The Mystery of the Hidden Room

by Marion Harvey

  CHAPTER XXXVII

  M'KELVIE'S TRIUMPH

  When we drove into the grounds of the Darwin home at five o'clock thatnight, McKelvie ordered me to hide my car behind the garage and then tojoin him in the passageway. As I obeyed I saw him helping Lee, withCora's aid, to mount the steps to the back door, for he wanted the twoof them for purposes of identification, since both had been victims ofthe unprincipled man we had come there to-night to try to trap.

  I parked my car where it could not be seen by anyone approaching thehouse and then returned to the servants' wing and entered thepassageway, where McKelvie was disposing of his forces. The three burlypolicemen that Jones had brought with him McKelvie ordered to remainwhere they were until it grew dark, when they were to hide themselves inthe grounds, toward the side of the house. When they saw a light in thestudy they were then to group themselves around the door to the secretentrance, which he had already pointed out to one of their number whileI was parking my car. If anyone came out through this door they were toarrest that person, and under no circumstances to let him get away, evenif they had to shoot him. The men saluted and I could see by thedetermination written on their faces that the criminal would have smallchance of escaping their vigilance.

  Then McKelvie opened the door into the main wing and asked Cora and Leeto remain in Orton's workroom until they were needed.

  "And under no circumstances show a light of any kind," he added. Theydid not need to promise, for they preferred a darkened room in which totell each other the sweet nothings that lovers are fond of murmuring,and I envied them their happiness as I thought of Ruth shut away whereeven my loving care could not reach her.

  In the fading daylight the study was dim, but we managed to make out theoutlines of the furniture, and so were able to move about withoutturning on the lamp. McKelvie grouped some chairs around the table andtold us to seat ourselves, since at that distance we could not be seenby the criminal as he stepped from the safe. Then McKelvie arranged theshades, drawing them so that they did not quite reach the bottom of thewindows, thus allowing the light to gleam through later, as a signal tothe waiting policemen.

  When everything was ready McKelvie spoke to us in an undertone. "I donot know how long we shall have to wait for him. He will come when it isdark, perhaps, and again he may not turn up until midnight. In anyevent, whether our vigil be long or short, I want to impress upon youthe necessity for absolute silence. A false move and we may lose everyadvantage and the criminal as well."

  We declared ourselves ready to obey his instructions, however long wemight have to wait, and he crossed the room and took up his positionbeside the safe door with the metal handcuffs in his hand, prepared tosnap them on the wrists of the man who should come forth from theentrance.

  I glanced at Jones and Grenville and saw to my amusement that the policedetective was sound asleep. He reminded me of a watchdog that though hemight doze would yet be instantly on the alert at the least hint ofdanger. The District Attorney caught my look and smiled, then he leanedback in his chair and set himself to wait with what patience he mightpossess.

  I turned to my thoughts, thankful that McKelvie had spared Mr. Trentonthis ordeal, for now that Cunningham was exonerated, the burden of thecrime must fall upon Dick, who, after all, was the only one well enoughacquainted with circumstances to have attempted the schemes whichMcKelvie had foiled. Yet it seemed such a mad thing to do, to put hishead in the noose a second time when he had just been cleared of hisfirst crime, unless James Gilmore's story was all of a piece with theother deceptions Dick had practised upon us. Who was Gilmore any way?Had we any proof that his story was true? He may have been paid to putus off the scent by making us believe that Dick could not commit anothercrime since he was innocent of the first one. But, again, there wasMcKelvie's statement that with the exception of the Chinamen and thosetwo ruffians, the criminal had steered clear of confederates. I couldnot divine Dick's motive for the deed, since the murder was not andnever had been, one of impulse.

  I wished heartily that the whole thing was over and this suspense ended,yet when the lamp suddenly lighted on the table and I knew that the hourwas at hand, since it must have been the criminal's hand that hadpressed the switch in the safe, I closed my eyes. I did not want to seethe door swing open and Dick step out of that safe.

  I heard a metallic click as McKelvie snapped on the handcuffs, and Iopened my eyes with a start as I realized by the snarl of rage that hadcome from the murderer's lips that we had caught the man as neatly asone traps a wild and dangerous animal.

  McKelvie laughed as he slammed the door of the safe, and the three of usrose precipitately (Jones had wakened when the lamp went on), for wecould make out the criminal's figure as he came rapidly toward us. Whenhe stood within the circle of light, confronting the muzzle of Jones'gun, I looked into his face, then I gasped audibly.

  The man before me was not Dick, but the lawyer--Cunningham!

  "This is an outrage!" he exclaimed furiously. "What do you mean byputting such an indignity upon me?" and he glared at McKelvie.

  McKelvie smiled in an exasperating manner. "I was expecting the criminalto come through that entrance, since he alone possesses a key to it. Isaw a man appear and clapped on the bracelets. It happened to be you.How do you explain the circumstance?" he inquired politely.

  "Very easily," retorted Cunningham coolly, recovering his poise, "I wasgoing over a lot of old papers and came across a sealed envelopeaddressed to me in Darwin's hand. Wondering what it could portend Iopened it. Inside I found a small key and the explanation of the secretof the entrance. Darwin also went on to say that he was taking me intohis confidence in case anything should ever happen to him. Having afondness for amateur detective work, like yourself, Mr. McKelvie," herehe bowed ironically to McKelvie, "I decided to use the opportunity whichfate had bestowed upon me to do a little investigating on my ownaccount."

