An Artist in Crime

by Rodrigues Ottolengui

  CHAPTER XI.

  MR. BARNES RECEIVES SEVERAL LETTERS.

  On the morning of the third of January the mail which reached Mr. Barnescontained several letters of interest to those who follow this history.The first which he opened was very brief. It read:

  "If Mr. Barnes will call at his earliest convenience he will greatly oblige EMILY REMSEN."

  He read this twice, and then took up another, which was as follows:

  "J. BARNES, ESQ.:

  "DEAR SIR: I take the liberty of recalling to your mind the conversation which I had with you last month. I regret very much that I should have hinted that there was any possibility that my friend Mr. Mitchel might be implicated in the Pullman car robbery. As you know, Miss Emily Remsen was robbed at the festival, night before last, of a ruby pin worth $20,000. It is very evident to my mind that Mr. Mitchel's hand is in this. I know that he pretends to be sick at a hotel in Philadelphia, but may not that be a humbug? It would have been easy enough for him to slip over, don one of the Forty Thieves dominos, take the gem, and get back to Philadelphia the same night. This would be a safe theft for him to commit, especially as he may have the assistance of Miss Remsen. Now as all is fair in a bet, I want you to undertake to prove for me that Mr. Mitchel committed this theft. I want to win that wager from him, and don't mind spending money. Even if I should advance you the whole thousand, I should save my own, provided you convict him within a year. Besides, the satisfaction to me would be worth the money. It takes a sharp man to get ahead of Mr. Mitchel. I enclose a check for two hundred, as a sort of retainer, and you may draw on me for more, up to one thousand dollars if you should need it. By the way, whilst writing to you I may as well confess that I was wrong in my suspicion of Mr. Thauret. I am sure that he does not cheat at cards. I have watched him frequently since then, and he certainly plays a square game. I have no reason for liking the man, and as a fact dislike him most heartily. Nevertheless justice compels me to retract the imputation which I put upon him. Another thing: the partner with whom he played that night I told you was unknown to me. I have since made his acquaintance, and though he is poor, he is a gentleman, and above suspicion. His name is Adrian Fisher. Hoping you will help me to win my wager, Yours truly, "ARTHUR RANDOLPH."

  "So," thought Mr. Barnes, "even Mr. Randolph sees through thetransparent scheme of being sick in Philadelphia and stealing hissweetheart's jewelry in New York. It is one thing to see the trick,however, and quite another to prove it. He thinks that Thauret andFisher are both virtuous. Well, I am afraid he is mistaken there." Hetook up another letter. It read:

  "PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 2d. "DEAR MR. BARNES:

  "Pardon my familiarity, but I think we are getting pretty well acquainted with one another. I have just read the New York newspapers, and am startled to see that Miss Remsen was deliberately robbed of that valuable ruby pin which I recently gave her. You will remember that I showed you the gem the very day that I took it to be set. I am very much disturbed about this affair, especially as I am unable through sickness to return to New York, and my physician warns me that it will be several days before I can leave my room. Will you do me a great favor? Forget that I ever disparaged the detective force of which you are undoubtedly a brilliant member, and take this case in hand. I will give you one thousand dollars if you will recover the jewel, which is only a small reward considering its value. I send you a check for two hundred dollars, which you may use for expenses, and if more be needed let me know. I wish you could run over to Philadelphia to see me. A conversation with you would be a great satisfaction to me. Will you oblige, Yours very truly, "ROBERT LEROY MITCHEL."

  Mr. Barnes read this no less than three times, and then said aloud,though there was no one to hear him: "Well!" That was all, but the tonewas rich in suggestiveness. What he thought, but did not put intowords, was: "That man has the coolest audacity I ever met. Here heactually offers me a thousand dollars to recover that ruby, when heknows that I was right by his side at the time of the theft. Is he soegotistic that he dares to guy me? Is he so sure that he cannot beconvicted? I know that he was not in Philadelphia any way, as my manfound his room empty. His _alibi_ is broken, at all events, clever as hethinks himself. Will I go to Philadelphia to see him? Well, I shouldthink so! A conversation with him will be as satisfactory to me as itpossibly can be to him. But first I must obey the call from Miss Remsen.There may be much to learn there."

