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If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: The Man Without a Conscience - From Rogue to Convict - -Author: Nicholas Carter - -Release Date: November 23, 2020 [EBook #63864] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN WITHOUT A CONSCIENCE *** - - - - -Produced by David Edwards, Nahum Maso i Carcases, and the -Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - Transcriber’s Notes: - -The original spelling, hyphenation, and punctuation have been retained, -with the exception of apparent typographical errors which have been -corrected. - -Text in Italics is indicated between _underscores_. - -Text in Small Capitals has been replaced by regular uppercase text. - - * * * * * - - - - - NICK CARTER STORIES - - New Magnet Library - - Price, Fifteen Cents _Not a Dull Book in This List_ - - -Nick Carter stands for an interesting detective story. The fact that -the books in this line are so uniformly good is entirely due to the -work of a specialist. The man who wrote these stories produced no -other type of fiction. His mind was concentrated upon the creation of -new plots and situations in which his hero emerged triumphantly from -all sorts of troubles and landed the criminal just where he should -be—behind the bars. - -The author of these stories knew more about writing detective stories -than any other single person. - -Following is a list of the best Nick Carter stories. They have been -selected with extreme care, and we unhesitatingly recommend each of -them as being fully as interesting as any detective story between cloth -covers which sells at ten times the price. - -If you do not know Nick Carter, buy a copy of any of the New Magnet -Library books, and get acquainted. He will surprise and delight you. - - _ALL TITLES ALWAYS IN PRINT_ - - 850—Wanted: A Clew By Nicholas Carter - 851—A Tangled Skein By Nicholas Carter - 852—The Bullion Mystery By Nicholas Carter - 853—The Man of Riddles By Nicholas Carter - 854—A Miscarriage of Justice By Nicholas Carter - 855—The Gloved Hand By Nicholas Carter - 856—Spoilers and the Spoils By Nicholas Carter - 857—The Deeper Game By Nicholas Carter - 858—Bolts from Blue Skies By Nicholas Carter - 859—Unseen Foes By Nicholas Carter - 860—Knaves in High Places By Nicholas Carter - 861—The Microbe of Crime By Nicholas Carter - 862—In the Tolls of Fear By Nicholas Carter - 863—A Heritage of Trouble By Nicholas Carter - 864—Called to Account By Nicholas Carter - 865—The Just and the Unjust By Nicholas Carter - 866—Instinct at Fault By Nicholas Carter - 867—A Rogue Worth Trapping By Nicholas Carter - 868—A Rope of Slender Threads By Nicholas Carter - 869—The Last Call By Nicholas Carter - 870—The Spoils of Chance By Nicholas Carter - 871—A Struggle With Destiny By Nicholas Carter - 872—The Slave of Crime By Nicholas Carter - 873—The Crook’s Blind By Nicholas Carter - 874—A Rascal of Quality By Nicholas Carter - 875—With Shackles of Fire By Nicholas Carter - 876—The Man Who Changed Faces By Nicholas Carter - 877—The Fixed Alibi By Nicholas Carter - 878—Out With the Tide By Nicholas Carter - 879—The Soul Destroyers By Nicholas Carter - 880—The Wages of Rascality By Nicholas Carter - 881—Birds of Prey By Nicholas Carter - 882—When Destruction Threatens By Nicholas Carter - 883—The Keeper of Black Hounds By Nicholas Carter - 884—The Door of Doubt By Nicholas Carter - 885—The Wolf Within By Nicholas Carter - 886—A Perilous Parole By Nicholas Carter - 887—The Trail of the Finger Prints By Nicholas Carter - 888—Dodging the Law By Nicholas Carter - 889—A Crime in Paradise By Nicholas Carter - 890—On the Ragged Edge By Nicholas Carter - 891—The Red God of Tragedy By Nicholas Carter - 892—The Man Who Paid By Nicholas Carter - 893—The Blind Man’s Daughter By Nicholas Carter - 894—One Object in Life By Nicholas Carter - 895—As a Crook Sows By Nicholas Carter - 896—In Record Time By Nicholas Carter - 897—Held in Suspense By Nicholas Carter - 898—The $100,000 Kiss By Nicholas Carter - 899—Just One Slip By Nicholas Carter - 900—On a Million-dollar Trail By Nicholas Carter - 901—A Weird Treasure By Nicholas Carter - 902—The Middle Link By Nicholas Carter - 903—To the Ends of the Earth By Nicholas Carter - 904—When Honors Pall By Nicholas Carter - 905—The Yellow Brand By Nicholas Carter - 906—A New Serpent in Eden By Nicholas Carter - 907—When Brave Men Tremble By Nicholas Carter - 908—A Test of Courage By Nicholas Carter - 909—Where Peril Beckons By Nicholas Carter - 910—The Gargoni Girdle By Nicholas Carter - 911—Rascals & Co By Nicholas Carter - 912—Too Late to Talk By Nicholas Carter - 913—Satan’s Apt Pupil By Nicholas Carter - 914—The Girl Prisoner By Nicholas Carter - 915—The Danger of Folly By Nicholas Carter - 916—One Shipwreck Too Many By Nicholas Carter - 917—Scourged by Fear By Nicholas Carter - 918—The Red Plague By Nicholas Carter - 919—Scoundrels Rampant By Nicholas Carter - 920—From Clew to Clew By Nicholas Carter - 921—When Rogues Conspire By Nicholas Carter - 922—Twelve in a Grave By Nicholas Carter - 923—The Great Opium Case By Nicholas Carter - 924—A Conspiracy of Rumors By Nicholas Carter - 925—A Klondike Claim By Nicholas Carter - 926—The Evil Formula By Nicholas Carter - 927—The Man of Many Faces By Nicholas Carter - 928—The Great Enigma By Nicholas Carter - 929—The Burden of Proof By Nicholas Carter - 930—The Stolen Brain By Nicholas Carter - 931—A Titled Counterfeiter By Nicholas Carter - 932—The Magic Necklace By Nicholas Carter - 933—’Round the World for a Quarter By Nicholas Carter - 934—Over the Edge of the World By Nicholas Carter - 935—In the Grip of Fate By Nicholas Carter - 936—The Case of Many Clews By Nicholas Carter - 937—The Sealed Door By Nicholas Carter - 938—Nick Carter and the Green Goods Men By Nicholas Carter - 939—The Man Without a Will By Nicholas Carter - 940—Tracked Across the Atlantic By Nicholas Carter - 941—A Clew From the Unknown By Nicholas Carter - 942—The Crime of a Countess By Nicholas Carter - 943—A Mixed Up Mess By Nicholas Carter - 944—The Great Money Order Swindle By Nicholas Carter - 945—The Adder’s Brood By Nicholas Carter - 946—A Wall Street Haul By Nicholas Carter - 947—For a Pawned Crown By Nicholas Carter - - - - - THE MAN WITHOUT A CONSCIENCE - - OR, - - FROM ROGUE TO CONVICT - - - BY - - NICHOLAS CARTER - - Author of the celebrated stories of Nick Carter’s adventures, - which are published exclusively in the NEW MAGNET LIBRARY, - conceded to be among the best detective tales ever written. - - - [Illustration] - - - STREET & SMITH CORPORATION - PUBLISHERS - 79-89 Seventh Avenue, New York - - - - - Copyright, 1906 - By STREET & SMITH - - The Man Without a Conscience - - - (Printed in the United States of America) - - All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign - languages, including the Scandinavian. - - - - - THE MAN WITHOUT A CONSCIENCE. - - - - - CHAPTER I. - - AN INQUISITIVE CLERK. - - -“Bureau of Secret Investigation.” - -Nick Carter glanced at the above sign over the door, an unpretentious -and somewhat faded reminder of better days, while he descended the -flight of stone steps leading into the basement offices of the Boston -police department. - -The sunlight lay warm and bright in Pemberton Square at ten o’clock -that May morning, shedding over the magnificent new court-house a -golden glory consistent, no doubt, with the wise dispensation of -justice, yet in monstrous anomaly with some of the dreadful experiences -and grim episodes sometimes enacted within those splendid sunlit walls. - -Nick turned to the right in the main corridor and entered the adjoining -office, quite a commodious room, in which the general business of this -secret service branch of the local police department was conducted. - -The enclosure back of the chief clerk’s high desk, which also was -topped with a brass grating, happened to be vacant when Nick entered. -In one corner of the room, however, a subordinate clerk was busily -engaged in attempting to repair a slight leak in the faucet of the -ice-water vessel, and to this young man the famous New York detective -addressed himself. - -“Has the chief been in this morning?” he asked. - -The clerk bobbed up from his work as if startled, drying his hands with -his handkerchief, and stared sharply at Nick for several moments. But -he saw nothing familiar in the stranger’s grave, clean-cut features. - -For all that this clerk knew, or surmised, Nick might have been an -ordinary or very humble citizen, who had quietly dropped in there for -want of something better to do. - -“Chief Weston?” he returned inquiringly, still sharply scrutinizing -Nick. - -“There is no other chief in this department, is there?” was Nick’s -reply, with a subtle tinge of irony. - -“Well—no.” - -“Chief Weston, yes,” bowed Nick. “Is he in his office?” - -“I believe so.” - -“Busy?” - -“I reckon he is, just now.” - -“Reckon, eh? Don’t you know?” - -“Yes, sir, he’s busy,” the clerk now said, a bit curtly, flushing -slightly under the detective’s keen eye and quietly persistent -inquiries. - -“He’s not too busy to see me, I think,” replied Nick, with dry -assurance. “Go in and tell him I’m here.” - -“Who are you?” - -“Never mind who I am.” - -“I’ll take in your card.” - -“No card,” said Nick tersely. - -“Your name, then?” - -“Nor any name.” - -“But——” - -“Merely tell the chief that his friend from New York is here.” - -The expression in the eyes of the irritated clerk lost none of its -searching interest, yet they now took on a rather different light, as -if he had been suddenly hit with an idea. Yet he still frowned slightly -and said: - -“If you object to having your name mentioned——” - -“I do object, young man,” Nick now interrupted, with ominously quiet -determination. “Your chief may possibly have persons in his office -before whom I do not care to have my name announced. Now, you go to -him and deliver my message just as I gave it to you, neither more nor -less, or you’ll very suddenly hear something drop—providing you still -retain your senses.” - -Now the clerk laughed, as if amused by the cool terms of the quiet -threat, and then he turned quickly and vanished into a short passageway -between the outer room and Chief Weston’s private office. - -Nick gazed after him with a rather quizzical stare—a slender chap -of about twenty-five, with reddish hair, thin features, a sallow -complexion thickly dotted with freckles, and a countenance lighted by a -pair of narrow gray eyes, that greenish-gray sometimes seen in the eyes -of a cat. - -“I wonder what use they have for him around here?” Nick said to -himself, while waiting. “If I were chief in this joint, it’s long odds -that that red-headed monkey would get his walking-ticket in short -order.” - -The subject of these uncomplimentary cogitations returned in less than -a minute. - -“You are to walk right in, sir—this way,” he glibly announced, with -much more deference. - -At the same time he opened the way for Nick to pass into the enclosure, -and through the passage mentioned. - -“Thank you,” said Nick, with half a growl. - -“Don’t mention it,” grinned the clerk. “Straight ahead, sir. Chief -Weston is at his desk.” - -Nick heard, meantime, the tramp of men through a corridor adjoining the -opposite side of the outer office, and he knew that Chief Weston had -immediately dismissed them, to receive him in private. - -“So, so; the business is important,” he rightly conjectured. - -The door closed behind Nick of itself, but the snap of the catch-lock -hung fire until after the hearty voice of the Boston chief of -detectives, as he arose and gripped Nick by the hand, had sounded -through the room. - -“How are you, Nick?” he cried cordially. “I’m a thousand times more -than glad to see you, Carter, on my word.” - -“Same to you, Weston,” laughed Nick. “Some time has passed since we -met.” - -“Too long a time, eh?” - -“That’s right, too.” - -“Have a chair.” - -Now the catch-lock snapped lightly. - -A finger between the door and the jamb had been withdrawn. - -A reddish head drew away from the panel, a pair of ears ceased their -strained attention, a light step retreated through the passage, and two -narrow gray eyes like those of a cat indicated that their owner had -now satisfied his inquisitive yearning, and learned the name of the -visitor who so peremptorily had issued his commands. - -As Nick accepted a chair near that taken by Weston at his desk, he -carelessly jerked his thumb toward the door by which he had entered. - -“Where’d you get him, Weston?” he asked dryly. - -“Get whom?” queried the chief, with inquiring eyes. - -“The clerk.” - -“Hyde—the one who announced you?” - -“The same.” - -“Oh, he’s been at work on the books out there for about a year. He’s -only an assistant clerk.” - -“Ah, I see.” - -“Why did you ask?” - -“For no reason.” - -“Nonsense! You must have had some reason, Nick.” - -“None of consequence,” smiled Nick. “I asked about him, in fact, only -because I had to fairly drive him in here when I declined to send in a -card or mention my name.” - -Chief Weston threw back his head and laughed. - -“That’s easily explained,” said he, still chuckling. “I growl at him -roundly at regular intervals, Nick, for annoying me with visitors whom -I neither know nor wish to see. I am getting him by degrees, however, -so that he requires the whole pedigree of a caller before announcing -him, which is about as bad a fault, I imagine. Sandy is all right, -though, in his own peculiar way.” - -“Sandy, eh? That’s a nickname, I take it, because of his red hair?” - -“No, not exactly. His name is Sanderson Hyde.” - -“Ah, just so.” - -“I took him in to oblige a journalist friend,” added Weston, smiling. -“It’s always well to stand ace-high with the press, you know.” - -“That’s right, too,” nodded Nick, now willing to digress. “You sent for -me to come over here from New York, Weston. What do you want of me?” - -“You got my wire?” - -“Certainly.” - -“Did Chick come with you?” - -“No,” replied Nick, at this reference to his chief assistant. “I came -over alone.” - -“Are you busy in New York just now?” - -“I’m always busy, Weston.” - -“Too busy to undertake a little work for me?” - -“Where?” - -“In and about Boston.” - -“What’s the nature of it?” - -“There is nothing in giving you all of the details, Nick, unless you -are in a position to accept an offer and help me out,” Chief Weston -gravely rejoined. “First of all, Nick, may I count on you?” - -The brows of the celebrated New York detective knit a little closer -over his keen gray eyes. He drew up a bit in his chair, remarking -gravely: - -“Your business is important, Weston, or you would not have sent for me.” - -“Very important.” - -“A serious matter?” - -“Decidedly.” - -“Have your own men tackled it?” - -“Yes, the very best of them.” - -“With no results?” - -“None but absolute failure.” - -“Are they now at work on the case?” - -“Some of them.” - -“And you wish me to take a hand in the work?” - -“I certainly do.” - -“If I consent to do so, Weston, I shall impose one condition,” said -Nick decidedly. - -“I expect it.” - -“You do?” - -“Certainly,” nodded the chief. “Am I not familiar with your methods? -You will require me to order all of my men off the case and give it -entirely to you.” - -“That’s the condition,” said Nick bluntly. - -“I will accept it.” - -“And leave the matter to me alone?” - -“Precisely. In no way whatever shall you be interfered with.” - -“Very good.” - -“You will undertake the work for me?” - -“I will hear of what it consists,” replied Nick, with his curiosity -stirred. “If it is all that your remarks imply—well, Weston, you may -then count on me to give it an argument.” - -“Capital.” - -“Now, cut loose and give me the facts of the case.” - -Chief Weston opened a drawer of his desk and took out a batch of papers -and documents, among which was a neatly mounted photograph about five -inches square, such as may be taken with a small portable camera, or a -kodak. - -While he placed the papers on his desk, he handed the photograph to -Nick Carter, saying impressively: - -“First examine this, Nick, and tell me what you make of it.” - - - - - CHAPTER II. - - MODERN HIGHWAYMEN. - - -While the Boston chief sat silently regarding him, Nick Carter studied -the photograph attentively for several moments. - -“H’m!” he presently grunted. “The picture is quite plain. Two -automobiles appear to have met in a lonely woodland road.” - -“Precisely.” - -“Only part of one of them is visible in the picture,” continued Nick, -commenting upon the various details. “The picture was evidently taken -by an occupant of one of the cars.” - -“Correct.” - -“In the road near the other machine stands a very tall woman, closely -veiled, who is pointing a revolver, evidently at the occupants of the -other car.” - -“Exactly.” - -“They are not visible in the picture, however, except the extended -hand of one of them, obviously the hand of a woman. She is passing a -purse, two watches, and what appears to be several pieces of jewelry, -to a masked man, who is standing near the woman holding the leveled -revolver.” - -“Those are the main features of the picture, Nick,” nodded Weston. -“Now, what do you make of it?” - -Nick glanced up and replied: - -“It looks to me like a hold-up.” - -“That’s just what it was.” - -“When and where?” - -“Near the Brookline suburb, about a week ago.” - -“Is this the case on which you wish to employ me?” - -“One of them.” - -“There are others?” - -“Fifty, Nick, within the past two months.” - -“Whew!” whistled Nick, with brows lifting. “I have read in the -newspapers that you have had numerous highway robberies about here, but -I did not imagine them to be so frequent as you state.” - -“Because only a small part of them have been given publicity,” replied -Weston. “I have suppressed many, Nick, in the hope of thereby getting -some traceable clue to the crooks.” - -“Yet you are all still in the dark?” - -“Never more so, Nick,” was the grave rejoinder. “In the past two months -there have been, as I have stated, upward of fifty of these highway -robberies.” - -“Early and often, eh?” - -“Decidedly so. These hold-ups have been committed, moreover, with a -boldness and daring that invests them with a peculiarly mysterious -character. Whether they are the work of two or three professional -crooks, or that of a larger organized gang of them, is hard to say. At -all events, Nick, we have been absolutely unable to get any traceable -clue to the identity, haunts, or headquarters of the rascals.” - -“Have two of these hold-ups ever been committed at precisely the same -time?” - -“Not that have been reported.” - -“If that had occurred,” explained Nick, “it would indicate that a -considerable gang is at work.” - -“Two hold-ups in one evening is the nearest approach to it,” said -Weston. - -“In the same locality?” - -“Within a mile of one another.” - -“Were the crooks in an automobile?” - -“Yes, in both cases.” - -“Then both jobs may have been done by the same persons.” - -“I feel quite sure of that, Nick, for the same description of the -thieves and their automobile was given me by the victims of both -outrages.” - -“Do these crooks always work from an automobile?” - -“In the majority of the cases reported,” bowed Weston. “Yet at times -they have appeared on horseback, and on several occasions afoot. The -work, Nick, is that of two or more men and a woman, as nearly as I can -judge, and all of them are possessed of extraordinary nerve, boldness, -and sagacity. They have committed these crimes at all hours of the -day and night, frequently in quite public places, yet they have thus -far completely evaded detection and pursuit. They invariably do their -rascally job with a decisiveness and despatch that completely awe their -victims, who are usually so alarmed——” - -“Stop a moment,” said Nick quite abruptly. “I’d like to ask you a few -questions, Weston.” - -“Very well.” - -“If I decide to look into this case, I shall then have some few -points already settled, and will need to waste no time in seeking the -information myself.” - -“Exactly,” nodded the chief. “What do you wish to know?” - -“First, about the crooks themselves,” said Nick. “What have you in the -way of descriptions of them?” - -Chief Weston laughed. - -“A variety, Nick, to fit any type of man except a humpback or one -dismembered,” he replied. - -“The descriptions vary, eh?” - -“I should say so.” - -“Possibly the robbers use a different disguise for each job.” - -“Very likely.” - -“Or, as nearly always is the case,” said Nick, “the victims of the -robbers were so frightened or excited at the time that they retain only -vague and exaggerated impressions of their assailants.” - -“Precisely.” - -“To illustrate that,” added Nick, “I know of a case of a noted -prize-fighter, who was held up and robbed of his watch and money in -broad daylight, and within fifty yards of Central Park. He declared -that the thief was six feet tall, weighed one hundred and eighty -pounds, and was backed by two confederates, whom he could not quite -recall. We got the crook next day.” - -“Yes?” - -“He was under five feet, weighed one hundred and thirty pounds, and did -the job entirely alone.” - -“Quite a difference!” exclaimed Weston, laughing heartily. - -“Rather,” smiled Nick. “As a matter of fact, the prize-fighter was -so scared when he saw a revolver thrust under his nose that the crook -loomed as big as a house. Probably thinking that such a job would -not be attempted single-handed, he afterward got it into his head -that he saw the two confederates, and was so thoroughly convinced of -the imaginary fact that he really believed it. I could cite numerous -similar cases.” - -“So could I, Nick.” - -“Descriptions are not at all reliable, as you imply, yet they sometimes -help one a little.” - -“That’s true.” - -“In a general way, then, you think there are at least two men and one -woman in this gang?” - -“The cases reported convince me of that,” bowed Weston. “That picture -shows the woman, moreover, though two men are mentioned in the majority -of robberies reported.” - -“Are the men always masked?” - -“No, not always. The woman is invariably veiled, however, and the -descriptions of the men indicate a frequent change of disguise.” - -“That is to be expected,” said Nick. “Now, about the automobile used by -the knaves. Have any attempts been made to follow it or to trace it?” - -“Repeated attempts, Nick, all of which have proved futile.” - -“Has none of the victims been able to report its registered number?” - -“We have had a dozen different numbers reported,” replied Chief Weston; -“but investigation showed that all of them were fictitious.” - -“Yet the crooks might be located, chief, if the make of the automobile -were known,” suggested Nick. “That should have been easily learned by -some of these people.” - -Chief Weston shook his head. - -“That would be true, Nick, providing the scamps always used the same -machine,” said he. “Half a score of different automobiles have been -reported as having been used by these knaves at the time of the -numerous hold-ups.” - -“H’m!” grunted Nick, with a shrug of his broad shoulders. “Evidently, -then, these crooks have considerable money invested in their rascally -enterprise.” - -“It certainly appears so.” - -“How about the horses ridden by them?” Nick next inquired. “Can the -owner of none of them be discovered?” - -“In the few cases in which persons have been held up by a horseman,” -replied Weston, “the highwayman has usually been alone. According to -the description given, moreover, he has as many horses as automobiles, -for he has appeared on grays, bays, blacks, and sorrels.” - -Nick laughed at the glibness with which the last was said. - -“It seems a bit odd to me, Weston, that none of your men have been able -to get on the track of these desperadoes,” he presently rejoined. “It -is not often that a gang of highwaymen can long escape detection and -arrest, when at work in and about a city like Boston.” - -“They are not ordinary knaves, Nick,” emphatically declared Chief -Weston. “If they were, we should have landed them long ago.” - -“Where do these robberies usually occur?” - -“Generally in some lonely part of a suburban road, though several have -taken place in the evening, right in the heart of Brookline, Cambridge, -and Newton,” replied Weston. “It is evident that the crooks select -their victims from the more wealthy suburbs, presumably with a view to -obtaining the more plunder.” - -“How do they usually proceed?” - -“In various ways, Nick, according to my reports. At times they block -the road with their car and hold up the first automobile-party that -appears, which, of course, is obliged to stop. Having relieved the -travelers of their property, the crooks then forced them to turn their -machine about, under the muzzles of leveled revolvers, and depart at -full speed. If the frightened victims return in a few moments, as once -or twice has been the case, they reach the scene, only to find that the -knaves have fled.” - -“Naturally,” said Nick smilingly. - -“They have adopted, in fact, innumerable methods for holding up an -automobile-party,” added Weston, “and they invariably intimidate their -quarry and get away with the goods.” - -“Of what does their plunder usually consist?” inquired Nick. - -“Money and jewelry. They take all that their victims have, and the most -of them give up readily rather than take any chances of being shot in -cold blood.” - -“Have you been able to locate any of the stolen property in the -pawn-shops?” - -“Not a piece of it.” - -“Judging from your reports, Weston, what is the value of the property -thus far secured by these highwaymen?” - -“Thousands of dollars, Nick. Close upon fifty thousand, at least.” - -“Have there been house burglaries about here of late?” - -“Very few.” - -“It looks, then, as if these knaves were confining themselves to this -road work.” - -“I think so,” bowed Weston. - -Nick glanced again at the photograph, which he still retained in his -hand. - -“This was one of these hold-ups, was it?” said he. - -“Yes.” - -“It occurred in Brookline?” - -“In a lonely road leading into Brookline,” replied Weston. “The victims -were Brookline people, and were robbed of some five hundred dollars’ -worth of diamonds and jewelry, including what money they had with them. -The victims were two ladies, taking an afternoon ride in a Stanley -machine.” - -“Did they have a chauffeur?” - -“No.” - -“How was that?” - -“One of the women, Mrs. Badger, is an expert driver, and frequently -rides without a chauffeur.” - -Nick glanced again at the photograph—little dreaming at that moment, -however, how important a clue he then held in his hand. - - - - - CHAPTER III. - - NICK CARTER HELD UP. - - -Despite that he then attached no special significance to the -photograph, the fact that Nick Carter was of a peculiarly -impressionable nature, and that any unusual circumstance quickly -stirred his rare detective instinct, appeared in his next question and -the abruptness with which it was asked. - -“How did it happen, Weston, that this picture of the scene was taken -during the robbery?” - -“I’ll tell you,” replied the Boston chief. - -“One moment,” interposed Nick. “First, tell me something about the -victims of the robbery.” - -“The Mrs. Badger mentioned,” replied Weston, “is the wife of one Amos -G. Badger, a wealthy Boston stock-broker. He owns a fine old place -on one of the most desirable outskirts of Brookline, inherited from -his father some years ago, and the couple move in the most exclusive -circles of the local fashionable society. Badger’s place is on Laurel -Road, and covers several acres.” - -“Go on,” nodded Nick; “I follow you.” - -“Mrs. Badger’s companion that afternoon was her sister,” continued -Weston, “a woman locally famous under the name of Madame Victoria.” - -“Famous for what?” inquired Nick. - -“Well, she claims to be an astrologer, a spiritual medium, and a sort -of fortune-teller, I believe,” explained Chief Weston. - -“H’m!” - -“At all events, Nick, she does a tremendous business, and has a -magnificent suite in an office building on Tremont Street, directly -opposite the Common. No end of wealthy and fashionable people consult -her, either for advice in business or love-affairs—or to get messages -alleged to come from dead friends,” added Weston, laughing a bit -derisively. - -“I don’t take any stock in that stuff,” said Nick bluntly. - -“Nor do I, Nick,” was the reply. “Yet the woman is certainly a -character, and, if reports are true, has made very many remarkable -predictions, and displays a most mysterious faculty for communicating -with the unseen world.” - -“Bosh!” - -“Like you, Nick, I have no faith in any of that rot!” laughed Weston. -“Yet I know half a dozen brokers who consult her regularly as to the -course of the stock-market, as well as many other business men, all -of whom claim to derive great advantages thereby. Her rooms are always -occupied by some patron, either male or female, and her fees are very -high. So there may be a little more in it, Nick, than you imagine.” - -Nick shook his head incredulously. - -“Come back to Hecuba,” he growled. “You say that this woman is sister -to Badger’s wife?” - -“Yes.” - -“What is her right name?” - -“Victoria Clayton.” - -“A euphonious name, at least.” - -“Badger’s wife was a Claudia Clayton, and at one time was on the -stage,” continued Weston. “She, too, is a remarkably clever and capable -woman, an accomplished linguist, a votary of physical culture, an -expert tennis and golf-player, and one of the best cross-country riders -among the cultured sporting set who lean to such pastimes. Both women, -in fact, are over the average, and out of the ordinary.” - -“Did Badger marry his wife from the stage?” - -“I think not, Nick. She had retired some time before. They have been -married about five years, I believe.” - -“Come back to the picture,” said Nick. “It must have been taken just as -the hold-up occurred.” - -“Yes, it was.” - -“Were the crooks aware of it?” - -“No, indeed.” - -“How was the trick pulled off?” demanded Nick curiously. “It’s not -often that such a clever dodge is played upon professional crooks.” - -“The woman who did it is clever, just as I tell you.” - -“Tell me how it happened.” - -“I will give you the facts as they were given to me.” - -“By whom?” - -“By Amos Badger and his wife,” replied Chief Weston. “He notified me -by telephone of the robbery, and called here with his wife the next -morning to report the details of the hold-up. Two days later, as soon -as it could be finished and mounted, Badger brought me the photograph.” - -“What about the hold-up?” - -“It was committed about a week ago, at