Nicholas Carter

“ As for disliking you, Mr. Carter, that is absurd. I bear you no ill will for the part you played in that Maybrick affair. I was not seriously involved in it. I always make it a point not to lay myself liable.”
“To the law, you mean?”
“To the law—certainly,” she bluntly admitted. “What else would I mean? I’ll keep out of the grabnet of the law, Mr. Carter, you can safely bet on that.”
Nick wondered whether it was true, or only a bluff designed to dispel his suspicions. He had followed her into an attractively furnished parlor, where he instantly detected the odor of cigarette smoke. ”

“ The sandbag caught Patsy squarely on the head, dropping him as it dropped Nick a little later. Without a groan, even, he sank in a crimped and senseless heap on the threshold of the door.
It was a brutal blow, dealt by the hand of a brutal man. It was this man who had been smoking a cigarette in Kate Crandall’s suite just before the arrival of Nick Carter, but who had stolen into the rear entry before the detective entered, returning after his departure. Safely enough, indeed, the woman had given Nick permission to search her apartments. ”

“ Kate Crandall’s mocking smile had given way to a frown, but it was not of long duration.
“You are very much mistaken, Mr. Carter,” she replied. “He left just before you arrived. If you think any person is concealed in my apartments, you are at liberty to search them.”
“No, indeed; it is not material.”
“I fail to see why you have any interest in me, or my visitor,” Kate quickly added. “Please explain. Why are you here? What have you to say?”
“I want you to do most of the saying,” Nick replied. “Tell me, and give it to me straight, what do you know about Mr. Cyrus Darling?” ”

“ Noiselessly lifting the window, Chick crept over the sill and stood in a gloomy front parlor, reclosing the window and locking it. There he paused for a moment, listening. He could hear the men inside, the muffled sound of their voices, and the bang of a closed door.
“The bulkhead door, or that of the laundry,” he muttered. “Got Nick and Patsy, eh? I must contrive to liberate them. I’ll try to locate the cellar stairs.”
Chick did not find it difficult to do so. He tiptoed to the door leading into the hall, which ran straight through the house to a rear door and the kitchen. ”

“ Suspicions were mingled with Nick Carter’s surprise at seeing Nancy Nordeck. They were perfectly natural, too, under the circumstances, and in view of the disclosures to which he had just listened. The presence of a girl with a criminal record in the home of a man whose death was shrouded in mystery, much more of a mystery than Mrs. Darling even imagined, though already keenly appreciated by the detective, might indeed be significant. ”

“ Dacey nodded.
“When Carter and Garvan are liberated, they’ll have only a guess coming to them,” Kate added. “They cannot prove that Floyd and I were one. They cannot show that Sheldon and Darling were one. All they can do, Jim, will be to look wise and guess at the whole business. It can be done like breaking sticks. What do you say?”
“Kill Darling, eh?” queried Dacey.
“Why not? There is no risk. He’s dead already—in the eye of the law.”
“That’s true.”
“We surely can turn the trick and get away without serious suspicion.” ”

“ Surprised at such an unusual sound in a neighborhood where very few human beings were to be encountered, we looked up and saw, hardly three hundred paces from us, a rider whose head was uncovered and his long hair floating in the wind that blew across the hills. ”

“ Nick then inquired, not yet in a position to contradict the woman. “Why was he going to the Darling residence? What is his interest there? Why did he——”
“Stop a moment!” Kate exclaimed, lurching forward in her chair. “What do you think I am, Carter, an information bureau? I’ll stand for this no longer. I don’t know what you suspect, nor care, and you evidently don’t intend to enlighten me. It’s a mighty poor rule that won’t work both ways. I’ve told you all I’m going to tell you. If you want to learn more of Cyrus Darling, or of Jim Dacey, or of Sheldon and Floyd—go and question them. ”

“ I am acquainted with no Darling [Pg 3] woman—suppress that smile, Danny. I know what you are thinking. But all women are not darlings—far from it.”
“This one might be,” said Danny, his smile spreading to a grin.
“That’s neither here nor there,” said Nick, with a laugh. “Not being in the market, Danny, all women look alike to me. Now, the said Mrs. Darling’s trouble may be—ah, but we are near an answer to the momentous question. Yonder is the place, unless I am much mistaken. Stop at the driveway gate. I’ll walk into the grounds. ”

“ Nick Carter had an object in not revealing his suspicions to Kate Crandall and attempting to force a different story from her. He had seen plainly that such an attempt would be useless, that the woman felt secure in the position she had taken and was prepared to stick to her statements.
Nick believed very few of them, however. He keenly realized, nevertheless, that they ordinarily would appear perfectly plausible, that a woman is always given the benefit of a doubt in such cases, and that her story would be very generally accepted unless he could find positive evidence with which to refute it. ”

