Nick Carter Weekly (no. 223) (1901 04 06)
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matter at the é by STRE Price 5 Coats: THE AMAZED AND PARALYZED FOOTPAD ONLY ONCE.
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NICK. CARTER | WEEKLY. Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1901 by Street & Smith, in the Office of the Librarian of Oongrese,. Washington, D. C. Entered as second class Matier at the New York, N. Y,, Post Office. Issued weekly. ~ Subscription price, $2.50 per year, Kr. Wh April 6, 1901, tG, No. 223, — srreur & Surrn, Publishers. i EW YORK. 988 William 8t., N. ¥. 5 Canta: WORKING IN THE DARK; A Novice Lends ’ a Helping Mii iS s ps eat ed ue Patt ee hn By the Author of ‘“NICK CARTER.” Sante See Genes te CHAPTER I. drooping larches and waited for her Eg8t, : JHE START OF A GREAT CASE, **Sparklers!?? “Did you see them?’ ‘‘Haven’t I got eyes?”’ “You have, and pretty keen ones, too, ut they looked criss-cross this time. parklers! Under that old ragged cloak! otk idea is ridiculous, ’ | ‘The cloak’s a ie Look at that ~ tailor-made suit under it, that dainty boot, trim glove! ‘There’sa genuine aristocrat for you, that girl, and she’s got earrings Es that are genuine as gold.”? -* “1 J] take your word for it. Come on; a lonely. road, a dark spot, good cover to Het to in case of an alarm—you do the ’ watching, I'll get the flashiers.’’ “Go slow, or you'll scare the game. | See! she’s hurrying her gait as if she . sees us, mortally afraid already.?? » “Gut around here and head her off, “phat?s the ticket!” “Hello!” ~“* Bob Ferret, Nick Carters’ cleverest “protege, uttered the last word impres- -ASively, with emphasis. “Jt was indeed a lonely road—so lonely ‘that, noticing a solitary female figure ‘coming down it a few minutes previous, “Bob. had steppe toa bench under some pass him, chivalrously appointing him- self her guardian watcher till she got to a safe point—why, he could scarcely tell. Bob had been taking a desultory ram- - ble that had brought him to this lonely stretch of Chicago’s famous lake shore drive just at dusk, and was thinking what a tare spot it was for a dark crime—had just recollected that in its vicinity the famous Cronin catch-basin murder had taken place, the Lincoln Park double tragedy, the Luetgert vat mystery, half a dozen notable crimes—when the appear- © ance of thefigure in question seemed to — fill the picture with a tinge of the secret and sinister all ofa sudden. The figure was feminine and worea long, faded cloak, the figure was girlish, every movement was graceful, buoyant, alert, yet a nervous, timid, furtive some- thing marked every. quick step. “That girl is running away from some- thing, or running to something,’’ de- clared Bob, with the air of an expert. “‘Nick Carter would analyze her in a minute. I can’t, except to know that — she’s on the tiptoe of excitement, agita- tion, dread. Which? There’s nothing _ particular to fear just there, that I see. Ah! 1 change my mind. There is? as
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2 oe : NICK CARTER WEEKLY, It was just here that Bob listened to the animated colloquy which begins this chapter. The girl had gone some two hundred feet down the road, and Bob was about to saunter from cover and incidentally see that she got to where lights and heuses .became thicker again, when two other forms appeared on the scene. At a glance shrewd Bob read them—at once, from the cut of their garb, their talk, their. faces, their movements, he - observed that they belonged to the genus sneak-thief, pickpocket, footpad. They had undoubtedly been lurking in the brush lining the lake shore, afraid to show themselves, except under cover of darkness, or waiting for some victim to _ come along. . At all events they had seen the girl pass, and one of them had been sharp- _-witted enough to catch the sparkle of ‘diamond rings in her eats, and trace be- neath the oli cloak evidences that she was not exactly what she seemed to be. ‘They are after her éarrings,’’ mur- mured Bob. “I'll catch up with. her, warn her, and be ready to give these fel- lows a warm reception when they make their pounce. Whiere-are they? Oh! I understand! Skirting the sideways out of sight, tinning full tilt, I ia to “head her off.?* ~ Bob started with a brisk step from his egvert. The minute his foot struck the ‘smooth asphalt pavement, in that still ait, it gave out a keen echo. The girl ahead turned quickly. Then like a frightened fawn she started for- ward at a much faster gait. **Miss—oh, young lady,” called Bob. _“Oné moment, please.”’ If the hutrying girl could have seen Bob’s open, honest, faith-inspiring face she would probably have halted prompt- Jy, but she only traced a pursuer in his hasty movements. Bob guessed how he had alarmed her, and though she now. broke into a run, he contented himself by .walking as rapidly as he could, reserving his energies _ for a brisk forward dash when the foot- pads should” suddenly spring from am- ‘bush. “The result was that the girl gained ee fully two hundred yards on him. This ied Bob counted as too much of a lead, and was bent on lessening it when something decidedly startling diverted his attention with a shock. Bang! ““Help yo? At the side of the portion of the road Bob was now traversing the unfinished outlines of the old lake shore beach still — prevailed. Long grass, straggling vines, scrub oak, brush and wreckage littered the spot. There had come a flash, a sharp re- port and then a scteam that was posi- tively blood-curdling. The alarm bell is the signal that puts the fireman’s heart on instant alert—to the detective a pistol shot is a call to duty he can never disregard. One sharp glance down the smooth roadway showed the girl, alarmed by the commotion back of her, speeding ahead more frantically than ever. Bob .followed the most pressing im- pulse of ‘the instant—he sprang ‘around so nimbly, he came to a stand- a Pamiacts Speak again, itis dark, the ‘place is cluttered up. Where are you?’’ “What's the matter——”? he began. . “Shot a T've got a> 1ole chee
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NICK CARTER WEEKLY, - i eee through me. the pain!” Bob theorized quickly that the two footpads in pursuit of the girl had run across a new unfortunate in their detour, had made short work of him, and liad set off on the track of the girl again. He got down beside the log. The figure there was writhing in seeming agony, its face buried in its arms. Bob lifted the sufferer to an upright position. “YT will carry you to the road,’ he said. “*No, no. Not yet.” “Why not? ~I have a police whistle, I can soon suinmon help.”? **Eh? Let-me rest.’’ At that instant from way over toward the road a sharp shriek rang out. ‘“The girl—they have caught up with her. ‘They have ‘attacked her!’ cried Bob, _ So vividly did his ieatiaatin depict tie terror and helplessess ‘of the girl the footpads were after that Bob involuntarily made a start forward. To his astonishinent, the figure he had helped to the logs shot ont a hand quick- ly, tremendously energetic for a wounded person. “Why,’’ began Bob. “Vou lay still!’ Bob Ferret glared for a second. Then he dodged, and then he fired up like a tiger. He had plaved: the good Samaritan to a decidedly ungrateful subject, for the fellow on the Jog had lifted a vigorous hand. ; It contained a shot-weighted sand- bag, and this was directed with expert force and precision directly at Bob’s tem- ple, with the hissing, venomous words described. In a flash Bob discerned that he had been decoyed into a trap. _ . The fellow before him was one of the footpads. Bob understood the situation now. The two highwaymen had seen him after leaving the road. While one ran on to intercept the girl, the other had posted himself here, waited for Bob, fired the shot, and uttered the ery for help so as to divert him froin wit- nessing the attack on the girl or from helping her. Lift me up—oh, the pain! ‘The deuce!’ “gave back. Now as he saw that Bob recognized him, he aimed that terrible slung-shot _ : blow at him. “You sneak!” blazed out Bob. The sandbag grazed his head just stingingly vont to nettle. Smack! : Bob was something more than an ordi- nary athlete. Once he had saved a famous pugilist from being fleeced of every dollar he possessed. The big mauler had offered a generous reward. Bob refused it. He simply asked the master of fist science to teach him a certain knockout blow. That deft maneuvre stood Bob in great stead just now. He only struck the amazed and paralyzed footpad once. The fellow, to use a familiar expres-. sion, ‘‘went kiting.’’ : He shot backward and over as fiday as seven times. It was a daisy-clipper of a blow, for he mowed down grass, weeds, and bushes, and his head sank ears deep into a boggy spot with a groan. Bob never waited to mark the result of his attack. Again from the road came that frightened feminine shriek. He reached it quickly. One glance down its length gave wings of fleetness to his nimble feet. The second footpad was in sight. His figure and that of the girl were clearly silhouetted against the lights of the next square. Bob dashed forward, takiag in as ie did so the details of a spirited scene, and preparing to perform an active and help- ful part in the same when the proper moment arrived. . The footpad was chasing the girl: She was not, speeding ahead now, but criss- crossing, darting back, dodging forward, screaming, she sought to evade the out- stretched clasp of the determined high- . wayinan. He had caught the girl by the cloak as Bob came up within twenty feet. Holding to it with one hand, he made circling grabs with the other to violently wrench from their resting place the pen- dant earrings the girl wore. The brutality demonstrated set fire te Bob’s energies and indignation anew. He was making for the brawny fellow, — straight as an arrow, when the latter = i
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4 : NICK CARTER WERKLY. The cloak had torn loose. Bob’s eyes opened wide. Like a beautiful butterfly emerging from its shell, there slipped fromthe gar- ment the trim, graceful figure of a lovely young git] not more than twenty. She had blonde hair that fell loose like tassels of gold in the force of her forward spring Bob saw a profile aud pure, observed in the proper attire of the dainty creature the mode, style and tone of culture and refinement. ‘The [cotpad fell back as the cloak gave way. Then he madea spring to catch and detain the girl. His swooping clutch did not take in the earrings now. It-seeméd, and Bob noticed -thig for the first time, that she carried in one hand a long leather wallet or case. ' The highwayman’s feet became en- tangled in the dragging cloak and he went flat, but he bote with him this wallet which he had succeeded in tearing from the girl’s hand. : A fearful cry broke from her lips. Upon the object wrested from her grasp the girl must haye centred her whole soul, for now at losing it she turned as if - ready to struggle for its recovery. Just then she saw Bob. She took him for an accomplice of her first assailant, her affrighted face showed that, and she uttered a lost crv. - Just thén, too, the highwayman dis- covered Bob. He instantly drew a re- volver, and leveling it at the person he recognized as unfriendly fred point blank. This was enough for the girl. Her overwtought senses drove her to frantic fright. Screaming wildly she flew down the road. The first shot fired by the half-pros- trate footpad missed Bob. ‘The villain sprang the hammer of the weapon once again. . Bob was going fast and could not stop. He saw his peril. He ran right down on mid the man. “In close range he lifted his foot and iced the weapon from the fingers of the footpad; in such close nick of time that it exploded as it age through the apt ‘ air. wonderfully clear -attempt at robbery. ‘of one in her actions. Bob Ferret, ce in- dist: His continued forward spring was a pounce. He landed on the rising robber. Both bore back. Bob wrested from his gtasp the long wallet, tore from under him the cloak in which he was entangled, and got erect. Almost instantly the other was on his _ feet also. Wringing helplessly the hand that had received the crippling blow from Bob’s foot, he made a rush for the ‘pistol, which lay some twenty feet down the road. Bob anticipated him. He madea slide that sent up ashower of dust, gave the weapon a kick out of sight that would have won him distinction in, the centre- field, and holding cloak and wallet firmly made a speedy dash and cast an eager glance down the road. ‘Out of sight!’ he ejaculated disap. - pointedly, He was through with the footpads for the present. He had outwitted them. That was enough, and he had eyes and thoughts only for the frantic young being who had been frightened into liysterical flight. *“Vanished!’’ hé cried, coming to the intersecting street. 2 Yes, the girl was gone. Bob could look in all directions from the point. he had ate reached, He ran to a lane a oe rods distant. Perhaps the young lady had sought shelter there. No. It was deserted. Bob returned to the drive. ‘here wasa cloud of dust way back near the bench where he had lingered. T'wo scurrying forms were kicking it up. Bob guessed who they were. are Mi! “The footpads,’? he soliloquized. “They’ve had enough of it and are making off, fearing a patrol wagon will _be the next feature of the programme. Bob had got his breath, and his full composure back by this time. : “Quite a little episode,’’ he eee quized, gazing at the cloak and the wallet. ‘“‘I had better hopes, from a sight of that stylish young lady and her agitation, than a mere clumsy Sort. of scented a — mystery, for there was the possible start Pretty Quixo al aah a
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NICK CARTER WEEKLY, I did my duty only. Now, what am 1 going to do with these things ?”’ Bob handled over the cloak. It had been faded and patched before being trailed in the cust of the drive, and he voted it scarcely worth returning to its owner, even jf he could find her. The wallet he turned curiously over in his hand. ‘Something hard in it,’’ he abeciwcal “Buttons, that’s it. Here I’ve built up a whole Aladdin-dream of mysteries over a pretty girl slipping on an old cloak and going to match some buttons at a dry goods store. JJ] turn the outfit over at the nearest police station.’ Bob started to carry out the pleas Then, old. and poverty stricken as the wallet looked, he took a notion to oes into it, and did so. “Glory! ? he shot out in the instant, He was standing near an electric light, but it was not the force of its rays that caused him to draw back as if suddenly blinded. Up from the wallet there flashed upon his dazzled vision, a flame that danced in bubbles and bars of such rare reful- gent radiance as Bob Ferret had never met before. He stared in wonder, alinost in awe. Reposing in the wal.et, nested in an antique setting of gold that of itself represented no small value, was a neck- lace*of diamonds, every one of them as large as a pea, every one of them of the first water, and worth, to casual compu- tation, a big fortune. —_ CHAPTER It. SILAS BURT, A'TTORNEY. ‘*What have I struck ?”’ Bob Ferret was more than surprised— _he was positively startled. A Cinderella dream of opulence and magic mystery ran riot through his mind, as he looked down at the precious nest of gems in the old leather wallet. If he knew anything about detective business—and Bob knew lots, for Nick Carter’s schooling of his favorite graduate had been a thorough one—what promised - to be the case of his life had resulted from a little evening stroll. Bob had handled some pretty heavy affairs | since he had come to Cee ass few weeks previous on the trail of a noted counterfeiter—one Joseph Escher— whom he had run to cover and jailed after one of the most thrilling Peay on record, Yet never, to his way of thinking, had he stumbled across so promising a pros- pect as that afforded by the two strange objects left so strangely in his possession —a faded cloak, an old ragged wallet containing a small fortune in gems. *“Girls don’t seek lonely, dangerous. roads with a priceless necklace in their hands,’’ reflected Bob. ‘‘Disguised, too. And she abandoned it! Why, the average woman would scratch your eyes out be- fore she’d desert such sparkling pretti- ness. No, there’s a mystery about’ the girl, that’s sure; there’s a bigger mystery about the diamonds, that’s certain.” : Bob folded the cloak mnder his arm, he tucked the diamonds away in a safe pocket. Then with the eye, step and heart of a soldier seeking his cominanding officer for orders, Bob proceeded straight to th Palmer House, where Nik Carter was stopping. The veteran detective was ‘examining by the aid of a microscope some bones which figured conspicuously in a grea murder case that was Pac vital ak lic attention. He looked only once at his popes pupil, to discern that under a calm sur face Bob was ready to eS over wit! keen excitement. f ‘Something up, Bob3 gee ee aceviedan in his quiet but encouraging way. “Look at these and see.”? Bob told his story graphically « as Nick examined the cloak and the wallet. The detective pursed up his shrewd lip somewhat surprisedly as he came to in spect the flashing gems, ““Genuine,’’ he remarked. is a great find.’ ‘TA great loss for some one, I should say.’ “Hardly. owner.’ ‘*How?’? demanded Bob, disbelievingly ““Ah! I see you think not.” ; “Mr. Carter, I think not, decided! 3 “Why ?”? aN =o ‘Because i am satisfied ‘that bet ““Bob, this You will hear from th
