July 12, 2022
Nick Carter's Ghost Story, Pt 1
This episode begins a new chapter in the Nick Carter Mysteries, Nick Carter's Ghost Story as it appeared in Street & Smith's Magnet Library book, The Crime of the French Cafe and Other Stories - which is available on Project Gutenberg's site to download completely free!
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Transcript
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Hi, everyone.
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And welcome to another episode of forward into the past.
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I'm your host and narrator JC Rede.
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And today we'll be starting another exciting episode of the Nick Carter mysteries as it appeared in the weekly story paper, the New York weekly way back in 1900.
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As I'm sure you know, by now all of these stories are taken from project Gutenberg and are completely free of copyright.
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The story, we just finished the crime of the French cafe by Nicholas Carter, was written way back in 1893.
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The story we're about to start now, Nick Carter's Ghost story, appeared in the New York weekly one year later in 1894, again, written by Nicholas Carter, a street and Smith publishing house pseudonym for any writers contributing to the Nick Carter mysteries.
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Now on this podcast, you've heard me mention things like: story papers, dime novels, thick books, pulp magazines, and lots of other things.
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Am I always talking about the same things.
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Well, yes.
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And no.
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Story papers have been around since the mid 18 hundreds, even before the civil war.
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Many of the Nick Carter stories and some of the other ones that I will hopefully be sharing with you in future podcasts are almost all taken from the story papers in one way or another.
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Story papers were like newspapers.
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Newspapers gave you the news and story papers gave you stories.
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Now, depending on the publisher, the story paper could be magazine sized or newspaper sized, but the weekly paper was always eight pages worth of stories front and back.
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If the character had a strong following, like Nick Carter.
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All chapters of the story might appear in the very same paper.
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Sometimes it would be serialized, meaning that the story would be broken up over several weeks.
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Many times this was not a popular option because families could not always purchase a paper every week.
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It was still of course a luxury, but an affordable one.
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Story papers carried with them a kind of stigma.
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Because they were a very affordable way for a person to get entertained.
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The stories within them were often looked at as mindless drivel and definitely not literature.
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However, the stories contained within those pages, as we've proven in our last story, we're very well-written and served to entertain the masses.
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This is one of the reasons that I'm guessing that Nick Carter wasn't as big a literary figure as I feel he could've, or should've been.
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Well, we'll just have to continue plugging through, despite what critics may have said about our hero.
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Here at forward into the past, we're going to place him on a virtual pedestal and give the detective a chance to reclaim some of his former glory.
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Nick Carter's ghost story was written in 1894 and appeared in the weekly story paper, the New York weekly.
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It is currently part of a compilation of three Nick Carter stories in one paperback book.
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The crime of the French cafe and other stories first published by street and Smith's magnet library and republished under the same title for their new magnet library series.
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The version found on project Gutenberg is the magnet library version published around 1900.
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Chapter one.
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The vanishing thief.
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Nick Carter's friends often ask him whether in the course of his remarkable experience as a detective.
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He has ever encountered anything which could not have been the work of human hands.
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Few people nowadays will own that they believe in ghosts Yet.
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Most of us would be less sure about it in a graveyard at midnight, than on Broadway at noon.
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A man who can tell a reasonable story about having seen a ghost may not find many believers, but he will get plenty of listeners for, we are all eager to hear about such things.
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So Nick who always likes to oblige his friends does not deny the existence of spirits when he is asked whether he ever saw any on the contrary, if he has the time to spare, he usually tells the following story.
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A broad shouldered, square jaw, bright young man called on Nick one afternoon and was ushered into the study.
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His card had gone up ahead of him and it bore the name.
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Horace G Richmond.
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Nick ran his eye over his visitor and decided that he was a fellow who knew the world and was getting everything out of it, that there is in it.
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He met Nick's eye with the air of a man who was going to do something unusual and wants to announce it at the start that he can back it up.
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I have a case for you, Mr.
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Carter, if you will take it, he said.
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Hmm.
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State it, replied Nick.
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It's a robbery case and a mighty queer one.
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I don't pretend to understand it or any part of it.
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Who's been robbed.
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My uncle Colonel Richmond, or should I say his daughter?
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Mrs.
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Pond?
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Uh, but the robbery affects my uncle perhaps more seriously that his daughter.
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It is on his account that I am here.
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Tell the story.
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I'll do it, but first let me say that whatever others may think of the case, I believe it's just simply theft.
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Mrs.
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Pond has a lot of jewelry and somebody stealing it a piece at a time, That's my view, but my uncles is different.
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He says that these robberies are not the work of human hands.
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Now as for me, I try to keep my feet on the earth all the time.
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I want you to understand right at the start that I don't believe in any stuff about ghosts and hobgoblins.
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In my opinion, ghosts that steal diamonds ought to be in the jug and will probably get there unless they turn over a new leaf.
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My uncle doesn't see, as straight as that.
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Uh, perhaps you remember that.
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Three or four years ago, he fell into the hands of a couple of sharks who pretended to be mediums.
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He had always believed in spiritualism.
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And these crooks caught him just right.
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They called up the spooks of all the dead people he could think of.
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They got messages from the spirit land, seven nights in the week and two matinees.
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My uncle simply went wild about it.
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You remember it was all in the papers.
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They worked him beautifully.
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And if I had not stepped in and exposed them just in time, they'd have got every cent he had.
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That would have been quite a haul, said Nick, Well, I should remark! He's worth more than$4 million.
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I tell you those bogus mediums thought they'd struck something very soft.
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However I showed them up and convinced my uncle that they were rank frauds.
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They're in Sing-sing now.
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My uncle did not give up his belief in spirits.
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He said, these people are frauds, but there are others who honestly, and truly hold communication with the departed.
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I tell you we've had a hard time keeping him out of the hands of sharpers since then.
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But we've succeeded.
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And now by bad luck, this queer affair has come up and all my uncle's faith has returned.
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He wants to consult mediums and all that sort of thing.
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That's the only serious part of it.
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The jewels that have been stolen aren't worth over a couple of thousand dollars, all told.
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Of course, it's a nuisance to have such a thing happen in anybody's house, but we wouldn't care much if the mysterious circumstances would not driving my uncle's mind back to his pet delusion.
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What are these mysterious circumstances?
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Asked the detective.
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Why it's like this.
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Colonel Richmond's aunt Ms.
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Lavina Richmond was a queer old lady who was once very rich.
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At that time she had a passion for collecting jewels.
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She used to invest her money in diamonds.
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Uh, just as another person might buy houses or railroad stock.
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Only about a 10th, part of a fortune was invested so that she got any income out of it.
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In the last part of her life, she lost all that part of her property.
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So that she hadn't anything of the world, but her jewels.
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She wouldn't sell one.
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And there she was as poor in one sense, as a lodger in city hall square for she hadn't a cent of money and yet owning diamonds and other precious stones worth nearly a million dollars.
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She wouldn't borrow on them.
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She wouldn't do anything, but keep them locked up.
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And so she had to depend absolutely on my uncle for the necessities of life.
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He didn't mind that, of course, for he had plenty.
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She lived at his house and eventually died there.
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She, and my uncle never got along in spite of his kindness to her.
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And she had no friends.
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Except for a Mrs.
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Stephens and her daughter.
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They're related to the Richmond's, but the money is all in the Colonel's branch of the family.
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Mrs.
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Stevens and Millie, uh, her daughter are poor.
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They have just enough to live on.
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The Colonel would take care of them, but they won't have it.
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They're too proud.
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Now.
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Everybody thought that old miss Levina Richmond would leave her tremendous pile of diamonds to Millie Stevens.
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Indeed.
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Ms.
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Richmond used to say so continually.
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I've heard her say in the Colonel's presence that Mrs.
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Stephens should have the jewels that such was her wish.
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Well, she died suddenly a year or more ago.
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And the only will that could be found was dated many years back and left everything she possessed to the Colonel's daughter.
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It was the greatest surprise that you can imagine.
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We all knew that such a will had been made, but we hadn't the slightest idea that it still existed.
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And that she had made no other.
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On the contrary.
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We knew positively that she had made a much later will in favor of Millie Stephens.
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But the document couldn't be found.
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And so the old one was submitted for probate.
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The Colonel expected a contest, but the Stevenses did not make a murmur.
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It must've been a tremendous disappointment to them, but they bore it with perfect good nature.
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They didn't seem to feel half so badly about it as my uncle did.