  "Very ingenious, but it won't do," returned McKelvie, adding with asarcastic inflection, "I suppose he also told you the six-lettercombination that I used to lock the safe--after he was dead?"

  Cunningham flushed and bit his lip, but before he could think of anappropriate retort, McKelvie had turned to Jones.

  "You won't need to use that gun, Jones," he said with a twinkle. "Ourprisoner is too valuable to shoot--as yet. Call in the others, please,and light the room as you pass the switch."

  Jones pocketed his gun, and departed on his errand, lighting the study,as we had agreed to do, for the guidance of the men outside. In a secondhe was back again with Lee and Cora. As Cunningham's eyes rested on thegirl, who had her arm around Lee and was helping him tenderly to achair, the man's face darkened and his eyes blazed upon her.

  "Miss Manning, have you ever seen this man before?" asked McKelvie whenLee was seated and Cora had turned toward us.

  The girl looked Cunningham up and down, from the sole of his patentleather shoes to the crown of his gray-streaked red hair, then she shookher head and answered simply, "No, Mr. McKelvie, I have never seen himbefore."

  "Now I trust that you are satisfied?" demanded Cunningham, insolently,a gleam of triumph in his eyes. "You will oblige me by removing thesethings."

  Though he held out his manacled hands to McKelvie, his eyes remained onCora's face with a look impossible to mistake. The man was in love withher, though how that was possible when she did not know him, I was at aloss to decide. McKelvie took a step forward and I thought he was goingto comply with Cunningham's request, but he made no move to release hisprisoner.

  "Sorry to have to refuse a gentleman of your standing, but you are farsafer to me with the bracelets on," returned McKelvie imperturbably."You are undoubtedly clever or you could not have evaded me so long, butthe trouble with you, as it is with all clever criminals, is that youare egotistical. You commit a crime and get away with it and then youimmediately think yourself a genius, so much more wonderful than yourfellows who have paid the penalty for their deeds, so infinitelysuperior to the police and the de
tectives that you have no fear of beingcaught. But like all your class, there is a weak joint in your armor.There is no such thing as an infallible criminal and a perfect crime.You may get away once, or perhaps a score of times, but in the end yourweakness trips you and you fall into the hands of the authorities. Inyour case the thing that tripped you and delivered you to us was--lovefor a woman. A dangerous game to play, the woman game, Mr. Cunningham,but love knows no reason. You were so desperately infatuated with CoraManning that the thought of going away and leaving her to a moresuccessful rival was agony to you, and so you remained to persuade herto go with you. That is why you are here now, facing arrest under anaccusation of murder."

  In wondering silence we listened to McKelvie's words and Cora saidquickly, "In love with me? But I never saw him before."

  Cunningham only smiled coolly. "You have no proof, my dear sir, no proofat all."

  "Haven't I? I am not as amateurish as I look," said McKelvie, dryly.Then he faced the man before him squarely and addressed him in a tone ofgrim earnestness from which all hint of banter had fled. "You demandproofs. I will give them to you. I know why the murder was committed,why Mrs. Darwin was implicated, because I know exactly what took placein this room on the night of October seventh, from the moment whenRichard Trenton stepped through that French window to the moment whenthe murderer left the room by the secret entrance. In other words, thegame is up--Mr. Philip Darwin!" and McKelvie's hand shot out toward hisprisoner's face.

  I heard Lee's wondering, "Uncle Phil?" and unable to believe my ears Itook a second look. Then, "Good God!" I cried, for the red hair andbeard were gone and the man standing where Cunningham had been wasindeed Ruth's husband, for whose murder she was even now enduring thehorrors of prison life, Philip Darwin, but Philip Darwin without hiseyeglasses and without his beard!

  Who, then, was the man we had found dead in this room, the man we hadburied under Darwin's name? A sudden conviction borne of McKelvie'slast words flashed across my mind.

  "Was it--?" I began.

  "Yes," replied McKelvie, "the man who was so foully murdered in thisroom that night was--Richard Trenton!"

  Cora cried cut, "Dick, oh, not Dick!" and I put my hand to my head, formy brain was in a whirl. Yet I was conscious of a feeling ofthankfulness that he was the victim rather than the perpetrator of thecrime.

  With a snarl of rage Darwin broke from McKelvie's hand and fled towardthe safe. Jones started to follow, but McKelvie checked him with alaugh.

  "Let him go, Jones. Have you forgotten that there are three men guardingthe outer door?" he said.

  Darwin paused abruptly and turned a hate-distorted face toward us, thenhe recovered his cool manner and walked back calmly to where we stood.

  "You win," he said to McKelvie with a shrug. "What do you want of me?"

  "If you will kindly be seated I should like to explain, with yourcorroboration, just exactly what did take place in this room thatnight," answered McKelvie.

  "No," returned Darwin, "let me tell the story, for you would bungle thetale. I'll accept your word that you know what happened, since otherwiseyou could not have unmasked me. Kindly take off those bracelets, theyannoy me, and give me a cigar. I swear to you that I shall make noattempt to leave this room."

  For a long minute the two men looked into one another's eyes, thenMcKelvie stepped forward and removed the handcuffs. He bestowed them inhis pocket, took out a cigar, and offered it to Darwin.

  The man accepted the cigar with a bow, lighted it, and then drawing achair into the center of the circle which we had formed, he leaned backnonchalantly and began his tale.