The Dancing Girl

Oíd John Hartlepool was dead. That much was certain. It was evident that he had died from a pistol shot, for there was a bulkt wouud in his temple, and the doctors found the bullet in his bram. A revolver with one empty chamber, which the bullet wonld have fitted before its shape had been flattened by contact with the oíd man's skull, was pickednp in the court directly tinder a window of the room where the chambermaid had found the old gentleman lying dead, when she entered the room with a passkey at 8:30 i;. the morning. She also fonnd that the window was closed and f astened, and this effectually disposed of the suggestion that the old man had shot himself and thrown the pistol out of the window,for while there was an infinitesimal chance that he might have thrown the pistol out after firing the shot into his brain it was absolutely impossible that he could then have closed the window and fastened it. Moreover, the position of the body and the pool of blood beside it showed that he had fallen when shot and never moved again. The most careful search of the room disclosed no weapon of any kind. Suicide was therefore clearly out of the question. It was a case of intirder. So at least the pólice argued, and it most beadmitted with a good deal of reason. Who was the murderer? To aid in a solution of this question the pólice reasoned in this way: As the dead man was fonnd in his aparünents in thefifth story of the apartment house, where he had lived alone for 15 years, it was evident that the murderer must have had some poweriTil motive to induce him to take the risk attending such an act, or else he must have been temporarily excited into a frenzy by something which had passed between him and the deceased. What could the motive have been? It was not robbery, for a roll of notes and a quantity of loosegold lay on the table, just $1,500, which amount it was quickly learned had been paid the deceased by one of his tenants at 4 :30o'clocktheaftemoon before his dead body was discovered by the chambermaid. No one could snggest that the old man had any enemies. His habit of life was exceedingly simple. The worst that could be said of him was that. though very rieh, he was very penurious. He was not a hard creditor, but on the contrary. was inclincd to be lenient in his collections. He was somewhat proud of the fact that his wother was the daughter of an earl's daughter, bnt the only one who used to consider himself aggrieved by tbis was his handsome and high spirited nephew and namesake. So a nmrder for revenge seemed out of the question. Had any one an interest in his death'i On this point there was no doubt, for John Hartlepool, Jr., was known to all the community as his sole heir-at-law. Itwas also soon learned that on the very morning before his death the old man had instructed his solicitor to make a will cutting off his nephew with a pittance, which will was to be executed the neit day, if that young gentleman would not in the meantime renounce his intention of marrying a young lady who was a member of .1 popular opera troop and took a role which was more conspieuous because of the elegance of her figure than of the quality of her vocal powers or the degree of her histrionic ability. "Not a cent of my money shall go to a brat of a girl who makes a living by dancing." said the old man to more than a ecore of people, for his nephew 's infatuation for the pretty chorus girl was the one sore spot in his life. Not that Nellie Eltham (she had not risen to ;!:edignity of a stage name) was a brat. She was simply an honest little girl, who, having to eai-n her living, was doing it in a way that nature had eminenüy fitted her for. When Master Jack, in a moment of' unintentional lr.mkiiess, had blurted out liis unele's pet objection to tlioir naarriage, she first grew red, and then as pale as snow, and ; ended by V.ursting into tears, the outbreak being so long that it was a good hour before Jack feit safe in taking his departure. It was known that uncle and nephew had had an interview between ö and 6 e'clock, during -which time a terrific thunder storm was raging. The elevator boy remembered that when the young man left the house he took the elevator at le third story, that he was greatíy excited and said something about f orgetting to ring for him to come np to the flfth 6tory. He also remembered that it was raining furiously at the time, and that the thunder was so load and constant that a pistol shot niight have been fired almost at any moment during the storm unnoticed by persons in an adjoiuing room. It also appeared that there was an open window on the stairs on the fourth story, whieh window looked out into the conrt where the pistol was found. One other fact remained to be leamed and that was at what tinie the old man was killed. The nephew had left the house a few minutes before 6 o'clock. The elevator boy knew it because he had only been gone a very little while when the janitor came to relieve him for supper hour. Deceased was accustomed to take his dinner at a restaurant in the lower story of the building where he resided at 6:15 and was the 60ul of punctuality . ' ' If he had been' alive at 6:15, he would have been down to dinner, ' ' was the verdict of every attaché and regular custoiner of the restaurant. No one had entered the building between the time his nephew went out and 6:15, and thongh several people had come down stairs and gone into the restaurant they were all ladies and regular inmates of the house. All these facts were brought to light during the morning after the body was found, with the additional fact that John Hartlepool, Jr., had disappeared. The popular verdict was willful inurder against John Hartlepool, Jr., and all the papers commentingon the case said that it was perfectly warranted and expressed a hope that the wretched youth would speedily be brought to justice. At this stage of the case Nellie Eltham came to me. I had just opened an office as a detective, and the seven $10 bilis and the one f 5 bill, which she laid upon my desk and said were her whole eavings, were my first professional fee. She soon told me her Btory, which was hardly necessary, for I had already read it in the papers. When we had gone over the story, I asked her what she knew about the case beyond what tho newspapers had told. "I know that Jack didn't do it, " wan the answer. " Why, he would not do siich a thing. Why, only yesterday he said" - and