The Adventures of Ethel King, the Female Nick Carter

by Jean Petithuguenin

  The young girl raised her head proudly.

  “And so?”

  “I find your behavior more or less misplaced, Eva. You don’t tell a stranger that your fiancé gets on your nerves.”

  “I say what I please, and, besides, I forbid you to give yourself the title of fiancé so long as I haven’t officially authorized you to.”

  Hawfinch turned toward Ethel and looked at her with contemptuous coldness.

  “I regret, Miss Briar,” he said, “that your mistress has thought she should take such a bad counselor as a companion. If you’ve taken on yourself the task of disuniting lovers who were until now tenderly in love with each other, I don’t compliment you for it.”

  Ethel King judged it preferable not to respond. At that moment, Outburn, who had stayed behind in the smoking room, entered the greenhouse and looked with surprise at the attitude and the angry expressions of the two women and Hawfinch, who spoke stiffly to Eva.

  “This painful incident shows me, Eva, a number of things I didn’t know. I want to have a clear understanding with you. After this, it is indispensable, you’ll agree. Both of us are too overexcited this evening to finish our quarrel. I will come back tomorrow and ask you to see me in private.”

  He bowed and turned to leave. Despite the calmness he pretended, he was obviously very troubled. As he went away rapidly down the pathway, he caught his foot in the watering hose that the gardener had forgotten at the edge of one of the flower beds, and fell flat on his face.

  Eva and Outburn instinctively went to help him get up. But Hawfinch was already standing. He stifled a curse, rapidly wiped himself off with his handkerchief, and reached the exit. While Eva and the engineer followed him into the sitting room, as if to show him out, Ethel King leaned over the edge of the flower bed at the spot where Hawfinch had fallen and picked up a red Moroccan billfold which had slipped out of the pocket of the gigolo’s riding coat.

  Her first thought as to give it to Eva for her to return it to its owner. But it occurred to her that the contents of the billfold could furnish interesting information about Hawfinch and that it would always be time to return the object the next day.

  Unmasked!

  It was afternoon the following day. Miss Newborn was sobbing, prostrate on a sofa, while Ethel King, seated in front of her was looking at her in compassion and trying to console her.

  “My Heavens! When I think that I was going to give my hand to a forger! But how did you think about examining the contents of the billfold. After all, that was indiscreet of you.”

  “I admit it, Eva. Mr. Hawfinch had inspired me with distrust. I’m a physiognomist. I had an idea that I would find curious information in it about the person and perhaps the way to overcome him if he was an imposter. The circumstances have proved that I was right.”

  The girl sat up and smiled through her tears.

  “It’s the charm of the green diamond that’s operating, Ethel. The legend claims it can uncover imposture. Let’s just hope it doesn’t bring me bad luck and that I won’t be the victim of a catastrophe.”

  She gestured tiredly.

  “After all,” she said, “it doesn’t matter to me. The existence prepared for me scarcely tempts me. My wealth will keep me from being truly loved.”

  Ethel took her hand.

  “You’re wrong, Eva. You can be loved. You’re only a child, not experienced in discerning the feelings of those around you. You couldn’t know it without that. There is a generous heart that beats only for you.”

  “Do you think so? Who are you talking about, Eva?”

  “Mr. Edward Outburn.”

  “Bah! He’s poor. It’s my fortune that attracts him.”

  “No, Eva. Think about it. Has he ever declared his love to you?”

  “No.”

  “Wouldn’t he have done so if he had dreamed of becoming rich at your expense?”

  “Perhaps.”

  The maid knocked at the door and announced:

  “Mr. Hawfinch.”

  “Have Mr. Hawfinch wait a moment in the big drawing room. You can bring him in when I ring.”

  When the maid had left, Eva asked:

  “Should I see him, Ethel?”

  “I doubt that you are strong enough, Eva. But if you like, I will see him in your place and tell him how it is.”

  “No,” Eva said resolutely. “I’ll do it myself. Let me be alone, Ethel.”

  “Do you think it’s wise to be alone with that man in the present circumstances?”

  “What danger can I be in?”

