Chapter XV: William Dow’s Promise

In order to quiet public opinion by giving it one of the two sources of satisfaction it demanded, the district attorney urged the higher criminal court to hasten the revision of the case of James Gobson.

When the first examination was made, Mr. Mortimer and Davis had heard certain rumors concerning the role which Colonel Forster must have played in the kidnapping of Ada Ricard, but they paid little attention to them, because it had not been proved that the rumor had a serious basis, afterwards because the officer was too important a man to be compromised on simple suspicion.

Later, when the corpse was discovered, Dr. O’Neel had assigned for the death of the victim a date after the departure of the yacht which, to every one, had set off the day after the ball given at No. 17 East Twenty-third Street. Then came the arrest of Gobson and the proving of his guilt, and the magistrates had congratulated themselves on the perspicacity which they had shown in not pronouncing the name of Colonel Forster, whom some political enemies would have been delighted to see figure in this scandalous and dramatic affair. But after that had passed and the return of Miss Ada, which had preceded by only a few days the entrance of the Gleam into New York harbor, the complicity of the gallant officer in the kidnapping of the pretty New Yorker was no longer to be doubted.

Now, although neither the lawyers nor the police could see anything to object to in this act, since Miss Ada did not complain, Mr. Mortimer and Davis thought they could not do otherwise than question the colonel, in order to obtain from him a declaration of a nature to enlighten the magistrates charged with the revision of the case relating to the employment of the time of the woman whose absence had caused this bad judicial error. What might be worse would be Colonel Forster’s refusal to say anything. In that case it would be necessary to do without him, and they could not count on Ada Ricard.

Having been questioned twice, she answered:

“I cannot tell you how I passed my time without compromising some one to whom I have promised silence. If that person releases me from my promise I will speak, although I do not see wherein it concerns justice. I am not dead, for here I am, and that seems to me the essential point.”

Mr. Mortimer and Davis knew so well that the young woman was in the right that they used every art before asking Mr. Forster for information; but to their great delight, from their first overtures on this subject the officer said to them:

“You understand, gentlemen, that I am very anxious not to figure in any way in these debates to which I am absolutely a stranger, excepting by the single fact of the error committed; but as I am of the opinion that none should refuse his aid to the laws of his country, I am ready to tell you everything, provided you give me your word of honor not to speak my name, to give publicity either to myself or the adventure.”

The sheriff and the coroner readily promised all that the colonel wished, and the day after Mr. Forster went to the house of Mr. Douglas, the judge of the Criminal Court.

They found Mr. Kelly, Mortimer and Davis there, and when these magistrates thanked him for his readiness to place himself at their disposal, when they pledged themselves again to the most entire discretion, they introduced Miss Ada Ricard, who had been invited to the rendezvous.

The elegant officer hastened to hold out his hand to the young woman, and she answered his greeting with a charming smile.

Colonel Forster then gave a frank account of the manner in which the proposal to carry off Miss Ada had been made to him by a man he did not know, and the subsequent events of which the reader is already informed.

The officers thanked him warmly, and the reunion ended.

In less than a fortnight after this the Criminal Court met for the revision of James Gobson’s case, who lived as he told Mr. Mortimer, at the United States Hotel, but who saw the woman who bore his name almost every day.

One would have said that the grave events in which the divorced couple had found themselves, had lessened their former grievance; that they had forgiven each other their mutual wrongs, and that the woman forgot the brutalities of the husband as the husband forgot the unfaithfulness of the wife.

It was known that the latter was to appear before the court to defend James against the suspicions which had led to his arrest and his sentence, and this prospect gave the new arguments a doubly piquant attraction.

Therefore, on the day of the hearing, the court-room was filled at an early hour. At the entrance of James Gobson a round of applause rang through the room, and when Miss Ada Ricard appeared on the arm of the lawyer, Macready, the crowd gave a true ovation.

The court opened, and the lawyer for the State presented the case, explaining with great clearness and perfect loyalty, how the lawyers had been led to commit an error, which, fortunately, was reparable. He concluded by asking the jury to render a negative verdict, and to the court to acquit and reinstate the man so unjustly condemned.