three o’clock in the afternoon,” -said Weston. “Mrs. Badger and her sister, Madame Victoria, were -returning from Canton to Brookline. When in a lonely section of a road -that leads through a considerable belt of woods, they rounded a sharp -curve and came suddenly upon a large automobile standing at an angle -across the road. A man appeared to be fixing some break in the works, -and was crouching beside it, while a woman stood near-by in the road, -apparently watching him.” - -“Were they the only occupants of that car?” - -“Yes, as the picture indicates. They were, too, the only persons in -sight in either direction.” - -“The machine appears to be a Winton.” - -“That’s what it was, Nick, for Mrs. Badger noticed it.” - -“Go on,” nodded Nick. “What more?” - -“Naturally Mrs. Badger slowed down, nearly stopping, for the road was -almost completely blocked by the other car,” continued Weston. “Then -the veiled woman seen in the picture suddenly stepped forward, leveled -a revolver, and commanded Mrs. Badger not to start her auto without -permission.” - -“H’m!” exclaimed Nick. “That was bold, indeed.” - -“At the same moment the man, who was seen to be masked, sprang up and -approached the two startled women, and commanded them to hand over -their jewelry and money, and to be very lively about it.” - -“Which they did?” - -“Yes, Nick, for the women naturally were much alarmed. Both hastened -to obey, though Madame Victoria did, I believe, undertake to make some -argument or protest. She was cut short, however, with a threat that -quickly silenced her.” - -“I see.” - -“She had on the seat of the car, however, a small camera, which she -frequently carries, one of her fads being that of securing pretty -views, of which she has several large volumes. Looking down, she -observed it, and had the presence of mind to conceal it with her hand, -at the same time snapping it and luckily catching the picture you have -there. I told her it was a clever piece of work, Nick, yet it is much -to be regretted that the faces of the crooks were covered. Otherwise, -we should possess a clue well worth having.” - -“I believe your story,” assented Nick. - -“The crooks, having secured their plunder, ordered the women to drive -on, which they were very willing to do,” concluded Weston. “They were -too frightened to venture back in pursuit of the rascals, but hurried -home, to notify me by telephone.” - -For some moments Nick had worn a decidedly thoughtful expression, as if -he already had some project in his mind. Before the chief had fairly -ceased speaking, moreover, Nick said bluntly: - -“I’d like to talk with Mrs. Badger.” - -“By telephone?” inquired Weston, wondering at the wish. - -“No, personally.” - -“You may easily do so by going out to Brookline.” - -“I’ll go!” exclaimed Nick, abruptly rising. “I suppose I may keep this -photograph for a short time?” - -“Certainly.” - -“As regards my undertaking to round up the rascals guilty of these -robberies—well, I will give you my answer a little later,” Nick went -on to say, as he opened the door by which he had entered. “I have no -doubt, old friend, that it will be a favorable answer.” - -“I hope so, Nick, I’m sure,” declared Weston, as he followed the former -into the outer office, where Nick briefly halted. - -Sanderson Hyde, perched upon a stool in the enclosure, appeared busy -over his books, not so much as looking up at the intruders. - -“Are you going out at once?” inquired Weston. - -“Yes,” replied Nick, slipping the photograph into his pocket. “There -are a few questions I wish to ask Mrs. Amos Badger. If I can find a -public automobile, Weston, I think I will go out there in it. It’s the -quickest conveyance, and this is a fine morning for a ride.” - -“You’ll find what you want at the corner below,” replied Weston. “The -machine is all right, and so is the man. Grady is his name. Mention -mine, Nick, and there’ll be no charges.” - -“Oh, I’ll see that Grady gets his fee, all right,” laughed Nick, as he -turned to leave the office. “I’ll see you later, Weston, probably early -this afternoon.” - -“Do so,” nodded the latter. - -Then he turned to the busy clerk and added, a bit sharply: - -“What did you say to that man, Hyde, when he came in here this morning?” - -Young Sanderson Hyde looked up with raised brows. - -“Nothing of consequence, chief,” he respectfully answered. “Only a few -words about sending in his card.” - -“Do you know the man?” - -“No, sir. I don’t recall ever having seen him.” - -“Well, the next time you see him take a good look at him, for that man -is Nick Carter, the greatest detective that ever stood in leather.” - -“The dickens!” gasped Hyde, with manifest astonishment. “You don’t mean -it, chief! Not Nick Carter himself?” - -“I always say what I mean,” growled Weston. “Hereafter, show him into -my office without delay.” - -The catlike eyes followed the burly figure of the speaker as he -returned through the passage, and presently the snap of the catch-lock -sounded through the office. - -Then Mr. Hyde laid down his pen and came out of the enclosure. His -tread was more light and cautious than ordinary business should have -required. He glanced sharply into both of the adjoining corridors, -listened intently for a moment, then darted into a telephone-closet -near-by and tightly closed the door. - -Nick Carter found Grady on the corner mentioned, a shrewd-looking -young Irishman, seated in an excellent runabout, reading the morning -newspaper. - -“Do you know Laurel Road, Brookline, Mr. Grady?” asked Nick, halting -beside the machine. - -“I know pretty near where it is, sir,” said Grady, alert for business. -“I can find it for you, all right.” - -“Take me out there,” said Nick, mounting to the seat. “To the house of -Mr. Amos Badger.” - -“The broker, sir,” nodded Grady. “I know the man, sir. I’ll land you -out there in thirty minutes, sir, or less, if you say the word.” - -“I’m in no special hurry,” said Nick. “Keep down to the speed limit.” - -He did not tell Grady his name, nor that he came from the police -headquarters. Neither did he enter into much conversation with the -man, for Nick was absorbed in thought about the disclosures made him, -and the various possibilities of the work he was invited to undertake. - -Grady, on his part, was not quite as good as his word. He ran a mile or -two out of the direct course to Laurel Road, and then he had to round -the great Chestnut Hill reservoir in order to hit the right track. - -There are numerous wooded roads on the outskirts of fashionable -Brookline, along which the attractive dwellings are much scattered, or -divided by extensive estates; and through one of these roads Grady was -sending his machine at a faster clip, to make up for lost time. - -Suddenly, from out a little piece of woods some fifty yards away, a -drunken fellow came staggering into the road, much as if he had just -awakened from a nap in the shrubbery; and Nick Carter, being the first -to see him, said quickly to his driver: - -“Look out for that chap, Grady.” - -“I see him, sir,” nodded Grady. - -“He has a load aboard.” - -“I should say so.” - -The intoxicated man now heard the automobile approaching him from -behind. He turned around, halting unsteadily in the middle of the road, -where he stood swaying and staring as if too fuddled to know which -side of the road to seek to avoid being run over. - -Grady naturally slowed down when scarcely twenty feet from the fellow. - -“Get out of the road!” he impatiently yelled. “Take one side or the -other, blast you!” - -The auto had come to a dead stop. - -The man in the road reeled a little to one side—and a little nearer. - -Then, with movements as quick and decisive as a lightning stroke, he -sprang forward, whipped out a brace of revolvers, leveled them straight -at the heads of the two men in the auto, and sharply cried: - -“Hands up! If you start that machine, driver, I’ll blow your head off!” - -The voice was as firm and cold as ice, yet it had a ring as threatening -as when blades of steel cross in deadly combat. - -Nick Carter fairly caught his breath. - -“Held up, by thunder!” was his first thought. - - - - - CHAPTER IV. - - THE ESCAPE. - - -How to get the best of the highwayman was Nick Carter’s second thought. - -This did not look to be easy, yet Nick’s hand instinctively went toward -his hip pocket. - -“Stop! Hands up!” - -The reiterated command fairly cut the air with its threatening -intensity. - -Grady’s hands were already reaching after clouds. - -Nick Carter’s now followed suit, and went into the air. - -In the voice, eyes, and attitude of the ruffian in the road, there -was that which convinced Nick that disobedience and defiance would -certainly invite a bullet. - -He saw, moreover, that the aim of the scoundrel was true to the mark, -and that the finger on the trigger of the weapon covering his own -breast was already beginning to contract, during the moment that he -showed signs of giving fight. - -“If one of you move before I command it,” said the highwayman, “I will -instantly open fire upon you. And I never miss my aim!” - -The threat was as calmly made as if the speaker had merely inquired -the time of day, yet the voice did not for a moment lose its terribly -convincing ring. - -Nick seized the opportunity to look him over, and he felt comparatively -sure that he was up against the same man that appeared in the Badger -photograph. - -The fellow was roughly clad at this time, however, with a soft felt hat -drawn over his brows. - -He was a well-built, athletic man, apparently somewhere in the forties; -yet he was as quick as a cat in his movements, and evidently was -endowed with supple muscles and nerves of steel. - -The rascal was heavily bearded, yet this did not figure for much with -Nick Carter. He rightly judged that the man was carefully disguised, -yet the make-up was so cleverly prepared and adjusted that Nick, -despite his experience in such artifices, could not detect it. - -What Nick chiefly noted, in fact, was that the eyes of the man had -in them the piercing gleam of deadly resolution, a fixed and vicious -determination to execute the desperate deed that he had undertaken. -There was no sign of intoxication now, which plainly had been assumed -only for the purpose of holding up the travelers. - -Though not lacking in courage, Nick Carter had his share of wisdom and -discretion. He saw at a glance that he was entirely helpless for the -moment, at least, and he had no idea of deliberately inviting a bullet. - -Such stirring episodes occur in a very few moments, and not thirty -seconds had passed since the hold-up, when the voice of the highwayman -again cut sharply upon the morning air. - -“Chauffeur, you do what I command, or worse will be yours,” he cried -sternly. “Lower one of your hands and remove your employer’s watch.” - -Grady hesitated for the bare fraction of a second. - -Nick saw the hand clutching one of the weapons begin to contract. - -“Obey him, Grady,” said he, with ominous curtness. - -“Bedad, I don’t like——” - -“One more second, and I’ll——” - -“Obey him!” hissed Nick, with suppressed vehemence. “Obey him, you -idiot!” - -Nick saw at a glance that that one more second would have ended with -Grady’s receiving an ounce of lead. - -Grady had the true grit and pugnacious characteristics of an Irishman, -but he now dropped one hand and removed Nick’s watch and chain. - -The highwayman came a step nearer, until he stood barely six feet away -in the dusty road. - -“Toss them to the ground at my feet,” he commanded, with his evil eye -fixed upon the chauffeur. - -“Do so, Grady,” said Nick. - -Grady obeyed with an ugly scowl, and the watch and chain landed in the -dust at the ruffian’s feet. - -“Now, your employer’s purse.” - -“In the breast pocket of my vest, Grady.” - -“Look lively.” - -Grady dove into Nick’s vest and drew out his pocketbook. - -Nick still sat with his hands in the air, but not for a moment did his -eyes leave those of the highwayman. - -Though at first inclined to send Grady into his hip pocket after his -revolver, Nick realized that the Irishman might not be quick and -accurate in using it, and also that the crook was alert to their every -move. The hazard was too great to be taken, and Nick decided to submit -to the situation for the time being, and watch for an opportunity to -turn the tables on the rascal. - -Grady drew out the pocketbook, which contained about a hundred dollars -and a few unimportant papers. - -“Toss it into the road,” commanded the highwayman. - -“Let it go, Grady,” said Nick. - -“Your employer has more wisdom than you, Grady,” said the crook, with -a threatening sneer. “Obey at once, or I’ll let daylight into you.” - -Grady tossed the pocketbook after the watch and chain. - -“Now, up with your hands again!” - -“Bedad, mister, some day the boot’ll be on the other leg,” snarled -Grady, as he obeyed. - -“It’ll not be to-day, Grady, take my word for that,” retorted the -ruffian. - -“The day will come, nevertheless,” Nick Carter now said, with ominous -quietude. - -“Do you think so?” - -“I certainly do.” - -“Well, I don’t.” - -“That is because you do not know who I am,” said Nick pointedly. - -“I don’t care who you are.” - -“You don’t, eh?” - -“I certainly don’t.” - -“You will change your mind later.” - -The scene was a curious one, the two men in the runabout seated with -their hands high above their heads, while the man in the road stood as -coolly intimidating them as if not the slightest danger existed for -him, either from them or the sudden approach of some intruders upon the -scene. - -Nick had begun the conversation with the scamp in the hope of catching -him napping for an instant, or that some person or another automobile -might appear; but neither of them seemed probable, for the woodland -road was deserted, and the highwayman did not for a second relax his -vigilance or lower his leveled weapons. - -With Nick Carter’s last remark, however, the rascal’s eyes took on an -uglier gleam, and he evidently decided that he had better not defer -making his escape. That he was clever in so doing, and foresaw that his -victims might possibly be armed, appeared in the way he accomplished it. - -With both men constantly under his eyes, he said sternly: - -“The slightest move by either of you will cost him his life. I warn you -that I shall instantly fire, not caution you again; so keep that in -mind, and be wise.” - -Then he slipped one of his revolvers into his coat pocket. - -With the other weapon constantly covering his victims, with his gaze -never leaving them, he slowly crouched down and groped over the ground -till he had secured the plunder lying there, which he also dropped into -his pocket. - -Then he rose erect again, and drew his other weapon. - -Nick was mentally praying for an opportunity to get just one shot at -the knave when he resorted to flight. - -The flight of the rascal, however, was as original and unexpected as -his every other move had been. - -“Now, Grady,” said he, with threatening austerity, “you do just what I -tell you, neither more nor less.” - -“Begorra! it looks as if I’d have to.” - -“You bet you will!” - -“What is it?” - -“You start that machine of yours slowly, and turn it into the shrubbery -at that side of the road.” - -“How am I going to start it with me hands in the air,” snarled Grady, -who had really seen Nick’s desire to delay matters. - -The voice of the highwayman again took on that vicious ring which had -warned Nick not to oppose him then and there. - -“Don’t you speak again, Grady, or this gun will drown the sound of -your voice,” he cried quickly. “You start that machine and turn it -into the shrubbery—and don’t forget, either of you, that I shall keep -you constantly covered. Start her up, Grady, and turn sharp out of the -road!” - -With the ugliest kind of a scowl, Grady gripped the steering-bar and -slowly started the runabout, turning toward the shrubbery that lined -the road in that locality. - -Just as the Irishman did so, however, there suddenly sounded from up -the road the warning toot of an automobile-horn. - -“Steady!—not a move!” yelled the robber warningly. “If you drop your -hands, mister, I’ll fire!” - -Nick could not then see the scoundrel, for he had darted back of the -runabout when Grady turned it from the road. - -Glancing quickly in the direction from which the horn had sounded, -however, Nick now beheld a large touring-car come sweeping around a -sharp curve of the road, some thirty yards away. - -It was driven by a man with a beard, who was the one occupant of the -car, and whose eyes and features were almost entirely masked with a -pair of huge dust-glasses. - -Nick now thought he could see a favorable finish to this unexpected -hold-up, for the touring-car was approaching at a high rate of speed, -and the escape of the thief appeared next to impossible. - -Yet the latter, while reiterating his threatening commands, only backed -a few paces toward the middle of the road. - -The man in the approaching car evidently saw what was going on, and he -began to slow down. - -The rear of the runabout was now toward the road, with the machine -half-hidden in the shrubbery. - -“Stop her!” whispered Nick, not yet venturing to turn about on the -seat. “Stop her at once!” - -He did not wish to go too far in from the road. - -Grady felt that he was taking his life in his hand—yet he promptly -obeyed. - -Instantly two sharp reports of a revolver rang out on the morning air. - -The reports were followed by others, nearly as loud, occasioned by the -bursting of the two rear tires of the runabout. - -The highwayman had sent a bullet through each rubber tire, obviously -bent upon partly disabling the runabout and thus preventing pursuit. - -Then, just as the huge touring-car arrived upon the scene, the daring -rascal darted back through the veil of smoke from his weapons and -leaped aboard the car. - -“Let her go!” he yelled commandingly. - -The driver instantly gave her full speed, and the car swept on down the -road with the velocity of an express-train. - -Already upon his feet in the runabout, Nick Carter whipped out his -revolver and fired twice at the occupants of the departing car. His aim -was ruined by Grady, however, who excitedly began backing the runabout -into the road, and Nick’s bullets went wide of their mark. - -In ten seconds the touring-car was vanishing in a cloud of dust around -a distant curve of the road. - -“Hold on!” roared Grady, thinking Nick was about to alight in the road. -“I’ll follow them divils, sir, tires or no tires!” - -“Follow nothing!” growled Nick, thrusting his revolver back into his -pocket. “You might as well try to follow a streak of lightning.” - -“Will you let that blackguard escape?” - -“Let him escape!” exclaimed Nick derisively. “I should say, Grady, that -he has already escaped. You could not overtake him with this machine if -your life depended upon it.” - -“Bedad, that’s right, sir,” Grady now admitted, more calmly. “Yet the -man in that car may try to do the rascal——” - -“Bosh!” interrupted Nick, with a growl. “The driver of that car was the -robber’s confederate.” - -“D’ye think so?” - -“I know so, Grady,” declared Nick, now plainly seeing how the entire -job, which had taken less than five minutes, had been planned and -executed. - -“I suspected as much when the man slowed down only enough to let the -crook aboard,” added Nick. “His approach was timed to a nicety. It’s -odds that he was watching the hold-up from beyond the curve of the -road, and that he knew just when the other wanted him to approach.” - -“Bedad, sir, I reckon you’re right.” - -“Oh, we have much the worse of it for the present, Grady, and have been -held up by two of the gang of crooks now at work in these parts,” added -Nick. “But I will yet break even with them, I give you my word for -that.” - -“Me tires——” - -“I will see that you are paid for them,” interrupted Nick, much to -Grady’s satisfaction. “Can you run the machine back to town as it is?” - -“Sure, sir, I can.” - -“Well, I don’t wish to return quite yet.” - -“All right, sir.” - -“Keep on, Grady, and take me to Badger’s house,” Nick bruskly -commanded. “Look lively, too! This does settle it, Grady, as far as I -am concerned.” - -“What d’ye mean, sir?” - -“I mean that I will land this gang of highway robbers, every man and -woman of them, or lose a leg in the attempt,” cried Nick, with Chief -Weston’s request then in his mind. “That’s what I mean, Grady. Let her -go lively, my man, and head straight for Amos Badger’s house.” - - - - - CHAPTER V. - - THE HOUSE IN LAUREL ROAD. - - -The direction taken by Nick Carter and Grady to reach Laurel Road and -the house of Amos Badger was the same as that in which the highwayman -had fled with his confederate in the touring-car. - -Nick felt some little chagrin over thus having been successfully held -up and robbed, yet this feeling was somewhat assuaged by the fact that -he had obtained a good look at the thief, and had a clear impression of -his general features. - -Nick felt quite sure, despite the rascal’s disguise, that he could -identify him if they again met, or, at least, recognize his peculiarly -keen eyes and cutting voice. - -Though it then gave him no surprise, the distance to Laurel Road from, -the scene of the hold-up was less than a quarter of a mile, and then -about the same distance to the place owned and occupied by Mr. Amos -Badger. - -The surroundings were about as stated by Chief Weston. - -The road ran through an extreme outskirt of the town, and was for the -most part shut in by woods, cleared only here and there for building. - -There were but three dwellings on this secluded road, none of which -was within view of Badger’s place, which was less modern and much more -extensive than the others, as if it had been a family homestead for -several generations. - -Nick surveyed the place with some interest as he approached it. - -The house was a large, wooden mansion, standing fully fifty yards from -the road. It had a broad veranda in front and on one side, the latter -terminating with a porte-cochère at the side entrance of the house. - -A gravel driveway between a double row of elms and beeches led in from -the road, passing the front and one side of the house, then leading out -to a large stable well to the rear of the dwelling. - -In addition to these there were several wooden outbuildings, one of -which was a long carriage-house adjoining the stable. - -The features mentioned, together with the broad estate covered with -garden plots and shade trees, with a background of woods in the near -distance, gave the entire place a rural aspect not often seen so near a -large and thickly settled town. - -As the runabout sped up the long driveway, Nick saw a man cleaning -a large automobile just beyond the porte-cochère; but the vehicle -bore no resemblance to the one in which the crooks had fled, and the -circumstance did not then appeal to him with any special significance. - -“Run round to the side entrance, Grady,” said he. “I’ll ask that -workman who’s at home.” - -Grady nodded, and presently brought the runabout to a stop under the -porte-cochère. - -Nick quickly sprang down and approached the man at work near-by. -Instead of making any inquiry concerning the inmates of the house, -however, Nick abruptly demanded: - -“Have you seen an automobile pass along Laurel Road, my man?” - -My man was one Jerry Conley, chauffeur, hostler, and all-round workman -out of doors for Mr. Amos Badger. He was a short, stocky man, of about -thirty years, with a head nearly as round as a bullet. His face was -smoothly shaven, and was lighted by a pair of as shifty, crafty eyes -as ever lighted a human countenance. - -They came round with half a leer to meet those of the detective, -while the man arose from his work on the car. Wiping his hands on his -overalls, he indulged in a series of jerky nods, steadily eying Nick -all the while, then deliberately inquired: - -“What’s that you say?” - -“I asked if you had seen an automobile pass along Laurel Road,” replied -Nick, not half-liking the fellow’s looks. - -“Aye, I have,” said Conley. - -“Which way did it go?” - -“Which one d’ye mean?” - -“Which one?” echoed Nick, sharply eying the fellow. “I mean one that -may have passed within five or ten minutes.” - -It was then less than ten minutes since the robbery. - -“Oh, if that’s what you mean, mister, I haven’t seen any,” Conley now -vouchsafed, with a less steadfast scrutiny of Nick’s countenance. - -“You haven’t, eh?” - -“Not to-day.” - -“Did you think I meant last week?” - -“I didn’t think at all, mister,” said Conley, stooping to pick up a -bit of cotton waste from the ground. “I only heard what you asked, and -that was whether I’d seen an automobile pass along Laurel Road. I’ve -seen hundreds of ’em, mister, but none this morning.” - -“You should have known that I meant this morning.” - -“So I would, mister, if you’d said this morning,” Conley replied, with -a leer. “I never know more’n I’m paid for knowing.” - -“See here, my man,” said Nick quite sternly. “If the master you serve -carries the same cut of jib as yourself, it’s long odds that he——” - -What more Nick would have said was abruptly withheld, however, for his -quick ear heard the side door of the house opened, and then the fall of -a man’s feet on the veranda, followed by the inquiry: - -“What’s the trouble, Jerry?” - -“None at all, sir,” replied Conley, turning with a grin to his -questioner. “Not unless this gentleman is looking for trouble, which I -reckon he isn’t.” - -Nick had already turned to survey the first speaker, whom he rightly -conjectured might be Mr. Amos Badger, despite that it was then an hour -when a stock-broker should have been busy at the market. - -He stood near the rail of the veranda, an erect, well-built man of -forty, cleanly shaven, with dark hair and eyes, the latter lighting a -rather attractive yet noticeably strong and determined face. - -He was in slippers, and wore a house-jacket of figured woolen, while -his neck was bandaged with several thicknesses of red flannel, as if -he was afflicted with a sore throat or with a cold. This was further -evinced by his hoarse voice when addressing Conley, yet his gaze all -the while was fixed upon the detective. - -Nick promptly took up the remark of the chauffeur, saying, with a quiet -laugh: - -“No, I’m not specially looking for trouble. I have had enough of it for -one day.” - -“Enough of trouble?” inquired Badger, with an air of wonderment at -Nick’s meaning. - -“Quite enough, sir, and at considerable expense. I’m out a valuable -watch and chain also what money I had on my person.” - -“Not robbed?” - -“That’s what,” nodded Nick. “Held up by the crooks who are doing such -rascally work in these parts. But there’ll come a day of reckoning, -sir, you may safely wager your whole fortune on that.” - -There stole into Badger’s dark eyes, which were still fixed upon Nick’s -face, a momentary gleam of resentment. - -“What sent you here so quickly after being robbed?” he asked, with -sinister inflection. “Did you expect to find the thieves in my house?” - -“Oh, no, not at all.” - -“Or did you come to condole with me over a like mishap, since misery -likes company? The headquarters of the police is, I should say, the -proper place for you to have hurriedly visited.” - -“I have just come from there,” replied Nick, a bit dryly. - -“Ah, that is different.” - -“I merely asked that man if he had seen an automobile pass,” added -Nick, now approaching the veranda-steps. “As a matter of fact, sir, I -was on my way to this house when I was held up by the crooks. Is Mrs. -Badger at home this morning, or her husband?” - -“Both are at home.” - -“Ah, very good!” exclaimed Nick. - -“I am Mr. Badger.” - -“I would like a brief interview with you and your wife.” - -“Regarding what?” - -“The recent robbery of which your wife was a victim.” - -“Are you a reporter?” - -“I am a detective.” - -“From Pemberton Square?” - -“From New York,” replied Nick. “Yet I have just come from Chief -Weston’s office, in Boston, and at his request I shall undertake to run -down the gang of thieves who are at work in this section.” - -Though a doubtful smile curled Badger’s thin, firm lips at this -confident announcement, he at once displayed more cordiality when Nick -stated his vocation. - -“I hope that you may succeed, officer,” said he, with the same husky -voice. “Come into the house. From New York, did you say?” - -“Yes,” replied Nick, entering. “You may wait for me, Grady.” - -“All right, sir,” cried Grady, from his seat in the runabout. - -“What name, officer?” inquired Badger. - -“My name is Carter.” - -“Not Nick Carter?” - -“The same.” - -Badger appeared surprised, Nick observed, and his eyes lighted. He -quickly extended his hand, saying heartily, in wheezy tones: - -“Well, well, I’m glad to meet you, Detective Carter, and to hear that -you think of getting after these highwaymen. I know you by reputation, -sir, and I have no doubt that you will accomplish more than is being -done by Weston’s pack of mongrels. Forsooth, if you do not, you will -accomplish very little.” - -The last was said with a covert sneer that fell unpleasantly on Nick’s -ears. He decided, however, that Badger was probably nettled by the -failure of the Boston detectives to recover the property of which his -wife had been robbed, and Nick thought no more of the matter at that -time. - -As he followed the man into the attractively furnished library, from -the windows of which could be seen the stable and driveway, Nick -agreeably rejoined: - -“I am told that not much progress is being made against these road -robbers?” - -“None at all, Mr. Carter, that I can discover,” replied Badger, with a -scornful shrug of his shoulders. “Here is my wife, sir. Claudia, this -is Detective Carter, of New York, sent out here by Chief Weston to -inquire about the robbery. My wife, Mr. Carter.” - -In the light of what Chief Weston had told him about her, Nick surveyed -the woman with more than cursory interest. - -Though now but thirty, she still retained in face and figure most of -the beauty and freshness of youth. She was dark, like her husband, -and rather above medium height, with a figure at once noticeable for -its grace and suppleness. She had clean-cut features, a firm mouth -and chin, with a square jaw that plainly indicated more than ordinary -womanly strength. - -She met Nick with a lively flash of her dark eyes, and said agreeably, -as they shook hands: - -“I am pleased to see you, Detective Carter. I do hope you’ll excuse my -husband’s appearance, however, for he looks dreadfully with those red -flannels around his neck. A sore throat has