CRAFTY CERVERA.
"Good-evening, Mr. Venner. Oh, it's not you!"
"Oh, yes, 'tis!" said Nick, dryly. "It's I all right, and I'm it. You appear surprised at seeing me, Señora Cervera."
Cervera had begun, then stopped, then uttered the startled exclamation; and all with the utmost coolness, with the air of one stirred only by genuine surprise, and as if without the slightest fear or dismay upon beholding Nick Carter in the vestibule.
So perfectly natural was her artful assumption, that it rather deceived Nick for a short time.
In response to his dry remarks, the artful jade now nodded and began to laugh.
"Surprised? Well, rather!" she exclaimed, in animated tones. "I was expecting our mutual friend, dear Mr. Venner, and supposed it was he who rang. But I'm just as pleased to see you."
"Yes?"
"Surely! Come in, Detective Carter. You are very, very welcome. I shall be so glad to renew our brief acquaintance. In fact, Detective Carter, I am quite charmed to see you."
"You'll not feel so chipper and charmed when you learn my business," said Nick to himself, as he entered and followed her to the library.
"Take a chair, Detective Carter, and try to feel perfectly at home," laughed Cervera, with bantering vivacity. "You have been here before, you know."
"Yes, indeed, I know," said Nick, dryly. "The night I had a taste of a choke pear, at the hands of your faithful guardians."
"Ah! but you shall be better treated this time," smiled Cervera, dropping into a chair opposite the detective, and fixing her sensuous, dark eyes on Nick's calm, unreadable face.
"I hope so, señora," he replied. "By the way, what has become of those two stalwart guardians of your treasures? Do you still retain them in your employ?"
It was second nature to Nick to feel his way in this crafty fashion, yet he did not really expect any resistance in arresting Cervera, who now laughed and shook her head, replying:
"No, I have let them go."
"That so?"
"I have no use for them at present."
"Why is that?"
"My engagement at the theater has closed, and I seldom have occasion to wear my diamonds. I have placed them all in a safe deposit vault."
"Ah! I see."
"So I have no need for my guardians, Detective Carter, with only myself here. Nobody would want me personally, you know," she added, with a bold laugh.
Nick's firm lips drew a little closer.
"On the contrary," said he, pointedly, "somebody does, want you personally."
"Oh! is that so?" cried Cervera, as if amused.
"Very much so, señora."
"And who does me the honor, pray?"
"I want you," said Nick, bluntly.
"You, Detective Carter! Why, sir, what an idea! I wouldn't have believed it of you."
"Yet it is true, nevertheless."
"Well, well," repeated Cervera, with a pretty shrug, "I am really glad to hear you say so. For what do you want me, Detective Carter?"
Not once had Nick's searching gaze left her brazen countenance, and despite her outward display of badinage, his steadfast and penetrating eyes were making her secretly uneasy.
"I want you," said Nick, pointedly, "for that ugly 'Jack-in-the-box' trick which you perpetrated this afternoon."
Cervera's eyes emitted a single swift, fiery gleam, and her red lips drew closer. Yet she cried, still pleasantly:
"What do you mean by that, Detective Carter? Is it a joke?"
"You'll find it no joke."
"If it is, sir, I don't see the point."
"You will have a chance to look for it at the Tombs," replied Nick, with grim quietude. "Señora Cervera, I want you to go along with me."
"The Tombs! Go with you! What do you mean?"
"I mean that you are now under arrest."
"Arrest! For what?"
"For the murder of a girl named Mary Barton," Nick bluntly rejoined, ignoring the woman's increasing display of amazement and resentment.
"Mary Barton!" cried Cervera. "I never heard of the girl."
"Nevertheless," said Nick, sternly, "you met her on Fifth Avenue this afternoon, and gave her a jewel casket containing a venomous snake, which you had stolen from the den of Pandu Singe, and by which means you inadvertently killed Mary Barton, instead of another for whom your infernal design was intended. I am aware of all of your late movements, señora, you see."
"I see that you are a devil!" cried Cervera, with a sudden passionate outburst. "How dare you come here with such a story as that?"
For a moment at least, the fact that Nick already had discovered nearly every detail of her infamous crime—though committed only a few hours before—almost completely unnerved her, and her changing countenance, her irrepressible outbreak, and the violent agitation of her lithe, nervous figure, were tokens of self-betrayal by no means unobserved by Nick.
"You'll have a chance to refute the story before a judge and jury," Nick curtly answered. "At present you are in my custody, however, and you must go with me."
Cervera rose to her feet, trembling visibly, and gripped the back of her chair as if for support.
"There must be some terrible mistake, Detective Carter," she now cried, with well-feigned distress and alarm. "Surely you do not mean this, sir? Surely you do but jest?"
"On the contrary, señora, I mean every word that I have said."
"That I am under arrest?"
"Yes."
"And must go with you?"
"Precisely."
"To the Tombs?"
"To the Tombs, señora."
"Oh! this is dreadful—dreadful!" craftily moaned Cervera, with tears now filling her eyes.
"I am sorry for you, señora, but I must do my duty," said Nick, rising.
"I know you must—but, oh! what shall I do? To whom can I appeal? Oh! if Mr. Venner were only here!"
"You can send a messenger for him later, or dispatch one of your servants from here," suggested Nick.
"I have none here," sobbed Cervera. "They are all out, and I am alone. I have no one—"
She suddenly stopped, then drew herself up with resentful dignity, and wiped the tears from her eyes.