  It was nearly an hour before Mr. Barnes's duties in connection withother cases made him at liberty. He went straight to Miss Remsen's, andwas shown into her presence.

  "You sent for me, Miss Remsen," he began.

  "Yes, Mr. Barnes," she replied. "Will you be seated?" The detectiveaccepted her invitation, and she continued: "To come to the point atonce, I wish to see you about my lost ruby. It was a present from Mr.Mitchel to me, and besides being very costly, I attach a sentimentalvalue to it. I want you to undertake to recover it, and I will give youa thousand dollars if you succeed."

  Mr. Barnes had never had so many thousand-dollar offers made to him inso short a time before. He smiled slightly, and said:

  "Your offer comes too late, Miss Remsen. I have a letter from Mr.Mitchel himself, making a similar offer. It would scarcely be proper forme to accept two rewards for one service."

  "Then you refuse to help me?"

  "On the contrary, I will use my utmost endeavors to detect the thief andrecover your property for you. But I need no money from you."

  "You are very conscientious, Mr. Barnes, and I admire it. I honor a manwho places his duty above money."

  "I thank you for your courteous remark. Now, if I am to help you, youmust begin by assisting me."

  "I will do whatever I can, certainly."

  "Then tell me, have you no suspicion as to who might have taken yourjewel?" The girl hesitated, and the detective watched her face keenly.As she did not reply at once, he asked another question.

  "Did you feel the person take the pin from your hair?"

  "Yes, I did, but I did not realize what was occurring till he had it!"

  "Why did you not make any resistance, or cry out?"

  Again she hesitated, but in a moment she said firmly:

  "I know that you have a right to ask me these questions, and I willreply to them if you insist upon it. But first tell me, would it beright for me to call a name to you, as one that I may have suspected,when I had but the flimsiest excuse for my suspicion? Might I not thusdo more harm than good by attracting your attention to a false scent?"

  "That is certainly a possibility, Miss Remsen, but it is one which I aminclined to risk. I mean that I prefer to trust to my experience, thanto have you omit to tell me your suspicions."

  "Very well, only promise me that you will not jump to conclusions, andthus perhaps annoy the person whom I shall name."

  "I agree to that. I will take no action without sufficient reason otherthan that furnished by yourself."

  "Very well. You asked if I suspected any one, and again why I did notresist the thief. If you will remember, my head was bowed. At first Icould not understand how something seemed to move my pin. I fancied thatit had become entangled in the Sultan's robe. Then the clock began tochime, and in a moment it flashed across my mind that perhaps Mr.Mitchel was taking my pin, in order to win his wager. Therefore I saidnothing. This makes my action clear to you?"

  "Perfectly. Then I am to understand that Mr. Mitchel did not tell you inadvance that he would do this?"

  "No, he did not, and that is why I have sent for you."

  "I don't understand you."

  "Why, all the time that I thought he had the pin I was not worried. Ieven went so far as
to act indignation at the festival. That was partlyfor your edification and mystification. I wanted to help Mr. Mitchel'splan. But when it occurred to me yesterday that Mr. Mitchel, if he hadmeant to take the pin, would have told me in advance, I saw at once thatmy first idea was wrong, and that my ruby is really gone. Then I wroteto you."

  "Then you feel sure that he would have told you in advance?"

  "Positive."

  "May he not have feared to ask you to implicate yourself in a robbery,and possible scandal? You know he was liable to arrest, and it might bea considerable time before he could have proven that his theft was onlya joke. He may have wished to spare you notoriety."

  "He knows me better than that." She said this with a smile.

  "How better?" asked the detective.

  "I mean that he knows there is nothing that I would not risk for him,since I have consented to give him myself. I am one of those women, Mr.Barnes, who are not easily deterred from aiding the man of her choice."

  "Do you mean that you would be willing to share unenviable notorietywith him, and that he knew this?"

  "I do, and therefore feel confident that he would have asked myassistance if it had been his intention to take my pin."

  "Just as he did on another occasion?" The detective had been leading herup to this for the last few moments, and now watched to see the effect.She did not change countenance, but simply said:

  "What occasion?"

  "The morning when he locked your maid in this room, whilst you wentdown-town and took a little girl from one house to another?"