“ I’ll send Sarah to bed, though she’s as deaf as an adder.”
“Would she squeal, Jim, if she knew?” questioned Kate Crandall.
“Never a squeal,” Dacey declared. “But she’s best out of the way, for all that.”
“By Jove, that was a woman’s voice, as sure as I’m over seven,” thought Chick, when he heard Kate’s question. “A woman in male attire, eh? Great guns! I begin to scent the rat in the meal. This bunch of rascals have in some way got the best of Nick and Patsy. But there still is a third string to the chief’s bow. It’s always safe to bank on one of us.” ”

“ Danny Maloney laughed, for it was obvious that the famous detective was jesting.
“Onto it with my lamps, chief, is what I meant,” he replied.
“Say what you mean, then,” said Nick, with a smile. “Precision is one of the valuable assets of a detective. Luckily, however, you are addressing one who can read between the lines—barring those of the ambiguous letter that brought us out here.” ”

“ I think he will behave himself in the future, and I’m going to give him a chance. I shall do so for the sake of his wife, who is as fine a woman as you are the reverse. I shall invent a story to account for all that has occurred, and shall send Cyrus Darling home to his wife. Neither she nor the public must know the truth. Your only hope, Kate Crandall, and that of your confederates, lies in your permanent secrecy.”
“I agree to that, Carter,” cried Kate quickly. “The truth shall never be told.”
“Does that go with you, Dacey?” Nick sternly demanded.
“You bet!” Dacey eagerly cried. ”

“ Carter. But no man with eyes like his is on the level. I know what I’m saying. It’s like breaking sticks for me to pick out a crook from a bunch of men. Floyd is one, Mr. Carter, if ever there was one, and that’s why I got the mistress to send for you. I don’t forget what you did in that Maybrick case—and what you did for me, sir, never!”
“I’m quite sure of it, Nancy,” Nick replied. “You can tell me no more about the two men, I infer.”
“No, sir.”
“That is all, then. I will look deeper into this matter, Mrs. Darling, if you wish me to do so, under one condition.” ”

“ Kate Crandall laughed and tossed her head.
“Dear me, is that why you think so?” she said derisively. “Really, Mr. Carter, you are not near as keen and clever as you think you are.”
“No?”
“Far from it. It was cute in you, of course, to detect cigarette smoke so quickly. But I was the smoker. You’ll find the end of my cigarette in the cuspidor, if you care to look. Here is the box.” Kate took it from the pocket of her woolen robe. “Have one. They seem to steady one’s nerves for a time. It may sharpen you up a bit.”
“My wits don’t need the grindstone,” Nick replied dryly. ”

“ Chick had not long to wait for his suspicion to be confirmed. He saw Nick and Patsy lifted from the limousine and carried into the cellar, both conscious then, but gagged and securely bound, and Chick stole quickly back to the window he had unlocked.
“I’ll get into the house while the coast is clear,” he said to himself. “I’ll find out what business is to be settled by these rascals. Then I’ll settle them and their business—or know the reason why!” ”

“ Clayton quickly declared. “No man would be more likely to ferret out the true solution of the mystery.”
“There is no solution, Clayton, but the true solution,” Nick replied. “I may require some little time. Meanwhile, kindly say and do nothing about the matter, nor reveal anything that would add to Mrs. Darling’s distress. She appears to be a fine woman.”
“She is a fine woman, Nick. That goes without saying, and I know what I’m talking about.”
“Has Darling lived happily with her?”
“Surely,” Clayton replied. “Why not, indeed? She is just the type of woman to steady a man of his temperament. ”

“ That’s a very significant point.
“It is wholly inconsistent in a husband seeking such relief. He would have wanted his wife with him to cheer him up and help divert his mind—barring one contingency.”
“Namely, chief?”
“Another attraction.”
“Gee! there may be something in that,” said Patsy, quick to see the point. “You mean another woman.”
“Exactly.”
“Kate Crandall.”
“Quite likely, Patsy, in view of what Danny discovered.”
“Gee whiz! things are shaping up,” said Patsy, laughing. “I begin to think you are right, chief.” ”

“ Dacey hastened to do so, asking, in the meantime:
“How did you run foul of him?”
“We met in the entry.”
“What was he doing there?”
“Give it up,” said Kate tersely. “There must be more doing than we have suspected. There is only one course for us, Jim, until we can land the coin.”
“What’s that?”
“We must get Nick Carter, also, if he has gone to Sheldon’s suite, as I suspect,” Kate hurriedly explained. “We must get away with both of these dicks and hold them at your place until we can bring Sheldon to our terms. There’s nothing else to it.” ”

