That ended the sensational features of the extraordinary case. Henley died within an hour, and two hours saw the other three in the Tombs, two to be convicted and sentenced a fortnight later, and Mortimer Deland to return to finish his unexpired term in the State’s prison.
Arthur Gordon was found, as stated, bound hand and foot in an upper room of the old house. Though intensely grateful to the Carters for his rescue and liberation, he was a thousand times more surprised at what they told him. Up to that moment he had not dreamed of the true identity of Pauline Perrot, who had, as Nick had inferred, artfully wheedled him into meeting her on a supposed business matter with a friend that evening, only to throw him into the hands of Henley, Foster, and Brigham.
The gratitude of Mr. Rudolph Strickland, and the joy and relief of Wilhelmina, when Gordon was brought home safely and the truth made known, were all that the most vivid imagination could picture. Their reward to Nick and his assistants, too, was in corresponding proportion.
It afterward appeared, too, that all of Nick’s suspicions and deductions were absolutely correct; and that Deland, in assuming the character of Dayton, had done so only to have a quick refuge from Gordon’s office, if it became necessary, and a character in which he could bury Pauline Perrot at a moment’s notice.
Nick Carter had thwarted him completely, however, and had secured him temporarily, at least.
THE END.
“Blood Will Tell; or, Nick Carter’s Play in Politics,” will be the title of the long, complete story which you will find in the next issue, No. 156, of the Nick Carter Stories, out September 4th. In this narrative you will read of the final round-up of Mortimer Deland. You will also find the usual installment of the serial now running in this publication, together with several interesting articles.
DEMONSTRATED.
It was a saying of a wise man that we have one mouth and two ears in order that we may listen twice as much as we speak.
A teacher once quoted this remark to his pupils, and not long afterward, to see how well the instruction was remembered, asked: