The Crime of the French Café and Other Stories, Page 2

  CHAPTER II.

  GASPARD SPOTS HIS MAN.

  A revolver lay on the carpet just where it would have been if it haddropped from the woman's right hand.

  Its position suggested the possibility of suicide, and there was, at thefirst glance, nothing to contradict that theory, except the conduct ofCorbut and the man who had registered as John Jones.

  It might be that the woman had committed suicide, and the men had fledfor fear of being implicated in the affair.

  Nick examined this side of the case at once.

  The pistol had evidently been held only a few inches from the woman'shead when it was fired.

  Her white flesh showed the marks of the powder.

  The bullet had passed straight through the head.

  The revolver carried a long thirty-two cartridge. Three of the fivechambers were loaded.

  One of them contained an empty shell, on which the hammer rested. Thefatal bullet had doubtless come from this chamber, for the shell hadbeen recently discharged.

  In the fifth chamber was an old shell, which had apparently been carriedunder the hammer for safety, as is quite common.

  The woman had a purse containing about twenty dollars, but no cards orother things which might lead to identification.

  Her ears had been pierced for earrings, but she seemed not to have wornthem recently. She had no watch.

  There was one plain gold ring on the third finger of her right hand, andthere was a deep mark showing that she had worn another, but that ringwas gone.

  How recently it had been removed was, of course, beyond discovery.There was no sign that it had been violently torn away.

  When Nick had proceeded thus far with his investigation the messengerboy arrived. The detective sent messages to his assistants, Chick andPatsy.

  He then notified a coroner, who came about ten o'clock and took chargeof the body.

  A minute examination failed to reveal any marks upon the clothing whichmight assist in establishing the woman's identity.

  Nick then left the restaurant, taking Gaspard with him. InspectorMclaughlin's men were by this time on hand, and they took charge of thehouse, under Nick's direction.

  At seven o'clock in the morning Nick received a message from Patsy, whohad been directed to find the cabman in whose cab Corbut had fled.

  Patsy had located the cabman at his home on West Thirty-second street.The man's name was Harrigan.

  Nick took Gaspard with him and went to the house where Harrigan boarded.

  "I got on to him easy enough," said Patsy, whom they found outside thehouse. "I found the policeman who was on that beat last night, and gothim to give me a list of all the night-hawks he'd seen around there upto eight o'clock of the evening.

  "Then I began to chase up the fellows on that list. The second man putme on to Harrigan. He remembered seeing him get the job, but couldn'ttell what sort of a man hired him.

  "I guess there's no doubt that he's the man, but I haven't questionedhim yet. He's in there asleep."

  Nick passed himself off as a friend of Harrigan's, and was directed withPatsy to the man's room.

  They went in without being invited, after having tried in vain to getan answer to their pounding on his door.

  The cabman was snoring in a heavy slumber.

  "From what I heard," said Patsy, "Harrigan had a very large skate onlast night. He's sleeping it off."

  Nick shook the man unmercifully, and at last he sat up in bed.

  "What t' 'ell?" said he, looking about him wildly. "Who are youse, an'wha's the row?"

  As the quickest way to sober the man, Nick showed his shield. It actedlike a cold shower-bath.

  "Say, what was it I done?" gasped Harrigan. "S' help me, I dunno nothingabout it. I had a load on me last night, an' I ain't responsible."

  Patsy laughed.

  "There's no charge against you," said Nick; "I only want to ask you afew questions."

  Harrigan sank back on the pillow with a gasp of relief.

  "Gimme that water-pitcher," he said; "me t'roat's full o' cobwebs."

  He drank about a quart of water, and then declared himself ready for across-examination. Nick sized him up for a decent sort of fellow; andsaw no reason to doubt that he was telling the truth when he answeredthe questions that were put to him.

  It appeared that he had been on Seventh avenue, near the Frenchrestaurant, from a little after six to about half-past seven on theprevious evening.

  At the latter hour a man had engaged his cab. He had taken it to theside door of the restaurant, and the waiter had got in. The man whohired the cab was already inside.

  He had driven them somewhere on Fifty-seventh street, or it might beFifty-eighth. He couldn't remember exactly.

  The two men got out together. He didn't know what had become of them.

  His fare was paid all right. Then he had a couple more drinks, and thenext thing he knew he was at the stable where he had hired the cab.

  Of course he didn't confess this in so many words, but Nick understoodthe facts well enough.

  That was absolutely all that Harrigan knew about the case.

  "Would you recognize the man who hired your cab if you saw him again?"asked Nick.

  "Oh, sure," said Harrigan. "I wasn't so very full. I had me wits aboutme. Say, you ain't going to do me dirt an' git me license taken away? Iwas all right. I didn't do any harm."

  Nick assured Harrigan that if he acted right in this case his licensewould be safe, and then left the man to his slumbers.

  "Not very promising, is it, my boy?" said Nick to Patsy, as they wentdownstairs. "We've lost the trail as soon as we struck it."

  "Do you think he's giving it to us straight?"

  "Yes; he doesn't know where he took the men nor what became of themafter they left his cab."

  "It's a pity he had such a jag. He'd have been the best witness in thecase."

  Nick smiled.

  "If he hadn't been drunk he wouldn't have had anything to do with thecase," he said.

  "What do you mean?"

  "Why, it's clear enough. This man that we want saw Harrigan on that cabwhile the man was on his way to the restaurant with the woman. Then whenit became necessary to get Corbut out of the way, he remembered thedrunken cabman, and hired him."

  "I don't see how you know that."

  "A man would rather have a sober driver than a drunken one, wouldn'the?"

  "Yes."

  "Well, the man who told you he saw Harrigan get the job was sober,wasn't he?"

  "Yes."

  "Then why didn't the man take his cab? Because he wanted a drunkendriver, who wouldn't be sharp enough to get on to any queer business.

  "But he wouldn't have tried to find a drunken cabman just by luck, andhe wouldn't have taken a sober one. Therefore he had seen Harrigan andhoped to find him in the same place.

  "That's part of the plot. Now, then, you go to Chick, who's watching thebody of the woman. I'm going to take Gaspard uptown and have a look atthat part of the city where Harrigan left his passengers."

  Nick and Gaspard went to the Thirty-third street station of the Sixthavenue elevated road.

  They walked to the edge of the platform on the uptown end.

  Suddenly Gaspard gave a violent start. He uttered an exclamation ofsurprise and pointed across the tracks.

  "What is it?" cried Nick.

  "The man who was in room B!" exclaimed Gaspard. "I am sure of it!"

  At that instant a downtown train rushed into the station, cutting offNick's view.

  And a half-second later an uptown train pulled in on their side. Nickpushed open a gate before the train had fairly stopped. He draggedGaspard after him.

  The gateman tried to stop them, but Nick pushed the fellow in the car soviolently that he sat down on the floor.

  Then the detective pulled the other gate open, and, still draggingGaspard, sprang down in the space between the tracks.

  The other train was just starting. Nick leaped up and opened o
ne of thegates.

  Gaspard stood trembling. Excitement and terror rendered him incapable ofaction.

  Nick reached down, and, seizing the man by the shoulders, lifted him upto the platform of the car as if he had been a child of ten.

  "Look back," cried the detective, pushing Gaspard to the other side ofthe car. "Is your man still at the station?"

  Two or three men were there, having, apparently, just missed the train.

  It seemed possible that the criminal--if such he was--had seen Gaspardpoint, and had been shrewd enough not to board the car.

  But Gaspard looked back and declared that his man was not there.

  "Good," said Nick. "He must be on the train. We have him sure."