Wheeling Sunday Register

CHAPTER XIV.
A POWERFUL ALLY.

Several days after this event the inspector was informed that a lady desired to see him. He gave orders that she be admitted, and a young woman dressed in mourning entered the room. She was pale and handsome, with powerful dark eyes. The inspector rose and placed a chair for her. She sat down, regarding him with great intentness, as if endeavoring to satisfy herself what manner of man he was. "Can I be of any assistance to you, madam?" the detective inquired. "I hope you may," was her reply, "for I don't know where to look for help, unless to you. You were officially cognizant, were you not, of the case of Mr. Percy Nolen, who was accused of a robbery a few weeks ago?" The inspector inclined his head. "It came to my knowledge in the ordinary routine," he said. "It has been adjourned, as you are probably aware, and the chances are that it will not soon be heard of again." "Percy Nolen was my brother," she resumed. "He was lost at sea." Her lips trembled, but she recovered herself—the inspector noted that she seemed to possess unusual self command—and went on. "My mother and I are the only ones of the family yet alive; and my mother is an invalid. My brother died with a shadow on his name, and I consider it my duty to remove it. I am sure that it can be done; and I am ready to make any effort or sacrifice to do it. Nothing would be a sacrifice that would accomplish that result " "I'm afraid you will find it no easy matter, Miss Nolen. Speaking as a professional man, I must say that the prospect is not a hopeful one." "I don't expect it to be easy; but I am determined to succeed, and I mean to give all my life and energy to it," said she, in the same quiet tone which she had used from the first, but with immense underlying earnestness. "Of course, I know nothing about the ways of finding out criminals, and I don't think that in an ordinary matter, I should make a good detective; but this is a thing I care so much about that it's different. I believe that if the man who stole that money was to pass me on the street I should feel that it was he." The inspector dropped his pencil and stooped to pick it up. The notion of identifying criminals by emotional intuition was not without its humorous side; but he did not wish his smile to be seen; and by the time he had recovered his pencil he had recovered his gravity likewise. "Even if you were able to recognize him in that way, Miss Nolen," he remarked, "there would be no evidence in that to fasten the crime upon him. The jury might think you were mistaken, and would refuse to convict; in fact, I don't think you could persuade any judge on the bench to grant you a warrant." "I wasn't thinking of putting it on that ground," Pauline replied, coloring a little. "But when I have convinced myself that I know the man, I would find evidence against him that would convince the world too. Only let me know him first, and the rest would be easy." "Well, all I can say is, I hope you'll find him." "I should not have come here to waste your time merely by telling you this," she continued, looking up at him firmly. "I wish to tell you something that may indicate who he is and then you will be able, perhaps, to help me find out where he is and what his record is. I don't suppose you know that Percy was not my only brother" The detective intimated that he did not. "My other brother's name was Jerrold. He died a few years ago. They had reason to think that his death was hastened by foul means. The man whom he accused of it was tried; the case was appealed several times, but at last, after having been confined over a year, the accused was acquitted He said he would be revenged upon us. Why may he not have taken this way to be revenged?" The Inspector began to be interested "What was his name?" he asked. His name was Horace Dupee. He was a medical student." "Tell me the circumstances. I may recollect something of it." "When my brother Jerrold left college he decided to be a physician, and he began the study of medicine here in New York. He attended lectures and went to the hospitals. He was fond of fun and a favorite with his fellow students, and I suppose he was rather imprudent in his habits. He was good natured and excitable and others led him on. "The way the end came was this: There was a supper given to one of the students who had got through his course. He was the Horace Dupee I spoke of. He was a clever man, I believe. I never saw him, and he and Jerrold were great friends. There were ten or twelve other young men at the supper. They drank a good deal of wine and became noisy and excited They began to play practical jokes on one another. At last Horace Dupee got up to make a speech. My brother, who sat near him, kept interrupting him with jokes and laughing. He got angry finally—Dupee did—and made some threat or said some insulting thing. My brother instantly threw a glass of wine in his face, glass and all. "Dupee rushed at him and struck him with his fist. They began to fight; but my brother was the stronger, and he struck Dupee in the face, so that he fell over a chair. Then the others separated them: and my brother, after a moment, forgot his anger. and wanted to make friends with Dupee again, but Dupee argued with him, until at last he laughed and would not for a while, but the others came and shook hands with my brother, and pretended that he was quite reconciled; but he said afterwards to one of the young men that he would be even with Nolen yet." "They had been on the point of breaking up and sat down by my brother, and kept singing and talking again; and Dupee came singing up but after this they got to drinking—filling his glass for him, but only pretending to drink himself, until my brother got quite intoxicated and acted foolishly. It was then after midnight, Dupee said he would see my brother to his lodgings. My father and my mother and myself were not in New York just then; we had gone down to a southern watering place on account of my mother being delicate, and Jerrold was staying in furnished rooms in a boarding house. "He and Dupee started off together after leaving the others. My brother could hardly walk himself. The boarding house was on West Twenty-third