Part 74 (1/2)
”The handkerchief was precisely like the mutilated one used with the chloroform. This might be a coincidence--plain white handkerchiefs with wide borders were not uncommon, but this handkerchief was _marked_!
”I could scarcely wait until Sir Clifford should show me to my room, so anxious was I to compare the two pieces of linen.
”The whole one bore the initials F. L., and on the raw, torn edge of the half square was a black dot that was undoubtedly the fragment of a letter, or name, that had been torn hastily off. It corresponded exactly with the lower end of the letter L. upon the whole handkerchief given me by Sir Clifford.
”This might be a coincidence, but it is one of my rules to suspect two coincidences coming close together; and I had already discovered three remarkable ones in this case.
”Sitting alone in my room, I reflected thus:
”Take it for granted that this robbery was perpetrated by the Diamond Coterie, what are the facts?
”The robbers knew where to enter, and where to look for plunder; _ergo_, they must have known the premises.
”They administered the deadly chloroform with nicest calculation; _ergo_, they must have known Miss Wardour.
”One of them was something of a dandy,--witness the superfine bit of cambric, and the print of jaunty boots where he leaped the garden fence.
”The next morning I took unceremonious leave of my host, and set out on my explorations. As I approached Wardour Place I met a man, who immediately drew my interest to himself.
”This man was Jerry Belknap. He wore a disguise quite familiar to me, and I recognized him easily. He entered at the Wardour gate, and I sauntered on, having found new food for thought.
”Now, a word concerning this man Belknap.
”At one time he was an honorable member of the best detective force in the city; but he had too much cupidity, and not enough moral firmness.
Twice he allowed himself to be bribed into letting a case fall through, and finally I caught him in secret conclave with a gang of bank burglars, who were conspiring to raise a fortune for each, and escape with their booty through the connivance of our false detective.
”I exploded this little scheme, and compelled Belknap to withdraw from the force. Imagine my surprise when, a little later, Miss Wardour told me that _Mr. Belknap_ was the detective sent down from the city by Mr.
Lamotte!
”Well, Mr. Belknap went to work upon the case, and Miss Wardour concealed me near her dining room so that I might have the pleasure of listening to his first report.
”That was a fortunate ambush for me. Mr. Belknap's deductions were as diametrically opposite to mine as if he had purposely studied out the contrast; and I was shaking my sides with the thought of how all this plausibility must be puzzling Miss Wardour and her aunt, when a new element was introduced into the programme.
”Mr. Frank Lamotte, fresh from an amateur robber hunt, came into the room. It had been arranged that Mrs. Aliston should break to this young man the news that his sister had that day eloped with John Burrill; but first, he was to relate his adventures, and this he did.
”If I can hear a voice, before seeing the face, I can usually measure its truth or falsity. Now, I had not seen Mr. Frank Lamotte, but his voice told me that he was rehearsing a well studied part; and, furthermore, I was a.s.sured that Belknap knew this, and purposely helped him on.
”By and by Miss Wardour withdrew, and Mrs. Aliston fulfilled her mission. Then I was more than ever convinced of the fellow's insincerity. I heard how he received the news of his sister's flight; and when Mrs. Aliston went, in a panic, to call her niece, I heard him, when he fancied himself alone.
”It seems he had been the bearer of a note from his sister to Miss Wardour, and he was now intent upon learning if that note had contained any thing damaging to himself. This much I learned from his solitary mutterings, and then Miss Wardour re-entered the room. He was half wild, until she had a.s.sured him that the note contained nothing that could injure him; and then he became calmer, and went out into the air to recover his breath.
”Miss Wardour made haste to release me, and I came out of my concealment congratulating myself that I had been so lucky.
”And now I found myself compelled to leave W---- just as things were growing very interesting; I had made my flying visit in a moment of leisure, but my vacation had run out; duty, honor and interest, alike impelled me in another direction.
”I left my address with Miss Wardour, and I promised myself that at the first opportunity I would return to W---- and take up my abode here for a time.
”I had been in W---- not quite three days. I had not seen Jasper Lamotte, I had barely seen Frank, and I had added to my deductions made on the night of my arrival, until the case stood like this in my mind: