PATSY'S STORY AND THE TEST PROPOSED.
"Are you much hurt?" asked Patsy, anxiously.
Nick took in the whole scene before he replied.
Beside the bed were Colonel Richmond, Horace and a man whom Nick rightly
judged to be a doctor.
"No," said Nick, "I'm not much hurt, except in my feelings. What
happened, Patsy?"
"The ghost got away," responded the young man, in a tone of disgust.
"I wouldn't talk very much," said Colonel Richmond. "The doctor says
that you have been subjected to a severe nervous shock, and--"
"My grandmother's ducks!" exclaimed Nick. "Nervous shock! Well, this
makes me worse. Why, man, I've been sand-bagged."
The colonel shook his head.
"The power of the unseen forces," he began; but Nick interrupted him.
"Look here, Colonel Richmond!" he said, "if you had the sensation behind
your ear that I've got, you wouldn't talk about mysterious powers of
darkness. I know what's the matter with me, and what I want is a chance
to get square."
"There is no evidence of any injury," said the physician.
"There never is in a case of this kind," rejoined Nick. "A sand-bag
doesn't leave any mark. That's why it is so popular."
"It is impossible to convince a stubborn man," said the colonel. "I
should think that this experience would have been enough."
"Quite enough, thank you," responded Nick, sitting up. "And so, if you
gentlemen who kindly put me to bed will gracefully withdraw I will get
into my clothes, and prove to you that I have had enough, and that it is
somebody else's turn now."
He made them leave him with Patsy. Then he began to dress.
"Now tell me your story," he said.
"When I jumped for that spook," Patsy began, "I got the fearfulest thump
on my crust that I've had since that marline-spike fell off the main
yard on to me in the little affair of the Five Kernels of Corn.
"It couldn't have been a marker to what you got afterward, though. I
went down, but not out.
"You saw me draw my gun. Well, when you yelled 'Don't fire!' I held off,
but when I saw you go out I decided that all orders of that kind were
canceled.
"I blazed away; and, Nick, I put five bullets through that figure just
as sure as you're an inch high."
"What happened then?"
"The light went out. I got to your side, and flashed your lantern in
half a second.
"The figure had vanished. The colonel's lamp stood on the sideboard just
where he had put it.
"We had a fair light very soon. I examined you first, and, upon my word,
I thought that you were done for.
"We got you up to this room, and Horace Richmond rode off for the
doctor.
"From what he said about a nervous shock you can judge how much he
knows.
"His help wasn't worth anything. I will back myself against him any day.
"I made sure that you were only stunned, and would come to all right.
Then I hurried down to that room and began my search.
"Well, you know that room. It is simply built up of traps and panels. A
man can go through the floor or the walls almost anywhere.
"My job would have been a good deal easier if there'd been less of that
secret machinery.
"When there are five hundred ways in which a thing could have been done,
it's pretty hard to say which one is right.
"There's a trap pretty nearly in the spot where the figure stood.
Probably she came up and went down through that.
"But how about my shooting? There's the point.
"I took a direct line from the place where I was to the trap.
"Following that line, I came to the screen in front of the fire-place.
"In that screen, and about four and a half feet from the floor, were
three bullets from my pistol. The other two are not there.
"Then, as I figure it out, that ghost has carried them away.
"My shooting was pretty good, considering the light. The three bullets
were in the bigness of a watch-crystal.
"I feel sure that the other two were aimed just as well. If that's true,
then one of the conspirators has some mighty serious wounds. Three went
through her, and she stopped two.
"But there isn't a drop of blood to be found. The passage under the trap
I have explored thoroughly.
"I can't find a human being or a trace of blood or any of the machinery
which they must have used for the light or the ghost.
"Of course, the failure to find traces of the conspirators is not
strange. These passages are so long, and so intricate, and so mighty
well gotten up that I haven't had time to go through them all.
"But the wounded person is another matter. Where she is hidden is more
than I can imagine."
"I hope it wasn't Miss Stevens," said Nick.
"You called her name."
"Yes; I thought the chances were that it was she, but, of course, I
couldn't recognize her in that rig for certain."
"Well, if it was she, of course, we shall find it out. It's impossible
for her to carry those two bullets around with her and not show it."
Nick was dressed by this time. They went out into the hall of the new
part. Nick had been taken to a room there, instead of being carried to
that which had been assigned to him in the old part of the house.