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6 : : NICK CARTER WEEKLY. being made to tell who she is and how she came in possession of these stones, the young lady I saw would let them go.”? ‘*Not hers, eh?” ‘«She never stole theim.’’ ‘‘How do you know that?’ Bob looked flustered. “Well,’’ he said vaguely, ‘‘T guess it. She didn’t look a thief. Slre didn’t act it. lonly caught a fleeting glimpse of her face, but it was a good one. She “struck me, when I first noticed her, asa person under some great mental strain, and naking for a point the reaching of which meant life or death to her.”’ Nick Carter handed the diamonds back 4to Bob. Hetesumed an overhauling of the cloak, Bob watched him closely. He had seen the detective trace an indentification from a button-hole raveling; build up a man, -. his size, his habits, his dress, his nation- ality, from a piece of sole leather, and he ‘kuew that in such expert hands that old cloak would be an interesting study. “Whoever owned this cloak is intense- ly devotional,’’ remarked the detective. Bob, believing every statement Nick Carter ever made, absorbed. this hone in silence. “The front’shows where it has been knelt on repeatedly, with regularity. _ ‘They use candles, wax candles, for lights,. _- where this comes from—see, the right © side is badly spotted.” This did not exactly accord with the status of a wealthy and refined, young lady, still Bob took it all in.. | “Tf I was: starting in to trace up the case from the cloak only,’’ continued _ Nick, ‘‘I would get on the track of some ‘one of the economical, devotional recluse institutions of the city.”’ “You don’t mean a nunnery, a con- - vent, Mr. Carter ?’’ Scarcely, but something in order.” ‘*\ boarding school ??’ “Hardly that.” PT hen——?? “Not worth figuring out just now, Bob. The diamonds are the glare that ‘will attract clues, never fear. Wait—a little pécket. Why—there you are, Bob! ind your people.’’ al Block. that - Bob. Bob looked like a persen who had found a gola mine. His big eyes ex- panded with something more than satis- faction as Nick’s never-missing fingers detected the pocket in the cloak, its in- clostire, a card, and scanning it handed it to him. It was small, neat and new, although it was a business card, and it read simply: are SILAS BURT, Attorney. Michener Block. ‘‘You know what to do??? questioned the detective. ‘‘Like a bloodhound #vith its nose to the trail,’’ observed Bob. Nick Carter never said a word while Bob was busy at a watdrobe, inaking up a little outfit he always carried with him when on a shadow, nor when he secreted the diamonds in a close inside pocket. They comprised a pretty big bulk of value for a boy to carry around Chicago streets after dark and possibly headed for . all kinds of danger, but Bob, Nick Carter well knew, was. alert, trustworth 1y; a quick worker, and might end the case in a single hour ‘at the office of the lawyer, Silas Burt. Bob started straight for Michener He found it to be one of the old- fashioned, barn-like structures so com- mon before the days of sky-scrapers. He had no. difficulty in locating the rooms occupied by the attorney named on — the card found in the cloak, for the bulletin board in the down stairs hallway held only a few signs, Bob got to the ‘head of the stairs and ‘ took a leisurely inspection of rooms 9 and ra. One led into the other. Both were lighted, the outer apartinent from the re- — flection that came through a glass parti- tion. : ‘There was something about the Looks of the office that impressed Bob, he could not tell why, with an idea that there oc- cupant was not a very elaborate lawyer. ‘There was no library, everything wore an air of neglect. ‘The rooms looked ntore | like an exchange for pinchbeck watches than first-water necklaces. “TY don’t show my hand until I Know the man I’ve got to deal with,’? reflected “Tf that’s him, he’s harder than — nails!?? fe He
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a) NICK CARTER WEEKLY. | Bee Bob had noiseléssly entered the outer office. By tiptoing he could look through panes in the partition that were, not clouded like the lower ones. At a desk sat a thin, sharp-featured man, with a beak like a hawk, and a mouth cruelly cynical and unsympathetic. Bob studied him narrowly. This was undoubtedly Silas Burt. Bob braced himself up for an interview in which he should give no point away until he had pumped the other dry, and _ started to cross the room, when he halted, stared at the door, and stood undecided between. many contrary-directing im- pulses. He heard a voice, he saw the speaker, just arrived on the landing of the stair- way, and quite plainly revealed by the light in the hallway below. ‘“‘He is in—Mr. Burt is in? Iam not too late?’ echoed in fluttering accents that bore unmistakable traces of breath- lessness, anxiety and apprehension. “Oh, yes, Mr. Burt is in, miss—just going home, though. Come in, miss, come in,’’ spoke. a smooth, ofly voice, the owner of which was out of range of Bob's vision. ‘The girl,’? Murmured Bob, and his heart beat quicker—‘‘the girl who lost the cloak and the diamonds. She must have come straight here.”’ : Bob scarcely knew what to do, Secrecy was the essential of true detective action. If he only knew his ground a little better! He glanced about for some _ hiding- place. Just one offered. A dubious one, and one that must be utilized promptly, but Bob was guick, and Bob was daring. Beside a desk was a great high paper basket. It seemed pretty well filled, but as Bob thrust his hand down into it he found that the slightly crumpled con- tents with two newspapers thrown care- lessly on top, really left a great deal of empty space. Bob was uestled in place, the papers pulled back over his head, just as the two speakers he had heard appeared at the threshold of the outer office. y CHAPTER III. THE PRICE OF A SECRET. The basket was a slatted pine weave. _ Bob was faced so he could take in partit- ion and door. He took in the latter now. “It’s no mistake—it’s the girl of the lake-shore drive,’’ he redetermined. Her face was very pale, her lips twitcli- ing piteously. Somewhere she had se- cured a new shoulder covering, a cheap material mantle picked up probably iu some little dry goods store, and this her fingers plucked at nervously as she fol- lowed her companion. The latter Bob regarded rather curi-— ously, for he was a dwarfed specimen of humanity whose mind seemed little Bes his form. He exactly reminded Bob of a pilot wasp directing a fly into the web of » a waiting spider, As the dwarf knocked at the door of — the partition, Bob heard him tell his’ companion that he was Mr. Burt’s confi- dential clerk. “Who's there?” proceeded from Led private office. ““T’s me, Mr. Burt.” “Wickham, you rascal! Hanging around to sneak and spy out what you can of my business, eh?’’ snarled the at- torney. ‘Oh! al! excuse me—upon my. soul! Miss Ethel Moyse.”’ “Yes, sir.’ The, attorney became all smiles. He waved the lady into the next room, he waved her to a chair. She sank into it on the verge of faint- ing, Bob though. “Be off with vou!” shouted Burt to his elfish clerk. ‘‘Don’t Jet me see your ugly carcase around here again to-night. Your dtities end at six.’’ “IT thought you might need me for — some special service, Mr. Burt,’? whined the dwarf. ‘‘I ain so faithful, sir!’ “‘Bah! Begone I tell you!’ Burt closed the partition door with a slam. ‘The minute he did so, all the sub- servient cringing of the dwarf changed. Boe a Ra Ths teal Ve ae He ground his teeth, he hissed and — : spat, he drew his finger across his throat with an would revel in @gawing a keen-bladed knife just that way across*the throat of — Mr. Silas Burt. / Them he shook his fist at his invisible enemy a little too far, it seemed, for his : hand came up against the partition with : undertoned “‘ski-l]!?’ as if he a. oy thwack.
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8 : NICK CARTER WEEKLY. ‘Out came Burt, furious. ‘The dwarf made a run for the hall. The lawyer hurled some menacing words after him, locked the hall door, and returned to his private office, leaving the communicating door wide open. Ah! this is better,’? murmured Bob, entirely satisfied. He could now both see and hear with- out difficulty. The girl the lawyer had called Miss Ethel Morse sat facing him, trembling - all over, one hand held tightly across her * preast as if to check the throbbings that — -were-consuming her. SS ‘Vou are Mr.-Burt?’’? she said. ‘‘Ljis- ten, sir—I do not wish to take up your time—every moment I am in the public _ streets is fraught with danger to me.’’ _- “*Tndeed?”’ purred the lawyer, tran- quilly. — “You—you have those—those docu- “ments?” Burt arose. He swung open the door of a great vault and pointed into it. He had probably prepared for just the dramatic move he made, expecting the visit, for wheeled up right to the door was a small but heavy steel safe. “In there, miss, in there,’? he an- nounced.. ‘‘Oh, yes, I have them close, very close—deuced close!’ “JI must have those Rapes, ?- Fal- tered the girl. “Certainly, certainly,’’ answered the -- attorney, with great assuined briskness of _ manner, as if he was anxious to tear open the strong metal receptacle and force the contents upon her. ‘‘But—have you brought the amount required ?”’ The girl started forward as if to make a pitiful plea to the lawyer. Then his hard, covetous face repelled her, and shé burst into’ hysterical tears. “Come! come!’’ snarled Burt, be- “coming suddenly ferocious, ‘‘this is a business office, not a tear tank. Have you the amount, that’s the question ?”’ ENG 22 sobbed the powr girl. “Not? Th settles it.” “T beg of you—listen to me.”? “Hold! If’s equivalent? You wrote you might furnish security, good, solid, pc table property, mind you!” —Vhad it.) pao ae . On or before midnight. “What does ‘had it’? mean??? demanded the lawyer. ‘‘T started for here to-niglit with that which you would accept—a necklace of diamonds worth——”’ “Ves, yes—the famous Morse neck- lace,’’ cried the lawyer, with gloating eyes afire. ‘‘I would take that—yes, in- deed, I would accept that as collateral.’’ “But I lost it? moaned the girl. “How! What! Absurd!’ .“T did—oh, I pray you, sir, believe me! Indeed, J lost it. I secured it, I hastened to deliver it to you. I was at- tacked by highwaymen, I was robbed.’’ Burt régarded his beautiful client as if he would read her through and through. ‘‘T don’t believe you’d dare to He to ~ me,’’? he muttered. ‘Very well, if you can afford it, I can. Now, then, miss, . sharp’s the word! JI agreed to hold the documents in that iron box for you till eight o’clock this evening.’? | 3 “Vou did; sits?” ‘‘Textend the time. ‘Till midnight. I extend ‘the time. You wunderstand— twenty thousand dollars or its equivalent by twelve, midnight, otherwise——”’ The girl shrank as if the lawyer had struck her, at the glancé of his eyes as he pronounced that ominous word. “T will try,’’ she voiced feebly. “Try what??? snapped Burt. ‘“To get the—the equivalent.’’ “‘Good. You know where itis. You know how to reach it. There is the tiara of pearls, the two ruby bracelets and the big solitaire left yet. Mind you, I advise nothing. J only say I-accept collateral. If you bring it I open the safe. If you do not bring 1t2 5532) Burt dramatically raised a_ letter weight. Dramatically he let go of it. ‘Something drops!’ he announced. ‘“‘Good-night. Busy man. You know the terms. Act or -suffer. As you choose, ’’ The girl wavered as she got to her feet. Once she seemed on the point of falling _ on her knees before the hard-hearted — scoundrel who was blackmailing her, but he waved her with mock politeness into the next room and unlocked and threw open the door. * eae ag surely wait till mid-— oz,
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NICK. CARTER WEEKLY, night?’ fluttered the girl ere she crossed the last threshold. ‘“My word,’’ answered Mr. Silas Burt, swelling out with conscious rectitude ‘‘is my bond!’ Bob heard the young lady cross. the hall with an unsteady step. Burt stepped inside the office. Then he whistled twice, low and quick. The dwarf must have been hovering very near at hand, for he appeared from some dark corner as if by magic. “Vou need me after all, master?’’ he grinned up into Burt’s face. “Ves, youimp! You see that girl?” Wickham nodded, . ‘Follow her. Bring me back word ' where she is hiding herself.”’ The attorney backed into the office, chuckling craftily, as though he had just forged another link in some strong chain of self interest and aggrandizement. Bob was getting ready to leap out of the waste paper basket and pursue the girl and the dwarf as soon as Burt re- entered his private office. This, however, the lawyer did not do. Instead, he stood in the centre of the outer office reflecting deeply. ~ “She’ll do it,’’ the suspenseful Bob heard him mutter. ‘‘Of course she’ll do it. Noother way. I’ve get her tight. When I find where she is, I’l] have her tighter. A good piece of work. I have a mind to treat myself. Let me see, what shall it be?. Why, here’s the cigar that imp Wickham presented me with to-day. Good enough. <A truly economical cele- bration—ha! ha!’ The lawyer took a black, ragged cigar from his pocket that Bob decided was a ‘*two-fer.”’ He lit a match, and backing to the desk planted himself not four feet from Bob, prepared to take a leisurely smoke. “Oh, drat it!” muttered the discom- posed lurker. He was baffled in any hope of getting on the trail of Miss Ethel Morse, and it made him. wriggle. A discovery. a second later, however, added a new spice of stimulation to the general ensemble, lively as it already was. Burt had thrown the match he had used to light the cigar into the waste basket. Bob heard it drop poaeee” the erum-— ee pled papers. Then he felt a_crisping glow cross his z head, saw a growing, vapory luminos- — ity, and knew that the contents of the paper waste basket had caught on fire. CHAPTER IV. SEALED LIPS. Bob was in no particularly close place,. for a spring or a tip would instantly re- lieve him from all discomfort or danger. He was not ready, however, to face — the lawyer just yet, and regretful as he © was that he had lost the chance to follow the girl, Ethel, he was tore regretful — that he would have to makea break for — liberty during which Burt would be bound — to catch a glimpse of him. ‘‘And he won’t forget me when I bob up again,’’ declared the unfortunte occu-_ pant of the waste basket, getting ready to vacate it, % “Hi! hey! hello! what’s this? Fire!’ Just as Bob got ready to pop up, the © top papers burst into vivid flame and Burt discovered the conflagration. : ‘He gave the basket a kick that sent it — over sideways. Bob rolled out in. full” view but the lawyer did not see him. ig Flash went something, as if a fire- cracker had been dropped directly in ee front of the lawyer’s face, “Teh! ouch! whoo!’ yelled Burt. Bob, scrambling to his feet, saw what — had occurred, and thanked his lucky State <= that an unforseen accident covered his flight as by a curtain. 3 A long, thin drapery hung ovet thas: desk to cover it when not in use, and this the lawyer had disarranged. It came right over his face, trailed in the basket, burst into a tearing blaze, and for a second Burt wore a mantle of fire, ane While he was digging at his eyesand gyrating industriously, Bob slid to the hall and down. the. stairs with a chuckle of supteme satisfaction. ‘““They’ve vanished, both of them, ee muttered Bob, disappointedly, a moment later, looking up and down the street. ‘Then he decided not to give it up so easily. The girl, Ethel, and the dwarf hips aes could not have oe We as £