confined him to the house -several days, and he insists that nothing but red flannel bandages will -cure——” - -“Oh, never mind my looks, Claudia,” interrupted Badger petulantly. “Mr. -Carter can put up with my looks, I’m sure, and probably he has more -important business than that of discussing the curative virtues of red -flannel bandages.” - -“No apology is necessary, Mrs. Badger, I assure you,” smiled Nick, as -he accepted a chair. “I did have a little business with you when I -started for here this morning, but I do not now regard it as important.” - -“How is that?” inquired Badger, with a furtive gleam of distrust in his -watchful eyes. - -“It has lost the element of importance,” laughed Nick. “I did intend -to question you closely as to the personal appearance of the rascals -by whom you were robbed, Mrs. Badger, but since I have now seen one of -them myself, I need make no inquiries. I have no doubt that the rascal -I encountered was the same by whom you were robbed.” - -“You don’t mean that you, too, have been robbed?” exclaimed Claudia, -with countenance reflecting profound amazement. - -“Exactly,” nodded Nick. - -“When?” - -“This morning.” - -“On your way here?” - -“Yes.” - -“Well, well! What are these suburban roads coming to, Amos?” cried the -woman, quite aghast. “It soon will not be safe to venture even into -one’s front yard.” - -“I believe you,” said Badger, with a wheezy growl. “I do hope, Mr. -Carter, that you’ll accomplish something. What do you intend doing -toward rounding up these scoundrels?” - -Nick laughed and shook his head. - -“That is a difficult question for me to answer at present,” said he. -“I must first discover some clue with which to start, some thread -that is strong enough to follow, and which possibly may lead to the -identification of the knaves and where they are located.” - -“Have you any such clue at present?” inquired Mrs. Badger, with a smile -and glance well calculated to invite a frank rejoinder. - -“Not the slightest.” - -“That’s too bad.” - -“Stay,” added Nick, as if with an afterthought. “I believe I have -something that may prove of advantage.” - -“Good enough!” exclaimed Badger, with eyes dilating curiously. “Of what -does it consist, Mr. Carter?” - -Nick was then reaching into his breast pocket, and did not observe the -speaker’s quickened interest, which had not been betrayed in his husky -voice. - -“A photograph,” he replied, producing it. “The one taken by you, Mrs. -Badger, at the time you were robbed.” - -“Oh, you are mistaken about that, Detective Carter,” Claudia quickly -exclaimed. - -“Mistaken?” - -“I took no photograph, sir.” - -“Yet——” - -“It was taken by my sister, Miss Clayton,” interrupted Mrs. Badger. -“Dear me, I couldn’t have done it for my life. I was so unnerved by -the terrible episode and sight of the robber’s revolver that I had no -power to see or do anything except what he commanded.” - -“Yet one of them was a woman,” smiled Nick. - -“I admit that, sir, but she had a revolver, and the mere sight of a -weapon has always terrified me,” explained Claudia, with a shudder. - -“You were quite sure that she was a woman?” inquired Nick. - -“Sure.” - -“That it was not a man clad in woman’s apparel?” - -“Oh, absolutely. Her voice would have convinced me of her sex.” - -“A voice may be assumed.” - -“Yet I am positive that I am right.” - -“She was thickly veiled, I understand?” - -“True.” - -“Then you did not see her face?” - -“I did not.” - -“Her figure, as seen in the photograph, appears very tall—too tall for -a woman,” persisted Nick. - -“Nevertheless, Detective Carter, I am positive that she was a woman, -and not a man in female apparel,” declared Mrs. Badger, with emphasis. -“Not only her garments and voice plainly prove it, but I also noticed -her hands. They were too slender, white, and well formed for the hands -of a man.” - -Nick now laughed lightly, remarking, in bantering tones, not then -attributing any serious weight to his words: - -“That last, Mrs. Badger, is capital. Yet I must observe that, for one -too terrified at the time to say or do anything but obey the commands -of that brace of crooks, you did note some quite delicate details. -Small hands, eh? Well, well, I think quite likely you are right.” - -A wave of crimson had risen over Mrs. Badger’s face, while on that of -her husband a darker frown was settling. - -“I only happened to notice the woman’s hands, Detective Carter, -merely because she held in one of them the revolver by which I was so -frightened, and from which I scarcely could take my eyes. Naturally, -then, I noticed the hand that held it.” - -Nick vaguely wondered why she had gone to the trouble to make this -explanation, for there seemed to him to be no special occasion for it; -and before he could frame any reply, Badger huskily demanded, with -sinister curiosity: - -“Why are you pressing such questions as these, Detective Carter? I -fail to see that they signify anything very important.” - -“It signifies considerable to me, Mr. Badger, this question of sex,” -replied Nick, with a quiet laugh. - -“Why so?” - -“Because I shall be able to proceed much more intelligently, sooner or -later, if I know positively that this gang of crooks consists only of -men, one or more of whom is masquerading at times as a woman.” - -“There is something in that,” admitted Badger. - -“Female highwaymen are not common in these days,” added Nick -pointedly; “and I find it hard to credit the evidence presented in -this photograph, despite your wife’s very natural confidence in the -reliability of her own eyes.” - -“I don’t much wonder at it,” Badger now laughed indifferently. - -“It is not at all material who took the photograph,” Nick went on. “I -understand that Miss Clayton has an office in town. I think I will call -upon her this morning, in the hope that she may have seen something -worthy of note at the time of the robbery. Am I likely to find her at -this hour?” - -“Yes, surely,” exclaimed Mrs. Badger, rising. “If you will wait just -one moment, Detective Carter, I will give you her business-card.” - -“If you please.” - -“You will then have no trouble in finding her rooms.” - -Nick bowed, then arose and took his hat from the table. - -Both Badger and his wife accompanied him to the door, the latter giving -him the card mentioned, and the former remarking, as Nick descended the -steps and entered the runabout: - -“I hope you’ll inform me, Mr. Carter, if you get any reliable clue to -the identity of these rascals. If I can aid you in any way, moreover, I -beg that you will command me.” - -“Thank you,” returned Nick, nodding for Grady to start the machine. “I -will bear it in mind, Mr. Badger.” - -As he rode down the driveway he read the card which he still retained -in his hand, but the name of Miss Clayton did not appear upon it. - -It was the card of—Madame Victoria. - -It gave the street and number of her suite of rooms, and announced that -she was an astrologer, an impressionist, and a spiritualist medium. -It further stated that she could tell one’s fortune from the cradle -to the grave, that she could be profitably consulted for information -concerning dead friends, lost articles, missing relatives and heirs, -or for advice in business matters, love-affairs, and all things -pertaining to one’s personal welfare. - -Nick read the card twice with considerable interest. - -“Quite a round of accomplishments!” he grimly said to himself. “I -wonder why she doesn’t locate the property of which she was robbed. The -woman is evidently a charlatan, a pretender, who imposes upon credulous -and weak-minded fools to get their money. - -“Madame Victoria, eh? Well, I will now give you a call, madame, and -possibly a call-down! I’ll wager I take means to fool and expose you!” - -Such was the trend of Nick’s thoughts after reading Madame Victoria’s -card, to whose rooms he next proceeded. - -Without the slightest faith in this woman’s alleged powers, however, -Nick was approaching one of the most strange and startling experiences -of his checkered career. - - - - - CHAPTER VI. - - MADAME VICTORIA. - - -It was nearly noon when Nick Carter, after dismissing Grady, entered -the handsome granite building on Tremont Street in which the rooms of -Madame Victoria were located. - -In so far as her pretentions to foretelling the future were concerned, -as well as her other alleged powers, Nick felt morally sure that the -woman was a fraud. Yet he decided to take no chances that she possibly -had seen him before, and would remember his face, and in the corridor -of the building he carefully adjusted a simple but effective disguise. - -In so doing, he had a double object, however; that of first getting -an insight into Madame Victoria’s business and her alleged occult -endowments, merely to satisfy his own curiosity; and, second, that -of afterward being able to return and question her about the robbery -without her suspecting his first visit. - -“I’ll have this much the best of her, at all events,” he said to -himself, while adjusting his disguise. “If she is as clever as she -claims to be, however, she should be able to see right through it. Yet -I wager that she does nothing of the kind.” - -In the corridor of the second floor was a door bearing Madame -Victoria’s name in gilt letters, and Nick unceremoniously entered. - -He found himself in an elaborately furnished waiting-room, with windows -overlooking the Boston Common. The carpet was velvet. The furniture was -upholstered with richly figured plush. There were fine lace draperies -at the windows, and the walls were hung with choice paintings, while -various ornaments of one kind or another added to the adornment of the -place. - -Nick decided that Chief Weston was correct in stating that this woman -did a lucrative business. - -From a chair near the window a young girl quickly arose, laying aside a -novel, and Nick inquired if Madame Victoria was in. - -“Yes, sir, but she is engaged just now,” said the girl. “She will be at -liberty in a few minutes, however.” - -“I’ll wait,” said Nick tersely. - -“Take a chair, sir. If you will give me your card, sir, I will take -it to Madame Victoria as soon as her visitor leaves, and will learn -whether she will give you a sitting at this time. It is nearly her hour -for lunch.” - -Nick did not discuss the matter. He gave the girl a card bearing a -fictitious name, with several of which he was always provided. - -Presently a richly dressed, middle-aged woman emerged from an inner -room, drying her eyes with her handkerchief. She hurriedly departed, -however, after viewing her hat and hair in the mirror. - -“She must have heard from some dead one,” thought Nick, with grim -derisiveness. “Either that, or some infernal calamity has been -predicted for her. I’m blessed if I’m not a good bit curious to know -what I shall get in there. Maybe I shall get it in the neck.” - -He had not long to wait, for the servant presently announced that -Madame Victoria would receive him in the inner room. - -Nick left his hat on the table, and entered. - -At first sight the view within was startling. - -The single window of the inner room was heavily curtained with black, -excluding every ray of daylight. Above a small square table in the -middle of the floor, however, there burned two electric lights -enveloped in green globes, the rays from which shed a weird and uncanny -light throughout the room. - -On the walls were hung numerous astrological charts, a number of -horoscopes of celebrated men, more accurately cast after death than -before; and along with these were various devices and insignia, of the -meaning and object of which Nick was entirely ignorant. - -On a stand near the table were several packs of playing-cards, -presumably for fortune-telling, if no other amusement. - -In other respects the room was well furnished, with a book-case against -one wall, a couch opposite, and several small but expensive chairs. - -What chiefly startled Nick, however, was less this curious appearance -of the room than that of its solitary inmate. - -Madame Victoria was seated at the table, a woman under thirty, large of -figure, without being corpulent, an attractive, self-reliant face, and -an abundance of brownish-red hair done up in picturesque disorder. She -was clad in a long purple robe, figured with small silver stars, along -with a crescent moon here and there among them, the whole conveying -a vague suggestion of a midnight sky. The garment was voluminous, -entirely covering her waist and skirts. - -From the large, loose sleeves, and in vivid contrast with the rich -dark-purple, protruded a pair of shapely bare arms and hands; yet both -these and the woman’s face, uplifted when Nick entered, were lent a -disagreeable, deathlike pallor by the green light of the room. - -Her first glance was at Nick’s left hand, at a valuable carbuncle ring -on the third finger, and then her eyes rose up to his face while she -abruptly exclaimed, with a curious mingling of vivacity and surprise: - -“Dear me! Oh, dear me, what a strange feeling, Mr. Sibley. I feel just -as if two men had entered this room.” - -Nick was a bit startled. - -Sibley was the name on the card he had sent in, and the woman’s -immediate remark, in the light of Nick’s disguise, was at least a -little peculiar. - -“Two men, eh?” said Nick inquiringly. “Well, I am quite alone, madame, -I assure you.” - -Madame Victoria struck her brow violently with her palm several times, -then shook her head, as if bent upon shaking out some of its ideas, and -finally cried, with obvious perplexity: - -“Well, well, this is quite extraordinary. I never had such a strange -feeling. I am impressed exactly as if two men had entered the room.” - -“Impressed?” - -“Take a chair, sir,” smiled Madame Victoria quite graciously. “You must -understand, Mr. Sibley, that I am what I call an impressionist.” - -“I hear and know the meaning of the word,” laughed Nick, with curiosity -still further piqued, “yet I cannot say that I fully understand.” - -Madame Victoria shrugged her fine shoulders, and regarded him archly -from under her lifted brows. - -“Ah, well, that is not to be wondered at, Mr. Sibley,” she replied -agreeably. “Very few people understand the true nature and source of -their own impressions, to say nothing of those of another.” - -“That is quite true, madame,” assented Nick, bowing. - -“In fact, sir, I cannot say that I understand even my own,” added the -woman, with a pretty display of frankness. “They are so vivid at times, -yet frequently seem so utterly improbable, that I often shrink from -expressing them. I should have felt so in this case, Mr. Sibley, and I -doubt if I should have said what I did, sir, had it not come from me -quite involuntarily, and before I could repress it. Of course, sir, I -see that you are entirely alone.” - -“You interest me,” smiled Nick, bent upon leading her on. “May I ask of -what your present impressions consist?” - -Madame Victoria drew forward in her chair, and rested her pretty arms -upon the table. Her face became grave again, and once more her eyes -briefly lingered upon the ring on Nick’s finger, yet in an absent way -that did not attract his attention. - -After a few moments, during which she appeared to be yielding to some -outside influence, she looked up at him and said: - -“There is something about you, sir, that I really cannot explain. I -cannot get rid of this impression of a double personality here. I will -try to fathom it, Mr. Sibley, if you will be patient.” - -“Take your time, madame,” said Nick, smiling at her across the table. - -Madame Victoria nodded and laughed, displaying her white teeth and -calling up a charming dimple in each velvety cheek. - -“As you probably know, Mr. Sibley,” said she, “people come here for -various objects. Some call to have their horoscopes cast, others -to have a mediumistic sitting with me in the hope of receiving -communications from dead friends, while others call to consult me about -business and love-affairs, or to have their fortunes told by the cards.” - -“So I imagined,” bowed Nick. - -“But you came for nothing of the kind, that’s my impression,” exclaimed -Madame Victoria, with an abrupt exhibition of earnestness. - -“It is quite correct.” - -“You have no faith in any of those things.” - -“That also is true.” - -“Dear me, I am awfully perplexed,” laughed the woman, apparently with -vain efforts to straighten out something in her mind. “You seem to me -just like two men, which I, of course, know is absurd. Yet I cannot rid -myself of the effects of that impression. I shall try to do all that I -can for you, however, and will give you what comes to me.” - -“If you please, madame,” said Nick, not a little impressed and puzzled -by her curious statements and apparently genuine endeavors. - -Again Madame Victoria beat her brow with her palm, so violently that -Nick did not wonder that her hair was somewhat disordered. - -As she suddenly fixed her eyes upon him, he noticed that they began -to dilate and glow with almost preternatural brilliancy, while she -abruptly exclaimed, as if under the impulse of another of her vivid -impressions: - -“You have recently been in danger, Mr. Sibley, in great danger!” - -“Is that your present impression?” inquired Nick. - -“Yes, sir. It must be correct, too, or I could not feel it so strongly.” - -“Go on, madame.” - -“You are a man who encounters many dangers,” Madame Victoria continued, -now speaking much more rapidly and earnestly. “Your life is made up of -stirring adventures and frequent perils.” - -“That is very true,” admitted Nick. - -“I see you hunting—hunting—hunting!” cried the woman, with suppressed -vehemence. “I don’t know what it means, sir, but you seem to be -constantly hunting, searching after persons and things, and delving -into all kinds of complicated mysteries.” - -“Well, well! that hits pretty near the mark,” laughed Nick. - -“Oh, dear! and I see you all surrounded with a red atmosphere, as if -you were not a stranger to violent combats and the sight of blood.” - -“I have seen my share of both.” - -“Yes, yes, that is plain to me, very plain,” she rapidly went on. “You -are a busy man, and you—wait! I am now carried away from here. I feel -as if I were riding in a railway-train. I don’t quite interpret the -impression as yet, but I feel—oh, now I have it! You don’t belong here, -sir, not in this city. You are a stranger here.” - -“Well, not exactly that,” replied Nick, more and more puzzled by the -accuracy with which she was hitting the mark. - -“I don’t mean that you never were here, and are not familiar with this -city,” cried Madame Victoria quickly. “I mean only that your business -is not here, that your interests are in some distant place. Isn’t that -right?” - -“Nearly so.” - -“I knew it was.” - -“How did you know it?” - -“Because of my impression, that of being carried away in the cars,” -explained the woman. “I presumably get it from you, sir, for I am -susceptible to all of the conditions surrounding those who come here to -consult me.” - -“That is quite mysterious.” - -“So many think.” - -“How do you explain it?” - -“I don’t explain it. I know only that it is so.” - -“Yet——” - -“One moment, please!” exclaimed Madame Victoria, again leaning nearer. -“You have recently lost something, Mr. Sibley.” - -Nick laughed. - -“Can you direct me how to find it?” he asked. - -“Am I right?” - -“Yes.” - -“I cannot tell what it is, yet—yet I feel that you miss something -usually carried on your person.” - -“That is true.” - -“No, I cannot direct you how to find it—at least, not at present. It -is not still, not located yet. It is moving—moving—moving. I see smoke -and hear guns. I feel the same impression as a moment ago—that you have -lately been in danger.” - -Again she was speaking with that rapid, vehement earnestness as -before, as if every sensitive string of her delicate organism had -been suddenly struck, thrilling her with new and strangely correct -impressions. - -Nick Carter sat watching her as a cat watches a mouse, but he could -detect no sign of simulation or treachery. Her voice, looks, actions, -and constantly changing moods all appeared to be perfectly genuine. - -“I admit that I recently have been in danger,” said he, in reply to her -last remark. - -Madame Victoria bowed over the table, again fixing her eyes upon him -with that strangely intensified stare. - -“There are greater dangers before you,” she rapidly declared. - -“Is that so?” inquired Nick, wondering what was now coming. - -“Much greater dangers.” - -“Of what kind?” - -“Many kinds.” - -“A general assortment, eh?” - -“You regard them lightly, but I judge that to be like you.” - -“Rather.” - -“If you do so at this time, Mr. Sibley, you will do wrong.” - -“Why so?” - -“The perils threatening you cannot be wisely ignored. I am impressed -with a conviction that your life is imperiled by——Stop a moment!” - -“Well?” - -Again Madame Victoria beat her brow, shaking her head violently, -apparently striving to get a clear interpretation of her impressions. - -“Ah, I have it!” she suddenly cried. “You are in Boston on -business—perilous business.” - -“Well?” queried Nick, determined to tell her nothing. - -“You came to me for advice?” - -“Yes.” - -“Then I advise you to drop it.” - -“Drop what?” - -“This perilous business.” - -“Do you know of what it consists?” - -“I do not get any impression of that,” replied Madame Victoria, with -curious nervous efforts to make her mind receptive to the information -desired, efforts that brought the perspiration to her neck and brow in -tiny drops. - -“No, no. I do not get it—cannot get it,” she presently added, with a -gasp. “I have no idea of what it consists. Yet I advise you to drop it.” - -“Because of the dangers it involves?” - -“Yes.” - -“They will not deter me,” said Nick, with a headshake. “I never run -from danger.” - -“There is yet another reason.” - -“For dropping the business?” - -“Yes.” - -“What is it?” - -“You will fail.” - -“Fail in my undertaking?” - -“That is my impression. Ah, I see you smile!” cried the woman, wiping -her damp cheeks and brow. “You do wrong to deride and ignore my -predictions. Ask others to whom I have given advice. I have never yet -erred in one of these predictions. Take my advice, Mr. Sibley, and -avoid the impending perils.” - -Nick had smiled incredulously, and arose to go. He saw that the woman -had no more to tell him, nor had he any inclination to hear more in the -same line. - -Having paid her fee in money obtained by cashing a check in order to -settle with Grady for the damage to his runabout, Nick bade Madame -Victoria good morning, and departed. - -At the door of the inner room the woman tendered him her hand, which -he gravely accepted, noting at the same time that it was damp with -perspiration, yet as cold as a hand of clay. - - - - - CHAPTER VII. - - THE DEEPER MYSTERY. - - -Nick Carter was puzzled. - -His interview with Madame Victoria had, in a way, left him on the rocks. - -He could not account for the knowledge which, in indirect and equivocal -terms, she had displayed. It plainly indicated that she had from some -source received information concerning him and his business designs, -as well as about the losses he had suffered in his encounter with the -highwayman. - -Had this information really been derived through the occult powers of -which the woman claimed to be possessed? - -Nick Carter was not ready to believe that it had, for he had but little -faith in the supernatural. - -On the other hand, any natural explanation seemed equally difficult. - -“My intended visit to her rooms was known to only three persons by whom -she could have been informed, and they were Badger and his wife, and -Grady,” Nick perplexedly reasoned. “I know positively that Grady did -not inform her. Assuming even that the Badgers did so by communicating -with her by telephone, they cannot possibly have guessed that I would -call upon her in disguise. My make-up, together with the fictitious -name I gave, certainly should have blinded her to my identity. Yet I do -not believe she could have guessed, merely by chance, all of the facts -that she imparted, and I’m blessed if I can quite fathom the mystery.” - -The more Nick thought about it the more positive he became that there -existed some crooked work under the surface, and this made him even the -more determined to ferret out what it was. - -“I’ll telegraph to Chick and Patsy to come here,” he abruptly decided, -as he returned to the Adams House, at which he had registered. “I shall -need them to assist me in locating these road robbers, whom I am now -fully resolved to run down. After sending a message to Chick I will -have another bout with the fortune-teller. I’m blessed if I’ll let her -throw me down in this fashion—not and keep me down!” - -It was but a short walk to the hotel, and there Nick sent a telegram to -Chick Carter, his chief assistant, ordering him and Patsy, one of his -younger detectives, to come to Boston by the first train and join him -at the Adams House. - -Nick knew that both would arrive late that evening, and before then -he hoped to have solved that portion of the mystery relating to the -Tremont Street fortune-teller. - -After spending half an hour at lunch, Nick went up to his room and -examined his disguise, which he had not removed. - -“It is perfect in every detail,” he mentally declared, while surveying -himself in the mirror. “She cannot possibly have detected the make-up, -and there must be some other explanation of her insinuations. I’ll take -it off and visit her this time in proper person.” - -While removing the disguise, Nick noticed the carbuncle ring on his -finger, and he immediately took it off and slipped it into the pocket -of another suit he was then about putting on. - -“I’ll have nothing about me that she may have seen this morning,” he -said to himself. “There’s a deal of crafty keenness in those bright -eyes of hers, and I’ll make sure that she discovers nothing to identify -me with her visitor by the name of Sibley. If she succeeds in doing -that, the witch, there will be something more than natural in it—or -some sort of rascally cunning at work under the surface. I’ll wager -that she will have no impression of two men entering her room this -time, nor that I was there this morning.” - -Fashionably clad, with his strong, attractive face inviting -observation, Nick appeared for the second time at the rooms of Madame -Victoria, just about an hour after leaving them. - -The girl in the waiting-room did not recognize him, and Nick took even -the precaution to vary his voice several degrees from that he had -previously used. - -“Is Madame Victoria disengaged?” he inquired. - -“She is, sir, just at present,” said the girl. - -“My card,” said Nick tersely. “I would like a business interview with -her.” - -“One moment, sir.” - -The girl vanished into the inner room, then returned without the card. - -“Madame will receive you, Mr. Carter,” she said, bowing. - -Nick left his hat as before, and approached the inner room. - -His recollections of it were not agreeable. The close atmosphere, the -green light, the walls hung with mystical insignia, the purple-robed -woman who had so baffled his usual keen reasoning, and the touch of -whose hand lingered with him as when a person has touched the hand of -a corpse—all had left upon him a disagreeable impression, as when one -has meddled with things pertaining to the black arts. - -He found Madame Victoria seated at the table, as before, looking more -like a sorceress to him than ever, as he stepped gravely over the -threshold. - -The woman looked up from the card between her thumb and fingers, and -Nick thought he detected a subtle light leap up from the depths of her -brilliant eyes. It vanished so quickly that he could not feel sure of -it, however, despite that he was now alert for the slightest betrayal -that might be of significance to him. - -Madame Victoria was the first to speak. - -“Take a chair, sir,” said she, smiling a bit oddly. “Your card informs -me that you are Detective Carter, of New York.” - -“Yes, madame.” - -“My maid said you desire a business interview with me.” - -“If you please.” - -“Business from my standpoint, or your own?” inquired Madame Victoria, -still smiling. “In other words, Detective Carter, does your visit -relate to your business or to mine?” - -“The business is ours,” said Nick pointedly. - -“Ah, sort of a mutual interest,” laughed the woman, with a captivating -glance at him. - -“Precisely.” - -“Then, since you have not called to consult me professionally,” said -the madame, “I shall feel free to drop my usual mental attitude, that -of holding myself susceptible to outward impressions, and receive -you more conventionally. About what do you wish to see me, Detective -Carter?” - -Nick instinctively felt that he was already being headed off by the -woman, and he saw, with half an eye, if he had not seen it before, that -he was up against a remarkably shrewd and clever character, one who was -nearly his equal in diplomacy and cunning. - -Nick briefly set aside the motive with which he had called, therefore, -and reverted to the business which primarily had sent him to Madame -Victoria’s rooms. - -“I wish to ask you a few questions,” said he. - -“About what?” - -“About the recent robbery of yourself and Mrs. Badger, of Brookline.” - -“Ah, indeed!” - -“I am engaged by Chief Weston, of the local police department, to -investigate some of these highway robberies committed about here, and -to undertake the arrest of the culprits.” - -“Dear me! I am delighted to hear it, Detective Carter, and I do hope -you’ll succeed,” exclaimed Madame Victoria, now displaying a very -vivacious interest. - -“I hope so, too.” - -“I have lost some valuable jewels, and so has Claudia—that’s Mrs. -Badger, sir—and I should be more than glad to recover them.” - -“No doubt.” - -“Or to aid you in hastening the arrest and conviction of the thieves,” -added the woman. “In what way can I assist you, Detective Carter?” - -“By answering a few questions for me, madame——” - -“Pardon!” she interposed. - -“Well?” - -“You may call me Miss Clayton when not consulting me professionally, -Detective Carter,” she explained, with a fascinating little laugh. -“Like persons in other fields of art, I practise under an assumed name. -If you ever meet my sister, Mrs. Badger, or her husband, they will -probably refer to me by my real name. So I take this occasion to tell -it to you. It is only here, or when discussing my professional work, -that I make use of my business name.” - -Nick wondered if all this had been thrown at him to convey an -impression that she had not been informed of his call upon