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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14096 ***
+
+E-text prepared Steven desJardins and Project Gutenberg Distributed
+Proofreaders
+
+
+
+WITH LINKS OF STEEL
+
+Or, The Peril of the Unknown
+
+New Magnet Library No. 1164
+
+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.
+
+Street & Smith Corporation Publishers
+79-89 Seventh Avenue, New York
+
+1904
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Cover of With Links of Steel]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I      A CRAFTY ROBBERY.
+CHAPTER II     CONCERNING SEÑORA CERVERA.
+CHAPTER III    THE KILGORE DIAMOND GANG.
+CHAPTER IV     GETTING DOWN TO WORK.
+CHAPTER V      BEHIND THE SCENES.
+CHAPTER VI     A SHOT IN THE DARK.
+CHAPTER VII    A STRATEGIC MOVE.
+CHAPTER VIII   FOUND DEAD.
+CHAPTER IX     NICK STRIKES A STARTLING CLEW.
+CHAPTER X      ON THE TRAIL.
+CHAPTER XI     THE CRIME AND THE MEANS.
+CHAPTER XII    CLOSING IN.
+CHAPTER XIII   CRAFTY CERVERA.
+CHAPTER XIV    IN A WARM CORNER.
+CHAPTER XV     THE DIAMOND PLANT.
+CHAPTER XVI    THE CUNNING OF JEAN PYLOTTE.
+CHAPTER XVII   THE GAME UNCOVERED.
+CHAPTER XVIII  AT CROSS-PURPOSES.
+CHAPTER XIX    HANDS SHOWED DOWN.
+CHAPTER XX     THE BOOT ON THE OTHER LEG.
+CHAPTER XXI    AN ONLY RESOURCE.
+CHAPTER XXII   THE LAST TRICK.
+
+
+
+
+WITH LINKS OF STEEL
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+A CRAFTY ROBBERY.
+
+
+"Mr. Venner, sir?"
+
+"Mr. Venner--yes, certainly. You will find him in his private
+office--that way, sir. The door to the right. Venner is in his private
+office, Joseph, is he not?"
+
+"I don't think so, Mr. Garside, unless he has just returned. I saw him
+go out some time ago."
+
+"Is that so? Wait a moment, young man."
+
+The young man halted, and then turned back to face Mr. Garside, with an
+inquiring look in his frank, brown eyes.
+
+"Not here, sir, do I understand?" he asked, politely.
+
+Mr. Garside shook his head. He was a tall, slender man of forty, and was
+the junior partner of the firm of Rufus Venner & Co., a large retail
+jewelry house in New York City, with a handsome store on Fifth Avenue,
+not far from Madison Square.
+
+It was in their store that this introductory scene occurred, and proved
+to be the initiatory step of one of the shrewdest and most cleverly
+executed robberies on record.
+
+It was about eleven o'clock one April morning. The sun was shining
+brightly outside, and at the curbing in front of the store were several
+handsome private carriages, with stiff-backed, motionless coachmen, in
+bottle-green livery, perched on their boxes, all of which plainly
+indicated the very desirable patronage accorded the firm mentioned.
+
+In the store the glare of sun was subdued by partly drawn yellow
+curtains, which lent a soft, amber light to the deep interior, and
+enhanced the dazzling beauty of the merchandise there displayed.
+
+The store was a rather narrow one, but quite deep, with a long-counter
+on each side, back of which were numerous clerks, some engaged in
+waiting upon the several customers then present.
+
+At the rear of the store was an office inclosure, with a partition of
+plate glass; while at either side of this inclosure was a smaller room,
+entirely secluded, these being the private offices of the two members of
+the firm.
+
+Mr. Garside was standing about in the middle of the store when the young
+man entered and inquired for Mr. Venner. As he turned from the clerk who
+had informed him of Venner's absence, he added, half in apology, to his
+visitor:
+
+"I was mistaken, young man. My clerk tells me that Mr. Venner is out
+just now. Do you know where he has gone, Joseph?"
+
+"No, sir, I do not."
+
+"I think he will presently return," said Garside, again reverting to the
+caller. "Is there anything that I can do for you? Or will you wait
+until Mr. Venner comes in?"
+
+"I will not wait, Mr. Garside, since you are one of the firm, and
+probably know about this matter," replied the young man, drawing a small
+cloth-covered package from his breast pocket. "Here are the ten diamonds
+for which Mr. Venner sent us an order this morning. I come from Thomas
+Hafferman, sir, and will leave the stones with you."
+
+The man mentioned was also a jeweler, and a large importer of diamonds
+and costly gems.
+
+Mr. Garside's countenance took on an expression of mild surprise.
+
+"From Hafferman? An order from Venner?" he murmured, inquiringly. "I was
+not aware that Venner sent out any order for diamonds this morning."
+
+"One of your clerks brought the order, sir, and requested Mr. Hafferman
+to send the stones here as soon as convenient," replied the messenger.
+"Mr. Hafferman did not know your clerk personally, so I was sent here to
+deliver the stones."
+
+"What is your name, young man?"
+
+"Harry Boyden, sir. I have worked for Mr. Hafferman for nearly five
+years. I think you will find that the order was properly sent."
+
+"Wait just a moment, Mr. Boyden," suggested Garside, smiling.
+
+Then he hastened to the rear of the store, and spoke through the open
+window near the cashier's desk.
+
+"Do any of you know of an order sent out by Mr. Venner this morning?"
+he inquired, addressing the several clerks at work in the office. "An
+order to Thomas Hafferman for ten diamonds."
+
+Only a girl stenographer, seated at a typewriter near the office door,
+replied:
+
+"I think Mr. Venner sent Spaulding out about half an hour ago, sir," she
+replied. "I saw him give Spaulding several letters."
+
+"Ah, doubtless it's all right enough," bowed Garside; "yet I wonder that
+I had heard nothing about it. Joseph, has Spaulding been here within a
+few minutes?"
+
+"No, sir," replied the clerk, the same who had at first been questioned.
+"I saw him go out just before Mr. Venner departed, and he has not yet
+returned."
+
+Garside had now reached the middle of the store again, where Boyden was
+still waiting.
+
+"Are you quite sure that the order came from Mr. Venner?" he again
+inquired. "How long ago was the messenger at your store?"
+
+"About half an hour ago, sir," Boyden readily answered. "The order was,
+I presume, signed by Mr. Venner."
+
+"Was it our man Spaulding who delivered the order? Do you know him by
+sight?"
+
+"I do not, sir. Joseph Maynard, yonder, is the only clerk here with whom
+I am acquainted, and I think he will vouch for me," said Boyden, now
+beginning to smile at Garside's manifest caution over receiving the
+diamonds. "Surely, sir, no harm can come from your keeping the stones
+until Mr. Venner returns, since I am willing to leave them with you," he
+added, laughing.
+
+"Oh, no, no--I wasn't thinking of that," Garside quickly answered. "I
+wished only to avoid the needless trouble of returning them, in case the
+order did not come from us."
+
+"I think the order was all right, Mr. Garside. Besides, sir, I saw Mr.
+Venner yesterday at our store, examining some diamonds. Doubtless these
+are the same."
+
+"Oh, if that's the case, leave them, by all means," Garside cried. "I
+was not aware that he had called there. Probably they are for some order
+of which he has personal charge. Yes, yes, Mr. Boyden, leave them,
+certainly. Here, Joseph, place the package in one of the vault drawers,
+and hand it to Mr. Venner when he returns. Sorry to have detained you so
+long, Mr. Boyden. Had you begun by stating that Venner called yesterday
+upon Mr. Hafferman, I should not have demurred over the matter."
+
+"There's no harm done, Mr. Garside, none whatever," replied Boyden,
+bowing and smiling. "I appreciate your caution, sir. If there proves to
+have been any mistake in ordering them, you can easily return the
+stones. Good-morning, sir."
+
+Garside replied with a nod over his shoulder, having turned to hand the
+parcel to his clerk back of the counter, and Boyden immediately
+departed.
+
+"Is that young man an acquaintance of yours, Maynard?" inquired Mr.
+Garside.
+
+"Yes, sir. He has been with Hafferman for several years."
+
+"Doubtless it's all right, then. Odd, though, that Venner should have
+made no mention to me of this order. Hand him the package as soon as he
+comes in."
+
+"I will, sir, at once."
+
+Maynard had already placed the small parcel in a drawer of the huge
+steel vault back of the counter, and he now resumed the work at which he
+had been engaged.
+
+Mr. Garside sauntered toward the front of the store, and presently
+greeted a lady who entered.
+
+Twenty minutes passed, and the incident of the diamonds was almost
+forgotten by both employer and clerk.
+
+Soon both were reminded of it, however, by the entrance of another
+man--a smooth-featured young fellow, with pale blue eyes, a sallow
+complexion, slightly pock-marked. He was of medium height, and well put
+together, and was clad in a neat business suit of fashionable
+appearance.
+
+Quickly approaching Mr. Garside, who was then disengaged, he tendered
+one of Thomas Hafferman's business cards, and said, glibly, while bowing
+and laughing lightly:
+
+"Excuse me, Mr. Garside, but we rather owe you an apology. Our Mr.
+Boyden left some diamonds with you a short time ago, which should have
+been delivered to Tiffany & Co. Mr. Hafferman read the order without his
+spectacles, and it's rather a good joke on him, for he thought it was
+signed Venner & Co. The blunder was partly owing to the fact, no doubt,
+that Mr. Venner called to see him yesterday about some diamonds."
+
+"There!" exclaimed Garside, as if quite pleased to discover that he had
+been so nearly right. "I knew well enough that Venner had not sent out
+any order without mentioning it to me. Yes, your Mr. Boyden left the
+stones here. For Tiffany & Co., eh?"
+
+"Yes, sir, and they should have been delivered long ago," was the reply,
+with a conventional laugh. "If you please, I'll leave them there on my
+way back. Deucedly stupid blunder on Hafferman's part, I'm sure; and I
+hope--"
+
+"Oh, there's no harm done, I guess, and but little time lost,"
+interrupted Garside, joining in the other's laugh. "You will deliver
+them, you say?"
+
+"If you please."
+
+"Here, Joseph, hand me that package of diamonds left here by Boyden.
+They were sent to us by mistake. I knew it well enough at the time. Here
+you are, Mr. ----"
+
+"Raymond, sir. I am cashier at Hafferman's. Many thanks. Sorry to have
+troubled you--very sorry."
+
+"No trouble at all," laughed Garside, accompanying Mr. Raymond toward
+the street door. "The trouble has been all yours, sir."
+
+"That's quite true," smiled Raymond, as he bowed himself out with the
+package of diamonds in his hand. "But now the pleasure is all mine!" he
+added to himself, upon reaching the sidewalk.
+
+Then he strode rapidly away, quickly losing himself in the midday
+stream of people thronging the famous New York thoroughfare.
+
+Less than five minutes later, before any misgivings had crept into the
+mind of Mr. Garside, the senior member of the firm came hurrying into
+the store.
+
+"Oh, I say, Venner!" exclaimed his partner, stopping him near the office
+door. "What diamonds are you thinking of buying of Hafferman?"
+
+"Of Hafferman?" echoed Venner, with a look of surprise.
+
+"Weren't you looking at some stones there yesterday?"
+
+"Yes, certainly. Some very choice diamonds. I want ten of the first
+water, a little larger and more perfectly matched than any we have in
+stock at present. But how did you learn that I had called there?"
+
+Mr. Garside quickly informed him of the several incidents of the past
+half hour, when, to his consternation and dismay a look of sudden
+apprehension swept over Venner's face.
+
+"Raymond--the name of Hafferman's cashier!" he cried. "Nothing of the
+sort, Philip. Their cashier is named Briggs. I know him well."
+
+"Briggs! Briggs!"
+
+"Briggs--yes, Briggs!" reiterated Mr. Venner, excitedly. "By Heaven,
+there must be something wrong here!"
+
+"Dear me! If this Raymond was an impostor, we are done out of--"
+
+"Wait--wait!"
+
+Checking his partner with an impulsive gesture, Venner rushed into his
+private office and seized his desk telephone, quickly calling up the
+firm by which the diamonds had been sent.
+
+Garside followed him into the room, only to hear the questions hurriedly
+asked over the wire by his excited partner, who presently dropped the
+telephone and leaped to his feet, crying loudly, so loudly that his
+voice filled the entire store, and brought all hands hurrying in his
+direction:
+
+"There's no doubt of it, Garside, none whatever. You have been
+duped--swindled--robbed of four thousand dollars' worth of gems! Raymond
+was an impostor--a crook--"
+
+"Venner--hush! You are losing your head," protested Garside, white with
+dismay. "It's enough that we have lost the stones, so at least keep your
+head. Waste not a moment. Notify the police. Telephone at once for men
+from the central office."
+
+"Blast the police! The central office be hanged!" cried Venner, choking
+down an oath of wrathful contempt. "I'll have none of your police--none
+of your central office men! I want a detective--not an effigy of one!"
+
+"Rufus--"
+
+"Silence, Garside, and leave this affair to me," Venner harshly
+interrupted. "You've had fingers enough in it already."
+
+With which rebuke Mr. Rufus Venner strode passionately out of the office
+and into the store proper, shouting loudly to the clerk previously
+mentioned:
+
+"Maynard--here you, Maynard! Call a cab at once and go for Nick Carter!
