Chapter XV: Part VII (4)

“Here, gentlemen,” he said in his final argument, “we have an illustration—even in this extraordinary plan by a master mind in criminality—of the well-known fact that there’ll always be a weak spot somewhere—a little matter perhaps, but large enough to wreck the whole structure. This tale of the accused is based on the claim that the alibi was never planned beforehand, that it was developed on the impulse of the moment, an innocent person suddenly finding at eleven o’clock on the night of the murder that he might be brought under suspicion if it were known he left the steamer—and so he jumped on a train and managed to get back to it in time to come off with the passengers. An inspiration of the moment! Remember that, gentlemen! And now let us see if it’s the truth that he never thought of it before. Let us consider the behavior of the accused on previous trips, which, you will observe, were always made by the same steamer, although there was another on that line, and although there were three other lines of Boston boats—a choice of four steamers every day, not to speak of fifteen or twenty express trains, all bound for the same destination! But on this steamer _North Land_, which was chosen by the accused as the theatre in which to perform his alibi, we find from the testimony of eleven of its officers and crew, that he was sociable and talkative to the last degree, making acquaintance with everybody who might thereafter be able to testify that he was on board the vessel on that fatal night. Contrast this with what four witnesses have sworn to regarding the usual behavior of this same individual—that he was naturally silent, taciturn, not easily making acquaintances, not a man given to sociability, reserved, keeping his affairs to himself, never discussing them with outsiders,—and there you have it, gentlemen. He was a different being when on the steamer _North Land_ on those previous trips, when he was planting his alibi; making himself and his alleged business of buying inventions known to everybody, jollying over cigars with the Captain and the Purser—and now telling us on the stand that he never thought of the alibi until after the murder!”

From this the District Attorney went back and recapitulated every point made by the prosecution during the trial, showing that not one of them had been disproved and that there wasn’t even a tremor in the finger of Justice, now extended, and pointing to the accused, Hugo Pentecost, as the guilty man.

As McVeigh was nearing the latter part of his closing argument, the Chief Inspector, followed by a messenger, returned to the court room and resumed his place at the attorneys’ table. At once he took a sheet of paper and began writing with evident haste. In a moment he bunched some papers he had brought with him and put them in a large envelope with the sheet on which he’d been writing. This packet he handed to the Court Messenger, who delivered it to the Judge.

Before closing his argument the District Attorney took up the “impertinent reference” made by the accused before this court to a series of blunders which he attributed to the Police Department of Boston, and called the attention of the Jury, and of all who had heard this slanderous implication, to the fact that there never yet was a murder case where doubt existed as to the guilty party, which was without false clues, and mistaken arrests.

From this he proceeded to a violent denunciation of Hugo Pentecost. “And if this insolent, swaggering fiend in human form” (I got the wording from the newspaper reports) “who coolly, with careful planning and infinite calculation, takes the life of an innocent—a gentle—a defenseless man;—this cowardly assassin who sends two bullets into his victim from behind, and for no other reason than to get a few thousand dollars away from him;—if he is now looking for another of those ‘spiritistic frolics’ to stand between him and retribution, he will look in vain; for even the so-called spirits—whatever they are—can’t help him now! It’s in your hands, gentlemen, to see that the strong right arm of the Law is stretched forth and this red-handed assassin is brought to the punishment he so richly deserves.”

At this point there came to pass one of those curious coincidences—a real and _bona-fide_ one, for it couldn’t have been laid out beforehand even by a master-criminal mind, though such a mind may have figured there was an off chance on it.

For a few moments during the latter part of the District Attorney’s summing up, the faint but strident calls of an “extra” from far down Washington Street could have been heard in the court room—a babel of boyish voices coming through the open windows. This increased in volume, and as the newsboys came running into Scollay Square and up into Tremont and Court Streets, there was a sudden burst of high-pitched shouting, so that following right on Mr. McVeigh’s climactic outburst, “Even the so-called spirits—whatever they are—can’t help him now!” came the screams of the newsboys below: “E-x-t-r-e-e! Spirit message!”—“Spirit Message in the Haworth Case!”—“E-x-t-r-e-e!”—“Haworth’s Spirit Speaks!”—“Message from Haworth!”—“E-x-t-r-e-e!” and so on until the shouts grew fainter again as the boys ran down Sudbury and Hanover Streets toward the North Station, and West and South on Beacon and Tremont.

* * * * *

When the attention of the spectators was again directed to the court proceedings, they realized that everything had stopped. A consultation at the Bench was in progress. All the attorneys concerned and the Chief Inspector were there, evidently having been called up by the Judge.

A peculiar stillness had settled over the place. Charged with electricity it seemed, the tension increasing every moment. Some foolish ones wondered if the newsboys, shouting about another spirit message, could have affected the Court. Once—and not such a time ago at that—the calling of such a piece of news on the streets would have excited only derision. None of that now! Even the pooh-poohers had stopped their pooh-poohing. Too many astounding things!

A sudden straining to see and hear as the Chief Inspector and the attorneys went back to their places, the Inspector leaving the court room immediately afterward.

