CHAPTER XXII.--INSNARED BY A WATCH.
The entrance of the Boy Detective into the police precinct caused asensation, and his hand was grasped in welcome at every step he took.
Captain Daly heard his name called and advanced to the door of hisprivate office to meet him, while he cried: "Welcome back, my WizardWill, for I received your telegram from Chicago, and you have workedwonders."
"Bravo for Wizard Will!" cried a tall sergeant; while a policeman said:
"The captain has well named the boy, in calling him Wizard Will."
For two hours was Wizard Will, as I must now call him, closeted withCaptain Daly, and then the two came out of the private office together.
A carriage was called, and they drove at once to the Tombs. The policecaptain gained ready admission, and he said to the officer in charge,after he had introduced his young _protege_: "Wizard Will here wishes aprivate talk with your prisoner from Maryland, who calls himself EdEllis."
The officer bowed assent, and Will was conducted to the cell of EdEllis, the man whom he had captured in Maryland, at the time that he hadshot Night Hawk Jerry.
"Ho, boy, what do you want here?" gruffly said the prisoner as Willentered and was locked in with him.
"I am here to have a talk with you, Ellis."
"What have you got to say?"
"I wish you to tell me if Night Hawk Jerry really killed little WillieRossmore, or if he died of exposure and starvation, as he told me wasthe case?"
"I don't know anything about the kid."
"Did you never see him?"
"No."
"Suppose I tell you that I know something of your past?"
"I don't believe it."
"You are from Philadelphia?"
"Who said so?"
"You had a watch presented to you once."
"Yes, I did, and I lost it."
"Suppose I tell you that I know where it is?"
"I'll bet you don't."
"When did you have it last?"
"It was stolen from me in camp, some six years ago."
Will did not show the slightest sign of having seen that the man made aslip of the tongue, as he asked:
"In a mining-camp, you say?"
"No, in a camp on the prairies."
"Some six years ago, in Nebraska?"
"Yes."
"Ah! you have been West, then?"
The man saw his mistake and recoiled, as he said:
"What if I have?"
"Suppose I tell you I know where your watch is?"
"Do you?"
"Yes."
"I'll bet my life Night Hawk Jerry was the thief that stole it from me,after all, and you found it on his body after you killed him."
"You have the chain that was attached to it?"
"No, I hain't."
"Well, this chain, taken from you in Maryland when you were captured, isit not the same that you had on your watch?" and Will showed a goldchain of a peculiar kind of pattern, that had been taken, with otherthings, from the prisoner when he was captured.
"No."
"And you think Night Hawk Jerry stole it from you?"
"Yes."
"About six years ago?"
"About that."
"Well, tell me how you lost it."
"I don't know exactly, for I had it one afternoon, and when I went towind it up that night it was gone."
"This was in Nebraska?"
"Yes."
"And Jerry was with you?"
"Yes."
"Who else?"
"We were with an emigrant train, and going out West to homestead land."
"You had your own waggon and horses?"
"Yes."
"And joined the train on the march?"
"Yes, but we didn't stay long in company with it, as it wasn't going ourway."
"Did you remain long in Nebraska?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because we didn't like it there."
"And you returned East?"
"Yes."
"And you became a Baltimore crook?"
"You seem to know."
"And Jerry became a New York crook?"
"As he's dead and not on trial, I may as well say that is about the sizeof it."
"Yet you said awhile ago you had not known Jerry more than a year?"
"I had forgotten."
"Well, Ellis, I have got your watch!"
"The deuce you have!"
"Yes; and I'll tell you where I found it."
"Where?"
"It had a piece of chain to it, a link of the very chain I hold here ofyours."
"Yes, I remember now; I had the old chain fixed over."
"And, Ellis, I found your watch in _the grave of the little boy youmurdered_!"
The man gave a cry in spite of himself, and became livid, while WizardWill held up the watch, all covered with dirt as it was, and said:
"Here is the watch, and I took out of the grave of Willie Rossmore; andin burying him, it rolled out of your pocket and fell there.
"And more, the boy's skull was crushed in by a blow you gave him--"
"No--no! Jerry gave him that blow," cried the man in quivering tones.
"Jerry is not here to deny it, and you have confessed to having beenthere with him, while this watch tells the story that you at leastburied him, and you and Night Hawk were the ones who kidnapped him; so Itell you, Ellis, you are the murderer of Willie Rossmore."
"If I've got to swing, boy, you'll not be there to see me die!" was thesavage threat of the man, and he sprang like a tiger at Wizard Will.
But the boy stooped quickly and avoided him, while the door was thrownopen and Captain Daly sprang in and seized him, followed by the officerin charge of the prisoner.
"No, my man, you can commit no more murders in the short time you haveto live, for a jury will soon send you to the gallows," said CaptainDaly, and with Wizard Will he left the cell, while the officer of theprison remarked:
"We heard all he said, Wizard Will, and a stenographer took it down, sohe is doomed; and the watch insnared him, for without it he could nothave been tried for anything but highway robbery; now it will be formurder, as well."
Wizard Will, the Wonder Worker Page 23