Jones fell back into his chair. The woman bit her lip till the blood spurted out.
Then suddenly the color left her face. She sat up, staring straight before her, and she did not move during the explanation which Nick gave.
While he was speaking, the detective watched her narrowly. Certainly she was meditating some remarkable action. He wondered what it could be.
"Yes," said Nick, turning to the superintendent, "we have at last straightened out the matter of those two rooms and their occupants.
"As to the spot where the crime was committed, I have not been in doubt from the first.
"You will remember that the fatal wound was visible on both the woman's temples. The bullet passed entirely through her head.
"But where was the bullet? That was the question which I asked myself at once.
"I could not find it in room B, where the body lay. Then I tried room A, with no better success.
"At this point Chick took up the hunt, and carried it to the end. The bullet was in neither room. It was just between them.
"You remember that there was a door which I found fastened upon both sides.
"Chick opened that door, and in its framework, the wood of which was old and soft, he found the bullet.
"The mark was covered when the door was shut. Therefore the door must have been open when the shot was fired.
"The position of the bullet shows that the shot was fired from room A. Then the woman, for some reason, had got into that room. She had unlocked the door on her side and had managed to induce the persons on the other side to slip their bolt.
"Now, why did she do this? Of course there is only one answer. Jealousy was her motive. The man in room A was her husband.
"I have satisfied myself of that. She must have known that he was going to dine in that house with another woman.
"It is clear that she made the acquaintance of Hammond because she was determined to get into that restaurant, and women are not admitted alone.
"The dropping of the purse was, of course, a very simple trick. She had noticed Hammond behind her, and as he was evidently a gentleman, she decided to use him for her purpose.
"You have heard how she led him to the restaurant. Of course it was only by chance that they got the room next to that in which her husband was.
"Hammond has told how she listened to the voices, and how she got rid of him.
"What followed can be easily understood. She got into room A. She drew her pistol and attempted to shoot either her faithless husband or his companion.
"Jones disarmed her and shot her with her own pistol.
"Then he carried her into room B, and put her in that chair.
"At that moment Corbut entered, for the door of room B was not locked.
"In some way they bribed him to keep silence. They sent him into room A, where he locked the connecting door on that side.
"Jones fastened it on the side of room B and fled. It was then that Gaspard saw him coming out of room B. And that's what mixed the case so badly.
"It gave us the wrong arrangement of men in those rooms. That was the only reason why I ever doubted Jones' guilt. I was convinced that the man who had brought the woman to the house was not the man who had shot her.
"You did not know, Mr. Hammond, that when you told me, in my house, that you were the man in room A, that you practically confessed to being the murderer."
At these words, Hammond gave a dry and painful gasp. He saw what an escape he had had.
"As to the two women," Nick continued, "it is easy to read the secret.
"Jones had two wives. The real wife, now dead, lived in the flat the address of which Jones gave me. This woman lived in the Fifty-eighth street flat, where Corbut was murdered.
"Jones divided his time between them. He really loved this one and wished to be rid of the other.
"His true wife surprised his secret at last, and it led her to her death.
"That night after the murder the plan was formed by which this woman was to personate the other. The striking similarity in the hair, which was the most conspicuous beauty of each, suggested the plot.
"Perhaps Jones had thought of such a thing long before. That may have led him to keep his real wife practically unknown in this city, while he was frequently seen with this woman.
"As to the dresses, this woman, who is a very clever dressmaker, as I am told, doubtless had time to copy the other's costume in the night and the day following the crime.
"She did most of the work in Albany, where she went as soon as possible. Then wearing the duplicate dress, she went to her friends in Maysville, and afterward came here.
"Is it all plain now?"
"It is clear as a bell, Mr. Carter," said the superintendent.
"Wait a moment!"
It was the woman's voice. She spoke calmly, and looked straight into Nick's face.
"You have made one grave error," she said. "It was not John who killed that woman; it was I.
"She tried to shoot him, and I wrenched the pistol from her hand. I shot her dead.
"The plot was all mine. It was I who bribed Corbut. It was I who killed him.
"John brought him to our flat. I sent my husband away, and when he returned a few minutes later, Corbut was dead. John had no guilty hand in either crime.
"He fainted at the sight of Corbut's body. When he came to himself, the body was no longer to be seen. I had put it into the trunks. It was I who afterward sent them to Gaspard.