The Judge sat motionless a few moments, apparently in thought. After that he examined again some of the papers that had been submitted. Finally he rose and turned to the Jury and the twelve men composing it came to their feet at the same instant and stood facing him. Then the Judge, in a voice so subdued that it could scarcely be heard in the further parts of the room, thanked them for the time and labor they had contributed to the cause of justice, and proceeded to remind them that the world we live in is a place of considerable uncertainty, and that in Courts of Law the unexpected is a frequent—and sometimes a welcome—visitor.

Everyone could hear him now, which resulted not so much from the raising of his voice a trifle as from the stillness prevailing. “In the case before us, gentlemen,” he went on, “the arrival of this visitor, the unexpected, must be regarded as most opportune, for it is the means of removing all doubt as to the guilt, or freedom from guilt, of the accused. Mr. Foreman and Gentlemen: Certain facts have just now been called to the attention of myself and counsel, which indicate beyond any question or doubt that this defendant is innocent of the crime with which he is charged; and I therefore instruct you to bring in a verdict of Not Guilty.”

A moment later the Clerk of the Court was saying: “Hugo Pentecost, look upon the Jury; Jurors, look upon the defendant.—Mr. Foreman and Gentlemen: in the case of the Commonwealth against Hugo Pentecost have you agreed upon a verdict?”

“We have,” the Foreman answered.

“What say you, Mr. Foreman: is the defendant, Hugo Pentecost, guilty or not guilty?”

“Not guilty,” answered the Foreman. And after the swearing of the Jury in the usual form, Hugo Pentecost was informed that he was hereby discharged and could go “without day” unless held on some other process.

* * * * *

On the evening before these final proceedings, and at a time approaching the hour of midnight, a private “circle” in West Philadelphia was about to adjourn. Mr. Ernest Everett Blatchford, well known among the spiritists of that region as a talented and highly successful materializationist and trance medium, had brought about during the evening a number of visits from the other side, and in all but two the spirit had become visible to human eyes—in a shadowy way.

As the director or assistant (I’m not sure what they call those people) turned to switch on the lights, there came strange muffled cries issuing from the darkness in the further part of the room, and a cold musty current of air breathed across the circle of “sitters.” At the same instant a whitish cloud appeared, faintly wavering in the darkness. It rapidly grew in size and seemed to be trying to shape itself into something resembling the human form. Vague suggestions of a man’s face began to appear in the misty cloudiness, the features gradually forming themselves, like the fade-in of a picture; and when, as it came to be more and more distinct, somebody whispered the name of Charles Haworth, there were several involuntary gasps of astonishment and a breathless “Oh!” or two could be heard. The papers had used his picture so often (taken for that first write-up in a Boston “Magazine Section”) that there was no difficulty about the recognition after the whispered name had started it. (No one ever traced that important whisper to its source.)

In a few moments it was seen that the lips of the apparition were moving—yet no sound came. The cloudlike human form with a face resembling Haworth’s, was trying to speak.

A voice from somewhere in the circle—a man’s voice—was heard asking, “Isn’t this Mr. Haworth?” and the head resembling Haworth’s nodded slowly in affirmation. Almost at once some sort of a sound was heard—confused and broken, as though pushed through a barrier that gave way, and after that the spirit began to speak in a low voice and with what seemed like a sort of eager breathlessness. “Machine!—Machine!—Machine!” repeated over and over many times more than that, was what it said, and between two of them a loud whisper came from somewhere in or near the circle, “It’s Haworth’s voice!” and an answering whisper, forceful and penetrating, “Yes—oh yes!—_His own voice!_” So that everybody knew, though they’d never seen the man Haworth nor heard him speak, that it was he now appearing before them.

For some time the apparition or spirit—if that’s what it was—seemed unable to utter anything more than this repetition of the word “Machine,” and the director and some others, although they asked encouraging questions, proved unable to get anything further.

But again some sort of obstruction was seemingly overcome, for after many unsuccessful attempts, the voice suddenly broke out with: “In the wall!—In the wall!—In the wall!—Why don’t they look? It’s there! The Machine! Find it!—Find it!—Make the court wait!—That man—that man—nothing—nothing—nothing to do with it—nothing—nothing! Nobody can hear me in Boston—I can just reach this one—but not for long! Tell them the wall—inside the wall—that same room—further end—the machine—papers on the pendulum!—the pendulum!—Papers!—Oh——I’m going!—” (The voice becoming faint and far away) “—I can’t hold out—and I want to speak to someone else—oh, I do—I do——” and nothing more could be heard.

The voice was growing weaker and the features were dissolving back into mistiness even while he spoke; and in a moment there was only the whitish floating haze which seemed rapidly drawing itself to a point, at which it wavered for a moment and then flickered out in the blackness.

No reporters were present at this séance nor were the Philadelphia police keeping an eye on mediumistic activities; and as it was already after two in the morning, no one who’d been there took it upon himself to communicate with anybody as to what had come through. It was consequently nearly eleven o’clock the following morning before news of it reached the Boston newspaper offices; and an effort made later to find out who sent the news met with no success. Whoever it was completely ignored the police. Not a word of this astounding communication from the alleged spirit of Charles Haworth was wired or telephoned to them. Their first intimation that anything of interest had taken place in West Philadelphia came from the newspaper “extras” on the streets.

