THE DETECTIVE SIZES UP THE CASE.
When the _Goalong_ passed the Narrows and was making her way rapidly
through the upper harbor, it was approaching the evening of the second
day after her encounter with the pirate cruiser, _Shadow_.
Maxwell Kane was standing near the wheel-house as they passed inside the
bay, and, after glancing at his watch, he turned and walked aft, where
his wife and her mother were seated, silent, under the awning. Both were
sad and care-worn, for the terrible uncertainty as to the fate of the
beloved sister and daughter had almost prostrated them. And yet, they had
borne up wonderfully well under the circumstances.
“I am always good at picking winners,” Kane had said to them on one
occasion, “and I will take Bess against the field any time. That pirate
will get left at the pole, you see if he doesn’t, and he’ll never come
within a thousand yards of our filly. You see!”
Just now, when he walked aft, he had another idea on his mind.
“Mother,” he said, to the elder woman, “we will be at the foot of West
Twenty-third Street in something more than an hour; that is to say, in
exactly forty-eight hours since we parted with the _Shadow_.”
“Yes, Maxwell,” she replied. “Well?”
“I was about to suggest this: An hour more or less now won’t cut much
ice in this affair we’ve got on hand, will it?”
“I don’t know exactly what you mean, Maxwell; but go on.”
“I want you and Cora to remain on board when we land; see?”
“You don’t wish us to go ashore? Really, Maxwell, I feel as if I must——”
“I don’t want you to go ashore—either of you—until after we have seen and
talked with Nick Carter. Just the very first moment when I can leave the
yacht I will do so, and I will get him over the telephone and ask him to
come to us; and we won’t any of us say a blessed word about anything that
has happened on this cruise, until after we have seen and talked with
him. Is that agreeable?”
“Why, yes, I suppose so.”
“I have given orders to Manning to that effect. And now, with that
understanding, I’ll have myself put ashore the first moment possible. In
the meantime, if anybody should happen to come out to the yacht, you will
not receive them?”
“Certainly not.”
“It is not at all likely that anybody will do so, you know; but I wish to
have it understood.”
“Very well, Maxwell.”
True to Kane’s prophecy, the _Goalong_ arrived at the time he said she
would, and in a very short time after that he was in communication with
the detective. Their conversation was short, but very much to the point.
“Is that you, Nick?” Kane asked; and when he had received an affirmative
reply he continued:
“Don’t ask me for particulars over the phone, but come down here as
quickly as you can, will you? It is a matter of life and death, old man.”
“I’ll be there at once,” was the reply; and Kane heard the click of the
receiver as the detective replaced it at the other end.
And he had not long to wait after that.
He did not return at once to the yacht, but lingered where he was until
he saw the detective leap from a car and approach him; then he led the
way directly to his launch, and the two were speedily set aboard the
yacht. In as few words as possible, he then related the story of their
adventure which had ended so disastrously—in the abduction of Bessie
Harlan.
The very first question which Nick then asked was one which Kane had
foreseen. It was:
“Who, besides yourselves, is aware of this affair?”
“Not a soul in the world, save the people aboard this yacht—and aboard
the pirate, of course.”
“Then,” said Nick slowly and emphatically, “not a soul save yourselves
must ever know about it.”
“Just my own idea,” said Kane.
“It is for her sake,” continued Nick Carter. “Ladies, when you go ashore,
you must say not a thing about this sad occurrence. Give out—if you must
make any explanation at all—that Miss Harlan has remained at Bermuda, or
that you have dropped her somewhere on the route homeward. For her own
sake her present predicament must never be known.”
“We realize that fully,” said Mrs. Kane.
“Can you keep your crew from talking about the pirate?” asked Nick, of
Max.
“You bet I can.”
“Then see that you do so.”
“But Mr. Carter,” asked the mother, “can you not give us some hope of her
rescue?”
“Hope? Certainly I can. Hope? There is no occasion for anything else save
hope.”