"These crimes I committed for love of this man. I had been his wife for five years, and for three of them I did not know he had another.
"And when I found it out, I did not do as this woman did. I simply loved him more.
"I love him still, and because I love him I tell the truth to save him. Yes, more, because I love him, I will shed more blood. He shall not see me imprisoned or condemned to death. I will spare him that pain."
As she spoke, she drew a little ornamental dagger from her dress. It was a mere toy. Nobody would have supposed it to be a deadly weapon.
However, Nick sprang forward to prevent her from doing herself an injury.
He was too late. She plunged the dagger into her brain.
So firm and true was her hand that the slender blade pierced the thin bone of her right temple, and was driven in until the hilt made an impression on her white skin like a seal upon wax.
Jones uttered a scream of horror at this sight. He, too, had attempted to stay her hand, but had been too slow.
As she fell, he plucked the dagger from the wound and attempted to drive it into his own brain. But Nick caught his arm and wrested the blood-stained weapon from him.
Deprived thus of the means for ending his life, Jones fell upon his knees before the woman and covered her hands with kisses, nor could he be taken away, until the hands were chilled by death.
And that was the strange end of the affair. The woman's confession, though it may not have been true, will doubtless save Jones' life.
At the time of this writing the district attorney is of the opinion that a plea of murder in the second degree had better be accepted. There is no indication that the prisoner will fight the case.
So Jones will spend his days in prison, though he will escape the death chair.
A word should be added about the witness, Gaspard. He has been cleared of all reproach, and has sailed for France with his bride.
Nick Carter's friends often ask him whether, in the course of his remarkable experience as a detective, he has ever encountered anything which could not have been the work of human hands.
Few people, nowadays, will own that they believe in ghosts. Yet most of us would be less sure about it in a grave-yard at midnight than on Broadway at noon.
A man who can tell a reasonable story about having seen a ghost may not find many believers, but he will get plenty of listeners, for we are all eager to hear about such things.
So Nick, who always likes to oblige his friends, does not deny the existence of spirits when he is asked whether he ever saw any. On the contrary, if he has the time to spare, he usually tells the following story:
A broad-shouldered, square-jawed, bright-eyed young man called on Nick one afternoon, and was ushered into the study.
His card had gone up ahead of him, and it bore the name—Horace G. Richmond.
Nick ran his eye over his visitor, and decided that he was a fellow who knew the world and was getting everything out of it that there is in it.
He met Nick's eye with the air of a man who is going to do something unusual, and wants to announce at the start that he can back it up.
"I have a case for you, Mr. Carter, if you will take it," he said.
"State it," replied Nick.
"It's a robbery case, and a mighty queer one. I don't pretend to understand it or any part of it."
"Who's been robbed?"
"My uncle, Colonel Richmond, or, I should say, his daughter, Mrs. Pond. But the robbery affects my uncle perhaps more seriously than his daughter. It is on his account that I am here."
"Tell the story."
"I'll do it, but first let me say that whatever others may think of the case, I believe it's just simply theft. Mrs. Pond has a lot of jewelry and somebody is stealing it a piece at a time.
"That's my view, but my uncle's is different. He says that these robberies are not the work of human hands.
"Now, as for me, I try to keep my feet on the earth all the time. I want you to understand right at the start that I don't believe in any stuff about ghosts and hobgoblins.
"In my opinion, ghosts that steal diamonds ought to be in the jug, and will probably get there unless they turn over a new leaf.
"My uncle doesn't see as straight as that. Perhaps you remember that, three or four years ago, he fell into the hands of a couple of sharks who pretended to be mediums.
"He had always believed in spiritualism, and those crooks caught him just right. They called up the spooks of all the dead people he could think of. They got messages from the spirit land seven nights in the week and two matinees. My uncle simply went wild about it. You remember. It was all in the papers. They worked him beautifully, and if I had not stepped in and exposed them just in time they'd have got every cent he had."
"That would have been quite a haul," said Nick.
"Well, I should remark! He's worth more than four million dollars. I tell you, those bogus mediums thought they'd struck something very soft.
"However, I showed them up, and convinced my uncle that they were rank frauds. They're in Sing Sing now.
