Chapter XXXVIII: Justice’s Round-Up

Opal Lamont seemed to grow into a statue before the detective.

She did not move a muscle, but her face grew white, and the detective thought she would sink to the floor.

But suddenly she started up and calmly invited Carter into the parlor.

The detective accepted and watched her like a hawk, for had not she once faced him with a revolver, and was not this the woman named by “Lewis Newell” on the wall of the dungeon?

Opal Lamont seemed calm now.

She faced the man of many trails and even smiled.

“The murder of Mother Flintstone?” she said, recalling the detective’s words in the hall. “You accuse me of that, do you?”

“Yes.”

“Let me see your proofs, please.”

Carter dived one hand into his bosom and drew forth a little packet, upon which the eyes of Opal Lamont were riveted from the first.

He had never shown this to any one.

No one knew that he found it in an obscure corner of Mother Flintstone’s den the night he went thither with Mulberry Billy, the street waif, and the old woman’s “chum.”

Opal leaned forward and watched the hands of the detective open the packet.

She never took her eyes from the “find,” and when the last bit of covering had been taken off she appeared to grow white.

One-half of a ring lay in Carter’s hand, and he glanced from it to the immobile face of the millionaire’s daughter.

“You found that in the house, I suppose?” asked Opal.

“Yes; in the darkest corner, not far from the spot where you struck the blow.”

“Is that all?”

“Not quite.”

“You need not go on. Look at me, Mr. Carter. It was for the honor of this house. She was wicked.”

“She was your father’s sister!”

“She made a bad match. She was disowned, or, rather, she disinherited herself.”

“But that was no excuse for the crime.”

“She might have paraded the relationship before the world,” cried Opal. “She was positively dangerous. She was a perpetual menace. It was dreadful.”

“You took it upon yourself to put her out of the way. You went to the house----”

“To silence her tongue!” broke in Opal Lamont. “Murder was not in my mind at first. But she taunted me; she laughed at me when I offered to make her rich. She even threatened to appear in public and boast of the kinship. That was more than I could stand.”

“You struck her then?”

“I did. I broke the ring with the blow. I did not miss it till I came home. The other half strangely clung to my finger till I reached this house. I thought I had lost the rest on the street.”

“You nearly involved others in that crime.”

“How’s that?”

“Your brother was for a time suspected of the murder, and then his chum, George Richmond.”

“Did it deceive you?”

“For a time. I traced out the ownership of the ring. I did it with the utmost secrecy. But a short time ago I half believed that one of them was the guilty person, but I am undeceived now.”

A haughty smile came to the girl’s lips.

She made an impatient gesture and then said:

“Let us dismiss these things. We can come back to them, you know. You said a while ago that father was dead.”

“He is.”

“Where is he?”

“In one of the many houses he owned.”

“I thought he would take his life in his madness. He would have given his wealth for the keeping of the secret of the kinship. How did he do it?”

For a moment Carter was silent.

“It was not suicide,” said he, looking at Opal. “It was the greater crime--murder!”

She started like one electrified.

“Another murder? I want to see him avenged, even if I have hands that are red! I want you to take the trail of his slayer. You will do this, Mr. Carter? You won’t refuse to become the servant of your human quarry?”

“It is no mystery,” was the reply. “The murder of your father is not a puzzle!”

“Then you know----”

“I know, for I have a living witness.”

Opal was silent; but her deep eyes seemed to pierce the detective through and through.

“I’m calm now. Name him.”

At this moment the front door opened and some one came in.

“It is Claude, my brother,” said the girl, scarcely above a whisper. “Wait a minute. He may go upstairs.”

Carter looked toward the door and seemed to smile.

“Call him in here. His coming will answer the question you have just put.”

Opal sprang across the carpet and opened the door, revealing the figure of Claude in the main hall.

“This way, Claude,” said she. “A gentleman wants to see you.”

It was a lightning glance that passed from the hallway to the man in the parlor.

Claude Lamont knew the detective at once.

He hesitated, but Opal clutched his sleeve and pulled him forward by main force.

“You know this man. It is the trailer,” she said.

A dark scowl came to the young man’s face.

“I know him!” he almost hissed.

The next instant the daughter turned again to Carter and exclaimed:

“Now, go on. You said you knew who killed father. Name the murderer.”

The hand of the detective was raised as his figure straightened, and in a second it covered the young man before him.

