bright days you'll be coming up +with a sudden turn." + +I now started towards the door; but the persistent scamp seemed anxious +to still keep me, on some manner of pretext, and stood holding the key +in a confused, undecided way. + +"Open that door, you villain!" I demanded; "open it at once, or you'll +get into trouble." + +He started suddenly, put the key in the lock, and then turned to me and +asked: "Won't you give me opportunity to show you I do not swindle. Just +let me make some few little passes over your head. I will sure put you +to sleep quickly!" + +"I am not sleepy, nor do I need sleep now, thank you. I had a good nap +about an hour since," I answered, laughing at the little fellow's +annoyance. "Now open that door!" + +Le Compte shrugged his handsome shoulders despairingly, unlocked the +door, and as I passed out of the no less than robber's den--though under +the guise of a mediumistic and spiritualistic blackmailing +headquarters--he said: "Well, sir, I will think of this statement a +great deal; but you are a very untractable man; a very untractable +man--what might I call your name?" + +"Oh, anything you like, my little man!" I replied pleasantly; "but mind, +we won't have any more of this silly business. It won't pay, and you +will certainly get into trouble from it. You may send the statement to +George H. Bangs, at the post-office, by Monday noon, and if it is what +you represent it to be, and reliable, you will be paid for it; but you +may be very, very certain, Le Compte, that it will prove extremely +unprofitable to you if you attempt any more of this humbuggery upon Mr. +Lyon!" + +With this admonition I left Le Compte's, and soon found Lyon in his +office. We arranged that he should pay no further attention to either Le +Compte's or any other person's communications concerning this case, but +should at once turn them over to his attorneys, who should immediately +forward them to me after reading them, as I was satisfied that if Le +Compte had any evidence he would never swear to it when the case was +tried, and only desired to blackmail Lyon on his own account, while +playing the necessary male friend and confidant to Mrs. Winslow, who for +some reason seemed to have a strange and unexplainable liking for the +little Monsieur, although exercising great care that her passion for him +should not become a matter for public knowledge and comment. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + The Raven of the Detroit Cottage in another Character.-- Mrs. + Winslow yearns for a retired Montreal Banker.-- Love's + Rivalry.-- A mysterious Note.-- The Response.-- Another + Trip to Port Charlotte by four Hearts that beat as one.-- + What Mr. Pinkerton, as one of the party, sees and hears.-- + "Jones of Rochester."-- Le Compte and Mrs. Winslow resolve + to fly to Paris, "the magnificent, the beautiful, the + sublime!"-- "My God, are they all that way?" + + +At last the promised Saturday came, and there were at least three people +in Rochester who looked forward to a pleasant day, and were up betimes +that they might get an early start. Mrs. Winslow, from her sumptuous +apartments, looked out upon the streets and the glorious morning as if +it had come too soon--as it always does to those who have not clean +hearts and clean lives--and, _en déshabillé_, gazed down through her +rich lace curtains upon the early passers stepping off with a brisk +tread to their separate labors, with a look of contempt. + +Nature had been wantonly generous with Mrs. Winslow, and as she stood +there in her loose morning robes, the first soft breaths that come with +the sun from the far-off Orient playing hide-and-seek among the +sumptuous hangings of her room, and giving just the least possible +motion to her matchlessly luxuriant black hair, while the mellow and +golden rays of the sun, which was just peeping over the roofs and the +chimneys, shimmered upon her through the curtains, lighting her great +gray eyes with a wondrous lustrousness, heightening the fine color of +her face, and giving to her voluptuous form an added grace--this utterly +lone woman had not in her heart an iota of tenderness for, or sympathy +with, the glories without, and was as dead to every good thing in life +as though carved from marble by some sculptor, as she really had been +carved from stone, or ice, by nature. As she stood there by the window, +regarding the passers with such a wise and ogreish air that Fox, behind +the blinds in his window opposite, could not but couple her in his +thoughts with some splendid beast of prey--if Mother Blake or the +voluble Rev. Bland could have seen her, the years that had passed would +have been swept away, and in the mature woman and the conscienceless +adventuress would have been recognized the raven of the Detroit cottage, +that, as Lilly Nettleton, in a habit that ravens have, glided +noiselessly about the other sumptuous apartments, gathering together +what pleased its fancy--not forgetting the money which was to have been +used in the cursed church interests, and a gold watch, which the raven +wore to this day--and then, kissing its beak to the heavily sleeping +man, for all the world like a raven, had passed out into the storm and +the night. + +In a few moments she retired from the window, and after dressing passed +out upon the street, and went to the falls for a short walk and an +appetite, and then went to the Washington Hall restaurant, where she had +quite frequently taken her meals since she had incidentally learned +that Bristol was a retired Montreal banker, as gossip had it now among +the Spiritualists; and it was evident that persons of that grade of +recommendation were of peculiar interest to Mrs. Winslow. For hours of +dalliance, the aristocratic though impecunious popinjay, Le Compte, +would more than answer; but when it came to a matter of serious work, +and when a new source of income was to be sought, Mrs. Winslow, being a +shrewd and able professor of the art of fascination which secured her an +independent and elegant livelihood, in connection with her ability to +compel a large number of people to pay her for guessing at what had +befallen them and what might befall them, she invariably sought +gentlemen on the shady side of life, with judgment and discretion, who +knew a good thing when they saw it, and who were both able and willing +to carry their bank accounts into their aged knight-errantry. + +Lyon was not a handsome man, but he had vast wealth. His weazen face, +his grizzly hair, his repulsive, tobacco-stained mouth, were naught +against him. His passion for her had brought her thousands upon +thousands of dollars--would bring her, she hoped, as much more. Here was +Bristol. He was not handsome, he was not a Canadian Adonis, he +incessantly smoked a very ugly pipe fully as old as himself. But he had +some way got the reputation of being "a retired Canadian banker" among +these people, and Mrs. Winslow's heart warmed towards him the way it had +towards a hundred others when she had wanted them to walk into her +parlor as the ancient spider had desired of the fly. + +So she had begun weaving a shining web of loving looks, of tender +glances, of dreamy sighs, and of graceful manœuvres of a general +character about the unsuspecting Bristol, that resulted in pecuniary +profit to the old maids, who, nevertheless, with the quick instinct of +three jealous women of economical build and mature years, had already +begun to hate her as a rival, and pour into Bristol's alert ears sad +tales about the splendid charmer, all of which were properly reported to +me by the "retired Montreal banker," who had suddenly found himself a +prize worthy to be sought for, and fought for, if necessary, by four +determined women, one of whom hungered for his supposed wealth, and +three of whom possessed the more desperate, life-long hunger whose +appeasing is worth a severe struggle. + +After her breakfast, which, unfortunately, had not given her an +opportunity for bestowing a graceful nod or a winning smile upon +Bristol, whom the old maids had furnished a superb breakfast in his own +apartment, Mrs. Winslow returned to her rooms and seated herself at her +windows, where she read the morning paper for a little time. She then +disappeared from Fox's sight for a half-hour or so, when, just as he was +about leaving his watch at his window he noticed her descend the stairs, +and, after looking cautiously about for a moment, deposit a card behind +her own sign, which was attached to the frame of the outer doorway +leading to her rooms. As soon as she had retired, and before she could +have returned to her windows, Fox slipped down and out across the +street, and removing the card from its novel depository, saw written +upon it: + + "Le Compte:--Will be at the Garden with carriage at ten, + prompt. + + "MRS. W." + +Fox had no more than time to return the card to its place when he saw +the person to whom it was addressed turn into St. Paul street from East +Main. He accordingly got back to his old post as rapidly as possible, +and watched the young Frenchman saunter along towards the hallway as if +carelessly taking his morning walk. He was irreproachably dressed, as +usual, and was daintily smoking a cigarette with that inimitable grace +with only which a Frenchman or a Spaniard can smoke. After arriving at +the hallway, as if undecided whether he would go farther up the street +or not, he leaned carelessly against the sign, and in a moment had +deftly whipped the card out of its hiding-place. He then started up the +street saunteringly, and when about a half-block distant, read the card, +which seemed to give him much pleasure, as he smilingly wrote something +upon it, and after walking a short distance, turned suddenly and walked +rapidly back, dexterously depositing the card in its strange receptacle, +without scarcely varying his pace or direction, and quickly passed on to +Main street, turning down that thoroughfare. + +Fox noticed that Mrs. Winslow had witnessed this incident from her +windows, and at the moment when her form had disappeared, he swiftly +stepped across the street and read the reply, which ran thus: + + "Your announcement makes pleasure in your lover's soul, and + your name is saluted by the lips of + + "LE COMPTE." + +Fox had just time to slip into a tobacconist's for a cigar when Mrs. +Winslow came down stairs, took the card out of its resting-place, and +after going down the street for some slight purchase, returned to her +rooms and prepared for the drive to Charlotte. + +At half-past nine Mrs. Winslow's carriage arrived and in a few minutes +after she was leisurely riding down Main street, and from thence out +through State street and Lake View Avenue towards the Port. As I had +nothing to do until Monday's interview with Le Compte, and time hung +heavily upon my hands, I had decided to make one of the party. + +I knew the direction Mrs. Winslow would take, and so securing a position +on the corner of Main and State streets, I had but a little time to wait +before I saw the gay madam pass, and also noticed Fox at an opposite +corner evidently making sure of her direction; for, as soon as he saw +her carriage turn down State street, he immediately started for the +depot, from which a train left for Charlotte at ten o'clock, so that he +could be at that place, under any circumstances, some time before the +happy and unsuspecting couple should have arrived. + +At about train-time Fox bought a cigar and took a seat in the +smoking-car, while I purchased a cheap edition of one of Dickens's +stories and settled myself down in a ladies' car. + +The trip to Charlotte was soon made through a beautiful country where +the farmers were busy stacking their grain, threshing, and, in some +instances, turning the black loam to the sun that it might early mellow +for the next year's seed-time, and in a half-hour we were at Charlotte, +where the beautiful lake is seen at one's feet, with its rippling waves +dotted here and there by a hundred dreamy sails and lazy steamers from +as many waiting ports. + +Fox immediately made inquiries of the villagers where he could find the +road leading into Charlotte from Rochester, and started out towards it +from the depot at a brisk walk, while I waited until he had got well +under way, when I took a short stroll among the warehouses and shipping +of the harbor, and then went to the only hotel of any importance the +place contained, where I knew Mrs. Winslow and Le Compte would be likely +to stop, and engaged a room in the front part of the house, where I +resumed my story and waited, like Micawber, for "something to turn up." + +I had been engaged at my book but a short time when I saw Fox come up +the street towards the hotel at a rapid pace, flushed and perspiring +freely as from a very long and rapid walk, and but a moment afterwards +also saw the dashing Rochester turnout whirling up to the hotel. + +The arrival at the hotel of the couple bore out the truth of the +statement of the little Dutchman, contained in Fox's report of his trip +to the half-way house, as the habitués of the house seemed quite +accustomed to their presence and the employees stepped about nimbly, as +they generally do at hotels as a greeting to good customers, and they +generally do not when persons of common appearance arrive. + +As good luck would have it, after a few moments had elapsed, "Mr. and +Mrs. Jones, of Rochester," as Fox saw they had registered, were ushered +into a room adjoining my own, and between which, as is quite common at +hotels, there was a door, which might be opened for the purpose of +throwing the rooms _en suite_, as occasion required. + +Although I was prevented from seeing the couple, their voices, which +were both familiar to me, could not be mistaken; and I could not +restrain a smile as I listened to the little Frenchman's voluble and +peculiarly-constructed expressions of endearment, and the coarser, but +none the less tender, responses of the virtuous Mrs. Winslow, whose life +had been shattered, heart smashed to atoms, and good name defamed, by +the tyrant man in the person of the weak but wealthy Lyon, and to think +how much nearer I was to the quarry than Fox himself, who in this +instance was making noble efforts to bring down his game without +"flushing" it. + +For the sake of the public whose servant I have been for the last thirty +years, I would blush to put on paper what I know to have occurred in the +adjoining room, and which only served to further convince me of the +depths of infamy to which she had sunk; and I will pass on to those +things only necessary to acquaint the reader with my plan of operation +to bring her into the public notoriety and scorn which she had years +before only too richly deserved. + +But a short time had elapsed after Mrs. Winslow and Le Compte had been +given their room when I heard Fox's footsteps coming along the hall. He +passed their room slowly, evidently locating it, and after a few moments +stealthily returned and listened at the door. He then stole away, but +returned again with a bold, firm step, as though conscious of being on +legitimate business, walked right up to the door and gave the knob a +quick turn, as if he had intended to at once walk into the room. + +The door did not open, however, and Fox stepped back as if surprised, +saying: "Why, I can't be mistaken; the register surely said Room 30!" +while within there were quick, though smothered exclamations of +surprise, fright, and rage of an unusually profane nature. + +Fox immediately returned to the attack as if certain that he was in the +right, and knocked at the door sharply. + +There was no response but the quick hustlings about the room, from which +I, as an attentive listener with my ear close to the key-hole, learned +that the inmates were preparing for discovery. + +Fox knocked again, this time louder and more persistently than at first. + +I now plainly heard Mrs. Winslow ordering Le Compte under the bed among +the dust, bandboxes, and unmentionables, at which he protested with +innumerable "_Sacrés!_" But she was relentless, and finally, seeing that +he would go no other way, took him up like a recalcitrant cur and flung +him under bodily. + +Again Fox attacked the door, shook the knob furiously, and knocked loud +enough to raise the dead, following it up with: "Say you?--Jones? Why in +thunder don't you open the door?" + +At this Mrs. Winslow plucked up the courage of desperation, and asked in +a loud and injured voice, "Who's there?" + +"Why, me, of course; Barker, Jones's partner. I want to see Jones!" + +"What Jones do you want?" asked Mrs. Winslow, to get time to think +further what to do. + +"Jones, of Rochester, of course," yelled Fox. "Two ship-loads of spoiled +grain's just come in; don't know what to do with 'em." + +"Sink 'em!" responded Mrs. Winslow, breathing freer. + +"Where's Jones?" persisted Fox, banging away at the door again. + +"There's no Jones here, you fool!" answered the woman hotly. + +"Yes there is, too," insisted Fox. "Landlord told me so." + +"Well," parried the female, raising her voice again, "Jones ain't in the +wheat trade at all; he's a professor of music; and besides that, he +ain't in here, either." + +"Oh, beg pardon, ma'am," said Fox apologetically, "It isn't your Jones +I want _this time_, then. Hope I haven't disturbed you, madam," and he +walked away, having clinched the matter quite thoroughly enough for any +twelve honest and true men under the sun. + +Mrs. Winslow stuck her head out of the door, launched a threat, coupled +with a well-defined oath, against Fox, who was leisurely strolling along +the hall, to the effect that he ought to be ashamed of himself for +"insulting a defenceless woman in that way, and that if he came there +again she would have him arrested." To which he cheerily responded, "No +offence meant, ma'am; 'fraid the wheat'd spoil, ye see;" and as he went +whistling down the stairs, she slammed the door, locked it, drew the +trembling Le Compte from under the bed, and amid a chime of crockery set +him upon his feet again with a snap to it, and then threw herself into a +rocking-chair and burst into tears, insisting that she was the most +abused woman on the face of earth, and that Le Compte, with his +"_Sacrés!_" and "_Diables!_" hadn't the sense of a moth or the muscle of +an oyster, or he would have followed the brute and given him a sound +beating! + +Not desiring to be seen by Fox, I ordered my dinner sent to my room, as +did the unhappy couple in the adjoining apartment, who seemed to be +greatly put out by the intrusion, and who were for an hour after +speculating as to the cause of the interruption, and as to whether it +was accidental or not. + +"We mustn't come here any more, Le Compte," said the woman dolefully. + +"And for why, my angel precious?" anxiously asked the man. + +"Why, do you know," replied Mrs. Winslow with earnestness, "I sometimes +really believe I am being watched!" + +"No, that was impossible!" said Le Compte, with a start. + +"And sometimes," she continued, paying no attention to him, "it seems as +though I could not stand this terrible keeping up appearances any +longer." + +"You should have pleasure in the appearance," responded Le Compte +insinuatingly, "it breaks him down already. He is now like one weak +infant." + +"That's so, that's so," she answered quickly, in a tone of vengeful +joyousness. "I'll bring the old devil to my feet yet. I'll crush him out +and ruin his fortune, if it takes me all my life. I'll get the biggest +part of it, too; and then, Le Compte, we'll get out of this cursed +country and enjoy ourselves the rest of our lives." + +"Yes, in Paris, the magnificent, the beautiful, the sublime! Then we +will live in one heaven of love. Oh, beautiful, beautiful!" cried the +little Frenchman excitedly. + +"There, Le Compte," said his companion, suddenly becoming practical +again, "don't make a fool of yourself! Take this bill and go down and +get a bottle of wine; and mind you, don't keep the change either." + +As the train returned at two, and I had but little time to reach it, as +soon as Le Compte had come back with the wine and they had become +sufficiently noisy to admit of it, I quietly left my room, paid my bill, +went to the train, avoiding Fox entirely, and, with him, was soon again +in Rochester, leaving the roystering couple at the little hotel at +Charlotte building their vain dreams and air-castles about crushing out +Lyon--which would have been an easy matter if left to himself--their +beautiful, magnificent, and sublime Paris, and their "one heaven of +love" within it. + +As soon as Fox stepped from the train I quietly handed him a slip of +paper directing him to make his report to me at the Waverley House, +where I was stopping under an assumed name, which he assured me he would +do, without a word being spoken or even a look of recognition being +passed. + +Although the public may not be aware of it, this is an absolute +necessity in detective service. Though I employ hundreds of persons as +detectives, preventive police, and in clerical duties, at my different +agencies, on no occasion and under no circumstances is there ever on the +street, or in any public place whatever, the slightest token by which +the stranger might know that there had ever been any previous +communication between any of my people. + +On the next day, Sunday, Lyon called to see me at the hotel and brought +with him two notes from Le Compte--one having been received late +Saturday afternoon, and the other delivered at his house that +morning--both imperatively insisting that Lyon should come to his rooms +and leave that "untractable man" behind. + +I complimented him extensively on his having refrained from visiting the +winsome little villain who seemed determined to get Lyon within his +power. He solemnly pledged his word that he would have nothing whatever +to do with the man, and would bluff him in every advance that he made; +and in order to clinch it, I read him choice extracts from Fox's report +regarding the Charlotte party of the day before, interspersing it with a +few of the still choicer items that had come under my own observation. + +"My God!" exclaimed Lyon, as I concluded, "are they _all_ that way?" + +"Your experience and mine," I smilingly replied, "would almost point to +the fact that a very decided majority of them are." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + Mr. Pinkerton again interviews Le Compte.-- And very much + desires to wring his Neck.-- A Bargain and Sale.-- Le + Compte's Story.-- "Little by Little, Patience by + Patience."-- A Toronto Merchant in Mrs. Winslow's Toils.-- + Detective Bristol, "the retired Banker," in Clover.-- + Tabitha, Amanda, and Hannah individually and collectively + woo him.-- Ancient Maidens full of Soul.-- A Signal. + + +No jury in the land would render a verdict against a man on the +unsupported evidence of a woman whose character was so vile as we had +already found Mrs. Winslow's to be; and I would have paid no further +attention to the little Frenchman, had I not suspected from his +expensive style of living, and from Mrs. Winslow's injunctions to him +regarding not swindling her in so small a matter as a bottle of wine, +that his necessities and cupidity might cause him to make some tangible +disclosure regarding her, that would give us a clue to other information +against her further than that which Bangs would probably secure in the +West, as I never use detective evidence when it can be avoided, and knew +that a perfect mountain of criminal transactions could be eventually +heaped up against her which could be secured from reliable parties, who +could have no other possible interest in her downfall than a desire to +promote the personal good of society. + +Le Compte did not desire to see me again, and had made strenuous efforts +to prevent it and secure a surreptitious interview with Lyon instead. +Failing in this, at the last moment, I had received a very terse note +from him to the effect that he did not desire to transmit any statement +by mail, but would take it as an honor, etc., if I would call at his +place at ten o'clock, Monday morning, which I did, finding the little +fellow in a gorgeous dressing-gown, freshly shaved, and in a neat and +orderly state generally. + +"Well, my young friend," said I, "I suppose you have decided to give me +some information this morning." + +"Do I get good pay?" he asked in response. + +"You will get good pay if you have a good article for sale," I replied. + +"Humph!" he responded, with a soft shrug of his delicate shoulders. + +"Are you ready to make such a sale?" I asked. + +"But where comes my money?" inquired Le Compte, suspiciously. + +"It is right here," I answered, slapping my pocket in a hearty way. + +"But suppose it shall stay there, then where is Le Compte?" he persisted +with a doleful look which was irresistibly funny. + +"It _will_ stay there," I replied, "in case you attempt to play any of +your tricks, my little fellow." + +"How shall I then know I am to be paid?" + +"You will have to take my word for it." + +"But I have not pleasure in your acquaintance; how can I be sure?" he +continued anxiously. + +"Le Compte, swindler as you are, you _know_ that I am an honest man. +This quibbling is utterly foolish and simple. I am acting entirely for +Mr. Lyon in this matter, and should you write to him or call upon him a +hundred times, you would get nothing from him but a bluff. Here are your +two notes," I continued, producing them, "one written Saturday, the +other yesterday. The only response you got to them was, silence--and +this interview. I thought we understood each other already." + +I saw that he was still undecided about saying whatever he might have to +say, and tenacious of sustaining his professional reputation as a +clairvoyant. I might have easily frightened him into submission by the +slightest reference to the occurrences of the previous day, but knew +that this would have the effect of putting Mrs. Winslow on her guard, as +she was already becoming suspicious and anxious, and preferred getting +at his communication in the ordinary way. After he had sat musing for a +time he suddenly asked: + +"How great will be my pay?" + +"What do you think the information is worth?" I said. + +He looked at me as if fixing a price in his mind that I would stand, and +replied: + +"Certain, a thousand dollars." + +"That is a good deal of money, Le Compte," I said pleasantly. "I +hardly think you can divulge a thousand dollars' worth. But if you can +give me reliable information of a satisfactory character, I think I +could pay you three hundred dollars. + +"Now?" he inquired, suddenly. + +"Oh, no, oh, no," I replied as quickly; "no, sir, _not_ until we find +the information you give is reliable." + +This dampened the little fellow wonderfully, but he finally said: "Well, +the evidence is certain, but I must offer it to you by clairvoyance," +and he immediately arose and began darkening the room as on the previous +interview, which act I interrupted by stepping to the window he had just +darkened, and jerking the curtain as high as it would roll, opening the +window, and flinging the blinds open with a slam. + +"You little villain!" I shouted, advancing upon him threateningly, "I +will wring your neck if you don't stop this contemptible nonsense!" +while he slunk into the corner, like the mean coward that he was. I +could scarcely keep my hands off the little puppy; but recollecting that +I was there for quite another purpose, I said: + +"Le Compte, this is the last time I shall come here, and it is the last +time you will have an opportunity of making a dollar out of any +information you may possess. Now, sir," I said, savagely, starting +towards the door, "you will give it to me, trusting entirely to my honor +to pay you for it, or you will never get a cent for it on earth." + +[Illustration: _"You little villain!" I shouted, advancing upon him +threateningly:--_] + +The little fellow turned towards me imploringly, with "Please don't go. +My dear sir, you are so greatly abrupt. We have no men like you in La +Belle France." + +"Heaven knows, I hope but few _like_ you," I responded. "Now, which is +it, yes, or no? I will give you just thirty seconds in which to answer," +and I timed him, thoroughly resolved to do as I had said. + +Before the expiration of the time mentioned, Le Compte sat down, and +with a despairing shrug of the shoulders, said "Yes." + +I immediately returned, sat down in front of him, and said, "Well, Le +Compte, now go ahead with your story like a man." + +"What must it be like?" he asked innocently. + +"What must it be like?" I repeated, aghast. "Why, you don't intend to +manufacture a story for me against this woman, do you?" + +"Oh, no, no, never. But I must know first how bad it must be, when it is +worth three hundred dollars, which you call such great money?" + +"Well," said I, all out of patience, "if you know of any occasion when +this woman has been with any man as his wife, or his mistress, and can +give names, dates, and places, and under what circumstances, and this +information on examination proves so reliable that we can get other +witnesses besides yourself--persons of credibility and reputation--to +testify to it, I will pay you three hundred dollars. Isn't that plain +enough?" + +"Will you put it to paper?" + +"No, sir, you have my word for it, that's all." + +Le Compte tapped the floor with his delicate foot a moment, and I saw +the impostor was in real misery. He had a sort of affection for the +woman, which she had more than reciprocated. He could lean on the +strong, daring nature she possessed, and go to her with all his troubles +and disappointments and get help. She had promised him that, as soon as +she had mulcted Lyon of the hundred thousand dollars, he should share it +with her in his own beautiful Paris. All his self-interest laid in and +with the woman; but need for money was pressing, and there were a +million other women as impressible to his charms as she had been. Here +was an opportunity to make a few hundred dollars by betraying her; but +in doing so he still might not get the money, and she might at once +discover from what source the information had come, and he knew enough +about Mrs. Winslow to be sure that she dared any mode of revenge that +best suited her fancy, and he had a wholesome fear of her. I could see +that all these things were flitting through his mind, as plainly as the +reader can see them upon this printed page, and to some extent pitied +his weakness and indecision. + +"Or," said I encouragingly, "as you undoubtedly know Mrs. Winslow +intimately, and are very much in her company, if you know of any +occasion when she had, while here in Rochester or in the vicinity, say +Batavia, Syracuse, or Port Charlotte, for instance, gone with some one +of her many favorites, and under an assumed name--Brown, Jones, or +anything of the kind--to a hotel where they had been assigned a room, +and had occupied it together for several hours, and you could put us on +track of persons of reliability who would be willing to come into court +and swear to such facts--I presume there are many persons who could and +would with whom you are acquainted--I would pay you the amount named at +once." + +This was cutting pretty close to a tender subject, and before I had half +finished my remarks he started, and looked me in the face in a +suspicious, apprehensive manner, eyeing me closely until I had finished. +But my manner and looks betraying no knowledge on my part of any such +facts hinted at, he relapsed into a puzzled, nonplussed look that was +really ridiculous. + +"No, no," he said slowly and cautiously. "I have no such valuable +evidence. That would be much more worth than a thousand dollars--much +more worth. But I can do what you first say, and rest me on the honor of +your word." + +"Go on, then," said I. + +"Well, we shall go back almost a year. I met first Mrs. Winslow at Port +Charlotte, when she was from Canada returning." + +"Did she formerly live in Canada?" I asked. + +"No, not for a great time; but has had much travel and friends there. I +first see her at Charlotte. I go there to take a boat. She comes from +the boat there. Lyon meets her, and I think her his wife, he is so much +happy. I like her so much that I do not take the boat. I follow her back +to the city here, and find her beautiful rooms, when I discover she is +not Lyon's wife, but his mistress; but I still have for her admiration, +and one day she comes to me for her future in clairvoyance." + +"And then she became your mistress?" I inquired, smiling at his +earnestness. + +"No, no, no--never!" he replied quickly, growing red as a rose; "I +became her _friend_!" + +Le Compte did not know how near he came to expressing the truth while +endeavoring to avoid it, but continued: + +"I became her friend, and we came to each other for advice. She has +great faith--great faith," repeated Le Compte, with much emphasis on the +expression, which seemed to please him, "in my clairvoyance powers. I +give her much comfort. She gives me great confidence of her affairs, and +shows me how rich Lyon makes her. I see her often--very often, at the +Hall and here in my apartments. She gives me much confidence of her +affairs still, and I am informed when she makes Canada some visits. She +goes much to Canada, and I ask her why? She does not tell me, but laughs +in my face, and shows me much money, which she ever brings back. I shake +my finger at her so (illustrating), and say to her: 'You cannot hide +from Le Compte,' which she answers: 'No, I will not. I go for money. +See!'--when she would shake many bills in my face--'I make him come +down, too!'" + +"Did she give you the man's name?" + +"I _got_ it," continued Le Compte proudly, "with much wine--_and_ +clairvoyance!" + +"Oh, confound your eternal clairvoyance!" said I. "I want the facts." + +"But I got facts _with_ clairvoyance," persisted the imperturbable Le +Compte. "Little by little, patience by patience, at the end I got +confession from her----" + +"Which was?"---- + +"Which was," continued Le Compte, taking his time, "that Mrs. Winslow +had got great power over a Toronto merchant with much wealth and great +family, by name Devereaux." + +"How long had she known him?" + +"I know not that--five, four, three years, I will think." + +"Did you ever see this Devereaux?" + +"Oh, no, no--never; but it is all certain that I speak. Here," continued +Le Compte, stepping nimbly to a secretary and producing a photograph, +which he handed to me, "here you will find the face of Devereaux. Many, +many times I have seen the color of his money." + +"And does Mrs. Winslow visit Canada for the purpose of meeting this man +still?" I asked. + +"Certain," he answered promptly; then, after a little pause, as if +doubtful of the propriety of what he was about to say, but finally +resolving to earn his money, if possible, "and she shall go there once +more in the next week." + +I began to think that the little Frenchman had really a good article for +sale, and made full memoranda of all the main points. I asked him some +further questions, the answers to which showed conclusively that Mrs. +Winslow had made a full confidant of him concerning the Canadian +affair, at least; that she had secured a vast amount of money from +Devereaux at the same time that Lyon was breaking her heart; and that, +whether Devereaux was fated to go through the same final experience as +Lyon, or not, that he had undergone and was undergoing the same +preliminary experience. + +At the close of the interview I informed Le Compte that his information +was quite satisfactory, and that it only remained for me to prove its +correctness in order to permit the payment of the money, which, however, +should necessarily be on the additional condition that he at once +secured for us information as to the date on which the madam was to make +her profitable little pleasure-trip to Toronto. + +This he agreed to do, and I left him; not, however, until he had +anxiously requested to know more about me, and where and when he was to +receive his money. I told him that I was a travelling man; that I had no +permanent residence, was here and there all over the country; but that +the moment we ascertained the truth of his statements, which would be +very soon, he should be compensated. + +I communicated to Lyon the facts elicited during this interview, which +completely overwhelmed him with the perfidy of human nature in general, +and woman in particular; but gave him considerable encouragement +concerning the progress of our work; and after directing Bristol, +through the post, to continue playing the _rôle_ of the banker, and to +keep himself in preparation for telegraphic instructions, returned to +New York. + +All this time Bristol was in clover. The three old maids, Tabitha, +Amanda, and Hannah, had looked him over and saw that he was a good man +to tie to. Here was a man, they agreed, who had come in among them a +perfect stranger, and yet so possessed was he of a frank, winsome way, +and such a reliable, honorable demeanor had he exhibited towards them, +three lone and defenceless women as they were, that they had +instinctively felt that they could trust him; nay, even more, they were +sure that they could lean upon him, as it were; take him into their +confidence; share their joys with him, rely on him to sympathize with +them in all their sorrows--in fact, make of him a sort of an +affectionate Handy Andy--a good-natured and attractive attaché to their +affections, and a profitable sign-post to their business. + +Neither had any man ever before received such signs and tokens of a +deep-seated and ineradicable affection. + +Every morning he was awakened from his virtuous slumbers by the +delicious music of a bird training organ, which was wound in turn by the +maidens and set inside his door, where, "in linked sweetness long drawn +out," it galloped over the harmonies with: "Then you'll remember me," +"Don't be angry with me, Darling," "Who will care for Mother Now?" +"Bonnie Charlie's Noo Awa'," "Annie Laurie," and like tender airs, until +the poor man cursed the Three Graces of Washington Hall restaurant, and +the detective service, threadbare. + +After this delicious reminder of languishing love he was served with a +breakfast fit for a king, at which Tabitha, Amanda, and Hannah in turn +presided, and which was always graced by a large bouquet of flowers +whose language and fragrance only breathed of love. + +On these occasions the conversation never failed to turn upon Bristol's +merits, the old maids' loneliness, and the superiority of women without +physical beauties, but full of soul, over those more fortunate in flesh +but wanting in spirituality. This was an advertisement for their own +establishment, and a drive at Mrs. Winslow; and Bristol always +acknowledged the force of the argument. + +Whenever Mrs. Winslow took a meal at the restaurant, which had now +become a frequent occurrence, just so certain was Bristol's +corresponding meal served in the little snuggery, where, however busy +they might be, one of the ancient ladies kept him good company and +quickened his digestion with sparkling humor and witty jest, such only +as can course through the flowery avenues of an aged spinster's mind, +made fresh and blooming by the wild fancy of the second childhood of +love's young dream; and at night, when the busy day was over and the +vulgar public shut out by the well-bolted front door, the little +snuggery always held the same wise old company, where Bristol, ripe in +age and experience, passed an hour with the ladies over tea and +sweetmeats, or wine and waffles, surrounded by the thrilled and blushing +trio, who, preparatory to retiring, discovered to him as many of their +combined charms as modesty would allow, and in their tender hearts +built plans for the future when they would bodily possess Bristol--at +least one of them, if the laws of society did prevent his making a sort +of blessed trinity of himself for their benefit. + +This course of procedure angered Mrs. Winslow. _Her_ heart also yearned +for the retired banker, and when she saw how securely he was being kept +from her grasp by the wily old maids, she immediately began preparing a +plan the execution of which would foil them, and eventually give her the +coveted game all to herself. To this end she walked to and fro past the +restaurant, and finally attracted the attention of Bristol while the old +ladies were busily engaged elsewhere, and motioned to him in so +imperative a way and with such earnestness, that he slipped out of the +place, and at a careful distance followed her in the direction of the +Falls Field Garden, where lovers often met and where there was no danger +of interruption. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + Mr. Bangs on the Trail in the West.-- Terre Haute and its + Spiritualists.-- Mrs. Deck's Boarding-house.-- The + Nettleton Family broken up.-- Back at the Michigan + Exchange.-- Mother Blake's Recital.-- Through Chicago to + Wisconsin.-- A disheartening Story.