"I am a fool to be so weak!" she exclaimed, bitterly. "Detective Carter, I know nothing of the crime you mention. I never heard of Mary Barton. This arrest is an outrage, and I will appeal to the highest court in the land for vindication!"
"That's your privilege," said Nick, shortly. "But at present you must go with me."
"I cannot go as I am," declared Cervera, passionately stamping her foot. "I am in evening dress—attired to receive a caller. I shall take cold if I go out of doors in—"
"Oh, you may change your dress," Nick curtly interrupted, the need of which was decidedly obvious. "I'll give you time for that."
"How very kind," sneered Cervera, with a bitter flash of her black eyes. "You shall yet suffer for this affront, Detective Carter."
"All right," said Nick. "But I have no time to speculate upon it now, so get yourself ready. Wait a bit, my lady! I'll go along with you!"
"With me? You insult me!"
"Oh, no, I don't. I want a look at your chamber before letting you out of my sight. I've seen rooms with more than one way out, and I don't intend that you shall elude me."
"You're a suspicious coward, sir!"
"Stow all that, señora, and lead the way," commanded Nick, bluntly.
Pale and resentful, with a sneer on her lips, Cervera led the way through, the hall, playing her part so artfully that Nick, ignorant of her late interview with Rufus Venner, was not much inclined to suspect her of duplicity just then.
Upon reaching the top of the hall stairs, Cervera switched on another light, and then that which illumined her chamber, into which she haughtily led the detective.
"A fine affront to suffer," she bitterly exclaimed, throwing herself into a chair. "Your conduct is despicable! You are no gentleman!"
"I am a detective," retorted Nick, "and I come pretty near knowing my business."
"Oh! you do," sneered Cervera. "Plainly that is the limit of your knowledge. You may not be as wise as you think."
Nick made no reply, but looked sharply about the room.
It was a large, square chamber, and elaborately furnished. The two windows were well above the street, and offered no chance for escape. There were but two doors, that leading into the hall and the one leading into a large closet in the opposite wall.
Nick opened the latter, and found the closet hung with Cervera's extensive wardrobe. He thrust his arm along the garments hanging at either side, and sounded the three walls, and then the closet floor, all of which appeared perfectly firm and solid.
Even these precautions seemed quite needless to Nick, however, it being a rented house, and Cervera presumably uninformed of his coming.
"Now, señora, you may have just ten minutes to make ready," said he, as he rejoined her. "I shall leave this chamber door open, and will wait for you in the adjoining hall. Can you whistle?"
"Whistle?"
"Yes, whistle! You know what it is to whistle, don't you?"
The sneer on Cervera's red lips, as she arose from her chair, became almost a smile.
"Yes, I can whistle after a fashion," she admitted.
"Well, then, you keep whistling all the time you are alone here," Nick sternly commanded. "I will let you out of my sight to make these changes, but not out of my hearing."
"Suspicious fool!"
"Fool or not, you keep whistling," said Nick, bluntly. "If you let up for so long as a second, I'll come over yonder threshold in a way that you'll not fancy."
"But suppose I want to brush my teeth?" inquired Cervera, with a vixenish light in her evil eyes. "I cannot whistle and brush my teeth, Detective Carter."
"You'll have plenty of time to brush your teeth at the Tombs," said Nick, sharply. "Now look lively, mark you, and—keep whistling."
Cervera at once began to whistle.
Nick removed the key from the chamber door, and sauntered out into the hall, where he kept his ears constantly alert.
Not for a moment did the whistling cease, nor was there the slightest change in tone or character.
Nick could not have taken a more effective method to serve his present purpose.
At the end of eight minutes the whistling ceased, and Cervera coldly cried:
"Now you may come in, Detective Carter. I am about ready to go with you."
Nick at once entered the chamber.
Cervera had changed her evening dress for a complete suit of black, and was standing in the middle of the room.
"I suppose," said she, staring icily at the detective, "that I ought to thank you for your consideration."
"Don't trouble yourself," said Nick, curtly. "I have no time to waste."
"Yet just one word, Detective Carter, before we go."
"Let it be brief, then."
"You are said to be a very clever man, and no doubt you think you have me dead to rights in this case," said Cervera, with a mocking curl of her thin lips.
"Decidedly so."
"Yet you will find, Detective Carter, that a clever woman can always fool and foil a clever man."
"But you, my lady, are very far from being a clever woman," retorted Nick, with a gesture of impatience, signifying that he wished to leave with her at once.
"Nevertheless, I shall beat you at the finish, make no mistake about that," cried Cervera, scornfully. "Now, sir, I will put on my wrap, and go with you where you please."
With the last remark, she approached a peg in the open closet, as if to take down a dark shawl.
Instead, she suddenly turned quickly around and cried, with a taunting laugh:
"So long, Detective Carter! I really feel quite sorry to bid you—good-by!"
Nick started like a man electrified.
Cervera merely had pressed the peg on which the shawl hung, whereupon the whole back of the closet seemed to fall away instantly, disclosing a lighted passage beyond.
Nick caught a glimpse of it, and of the woman darting toward it, and he followed her like a shot from a gun.
As Cervera passed through the further opening and gained the lighted passage, she seized and threw a short lever just beyond the closet wall.
At the same moment Nick's weight fell upon the closet floor behind her.
It was like treading upon air.
The lever, like the peg, did not work in an instant.
Nick felt himself falling, and made a desperate clutch at the door jamb—only to miss it.
Then the closet floor, with the detective upon it, went speeding down like an elevator cut loose from a top story.