NICK CARTER'S DENUNCIATION.
"Hello, Nick," was Dashwood's cheerful greeting, as his eyes fell on
the face of his friend, the great detective. "I'm glad to see you,
awfully glad, for I reckon I've been through the valley of the shadow."
Nick took Dashwood's hand and pressed it gently. But their conversation
was short, as excitement at that time was to be avoided.
"He will be as good as new in a few weeks," said Doctor Holcomb, when
Nick, Chick, and Leonard were outside the door, and after the reason
of Nick's appearance in disguise had in a measure been explained. "He
came here with a fractured skull, and to-day, the conditions being
favorable, I removed a piece of bone which was pressing on the brain,
and which would, if permitted to remain, have affected his memory."
Doctor Holcomb returned to his patient, and Leonard, followed by the
two detectives, went back to his room. The door was again closed and
locked.
"You brought Dashwood here, Mr. Leonard," said Nick, when they were all
seated, "and turned him over to Doctor Holcomb. What sort of story did
you tell the doctor?"
"I said that Dashwood was the victim of a murderous assault, that I was
present and tried to prevent it, and that, for good family reasons,
I did not want the facts to get to the public. The doctor knows me of
old, and he asked no embarrassing questions."
"Now, as to your after-actions, some of which were peculiar. I desire a
full explanation."
"They can easily be explained. I went home, the doctor's carriage
taking me to within a few blocks of my house. I was utterly exhausted,
but I could neither sleep nor think coherently. My main anxiety was my
daughter. It was essential that she should be at home. I arose early,
with my mind on no other subject, swallowed a hasty breakfast, and
hurried up-town to a telegraph office. After I had sent the telegram,
I went to the office in the factory building to try to compose my
thoughts, to figure out what I ought to do. I soon convinced myself
that the occurrences on the wharf were unknown to the police, but I was
worried somewhat when, on looking over the morning papers, I learned
of the suicide of Luke Filbon. His body had been found on the wharf
an hour or more after the time of the assault on Dashwood. Had he
witnessed it? Had he left behind any statement?
"I was considering this matter when you, Mr. Carter, came in. I did
not tell you the truth. I could not, and now you know why I could not.
After you had gone, I studied over what you had said, and the fear that
you were working on the Dashwood case was allied with another fear that
you suspected me, and that your suspicions might induce you to make a
visit to my house, for the purpose of investigation. When I returned
home the night before, I placed the five thousand dollars in notes in a
drawer which I always kept locked. In the morning I changed my clothes.
On leaving the house to send the telegram I gave no thought to the
notes, the other articles in the drawer, or anything else, for at that
time I believed I was safe from suspicion of any knowledge of what had
happened on the wharf.
"Now, hours afterward, in my office, the fact was borne home to me
that, if you did search my rooms, you would have cause for the gravest
suspicion, for the muddy trousers and the handkerchief which was
stained with rust from wiping my hands upon it after I had picked up
and thrown into the river the section of pipe used as a weapon by
Cora Reesey, would speak against me. And there were the notes and the
correspondence. I thought of all these matters, and realized what a
fool I had been in leaving the suspicious evidences behind.
"But I dared not go home, and I dared not attempt to leave town before
the inquest, for I might be already under surveillance, and attempted
flight would be looked upon as an admission of guilt. In an agony of
mind impossible to describe, I stayed in town until after I had given
in my testimony before the coroner. Then, in desperation, I resolved to
flee. I must take chances of arrest. But I was not molested. I went to
a remote section of the city, telephoned to Doctor Holcomb to call for
me at a certain house next day--that was yesterday--and then resigned
myself to circumstances. The doctor came, and I explained my situation
by saying that my business affairs were badly tangled, and that, for
the benefit of all concerned, it was necessary for a few days that I
should keep away from my creditors."
"Why did you write a note to me signed 'C. R.'?" asked Nick.
"Because I wanted to stave off a discovery of John Dashwood's retreat
until the operation should have been performed."
"Have you allowed your daughter all these days to remain in ignorance
of her husband's whereabouts and condition?"
"I have relieved her mind," said Leonard impatiently and nervously. "I
met her train at Madison, while she was on her way from Chicago to St.
Louis, and I there informed her that John was all right and would show
up in a few days. Since then I have written to her, my words carrying
the same assurance. She believes in me, Mr. Carter"--the look which he
bestowed on Nick was pathetic--"and, if I have deceived her, it has
been for her own good. To-day she shall know the truth, and to-morrow
will find her at her husband's bedside."
"And you--you are going away, are you? Why, if I may ask?"
Nick's voice was not pleasant. It was sharp, severe.
"Because my business is a failure; because I am sick of St. Louis;
because, with the few thousands I have secured, I may make a fresh
start in some new section of the country; because I dislike notoriety,
and Dashwood's story will----"
"Will bring you into the lime-light, eh?"
"Yes, that's it."
Nick looked hard at Leonard.
"You are a queer man, Mr. Leonard," he said. "Shrewd in some respects,
utterly lacking in shrewdness in others. Let me see, have you explained
everything? There is the matter of Luke Filbon's boat. What did you do
with it? Turn it adrift, or scuttle it?"
"I--I scuttled it," replied Leonard, with a start.
"So I reasoned. And why did you scuttle it?"
"Because I feared that it might show blood-stains from John Dashwood's
wound. The scuttling was a necessary precaution in the justifiable game
I was playing."
"Now, let me see if I understand the case," said Nick judicially.
"Everything you have done has been mainly in the interest of Mrs.
Dashwood, your daughter. Incidentally, you have remembered yourself,
and you have taken some interest--a commendable interest, I will
admit--in Dashwood. You shun notoriety, you want to preserve your good
name, to let the dead past bury its dead; and, if in carrying out the
plan you have mapped out, your creditors suffer, what of that? It is
better so; better for the officers of the law, who will be spared work
and bother; better for Gabriel Leonard, who, amid new scenes, with at
least five thousand dollars in his pocket, may begin life over again."
"I do not intend to cheat my creditors," said Leonard, in uneasiness,
touched with anger. "I intend to pay them to the last dollar. If I
compel them to wait, they shall have full interest."
"Yes, I suppose so," remarked Nick quietly. "A very fine program; but I
am compelled to inform you, Mr. Leonard, that you will not be able to
carry it out."
"Not carry it out?" a new fear stealing into his face. "And why not?"
Nick Carter arose to his feet. "Because," he replied, in a voice that
cut Leonard like a whip, "because your little game will not work. You
have told a story which in many particulars is true. But a part of it
is false, and there are some things which you have not touched upon.
You have not prepared to leave St. Louis because your business affairs
are in bad shape. You have not concealed John Dashwood solely for the
purpose of staving off a little notoriety, which a yarn such as you
have told to me would have rendered harmless. Your alarm over the
discoveries made in your room was not occasioned by the probability
that you would be suspected of the murder of John Dashwood, for, if
arrested for that crime, you could have produced the body of the living
man, and so confounded the officers. What were your reasons, then, for
acting as you have done? I will tell you.
"You were afraid of something that now causes the blood to leave your
cheeks, your lips to tremble, and your guilty heart to beat like a
trip-hammer. You were afraid to remain longer in St. Louis lest the
river should speak; should give up its dead and brand you liar and
murderer. Know now that the river has spoken--it spoke this morning
before I came here. Know that the body of your victim has been found.
Gabriel Leonard, I arrest you for the murder of Lucia Massona, alias
Cora Reesey, alias Madame Ree."