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4 10 NICK CARTER WEEKLY. would take an unfrequented course, if she could choose. At a venture he went down the street on which the building sided, for it was dark and somewhat unfrequented. The haphazard guess proved a good one. Bob had not gone a square before he saw the dwarf a little ahead of him. Peering beyond, he made out a girlish figure flitting along like a shadow. Twice she crossed the street, and Bob finally thought out her idea in doing this. Each time it was just before a street - eat caine along, and each time she looked Bob, quickly back of her. Hehe wants to take a car,’’ reflected “and she sees the dwarf shadowing her. Ill soon fix that.”’ Bob saw the approaching lights of a third street car. The girl began to flutter if her walk -and betray unmistakable signs of nervousness, The dwarf, slinking along withogt: a thought beside his quest, was a light weight for Bob to handle. As they were passing a double-barreled sash box, Bob fixed his eyes on the side that had a hasp and catch attached: He dida pretty bold thing, but tie did it easily. As. the dwarf neared the box Bob glided directly behind him. With one hand he lifted the cover. With the other he fairly swept. Wick- ham off his feet. "The dwarf went all adulsled up, howl- ing, into a nest just fit for such carrion, down went the cover, ahead shot Bob, and the next minute he had the satisfac- ‘tion of seeing the girl glance back, ap-° parently note the absence of her trailer, approach a car with a signal and board it. ‘~The rest is easy,’? muttered Bob asa minute later he carelessly swung onto its front platform himself, and the knocking and,shouting from the box where he had imprisoned the dwarf faded away in the distance. Bob peered cautiously into the car. The girl had put on a thick veil and sat -erouched up in a corner, her head bent - onher breast, her hands linked in her A AVaDs Jt was the first moment for over an oe hour that Bob could find leisure to think, and whe tried hard to arrange this new mysterious case in the shape of a coherent | problem, One fact was simple: The girl was en- deavoring to bribe the lawyer, Burt, to deliver over to her certain documents that he held in the stout steel safe. What those documents were and what the girl’s interest in them, Bob did not know, could not even guess, but he de- termined to know before the night was over, ““That’s what I’m following her for,”’ soliloquized Bob. ‘‘Poor thing! It makes my blood boil to think of that big brute of a lawyer talking to her asif she was the dirt under his feet.” Bob got heroic as he realized the balance of power he held, with the dia- mond necklace in his possession. “‘She’ll listen to reason soon as I get a chance to show that I’m straight and her. friend,’’ decided Bob. ‘‘Wish JI had’ Nick Carter at my right hand just at this juncture of the case. _He’d soon get the rights of things. Now then my lady, you and I don’t part company till I seg where you go to.”’ The girl got off the var after riding about a mile. Bob got off, too. She went with a faster and firmer step now. The walks were tree-lined, there were ‘few lamps, and Bob kept pretty close to her.. They passed. a building with a high brick wall around it.” —. It sided on an alley. The girl turned into this. Bob got to the jane just in. time to see her take a ladder from the ~ side of ‘the wall, tip it to the top, hurry over it, draw it after her and descend on the other side. ‘Well!’ he ejaculated. Bob stood studying the situation for a few moments. ‘‘Here’s a queer go,’’ he reflected. — ““What is the place, anyway ?”’ Bob went hastily.around to the front. A gloomy four-story building came out plumb with the street. Its entrance was sunk in. He weut up astep or two to read a polished brass — door-plate: ‘‘Deaconesses’ Home.” ‘’Phat’s plain,’?. he © commented. ‘‘What a wise fellow This is a place where women retire from — iss world and lead a life of devotion and Nick Carter is— called the turn first round on that cloak!
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NICK CARTER WEEKLY. E Saas unselfishness, going ott to nurse and all that. That girl’s tonv dress and diamond juggling as if she had a wagon load of them don’t exactly hinge with things, but—she’s all right, that Ido know: A monster is crushing her, and—I shan’t let him!” Bob came back to the -alley.-.He noticed that the girl had left the Jadder in place on the other side of the wall. *¢She’s conling out again soon, or she wouldn’t leave that there to show she’d been stealing’ away,’’ he theorized. ‘“Well, I can guess some of the rest of -itout. She’s got a lot more diamonds. She’s come after them to take them back to that scoundrel of a lawyer. She shan’t. I think J can convince her that it’s best not to. Up we go! Might just as well have it out with her in the garden there where she can’t run, as any place else..? Bob took from his pocket one of his invaluable aids in detective maneuvre- ‘ing—a silk-covered wire with a muffled hook on its end. He soon had a hold on the inside coping of the wall, was up the outside, astride the top, and half way down the ladder, when he caine to a halt with a shock. As if she had come up ican the ground, confronting him not two feet away, was the girl, Miss Ethel Morse. “You cannot come in here!’ spoke. ‘Who ate you? Go back!’ Bob lifted his cap in the politest way possible. / ‘‘Miss Ethel Morse,’’ fis said, softly, “Timust come in here. I can’t go back till I have had a little talk with you. I’m the person who saved you from being robbed on the lake shore drive, and Pve coine to give you back your diamonds.’ Bob grouped all his surprises in a bunch. He wound up by extending the old wallet.‘ The girl never spoke a word. Over the top of the wall came the glint of a light directly on her face. It was white as marble. “Don't speak till you get over being flustered, went on Bob, ‘gently. “T aim she _ your friend, young lady. Getting back your diamonds proves it; don’t it? Now, listen to me. in your hand??? : The girl started. She held in one hand a small chamois bag. It was crusted with soil, as if it had just been exhumed from some hiding place in the garden. Shie essayed to slip the bag out of sight. ‘You are taking that to that scoundrel of a lawyer, Silas Burt,’’ proceeded Bob. ‘‘You see I know all about it, young lady, listen to me. Iam only a boy, but I’ve got a man behind me, Nick Carter, the great detective.” Ii Bob had sought to reassure the girl, he had proceeded i in the wrong way. She drew back in vivid terror. “Oh! everything is known, then. The law will reach us! Now I must get-the - documents if it costs me my life! Give me iny property—give ine my property— give it me, I tell you!’ cried the excited girl, wildly, a glint of true spirit coming to her eyes. ‘‘You only guess what my secret covers—I know, alas! I know only. too well.” Bob drew back his hand. It seemed as if his agitated comparion would fairly snatch the gems from him. Miss Ethel Morse,’’ he said firmly, ‘‘vou’re scared. No, no—listen to me! There’s an easier way than giving upa fortune to shut the lips of a harpy. You shall have the diamonds, for they are yours, but not until you give me a chance to negotiate with this Mr. Silas glue Listen——”’ Crack—crash ! Bob precipitated a sudden catastrophe. He sought to get down to the ground. At the same moment the girl inade a desper- ate endeavor to reach the wallet. The double weight bore upon a_par- ticularly weak and rotten part oe the ladder. What happened Bob could only guess afterward. force sufficient to pound his head as if it was a sledge-hammer, or breaking, it let him through and brick wall behind. = At all events, Bob way snuffed out = quicker than he had ever been before. © — When he opened his eyes he was lying on the dewy grass. A delicate lace hand- ‘What is that package kerchief wetted was across his brow. © vd say !”? he at aa sat EME shut Iii Hither a round snapped with his head struck ‘the a
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12 : NICK CARTER WEEKLY. eyes to let his head get through whirling, and then took a startled look around him. “Oh, bother!’ he commented: in dire dismay. A woman had fa her wilful wae oe broken end of a ladder propped as high as it would go on the other side of the wall, the fact that the wallet containing the diamond necklace was gone, told Bob this. He took out his watch and glanced at it. -~.**Been here over an hour,’ he calcu- lated. ‘‘Too bad! She’s good and she means kindly, or she wouldn’t have put the bandage on my head, but she thinks she knows her own business best, and has acted accordingly.” Bob’s face, wore a rueful expression. He felt that he had been .knocked out at a vital stage of the game. “No. use thinking of getting to Burt’s,”? he ruminated. ‘‘The girl has ‘reached there long since and I’m not in . the best shape to try. No, I'l] wait. But there shall be a reckoning. That girl must let light in on the pIstery of this affair, or Burt shall.’ Bob’ waited patiently for half an hour. Then he watched the top of the wall anxiously. ‘There came a scraping sound at last. It was accompanied by the echo of a low voice that issued jerky sobs. He made out Miss Ethel Morse’s sway- ing figure aloft. She seemed to scarcely have the strength to puil the ladder up, put she finally. got it tilted. Bob sprang forward as she ania fell its length, and caught her in his arms and steadied her. She did not shrink from him. Some- how he curdled as her eyes fell full upon him. They were haunted with a dull, glassy look more boding by far than the brilliant, burning excitement of the _ earlier evening. “Miss Morse!’ he spoke, ‘‘Miss Morse! do you not know—do you not remember me??? ‘Next week, he said!’ murmured the girl in a dreamy, far-away tone. ‘‘He took the gems and said ‘next week!’ But _no one can yet the papers, for no one € knows the combination of the safe! J am. so. tired. ‘next O- ‘Next week,’ he said, week!’ ”’ sat at Trees “Gracious! She’s gone!’ Like a fairy lily stricken down by oe reaper’s sickle the poor girl sank to the . ground. ; Bob’s face was a study. He felt des- perately chagrined, anxious, disappointed. There was no doubt but what the girl had delivered the diamonds, not only those in the wallet, but those in the chamois bag, into the possession of the crafty lawyer. He had put her off with promises con- cerning the papers, and she had come home a shattered wreck, her mind gone - wandering ainid the reaction of an intense strain of excitement. Bob looked helplessly at his beautiful charge. Her lips were sealed. His own set grimly. *“*1’ll make some one pay for this, just on general principles of humanity,’’ he promised himself stanchly. ‘‘Oh! the vampires of this world—a dove in the. grip of an eagle! What am I going to do. with her???’ ~ 3 Bob left the prostrate girl for a mo- mient and made a catitious reconnoitte of the building at the front of the garden. He found a side door near a de gate. It had a bell. To its threshold he carried the ont gave the bell knob half-a-dozen quick, vigorous pulls, and retreated into the safe shelter of sume shrubbery. The door opened and a flood of light poured out. Two affirighted women regarded the prostrate form. ‘Ror mertcy’s sake! What is this PY cried one with a little scream of alarm, “Why, it’s the girl who asked a refuge here last week.”’ ‘*But how comes she here ?”’ . ‘*Perhaps she fell asleep i in the garden, and we locked her out. Why! she is burning up with fever. Quick! Get her to her room and call the doctor.’’ ‘(Even they don’t know who she is,’”? — murmured Bob, as the door closed and patient and nurses disappeared. Bob lingered about the spot. | light upstairs caught his eye. ne A window was opened. A man ‘aad. ue er two women Bob had seen fluttered ‘before as Then a a -
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NICK CARTER WEEKLY. ‘Then one of them came to the window and the man joined her. Bob pricked up his ears eagerly as he heard her query: ‘*She is ill, doctor?”’ Bob’s heart went dowi to his boots as he heard the doctor’s reply: ‘*A bad case of brain fever. She must have been unduly excited. She will not know you again for days—if ever.”’ ““That settles this end of the case,’’ muttered Bob Ferret, retreating with a set, grim face tothe ladder and the wall. “It’s a fight between you and I now, Mr. Silas Burt, attorney, Michener block—a fight to the death!’ eel ne CHAPTER V. THE STEEL SAFE. Midnight! - Bob Ferret counted the strokes of a distant bell. The great city had quieted down. Chicago was asleep, but he had never felt more wide awake in his life. Stauding at a street corner two squares distant from the office of Silas Burt, at- torney, Nick Carter’s youngest detective felt a decidedly old head on his shoulders, if care and perplexity went for anything. “‘Tt’s baffling,’’ soliloquized Bob, and thereby he precisely expressed the condi- tion of the great diamond mystery. Two hours later he had turned from the ~recluse home of the unfortunate Miss Ethel Morse, with the settled conviction that it would be many a day before her lips would be unsealed to speak a single coherent word regarding her identity or the princely gems she had delivered up as the price of a dread secret. It was getting at that secret that both- ered Bob. He had not one clear inkling of what lay under the surface of the mys- tifying affair, except that Silas Burt was blackmailing a frightened, defenseless, fugitive girl. In a sort of desperation of suspense and resolve Bob had proceeded at once to the lawyer’s office, to find it closed and dark. Then he learned where Burt lived in bachelor quarters near by. Bob repaired thither, to hear from the Janitor of the ich ee that the attorney - aclub he belonged = the name of which he could not remember. 13 This seemed to settle affairs till morn- ing, but Bob‘s impetuous nature tastings him waiting till morning. He started forthwith to trace up the dwarf, Wickham, Burt’s confidential clerk. ; The ill-favored creature boarded a mile distant, but Bob cheerfully tramped it. Here another disappointment greeted him. The landlady of the dwarf, roused up, crossly guaranteed the information — that Wickham had left early in the even- ing stating he would not return till the following night. Bob wes so worried and thoughtful as he leff'the place that he proceeded along lost in absorbed reflection, but an uncon- scious power of attraction brought him straight back to the vicinity of the law- yer’s office before he was aware of it. “‘T simply can’t go home—I’d toss all night,’? muttered Bob, testily. ‘‘Oh! I’m cut out for a detective all right, if fretting to keep at work is a merit. Say! — I’d do it in a minute if I knew how!’ Bob’s rather glum face began to work with animation as these words broke from his lips. A daring idea had struck him. At first it seemed to fairly scare him. He turned his face resolutely in a direction contrary to the lawyer’s office. Then sturdily, a ‘reckless dash of spirit im his eyes, he reversed his position. “Y]] take a look, anyway,’’ declared ~ Bob. ‘‘That can do no harm. Would I do it? If I had such an acquaintance as Cracksman Bob of New York heré™in Chicago, I’d soon make that vault door open and take a whack at the little steel safe !”? Bob’s morals were eminently all right. He was a law guardian, not a law — breaker, but he felt that he would be — justified in every sense of the word in learning what the lawyer’s secret strong box contained, no matter how he did it. The little steel safe probably held not _ only the compromising documents, for which Miss Ethel Morse had sacrificed © so much, but the diamonds she had de- livered up that night. It was not likely that Burt would carry such valuables | about with him when calculating to. be ee away from home till morning. _ ua Bob got to ee poetics re eat stairs