  “Remember that Hawfinch’s plan seemed to have been to spread around gossip of your engagement with the aim of doing away with your last hesitations. He could now try to compromise you to force you into marrying him.”

  “Then?”

  “Let me hide in a corner of the small drawing room. Let’s say, behind the piano. I can intervene if necessary.”

  “But you will be horribly uncomfortable.”

  “Don’t worry about that,” Ethel said, smiling.

  “And you’re only a woman, after all. How can you protect me from a man?”

  “I’ll protect you, don’t worry, Eva. Besides, my presence will probably be enough to ward off danger.”

  Miss Newborn couldn’t keep from thinking that her lady companion was very extraordinary.

  “What a strange girl you are, Ethel! You’d think you weren’t afraid of anything.”

  A minute later, Ethel was hidden behind the piano and Eva rang to have Hawfinch come in.

  The visitor came toward the young girl with the same casual and haughty air as the day before, as if nothing had happened. But Eva quickly drew back her hand, on which he was about to place his lips.

  He sat down beside her on the sofa.

  “Are we still angry, little Eva?”

  “Mr. Hawfinch, I forbid you to call me familiarly by my first name from this moment. What’s more, I have seen you only to tell you my intention of breaking off with you.”

  “Can that be!” the young man exclaimed, staggered. “Then what crime have I committed to merit such harshness? Is it because I took your defense with too much zeal?”

  “That’s one of your mistakes, Mr. Hawfinch. If you are incapable today of taking care of my reputation, you wouldn’t be any more so if I were to become your wife. But there are more serious…”

  “Ah!”

  The girl suddenly changed her attitude and observed with very well acted indifference:

  “But I remember, Mr. Hawfinch. Didn’t you lose a red billfold yesterday, in the greenhouse?”

  “Yes, I did precisely that, Eva…Pardon, Miss Newborn. I would like to ask you for it, if you found it.”

  “Yes, here it is…It was my gardener who picked it up this morning. To find out who it belonged to, I looked at the contents. There was something that astonished me, Mr. Hawfinch.”

  “I can guess what, but speak.”

  “I’m surprised that you constantly carry around in your pocket four income documents, each of £800 sterling. These papers represent a huge fortune, more than $500,000!”

  “I had them on me by chance, as I did the day I showed them to you.”

  “Yes…You don’t seem to be very worried, Mr. Hawfinch, for a man who has lost $500,000!”

  “Actually…Miss Newborn, I only noticed the disappearance of my billfold this morning. I immediately thought that I lost it at your house when I fell yesterday evening. I wanted to come back here immediately to reclaim it, but then I thought it wouldn’t be any more inconvenient to wait for the time of my visit. What’s more, I admit to you, that subject didn’t occupy my thoughts very much. The loss of your love made me indifferent to that, a relatively small part of my fortune.”

  “Are you very sure that there isn’t another reason for that indifference?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “If, for example, these papers,” Miss Newborn continued, taking one of the documents of income out of the billfo
ld and spreading it out on her knees, “if these papers, I say, didn’t have the value that you claim to give them.”

  Hawfinch remained speechless, dumbfounded.

  “If these were forgeries,” the young girl continued, becoming animated, “common forgeries, you fabricated to take advantage of my naiveté, to make me believe that you were rich and in that way to make me decide to marry you.”

  She contemptuously threw the documents and the billfold in the direction of the gigolo, who, confused, didn’t know anything else to do but to alternately take out his monocle and put it back in.

  “Leave, sir! You are unmasked! You’re nothing but a vile imposter! If I don’t turn you over to the police, it’s only to avoid a scandal.”

  Hawfinch made a desperate gamble. He hid his face in his handkerchief and pretended to burst into sobs. Then he threw himself on his knees at the girl’s feet.

  “Eva, my dear Eva,” he stammered in a broken voice. “Don’t send me away! If you knew…Yes, it’s true…I’m poor…I deceived you. I made a mistake to make you believe I was rich…But it was love that drove me to that act of folly…I swear it…I didn’t think about your fortune.”

  “You’re lying!”

  “No, no, I’m not lying…Eva, don’t send me away, I beg of you. I love you! You will make me go mad!”