+Lose not a moment! Don't wait to ask questions, you blockhead! Away with
+you, at once! Bring Nick Carter here with the least possible delay!"
+
+Maynard had already seized his coat and hat, and was hurrying out of the
+store.
+
+And thus began one of the most stirring and extraordinary criminal cases
+that ever fell within the broad experience of the famous New York
+detective mentioned.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+CONCERNING SEÑORA CERVERA.
+
+
+Joseph Maynard arrived at Nick Carter's residence just as the famous New
+York detective was about preparing for lunch, and quickly stated his
+mission, disclosing the superficial features of the crime.
+
+Nick Carter habitually looked below the surface of things, however, and
+in trifles he invariably discovered more than the ordinary man. Before
+Maynard had fairly outlined the case Nick keenly discerned that the
+robbery could not have been committed by any common criminals, and he at
+once decided not only that he would take the case, but also that it gave
+promise of something far more startling than then appeared aboveboard.
+
+Yet even Nick's keen discernment utterly failed, at this early stage of
+the affair, to anticipate its actual magnitude and tragic possibilities.
+
+Having consented to accompany Maynard to the scene of the crime, Nick
+turned to Chick Carter, his reliable chief assistant, who also had been
+an attentive listener to Maynard's disclosures.
+
+"You had better come with me, Chick," said he. "This affair has rather a
+bad look, and in case quick work is imperative, I may need your
+assistance."
+
+"Go with you it is, Nick," Chick heartily cried, hastening to put on his
+coat and hat.
+
+"From the circumstances disclosed by Maynard, however," added Nick, "I
+am inclined to think that these rats have very carefully covered their
+tracks, and that a still hunt for their trail may prove to be our stunt.
+Yet you had better go along with me."
+
+"I'm ready when you are, Nick."
+
+"Very good. Come on, Mr. Maynard. I see you have a carriage at the door.
+We will not delay even for lunch, but will snatch a bite later."
+
+Together the three men left the house, and it was precisely one o'clock
+when Nick was ushered into the private office of Venner & Co., where the
+two members of the firm then were seated, apparently still engaged in
+discussing the audacious robbery.
+
+Mr. Rufus Venner, it may be here stated, was a man of about forty years
+of age, and was a very well-known man about town. Darkly handsome, with
+an erect and imposing figure, an _habitué_ of the best clubs, a man
+still unmarried, yet of whom hints were frequently dropped that he was
+very popular with the fair sex, whom he was known to lavishly entertain
+at times--this was the senior member of the firm of Venner & Co., and
+the man who, quickly arose to greet Nick Carter and Chick when the two
+detectives entered.
+
+"Your clerk has already given me the main facts of the case, Mr. Venner,
+so we will dispense with any rehearsal of them, and get right down to
+business," Nick crisply observed, immediately after their greeting.
+"There are a few questions I wish to ask you, and concise replies may
+expedite matters."
+
+"I will respond as briefly as possible, Mr. Carter," Venner quickly
+rejoined, as they took chairs around the office table. "I do not fancy
+being robbed in this scurvy fashion, sir, and you may go to any
+reasonable expense to discover and arrest the thieves. Now, Detective
+Carter, your questions?"
+
+"To begin with," asked Nick, with a steadfast scrutiny of Venner's
+darkly attractive face, "what is the value of the stolen diamonds?"
+
+"About four thousand dollars."
+
+"Ten in number, I was told."
+
+"Precisely."
+
+"Are they of uniform value?"
+
+"Nearly so. They are splendid gems, and perfectly matched, and are worth
+about four hundred dollars each. I wanted them for a special purpose,
+which--"
+
+"Which I will presently arrive at," Nick courteously interposed. "I
+understand, Mr. Venner, that you called yesterday at the store of Thomas
+Hafferman and made some inquiries about these stones?"
+
+"I did, and also examined them."
+
+"In what part of Hafferman's store were you at the time?"
+
+"In his private office."
+
+"Were any of the clerks present?"
+
+"Not any--Stay! One of the clerks brought in the diamonds to Mr.
+Hafferman, but he did not remain. Only Mr. Hafferman himself remained
+with me while we discussed the matter."
+
+"Do you know the clerk's name?"
+
+"Boyden, I think, he was called."
+
+"The same who brought the diamonds here this morning," put in Mr.
+Garside. "His name is Harry Boyden."
+
+Nick made a note of it in a small book which he drew from his pocket.
+
+"Did you make any deal at that time regarding the diamonds?" he
+inquired.
+
+"I only had them reserved for me a day or two, stating that I would
+either call again or send an order for them, if I decided to purchase
+them," replied Venner.
+
+"Are you quite sure that only Mr. Hafferman heard you make that
+statement?"
+
+"Sure only in that the office door was closed, and that he alone was
+with me. If there were any eavesdroppers about I did not suspect it."
+
+"Naturally not," smiled Nick. "Now, then, for what special purpose did
+you want those particular diamonds? I think you referred to one."
+
+A slight tinge of red appeared in Venner's cheeks when he replied, a
+change which by no means escaped Nick's observation.
+
+"I wanted the stones, or then thought I might, for a customer who
+contemplated giving me an order for a valuable diamond cross, to be worn
+upon the stage. We happen to have in stock no diamonds perfectly adapted
+to her requirements, and so I called upon Hafferman to learn if he could
+supply me."
+
+"Who is the customer, Mr. Venner?"
+
+"I do not see how her identity can be at all essential to the
+investigation of this affair, yet I have no objection to disclosing it,"
+said Venner, frowning slightly.
+
+"Why demur over it, then?" demanded Nick, bluntly.
+
+"Only because of an aversion to bringing the lady into the case, of
+which she, of course, knows nothing," retorted Venner. "I expected the
+order from Señora Cervera, the Spanish dancer."
+
+"Ah! Is she not a member of the Mammoth Vaudeville Troupe, which has
+been playing here to packed houses for several months?"
+
+"She is, yes."
+
+"I have heard that she makes a great display of diamonds."
+
+"That is true, Mr. Carter. She possesses a magnificent collection of
+jewels, and wears them with an abandon against which I frequently have
+cautioned her."
+
+"By way of explanation," put in Mr. Garside, with an odd smile, "Venner
+might add that he enjoys quite friendly relations with the Spanish
+señora."
+
+"I see no occasion, Garside, for comments upon my interest in Sanetta
+Cervera," declared Venner, with a frown at his partner. "My relations
+with her, Detective Carter, are only those of a friend and a gentleman.
+She called here several weeks ago to have some diamonds reset, when I
+met her personally, and was deeply impressed with her extraordinary
+grace and beauty. I since have shown her some attention."
+
+"Quite natural, I am sure," observed Nick, smiling indifferently. "As
+you remarked, however, none of that appears to be material. I
+understand, Mr. Venner, that you were absent when Boyden brought the
+diamonds here this morning."
+
+"I was," bowed Venner. "I received a note from Señora Cervera this
+morning, asking me to call upon her at eleven o'clock at her rooms, and
+to bring with me a diamond pendant which we have in stock, and which I
+had the pleasure of showing her a few days ago."
+
+"Ah, I see."
+
+"She stated in her note that if I would call upon her at the hour
+mentioned, she would decide whether to purchase the pendant, or have us
+make the diamond cross for her."
+
+"You complied with her request, Mr. Venner, and went to call upon her?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Where is she quartered?"
+
+"She rents a furnished house uptown."
+
+"Does she live alone?"
+
+"With her servants only."
+
+"How many?"
+
+"She keeps a butler, a male cook, and two housemaids. Also a girl to
+look after her wardrobe and act as her dresser at the theater."
+
+"Evidently Señora Cervera is wealthy," said Nick.
+
+"Well, not exactly wealthy," rejoined Venner. "She is the popular craze
+just now, and from her professional work she derives a very large income
+which she scatters as if dollars were dead leaves. In a word, Detective
+Carter, Señora Cervera is an arrant spendthrift."
+
+"So I have heard," nodded Nick.
+
+"You have?"
+
+"Oh, yes!" laughed the detective. "That appears to surprise you. It
+will not, when I tell you that there are very few public characters in
+New York of whose general habits I am not tolerably well informed. Of
+course, Mr. Venner, you have no doubt of this Spanish dancer's honesty?"
+Nick added, bluntly.
+
+Venner flushed deeply, and instantly shook his head.
+
+"Most assuredly not," he cried, with some feeling. "Señora Cervera
+dishonest? Impossible!"
+
+"Improbable, Mr. Venner, no doubt; but not impossible."
+
+"It is, sir," declared Venner, positively. "I know her well. Such an
+idea is absurd. Drop it at once, Detective Carter. Indeed, sir, if I
+thought her name was to be dragged into this affair, or her reputation
+to be in any way imperiled, I would quietly suffer the loss of these
+diamonds, and cease this investigation at once."
+
+Nick laughed softly, and suppressed the response that, nearly rose to
+his lips.
+
+"Don't do it, Mr. Venner," said he, complacently. "My observation was
+not intended to cast any reflection upon Señora Cervera. I have no doubt
+that she is perfectly honest."
+
+"I should hope not, sir."
+
+"By the way, have you the note she sent to you this morning?"
+
+"Yes. Here it is."
+
+"By mail, or a messenger?"
+
+"A messenger brought it."
+
+"Ah!" murmured Nick, briefly studying the written page. "Plainly a
+foreign hand. Very firm and forceful. It indicates a strong and
+determined character. I should say that Señora Cervera is a woman of
+rare qualities."
+
+"That is perfectly correct, sir. She is a woman of rare qualities."
+
+"What did she decide to do about the diamonds, Mr. Venner?"
+
+"She gave me an order for the cross, Detective Carter, to be made and
+delivered as soon as possible."
+
+"This was during your call upon her this morning?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"You had previously sent no order to Hafferman for the stones?"
+
+"Surely not."
+
+"Yet a written order was received by him, or he would not have delivered
+the goods."
+
+"In which case, then, it was a forgery."
+
+"No doubt of it," Nick readily admitted. "Chick."
+
+"Yes, Nick."
+
+"Take a carriage and go at once and interview Hafferman. See what you
+can learn from him. Get the written order received by him, and bring it
+here. Have a look at young Boyden, and see what you make of him. Also
+get the written signature of Mr. Hafferman, and that of each person
+employed in his store. Understand?"
+
+"Sure thing!" nodded Chick, already seeing clearly the line Nick's
+investigation was taking, though neither Venner nor his partner yet
+perceived it. "I will return as quickly as possible."
+
+"You will find me here," nodded Nick. "Wait a moment!"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Also get a description of the party who delivered the written order at
+Hafferman's store. Inquire what he said at the time, and why he did not
+attempt securing the diamonds then and there."
+
+"Probably he was not known there, and knew he could not get them,"
+observed Venner, by way of explanation.
+
+Nick made no reply to this, however, and Chick hurriedly departed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE KILGORE DIAMOND GANG.
+
+
+"Now, gentlemen, only a few more questions, and I then shall be ready to
+go at this case in a more energetic fashion," said Nick Carter,
+immediately after Chick's departure. "Were any of your clerks absent
+from the store, Mr. Venner, at the time of this robbery?"
+
+"As I was absent myself, I cannot say," replied Venner, rather dryly.
+"How about it, Garside?--you were here."
+
+"Only one clerk, a young man named Spaulding, was out of the store."
+
+"Was he out on business?"
+
+"Yes, under my instructions," Venner quickly explained. "We have
+numerous old accounts on our books, and just before I went uptown I sent
+Spaulding out to try to make a few collections. I think he has returned
+by this time."
+
+"It does not matter, since he was out under your instructions," said
+Nick, closing his notebook. "Now, Mr. Venner, who among your employees
+knew you thought of buying this lot of diamonds from Hafferman, or that
+you had called at his store to examine them?"
+
+"Not a soul," was the prompt reply.
+
+"Are you sure of that?"
+
+"Absolutely. I had said nothing of the matter, even to my partner, there
+being nothing definite about it before I saw Señora Cervera this
+morning. I am sure that none of my clerks had any idea of my
+intentions."
+
+Nick was not so sure of it, yet he did not say so. He arose and took
+from Venner's desk a block of plain paper, which he laid upon the table.
+
+"Gentlemen," said he, "I want the signature of your firm, in the
+handwriting of each of you. Kindly let me have this."
+
+"What's that for?" demanded Venner, abruptly.
+
+"I wish to make a comparison with the forged order which my assistant
+will presently bring from Mr. Hafferman," Nick coolly explained. "I
+would suggest that you do not delay me."
+
+Venner made no reply, but took a pen and signed the firm's name upon the
+blank paper.
+
+"Now yours, Mr. Garside."
+
+"Mine also, Detective Carter?" queried Garside, with a look of surprise.
+
+"If you please."
+
+"Surely," cried Venner, with some resentment, "you do not suspect that
+Mr. Garside or myself--"
+
+"Pardon me!" Nick bluntly interrupted. "I am not in the habit of
+discussing my suspicions. That I should suspect either of you, however,
+is utterly absurd."
+
+"I should say so!"
+
+"Therefore do not argue with me over an absurdity. If I am to continue
+this investigation, gentlemen, I must do it in my own way. Either that,
+or I shall drop the case at once. Your signature, Mr. Garside."
+
+Garside hastened to take the pen, and dashed off the firm's signature
+below that of his partner. Nick tore the page from the block, then
+handed the latter to Venner.