  "To what other?" This was a hard one for the detective, and as he didnot reply she smiled aggravatingly, as she continued:

  "Mr. Barnes, you have no proof of your assertion. You suspect that I didwhat you say, but you do not know it. As I told you just now, it ispossible for a bare suspicion to lead one astray."

  "Perhaps, but I do not think that I am far wrong in this instance."

  "We will not discuss it. Let us return to the ruby. You told Mr. VanRawlston, so he tells me, that you knew in advance that this crime wasabout to occur. Did you know the person who would take the pin?"

  "To be perfectly frank with you, Miss Remsen, I expected that Mr.Mitchel would take it. I think now that he did take it. Do you wish meto continue the investigation? It may lead to your friend's losing hiswager, whereas you have the right to notify the police that your gem hasbeen returned to you. That would make our work on the case useless, andassure him of winning his bet."

  Mr. Barnes's object here was ingenious. He thought that if the girlaccepted his suggestion, he would thus be assured that she stillsuspected Mr. Mitchel. Thus he would reach her true opinion of the case.Her answer was.

  "I cannot do that. It would certainly be to give up my hope ofrecovering the stone. I am sure that Mr. Mitchel has not taken it. If Iam wrong, and he has done so without trusting me, why then he has madea mistake, and must suffer by it. I am sure, however, it will proveotherwise. So do the best you can, if you please."

  "You may rely upon it that my best energies shall be devoted to thiswork. I wish you good-morning."

  About six o'clock that same afternoon, Mr. Barnes sent his card up toMr. Mitchel, at the Lafayette, in Philadelphia. A few minutes later hewas shown into that gentleman's room, and found him in bed.

  "Delighted to see you, Mr. Barnes. You are very kind to come and see me.For doing so, I am almost willing to forgive you for the wrong which youhave done me."

  "Wrong? What wrong?"

  "Do you remember the day you came to see me at the Fifth Avenue, aboutthe button which you had found? You asked me to show you the seventh ofmy own set. I agreed on condition that you would not annoy the lady."

  "Well!"

  "You broke your promise--that is all."

  "In what way?"

  "In the first place you bribed her maid to tell her a lie, and leaveher, so that one of your spies could take her place. Secondly, your spydid take her place. The result of which was that Miss Remsen could notre-engage her old maid, and has had much trouble to get another asgood."

  "I did not foresee, when I made that promise, that such an emergencywould arise as did later."

  "Very true! But I did, and I warned you that you would gain nothing bymaking the promise, since you would only find my own story verified byyour visit."

  "Well, I am very sorry, and will say that it shall not occur again."

  "But, Mr. Barnes, it has occurred again."

  "How so?"

  "Why, she cannot leave her home at any time, without being dogged byyour spies."

  Mr. Barnes bit his lip in chagrin to find how well this man wasacquainted with his plans, but he replied unhesitatingly,

  "This time you are wrong. I promised you not to annoy Miss Remsen inconnection with the particular case of which we were then speaking. Mymen have shadowed her in connection with another affair."

  "What other affair?"

  "Abduction."

  "Abduction? Absurd! Who on earth has Miss Remsen abducted?"

  "The girl Rose Mitchel."

  "And who, pray, is the girl Rose Mitchel? The daughter of the murderedwoman?"

  "Perhaps. That is what I intend to discover. She passed however, as yourdaughter."

  "Ah! Now can you prove that she is not?"

  "No."

  "Very good. Then, so far as your information goes, Rose Mitchel whopassed as my daughter, was removed from a certain house, to a certainother house, to you unknown." He paused a moment as though to enjoy Mr.Barnes's discomfiture, then continued: "She was taken, so you suspect,but cannot prove, by Miss Remsen. Now, then, if Miss Remsen, myaffianced wife, takes a girl who is my own child from one house toanother, where is the abduction so long as I make no complaint?"

  "Let us drop this nonsense, Mr. Mitchel. You know very well that thatchild was removed for a purpose, else she would not be hidden away. IfMiss Remsen had a hand in this, she was aiding you to baffle detectiveinvestigation, and that was an illegal act. Therefore we have the rightto watch her, in order to discover what we can."

  "Very well, then we will grant you that privilege. Much good may it doyou. But as to the removal of the child, that was done because your spyLucette had discovered where she was, and I did not choose to have herannoyed."

