Nicholas Carter

“ It was very early in the morning of the eighteenth, the day on which the council was to be held that would decide the future fate of Joyalita.
A tap at the door, and in response to the gorgeous man’s “Come in!” a slim man, in plain clothes, whose shifty eyes took in the whole apartment at a glance, while he ran one of his clawlike hands over his damp face, stepped forward.
“Well, Jason?” snapped the man at the table.
“I came in to tell you that everything is attended to, Don Solado. We have Prince Marcos safely in the hands of Gaspara, and there is nothing to interfere.” ”

“ What have I to fear?”
“It is the innocent man who always suffers,” she answered bitterly.
“This isn’t New York, Miss Breen,” Nash replied. “They do things differently out here. I’m not afraid.”
Miss Breen sank helplessly to a chair. “Why do you always prate about the East and the West?” she exclaimed. “A crooked job is a crooked job, whether it is staged in Los Angeles or New York. Sigsbee is a shrewd man, and he has laid a shrewd trap. ”

“ Nick Carter opened the throttle still wider, and the great machine leaped forward like a mettlesome horse that had been spurred.
“Gee! We’re in the open now, for fair!” shouted Patsy.
“There’s the rest of the gang up there,” added Chick.
“They are getting ready to shoot,” remarked Phillips.
They could hear the distant crack of rifle shots, and they could make out the heads of the bandits as they lay behind a ridge and took as careful aim at the automobile as they could. ”

“ Yet before he could take out his watch her hand crept into his pocket, removing it.
“It’s a quarter to eight,” she announced. She held the watch in her hands, forgetting to return it.
Nash pleaded with her once more. “You must get away! You must! If the worst should happen—yours would be a useless sacrifice. You can do me no good by remaining. Your own life is——”
“Don’t, don’t, don’t!” she choked, interrupting him. “I—I am not worthy.”
He stared into her partly hidden face. “Miss Breen,” he commanded firmly, “every minute is precious. Pull yourself together. You must be brave.” ”

“ Nash answered. “Nor of Miss Breen, for that matter. What a disappearance!”
“Who is this—Miss Breen?”
“Well,” Nash answered frankly, “as long as you have been doing your work faithfully, I might as well confess. She’s a spotter.”
The foreman swore. “A spotter?”
“Yes. But somehow I never feel afraid. Never have. Oh, I know how the majority of men feel about such things. Spotters represent all that is undesirable to them—and they take the easiest method of ridding themselves of so-called trouble-makers. Seems foolish to me. A man who is doing his work right should not fear inspection.” ”

“ The Princess Marcos, mother of the ruler of Joyalita, did understand. She was an able, quick-thinking woman of the world, and she had seen enough of diplomacy and statesmanship to make her much more sophisticated than the average woman of mere society.
Claudia led the way up the broad, old-fashioned staircase, followed by Miguel and the princess. ”

“ What is more, he hates Marcos.”
“That’s true,” observed Miguel thoughtfully. “Trenzini wanted to marry that niece of yours, Claudia, didn’t he?”
“Yes. But Marcos has been polite to her a few times, and she thinks she can get him.”
“Perhaps she will. I have no objection,” sneered Miguel. “But he will not be ruler of Joyalita after to-day, so perhaps she won’t want him then.”
“Yes, she will,” was Don Solado’s quick reply. “I believe the girl would be fool enough to marry him if he were utterly ruined—if he would have her. Young women of her kind never have any sense, it seems to me.” ”

“ When Collins had gone, Prince Miguel got up, stretched himself, and walked up and down the lobby, cigarette in mouth, and deeply cogitating.
“Solado was right!” he muttered, between his teeth. “He’s a sharp man, is Solado. He knew Marcos was too badly shot to go to Penza just now. Yet a man supposed to be Marcos has gone. I guess I’ll call up Marcos’ mother from Newport on the long distance, and tell her Marcos has met with an accident. She’ll come rushing up to Crownledge to see her son, and if he’s still there, in bed, as I believe, why, I shall know what to wire to Solado.” ”