+
+"Now, Mr. Venner," said he, "have each of your employees, from first to
+last, write his name with pen and ink upon this paper. Don't overlook
+one of them, not one, from your bookkeeper down to your office boy. If
+Spaulding is still out, get his signature later, and send it to me by
+mail. I will wait here while you are thus engaged."
+
+Venner now vaguely perceived Nick's suspicions and design, and he could
+not consistently offer any remonstrance. Yet he plainly resented the
+idea that any of his clerks could have been guilty of co-operation with
+the criminals who had committed the robbery that morning, and his dark
+features wore a grim and sullen expression when he took the block of
+paper and repaired to his main office.
+
+Nick Carter sat and waited, silently sizing up the case as he then saw
+it.
+
+Just as Venner returned with the numerous signatures, Chick also put in
+an appearance again, bringing with him the forged order which had been
+left at Hafferman's store. Nick merely glanced at it, then thrust it
+into his pocket.
+
+"Did you see Boyden?" he inquired of Chick.
+
+"Yes, and spoke with him," nodded Chick.
+
+"What about him?"
+
+"He looks all right."
+
+"Did you get the signatures of Hafferman and his clerks?"
+
+"They are on this paper."
+
+"Good enough. Let me have those of your employees, Mr. Venner. Are they
+all here?"
+
+"Yes, all of them."
+
+"Very good," said Nick, putting the several papers into his pocket.
+"Now, Chick, what of the man who visited Hafferman's store with the
+forged order?"
+
+"He merely left the order and asked that the diamonds should be sent
+here at once."
+
+"What sort of a man?"
+
+"Dark, about fifty, with a heavy mustache and wavy hair," said Chick,
+glibly. "Quite a big fellow, Hafferman states."
+
+"H'm!" ejaculated Nick, with a significant nod. "Now, Mr. Garside,
+describe the man to whom you delivered the diamonds."
+
+"Raymond?"
+
+"If that is the name he gave you."
+
+"He is a well-built, smoothly shaven fellow, of about thirty years, with
+a sallow complexion, slightly pock-marked--"
+
+"Ah, I thought so!" Nick curtly interrupted. "That's quite sufficient,
+Mr. Garside."
+
+"What do you mean, Carter?" quickly demanded Venner. "Do you already
+recognize these criminals?"
+
+"I recognize their work."
+
+"And the men?"
+
+"I've them in mind from the outset."
+
+"Impossible!"
+
+"Not so, Mr. Venner," Nick now declared, with emphasis. "Without a
+shadow of doubt, sir, you have been victimized by the notorious Kilgore
+diamond gang, a trio of the shrewdest and most daring scoundrels that
+ever stood in leather."
+
+"You amaze me."
+
+"Do I?" inquired Nick, smiling softly. "Well, sir, if I were to tell you
+the history of these rascals, you would be more than amazed--you would
+be astounded. No crime is too desperate, no knavery too hazardous, no
+villainy too despicable, for them to attempt, and too often successfully
+execute. They have perpetrated their crimes over two continents, and are
+known to the police the world over."
+
+"That is not very complimentary to the police," said Venner, dryly. "I
+marvel that such distinguished scoundrels are still at large."
+
+"A fact which stamps them no ordinary criminals," replied Nick,
+pointedly. "Nor are they, sir."
+
+"What do you know of them, Detective Carter?"
+
+"David Kilgore, the chief of the gang, is one of the shrewdest and most
+daring of knaves, a man of splendid education, polished manners and
+broad experience. He possesses nerves of steel, the cunning of a fox,
+and would not shrink even from murder, if his designs required it. Yet
+he invariably covers his tracks so cleverly, or so quickly vanishes when
+hard pressed, that thus far he has successfully eluded the police.
+That's David Kilgore, sir."
+
+"And what of his associates?" inquired Venner. "I think you spoke of a
+trio."
+
+"His confederates are scamps of the same sort, and nearly his equal in
+craft and daring," replied Nick. "Perry Dalton is one--the smooth,
+pock-marked rascal whom you, Mr. Garside, had the pleasure of meeting
+this morning. He is nicknamed Spotty Dalton, because of his slight
+disfigurement."
+
+"And the other?"
+
+"Is a man named Matthew Stall, more commonly called Matt Stall. He is a
+Western man, a graduate of a California university, and is an expert
+electrician. Oh, I know all about them," laughed Nick, "although this is
+the first time I have been up against them personally. I am rather glad
+to discover that they are here in New York."
+
+"Why so, Detective Carter?" Venner carelessly inquired, with a subtle
+gleam in the depths of his dark eyes.
+
+"Because I have long wanted to match my talents against those of Dave
+Kilgore and his rascally push," declared Nick, with grim austerity. "The
+last I knew of them they were in Amsterdam, Holland, where some of the
+finest work in diamond cutting is done, as you doubtless know."
+
+"Indeed, yes."
+
+"They probably had to jump that country for obvious reasons, and very
+likely the European continent," added Nick. "They have long avoided New
+York, and the fact that they are now here is significant of--well, well,
+we shall see! That's all, gentlemen!"
+
+"But what do you intend doing about this case?" demanded Venner, as Nick
+abruptly rose to go.
+
+"All that can be done, sir," the famous detective bluntly rejoined. "I
+accept the case, Mr. Venner, and will do my best with it. When I have
+anything to report, you shall hear from me."
+
+"But--"
+
+"There really is nothing more to be said, gentlemen, and the sooner I
+get to work the better," Nick gravely interposed.
+
+"But will you advise me of any steps that you may take?" persisted
+Venner, briefly detaining him by the arm.
+
+"Very probably," nodded Nick, though really he probably would do nothing
+of the kind. "And now good-day, gentlemen. If reporters call upon you,
+you may give them all of the facts, and state that Nick Carter is at
+work on the case. I want this Kilgore diamond gang to know at the outset
+that I am after them--and fully resolved to land them where they
+belong."
+
+"Behind prison bars, eh?" inquired Venner, with an odd smile.
+
+"Yes, sir! Behind prison bars!" declared Nick, forcibly. "Again,
+gentlemen, good-day. You will hear from me later."
+
+Mr. Rufus Venner, with his partner at his elbow, stood in the office
+door and silently watched the two celebrated detectives as they strode
+quickly through the elegant store, from which they presently vanished
+into Fifth Avenue.
+
+There was a smile of subtle cunning, combined with cruel and malicious
+determination, on Venner's dark face and he muttered under his breath,
+as the store door closed upon Nick's imposing figure:
+
+"Hear from you later, eh? Very good. Very good, indeed, Mr. Detective
+Carter! Hear from you again--that is precisely what I want! Early and
+often, Detective Carter; early and often, if you please! It is precisely
+for what the little robbery of this April morning was invented!"
+
+"But was it necessary--was it really necessary, Rufus?" whispered
+Garside, who alone had overheard, and whose paler face and tremulous
+figure betrayed fears which his swarthy senior partner would have
+scorned to feel. "This Carter is a most artful and discerning man. I am
+so afraid you have barked up the wrong tree. Was it necessary, really
+necessary, Rufus?"
+
+Venner turned upon him with a half-smothered snarl of contempt.
+
+"Bah! You'd be afraid of your own shadow, Garside, if left alone with
+it," he sneered, between his white, even teeth. "Necessary--of course it
+was necessary! Otherwise, I should not have adopted the ruse. We are
+about to attempt a big game--an infernally big game! When it matures,
+when it is finally launched, the very first concern that finds itself
+bitten will rush to Nick Carter for aid."
+
+"There is no doubt of that, Rufus."
+
+"Surely no doubt of it! He is the greatest detective in the country--and
+the greatest will be none too clever, nor too expensive, for those who
+find themselves duped by our unparalleled design."
+
+"I should say so."
+
+"What will be the result, Philip?--what will be the result?" added
+Venner, with a curious mingling of exultation and asperity. "If our
+victims appeal to Nick Carter for help--are we not also already in his
+good graces? Have we not insured his confidence in us by this little
+move of to-day? Will he not reveal himself and his suspicions to us,
+just as I have designed, and keep us posted about his every move, and so
+forewarned and forearmed? Of course he will--to be sure he will!"
+
+"But he is such a crafty and daring--"
+
+"Bah! Is he more crafty than Dave Kilgore?" demanded Venner,
+significantly. "Is he more daring than Spotty Dalton, or more determined
+than anyone of the Kilgore gang? Not by a long chalk, Philip, and I know
+of them of whom I speak. Ay, as much and more of them than does
+Detective Nick Carter."
+
+"Perhaps you are right, Rufus," murmured Garside, nodding. "We certainly
+are about launching a tremendous, an utterly unparalleled, swindle. The
+like of it was never, never known. There should be millions in it. Yes,
+yes, Rufus, you are right. It was wise to preface our gigantic
+operations by getting well in touch with Nick Carter."
+
+"To be sure, it was wise, Philip, or I should not have taken the trouble
+to do so," said Venner, with much less acrimony. "So be a man always,
+Philip, and never a flunky. You have played your part admirably this
+morning. Let it be played as well, Philip, even to the finish--even to
+the last ditch!"
+
+Philip Garside's color had returned, and he smiled confidently and
+nodded in approval.
+
+Plainly enough, this hushed yet emphatic intercourse between these two
+indicated one fact--that Detective Nick Carter was up against a far
+deeper game than he then imagined.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+GETTING DOWN TO WORK.
+
+
+"Well, Nick, old man, what have you made of it?"
+
+The question came from Chick Carter, in his familiar and cheerful
+fashion, several hours after the interview held by the two detectives
+with Rufus Venner and his partner in their Fifth Avenue store.
+
+It was now about six o'clock in the evening, and Chick had just returned
+from having a confidential talk with one of the stage hands of the
+theater in which the then famous attraction, the mammoth European and
+American vaudeville troupe, of which Señora Cervera was a star
+attraction, had for several months been playing to crowded houses.
+
+Chick found Nick seated at the table in his library, with a powerful
+magnifying glass in his hand, while the table was strewn with the papers
+he that morning had brought from the office of Venner & Co.
+
+Nick looked up with a laugh, and knocked the ashes from his cigar.
+
+"Well, there's no doubt about it, Chick," he replied. "We are finally up
+against them."
+
+"The Kilgore diamond gang?"
+
+"Precisely."
+
+"I'm glad of it, Nick, as you remarked this morning."
+
+"Well, I've not changed my mind since then. So am I."
+
+"We shall now find out whether they are as crafty and desperate as they
+have been painted."
+
+"I guess there is no doubt about it, Chick."
+
+"Well, if we fail to throw them down, Nick, my money shall go on Kilgore
+from that moment," declared Chick, with a grin. "What have you dug out
+of that mess of papers, Nick? Have you arrived at any conclusions?"
+
+"Rather!" smiled Nick, significantly. "Did you ever know me to study for
+five hours over anything of this kind without arriving at some
+conclusion?"
+
+"Never!" laughed Chick. "And the best of it is, Nick, your conclusions
+nearly always prove to be correct. What's the verdict, old man?"
+
+Nick glanced at the French clock on the mantel.
+
+"Sit down and light up," he replied. "We have half an hour before
+getting down to work against this push. I will devote it to informing
+you of the case as it now appears."
+
+"Good enough!" exclaimed Chick, drawing up a chair and lighting a cigar.
+"Let her go, Nick. I am all ears, as the donkey said to the deacon."
+
+"To begin with," began Nick, more gravely, "this order sent to
+Hafferman, for the diamonds which he delivered at Venner's store, is
+merely a forgery. Neither Venner nor Garside wrote it, that's as plain
+as the nose on an elephant's face."
+
+"Which is plain enough, surely," nodded Chick.
+
+"Furthermore," continued Nick, "the forgery was not the work of any
+clerk employed in either store. I have compared the writing of each and
+every clerk with that of the forged order, and I will stake my
+reputation upon my conclusion. The forgery was committed by some outside
+party."
+
+Nick was an expert chirographist. To have deceived him with a disguised
+handwriting would have been utterly impossible, and none knew it better
+than Chick, who now nodded approvingly.
+
+"Some outside party, eh?"
+
+"There is no doubt of it, Chick. And this conclusion at once suggests
+two very natural questions," Nick went on. "First, was one of the
+Kilgore gang in Hafferman's store when Venner went there yesterday, and
+did he overhear enough of what passed between them to enable him to plan
+the job done this morning?"
+
+"Possibly."
+
+"In opposition to that theory, however, is the fact that the forged
+order is written on one of Venner's printed letter sheets."
+
+"By a little adroit work, Nick, one of the gang could have obtained a
+sheet of Venner's office paper."
+
+"That is very true," admitted Nick. "But since this is a theory founded
+only upon conjecture, with no positive evidence to back it up, the
+stronger probability is rather to the contrary."
+
+"Right, Nick, as far as that goes."
+
+"I think so."
+
+"And what is the second theory suggested?"
+
+"That some clerk in one of the stores got wind of Venner's contemplated
+purchase, and revealed the fact to one of the Kilgore gang, by whom I
+am confident--bear in mind--that the crime was committed."
+
+"That theory seems plausible," nodded Chick. "There is young Boyden, you
+know, at Hafferman's. He may have got wise to Venner's intentions.
+Garside remarked that he appeared quite anxious to leave the diamonds
+until Venner should return. That would have been very natural on his
+part, in case he was then co-operating with the party who finally
+secured them."
