"You here?"

"Yes, I am here."

The baron had gone to his room following his little chat with our hero. He had passed the time in a very uncomfortable manner, and of course the arrival of Mrs. Richards was a great surprise.

We wish to state one fact to our readers: Our hero could have "closed in" on the two schemers, but he was seeking certain facts which they could have withheld. He desired to know why they had taken such a sudden interest in Amalie Speir, why they had commenced to scheme and make it appear that the fair girl was dead. While seeking this information he was proceeding very slowly; he desired to gain it rather than attempt to force it, for in the latter attempt he might fail. He knew that neither Mrs. Speir nor her daughter knew the motive—that is, so he had decided—and his moves were intended, as stated, to gain information from the schemers themselves.

Mrs. Richards sat down; her face was pale and she was laboring under great excitement, as the baron observed the instant she entered the room. When she did gain sufficient composure she said:

"What have you been doing?"

"I do not understand."

"That last acceptance——"

"You knew all about it; you knew we needed the money to cover another transaction."

"But you have been trapped."

"Trapped?" ejaculated the young man.

"Yes, trapped."

"By whom?"

"This scoundrel Tavares."

The baron almost fainted as he fell back on a sofa and gazed with starting eyes, and the woman proceeded and said:

"This man called upon me within an hour, and he knows all. He knows you are my son, he knows the acceptance is forged. Were you drunk? did you make a confidant of that man?"

"Give me time to think," said the baron in a husky tone, and then after rising and drinking ice water from a goblet he asked:

"What does all this mean?"

"I tell you the Spaniard, Tavares, called upon me; he knows all."

"Did he call alone?"

"He did."

"How did he manage to convey his information to you?"

"He told me fact after fact with the utmost coolness and assurance."

"And he spoke English?"

"He did."

"Then I was rightly informed and we are in that man's power—yes, in his power absolutely."

"You say you were rightly informed?"

"Yes."

"What was your information?"

"I was informed that the man Tavares was a Shylock, a designing devil. You were right when you said I had been tricked."

"And who was your informant?"

The baron proceeded and told the whole story, all the facts known to our readers, together with his recent meal with the detective who was his informant.

The woman listened attentively with a glitter in her eyes, and when the narrative had been concluded, she said:

"All is lost unless you can force matters, then we can legitimately raise all the money we need. Your wife can get all the money she desires, and at once."

The detective's blood ran cold. The words "your wife" were terrible in their suggestion.

"I can do better."

"You can?"

"Yes."

"What can you do?"

"Recover that note with the forged acceptance."

"How?"

"I will invite that Spaniard to accompany me to some out-of-the-way place; I will overcome and force him to give up the note."

"You mean you would commit murder?"

"No."

"And you must not, my son. We have gone far enough in crime. I will never consent to the crime of murder."

"We need not murder him, we can abduct him and keep him out of the way until our plans are completed."

"Yes, we might do that if we could succeed, then we could force matters and let him loose later, even pay him an indemnity and return to Europe. My good husband would not object as long as it did not cost him anything."

"We must do something, and we must act at once."

"August, you are a brave and skillful man. Now you know the real danger you will be able to devise some plan, but no time must be lost; we must move rapidly. Let us get this immediate danger removed and we can bring the other matter about at once, but it is strange how obstinate and determined that girl is. There we must force matters, but I did hope that we would secure money enough to go to Europe. If we could carry her to Europe we would be all right. We could furnish proofs of her identity, secure the money, and all would be well, but she must first be your wife, and I repeat, if she does not consent, then I will assent to the plan you proposed. It is a terrible device, but she must be your wife, and that within forty-eight hours. If she does not yield we will force matters, and she will be glad to become the baroness."

The mystery was indeed all clearing up, and the detective overheard every word of the conversation, and our readers can only imagine his emotions and excitement, as we will not attempt to describe either.



CHAPTER X.

CONCLUSION.

