AMY'S TEST
However it was not quite as bad as that, though Sallie Page had
received a severe shock, and had been near to death. Prompt action on
the part of the physician on the hospital ambulance had started her
feeble heart, which had been affected by the current of electricity, to
beating.
This, among other things, Colonel Ashley learned when he hastened to
the jewelry store from the Homestead, leaving at the latter place his
trusty lieutenant, Jack Young, to look after both Larch and Harry King,
neither of whom seemed likely to leave the place very soon.
"Tell me more about it," said the colonel, when he was sitting with Mr.
Kettridge in the dimly-lighted jewelry shop after Sallie had been taken
to the hospital. "What shocked her?"
"The same electric wires on the showcase that shocked Miss Brill the
other day. The electricians had been told to remove them, but had not
yet done so."
"But I thought those wires were dead--cut--after the other accident,
Mr. Kettridge."
"So they were. But they can be supplied with current from another
source, it seems, and I was the innocent cause of doing it."
"You! How?"
"By throwing over a switch on the work bench where James Darcy used to
busy himself!"
"An electric switch on Darcy's work bench?"
"Yes, come and see for yourself. I've sent for the electrician to come
and rip out everything. I'll have the place all wired over. It was a
makeshift job to begin with, and since Darcy complicated the wires with
some that he hoped to run his electric lathe with, there is no telling
when one may get a shock."
"How did it happen?" asked the colonel, as the jeweler led the way to
that part of the store where Darcy had the repair bench, behind the
watch showcase. It was now close to midnight, and the excitement over
the accident to Sallie, which had occurred after the closing hour for
the store, had subsided, not as much of a crowd having gathered at that
time of the evening as would have done earlier.
"Well, it happened this way," explained Kettridge. "We're going to
have a special sale of a medium-priced line of goods to-morrow. I was
getting ready for it after the clerks had gone--setting out the display
and the like--when I found I needed help.
"It wasn't much--just the little odds and ends that a woman can do
better than a man when it comes to making things look fancy. I might
have telephoned for Miss Brill, but I didn't like to bring her back, as
she'd worked hard all day.
"Then I thought of Sallie Page. It's true she's deaf, but she has been
in the family, so to speak, a long while, and she knows the shop and
the goods pretty well. She's quick if she is old, so I got her down
about nine o'clock and we started in."
"Then exactly how it happened I don't know. I was puttering around the
work table where Darcy used to do his jewel setting and his repair
work, and Sallie was over near the showcase. I wanted more light on a
certain piece of jewelry I had in my hand, and I thoughtlessly threw
over a switch I saw on Darcy's table. It was a switch I hadn't noticed
before--in fact, I accidentally uncovered it by moving a collection of
his tools I hadn't previously disturbed.
"No sooner had I closed the circuit than I heard a scream from Sallie
and saw her fall backwards. I had given her a shock without knowing
it."
"That was queer," murmured the colonel. "Let me have a look at that
switch."
"And, while you're about it, I'll look too," said another voice in the
dimly-lighted store, and, as the two turned in startled surprise, they
saw Detective Carroll smiling at them.
"I heard there was another accident up here," he went on, still
smiling, "so I came to have a look. The side door was open and I
walked in. Guess you didn't hear me. These rubber heels don't make
much noise."
"They don't, indeed, when you walk on them and not on the soles,"
observed the colonel grimly. "The question is, what do you want to
see?"
"The electric switch on Darcy's table," was the answer. "I couldn't
help hearing what you said, Mr. Kettridge," said Carroll, "and I don't
know as I would have tried not to if I could. This is important. I
rather guess it makes it look a bit bad for your friend, Colonel
Ashley," and there was a sneer in the words.
"Well, I don't know," was the cool response. "The wires, as I
understand it, are to run an electric lathe, and they might easily have
become crossed."
"Oh, yes, of course!" admitted Carroll. "And then, again, they might
have been crossed on purpose. It's a new stunt--electrically shocking
an old lady before you bang her over the head or stab her, but it's a
good one. I'll have a look at that switch. I thought maybe I might
find something interesting here when I heard about the shock to the old
servant, and I didn't miss my guess."
There was nothing for the colonel or Mr. Kettridge to say or do, and
they remained passive while Carroll took his time looking about. Then
he telephoned for Haliday of the prosecutor's office, and also for the
chief electrician of the police signal system, and all three spent some
time looking at the wires and testing them.
"What do you think about it?" asked Mr. Kettridge of the colonel, when
the store was again dim and quiet.
