CHAPTER VII.
THE WAGES OF SIN.
In the private room to which he had led him, Moses Flood paid Kendall his winnings. As he took a portion of the funds from a huge safe in one corner, he said coldly:
“I must give you part of the amount in government bonds, Mr. Kendall.”
“Anything—anything easily convertible,” faltered Kendall, half choked with emotion.
He could hardly realize what had befallen him, that he really had won all that he required to rectify his deficit at the bank, and that he then and there was to receive the money that would save him from flight, a defaulter’s last resort, or the shame of a convict’s cell.
He feared each moment that he would awake, that he would find it all a dream, and behold again the soul-sickening image of his dreadful crime leering at him with mocking eyes.
“The package will be quite bulky, and I will loan you a small portmanteau,” said Flood, placing the satchel mentioned and several bundles of bank-notes and bonds upon the table.
Kendall tottered nearer, then suddenly gave way to sobs and covered his face with his hands.
“Oh, God! God above!” he cried brokenly. “Flood, you do not know, you cannot know, what this means to me!”
Moses Flood drew himself up and laid his hand on the speaker’s shoulder.
“Kendall,” said he, with grave austerity, “you are not rightly tempered to be a gamester. Take the advice of a gamester, however, and for the sake of those who love you, if not for your own, never again face a faro layout or play a card for money.”
“Never, never, so help me God!” cried Kendall, with uplifted hands.
“If you adhere to that vow, I shall not feel to-night that I have suffered any loss,” said Flood, with a strange light upon his white, forceful face.
Then he tossed into the satchel the deck of cards with which he had dealt the game.
“I shall give you those cards also, Kendall,” said he oddly. “They are the ones I have been using. Keep them until I come and demand them of you. Some day you may know why I ask you to do this. Some day I may wish to recall to your mind what I to-night have—— Ah, but it does not matter.”
“I will keep them,” declared Kendall fervently. “God hearing me, I will keep them.”
Flood had already closed and tightly strapped the satchel, which he now hastened to place in Kendall’s hand.
“I pledge my word that the amount is right,” he said, with some feeling. “Now go as quickly as you can, and remember your promise! Go—go—and remember!”
Still profoundly agitated, Kendall hurried from the room, ignoring all observers, forgetful even of his sleeping friend upon the couch, and thus hastened alone from the house and sought the cool air of the early evening.
Nick Carter saw him emerge from the room, and Chick leaned nearer, saying softly:
“Shall I shadow him, Nick?”
The famous detective shook his head.
“No, Chick,” said he quietly. “There is no need of it.”
“Do you think so?”
“I feel assured. The man’s face tells the story. He is, indeed, short at the bank, but he will use this money to make good the deficit and conceal his crime. I am as sure of it as if I saw it done.”
Nick was entirely correct as to Kendall’s intentions, and, recalling Gilsey’s instructions, he saw no occasion to go beyond them. He was thinking, too, of Dora Royal, of the promise he had made her, and of what Flood that night had done, believing it to be for her sake. Now, feeling sure of his man, Nick would not for the world have perverted the design and desires of Moses Flood.
The latter again appeared upon the scene while Nick was speaking, and at the same moment the sound of a heavy fall started all hearers. It was almost immediately followed by a maudlin laugh, and the man who had been so long sleeping on the couch was seen rising unsteadily from the floor beside it.
“Ha, ha! I reckon I fell out of bed,” he cried, in half-drunken tones, as he gained his feet and stared with dazed eyes toward the group of players at the table.
Though nearly twenty-three Harry Royal looked to be little more than a youth. When sober, he was a handsome fellow, yet his features indicated a weak and yielding nature, and he was no sooner loosed from the restrictions of his home life to attend college than he proved an easy victim to the temptations which had brought him to his present condition.
