“Tell that judge in New York, and others, that the real Ledger Dinwiddie died a natural death in a cottage called ‘The Willows,’ at Palmetto Peach, in Florida, and is buried in the churchyard of the village of Tyrone, under the name of John Brown; that the man who represented himself as Ledger Dinwiddie is really the James Duryea you claimed he was—Bare-Faced Jimmy, etc.; that I assisted in the plot by which Jimmy passed himself off as Dinwiddie; that sufficient proof of all this is buried in a cigar box behind the small headstone of that grave, where I placed it, secretly.
“I sign myself, for the sake of this message,
“Juno Dinwiddie.”
The detective caught the same boat from Calais to Dover that Mouquin had taken with his charge, and he rode up to London with them; but before leaving Paris he called again upon the chief of the secret police and showed him the letter that Juno had written.
“Let her go,” said the chief. “She will not remain in Paris, and what she does elsewhere I do not care. She was more considerate of you than she has been of others, Carter. Beware of her if you come in contact with her again.”
At Gray’s hotel, in London, Nick found Nan Nightingale awaiting him.
“You were right, Mr. Carter,” she told him, when they met. “The girl, Sarah, who was called Siren, did not die. I have proof of it here. She became a diplomatic spy, and has served many governments as such. Her reputation is not savory, but there is nothing said against her personal purity. Throughout Europe she is known by a name that was bestowed upon her by the French police—‘The Leopard.’ She is the Juno who married Jimmy; and Jimmy—you know who he is.”
“Yes. I know now,” was the reply.
Jimmy had, in fact, proven entirely practicable, and continued to do so as long as he was assured that he was being taken to the Seine. In that belief he took passage with Nick Carter for New York; arrived there in due time and was permitted to plunge head foremost into the swimming pool of a Turkish bath. He came out of it, presently, clothed in his right mind, with the spell of hypnotism gone from him, entirely.