-- The practical result + of Spiritualism. + + +Superintendent Bangs arrived at Terre Haute in good time, and found +himself in one of the greatest centres of Spiritualism in the world. + +The very air seemed charged and surcharged with the permeating power. +People watching incoming trains had a listless, far-away look, as though +watching for the dim spirits which were constantly expected from the +other land, but which never came. The clamorous cabmen raised their +sing-song voices as if only expecting, though more than desiring, only +shadowy freight. The regular loiterers had long hair, cadaverous faces, +and large, lustrous eyes, and where females appeared, they were +generally in pinched faces, flowing hair, long pantaloons and short +gowns, as if ready for a grand Amazon-march upon the gullible public. + +On the way to the hotel every other stairway held the sign of one or +more clairvoyants, mediums, or astrologists, and every manner of +business seemed to have the ghostly trail upon it. The pedestrians upon +the streets, the men at their counters, the workmen at their trades, the +women at their various employments, the common laborers at their most +menial toil, each and every, from the highest to the lowest, seemed to +have a weary, listless air, as if constant wrestling with communicating +spirits healthier and more robust than themselves, had left a chronic +exhaustion upon and with them. + +At the hotel the register was thin and ghostly, the office was deserted +and dreary, the meals were served in a listless, dreamy way, as if the +guests were ghosts and the waiters not so good. In fact, the whole place +and everything in it was tinctured with the common craziness, and gave +the healthy, wide-awake stranger the impression of having suddenly come +upon a community of mild lunatics, who were quite happy in the +conviction that they were directing the affairs of both earth and +heaven, and establishing pleasant, intramural relations between their +chosen Hoosier City and the beautiful City beyond the River; all of +which would be very pleasant and profitable if anybody had ever come +back from the undiscovered country to give us its geographical outlines, +define its limits, or explain any profit that has accrued from becoming +a monomaniac on a subject that has no relation whatever to the common +needs and duties of life, and has never been known to give to the world +or its society a single healthful, helpful nature or intellect. + +Mr. Bangs was neither pleased with the hotel, or able to get much +information while there, and consequently changed his quarters to Mrs. +Deck's boarding-house, a long, rambling brick building, that at one time +had been a fine residence after the Southern style. It was covered with +moss and vines, and had a snug, pleasant appearance, while everything +about the house had an air of quaint, attractive restfulness. Every +person who has ever been in Terre Haute for a few days' stay, as Bangs +was, will remember the genial old soul who presided over the destinies +of this particular boarding-house--the fat, garrulous, whimpering, but +kind-hearted Mrs. Deck; her charming daughter, the blooming Belle +Ruggles, by a former and more fortunate marriage, with her fair face and +wealth of golden hair, flitting about the house--which was also the +abode of spirits, mysterious materializations and unexplainable +rappings--like a good, sensible spirit that _she_ was, and letting her +good sense and kind ways into the cobwebbed rooms and dark places, like +an ever-changing though constant flood of sunlight; and "Old Deck," as +the boys called him, who believed in another kind of spirits still, and, +when opportunity offered, became so full of them that he held a grand +and extended "seance" on his own account. + +People not only sought Mrs. Deck for good board, but for reliable +neighborhood gossip; and Mr. Bangs, learning of her reputation as a +repository of news as well as a liberal dispenser of creature comforts, +changed his quarters from the hotel to her place, and found from a few +days in her company that she was a sort of historian, having at her +tongue's end numberless incidents connected with the growth of the city +and the family relations of every class of people in or near it. + +He learned from her where the Hosfords had lived, but could get nothing +particular regarding the woman herself, as Mrs. Deck had never seen her, +and only knew of her by reputation, which she was sure had been good. + +Mr. Bangs at once went into the country neighborhood where the Hosfords +had lived, and found that they had removed to some point in Wisconsin, +near Sheboygan Falls, the neighbors had heard, but he could not find +that there had been a single trace of trouble at Terre Haute. All those +who had known them spoke of them both in the highest terms. They had +both been staunch members of the Methodist Church, and though plain, +quiet farmers, had been considered prominent people in the neighborhood. + +Hosford was remembered as a slow-going, easy-conditioned, good-natured +fellow, but as honest as the day was long; and no one had ever known +aught against his wife, save that some of the old gossips thought that +she had brought too much jewelry and fine clothing into the neighborhood +with her. This, however, she had judiciously kept out of sight as much +as possible, and, as far as could be learned, had led in every respect +an exemplary life. + +From this point Mr. Bangs proceeded to Kalamazoo. The Nettleton family +were gone, no one knew where; but here he was told of the escapade to +Detroit of Lilly Nettleton years before, enough of which had floated +back to her native place--coupled with the old people's later sorrows, +which were largely dilated upon--to account for the breaking up of the +family and its members being scattered broadcast. + +Accidentally at Kalamazoo, in conversation with the clerk at the +Kalamazoo House, who had formerly been employed at Detroit, and who was +"up to snuff," as he termed it, Bangs learned of Mother Blake, who had +informed the clerk of Bland's unfortunate experience with one Lilly +Mercer. He also got from the clerk a description of Mother Blake +sufficiently comprehensive to enable him to find her if she were still +at Detroit, where he at once proceeded. + +On arriving in that city he went to the Michigan Exchange Hotel, and, +through the courtesy of the proprietors, was allowed to look up the +records of the house. + +It was fifteen years previous that the man who said he was "from Bland" +met Lilly Nettleton at the depot and had taken her to the Michigan +Exchange to meet the reverend circuit-rider; but after he had got at the +dusty records he found on the register, evidently in the handwriting of +a clerk: "Lilly Mercer, Buffalo, Room 34," under date of August 15, +1856, and also the names of "R. J. Hosford, Terre Haute, Room 98," and +"Lilly Nettleton, Kalamazoo, Room 34," in a cramped and almost illegible +hand under date of November 28th of the same year; and on the next day's +page, in the same hand: "R. J. Hosford and wife, Terre Haute, Room 34." + +The next step was to hunt up Mother Blake, which was not a very hard +matter, as women of her character generally run in the same noisome rut, +until they are swept from the great highway with other pestilences of +life, and pass from bitter existence and infamous memory; and after one +or two evenings running about among the _demi-monde_ he found the +woman--quite an old lady now, but nearly as well-kept and quite as jolly +as ever, presiding over a group of soiled divinities at a neat retreat +on Griswold Street. + +Through the purchase of a vile bottle of wine the old lady's lips were +opened, and her tongue began a perfect gallop about Bland and Lilly +Mercer. + +She gave the latter the reputation of being one of the shrewdest women +she had ever met, and laughed until the tears came into her eyes over +the way in which she had "played it" on Bland, who had picked her up for +a fool, and had himself been terribly sold. Then she launched into +vituperations towards the young minister, who had accused her of +"standing in" with the girl in the robbery, when she had been as badly +fooled as himself. Whatever she had been and was, she said, there wasn't +a dishonest hair in her head; which assertion Bangs had reason to +believe to be literally true, as he noticed that she wore a wig. + +She then in great glee told him how she had "got even" with Bland by +"giving him away" to the papers, which had soon taken the feathers out +of _his_ cap, she remarked with much satisfaction, broken his mother's +heart, who died and willed all her property to the good cause of +furnishing the heathen with an occasional fat missionary steak, and +finally drove Bland out of Detroit, when he had gone to some Eastern +city and, under another name, with his fine manners, airy ways, and good +clothes, was playing it fine on some old Spiritualist millionaire out +our way. + +When the vision of the magnificent Harcout--which was almost a constant +one, as he rushed into my office on the slightest pretext whatever, big +with his own importance and unusually full of enthusiasm over "our +case"--flitted before my eyes, it gave to me additional romance in the +work, in the sense that here, after many years, the man whom Mrs. +Winslow in her early career had so magnificently duped, had +unconsciously become one of her most relentless pursuers. + +But it was a matter for speculation whether Harcout knew her to be the +person who had so neatly taken him in, or whether he had risen to this +condition of fervor in his work merely to impress Lyon with his useful +friendship. I inclined to the latter opinion, however, as I was +satisfied that if he had known with whom he was dealing he would have +given up all expectations of continued favor and patronage from Lyon, +and left Rochester as hastily as he had, as Bland, departed from +Detroit. + +Bangs also asked her if she had ever seen Lilly Mercer since that time. + +Of course she had seen her, just at the close of the war. One day as she +was crossing the river in the ferry, coming back from Windsor, she had +met her face to face. Mother Blake said that she seemed wonderfully +glad to meet her, and wanted to borrow some money, which she had +refused. She then gave her her card, upon which she was called some +Madam or other, a clairvoyant, and she had some shabby rooms on +Wisconsin Street, near the theatres. She was still young and pretty, +Mother Blake said, and she easily persuaded her to come and live with +her, which she did, "and," continued the old woman, with a withering +look at the girls, "low down as she was, she made more money in a day +than any half-dozen women I ever had." The old lady further said that +she had only remained with her long enough to get some fine clothing and +money together, when she started for the East. + +She had never seen her since, but she had heard that she had several +times passed through the city towards Chicago, always returning to the +East, however, and also always richly dressed, and having every +appearance of living in clover. "Let her alone to get along," concluded +the old lady; "she'll live like a queen where another, a million times +better than she, would starve." + +From Detroit, Bangs proceeded to Chicago, and from thence to Sheboygan +Falls, Wisconsin, where it required but a few minutes' inquiries to put +him on track of the Hosfords. + +Hosford had come there from Terre Haute several years ago, bought a fine +farm a few miles out, and had, as far as could be ascertained, lived a +comfortable sort of life for about a year, when trouble began. + +Mrs. Hosford, from the good member of society which she was supposed to +be, or really had been, suddenly embraced Spiritualism, and began +running about the country with any old vagabond tramp of this kind that +came along; and from the hard-working, economical woman she had been, +she had become a spendthrift, a drunkard, and a prostitute. Hosford had +moved away, and after considerable time and inquiry, it was ascertained +that he had gone to Oskaloosa, in Iowa, determined to get away from old +associations as far as possible, and had taken their three children with +him, which she had vainly endeavored to secure. + +Bangs spent several days here in hunting up evidence. There was plenty +of it--mountains of it. Merchants and other business men of the town +would button-hole him, take him into some retired place and tell him how +this man had been caught _in flagrante delicto_ with Mrs. Hosford, how +that man had confessed to having been caught in her toils, and how some +other person had been made a suspicious person in the society of the +place, through some peccadillo with the dashing _Madam_. + +All these persons referred to told of all the other persons who had +divulged their weaknesses, until it seemed to Mr. Bangs, after remaining +a few days in the vicinity, that the entire male portion of the +community were implicated. But securing promises of depositions was +quite another thing. Mr. A. was a married man, belonged to the church, +had extensive business relations, and, while he would like to assist in +the noble effort to show up the infamous woman, he really could not, +you see, place himself in so delicate a position. + +Mr. B. was not a member of any church, but had the reputation of a high +order of morality. While he could not but acknowledge the justice of the +request, and hoped that Mr. Bangs would have no trouble in securing all +the evidence he needed, which would be a very easy matter, still he did +not see how he could consistently compromise himself by going on record +as a common adulterer. + +Mr. C. was neither a churchman, nor did he claim a high order of +morality; but if he had good luck, he would in the spring marry a very +pretty girl of the village, and if she should ascertain that he had +previously been so generous with his affections in another direction, he +was satisfied that his dream of future bliss would be dissolved in thin +air at once. + +And so on through the entire village directory. There were pointed out +scores of persons who had the knowledge desired, were all willing to +help him secure _some other person_ for sacrifice, and all equally +enthusiastically hoped that her suit against Lyon would end in an +ignominious failure; but declined, with thanks, the proud honor of +exposing their own weaknesses, for even the extreme honor of assisting +in her downfall. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + A Chicago Divorce "Shyster."-- Hosford found.-- His pathetic + Narrative.-- More Facts. + + +Mr. Bangs was in no hurry to leave Sheboygan Falls, as he found that he +was in a fruitful field for information, and he continued garnering it +in and stacking it away industriously. + +It appeared that Hosford's wife, not content with disgracing his name, +had soon developed her old and never-satisfied greed for money and any +sort of power that might be wielded mercilessly; and it was evident that +she had money, for she immediately began dressing with much elegance and +travelling about the country extensively. The probability was that she +had still retained the money stolen from Bland, and had also, during her +years of economy, carefully added to it until she had secured a large +sum, as she had occasion to use a good deal of money in a certain +transaction, which quite thoroughly illustrated her unprincipled and +revengeful character. + +When Hosford had removed from Indiana to Wisconsin, he had purchased a +larger and a finer farm, and had been obliged to give a mortgage upon it +for several thousand dollars, to be used in making necessary +improvements. This had been paid off with the exception of about three +thousand dollars, which amount, as soon as Mrs. Hosford had begun making +it lively for her husband, and had left him for the purpose of wedding +Spiritualism and all that the term implies, she immediately produced and +bought up the mortgage, placing it in ex-Senator Carpenter's hands for +foreclosure; but poor Hosford, struggling under his heavy load of +desertion, disgrace and persecution, managed to raise the money and take +it up, thus preventing the villainous woman from turning him out of his +own home, which she had deserted and desecrated. + +This had proven too much for even the patient Hosford to endure, and he +had set about getting a divorce. But this was a harder thing to do than +he had anticipated. Although he was in possession of nearly as much +information as Bangs had secured, it was impossible to obtain definite +evidence against her. Her terrible temper, her unscrupulousness, her +unbounded and almost devilish shrewdness, and the swift and sudden +principle of revenge that seemed only equalled by her greed for money, +compelled thorough awe and fear among those from whom Hosford had +expected assistance, and the result was he did not get it, and he was +obliged to let the suit for divorce go by default. After this every +petty annoyance that could occur to the woman's mind was visited on him. +She would write him threatening letters; forward him express packages of +a nature to both humiliate him and cause him fear; run him in debt at +every place where she could force, or "confidence," merchants into +trusting her; hire a carriage and secure some male companion as vile as +she, with whom she would proceed to her old home, and in the presence of +her agonized husband and helpless, innocent children, threaten him with +every conceivable form of punishment, including death, and engage in +profanity and drunken orgies that would have disgraced the lowest +brothel in the land. + +Mr. Bangs learned that after this sort of procedure for a considerable +period, she suddenly disappeared. Hosford took this opportunity to +dispose of his farm and remove with his motherless family to Iowa. Mr. +Bangs could not learn at Sheboygan what the woman's history had been +during that period, but vague rumors had floated back to the place that +she had become an army-follower, which was quite probable; but at the +close of the war she had assumed the _rôle_ of an abandoned adventuress, +and had wandered about the Pacific Slope until she had made too +extensive an acquaintance for her safety in that section, and from +thence had wandered through the country towards the East, seeking for +any kind of prey; and being hunted from place to place, under countless +_aliases_, until she had in a measure retrieved herself, as far as money +matters were concerned, and being careful of herself physically, had +regained her good looks which her former terrible dissipation had almost +destroyed, and had eventually so insinuated herself into the affections +of a rich somebody that she had been furnished money with which to +secure a divorce from Hosford, which had been granted in Chicago about +a year and a half previous; when she had come on to Sheboygan Falls and +while there made her boasts that she would soon marry one of the richest +men in New York State, as soon as his wife died, which wouldn't be very +long she had hoped and believed. Besides this, the rumors went, she had +failed to marry that richest somebody in New York State, and papers had +been seen containing an account of the woman and Lyon, her suit against +him, and the fact, which particularly interested her old neighbors, that +she had engaged no lawyer whatever, but had drawn and filed the bill of +complaint herself. + +In fact, the entire community were in a state of great excitement over +the woman who was also creating much excitement in the East, and each +person had his or her story to tell of some striking peculiarity or +previous adventure of the madam's, and it required a great amount of +sifting and careful work for Mr. Bangs to secure what he came for. + +After a few days, however, he had worked so judiciously that he had got +pledges from several responsible citizens that they would give their +depositions as to her general character and reputation for chastity, or +rather, want of it, whenever a commission should be forwarded to a +certain lawyer of the city whom he engaged to take them. + +From here he at once proceeded to Iowa, only stopping at Chicago long +enough to secure a transcript of the divorce which had been granted in +that city so noted for divorces, that one shyster alone secured seven +hundred and seventy-seven of these desirable instruments from the period +between the great fire and the close of the year 1875, from whence he +immediately proceeded to Oskaloosa, where he soon became acquainted with +parties who had known the woman, though under as many different +_aliases_ as she had visited cities of that State. + +She had invariably advertised herself as a medium and female physician, +and had swindled every one with whom she had come in contact, from the +editor to errand-boy, from one end of the State to the other, and had +gained even a worse reputation there than in Wisconsin. He ascertained +that Hosford was not living at Oskaloosa, and before going through the +same experience in listening to countless tales of the woman's depravity +as he had in Wisconsin, he decided to proceed to his place, which was +near Monroe, twenty-nine miles distant. He procured a conveyance and +drove out to Hosford's farm, arriving at the place about dusk, where, +after he had stated his business, he was invited to remain over night, +and made comfortable. + +Although a farmer, Hosford had everything cozy and pleasant about him, +had married into a very respectable family, and had secured a most +agreeable wife, who was caring for his children--two bright girls and a +boy, from twelve to fifteen years of age--with almost the tenderness and +affection of an own mother. After supper Hosford sent his family into +another part of the house, and expressed himself as ready to give any +information in his power. + +He had not yet heard of the suit against Lyon, and when Mr. Bangs told +him, he seemed astonished beyond expression, and after a little time +said that he had often tried to think of some Satanic scheme that the +woman _would not_ dare to undertake if it occurred to her, but he had +failed to imagine any. But with the record, especially for personal +purity, behind her that Mrs. Winslow possessed, he could not but be +particularly startled and surprised at her supreme self-possession and +audacity. After a little further desultory conversation, Mr. Bangs told +him that the Agency had all the necessary information regarding their +early career, and of their subsequent history up to the time when they +left Terre Haute, and probably a great deal after that time, and asked +Hosford if he would be willing to go over the whole matter, giving the +outlines of their troubles, what brought them about, and what had been +their result. + +He was the same old Dick Hosford--abrupt, kind, generous, with perhaps +some of the old "forty-niner" roughness worn off and a toning-down of +his whole nature, that his keen sorrows had given him; but he was quite +as impulsively reckless, and just as impulsively tender, and he began +his story in a kind of weary way, that, to one knowing his history, was +really sad and touching. + +"Well, sir," said Hosford, "I knew the gal had been doing wrong at +Detroit, but for all these hard years in Californy I had been working, +savin', and goin' through danger with the purty pictur ahead that the +bright girl I had left by the river would one day make me a happy home. +I worked like a nigger, and it was sometimes up and sometimes down with +me out thar--mostly down, though. But I struck a good lead one day, and +worked close till it panned dry. I didn't have much aside some of them +fellows out thar; but instead of runnin' it down my throat, givin' it to +cut-throat gamblers, or flingin' it away on vile women, I started full +chisel for the States. I come to Terre Haute, as you know, and spent +nearly all my dust buyin' a little farm. Then I started fur Nettleton's, +whar I expected heaven--but found hell! + +"It bust me all up like, and I wandered about the old place jest as +though I had went to sleep happy and waked up in a big grave that I +couldn't get out of. The old folks themselves wasn't any more cut up +than me; but I thought as how I wasn't doin' anything to help matters, +'n only making _them_ more trouble. So I thought and thought what to do, +and finally made up to go a-huntin' her, 'n told the old folks I +wouldn't come back 'thout her. + +"It all come over me then what she was doing; but I only thought to get +her back for the old folks' sake. Well, sir, I went to Chicago, and hung +around that doggoned city fur a week 'r two; but no Lil. Then I come +back, lookin' everywhere, askin' everybody, an' peerin' into every +place; but no Lil. Finally, I got to Detroit, and I went into every one +of those places where I feared she _might_ be; but no Lil. Do you know +where I found her?" + +Mr. Bangs told him he did, and how. + +"Well, sir," continued Hosford, "I was utterly discouraged, 'n was goin' +to go back and sell the place, and get away from the country altogether; +but when I saw her all so rosy, fixed up so gay, and got to be such a +grand sort of a woman, I just caved in altogether and wanted her for +myself more 'n ever. I thought she had a good heart, and that I loved +her enough to always be kind to her--as God knows I was--and thought +_that_ might keep her right. I never asked her a question, 'n wouldn't +let the old folks. Everybody makes mistakes, ye know, and it kind of +makes people wild to let 'em know _you_ know it, and to badger 'em with +questions. Well, she had lots of good sense, and took off her finery +before we got to the old folks', who were 'most crazy with joy that we +had come back together as man and wife. We stayed at Nettleton's a few +days, then went direct to Terre Haute. I don't believe a man ever had a +better wife 'n she was to me while we lived there. We never mentioned +the old times, and were very happy, as the children kept comin' along. +The silks and jewels she got at Detroit were all put away, 'n I never +saw 'em, till one day I come home unexpected and found the children shut +out in the yard, and my wife afore the lookin'-glass, all rigged out in +her old finery, an' lookin' herself over and over, while countin' a big +pile of money that I had never seen before. I got a good look at her, +but went whistlin' about the house for a long time, so as to let on that +I didn't see her, and to give her time to get her old clothes on agin. + +"It seemed as if right there and then the clouds begun hangin' over the +house. I didn't say a word about it, and made everything as cheery as I +could; but begun tryin' to think what had set her goin', and after a few +days found that she had been attendin' some of those Spiritual meetings +down to town, and one of the Doctors come up to our place and stayed a +few days, representin' himself as a good Methodist. + +"I knew it wouldn't do to stay there any longer, an' so we moved to +Wisconsin, I makin' her think it was healthier 'n where they had no +ager. Well, sir, after we got there everything was pleasant and happy +agi'n till the Spiritualists begun overrunnin' that country too, and she +commenced her tantrums at once. I didn't oppose her goin' to them +meetin's, but told her I hoped she wouldn't get mixed up with 'em too +much; but 'twas no use. The devil had come into the house in that shape, +and though I prayed hard that it might leave, it got worse and worse, +till the children were 'most crazy with fright and sorrow. I didn't know +what to do. She run me in debt, slandered me, disgraced me. She would +not only run about the country with those terrible people, but she took +to her old life, which was worse than everything else. I tried every way +to reform her; but she was bound to go her vile way, and I could stand +it no longer. + +"You know the rest up there. After she had been gone some time and had +got the divorce in Chicago, I come here with the children, to try and +get away from it all. You have seen my wife. She ain't a purty woman. +She is pure and good though, and I prayed to God that the shadder would +never come here. But 'twasn't any use. It seemed as though my prayin' +never helped things much! We hadn't more 'n got settled here, when I +heard of her travellin' through the country--you know how. Some way she +found me out here, and I haven't had much peace since. + +"One time she came here and left a trunk full of nice silk dresses and +things. After a time, wife and I looked into it and found over two +hundred keys of all kinds, besides pistols and knives. She came and took +it away soon after, accusin' us of stealin' some of her things, and +threatened to have us arrested. A few months afterwards she went up to +Newton, the county-seat, and swore out a warrant for our arrest on the +charge of assault and battery, and got subpœnas out for all the folks +across the way. The Sheriff came down here to serve his warrant and +subpœnas, and at Monroe learned something about the woman, so that by +the time he got here and talked it over with us, I come to the +conclusion she wanted to get us away and then steal the children; so we +took them all along, left one of the neighbors to take care of the +house, and went to Newton to stand trial. Sure enough, she didn't appear +agin' us, but did come here in a carriage fur the children, awful drunk, +and come near shootin' the man that was taking care of the place!" + +Bangs here asked Hosford whether he had ever seen her since or had heard +from her. + +"I have seen her but once," he replied. "But I have heerd about her +doin's, time and time again. She come here one day in a carriage, +dressed fit to kill; and the first I see, she was tryin' to get the +children into the carriage with her. I ordered them to come in, when, +with an oath, she put her hand to her bosom as if to draw a pistol. + +"I got mad at this, and told her that if she had come to that agin, +_I'd_ have a hand in too; and as soon as I turned into the house as if +to get a pistol--I only had an old rusty one with a broken lock, but had +an idea that I could some way use it--she blazed away at me, the ball +going through the front door and driving the splinters into my clothes. +As she didn't know whether she had hit me or not, she drove away at full +gallop, and I've never sot eyes on her since." + +The poor fellow seemed to say this with an inexpressible sense of +satisfaction and relief. He had had more than his share of her general +depravity forced upon him, and the respite from it, though short, was +very dear to him. + +Bangs got from Hosford the names of parties in contiguous towns who +could give him definite information about Mrs. Winslow, while he offered +to come to Rochester himself, if his presence was required; and after a +good night's rest and an early breakfast, Mr. Bangs returned to Monroe. +After a few days' travel and inquiry he secured a thousand times more +information than necessary to compel the retiracy of the splendid Mrs. +Winslow from her then public and profitable field of operations, after +which he returned to New York, well satisfied with the result of his by +no means pleasant labors. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + Mrs. Winslow's Signal answered.-- She endeavors to win + Bristol, and shows that they are "Affinities."-- Detective + Fox mystified.-- An Evening with the One fair Woman.-- + Closer Intimacies.-- A Journey proposed.-- Detective + Bristol as a Lover. + + +Back in the streets of Rochester, Bristol followed Mrs. Winslow with +much wonderment and some anxiety as to the result, not sure as to +whether any of the three lovely women had noticed his leaving at the +call of their hated rival, and cogitating what the woman might want with +him. + +They soon arrived at the Garden, the woman frequently looking back to +assure herself that the retired banker was following her, and finally +passed into the Fields and took a booth, where she ordered a bottle of +wine, which gave her right to its occupancy for an indefinite period; +and as soon as Bristol sauntered in, she signalled him to join her, +which he did with great apparent hesitation and diffidence, and the +general appearance of a man guilty of almost his first wrong intent, but +yet with strong resolution to not let it get the better of him. + +She did not remove the delicate lace veil from her face, and it blended +the pretty flush which the exercise had heightened with her naturally +clear complexion in a most artistic way, and toned the light in her +great gray eyes into a languid lustre, very thrilling to behold when one +knows there is a clean life behind such beauty, but as dangerous when +transformed into a winning mask covering the perdition in the heart of a +wicked woman, as the dazzling power of the Prophet of Khorassan. + +Bristol was a very courtly sort of fellow, and received a glass of wine +from the neat hand with considerable grace, though inwardly wondering +what it all meant. Their wine-glasses touched, and the cheap nectar was +drunk in silence, Mrs. Winslow only indulging in those little motions +and changes of features that some women believe to be attractive and +fascinating, and which really are so to many susceptible people; and +though Bristol might ordinarily have succumbed to the charms of the +accomplished woman before him--and had he been the retired banker she +supposed him to be would probably have done so--as the sedate, elderly, +and capable detective, he only pretended to be smitten, and coyishly +acknowledged her loving glances with more than ordinary ardor. + +Finally, the fair woman, after modestly biting her lips for a time, +began tapping the table with the handle of her fan, and looking Bristol +full in the face, suddenly said: + +"Mr. Bristol, aren't you a little curious why I wanted to see you?" + +"Any man who is a man," replied Bristol earnestly, "could not but have a +pardonable curiosity when so fair a woman as Mrs. Winslow claims his +attention!" + +"There, there," said she laughing, and extending her hands across the +table as if in a burst of confidence, "let us wave formalities; let us +be friends." + +Bristol took her proffered hands rather stiffly, but held them as long +as was necessary, as they were pretty hands, warm hands, and hands that +could grasp another's with a good show of honesty, too. + +"There is no reason why we shouldn't," he said gallantly, as she poured +out another glass of wine. + +"Only one," answered Mrs. Winslow archly. "The three Graces don't like +me, and they are bound we sha'n't meet. Now," she continued, again +tapping the table nervously with her fan, and then raising her fine +eyebrows and looking at Bristol half anxiously, half tenderly, and +altogether meltingly, "_I_ feel as though we had been acquainted for +years. Don't think me bold, Mr. Bristol, but I have had you in my +thoughts much--possibly _too_ much," she added with the faintest trace +of a blush; "but if I could feel that this--I was going to say +attachment, though that would be quite improper, and I will +say--unexplainable regard I have formed for you was in the least measure +reciprocated----" + +Bristol interrupted her with: "I think I can assure you that it is, at +least, in a proper measure." + +"Then," she continued, apparently radiant with happiness, "as I was +about to say, I am sure it could be arranged so that we could be more in +each other's society. You know who I am?" she abruptly and almost +suspiciously asked. + +Bristol was almost put off his guard by the sudden change of the +subject, but parried the question with: "Certainly not; at least no more +than through what I have been told at the restaurant." + +Tears started in her well-trained eyes, but she impetuously brushed them +away and followed the pretty piece of acting with: "Oh, Mr. Bristol! I +fear we may never be to each other what we might have been if these +three old hags--I mean old maids--had not poisoned your mind regarding +me. Let me tell you," and she took hold of his collar and drew the +reluctant detective towards her, "they are trying to get your +money--your vast wealth. Let a comparatively unknown friend whisper in +your ear, '_Beware!_'" + +Bristol started, adjusted his glasses, grasped Mrs. Winslow's hand, and, +as if very much frightened and extremely grateful, said heartily and +with great fervor, "My dear madam, for this kindness I am yours to +command!" + +The woman evidently felt assured from that moment that she had made a +conquest; but her varied experience and professional tact, as well as +her native shrewdness, prevented her from expressing too great gayety +over it, and she proceeded to inform Bristol how keen and shrewd the old +ladies under Washington Hall were; how in confidence they had told her +that they would compel him to marry one of them, and were going to draw +cuts to determine which should carry off the prize; and when that was +settled, if he did not marry the fortunate person willingly, their +combined evidence would bring him down, or despoil him of a great +portion of his wealth, which, she had no doubt, he had acquired by long +years of honest toil. + +Bristol expressed himself aghast at the depravity of women, and told +Mrs. Winslow that it seemed to him that the nearer the grave they got +the more terrible their greed and hideousness became. + +Mrs. Winslow murmured that _she_ was not so very, _very_ old. + +"Quite the contrary," said Bristol, gallantly, "and even when you become +so, I am sure--very sure, that you will prove a marked exception." + +An expression of pleasure flitted into her face, succeeded by one of +evident pain--pleasure, probably, that she had made another dupe as she +supposed; pain, that in one swift moment there had flashed into her mind +some terrible picture of her cursed, lonely, homeless old age, when the +whole world should scoff at her and thrust her from it, like the vile +thing that she was and the hideous thing that she would surely become; +both followed by the set features, where the cruel light came into her +eyes and the swift shuttles of crimson and ashy paleness shot over her +curled lips--the outward semblance of the inward tigress, that, though +diverted for an instant by some little sunlight-flash of either +tenderness or regret, never could be won from its irrevocably awful +nature! + +But it was all gone as soon as it had come, and she sat there, to all +appearances a handsome woman, as modestly and carefully as possible +encroaching upon the grounds of a first after-marriage flirtation, and +in a few moments pleasantly said: "I have become so interested in +you, Mr. Bristol, that I have found myself asking the question: Why is +it that this gentleman is continually in my mind? until, do you know, I +have such a curiosity about you that I shall be perfectly delighted to +get better acquainted with you." + +Bristol gracefully acknowledged the compliment by stating to her that he +himself, since he had seen her, had had a strange feeling that he should +know more about her, and the presentiment was still so strong upon him +that he was now quite sure that he _should_. + +"Ever since I saw you I have felt that we should become intimate," +continued Mrs. Winslow radiantly. + +"And I may myself confess that ever since I saw you, Mrs. Winslow, I +really _knew_ that I should be obliged to search you out and remain near +you." + +Mrs. Winslow blushed and coyishly asked: "Mr. Bristol, do you believe in +affinities?" + +[Illustration: _"Do you believe in affinities, Mr. Bristol?"--_] + +"Most assuredly." + +"So do I, and as we have sat here together, it has seemed to me that the +good spirits were hovering over and around us, and had been, and were +even now, whispering to us the sacredness of the affinity which surely +must exist between us." + +Mrs. Winslow said this in a kind of rhapsody of emotion, which betokened +both an air of sincerity derived from frequent repetition and long +practice, and a sort of superstitious belief in what she herself said; +and then poured out another glass of wine for each, while Bristol +remarked as he drank, that of late years these spirits had been a great +source of comfort to him, and that their free circulation was a good +thing for society. + +An hour or two was pleasantly beguiled in this manner, but Bristol +hardly knew what course to pursue, and began to feel that in the absence +of instructions he might become altogether too familiar with the +charming woman who was making such an effort to please him. But he dare +not cause her to become angry at him, for that would destroy his +usefulness, and she seemed bound that he should admire her; so, as he +had been directed by me to continue the _rôle_ of the "retired banker," +he concluded it would be better to humor Mrs. Winslow in the belief that +he was smitten by her, as she showed great anxiety that it should be so. +Accordingly, when she proposed that he should call at her apartments +that evening, he acceded to the request with such a show of pleasure +that Mrs. Winslow could not restrain her gratification, but rose and +terminated the interview by slapping Bristol heartily on the shoulder +and calling him a "dear old trump, anyhow!" And Fox, who was reading the +morning paper over a glass of beer at a little table not more than ten +feet distant, looked in blank astonishment at Bristol, as if fearing +that the woman had really bewitched him; while little Le Compte, who +stood at the entrance beyond, looked the very picture of abject jealousy +as he saw his darling lavishing endearments upon a man old enough to be +her father. + +Mrs. Winslow passed out of the Fields, and noticing Le Compte, who was +retreating as rapidly as possible, beckoned to him, and when he had +approached her near enough for her to speak to him, gave him a few +quick, angry words that sent him at a rapid pace over the railroad +bridge in the direction of his rooms; while she, after a parting smile +at the beaming Bristol, who stood radiantly in the Fields' entrance, +walked into St. Paul street, and from thence back and forth past the +restaurant, where the three deserted old maids might witness her stride +of triumph; while Bristol joined Fox at a retired spot under the shade +of the trees overhanging the brink of the precipice rising from the +gorge of the Genesee River, and explained the status of affairs which +had all unconsciously to himself drawn him from his quiet work into an +awful whirlpool of love and all that the term implied. Fox felt much +relieved at this information, and at once proceeded home, while Bristol, +with a guilty look in his face, returned to the little restaurant, where +he found a dispatch from me stating that Mrs. Winslow intended going to +Canada two days later, as I had been very positively informed by Le +Compte, and directing him to in some manner keep her company and never +let her make a move or meet a person without his knowledge. + +Bristol hardly saw how he was to do this, but concluded that it might be +best to wait until after his interview with his charmer in the evening, +so that he could also forward the result of that with his regular +report; and after expressing unbounded regret at being obliged to part +from the three graces and a little card-party they had arranged, he +proceeded to Mrs. Winslow's apartments, which had seemingly been +specially arranged for his reception. + +The mistress of the place was most elegantly attired, and greeted the +"retired banker" with such grace and marked esteem, that Fox, at his +lonely window opposite, almost felt jealous of the attention bestowed +upon his comrade by their mutual quarry. + +If ever a woman endeavored to make herself irresistibly winning, it was +Mrs. Winslow on that night. She threw off all reserve at once, and was +all smiles, pleasant words, and pretty ways. The rooms were most +beautifully arranged, and where splendid flowers failed to furnish +aroma, the delicate odors of art took their place. A very shrewd woman +was Mrs. Winslow--a woman who was supreme in the art of providing +_bijouterie_ to appeal to the sensuous in men's natures. In her +conversation, which apparently was lady-like enough when guarded, there +was always more suggested than said. The tone, the smile, the eye, the +gesture, the touch--every movement, glance, or sound, betokened an +unexpressed _something_ ready at any moment to be brought forward to +crush down a weakening resolution, and sweep from existence so much of +good or purity as might come into her baleful presence. She had rich +game in Bristol, she thought. Why could she not work this with the Lyon +case, bring to a successful termination a half-dozen other cases she was +working up, secure a big pile of spoil at one time, and then with her +little Le Compte glide away to _La Belle France_, where with his wit and +her winning ways and wisdom, she might yet amass vast wealth in levying +upon the personal and family pride of the thousands of rich numskulls +who annually throng the gay capital. + +And so to any man but a duty-doing detective that evening would have +been a thrilling one. As it was, it was a hard one for Bristol, who knew +that Fox's lynx eyes were upon him from across the street, who had to +invent legend after legend regarding his life, his present and his +imaginary future, and who was obliged under any circumstances not only +to please the woman, but to preserve himself blameless--two things to +ordinary men quite difficult to manage. + +During the hour that Bristol remained with her she intimated to him the +propriety of his securing another boarding-place, so that they might +enjoy each other's society without the annoyance to which the old maids +would subject them both should he remain there. He had wanted to make a +change, Bristol said, but his long and varied experience had made him +cautious, and he never gave up one good thing until he had secured a +better. How would as pleasant a place as this do, Mrs. Winslow wanted to +know? She had been thinking of renting the entire flat, she said, and +then re-renting it to select parties, like Mr. Bristol, who were willing +to pay a good price for a really luxurious place in which to live. + +Bristol was apparently flattered by her regard for him, which had, of +course, alone suggested the matter to her mind; but, being an elderly +gentleman of conservative habits, he required time to think the matter +over. In any event, it couldn't but be a pleasant theme for +contemplation. + +In fact, they got along famously together; so much so, indeed, that +before Bristol had taken his departure, Mrs. Winslow had pressed him to +accompany her on a trip of both business and pleasure to Toronto, and +had so urgently presented the request that he had half consented to go, +and was quite sure that he would be able to do so, unless some +unexpected business transaction should detain him. In any case, he would +be able to inform her by the next afternoon, he said, as he gallantly +bade her good-night, and observed Le Compte scowling upon him from the +dark end of the hall beyond. + +Bristol hastened to the post-office and added the events of the evening +to his daily report, which reached me the next afternoon, when I +telegraphed to him to proceed with Mrs. Winslow, as her friend; but +while pleasing her by feigning extreme regard, to be discreet, and not +put himself too much in her power, nor to allow her to advance any of +her other schemes by a sort of exhibition of him as her champion and +protector. + +Mrs. Winslow was made very happy by Bristol's acceptance of her +invitation, and, at her suggestion, they took the train for Port +Charlotte as strangers--Mrs. Winslow informing Bristol that the "old +scoundrel," meaning Lyon, was having her watched, she believed, but she +would outwit him at every point; but on arriving at the Port the loving +couple got together quite naturally, and soon after were on board a +steamer bound for Port Hope. + +It was one of those dreamy, hazy days of early September, when the +disappearing shore seemed to gradually take upon itself a tint of blue +as deep as that of the sky above and as pure as that of the waters +below, which on this day was almost as smooth as a mirror, only broken +by long, far-reaching swells that seemed to have neither beginning nor +end, but which here and there swept away in endless ribbons of liquid +light, while the trailing wake of the steamer seemed in the pleasant sun +like some marvellous and limitless lace-work flung across the water in +wanton richness and profusion. + +It was a lovely day for love, and to an unprejudiced observer Bristol +and Mrs. Winslow improved it. At Charlotte the woman spoke of the matter +in such a way that Bristol understood that she would not object to make +the trip as his wife, but he innocently failed to catch the meaning of +her covert invitation, and was only the attentive admirer during the +entire trip. But in the cabin, or seated coyishly together under a huge +sunshade upon the forward deck, they were as fine a couple as one would +care to see, while the woman seemed unusually affectionate and +agreeable. + +Arriving at Port Hope after a few hours, the couple took the night train +for the West, and arrived at Toronto at midnight, being driven to the +Queen's Hotel. They had become so confidential and intimate by this time +that Mrs. Winslow again suggested the propriety of travelling under more +intimate relations than they had done, but was again carefully diverted +from her purpose by the assumed innocence of the venerable detective, +who saw that her real purpose was to secure evidence of having travelled +as his wife, in order to have a future power over him, as she certainly +believed him to be a man of great wealth. + +She had told him that she had business that would prevent her seeing him +during the next day, at which he expressed extreme regret, and they +retired to their separate apartments for the night. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + Careful Work.-- Bristol's Trick on the Bell-boy at Queen's + Hotel, Toronto.-- The old Merchant.-- In the Toils.-- A + Face at the Transom.-- A cowardly Puppet before a brazen + Adventuress.-- The Horrors of Blackmail.-- "Furnished + Rooms to Rent." + + +As Mrs. Winslow had said, she was not to be seen the next morning; and +Bristol, after breakfasting early, came to the conclusion that he should +also be busied for the day following my instructions to watch her every +movement. + +He ascertained the number of her room and leisurely strolled through the +hall until he located it, when he at once took a position where he could +observe any movement in or out of the door. At about ten o'clock he +noticed a waiter enter her room as if by summons, in a few minutes pass +out smiling, and shortly afterwards return with a very large glass +filled with some sort of liquor. Soon after he brought her breakfast, +and about a half-hour later he saw that the dishes were being removed +from the room, and, lying on one edge of the tray, an ordinary envelope, +from its puffed condition evidently containing a note. He felt sure that +this would give him the overture to the day's performance; but how to +secure it was another thing entirely. He could not take the letter from +the tray, as it rested on the front edge which projected over the boy's +shoulder, and was consequently immediately before his eyes. He probably +would not be able to bribe him into letting him have it, for the letter +might require an answer, and he would fear getting into trouble. Bristol +was standing at the end of the hall, by the window overlooking the +street, while the waiter was approaching the stairs which descended to +the lower floors near him. The boy had reached the second step going +down, and it was Bristol's last opportunity. + +"Stop!" he said excitedly to the boy. "Here, give me that tray," and he +pulled it from the boy's shoulder and rested it upon the stair-rail. +"I'll take care of this. Run down to the street, now, quick, and get me +a this morning's paper. There's a newsboy right in front of the house. +Here's a half-dollar; keep the change!" + +The boy seemed startled at the action, but Bristol had been so impetuous +about it; that he had relinquished the tray and started down stairs, +but, recovering himself, came back and reached his hand up as if to take +the letter. + +"Tut, tut," said Bristol angrily, picking up the letter and carelessly +putting it in his pocket without looking at the address, "I'll take care +of everything until you get back; get along with you now!" + +Bristol was noted for his benign and fatherly appearance, and, after +another good look at him, the waiter took a brisk trot down stairs, +leaving the detective in possession of the letter. He hastily put the +tray upon the floor, and whisking the letter from his pocket, saw that +it was addressed with a pencil, to "J. Devereaux, No. --, Yonge St.," +and marked "Personal." It was but the work of an instant to open it, and +but of a moment to read it, as it was short and to the point, and ran as +follows: + + QUEEN'S HOTEL, TORONTO, Sept. 6, 186--. + + DEVEREAUX--I am hard up. I need one thousand dollars, though + five hundred will do, but I must have that amount at once. You + have intimated that you would not help me any further. I have + merely to say to you that if you do not either call with, or + send the money, during the day, I will cause you to reflect as + to whether your business and social reputation are not worth + to you and your estimable family immeasurably more than the + trifle named. Exercise your own pleasure about the matter + however. + + MRS. W. + +Bristol copied this upon the back of the addressed envelope in less than +a minute, and in a minute more had the note enclosed in another envelope +and addressed in a handwriting sufficiently similar to that of Mrs. +Winslow's to answer every purpose, and had just got into a calm and +bland position with the tray, when the boy came up the stairs, three +steps at a time, gave the paper a toss into the hall, jerked the letter +out of Bristol's hand, and after giving him a look that had considerable +resentment in it, strode down the stairs with his tray on his shoulder +and his letter in his pocket, in a very offended and dignified manner. + +But as Bristol was on this kind of business at Toronto he thought he +might as well ascertain where the little fellow went; and, taking a +position a half-block distant from the hotel, was obliged to wait but a +little time before the waiter came down and started off on a brisk walk +down the street. + +He waited until the boy had passed him, and then followed him in and out +the streets until he saw him suddenly turn into a large wholesale house +on Yonge street, when he rapidly lessened the distance between them, +arriving in front of the place as he saw the boy hand the note to a thin +old gentleman, who took him aside and nervously questioned him for a few +minutes, after which he nodded to him as if assenting to something, or +directing the boy to return an affirmative answer to whoever had sent +the note, or whatever it contained. + +The boy walked briskly back to the hotel, and Bristol only remained long +enough to notice the old man--who was evidently the Devereaux of whom Le +Compte had informed me, and whose name Bristol had so recently +written--walk tremblingly towards the door as if overcome with some +sudden faintness, and in a sort of vacant, listless way tear the note +into little bits and fling them piecemeal upon the stones of the street, +hurling the last bunch of pieces upon the pavement with a violent, +agonized action, as if he would to God he could dispose of the dark and +relentless shadow across his life as quickly and as effectually! + +All Bristol now had to do was to ascertain when Devereaux called, and, +if possible, to overhear what was said at the interview. + +But this might not be so easy a matter to accomplish as securing the +contents of the letter addressed to the latter. After studying the +matter over for a little time, but without any definite decision what to +do, he found himself strolling along the hall where Mrs. Winslow's room +was located, and noticed several rooms standing open and being put to +rights after the departure of guests. Among this number was one next to +that occupied by Mrs. Winslow, and, taking the number, he immediately +repaired to the office and had his baggage changed to that room, where, +after dinner, with a few cigars and some fresh reading matter, he +comfortably and leisurely waited for developments. + +The day dragged along, and both Bristol and Mrs. Winslow became anxious. +The latter paced back and forth in her room, and every few moments went +to the door, and even passed out into the hall, going as far as the +stairs and peering anxiously down, while the waiter at frequent +intervals was summoned to provide her courage and patience of a liquid +character. Finally, however, Bristol noticed that she had either +concluded to take a short nap, or was determined to wait patiently, for +quite a period of silence elapsed in her room, which he took advantage +of to steal quietly out into the hall, leaving his door ajar so that he +might re-enter it noiselessly as occasion required. + +It was not long before the occasion presented itself, for Bristol had +got no more than to the end of the hall when he saw Devereaux ascending +the stairs from below. He quietly stepped behind the curtains that +trailed from the lambrequin over the window, and watched the old man as +he came up the stairs. + +He was a little, gray, withered old man. Almost all his strength was +gone, and he certainly had but a few more years to use what little +strength was left. His hair was almost white, and his face was quite as +colorless, while the weak, rheumy eyes seemed almost ready to fall +through the flesh which had withered away to the bones of his face. He +was a living example of the blackmailer's victim as he labored along, +now and then catching at the stair-rail for help, and looking behind and +around him as if fearing some sudden discovery. Arriving upon the hall +floor, he peered anxiously at the numbers upon the doors, and after +settling in his mind what direction to take, went on tremblingly with +bowed head towards the woman who was as remorseless as death itself. + +He found the room after a little trouble, and tapped at it +apprehensively. It was at once opened and immediately closed after, when +Bristol sprang from his hiding-place and was in the adjoining room +almost as soon as the next door had closed. + +During the afternoon, when Mrs. Winslow had absented herself from her +room, he had dragged the bureau against the door opening into her +apartment, placed a quilt from his bed upon it in order that his jumping +upon it might occasion no noise, and with his knife cut a diamond +shaped piece out of the green paper covering the glass transom, +darkening his own room so that his eyes could not by any possibility be +seen through the aperture in the piece of paper, which had a dead black +appearance from Mrs. Winslow's room; and by the time the poor old man +had confronted the woman in a scared kind of a way, and had seated +himself upon the sofa obedient to her imperious gesture, the "retired +banker's" eyes and eye-glasses looked calmly down upon a scene the whole +terrible import of which, could it have been presented to the world in +all its terrible hideousness, and in some form become eternally typical +of the curse it illustrated, would have stood for all time a savage +Cerberus frightening men from this kind of infamy and self-destruction. + +In all my startling experience with criminals and the sad incidents +which have in the peculiar nature of my business forced themselves upon +my observation, there has been no one thing so reprehensible as the +trade of the blackmailer, and there is a no more terrible torture than +that inflicted by that class of criminals; and I am satisfied that could +heads of families realize their terrible danger when heedlessly forming +some unholy alliance, which is sure to eventually whip and scourge them +until life is a burden, there would be less of the moral laxity and +lechery than now burdens the world from palace and pulpit to +poverty-stricken hovel. + +What more pitiable picture than that of a man just ready to pass from +all that should be worth having and loving to the unknown country, with +fear behind and awful uncertainty beyond--with the work of a whole life, +which should now bring a reward of tenderness, gratitude, and +reverential esteem, embittered and blasted by the relentless curse that +ever trails after weakness and passion--fear, distrust, and apprehension +between himself and family, and the Damoclean sword ever above him, +ready to fall at the instant he endeavors to throw the horrible shadow +from him to regain honesty and uprightness! + +There the old man sat, a cowardly puppet before a brazen +adventuress--sat there a weak, drivelling, idiotic wreck before one so +vile that she was no longer capable of regret--sat there ruined in +everything worth the preservation of, suffering what he had for years +suffered--the regret, the remorse, the shame, and the abject fear that +were worse than a thousand deaths; while the utterly heartless woman, +with her hands folded across her waist in a masculine sort of a way, +looked at him smilingly, seemingly enjoying his efforts to recover the +breath lost in the, to him, severe labor of getting to her room; as it +appeared to be the custom for him to see her there rather than in the +parlor. + +The interview was business-like, and, as it was not overwhelmed with +sentiment, was not protracted. + +Mrs. Winslow asked Devereaux if he had brought the money, and he +stammered that he had. Well, she wanted it, and didn't want any nonsense +with it, either, she said, with a vast amount of meaning thrown into the +words; he knew whether he _owed_ her that amount or not, and, if he +did, she didn't propose having any bickering about it. + +Then the old man slowly rose, and cursing her, himself, and all the +world, flung her the money and said he would go, as he knew that was all +she wanted. + +She told him frankly that it was pretty nearly all she wanted, but added +jocosely that he was still "a charmer," and that that fact, too, had its +influence in periodically drawing her to him; and then bade him an +affectionate good-by as he feebly glared at her, and passed, whining, +cursing, and tottering away. + +Mrs. Winslow was very happy and gay now, and during the evening and on +their return to Rochester was all smiles and winsomeness. Her detective +companion could scarcely enter into her unusual joyousness, but did the +best he could, and that was well enough, as she was so pleased with the +success of her Toronto trip that her mind was altogether employed with +it until nearing home, when her eminent business ability again asserted +itself, and she became more affectionate than ever to the retired +banker, repeating the proposition concerning the rooms, which Bristol +had of course reported, and which he would be prepared to act upon when +he could secure his mail at Rochester. + +He told her he had thought favorably of it, and after he had ascertained +whether he should remain in the city a stated period or not, would +inform her of his decision, which he presumed would be favorable and +permit of their continued pleasant intimacy; while Mrs. Winslow +confided to him that she had thought seriously of the course for some +time. She knew Lyon was having her watched, she said, and she had +decided that it would be best to change her business to one which could +not be so easily misinterpreted, or at least add to her present business +something that in the eyes of those who scoffed at spiritualism would +have a measure of respectability about it, and from which she could not +only secure a livelihood, but such a pleasant companion as Mr. Bristol; +and they parted upon the train before arriving at the depot with a +thorough understanding about the future, and an appointment for another +meeting at the first opportunity. + +Unknown to Bristol I had sent another operative to keep him and Mrs. +Winslow company, and on receiving the reports of each I decided to put +my men in her rooms, where one of them could constantly observe her +actions, and never under any circumstances give her an opportunity to +make any new move without my knowledge. I therefore sent another man to +Rochester for outside work, and directed Bristol to accept the woman's +proposition and become her lodger, and, as soon after as possible +without exciting her suspicions, appear to become acquainted with Fox, +recommend him as a lodger, and secure his introduction to the place as +M. D. Lyford, a book-keeper in some establishment of the city which they +might settle upon, so that he might relieve Bristol, and _vice versa_, +as occasion required. + +So the furnished rooms sign went up over the clairvoyant sign, and Mrs. +Winslow added to the charms of handsome medium those of an attractive +landlady, while the three old maids under Washington Hall lost their +prize, who became a sort of an aged page to the castaway woman who had +such luxurious rooms for rent in the autumn of 186-, on South St. Paul +street, near Meech's Opera-house, in the beautiful city of Rochester. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + Harcout again.-- "Things going slow."-- A Bit of personal + History.-- A new Tenant.-- Detective Generalship.-- Mrs. + Winslow fears she is watched.-- Mr. Pinkerton cogitates. + + +It is pleasant to realize that the world moves along just the same, +whether the many mild lunatics it carries attempt to interfere with it +or not. There are countless men, precisely like Harcout, incapable of +holding in their little brains but one idea at a time, and that idea +invariably pushes to the surface their own supreme egotism and +self-consciousness, and just as invariably displays their utter +ignorance of what they are continually interfering with; and it is both +a grateful and charitable thought that such small minds, burdened with +such vast assurance, are merely provided by Omniscience to make us +patient, to warn us from allowing such knowledge as we may fortunately +gain from developing into similar self-assertion, and to serve to +illustrate true worth by contrast. + +Here was this fellow sweeping into my office every day, demanding every +detail of my operations on Mrs. Winslow, even intimating that I should +consult with him as to every move to be made, and submit to his +consideration even the character of the men employed, the color of their +clothing and the quality, and every item or act concerning or included +in the work. He had, in some unexplainable way that is common to brazen +assurance or unmitigated ignorance, fastened himself upon the weak old +man as a sort of confidential agent, or what-not, worked upon his fears, +his superstitions, and his foolish half-faith in a system of religion +that has never yet made other than male and female prostitutes, +adventurers, or lunatics, until the old man, standing alone and almost +friendless, had learned to cling to him, and almost rely upon his +consummate bravado to extricate him from the meshes of the web his own +vileness and a vile woman had woven about him; so that in one sense he +stood in the relation of principal to me, and I found it impossible to +shake him off, or relieve myself to any great extent of his impudent +presence and foolish suggestions. + +I knew that he was utterly without principle, and was only making a show +of this extraordinary energy in order to appear to more than earn +whatever he got from Lyon, and continue in the latter's mind the feeling +that he was utterly indispensable to him. I also knew him to be as mean +an adventurer as Mrs. Winslow was an adventuress; that he was the +villain who had first unloosed this vast flood of vileness and lechery +upon society, and who, as the shameless Christian minister of Detroit, +had put the fire-brand from hell in this woman's hand, to ever after +continue her moral incendiarism wherever she might go, until thrust from +life and infamous memory, and it annoyed me that this sort of a man +should dictate to me. + +I could have disposed of him at one stroke, and I am satisfied that had +I on only one occasion addressed him as the Rev. Mr. Bland, and casually +inquired concerning his old Detroit friends, including Mother Blake, he +would have slunk away without a word or a protest of any kind whatever; +and had I gone farther, and showed him what he himself did not know, +that this woman, whom he was so anxious to have brought down with some +startling development, was none other than the one whom he had led into +a life of sin from the pleasant Nettleton farm-house by the winding +river, and that he was now playing guardian to a man that would have +probably been free from the curse that was hanging over him, had it not +been for Harcout's earlier and more rascally villainy, he would have +disappeared altogether, but I realized that this would not do. It would +have had the effect of putting Lyon at the mercy of a horde of new +ghouls, while the existing one frightened all others away and was in a +measure a protection to Lyon, for he was now only bled by one, where he +would otherwise have been bled by twenty. + +Aside from this, it would have probably resulted in Mrs. Winslow's being +put on her guard, giving her time, not only to cover her tracks in many +criminal instances we had already discovered against her, but also cause +her to prevent witnesses from giving depositions, or, where depositions +had already been taken, give her an opportunity to secure affidavits +from the parties who gave them that they were mistaken as to the +identity of the person named in those instruments, and in other +particulars greatly destroy the effect of the work already done and +that which I had planned; and I was consequently obliged to bear the +fellow's dictatorial manner and suggestions, as he insisted on doing the +work this way or that way, and urged that I was not "pushing things" +fast enough. + +"Why, Mr. Pinkerton," said he one day, his eyebrows elevated and the +corners of his mouth drawn down, his whole face expressive of lofty +condescension and gentle, though firm reproof, "things are going rather +slow--rather slow. Hem! When we brought this case to you, we depended +upon expedition--depended on expedition, Mr. Pinkerton." + +"And have you any cause to complain?" I asked pleasantly. + +"Well, I don't know as we should exactly call it 'complain.' No, I don't +know as we exactly complain; but, if we might be allowed the +privilege--hem!--we would beg to suggest, without giving offence--beg to +suggest, mind you, without giving offence," he repeated, in the most +offensive way possible, "that, if I might be allowed the expression, +things are not pushed quite enough!" + +"On the contrary," I continued good-naturedly, "we have secured what any +good lawyer would consider an overwhelming amount of evidence, and are +letting the woman take her own course, in order to allow her to +completely unwind herself." + +"But you see, Pinkerton, we supposed when we brought the case to you +that you would, so to speak, smash things--break her all up and scatter +her, as it were--hem!--disperse her, you know." + +He said this as though he had taken a contract with Lyon to compel me to +avenge them both on the woman, and it heated my blood to be considered +in the light of any person's hired assassin; but I controlled myself, +and explained the matter to him. + +"Harcout," said I, "do you know anything about my history?" + +"Well, nothing save what I've seen in the newspapers. Merely by +reputation," he added lightly. + +"Well, sir, whatever that reputation may be, Harcout," I said, "this is +the truth. I never, that I know of, did a dishonorable deed. I worked +from a poor boy to whatever position or business standing I now +have--worked hard for everything I got or gained, and I never yet found +it necessary to do dirty work for any person." + +"Quite noble of you--quite noble," said Harcout patronizingly. + +"The detection of criminals," I continued, paying no attention to his +moralizing, "_should_ be as honorable--and so far as I have been able to +do, has been made as honorable--while it is certainly as necessary as +that of any other calling. No element of revenge can enter into my work. +You came to me with a case which I at first objected to take, on account +of its nature. I would not have taken it for all the money Mr. Lyon +possesses, had I not been assured that this Mrs. Winslow was a dangerous +woman. Nor, knowing that she is one, as I now do, would I have any +connection with the case if I found that Mr. Lyon insisted on my using +the peculiar power which I always have at command for any other purpose +than the, in this case, legitimate one of securing evidence against her +which actually exists. I am satisfied that a no more relentless and +terrible woman ever lived, but shall leave her punishment to her +disappointment in not securing what her whole soul is bent on getting, +and that is Lyon's money. I have nothing whatever to do with punishment, +sir, and no person ever did or ever can use my force for that nefarious +purpose!" + +"Oh, exactly--exactly," replied the oily Harcout; "but, you see, we +rather--hem!--expected something startling, you know. Now, for +instance," here he raised his eyebrows and pursed his lips in a wise +way; "supposing you had just ascertained all about her early history, +you would probably have found that Mrs. Winslow had played these games +all her life. Undoubtedly you could point to the very first man whom she +blackmailed----" + +"Undoubtedly," I interrupted, "I'm sure I could do it at this moment!" + +Harcout looked at me quickly, but as I was gazing at the ceiling as if +in deep thought, he went on quite enthusiastically: + +"Exactly. They learn it early. They will swindle at sixteen, rob at +eighteen; blackmail at twenty; and kill a man any time after that!" + +"Why, Harcout are _you_ a woman-hater?" I laughingly asked, +notwithstanding my annoyance. + +"Oh, no," he suddenly replied; "but I had a friend who once suffered +from very much the same sort of a woman as this Mrs. Winslow, and she +was not eighteen years old either. But to resume: Get this point in her +life, and the rest--hem!--the rest reads right on like the chapters of a +book!" + +"And then what?" I ventured to ask. + +"Then what?" he asked indignantly; "go for her through the newspapers. +Drive her out of the country. Make it impossible for her to ever +return;" and then, as if reflecting, "ruin her altogether. Any reporter +will listen to you if you have anybody to ruin! In fact, get up an +excitement about it and show her up." + +"And try your case in the newspapers instead of in the courts?" I added, +"which would have the effect of leaving the matter at the end just where +it was at the beginning, with nothing proven, and Mr. Lyon still at the +mercy of any future surprise the woman might conceive a fancy of +springing upon him." + +But there was no means of changing this lofty gentleman's opinions, and +these interviews were always necessarily closed by the threat on my part +that I would have nothing further to do with the matter if I was not +allowed to conduct my operations according to my own judgment in the +light of my own large experience upon such matters, and Mr. Harcout +would depart in a most dignified and frigid manner, as though it were a +"positively last appearance," only to return the next day with more +objections and a new batch of suggestions, which were given me for +"what they were worth," as he would remark, and we would fight our +battles all over again, with the stereotyped result. + +I saw Mr. Lyon very seldom, and he always approached me in the timid, +reluctant way in which he had come into my office when the case was +first begun; but, contrary to what I had anticipated through Harcout's +injunctions to "push things" and crush the woman out, he approved of my +course throughout, and seemed wonderfully pleased that everything had +been conducted so quietly and yet so effectively. Of course he shrank +from the trial and the miserable sort of publicity all such trials +compel; but he was _more_ fearful of the woman's future unexpected and +sudden sallies upon him, which both he and myself were satisfied would +be made at her convenience or whim, and was only too glad to agree to +any course which would compel silence and peace. + +At Rochester everything was working smoothly. After Bristol had become +located, his first work was to secure the admission to Mrs. Winslow's +rooms of Fox, as Lyford, which was done by representing that, the same +day he had himself gone there, he had suddenly come upon a sort of +relative of his who was a book-keeper in a wholesale house on Mill +street, and who was boarding at the Osborn House, and would be glad to +make some arrangement whereby he might live comfortably, be near his +business, and take his meals when and where he pleased. Thinking he +would be more pleasantly situated, and, at the same time, be able to +economize somewhat, Bristol said he had recommended Mrs. Winslow's +rooms very highly and that Lyford had agreed to call and take a look at +the place, which he did, making a good impression, and arranging to have +his baggage sent the next day. + +The rooms were situated so that the two detectives in a measure had +their quarry surrounded, or, at least, completely flanked. The halls of +the floor intersected each other at right angles at the top of the +stairs, and Mrs. Winslow's reception-room was at the right, as the hall +was entered from the stairway, while her sleeping-room could only be +reached from this sitting-room, although being situated next the hall +running parallel with the front of the building, while Bristol had +shrewdly secured another sleeping-room fronting on St. Paul street, +similar in size to Mrs. Winslow's, adjoining hers, and also, like hers, +opening into the reception-room, which they had agreed to use in common, +as it seemed that the fair landlady was all of a sudden, for some +reason, becoming close and penurious. Fox's room was across the hall +immediately opposite Mrs. Winslow's, as he had expressed a strong desire +to be as near his cousin, Mr. Bristol, as possible, so that by chance +and a little careful work the parties were located with as much +appropriateness as I could possibly have wished for. The operatives each +paid a month's rent in advance, taking receipts for the same, and +immediately began paying particular attention to all parties who came in +and out of the building, circulated freely among the Spiritualists of +the city, and got on as good terms as possible with the charming +landlady, who seemed at times to be a little suspicious of her +surroundings, as it introduced altogether too many strange faces to suit +a person who had a no clearer conscience than she had. + +From the gay, dashing woman she had been, she became unpleasantly +suspicious. She explained this to Bristol and Fox as arising from +unfavorable visions and revelations from the spirits through the +different mediums she had employed to give her the truth about her case +with Lyon. The rooms had filled up rapidly with people whom the +operatives had taken pains to ascertain all about, and who, as a rule, +were honest folks; but Mrs. Winslow could not get it out of her mind +that some of them were spies from Lyon, and were watching her in +everything that she did. + +There had been nothing whatever done to alarm her on the part of my men; +but the fact alone that here were a dozen people all about her, any one +of whom might at any time spring some sudden harm upon her, began to +affect her as the fear she had all her life inspired in others had +affected them; and she began to form a habit of talking pleasantly on +ordinary subjects, and then turning abruptly and almost fiercely upon +Bristol and Fox, who were now the only persons left whom she would at +all trust--even distrusting them--with a series of questions so vital, +and given with such wonderful rapidity, that it required the best +efforts of the operatives to parry her home-thrusts and quiet her +regarding them. + +It was a question in my mind whether she had laid by a large sum of +money or not. Years before she had several thousand dollars; up to the +time she came to Rochester she had had the reputation of never paying a +bill, and, however hedged in she might be by justice, jury, constables, +or sheriff, she not only escaped incarceration, but beat them all +without paying any manner of tribute. She had done a fair business in +duping Spiritualists and other weak-minded people while in Rochester; +she had evidently levied upon Devereaux often and largely, and to my +certain knowledge had taken some thousands of dollars from Lyon, and I +was at a loss to know why she was growing so grasping and exacting as +the reports showed was true of her; for she soon complained of being +poor, levied additional assessment for care of the rooms, insisted upon +her tenants receiving sittings at a good round price from her, and in +general dropped the veneer which had formerly made her extremely +fascinating, and became, save in exceptional moments of good nature, a +masculine, repulsive shrew, who, with a slight touch of hideousness, +might have passed for a stage witch or a neighborhood plague. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + Mrs. Winslow becomes confidential.-- Some of her Exploits.-- + Her Plans.-- A Sample of Legal Pleading.-- A fishy + Story.-- The Adventuress as a Somnambulist.-- Detective + Bristol virtuously indignant.-- Failing to win the + "Retired Banker," Mrs. Winslow assails Detective Fox with + her Charms. + + +After a time Bristol and Fox became Mrs. Winslow's only confidants. +Their business was to become so, and they successfully accomplished +their object. As Bristol said in one of his reports: "Only set her +tongue wagging, and she spouts away as irresistibly as an artesian +well." + +Had she been possessed of womanly instinct in the slightest degree, this +would have been impossible. But being a male in everything save her +physical structure, it was quite natural that she should hobnob with +those most congenial; and as she had antagonized all her lodgers save my +operatives, and they made a particular effort to keep up a good-natured +familiarity, the three were certainly on as easy terms as possible, and +passed the autumn evenings, which were growing long now, in conversation +of an exceedingly varied nature, with an occasional sitting or seance, +and not infrequently a visitation of spirits of more material character; +and the following are a few of the many facts in this way brought out, +and by Bristol and Fox transmitted to me at New York in their daily mail +reports. + +In one of Mrs. Winslow's peregrinations, probably for blackmail +purposes, she secured the indictment in Crawford County, Pennsylvania, +of one George Hodges, for swindling. He was not at that time arrested, +but a year or so after, finding that he was in Cincinnati, and claiming +that he was a non-resident, had him arrested as a fugitive from justice. +When the case was called before an obscure justice, no prosecuting +witness appeared, whereupon Hodges was discharged and at once secured a +warrant against her for perjury, but afterwards withdrew it. Meantime +the woman shook the dust of Cincinnati from her feet and repaired to St. +Louis, where she began several suits against parties there, notably one +against a leading daily newspaper of that city, from which she +afterwards secured one thousand dollars damages for libel. She +afterwards swung around the circle to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where +she obtained from the Governor of that State a requisition on the +Governor of Ohio, at Columbus, upon whom she waited and requested him to +designate her as the person to whom should be delegated the power under +the law to convey the fugitive, Hodges, to the Keystone State; but the +private secretary of the Governor of Ohio suspecting that the person who +had presented the papers, and for whose benefit they had been issued, +would make improper use of them, they were returned to the Governor of +Pennsylvania, whereupon she had made Columbus ring with denunciations +of gubernatorial corruption, and threatened to cause the impeachment of +Pennsylvania's Executive, although those two commonwealths were never +completely shattered by her. + +Again in conversation regarding her case, which now seemed never out of +her mind or off her tongue, she informed Bristol confidentially that she +intended keeping Lyon in the dark altogether, giving him and his counsel +no inkling as to what course she intended to pursue, which would so +worry him that he would be glad to settle for at least twenty-five +thousand dollars, rather than have the case come to trial and be exposed +as she would expose him; and if he did not settle at the last moment, +she would have subpœnas issued for Lyon's mother-in-law, all his +children, several other women who, the spirits had revealed, had been +similarly betrayed, and even Lyon himself, and then she _would_ make a +sensation. + +At this stage she was positive he would settle, as she knew he was half +worried to death about the matter; and besides this, he knew that she +knew he had told a certain lawyer of the city that he had once loved her +better than any other woman on earth, and the only reason he had +discarded her was that he was sure her love had taken hold on his pocket +and forsaken himself. + +She had signed a release of all claims, but she would stoutly maintain +that it was fraudulently secured, which would only further establish the +fact that she had had a valid claim upon him. Nor did she fear the +opposing counsel. She was lawyer enough to attend to her own case, she +said. Her legal knowledge helped her through many a difficulty, and as +she had been lawyer enough to file a declaration, she could get a +rejoinder in shape whenever the answer should appear upon the court +records. Oh, she knew how to handle a jury; she had done it before! In +_this_ case she would say: "Gentlemen of the jury:--There are many who +believe that I merely seek for money. This is not true. I ask for a +verdict that I may gain a husband. For all of the injury that I have +received--lost time, lost money, lost reputation, years of suspense and +hope deferred--I only ask for a verdict in consonance with what a man in +Lyon's position should be compelled to give to one so grossly wronged. +Gentlemen, if you give me a heavy verdict, you give me Mr. Lyon. I say +this in all sincerity--yes, as a proof of my sincerity. I want the man, +not his money; and a heavy verdict gives me the man, for Mr. Lyon is so +penurious that he will marry me rather than pay the amount I claim. With +him, he has so won my whole being, even in poverty I would feel richer +than to live without him the possessor of millions!" + +In delivering this eloquent peroration, Mrs. Winslow in reality rose +upon a chair, and, figuratively, upon the giddy altitude of her dignity, +and tossing back her head, elevating her eyebrows, looking peculiarly +fierce with her great gray eyes, and flinging the back of her right hand +into the palm of her left with quick, ringing strokes, delighted her +audience of operatives, and male and female Spiritualists, who on this +occasion crowded the reception-room and cheered their hostess as she +descended from her improvised rostrum to order something to refill the +glasses which had been enthusiastically emptied to her overwhelming +success. + +When business was dull with the woman, she would be certain to retain +the company of the detectives, as it seemed that she was beginning to +avoid being left alone as much as possible, and would, under no +circumstances, allow them both to be absent at the same time. Though +ordinarily careful of, and close with, her money, to keep my men at home +on these, to her, dreary evenings, she would send for cigars, liquor, +and choice fruits, and after considerable urging they would remain, when +the conversation would invariably turn upon the Winslow-Lyon case, or +some incident in the fair plaintiff's eventful life, which the gentlemen +as invariably listened to with the closest interest and attention. + +On one occasion Spiritualism was being discussed, when Mrs. Winslow +touched on her early history, and the revelation then made to her which +in after-life convinced her of the possession of supernatural powers. +Her father had had several boxes of honey stolen from his bee-hives, +when she was but a little girl. Search was made for them in every +possible direction, but no trace of them could be found, whereupon she +conveniently went into a trance, the first she had ever experienced, +continuing in that state several hours, and finally awakening from it +terribly exhausted. But the trance brought the honey, for a wonderful +vision came upon her, wherein spirit-forms appeared clothed in +overwhelming radiance, and, after caressing her spiritual form for some +time, and making her realize that she was an accepted child of Light, +pointed their dazzling celestial fingers towards an old hollow stump +standing at the side of the road leading towards town. So powerful and +penetrating was the light which radiated from these spirits that it +seemed to permeate the stump, leaving its form perfect as ever, but +making it wholly translucent, so that she could see the boxes of honey +piled up within the stump as clearly as though she had been standing +beside it and it had been made of glass. She gave this information to +her father, who ridiculed the revelation, but was both curious and +desirous of getting the honey, and went to the old stump, where he found +the boxes uninjured and piled in precisely the same manner as described +by his precocious child; all of which was related as if thoroughly +believed--as it doubtless was--in a voice as hollow and mysterious as +the stump itself, while the operatives preserved the utmost gravity and +decorum, and impressed her in every way with their belief in her varied +and wonderful power. + +Her affection for Bristol continued for a few weeks unabated, and her +most powerful arts were used in endeavoring to compel him to reciprocate +it. These attempts went as far as a naturally lewd and naturally shrewd +woman dare go--so far, in fact, that in one and the last instance they +became absurdly ridiculous. There was no bolt upon the door of either of +their sleeping-rooms, and, besides, it was necessary for Bristol to +either retire first or step into Fox's room for a little chat, or a +sociable smoke, as Mrs. Winslow had an unpleasant and persistent habit +of disrobing for the night in the reception-room. + +One evening, after Mrs. Winslow had given a select seance to a few +admiring friends, including my detectives, Bristol had hurried off to +bed, being tired of the mummery, and after being obliged to listen for +some time to her tumblings and tappings about the room, had finally +fallen into a peaceful doze of a few minutes' duration, when he was +awakened by that undefinable yet irresistibly increasing sense of some +sort of a presence, which often takes from one the power of expression, +or action, but intensifies the mind's faculties. The gas in the +reception-room had been turned low, and his door had been softly opened. +The rooms were quite dark, but the light from the street-lamps were +sufficient to show him the plump outlines of a form which he felt sure +that if it had had an orthodox amount of clothing upon it he could +recognize. It certainly seemed to be the form of a woman, and her long, +dishevelled black hair fell all about her shoulders and below her waist, +while her _robe de nuit_ trailed behind her with fear-inspiring, +tremulous rustlings. On came the robust ghost, and in the weird gloaming +which filled the apartment, he saw the mysterious thing moving towards +him, and in a sort of frenzy of excitement yelled: + +"Who's that?" + +No answer; but the slow, firm pace of the apparition came nearer to +Bristol's bedside, and he partially rose upon his knees as if to defend +himself. + +"Say!--you!" shouted Bristol, "get--get out of here!" + +But the ghostly figure came on as resistless as fate until it reached +his bedside. By this time he had risen to his feet and was edging along +the wall to escape, when to his horror he saw the spectre bound into the +bed he had so expeditiously vacated and reach for him with a very +business-like grasp which he nimbly eluded, and with a series of bounds +and scrambles reached the floor. He stood where he had struck for a +moment, addressing some very decided and italicized remarks to the +lively ghost in his bed, and then, in one grand burst of virtuous +indignation, made an impetuous dive at the figure, caught it by one of +its very plump arms, brought the ghost from the bed with a mighty +effort, and securing its left ear with his right hand, trotted the +animated shadow out of his room and into the reception-room right up to +the pier-glass, and then turning on one of the jets at its side, said to +the magnificent ghost, in a voice husky from excitement and rage: + +"Woman! if you ever do that thing again, I'll--I'll--aren't you ashamed +of yourself, Mrs. Winslow?" + +At the sound of her name, and after a few moments' apparently bewildered +reflection, Mrs. Winslow opened her eyes, which had previously remained +closed, and in an affectedly startled way gasped: + +"Oh! where am I? what _have_ you been trying to do with me, Mr. +Bristol?" + +To have seen the couple thus in the full gaslight before the +pier-glass, which both reflected and intensified the odd situation--the +woman, held to the mirror so that she might more startlingly view the +result of her gauzy pretence at somnambulism, and the man, in his +night-shirt, his limp night-cap dangling from his neck upon his +shoulder, the ring of stubby gray hair around his head raised by +excitement until it almost hid the glistening baldness above, his legs +bare below the knees, but with a face so full of virtuous resentment at +the scandalous and shallow scheme of the woman to implicate him in +something disgraceful, that his uprightness clothed him as with fine +raiment--would have been to have witnessed the apotheosis of sublimely +triumphant virtue and the defeat of shame. + +"What have _I_ been trying to do with _you_?" shouted the now enraged +Bristol; "that's all very fine; but what have _you_ been trying to do +with _me_, madam?" + +"Why, didn't I ever tell you that I often walk in my sleep?" she asked +with apparent innocence; and then, as if noticing for the first time how +meagrely both herself and her companion were clad, gave vent to a +half-smothered "Oh!