Nick Carter Weekly (no. 155) (1898 12 16)

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ICK CARTE _ WEE KLY Issued weekly. Subser 8 iter at the N. Y. Post Office by Srreer & SmiTH. ; No. 155. eS f Price 5 Cents. NICK CARTERS CURIOUS CUE IT “or A CRIMINAL WITH Bl | iy MORE ey . THE AUTHOR OF NICK CARTER NICK AND HIS PRISONER WERE SURROUNDED BY THE LYNCHING MOB. A BLACKSMITH STRIKES THE HORSE WIIH A SLEDGEHAMMER.

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A New story, written specially for the Nick Carter Weekly, and will not appear in any other number. NICK CARTER WEEKLY. Entered according to Act of Congress in the eter tn by ws. S. Smith, in the Office of the Librarian of Oongrese, ‘ashington, D. f Entered as second class Matter at ihe New York. N. Y., Subscription price, $2.50 per et Issued weekly. No 155. STREET & SMITH, Publishers. Post Office. * December 16, 1898. REW YORK, 238 William 8t., N. Y. 5 Cents Nick Carter’s Curious Crient > OR, A CRIMINAL WITH MORE GALL THAN SENSE By the Author of “NICK CARTER.” CHAPTER I. THE OVERLAND LIMITED. The private car, Semiramis, stood on a switch in the Erie Railroad yards, Jer- sey City, one frosty Dece:mber morning. It had arrived with the Overland lim- ited at three a. in. It was now five hours later, and, pur- suant to his usual custom, the foreman having charge of the passenger yards snoved ‘down with his gang upon the newly arrived cars, The scrub-women, the hosemen and . , the supply force were already in posses- sion of the day coaches. _ It was their regular province to air and prepare the same prelimnary to renova- - tion—sweeping, dusting aud general cleaning up. = In advance of this group, a workman of skill and experience—the pilot of the repairing force—made inspection of the running gear, The foreman kept up with him. He had a piece of chalk in his hand, and as the workman burrowed under the various cars and then came from under them again, he would chronicle the re- sults of his investigations. That is, upou the statement of his sub- ordinate, he would chalk on the trucks those cabalistic signs which are often puz- zliny to the public, but are easily under- stood by his own craft. Such stood for: ‘‘Broken spring,” ‘defective wheels,’’ “hot box,’’ ‘‘twisted axle.”’ The workman, hammer in hand, had- now reached the private car. The foreman chatted with him in a casual way as he gave resounding as to st aud that wheel.

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2 NICK CARTER WEEKLY. exterior of high color and ornate deeora- tion, was dirt-laden and travel-stained in the extreme. In its recent whirl of some three thou- sand miles acros§ the continent, it was apparent that it had passed through vari- ous climatic conditions. Rain had drenched, snow had-splotched —sand, alkali, clay and loam could be traced in layers quite distinct even to the naked eye, The Semiramis resembled a palace on wheels shut up for the season. All the inside curtains were down, the screen ventilators on top were tightly closed. The platform doors held nie their threslolds little drifts of cinders and mud, undisturbed by entrauce or exit. This car stood apart from the other coaches, and the foreman walked around it with his subordinate. ~ The latter came to the forward trucks, tapping the wheels with his hammer, and perfunctorily uttering: *fAll right.” \ Then he dove under the centre, bend- _ ing low to pass ungrazed the surfaces de- pending from the floor bottom of the coach. — ; ; “Empty?”? his voice sounded out muffled and hollow as he pursued his ex- ~ plorations. “Of course,’? answered the foreman. ~ “Clear from the coast ?’’ a “Ves. -__ **How is that ?”” «© “Took out the V. P. and family.’’ ™~ “Indeed.” < ‘En route for a voyage to the Sand- ve ies Islands.” 3 Viagee Br SY 2: 3 Tap! tap! _ Come back unloaded. How did she stand the racket?” **She stood it well.’’ es Bvery (hing 1 in order?” - oa sae stung finger of his companion. The foreman naturally supposed that the workman had hit his head against some loose or unguarded nut or bar. He bent forward slightly to trace the trouble, and his eyes stared somewhat Almost prone the workman _ had dropped, and on his kuees and one hand he was creeping out from between the rails. “What is the matter?’’ inquired the foreman. The other did not immediately reply. His companion noticed that his face was disturhed. The workman panted as though some deep emotion stirred him. “Why, you look pale!’’ exclaimed the foreman as his subordinate came com- pletely into view. “*T feel—pale!’’ gasped the other. **Hurt ?”’ *“No—scared !’? ‘ ‘*What?”’ _ “Look”? The workman held up the hand he had not put on the ground. It still clasped the hammer, but in a nervous grip, and it shook visibly. A great splotch ‘marked the back of that hand and it was spreading slowly. ‘Grease?’ asked the foreman in a matter-of-fact tone. ‘*Blood!”” uttered the other with tragic emphasis. “What?” bag fog sire.” ‘(Where from ?”’ “Under there. ”’ * ‘*Yes, but where under there?” ‘*From inside the car. A: ‘Eh ?”? i “T know it! Come and see.” The workman dropped his hammer and bent under the car again. ‘ The foreman promptly followed him. His eyes began to scintilate as he fol- lowed the rather timorous indication of ' Is

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Upen the roadbed, under a long box- like extension of the bottom of the car was a dull-colored puddle. Near the centre of this box-like con- trivance was something of a crack. Pendant from this were several slowly lengthening and dropping globules. “Right!” observed the foreman, sen- tentiously. ‘‘What causes it??? questioned the workman in an agitated tone. ‘“We shall see.”’ Both emerged from under the car and stood erect. The foreman looked serious—his com- panion curious and expectant. “Wait a bit here,’’ said the former, with a sense of importance, He hastily left the scene, ested in’ the direction of his office, some three hundred yards distant. He shortly returned, examining indi- vidually the marks on a great bunch of keys he bore. ‘“‘Semiramis,’? he read, as he came near his companion. fe ‘*Got the key to this car?’ **T have.’” . Shall I look with eit “Of course.’ They ascended the rear platform. foreman fitted the key. It grated harshly, cracking brittle par- ticles of; sand and cinder that clung to the keyhole. The door opened ; first they reached the dite next a side corridor. _ They now stood in the body of the car. Everything was neat, clean, in order, except that a stuffy taint oppressed the air. ny _ “More forward,’ 3 suggested the work- man. Yes?! nodded his. companion: The r s : A frosted glass door led into the sleep- ing compartment of the. car—a_ double yea soon: sai \ eas pareten sare the os a posh in- NICK CARTER WEEKLY. ~ 3 wards. Something hindered it from go- ing open more than half a foot. He intruded his head to make out the obstacle. Quickly withdrawing it, his face be- coming ashen in a second, he repeated the receut vehement utterance of his conipanion : **Heavens!?’ “*You’ve found out?’’ eagerly interro- gated the workiman. - i “Ves!’? gasped the other, ‘“‘Here—pull the door this way; it opeus both ways; it——”’ The foreman had sunk back to a seat brace, quite overcome. The workman’s utterance was abruptly checked, and he stood holding thé door ajar, but like one petrified. Beside a luxurious lounging chair, from which it- had evidently slipped to the floor of the car, was a human form. The head reclined as if pillowed on the soft velvet chair cushion, so that the face was in full view. It was a young and a beautiful face— that of a girl not more than eighteen years of age. Radiant loveliness was there, and ap- parent innocence. But the. half-opened eyes bore no expression, and the parted lips were rigid. ‘*Dead !"” gasped the pr eed in pro- found stupefaction. : _ ‘Murdered !’’ echoed his companion. Then determinedly, though in a trem- ulous voice, he added: ‘*Come—this is os matter for you ot me to tamper with.’ ‘What are you going to do?” **Send for the police!’ CHAPTER HUNTING FOR A CLEW. ‘The two railway employees were old — ‘and experienced attaches of the service. They comprehended the value of si-

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leuce when an accident or a collision occurred, The foreman applied this same time- honored restriction to the present case. He took the workinan with him, and in ten minutes was in conference with the superintendent of the road. There was sone excitement and a hasty discussion. ‘The police were wired. The captain of the nearest station soon atrived with two men. He visited the car, came out, locked the door and kept the key. He gave some whispered instructions to his subordinates. They flitted away, and he accompanied the foreman to his office? “What next, sir?’’ the latter ventured to inquire. He was greatly wrought up by the ‘reserve and composute of the captain in this initial investigation. “T am waiting,” replied the officer, _ briefly. ; “*Might I ask what for ?”’ ‘ oe An expert. wy ‘“*Ah! I agree with you.”” $ **Tndeed hy ““Ves—this is certainly a case out of the common. It will ed, shrewd man to learn its ins and outs.’ ‘ “T have sent for a shrewd man.”” The “shrewd man’’ in question arrived within an hour. He came by a cab, and the foreman, “ gazing from the window of his office, turned to the imperturbable police official with a quickly flushing face. ‘He'll do! ” he declared, with enthu- _ siasm. F j “You quite consent, do you ?”’ ‘Consent to his handling the case— = consent to Nick Carter? Well, slightly,” poet the pigaper't with eet ~ NICK CARTER WEEKLY. - tered the building with his usual firm, brisk tread. He nevee interrupted as the captain, taking him aside, spoke rapidly for some ten minutes. He ended by pointing to the yard fore- mau, touched his cap to the secret ser- vice expert, and left the office aud the scene. The police captain had given Nick the key to the private car. Nick advanced toward the foreman, displaying it. **T understand,’’ said the latter, with a deference that told Nick that he was recognized, and led the way into the yards, Nick made a movement that somewhat upset his companion as they neared the Semiramis. One of the workmen was uncoiling his hose, to get ready to play on the private coach. **Stop that!’? ordered the detective, sharply, and the man stared. ‘‘Do not let. any unauthorized person approach that car till I give sini iS Nick added to the foreman. Nop sit.2" “Much less, disturb it.”’ The foreman spoke to the man, who at ~ once withdrew from the spot. He accom- panied the detective into the car. Nick reached the state-room, braced the door open, waved back his on-pressing compan- ion and stood just on the threshold, peer- ing in. e One glance, strengthening a previously formed intuitive.conclusion suggested by what he had heard, convinced the great niystery-solver that there was one of those strange and clewless- tragedies that meant hard and possibly fruitless work. Nick approached the dead figure, after he had studied the pose and ‘surround- ings for some moments. Bric a1 down | a neat at lace collar, and =

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NICK CARTER WEEKLY. - 6 disclosed the death wound—a deep, wide cut at.the side of the thiroat. The blood from this covered the floor —even soaking across and trickling be- yond a strip of carpet. Nick-pulled this aside, and discovered a two-dvuored trap, with a slight crack where the sections met at the centre. Nick pulled up one door, and looked . down into a box-like extension under the car. He turned to rae foreman now, who had watchéd his face and movements with rapt interest frour the start. Nick penciled on a card, and handed the card to the man. “‘You have a telephone at your office, I believe ?”” he said. “*Yes, sit,”’ ‘Reach this party as quickly as possi- ble.”’ ~The foreman glanced at the card. It noted the detective’s own home quar- ters, and it named the detective’s favorite ~assistant—Chick. “What am I to tell him, sir?’’’ asked the foreman. - : _ “To drop everything and come hére at once.”’ “It shall be done.’’ The foreman was gone for about an hour. ‘ : _ When he returned, he was accompanied . to the car by the person Nick had sent for. ~The foreman did not know how much ~ time Nick ‘had spent inside the car. He found him now just charg out from under it. ‘The detective, had— half a aouan en- da og in his hand. : These seemed to contain some . slight substance that did not nearly fill them. - Nick folded their flaps carefully, sur- rounding tiem with elastic bands, and placed them in his pocket. P< To Chick he nodded in a way that <= pets ich he to his ae: associate that he had completed a thorough inves- tigation, and that there was nothing to discuss till they were by themselves To the foreman Nick handed the key. “‘The police will soon come for the body,’’ he briefly stated. Nick turned on his Chick’s arm. ““Mr. Carter!’’ “*Ves,’’ inquired Nick, faving the fore- ian again. “Ts that all?” “That is all, my friend.’’ “Oh!” muttered the foreman, disap- - pointediy. “I trace your anxiety—you are soiie- what interested in this importait mat- ter.’’ heel, taking *“T wouldn’t be humau if I were not.” ‘‘Then let me say this—for the pres- ent, no human mind can fathom the niys- ~ tery of the Overland limited.”’ The foreman looked blank. ‘“That means no clew?’’ he murmured. ‘‘That means not the slightest clew-= in sight.’’ “Then you give it up, Mr. Carter?’ exclaimed the foreman. ““Oh, dear, no.’’ ‘*But you said——”’ ‘I did not say that we shall immiedis ‘ately start in to find the clews out of sight—but I say so now. You are entitled to know all that is proper, ny man, from your prudent handling of this affair in its first stages.’’ : “Oh, thank you, Mr. Carter."’ ‘And I shall go out of my way to ap- pease your curiosity when we have found out who murdered that fair girl in your — private car, and why!”’ Nick’s cab was in waiting—he ordered ; P its driver to take him and his assistant to the = of the superintendent of the road. _ That official knew Nick, and was ex- : pecting him, © i eg