Badger and -his wife, and a gleam of new suspicion showed briefly in the eyes -of the great detective. Yet he said quietly, with a nod, that he -understood her. - -“It matters little to me what name you use, providing you answer my -questions,” he added. - -“I shall gladly do so, Detective Carter.” - -“I have here a snap-shot photograph said to have been taken by you at -the time of the robbery.” - -“Yes, that is true. I had my kodak with me, and it so happened that I -could——” - -“I have been told by Chief Weston how you obtained the photograph,” -interposed Nick, wishing to expedite matters. - -“Ah, I see.” - -“What I chiefly wish to know is whether you got a good look at the -thieves, or were too frightened to notice them closely.” - -“Oh, I was not greatly alarmed,” smiled Madame Victoria, with a shrug -of her fine shoulders. “I saw that the loss of our valuables was -inevitable, but I did not fear for my life.” - -“Did you specially notice the woman who appears in this photograph?” - -“I saw all that was to be seen of both miscreants, Detective Carter,” -the woman declared, with a nod of emphasis. - -“Did you detect any peculiarity about the woman?” - -“Only her unusual height.” - -“She was taller than the man?” - -“Yes, indeed; several inches taller.” - -“Yet in the picture he appears to be nearly six feet.” - -“I should judge that he was, as I now recall him.” - -“A woman taller than that is very rare,” said Nick, “and one who should -be quite easily traced.” - -“That is true, sir.” - -“Do you feel quite sure that it was a woman?” - -“Sure? Why, certainly!” exclaimed Madame Victoria, laughing. - -“For what reasons?” - -“Because, Detective Carter, I saw the point of her chin under her black -veil, and it was as smooth and white as my own.” - -“Anything more?” - -“Her hand and arm, too, what little I could see of the latter in the -sleeve of her automobile coat, were as fair and plump as my own.” - -Nick glanced at the pretty hand and arm she held out, and decided that -there could be no mistaking them. - -“My first impression, Detective Carter,” she quickly added, “was the -same as yours—that her height might warrant a suspicion that it was a -man in woman’s clothing. For that reason, sir, I particularly observed -her.” - -“I am glad of that,” bowed Nick. “I called here chiefly to settle this -question of sex, and I have already asked Mrs. Badger about it.” - -“Oh, indeed! Then you have seen her?” - -“I called upon her in Brookline this morning.” - -“Does what I say corroborate her statements?” - -“Yes.” - -Nick had mentioned the call only to see if Madame Victoria would say -that she had since heard from the Badgers, but she did nothing of the -kind, leaving Nick to believe that she had not. This served only to -increase his growing suspicions, when recalling what she had said that -morning; and he now gravely added, with his gaze indifferently fixed -upon her face: - -“I think there is only one more question that I would like to have you -answer for me, Madame Victoria.” - -“Only one?” - -“That is all.” - -“Ask it, Detective Carter.” - -Nick’s voice fell a little lower, and became more impressive. - -“I wish to know what you would have said to me, Madame Victoria, if I -had called to consult you professionally.” - -The smile still lingered about the woman’s red lips, and her eyes met -his without flinching. - -“I should have said, Detective Carter, what my first impression -impelled me to say, yet which I decided to repress.” - -“What was that?” - -“I should have told you that I felt, when you entered, as if I were -meeting a person who had recently called here.” - -“Did you feel so?” - -“I did.” - -“How do you now feel about it?” - -“I am now sure.” - -“Of what?” - -“That you were here this morning under the name of Sibley,” replied -Madame Victoria, now frowning slightly. “I cannot possibly imagine why -you came here in disguise and under an assumed name, Detective Carter, -yet I am convinced that you did so.” - -“How did you acquire that knowledge?” Nick now demanded, ignoring her -quiet rebuke. - -“I answered that question for Mr. Sibley,” was the reply, with a covert -sneer. “Hence there is no need for me to answer it for you.” - -“You acquired it through your impressions?” - -“Yes.” - -“In no other way?” - -“None.” - -“Then, as Mr. Sibley said this morning, it is very mysterious,” Nick -dryly declared, rising to go. - -“So many think, as I said this morning.” - -“I will say, Madame Victoria, that I had no more malicious design in -coming here in disguise than that of proving the validity of some of -your claims to occult powers. I might add, too, that you have given me -one of the most curious problems of my life.” - -“Indeed!” - -“I shall, however, make it a point to—solve the problem.” - -Madame Victoria laughed, and eyed him oddly from under her drooping -lids. - -“If you do solve it, which involves learning how I get these -impressions, Detective Carter, you will do more than I can,” she said, -rising to bid him adieu. - -“Then I certainly shall, Madame Victoria, do more than you can,” Nick -quietly declared, as he accepted her proffered hand. - -“You think so, eh?” - -“I do, madame! I have one very pronounced trait of character, which may -be of some interest to you.” - -“What is that?” - -“I never drop a mystery, Madame Victoria, until it has—ceased to be a -mystery!” - -The last was said pleasantly enough, yet very emphatically, as Nick -bowed and withdrew from the room, with the smiling eyes of the woman -steadily meeting his till the door closed between the two. - -Then there came over her one of those swift changes seen only when -suppressed passions, intensified by restraint, are abruptly given free -rein. - -Her smile vanished like a flash, displaced by a frown that transfigured -her every feature and lent to her usually attractive face the -threatening and vengeful visage of a fury. With eyes gleaming, with -lips drawn, with breast heaving under the sudden swell of her pent -feelings, she shook both clenched hands after the departing detective, -while muttering fiercely through her white teeth: - -“Yon will solve the problem, will you? You will tear away the veil of -mystery, will you? Not if I know it—not if I can prevent it, Mr. Nick -Carter! - -“Beware what you do—what you attempt! Let the cost be what it may, my -prediction shall be fulfilled, and only failure shall be yours! Beware -lest you fail, for the inevitable price of failure will be—death!” - -Then she turned and hurried across the room, with every movement of her -lithe and supple figure as quick and graceful as those of a leopard. -With a quick sweep of her arm, she threw aside the curtain of a door of -a small closet, into which she entered, to seize the receiver from a -telephone attached to the wall. - -“Give me 22 ring 2, Brookline!” she commanded. - -It was the number of the telephone in the house of Mr. Amos Badger. - - - - - CHAPTER VIII. - - UNDER THE SURFACE. - - -As Nick Carter had rightly conjectured, when weighing the mystifying -knowledge displayed by Madame Victoria, there was something under the -surface. - -What the something was, moreover, plainly appeared in what followed the -visit of Nick to the suburban house of Mr. Amos Badger. - -The moment the detective departed, in company with Grady, there came -over both Badger and his wife a very decided change. - -With an ugly gleam in his dark eyes, which were still following the -runabout as it sped down the long driveway, Badger ripped off the red -flannel bandages from around his neck, exclaiming vehemently: - -“Whew! these infernal things have set me reeking at every pore! Thank -Heaven he remained no longer, or I should have run down into my boots. -There’s not a dry rag on me.” - -His wife indulged in a laugh, a vicious little laugh, most unpleasant -to honest ears. - -“Yet the ruse worked well, Amos,” she cried exultantly. - -“Yes, apparently.” - -“Apparently?” - -“That’s what I said,” growled Badger, as the runabout passed out of -view. - -“What do you mean?” demanded Claudia, with quickened apprehension. - -“I mean that there never is any knowing what Nick Carter thinks and -suspects, however he may carry himself,” Badger petulantly replied. -“He is one thing on the surface, another under it. There is no telling -anything about him, and I’m infernally sorry that Weston has brought -him over here.” - -“Bah!” cried his wife contemptuously. “He can accomplish no more than -the Boston detectives have done.” - -“I’m not so sure of it.” - -“We can fool him as we have fooled the others.” - -“Yet he asked some deucedly ugly questions,” declared Badger, with a -doubtful shake of his head. “And I more than half-fear that he already -suspects our trick.” - -“Suspects that you were only feigning illness?” - -“Possibly.” - -“Nonsense! He cannot have got wise to that, nor to anything else that -seriously affects us.” - -Badger turned quickly away, and hailed the man in the driveway. - -“Come in here, Jerry,” he commanded. “I want to speak to you.” - -Conley dropped his work and hastened into the house, following Badger -and his wife into the library. - -“What d’ye want, Amos?” he inquired, with a familiarity plainly -indicating that he was something more than a menial about the place. - -“I want to I know just what Carter said to you,” replied Badger, -throwing himself into a chair. - -“He only asked if I’d seen an auto go along the road below here.” - -“Nothing more?” - -“Not a thing.” - -“I thought I heard him say something about me, Conley, and the cut of -my jib.” - -“Oh, that was only because he couldn’t learn anything from me, and he -didn’t fancy the jolly I was giving him,” replied Conley, with a grin. -“Devil a thing did I tell him, Amos, and I was only keeping him on a -string till I was dead sure that you and Claudy were out of your auto -rigs and into the togs in which he found you.” - -“Are you sure he didn’t get sight of the other machine?” demanded -Badger apprehensively. - -“The one you used when you held him up?” - -“Yes, certainly.” - -“Oh, I’m dead sure that he didn’t see that,” cried Conley confidently. -“I had that in the secret cover a good five minutes before he showed up -in the runabout.” - -“And you were at work on the other when he arrived?” - -“Yes, long before he arrived.” - -“Pshaw! he couldn’t have seen the Peerless when he got here, Amos,” -supplemented Claudia decidedly. “We left that runabout behind us as if -it had been tied to a stake.” - -“I know all that,” growled Badger; “but I want to feel sure that the -infernal detective got no line on us after he reached here. I’ll tell -you both, he’s a man to be feared, and we cannot be too careful in case -he undertakes to round us up.” - -“Faugh!” snarled Conley, with a scowl rising about his crafty eyes. “If -he gets wise, and presses us too hard, there’s one thing we can do.” - -“Put him out of the way?” - -“Sure.” - -“It will have to be done,” said Badger, with a nod. “Yet I don’t fancy -running my neck into a noose if it can be avoided.” - -“It can be done without that,” said Conley, with grim significance. - -“It strikes me,” put in Claudia, “that we ought to give Vic a tip that -Carter is coming to call upon her, also that he has been out here.” - -“That’s right, too.” - -“If he is as clever as you say he is, Amos, he must be handled with -gloves,” added the woman. “Vic ought to be warned of his visit, and of -what his business consists, so that she may be ready for him, and head -him off from any suspicion.” - -“I can inform her by telephone.” - -“It must be done.” - -“There’s no great rush,” replied Badger. “Carter will not arrive there -for an hour.” - -“You must tell her just what we have done, and why we did it.” - -“Tell her that we held him up this morning?” - -“Yes, certainly; also that we got away with his watch and money.” - -“Why tell her all that?” - -“So she may know just how to handle him,” declared Claudia, with knit -brows. “Vic is clever, all right, but she may queer us in some way when -pitted against Nick Carter’s cleverness, unless she knows just what his -game is, and what has happened out here.” - -“I’ll go and talk with her at once,” said Badger, now rising. - -“A good idea,” said Conley approvingly. “Let Vic alone to queer any -game that he may have.” - -“Stop a moment, Amos,” cried his wife, with an afterthought. - -“Well?” - -“If Carter has formed any suspicion of us, as you appear to fear, he -may start in at once with some of his underhand work.” - -“What do you mean?” - -“He may not tell Vic who he is.” - -“Possibly not.” - -“And he may lead her into some self-betrayal, in case he questions her -closely while she is ignorant of his identity.” - -“What the deuce can we do to prevent that?” demanded Badger, with a -frown. - -“I’ll tell you what,” said Claudia, who plainly possessed many of the -crafty qualities of her sister. - -“Well, out with it.” - -“First, Amos, describe him to her so she cannot mistake him, and then——” - -“Hold on a bit,” interrupted Conley, who was an interested listener. -“He may take it into his head to go there in disguise, since that’s a -clever trick of his.” - -“That’s just what I was coming to, Jerry, if you had let me finish,” -snapped Mrs. Badger. “We can easily head off any disguise he may adopt.” - -“How so?” - -“Merely by telling Vic that he wears a red carbuncle ring on the third -finger of his left hand,” said Claudia. “He’ll not think it necessary -to remove that, Amos, even if he does put on a disguise.” - -“By Jove! that’s so.” - -“Go, now, and tell her the whole business.” - -Badger hastened into the hall, where he was presently heard imparting -in cautious terms, yet which he evidently knew would be readily -understood, the information concerning Nick which had so puzzled him. - -It was because of what she now was told over the wire that Madame -Victoria glanced first at Nick’s left hand when he entered her rooms, -and at once recognized him in the disguise of Sibley. - -At the time of his second visit, moreover, when he presented his own -card, the fortune-teller at once noticed that he had removed the ring, -and that alone was enough to convince her that he was beginning to play -a double game, and that he must have formed some suspicions regarding -herself and the Badgers. - -After Nick’s first departure she telephoned Badger that he had been -there, and the latter then held a second consultation with his wife and -Conley. - -Being ignorant of Nick’s primary object in visiting Madame Victoria -in disguise, which was merely to test her peculiar powers, Badger’s -apprehensions naturally were increased. - -“He’s wise to something, and already up to some game against us, or -he wouldn’t have gone there in disguise,” he gravely reasoned. “I’m -ruined, utterly ruined, unless we can continue this road work a few -weeks longer. I shall be swamped completely unless I can thus raise the -funds to tide me along until there’s a rise in the stock-market.” - -“We’ll keep up the road-work, Amos, never you fear,” his wife curtly -declared, with an evil brightness in her expressive eyes. “It was I who -suggested it to you, and I have done my part to help you along with it.” - -“That’s true enough.” - -“And we’ll not quit it now, Amos, Carter or no Carter.” - -“That we’ll not,” growled Conley, with a headshake. “There’s too much -good stuff in it for us to have it queered at this stage by this man -Carter. If it comes to the worst, Amos, a knife between his ribs will -put him out of our way.” - -“That is more easily said than done.” - -“Not if it comes to that kind of a play.” - -“I don’t fear Weston and his second-rate detectives,” added Badger -moodily; “but this man Carter is superior to that entire bunch.” - -“Bah!” cried Claudia. “You are needlessly alarmed. To begin with, Amos, -he cannot possibly have learned anything definite about us as quickly -as this.” - -“Possibly not.” - -“He could not have identified us as the couple who held him up and -robbed him this morning, and he certainly must think that was only a -chance job, not one planned by us the moment we heard he was coming out -here in a runabout.” - -“No, he could not have guessed that,” admitted Badger. - -“Furthermore,” argued his wife, “my face was entirely covered with my -dust-glasses and the false beard, and in my big auto coat it certainly -could not have been suspected that I was a woman who suddenly showed up -in the Peerless in which you escaped after robbing him.” - -“Sure it couldn’t,” put in Conley. “I’d have sworn you were a man -myself.” - -“Oh, I don’t think he has any idea of the truth about that,” replied -Badger. - -“There is still another thing in our favor,” continued Claudia. - -“What is that?” - -“The alleged robbery of Vic and myself, Amos, and the photograph which -Vic took by which to convince Weston of the truth of our story.” - -“That was one of the shrewdest moves ever made,” declared Conley, -laughing. - -“Certainly it was, Jerry, and you may let Vic alone to think of such -schemes as that,” said Mrs. Badger, with an evil display of sisterly -pride. - -“She’s a keen one, all right,” grinned Conley. - -“The picture is as good as a positive proof that we were robbed,” added -Claudia; “and Weston never for a moment has doubted our story. The very -fact, if it were a fact, that we were robbed, moreover, plainly shows -that we cannot have been both the thieves and the victims, also. That -would be absurd, you see, and as long as Carter credits the photograph, -just so long we may be sure that he does not suspect us of being -crooks.” - -“That is an ugly word to apply to us, Claudia,” growled Badger -disapprovingly. - -“One might as well call things by their right names,” laughed his wife. -“I told you I was an adventuress, and a woman of nerve, Amos, when you -wanted to marry me, and you knew just what you bargained for.” - -“I’m finding no fault on that score.” - -“You’d better not,” was the pointed rejoinder. “I fancy the life I now -lead, this moving in good society, for it lays away over the stage, or -riding bareback in the circus-ring, to which Vic and I were bred in old -England.” - -“What need to refer to those days?” muttered Badger, frowning darkly. - -“Only that you may keep in mind the stuff I am made of,” replied his -wife, with a shrug of her shoulders. “When you told me you were in -hot water financially, Amos, it was I who suggested this scheme of -road robbery to tide you along. In becoming your assistant, along with -Jerry, here, my old life of adventure has served me well. I can ride -the most vicious horse, and no auto can go too fast for me, Amos; so -you couldn’t have a better helper, whether I wear skirts or trousers, -in holding up an auto-party.” - -“That’s true enough.” - -“As for the wickedness of it—well, most of the world is wicked in -one way or another,” laughed the woman. “We must contrive to get our -living, Amos, in some way; and this life of danger and adventure just -suits me, to say nothing of the profits derived. Just think!—last month -we cleaned up close to twenty thousand, providing those Gaylord jewels -bring as much as we expect.” - -“Oh, there’s money enough in it, I’ll admit that,” nodded Badger. - -“And with Vic to help us, with the aid of the friend she has so -completely under her thumb, we are sure to be informed of any move -contemplated by Weston or by Nick Carter. So your fears are groundless, -Amos, as I said in the beginning.” - -“It’s dead lucky, I’ll admit, that we have that anchor to the -windward,” said Badger, with features now relaxing. - -“So it is, Amos, and with him to inform us of—— Hark! there goes the -telephone-bell again. I’ll wager that Vic has something more to report.” - -Claudia Badger was right in the last. - -Madame Victoria now reported the second visit of Nick Carter, and all -that had passed between them; also explained Nick’s simple object in -first calling upon her in disguise, and stated that he came last only -to ask about the woman in the photograph. - -“I have him well muddled, Amos,” was Madame Victoria’s last declaration -over the wire. “There is nothing to be feared from him at present.” - -Badger’s dark countenance lighted while he listened, and he hastened to -report the communication to his wife and Conley. - -“There! what did I tell you?” cried Claudia triumphantly. “I knew that -Vic would prove more than a match even for Nick Carter. Now, there is -just one thing to be done in order to avert suspicion from us.” - -“What is that?” - -“These road robberies must continue to occur,” declared the woman. “If -they suddenly end at this time, after Carter’s visit here, he very -possibly may infer that we are alarmed, providing he has any suspicion -at all concerning us. Another robbery committed this very night would -clinch matters in our favor.” - -“That’s right, too,” said Conley, quickly seeing the point. - -It was done, moreover, and one of the boldest yet committed, and -the reports of it filled the morning papers, along with no end of -editorials decrying the inferior work of the police in being unable to -prevent such depredations. - -But the end was not yet, for that very day Chief Weston removed his own -men from the case, and placed it entirely in charge of Nick Carter. - - - - - CHAPTER IX. - - BODY AND LIMBS. - - -“Chick, I’m hit with an idea!” - -This exclamation came from Nick Carter about ten o’clock one morning, -two days after the highway robbery last reported, and the talk that -followed showed with what remarkable insight this great detective -arrived at the subtle deductions which contributed largely to his -success. - -Chick and Patsy had arrived in Boston two days before, and both were -now present with Nick in his room at the Adams House. - -Both had been fully informed of the facts thus far learned by him, -moreover, as well as of his interview with the Badgers, and his visits -to Madame Victoria. - -When he uttered the above exclamation Nick was seated at one of the -windows of his room. - -In one hand he held the photograph that figured so curiously in the -case, and which would have convinced any ordinary detective that Madame -Victoria and Mrs. Amos Badger had been robbed precisely as alleged, for -the camera, at least, would not have lied. - -Yet this bit of convincing evidence was so out of the ordinary, as -well as the circumstances under which it had been obtained, that Nick -from the very first had been inclined to distrust the picture. - -In his other hand he now held a large magnifying-glass, through which -he was carefully studying the photograph, holding it in the full glare -of the morning sunlight. - -“What’s that, Nick?” inquired Chick, starting up from his chair and -dropping a morning paper reporting the last robbery. “Hit with an idea, -did you say?” - -“Exactly.” - -“What is it, Mr. Carter?” asked Patsy, at once displaying a lively -interest. “Have you discovered something lame in that picture?” - -Nick laughed. - -“That about hits the nail on the head, Patsy,” said he, with a glance -in the lad’s direction. “I think I begin to see a ray of light in the -darkness.” - -“What have you discovered?” asked Chick. - -And both he and Patsy came to lean over the back of Nick’s chair. - -Nick held the large glass and the photograph so that all three could -plainly view the magnified picture. - -“I’ll explain what I find, and I wonder that I have not noticed it -before,” said he quite earnestly. “It relates to this tall woman who -appears in the picture.” - -“Gee! but she is a tall one,” remarked Patsy, with a laugh. “She’s tall -enough to fit in a dime museum.” - -“That’s right, Patsy,” assented Nick, smiling. - -“What’s peculiar about it, Nick?” - -“As you probably know, Chick, there is a general uniformity in the -proportions of the human body—a regular length of arms and limbs when -compared with the trunk. In all normal subjects the proportions are -nearly the same.” - -“Sure,” nodded Chick. “A man’s reach, from the tips of his extended -arms and fingers, is usually the same as his height.” - -“Correct.” - -“But what has that to do with the picture, Mr. Carter?” asked Patsy. - -“It has to do with this woman,” Nick rejoined, drawing out his pencil -to be used for a pointer. “I want you to notice her extended arm and -hand, the one in which she held the leveled revolver.” - -“That’s plain enough, sir.” - -“It’s good fortune that it is, Patsy,” nodded Nick. “It also is plain, -now that I study it closely, that the arm is a little out of proportion -with her exceeding height.” - -“By Jove! it does appear so!” exclaimed Chick, bending nearer to view -the pictured figure. - -“Notice the distance from her shoulder to her hand, then the distance -from her shoulder to her hip, which is plainly outlined by this curve -of her long auto coat. Her hip is here, Chick, where I have the point -of my pencil.” - -“Exactly.” - -“Notice, now, that her extended hand, if it were to be dropped to her -side, would reach only to this point, measuring the same distance, a -point only a trifle below her hip.” - -“That’s clear,” cried Chick. “Yet the camera may——” - -“The camera never lies,” interposed Nick. - -“Then the woman must be out of proportion,” declared Chick. - -“Not necessarily.” - -“But her arm should be longer than it appears there,” Chick insisted. -“I’m well-proportioned, I’ll swear to that, and my hand, when lowered, -reaches half-way down my thigh.” - -“Which is about right, Chick.” - -“Yet you say the woman is not out of proportion——” - -“I said not necessarily,” interposed Nick. “If she was as tall as she -appears in the picture, however, I’ll admit that her arm would be too -short for her body.” - -“Oho, I see!” exclaimed Patsy, starting up. “You think, Mr. Carter, -that she is not as tall as the picture indicates.” - -“That’s exactly it, Patsy,” nodded Nick. - -“How do you make it out?” asked Chick. - -“Notice this fold of her skirt, where the skirt shows below the edge of -her auto coat?” - -“Well, what of it?” - -“Plainly enough, Chick, the fold does not hang quite naturally,” Nick -went on to explain, still pointing with his pencil. “It appears drawn -a little to one side and back of her, with the edge of the skirt -carefully arranged to touch the ground, precisely as if to conceal -something beneath it.” - -“Something on which she was standing!” exclaimed Chick, quickly seeing -the point. - -“That’s just it,” declared Nick impressively. “No skirt ever hung quite -like that, if it hung naturally.” - -“Surely not.” - -“Notice also the distance from her hip to the edge of the skirt, where -her feet should be,” added Nick. “Her limbs would be as much above the -regular proportions as her arm is below them.” - -“I see what you mean.” - -“In a nutshell, Chick, such an anomaly could not be,” continued Nick -decisively. “A person with abnormally long legs and disproportionately -short arms is out of the question.” - -“And in your opinion——” - -“In my opinion, Chick, the woman was standing on something, possibly a -rock, with her skirts lengthened to conceal it. Obviously the whole was -done to give her the appearance of being very tall.” - -“And with what object?” - -“With a design to thus blind the police to the real looks of the woman -operating with this gang of crooks.” - -“You think they aimed to send the police searching after some very tall -woman?” - -“Exactly.” - -“I’ll wager you are right.” - -“Furthermore,” added Nick, “these discoveries conclusively prove that -the picture was deliberately taken, with the several persons calmly -posing to make it effective, and that the two women said to have been -held up and robbed were not robbed at all.” - -“And the design of the photograph?” - -“It was taken purposely to be offered as evidence to corroborate the -story told to the police.” - -“With a view to averting suspicion and throwing them off the right -track,” added Chick. - -“Precisely.” - -“By thunder, that was a crafty scheme!” declared Patsy, rather pleased -with the originality of it. - -“Yes, it was crafty enough,” assented Nick. “But the rascals overleaped -their mount, Patsy, in not anticipating the deductions I have -mentioned. All this sheds a new and very bright light upon the case,” -the speaker added, as he tossed the photograph upon the table. - -“I should say so,” nodded Chick, resuming his chair and lighting a -cigar. “It indicates that those two women, who claim to have been -robbed, may be in league with this gang of thieves.” - -“Even more than that, Chick.” - -“What more, Nick?” - -“It suggests that Badger himself may be one of the gang, if not the -chief figure in it, and that their headquarters may be at that isolated -suburban place of his.” - -“By Jove, that may be so!” - -“Let’s look a little deeper, Chick, and see how far some of the -other facts sustain this theory. I was held up when on my way out -there Tuesday morning,” continued Nick. “That may have been merely a -coincidence, the scamps possibly having been laying in wait for some -victim, though there still remains a chance of something even more than -that under the surface.” - -“Decidedly so,” replied Chick. “Such things don’t often happen by -chance.” - -“We’ll investigate that a little later.” - -“Sure.” - -“After the hold-up, Chick, I hastened to Badger’s house, arriving there -within ten minutes after the robbery,” Nick went on. - -“Then it must have occurred pretty near his place.” - -“Within half a mile.” - -“That, too, is significant.” - -“In a measure,” assented Nick. “I found his chauffeur cleaning a -Stanley machine in the driveway, where I could not help observing him. -Ordinarily such a job would be done in the stable or garage, and I am -now inclined to think that it was done outside only intentionally to -make me believe, in case of any distrust, that Badger uses a Stanley -machine, and not such a car as that in which I saw the thieves escape.” - -“Do you know how many machines he owns?” - -“I do not, Chick. In fact, I know very little about him or his place.” - -“We’ll make it a point to learn.” - -“I did not fancy the looks nor air of his chauffeur,” continued Nick. -“He appeared to avoid my questions, and I now suspect that may have -been done to give Badger time to get out of his rig as a highwayman and -into the house suit and red flannel bandages in which he received me.” - -“You think that whole business was designed only to blind you, in case -you had any suspicions?” - -“That certainly would have been the design, Chick, providing that we -are justified in suspecting him at all.” - -“There are too many of these significant little circumstances, Nick, -for us to doubt that we are hitting somewhere near the mark,” Chick -shrewdly reasoned. - -“That’s the way I now regard