“ Claudia Solado left the drawing-room and was helped down to the platform by Chick.
In another minute the train was softly gliding away, without noise or fuss, as the electric motor got to work. Claudia was left on the platform watching the red tail lights as they glimmered smaller and smaller, and finally disappeared.
As she walked slowly from the station and entered the taxicab which had been waiting for her, she did not perceive a slim, ratlike-looking young man, hardly out of his teens, who had been watching her, and who was close behind her as she told the driver to take her to Crownledge. ”

“ There was a crack, hardly heard through the shouts and the rushing of the car, and the bullet went six feet too high, at least.
Then Phillips came to the front. He brought out a revolver, and, as the car came level with the soldier who had just fired, the valet sent a bullet into his chest.
There was a shriek, followed by a gurgling groan, from the trooper, and down he went in a huddled heap. The car surged past, and those in it hardly had time to see what became of the man.
“Bully for you, Phillips!” shouted Patsy. “You plugged him good! Wow! You’re all right, old socks!” ”

“ From the other side of the pass came to their ears the sound of the sentry’s carbine, followed by the spiteful roar of Phillips’ revolver.
“Quick, men!” bellowed Lieutenant Trenzini. “Line the road, and, as the car comes through, be ready to shoot. Aim low and shoot to kill!” he added savagely. “They’ve killed one of our men, but we’ll make them pay for that. We shall be backed up at Penza. Don’t forget that. Prince Miguel——”
There was a scampering of heavily booted men as his soldiers rushed to obey their officer’s orders, and he did not proceed any farther. He knew his men were all with him. ”

“ Doctor Sloane shrugged his shoulders. He was one of the distinguished surgeons in New York, and he was accustomed to being obeyed. Even a prince was not important enough in his eyes to dispute his professional commands.
“As to the moral right, Mr. Carter,” intoned the doctor, in his most impressive manner, “that, it seems to me, is beside the matter. I tell you, as a surgeon, that a man who has just been shot in the chest, and has narrowly escaped a puncture of the pericardium, must lie still for a more or less protracted period, if he intends ever to get up at all.” ”

“ Nick Carter smiled, and Patsy burst into a guffaw that made Chick very indignant.
“Say, Chick! You’re the cutest little guesser, when it comes to colors, that ever moseyed down the pike. What was the color of the lunch we had to-day?”
“That will do, Patsy!” gently rebuked Nick Carter. “It does not matter much whether the man’s clothes were gray or any other color, so long as we block his game, whatever it may be. Here’s the town of Paron that I told you about, and right before us is the hotel.”
Nick drove the car into a courtyard and got out, glad to stretch his limbs after his long drive. ”

“ He had reached a slight incline—just enough to give a slight forward impetus to the car, in addition to that which it got from its engine.
On came the bowlder, and it is beyond question that, if the car had been absolutely on level ground, or had encountered a little rise, there would have been a collision which could have resulted only in an awful tragedy.
The rock swept down! It was almost on top of the car! Then, as the automobile took its little extra spurt forward, the great stone skimmed the back of the machine, actually scraping the leather cover top. ”

“ I know Solado is in Penza, and probably Miguel has got there, too. It would be awkward for them to have Prince Marcos turn up to-day. They would do anything to prevent it, and as they have the soldiers at their command, it is the most likely thing in the world for them to try to stop me.”
“I didn’t think the soldiers were against Marcos,” remarked Patsy.
“Some of them are, evidently,” was Nick Carter’s rejoinder. “Of course, these fellows in the pass have been picked.”
“Oh, yes,” assented Patsy. “There are always some dirty hounds in every army. What are we going to do? Shoot them, I suppose?” ”

“ I hope you will get to Penza all right!” cried the boy after them as the car started and began to roll away at a good speed to make the next hill.
“You’d better keep your heads low,” suggested Nick. “Phillips, I am sorry we have got you into this.”
“Never mind, your highness! The saints will preserve us!” was the valet’s fervent response.
“Full speed ahead, chief!” called out Patsy. “Gee! This is where we begin to live!”
Chick said nothing. But he took his automatic revolver from his pocket and examined it affectionately. ”