Matters would have ended thus, but that would not have answered for the lawyer Macready. It was too fine an occasion for criticising the police, the criminal examination, the law and justice. For the defender of James Gobson this case might be the turning-point in his political career. He must profit by it.

In the first place, as had been agreed, the young woman arose, and spoke in a voice sufficiently moved by emotion:

“Gentlemen, I deeply regret that the law should have sought, in my conjugal life with Mr. Gobson, troubles of a nature to arouse its suspicions. If, for reasons I need not recall, I had to ask for divorce, I must protest against the character which the requirements of the examination gave to him whose wife I was. Mr. Gobson has never ceased to be an honest man, and it would have been easy, by addressing those who formerly knew him, to gain the conviction that he could not have become a thief or assassin. For my part, while waiting for the just reparation to which he is entitled, I ask pardon for having been the involuntary cause of the misfortune that has befallen him.”

One can easily imagine the shouts of applause with which this little speech was received by the audience. Mr. Macready let it subside somewhat, then he took the stand.

We will not give his address. It was crushing to Mr. Mortimer and Davis, and especially to the chief of police.

Mr. Kelly was a political enemy and the defender was pitiless. He specified him to the electors as unworthy of being elected, and he concluded by saying what besides was absolutely true, from the standpoint of the law, that the magistrates, who had come near hanging an innocent person, should esteem themselves very happy that James Gobson did not demand great damages.

This terrible harangue had no less success than Miss Ada’s few words, and in less than a quarter of an hour the jury, having given a unanimous negative verdict, the court acquitted and reinstated James Gobson.

As expected, this result excited an enthusiasm that amounted to delirium when the young woman, with a smile on her lips, was seen to approach her former husband and hold out her hand to him in a friendly manner.

Among the spectators were William Dow and Captain Young, hidden behind the curious privileged ones who had found a place within the railing.

“Well, Mr. Dow,” said the chief of the detectives to his friend, when all was concluded, “it is done, and I am delighted. This affair weighed on my conscience somewhat.”

“My dear Young,” answered William, pointing to James Gobson and Miss Ada, who were leaving by the magistrate’s door in order to avoid the crowd. “I think that those two have simply come here to mock at justice.”

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing that you can understand this moment.”

The zealous detective, without adding a word, parted from the captain, who irreverently shrugged his shoulders.

It was evident that through the judicial error he had caused, one mysterious character now seemed hardly worthy the admiration of the terrible Young.

But the one most displeased with William Dow was the stout Kelly, and he received him quite coldly when he presented himself at his office a week later.

“It is vain for you to excuse yourself,” he said to him in a gruff tone, “and to give me the most favorable explanations; it is none the less true that, politically, I am a lost man. If we could discover the identity of the drowned woman, I could recover myself; but we shall do nothing of the sort, nothing! That imbecile of a Young is arresting twenty drunkards and as many pickpockets by way of compensation. It is enough to drive one out of his mind. I can only send in my resignation.”

“Be careful how you do that, dear Mr. Kelly,” said our hero, after leaving the chief of the police to vent his bile. “You know that Gobson and Ada Ricard left New York this morning.”

“May Satan carry them off and they may go hang elsewhere.”

“When will the elections take place?”

“In four months.”

“Can you give a leave of absence of a fortnight to Captain Young?”

“Indeed, yes, for all the good he does in New York. Where are you going to send him?”

“I shall send him nowhere. I am going to take him with me.”

“Where?”

“Ah! that is my secret.”

“If you only had one to help me get back my electors.”

“By how many votes have you been nominated?”

“By forty-five thousand.”

“Well, my dear Mr. Kelly, in four months you will have ten thousand votes more. It is I who promise you. I am so far certain of it that I give you my word.”

“By George! tell me a little what you----”

“Not a word, if you will allow me. Give Young his leave of absence and count on me. All that I ask of you are very strong letters of recommendation to your police friends in Boston, Buffalo, Jefferson, and San Francisco.”

“This evening the letters will be at your house.”

The chief of police escorted William Dow to the office door.

“This fellow is capable of doing what he says,” murmured Kelly, reseating himself in his arm-chair, “only why does he take the captain with him, as he is good for nothing? After all it does not matter. If he keeps his promise, and in four months I beat that Robertson, I shall ask no more of him, not even what has become of that brute of a Young, if he does not bring him back with him.”