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ad the limited on its last trip."’ 7 6 NICK CARTER WEEKLY. He had been kept advised of proceed- ings by the yard foreman, it appeared. “Well, Mr. Carter, what have you found out?’ he eagerly asked. **A cold blooded murder.”’ ‘*And the motive?’ Nick silenced the questioner with a look that made him realize the folly of that query at this early stage of the case. “The girl was decoyed into the car, or carried there anknowingly,” said the detective. “But how was access paca to the coach ?” ; “Brom below—from underneath the car.” -“T fail to understand.” The compartment under the state- toom is used to hold ice at times?’’ ; ““Yes—we utilize the space-in that way.”’ “*T fancied so. Overhead is a trap door. Underneath, ‘the box has two slanting doors, padlocked together.” “You have the layout correct.’’ “Very well; through that channel en- trance was affected to the car.’’ "Is it possible!’’ ‘*By the same course the murderer took his departure.” “Where Pp Nick lifted his Be ee **You mean at what poiut of the line?” Ves? “That is an solve.”’ “You give it up?” “Hardly !?? “Then——” ‘That is the one essential point in this _ entire affair, and that we must settle at the very start.”” ) —, ‘Oh Pp =f therefore,”’ Senditcas: Nick, wish - cave a brief interview with some per- on who ean acucrately; give me the route intricate problem to i Seige the man for i — ‘*Familiar with its stops ?’’ ‘Entirely so.”? ‘Its sidings and transfers.”? “To the minutest particular,” ‘*And aware of the general topography of the road ?”’ 6 Ves,” ‘Including branches ?’’ ‘“‘Intimately; but what has that part to do witli——”’ ‘“Rverything.”’ ‘The course traversed is a matter of routine record,’? went on the superin- tendent ‘*‘The rest_that you want to know will be easy, for the man I have in mind has been in the surveying depart- ment for years, and knows the road from end to end.”’ ‘*And its connections?’ **Perfectly.”” ‘*He is ny man,’’ said Nick Carter. The superintendent led the detective and his assistant to a little room, where a mai was working on a map of the road. The superintendent looked inquiringly, at Nick, but the latter did not encourage him to stay. : : Chiek, however, lingered. ~ Nick was immediately engrossed with the new man. He made him produce a time table eu a map. Mile by mile, minute by minute, in vivid retrospection, Nick Carter followed the Overland limited from one ocean to anotlier. This took a full half hour, but from Nick’s drawn brows, knit’ in earnest ~ thought, Chick comprehended that his superior was not wasting time. ‘Very well,’’ said Nick, at last, ‘‘I now thoroughly understand what it was necessary for me to know. Now tlien, presumably the Semiramis was not en- tered by either door from the time it left San Francisco till it arrived in seers City. ” ‘‘No one had the right to enter it.” —

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**Or the means?” ‘*T fai] to understand.”’ ‘The keys?” The man shook his head. ‘“The vice-president of course had the keys,’ he announced; “‘the yards at San Francisco and the yards here have duplicates.’ **No other parties?’’ *‘Not that I am aware of.” i ‘Will you now get down your grade maps ?’’ suggested Nick. The other produced some large portfo- lios. Eo “And your mineral specimens yon- der,’’ said Nick, indicating a shelf stored with ore specimens, bricks, pottery, grain samples and the like, gathered along the line. Chick’s eyes sparkled; now he knew what his chief was after;, he understood why Nick had investigated under the car. Nick took out his memorandum book. Within twenty minutes, Chick estimated, he must lave asked as many as four hun- dred questions, The man was a perfect encyclopedia _ of knowledge as to the line of the road. “From New York to Chicago, thence. west to the Pacific Ocean, he indeed knew every mile of the route in detail, as the superintendent had boasted. Nick narrowed his inquiries down to the peculiarities of the soil of this and that section. It was marvelous—the pointed way he saved time in asking questioas. The shrewd, intelligent surveyor di- vined his purpose, and promptly supplied the required information, ““Thanks,’’ said Nick, finally. -**That is all you wish to know hs _ “Yes—and you know your business thoroughly, my friend!" _ Nick returned to the waiting superin- tendent, addressed a few words to that _ functionary, then he and his angstant : _ Tegained ¢ apa ¥ NICK CARTER WEEKLY. 1 “‘Where now ?”’-asked Chick. “Home, I havea little careful studying to do.’” In the quiet of his own favorite apart- ment, Nick Carter set before him on the desk a map of the road and his notes taken in the Superintendent’s office. He pored, pondered, traced with his finger, and Chick waited. When Nick drew from his pocket and opened the envelopes Chick had seen him carry when he emerged from under the Semiramis, the latter felt that a decisive moment was about to be reached. - He craned his neck to view their con- tents as Nick slit the envelopes with a penknife. A dark, incongruous mixture, resem- bling street sweepings, filled the various receptacles. Nick examined them under his magni- fying glass, and again consulted the map, his notes, his memoranda. . He looked up and nodded to Chick: Nick moved a finger along the railroad line west five hundred miles, farther west yet, and still farther: He stuck a pin through the map ata certain station. He placed a second pin in position a hundred miles farther west. ‘‘Between these two points,’ he’ an- nounced, confidently, ‘‘the girl was de- coyed or conveyed into the Semiramis.”’ “You know this——”’ ‘‘Because a woman’s dress swept off the sand and akali dust from where the grease dripped fifty miles back.”’ “Ah! pp “Then came another formation—the red loam of a new soil. Where it began to form under the car, the murderer left the Semiramis.”’ ‘*And you kiriow this——’? “Because his hand, in relocking the. padlock of the ice cavity, swept sas in turn free.’ Sacks seas enfocred the infinite 4 y

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ae NICK CARTER WEEKLY. admiration he felt for his gifted superior. “‘Again,’’ continued Nick—‘‘at Fores- ton there was a stop, at Casco anothier. That is the only hundred miles anuswer- ing to the dust formation I have de- scribed. Still further, a different fuel _ used on this stretch of road corresponds - to certain cinder deposits. You have your clew, Chick.”’ “T have my clew?”’ “You will start for: the West on tlie night express, reach Foreston, work your fway back to Casco, aud try and get a trace of the start and motive of this ex- traordinary crime.”’ ~ “And you?” hinted Chick. ng! Looe look after this end of the case.’ ‘But is there a New York end?” d _ ‘We shall see,’’ said Nick Carter. ~ CHAPTER III. IDENTIFIED. “‘Wanted, sir.’”* Nick Carter’s man-servaut interrupted a reverie on the part of the great detec- es. tave.* It was twelve fivade: after the tceveey : st the tragedy of the private car, Semi- -Famis. ss ear: Sos three of that number Chick had ‘been speeding West on the trail that Nick Carter’s wonderful inductive mind _ had ‘suggested. _ Promptness was the essential of every move that the detective made in a case ~ of urgency, and Chick had departed with a reasonably promising clew in sigiit. “Nick was thoughtfully scanning once _ more the contents of those six envelopes when the interruption came, _ He looked up with the i inquiry: ; “At the teRE NET ay : eee Bete. cet “Oh, nol? : ing this. The body of the victim of the pirvate ear tragedy had been taken charge of by the police. Any word or inquiry in reference to the same was therefore naturally stimu- lating. Nick’s servant was riglit; it was the morgue people who wauted the detective. By a special permit secured from a « Jersey City coroner with whom Nick was acquainted, the detective had had. the — body of the girl transferred to the New York city- morgue. ““Well, what is it?’ demanded Nick, at the ’phone. “Concerning the girl brought here this afternoou——’’ ‘*What about her ?’’ ‘A party has come to identify.’’ ‘*Good! Hold him.’’ **You will come ?’’ ‘At once.” Nick lost no time in seeing how far “the New York end of the case,’’ as Chick had denominated a possrbility, was going to materialize. On arriving at the morgue, he was _ greeted by the man in charge—an old ac- quaintance. The latter drew Nick mysteriously aside with a suggestive glance through the half-open door of the next room. ‘*He is in there—waiting,’’ whisper- ingly declared the man. ‘“*Whe is??? inquired Nick, : “The party. You see, Mr. Carter, I fancied if there was going to be an iden- tification you would wish to be on hand?” ‘*Most assuredly.” ‘*So I sent for you,’’- — “Quite right; but who is the person >”? ‘A likely young fellow, who, I fancy, is under considerable stress of anxiety over the disappointment of wife, sister or sweetheart.’ — ‘Has he seen the aoe es

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~ te ee Me short; Nick intuitively surmised that his_ NICK CARTER WEEKLY. 8 “How did he happen to come here? The case is\not public yet.’ , “He says he.has been seeking every- where. I got him to describe the person he was looking for.’’ ‘*And he did so?” ““Guardedly.”’ “Does it tally ?”’ ; ‘It dozs, for a fact.’’ “Vou did not tell him so?” “Not I; I sent for you.’’ “That was riglit.’’- A young man was pacing the floor of an adjoining rooin, his hands twisting nervously behiud him, his head bowed in thought or suspense. He, looked up quickly as Nick entered. ‘‘Good-evening, sir,’’ remarked the latter. The detective traced at once petinive anxiety and dread in the fine, fearless face of this stranger. -. “¥ou-are the person they sent for?’ ‘inquired the -yvoung man, his voice un- _ steady and strained. ‘Nick bowed. “They tell me,’’ said he, ‘‘that you are looking for somebody ?”’ “ey “Ves.” “4 young lady re ia Ves. ” **She has enppeerad: from home?” ees. ae 5 rv Syal The answers were prompt -as well as _ Visitor had something to conceal. Under what staan nace Pi: he de- . Beeps The detective’s companion hesitated. “Must I tell you that??? he eaiiea, his brows meeting in a troubled frown. oe, it a be Ge: Patera we Be Keeper, and erat: bore eke one the oute make public the troubles of the family of my employer.” “Your employer ?”’ Ves sige? “Very well,’’ said Nick—‘‘you. may enter.’’ He pusiied open the door leading down three stone steps into a room chil] and dank. ‘*Here,’’ he said, briefly—and he watched closely the young man’s face. The visitor darted a wild glance at the slab Nick had indicated. A strangling cry gurgled in his throat. He staggered back against a pillar, cov- ering his eyes with his hands. “Do you identify this person ?’’ asked Nick. ; “This! this!’ incoherently gasped the visitor. ‘*‘Yes—it is she!’’ ‘“You are positive ?’’ “Her hair! her face——’’ “Look again.”’ The young man uncovered his eyes. — A spasm passed over his ashen face. He fixed his gaze once more upon the slab—upon the silent,- beautiful burden it bore. 3 _ “Great heavens! why! it is not—— “Be calm, man.”’ re Crash! — In the inidst of some excited utterance, the visitor threw fiimself forward as ; ” though to scan more closely, aud his eyes _ now were half starting from his head. Unfamiliar with the smooth, slippery floor of tle place, he lost his feoting. Nick sprang to his side, but too isis to- + prevent a heavy fall. — ‘The visitor's head met the edge of a a solid'stone block, which cut quite a gash, re and completely stunned hini. oe Nick lifted him up, called for the Toon),

