Nicholas Carter

“ Getting on his feet, the dog knocked Patsy backward, and contemplated Baboo Punyah as if he were some new production that had never come within his range of vision before, and was somewhat of a puzzle to his canine mind.
“Get him, Captain!” whispered Patsy.
This was enough for Captain. He had no particular grudge against Baboo Punyah, but he did want to know something more about this loud-talking Hindu. ”

“ If they weren’t so thoroughly in awe of Jai Singh, I am inclined to think they would get away and leave us.”
“That is true, sahib,” broke in Jai Singh, in a deep growl. “But the men are not to be blamed. Many strange things happen by night. Even I, who am afraid of no man, have known the chill fingers of fear on my shoulder ere now in such places as this. If all tales be true, the country back here is full of strange things, of which it is not wise to speak.”
“Oh, cut it out, Jai!” interrupted Patsy, with a shiver, half real and half in mockery. ”

“ No man has seen them again, not even their bones.”
“Wow!” howled Patsy.
“Others have gone in, or been driven in, alone and unarmed, by powers they could not stand against. After many days they have come out with their skin a silver gray, all cracked and dried. They have had neither eyes to see, nor tongue to speak, nor fingers to make signs with, so that none could tell what had befallen them.”
“Cheerful old cuss, isn’t he?” whispered Chick to his chief.
Nick Carter nodded thoughtfully. He had heard similar, and even more gruesome, tales himself. He knew these parts of India better than Chick. ”

“ There’s nothing slow about Jai Singh,” observed Patsy. “He’s as slick as Jay Gould ever was.”
“Are the boys all here?” asked Nick Carter.
“They are here,” was the grave response.
“They’ll have to fight,” put in Jefferson Arnold. “Have we guns enough to go around, with one for my son?”
“He can have my rifle,” answered Nick Carter. “I will depend on my revolver. It is a weapon I am used to, and I have more confidence in it than in a rifle, especially at close quarters.”
Leslie Arnold took the rifle with a smile and word or two of gratitude. ”

“ Jai Singh, Nick Carter, Jefferson Arnold, and Chick were all on the rough landing stage, looking at the boat, to see that everything was stowed in that might be required, when there was a shout behind them. Half a dozen natives were stalking in their direction, and there was an indescribable air of official determination pervading the whole procession.
“Hello!” ejaculated Arnold. “What’s broken loose here? What do those black scalawags think they want?”
“Let the sahib keep quiet,” requested Jai Singh, in a low voice. “It is I who will talk to them.” ”

“ But I believe it is Adil, the young fellow my boy engaged as a sort of body servant. He says all white men in India have a servant of that kind.”
Nick Carter’s grip tightened on his rifle.
“Keep cool, Mr. Arnold! We’ll save him!” he promised, in low, tense tones. “But we must be cautious.”
“It is Adil!” came from Arnold. “I feel sure of it. Every move tells me so. I’ve half a mind to shoot that black scarecrow who is doing it all. I can do it without much trouble. Those snakes are doing just as he tells them. That big one is going to strike Adil before he gets through.” ”

“ Jai Singh did not reply at once. He bent his head and seemed to be in a deep reverie for some moments—almost as if in a trance. Suddenly he straightened up, and speaking in a low, dreamy tone, answered:
“How can I tell exactly how it is that I know? It may be that, long years ago, before I was born, my people forced their way through to battle with those who worship the Golden Scarab. Sometimes, in the night, I seem to see a picture of men of my race and caste going through a pass, with spears ready to strike.”
“Punk!” muttered Patsy.
Nick Carter gave his second assistant a sharp glance. ”

“ It may be wondered that Chick would pay attention to such a triviality as this Hindu’s knowledge of English at such a time, when inevitable death seemed to stare him in the face.
The answer to that is that, in moments of awful danger, the mind will often run on things that are of no importance. Many a soldier in a wild bayonet or cavalry charge goes to his death humming ragtime without knowing what he is doing. ”