"My uncle did not give up his belief in spirits. He said 'these people are frauds, but there are others who honestly and truly hold communication with the departed.'
"I tell you, we've had a hard time keeping him out of the hands of sharpers since then. But we've succeeded.
"And now, by bad luck, this queer affair has come up, and all my uncle's faith has returned. He wants to consult mediums, and all that sort of thing.
"That's the only serious part of it. The jewels that have been stolen aren't worth over a couple of thousand dollars, all told.
"Of course, it's a nuisance to have such a thing happen in anybody's house, but we wouldn't care much if the mysterious circumstances were not driving my uncle's mind back to his pet delusion."
"What are these mysterious circumstances?" asked the detective.
"Why, it's like this: Colonel Richmond's aunt, Miss Lavina Richmond, was a queer old lady, who was once very rich. At that time she had a passion for collecting jewels. She used to invest her money in diamonds, just as another person might buy houses or railroad stock.
"Only about a tenth part of her fortune was invested so that she got any income out of it. In the last part of her life she lost all that part of her property, so that she hadn't anything in the world but her jewels.
"She wouldn't sell one, and there she was as poor in one sense as a lodger in City Hall Square—for she hadn't a cent of money—and yet owning diamonds and other precious stones worth nearly a million dollars.
"She wouldn't borrow on them; she wouldn't do anything but keep them locked up; and so she had to depend absolutely on my uncle for the necessities of life.
"He didn't mind that, of course, for he had plenty. She lived at his house, and eventually died there.
"She and my uncle never got along well, in spite of his kindness to her, and she had no friends except a Mrs. Stevens and her daughter. They're related to the Richmonds, but the money is all in the colonel's branch of the family.
"Mrs. Stevens and Millie, her daughter, are poor. They have just enough to live on. The colonel would take care of them, but they won't have it. They're too proud.
"Now, everybody thought that old Miss Lavina Richmond would leave her tremendous pile of diamonds to Millie Stevens. Indeed, Miss Richmond used to say so continually. I've heard her say, in the colonel's presence, that Miss Stevens should have the jewels; that such was her wish.
"Well, she died suddenly a year or more ago, and the only will that could be found was dated many years back, and left everything she possessed to the colonel's daughter.
"It was the greatest surprise that you can imagine. We all knew that such a will had been made, but we hadn't the slightest idea that it still existed, and that she had made no other. On the contrary, we knew positively that she had made a much later will in favor of Millie Stevens. But the document couldn't be found, and so the old one was submitted for probate.
"The colonel expected a contest, but the Stevenses did not make a murmur. It must have been a tremendous disappointment to them, but they bore it with perfect good nature. They didn't seem to feel half so badly about it as my uncle did. If he had had his way, he would have given all the jewels to Miss Stevens.
"He said over and over again that he believed it was his aunt's wish that the girl should have them. And I can tell you, there's no man so particular as he is about respecting the wishes of the dead.
"Mrs. Pond would have turned over the whole lot to Millie Stevens, I believe, if it hadn't been for her husband.
"Mr. Pond isn't a rich man, and he didn't feel that he could afford to yield up a million dollars' worth of property that had been thrown at him in that way. And, to speak plainly, he isn't the sort of man to let go of anything that comes within his reach.
"My uncle offered to do the fair thing out of his own pocket, but, as I've said, the Stevenses wouldn't touch his money; and there the case has stood ever since.
"The most valuable of the jewels are in the vaults of the Central Safe Deposit Company in this city. Some of the smaller pieces are in Mrs. Pond's possession. She is a woman who likes to wear a lot of jewelry, and, by Jupiter, she can do it now if she likes, for she owns more diamonds than the Astors.
"Mr. and Mrs. Pond live in Cleveland. Mrs. Pond, as I've told you, is now visiting her father. You know he bought the old Plummer place on the shore of Hempstead Harbor, Long Island.
"She has been with him about two weeks. She has two rooms on the second floor of the house, a sitting-room and a bed-room. The bed-room opens off the hall. It has only one other door, which leads to her sitting-room.
"The first robbery occurred on the second day after she had arrived. It was late in the afternoon.
"Mrs. Pond had been out riding. When she returned she hurried up to her room to dress for dinner.
"She took off some of her jewelry—some rings, pins and that sort of thing—and laid them on the dressing-table. Then she went into her sitting-room.