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If he had had his way, he would have given all the jewels to Ms.
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Stephens.
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He'd said over and over again.
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That he believed it was his aunt's wish that the girl should have them.
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And I can tell you there's no man so particular as he is about respecting the wishes of the dead.
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Mrs Pond would have turned over the whole lot to Millie Stevens.
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I believe if it hadn't been for her husband.
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Mr pond isn't a rich man and he didn't feel that he could afford to yield up a million dollars worth of property that had been thrown at him in that way.
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And to speak plainly he isn't the sort of man to let go of anything that comes within his reach.
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My uncle offered to do the fair thing out of his own pocket.
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But as I've said, the Stevenses wouldn't touch his money and they're the cases stood ever since.
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The most valuable of the jewels are in the vaults of the central safe deposit company in this city.
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Some of the smaller pieces are in Mrs.
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Pond's possession.
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She is a woman who likes to wear a lot of jewelry and by Jupiter, she can do it.
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Now, if she likes for, she owns more diamonds than the Astor's.
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Mr.
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And Mrs.
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Pond live in Cleveland.
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Mrs Pond as I've told you is now visiting her father.
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You know, he bought the old Plummer place on the shore of Hempstead Harbor, long island.
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She's been with him for about two weeks.
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She has two rooms on the second floor of that house, a sitting room and a bedroom.
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Uh, the bedroom opens off the hall.
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It has only one other door, which leads to her sitting room.
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The first robbery occurred on the second day after she had arrived.
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It was late in the afternoon.
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Mrs pond had been out riding.
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When she returned, she hurried up to her room to dress for dinner.
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She took off some of her jewelry.
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Uh, some rings pins and that sort of thing, and laid them on the dressing table.
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Then she went to her sitting room.
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Now remember.
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I'm telling this just as she told it how much of it is fact and how much of it is hysterics.
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I can't say.
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She was scared half out of her wits by what happened afterwards and may have got mixed up in her narrative.
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Now this is what she told us.
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When she had been in the sitting room about a minute.
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She turned toward the bedroom and saw the door slowly shutting.
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She was surprised at this for, she had locked the other door of the bedroom and it did not seem possible for anybody to be in there.
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In fact, such a thing did not come into her mind.
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She supposed that a draft of air was swinging the door.
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She hastened toward it.
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But it closed before she got there.
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She turned the knob and tried to open the door, but was unable to do so.
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It did not seem to resist firmly as it would have if it had been fastened.
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Instead, it gave slightly as if some person had been holding it.
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If that was the case, he was stronger than she was for.
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She didn't succeed in opening the door.
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Then she screamed such a yell.
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I've never heard another woman utter.
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I was in my own room, which is over hers and I jumped nearly out of my skin.
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It startled me so! I was dressing and was in my underclothes.
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So it took me a minute, I should say, to get a pair of pantaloons on.
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Then I ran out into the hall and down the stairs.
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At the same moment, my uncle ran up from the ground floor.
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I mentioned these facts because they seem to me to be important.
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You see, we approach that room by two ways by the only two ways, except that by which Mrs.
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Pond came.
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Just as I got to the hall door of her bedroom, she opened it and fell into my arms in a faint.
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She lost consciousness only for a moment.
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And oncoming to herself.
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She cried out that a thief had been in her room.
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By this time there were three or four servants in the hall below.
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One of them stayed there by my uncles orders.
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The others went outside and made a circuit of the house.
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We led Mrs.
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Pawn back into her room and she pointed to her dressing table.
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There lay two or three rings and a pin.
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But the most valuable ring that she had put there was gone.
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It was a queer old fashioned ring in the form of a snake.
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And in its mouth was a Ruby worth about$250.
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The eyes were made of small diamonds.
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She declared that she had left the ring there.
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She told us how the door between the two rooms had closed.
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It appears that after she had struggled to open it for several minutes, it's suddenly yielded and she almost fell into the room.
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Of course, she expected to rush straight upon the thief.
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He had been holding the door and naturally he couldn't have gone far after releasing it.
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She was inside just as soon as the pressure on the other side was removed, but the room was empty.
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She thought of her jewels at once.
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She rushed to her dressing table and instantly missed the Ruby ring.
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Now.
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That's all that is to it.
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We hunted high and low for the thief and did not find a trace of him.
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How did he get away?
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That's where I give up the riddle.
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The door in the hall was locked on the inside and practically guarded by my uncle and myself.
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At the other door.
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Stood Mrs.
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Pond.
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There is only one window.
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It looks out on a sort of court with the house on three sides of it.
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A man with a wagon was almost under the window all the time.
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He was delivering groceries to the cook.
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It's absurd to suppose that anybody got in or out by that window.
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No thief would have been fool enough to try it at that time of day.
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And as I've told you, there were two persons who would have been perfectly sure to have seen him if he had.
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And he couldn't have got in or out without a ladder.
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I admit that it looked very queer.
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What do you make of it mr.
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Carter?
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Are you sure the ring was really taken.
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Couldn't she have been mistaken about it.
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That's the idea that occurred to me, but it happens that when Mrs.
00:17:16.109 --> 00:17:23.880
Pawn came back from the drive, my uncle banded her out of the carriage and he distinctly remembers seeing the ring on her finger.
00:17:24.480 --> 00:17:30.410
She went straight to her room and she couldn't have lost the ring by the way for there was a guard ring on the outside of it.
00:17:30.650 --> 00:17:33.170
And that we found on the dressing table.
00:17:33.599 --> 00:17:35.940
Of course we hunted for the Ruby ring.
00:17:36.359 --> 00:17:37.619
We took up the carpets.
00:17:37.740 --> 00:17:41.099
We made such a search as I've never saw before.
00:17:41.549 --> 00:17:43.859
The ring was not there.
00:17:44.700 --> 00:17:51.539
I don't think there's a shadow of doubt that the ring was stolen, but I can't form an idea of how it was done.
00:17:52.170 --> 00:17:54.569
The more I think about it, the more confused I get.
00:17:55.140 --> 00:18:03.390
To my mind, the queerest part of it is that somebody held the door and then let go of it and vanished in a quarter of a second.
00:18:03.700 --> 00:18:05.559
How are we going to explain that?
00:18:06.069 --> 00:18:08.410
Didn't the thief, put something against the door.
00:18:08.769 --> 00:18:13.329
I thought of that and try to work out that theory, but it's impossible.
00:18:13.779 --> 00:18:22.000
Not a piece of furniture was out of place and there wasn't a stick or a prop of any kind in that room that could have been used for such a purpose.
00:18:22.539 --> 00:18:22.990
Hm.
00:18:23.589 --> 00:18:24.640
Well, that's strange.
00:18:24.640 --> 00:18:26.109
I must admit set Nick.
00:18:27.039 --> 00:18:30.400
I guess it will be necessary for me to go down and look the ground over.
00:18:30.900 --> 00:18:32.400
That's just what we want.
00:18:33.390 --> 00:18:34.140
Come along then.
00:18:34.319 --> 00:18:34.950
I'm ready.
00:18:39.759 --> 00:18:40.539
Chapter two.
00:18:41.109 --> 00:18:43.059
Nick is boldly challenged.
00:18:44.829 --> 00:18:46.960
Nick knew the old Plummer mansion well.
00:18:47.470 --> 00:18:49.779
There is not a house to match it in this country.
00:18:50.589 --> 00:18:54.549
A hundred years and more ago, it must have been the scene of strange adventures.
00:18:55.180 --> 00:19:00.339
It was built certainly by one who did not expect a peaceful and quiet life within it.
00:19:01.240 --> 00:19:06.609
The thick stone walls, which look so unnecessarily massive are really double.
00:19:07.000 --> 00:19:15.470
There are secret passages and movable panels and trap doors enough in that house to hide a man if a regiment of soldiers was after him.
00:19:16.490 --> 00:19:25.160
Evidently such a place offered every chance to shrewd criminals who might have a motive for playing upon the superstitious belief of the present proprietor.
00:19:25.599 --> 00:19:31.420
Anybody who couldn't get up a respectable ghost in the old plumber house must be a very poor faker.
00:19:32.349 --> 00:19:38.829
The mere fact that all the doors and windows of a room were closed, did not prevent any person from going in or out at will.
00:19:39.130 --> 00:19:41.079
If he knew the secrets of the house.