she stopped suddenly in her rapid speech. I suspected that she was keeping something back that I ought to know, so I impressed her with the importance of telling me everything, whereupon she repeated the pitiful story about the dancing and said very reluctantly that Jack had sworn that if the old man repeated the remark to bim he would regret it. She eonfirmed the report that the uncle and nephew were to meet and discuss the will and the marriage. When I told her that she would be a most damaging witness if called upon at the young inan's trial, as she was likely to be, she reeled as if she was going to faint, but recovered herself and said that no matter what rnight happen she would never repeat what ehe had just told ine. "I will die in prisou first," she said in a low, steady voice. When I asked her where Jack was, she replied that she had not the least idea. I told her that there did not eeem to be anvthing I could do for her and that I would only retain f 25 of her money to pay me for attending the inquest. It seemed liko robbery to take that, for I was eure that her lover was guilty. She said she would go to her work as usual as ehe must save every dollar to prove Jack 's innocence. That night 1 weut to the opera and saw her as she stood before tho f ootlights in all her racliant beauty and grace. It happened that at the climax of tho opera the prima donna proclahr.ed the innocence of the stage hero, and as thewords, "He is innocent," rang out, the look of triumph in Nellie's face spoke so much of faith, courage and hope, that I found ruyself, much agamst niy will, beginning to believe that Jack was innocent after all. But I could do nothing to help her. The inquest was short, and nothing new was developed, and the verdict was ono of willful irmrder against John Hartlepool, the younger. Three days had passed since the inquest and nothing had been heard of the accused, although the officers were scouring the country for him, when Nellie carne to me and in her quick, curt way said : "Itwasnot suicide. Jack did not kill him. No one else could. It must have been an accident." "Accident." I exclaimed. " Yes, accident," was the positivo answer. "There is no other explanation. and I am going to rent the room where the old man died to try and think out how it happened." I tried to convince her that the idea was absttrd, but she was firm in her determination. So I agreed to follow her directions, which were that I was to engage the old man's apartments for my cousin, a lady who had come to the city to study elocution, and Nellie was to occupy them forthwith. This arrangemerit wt-s carried out that same af te rn oon. The S9co;vl night after she had taken possession the i eople of the same flat wero startled by a pistol shot and a scream. Running to the room whence the sounds canie they found Nellie lying upon tho üoor in her night dress and a Bmall pool of blood by her head. They lifted her upon the bed which she had evidently .iust vacated and Euinuioned a physician. He soon restored her to consciousness. She looked at him with a gleam of triumph and whlspered, " He is innocent, " and these were the last words that she spoke coherently for thiee weeks. When her disordered brain recovered its normal condition, I was snmmoned, ! and she told rne her story, which was j in substance as follows: She had been lymg awake trying to think what the solntion of the mysteri ou3 killing could be.when snddenly her ! eye discovered several raised battonlike i knobs which ornamented the high ! carved wöoden mantel. The light of j the electric lamps in the street below shone brightly through the window and feil upon these knobs. They stood out above the woodwoik of the mantel, and presentí}7 heridle tlion,:Mvras specuiating as to this cnrions tr n!t of the architects. Ceitainly tbs ; rpose could not have been artistic. . .■■ asoned. A close observer could not Uelp i'emarking that they were not quite ia harmony with the general design of the mantel. Suddenly she sprang out of bed and touched one of the knobs. It yielded. She pressed a littlo harder, and that was all she knew nntil she came to herself in the hospital. To make a long story short, I went to the raysterions room accompanied by the janitor and found the knobs as she had described them. It was the third from the center which she had pressed, so I began by pressing the first from the center. It did not move. Then I tried the second. It did not move. Then telling the janitor to get out of harm's way I stood against the wall and pressed the third knob with the handle of my cane. The instant I did so the knob slipped in and thesharp report of apistol rang out. I held the knob back while the janitor inserted the end of a poker and pushed the pistol from its fastening. We heard it when it struck the bottom of the compartment into which it feil. Safe from the pistol, we began pressing the knobs one after the other and then two at a time and found that when the first and second were pressed simultaneously they opened a cabinet in which were some money and numerous papers. Clearly here was the solution of the old man's death. He had made a mistake in trying to open the cabinet and had fallen a victiru to his own ingenuity in devising a useless protection for his valnables. I carried the news quickly to Nellie, and sho sent me post haste to the newspapers with the story, for she wanted every one to know that Jack was not guilty. Her judgment was right, for the newspapers told of the discovery with abnndant praise for the young girl. Jack was declared innocent andamuch abused young man and was urged to return, marry the gracefnl, beautiful and rising operatic star and inherit his nncle's wealth, but the hope was expn BSed that he would not feel obliged to deprive the stage of a lady who promÍ3' il to be ono of its greatest ornaments. Two weeks later, or more than six weeks after old John Hartlepool had met his fato, a cablegram carne to his late address, also one to Miss Nellie. The cablegrama were dated at Liverpool and the contents were identical, being as follows: I am all rlght. Will bc home on flrst steamer. Was kidnaped and brought to Liverpool ;: f sailing vfsbel. Jack. It tvmiedout that Jack had been mistaken for au important witness iu a big lawsuit and had been decoyed on board a schooner lying at a Brooklyn dock and taken forcibly to sea. Jack returned in a few days, and of course 1 was present at the wedding. -