“How are they coming, Kendall?” he continued, swaying unsteadily and failing to observe that his friend had departed. “Are you winning our expenses? Have you——”
Then he caught sight of Flood approaching, and he reeled toward him with extended hand, crying boisterously:
“Hello, Mose, old man! Glad to see you, on my word I am.”
“And I am sorry to see you, Royal, in this condition,” Flood gravely rejoined.
“Faugh! Cut that out, Mose,” cried Royal, flushing slightly and shaking his head to clear it of the cobwebs. “It’s only now and then, old man. We are just back from Beantown, Kendall and I, and winding up a devil’s own racket.”
“So it appears.”
“We painted Boston crimson, Mose, on my word. I say, Kendall, how are the cards winning? I’m in with this play, old chap, win or lose. Partners——”
“What!”
The words broke involuntarily from Flood, with a look of sudden dismay, but the humpback hastened to cry:
“No, no, Mr. Royal, you’re not! Kendall went broke on your mutual play, I give you my word. You were not in with the last—you were asleep when he——”
“You lie! I am in with him!” Royal angrily interrupted. “Where has he gone? The devil take him, he treats me like a schoolboy. I say I was in with his play. Did he win? Tell me, did he win?”
Before Flood could respond, one of the players cried a bit derisively:
“No, I guess not, Harry! Only a cool ninety thousand!”
The face of Harry Royal grew dark as a thunder-cloud. He at once suspected that Kendall had proven false, and was bent upon cheating him of a part of the winnings, an idea somewhat warranted by the latter’s apparently secret departure. The possibility of thus being wronged seemed to arouse the very worst passions of which the intoxicated young man was capable. With a scream of rage, he darted to the couch and seized his hat.
“Ninety thousand—and I’ve heard him say he meant to jump the country!” he cried wildly. “I’ll have my share of it, Mose. Do you hear me—I was in with his play! He means to do me—curse him; but I know where to find him! I’ll have my half, or I’ll have his life!”
“Peace!” thundered Flood, with terrible sternness. “Do you know where you are and what you are saying?”
“Let go—let go my arm!” frothed the frenzied youth, struggling furiously in the other’s grasp. “You don’t know him as I do. I know where to find him—he has an appointment to-night with my—— Let go, I say! If he is not at the rectory, he means to swindle me. Let go, Mose; or I’ll strike you! I will have what’s coming to me, or I’ll have his life!”
With the infuriated words ringing from his lips he wrenched himself free, and before he could be prevented he had thrown down the bar from across the door and fled like a madman down the hall stairs.
“Wayward fool!” exclaimed Flood, thoroughly disgusted, yet anticipating no serious results from the passionate threats. “He is a crazy ass when in liquor.”
“I should say so.”
“Bruce, I am going out for about an hour. If he returns before I come in, ask him to wait for me. I have a few words of advice for his foolish ears.”
“Very well, sir.”
A strange place is a faro-bank. The excitement had passed, and the game was again in progress. Not a man had moved from his seat at the table.
With features in no way betraying his feelings, Moses Flood put on his coat and hat, took a heavy, ironwood cane from a stand in one corner, and signed for Green to accompany him to the door. On the threshold he paused for a moment, fixing his piercing eyes upon those of the humpback, and said, barely above his breath, yet with indescribable intensity:
“Remember, John! Not one word!”
“Never, sir; so help me God!”
Then Flood was gone, and the door closed with a bang.
Five minutes later Nick Carter, who had not deemed it worth his while to interfere, which step might have suggested his identity, signed for Chick to accompany him, and they left the place together.
“There was nothing more for us there,” remarked Nick, as they headed for home. “If ever a man in a bad corner made a lucky play, Kendall has made one this night.”
“I’m blessed if I can see through it!” said Chick, perplexedly. “What has come over Flood that he should do such a thing as that?”
“The sentiment which quite often brings out the very best part of a man,” replied Nick gravely.
“Love?”
“Precisely.”
“But——”
“Wait till we get home, Chick, and I will then explain.”