00:19:42.130 --> 00:19:51.730
Nick thought of these things as he rode down there in the cars and he prepared himself for an interesting time, chasing bogus ghosts through the secret doors and panels.
00:19:52.329 --> 00:19:55.569
But a surprise awaited him upon his arrival.
00:19:56.470 --> 00:20:04.299
Colonel Richmond met him at the door and by Nick's request, took him at once to the room from which the articles had been stolen.
00:20:05.740 --> 00:20:09.430
It was a modern room in a new part of the house.
00:20:10.059 --> 00:20:12.730
Nick was entirely unprepared for this.
00:20:13.210 --> 00:20:16.660
He did not know that the Colonel had built any additions to the old mansion.
00:20:17.130 --> 00:20:20.549
Colonel Richmond spoke of this remarkable feature of the case at once.
00:20:20.819 --> 00:20:27.869
If this thing had happened in the old part of the house, he said, I shouldn't have thought that it was anything but an ordinary robbery.
00:20:28.559 --> 00:20:39.450
Every room there can be entered in a secret manner and no doubt, there are plenty of panels and passages, which even, I do not know, but there's nothing of the kind here.
00:20:39.900 --> 00:20:42.390
This wing was built under my eye.
00:20:42.450 --> 00:20:47.940
And from my own design, I saw the beams laid and the floors nailed down.
00:20:48.240 --> 00:20:52.680
There is absolutely no way to enter the room in which we now stand.
00:20:52.980 --> 00:20:55.650
Except by the two doors and the window.
00:20:56.130 --> 00:20:58.200
My nephew has told you about the robberies.
00:20:58.559 --> 00:21:02.730
You know that the doors and the windows were practically guarded all the time.
00:21:03.450 --> 00:21:09.960
I don't believe that any mortal being could have got in here and out again without being seen.
00:21:10.920 --> 00:21:13.799
As for myself, I understand the case perfectly.
00:21:14.279 --> 00:21:20.009
My belief will seem strange to you because you do not see with the eye of the spirit.
00:21:20.640 --> 00:21:23.190
Everything has to be done by human hands.
00:21:23.190 --> 00:21:25.890
According to your matter of fact notion.
00:21:26.940 --> 00:21:27.930
I know better.
00:21:28.319 --> 00:21:39.180
And I tell you that these jewels were taken by the spirit of my deceased aunt and that she did it to show me that my daughter was wrongfully in possession of them.
00:21:39.700 --> 00:21:47.829
When a healthy hearty old man who seems to be as sane as anybody else in the world stands up and talks such nonsense as this.
00:21:48.730 --> 00:21:49.960
What can one say to him?
00:21:50.680 --> 00:21:53.920
It is useless to tell him that he is wrong about the whole matter.
00:21:54.430 --> 00:21:56.529
It is folly to attempt to reason with them.
00:21:57.309 --> 00:22:01.990
The only way to do is to show him a perfectly natural explanation of the mystery.
00:22:02.529 --> 00:22:03.880
And simply make him see it.
00:22:04.720 --> 00:22:07.089
That was the task which Nick had before him.
00:22:07.630 --> 00:22:09.130
And it must be owned that.
00:22:09.579 --> 00:22:13.660
At the first glance, he did not see how he was going to accomplish it.
00:22:14.619 --> 00:22:19.990
He examined the room and satisfied himself that it had no secret entrances.
00:22:20.740 --> 00:22:22.089
Such being the case.
00:22:22.420 --> 00:22:28.420
Nick was unable to form a theory of the robbery, which would fit the facts as they had been stated to him.
00:22:28.980 --> 00:22:33.630
After looking at the rooms, he went with Colonel Richmond to the parlor on the ground floor.
00:22:33.930 --> 00:22:37.380
And there proceeded to question him about the mysterious occurrences.
00:22:37.920 --> 00:22:40.589
There have been three robberies in all, said the Colonel.
00:22:41.069 --> 00:22:43.369
And they have been exactly, alike.
00:22:43.769 --> 00:22:49.529
In every case, my daughter has left some articles of jewelry on the dressing table in her bedroom.
00:22:49.920 --> 00:22:54.720
And one of them has vanished, never more than one at a time.
00:22:55.589 --> 00:22:58.980
Twice it happened while she was in the adjoining room.
00:22:59.490 --> 00:23:03.839
The bedroom door, which opens into the hall was locked on these occasions.
00:23:04.380 --> 00:23:08.160
The third time she was in the hall talking with my nephew.
00:23:08.789 --> 00:23:12.119
He was standing in the upper hall, leaning over the banister rail.
00:23:12.660 --> 00:23:15.450
They were discussing a plan for a drive out to the country.
00:23:15.750 --> 00:23:17.339
Quite a party was to go.
00:23:18.059 --> 00:23:23.819
Horace had just received word from a gentlemen whom they had invited that he would now be unable to go.
00:23:24.450 --> 00:23:25.950
He had read the note in his room.
00:23:26.220 --> 00:23:28.950
And he called downstairs to my daughter to tell her about it.
00:23:29.789 --> 00:23:33.299
That was how they happened to be standing in the hall.
00:23:34.049 --> 00:23:41.819
Presently, she went back into her room and almost immediately notice that a small locket set with diamonds had been taken.
00:23:42.119 --> 00:23:45.450
She screamed at Horace and I came running to her room.
00:23:45.960 --> 00:23:47.700
We searched it thoroughly.
00:23:48.240 --> 00:23:49.859
There was nobody there.
00:23:50.369 --> 00:23:53.819
The door between the bedroom and the sitting room was open.
00:23:54.180 --> 00:24:01.920
But the other door of the sitting room, which opens into the old portion of the house was locked and bolted on the inside.
00:24:02.369 --> 00:24:02.789
Now.
00:24:03.269 --> 00:24:04.650
I submit to you, Mr.
00:24:04.650 --> 00:24:09.960
Carter, whether in that case, any other way of entrance or exit was possible?
00:24:10.319 --> 00:24:11.759
Except by the windows.
00:24:12.289 --> 00:24:20.750
I'm bound to admit, responded Nick, that if the doors were in the condition, you describe no person could have entered or left those rooms except by the windows.
00:24:21.170 --> 00:24:23.930
Well, it had been raining hard and the ground was soft.
00:24:24.289 --> 00:24:26.599
We looked carefully under all the windows.
00:24:27.019 --> 00:24:31.690
There was no sign of a footprint and nobody could have walked there without making tracks.
00:24:31.819 --> 00:24:33.829
Oh, it is clear enough.
00:24:34.069 --> 00:24:37.759
Why do we waste your time in a search for invisible spirits of the dead?
00:24:39.049 --> 00:24:41.029
He rambled on in this way for several minutes.
00:24:41.359 --> 00:24:42.920
And Nick did not try to stop him.
00:24:43.730 --> 00:24:50.750
The Colonel was at last interrupted, however, by the entrance of his daughter, Mrs pond had been out driving.
00:24:51.380 --> 00:24:58.430
She learned on her return that a stranger had come to the house and she hurried into the parlor suspecting who was there.
00:24:58.960 --> 00:25:00.849
I am delighted to see you, Mr.
00:25:00.849 --> 00:25:01.299
Carter.
00:25:01.420 --> 00:25:02.170
She exclaimed.
00:25:02.920 --> 00:25:08.349
You will clear up this abominable mystery and relieve my father's mind from these delusions.
00:25:09.730 --> 00:25:12.480
Then you do not share his opinions, said Nick.
00:25:13.299 --> 00:25:14.769
Mrs pond laughed nervously.
00:25:15.549 --> 00:25:17.319
No indeed, she said.
00:25:17.799 --> 00:25:22.180
And yet I must admit that I am quite unable to explain the facts.
00:25:22.869 --> 00:25:24.910
I suppose you have heard the story.
00:25:25.220 --> 00:25:25.759
Yes.
00:25:26.140 --> 00:25:27.369
What do you think about it?
00:25:27.799 --> 00:25:30.650
It is much too early in the case for me to express an opinion.
00:25:31.069 --> 00:25:34.579
But there are one or two questions that I should like to ask you.
00:25:35.329 --> 00:25:39.470
Oh, do so by all means! It was at my request that you were called in.
00:25:40.089 --> 00:25:41.170
At your request?
00:25:41.539 --> 00:25:42.140
Yes.
00:25:42.650 --> 00:25:46.970
I talked with Horace about it and at last we agreed to ask you to take the case.
