When we left our story. Jancy had escaped being poisoned, thanks to the quick thinking of Professor Jordan as he stilled her hand from toasting the success of her prediction. Nevertheless even though her vision was bogus, Jancy remained comforted in having forewarned the guests of the impending danger. But what she didn't see-couldn't see-wasn't bogus. It was the real thing. Tonio would soon be facing death.
* * * *
Upstairs, the flames on the steps began to subside as Tonio moved to come down, but the blade of the Major's twirling sword stopped him. "Tell me, half-breed, what color will you bleed? Perhaps this Reb sword will tell me if you bleed tomato sauce or war paint."
With the lingering flames just inches from his legs and with his sword just inches from the half-Indian, half-Italian's face, the Major forced Tonio back up the stairs toward his office. Suddenly a burst of flame flared up, allowing Tonio to wrest the sword from him. Instantly the unarmed officer leapt inside the office and locked the door behind him. Outside the door Tonio shouted out: "I wish to kill no one!" As the fire on the steps continued to die down, loyal members of the household staff hurried up after their master. They called out and pounded on the door to the Major's office, but the Major failed to respond.
Taking advantage of the confusion, Tonio slipped away into the crowd and disappeared. At that moment, the Professor appeared. The staff members stood to one side as the War Department official took charge and began to kick at the locked door. Suddenly a gunshot rang out, and they heard the Major cry out in pain. With three men pushing, the door finally gave way, and the group rushed in. But upon entering the room, they found no one. Hurrying to the open window, the Professor leaned out the casement and saw the Major's body sprawled below on the courtyard, half covered with the heavy drapes he had pulled from their hooks by the window as he fell.
The Professor ordered two men to rush down to see if the Major was still alive. He called the attention of the others to the fact that there was no one else in the room when they entered, no sign of anyone other than the Major below, and no other way anyone could have escaped from the room. The Professor noted that the Major's safe was open and empty. But there appeared to be no explanation for who fired the shot that made the Major cry out.
The office began to fill with layers of blue smoke, and the Professor ordered everyone to follow him down to the courtyard. Upon examining the Major's body, the Professor discovered a bullet wound to the Major's back that could hardly have been self-inflicted. On his face was a distortion that could have been caused only by stark terror. But who fired the shot? As to the motive, the open safe might indicate that a thief was able to snatch up the valuables before the fire scared him off, but there remained the question of how an assassin could make his escape with such speed that no one caught a glimpse of him. It seemed impossible, and yet it had happened.
Outside, huddled together and clutched in fear, the society men and women watched helplessly as the fire and smoke spread to the rest of the mansion, devouring it part by part. They saw house staff members trying to rush horses to safety from the barn and to rescue however many of the guests' carriages they could. Behind a clump of trees Chester watched as Stanford led a couple of horses for Jancy and Tonio. Jancy was so fired up she couldn't wait to tell Chester of their plans. "After tonight, Tonio and I are to do some traveling. First, New York, then Philadelphia, then Chicago, and finally to the West." Chester knew he couldn't stop her, but he tried. "Now that's a really good idea. After you set your love aflame here, you go west so Cupid can unite your hearts with a real arrow."
The two incendiary lovebirds quickly mounted and rode away, but when Chester looked after the disappearing Jancy, she was nine years old again and riding away with a stick-pony between her legs.
The sound of tolling bells came from the Franklin Fire House, a signal that its firemen were on the way. Borne on the stiff wind, the fire continued to consume the rear of the mansion with a rushing surge of flame. As it progressed, the fire revealed a long narrow duct that formed a passageway around the outer structure. The Professor knew in a flash the secret behind the Major's murder. "The facts have been staring me in the face, but it remained for these collapsing walls to betray what was housed within them, the hidden path that led the killer to his escape!"
The fire smoldered, and then reappeared several feet away, within the very shaft itself, reddening and exposing its winding structure. The sight of a series of steps twisting around its central support caused a gasp of added fear from the Major's guests. The Professor moved to calm their concern. "As you now see, the killer escaped by means of an internal stairway, the enclosed spiral of steps cloaking his getaway and gaining him access to the outdoors. I would assume he moved along the shadow of the stables to where a carriage awaited him. But fear not. He is long gone."
A cloud of burning embers swirled upwards, forcing the crowd farther back to the drive path where half a dozen brawny men in glistening helmets had snaked out a hose and were pumping a useless stream of water from their fire wagon.
Soon the radiant heat from the burning boards and timbers sent the firemen back, too, to where the guests were now trying to locate their private carriages. Drawn by the flames, Commodore Whitehead had returned in his coach to observe the scene. When the heavyset entrepreneur descended, the Professor called Chester's attention to the man. "Witness, my dear boy, the killer. The fire has revealed his secret passageway. But to move out of the mansion he had to cross the children's checkpoint." Chester lowered his eyes and saw the Commodore's boots. They were lined with the white calcium oxide of quicklime.
After a peremptory view of the scene, Commodore Whitehead returned to his carriage and rode off, along with the lucky guests who had retrieved their coaches. As the Commodore left this time, he was lighting up another cigar, puffing in full confidence that any evidence against him had just been burnt to a crisp.
When Chester asked for a reason for the murder, the Professor replied. There are times when it is politically expedient to remove a person who may be endangering one's cause.
As they walked farther and farther from the smoke and debris, the Professor gave his final summation. "For myself, at the moment, home is where the cash register rings, and in our joint pursuit of the unnatural-and of Tonio's revenge-the bells seem to be sounding from the depths of what promises to be a prolonged affair combining love and hate."
As it often does, the darkness of night swallowed up all the fears and all the hopes and all the expectations, leading to a dawn no one-not even the Professor-could predict. One clue the firemen failed to note and to report to the Professor was a piece of charred paper. The only legible word remaining on the page was Nostradamus.