The Crime of the French Café and Other Stories | Page 5

room B!" exclaimed Gaspard. "I am sure of it!"
At that instant a downtown train rushed into the station, cutting off
Nick's view.

And a half-second later an uptown train pulled in on their side. Nick
pushed open a gate before the train had fairly stopped. He dragged
Gaspard after him.
The gateman tried to stop them, but Nick pushed the fellow in the car
so violently that he sat down on the floor.
Then the detective pulled the other gate open, and, still dragging
Gaspard, sprang down in the space between the tracks.
The other train was just starting. Nick leaped up and opened one of the
gates.
Gaspard stood trembling. Excitement and terror rendered him incapable
of action.
Nick reached down, and, seizing the man by the shoulders, lifted him
up to the platform of the car as if he had been a child of ten.
"Look back," cried the detective, pushing Gaspard to the other side of
the car. "Is your man still at the station?"
Two or three men were there, having, apparently, just missed the train.
It seemed possible that the criminal--if such he was--had seen Gaspard
point, and had been shrewd enough not to board the car.
But Gaspard looked back and declared that his man was not there.
"Good," said Nick. "He must be on the train. We have him sure."
CHAPTER III.
JOHN JONES.
"I want you!" whispered Nick.
How many luckless criminals have been startled by those words! How
many have seen the prison or the gallows rise before them at the sound!

In this case, however, the words seemed to produce less than the
ordinary effect.
The man to whom they were addressed turned suddenly toward the
detective, but did not shrink or tremble.
"I beg your pardon," said he; "I didn't quite understand what you said."
The man's coolness made Nick even more in doubt about Gaspard's
identification.
After boarding the train they had walked through it hurriedly, and in
the car next the engine Gaspard had clutched Nick's arm, whispering:
"There is your man!"
The person indicated was well-dressed, rather good-looking, and about
thirty-five years old. There was nothing particularly striking about his
appearance.
It would have been easy to have found dozens of such men on lower
Broadway any day.
Nick feared a mistake. But Gaspard was sure.
"I never forget a face," he said. "That is the man whom I saw coming
out of room B. That is the murderer."
The man was standing up and holding on to one of the straps. His
profile was turned to them.
Nick waited until he turned and showed his full face. The detective was
bound to give Gaspard every chance to change his mind.
But he remained firm, and at last Nick approached the accused and
suddenly whispered the terrifying words in his ear.
Having done so, he was obliged to carry it through. Therefore, when
the stranger asked Nick to repeat what he had said, the detective, in a

low voice, inaudible to anybody else in the car, told him what the
accusation was.
"This is ridiculous," said the man. "I read the story of this affair in the
papers this morning, but I am not connected with it in any way. If you
arrest me, you must be prepared to take the consequences."
"I guess we can manage the affair quietly," said Nick, "and give you no
trouble at all. I suppose you were going downtown to business?"
"Yes."
"Well, I will go along, too, if you don't mind."
"By all means," said the man, and he looked much relieved.
"I understand what your duty is," he continued. "Since this imported
French jackass has made this charge, of course you'll have to look into
it. Come down to the office and make some inquiries, and then go up to
my flat. I was at home last evening after eight o'clock.
"What did you do before that?"
"I had dinner with my wife, and then put her aboard a train. She's gone
away on a visit."
"Where has she gone?"
"No, sir; none of that. I don't propose to have a detective go flying after
her to scare her to death. She keeps out of this mess, if I have any say
about it."
"But if you're arrested she'll hear about it and come back to the city."
"I'm not going to be arrested. You're too sensible a man to do such a
thing. I can see that.
"Here we are. We get off at Franklin street. My place of business is just
a little way up the street, toward Broadway."

They left the train. Nick was beginning to feel that a mistake had been
made. This man's easy manner and perfect confidence were hard to
square with the idea of