“There’s the man!” was all he said.

Though he spoke in low tones the words seemed to ring throughout the handsome parlor.

Claude Lamont grew white and Opal fell back.

Suddenly, however, she started forward and paused in front of her speechless brother.

“Is it true?” she cried.

There was no answer.

“You must speak! You must tell the truth. My hands are red and yours seem to be! You have heard this merciless trailer. He says you are a parricide! Is it true? Before Heaven, answer me, Claude Lamont!”

The lips of the young sport moved, but no words issued forth.

He seemed to have been struck with palsy.

“You heard me, murderer!” cried Opal, flinging herself upon her brother. “You must not stand there like a log and say nothing. You shall tell the truth. You did it.”

Claude flung her off and she nearly toppled against the mahogany table.

“I did it, and under the circumstances I would do it again!” he exclaimed. “He was coming at me like a wild beast, and I had to fight or perish.”

“Swear this!” cried the girl.

Claude raised one hand above his head.

“Where did you find him?”

“On the street.”

“But you did not bring him home?”

“I did not. I took him to one of our houses----”

“And killed him there? Murderer!”

That instant, with the fury of a madman, Claude turned upon his sister and covered her white face with his quivering hand.

“Murderer, eh? What are you? Don’t you know that the curse of blood has been upon this house for years? The curse of blood and money! Nearly a century ago one of your ancestors murdered his bride, and ever since the stain has been upon the house. It has skipped a few generations, but it is with us now. Richmond and I have kept your red secret. We know who killed Mother Flintstone. Does the detective know?”

“He knows,” calmly answered Opal.

“And does he know that the girl called Margie Marne is the grandchild of Mother Flintstone?”

Nick nodded.

“That’s all.”

Claude Lamont turned and stalked coolly from the room.

At the door he stopped and looked back.

“I’ll be on hand when wanted,” he said. “It was self-defense. I had to take the old man’s life.”

Carter and Opal heard him on the stairs, and in a few moments they heard a door shut overhead.

Long before morning a policeman stood guard over the dead millionaire’s mansion.

The night passed slowly.

New York was getting ready to awake to the solution of another murder mystery and another crime.

The detective was making the last move in the office of the chief of police, who had listened to the story of his last trail.

George Richmond lay in the station-house cell fast asleep, just as if he had never been concerned in the plot to rob Perry Lamont, the millionaire, with the aid of his scapegrace son.

The morning broke.

Carter went to the Lamont mansion.

Upon parting the night before Opal had pledged her honor that she would greet him when he came again.

He entered the house, speaking first to the guardian at the door, who assured him that all was well, and then he entered the parlor.

He rang the silver call bell on the table, and a servant entered.

“Your mistress?” said he.

“She is upstairs.”

Something in the servant’s tones attracted the detective, and he bounded up the steps.

Into the girl’s boudoir he burst, to stop just beyond the threshold.

One glance was enough--one look at the form lying on the couch satisfied the detective, and he did not remove the black-handled dagger from the blood-flecked bosom.

Claude was found fast asleep and was taken away, but the murderess was left alone.

The trail was ended.

Opal, the murderer of Mother Flintstone, was past reach of judge or jury, and the court acquitted Claude, for Bristol Clara, the only living witness, had to testify in his favor.

George Richmond was tried for conspiracy, and, as the law had long wanted to get another hold on him, he was sent “up the river” for a long term, which proved his last, for he died in Sing Sing.

The outcome of the detective’s trail was a startling surprise to Gothamites and became the talk of the town.

Margie Marne received a goodly share of the Lamont wealth, and afterward married, while Mulberry Billy, who played no insignificant part in the Mother Flintstone affair, was placed beyond want by Margie, who had formed an attachment for the boy.

It afterward turned out that Lewis Newell was a man who once persecuted Opal with his attentions, and the girl, with the coolness of a Borgia, decoyed him to his doom and thus began her career of crime.

Carter was highly complimented upon the result of his last trail, but he will never forget his adventure in the dungeon to which he had been decoyed by the daughter of the millionaire, nor the coolness with which she met the terrible charge he brought home to her under her own roof.

THE END.

The title of the next volume of THE NEW MAGNET LIBRARY, No. 836, is “The Heart of the Underworld,” by Nicholas Carter. The story leads you through dark and devious ways of crime, through a labyrinth of mystery and apparent defeat, out upon the broad highway of justice--where crime is punished and wrongs are righted. The great detective is the guide through this maze, and those who follow him in his perilous adventures will find themselves thrilled from start to finish.

