Nicholas Carter

“ He stepped before Nick Carter and stared steadfastly at the man on the mule.
“You are Calaman, the priest,” cried Leslie Arnold, in ringing tones, as he pointed a finger at the man’s face. “You ordered your men to take another white man and bring him here. But that white man got away.”
“Well, what if I am Calaman?” rejoined the priest, with dignity. “I have the right to command.”
“Not white men!” shouted Leslie. “It is there where you are to be punished. Do as you will in your own country, and with your own people. ”

“ When the boxes were brought over and laid on the ground by him, the detective touched one with his foot.
“In that box,” he said, “are the lives of a thousand men and more. As for the distance that they will kill, if you or one of your men will stand up at a thousand paces from where I am, I will lift my death stick and find him as easily as I did that mountain goat.” ”

“ There was a few minutes of thoughtful silence.
“We’ll go right back to Calcutta as soon as the rest of our party get into camp,” was Nick Carter’s dictum. “That priest is too vindictive and cunning to let us get away in peace if we don’t go at once.”
“Then it isn’t worth while to light a camp fire?” queried Patsy, in a disappointed tone. “I thought we were going to have a little rest after all that racket.”
“A good soldier never thinks about rest till his work is done,” shot back Nick Carter reprovingly.
“Gee! Me for the civil life, if that’s so,” muttered Patsy Garvan to himself. ”

“ But remember this, Calaman: I hold in this little death stick of mine the lives of fourteen men. Each of the other white men with me can take as many more. Then there is Jai Singh, who casts the spear with mightier force than any other man in India——”
“I have some good spearmen,” interrupted the priest, with a slight shrug as he stroked his beard with one hand.
“You will need them all if I should fail to bring down that mountain goat,” rejoined Nick Carter. “You are a hundred and more against a mere handful of us. But that will not avail you. We shall conquer them all. ”

“ Nick Carter had formed his little band in battle array at the first alarm. He had marshaled Chick, Patsy, Jefferson Arnold, and Adil as a small covering ring for Leslie Arnold and the four coolies who were carrying the baggage, while Jai Singh had taken his place on the left flank.
Everybody in the party except the coolies had his rifle leveled, and could have shot this man on the white mule at any moment. But he showed no disturbance. He looked at the white men as if they were some curious species of animals he was seeing for the first time. ”

“ When it comes to detective stories worth while, the Nick Carter Stories contain the only ones that should be considered. They are not overdrawn tales of bloodshed. They rather show the working of one of the finest minds ever conceived by a writer. The name of Nick Carter is familiar all over the world, for the stories of his adventures may be read in twenty languages. No other stories have withstood the severe test of time so well as those contained in the Nick Carter Stories. It proves conclusively that they are the best. ”

“ Pike had some kind of compact with the natives of Bolongu, and it was to their land he had doubtless gone when his scheme against young Arnold failed.
“Sahib! We must fight!” suddenly boomed a deep voice out of the darkness of the cave in which smoldered the remains of the camp fire. “They come.”
The owner of the voice stalked into the red glow of the fire and made a deep salaam to the detective.
“Hello, Jai Singh! Where did you get that news?” asked Nick Carter.
“Jai Singh watches, sahib!” was the grave reply. “The men of the Golden Scarab are far off. But not far enough to hide. ”

“ He often walked about the palace, and the guards all knew him.
“There is nothing to fear,” he assured Nick Carter.
The others kept close behind, with a vigilant eye upon Pike’s every movement.
Through the gateway, under the great portcullis, and along the drawbridge over the lake they followed, still without any one interfering with their departure.
“Look here, chief!” whispered Chick into Nick Carter’s ear. “This isn’t natural. There is something crooked about it. We are supposed to be prisoners, and yet we are going out without anybody interfering. ”

“ All were big men, well armed. They were a foe not to be despised, even if the force against them had been as great as their own.
They were skillful hunters, too—masters of scouting and woodcraft. Had they not been, they never could have taken an ambush that would escape the keen vision of Nick Carter and Jai Singh, especially with Chick and Patsy also in the party. ”

“ Nick Carter did not reply, but a look of understanding had come into his eyes. He shuddered as he glanced up again to the round things hanging to the crossbar in the smoke and soot.
“It is a witch doctor,” said Jai Singh. “He makes medicine. With my own people we cure men like these with the spear before they go too far and try to make trouble. A medicine man should not be allowed to know too much, or he will do harm.”
“So you just kill them and get them out of the way, eh?” observed Jefferson Arnold. ”

“ He had been watching the proceedings of Nick Carter in the public square while talking, and now chose a particular moment to let Pike look out.
Nick had refused to kill the three malefactors. But he had induced Calaman to have a slab of stone set up at two hundred yards’ distance for a target. In the center of the stone had been placed a splash of mud for a bull’s-eye.
Just as William Pike was allowed to look from his window, Nick Carter sent three bullets, quickly, one after the other, in the very center of the mud splash on the white stone. ”