“But think—think of her awful predicament.”
“I have thought of it. I am thinking of it now. Madam, you have often
heard the expression that you cannot make a silk purse out of a sow’s
ear; but has it ever occurred to you that it is quite as difficult an
undertaking to make a sow’s ear out of a silk purse?”
“I do not understand you. Mr. Carter.”
“Then I will explain. We are agreed, are we not, that the captain of the
_Shadow_ is no other and no less a person than Count Cadillac?”
“Yes.”
“Very well. If Count Cadillac had been reared a pirate—if he had passed
all his life before he appeared here in society among us, in the slums
of the world, a scoundrel, a thief, an impostor, and a felon, his advent
here would have been a parallel with making a silk purse out of a sow’s
ear. Now, we all know that while he was among us, he at least appeared
the gentleman, and, therefore, we are satisfied that his antecedents
were and are good.”
“That is certainly true, Nick,” said Kane. “I begin to see the point you
are getting at.”
“Very well. Now, on the other hand, if he has always been a gentleman
until he took up this calling of a pirate, he has undertaken the
proposition of turning the saying the other way ’round; eh?”
“Changing himself into a sow’s ear, when he has, heretofore, been a sort
of a silk purse; is that the idea?”
“Exactly.”
“How does it apply, Mr. Carter?”
“Why, his natural proclivities are those of a gentleman. His calling as a
pirate is an avocation rather than a vocation. He can play the brute, but
he cannot wholly become one.”
“He is certainly acting the part of one now,” said Mrs. Kane.
“Granted; but it is only outwardly. Inherently, he is still a man of
genteel tendencies. He has held you up in the middle of the ocean and
robbed you of the greatest treasure you possess, but he has not done it
for ransom—he has done it because he is in love with Bessie, and because
he realized the utter hopelessness of his love, since we sent his brother
to prison, and proved to our own satisfaction that he was as deep in the
mud as his brother was in the mire.
“Don’t you understand that the moment Bessie became a prisoner aboard
his craft he realized her entire helplessness? Don’t you see that he
never realized the enormity of the outrage he was committing, until he
saw her seated there in his cabin, absolutely at his mercy? Can’t I make
you understand that, bad as he is, all the good there is in him rose to
the surface at that moment, and every chivalric strain there is in him,
descended from his ancestors, appealed to him then and there to protect
her?”
“The point is,” said Kane, “that he started in to make a sow’s ear out of
himself, and has had an opportunity to find out that it can’t be done;
eh?”
“Precisely. There are some things which cannot be accomplished by a man,
no matter how intent he may be upon it; and the greatest of them all is,
that he cannot change his nature. The genteel blood which flows in the
veins of Count Cadillac would no more permit him to offer offense to
Bessie Harlan, unprotected as she is, than it would you or me, Kane.”
“By Jove, Carter! I believe you!”
“Certainly; so, you see, we must start in with the assurance that she is
as safe from actual harm where she is as if she were here with us now.”
The mother sighed.
“I wish I could feel it so,” she said.
“It is as true, madam, as that you are seated there. Her position is, of
course, a false one. She is in a terrible situation. But it is neither
fatal nor vital. Have I convinced you, Mrs. Harlan?”
“You have more than half-done so, sir.”
“Then let us proceed. We must now arrive at the quickest and best way
of rescuing her; and we must agree that when she is at last rescued—as
she will be in short order—the secret of her adventure must remain with
us—with only those who are concerned in it—forever.”
“By thunder! Carter, you are getting at the meat of the thing in short
order. I knew that you would do it. I couldn’t think of a method to cheer
these women, try as I might, and here you have accomplished it in a
moment.”
“We must now get about the rescue,” said Nick, again.
“But how? How shall we get about it? You can’t trace that infernal craft
of his across the waters of the ocean!”
“Why not?”
“Eh? Why not? Can you?”
“Certainly you can; or, at least, certainly we can.”