+
+"The same objection again arises, however," argued Nick. "Boyden is not
+employed at Venner's, and therefore has not access to his letter paper.
+Furthermore, Venner's visit was made only yesterday afternoon, less than
+twenty-four hours before the robbery occurred. It seems hardly probable
+that Boyden was already in league with the Kilgore gang; and, if he was
+not, it is even less probable that he so quickly got in touch with
+them."
+
+"By Jove! that's so," cried Chick. "As a matter of fact, then, neither
+of these theories has a reliable leg to stand upon."
+
+"That's exactly my conclusion," laughed Nick.
+
+"And what then?"
+
+"Concerning that side of the affair," replied Nick, "several
+irresistible convictions are therefore forced upon me. One of the
+Kilgore gang certainly knew of Venner's visit, and of the request he
+made Hafferman regarding the diamonds. Otherwise he could not have
+planned the job so neatly. Somebody must have informed him. Somebody
+must have provided him with one of Venner's letter sheets. If we
+eliminate the clerks, and the members of both firms, we are left very
+much in the dark."
+
+"I should say so," rejoined Chick. "The affair becomes a dense mystery."
+
+"It becomes a mystery that I don't quite fancy," declared Nick, with a
+significant nod. "In fact, Chick, I'm not at all favorably impressed
+with this robbery. To me it has a mighty fishy look."
+
+"Why so, Nick?"
+
+"It is not like this Kilgore gang, mark you, to have been dickering with
+a dirty little job of this kind, netting them only a few thousands at
+the best; yet a job in which they incurred as much danger of detection,
+Chick, as in one infinitely greater."
+
+"By Jove! that's so. There's no getting away from that argument, Nick."
+
+"Instead of trying to get away from it, Chick, I'm going to stay with
+it," continued Nick, with emphasis. "I am beginning to suspect that this
+paltry little robbery may in some way make a far deeper and darker game.
+At all events, Chick, we'll not wind ourselves in a search for those
+diamonds, at least not before we have sifted these side issues a little
+finer."
+
+"Good enough!" cried Chick, heartily. "I agree with you on every point.
+Only your long head, Nick, old man, could have deduced such shrewd
+conclusions; and I believe, by Jove! that you have hit the nail on the
+head."
+
+"If I have," rejoined Nick, grimly, "we'll drive the nail home a little
+later, and home to stay."
+
+"That we will."
+
+"There remains one other feature of the case," added Nick, "and,
+starting from that, we will begin work upon the affair this very night."
+
+"You refer to that Spanish dancer, Cervera?"
+
+"Precisely."
+
+"And the fact that she requested Venner to call at her house this
+morning?"
+
+"Exactly," nodded Nick. "She fixed the hour, mind you, probably knowing
+that Venner would comply with her request. Hence there exists a
+possibility that she designed to get him away from his store at just
+that time, in order that the robbery could be successfully executed."
+
+"In which case, Nick, we necessarily must figure her in with the Kilgore
+gang, despite Venner's declaration of her honesty."
+
+"Certainly we must, Chick, in case her note to Venner was written for
+the purpose mentioned," nodded Nick. "Of that, however, we have no
+positive evidence. It may have been purely accidental that her note was
+sent to-day, and mentioned the very hour when the theft was committed.
+Obviously, in that case, the thief outside was waiting for some
+opportunity when Venner should be away from his store. Cervera would
+then be out of the affair, as far as any criminal intent is concerned."
+
+"Very probably."
+
+"So there you are!" exclaimed Nick, with another glance at the clock.
+"Our half hour is up. You now have my measure of the case, and next we
+will get down to business. We will drop this fishy-looking robbery for
+the present, Chick, and first of all make a move to learn something
+about Señora Cervera, and her relations with Rufus Venner."
+
+"A good scheme, Nick, and I'm with you."
+
+"Have you been at the theater?"
+
+"Yes, and fixed things with Busby."
+
+"You can get in upon the stage to-night?"
+
+"Sure thing, as I told you," laughed Chick. "Busby is the boss scene
+shifter there, and he consented to work me in as a stage hand."
+
+"Ah! very good."
+
+"I have got to make up for the part, however, and must soon be about it.
+I am due there at half-past seven."
+
+"Get at it, then," said Nick, rising. "See what you can learn about
+Cervera, and what you make of her from observation. In case Venner is
+about there, keep your ears alert, so that you can overhear."
+
+"You trust me for that, Nick," cried Chick, laughing.
+
+"Meantime, Chick, I'll have a look at the show from the front," added
+Nick. "And after Cervera does her turn, in case Venner is there, and she
+departs with him, you then may leave the couple to me. I'll be waiting
+for them at the stage door."
+
+"Right you are, Nick. So here goes!"
+
+Shrewd deductions, indeed, those of Nick Carter.
+
+Plainly enough, Garside was quite justified in his apprehension that
+Rufus Venner had barked up the wrong tree.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+BEHIND THE SCENES.
+
+
+Nick Carter had a double object in the work laid out for that night. If
+Señora Cervera was indeed in league with the Kilgore gang, and in any
+way responsible for the diamond robbery, Nick was resolved to secure
+positive evidence of it.
+
+While her letter to Venner appeared to implicate her, since it had taken
+him from his store just at the time of the robbery, it seemed hardly
+probable that this brilliant Spanish girl, whose extraordinary grace and
+whirlwind dances had made her the talk of the town, could be identified
+with a gang of criminals notorious the world over. Yet the bare
+possibility existed, and Nick never ignored even the shadow of a clew.
+
+He further reasoned that, in case Cervera was in league with the
+suspected gang, one or more of them might visit the theater in which she
+was performing, and Nick decided to have a look at the audience that
+evening. He was sure he could identify Kilgore or any of his gang, even
+if disguised, as would be very probable.
+
+Nick's second object was that of learning the exact relations between
+Señora Cervera and Rufus Venner, and a part of that work he confided to
+Chick. With himself in the front of the house, and Chick on the stage,
+Nick believed that nothing worth seeing would escape them.
+
+His own search early in the evening, however, proved futile. It was the
+last week but one of the mammoth vaudeville attraction, and the theater
+was densely crowded. Though Nick watched the lobbies and the smoking
+room, and also made a systematic study of the auditorium, he could
+discover no sign of the parties he was seeking.
+
+About nine o'clock he returned to his chair in the orchestra, and
+settled himself to have a look at Cervera, whose act was one of the last
+on the program.
+
+Just at that time Chick Carter, in the overalls and blouse of a scene
+shifter, made his first pertinent discovery--that Rufus Venner, clad in
+immaculate evening dress, and carrying an Inverness topcoat on his arm,
+had arrived upon the stage.
+
+"He seems to be at home behind the scenes," soliloquized Chick,
+furtively watching him. "Evidently he has some kind of a pull with the
+manager, or he could not get admission to the stage. Probably through
+his friend, the Spanish señora."
+
+Venner was then in one of the left wings, apparently indulging in small
+talk with a handsome girl of about twenty, who had just finished her
+turn upon the stage. She was rather simply clad, but was strikingly
+pretty and modest appearing; and upon consulting a program with which he
+had provided himself, Chick learned that her stage name was Violet
+Marduke; and that she was cast as a singer of ballads.
+
+"Evidently employed to fill in," thought Chick, who had not been much
+impressed with her songs, though he decided that the girl herself was a
+beauty. "And by his admiring glances, Venner also thinks pretty well of
+her," Chick mentally added.
+
+"Room here, mister," growled a voice at his elbow. "Make room for the
+reptiles."
+
+Chick turned quickly about, and then involuntarily recoiled from the
+startling object that met his gaze.
+
+In front of a scene then set in the second grooves of the Stage, the
+continuous performance was still in progress. Meantime, several of the
+stage hands were wheeling to the center of the stage, back of the scene,
+the properties of the next performer on the program--and grewsome
+properties they were.
+
+The object beheld by Chick was a huge, cagelike den, mounted on low
+wheels, and having a broad front of plate glass. Inside of this den were
+several wicker baskets, some of which were open, while others were
+covered and locked.
+
+In the open baskets, or writhing freely about the floor of the den, were
+fully fifty serpents of various sizes, many being only a foot or two
+long, while several were as many yards in length.
+
+A more repulsive and blood-curdling sight Chick had never experienced,
+and the stage hand who had asked him to move laughed at his look of
+mingled horror and repugnance.
+
+"Ever seen any like 'em after a jamboree?" he inquired, good-naturedly.
+
+"Well, hardly," said Chick, subduing his aversion. "If I were to go on a
+drunk and see anything like them, I'd sign the pledge the next morning."
+
+"A good scheme, too."
+
+"I should say so."
+
+"Some o' the crawling divils are as bad as they look," added the stage
+hand, while he helped to place the snake den squarely on the stage.
+
+"What do you mean?" inquired Chick, still gingerly surveying them.
+
+"Pizen!"
+
+"Venomous?"
+
+"You bet! Durn 'em, I wouldn't touch one of them for the wealth of
+Rockefeller."
+
+"Do you mean that some of them still have their fangs and poison bags?"
+
+"Sure! D'ye see that little copper-colored cuss down there in the
+corner, not more'n a foot long? If he got a crack at you, you'd not live
+ten seconds."
+
+"Well, I will take deuced good care that he gets no nip at me," declared
+Chick, with a grin. "Why do they have such dangerous things around?"
+
+"H'm! What would be the excitement, or the credit of snake charming, if
+the wriggling beasts were made harmless by pulling out their fangs?"
+demanded the stage hand. "It would be like a dog fight, with the dogs
+muzzled. These belong to that heathen Hindoo, the snake charmer. He
+shows next."
+
+"Pandu Singe?" inquired Chick, glancing at the name on the program.
+
+"Sure. He handles 'em like so many babies. There he is now, just coming
+from his dressing room. He looks a bit like a snake himself."
+
+Chick turned and gazed curiously at the approaching foreigner.
+
+Pandu Singe was a tall, swarthy man, with straight, black hair, an
+Indian cast of features, and a pair of intensely black and piercing
+eyes. Their glitter was indeed like that in the eyes of a snake, yet the
+Hindoo, approaching without a word to anybody, or a glance to either
+side, was not without a certain sort of savage dignity.
+
+He wore a red turban around his head, while a loose, black robe, belted
+around his waist, reached nearly to his ankles. With a gesture he signed
+the several men away from his hideous den of reptiles, and Chick retired
+up the stage.
+
+The detective had barely made his change, when he heard the low voice of
+Busby near by, the friend who had smuggled him upon the stage that
+evening.
+
+"Hist! There she is, Chick!"
+
+"Cervera?"
+
+"Yes. Down yonder, just to the right of the electric switchboard. Slip
+in back of this wood wing, and you can have a good look at her."
+
+"All right, Busby, old man," whispered Chick. "Don't you pay too much
+attention to me, or it may be noticed. I'll see all there is to be seen,
+old boy."
+
+Busby winked understandingly, and Chick stepped back of the scenery
+mentioned, through a portion of which he could easily watch Cervera
+unobserved.
+
+That she was a daughter of sunny Spain no man would have doubted. Her
+wavy hair was as dark as night, and her eyes were as radiant as the
+night stars. Her rich, olive complexion was much rouged, adding to the
+brilliancy of her splendid beauty.
+
+She appeared to be about twenty-five, and was clad in her stage costume,
+which combined all the bright hues of the rainbow, and was enlivened by
+a myriad of dazzling jewels and diamonds.
+
+The costume served to display to advantage her matchless figure,
+however, and Chick was fain to admit that he had never seen a much more
+striking beauty.
+
+"She's a bird, all right, and no mistake," he said to himself, while
+intently regarding her handsome face and jewel-bedecked figure. "Yet she
+has a bad eye, despite her beauty, and a cruel mouth. She certainly
+would put up a wicked fight, if once aroused. Yes, a deucedly bad eye!
+What in thunder is she staring at, to look like that!"
+
+From her position near one of the lower wings, Sanetta Cervera was
+gazing steadfastly across the stage at something which Chick could not
+see.
+
+The dark eyes of the Spanish dancer had taken on a threatening glare.
+Her curved brows had drooped and knit, until they formed a straight line
+below her forehead, and her red lips were drawn and firmly compressed.
+
+Before Chick could discover any occasion for this mute display of
+feeling, the performance in front of the set scene concluded, and the
+act of the snake charmer was due to begin.
+
+Then came a rapid change of scenery, during which Chick was again
+obliged to change his position, and for a time he lost sight of Cervera
+in the stir and confusion of the busy stage.
+
+He did not succeed in locating her again until she began her
+performance, when a full stage was given her for the marvelously
+graceful and impassioned dances of which her act consisted, and which
+had fairly turned half the heads in the city.
+
+In the white glare of the limelight, she certainly presented a wild and
+dazzling picture. Her beauty was indescribably accentuated. She appeared
+like a being ablaze with diamonds. Her every attitude was one of
+seductive grace, her every movement as swift and light as those of a
+startled leopard.
+
+At its conclusion her act evoked thunders of applause, and then Chick
+saw her hastening toward her dressing room, flushed with excitement and
+panting for breath.
+
+Suddenly she halted and her smile vanished.
+
+Then Chick saw her turn abruptly toward one of the wing scenes, where
+she met Venner face to face.
+
+The wealthy Fifth Avenue jeweler laughed and extended his hand to greet
+her, but she frowned and hesitated before accepting it; and Chick made a
+quick move and stole back of the scenery, near which the two briefly
+remained standing.
