The mother of Mercedes was not dead, and the story told of the accident, which had befallen her, was so direct and clear that it seemed to have happened quite naturally.
It was, in short, nothing more than a repetition of numberless other accidents of the kind. The horses had been restless from the start, and the coachman had found it difficult to manage them. One of them in particular had acted as if “possessed of the devil” from the very moment when they left the stable.
The drive had been a longer one than usual, by the mistress’ direction, and they had started on their return when a strange figure had sprung up in the road directly in front of them.
The horses shied and turned short around, overturning the victoria and throwing Mrs. Danton out on the hard road. She sustained a fracture of one arm and a blow on her head had deprived her of consciousness. She was still unconscious when she was carried into the house, and, although the doctors resorted to every expedient they could summon to their aid, she showed no signs of coming out of the coma into which the shock of the accident and the blow on her head had thrown her.
As soon as the first effects of the arrival of the litter were over, Nick hurried to the stable, and, notwithstanding the objections of the hostler and his assistants, began a hurried examination of the harness.
“Horses don’t act restless like these did, unless there is some reason for it,” he said to the head stableman. “I was a coachman once myself, before I became a valet. Look there.”
He was holding the backband in his hands, and he pointed to a steel burr that had been screwed into the band in such a position that short but sharp steel needles would pierce the delicate skin of the animal that wore the harness.
“What do you think of that?” he demanded.
The hostler was dumfounded and could make no reply. It was plain to Nick, at once, that he was not responsible for its presence there.
Another burr of the same kind was found in the remaining harness, but there was not one among the employees of the stable who could throw any light whatever upon the mystery of how they came there. Even Patsy, when he was taken aside by the detective, assured his chief that he had not relaxed his vigilance for a moment, and that he had done everything he could think of or that ingenuity could suggest to be in a position to know of any planning or plotting that might be going on there. He was certain that the burrs had been introduced into the harnesses by some person who had managed to creep into the stable unobserved, and who had also been successful in getting away undiscovered after he had done his work.