PARKS IN DISGUISE.
The two men left the house immediately.
A carriage was in waiting, and it conveyed them rapidly to the “fence”
on Sixth Avenue.
Nick guided Parks through the dark halls, but he did not take him to the
room where the crooks sat chafing in their fetters.
Instead, the two went into the room on the other side of the hall. Nick
struck a light, and they took chairs.
“I am simply following you,” said Parks. “I do not understand what we
have come here for.”
“To meet the assassin,” said Nick; “but before we do that I wish to
impose one condition on you.”
“Name it.”
“I wish you to be disguised.”
“For what reason?”
“I do not wish you to appear as Morton Parks.”
“That is only saying the same thing in other words.”
“True; I had not finished. It is important that when you face the
assassin you should not do it in your own character.”
“That is hardly more definite. But why should I argue the point? It is
immaterial. I am willing to assume a disguise.”
“I will disguise you now. You have heard, perhaps, that I have skill in
such matters.”
“Do as you wish.”
It was wonderful to see the change which Nick produced in Parks’
appearance. It was not done so quickly as would have been the case with
the detective’s own face, but it was done with amazing skill and care.
At last Nick held up a looking-glass before the other’s gaze.
Looking into it Parks beheld a dark, bearded countenance. Paints,
cleverly applied, threw such shadows upon the eyes that though they were
really gray they looked black.
The hair was black; the beard was black; it was indeed a swarthy face.
“Do you think that anybody would recognize you?” asked Nick.
“Never,” said Parks, and there was something of relief in his tone.
Nick replaced the mirror and resumed his seat.
“We were speaking, some minutes ago,” he said, “of the character of your
wife, as these tragic events have disclosed it.”
“Is it necessary to speak further on that subject?”
“It is, as I believe.”
“You must be aware that it is very painful to me.”
“It should not be.”
“What do you mean?”
“Mr. Parks, your wife is a pure and innocent woman, the victim of brutal
wretches.”
Parks sprang to his feet.
“Mr. Carter,” he cried, “in Heaven’s name, present the proof quickly, if
you have any.”
“You believe that your wife stole her own jewels in order to pawn or
sell them.”
Parks bowed in assent.
“She must have had a motive,” said Nick.
“I have already told you that she gambled in stocks.”
“With what brokers did she deal?”
“I cannot tell.”
“How do you know that she gambled in stocks?”
“She confessed to me when she had wasted her own fortune. She promised
to reform.”
“How long ago was this?”
“Over a year.”
“And she did not reform?”
“No; she continued to speculate.”
“How do you know?”
“The theft of the jewels proves it.”
“That was on August 3d?”
“Yes.”
“She obtained money as well as jewels?”
“Yes.”
“A considerable sum?”
“Twenty-four hundred dollars. I happened to have an unusual amount of
money in the house that night.”
“If she stole that money for speculation, it is reasonable to suppose
that she used it immediately for that purpose, is it not?”
“I suppose so.”
“Well, Mr. Parks, I have traced your wife’s movements for almost every
day of last August.”
“You have?”
“Yes; by means of one of my assistants, a very clever and well-taught
young lady.”
“What have you learned?”
“That she did not speculate.”
“How can you be sure of that? A person does not have to go to Wall
Street in order to dabble in stocks.”
“I know it; but a person whose fate is on the turn of that dreadful game
does not spend her time as your wife did.”
“How?”
“In the noblest works of charity; in the homes of the poor on the East
Side. It was there that she spent her days, not hanging over a stock
ticker in some resort of fashionable women gamblers.”
“This seems incredible.”
“It is true. I know of one family which she visited every week day
between August 3d and August 21st. I know several others where she was a
regular visitor.”
“You amaze me.”
“She spent a great deal of money in these charities, too. That does not
look like the work of a ruined gambler.”
“But how do you account for her association with thieves?”
“I will tell you. Let us suppose a case. You mentioned your nephew.
“Let us suppose that your wife was deeply attached to him. Let us say
that after long watching, and years, perhaps, of dark suspicion, she
discovered that he was a thief.
“Unwilling to believe any other evidence than that of her own eyes, she
follows him. She sees him enter a den of thieves. She learns that he is
their leader.”
“Is my nephew, then, the thief?” cried Parks.
“Wait. This is all supposition.
“Let us say that she enters this den of thieves. She has found their
private way.
“They are thunderstruck when she appears, though only the leader knows
her. She walks up to a table on which lies the plunder which they are
dividing.
“She seizes some of it in her hands. She is mad with the horror of the
scene, perceiving one she loves in such a place.
“They do not dare to kill her, for they have no means of disposing of
the body. She does not see that she is in great danger.