--shame on you, Mr. Bristol!" and broke away from +him, running into her own room, while Bristol, after walking back and +forth in a state of high nervous excitement for some time, muttering, +and shaking his fist towards her room, finally smoothed his rebellious +locks so as to admit of the readjustment of his night-cap, and trotted +fiercely to bed, never more to be disturbed by sleep-walking female +Spiritualists. + +There was nothing in all this save a quite common and silly attempt on +the part of the adventuress to get some of the hard-earned money of +which she thought he was possessed, and it disgusted her that he was no +more appreciative than to look upon her charms, that had set the heads +of so many other men all awhirl, with such a cool and impressionless +regard for them. + +This latter fact bothered her probably fully as much as in not being +able to get at his bank account, and she finally settled into a sort of +suspicious dislike of him, and turned her attention to Fox, who, being a +quiet sort of a fellow, with less brusqueness than Bristol, was not so +well fitted to keep her at arm's length, and was consequently +immediately the recipient of her torrent-like attentions, caresses, and +confidence. + +A book-keeper was the next thing to a retired banker--sometimes even +better off, Mrs. Winslow thought; and, believing that Fox was the +book-keeper he represented himself to be, she conceived the idea of +travelling during the pendency of the suit, and gave Fox glowing +accounts of the vast sums of money they could make if she only had so +presentable a man as he for a sort of agent, manager, and protector. + +One afternoon Fox came in early, and said that as he was suffering +severely from headache he had been excused from his duties, and had come +home for rest. He passed into his own room and laid down upon his bed, +where he was immediately followed by the woman, who threw herself +passionately into his arms, declaring that he was the only man whom she +had ever really and truly loved, and terminated her expressions of ardor +by a proposition that he should "get hold of a big pile down there to +the store," as she expressed it, and fly to some quiet spot where they +might revel in love and all that the term implies. + +Had he been a book-keeper instead of what he was, and able to secure any +large sum of money, she would have probably so bedevilled him that he +would have become a criminal for life for the sake of gratifying his +passion and her demands, and in a week after she would have had +nine-tenths of the money, and Fox would have been a penniless fugitive +from justice. + +He had more trouble than Bristol in dispossessing the mind of the +adventuress of the idea that he was not the man to allow her to become +his Delilah; but when this was done, and she disgustedly realized that +not all men were ready to sell themselves body and soul for her +embraces, while she was indignant and suspicious, yet a sort of easy +confidence was established between the mysterious three, which brought +out a good many strong points in her character, and at the same time led +to the securing of a large amount of evidence against her. In fact, it +seemed that so soon as she thoroughly understood the, to her, novel +situation of being in constant contact with two men who, though probably +no better than average men, were still from the nature of their business +compelled to be above reproach in all their association with her, her +self-assertion and consciousness of power, which she had been able to +assert over nearly every man with whom she came in contact, in a measure +left her, and she became, at least to my operatives, an ordinary woman, +whose inherent vileness, low cunning, and splendid physical perfection, +were her only distinguishing characteristics. This was all natural +enough, for I had compelled these men to be her almost constant +companions, and as they had been with her long enough to drive away any +superfluous constraint, and she had found both of them unassailable, +though sociable and agreeable, her conversation, which chiefly concerned +herself, became as utterly devoid of decency as her life had been, so +that no incident of rehearsed romance of herself lost any of its +piquancy by unnecessary assumption of modesty in its narration. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + A Female Spiritualist's Ideas of Political and Social + Economy.-- The Weaknesses of Judges.-- Legal Acumen of the + Adventuress.-- An unfriendly Move.-- Harcout attacked.-- + Lilly Nettleton and the Rev. Mr. Bland again together.-- A + Whirlwind. + + +One evening, after Mrs. Winslow had had a very busy day with her +spiritualistic customers, which had become quite unusual, she showed +herself to be more than ordinarily communicative, undoubtedly on account +of the spirits which had kept her such close company, and at once +started in upon an edifying explanation of her political views, and +confided to Bristol and Fox, as illustrative of her high political +influence, that certain officers of the Government only held their lease +of office through her leniency. + +From this she verged into political and social economy, stating her +earnest belief to be that every man should have a military education, +and that if they were found to be unfit physically to withstand the +rigors of a military life, they should be immediately condemned to +death, and thus be summarily disposed of. And so, too, with women. There +should be appointed a capable examining board, and wherever a woman was +found wanting in physical ability to meet every demand made upon her by +her affinities through life, she should also be instantly deprived of +existence. She maintained that there should be a continuous and eternal +natural selection of the best of these mental and physical conditions, +just the same as the stock-raiser bred and inbred the finest animals to +secure a still finer type, and that all persons, male or female, failing +to reach a certain fit standard of perfection in this regard, should be +condemned to death. She would have no marriage save that sanctioned by +the supreme love of one eternal moment; and shamelessly claimed that +passion was the real base of all love, and that, consequently, it was +but a farce on either justice or purity that men and women should be by +law condemned to lives of miserable companionship. In this connection +she held that not half the men and women were fit to live, and were she +the world's ruler she would preside at the axe and the block half of her +waking hours. + +These sentiments were quite in keeping with her expressions concerning +the late war, her gratification at Lincoln's assassination, and her +threats that she had President Johnson in her power through her +knowledge of some transactions in Tennessee. This was, of course, all +silly talk, but it showed the woman's tendencies and disposition, and +enabled Bristol and Fox to gradually lead her into narrations of +portions of her own career during and after the war. + +She boasted of her ability in fastening herself upon a command, or +military post, by getting some one of the leading officers in her power +so they dare not drive her beyond the lines, and then, when the +soldiers were paid off, getting them within her apartments, drugging +them, robbing them, and finally securing their arrest for absence +without leave. She claims that in this way she often made over five +hundred dollars daily, and would then buy drafts on northern banks, not +daring to keep the thousands of dollars about her which would frequently +accrue. + +Interspersed with these narratives were numberless tales of adventure +wherein Mrs. Winslow, under her _aliases_ of the different periods +referred to, had been the heroine, and where her shrewdness and daring, +she wished my operatives to understand, had brought utter dismay to each +of her opponents, all of which had for its point and moral that she was +not a person to be trifled with, as Mr. Lyon would eventually ascertain +to his sorrow. + +To more thoroughly impress this, in another instance the question of +being watched and annoyed by Lyon or his agents arose, when she insisted +to Bristol that Fox was a detective, and to Fox that Bristol was one, +and then abruptly accused them both of the same offence, expressing +great indignity at the assumed outrage; and when they had succeeded in +partially pacifying her, she turned on them savagely, saying that they +had better bear in mind that she did not care whether they were +detectives or not; that she was a pure woman--an innocent woman; but +still, she wanted not only them, if they _were_ detectives, but all the +world, to understand that she was capable of taking care of herself, +whoever might assail her. Evidently the good legal mind which the woman +certainly possessed had reverted to her criminal acts in other portions +of the country, for she asserted very violently that, should Lyon +undertake to have her conveyed to any other State upon a requisition to +answer to trumped-up charges for the purpose of weakening her case, she +would shoot the first man that attempted her arrest; and that, if +finally overpowered by brute force, she would still circumvent him by +securing a continuance of the trial at Rochester, and make that sort of +persecution itself tell against "the gray-headed old sinner," as she +most truthfully called him. + +She further remarked, with a meaning leer, that she never had any +trouble with the judges. They were generally old men, she had noticed, +and her theory was that old men, even if they were judges, had a quiet +way of looking after the interests of as fine-appearing women as she +was; and even if they did not have, her powers of divination were so +wonderful that she could at any time go into the trance state and +ascertain everything necessary to direct her to success, giving as an +illustration a circumstance where a certain St. Louis daily newspaper +had grossly libelled her, whereupon she had sued its proprietors for ten +thousand dollars, retaining two lawyers to attend to her case. When it +came to trial her counsel failed to appear. With the aid of the spirits +she grasped the situation at once, and, showing Judge Moody a receipt +for attorneys' fees amounting to two hundred dollars which she had paid +them, pleaded personally for a continuance until the next day, which he +granted, showing her conclusively that he was in sympathy with her. She +then went home, and, again calling on the spirits, they revealed to her +that she should win a victory. + +So she read all the papers in the case, in order to acquaint herself +with the leading points, and then subpœnaed her witnesses. Having +everything well prepared, she proceeded to the court-room the next day, +and on the case being called, the spirit of George Washington instantly +appeared. It had a beautiful bright flame about its head, and floated +about promiscuously through the upper part of the room. She was certain +that it was a good omen, but it was a long time before she could get any +definite materialization from the blessed ministering angel from the +other side of the river. After a time, however, George's kind eyes +beamed upon her with unmistakable friendliness, and the nimbus, or +flame, that shone from his venerable head in all directions, finally +shot in a single incandescent jet towards the head of the judge; and +immediately after, the gauzy Father of his Country placed his hands upon +the former's head, as if in benediction. This was a heavenly revelation +to her that the judge was with her, as afterwards proved true. + +George stayed there until the trial was ended, which she conducted in +her own behalf, constantly feeling that she herself was being upheld by +strong, though invisible hands. When the jury was being impanelled, the +flame, with an angry, red appearance, pointed to those men who were +prejudiced against her, to whom she objected, and they were invariably +thrown out of the panel; while all through the trial the judge insisted +that there should be no advantage taken of her, if she had been forsaken +by her counsel; and with the aid of Washington she won a splendid +victory, securing a judgment of one thousand dollars, which was paid; +and there are scores of lawyers and newspaper men in St. Louis who will +remember this case, that know of the woman and her almost ceaseless +litigation in that action, and who will also recollect that she did get +a thousand dollars from one of the leading newspapers there. + +Her cunning and shamelessness were largely commented upon at the time; +but it was reserved for Mrs. Winslow to inform the world, through my +operatives, that George Washington ever descended to this grade of +pettifogging. It can only be accounted for through a knowledge of that +peculiar system of religion which gives to the very dregs of society a +mysterious, and therefore terrible power, whether assumed or otherwise, +over its better elements for their annoyance, persecution, and downfall. + +There was also a poetical and religious element in the woman's +composition which very well accorded with her superstitiousness. This +was quite strongly developed by a liberal supply of liquor, which she +never failed to use whenever she became worried and excited over the +coming trial, both of which begat in her impulses for certain lines of +conduct exactly the reverse of those counselled by her more quiet, +calculating reflections. + +One pleasant October day, when suffering from a peculiarly severe attack +of romantic fancies, she conceived the idea of breaking through all her +stern resolves relative to not seeing Lyon, and making one more effort +to win him back to her altogether, or so affect him by her fascinating +appearance that he would be glad to settle with her at any reasonable +figure he might name--say twenty-five or fifty thousand dollars. + +It was a pleasant fancy, and Bristol and Fox were exceedingly interested +as they noticed her excited preparations for her expedition of conquest. +She sang like a bird, and the bright color came into her face as she +tripped about, busied in the unusual employment. All the forenoon she +dressed and undressed, posing and balancing before the pier-glass like a +_danseuse_ at practice, studying the effect of different colors, shades, +and shapes, until at last, having decided in what dress she should +appear the most bewitching, she retired for a long sleep, so as to rest +her features and give her eyes their old-time lustre. + +At about two o'clock she awakened, and, after dressing in a most +elaborate and elegant manner, at once started out upon her novel +expedition to the Arcade. + +The Arcade in Rochester is a distinct and somewhat noted place in that +city. It has nearly the width of the average street, and extends the +distance of a short block--from Main Street to Exchange Place--being +nearly in the geographical, as well as in the actual business center of +the city. It is covered with a heavy glass roofing, filled on either +side by numerous book and notion stalls, brokers' offices, and the +offices of wealthy manufacturers whose business requires a down-town +office, and is also, as it has been from almost time immemorial, the +location of the post-office; so that, as the thoroughfare leads directly +from the Union Depot to the uptown hotels, it is constantly thronged +with people, and is the spot in that city where the largest crowd may be +collected at the slightest possible notice. + +To Mrs. Winslow's credit it should be said that up to this time she had +kept so remarkably quiet that public scandal had nearly died away, and +as she had gone into the different newspaper offices with some of the +wicked old light burning in her eyes, and "warned" them concerning +libelling her, both she and her suit were no longer causing much remark; +but now, when she was seen majestically bearing down Main street, with +considerable fire in her fine eyes, determination in her compressed +lips, and the inspiration of resolve in every feature of her handsome +though masculine face, there were many who, knowing the woman, felt sure +there was to be a scene, and by the time she had turned from Main street +into the Arcade quite a number were unconsciously following her. After +she had got into the Arcade she attracted a great deal of attention in +sweeping back and forth through that thoroughfare, as in passing Lyon's +offices she gave her head that peculiarly ludicrous inclination that all +women affect when they are particularly anxious to be noticed, but also +particularly anxious to not have it noticed that they wish to be +noticed; and continued her promenade, each time brushing the windows of +Lyon's offices with her ample skirts, and growing more and more +indignant that nobody appeared to be interested in her exhibition, save +the lookers-on within the Arcade, who were increasing rapidly in +numbers. + +This seemed to exasperate the woman beyond measure, and finally, after +casting a hurried glance or two through the half-open door, she +apparently nerved herself for the worst and made a plunge into the +office, while the crowd closed about the door. + +Bristol had of course felt it his duty to inform Mr. Lyon of the fair +lady's intended demonstration, and the latter had judiciously found it +convenient to transact some important business in another part of the +city on that afternoon; but the elegant Harcout had bravely volunteered +to throw himself into the breach and bear the brunt of the battle--in +other words, sacrifice himself for his friend, and was consequently +sitting at Lyon's desk behind the railing, which formed a sort of a +private office at one side of the general office, as Mrs. Winslow, pale +with rage and humiliated to exasperation, came sweeping into the room. + +"Ah, how d'ye do, ma'am?" said Harcout blandly, but never looking up +from his desk, at which he pretended to be very busily engaged. "Bless +my soul, you seem to be very much excited!" + +"Sir!" said Mrs. Winslow, interrupting him violently, "I want none of +your 'madams' or 'bless my souls.' I want Lyon, you puppy!" + +"Ah, exactly, exactly," replied Mr. Lyon's protector with the greatest +apparent placidity, though with a shade of nervousness in his voice; +"but you see, my dear, you can't have him!" + +It was not the first time this man had called this woman "my dear," nor +was it the first time he had attempted to beat back her overpowering +passion. Had he known it as Mr. Harcout, or had she recognized him as +Mrs. Winslow, it would have made the interview more dramatic than it +was--perhaps a thread of tragedy might have crept in; as it was, +however, she only savagely retorted that she wouldn't have him, but she +would see him if he was in, whether or no. + +"Well, my dear good woman," continued Harcout soothingly, but edging as +far from the railing and his caller as possible, "he isn't in, and that +settles that. Further, you can't have, or see, him _or_ his money, and +that settles that. So you had best quietly go home like a good woman and +settle all this," concluded Harcout winningly and yet impressively, and +with the tone of a Christian counsellor. + +The crowd laughed and jeered at this grave and sarcastic advice, and it +seemed to madden her. Raising her closed sunshade and hissing, "_I'll_ +settle this!" she rushed towards Harcout, struck at him fiercely, +following up the attack with quick and terrific blows, which completely +demolished the parasol and drove him nimbly from place to place in his +efforts to avoid the effects of her wrath. + +For the next few moments there was a small whirlwind in Lyon's offices. +The railing was too high for Mrs. Winslow to leap, or she certainly +would have scaled it. Harcout could not retreat but a certain distance, +or he certainly would have sought safety in flight. So the whirlwind was +created by rapid and savage leaps of Mrs. Winslow, as if to jump the +railing and fall bodily upon her victim, and at every bound the woman +made, the shattered parasol waved aloft and came down with keen +certainty and stinging swiftness, upon such portions of the gilt-edged +gentleman as could be most conveniently reached. + +It is difficult to realize what the woman would have done in her mad +passion, had not a lucky circumstance occurred. She and Harcout had +never met since the time when, in the face of her robbery of him, she +had unblushingly compelled him to wed her to the credulous Dick Hosford +at the Michigan Exchange Hotel in Detroit; and had she now recognized +him as the villain who had made her what she was, it is a question +whether she would not have made a finish of him there and then. But some +one in the crowd raised the cry of "Police!" which sobered her at once, +and, giving the tattered remnant of her sunshade a wicked pitch into +Harcout's face, she turned quickly, shot into the Arcade as the crowd +made way for her and quickened her speed by wild jibes and taunts, until +she had reached the street, where, in a dazed, hunted sort of way, she +hailed a passing cab, sprang into it, and was driven rapidly away. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + Mrs. Winslow, under the Influence of "Spirits" of an earthly + Order, becomes romantic, religious, and poetical.-- A + Trance.-- Detective Bristol also proves a Poet.-- A Drama + to be written. + + +When the evening came and Mrs. Winslow came with it, she was observed to +be in a high state of nervous and vinous excitement, and at such times +she contrived to inaugurate a series of actions which proved not only +interesting, but illustrative of her strange character. + +She declared to Bristol and Fox that the Lord was hardening Lyon's heart +as in the olden times the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, so that he +should rush upon his fated disgrace as the Egyptian king rushed upon his +fate while forcing the children of Israel into deliverance, and +destruction upon himself; and like the unrelenting Mrs. Clennam in +"Little Dorrit," had at command any number of scriptural parallels to +prove the righteousness of her sin. This sort of blasphemy is the most +pitiable imaginable, and to hear the woman in her semi-intoxicated, +semi-crazed condition, mingling her vile catch-words with scraps of +spiritualistic sayings, snatches of holy songs, couplets of roystering +ballads, and crowning the hideousness of the whole with countless Bible +quotations, was to be in the presence of supreme garrulousness, +temperamental religious frenzy, and superstitious vileness. + +It appeared that after she had escaped from the excitement she had +created in the Arcade, she had been driven to the apartments of every +clairvoyant of note in the city and had a "sitting" with each. In her +excited condition, and being noted for having plenty of money, it was +both easy to rob her and secure what was uppermost in her mind. +Consequently, it was revealed to her by every medium that Lyon would +settle with her for a large sum of money. + +One medium averred that in her vision Lyon was seen, as it were, bending +a suppliant at her feet, and, at the last moment, admiring her character +as much as fearing the nature of the testimony he knew she could bring +against him, he declared his love for her and begged that they might be +married in open court. + +Another depicted the sorrows she would be obliged to endure before her +affairs culminated. She would be watched, annoyed, harassed; but her way +would be well watched by the spirit-forms which were evidently floating +around promiscuously to protect the pests of society; and, whether she +got the man or not, she should share his fortune. This much could be +surely promised. + +Another was wonderfully favored with divine "spirit light" upon the +subject--so favored, indeed, that time without number her other-life had +insensibly and unconsciously wandered away in search of correct +information regarding the result of the Winslow-Lyon suit, and, without +her volition or bidding, it had delved into the mysteries for her +suffering sister. She could assure her suffering sister, the clairvoyant +said, that Lyon was spiritually at her feet. All the trouble had arisen +between them from Mrs. Winslow's standing upon a higher spiritual plane +than Mr. Lyon. He, as was natural to man, had more of the sensual +element beclouding his spirit-life. Now, pleaded the clairvoyant, +couldn't she adjust an average between them? She was certain--yes, the +spirits, who never lie, had positively revealed to her that all that was +needed was some one to properly discover each of these affinities to the +other. In any case, all would eventually be well, and there was peace, +prosperity, and a large amount of money in waiting for her. + +This sort of absurdity was related by Mrs. Winslow to an unlimited +extent that evening, as the three sipped the liquor she had provided, +and she insisted with great fervor that all these revelations strongly +corroborated the light she herself had received on the same subject. + +As a long pause ensued after one of these heated asseverations, Bristol +ventured to ask how she had been enlightened concerning the matter. + +Raising her flushed face towards the ceiling, then lifting her right arm +above her head and holding it there for a moment, she allowed it to +slowly descend with a coiling, serpentine motion, when she burst into a +sudden ecstasy of speech, movement and feature, and partly as in answer +to the inquiry, and partly as if struck with a swift and irresistible +inspiration, she said in a low, unearthly voice, and with weird effect: + +"Yes, yes, I hear your angel voices calling; I see your beautiful forms; +I feel your tender fingers touching my aching head; I am listening to +your sweet, soft whispers. Ah! what is it you say?--yes, yes, yes! You +_are_ with me. You will watch over and guard me. You will ward off the +evil influences that surround me, and despite the darkness which +envelops me, even as the glorious sun leaps from his couch of crimson +and with his burnished lances drives the grim hosts of shadows before +him with the speed of the light!--What! are you now leaving?" + +Here Mrs. Winslow gasped and kicked with her pretty feet alarmingly. + +"What--what is that?--that rosy, effulgent light that fills all space? +Ah, yes! I see they beckon for me to look up, to not be cast down or +despair. I _will_ look up. See! in their hands are long, feathery wands +with which they sweep the flaming sky, while across its burnished arc I +see, yes, I see in letters of purple that oft-recurring +legend--_Twenty-five thousand dollars!_" + +Now, although I am not arguing this question of Spiritualism, and am +only giving to the public the history so far as I dare of an +extraordinary woman and practical Spiritualist, I cannot resist asking +the question, or putting forward the theory, which, during the progress +of this case particularly, and a thousand times before and since in a +general way, has irresistibly forced itself into my mind. I give it in +all fairness, I am sure, and only with a view that it may dispel +certain feelings of squeamishness with which a good many people approach +the subject to investigate it. I may be accused of presenting it with +too little delicacy; but the public must recollect that the nature of my +business compels me _to get at the truth_ of things, and to do that, +matters must in a majority of cases be handled without gloves. This is +my only excuse, and perhaps it may be a good defence; but in any event +this is the question: Has there ever been a so-called Spiritual +"manifestation" that has not subsequently been explained as trickery by +persons more credible of belief than its medium or originator? After +that has been answered in the affirmative, for it can be answered in no +other way, all there is left of this Spiritualistic structure is, how +account for such exhibitions as that given by Mrs. Winslow and those +given by others of her craft, even granting their personal purity, which +is undoubtedly exceptional? + +This is the question which has oftenest come into my mind in my +necessarily almost constant study of these people, and the answers, +though continually varying, have all eventually forced upon me the +conviction that this religion, as it is sacrilegiously called, only +takes hold of people of abnormal or diseased temperaments--people +diseased in mind, in morals, in body, or in all; and if that is true, as +I sincerely believe it to be, the dignifying of a disease or infirmity +as a religion is simply an absurdity too foolish for even ridicule. + +She sat rigid as a church-spire for a few moments, as if the sight of +so much money, even if only in purple letters upon a burnished sky, had +transfixed her, and then, after a little hysterical struggling, became +as limp as a camp-meeting tent after a thunder-storm; and after a few +passes of her long, white and deft fingers over her eyes in a scared +way, asked, "Oh, gentlemen, where--where am I?" + +"On the boundaries of the spirit-land," gravely replied Bristol, pushing +the bottle of liquor to the side of the table. + +The woman was certainly exhausted, for she had worked herself into such +a state mentally--precisely the same as in all similar demonstrations, +whether visions are claimed to be seen, or not--that she was completely +enervated physically, and said in a really grateful tone, "Thank you, +Mr. Bristol," and, pouring out a large portion of liquor, tossed it off +at one gulp, like a well-practised bar-room toper. + +"Yes, yes," she continued languidly, "I have a certain promise of +eventually being victorious. When the good spirits are with one, there's +no cause for fear." + +"Not the slightest," affirmed Fox sympathetically. + +"But it seems," replied Mrs. Winslow in a discouraged, desolate tone, +"as though everybody's hand is raised against me--as though the dreary +days pass so slowly--and that I haven't a true friend in the world!" + +"My dear Mrs. Winslow," interrupted Bristol in a calm, fatherly, even +affectionate tone, "that melancholy's all very fine; but we are your +friends, and we will stand by you through thick and thin to the end of +the suit. A few fast friends, you know, are better than a thousand +sunny-weather friends." + +"Oh, yes; oh, yes," returned the woman in a tone of voice that said, "I +can't argue this, but I somehow _know_ you are both betraying me," and +then, closing her eyes, and clasping her hands tightly together, sang in +a weird contralto voice, cracked and unsteady from her excitement and +exhaustion, some stanza of an evidently religious nature, the burden of +which was: + + "I am weary, weary waiting + While the shadows deeper fall; + I am weary, weary waiting + For some holy voice's call!" + +Undoubtedly the song, though desecrated by the singer, the place, and +the occasion, was a wailing plaint from the depths of the woman's soul, +for moments of utter desolation and absolute remorse come to even such +as she. + +"Now," said Bristol, becoming suddenly interested, "I'm something of a +poet myself. When the seat of government was moved from Quebec to +Ottawa, I constructed a lampoon on the government that set all Canada +awhirl. Really, Mrs. Winslow, I'm surprised at your poetical nature." + +"Poetical nature?" repeated the woman excitedly. "Why! that is what Lyon +loved in me most. My trance-sittings are wonderful exhibitions of +poetical power. In that state I can compose poems of great length and +power." + +The gentlemen of course seemed incredulous at this statement, and +challenged her to a test of her poetical trance-power, which she +instantly accepted, the wager being a quart of the best brandy that +could be had in the city of Rochester. + +Putting herself in position, she asked: "What subject?" Bristol replied, +"Lyon," when she struggled a little in her chair, kicked the floor a +little with her heels, rubbed up her eyes, gasped, and after a moment of +rest began to incant in a kind of monotone tenor: + + "Oh, Lyon, Lyon! don't you run; + The suit's begun; we'll have our fun + Before we're done. I'll tell your son + That I have won, although you shun + Your darling one!" + + "Oh, Lyon, pray, why speed away? + To fight a woman is but play. + Although you're old, and bald, and gray, + Do right by your Amanda J.-- + You'll soon be clay!" + +Amanda J. Winslow, for this was the woman's assumed name in full, might +have continued in this divine strain for an indefinite period, had not +the operatives burst into loud and prolonged laughter at her ludicrous +appearance, which so disgusted the woman that, though communicating with +celestial spheres, as she assumed to be, and undoubtedly was doing as +much as any of her craft ever did, she jumped up with a bound, savagely +told the men they were a brace of fools, and with a lively remark or +two, which had something very like an oath in it, went to bed, leaving +the men to finish the bottle and the poetry as they saw fit. + +Mrs. Winslow was a thorough church-goer, and distributed the favor of +her attendance among the orthodox churches and the "meetings" of the +members of her own faith, quite fairly--perhaps, as was natural, giving +the Washington Hall Sunday evening Spiritualistic lectures a slight +preference; and soon after the Arcade affair, which had launched her +into poetry, she returned to the rooms one Sunday evening, declaring +that all her evil spirits had left her, and that her former passionate +love for Lyon had also departed, her only desire now being for his +money. + +To show how thoroughly she had been dispossessed of her evil spirits, +she remarked that she now thoroughly hated Lyon, but it would not do to +let this appear on trial, or she would lose the sympathy of the jury. +Every effort should now be bent towards compelling him to divide his +wealth with her, whom he had so deeply wronged. There should be no +compromise; she would not even be led to the altar by him now. She would +have from him what would most annoy him, and that was his money. + +Having resolved on this, the darkness that surrounded her was dispelled +and the spirits of light rallied as a sort of standing army; and in this +beneficent condition she wished to either go into the country to +recuperate for a few weeks, or seek the retirement of Fox's room and +there expend her superfluous brain and spirit power upon a play to be +entitled "His Breach of Promise." To this end she proposed removing the +elegant furnishings of her apartments and storing them in a spare room, +giving out to callers that she was absent from the city, and then, after +having secured Fox's room, she would be able to burn the midnight oil +unmolested so long as her inspiration might continue. + +She also favored Fox and Bristol with a sketch of the play, which was to +be a sort of spectacular comedy-drama, which, according to the lady's +description, would contain certainly seven acts of five scenes each, and +would be preceded by a prologue which would play at least an hour; in +fact, it seemed that the great play "His Breach of Promise" was to be +constructed on the Chinese plan, to be continued indefinitely, and +admission only to be secured in the form of course tickets. Outside of +these great aids to the popularity of the play, it was to have the +additional startling and novel attractions of representations of her +first meeting with Lyon, his regret because she was married, his copious +tears whenever in her presence, his securing her divorce, the death of +Lyon's wife, and every manner of pathetic and ludicrous incident +connected with the case; how they each wooed and won the other, +including a grand transformation scene typical of Lyon's subsequent +treachery, and her reward of virtue in a fifty thousand dollar verdict +for damages. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + Mr. Pinkerton decides to favor Mrs. Winslow with a Series of + Annoyances.-- The mysterious Package.-- The Detectives + labor under well-merited Suspicion.-- "My God! what's + that?"-- The deadly Phial.-- This Time a Mysterious Box.-- + Its suggestive Contents.-- "The Thing she was."-- Tabitha, + Amanda, and Hannah assaulted.-- A Punch and Judy Show. + + +The reports which I had for some time received daily regarding Mrs. +Winslow's behavior satisfied me that the delay in reaching the +Winslow-Lyon case--which was at the bottom of the docket of the fall +term, and on account of a press of court business had been put over to +the winter term--the strict silence I had enjoined upon Mr. Lyon, and +the general suspicion which possessed her of everybody and everything, +were all having the natural effect of unsettling her completely, and I +determined upon a series of surprises and annoyances to the woman, +without in any way apprising Bristol and Fox of what was to be done; so +that although they might imagine from what source the unwelcome +"materializations" came, they would still be sufficiently uninformed to +share in the general surprise and escape the charge of complicity. + +I accordingly sent three additional men to Rochester with thorough +instructions and full information as to the madam's residence and +habits, with a description of her tenants, including Bristol and Fox, +who were unknown to the operatives sent. + +My object in doing this was a double one. I desired, first, to test the +woman's so-called spirit power; for, should these annoyances prove of +the nature of a persecution, she and her friends, the Spiritualists, +would be able to call celestial spirits to her aid, or, better still, +divine from whence the persecution came, and compel its discontinuance +by the means provided by ordinary mortals. In case she could not do +this, which was of course rather doubtful, I knew from her +superstitiousness and the guilty fear possessed by every criminal, which +she largely shared, that she would be quite likely to either make some +confessions which would implicate her in further blackmailing +operations, or force her into a line of conduct agreeing perfectly with +her true character, and which would compel her to show herself +thoroughly to the public; and further, I think I must confess to a +slight desire to assist a little in punishing her, after I had become so +fully aware of her villainous character. + +Accordingly, while Mrs. Winslow was still deep in the plot of her great +drama, but before the changes suggested--which would have made her a +sort of literary nun in Fox's room--had occurred, she was the recipient +of a large package of railway time-tables, with the farthest terminus of +each road underscored, and further called attention to by a hand and +index finger pointing towards it from Rochester, intimating that it was +either desired or demanded, on the part of somebody, that she should +leave Rochester for one of the points indicated. + +When Bristol and Fox returned "home," as they had come to call their +lodgings, that evening, Mrs. Winslow was at her escritoire, completely +immersed in time-tables and manuscript, and had all the air of an +important author struggling for fitting expressions with which to clothe +some suddenly inspired, though sublime idea. + +She looked at them closely a moment, as if she would read their very +thoughts. Whether seeing anything suspicious or not, she remarked very +pointedly: + +"Good deal of railroad rivalry nowadays, isn't there?" + +"Yes, considerable," replied Bristol pleasantly, and then asking, "Are +you going to introduce some rival railroads in your new play, Mrs. +Winslow?" + +"Not much!" she answered tersely. + +"I wouldn't," replied Bristol, taking a seat near the chandelier and +pulling a paper from his pocket; "they're dangerous." + +Mrs. Winslow paid no attention to this, but suddenly eyed Fox, and +sharply asked: + +"They like very much to sell through tickets, don't they?" + +"I believe they do--ought to pay better," he promptly rejoined, eyeing +her in return. + +"Well," said she, after a slight pause, and as if with something of a +sigh, "it's all right, perhaps; but if either of you should meet any +railroad agent who seems to be laboring under the delusion that I want +to found a colony in some far country, just tell him to expend his +energies in some other direction!" + +Of course my operatives were surprised, and demanded an explanation; but +the recipient of the circulars was quite dignified, and would only clear +the matter up by occasional little passionate bursts of confidence, as +if finding fault with them for not being able to unravel the mystery to +her. They protested they knew nothing about the matter, and she +undoubtedly believed them; but she ventured to inform them that if +anybody--mind you, anybody--supposed they could scare her away from +Rochester by any such hint as that, they were mightily mistaken, that's +all there was about _that_. + +My detectives allayed her fears as much as possible, but it was plainly +observable that she was really annoyed by the occurrence. There is +always a hundred times more terror in the fear of unknown evil than in +that which we can boldly meet, and this particularly applies to those +who know they _deserve_ punishment, as in Mrs. Winslow's case. + +The next evening they were all sitting discussing general topics and a +pint of peach brandy, and had become exceedingly sociable, particularly +over the railroad circulars, which Fox and Bristol had by this time +induced her to regard in the light of a huge joke, or error, when the +party were suddenly startled by some object which caused a peculiar +ringing, yet deadened sound, as it struck the partly-opened door and +then bounded upon the carpet where it glisteningly rolled out of sight +under the sofa where the thoroughly-scared Mrs. Winslow sat. + +"My God! what's that?" she screamed, rushing to the door and peering +down the staircase, as rapidly retreating footsteps were distinctly +heard; but not being able to discover anybody, scrambled back into the +room, shutting and bolting the door behind her. + +The woman was deathly pale, the color brought to her face by the brandy +having been driven from it as if by some terrible blow; but it came back +with her into the room, where Bristol and Fox _appeared_ nearly as +frightened as she. + +She looked at them a moment in a dazed, stupefied way, and then +demanded: "What does this mean?" + +"That's what I'd like to know!" returned Bristol, hunting for his +quizzers, which he had lost in his jump from his chair. "This is all +very fine, but it's pretty plain somebody here's sent for!" + +"And _I_ don't want to go!" chimed in Fox, climbing down from a safe +position upon the _escritoire_. + +The three looked at each other in an extremely suspicious way, and the +woman again demanded, this time threateningly, what it all meant. + +[Illustration: _The three looked at each other in an extremely +suspicious way.--_] + +"Something with a glitter, and it rolled under there," was all Bristol +could tell her about it. + +"Let's get it, whatever it is!" said Fox, with an apparent burst of +bravery and spirit. + +So Bristol at one end and Fox at the other end of the sofa, rolled it +out with a great show of caution, while Mrs. Winslow, though +preserving a good position for observation, kept nimbly out of the way. + +"What can it be?" she persisted excitedly. + +"A vial sealed with red wax, with a string attached, and containing some +clear liquid," said Fox, stooping to pick it up. + +"Don't--don't, Fox!" shouted Bristol, pushing him back impetuously; "the +devilish thing may burst and kill us all--nitro-glycerine, you know!" + +Mrs. Winslow shuddered, drew her elegant wrappings about her fair +shoulders, as if the thought chilled her like the sudden opening of some +cold vault, and looked appealingly at the two men. + +"Or might contain some deadly poison," said Fox, in a warning tone. + +"And the fiend who threw it in here expected the bottle to break and the +poison to murder us!" said Mrs. Winslow indignantly. + +"Things have come to a pretty pass when attempts like this are made on +people's lives!" said Bristol, adjusting his spectacles and edging +towards the mysterious missile. + +"I shall move at once," stoutly affirmed Mrs. Winslow. + +"Don't do any such thing," said Fox earnestly. "That will only show +whoever may be committing these indignities that we are alarmed by +them." + +"We?--_we?