"Certainly good for me," continued the little medium in a self-satisfied way. "He came, though, and I gave him my tricks in my best possible style. I pretty nearly scared him to death. Then I let him tie me, and the old man"s hands trembled as he put the ropes around my waist and over my bosom. "Miss Gray," said he tenderly, "I shall injure you!" "Mr.
Perkins," I replied, also tenderly, "the good spirits will protect me.
Pull the ropes tighter!"
"He pulled the ropes tighter and tighter, and finally got me tied. Then he darkened the room and in a few minutes I was entirely free of the ropes of course, and I told him to raise the curtain. As soon as he did so I left, telling him I was ill; and as soon as I could change my dress, came back and sat down with him. I got close to him--as close as I am to you now, Mrs. Winslow--and then, putting my right hand on his knee, and my left hand on his shoulder----"
"Splendid!" interrupted Mrs. Winslow, pouring more wine for the ingenuous Miss Gray, and taking some herself.
"Then," continued Miss Gray, laughing in a peculiarly wicked manner, "I got my face pretty close to his and asked: "Mr. Perkins, I want you to give me an answer that you are willing to have made public. On your honor as a man, do you not now believe in the genuineness of these spiritual manifestations produced through me?" "I do," he said pa.s.sionately, throwing his arms around me, and--and I don"t know what he would have done had not Leveraux entered the room at that supreme moment!"
[Ill.u.s.tration: _"Leveraux entered the room at that supreme moment."--_]
"Oh, _I_ see!" murmured the other blackmailer.
"Think of it, Mrs. Winslow!" added Miss Gray tauntingly; "think of it!
In the arms of a man who can draw his check for a million sterling--and poor little me from Chardon, Ohio!"
"My! but you are a little rascal, though!" said Mrs. Winslow admiringly.
"I always knew you"d make an impression somewhere."
""Leveraux!" said I indignantly, and springing from Perkins"s embrace after I had kissed him in a way that set him shaking again, "if you ever breathe a word of this, or annoy Mr. Perkins in any manner under heaven, I"ll kill you! Go!"
"Poor Leveraux knew her cue and replied hotly, "I"d kill myself before I"d do so disgraceful an act!" and then flounced out of the room."
"_What_ a pair!" exclaimed Mrs. Winslow.
"He thought I was just perfectly splendid after that; kept coming and coming, indorsed me publicly, got wild over me; but I held him at arm"s length for months, until I thought the man would really go crazy; and finally--well, you know I told you Daddy was an "accommodation husband,"
and if he hadn"t been one after I had tripped up one of the richest men in all England, I would have just hired somebody to have dumped him into the Thames, sure!"
The sparkling flow of Miss Gray"s experience was here interrupted by Mrs. Winslow"s ordering another bottle of wine, and after the couple had partaken of the same, the spicy narrative was continued:
"But now comes the fun, Winslow. I can"t tell you _how_ my rope trick is done. I"ve got a little addition to it that makes it a regular sensation. It don"t hurt me a particle, and allows the strongest men to pull away with all their might."
"I"d give a thousand dollars for it, Evalena," said her friend warmly.
"No good; no good for you," replied Miss Gray, critically looking over Mrs. Winslow"s splendid physical completeness. "Fact is, Winslow, you aren"t built exactly right for that kind of work. There"s too much of you to do the rope trick with eminent success. I played Daddy as my brother, and myself for an innocent, so neatly that Perkins honestly thought he had made a wonderful conquest. He believed it all, for he was one of those honest fools--in fact, came near being too honest for me."
"Why, how?"
"Well, he installed me as his mistress in grand style; but, of course, I insisted in giving seances and compelled public recognition through _his_ public recognition of my "wonderful spirit-power." The man was so infatuated that he bored me terribly with his visits. Why, I could hardly get time to attend to business. You know we always have a stock of ropes on hand in the seance-rooms, so that when any one objects to the one I ordinarily use, there are always other ropes at hand that I _can_ use. One night some fellow broke my best rope, and the next day I was carelessly practising with another with my door unsecured. Perkins had been down to Brighton for a week or two, and of course had to rush over to see me the minute he got in London--to give me a "happy surprise," I suppose. There I sat when he suddenly bolted into the room and saw the thinness of the whole thing in an instant."