"Remember, I'm telling this just as she told it. How much of it is fact and how much is hysterics I can't say. She was scared half out of her wits by what happened afterward, and may have got mixed up in her narrative.
"This is what she told us: When she had been in the sitting-room about a minute she turned toward the bedroom and saw the door slowly shutting.
"She was surprised at this, for she had locked the other door of the bed-room, and it did not seem possible for anybody to be in there.
"In fact, such a thing did not come into her mind. She supposed that a draught of air was swinging the door.
"She hastened toward it, but it closed before she got there.
"She turned the knob and tried to open the door, but was unable to do so. It did not seem to resist firmly, as it would if it had been fastened. Instead it gave slightly, as if some person had been holding it.
"If that was the case, he was stronger than she was, for she didn't succeed in opening the door.
"Then she screamed. Such a yell I never heard a woman utter. I was in my own room, which is over hers, and I jumped nearly out of my skin, it startled me so.
"I was dressing, and was in my underclothes, so it took me a minute, I should say, to get a pair of pantaloons on.
"Then I ran out into the hall and down the stairs. At the same moment my uncle ran up from the ground floor.
"I mention these facts, because they seem to me to be important. You see, we approached that room by two ways—by the only two ways except that by which Mrs. Pond came.
"Just as I got to the hall door of her bed-room she opened it, and fell into my arms in a faint.
"She lost consciousness only for a moment, and, on coming to herself, she cried out that a thief had been in her room.
"By this time there were three or four servants in the hall below. One of them staid there by my uncle's orders. The others went outside and made a circuit of the house.
"We led Mrs. Pond back into her room, and she pointed to her dressing-table.
"There lay two or three rings and a pin, but the most valuable ring that she had put there was gone.
"It was a queer, old-fashioned ring in the form of a snake, and in its mouth was a ruby worth about two hundred and fifty dollars. The eyes were made of small diamonds.
"She declared that she had left the ring there. She told us how the door between the two rooms had closed.
"It appears that after she had struggled to open it for several minutes it suddenly yielded, and she almost fell into the room.
"Of course, she expected to rush straight upon the thief. He had been holding the door, and naturally he couldn't have gone far after releasing it.
"She was inside just as soon as the pressure on the other side was removed. But the room was empty.
"She thought of her jewels at once. She rushed to her dressing-table, and instantly missed the ruby ring.
"Now, that's all there is to it. We hunted high and low for the thief, and did not find a trace of him.
"How did he get away? That's where I give up the riddle. The door in the hall was locked on the inside, and practically guarded by my uncle and myself. At the other door stood Mrs. Pond.
"There is only one window. It looks out on a sort of court with the house on three sides of it.
"A man with a wagon was almost under the window all the time. He was delivering groceries to the cook.
"It's absurd to suppose that anybody got in or out by that window. No thief would have been fool enough to try it at that time of day, and, as I've told you, there were two persons who would have been perfectly sure to see him if he had. And he couldn't have got in or out without a ladder.
"I admit that it looked very queer. What do you make of it, Mr. Carter?"
"Are you sure the ring was really taken? Couldn't she have been mistaken about it?"
"That's the idea that occurred to me. But it happens that when Mrs. Pond came back from the drive my uncle banded her out of the carriage, and he distinctly remembers seeing the ring on her finger.
"She went straight to her room, and she couldn't have lost the ring by the way, for there was a guard ring on the outside of it, and that we found on the dressing-table.
"Of course, we hunted for the ruby ring. We took up the carpets; we made such a search as I never saw before. The ring was not there.
"I don't think there's a shadow of doubt that the ring was stolen, but I can't form an idea of how it was done.
"The more I think about it the more confused I get. To my mind the queerest part of it is that somebody held the door, and then let go of it and vanished in a quarter of a second. How are we going to explain that?"
"Didn't the thief put something against the door?"
"I thought of that, and tried to work out that theory, but it's impossible. Not a piece of furniture was out of place, and there wasn't a stick or a prop of any kind in the room that could have been used for such a purpose."
"Well, that's strange, I must admit," said Nick. "I guess it will be necessary for me to go down and look the ground over."
"That's just what we want."
"Come along, then. I'm ready."
Nick knew the old Plummer mansion well. There is not a house to match it in this country.