+
+He arrived in time to overhear only a few words, however, of which he
+could make nothing bearing upon the diamond robbery, or relating to the
+Kilgore gang.
+
+"Pshaw! You are entirely wrong, Sanetta," Venner was expostulating, with
+voice lowered. "Your eyes have deceived you."
+
+The woman replied through her teeth, with a hiss like that of a snake.
+
+"My eyes deceived me? Never! You lie! I know what I see!" she fiercely
+answered, with but a slight foreign accent.
+
+"You are wrong, Cervera," protested Venner. "I--"
+
+"I am not! I see--and I know!"
+
+"But--"
+
+"_Caramba!_ I say you shall go with me!"
+
+"Why, certainly, if you wish it. Am I not here for that?"
+
+"You know that I wish it--and you shall go."
+
+"Whenever you are ready, Sanetta," replied Venner. "Yet your infernal--"
+
+"Silence! You shall wait here till I have changed my suit. Then we will
+go--we will go together. You shall wait here."
+
+"Go and make the change, then," said Venner, bluntly. "I will be here
+when you return."
+
+"H'm!" thought Chick, as he heard Cervera move quickly away. "Evidently
+there is something amiss between them, but what the dickens is it?"
+
+Still watching, he soon saw Cervera return in her street attire, when
+Venner quickly gave her his arm, and they departed by the stairs leading
+to the stage door.
+
+Chick immediately recalled Nick's instructions--that the couple should
+now be left to him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+A SHOT IN THE DARK.
+
+
+It was nearly eleven o'clock when Rufus Venner and Cervera, the latter
+enveloped in a voluminous black cloak, emerged from the stage door of
+the theater.
+
+As they made their way through the paved area leading out to the side
+street, where a carriage was awaiting them, a sturdy, roughly clad
+fellow in a red wig and croppy beard suddenly slouched out of a gloomy
+corner near the stage stairway and followed them, with movements as
+stealthy and silent as those of a cat.
+
+As the carriage containing Venner and the dancer rapidly whirled away,
+this rough fellow darted swiftly across the street, and approached a
+waiting cab, the door of which stood open.
+
+"After them, Patsy!" he softly cried, as he sprang in and closed the
+door.
+
+The driver of the cab was one of Nick Carter's youthful yet exceedingly
+clever assistants, and the rough fellow was Nick himself.
+
+He had left the theater the moment Cervera concluded her performance,
+and since had completed a perfect disguise in the cab, which he had had
+in waiting, with all the properties for effecting the change mentioned.
+
+That Patsy would constantly keep their quarry in view, and without being
+suspected, Nick had not a doubt. Nor was he mistaken. At the end of
+twenty minutes the clever young driver slowed down upon approaching an
+uptown corner, and signaled Nick to get out.
+
+The detective alighted from the door on the side from which he had
+received the signal, yet the cab did not stop. Nick trotted along beside
+the vehicle for a rod or two, keeping it between him and the side street
+into which Patsy quickly signed that the hack had turned.
+
+"Fourth house on the right," he softly cried. "I saw them pull up at it
+just as I reached the corner, so I kept right on up the avenue. They've
+not gone in yet."
+
+"Good enough," replied Nick, approvingly. "Take home the traps I have
+left in the cab."
+
+"Sure thing. You don't want any help to-night against this push, do
+you?"
+
+"No, indeed. There'll be but little doing to-night, I imagine. Remember
+the house, however, in case I fail to show up."
+
+"You may gamble on that, sir. I have it down pat."
+
+They had now passed the upper corner of the side street, and Nick felt
+sure that he had not been seen leaving the cab. He darted quickly back
+of the vehicle and gained the sidewalk, then stole back and peered
+around the corner.
+
+Cervera and her companion were just mounting the steps of an imposing
+stone residence, entirely separate from its neighbors, and their
+carriage was driving rapidly away.
+
+Nick waited until the couple had entered the house, then he crossed to
+the gloom of a doorway on the opposite side and had a look at the
+dwelling.
+
+From basement to roof there was no sign of a light. Even the hall
+appeared to be in darkness, and Nick waited and watched for several
+minutes, expecting to see at least one of the rooms lighted.
+
+Not a glimmer or gleam, however, appeared from any quarter.
+
+"H'm!" he presently muttered, a little perplexed. "Either they are
+remaining in darkness, or else they have all of those windows heavily
+curtained. If the latter is the case, I must discover for what reason.
+
+"Possibly they are entirely alone in there, and have gone to some room
+at the rear of the house. Or maybe they have suspected an espionage, and
+are now watching from the gloom of one of those front windows. I'll fool
+them if that is so, and will also have a look at the rear of the house.
+There is something out of the ordinary here, that's certain."
+
+Keeping well in the gloom of the block of dwellings near by, Nick
+retraced his steps to the corner, then crossed the street and presently
+approached a paved driveway leading to a small stable at the rear of the
+suspected house.
+
+The high gate, composed of sharp iron pickets, was securely closed and
+locked; so Nick returned to an alley which he had just passed, and which
+ran back of a block of dwellings fronting on the avenue where he had
+left the cab.
+
+Stealing into the alley, Nick quickly scaled the high, wooden fence,
+crossed two adjoining back yards, and thus reached a wall near the
+stable mentioned.
+
+To mount the wall and drop back of the stable was equally feasible, and
+Nick then had the rear of Cervera's dwelling plainly in view.
+
+Then his searching gaze was rewarded. One of the rear rooms was brightly
+lighted, with only the lace draperies at the two windows preventing
+observation from outside.
+
+"Evidently a rear sitting room, or library," thought Nick, calculating
+the arrangement of the house. "I will at least learn who is in there."
+
+He listened briefly for any sound in or about the stable, then stole
+quickly across the gloomy, paved yard and approached the house.
+
+The windows of the lighted room were two feet or more above his head;
+but having reached a position just below one of them, he sprang up and
+seized the stone coping outside, and drew himself up to peer into the
+room.
+
+Then, just as his head rose into the glow of light from within, clearly
+revealing his location, Nick heard a sound the deadly nature of which he
+instantly recognized.
+
+Ping!
+
+It was the short, sharp, peculiar song of a flying bullet--once heard,
+always remembered.
+
+Then came the dull thud when the leaden ball beat itself shapeless
+against the stone wall beside him.
+
+The bullet had passed within an inch of Nick's ribs, and he knew at once
+that he was now a mark for hidden foes.
+
+Yet there had been no revolver report to suggest their location, and
+Nick instantly surmised that the ball must have been discharged with an
+air gun.
+
+He knew that it must have come from some quarter behind him, however.
+And he knew, too, how to bring his murderous assailants from their
+secret cover.
+
+As quick as a flash, the instant the ball smote the wall beside him,
+Nick let go his hold upon the stone coping and dropped into the darkness
+below the window, falling prostrate upon his back.
+
+As he lay there his hand touched something hot, and he drew it nearer to
+examine it.
+
+It was the battered chunk of lead which had come within an inch of
+ending his life.
+
+"They meant business, for sure," he said to himself, while waiting for
+his quick-witted ruse to operate. "I'm blessed if this affair is not
+taking on a new and lively interest. I reckon there'll be more doing
+to-night than I gave Patsy to believe.
+
+"Ha, ha! The scoundrels are already breaking cover!"
+
+His alert ears had detected a sound from the direction of the stable,
+and now he silently drew his revolver and held it gripped by his side.
+
+Presently the stable door was cautiously opened. Then a momentary beam
+of light, evidently from a bull's-eye lantern, shot across the paved
+area, and lingered for an instant upon Nick's prostrate figure.
+
+Nick remained as motionless as a corpse.
+
+Then two men, both large and powerful fellows, and both heavily bearded,
+came quickly from the stable and hastened toward him.
+
+"Done for with a single shot," remarked one, as they approached.
+
+"Looks like it, Dave," was the reply. "When I piped his head in the
+light from the window, I felt sure I could drop him."
+
+"Well done. 'Twas a good shot. Shove your hand inside his vest, and see
+if his heart is beating. Then we shall know for sure whether he's down
+and out. If not, we must--"
+
+"Throw up your hands, instead, both of you!" Nick sternly interrupted,
+half rising with weapon leveled. "At the first move by either, I will
+shoot to kill!"
+
+Nick had foreseen that his foxy strategy must be very quickly detected,
+and he had resolved to take the bull by the horns, and attempt to arrest
+both of his cowardly assailants.
+
+That he was up against uncommon men, however, men of extraordinary nerve
+and reckless daring, appeared in what instantly followed, even under the
+very muzzle of the detective's revolver.
+
+As quick as a flash, before Nick's threatening command was fairly out of
+his mouth, the man called Dave made a kick at the detective's uplifted
+arm, so swift and accurate and forceful that Nick felt the bones of his
+wrist fairly crack under the blow, and the fingers of his hand gripping
+the weapon turned numb and tingling as if from an electric shock.
+
+"At him!" snarled the ruffian, even while he kicked. "At him, I say!
+Quick--the pear!"
+
+It was plain that these men were not doing such desperate work together
+for the first time. Both fell upon Nick like wolves upon a stricken elk,
+yet they found the detective waiting for them.
+
+Nick hurled one aside, unable to use his revolver, and grappled with the
+second, both falling heavily to the pavement.
+
+Then number one was at him again, and got him by the throat, with a grip
+from which Nick thrice wrenched himself free, at the same time fiercely
+banging the head of the other upon the stones upon which the terrific
+combat was being waged.
+
+An oath of vicious rage broke from the latter, and then he fiercely
+cried again:
+
+"The pear! D---- you, be quick! The pear!--the pear!"
+
+As if in response to this, Nick, who was panting under his violent
+efforts to overcome both powerful men, suddenly felt something thrust
+forcibly into his mouth.
+
+Still manfully battling with his opponents, Nick tried to eject the
+object, opening his jaws wider in the effort.
+
+The object, which was shaped like a solid pear, instantly expanded, and
+Nick could not close his jaws.
+
+Again he tried, opening them still wider, and again the pear-shaped
+object expanded and held them rigid.
+
+Then Nick guessed the truth.
+
+While struggling with might and main to beat these ruffians, he had been
+made the victim of an infernal instrument but seldom seen in these days,
+and one of the most agonizing and diabolical devices of man's perverted
+ingenuity.
+
+The object in Nick's mouth was a "choke pear!"
+
+This vicious instrument of torture dates back to the time of Palioly,
+the notorious French robber and renegade, when it was very worthily
+called "the pear of anguish."
+
+It consists of a solid gag, so to speak, yet it is so constructed, with
+interior springs, that, once thrust into a person's mouth, it expands as
+fast as the mouth is opened, and rigidly distends the victim's jaws.
+
+The more widely the victim gapes to eject the "choke pear," or to cry
+out for aid, the larger the hideous object becomes, until torture,
+suffocation and death speedily ensue.
+
+Had this infernal device been generally available to modern criminals,
+Nick would have been warned by the significant words he had heard, and
+would have guarded himself against it.
+
+As it was, however, he had been caught; and in the mouth of any ordinary
+man the "choke pear" would have been irresistible.
+
+But the muscles of Nick Carter's jaws were like fibers of steel, and the
+instant he realized his situation he opened his mouth no wider. Instead,
+while hands and arms were still engaged in the furious conflict with his
+assailants, he brought his jaws together as if with superhuman power,
+and with a force that crushed the infernal device between them, much as
+if it had been little more than an eggshell.
+
+One of the ruffians heard the snapping crunch, and uttered a cry of
+amazement.
+
+The cry was echoed by hurried footsteps in the house.
+
+Then a rear door was suddenly thrown open by Rufus Venner, and a flood
+of light revealed the struggling men, still battling furiously on the
+pavement.
+
+Nick now had both opponents down, and within another minute he would
+have had them at his mercy, a fact which Venner instantly perceived.
+
+He sprang nearer, drew his revolver, and dealt the detective a single
+swinging blow upon the head.
+
+Nick dropped like an ox struck down in the shambles.
+
+The darkness of night was as nothing to the darkness that instantly fell
+upon him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+A STRATEGIC MOVE.
+
+
+Nick Carter had a head that was used to hard knocks, and it required
+more than one to put him down and out for any considerable period.
+
+The great detective recovered consciousness within half an hour after
+the blow received from Rufus Venner, and he fell to taking the measure
+of his situation the moment the cobwebs began to clear from his brain.
+
+He found himself bound hand and foot with ropes, and lying upon the
+floor of a dark room. That he was in the dwelling occupied by the
+Spanish dancer, Nick had not a doubt.
+
+As his mind became clearer and his eyes accustomed to the darkness, Nick
+discovered a narrow thread of light some yards away and close to the
+floor, and presently the sound of lowered voices faintly reached his
+ears.
+
+"A light in the next room," he said to himself. "Probably the whole gang
+is out there, sizing up my case, and deciding what to do with me. If
+they are there, I must get a better look at those two ruffians. I owe
+them something for their work of to-night, and I always mean to pay such
+debts.
+
+"One of them was called Dave, and it may have been Dave Kilgore himself.
+In which case, by Jove! I was right in thinking that this diamond
+robbery only masks some deeper and bigger game.
+
+"I wonder if they suspect my identity. If not, what sort of a game have
+they been playing here to-night?"
+
+Nick very quickly measured the various possibilities of the unusual
+situation.
