Nick Carter

“ He often walked about the palace, and the guards all knew him.
“There is nothing to fear,” he assured Nick Carter.
The others kept close behind, with a vigilant eye upon Pike’s every movement.
Through the gateway, under the great portcullis, and along the drawbridge over the lake they followed, still without any one interfering with their departure.
“Look here, chief!” whispered Chick into Nick Carter’s ear. “This isn’t natural. There is something crooked about it. We are supposed to be prisoners, and yet we are going out without anybody interfering. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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!” ”

“ Mr. Carter can swim, I know. But Chick is done for, unless somebody helps him.”
“Hello! Here’s luck!” suddenly exclaimed Patsy. “Gee! This is my good night!”
The skiff in which he and Nick Carter had come to the ice house was floating about near him. A few quick pulls on the oars, and he was able to reach the empty boat.
“Here is my gun,” he said simply, to Marcos, as he handed him his revolver. “If Larry Dugan or either of the others gets at all gay, just put a lead pill into his coco. All you have to do is to get the end of the barrel against the patient’s ear. ”

“ They were like machines, those switchboard girls, human, living, palpitating machines, each a connecting link for others in every phase of life, every calling and vocation, from the gilded mansions of exclusive society to the smoke-begrimed dives of the underworld. They are the servants of all, and, in a measure, the confidantes of all.
The girl who had caught Nick Carter’s eye was striking not alone because of her facial expression at that moment, but because of her remarkable grace and beauty. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Nick Carter had formed his little band in battle array at the first alarm. He had marshaled Chick, Patsy, Jefferson Arnold, and Adil as a small covering ring for Leslie Arnold and the four coolies who were carrying the baggage, while Jai Singh had taken his place on the left flank.
Everybody in the party except the coolies had his rifle leveled, and could have shot this man on the white mule at any moment. But he showed no disturbance. He looked at the white men as if they were some curious species of animals he was seeing for the first time. ”

“ Then we could——”
“Patsy!” thundered Nick Carter, who had overheard the last part of his assistant’s proposition. “Let me manage this matter.”
“Oh, all right! You’re the boss!” grumbled Patsy. “All the same——”
“Shut up!” whispered Chick.
“Now, Calaman, what is your final answer?” demanded Nick Carter, stepping forward a little from his companions and looking straight into the eyes of the priest. “I have told you that I must take that white man back with me. It is only a question of how it is to be done.” ”

“ Striking a plaintive minor, he brought forth more music out of the reed than either Nick Carter or any of his companions had supposed was in it. The result was that all the snakes began to move in time to the notes.
“I wish I could shoot that rascal down,” muttered Jefferson Arnold. “I feel that I owe it to poor Adil, anyhow.”
“Not yet,” whispered Nick Carter. “When we do strike, we want it to be of real effect.”
Bang!
Whether the nerve of Chick had suddenly given way under the strain, or whether he had fired by pure accident, he never could tell. ”

“ But there was a lock that could be operated either without or within.
“The lock is nothing, Chick! We can burst that!” whispered Nick. “Now! Together!”
The two hurled all their weight against the door. The lock broke away, and Nick Carter found himself in the arms of Prince Miguel, the bigger of the two ruffians.
There was a desperate struggle for a few minutes, and then Jean, the valet who had been attending Nick when he came aboard—showing him his dry clothing and explaining to him that his bath was ready—tried to help his master. ”

“ Then we should be in a position to dictate to the others in the city, and get hold of Pike without trouble.”
The boldness of the proposition made Nick Carter shake his head with a smile.
“It wouldn’t do, Chick,” he returned. “I don’t believe they’d think about our guns if that priest gave orders to them. They are blindly obedient to them, as anybody can see. No, my boy! They’d be all over us before we could strike an effective blow.”
“But——” began Patsy, who had forced himself into the whispered conference.
“That will do, Patsy,” interrupted Nick. “Don’t talk. They’re suspicious of us already. ”

“ Mantell," interrupted a voice that Nick instantly knew to be Patsy’s. "Let this rascal collect the ransom he demands as best he can. He’ll not harm you as long as he sees any show of getting it. Don’t write a line, or——”
"You keep quiet, or I’ll silence you in a way you’ll not fancy," Goulard fiercely cut in. "I’ll put you away, Garvan, as well as Nick Carter, if I do nothing else. You listen to me, woman, and——”
Nick did not wait to hear more. He touched Chick’s elbow and continued on toward the rear of the house, where the door of the kitchen met his gaze. ”

“ Nick Carter turned and addressed all the members of his little band:
“Don’t overlook the odds against us. Our four coolies—who could be depended on to keep up their end in a mêlée when told to drive ahead—are prisoners somewhere in this place. Then Calaman has all our cartridges. We can’t do much for ourselves or for Leslie till we get hold of our ammunition.”
“We’ll get it,” declared Patsy, with his usual confidence.
“We’ve got to do it,” added Chick. “We are inside the walls of Shangore, and there is nothing for us but to fight. ”