A hundred years and more ago it must have been the scene of strange adventures. It was built, certainly, by one who did not expect a peaceful and quiet life within it.
The thick stone walls, which look so unnecessarily massive, are really double. There are secret passages and movable panels and trap-doors enough in that house to hide a man, if a regiment of soldiers was after him.
Evidently such a place offered every chance to shrewd criminals who might have a motive for playing upon the superstitious beliefs of the present proprietor.
Anybody who couldn't get up a respectable ghost in the old Plummer house must be a very poor fakir.
The mere fact that all the doors and windows of a room were closed did not prevent any person from going in or out at will, if he knew the secrets of the house.
Nick thought of these things as he rode down there in the cars, and he prepared himself for an interesting time, chasing bogus ghosts through secret doors and panels.
But a surprise awaited him on his arrival. Colonel Richmond met him at the door, and, by Nick's request, took him at once to the room from which the articles had been stolen.
It was a modern room in a new part of the house.
Nick was entirely unprepared for this. He did not know that the colonel had built any additions to the old mansion.
Colonel Richmond spoke of this remarkable feature of the case at once.
"If this thing had happened in the old part of the house," he said, "I shouldn't have thought that it was anything but an ordinary robbery.
"Every room there can be entered in a secret manner, and no doubt there are plenty of panels and passages which even I do not know.
"But there's nothing of the kind here. This wing was built under my eye, and from my own design. I saw the beams laid and the floors nailed down.
"There is absolutely no way to enter the room in which we now stand except by the two doors and the window.
"My nephew has told you about the robberies. You know that the doors and the windows were practically guarded all the time.
"I don't believe that any mortal being could have got in here and got out again without being seen.
"As for myself, I understand the case perfectly. My belief will seem strange to you, because you do not see with the eye of the spirit. Everything has to be done by human hands, according to your matter-of-fact notion.
"I know better; and I tell you that these jewels were taken by the spirit of my deceased aunt, and that she did it to show me that my daughter was wrongfully in possession of them."
When a healthy, hearty old man, who seems to be as sane as anybody else in the world, stands up and talks such nonsense as this, what can one say to him?
It is useless to tell him that he is wrong about the whole matter. It is folly to attempt to reason with him.
The only way to do is to show him a perfectly natural explanation of the mystery, and simply make him see it.
That was the task which Nick had before him, and it must be owned that, at the first glance, he did not see how he was going to accomplish it.
He examined the room and satisfied himself that it had no secret entrances.
Such being the case, Nick was unable to form a theory of the robbery which would fit the facts as they had been stated to him.
After looking at the rooms, he went with Colonel Richmond to the parlor, on the ground floor, and there proceeded to question him about the mysterious occurrences.
"There have been three robberies in all," said the colonel, "and they have been exactly alike.
"In every case my daughter has left some articles of jewelry on the dressing-table in her bed-room, and one of them has vanished. Never more than one at a time.
"Twice it happened while she was in the adjoining room. The bed-room door which opens into the hall was locked on these occasions.
"The third time she was in the hall, talking with my nephew. He was standing in the upper hall, leaning over the banister rail. They were discussing a plan for a drive out into the country. Quite a party was to go.
"Horace had just received word from a gentleman whom they had invited that he would be unable to go. He had read the note in his room, and he called downstairs to my daughter to tell her about it.
"That was how they happened to be standing in the hall. Presently she went back into her room, and almost immediately noticed that a small locket set with diamonds had been taken.
"She screamed, and Horace and I came running to her room. We searched it thoroughly.
"There was nobody there. The door between the bedroom and the sitting-room was open, but the other door of the sitting-room, which opens into the old portion of the house, was locked and bolted on the inside.
"Now, I submit to you, Mr. Carter, whether in that case any other way of entrance or exit was possible except by the windows."
"I'm bound to admit," responded Nick, "that if the doors were in the condition you describe, no person could have entered or left those rooms except by the windows."
"Well, it had been raining hard, and the ground was soft. We looked carefully under all the windows.
"There was no sign of a footprint, and nobody could have walked there without making tracks. Oh, it is clear enough! Why do we waste your time in a search for invisible spirits of the dead?"
He rambled on in this way for several minutes, and Nick did not try to stop him.
