CHAPTER IV.
THE CONNECTING LINK.
Nick Carter already had come to two conclusions:
One, that the miscreant by whom Helen Mantell had been repeatedly threatened was none other than Gaston Goulard.
Another, that Gaston Goulard now had got in his iniquitous work.
Nick saw, too, that Frank Mantell was in a fair way to collapse under the alarming discovery, and he at once took steps to encourage him.
"You keep your head, Frank, and don’t let blind fear unman you," he commanded a bit sharply. "There is nothing in getting rattled. I know a good deal more about this matter than you suppose, and there is much less to fear concerning the personal safety of your wife than you imagine. Pull yourself together, therefore, and meet the situation man fashion. Let me take the ribbons, while you do as I have directed. I’ll speedily sift this to the bottom."
All this, together with the detective’s strong personal influence, was not without effect. Mantell braced himself to meet the worst, saying quickly:
"You are right, Carter, perfectly right. I must keep a grip on myself, or I shall go completely off my perch. What do you mean by saying that you know more about this matter than I suppose?"
"I will presently tell you," said Nick. "Let’s get down to bare facts, for a starter, and I then will decide what must be done."
"But what do you make of it? How could my father——”
"Obviously, Frank, your father could not be in two places at once," Nick interrupted. "If you were with him in the surrogate court precisely half an hour ago, it could not have been he who called here for your wife."
"That goes without saying, Nick. But——”
"Wait! Let me learn the exact circumstances," Nick again interposed. "Come into the library. This way, Perkins."
He led the way while speaking, forcing Mantell to a chair and adding encouragingly:
"You keep quiet, now, while I question the butler. I’ll very soon pick up the trail and get after the rascal."
"Go ahead, Nick," bowed Mantell, pressing his hand. "Thank God that I brought you out here."
"Now, Perkins, tell me what occurred," said Nick, turning to the tall, very much astonished butler. "You were very sure, you said, that the man who came here is the elder Mr. Mantell."
"Why, yes, I have no doubt of it, none whatever, sir," replied Perkins. "How could I be mistaken? I have served Mr. Mantell for five years, sir, and——”
"And know him perfectly well by sight," Nick cut in dryly. "That shows the exceeding skill and cleverness of the man who deceived you. He came in a conveyance of some kind, I infer."
"Yes, sir. He came in a taxicab."
"Tell me just what he said and did."
"He said very little, sir," Perkins proceeded to explain. "I saw the taxicab coming up the driveway, sir, and that Mr. Mantell was seated in it. He had directed the chauffeur to the side door, sir, and I hastened to open it, thinking Mr. Mantell would come into the house."
"He did not do so?" questioned Nick.
"No, sir. He spoke from the taxicab, sir, and told me to send Celeste, who is Mrs. Mantell’s maid, to ask her mistress to put on her street garments to go with him to the court, where her signature was wanted on some papers relating to the business on which Mr. Mantell had left home this morning. I heard them discussing it while at breakfast, sir."
"What more did he say, Perkins?"
"He told me to have Celeste ask Mrs. Mantell to hasten, as young Mr. Mantell was to join them in court, and that they must not keep the judge waiting. That was all, sir."
"You gave Celeste those instructions."
"I did, sir, and Celeste took them to her mistress."
"What followed?"
"Mrs. Mantell hurried downstairs in about five minutes, sir," said Perkins. "She was putting on her veil, and I opened the door for her to pass out."
"Did you open the taxicab door for her?"
"No, sir. The chauffeur had opened it and returned to his seat."
"On which side of the interior seat was Mr. Mantell sitting, or the man you supposed was he?" Nick inquired.
"Near the open door, sir," said Perkins. "I heard him tell Mrs. Mantell that he would close it, and she passed him and took the other end of the seat. Mr. Mantell then closed the door, sir, and the chauffeur drove away."
"Rapidly, I infer."
"Yes, sir."
"You saw nothing more that occurred in the taxicab?"
"I did not, sir."
"Did Mrs. Mantell hesitate, or appear to shrink from entering it?"
"She did not, sir. She hurried to get in," said Perkins. "I noticed that in particular, sir."
"And that shows plainly enough, Mantell, that your wife was completely deceived, that she had no doubt that the man in the taxicab was your father, nor looked at him sharply enough before entering to detect the exceedingly clever impersonation that already had deceived the butler," said Nick. "What soon afterward occurred in the taxicab can only be conjectured. Send Celeste here, Perkins. I will hear what she can tell us."
The butler hastened to obey, and a slender, dark-eyed girl presently entered the library, whom Nick immediately began to question.
Celeste could tell him, however, only that she had given the butler’s message to her mistress, that Mrs. Mantell had remarked that she must hasten, since her father-in-law had not entered the house, and that she immediately put on her hat and jacket, then hurried down to join him.
