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."