Storyteller.

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 25, 16 September 1893, Page 13

Storyteller.

THE DETECTIVE’S DEFEAT

She was a slender, graceful young woman, with a pretty face, and great haby-blue eyes, at once shy and enticing. Detective Carrol thought he had never beheld anyone so charming. With her pure, dainty face, and shining,. grey draperies, she seemed to hring a glimpse of heaven into the dingy office, where he sat waiting alone. “What can I do for you, madam?” he said, rising, and approaching her with a beating heart. She looked at him searchingly a moment. “You are a private detective P” she said then, in the softest and sweetest voice he bad ever heard. “ Yes, madam.” “I wish to secure your services.” “ What is the case ?” “ Bobbery,” she answered, a slight shudder passing through her frame. “ The facts can be rehearsed in a very few words. I reside with- my uncle, William Evans, in Bleecker street. He is a wealthy man, and always keeps considerable money in the house. This money he keeps in a peculiarly-shaped iron box which was purchased in France. Instead of being opened with a kev, it is provided with seven movable buttons, each of which represents a letter of the alphabet. These can be made to spell various words, and in order to open the box one must know beforehand the particular word that had been used in closing it.” She paused a moment,, and drew a long, sobbing breath. “Go on,” said the detective, almost impatiently. “ There is only a word to add. Despite all these precautions,, the box has now'been opened three nights in succession, and quite a sum of money withdrawn on each occasion.” “ One of the servants, perhaps.” “ They are above suspicion,” she interrupted quickly. “We keep but two; they have been in the family for years. Besides, my uncle never intrusted them with the secret of the combination. It seems impossible that they could have discovered it for themselves.” “To whom has it ever been revealed ?” • A' slight flush rose in the lady’s face. “ Until these thefts occurred, I felt positive it was only known to my uncle and myself.” “ Then he speaks freely of it to you ?” “Oh yes.” Her agitation seemed to increase. Suddenly she wrung her hands and ciued : “I must confess the humiliating truth, sir. 1 came here with no other intention. My uncle accuses me of being the thief!” “ You !” Mr Carrol echoed, with a start. “ Yes,” she answered, a quick sob breaking from her lips. “He declares it eould have been no one else under the circumstances. He is anxious and -worried, and that makes him bitterly unjust. I have come to you without his knowledge. The mystery must and shall be investigated. I am innocent, and cannot rest until proven so. Will you undertake the case ?” “ Certainly.” The answer came with alacrity. Detective Carrol had been so touched by his visitor’s beauty and distress that he would willingly have passed through fire and water to do her a service. She wanted the investigation begun at once ; and after a moment’s reflection the detective decided to accompany her homeland take the bearings of the place. It proved to be a substantial brick house, handsomely furnished. An elderly womaq-servant with a pleasant, honest face, opened the door.

“Is my uncle within, Marth ?” she inquired, “ Yes, Miss, Valeria,” came the answer. “ You will find him in the library.” She at once led the way to the apartment in question. It was a large lofty room, in one corner of which stood the box that had been referred to. A harsh-looking old man arose from his easy-chair at the window. “Whom have you here, Valeria?” he said, shading his eyes with one hand. The girl carefully closed the door, then advanced to meet him. “A detective officer,” she replied, an expression of determination on her face. “ You accused me of having robbed you, uncle, and I brought this man here that the matter might be tl. o:'ouglily inves(igat ed.” He flamed up like a volcano. “ You did !” he exclaimed. Well, I meant to spare you, child. I should never have mentioned my losses outsibe this house. Fool—idiot! And so you court enquiry ? Well, you shall have it.” “ Does it look as if I feared the result ?” she haughtily demanded. “ Humph ! This is only a trick to divert suspicion from yourself. “ May this gentleman undertake to clear me ?” Mr Evans waved his hand, replying coldly and sorrowfully: “Do as you please. I shall not interfere.” “ Very well. Permit me, then, to leave Mr Carrol closeted with you. Of course you will give him such instructions as may seem best. She moved with a proud air towards the door, and went out. The old man’s lips quivered as he glanced after her. “ She was always a good girl,” he muttered, “ and I can’t bear to think evil of her. But the chain of circumstantial evidence is very strong indeed.” Then, seizing the detective’s hand, he abruptly added : “ You must go on with this business now it is fairly begun. But be careful. The girl is all I have to love in the world. I would sooner part with my whole fortune than see her disgraced. Take pity on a lonely old man. If you find that she is guilty, suppress the truth, and make up aay story you please to account for my losses. Expose her at your peril. “Hay,. I expect to prove her innocence.” The proud old man broke down, and sobbed like a child. “Do that, sir, and it shall be the best day’s work everyou accomplished Ho, no ; I dare not even hope for such a result. The box-lock is a peculiai one, and Valeria alone understands its workings. It is my belief that she had involved herself in debt, and required a larger sum of money than she felt willing to demand. 1 have heard of such cases before.” The conversation continued some time longer, and it was finally decided that Mr Carrol should watch in the library that night and see what he could discover. “It will prove useless trouble, of course,” sighed Mr Evans. “ Knowing that you are here, Valeria will not meddle with the box, though I have left in it a larger sum than usual. But we must go through the formalities.” The gas was left burning low as usual. Mr Carrol stationed himself in a curtained recess, from whence he could discern, unseen, all that transpired in the room. Hours wore on, and nothing occured. Towards morning he grew very drowsy, and seating himself in a comfortable old chair, suffered himself to nod. All at once he was partially aroused by a soft, gliding step that crossed the floor. Half unclosing his eyes, he saw, like one in a dream, a tall figure di aped in grey bending over him. The next instant a sponge saturated with chloroform was pressed to