“ Nick remained only to talk briefly with Chick, telling him what he had learned, and he then departed hurriedly, heading for home in a taxicab.
CHAPTER III.
NICK CONFIRMS HIS THEORY.
Nick Carter stopped at his Madison Avenue residence on his way to Brooklyn only to pick up his junior assistant, Patsy Garvan, whom he aroused from bed and with whom he soon was seated in the waiting taxicab.
“I thought I might need you,” Nick remarked, as they sped away. “There’s no telling what we may learn, and it’s always well to be on the safe side.”
“Sure thing, chief,” Patsy readily agreed. “But what’s 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. ”

“ If it had not been for this bit of ceremony, the priest hardly could have avoided seeing Jefferson Arnold and Leslie dart across the street and into the open door.
Nick Carter would have liked to go into the house at once. But he could not do it while everybody was looking at him.
“That white man must be Pike,” he whispered to Chick. “Let Adil slip away and find out. He is not very different in appearance from the other men of this place. He can get in without being noticed, I dare say.” ”

“ Patsy crept to the window again, revolver in hand, where he crouched to gaze and listen.
David Mack was speaking.
“There now is nothing to it, Carter,” he was snarling bitterly, no longer in disguise. “You have put me in a position that leaves me no alternative. I must wipe you out of existence.”
Nick Carter sat gazing sternly from one to another.
“You put yourself in the position you are in, Mack,” he coldly answered. “If you think you can remedy it by killing me—well, that’s up to you.”
“It’s what he deserves,” snapped Kate Crandall. “He’s an infernal meddler. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Chick Carter had pricked up his ears, and his eyes were glowing more brightly.
“A taxi, eh?” he muttered, heading for the side door. “By the rats, in 710, eh? By Jove, here’s my chance. It’s Mullen for mine.”
CHAPTER VII.
PLAYING A LONE HAND.
Patsy Garvan, following the instructions Nick Carter had given him, did not ring a bull’s-eye until four o’clock that afternoon. He then rounded up the hackman he had been seeking.
Patsy recognized his face and discovered him standing beside his carriage in front of a hotel in Forty-fourth Street.
“You’re the very man I want,” said he, confronting him. ”

“ That coffee is drugged. They are going to prevent your getting out of New York somehow.”
“Even if they have to dope me?” smiled Nick Carter. “Well, I assure you I had no intention of drinking that{6} coffee. It is not my habit to eat or drink anything that comes to me with so much mystery.”
“There is no mystery in it to me,” she rejoined. “I know those men, and so ought you, Marcos—I mean, your highness.”
Nick Carter laughed softly, as he put his hand to his mask.
“You will insist that I am somebody else,” he said. “The best thing I can do is to let you see my face.” ”

“ NICK CARTER’S DEDUCTIONS.
Nick Carter glanced again at the newspaper story. No man could have read more keenly between the lines. No logician could have deduced more significant points from its apparently trustworthy statements.
“You may not see anything in it, Chick, but I do,” he replied, after a moment. “Some one, either Dillon or Carney, though very probably both of them, has been lying. These statements won’t stand washing.{14}”
“That’s the stuff, chief,” said Patsy. “Put them through the wringer and squeeze out the dyestuff. ”

“ I’ve pledged myself to do it, however, and we shall have to manage it, somehow,” was Nick Carter’s steady conclusion, as he turned the launch downstream. “We have Larry Dugan and his crowd against us, as well as Solado and Miguel. That will make it harder. But we can beat the gang if we stick to it.”
“We’ll stick to it, all right!” responded Chick, with that determined note in his voice which his chief knew meant business.
“That’s what I like to hear, Chick. It won’t be an easy task, but we have simply got to get Prince Marcos to Joyalita by the eighteenth of this month.” ”

“ He swung around, to see that Nick Carter had rushed into the arena and was facing Calaman with a half smile on his strong features.
“Your spear, Jai Singh!” ordered the detective, extending his hand.
Wonderingly, the Hindu placed the weapon in Nick Carter’s fingers, and looked at him inquiringly.
“Go back to the others,” Nick told him, in a low voice that no one else overheard. “Be ready for any attack that may come. Understand?”
Jai Singh made a low salaam, and, without looking [15] again in the direction of Calaman, strode across the sand and into the tunnel from which he had emerged. ”

“ He carried a handsome repeating shotgun—light, but deadly, in the hands of a sure shot like the detective.
Glancing at himself in a mirror, Nick was satisfied that he would not be easily recognized. To make sure, he put on a heavy beard and mustache, with the result that he did not look any more like the real Nick Carter, than he did like Mrs. Pankhurst.
“Keep your cap well down, Patsy,” he directed. “Your face is not well known to these people we are going after. ”

“ Calaman has no mercy on those who oppose him. I’m with you in this venture. In return, I ask you to stand by me.”
“Till the death!” returned Nick Carter earnestly.
“Here, too,” added Chick.
“And you can bet your pile on me,” announced Patsy.
“Where do we strike first?” asked Jefferson Arnold.
“I only have my knife,” bewailed Jai Singh. “It will have to serve until I can get a spear. But I’ll take one from some of those men as soon as I get near to them.”
“I have a revolver,” modestly spoke Adil, who seldom said anything unless he considered it absolutely necessary. ”