“ Is this still India?”
“Yes. We are getting toward the borders of Nepal,” answered Chick.
“Come again? Is there any difference between Nepal and the rest of this forsaken country? Gee! I’d——”
“Keep quiet, Patsy!” warned Chick. “Jai Singh speaks as good English as we do. He doesn’t like to hear any reflections on his country.”
“Does he belong to Nepal?” asked the irrepressible Patsy.
“He’s a Hindu, and the whole of India is sacred to him,” was Chick’s grave reply. “He’s got the boat ready. We’d better be getting over there.” ”

“ It was lucky that they did swing in, for at that instant an arrow whizzed by them and struck with a sharp ring of metal against the face of the rock.
“The people of the Golden Scarab use the weapons of their fathers,” remarked Jai Singh calmly. “Their arrows kill when they strike.”
“Poisoned?” asked Nick.
The tall Hindu shrugged his shoulders, as he repeated, in a significant tone:
“I have said that they kill.”
Nick Carter, Chick, and Patsy had all thrown up their rifles almost simultaneously with the passing of the arrow. But Jai Singh called out:
“Don’t shoot! There may be more of them. ”

“ Striking a plaintive minor, he brought forth more music out of the reed than either Nick Carter or any of his companions had supposed was in it. The result was that all the snakes began to move in time to the notes.
“I wish I could shoot that rascal down,” muttered Jefferson Arnold. “I feel that I owe it to poor Adil, anyhow.”
“Not yet,” whispered Nick Carter. “When we do strike, we want it to be of real effect.”
Bang!
Whether the nerve of Chick had suddenly given way under the strain, or whether he had fired by pure accident, he never could tell. ”

“ I always have contended that these Indians know more than seems possible unless they have supernatural powers at their back.”
“It is Sahib Leslie Arnold,” went on Jai Singh calmly. “In the temple it was told to me that you would come.”
“What kind of bunk is that?” whispered Patsy. “Who told him, do you think?”
“Keep quiet, Patsy,” warned Chick. “He’s liable to hear you. Don’t you know that India is the land of mysteries? If you never believed in ghosts and demons, and all that kind of thing, you’ve got a surprise coming to you. ”

“ As it was, Jai Singh, with his noble appearance and the prestige he derived from high caste, made the natives get around at his will. He gave a few annas here and there, because you could not deal with men of this kind in any other way, but his tips were never large, and he ordered them about in the offhand manner that had made him a power among his own people.
“A boat that will hold ten men,” had been his order to a surly looking native who stood near the platform when the train came to a halt. ”

“ He was glad of the heavy shadows, for his face must have mirrored his thoughts. Only a wooden man could have remained stolid under similar circumstances.
That Jarge was the unknown who had pushed him through the door that night in Mrs. Wold’s boarding house, with a whispered “Run for it!” in his ear, thereby saving him from the police, came as the proverbial bolt from the blue. Yet, instead of cowering Klein, as the other had naturally expected it would, the confession served to bridge the few remaining gaps in the otherwise perfect wall of the Delmar case. ”

“ Hardly had Arnold gone, when a crowd of dark-skinned men broke cover across the clearing. They had knives and spears in their hands, and they were bent on mischief.
“Let go, boys!” cried Nick Carter.
He fired his rifle as he spoke, and simultaneously there was a report from the gun of each of his two assistants. They fired two more shots apiece as fast as they could pump them out, and the Hindus stopped in amazement that was dangerously near panic. ”

“ Calcutta is a hot place in the afternoon, and nothing could be done until the sun began to go down. Then those who had been curled up in any partly cool place they could find for the inevitable siesta, stirred themselves, and the little party made its way to the railroad station.
Nick Carter, Jefferson Arnold, Chick, and Patsy Garvan all gathered in the coach reserve for high-caste natives and white persons, while Jai Singh and his men took their places in a car of lower class, to smoke cigarettes and doze throughout the night. ”