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14 se NIOK CARTER WEEKLY. leading to the lawyer’s offices, feeling as if a steel wire was pulling him irresistibly along. “Pll take a laws survey of the office,’’ he muttered. ‘‘No harm in that. If I can get in, why, I might inspect the vault door to see how complicated it is. Then Ill hurry to Mr. Carter. Nick can open any safe by the sense of touch. I don’t want to make a burglar of the straightest man J ever knew. but he might help me - out, if’ he saw how vital it is that we act before papers and diamonds become ab- sorbed by that cormorant, Burt.’ Bob went up tlre stairs. The building was dark, silent, apparently without a tenant. _ He crossed the hall to the entrance to Burt’s offices. Looking up to estimate the chances of getting in through: the transom, his fingers casually turning the knob, he uttered a sharp ““Hello!”” The next moment the ejaculation of surprise was heightened by one -of clear wonderment : “Queer !”’ _ It was queer—very ! was unlocked. Entering the first room, Bob found the partition door swung. Passing its threshold, he almost stag- gered, for the street light that came in through ‘the windows showed not only the door of the big iron vault open, but, standing conveniently rolled up to it, the little steel safe. { ~ Bob Ferret did not believe'in spirits, The outside door but a thrilling conviction passed through ° - his mind that some good fairies of fortune must have a hand in this wonderful, this bewilde1ing piece of luck. There was the steel safe—the receptacle of diamonds, and documents—in reach, in grasp. His fingers tingled as he walked toward it, as if attracted by a powerful tagnet. _ ‘Magic or miracle, the way is open for me!? he murmured. “Say, is it a trap?”? _ Bob was a thinker. His experience had made hiin suspicious. Here was too _ glaring a’situation to be due purely to natural results. No,” he ejaculated convincedly the - mext instant. ‘‘I see how it is. Some one has been in here and has left for just a moment, and I’ve happened in just at that moment. Who is it?” Bob’s hand onthe steel safe, he struck a vivid, listening attitude. And then Bob did the only thing to do under the circumstances, although he was sorry for it afterward—bolted over the stone threshold of the vault, squeezed past the safe, and tried to believe that he was. secure from discovery in a dark ‘corner, until he could learn what was going on to keep the lawyer’s office and vault open to the inspection of any casual passer by after midnight. ‘It’s the dwarf,’? muttered: Bob, a second later, as a remembered voice came nearer. Sits WickWam and some one with him,’’ continued Bob, peering past the open door of the vault—‘‘a big, burly fellow. Looks like a drayman. Funny ! What’s up, I wonder ?”’ Bob crowded behind a shelf slanting across the end of the vault, and.did most of his peering past its edge. “Is that it??? demanded a strong, hoarse voice. SO At Setters ‘Hum! Say, have you got a derrick!” “Have I got what?’ suapped the dwartf’s snarling voice. ‘A derrick. Wiss that must weighra ton.’? { ‘It don’t, nor anything like it. It weighs just four hundred and fifty pounds. See here,’’ eters Bob was a little surprised at the strength exhibited by the dwarf. He had seized one handle of the safe and tilted it half a foot. “‘“Get her overcoated,’’ *he ordered briskly. -‘‘Come,~ we’ve no time to waste. ’’ e Bob’s eyes began to open wider and wider. The dwarf had BE ieee thick, burlap bag. This the two men drew over the safe, tied its ends neatly about the castored feet, and then pulled it out into the office. ‘Now, then,’’ spoke the dwarf, ‘‘we’ll rol] it gently down the hall—-have to lift - it down the stairs to the alley and the dtayess Be ‘*Some one: will peaeies with, that heavy burden, ”. tae the drayman
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NICK CARER WEEKLY. : 15 “It won’t be me. Come, for a man who will wake up with a thousand dol- jars in his pocket to-morrow morning, you don’t seem particularly cheerful.?’ ‘‘Say, suppose they trace this up?”’ “*T expect they will.”’ ““Vou do!”? “Certainly. To me, but by daylight I and it will be where Silas Burt won't find either ina hurry. I wonder what he’ll think of his ‘ulgy- carcase,’ ‘carrion ctow,’ ‘hunchbacked monstrosity,’ when he finds me gone. Come ahead. No, wait.’? Slam ! “Hold on!” Bob saw the vault door come shut, and Bob did what ninety-nine persons out of a hundred would do under the same cir- cumstances—started for the door. He had no intention of being shut into a close vault, and suffocated. He threw himself against the slamming mass of iron with all his might, and just in time, for the sliding tumblers clicked, and the lock bars grazed the jamb as the dwarf gave back. Out with a rush came Bob, squarely against the drayman. ~ “What's this?’’? he voiced, astounded. “*Grab him!’’ shouted the dwarf. ‘‘The dickens! Say! shut me into an ash box to-night!’ The speaker's little bead-like eyes burned viciously down into Bob’s face. “Suppose I am ?’? demanded the latter, boldly. ‘“You—you’re a spy!” “On; not? “Worse—a spotter for some detective. Don’t let him go. Aha!” Bob thrashed about in a frantic effort to get loose, but the drayman’s grasp was like hickory—ducked, dodged, to evade a handkerchief pressed quickly to his nose by the dwarf. ‘‘Chloroformed! I go prepared. See?’’ chuckled the fellow. Let him slide down, That’s it. Now, help me tie him,”’ ‘See here, I ain’t hired——”’ ‘**T said help me tie him! Do you want to risk that thousand dollars by delay??? Bob was not unconscious, but he was helpless. He had got a good dose of the anzesthetic. began to dissipate he was tied hand and You're the fellow who. By the time its influence foot, and, bearing a coil of rope looped across one arm, the dwarf picked up his feet. ‘*Come on,’’ he directed. ‘Say, I don’t like——.’ - YT do. Better mind me. Think PH leave him here, to holler and’ bring a crowd, and get on my track before morn- ing?”? ‘‘What are you going todo with him?” “Pd put him in the vault but he’d smother. I’vea plan. Lug him along. Tl] show you.”’ : Bob was borne down a dark hall, and then up a winding rear stairway. A nar- row lumber room with a narrow window came next. ““Drop him,” ordered the dwarf, and Bob felt him tying a rope under his arms. “Now, then, lift him and slide him through the window.”’ ‘Say, this will be murder!’ demurred the drayman. “Not a bit of it.” “It’s forty feet down !”’ ‘‘All the safer, I shan’t hurt him. Slide him over the sill, steady his shoul- ders. Let him graze the edge of the bricks head up, going down. Pay out the rope.’? \ Bob was helpless. He was rudely scraped and jammed against a rough wall. Then came a jerking halt, “His heart came into his mouth, for he guessed that the rope had not been found long enough. “Tet go!’ sounded the dwarf’s snarl- ing tones aloft. Slam! Bob landed. / ; oo CHAPTER VI. BLOCKED! Bob’s head cracked as he landed, and his wits were pretty well mixed for a minute or two. ; “Boxed in!’ he murmured, with a rueful stare at his environment. ‘‘Wheels within wheels!’ he pro- nounced, a minute later, thinking of the new developments of the hour. The dwarf was paying back Lawyer Burt’s long years of abuse and robbing him of the little steel safe and all it CONS 5 = tained. He had lured a drayman to help. him lug 4 that receptacle away ee was ae
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6c, R NICK CARTER WENKLY. ing one thousand dollars to get it and himself out of the attorney’s reach, which, Bob guessed, estimating the dwarf’s subtle cleverness, practically meant a complete vanishment. “It’s a bad complication,’’ complained Bob. ‘‘I’ve got the tarred end of the stick this time, sure!” Bob set to work with a will to liberate himself. This was not a very difficult task. He bit the rope securing his hands in two, untied those encircling his feet, stood up, and shook himself generally together. Bob rather marveled at the dwarf leav- ing him so uusecurely tied until he began inspeeting the place he was in. Then he discerned that he was about as helpless with the full use of his hands and feet, as if still bound. There was not a break for nearly ~ fifty feet up—here the window showed through which he had been lowered. A little above that the roof slanted. A telegraph wire crossed here. On four sides were blank walls—the wall, too, of unoccupied buildings. ob had not much heart to work, He had been in much more distressing dilem- imas, aud with daylight he would find some way of calling the attention of out- siders to his plight. What bothered him was the turn affairs had taken. _ Miss Ethel Morse might die, certainly Lawyer Burt would never dis- close the secret of the diamonds. ‘T’he dwarf had fled with the safe and-contents. He had probably been waiting for a - rich haul for years, and that meant plans ripe and perfect. Bob decided that he would not be easily traced. Still, there were clues in sight to run- down—frail ones, hazy ones—but that very fact stimulated Bob’s investigating spirit all the more keenly. If he could get out of the court within the next hour or two, there was the dray- ‘man to follow up—the course his vehicle had taken to trace out. To the uninitiated this would seem a herculean task—to Bob it was a clear trail after a vehicle conspicuous from its soli- tary appearance on the public streets after _ midnight, Bob raged about the court likea caged lion or bear for ten minutes, Then he fixed his eye on the telegraph wire aloft, and then he began searching over the surface of the court floor. He found a broken piece of flagging at last. It weighed perhaps three pounds. He tied this to the end of the rope that had dropped with him, and lengthened this out with the pieces that had secured his limbs. Bob got’ into expert range of thé wire, and began whirling the weighted end of the rope. Up it went and missed. “Expected that,’’ he See “but I shall get there before I'm through. ee Bob did just that after fully ¢ a dozen throws. Like a slung shot hurled at a kite string, the missile finally struck the wire, whirled round and round it about three feet of the slack rope, and Bob reached for the lower dangling end. On two former occasions Bob had utilized wires to help hiin out of trouble. Once he had slid clear across the street on a slanting wire, pursued by a man from whom he had recovered some stolen bonds. On another occasion he had hung from a copper strand, trying to peer into a window beyond which some safe blowers were at work. “‘T’ve got a good hold -up there,’’? he soliloquized, ‘It’s just a question of how stout the roof fastenings are. It seems to hold. Up we go.. No, we don’t. Bother!” Bob got up five feet slowly, and came ~ down five feet quick. Pay The wire had given way. ‘‘Broke at the insulator,’’ he com- menited, as the severed end came jangling down the side of the building about. ten feet. a3 ; He tried to maintain a purchase on this, but the rope slipped free. ot Bob sat down now. He had done his — level best and his present resources were exhausted. E He consulted his watch. It was just one o’clock—five hours to daylight. ‘‘Y’ve worked myself out and I’ve thought myself out,’? he observed. ‘I — guess Nick Carter’s clear head will have = to show me how to begin all over fresh in the morning.’’ Bev Meare sasines eS, wall and”
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NICK CARTER WLEKLY. ies = poe BY ats closed his eyes. It was easy to be philo- sophical when helpless... lin ten minutes he was asleep. . He awoke with the sound of loud hail- ing voices ringing in his ears, and was a little mystified at first, for he observed that it was still dark. “Found the break?’ rung out over- head. ‘‘Here she is. Splice a wire. Thie frame’s all loosened this side. There she goes—over !”’ Bob got up promptly, ready to dodge missiles. One had come down with a crash—a piece of wood into which was grooved a standard. The next instant a rope ladder caine slowly unwinding, trailing a dozen yards on the ground and down it sped a nimble human figure. **Hello!”’ shot out Bob, A man landing as neatly on the court flags as if he did such things for a living, turned sharply at Bob’s hail. Well!’ he observed, “how did you come here ?”’ “TI did not come, I was dropped here.’’ hh ? “ “Por a fact. Say,’’ asked Bob, getting enlightened, ‘‘you are line repairers ??’ ‘(We're not out at five o’clock in the morning looking for a lost current for fun, exactly—yes, city fire alarm. ’’ ‘*Will you give me a chance to get aloft??? “Tf you want to 1. breaking your neck.”? ee “Oh, I guess not.”’ The man came back to the roof with the dropped line aceassory with some- thing of an admiring stare for Bob. “Vou'd do for an apprentice in our line,’’ he remarked. Bob evaded any elaborate explanations. He did not even tell that he was respon- sible for the broken wire. He got to the street from the roof, and made a prompt visit to the lawyer? s office. The doors were locked. Clinging to the knob, Bob peered over the transom. He could look across the outer office, and through the glass partition of the - jnner one. . _ ‘The little steel safe was gone, a staring hard— aS expected that,” he soliloquized. “Now, what next?” According to all precedent, in. doubt, disappointment or distress, Nick Carter's kindly advice was due. “‘T hate to report such a terribly dismat failure,’? muttered Bob. ‘‘It’s a weak confession of failure, See here! What's the matter with putting in an hour or two running down the drayman who helped on this job?”’ Bob covered considerable territory by daylight. He interviewed eight patrol- “men, three hackmen and two night ex- pressinen. pe He ran his man pretty close. Drays were going out of fashion, there were not many licensed vehicles of that descrip- tion, and Bob was pretty sure that he could put his hand on the dwarf’s helper before noon. ‘Hell have to tell where he delivered — the steel safe,’’ calculated Bob. ‘That’s a new starter. Hello! here isthe street the dwarf lives in.” Bob put down it, with no particular idea of passing the -dwarf’s recent place of abode. That would be the last point itv the world the dwarf would be likely to visit for a good long timeto come. As Bob ueared it, however, he noticed quite a stir in its Acinity, and asaman passed him who seemed to belong in the neighbborhood, he hailed him. “Oh, my friend!’ spoke Bob, ‘do you happen to know a man named Wick- ham ?””* ‘The dwarf??? Ves. ” “Everybody knows him hereabouts, ” : “(Tl suppose you haven’t seen him since — last night ?”’ The man stared curiously at Bob. 7 ““Why, yes,’’ he responded, slowly, ‘‘I ‘just saw him.’ Bob started up with a thrill. “What's that!’? he cried—‘‘you just saw him??? CV es. oh) “Where? Where?”’ : The man pointed to the house Bob had visited the night previous—the dwarf’s lodging place. ; “You mean to say Wickham is at_ home, in there?’’ Remaness Bob, ee excited.