"What did he see?" asked Mrs. Winslow abruptly.
"You _are_ shrewd, Winslow, but you can"t catch me that way; no, no, no!
But he did see the whole trick as dear as a June day. Do you think I fainted?"
"Not much," said her companion tersely.
"No; but _he_ nearly did. He reeled and staggered as though he had been struck by a sledge-hammer, and I saw in his face a determination to rush from the room and denounce me to all London. It was make or break with me then, Winslow, and with a bound I got to the door, turned the key, and sent it crashing through a five-pound pane of gla.s.s into the street below. Then I just whipped out this little derringer," she continued, producing a beautifully mounted, though diminutive weapon, "just run it right up under his eyes, and backed him into a seat."
""Great G.o.d!" he whimpered, "I"m undone! I"m undone!--what a very devil you are!"
"My heart did go thumping to see the man used up so; but I had to be rough, and said: "Yes, I _am_ a devil, Perkins, and you must pledge me your word--yes, you must take a solemn oath before that G.o.d you have called upon, that you will never expose me, or I will blow your brains out!""
"Splendid! splendid!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Mrs. Winslow. "Did he do it?"
"I should say he did do it! He got down on his knees and begged like a baby. And do you know, my blood was up so then, and I so despised him for his want of manliness, that I came within an ace of killing the infernal b.o.o.by!"
"He deserved it!" said Mrs. Winslow sympathetically.
"After I had him nearly scared to death," resumed the marvellous medium, "I began reasoning with him, and, by being excruciatingly tender, convinced him that by exposing me he would gain nothing, but would lose in everything that a man of spirit prided in--honor, social reputation, and business standing, and drew a lively picture of his disgrace at the clubs and in social circles, and of the cartoons which would certainly appear in _Punch_ and the other comic papers; and the result was that I held on to his affection and his purse-strings by compelling him to feel that my detaining him in the room and threatening to shoot him was the only thing which prevented him from rashly ruining both. Altogether, Winslow, I got over two thousand pounds out of him. He wasn"t deprived of a first-cla.s.s mistress while I remained in London, and--and we are so good friends now that every little while I get a splendid remittance from him; and if I ever should want to go back, I could have the very best in all England!"
"Well, well, well!" murmured Mrs. Winslow for the want of something better with which to express her admiration.
"I _do_ think I played it pretty well," resumed Miss Gray; "and I made him swallow it all, too. He really believed everything from the moment I fell into his arms until he caught me with the ropes. I was his spirit-wife--" another hard wink--"and he my only affinity. Leveraux helped me in the whole thing splendidly.
"Who is Mlle. Willie Leveraux?" inquired Mrs. Winslow.
"She is a sister of Ed. Johnson, the "bank-burster," and a keen girl, too," answered the medium.
"How did you happen to get hold of her?"
"Well, you see, Ed. Johnson, Mose Wogle, Frank Dean--"Dago Frank"--and Dave c.u.mmings, with Chief of Police McGillan and Detective Royal, of Jersey City, put up a job on the First National Bank there. McGillan was to keep everybody away from them; and he, or Royal, was to always remain at headquarters to let the boys off if they got nabbed. They played it as plaster-workers--Italians, you know--and began working from a room over the bank down through the ceiling into the vault; but an old scrub-woman about the place got suspicious, and had them arrested one day when both McGillan and Royal happened to be in Philadelphia. They had promised the boys help to break jail, but they failed everywhere; and Willie, thinking to get Johnson off, went to the bank officers and told them the whole story. They promised to help her brother, but said her evidence would have to be corroborated. So she sent for McGillan and Royal, got them into her rooms, then over on Thirty-seventh street, and had a Hoboken official in a closet, with a stenographer, who took all the conversation, which amounted to a complete confession of their complicity. It never did any good, though. McGillan and Royal got the most swearing done, and got clear; while Johnson and the rest of the boys got fifteen years" solitary confinement in the New Jersey penitentiary. It almost broke Willie down; but she is splendid help now."