“Good enough,” laughed Chick. “I reckon I can wait.”
Seated together in the library of Nick’s residence, half-an-hour later, the latter took up the subject where he had dropped it on the street.
“Love, that’s it,” said Nick, lighting a cigar. “And it’s just what I would have expected of Mose Flood. He’s as odd a man as stands in leather. As grand a man, too, barring his one deplorable vice.”
“He has a legion of friends, Nick, there’s no doubt of that,” observed Chick. “You say that he is in love with Doctor Royal’s daughter, eh? Was that what led to his move of to-night?”
“Exactly,” nodded Nick. “There’s a curious side to the affair, however. Flood has never told the girl of his love, and he has no idea that she cares for him. He took the rector’s word for it this afternoon that she loves Kendall and is engaged to marry him.”
“Well?”
“In some way, Chick, he must have learned that Kendall is short in his accounts to the tune of ninety thousand dollars.”
“So he forced Kendall to win that amount, knowing that he would use it to square himself? Was that it?”
“No doubt of it.”
“But why did he not give Kendall the money openly, without compelling him to make a play for it?”
“For several reasons, all characteristic of Moses Flood. First, he aimed to insure that Dora Royal should never learn of Kendall’s crime, or that he had saved him in this way for her sake. He does not want the girl to feel under obligations to him. Possibly he feared that she might object to her lover’s accepting money from a gambler, even to keep him out of jail. Second, he aimed to spare Kendall the shame of knowing that his crime had been discovered, or was at least suspected. So he forced him to win the money, instead of giving it to him openly.”
“By Jove! that was good of him.”
“It was just like him, Chick. He has saved this man for love of that girl, and it cost him ninety thousand dollars to do it, with never a possibility that his magnanimity would be discovered, or that a word of gratitude would ever be given him. Chick, such a man as that is worthy of any girl, whether she’s a clergyman’s daughter or not.”
“And I hope he gets her,” cried Chick bluntly.
“We shall see,” smiled Nick significantly. “I reckon I yet may have a finger in this pie.”
“I now see why you did not wish to arrest Kendall.”
“Surely not, Chick. I am convinced that Kendall will use that money to adjust his affairs at the bank. Feeling sure of that, I determined not to pervert Flood’s lofty design, on which he had plainly set his heart.”
“His cuekeeper must have known what came off?”
“The humpback?”
“Yes.”
“That is true,” admitted Nick, “but Flood evidently knows that he can trust him to say nothing about it. Furthermore, Chick, the cuekeeper is probably entirely ignorant of Flood’s motive.”
“No doubt of it.”
“There is one feature of the case,” added Nick, rather more grimly, “concerning which I am very much in the dark.”
“What is that, Nick?”
“How the dickens did Flood learn that Kendall was short at the bank?”
“By Jove! that’s strange.”
“I reckon we have not heard the last of the case, Chick, and that something serious may yet result from it. There is no evading one fact, however. Flood has a heart as big as that of an ox, since he would thus save a man for the sake of a girl he himself loves, instead of jealously knocking his pins from under him. In days to come I’ll not forget this in Moses Flood.”
The very next morning, which was sooner than Nick expected, his prediction concerning the outcome of the case was startlingly verified. He was seated with Chick in his office, about eight o’clock, when a district telegraph boy brought in a message. Nick tore it open and read it, then leaped involuntarily to his feet.
“What is it, Nick?” demanded Chick impulsively.
“The wages of sin is death!” cried Nick, with thrilling accents. “This message is from Dora Royal, asking me to come at once.”
“For what?”
“Cecil Kendall was found murdered in the rectory grounds this morning!”
CHAPTER VIII.
BY WHOSE HAND?
Recalling the promise given Medora Royal, and now feeling a decided interest in the case itself, Nick Carter at once hastened to Fordham, and approached the rectory just before nine o’clock.
The news of the crime had spread, and at one of the side gates a curious crowd had gathered, restrained from entering the grounds by one of the local police.