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10 NICK CARTER WEEKLY. ‘*Better send him homie,’’ advised the keeper. ; He did what he could to staunch the blood, while Nick proceeded to find out if the young man’s home was auwyhere near. The contents of a wallet found in a side pocket indicated that the sufferer was nained Dean Bentley. His employer was one Aiden Lee. | The address of the latter was given—it was a good residence locality not far dis- tant. : ~ *€Ves,’? said Nick, finally, ‘‘I will take hin home.’? _ “Call a cab?” “Tf you will.’”’ “Did he identify the body?’’ | ' “He seemed to.’’ - Nick answered thus, but he stored in his mind the interrupted declaration made vata second look. His charge did not rally ee a brief rapid drive. Nick got the cabman to auakiiet and watcl: his insensible fare, while he went up the steps of a fairly Piptentious resi- dence. rg. ting at the door bell brought a ser- Vant, and an. inquiry as to Mr. Aiden Lee the aunouncement that he was at home. Nick expressed urgency, and the ser- vant showed him into a room where a € _ man in a dressing gown was seated before _ a grate fire reading the evening paper. _ He arose to greet and survey the caller swith a keen, surprised look. . He was a man of about sixty, under- sized and with eyes that were never still _ for a moment in their snappy, restless 4 4 brilliancy. Bo “Be seated, sir,” he invited. ; ke “I presume that a youmg gentleman | _ named | era poe is ay to you?” Pe I “Ves.” “T have him at the door, in a some- what precarious condition.’’ “Vou alarm me!’’ said Lee, arising to his feet. The tones belied the sincerity of the statement—still, Nick could not at once entirely fathom those shifty surface indi- cations. ‘‘He has sustained a severe fall.’’ - When ?”” “Half an hour since.”* “Where ?’’ “At the morgue.”’ = “At the morgue ?’’ 6€ Ves,” Lee was genuinely surprised. ‘““What was he doing at that dismal place ?’’ he inquired. - “He seemed to be looking for a on ae “friend.” Ah 179 “A young lady.” ‘Hah!’ uttered Lee in a sharp gasp. **He found her.”’ ‘“He——”’ exclaimed Lee, with a vio- lent start and stare. . **T say that he seemed to find her.”’ ‘*Tmpossible !”? ““Then’you knew that he was looking for somebody ?”’ . “*T—-that is, certainly I knew.’’ “Suppose, then, that yoti explain ?”’ “Who are: you, may I inquire??? de- manded Lee. ‘“My name is Carter,’’ said Nick, fix- ing an unflinching eye on his host. “‘Carter!”’ . “Nicholas Carter,’’ continued the de- tectinmskenniie his eyes fixed, Lee had sprung to his feet. His eyes ' dilated, his Beg een and quiv- * ered. “The mention of my name seems to disturb you?’ intimated Nick. as ‘“‘Not—not at all, sir!” declared hee aon with a gulp. . ‘Possibly it suggests——"? S52 a ee ee

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NICK CARTER WEEKLY. Z un ““That is it!’ interrupted Lee, regain- ing some of his lost poise. ‘‘It suggests— \_ how can it fail? You said explain. I will. Poor girl! I can see it all! She is dead!’’ -The speaker brushed one eye with his hand. “Briefly, ait” h he said, after this little . tribute to emotion, ‘‘I have a ward.” 66Ves pp? ‘Or rather, had one.”’ ‘*Her name, may I inquire?’’ “‘Lura Mason. She has been with me for some weeks. She+left home under “mysterious circumstances. We sought her; she had seappesred, leaving no trace.”’ “And this young man, Mr. Bentley?” “They were warm friends; he has probably taken it ou himself to search for her.”” : **T could not find his address among*his papers. Shall I bring him in here?”’ “Certainly; he is a worthy young man, ‘a most deserving person.”? - Lee bustled about. He gave some directions to the servant. With Nick’s assistance the young man was conveyed to a room up stairs. Nick went below and- awaited the re- turn of his host. When the latter appeared, he said to him: “‘You had better send for a doctor.” ‘**T have done so—he shall have all due attention. I have weed instructed the servant.’? = ‘Then, meantime, would: Sa accom pany me?" ‘ “Where?” shot out: Lee, abruptly. — “To the morgue.” $ 3 must go there ?’’ + You must. ‘The identification by your clerk was rather ee “a ee er eee oe = ite le. aan aay be a aistake—the te + “Onder peculiar circumstances?’ he tepeated. | Yes.” **How so??? “It .was discovered in a car—in a ptivate coach.”’ *““What!’’ exclaimed Lee in profound | astonishment. *‘Alone, in a car that had left San Francisco locked up securely, and with no one aboard.” Lee stood riveted—his jaws began’ to fall. . It was impossible to exactly trace his emotion—whether it was caused by ex- citement or disbelief. ‘‘Murdered,’’ supplemented briefly. Lee’s face was whitening steadily. He did not tremble, but his fingers had ex- panded till they stood out rigid as pieces of steel. Nick was quite calm, and courteous— but back of his calmness was a vividly aroused sense of caution. ‘You are shoeked,’’ he said, ‘‘it is natural. Ah! Mr. Lee—one question.” His host tried to speak, failed, and only bowed. “When did your ea ishotee oe your home?’ ‘Last night.” “Oh! then——’? began Nick, checked himself. What the astute detective might have said was this: : “Then the girl at the morgue cannot Nick, and _ possibly be your ward.”’ “What shrewd, talinoding Nick Carter did say was: x “Ah! indeed? Then your ward must have been murdered in Jersey City and was stowed in that. Private c car after an coach arrived.” : scl For Nick Carter had. sibteatihe Swe é 7 3 tained a thought, a suspicion, that until — _ that moment. had not er beste): a Sy his mind, opt

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12 ; NIOK CARTER WEEKLY, CHAPTER IV. A STRANGE MESSAGE. Lee looked up quickly at the detective with the air of a man immensely relieved. ‘*Ves, that must be it!’’ he said. Z **You mean ?’’ insinuated Nick. ‘(My ward was murdered here, and her body stored in that car.”’ “The car just arrived on a three thou- sand miles flying trip this morning.” ‘She has not had time.to get far from the city. It must be as you say. It is terrible! terrible!” ‘Lee sank to a chair and passed his- hand over his face several times. ‘Be seated;’’ he directed in a low tone. Nick secretly confessed to an immense spur of stimulation. The ‘‘New York end’’ of the puzeling tragedy of the private car was developing —fast. _ “J wish, Mr.. Carter,”’ said mae flash- ing another of tliose covert looks at his - yisitor’s face—‘‘I wish in this case to be considered your client.”’ . “The police department is already my client, in a way,’’ explained Nick. - * Lee's eyes wavered, as if with dis- ‘quietude. : > 2 That is true,”? he said, ‘‘I am sorry affairs have come about as the have. I waited too long. This tertible pes A I never anticipated it.’’ : “Explain yourself, ’’ suggested Nick. “To begin at the beginning, then——”’ _ That is the best way,’’ assured Nick. ‘ing, though for only a short time resident E Sevenal weeks since my nnd cece She ee age aos eced “Tam a man of some wealth and stand- “She had no interest in society or the outside world.”’ “And the reason ?”’ “Natural diffidence, combined possibly with natural grief over the loss of a sister.’’ ‘“‘When did her sister Bed "Ac ‘‘About six months ago.’’ *“Where?”” “Eh? Oh! Where? Out West.’’ “Out West, el??? muttered _Nick—to himself. “My son——’? .“*You have a son, then?’ inquired Nick. > x ‘“My son,’’ continued Lee, ‘‘was much attached to the young lady. Before he went away——”’ “He is away? interrupted Nick, bound to press all points closely. “*Since two weeks ago.’’— “And. where,”’ ae Nick, ‘‘is he at present 2) » ““Why—he is out West.” “Out West, too!’’ silently chronicled the detective. “He was very much in love with my ward. But the attachment was too brief to have any bearing on the present affair.”’ “*¥ see. And how about your clerk, Mr. Bentley ?”” ‘*Well, to be candid, I think he also fancied my ward.’’. “Did she regard him with favor? » “T do not think she was sufficiently impressed, so far as affairs had gone, to decide that.’’ “Indeed. Goon, sir.’ > “Tura disappeared yesterday evening in a queerly sensational and mysterious ~ way.” “How was that?” ' _ “She gave no warning.” -. “She had not acted out of the common ae previously?” x Si ES fat ot at ie ce Oey"

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“At eight o’clock we found her. bed- 3 room window open. ’’ z “She had left by it?” ‘*From the second floor.’’ ‘Not passing through the house, either | by front or rear ?’’ : “No.” ; ‘That is singular,’? commented: Nick. ‘She stepped down a slanting roof, and. “through the lane at the back of the lot.’’ “*You found this out?” a ‘*Beyond a doubt.”’ ‘*How ???. ‘A neighbor saw her drop from the roof. A second noticed her enter a wait- ing carriage. She gave a ndd to the driver, and it flashed away.”’ _ "Then all her movements were pre- concerted ?”” **Tt seems so.”’ = ee oF “(And you do not dy nas motives?’ “J am completely at sea.’ _ “You have no idea of her aiientiona?? - *"Not the least i in the world.” ae ‘“This is all very mysterious,’’ said the detective. | . Tf she had some ‘secret lover, -~ now——” hinted Lee. __ *€You don’t know that?’ _ ‘No, I simply suggest ‘it-if she had ~such——”” ~ ** Well?’ -. -“T never suspected it.’’ ‘We will go over all this later,” ~ remarked Nick. te "Yes," spoke Lee, with real or - affected fervor—‘'I employ you at any st and trouble: to run. down this dark e ~ anystery! nm aI bs Phanks.” EE: engage you to avenge this "poor -girl’s in cit inhuman muclerd she fae been oes the missing Migs Lura i. ot ie id ‘ NICK CARTER WEEKLY. 13 They passed down the steps of the house. Nick inad ordered the cab to wait. They proceeded towards it. A large, sinister-looking man set his foot on the first of the house steps as they. reached the cab. Lee ran back to speak to him. What, he said Nick could not hear. : The stranger started up the steps. Lee caine back and entered the cab. | “That was the doctor,’ he explained to Nick. ‘““The one you sent for?” ““Exactly.”’ ‘‘What doctor is he?’ inquired Nick, bluntly. ‘His name is Somes.”’ **T do not recall it.’’ “Oh! he is not in local practice,” Lee. hastened to say. “Is he a suitable person, then?’’ “T vouch for him—peculiarly so.” ‘“Indeed ?”” 5 “He was a military surgeon for years. He is my.close friend, and he will do more than a stranger would do for my unfortunate employee.”’ Nick said nothing, but he reflected. In due time they reached the morgue. Nick tried to read what was stirring behind the set face of his companion as he ushered him into the room where the dead girl lay. But Lee wore a mask he could not _ penetrate—those shifty, gleaming eyes never allowed a fair, square look. He was only a trifle pale, not other- | wise openly affected, as he cast a glance 3 ‘at the murdered girl. ix rT ° « ‘ *~ “It is shel’ he said in a low, sad tone. — - “Your ward ?’’ “Yes. ” “You Positively identify this person as b eo sedge “Oh, certainly ! !” declar idaes passed stiies r

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14 NICK CARTER ak a corn “There are some formalities to ob- serve——’? remarked Nick. “Ves?” interrupted Lee in a flustered, expectant way. ' “Who else knew the deceased inti- mately ?”’ ‘‘Why, very few, in fact—the servant ‘at my home.’’ ‘*And your clerk, this young Bentley.’’ ‘“Ves,’’ nodded Lee, shortly. “Then both must come here to-morrow and identify the deceased.’’ “TI thought my clerk had already done so. ” He nice have beesi on the point of a decisive identification,’? said Nick, ‘“when he met with-his accident.’ “T see?” “He will probably be sufficieritly tecovered by morning to make a second visit here.”’ **Possibly.’?” **T will call at your home in ee morn- ing. Notify your servant and this young anan that I expect them to accompany me to this place.’’ ‘*Very well.’’ ‘You may then take eae of the body.” ‘Poor girl! And then, Mr. Carter, you will pursue this matter ?”’ = “To the end—rest assured,’’ promised + Nick, - sy “Spare no expense !”? “T- will keep your instructions in mind. ” _ “Remember—I hire you!” “Yes—you hire me!’ _ “And call on me for any amount to prosecute this investigation.” __-**F shall call on you,’’, _ They walked out of the place together, pene regained the cab. . ah’ Sale “D ec Cm / as >, 37 Ae A said Nick, paying the driver. = ame see” mage tomogsow obeerved ou will take this gentleman home, ”» “Very good.’’ Nick proceeded towards his own home. _He was thoughtful, but it was under the pressure of crowding ideas rather than the dull reflections of an ordinary reverie. : When he got to the quiet of his own especial apartment, he prepared to analyze affairs in a clear, systematic fashion. . ‘*First and foremost,'’ soliloquized the veteran expert, ‘‘the girl at the morgue is not the ward of this Mr. Aiden Lee, ‘*Secondly, Mr. Aiden Lee knows it.’ ~ Thus far Nick had got when there caine a sa ring from the telephone closet in the next apartient. Nick proceeded thither. the receiver. : ‘*Who is 1t?’’ he inquired. “Mr. Nick Carter?” “6Ves, » ‘This is‘ Lee.” “Oh! said Nick, voice. “I hoped to catch you—I fancied you would like to know.’?. “About what ?”’ “The young man.’’ , **Your clerk ?”’ 6tVes, ” ‘*What about him ??’ “The doctor says he is permanently injured.’’ > J “Indeed ?”” “That he will not be able to attempt any second identification to-morrow.’? “T am sorry to hear that,’ said Nick. “Have your servant ready, at all events.”’ ‘*Yes. Mr. Carter. Good-night.’’ **Good-night.’’ Nick quite mechanically Consens, to hold the telephone receiver. 2 sa Grim suspicions were babs suggested. In the midst of one particularly vivid and arousing, he os tots Se receiver to his He took up recognizing the / 4 ear. A racing vibration _ him to be- |

