"Dyke, you know that when I left Woodburg some months ago, I went from
among you under a cloud?"
"I will not dispute you--"
"No explanation is necessary on your part, Dyke. I imagine I was as
much to blame as anybody. Nell and I quarreled, and I imagined that
the handsome, elderly New Yorker had stepped into my shoes, so far as
she was concerned. I did not like the man, and so I resolved to
investigate for myself, and if I found that he was not worthy of Nell,
whom I loved and should always love while life lasted, I determined to
expose him, and save your sister. During the past few months I have
been making this investigation, to find that the supposed immaculate
Harper Elliston is known in Gotham in certain circles as a gambler and
villain of the deepest dye. He has committed some crimes that are
worse than murder. Now, as to the wart: It was soon after I had heard
of the murder on the express train, that while riding in the smoking
car of an emigrant train in Iowa, I saw an old man deliberately slice
a huge wart from his little finger with a keen-edged knife. The wart
fell under the seat and rolled at my feet. The old man made no effort
to recover it, but wrapped his bleeding hand in a handkerchief and
muttered: 'THAT witness will never come up to trouble me.
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