“ You will help me, Carter, won’t you?”
“I will certainly try to bring to justice the men who tried to murder you,” replied Nick Carter. “Don Solado, your prime minister of state——”
“A treacherous old rascal!” put in Marcos.
“Of course he is,” assented Nick. “And your cousin, Prince Miguel, who would like to step into your shoes as ruler of your country. He and Solado are both interested in preventing your reaching Joyalita. Whether they would kill you to keep you away remains to be seen.” ”

“ Phillips came out with a traveling bag and big coat belonging to Marcos, stowed them in the back of the car, and got in himself.
“Didn’t see anything of the watch, I suppose, Phillips?” asked Nick, in a low tone.
“No, sir,” replied Phillips, shaking his head. “The Seal of Gijon is in Penza, I have no doubt. We will get it when we are there.”
“You are right, Phillips,” said Nick Carter sternly. “We will get it. What had Mala to say for himself?”
“I didn’t see him, sir. No one seems to be in the hotel at all. Or, if there are people about, they are keeping out of sight.” ”

“ Nash. I am to blame for it all. You cannot stay here.”
“But wouldn’t it be an admission of guilt to run away?” he asked. “Of course it would. And I don’t intend to do so.”
“Oh, but what chance have you against Sigsbee and his political influence?” she cried.
“I’ll make a chance,” he answered firmly. “I’m innocent. I’ve tried to do what was right. Things can’t be as black as they look.”
Miss Breen walked up and down the floor for an interval; then she stopped.
“There’s one way out of this affair,” she ventured, “and just one.”
Nash nodded. “You mean—we’ve go to get those false specifications! ”

“ Chick laughed in the back of the car at Patsy’s comical distress, but sympathized with him, nevertheless.
It was true, as Patsy had intimated, that they had had nothing to eat since breakfast, and it certainly had been an unsatisfactory meal.
They were passing through a region where the population had too little work to do to keep them in health. Like Patsy, they grumbled, in consequence. They cultivated a little corn and a few beans, and lived on the fruits that grew ready to their hands for the remainder. But always they were dissatisfied. ”

“ When Marcos went he was accompanied not only by his mother, but also by Claudia Solado and hers. This was because a wedding was to take place soon at Penza. Marcos made Claudia his princess.
“She’s some girl, is Claudia!” remarked Patsy Garvan, as he listened to a letter his chief had just received from Penza, two months after their adventures down in Joyalita. “If I were not a married man, I believe I would have tried to steal her from Marcos. ”

“ The job had been watched with a great deal of interest by the engineers and foremen on the other sections of the aqueduct, and Nash received a dozen telephone calls congratulating him on the success of the undertaking.
He was just back in his quarters, when a knock sounded on his door, and, opening it, he allowed a surprised exclamation to escape him.
“Miss Breen! Come right in.”
The girl obeyed him. She was dressed in her usual riding habit. Her face did not have the usual color and life, and her eyes were far from being alive and sparkling. ”

“ The others were among the trees and rocks.”
“I don’t think we’d better try to push through,” advised Phillips. “The boy says there are twenty. There may be thirty. We are only four.”
“Ah! What’s the matter with you?” growled Patsy, in extreme disgust. “You won’t be asked to fight. Prince Marcos and the doctor and I can clean them out ourselves.”
“I will fight if you go on,” returned Phillips simply.
[19] The valet meant what he said. He was a noncombatant from preference. But, like many men of his quiet, unobtrusive nature, he would fight like a wild cat when cornered. ”