  “Leave me, sir.”

  Hawfinch had taken the young girl in his arms. He had closed her mouth with a kiss. Eva was struggling; pulling away, panting from the imposter’s embrace. Her dress front was torn in the battle, showing her naked breast.

  Hawfinch increased his pressure. Eva tried to avoid him.

  “Turn me loose, sir! Do you want to dishonor me?”

  At this moment Ethel came out from behind the piano and brandished a revolver at the scoundrel.

  “Stop, you rogue!” she shouted. “Get out immediately and never set foot in this house again if you want to avoid getting acquainted with the Union’s prisons.”

  Hawfinch stopped, disconcerted. He looked at Ethel King with astonishment, while Eva, swooning, leaning on a piece of furniture, was holding up with one hand to her bosom the torn shreds of her dress.

  The imposter coldly picked up his cane and his hat, adjusted his monocle, without taking away a contemptuous look at Ethel.

  “Ah! It’s you I owe for all this, Miss Briar,” he said with contained rage. “I suspected that. The trap was clever. My compliments! You’ll be sorry for your stupid meddling, Miss Briar. I’ll get revenge!”

  With these words, he turned his back and left quickly, as stiff and as correct as when he entered.

  “Thanks, Ethel,” Eva stammered. “That man is a villain…and a coward.”

  Eva fainted in her companion’s arms.

  Epilogue

  “You’re saying, Mr. Light, that this man claiming to be Hawfinch is none other than a man named Hard?”

  “Yes, Miss King, that individual was condemned by the New York courts to 20 years of hard labor for attempted murder. Held in Sing Sing Prison he found a way to escape…and he’s continuing his criminal career with glamour, as you see.”

  “It’s too bad I didn’t know about that sooner! I had a great opportunity to arrest that prison escapee! But that’s just been put off. We’ll manage to pinch him. The essential thing is to have saved Miss Newborn. When I think that, without your intervention, the poor girl might have perhaps married that scoundrel!”

  Ethel King tapped softly on her desk to show her willingness to act.

  “Charley,” she said, “go quickly and find Mr. Golding, bring him up to date on the case, under the seal of secrecy, tell him that Hard was in Philadelphia 12 hours ago and he may still be here.”

  As soon as her assistant had left, Ethel observed, smiling:

  “Well, Mr. Light, our mission wasn’t so simple after all. The green diamond almost gave us trouble.”

  “That’s true, Miss King, and without you, the adventure would have finished badly. My idea of soliciting your collaboration was a good one.”

  “Say, rather, that your wife had a good idea,” Ethel joked.

  “Yes, Maud will be happy. I’m now sure of getting my farm.”

  “Wait, Mr. Light, wait. The green diamond has already proved one of its virtues in allowing us to unmask the imposter. Miss Newborn has had it only three days. The fatal period only expires in five days. A lot of things can happen in five days.”

  Ethel King began to laugh and John Light had a hearty laugh with her.

  2. THE EVIL SPELL

  An Intruder Finds Out Who He’s Dealing With

  “Yes, Mr. Light, our mission won’t be finished for another five days, and in that lapse of time the green diamond can play a great many tricks on us.”

  While speaking, Ethel King was tapping her desk with the point of a pencil and her laughing eyes had suddenly taken on a worried expression. John Light, a private detective with whom she had collaborated in solving a case, was seated on the other side of the table. He seemed very satisfied.

  “It’s true, Miss King. Mr. Isaac Loewenmaul, the jeweler, hired us to watch over the safety of his client, Miss Eva Newborn, for a week, to protect her from the evil spell of the green diamond. But we’ve just saved Miss Newborn from the advances of an imposter, Hard, an escaped criminal, who took the name Jack Hawfinch and was found out. On the point of being engaged to him, the young girl found out, thanks to you Miss King, the true character of the man who wanted to marry her, and sent him away. What could we now fear for her?”

  “For a detective, Mr. Light, you seem to me to be very little discerning. We have everything to fear, everything, from Hard.”

  “What! Do you think he would dare show himself again at Miss Newborn’s?”

