The Mark of Cain

“No, I burna da Vaporina, da Vap’ da Cressar lina – ”

“Gee! Quite so! All right, old lady, much obliged!”

After that matters whizzed. On the ride down town, Fibsy told Stone much. Stone listened and made that much more. The two acted as complements, the boy having gathered facts which the man made use of.

CHAPTER XXV

THE WHOLE TRUTH

The two went straight down to the office of the district attorney. “I must send a message to Mr. Whiting at once,” Fleming Stone said to a secretary there.

“Mr. Whiting is in the Court of General Sessions, just below this office here, and I’d rather not disturb him. Can your business wait?”

“It cannot,” declared Stone, “not an instant. Please send this message immediately. Mr Whiting will not be annoyed at the interruption.”

As Fleming Stone and Fibsy entered the courtroom District Attorney Whiting was reading the note in which the detective asked the privilege of speaking to him a moment, and partially told why.

At that instant also, the jury were filing into the box prepared to give their verdict.

“Gentlemen of the jury,” said the clerk of the court, “have you arrived at a verdict?”

“We have,” replied the foreman.

“What is it?”

“We find the defendant guilty, as charged in the indictment, of – ”

“Excuse me, your Honor,” said the district attorney, hurriedly, to the judge on the bench, “I would like to interrupt here,” and he walked toward the bench.

A strange and expectant hush fell over the courtroom, as the judge and the district attorney conferred in whispers. The conference continued a few moments, and then the judge said suddenly, “This is a matter that should be discussed with the lawyer for the defense. Judge Hoyt, will you please step to the bench?”

The three held a short parley, and then the judge on the bench said, “Mr. Fleming Stone, will kindly come here?”

“If it please your Honor, I ask to be heard.”

Leslie Hoyt looked round angrily, and as Stone’s calm, clear voice was followed by the appearance of his stalwart figure, there was a stir throughout the room.

“As a detective recently employed on this case,” Stone said, “I wish to tell of my discoveries.”

“Tell your story in your own way, Mr. Stone,” instructed the judge, and Stone began.

“As you are all aware, the dying words of Mr. Trowbridge are said to be, ‘Cain killed me!’ implying, it was at first supposed, an allusion to the first murderer of Scripture history. Later, it was adjudged to mean a reference to Kane Landon. But I submit a third meaning, which is that Mr. Trowbridge was killed by a cane in the hands of his assailant, said cane being of the variety know as a dirk or sword cane. This type of walking-stick, the carrying of which is forbidden by law, has a dagger concealed in it, which may be drawn forth by the handle. An imprint has been found of a cane near the place of the crime, and to this print has been fitted a cane of the dirk or sword variety. The ownership of this cane has been traced to a man, who is known to have benefited by the death of the victim. I refer to Judge Leslie Hoyt, the counsel for the defense!”

A sudden commotion was followed by an intense hush. Hoyt’s face was like carved marble. No emotion of any sort did he show, but waited, as if for Stone to proceed.

And Stone did proceed. “Here is the cane,” he said, taking a long parcel from a messenger. “Is it yours, Mr. Hoyt?”

Hoyt glanced at it carelessly.

“No, I never saw it before,” he said.

“It was found in the closet of your dressing-room,” went on Stone.

“By whom?”

“Terence McGuire.”

A look of hatred dawned on Hoyt’s face, also the first expression of fear he had shown.

“That self-avowed liar!” he said, contemptuously.

“His word is not in question now,” said Stone, sternly. “This cane was found in your apartments. It is a dirk, as may be seen.”

Stone drew out the slender, sharp blade, and the audience shivered.

Disregarding Hoyt, Stone continued his address to the court.

“Additional evidence is a shoe button picked up at the scene of the crime. It is proved to be from one of Mr. Hoyt’s shoes. True, these do not connect Mr. Hoyt directly with this murder, but I can produce a witness who will do so.”

Stone then proceeded to tell of the Italian woman and her story.

“The connecting link is this,” he said; “the day after the murder, during the coroner’s inquest, our bright young friend, McGuire, noticed on Mr. Hoyt’s coat an odor familiar to him as a remedy used to burn for whooping-cough. The scent is strong and unmistakable and clings ineradicably to a garment that has been worn, even for a few moments where the remedy is used. Mrs. Robbio’s children had the whooping-cough; she was using the remedy the day the murderer stopped in at her little shop and threatening her with this very dirk, forced her to deliver the message he dictated to the police station.

“It was a clever ruse and would have remained undetected, but for the quick-witted youth who noticed the odor, and remembered it when whooping-cough was mentioned.”

“A string of lies,” sneered Hoyt. “Made up by the notorious street gamin who glories in his sobriquet of liar!”

Still unheeding, Stone went on.

“In search for a motive for the murder of Rowland Trowbridge by Leslie Hoyt, I examined the will of the deceased, and discovered, what I am prepared to prove, that it is, in part, a forgery. The instrument was duly drawn up by Judge Hoyt, as lawyer for the testator. It was duly witnessed, and after, – ”

Fleming Stone paused and looked fixedly at Hoyt, and the latter at last quailed before that accusing glance.

“And after, at his leisure, the lawyer inserted on the same typewriter, and with greatest care, the words, ‘and herself become the wife of Leslie Hoyt.’ This clause was not written or dictated by Mr. Trowbridge, it was inserted after his death, by his lawyer.”

“You can’t prove that!” cried Hoyt springing to his feet.

“I can easily prove it,” declared Stone; “It is written on a new ribbon known to have been put into the typewriter, the afternoon the murder took place. And, too, it is of slightly different slant and level from the rest. Of course, it was only by microscopic investigation I discovered these facts, but they are most clearly proven.”

“Gee! he’s goin’ to brash it out!” exclaimed Fibsy, under his breath, as Hoyt rose, with vengeance in his eye.

But the judge waved him back as Stone proceeded.

“I understand Mr. Hoyt claims as an alibi, that he was in Philadelphia that day.”

“I was,” declared the accused; “I brought home an afternoon paper from that city.”

“The paper was from that city, but you bought it at a New York news stand to prove your case, should it ever be necessary.”