"What do I think? I don't know! I'm going to have a talk with Darcy
in the morning, and if I find he's been deceiving me-- Well, I'll
drop his case, that's all."
If Darcy simulated surprise when, the next morning at the jail, told by
the colonel of what had happened to Sallie Page, the prisoner was a
consummate actor, the detective thought.
"Colonel Ashley!" Darcy exclaimed. "I never knew that my lathe wires
crossed or connected with any circuit that might shock a person. It is
true I had the wires run in secretly, as I didn't want my cousin to
know about them. She didn't favor my experiments on the electrical
lathe, and I had to keep quiet about it.
"But I never strung those wires to shock her, and of course you can
easily imagine I never could plan to injure Sallie Page that way, or
the young lady who was knocked down the other day."
"Well, Darcy, you may be telling the truth, and, again, you may not,"
and the colonel's voice was as noncommittal as possible. "But I am
bound to point out to you that the prosecution will make the most of
this, and that--it looks bad for you."
"I know it does, Colonel. But I had no more to do with my cousin's
death than Carroll or you. Nor have I the least suspicion who did kill
her. My God! what object would I have?" and he turned and paced up and
down.
"Well I'll do the best I can," said the colonel. "But I must say it
looks black. Then you never knew your wires might, by the closing of
the switch on your table, shock some one standing near the show case?"
"I never dreamed of it! The wires must have been changed since I used
them."
"That will be looked into. And the stopping of the clocks? Could your
apparatus have done that?"
"Never. It is true a strong electrical current might, under certain
circumstances, stop clocks, as well as start them. But it would not
stop all the clocks in the store--or all that were going--at different
hours."
"Perhaps not. Well, I must see what I can do. Carroll and Thong, with
the prosecutor's men, will use this for all it is worth. We must
combat it somehow."
"Please find a way, Colonel! I was so hopeful and--now--"
The young man could not go on for a moment because of his emotion.
"Amy--Miss Mason--how does _she_ take this?" he faltered.
"She doesn't know it yet, I believe. It didn't get in this morning's
papers, but it will be in this afternoon's."
"I wish you could see her and explain. I--I can't stand it to have her
lose faith in me."
"I'll see what I can do. I'll put the best face on it I can for her."
"And you yourself, Colonel! You--you don't believe me guilty because
of this new development, do you?"
"If I did I wouldn't still be handling your case, Mr. Darcy," was the
answer. "But I don't say that there isn't something to explain. I am,
now, giving you the benefit of the doubt."
"Then maybe Amy will do the same."
It was not many hours before the colonel knew this point. The first
edition afternoon papers had not long been out when the detective, who
had gone to his hotel after an early morning visit to the jail, was
telephoned to by Miss Mason.
"I happened to be in town, shopping," she said, and the agitation was
plainly audible in her voice, "when I saw this terrible thing about Mr.
Darcy's wires and poor Sallie. Is she in any danger, Colonel?"
"I believe not."
"That's good! May I come to see you? I have something important to
ask you."
"Yes, or I will come to see you, Miss Mason."
"No, I had rather come to your hotel, if you will meet me in the
ladies' parlor. It will be secluded enough at this time."
And a little later Amy and the colonel were talking. The girl's
haggard look told plainly of her distress.
"Tell me, frankly," she begged, "doesn't this make it look a little
worse for Mr. Darcy?"
"Yes, Miss Mason, it does. I had best be frank with you. The
prosecutor is bound to show that the presence of the wires, controlled
by a switch from Mr. Darcy's table, were so arranged that he might
shock his cousin, or any one who put his hands on the showcase. And
they will, undoubtedly, argue that he planned this to make her
insensible for his own purposes, whether it was that he did it in a fit
of passion to kill her for his fancied troubles, or to cover up a
robbery. I am only making it thus bald that you may know and face the
worst."
"I appreciate that, and I thank you. Then it does look bad for him?"
"It does."
"And how does he bear up under it?"
"Very well. His chief anxiety is regarding you. I realize this is a
test of friendship, Miss Mason. A test of both the loyalty of yourself
and your father, and--"
"Oh, you needn't worry about dad! He'll stick by Jimmie through thick
and thin, for he says he knows he's innocent,"
"And yourself? How does your loyalty meet the test?"
Amy Mason drew herself up, a splendid figure of beautiful womanhood.
She flashed a look at the detective that made him stand to his full
military height and bearing, and then she said:
"Do you think I'm going to let dad beat _me_? Oh, no, Colonel Ashley!"
So Amy Mason met the test.