XXIX
A STRONG MAN
An hour later when the Chief Inspector rose to depart, it was with theunderstanding that until their way cleared and their duty in this matterhad become inevitable, no word of this business should reach the press,or even pass beyond the three officials interested.
Strange to say, they were able to keep this compact, and days elapsedwithout any public recognition of the new factor which had entered intothe consideration of this complicated crime.
Then a hint of what was seething in the official mind was allowed tocarry its own shock to the person most interested. Mr. Roberts wassummoned to an interview with Coroner Price. No reason was given for thisact, but the time was set with an exactness which gave importance to arequest which they all felt the director would not venture to disregard.
Nor did he. He came at the time appointed, and Coroner Price in welcominghim with becoming deference could not but notice the great change whichhad taken place in him since that night they stood together in the museumand saw the Indian make the trial with bow and arrow which located thepoint of delivery as that of the upper pedestal. In just what this changelay, the Coroner hardly knew, unless it was in the increased grayness ofhis hair. Mr. Roberts' face, handsome as it was, was not an expressiveone. Slight emotions made no impression there; nor did he to-day presentanything but a calm and dignified appearance. Yet he was changed; andanyone who had not seen him since that night must certainly observe it.
The Coroner, who was also a man of a somewhat stolid cut, proffered him aseat and at once opened fire.
"You will pardon me any inconvenience I may have put you to, Mr. Roberts,when I tell you that Coroner D---- of Greene County, is anxious to have afew words with you. He would have visited you at your home; but I inducedhim to see you here."
"Coroner D---- of Greene County!" Mr. Roberts was entirely surprised."And what business can he have with me?"
"It is in regard to the suicide of Madame Antoinette Duclos, committed,as you know, a week since in the Catskills."
"Ah! an extraordinarily sad affair, and of considerable moment I shouldjudge, from its seeming connection with the one previously occurring atour museum. The girls' mother, was she not? Grief evidently unseated herbrain. But--" here he changed his position quietly but with evidenteffort:--"in what manner am I supposed to be in a position to help theCoroner in his inquiry into this case? I was a witness, together withmany others, of what happened after the accident which took place at themuseum; but I know nothing of Madame Duclos or of her self-inflicteddeath, beyond what has appeared in the papers."
"The papers! An uncertain guide, Mr. Roberts. You may not believe it,"Coroner Price remarked with a strange sort of smile, "but there aresecrets known to this office, as well as to Police Headquarters, whichnever get into the most enterprising journals."
Was this meant to startle the director, and did it succeed in doing so?
It may have startled him, but if so, he made no betrayal of the fact. Hismanner continued to be perfectly natural and his voice under full controlas he replied that it would be strange if in a case like this they shouldgive out all the extraneous facts and possible clues which might begathered in by their detectives.
This was carrying the offense into the enemy's camp with a vengeance. Butthe Coroner was saved replying by Mr. Roberts remarking:
"But this is not an answer to my question. Why should the Coroner ofGreene County want to see _me_?"
Coroner Price proffered him a cigar, during the lighting of which theformer remarked:
"It's certainly very odd. You say that you didn't know Madame Duclos."
"No; how should I? She was a foreigner, was she not?"
"Yes; a Frenchwoman, both by birth and marriage. Her husband, a professorof languages, was located some sixteen years ago, in New Orleans."
"I never knew him. Indeed, I find it hard to understand why I should beexpected to show any interest in him or his wife."
"Well, I will tell you. You may not have known the Madame; but it is verycertain that she knew you."
"She?" This certainly unexpected blow seemed to make some impression."Will you give me your reasons for such an assertion? Was the nameDuclos a false one? Was her name like that of her daughter, Willetts? Ifso, allow me to assure you that I never heard of a Willetts any more thanI have of a Duclos. That a woman of whatever name and nationality shoulddesert her child fills me with horror. I cannot speak of her, dead thoughshe be, with any equanimity. A mother and act as she did! She herself wasto blame, and only she for what happened to that beautiful girl--soyoung--so sweet--so innocent. I have a weakness for youth. To me a girlof that type is sacred. Had I been blessed with such a child----Butthere, I am straying again from our point. What makes you say MadameDuclos knew me?"
Before replying, the Coroner rose, and taking a small package fromhis desk, opened it, and laid out before the astonished eyes of Mr.Roberts the freshly printed photograph of himself with which we areso well acquainted, and then the half-demolished one which for all itsimperfections showed that it had been originally struck off from the samenegative.
"Do you recognize this portrait of yourself as one taken by Frederickssome dozen years ago?"
"Certainly. But this other? This end and corner of what must have been mypicture too, where was _it_ found?"
"Ah, that is what I have called you here to learn. This remnant of whatyou have just admitted to have been your photograph also was found in thevery condition in which you see it now, in the wastebasket of the roomwhere Madame Duclos lodged previous to her flight to the Catskills."
"This! with the face----"
"Just that! With the face riddled out of it by bullets! She shot six intoit at intervals; waiting for the passing of an elevated train by herwindows, in the hope that the bigger noise would drown the lesser."
"It is nothing," was Mr. Roberts' indignant comment, as he brushed thepicture aside. "That was never my picture, or she wanted a target for herskill and didn't care what she took. That is all I have to say to you orto the Coroner of Greene County, on a matter in which I have no concern.I am sorry to disappoint both of you, but it is so."
He rose, and the Coroner did not seek to detain him. He merely observed,as the director turned to go:
"Have you heard the latest news about Mrs. Taylor?"
"No."
"She is improving rapidly. Soon she will be able to appear before thejury already chosen to inquire into the cause and manner of MissWilletts' death."
"A fine woman!" came in a burst from the director's lips as he facedabout for a good-bye nod. "I don't know when I have seen one I admiredmore."
And Coroner Price had nothing to say, he was stupefied.
But it was not so with Mr. Gryce, who entered immediately upon Mr.Roberts' departure.
"Not a jarring note," he remarked. Evidently he had heard the wholeconversation. "I never for a moment imagined that he knew Madame Duclos.Any knowledge we gain of her will have to come from Mrs. Taylor."
"He's a strong man. We shall find it difficult to hold our own againsthim if we are brought to an actual struggle."
"Why did he run the forefinger of his right hand so continuously into hisright-hand vest pocket?" was Mr. Gryce's sole comment.
By which it looks as if he had seen as well as heard.
"I didn't notice it. Is the District Attorney prepared to make the nextmove? Mine has failed."
"Not yet. The game is too hazardous. We should only make ourselvesridiculous in the eyes of the whole world if we should fail in an attackupon a man of such national importance. After the two inquests and aletter I hope to receive from Switzerland, we may be in a position tolaunch our first bomb. I don't anticipate the act with any pleasure;the explosion will be something frightful."
"If half you think is true, the unexpected confronting of him with Mrs.Taylor should produce some result. That's what I reckon on now, if thebusiness falls first to me."
"I reckon on nothing. Chance
is going to take this thing out of ourhands."
"Chance! I don't understand you."
"I don't understand myself; but this is a case which will never come intocourt."
"I differ with you. I almost saw confession in his face when he turnedupon me at last with that extravagant expression of admiration for thewoman you say he meant to kill."
"Why did his finger go so continuously to his vest pocket? When youanswer that, I will give a name to what I just called _chance_."