"I am making a statement which can be verified quite easily. The name I saw on the license was that of Jean de Courtois, an undersized Frenchman whom I know by sight, whereas my unfortunate friend is a living witness to the presence here of a man who must be of powerful build and exceptional strength."
Mr. Hughes surveyed Va.s.silan"s battered face again, and a doubt, born of a vague memory, began to intrude into his own mind. Moreover, he was an eminently reasonable old gentleman.
"Ah, yes," he said. "My man, Jenkins, said something about a first mate and a belaying pin, whatever that may be--I fancy it is an instrument connected with the flaying of whales--and the bridegroom could certainly not be described as "an undersized Frenchman" by anyone who paid due regard to the truth. . . . Well, the whole proceeding is highly irregular, but the circ.u.mstances are quite exceptional, so----"
In a word, the Earl and Count Va.s.silan were soon gorged with astonished wrath, for, no matter what discrepancies might exist between license and certificate, there could be no dispute as to the bold signature "John D. Curtis" in the register, while Hermione"s handwriting compelled Lord Valletort to believe that he was not the victim of hallucination.
It is easy to see, therefore, how the chase after John D. Curtis became hot thenceforth, but cooled off perceptibly on the trail of Jean de Courtois. The hunters, of course, credited Hermione with a talent for craft and duplicity which she certainly did not possess; being rogues, or of the essence of rogues, they suspected her of roguery, and, in so doing, dug a deep pit for themselves.
On arriving at the Central Hotel they were plunged into a denser fog than ever, and by means so ludicrously simple that even a budding dramatist would hesitate to avail himself of such a crude device. The police had searched the dead man"s clothing without finding any positive clew to his name. His linen was marked H. R. H., and certain laundry marks might serve to establish his ident.i.ty after long and patient inquiry, but the detective who had charge of the case felt that it was becoming unusually complex when the victim"s overcoat was produced and the pockets were found to contain letters, a _Lusitania_ wine bill, and a Marconigram--all pointing to the clear fact that the owner of the coat was John D. Curtis.
The detective, Steingall by name, was one of the shrewdest men in the New York police, and his extraordinary faculty of observing minute facts which had escaped others while investigating a crime had earned him the repute of being "the man with a microscopic eye." But he owned to being mystified by this juggling with names.
"Why," he said to the police captain of the precinct, "this fellow Curtis is the man who witnessed the murder, and who will be our most reliable witness if we lay hands on the scoundrels who committed it."
"He _said_ his name was Curtis," commented the other.
The implied doubt seemed to be justified, but Steingall stroked his chin reflectively.
"These papers bear out his story. Look at the dates on the telegram and the bill, and the postmarks on the letters. Can he, by some queer chance, have changed overcoats with the dead man?"
"A most unlikely thing, I should say."
"Something of the sort must have happened. Anyhow, let us get hold of him, and sift this matter thoroughly."
An ambulance came just then, to take the body to the mortuary, and, when it had departed, the two men quitted the traffic bureau where they had been talking, and entered the hotel. Here, excitement was still at fever heat. The press had heard of the murder, and a number of reporters were interviewing everybody in sight, while photographers were adding to the confusion by taking flash-light pictures.
The super-clerk was already showing tokens of the strain. He glared wildly at Steingall when the latter asked if Mr. Curtis was in.
"You"re the hundred and first man to whom I have answered "No" in the last quarter of an hour," he said.
"The first hundred didn"t count, anyway," was the dry response. "Pull yourself together, and read that card slowly and collectedly."
"Well," he went on, seeing that the clerk had apparently mastered the copper-plate script, "you see I am not here for amus.e.m.e.nt. Now, about Curtis, are you sure he is not in his room?"
"His key has not been given up, but I have sent to 605, and we can"t get in."
"What do you mean? Is the door locked?"
"We can open every lock in the hotel. It is bolted."
"Have you knocked?"
"We"ve done everything, short of breaking open the door."
