COLONEL RICHMOND'S NIGHT ADVENTURE.
Of course, Nick questioned the servant. To have failed to do that would
have been to throw light upon his real suspicions.
She was a tall, slender, and rather pretty Irish girl, named Annie
O'Neil.
Her answers to all questions were plain and simple.
She told what she had been doing on the previous day while Mrs. Stevens
was at lunch. She had not been in the dining-room all the time, but had
come in twice or thrice when summoned.
During the remainder of the time she had been in the kitchen. Nobody had
been with her there.
When Nick left the house, he rode half a mile back along the road, and
then dismounted and sat down under a big tree. In a few minutes a
farmer's wagon came along. A young man, who looked like a farm laborer,
was riding beside the farmer. He did not ride far beyond the place where
Nick was sitting. In a few minutes they sat together under the tree. The
young farm laborer was Patsy.
"I got your message," said Patsy. "I took the chance to ride over from
the station with that fellow, and I've asked him a few questions about
the house where you want me to go on duty. It seems that there's no show
to get in there on any pretext. I'll have to camp around on the outside
like a grass-eater."
"That won't hurt you, Patsy, my lad," said Nick. "The weather's good.
You're to keep an eye on the whole household, but on Miss Stevens
especially.
"This is the way the case looks at present: The girl is doing the work
on this end in connection with some confederate concealed in Colonel
Richmond's house.
"You understand the game. It's to work the spirit racket on Colonel
Richmond until he buys the jewels from his daughter or her husband, and
gives them to Miss Stevens.
"You must watch for the system by which she communicates with her
confederate in Richmond's house. They work the mails, but there must be
some quicker means to use in emergencies.
"Try to snare a letter, or get a sight of the other party.
"And be sure not to jump at conclusions, Patsy. I've told you how the
case looks, but it may be any other way. I haven't begun to work down to
it yet."
Nick mounted his horse, and Patsy strolled away in the direction of the
Stevens house.
When the detective got back to Colonel Richmond's, it was well along in
the afternoon.
He spent the remainder of his day in exploring the secret recesses of
the old house. It was, indeed, a marvelous place, and Nick got a very
high opinion of the ingenuity of the man who had designed its mysterious
passages.
He got little else, however. One or two discoveries he certainly made.
They were important as indicating that somebody had recently been in the
secret passages.
There was nothing to show what that person had been doing there, but the
probability was, of course, that he had concealed himself in the old
part of the house while preparing for his operations in Mrs. Pond's
room, or while escaping from them.
These indications were very vague, and did not point to the principal in
this affair--that mysterious thief who worked invisibly and by such
strange methods.
After dinner Horace Richmond took Nick aside, for what he termed a
discussion of "this ghostly rot."
"The very devil is in this business," said Horace. "The servants are
getting scared out of their wits.
"They all sleep in the old part of the house, you know, and there isn't
one of them who hasn't some story to tell of what goes on there in the
night.
"Some of these yarns are the old-fashioned business about sighs and
groans, and doors opening and shutting without anybody to open and shut
them.
"But under it all I must say that there seems to be a basis of fact.
There's John Gilder, the coachman. You've seen him, Does he look like a
man who can be scared easily?"
"I should say not," laughed Nick. "He looks to me like a Yankee
horse-trader, who is too intimate with the devil and his ways to be at
all alarmed about them."
"Just so. Well, John Gilder came to me to-day, and told me just as
calmly as I'd tell you the time of day, that he'd seen the ghost of Miss
Lavina Richmond. He saw her right in this room where we are now."
They had gone to the large dining-hall in the old mansion. Horace
sometimes used it as a smoking-room, but otherwise it was seldom
visited, except when the house was full of guests and all the old part
was thrown open.
It was a long and high room, finished in dark wood, and decorated with
moldering portraits in the worst possible style of art.
At one end was a gigantic fire-place, which was closed by a screen of
boards.
"He told me," continued Horace, "that he was passing through here late
last night--near midnight, he said--and that he saw Lavina Richmond
standing just about where you stand now.
"He came in by that door, behind me, and she was directly facing him.
He says that he didn't move or yell, or do anything, but just stood
staring at her.
"She paid no attention whatever to him, but passed across the room and
went out by that other door, which opened as she approached and closed
after her of itself.
"Then he ran for his room. He claims that he wasn't scared--only a bit
nervous.
"You can believe that if you want to. I tell you that he was scared, so
that he won't get over it in a year.
"If it wasn't for that I might think he was lying; but when a man like
Gilder quietly invites the footman--whom he always hated--to take half
of his bed for a few weeks, it's a sure thing that he's seen something
out of the ordinary.
"And the footman, as I learn, was mighty glad to accept the invitation,
for he's been having a few experiences of his own.
"Now, Mr. Carter, you and I believe that these things are done by some
clever trickster. It may be that some bogus medium who used to get the
colonel's good money away from him, wants more of it, and is taking this
means of driving my uncle back to the fold of true believers.
"I'm beginning to believe that that may be the fact. But whatever it is,
the case is almighty serious.
