CHAPTER VI.
A ROUND-UP OF SPOOK-ARTISTS.
It began to look very much as if Horace Richmond's theory was correct.Certainly the colonel had fallen again into the clutches of bogusmediums.
It might be that the whole plot was directed to that end, and that thetransfer of the jewels to the Stevenses was only to be an incidentalresult of the plot.
Yet so long as Miss Stevens' unusual conduct remained unexplained, itwould not do to go upon this theory.
"One of the principal things that Horace Richmond employed me to do,"said Nick to himself, "was to break up his uncle's belief inspiritualism. I guess that this is a first-class chance to do it."
He softly crept to the corner where the gliding figures had disappeared.
There, as he expected, he found one of those movable panels which thebogus mediums prepare so cleverly.
His experience of such affairs taught Nick exactly what he should findin the other room.
There must be a little cabinet in the corner covering the other side ofthe sliding panel.
The medium might be in it, or she might be sitting blindfold just by thedoor.
But the cabinet was certainly not empty. Two figures had gone into it,as Nick had observed.
One of these was doubtless playing the part of Aunt Lavina.
The other must be waiting to appear in some other role.
Nick listened. He could hear the colonel questioning the supposedspirit.
The replies were put in that silly and mysterious language supposed tobe appropriate to visitors from the other world.
The meaning of them, however, was plain enough. Colonel Richmond wascommanded to restore the jewels to Millie Stevens.
This point was made so exceedingly clear, and his promise was demandedin such stringent terms that Nick was no longer able to doubt that theinterests of the Stevenses were being very carefully attended to bythese "spook-compellers."
In view of the facts already known, it was hardly possible to reach anyother conclusion than that Millie Stevens had hired this medium to dothe whole job.
That it was being done "to the queen's taste," Nick was forced to admit.
Yet he couldn't help being sorry to believe that such a charming andbeautiful girl as Millie Stevens should be mixed up in such a dirtybusiness.
He waited till Colonel Richmond had completed his solemn protestations,and then suddenly slid the panel and passed through.
There was another person in the cabinet, who was, of course, instantlyaware of Nick's entrance.
But the place was so dark that at first the bogus ghost did not knowthat Nick was not one of the regular company of spirits.
He had a chance to get his bearings before the discovery was made.
The shade of Aunt Lavina was just retreating toward the cabinet makingthat absurd series of nods and gestures which such spirits always use.
Nick could see this performance through an aperture in the side of thecabinet.
He instantly leaped out, and grappled with the spook.
Then there was an uproar. The whole room was in indescribable confusion.
Somebody turned up the light. For an instant Nick, grappling with thespirit, saw Colonel Richmond.
The colonel had not been given a private seance. Possibly he had notdesired it. He had come with a dozen other victims of the same delusion.
He had been given a seat a little in the rear.
Before him, as is usual, was a row of persons who were "in the game."
The space where the spirits appear is always encircled by such a line asa guard against possible attempts at exposure.
Of course, everybody in the room was on his feet.
Some of the front-row people were rushing upon Nick.
Others had crowded around Colonel Richmond so closely that Nick wasafraid he might not fully see the exposure of this fake.
The person whom Nick had seized was not a woman, as might have beenexpected, but a man. He was of short stature, but surprising strength.
Even in the mighty arms of the detective, he managed to strugglevigorously, and for a moment prevented Nick from tearing away the whiteand ghostly wrappings.
But a complete expose could not have been long delayed. In spite of theodds against him, Nick was certain to come out ahead.
He called out to Colonel Richmond:
"Look! Look at this! It's a man!"
Just at that instant a tall man who had been standing beside the female"medium," and acting as master of ceremonies, seized an ornament fromthe mantelpiece, and hurled it not at Nick, as the detective expected,but at the lamp in the corner of the room.
This lamp had been turned up by one of the timid believers as soon asthe row began.
The missile which the spiritualistic "bouncer" hurled was well directed.It smashed the lamp to fragments, and the room for a minute was dark.
Then another light flashed up. The broken lamp had set fire to thewindow curtains.
The scene hadn't been what one would call peaceful before, but it hadbeen nothing at all to what it became when the fire leaped up.
Pandemonium broke loose. Doors and windows were burst out, and everybodyrushed toward the outer air.
Among the last to emerge was Nick.
He held the "bouncer" in one hand and the ghost of Aunt Lavina in theother.
Both of them were very badly used up. When the detective dropped them onthe lawn they made no attempt to rise.
Some of the medium's stool-pigeons were beginning to get their witstogether, and were making preparations for putting out the fire.
Nick yelled to them, and pointed to a line of garden hose on the lawn.
There was a head of water in this pipe, and with the aid of its streamthe fire was extinguished.
The detective did not assist. He turned his attention to discoveringwhat had become of Colonel Richmond.
The colonel had disappeared. The carriage in which he had come was gone.
Doubtless the person who had driven him over had hustled him into thecarriage at the earliest possible moment.
"A shrewd move," muttered Nick, "and a bad one for me. However, I've gotthis gang cornered, and if they've been doing the job at the colonel'shouse, their operations are over."
There was an excited group of people by the main door of the house. Inthe midst of them stood the medium, a fat and coarse woman, whom Nickhad seen before in the same crooked business.
Those around her were the real believers in spiritualism, who had cometo the show.
They had witnessed the exposure, and were ready to mob the medium.
Nick took his two prisoners to this group. He tied them securely, andthen turned to one of the dupes:
"Why don't you have these people arrested?" he whispered. "Charge themwith taking money under false pretenses."
"Good!" said the man. "There's a warrant for some of them already. I'llget the constable, who lives over across the fields, and he'll pull 'emall in."
A half-hour later the whole gang was under arrest and on the way to thenearest lock-up.
The detective felt that his evening's work was not in vain. Whatevermight be the facts about the connection of this gang with the affair atColonel Richmond's, it was a good thing to get them all out of the way.
The colonel's presence among them proved that they were thespiritualistic crowd which was after him. Their removal would simplifymatters.
Moreover, the colonel's presence, and his questioning of the spook,showed that any theory connecting him with the disappearance of thejewels was wrong.
It was evident that he had asked the questions in all sincerity,believing that he was really in the presence of his aunt's spirit.
He could hardly be crazy enough to do that, supposing that his lunacyhad led him to abstract the jewels.
Having witnessed the arrest of the gang, Nick procured a horse and droverapidly toward Colonel Richmond's house. He arrived there abouthalf-past eleven o'clock.
There
was a light in the parlor, and through the open window Nick beheldan unusual scene.
The colonel, Mrs. Pond and Horace were present. Mr. Pond was not in thehouse. He had returned to New York.
Besides the persons named, there were in the parlor nearly all theservants connected in any way with the establishment.
It looked as if the colonel was holding court.
One of the servants seemed to be giving testimony. The expressions onthe faces of the others showed deep interest and superstitious terror.
Nick had no doubt about what was going on. The colonel was getting tothe bottom of the ghost stories. There must have been moremanifestations that night.
The detective was in doubt whether to enter the house in his owncharacter. Finally he decided not to do so.
He disguised himself in the character of John Gilder, the coachman, whowas not present in the parlor.
It seemed best to gain access to the room from an entrance toward theold part of the house instead of from the main hall.
So Nick passed around the corner of the house. As he did so he was awareof a dark figure crouching in the shadow.
He instantly grappled with it, and the figure was not less prompt ingrappling with him.
The struggle was very brief. It ended with Nick on top, and no harmdone.
The detective instantly leaped to his feet again.
"Patsy!" he exclaimed. "What brings you here?"
The Crime of the French Café and Other Stories Page 16