The mother and son remained together some time discussing their plans in detail, and when Mrs. Richards finally departed our hero was "on to the whole scheme," as detectives say, and he prepared like a lamb led to the slaughter to be entrapped by the bold baron, and there came a smile to his face as he anticipated the turning of the tables at the last moment.

Our hero was now absolutely assured that Amalie Speir lived, but that she was unharmed thus far, and he determined to take such steps as would insure her safety until such time as he "closed in" on her abductors and forced her release. He determined to meet the baron that same night, and he also resolved to be fully prepared to fall into the trap which he had assumed was to be set for him. In the meantime, he called at the home of Mrs. Speir; his face was radiant and his hopefulness inspired the lady, who asked:

"Do you bring me good news?"

"Mrs. Speir, I bring you the very best of news, and it is my present calculation that within twenty-four hours I will bring you your daughter, pure, loving and unharmed."

"Succeed, Mr. Alvarez, and I will be the happiest woman in the world, and what is more, I will surrender to you your half of the fortune."

Jack smiled, for we will here admit that away down in his heart he did permit a little flame of hope to smolder that in a roundabout way he might some day secure the whole of it practically, and something with the fortune more precious to him than the gold and the houses and lands.

It was early in the evening when seemingly by chance the Spaniard and the baron met, and the latter proved himself a great actor, and indeed a shrewd man, and the chances are he might have been a winner were he playing against a man less shrewd and adroit than our hero, but Jack was hard to beat, as our readers will learn.

The baron proposed a luncheon, what he called "an early supper," and he appeared to have plenty of money and made a display of it, and at the proper moment he said:

"Mr. Tavares, I have good news for you."

"Indeed?"

"Yes."

"Good news is always more inspiring than bad news."

"Yes, and I am going to redeem my note."

"Is that so?"

"It is true; I have come into some money unexpectedly and I will pay you in full, and as you were kind enough to take chances I will pay interest to date; but you need not hold the note, I will redeem it."

"Good enough; I will be frank with you. I may have been misinformed, you may have an enemy, but I was told that the note was not all right. I got scared and I called upon Mrs. Richards. She demanded time to think the matter over, but as you are going to pay the note, why, that makes it all right. I will admit I am not as disinterested as I may have appeared; I've lots of money, but I make my money tell to make more. When will you redeem the note?"

"This very night, within the hour. I have a friend—a real friend—who will help me out of my difficulty. It makes no difference to you who pays the note as long as you get the money back."

"No difference whatever."

"Then the matter can be easily fixed. We will finish our supper and then go to my friend's house. I was to meet him between eleven and twelve. He will have the money all ready to settle up and redeem the note, and he will hold it for me without making inquiries or seeking information."

"'A friend in need is a friend indeed,' and I will admit that I shall be very glad to get my money back. I do not care about the character of the note as long as I take no chances. See, I am perfectly frank."

"Yes, very frank, and that is your best quality."

The latter remark was made with a laugh and was satirical.

The young men finished their meal, went to a vaudeville show for a little while, and then proceeded to the house where the pretended Spaniard was to receive his money. The baron appeared to congratulate himself at the ease with which he got the Spaniard into the trap, and led him to an out-of-the-way house in the suburbs of Long Island City. The Spaniard entered like a lamb led to the slaughter, and there was a big laugh hidden away down in his bosom.

The baron led our hero to a rear room, sat down and bade his companion be seated. Jack complied, and then there came a complete change over the demeanor of the baron. He said:

"Tavares, you have a note?"

"Yes."

"I promised you its equivalent?"

"You did."

"I do—it's your life."

"Aha!"

"Yes, your life; I will have that note or your life. You secured it by trick and device. I resolved to recover it by the same means, and let me tell you, I am prepared to carry out my resolve. I have men here to aid me."

"And this is your trick?"

"This is my trick."

"We will not waste words, August."

"No, we will not waste words."

"This is my trick."

As the detective spoke he cast aside his disguise and stood revealed.

The baron stared aghast and in a husky voice exclaimed:

"What! you are the detective?"

"I am the detective. Call for your aids and I will summon mine; the latter are at hand."

"What does this mean?"

