Nicholas Carter

“ What earthly incentive could they have for committing crime? That’s absurd, utterly improbable. You detectives go over the traces much too often, Carter, in your still-hunts after victims. You are worse in a way than the crooks, for you smirch the reputation of honorable men, while crooks get only their purses. Good morning, sir. That is all I have to say.”
Floyd apparently had worked himself up to a state of righteous indignation, and none could better feign any sentiment he chose. He drew himself up and turned to go, but Nick detained him with a gesture. ”

“ There was no indication of Lady Waldmere’s return, nor did Nick really expect it. He glanced at his watch and found that it was nearly seven o’clock.
“Dash it! I’m deucedly upset,” Waldmere remarked, and he really looked so. “What the dickens am I to do? What——”
Nick interrupted him kindly, but impressively.
“There is only one wise thing for you to do, Lord Waldmere,” said he. “You must leave this matter to me and do precisely what I direct. If your wife has been abducted, or is a victim of other knavery, I will leave no stone unturned to find her and punish the crooks. ”

“ Nash is unable to give us any proofs as to the existence of these so-called frauds, and perhaps, if we are to weigh his words with any consideration at all, we might ask him why he left a responsible position in New York and came here to Los Angeles, willing to accept a minor one.”
Nash’s fingers clenched themselves. He had been fearing that question, not so much because of himself as because of Miss Trask.
“When we are to consider a man’s word, and weigh it conscientiously,” Sigsbee went on to say, “we ought to convince ourselves that his past is one to warrant it.” ”

“ Mollie is my wife. She thinks the world of me. She’s true-blue and deucedly clever and self-reliant. She——”
“Wait!” said Nick, checking him again. “You are English, I judge.”
“Yes, of course.”
“And your wife is an American girl?”
“She is, sir, and none better.”
“Do you reside here in the city?”
“We are here only for a time. We are boarding in Fifty-third Street, near the avenue.”
“Let’s walk that way,” said Nick. “It’s barely possible that your wife will have been dropped at the boarding house before we reach it. ”

“ Chick nodded.
“Be off, then, and I’ll do the rest,” said Nick. “I have left Patsy in the office, in case of sudden need. Call him up yourself, if occasion requires it.”
Chick responded with another nod and hurried away.
“Now, Waldmere, you return to your lodgings,” said Nick. “You will only be in my way, if you remain. Wait right there until I come.”
“But——”
“Don’t stop to question, dear fellow,” Nick interrupted. “Every minute is of value.”
“By Jove, I’m all at sea, don’t you know, but here goes!” exclaimed his lordship, seeming suddenly to realize that he was indeed in the way. ”

“ Garland cried, with a snarl. “You know too much.”
“Too much for most crooks whom we get after,” Chick dryly admitted.
“It may cost you something one of these days.”
“It already has cost you something,” Chick retorted. “Nick tumbled to it almost off the reel. You were in pressing peril when the woman unexpectedly showed up to redeem her ten-thousand-dollar pledge. You have shoved up the jewels somewhere else, and probably for fifteen or twenty thousand. You did not have the jewels when she called yesterday, nor the money with which to redeem them this morning. ”

“ Nick had not long to wait. After an earnest conference lasting about five minutes, Garland and the woman entered the taxicab, which sped rapidly away, while Stuart Floyd walked briskly down the avenue.
“What’s the meaning of that?” Nick asked himself. “They may have gone to make sure the abducted woman is still in safe keeping. Be that as it may, it’s long odds that Floyd will rejoin them sooner or later. I have no course but to stick to him. I’ll head him off, by Jove, and see what he will say for himself.” ”

“ Chick forcibly added.
“I get you.”
“They would have had only five minutes in which to have laid their plans and made all the arrangements for executing them. That’s a mighty short time in which to shape up such a job, to say nothing of getting ready to carry it out. It’s not a simple stunt to pick up a woman on Fifth Avenue and get away with her from under her husband’s eyes.”
“Say, you’re getting wiser every minute, Chick,” cried Patsy, laughing. “I begin to think there really is something in what you say.” ”

“ Nick then inquired. “In other words, Waldmere, do you believe any of them capable of a conspiracy against her?”
“No, sir,” protested the Englishman quickly. “They are above anything of that kind. Besides, Mr. Carter, they have jolly well cast us both out. No one knows where to find us.”
“You think, then, that they may be safely eliminated from any connection with this affair?”
“Yes, absolutely.”
“We must seek nearer home, then, for a motive,” said Nick. “Had Miss Royal any former admirer who might——”
“No, no; nothing of the kind.” Lord Waldmere quickly shook his head. ”