“ Nick interrupted. “What I want to know, Mr. Floyd, is what sort of a game you and Sheldon and Kate Crandall are playing? How does Jim Dacey figure in it? What are you scheming to get from Cyrus Darling by——”
“Get from him be hanged!” Floyd cut in sharply. “You’re talking through your hat. Cyrus Darling is dead and buried——”
“No, he isn’t.”
“Not dead?”
“Not by a long chalk!” Nick sternly declared. “He is alive, very much alive, as I shall presently convince you. I know that without your informing me. I know, too, that you fellows are responsible for his supposed suicide. ”

“ When at last morning dawned, I resolved to ride over to the trappers at the creek and get their advice.
Soon after sunrise I started, and, after two hours’ ride, saw the shanty of my friends some little distance off. They came to meet me with their guns in their hands, ready to shoot.
“Lucky for you that our eyes are accustomed to long range, and that the air is clear to-day, else either you or your horse would have a bullet between his bones now,” said the elder of the two trappers, as I reached them, holding out his hand in friendly greeting. ”

“ Nick stopped short at that point.
Floyd’s right hand suddenly appeared above the edge of the table. It held a revolver—aimed point-blank at the detective’s breast.
“You know too much, Carter, for your own good,” he hissed viciously between his teeth. “If you move foot [Pg 27] or finger, I’ll send a bullet through your heart. Sit quiet, Sheldon, and keep your mouth shut.”
Nick Carter did not appear at all disturbed by the sudden threatening turn of the situation. He had deliberately invited it, in fact, though it came so much more quickly than he expected, that it found him partly unprepared. ”

“ He was about thirty years old, with dark eyes and hair and clean-cut features, in many respects a strikingly handsome man.
Danny shadowed him to the city. He saw him enter an automobile garage and consult a reference book, one containing the license numbers of New York cars and the names of their owners. His face, when he departed, wore a darker cloud, a look of increasing apprehensions.
“Gee! he’s found out that the car belongs to Nick Carter,” Danny readily reasoned. “That don’t seem to please him worth a cent, which shows that my suspicions are all to the good. ”

“ Even if he does not stop to reason about it, he instinctively selects his head in which to send the fatal bullet. The records corroborate me. How often do you hear of a man shooting himself in the heart or lungs?”
“Very seldom, indeed,” Chick agreed. “I don’t know that I ever heard of a case.”
“But what of that?” questioned Patsy argumentatively. “I don’t see how that cuts any ice. Darling could have shot himself in the head.”
“I admit that he could—but he didn’t,” Nick said dryly.
“Why are you so sure of it, chief?” ”

“ Danny muttered. “It’s Kate Crandall, that fly beauty who figured in the Maybrick case. She tried to throw down the church rector because he would not marry her. She must have found an easier way to get money and plenty of it, if fine feathers cut any ice.”
Danny paused in the broad main entrance to the house and furtively watched the couple. He had tried in vain to catch a word or two of their conversation. He now saw the man show Kate Crandall the memorandum made on his letter, and he rightly inferred that they were talking about the touring car and its owner. ”

“ Meanwhile Jack was examining the rider closely.
“What is this?” he cried, astonished. “The fellow is bound fast to the horse—look here—even with a chain.” Horrified, he sprang back. “Look, the man has a mark around his neck. Great Heaven, he’s been hanging—he’s been lashed to the horse, and the poor beast has been carrying around a lifeless burden.”
Filled with astonishment and horror, we saw that Jack’s suspicions admitted of no doubt. The rope had sunk deep into the man’s muscular throat, and the knot was still attached to it.
Charlie then raised the dead man’s head. ”

“ The grounds flanked a broad street in which electric lighting was being introduced, and from which the house stood back some thirty yards, with a well-kept lawn and a few shade trees. In the rear were a stable and garage, beyond which the land sloped down sharply toward the river.
Nick did not wait for an answer from his chauffeur. He sprang from the car while speaking, then walked briskly up the driveway and approached the house, quite a large wooden dwelling of the colonial type. Nick mounted the broad front veranda and rang the bell. ”

“ Nick said bluntly. “The man who told you he had seen my touring car at the Darling residence this afternoon.”
Kate Crandall’s eyes dilated perceptibly under her knitted brows. The shot was evidently not expected, but it did not appear to disturb her seriously. She tossed away her cigarette, nevertheless, asking, a bit resentfully:
“What is it to you, Carter, anyway? Why are you putting me through the wringer in this fashion? What are you trying to dig up? I tell you right here and now that you’ve got nothing on me. My relations with Cyrus Darling were open and above board. ”