* * * * *

The Department—as it had in another and similar instance—got particulars without giving it away that this was the first they’d heard of it. And so important did the matter seem that the Inspector was called out of the court room. And so important did it seem to the Inspector that he proceeded with the utmost speed and a bunch of detectives to the Cripps mansion. Reporters were kept outside the line that had been established.

Within twenty minutes after the Inspector’s arrival with his gang, the rear end of the wall of the room on the left was what you might call a near ruin, and a most extraordinary mechanical arrangement that had been constructed within it was exposed to view.

The first, and it might be said the most striking, thing they had come upon as they were ripping the lath and plaster away and prying off the heavy paneling, was a 44 Colt revolver bolted to the studding (the upright timbers within the wall) just behind one of the panels of the wainscot, and down within eighteen inches of the floor. It was bolted so securely as to be absolutely immovable, and was aimed straight out into the room. The husky plain-clothes man who smashed away the panel in front of it was seen to spring suddenly to one side.

“Careful now!” the Inspector shouted, as he came running. “Keep away from that!” he yelled to the other men who were coming over to see. And they were ordered well to one side while the two working there reached over and ripped away the panels above and on each side of the one that had concealed the gun.

It took but a few minutes to expose the whole thing: a simple but ingenious device built in there for firing two revolvers at nearly the same instant—discharging them about twelve minutes from the time the mechanism was set in motion. The second gun, a matter of six inches below the other, was behind the same panel, but hadn’t been noticed at first as it was so close to the floor—just clearing the panel frame at the bottom.

They found that this panel—the one concealing the guns—had been made to slide up and down, the guides holding it on the inside so there was no evidence of them in sight; when pushed up, the muzzles of the revolvers were exposed; when dropped down into place, they were hidden. And so carefully had this sliding panel been handled that no scratch or abrasion could be found on its surface, nor did it differ in any way, so far as appearances went, from the other panels in the wainscoting; neither did it display the slightest evidence of being movable—which, indeed, it was not, after the discharge of the revolvers; for on dropping down into place it automatically locked itself by the swinging across the top of it, of a block of wood on a pivot—all within the wall, of course. To get it open again it was necessary to push this block away _from the inside_.

Both guns were immovably aimed to throw bullets directly across the middle of the room and out through the upper part of the window at the front; and as they were set so low down, the course of the bullets would be upward. A man of a certain height standing at a certain spot near the center of the room would get the bullet from the upper revolver through the head and from the lower one through the heart—if he could stand there long enough after the shot from the first one—hardly more, probably, than half a second.

The mechanism which—twelve minutes from its starting—fired the revolvers, and at the same time released the movable panel and allowed it to slide down into place and automatically to lock itself there, was an escapement device with a pendulum swinging to seconds. About halfway of the fifteenth revolution of the escape-wheel (a very large one carrying fifty teeth or jump-cogs) the powerful springs that connected with the two rods—one to the trigger of each revolver—were released, which discharged the guns nearly, but not quite, simultaneously, and on the next jump of the escape-wheel a lever pulled back the catch that held the sliding panel up, allowing it to drop down and close the opening. It locked itself there automatically as I’ve explained.

There were many minor arrangements to safeguard and insure the perfect operation of the device, such as the weighting (on the inside) of the sliding panel; the carrying of the rope that unwound from a drum on the main shaft, up through a pulley at the top, so the heavy weight attached to it would have room to descend in that space—for of course it couldn’t go below the floor; the setting of the two revolvers at the place where the wall of the breakfast room joined this rear wall of the room on the left, so that, as they were too long for the normal wall thickness, their butts might project back into the transverse wall.

The whole device had been built in through a large aperture from the basement below, and on completion of the job this opening was closed up with the very same old grimy boarding, and even fastened in place with the same ancient and rusted nails driven into their original holes, that had been taken out of them. Even the rust on the nail heads where the hammer would strike them was undisturbed; safeguarded probably by the use of a cushion of leather or blotting-paper.

It was evident that the machine couldn’t have been set going on its final performance, _from the basement_, for by no possibility could the opening down there have been closed with all the care required, within the twelve minutes between the starting and the automatic discharge of the guns. Undoubtedly the sliding panel was opened from below and held open (that is, up) by its catch, and the block above adjusted to swing in when it next slid down; and after that, at whatever time it was desired to start the pendulum on its last gruesome swing, it would only be necessary to reach in through the open panel in the room on the left, and give it a shove. That was all. There would be twelve minutes left for reading awhile and then lighting a pipe.

Of course all these small details weren’t figured out by the police until afterward. The Inspector was there to learn what there was, if anything, to the latest alleged spirit message, and they found it of such vital import, too, that it required instant action. No time to be wasted on conjectures as to the method of starting. There it was——The Machine! And secured to its great pendulum which, you might say, ticked Charles Haworth to his death, was the envelope of papers.

Quick investigation followed; the Inspector raced back to town; the newly discovered evidence was brought to the Judge’s attention; his conference with the attorneys and the Inspector followed, and after that came the Court’s instructions to the Jury and the Jury’s verdict in accordance therewith.