"It means that I have 'closed in' on you. I can send you to State's prison on two or three charges, and your mother with you to look after you there. Meyer, you thought you were playing your game well, but you made a mistake from the beginning. I had you 'shadowed' on every move you have made; there is but one way of escape for you."

"One way of escape?"

"Yes."

The baron saw that he had been beaten in the most complete manner. He saw that indeed there was no hope for him but in the mercy of the detective. The young man was no fool.

"How can I escape?"

"Surrender to me unharmed and uninjured Miss Amalie Speir. Do this and I will surrender the note, and you can keep the two thousand dollars. I permit the latter to save scandal."

"I accept your terms."

"So far so good, and now tell me why you sought to force this girl to marry you. Tell me the whole truth and I will pay you an additional thousand dollars."

"There is no need for me to conceal the facts."

"You are right."

"The girl is an heiress and does not know it."

"Tell me the facts."

"Her grandmother was a Mrs. Harold Stevens. Mrs. Stevens quarreled with her husband and they separated. The husband returned to America, Mrs. Stevens remained in Europe. Mrs. Richards made her acquaintance, and during their intimacy Mrs. Stevens revealed the fact that she had a daughter living in America, and that she had deposited fifty thousand dollars to her daughter's credit to be surrendered upon identification. She gave Mrs. Richards a picture of her child and employed her to find the heiress, and placed matters in such shape that the money could be paid over upon proof. Mrs. Richards failed in finding the heiress until Miss Amalie Speir came to live with her, and then she recognized in that girl the heiress, and determined that I should marry her, and we would secure the deposit, which now amounts to nearly a hundred thousand dollars."

"But Amalie is not the heiress."

"No, her mother is the heiress, but had she become my wife we were to furnish evidence that the mother was dead, secure the money on the girl's wonderful resemblance to the picture of her mother. The money was left in such a manner that no legal steps were necessary."

"Amalie would not marry you?"

"No; and now the game is up."

"One more question: How did you learn that I was interested in the case and start to deceive me when we first met?"

"We were watching the mother after the disappearance, and learned that she had employed you. I knew all the time you were a detective, but you have beaten me; I surrender."

That very night Jack and Gil accompanied the baron to the place where Amalie Speir had been held a prisoner, and Jack had met face to face the beautiful girl who had so long filled his thoughts. It was morning ere he had finished the long story he had to relate to the beautiful girl, and when morning came he led Amalie to her mother's home. Words will never describe the joy and delight of that mother.

The baron quietly stole off to Europe. Jack had no desire to detain him or punish any one. He had wrought a successful "shadow" to the end and was content.

And now comes the most pleasant part of our narrative.

Mrs. Speir's heart was filled with gratitude, and the daughter, the beautiful Amalie, learned to admit more than gratitude. She gave her heart to the brave, persistent and determined young man who had done her and her mother such signal service, and it was a glorious occasion when Jack led to the altar the bride he had won in such a strange and weird manner. We could write more, but we believe we have told the whole tale as concerns facts, and comments we will leave to our readers.

THE END.



The World's Finger is the title of the most absorbing detective narrative ever written.



One would not surmise from the title that such was the fact; but the closing chapter of the book gives the clue to its meaning: "I swore to my father on his death-bed that The World's Finger should never point to a Davanant as amongst the list of known convicts, and that oath I will keep."

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[Transcriber's Note: The original edition did not contain a Table of Contents. A Table of Contents has been prepared for this electronic edition. In addition, the following typographical errors present in the original book have been corrected.

In Chapter IV, "No, direct news" was changed to "No direct news", "Did you ever seen" was changed to "Did you ever see", and a colon was added after "but after a moment he said".

In Chapter V, "one of the loveliest creaures" has been changed to "one of the loveliest creatures".

In Chapter VI, "the demanor of the baron" has been changed to "the demeanor of the baron".

In Chapter VII, a semicolon following "preyed upon her health" was changed to a period.

In the advertisement for Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup, the hyphen in the word "fac-simile" was present in the original text.]

THE END