CHAPTER III.--TRACKED TO HIS LAIR.
There was no handsomer bachelor rooms in the city of Philadelphia, thanwere those of Schuyler Cluett, the handsome young gallant and "man abouttown."
Society said he was very rich, that he had been left a large fortune byan uncle, and many were the young ladies who sought to win favour in hiseyes.
His rooms consisted of a _suite_ of five, for there was his parlour,combined with sitting-room, his bed-chamber, a spare one for a belatedguest, a snug little kitchen, that was also used as a breakfast-room,and a sleeping place for a servant.
All were delightfully furnished, and the young bachelor was wont to takehis breakfast at ten, his _valet_ getting the meals for him, while hisdinners and suppers he always took at the fashionable True Blue Club, ofwhich he was a popular member.
At a stable near he kept his _coupe_ and riding-horse, with a coachman,so that he lived in very great comfort; in fact, it amounted to luxury.
His bills were always promptly paid at the end of the month; he dressedwith elegance, took the best seat at the opera and theatres, was able totake a run around to Long Branch, Cape May, Newport, Saratoga and theWhite Mountains in the summer, and having spare money always with him tolend a friend an X or a XX, he was rated a good fellow among the men.
One night, about one, a.m., Schuyler Cluett was preparing to retire, anda friend who had accompanied him home had been shown to the spare room,which also opened into the parlour, so that the two talked as theyundressed.
"That deuced valet of mine is always away when I need him most," growledthe young bachelor.
"Now, here he is off at a ball, and why servants must have balls Icannot understand, and both you and I, Rayford, are half drunk, and needhim to look after our comfort."
"It's too bad!" sang out Rayford from his room.
"I'd discharge him, Schuyler."
"I will, and I do. I discharge him every day, but I hire him over againbefore he gets off, and that spoils him; so I'll discharge him some timefor a week, and it will teach him a lesson--ah! there he is now, andI'll have to go out in the hall and let him in, for he's forgotten hisnight key," and Schuyler Cluett went to the door to answer a ring.
As the door opened, he began to berate his valet, as he supposed it was,but was considerably taken aback at beholding a stranger enter the hall.
He failed to recognise him at first, but suddenly beheld him in the fulllight of the parlour, whither the stranger had strode with the remark:
"I wish to see you, Mr. Schuyler Cluett."
"Ho, Lomax, my dear fellow, I did not know you; but you look ill andsomething has surely happened, for you are as haggard as though after along illness," and Schuyler Cluett held out his hand.
"No, Cluett, I do not take the hand of a villain," was the stern replyof the young farmer.
"By Heaven! are you drunk? What do you mean?" and the eyes of the youngaristocrat flashed, while his friend Rayford, half-dressed, peered outof his door, startled at the turn affairs had taken.
"I mean, Schuyler Cluett, that you, like a snake that you are,fascinated poor little Ruby Raymond, she that was to have been my wife.
"We were happy until _you_ came, and she was all my own; but one unluckyday I dragged you away from death, and I took you to her home, and fromthat moment you began to win her from me.
"I saw it all, I felt it all, for she became unhappy, and she told meshe thought we should be as sister and brother, for she loved me, butnot as a wife should.
"She saw how it hurt me to hear her say so, and so she said she did notmean it; but she deceived me, for she did mean it, and one week ago, onthe very eve of our wedding-day, you came like a thief in the night andstole her from me."
"Good Heaven! Lomax, I am not guilty of this, and you wrong me, indeedyou do!" cried Schuyler Cluett, his face the picture of amazement.
Kent Lomax seemed astounded, and asked, sternly:
"Do you deny it?"
"I do. Upon my honour, yes!"
"You deny that you ran off with Ruby Raymond from her father's house, attwelve o'clock on the night of Christmas Eve?"
"I do."
"_You lie in your false throat, man!_" shouted the farmer, and at hiswords Schuyler Cluett sprang toward him; but quick as a flash, a pistolmet him, the muzzle in his face, while the young farmer said sternly:
"Back! I did not come here unprepared, and I would kill you, oh! howgladly!"