* * * * *

The large envelope which they found lashed securely to the great pendulum contained three instruments or documents—the Last Will and Testament of Charles Michael Haworth; a Statement made by Charles Michael Haworth; and an Insurance Policy on the life of Charles Michael Haworth. The Statement had been sworn to before a Notary Public (of course without his learning anything of its purport) three days before Haworth’s death, and was to the effect that he intended within a week to take his own life and to do it by means of a mechanical contrivance which he, and he alone, had devised and built for that purpose; that no one but himself was in any way connected with, or responsible for, this determination on his part, or involved in its carrying out, for he had built the device with the utmost secrecy, locking himself into a room in the basement of the house while at work on it, and allowing no one to come near. His housekeeper, Mrs. Amelia Temple, had, he stated, been aware of his labor in this room night and day for nearly two weeks, though she could have had no knowledge of the character of the work he was doing; and the butler, James Dreek, could not have been aware that anything of the kind existed, as he arrived after the completion of the machine and its sealing up inside the wall.

He then went on to speak of the property he was leaving, mentioning the eighteen-thousand-dollar Insurance Policy and the thirty-five thousand dollars which was to be paid him by the firm of Harker & Pentecost of New York, for one of his inventions which the said firm had purchased—“a combination gas and compressed-air engine.” Following that was only a brief paragraph to the effect that a little something might be realized from the sale of a few pieces of machinery that were still in his possession—but nothing worth writing down.

The statement ended with that, but he had written a few lines on the margin three days after it had been signed and sworn to. “This is to say,” he wrote in a hand without sign of tremor (and it must have been only a few hours before he reached in and set swinging that pendulum of death), “that the Messrs. Harker & Pentecost have now paid what was due me from them ($35,000) which amount (less the sum of $500 that I have taken from it for a certain present requirement), as it is in bills, and as Mr. Pentecost has cautioned me that there is danger of robbery, I have had James Dreek conceal in the stone foundation at the northeast corner of the barn in the rear of this house.” And to this marginal memorandum he signed his initials.

The will was simple and brief. After payment of debts, only two bequests. “To my faithful and beloved friend Amelia Temple” was left the sum of five thousand dollars—and the statement followed that all the money in the world could not wipe out the debt he owed her. The rest of his property went to Edith Carrington Findlay.

* * * * *

By this time you are likely to be aware that Mr. Hugo Pentecost of the firm of Harker & Pentecost, Promoters, had something to do with the unusual happenings in what might be a trifle incorrectly spoken of as the Haworth Homicide Case. I’m inclined to doubt, though, whether you quite appreciate the extent of his work. To say that he was behind every move in the whole affair comes near to putting it mildly.

When, on his first visit to the mansion, he went down into the basement with Charles Haworth and got an idea of what the desperate and half-crazed young man proposed to do, and the instrument with which he intended to accomplish it, even he, a person never known to be disturbed by danger, horror, or dilemma of any description, was near to the experience of amazement. This, though, didn’t prevent him from jumping in at once and making an earnest effort to dissuade the young inventor from carrying out his gruesome enterprise. The realization that Haworth couldn’t be persuaded out of it—indeed, that he was in a mad frenzy to carry it through if only for the insurance money—struck Pentecost at about the same time that there flashed into his mind a most extraordinary “operation” that could be carried on in connection with it. A born adventurer and intrepid explorer in the shady mazes of criminality, keen for danger in unusual forms, to be baffled by unusual and skillfully contrived defenses, with, of course, the chances of a good haul to make it financially interesting, he was hardly the man to throw down an unbelievably attractive proposition when he had it in his hand.

Mr. Harker added his own protests the first time he was at the house on Torrington Road. He watched his opportunity and got Haworth aside—for he didn’t want his partner to know what he was up to—and did his best to induce the young fellow to abandon the grisly idea that seemed to have taken possession of him.

In the ordinary run of things, the only course left to the firm was to turn a person having such unlawful designs on himself, over to the police. But this happened not to be in the ordinary run of things. It was distinctly extraordinary. Furthermore the firm alluded to wasn’t in the business of turning unlawfully behaving citizens over to the police. Quite and much otherwise. And the reason for this was because it was composed of two conscienceless crime experts, one of them—the controlling member—a consummate operator in strategic chicanery if there ever was one on the earth.

* * * * *

Neither of the methods that Haworth had in mind for profiting by the tragic act to which he was apparently driven by some desperate need, had met the approval of Mr. Pentecost. One was based on a life insurance policy which the young inventor had recently taken out, having, by inquiry, found a company which was supposed to pay in such cases; the other depended on the sale of a motion picture which should be taken of the actual occurrence—showing not only the operation of the machine, but, as well, depicting its frightful consequence. But this master crook had declared himself willing to give both these things a fair try-out and with every advantage he was able to command, if the young man would consent, in return, to have his own (Pentecost’s) extraordinary scheme go into operation. He would play Haworth’s ideas to the limit, even though it involved the taking of the picture himself—for he wasn’t going to let any of his men in for a job like that. The ghastly situation might send any one of them up in the air.

