“Well, I jest knew for pos’tive certain sure, that this case was too big fer anybody to sling but Mr. Stone. Well, I got Miss Trowbridge to send fer him, and Judge Hoyt he told Miss Avice, Mr. Stone was outa town. Then I said I seen him on the street the day before, an’ we called him up, an’ he was right there on the spot, but said he’d had a telegram not to come. Well, Judge Hoyt, he sent that telegram. But the way I got Miss Avice to do it in the first place, was to get me Aunt Becky to go to her an’ tell her she’d had a revelation, and fer Miss Avice to go to a clairvoyant. Well, an’ so Miss Avice did, an’ that clairvoyant she told her to get Mr. Stone. You see, the clairvoyant, Maddum Isis, she’s a friend of me Aunt Becky’s, so we three fixed it up between us, and Miss Avice went an’ got Mr. Stone. If I’d a tried any other way, Judge Hoyt he’d found a way to prevent Mr. Stone from comin’ ’cause he knew he’d do him up.”
“This is a remarkable tale,—”
“But true in every particular,” averred Fleming Stone. “This boy has done fine work, and deserves great credit. The final proof, I think, of the guilt of Judge Hoyt, is the fact that the cane found in his room exactly fits a round mark found in the soil at the scene of the crime and cut from the earth, and carefully preserved by McGuire. Also, a shoe button found there corresponds with the buttons on shoes found in Judge Hoyt’s dressing room. And it seems to me the most logical construction is put upon the dying words of Rowland Trowbridge, when we conclude that he meant he was killed by a cane, thus describing the weapon. Judge Hoyt also is conversant with the Latin names of the specimens of natural history which Mr. Trowbridge was in the habit of collecting, and it was he, of course, who telephoned about the set trap and the Scaphinotus. And, as his motive was to win the hand of Miss Trowbridge by means of a forged clause in her uncle’s will, we can have no further doubts.”
“You have done marvelous work, Mr. Stone,” said the judge on the bench. “And you say this young lad helped you?”
“No, your Honor, I helped him. He noticed clues and points about the case at once. But he could persuade no one to take him seriously, and finally, Judge Hoyt, for reasons of his own, sent the boy to a lucrative position out of the town.”
There were many details to be attended to, much business to be transacted, and many proofs to be looked up. But first of all the name of Kane Landon was cleared and the prisoner set free.
Leslie Hoyt was arrested and held for trial.
As Avice passed him on her way out of the courtroom, he detained her to say: “You know why I did it! I’ve told you I would do anything for you! I’m not sorry, I’m only sorry I failed!” His eyes showed a hard glitter, and Avice shrank away, as if from a maniac, which indeed he looked.
“Brave up, Miss Avice,” whispered Fibsy, who saw the girl pale and tremble. “You orta be so glad Mr. Landon is out you’d forget Judge Hoyt!”
“Yes, brave up, darling,” added Landon, overhearing. “At last I can love you with a clear conscience. If I had known that clause about your marriage was not uncle’s wish, how different it would have been! But I couldn’t ask you for yourself, if by that you lost your fortune!”