“ Nick again interposed. “You feel quite sure, you say, that you saw the chauffeur force your wife into the cab?”
“It looked jolly well like it, Mr. Carter.”
“Did you hear her speak, or utter a cry?”
“I did not, sir.”
“Were there other persons near the taxicab at the time?”
“None nearer than I, sir, nor quite as near. I ran after it as fast as I could. I felt cock-sure, even then, it was a beastly job of some kind.”
“Do you know of any reason for which your wife might be abducted?” Nick asked, more gravely.
“No, no reason at all, Mr. Carter. There can’t be any reason.” ”

“ We’ve got your game down pat, now, and we’re going to get you.”
“What game?” Garland again demanded. “What do you mean?”
“Your looting game,” said Chick. “That’s a good name for it, too. You two rascals, evidently with others to help you, have taken advantage of the fact that the head of the business you only manage, Mr. Isaac Meyer, is a helpless paralytic and confined to his home.” ”

“ As he spoke he drew back his coat, and Nash found himself looking upon a detective’s badge.
Nash only smiled, and looked across at the girl, who all this time had been standing weakly against the wall.
“I’m afraid you’re too late, gentlemen,” he announced. “I have already surrendered to Miss Breen.”
Both men looked toward the girl. Then the spokesman laughed, and nodded, apparently acquainted with her.
“Well, congratulations, Miss Breen,” he said. “You have got your nerve, haven’t you? Wanted all the honors in this deal, eh? Leave it to a woman every time,” he added, in an undertone. ”

“ Scarce five minutes had passed when a tinge of color appeared in the woman’s pale cheeks.
Her lips parted slightly and Nolan then could detect that she was breathing. Another minute brought a deep-drawn sigh and a low moan, soon followed by a fluttering of her eyelids.
“She’s still in the ring, all right,” Nolan congratulated himself. “They were a clever bunch, for fair, that did this job. Ten bucks, eh? I’ll soon see about that ten bucks’ gag. They’ll come down handsomely for this, those two rats. Ah, now her lamps are lighted!” ”

“ The door had opened. Every eye in the room instantly turned. Miss Breen and Hooker advanced into the room and were seated.
Miss Breen and Hooker! Nash felt the hot blood mount to his temples. So she had gone over to the other side! He knew she must do so, yet, deep in his heart, he hoped——
Miss Trask, or Miss Breen, as she was known to all the men in the room, save one, did not look in Nash’s direction. She appeared unusually pale and concerned.
“We have been waiting for you, Miss Breen,” the president announced. “Our evidence appears to be somewhat confused. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Why do you need a detective?”
“Because I’m blasted hard hit, don’t you know?” he replied, serious again. “I’ve been jolly well robbed.”
“Robbed of what?”
“My wife, sir.”
“Robbed of your wife?” questioned Nick, surprised and almost inclined to laugh.
“That’s the blooming truth, Mr. Carter, or how it looks to me. I’m as hard hit as if I’d got a jolly bash on the beak. She’s a bally American girl, is Mollie, and——”
“Stop a moment,” Nick interrupted again. “My time is valuable. I cannot listen to your digressions. Answer my questions briefly and to the point. ”

“ I fastened on to a man and a boy, and kept close in their wake all day. With the skill of a denizen of the woods, my man did not walk a step without rousing a feathered creature of some sort. Sometimes a large bird—a toucan or a macaw—would flap clumsily out of a bush, and the twang of the bowstring would announce its death. ”

“ Floyd said coldly.
“If you know only good of them, Mr. Floyd, a detective is the very man with whom you should be most willing to discuss them,” Nick retorted.
“I will not argue the point,” Floyd said, flushing slightly.
“There is no occasion,” said Nick. “Do you know anything about the inside workings of this loan company?”
“What do you mean, sir, by inside workings?”
“The methods they employ.”
“I already have said, Carter, that I know nothing about them, aside from a personal acquaintance with the two managers,” Floyd stiffly asserted. “Mr. Garland is a gentleman. Mr. Hart is another. ”

“ Waldmere’s face lighted wondrously.
“Oh, by Jove!” he cried, hand extended. “You are——”
“The man you expect,” Nick interposed, more seriously. “Don’t be surprised at seeing me thus disguised. My face is very well known to the denizens of the underworld, and I frequently must get in my work under cover.”
“You are jolly well covered, sir, as to that,” Waldmere replied, smiling significantly. “I’d never know you. I’d take you for some blooming banker, or——”
“That is precisely what I aimed at,” Nick replied. “But we have no time to waste. You have heard nothing from your wife, of course?” ”