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~~, oe be NICK CARER WEEKLY. lieve that some one had resumed talking at the-other end of the line. “Hello! hello!’’ were tions Nick heard. ~The utterance was sharp, cackling, peculiar. Its acceuts quite puzzled the detective. ‘Hello!’ he called back. “Crackers!”’ “What's that!’ “Oh, ring off!” i ‘‘What is this jumble, anyhow ?”’ mut- ~ tered Nick. ‘*Blind him! do you hear? bliid him! blind him! blind him!’ “Strange!’’ breathed Nick, inferestedly. ; Then his eyes snapped, and with eager- "ness he strained his hearing afresh. ~“*Bad break —detective—hush it up! There’s been a miss——’? Nick stood like a statue amid the deep stillness, broken only, by those strange, startling sounds—— the exclama- listening a “There’s ee a miss—out West!’’ CHAPTER Vv. 2 jae A yaunor AT THE ‘TELEPHONE. N ick waited for more over that tell- tale wire. A ‘shrill screech concluded. A jangle vibrated. Nick stood still, waiting like one in the darkness listening at a partition. Suddenly the telephone bell rang. “Hello! Mr. Nicholas Carter?”’ The tones were those of Lee. ’ Nick paid no-attention. A second ring followed; then the cur- rent was shut off. Some vivid pictures filled the detec- tive’s. actite fancy as he stood there, silent. He could trace the mystic and unique happenings at the other end of that wire as clearly as though he were actually look- ing into the room containing the tele- 1one Saas at the home of Mr. oe Rom rohire: ‘Aiden Lee keeps. a parrot,” ” ob- served J ‘pet, a ‘marvel of cun- “ ~y — 7% ues- “ — a twaghed @ hatte. oa * 15 Its imitative faculties had lured it to try se cuine immediately after its owner had got through talking with Nick. : 2 4 Whiat it had said it must have over- heard—auid recently, It had imparted a whole volume of suggestions to the quick-thinking expert. Its porceedings had been discovered by its master; that cackling screech was the terror cry of a culprit under punishment. The hail from Lee immediately follow- ing had been an eXperiment. ‘Lee had endeavored “to ascertain if by any chance Nick might have caught the tell-tale babble of the bird. ‘**He is probably completely assured on that point!’ grimly murmured the de- tective as he re-entered his study. Nick proceeded to analyze what the parrot had imparted. “It may mean nothing,’’ he observed ; ‘Gt may mean everything. ‘Blind him!’ Who? If this young clerk, Bentley, were blinded, he could never identify the girl at the morgue. ““A bad break’—the discovery of a -du- plicate hody? ‘CA miss’—in calculations at some other point?” ‘Then Nick added: _ ; ~ “Out West! - ®t ~ ‘““Well,’’ he concluded, with intense satisfaction—‘‘Chick is out West !"’ ~And Patsy and. Ida, his two other clever, trustworthy assistants, were at hand and within call—probably ran through Nick’s thoughts, though he did focusing \ _ not say so aloud. Nick went over to a framed contrivance set in the wall, resembling an annuncia- tor. The detective ran his household, pro- fessionally and otherwise, on a_ system that defied entanglement or inaccuracy. © The position of certain buttons and discs. now before him indicated at all times the whereabouts of those whom he might wish to reach at any odd and un- expected monient. At'a glance Nick understood how hié =e might find Patsy andIda. He interrupted his man-servant, who was enjoying a quiet smoke in a rear fon... 21, . ; To summon Ida Nick had simply :

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16 NICK CARTER WEEKLY. ‘Patsy was not likely to be at his end of the wire at that especial hour, the disc told Nick, but a messenger could find him by inquiring at a certain place. With instructions to hunt him up and bring him in, the servant departed. In about half an hour Ida put in an appearance. Nick gave her a prompt outline of the case in hand. “What am I to do?’’ she inquired, when Nick had concluded the main details of the tragedy, and the result of his investigations up to date. “Trace back this girl, Lura Mason, as far as possible.’’ ‘“Ves,’’ assented the little lady detec- tive. “And the record -of this Lee miight _ furnish us some food for reflection.’ “When do you want the information ?”’ ‘By morning.”’ Ida departed, understanding what she was expected to do, and knowing fully how to set at work without further direc- tions. When Patsy appeared, Nick repeated his story. His young assistant was greatly taken with thie layout. “You want that parrot’ ?” he instantly suggested. Sale procurable.' " Patsy smiled with confidence. “But I particularly wish to know how this Lura Mason left the house night before Jast.”? ~ “Very well,’’ said Patsy. E Nick deemed it best not to reappear onthe scene until the time arranged— - _ next morning. _ _ He had a thorough initial grasp on the - $tuation, and with his able assistants at ' work, was not afraid of any important _ Points getting away from him. — It was shortly before midnight when se = ‘Tda returned. Her business-like face and her matter- of-fact manner told Nick at once that she as teadv with her report. ‘*What did von learn ?” he interrogated. — “Much that is vague. A small amount with some degree of certitude.” “Give us plain facts, Ida.’ a? ae This Lee took possession of the estate aged: Mason, a short time — *T see the connectién—the father of - this girl, Lura.”’ *“Ves,’’ assented Ida. ‘‘Mason had just come into this estate by the death of an uncle. Mason lived a-bare month after coming into possession. He left his prop- erty to one.Savage. “How, then, does Lee come to possess it??? “‘Going back; some five years ago, Mason went North with an exploring expedition, leaving behind him his moth- erless children.’’ “Girls ?”’ : “Madge and Lura—twins. : They were placed in the charge of two friends —a man named Savage, and this Lee.’ ‘*Keep on, Ida.’ ‘*Savage and. his fainily moved West. The girl, Madge, accompanied them.’ *‘And Lee?’’ “Placed his charge, erie in a school somewhere near this city. Mason re- turned, inherited and died suddenly. His will left the entire estate to Savage, in © - trust, except a few thousand dollars to Lee. - “*And Savage ?”’ ‘*With his family, and the girl, Madge, he was swept out of existence by a cyclone out, West only five days later.’’ “And then?” “By the terms of the will, Lee inher- ited—that is, he had the use of the estate, its entire control, unti) the girl, Lura, became twenty-one years of age. That is all.’’ “It is more than sufficient,’’ assured Nick. - ; ‘Tt gives some light?’ ‘*Considerable, Ida. The girl, Madge, did not perish in the cyclone—it is her body that arrived on . the Overland limnited.’? “Vou think that.’ | - “T am sure of that. The girl, axe; is alive.” - its ‘Let me search for her.’ © 243 “1 will decide to-morrow.’’ ‘= At the end of another hour Patsy ej arrived, Z He had evidently neni: hard at work; his shoes showed traces of mud and dust. x3 He was perspiring, and he sank into a seat with a breath of watiefaction and saree = 3

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Nick uodded significantly for his assist- ant to begin. : ‘“That parrot, "declared Patsy, dead.”” “They killed it?’’ “Tt seems so, for I found -it where it had been thrown—on a dirt pile under “Sis ‘the window of the room into which the 3 - telephone wire runs.’’ : “The same bird, then.”’ 3 “Oh! of course. About the girl—she ; seems really to have left the house at the time given, eight te) ‘elock Thursday even- : ing. *” + “*Stealthily ?”” ‘““There is no-doubt of it. If it was‘a decoy, a trap, the trick was well set up, __. for She acted with great secrecy and cau- 3 tion.’’ : “*Explain ?”’ **T saw the neighbor who observed the : girl leaving by the window and the roof.’’ . “Her word is worth taking ?”’ **f ain assured of it. Another person noticed the girl get into a carriage.”’ _ * “Where was the carriage ?”” % “It had stood waiting in a nafrew lane atthe rear for some few minutes before - the girl appeared,” “ ‘“The second neighbor saw this?” - “And watched, prompted by curiosity. ‘This lane at the rear is little used— __* mainly for coal delivery purposes. ’’ Nick nodded understandingly. ; “The girl must haye been in a hurry, __ fearful of being recognized.”’ a3 - ‘Or sto ‘Bd : MMmactiy fet she did not have the carriage turn and go back to the main street. On the contrary, the vehicle kept Straight ahead, unil it arrived within - thirty feet of the end of the court. es . **How was that?” “A fence blocked—a light fence. I % _, traced all this. a t This” fence consisted of post to post. They liad been removed. ae “Phat evening?” . _ “TF ascertained that, yes. Further, I traced the single wheel marks, actoss a vacant | space till another court was tapped.’ — z Spy ie course, ‘the trail ended? : ‘For good— aon aA following _ this ri een a NICK CARTER WEEKLY. three boards strung horizontally from » “Then he will not be able to accom 17 street quite a distance from the Lee hoime.’’ ‘That was the girl’s object.’’ “Oh! doubtlessly, I went over the ground where the catriage had ee and after scouring all points critically, learned that it was a four-wheeled, Sele horse conveyance, and rubber tired. A “Very good!” “That the rear left spring was weak, judging from the depth of the wheel tracks.’’ ‘‘Anything more?” *“Ves—this.”’ Patsy produced an object from his pocket. “Ah!” said Nick—“‘a horseshoe.” CHAPTER. VI. THE HORSESHOE CLEW Nick appeared at the home of Mr. Aiden Lee the following «morning, at “eight o’clock. The horseshoe that Patsy had given to him was in the detective’s pocket. Nick’s assistant had found this caught in between a half sunken brick and a broken board. It lay almost in the tell-tale w heel rut, and had apparently . been violently wrenched from the foot of the horse toiling over the soft, uneven ground lead- ing from the lane behind the Lee resi- dence. Lee confronted the detective with the calmness of a man who feels sure of his cards and is steeled to play a cool] game. He rather effusively greeted his visitor as he led the way from the vestibule. “Come up stairs, Mr. Carter,’ he invited. 2 ‘To see your patient, Rertalnly. How is he?’* ‘*Bad—very bad !”? “Ts that so?” ‘“‘Abrasion—I mean concussion of the skull.” 483 “Your doctor says that?” wae “*Definitely.’’ as pany me this morning ?”” = ‘No, and not for a good many morn-. a ings, 3 3 Bake? Soe: Son eros Bar,

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18 ; NICK CARTER WEEKLY. Nick was ushered“into a dusky room, well shaded from the light. He drew his own conclusion as he sur- veyed the figure on the couch it con- tained. Bentley was a very sick man. Nick noted his extreme pallor and a flabbiness of lips and eyelids, while his hands moved about in a blind, groping way that sug- gested delirium.’ ““We shall have to do with the ser- vant’s identification,’’ said Nick. Thev went below. Lee showed his visi- tor into a sitting-room. **T will tell my man .o get ready,’’ he remarked. “By the way, while you are gone, could I telephone to my office ?”’ se pt Nick. ; ‘Certainly.’ Nick, left alone in the adjoining apart- ment, pretended to send a message. - He gained his sole object—an inspec- tion of the room containing the tele- phone. _A largé empty cage hung not four feet from the instrument. Its door was open, and, beside it was a standard containing a perch. This was just about ie height of the telephone. From it, too, there was every advan- tage afforded for the use of the instru- _ment by the clever bird in the way Nick had pictured it out. The servant accompanied Nick to the F morgue; he identified the body of the girl lying there as “‘Miss Lura Mason.”? To this Nick did not attribute any importance whatever; he considered the “> servant’s loyalty to homie: ‘instructions to -. be indisputable. ‘The detectve’s present ee was to throw dust in the eyes of Mr. Aiden Lee until he had secured a surer grasp of the -_-eomplex situation. bee's Nick sent word by the servant to his day. . Then the metesin detective began some brisk characteristic work. - - Its first step comprised a visit to an old lady residing in Brooklym _ From Ida Nick had {sake the xesi- dence of ‘the young clerk, rie penrbie was his AY Nick = led her around to hi th: taster that he would see him later in the ing, without letting her suspect that he was concealing his real motives. He described the condition of lier nephew, and narrated the circumstances preceding his indisposition, in a way that softened the shock as much as possible, She was to secure a pliysician and pro- ceed to the Lee home, insisting on the inmmediate removal of her relative to her own roonis. Nick started this section of his plans in working action. About noon he retunred to the house in Brooklyn, and found that the patient had been removed. ; Tjee had tried to put some barriers in the way, but the old lady was deter- mined, as Nick had incited her to be. Her own physician had now the case in hand. Nick secured his address and called at his office. ‘‘What do you find the patient’s con- dition to be?’’ inquired the detective. The doctor regarded Nick hesitatingly He knew who he was, for Nick had told. ; ‘*Professionally, between us both——”’ he began. ‘*Of course,’ nodded Nick. “There are some. migeer points about this matter.’’ “Shall I give my idea of a few of them ?’’ als soe Nick. “Why— : “Bentley’s 's injury is in itself nothing dangerous.’’ ; “You take the expression right from - my lips!’ ‘Ah!’ smiled Nick. "Next, his medicines have been rather —confusing, shall we call it ?’’ “Vou diagnose the case like an expert, Mr. Carter!’ - “No,’’ confessed Nick—‘“‘T guess.’? Sir!’ burst forth the doctor, unre- simply strainedly, ‘‘we understand one anather! — My patient has been vilely drugged—and without the least excuse for it.”’ “That accounts for his ‘delirium.’ ’’ ‘*But what appalls me,’’ proceeded the doctor excitedly, ‘‘is that, he has also been blinded.”’ “He has been Blinded, has he?’ pressed Nick. es “He certainly has. ” 44 i ee imiodicinkt anual iy