“ Let us fight while we can, I say.”
“In some ways you may be right, Jai Singh,” conceded Nick. “But we are here for a certain object, and I am going to see it through. We’ll get that man Pike, no matter how far into the city we have to go. If we fought out here, we never should get inside, whether we won or lost.”
“I’d be willing to let Pike go,” interrupted Jefferson Arnold, “if it is too dangerous to go in. Don’t bother about the money he stole. I can get along without that.” ”

“ Nick Carter put a friendly hand on his assistant’s shoulder.
“Of course you believe in me, Chick,” he smiled. “And I believe in myself. Still, shooting is not an exact science, after all. But I’ll do the best I can, and I hope I shall make a good, clean shot.”
“If you should miss, I’ll plug that priest before he can say ‘Git up!’ to his mule,” announced Patsy Garvan. ”

“ Only for an instant did he hesitate. “Because I—hurt a man,” Nash said, taken somewhat aback by the unexpected question.
Hooker looked swiftly into the speaker’s eyes, and smiled—a peculiar, leering, knowing smile that brought the color to Nash’s cheeks.
“Is that so? Well, you couldn’t have picked out a better place than this. No questions asked, and none expected. Do you know, Nash, I’m liking you better and better every day. You’ll come up to expectations, all right. By the way,” he said later, “to-morrow you are to take the position of conduit foreman—Macmillan’s old job.” ”

“ The brazier was left burning, and none of the remainder of the witch man’s ghastly paraphernalia was interfered with.
Nick Carter did not like the willingness with which the man seemed to accompany them. It gave him a misgiving that there might be a trap ahead somewhere, and that it was the prisoner’s intention to lead them into it, even though it should mean his own destruction.
The fatalism of India tends to make its people fearless of death. If it cannot come till a certain time that has been set, then why be afraid? ”

“ Calaman descended from his mule and made a ceremonious salaam to the detective.
“Are you satisfied, Pike?” asked Jefferson Arnold, as he pulled the prisoner away from the window.
“What do you want me to do?” was William Pike’s surly response.
“To see us safely outside the walls of the city. We shall take the money with us that belongs to us, of course. When we are outside, you will escort us to the pass on the other side of the valley. Once we are among the rocks, we can take care of ourselves. Then you can come back to Shangore and continue to bluff the people here as much as you like. ”

“ This seemed reasonable; and the more so as they saw Nick Carter, Patsy, and Jai Singh strolling casually along, without anybody taking any particular notice of them.
“Look here, Pike,” said Jefferson Arnold, as they prepared to go. “I shall hold my pistol against you on one side, and my son will do the same thing on the other.”
“And I shall be close behind,” added Chick. “But what are we going to do with these three guards of yours. They seem to be coming to their senses.” ”

“ It was just such a door and lock as might be on any ordinary room in New York.
Pike was not a prepossessing man now, with his clothing disordered, his hair rumpled, and a smudge of dust across his cheek. But Chick, accustomed to sizing men up at a glance, decided that he would pass for a very respectable type of business man under ordinary conditions. ”

“ Nick Carter deliberately wrapped the head in his handkerchief and dropped it into his coat pocket.
“Look on this man’s chest,” he said, pointing to the prisoner on the couch. “He has a beetle, like that on the body we saw back there in that other part of the cave. I wish I knew what it means.”
He addressed the man in English, but there was no answer except an intensifying of the savage scowl. Then Nick tried several of the Indian dialects, without success.
Once the man spat at him like an angry cat.
“Well-behaved old scout, isn’t he?” remarked Patsy. ”

“ The Golden Scarab was always crying for sacrifices, according to the people of that land.
“I accept your test,” went on Nick Carter. “But on one condition: Your mountain goat is quite four spears’ lengths away even for the strongest of your men. That means that my death stick is four times as powerful as any of your spears.”
Calaman nodded.
“If I win, you shall lead us into your city of Shangore and deliver up the white man you hold prisoner. ”

“ Nick Carter admonished his followers. “This is the kind of place where there might easily be a guard at intervals, if the Bolongu men know as much about the strategy of warfare as I believe.”
“You need not fear, sahib,” came from Jai Singh. “They are frightened. They will not attack us till we have got out of this part of the mountains. They shout, but that is all.”
“I wish they would show up a little nearer,” observed Patsy. “I’m getting as rusty as an old gate for want of a scrap.”
“Keep quiet, Patsy!” growled Chick, by his side. ”

“ We shall be in an exposed situation as soon as we get out of this cave. If there were moonlight, any of those fellows who might be farther up the mountain could shoot poisoned arrows into us, or even reach us with spears.”
“Well, this is something I didn’t expect,” remarked Chick, as the others moved from the fire, leaving him alone with Nick Carter. “We were lucky enough to rescue young Leslie, and we got his man Adil, too. That is all you were asked to do, wasn’t it?”
“Yes,” answered Nick. “We came to India to find Leslie Arnold. ”

