The Argosy, Volume XLIV — page 153: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

DEALT IN THE DARK. 149 of Mr. Fielding’s suspicions as repeated _ to me by Mr. Plasted. Through Gashleigh, the Fanshaw murder and the Fielding disappearance are linked. The suspect in the latter affair re- ports to Spurzheim, who is not the type of man to play a subordinate part in any enterprise, criminal or otherwise. It may be assumed, then, that he is the principal. Beyond a doubt, Fielding was made away with to prevent him from visiting Island Diablo. Mark the significance of the fact, hitherto unnoticed by the authorities, that Fanshaw was murdered as he was about to depart for the same island! And the same men are implicated in both affairs. It was all plain enough. I sent to headquarters for Spurz- heim’s record. When I got it, or, to speak more accurately, the meager out- lines that the office was able to gather at such short notice, I was still keeping my man in sight. The little that was known about him was unsavory enough, though there was nothing in it which you might call criminal. I embodied it in my first re- port, as sent to your office. But there was one significant state- ment. That was the rumor that he derived his wealth from Mexican mines. I found time to’ communicate with the secretary of the Mining Exchange, who reported that Spurzheim was an unknown quantity to that body, which keeps on file information concerning every legitimate mining enterprise in the two republics, so far as it is avail- able. Upon this report, I assumed that Island Diablo was the source of Spurz- heim’s financial supplies, which were not the fruit of honest mining, but of something criminal. The mystery surrounding the island, and the crimes already committed to guard it from intrusion, all pointed to this inference. _ You may ask what all this had to do with the case upon which I was retained —that is, the discovery of Mr. Field- ing’s whereabouts. This much. I was convinced at the e OuUgle beginning that we had to do with no ordinary criminals, and that their measures had been so well taken that the only chance of rescuing the missing man, if he was still alive, lay in the apprehension of the chief plotter upon such evidence as would enable us to offer him his choice between the pro- duction of Fielding, alive and unin- Jured, or the penalties of the law. Before I had gone very far, it was eyident that not one crime, but a series, had been committed at the instigation of the man I was shadowing. And I confess that I had little hope that his captors had allowed Fielding to live. The stakes they played for were too high to justify them in taking chances of his escape. Late in the evening Spurzheim re- ceived a despatch which caused him great uneasiness. I had little doubt that 1t was an answer to the New York inquiry. Spurzheim took a cab and made a tour of the hotels. He scanned the reg- isters of guests, so it was evident that he was expecting some one. At the Ransome he was about to en- ter the office when a young lady, heav- ily veiled and apparently ill, descended from a cab and was conducted within by a gentleman whom I recognized as Judge Chittenden. On recognizing the pair, Spurzheim betrayed signs of agitation. He withdrew into the shadow, and did not venture inside the hotel until the judge came out alone. Then he stayed only long enough to glance at the reg- ister, and went away with the manner of a man who has taken a good deal of trouble to convince himself of an un- comfortable truth. I went in and had a look at the reg- ister. Half way down the page was the signature: Ethel Fanshaw, New York. It was evident, then, that the reply to Spurzheim’s telegram informed him that the lady was in San Francisco, hence his search of the hotels. No less was it apparent that his pres- ent object in seeking her was to learn her precise whereabouts rather than to obtain an interview, which last he was obviously desirous of avoiding. COMRRIC LOO COL