Nicholas Carter

“ All right, Chick! Don’t worry! It’s your Uncle Patsy has you now! Say! This is a hot one, all right!”
Chatting in this way to keep up his own spirits, as well as to make Chick feel safe in case he should be coming to his senses, Patsy Garvan helped Nick Carter lift Chick into the boat.
“Pull, Patsy! Pull for your life!” shouted Nick, as Patsy got the pair of oars well in hand.
“Sure I’ll pull!” was the hearty response. “I can tumble without a house falling on me!”
Nick Carter could not aid his willing assistant at that instant. There was only one pair of oars in the skiff, and Patsy had them. ”

“ For years Yale, Harvard, and Princeton have played baseball without a decision as to championship honors. Last year, for instance, Yale defeated Harvard; Harvard easily beat Princeton, yet Princeton neatly trimmed Yale, leaving honors easy all around. Although each of the three old rivals may win three of the scheduled games of the series this year and a championship may be again impossible, chances are against any such outcome of the advent of the new triangular arrangement, the baseball triple entente of Yale, Harvard, and Princeton. ”

“ Patsy swung his revolver over till its muzzle was exactly opposite the right eye of Foxey Irwin, while Nick Carter pointed his automatic steadily at Larry Dugan, with the quiet warning:
“Don’t move, Dugan! Half an inch to one side or the other, and I touch the trigger.”
“Touch, eh?” sneered Dugan. “Why don’t you pull it while you are about it—if you have the nerve to shoot at all.”
“A touch is all that is needed with this gun, Dugan,” returned Nick. “It’s the easiest trigger I ever put my finger on. And I wouldn’t advise you to test my nerve about shooting.” ”

“ Nick crawled along, keeping as low as he could to avoid at least some of the strength of the poisonous ammonia.
The engine thudded unseen in another compartment of the big cellar, pumping more of the gas from the generator to the storage tank, whence some demoniac villainy had arranged for it to escape.
“This will be all for Solado and Miguel,” thought Nick, as he half carried, half dragged, Chick across the floor. ”

“ Solado was speaking when Nick Carter first heard any of the conversation, and what he said was of personal interest to the detective.
“Now we know who that man is who pretended to be Marcos,” were Solado’s words, bitten off with a spitefulness that told how viciously in earnest he was, “the thing to do is to get him out of the way.”
“Permanently?” asked Miguel, in a languid tone.
“Permanently,” came the quick assent. “We can’t afford to have an interfering individual like him disturbing us when we are planning for the welfare of our beloved country, Joyalita.”
“Solado!” interrupted Miguel. ”

“ Nick smiled in the darkness at the ingenuity of his assistant, but he merely told Patsy to go ahead, without any more comment.
There was a pause, as Patsy rowed his boat a few yards from the wall.
He had quite worked out in his own mind how he meant to force his way.
The boat was heavy and flat-bottomed. Any extra weight at one end would always cause the other to stand up clear of the water. ”

“ A flying board, all blue flames and scattering sparks, came charging full tilt at the boat.
It struck Nick Carter’s arm, and fell, seething, into the water. If it had come straight in its original course, it must have plunged into the unprotected, upturned face of Chick.
“That was a close call,” observed Patsy, as he ran the skiff up against the other one, where Marcos was keeping close watch on the prisoners. “What shall I do now?”
“Get in and row the gang to shore. I’ll take Chick in this skiff. He is beginning to come around,” returned Nick. ”

“ Carlin was known as a “killer,” and there is little doubt that he would have tried to “get” Nick Carter at the instant that the detective covered Dugan, if Marcos had not been too quick for him.
Nick had perfect faith in this prince from Joyalita who looked so much like himself. He had seen that Marcos never permitted himself to get rattled, but was always in complete control of his nerves.
So, when Marcos leaped at Carlin just as the other boat swung alongside, anticipating, by a sliver of a second, the drawing of Pet’s gun, it was no more than Nick Carter had felt sure would happen. ”

“ When he heard Nick Carter tell him to kick in the boards at one of the windows it was perfectly clear to him what he was to do.
Holding his boat firmly at the boarded window where he had first caught the fumes of ammonia, and which had called forth his ejaculation, he warned Nick by saying cautiously:
“Chief!”
“Well?”
“Look out! I’m going to stave in this board with the end of the boat. It may hurt you if you get in the way.”
“The boat is below the level of the window, isn’t it?” asked Nick.
“Just a little,” was Patsy’s reply. “If it wasn’t, the water would pour into the cellar.” ”

“ It had seemed to Chick that his own capture was the logical result of the activity of Nick Carter and himself in helping Marcos to escape the clutches of Solado and Miguel.
The cunning rascals would know that so long as these two clear-sighted, quick-acting detectives were at large, they could not expect to carry out their purpose of holding Prince Marcos away from his own country until they had carried out their treacherous purpose of practically giving it away to another government.
“They’re pretty shrewd citizens, I reckon,” muttered Chick, as he surveyed his prison. ”