them,” said Nick. “After my talk with -Badger, in which I stated I should call upon Madame Victoria, he may -have telephoned the fact to the fortune-teller. I noticed that he had a -telephone in the hall.” - -“That would explain her knowledge of you, Nick,” said Chick. “But bear -in mind that you were in disguise when you first called upon her.” - -“I remember that, Chick.” - -“How can she have known you?” - -“Badger may have been alarmed by my visit,” argued Nick, “and he -possibly suspected that I might adopt some disguise. Very likely he -mentioned some distinctive feature about my person, one which I would -not ordinarily remove, by which Madame Victoria may have identified me.” - -“That may have been the case,” admitted Chick. - -“The knowledge she displayed certainly points to some such move on -Badger’s part, and adds to our grounds for suspicion,” continued -Nick. “She had me well marked in some way, there is no denying that. -Furthermore, the fact that she warned me to drop the perilous business -I was about to undertake, predicting that I should meet only with -failure, points plainly to a possibility that they were taking that -method to influence me to drop the case.” - -“Gee whiz!” exclaimed Patsy. “That now looks dead open and shut, Mr. -Carter.” - -“It certainly is significant.” - -“I’ll bet you landed right in the midst of this gang of road thieves. -In that case, Nick, the rest of our work should be easy,” Chick quickly -remarked. “It should be child’s play for us to round them up.” - -Nick thoughtfully shook his head. - -“I’m not so sure of that, Chick,” said he. “We as yet have no tangible -evidence against them, and nothing less will serve us in a court of -law,” replied Nick. - -“That’s true.” - -“Our theory is built chiefly upon trivial circumstances, all of -which are significant enough, I’ll admit, and sufficiently numerous -to warrant considerable suspicion. But we must secure more positive -evidence before we can take any decisive action against these suspects.” - -“I guess that is right, Nick.” - -“We ought to get the evidence easily enough, if we really have located -the crooks,” declared Patsy. - -Nick Carter laughed again, with a glance at the eager eyes of the -youthful detective. - -“That one word, really, is quite important, Patsy,” said he. “It is -barely possible that we are mistaken, at least in part, if not entirely -so. Circumstantial evidence is never wholly trustworthy.” - -“I’ll bet you are right, sir, for all that,” insisted Patsy, with -abiding faith in Nick’s shrewdness. - -“I shall first make sure that I am,” said Nick, “by taking some step to -confirm my theory. As for securing the evidence with which to convict -these rascals, Patsy, that may not be done as easily as you think. If -they become wary, fearing that we suspect them, they not only may drop -the business entirely for a time, but may also cover their past tracks -so cleverly as to conceal the evidence that we require.” - -“I hadn’t thought of that, sir.” - -“It’s too true for a joke, Nick, and we cannot be too careful and -crafty at the outset,” Chick gravely put in, now taking the measure of -the case quite as clearly as Nick himself. “What do you intend doing?” - -“Personally, Chick, I am going down to State Street this morning, -and see what I can learn about Badger. Then I am going up to police -headquarters and return these documents to Chief Weston. He loaned -them to me that I might learn what lines of investigation his men have -followed.” - -“Do they appear to have accomplished anything?” - -“Nothing more than to note in detail the facts of the various -robberies,” smiled Nick. “Not one of them has hit upon a rational clue.” - -“Is there anything you want us to do while you are thus engaged?” - -“Yes. I want you and Patsy to go out to Brookline and see what you can -discover at Badger’s place,” replied Nick. “I don’t want you to be seen -about there, however.” - -“H’m! Let us alone to be discreet.” - -“His estate is backed by quite an extensive woodland, through which you -can easily approach after locating the place.” - -“That will be an advantage.” - -“Take what time you require,” added Nick, “and learn how many men -are employed in and about the house and stable. Also learn how many -automobiles and horses he keeps. Several of these hold-ups have been -committed by horsemen, and I wish to learn what Badger owns in both -lines.” - -“Automobiles and horses?” - -“Exactly.” - -“We’ll ferret out the whole business, Mr. Carter, trust us for that,” -cried Patsy, impatient to be at work. - -“Meantime,” said Nick, rising, “I’ll employ myself as stated. It is -now half-past ten. You may require three or four hours to learn what I -would like to know, so we will plan to meet here again about an hour or -two before dinner, say at four o’clock.” - -“That will give us ample time,” declared Chick. “We’ll be here at four -sharp.” - -“You’ll find me here,” said Nick, with no thought that anything would -occur to prevent him. - -The three left the house together, parting at the Washington Street -door, both Chick and Patsy heading for the subway to take a Brookline -trolley car. Neither so much as dreamed, however, that many an anxious -hour would pass before they again saw Nick’s familiar face or heard his -genial voice. - - - - - CHAPTER X. - - THE ANCHOR TO WINDWARD. - - -As he had stated to his assistants before leaving the Adams House that -morning, Nick Carter hastened down to State Street to see what he could -learn about Amos Badger. - -With his wide acquaintance and friendly relations with the bankers and -brokers, both in New York and Boston, it was an easy matter for Nick to -ascertain, without disclosing his motives, the facts which he aimed to -discover. - -He learned from perfectly reliable sources that Badger, who had no -partner in business, was heavily long of stocks in the market, a -market that had been steadily declining for months; also, that his -loan-account on this class of collateral had been repeatedly subjected -to calls for additional margins, which were known to have been met only -with considerable difficulty and delay. - -In a nutshell, Nick easily discovered that Badger had for months been -in financial hot water, yet had succeeded in tiding himself along up to -date. - -Nick now thought he could guess by what desperate means this man was -raising the funds required to meet his increasing obligations from day -to day. - -Incidentally, however, Nick learned other facts for which he was not -specially seeking, yet which further confirmed the theory he had so -shrewdly formed. - -These facts related to Badger’s wife and her sister, the Tremont Street -fortune-teller, and were imparted to Nick a bit maliciously by a broker -who had suffered in one way or another through Madame Victoria, and who -was informed of the history of the two women. - -Briefly stated, as it was given to Nick, both were born in England, -the daughters of a second-rate actor and manager of various itinerant -amusement enterprises, in none of which he had achieved any great -success. - -The two girls had some little talent in one way or another, however, -and both had spent their earlier years in the show business, filling -such positions as the various enterprises of their father, since dead, -required. - -Now as an alleged gipsy fortune-teller, now as a palmist, at other -times an astrologer, or some like attraction under a different name, -but always as a sideshow to some other amusement, the younger of the -two had acquired that experience which, after the marriage of her -sister and her coming to America, had enabled her to establish in -Boston the business now conducted under the name of Madame Victoria. - -The elder of the two, now Badger’s wife, had sung on the stage, -done turns in the concert-halls, and in earlier years had been an -accomplished equestrienne in the circus-ring, from the first of which -Badger had married her in Manchester, about five years before. - -That both women were little more than adventuresses of a rather -disreputable type, Nick’s informant positively assured him, and this -further confirmed his theory and convinced him that he was on the right -track. - -It was early afternoon when he arrived at police headquarters, in -Pemberton Square, and entered the general office previously described. - -It so happened that Chief Weston was in this office at the time, though -all of the detectives not then assigned to outside work were either out -at lunch or in the officers’ lounging-room. - -It so happened, also, since Satan sometimes serves his own, that the -only other occupant of the general office was the clerk whom Nick had -encountered there several days before—Mr. Sandy Hyde. - -The brick-hued head of the latter was raised from over his books upon -hearing the detective’s name mentioned in greeting, and his catlike -eyes lighted with quickened interest. - -“Ah, good morning, Nick!” was Chief Weston’s greeting. “Anything doing?” - -“I wish to return these reports, chief, which I took from you a few -days ago,” replied Nick, producing them from his pocket. - -“No further use for them?” - -“Not at present.” - -“Very well.” - -“I will retain this photograph, however, which I may use to advantage a -little later.” - -“You’ve not hit upon a clue from that, have you?” - -“Well, I’m not prepared to say,” demurred Nick, a bit evasively. - -“Come inside,” Chief Weston abruptly said, quick to notice Nick’s -hesitation. “We shall not be interrupted in my office. Bear that in -mind, Sandy.” - -“All right, chief.” - -“This way, Nick.” - -Nick entered the enclosure, and passed through the passage leading to -the chief’s, private office. - -He did not so much as glance at the clerk, however, whose head had -again dropped over his books. - -Snap! - -The catch-lock announced that the door of the private office had -securely closed. - -Now Mr. Sandy Hyde dropped his pen, and came down from his stool. - -For a moment he peered sharply through the brass lattice along the top -of the desks, toward the two open doors leading into the adjoining -corridors. - -Next he darted out of the enclosure, and quickly closed both of these -doors. - -No cat’s eyes aglow from a dark corner ever burned more greenishly -bright and intense than those of this watchful miscreant at that moment. - -It was for him a moment of peril, and well he knew it; yet, in the -event of an intruder into the outer office, he relied upon hearing one -of the closed doors opened in time to evade detection. - -With both closed, he next hurried back into the enclosure, from outside -of which the interior of the narrow passage could only partly be seen. - -Into this passage Hyde quickly entered, with the stealthy quietude of -a shadow, and stood listening at the chief’s door, his ear touching -the panel, his eyes still bright with a satanic glow evincing his evil -impulse. - -His several precautions had required but a very few seconds, moreover, -and he lost hardly a word of Nick Carter’s brief interview with Chief -Weston, who was about repeating his question just as the eavesdropper -arrived at the door. - -“You’ve not struck a clue from that photograph, Nick, have you?” - -Nick was never much inclined to reveal his discoveries before they -culminated in some decisive move, and he again evaded the question by -saying: - -“Well, I’m not quite sure about that, Weston.” - -“What do you suspect?” - -“Nothing at all definite as yet,” laughed Nick indifferently. “I wish -to retain the photograph a while longer, however, if you have no -objection.” - -“None whatever, Nick, yet you pique my curiosity.” - -“I will explain later.” - -“Very well.” - -“I presume that Madame Victoria could easily show me the exact spot -where this hold-up occurred,” remarked Nick, who had remained standing -beside the chiefs desk. - -“I imagine so, Nick.” - -“I’m going to have her take me out there.” - -“For what purpose?” - -“I want to see what sort of a place these crooks usually select for -their rascally work.” - -“I should say that you already had seen that,” laughed Weston, who had -been informed of Nick’s encounter with them. - -Nick shrugged his broad shoulders, smiling meaningly, and said: - -“I wish to see how the two localities correspond. As for my lost -property, Weston, I’ll make an even bet that I recover it sooner or -later.” - -The last was said a bit resentfully, and with a significance that -brought a quick change over Weston’s face. - -“You’ve got wise to something, Nick!” he abruptly exclaimed. - -Nick laughed again. - -“What is it?” - -“I’d rather inform you a little later, Weston.” - -“Just as you like, of course, but I’m really curious to know what you -have learned.” - -“I’m not quite sure of it yet, chief, and I’d prefer making sure before -I indulge in any revelations,” said Nick, with a shake of his head. -“It’s not my way, you know, to make disclosures which later may prove -to be groundless.” - -“I’m well aware of that, Nick.” - -“If it will afford you any satisfaction, however, I will make one -definite statement.” - -“What is that?” - -“Merely this, Weston,” Nick forcibly declared. “I will land these -crooks for you, every man and woman of them, or I’ll throw up my -commission.” - -The ear at the panel was strained at that moment, and the glow in the -eyes of the listener became a threatening flame. - -“Well, well, that ought to be good enough for anybody,” cried Weston, -with much satisfaction. “I felt sure that you had run upon something -worth knowing.” - -Nick nodded significantly, yet replied quite indifferently: - -“I think that I have, Weston, and, when I am dead sure of it, I will -tell you of what it consists.” - -“All right, Nick,” was the reply, with a genial laugh. “I said in the -beginning that you should not be interfered with in this case, and that -goes at any stage of it. Run it in your own way, Nick, and you’ll suit -me.” - -“I’m only a bit curious to go out to the scene of this robbery,” Nick -now added, with a glance at the photograph which he was replacing in -his pocket. “If I can catch Madame Victoria at her rooms after I have -lunched, I think I can get her to ride out there with me.” - -“No doubt of it, Nick. She’ll be glad enough to do anything that gives -promise of the recovery of her property.” - -Nick smiled a bit oddly, and prepared to depart. - -“I shall drop in to see her about two o’clock,” said Nick. “I reckon I -can bring her to my way of thinking.” - -“When shall I see you again?” asked Weston, rising. - -“Within a day or two.” - -“I wish you luck meantime.” - -Nick laughed and shook his head, saying with considerable dryness: - -“I depend less upon luck, Weston, than upon labor and head-work. If I -can make nothing out of this case with my brains, I have no faith that -luck will do it for me. As I said before, Weston, I’ll see you within a -day or two.” - -The listening ear had left the panel of the door. - -The catlike tread had pattered quickly through the passage and out of -the enclosure, and again the corridor doors stood open. - -There had been no intruder during the brief interview, and a look of -evil exultation had risen in the eyes of Mr. Sandy Hyde. - -As Amos Badger had declared to his confederates one recent morning, it -was, indeed, dead lucky that they had—this anchor to the windward. - -For it was this miscreant who had warned Badger of Nick Carter’s -arrival in Boston, and of his acceptance of this case. - -It was this miscreant who had informed Badger of Nick’s intended visit -the same morning, and who had made possible the hold-up which to Nick -had appeared so like a coincidence. - -It was this miscreant, too, whose treachery now bid fair to cost Nick -Carter his life, yet whom the latter, with all his keenness, was far -from suspecting. - -For who looks for treachery in high places, or in those from whom only -loyalty is most naturally expected? - -The catlike eyes had lost their greenish glow, and the brick-hued -head was again bowed above the books, when Nick and Chief Weston came -striding through the passage and out of the enclosure. - -Nick did not delay his departure any longer, and without a word to the -clerk, Chief Weston returned to his private office. - -It was then one o’clock. - -Five minutes later the head clerk came in from lunch, and Sandy Hyde -at once laid down his pen and began putting on his street coat. - -The next hour was his own—and he thought he knew how he could best use -it. - - - - - CHAPTER XI. - - THE INCENTIVE TO TREACHERY. - - -Ten minutes after leaving police headquarters Sandy Hyde might have -been seen slinking across the Tremont Street mall of Boston Common. - -Yet only a close observer would have recognized the treacherous little -rascal. - -He had his coat-collar turned well up about his ears, his soft felt hat -drawn forward over his brow, and with his handkerchief held to his face -his crafty countenance was for the most part concealed. - -Presently he glided across the street, then hurriedly bolted into -the corridor of one of the buildings—that in which the rooms of the -fortune-teller and long-time adventuress were located. - -Quickly mounting the stairs, Hyde unceremoniously entered her rooms. - -He found Vic Clayton, by which name he best knew her, seated alone in -the reception-parlor, the maid employed there having just gone out to -lunch. - -“Why, hello, Sandy!” she cried, starting up from her chair when he -entered. - -When he eagerly advanced to clasp both her hands, moreover, she drew -him into her arms and kissed him, as only lovers kiss. - -“Break away!” he quickly protested, however. - -“Well, well, what’s this?” - -“As much as I like it, Vic, there’s no time for that.” - -The woman’s eyes took on a startled look. - -“No time!” she echoed, sharply regarding him. - -“I should say not. There’s the devil to pay.” - -“What do you mean?” - -“Or worse than the devil—that’s Nick Carter!” - -“What of him?” - -“He’s coming here again.” - -“For what?” - -The last came with vicious asperity from the lips of the surprised -woman. - -The color had left her cheeks. The light of sensuous affection, the -bestowal of which had turned this man into a knave, a traitor to his -trust at police headquarters, and made him her dupe and tool—this light -of passion had suddenly died from her eyes, displaced by the vengeful -fire with which she had last parted from the man he had just mentioned. - -Darting to the door, Vic hurriedly turned the key, then swept around, -as quick and lithe as a panther in her movements, and grasped Hyde by -the shoulder. - -“Not coming here now, not at once, is he?” she demanded, in rapid -whispers. - -“Do you think I’m daffy, to be here, in that case?” growled Sandy. - -“Yet——” - -“No, no; there’s time enough, Vic,” he interrupted. “He’s not coming -till two o’clock.” - -“For what?” - -“To ask you to go with him to the scene of the fake hold-up.” - -“That of the photograph?” gasped Vic, with hands pressed to her breast -and her white face drawn with increasing apprehension. - -“That’s what he said.” - -“Has he detected something queer in that picture?” - -“I reckon he has, Vic.” - -“Do you know what he suspects?” - -“He didn’t say,” replied Hyde. “Weston asked him, but Carter only said -that he’d keep the photograph for a time.” - -“Do you know for what?” - -“I don’t.” - -“Were there any names mentioned?” - -“Only yours.” - -“In the way you stated?” - -“Yes.” - -“Anything more?” - -“One thing—and a mighty significant one!” growled Hyde, with a nod. - -“What was that?” - -“He added that he would land our gang, every man and woman of us, or -throw up his job.” - -“He said that, did he?” - -“That’s what.” - -“The infernal meddler!” - -“He has struck some clue, that’s dead sure!” declared the spy. “It’s a -condition that means we must get him, Vic, or he’ll get us.” - -“Oh, we’ll get him, all right!” Vic Clayton now cried, with a venomous -sneer. “If he’s coming for that, for what you say, you let me alone to -get him!” - -Though her flood of questions had been asked with passionate -impatience, she now appeared more calm, yet not less viciously -determined. - -With a seductive smile, she now said warmly: - -“You’re all right, Sandy. I’ll not forget this little service, and you -shall have your reward when——” - -“I’ll get mine, all right, Vic, if the chief ever gets wise to the game -I’m playing,” interrupted Hyde, with a mingled laugh and grimace. - -“He will never learn of it.” - -“If he does, Vic, I can see myself put through the third degree in a -way that will leave mighty little of me.” - -“Bosh!” - -“I’m taking mighty long chances in doing this for you, and for——” - -“Are you getting no reward for doing it, Sandy?” - -The woman’s arm had stolen around his neck, while her breath fell warm -on his cheek with the interruption. She drew him closer till her lips -met his, then hurriedly released him, saying quickly: - -“Go, now, Sandy, and leave the rest to me.” - -“You can handle the matter?” he lingered to inquire anxiously. - -“You bet I can handle it!” - -“What will you do?” - -“You leave that to me, I say.” - -“You have no time to waste, Vic.” - -“Is time not wasted in talk of this kind?” Vic impatiently rejoined. -“Go at once, I repeat, and leave the rest to me.” - -Hyde started for the door, only to have the woman again dart across his -path and clasp him by the arm. - -“Stop a moment!” she cried, under her breath. - -“Well?” - -The query came with a startled gasp, as Hyde, naturally a nervous and -cowardly cur, instinctively shrank from the expression now risen over -Vic Clayton’s face. - -For there was murder in her dilated eyes, in her deathly white -features, in the vicious firmness of her drawn, gray lips. - -“There is something more!” she hissed, with suppressed ferocity. “Have -you been constantly watchful at headquarters?” - -“Have I? That’s a fat question for you to ask me,” said Hyde. “You -should know that I have.” - -“So I do—so I do, Sandy, dear!” Vic hurriedly exclaimed, in assuasive -tones. “But there is one thing more. Is Nick Carter alone in this case?” - -“Yes.” - -“Are you sure of it—dead sure of it?” demanded Vic, with a voice and -aspect that plainly betrayed the murderous design that inspired this -precautionary question. - -“Certainly I’m sure of it.” - -“It will do us no good to down him, mind you, if others at work with -him are to rise up out of his ashes and confound us with the same -evidence that he may possess.” - -“There are no others,” protested Hyde confidently. “If there were, Vic, -I’d have told you.” - -“Providing you knew it.” - -“Oh, I’d have known it, all right,” declared Sandy. “I’m never out of -the office except to eat and sleep, and I’d have been wise to it by -this time if Carter had brought on any of his assistants from New York.” - -“You have heard none mentioned?” - -“Not one.” - -“This shows me the way, then—the one and only way,” muttered the woman, -staring for a moment at the floor. “If it must be him or us—it shall -not be us!” - -“Carter has been at the chief’s office only twice, both times alone,” -added Hyde assuringly. “You may safely gamble on it, Vic, that he’s -still alone on the case.” - -Again, with her vengeful countenance lighting for a moment, she slipped -her arm about the spy’s neck and kissed him. - -“Go, now, Sandy, and leave the rest to me,” she repeated. “But come out -to Badger’s place after dark to-night.” - -“To-night, Vic?” - -“Yes.” - -“Shall I find you there?” queried Hyde, with wistful gaze. - -“Yes, you’ll find me there—and another with me!” - -“Not Nick Carter?” - -The woman’s brows knit again and her eyes gleamed venomously. - -“Nick Carter—yes!” she rejoined, with suppressed ferocity. “Nick -Carter—or what there is left of him!” - - - - - CHAPTER XII. - - THE ROAD TO CANTON. - - -It was precisely two o’clock when Nick Carter arrived at Vic Clayton’s -rooms in Tremont Street. - -Naturally, Nick did not so much as dream that she had been informed of -his designs against her. That treachery existed at police headquarters -was farthest from his thoughts. - -In asking Vic Clayton to take him to the place where she and Claudia -Badger claimed to have been robbed, Nick had several motives. - -To begin with, he wished to see if she would willingly consent to do so. - -Nick reasoned that, in case she readily consented, it would indicate -a bare possibility that he in some way had misinterpreted the curious -features that he had detected in the photograph, and that the picture -might not be as incriminating in its significance as he had inferred. - -While even this remote doubt existed, Nick felt that he could not -wisely make any very aggressive move in the case, and he took this -method to remove the doubt. - -As a matter of fact, he hardly believed that Vic would consent to -comply with this request, but would evade it with some plausible excuse. - -Providing that she complied and went with him, however, Nick believed -that he could so corner her with questions, while alone with her in -a carriage, that he could finally force from her a confession of the -whole business. - -In any event, moreover, he felt sure that he could so artfully take -these steps that he would in no way sacrifice any of his present -advantages. - -He found Vic Clayton alone in the handsomely furnished waiting-room, -engaged in writing at an open desk in one corner. - -She had rearranged her hair and rouged her cheeks since Sandy Hyde’s -departure, and she looked, as a matter of fact as well as of design, -remarkably handsome and attractive. - -“Dear me!” she exclaimed, quickly dropping her pen upon seeing Nick -enter. “Is it you, Detective Carter?” - -“None other,” bowed Nick, smiling. - -“I’m delighted!” cried Vic, rising to offer her hand. “I do -hope you bring some encouraging news, or possibly my lost gems -themselves—despite that I predicted only failure for you.” - -The last was added with a fascinating laugh, in which Nick was willing -enough to join, though he found nothing inviting in her seductive eyes -and alluring airs. - -“Well, hardly anything as favorable as that, Madame Victoria,” he began. - -“No, no, pardon me!” she interrupted, playfully tapping him on the arm. -“You surely do not call again to consult me professionally?” - -“No, I do not.” - -“Then drop the Madame Victoria, my dear Mr. Carter, which is much too -strained for friendly intercourse,” she softly cried, with an arch -glance at him. “Let me be to you plain Miss Clayton—or even plain -Victoria, so be it that suits you even better.” - -Nick experienced a vague feeling of distrust stealing through him -as he looked and listened, but in his ignorance of what herein has -been disclosed, he could find no definite grounds for the feeling. -Yet, instinctively, as one sometimes dreads dangers still remote and -visionary, he did not fancy this woman’s bantering remarks nor her -playful attempts to captivate him. - -Nick laughed again, nevertheless, and agreeably rejoined: - -“As I told you the other day, Miss Clayton, it matters little to me -what I call you, providing you consent to comply with my wishes.” - -“Your wishes?” - -“Yes.” - -“Dear me! I really think I should enjoy making them my own, Detective -Carter,” murmured Vic, with a pretty cant of her head and a shrug of -her shoulders. - -“I trust so.” - -“Have a chair.” - -“Thanks.” - -“Now what do you want of me this time, Detective Carter?” - -She had taken a seat near-by, still smiling archly at him, and Nick -more gravely answered: - -“I want you to do me a little service.” - -“You have only to name it.” - -“I find you willing,” smiled Nick, a bit puzzled. - -“The pleasure is all mine,” laughed Vic. “Yet I’m really curious to -know what you want of me.” - -“I’ll tell you. On what road was it, Miss Clayton, that you and Mrs. -Badger were held up by these rascally highwaymen?” - -“The road to Canton.” - -“Are you familiar with it?” - -“I’m familiar with that part of it,” cried Vic, with a very significant -smile and grimace. “Dear me! I shall never forget it!” - -“Quite vividly impressed upon your memory, eh?” - -“Decidedly so, Detective Carter?” - -“I suppose you could locate the precise spot, if there was any -occasion?” - -“Indeed, I could. I know exactly where it is.” - -“Ah, that is very fortunate,” said Nick agreeably. “I wish to go out -there and view the spot.” - -“For what?” - -“I think I may discover some clue or sign, Miss Clayton, either in -the general appearance of the immediate scene or the surrounding -country, which might put me on the track of the thieves,” Nick artfully -rejoined, now feeling that even this lame explanation could be made to -serve his purpose. “Of course,” he smilingly added, “we detectives see -much more in such cases than the untrained eyes of a layman.” - -“Naturally.” - -“You see the point, do you not?” - -“Oh, yes,” nodded Vic, with a demure stare at him. - -“What do you think of it?” - -“I’ll admit there might be something in it.” - -“I thought you would,” Nick heartily replied. “Now the question is, to -get back to the service I require of you. Will you go out there with me -and show me the spot?” - -Vic burst out laughing, as if much amused. - -“Is that all you want of me?” she cried. - -“That is all just now,” said Nick, a bit dryly. - -“Why, of course, Detective Carter, I’ll go with you,” exclaimed Vic, as -if a refusal was the last thing to have been expected, or any occasion -for one. “How shall we go? It’s much too far to walk.” - -“Oh, I should not think of asking you to walk,” laughed Nick, somehow -feeling again that he was on deucedly thin ice, for which he could not -account. - -“I hope not, my dear Mr. Carter.” - -“I will provide a carriage.” - -“What time do you wish to go?” - -“The sooner the better, Miss Clayton. At once will suit me best of all.” - -Now Vic bridled a little, never other than crafty, and her smiling face -took on a look of regret. - -“Dear me! That makes it a little bad,” she said, as if weighing the -situation. “I already had planned to go to——Stay! here is a note to -verify my making any excuse, Detective Carter, after offering so -volubly to serve you.” - -She reached over to the desk while speaking, taking from it the note -she had been writing, which she now handed to Nick to be read. - -It was merely a note to her maid, informing her that she would be -absent for a few hours, and that the girl might close the rooms and -take an outing until the morrow. - -“I had already planned to go riding, and was about to leave that note -for Delia, my maid,” she explained, while Nick glanced at the craftily -prepared missive. - -“Well, that does interfere, Miss Clayton, as you say,” he replied, -eying her a bit sharply, yet failing