00:25:47.390 --> 00:25:53.480
He didn't believe in it at first for, he did not want to let anybody into our family secrets.
00:25:53.809 --> 00:25:55.670
She glanced at her father as she spoke.
00:25:56.210 --> 00:26:03.400
It was evident that the family was a good deal ashamed of Colonel Richmond's spiritualistic delusions and wanted to keep quiet about them.
00:26:03.900 --> 00:26:06.299
I talked Horace into it after a while.
00:26:06.420 --> 00:26:06.720
Mrs.
00:26:06.720 --> 00:26:07.500
Pond continued.
00:26:08.099 --> 00:26:11.430
And at last he became as enthusiastic as myself.
00:26:11.940 --> 00:26:13.980
We know that you will find the thief.
00:26:14.470 --> 00:26:16.059
Thank you responded, Nick.
00:26:16.569 --> 00:26:19.720
Uh, there is one point, which seems peculiar to me.
00:26:20.500 --> 00:26:28.480
After you had been robbed once, why did you continue to leave the jewels unwatched in the very place from which one of them had been previously taken?
00:26:29.000 --> 00:26:31.519
I insisted upon it said Colonel Richmond.
00:26:32.029 --> 00:26:37.819
I told my daughter that she must make no change in her habit of wearing or caring for my aunts jewels.
00:26:38.359 --> 00:26:48.140
I wish to show that we were not foolishly trying to hide them from the eye of a spirit, but that we wish to learn the desire of my departed aunt as soon as possible.
00:26:48.559 --> 00:26:51.099
It was by your order then, said Nick.
00:26:51.380 --> 00:26:56.750
That your daughter continued to put the jewels on her dressing table when she laid them aside for any reason?
00:26:57.299 --> 00:26:57.990
It was.
00:26:58.269 --> 00:27:00.430
I have just left some of them there now.
00:27:00.519 --> 00:27:01.390
said Mrs pond.
00:27:01.869 --> 00:27:07.690
I went to my room after my ride and took off a light cloak, which was fastened with three pins.
00:27:07.869 --> 00:27:09.759
Each having a diamond in its head.
00:27:10.420 --> 00:27:13.779
I stuck them all into a cushion on that dressing table.
00:27:14.250 --> 00:27:15.089
Is the room locked.
00:27:15.309 --> 00:27:15.869
Asked Nick.
00:27:16.279 --> 00:27:17.599
Yes replied Mrs.
00:27:17.599 --> 00:27:21.388
Pond and she produced the key of the door, which opened from the hall above.
00:27:21.848 --> 00:27:23.409
Will you allow me to go up there now?
00:27:24.038 --> 00:27:24.699
Certainly.
00:27:25.118 --> 00:27:26.348
She handed the key to Nick.
00:27:26.919 --> 00:27:28.898
He took it and walked out of the parlor.
00:27:29.949 --> 00:27:33.038
Nick had already formed a sort of working theory in the case.
00:27:33.548 --> 00:27:37.449
He scarcely believed that it would hold water, but it would do for a starter.
00:27:37.929 --> 00:27:41.588
The most probable explanation that had come to him was that Mrs.
00:27:41.588 --> 00:27:43.929
Pond had not really been robbed at all.
00:27:44.679 --> 00:27:47.979
It might be that she had some motive for making these articles vanish.
00:27:48.398 --> 00:27:54.038
Perhaps she had some need of money and was secretly selling them against the wish of her husband and her father.
00:27:54.699 --> 00:27:58.298
So, when Nick took that key and went toward the room.
00:27:58.778 --> 00:28:03.878
He did not expect to find the three diamond pins in the position described by the lady.
00:28:04.378 --> 00:28:07.769
He found the door locked and he opened it by means of the key.
00:28:08.459 --> 00:28:12.209
Then he locked it behind him leaving the key in the lock.
00:28:13.078 --> 00:28:14.939
He turned at once to a dressing table.
00:28:15.749 --> 00:28:18.058
The three pins were there just as Mrs.
00:28:18.058 --> 00:28:18.868
Pond had said.
00:28:19.949 --> 00:28:21.689
Nick laughed softly to himself.
00:28:23.219 --> 00:28:30.838
That looks bad for my first shot at this queer case, he said, but perhaps she didn't dare work the game while I was in the house.
00:28:31.419 --> 00:28:33.189
He glanced out of the window of the room.
00:28:33.638 --> 00:28:35.318
Two servants were in the yard.
00:28:35.798 --> 00:28:40.259
They seem to be explaining the robberies to a new driver of a grocery man's wagon.
00:28:40.459 --> 00:28:43.989
For, they had one of his arms, apiece and were pointing to the window.
00:28:44.479 --> 00:28:52.848
Nick walked into the sitting room and spent some minutes examining the walls and especially the door leading toward the old part of the house.
00:28:53.368 --> 00:28:56.429
He found nothing at all to reward his search.
00:28:56.969 --> 00:29:00.058
There absolutely was no secret entrance.
00:29:00.929 --> 00:29:04.259
The detective decided that nothing further could be done in that room.
00:29:04.858 --> 00:29:06.148
He walked toward the other.
00:29:07.229 --> 00:29:08.368
To his astonishment.
00:29:08.578 --> 00:29:13.199
He found that the door had been closed while he had been busy with his investigations.
00:29:13.798 --> 00:29:15.088
He sprang against it.
00:29:15.749 --> 00:29:19.588
The door yielded a little and yet he could not open it.
00:29:20.398 --> 00:29:24.838
Some person stronger than he seemed to be holding it on the other side.
00:29:25.648 --> 00:29:27.179
He drew back for a spring.
00:29:27.538 --> 00:29:31.169
That door would have gone to splinters if it had stood in his way again.
00:29:31.769 --> 00:29:34.979
Instead it swung open the instant he touched it.
00:29:35.219 --> 00:29:38.759
And the force of his lunge took him nearly to the middle of the room.
00:29:39.388 --> 00:29:41.128
In an instant, he was on guard.
00:29:41.759 --> 00:29:42.778
But he saw no one.
00:29:43.979 --> 00:29:47.159
The room was quiet and it was empty.
00:29:47.848 --> 00:29:50.999
The door into the hall was locked as he had left it.
00:29:51.479 --> 00:29:56.098
All was the same, except that on the dressing table was the cushion bearing.
00:29:56.818 --> 00:29:59.128
To diamond pins instead of three.
00:29:59.519 --> 00:30:03.088
The robbery had been done as one might say, under the nose.
00:30:03.358 --> 00:30:05.368
Of the greatest detective in the world.
00:30:05.848 --> 00:30:09.778
Well, this takes my breath away, Said Nick to himself.
00:30:10.618 --> 00:30:13.558
It's the nerviest challenge that was ever sprung on me.
00:30:17.459 --> 00:30:18.088
Wow.
00:30:18.598 --> 00:30:20.128
What in the heck's going on?
00:30:20.759 --> 00:30:22.858
Did Nick actually encounter a ghost?
00:30:23.489 --> 00:30:24.719
What do you think is going on?
00:30:25.318 --> 00:30:29.189
Send me a message on Facebook or the podcast website with your thoughts.
00:30:29.818 --> 00:30:31.888
Did you know, you can also leave a voicemail there.
00:30:32.308 --> 00:30:32.818
It's true.
00:30:33.538 --> 00:30:39.388
Well, I guess we'll have to wait until the next episode to continue the story of Nick Carter's ghost story.
00:30:39.989 --> 00:30:50.888
Once again, a huge shout out to the tireless volunteers for project Gutenberg for providing this and all additional stories for this podcast and for your own personal enjoyment.
00:30:51.939 --> 00:30:52.989
Like the podcast.
00:30:53.409 --> 00:30:54.159
Tell a friend.
00:30:54.788 --> 00:30:55.989
Don't like the podcast.
00:30:56.679 --> 00:30:58.239
Tell me please.
00:30:58.659 --> 00:31:01.298
You can send me a message at the podcast website.
00:31:01.868 --> 00:31:04.959
Forward into the past podcast.com.
00:31:05.528 --> 00:31:07.838
Or visit me on my Facebook page.
00:31:08.409 --> 00:31:13.028
You can also support the show there by following the link that says, buy me a coffee.
00:31:13.689 --> 00:31:15.669
Which allows you to do just that.
00:31:16.088 --> 00:31:20.318
Buy me a coffee, or you can subscribe to a monthly subscription service.