_" repeated the adventuress, with a peculiar accent upon the +word "we." "It isn't you men that is meant. It's _me_. This is some of +that Lyon's doings. Oh, I could cut his heart out!" + +The detectives saw that she was getting greatly excited, and Bristol, +with a view of quieting her as much as possible for the night, picked up +the vial by a string tied to it and hung it upon a nail, remarking that +he was something of a chemist himself and didn't believe it was +explosive, and also expressed a conviction that Mrs. Winslow should have +it analyzed. + +To this she acceded, and expressed a determination to "get even" with +the author of these outrages, in which laudable resolve the detectives +promised to assist her; but the peach brandy seemed the only relief +possible to Mrs. Winslow for the remainder of the evening, which was +chiefly passed in wild speculations and theories concerning the new +"manifestations," which she began to fear might be the result of jealous +clairvoyants and vindictive spiritualists, who had endeavored to +blackmail both herself and Mr. Lyon, and, failing in this, were now +persecuting her. + +The next day Mrs. Winslow went out quietly and secured the services of a +chemist under the Osborne House, who pronounced the contents nothing but +water, which proved a great relief to the agitated trio, but did not +remove from Mrs. Winslow's mind the anxiety and unrest that these +undesired and unlooked-for materializations were causing. + +About noon, after Fox and Bristol had come in from a little stroll and +they were all laughing over the scare of the previous evening, a step +was heard on the stairs, and soon after a little man with a big box on +his shoulder, and a slouched hat on his head which hid his face pretty +thoroughly, came to the head of the stairs, knocked at the door, and +without waiting for an invitation to come in, entered, and depositing +the box with the remark, "For Mrs. Winslow, from the Misses Grim," +spryly sprang back, shut the door, and clattered away down the stairs +and into the street before Mrs. Winslow could get a second look at him, +though she sprang after him, shouting, "Here! here! come back here or +I'll have you arrested!" But he only clattered away the livelier, and +she returned to the room raging and vowing that the box contained some +infernal machine for the purpose of distributing minute portions of her +anatomy all over the city of Rochester. + +This became more likely when Mrs. Winslow recollected that the Misses +Grim--Tabitha, Amanda, and Hannah--were the three old maids from whom +she had thought she had secured a wealthy old banker to pluck; and +though he had proven to her a very ordinary man, somewhat infirm from +rheumatism, and a trifle quarrelsome, though eminently virtuous and +punctilious, she had never, of course, let them know how badly she had +been swindled; and as they yet regarded their lost boarder, Bristol, as +a priceless treasure, lost to them through her perfidy, it was no more +than natural, Mrs. Winslow thought, that in their chagrin and +disappointment they should concoct some diabolical plan to injure her. + +But still it might not be from them. She had other enemies, many of +them, and the Misses Grim's name might have been given to cover up some +other person's misdeeds. But whatever it might be, her curiosity soon +overcame her fear, and she requested Fox to open it. + +After securing a hammer from his room, the latter proceeded to open the +mysterious box; but after the cover had been partially drawn and it was +evident that the box had not been delivered for the purpose of +exterminating anybody, it occurred to its fair owner that there might be +something within it not desirable for her to let the gentlemen see, +whereupon she requested them to retire; but after Bristol had +grumblingly disappeared, and Fox had got to the door, she recalled the +latter and asked him anxiously if he would not open it for her. He +gallantly agreed to, and got down on his knees upon the carpet and began +taking off the cover. + +"I do wonder what it can be!" said Mrs. Winslow anxiously. + +"I can't find anything but bran," returned Fox, digging about the box +carefully. + +"Bran!" she exclaimed incredulously; "that box is too heavy for bran." + +Fox dug away for a little while longer and finally shouted, "I've got +something!" + +"And what is that something?" + +The question was answered by the thing itself, which now appeared from +the bottom of the box, vigorously lifted by Fox's hand and plumped +through the bran upon the carpet. + +"Well, what is it?" she demanded. + +"Vegetable," said Fox tersely. + +"Oh, pshaw! is _that_ all?" asked the disgusted woman. + +"Yes, that's all," he replied, after digging about in the bran for a +moment. Mrs. Winslow also satisfied herself that it was all by searching +in the bran, and the two then proceeded to investigate the vegetable. + +"It's a turnip, and somebody's been digging in it," said Mrs. Winslow. + +"I think you are mistaken," mildly interposed Fox. "It's something else +entirely." + +"What's this!" exclaimed the woman; "sure as I live, a cross-bones and +skull on one side, and on the other side, 'D-e-a-d'--dead!" + +"It isn't dead turnip!" interrupted Fox. + +"Dead beet?" she asked musingly, a sudden crimson flooding into her +face. + +"Shouldn't wonder," he answered. + +Biting her lips she glided to a window. It was a cold autumn day, and +the panes rattled drearily as she seemed to shrink and hide between them +and the heavy curtains, while the color came and went hotly in her face. +It hurt her, wounded her, showed her to be the thing she was in a way +that could never have been effected by ten thousand innuendoes or direct +charges; and she pressed her face against the cold panes as if to force +and drive away the hideous picture that a momentarily honest glimpse of +herself had revealed to her, and continued standing thus, buried in the +memories which build remorse, until, noticing the thing in her hand +which had caused this humiliation, she flung it violently across the +room, and rushing into her sleeping-room, hastily prepared for going +out, then dashing through the reception-room, she passed into the hall, +and meeting Bristol, said: + +"Bristol, I want you to come with me!" + +Bristol immediately complied, but was given a lively chase, for Mrs. +Winslow was strong of limb, fleet of foot, and, on this occasion, was +impelled by a burst of spirit which, if rightly directed, would have led +a conquering army. + +She started directly for Main Street, and turned up that thoroughfare at +a pace which attracted considerable attention. After rapidly walking two +blocks she swept across the street, and after having waited for Bristol +to come up with her, plunged into the little restaurant under Washington +Hall, with my operative close at her heels. + +The sudden entrance of the couple caused a great commotion in the quaint +little eating-room, and the drowsy customers smiled when they saw the +unaccustomed form of the woman whom the Misses Grim--Tabitha, Amanda and +Hannah--had taken no trouble to prevent being known as her deadly enemy. + +Tabitha, the most ancient, at once bristled up and took a position +behind her neat counter, her wrinkled head trembling with so much +excitement that her sparse curls created a kind of quivering nimbus +about it. + +"Well, ma'am and what can _I_ do for _you_?" asked Tabitha with a flaunt +of her head and a sarcastic tinge in her voice. + +Mrs. Winslow got to the counter in two or three quick jumps or starts, +and asked, husky with rage, "I--I just want to know which one of you old +straws sent that box to me?" + +"Box to _you_!" jerked out Amanda, the next less ancient of the Misses +Grim, who had just entered and at once stopped stock still to catch Mrs. +Winslow's remark; "box to you? Tush!--box to nobody!" and she too sidled +in behind the counter to reinforce, and tremble with, her very old +sister. + +"Oh, you can't play your innocence on me!" retorted Mrs. Winslow very +violently. "You wear very white collars, and very black caps and very +straight dresses, and look very saintly, but you're just three old +witches; that's what you are!" + +"Pooh, pooh!" snorted Tabitha and Amanda hysterically. + +"Pooh, pooh! if you like; but if I find out which one of you sent that +box, I'll--I'll shake every bone in her old body into a match!" shouted +Mrs. Winslow, dancing up and down against the counter and working her +fingers savagely. + +"Match?" responded Hannah, the least ancient and most fiery of the three +virgins, and who entered at this critical moment; "match indeed! you're +a match for anything villainous!" and then she too trotted behind the +counter to throw the weight of her presence into the conflict. + +By this time the interested customers had gathered around, and people +from the street, noticing the unwonted enthusiasm awakened in the +Washington Hall restaurant, were rapidly collecting upon the outside and +flattening their curious noses against the intervening panes. + +Mrs. Winslow could no more control herself than could the old maids, and +quickened by the presence of the increasing crowd, burst into a +screaming demand for the person who sent the "dead" beet to her. + +"Dead beat!--ha, ha, ha!" laughed the three sisters convulsively, at +once realizing the appropriateness of the joke and excitedly enjoying +it; "dead beat, eh? we didn't do it!" "But," added Hannah, maliciously, +"if you do find the person as did send it, Mrs. Winslow, and will send +'em around, we'll board 'em for a month free!" + +There was war, direful war, imminent; and no one could imagine what +might have resulted had the conflict of tongues culminated in a conflict +of hands. But to have seen the three ancient, prim, and trembling women +on the one side, and the ponderous, though handsome Mrs. Winslow on the +other--the old maids either with arms akimbo or with hands firmly +clenched upon the counter's edge as if to compel restraint, their bodies +weaving back and forth, their heads bobbing up and down, and their stray +frills and curls wildly dancing as if each particular hair was in a mad +ecstasy of its own; and Mrs. Winslow, upon her side of the counter, in a +perfect frenzy of excitement, stamping her feet, jumping backward and +forward, bringing her clenched hand down upon the counter with terrible +force for a woman, and shaking it furiously at the agitated row of old +maids, would be to have witnessed a marvellous improvement upon any +form of the Punch and Judy show ever exhibited. + +[Illustration: _"A marvelous improvement over any form of the Punch and +Judy show ever exhibited."--_] + +Bristol saw that unless they were separated he would become implicated +in a case of assault and battery, and after great effort pacified the +women sufficiently to enable him to pilot his landlady out of the +restaurant, through the streets and finally into her own apartments, +where she passed the remainder of the dreary day in weeping, storms of +baffled rage, or protracted applications to the spirits which can be +controlled, whether one is a spiritualist or not, so long as money lasts +and total prohibition is not enforced. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + Cast down.-- "Trifles."-- A charitable Offering.-- + Dreariness.-- Going Crazy.-- An interrupted Seance.-- A + new Form of the Devil.-- The Red-herring Expedition and + its Result.-- A mad Dutchman.-- Desolation.-- An order for + a Coffin.-- The sympathizing Undertaker, Mr. Boxem. + + +Mrs. Winslow now began to show great perturbation of spirits. In +conversation with my detectives, who endeavored to cheer her up and lead +her to regard these surprises as mere jokes not worth any person's +notice, she constantly argued the opposite, and thus arguing, conjured +up countless possibilities of harm, gradually working herself into that +condition of mind where every little unusual noise or movement of any +person in the building or upon the street was a signal for some +querulous inquiry or complaint. + +She was also very much worried concerning her suit, and went about among +the Spiritualists seeking their advice and encouragement, and giving and +receiving a good deal of scandal concerning the case. From one she would +hear that Lyon was employing certain other mediums in his behalf, and +that she had better look out for them. Another would inform her that +Lyon had several other mistresses, among them a Miss Susie Roberts, and +a Madame La Motte, both Spiritualists and mediums, from whom Lyon +intended to prove her bad character, and whom she, in turn, vowed she +would have subpœnaed in her own behalf, and impeach their testimony +through what she could compel them to admit of both themselves and Lyon. +At other places she learned that these persecutions were Lyon's work +entirely, or rather, the work of his agents, principal among whom were +the two ladies mentioned. And, in fact, wherever she went she heard or +found something to give her uneasiness or cause her unrest. + +"Yes," she said sadly to my operatives, "I can't stand this sort of +thing much longer." + +"Oh, nonsense!" rejoined Bristol; "you haven't been hurt, have you?" + +"No; but I can't tell when I shall be. That's what I can't bear." + +"But I thought you were a woman of too great force of character to allow +trifles to trouble you," exclaimed Fox tauntingly. + +"Trifles!" said she hotly; "trifles! Is expecting every moment to be +murdered, or blown up, a trifle? Is fearing that everything you taste +will poison you, or everything you touch do you deadly harm, a trifle?" + +"People will think you deserve to be annoyed if you show them you are +annoyed," argued Fox. + +"I have long since ceased to care what people think. Sometimes I am sure +I hate every human being; and I do believe the more the world hates me, +the more money I make. If these things are not stopped soon, I tell +you," she continued in a tone of voice that seemed to say they could +stay the annoyances if they would, "I'll go to St Louis and attend to my +cases there!" + +This opened the eyes of my operatives, and they simultaneously conveyed +the intimation to each other that careful working might secure some +information about any St. Louis cases the woman might have which would +be desirable; and in a short time, by gradually leading Mrs. Winslow on, +they discovered that the brazen adventuress, according to her own story, +had pending no less than seven cases in the Circuit Court at St. Louis, +every one of them being suits on some trivial, trumped-up charge. + +It seemed fated that Mrs. Winslow should leave Rochester, if her +remaining depended upon these mysterious offerings ceasing, for while +they were yet in conversation upon the subject, a colored porter called +with a great basket-load of provisions, and without a word, after +spreading a newspaper upon the carpet, began unloading his store. + +"In heaven's name, who sent you here with those?" she entreated of the +colored gentleman. + +"It's all right; it's all right," he said soothingly, and winking hard +at my operatives. + +"But it isn't all right; it's all wrong!" she retorted, warming. + +"Guess not, missus; lemme see: Quart split peas, quart beans, one +punking, jug m'lasses, 'n a mackerel. Done got 'em all, sure!" + +"Where did they come from, you black imp?" the woman demanded, +advancing threateningly. + +He grabbed his basket quickly, and, slowly retreating towards the door, +winked again very knowingly at Bristol and Fox, tapped his forehead and +shook his head deploringly, and then nodded towards Mrs. Winslow, very +plainly saying in pantomime, "Poor thing!--badly demented!" and, as Mrs. +Winslow, in the excess of her anger, made a dive at him, he sprang back +through the door, ejaculating, "Lo'd, _ain't_ she crazy, though!" and +made good his escape, laughing with that expression of complete +enjoyment which only an Ethiopian can give. + +Mrs. Winslow was now thoroughly convinced that the two men who had been +her constant companions of late had had something to do with annoying +her, and she cunningly followed the negro to the store where he was +employed, where she at once sharply questioned the proprietor, who told +her just as sharply that only a few minutes before, a ministerial-looking +man, claiming to be city missionary for some church up-town, called and +purchased the goods, remarking that they were for some crazy woman +living in the block next to Meech's opera-house, whom he had just +visited, and found to be possessed of the peculiar mania that she would +receive no provisions save in full dress in the presence of her +physicians, and that it was his desire to so humor her. So he had +entrusted the errand to the colored man, who had carried out the +instructions given him; and that that was all there was about it. + +When she returned crestfallen to the apartments, and Bristol and Fox +had heard her story, they so derided it, claiming that the groceryman +had fallen in love with her and invented the story upon the spur of the +moment, fearing to disclose his languishing affection, she now believed +that they were innocent of complicity in the matter and seemed to lapse +into a bewildered sort of condition, where she would wander about the +rooms, suspiciously pass and repass my operatives and searchingly +scrutinize their faces, and for long periods stand at the dreary window +peering into the street as if into a dead blank, never noticing the +scurrying snow-flakes which were coming as a silent prelude to another +winter, and only occasionally breaking the silence by murmuring, "Crazy? +crazy? Yes, I _shall_ become so if these terrible things are not +stopped!" + +But Mrs. Winslow had seen too much of life and was too hard a citizen +generally to be terribly borne down by these manifestations for any +great length of time, though they completely overpowered her at their +occurrence, and she was allowed to become quite cheery before being +favored with another materialization, which came in the following +manner. + +They were having a pleasant little seance in the rooms one evening soon +after the colored grocery porter had accused Mrs. Winslow of being +crazy, and the several ladies and gentlemen collected there were engaged +in communing with the Spiritualistic heaven in the old and very common +table-rapping method. They were, as a rule, lank, lean people, the +ladies wearing short hair, and the gentlemen wearing long hair. This, +with a few other affectations and irregularities, was nothing against +them, had it not been equally as true that, according to my operatives' +subsequent inquiries, every member of this company was either living in +open adultery or practising all manner of lewdness without even the +convenient cloak of an assumption or pretension that the marriage +relations existed. But, good or bad as they were, they were at the +threshold of heaven, and had very appropriately darkened the room to get +as near to it as possible without being seen, and only the faintest +possible jet flickered in the chandelier. They had all, save Mrs. +Winslow, been served with a message, and she was now the inquirer, +solemnly asking of another medium some information from the dear +departed from over the river. + +"Shall I soon receive word from an absent friend?"--(evidently meaning +Le Compte, who had disappeared a month or two previous). Three +affirmative raps followed. + +"Shall I succeed in my case against Lyon?" The spirits were certain that +she would. + +"Shall I be rewarded for all my trouble?" she asked, waiting tremblingly +for an answer. + +To this inquiry three thundering raps were heard at the door. + +What could it mean? + +The members of the little circle were completely unnerved. And it was +not strange either. Here were nearly a dozen people closely huddled in +the centre of a room so dark that only the dim, indistinct outline of +any person, or thing, could be seen in the ghostly gloaming. They +believed, pretended they believed, or acquiesced in the belief or +pretension, that they were in direct communication with the spirit-land. + +In the most ridiculous condition of mind which any person might enter +into such a performance, the secrecy and mysteriousness of the seance, +the hushed silence, the darkness, and that tension of the mind caused by +a constant expectation of some startling manifestation, will compel in +the most sceptical mind a strange feeling of solemnity akin to awe; so +that when Mrs. Winslow's last inquiry was answered so pat, as well as +with such an alarming loudness, the entire company sprang to their feet, +and on this occasion there was genuine surprise in the faces of my +detectives. + +Bang, bang, bang! came the second series of raps, which promised Mrs. +Winslow she should be "rewarded for all her trouble." + +But the answer, in the way it came, didn't seem to satisfy her. Somebody +stepped to the chandelier and turned on the light, which showed all the +company to have been considerably startled; but the hostess was white +from fear. + +"Won't _somebody_ see what new form of the devil has been sent here to +annoy me?" she asked passionately. + +Fox, as "somebody," stepped briskly to the door and turned the key just +as the first "Bang!" of another series of raps was begun, and opening +it quickly discovered a dapper young fellow with a big black bottle held +by the neck in his hand, which was raised for the purpose of giving the +door bang number two. + +In response to Fox's loud and sharp inquiry as to what on earth was +wanted, he reversed the position of the bottle with the dexterity of a +bar-tender, took from the floor a huger basket than that brought by the +colored porter, and slipping into the room, nodded familiarly to Mrs. +Winslow, and then coolly to the company, after which he quietly +proceeded to unload his store. + +"Great heavens!" said she despairingly, "I _don't_ want those things +left here. I have no need for anything of the kind. I take my meals at +the Osborne House!" + +"Gettin' 'toney' lately!" responded the intruder with a shrug, piling +the packages up neatly in one corner and taking no heed of her expressed +wish concerning them. + +There was no response to this, and he resumed in a light and airy tone: +"Times has changed, Mrs. ----; eh? What _was_ it at Memphis and Helena, +anyhow?" + +This reference to the less aristocratic, though quite as respectable, +vocation of a female camp-follower, though it caused the woman to change +color rapidly, only brought from her the remark, "I don't know what you +mean, sir! I'll get even with whoever is responsible for this +outrage"--here she glared around upon the company as if to ascertain +whether any one present was guilty--"if it costs me a thousand dollars!" + +The new-comer only smiled sarcastically at this and checked off his +packages, concluding the operation by carefully counting two dozen red +herrings, whose aroma was sufficient to announce their presence if he +had not exhibited them at all; while members of the company looked about +them and at each other as if for some explanation of the strange +proceeding. + +Finally, Mrs. Winslow, with a mighty effort to restrain herself, +advanced and asked the young man if he would not please give her the +name of the person to whom she was indebted for the articles. + +He arose, and smiling blandly, remarked, "You didn't used to be so +particular about presents and such things!" Then he added with a meaning +leer: "At Helena and St. Louis, ye know, old girl!" + +"Old girl!" the ladies all screamed. "Why what _does_ this mean, Mrs. +Winslow?" + +"Nothing, nothing!" she replied hastily; and then she hurried the too +talkative young fellow away, and came back into the room with a show of +gayety. But it broke up the little party, and soon after the ladies, +with frigid excuses about not having very much time, and the gentlemen, +with peculiar glances out of the corners of their eyes towards the woman +who had been so familiarly termed an "old girl," took their departure, +leaving Bristol, Fox, Mrs. Winslow and the melancholy pile of packages +surmounted by aromatic red herrings in a state of solemn, moody silence. + +Bristol was first to break the stillness, which he did by asking rather +testily: + +"You think Fox and I have had something to do with this, don't you?" + +She looked at him a moment as if she would read his innermost thoughts, +and replied: "No, I don't! It comes from some of those strumpets of +mediums, and I would give a good deal--a good deal, mind you, +Bristol!--to know who it was. I'd--I'd----" + +"What would you do?" asked Fox, putting her on her mettle for a savage +answer. + +"I would either burn them out, poison them, push them over the falls, or +lie in wait for them and shoot them!" + +Mrs. Winslow said this with as much sincerity and coolness as if giving +an estimate on any ordinary business transaction, and evidently meant +it. + +"Oh, you wouldn't kill anybody, Winslow," replied Fox airily. + +"Wouldn't I, though, Mr. Fox?" she rejoined with the old glitter in her +eyes and paleness upon her upper lip that had at an earlier period +worried the Rev. Mr. Bland; "wouldn't I? If you had fifty thousand +dollars in your trunk, I would kill you, appropriate the money, cut you +up and pack you in the trunk and ship you to the South--or some other +hot climate by the next express!" + +She was just as earnest about the remark as she would have been in +carrying out the act; and after Fox had congratulated himself, both +aloud cheerfully and in his own mind very thankfully, that neither his +trunk, or for that matter his imagination, contained any such gorgeous +sum, he went to his own room for the night, leaving the very excited +Mrs. Winslow and the very calm Mr. Bristol to contemplate the groceries +and each other. + +After a few minutes' brown study she suddenly turned to her companion +with: "Bristol, you and I are pretty good friends, aren't we?" + +"Certainly," he replied. + +"And haven't I always treated you pretty well?" + +"Yes; with one exception." + +"What is that?" + +"The sleep-walking you did in my room." + +"Oh, that's nothing, Bristol. Never happened but once, and won't occur +again. Otherwise I have treated you pretty well, haven't I?" + +Bristol felt compelled to confess that she had. + +"Well, then," she continued wheedlingly, "will you do me a favor?" + +"What is it?" + +"I want you to take a walk with me." + +"Pretty late, Winslow, pretty late; nearly ten o'clock," replied the +detective, looking at his watch. + +"The later the better," she replied earnestly. "I want to use those +herrings." + +"Use those herrings! Why, there are at least two dozen. How on earth +will you use them all?" + +"Some of these humbug mediums," replied Mrs. Winslow in a style of +expression that showed her to be very familiar with the Spiritualists, +"or old Lyon himself, have sent me these things. I'm going to adorn the +door knob of every one of their places with a string of herrings. In +that way I'll hit the right one sure. Come, won't you go?" + +Bristol saw that the woman would go anyhow, and fearing that she might +get into some trouble that would cause her arrest and thus expose him +and Bristol to public notice, which a capable detective will always +avoid, consented to accompany the woman, which so pleased her that she +immediately sent out for brandy, and not only imbibed an inordinate +amount of it herself, but also pressed it upon Bristol unsparingly. + +Her mind seemed filled with the idea that Lyon had become the "affinity" +of nearly every female medium of prominence in the city in order to +further his designs against her; and to remind them that they were +watched, she had Bristol write "Lyon-La Motte," "Lyon-Roberts," "Lyon- +----," etc., upon about a half-dozen couples of herrings, and upon all +the rest, save those intended for the Misses Grim, which were labelled +"Tabitha, Amanda, and Hannah," she had written the names of the +different ladies who, in her imagination, had supplanted her, and tied +all the herrings so labelled together with one very dilapidated herring +marked "Lyon." It is needless to say that the latter bundle of sarcasm +was intended for the ornamentation of Mr. Lyon's residence. + +Bristol felt like a very bad thief, and Mrs. Winslow acted like a very +foolish one. The moment they gained the street she began a series of +absurd performances that well-nigh distracted Bristol and greatly +increased the danger of police surveillance. She laughed hysterically, +chuckled, and expressed her delight in a noisy effort to repress it, +until the tears would roll down her face. Occasionally they would meet +or pass parties who knew her, who would say to companions, in the tone +and manner with which they would have probably spoken of other +sensations, "There's the Winslow!" when she would shrink and shudder up +to Bristol's side, begging for the shelter and protection of his +capacious cloak. Again, imagining she saw somebody following them, or +was sure that loungers lingering in deserted doorways or at the entrance +to dark hallways or alleys were detectives on their trail, she would +give the patient Bristol such nudges as nearly took his breath away, +and, at his lively protest, would whimper and tremble like a querulous +child. + +Their first work was to be done on State Street, near Main, and when +they had arrived at a certain hallway, Mrs. Winslow insisted that +Bristol should accompany her to the rooms which she desired to decorate. +This he flatly refused to do, when she began moaning something about +want of spirit, and then, with a sudden gathering of the admirable +quality for her own use, stole quietly up stairs and in a moment after +came plunging down, as if the inmates of the entire block had turned out +to give her chase. But this was not the case, and the expedition +progressed without any developments of note, Mrs. La Motte, Miss Susie +Roberts, and the Misses Grim being properly remembered, until they +arrived at Mr. Lyon's residence, some little distance from the thickly +settled portions of the city. + +The house was one of the rambling, moss-covered buildings of ancient +style and structure, and was set back from the road some distance among +a score of trees quite as grand and ancient as the mansion itself; and +the old pile did have a gloomy appearance to the adventurous couple that +paused breathlessly before the gates. + +"Bristol," said Mrs. Winslow shiveringly, "do you know that sometimes, +when I see that great black pile up there, I'm glad he didn't marry me?" + +"Why?" her companion impatiently asked. He was getting cold and tired, +and was in no condition to appreciate maudlin melancholy. + +"Because I'm sure I'd die in the old rack-o'-bones of a place; and +besides that, I'm sure there are spooks there!" + +"Pooh, pooh!" sneered Bristol angrily; "go along and attend to your +business, or I'll go back and leave you!" + +Thus admonished, the sentimental lady proceeded with her work. + +For some reason the gate was very hard to open, and considerable time +was consumed in getting into the grounds. Then it was a long walk to the +house. Bristol anxiously watched the woman move slowly along the broad +walk until she disappeared in the shadows which surrounded the house and +the darkness of the night; and it seemed an age to him, as he stamped +his feet as hard as he dare upon the stone pavement and whipped his +hands about his shoulders to drive away the chilliness which he found +creeping on. + +He heard her footsteps first, then saw her emerge from the gloom, and +finally saw her stop as if to listen. He also listened very intently, +and thought he heard somebody moving about the house; and was +immediately satisfied of the correctness of his hearing by noticing that +Mrs. Winslow suddenly turned towards the road and made remarkably good +time to the gate, which, feeling sure of trouble, he made strenuous +efforts to open. + +"For heaven's sake, Bristol," she gasped, "why _don't_ you open this +gate. I'll be eaten up with the dogs, and we'll both be caught!" + +The last clause of Mrs. Winslow's remark roused Bristol to a vigorous +exercise of his muscle. He tugged away at the gate, shook it, threw +himself against it from one side, and his companion threw herself +against it from the other side; but all in vain. Not a moment was to be +lost. Lights were seen flashing to and fro in the great mansion, angry +voices came to them, with the by nowise cheering short, gruff, savage +responses of loosened bulldogs, and in a moment more the front door was +passed by two men and as many dogs that came dashing out in full +pursuit. + +Matters at the gate were approaching a crisis. The gate could not be +opened, and Mrs. Winslow must pass it or get captured. + +"Climb or die!" urged Bristol, reaching through the pickets of the +gate, which was a high one, and lifting on the portly form of the +excited woman. + +"I will, Bristol!" she returned, with a gasp. + +And she did climb! + +[Illustration: _"And she did climb!"--_] + +It was best that she did so, as a good deal of trouble was coming down +that brick walk like a small hurricane, and it would logically strike +her in a position and from a direction that would not enable her to +respond; and if either or both of those dogs had been able to have +grasped the situation, partially impaled as she was upon the pickets, +the fascinating Mrs. Winslow would have fallen an easy prey. + +She was very clumsy about it, but in her desperation she in some way +managed to scale the gate, leaving a good portion of her skirts and +dress flying signals of distress upon the pickets, and finally fell into +Bristol's arms. It was a moment when silk and fine raiment were as +bagatelle in the estimate of chances for escape, and it was but the work +of an instant for Bristol to tear her like a ship from her fastenings +and make a grand rush towards home. + +Those portions of Mrs. Winslow's garments which were left flaunting upon +the gate not only set the dogs wild, but served to detain them. The men +were also halted a minute by the natural curiosity they awakened, after +which they made a furious onslaught upon the gate, that only yielded +after sufficient time had elapsed to enable the culprits to get some +distance ahead, when the men and dogs started pell-mell down the street +after them. + +Bristol fortunately remembered that when they were nearing Lyon's +house, he had noticed that the door leading to an alley in the rear of a +pretentious residence had been blown open and was then swaying back and +forth in the wind. With the advantage in the chase given by the dog's +criticism upon Mrs. Winslow's wearing apparel and the men's hinderance +at the gate, they were able to seek shelter here, which they did with +the utmost alacrity, fastening the gate behind them, where they +tremblingly listened to the pursuers tearing by. + +Mrs. Winslow insisted on immediately rushing out and taking the other +direction, but Bristol, feeling sure that the party would go but a short +distance, held on to her until the two men returned with the dogs, +swearing at their luck, and telling each other wonderful tales of +burglaries that never took place, while Bristol thoughtfully put in the +time by making Mrs. Winslow's skirts as presentable as possible, by the +aid of the pins which every prudent man carries under the right-hand +collar of his coat, and hurriedly ascertaining from her that she had +unfortunately tied the herrings upon the door-bell instead of the +door-knob, thus involving pursuit. + +After everything had become quiet, and Bristol had made several +expeditions of observation to doubly assure himself of the coast being +clear, the couple stole cautiously out of the alley into the deserted +street, and after much precaution and many alarms, caused by the +creaking of signs, the sudden flaring of gas-lamps, and the fierce gusts +of wind dashing after and into them around the sharp corners of +buildings, they at last arrived at home past midnight; and, having +ordered it as they neared the block, for a half-hour longer they sipped +hot toddy by a rousing coal fire, recounting their exploits of the +night, and eventually retiring with something of the spirit of +conquerors upon them. + +Down came the snow and the wind next morning, two things which will +usually in early winter call a whole cityful out of bed, and set the +human tides in a rapid motion. Fox and Bristol had long before got into +the streets and had heartily enjoyed some newspaper items, one +recounting racily the outrage of labeled herrings being hung to the +door-knobs of the houses of many respectable citizens, and another, +under glaring head-lines, giving the minutest details of a desperate +attempt at burglary of Mr. Lyon's house, and a double-leaded editorial +which agonizedly asked in every variety of form, "Where are our police?" +But Mrs. Winslow, from her adventures and toddy of the previous night, +slept late and long, and when she did come creeping out into the +sleeping-room, half dressed and altogether unlovely in disposition and +appearance, she looked out upon the snow-flakes and the crowds of people +without any emotion save that of anger at being aroused. + +The only thing to be seen of anything like an unusual object was a very +large load of hay standing at the entrance of the building; but of +course this had no particular interest to a Spiritualist. She had had a +half-formed impression that she had heard knocking at the door, and she +turned from the window to ascertain whether that impression had been +correct. Throwing a shawl about her head and shoulders, she unlocked the +door and peered out cautiously. There was nobody there, and the wind +whistled up the stairs so drearily that she closed the door with a slam, +and after starting up the fire, which was slumbering on the hearth, she +crept into bed again. + +She had no more than got at the drowsy threshold of dreamland than she +was startled by a loud knocking, this time proceeding from something +besides an impression of the mind, each knock being accompanied by some +lively expression of German impatience. The demonstration was +intelligible, if the words were not, and Mrs. Winslow bounded out of her +bed and into the reception-room in no pleasant frame of mind. + +On protecting her form as much as her indelicate disposition +required--and that was not much--she flung the door open and savagely +asked: + +"What's wanted?" + +"Ef you keep a man skivering and frozing to died mit der vind und +schnow-vlakes, I guess mebby I charge more as ten dollars a don for +'em!" + +He was all smiles at first, but he resented her brusque manner as +swiftly and severely as he could with his broken brogue. He was an +honest, broad-shouldered, big-headed German farmer, and though wrapped +and wound from head to foot in woollens, the only thing that seemed warm +about him was his glowing pipe and his disturbed temper. He shook his +head at the woman, and again began a stammering recital of his wrongs, +when she cut him short with: + +"You're crazy!" + +"Grazy? Of I make a foolishness of a fellar like as you do--well, dot's +all right!" and he stood up very straight and puffed great clouds of +smoke past her into her elegant room. + +She had got a stolid customer on hand, and she saw it. So she asked him +civilly what he wanted at _her_ door. + +"Yust told me vere ish der parn, und I don't trouble you no more." + +"Whose barn?" + +"Vere der hay goes." + +"Hay? What hay? I don't know anything about any hay," she replied, +laughing at his perplexity. + +"I shtand here an hour already, und ven I got you up no satisfagtion +comes. Py Shupiter, dot goes like a schwindle!" + +He was very mad by this time, and walked back and forth in front of her +door, shaking his fists and gesticulating wildly; and to prevent a +scene, which might cause a collection of the inmates of the building, +she quieted him as much as possible, and ascertained that some obliging +person, more enthusiastic about the amount than the character of some +token of esteem, had taken the trouble to order a load of hay to be +delivered at her number, describing the place, room, and woman so +minutely that there could be no possibility of mistake, where the owner +was to collect all additional charges above two dollars, which had been +paid. + +It took Mrs. Winslow a long time to persuade the farmer that she owned +no barn, kept no animals, had no use for hay, and that there had been +some mistake, or that some person had deliberately played a joke upon +_him_, but finally, after a shivering argument of fully fifteen minutes, +and the expenditure of a dollar bill, with the seductive offer that she +would give him ten dollars if he would find and bring to her the man who +ordered the load, her obstinate visitor departed, roundly swearing in +good German that he would have the _Gottferdamter schwindler_ brought up +by der city gourts and hung, to which Mrs. Winslow groaned a hearty +approval as she shut the door of the--to her--desolate room. + +If there had previously been any doubts in her mind as to there being a +preconcerted plan to annoy and exasperate her beyond endurance, they +were now entirely removed, and the woman broke down completely, wringing +her hands in mute expression of bitter anguish. The storm without was +not half so violent as the storm within, and the blinding flakes which +swept from the bitter sky raged upon a no more barren, frozen, desolate +soil than her own selfish heart. + +There may be a kind of pity for such a woman; there should be pity for +every form of human suffering, or even depravity; but in my mind there +should be none to verge from pity into palliation and excuse for this +woman. Great as was her mental suffering, there was in it not a single +touch of remorse. Terribly as her mind was racked and tortured with +doubt, uncertainty, fear, and despair, there was in it no trace of the +womanhood which, however low it may descend, is still capable of regret. +She was not heart-sick for the life she was leading, but dreaded the +punishment she knew it deserved. Her nature had never shrunk from the +countless miseries she had entailed on others, and her heart never +misgave her only in the absence of her kind of happiness or in the +superstitious fear of the evils which she felt assured were constantly +her due. She was, as far as I ever knew, or can conceive, a soulless +woman whose troubles only produced vindictiveness, whose utter aim in +life was social piracy, whose injuries only begat hate, and whose +sufferings only concentrated her exhaustless hunger and thirst for +revenge. + +After the first burst of rage and passion, she settled down into a +condition of deep study and planning, and about the middle of the +afternoon began passing in and out and visiting various places, in a way +which, though it might not particularly attract attention, yet betokened +some business project being resolutely and quietly carried out. + +During one of the periods when she was within her apartments, quite a +commotion was raised in the lower story, the stores of which were +occupied by a tobacconist and milliner, by a call from a prominent +undertaker of Main Street, who with a mysterious air exhibited the +following note, at the same time asking whispered conundrums about it. + + "MR. BOXEM: + + "DEAR SIR--Please quietly deliver a full-sized coffin at No. + -- South St. Paul Street, at the first room to the right of + the stairway as it reaches the third floor. Enclosed please + find five dollars, in part payment. Will make it an object to + you to ask no questions below, and deliver the coffin as soon + after dark as possible. + + (Signed) "MRS. A. J. W----." + +Mr. Boxem was by no means a solemn man; but he had a heavy bass voice, +which he used to such great effect in asking questions below stairs, +that he succeeded in creating a fine horror there, so that by the time +he had proceeded to Mrs. Winslow's rooms, it was settled in the minds of +the tobacconist and the milliner, their employees, and any customers of +either who had happened in during Mr. Boxem's preliminary investigation, +that each and every one's previous solemn prediction as to "_something_ +being wrong upstairs" had now come true, as they each and every one +reminded the other that "Oh, I told you so!" + +Mr. Boxem, finding Mrs. Winslow's door ajar, quietly stepped in and +reverently removed his sombre crape hat. + +"Evening, ma'am," he said politely, but with a professional shade of +sympathy in the greeting. + +"And what do _you_ want?" she asked in a kind of desperation, noticing +an open letter in his hand. + +"Your order, you know," he replied tenderly; "these things are sad and +have to be borne. Can't possibly be helped, more 'n one can help coming +into the world." + +Mrs. Winslow could not reply from rage and anger, and hiding her face in +her hands, walked to the window. + +"No, it's the _way_ of the world," continued Boxem, with a sigh; +"ah--hem!--might I ask if _it_ is in there?" he concluded, producing a +tape-line case. + +"It?--in God's name, what _it_!" sobbed the woman. + +"Why--the--the"--stammered her visitor somewhat abashed, "the body--the +corpse, you know! Have come to measure it. Painful, I know; but business +is business, if it's only coffin business; and I can't possibly do a +neat job without I get a good measure. Something like the tailoring +trade, you see!" + +"Body?--corpse?