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1--A Klondike Claim By Nicholas Carter
2--The Great Enigma By Nicholas Carter
3--A Titled Counterfeiter By Nicholas Carter
4--Tracked Across the Atlantic By Nicholas Carter
5--The Crime of a Countess By Nicholas Carter
6--A Wall Street Haul By Nicholas Carter
7--The American Marquis By Nicholas Carter
8--An Australian Klondike By Nicholas Carter
9--A Stolen Identity By Nicholas Carter
10--The Old Detective’s Pupil By Nicholas Carter
11--Fighting Against Millions By Nicholas Carter
12--Playing a Bold Game By Nicholas Carter
13--The Mysterious Mail Robbery By Nicholas Carter
14--Caught in the Toils By Nicholas Carter
16--A Woman’s Hand By Nicholas Carter
17--The Piano Box Mystery By Nicholas Carter
18--The Gamblers’ Syndicate By Nicholas Carter
19--A Chance Discovery By Nicholas Carter
21--A Deposit Vault Puzzle By Nicholas Carter
23--Evidence by Telephone By Nicholas Carter
39--Among the Counterfeiters By Nicholas Carter
43--Among the Nihilists By Nicholas Carter
46--Check No. 777 By Nicholas Carter
49--At Odds with Scotland Yard By Nicholas Carter
50--The Man from India By Nicholas Carter
53--An Accidental Password By Nicholas Carter
56--At Thompson’s Ranch By Nicholas Carter
59--A Millionaire Partner By Nicholas Carter
62--A Fair Criminal By Nicholas Carter
65--Found on the Beach By Nicholas Carter
68--The Double Shuffle Club By Nicholas Carter
71--The Diamond Mine Case By Nicholas Carter
73--Two Plus Two By Nicholas Carter
75--The Clever Celestial By Nicholas Carter
77--The Van Alstine Case By Nicholas Cartel
79--The Sign of the Crossed Knives By Nicholas Carter
81--Wanted by Two Clients By Nicholas Carter
83--The Crescent Brotherhood By Nicholas Carter
85--A Dead Man’s Grip By Nicholas Carter
87--Nick Carter and the Green Goods Men By Nicholas Carter
89--The Detective’s Pretty Neighbor By Nicholas Carter
91--The Great Money Order Swindle By Nicholas Carter
93--Harrison Keith, Detective By Nicholas Carter
95--Sealed Orders; or, The Triple Mystery By Nicholas Carter
97--The Puzzle of Five Pistols By Nicholas Carter
99--Gideon Drexel’s Millions By Nicholas Carter
101--The Stolen Pay Train By Nicholas Carter
105--A Bite of an Apple By Nicholas Carter
108--Nick Carter’s Clever Protégée By Nicholas Carter
111--The Stolen Race Horse By Nicholas Carter
114--The Man Who Vanished By Nicholas Carter
117--A Herald Personal By Nicholas Carter
120--The Twelve Tin Boxes By Nicholas Carter
123--The Elevated Railroad Mystery By Nicholas Carter
126--A Game of Craft By Nicholas Carter
129--The Man Who Stole Millions By Nicholas Carter
132--Nick Carter’s Girl Detective By Nicholas Carter
135--The Crime of the French Café By Nicholas Carter
138--Crossed Wires By Nicholas Carter
141--Nick Carter Down East By the author of Nicholas Carter
144--The Twelve Wise Men By Nicholas Carter
147--Nick Carter’s Retainer By Nicholas Carter
150--Lady Velvet By Nicholas Carter
153--Nick Carter’s Clever Ruse By Nicholas Carter
156--A Victim of Circumstances By Nicholas Carter
159--A Framework of Fate By Nicholas Carter
162--Nick Carter’s Star Pupils By Nicholas Carter
165--Held for Trial By Nicholas Carter
168--Brought to Bay By Nicholas Carter
171--The Silent Passenger By Nicholas Carter
174--A Princess of Crime By Nicholas Carter
177--A Scrap of Black Lace By Nicholas Carter
182--The Bottle with the Black Label By Nicholas Carter
186--A Desperate Chance By Nicholas Carter
189--The Man of Mystery By Nicholas Carter
191--The Murray Hill Mystery By Nicholas Carter

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