Part 14 (2/2)
”Please don't interrupt,” said the detective. ”You will be heard in your turn. Now, this Mr. Curtis was allotted room No. 605, and there is evidence to prove that he behaved like any ordinary individual who had just come from s.h.i.+pboard. He superintended the unpacking of his clothes, gave out a quant.i.ty of linen for the laundry, changed into evening dress, and dined alone. Thus far, there is ample corroboration of his own story, because his movements can be checked by the observation of half-a-dozen hotel employes. He says, by the way, that while buying some stamps at the cigar counter before going to the restaurant, he was jostled by a rough-looking foreigner, who apologized in broken French, and whom he took to be a Czech or Hungarian. No one seems to have witnessed this incident, but I have not questioned the man who sold him the stamps. Anyhow, after dinner, at twenty minutes of eight to be exact, he came into the lobby, intending to inform the clerk that he had closed the bedroom door and left his key in the room.
We have ascertained that this statement is true; the door had to be forced, because a bag of golf clubs had fallen and become wedged between the door and the side of a steel trunk. Curtis never did speak to the clerk about the key; at that instant, he says, his attention was drawn to the queer behavior of the foreigner who had pushed against him, and who had been joined in the meantime by another man of similar type. They seemed to be very excited, and were apparently expecting someone to turn up, either in the street or from the hotel--Curtis fancied that they were on the look-out for interruption, or news, from both quarters. The porter on duty at the door, who is not quite intelligible to-night, remembers asking these men if they wanted a taxi, but they gave no heed to him. Then, according to Curtis's version of the affair, an automobile dashed up outside, and a young man in evening dress, carrying an overcoat, stepped out, and told the chauffeur to keep the engine going, as he would not be detained more than a minute. At that instant the two foreigners--Hungarians according to Curtis--sprang at the newcomer, and endeavored to force him back into the auto. Failing in this, one of them drew a knife, and stabbed him so severely that he died within a few minutes, and without uttering an intelligible word. Curtis ran to help, but was too far away to prevent the crime, and was further balked in an attempt to seize either of the wretches by having the dying man's body flung in his way. He endeavored to hinder the escape of the scoundrels in the automobile, but failed, because the chauffeur was evidently in league with them, and, when he came back to the crowd which had collected around the prostrate man, it would appear that someone gave him, by mistake, the victim's overcoat in place of his own. This error was not discovered until the police came to search the dead man's clothing, when various doc.u.ments showed beyond question that the overcoat believed to be his was really Curtis's. Curtis told his story in a clear and straightforward way, and I, for one, have not seen any reason to doubt it. It is odd that he should have disappeared so completely since a few minutes after the crime, but that may be capable of a simple explanation, while it is possible that he has not as yet discovered the change of overcoats, or he must surely have returned and informed us of the mistake. I am a.s.suming, of course, that he would act as one would expect of any reasonable minded citizen who had witnessed a serious crime. . . . Now, Lord Valletort, what have you to say about Mr. Curtis?”
A guttural exclamation from Count Va.s.silan drew all eyes to him. He seemed to be on the verge of collapse, and was positively livid with fright. In other conditions than those obtaining at the moment, such a display of terror on the part of a truculent looking, strongly built man would have been almost ludicrous; but Steingall found no humor in the spectacle. He was gazing at the Hungarian with a curious concentration, and the police captain, who had begun by thinking his colleague was saying far too much, and who was inclined to disagree with some of his conclusions, now thought he could discern method in his madness.
Again did Va.s.silan murmur something to the Earl in a strange tongue, and Valletort, with difficulty repressing his annoyance, explained that his friend was feeling the effects of a blow received earlier in the evening, and wished to retire at once to his room in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.
”By all means,” said Steingall suavely. ”I gather that Count Va.s.silan has no connection with the inquiry--in fact, he is not interested in it.”
”He is, in a sense----” began the Earl, but Va.s.silan grasped his arm, and evidently besought him to come away without another word. Though Valletort was in a towering rage, he obviously thought fit to fall in with his companion's views.
”You see how it is,” he said, with a nonchalant gesture that was belied by his grating tone. ”I am afraid I must postpone my branch of this inquiry till a later hour--probably until the morning.”
”Do you withdraw all charges against John D. Curtis?” demanded Devar, and his clear, incisive voice was distinctly hostile in its icy precision.
”No, sir. I do not,” was the angry retort.
”Well, I guess you know best why you and the Hungarian potentate have developed this sudden attack of cold feet, but----”
”I'll thank you not to interfere, Mr. Devar,” said Steingall determinedly. ”If Lord Valletort thinks his business can wait till Count Va.s.silan has recovered from an indisposition, that is his affair only.”
”I think nothing of the sort,” snapped the Earl. ”You all see that the Count is ill, and common humanity impels me to attend to him first. It may serve to curb this young gentleman's tongue if I say----”
But Va.s.silan would not permit him to say anything. Though he was the ailing man, he literally dragged Valletort out of the room and into the street.
Steingall looked at the police captain, who quitted the apartment instantly. Then the detective gazed around at the others with a placid smile which seemed to show that he, for one, was well content with the unusual turn taken by events.
”I suppose you boys have verbatim notes of all that was said,” he inquired, tossing the remark collectively to the group of pressmen.
”Every word,” came the a.s.surance.
”Well, now, I want you to keep all that out of the papers.”
”If we do that, Steingall, what is there left?” said one of them good-humoredly.
”The biggest thing you have dropped on to this year; unless I am greatly mistaken, the scoop of scoops for those who happen to be present. I'm not going to pretend that any of you are blind or deaf, and it will a.s.sist the police materially if no comment is made on what you have heard and seen. I don't like to put it otherwise than as a friendly hint; but I may want the whole bunch as witnesses before this thing is through, so your mouths should be closed effectually with regard to incidents in this room.”
A half-hearted laugh went around, and someone asked:
”We must put up a readable story of some kind--if we cut out certain details, surely we can use others?”
”I said 'incidents in this room,'” repeated the detective.
”Then we can mention the arrival of the Earl and the Count on the scene?”
”Why not?”
”One minute, sir,” put in Mr. Horace P. Curtis. ”If these gentlemen take you at your word, the charge made against my nephew will be published throughout the length and breadth of the United States to-morrow.”
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