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: dhlasad: in its character | - muitmerous thot new: v Ves, ” ‘*Perinanently ?”” “Fortunately, seeing that been——’’ “Rescued?” : ‘*Ves, rescued in time, I can safely answer—no. Mr. Carter, I must make a remark !”’ ‘*Make it.’” | **It looks amazingly certain to me that he has the people who have had Mr. Bentley in their charge have attempted little less than murder!” ; “Doctor,” said. Nick, mysteriously, placing an impressive hand on the phiysi- cian’s'arm and looking him straight in the eyes, ‘‘keep that to yourself, will you’’ “*It is only a suspicion, so I am bound to. ” ‘“Til] I see,you again.” ‘Ah!’ exclaimed the doctor, with-a hopeful look. Nick left that branch* of the matter at this point of progress. If proof had been lacking to verify various suspicions as to the villainous nature of Mr. Aiden Lee, it was at hand now. “T have to deal with a ‘Sepiaidcal by nature,’’ reflected the detective as he pursued his way. ‘‘Now to probe for the cue that will explain the sudden and mysterious disappearance —the where- abouts or fate—of Miss Lura Mason.”’ Nick suggestively touched the horse- shoe in his pocket as he spoke. He did not need to look at it to remind him of anything. When Patsy had produced that un- gainly object the night previous, the detective had at once recognized its importance. In his skilled hands it at-once became a pointer, a clew, and- that, too, of no meat proportions. : To its outlines, its mechanism, its shape, its size, its peculiarities, Nick had given the strictest attention. ° trace ‘down a horseshoe entirely ‘among the nds of horseshoes in New York city, would have been ss dims ibility? — si " ao this was a Valasiebns: out of “the common = — —, Bam: “one torts NICK CARTER WEEKLY. 29 It had been worn. by an animal— Nieck’s horse knowledge told him—that was foreshortened, besides having a de- fect in its left hind hoof. To that hoof this shoe belonged. To equalize pressure and ease the foot, a peculiar piece of rubber had been inserted at one side of the shoe. This was held in place by a new-fan- gled skeleton clamp. The skoe also bore the marks of a new patent brand. Nick Carters put in four industrious hours running down the clew in hand. His investigations led him to two veterinary surgons, to a manufacturer, to a wholesale hardware establishment. Then followed a tour of customers—a visit to grimy blacksmiths without number. Nick did not know.all the ins and outs of veterinary science, of artistic horse- shoeing, but he did know aptly how to put in play the agencies. to poe: about results in these lines. At exactly five o’clock that afternoon —four hours after starting forth on his difficult and extraordinary quest—the skilled secret service man had scored a success, Nick had found the blacksmith who identified the shoe. And this man gave him the address of = the person who drove the horse to which that shoe belonged. Ten minutes later the detective entered a stable yard where a man was just hitch- ing up a horse. This animal had a new shoe on its lefi hind foot. Nick noticed, too, that it had a defect in the hoof, and was foreshortened. The tires of the vehicle, a cab to whicl). the man was attaching the horse, were rubber shod. The detective had found the vehicle that had conveyed Miss -Lura Mason so mysteriously from the Lee residence two nights previous. _ Nick entered the yard, and with a pleasant smile Seiad me man. » , CHAPTER VIL. | |. ‘THE CLOSE TRAM. , > en ee eee ‘“Busy, my man?” ns amie in =

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20 “‘Me? Well, no,’’ returned the cab- man, ‘‘except regular stand work.” re | should like to engage you for two hours.’ ae sir!’’ **To drive under directions, "' ‘Nothing easier.’ a! shall want ‘to sit on the box with you.’ The Jehu stared at his Soattae em- ployer, but he said: **7°]] try and inake room for you. ‘‘And lend me one of your ae warm ulsters there ?”’ ‘“Why——”’ “Which will make it double fare.” This announcement won the cabman’s prompt assent. © Nick made a choice of one of three more or less dilapidated but capacious great coats that he had hoticed-hanging __ upin the harness room. -. The man got his rig in driving shape. ' Nick crowded into the seat with him~ _ Now, sir, what point do we make for first?” he asked, briskly, snapping his whip. Nick named a street. ee ‘Then he added: SOT *T’]] show you when we reach it.”’ _ The driver had not a suspicion as to the detective’s real object as, Nick lucidly directed and guided until the cab jad - fairly reached the exact poiut where it must have emerged from the blind lane, _. with Miss Lura Mason a passenger, two evenings previous. “Stop here,’’ ordered Nick. The driver looked vacantly about for Min, ROME stiggestions to the motives of his strange: fare in halting. © - None came—nor did hjs dull brain as Sas discern the coincidence of localities. _ « Nick pointed to where the cab must have entered the ‘street from across the - vacant lot. < es thoroughfare there 2 he asked. he hein Why—no, not direct. ze NICK CARTER WEEKLY. The driver gave a start. He faced Nick with a profound stare. ‘‘Mister,’? he said, a surly wrinkle closing about «tlie lips—'what are you giving me ?”’ ‘“lwo dollars an hour, it seems,’’ aunounced Nick, with tranquility. “You know what I mean!” “‘T know what you meant—night before last. Just so,’? ran on~ Nick sinoothly. ‘“‘Night before last you drove through that lot. You had a fare—a young lady. Good! that is our starting point.’’ Slowly the driver’s hand clenched and unclenched its grasp upon his whip handle. He.never took his* eyes from, Nick’s * face. ‘The detective met his look unruffled. Then the superior cowed the inferior nature, and the driver turned his glance aside, muttering: “*Y don’t like this!’ “Don't like what ?’’ asked Nick. ‘““THe way you act.”’ “*T hired you, did I not?’ * “CWel}——” “Now then, you can go on with the job or drop it, just as you like.’ “What is the job?” gruffly deiasaited the driver. “You agree that you started from here on Thursday night with a young lady in your cab.” Pncighnt 3 “Oh! no inaybes—that won't satisfy ine.?” ; ‘*Ves—then.’’ ‘‘What I want you to do is to ais me, foot by foot and street by street, the : direct course you took her.” “What’s your purpose ?’’ : “Oh! never mind that.’’ a ~The cabman reflected. “(See here,’’ he said, ee “it’s Hot because I’m afraid——” ““Of course not.” ‘“‘T don’t like the ae Pee come a it.” “Ah! indeed?’ oy 0.8 straight man, — away a customer, : Scctee “ness.” oe ing ane Nick, su ou answer ae ¥ és +, “Being a straight man, then,” saat e ; AUP PORE: a few. ES never give but no more do! take — a hand» in any crooked | customer's wes

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NICK CARTER WEEKLY. i 5 * “Pl see. What do you want to _ know?”’ “Who hired you to drive that young lady ?”’ “She, herself.’’ Nick was surprised at this answer. ““That is true?’ he inquired. ““Yes, sir, it is.’ ‘*When?’’ “Late last -Thursday Gitezacon.’ ‘‘How did she find you?”’ ‘“She was on the street—at that corner yonder. She came up to me, made an arrangement for me to be in the lane at ~ eight o’clock, and paid me. I was there.’ **You must have seen that she was up to some secret businss.’ fia suspected it.”’ “‘Amounting to flight, the way she made you go across this lot.’’ ‘‘Well, I was started then.” “And where did you take her?” The cabman hesitated, pondered. - Nick had long since decided that he _ was telhng the truth—was, indeed, ptraag ie man. *” The cabnian-said suddenly: “*] judye it’s your turn now,.”’ _ What to do??? inquired Nick. | ~ ‘Po answer a question or two.’ “Very well—start in.”’ Tea EET Ve A eee mage Ff Pek Rep eT Tee Cee Te OT ee Te eee \ , . Py x ‘Why do you want to know all this?”’ : “TT lave been asked by. athe young _ lady’s friends to look“her up.’ ‘Phere’s no harm meant ae 5 E “Do I look like a man who would harm a frightened, fugitive child?” chal- => lenged Nick. - Von don’t—and I don’t think you'll > her; but I'll take. you to where I took Z “phat is what’ ¥ want; but why do you say that I may not find her?”’ ‘“Fhe place I took her to. struck me as ing a mere Kempornry piace, of matting ith some one.”? ap - ‘Never mind; do your duty.” 5 on as Fee = Bameuie you. that it is your eda sig ‘Il take your word for it. Get up!” ( — start §£q > I hope it is my aaty; she was a nice his” horse. eee * 21 Most of these had at one time been small factories and wareliouses. They had long since been abandoned, and no Jonger served for business pur- poses, and had therefore goue to wreck and ruin in the main. One of them stood somewhat isolated. All of its windows on the lower floor were boarded up; it looked as grim and forbidding as a jail. The front door was of great strength and solidity,-and had a key-hole as big . as a man’s finger. ‘*This is the, place,’’ reported the driver. ; ‘You brought your fare here ?’’ inter- rogated Nick. ‘‘Right where I am stopping—the ex- act spot.’’ ‘(What did the girl do?” ‘‘She got out, and told me she had reaclied her destination: She went up to - the door yonder and unlocked it.”? Nick was again much surprised. “She had a key, did she?’ he asked. “Oh, yes—a_ large key, brass, old- fashioned. I noticed it in her hand dur- ing the drive.’ “Did she enter the place ?’’ *‘T ain pretty sure that she did. At Last, she opened the door. I drove off, for I saw lrer look towards me as if wish- ‘ing me gone.”’ “That was your last sight of her?”’ ~ Positively. A forgot all about ler ten minutes later.’ ‘*Forget, al her now,’’ advised. Nick, doubling the promised fee. ‘‘Fam- ily troubles, you see; we hope to trace Mee The driver was gratified. He drove away with many a pleased look back at lis generous eniployer. “Nick approached the old building. front door was'as firm as a rock. ~ It had a rear door of like stability, and the windows had been boarded ‘Up se- curely. It was not impossible to force an en- trance, but it would require something ' stronger than the picklock in the. detec- | tive’s s pocket. - Satis foe f The weather was cold, but ‘there had _ been no snow, _ . fr Frost was in the air, Nick looked ae Its

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2 ae NICK CARTER WEEKLY, traced the marks of footsteps made there at a not very remote date. Nick studied the outlines of these. ‘A woman, surely,’? he soliloquized—: ‘‘and two—three men.’’ A rear inspection gave the’ detective further food for thought. Light carriage wheels bevond the doorstep. Jf some one had passed through the house from a carriage, aud out of it into another carriage, the trail could not have been any more perfect. Nick did not believe that any one was . at present in the building. He fully shared the cabman’s opinion * that the place had been solely used asa temporary accommodation. : It was rather difficult to conjecture a reasonable explanation as to why the missing girl had used it as a place of “appointment, and where she lad got the key. Nick speculatively passed over a little vacant space at the side of the structure. He noticed in his path a real estate sign, which had been blown down or knocked down. The board lay flat, free of its support- ing post, and Nick lifted it upright. _ It announced that the place was. for sale—‘‘at a bargain.”’ It directed the’ prospective Poser to the owner: showed just ‘* ‘Aiden Lee,’ ’’ read Nick, with pro- found interest. : 5 An . left the scene, © *g Alter: me veonte S cab ‘ride, Nick found. looking © > Pot 4 minute ‘only Nick pondered. Then, resolving on a definite course, he — himself at the door of the Lee residence half an hour later. Nick noticed on the rack in the halla large hat aud a cloaked cvercoat. The detective believed that this be- longed to Lee’s ‘‘doctor’’ friend. He felt sure, from the room into which Lee showed him, that a visitor he did not wish the detective to see had been sent into another part of the louse. But Nick intended to grasp no further entanglements for the present. He went directly for the object pri- marily in view. Lee propounded the unvarying in- formal query: “What is new ?’? “Tl have found out where your ward went to when she left this’ house,’’ an- nounced Nick, squarely. ‘So!’ exclaimed Lee, with a sudden start. ‘*Positively.”’ ‘And where is that ?’’ “To an old warehouse building near the North River.’’ Lee’s shifty eyes beth an animated twinkling, but he did not speak. ‘“‘A building, I believe, owned by you,’’ continued the detective. “Why! what— you amaze me, Mr. Carter !’’ “s “Tt is there that she went.”’ “Direct ?”” “Ves ze “You are sure?” ““Positive, as I say. She had a key, and entered the place alone. I found it ~ locked up, but I discovered marks of more than one pair of footsteps at the front.’? Lee’s breath came manifestly quicker. “This is passing strange!’? he mur- mured. ‘*What was she doing there?” ’ *€And how did she get the key ?”” ‘*Ves—how !”? ‘*You have the keys to the place in the house here??? ‘*T suppose I have.’’ “You don’t know ?”” ‘*How can I, when I have not looked for weeks?””- “Will you look now’ » “Why, yes—certainly,’” said Lee. There’ was hesitancy in his manner. Eretz’ 7 was" Sg isaomey for all that ‘

