Nicholas Carter

“ Gammon insisted.
Stuart Floyd followed him without replying.
Hogan frowned darkly, and Lucy Devoll stole to the kitchen door to listen.
Patsy rightly reasoned that Floyd and Gammon were the two responsible for the active work of abducting Waldmere, and that the others were merely in their employ. He wondered, too, of course, to what Englishman they had referred.
“Gee! I wish they had done their talking there,” he said to himself during the lull in the kitchen. “This may leave me dead lame as to the exact truth—as lame as I’ll be after lying so long on this board. It’s like being on a rack.” ”

“ An incredulous look flashed into the adjutant’s face, and he bent quickly forward. “Am I to understand, then, sergeant, that you do not entertain the same unfavorable opinion of me as the others?”
“Me, sir!” Cato’s tone was one of surprise. “What kind of a soft-brained pup do you think I am, sir? You sell out to Japanese spies, and make away with the old man? Why, Captain Grail, if you told me yourself that you’d done it, I wouldn’t believe you—no, not if you swore to it! It’s because I’m certain of your innocence, captain, that I’ve been so positive the colonel would be found. ”

“ His voice had a twang that grated on the detective’s ears. His narrow eyes gleamed and glittered in a way, moreover, that Nick did not fancy. With no show of these distrustful feelings, however, he said agreeably:
“It certainly appears that you have come to the right man, Mr. Chadwick. So the Earl of Eggleston is on his deathbed, is he?”
“Alas, yes!”
“Is that why he is seeking his son?”
“Exactly,” bowed Sir Edward. “His only other son, who would have been the heir to his title and his estate, died seven months ago. The earl has no direct male successor except Lord Waldmere. ”

“ Nick had sized up his visitor while speaking. He was a tall man of powerful build and somewhat over fifty. He was smooth shaved, with strong features, quite an aggressive expression, and searching gray eyes. His mouth was broad, his lips thin, his chin square, and determined.
It was a face that did not impress Nick favorably. It evinced characteristics that were not pleasing to the keen insight of the detective. The stranger was well dressed, however, in a plaid suit and voluminous frieze overcoat, both of pronounced English cut and pattern. ”

“ Take them off!” he repeated, striving vainly to break the steel bracelets. “You can do nothing. You cannot prove it. My word is as good as yours. There were no witnesses, no——”
“You are very much mistaken,” Nick again interrupted sternly. “I have all the corroboration the law will require. There is a dictograph behind this desk, and my chief assistant in the opposite suite has heard every word you have said. I will call him, that you may see for yourself and end your vain struggles.” ”

“ I care less for having been cheated out of a fine evening’s enjoyment, than that our invitation cards have been turned to such a despicable use. I will ask my wife to join us, if you wish to question her.”
“You may, Ringold, if you have no objection,” said Nick. “I want a description of the messenger, also any other information that your wife can give me.”
“I will speak to her.”
“Gee, it looks like a neatly framed-up job, chief, for fair,” said Patsy, while they waited.{13}
“Decidedly so,” Nick agreed. “See whether that telephone is in working order.” ”

“ The children gathered around Miss Burke, and besought her to give them the little wolves. One chap said that he had a dog like Seneca, and another was certain that Cherokee was a spaniel and not a wolf at all, while still another exclaimed that Iroquois was neither a dog nor a wolf, but a cat. During the argument, Minnehaha never let up her high-pitched staccato cry, manifesting clearly that the puppies were neither dog nor cat, but hers at all hazards. ”

“ Patsy doubtfully questioned. “They could have nailed him much more easily by——”
“But it is not easy to get away with a man like Waldmere,” Nick interrupted. “He is interested almost solely in his home, his business, and his social enjoyments. Any covert attempt to lure him from either would at once be regarded with suspicion. Besides, there may be much more to this affair than appears on the surface.”
“Have you any suspicions?”
“None whatever, Patsy, at present,” said Nick. “We must dig up evidence that will supply us with a definite clew. I think the Ringolds may be able to aid us.” ”

“ Perrot returned while Nick was speaking, bringing a book containing the daily record of his rented costumes, and over his arm—the costume of a Mexican toreador, seen by Nick the previous night, and worn by the man who had slipped the forged note into the hands of Mollie Waldmere.
“H’m! I thought so,” Nick quietly remarked to Patsy, at once recognizing the costume. “There is but one job, in which all of these costumes figure. I will stake my reputation on that.” ”