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18 - “T said so. I’m not in the habit of lying,’’ answered the man, quite affronted. “Excuse ine—meant no Rete said Bob, hurriedly. He put for the house i in question at full tilt. Here was luck! The dwarf, was at home! What bold game was he playing? No matter—he was there, that was enough for Bob, who felt like a man who has dug up a lost treasure from the bot- tom of the sea. “Maybe he’s planted the safe, and is just getting ready to slide himself,’’ theorized Bob. ‘‘It’s early yet, and he may not calculate on an alarm till the lawyer arrives at his office.”’ Bob noticed two women standing bare- headed.across the street from the house he was making for, and Fepaidiug it closely. Two men caine out of it just then, too, and passed him. ‘They were talking i in low, serious tones, and the dwarf’s name was mentioned. “Oh!? challenged Bob, ‘“‘one word, gentlemen; is Mr. Wickham at home, do you know?” ‘He is,’? nodded one of the men, gravely. ‘‘We just carried him in,”’ : ‘Carried him!’ repeated Bob, a little mystified, ‘‘why——— Bob stopped there. In a flash the ominous silence of, the ‘woinen,. the serious tonés of the men conveyed a new intelligence. . For, chancing to look again at the dwarf’s dwelling, Bob saw a woman come out. It was the dwarf’s landlady, and she *. held a black something that fluttered as she put it on the door knob. It was a streamer of crape. CHAPTER VII. CHASING A CLUE, Bob’s heart sank as he glided up to the woman who was affixing the badge of mourning. ‘“*Who is that for?’’ he asked. “It’s poor Mr. Wickham. Oh, whata shock! Went away in perfect health last night. This morning——”’ ' From agitation or grief the woman broke down here and buried her face in her apron. ca NICK CARTER WEEKLY. Bob slipped past her into the house, saw several persons grouped near a door- way, and reaching it peered at what they were looking. Upon a stretcher, half covered with a sheet, lay the dwarf. that he was dead. A depressing conviction stole over him that in this unexpected turn of the case was comprised the ‘worst compli¢ation yet. The dwarf was dead—perhaps his secret and the steel safe’s secrets had died with him! ‘‘How did it happen?’’ Bob asked of the person nearest to him. “Run down. by an electric car. ‘The men who brought him say he was cross- ing the street in a very happy mood. About two o’clock this morning, absorbed in talking to himself, and laughing and snapping his fingers jovially, and all that, and never noticed the car. The fender struck his temple—killed him instantly. They traced him by his card.” Bob looked serious and awed. Bob saw instantly Exultant in the conviction of having a fortune within his grasp, he was hurry- | ing to hide himself, when he had been cut down as by a thunderbolt. They had removed the torn, muddied coat from the victim of the accident. Bob noticed it where it had been care- lessly thrown toward ‘a chair, missing it, and slipping to the floor. © He sat down on the chair. Shielded by those who were facing the litter, and suggesting the summoning of an under- taker, a coroner, the dwarf’s employer, Lawyer Burt, and the like, Bob went through the pockets of the garment ina flash. A little memorandum book was all it contained of any interest to him. The minute-he got it Bob left the room and the house. He gave it a a quick but general sean ; after turning the first corner. The book proved a disappointment of — the biggest kind. It contained nothing but — formal, methodical business notes—not a_ clue to the associates, resorts, and private doings of the dead man. Bob stood still on the eS i rubbing his head So The. dwarf had bestowed the safe somewhere. way
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NICK CARTER WEEKLY: 19° “He felt himself in deep waters, in muddy waters. He had handled many peculiar cases in his brief detective ex- perience, but nothing approximating the present one in point of baffling uncer- tainty. ‘The steel safe is the key to the situa- tion,’’ he soliloquized finally—‘‘it’s the one thing now tangible in the case. With it I'can call the turn on all hands, with- out it the affair has no bottom or sub- stance. Queer! every time I make a move something checkmates me. First the girl drops out of the game, then the dwarf. I wouldn’t be surprised, the curi- ous way affairs had somersaulted, if the drayman has bolted—safe and all.”’ Around that individual, to Bob’s way of thinking, now centred the vital issues of the case. He took out and consulted a list of a dozen persons. It comprised the names and addresses of city drayimen, who, ac- cording to the patrolimen, hackmen, and expressmen Bob had consulted early that morning, might answer to the description of the one the dwarf had employed. Bob snatched a bit of breakfast at the first restaurant he came to. Then he hailed a cab and directed the driver to the nearest point on his list. Paul Moore, Custom House place; W. F, Egan, Fourteenth street; William Marzen, West Tyler street. Bob explored this group, to find its members not at all resembling the dwarf’s helper. Number four, number five, number six—whiere the men had gone to work already, a brief conversation with wife, children or friends convinced Bob that they were not worth running down. Number seven—John Geary, Miller Court—Bob’s patient quest was at last rewarded. He ‘knew it, as leaving the cabman at the curb and knocking at the open door of a little cottage, a chance glance inside showed a framed crayon portrait over a wooden mantelshelf. “Pound him—it’s my man!’ muttered Bob. A glance down the yard showed a dray with one wheel off, and it lying broken on the ground. fhe man must, therefore, be at home: _ Bob made a previously understood signal Bob promptly. to the cabinan, who drove at once out of sight of the house. ‘*Yes, sit—what is it, sir?’’? inquired a. — worn-faced woman, approaching the deor in response to Bob’s knock. “Tam looking for the drayman.”’ “My husband ?” OME Geatye sre: “Tf it’s a load, sir, you’ll have to leave an order for to-morrow. His dray is out of repair.”’ ‘It’s no order,’?. prompted Bob. ‘“‘I wish to see Mr. Geary on a matter of | ptivate business, ’’ ““Fe’s not well, sir,’’ said the woman, very anxiously. “Tt is important that I meet him at once,’ declared Bob. Dy see,’? murmured the woman, and she crossed the room, and knocked at a door. .‘*Johnu! John!” ‘‘Well, what is. it?’ inquired a. gruff voice beyond. ‘‘’T here is some one here to see you.’’ “It is not a humpbacked fellow—the one I told you about??? ‘No. ”? “*Maybe he comes from him. him.”’ “11 come right in without ceremony, then,’? deftly put in Bob. He executed very cleverly the maneuvre of pressing the woman from the door, turning its knob, skimming the thresh- old, reclosing the door, and standing with his back against it, confronting a man | half dressed and just arising from a bed. Bob recognized him at once—it was the drayman who had helped the dwarf overcoat the safe and drop him into the walled-in court. “Know me, Mr. Bob, simply. The drayiian, getting up, fell back on the bed—from glaring angrily and sus- piciously at an intruder, he took to gog-— gling and gaping at what he must have Pikscest Geary ?’’ ‘projected considered a stern, accusing presence, for his face turned all shades, with a sickly, sallow hue predominating. ‘‘Who—who sent ycu?’? he gasped. ‘‘No one. I came myself,’’ announced “‘Mr. Geary, this is busi- ness, and you will do well to attend to | it frankly and promptly. You undoubt- edly recognize Tle:Aas 4 person you treated.
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20 : : NICK CARTER WEEKLY. none too courteously at an early hour this mortning.’’ The drayman was a big, burly fellow, and could have ‘crushed Bob with one grip of his brawny hands, but he pre- sented so pitiable a-spectacle of craven weakness at Bob’s wotds that the latter actually felt sorry for him. He began to tremble and his flesh shook like a jelly great beads of cold sweat mottled his face like drops of rain; his'teeth chattered. “That dwarf!? he groaned in a lost tone. ‘‘Oh, I wish I had never had any- thing to do with him!” “What! when you get a facesan dol- Jars for an hour’s work?” railed Bob, catching the wndervoiced comment. “Me? never, sir!’’ quavered tlie dray- man, ‘‘I soleinnly assure you not a dollar, not a cent!” “Oh, you missed connections, then ?’’ ' suggested Bob shrewdly. The man sat back, coliapsing. Bob -. decided. that somewhere along the line the dwarf’s plans had miscarried. He nade a very bold play upon the fears of the wretched drayman. _ “Mr. Geary,’’ he said, soberly, ‘‘do you tealize that you are in something of: a box?” “TY do, but I’m not to blame, See here, Tam hired to move a safe. I move it, that’s all, like any other teamster.”? ‘What! at nridnight, other people’s property, and incidentally chloroforming a messenger of the law and dropping him _. fifty feet from nowhere ?”’ ‘Say!’ chattered the drayman, getting ‘more scared than ever, ‘‘are you a— Dae? . **T come direct from the highest police authority in America,’’? declared Bob impressively. ‘Then—then I’m lost!’ fairly wailed the drayman. ‘‘QOh, that I was ever in- “duced to depart from straight, honest toil! That scoundrel, that deceiver, the << dtart— LUT choke the life out of o-him!”? Sree OU Wort}? seek wath l?? _*He’s déad.”” - “What! ery doom had been pronounced. The drayman sank back here as if his’ ‘“The dwatf is dead,’? pursued Bob,’ steadily. ‘‘That means the shifting to ~ your shoulders of the entire responsibility of stealing a safe from Lawyer Burt’s office. ’? “It’s awful—I’m doomed!’ groaned the drayman. ‘‘And I didn’t get a cent! Dead! the dwarf dead—then where’s the safe??? “That,’’ stated Bob Ferret ‘concisely, ‘is exactly what I have come to find out,’ CHAPTER VIII. CABOOSE NO. 27. The drayman looked scared, surprised, bewildered, at the sharp, clear statement of the young detective. “Why,’? he declared, ‘‘I don’t know where the steel safe is.” : ‘What!’ cried Bob, incredulously. “T don’t!’ ‘*You took it somewhere ?”? “Of course, but the dwarf sent me off — on a fool chase, and when I returned he was gone, and the steel safe gone, and—”? “Put on the rest of your clothes!” Bob spoke to the drayman as if he was — a full-grown man, yet the latter obeyed like a child, for a full-grown man’s energy aud purpose infused Bob’s face, Bob’s words and Bob’s manner. ‘‘Y suppose it’s jail for me!” almost: whimpered the drayman. *“Not if you tell the truth.’ **Do you mean it ?”? eae : ‘‘T mean,’’? promised Bob, succinctly, “that if you trace out your ‘doings with that safe and the dwarf at once, square- ly, holding nothing back, that you shall not be troubled for the share you have. taken in this affair.”’ “Oh, won’t I! Say, thank you! thank you! Oh, I’]] crawl to the place if you say so!”? cried the extravagantly delighted and relieved drayman, almost dancing with joy, as he hurried on his clothes. Bob signaled the cab, as they got to the street, and it drove up. The dray man looked suspicious. CH “You surely mean what you ‘prom- en ised ?’’ he asked, uneasily. ; “Every arard of it,’? assured Bob. Se - “Driver, this gentleman will tell you just “ where to go, square by Se al right, ae Be
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NICK CARTER WEEKLY. -~ : uty ss The cab proceeded to the street passing the office of Lawyer Burt. Like a person going over the ground of a teceut tragedy, and step by step illus- trating its progress, the drayman re- covered the course of the steel safe dur- ing the early morning hours. - *Wecame out by way of the alley,’ he explained. ‘‘Down this street here we turned. I don’t know where the dwarf was making for, but here we stopped.’? ‘““What!?? ejaculated Bob, ‘tin the mid- dle of these railroad tracks??? Cab and inmates had come to the centre of a great switchyard. “Right here,’? declared the drayman, positively. ‘‘Why, my left wheel struck that switch and got wrenched. I turned too quick and off it came.’ ‘Oh, I see,’? murmured Bob. ‘The dwarf,’’ narrated the drayman, “oot frantic as the safe slid to the ground. We saw the yard watchinen’s lanterns in the distance. ‘Then he sug- gested a plan. An old car stood nearby. It’s door was open. We lifted the safe into the car. He popped in after it. ‘See here,’ says he, ‘hurry home with your broken dray, get another vehicle, and hurry back. Two thousand dollars if you get me safe to where I want to go inside of an hour!’ I got home, I borrowed a wagon from a neighbor, came back here, and—pfit !”’ The drayman threw up his hands ex- pressively with the ejaculation. “What does that mean??? Bob. “Gone? “Who—the soak 22 MV es. ” ‘*And the safe??’ ‘Ves, and the safe.” “And the car ag “Gone too!’ eewWhat!?? ‘¢A}]—all vanished.”’ “Oh, come now! You can make me believe you two lugged a quarter ton inquired safe all over the. city, for I have the evi- dence of my senses, but you can’t stuff me with any such nonsense as the dwarf hauling off a twenty-two thousand-pound ear!’ declared Bob, vehemently. “J didn’t say he did. gone. I said it was patcher’s department. Tm telling you the truth, all the truth, nothing but the truth. Theremy — story ends. ‘That’s all I know.°? Bob believed the ‘man, and Bob was disappointed—more than that, worse puz- zied than ever. He alighted and made the drayman alight with him. ““Now,; then,’’ he said, “‘show me where the car stood—the exact spot.”? “Right on this track. Here’s the bumper. It rested right at the end of the switch—an old, unused red painted car. A caboose car—No, 2 “Eh ??? exclaimed Bot, nuinber ?”? _ “Why, certainly,”’ declared the dray- man in surprise. ‘‘We people are particu- larly noticeable of numbers and names— it’s the training of our trade.’? ‘*Caboose No. 27? You are sure??? per- sisted Bob, and he felt that he ied found a strong clue, indeed. a would swear to it,”’ “That’s all.” Bob metaphorically rolled up his sleeves, preparatory for some hot work. The man tried to talk with him, but Bob waved him aside, paying the cabman and ordering him to. drive Geary home. He looked over the yard; a hundred tracks, a thousand carts, a labyrinth, a network, confusing, elaborate—but Bob took it in like a map. For two hours he went in and out this and that line of cars, in and out this and that office and switch house. Then Bob proceeded to the train dis- “vou know its He had engaged in an engrossing search, and' with some results. Very confident was he that Caboose No. 27 had left the yards early that morning with the little steel safe aboard, He theorized, judging from the time of the dwarf’s accident, that the latter must have left it unguarded in the car while he hastened after the drayman to hurry — him up, or to get a drink, or a cigar. One thing was sure. Caboose No. 27 — had been in the yard up to two o’clock in the morning. At three the night watchman whom Bob interviewed, noticed that it was gone _ from a place where it had been standing for over two weeks. : Bob saw an ORE in ane general