Near the house, and at some distance from the street, was a group of men, including several officers and a physician, also the rector himself, all apparently interested in the doctor’s examination of a body lying upon the ground at their feet.
That Doctor Royal was among them, rather than in the house, suited Nick to the letter. Slipping into a disguise, that he might not thus early be identified with the case, Nick hastened to the adjoining cross-street on which the dwelling fronted. There he encountered none to oppose his entrance, and he strode quickly up the long gravel walk and rang the door-bell.
The summons brought Dora Royal to the door, and Nick, observing her shrink with surprise, quickly made himself known.
“I come in response to your telegram, Miss Royal.”
“But you are not Mr.——”
“Oh, yes, I am,” interposed Nick significantly. “I do not wish to be recognized by others, however. I want a word with you alone, that I may add to the instructions I gave you yesterday.”
Now convinced of his identity, Medora Royal hastened to admit him to a reception-room, the door of which Nick quietly closed.
“Our interview must be very brief, Miss Royal, for I wish to have a look at the evidence out yonder before it is seriously disturbed,” said he, declining a chair. “First, however, state anything that you know of the affair.”
“I know but very little, sir, save that it is most dreadful,” said the girl, pale and agitated.
“That is true, Miss Royal, but I wish to get at the superficial facts as quickly as possible.”
“If you will question me, sir, perhaps I more readily can——”
“I will do so,” interposed Nick, appreciating her nervous excitement. “Tell me when and by whom the body was discovered?”
“About eight o’clock, sir, and by a young man who is employed here as a gardener.”
“It is that of Cecil Kendall?”
“Alas, yes.”
“Dead?”
“For many hours, surely. He appears to have been killed with a——”
“Wait for my questions, please,” said Nick. “Was Kendall here in the house last evening?”
“He was not.”
“Who was here?”
“Only my father, myself, and two servants,” replied Dora. “We all retired soon after nine o’clock.”
“What of your brother?”
“He has not yet returned from Boston. That is, sir, unless—unless——”
“Unless what, Miss Royal?”
“Unless he arrived in New York yesterday, and remained at his room in the city.”
“Very probably that is what he did,” nodded Nick, both to relieve the girl and conceal his own misgivings. “Where is his room in town, Miss Royal?”
“At the Carleton Chambers. He prefers to keep a room there, rather than come out each night from college.”
“I see,” bowed Nick. “Now tell me, has your father said anything to you about his interview with Moses Flood?”
“Not one word, sir.”
“And you have had no callers here since yesterday afternoon?”
“None, Detective Carter.”
“Kindly do not mention my name, Miss Royal,” smiled Nick. “Even the walls may have ears.”
“I will be more guarded, sir.”
“And if you are still willing to follow my advice, I wish to add to my instructions,” said Nick, now having learned the important facts which she could impart to him.
“I am more than anxious to do so,” Dora answered feelingly. “Your immediate response to my telegram convinces me that you have my welfare at heart, and I will be rigidly governed by your instructions.”
“It will ultimately prove to your advantage,” said Nick earnestly. “I shall leave no stone unturned to bring about that which is dearest to you. This murder, however, if such it is, threatens to create serious complications, and it will very possibly circumstantially incriminate innocent parties.”
“Oh, oh, is it possible?”
“Let come what may, Miss Royal, I want you to trust the case entirely to me, and do exactly what I advise.”
“Indeed, sir, I will.”
“Under no circumstances are you to mention me in connection with the case, nor disclose our relations.”
“I will not.”
“Furthermore, whatever happens, or whoever appears to be involved, you must volunteer no opinion of the case. If you are questioned, however, answer precisely the same as if you had not overheard your father’s interview with Moses Flood, and as if you and I had never met. Will you do this?”
“I certainly will.”
“Then you may safely leave all the rest to me,” declared Nick warmly. “By whom did you send the telegram this morning?”
