Chapter XVI: Mr. Ellison’s Past

Nick and his assistants had returned to Nick’s apartments, which were not far distant from Mr. Sanborn’s house.

There, settling themselves down to look over the new case on which they were engaged, the first thing that they were confronted with was a want of knowledge as to the antecedents of Norman Ellison, who had so mysteriously disappeared.

“Although Mr. Sanborn,” said Nick, “confided this thing to our hands immediately, it was no time, when he was so agitated and so anxious over the condition of his daughter, to ask him the questions which immediately leaped into my mind. But, what is apparent is, that we cannot even make a place of beginning until we know more about this man, Norman Ellison.”

He got up and paced up and down his room for a while, and finally, stopping at the table, he said:

“His face haunts me. I have seen it somewhere before. Where, I cannot determine. But it is associated with London, and, not only with London, but with the Criterion restaurant, in Piccadilly. But it is all so vague that I can fix nothing.”

“Well,” said Chick, “Ellison is an Englishman and a Londoner. The Criterion is one of the chief restaurants of London, and its bar a great gathering place for the young bloods at night.”

“Yes,” replied Nick, “and I have been there many times. It was there that I caught Commerville, who had run to England after that big forgery of his. But I have seen, perhaps, a thousand faces in that place, first and last, and why should Ellison’s face stick out more prominently than any of the others, if there was nothing wrong in it?”

Further conversation on this head was stopped by the coming of young Mr. Sanborn, the nephew of the millionaire.

He was immediately admitted, and told Nick that his cousin, the young lady who had been married that day, had recovered consciousness, and, though weak, and much agitated, was yet very desirous of seeing him.

Her father had told her that he has committed a search into the hands of the famous detective, and had assured her that nothing that brains, skill, energy and money could accomplish would be left undone to solve the mystery of the disappearance of her newly-made husband. Learning this, the young lady was anxious to have a talk with Nick Carter as soon as she could.

To take the famous detective to her was the reason of young Mr. Sanborn’s call.

“Mr. Carter,” said the young man, “this match between my cousin and Ellison was a love match. At all events, it was so on the part of Elsie.”

“Would you have us understand,” asked Nick, “that it was not so on the part of Ellison.”

“Oh, no,” quickly responded the young man. “I did not mean to give you that impression. I have always thought that Ellison was very keen about this matter from the first time that he met Elsie, which is two years ago. But he is the typical Englishman, one of the kind that is never enthusiastic about anything, and who would take his time to turn around and see what the matter was, if a pound of dynamite was exploded at his heels.”

“Was this match approved from the beginning by the parents?” asked Nick.

“By Mrs. Sanborn, always,” replied young Sanborn. “But my uncle never liked it. His objection was only that Ellison was an Englishman, and, if not a nobleman himself, was very closely related to those moving in such circles.”

“Indeed,” continued young Sanborn, “a few deaths, three or four, and Ellison would come into a title and an estate. That he was a man of only small property did not weigh so much with uncle as the fact that Elsie would be taken to England and into a life for which she had not been trained.”

He laughed a little, and then went on:

“But the objection was not serious, for uncle has never denied Elsie anything she wanted, and she wanted Ellison very badly. So she married him.”

“Of course, if Mrs. Ellison wishes to see me,” said Nick, “I will go to her. But, before I do, I should like to ask you some questions as to things I must know, if I am to undertake this search.”

“I will answer anything I ought to,” said young Sanborn.

“In the first place, what do you know about Ellison?”

“Well,” replied Sanborn, rather doubtfully, “I know a good deal about him, and yet I don’t know much.

“I first met him four years ago in London. We were introduced by a mutual acquaintance, a young Englishman of his walk of life, who had spent some time in this country, and with whom I was well acquainted.

“I saw a good deal of Ellison in London at that time. He was very nice to me in showing me around.

“As a matter of fact, he went over to Paris with me, and, on our return, took me down with him to his relative’s place, the Earl of Kerleigh’s.

“So you see that I know there’s nothing bogus about his position. But he is one of those fellows, so reserved and so quiet, that you may say you never know him. I should say, however, that he was as straight as the majority.”