his nostrils. He attempted to scream, to rise from his chair, to push the sponge aside. . In vain. The deadly drug had done its work too well. When he came to himself the grey light of the dawn was stealing into the quiet room. He still felt giddy and confused. The stale smell of chloroorm lingered in the air. Staggering to the hell-rope he rang a peal that awoke the echoes of the house. Mr Evans himself first appeared, half-dressed, and looking pale and startled. “ What is it ?” he gasped, seeing at a glance that something was amiss. What has happened ?” “ Examine your box,” the detective said, in a trembling voice. “ I think you have been robbed again.” Mr Evans obeyed. The ponderous iron lid flew up at his touch. One glance at the receptacle where the money had been kept sufficed. He staggered back and sank into a chair. “ You are right,” he gasped, “It is gone.” In a moment he started furiously to his feet. “ How did this happen sir P Explain. You are a pretty detective I Theft has been committed in your very presence ! Confess it —you slept at your post ! ” “ I was drugged,” Mr Carrol replied, with a crestfallen air. He briefly explained. “ I was never so worsted in all my life. But we will try the experiment over again to-night, if you please. It will be strange if I am outwitted a second time.” During the day he carefully pondered what had occurred. It was the boldest theft that had ever come under his observation, and now for the first time he felt a vague fear that Valeria Evans might have had something to do with it. The guilty party knew I was there, he thought, and precisely where to find me. The figure I saw was clad in grey —the colour of the dress Miss Valeria wore yesterday. Well, we shall see what we shall see. He went to the house that night thoroughly equipped for any emergency. The moment he found himself alone he opened a bundle he had brought along, and took from it a second suit of his own clothes with which he cleverly made up the figure of a man, placing it in the identical easy-chair he had occupied the evening before. Seen in the uncertain light, a keen eye indeed would have been necessary to detect the fraud. This part of his work accomplished, the detective secreted himself in another chair exacts opposite the curtained recess, and awaited the result. Hours wore on, and, as before, it was long past midnight ere anyone appeared. At length the door- opened noiselesssy —a soft catlike footstep crossed the floor. Mr Carrol could not see the intruder’s face, but a long grey dressinggown swept the floor, effectually concealing even the outlines of its figure, in whose hand was held a flickering candle. The intruder stole quickly and silently to the alcove, and bent for a moment over the false figure reclining there. Then a sponge was flung carelessly on the floor from which exhaled the pungent odour of chloroform. Carrol now slipped away from the chair he had occupied, and hid in the recess. Quickly approaching the box, the thief fumbled with the lock a mom cut, .and succeeded in opening it. Instantly the secret drawer was emptied of its contents, and that tall, ghostly fig-ure now moved towards the hearth, and with some sharp instrument dug up one of the tiles of which it was composed. A small receptacle was disclosed,

into which the stolen money Avas quietly dropped. All this while Detective Carrol had failed to obtain even so much as a glimpse of the thief’s countenance, for he stood close to the wall and the range of his vision Avas obstructed. But l e now felt assured it Avas indeed Valeria Evans. “ She is secreting the spoils, that they may be used Avhen the proper time comes,” he thought. Noiselessly leaving his hiding-place he sprang upon the stooping figure with a shrill cry of triumph. The candlestick fell to the ground. “You are caught at last,” exclaimed Carrol. “ I shall take you before the relative you have so Avickedly deceiA’ed.” The next instant he drew back, shocked and startled. As the figure turned and slowly confronted him, he suav it Avas not Valeria’s beautiful face at all, but that of a man. At first he failed to recognise those thin ghastly features and strange, staring eyes. But as the truth broke upon his mind, he seized the man’s arm Avith a grip of iron. “ Miserable trickster!” he cried, angrily ; explain the meaning of this scene.” There was a shrill cry of pain and horror, then silence for a moment. Just at this juncture footsteps sounded outside the door, and Valeria entered pale and trembling. Unable to sleep, she had been Avandering aimlessly about the house, when the first cry reached her ears. “ Oh, you haA e caught the thief !” exclaimed Valeria. Then, as the detective, Avith a quick movement, turned up the gas, throAving a flood of light upon the scene, she fell back against the Avail. “ Oh, uncle, Avhat does this mean ? Why are you here P” For indeed the culprit Avas none other than William E\ r ans himself, clad .in a long grey dressing-gown. He Avas rubbing his e} r es, hoAvever, and looked round Avith utter beAvil(ferment. “I—l have been asleep,” he panted. “ Hoav did I come here r'” EA'en so. The mystery Avas solved at last. The miserly old man, a confirmed somnambulist, had been so exercised about the safety of his money, that he had actually risen in his sleep, night after night, and remoA r ing it from the box, had hidden it under the loose tile in the hearth, Avhere it Avas found intact. The use of chloi’oform is easily explained. He had alloAved his mind to dAvell upon the fact that the detective might be drugged in this manner, and so strong an impression had been produced that he had gone through with the very experiment he had dreaded another might undertake. Of course Valeria Avas overjoyed at this solution of the robbery mystery, and of course she married Detective Carrol. It Avould have been the height of ingratitude to do otherwise. Selected.