Nicholas Carter

“ As the Camera Chap and his friends rode through Main Street, they suddenly encountered the most sensational and the most shameful spectacle of the night—a man in the uniform of a captain of police so merry that he could scarcely stand.
“That’s Captain Alf Callman—the worst grafter and the biggest bully of the department, barring Chief Hodgins,” exclaimed Parsons excitedly, as he brought the car to a stop. “Don’t fail to get a good picture of him, Mr. Hawley. This is a rare piece of luck. If ever there was a rascal who deserved to be held up to public scorn and ridicule, it’s that brute there.” ”

“ Shall I leave at once?”
“Presently.”
“By Jove, there’s one point, Nick, that I cannot get over,” insisted Chick, who had been deep in thought for several moments. “It won’t run, grapple it how I will.”
“What point is that, Chick?” Nick inquired.
“The extraordinary likeness of the thief and Clayton. I know of no man, not excluding yourself, who is so clever in the art of making up as to counterfeit a smooth-shaved, clean-cut face like that of Chester Clayton. That one point, which is inconsistent with the theory you have formed, is still in my crop. I can’t swallow it.” ”

“ When I run across a man who looks so near like me that I can see no difference, I’m the sort of a covey who makes the most of it. You didn’t suspect Doctor Guelpa, eh? Carter, we’ve put it all over you. I’m Guelpa.”
“You?” questioned Nick, still as if astonished.
“That’s what, Carter, as sure as you’re a foot high,” the rascal declared, with an exultant leer. “Come out a little from that wall. Keep your meat hooks up, mind you, or you’ll have no further use for them. Either of these fellows would kill you at the first sign of violence. ”

“ Webber put in forcibly. “Clayton cannot even recall his name. No man inquired for him at the desk. No man was seen going to the door of his private office. No man was seen to leave it. The elevator boy in that corridor is equally positive, on the contrary, that he saw Clayton twice on the stairs. Others saw him also, and it’s absurd to suppose all are mistaken.”
“You speak as if thoroughly convinced, Webber, that Mr. Clayton has stolen both jewel cases; that he has suddenly turned from an upright and honorable man and become a criminal,” Nick said, more forcibly. ”

“ Then, as he saw the waiter approaching with the siphon of vichy in his hand, Hawley struck a match, held the flame for a moment to the cigar in his mouth, then threw the match away.
Apparently he was careless, for the match, still alight, instead of falling to the floor, dropped into the glass of bromo seltzer in front of him.
Instantly there was a blinding flash which momentarily illuminated the entire room, and a dull explosion. The siphon of seltzer fell from the startled bartender’s hand; several men gave vent to shouts of alarm; chairs and tables went crashing to the floor. ”

“ That Nick suspected Guelpa, however, and very seriously, Chick had not a doubt.
It was not eight o’clock when he approached the huge hotel, and purely by a stroke of good luck, nearing a side entrance to the house, he discovered the very man he was seeking.
Doctor Guelpa had just emerged and was hurrying away.
“By Jove, fortune favors me,” thought Chick, with a thrill of satisfaction. “This is better than I could have hoped. There must be something in the wind, or he would not be in such a hurry. If he gives me the slip, however, I’ll eat my hat. ”

“ Clayton, that the circumstances and your own words permit of no other interpretation,” Nick interrupted, more impressively.
“But——”
“Oh, I am not going to argue that point with you,” Nick again insisted. “I am going to make you see the matter just as it stands. Your son’s reputation and liberty are at stake. So is my reputation as a detective. Only the truth can save him. ”

“ They were Draper, Biddle, and Scoville, who had been mentioned by Doctor Guelpa in his apartments, also a third man who had had a hand in the robbery, one Joe Gaines.
“Oh, I’m not Clayton, Carter,” was the derisive reply. “I’m the man who looks like him. I’m the crook who got away with the sparks.”
“Good heavens!” Nick exclaimed, in seemingly increased amazement. “Is it possible?”
“You bet it’s possible!” cried Guelpa, with a sinister nod. “It’s more than that; it’s a fact. ”

“ My God! how can I ever repay you?”
“Let him go and spread the news,” laughed Nick, as Patsy turned from the house telephone. “The crooks are booked to get theirs. As for this rascal and his—ah, here is Webber now. Look after this scoundrel, Webber, and put him where he belongs. No, no; don’t ask me to discuss the case at present. We have made good, all right, and that enough for now. As for us, Patsy, we’ll compare notes in my library, in company with Chick.” ”