“She threatens them. She urges upon this man--your nephew, let us
say--to make restitution and reform.
“It is what a woman might do though a man would smile at it. He curses
her. She seizes some of the jewels and rushes out saying that she will
expose everything.
“The rank and file of the thieves’ gang would murder her rather than
permit her to leave the room.
“But the leader is more wily. He knows that she must die, but not there.
“He follows her; stabs her in the street, and escapes.”
“In the name of God, did my nephew do this?”
“The villain who did this is called Helstone. He is the leader of a gang
of thieves. His real name has been unknown to the police.”
“And my nephew----”
“Wait. That was only a supposition. Let us see if there is not somebody
who was bound to her by a closer tie.”
“What!”
“Had she no near relatives?”
“None.”
“She had a husband.”
“Liar! Do you dare to say----”
“That you, Morton Parks, are Helstone. It was not your nephew, it was
you she followed. Yes; I say it, and I shall ask you to test the truth
of it.”
“How? I am ready, and I think I know the test.”
“In this house, at this moment, I hold the most of Helstone’s gang of
thieves. Dare you face them?”
“Certainly.”
“You are disguised, it is true. I have purposely changed your appearance
as much as possible. But it will not serve.”
“I will face them instantly.”
“Then come.”
Nick walked to the door, and Parks was at his side.
They passed into a room which opened into that in which sat the fettered
thieves.
There they found Chick.
“Keep your eye on this man,” said Nick, but in a tone so low that it
could not be heard in the other room.
“You need not be afraid that I shall run away,” muttered Parks in reply.
Nick entered the large room where Inspector McLaughlin sat with a
revolver in each hand, facing the semicircle of crooks.
“Now, gentlemen,” said Nick, briskly, “you probably give me a great deal
of credit for having trapped you so neatly.”
A volley of oaths was the reply.
“I am too modest, however,” he continued, “to take glory which is not my
due.”
Again he paused, and this time the crooks appeared to take more serious
interest in what he was saying.
“Another man has really done the work,” Nick went on. “Without him you
would never be in the predicament in which you now find yourselves, with
Sing Sing prison open before you.”
“We’ve been sold out,” growled Miller. “Did Benton do it?”
“I am happy to clear Mr. Benton of that imputation,” said Nick. “He did
not do it.”
“Somebody did,” yelled Miller, and again the oaths broke forth.
Evidently the gang had no very cordial feeling toward its betrayer.
“Bring in Mr. Jones,” called Nick to Chick.
Parks and Chick entered on the instant. Nick could not help admiring the
man’s nerve.
His one chance in the world was that the gang would not recognize him.
And he had seen his disguise--the most utterly impenetrable which ever
shrouded the face of any human being.
He remembered the swarthy skin, the flashing black eyes, the beard of
the color of a raven’s wing.
Yet when he appeared a cry broke from every crook’s throat in that
criminal assembly.
“Helstone! Helstone!” they shouted.
Miller and one other actually burst their bonds in the frenzy of their
wrath against the man whom they believed had betrayed them.
And Morton Parks stood there utterly at a loss for a defense. The
recognition was too sudden and unanimous.
How had it happened? How could they have seen through that wonderful
mask?
“Mr. Parks,” said Nick, stepping forward, “I promised that within the
hour I would bring you face to face with the coward and villain who
stabbed your wife.
“I will keep my word. Behold Doc Helstone!”
With a sudden movement Nick raised a mirror which he had held concealed
behind him and thrust it before Parks’ face.
Parks leaped back as if a thunderbolt had struck him.
In that mirror he saw his face wearing the exact disguise which he had
led his gang of thieves to believe was the real countenance of Doc
Helstone.
There was the light-brown beard parted in the middle, there were the
gray eyes and light eyebrows, and rather pale skin.
“Surprised, are you?” said Nick. “Why, it was the simplest thing in the
world.
“When I made your face up half an hour ago I used a false beard colored
with a substance which is black when it is moist, but light-brown when
it is dry.
“Your eyebrows were colored with the same substance. It dries very
quickly. Five minutes after I showed you the dark face in the glass you
had begun to look like Doc Helstone. Every black line was fading into
brown.
“The tint which I used on your skin acts the same way. It turns from a
tan color to a pale flesh tint by simply being exposed to the air.
“It was very interesting to watch your face change into the character
you so much wished to avoid. Of course you couldn’t see it yourself. It
was changing almost all the time that we were talking.
“When you entered this room you fancied that you were disguised. In
reality, your face was exactly as you now see it--the face of the man
whom I saw walking away from the woman who had been stabbed.”