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22 NICK CARTER WEEKLY. offices. He plainly told him who he was. The mention of Nick Carter’s name was all potent to unlock the official’s lips and make it an avowed pleastire to help Bob out all he could. He-gave’ Bob a chair. Then by tele- phone, telegraph, speaking tube and mes- senger he’called into active service all the intricate machinery of a great railway syste. He approached the eager young detec- tive witha rather blank face half an. hour later. “‘Sorry,’’ he announced, ‘‘but we can’t, get a clear record—Caboose No. 27 has disappeared from the service.’ “Eh! muttered Bob, aghast. ‘Caboose No. 27 was ordered taken up by a train at two this morning—a freight tunning to Springfield. It was in bad order, and we were going to put it in « shop for repairs.”’ Bob looked interested, but uneasy. “To make a long stury short,’’ con- tinued tlie official, ‘‘a wire to Springfield answers back ‘No. 27 is lost.’?”” ‘Lost???’ cried Bob—‘‘a car lost!’ Sp CS) do you suppose we have car finders for? Yes, young man, somewhere in the hun- ‘dred. and eighty-seven miles stretch be- tween Chicago and Springfield, Caboose No. 27 has disappeared.’ OE est . “I have wired every. station-on the line. They return one uniform reply.” ‘And. that is?’’ asked Bob. **No trace !’’ Joe CHAPTER IX.. FOUND! No trace! That was the railroad official’s report on lost Caboose No. 27 at eight o’clock in the morning on Tuesday. **Found!”’ That was the inspiring, soul-stimu- - lating word that broke from Bob Ferret's % lips at exactly the same hour Thursday. Only it was eight o’clock in the even- ing now, a clear moonlit night—night amid a scene indescribably wild, a spot -teached by Bob after a day of such prob- ‘ing inquiry, tramping.and study as he d‘rarely gone through. Ah! think that strange? What’ When the amazing announcement was made by the railway official that some- where between Chicago and Springfield the car in question had vanished as com- pletely as if dropped out of existence, Bob expressed the rarest surprise. ; He soon learned, however, that such occurrences were very frequent, and that professional car finders were kept busy all the year round looking for cars that got mixed in with those of other roads, for- gotten on some siding, absorbed by private companies. Bob talked with one or two of these professionals. After listening to the nat- rative of a quest for a stray freight car that was chased from one end of the country to the other, of the lost gondola car of a Florida railway. that. was finally discovered way up at the end of a branch siding in the Canadian woods, Bob de- cided that his task was a comparatively easy one, for he was fresh on the trail, and that trail was comprised within a limited scope of territory. a ee He went over the stretch of road be- tween the two cities four times between — Tuesday and Thursday. last-named day he had narrowed down. some certainties. From conversation held with train crews, with switclimen, men, Bob became convinced that sonie- where between two stations known as Tracy and Hopeville, Caboose No. 27 had left the train. At five o’clock in the afternoon Bob- had made a second important discovery and was wotking it up promptly. This was the fact that the freight train having Caboose No. 27 at its end had wos switched off a few hours after leaving Chicago on a little unused spur, to allow the Southern Limited to pass. KS He saw clearly how, in the dadinenes with a sleepy train crew, attending to the — track ahead, a violent bump on the old, ueven talis of the siding might have — loosened the couplings unnoticed. At all events, Bob started along Shs spur. To his entire satisfaction he noticed that the signs of disturbed rust and run over vines and grasses continued far he= yond the track space the switched freigt had LOcepies, By noon of the various station —
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NICK CARTER WEEKLY. in a short time,’’ declared Bob, and he was right. Up and down went the road _ bed, There were places where the ties were rotted to punk, where the rails were sprung, but evidences of their being re- cently used continued. ’ The tracks rounded a group of aban- doned quarry pits, ran to the edge of a dozen others, all overgrown with verdure, and ended at the top of a slant termi- nating at a lively-flowing little stream. There Bob came upon his reward—at the side of the rails lay the trucks of a car, with bolts and standards bearing marks of violent usage. He flared a match, for it was night and surrqunding trees shut out the refulgent nioou—he bent over the mass of wreck- age. Then one exultant word. left his satis- fied lips in an intense, though suppressed cheer: “*Found !”” Upon the woodwork above the axles Bob traced a magical number—it m#¥ked the axles as well—‘‘27.”? ~“Vt*s part of the car I’m after!” de- clared Bob positively. ‘It was run here. Why? Who by? Caboose No. 27 was not lost, but stolen, but—by whom, and where is the rest of it?”’ Bob saw where the trees and bushes of the slant looked as if a cyclone had re- cently passed over them. He pressed forward palpitatingly, to come to an abrupt halt. ‘Rasy 19) Easy it ight be for the challenger, a man half sheltered by a vine-covered tree, but tremendously difficult for Bob, to imagine what he was doing here, and why. he pointed a cocked pistol squarely at his head. “Friend or foe?’’ came a reins sharp utterance. ‘‘Friend to who? foe to what?’ potnded Bob bluntly. ‘*You look all right,’ followed in less belligerent accents. ‘‘Safer to talk over liere. Come.” He beckoned to Bob as he stepped away from the edge of the slant, and, wondering what all these curdling and mysterious maneuvres might signify, Bob - fearlessly followed him. Ae », Making out the man more plainly, Bob saw a shrewd-featured, keen-eyed fellow oe of about thirty. ‘‘Now, what??? he ioe practi- cally. — ; ‘This,’ retorted the man, boring Bob with a very inquisitive eye—‘'I?’m Bowker. ”’ SAPO OU Cincy ‘*Bowker of Macaupin.”’ ‘fAll right, Bowker of Macaupin, 0 ahead,’’ directed Bob. “What!” cried the mati, disappointed- ly—‘that don’t tell you anything??? “Except what it says.’’ ‘*Maybe this will help.’’ The man threw back his coat. Bob smiled. A badge big as a saucer an- nounced that the fellow was a ‘‘private detective. ’’ ‘*Guess now ?’’ he insinuated. “I see you are an officer,’ replies -Bob. “That?s it.?? “‘But why you are lurking here, and stopping peaceable citizens with a drawn revolver, I don’t see.”’ “Why!?? exclaimed the man, ‘I’m after them !?? ‘* After who?” Bowker pointed down the river. ““Aren’t you looking for the crowd yonder, too?’ “Is there a crowd there ?”’ queried hon “Is there! D’ve been watching them for three nights.”’ “What for?” But here the man’s lips shut like clam shells on the subject under. discussion. When he opened them it was to remark more guardedly: ‘*Suppose you show up, now???’ Sat - ‘“That’s.simple,’? observed Bob, ‘A | car was stolen from the siding here—a caboose. ‘There are its trucks. I’m try- ing to trace up the rest of it.” “Oh! that’s it?’ brightened up Bow- ker. ‘‘Sort of fellow professional! That’s all right. - I know where your car is.” “Vou do?” ‘“*Certainly.”’ *“Good for you!’ ase ‘“Tell you how it is. - You have ‘heard 3 of the Lincoln grave robbers ?”’ eoe ‘*You mean the Regen who attem: ed i
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3 NICK CARTER WEEKLY, to rob the ex-president’s vault at Spring- field.”? uP hats Tt ‘That was years ago,”’ “*T know it, but they never caught the fellows. I’m new at this business, and want to maké a record. No little penny- pinches for me! Give me the glory ofa truly historical case! A few days agol ran across half-a-dozen of the toughest mortals camping down the river’ there you ever saw. I’ve been spotting them ever since. They’ve been hiding ina cave for months. ‘That’s suspicious on the start, isn’t it now?’ ‘it 1s, fora fact.” “I am satisfied that one of them is Budd Martin, the ring-leader in the Lin- coln grave robbery, who was never caught.’’ ““That’s something worth while.’’ ‘*About your car.’ These fellows found it on the siding, Tuesday. Ran it here, disabled it, slid the box down the slant, floated it to their island cave, and there they’ve set it, a ready-made, to-hand house, snug and cozy as.a cabin built to “order.”’ Bob warmed up gratefully to the sim- ple- -hearted amateur who had not only guided but warned him. ‘Took here,’’ he said. ‘‘You saw them steal the car » {I did, from a distance.” “Did you see them take anything out Of it P= The man gave a start. “Why, say!’ he exclaimed, think of it, I did.”’ E “What?” ‘ ~ 7 don’t know, but they tan their raft “come to down here, and lugged and tugged at something till they got it aboard, I thought it was a stove.’ Bob studied his companion a minute or — two, and then mentally prospected the situation ahead. If the men Bowker had told about had taken the safe to their island quarters, it - was to break it open. Hf they had broken -it open, they had found that which they would fight pretty fiercely to retain. Bob summed up the situation coherent- ly, decided what he would do, and did it. : “Mr, Bowker,’’ he said, wisely re- Biearbering. that the Macaupin man knew . the camp fire fronts, . the crowd and their habitat, and he did not, ‘‘I wish to engage your valuable ae a tective services.”’ Bowker braced up wonderfully, | aa ee made a great showing of hadge and Te- volver. ‘That stove you saw was a safe.”’ “Nol? ‘ ‘CA stolen safe in a stolen car. I want ~* to know what these people have done with it.”’ “Vou do? Dead easy. Looking for Budd Martin’s face under the whiskers and wrinkles of yeats is a hard thing, but a safe, a big safe—I’ll fix that for you.”’ **You propose——”’ ; ios “To get to the island. It’shardto — reach, they’re a watchful crowd,*but I just studied out how I’d get there, and made the preparations to doso this very — hour.”’ . - “*Is it possible?” Y “Yes, Come down to the stream. I oe they’re settled in camp for t: ” Bob followed Bowker down the slants The latter pointed along the moonlight-— glinted expanse of water. — ‘‘See where the river widens?’’ he = asked. ao ae Bob nodded. ‘The island ??’ StVes; ” ‘Regular mountain formation. — Ah! you can catch an occasional flare—that’s — their camp fire. There’s only one way to reach them—tight into the cave where ~ You can’t scale or drop from behind.”’ “*Vou intend to try it?’’ ‘With you. Can you swim 2 “Vike a fish.” “Got Jots of patience oe ‘“Heaps.’’ “Tve figured and figured over it, ve pursued Bowker, ‘“‘how I'd reach them, and get a close view of the man I sus pect. .They’ve always got some fellow on the watch, and I about gave it up. This morning I got an inspiration. I’ve found — a mighty clear way to get se near , tier ee ““Good.”? =, **So near you can hear whe see ee ty thing.” : “Better still?” iat
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"And when they’re off guard, 2 ; right i in among them.”’ . “Best of all! How are you going to do Batt”. _' . “Vook here.’? : Bowker proceeded to where a depres- - _ sion showed in the bank, covered with a pile of heaped-up leaves. X Brushing these aside, he pointed down. ‘ “There you are,’? he announced tri- — -umphantly. ‘*Watermelons!’’ cried the astonished _ Bob Ferret. CHAPTER X, Bo ee IN CLOSE RANGE. ‘*Watermelons they are,’’ smiled back - Bowker. **T don’t see a “You will soon. mile up stream. bridge got smashed in a collision. Railroad bridge a Car going over the Loaded with melons—half a dozen hundred doze must have been dumped into the _ ‘Viver. eats ‘They’ve been floating down ever since. When I got my idea, I caught a few of the biggest ones. ‘These are they. See that, and that—how’s that???’ Fs great!’ announced Bob, as Bow- E ker turned: over: several. of the melons “with his foot. _ Bob had little faith in fanciful experi- ments, none at al] in venturesome _ monkey-tricks, but he imagined that he saw some real utility in the amateur de- _ tective’s plan, far-fetched as it seemed at first flush. _ to form a large and roomy receptacle for - a human head. At one end a series of holes had been . so skilfully bored that five feet away no one could detect the fact. “Vou can hear, see and breathe in those, eh?’ jubilated Bowker. “It looks so,’’? adinitted Bob. “Vou can wade, float swim. Why! we can creep right upto that island camp without those fellows ever guessing it.’’ ‘“When do we start?” ‘Now it as good a time as any. It’s getting on toward nine o’clock, isn’t it? “bunk i in pretty early. - - One of them The melons had been hollowed out so as — ~ Bob ventured a question. > = “The supposed Bud NICK OARTER WEEKLY. 2 went away at noon, but I think he’s back by this time.’’ Bob took all due precaution to fa hina self of superfluous clothing that would be hampering in any way. He felt like a diver in his qeaticd end piece, as he stepped into the water, slipped the hollowed-out melon over his head, and saw its bobbing mate follow Suit. = ‘You lead,’’ he called ont. Bowker crossed to the other bank, and this they lined erect, theit vegetable hel- mets in their hands, until they came to where the river broadened. There was quite a stretch to cross. Bob could plainly see the isolated haunt of = the crowd Bowker had described. The latter gave him a few sensible - directions as to their course and method of procedure, Then began for Bob the strangest and most sensational adventure he had ever encountered, The river was not very deep, except in the middle. Here they had to swim. Approaching thé island, they waded, keeping out from the shore just the right distance to be enabled to.give a correct floating semblance to the melons. Bob could plainly make out the island .Cainp now, The island itself was a huge mountain of rock, and perpendicular. At one end it concaved, and at the edge of this cove was presented” a half- circular sweep of cavernous formation. Near its edge stood the scarred and battered object of Bob’s recent ardent quest—Caboose No, 27. In removiiig the trucks and conveying it thither one end had got stove in, and it had not been repaired yet, but from pans, kettles and bunks that already littered the interior, Bob saw that the refugees - intended to make a cozy winter home of - it. A camp fire burned in front of it and the cavern entrance. It showed three men seated on stools around a squarely sawed” tree stump, industriously playing cards. — Bowker’s melon head came up close to the young detective’s melon head, and “Ts your man there???