Mr. Pentecost’s scheme, which had struck him like a blow while Haworth was explaining the working of the Machine, concerned and depended upon the alleged spirits of the dead, as known through and represented by persons who called themselves mediums; and it took him into a field he’d long desired to negotiate—one where the hunting, he happened to know, was exceedingly good. Furthermore, his astounding method of handling the mediumistic output involved, was beyond anything dreamed of before.

You are doubtless acquainted with the fact that information concerning the lives and the families of more or less prominent people who have made the crossing to the other side—or who, for various undesirable reasons, are expected soon to make it—is dealt in by a number of bureaus or clearing houses for that class of goods. High prices are paid by their customers (the mediums) for information of value, and if the bureaus haven’t anything in stock as to the life and characteristics of a person called for, they have facilities for getting it without delay.

But this thing of Pentecost’s, although of a decidedly spiritistic nature, was by no means a matter of information about dead people; on the contrary, it involved the sale to mediums of information which dead people could get across—through them—about the living, and under the most unusual circumstances. That’s where the great mercantile possibilities came in, the operation of his scheme giving these spirit communications such astonishing advertising value to mediums who passed them through, that they’d pay almost any price to get them—if they had it. In addition to this price down (on delivery as you might say) he’d take—in each case and for a limited time—a slice of the increased business which was sure to follow.

It would have been entirely possible to sell out his “spirit information” in a lump to one of the bureaus, but by handling it personally he could take advantage of the immense increase in advertising value as the Haworth case attracted more and more attention.

To give these “messages” or “communications” an enormously high market value was the object of the entire operation. What such value means to professional mediums is realized by very few outside of spiritist circles. I’m referring, of course, to those who practise the methods alluded to. It has been said that there are others in the spirit game who go perfectly straight and have a great time believing every word they say; but if such is the case I don’t know where they live.

A regular—or professional—medium will sometimes make a small fortune on one skillful (and lucky) performance. To attract wealthy clients, preferably those who have been hypnotized by the loss of those who are dear to them—that’s the top of the game. And it’s the unusual—the extraordinary—manifestations that do it. Taking this into consideration, you will understand why the Pentecost messages, before he got through with them, had run up into the twenty and thirty thousands each. From asking three thousand in Montreal, and six of Mrs. Belden in Boston, the price went up by jumps of five thousand. This, together with the rake-off on increased business for two years from every medium in the game, put Harker & Pentecost nicely to the good—even though quite vast expenses, including the Haworth money, had to come out of it.

Using his gang of picked sharps (his correspondents you might call them in the big cities) Pentecost could cull out the mediums who had the money, and make his cash sales without difficulty; this same gang also made prompt payment of percentages as near a certainty as such things ever come. Extraordinary experiences in misfortune would overtake anyone in any town or in any part of the country who tried to hold back on him. And they knew it. It was made strikingly evident to them by the “agents” who, under instructions, engineered the sales and delivered the “spirit” messages at the precise time required.

As to the vital matter of secrecy, no leakage could possibly occur, for the very simple reason that there was nothing to leak. Not a medium in the lot had the faintest idea where “the goods” came from nor what was the manner of their origination. Even had one of them known, it would hardly have been cause for alarm; this owing to the fact that the basic principle in their guild is the keeping of things dark.

Now you have the key to the whole affair. With it—if you haven’t been picking the locks as we went along—you gentlemen can let yourselves in on what the man was playing for at any stage of the game; and how it came to pass that everybody concerned—public, police, witnesses for the prosecution, reporters, editors, spiritists, jurors, lawyers, even the District Attorney himself, and the Chief Inspector with his choice assortment of plain-clothes men, were dancing for Hugo Pentecost according as he pulled the strings. What was it if not that? Anyway, you have the facts—call it what you like. And don’t imagine, when I speak of this man’s scheme, that this consummate operator had a set and rigid plan to be followed whether or no. On the contrary, his arrangements were elastic to an extreme degree. If you’ll notice how it went, he played each part of the thing _as far as it would safely go_, and then pulled it back to the line with a voice from the tomb, as you might say. Where one of several things might happen he had substitute plays for each, every one carried back to the safety point in whatever direction it went. Had old Mrs. Temple persisted in her refusal to testify, notwithstanding the appealing spirit messages he’d carefully planted, he was ready to work in another witness to the murder, to Dreek’s being outside the house at the time, and to his own presence in the room aiming the terrible black object (which was, of course, the movie camera) at Haworth as the poor fellow stood lighting his pipe. If the head end trainman hadn’t remembered getting him off the day coach at the Grand Central Terminal in New York, and had failed to recognize the boots he had shoved off the seat so many times, there was a waiter at the lunch counter of the restaurant on the lower level who would answer all purposes, owing to his (Pentecost’s) unusual behavior while getting a cup of coffee at that place.