"I tell you I am falsely accused; and being unarmed, and knowing yourgreat strength, I am forced to hear you accuse me and submit to yourinsults, Kent Lomax."
"Schuyler Cluett, I know that you are guilty, for I tracked you in yourvillainy."
"Yet you find me here in my bachelor rooms, and there is a friend who iswith me, and can vouch for my words."
"I can, indeed, sir, for I know that my friend Cluett has been but twodays absent from the city the week past," and Randal Rayford stepped outof his room into the parlour, he having hastily dressed as he saw that atragedy was threatening.
"Ah! he was two days absent, then?
"They are the two days in which he committed the crime of kidnapping andmurder--"
"Murder? Great Heaven! of what else will you accuse me, Lomax?"
"Yes, of murder; for when poor Mrs. Raymond read the note left by Ruby,she fell in a faint, and she never came to herself again, but died, andfour days ago I went to see her buried over in the village graveyard.
"Then I took your track, Schuyler Cluett, and I found out where youhired your team of fast horses, and where you drove to catch the train.
"There you bought two tickets for Baltimore, and I lost trace of youafter I arrived in that city."
"You have tracked some other man, Lomax, for your sweetheart did not runoff with me."
"And I say that I saw the man of whom you hired your horses, and hedescribed you."
"Other men look like me, Lomax."
"And I saw the station-agent where you took the train for Baltimore, andhe described you, and Ruby, also."
"An accidental resemblance."
"A man met you at that station, to drive the horses back to the townwhere you hired them."
"That proves nothing."
"Does this?" and Kent Lomax drew from his pocket a handkerchief.
"That is a lady's handkerchief, I believe," was the cool reply.
"It was left by Ruby Raymond in the waiting-room of the railroadstation, and it _bears her name_."
"That proves that she did run off with someone; but who, Lomax, for I amnot the guilty one?"
"Does this prove anything?" and the young farmer held up the gold headof a walking-stick.
Schuyler Cluett again started forward, as though to grasp it; but thepistol's muzzle once more confronted him, while Kent Lomax fairly hissedforth the words:
"This I found in the buggy, and there is the stick--see, it fits!" andstepping to a corner, he picked up a headless walking-stick ofsnake-root.
"You will not deny your guilt now, for this gold head bears your name,and it came off in the buggy, and you doubtless thought you had droppedit along the road."
"I say that I am _not_ guilty," was the sullen reply.
"Well, sir, I say that you are, and I came here to kill you; but I willnot be a coward and shoot down an unarmed man. Yet I will not allow youto escape, for I intend to right the wrong I believe you have done poorRuby, and I have vowed, over the dead body of Mrs. Raymond, to avengeher death."
"What is your intention, Lomax, for this scene is growing monotonous tome?"
"My intention is to demand that you meet me face to face, arms in ourhands, and as one gentleman should meet another, though I do notconsider you worthy the name you have dishonoured."
"By the Lord Harry! but this is too much, and I will meet you were youthe lowest of the low; so name your friend, and Mr. Rayford here willarrange with him!" hotly said Schuyler Cluett.
"_I_ have no friend, but that gentleman will do, and he is all we need.
"I will meet you at sunrise, at any place you may state, for I do notknow this city, and our weapons will be revolvers, the distance tenpaces, that gentleman to give the word to fire, and to keep it up untilone or both are killed."
"That will suit me," was the cool reply, and turning to his friend, hecontinued:
"You will act for us, Rayford, in this affair this mad fool has forcedupon me?"
"Certainly, and there is a pretty spot, on the banks of the Schuylkillriver we can select, for I know it well, and I will give this gentlemanwritten instructions how to reach there.
"At sunrise you say?" and he turned to Kent Lomax.
"Yes, and sooner if it could be so."
"That is soon enough, and here is your directions to reach the spot,"and he jotted down a few notes upon a paper.
"Thank you; and Schuyler Cluett if you prove yourself a coward and donot come, I will prove merciless and kill you at sight, as I would asnake," and Kent Lomax left the rooms.
Wizard Will, the Wonder Worker Page 4