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- 26 ‘ bined. nioment afforded him (6Ves,?? “Don’t see him. He may be out of sight, asleep. Now, then, we?) re going to get. nearer.’ “Ts it safe?” questioned Bob: ‘CA little nearer is, Wecame here to look and listen.”’ Bob noticed that the cove water, out of the current and still, stayed the progréss of bits of driftwood, and the like that floated within its range. When he had bobbed and tilted a little farther on in true watermelon fashion, therefore, he got tired of kneeling and crouching, for the place was shallow, and sat. down on a sinooth, submerged bowlder. The melon came just to the surface, and the apertures in it Bob found.to be excellent peep holes. Bowker planted himself a few yards away. So far, the men at the tree stump had not apparently noticed them. Bob felt that he was in a peculiar ridiculous and perilous situation com- Still, he took advantage of every for scanning the mén and their environment. He couldsee nothing of the safe, but he knew it was there, as one of the men playing at cards arose, and as he did_so, disturbed what had served as the-cushion of his stool. “Tt’s the burlap covering the dwarf put over the safe,’? guessed ‘Bob. **T wish those fellows would quit smoking and go to talking.”’ “The fellow who had just risen left his companions to finish the game, .and amused himself by throwing a natrowed- down carving knife at the middle “of - the big white paint dot that came after the 2%)? on the red side of the caboose car. He missed it as. ofternas he struck it, and the two at the stump, concluding their gaine, set off a roar of derision as twice in succession the knife point quiv- ‘ered iu a board six inches away. “(What vou laughing at??? the man Z. demanded ina nettled tone. “At you,’’? answered one of his com- -rades, a,big, clumsy mass of fatness, get- _ ting to his feet and picking up a hatchet that Jay eo the side of a heap of Se NICK CARTER WEEKLY. “I suppose you could do~. better?’ sneered the knife thrower. ‘“T could every time, even with a blunt- edged tool like this. Once!” The middle of the dot dented like a nutburr cracked open. ‘eTPwice !?? It blurred, all a-splinter. SOT Aree times !?? The hatchet wiped the paint period out ofbeing, and split the board half a foot down. ‘‘How’s that?’ crowed the suceeestl marksman. “Huh! miss is, with that big tool. foot throw!” “Six feet,” eh?’ cried “Say! Icould do it at sixty. Here— stand aside. ‘There’s a matk for your life. IfI don’t hit and split, first crack, put me down for brag and bluster after this.’? “That waterinleon ?’’ “The farthest one out.”’ “Great goodness!’ quivercel the ap- palled Bob. ‘‘He’s aiming at me!”’ It’s no great shakes. CHAPTER XI. CADE ROG tee The hatchet was started for Bob’s head before he had time to think. ‘He saw it coming, and he struggled to dive, drop, anything—to get bexoud range of the terrible marksman. Bob. only ducked, but it saved ae Ss The hatchet struck the melon aslant, and slicing Bol’s scalp, split it clear in two and — pluinped into the water with a splash. A roar of amazement rang out, asithe two halves of the scooped out melon fell apart, revealing a human head. Click — click — click — prompt men these!. wea potis.: ‘‘Walk ashore!” Meyer: Bob calculated his chances. He was an expert swimmer, and diver, but he could Couldn’t © What's a six- : the expert. .— it clean, dangerously near to | Bob faced a row of gleaming not beat a speeding bullet. ae is Sx ‘In the name of the law ome eA “*Zounds !?? : - i oeeel “a should Be so }?” : ee : iyike
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NICK CARTER WEEKLY. a aes Rising from the water grandly, Bowker stretched out a commanding arm. If he had removed his vegetable hel- met, he might have appeared impressive. As it was, he was simply ridiculous. ‘‘Another one! You walk ashore, too.” “Bowker of Macaupin!’’ came from behind the green, dripping mask. “Tf I wasn’t sure this fellow was a lunatic, I’d say here was something seri- ous——’’ began the big fellow. “Lunatic, nothing! Look at that!” “The people of the State of Illinois command you began Bowker, grandly—‘‘wow !”? He had put the point of his finger on his glaring badge, but he snatched it away quickly. A bullet struck the Bigee plate and glinted, but Bowker went staggering. ‘It’s the police! Boys, they’ve been spotting us!’ ‘‘Have you?’’? demanded the giant of the crowd. ‘“Maybe!’’ placidly answered Bowker. In the name of the people——”’ ‘Bal! Around came the great swinging arm of the huge fellow. He gave Bowker-a blow that swept him with a bang against the caboose. “Follow him, if you don’t want the same!’ growled the surly scoundrel to Bob. This hedged them in twenty feet from the water. The man who had hurled the watehet cast a malevolent eye on Bob. “What Praughe you here?”’ manded. ‘This,’ Bob ice placed his. hand on = side of the car. “Rh 2)? “T was tracing up this lost caboose. ” ‘*What for?” ‘“To find what was in it.’ ‘And what was that?” A malignant hiss underlayed the sen- tence. The man’s wite-like whiskers almost bristled. Before Bob could answer there was a splashing sound, a rowboat approached, beached, and a man sprang out. — «Vhat’s him,’’ whispered Bowker. he de- praise the sparklers. _ began to smoke. 2 “The man you suppose to be the e grave SS robber?” Ves; pe) “Hello! what eve we here?” The mewconier was a man of far greater intellectual calibre than the others, and he spoke with an air of leadership. “What, indeed, but growled the big fellow. “‘VYou don’t mean it!’ ejaculated’ the newcomer wiili a start. “Look at that man’s badge. They stole up on us with their heads in floating watermelons. It isn’t safe here, Willis.’” “It’s got to be, for a day or two.”’ » “Risk or no risk ??” “*Risk? Who talks of risk !”” cried the man designated as Willis, with flashing’ eyes. ‘‘What have you three to fear—two years each. And 1? A lifetime. Bah! Be men, not mice—scared at the prying smnartness of soine backwoods fellows im- gaining theinselves sleuths. See here, boys, I’ve arranged for the goods,” ‘An eager urmur went the rounds. **A man will be here to-morrow to ap- We’ll soon handle the cash. Then we can’t go too quickly, say I. Here, march those two fellows up till I turn them inside out,”’ _ The speaker eyed Bob over keenly. ~ “Only a boy!? he sneered lightly. ‘‘Now, then, who are you??? Bowker of Macaupin came up. studing the man’s face as if he would devour him, and then his own suddenly assumed — a crestfallen air. “Pve made a faicaee he muttered, and Bob guessed that the remark apper- tained to lis supposed identification of the man as the fugitive grave robber. ‘*Vou have of your life!’ nodded the latter. ‘Here, fill a pipe, “boys. No, here’s something better.”’ He leaned over and snipped from BO: ker’s pocket a metal cigat case. It must have been a pretty tight recep: tacle, for as he took from it the single cigar it contained Bob observed that it the police!?? was perfectly dry. He lit it and assumed the air of a judge while his comrades ranged themselves at ze one side, a grim-faced jury. Bob noticed Bowker start as the ci Then Bowens e ya
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28 snapped and he nudged up closer to his fellow. prisoner. ‘When something happens, lad——” he breathed. ; ‘“‘What’s going to happen?’’ ‘‘When something happens, take what TI give you.”’ ‘What will you give me?’ “‘And do as-I do, and do the crowd.” ‘Say pores aes 92) “Sst! Be ready for the smash-up!”’ Bob was mystified at this singular talk. He could not make out his companion at -all,*but he knew that something sensa- tional boded. “Now then, plate——”’ “This is a badge, sir—a detective badge,’’ corrected Bowker. **Tt’ll do for your coffin. who Iam???’ ‘Thought I did.’’ ‘And now?” “I was wrong. I took you for one of the Lincoln grave robbets.’’ ' “Vou’re on the wrong lay,’’ nodded the man, easily. “Boys,” to his friends, **these two simpletons mean no particular harm. I guess we’ll just hive them up till we get ready to leave!’’ **No!? pronounced the giant fellow hoarsely, and ‘No! no!’ caine as forci- bly from the other two. ‘Won't have it, eh? Slit your own weazands, then. Ill have no hand in it, Eh??? as one of them whispered to him, and he looked with new interest at Bob— ‘‘was you on the track of this ear??? -—“T said so,’’ answered Bob, boldly. ‘*And the—what it had i in‘ it?’ ‘‘Tust.?? “Why >?” ‘*T was sent.’’ ‘Who by?” Ta the first place, the railroad com- any”? “Ah! that!’’—and Willis snapped his fingers derisively. you fellow with the Do you know “In the next place,’? and Bob fixed his eye steadily on the man, Carter.” “by Nick What??? “Tet’s get out!’ “Should say so!’? Spon t Ws deuce!?? Upon ie sti 2 the quartet NICK CARTER WEEKLY. that name produced an effect of dismay aud alarm. “ Bob. felt very greatly pleased. The - fame of Nick Carter had penetrated every corner of the land, the terror of Nick Carter might be used as an instrument to _ frustrate the designs of these fellows. Fe _ ‘See here, my friends,’? spoke up Bob. persuasively, ‘‘I represent. Nick Carter, and he’s a hard one to beat. The con- ~ tents of that safe he will hold you re- — sponsible for. You won’t enjoy them long, if you take them. Give them up, — and go your ways, whoever you are, we won't trouble you.”’ ‘“Well! the cheek!” **] don’t know about that,’’ muttered Willis. ii The last speaker’s face was decidedly — thoughtful.” He took a long, reflective puff at the cigar, and seemed to be turning Bob’s _ proposition over in his mind. “It’s coming!’ whispered Bowker to— Bob, excitedly. “i ‘What is?” Bang! The catastrophe was precipitated. There was a report, a flash, a flare. The cigar that the leader of the des-— peradoes had taken from Bowker was es loaded ‘one. me Now it had gone off. “Quick !? spoke Bowker, edging oes up to Bob. ‘Quick, what?”? projected the latter. : ‘Take these. ’? Bob observed that his’ companion had groped quickly to his breast pocket. Out he had whipped a Seeds Fibs ber bag. He tore its mouth eet loose land palmed the contents—a dozen objects b: as walnuts and incased in tissue paper. ‘‘What are they?’ asked Bob, as half of them were forced into his hand. ; “Use them and see.’’ “How rye) oe : SAS Ido? z fe This snappy colloquy had been’ --per-— mitted by the fact that the explosion o the cigar had thrown the desperado. q tet into a natural state of confusio: The eyes of the leader had got ‘ ashes and tobacco, and the others crow around ae to see ‘if he was hurt. : “mm
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NICK CARTER WEEKLY. Then with a roar the giant fellow . turned to vent upon Bowker the resent- ment due such an indignity as playing a trick on their leader. ‘‘Zounds! we’ll smash you!’ he roared. Snap! **Give it to them!’ shouted Bowker to Bob. ‘"What are they?” “Torpedoes !?? Snap—snap. ‘“Red pepper torpedoes !”’ Snap! ‘‘My own invention. See ’em squirm! And holler. Bully boy! Ha! ha! In the naine of the people of the State of Ilinois I command you—whoop!”’ A cyclone of action, the redoubtable © Bowker had done what Bob recognized as “a big thing.’’ His unique melon cigar had not exhausted equipment. The tissue paper objects were torpe- does, and ‘‘terrors!’’ The first landed on the giant’s forehead, exploded, scattered, and he tumbled down as if struck by lightning. Raining the other torpedoes—Bob quickly catching the idea—the bombard- ment was the most effective the young detective had ever seen. Filled with red pepper, this fell over the quartet in acloud. The minute it filled their eyes they were helpless—the minute mouths and nostrils were pene- trated they became a howling, wriggling, half-crazed set. Bowker dodged in and out among them, and Bob helped. From grasp, belt tuse and loaded his farcical and pocket they removed the weapons of © the blinded group. From his own wonderful pockets Bow- ~ ker drew out an object that made Bob wonder if a couple of crowbars would not come next! It was a fine steel chain, to which delicate but strong handcuffs were at- tached. Gingerly, deftly, these were snapped on the wrists of one after the other of the __ desperadoes. ~ Bob ran into the cavern and explored it. He came otit with a beaming face. i ‘Round your safe?’? asked Bowker, ea io eee gost: es se fy ‘And the contents?” } het ete; 2 : Bob proudly touched a big. cles og) tunnder one arin. = Bowker asked aM to watch the: men — til] he-rowed down to Hopeville. ~ The quartet stared, glared and flared at their boy guardian when they ‘got so they could look out of the corners of their inflamed eyes. Bowker came back in an hour on a little steam yacht. It contained, besides himself, half a dozen local police officers. ~ ‘Hello!’ ejaculated the Hopeville sheriff the minute he landed. ‘What?’ asked Bowker. **You’ve made a big catch!” iS etame Dee ‘Rather. It’s the Dockrill gang—one of them’s a lifer, They escaped eight months ago from the Jefferson City peni- - tentiary. There’s a thousand dollars re- ward on this poet-looking leader alone.”’ Bowker of Macaupin was one big smile ~ of pride and exultation. “Tim not so worse asa detective, eh?’ he propounded to Bob, sinilingly. 3 ‘*VYou’ve done mea ‘big turn, and made Nick Carter your friend for life, 7 an- swered Bob, warmly. ‘“Phat’s worth more than all of the rest of it,’’? declared Bowker. ‘“Yes, Mr. Bowker,’’ continued Bob, “vou’re kind of given to red fire, red — pepper and stage effects generally, but _ the way it’s turned ont, you’re essentially - aud indisputably—all right!’ CHAPTER XII. A BRAVE FINISH. “Stop!” Chicago again and the vicinity of the — office of Lawyer Burt again, and Bob Ferret in a cab ordering a sharp halt. He' had just been from the recluse — home where he had inquired about Miss a Ethel Morse, to find that she was con- — valescent. : Bob had next started for Burt’s office. He had the diamonds, the documents that — covered the case—now to dig out its mo- tives and niysteries. Se bao like beginning at the wrote en first,*’? Bob was - ‘soliloquizing, when | saw . in the Lue of the law