00:31:21.009 --> 00:31:25.088
I appreciate all the support you've given me and my little podcast.
00:31:25.989 --> 00:31:28.118
Well until next time, folks.
00:31:28.388 --> 00:31:29.288
Thanks for listening.
00:31:29.528 --> 00:31:32.858
Keep sharing the stories and be a good human.
00:31:33.429 --> 00:31:34.538
Bye for now.
00:00:00.200 --> 00:00:00.890
Hi, everyone.
00:00:01.280 --> 00:00:04.849
And welcome to another episode of forward into the past.
00:00:05.089 --> 00:00:07.419
I'm your host and narrator JC Rede.
00:00:07.849 --> 00:00:18.440
And today we'll be starting another exciting episode of the Nick Carter mysteries as it appeared in the weekly story paper, the New York weekly way back in 1900.
00:00:19.280 --> 00:00:25.969
As I'm sure you know, by now all of these stories are taken from project Gutenberg and are completely free of copyright.
00:00:26.539 --> 00:00:33.950
The story, we just finished the crime of the French cafe by Nicholas Carter, was written way back in 1893.
00:00:34.729 --> 00:00:51.109
The story we're about to start now, Nick Carter's Ghost story, appeared in the New York weekly one year later in 1894, again, written by Nicholas Carter, a street and Smith publishing house pseudonym for any writers contributing to the Nick Carter mysteries.
00:00:52.039 --> 00:01:01.490
Now on this podcast, you've heard me mention things like: story papers, dime novels, thick books, pulp magazines, and lots of other things.
00:01:02.229 --> 00:01:04.159
Am I always talking about the same things.
00:01:04.790 --> 00:01:06.349
Well, yes.
00:01:07.219 --> 00:01:07.939
And no.
00:01:08.989 --> 00:01:13.579
Story papers have been around since the mid 18 hundreds, even before the civil war.
00:01:14.090 --> 00:01:23.329
Many of the Nick Carter stories and some of the other ones that I will hopefully be sharing with you in future podcasts are almost all taken from the story papers in one way or another.
00:01:24.140 --> 00:01:26.780
Story papers were like newspapers.
00:01:27.349 --> 00:01:32.120
Newspapers gave you the news and story papers gave you stories.
00:01:32.780 --> 00:01:43.129
Now, depending on the publisher, the story paper could be magazine sized or newspaper sized, but the weekly paper was always eight pages worth of stories front and back.
00:01:43.849 --> 00:01:46.790
If the character had a strong following, like Nick Carter.
00:01:47.239 --> 00:01:50.390
All chapters of the story might appear in the very same paper.
00:01:51.140 --> 00:01:57.200
Sometimes it would be serialized, meaning that the story would be broken up over several weeks.
00:01:57.859 --> 00:02:03.829
Many times this was not a popular option because families could not always purchase a paper every week.
00:02:04.340 --> 00:02:07.819
It was still of course a luxury, but an affordable one.
00:02:08.659 --> 00:02:11.689
Story papers carried with them a kind of stigma.
00:02:12.169 --> 00:02:15.469
Because they were a very affordable way for a person to get entertained.
00:02:15.740 --> 00:02:22.310
The stories within them were often looked at as mindless drivel and definitely not literature.
00:02:23.090 --> 00:02:31.449
However, the stories contained within those pages, as we've proven in our last story, we're very well-written and served to entertain the masses.
00:02:32.080 --> 00:02:38.919
This is one of the reasons that I'm guessing that Nick Carter wasn't as big a literary figure as I feel he could've, or should've been.
00:02:40.419 --> 00:02:45.939
Well, we'll just have to continue plugging through, despite what critics may have said about our hero.
00:02:46.569 --> 00:02:54.759
Here at forward into the past, we're going to place him on a virtual pedestal and give the detective a chance to reclaim some of his former glory.
00:02:55.439 --> 00:03:02.250
Nick Carter's ghost story was written in 1894 and appeared in the weekly story paper, the New York weekly.
00:03:02.729 --> 00:03:07.500
It is currently part of a compilation of three Nick Carter stories in one paperback book.
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The crime of the French cafe and other stories first published by street and Smith's magnet library and republished under the same title for their new magnet library series.
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The version found on project Gutenberg is the magnet library version published around 1900.
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Chapter one.
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The vanishing thief.
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Nick Carter's friends often ask him whether in the course of his remarkable experience as a detective.
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He has ever encountered anything which could not have been the work of human hands.
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Few people nowadays will own that they believe in ghosts Yet.
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Most of us would be less sure about it in a graveyard at midnight, than on Broadway at noon.
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A man who can tell a reasonable story about having seen a ghost may not find many believers, but he will get plenty of listeners for, we are all eager to hear about such things.
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So Nick who always likes to oblige his friends does not deny the existence of spirits when he is asked whether he ever saw any on the contrary, if he has the time to spare, he usually tells the following story.
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A broad shouldered, square jaw, bright young man called on Nick one afternoon and was ushered into the study.
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His card had gone up ahead of him and it bore the name.
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Horace G Richmond.
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Nick ran his eye over his visitor and decided that he was a fellow who knew the world and was getting everything out of it, that there is in it.
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He met Nick's eye with the air of a man who was going to do something unusual and wants to announce it at the start that he can back it up.
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I have a case for you, Mr.
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Carter, if you will take it, he said.
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Hmm.
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State it, replied Nick.
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It's a robbery case and a mighty queer one.
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I don't pretend to understand it or any part of it.
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Who's been robbed.
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My uncle Colonel Richmond, or should I say his daughter?
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Mrs.
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Pond?
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Uh, but the robbery affects my uncle perhaps more seriously that his daughter.
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It is on his account that I am here.
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Tell the story.
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I'll do it, but first let me say that whatever others may think of the case, I believe it's just simply theft.
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Mrs.
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Pond has a lot of jewelry and somebody stealing it a piece at a time, That's my view, but my uncles is different.
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He says that these robberies are not the work of human hands.
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Now as for me, I try to keep my feet on the earth all the time.
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I want you to understand right at the start that I don't believe in any stuff about ghosts and hobgoblins.
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In my opinion, ghosts that steal diamonds ought to be in the jug and will probably get there unless they turn over a new leaf.
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My uncle doesn't see, as straight as that.
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Uh, perhaps you remember that.
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Three or four years ago, he fell into the hands of a couple of sharks who pretended to be mediums.
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He had always believed in spiritualism.
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And these crooks caught him just right.
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They called up the spooks of all the dead people he could think of.
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They got messages from the spirit land, seven nights in the week and two matinees.
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My uncle simply went wild about it.
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You remember it was all in the papers.
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They worked him beautifully.
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And if I had not stepped in and exposed them just in time, they'd have got every cent he had.
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That would have been quite a haul, said Nick, Well, I should remark! He's worth more than$4 million.
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I tell you those bogus mediums thought they'd struck something very soft.
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However I showed them up and convinced my uncle that they were rank frauds.
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They're in Sing-sing now.
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My uncle did not give up his belief in spirits.
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He said, these people are frauds, but there are others who honestly, and truly hold communication with the departed.
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I tell you we've had a hard time keeping him out of the hands of sharpers since then.
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But we've succeeded.
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And now by bad luck, this queer affair has come up and all my uncle's faith has returned.
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He wants to consult mediums and all that sort of thing.
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That's the only serious part of it.
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The jewels that have been stolen aren't worth over a couple of thousand dollars, all told.
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Of course, it's a nuisance to have such a thing happen in anybody's house, but we wouldn't care much if the mysterious circumstances would not driving my uncle's mind back to his pet delusion.
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What are these mysterious circumstances?
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Asked the detective.
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Why it's like this.
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Colonel Richmond's aunt Ms.
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Lavina Richmond was a queer old lady who was once very rich.
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At that time she had a passion for collecting jewels.
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She used to invest her money in diamonds.
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Uh, just as another person might buy houses or railroad stock.
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Only about a 10th, part of a fortune was invested so that she got any income out of it.
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In the last part of her life, she lost all that part of her property.
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So that she hadn't anything of the world, but her jewels.
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She wouldn't sell one.
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And there she was as poor in one sense, as a lodger in city hall square for she hadn't a cent of money and yet owning diamonds and other precious stones worth nearly a million dollars.
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She wouldn't borrow on them.
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She wouldn't do anything, but keep them locked up.