Nick saw plainly that the girl was telling the truth. He dismissed her after a few inquiries and directed her to close the door.
Frank Mantell had not interrupted him from the beginning. With jaws hard set, with every vestige of color gone from his cheeks, he had mutely listened to the hurried questions of the detective, all the while vainly searching Nick’s face for an expression from which he might derive a ray of hope.
The black cloud of fear that had been hanging above this house had launched its thunderbolt, and the dreaded missile had found its mark.
"Well?"
Mantell’s terse inquiry, hoarse with anxiety and suspense, brought Nick Carter out of his momentary abstraction. He looked up quickly and said:
"There’s nothing to this, Mantell, in so far as the crime, the motive, and the identity of the criminal are concerned."
"You don’t mean," Mantell cried, "that you know who has committed this outrage?"
"I certainly do."
"Tell me."
"Gaston Goulard."
Mantell stared, dumfounded for a moment.
"What do you say, Carter?" he demanded. "Are you mad? Goulard is dead——”
"No, he isn’t," Nick interrupted. "He is very much alive. I saw him last night under circumstances that were entirely convincing."
"You saw Gaston Goulard?" Mantell appeared unable to believe his own ears. "You saw him alive and——”
"And very much in evidence," Nick cut in dryly. "Listen. I’ll tell you about it."
"Good heavens! it seems utterly incredible," Mantell said more calmly, after Nick had described the encounter of the previous night, but not what had followed it. "That scoundrel escaped drowning, then, and now is out to persecute me again and——”
"That is not his chief motive," said Nick. "Take it from me, Mantell, he is out after money, I know he was on the rocks financially a month ago, when he pulled off the job that cost Connie Taggart his life, and so nearly sent him to the bottom of the East River."
"You suspect, then——”
"That he still is down and out, and that he has taken this method to force you into paying a big ransom for your wife’s safe return. Note that I say safe return," Nick added. "Under no other condition could he reasonably hope to coerce you. That is why I assert, Mantell, that your wife is in no immediate personal peril."
"Do you really think so?"
"I feel absolutely sure of it," said Nick. "Many facts confirm my opinion of this case. Goulard is a cur who finds delight in threatening those upon whom he has designs. That appeared in the previous case, in the nerve and audacity with which he held me up, and in what has occurred here during the past month. Aside from getting back at me, however, whom he really would like to kill, Goulard is out only for money. You can bank safely on that, Mantell, and that your wife will not be harmed as long as the rascal sees any prospect of bleeding you out of a large sum."
"I hope you are right," Mantell declared, with a look of relief. "I will pay——”
"Nothing!" Nick cut in quickly. "You will leave this matter entirely to me. I’m going to get that rascal and rescue your wife, Mantell, within forty-eight hours."
"Do you really mean it?" Mantell’s face lighted wondrously.
"Wait and see."
"But——”
"There is no alternative," Nick forcibly insisted. "You must keep perfectly quiet and leave me to do the work."
"I could not do better, Carter, of course."
"Goulard is the only man who thus could have impersonated your father," Nick added. "He is about the same build and is thoroughly familiar with his voice, bearing, and habits."
"That’s true. They were in business together for years."
"Your father, moreover, with his gray hair, his beard, and his gold-bowed spectacles, presents a type easily impersonated. Goulard knew this, and has contrived to pick up other points bearing upon the business engagements of you and your father this morning, enabling him to turn this scurvy trick. That’s all there is to it—except to track the rascal and round him up with his confederates."
"Does that look easy to you?" Mantell inquired, with the ghost of a smile on his pale face.
"That’s neither here nor there," Nick replied. "I never view a task from that standpoint. I go at it for all I am worth, and the greater the difficulties, the more credit in overcoming them."
"That’s true, too," Mantell quickly admitted.
"But I shall not accomplish it by sitting here and discussing the matter," Nick added, with some dryness. "I must get a move on and begin to get in my work."
"What are your plans?" questioned Mantell anxiously.
"Don’t ask me. I haven’t laid any."
"But let me help you, Nick. Is there nothing I can do?"
"Yes, one thing," said the detective, rising abruptly. "Take me downtown in your limousine and drop me about a block from my residence."
"Why not at your door?"
"Because my house may be under espionage," said Nick, a bit grimly. "There is no telling what steps Goulard may take to prevent the miscarriage of his designs. He is a crafty, as well as a daring dog. Do merely what I have requested, Mantell. Leave me to do the rest."
It was after two o’clock when Nick entered his residence, at once proceeding to his library, where he found Chick awaiting him, and whom he quickly informed of all that had transpired.
"But hasn’t Patsy returned?" he then inquired.
"Not yet," said Chick.
"And you haven’t heard of him?"
"Not a word."
"By Jove, that’s strange, deucedly strange," Nick said, more seriously. "It ought not to have taken him till now, nor anything like it, to pick up the information I wanted. Something unexpected must have happened.”