“ Nick now replied coldly.
“Slip in behind him, Biddle, and get his weapons,” Guelpa commanded. “Fish out his darbies, also, and snap them on his wrists. Egad! could one have more satisfaction than in doing a dick with his own bracelets?”
“Not much more, doc!” cried Draper, laughing.
“Dukes behind him, Biddle. I told you I’d get him, Draper,” Guelpa triumphantly added, while two of the crooks hastened to secure the detective. ”

“ He is not a man who could be successfully impersonated by another.”
“Certainly not,” put in Webber flatly.
“His smooth-shaved face could not be duplicated,” added Vernon. “The man was Clayton, with Clayton’s features, eyes, voice, and manner of speaking. Furthermore, an impersonator, if that is conceivable, could not have had on Clayton’s clothing. I would have detected any change since morning. I noticed his suit, his navy-blue necktie, and his carbuncle scarfpin, when I gave him Mademoiselle Falloni’s jewel casket over the counter. Mistake—that’s utterly absurd, out of the question.” ”

“ These occasions were so rare, however, that great was Neilson’s surprise when, on the day following Hawley’s night crusade against the Oldham police, Carroll appeared in the photo-engraving department with a half dozen negatives in his hand.
“Here, Ole,” the proprietor of the Bulletin said, with a smile, “I want these enlarged, and a two-column cut made from each. Make just as good a job of them as you can, and remember that they’re for to-morrow morning’s issue.” ”

“ The portière masking the door of the rear room had fallen back into place.
Chick crept into the room from the hall, and he then discovered Patsy Garvan bound to the chair. He stole nearer and liberated him, then slipped him one of his revolvers.
Not a word passed between them.
Ten seconds later, however, the portière was flung aside and both detectives stepped into the room, with revolvers leveled.
“No monkey business, gentlemen!” Chick now said sharply. “The first man who moves will be a dead one! We’ll shoot to kill!” ”

“ Carroll declared firmly. “If you go, I’m going, too; and if Parsons wants to come along, he’s welcome. The more the merrier. You may have your faults, Frank, old man, but I like you too well to be willing to sit passively here while you’re being beaten to a pulp around the corner.”
“I’m not going to be beaten to a pulp,” the Camera Chap protested, with a laugh. “I intend to use strategy. If I go alone, I feel confident I’ll be able to get away with it; but if you fellows insist upon butting in, you’ll surely queer me. I’m a stranger to that bunch at Dutch Louie’s, but you fellows are not. ”

“ To some extent, Nick, at least, men’s motives are usually discernible in their conduct. But in this case—why, there was nothing to it. It is utterly inexplicable. It was like a horrid dream, a hideous nightmare, or the mental abnormalities of a dope fiend.”
Nick Carter laughed and spread his napkin, with a significant glance at his chief assistant, Chick Carter, who sat at one side of the table, that of a private dining room in a new and fashionable New York hotel. ”

“ I am sure of that.”
“You have told me, then, all that you know about the affair, and you are without any suspicion concerning it?”
“Exactly. I have told you all, Nick, and am completely in the dark,” Clayton earnestly declared.
Nick knocked the ashes from his cigar and prepared to rise from the table.
“I have only this to say,” he replied, more impressively: “Be on your guard. Men never go to so much trouble, nor take such chances, Clayton, unless they have some definite and probably felonious design in view.”
“That’s true, Nick,” Chick put in. ”

“ Draper viewed him with a scornful curl of his thin lips.
“Sit in that chair,” he repeated, revolver leveled. “Keep your hands on its arms, too, or this gun will go off in the direction it’s pointed—but not by chance.”
“You wouldn’t kill a fellow in cold blood, would you?” asked Patsy, obeying.
“Yes, or hot blood. It would matter little to me.”
“That would be foolish. You might be executed for murder.”
“Not by a long chalk. A man may protect his property with a gun, or that of his employer.”
“So I’ve heard,” Patsy dryly allowed.
“What do you want here?”
“Anything I could get worth lifting.” ”

“ 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. ”

“ Nick checked him with a gesture and placed the cases on the counter.
“Put them in the vault, Vernon, and lock it!” he commanded, turning to the thunderstruck head clerk. “You come with me, Clayton, and be quick about it.”
Clayton leaped over the counter and Nick ran to the elevator.
“I’ll show you your double, Clayton, unless I am much mistaken,” said he, as the car sped up to the fourth floor.
“My double?” gasped Clayton.
“That’s what. A fellow who looks like you. There’s nothing more to it.”
“This way, chief,” Patsy whispered, as they left the car. “I know his door. Gee whiz! I ought to.” ”