--come to measure it? Oh, I shall go wild, I shall go +wild," persisted the woman, half frantic at the intimation which came to +her that a corpse was not only in her place, but in the very room where +she slept, and that this fiend who was pursuing her--this Nemesis, who +struck her pride, her ambition, her desires, her very life, at every +move she made, had actually sent an undertaker there to measure the dead +body. + +It is hard to tell what would have happened if the good sense of the +undertaker had not come to the relief of the situation; and, hastily +answering her that there had probably been some mistake, that the order +was probably meant for the next block, and offering other similar +excuses while hastily apologizing for the intrusion, Mr. Boxem very +sensibly went back to his business and his coffins, five dollars ahead +until more promising inquiries should bring to light the friend of the +alleged dead, and the owner of the money, who, fortunately for Mr. +Boxem, has not appeared to this day. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + + Breaking up.-- Doubts and Queries.-- Suspected + Developments.-- The Detectives completely outwitted.-- On + the Trail again.-- From Rochester to St. Louis.-- A + prophetic Hotel Clerk.-- More Detectives and more Need for + them.-- Lightning Changes. + + +Bristol and Fox happened around in time to participate in the general +excitement which the undertaker's visit had awakened, and after getting +as full particulars as possible from the people below, who refused to +believe that some dark deed had not been committed upstairs, they +proceeded to the rooms, where they found the door to Mrs. Winslow's +private apartment closed, and the two, finding no opportunity to +converse with their landlady, shortly went out for supper. + +On their return they found Mrs. Winslow in a remarkably pleasant frame +of mind, and quite full of jokes about the order for a coffin--so much +so, in fact, that my operatives were quite surprised at the change from +her previous demeanor under similar circumstances. Altogether they +passed one of the pleasantest evenings since they became the woman's +tenants. Several ladies that lived in the same building were invited in, +refreshments of wines and some rare fruits out of season were served, +singing, card-playing, and piano-playing with some waltzing were +indulged in, and it was noticed by the two men that Mrs. Winslow was +almost hysterically happy, as if she had decided upon some exceedingly +brilliant and satisfactory plan, the execution of which was being +preluded in this way. + +At the close of the evening she casually announced that the next time +she had any company she hoped to show them a better place. + +Somebody at once inquired if she was going away, whereupon she gayly +replied that instead of going away she was going to make better +arrangements for staying. She had intended all along, she said, tidying +up the place, but had been so lazy that she had kept neglecting it until +it was really too bad, and now she had decided to begin tearing up +things to-morrow. + +In answer to Bristol and Fox's inquiries as to what was to be done with +them in the meantime, she said that she had already arranged that, and +had secured a pleasant room at the Osborn House, where they were to +remain without additional expense to themselves until she had concluded +her changes. This rather dashed the operatives, but they made no further +remark upon the subject until the company had dispersed, when they urged +the propriety, both on the grounds of economy and convenience of +"doubling up," as Bristol termed it, in one room until another was +finished, and then removing to that, until their respective apartments +had been renovated. But Mrs. Winslow was obdurate, alleging that on +account of these annoyances she had become weak and nervous of late, +and did not desire to be annoyed with either the argument or +arrangement. + +So that early on the next morning, when Mrs. Winslow announced to the +detectives that an express wagon was in waiting to convey their baggage +to the Osborn House, there was no alternative but to go, as the persons +engaged to do the renovating were on hand and had already begun their +work of turning the rooms into chaos. Mrs. Winslow assured them that but +a few days would elapse before they would all be together again in their +old quarters; and as they grumblingly went away complaining of short +notice and the like, she bade them a merry good-by, adding that she +should stay about with some of her Spiritualistic friends in the city, +and perhaps take a little trip down to Batavia; but in any event would +let them know the first moment that the rooms were ready for occupancy. + +While Bristol and Fox were settling themselves in their new quarters +they indulged in a very heated argument as to Mrs. Winslow's object in +this all but forcibly ejecting them from their rooms, which they had +occupied so long that they had come to consider them something of a +home; as to whether Mrs. Winslow meant to do without their presence +hereafter or not, Bristol feeling sure that the woman meditated some +future action which was to relieve herself of their society, if indeed +it did not mean more than that, while Fox felt equally as certain that +the whole affair was only one of the whimful woman's whims, that, being +satisfied, would result in their early recall. + +In any event in this way the combination of mediumistic and detective +talent was broken up. + +I was at once informed about the turn things had taken, and ordered that +extra diligence should be used in keeping the woman under notice, as I +felt apprehensive that making her rooms tidy was not her object at all. +I had no right to detain her, go wherever she might; but Lyon's counsel +had been for some time absent from Rochester, and some things in +connection with the defence had not yet received proper attention. The +depositions as to the woman's character and adventures throughout +Wisconsin, Iowa and Missouri had not yet been taken, nor indeed had the +very necessary formula of serving notice upon Mrs. Winslow of the +proposed taking of such evidence been gone through; so that, as it would +require some time to take this evidence after notice had been served, it +was very desirable that she should be kept in sight. + +The next development, showing her to be a very shrewd woman, was in her +sending word over to the hotel, the same day that my operatives left her +rooms, that she had been taken suddenly and severely ill, and had been +obliged to turn over the work to a lady friend of hers, and might not be +able to resume the supervision of it for several days. + +Bristol called, ostensibly to tender his condolence, but was unable to +find Mrs. Winslow, being met by a very smart little lady, who informed +him that it would be impossible to see his former landlady, as she was +extremely ill and could not be at present disturbed; but that should +any change in her condition occur, both he and Fox should be promptly +informed. I had instructed them to do their best in watching the +premises, which I am satisfied they had done, and I had also put the two +other men, Grey and Watson, on the lookout, but none of them had +observed her either pass out of or into the place, and they began to be +convinced that she really was lying ill within the building. + +During this condition of things, and being somewhat anxious about the +matter, I went to Rochester myself, and held a consultation with my men, +having the block further examined under various guises and pretexts, +which proved beyond doubt that the woman was gone, and had probably left +the building a very few minutes after the operatives had departed; and, +for some reason best known to herself, but probably on account of the +mysterious annoyances which had been following each other very rapidly, +had either left the city entirely or was hiding very closely within it, +with a view to discover whether, with the two men out of her society, +and herself in peaceful retiracy, she could not ascertain from what +source her troubles came, or avoid them altogether. + +To my further annoyance, the magnificent Harcout appeared and kindly +offered me countless suggestions and theories, which were each one +considered by Mr. Harcout to be worthy of immediate adoption; and in +order to get rid of him, I was obliged to appear to acquiesce in an +imaginative theory of Mrs. Winslow's flight to New York, and represent +myself as so interested in his idea of how she could be traced to her +hiding-place, that I desired of him as a personal favor that he would +follow the trail, giving him a man, and the man a wink--and there never +was a finer picture of pomposity and assumption than when Harcout and +his man started for New York. Rid of him, I again turned to my work of +getting upon the right trail. + +I was sure the woman had left the city, and further inquiry at the rooms +convinced me that I was correct. The little woman finally acknowledged +flatly that she had gone, but would under no circumstances tell whether +she had left the city or not. She also exhibited a bill of sale of the +goods and a transfer of the lease, and wanted to know if _that_ did not +look as though she had gone? But she persisted in her refusal to give +further information, and that was the end of it. + +No one had seen any trunks or packages leave the place, nor could my +detectives get any trace of her having left the city over any of the +different roads. Inquiries made at all the leading livery stables, +express and hack-stands, of the city, failed to discover that Mrs. +Winslow had been conveyed to any near railroad station where she might +have taken a train; nor could it be by any means ascertained that such a +person had purchased a ticket at any of the adjacent towns for any point +to the east, west, or south. + +In fact, all trace of Mrs. Winslow was lost, and I was satisfied that +she had for some time been sure of the danger of her surroundings; and, +while not able to fasten any particular suspicious act upon Bristol or +Fox, undoubtedly intuitively felt that they were either directly +responsible for her troubles, or were in some unexplainable way +connected with their cause; and being enough of a professional litigant +to be aware of the necessity of service of notice upon her as to the +taking of evidence before such evidence could be taken, and that it +would be possible by a sudden disappearance and remaining secreted until +the case might be called, to defeat Lyon's attorneys from using this +mountain of evidence which she knew existed against her, whether she +knew we had collected it or not, the double motive for her mysterious +absence was plainly apparent. + +Remembering Bristol and Fox's reports as to her threat to go to St. +Louis and "attend to her cases" there unless the annoyances ceased, and +knowing from previous evidence already secured that she had figured +extensively in various capacities, but principally as Spiritualist, +blackmailer and courtesan in that city, I finally concluded that she had +gone there, though her mode of leaving Rochester, if she had left the +city, had certainly been such as to demonstrate ability worthy of a +better cause. + +I accordingly directed Bristol and Fox to return to New York, and +detailed the two men who had made it lively for Mrs. Winslow, and who, +of course, knew her, but whom she had not seen face to face, the +"materializations" having all been done for them by other parties, to +proceed to St. Louis in search of her, stopping at any point where +railroad divergences were made from the trunk lines between the east and +the west, and make extremely diligent inquiries for her, while I left +another man in Rochester for the purpose of watching for her +reappearance there, which would undoubtedly occur as soon as her former +tenants were gone, in the event that she was secreted in Rochester, +instead of being at the west, and to make this plan more certain, caused +Bristol to write a letter to Mrs. Winslow, stating that both he and Fox +had made numberless efforts to see her, but, failing to ascertain either +where she was, or the cause of her sudden disappearance, and both being +out of active business, they had concluded to go on to New York, but +would return to Rochester should she resume charge of the rooms and +desire them for tenants. I made arrangements also at the post-office to +ascertain whether any letters were reforwarded to her at any point, and +also at the express office regarding packages, so it could be hardly +possible for her to keep up any correspondence or relation of any kind +with parties in Rochester without disclosing her place of retreat. + +Having completed these arrangements, I returned to New York and +anxiously waited for some news from the West. + +No trace was found of the woman until Operatives Grey and Watson had +arrived at Chicago, where they immediately circulated among the +Spiritualists of that city, who are both numerous and of rather doubtful +moral standing. They ascertained that a woman answering her description +had been there, and advertised largely under another _alias_ than Mrs. +Winslow, but nothing definitely could be learned until in their reports +I discovered that the little Frenchman, Le Compte, was figuring as the +unknown lady's companion and business manager, when I telegraphed to +follow Le Compte and his woman, being morally certain that these two +were Monsieur the Mineral Locater and the celebrated plaintiff in the +Winslow-Lyon breach of promise suit. + +It was discovered after some trouble, and with the assistance of my +Chicago Agency, that Le Compte had suddenly left that city for some +southern or south-western point, possibly St. Louis, but no information +could be gained as to what direction Mrs. Winslow had taken, it being +evidently her plan to avoid pursuit, should there be any made. My +conviction still being strong that her objective point was St. Louis, I +ordered the men on there, without positively knowing that either of the +parties were there; but was gratified to learn that Le Compte had been +in the city, whether he was there or not on the operatives' arrival. The +operatives, Grey and Watson, at once searched the newspapers and found +no advertisements which would cover the desired couple, or either of +them; but, notwithstanding, visited all the mediums, clairvoyants, and +prominent Spiritualists of the city, but could find no trace of the +fugitives from that generally very prolific source, and began to have +the impression that her trip there, if she were in the city at all, was +one of pleasure or of blackmail business outside of her regular +clairvoyant line. + +The next move made by the men was to search about among the hotels and +boarding-houses, and really ferret her out. This was a tedious process, +and very little success was made in this endeavor for two or three days, +when one noon, as Grey was wandering about the city in a seemingly +useless endeavor to find the woman, he stepped into the Denver House, +formerly the old City Hotel, and began to search over the register. He +had not proceeded far when the clerk, eyeing him cautiously, said: + +"See here, Mister, ain't you lookin' for somebody?" + +"Certainly I am," he replied pleasantly. + +Grey looked at him a moment and saw that he would not drop the subject, +and immediately endeavored to mislead him by answering, "Of course I am; +I came in from the country this morning, and I don't know what hotel she +was going to." + +"Ah, ha," mused the clerk, as if at loss how to proceed, "I guess you +didn't know where to find her, and you haven't found her yet, have you?" + +"No," Grey replied quietly. + +"Is she big or little?" + +"Well, she ain't little," answered Grey. + +"Now, see here, my friend, that's all right; but I'm pretty sure you +didn't just come in from the country, and further, I think I can show +you the woman you've been hunting." + +Grey smiled and intimated that he was perfectly willing to be shown the +woman. + +"Well, you just let me have your hat; I'll put it on the hat-rack +inside the dining-room door, then you go to the wash-room and pass into +the dining-room as though you had forgotten your hat and had come back +for it. Look at the head of the first table over by the windows, and if +you don't find your woman with a little Frenchman, I'll treat!" + +Grey was surprised at the revelation, as there could be no possible +means for him to know of his mission; but the clerk's reference to the +"little Frenchman" convinced him that there was something worth +following up in the matter, and he followed his new friend's +instructions implicitly, passed into the dining-room, took his hat from +the rack, turned and got a good view of the fair Mrs. Winslow and the +faultless Monsieur Le Compte, who were evidently enjoying life as +thoroughly as perfect freedom from restraint, and spiritualistic free +love, would enable them. + +He expressed no surprise, however, at seeing the woman, and remarked to +the clerk as he passed into the hall, "Why, that isn't any friend of +mine!" + +"Nor anybody else's!" said the clerk with a leer. "But really, now," he +anxiously added, "_ain't_ you after her?" + +"Certainly not," Grey stoutly replied; but as the clerk took him into +the bar-room to treat him according to agreement, which he submitted to +unblushingly, he admitted that he had a curiosity to know something +about her, as he had either seen her, or heard of her, previously. + +Then the clerk told him a good deal about the woman, unnecessary for me +to recite to my readers, which only further showed her vile character, +and so worked upon my operative's curiosity and interest that he decided +to come to the hotel for a few days; but as he was informed that Mrs. +Winslow's intentions were to remain there the remainder of the week, and +the clerk promised to keep a good lookout for her, he concluded to hunt +up his companion, inform him of his good fortune, and transfer their +baggage to that hotel. + +As it was now about two o'clock, Grey did not find Watson before six, +and it was fully eight o'clock before they got settled at the Denver +House. But their eyes were not gladdened by a sight of the fugitive on +that evening, nor was she at breakfast next morning. The operatives +began to be alarmed lest the bland clerk had taken them in, and were +particularly so, when, at their request, for the purpose of ascertaining +whether she was in her room, he knocked at her door, and after a few +minutes returned with a blank, scared face, saying that the Jezebel had +left, and more than that, that she owed the hotel over fifty dollars for +board and wine furnished on the strength of her elegant and dashing +appearance. + +On further examination of the room it was evident that the woman had not +occupied it at all during the previous night, but had left the hotel +immediately after dinner whether from a previous decision to do so, or +from one of those sudden impulses, quite contrary to the general rule of +human action, which made her an extraordinarily difficult quarry to +follow, or still, from some suspicion that she was being followed. + +Grey felt quite crestfallen that he had lost Mrs. Winslow by one of her +characteristic manœuvres, and at once made inquiries concerning her +baggage, ascertaining from the clerk that she only had a portmanteau +with her at the hotel, but had had a trunk check which she had exhibited +when asking some question about the arrival and departure of trains. + +Grey sent Watson to intersections of prominent streets to keep a lookout +for parties, while he at once proceeded to the "Chicago Baggage Room," +as it is called, under the Planters' House, where he ascertained, after +considerable trouble and representing himself as an employee of the +Chicago, Alton, and St. Louis road, looking for lost baggage, that Mrs. +Winslow had come there personally about two o'clock the day previous and +presented the check for her trunk, which had been taken away by an +expressman with "a gray horse and a covered wagon." + +The next step, of course, was to find the expressman with the gray horse +and covered wagon, who had taken the woman's trunk, and this was no easy +matter to do. There were plenty answering that description, but Grey +labored hard and long to find the right one, and finally found it this +way. + +Being an Irishman himself, and a pretty jolly sort of a fellow, he was +not long in finding a compatriot the owner of a gray horse and a covered +wagon, of whom he asked: + +"Did you move the big woman with the big trunk at two o'clock +yesterday?" + +"An' if I did?" said the expressman, on the defensive. + +"Nothing if you did; but _did_ you?" replied Grey. + +"It's chilly weather," replied the expressman, winking hard at a saloon +opposite. + +"Yes, and I think a drop of something wouldn't hurt us," added Grey, +following the direction of the expressman's wink and thought quickly. + +They stepped over to the saloon and were soon calmly looking at each +other through the bottom of some glasses where there had been whiskey +and sugar. They looked at each other twice this way, and finally they +were obliged to take the third telescopic view of each other before they +could resume the subject. + +Then the expressman looked very wise at Grey, remarking musingly, "A big +'oman with a big trunk, eh?" + +"Yes, a pretty fine-looking woman, too." + +"Purty cranky?" + +"Yes." + +"And steps purty high wid a long sthride?" + +"Exactly." + +"'N has clothes that stand up sthiff wid starch 'n silk 'n the makin'?" + +"The very same," said Grey anxiously. + +"I didn't move her," said the expressman, shaking his head solemnly. + +Grey felt like "giving him one," as he said in his reports, but +repressed himself and said pleasantly that he was sorry he had troubled +him, and turned to go away, knowing this would unloosen his companion's +tongue, if anything would. + +"Sthop a bit, sthop a bit; you didn't ax me did I know ef any other +party moved her?" + +"That's so," said Grey, smiling and waiting patiently for developments. + +"Av coorse it's so." Then looking very knowingly, he said mysteriously, +"The man's just ferninst the Planters',--not a sthone's throw away. He's +a big Dutchman, 'n got a dollar fur the job." + +They were both around the corner in a moment, and Grey at once made +inquiries of the German owner of a "grey horse and a covered wagon" as +to what part of the city he had removed the trunk. + +He was very secretive about the matter, and refused any information +whatever. + +"Come, come, me duck," said the Irishman, "me frind here is an officer, +'n ef ye don't unbosom yerself in a howly minit, ye'll be altogether +shnaked before the coort!" + +He said this with such an air of pompous sincerity, as if he had the +whole power of the government at his back, that the German at once began +relating the circumstances in such a detailed manner that he would have +certainly been engaged an entire hour in the narrative, if Grey had not, +as he himself expressed it, "out of the tail of his eye" seen Mrs. +Winslow, not twenty feet away, sailing down Fourth street, towards the +Planters'. In another moment she would pass the corner of the +court-house square, where she could not help but see the little crowd of +expressmen, hackmen and runners, his inquiries, and the statement by his +companion that he was an officer, had attracted. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + + Still foiled.-- Mr. Pinkerton perplexed over the Character of + the Adventuress.-- Her wonderful recuperative Powers.-- A + lively Chase.-- Another unexpected Move.-- The Detectives + beaten at every Point.-- From Town to Town.-- Mrs. + Winslow's Shrewdness.-- Among the Spiritualists at Terre + Haute.-- Plotting.-- The beautiful Belle Ruggles.-- A wild + Night in a ramshackle old Boarding-House.-- Blood-curdling + "Manifestations."-- Moaning and weeping for Day.-- + Outwitted again.-- Mr. Pinkerton makes a chance + Discovery.-- Success. + + +Grey took in the situation at once, and was equal to the emergency. He +knew if the German saw Mrs. Winslow, and thinking him an officer who +might arrest him for complicity in something wrong, he would probably +shout right out, "There she is, now!" He was also just as sure that his +new-found Irish acquaintance, in the excess of his friendliness, would +rush right over to Fourth street and stop the woman. So in an instant he +created a counter-attraction by calling the German a liar, collaring +him, and backing him through the line of wagons out of sight, and as +Mrs. Winslow passed farther down Fourth street, backed him through the +line of teams in the opposite direction, while the German protested +volubly that he was telling only the truth; and just the moment Mrs. +Winslow's form was hid by the Planters' House, he released the now +angry expressman, flung him a dollar for "treats," and running nimbly +around the block, fell into a graceful walk behind Mrs. Winslow, keeping +at a judicious distance, and following her for several hours through the +dry-goods stores, to the Butchers and Drovers' Bank, where she drew a +portion of the amount which she had secured from the prominent St. Louis +daily as damages, and which had remained undisturbed in that bank until +this time; into several saloons, where she boldly went, and, in defence +of the theory of women's rights, stood up to the counter like a man, +ordering and drinking liquor like one too; to the Four Courts, where she +at least _seemed_ to have considerable business; to numberless +Spiritualist brothers and sisters, including, of course, the mediums; +and finally to a very elegant private boarding-house kept by a +respectable lady named Gayno, whom the adventuress had so won with her +oily words and dashing manners, accompanied by her large Saratoga trunk, +that not only she, but a little French gentleman named Le Compte--whom +Grey had hard work to avoid, as he had followed Mrs. Winslow at a +respectful distance, and as if with a view of ascertaining whether any +other person besides himself was following the madam--had managed to +secure quarters in an aristocratic home and an aristocratic +neighborhood, for all of which the experienced female swindler had no +more idea of paying, unless compelled to, than she had of paying her +fifty-dollar hotel bill at the Denver House. + +On receipt of this information, I directed Superintendent Bangs to +proceed to Rochester and hurry up Lyon's attorneys in securing the legal +papers necessary to avail ourselves of the large amount of evidence +already discovered, and serve notice upon her while she was still in +sight, and before her suspicions of being watched and followed, which it +was evident was now growing upon her, had forced her into still more +artful dodges to evade us. + +It was certainly her determination to clothe all her acts with as much +mysteriousness as possible, and in this manner work upon Lyon's feelings +and fears until she would compel him, through actual disgust of and +shame at the long-continued public surveillance of his affairs, to end +the worrying tension upon his mind by a compromise that would yield her +a large sum of money. + +That she was able, and had the means to make these quick moves and +sudden changes, was equally as certain, though it was a question in my +mind then, and has been to this day, how much money she might have had +at command. I know that at times she must have had almost fabulous sums +in her possession. I was also often quite as sure that she was +absolutely penniless, when, of a sudden, she would carry out some bold +scheme that required a great deal of money, which invariably came into +requisition from some mysterious source in the most mysterious manner +possible. Whatever might have been the woman's pecuniary resources, I +must confess that in nearly every instance I underrated her, and in fact +that, in every respect, the more I endeavored to analyze her the more of +an enigma she became. + +Like nearly all women of disreputable character, she was terribly +extravagant, reckless, and improvident; but as an offset to this she was +supreme in the meanness ordinary courtesans are above--that petty but +never-ceasing swindling so terribly annoying to the public. + +With all these things in her favor, so far as being an ingenious pest is +concerned, she was also possessed of the power of physical as well as +financial recuperation to a wonderful degree; and to whatever depth of +temperamental dejection or physical exhaustion and degradation she might +descend, she would of a sudden reappear, fresh and blooming, with no +perceptible trail of her vileness upon her, in which condition she would +remain just so long as would conserve her interests. + +While Superintendent Bangs was on his way to St. Louis, Grey and Watson +were being led a lively chase about the city by Mrs. Winslow, and the +bland clerk of the Denver House was devoting nearly all his time in +tracking her from place to place to enforce the collection of his +employer's bill. + +Her first exploit was to borrow twenty dollars from Mrs. Gayno on her +baggage, who was thus prevented from turning her out of doors when her +true character was learned; and as a further illustration of her +shrewdness, after she had remained at the house as long as she desired, +she left between days, without refunding the borrowed money or paying +her bill, and in some mysterious way also spirited away all her baggage. + +This of course caused more trouble in finding her, and she was finally +discovered in furnished rooms. Even here she suddenly made her presence +so unbearable to the landlord that he gladly paid her a bonus to depart, +which she did equally as mysteriously as on the previous occasion, when +she was lost again, and the third time found at a Spiritualistic +gathering at the hall near the corner of Chestnut and Seventh streets, +where she was one of the speakers of the evening and did herself and the +cause justice. + +In this way--following her while she was securing abstracts of her many +cases against the people of St. Louis, the number and trivial character +of which had become a matter of public scandal, newspaper comment, and +universal condemnation among members of the bar, keeping track of her in +numberless conditions and localities, and listening to endless tales of +the woman's reckless conduct during her previous residence in the +city--Mrs. Winslow gave the two men all they could possibly attend to. + +One Wednesday morning about eleven o'clock, when Grey had just stepped +out upon the street from a late breakfast at the Planters'--having been +out until nearly morning the night previous on a fruitless attempt to +keep the woman under surveillance for a few hours, that detective was +looking up and down the street quite undecided as to what course to +pursue--he saw Mrs. Winslow just leaving an expressman at the +court-house square, who immediately jumped into his wagon and drove off. + +Grey ran quickly down Fourth street, and after a few minutes' chase +succeeded in overtaking the vehicle. Halting it he asked the driver: + +"Are you going to move that woman?" + +He checked his horse with an air that plainly said that kind of +interruption was neither profitable nor desirable; but driving on at a +brisk pace, there was jolted out of him the remark: "My friend, I'm +working for the public. Sometimes it pays better to keep one's mouth +shut than to open it, especially to strangers." + +Grey hurrying on at the side of the wagon, and holding to it with his +left hand, with his right he found a greenback. Handing this to the +driver, he sprang into the seat beside him, saying, "Sometimes it pays +better to open one's mouth!" + +"That's so," replied the driver stuffing the bill into his pocket and +elevating his eyebrows as if inquiring what Grey wanted him to open his +mouth for. + +"I want you to drive slowly enough for me to keep up with you. Mind, you +needn't _tell_ me anything unless you have a mind to." + +"Oh, I'd just as leave tell you as not," he replied. "She's going over +to East St. Louis to try and get the 'Alton Accommodation,' if it hasn't +gone yet. The Chicago train's way behind, and the 'Alton' don't go until +the 'Chicago' comes; ye see?" + +Grey knew this was partially true, for he had but a few moments before +received a telegram from Mr. Bangs, stating that he was aboard the down +train which had been belated; so that the best thing to do was to take +the expressman's number, so that he could find him again in case of a +mistake, or any deception being practised, which he did. He then +returned to the Planters', paid his bill, wrote notes to both Watson and +Superintendent Bangs stating how matters stood, went to the levee, and +in a few minutes had the pleasure of seeing the trunk put on board the +ferry, where its owner shortly followed. + +Grey went on board, taking a position near the engines, where he could +have an unobstructed view of the stairs, so that if this should prove to +be another ruse of the madam's to get him started across the river and +then glide off the boat to take up still more retired quarters, he could +beat her at her own game. But Mrs. Winslow remained on the boat, and +just as it was pushing off for the Illinois shore the landlord of the +Denver House, accompanied by a constable, came rushing on board. + +Seeing Grey, he immediately applied to him for information as to whether +the woman was on board. He replied by pointing her out where she was +leaning over the guards immediately above them. The landlord and his man +at once proceeded to interview the woman, threatening all sorts of +things if that bill was not paid, to all of which she gave evasive +answers until the Illinois shore was reached, when she reminded them +that she was outside the jurisdiction of the State of Missouri, and that +if either of them laid their hands upon herself or her property, she +would feel compelled to cause a St. Louis funeral, as she was a good +shot, and when in the right did not hesitate to shoot; which so +frightened the hotel man and "the little minion of Missouri law," as +Mrs. Winslow called the constable, that they retreated empty-handed and +with a confirmed disgust at the active exponents of modern Spiritualism. + +Grey was now in a quandary as to what to do. The Chicago train was +reported as over two hours late, and he was informed by the conductor of +the Alton Accommodation that though his train could not leave St. Louis +until the Chicago train had arrived, yet that he dare not hold the train +a moment after that time. This precluded Grey's informing Mr. Bangs of +his whereabouts, as the train was now too near the place to admit of his +being reached by a telegram; and should he risk losing the woman to +apprise Mr. Bangs, it might be impossible to find her again at all. +Fortunately he learned that the passenger train stopped at the Baltimore +and Ohio railroad crossing, and, interesting a brakeman in his behalf, +he arranged with him to go up to the crossing, board the train, rush +through it and call out for Mr. Bangs as he went, directing the latter +to pay the brakeman two dollars for his trouble, then jump off the +train, walk rapidly back to the crossing and there board the Alton train +as it was going out, if possible; which latter plan would have +succeeded, no doubt, had not Mr. Bangs been chatting upon the rear +platform of the rear car, and failed altogether to hear the extremely +loud inquiries made for him. + +Mrs. Winslow recognized Grey as a person in somebody's employ who was +following her, and the moment he seated himself in the single +passenger-car attached to the train, the woman began such a terrible +tirade of abuse against him that he was made to feel that the +detective's life is not altogether one of roseate hue, and so annoyed +the other passengers that a large-sized brakeman was selected as a +delegation of one to quiet her. It was evident she had been drinking +heavily, and she kept this brakeman pretty well employed for some time +in not only endeavoring to quiet her termagant tongue, but to keep her +in her seat, as she would often rise in the ecstasy of her wrath and +denounce poor Grey, who meekly bore it all with a patient smile, until +the conductor again appeared, when Grey showed him his thousand-mile +employee's ticket and claimed that he was an employee of that road +looking up lost baggage; that it was suspected that Mrs. Winslow had +stolen the trunk she had with her, and that he had been ordered to +follow her for a day or two until he got further instructions from +headquarters. This put him all right with the trainmen, and caused the +conductor to compel the woman into some sort of civility and silence. + +At about two o'clock the train arrived in Monticello, where Mrs. Winslow +left the train, and the detective followed. The agent informed Grey that +it was at least a mile to a telegraph office uptown, but that no train +save a "wild-train" would pass either way until after he would have time +to send a dispatch and return. He immediately went uptown and sent a +telegram to the agent at East St. Louis to please inquire for a Mr. +Bangs about the depot, and if there, to have him answer; also one to +Mr. Bangs himself at the Planters'. + +Returning to the depot, the agent informed Grey that Mrs. Winslow had +also been uptown, which was quite evident, as she had donned an entirely +different suit of clothing, evidently with some inebriated sort of an +idea that this might change her appearance enough to enable her to +escape him. She finally bought a ticket to Brighton, and got her trunk +checked to that point. + +On their arrival at Brighton, Grey saw several ladies get off the rear +platform of the ladies' car, among whom was his unwilling travelling +companion, and watched until they had passed into the depot. In order to +make sure that she was to stop here, he ran rapidly to where the baggage +was being unloaded, where he found that her trunk had been put off. He +waited there until he saw the trunk wheeled into the little +baggage-house, when he leisurely walked back to the depot and stepped +into the ladies' waiting-room, to keep the company of the adventuress. + +What was his surprise to see it almost deserted, no Mrs. Winslow there, +and no surety of anything at all. He rushed into the gentlemen's room, +galloped around the depot, looked in every direction, only to turn +towards the train with the startling suspicion that he had again been +outwitted by the shrewd Spiritualist who made her livelihood by villainy +and shrewdness, which was quickly confirmed as he made an ineffectual +attempt to overtake the departing train, only to see the face of Mrs. +Winslow pressed hard against the rear window of the ladies' car, and +almost white with a look of fiendish enjoyment and hate at the useless +attempts of her relentless pursuer whom she had so neatly foiled. + +Mrs. Winslow had slipped a detective--and a good detective, too--again, +was gone, and all Grey could do was to wait at Brighton until +Superintendent Bangs could overtake and counsel with him. + +By telegrams to and from conductors it was speedily ascertained by +Superintendent Bangs, who had come on to Brighton and directed Watson to +report at the Chicago Agency, that the woman had gone to Springfield, +Ills., and, after arranging with the station-agent at Brighton to send +information to Chicago regarding any call that might be made for her +trunk, or as to any orders that might be received to have it forwarded, +Mr. Bangs and Grey went at once to Springfield, where a trace of the +woman was found at the St. Nicholas Hotel. + +It was ascertained that she had remained at the hotel over night, and +the clerks thought it probable that she was then at the house, her bill +not having been paid; but a thorough search for her only developed the +fact that she was at least absent from the hotel, whether with an +intention of returning or not. + +Mr. Bangs directed Mr. Grey to remain at the St. Nicholas, keeping on +the alert for her, while he visited the more elegant houses of +ill-repute with which that capital abounds during legislative sessions +and which were just at this time getting in readiness to receive +lawmakers and lobbyists; and also the other and less respectable +establishments for piracy, managed by professed mediums, astrologists, +fortune-tellers, and all the other grades of female swindlers; and after +a considerable time spent in investigation, found a certain Madam La +Vant, astrologist--who professed to cast the horoscope of people's lives +with all the certainty of the famous Dr. Roback--who was descended from +the vikings and jarls of the Scandinavian coast, but in reality kept a +house of assignation, that most dangerous threshold to prostitution. + +Madam La Vant at once acknowledged that Mrs. Winslow _had_ been there; +even showed Superintendent Bangs a bundle she had left with her. She +stated that she had called there early in the morning and left the +package, with the promise to return about three o'clock in the +afternoon, when she was to occupy a room she had engaged there, and had +already paid in advance for its use. Mr. Bangs did not feel exactly at +rest about the matter, but could not do otherwise than return to the +hotel for his dinner, promising to call in the afternoon, and alleging +that he had information to give the woman regarding certain persons who +had been, and then were, following her; for if she were then in the +house she would remain there, and he had no legal authority to molest +her or search the place without Madam La Vant's consent, which he could +not of course get if she was shielding her, which she undoubtedly was; +and if Mrs. Winslow was really away from the house, the madam would take +some means of preventing her return. + +He went to the hotel as quickly as possible, found Grey, whom he +immediately sent to watch for the ingress or egress of the adventuress, +took a hasty dinner, and then relieved my operative so that he might +dine, after which the two watched the house until dark. + +But their closest vigils over the place failed to cause the discovery of +Mrs. Winslow, who was doubtless by this time many miles away from +Springfield, enjoying peace and quiet in some other city. Superintendent +Bangs called on Madam La Vant as soon as the evening had come, and that +lady expressed great surprise that he had not seen his "friend, Mrs. +Winslow," as she expressed it; following this remark by the explanation +that she had returned to her house not over a half-hour after he had +left it, and had stated that she had decided to go on to Chicago +immediately, whereupon Madam La Vant had refunded her the money advanced +for the room, and the woman had taken her bundle and departure +simultaneously. + +The detectives were satisfied that the astrologist was squarely lying to +them, and that she had in some way aided the fugitive to escape, or had +effectually secreted her--the former opinion being the most reasonable; +and when I had been apprised of the turn things had taken, I was +satisfied that Mrs. Winslow was in Madam La Vant's house at the very +time that Mr. Bangs was first there; that her friend, the madam, way +merely carrying out her instructions in stating that she had been there, +was then out, but would return, and that at the very moment Mr. Bangs +had started for the St. Nicholas she had left La Vant's, and, as soon as +possible thereafter, the city. + +I immediately concluded that as I had no authority to arrest or in any +way detain the woman--which put my men at a great disadvantage, +preventing their telegraphing in advance for her detention, or securing +and using official assistance of any kind for the same purpose--that I +had better recall Mr. Bangs at once, which I did, and trust to Grey's +doggedness in following her, instructing him particularly to if possible +prevent being seen by her, or in any way alarming her, hoping either for +her speedy return to Rochester, on the principle that the guilty mind +constantly reverts and is drawn towards its chief topic of thought, and +that strive to keep away from it as much as she might, she would be +irresistibly drawn to it; or that through the former plan I might get +her into some little village or secluded spot, or quiet town, where, +upon Grey's announcement, Mr. Bangs or some other deputized person might +cautiously reach her before she was aware of her danger, and serve the +notice that would make the legal fight not only possible, but a stormy +one on account of the vast amount of crushing evidence I had secured for +Mr. Lyon against her. + +It was more and more apparent that the woman's plan was to beat us in +this way, and thus by long and unbearable suspense, mysteriousness of +action, and constant annoyance in the shape of threatening letters, +which now continually poured in upon Mr. Lyon, not only from Rochester, +but from other portions of the country, compel him to settlement; and I +saw that the whole supreme and devilish ingenuity of the Spiritualistic +adventuress was being aimed at avoiding legal process, and to the +accomplishment of this result. + +So much time had now elapsed that it was necessary for Lyon's attorneys +to go into court to explain the difficulties attendant upon reaching the +woman, and secure an extension of time in serving the papers; and by the +time this was accomplished, Grey had tracked her from town to town and +city to city, all through Central Illinois, riding on the same train +with her times without number, doubling routes and meeting her at +unexpected points, travelling at all hours and in all manner of +conveyances, never sleeping for days, eating from packages and parcels, +with scarcely time for personal cleanliness or care, which often +debarred him from admission to places where a woman, by that courtesy +which is due to her for what she ought to be, was admitted and very +properly protected from such hard-looking citizens as Grey had become; +so that finally the two came into Terre Haute together, the adventuress +as fresh as a daisy, and perfectly capable of another grand expedition +of the same extent, and the detective completely worn out and entirely +unfit for further duty. + +Anticipating something of this kind and knowing that the woman might +quite naturally gravitate to that point, I had ordered Operative Pinkham +to proceed from Chicago to Terre Haute, and there assist Grey, or +relieve him altogether, as occasion required, and continue the trail +east towards Rochester, to which point the woman seemed gradually +drifting, though evidently determined to prolong her journey so as to +arrive in Rochester not more than a day or two before the time set for +trial of the Winslow-Lyon breach of promise case. + +Arriving at Terre Haute, Mrs. Winslow immediately went to Mrs. Deck's +boarding-house, and upon telling that sympathetic old lady a harrowing +tale about her persecutions, was received with open arms, and it was not +long before her pitiful story had drawn a crowd of attenuated automatons +to sympathize, suggest, and harangue against the entire orthodox world. + +So impressed were these people with the woman's pitiable condition, that +word was immediately passed among them that the persecuted lady should +lecture to them at Pence's Hall, after which a sort of a general +love-feast should be held, to be followed by seances and a collection +for the benefit of the now notorious plaintiff. + +That winter afternoon a quiet gentleman dropped into Mrs. Deck's and +secured accommodations for a few days' stay, representing himself as a +commercial traveller from Cincinnati. Mrs. Deck was absent working +energetically in the interests of her spiritualistic guest, and the +quiet man was obliged to transact his business with the handsome Belle +Ruggles. He was a pleasant, winning sort of a fellow, young, shapely, +and adapted to immediately gaining confidence and esteem. + +From a little conversation with her the quiet man, who was none other +than Detective Pinkham from my Chicago Agency, was sure that he could +trust the girl, whom he at once saw had no sympathy with these people or +their crazy antics. He saw that she was full of spirit, too, capable of +carrying out any resolve she had made, and altogether the single oasis +of good sense in this great desert of unbalanced minds. + +So it was not long before he had her sentiments on Spiritualism, on +Spiritualists, and on Mrs. Winslow, whom she denounced with tears of +anger in her eyes as a disgrace to womanhood and to their place, and he +had not been three hours in the house before the young lady and himself +had entered into a conspiracy to give the woman such a scare as she had +not recently had, and drive her from the pleasant though quaint old home +her presence was contaminating. + +The snow and the night came together, and the storm shook the old house +until its weak, loose joints creaked, and every cranny and crevice +wailed a dismal protest to the wind and the driving snow. It would take +more than that though to keep people of one idea at home, and the entire +household departed at an early hour for Pence's Hall, from which, +whatever occurred there, Mrs. Deck's large family did not return until +nearly midnight, by which time Operative Pinkham and Belle Ruggles had +concluded their hasty preparations for a little dramatic entertainment +of their own, and were properly stationed and accoutred to make it a +brilliant success. + +"Good-night, my poor dear!" said the kind-hearted old body as she +ushered Mrs. Winslow into her best room, a long antiquated chamber, +full of panels, wardrobes set in the wall, and ghostly, creaking +furniture. "I have to give you this room, we are so full. My first +husband died there, but you don't care for anything like _that_. I never +sleep there, the place scares me; but I know you will like it, you are +so brave!" + +Whether brave or not, Mrs. Winslow seemed all of a shiver when she had +entered the room where Mrs. Deck's first husband had died. + +She closed the door carefully, and putting her candle upon a grim old +bureau, began a thorough and seemingly frightened examination of the +room. The storm had not gone down, and as it beat upon the old place +with exceptionally wild and powerful gusts, the feeble structure seemed +to shrink from them and tremble in every portion. + +On these occasions doors to the wardrobes and closets of the strange +room would open suddenly as if sprung from their fastenings by unseen +hands, while panels would slide back and forth, cracks in the ceilings +and walls would open alarmingly, until, in fact, to the woman's vivid +imaginations every portion of the lonely old chamber or its weird +furnishings seemed possessed of supernatural life or motion. The fact +is, Mrs. Winslow was trembling like the house itself; but after a few +moments she snuffed the waning candle which the frugal Mrs. Deck had +given her, and in its flickering rays hastily began preparing for bed. + +Just as she bent over to blow out the candle, some invisible assistant +did the work for her, and at the same moment a hissed "_Beware!