The extreme importance of wrecking the alibi at the time required, caused him to deal it two simultaneous smashes, either one of which would have done the trick—barring accident. The boots might not have been kept in the Lost Property Department of the Eastern Steamship Lines, Inc. On the bare chance of their having been thrown away, Operator’s License 2026 would bring the chauffeur into the case; up to then he could have had no idea that his fare to Boston on that fateful night was Hugo Pentecost. If Augustus Findlay had failed to take his revolver with him as he plunged madly away from the house, the fight in Collamore Street almost directly under Mr. Rathbun’s window would have gone on just the same; the only readjustment being that Pentecost’s man would have picked up the gun wherever Findlay dropped it—whether at the mansion or on the road—and brought it along, making it appear in the struggle that he got it away from the terrified boob; so there it would be, finger marks and all, ready to shove up in the water conductor. And if you imagine that it was any kind of an accident when Mr. Pentecost tipped up his pocket flashlight and gave the old woman a glimpse of his face as she came toward him in the pitch-dark room just after the Machine had done its deadly work; or that the roller shades being not quite down was a matter of chance; or a hundred and one things like that, call it off and take a new start.

I saw it troubled both you gentlemen when that carefully constructed alibi began to crumble. The first thing that occurred to you must have been an inquiry as to why all the trouble and ingenuity expended on planting it, if an old pair of boots or an operator’s license was going to throw it down. But your second thought was undoubtedly quite different, for unless I’m mistaken, you soon realized that not only was that fake alibi one of the most effective advertising nuts for the spirits to crack, but vastly more important than that, it was the veritable backbone that was to hold up the entire Pentecost operation. Without it they’d have picked him up that same night or early the next morning, and the mediums—with the possible exception of Mr. Ernest Everett Blatchford of West Philadelphia—wouldn’t have had any play at all.

If you’re financially minded, it might seem unbelievable that two such seasoned sharps as Harker and Pentecost would let a thirty-five-thousand bundle of bills go out of their hands with the chance against them that the Machine might not function or that Haworth wouldn’t stand up to the grisly game he’d set himself to play. It wouldn’t be at all surprising if the young fellow, when he got right up against it, were to go mad; indeed, both partners had a notion he was half there already. But do you notice that this money never did go out of their hands—that, as the crucial time approached, Pentecost had Dreek outside the house where he could instantly seize on it at a signal from inside—and that he himself was inside?

But neither this nor the taking of the motion picture accounted so much for Pentecost’s presence in the room at the crucial moment as the absolute necessity of his being seen there by a competent witness in order to make the case against him have the look of being incontestable. His trial for murder was the final play, and he’d begun laying lines for it at his very first interview with the Inspector, adroitly behaving, on that occasion, in a manner calculated to awaken the suspicion that he’d been connected in some way with the crime, even though the alibi—at that time unshaken and to all appearances unshakable—blocked any idea of his having committed it himself.

I won’t go any further with small details as to Pentecost’s methods of operation. But I’ll ask you to take it from me that from the time he staggered—to all appearances a semi-intoxicated coal heaver or something like that—into telephone booth 19 at the South Station in Boston, just before boarding the night train for New York, and calling up Pemberton Square (that is to say, headquarters) told the official in charge that a man named Pentecost who was supposed to have embarked for New York that afternoon on the Steamer _North Land_ had been seen near the Haworth house just before the murder that evening, and suggested that it might be a good idea to have the New York police verify this on arrival of the steamer there (thus, as you’ll see, making his alibi official in a certain sense by bringing in the New York detectives as witnesses to it), to the moment of his having himself put on the witness stand and reciting his fake statement before the court, his hand never for one instant left the throttle.

Notwithstanding all this, he found time, during that stressful period, without personally appearing in the matter or indeed ever meeting her, to have everything possible attended to for Edith Findlay. All things tending to her comfort and well-being were arranged for: a nurse brought from the hospital to take care of her and manage everything about the house; Augustus Findlay permanently eliminated by having such a fright thrown into him that the entire continent of North America was thenceforth relieved of his weight upon it, with South America standing a good chance of equal immunity; and finally (it was some weeks before the Pentecost trial came on) her departure, with little Mildred and two nurses, to one of the most highly recommended places in the Austrian Alps.

* * * * *

At once after his acquittal Mr. Pentecost did his best—as he’d promised Haworth he would—with the $18,000 life insurance and the more than gruesome “movie”—which he had himself taken. The former he succeeded in collecting after a campaign of sharp practice devoted to it; the latter—as he’d figured from the start—stood no chance with censors and the inter-state people. He got a few thousand for it from the “bootleggers” of padlocked films who smuggle them across state lines and put them in the “private show” programs. These things, with the $51,000, and odd which was Haworth’s share on his percentage of profits on the game, more than doubled the total of deposits to the credit of Edith Findlay in the bank which had been designated to take care of her property. While no mention of this percentage was made in the contract between Haworth and the firm, it was one of those things that Pentecost would have paid though it reduced him to penury.

When you say—as you’re more or less liable to if I give you the chance—that this man was a surprising combination of characteristics, you will have spoken the truth. Not quite so surprising, though, when you come to reflect that every man is that—more or less—if he has any characteristics worth considering.

And while we’re speaking of it, it’s just as well for you to know that the man was taking all this care of Edith Findlay’s interests—as well as of Edith Findlay herself, solely and entirely because of Haworth. Something about the fellow had appealed to him in a peculiar way.

