gabriel leonard, his guilt proclaimed, uttered a cry of despair, and, burying his face in his hands, sobbed like a child. there was pity in the expression with which nick carter regarded the detected murderer. that the crime had extenuating features he was positive.

leonard finally attained a fair degree of composure. he raised his head and looked at the great detective with what was intended for a smile, but which was a ghastly failure.

"you are a smart one," he said, with a little catch in his throat, "and i suppose, from a moral standpoint, you are to be congratulated upon what you have accomplished. but you would have better kept out of this case, for, though i killed that miserable wretch of a woman, she deserved death, and i was sorely tempted."

"how did it happen?" asked nick.

"i might refuse to answer, now that i am under arrest," replied leonard, "but i shall have but one story to tell if ever i am brought before the court for trial, and i am willing to tell it first to you. the woman struck john dashwood, as i have previously stated. in fact, everything i told you up to the moment i arrived on the wharf to find her bending over dashwood's pros[102]trate form is true. the story i told of the after-happenings on that wharf is not true.

"this is the truth: the woman gave me five thousand dollars, and the incriminating documents, and then taunted me with being a fool. she boldly declared that she was not my daughter—my supposed relationship had much to do with my acquiescence in her suggestions—and that she had played a fine trick on me. she said i was the easiest mark she had ever played with. she advised me to jump in the river and give the fishes a chance. we stood face to face. i had in my hand at the time the section of iron pipe with which she had cracked the skull of john dashwood. i had picked it up for the purpose of throwing it into the river.

"angered beyond endurance at her words and her expression, i struck her down. the blow killed her. when i realized what i had done, i threw the dead body into the river. i should have secured the fifteen thousand dollars in notes which she had thrust into her bosom, but i did not do so. i never thought of the money. my only thought was to remove the evidence of my crime. then, when the waters of the mississippi had closed over the body, i returned to john dashwood. my movements from that time are known to you. yes, i am a murderer, my daughter is disgraced, and i shall be hanged."

his forced composure vanished now. giving way to his feelings, he shook like a reed. suddenly his form[103] stiffened, he gave a gasping cry, and fell backward on the bed.

"run for the doctor," said nick quickly to chick. "i will do what i can while you are gone."

nick loosened leonard's collar, and then procured a basin of water and bathed the stricken man's face. he was thus engaged when doctor holcomb arrived.

one look at leonard, and he shook his head.

"too late," was his comment. "he has been a sufferer from heart-disease for years. i have repeatedly warned him to avoid excitement. to-day's occurrences have brought on a fatal attack."

the doctor's words proved true. leonard never recovered consciousness, and in half an hour he was dead.

for the purpose of carrying out a plan having for its object the happiness of leonard's daughter, the wife of john dashwood, nick carter took doctor holcomb into his confidence. to the proprietor of the sanatorium he told the whole story of the dead manufacturer's crime, and the circumstances connected therewith.

"now, doctor," said the detective, "you have been leonard's friend, and you will agree with me, i know, that no good can result from a publication in the newspapers of the fact that he committed murder. the woman is dead. leonard is dead. society has received its meed of protection. the living must be considered. it would break letty dashwood's heart if she were to learn what you and i know. dashwood himself must be kept in ignorance of his father-in-law's crime. let[104] john and his good wife live on in the belief that leonard was what the moneyed world will believe him to have been, a man unfortunate in business, but not dishonest, not a criminal."

"you are right, mr. carter," said doctor holcomb. "the truth must be suppressed as a matter of charity. you may depend on me. but—can you stop the gossip that may come from an investigation of the woman's death?"

"i hope to be able to do so. the body was found a few miles below the city in a state that will likely prevent discovery of identity. the face was denuded of its flesh, and nearly all the clothing had been torn from the body. i was at the morgue when the body was brought in—i had been expecting that the find would be made—and, but for certain distinguishing marks which i was careful to notice when i met the woman in san francisco, i should not have known whose body it was. she was almost a stranger in st. louis, and i do not think there will be any identification."

as he spoke, nick thought of carroll slack, but not with uneasiness, for on his way to the morgue that morning he had met slack, who, with suit-case in hand, was hurrying to the railway-depot to take the train for san francisco.

as for the chief of police, there was no fear that he would attempt to spoil the program. he might suspect the truth, but without evidence, without witnesses, he could do nothing.