From below came the sound of voices. The colonel, the doctor and Mrs.
Pond were talking of the case.
Patsy stopped before a closed door in the upper hall.
A sign from Patsy arrested Nick's attention. He communicated to Nick in
their silent language:
"That's Horace's room, isn't it? Whom is he talking with?"
Nick listened. Then he laughed.
"You've fooled yourself there, Patsy," he said. "He's talking to a
parrot. It's one of his pets. He has a good many."
Patsy looked a little sheepish.
"You can't blame me, Nick," he said. "We must suspect everybody in such
business as this. Isn't that right?"
"Quite right," responded the detective.
They went at once to the old dining-hall. Colonel Richmond presently
joined them there.
To him Nick frankly explained all the events of the previous night,
including the disguise which he had adopted in order not to appear in
the ghost hunt in his own person.
In return the colonel confessed the facts of his visit to the medium.
He said that he had done it secretly, because Horace and his daughter so
strongly objected to his seeing those who held communion with the other
world.
As to the woman who had met the colonel, he said that he did not know
her name. She was veiled all the time, and did not speak to him.
After the disturbance--he was careful not to call it an expose--this
woman had led him to the carriage, and they had hastened away.
Such was the strength of his delusion that he still believed that the
manifestations he had seen at that house were genuine. He would not
accept Nick's version of the affair.
"I have made up my mind what to do," he said. "My decision is
unalterable. I shall buy the jewels and give them to Millie Stevens. I
believe that in so doing I shall carry out my aunt's wishes."
It was a queer case for Nick. He had followed up many crimes, and had
recovered a hundred fortunes in stolen property, but this was the first
time that he had seen a robbery going on before his eyes and been unable
to prevent it.
His pride was aroused. There was no use in combating the colonel's
delusion. Of that he felt sure.
The man must be humored in order to secure delay.
"Colonel Richmond," said Nick, "I wish to suggest to you a final test in
this matter. It will settle all doubt and satisfy me thoroughly.
"If you can convert me to your views, I should think the achievement
might be worth the trouble."
"It would, indeed," cried the colonel, with sparkling eyes.
Nick, with his usual tact, had hit upon exactly the right course.
"You believe, of course," he said, "that the spirits of the dead cannot
be stopped by bolts and bars."
The colonel smiled, and nodded assent.
"The most of the jewels in dispute are, I believe, in the vaults of a
safe deposit company," Nick continued. "Very well; my test is this: Name
some article of the collection which you are sure is there, and see
whether your aunt will transfer it to Miss Stevens' possession.
"It should be as easy for a ghost to take anything from the vaults of a
safe deposit company as from that dressing-table upstairs. Will you
consent to the test?"
The colonel stood irresolute.
"Consent," said a voice, as of a woman standing beside them.
Yet the three men were the only human beings in that room.
"The voice came from that screen!" cried Patsy, and he leaped toward the
old fire-place.
He tore away the screen. No one was there.
"It was my aunt's voice," said the colonel, calmly. "I consent."
"Consent to what?" asked Horace Richmond, entering the room at that
moment.
The test was explained to him.
"Good!" he whispered to Nick. "A fine idea."
"Name a piece of jewelry," said the detective to the colonel.
"Among all her wonderful collection," replied Colonel Richmond, speaking
slowly, "there was no piece of which she was more proud than the gold
clasp, studded with diamonds, which you well remember, Horace."
"I do," responded Horace. "There is an old tradition about it. A remote
ancestor of ours is said to have brought it from the Holy Land at the
time of the third crusade."
"An ancient family," said Nick. "You have a right to be proud of your
ancestry. I accept the article named as the one upon which the test
shall be made, provided that you are sure that it is now in the vault."
"Perfectly certain," responded the colonel. "I put it there with my own
hands. Nobody else was present, except an officer of the company and my
daughter. It is utterly impossible that the jewel can have been
removed."
"I will take that for granted," said Nick. "The conditions of the test
are that this piece shall not be found in the vault when we visit it
this afternoon, and that it shall be afterward discovered in the
possession of Millie Stevens."
"Granted," said the colonel; and then in a clear voice, as if he wanted
to be sure that there was no misunderstanding in spirit land, he
announced the conditions of the test.