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And so she had to depend absolutely on my uncle for the necessities of life.
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He didn't mind that, of course, for he had plenty.
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She lived at his house and eventually died there.
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She, and my uncle never got along in spite of his kindness to her.
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And she had no friends.
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Except for a Mrs.
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Stephens and her daughter.
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They're related to the Richmond's, but the money is all in the Colonel's branch of the family.
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Mrs.
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Stevens and Millie, uh, her daughter are poor.
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They have just enough to live on.
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The Colonel would take care of them, but they won't have it.
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They're too proud.
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Now.
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Everybody thought that old miss Levina Richmond would leave her tremendous pile of diamonds to Millie Stevens.
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Indeed.
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Ms.
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Richmond used to say so continually.
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I've heard her say in the Colonel's presence that Mrs.
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Stephens should have the jewels that such was her wish.
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Well, she died suddenly a year or more ago.
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And the only will that could be found was dated many years back and left everything she possessed to the Colonel's daughter.
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It was the greatest surprise that you can imagine.
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We all knew that such a will had been made, but we hadn't the slightest idea that it still existed.
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And that she had made no other.
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On the contrary.
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We knew positively that she had made a much later will in favor of Millie Stephens.
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But the document couldn't be found.
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And so the old one was submitted for probate.
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The Colonel expected a contest, but the Stevenses did not make a murmur.
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It must've been a tremendous disappointment to them, but they bore it with perfect good nature.
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They didn't seem to feel half so badly about it as my uncle did.
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If he had had his way, he would have given all the jewels to Ms.
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Stephens.
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He'd said over and over again.
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That he believed it was his aunt's wish that the girl should have them.
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And I can tell you there's no man so particular as he is about respecting the wishes of the dead.
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Mrs Pond would have turned over the whole lot to Millie Stevens.
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I believe if it hadn't been for her husband.
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Mr pond isn't a rich man and he didn't feel that he could afford to yield up a million dollars worth of property that had been thrown at him in that way.
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And to speak plainly he isn't the sort of man to let go of anything that comes within his reach.
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My uncle offered to do the fair thing out of his own pocket.
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But as I've said, the Stevenses wouldn't touch his money and they're the cases stood ever since.
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The most valuable of the jewels are in the vaults of the central safe deposit company in this city.
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Some of the smaller pieces are in Mrs.
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Pond's possession.
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She is a woman who likes to wear a lot of jewelry and by Jupiter, she can do it.
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Now, if she likes for, she owns more diamonds than the Astor's.
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Mr.
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And Mrs.
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Pond live in Cleveland.
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Mrs Pond as I've told you is now visiting her father.
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You know, he bought the old Plummer place on the shore of Hempstead Harbor, long island.
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She's been with him for about two weeks.
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She has two rooms on the second floor of that house, a sitting room and a bedroom.
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Uh, the bedroom opens off the hall.
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It has only one other door, which leads to her sitting room.
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The first robbery occurred on the second day after she had arrived.
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It was late in the afternoon.
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Mrs pond had been out riding.
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When she returned, she hurried up to her room to dress for dinner.
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She took off some of her jewelry.
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Uh, some rings pins and that sort of thing, and laid them on the dressing table.
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Then she went to her sitting room.
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Now remember.
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I'm telling this just as she told it how much of it is fact and how much of it is hysterics.
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I can't say.
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She was scared half out of her wits by what happened afterwards and may have got mixed up in her narrative.
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Now this is what she told us.
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When she had been in the sitting room about a minute.
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She turned toward the bedroom and saw the door slowly shutting.
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She was surprised at this for, she had locked the other door of the bedroom and it did not seem possible for anybody to be in there.
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In fact, such a thing did not come into her mind.
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She supposed that a draft of air was swinging the door.
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She hastened toward it.
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But it closed before she got there.
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She turned the knob and tried to open the door, but was unable to do so.
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It did not seem to resist firmly as it would have if it had been fastened.
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Instead, it gave slightly as if some person had been holding it.
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If that was the case, he was stronger than she was for.
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She didn't succeed in opening the door.
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Then she screamed such a yell.
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I've never heard another woman utter.
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I was in my own room, which is over hers and I jumped nearly out of my skin.
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It startled me so! I was dressing and was in my underclothes.
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So it took me a minute, I should say, to get a pair of pantaloons on.
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Then I ran out into the hall and down the stairs.
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At the same moment, my uncle ran up from the ground floor.
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I mentioned these facts because they seem to me to be important.
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You see, we approach that room by two ways by the only two ways, except that by which Mrs.
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Pond came.
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Just as I got to the hall door of her bedroom, she opened it and fell into my arms in a faint.
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She lost consciousness only for a moment.
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And oncoming to herself.
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She cried out that a thief had been in her room.
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By this time there were three or four servants in the hall below.
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One of them stayed there by my uncles orders.
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The others went outside and made a circuit of the house.
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We led Mrs.
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Pawn back into her room and she pointed to her dressing table.
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There lay two or three rings and a pin.
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But the most valuable ring that she had put there was gone.
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It was a queer old fashioned ring in the form of a snake.
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And in its mouth was a Ruby worth about$250.
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The eyes were made of small diamonds.
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She declared that she had left the ring there.
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She told us how the door between the two rooms had closed.
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It appears that after she had struggled to open it for several minutes, it's suddenly yielded and she almost fell into the room.
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Of course, she expected to rush straight upon the thief.
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He had been holding the door and naturally he couldn't have gone far after releasing it.
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She was inside just as soon as the pressure on the other side was removed, but the room was empty.
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She thought of her jewels at once.
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She rushed to her dressing table and instantly missed the Ruby ring.
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Now.
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That's all that is to it.
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We hunted high and low for the thief and did not find a trace of him.
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How did he get away?
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That's where I give up the riddle.
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The door in the hall was locked on the inside and practically guarded by my uncle and myself.
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At the other door.
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Stood Mrs.
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Pond.
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There is only one window.
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It looks out on a sort of court with the house on three sides of it.
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A man with a wagon was almost under the window all the time.
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He was delivering groceries to the cook.
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It's absurd to suppose that anybody got in or out by that window.
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No thief would have been fool enough to try it at that time of day.
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And as I've told you, there were two persons who would have been perfectly sure to have seen him if he had.
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And he couldn't have got in or out without a ladder.
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I admit that it looked very queer.
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What do you make of it mr.
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Carter?
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Are you sure the ring was really taken.
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Couldn't she have been mistaken about it.
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That's the idea that occurred to me, but it happens that when Mrs.
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Pawn came back from the drive, my uncle banded her out of the carriage and he distinctly remembers seeing the ring on her finger.
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She went straight to her room and she couldn't have lost the ring by the way for there was a guard ring on the outside of it.
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And that we found on the dressing table.
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Of course we hunted for the Ruby ring.
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We took up the carpets.
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We made such a search as I've never saw before.
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The ring was not there.
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I don't think there's a shadow of doubt that the ring was stolen, but I can't form an idea of how it was done.
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The more I think about it, the more confused I get.
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To my mind, the queerest part of it is that somebody held the door and then let go of it and vanished in a quarter of a second.
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How are we going to explain that?
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Didn't the thief, put something against the door.
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I thought of that and try to work out that theory, but it's impossible.
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Not a piece of furniture was out of place and there wasn't a stick or a prop of any kind in that room that could have been used for such a purpose.
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Hm.
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Well, that's strange.
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I must admit set Nick.
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I guess it will be necessary for me to go down and look the ground over.
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That's just what we want.
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Come along then.
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I'm ready.
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Chapter two.
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Nick is boldly challenged.
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Nick knew the old Plummer mansion well.
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There is not a house to match it in this country.
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A hundred years and more ago, it must have been the scene of strange adventures.
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It was built certainly by one who did not expect a peaceful and quiet life within it.
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The thick stone walls, which look so unnecessarily massive are really double.
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There are secret passages and movable panels and trap doors enough in that house to hide a man if a regiment of soldiers was after him.
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Evidently such a place offered every chance to shrewd criminals who might have a motive for playing upon the superstitious belief of the present proprietor.
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Anybody who couldn't get up a respectable ghost in the old plumber house must be a very poor faker.
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The mere fact that all the doors and windows of a room were closed, did not prevent any person from going in or out at will.
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If he knew the secrets of the house.
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Nick thought of these things as he rode down there in the cars and he prepared himself for an interesting time, chasing bogus ghosts through the secret doors and panels.
