CHAPTER XIII.

THE LAYING OF THE GHOST.

Nick Carter stepped to the doorway, and called aloud:

“Ho, Chick! Come here!”

A moment later there were steps along the lower hall, and Chick entered the room where now all were eagerly awaiting him.

“Thank you for waiting so patiently, Chick,” said Nan; then she turned to the others again.

“Please remember what I have just told you about finding Howard Drummond, alias Bare-Faced Jimmy, and all the other names he has passed under, in the library, with the jewels in his possession. Remember that he had promised to restore those jewels, and that he did not keep his word, and that I induced Mr. Carter to come here to help me get them.

“When Mr. Carter appeared here, Jimmy, as he is called, tried to brazen it out, and Mr. Carter told me about it. I was of the opinion then that the villain would try to kill me, or Mr. Carter, or both of us, but Mr. Carter did not think so when we talked it over on the veranda last evening. Mr. Carter told me then that he was coming to my rooms to see if the thief had concealed the jewels here. The thief saw us talking together, and evidently decided that he must act quickly, if at all.

“Later in the evening he sought me, when Mr. Carter was not near. He managed to draw me aside, and although he detained me only a moment, he managed to say in effect that since his interview with the detective in the summerhouse he had decided to abandon his entire plan here, and take Nick Carter at his word; that he had decided to give up the jewels, and go.

“He agreed to return them to me, with a written confession that would state the case plainly, if I would meet him at half-past one o’clock to-night, in the summerhouse where he had talked with Mr. Carter. The condition was that I was not to inform Mr. Carter about it until I could put the jewels into his hands.

“I agreed to that, for I did not think that the man would dare to do me harm, now that Mr. Carter was here on the spot. But I did not promise not to inform Nick Carter’s assistant—this gentleman here, who is Mr. Chickering Carter.

“I told Chick all about it, and asked his advice. He advised me to see the thing through to the end, and said that he would be near at hand if danger threatened.

“At half-past one o’clock to-night, I let myself out of the house silently. There were no burglar alarms that sounded then, showing that somebody must have turned off the power from them to permit me to go outside.

“I went to the summerhouse, and entered it. There was no one there, but after a moment two men sprang upon me from the darkness, I was seized, my hands were tied, and I was told that if I uttered a sound I would be killed. Then my feet were tied together and my own handkerchief was thrust into my mouth to gag me; and I was left there.

“But it was only for a moment.

“When those men stepped from the doorway of the summerhouse they were both knocked flat, handcuffs were put on them, and Chick came into the summerhouse and set me free. Then he made use of certain persuasive arguments which induced the men to talk and tell all they knew, with the result that we understood that they were to drive an automobile they had with them, to the rear door, and wait there until a woman in a red wrapper ran out of the house, when they were to start the car and go away about their business.

“I remained in the summerhouse, standing guard over the two handcuffed men, with a revolver, while Chick used the automobile as the men had been directed to use it. Just what the plan was, neither of us knew, but Chick decided to be on the spot when it happened.

“Now, you know when the woman, supposed to be me, but who was in reality that man there on the floor, disguised in a wrapper that he had taken from my room, rushed from the house, don’t you? He dashed out at the door, and sprang into the car; Chick started the car ahead, according to the directions that the two captured men had received; but the disguised man in the tonneau leaped from the car when it started, seized a rope ladder that hung from one of the windows of the red suite, occupied by Ledger Dinwiddie, ran up it like a squirrel, and disappeared into the house. A moment later, it appears that he was here, on the stairs, tying the cord of a bath robe around him. That was the man of many names, who lies there, a prisoner now.

“Chick leaped from the car and came to me in the summerhouse. He tied up the two men so that they could not escape—and then we came here together.

“But we did not enter the house at once.

“Neither Chick nor I could understand just what the plot was, or exactly how the thief intended to have it work out.

“The instructions given to the men were to leave me in the summerhouse, bound and gagged, and the supposition is that it was part of Bare-Faced Jimmy’s plan to go there later, and release me, permitting me to return to the house, where, if I told the story of what had really happened, I would not be believed.