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NICK CARTER WEEKLY. Nick had told him,.and his succeeding demands. Nick noticed his eye move towards a desk in a corner of the room. But Lee said: “The keys are npr in my sleeping apartinent.”’ ““A queer place to keep theim!’? re- flected Nick—and did not believe it. Lee started, seemingly to learn about the keys, yet proceeded uot towards the stair case, but into the next room, Nick bent his ear closely. He fancied that he heard hurried whispering voices beyond the carefully closed barrier. Noiselessly he glided up to the.desk. To his satisfaction, he found the drawers unlocked. The detective pulled out one—it was full of papers. A second, it was full of keys. They belonged to the various build-. ings of the estate, he decided, and Nick looked only over the tags ou those of the largest size. He did not disturb them, although his eye gave a satisfied glow as he traced the writing én a tag attached to two large brass keys, They belonged to the building at the tiver side. Nick closed the drawer and resumed his seat. He was kept waiting about three min- utes; then Lee reappeared. “Gone, »? he announced, unblushingly. “The keys. are gone?’’ interrogated Nick. “'6Ves,?? “Very well—we shall have to do with- out them.”’ “‘What do you mean?’’ inquired Lee, in a startled way. ‘You wish to solve the mystery of your ward’s murder, I believe ?”’ ‘Most certainly.”’ “And run down the assassin ?’’ ‘At any cost.” ‘Phen we dare neglect 1 no clew.”’ “Have you one??? b, ave I not?’’ “th that old building ?”’ _ **Precisely.”’ “7 fail to see——” “Tt know that the girl went there,’’ id Nick.. ‘She had the: keys to enter I told you.” _ ex ‘Yes, th y are missing.’ Mi . _ rooms, seas: was Net ae much as amuy or Z . 34 23 ‘*Whiv did she go there ?”’ Lee looked displeased, but he instantly said: “T see what you are getting at. She knew about the building and where the keys were kept. Possibly she made an appoiutinent with some one there.”’ **Of course.’? “Met him—— Why, Mr. Carter! sup- pose it was there that the deed was done!”’ ‘“‘We must investigate; the inside of that old building may tell us quite a story.’’ Lee seemed to ponder anxiously at the suggestion. “But we have no keys?’ he intimated. ‘*That can be obviated,’’ said Nick. “*How ?”" ‘*By any locksmith.’’ “Ves, that is true,’? admitted Lee, slowly. ‘‘Well, to-morrow morning——”’ ““No—now.”’ ‘*Tt.will be dark soon.’’ “So much the snore need of dili- gence,’’ observed Nick, sharply. ‘‘Come, Mr. Lee—I must insist on an immediate visit to that old building by the river.’’ ‘Certainly I will send for a convey- — ance. ‘**T have one in waiting.’’ They entered it some five minutes later. Nick kept close track of his host til they were inside of it. He theorized that Lee had not antici- pated the recent disclosures. And he acted, too, as though an inspection of the old building might not be entirely ayreeable to himself. On the way Nick _Stopped at a lock- sinith’s. He found only the man’s wife in the- ° place, and came back to the cab unat- tended. “Can’t get him ?’’ inquired Lee. ‘No, but I have provided myself eal the tools to effect an entrance,’’ answered. Nick. t Nick proved his assertion as they reached the old building. + He had worked less than two minutes at the stroug front door when it came open. The lower floor had three barn-like

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Pa - bie,’’ pursued Lee, lightly. a4 NICK CARTER WEEKLY. straw to break the monotony of absolute nothingness. Nick had to employ his dark lantern below.on account of the close shutters of the windows. “Up stairs next,’’ he directed. This was found to be one room by itself, It was chill and silent. “The windows were thick with the frost of several day’s formation. - Nick’s companion glanced keenly all about the room, and barely repressed an utterance of satisfied relief. ‘“‘No murder done here, ing !’’ he briskly suggested. ‘“No sigus of it at present, at least. Ah! step aside.’ Lee had just stepped aside—with a purpose, Nick thought. - ‘*What now ?’’ questioned Lee. Nick moved Lee’s foot, to pick upa dainty lace handkerchief. “‘] did not notice that; was I stepping I’m think- on it?’’? muttered Lee. Nick looked for an initial—he found -an entire name—‘‘Lura.’ ‘*Vour ward’s,’’ he said, positively. “*I guess it is,’’ admitted Lee. ‘*So—she was here.”’ ‘*‘What good does that do us? If we had discovered that she had been mur- dered here before being conveyed into ‘that private car, it might be something. But we haven’t. Come—shiall we go?”’ **] suppose we may as well.’?- Nick took a final Jook around the : place ; Lee followed his example. Suddenly Lee began to back towarda window, aud Nick . regarded him, uar- - towly. “Ves, nothing here worth our trou- ‘Well, we will go. Ali! what have I done ?’’ “You have broken a window, ick. aren Lee drew back from the window, rub- ” said = bing his elbow where it had struck the glass. The detective said not a-word, but his eyes ran_ keenly over the fragments of _ glass on the floor. — ; ee now followed ‘li down the _ _outsid ea. ‘ . floor. **T hardly know,’ said Nick. “Neither do I. We don’t seem to make much progress. Coming back with me?’’ “What is the use? By the way—will you drop these tools at the locksinith’s?”’ **Certainly.’’ Nick hauded over the tools he had borrowed, and witli a slight wave of the hand started briskly ‘as. if to leave the spot. “Tf you make any new discoveries,”’ flippantly called Lee trom the cab win- dow, ‘‘advise me.’ There was the undercurrent of a sneer in the tones. Nick did not reply, neither did he feel the sting. He walked on till the cab had inoved out of sight. Then like a flash he turned, setting * his face back directly for the building _he had just feigned to leave. “Discovery, my friend?’’ muttered Nick, grimly—‘‘'I fancy I am on the brink of one that will put the handcuffs about your wrists, possibly the halter around your neck. Why did you break that window ?”’ —y CHAPTER IX, . ASHES! ‘The detective went. back into the build- ing he had just vacated. =~ Nick secured the front door from the inside, so that he would be advised of any attempt to enter, Guarded from surprise by the capri- cious return of Lee, or accidental intru- sion, he again penetrated to that upper TOON). The fragments of the pane of glass which Lee had broken lay upon the The window sat back slantingly, and, although the pressure of Lee’s body had been outward, the fragments had nat- urally fallem inside of the room. Nick felt intuitively that’ something about that window had attracted Lee’s attention. Perhaps he was looking for evidences that. might trip him up. . _ Certainly he had purposely ‘broken — “the wi dow. - > . tis eae ne ee snanifest to

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the keen-eyed detective as he knelt beside the shattered particles. ‘*Writing,’’ said Nick. ; A scroll in frost, a clew, a revelation, . that window had borne—for here 1t was, though disjointed, before the detective’s clear vision. There were letters aud words, though dim and vague. 5 They had been written into the frost, and over the indentations a second or third frost had formed. These latter, however, had not obscured the original legend. ; The shallow lines were easily traceable against the thick, ‘undisturbed coating of the remainder of the pane. = | _ = Nick carefully set the broken pieces in order. ae ~ Qne or two fragments were missing, and one or two had their surfaces badly blurred bv violent contact with the floor. However, the careful expert quite fully reconstructed the pane as to its original shape and the continmty of the writing it bore. ‘Then Nick Carter ‘‘deciphered.”’ _ his was what he read: _. “Decoved — pursued. I am _ Lura Mason. Aiden Lee is-a villain. Savage and my sister Madge are alive at——’’ There the chronicle ended—not be- _ cause any part of the original screed was urissing, but because the’writer had evi- denfly been interrupted at this point. It was a fatal break, but Nick Carter remembered Chick, and was half con- the girl. tracked later discovered in on, she had certainly beeu NICK CARTER WEEKLY. fast over the city as he léft the old build- ing for tle second time. ‘Nick turned his face towards the Lee residence. As promptly, half a dozen squares cov- ered, he abruptiv changed his course to an opposite direction. Nick went home. man servant absent. : The detective, however, had no pres- ent need for either that personage or his assistants. For all that, Nick proceeded to avail himslf of some information Patsy had let drop while making hisanidnight report. His inssion had kept him for several hours iu the immediate vicinity.of the Lee residence. He had discovered a secret way of en- tering—unguarded, unknown to its occu- pants. Nick adopted a disguise, recalling Patsy’s reference to that secret entrance. One hour later the detective was prowl- ing about the yard of the Lee residence, like a burglarious lurker. A porch door—left carelessly unlocked since summer, it seemed—admitted him into an entry which had been turned into a kind of storer-com. It was choked up with all kinds of rub- bish, and Nick had no easy task getting up to the door at its other end. This door was half glass. It was. He found even his Clouded with white paint. ‘This had worn off in streaks and splotches; at one corner thee was a crack, ending in an orifice three-quarters of an inch in diameter. Nick conld therefore jeok into the room beyond; it was the sitting-room * where he had first been ushered into the presence of Mr. Aiden Lee. The room was lighted up, and was occupied, Nick at once discerned. Two voices sounded, but one was at that moment indistinguishable by a tap at the door, : . . Then there was a sound as of a hurried exit of one of the persons in the room. When Nick got closely up to the break in the clouded glass he saw that Lee was seated in a chair hefore the blazing grate, alone. = j - The hall door was just opening, and— ae = . + +

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in its direction, his beady eyes twinkling with curiosity. “This is the gentleman, sir,’? spoke the servant’s voice. The~ servant pushed, rather than ushered, into Lee’s presence a nondescript figure, and, closing tlie door; retired. Lee caine to his feet with a black scowl on his face. ““This is what ?’’ he exclaimed, ““Gentleman—don’t it suit you?’ im- pertinently demanded the intruder. _ **Vou look like a stevedore!’’ ‘ The intruder was dressed slouchily. His cap was as dirty as an iron-moulder’s. His soot-smirched face indicated an acquaintance with the close vicinity of the blacksmith forge.’ “You are the person who insisted on seeing me, are vou?’’ demanded Lee. 3° Ves} liar: *’ ‘And who threatened, ted ??’ “T threaten now.”’ ‘*What??’ “Oh, you’ll know when I tell you that I have come for nore money.’’ ‘*More money !”’ ‘*Ves, captain.’’ “Did I ever give you any ?”’ ‘Slightly —twenty-five saci mz ‘*When?’’ ‘‘Last Thursday——”’ Hah P? x “You understand sas oii all my if not admit- _ tdisguise?’ ”’ ~~ i think I do.’’ “I’m the man who scgtted that gitl, and watched outside that building near the river.” ‘I recall that you are. Well, what of “<jt?’’ “The money went quick. ay ; ‘““That is your business.’’ ‘*T have come for more.”’ Lee started angrily for the table, ais -a call bell lay. _ “Don’t do it,’? advised the iainees. 4 in atone that was sufficiently sinister to - call for consideration. money for nothing.” Oh! don’t you?” sneered Lee, hotly. “T have something to sell.’’ “What?” *. an signature.’’ . : signature? Whose signature tas sce ee Mason’ aS “T don’t want the NICK CARTER WEEKLY. A frozen look came into Lee’s face; he looked infinitely troubled and astonished. ‘‘How did yor. get it?’ he inquired, hoarsely. **T picked it up.”” ‘*Where?’’ “Outside the building—after you had forced the girl into that carriage. She dropped it—a letter from her sister, I fancy.’ ‘Give it to me!’’ said Lee, extending an eager hand. “Bor a hundred dollars—ves.’’ Nick was thinking hard—that letter would be ofsinfinite importance to him. Before he could have acted, however, had he been diréctly on the scene, the speediest bargain he had ever witnessed was struck. Lee’s hand went into his pocket. Quick as a flash he -drew out a roll of bills. He ran over their ends, pulling away a section of tlie roll. ‘““There is your money,’’ he said. ‘“*There is your letter,’’ said the other, opening one grimy liand holding a folded piece of paper. Lee tore it open. Nick’s brows knitted. Instantly the man he was watching flung the- letter on the blazing coals of the grate, and it was consumed to ashes. CHAPTER X. THE CAGE AND THE CAPTIVE. The audacious fellow who had made his demand and received his bribe backed to the door. 2 “You are harmless now—remempber!”’ warned Lee. **Morrect, captain; I see no reason to trouble you again.’’ The man was a subordinate; his knowl- edge of Lee’s plots was circumscribed, and probably wholly indicated by what. Nick had overheard hii say. For all that, Nick resolved to retreat frem his place of cover, get outside and nail the man before he left the street. Something checked his purpose. : As the hall door closed on this man, the draperies at the end of the room. parted. . _ There came into viewa figure infinitely