Mrs. Winslow drew a long sigh, and the two drank again to drown the doleful feelings raised by this recital; for even high-toned and uncaught criminals do not find the contemplation of stone walls and iron bars by any means pleasant and refreshing; and with this lively history of herself and her companions, the "Marvellous Physical Spiritual Medium" called a servant, ordered a conveyance, and was driven home, after having promised to call with her own carriage on the next day; while Mrs. Winslow, after surveying her own magnificent physique as reflected in the pier-gla.s.s, muttered:
"_I"ll_ make an effort, go to Europe, and, like so many others, win fame too!"
Then with a resolute toss of her head the adventuress plumped into her bed, where, for aught we know, she carried on her vile conquests and miserable villainies in her dreams the whole night long.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Mrs. Winslow demonstrates her Legal Ability.-- The "Breach of Promise Trial."-- A grand Rally of the Spiritualistic Friends of the Adventuress.-- The Jury disagree.-- Mrs.
Winslow convicted at St. Louis of Common Barratry.-- An honest Judge"s Rebuke.-- A new Trial.-- The Spiritualistic Swindler overthrown.-- Remorse and Wretchedness.
Mrs. Winslow"s stay in New York was rather an interruption to Miss Evalena Gray"s business, as those two champions of the theory that earth and heaven are connected by a spiritual hyphen only adjustable, or to be made serviceable, by the brainless imbeciles or the remorseless sharks of society, to the exclusion of people of purity and worth, indulged in several lapses from sobriety, and in spiritual love-feasts of such remarkable length and enthusiasm that W. Sterling Bischoff, Mlle.
Leveraux, and the mournful accommodation husband, "Daddy," became quite alarmed for the result, were obliged to discontinue the marvellous seances at No. Nineteen West Twenty-first Street--on account of the "alarming illness of the fascinating little medium," as the manager was careful to see that the truthful newspapers announced--and at the close of a term of spirituous rapture of remarkable intensity and duration, the three who were vitally interested in Miss Gray"s recovery from her peculiarly alarming illness, managed to part the loving couple, induce the languid Evalena to return to her fascinations and fools, and sent Mrs. Winslow to Rochester and her roguery.
Although her trip to New York had been one of prolonged dissipation, Mrs. Winslow had evidently gained courage from it from the a.s.surance of Miss Gray"s friendship, and through that ingenious little woman"s recitals of daring and conquest now applied herself with new vigor and dash to her infamous work.
During her absence in New York, Superintendent Bangs and a legal gentleman from Rochester had proceeded to the West and were rapidly gathering in the harvest of evidence I had reaped, and which subsequently became so serviceable.
Mrs. Winslow, seeing she had been outwitted, began diligently arranging matters for the coming trial, and having lost the main point of dependence which she had hoped to make in our inability to use the evidence which she was sure Lyon"s counsel could get by a liberal expenditure of money, which she also knew must be at hand, she began the tactics of delay, and secured a change of venue from Rochester to Batavia, on the ground of prejudice; and, without the a.s.sistance of counsel, boldly manuvred her case nearly as carefully and judiciously as the most proficient of criminal lawyers.
Ascertaining that Lyon"s counsel had secured damaging evidence against her in those sections of country where she had previously been the spiritualistic harlot that she was, she rapidly followed Mr. Bangs and his companion, and through her wonderful personal magnetism, physical force, consummate bravado, and skilful manipulations, succeeded in securing numberless affidavits--not that she was a pure woman, but that as far as the affiant knew, she was not a bad woman.