“By our chambermaid.”
“Does she know to whom it was addressed, or of what it consisted?”
“Neither, sir. I sent it to the telegraph office under seal.”
“Very good,” said Nick approvingly. “Be equally guarded in the future, or till I further advise you. This must be all for the present, Miss Royal, as I wish to make a few investigations outside. I will leave by the front door and pass around the house, that our interview here may not be suspected.”
“But how am I to repay you, or thank you for——”
“By following my instructions to the letter,” Nick gently interposed, as he led the troubled girl into the hall. “Keep them constantly in mind and trust me to be constantly alert to your interests. No more now, Miss Royal. You shall hear from me later.”
The last was said at the open door, and with the final word Nick nodded and smiled encouragingly, then left the veranda and quickly made his way around the house.
The interview had occupied but a very few minutes, and as Nick approached the group of men gathered near Kendall’s body, the physician was just about concluding his examination of the remains.
With a few rapid glances Nick took in the superficial evidence bearing upon the crime. The body lay upon the greensward to the right of a gravel walk leading around the house, and nearly midway between the walk and the library windows. The plot of grass between the walk and the house was about ten feet wide, and Nick promptly deduced one important point.
“There is no door on this side of the house, nor any direct approach to one from either gate,” he quickly reasoned. “Evidently Kendall came around here to peer through the library window before entering the house, and was struck down as he approached, or while quietly withdrawing. For some reason he must have aimed to learn who was within.”
A glance at the gravel walk and the greensward near-by, however, gave Nick no clue. If Kendall’s assailant had left any telltale footprints behind him, both his own and those that might have revealed the movements of his victim had been obliterated by the heavy tread of the several men gathered about the murdered man.
The body evidently lay where it had fallen, with arms outstretched and face upturned, gory and ghastly in the morning sunlight. The skull had been fractured by several blows with a heavy weapon, obviously a bludgeon of some kind, and from the shocking wounds the blood had oozed over the brow and hair of the stricken man, forming a sickening pool in the matted grass on which his head rested.
“Clad just as he was when he left Flood’s gambling-house,” thought Nick. “He must have come directly out here. There’s no sign of the satchel, however, in which he had brought away his winnings. It looks as if the motive was robbery.”
And Nick recalled the frenzied threats of young Harry Royal, but decided it was too early in the game to draw any reliable conclusions.
Nick reverted almost immediately to the physician, who had risen while wiping his soiled hands, and now addressed his several companions. Three of these were officers of the local police, among them Captain Talbot, of the precinct station, and one was a plain-clothes man from the central office, Detective Joe Gerry.
Nick knew all of them very well, and they him, yet for the present he preferred to hide his identity.
“A case of murder, Detective Gerry, that’s what it is,” declared the physician, turning to the central office man. “The question is, By whose hand was the crime committed?”
“How long has he been dead?” demanded Gerry bluntly.
“About twelve hours.”
“That would be since nine o’clock last evening?”
“That hits very near to it,” replied the physician.
“You are sure of this man’s identity, Doctor Royal?”
“Positively,” cried the rector, obviously much agitated. “He has been a frequent visitor here. I cannot comprehend how such a fate could have befallen him.”
“I’ll admit that the motive appears to be obscure,” replied Gerry, staring down at the body. “It cannot have been robbery, for neither his jewelry nor his pocketbook has been taken. No, no, the motive cannot have been robbery.”
“You’ll change your mind, Gerry, when you learn that this man won ninety thousand dollars just before coming out here,” said Nick to himself.
“Are some of your men searching the grounds for evidence, Talbot?” inquired Gerry, turning to the captain of police.
“Yes, several of them,” nodded Captain Talbot.
The detective reverted to Doctor Royal.
“Were you at home last evening?” he demanded.
“I was,” bowed the rector. “Both my daughter and myself.”
“Did you have any callers?”
“None, sir. We were alone all the evening.”
