"Aha! Mr. Alvarez, here comes in my criminality."
Jack expected to hear a confession; on the contrary, the explanation was strange, weird, and extraordinary, and yet the incident could readily occur. It was, however, a remarkable incident.
CHAPTER II.
NOT A TERRIBLE CRIME—A SERIES OF SHARP QUESTIONS—A DETECTIVE AT HIS BEST—STARTLING DEVELOPMENTS OF A LOGICAL MYSTERY SOLVER—REPRODUCING AN IMAGE AFTER FORTY YEARS—A GREAT DIALOGUE.
When Mr. Townsend said "Here comes in my criminality," as intimated, Jack expected a weird confession and he remained silent, determined to permit the banker to declare his crime in his own way, and after a little the latter said:
"The money and securities I held intact; the letter I put away in my safe, and as instructed I tried to forget all about it. The years passed; I became very successful in business—indeed, a rich man, and still there came no word from the party who placed the fortune in my hands under such strange conditions, and one morning, ten years later, I came down to my office and there had been a great fire. The building in which my office was located was totally destroyed, and the letter was in a safe. I was very much disturbed; the safe was fireproof and I hoped to find the letters, but, alas! the safe and all its contents were destroyed—" The banker stopped short; he had made the last statement with startling distinctness.
"The letter was lost?" suggested Jack.
"Yes."
"But where does your criminality come in? You could not help the fire, and you had taken all due precautions."
"Yes, I had, but there I was with this vast fortune, and as it appeared, no way of finding out the owner of it. The ten years passed following the fire, completing the twenty. I never heard from the individual who had deposited the money with me, nor did any one else make a claim; and so twenty years more have passed and no claimant has appeared, and I am in possession of the fortune."