store. Mrs. Darcy happened to come downstairs as he arrived, and,
knowing him well, admitted him, though the store had long been closed.
In one hand she held the Indian watch, perhaps picked up idly from the
repair table. In the other hand was the diamond cross.

This ornament Larch instantly demanded, but Mrs. Darcy refused to give
it up, not only on account of his condition, but because she did not
consider that he had any claim to it, knowing that it had been his
wife's before their marriage.

Larch was insistent in his demands, and tried to take the diamond cross
from Mrs. Darcy. She resisted him in the dimly-lighted and deserted
store, and he caught up the paper-cutter dagger and threatened her.

She backed away from him, toward the open safe, intending, it would
seem, to put the valuable ornament in there and lock it up, when Larch
struck at her. As he did so, he knocked down the heavy statue of the
hunter. It struck her on the head, inflicting what would have proved a
mortal blow, even without the knife thrust.

As the statue fell Larch leaned forward to grasp it, he said, but he
slipped and the knife in his hand entered her side, and she fell on it,
driving it deeper in. Larch declared he never meant to kill, or even
seriously hurt, Mrs. Darcy. But he did kill her.

Seeing her lying, as he then thought, only perhaps seriously wounded,
Larch, taking the diamond cross, staggered around the jewelry shop, and
then fled panic-stricken, went to the Homestead, and drank himself into
a stupor.

Incidentally Larch's confession cleared up other matters, and shifted
certain responsibilities from various persons. The Indian watch,
though impregnated with poison, had nothing to do with the death of
Mrs. Darcy, though she might have been slightly scratched by the hidden
needle. And the money Harry King went out and got the night of the
murder was given him, as he boasted at the time, by a woman. He
refused to name her, but she was named later, when King's wife filed a
petition for a divorce--not her first by the way.

"Well, Colonel," remarked Mr. Mason, as together they strolled toward a
trout stream, several days after the clearing up of the diamond cross
mystery, "I'm glad to know you had the same faith in young Darcy that I
had."

"Oh, yes, there couldn't be any other way out. Jimmie boy, as your Amy
calls him--bless her heart--was a bit careless, but that was all. Some
of his wires that he rigged up for his electric lathe, secretly, did
get tangled with the heavily-charged conductors of the lighting system,
though he didn't know that. It may be they were responsible for the
shocks given. I didn't go into that deeply. And Darcy didn't repair
Singa Phut's watch when he said he would. It was in getting up early
to do this and have the timepiece ready when promised, that he
discovered his relative's dead body."

"Where did Harry King get that odd coin which made it look bad in his
case for a while?" asked Mr. Mason.

"Larch gave it to him, unsuspectingly enough, it seems. When Larch
went into Mrs. Darcy's store she had the tray of rare coins out of the
safe. She may have been going to put them away with the Indian watch
and the diamond cross, but she had no chance. And after Larch had
killed her, seeing the money, he picked up a handful, as he needed some
change. In a way the discovery of the odd coin helped in solving the
mystery, for I kept my helper, Jack Young, at the Homestead after that,
and it was hearing King and Larch talking about the diamond cross that
gave me just the clew I wanted.

"Larch had taken out the valuable diamonds from the ornament, and had
disposed of them, in spite of what he said to his wife just before his
death, to get some much-needed money. He really did send her the
crushed gold setting, promising, in the letter he dispatched to her by
the boy I intercepted, to restore the diamonds to her if she would meet
him.

"This she consented to do. As it happened, Aaron Grafton was calling
on her at the time, trying to find some means of helping her, for there
is the old-time love between them. And it was at her suggestion that
he followed her when I was shadowing Larch. Evidently Grafton didn't,
at that time, know it was only the crushed and diamondless cross that
Larch had sent back. And after he died and confessed, we found a paper
of imitation diamonds in his pocket that Larch had ready to use in
deceiving his wife if she had agreed to sign the papers he wanted her
to, so he could bolster up his failing business."

"Well, he's out of the way now, and I hear the hotel has been sold."

"Yes, Mr. Mason. And it will be, so I hear, once more the oldtime and
respectable resort it once was. As for Miss Ratchford, she has gone to
friends in California, and there, I understand, Mr. Grafton will
shortly follow. They are to be married in about a year. Mr. Grafton
is going to sell out his business. He told me he would not press the
charge against Spotty for stealing the imitation diamond cross. So
Spotty will soon be at liberty again."

"I'm glad of that. He's a sport--in his own way."

"Yes," agreed the colonel,

"One point puzzles me," went on Mr. Mason, "and that is, why Cynthia--I
call her that for I've known her for years--why she didn't make Larch


<< previous page | next page >>

Jump to page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 |