“ Nick quickly directed. “Raid the house quietly. I hardly think you will find any one else there. If you do, however, make sure that none escapes.”
“Trust me for that.”
“I’ll nail the culprits elsewhere.”
“Good enough! I’ve got you.”
“That’s all, then.”
Nick came from the booth, said a few words of explanation to the astonished clerk, and he then hurriedly left the store and hailed a passing taxicab. ”

“ We can’t stay here, old top, while Mollie——”
“Now, Lord Waldmere, you’re talking,” Nick interrupted. “We must get down to rock-bottom as quickly as possible. You must leave me to determine what shall be done. I know more about New York and its deviltry than you could possibly imagine.”
“That’s jolly well right, sir, of course.”
“All I require of you, Waldmere, is to tell me a straight story, as briefly as possible,” Nick added familiarly. “What are you doing over here? Who was your American wife? Why are you living under an assumed name in a New York boarding house? ”

“ We do all of our business aboveboard and expect no less of our patrons. Really, gentlemen, this matter don’t look quite right to me. You will have to wait until the woman returns, or sends you the ticket.”
Nick Carter’s disguised face took on a more threatening frown. He pressed nearer the window, replying, in peppery tones:
“This don’t look right to you, eh? What is it, sir, that don’t look right to you.”
“We will not discuss that point,” said Garland curtly. “I have told you the only way by which you can redeem the pledge and obtain the jewels.” ”

“ And even though the socialist farm was established, nothing that resembled free love ever made its appearance.
That’s why Metuchen sizzles with palpitating expectation and teems with a throbbing skepticism. It knows what the I. W. W. folk have done in Paterson, another Jersey town, and it has read what the anarchists in New York are reputed to have done.
Metuchen was able to repel the socialists when they would have set up a free-love colony in the neighborhood. But it is not so sure that it can stand off genuine anarchists. ”

“ Chick allowed. “I’ve told you all I know about him.”
“He is not alone in those respects,” Nick replied. “There are hundreds like him. I have heard, of course, that Stuart Floyd is a slick fellow. He really looks it, as far as that goes, for he is as clean-cut, attractive a man as one often meets. That’s neither here nor there, however, at this stage of the game. We’ll get back to Hecuba.”
“Do you suspect the Imperial Loan Company, chief, in connection with Lady Waldmere’s disappearance?” asked Patsy. ”

“ As a matter of fact, a sister of Vera Vantoon, who had figured in the episode in the taxicab, had been left in the hurriedly rented furnished house, rented expressly after the abduction had been accomplished, in order that the identity of none of the culprits should afterward be discovered.
This sister, Leah Vantoon, had seen Chick stealing into the house. She later had stolen out and got word to Garland, happening to meet Vera and the chauffeur, then on their way to the house. All of them had stolen in and up the stairs, unheard by the detective, while Chick was talking with Lady Waldmere. ”

“ She’s an American girl,” said Patsy.
“That’s one reason why I took on the case,” smiled Nick.
“The Imperial Loan Company,” put in Chick. “Why, I know that concern. It’s nothing else but a high-grade pawnshop. It was established by Isaac Meyer several years ago. I knew him when he had a shop in the Bowery. But he’s nearly down and out, now with creeping paralysis. He never leaves home.”
“Where is that?” Nick inquired.
“Over in Columbus Avenue.{13}”
“Who runs his business?”
“His manager,” said Chick. “A man named Morris Garland. He has been with Meyer since he opened the Fifth Avenue place. ”

“ Before they reached the new city hall on South Broadway a half dozen newspaper men were trailing them; a camera or two appeared. Somehow, the news of Nash’s arrest and the expected upheaval in Camp Forty-seven had reached the ears of the vigilant press.
The chimes on the city-hall tower were striking eleven when Nash finally took the seat set aside for him in the big directors’ room. The majority of the engineers were gathered about the long table, waiting. ”

“ Nick at once inferred rightly that this was the girl who apparently had been spirited away so boldly, as well as mysteriously, in so far as a motive had yet appeared.
The young Englishman looked disappointed when Nick’s prediction was verified, his wife not being found there, and he at once waved the detective to a chair, saying with nervous haste and in his own peculiar fashion, which was much less frivolous than appears:
“You were jolly well right, Mr. Carter, and I’m confoundedly upset. What the devil can a poor chap do? ”

“ In view of the incentive to many of our international marriages, your conduct is really quite refreshing. I rather like you for it. That is a photograph of Lady Waldmere, I infer.”
“Yes, taken in London,” bowed Waldmere, evidently deeply pleased with the detective’s comments.
“A very beautiful girl, indeed.”
“She jolly well is, Mr. Carter, and worthy of——”
“Of all your devotion, Waldmere, no doubt,” Nick familiarly interrupted. “But we must not drift away from the matter. We must get onto our job and stick to it, or valuable time may be lost.” ”