CHAPTER X.
SOME CLEVER TRICKS EXPLAINED.
No sooner had Nick uttered these words than a loud cry rang through thehouse.
Instantly Millie Stevens appeared upon the threshold of the parlor.
"Horace!" she cried. "Tell me it is not true. You have not done this."
"Certainly not," he exclaimed. "It is an absurd slander. Carter, you'llbe sorry for this."
The girl looked straight into Horace's face for an instant.
Then she uttered a moan.
"He is guilty!" she cried; "I can read it in his eyes. And I loved himso."
She sank upon the floor at her mother's feet.
"Oh, mother," she said, "this is a just punishment for me. You told me Imust give him up. You read his heart.
"But I secretly accepted his love. I received letters in which he beggedme to keep our love a secret, and in which I should have read aconfession of guilt.
"And all the time he loved me only because he thought that I should havea fortune in gold and diamonds."
"You have stated the case exactly," said Nick. "When he thought youwould inherit all those jewels, he made love to you. Heaven knows thatyour own attractions should have been enough, but they were not for him.
"When the jewels went elsewhere, he was probably on the point of givingyou up. I judge that from certain letters of yours in that telegraphcipher which I found in his room.
"Then he wormed his plan for making you rich. He managed the robberiesat the house with the aid of John Gilder and one or two of thatspiritualistic gang whom he smuggled into the house.
"He did everything to increase his uncle's delusion. It was he who putColonel Richmond again in the hands of that medium."
"I supposed that that affair was all over," said Mrs. Stevens; "both thecolonel and I had disapproved of it."
"Annie O'Neil," said Nick, turning to the servant, "a full confessionfrom you is what we now require. It may save you from prison.
"We know that you managed the affair from this end. It was you who putthe jewels where they were found, after they had been given you byHorace. It was you--catch her!"
This last exclamation was addressed to Patsy. The girl was wavering asif she would fall.
Before Patsy could reach her she sank sobbing to the floor. Sheproceeded to pour out an incoherent confession, in which little wasclear but the name of Horace Richmond, and the fact that the girl "lovedhim still."
"I've been waiting for this," said Horace, with a brutal sneer. "Trust awoman and lose the game. Well, it's all up. I loved you, Millie, but notenough to marry you without the jewels. So I schemed for the transfer,and I have failed."
"It was Annie O'Neil whom you followed last night, Patsy," said Nick."Who was the men?"
"John Gilder," gasped the terrified girl.
"And you played ghost?"
"Yes, sir."
"But how about my shooting?" asked Patsy. "How does Annie O'Neil happento be alive?"
"Read that from Chick," said Nick, producing a paper. "He's made somediscoveries in the colonel's house to-day while we were all away.
"He's found the ghost. It seems that this girl was inside of a hollowdummy.
"She stood over a trap door. Just as soon as she had shown her face, shedropped the veil, and went through the trap."
"The dummy still continued to stand there, and you shot at it. Two ofyour bullets flattened on its steel braces. The rest went through.
"John Gilder flashed the light. When he turned it off, the dummy washauled down through the trap, and hidden in a place that neither you norI found, Patsy."
Colonel Richmond seemed to be in a trance.
"But the mysterious force," he said, at last. "The injury to yourselfand your assistant. How do you explain that?"
"It was done by John Gilder swinging a sand-bag on a string at the endof a pole which he poked through one of those panels.
"It couldn't be seen in that dim light, and it made a fearful weapon.It's a wonder that he didn't knock our heads off."
"I thought that I heard something whiz," muttered Patsy.
"And yet I heard her voice this morning," said the colonel. "She said'consent.'"
"No, she didn't; I said it," rejoined Nick. "I'm something of aventriloquist."
"How was the affair managed at the safe deposit vault?" asked thecolonel, after a pause.
"Why, Horace took the clasp out of the box and put it into your pocket.You really saw it, only he made you think afterward that you didn't.
"After I had searched him he picked your pocket and got the clasp. Thenhe wrapped it in paper.
"I picked his pocket to make matters even, and substituted my knifesimilarly wrapped up.
"When we got to this house he gave the knife to Annie O'Neil, who put iton Miss Stevens' pillow when she went upstairs to call Mrs. Stevens."
"You have not explained the robberies at my house," said ColonelRichmond.
"I'll do that over there. Is the rest of it clear? Has anybody aquestion to ask?"
Nobody spoke.
"Annie O'Neil," said Nick, "I'll leave here in Patsy's charge. HoraceRichmond, come with us."
