Nicholas Carter

“ Gaston Todd, whose very sudden death had greatly shocked his many friends in Madison.
“He was a fine fellow,” Page glibly informed him. “Genial, honest, and capable, devoted to our interests, and always at his desk in business hours. That’s pretty good, isn’t it? That’s all we require of a man.”
“That would seem to fill the bill, sir,” Patsy observed a bit dryly.
“It does,” said the broker. “And what such a man does out of business hours, of what his habits and deportment consist, are of little importance to us. Todd served us faithfully for ten years. We shall miss him. We shall, indeed!” ”

“ Scarce six feet divided the two men, and Chick had steadied himself for a lightninglike leap. He felt sure that he could quickly overcome the unknown man, despite his brazen assurance, if he could grapple with him before a revolver could be drawn, the discharge of which he wished to prevent, knowing it would alarm the house and be contrary to his chief’s instructions.
He leaped while he spoke, and covered the distance with a single bound, dropping his searchlight. ”

“ You’ll do good work, Patsy, if you round up that particular one.”
“Good work is my long suit, chief,” Patsy earnestly argued. “You ought to know that.”
“So I do, Patsy.”
“Let me try, then. I’ll bet I can make good.”
“Very well,” Carter abruptly decided. “Set to work as soon as you like. In the meantime, Chick, I will see Chief Gleason and get cards for to-night. I want you to accompany me. If this master criminal, whoever he is, can put one over on us and get away with Mrs. Thurlow’s pearls, I’ll chuck my vocation and start a peanut stand.” ”

“ I was doing some writing in my private room, with the help of my attendant,” Doctor Devoll explained blandly. Then he added, with a covert leer deep down in his squinted eyes: “But it’s an ill wind, indeed, that blows no one any good. What can I do for you, Mr. Blaisdell?”
Nick Carter heard him without a change of countenance, but with no faith in the alibi so quickly volunteered. He remembered the location of the physician’s room, the strict privacy that was possible, and his grounds for having suspected Shannon of duplicity. ”

“ Patsy had as quickly decided what he would do. He knew he could not leap down from his unsteady perch undetected and retreat farther into the alley. He took, therefore, his only chance to escape observation, knowing that he could not hold up the intruder without alarming his confederates. Firmly grasping the stone sill of the window, he drew up his legs and raised his feet from the top of the door, hoping the man would pass under him and enter without seeing him. ”

“ Get the handkerchief and return it to the box, then hasten to the ballroom and go after a glass of water. You can afterward assert that she sent you for it and said she felt faint. She will admit it, for she will remember nothing and cannot consistently deny it.”
“But the pearls?” Dorson questioned, eyes glowing. “What of the rope of pearls?”
“There will be no rope of pearls.” Graff’s teeth met with a vicious snap. “All that must be done can be done in a single minute. When help comes, when you return, when the woman revives, though all occurs within a minute, there will be no rope of pearls. ”

“ He saw Toby Monk start slightly, as if surprised, and then heard him exclaim, with inquiring scrutiny:
“Hello! What’s up, Shannon?”
“Shannon!” Patsy echoed the name mentally, with a thrill of increasing elation. “That’s the name of the attendant the chief saw in Doctor Devoll’s private room. He answers his description, too. Gee whiz, the net is tightening for fair! It now is a cinch that Doctor Devoll is one of the gang, and very possible the big finger.” ”

“ Through this open country and into a belt of woods the trolley car boomed on, and when nearly three miles out it sped over the brow of a hill, and Patsy quickly saw the lights of scattered dwellings amid clumps of trees in the distance.
“What place is that?” he inquired of the motorman.
“Only a small settlement. There’s a stone quarry over the hill on the left, and the workmen live in those houses. That one off to the right is in a side road running to Lakeville, where there’s pretty good fishing and gunning in the season. It’s a road house run by a man named Leary. ”

“ I don’t know how I can repay you for your interest in me, a stranger——”
“Don’t speak of that,” the detective interrupted. “I am interested in serving justice, mind you, and am taking what seems to be the best way. I am not absolutely sure that Todd was murdered. An autopsy will determine that. If he was, at such a time and in such a public place, without any disturbance or any superficial wound, it was accomplished by most extraordinary means and by a knave of exceeding boldness and ability, who may be equally as skillful in hiding his identity and covering his tracks. ”