  "What makes you so certain that this Lucette was my spy, as you termit?"

  "Well, I don't mind telling you that, though perhaps I am showing myhand a little. Let us go to the beginning. In the first place you knewabout my bet, and I knew that you knew that much. From thatstarting-point what more natural than for me to suppose that you wouldbegin by having me shadowed. To be sure of this, I made a few trips onthe elevated road, a structure peculiarly applicable for such a test,with the result of course that I soon became pretty well acquainted withyour assistant. Whenever I had nothing else to do, I would amuse myselfgetting away from him. You gave me occupation for several hours I assureyou. But to come to Lucette. I guessed that the next step in your gamewould be to supply spy number two, who would take up the trail whereverspy number one would lose it. I began to look for this second man. See,I admit that I did not count upon a woman. You beat me there, or almostdid. I don't suppose you told the girl to let me see her face, eh?" Mr.Barnes made no reply, though to himself he said, "Just as I told thefool." Mr. Mitchel went on: "At last one day, just as I was getting on atrain, a smart-looking young woman came out of the waiting-room andfollowed me aboard. Purely from habit I walked through the train to thefirst coach. I ride in that because it is the coolest in summer and theleast draughty in winter. Now there were several cross seats empty inthe coaches through which I passed, and as the young woman behind me didnot take one, but followed me through the train, I became suspicious.When she sat down opposite to me, of course I studied her face. I hardlyever forget a face after I have made a mental note of it. The rest wassimple. She was sharp enough not to get off the train when I did, and Idismissed her from my mind. Thus I suppose she was enabled to follow
meto the Irving Place house. But of course I recognized her at once when Isaw her at Miss Remsen's."

  "Did I understand you to say that this Rose Mitchel is your daughter?"

  "I don't know what you understood, but I did not say so. I spoke of herjust as you did, 'Rose Mitchel, who passed as my daughter.'"

  "Well, then, is she your daughter?"

  "I decline to answer."

  "Why do you do so?"

  "I must decline to reply to that also."

  "Do you not see, Mr. Mitchel, you are simply making your actions moreand more suspicious?"

  "My dear Mr. Barnes, I do not care a straw how much suspicion I arouse,so long as I am not confronted by any proof. Whenever you think you haveany proof against me, come to me and I will endeavor to refute it."

  "Very well. You have asked me to discover who stole Miss Remsen's ruby.I have already done so."

  "Mr. Barnes, you are a genius. Who is it?"

  "Yourself."

  "Bosh! Can't you do better than that? Why, I have been sick abed herefor over three days."

  "Mr. Mitchel, you are caught this time. You were not sick abed here atthe time of the robbery. On the contrary you went over to New York,attended the festival, and took the ruby pin from Miss Remsen's hair."

  "Mr. Barnes, you are laboring under a delusion. I tell you I have beenin this room since December 30th."

  "One of my men followed you to this place. On the night of the 1st, heregistered at this hotel, being assigned to the room next to this. Hepicked the lock of the communicating door, and came in here, thusdiscovering your absence."

  "Very clever idea, I am sure. The fellow deserves credit. But did hetell you which communicating door he came through?"

  Mr. Barnes looked around and was amazed to find that the only door inthe room opened on the hall. The story told by his man was thus animpossibility. A thought came to him quickly and he said:

  "You have changed to another room since then. You were at that time inNo. 234."

  "And this is number 342, a floor higher up. But you are wrong; I havenot changed my room. I will explain how your man has made this mistake.I knew when I came here that your spy had probably followed me. I wastired of the espionage. This is what I did. I registered and was givennumber 234. I was shown to the room and at once sent for the clerk. Whenhe came up I asked for another room, and desired him not to make anychange on the register, as I had an inquisitive friend who would nothesitate to walk right up if he knew what room I was in. I explainedthat I wished to avoid him. My request was granted. I suppose your manasked for a room near that of his "friend Mr. Mitchel." The clerk atonce thought him to be the man whom I wished to avoid, and gave him aroom next to 234, which of course satisfied him, and I am sure pleasedme as well."

  Mr. Barnes was supremely disgusted, especially as, during theinterview, he had become thoroughly satisfied that Mr. Mitchel wasreally sick and troubled with a bad cough. He returned to New Yorkpuzzled.