“For Heaven’s sake, how?”
“Do you recall, Kane, the night when we swam aboard the _Shadow_?” asked
Nick, referring to the time of the first capture of the pirate cruiser,
when the brother of the count had been taken prisoner and sent to his
just deserts.
“I should say I do.”
“Do you remember the conversation I overheard between the count’s
brother—Captain Sparkle—and his wife?”
“Yes. Of course.”
“Don’t you recall the fact that at that time we learned the whole secret
of their piratical proclivities? Don’t you remember how the woman hated
it all, and hated her husband, also, because he had ever gone into the
venture?”
“Yes.”
“And his explanation to her of his reasons, doubtless given to her for
the hundredth or thousandth time?”
“Yes; certainly.”
“Let me recall it to you, nevertheless. Over in his own country they
are descendants of one of the oldest families of the oldest province
of France—Anjou. There he possesses large estates, a château, and all
that the heart of a Frenchman desires, save the one necessity, money. He
became a pirate in order to possess himself of that necessary money. He
had decided that there were hundreds of rich men in this country from
whom he could purloin certain large sums which would mean a fortune to
him, but which would not affect them, even after they had been robbed.
His idea was that they were so rich that they would never miss at all
what he took from them.”
“Yes; I remember all that.”
“His only idea in becoming a pirate was to restore his fallen fortunes;
to redeem his estates; to rebuild his château; to become a grandee, as
his ancestors had been for many generations before him; to settle down
there at last, in quiet and in happiness, rich, admired, respected, and
esteemed. And he would have accomplished it, too, if he had not run up
against you, Kane.”
“Say, rather, against you, Nick.”
“Oh! well, it is the same thing. We were fortunate in cutting short his
piratical career, and he is now paying the penalty for his misdeeds.
Now, Kane, I am satisfied that this brother, the real count, is a
better man than the one we captured. There is more of the gentility of
his family in him. I have never thought that he was entirely a willing
party to the pirate business. He was an accessory, of course, because he
remained quiescent, and did not betray his brother, but I doubt very much
if he ever willingly committed a piratical act, or stole, until he first
stole the _Shadow_ from her moorings here in the city, and then held you
up in mid-ocean.”
“Well?”
“Now, we are endeavoring to trace his course across the ocean, are we
not?”
“Yes.”
“Then we have to consider why he has done the things he has.”
“Sure.”
“First, then, it goes without saying that he was in love with Bessie,
does it not?”
“I think so.”
“You saw it. I saw it. Your wife saw it. We all saw it. Isn’t it so?”
“Yes,” they all assented.
“Very good. Now, if you will hark back to the capture of his brother, you
will see how all of the real count’s castles in the air were shattered by
that event.”
“I see.”
“The brother was a married man; he could only retrieve his fortunes in
some such manner as he adopted; but with the count, it was different. He
was single. He had fallen in love with Bessie. If he could succeed in
winning her for his wife, his fortunes would be retrieved on the spot,
and after a manner entirely honorable; for Bessie is rich, in her own
right, is she not?”
“Yes.”
“I think he really loved her. I think that she was attracted to him. I
even think that it might have ended by her marrying him. It is certain
that he thought so. Then, in an instant, the cup he was holding to his
lips was shattered. His hopes were dashed to the ground. He determined to
disappear. He did so. Then he began to think out some way of overcoming
the difficulty that had arisen; of bridging the chasm that had suddenly
been dug at his feet. And, Kane, he saw but one way—only one. There was
the yacht where he could possess himself of it. Bessie was in Bermuda. He
could steal the _Shadow_. He could hold up the _Goalong_ and take Bessie
away, bodily. Thus, at least, he would find the opportunity to plead with
her—to present his side of the case exactly as it is; and, perhaps, in
spite of all, to win her, for he believed she loved him. At the worst, he
could not be lower in her opinion than he already was. This afforded him
a chance to win, and he took it.”