Chapter IV: The Displaced Bandage

Nick and Chick left the hospital together, but they soon separated. Chick resumed his search for clews in the neighborhood of the Helstone gang’s last haunt, and Nick, presumably, went to prepare his mouse trap.

Not long after they left the hospital Dr. Reginald Morris, the well-known expert in the surgery of wounds, called to offer his services in the Parks case. He had been engaged by Mr. Parks.

About three o’clock in the afternoon a pale, dark-haired woman of middle age arrived and announced herself as the trained nurse engaged by Mr. Parks.

She presented his card, on which was written the request that she be allowed to attend the wounded woman.

She was permitted to do so, and showed at once to the surgeon’s experienced eye that she understood most thoroughly the care of the sick.

An operation, to clear the wound, had just been performed, and the bandages had just been replaced. Surgery could do no more. The work of the trained nurse began.

For about an hour she remained almost motionless by the bedside of the patient. During this interval one of the hospital nurses entered the room several times.

There was no change in the condition of the patient. But a change was to come.

The regular attendant had gone out after her fourth visit. The nurse suddenly rose and listened at the door. All was quiet.

She approached the patient stealthily, then paused and listened again. Not a sound broke the solemn quiet of this abode of the suffering.

The nurse drew back the bedclothing and looked intently at the bandage. Then she stretched out her hand, made a rapid motion and replaced the clothing.

Seating herself again beside the bed, the nurse waited quietly. Presently there was a change in the appearance of the white face on the pillow.

A flush tinged the cheeks and crept up toward the brow.

The patient, who had hitherto lain quiet as a statue, began to move restlessly and murmured in her swoon.

“Fever,” muttered the nurse. “Will she speak?”

Rising gently, the nurse laid her ear closely to the lips of the moaning woman. She could hear no articulate words.

The delirium increased. Now the words began to come, but they were wild and wandering.

“Will she answer me?” whispered the nurse. “Not yet.”

She waited some minutes longer. Then again she bent over the sufferer.

“Who did this? who did this?” the nurse repeated over and over.

“Helstone, Helstone,” murmured the patient.

“Tell me, quick. What is his real name, his real name?”

There was no answer. With a gesture of impatience, the nurse turned away for an instant from the patient whom she was so barbarously torturing.

Then she screamed. It was not a loud cry, but a scream stifled by suddenly closed lips.

She had turned to meet the gaze of sharp eyes which, for some minutes, had rested upon her, though she was far from suspecting that she was observed.

Nick Carter had crept quietly into the room.

As the faithless nurse fell back before him, he quickly lifted the patient and gently replaced the bandages. Then, by the touch of a bell, he summoned a surgeon.

“The patient seems worse,” said Nick. “I discovered that her bandage had become displaced.”

“Didn’t you notice it?” asked the surgeon, sharply, of the nurse.

“No, I didn’t,” replied the woman.

She had recovered a part of her self-command upon finding that Nick did not intend to expose her immediately.

“I can’t trust her with you again,” said the surgeon.

He summoned a nurse from the adjacent ward.

As he passed Nick he whispered:

“Is there anything wrong here?”

“I’m afraid that there is,” Nick replied.

The detective turned to the unfaithful nurse.

“Come with me,” he said.

She obeyed him without a word.

He led her to the private room of one of the surgeons which had been placed at his disposal.

“Now, murderess,” said he, sternly, “tell me who sent you to do this work?”

“What work?”

“Don’t trifle with me. There is a noose around your neck.”

“No, there isn’t,” said the woman, coolly. “I was employed to come here and attend that patient. I did it as well as I knew how.”

Nick could not deny to himself the force of her words. He had not seen her remove the bandage. He could not swear that she had done so. It might have been done by the sick woman herself.

A nurse cannot be prosecuted for an error of judgment unless it amounts to criminal carelessness.

It might be doubtful whether in this case Nick could prove to the satisfaction of a jury that this woman intended to kill the patient left in her charge.

He was far too skillful, however, to show the weakness of his position.

“Somebody stabbed that woman. That same person hired you to come here.

“When I lay my hand upon the man who struck the blow, I will prove you to be his accomplice, for I will show that he hired you to come here.”

The woman grew a shade paler, but she answered firmly:

“I was engaged by Mr. Parks himself. He came to my apartment about two o’clock this afternoon. I brought his card with a note written upon it to the hospital.”

“Did you have any acquaintance with him?”

“No.”

“Why did he come to you?”

“He was advised to come.”

“By whom?”

“Several physicians, he said.”

“Their names?”

“I have forgotten.”

“Did he not say that he knew you for a woman who would do what was required of you, and make no fuss about it?”

“What do you mean?”

“Were you not recommended to him by crooks, as a murderess?”

“You insult me.”

The woman said this in a firm voice, but not with the air of innocence.

Nick, of course, had no doubt of her guilt. In these questions he was simply trying to test the strength of her position.

“What did he agree to pay you?”

“The usual fee.”

“How much money have you at the present moment in your possession?”

This question staggered her. Nick saw at once by her manner that the enormous fee she had exacted for this murderous work was then in her pocket or concealed somewhere about her clothing.

She hesitated to reply.

“Don’t go to the trouble of lying,” said Nick. “I shall have you searched anyway.

“Now, madam, let me lay the case before you. You believe that that woman was stabbed by the notorious criminal, Doc Helstone, or by his order.

“You think that she possesses the secrets of Helstone’s real identity. You tried to extort his real name from her, in her delirium and agony, fiend that you are!

“You believe that the person who hired you was Doc Helstone himself, and you wish to get a new hold upon him, or rather to be able to find him when you wish to. That’s your case in a nutshell.”

Hardened as this creature was, she shook with fear while the secrets of her heart were being read by Nick’s unerring eye.

What reply she would have made cannot be told, but her demeanor was enough for Nick. He saw that he had penetrated the secret.

But what was the effect of it upon the case?

As he revolved this question in his mind, and the wretched woman strove to frame some suitable reply to his accusation, there was a knock at the door.

Morton Parks entered, and with him was a woman who seemed to be a nurse.

When the eyes of the murderous creature, with whom Nick had been talking, fell upon Parks, they were barren of recognition.

Nick saw at once that she did not know him.

“What do I hear?” cried Parks. “An impostor has appeared claiming to be the nurse sent by me to my wife!”

“It is true,” said Nick.

The murderess scowled at these words. She pointed to Parks.

“Who is he?” she asked. “Is he the real Parks?”

“He is,” said Nick.

“Then I have been imposed upon,” said the woman, sullenly.

It required some minutes for Nick to explain the case fully to Parks. Then he asked to see the card bearing his name and the note.

Nick showed it.

“This is really one of my cards,” said Parks, “but the writing bears no resemblance to mine.”

He sat down by the table and rapidly wrote the words of the message upon a card which he took from his pocket.

There was no similarity between the two hands.

“Here is the nurse whom I really engaged,” said Parks, indicating the woman who had accompanied him. “She is well known in the hospital. As for you, murderess----”

His emotion, which he had hitherto repressed, broke out in violent reproaches as he turned upon the creature who had so nearly crushed out his wife’s last chance of life.

She bore the storm firmly and repeated her story that she had come in good faith, and had done the best she could.

Nick, however, put her under arrest, and took her to police headquarters.

There, under his rigid cross-examination, her pretenses melted away. She practically admitted what was charged against her.

Most important of all was the description which she gave of the man who had hired her.

It tallied exactly with the appearance of the man whom Nick had seen walking away from the spot where the crime had been committed.