A STARTLING BETRAYAL--THE CUTENESS OF THE
DETECTIVE---SUGGESTIONS THROUGH A WORD--THE BODY IN
THE BRUSH-WOOD--JACK LAYS A SCHEME--SADDEST OF ALL
CONCLUSIONS.
Young Wagner smiled sadly and answered:
"I cannot go into that matter."
"But you do not understand me."
"I do not?"
"No."
"How so?"
"That man who interrupted us is a detective."
"Well?"
"He suspects that you are an abductor."
The young man started, and after a moment said:
"If that is true it is the Richards family who have thrown the suspicion
around me."
"Then they must have had a purpose?"
"Certainly."
"And you know their purpose?"
"It is in line with what I have told you."
"Since you are the baron, so-called, I will make an admission to you.
You must not _think_ that I knew you were the baron when we accidentally
became acquainted, but now that I know you are I can tell you a great
deal. Amalie Speir's mother suspects that you had something to do with
the girl's disappearance."
Wagner was thoughtful for a long time before he answered, and then he
said:
"It's not strange that the girl's mother should suspect me."
"It is not strange?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"You appear to be an honorable man; let me ask you one question: Did you
ever meet Miss Amalie Speir?"
"I never saw her in my life," came the truthful answer.
"You know her mother?"
"I do."
"You can tell her mother that I say on my honor I do not know anything
about the present whereabouts of her daughter."
"Oh, I see, you do not trust me."
"No, I distrust you."
"You distrust me?"
"I do."
"Why?"
"Because you have not been frank with me."
Our hero smiled. He had determined to declare himself, being satisfied
that Wagner was an honorable young man.
"Do you want me to be frank?"
"Yes."
"What shall I do?"
"Tell me plainly why you made my acquaintance?"
"You suspect?"
"Yes, I suspect."
"What do you suspect?"
"That you are a detective employed to shadow me, and I suspect that the
man who spoke to me a little while ago is your confederate."
"All right; what you suspect is true."
"And you are a detective?"
"I am."
"And you made my acquaintance with design?"
"I did."
"What is your conclusion?"
"My conclusion is that you are an honorable young man."
"Thank you, and now let me tell you I know nothing about Amalie. I do
not know _whom to suspect_; I so told her mother."
There came a strange glitter in our hero's eyes, and a suspicion that
almost caused his heart to stand still. He had reckoned himself a very
shrewd, sharp man, but suddenly, and on evidence that would not have
aroused a passing comment on the part of most men, he became convinced
that he had been magnificently played. He was equal to the occasion,
however; he had always been. He was indeed a wonderful man, and he said:
"I am very glad to hear you say so. Now that I have confessed so much I
will confess more. I did believe you were guilty; I did believe that you
were the abductor."
"No, I loved her too well."
"You loved her?"
"I did."
"And did she know that you loved her?"
"She did."
"And did she love you?"
"I have reason to believe that Amalie loved me; I know that I loved
her."
"But she is a poor girl; she could not aid you to remove the mortgages
from your estates in case you should become the baron."
"It makes no difference. She is a beautiful girl, one of the loveliest
creatures I ever met in all my life. I am a sad man; I shall always be
sad."
"You shall always be sad?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because I have lost her."
"Lost her?"
"Yes."
"She may reappear?"
"Never."
"Why do you say she will never reappear?"
"She has carried out her threat."
"Her threat?"
"Yes."
"What did she threaten?"
"To drown herself."
"What led her to make this threat?"
"She was despondent--very despondent. Shall I tell you all?"
"Yes, tell me all."
"She loved me; I am poor. I offered her my love and asked that she wait
until I became the baron and then I would make her my wife. She said she
could not wait."
We will leave our readers to judge of the feelings of the detective as
he listened to this singular statement. All he said was:
"Then you believe she is dead?"
"Yes."
"I do not."
"You believe she lives?"
"I do not believe, August, that she was fooling you. She is indeed a
very beautiful woman if all reports are true, for I never saw her. I am
glad, however, that you are not implicated in any way in her strange
disappearance. This shall not interfere with our friendship. I honor and
respect you, in case you have properly represented everything to me.
Shall we meet to-morrow and lunch together?"
"No, I cannot accept more bounty; you have been very kind."
"All right; we will meet again and I may have a pleasant surprise for
you."
The detective parted from the prospective young baron and returned to
his own lodgings, and once in his own room he became a very thoughtful
man. The detective muttered aloud, and there was much of suggestion in
his mutterings. He said:
"There is a mystery here within a mystery. There is something I have not
gotten on to yet. Why should this man secrete the girl Amalie Speir?