“ I wish I was out of this!” ejaculated Patsy involuntarily.
“Why?” whispered Chick. “That can’t hurt you.”
“How do I know that? Look on his chest. There’s some kind of tattooing. Looks like a lobster.”
“It’s a beetle,” corrected Jefferson Arnold.
“The Golden Scarab!” explained Jai Singh, in his deep, resonant voice. “You see that they are on the walls, too.”
“You’re right,” agreed Nick Carter. “There are etchings of beetles all over the walls and ceilings. But they are mixed up with men and trees and rocks. I did not detect the beetles at once.” ”

“ Calaman looked down at him with calm indifference, as he ordered one of his men to take the remains away.
“You see,” he added, addressing Nick Carter. “The man is dead, yet I used no weapon. Can you better that, my stranger guests? It was my will that compelled him to kill himself, though he did not want to do it. He paid the penalty of his clumsiness.”
Nick Carter was disgusted, and he did not try to hide it. Looking the priest squarely in the eye, he frowned angrily.
“The trick is nothing,” he declared. “There are many men in my country who could have done as much, and more. ”

“ Patsy was much disgusted with the whole of the population of Shangore, particularly with Calaman, and he could not help expressing it to any one who would listen—or to himself, in the absence of any other sympathetic listener.
“I have already shown you that I can kill at a distance,” returned Nick Carter, regarding the priest somewhat defiantly. “Does not that satisfy you of the power of the death stick?”
“Not quite. It may kill mountain goats, but be useless against men. There are three malefactors who have been sentenced to death. ”

“ He turned away from the priest, saying curtly:
“Enough words! Draw your mule a little to one side, so that I may have a clear view of what I am to shoot.”
Calaman did as Nick requested, and the detective glanced over to where the goat was browsing placidly on the hilltop, quite unsuspicious of the plans against its life. It was a rather larger animal than the goat commonly seen in the United States, and it had long, backward-curving horns that gave it the appearance of being bigger than it really was. ”

“ I’ve tried my best to get a job, but somehow jobs are scarce as snowballs on Main Street. Now, here’s old Opportunity knocking at my door. The man the letter was given to doesn’t want the job. The man into whose hands it has fallen does want it. I won’t be harming any one by getting myself a necessary position. And even if it is mixing cement with the wops, or digging in the trenches with the greasers, I guess I can show my worth. ”

“ Here we are, right among the foothills of the Himalayas, and we know—or think we know—that this mysterious race of beings, who worship the Golden Scarab, are just on the other side of the range, in front of us.”
“That’s what I learned when those fellows were leading me along,” put in Leslie Arnold, as he carelessly took from his belt the automatic revolver given to him by Nick Carter a short time before, and lovingly regarded the cartridges. “Ask Adil.”
Adil—tall, dark, grave, and of the best type of Hindu—came forward from the shadows and made a salaam to the company in general. ”

“ All at once the tunnel widened, and they were able to stand side by side and move about more freely.
They found themselves at the top of a flight of shallow steps—not more than three or four—looking down into an almost circular cavern, in the middle of which was a large brazier, full of live coals. ”

“ Then we could——”
“Patsy!” thundered Nick Carter, who had overheard the last part of his assistant’s proposition. “Let me manage this matter.”
“Oh, all right! You’re the boss!” grumbled Patsy. “All the same——”
“Shut up!” whispered Chick.
“Now, Calaman, what is your final answer?” demanded Nick Carter, stepping forward a little from his companions and looking straight into the eyes of the priest. “I have told you that I must take that white man back with me. It is only a question of how it is to be done.” ”

“ He was shrewd enough to know that it would be unwise to quarrel with these white people until he had learned a little more about the death sticks, and he was sure that they would try to insist on a dog going with them.
So Calaman led them through the main streets of the city in silence, while Nick Carter and the others took careful note of everything they saw.
Suddenly Chick caught Nick Carter by the arm, and whispered, in agitated tones:
“Look! That window on the right! Do you see that face? It is a white man. Now he has moved away. ”

“ The death stick must have great power. With twenty of those sticks I would be able to command——Ah, well, we shall see!”
He motioned to his men to lay the dead goat down, and beckoned Nick Carter to come closer.
“Stranger, how many men can you kill with that stick before its power is gone?” he asked. “And what is the greatest distance at which it will do its work?”
“Come here, boy?” called out Nick Carter to one of the coolies. ”

“ The Conjure Man always professes the deepest piety. Were he in league with evil spirits, no negro would go within a mile of him. It is only the good spirits he calls upon. In nearly every case the Conjure Man is ignorant, but wonderfully cunning. He is generally honest, however, in supposing that he has some sort of a gift that will ward off evil influences. You can find in Missouri a great many old white people who will, in a somewhat backward way, admit that they have the same sort of influence. ”