Chapter X · CHICK SUPPLIES THE FINAL PROOF.

Ida was introduced to Mrs. Lock, and then she proceeded to make her report.

She had visited the dead girl’s boarding-place in Harlem, where she learned that Estelle was in the habit of spending the night elsewhere, occasionally at the house of an aunt somewhere in the suburbs, it was understood.

She had gone away the night previous to remain with this aunt, but returned unexpectedly quite late. She told her room-mate that her aunt was not at home.

For the first time Miss Langdon had a pistol in her possession with her initials, “E. L.,” engraved on the handle.

Her room-mate said Estelle explained that she bought the pistol to shoot cats, which annoyed them, at nights, from the back yards.

To prove her sincerity, she had gotten up in the night, and fired a shot at a serenading feline.

Ida’s report was not what Nick hoped it might be, but just as she went out Chick came in, and he brought news that made Nick’s eyes glisten.

“I’ve run down my man,” said Chick, in a tone of satisfaction, after being introduced to Mrs. Lock and told by Nick to go ahead.

“Let us hear about it,” urged Nick, eagerly.

“Just as you thought he would, Gay returned to the Borden Building about eight o’clock.

“He went up to his office, and came down in disguise.

“Had it been in day-time, I should never have thought the old chap was Gay.”

“The old chap?”

“He was disguised as an old man.”

Nick instantly recalled the circumstance of the old man who had inquired of the elevator-boy for the offices of Bridgely & Byke.

The detective had no doubt now that Gay had returned to the building in that disguise, and got into Byke’s private office, where he had been hidden all day, hearing and seeing that which went on in Redway’s office.

“I followed him to a room on the Bowery. He was in that room about twenty minutes. When he came out, he was again in disguise, but the nature of the masquerade this time made my task of identification easy.”

“What was it this time?”

“An almost perfect counterpart of Victor Redway as you described him to me.

“He had a cab waiting at the sidewalk. I suspected that the cab was there for his use, and I had one ready to follow. He lost no time in getting over to Brooklyn. I didn’t lose him en route.

“He drove to a house on Atlantic avenue, and went in. When he came out, he had a little girl with him whom he handed into the cab, got in after her, and was driven away.”

“A little girl!” gasped Mrs. Lock, with a hand pressed to her heart.

“The original of the picture in Redway’s watch,” said Chick.

“Oh, Heavens! My child—Estelle!”

“Do not get excited, Mrs. Lock,” cautioned Nick. “The little girl will not be harmed, and will be safely in your arms in good time.”

“But, sir, she is in his hands—in the hands of a murderer.”

“He will not harm a hair of her head. She is too important for the successful carrying out of his plans.”

“Well, disguised as Victor Redway, he had no trouble in getting the little girl away from the people in whose charge her father had placed her.

“He had, evidently dogged Redway’s steps and thus found out the girl’s hiding-place after you confided your story to him.”

“What does he intend to do with her?”

“Hide her away till Redway shall be out of his path. Then make her the price of your marriage to him.”

“I have the hiding-place located,” said Chick.

“Where is it?”

“On Ninth avenue, with Granny Grimes.”

“Well, he has a seasoned old wretch for a jailer, that’s certain.”

“Oh, what shall I do?” moaned Mrs. Lock.

“Do? Why, you must not return to your boarding-house. Your change of feeling toward Gay might arouse his suspicions.”

“Then where shall I go?”

“Suppose you stay here as the guest of Mrs. Carter till to-morrow morning?”

Mrs. Lock consented to Nick’s arrangements, and while Mrs. Carter and Ida were making her as comfortable as possible Nick and Chick went out on a little private business.

At exactly midnight the Tombs received another prisoner.

Oscar Gay, looking like a walking corpse, was led into the gloomy prison, and securely locked into a cell in murderer’s row.

Next morning he was found dead on his cot.

No one will ever know where he had concealed the poison which ended his miserable life; for Nick and Chick had searched him carefully before they locked him up.

When Redway was released, he made a full explanation.

Nick’s deductions had been almost entirely correct.

When Redway found the dead girl collapsed in her chair on his return from the unsuccessful attempt to see his wife in Woodford’s office, he became convinced that Evelyn had fired the deadly shot.

The position of the body, and the nature of the wound, confirmed him in his belief.

He examined his pistol, which he found in the drawer where he had placed it that morning when Miss Langdon returned it to him. She gave it to him with one chamber empty, and he had found it with one chamber empty. So he naturally concluded it had not been discharged since the night before.

He did not know that in his absence that forenoon Miss Langdon must have put a cartridge in the empty cylinder.