to detect any sign of duplicity, -so artful was the jade. “If you cannot go with me to-day, however, -possibly to-morrow you——” - -“Stop a moment!” exclaimed Vic, as if struck with a second thought. “I -was going only with Amos and his wife, merely for a run of an hour or -two, and——Hark! that should be they!” - -The toot of an automobile-horn had sounded from the street below, and -Vic sprang up while speaking, and ran to look from the window. - -“Yes, they are at the curb,” she added, with manifest satisfaction. -“Amos is coming up here. Now, if he has no definite plans, Mr. Carter, -I see no reason why we cannot prevail upon you to——” - -She was interrupted by the entrance of Mr. Amos Badger. - -He bolted into the room like a man in a hurry, his face flushed, his -eyes bright, his voice resonant when impulsively inquiring: - -“All ready, Vic?” - -Then he checked himself and exclaimed quickly, as if unexpectedly -beholding Nick in the room: - -“Why, hello, Carter! You here? Glad to see you again.” - -“The pleasure is mutual, Mr. Badger,” replied Nick, rising to accept -the other’s proffered hand. - -“Thanks,” nodded Badger. “Have you got a line on those infernal crooks -yet?” - -“No, not as yet.” - -“Sorry to hear it.” - -“But I’m hoping to do so.” - -“I join you in the hope, Carter,” declared Badger; then he laughingly -added: “You’ll observe that I’m out of those red flannel bandages.” - -“Yes, so I see.” - -“A nasty thing, a cold in the early summer.” - -“So it is,” assented Nick. “I congratulate you upon being rid of it.” - -He had eyed the man intently while they were speaking, and he saw what -he had not seen, heard what he had not heard, when they met at his -place in Brookline; for Badger now knew that he was suspected; knew -what desperate work must be done that afternoon, and he had dropped -those little artifices with which he had aimed to blind Nick during -their previous meeting. - -In his clear and cutting voice, in every subtle, sinister inflection, -in the glowing glint of his dark eyes, in the poise of his supple, -muscular figure—in one and all of these Nick now saw or heard again the -man of the hold-up—as plainly as when he saw the knave standing with -leveled weapons in that sunlit suburban road. - -Yet the face of the detective did not change by so much as a shadow, -and Vic Clayton now interposed, with a fine display of solicitude: - -“We can do Mr. Carter a service, Amos, if you have no plans for the -afternoon.” - -“How?” demanded Badger, turning quickly to her. - -“He wishes to visit the place where Claudia and I were held up and -robbed, and he came here to ask me to go with him. Now, if you have no -particular trip you wish to make to-day——” - -“None whatever!” cried Badger, quickly interrupting. “We are out for an -airing only, and I’d as soon go that way as any. The road to Canton—can -you locate the precise place, Vic?” - -“Surely.” - -“Then we’ll take him out there at once, if he wishes,” said Badger, -quickly reverting to Nick. “What do you say, Carter? There’s a seat in -my auto, if you care to go.” - -Nick had foreseen what was coming, and had decided what course to take. - -“Yes, I’ll go,” he said briefly. - -“Good enough!” cried Badger. “Get into your wraps, Vic, and we’ll start -at once.” - -Nick had seen, in fact, no wise alternative to accepting the offer. To -have declined it, after the request he had made Vic Clayton, might have -aroused suspicions which he had no reason to believe already existed. -He would take no chance of that before positive evidence against these -knaves had been secured. - -That he had been betrayed from police headquarters, that his suspicions -and designs were already partly known, that he was now up against a -plot hurriedly arranged by telephone, that he was the victim of an -admirably played game, that his life itself was in jeopardy from that -moment—only a clairvoyant could have seen all this. - -Nick Carter was not a clairvoyant, however, nor had he any reasonable -cause for suspecting the real gravity of his situation. - -Yet with caution that was habitual to him when in the company of -persons known to be crooks, Nick became more wary from the moment he -took his seat in Badger’s automobile. - -It was a Packard four-cylinder motor-car, and Badger was running the -machine. With Nick beside him on the front seat, and his wife and Vic -Clayton behind, the party of four were soon speeding through Brookline -toward the woodland roads of the famous Blue Hills. - -Though the animated conversation that was sustained meantime is not -material here, it soon led Nick to form, in conjunction with the -polite attentions bestowed upon him, a new theory in explanation of the -seemingly natural situation. - -“These crafty rascals are merely aiming to make a favorable impression -upon me with their courtesies,” he said to himself, during a lull in -the conversation. - -“They are doing so in the hope of averting suspicion, with a view to -convincing me that they are as honest and fashionable as they appear. -They look and seem all right. I’ll give them credit for that, and if I -knew less about them, I’m blessed if they wouldn’t fool me with their -pretensions.” - -This soliloquy ran through Nick’s mind more than an hour after they had -started, but it was given the lie most violently less than five minutes -later. - -The car was then speeding along a woodland road in the Blue Hills, and -Badger was bent forward over his steering-wheel, apparently intent upon -the road ahead. - -As far as the eye could reach, the road was deserted. One hundred yards -ahead it divided, a branch road turning off to the left. - -The junction of the two was in the very midst of a belt of woods, with -no sign of a house or clearing in sight. - -After one swift, backward glance over her shoulder, Vic Clayton -suddenly leaned forward and cried, above the noise of the machine: - -“You must take that road to the east, Amos. The other leads to——” - -“No, no, you’re wrong about that,” Badger quickly called back over his -shoulder. - -“No, I’m not!” - -“The west road leads to Canton.” - -“You’re mistaken, Amos,” insisted Vic, in apparent excitement, as the -car rapidly approached the junction. “We must take the east road. -Mustn’t we, Claudia?” - -Badger slowed down, as if in some uncertainty, then brought the car to -a stop just at the junction. - -“Well, I am not really sure,” cried his wife, doubtfully looking -about—yet only to make sure that no other car was in sight in any -direction. “It’s all right, Amos——” - -Badger was already upon his feet, interrupting her. - -“Nonsense!” he exclaimed, while Nick glanced up with a feeling of -distrust. “If we take that road, Vic, it will——Oh, I beg your pardon, -Mr. Carter!” - -Apparently by accident, while gesticulating about the road, he had -knocked Nick’s derby hat from his head. - -Then, with a lightning like move, made as if to catch the hat before -it could fall to the ground, he threw himself across the detective’s -body, confining his arms to his sides. - -At that moment Vic Clayton had risen up in the car, standing directly -behind Nick. - -“Now!” yelled Badger, with terrible ferocity. - -There was no need for the command. - -Already the uplifted hand of the fortune-teller was descending; a hand -fiercely gripping a clubbed revolver, and thrice the butt of the heavy -weapon fell squarely upon Nick Carter’s unprotected head. - -The tragic episode had been enacted in the fraction of a second, before -Nick could realize the design, much less prevent it, and a single blow -delivered as the three had been would well-nigh have felled an ox. - -Without so much as a groan, with every muscle suddenly relaxing, Nick -dropped inert and senseless upon the floor of the car, his hair and -brow turned crimson by a swift gush of blood. - -In an instant Badger was out upon the ground. - -“Take my seat, Claudia,” he hurriedly cried to his wife. “Lend me a -hand here, Vic, and we’ll throw him in behind. I’ll bind him hand and -foot after we start again. There, there, that will do! Now around with -the car, Claudia, and drive for home as if the devil followed us!” - -The transfer had been made in half a minute. - -In another half the car was speeding back over the woodland road at -thirty miles an hour—heading for Badger’s place near Brookline. - -Senseless, between the seats, out of view of any persons whom the -speeding car might pass along the road, lay the man for whom failure -only had been predicted by the desperate woman who had struck him down. - - - - - CHAPTER XIII. - - CLOSE QUARTERS. - - -“It’s not for me to say what you’ll do or not do, since you now appear -to hold the ribbons. It’s up to you, Badger, and not for me to say.” - -The above came from Nick Carter several hours after the tragic episode -enacted in the woodland road. - -Bound hand and foot, with his head rudely bandaged, Nick sat propped -against one of four stone walls, evidently those of a small cellar, or -possibly a wine-vault, with but one heavy door through which the place -was accessible. - -Only the bare earth was under him, damp and cold, while a small pool -of stagnant water in one corner of the place evinced the depressed -location of the ground. - -Two empty beer-kegs stood on end near-by. - -On one of them a lantern was burning, the rays from which shed only a -dismal light over the more dismal scene. - -On the other keg sat Amos Badger, with his hands on his knees, his -lowering gaze fixed upon the helpless detective, and his dark features -wearing a look of mingled satisfaction and sinister scorn. - -It was then well into the evening, and Nick Carter had with some -difficulty been doctored back to consciousness, and to a keen -realization of his aching head and a most unenviable situation. - -The restoration had been accomplished by Conley, who was somewhat of a -veterinary physician, and it was no sooner done than Badger hastened to -interview his captive, an interview only just begun when Nick made the -remark which opens this chapter. - -“Up to me, is it?” returned Badger, with stern complacency. “Up to me -to say what shall be done with you?” - -“I cannot see that anything I say would be of weight,” said Nick coolly. - -“That’s right—it wouldn’t!” - -“Not at present.” - -“No, nor later!” sneered Badger sharply. “You’ve had your last say, -Carter, now that we have you in our clutches.” - -“A very rascally game you played to accomplish it!” - -“When you go hunting rascals, Carter, you must expect to be turned down -by their own methods, if at all.” - -“That’s right, too, and I was imprudent in not being ready for you.” - -“You were up against more craft and cunning than you bargained for.” - -“I don’t need to be informed of it,” retorted Nick, now wondering when, -how, and for what reason they had planned the trick. - -For he knew the assault must have been planned previous to his talk -with Vic Clayton that afternoon, or it could not have been so quickly -executed, nor the trap itself so definitely arranged. - -“One fact is now very obvious, however,” he presently added, hoping to -lead Badger into some inadvertent disclosure. - -“What fact?” growled Badger, frowning at him. - -“Some person informed you of the request I designed to make the Clayton -woman.” - -“Think so?” - -“Or informed her.” - -“You’re getting wise fast.” - -“Otherwise, Badger, you couldn’t have planned the job among you,” -continued Nick. - -“Perhaps not.” - -“I can come pretty near guessing who it was, too, since Chief Weston is -the only man I informed of my intention.” - -“Most likely he sent a messenger out here and warned us,” sneered -Badger, with a grin. - -“Not he,” retorted Nick. “But there’s a red-headed sketch and outline -of a man in his office, Badger, whom I’ll come pretty near rounding up -along with the rest of you, when I get out of this hole.” - -“There will be no immediate rounding up, Carter, since it depends upon -you alone,” replied Badger, with a searching stare at Nick’s face. - -“Ah, then you were also told that I’m alone on the case,” said Nick, -willing enough to have him think so. - -“Aren’t you alone on it?” - -“If I’m not, Badger, you’ll hear from others soon enough.” - -“There are no others.” - -“All right.” - -“And you are now helpless.” - -“Not quite.” - -“As good as down and out.” - -“But I’m still in the ring,” insisted Nick. - -“You’re in hands from which you’ll never escape alive, I give you my -word on that,” cried Badger, with menacing austerity. - -“Your word, Badger, is a poor voucher.” - -“You now know far too much about us for us to let you escape and -disclose it,” added the latter decisively. “I now want to know of just -what your knowledge consists, and what action you have taken against -us.” - -Nick laughed a bit derisively. - -“I guess, Badger, you’ll have to take it out in wanting,” said he. - -“You’ll not inform me?” - -“Not by a long chalk.” - -“I shall find a way to compel you.” - -“Possibly,” said Nick. “But you’ll have a long hunt before you find the -way.” - -“You’ll let me alone to find that,” cried Badger, with confident -asperity. “I can devise tortures so acute that even you will reveal -what you have done toward——” - -His rascally threat was interrupted at that point by the sound of -approaching steps from beyond the partly closed door. In a moment -it was thrown open, and Jerry Conley, followed by Vic Clayton and -Badger’s wife, entered the dismal place. - -That the two women were as low-bred and disreputable as had been -reported to Nick appeared in their utter disregard of his wretched -condition, and the malicious satisfaction with which they stared at -him, as they might have stared at a caged beast which they had had -occasion to fear. - -“You’ve got him back to earth, have you?” asked Claudia, with a glance -at Badger’s grim face. “Jerry just came and told us, so we thought we’d -have a look at him.” - -Vic Clayton, however, came and bent above Nick, peering down at his -stern features, now white from loss of blood; while her own evil eyes, -with the mocking smile that curled her cruel lips, plainly evinced her -despicable and malignant nature. - -“Well, you’ve got as many lives as a cat, haven’t you?” she demanded, -in taunting tones. - -Nick returned her evil stare with hardly a change of countenance, yet -there was in his lifted eyes an ominous, fiery gleam, from which those -who knew him best had learned to shrink with fear. - -“I shall live long enough to repay with interest the blows you dealt -me, and to land you where you belong?” he sternly rejoined. - -“You will, eh?” sneered Vic, with a derisive laugh. - -“Without the slightest doubt.” - -“Evidently you’ve forgotten what I predicted for you.” - -“The predictions of a charlatan are seldom fulfilled.” - -“Charlatan?” - -“And crook,” added Nick. - -“Don’t be saucy, Mr. Carter, not to a lady,” said the frowning jade. -“You’ll meet with just what I predicted for you—failure.” - -“I’ll risk that.” - -“And you’re in a very fair way to it,” added Vic, with a sinister nod, -as she terminated her malicious scrutiny and turned to Amos Badger. - -The latter had drawn aside with his wife and Conley, and the three -stood talking in subdued tones, apparently with no interest in the -recent amusement of their confederate. - -“Well, what do you say?” demanded Vic, as she approached them. “We’ve -got him, all right. Now, what’s to be done with him?” - -“That’s what we are discussing,” growled Conley, who had much of the -ruffian in him. “I say ’twas a mistake not to have let him croak, if -he’d have been accommodating enough to do so.” - -“Bah!” muttered Claudia. “Men with as hard heads as his don’t die so -easily.” - -“To my way of thinking,” added Conley, “it’s safest for us to put out -his light at once, and be done with it.” - -Badger, however, quickly shook his head. - -“Not yet,” said he grimly. “Not before to-morrow.” - -“But why the delay?” protested Conley. “I cannot see anything in that.” - -“Then I’ll tell you why.” - -“Well, out with it.” - -Nick pricked up his ears, yet he could catch only a word now and then -louder than others. - -“To begin with,” argued Badger, “I’m not going to run my neck into a -noose before I know just how we stand. We have no blood on our hands -as yet, and before I take chances of that kind, Conley, I’m going to -be dead sure that Carter has not reported his suspicions to Weston. -What good will it do to put him out of the way, only to find that we -have half a score of Boston detectives on our heels, to whom Carter’s -discoveries have been imparted.” - -“But Sandy declares that Weston knows nothing about that,” whispered -Vic. - -“I hope he doesn’t, but I’m going to be sure of it before I wipe out -Nick Carter,” said Badger. - -“How can you make sure?” growled Conley. - -“We shall know by to-morrow at this time.” - -“How so?” - -“Because we shall have others after us, Jerry, just as soon as the -discovery is made that Carter is missing,” reasoned Badger. “If none -show up, we may then safely assume that Sandy Hyde is right, and that -Carter has disclosed nothing definite. We shall then know that he’s the -only one we need fear, and it will then be time enough to put him down -and out.” - -“Well, there’s something in that,” Conley now muttered. - -“We know he cannot escape.” - -“H’m! I should say not.” - -“So there’s no need of haste, since we have him in our clutches,” added -Badger. “Besides, there is another thing to be considered.” - -“What’s that?” - -“Carter may have some of his New York assistants here, for all we -positively know to the contrary.” - -“Sandy says not,” interposed Vic. - -“He may not be absolutely sure,” Badger argued. “And until we are -dead certain of it, which should be by to-morrow at this time, I am -resolved to take no chance of some day being tried for murder.” - -“That does have an ugly sound,” said Vic, with a dismal grimace. - -“And there’s an ugly penalty,” added her sister. - -“So that settles it, Jerry,” said Badger. “We’ll keep Carter right here -till we know just what we’re up against.” - -“Well, that’s good enough for me if ’tis for you,” said Conley -indifferently. - -“Are you sure his bonds are secure?” - -“If he loosens any of those knots, Amos, I’ll eat the ropes,” was the -confident rejoinder. - -“To-morrow we’ll take steps to make him open his mouth, and tell all he -knows.” - -“What steps?” - -“I’ll find a way, let me alone for that.” - -“Meantime——” began Vic. - -“No more here,” interposed Badger. “It’s too infernally damp and cold. -Go back to the house, you two women, and I’ll presently join you there. -I’ll first make sure that things here are all safe.” - -“All right, Amos.” - -The two women withdrew from the vault, Nick following them with his -gaze. - -The two men remained, and both now proceeded to make doubly sure that -the ropes binding Nick’s arms and limbs were securely knotted. - -Not a word was spoken. - -The work required less than a minute, and Badger then took up the -lantern and signed for Conley to go out ahead. - -At the door of the vault, however, Badger turned back for a moment, to -say, with vicious assurance: - -“If it is to be one of us who must go down and out, Carter, it will be -you! Take my word for that!” - -For a moment Nick gazed sternly at him across the dismal place, then -coldly retorted: - -“Since I have only your word for it, Badger, I feel perfectly safe!” - -Badger vented a half-smothered growl, then closed the heavy door with a -resounding bang. - -Nick heard the shooting of bolts and the sound of a bar dropped into -place. - -Then all was silence for a time—silence and darkness! - - - - - CHAPTER XIV. - - SHADOWS AND SHADOWED. - - -“Thundering guns!” muttered Patsy. “He’d be an ugly cur to meet in the -dark.” - -Chick Carter gazed in the direction indicated. - -The two detectives were comfortably seated on a log in the midst of a -cluster of shrubbery. - -The shrubbery formed a part of the scrub and bushes skirting the -woodland back of the extensive Badger estate. - -Nearly a hundred yards away was the stable, a side view, with the long -carriage-house adjoining, as previously described. - -Fifty yards beyond was the Badger dwelling, rear elevation, with the -back door and windows in plain sight, as well as part of one of the -side verandas. - -The intervening ground was clear of trees, and nothing obstructed the -view of the two watching detectives. - -They were executing Nick’s command given them that morning, that of -learning what they could about the Badger place without being seen. - -They had already measured it from in front, and had arrived at their -present vantage-point about half an hour before, bent upon watching -till they were reasonably assured as to the number of servants in the -house and stable. - -Matters always moved lively with the Carters after a trail was once -fairly struck, and in this case they were no exception. - -That which had occasioned Patsy’s muttered exclamation was now observed -by Chick, who parted the shrubbery concealing them to view the object a -little better. - -It was a huge Cuban bloodhound, a wicked-looking beast. The animal had -evidently just come out of the stable, the front of which was only -partly visible to the detectives, and he was now trotting across the -lawn toward the rear door of the house. - -“I believe you are right,” rejoined Chick. “He looks as if he might -bolt a man with a single mouthful.” - -“Dead easy,” nodded Patsy. - -“If we have work to do here after dark,” said Chick, “we’d best keep -that fellow in mind.” - -“Rather.” - -“He’d put up an uglier fight than the entire bunch we’ve seen so far.” - -“That’s right, Chick.” - -“We’ve seen only four as yet.” - -“Badger and his wife, whom we saw from the front,” counted Patsy. “The -middle-aged woman at work in the kitchen yonder, and the covey we’ve -seen about the stable. That makes four, Chick; sure as you’re a foot -high.” - -“I begin to think there are no others.” - -“Four are not many to be carrying on the game Nick suspects,” suggested -Patsy, a bit doubtfully. - -“There is still the Clayton woman,” replied Chick; “and she and -Badger’s wife may be as bold and capable as men would be.” - -“Very likely.” - -“There are enough of them to have played this hold-up game -successfully, that’s plain enough; and the smaller the number, Patsy, -the less liability of betrayal.” - -“That’s true, Chick.” - -“I think that the paucity of servants here is a point in our favor.” - -“A point that Nick is right?” - -“Exactly.” - -“Perhaps so.” - -“I doubt if there are others,” repeated Chick, “or if we can remain -here much longer to advantage. We are to rejoin Nick at four o’clock, -you remember.” - -“What time is it now?” - -“Half-past one,” replied Chick, consulting his watch. - -It was at that moment that Vic Clayton was receiving her very important -communication from the spy from police headquarters, half an hour -before the arrival of Nick. - -At the same moment, while Chick and Patsy were crouched, gazing toward -the house, Conley came out of the rear door and sauntered toward the -stable, lighting his pipe while he walked. - -“There’s that stable covey again,” murmured Patsy. “I don’t half-fancy -his looks.” - -“Evidently he is just out from dinner.” - -“Sure thing! See, the woman is now feeding the dog at the back steps. -That’s what the ugly cur trotted over there for.” - -“He knows when meal-time comes,” laughed Chick. - -“Mebbe his meal-ticket is only good at this hour,” grinned Patsy. “I -wonder if that covey is the only man in the stable. If he is, Chick, he -must have a good bit of work, or else Nick is away off on some points.” - -“Why so?” - -“Nick thinks they have three or four horses out here.” - -“We know of one, Patsy.” - -“And he thinks these hold-up crooks have several automobiles.” - -“They don’t require much labor, particularly when only seldom used.” - -“Well, they haven’t the autos in that stable, nor in the -carriage-house,” declared Patsy. “That’s a cinch, Chick, for we’ve had -a look into both.” - -“True.” - -“And there’s only one horse in the stable.” - -“They may have some secret place of concealment for the whole -business,” said Chick. - -“Perhaps so, yet——” - -“Stop a bit!” Chick suddenly interrupted, rising to peer through the -shrubbery. “What’s the meaning of this?” - -“Gee!” muttered Patsy, also starting to his feet. “Something’s up!” - -Though they had no way of learning the occasion for the excitement at -this time, both being out of hearing and unable to approach without -being detected, it was at just this time that Badger received from Vic -Clayton a telephone communication concerning Nick Carter’s designs, and -which had been quickly followed by the laying of the plot that later -resulted in Nick’s downfall. - -Badger had come plunging out of the back door of the house, without -coat or hat, throwing away his cigar as he ran across the lawn, all -the while shouting lustily to Conley. - -It was his sudden appearance and obvious excitement that had so -startled both Chick and Patsy. - -Conley turned back upon hearing the shouts, and the two crooks met -about twenty feet in front of the stable, within plain view of the -detectives. - -There Badger talked rapidly for several moments, with occasional fierce -gestures in the direction of the city, and all the while both men -exhibited in their faces and movements a consternation and excitement -not easily to be accounted for by one out of hearing. - -“Gee! I’d give something to know what they are saying,” muttered Patsy, -staring with distended eyes. - -“There is something in the wind,” nodded Chick. - -At the end of about a minute, Badger turned and rushed back to the -house, entering it at the top of his speed. - -Conley, meantime, bolted out of sight toward the stable door, yet not -into it, which was out of view of the detectives. - -“Where the dickens did he go?” said Chick curiously. - -“It looked as if he went into the stable,” said Patsy. - -“I’m not so sure of that.” - -“No?” - -“I thought he turned to one side just before he approached the door.” - -“He may have run around the farthest corner,” suggested Patsy. “We -might change our positions, Chick, so as to see that door.” - -“Wait a bit,” replied Chick. “There’s a big hurry here over something, -and we shall see all there is to be seen in short order.” - -“I guess that’s right.” - -“Badger pointed toward town several times,” added Chick, with grave -countenance. “I’d wager a little that Nick is in some way back of this, -if not involved in some bother.” - -“You don’t imagine——” - -“Easy! Here comes Badger again.” - -Once more the latter had bolted out of the house, and this time he was -followed by his wife. - -Now both had on their outside garments, and evidently were prepared for -a ride. - -At the same moment an automobile, with a furious rumble and whir, came -into view in front of the stable, and sped across the lawn to meet the -couple. - -It was driven by Conley, who tumbled out of it the instant it stopped, -while Badger and his wife clambered in almost as quickly. - -In another moment, with Badger running it, the car was speeding down -the long gravel driveway toward Laurel Road. - -The departure was made so excitedly and hurriedly that Patsy, who had -been holding his breath all the while, now exhaled it with a sharp gasp. - -“Whew; that beats the record,” he exclaimed. - -“What puzzles me,” replied Chick perplexedly, “is where that auto came -from.” - -“Gee! that’s just what I was thinking.” - -“It did not come out of the stable, I’ll swear to that.” - -“It looked to me as if it came around the farther corner.” - -“It was a Packard,” said Chick. “I know the machine.” - -“Perhaps——” - -“Break off and follow me,” now interrupted Chick, who had been watching -Conley walk leisurely back toward the stable. - -“Where now?” asked Patsy, as they drew back through the woods. - -“Back to town,” said Chick decidedly. “There’s nothing more for us here -at present.” - -“It’s a good bet that Badger has headed for town, since he pointed that -way so often.” - -“That’s just my idea, Patsy.” - -“What do you think about it?” - -“I think that something has happened to alarm these rascals,” replied -Chick. - -“And that nobody but Nick could have brought that about?” - -“Exactly.” - -“In that case, Chick, he may have made some move since we left him.” - -“Sure.” - -“And possibly these guys have got wise to it.” - -“That appears to be about the size of it,” nodded Chick. “Furthermore, -it looks as if Badger, in making this lightning trip, had got something -up his sleeve for Nick.” - -“A counter-move?” - -“Precisely.” - -“What shall we do about it?” - -“We’ll first make sure about Nick,” replied Chick. “He was to rejoin us -at four o’clock. If he doesn’t show up at that hour, or a little later, -we must get a move on.” - -“To trace him?” - -“Sure.” - -“And if we fail to strike his trail?” - -“Back out here we’ll come, Patsy, dog or no dog, to learn what this -sudden journey really meant,” declared Chick, with grave determination. - -He had reasoned shrewdly in that he had attributed Badger’s excited -departure to some unexpected cause for alarm, and also that Nick was -the person most likely to have occasioned it. - -In the light of these deductions, moreover, Badger’s immediate and -decisive action plainly indicated that he had some definite project in -view, presumably one to avert the impending danger. - -The conclusions alone were sufficient to point to some peril -threatening Nick, and his chief assistant was quick to arrive at them, -and act accordingly. - -As a matter of fact, however, the celerity and astuteness with which -the Carters invariably cooperated in their work went far toward -insuring their success. - -Chick’s talk with Patsy had occurred while they picked their way -through the belt of woods, from which they presently emerged, then -hastened to the nearest trolley line and back to the city. - -It was nearly three o’clock when they arrived at the Adams House, and -went to Nick’s room. - -There was no sign of Nick, however. - -The magnifying-glass with which he had examined the incriminating -photograph was still lying on the table where he had left it. But there -was neither note nor token to show that he had been there since the -three departed in company that morning. - -“He has not returned since he left with us, Patsy,” said Chick, after -looking about. “We’ll wait till the appointed hour.” - -“Four o’clock?” - -“Or a little later.” - -“He may show up by that time.” - -“I haven’t much hope of it,” replied Chick, a bit anxiously. “I’ve got -it on me good and hard, a genuine hunch, Patsy, that something has gone -wrong with him.” - -“You’re