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of more interest to the detective than the alleged ‘‘stevedore.’’ Poe It was, Nick judged from “his flitting glimpse of the arrival of the night pre- vious when he accompanied Lee to the morgue—‘‘the doctor.”’ ‘*The doctor,’’ seen im the full light, was an immense man. His giant muscles, his great hands, and his big head almost constituted him a monstrosity. : He flung himself into a chair, and it _ ereaked under him. | “‘VYou heard?’ said Lee in a testy tone. _-**T_heard,’? bowed the other, “IT don’t ‘like it!”” ‘ : ‘‘Nick Carter has accepted as final and authentic my identification and that of Grimes. We bury the body—that ends it.’ “4 _. ‘How does it efid it??? -. “Why, I keep on realizing—I have the right to do so.’ : ‘“That can’t be disputed.” “At my leisure. It will bea year be- _ fore, according to the terms of the will, I must turn in au account.’’ r " Ves. ” “Before a year, I think I will have _ gathered in about all that is material.’’ “And vanish ?”’ “Can you suggest anything better?’ ‘Well, as only a few thousands come to you by law—no, But you have for-_ gotten something, though,” observed the 2 “Have q>?”? - E > Semiaee important.” ay NICK CARTER WEEKLY. td ‘*What is that?” “The girl herself. You prove her dead, and here she is, very much alive, and on iny hands.’? **You don’t complain ?”? ‘‘Not with my salary running on—I should say not! But what about your son ?”? : a **Warren—that is a vexatious question. I have thought it over. He is really struck on her; he would let the money slide to get the girl.”’ “Let him have her, then.” “I’ve thought of that. She can’t stay here. With what she knows, what would her liberty mean for us?” ‘“Then you suggest—— “That you take her out West.” *“To where your son is?”? ‘“Ves, He telegraphed us ‘Songster.’ By that we know the gir] Madge has been settled—though how in the name of wonder slie came in that private coach is a puzzler! I expect that last code word now——’? §€Vulcan?’ ”? ‘That means that Savage has followed suit’? - ‘ “An! he will.” “It is necessary. The ‘girl Lura has balked our original scheme, but it leaves mein control long enough to gather up the cash.’ “*T am to take Lura to your son???’ ‘‘With your science, that ought to be: an easy task.’’ ‘“That part doesn’t trouble me.’’ “What does, then ?’’ ‘ “*How is he to manage her?’’ “That is his lookout. If he thinks so much of her, Jet him get out of the coun- try. You must make him aware of the change in affairs. When the cash divi- - dends come in, of course he still has his share.” ‘Give me explicit, directions as to how I shall find him, .” “‘You will undertake the transfer of the girl?’ “I will get her to your son—that I promise. ”? Lee wrote on a strip of paper. He handed it to the doctor, who pocketed it. “Unfortunate—this complication !’’ he. muttered. ‘‘Who would have supposed that ,Savage, and the Bair escaped from — that cyclone?” ”

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ae a : NICK CARTER WEEKLY. ‘And that while you were posting your son to give the final quietus, the sister would write to Lura here.’’ “Which made it necessary for us to set up that trick. We intercepted her reply. We manufactured answers. She made the appointment to meet her sister —as she supposed, come to New York— in that old building. Well, she’s in safe hands—with you.’’ ‘*Rest assured of that!’ The big doctor arose—Nick Carter drew back from the glass door. He was outside of the house before the doctor, and had to wait fully two minutes before the latter appeared. . Nick tracked him. The doctor leda chase of quite a distance. - He finally dove into a street made up of tenements. Nick marked the building he entered, ‘and later, standing in the shadow of the lower hall, distinctly traced his footsteps - clear to the upper flight. The mystery surrounding the disap- pearance of Lura Mason was now clearly known to the detective, as well as the main underlying plots of Lee and his _ confederates. Nick deemed it hardly possible that the doctor would keep a prisoner in this building, where he apparently had a - room. Still, the detective could not afford to ~ lose slight of him—especially with that paper in his possession that told of the ' whereabouts of Lee’s son, the real mur- derous ageut of the whole affair. Nick, reached the top floor. It was fifteen minutes before he had run down the room-which the doctor had entered. He made out the man through the key- ~hole, mixing up some decoction from a variety of bottles. The great animal whistled and hummed as he labored at what Nick decided to be. some drug intended to make his “scien- - tific’? journey out West a matter of ease and unconcern. ~ The room had no door beside the one at which Nick hovered, except that of _ what suggested a common clothes closet. __ The detective assumed that the captive. irl was in some other place, and that the e doctor would soon leave his room and proceed to where she was. : : Srampey aes Nick to” stew a dis- auce away, but, at the end of half an ‘hour, there being no movement of exit, he re-approached the door. To his astonishment, room empty ! Nick could not account “for this; the windows looked out on a court seventy feet down; the man could not have disap- peared that way. It took Nick quite a little time to assure himself that the doctor had, indeed, disappeared. ; He attacked the door with his pick- lock, and gained an entrance. A ‘light burned in the room. Nick had his ideas, and went pores for the closet. The mysterious Cuaiisieedt was ex- plained—the closet encased a stairway leading to the roof. Nick ascended it. Once aloft, he looked about him. Why had the man come hither, and where had he gone? He had left his hat and coat in his room; he could not, therefore, have dis- covered Nick, and have sought to elude him by this roof route. Suddenly Nick’s eyes became fixed on a building across a cqurt. It was grim, tenantless as to the lower stories; an unused mercantile structure, it seemed. A light showed beyond heavy shades in just one part—an isolated tower section. Spaning from roof*to roof was a stout ladder, a board within it and resting on the rungs. The thought occurred to Nick that this arch-schemer might have provided a prison place to which he could not possibly be directly traced. Nick crossed the ladder. aorund a scuttle hotse, abriiptly. Its door opened, and a man came out; it was the doctor. His heavy steps crunched the gravel as he crossed over to where a medicine case lay, that he had probably brought with him from his room, but had not yet taken below. His back was momentarily to the detec- tive. Deftly Nick slipped around to the scuttle-house door; he slid rather than descended a flight of light stairs. But he was compelled to halt at their bottom, somewhat at sea as to the most judicions course of procedure. _ he found the He came and paused

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NICK CARTER WEEKLY. : 29 A barrier of boards shut out the floor below and the stairway. ‘This aerial nest was, indeed, isolated. Nick saw an open door leading through a corridor into a lighted room. At either end of this entry were open doors, but heavily framed in iron. _ The room into which Nick. glided was like a vault, for the windows were doubly barred. Nick had been forced to proceed thus, or stand and oppose the burly giant, for ‘the latter was now descending. The detective had discovered the secret cage. Was the bird within? . Ona table stood a glass filled with some dark liquid, probably the decoction the doctor had prepared to administer to his victim. Beyond it was a door. foot grating in it. The plotters had been at infinite paius, it seemed, to secure a tomb, a secure cell, tight in the heart of busy New York. ‘A white face fluttered beyond the grat- ing—startled eyes regarded Nick. ‘‘Who are you?’’ whispered the detec- tive, gliding to the spot. “‘T am——’? the weak voice hesitated. “Tura Mason ?’’ “bYVes}? Nick turned—a_ door jaugled heavily. Nick posed for the conflict of his life. A second door closed in like manner. It had a two- had slammed, Ye The veteran detective was shut in that - small apartinent, face to face with a gigantic demon whose hands suggested the destructive force of rock crushers. “Who are you ?’? shouted the astounded | _ doctor, his voice rising to a roar. Nick did not answer. He flung him- self bodily on the doctor. The latter dodged, baring his heavy, hairy wrists. Then ensued not a fist fight, but a suc- cession of collisions of intense violence. It was like the combat of the bear and the buffalo—a clinch, a fling. Bones cracked; a hollow roar rang out. At last Nick, by a superhuman exercise of lis iron muscles, had hurled the doctor ten feet into a corner. i-' Be lay there, one wrist dangling; he glared up at Nick. ~ “Beaten !’? he hissed. — veh att looks bags = Nick, coolly: The detective advanced, whipping out a pair of handcuffs. “TH foil you!’’ cried the doctor. **You are in, but how will you get out— through those iron doors? Ha!”’ An object hurtled from his free hand— glittering metal; it was a key. It passed between two bars where the window was open at the top, and dropped to the court far below. “And this!’ gritted defeated one. the _ helpless, He pulled a wire at his side, just as Nick slipped on the handeufts. “You can’t get out,’’ he declared, ‘‘and in ten minutes, from where that wire runs, those will be here, those who will never let you out!’ Nick glanced about the room ; met the ceiling surface. He drew a chair to the middle of the room. Seizing the lighted lamp on the table, his eye ‘he removed its chimney. Lifting the lamp, he allowed its broad, hot flame to play directly on the mer- curial fire bulb sunk in the plaster. ‘Ten minutes?’ he observed, calmly. “Well, my friend, in five I will have a big «crowd nere of my own—mostly friends!”’ ‘ CHAPTER XI. NICK CARTER’S ‘'METTLE.”’ “What are you doing, Cine rag ““Waiting.”’ “For whom ?”’ “That man will do!’ It was in aroom in a hotel at Casco that the colloquy took place. Five days had passed since Nick Carter had wound up the: New York end of the priv ate car mystery. Then had come a swift journey half way across the continent. The paper that Lee had given the doctor had~ told Nick where his son Warren was. , Nick found his clever assistant await- ing him at Casco. ‘Chick had done some fine work; he _ expained it briefly. The clews he had followed ‘and the information his chief had run down, con- ‘nected. =

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Chick was waiting for a man whom he had reason to believe had murdered the girl, Madge Mason, on the Overland limited. , This man had registered at the hotel nuder the name of ‘‘Swarrell,’’ a weck previous. He had paid his bill in advance ; his - baggage was still in his room. In this one adjoining Chick had sat for three days. He kad lost the trail of the supposed murderer, but he felt positive he would eventually come. or send for his traps. Now, as he gazed from the window, he made the announcement, to Nick that ‘something: was ready to drop!”’ Nick retained his seat; - Chick posed in a half crouching attitude at the open doorway. Footsteps sounded; they came nearer, neater. Nick saw Chick describe a ser- pentine whirl, The next moment, amid the sounds of a violent scuffley he had dragged into thirty. ‘What is this!” shaited the latter. Chick had flung him free; the man’s hand shot to his hip pocket. ‘None of that, my friend!’ com- . manded Nick. In a flash Nick had the fellow by the collar. ‘Sure of this man, pbicki<"- ‘he ob- a: served. Dae SOS yes!” ee iS*3t s not Swarrell.’’ ‘‘He was sent by Swarrell.”” Then he has-——”’ : Nick made a deft plunge for the pris- oner’s pockets, 4 . It was marvelous the celerity with _, whieh he ran them over. . _ “The key,’’ said Nick, holding aloft _ the objet for which he had searched. Chick took it, examined it, and then _ passed from the apartment. He came-back with a settled look on his face. - __ “Let him sit down,’’ he suggested to "Nick. : The ruffian captive gave utterance to a violent hiss. _ _ “What does this mean¥l say??? he cried, penesaiy. , ae id friend, ¥ Said Nick. “We | the reom a sportily-dressed man of about. NICK CARTER WEEKLY, suspected, and have found out, that you caine to this hotel for some baggage in * the room that key opeus.’’ ‘‘What of it?” inquired the captive, an expression of surly suspicion gleaming in Iris evil eyes. **Swarrell’s toom,’’ put in Chick. ‘Do you happen to know who this Swarrell is??? ‘*Of course I do—he is my friend.”’ “That is a dangerous admission,’’ ob- served Nick. ‘Why is it??? “Because your friend Swarrell, Warren Lee, is wanted for murder.”’ “Eh! stared the fellow, sitting up rigid, ‘*And you as an accomplice in a mur- der,’’? supplemented Chick. Nick’s hand closed in an iron grip on the arm of the prisoner, for, turning white as a sheet, the latter had directed a desperate look at the open window. “*T will tell vou a story,’’ said Chick. **Some time ago an old man and a beauti- ful young girl took up quarters in a cabin beyond Casco, while awaiting replies to letters sent East.”’ The prisoner began to tremble. **A few days later, a man appeared from the East named Warren Lee. drew to himself two desperate men— vourself and another. He arranged a plot to murder the old man and the girl. Iu the melee the girl resisted. One of you) three killed her.’ ; ‘It was not I!’ disclaimed tlie pris- oner, wildly. “‘You must prove that. To your pal the body was given to dispose of. He formed a visionary plan—the finding of the body thousands of miles away. He placed her in an empty private coach on the Overland limited.’”’ The prisoner was silent. ‘The old man was spirited away. Will you tell the rest ?’’ fs ‘What good will it do me?”’ “If you did not strike the blog” “*T did not.” “Then give us tlie information we want, and we will help you prays aa ‘* Agreed !”’ ‘*Where is this Lee, ates Swarrell ?”’ “With my pal and the old man.”” « “Ts the latter living?” alias He .