+
+If the man whose name he had heard was indeed David Kilgore, then Rufus
+Venner, as well as Cervera, might be in league with the diamond gang,
+and the pretended robbery only a move made with some secret design.
+
+On the other hand, Venner might be entirely ignorant of Kilgore's
+identity, and without any serious suspicions of Cervera, being himself a
+blind victim of these notorious criminals.
+
+"If the latter is the case," reasoned Nick, "the gang may stand in fear
+of me, and perhaps are afraid that I shall foil some scheme they have in
+operation, or are about to undertake. Then they to-night may have aimed
+only to discover the extent and nature of my suspicions.
+
+"If that is the case, plainly it will become me to be a little foxy. I
+will see if I can contrive to overhear anything from out yonder."
+
+Bent upon wriggling nearer the closed door revealed by the thread of
+light near the floor, Nick quietly turned upon his side and cautiously
+worked his way over the carpet.
+
+He had covered scarce a yard, however, when the sharp, metallic ring of
+Cervera's voice fell plainly on his ears.
+
+"Look again, one of you," she curtly commanded. "See if that vagabond
+has come to himself."
+
+"That's your humble servant!" thought Nick.
+
+He quickly rolled back to his former position on the floor, and prepared
+to play the fox.
+
+In a moment the door was thrown open, admitting a flood of light, and a
+man strode into the room and dropped to his knee beside the motionless
+detective.
+
+"I say!" he harshly growled, shaking Nick roughly by the shoulder.
+"Brace up, you dog! Brace up, d'ye hear?"
+
+Nick groaned deeply, then slowly opened his eyes.
+
+"Oh, my head--my poor head!" he muttered, like one dazed and in pain.
+
+"Your poor head, eh?" sneered the other. "You're dead lucky to have a
+head left you. Pull yourself together, do you hear?"
+
+"Let me be! Where am I?"
+
+"You'll soon find out where you are. Sit up here!"
+
+"What do you say?" cried Venner, from the next room. "Has he come to?"
+
+The man at Nick's side turned his head to reply, and Nick then obtained
+a clear view of his profile.
+
+"Humph!" he mentally ejaculated. "Matthew Stall in disguise! One of the
+diamond gang, sure enough, and I now know I am on the right track."
+
+"Yes, he's finally coming to time," cried Stall, in reply to Venner. "He
+will be all right in a minute."
+
+"Bring him out here," commanded Cervera, sharply. "Get the wretch up,
+and bring him out here."
+
+This was precisely what Nick wanted.
+
+Stall immediately bent lower, and released the detective's ankles.
+
+"Get up, you varlet!" he then growled. "Get up, I say!"
+
+Still groaning, and incoherently muttering, Nick permitted himself to be
+raised to his feet, and Stall then supported him and urged him out
+through the open doorway and into the adjoining room.
+
+In his red wig and croppy head, together with his rough attire and dazed
+aspect, Nick certainly presented a wretched appearance. He blinked
+confusedly, glanced down at his bound wrists, yet at the same time took
+in every feature of the brightly lighted room.
+
+It plainly was the library of the house, and both Rufus Venner and
+Cervera were seated near a handsome center table. Upon it lay most of
+the woman's jewels and diamonds, evidently lately removed, and
+presenting in the rays of light from the chandelier above a dazzling
+temptation to such a fellow as Nick then appeared to be.
+
+In an easy-chair, near the wall, sat the man called Dave, at the time
+Nick was thought to be dead outside. Now, in the bright light of the
+room, Nick instantly recognized him to be David Kilgore, despite a heavy
+disguise which the criminal obviously believed to be impenetrable.
+
+Nick gave no sign of the recognition, however, being content to await
+developments, and to shape his own course accordingly.
+
+From that moment, however, the name of neither criminal was once
+mentioned; and Nick was compelled to infer that Venner might indeed be
+entirely ignorant of their true identity and knavish character.
+
+The eyes of all were upon the detective, as he stood swaying slightly
+on the floor; and Cervera sharply demanded, with a threatening frown:
+
+"Well, you vile miscreant, what can you say for yourself?"
+
+"Me?" queried Nick, pretending to pull himself together. "Nothing at
+all."
+
+"I guess that's right."
+
+"What should I say? Why have you got me here, and tied up in this
+fashion?"
+
+"You'll soon find out," cried Cervera, with vicious asperity. "What were
+you doing out back of my house?"
+
+"Nothing much," Nick evasively growled, waiting to learn which way the
+cat was about to jump.
+
+"Nothing much!" sneered Cervera. "You'll find that will not go down with
+us."
+
+"I was looking for a chance to sleep in your stable," muttered Nick.
+
+"You lie, you dog!" cried Kilgore, fiercely. "You were at the back
+window."
+
+"Was I?"
+
+"And your game was to rob me of my jewels," Cervera angrily added, with
+her eyes emitting a gleam as fiery as the blazing gems at which she
+pointed. "That was your game, you renegade!"
+
+"Do you think so?"
+
+"I know so!"
+
+Nick hoped she did.
+
+"And all I regret is," added the vixenish Spaniard, "that the bullet of
+my watchman did not end your villainous life."
+
+"We can end it now, señora, if you say the word," put in Matthew Stall,
+with grim readiness.
+
+Nick never accepted such scenes as this at their face value, for he had
+witnessed many a similar game of bluff. This one might be all right and
+on the level, he reasoned, yet there still existed the possibility that
+he was recognized, and that these remarks implying the contrary were
+only a part of some well-laid plan.
+
+"If you think I'm a thief, why don't you hand me over to the police?" he
+shrewdly demanded.
+
+The ruse worked. For a moment Cervera was caught with no ready reply,
+and Nick promptly decided that he was known, hence could not well be
+given to the police.
+
+Yet these parties so obviously aimed to hide the fact that he was known
+to be Nick Carter, that Nick quickly resolved to let them have all the
+rope they wanted, and to meet them with a counter-move--that of boldly
+declaring his own identity, and so disarming them of any misgiving that
+he had recognized Kilgore and Matthew Stall, or even had any suspicions
+of Señora Cervera.
+
+It was a very clever counter, and Nick went at it cleverly.
+
+"Why don't you give me to the police, if you think I'm a thief?" he
+repeated, when Cervera made no reply.
+
+"The police?--bah!" she now cried, with a sneer. "For what? That you may
+square yourself in some way, or make your escape, and then come back
+here to attempt the job again?"
+
+"H'm!" thought Nick. "They don't want to let me go before learning what
+I suspect. I won't do a thing but fool them in that."
+
+"Police be hanged!" Cervera quickly added. "In my country we have a
+surer way of removing such villains as you."
+
+"What way?" queried Nick, coolly.
+
+"_Caramba!_ The garrote!"
+
+"Choke 'em off, eh?"
+
+"Or the poniard!"
+
+"A stab between the ribs, I take it."
+
+"Yes! It is what you deserve."
+
+"But you will not try it on me," declared Nick, confidently.
+
+"Don't you be too sure of it."
+
+"Oh, I'm sure enough of it."
+
+"The law would never reach us--don't think that," cried Cervera, with a
+passionate sneer. "_Caramba!_ we'd plant your miserable bones where
+they'd never be found. Don't think, you wretch, that we fear to do it."
+
+"Yet I don't fear that you will."
+
+"You don't?"
+
+"Not I, Señora Cervera."
+
+"How dare you utter my name with your foul mouth?" screamed the dancer,
+with a vicious display of scornful resentment. "Not kill you? I've a
+mind to order it done at once, you wretch! I hate such reptiles as you!"
+
+Nick laughed.
+
+"If you were to order it done, señora, and the knife were at my throat,"
+said he, "your order would certainly be countermanded."
+
+"What! By whom?" cried Cervera, with her passionate, dark eyes fiercely
+blazing. "I'll have you know that I rule here--and not here alone!"
+
+"Yet your command would be revoked, señora."
+
+"For what reason, villain?"
+
+"It would be revoked at the request of our mutual friend, Mr. Rufus
+Venner, to whom I presently shall explain my conduct, and also implore
+your own pardon, señora, for having made you the mark of my very
+unworthy suspicions," cried Nick, with a sudden dramatic display of
+dignity and confidence.
+
+It brought Venner sharply to his feet.
+
+"Good heavens!" he cried. "What do you mean, sir?"
+
+"Ay, what do you mean?" roared Kilgore, bracing straight up in his chair
+and reaching for his gun--a move Nick pretended he did not see.
+
+"I only mean, gentlemen, that I am no burglar," cried Nick, in his
+natural voice, at the same time raising his bound hands to remove his
+disguise. "Allow me, Mr. Venner, to present myself in proper person."
+
+"The devil and all his followers!" yelled Venner. "You're--you're Nick
+Carter!"
+
+"None other," bowed Nick, smiling and tossing his disguise upon the
+table. "Plainly, Venner, you are greatly surprised at seeing me--and I
+do not wonder at it."
+
+Yet for all that Nick did wonder a little, since he could not yet
+determine just how much of this scene was on the level.
+
+The faces of Kilgore and Matthew Stall, however, betrayed more secret
+exultation than surprise. Plainly enough both were now convinced that
+Nick did not recognize them, nor even suspect that he himself had been
+recognized--and these were precisely the two convictions Nick had aimed
+to convey by his masterly move in thus disclosing himself.
+
+"Yes, Señora Cervera," he hastened to add, before any of the startled
+group could speak, "I owe you a profound apology. I did you the
+injustice to suspect you, not only of being a thief, but also of being
+identified with the notorious Kilgore gang, three of the cleverest and
+most dangerous swindlers in the world."
+
+"Perdition!" gasped Cervera. "You astound me."
+
+"I was led to suspect you, señora, because your letter to Venner took
+him from his store just at the time of the robbery," Nick quickly went
+on to explain, thus putting his own strategy on a solid basis. "I
+shadowed you from the theater to-night, intending to watch you and your
+house, a design which has nearly cost me my life at the hands of your
+faithful watchman.
+
+"I am glad to add, señora, that I now have completely changed my views,
+and I trust that you will bear in mind that you were a stranger to me,
+and so pardon my unworthy misgivings. It is impossible that you, Señora
+Cervera, could be guilty of any evil, or know aught of so accomplished a
+knave as David Kilgore, or any of his clever gang."
+
+A shrewder move could scarce have been conceived. That Nick would thus
+have declared himself in the very presence of Kilgore, if known to him,
+seemed utterly absurd; and the eyes of both Kilgore and Matt Stall were
+aglow with a vicious amusement and satisfaction much too genuine to be
+entirely concealed.
+
+"Well, Mr. Carter," cried Venner, now hastening to release the
+defective's hands, "you certainly have had a close call, and are lucky
+to come out of it with a whole skin. These two men are employed by
+señora to guard her house at night, and they naturally mistook you for a
+burglar."
+
+Despite his keen discernment, Nick could not determine whether this man
+was lying, or was really as blind as his words implied. Content to await
+further discoveries, however, Nick laughed quickly, and replied:
+
+"Well, well, Mr. Venner; I am quite accustomed to close calls and hard
+knocks, and I assure you that I bear the señora's watchmen no ill will
+for having done their duty as they saw it. Señora Cervera is to be
+congratulated upon having secured the services of two such faithful
+fellows."
+
+Kilgore had all he could do to keep from laughing aloud, so blinded was
+he by Nick's artful duplicity.
+
+"And when I inform you, señora," cried Venner, "that Detective Carter is
+in my employ, and is really a royal good friend, I am sure that you will
+pardon him for having been so misled by your letter of this morning."
+
+Señora Cervera was blushing now, yet to Nick it appeared a little
+forced, and there was in her evil, black eyes a gleam he did not like.
+Yet she at once arose and came to shake the detective by the hand.
+
+"Oh, if my dear friend, Mr. Venner, says it is all right, I am sure it
+must be so," she cried, smiling up at Nick. "But I am afraid, Detective
+Carter, that you will now think me dreadfully severe, and my two
+watchmen more brutal than bulldogs."
+
+Nick laughed deeply, and glanced at the display of diamonds on the
+table.
+
+"When one has such valuable toys as those in her house, señora, bold men
+and vigilant bulldogs are both essential," said he, heartily.
+
+"That's true, sir; indeed, it is."
+
+"And with your permission, señora, I will shake hands with your two
+watchmen also, to show them I bear no resentment. After which I will
+take myself home, to nurse my little tokens of their vigilance and
+prowess."
+
+This brought a laugh from all, and Nick, ever shrewd and crafty, now
+shook hands with the two criminals he fully intended to finally land
+behind prison bars. Then he bowed himself out of the room, and was
+accompanied by Rufus Venner to the front door of the house, where he
+bade him a genial good-night and departed.
+
+When Venner returned to the room, he found Dave Kilgore seated on the
+edge of the table, with his false beard in his hand, and a look of
+intense distrust on his evil, forceful face.
+
+"Crafty--infernally crafty!" he cried, as Venner entered. "I tell you,
+Rufe, that man must be watched. He is a man to be feared--constantly
+feared! I'm cursed if I can tell whether he gave us that on the level or
+not."
+
+"Pshaw!" sneered Venner, contemptuously. "Of course it was on the
+level."
+
+"I'm not so sure of it--not so sure of it!" reiterated Kilgore, with
+clouded brow. "I tell you, Venner, that he must be watched, and we must
+be guarded. We have too much at stake to suffer Nick Carter to queer our
+game."