most generally right, Chick, when you feel like that.” - -Chick made no reply, but began pacing the floor. - -An hour passed, and brought no sign of Nick. - -At half-past four Chick could restrain his impatience no longer. - -“Come on!” he abruptly exclaimed, catching up his hat. “We’ll get a -move on.” - -Patsy started up from the couch, on which he was having a pull at his -pipe. - -“I’m with you!” he cried, with alacrity. “Going to try to trace him?” - -“Yes.” - -“Where first, Chick? To State Street?” - -“It’s too late to go there,” replied Chick, as they left the room and -hastened toward the elevator. - -“Yet we might strike his trail there.” - -“I can do so more quickly, I think.” - -“Where?” - -“At police headquarters—Chief Weston’s office, in Pemberton Square.” - - - - - CHAPTER XV. - - ON NICK’S TRAIL. - - -It was five o’clock when Chick and Patsy entered Pemberton Square. - -It was about half an hour before that when Nick Carter was lodged in -his place of confinement. - -“You wait here, Patsy,” said Chick, at the corner on which Nick engaged -Grady’s runabout a few mornings before. “There is no need of both of us -going into the chief’s office. I’ll return inside of five minutes.” - -“Go ahead.” - -Chick hastened down the basement stairs and into the chief’s -office—only to encounter Sandy Hyde just entering from the opposite -corridor. - -“Where’s the chief?” Chick cried bruskly. - -Hyde didn’t know Chick from a side of sole leather, but, knowing at -least that he was not Nick Carter, he answered quite promptly: - -“The chief is in his office.” - -“I must see him.” - -“What name?” - -“Chick Carter. Come, come, I’m in a rush!” - -Hyde’s catlike eyes at once began to dilate upon hearing the name, -taking on their greenish glow of internal excitement. - -He now realized that he had given Vic Clayton a wrong tip, that one -of Nick’s assistants was in Boston and on the case with him, and the -servile little rascal at once began to figure how he could square -himself and discover Chick’s mission. - -He did not dare hazard playing the eavesdropper again, and also feared -that he might not overhear all that was said by so doing, and he at -once adopted the first resort that appealed to him. - -He hastened through the enclosure, and into Weston’s private office, -saying quickly: - -“There’s a man out here to see you, chief.” - -“What man?” - -“I didn’t catch his name, sir. But he’s in an awful rush, and I reckon -something has happened.” - -Just as Hyde had expected, Chief Weston started up from his chair and -strode into the general office. - -Hyde was cunning enough to foresee that, if Chick was in such great -haste, their conversation would probably be carried on in the outer -office. - -So it was, moreover, despite that Weston at once cried, as he shook his -visitor by the hand: - -“Why, hello, Chick Carter! How are you? Come inside.” - -“No, no, chief,” Chick quickly declined. “I’m going to stay but a -moment. Has Nick been here to-day?” - -“Yes—about one o’clock.” - -“Do you know where he has gone?” - -“I know where he said he was going.” - -“Where was that?” - -“To Madame Victoria’s rooms, in Tremont Street,” replied Weston. - -“Do you know for what?” inquired Chick, beginning to see light ahead. - -Chief Weston briefly told him of what Nick’s mission at Vic Clayton’s -rooms consisted, as stated by Nick, and then he inquired curiously: - -“Why are you asking about him, Chick? Is there anything wrong?” - -Having learned all that he could then and there, however, Chick decided -to impart nothing at this time. - -“No, nothing wrong, chief, I think,” he quickly rejoined, turning to -go. “I am merely in a hurry to locate him, that’s all. He may have -returned to the hotel by this time.” - -“I think likely you’ll find him there,” nodded Weston, a bit suspicious -of Chick’s evasion. - -Chick did not wait longer, but bolted out as he had bolted in. - -Weston walked toward his private office. - -Hyde’s greenish eyes, now glowing more brightly than ever, drifted -toward the telephone-closet. - -Before he could make a move to convey the desired warning to Badger, -however, Chief Weston turned back and said curtly: - -“You come in here with me, Sandy. I want you to help me on my quarterly -report for an hour or so. Look lively, too, or you’ll be tied up here -till after six o’clock.” - -The sallow features of the treacherous miscreant quivered and twitched -with disappointment for a moment, but immediate obedience was -imperative—and the telephone had to wait! - -Chick Carter rejoined Patsy on the corner. - -“Come on!” he exclaimed. - -“Where now?” inquired Patsy, as they headed for Tremont Street. - -“To the fortune-teller’s rooms.” - -“Has Nick been there?” - -“Yes, about two o’clock.” - -“Did you learn for what?” - -“All that Weston could tell me,” replied Chick, hurriedly informing him -what he had learned. - -Both were quick to see the possibilities which their various -observations and discoveries presented, and Patsy now forcibly -declared, as Chick concluded: - -“I’ll bet that some kind of a scurvy trick has been turned.” - -“I fear so, Patsy.” - -“Badger wouldn’t have been on such a rush with that auto unless he had -some scheme in view.” - -“That’s right,” assented Chick. “Madame Victoria may have telephoned to -him what Nick was about doing, and possibly planned with Badger to get -him into their hands.” - -“That appears about the size of it. If we get no trace of him here,” -growled Patsy, “we’ll go out there again to-night and investigate.” - -“That’s what we’ll do.” - -“Do you know just where the fortune-teller’s rooms are located?” - -“Yonder,” nodded Chick, as they hastened up Tremont Street. “In that -block on the next corner.” - -“What are you going to ask her, in case she is there?” - -“Oh, I can give her some kind of a plausible story to explain my -inquiries,” replied Chick confidently. “She’s not clairvoyant enough to -see through me, I’ll go my pile on that.” - -“Mine goes the same way,” vouchsafed Patsy, with a grin. - -“I’ll assuredly not let her know that I’m on the case with Nick,” added -Chick. “If these rascals think he is working it alone, we may derive -some advantage by keeping them in the dark.” - -“Surely.” - -“Nick also may not wish us to expose that we, too, are investigating -the case——Stop a bit! Wait here!” - -Chick had suddenly caught Patsy by the arm and drawn him to the shelter -of a doorway, less than twenty yards from that leading into the -building occupied by Vic Clayton. - -The occasion for this move was obvious. - -Just turning the corner of Boylston Street, and approaching the -building mentioned, was a huge touring-car of the latest type, occupied -by two women only. - -“By thunder!” muttered Patsy excitedly. “That’s Badger’s wife running -that car.” - -“I see it is,” said Chick more coolly. - -“With the fortune-teller?” - -“No doubt of it. She answers Nick’s description of her.” - -“Gee whiz!” - -“Well?” - -“That’s not the car that Badger and his wife used this afternoon,” -cried Patsy. - -“So I see,” said Chick, still watching the couple. “There is something -back of all this.” - -“You bet there is!” - -“Hold your horses, however, till I see what the two women are about to -do.” - -With skillful hands Claudia Badger had turned the huge car in Tremont -Street, then brought it to a stop at the curb opposite the doorway -giving ingress to Vic Clayton’s rooms. - -Then both women deliberately alighted and entered the building, leaving -the automobile unattended. - -Chick Carter’s eyes took on a sudden bright gleam. - -They had lighted upon a large willow hamper, or covered basket, -attached to the rear of the car for the purpose of stowing away -articles to be carried on a long tour. The hamper was nearly as large -as a small trunk, and the top was secured only with two brass clasps. - -“By Jove, Patsy, here’s the chance of a lifetime!” Chick hurriedly -exclaimed. - -“What do you mean?” came the eager inquiry. - -“Do you see that hamper?” - -“Sure!” - -“Do you think you can get into it?” - -Patsy needed no further hint to the design in Chick’s mind, nor to the -possibility it presented. With eyes quickly glowing with eagerness and -excitement, he hurriedly replied: - -“Get into it? Sure I can! The scheme is a corker! It’ll take me right -into the midst of these rascals. Come on, Chick, and——” - -“Stop a moment,” cautioned Chick. “Get that policeman to help you, -explaining who you are, and have him take away any stuff that may be in -the hamper.” - -“And you?” - -“I’ll rush up-stairs, and keep those two women engaged till I’m sure -you are well under cover.” - -“Good enough!” - -“And to-night you can count on me to lend a hand,” added Chick, “in -case I am needed.” - -“That’s the idea!” cried Patsy. - -“Away with you, then, while I tackle the two women.” - -Patsy hastened toward the deserted automobile, near which a policeman -happened to be standing, and whose aid the former quickly obtained in -the way Chick had suggested. - -Chick, meantime, hastened into the building and up to the rooms of -Madame Victoria. - -He found the two women in the reception-parlor, Vic Clayton engaged in -changing her automobile coat for a long cloak. - -They had driven into town again, after securing Nick, only in order -that they might be seen by the occupants of the stores near-by, with a -view to subsequently obtaining the testimony of these observers, if the -need arose, in support of some plausible story to the effect that they -had brought Nick back to town and left him in some locality. - -Upon hearing Chick enter the room, both women turned toward him with -looks of surprise. - -“I beg pardon, ladies,” said he, bowing. “I am looking for Madame -Victoria.” - -“I am she,” replied Vic, sharply regarding him. - -“My name is Henderson, madame.” - -“What can I do for you, Mr. Henderson?” - -“I am looking for a gentleman who is said to have been here this -afternoon, and with whom I have important business,” explained Chick, -with a deliberation well calculated to give Patsy what time he would -require below. - -He was quick to see, however, the suspicious gleam that instantly arose -in Vic Clayton’s eyes upon learning his business, and he added, with -some suavity: - -“I am unable to find the gentleman at his hotel, madame, and I thought -he might still be here.” - -“Who is the gentleman?” asked Vic, with affected indifference. - -“His name is Nick Carter.” - -“Is he a friend of yours?” - -“An acquaintance only.” - -“How did you learn that he had been here, Mr. Henderson?” inquired Vic, -now bestowing a gracious smile upon her questioner. - -“I was so informed by the clerk at the hotel, to whom Mr. Carter had -mentioned his intention of coming here.” - -“Ah. I see.” - -“I inferred that Mr. Carter came here to consult you professionally, -madame, and I thought his interview might possibly have lasted till -now.” - -Chick easily detected the relief which his artful explanation had -occasioned both women, and it convinced him that he was on the right -track, yet he in no way betrayed his convictions. - -Neither woman had approached the window to look out, and Vic Clayton -had now buttoned her cloak and appeared anxious to depart. - -Chick knew that Patsy must have accomplished his design by this time, -however, and he did not care how soon the interview terminated. - -“Well, Mr. Henderson, I cannot say where Mr. Carter has gone,” Vic -carelessly rejoined. “We dropped him at the corner of Arlington Street, -however, only a short time ago.” - -“From your automobile?” - -“Yes, sir.” - -“Possibly, then, I shall now find him at the hotel.” - -“I think it quite probable, sir, for he walked toward Washington Street -after he left us,” smiled Vic, edging toward the door which Claudia -Badger already had opened. - -“I will return there and see,” said Chick, bowing himself from the -room. “Thank you very much for your information.” - -“Don’t mention it, sir,” replied Vic, with a little laugh, as she and -her companion also stepped into the corridor, closing the door behind -them. - -Chick politely stepped aside, and let them precede him down the stairs. - -Without so much as a glance at him again, both women fell into a -conventional talk as they descended toward the street. - -Chick reached the sidewalk close upon their heels, however. - -The touring-car still stood at the curb—but there was no sign of Patsy -in any direction. - -The policeman was lingering near-by, with an air of indifference and a -vacant stare across the opposite Common. - -From some little distance away a few curious observers were gazing -toward the car, wondering at what they had seen, but the officer had -made sure that they were too remote to attract attention. - -Neither woman noticed them as she crossed the sidewalk and quickly -entered the car. - -In another moment it was under way, with Claudia Badger at the wheel, -and presently was speeding up Boylston Street. - -Chick now turned to the policeman, who received him with a significant -grin. - -“What do you say, officer?” demanded Chick. - -“He’s in it, all right, sir,” was the reply. - -“In the hamper?” - -“That’s what.” - -“Was it empty?” - -“Not a thing in it, sir.” - -“Close quarters for him, weren’t they?” - -“Rather,” laughed the officer. “But he fixed the clasps so he can get -out whenever he likes, and he’ll not fare so badly. What’s the job, Mr. -Carter?” - -“If all works well, officer, you may learn by reading to-morrow -morning’s newspapers,” Chick pointedly rejoined, as he turned to go. “I -cannot wait to inform you, for I now have work of my own elsewhere.” - -He was thinking of Badger’s place, and of what might befall the -dauntless young detective then speeding out there in the hazardous -manner described. - -Ten minutes later, however, with a revolver in each hip pocket, Chick -also was on his way to Brookline. - - - - - CHAPTER XVI. - - A TERRIBLE PREDICAMENT. - - -Patsy held his breath. - -It was a novel and, at times, a thrilling sensation, that of riding -at thirty miles an hour enclosed in a wicker hamper on the rear of an -automobile. - -At times the car ran smoothly and swiftly; at others it jolted heavily -over a rougher road. - -It was not dark in the basketlike receptacle into which Patsy had -fairly crammed himself, yet the wickerwork was so compact that he could -not see out unless he raised the cover, and that he did not venture to -do. - -Neither could he hear anything that was said by the two women on the -front seat of the car, owing to the constant noise of the vehicle. - -He knew, however, that he was on the road to Badger’s place, and -speeding to the assistance of Nick Carter, and that was good enough for -Patsy up to that time. - -After half an hour’s run, as nearly as he could judge, the cramped and -twisted young detective felt the car sweep in a swift curve out of the -direct road it had been following, and speed along a much less smooth -and even way. - -“We have entered Laurel Road,” he rightly conjectured. “In five more -minutes we should arrive at Badger’s house. Providing that I am not -discovered in this infernally tight box, I there may hear something to -serve my purpose. If I can learn definitely that Nick is out here, and -then discover just where he is located, the rest of the job should be -fairly easy.” - -For his own peril, let it be what it might, the brave youngster had not -even a passing thought. - -Presently the car turned again, and began to slow down, and a moment -later, when the noise of the motor abated, Patsy could plainly hear Vic -Clayton addressing her companion. - -“There is Amos on the side veranda, Claudia,” she cried, in satisfied -tones. - -“So I see, Vic,” was the reply. - -“Things must still be all right out here, old girl, since he appears to -be taking it easy, and is smoking a cigar.” - -“I will round that side of the house before running the car to the -stable,” said Claudia. - -“You can drop me there, too.” - -“We’ll both stop there, and let Amos put the car under cover. Yes, I -judge that things are all right out here, as you say.” - -“They’ll soon take a turn for the worse, I’ll wager my life on that,” -thought Patsy, with grim anticipations. - -It was then nearly seven o’clock, and the dusk of the early evening had -begun to fall. - -As the car approached the side veranda and came to a stop, Badger rose -out of a chair in which he was seated, and strode to the steps leading -down to the driveway. - -Though his dark features wore a look of evil complacency, he at once -addressed his wife in rather uneasy tones. - -“Well, what’s the verdict?” he asked. - -“Nothing wrong, Amos,” she cried, as both women came down from the car. - -“Did you stop at your rooms, Vic?” - -“Certainly,” laughed the latter. “Don’t you notice that I have changed -my coat?” - -“Ah, yes, I see.” - -“I did that only to indicate that we had some motive for visiting the -rooms,” she glibly added. “We had a visitor, too, while we were there.” - -“Who was that?” - -“A chap named Henderson.” - -“Henderson?” - -“That’s what he said, Amos, and whom do you think he inquired after?” - -“Not Nick Carter!” cried Badger, with brows quickly knitting. - -“None other.” - -“The devil you say! There may be something back of that.” - -“Nothing that involves us, I reckon,” declared Vic confidently. - -“Why do you feel so sure of it?” - -“Because he was sent to my rooms by the clerk in the hotel where Carter -was stopping, and to whom he had mentioned coming to my place. He -merely wanted to see him on business, Amos, and couldn’t locate him.” - -The last was said with much significance and a loud, derisive laugh, in -which Amos Badger now joined. - -“Not locate him, eh?” he cried, with a shrug. “Well, if anybody locates -him after to-morrow, Vic, I’ll take a permanent seat in the back row.” - -As may be inferred, this conversation took place some little time -before the interview with Nick himself, as related in a previous -chapter. - -“You’ll take a seat in that stone hotel in Charles Street, you mean, -along with all the rest of us,” Vic bluntly rejoined. - -“You’ll soon be there!” thought Patsy, who was listening intently to -all that was being said. - -Not so much as a glance had been bestowed upon the hamper, which -externally presented no unusual appearance, and Patsy felt tolerably -safe in his concealment. - -The end was not yet, however. - -“What have you done with him, Amos?” Claudia now asked, as Badger came -down the steps to run the car to cover. - -“With Carter?” - -“Yes, of course. We started for town, you know, the moment we had him -safely landed here.” - -“Conley now has charge of him,” said Badger. - -“Where?” - -“In the old wine-vault.” - -“Are you going to confine him there?” - -“Yes, till I do worse to him.” - -“Has he come to himself?” - -“Not yet,” Badger promptly replied. “Those were three ugly blows that -Vic gave him.” - -“I was taking no chances by falling short of my duty,” put in Vic, with -a cruel laugh. - -“They’d have killed him for sure, Vic, if his head were not as tough -and hard as a darky’s.” - -“He would then have been out of our way, at all events.” - -“Conley will soon have him revived, I think, and then we will have a -talk with him, and force him to confess what is being done against us,” -added Badger, approaching the automobile. “I’ll stow the machine while -you two go in and eat your dinner. It’s already on the table.” - -“Had yours?” - -“Yes.” - -“Send Jerry in here to tell us when his patient revives,” called Vic -Clayton, as she mounted the steps. “I want to go out there and have a -look at him.” - -“All right,” growled Badger, as he sprang into the car. - -Then the two women entered the house. - -In another moment the car started again with a whir and rumble, and -Patsy mentally sized up the situation as he saw it. - -“We have hit the nail on the head, all right,” he said to himself. -“These crooks are all that we have suspected, and they have Nick -imprisoned out here, after knocking him on the head. They shall be paid -with interest for the blows given him, however, as surely as the sun -sets in the west. - -“Confined in the old wine-vault, eh? I wonder where that is located. -Evidently it is not connected with the cellar of the house, since that -she devil of a fortune-teller wants to go ‘out’ somewhere to see Nick. - -“Conley, plainly enough, is the stableman we saw to-day, and, since he -has Nick in charge, it’s a good bet that the vault mentioned is either -in the basement of the stable or that long carriage-house which adjoins -it. I’ll wager that I speedily find it, give me half a chance.” - -“Hello! what’s the meaning of this?” - -Patsy had suddenly felt the car lurch heavily, and sway to one side, -then plunge forward as if it were going down a steep incline. - -“We cannot be going directly into the stable,” he quickly reasoned. -“The run into that is on the level, but we’re descending some short, -steep place.” - -“By Jove! I have it. Badger is taking the car into some place from -which Conley brought that one this noon, which Chick felt sure had not -come out of the stable. These crooks must have some secret hiding-place -for their several cars and horses, and Badger is about taking this one -into it. Fortunately, I shall now know all about it.” - -Patsy was correct in these conjectures. - -Badger had run the car around a corner of the stable, then down to a -short fence enclosing the space below the building, which stood on a -slope of the land. - -In this fence was a door about wide enough to admit the car, and Badger -quickly sprang down to open it. - -As the latter did so, there fell upon Patsy’s ears a sound that chilled -his blood, despite the strong nerves and invincible courage of the -young detective. - -The sound was the sudden threatening barking of a dog, then confined in -this basement garage. - -“By thunder! it’s that Cuban bloodhound!” was Patsy’s mental -exclamation. - -He felt a thrill of dismay when he now recalled the huge beast, which -he had not once thought of since undertaking the hazardous venture in -which he was at present helplessly launched. - -“If I escape detection by his ugly nostrils I shall be lucky,” he said -to himself. “If he scents me before I can make some kind of a move to -escape from this basket, I shall be a gone goose for sure.” - -These thoughts passed quickly through Patsy’s mind while Badger was -opening the door mentioned. - -Then out came the dog, nearly as large as a small calf, leaping about -his rascally master, and barking furiously. - -“Gee whiz! that’s a pleasant sound,” murmured Patsy, with an -irrepressible shudder. - -“Down, Pluto!” roared Badger angrily. “Keep down, I say! Close that -trap of yours, you brute, or I’ll break every bone in your ugly body. -Get out, you cur!” - -With the last of these exclamations, the huge dog was dealt a -resounding kick in the ribs, which sent him yelping out across the -lawn, at which Patsy breathed a sigh of relief. - -“I’m safe for a few minutes, at least,” he decided. - -Then he heard Badger shout commandingly: - -“Here you, Conley! Come here with the lantern, so I can see to run in -this car. Look lively, old pal!” - -Patsy wondered why he had shouted so lustily, and now he ventured to -raise the wicker lid about half an inch and peer out. - -A dimly lighted basement met his gaze. It was not more than twenty feet -square, with the stone foundation walls of the stable on two sides, the -open door on a third, while the fourth and interior side appeared to be -a solid wooden bulkhead. - -The floor was the bare ground, and the place was evidently designed for -stowing away an automobile. - -“This is where that car came from this noon, that’s plain enough,” -thought Patsy. “Yet Nick must be wrong in thinking the rascals own so -many cars, for I’ve seen only two. There’s not room in there for more -than that number.” - -The last thought had barely crossed his mind, however, when Patsy -discovered his mistake, and also why Badger had shouted so loudly. - -A secret sliding door in the interior bulkhead wall suddenly flew open, -revealing a long extension of the basement, running even under the -carriage-house adjoining the stable above. - -In this secret extension, which was so cleverly constructed as to defy -detection either from within or without, Patsy now caught sight of -half a score of motors lined up against one of the side walls, each of -a different make from the others, and all apparently in first-class -condition. - -“By thunder! this does settle it, and Nick was right,” he mused. “Those -are the different cars these knaves have used for their night hold-ups. -This exterior basement is only a blind for concealing the other.” - -The chief figure that at once claimed Patsy’s attention, however, was -that of Jerry Conley. - -He had appeared in the secret doorway in response to Badger’s shout, -and he carried in one hand a lighted lantern, and in the other a flask -of brandy. - -“Well, what do you say, Jerry?” demanded Badger, as the other strode -out to join him. - -“He’s all right now,” growled Conley, setting down the lantern. - -“Got him back to earth?” - -“Pretty nearly. He’ll be himself in a few minutes.” - -“Thank God!” thought Patsy fervently. “That refers to Nick.” - -“Then he’ll not croak?” inquired Badger, as if somewhat disappointed. - -“Not this time; though I reckon ’twould be a good thing for us if he -did,” snarled Conley. - -“Help me run this car in, then I’ll go and have a talk with him.” - -Patsy ducked his head and dropped the hamper lid. - -Then he sensed that the two men had seized the sides of the car and -drawn it well into the exterior basement. - -“Things all right in town?” queried Conley. - -“Yes.” - -“Did both women come out?” - -“Sure.” - -“I’m thinking ’twould be a good scheme to hold up some party to-night,” -Conley now declared. - -“Why so?” inquired Badger. - -“It would go to show the police that the unknown road robbers have not -been interfered with by any move of Nick Carter, and when he is found -to be missing, no suspicion, naturally, would fall upon us.” - -“There’s something in that.” - -“Sure there is.” - -But Badger presently shook his head. - -“Not to-night, Jerry,” said he decisively. “We already have enough on -for to-night with this infernal detective. Besides, I’m about all in, -with what I’ve had to do to-day.” - -“I don’t much wonder,” grinned Conley. - -“We’ll cut out the hold-up until to-morrow,” added Badger. “You go over -to the house and tell Vic that Carter has revived. She wants to come -out and see him. Meantime, I’ll take the lantern, and go and have a -talk with him.” - -“What’s the matter with lighting this wall lamp?” - -“No harm in it, Jerry. Light it, if you like.” - -Badger took up the lantern while speaking, and strode into the interior -basement, closing the sliding door after him. - -Conley struck a match and lighted an oil-lamp in a bracket on the wall, -then hastened out of doors and across the lawn. - -“Now is my time!” thought Patsy. “If I can get into that inner cellar, -and down Amos Badger, the rest will be dead easy!” - -He raised his head a little to lift the lid of the hamper. - -Then he suddenly stopped, holding his breath. - -The patter of soft feet on the ground near-by had reached his ears. - -Then came a furious sniffing about the wickerwork of the hamper. - -It was followed immediately by a long, low, threatening growl, enough -to have sent a chill through a brass image. - -“That infernal bloodhound again!” thought Patsy, with an ugly creeping -of his every nerve. “By thunder! this is worse than being headed off by -a man—or by half a dozen men! What’s the cursed brute about to do?” - - - - - CHAPTER XVII. - - A CRISIS. - - -The bloodhound continued to sniff and growl. - -Patsy continued to lie low and hold his breath. - -He knew that if he showed himself in the open there would be trouble -from that moment—and the worst kind of trouble. - -He hoped that the fierce brute would presently have satisfied his -curiosity, and then take it into his ugly head to return out of doors. - -But the dog did nothing of the kind. - -Plainly enough, he knew that there was something wrong, and his -watch-dog instinct impelled him to hang about the suspected spot. - -He fell to trotting to and fro near the back of the touring-car, over a -space of some six feet, like an irritated lion in a cage. - -With every turn he made he looked up at the hamper with his rolling red -eyes, and indulged in a low, threatening growl. - -It was as much as to say: “Don’t come out, or I’ll make a meal of you!” - -His huge jaws hung apart and were froth-flecked, and Patsy, venturing -once to peer out at him, did not like his looks. - -“He’d make mince-meat of me in less than ten seconds if I undertook to -leap out there,” he said to himself, with gruesome misgivings. “Yet if -I remain here and he there, I am as good as discovered by these crooks. -I’m blessed if this hasn’t developed into a mighty ugly situation.” - -As a matter of fact, he could see no immediate way out of it. - -He was so cramped and twisted in his close quarters that he could not -draw his revolver without rising up in the hamper, and he knew that the -dog would instantly attack him if he ventured doing that. - -His muscles were so cramped, moreover, that he knew he could not move -to advantage for several moments after his release. - -He realized, furthermore, that the report of his revolver, in case -he attempted to shoot the dog, would speedily bring Badger and his -confederates to the spot, and that the result might possibly be fatal -to himself, or, at least, to Nick’s designs, to corner and arrest the -entire gang. - -So for upward of five minutes the situation hung fire, Patsy waiting -and wondering, and the bloodhound still growling and trotting to and -fro some six feet away. - -It was at this time that Badger had his talk with Nick, as already -related. - -Presently Patsy heard Conley returning, accompanied by the two women. - -Though all three observed the dog, they paid no immediate attention to -his movements, but at once hastened into the inner basement and to the -vault in which Nick was confined. - -Patsy inwardly prayed that the dog would follow them, but his prayer -proved vain. - -The bloodhound knew his business. - -He continued to trot and growl, occasionally snapping his huge jaws by -diversion or anticipation, and all the while with his red eyes fixed -upon the wicker hamper. - -Patsy gritted his own teeth in impotent rage. - -At the end of another five minutes, however, he had decided what to do. - -He resolved to shoot the dog, taking chances of killing him with a -single shot, and then leap out of