“ That was all that Shannon said, noncommittal it was, too, and he immediately hung up the receiver and turned to the detective.
“Yes, sir, Doctor Devoll is there, and it’s all right,” he said, with the air of one glad to have conferred a favor. “He will wait for you. You can go right up.”
Nick took all this for what he thought it was worth. He lingered only to inquire the way, then turned on his heel and departed.
Shannon watched him hasten across Hamilton Square, and then, with a scowl as black as a thunder-cloud, he darted to the telephone. ”

“ What’s the trouble? You don’t look like a man afflicted with any physical ailment.”
Nick laughed lightly and shook his head, sizing up with augmented interest this bald, thin-featured, smooth-spoken physician who, so singularly and unexpectedly, had now incurred his distrust.
“No, nothing of the kind,” he replied. “If all men were as strong and healthy as I am, Doctor Devoll, those of your profession would find it hard sledding.”
“That is fortunate for you, at least,” smiled the physician.
“My business with you relates to another matter,” the detective added. ”

“ Nick did not expect, however, that Paulding would have any information to impart. He called on him only because of his promise and to say a few words of encouragement to the suspected man, also to direct him to maintain the negative position he had taken.
“Oh, I’ll continue to do so, Mr. Carter, as I agreed with you yesterday morning,” Paulding assured him. “It’s a bitter pill for an innocent man to swallow, but I’ll not weaken. I’ll stick, sir, as long as I know you are working for me.”
“You may depend upon that,” the detective said simply. ”

“ Leary, if they had any reason for wanting to kill the cat,” he replied. “The fellow you saw probably did not do it. More likely the old man was the one who killed him.”
“What old man?” Leary demanded, with a vengeful glare in his eyes.
“The one I saw in the motor car,” said Patsy, now aiming only to identify him, if possible. “He’s quite a stocky man, with gray hair and whiskers. He wore a plaid suit and soft felt hat. His chauffeur was bigger and broader, with dark hair and a pointed beard. I got a look at them when they flew by me.”
“I dunno any such men,” Leary earnestly protested. ”

“ When I have private business with a man, says he, I don’t confide it to his servant. That was how he countered.”
Doctor Devoll’s thin lips took on a smile that did not improve his facial expression, usually very agreeable and benign. He said deliberately:
“You may show him in, Shannon. Wait. Don’t let his business be too private, not too private, Shannon,” he added significantly, pointing to a curtained door. “Slip around there after admitting him and wait until he goes. You may be needed.” ”

“ Shannon agreed, with a snarl. “He’s one of the dicks.”
“We’ll dick him! We’ll dick him all right when the time comes,” Graff fiercely declared. “But not now, not yet. The Thurlow pearls are of first importance, and I have only time to prepare for that job. We’ll settle with him later. Gag him, Shannon, and lock him in the closet. You must wait here and watch till we return. Make sure the whelp can’t escape. I’ll fix him later. I’ll fix him.”
“Gee whiz!” thought Patsy. “If he makes good as he looks, I can see my finish.” ”

“ Though none could know it save the miscreant who had planned the daring job, the situation then was one for which he had been waiting, the crucial moment when conditions assured him of success, when the avenue fronting the veranda was unobstructed, when flight would be easy, when the throng in the ballroom were absorbed in the dance, when the strains of orchestral music drowned all other sounds, and when the victim of his designs had paused at a time and place that perfectly served his purpose. ”

“ The physician gazed more intently.
“For what!” Brady echoed him derisively. “It strikes me, Doctor Devoll, that this business has gone far enough. This is the fourth girl brought here in the same condition, under the same mysterious circumstances, and allowed to depart before a thorough investigation was made. Not hide nor hair of them could afterward be found. She should have been kept here until we could——”
“Pardon me, sergeant,” Doctor Devoll checked him with a gesture, “you overlook one fact.”
“One fact?”
“This is a hospital, not a police station. I am a physician, not a detective. ”

“ Now, Dorson, have you brought the invitations?”
“Yes, two of them,” said Dorson, producing two sealed envelopes and placing them on the table.
“Good!” Graff seized them and put them in his pocket. “From whom did you get them?”
“I stole them from those with which my aunt, Mrs. Thurlow, was supplied to dispose of,” replied Dorson. “She is one of the sponsors for the affair, and that was the only way to get them without disclosing the names of the persons who are to use them. No one will be admitted without a card bearing his name. It’s an exclusive affair. ”