“ You have the motor car, I suppose, Chick?”
“Yes.”
“All right! Then we can get away. Have you seen that fellow Jason?”
“No. But we’ve found tracks of him,” answered Patsy.
The three were running at top speed, talking jerkily as they moved along.
“Where’s those other two men?” asked Patsy, glancing over his shoulder.
No other man had come into view since the fall of the one shot by Patsy. They had evidently feared a dangerous ambush.
Even if they were bandits, they had some respect for their lives.
“They are holding back,” observed Chick. “But there are more than three, aren’t there, chief?” ”

“ What about that?”
“Not hungry, are you?” asked Nick, smiling behind his mustache.
“Hungry?” ejaculated Patsy sarcastically. “Why, no, chief! Whatever put that in your head? Didn’t I have breakfast, at eight o’clock this morning, and didn’t I get rye bread, fossilized beans, and boiled mud that they called coffee? I had almost as much breakfast as I would give to a three-year-old girl. The coffee—gee! that coffee!—fixed me up right away.” ”

“ The motor car was tearing along faster than sixty miles an hour now. She jumped from the road so often and so hard that she was in the air most of the time. As Patsy declared, she only hit the high places, and not many of them.
Why the ponderous machine did not swerve from some of the big stones or inequalities she encountered, and go shooting over the precipice into the rock-strewn valley far below, can never be explained. ”

“ When the work of dressing was complete, Phillips stood back, and, with a low bow, murmured:
“Your highness, Prince Marcos! Who can deny it?”
Miguel, Don Solado, Jason, and Lieutenant Trenzini are all in prison now. They were charged with high treason, and although Marcos might have passed over their crimes, in his easy-going way, his minister would not allow it. Even a monarch cannot do as he pleases in affairs of state.
It was not till a month after Nick Carter, in the person of Marcos, had saved Joyalita that the proceedings against the traitors were begun, however. ”

“ Chick had been thinking steadily—while he guided the big car with the instinctive skill of a good driver—and he had come to the conclusion that his chief had been inveigled into the depths of this desolate country, to keep him away till it would be too late for Marcos to save his beloved Joyalita. ”

“ Carter,” said the girl. “But my mother does not want to leave New York just yet. She does not go out much, but she likes to be near the bustle of this big city. It is just a notion, but it is insistent, too. I do not care to leave her, although she would not mind, for both she and I are used to traveling alone.”
“You will be safer here, with your mother,” returned the detective. “So long as I have Phillips to give me a hint now and then, I shall be able to act the part of your cousin satisfactorily, I am sure. ”

“ The bandits obviously had uprooted this enormous mass of granite from the earth, and now were balancing it on the very edge of the hill, preparatory to sending it hurtling down the slope.
It was clear now why the rascals had been riding so fast, to get ahead of the automobile. They intended to crush the machine and the men in it, without giving the victims more than the barest fighting chance. ”

“ The car cleared the pass and flashed along the road, still on its way to Penza.
How many men had been killed or horribly mutilated could not be told.
The detective kept his car going. This was war, and mercy was not to be considered.
Lieutenant Trenzini let loose a torrent of frenzied oaths. He was insane with impotent rage, and he shook his fist after the flying car like the maniac he had become.
Then he turned to his men, half of whom were groaning and writhing on the ground, while the remainder seemed to have lost their senses, courage and all.
“Fire! Fire!” he bellowed. “Curse you! ”

“ It was to be a gala day in Penza. Let the people have plenty of music, flags, and military display, and they would not be likely to interfere with more important matters.
That was the policy of Don Solado, who was in general charge, and Miguel agreed with him. The rascals had laid their plans well.
It had been given out that Prince Marcos was in the United States, and that he intended to stay there.
This in itself was calculated to lessen somewhat the affection the people of Joyalita had always shown for their prince. ”

“ Claudia had met her Aunt Laura at the door, and had said that she was staying at Crownledge to help take care of the gentleman who had been hurt in the grounds at Crownledge.
The princess had wondered why Claudia spoke of her cousin in such a peculiar way. “The gentleman who has been hurt” did not sound as if there were much cousinly affection.
But, then, Claudia Solado had quarreled with Marcos several times, and probably they had had a tiff now. That would accent for it. ”