When Redway “planted” the pistol beneath the dead girl’s hand he supposed the empty chamber was the same from which she had discharged the shot at the cat.

It turned out that Gay secured Miss Langdon her position with Bridgely & Byke; also that Redway at once recognized her as his wife’s cousin, but to keep his own identity a secret, did not let her know of his relationship to her, after having tested her with a suppositional story of a client, which was really his wife’s story.

Miss Langdon had recognized her cousin when the latter left Redway’s office that afternoon. For some reason she associated Mrs. Lock’s visit with Gay, because she had heard her give Redway her address, which she knew was Gay’s boarding-place. She was insanely jealous of Gay, and suspected him of treachery.

In that loud interview with Redway, after he returned from seeing Mrs. Lock to the elevated station, Estelle admitted that she had borrowed his pistol—which had formerly been a present from Redway to his wife, “E. L.”—to kill Gay the night before, and then herself, if he refused to absolve from her oath, not to betray their relationship by word or act till he gave his consent.

He had failed to meet her, however, at their secret tryst, and had avoided her next day.

Nick believes she had sent for him to have Gay’s footsteps dogged.

Gay, in his concealment, heard her threats against his life, and also overheard all that passed between Redway and Evelyn. He foresaw final reconciliation between the couple, and knew that he could only win by sudden and desperate steps.

Fortune seemed to favor him. When he saw Mrs. Lock in the window opposite, and heard Redway leave the office, his impulse carried him away. In a flash he had assumed Redway’s disguise, slipped out into the hall, and entered through the large office to Redway’s room, where he coolly killed his victim before the eyes of the woman he was willing to sell his soul to possess.

Thence he walked downstairs, and went to his room on the Bowery, taking many chances of meeting the real Redway on the way.

In his Bowery den, he changed once more to his everyday stylish clothes, and returned to the building to confront Redway.

His original design in duplicating Redway’s clothes, and getting the false wig and mustache which made him so true a double, must have been to get possession of little Estelle in the manner which he so suddenly put into practice.

Victor Redway Lock and Evelyn Lock were restored to each other’s love and confidence.

Their lives were so thoroughly reunited that no more false reports of malicious enemies can ever part them again.

Chick found little Estelle unharmed in Granny Grimes’s miserable lodgings, and placed the child in the arms of the mother she had almost forgotten.

The happy little family are living peacefully and quietly on their lovely English estate.

They never tire of talking about Nick Carter’s wonderful professional skill in saving them from the almost successful plots of Oscar Gay.

THE END.

The next number of the Nick Carter Weekly will contain “The Best Detective in the Country; or, A Prompt Reply to a Telegram.”

LATEST ISSUES.

187—The Best Detective in the Country; or, A Prompt Reply to a Telegram.

186—Nick Carter Rescues a Daughter; or, The Junior Partner’s Strange Behavior.

185—Nick Carter Saves a Reputation; or, A Button Worth a Fortune.

184—Shielding a Murderer; or, Nick Carter’s Dealings with an Avenger.

183—Saved from the Penitentiary; or, Three Cheers for Nick Carter.

182—The Blood-Stained Check; or, Nick Carter in the Dissecting-Room.

181—In the Clutch of the Law; or, Nick Carter’s Chain of Evidence.

180—The Government Custom’s Swindle; or, Nick Carter’s Work for the U. S. Treasury.

179—Nick Carter’s Beautiful Decoy; or, The Diamond Duke of Chicago.

178—Nick Carter Arrests a Client; or, The Body Found in the Flat.

177—Nick Carter’s Dumb Assistant; or, The Man with a Dead Brain.

176—Nick Carter Behind the Counter; or, A Peck of Pawn Tickets.

175—Nick Carter’s Pointer; or, A Hungry Dog’s Dinner.

174—By Whose Hand; or, Nick Carter Advertises for a Cab-Driver.

173—Caught in Six Hours; or, Trouble in Room No. 46.

172—Burglar Joe; or, Nick Carter’s Leap in the Dark.

171—Nick Carter’s Little Shadow; or, The Man with the Yellow Dog.

170—Caught by Electricity; or, Nick Carter Bags an Old Offender.

169—Unmasked by Nick Carter; or, An Attempt at Blackmail.

168—Nick Carter’s Second Sight; or, A Dumfounded Prisoner.

167—Nick Carter Makes a Loan That Brings Him Big Returns.

166—Nick Carter Prevents a Disturbance, and Loses a Disguise.

165—Nick Carter in a Hole; or, A Plan to Catch Him That Didn’t Work.

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