As the matter stood there was no possibility of Edith’s ever knowing that the money coming to her—aside from the insurance—was other than the amounts realized from the sale of one of Haworth’s mechanical inventions. This was shown by Haworth’s contract with the firm and by the receipt he gave for the cash payment, as well as implied in his statement and will. The tragic truth of the matter, which might have affected her disastrously both mentally and physically, as well as undoubtedly preventing her from touching a penny of the inheritance, was safely locked up with the firm of Harker & Pentecost.

For several months all went well. According to the doctors there, Edith’s condition was improving. Then a cable that was rather disquieting. A slight turn for the worse. Probably only temporary. Must expect ups and downs.

This talk about temporary ups and downs was nothing to Pentecost. He found, after some drastic searching, a high-up specialist who would go over. He felt that an American patient ought to have an American doctor. Whatever you say, races are different and need different treatment.

He met the doctor at the steamer on his return and they had a talk in the latter’s cabin while the baggage was coming off. The gist of the physician’s report was that while Mrs. Findlay was in a much better condition as far as the disease itself was concerned, and ought to go right on improving, her present mental activity was holding her back. This had not been the case heretofore, as the shock of the affair had, in a certain sense, stunned her. For several months she seemed hazy about it all, but recently things were becoming clearer to her, which was unfortunate. Everything was being done to divert her mind, but it was an obstinate case—she didn’t want it diverted.

“What does she want?” Pentecost inquired.

“Well—it amounts to this: She’s made up her mind to die and so far there’s no shaking her determination.”

“I wish I had her here,” said Pentecost.

Two weeks after that a cable reached him signed by Edith Findlay herself, begging him to come over as soon as he possibly could—utmost importance that she see him before the end, which was near.

He was on the next steamer going out.

Mr. Pentecost was sitting by the side of her bed. The nurse had told her his name before he came in, but for quite a time she couldn’t remember who he was or why he was there. Perceiving this, the nurse came in from the adjoining room and explained that it was the gentleman who’d been so kind in attending to everything for her, and that he’d come all the way from New York because she’d asked to see him.

“Oh, you—you came from America!” Her voice was faint and far away.

He said “Yes” softly.

The nurse had retired again to the next room.

“Did——” Edith glanced about searching for some one—then her eyes came back to him. “Did he come with you?”

“No.”

“Isn’t that strange!” She spoke hardly above a whisper. “Oh, it _is_ so strange! But he’s coming! He’s coming just as soon as he sets up the machine and regulates it—that was in the contract you know!”

“Yes Mrs. Findlay, but it’ll take quite a while yet.”

“Oh, will it? It seems so long! I can’t understand why they keep him so long!”

“You mustn’t worry yourself about it.”

“Oh no—no, I mustn’t! But it does seem as if they’d be through by this time!” She lay quiet for a little—her eyes closed. Then suddenly turning her head on the pillow she looked at him again.

“How long did it take to get here?” she asked.

“Ten days, but I didn’t get a very fast steamer.”

“Yes, I see. Maybe he took a slow one. But I’m expecting him very soon now—very soon.”

She went on for a little, asking questions about the detention of the one she expected—the length of time it would take to regulate the machine he’d sold—whether a fast steamer would be leaving when it was finished, and other fancies like that, to all of which Pentecost replied briefly and in a low voice. He was waiting his chance.

She’d been lying back against the pillows, but rather suddenly in the midst of her questioning she stopped and sat up erect in the bed, staring at him. “Oh——” she finally breathed. “I thought you—I didn’t know——Are you Mr. Pentecost?”

“Yes, Mrs. Findlay.”

“They—they said so, but I didn’t seem to——” She glanced about, thinking; then her eyes were fixed on him again. “You were so good to come,” she whispered painfully.

He saw that the merciless memories were coming back to her.

“You—you can be such a help to me—if you will—such a help! It’s something that——” She broke off, and raising her head a little from the pillow, glanced at the door into the nurse’s room. “Would you shut it, please?”

Pentecost carefully closed the door—then returned to his chair by her side.

“I want to ask you to do something for me, Mr. Pentecost—because—you see—they think I’m going to get well—but it isn’t so—no,” (shaking her head a little on the pillow) “it isn’t so.”

Pentecost sat looking at her with a peculiar glint in his prominent eyes, but said nothing.

“I tell you,” she went on after a momentary pause, “because you—you’re the only one I can trust.”

“Where did you get that idea?”

“_He_ told me. It was in a letter he left. He said you were his friend, the only friend he had except the old woman who took care of him, and that I must trust you in everything.”

“In view of this, Mrs. Findlay, tell me in what way I can be of service?”

“Mr. Pentecost, what will become of my little Mildred?”

“It strikes me” (in a suddenly sharp, penetrating voice) “you’re the one to answer that.”

She looked at him in amazement.

“I?” she finally asked in a faint voice.

“Who else?” he inquired. “Aren’t you the one who’s proposing to abandon her?”

“Abandon——!” (With a slight gasp.) “Why——How——You don’t mean——”

“Well what would you call it?”

“No—no—no! Oh, wait! Let me tell you!” (With all her earnestness she could hardly do more than whisper.) “Oh, I couldn’t stay—I don’t want to!” She shook her head a little on the pillow. “He’s gone—gone! The thought of it is killing me. I want to go. I want to be where he is!”