street, some way down. The door had a covered porch to it and was nearly on a level with the sidewalk. It was a winter night, but there was no snow on the ground. "It was not quite 1 o'clock in the morning when they left the restaurant together. At 2 o'clock the policeman whose beat was on that part of Twenty-third street saw some one lying in the porch of the boarding house. He examined and found that he was in evening dress, with an overcoat on; he was insensible and his pockets were empty. There did not seem to be any mark of violence on him. The policeman thought he was insensible from drink. He knocked up the people in the house, and when he found that my brother lived there helped to take him up to his room. But there was a physician living in the house, and he came and looked at my brother and saw there was something wrong At last he found a bruise on his head, behind the ear, made with some blunt instrument, for the skin was not cut, but it had produced concussion of the brain. Towards dawn he partly recovered consciousness, and when he was asked about his injuries he mumbled something about Dupee; but they could not get anything definite from him. A telegram was sent to us at Old Point Comfort, where we were stopping. My mother was too ill to move; I stayed with her, and my father went on at once, but he arrived too late. My brother" Her voice faltered and she broke off. The story had been told with entire simplicity. but with intense vividness and earnestness. The scenes which she described seemed to be before her as she spoke, and the emotion which she had striven to repress broke forth at last in a few quick sobs. She soon controlled herself and added, "My father had an inquest held; the young men who had been present at the supper were called upon to testify and they told of the quarrel and the apparent reconciliation and it was shown that Horace Dupee was the last person seen with my brother. In his examination Dupee said that he had taken him home and left him in his doorway, bidding him good night; and that, though my brother had seemed not quite himself, yet he was able to take care of himself. He denied any knowledge of the blow. But it was proved that he had threatened my brother and it was thought that he might have emptied my brother's pockets only to make it appear that the murder was the work of some common thief So the coroner held him for trial." "I remember the case now," put in the inspector. "The case was pushed against him vigorously, but it broke down at last for want of conclusive evidence, and Dupee was discharged, as you say, after having been kept in jail for a year. Well, I must say, Miss Nolen, that the doubt as to his guilt is a reasonable one; and supposing him to have been innocent, he has certainly received hard treatment; for such an accusation as that, though not proved, is enough to ruin a man's career." "I do not believe he was innocent, Inspector Byrnes! I am sure that he was guilty, and having escaped punishment for that, he means to do us more injury still. No an innocent man would not have been ruined by an unjust accusation! It would have stimulated him to prove by his after life that he had been wronged" "Do you know what his subsequent life has been?" inquired the inspector. "I have heard enough to know that it has been what I should have expected it to be. He has associated with low and dishonest people; he has gone under different names, and it is probable that he has been arrested more than once for other crimes. I have always felt that he was our enemy. and have expected that something like this would happen. I am the only one of us left to fight him, Inspector Byrnes. He killed my eldest brother; he has been the means of bringing about the disgrace and death of Percy; my father died of disappointment and grief; my mother is a broken-down invalid. But I am strong and well, and I am determined to bring him to justice! Will you help me?' Her eyes darkened and her cheeks flushed as she put the question. The inspector, though he could not but perceive that the chances were against the correctness of her theory, was touched by her earnestness. In what way would you expect me to assist you?' he inquired. "You can communicate with the police in all parts of the country," she answered, "and you know, or can find out, the history of all the criminals who have been arrested in New York and in many other places. What I ask you to do is to trace the record of Horace Dupee from the time he left the jail on the termination of his trial till now. Find out his associates, and make them give evidence against him: learn what his aliases have been, and whether he was not in New York on the day that Mrs. Tunstall lost her money. If he was—and I am sure it will turn out so —it will be found that he had money to spend soon afterwards, and perhaps some one of the bank notes can be traced to him. "Oh!" she exclaimed, lifting one hand with an irrepressible gesture, "if I can see him stand before me in the prisoner's dock, I shall have lived long enough " "Upon my word, Miss Nolen," remarked the inspector with a smile, "I wouldn't envy the man who had done you an injury, be he who he may, and if this fellow Dupee, or any one else, has been guilty of the crimes you charge him with I hope with all my heart you may live to see him convicted of them—and a long time afterwards. too! As for my share in the business, I can assure you that all possible investigations shall be made and, if Dupee has really joined the criminal classes, it will probably only be a question of time before we run across him." It is something to have a definite person suspected in connection with the affair. I don't want to give you any hope that I cannot fulfill; but I am willing to say that it is not impossible something may come out of this." "I don't ask for promises—only let something be done!" Pauline replied, rising and giving her hand to the detective. He felt the strong clasp of her little fingers, and smiled again. "You may depend upon my being at least as good as my word," he said kindly. "Your cause is a good one, and, so far as I am connected with it. you may be certain that it will not suffer. But you must be prepared for disappointment."