the hamper and attack, single-handed, -the gang in the interior basement. - -Conley had left the sliding door open after entering with the women, -and Patsy thought he could see a tolerably fair prospect of bringing -to a successful issue even as desperate a move as that which he now -contemplated. - -Having grimly settled upon the task, he now wormed about a bit in the -hamper, striving to free his revolver from his hip pocket. - -The bloodhound instantly redoubled his growling. - -“You be hanged!” muttered Patsy resentfully. “I’ll presently silence -you with a chunk of lead.” - -He had succeeded in getting hold of the butt of his revolver. - -Before he could free the weapon from his pocket, however, the shrill -voice of Vic Clayton sounded through the basement, as she and Claudia -Badger came hurrying from the inner extension. - -“What’s the matter with Pluto?” she cried, as she approached. - -“There’s something wrong out here,” declared Claudia. - -The instant the dog heard his name mentioned, all the restrained -passions and fierce instincts of the brute leaped violently into play. - -With a tremendous snarling and barking he bounded up at the hamper, -clawing at it with might and main, as if bent upon devouring all that -it contained. - -Patsy was taking no chances of losing half of his face in one fierce -bite of the brute, and he instantly ducked his head and crouched lower. - -“It’s all off!” was the thought that flashed through his mind. “I am -now obliged to put up a game of bluff.” - -The screams of the two women were now mingled with the furious barking -of the bloodhound, and Vic Clayton was shouting affrightedly: - -“Come out here! Come out here, Amos! There’s something the matter with -this dog. I think he has gone mad.” - -Before the last was uttered, both Badger and Conley came rushing out of -the inner cellar. - -The two men instantly guessed the meaning of the brute’s actions, and -both rushed toward the car. - -“Gone mad be hanged!” shouted Badger. “There’s something wrong with -that hamper, not with the dog.” - -“That’s right, Amos,” yelled Conley. - -“Ah, I thought so! Get out, you brute, or I’ll brain you! What the -devil have we here?” - -Badger had given the excited brute a second kick in the ribs, that once -more sent him yelping out of doors, much to Patsy’s relief, despite the -sudden change in the situation. - -At the same time Conley had thrown open the lid of the hamper, plainly -disclosing the cramped detective to the view of all. - -In an instant both ruffians had him by the throat and wrists. - -“Hold on!” gasped Patsy, struggling to rise out of his cramped -position, and at once assuming to be the injured, rather than the -offender. - -“Come out here!” - -“Sure, I’ll come out,” whined Patsy, as he was yanked out upon the -ground, yet still in the clutches of both men. “Say, this ain’t no -way to use a fellow. Let go me throat, will you? I ain’t going to eat -nobody up. Holy smoke! but I’m glad you drove that dog off. I thought I -was a dead one, for sure.” - -“You’ll be a dead one, all right, young fellow, unless you stand up and -give an account of yourself,” Badger fiercely cried. “Hang onto his -arms, there, Conley, in case he means mischief. Hand me that strip of -rope, Vic, and I’ll make him fast in a jiffy. Look lively, I say!” - -While this exchange of conversation was in progress, Patsy had been -jerked rudely to his feet, only to find for several moments that he -could hardly stand erect, so strained and cramped were his muscles. - -Conley, meantime, had twisted the captive’s arms back of him, and was -holding them there with the grip of a vise. - -Badger had released Patsy’s throat, however, and, with the piece of -rope Vic Clayton had hurriedly brought him, he quickly secured the -detective’s arms and wrists behind him. - -“Now, you give an account of yourself,” he fiercely commanded, shaking -his clenched hand under Patsy’s nose. - -“Sure I will, mister, since I’m caught in my own box,” Patsy now said, -surveying with a ludicrous grin the frowning faces around him. “But I’d -have been out and away long before this, mister, if it had not been for -that infernal dog.” - -“Out and away, would you?” cried Badger, catching up this one -significant remark. - -“That’s what, mister.” - -“What were you doing in that hamper?” - -“Only stealing a ride.” - -“Stealing a ride?” echoed Badger incredulously. - -“That was all, mister, the whole business.” - -“You’re a liar!” snarled Conley, fiercely suspicious. - -“Say, you leave me to settle with the boss of this joint, will you?” -growled Patsy, now turning upon the Irishman. “I haven’t trod on any of -your corns, have I? So you leave me to do the talking with the boss.” - -“I’ll not leave you a leg to stand on, if you——” - -“Shut up, Jerry!” commanded Badger sharply. “How long had you been in -the hamper, youngster?” - -“All the way from town, mister.” - -“Nonsense!” cried Vic Clayton, now pressing nearer. “I know better than -that.” - -“Sure, ma’am, I don’t like to contradict a lady like yourself, but -you’ll find I’m right,” insisted Patsy, bowing to her with a ludicrous -display of humility. - -“Do you mean to say that you rode out from town in that hamper?” -demanded Vic. - -“That’s what I did, ma’am.” - -“What put you up to that?” cried Badger, in threatening tones. - -Patsy indulged in another grin. - -“Well, ’twas like this, mister, d’ye see,” he proceeded to explain, -with an air of humble frankness. “I was walking along Tremont Street -with a comrade of mine—Jones his name is, mister, and mine is Green.” - -“Come to the point, you rascal,” Badger impatiently growled. - -“Sure I will, mister, if you give me time.” - -“If you don’t, I’ll give you something besides time.” - -“’Twas like this, d’ye see?” continued Patsy coolly. “We saw this big -car alongside the curb on Tremont Street, and Nosey, the which we call -Jones because his beak is so big—Nosey bet me a five I didn’t dare get -into the hamper and steal a ride.” - -“He did, eh?” sneered Badger, with an ugly gleam in his searching eyes. - -“That’s what he did, sir,” nodded Patsy. “I’d seen these two ladies -go into the building near-by, so I said to myself I’d have time to -duck into the hamper before they came out. I thought it a cinch to win -a five in that easy way. So when I found it was empty, mister, in I -jumped, and here I am—the which I wouldn’t be, only for that dog, I -give you my blooming word.” - -“Your blooming word doesn’t cut any ice with me,” Conley now declared, -with an angry snarl. “I’ll not swallow this story, Badger, not on your -life. It’s much more likely that he’s working with his nobs in yonder, -and mebbe there are more of the same kind about here at this moment.” - -This possibility suggested by Conley was not without immediate effect -upon Badger, who turned quickly to the waiting women and cried sharply: - -“Go over to the house, you two, and we’ll bring this rascal there and -question him further. You, Jerry, close that sliding door. We’ll leave -the other where we have him. He cannot get out, that’s sure, and I’ll -take no chance that there are others to see us in this place. We’ll go -over to the house and settle with this young cub.” - -“That will be safest,” nodded Conley, as he hastened to obey. - -“You may leave this oil-lamp burning, Jerry,” added Badger, as he -seized Patsy by the collar and marched him toward the door. “We may -have to come out here again.” - -“I’ll not put it out.” - -“But secure this door after you.” - -“Sure! D’ye think I’m daffy enough to leave it open?” - -With the last remark, Conley came out of the basement and closed the -heavy door, leaving the entire place only dimly lighted by the oil-lamp -on the wall. - -Seen from outside, the whole stable appeared shrouded in darkness. - -As the three started across the lawn toward the house, with Patsy in -the grip of both men, the huge bloodhound came bounding over the grass -as if to accompany them—or to make a finish of Patsy. - -Badger quickly checked him, however, sternly commanding: - -“Be off, Pluto! Away with you, and watch out, you brute! Watch out, I -say!” - -The dog appeared to understand. He dropped his black nose to the -ground, vented one short, sharp yelp, then coursed away with the speed -of a deer, hither and thither, and finally toward the belt of woods -darkly outlined against the starry sky at the rear of the broad estate. - -“He’ll notify us, Jerry!” growled Badger, with his grip unconsciously -tightening on the detective’s collar. “Let Pluto alone for that. He’ll -notify us all right, and promptly, too, if there are other strangers -prowling near here to-night.” - -That Patsy was possessed of that true detective genius which -instinctively anticipates coming events, appears in the thought that -quickly arose in his mind: - -“He will, eh? I can see his finish if he encounters Chick Carter this -night!” - - - - - CHAPTER XVIII. - - A LAST RESORT. - - -“Search him!” sternly commanded Badger. “We’ll see what that will bring -forth. Search him, Conley, and see what you can find!” - -The scene was the kitchen of the Badger dwelling. - -Fifteen minutes had passed since Patsy was rounded up and brought -in there, and the quarter-hour had been devoted to plying him with -questions to break down the crafty story he had told, and to which he -clung with a tenacity born of conscious desperation. - -He now stood with his back to one of the kitchen walls, in the full -glare of the lamplight. - -His arms were still secured behind him, and his collar and cravat were -awry from the throttling he had received. - -His face was composed, however, not even pale, and his eyes were keen -and bright with that inherent courage and invincible determination -which rendered him superior to any threatening situation, and eminently -worthy to have become Nick Carter’s trusted associate and assistant. - -The gang by which he had been so curiously cornered were seated about -the room. - -Both Badger and Conley appeared stern and ugly, evincing that state of -mind when dread and suspicion battle with uncertainty. - -The two women, Mrs. Badger and Vic Clayton, appeared pale and anxious, -as if fearful that their adventurous career was likely to be seriously -interrupted. - -Yet all four, including also a dark, middle-aged woman who worked in -the house, were regarding Patsy with eyes and aspects so threatening as -to have awed one less cool, collected, and defiant of personal peril. - -Fifteen minutes had passed, as mentioned, and from this time matters -moved decisively and swiftly, with all the energies of these masterful -detectives instinctively strained for what each knew must be a final -move, and all operating to produce the one desirable culmination of -their joint endeavors. - -In response to Badger’s command, Conley sprang up and began to search -Patsy, fiercely thrusting his hand into one pocket and then another. - -“Leave the linings,” suggested Patsy, with a defiant grin. - -He knew that he had on his person only one article that would point to -his vocation, which he was prepared to deny in the face even of that. - -It came to light in a moment—his trusty revolver. - -“Aha! what’s this?” cried Conley, as he yanked the weapon from Patsy’s -hip pocket. “So you carry a gun, do you?” - -“Sure I do,” asserted Patsy coolly. “You’d carry a gun, too, if there -were as many rats in your cellar as there are in mine.” - -“It’s you who are the rat,” Badger angrily growled, as his confederate -displayed the weapon. - -“You’re wrong, mister,” insisted Patsy. “I’m a ratter, but no rat.” - -“What d’ye mean by that?” snarled Conley fiercely. - -“I mean that I’m a hunter of rats,” said Patsy, with dry significance. - -“You’re a detective,” cried Badger. - -“That’s what he is, Amos,” supplemented Vic Clayton, white with -increased apprehensions. “He must be one of the Boston force.” - -“No, I’m not.” - -“Not one of the force?” - -“Nothing of the kind.” - -“If you are lying, youngster, the lie will as surely cost you your -life——” - -What more Badger would have uttered can only be conjectured, for, while -he was speaking, fiercely shaking his fist at Patsy’s helpless head, -there sounded from the gravel driveway outside and over the hollow -planking of the veranda the heavy fall of hurrying feet. - -“Who’s this?” cried Claudia, starting affrightedly from her chair. - -“The door, Conley!” hissed Badger. “Have the gun ready!” - -Before Conley could reach the doorway, however, toward which he -hastened with Patsy’s revolver in his hand, it was hurriedly opened -and a sallow-featured, green-eyed rascal bounded breathlessly into the -kitchen. - -“Oh, it’s Sandy Hyde!” exclaimed Vic, with a little scream of -satisfaction. - -“Who the devil is he?” thought Patsy, sharply regarding the panting -scamp. - -Though this advent of Hyde brought a look of relief to the face of -each, Badger kept a taut rein on the threatening business then on hand, -and he almost immediately demanded: - -“What brings you out here, Sandy?” - -“Wait till I get my breath, and I’ll tell you,” panted Hyde. “I’ve run -all the way from the trolley. The chief kept me at work till half an -hour ago.” - -“Is there something wrong at headquarters?” snarled Badger quickly. - -“What’s that?” muttered Patsy mentally. “A spy from the chief’s office, -or I’ll eat my boots! By thunder! it’s no wonder that this case has -baffled the efforts of the Boston force.” - -Patsy was quick enough to see all it meant, in case he was correct in -his immediate conjecture. - -Sandy Hyde, who had paused a moment to get a drink of water at the -kitchen sink, now hastened to reply to Badger’s question. - -“Wrong at headquarters? I should say so!” he cried. “I have just got -wise to something, less than an hour ago. Who’s that chap?” - -“Never mind him at present,” cried Badger, with terrific impatience. -“What have you learned?” - -“Nick Carter has an assistant here on this case,” replied Hyde. - -“Not Chick Carter!” - -“Yes.” - -“Have you seen him?” - -“Sure! He was at headquarters about five o’clock.” - -“For what?” - -“He was trying to locate Nick.” - -“We’ve got Nick, all right,” sneered Badger, with a chuckle of -derision. “But this other, this Chick Carter, of whom I have frequently -heard, I don’t know him by sight.” - -“Nor do I,” put in Conley, frowning near-by. - -“You’re sure this is not he?” - -“Dead sure,” cried Hyde, with a glance at Patsy. “I don’t know this -chap.” - -“Then he is not one of the Boston force,” declared Vic, more hopefully. -“He did not lie about that.” - -Badger turned again to Patsy, lowering and dark, and Patsy gained a -point by saying quickly: - -“Sure I didn’t lie about it. I wouldn’t lie to ladies and gents like -you.” - -“No, this fellow is not a Boston detective, I’ll swear to that,” Hyde -now declared. “I know them all.” - -“But Chick Carter——” began Badger. - -“Oh, he doesn’t look like this chap,” interrupted Hyde. - -“He doesn’t, eh?” - -“Not a bit! Chick Carter is older, a sturdy, well-built young man, with -smooth, clean-cut features and——” - -“Stop!” screamed Vic Clayton, suddenly leaping out of her chair. - -“Well?” - -“How was he dressed when you saw him at five o’clock?” - -“Why, he said he was going to your office,” cried Hyde, now getting -back to the business that had brought him out there. “He had on a plaid -suit, a polka-dotted cravat——” - -“Henderson!” screamed Vic, all of a quiver with excitement. “That man -Henderson, Amos, was Chick Carter!” - -“Not a doubt of it!” gasped Claudia Badger, as white as the knot of -lace at her throat. - -“And that’s why he inquired after Nick Carter,” declared Badger, now -beginning to see that a network might already be closing around him. - -“That’s what, Amos.” - -“Do you know where Chick Carter went after leaving your rooms, Vic?” - -“Of course not. How should I?” - -“He might have said.” - -“He said he was going to Carter’s hotel.” - -“Bosh!” - -“I’ll tell you what I do know, however,” cried Vic, hit with an -afterthought. - -“What’s that?” - -“I know that this young devil must have got into that hamper while -Chick Carter was in my rooms, Amos, and it’s a hundred to one that the -two were at work on this case together.” - -“Gee! she’s hit me good and hard this time,” thought Patsy, wishing -he might have throttled her to silence. “Now there will be something -doing, I’ll go the limit on that.” - -He read aright the faces of those around him. - -The significance of Vic Clayton’s declaration was utterly irresistible. - -“What do you say to that?” thundered Badger, striding closer to Patsy, -with his features livid and convulsed with rage. - -“I dunno what she’s talking about,” protested Patsy coolly. - -“You lie!” roared Conley. “You are one of Nick Carter’s helpers, or——” - -“Stop a bit!” interrupted Badger, with frightful austerity. “We’ll soon -know whether he is or not!” - -“What d’ye mean?” - -“I’ll get the truth out of him!” snorted Badger. “Bring him after me, -back to the garage. I’ll make him confess the truth and tell us where -we stand. We’ll string him up by the neck to one of the beams—and there -he shall hang unless he tells the whole truth! Bring him along, you -two, and look lively! I’ll go on ahead and open the doors.” - -“Yes, there’s something doing!” thought Patsy, contemplating his -imminent peril. “They are going to try hanging me—but they’ll try in -vain! Yet I rather hope Chick may show up in time to save my precious -neck.” - -These thoughts passed through Patsy’s mind while he was being rudely -hustled out of doors by Conley and Hyde, while Amos Badger hurried on -in advance. - -Both women followed, too alarmed by the impending peril to endure the -suspense of remaining behind. - -“They care nothing for me, or my neck,” thought Patsy. “Like the she -devils of ancient Rome, once having tasted blood, they thirst for more.” - -As he was hurried into the basement by Conley, he saw that the sliding -door had been opened and that Badger was again lighting the lantern. - -This no sooner was done than the dastardly knave, blind to all except -the impulses of his utter desperation, quickly threw a rope over a beam -near the ceiling, then knotted a slip-noose around Patsy’s neck. - -Patsy stood directly under the beam, as cool as if he was only about to -be weighed. - -“Get hold of that rope, you two!” cried Badger fiercely. - -Conley and Hyde sprang to the lax strip of line. - -The two women, bred though they were to evil, drew back with awed white -faces and dilated eyes. - -“Now, youngster, what do you say?” thundered Badger, confronting Patsy -with face livid and eyes ablaze. - -Patsy met him eye to eye. - -“Only what I’ve said already,” he curtly replied. - -“Nothing more?” - -“Nothing more, mister!” - -“Nor less?” - -“Nor less!” - -“Up with him!” roared Badger, turning fiercely to his confederates. - -Patsy felt the rope draw taut around his neck. - -Just then, however, from some quarter outside, there rang out upon the -still evening air the sharp, spiteful crack of a revolver. - -It was mingled with a single agonized yelp—and a bloodhound lay -stretched upon the greensward, shot squarely between his eyes! - - - - - CHAPTER XIX. - - NICK CARTER’S ESCAPE. - - -Silence and darkness. - -It was in these that Nick Carter was left confined at an earlier hour -that eventful evening, bound hand and foot, and with his back propped -against the cold stone wall of the disused wine-vault. - -It would be an injustice to him, however, to those inherent qualities -and rare abilities which had made him what he was, to neglect depicting -his movements during the time his captors were so pressingly engaged -with Patsy. - -Of Chick and Patsy’s discoveries and designs since he parted from them -at the Adams House that morning, Nick, of course, was entirely ignorant. - -That they had so quickly suspected something wrong because of -his absence, or that he could depend upon them for any immediate -assistance, he did not for a moment imagine. For it was then only a few -hours after the time they had agreed to meet, and any ordinary incident -might have detained him that long. - -Yet Amos Badger had no sooner closed the door of the wine-vault than -Nick Carter began to think about making his escape. - -“Whatever I accomplish,” he said to himself, “I must accomplish alone. -There is not much chance that Chick and Patsy have yet discovered -any clue to my whereabouts, even if they now suspect that I have met -with some beastly mishap, so I must figure upon playing a lone hand -in getting out of this place. I’ll make the attempt, at least, and -if——Hello! what’s the meaning of that, I wonder?” - -From some quarter outside, borne faintly to his ears, had come the -furious barking of a dog, mingled with the shouts of men and the -screams of women. - -For half a minute Nick listened intently, but the startling sounds -were not prolonged, and presently only silence reigned in the -wine-vault. - -Stop a bit—not quite silence only! - -From one corner came a faint noise which Nick’s ear was quick to detect. - -It was the steady drip, drip, drip of water, from some point higher -than the floor. - -Nick recalled seeing a stagnant pool in the corner from which the -dripping sounded, and he rightly inferred that there must be some -water-supply above, possibly in the stable, and that a considerable -leak existed. - -“My first work must be that of getting my hands at liberty,” he -soliloquized, after a few moments. - -They were tied behind him, but that mattered little to Nick Carter. - -While the lantern was in the vault, during his talk with Badger, Nick -had visually examined the surrounding stone walls, and had discovered -several places where the rough corners of the stones protruded a -little, forming tolerably sharp edges. - -Against one of these he backed, after rising to his feet with some -difficulty, until he could bring the rope about his wrists to bear -against the edge of the stone. - -Then he began sawing it up and down, at an expense of some little -skin from his knuckles, and at the end of five minutes he felt one of -the strands give and break. Then, with a mighty effort, he succeeded -in breaking the entire rope, and the liberation of his hands at once -became easy. - -“Now, if you come down here, Badger, you’ll meet with a warmer -reception than before,” he determinedly muttered, while he set to work -at the ropes around his ankles. - -In three minutes his limbs also were free, and Nick coolly tossed the -ropes aside. - -“Next, to find a way out of here,” was his mental comment. - -He had observed that no window existed, and he had but little hope of -being able to force the heavy door, having been deprived of his knife -and revolver. - -After examining the door, to which he groped through the darkness, he -decided that he could accomplish nothing there. - -The constant dripping of the water could still be heard, however, and -Nick now shrewdly reasoned: - -“That water must have some avenue of escape, and it may run under the -foundation wall in that corner. If it does, the soil should be soft and -muddy, and I may be able to dig my way out, or, at least, to work under -the wall and learn what lies beyond it. I’ll give it a try, at all -events.” - -As he groped toward the corner, he stumbled over one of the empty -beer-kegs previously mentioned. - -“Ha! here’s just the thing, providing I can smash it,” he said to -himself. “One of these oak staves will serve admirably for a spade.” - -Gripping the keg by the chimes, he hurled it with all of his strength -against one of the walls. - -There was a double effect. - -First, the keg snapped and cracked loudly, as several of the staves -yielded under the terrific blow. - -Second, an instant later, a bit of rock from the wall fell with a -splash into the pool of water. - -Nick then examined the wall. - -He found that the constant leakage from above had softened the old -cement and mortar, and that the stones in this locality might be -removed with almost any stout implement. - -In half a minute he had the beer-keg demolished and one of the stout -staves in his hand. - -With this he next attacked the stonework near the pool, and for ten -minutes he worked as vigorously and rapidly as the darkness permitted. - -Then he had two of the lower stones hauled out of the wall, and a space -made large enough to crawl through. - -Listening at this opening, he could now detect another sound quite -near-by. It was the occasional stamping of horses, evidently in their -stalls. - -“H’m!” grunted Nick. “I’m not sure that I’m out of the place, after -all. This hole will evidently lead me into a basement under the stable, -or the carriage-house. By Jove! it may be that Badger has a place of -concealment down here for his horses, those occasionally used for a -hold-up. I’ll speedily ascertain.” - -Crawling with some little difficulty through the hole in the wall, Nick -rose to his feet on the outer side, and groped carefully through the -gloom. - -Suddenly his extended hands came in contact with—an automobile! - -He was in the interior garage, the secret hiding-place of Badger’s -several cars. - -It had taken Nick half an hour to accomplish all this, however, and -before he could fix upon anything definite as to his present location, -he heard voices outside, and a door hurriedly opened. - -“H’m!” he mentally grunted. “Are my captors returning? They’ll find me -ready for them this time!” - -Then he crouched quickly back of the car with which he had come in -contact. - -The sliding door had suddenly opened, and the light from the wall lamp -outside shot into the extension cellar. - -The instant Nick’s eyes fell upon the row of automobiles, he guessed -the whole truth concerning the place. - -His interest, however, chiefly centered in two men who were hurriedly -rushing a third into the place, closely followed by two women, while -Badger was hastening to light a lantern. - -“Good Heaven!” mentally exclaimed Nick. “Their captive is Patsy!” - -He watched and waited, deducing more and more from the little he -heard, and all the while his stern white features, still swathed with -bandages, grew hard as flint. - -Patsy felt the rope tighten about his neck. - -Then sounded the revolver-shot from outside. - -Next a dark form bounded out from back of the touring-car—bounded out -with the leap of an angry lion. - -Two clenched hands rose and fell, and two men dragging upon a rope -cast over a beam were sent senseless to the earth, quivering in every -muscle, as an ox quivers when felled in the shambles. - -Then two hands closed around Amos Badger’s throat, and in the -miscreant’s ears rang a voice and words that took all the strength and -manhood, if any of the latter was there, completely out of him. - -“It will be you, Badger, not I!” - -“Whoop la!” shrieked Patsy. “It’s Nick himself!” - -Two women, frightened for their miserable lives, turned and ran toward -the open door—only to rush into the ready arms of Chick Carter. - -Chick had arrived at the edge of the woods only a short time before, -and had seen Patsy brought out of the house and into the basement of -the garage. Hastening to cross the lawn and lend a hand, as he had -promised, Chick had encountered the bloodhound, killing him with a -single well-directed shot, and then had rushed on and into the garage, -just in time to head off Vic Clayton and Claudia Badger when they -turned to flee. - -The rest may be briefly told, for a more complete and successful -round-up could hardly be imagined. In less than ten minutes the entire -gang were in irons, and thirty minutes later they were taking a ride in -the local patrol-wagon, instead of a Packard car. - -The exposure of their rascally scheme also was complete when the case -came to trial, a little later, for Nick Carter found in and about the -house and stable ample evidence to prove that his deductions had from -the very first been entirely correct. - -Fortunately, too, he found letters and clues enabling him to trace much -of the stolen property upon which Badger had realized thousands of -dollars, and which ultimately was restored to its rightful owners. - -In Badger’s safe Nick found his own watch and chain, but the money of -which he had been robbed was missing. He had in his success with the -case, however, a reward that far more than offset his trivial loss. - -Dumfounded when informed by what means the Boston detectives had been -baffled in their efforts to discover these road robbers, Chief Weston’s -gratitude to Nick was equaled only by his bitterness for Sandy Hyde, -and he made sure that the treacherous scamp should receive a sentence -as long as the others of the Badger gang—and that was one of years. - -Long before the release of any of them, the Badger place near Brookline -had passed into other hands, sold under a heavy mortgage, and from that -time Tremont Street knew the notorious Madame Victoria no more. - -One and all of them passed, as they deserved, out of the public mind -and out of the hearts and lives of friendly acquaintances—from the -moment that Nick Carter showed them in their true colors and closed -upon them the door of a prison cell. - - - THE END. - - -Order your copy now of the next brilliant story by Nicholas Carter to -appear under the title of “A Master of Deviltry,” in the NEW MAGNET -LIBRARY, No. 1174. - - - - - The Dealer - - -who handles the STREET & SMITH NOVELS is a man worth patronizing. The -fact that he does handle our books proves that he has considered the -merits of paper-covered lines, and has decided that the STREET & SMITH -NOVELS are superior to all others. - -He has looked into the question of the morality of the paper-covered -book, for instance, and feels that he is perfectly safe in handing one -of our novels to any one, because he has our assurance that nothing -except clean, wholesome literature finds its way into our lines. - -Therefore, the STREET & SMITH NOVEL dealer is a careful and wise -tradesman, and it is fair to assume selects the other articles he -has for sale with the same degree of intelligence as he does his -paper-covered books. - -Deal with the STREET & SMITH NOVEL dealer. - - - STREET & SMITH CORPORATION - - 7th Seventh Avenue New York City - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's The Man Without a Conscience, by Nicholas Carter - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN WITHOUT A CONSCIENCE *** - -***** This file should be named 63864-0.txt or 63864-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/3/8/6/63864/ - -Produced by David Edwards, Nahum Maso i Carcases, and the -Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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