"Here's a nice old man, living happily, and gradually getting away from
his delusion. Here's an agent of the devil trying to drive this old man
back to his delusion, and make a lunatic of him, for that's what the
doctor says will certainly happen.
"I say it's too bad, not to mention the jewels at all. Now, what are we
going to do about it?"
"Catch the rascal," said Nick, promptly, "and catch him mighty quick."
"Well, I hope you'll succeed. I tell you, Mr. Carter, I feel toward
Colonel Richmond all the affection that I would give my father, if he
were alive, and I can't bear to see him driven out of his wits in this
infernal way."
"Have no fear," said Nick; "we'll save him. This trickery with the
servants may give us a chance to catch our man."
They returned to the parlor in the new part of the house.
Colonel Richmond was not there.
"Where is he?" asked Horace, anxiously, of Mrs. Pond.
"He has gone to his room. He said that the excitement of this affair had
worn him out completely."
Horace looked relieved.
Nick said that he, too, would go to his room.
He went, but he did not remain long in it. He had a fancy for a quiet
stroll around the house on the outside. It would be interesting to know
whether anybody entered or left it during the night.
One of the secret passages of the old house communicated with a sort of
tunnel, which had its outer extremity in an old well about twenty yards
away. This tunnel had caved in long before, but had been restored by
Colonel Richmond, who wished to preserve all the old-time peculiarities
of the place.
The inner end of it had been closed by a strong door, so as to prevent
anybody who might have the secret from entering in that way, but Nick
was strongly of the opinion that it would not keep out the persons who
were "haunting" the house in case they desired to come in.
If anybody was going in and out secretly this seemed to be the readiest
way, so Nick had resolved to watch the well that night.
A little house with sides of lattice-work had been built over it, and
vines covered it.
Nick stealthily crept into its shadow, and prepared for his vigil. But
it was not destined to be a long one.
He had not been there ten minutes before he saw a figure hastening
along one of the numerous paths which wound through the grounds.
This person evidently wished to avoid observation, and that was enough
for Nick. He immediately started in pursuit.
He trailed his man to the edge of the colonel's grounds. During this
pursuit the man kept in the shadow of some trees, and Nick had no
opportunity to see him clearly.
But as the man stepped out into the highway, a ray of moonlight fell
upon him, and Nick recognized him in an instant. It was Colonel
Richmond.
Why this man should be leaving his own house by stealth and under the
cover of darkness was an interesting problem.
Nick resolved to know all about it before the night was much older. So
he trailed along.
The colonel walked up the highway with rapid strides.
About half a mile from the house he found a carriage standing under the
shadow of a tree.
Evidently he expected to find it just there, for he immediately jumped
into it, and the driver whipped up his horse.
Nick was unable to see the driver, for the carriage was a covered buggy,
and had been standing with its back toward him.
The horse was evidently a good one, but Nick overhauled him, and got
hold of the carriage behind.
There was no chance for him to ride there, but his grip on the wagon
helped him along, and he ran about eight miles quite comfortably.
His presence so near was entirely unsuspected by the occupants of the
carriage. He was favorably situated for overhearing their conversation,
but unfortunately they did not say anything.
Nick discovered that the driver was a woman, but he could only guess at
her identity.
At last they turned suddenly out of the road, into the grounds of a
private house.
The sound of the wheels was evidently heard within, and the front door
was thrown open, letting out considerable light from the hall.
Nick could not go too near that light, so he let go, and crept into some
shrubbery.
The carriage drew up before the door, and the colonel and his companion
hurried into the house, leaving the horse tied.
The detective failed to obtain a good view of the woman or of the person
who had opened the door. The latter seemed to be a servant.
When the door had closed, Nick crept up.
He manoeuvred carefully, and discovered that there was somebody sitting
in the hall just inside the door.
Entrance by that means was out of the question.
However, he succeeded without much difficulty in entering the house from
the rear.
He found himself in the kitchen, from which he passed to a dining-room.
This apartment was almost totally dark. Nick felt his way to the side
opposite the kitchen, and came to a heavy pair of folding doors.
From the other side came a confused murmur of voices, as if many persons
were talking in hushed tones.
Presently they became quite still and then there arose the sound of
music. It was a slow and somber strain, as from an organ gently played.
Nick was crouching against the door, among the folds of a curtain which
could be drawn across.
Suddenly he heard a slight sound behind him. He turned noiselessly.
A white figure flitted across the room.
Nick was at one end of the folding doors, and the figure passed to the
other end and into the corner beyond.
There it suddenly vanished.
The light was so dim that Nick could not tell exactly what had happened.
It certainly seemed as if the figure had gone straight through the wall.
About a minute later another form appeared in the same way. It crossed
the room, and vanished.
"Good!" muttered Nick. "I'll back these ghosts against any that Colonel
Richmond can raise in his house."
Almost immediately there was the sound of a voice in the room beyond the
doors.
"Does any person present recognize a departed friend?" it said.
Then Colonel Richmond's voice arose, hoarse and trembling with emotion.
"Aunt Lavina," he said, "tell me what you wish me to do. I will obey you
absolutely."
"I thought so," chuckled the detective. "The colonel has come to attend
a spiritualistic seance."