“ The commander had been gazing at the oncoming boat, as well as at the distant shore line, through his binoculars, and, almost mechanically, he gave orders to drop the anchors fore and aft.
“Going to stop, captain?” asked the millionaire ship owner.
“Yes. It will do no harm. And I want to see what these fellows in the boat are after.”
“I’ll come up on the bridge. I guess,” grunted Arnold. “Come on, Carter!”
The sacred bridge of a steamer is not going to be profaned by the feet of an uninvited person unless he happens to be the owner or some one of equal importance. ”

“ Klein interrupted, placing the necklace in his own pocket. “If I’m not greatly mistaken, you’ll need all of it later on. By the way, do you happen to have Miss Lydecker’s brooch with you to-night? I mean the one you got away with last week. Rather a neat plan, Jarge. Posing as a detective is quite a help, isn’t it? And winning the respect of Mr. Lydecker by first stealing his daughter’s jewels, then returning them, is another clever move on your part. You’re an artist!” ”

“ As the four oarsmen began to urge the boat upstream, Nick Carter, sitting in the stern, by the side of Jai Singh, who steered, saw that most of the inhabitants of the village was staring after them curiously.
“I wonder how much those fellows know about Leslie Arnold’s disappearance,” muttered the detective. “Well, whatever they may know, they will not tell. Fortunately, I think we can do without their help.” ”

“ So far as I know, it is the only one where a man may pass in safety.”
“You have been through it?” queried Chick.
“No.”
“Gee! How do you know about it, then?” interjected Patsy Garvan. “Just a hunch?”
“The wisdom of the hills where I live is not understood by white men,” returned Jai Singh gravely. “I know what I know.”
“Well, you know a great deal more than I do about this forsaken country,” muttered Patsy. “I wouldn’t care if I didn’t find out any more about it, either. If we weren’t going after young Mr. Arnold, and that crook, William Pike, I’d be satisfied to quit right here. ”

“ Hardly had this one figure come into view, when there was another and another.
“They’ve closed us in!” cried Chick. “Just what I was afraid of.”
“Looks like it,” assented Nick Carter. “Well, there’s only one thing to do. We must rush them and take our chances of breaking through.”
“They’ll be taking the chances—not us!” shouted Patsy, with his usual drive-ahead cocksureness. “We could lick that bunch if our arms were in a sling.”
“Of course we can, but we’ll have to fight. There’s more of them every moment. Blaze away, both of you, and fire from the hip. Don’t take the time to aim. ”

“ Nick Carter had had experience enough as an army officer to know a great deal about military strategy. He was aware that the menace of a flanking movement was something whose importance no general overlooked.
If once the wings of their black pursuers outstripped them far enough to close in and get them in a ring, they would be as helpless as rats in a trap.
“Get to the river!” was Nick’s low-voiced instruction to his two assistants.
“How far ahead is it?” asked Patsy. “I’ve lost track of distances since I’ve been in this wood.”
“A hundred and fifty feet,” replied Chick. “Keep quiet! ”

“ He always liked to get to the bottom of things without loss of time.
“It is a beetle, Patsy,” replied Nick Carter. “Go on, Jai Singh. What do you know about it?”
“I know there is a country far up above the hills where the snows are, and that the Golden Scarab is their god. They are big men, who fight well, and they have cities as fine as any in India, with great temples, on which are signs cut in stone by their ancestors, and where they worship the Golden Scarab. ”

“ It was a small town at which the railroad had come to an end—the extremity of a branch of the main line—and if it had not been for Jai Singh, there would have been difficulty in going any farther.
Hindus of various castes were here, most of them of inferior kind, and they were not disposed to be friendly.
Like all natives of India in out-of-the-way places, they were ever on the lookout for alms, and Nick Carter, like most Americans, would have dealt with them on the basis of many tips if he had been left to himself. ”

“ Nick continued:
“It is a strange country, and the men there are fierce and cruel. They have strange worship, and their gods are not yours. Whether we will come out of that country alive no one can say. It is possible that the white man who went into the forests with Sahib Arnold may have taken him into the strange land beyond the mountains, and that he will tell the men of the Golden Scarab enough about us to give them power we cannot beat.”
“Not by a jugful!” interrupted Patsy Garvan. “I’ll bet we lick them if ever we get within striking distance. ”