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4 4 ert, ag come 3 ; NICK CARTER WEEKLY. ‘“He was whien moruning.’’ SWhere:) = The man told. Six hours later, the wildest scene in Nick Carter’s life was in progress. Acting on information that Chick had already very nearly narrowed down to certainty, the two detectives had located the men they wanted. They found Savage suffering from’ severe wounds, but with a probability of recovery. Swarrell, alias Lee, took the alarm and escaped, while Chick “arrested the third . member of the murderous trio. Nick started on the trai] of Warren Lee, and captured him. He got him to a town,-secured a car- riage, and started to convey him to Casco, where there was a safe jail. Somehow, the information was circu- lated in the vicinity that the detective had in charge the assassin of the beautiful girl found in the private car, Semiramis, Of a sudden, dashing through the streets of the town, Nick found himself in the midst of a crowd. 2 - “Drive on!’’ he ordered, recognizing instantly unmistakable evidences of the lynching fever. The vehicle started forward. Abruptly it halted with a shock, a jar. One of the mob, a brawny blacksmith, had aimed the sledge hammer he bore at ~~ one of the horses. It struck the animal direct in the cen- tre of the forehead, and the horse fell like an ox at the shambles.» “Stand back!’’ ordered Nick, sternly, as fierce hands reached out towards the Carriage door. ‘No!’ dissented a stentorian voice. ‘*This man is my prisoner.”’ “We have ottr own way of dealing out justice to murderers !”? Nick stepped from the catriage—his _ Craven prisoner cowed at his side. “‘Gentlemen,’’ said the detective, ‘I i tinvé contracted to land this man safely fin jail—and I intend to do it!” went up. 2. “Yon don’t know our sicitle werd ger!” -**Vou tay ‘not realize.mine!”’ eA hres went round as a new-comer I left the crowd—this. A chorus of hoarse, derisive laughs — 31 caught sight of the dauntless face of the famous detectiye. The crowd repeated two words—one name: “Nick Carter!’ Z It was a magic password. “Pass on, Nick Carter,’’? said the brawny smith—‘we’ll trust you to see justice done!” Justice was indeed done—full and cem- plete. The wretch, Lee, had a brief trial and a short shrift. His father and the doctor stepped ttt profligate affluence to the dungeons of Sing Sing. Beautiful ~Lura Mason sincerely mourned the loss of- her unfortunate sister, and in Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn, erected a graceful monument over her remains. Lura found peace, security and fortune, restored to the companionship of the man she loved and that of the guafdian whom Nick Carter had virtually rescued from the grave. [THE END. ] The next number of the Nick Carter Weekly will contain ‘‘Nick Carter’s Silent Search; or, A Drive at a Hake Detective.’ - Nick Carter Quarterly. The earlier issues of Nick Carter Weekly, are now on sale in the form of Quarterlies, each Including 18 consecutive issues of this favorite weekly, together with the 13 originat iiluminated illustra: tions. and an elegant cover in colors. The price is 50 Cents per volume, for which sum they will be sent by mail post-paid to auy address in the United States, No. 1, including Nos. 1 to 13 of Nick Carter Weekly. No. 2, No. 4, “ Nos. 40 to 52 of Nick Carter Weekly. No. 5, - Nos. 53 to 65 of Nick Carter Weekly. If your Newsdealer ha# not got the Quarterlies, remit direct to the publishers, . STREET & SMITH, 238 William St., N .¥. AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHY. Many people imagine that a photographer's cumera is a difficult machine to handle, and that the work isdirty and disagreeable. All this iga mistake. Photography is a clean, light, aud pleasant ac- con: iplishment, within the reach of all. ‘he camera will prove a friend, reporter, and helper With a very inexpensive camera any boy or girl can now learn not only to take good pictures, but pictnres that there is everywhere a demand for at remunerative prices. A complete guide to this fascinating art, entitled AMATRUK MANUAT OF Pworoanal wy will be sent on receiptoften cents. Address | STREET & SMITH, 238 William st, N. Y,

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high Prices Are On Vacation THE MEDAL LIBRARY Oliver Optic and Others. ~ 2% x % The Right Books at the Right Price. ‘There is a line of classics for youth—the books your fathers read—the books you want to read—the books the boys and girls will read and like as long as the English languz age endures. They have done more to shape the mind ot American boys for the last fifty years than any others. We refer to the writings of Oliver Optic, Horatio Alger, Edward S. Ellis, Lieut. Lounsberry, James Otis, William Murray Graydon, etc. These names are familiar wherever the American flag floats. , : Unfortunately, they have heretofore been procurable Sits in expeusive binding-at from $1.00 to $1.50 each. The average boy has not got $1.50 to invest. Ten cents is nearer his price. We have made the ten cent book the leader with the elder readers. Now we are going to do the same thing for the boys, and give them their favorites iy a form in every respect equal to our well-known Eagle and Magnet Libraries, at the umform price of ten cents. Thousands of boys liave asked us-to issue this line. Thousands ) ¢ are ready to buy it on sight. There is no ljne like it in the world. We can justly call it the Medal series, as every book will be a prize winner. It will contain no _story that the boys have not approved as a “‘standard.”” They have bought them by thousands at $1.00 and up- wards, and now they can a them for TEN CENTS A COPY. Zito abt LIBRARY . 1—The Boat Club : . i By Oliver Optic 2—Cadet Kit Carey 2 : ; 5 x é ; ‘ : “By Lieut. Lionel Lounsberry 3—All Aboard . ._ 4 * F ; é = . : * By Oliver Optic 4—Lieutenant Carey’s Leek . . . . ‘ F . By Lieut. Lionel Lounsberry 5—Now or Never = ° . ; 3 : \ By Oliver Optic 6—Captain Carey of the Gallant Setunth: - . " ‘ . By Lieut. Lionel Lounsberry 7—Chased Through Norway . y 5 : y ; = . : x By James Otis 8—Kit Carey’s Protege . P - 7 . 5 : . By Lieut. Lionel Lounsberry 9—Try Again .. Life and War in Africa , d . By G. A. Henty 15—Midshipman Merrill. y ° : - . By William Murray Graydon ga-—The Dragon and the Raven... ss OE eee By G. A. Henty 24—The Boy from the West . . . . ere ea ee : By Gilbert Patten £5—Through the Fray . ah es eae ee ee : . By G.-A. Henty * 26—The Cryptogram . = * . A pee Ty . F 5 . By William Murray Graydon 2i—Centre-Board Gite. ee By Lieutenant Lionel Lounsberry _ 28—The Boy Boomers . > ‘ : * A 4 ; é a : By Gilbert Patten 29—True to the Old Flag . o> 2s > < . é ~ a ‘ By G. A. Henty ' 30—Peter Simple .. - + By Captain Marryat OTHERS. EQUALLY Goop ro FOLLOW. Order them at once. If you cannot get them send to us. Remember “these are 12mo books, printed from new plates, with elegant covers, and are the “real thing.” and only TEN CENTS A COPY. cae at STREET & SMITH, Publishers

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Nick @arter Weekly Price, Five Cents. Illuminated Cover. . THE BEST LIBRARY OF DETECTIVE STORIES. Back Numbers always on hand. Price, post-paid, Five cents each. ‘ SOP eee Odette COO teE EET EED 102—Nick Carter Shows His Nerve and ‘Winds Up { 130—Roxv’s Signal In the Sky; or, A Gold-Bug the Case t the Freight House. | Worth a lortune. , 103—Burned to Death; or, Tne Great insurance | 131—At Kessler Switch; or, Nick Carter's Train Swindle. Robbery Case. : ‘ 104—Nick Uarter s Prophecy; or, A Case That. Was | 132—The Face 1 the Bottle; or, Detective Buff and Worked in the Hark. One of the Finest. 1us—A Lightning Change Crook; or, A Catch That | {33-—Afraid of Nick Carter; or, The Man who Pleased the Inspector. Wasn't born Yesterday)” ¢ 106—Killed at tne Baths; or, Nick Carter Right on | 13i—The Malay’s Charge; or, Roxy’s Life Saved Hand. by a New Pet. 107—Among tie Express Thieves; or, Released | 135—The Great’ Abauction Case; or, A Baby's Cry ie from Jad for Good Behavivr. | for Freedom. c 108— After the Policy Suarps; or, The Game That | 136—Short Work with Train Robbers; or, the Mask Rob ed the Poor. that was Marked with Blood. — 109—Held Up in Chicago; or, A New System of 137—Bob Ferret's ‘Irump Card; or, What Was Keeping Books. Found on a Century Run : 110 The Sjider and The Fly; or, The Battle of 138— Nick Carter’s Mouse ‘rap; or; The End oi His Life. Doe Helstone. “ 111—A Scientific Forger; or, The Great Bank | 139—Strack Down; or, How the Superintendent Swinde. Lent a Hand 112—The High Power Burglars; or, Behind the | 140—Nick Carter's Greatest Compliment. Broken Wali. : 141—Nick Carter on the Limited; or, The Man on 113—Found at Low Tide; or, The Body in the the Smoker Who Didn’t Smoke. I Pool. 142—Nick Carter Meets a Wizard and Shows Him 114 - Officer Dugan’s Beat; or, The New Member a New trick. f of the Force. 143—Nick Carter’s Handsome Prisoner; or, How 115—Nick Carter’s Chance Clew; or, The Rogue of Her Smile Failed to Fascinate Him. the Race Track. 144—Nick Carter Clams a Fortune, and Turns it ¢ - 116—Nick Carter After a Missing Man; or, The Over to the Right Owners , Work of Ghouls 145—Nick Carter’s Midnight Arrest; or, An Inter- 117—Nick Carter at Hellion City; or, The Notice ruption of a Poker Game. Posted on the [oor. .46—Nick Carter’s Race for Life; or, An Accident 118—The Great Poisoning Case’ or, What Slap in the Nick of Time. pened at the Laboratory. I47—Nick Cavter’s Turn at the Wheel; or, Ked 119—Nick Carter Among t e Peter Players and Black Both the Same. 120—Fighting the Circus Crooks; or, ‘Ten Thous- 148—Nick Carter’s Snap Shot; or, A Photograph | and Dollars hort. That Gave Evidence iy ; 121—Ow: of the bevil’s Clutches; or, Nick Carter’s 149—Nick Curter Exchanges Prisoners; or, A ~ New Friend Lixeness Easily Explained. 122—Waiting to be Robbed; or, Nick Carter's | 150—Nick Carter's Bogus Bargain; or, Outwitted Diamond Case. by Dup icate Methods. 3 123—The sleeping Car Mystery. 151—Nick Carter Stands a Bluff, and Wins a 124—Killed by His Victim; or, The Green-goods Game Which Ends in Limbo. ; Men at Work. 152—Nick Carter’s Fake Murder Case; or, The ~*~ te (125—Nick Carter a Prisoner; or, How Bob Dalton Plan to Wipe Out the Agency. 7%.) Found His Mateh. 153—Nick Carter's Midnight Caller; or, A Case — : 126—Set On Fire; or, Nick Carter’s Bravery. Concluded Before Daylight. - | ea yr-4 Demand fr Justice; or, Nick Carter | 154—Nick Carter Settles a Conspiracy; or, A Teles Offered a Bri e. gram That Wasn't Signed. et y 128—Was It Murder; or, Nick Carter’s Short | 155—Nick Carter’s Curious Client; or, A Criminal ee Vacation. — With More Gall Than Sense. - SRL 129—Nick Carter's Mascot; or, Treachery Among | 156—Nick Carter’s Silent Search; or, A Drive at — * ay oy Thieves. a Fake Detective. : a 2 « a ss STREET & SMITH, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK. . 4 _ —- For Sale by all Nevwsdealers. — > a. : « Ae ‘ gies ve