“When did you next see him?” asked Nick.

“Two years ago,” promptly replied young Sanborn. “He came over here with a shooting party, and, having written me that he was coming, and with some fellows of his kind, most of whom I knew, and that they were going into the West to shoot, I used my influence with my uncle to get up a special car to take them out there in style.

“When they arrived and found what I had done, they made me go with them.

“Returning to New York, I did the best I could to entertain them, and it was then that Ellison met Elsie.

“When the party was to start back to England, Ellison said he was going to remain here. And he did so. He has never been back since.”

“How did he support himself here?” asked Nick.

“Oh, he has an income of his own,” replied Sanborn, indifferently. “I gave him a few tips occasionally, when I had them, and he did a little in the street. Not much, for he didn’t go in very heavy. He couldn’t. He didn’t have the money.”

“What was his life here?” asked Nick.

“All right,” said the young man, “so far as I can tell. He was a member of a club or two, went into society, was well entertained, and moved around with the young men of the day.”

“Anything fast in his life?” asked Nick.

“Oh, no. He didn’t plunge any in anything.”

“Was he attentive to Miss Sanborn during all this time?” asked Nick.

“From the first. He asked her to marry him within the first year he was here, and she referred him to her father. I have told you that Uncle Harmon didn’t fancy the match, but he had a talk with the young Englishman, and, as he told me afterward, Ellison came out of the talk in a straight, manly fashion. In fact, he made a better impression on uncle in that talk than he had made before. But uncle insisted that, while they might consider themselves engaged, the wedding should not take place for a year. And so Ellison settled down in New York for that year to pass.”

“There doesn’t seem to be much in your tale to give me a hint,” said Nick. “Now let me ask you a leading question. I beg you will not evade it through any friendship for Ellison, whom you evidently like, or feeling of loyalty to your cousin. Here is a mysterious thing in which a man does the very thing you would expect him not to do, and at the very time it would be supposed that the object of his life was accomplished, defeating that object. If I am to solve this mystery, I must find the reason for it in his life prior to his marriage. It is, therefore, not idle curiosity that prompts me to ask you.

“Now, then, do you know of anything, even the slightest, irregular, mysterious or complicating circumstance in the life of Mr. Ellison?”

“Mr. Carter,” said Mr. Sanborn, “if I have asked that question of myself once to-day, since all this happened, I have asked it twenty times. And I have been unable to answer it other than that his life has been a straight, open book.”

He bent his head in thought for a moment or two and continued:

“I see your position and your point. I am earnest and sincere in what I say. If, when I can give calmer thought to this thing than I have yet been able to do, and some things occur to me that I cannot now recall, I promise you that I will come to you with them at once.”

“Very well,” said Nick, “as we seem to have exhausted the subject for the present, I will go with you to see Mrs. Ellison.”

Telling Chick, Patsy and Ida to remain until he should return, Nick went off with young Mr. Sanborn to the home of the millionaire.

Arriving, he was taken at once to the apartments of the young lady who, as he entered, was reclining upon a lounge.

She rose immediately, and, crossing the room to meet him, said:

“Dear Mr. Carter, I want you to understand from the first that I have every faith in my husband. Don’t let anybody, no matter who, make you believe that Mr. Ellison is not a good man. I wanted to say this to you in the beginning. What has occurred, or why he has done this, of course, I don’t know. But, whatever it is, it has been done because he could not help himself, not from any intention to leave me. He loves me, I know, and I know it as well as I know that I love him. I can tell you nothing to help you in your search, but I did want you to know my faith in him, and I wanted to see and talk with the man who has my faith and future in his hands. That is you. Whether life will be of any value to me will depend entirely on what you do and what you discover. And, having seen you, I know I can trust you to do all that can be done.”

The young lady had been so earnest and had worked herself up to such a degree of agitation that, at the conclusion of her words, she swooned again.

But she soon recovered, and Nick, perceiving that she was again herself, went downstairs to Mr. Sanborn’s room to have an interview with him.