The colonel was at last interrupted, however, by the entrance of his daughter.
Mrs. Pond had been out driving. She learned, on her return, that a stranger had come to the house, and she hurried into the parlor, suspecting who was there.
"I am delighted to see you, Mr. Carter," she exclaimed. "You will clear up this abominable mystery and relieve my father's mind from these delusions."
"Then you do not share his opinions," said Nick.
Mrs. Pond laughed nervously.
"No, indeed," she said, "and yet I must admit that I am quite unable to explain the facts. I suppose you have heard the story?"
"Yes."
"What do you think about it?"
"It is much too early in the case for me to express an opinion. But there are one or two questions that I should like to ask you."
"Do so, by all means. It was at my request that you were called in."
"At your request?"
"Yes; I talked with Horace about it, and at last we agreed to ask you to take the case. He didn't believe in it at first, for he did not want to let anybody into our family secrets."
She glanced at her father as she spoke. It was evident that the family was a good deal ashamed of Colonel Richmond's spiritualistic delusions and wanted to keep quiet about them.
"I talked Horace into it after a while," Mrs. Pond continued, "and at last he became as enthusiastic as myself. We know that you will find the thief."
"Thank you," responded Nick. "There is one point which seems peculiar to me. After you had been robbed once, why did you continue to leave the jewels unwatched in the very place from which one of them had previously been taken?"
"I insisted upon it," said Colonel Richmond. "I told my daughter that she must make no change in her habit of wearing or caring for my aunt's jewels. I wished to show that we were not foolishly trying to hide them from the eye of a spirit, but that we wished to learn the desire of my departed aunt as soon as possible."
"It was by your order, then," said Nick, "that your daughter continued to put the jewels on her dressing-table when she laid them aside for any reason?"
"It was."
"I have just left some of them there now," said Mrs. Pond. "I went to my room after my ride, and took off a light cloak which was fastened with three pins, each having a diamond in its head. I stuck them all into a cushion on that dressing-table."
"Is the room locked?" asked Nick.
"Yes," replied Mrs. Pond, and she produced the key of the door which opened from the hall above.
"Will you allow me to go up there now?"
"Certainly."
She handed the key to Nick.
He took it and walked out of the parlor.
Nick had already formed a sort of working theory in the case. He scarcely believed that it would hold water, but it would do for a starter.
The most probable explanation that had come to him was that Mrs. Pond had not really been robbed at all.
It might be that she had some motive for making these articles vanish. Perhaps she had some need of money, and was secretly selling them against the wish of her husband and her father.
So, when Nick took that key and went toward that room he did not expect to find the three diamond pins in the position described by the lady.
He found the door locked, and he opened it by means of the key. Then he locked it behind him, leaving the key in the lock.
He turned at once to a dressing-table.
The three pins were there, just as Mrs. Pond had said.
Nick laughed softly to himself.
"That looks bad for my first shot at this queer case," he said; "but perhaps she didn't dare work the game while I was in the house."
He glanced out of the window of the room.
Two servants were in the yard. They seemed to be explaining the robberies to a new driver of a groceryman's wagon, for they had one of his arms apiece, and were pointing to the window.
Nick walked into the sitting-room, and spent some minutes examining the walls, and especially the door leading toward the old part of the house.
He found nothing at all to reward his search. There absolutely was no secret entrance.
The detective decided that nothing further could be done in that room. He walked toward the other.
To his astonishment he found that the door had been closed while he had been busy with his investigations.
He sprang against it.
The door yielded a little, and yet he could not open it.
Some person stronger than he seemed to be holding it on the other side.
He drew back for a spring. That door would have gone to splinters if it had stood in his way again.
Instead, it swung open the instant he touched it, and the force of his lunge took him nearly to the middle of the room.
In an instant he was on guard, but he saw no one.
The room was quiet, and it was empty.
The door into the hall was locked as he had left it.
All was the same, except that on the dressing-table was the cushion bearing two diamond pins instead of three.
The robbery had been done, as one might say, under the nose of the greatest detective in the world.
"Well, this takes my breath away," said Nick to himself. "It's the nerviest challenge that ever was sprung on me."
It certainly looked like sheer recklessness for this thief, whoever he might be, to play his game on Nick almost at the very moment when the great detective appeared upon the scene.