“In what part of the house?”
“In the library, sir, from dinner until after nine o’clock.”
“Where is the library located?”
“These are the windows, sir, right here.”
“Oh, ho!” exclaimed Gerry. “Is that so? It looks as if this man had designed to peer into them, and had been caught in the act, if not done up for it. Possibly we may find a motive for the crime by looking a little deeper. You say that this man Kendall was a friend of your family?”
Nick Carter saw what was coming, yet he made no move to head it off. His immediate design was only to observe the trend of the case, and then shape his own course accordingly.
Doctor Royal grew even more pale upon hearing the remarks of the central office man, and he fell to wringing his hands with a sort of nervous apprehension. He was thinking of his son, who for several days had been absent with Kendall, and had not yet returned.
Yet there lay Cecil Kendall, slain by the hand of an assassin, and the unaccountable absence of Harry Royal still remained to be explained.
The mystery of it all dismayed the worthy clergyman, yet, despite his desperate misgivings, he nerved himself to answer quite firmly:
“Yes, sir, Mr. Kendall has been a friend of my family for several years.”
“Were you expecting a visit from him last evening?” asked Gerry, with a keen eye to the rector’s perturbation.
“I cannot say that I was.”
“Has he called here frequently?”
“Quite so.”
“Come, come, Doctor Royal, what were his precise relations here?” demanded Gerry suspiciously. “You appear averse to letting go of something. If you know of any facts that may shed a ray of light upon this case, let’s have them at once. I’m sure that you personally can have no reason for hiding anything.”
“By no means,” cried Doctor Royal, with extreme nervousness. “I would give the world to know the truth of this dreadful affair.”
“What of Kendall, then, and his relations here?”
“Well—really—as a matter of fact, he was in love with my daughter,” faltered the rector, trembling visibly. “In a word, Detective Gerry, he was about the same as engaged to her.”
“Oh, ho! Then it’s barely possible that jealousy led some party to kill him,” cried Gerry, quickly snapping up the clue. “Has your daughter any other admirer who might be guilty of this?”
“I—I—really I can name no one who——”
“Stop a bit!” cried Captain Talbot abruptly. “Here comes Kelly on the run. By thunder, I believe he has the weapon with which the crime was committed!”
Every eye was quickly turned in the direction indicated.
Along a path leading around the stable and to a gate at the rear of the extensive grounds a policeman was hurriedly approaching, holding above his head what appeared to be a stout stick. As he drew near, however, it was seen to be a heavy cane, highly polished, and with a round silver head.
“What have you there, Kelly?” cried Detective Gerry sharply.
“See for yourself, sir,” replied the officer. “I found it thrust beneath a lot of brushwood under the wall at the rear of the grounds.”
The detective uttered a cry as he seized it.
“Good God! it’s covered with blood,” said he. “And see! here are bits of scalp and hair dried on the side and head of it.”
“His hair!” cried Talbot, pointing to the lifeless man near-by.
“No doubt of it—not a shadow of doubt!” exclaimed Gerry. “It’s the weapon with which the deed was done.”
Even Nick Carter was a little startled, as well as a good deal puzzled.
For Nick had almost instantly recognized the cane. It was the same that Nick had seen Moses Flood take from a rack just before leaving his gambling-house at half-past eight the previous evening.
Over the face of Doctor Leonard Royal there had come an expression not easily described. It was that of sudden and overwhelming relief, mingled with convictions and a bitterness that scarce had bounds. He no longer was restrained by apprehensions concerning his son, and the latter’s unaccountable absence, for he now believed that he read aright the appalling evidence before him. With a cry of bitter condemnation he sprang forward and laid his hand on Detective Gerry’s arm.
“Oh, the knave! the knave!” he exclaimed, in tones that startled all hearers. “I now see it all. I should have known it—I should have known it!”
“Good heavens, Doctor Royal, what are you saying?” demanded Gerry, involuntarily drawing back.