+
+"There is one sure way of preventing it," cried Cervera, with passionate
+vehemence.
+
+"Kill him?"
+
+"Yes! Take his life!" hissed the dancer, through her gleaming white
+teeth. "You were fools to have missed it to-night. Even the law would
+have acquitted you."
+
+"There are nights to come!" Kilgore grimly retorted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+FOUND DEAD.
+
+
+"What's the trouble yonder, Nick?"
+
+"Where?"
+
+"In the park."
+
+"Humph! Something wrong, evidently. Come on, Chick, and we'll see."
+
+It was nearly sunset one Monday afternoon, and almost two weeks
+subsequent to the incidents last depicted.
+
+That at least one of Dave Kilgore's suggestions had been adopted, and he
+and his gang had become rigorously guarded, appears in that the Carters
+had utterly failed to accomplish anything against them in the interval
+mentioned. Despite constant vigilance and incessant work on the case,
+neither Nick nor Chick had been able to secure an additional clew.
+
+Kilgore and Matt Stall had vanished as if the earth had swallowed them.
+
+The mammoth vaudeville troupe had completed its engagement, and was now
+disbanded for the season.
+
+Señora Cervera still retained her uptown house, and frequently received
+Venner as a visitor; but never a sign of the diamond gang, or of any
+stranger, could the detectives discover, in or about her place.
+
+Rufus Venner was attending to his business as usual, and appeared all
+aboveboard. Now and then he called upon Nick about the stolen diamonds,
+expressing a hope that they would be recovered; but in no way did he
+lay himself open to further suspicions than Nick had at first conceived.
+
+Yet Nick was too shrewd to press him with questions, and so perhaps
+betray his own hand. As a matter of fact, the famous detective was in
+quite a quandary over the case, because of his conviction that some big
+game was secretly afoot, and his utter inability to strike any tangible
+clew to it.
+
+Such a state of affairs was very unusual, and Nick chafed under it. It
+indicated that he was up against men as good as himself, and his vain
+work of the past ten days served only to aggravate him, and embitter his
+grim and inflexible determination to unearth the whole business.
+
+This Monday afternoon, as Nick and Chick were passing Central Park, the
+attention of the latter was drawn toward a group of men in one of the
+park walks, somewhat removed from the street. A policeman was among
+them, and they appeared to be gazing at something upon the ground.
+
+"It looks like the figure of a woman," said Nick, as he and Chick
+entered the park. "Officer Fogarty is there, and--yes, by Jove! it is
+the form of a woman."
+
+The two detectives quickly reached the scene, and the park officer at
+once recognized Nick, respectfully touching his helmet.
+
+"What's amiss here, Fogarty?" inquired Nick.
+
+Fogarty pointed to the motionless form upon the ground.
+
+"Dead!" said he, tersely. "We've just found her."
+
+"Keep those people further away, Fogarty," said Nick, with a toss of
+his head toward half a score of men gathered near by. "I will see what I
+make of the case."
+
+The figure was that of a girl, rather than a woman, apparently about
+eighteen years of age. She was lying partly upon her side upon the
+greensward, and evidently had fallen from one of the park seats upon
+which she had been resting, and upon which her straw shade hat was still
+lying. She was neatly clad in a suit of dark blue, and her girlish face
+indicated some culture and refinement.
+
+Near her, upon the grass, lay a piece of brown wrapping paper, and a
+yard of two of string, evidently removed from a small, square box, which
+she had dropped and partly fallen upon when stricken with sudden death.
+
+A mere glance gave Nick these superficial features, and he quickly knelt
+beside the girl, and felt her hand and wrist.
+
+"Dead as a doornail," he murmured to Chick, who also had approached. "I
+find her hand still warm, however. She can have been dead only a few
+minutes."
+
+"Heart failure, perhaps," suggested Chick.
+
+"I don't think so."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"She doesn't look it. Her form is plump, her cheeks full, and she
+appears to have been in perfect health."
+
+"Yet she is dead."
+
+"No doubt of it."
+
+"A pretty girl, too."
+
+"Very. See if there is any writing on that brown paper."
+
+"No, Nick; not a line."
+
+"Here, here, let me see it! What's this? It is punctured with tiny
+holes, evidently made with a pin."
+
+"So it is, by Jove!"
+
+"Perhaps she made them with her hat pin, while sitting there on the
+seat. See, Chick, there is the pin still in the hat."
+
+"I see it, Nick. What now?"
+
+Still kneeling beside the girl, Nick was holding the sheet of paper
+between himself and the sky.
+
+"No, the punctures are not uniform," said he. "I thought that they
+possibly had been made with some design, and perhaps formed some word or
+sentence that would give us a clew to the mystery."
+
+"None such, eh?"
+
+"Not a sign of it. Evidently she jabbed the pin through the paper only
+in idleness."
+
+"She is lying on a box of some kind, from which she probably had taken
+this wrapping paper."
+
+"So I see," nodded Nick. "Lend me a hand, Chick, and we'll have a look
+at the box."
+
+With gentle hands the two detectives moved the girl's lifeless form, and
+Nick then took up the box mentioned.
+
+It was about four inches square, and was made of silver, with an open
+work design of vines and leaves, which displayed a blue silk lining
+through the metal apertures. Plainly enough it was a lady's jewel
+casket, and one of considerable value; but it was entirely empty, and it
+bore no name or inscription.
+
+For several moments Nick Carter examined it very intently, with his
+brows gradually knitting closer and closer; and all the while Officer
+Fogarty, and the group of men in the gravel walk a few yards distant,
+mutely gazed and wondered.
+
+Chick Carter, however, who could read Nick's every change of expression,
+saw at once that the great detective not only was making some startling
+discoveries, but also was arriving at deductions far too subtle and
+significant to have been reached by any less keen and practiced
+observer.
+
+"What do you make of it, Nick?" whispered Chick, dropping to his knee
+beside his companion.
+
+Nick also lowered his voice, and for several minutes the two conversed
+in rapid whispers.
+
+"It is a jewel case, Chick; and quite a valuable one."
+
+"So I see."
+
+"I don't think it belonged to this girl. She looks as if she were the
+maid, or possibly the companion, of some woman of wealth or distinction.
+Her attire also indicates that. Hence so valuable a toy can hardly have
+belonged to the girl, but more likely was the property of her mistress."
+
+"No name on it?"
+
+"Not even an initial. Not a mark of any kind."
+
+"It is empty."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Can the girl have been robbed of its contents, here and in broad
+daylight?"
+
+"Worse, Chick!" whispered Nick, between his teeth. "Worse even than
+that."
+
+"Good heavens, Nick! What do you mean?"
+
+"Chick, this girl was foully murdered!"
+
+"Murdered!" echoed Chick, with an involuntary gasp. "Can it be
+possible?"
+
+"It certainly appears so to me."
+
+"But the means?"
+
+"That is the mystery."
+
+"There are no signs of violence."
+
+"Wait a bit. Notice her right wrist, just back of the thumb and near the
+pulse. Notice that tiny red spot, barely observable. It might have been
+made with the point of a pin. Do you see, it?"
+
+"Yes, now that you call my attention to it."
+
+"It means something. I am convinced of that."
+
+"Others are not likely to discover it."
+
+"I hope they may not, Chick," Nick hurriedly rejoined. "I am flooded
+with ideas and suspicions, which I wish to consider and put in order
+before too much of this mystery leaks out. I'll explain later."
+
+"Perhaps her hat pin is poisoned," suggested Chick.
+
+"I don't think that."
+
+"Or possibly--"
+
+"Wait a moment. Look at this box."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"That wrapper was punctured while still on the box," explained Nick.
+"Notice that the pin went through the spaces in this metal design, and
+then through the silk lining inside."
+
+"Plainly enough, Nick."
+
+"Notice this particular puncture in the interior of the lining."
+
+"By Jove! there's a faint tinge of red around it."
+
+"Left when the pin was withdrawn," whispered Nick, significantly.
+"Chick, it's a tinge of blood!"
+
+"I believe you're right, Nick."
+
+"I am convinced of it. Also that there's a mystery here which cannot be
+solved in a moment," said Nick, impressively. "I wish to conceal these
+discoveries until after I have considered them more fully, and also
+identified this girl. See if you can find her purse, or anything that
+will reveal her name."
+
+While Chick was thus engaged, Nick arose and glanced sharply around in
+search of any evidence indicating that such a crime could have been
+committed unobserved in so public a place.
+
+The seat which the girl had occupied stood on the greensward, about
+eight feet from the gravel walk. By several clusters of shrubbery some
+feet away at either side, the seat was somewhat obscured from the view
+of persons approaching along the walk from either direction. Several
+trees cast shadows nearly over the spot, which was one very likely to
+have been selected by a couple desirous of being somewhat alone while
+resting from an afternoon stroll.
+
+Nick quickly noted these several features, then glanced at Chick and
+asked:
+
+"Do you find anything?"
+
+"Nothing by which to identify her."
+
+"Her purse?"
+
+"It contains only a few pieces of silver. No cards, nor so much as a
+scrap of paper. Other than her purse, there is only a latchkey in her
+pocket, and a perfectly plain handkerchief. Her identification must come
+later."
+
+"I guess we have missed nothing here," nodded Nick. "I'll have just a
+word with Fogarty, and then we'll go along."
+
+"What do you make of it, Detective Carter?" inquired the officer, as
+Nick approached.
+
+"I am not prepared to say," replied Nick, ignoring the startled glances
+of the several men who heard his name and now beheld the great detective
+for the first time.
+
+"The girl is dead, sir, isn't she?"
+
+"Oh, yes; there is no doubt of that," bowed Nick. "It may be a case of
+heart failure. You had better take the proper steps for the removal of
+the body. This box and wrapping paper, however, I am going to take with
+me, and will be responsible for them."
+
+"All right, sir."
+
+"By the way, Fogarty, how long ago did you discover the body?"
+
+"Scarce a minute before you came, sir."
+
+"Were you the first to see it?"
+
+"I was, sir."
+
+"Had you seen the girl about here before during the afternoon?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Did you see anybody leaving here just before you arrived and discovered
+the body?"
+
+"I did not, sir."
+
+"That's all, Fogarty. I'll get any other particulars later."
+
+Thereupon, as Nick was about to turn away, a young man in the crowd came
+suddenly forth, and exclaimed:
+
+"One moment, Detective Carter, if you please! I saw that girl, about
+half an hour ago, walking this way with a gentleman."
+
+Nick turned abruptly to the speaker.
+
+"What is your name?" he asked.
+
+"Tom Jenkins, sir."
+
+"And your address?"
+
+"I live at the Hotel North, and am employed by Hentz Brothers, in Broad
+Street."
+
+"You say that you saw the girl walking this way with a gentleman?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Did they appear to be on good terms?"
+
+"Excellent, sir. They were talking and laughing, and seemed to be
+enjoying themselves."
+
+"Do you know the girl's name, or where she lives?"
+
+"I do not, sir; nor anything about her."
+
+"Do you know anything about her companion, the gentleman you saw with
+her?"
+
+For the bare fraction of a second Jenkins hesitated, as one might do who
+was loath to bring trouble upon another. Then he replied, in faltering
+tones:
+
+"Well, yes, sir, I know the name of the man who was with her."
+
+"State it, please."
+
+"His name, sir, is Harry Boyden."
+
+Nick felt his blood start slightly, yet his countenance did not change
+by so much as a shadow.
+
+He glanced at Chick, however, and the same thought was in the mind of
+each.
+
+"Harry Boyden! The clerk employed by Thomas Hafferman, the dealer in
+diamonds!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+NICK STRIKES A STARTLING CLEW.
+
+
+The mind of Nick Carter was, as he had remarked to Chick, stirred with a
+flood of questions not easily or quickly answered.
+
+Who was this girl found dead in Central Park?
+
+Had she, indeed, been foully murdered? If so, by what mysterious means?
+What had been the object? Who the perpetrator of the crime?
+
+Or, on the other hand, was the evidence itself misleading, and had the
+unfortunate girl selected that sequestered seat in the park, and there
+deliberately committed suicide? Even then, by what means had the deed
+been accomplished? What had been the occasion?
+
+What, moreover, had become of her companion at just that time? Why had
+he deserted her? What signified the pin-punctured wrapping paper, and
+the empty jewel casket, in the dead girl's possession?
+
+Had the casket contained jewels of great value? Had the girl been robbed
+of them, and then foully murdered in some mysterious way?
+
+Was Harry Boyden, the clerk employed by Hafferman, the last to leave the
+girl that fateful afternoon? Was he responsible for her death? Was
+robbery the incentive to the crime?
+
+Or, on the other hand, had Boyden left the girl alive and well, and was
+the crime the work of another?
+
+Or, finally, was there some strange and startling connection between
+this park murder and the robbery committed at Venner's store? Was there,
+between the two crimes, some extraordinary bond yet to be
+discovered--some tie uniting the two misdeeds as if with links of steel?
+
+These were some of the conflicting questions that occurred to Nick
+Carter that afternoon, and in order to consider them before taking any
+decided action in the matter, Nick had kept to himself his startling
+discoveries, and left Officer Fogarty to take the customary steps in the
+affair.
+
+At seven o'clock that evening, while Nick and Chick were seated at
+dinner, and still engaged in discussing the conflicting circumstances, a
+message was received from police headquarters, informing Nick that the
+girl had been identified, and that Harry Boyden had been found and
+arrested.