Shrewd as Nick was, he had not expected this. His first thought, as the reader knows, was that it was a bold challenge, the defiance of a nervy criminal who thought himself absolutely safe from detection.
But a moment's reflection made this seem less probable.
Was it not more natural to suppose that this event proved that the detective was unknown to the thief?
Such being the case, Colonel Richmond, his nephew and Mrs. Pond were acquitted at the start.
It may seem ridiculous to suspect them, in any case, but so strange was the nature of this affair that Nick gave nobody the credit of certain innocence.
Colonel Richmond was certainly very nearly crazy on one point. He might be so much of a lunatic as to commit these robberies from simple delusion. Or he might wish to prove to his daughter that the diamonds were not rightfully hers.
Mrs. Pond might be pawning them for small extravagances which she was afraid to have known.
As to Horace Richmond, there was no motive which seemed plausible. The value of the articles taken was so small as to make the game not worth while for a man in his position.
And it was perfectly certain that no professional thief or dishonest servant was doing the work.
If such a person had been in the game, he would not have taken one of those diamond pins; he would have taken all three.
It was impossible to lose sight of the fact that the Stevenses would be the real gainers, if this ghost business led Colonel Richmond to insist that his daughter should give up the jewels.
Mrs. Stevens and her daughter could not be doing the job personally, but they might have a secret agent among the servants, or more probably concealed in some secret recess of the strange old house.
Nick resolved to go to see Mrs. and Miss Stevens without delay. He hoped to judge by their conduct whether they knew anything about the robberies.
These thoughts passed through his mind in a flash.
He quickly searched the room to be sure that the thief was not concealed in it, and then descended to the main hall. The outer door was open, and Colonel Richmond and his daughter were standing on the steps.
Just as Nick joined them Horace Richmond strolled up. They all stood looking at a carriage which was coming up the driveway.
"Why, it's Mrs. Stevens," exclaimed Mrs. Pond. "I thought you said she did not come here any more."
"She hasn't been here in some time," responded the colonel. "I have thought that she avoided us because of this matter of the jewels."
Nothing more could be said on the subject, for at that moment the carriage drew up before the door.
Colonel Richmond advanced courteously and assisted Mrs. Stevens to alight.
Nick noticed at once that she was much agitated.
Colonel Richmond asked her into the house, but she said that she preferred to sit on the veranda. She had come on business, and would stay but a moment.
She evidently wished to speak to the colonel privately, and so the others stepped aside; but Nick's eye was upon the woman every moment.
Very few words had passed between them, when the colonel uttered a cry and called to Nick.
The detective instantly advanced. He made a sign to Richmond, but it was not understood, and the colonel introduced Nick by his right name.
"Here is an extraordinary thing, Mr. Carter," he said. "We now have proof positive that this affair is not the work of mortal hands."
"What is that?" asked Nick.
"The jewels have appeared!"
"Where?"
"In Mrs. Stevens' house. They have been mysteriously transported there without human aid."
"I should be glad to have that proven," said Nick.
"It shall be," said the colonel. "Tell your story, Mrs. Stevens, if you please."
"It is very simple," she said. "This noon, when I returned to my room after lunch, I found upon my dressing-table certain pieces of jewelry which I recognized as having belonged to the late Miss Lavina Richmond.
"I knew them well. Nothing that I can imagine could have surprised me more than to find them there. I have no explanation to offer. I can't explain how it happened."
Nick could explain it very easily, at least so far as the appearance of the jewels in that particular place was concerned. It looked like a natural development of the plot. But his face expressed no emotion as he asked:
"Who had access to that room?"
"Nobody," replied Mrs. Stevens. "It was locked."
"Is it customary for you to lock your bed-room door when you go to lunch?"
"No; it is quite unusual. But we have a new servant in the house, and, as I had considerable money in the room, I took that precaution.
"All the doors were locked. I had the key to one of them. The others were on the inside of the locks.
"When I went to lunch the jewels were not there. When I returned they were there. That is all that I know about it. Here they are."
She drew from her pocket as she spoke a small cardboard box.
The woman was making heroic efforts to be calm, but it seemed as if she might either faint or go into hysterics at any moment.
Was she playing a game that was too hard for her?
That was the question for Nick to answer; and yet, when he looked at this gentle, refined woman, he hardly had the heart to suspect her of any dishonesty.