[105]

events turned out as nick wished. the body of the woman found in the river was not identified, and the coroner's jury returned a verdict of death at the hands of some person or persons unknown.

there was a happy meeting at doctor holcomb's sanatorium the day following the death of gabriel leonard. but the delight on the part of mrs. dashwood was soon mingled with sorrow, for, though she had found her husband, just saved from the jaws of death, she had lost her father, whose tender solicitude for her welfare had been one of the joys of her life.

to nick carter john dashwood explained his presence on the wharf that fatal night.

"filbon's absence from home," he said, "alarmed me. of course, there was the possibility that he had fled the city, fearing that mr. leonard, upon discovering the robbery, would have him arrested and punished. but there was, also, the possibility that filbon, weak-natured as he was, had committed suicide. after a talk with his mother, in which i made light of my call, saying it was on a matter of business requiring attention early next morning, and of which i had forgotten to speak when i parted with filbon, i went to the wharf, fearing that he had thrown himself into the river, yet hoping i should find him somewhere in the vicinity, his rash design not yet accomplished. i did not find him, but i met madame ree."

a few days after this conversation nick and chick left st. louis for new york.

[106]

in his comfortable den the great detective went over the case for the benefit of patsy and ten-ichi. they were intensely interested in the recital of events, dating from the night of the disappearance of john dashwood.

"when did you spot the truth?" asked patsy.

"when i found cora reesey's brooch on the wharf, i began to have a dim idea of what had happened. but i did not unbosom myself to the chief of police, for the reason that i hadn't a particle of evidence to support the theory that the woman had been murdered and not the man. thereafter, however, i worked with that theory in mind. it seemed plausible. in fact, it was the only theory which could explain many circumstances. the disappearance of filbon's boat was evidence to my mind that a living body had been taken away, and not a dead one. there would be no need to row away with a dead body; the deep, slowly moving mississippi could take care of that. then, as i thought of the possibility of somebody—leonard, probably—taking away a wounded man in a boat, my mind reverted to the assurance leonard had given his daughter that dashwood would soon turn up all right. if he had killed dashwood, or knew that dashwood had been killed by somebody else, he would not have acted as he did.

"the finding of the rusty iron pipe settled the matter for me. upon that pipe, adhering to the partly detached flakes or wafers of rust, were human hairs of the color and fineness of the hairs on the head of john dashwood. but they were also of the color and fineness of the hairs[107] on the head of cora reesey. i might have been confused over the hairs had i not noticed one very lone one, much longer than any that was ever upon the head of dashwood. it was a woman's hair, and it was stuck to the rust with coagulated blood.

"now, convinced that leonard had killed the woman, and had carried away dashwood, who had been wounded by the woman—and i readily conjectured in what manner and under what circumstances the wound had been received—i instituted the search for leonard, which resulted in the discovery at the sanatorium. i might not have succeeded but for chick's assistance. chick is a good one. he never missed a trick."

chick, who had been in a brown study, looked up, a question in his eyes.

"nick," said he, "we cleaned pretty well in st. louis, but we left a mystery behind, all the same."

"it is a matter of money, isn't it?" queried nick, with a look of understanding.

"sure. gabe leonard saw cora reesey put fifteen thousand dollars in bank-notes in her bosom that night on the wharf. now, when her dead body reached the morgue the money was gone. the coroner, having no idea of the identity of the corpse, and knowing nothing of any relations of a business nature or otherwise between a certain madame ree, a palmist, and gabriel leonard, manufacturer, did not look for missing money when he searched what was left of the woman's cloth[108]ing. he found nothing of value. even the rings on her fingers were gone."

"yes, i know that."

"well, what do you think? did the fishes and the crabs eat the rings and the notes, or——"

"or was the body robbed before it reached the morgue? it was robbed, beyond the shadow of a doubt."

"then the leonard-dashwood-reesey case cannot be considered closed until the mystery of that robbery shall have been solved. i have an idea that some day you will bump up against the robber."

nick laughed. "all sorts of things happen in this curious world," he said.