_" caused +her to start with a scream and plunge for the bed, into which she +scrambled after upsetting a chair or two, when she pulled the covering +over her head and groaned with fright. + +And now the blessed materializations began. + +A sudden click and then a sliding sound above her head announced that +the "control" had begun operations, and in a moment a few grains of +plastering and some strange and weird combinations of musical sounds +seemed to simultaneously fall into the room. The plaster, of course, +came right down, some of it upon exposed parts of the trembling medium's +person; but the music, which seemed to be badly out of harmony, appeared +to have the power of circling in the air, which it did for some little +time, and as suddenly ceased as it had begun, when from these mysterious +upper regions came a long, low, tremulous, unearthly groan, that died +away into a ghastly sigh as the storm clutched the decayed old mansion +and shook it until it rattled and rattled again. + +"My God!" quavered the half-smothered woman, "that's Mrs. Deck's first +man's ghost; he'll kill me! Mur----!" + +She had begun to shout "Murder!" but a still more awful voice proceeding +from the direction of the bureau bade her keep silence. + +She was silent for a moment, but the storm wailed about the house so +dismally that the "poor dear," who, according to Mrs. Deck, was brave +enough to cheerily retire in what had been the bed-chamber of the dead, +could bear the horror of her position no longer, and began a vocal +lamentation which gave promise of attracting more than a spirit +audience, when the materialized spirit of "Mrs. Deck's first man," or +whatever owned the voice, laid a heavy hand upon the trembling woman, +sepulchrally warned her to desist from her outcries, and then read her +such a lecture from the Other World as she had never transmitted in her +most effective "seances;" after which she was ordered, on pain of +instant death, to leave Mrs. Deck's and Terre Haute as soon as morning +should come, and a pledge being secured from her to the effect that she +would, and that she would under no circumstances leave the room for the +night, the spirit--which had very much the appearance of Detective +Pinkham, the commercial traveller from Cincinnati--left the room by the +door in a twinkling, very like a mortal, and still very like a mortal, +quietly stole upstairs and helped extricate Miss Ruggles from her gloomy +position, where she had done "utility" business as a groaning garret +ghost. + +All that dreary night the wicked woman moaned and wept for day. Her +coward heart shrank from the evil she knew she deserved. The storm never +ceased, but rose and fell as if keeping pace with her terrors, and the +old place furnished her crazed imagination untold horrors. + +At last the dawn came, but she had found no moment's sleep, and before +the household was astir the wretched woman crept out upon the street, +and plodding through the swollen drifts, followed by a very pleasant +appearing commercial traveller from Chicago, she staggered to the +station, and was rapidly borne away from her sympathizing friends +towards the east. + +Being apprised by telegraph of Pinkham's rather strange method of giving +her an impulse in the direction of Rochester, I at once proceeded to +that city with Superintendent Bangs, anticipating her arrival there +shortly after our own; but was again disappointed, the adventuress +having doubled on the detective, and so successfully avoided him, that +the third day after leaving the Hoosier City he arrived in Rochester +with a long face and in an extremely befogged condition. + +After having directed Mr. Bangs and Pinkham to remain and watch every +incoming train, one stormy evening, as I was about returning to New +York, by the merest chance I espied the woman cautiously emerging from +the Arcade, and following her I soon housed her in the apartments of an +old mediumistic hag on State street. Calling a carriage I was rapidly +driven to the Osborn House, where I found Mr. Bangs, and with him and +the legal papers returned to the place in less than fifteen minutes from +the time I had left it. + +Cautiously approaching the room, we listened and heard low, earnest +voices within. Through the transom we could see that the light inside +was turned very low, and rightly judged that somebody was being given a +"sitting," for, carefully trying the knob, I found that the place was +secured against ordinary intrusion, and throwing my weight against the +door it flew from its old and rusty fastenings, and in an instant we +were within the medium's room. + +"That is the woman!" said I, pointing to Mrs. Winslow, who had sprung +from her chair white with fear, while the wretched-looking medium, +though previously in the "trance state" stared at us with protruding +eyes. + +[Illustration: _"That is the woman!" said I, pointing to Mrs. Winslow +who had sprung from her chair, white with fear.--_] + +"And who are _you_?" she gasped, looking from one to the other in +dismay. + +"Persons whom you will give no more trouble after the service of these +papers," gallantly replied Mr. Bangs, passing the legal documents into +her hands, which closed upon them mechanically; and after I had politely +handed the medium sufficient money to repair the damage I had caused her +door, we bade the two spiritualists a cheery good-night and left them to +a consideration of the contrast between mortal and immortal +"manifestations." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + Shows how Mrs. Winslow makes a new Move.-- Also introduces + the famous Evalena Gray, Physical Spiritual Medium, at her + sumptuous Apartments on West Twenty-first Street, New + York.-- Reminds the Reader of the Aristocratic Classes + deluded by Spiritualism.-- Describes a Seance and explains + the "Rope-trick," and other Spiritualistic Sleight-of-hand + Performances. + + +Mrs. Winslow was quite crushed by her failure to evade service of the +notice to take evidence in just those sections of the country where she +had been too well known for her present good, and for a few days seemed +to be in that peculiar mental condition where one may be easily led, or +driven, into committing a desperate act for mere relief from a too great +conflict of emotions. + +She flitted about the city in a state of great unrest for a little time, +not being able to dispossess her mind of the fear or feeling of being +pursued; stealing into the houses of those of like belief, and with an +air of great secrecy insisting that they should give her refuge and +protection from Lyon's minions, who, she claimed--and perhaps had come +to believe--would yet in some way do her bodily harm; mysteriously +gliding about the Arcade and in the vicinity of his house, as if +expecting by some occult power to be able to divine what might be the +rich man's plans concerning her; and like the very evil thing that she +was, hiding in uncanny places, scared at her own voice or footsteps, +until the spell had left her. + +About this time New York city dailies, and many of the newspapers of +large circulation throughout the interior of the State, were publishing +the following advertisement: + + "Immense Success!--Miss Evalena Gray, the celebrated Spiritual + Physical Medium, lately from the Queen's Drawing-room, Hanover + Square, London, also Crystal Palace, Sydenham, and assisted by + Mlle. Willie Leveraux, from Paris, will give one of her + marvellous seances this evening at her elegant parlors, No. 19 + West Twenty-first street, opposite the Fifth Avenue Hotel, at + 7:30 P.M." + +New York city knew Miss Evalena Gray as a new aspirant to the honors and +emoluments derived from her ability to do mysterious things very +gracefully. She was as beautiful a woman as had ever come into New York +on this kind of business, and those who considered her a true medium +were in ecstasies over the magnificent contortions and superb evolutions +which her "great spiritual power" enabled her to execute with +bewildering rapidity, while disbelievers in the source of these +phenomena originating in celestial spheres could not resist her +fascinating powers; and the consequence was that her adroitness and +beauty had created a great sensation, so much so in fact that +respectable people had begun arguing about her, which answered just the +purpose sought. + +New York also knew her as a woman so full of soul--that latter-day +substitute for brains and personal purity--as to have readily confused +and silenced great throngs in Europe wherever she had appeared; and she +had invariably challenged investigation, and that, too, with as much +audacity as success, which had in every instance been wonderfully marked +and complete. + +Mrs. Winslow knew her as a little sprite she had met three years before +at Chardon, Ohio, a pleasant little village of about 3,000 inhabitants, +twelve miles south of Painesville, where Mrs. Winslow had been giving +seances. Miss Gray was then just starting in her Spiritualistic career, +and Mrs. Winslow, seeing her aptitude and general fascinating qualities, +endeavored to persuade her to accompany her. + +Miss Gray evidently believed in her own powers, at least had considered +the proposition unfavorably; but the two had become warm friends, and +Mrs. Winslow had cheerfully imparted to the demure novitiate all her +supply of manifestations, which she had rapidly acquired, and the two +had parted with the promise to meet again at the very first opportunity, +each drifting away to fulfil her traitorous course against society and +blasphemous satire upon respectability. + +So, Mrs. Winslow, being in that condition of mind wherein its possessor +_must_ have some person's confidence, saw this advertisement, and +feeling sure that Miss Evalena Gray had been in clover, concluded that +she could go to her for rest and consolation; accordingly, she threw off +the clouds which had seemed to settle upon her, gathered her baggage +together from various secret places where it had been deposited, took +rooms at the National Hotel for a few days in quite a rational manner, +and after a week of perfect rest and physical care, which told +wonderfully in her favor, in connection with her great recuperative +powers, and having provided a wardrobe of no mean character, left +Rochester for New York as handsome and attractive a woman as one would +meet in a day's journey. + +I was apprised of her departure by telegraph, and had a spry little +operative at the Hudson River depot at Thirty-first street, ready to +play the lackey to her. She at once proceeded in a carriage to the Fifth +Avenue Hotel, where she secured fine apartments overlooking the entrance +to Miss Evalena Gray's elegant parlors at No. 19 West Twenty-first +street; and although I had no previous information as to what called +Mrs. Winslow to New York, I was for several reasons satisfied that it +was for the purpose of communicating with Miss Gray, and at once took +measures for securing the substance of the interview. + +As Mrs. Winslow had arrived late in the afternoon, I thought probably +she would make no move until the following day, but took the precaution +to secure a room adjoining hers for the use of an operative, sending +another detective to Miss Gray's seance at half-past seven, to ascertain +whether Mrs. Winslow was at any time present, and also, if necessary, to +devise some means to remain in the house until the two women had met, +should they do so. + +The detective sent to Miss Gray's place was barely able to secure +admission, on account of having come on foot, that fact alone laying him +liable to suspicion. For an hour's time, splendid equipages, at short +intervals, rolled up to the mansion, and their occupants were turned +over to a negro butler of such gigantic proportions and gorgeous livery +as to give the ordinarily aristocratic place an air of oriental +splendor, the interior appointments being fully in keeping with the +promise of sumptuousness which the reception always gave. Once entered, +my operative had an opportunity to study these appointments. + +The carpets were of such rich and heavy texture that they gave back no +sound to the foot-fall, and by an ingenious arrangement, beneath the +lambrequins adorning the windows, two noiseless fan-like blinds opened +or closed instantly, lighting or darkening the room as suddenly, and +evidently for use during day seances, which were sometimes given; while +opposite, two broad parlors led away, _en suite_, to a raised dais at +the rear, upon which Miss Evalena Gray, assisted by Mlle. Leveraux, from +Paris, gave her wonderful spiritual manifestations. + +At either side of the centre of the first room, and on a level with the +floor, was a fountain cut in marble, back into the basin of which the +water fell with a dreamy, tinkling sound which suggested poetical +luxuriousness. Rare statuary filled every accessible niche. Heroic +paintings of the olden times, and the softer, more sensual paintings of +the late French schools, blended together until they gave the walls a +rosy glow. Flowers loading the air with fragrance, warmed the room with +the color and life which flowers only can give. Hidden music-boxes gave +forth the rare and blended melodies of sunny, southern climes; while +rich divans, arranged with that pleasant kind of taste that bespeaks no +arrangement at all, were scattered negligently about the room, now +rapidly being filled with the aristocratic people who had arrived and +were constantly arriving. + +My operative, having gained a good point for observation, now turned his +attention to the rapidly-increasing assemblage. Almost without +exception, they were men and women of evident wealth and leisure, but +with scarcely a face denoting culture and refinement. They were +representatives of that numerous class who, after the rapid acquirement +of money, have found no good thing with which to occupy their minds, or, +what is more probable, have no minds to be thus occupied; and, while not +giving Spiritualism any public endorsement, secretly follow its, to +them, fascinating superstitions and mysteries, and practice, in an easy +way that prevents scandal or infamous notoriety, the sensualities which +inevitably result from its teachings or association with those +hangers-on of society professing its belief, all the time building a +hope that a lazy, sensuous heaven may be reached without effort or +struggle by merely cherishing a secret faith in what most satisfies +their animal nature, and yearning to live hereafter as they most desire +to live here--were it not for the voice of society--in a brutal freedom +from restraint, utterly devoid of moral and social purity, and without +the slightest semblance of that law, written and unwritten, which, from +the creation of man and woman, has built about the domestic relations a +protection and defence of sacred oneness and sanctified exclusiveness +which no vandal dare attack without eventually receiving some just and +certain punishment. + +A conscientious detective will allow but little to escape his attention, +and my operative, who had already had considerable experience with these +illusionists, noticed a few arrangements which the spirits had evidently +insisted on being made to insure the success of Miss Gray's seances, +which were varied in their character, and "never comprised her entire +repertory," as the actors would say, so that she was able to continue an +attraction for some time to those persons who came to see her and +witness her manifestations out of mere curiosity. + +The frescoing of the walls of the back parlor had been done in lines and +angles, which admitted of any number of apertures being cut and filled +with noiseless pantomime doors, so neatly as to almost defy detection. +The semi-circular platform was raised fully three feet, sloping +considerably to the front, and--whether it did or not--might have +contained a half-dozen "traps" such as are used for stage effects; +while, as is contrary to all rules for lighting places for public +entertainment, the front parlor was lighted very brilliantly, the back +parlor scarcely at all, while but a few glimmering rays fell from the +chandeliers over the platform, where the spirits, like certain "star" +actors, could not appear unless under certain conditions. + +Shortly Mlle. Leveraux conducted Miss Gray through a side door to the +platform, and as the latter smiled recognition to the large number +present, exclamations of "Isn't she sweet?" "How beautiful!" "Almost an +angel as she is!" and other expressions of extreme admiration, filled +the room. + +A deft little woman was Evalena Gray; a sprite of a thing, light, airy, +graceful, and with such a gliding, serpentine motion when walking, +glistening with jewels as she always did, that one instinctively thought +of some lithe and splendid leopard trailing along the edge of a jungle +with an occasional angry flash of sunlight upon it. From her feet, both +of which could have rested within your hand, and given room for just +such another pair, to her shoulders, which were sloping and narrow +though beautifully symmetrical, she was as straight as an arrow. Then +her slender, faultless neck carried her head a little forward, with a +slight bend to the side, which gave her face a half-daring or wholly +appealing expression, as people of different temperaments might look at +it, though it always attracted and held an observer, for it was as +strange a face as its owner was a strange woman. The chin stood there by +itself, though shapely, and at the point was prettily depressed by a +little dimple, just needed to save the lower part of the face from a +shrewish look. Above this the lower lip curved gradually to the edge of +the carmine point, but was stopped there by a sort of drawn look, which +with her dazzling white, though slightly irregular teeth, thin upper lip +quickly parting from the lower, at either pleasure or anger, rather +large, thin nostrils, which noticeably expanded and contracted with the +rise and fall of her not over large bosom, and her languid blue eyes, +one a trifle more closed than the other, but both looking demurely from +under lashes of wonderful depth of sweep and length--all gave the face, +which was witchingly attractive notwithstanding these marked features, +either a plaintively spiritual appearance, or a wickedly fascinating +expression beyond the power of description; while her hair, of that +nameless color which might be formed of gold and silver, mingled and +fell from her fine head, half hiding her delicate ears--pretty and +faultless ears they were--in wonderful richness and profusion. + +Never were seen more beautiful hands and fingers than those belonging to +Miss Gray, and they had a way of assuming all manner of positions in +harmony with the changes of her expressive face and the motions of her +supple form, while her little body was a mere bundle of pliable bones +and elastic sinews, which could compel all manner of contortions without +change of posture, by mere will-power. She was not a beauty; but +altogether, with her real or assumed languor, her strange eyes that +might mean lasciviousness or might arouse your pity, her parted lips +which would seem to protest of weariness or be ready to whisper a +naughty secret to you, with her elf-like form that made her appear at +once a dainty innocent thing and a pretty witch--she was a woman +possessing a terribly fascinating power and capable of any devilish +human accomplishment. + +When the murmurs of admiration had died away, she arose, and in her +languid manner especially prepared for the public, told her audience a +long, though interesting fabrication, of how she first discovered she +was possessed of this blessed spirit-power; how she had at first doubted +it, and endeavored to free herself from its possession; but finally saw +that it could not be forced from her. On thorough conviction that she +was a medium she had begun a laborious scientific investigation into the +subject, and finally resolved to fathom the remotest secret of +Spiritualism. + +But even to her the blessed gates had been barred when she came with +this spirit of unclean scepticism. Still, being assured that it had been +given to her to walk with celestials, her future course was only a +natural sequence. What had most sorely tried her in this life, she +remarked, was to be herself morally sure of these wonderful mediumistic +powers, and then realize how cruelly the world scoffed at her as well as +at all others who were anchored upon the same beautiful faith. To +prevent this and find use for her powers in the highest spheres, she had +travelled in Europe from Rome to St. Petersburg, and from Vienna to +London. + +In every instance the impossibility of any deception being practised in +her manifestations was admitted; but until she had arrived in London, +she had failed to find anybody of repute honest enough to speak the +truth. But there she had met a high-minded man who had broken through +the barriers of prejudice, and, in an open, manly way, fearless of the +sneers of the common herd, or of his business peers, had thoroughly +investigated her exhibitions, found that they had proceeded from +supernatural power, and had publicly stated his belief in their +genuineness. + +With such irrefutable evidence of the possession of this spirit-power, +she was now fulfilling her mission of convincing the public of the +existence of these heaven-inspired phenomena, explainable upon no other +possible theory than that of the inter-communication between this and +the other world of ministering angels, self-determining their actual +existence by more or less perfect materializations. + +With this and much more of the same sort, Evalena Gray began her +revelations, all of which had previously been performed and exposed as +ordinary tricks of an illusionary character, but which were given by the +languid, _spirituelle_ lady with such a show of her being on the +threshold of the celestial spheres, that the very atmosphere, already +charged with everything to provoke mystification and solemn curiosity, +now seemed filled with some weird, supernatural influence and presence. + +First the little lady, who was dressed in white muslin, with long +flowing sleeves exposing very pretty arms, came down from the platform +and seated herself in the centre of the back parlor, inviting the +forming around her of a circle of from twelve to fifteen persons, who +should sit so closely together that there could be no possibility of her +passing out of the circle, and, if the rest of the audience chose, they +might form a circle around the inner circle so that no confederates +might reach her. This was done, when she requested some gentleman to +place his feet upon her tiny feet to assure the audience that she did +not leave her chair. + +Members of the mystic circle then clasped hands, and the lights were +turned off completely. The stillness of death followed, broken only by a +low, shuddering sigh announcing the control of the medium by the +spirits, and immediately after came raps so loud and distinct as to +almost give the impression that an echo followed them. Then the medium +began patting her hands together _as an absolute proof that none of the +succeeding manifestations could by any possible means be produced by +her_. While this continued without interruption, in the face of some +came a whispered "God bless you!" others were patted caressingly upon +the face and head; whiskers and mustaches were delicately tweaked; +watches were taken from one pocket and put into another; a gent's +quizzers would be placed upon a lady's nose, and _vice versa_; music +floated about in the air over the heads of those composing the circle; +lights were seen to glitter like fire-flies above the medium's head, and +a score of other equally startling phenomena occurred. When silence, +with the exception of the soft and delicate, but never-varying +hand-patting, again fell upon the assemblage, a few raps announced the +departure of the spirits; and when the gas was turned on, the dainty +little medium sat in precisely the same position as when the circle was +formed, and the gentleman had taken good care to hold her neat little +feet between his own. A sceptical lady now held Miss Gray's feet--held +them as securely as only a sceptical lady could--when precisely the same +manifestations occurred. Again her feet were secured as before, with the +additional precaution of their being tied. She was then tied to her +chair securely, her hands tied firmly with a large handkerchief, and a +delicate wine-glass filled with water placed upon the floor several feet +from the chair. The lights were again turned off, the raps were heard as +before, and were in turn immediately followed by the hand-patting, and +when the room was again lighted the wine-glass of water was found +delicately poised upon Miss Evalena Gray's head. + +Many startling variations of the same general character were introduced, +and when this portion of the seance was concluded, the astounded company +gathered about the pale and interesting medium with expressions of +unbounded wonder almost amounting to awe, mingled with terms of +endearment; for she sweetly conversed with them for a little time, and, +with rare insight into character, gave each a pleasant word of +recognition especially fitted to every case, in a manner winning beyond +expression. + +She now retired for a short time, while Mlle. Leveraux entertained the +assemblage with selections from her companion's exceptionally +interesting European experiences, as put in form probably by some +enterprising, though impecunious, New York Bohemian. + +When Miss Gray returned she was attired quite differently. Instead of +wearing the white, soft muslin which had given her a peculiarly graceful +appearance, she had donned a closely-fitting basque of black rep silk, +heavily trimmed with the costliest of lace, while the skirts to her +dress were drawn very tightly around her form into a neat panier. + +It _might_ have been noticed by any other person in the room, as it +_was_ noticed by my operative, _that her bust and shoulders seemed to +have undergone considerable change during her absence_. She seemed much +more full across the breast, and her waist was certainly not so narrow +and graceful as when she was operating in muslin within the circle. But +then, the spirits might have caused this sudden growth, and she was +still physically handsome and shapely. + +A committee of gentlemen was then called for, and Miss Gray announced +that she would submit to being tied to a chair as securely as it was in +the power of the gentlemen selected by the audience to tie her; +whereupon Mlle. Leveraux walked about the room and exhibited the rope to +be used, which, though slender, seemed strong as a Mexican lasso. + +There could have been no deception or fraud about this rope. + +The three who had been selected to do the work then expressed their +determination to tie Miss Gray "so the devil himself would have to help +her," as one said, proceeding with the interesting operation in the +bright gaslight, while all the people gathered about as if anxious to +see that it was done properly, or curious to notice how the little woman +would bear the ordeal. They certainly did their work well, and as the +rope was wound around and about her, being drawn taut in every instance, +it seemed to sink into her delicate flesh in a cruel way that made her +wince and tremble, the operation calling forth numberless sympathetic +remarks from those present, which she acknowledged by a painful +martyr-like smile as she patiently bore the infliction until thoroughly +tied. At her special request, as she said, to prevent a stoppage of +circulation, her hands were tied at the wrist over a fold of silk to +prevent abrasion of the flesh; and after all the knots had been sealed +with wax, she was pronounced tied so securely that, without connivance +of confederates, it would require superhuman aid to release her. + +With a pleasant smile she looked around upon the wondering spectators +and said: + +"Good friends, I will absolutely and incontestably prove to you that I +am possessed of that kind of aid. I want you all to form a circle around +me. Every one in the room should join it. Stand so closely together, +clasping hands, that no living person can pass the circle either way." + +The circle was then formed as she had requested, half upon the platform +and half upon the floor, Miss Gray being at least ten feet from any of +the persons composing it. She then asked anxiously: + +"Are you all really satisfied--yes, convinced, that there can be no +shadow or form of deception about this?" + +Some hesitated about giving a decided affirmation to that belief, when +she swiftly singled out the doubters and pressed upon them not only the +privilege, but the desirability and necessity, if they sought the truth, +of personally examining the manner in which she had been tied. After +this had been done and all scepticism had been silenced, she bade them a +cheerful "Good-by!" and closing her eyes in a weary manner, seemed to +pass into a peaceful slumber, as the lights were gradually turned off, +finally leaving the room in total darkness, and with no sound to relieve +the painful stillness save the orthodox rappings announcing the arrival +of the spirits, the hidden music stealing softly to the hushed circle or +the still softer water-wimplings from the fountains making _their_ music +in the carved marble basins. + +It seemed a long time to the breathless people composing the circle, but +probably not more than ten minutes had elapsed when the raps again +startled the listeners, and in an instant the full light of the +chandeliers flooded the room. + +There sat the marvellous Physical Spiritual Medium utterly free, but as +if just recovering from a swoon--the ropes, their seals unbroken, lying +a few feet from the chair. + +[Illustration: _There sat the marvelous Physical-Spiritual medium, +utterly free, but as if just recovering from a swoon.--_] + +There was a simultaneous rush to where she was sitting apparently limp +and exhausted from the great struggle which the spirits had had through +her human personality, to release her from bondage, during which Mlle. +Leveraux took occasion to remark that the strain upon Miss Gray's +powers had been too great, and begged that the ladies and gentlemen +would excuse her at once, as the medium's condition would unfortunately +necessitate the immediate termination of the seance for that evening; +whereupon she left the room supporting the delicate Miss Gray in a +manner that would have done credit to any theatre in the world. + +There was no illusion and could have been no collusion. + +Every one in the parlors had seen the woman tied so firmly that the +ropes had sunk into her very flesh. The circle had been formed so +securely as to admit of the passage out or in of no person whatever. +They had all seen her sitting in the chair in a secure condition, and +could have heard any movement on the part of any person within the +circle who might have attempted to steal to her assistance. But there +were the ropes with unbroken seals, lying there, silent but absolute +evidence that no human agency had uncoiled them. + +In the face of all this, what were reasoning people to believe? + +They could not but believe the one thing that they generally did believe +after having visited Evalena Gray's seances, and that was that there +_does_ exist an intercommunication between this and the "Land of the +Leal;" that all persons at times feel these spirit forces working upon +or within them in different forms and with different degrees of +intensity; and that there are these fine organisms, so free from earthly +conditions or hinderances, as to almost permit the rehabilitation of +spirit-lives which, as truly friendly aids and assistants, often perform +what seem to the comprehension of ordinary mortals as past belief, +giving in their materializations many blessed glimpses of the +spirit-land. + +All of which would be thrillingly pleasant to believe and ruminate over +if it was not true that there are probably hundreds in this country +alone who can do this sort of thing without looking pale and interesting +over it; without necessitating the indorsement of a millionaire brewer +or anybody else; and who would consider it hardly fair to charge two +dollars admission, as Miss Gray did, for the utter humbug of sitting +within a circle as a woman dexterous enough to have her feet held and +then be able with the left hand to pat the right palm for a moment, then +the right arm--made bare from the wrist to the shoulder by the sudden +unloosening of a delicate elastic, clasped into the bracelet--or her +cheek, forehead, or neck, as necessity compelled, but making this +patting incessant and so like that of the two hands, that detection (in +the dark) would be a matter of impossibility; and with this same bared +right arm and hand producing all of these manifestations, ordinarily so +marvellous, even to taking a little music-box out of the pocket, +springing a catch to start the melody, "floating" it all about the heads +of those composing the circle, shutting off the music, and putting the +box in the pocket; or even neatly balancing a wine-glass of water upon +the head. + +And when this was all done, without claiming any particular nearness to +heaven regarding it either, I am satisfied that I have lady operatives +in my employ who can step into a room adjoining a seance-parlor, adjust +a rubber jacket, inflate it, hiding the tube of the same under a +closely-fitting collar, allow themselves to be tied so that the ropes +would seem to cruelly sink into the flesh; and that, after a room had +been darkened ten minutes they would be able to have allowed the air to +so escape from the rubber jacket, that, with the contraction of the form +possible to many, the ropes, with unbroken seals, would almost fall from +their forms of their own weight. + +This is precisely how Miss Evalena Gray performed her tricks. + +They did not reach to the dignity of respectable sleight-of-hand; and I +could go on endlessly multiplying these farces, which are so +continuously and disgustingly played upon the public for just what money +they will bring and nothing more; for who ever saw a Spiritualist that +went about the world bringing ministering spirits from heaven to earth +for the good such materializations might do? And further, who ever saw a +Spiritualistic medium, preacher or lecturer that did not make his +religious faith, assumed or otherwise, yield him his living, and provide +him his luxuries besides? + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + + After the Seance.-- Daddy, the "Accommodation Husband."-- The + two fascinating Swindlers in Council.-- Miss Evalena's + European Career.-- How the Millionaire Brewer was baited + and played with.-- A Bit of Criminal History.-- A choice + Pair.-- Mrs. Winslow's Aspirations and Resolves. + + +It appeared that Miss Evalena Gray and Mlle. Leveraux, and their male +companions, or affinities, did not reside at No. 19 West Twenty-first +street, but in more modest quarters farther down-town; and after the +assemblage had dispersed, the two Misses, an attendant or two, a tall, +gaunt, meek-looking fellow, whom the no longer angelical Evalena called +"Daddy," and a very fascinating young man called in the advertisements +W. Sterling Bischoff, manager, were gathered in the front parlor +previous to being driven home, when W. Sterling said quickly, and as if +suddenly recollecting something which it would not be profitable for him +to forget: + +"See here, Gray; 'most forgot. Here's a note sent over from the Fifth +Avenue. None of your larks now!" + +The person addressed so familiarly as Gray was none other than the +interesting Evalena, who, putting her languor aside, and snatching the +note from the "manager," said: + +"Give it here, now! I'll lark if I like, and _you_ won't hinder." + +"But there's Mr. Gray," persisted the manager, nodding towards the meek, +gaunt man, whose lips seemed to move, though he ventured no remark. + +"Oh, Daddy don't mind, do you, Daddy?" + +[Illustration: _"Oh daddy don't mind:--do you daddy?"--_] + +"Daddy" was Miss Evalena Gray's husband, but was under such peculiarly +good spiritual "control" that he merely smiled a sickly smile and +murmured that he believed not. + +Miss Gray proceeded to examine the note without waiting for the timid +Mr. Gray's opinion, and suddenly exclaimed: + +"Gracious! I'm going right over there!" + +"What for?" inquired Bischoff anxiously, while Mr. Gray's lips pursed +into the form of an unspoken inquiry; "man or woman, eh?" + +"None of your business!" she answered promptly. "Here, Leveraux, help me +on with my wrappings. You drive home. A friend of mine that I haven't +seen for all the last three years is stopping over there, and wants to +see me. I may stay all night. If I shouldn't want to, I'll order a +carriage and come down in an hour or two." + +The three, who were elegantly supported by this woman's juggleries, +seemed to realize that there was no use of opposing her; and without +knowing whether it was a man or woman she intended visiting at that hour +of the night, went gloomily home, while a few minutes later Miss Gray, +unannounced, and at the unseasonable hour of eleven o'clock, was +knocking at the door of Mrs. Winslow's room. + +In a moment more, though Mrs. Winslow was on the point of retiring, and +was in that easy _déshabillé_ in which women love to wander about, doing +a hundred unmentionable and unimportant things before getting into bed +for good, Miss Gray was pushing her lithe form through the cautiously +opened door, and at once unlimbered her tongue and her reserve; the +result of which, as noted by my operative, showed the eminent vulgarity +of the two female frauds, and illustrated the fact that whatever +pretensions they might make, their conversation alone would serve to +discover the inherent and low vileness of their character. + +"Oh, you dear old fraud!" said Evalena, entering, after Mrs. Winslow had +virtuously given herself sufficient time to ascertain that there was no +evil-minded man at the door, and had gladly admitted her visitor; "if +you've got any other company, of course I won't come!" + +Mrs. Winslow laughed knowingly, and then told her visitor how really +glad she was to see her. She was sincere in this, and sincerity, even in +a bad cause, is a redeeming feature. + +"Well, well, you rascal," continued Miss Gray in a jolly, rollicking +sort of a way, "couldn't wait until to-morrow. Where _have_ you been, +what _have_ you been doing, and how _are_ you, anyhow? Come, now, tell +me all about yourself!" + +Saying this in a kind of a rush of excitement, Miss Gray settled +herself in a corner of the luxurious sofa, pulled her feet under her to +get a more comfortable position, and like an interested philosopher, +waited for and listened to the narrative which comprised many of the +facts I have given; but instead of telling the whole truth, only gave +that part of it which made her appear to have been eminently successful +in her swindling operations, and showed life with her to have been +floating calmly upon one continuous, peaceful stream. + +"And now, Evalena," said Mrs. Winslow, rounding off her story with a +great flourish over what she was to make out of Lyon, whom she described +as still madly in love with her, "where have _you_ been, and what have +_you_ been doing since I saw you at Chardon?" + +The glib tongue of the marvellous Physical Spiritual Medium began at +once, and she rattled away at a terrible rate. + +"Well, I've got the same husband----" + +"Oh, pshaw!" interrupted Mrs. Winslow half contemptuously. + +"But he's such a dear, good old fool that I can't throw him over. Why, I +can make him shrink from six feet two to two feet six by just looking at +him! Money couldn't hire such a devoted servant anywhere. He'll do just +anything I tell him; and if I want him out of the way for a few days," +she continued with a comical wink, "I just give him a fifty-dollar bill +and say: 'Daddy, you don't look well; take a run into the country, and +I'll write for you when I want you!' He goes away then with his face +about a yard long. But he goes; and he never made a rumpus in his life!" + +"Oh, that's quite another thing," said Mrs. Winslow, evidently relieved +to know that Miss Gray had had so good a reason for living so long a +time as three years with the same man. + +"Yes, he's what I call an 'accommodation husband.' He accommodates me, +and I--" here Miss Gray sighed piously--"accommodate myself!" + +"Exactly," remarked Mrs. Winslow, beginning to appreciate the pleasant +nature of such an arrangement. + +"Well," resumed the marvellous medium, "we went all through the Ohio +towns giving _exposés_; went out through Chicago, and then down to St. +Louis. But the _exposé_ business didn't pay. We found that people would +pay more money to be humbugged than to learn how some other person might +be deluded!" + +"Every time!" tersely observed Mrs. Winslow. + +"So at St. Louis we resolved to become Spiritualists." + +"The very best thing you could have done!" said Mrs. Winslow +approvingly. + +"And at Quincy," resumed Evalena, "we blossomed out. Oh, but didn't the +papers go for us, though!