"I will show you the jewels," she said, struggling to command her voice, "you can then see whether they are all here."
Her trembling hands could hardly find the string which was tied about the box.
While she pulled at it she kept talking as if she must do it to relieve her overburdened mind. She described the articles of jewelry which were in the box.
"They are the very ones," said the colonel.
As he uttered the words the string was loosened, and the cover fell off the box.
There was a sharp cry. It came from Mrs. Pond, who, with Horace, had approached during this scene.
"Why, there's one of my diamond pins!" she exclaimed. "How on earth did it come to be there?"
Well, if Mrs. Pond was surprised, she wasn't a bit more so than Nick Carter.
The pin referred to was the one which had been stolen from the cushion in Mrs. Pond's dressing-room not ten minutes before.
"Why, this is impossible," cried Mrs. Pond. "I left that pin with the two others like it in my room."
Without saying another word, she turned and ran into the house.
Almost immediately her voice was heard in the hall.
"It's gone!" she cried. "It's been taken out of my bedroom."
She appeared at the door with a very white face.
But her excitement was nothing to that of Mrs. Stevens.
Nick dropped the role of detective and assumed that of doctor in less than a second.
When he had saved Mrs. Stevens from an attack of hysterics, he said:
"I was aware that that pin had been taken. It was done while I was in your room, Mrs. Pond. The circumstances were exactly the same as those attending the other robberies."
"But I did not put it in the box," exclaimed Mrs. Stevens. "It was not among the jewels which I found."
She turned to Colonel Richmond. Her face was ghastly pale.
"I have scorned your belief," she said; "but now I am convinced. No mortal being could have done this thing."
"What do you say to that, Mr. Carter?" cried the colonel, with flashing eyes.
"I would like to ask a few questions," rejoined Nick. "Were you alone when you put those jewels into the box?"
"I was."
"Has it been in your possession ever since?"
"It has not been out of my care."
"Did you tell anybody about the finding of the jewels?"
"Nobody."
"Please describe everything that happened after you found them."
"I was, of course, greatly agitated. I did not know what to do. For some time I sat staring at the jewels and trying to think what was my proper course.
"At last I took this box from a drawer of my dressing-table and put the jewels into it.
"Then I called to the servant who was in the dining-room, and asked her to see that the carriage was got ready, for though it is a long drive, I had resolved to make it, because I felt safer in that way."
"Did you go out of your room to call the girl?"
"Only into the hall."
"Who could have got into your room while you were out?"
"Nobody."
"Where was your daughter?"
"In her own room."
"How do you know?"
"I called to her after I had dressed, and she answered me. I told her that I was going to drive over here, and she was very much surprised. I did not tell her why."
"Did you meet anybody on the way over who spoke to you or came to the side of the carriage?"
"Nobody."
"That is all I wish to ask."
In fact, Nick had no more questions. He was really at a loss for an explanation of this strange occurrence.
If the pin had been taken from the room, by a person concealed in the house, it might have been possible that that person had escaped from the grounds unseen, and had given it to Mrs. Stevens.
There was hardly time for such a trick to have been done, but in so strange a case every possibility was to be considered.
If such a thing had been done, it must have been very near to the house.
The thief must have known when Mrs. Stevens was coming, or she must have waited for him just outside the colonel's grounds.
There was a place where the road was heavily fringed with trees, not more than a hundred yards from the colonel's gate.
The trick must have been done there, if at all.
Nick resolved to settle this small point, if possible, immediately.
It was of no use to ask the man who had driven Mrs. Stevens' horse. Of course, he would lie, if there was any need of it.
So Nick excused himself from the group on the pretext that he was going to search Mrs. Pond's rooms again.
He remembered that just after Mrs. Stevens had arrived, a wagon belonging to the colonel had driven into the grounds. He quietly looked up the two servants who had been in this wagon. They told him that they remembered seeing Mrs. Stevens drive up.
She had passed them on the road. They had had her carriage in sight for a mile before it turned into Colonel Richmond's grounds.
Her horse had been driven at a good pace. It had not stopped. Nobody had approached the carriage.
Nick was convinced that the men were telling the truth.
Then how had Mrs. Stevens obtained that pin?
Her possession of the other articles might be explained, but the pin was a "stickler."