“That cane—it belongs to Moses Flood,” cried the rector, pointing wildly at the gory stick.
“To Moses Flood!”
“I have seen him carry it countless times,” cried the excited clergyman. “You are right—you are right! Jealousy was the motive for this crime. The cane belongs to Moses Flood, and only yesterday——”
“Do you mean Moses Flood, the gambler?” interrupted Gerry, in tones that began to ring with exultant convictions.
“The same—the same!” cried Doctor Royal. “Only yesterday I scornfully refused him the hand of my daughter, and told him she was already engaged to Cecil Kendall. Jealousy must have been the motive. Flood must be the guilty party. Only yesterday I——”
“By heavens, then, Flood is the man we want!” exclaimed Gerry, again interrupting the pale and excited rector.
Nick Carter could see only too plainly the result of the discoveries made there that morning, and he did not wait to hear more.
“Flood, eh?” he said to himself. “Not by a long chalk. Cane or no cane, Moses Flood never killed this man. It’s plainly time for me to get in a bit of lively work, and head off this man Gerry. He’ll now go at the case like a bull at a gate.”
As he turned from the scene, bent upon hastening away, Nick caught sight of a white, frightened face at one of the library windows—the face of the girl from whom he had recently parted, and who plainly had seen and heard all.
Darting around a corner of the house, Nick rapped smartly on one of the side windows. The sound quickly brought Dora Royal to him, and he signed for her to raise the sash.
“Do not be alarmed,” he then cried softly. “Your face will betray you unless you conceal your feelings. Did you hear all that was said out there?”
“Yes, yes, every word,” moaned the girl breathlessly. “Oh, oh, it cannot be possible! He never did it—he could not have done it!”
“Take my word for that, Miss Royal, and suppress your fears,” Nick hurriedly answered. “Let the evidence be what it may, never believe that Flood committed that crime. I have no time for more. Be guarded, constantly guarded, and follow my every instruction to the letter.”
“I surely will, sir. And you?”
“I’m off to queer the move against Moses Flood.”
CHAPTER IX.
UNDER OATH.
“That’s what I propose to do, Chick.”
“Go to the bottom of it, Nick?”
“Plumb to the bottom,” declared the famous detective. “I am now in the case in dead earnest, Chick, and I’m going to know who killed that man Kendall or lose a leg in the attempt.”
“I’ll wager you’ll retain both legs,” laughed Chick.
“I gave my word to that Royal girl when I believed there appeared nothing very serious in the way of making good my promise, and now that I find myself confronted with the most serious of all problems, I’m blessed if I’ll throw up the sponge. I’ll ferret out the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. You hear me!”
Chick laughed again, and he was by no means blind to the grim determination reflected in Nick’s face, nor to the feelings with which his words were imbued.
It was less than an hour since Nick left the scene of the murder committed the previous night, and he had hurried home to rejoin Chick and inform him of all he had seen and heard.
With Nick Carter to think was to act, yet despite his hurried return from Fordham, and the fact that he was now very definitely actuated, Nick was not a little puzzled by the conflicting evidence of the case.
It was this evidence that he was discussing with Chick, which had led to the foregoing digression, while Nick was rapidly putting on the same disguise that he had worn in Flood’s place the previous evening.
“It appears plain enough that Flood went out there last night after leaving his faro-bank,” Nick grimly continued. “You saw him take that cane just as he departed, and I can swear it to be the same that was found this morning.”
“It cannot have gone out there of itself,” remarked Chick.
“But why Flood went out there again, after having been turned down by the rector, and making that big losing to Kendall, is more than I can conjecture.”
“You heard young Royal’s threats in the faro-bank,” said Chick.
“Certainly I heard them.”
“Possibly Flood feared that the drunken scamp meant to execute them, and he may have gone out there to prevent him.”
Nick quickly shook his head.
“Well enough reasoned, Chick,” said he, “but your theory hasn’t feet to stand on.”
