CHAPTER II.
NICK IS BOLDLY CHALLENGED.
Nick knew the old Plummer mansion well. There is not a house to match itin this country.
A hundred years and more ago it must have been the scene of strangeadventures. It was built, certainly, by one who did not expect apeaceful and quiet life within it.
The thick stone walls, which look so unnecessarily massive, are reallydouble. There are secret passages and movable panels and trap-doorsenough in that house to hide a man, if a regiment of soldiers was afterhim.
Evidently such a place offered every chance to shrewd criminals whomight have a motive for playing upon the superstitious beliefs of thepresent proprietor.
Anybody who couldn't get up a respectable ghost in the old Plummer housemust be a very poor fakir.
The mere fact that all the doors and windows of a room were closed didnot prevent any person from going in or out at will, if he knew thesecrets of the house.
Nick thought of these things as he rode down there in the cars, and heprepared himself for an interesting time, chasing bogus ghosts throughsecret doors and panels.
But a surprise awaited him on his arrival. Colonel Richmond met him atthe door, and, by Nick's request, took him at once to the room fromwhich the articles had been stolen.
It was a modern room in a new part of the house.
Nick was entirely unprepared for this. He did not know that the colonelhad built any additions to the old mansion.
Colonel Richmond spoke of this remarkable feature of the case at once.
"If this thing had happened in the old part of the house," he said, "Ishouldn't have thought that it was anything but an ordinary robbery.
"Every room there can be entered in a secret manner, and no doubt thereare plenty of panels and passages which even I do not know.
"But there's nothing of the kind here. This wing was built under my eye,and from my own design. I saw the beams laid and the floors nailed down.
"There is absolutely no way to enter the room in which we now standexcept by the two doors and the window.
"My nephew has told you about the robberies. You know that the doors andthe windows were practically guarded all the time.
"I don't believe that any mortal being could have got in here and gotout again without being seen.
"As for myself, I understand the case perfectly. My belief will seemstrange to you, because you do not see with the eye of the spirit.Everything has to be done by human hands, according to yourmatter-of-fact notion.
"I know better; and I tell you that these jewels were taken by thespirit of my deceased aunt, and that she did it to show me that mydaughter was wrongfully in possession of them."
When a healthy, hearty old man, who seems to be as sane as anybody elsein the world, stands up and talks such nonsense as this, what can onesay to him?
It is useless to tell him that he is wrong about the whole matter. It isfolly to attempt to reason with him.
The only way to do is to show him a perfectly natural explanation of themystery, and simply make him see it.
That was the task which Nick had before him, and it must be owned that,at the first glance, he did not see how he was going to accomplish it.
He examined the room and satisfied himself that it had no secretentrances.
Such being the case, Nick was unable to form a theory of the robberywhich would fit the facts as they had been stated to him.
After looking at the rooms, he went with Colonel Richmond to the parlor,on the ground floor, and there proceeded to question him about themysterious occurrences.
"There have been three robberies in all," said the colonel, "and theyhave been exactly alike.
"In every case my daughter has left some articles of jewelry on thedressing-table in her bed-room, and one of them has vanished. Never morethan one at a time.
"Twice it happened while she was in the adjoining room. The bed-roomdoor which opens into the hall was locked on these occasions.
"The third time she was in the hall, talking with my nephew. He wasstanding in the upper hall, leaning over the banister rail. They werediscussing a plan for a drive out into the country. Quite a party was togo.
"Horace had just received word from a gentleman whom they had invitedthat he would be unable to go. He had read the note in his room, and hecalled downstairs to my daughter to tell her about it.
"That was how they happened to be standing in the hall. Presently shewent back into her room, and almost immediately noticed that a smalllocket set with diamonds had been taken.
"She screamed, and Horace and I came running to her room. We searched itthoroughly.
"There was nobody there. The door between the bedroom and thesitting-room was open, but the other door of the sitting-room, whichopens into the old portion of the house, was locked and bolted on theinside.
"Now, I submit to you, Mr. Carter, whether in that case any other way ofentrance or exit was possible except by the windows."
"I'm bound to admit," responded Nick, "that if the doors were in thecondition you describe, no person could have entered or left those roomsexcept by the windows."
"Well, it had been raining hard, and the ground was soft. We lookedcarefully under all the windows.
"There was no sign of a footprint, and nobody could have walked therewithout making tracks. Oh, it is clear enough! Why do we waste your timein a search for invisible spirits of the dead?"
He rambled on in this way for several minutes, and Nick did not try tostop him.
The colonel was at last interrupted, however, by the entrance of hisdaughter.
Mrs. Pond had been out driving. She learned, on her return, that astranger had come to the house, and she hurried into the parlor,suspecting who was there.
"I am delighted to see you, Mr. Carter," she exclaimed. "You will clearup this abominable mystery and relieve my father's mind from thesedelusions."
"Then you do not share his opinions," said Nick.
Mrs. Pond laughed nervously.
"No, indeed," she said, "and yet I must admit that I am quite unable toexplain the facts. I suppose you have heard the story?"
"Yes."
"What do you think about it?"
"It is much too early in the case for me to express an opinion. Butthere are one or two questions that I should like to ask you."
"Do so, by all means. It was at my request that you were called in."
"At your request?"
"Yes; I talked with Horace about it, and at last we agreed to ask you totake the case. He didn't believe in it at first, for he did not want tolet anybody into our family secrets."
She glanced at her father as she spoke. It was evident that the familywas a good deal ashamed of Colonel Richmond's spiritualistic delusionsand wanted to keep quiet about them.
"I talked Horace into it after a while," Mrs. Pond continued, "and atlast he became as enthusiastic as myself. We know that you will find thethief."
"Thank you," responded Nick. "There is one point which seems peculiar tome. After you had been robbed once, why did you continue to leave thejewels unwatched in the very place from which one of them had previouslybeen taken?"
"I insisted upon it," said Colonel Richmond. "I told my daughter thatshe must make no change in her habit of wearing or caring for my aunt'sjewels. I wished to show that we were not foolishly trying to hide themfrom the eye of a spirit, but that we wished to learn the desire of mydeparted aunt as soon as possible."
"It was by your order, then," said Nick, "that your daughter continuedto put the jewels on her dressing-table when she laid them aside for anyreason?"
"It was."
"I have just left some of them there now," said Mrs. Pond. "I went to myroom after my ride, and took off a light cloak which was fastened withthree pins, each having a diamond in its head. I stuck them all into acushion on that dressing-table."
"Is the room locked?" asked Nick.
"Yes," replied Mrs. Pond, and she produced the key of the door
whichopened from the hall above.
"Will you allow me to go up there now?"
"Certainly."
She handed the key to Nick.
He took it and walked out of the parlor.
Nick had already formed a sort of working theory in the case. Hescarcely believed that it would hold water, but it would do for astarter.
The most probable explanation that had come to him was that Mrs. Pondhad not really been robbed at all.
It might be that she had some motive for making these articles vanish.Perhaps she had some need of money, and was secretly selling themagainst the wish of her husband and her father.
So, when Nick took that key and went toward that room he did not expectto find the three diamond pins in the position described by the lady.
He found the door locked, and he opened it by means of the key. Then helocked it behind him, leaving the key in the lock.
He turned at once to a dressing-table.
The three pins were there, just as Mrs. Pond had said.
Nick laughed softly to himself.
"That looks bad for my first shot at this queer case," he said; "butperhaps she didn't dare work the game while I was in the house."
He glanced out of the window of the room.
Two servants were in the yard. They seemed to be explaining therobberies to a new driver of a groceryman's wagon, for they had one ofhis arms apiece, and were pointing to the window.
Nick walked into the sitting-room, and spent some minutes examining thewalls, and especially the door leading toward the old part of the house.
He found nothing at all to reward his search. There absolutely was nosecret entrance.
The detective decided that nothing further could be done in that room.He walked toward the other.
To his astonishment he found that the door had been closed while he hadbeen busy with his investigations.
He sprang against it.
The door yielded a little, and yet he could not open it.
Some person stronger than he seemed to be holding it on the other side.
He drew back for a spring. That door would have gone to splinters if ithad stood in his way again.
Instead, it swung open the instant he touched it, and the force of hislunge took him nearly to the middle of the room.
In an instant he was on guard, but he saw no one.
The room was quiet, and it was empty.
The door into the hall was locked as he had left it.
All was the same, except that on the dressing-table was the cushionbearing two diamond pins instead of three.
The robbery had been done, as one might say, under the nose of thegreatest detective in the world.
"Well, this takes my breath away," said Nick to himself. "It's thenerviest challenge that ever was sprung on me."