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But a surprise awaited him upon his arrival.
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Colonel Richmond met him at the door and by Nick's request, took him at once to the room from which the articles had been stolen.
00:20:05.740 --> 00:20:09.430
It was a modern room in a new part of the house.
00:20:10.059 --> 00:20:12.730
Nick was entirely unprepared for this.
00:20:13.210 --> 00:20:16.660
He did not know that the Colonel had built any additions to the old mansion.
00:20:17.130 --> 00:20:20.549
Colonel Richmond spoke of this remarkable feature of the case at once.
00:20:20.819 --> 00:20:27.869
If this thing had happened in the old part of the house, he said, I shouldn't have thought that it was anything but an ordinary robbery.
00:20:28.559 --> 00:20:39.450
Every room there can be entered in a secret manner and no doubt, there are plenty of panels and passages, which even, I do not know, but there's nothing of the kind here.
00:20:39.900 --> 00:20:42.390
This wing was built under my eye.
00:20:42.450 --> 00:20:47.940
And from my own design, I saw the beams laid and the floors nailed down.
00:20:48.240 --> 00:20:52.680
There is absolutely no way to enter the room in which we now stand.
00:20:52.980 --> 00:20:55.650
Except by the two doors and the window.
00:20:56.130 --> 00:20:58.200
My nephew has told you about the robberies.
00:20:58.559 --> 00:21:02.730
You know that the doors and the windows were practically guarded all the time.
00:21:03.450 --> 00:21:09.960
I don't believe that any mortal being could have got in here and out again without being seen.
00:21:10.920 --> 00:21:13.799
As for myself, I understand the case perfectly.
00:21:14.279 --> 00:21:20.009
My belief will seem strange to you because you do not see with the eye of the spirit.
00:21:20.640 --> 00:21:23.190
Everything has to be done by human hands.
00:21:23.190 --> 00:21:25.890
According to your matter of fact notion.
00:21:26.940 --> 00:21:27.930
I know better.
00:21:28.319 --> 00:21:39.180
And I tell you that these jewels were taken by the spirit of my deceased aunt and that she did it to show me that my daughter was wrongfully in possession of them.
00:21:39.700 --> 00:21:47.829
When a healthy hearty old man who seems to be as sane as anybody else in the world stands up and talks such nonsense as this.
00:21:48.730 --> 00:21:49.960
What can one say to him?
00:21:50.680 --> 00:21:53.920
It is useless to tell him that he is wrong about the whole matter.
00:21:54.430 --> 00:21:56.529
It is folly to attempt to reason with them.
00:21:57.309 --> 00:22:01.990
The only way to do is to show him a perfectly natural explanation of the mystery.
00:22:02.529 --> 00:22:03.880
And simply make him see it.
00:22:04.720 --> 00:22:07.089
That was the task which Nick had before him.
00:22:07.630 --> 00:22:09.130
And it must be owned that.
00:22:09.579 --> 00:22:13.660
At the first glance, he did not see how he was going to accomplish it.
00:22:14.619 --> 00:22:19.990
He examined the room and satisfied himself that it had no secret entrances.
00:22:20.740 --> 00:22:22.089
Such being the case.
00:22:22.420 --> 00:22:28.420
Nick was unable to form a theory of the robbery, which would fit the facts as they had been stated to him.
00:22:28.980 --> 00:22:33.630
After looking at the rooms, he went with Colonel Richmond to the parlor on the ground floor.
00:22:33.930 --> 00:22:37.380
And there proceeded to question him about the mysterious occurrences.
00:22:37.920 --> 00:22:40.589
There have been three robberies in all, said the Colonel.
00:22:41.069 --> 00:22:43.369
And they have been exactly, alike.
00:22:43.769 --> 00:22:49.529
In every case, my daughter has left some articles of jewelry on the dressing table in her bedroom.
00:22:49.920 --> 00:22:54.720
And one of them has vanished, never more than one at a time.
00:22:55.589 --> 00:22:58.980
Twice it happened while she was in the adjoining room.
00:22:59.490 --> 00:23:03.839
The bedroom door, which opens into the hall was locked on these occasions.
00:23:04.380 --> 00:23:08.160
The third time she was in the hall talking with my nephew.
00:23:08.789 --> 00:23:12.119
He was standing in the upper hall, leaning over the banister rail.
00:23:12.660 --> 00:23:15.450
They were discussing a plan for a drive out to the country.
00:23:15.750 --> 00:23:17.339
Quite a party was to go.
00:23:18.059 --> 00:23:23.819
Horace had just received word from a gentlemen whom they had invited that he would now be unable to go.
00:23:24.450 --> 00:23:25.950
He had read the note in his room.
00:23:26.220 --> 00:23:28.950
And he called downstairs to my daughter to tell her about it.
00:23:29.789 --> 00:23:33.299
That was how they happened to be standing in the hall.
00:23:34.049 --> 00:23:41.819
Presently, she went back into her room and almost immediately notice that a small locket set with diamonds had been taken.
00:23:42.119 --> 00:23:45.450
She screamed at Horace and I came running to her room.
00:23:45.960 --> 00:23:47.700
We searched it thoroughly.
00:23:48.240 --> 00:23:49.859
There was nobody there.
00:23:50.369 --> 00:23:53.819
The door between the bedroom and the sitting room was open.
00:23:54.180 --> 00:24:01.920
But the other door of the sitting room, which opens into the old portion of the house was locked and bolted on the inside.
00:24:02.369 --> 00:24:02.789
Now.
00:24:03.269 --> 00:24:04.650
I submit to you, Mr.
00:24:04.650 --> 00:24:09.960
Carter, whether in that case, any other way of entrance or exit was possible?
00:24:10.319 --> 00:24:11.759
Except by the windows.
00:24:12.289 --> 00:24:20.750
I'm bound to admit, responded Nick, that if the doors were in the condition, you describe no person could have entered or left those rooms except by the windows.
00:24:21.170 --> 00:24:23.930
Well, it had been raining hard and the ground was soft.
00:24:24.289 --> 00:24:26.599
We looked carefully under all the windows.
00:24:27.019 --> 00:24:31.690
There was no sign of a footprint and nobody could have walked there without making tracks.
00:24:31.819 --> 00:24:33.829
Oh, it is clear enough.
00:24:34.069 --> 00:24:37.759
Why do we waste your time in a search for invisible spirits of the dead?
00:24:39.049 --> 00:24:41.029
He rambled on in this way for several minutes.
00:24:41.359 --> 00:24:42.920
And Nick did not try to stop him.
00:24:43.730 --> 00:24:50.750
The Colonel was at last interrupted, however, by the entrance of his daughter, Mrs pond had been out driving.
00:24:51.380 --> 00:24:58.430
She learned on her return that a stranger had come to the house and she hurried into the parlor suspecting who was there.
00:24:58.960 --> 00:25:00.849
I am delighted to see you, Mr.
00:25:00.849 --> 00:25:01.299
Carter.
00:25:01.420 --> 00:25:02.170
She exclaimed.
00:25:02.920 --> 00:25:08.349
You will clear up this abominable mystery and relieve my father's mind from these delusions.
00:25:09.730 --> 00:25:12.480
Then you do not share his opinions, said Nick.
00:25:13.299 --> 00:25:14.769
Mrs pond laughed nervously.
00:25:15.549 --> 00:25:17.319
No indeed, she said.
00:25:17.799 --> 00:25:22.180
And yet I must admit that I am quite unable to explain the facts.
00:25:22.869 --> 00:25:24.910
I suppose you have heard the story.
00:25:25.220 --> 00:25:25.759
Yes.
00:25:26.140 --> 00:25:27.369
What do you think about it?
00:25:27.799 --> 00:25:30.650
It is much too early in the case for me to express an opinion.
00:25:31.069 --> 00:25:34.579
But there are one or two questions that I should like to ask you.
00:25:35.329 --> 00:25:39.470
Oh, do so by all means! It was at my request that you were called in.
00:25:40.089 --> 00:25:41.170
At your request?
00:25:41.539 --> 00:25:42.140
Yes.
00:25:42.650 --> 00:25:46.970
I talked with Horace about it and at last we agreed to ask you to take the case.
00:25:47.390 --> 00:25:53.480
He didn't believe in it at first for, he did not want to let anybody into our family secrets.
00:25:53.809 --> 00:25:55.670
She glanced at her father as she spoke.