Every move of this Richards family means something. Why should they
become so deeply interested in this penniless girl? It is not within the
bounds of possibility that they could have in any way discovered that
she is an--" Here the detective stopped short and gave utterance to an
expletive more expressive than elegant, and after a little he resumed
his musings, saying:
"Let me see; yes, yes, it is possible. I see I have a little exploring
to do in another direction, and in the meantime I must have an eye on
this dignified young baron and these Richards people. Yes, yes, there is
an underlying possibility that may explain the whole matter if I can
ever strike to its bottom fact, and by ginger! I will."
Jack had arrived at a conclusion that necessitated the very finest sort
of detective work--indeed, his task was one of the hardest because it
consisted in discovering a motive.
On the morning following the incidents related, the detective sat down
to his rolls and coffee and had his paper, when a paragraph met his eyes
which caused his blood to run cold. The paragraph was a brief statement
under showy headlines that the body of a young woman had been found in
the bushes near the Orange Mountains. There was nothing in the paragraph
really to arouse so great interest on his part were it not that he was
thrilled by one of those wonderful premonitions which ofttimes came to
him.
Jack believed that later in the day there would come further details,
and in the meantime he visited Mrs. Speir and showed her the paragraph.
Mrs. Speir became greatly agitated at first, but after a moment said:
"You observe that it is a woman; my daughter is less than twenty."
"Yes, I observe that; but do you notice that the face is mutilated so
the body will only be identified by the clothing? And now, Mrs. Speir, I
have a few words to say. I fear you are going to be called upon to
undergo a very trying ordeal, but mark my words: no matter what the
later evidences may be, it is not the body of your daughter."
The woman glared but remained silent, and the detective continued:
"I believe I can discern the whole business, and more than that, I
believe there is a most thrilling, startling and wonderful revelation
under all this business. But again I say, mark well my words: it is not
the body of your daughter, and I tell you now I believe all the evidence
will go to prove that is your daughter's body."
"You talk in enigmas."
"And I believe I know just what I am talking about. There is a great
game being played; the game is an old one. The motive is something we
are not 'on to' yet, but we will uncover the whole business. But let me
impress upon you with the greatest earnestness that I know your daughter
lives."
"Then what does it mean?"
"You can accept my word that it is an attempt to prove that your
daughter is dead."
"Why should any one wish to prove that she is dead?"
"I think I can discern; I may be mistaken, but one fact is certain: some
very thrilling denouement is to follow in the end, but your daughter is
not dead, and you can judge how reliable is my statement when I say now
that I have only seen that newspaper paragraph, but in the end the most
startling evidence will be produced to make it appear that it is your
daughter, and it may be necessary that you should seem to accept the
evidence and hold a funeral over the body of a stranger. I repeat, a
great game is being played--has been played--but we will beat it. We
will catch these people in their own trap."
"But what can be their motive?"
The detective hesitated a moment and then said:
"We cannot now tell how these folks found out that your daughter is a
great heiress, your heir, for you are a very rich woman; and it is
possible that there may be people who are ready to step forward and
claim the estate which I hold as trustee."
We will again state that the detective held no such suspicion. He was
leading the mother astray for reasons that will be disclosed later on.
All he desired to do at the moment was to make it appear to Mrs. Speir
that his idea explained the true motive, but he knew better.
Two days later the predictions of the detective in a certain direction
were all singularly verified. The clothing and other incidents indicated
that the body found in the woods was that of Amalie Speir, and that the
lovely girl had committed suicide. There were proofs that she was young
and beautiful, and acting under the detective's advice Mrs. Speir
permitted it to be assumed that she recognized the dead girl. The
remains were brought to New York, taken to an undertaker's, and after
the usual preparation and ceremony, were buried from there, and our hero
was the only attendant who accompanied the unfortunate girl to the
grave, and that same night he held a long talk with Mrs. Speir. He said:
"They have played their last card now, but I cannot discern what their
motive could have been in making it appear that your daughter is dead."
Tears were running down Mrs. Speir's cheeks as she said:
"I can."
"You can?" queried the detective.
"I can."
"Well?"
"They are seeking to cover up a more horrible crime than her murder."
This same suspicion had run through our hero's mind.
We will here state that the evidences attending the discovery of the
dead girl apparently indicated beyond all possibility of doubt that she
had taken her own life. The mutilations which prevented a positive
identification were attributed to some animal that had discovered the
remains before they were discovered by the lads who reported the find;
and as apparently there was no mystery in the case, the affair dropped
away from immediate public attention; the circumstances did not appear
to call for an investigation, but here were the facts. Mrs. Speir was
positive that it was not the body of her child, and against this was the
tragic testimony that her daughter's clothing and trinkets had been
found on the body, and these served for identification--an
identification which was apparently complete and absolute. It not being
Amalie Speir, and the fact that testimonies were present to indicate
that it was, seemed to make it appear almost positive that there was
some deep design in the presence of those articles, and we can add that
our hero sadly feared that the motive suggested by the mother was the
truth, that the girl had been the victim of some heartless villain, and
he concluded that if such were indeed the fact the smooth, cunning,
adroit and skillful baron was the despoiler.