“ He shall find that he has met one worthy of his steel, one who will balk, thwart, and laugh at him. Or, if need be, Shannon, who will wipe him from the face of the earth!”
Shannon shrugged his broad shoulders and smiled grimly. It was not the first time that he had heard [100] such sentiments as these, and seen that same gleam and glitter in the eyes of the man confronting him, eyes with a glare like that of madness.
“You will not quit, then?” he said inquiringly.
“Quit!” Doctor Devoll sneered scornfully. “Only curs and cowards quit, Shannon, and throw up the sponge. Sit down at my desk. ”

“ He instantly took the woman’s arm, saying quietly:
“You are pale and look tired. Step out on the balcony with me. The air will revive you.”
Mrs. Thurlow obeyed him as if in a trance or a victim of an hypnotic spell. She walked out with him through the French window. There was a large wicker chair near by, and Dorson placed her in it, then [196] whisked the fateful handkerchief from her fingers and thrust it into his pocket. Then he hurried back into the ballroom, through which he passed as if in haste to obtain water, as he really was. ”

“ Thurlow and Edna arrive in company with a tall, somewhat cadaverous man, who he knew must be Mr. John Dorson.
“There they are, Chick,” he said quietly. “The woman has not weakened. She is doing her part, indeed, to help us nail our man. She is wearing the rope of pearls.”
“Some pearls, too,” Chick muttered admiringly. “By Jove! they warrant taking a desperate chance. That tall fellow is Dorson, I suppose.” ”

“ His life had been snuffed out like the flame of a candle by the fury of a whirlwind. Death had come upon him like a bolt from the blue. By slow degrees his face underwent a change—but it was not the change that ordinarily follows sudden death, that peaceful calm that marks the end of earthly toil and trouble.
Instead, the smoothly shaven skin seemed to shrink and wither slightly over the dead nerves and lifeless muscles, and a singular slaty hue that was hardly perceptible settled around his lips and nostrils, partly dispelling the first deathly pallor. ”

“ PATSY ON THE TRAIL.
“Good work is right. It sure will be some stunt to find that particular car, as the chief said, but there’s more than one way to kill a cat. I’ll find it, by gracious, or lose a leg.”
These were Patsy Garvan’s mental declarations when he left the Wilton House at nine o’clock that morning, not only determined to find the motor car he had seen the previous night, but also to identify its chauffeur and his two passengers. ”

“ I’m an artist,” said Patsy, lest these inquiries might reach the ears of the said Toby Monk.
“He’s a chauffeur,” replied the storekeeper. “He owns a car and runs it as a jitney part of the time, when he’s not driving for a man who frequently employs him.”
“What man is that?” inquired Patsy, suppressing any betrayal of his elation. ”

“ The successive strokes fell with monotonous reverberations on the midnight air, breaking with solemn resonance the quietude of that reputable residential section of Madison.
For Hamilton Square, though not far from the business district, was in an attractive part of the city, to which the extensive tract of land had been donated years before, in part for a public square and the remainder for the site, park, and gardens of the now locally famous Osgood Hospital, established by the donor, and still largely supported by the income from his bequests. ”

“ Nothing else. One may have been influenced by having read of the others. There is no accounting for the doings of a drug fiend.”
“There is some truth in that,” Nick admitted.
“Let it go at that, then,” said Doctor Devoll, with a wave of his slender hands. “I wanted only to learn your opinion, your grounds for suspicion. You now are welcome to mine. I will answer any question you care to ask.”
“Thank you,” said the detective, who now was taking a somewhat different course than he would have shaped if he had detected nothing denoting duplicity in the physician. ”

“ The bartender stopped and looked searchingly toward the restaurant, until his gaze fell upon a man at one of the side tables. “Ah, there he is! I thought he was there.”
“Thought who was here?”
“Toby Monk. He runs a jitney, but he is eating his supper. His car may be outside.”
“Where does he leave it?”
“Just above here.”
“There is no car out there,” said Patsy. “I just came in and would have seen it.”
“He’s put it up until later, then, as he often does about this time.”
“It don’t matter,” said Patsy. “The walking’s good.” ”