00:25:56.210 --> 00:26:03.400
It was evident that the family was a good deal ashamed of Colonel Richmond's spiritualistic delusions and wanted to keep quiet about them.
00:26:03.900 --> 00:26:06.299
I talked Horace into it after a while.
00:26:06.420 --> 00:26:06.720
Mrs.
00:26:06.720 --> 00:26:07.500
Pond continued.
00:26:08.099 --> 00:26:11.430
And at last he became as enthusiastic as myself.
00:26:11.940 --> 00:26:13.980
We know that you will find the thief.
00:26:14.470 --> 00:26:16.059
Thank you responded, Nick.
00:26:16.569 --> 00:26:19.720
Uh, there is one point, which seems peculiar to me.
00:26:20.500 --> 00:26:28.480
After you had been robbed once, why did you continue to leave the jewels unwatched in the very place from which one of them had been previously taken?
00:26:29.000 --> 00:26:31.519
I insisted upon it said Colonel Richmond.
00:26:32.029 --> 00:26:37.819
I told my daughter that she must make no change in her habit of wearing or caring for my aunts jewels.
00:26:38.359 --> 00:26:48.140
I wish to show that we were not foolishly trying to hide them from the eye of a spirit, but that we wish to learn the desire of my departed aunt as soon as possible.
00:26:48.559 --> 00:26:51.099
It was by your order then, said Nick.
00:26:51.380 --> 00:26:56.750
That your daughter continued to put the jewels on her dressing table when she laid them aside for any reason?
00:26:57.299 --> 00:26:57.990
It was.
00:26:58.269 --> 00:27:00.430
I have just left some of them there now.
00:27:00.519 --> 00:27:01.390
said Mrs pond.
00:27:01.869 --> 00:27:07.690
I went to my room after my ride and took off a light cloak, which was fastened with three pins.
00:27:07.869 --> 00:27:09.759
Each having a diamond in its head.
00:27:10.420 --> 00:27:13.779
I stuck them all into a cushion on that dressing table.
00:27:14.250 --> 00:27:15.089
Is the room locked.
00:27:15.309 --> 00:27:15.869
Asked Nick.
00:27:16.279 --> 00:27:17.599
Yes replied Mrs.
00:27:17.599 --> 00:27:21.388
Pond and she produced the key of the door, which opened from the hall above.
00:27:21.848 --> 00:27:23.409
Will you allow me to go up there now?
00:27:24.038 --> 00:27:24.699
Certainly.
00:27:25.118 --> 00:27:26.348
She handed the key to Nick.
00:27:26.919 --> 00:27:28.898
He took it and walked out of the parlor.
00:27:29.949 --> 00:27:33.038
Nick had already formed a sort of working theory in the case.
00:27:33.548 --> 00:27:37.449
He scarcely believed that it would hold water, but it would do for a starter.
00:27:37.929 --> 00:27:41.588
The most probable explanation that had come to him was that Mrs.
00:27:41.588 --> 00:27:43.929
Pond had not really been robbed at all.
00:27:44.679 --> 00:27:47.979
It might be that she had some motive for making these articles vanish.
00:27:48.398 --> 00:27:54.038
Perhaps she had some need of money and was secretly selling them against the wish of her husband and her father.
00:27:54.699 --> 00:27:58.298
So, when Nick took that key and went toward the room.
00:27:58.778 --> 00:28:03.878
He did not expect to find the three diamond pins in the position described by the lady.
00:28:04.378 --> 00:28:07.769
He found the door locked and he opened it by means of the key.
00:28:08.459 --> 00:28:12.209
Then he locked it behind him leaving the key in the lock.
00:28:13.078 --> 00:28:14.939
He turned at once to a dressing table.
00:28:15.749 --> 00:28:18.058
The three pins were there just as Mrs.
00:28:18.058 --> 00:28:18.868
Pond had said.
00:28:19.949 --> 00:28:21.689
Nick laughed softly to himself.
00:28:23.219 --> 00:28:30.838
That looks bad for my first shot at this queer case, he said, but perhaps she didn't dare work the game while I was in the house.
00:28:31.419 --> 00:28:33.189
He glanced out of the window of the room.
00:28:33.638 --> 00:28:35.318
Two servants were in the yard.
00:28:35.798 --> 00:28:40.259
They seem to be explaining the robberies to a new driver of a grocery man's wagon.
00:28:40.459 --> 00:28:43.989
For, they had one of his arms, apiece and were pointing to the window.
00:28:44.479 --> 00:28:52.848
Nick walked into the sitting room and spent some minutes examining the walls and especially the door leading toward the old part of the house.
00:28:53.368 --> 00:28:56.429
He found nothing at all to reward his search.
00:28:56.969 --> 00:29:00.058
There absolutely was no secret entrance.
00:29:00.929 --> 00:29:04.259
The detective decided that nothing further could be done in that room.
00:29:04.858 --> 00:29:06.148
He walked toward the other.
00:29:07.229 --> 00:29:08.368
To his astonishment.
00:29:08.578 --> 00:29:13.199
He found that the door had been closed while he had been busy with his investigations.
00:29:13.798 --> 00:29:15.088
He sprang against it.
00:29:15.749 --> 00:29:19.588
The door yielded a little and yet he could not open it.
00:29:20.398 --> 00:29:24.838
Some person stronger than he seemed to be holding it on the other side.
00:29:25.648 --> 00:29:27.179
He drew back for a spring.
00:29:27.538 --> 00:29:31.169
That door would have gone to splinters if it had stood in his way again.
00:29:31.769 --> 00:29:34.979
Instead it swung open the instant he touched it.
00:29:35.219 --> 00:29:38.759
And the force of his lunge took him nearly to the middle of the room.
00:29:39.388 --> 00:29:41.128
In an instant, he was on guard.
00:29:41.759 --> 00:29:42.778
But he saw no one.
00:29:43.979 --> 00:29:47.159
The room was quiet and it was empty.
00:29:47.848 --> 00:29:50.999
The door into the hall was locked as he had left it.
00:29:51.479 --> 00:29:56.098
All was the same, except that on the dressing table was the cushion bearing.
00:29:56.818 --> 00:29:59.128
To diamond pins instead of three.
00:29:59.519 --> 00:30:03.088
The robbery had been done as one might say, under the nose.
00:30:03.358 --> 00:30:05.368
Of the greatest detective in the world.
00:30:05.848 --> 00:30:09.778
Well, this takes my breath away, Said Nick to himself.
00:30:10.618 --> 00:30:13.558
It's the nerviest challenge that was ever sprung on me.
00:30:17.459 --> 00:30:18.088
Wow.
00:30:18.598 --> 00:30:20.128
What in the heck's going on?
00:30:20.759 --> 00:30:22.858
Did Nick actually encounter a ghost?
00:30:23.489 --> 00:30:24.719
What do you think is going on?
00:30:25.318 --> 00:30:29.189
Send me a message on Facebook or the podcast website with your thoughts.
00:30:29.818 --> 00:30:31.888
Did you know, you can also leave a voicemail there.
00:30:32.308 --> 00:30:32.818
It's true.
00:30:33.538 --> 00:30:39.388
Well, I guess we'll have to wait until the next episode to continue the story of Nick Carter's ghost story.
00:30:39.989 --> 00:30:50.888
Once again, a huge shout out to the tireless volunteers for project Gutenberg for providing this and all additional stories for this podcast and for your own personal enjoyment.
00:30:51.939 --> 00:30:52.989
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00:30:56.679 --> 00:30:58.239
Tell me please.
00:30:58.659 --> 00:31:01.298
You can send me a message at the podcast website.
00:31:01.868 --> 00:31:04.959
Forward into the past podcast.com.
00:31:05.528 --> 00:31:07.838
Or visit me on my Facebook page.
00:31:08.409 --> 00:31:13.028
You can also support the show there by following the link that says, buy me a coffee.
00:31:13.689 --> 00:31:15.669
Which allows you to do just that.
00:31:16.088 --> 00:31:20.318
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00:31:21.009 --> 00:31:25.088
I appreciate all the support you've given me and my little podcast.
00:31:25.989 --> 00:31:28.118
Well until next time, folks.
00:31:28.388 --> 00:31:29.288
Thanks for listening.
00:31:29.528 --> 00:31:32.858
Keep sharing the stories and be a good human.
00:31:33.429 --> 00:31:34.538
Bye for now.
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