“For don’t you see, he had made it appear that it was I who had escaped from the house, pursued by Nick Carter, who was tripped and thrown by a rope which Jimmy had stretched in the hallway for that purpose. How Mr. Carter saw him and gave chase, I do not——”

“He tapped at my door,” said Nick. “That was probably a part of his plan. The necklace was to be discovered in your room, and he was foolish enough to suppose that even I would believe that you were more or less implicated.”

“No, Mr. Carter,” replied Nan, “he knew that you would never believe that; but he did hope to implicate me so deeply that you would be discredited. Perhaps he did not intend to free me, unless you compelled him to do so. I do not know.

“Well, when Chick and I returned to the house, you had all entered here. I came up the stairs alone, telling Chick that I would call him when he was needed. He thought that it was better that he should remain outside for a time.

“My unlooked-for return threw Jimmy entirely out of his reckoning. He had not expected that. All his plans threatened to go wrong at once. He was made desperate by the circumstance. He saw no other way than to make the bold charge he did against me.

“He knew that I would not deny that I had been Nan Drummond.

“He dared even to make use of the name of Bare-Faced Jimmy, claiming cousinship, in order to render his story the more plausible.

“He told near enough to the truth to give everything he said the appearance of reality. Once again he has earned the right to his title of barefaced, for such a barefaced scoundrel and falsifier, never lived or dared to live before.”

Nan paused a moment, and then turned again to her friend Mrs. Remsen.

“That, my dear, is all of my story,” she said. “Much of it you have heard before, for I thank Heaven that before I came into your house to live here as your friend, and to love the stepdaughter who is as dear to you as if she were your own, I told you all of that unhappy past history of mine. I did not come here under false pretenses.”

“No, indeed you did not,” cried Mrs. Remsen, putting her arms around Nan.

Lenore was quietly sobbing her heart out on Nan’s shoulder, and now Nan, with one backward glance toward all who were in the room, led Lenore through a doorway into an adjoining room, and closed the door behind them.

“I have got just a word to say, right here,” said Chick.

“Go ahead, Chick,” said the detective. “We are all expecting to hear from you.”

“Well, I didn’t remain outside the house all the time things were happening in this room. I went upstairs, and visited the red suite—the rooms that were assigned to Mr. Ledger Dinwiddie.”

He paused, stepped to the door, passed out, was gone a moment, and returned.

“I found these things in that room,” he said. “They were under the bed, but I found them. There they are. Look at them.”

He threw the heap to the floor, and all who were there saw the red wrapper, the big automobile veil, and the ladder of rope up which Jimmy had clambered in order to return to his own room in time to be on the scene.

“More than that,” Chick continued, “I have got a full confession from one of the men I captured in the summerhouse, when they attacked Nan.

“Nick,” he turned to his chief, “one of those men is the chap who used to live on that island where Jimmy Duryea was supposed to have died. His name is Griggs. Do you remember him?”

“Perfectly.”

“Well, he can supply the truth that Jimmy Duryea did not die up there. He has already told it to me, and he will tell it again, whenever he is called upon to do so.”

Again Chick turned about, facing the assembled guests again.

“There is just one more thing to tell you,” he said. “I found a few other things while I was searching that red suite of rooms. I found these.”

He thrust a hand into his pocket, and drew it forth filled with jewels.

“Here,” he said, “is, I think, all the stolen property. If it is not there, the rest of it will doubtless be found in those rooms.”

* * * * *

“Jimmy,” said the detective, a little later, “do you want to make any confession in regard to the Dinwiddie game you have been playing?”

“When I do, I’ll send for you,” replied Jimmy. “Maybe you haven’t got me quite so dead to rights as you think you have.”

“Oh, yes, I have,” replied the detective. “You’ll get all that’s coming to you, James, before I get through with you.”

But the detective had somewhat underrated the resourcefulness of Bare-Faced Jimmy.