“ Lucy Devoll exclaimed. “What did you do?”
“Bolted,” said Floyd grimly. “I made a quick get-away, you can bet on that. The gink went in there, and that’s all I waited to see. Gammon had an appointment with him at eight. He ought to show up pretty soon. Then we’ll know how the cat is going to jump.”
“Do you think the dicks have got any line on me?” questioned Hogan apprehensively.
“How can they have any line on you?” Floyd returned, with a growl. “You was in disguise and you had a rented limousine with a phony number. There’s no way that they can have picked up a line on you.” ”

“ When told that Nick already was at work on the case, the officer at once sent the costumer to the detective to exhibit the garment and state the circumstances mentioned.
Nick examined the cape carefully after Perrot had departed, and subjected the stains to a test.
“Human blood, Patsy,” he remarked. “There is no question about it.”
“Gee! the case looks worse and worse,” Patsy replied gravely. “It appears like dollars to fried holes that Waldmere was knifed to death. The collar is torn, as if he put up a struggle.” ”

“ 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. ”

“ Waldmere is not a man to be mixed in a mess with another woman.”
“That’s true,” Chick agreed. “The motive may have been revenge. Stuart Floyd is at large, you know, and he may have had it in for Waldmere because of those former cases, and for having put us on his track. He is capable of any kind of a knavish job.”
“There is nothing in speculations,” said Nick. “I’ll think it over in bed and we’ll discuss it in the morning.”
“That’s good judgment, in view of the hour,” Chick vouchsafed, rising. “There is a bare possibility, too, that Waldmere will have returned by that time.” ”

“ The dirigible from Fort Denton was not an unusual sight aloft, and consequently attracted but little attention from the people of the city; but out at the post Grail’s flight was watched with curious interest. Officers and men alike, although pretending indifference, laid aside their duties to follow, with eager gaze, the evolutions of the airship. They gained but little for their pains, however. ”

“ She evidently represents Night, and I——”
“There she is, now,” said Chick, with a glance toward the rear part of the hall.
Nick gazed in that direction.
“By Jove, that’s quite remarkable,” he muttered audibly.
“It is a striking costume, Nick, for fair.”
“I don’t mean the costume.”
“No? What do you mean?”
“That two women have costumes precisely alike,” said Nick. “This one appears to be an exact duplicate of the other. She is, so to speak, a duplicate Night.”
“She probably is the same one,” said Chick.
“Impossible!”
“Why so?”
“The other just went upstairs. She cannot be in two places at once.” ”

“ Countess Szechenyi, who was Miss Gladys Vanderbilt, of New York, and Countess Sigray, daughter of the late Marcus Daly, have invented a popular war game for Budapest. It arose from an argument between the two, as each has a pet theory as to when the war will end. The game consists of writing forecasts of the date of the close of the struggle, sealing them in envelopes, and filing them to be read after peace is declared. A growing number of people, lured by the chance of saying, “I told you so,” are canning their own opinion with red wax and ceremony. ”

“ There’s no mistaking her, for all she’s so bundled up and closely veiled. That points to something doing, for fair. It’s ten to one, now, that Chick sized her up correctly.”
Stealing out, Patsy followed the girl with no great difficulty. He knew that his disguise would preclude recognition, even if she had seen him the previous night, as Nick had apprehended. It soon became obvious to Patsy, however, that she did not feel that she had incurred suspicion, or had any thought of being followed.
Patsy shadowed her over to New York, where she took the Third Avenue elevated. ”

“ Nick informed him of the results of his hurried visit to Brooklyn.
“By Jove, it’s a curious case,” Chick then declared. “The job certainly was well planned and very neatly executed. But what’s the big idea? Who is out after Waldmere? With what object, Nick, and who are the culprits?”
“Those are questions more easily asked than answered,” said Nick. “It is hard to say why Waldmere has been abducted.” ”

“ Ringold,” Nick added. “Your identity and mission may not be suspected, while the servant might have seen Patsy and me last night when we passed through the lighted hall. Find out who is employed in the house and what is known about them.”
“I’ve got you,” said Chick. “Leave it to me.”
“Aren’t you overlooking one point, chief?” questioned Patsy, who had been listening to the foregoing.
“What point is that, Patsy?”
“The crooks may have learned from the costumer, or from one of his clerks, what costume Mrs. Waldmere intended wearing.” ”

“ Chick inquired.
“One is opened, Chick, by a single significant point,” Nick replied. “The crooks must have learned several days ago what costume Mrs. Waldmere intended wearing, or they would not have been able, nor have had time, to prepare a duplicate of it.”
“True, Nick; that goes without saying.”
“The question is, then, from whom did they get their information?” Nick proceeded. “Mrs. Waldmere discussed the costume with her husband, and also confided in only one intimate friend, Clara Ringold.”
“The crooks may have got their information, then, from a servant in one house or the other.” ”