--called us everything." + +"D----n the newspapers, anyhow!" exclaimed Mrs. Winslow in a burst of +indignation over her own wrongs. + +"Oh, no, no, no! _that_ won't do. Make huge advertising bills. That's +better--much better. That's what _we_ did, and we made big money too. By +and by we came on here to New York, made a huge show, took in a vast +pile, and then went to Europe. Oh, that's the only way to do it!" + +"Yes," said Mrs. Winslow with a deep sigh. "I have often felt the want +of that peculiar tone which going to Europe gives one." + +"Well, we did have a gay time, though," said Miss Gray in a dreamy way, +as if ruminating over her conquests; "and at Venice--oh, that delicious, +ravishing, dreamful Venice!--I bilked a swarthy nobleman from the +mountains out of five thousand dollars. At Rome I did a swell American +out of everything he had. At Vienna, a Hungarian wine-grower fell, and I +trampled upon him as his brutes of peasants beat out the grapes in +vintage-time. At Berlin a German student killed himself for me; and at +St. Petersburg I fooled the Czar himself. But when I got back to London +I got better game than him." + +"Bigger game than the Czar? Oh, my!" exclaimed Mrs. Winslow, thinking +how she had wasted her sweetness on two detectives like Bristol and Fox. + +"Well, bigger game this way," pursued little Miss Gray, reasoning it out +slowly. "This Spiritualistic business can only be played on low, +ignorant people ordinarily. Get the recognition of so big a man as one +of the wealthiest brewers in Great Britain, and then, if Miss Gray has +money and can open sumptuous parlors in so fashionable a vicinity as +Madison Square, and can own a quarter of a column of the New York papers +every day, Miss Evalena Gray's fortune is made. Do you see?" + +Mrs. Winslow did see, but wanted to know how she had secured such +approval. + +Her companion looked at her a moment in blank astonishment; then drawing +down the corners of her mouth as if protesting against such verdancy on +the part of so old a Spiritualistic soldier as Mrs. Winslow, gave a very +expressive series of winks, broke into loud laughter, and then suggested +that if she wanted anything like _that_ explained it would be no more +than fair to order either Krug or Monopolé to help her through so dreary +a recital; whereupon the latter did as requested, and after the two had +washed down a ribald toast with wine, the angelic Miss Gray continued: + +"Well, you see, we came directly from St. Petersburg to London, and got +up a big excitement there right off. The _Times_ denounced us, and we +replied savagely through the _Telegraph_ at a half-crown a line. We kept +this up until all London was engaged in the controversy, and our rooms +were constantly thronged." + +"What luck!" sighed Mrs. Winslow, sipping her wine. + +"By and by the 'nobbies' got discussing the matter at the clubs. We +challenged examination by committees everywhere, of course, and one day +a batch of M.P.s, clergymen, merchants, and all that, came down upon us. +I picked out one man named Perkins--a brewer from the Surrey side, and +one of the wealthiest men in all England, and a man of education and +standing, too--for game right off." + +"Must be lots of fools over in London," remarked Mrs. Winslow, as if +she would like to help pluck them. + +"Yes," answered Miss Gray, "and millions in this country. We're going to +take a run over to Washington this winter." + +"I would if I had your talent," replied her companion. + +"Well," resumed the medium, "I saw Perkins was an easy-going fellow, and +I wrote him, saying it was something unusual for me to do, but as the +'spirits'"--here Miss Gray winked very hard at Mrs. Winslow, who +snickered--"had revealed to me that he was an arrant unbeliever, but at +the same time a fair, honorable man, magnanimous enough to be just--I +wished him to make a private investigation." + +"'Private investigation's' good!" said Mrs. Winslow, laughing heartily. + +"Certainly good for me," continued the little medium in a self-satisfied +way. "He came, though, and I gave him my tricks in my best possible +style. I pretty nearly scared him to death. Then I let him tie me, and +the old man's hands trembled as he put the ropes around my waist and +over my bosom. 'Miss Gray,' said he tenderly, 'I shall injure you!' 'Mr. +Perkins,' I replied, also tenderly, 'the good spirits will protect me. +Pull the ropes tighter!' + +"He pulled the ropes tighter and tighter, and finally got me tied. Then +he darkened the room and in a few minutes I was entirely free of the +ropes of course, and I told him to raise the curtain. As soon as he did +so I left, telling him I was ill; and as soon as I could change my +dress, came back and sat down with him. I got close to him--as close as +I am to you now, Mrs. Winslow--and then, putting my right hand on his +knee, and my left hand on his shoulder----" + +"Splendid!" interrupted Mrs. Winslow, pouring more wine for the +ingenuous Miss Gray, and taking some herself. + +"Then," continued Miss Gray, laughing in a peculiarly wicked manner, "I +got my face pretty close to his and asked: 'Mr. Perkins, I want you to +give me an answer that you are willing to have made public. On your +honor as a man, do you not now believe in the genuineness of these +spiritual manifestations produced through me?' 'I do,' he said +passionately, throwing his arms around me, and--and I don't know what he +would have done had not Leveraux entered the room at that supreme +moment!" + +[Illustration: _"Leveraux entered the room at that supreme moment."--_] + +"Oh, _I_ see!" murmured the other blackmailer. + +"Think of it, Mrs. Winslow!" added Miss Gray tauntingly; "think of it! +In the arms of a man who can draw his check for a million sterling--and +poor little me from Chardon, Ohio!" + +"My! but you are a little rascal, though!" said Mrs. Winslow admiringly. +"I always knew you'd make an impression somewhere." + +"'Leveraux!' said I indignantly, and springing from Perkins's embrace +after I had kissed him in a way that set him shaking again, 'if you ever +breathe a word of this, or annoy Mr. Perkins in any manner under heaven, +I'll kill you! Go!' + +"Poor Leveraux knew her cue and replied hotly, 'I'd kill myself before +I'd do so disgraceful an act!' and then flounced out of the room." + +"_What_ a pair!" exclaimed Mrs. Winslow. + +"He thought I was just perfectly splendid after that; kept coming and +coming, indorsed me publicly, got wild over me; but I held him at arm's +length for months, until I thought the man would really go crazy; and +finally--well, you know I told you Daddy was an 'accommodation husband,' +and if he hadn't been one after I had tripped up one of the richest men +in all England, I would have just hired somebody to have dumped him into +the Thames, sure!" + +The sparkling flow of Miss Gray's experience was here interrupted by +Mrs. Winslow's ordering another bottle of wine, and after the couple had +partaken of the same, the spicy narrative was continued: + +"But now comes the fun, Winslow. I can't tell you _how_ my rope trick is +done. I've got a little addition to it that makes it a regular +sensation. It don't hurt me a particle, and allows the strongest men to +pull away with all their might." + +"I'd give a thousand dollars for it, Evalena," said her friend warmly. + +"No good; no good for you," replied Miss Gray, critically looking over +Mrs. Winslow's splendid physical completeness. "Fact is, Winslow, you +aren't built exactly right for that kind of work. There's too much of +you to do the rope trick with eminent success. I played Daddy as my +brother, and myself for an innocent, so neatly that Perkins honestly +thought he had made a wonderful conquest. He believed it all, for he was +one of those honest fools--in fact, came near being too honest for me." + +"Why, how?" + +"Well, he installed me as his mistress in grand style; but, of course, I +insisted in giving seances and compelled public recognition through +_his_ public recognition of my 'wonderful spirit-power.' The man was so +infatuated that he bored me terribly with his visits. Why, I could +hardly get time to attend to business. You know we always have a stock +of ropes on hand in the seance-rooms, so that when any one objects to +the one I ordinarily use, there are always other ropes at hand that I +_can_ use. One night some fellow broke my best rope, and the next day I +was carelessly practising with another with my door unsecured. Perkins +had been down to Brighton for a week or two, and of course had to rush +over to see me the minute he got in London--to give me a 'happy +surprise,' I suppose. There I sat when he suddenly bolted into the room +and saw the thinness of the whole thing in an instant." + +"What did he see?" asked Mrs. Winslow abruptly. + +"You _are_ shrewd, Winslow, but you can't catch me that way; no, no, no! +But he did see the whole trick as dear as a June day. Do you think I +fainted?" + +"Not much," said her companion tersely. + +"No; but _he_ nearly did. He reeled and staggered as though he had been +struck by a sledge-hammer, and I saw in his face a determination to rush +from the room and denounce me to all London. It was make or break with +me then, Winslow, and with a bound I got to the door, turned the key, +and sent it crashing through a five-pound pane of glass into the street +below. Then I just whipped out this little derringer," she continued, +producing a beautifully mounted, though diminutive weapon, "just run it +right up under his eyes, and backed him into a seat." + +"'Great God!' he whimpered, 'I'm undone! I'm undone!--what a very devil +you are!' + +"My heart did go thumping to see the man used up so; but I had to be +rough, and said: 'Yes, I _am_ a devil, Perkins, and you must pledge me +your word--yes, you must take a solemn oath before that God you have +called upon, that you will never expose me, or I will blow your brains +out!'" + +"Splendid! splendid!" ejaculated Mrs. Winslow. "Did he do it?" + +"I should say he did do it! He got down on his knees and begged like a +baby. And do you know, my blood was up so then, and I so despised him +for his want of manliness, that I came within an ace of killing the +infernal booby!" + +"He deserved it!" said Mrs. Winslow sympathetically. + +"After I had him nearly scared to death," resumed the marvellous medium, +"I began reasoning with him, and, by being excruciatingly tender, +convinced him that by exposing me he would gain nothing, but would lose +in everything that a man of spirit prided in--honor, social reputation, +and business standing, and drew a lively picture of his disgrace at the +clubs and in social circles, and of the cartoons which would certainly +appear in _Punch_ and the other comic papers; and the result was that I +held on to his affection and his purse-strings by compelling him to feel +that my detaining him in the room and threatening to shoot him was the +only thing which prevented him from rashly ruining both. Altogether, +Winslow, I got over two thousand pounds out of him. He wasn't deprived +of a first-class mistress while I remained in London, and--and we are so +good friends now that every little while I get a splendid remittance +from him; and if I ever should want to go back, I could have the very +best in all England!" + +"Well, well, well!" murmured Mrs. Winslow for the want of something +better with which to express her admiration. + +"I _do_ think I played it pretty well," resumed Miss Gray; "and I made +him swallow it all, too. He really believed everything from the moment I +fell into his arms until he caught me with the ropes. I was his +spirit-wife--" another hard wink--"and he my only affinity. Leveraux +helped me in the whole thing splendidly. + +"Who is Mlle. Willie Leveraux?" inquired Mrs. Winslow. + +"She is a sister of Ed. Johnson, the 'bank-burster,' and a keen girl, +too," answered the medium. + +"How did you happen to get hold of her?" + +"Well, you see, Ed. Johnson, Mose Wogle, Frank Dean--'Dago Frank'--and +Dave Cummings, with Chief of Police McGillan and Detective Royal, of +Jersey City, put up a job on the First National Bank there. McGillan was +to keep everybody away from them; and he, or Royal, was to always remain +at headquarters to let the boys off if they got nabbed. They played it +as plaster-workers--Italians, you know--and began working from a room +over the bank down through the ceiling into the vault; but an old +scrub-woman about the place got suspicious, and had them arrested one +day when both McGillan and Royal happened to be in Philadelphia. They +had promised the boys help to break jail, but they failed everywhere; +and Willie, thinking to get Johnson off, went to the bank officers and +told them the whole story. They promised to help her brother, but said +her evidence would have to be corroborated. So she sent for McGillan and +Royal, got them into her rooms, then over on Thirty-seventh street, and +had a Hoboken official in a closet, with a stenographer, who took all +the conversation, which amounted to a complete confession of their +complicity. It never did any good, though. McGillan and Royal got the +most swearing done, and got clear; while Johnson and the rest of the +boys got fifteen years' solitary confinement in the New Jersey +penitentiary. It almost broke Willie down; but she is splendid help +now." + +Mrs. Winslow drew a long sigh, and the two drank again to drown the +doleful feelings raised by this recital; for even high-toned and +uncaught criminals do not find the contemplation of stone walls and iron +bars by any means pleasant and refreshing; and with this lively history +of herself and her companions, the "Marvellous Physical Spiritual +Medium" called a servant, ordered a conveyance, and was driven home, +after having promised to call with her own carriage on the next day; +while Mrs. Winslow, after surveying her own magnificent physique as +reflected in the pier-glass, muttered: + +"_I'll_ make an effort, go to Europe, and, like so many others, win fame +too!" + +Then with a resolute toss of her head the adventuress plumped into her +bed, where, for aught we know, she carried on her vile conquests and +miserable villainies in her dreams the whole night long. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + + Mrs. Winslow demonstrates her Legal Ability.-- The "Breach of + Promise Trial."-- A grand Rally of the Spiritualistic + Friends of the Adventuress.-- The Jury disagree.-- Mrs. + Winslow convicted at St. Louis of Common Barratry.-- An + honest Judge's Rebuke.-- A new Trial.-- The Spiritualistic + Swindler overthrown.-- Remorse and Wretchedness. + + +Mrs. Winslow's stay in New York was rather an interruption to Miss +Evalena Gray's business, as those two champions of the theory that earth +and heaven are connected by a spiritual hyphen only adjustable, or to be +made serviceable, by the brainless imbeciles or the remorseless sharks +of society, to the exclusion of people of purity and worth, indulged in +several lapses from sobriety, and in spiritual love-feasts of such +remarkable length and enthusiasm that W. Sterling Bischoff, Mlle. +Leveraux, and the mournful accommodation husband, "Daddy," became quite +alarmed for the result, were obliged to discontinue the marvellous +seances at No. Nineteen West Twenty-first Street--on account of the +"alarming illness of the fascinating little medium," as the manager was +careful to see that the truthful newspapers announced--and at the close +of a term of spirituous rapture of remarkable intensity and duration, +the three who were vitally interested in Miss Gray's recovery from her +peculiarly alarming illness, managed to part the loving couple, induce +the languid Evalena to return to her fascinations and fools, and sent +Mrs. Winslow to Rochester and her roguery. + +Although her trip to New York had been one of prolonged dissipation, +Mrs. Winslow had evidently gained courage from it from the assurance of +Miss Gray's friendship, and through that ingenious little woman's +recitals of daring and conquest now applied herself with new vigor and +dash to her infamous work. + +During her absence in New York, Superintendent Bangs and a legal +gentleman from Rochester had proceeded to the West and were rapidly +gathering in the harvest of evidence I had reaped, and which +subsequently became so serviceable. + +Mrs. Winslow, seeing she had been outwitted, began diligently arranging +matters for the coming trial, and having lost the main point of +dependence which she had hoped to make in our inability to use the +evidence which she was sure Lyon's counsel could get by a liberal +expenditure of money, which she also knew must be at hand, she began the +tactics of delay, and secured a change of venue from Rochester to +Batavia, on the ground of prejudice; and, without the assistance of +counsel, boldly manœuvred her case nearly as carefully and judiciously +as the most proficient of criminal lawyers. + +Ascertaining that Lyon's counsel had secured damaging evidence against +her in those sections of country where she had previously been the +spiritualistic harlot that she was, she rapidly followed Mr. Bangs and +his companion, and through her wonderful personal magnetism, physical +force, consummate bravado, and skilful manipulations, succeeded in +securing numberless affidavits--not that she was a pure woman, but that +as far as the affiant knew, she was not a bad woman. + +Some, who had given Lyon's counsel depositions comprehensive enough to +have crushed her in court, were compelled by her to depose under oath +that their previous depositions given Mr. Bangs were made under a +misapprehension of facts. Others were induced to swear that they were +mistaken in her identity, which would naturally have the effect of +breaking the chain of evidence connecting her with her numberless +different aliases, and therefore with her numberless offences against +the laws and society; so that unless our work had been, in this respect, +anything but faultless, Mr. Lyon would have certainly suffered defeat. + +As the date of trial at Batavia neared, however, although the woman had +showed great skill in her management of her own case, and had got things +into as good shape for herself as nearly any lawyer in the country could +have done, she suddenly changed her decision regarding conducting the +case personally, and engaged the services of a Rochester lawyer of good +repute, who certainly would not have pleaded her cause had he at first +been aware of her character in the slightest degree. + +At last the case came to trial at Batavia, Judge Williams presiding, and +was considered of sufficient importance to command the quite general +attention of newspapers, and a large number of reporters were in +attendance, while the little city had never before attracted such a +crowd of curious people, brought there and kept there by the great +interest which the trial had awakened. + +Mr. Lyon seldom appeared in court, being detained in Rochester by the +faithful and still voluble Harcout, where the latter busied himself in +predicting Mrs. Winslow's downfall on account of the thorough manner in +which he had conducted matters, and in constant trips to the newspaper +and telegraph offices for the latest news concerning the progress of the +case. + +At Batavia Mrs. Winslow had in some unexplainable manner worked up quite +a feeling in her behalf, and had busily engaged herself, laboring day +and night, in all the little things that form public opinion as well as +cause the application of law to individual preferences, whether justice +enters into such decisions or not. + +Especially was her business ability shown in securing a jury a portion +of whom she brazenly boasted _dare_ not find for the defendant. She had +evidently given up all expectation of a verdict in her favor; but, in +perfect accord with her line of policy to annoy her victim into a +settlement, had arranged matters in every respect so that there would be +delay, that as much as possible nauseating scandal should reach the +public to react upon Lyon, and that in every way the outcome of the case +would be to belittle, bemean and disgrace him, for having had to do in +any way with so bad a woman as she knew herself to be. + +The latter was a point most people's pride would prevent them from +making. She had lost that, but her active mind saw how revolting it all +would be to him, and her cupidity, greed and vindictiveness made the +prosecution a persecution that had a measure of fiendish pleasure in it +for her. + +Here her mental and her pecuniary resources were again demonstrated in a +way that surprised everybody at all cognizant of her habits and history. +The cost of carrying on a case of this importance was very large. Money +had unquestionably been largely used in bribery. Many of the affidavits +she had so expeditiously secured had been purchased outright. The court +costs were no inconsiderable sum. Her lawyer, feeling somewhat doubtful +of her character, and wholly satisfied of her irresponsibility, demanded +his fee--and it was a large one--in advance. But every demand, save +those that would not injure her case by refusing, was promptly met, and +the mysterious source of supply seemed as exhaustless at the end as at +the beginning; though at all times she was a female combination of the +Artful Dodger and Job Trotter, capable of compelling confidence and +sympathy. During the progress of the trial she also had time for the +practice of her spiritualistic mummeries, and so worked upon the +ignorance, passions, and pockets of a few wealthy farmers, who were in +attendance at court, that she drove a thriving trade in revelations and +prophecies that, whatever other effect they might have, certainly +brought her large sums of money. + +Although the larger amount of evidence on both sides was of a +documentary character, the case occupied nearly a week, and public +interest was wrought up to the highest possible pitch of excitement as +day after day some startling episode or dramatic incident was developed; +and finally, when Judge Williams charged the jury and that body retired +for consultation, both sides of the case had been so ably conducted, +such a terrible flood of vileness had been launched upon the community, +and so intense was the feeling against the woman on the part of the +public--who condemn with a terrible intensity when once made aware of +the danger in the heart and life of a social assassin, that the pretty +city of Batavia was all awhirl from agitation and excitement. + +All this had been greatly increased by the following dispatches from St. +Louis to the Rochester papers, which had, of course, been received and +widely read in that section, and were all preceded by an item clipped +from the Detroit _Tribune_, to the effect that the notorious female, +Mrs. Winslow, had been indicted in St. Louis as a common scold, and +several public speakers therein named had better take warning. The first +dispatch read: + +"The trial of Mrs. Winslow, charged with common barratry, has been +proceeding in the Four Courts all day. Scores of lawyers are here from +all parts of the West, as witnesses for the prosecution. The case +excites great interest, a similar one never having occurred in St. Louis +before." + +The second and final dispatch from St. Louis on the subject was: + +"The case of the notorious Mrs. Winslow, indicted for common barratry, +terminated to-day. The jury assessed her punishment to be six months' +imprisonment in the county jail." + +These dispatches, with the editorial comments they evoked, had been +received during the progress of the case, and though it was too late to +offer the facts in evidence as to the woman's character, they had +intensified the feeling against her until Mrs. Winslow was given an +opportunity of realizing something of the depth of human scorn. + +A day passed, but no agreement. What could it mean? the public asked. +The second day, being Sunday, passed slowly over the town, for no news +of the jury could be obtained; and though it was a raw winter's day, the +streets were full of people anxious to learn the result. Monday came and +went, and still the jury were out. Whispers of bribery now began to fly +about the city, and when the fourth day had passed with no agreement and +with repeated requests from the jury that they might be discharged, the +whole city was filled with indignation, while public resentment ran so +high that it was with some personal risk that this exponent of +Spiritualism passed to and fro between the court-room and her hotel. + +Finally, it being ascertained that the jury disagreed irreconcilably, +they were called into court for their discharge, and filed solemnly into +their box. After a silence that could be felt had settled upon the vast +audience, Judge Williams wheeled around, and, facing the jury--many of +whom shrank from his severe and penetrating glance--in a voice of quiet +power, his whole bearing being one of dignified scorn, he delivered with +great solemnity the following well-deserved rebuke and protest against +the corruption of the power of the jury, and its contempt of justice and +the sacred dignity of the Court: + +"GENTLEMEN OF THE JURY--I had hoped you would agree upon a verdict. The +cause is a plain one, and there is no need of a disagreement. Another +trial would be expensive to the county, and would occupy much time. A +second trial would again crowd this court-room with a throng of +auditors, who would listen day after day to the disgusting depositions +which are on file in this cause. One trial such as this is too much for +the decency and morality of any community, and another jury should never +be called to pass upon this case. It is the policy of all courts to +secure agreements from juries, and in such a case as this, more than in +almost any other, a disagreement should not be allowed. + +"You are, after being out four days, irreconcilably divided. Some of +you, I know, are determined to be only guided by the evidence and the +law, as given to you by this Court. For your long and persistent +resistance of all attempts on the part of some of your number to prevent +justice, you are entitled to my sincere thanks and those of all +right-minded men in this community. Others there are upon this jury who, +I am bound to believe, have consulted only their passions and +prejudices; have deliberately ignored the evidence and the instruction +of the Court, and are anxious to perpetrate what they know or might +have known, was gross injustice. If there are such men upon this jury, +their conduct merits severest condemnation. I have great respect for the +honest convictions of jurors, even when I think they are wrong. I could +not censure jurors for honest prejudices; but I can have no respect for +men who, from base and unworthy motives, seek to secure unworthy ends. + +"If any one was to look leniently upon the plaintiff, it would, of +course, be her counsel. But to make twelve honest men ever see that she +was entitled to a verdict of even one cent, is a work that transcends +human ability. + +"One of the plainest principles of law applicable to all civil cases, is +that the plaintiff can only recover where there is a fair preponderance +of evidence in his favor. Upon the principal question in this case--that +is, whether or not there was an agreement of marriage between plaintiff +and defendant--they were the only witnesses. Supposing both to be +equally credible, how can the plaintiff recover when every act affirmed +by her is denied by the defendant? But are they equally credible? The +defendant is proved by the evidence to be a man of character, +reputation, and social position. Who is the plaintiff? By her own +evidence she is one who years ago deserted her husband and three +children in Wisconsin, and commenced the life of an itinerant +fortune-teller. Since then, as a clairvoyant, a mesmerist, a medium, she +has perambulated the country, professing in her handbills to predict +future events and to cure all manner of diseases by her occult arts. + +"She has assumed in her travels those invariable proofs of guilt, +_aliases_. She has been proven, by her own writing, daily conversation, +and every-day conduct, to be grossly profane and indecent. By the +testimony of several unimpeached witnesses, produced by defendant, she +is shown to have been an inmate of a house, or houses, of ill-fame, and +to have committed acts of the most shocking indecency and lewdness. And +yet this is the woman whose testimony some of you have received with +absolute verity, while rejecting the testimony of the defendant as of no +value in comparison with it. The question before you was, whether +between this woman and the defendant there had been a binding contract +of marriage. There is no one of you so low that you would have entered +into such an obligation with this woman. You would have started back in +horror at such a proposition; and yet you have been so lost to decency +that you have seemed determined, by your verdict, to thrust such a +disgrace and outrage upon the defendant! + +"You were told by the Court that if the plaintiff was married at the +time when she said the defendant agreed to marry her, such a promise was +absolutely void. The plaintiff had herself sworn that the promise was +made in 186--, and that she was then, and had remained for nearly two +years thereafter, a married woman. Did not the Court tell you that such +a promise was void? The Court told you that no subsequent ratification +of such a promise could make it binding. The Court further instructed +you that if the plaintiff was unchaste at the time of the promise of +marriage, and her unchastity was not known to defendant, that the +marriage contract, if entered into, was not binding. The entire record +in this case teems with the history of her licentiousness. No witness +has been so reckless as to swear that within the last ten years she has +had either virtuous habits or virtuous associations. That she was +virtuous in 1860, or rather, that if then vicious, her character in this +regard was then unknown to her neighbors in Indiana and Wisconsin, is +rendered highly probable from the evidence. But there was a period +preceding this by many years, when the maiden merged into the woman, +that the almost exhaustless evidence produced by the defendant shows to +have been a time without shame, and when her keen shrewdness and wicked +nature had already been developed to a degree of depravity beyond human +belief; and there has since been a period when the vilest inmate of the +lowest den of prostitution was happy in her virgin purity in comparison +with this woman! + +"Previous to the first-mentioned time the plaintiff had followed the +army of the Southwest in its weary marches--not, however, as the +evidence discloses, for any honest purpose. She had wandered infinitely +further from purity than from her Northern home. And yet you have at +tempted to render a verdict that after all these wanderings, and after +this incomparably vile career, she is fit to become the wife of a +respectable citizen of Rochester, the mistress of his mansion, and the +sharer of his large fortune. + +"You were further instructed that if a promise of marriage had been +made, and if the plaintiff had at that time been virtuous, and had +subsequently become unchaste the defendant was released from the +obligation of such a promise; what regard, in view of the evidence in +this case, have you paid to that instruction? + +"Am I too severe, then, when I say that when, through four long days and +nights in your jury room, some of this jury have attempted to force a +verdict in favor of the plaintiff, notwithstanding she was not entitled +to it, and the defendant's witnesses had proven that she was utterly +unworthy of it, you have been actuated by passion and prejudice, and +have attempted to pervert justice? Had you been able to infect all your +comrades with your pestilential breath, and had a verdict in her favor +been rendered, I should certainly have set it aside immediately. + +"I cannot but express my severest censure at the result of this cause at +your hands, knowing, as I cannot but know, that the same vile +machinations which have left a hideous trail of this female monster over +every portion of the land, have brought about this disagreement which is +a shame and a disgrace to yourselves, to Genesee County, and this +Court!" + +The suit necessarily went over to the next term of court, over which +Judge Williams also presided, when no developments worthy of note +occurred, the same evidence being introduced, the same tactics on the +part of Mrs. Winslow--who, however, had been obliged to secure new +counsel--being attempted, and the same crowd of morbid curiosity-seekers +being in attendance. + +But the woman had by this time become too well known for the slightest +hope of success, or even to enable her to receive the ordinary +consideration and protection of the Court. + +Without leaving their seats the jury found for the defendant, and the +woman, defeated yet insolent and daring, passed out into the +summer-decked streets of the little city of Batavia a scorned, dreaded +being, driven from everything but infamous memory. + +I was never sufficiently interested in Le Compte to trace his future, +but it is safe to say that he never visited "La belle France" and +"Paris, the beautiful, the sublime, the magnificent," in company with +the once fascinating Mrs. Winslow. + +Harcout is still the pompous henchman of the harassed millionaire, Mr. +Lyon, and quite covered himself with glory from having claimed the +entire work of securing the evidence that caused the overthrow of the +adventuress. + +Were I a novelist, rather than a detective and obliged to relate facts, +I could have made an effective climax by a tragic meeting between +Harcout and Mrs. Winslow, where Lilly Nettleton would have recognized +the Rev. Mr. Bland and wreaked summary vengeance upon him; but, so far +as I am aware, they never met, and the much-named social scourge is now +wearing out an inconceivably vile and wretched old age--the irrevocable +result of her course of life--an outcast and a wanderer among the lowest +classes that people portions of the Pacific Slope cities, with remorse +and wretchedness behind, and utter hopelessness beyond; while Mr. Lyon, +now a feeble old man, who has atoned, through regrets and humiliations, +for his part of the wrong launched through his as well as her sin upon +society, has at least become thoroughly satisfied of the thousands of +evils following in the trail of this so-called spirit-power, his fulness +of knowledge of its workings having been gained through this particular +experience with THE SPIRITUALISTS AND THE DETECTIVES. + + +THE END. + + + + +G. W. DILLINGHAM, Successor. + +1889. 1889. + +G. W. CARLETON & CO. + +NEW BOOKS + +AND NEW EDITIONS, + +RECENTLY ISSUED BY + + G. W. DILLINGHAM, Publisher, + Successor to G. W. CARLETON & CO., + 33 West 23d Street, New York. + +*** + + The Publisher on receipt of price, will send any book + on this Catalogue by mail, _postage free_. + +*** + +All handsomely bound in cloth, with gilt backs suitable for libraries. + + +Mary J. 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Do. 1 75 + Led Astray--By Octave Feuillet. 1 50 + Lava Fires--Smith. 1 50 + The Darling of an Empire. 1 50 + Confessions of Two. 1 50 + Nina's Peril--By Mrs. Miller. 1 50 + Marguerite's Journal--For Girls. 1 50 + Orpheus C. Kerr--Four vols. in one. 2 00 + Spell-Bound--Alexandre Dumas. 75 + Purple and Fine Linen--Fawcett. 1 50 + Pauline's Trial--L. D. Courtney. 1 50 + Tancredi--Dr. E. A. Wood. 1 50 + Measure for Measure--Stanley. 1 50 + Charette--An American novel. 1 50 + Fairfax--By John Esten Cooke. 1 50 + Hilt to Hilt. Do. 1 50 + Out of the Foam. Do. 1 50 + Hammer and Rapier. Do. 1 50 + Kenneth--By Sallie A. Brock. 1 75 + Heart Hungry--Mrs. Westmoreland. 1 50 + Clifford Troupe. Do. 1 50 + Price of a Life--R. F. Sturgis. 1 50 + Marston Hall--L. Ella Byrd. 1 50 + Conquered--By a New Author. 1 50 + Tales from the Popular Operas. 1 50 + Edith Murray--Joanna Mathews. 1 50 + San Miniato--Mrs. C. V. Hamilton. 1 00 + All for Her--A Tale of New York. 1 50 + L'Assommoir--Zola's great novel. 1 00 + Vesta Vane--By L. King, R. 1 50 + Walworth's Novels--Seven vols. 1 50 + + + + +MRS. MARY J. HOLMES' WORKS. + +*** + + TEMPEST AND SUNSHINE. + ENGLISH ORPHANS. + HOMESTEAD ON HILLSIDE. + 'LENA RIVERS. + MEADOW BROOK. + DORA DEANE. + COUSIN MAUDE. + MARIAN GREY. + EDITH LYLE. + DAISY THORNTON. + CHATEAU D'OR. + QUEENIE HETHERTON. + BESSIE'S FORTUNE. + DARKNESS AND DAYLIGHT. + HUGH WORTHINGTON. + CAMERON PRIDE. + ROSE MATHER. + ETHELYN'S MISTAKE. + MILLBANK. + EDNA BROWNING. + WEST LAWN. + MILDRED. + FOREST HOUSE. + MADELINE. + CHRISTMAS STORIES. + GRETCHEN. (_New._) + +OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. + +"Mrs. Holmes' stories are universally read. Her admirers are numberless. +She is in many respects without a rival in the world of fiction. Her +characters are always life-like, and she makes them talk and act like +human beings, subject to the same emotions, swayed by the same passions, +and actuated by the same motives which are common among men and women of +every-day existence. Mrs. Holmes is very happy in portraying domestic +life. Old and young peruse her stories with great delight, for she +writes in a style that all can comprehend."--_New York Weekly._ + +THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW, vol. 81, page 557, says of Mrs. Mary J. +Holmes' novel "English Orphans":--"With this novel of Mrs. Holmes' we +have been charmed, and so have a pretty numerous circle of +discriminating readers to whom we have lent it. The characterization is +exquisite, especially so far as concerns rural and village life, of +which there are some pictures that deserve to be hung up in perpetual +memory of types of humanity fast becoming extinct. The dialogues are +generally brief, pointed, and appropriate. The plot seems simple, so +easily and naturally is it developed and consummated. Moreover, the +story thus gracefully constructed and written, inculcates without +obtruding, not only pure Christian morality in general, but, with +especial point and power, the dependence of true success on character, +and of true respectability on merit." + +"Mrs. Holmes' stories are all of a domestic character, and their +interest, therefore, is not so intense as if they were more highly +seasoned with sensationalism, but it is of a healthy and abiding +character. The interest in her tales begins at once, and is maintained +to the close. Her sentiments are so sound, her sympathies so warm and +ready, and her knowledge of manners, character, and the varied incidents +of ordinary life is so thorough, that she would find it difficult to +write any other than an excellent tale if she were to try it."--_Boston +Banner._ + +*** + +☛The volumes are all handsomely printed and bound in cloth, sold +everywhere, and sent by mail, _postage free_, on receipt of price [$1.50 +each], by + + G. W. DILLINGHAM, Publisher, + _Successor to G. W. CARLETON & CO._, + 33 W. 23d St., NEW YORK. + + + + +CHARLES DICKENS' WORKS. + +A NEW EDITION. + + +Among the many editions of the works of this greatest of English +Novelists, there has not been until _now_ one that entirely satisfies +the public demand.--Without exception, they each have some strong +distinctive objection,--either the form and dimensions of the volumes +are unhandy--or, the type is small and indistinct--or, the illustrations +are unsatisfactory--or, the binding is poor--or, the price is too high. + +An entirely new edition is _now_, however, published by G. W. Carleton & +Co., of New York, which, in every respect, completely satisfies the +popular demand.--It is known as + +"Carleton's New Illustrated Edition." + +COMPLETE IN 15 VOLUMES. + +The size and form is most convenient for holding,--the type is entirely +new, and of a clear and open character that has received the approval of +the reading community in other works. + +The illustrations are by the original artists chosen by Charles Dickens +himself--and the paper, printing, and binding are of an attractive and +substantial character. + +This beautiful new edition is complete in 15 volumes--at the extremely +reasonable price of $1.50 per volume, as follows:-- + + 1.--PICKWICK PAPERS AND CATALOGUE. + 2.--OLIVER TWIST.--UNCOMMERCIAL TRAVELLER. + 3.--DAVID COPPERFIELD. + 4.--GREAT EXPECTATIONS--ITALY AND AMERICA. + 5.--DOMBEY AND SON. + 6.--BARNABY RUDGE AND EDWIN DROOD. + 7.--NICHOLAS NICKLEBY. + 8.--CURIOSITY SHOP AND MISCELLANEOUS. + 9.--BLEAK HOUSE. + 10.--LITTLE DORRIT. + 11.--MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT. + 12.--OUR MUTUAL FRIEND. + 13.--CHRISTMAS BOOKS.--TALE OF TWO CITIES. + 14.--SKETCHES BY BOZ AND HARD TIMES. + 15.--CHILD'S ENGLAND AND MISCELLANEOUS. + +The first volume--Pickwick Papers--contains an alphabetical catalogue of +all of Charles Dickens' writings, with their exact positions in the +volumes. + +This edition is sold by Booksellers, everywhere--and single specimen +copies will be forwarded by mail, _postage free_, on receipt of price +$1.50 by + + G. W. DILLINGHAM, Publisher, + _Successor to G. W. CARLETON & CO._, + 33 W. 23d St., NEW YORK. + + + + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Transcriber's Note: + + +Minor punctuation errors (e.g. missing or misprinted periods, commas, +and quotation marks) and poorly printed letters have been corrected +without note. Other than the corrections listed below, all spelling +variants have been left as in the original. + +The following changes were made to the text: + +Front Matter: EXPRESSMEN to EXPRESSMAN (6.--EXPRESSMAN AND DETECTIVES.) + +p. 21: smoothy to smoothly (smoothly-shaven face) + +pp. 32, 38, and 45: Lily to Lilly + +p. 38: unmanagable to unmanageable (she became almost unmanageable) + +p. 62: wildet to wildest (the wildest affection) + +p. 68: wherupon to whereupon (whereupon she had raised) + +p. 78: Bang's to Bangs's (put in Mr. Bangs's hands) + +p. 94: povety-stricken to poverty-stricken (and the poverty-stricken +hovel) + +p. 106: Waverly to Waverley (After taking dinner at the Waverley,) + +p. 114: deshabille to déshabillé (_en déshabillé_) + +p. 127: interspering to interspersing (interspersing it with a few) + +p. 153: role to _rôle_ (she had assumed the _rôle_) + +p. 158: removed duplicated "to" (better wife 'n she was to me) + +p. 168: _role_ to _rôle_ (continue the _rôle_) + +p. 176: removed extra "a" ("a this morning's paper" to "this morning's +paper") + +p. 278: havn't to haven't (you haven't found her) + +p. 311: Evalina to Evalena (upon which Miss Evalena Gray) + +p. 325: Evelena to Evalena (how Miss Evalena Gray performed) + +pp. 334-335 (Illustration caption), 338 and 341: Levereaux to Leveraux + +Advertisements (end of book): Agusta to Augusta (Augusta J. Evans' +Novels.), Expressmen to Expressman (Expressman and Detectives), "and +Detectives" to "as a Detective" (Claude Melnotte as a Detective), +Marryatt to Marryat (Wild Oats--Florence Marryat.) + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Spiritualists and the Detectives, by +Allan Pinkerton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SPIRITUALISTS AND THE DETECTIVES *** + +***** This file should be named 32007-0.txt or 32007-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/0/0/32007/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, S.D., and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +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. 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