Steingall looked perplexed, but the police captain was confident.
"He has buncoed us, for sure," he said with a smile, though the smile boded evil for John D. Curtis at their next meeting.
"Did you notice him particularly when he registered?" demanded the detective, after a pause.
"Yes. Came to-night by the _Lusitania_. Here is his signature."
The three men gazed at the register, and Steingall produced a card, on which Curtis had written the name of the hotel.
"Same handwriting!" he murmured. "By the way," he continued, addressing the clerk, "were you here when the murder took place?"
"Yes."
"Did you see anything of it?"
"Not a scratch. I was busy with a lady, who was worrying me about a train to Montclair. She was five minutes making up her mind whether to take the Jersey tunnel or the 23rd Street ferry."
"The only other person, beside Curtis, who saw the whole affair was the hall-porter?"
"I guess that"s so."
"Call him into the office."
Questioned anew, the hall-porter was positive about everything except Curtis"s connection with the attack. The reporters had scalped him, metaphorically speaking, and his brain was seething. He said "No" when he meant "Yes," and "Yes" for "No," and contradicted himself in each fresh version of the cataclasm which had seared his sky with lightning.
Steingall ultimately gave him up as hopeless that night. Perhaps, next morning, when he had slept and eaten, he might become sane again.
"It"s an odd thing that Curtis should have wandered away in this fashion, wearing a strange overcoat," mused the detective aloud.
"He must know it," said the police captain meaningly.
"I rather think we must force that door," said Steingall.
The clerk did not understand the reference to the overcoat, but he was ready enough to adopt the detective"s suggestion.
"Shall I send for the engineer, and tell him to bring tools?" he asked.
"There is nothing else for it," admitted Steingall with a shrug. Be it remembered he had seen Curtis, and heard his story. If such a man had committed the most daring crime recorded in New York during a decade, and had flouted the police with such cool effrontery, he (Steingall) would never again trust impressions.
The policemen, the clerk, and a strong-armed artificer went up in the elevator, and, after an imperative knock and a loud-voiced summons to open had been met with blank silence from the interior of No. 605, the workman got busy. The door was stout, and offered a stubborn resistance. It had to be forced off its upper hinge; then it yielded so suddenly that it fell into the room, with the engineer sprawling on top of it. The man yelled, thinking he was being plunged headlong into tragedy, but Steingall switched on the lights, and four pairs of eager eyes peered at nothing in particular. They found the golf clubs, which partially explained the blocking of the door, though it did not occur to any of them at once that the open window might have caused the bag to fall. They rummaged Curtis"s portmanteaux and steamer trunks, and came upon evidence in plenty to prove that he was no mere masquerader in another man"s name. But that was all. They could form no theory to account for his disappearance, until Steingall noticed the key, lying on the dressing-table, which, with its odds and ends of small articles, was the last place to invite scrutiny. He was gazing at it when the blind flapped, and the door of the wardrobe creaked.
"Confound it!" he cried. "The bedroom door was fastened by accident!
The man forgot his key. Look here! I"ll show you just how it came about."
He ill.u.s.trated the slipping of the clubs, and his theory was borne out subsequently by the negro porter who had brought Curtis"s belongings upstairs. But an atmosphere of suspicion, of non-comprehension, had been created around the missing man, and it was not to be dispelled, even in Steingall"s acute mind, by whittling away the mystery of the blocked door to a minor incident which might occur in any hotel any day.
Leaving the mechanic and the negro to patch the shattered door sufficiently to serve its purpose until it was replaced by another in the morning, the clerk escorted the representatives of the law downstairs. Of course, their departure from the hall and their prolonged absence had been noted by the phalanx of reporters, and they were surrounded instantly. Searching questions were fired at them, but Steingall, who knew how to use the press for his own ends, countered by asking genially:
"In your hunt for copy, have any of you boys come across Mr. John D.
Curtis?"
"The man who really saw the riot? I guess not. We want him badly."