  “He’s a man full of hatred, vindictive, who doesn’t stop at murder. And he swore to get revenge.”

  “Toward you, Miss King. But we know what those who try to get revenge toward you can expect: prison or hanging. What’s more, Hard doesn’t know that it was you he was dealing with. He met you under the name of Miss Ethel Briar, Eva Newborn’s lady companion and hasn’t seen you in the home of his ex-fiancée except metamorphosed by clever make-up. Ethel King is a brunette with an olive complexion. Ethel Briar is blonde, with very pale skin and rosy cheeks. Two tiny tubes of celluloid put into her nostrils make Ethel Briar’s nose somewhat thicker than that of Ethel King.”

  “I’m not worried for myself, Mr. Light. I am for Eva. Hard threatened only me, but be assured that he holds a grudge against Miss Newborn and that he’ll get revenge on her if he finds an opportunity. By a strange chance, the legend of the green diamond was partly confirmed by the event. That curious stone confers, they say, on its possessor the gift of seeing through imposture. Eva unmasked the false Hawfinch. It’s up to us to prevent the fatal power that superstition attributes to the jewel to be manifested also.”

  “You don’t seriously believe, Miss King, that possession of the green diamond could cause Miss Newborn to be at risk?”

  “No, certainly not. I’m not the least superstitious in the world. But in the present circumstances, the simplest thing is to act exactly as if we were. Eva Newborn is menaced with peril; whether or not this is the effect of the green diamond doesn’t matter. The fact remains.”

  “That means that we must follow to the letter the mission Mr. Isaac Loewenmaul hired us for. Even go beyond what we’re obligated to do, if it’s necessary. According to the terms of our contract, we must take care of Miss Newborn’s security for a period of eight days, during which time, according to the legend, the evil curse of the diamond is in effect. Loewenmaul has contracted to take back the diamond if, before the expiration of the fatal period, any misfortune happens to the rich orphan. In order not to miss his sale, since he’s a cautious man, he hired us, unknown to Miss Newborn. If nothing happens to the young girl, if she keeps the diamond, we will receive $20,000 from the jeweler.”

  “I pocket $10,000 and I quit the profession! I b
uy a farm in Virginia and I go there to end my days, happy with my wife and child.”

  “Yes, Mrs. Light didn’t let you take the case except on that condition.”

  “My dear Maud is so afraid of a catastrophe! Besides, I have, I admit it, a lot less taste for the profession since I married. Ah! Maud will be very happy, Miss King, when she knows that we’re a good way toward success!”

  The detective was interrupted by the sound of a voice in the vestibule. Ethel King recognized the rough accent of Sara Cramp, her housekeeper, to which a strident and light tenor voice was responding.

  “I’m telling you, you won’t come through here,” Sara was shouting. “Miss King is out. Come back tomorrow or write instead, giving your address. You’ll be contacted if your business is important.”

  “I absolutely insist on seeing Miss King. I know she’s here,” the man protested. “I saw her come back in.”

  “And what if you did see her! Whether she is or is not at home, you can’t come in; do you understand. The only thing you can do is leave.”

  There was a moment of silence; then Sara began again with indignation.

  “Not through there, sir! That’s the sitting room. Nor that way; that’s the library. No, pardon, you can’t go upstairs.”

  “Well! Just let me pass, old fool!”

  There was the sound of a struggle. Ethel King went out noiselessly onto the landing and looked, without letting herself be seen, through the posts of the railing. Sara Cramp had seized a puny looking man by the ear. He was shorter than she by a head.

  “Old fool? Old fool?” she was repeating, exasperated, while the groaning man struggled.

  She opened the door and threw, none too gently, the intruder to the bottom of the flight of steps.

  “That will teach you to be more polite some other time!” she proclaimed loudly. “Clear out, and promptly, or I’ll set Pluto on your heels. Here, Pluto!”

  She whistled, and a Great Dane with dreadful fangs bounded into the vestibule through the kitchen door. He was Ethel King’s dog. Sara had just enough time to grab him by his collar. He growled and seemed about ready to jump on the imprudent visitor.