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20 NICK CARTER WE KLY. building, in an attitude of intense dejec- tion, a person who crossed his vision like a phantom. - Out from the cab sprang Bob, and ran promptly up to this person, If he did not know that Miss Ethel Morse was lying sick in bed, he would have sworn that this was the young lady in male attire! ‘“The very picture! I never saw such a resemblance,’? murmured. Bob. ‘‘Ex- cuse me,’’ he spoke, reaching the young man. ‘‘Will you tell me your name??? The other looked up. He had an aris- toeratic, expressive face, but seared with gloonr and dissipation. ‘Why should I?’ he demanded. **Ts it—Morse?”” 6( Veg, ?? ‘‘Have you a sister—a Miss Ethel Morse ?”? . Vesa twin sister. us “And you are in trouble??? ‘““Who are you?’ resented young. Morse. “Never mind. I am a friend—hers and yours. ”” Seam in eat ine: " _ With the lawyer who has an office up stairs??? ‘Silas Burt, yes.” “T thought so. Is he-in now?” . ~* “’NIo, he has just left the city.’’ Bob reflected rapidly. The young man’s face was dejected. He spoke the lawyer’s name bitterly. Bob fitted to- gether the pieces of a possible theory. Then he said: “‘T want to tell you something.’’ He told young Morse Hiei start to finish.. He was giving away valuable in- formation on a risk, but he believed it “was a wise move. From wonder to alarm, and this to ad- mitation, gratitude and excitement, the young man’s face became a vivid play- ground of varied emotions. “Oh!” he cried. “Why. did I. not know this two hours ago!” “Why ??? demanded Bob. “J will tell you all. My twin sister his office and I resided with General Warren Morse. | _ He has been in Europe for six months. _ After he left, I got in with a bad crowd— this man Burt among them. iron guard gates. “T got playing cards. night. Burt showed bearing my uncle’s name. Sok ‘*He claimed I had passed them in as. stakes ina game—that they were forger- ies. os ‘‘“He demanded that I pay them— twenty thousand dollars. ““HWe went to my sister, and tpeatened to arrest ime and bring her into court as a Witness. ‘‘She fled from the house. people suppose we are in the White Mountairs, summering. ‘‘She, to save ime, diainonds to Burt. ae ‘“To-day he summoned me here. . He ‘made me sign a paper, acknowledging those forgeries. “‘T suppose he still had the naies and the diamonds. . “‘T now see that he has gone to Cleves land to sell that confession to my uncle, delivered up. the who, on his way home, is staying a week - there with a friend; ‘“To silence a scandal the general will pay him. ‘Then he will drive myself and poor Ethel from his home!’ ~~ “No, he won’t!’? declared Bob, Poet tively. ‘*Oh, you give me hope!’ cried young Morse. ‘‘Tisten. I never knew I forged - the notes—I must have been intoxi- cated,” euax! Ness Burt drew you in,’ medi ‘Save me,’’ pleaded Morse, earnestly, Society — After a. wild = me several notes — and I will never touch wine or cards) se again!” “‘You think Burt has gone: to Cleve- land ??’ ‘Ves, I saw him consult a timetable. A train leaves at 10:15.” Bob glanced at his watch. “Ten minutes to intercept him !?? oe ejaculated, ‘‘Mr. Morse, take that card. Go straight to its address—Nick Carter, Palmer House. Wait there till I return.’’ Slam—snap—went door and whip of ae: the cab. “Drive for your life!’ ordered Bob. He glanced at the big clock on- ‘the front of the depot as he reached .it— Out he sprang—through the — IO:14 I-2. entrance Bob dashed. “ Clang! a bell—clang—the crash of the its be : aT ON Cates oy Fai ges
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NICK CARTER WEEKLY. Through them Bob saw the Morning Limited for the East just pulling out. On the observation platform of the last car stood Burt. ‘Let me pass—I want that train,’’ Bob ordered to the gateman. “*Tt’s started.’’ “IT can catch it.”’ “Against rifles,” “Not for me! Bob was desperate, Bob was resolute. He sized up the gate, he ran back twenty feet. ci “*Stop ‘aad Slam! Bob darted forward at full speed, lifted himself with a spring and shot through the criss-cross space above the gate likea . circus athlete. A slide, a keen run, a grasp at the polished brass platform rail of the last coach, and Bob had made it. Burt had re-entered the car. him out seated at a window. “Mr. Silas Burt,’’ he spoke, approach- ing. “Hh? Yes, that’s me.’? “You have a document in your pocket that you are taking to Cleveland to sell to General Warren Morse.” ‘What's that!” Ls *‘A document you extorted froma weak young man—a victim of your cunning arts.” ‘*Hold on, there!’’ “T want it. Next, you will get off this train at the T'wenty-second street sta- tion. ’’ “Say, who are you? You young——’ ‘Detective!’ supplied Bob, promptly. “TY come from Nick Carter. Perhaps you have heard of the gentleman?”’ The lawyet’s eyes dilated. Bob made ’ ‘He has the contents of your stolen steel _ safe, diamonds and documents, among them a paper of yours. Mr. Silas Burt, it proves that ten years ago you were a cotivict in the Mississippi State peni- _tentiary.”’ Burt almost fell over. grown ashen. ‘‘T’l] do as you say,’’ he faltered. “You will. Give me the paper.” A trembling hand passed over young Morse’s confession to the uncompromising Bob. His face had “Get off this train at nga Oa ae street, and never trouble General aie 7 or his wards again. ’’ : “*T promise. ’’ “Forget them. Never dare mention the errors into which you led a.weak young fellow who is going to reform. — If you ever trouble him with a word, a hint, a threat, we unmask yon to thie public. ”? It was letting Mr. Silas Burt off light, Bob acknowledged, but he wanted to give young Morse a clear field in which to re- deem himself. Before noon Bob happily closed up a case on which until now he had been working in the dark. He took young Morse to his sister and he took the documents and the dia- monds from the stolen steel safe with him. Gently he revealed to Miss Ethel Morse that her uncle need never know the ter- tible ordeal through which they had passed during his absence. Then, followed by the graceful thaales of two ‘happy souls, Bob Ferret returned — to the guiding genius, the veteran detec- tive, whose schooling and direction had enabled him to make a wonderfyf, RAish to the wonderful chase involve eon ~, Carter’s newest mystery. a a THE END. + ie oe The next number of the a ne Weekly will contain ““A Young * tive’s Air-Route;.or, The Great inte, Mystery.’ Ps ee aa a LATEST ISSUES. 223—Working in the Dark; or, A Novice Lends a Helping Hand. 222—Nick Carter’s Newsboy Friend; or, The Great Sandoval Mystery. 221—Worse than Murder; or, Nick Carter's Second Assistant on the Suburban Robberies 220—’Mid Flying Bullets; or, Lively Times on the Chesapeake. 219—From Hotel to Prison Cell; or, A Criminal Globe Trotter’s Useless Bribe. eee en ae T;” or, Nick Carter and the Body- atcher 217—Nick Carter’s Double Header}; or, The Ins and =~ Outs of a Boston Sensation. ; 216—A. Confession by Mistake; or, A Helping Hand to an Unwilling Prisoner. 3 215—Nick Carter’s Name at Stake; or, After the Sun- set City Sharpers. i ae 214—Blackmailed for Thousands; or, The Facts in the ~ Famous Ford Poisoning Case. 213—A. Swindler in Petticoats; or, Nick Carter's | Pretty Prisoner. 212—The Wizard of the Cue; or, Nick Carter and the Pool Room Case. 211—Run Down in Toronto; or, Nick Carter's By ca for a Friend. Back uumbers always on hand If you cannot get our =a publications from your newsdealer, five cents a oe. will | bring: them to Jous by: mail, posta KS wee
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The Experience of A Pretty Typewriter Girl in. Chicago. 80 PAGES TYPEWRITTEN (‘Something Good.) Sent in plain wrapper postpaid -for Bie. in silver or stamps. WALKER & WALKER, Dept. M Q, 1105 Star Building, Chicago, IM. When writing to advertisers piease mention “Nick Carter Weekly.” 1 Solid Gold Shell Gem Set Birthday Ring, war- Chain Bracelet 4 Free for selling only 1b Ten Cent Packages of Rose Per. x a‘ 5 fume, Send address to-day (no money.) We mail perfume to be paid for when sold. MUTUAL ©0..Dent.L.0 88 Griswold St..Detrolt.Mich- sh ‘When writing to advertisers please mention “Nick Carter Weekly.” Laat ey = a ws es Ss Eee oe F NIGHT SCENES OF CITY LIFE. (Something Good.) ¢ > a @ Day 8400 Fine Watches at Bankrupt Sale prices, Tk goa Gold quadruple-plated cases, elegantly en- graved and finished in appearance to equal a $50 Solid Gold watch, These accurate Railroad Timepieces retail at ty $16 to 620 each and are intended for i, Conductors special use. Stem wind y & sot. Fine Nickel jeweled movements Sent in plain wrapper, postpaid, on receipt of \ 20 YEARS. bad Ure 2s¢. (in postage or coin.) u #4 Without a Cent in Advance. If found z * i the greatest bargain you cver siw pay express THE ROYAL PUBLISHERS, BOR 80 Sire Trse trint, He nove ret meses Dept. [1.0., 90 LaSalle Street, Butivinar adie ocean, teat hak Seana ee CHICAGO, ILL. HARRINGTON & CO., Dept. C.M, 169 Wabash Ave.,Chicago When writing to advertisers please mention “(Nick Carter Weekly.” When writing to advertisers please mention ‘Nick Carter Weckly.” FREE TRIAL CLERGYMEN TESTIFY TO THE MARVELOUS CURATIVE POWERS ) of SWANSON’S “5-DROPS.” “This time a year ago I was obliged to use crutches on ac- count of Rheutiatisn, but now, thank God and the regular constant use of ‘s-DROPS,’I am active and able to attend to all the duties of my sacred calling. Had my trouble not been chronic before I began ‘to use your wonderful remedy I feel im perfectly Jsatisfied that my cure would have been almost im- mediate."—Rev. Father Mackey, St. James’ Church, West Duluth, Minn. " “Wor twenty long years my wife suffered untold tortures from Sciatic Rheumatism and Neuratgia, and I thank for the day that your heaven-sent remedy fell into my hands, for it Soniple rely. cured her. I amaminister of the gospel, and when I find any who suffer I cannot help but recommend %-DROPS,’ for I know it wiil do more than you claim for it.”— Rev. F. M. Cooper, Washington Center, Mo. The above testimonials are certainly proof that it is worth while to secure at once a trial bottle of this mar- velous remedy. It is absolutely free. All you have to do is to write for it, CURES Rhenmatisi, La Grippe, Neural gia, Indigestion, Dyspepsia, Backache, Asthma, Brouchitis, Catarrh, Sleeplesstiess, Nervouse tress, Nervous and Neuralgic Heade aches, Heart Weaktiess, Toothache, Earache, Croup, Malaria, Neryous AN) Bl er esi pever ceca Himbness and a 00 iseases. KFRADE MARK.) it does not'‘matter whether you are suffering from Inflammatory, Nervous, Muscular or Are tictlar Rheumatis«n; whether your whole system is full of uric acid; whether every part of your body is aching and every. joint is out-of shape, “5-DROPS” if used as directed in the necessary quantity will positively give in- stant relief and effect a permanent cure. 50,000 BOTTLES eienaway Atrial bottle will be mailed free of charge to every reader of this paper who isa sufferer from atiy of the above-ttamed diseases. All that we ask you in returnisthat _ you take it as directed, and you will findit allthat we claim. It costs you tlothing, and you need feel under no obligations whatever in securing the trial treatment which we f offer. Here isan DpOE CARLY LO test a remedy without any expense to you. Certainly 4 nothing can be fairer than this. , : Wi oe ; NOTE -—Large size bottles (300 doses) will be sent prepaid to F ents 1,00. If it is Sot obtainable in your town, order from us dineat: =e . ; AGENTS WANTED—Write for Terms and Territory. "SWANSON RHEUMATIC CURE CO., © + 829-869 Swanson Block, GHICAGO, ILL. ; | When writing to advertisers please mention “Nick Carter Weekly."
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ya | | ORNATE ANOTHER NEW IDEA 4 he Shield Weekly | i. Sica ae TRUE DETECTIVE STORIES £ g q Are stranger than fiction. THe SnieL> Weekty is a new series of Detective Stories, but it is “something different.” Street & Smith’s long experience in the publishing business has taught them that the average man and boy like nothing better than good detective stories. We have, in the past, published many of the old style, where the detective passes through a series of marvelous and hairbreadth escapes and finally secures his quarry. THe SHieLo Weexty will, however, be az absolutely uew departure. Each and every number of the weekly will contain a history of a complete and intricate crime, the solution of which is worked out by the skill and ability of the » detectives. THESE ARE TRUE STORIES absolute chapters of experience taken e from the note books of the greatest and most noted Chiefs of Police in the largest cities of America # # & & Their fund of knowledge upon this subject has been drawn upon by special arrangement. We propose to demonstrate to the reading public of America through the SHis.p Weexty that the true histories of real crimes conlain as much and more of romance than do the imaginative tales which have heen constructed in the past hy the writers of detective stories. We feel that the time is ripe for the presentation of this absolutely new class of detective.tales. The first numyers in this series will consist of manuscripts fron) records in the archives of the Boston police, as repre-_ sented by INSPECTOR WATTS, who is well known throughout the New England States, in fact, throughout America, as one of the shrewdest and most clever Secret Service Officials in the world. The great inspectors of other large cities of the country will figure in due course. : . wm OA TALOGUBR-—_ I—Sheridan Keene, Detective; or, The Chief Inspector’s Best Man & 2—Silhouette or Shadow; or, A Question of Evidence 3—inspector Watts’ Great Capture; or, The Case cf Alvord, the Embezzler kal 4—Cornered by Inches; or, A Curious Robbery in High Life A ae | ir 5—The Man and the Hour; or, Sheridan Keene’s Clever Artifice t 6—Who Was the Model? or, Missing, a Beautiful Heiress 7—Under Seal; or, The Hand of the Guilty 8—A Lion Among Wolves; or, Sheridan Keene’s Identity 9—A Double Play ; or, Two Mysteries in One Net 10—A Frozen Clue; or, The Cold Storage Mystery l—Under the Knife; or, The Cloak of Guilt J 12—Arrested at the Tomb; or, Sheridan Keene on a Curious Case 13— In Bad Hands; or, Sheridan’ Keene’s Help to Some Country Visitors 14—The Mysterious Signal; or, Sheridan Keene on. the Water Front 15—Behind the Asyitum Bars; or, Turned Down asa Hopeless Case 16—A Paper Gold Mine; or, Sheridan Keene After Money Order Book 2409 al THE SHIELD WEEKLY tm sess. iE It is issued every week on Wednesday. CEN’ETS (¢ Try one. We know you It can be found on sale at all Newsdealers. @ J} PER COPY g will like it. A | { of STREET & SMITH, Publishers, 3 %2m5° oe RTO ILI a