“How do you know where he is?” Pentecost’s voice cut in like a knife.

She stared at him in astonishment.

“My religion tells me that, Mr. Pentecost,” she whispered, reverently.

“And does this religion of yours omit to tell you where your daughter is?”

“Oh yes—yes!—that’s why I wanted to see you. That’s why I——” She broke off and glanced distressfully about the room.

“You seem to have made up your mind to leave her,” Pentecost observed.

Edith was silent.

“Aren’t the living of some consequence,” he went on, “or is it only the dead we have to consider?”

“No no—that’s wrong! I hadn’t forgotten her! Oh, how can you _think_ such a thing, when it was about her that I wanted to see you—just about her—nothing else!”

“What can _I_ do?”

“I hope—I hope you’ll consent to take her—to take care of her! I don’t know who else to ask—and he told me to trust in you—about everything. If I can only know she’ll be with you I shall die happy!”

Pentecost suddenly turned and blazed out upon her—something as he used to do in the Chicago days when he leaped, tigerlike, on a victim in the witness stand.

“What is it to me whether you die happy or not! Whatever I can do in this affair I’m doing on account of someone else—not for you Mrs. Findlay! You cut no figure with me—why in God’s name should you? I’ve never laid eyes on you before—and now I come to see you it looks to me like a cursed low-down play you’re making, that while I’m doing my best to carry out everything he wanted, you’re lying here doing _your_ best to block his game! That’s just what you’re doing, Mrs. Findlay,—pitching the fulfillment of his most vital wish into the discard!”

“Why I——Why you——” She couldn’t go on.

“Look, then—look at this! The one thing in the world he wanted money for—the reason he was mad and crazy and demented to sell his machine and get it, was so he could send you here and do everything on earth to save your life! He lived for that—nothing else—it was the one thought that possessed him! He made a will to make it certain that—if anything happened to him—the money would be used for that and nothing else. And after all this—which you know as well as I do, I come over here and find you deliberately throwing away all he worked for and hoped for and—for all I know—prayed for. Of course if you’re bound to go against it I’ll do what I can about the child—though God knows the little one needs you. It all rests with you, Mrs. Findlay. The head medical sharp that came over, tells me it isn’t the disease that’s killing you—it’s yourself. He says you’ve made up your mind to die—you’re determined to do it—and that play’s certainly going to take the trick if you sit in the game long enough. It’s up to you to quit that if you want to do the right thing by the dead——and by the living.”

Pentecost rose and took her thin little hand in his. “I’ll say good-by, Mrs. Findlay,” he said in an altered tone. “They’ll keep me informed” (motioning toward the nurse’s room) “of which way the cards fall, and I’ll act accordingly.”

As he reached the door he thought he heard her call to him faintly, and went back to see if it was so. She was looking up at him as he stood by the bed, and tried to speak—but only her lips moved. He bent nearer to catch what she said.

“I’ll try,” she whispered.

He took her hand again.

“There’s some sense to that Mrs. Findlay,” he said; and after looking down into her eyes a moment he laid her hand back on the coverlet where he’d found it, and quietly left the room.

It was still early enough to get the afternoon train out—which he did.

* * * * *

A few days short of a month after Mr. Pentecost’s brief visit to the Austrian Alps, he walked, one wintry afternoon, into the office of the firm, having come direct from a trans-Atlantic steamer—just docked. Wasting no more time on salutations than he usually did—which was precisely none at all, he quickly got Harker into the small inner office—sometimes referred to by the staff as the dissecting room—and after pushing him into a chair and drawing one for himself close to it, began talking to him in tones that were subdued to the limit.

“We’re moving the office to London,” he said, “—and inside of twenty-one days. I’ve got something I want to put on over there. I’ll need most of the office force—especially Finch Dugas—and I’m taking eleven of the boys.” (By which he meant his “trusties.”)

“What’s the matter,” Harker inquired; “can’t you play it with the natives?”

“You’re dippy! Hasn’t the Yard got their numbers?”

“Sure—the Yard’s got everything. And take it from me if you’re going up against that layout you’ve got to watch your step and then some!”

“Now, Roxy—you’ve hit on the one thing that’s doing the pull on me. As I was over on that side I thought I’d come home by way of London and take a look around. While I was doing it a little something crossed my mind that looked to me as if it might interest ’em. That being so, we play it.”

“Don’t say _we_. Maybe _you’ll_ play it, I don’t know; but if this London scheme you’re pulling off is one of your favorite flirtations with the undertaker, I declare myself out of it here and now. I can get myself nicely hung in the U. S. A. without going abroad for it—and I’d just as soon patronize home industries.”

“Not a killing to it I give you my word,” Pentecost assured him. “We play a corpse for two or three moves, but it’s handed to us—no chance of a line across—they’ll have the guy that did it. Now every one of us comes in from different places—I go round and get across from Stockholm—you and Dugas make it from Rio—plenty of time as you don’t play in till near the finish. Kennedy makes it from Holland—” and he went on laying out the “game” with Harker to the uttermost detail.