“Why not?”
“In the first place,” replied Nick, “Flood attached no serious importance to Royal’s threats, and barely gave them a second thought. His face showed that; also that his mind was intent upon some other matter.”
“I’ll admit that he appeared so.”
“Furthermore,” added Nick, “he had only Royal’s maudlin intimation as to where Kendall might be found, and he would not have banked so heavily on them as to have traveled post-haste to Fordham.”
“Possibly not, Nick.”
“He must have gone directly out there, however, for it was after eight o’clock when he left the faro-bank, and we have the physician’s word for it that the murder was committed about nine o’clock.”
“That’s true.”
“No, no, Chick, some other motive took Flood out to Fordham last night, and only the devil himself could guess just what occurred there.”
“You don’t believe that he killed Kendall?”
“Not by a long chalk!”
“I’d wager all I possess against that.”
“But what about young Royal?”
“He’s an open question.”
“Do you think he did it?”
“It’s barely possible, yet it is too early in the game to think profitably,” replied Nick. “There’s something I want you to do.”
“Name it.”
“Royal keeps a room at the Carleton Chambers. Do you know where they are located?”
“Yes.”
“Then into a disguise, in order that we may not appear in the case as yet, and go up there,” continued Nick. “If you can find Royal, question him as to where he went last night after leaving Flood’s place, and see what you can gather from his answers and his bearing.”
“Trust me for that, Nick. But suppose he is away?”
“Then quietly ascertain, if possible, whether he occupied his room there last night, and at precisely what time he came in.”
“Is that all?”
“All for the present, Chick, as far as he is concerned. That central office sleuth, Gerry, will get after him soon enough, as well as after Flood, and I wish at present to keep a bit in the background.”
“Gerry will soon learn all about Kendall’s winning that money.”
“No doubt, Chick, but he’ll not discover that Flood lost it voluntarily. You and I and that cuekeeper are all that know about it, and the humpback will keep his mouth closed. I’ll wager that Flood has insured that.”
“But the evidence against Flood is decidedly incriminating,” declared Chick. “Gerry will probably land him this very morning.”
“I don’t think so,” smiled Nick oddly. “I’m going to get in the way of Mr. Detective Gerry.”
“Oh, ho, that’s your game, is it?”
“That’s the beginning of it,” replied Nick, more gravely. “I’m convinced, despite the evidence against him, that Flood had no hand in this crime. Before I can proceed to an intelligent investigation of it, however, I must learn just where Moses Flood stands, and what attitude he will take when informed of the murder.”
“I see,” nodded Chick.
“He may deny any knowledge of it, or claim that he was not——Ah, but what’s the use of trying to anticipate Flood’s conduct?” Nick bluntly demanded. “A man who would do what he did last evening, Chick, would hesitate at nothing that served his purpose. He’s as difficult to read as—as——”
“As yourself,” supplemented Chick, with a laugh.
“Possibly even more difficult,” smiled Nick, as he completed his disguise. “At all events, Chick, I’m not quite sure that I want Flood arrested, and so I’m going to get in Gerry’s way until I can learn how the land lies.”
“Do you think Flood will inform you?”
“I don’t think that he will, but I believe I can gather something from an interview with him,” explained Nick.
“I see.”
“He’ll not suspect me, in this disguise, of being other than a fellow gamester, and I have already shaped my course with him. Meantime you investigate young Harry Royal, and meet me here at noon.”
“Leave that youngster to me,” nodded Chick, as they prepared to depart, in company. “By the way, Nick, have you communicated with Gilsey, of the Trust Company?”
“I have telephoned him only that Kendall was in Flood’s place last evening,” replied Nick. “I could not well inform him of the murder without disclosing that I had been out there. He’ll get the news of that soon enough, however. As the case now looks,” added the detective, as they were about parting at the street corner, “I think we may have some warm work before we see the end of it.”