“ He does not so much as dream that he has a brother. I could not cloud his life, mar his whole future, perhaps, by acknowledging David Margate to be my son, when I learned that he was in an English prison. It would, have been an injustice to Chester Clayton. The sacrifice would have been too great.”
“That is true,” Nick agreed. “Have you ever seen David Margate or heard anything concerning him since he was convicted in London?”
“No, I have not. [Pg 30] ”
“You have no reason to believe that he is in New York, then, aside from the resemblance of the criminal who committed this jewel robbery.” ”

“ Nick replied, shaking hands with him. “Detective Webber and Mr. Vernon have told me. Time, as you say, may be of value.”
Clayton hastened to introduce the three ladies. The two victims of the crime brightened up perceptibly upon seeing the famous detective, though still with irrepressible sobs Mademoiselle Falloni begged him to restore her lost treasures, which Nick assured her that he would leave no stone unturned to do. ”

“ Then he took a chair some six feet in front of Patsy, coolly sitting down with the revolver still poised in his hand and ready for instant use, if necessary.
Patsy realized that he was up against a man of nerve, as well as a man who would not shrink from bloodshed under the circumstances. That he was confronted by one of the gang that had abducted Clayton, moreover, and one of the gang that had stolen the jewel cases that morning, he now had not a doubt.
There was a brief period of silence, finally broken by Patsy.
“Well, what are you waiting for?” he asked. “Get busy. Do something.” ”

“ Unable to recall the precise address of the man I was about to write, however, I stepped into the general office to get it from the bookkeeper. I then learned from Vernon what had occurred, Nick, and that was the first I knew of it, and all that I know of it.”
“You attempted, I understand, to find the stranger with whom you had been talking.”
“Yes, naturally,” nodded Clayton. “When told so positively that I had taken the jewel cases, it quickly occurred to me that I might find it necessary to establish an alibi. The stranger is the only person who can corroborate my assertions. ”

“ He turned to the Camera Chap with sudden suspicion. “But what did you throw that lighted match into it for, anyway, young feller? That was a queer thing to do.”
“The match dropped in,” Hawley explained. “Didn’t you see that I was lighting my cigar? But this is the first time I’ve ever heard of bromo seltzer being an explosive. Mighty queer it should go off like that. It’s a mercy somebody wasn’t killed.”
“Oh, I guess the stuff ain’t dangerous,” remarked Patrolman Horgan, glancing around the room. “Nobody is even hurted, so there’s nothing to get excited about. ”

“ Patrolman John Hicks, of the Oldham police force, was a fairly vigilant guardian of the law—in the daytime. But when his turn came to do night duty, which happened regularly every second week, he always felt drowsy, no matter how much sleep he took by day to prepare himself for his nocturnal vigil.
“Which goes to show that night work ain’t the right thing for a man,” Mr. Hicks was in the habit of complaining to his intimate friend. “It’s against nature. The daytime was made for man to work in, and the night for man to sleep in. Even the dumb beasts and the birds close their eyes at night. ”

“ Patsy Garvan never did things by halves. Soon after six o’clock that evening a dapper young man of remarkably inoffensive aspect, barring a somewhat fierce upward twist of his mustache, which was also remarkable in that it could be quickly transferred to his vest pocket—soon after six o’clock this dapper young man entered the Hotel Westgate and sauntered to the office inclosure. ”

“ I saw Draper in the office just before Doctor Guelpa showed up, however, and he may be at dinner.”
“I’ll mighty soon find out,” thought Patsy; then, aloud: “That’s all, Vernon, and I’m vastly obliged. Mum’s the word, mind you.”
“Trust me, Garvan,” nodded the clerk.
Patsy thanked him again and departed. He had decided what course he would shape. He knew that he could easily learn whether Doctor Guelpa, or his valet, then was in the physician’s suite.
“If both are absent, by Jove, I’ll have a look at his rooms,” he said to himself. “They may contain something worth seeing. ”

“ Your true name is David Margate. You are an English crook. You were convicted of burglary twelve years ago, and sent up for five years. You are——”
“Stop!” cried Margate, ghastly white. “How did you learn that? How do you know——”
“Oh, I know that you rascals will not get away with [Pg 36] this job,” Nick sternly interrupted. “I’ll soon have you landed where——”
Guelpa, or Margate, broke in upon him with a terrible oath.
“You will, eh?” he fiercely added. “You’ll find you are wrong. You are depending upon that fellow, Garvan, but we’ve got him, also, as we’ve got you. See for yourself.” ”