“ Perrot?” questioned Nick. “What do you mean?”
“Wait! I will bring my books,” said Perrot, turning to enter an outer office. “I will bring my books—and ze letter!”
“Gee! this looks like something more in the wind,” remarked Patsy.
“I am more inclined to think that all relates to one job,” Nick replied. “It would be strange, indeed, if there were two at just this time and place. We can presently tell.” ”

“ Minnehaha was forgotten when the crowd discovered Miss Marcella Burke, secretary to Raymond L. Ditmars, curator of the New York Zoölogical Society, with Iroquois, Cherokee, and Seneca in her arms. The little ones did not like the idea of being taken out of the cage, but Miss Burke, who has handled a variety of animals in the course of her work—more perhaps than any other young woman, excepting those engaged in the circus business—petted the puppies and soon made them feel at home. ”

“ Take my word for it, your father shall be restored to you within a very short time; before to-morrow morning, unless I am very much mistaken.{50}”
Never yet, in their long acquaintance, had Grail failed to make good a promise to her, and his assurance now brought a sigh of genuine relief to her lips and a smile to her pale, anxious face.
“Ah!” she exclaimed. “You mean that the running down of these Japanese spies must result in disclosing father’s whereabouts?”
“Japanese spies!” His lips curled contemptuously. “They exist only in the imagination of Appleby and Hemingway.” ”

“ Rich Youth—“I should not object to the work of earning my own living if I had to, but what I should hate would be the officiousness and petty tyranny of superiors. I should hate to have to bow to the whims of some wealthy man not a bit better than myself.” ”

“ Chick cried. “We’ve got you covered, Floyd. You, too, Gammon! You’ll be dead ones if you show fight.”
The policemen were not idle while Chick spoke. Both bored in upon the three cornered crooks, and Floyd and Gammon found themselves with revolvers at their heads.
Hogan uttered a groan, and threw up his hands.
Patsy Garvan came crawling out of the cellar at the same moment, only a bit bruised by his fall. He also had a gun in his hand—and that settled it.
The arrest of the entire gang was easily made, and thirty minutes saw all except Sir Edward Chadwick locked in the precinct station. ”

“ Hastily he caught up the record of offenders for the day, and noted the charge entered opposite the name of Simmons; then fell back, with a little gasp.
“Attempted murder!” he exclaimed. “Here, corporal! Sergeant! Somebody! Hustle over to barracks, and bring back that man Simmons we had here a while ago.”
But, as might have been expected, the bird had flown; and, although a squad was instantly ordered out to search the city for him, and the police were put upon the case, both Hemingway and Grail knew that with so much of a start the chances of catching him were very slim indeed. ”

“ He watched her furtively while she came through the hall and went up the stairs to the second floor. He could see the gleam and glitter of her eyes, but no other feature of her face, yet he felt sure she was comparatively young and beautiful.
“She appears to be a bit nervous and in a hurry,” he said to himself, while she mounted the stairs. “She may be seeking some one, or possibly has lost her partner for this dance. That would irritate most young women.”
Nick turned upon hearing the voice of his chief assistant. Chick had just entered through the open front door and paused at Nick’s elbow. ”

“ Furthermore, costumers of his high standing do not betray their patrons, and crooks know it and would have sought elsewhere for the desired information.”
“Gee! I guess you’re right, chief, after all.”
“I think my other suspicion is the correct one.”
“I’ll run over to Brooklyn, then, at once,” said Chick.
“Do so,” Nick replied, rising. “I’ll pay Perrot a in the meantime and see what I can learn from him. The costume worn by Mrs. Waldmere must have been previously seen by the duplicate Night, whoever she was, or she could not have duplicated it. We’ll look into that. ”

“ He had a very high opinion of the titled young Englishman, who had been loyal enough to his love for a beautiful chorus girl to make her his wife, in spite of the opposition of his choleric old father, the Earl of Eggleston, and the consequent estrangement from home and family and native land, he having for the two years since his marriage been engaged in Western mining projects, occupying a fine residence in Riverside Drive.
In view of all of these facts, of which Nick was thoroughly informed, he did not believe that Waldmere was guilty of a clandestine love affair. ”

“ Old Ma Wolf a Jealous Mother.
“All my sheep, gather in a heap, for I spy the woolly, woolly wolf,” shouted an urchin standing in front of the wolf dens in the New York Zoölogical Park recently, when some of his playmates gathered in the park to watch the animals. The wolves he spied are Cherokee, Seneca, and Iroquois, latest arrivals in the prairie-wolf pack, and they are just as limber and wild as the Indians used to be on the plains of North Dakota, from which Minnehaha, the mother wolf, came to the park a few years ago. ”