"Leonard, whose real name is Reesey, went to California in the early fifties," said Slack, "and while there married an Italian woman, a widow with one child. Her name was Massona. Shortly after her marriage with Reesey, and before the birth of her daughter, her husband embezzled the funds of a mining company, of which he was secretary, and skipped the State. Instead of returning to his former home in Ohio, he went to St. Louis, assumed the name of Leonard, and engaged in business.
"Years passed, and, perhaps believing his Italian wife to be dead, he married again. When Cora Reesey, his daughter by the Italian wife, reached womanhood, she discovered by secret inquiry that her father was alive and in St. Louis. But she died before she could make practical use of her knowledge. While on her sickbed she confided what she had discovered to her cousin and intimate friend, Lucia Massona. This cousin is an adventuress, a woman of surpassing beauty and an evil heart. She resolved to profit by what she had learned, and when she left the up-country mining town where her cousin had lived and died she took the name of the dead one, and, as Cora Reesey, appeared in San Francisco.
"In that city she laid her plans for blackmailing Gabriel Leonard. I, in my senseless infatuation for her, promised and gave assistance in preparing the proofs. I soon discovered that she had no criminal case against Leonard, for her aunt, Mrs. Reesey, had died three days prior to her husband's second marriage. This fact did not disconcert her, for she believed that Leonard did not know whether his Italian wife was alive or dead when he contracted his St. Louis marriage, and that the spurious documents which she had prepared would be accepted as genuine. The embezzlement matter, of course, was outlawed. But the threat to publish the facts would be sufficient, she thought, to bring him to terms.
"Cora went on to St. Louis after correspondence with Leonard, with the understanding that I was to follow on receipt of a letter which she promised to write soon after arrival here. The letter reached me five days ago, and I came on without an instant's loss of time. That is the story, Mr. Carter."
Nick looked at his watch.
"Time I was going," he said, and moved toward the door.
"Am I free to go, too?" asked Slack, in a respectful tone.
"Certainly you are. Take care of yourself, keep out of mischief, is all the advice I have to give."
"But," looking at the detective shyly, "I may meet Cora; she may throw her grappling-hooks on me again, and I may put her wise about you and what you know."