Horace looked ugly for a moment, and then he calmed down and sullenlycomplied with Nick's order.
Judge Lorrimer begged to be of the party in order to see the explanationof the mysterious robberies of which he had heard.
Two hours later they all stood in Mrs. Pond's room.
"The essential part of this matter," said Nick, "was this door whichappeared to open and close of itself.
"I saw that at a glance, and made a secret investigation. It is done byelectricity.
"There's a magnet in the casing which is powerful enough to swing thedoor to, after which the same magnet pushes this little bolt--whichlooks like an ordinary screw--into position, and that holds the door,but not very steadily.
"You may say that this should have given me the criminal at once, but itdidn't.
"You see, this electro-magnet works whenever a current is turned intothe wires. Horace was clever enough to have the wires lead all over thehouse.
"A connection with the electric light wires, furnishing the current, canbe made in almost every room in the house.
"Of course, I suspected Horace at once, because his room was directlyoverhead. In fact, the two are connected, as you see, by a ventilator inthe form of a pipe with a grated opening in each room.
"The grating here, you see, is open."
"But, bless me," exclaimed Judge Lorrimer, "no thief could come throughsuch a place. Why, it isn't six inches square."
"Step in here a minute and see," said Nick, and then he called out:
"All ready, Chick!"
The whole party had by this time gone into Mrs. Pond's sitting-room.
Nick said hush, and pointed to the ventilator. Most of the party couldsee it through the door.
Instantly there appeared a mass of green feathers, and then HoraceRichmond's parrot fluttered noiselessly down into the room.
For a minute or two it ran around the floor. Then it flew up on to thedressing-table, seized a small gold bar pin in its beak, and flew backinto the ventilator pipe.
"A nice trick," said the detective. "I believe it took you some time toteach the bird that."
"About a year," growled Horace. "The bird was well trained before."
"Is it all clear?" said Nick.
"Perfectly," said the colonel. "But how did you get at it?"
"Simply enough. There was only one way into this room when thoserobberies were committed, and the parrot was the only living thing inthe house that was small enough to go through that pipe and intelligentenough to do the trick.
"You see, Horace trained the bird to pick up bright objects, andespecially articles of the color of gold, and to go up and down thatpipe.
"Then he schemed to have your daughter come here. The rest was easy. Hewaited till she was in the farther room, and then closed the doorbetween by the electrical device.
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"Immediately he sent down the parrot. The bird was so well trained thathe required only a minute or two to secure something.
"Of course, it was not always something of value. There were probably adozen failures where the bird brought back nothing or some uselessobject that glittered.
"I suspected the bird, and so put Chick on that lay. As you see, he hasgot the creature to work very well.
"Now, colonel, what more can I do for you? What shall be done with theprisoners?"
"Nothing; I will not prosecute."
"I guess we can hush it up, if you say so," responded Nick. "By the way,there's one thing that I want to explain. I mean the strange appearanceof that diamond pin in the box on the occasion of Mrs. Stevens' firstvisit.
"It was not the real pin, but a duplicate which had been prepared inadvance. Horace had put up that game as a finishing touch for his uncle.
"Mrs. Pond had forced Horace to go for me; but he wouldn't be scaredout. He played the game right under my nose.
"Annie O'Neil had the duplicate pin. She opened that box while Mrs.Stevens was calling to her daughter, as she testified, and put theduplicate into it. Then she wrapped it up just as before."
"So I won't have to give up the jewels," said Mrs. Pond.
"I am afraid you will," said Nick; "the queerest part of the story is tocome.
"Chick has found a later will by Miss Lavina Richmond. It is undoubtedlygenuine.
"And where do you suppose it was found? The strangest of all places--inHorace Richmond's room."
"She died there," responded the colonel. "She must have hidden the willduring her last illness."
"It is strange to think of Horace Richmond struggling with that parrot,and putting up his elaborate schemes, while the document which wouldhave given him all he wanted was hidden in his own room."
Horace Richmond's face at that moment was an amusing spectacle.
So was Mrs. Pond's.
"Never mind, daughter," said the colonel. "It is better so. I will makegood the loss to you."
And so ends Nick Carter's ghost story in a most natural manner.
Nobody was ever punished for the affair. Even the gang of mediums andheelers whom Nick had rounded up were released after their night injail, because, on sober second thought, their dupes were ashamed tocomplain against them.
THE END.
THE MYSTERY OF ST. AGNES' HOSPITAL