“ A little brown horse whose memory holds only the recollection of hours of easy pacing through the park bridle paths, with now and then a thrilling dash after a runaway, or the more serious excitement of pushing back an unruly crowd without stepping on its toes, has no place in his mind for a scene like this. ”

“ Pulling the two prisoners from one boat to the other, they had allowed them to lie down in the bottom, while Dugan, with a skill equal to Nick Carter’s own, had sent his launch full speed toward the wharves and tangle of shipping that one always sees on the water front of Yonkers. ”

“ It was quite natural, after his discharge and his words with Hooker, that the former subforeman should seek revenge. Being interested in the construction of the conduit, and realizing full well that the loss of water would prove a serious blow, Macmillan had determined upon this damaging method.
The one question which still tortured Nash’s brain was how Miss Breen had become mixed up with such a man as Macmillan. And it stood to reason that she must be, else why had she warned him last night? The more he studied over the problem, the more entangled it became, so finally he gave it up. ”

“ Perhaps Chick liked it all the more because the tones of Marcos were so much like Nick Carter’s that in the deep gloom he had some difficulty in assuring himself that it was not his chief who was talking.
He could not help referring to it, however.
“You and Mr. Carter are more alike than any two persons I have ever seen in my life,” he blurted out. “Even your voices are the same.”
“So they tell me,” was the careless reply. “But let’s get out of this. I’ve got to get even with that scoundrelly cousin of mine, Miguel, and I’ll never do it till I am clear of this bad-smelling place. ”

“ He had reached the bottom of the ladder, when a loud, derisive laugh overhead came to his ears. Then, with a bang, the door closed!
Instantly Nick dropped at full length, taking Chick with him.
He wanted a moment to think, and it was essential that he should inhale as little of the ammonia as possible while he decided what to do.
The situation was a terrifying one. To a man less courageous than Nick Carter, it might have appeared hopeless.
“The window!” he muttered. “I know how I got out of the other cellar, by Patsy helping me from the outside. ”

“ Why?”
“Because I heard the people inside say that he was coming at dark, to take Marcos away.”
Patsy turned quickly to his chief, his face twitching with anxiety.
“And Chick? He’s the boy I’m interested in. Dear old Chick!”
“That’s right. We have to look after Chick,” was Nick Carter’s response.
Patsy Garvan involuntarily pulled back his coat cuffs, as if getting ready for action.
“Let’s get busy!” he said. “If Chick’s in this place, we’re going to have him out. And if Larry Dugan and his crowd are coming to-night, we have no time to lose. It’s getting dark now.” ”

“ As a rule, however, the meadows are decidedly sloppy, and as the water that floods them comes from the sea, everything is salt about them. The grass cut from these meadows is used mainly for bedding for cattle. As fodder it is useless.
It was at a dreary, desolate spot in the middle of the marshes that Nick Carter got off the car, with Patsy Garvan, and waited in the road as the car went spinning away farther into the back country.
“We’ll get a boat here, Patsy,” said Nick. ”

“ In two minutes more both were at the bottom of the chute, while Patsy untied the boat.
“I’m glad it is dark, Patsy!” whispered Nick Carter. “They are taking Marcos away in that boat, and we have to stop them, if we can. If not, we must trail them till we can get help to take them in.”
“We don’t need help,” snapped Patsy Garvan. “There’s only three of them, and if we have this Marcos to help us, there’ll be three on our side. Why, I am almost ashamed to do it. It’s too easy! Are we to shoot?”
“If we can’t nail them any other way. Have you got handcuffs in your pocket, Patsy?” ”

“ Arthur Mullens, of New York City, works in paper and publishing houses, and all he finds he reads. If he had not read on a proof sheet yesterday that cruelty to animals was the unpardonable sin, he would not have enlarged the hole in the sack he carried, thereby freeing the eagle eyes and more eaglish beak of Luke, a rooster, and—but to start at the beginning. ”

“ It was Nick Carter’s determination now to catch the three thugs. He had little doubt that they had been hired by Solado and Miguel to make away with a man they wanted to keep out of sight, for a time at least.
The man’s name was Prince Marcos.
In this supposition he was right. But he did not give the rascals credit for quite so much audacity as they possessed.
As Nick reached over the sides of the two launches which were rubbing against each other, and grabbed the man nearest to him, who happened to be Pet Carlin, there was a loud shout from Chick.
“Look out, chief! They’re getting our men!” ”

“ Tobacco Redeemer is in no sense a substitute for tobacco, but is a radical, efficient treatment. After finishing the treatment you have absolutely no desire to use tobacco again or to continue the use of the remedy. It quiets the nerves, and will make you feel better in every way. If you really want to quit the tobacco habit—get rid of it so completely that when you see others using it, it will not awaken the slightest desire in you—you should at once begin a course of Tobacco Redeemer treatment for the habit. ”