Free Spider Dance by Carole Nelson Douglas

mystery?”
    “From my point of view, and the government’s, yes.”
    “Hmmm. Even your unnamed correspondent seems willing to keep this all a mystery. And this is the last message, until the presumed object lesson left upon your billiard table?”
    “Yes.”
    “Obviously, he, or they, had intended to kill that poor old fellow all along, for his presence here only announces that these are not people to be crossed.”
    “You assume more than one.”
    “One man would be sorely tried to import a body into a household as large as yours. There are at least two, and the entire sequence smacks of some sort of cadre. These written notes are in different hands. What is most disturbing is not the wretched soul left on your billiard table but the vagueness of the demands. It is almost as if the blackmailer expects you to know exactly what is wanted: how much gold and which jewels. Can you explain this?”
    “Mr. Holmes, I cannot. I am a millionaire. I am known foramassing money, and the finest form of money is in hard gold bars. It does not rot. My wife is the leader of New York society and as such has always impressed upon me that it is my duty to swath her in jewels.”
    “As far as you know, none of your gold or jewels is missing?”
    “Not one gold bar, not one diamond brooch. It would appear that these thugs are so vague because they want it all. Of course that can’t happen. Before I call out the entire New York City Police Department, such as it is, I would rather work through you and the Pinkertons or my own discreet staff members.”
    “Indeed. These are rather interesting criminals. They threaten before they make their demands known. I suspect a determined band of brigands. I also suspect further warnings, probably even more appalling than the man you will shortly remove from your house. They tortured him for some reason, and are letting you know that they are on the trail of the goods you have that they claim.”
    “But all I have is the means I inherited from my grandfather, the Commodore, and that my own father multiplied many times over in the eight years he lived after my grandfather died, and left to me and my brothers and sisters. Who would claim the whole of the Vanderbilt fortune?”
    “Who indeed, but a criminal, or criminals, as paramount in the world of misdeeds as the Vanderbilts are in the world of finance? I predict that we confront a truly fiendish scheme concocted by men who are prepared to use any atrocity to accomplish their ends. Were we in London, I know whom I would suspect. Here in America, the possibilities are endless.”
    “Then it is hopeless. I must convert my house into a fortress and forbid my family all egress.”
    “This house was not designed to be defended, Mr. Vanderbilt, even though some call it a castle. The only solution is to discover who these people are and what specifically they want, and perhaps why they want it from the Vanderbilts. Are there any your family exploited to rise in the world?”
    “Many, probably.”
    “‘Many’ alone will not do. A few ruthless men driven by desires too dark to divine readily must be behind this mystery, and it must have to do with your family history.”
    “How can you say that? Being a captain of industry makes for ruthless competition, and may produce violent unrest among the working force, but none of this rude jostling among the lower classes touches the ruling families.”
    “Yes, that is quite obviously the case, Mr. Vanderbilt. My scathing tone was lost on the American millionaire, as it had been on the King of Bohemia earlier. Absolute power not only corrupts absolutely but it apparently renders the possessors deaf and blind.
    “Good heavens, Mr. Holmes! I would have to say our most vicious enemies are the newspaper cartoonists. Though they are indeed merciless with pen and ink, I hardly think they would torment old men with knives.”
    “I saw nothing artistic in the indignities done to him, although there is a certain