+
+"Very good," observed Nick. "We shall now get something to work upon. I
+will go and question Boyden as soon as I finish my dinner."
+
+"By all means," nodded Chick.
+
+"Do you know," said Nick, "I am seriously impressed that there is some
+strange connection between this girl's death and that robbery at
+Venner's store. I believe that we have struck the very clew, or are
+about to strike it, that we so long have been vainly seeking."
+
+"To the Kilgore gang?"
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"Egad, I hope so," laughed Chick, with a grimace. "I am beastly tired of
+nosing about on a scentless trail."
+
+Nick joined in the laugh of his invariably cheerful associate.
+
+"Odds blood, Nick, as they say in the play," added Chick. "I'd welcome
+any sort of stir and danger, in preference to this chasing a
+will-o'-the-wisp."
+
+"There'll be enough doing, Chick, take my word for it, as soon as we
+once more get on the track of Kilgore and his push."
+
+"Let it come, and God speed it," grinned Chick. "What's your idea,
+Nick?"
+
+"This empty jewel casket, the possibility that it contained diamonds, of
+which the girl was robbed and then murdered, and the fact that Harry
+Boyden is the clerk who brought the stolen diamonds to Venner's
+store--certainly the circumstances seem to point to some strange
+relation between the two crimes."
+
+While Nick was thus expressing his views, a rapidly driven carriage
+approached the residence of the famous detective, and a servant
+presently entered the dining room and informed Nick that a lady wished
+to see him.
+
+Nick glanced at her card.
+
+"Violet Page," he muttered. "I know no lady named Violet Page. Is she
+young or old?"
+
+"Young, sir."
+
+"Did you admit her?"
+
+"She is in the library, sir."
+
+"Very well. I will see her presently. Request her to wait a few
+moments."
+
+Nick delayed only to finish his dinner, then repaired to the library. As
+he entered the attractively furnished room his visitor quickly arose
+from one of the easy-chairs and hastened to approach him.
+
+Nick beheld a young lady of exquisite beauty and modest bearing, and
+though her sweet face, then very pale and distressed, struck him as one
+he had previously seen, he at first could not place her.
+
+"Are you Mr. Carter--Detective Carter?" she hurriedly, inquired, in
+tremulous accents of appeal.
+
+Nick had a warm place in his heart for one so timid and distressed as
+this girl appeared, and he bowed very kindly.
+
+"Yes, Miss Page," said he. "What can I do for you? You appear to be in
+trouble."
+
+"I am in trouble--terrible trouble, sir," cried the girl, with a
+half-choked sob. "Oh, Mr. Carter, I come to you in despair, a girl
+without friends or advisers, and who knows not whither to turn. I have
+been told that you have a kind heart, and that you are the one man able
+to solve the dreadful mystery which--"
+
+Nick checked her pathetic flood of words with a kindly gesture.
+
+"Calm yourself, Miss Page," said he, in a sort of paternal way. "Resume
+your chair, please. Though I am somewhat pressed for time just now I
+will give you at least a few moments."
+
+"Oh, thank you, sir!"
+
+"Be calm, however, in order that we may accomplish all the more."
+
+"I will, sir."
+
+"To what mystery do you refer? What is the occasion of your terrible
+distress?"
+
+Violet Page subdued her agitation and hastened to reply.
+
+"My maid and companion, a girl named Mary Barton," said she, "was found
+dead in Central Park late this afternoon. Nor is that all, Detective
+Carter. A very dear friend of mine, named Harry Boyden, has been
+arrested, under suspicion of having killed her. Oh, sir, that could not
+be possible!"
+
+Nick felt an immediate increase of interest.
+
+He decided that Miss Violet Page was the very person he wanted to
+interview, and while he did not then exhibit any knowledge of the case,
+he proceeded to question her with his own ends in view, at the same time
+ringing a signal for Chick to join him, which the latter presently did.
+
+"Where do you live, Miss Page?" inquired Nick.
+
+"I board in Forty-second Street, sir. I have no living relatives, and
+for about two years have employed a maid, or, I might better call her, a
+companion."
+
+"The girl mentioned?"
+
+"Yes, sir. Her parents also are dead. The fact that we both are orphans
+created a bond of sympathy between us."
+
+"Are you a person of much means, Miss Page?"
+
+"Oh, no, sir. I earn my living on the stage. I was a member of the big
+vaudeville troupe, which lately disbanded for the season. My stage name
+is Violet Marduke."
+
+"Ah! now I remember," remarked Nick. "I thought I had seen you before. I
+happened to hear you sing one evening about two weeks ago."
+
+"I recognized her when I entered," observed Chick, who had taken a
+chair near by.
+
+Nick came back to business.
+
+"Why are you so confident, Miss Page, that Boyden cannot have killed
+Mary Barton?" he demanded.
+
+"Because, sir, Harry Boyden is a gentle, brave and honest man, and
+utterly incapable of committing such a crime," cried Violet, with much
+feeling. "Besides, sir, he can have had no possible reason for wishing
+her dead."
+
+"Are you sure of that?"
+
+"Absolutely!"
+
+"What are your relations with Boyden?"
+
+"We are lovers, sir," admitted Violet, with a tinge of red dispelling
+the paleness of her pretty cheeks. "We expect to be married the coming
+summer."
+
+"Ah! I see," murmured Nick, thoughtfully. "How long have you been
+acquainted with Boyden?"
+
+"For ten years, sir."
+
+"Then you have been able to form quite a reliable opinion of his
+character."
+
+"Indeed, sir, I have!" cried Violet, warmly. "Detective Carter, I know
+that Harry Boyden is far above any dishonorable action. I would trust
+him with my life."
+
+Of the honesty of the girl herself Nick had not a doubt. It showed in
+her eyes, sounded in her voice, and was pictured in her ever changing
+expression. Nick was inclined to feel that her opinion of Boyden was
+worthy of very serious consideration, despite that circumstances seemed
+to implicate the young man in no less than two crimes.
+
+"Is the fact that you are engaged to Boyden generally known, Miss
+Page?" Nick next asked.
+
+"It is not, sir. We have said nothing about it."
+
+"Ah, that opens the way for conjectures," cried Nick. "Is there any
+person who knows of the engagement, or who suspects it, that would
+jealously aim to injure Boyden by implicating him in a crime?"
+
+"Oh, I cannot think so, sir!" said Violet, with a look of horror. "I
+certainly know of no such person."
+
+"Have you been accepting the attentions of any other young man?"
+
+"No, sir," smiled Violet. "That is not my style."
+
+"I am glad to hear you say so, yet I really might have known it,"
+laughed Nick.
+
+"Thank you, Detective Carter," bowed the girl, blushing warmly. Then she
+hastened to add: "Still, I am not a prude, sir--don't think I mean that.
+In my profession one is obliged to be on friendly terms with a great
+many persons, both men and women. At the theater, for instance, I meet
+many men and form many acquaintances, both agreeable and the reverse."
+
+"And sometimes have the attentions of men fairly forced upon you, I
+imagine?" said Nick, inquiringly, with a brighter gleam lighting his
+earnest eyes.
+
+"Yes, sir; sometimes," Violet demurely admitted.
+
+Nick drew forward in his chair, and Chick saw that he had caught up the
+thread at that moment suggested to himself.
+
+"Miss Page," said Nick, more impressively, "I now want you to answer me
+without the slightest reserve."
+
+"I will, sir," bowed Violet, with a startled look.
+
+"Has any man of the late vaudeville company, or one connected with the
+theater, endeavored to force his love upon you?"
+
+"No, sir; not one."
+
+"Or any visitor admitted to the stage?"
+
+"Well--yes, sir," faltered Violet, quite timidly. "Since you press me
+thus gravely, I must admit that I have been obliged to repel the
+affection of a certain man. Yet, please don't infer, sir, that he has
+ever been ungentlemanly. He even has done me the honor, if one can so
+term an undesired proposal, to protest that he wished to make me his
+wife."
+
+"What is that man's name?" demanded Nick, quite bluntly.
+
+Yet both Nick and Chick already anticipated it.
+
+"Must I tell you his name, sir?" faltered Violet.
+
+"You may do so confidentially, Miss Page."
+
+"His name, sir, is Rufus Venner."
+
+"One more question, Miss Page," cried Nick, quickly, "Was there any
+member of the vaudeville company who knew of Venner's proposal?"
+
+"I don't think so, sir. At least I know of none."
+
+Nick glanced at Chick and dryly remarked:
+
+"All under the surface, Chick."
+
+"Not a doubt of it, Nick."
+
+Violet looked surprised and alarmed at this, and hastened to ask:
+
+"Oh, Mr. Carter, is there something of which I am ignorant? Or have I
+done wrong in any way?"
+
+Nick turned to her and gravely answered:
+
+"No, Miss Page, you have done nothing wrong--far from it! But there is
+considerable of which you are ignorant."
+
+"Oh, sir, what do you mean?"
+
+"Wait just one moment, and I then may be able to tell you," said Nick,
+rising. "I have something here that I wish to show you."
+
+He went to his library desk and took from a drawer the silver jewel
+casket which he had brought from Central Park.
+
+When he turned he held it in his extended hand, and the eyes of the girl
+suddenly fell upon it.
+
+Instantly she leaped to her feet, as pale as death itself.
+
+Then a scream, as of sudden, ungovernable terror, rose from her lips and
+rang with piercing shrillness through the house.
+
+"Catch her, Chick--she's fainting!" yelled Nick, with eyes ablaze. "By
+Heaven! we've struck the trail at last!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+ON THE TRAIL.
+
+
+Nick Carter was a little perplexed.
+
+Miss Violet Page had recovered from her sudden swoon, and although still
+very pale she sat gazing calmly at the silver jewel casket, which Nick
+was again displaying.
+
+Somewhat to Nick's surprise, considering the girl's abrupt collapse upon
+first beholding the casket, Miss Page had just declared that she had
+never seen it before that evening.
+
+"You never saw it before?" exclaimed Nick, almost incredulously.
+
+"Never until you produced it from your desk a few minutes ago,"
+reiterated Violet.
+
+"Why, then, were you so overcome upon seeing it?"
+
+"I will tell you why, Detective Carter, yet I fear that you will think
+me very weak and foolish to have been so seriously affected."
+
+"No; I think not."
+
+"I had a terrible dream last night, sir," Violet now explained. "I
+dreamed that I was alone in an enormous graveyard at midnight, with a
+full moon revealing the dismal surroundings, the dark tombs, the
+staring, white headstones and the silent graves."
+
+"Not very cheerful--certainly," smiled Nick.
+
+"What followed was infinitely more terrible," continued Violet, with an
+irrepressible shudder.
+
+"What was that?"
+
+"I dreamed that I saw a grave near which I was standing suddenly begin
+to open, as if a living being were pushing up the ground from within.
+Then I saw a fleshless hand appear above the disturbed sods. Then a
+sightless human skull thrust itself forth, and presently, filling me
+with a terror I cannot describe, the entire skeleton emerged from the
+partly open grave, and arose and approached me."
+
+"A grewsome dream, indeed," remarked Nick. "But what of the casket?"
+
+"This of the casket, sir," concluded Violet. "In the skeleton's right
+hand, which was extended straight toward me while he approached, was a
+silver box--the exact likeness of the one you hold, and which you so
+abruptly showed me a short time ago."
+
+"Ah, I see," nodded Nick.
+
+"In my present nervous condition, Detective Carter, the sight of the
+real casket, after so horrible a dream, was more than I could sustain.
+Fairly before I knew it, I had fainted."
+
+"A curious dream and a startling sequence," said Nick. "Evidently coming
+events have been casting their shadows before. I am sorry to have
+shocked you so severely."
+
+"Pray don't speak of it, Mr. Carter," protested Violet. "I am now quite
+recovered."
+
+"Then we will at once proceed to business again," said Nick. "Am I to
+infer, Miss Page, that you know nothing at all about this casket?"
+
+"Absolutely nothing, sir," declared Violet.
+
+"Have you ever heard your maid, Mary Barton, speak of possessing such a
+jewel box?"
+
+"Never, sir."
+
+"Nevertheless," said Nick, pointedly, "this casket was found beside her
+dead body in Central Park this afternoon."
+
+A half-suppressed cry broke from Violet upon hearing this.
+
+"Oh, sir, then that must have been the package mentioned by Harry
+Boyden," she cried, excitedly.
+
+"What's that?" demanded Nick. "Have you seen Boyden since his arrest?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"When and where?"
+
+"He was arrested at my home about half-past six, sir. When I learned for
+what and heard the particulars, I was advised by my landlady to appeal
+at once to you."
+
+"Did you come directly here?"
+
+"I did, sir; as fast as a carriage could bring me."
+
+"Ah, now we shall get at it," declared Nick. "Tell me, Miss Page, just
+what Boyden said about Mary Barton."
+
+"Why, sir, he said he left her alive and well about half-past five."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"On her way through the park," replied Violet. "He had met her about
+five o'clock, and they walked about in the park for a short time. Then
+he told her that he had an errand to do, after which he was coming to
+call upon me. Then Mary laughed and replied that she would see him
+later."
+
+"That doesn't smack very strongly of suicide, Chick," remarked Nick,
+with a glance at the former.
+
+"I should say not," replied Chick, with a shrug of his shoulders.
+
+"Did Boyden know where Mary went after he left her?" inquired Nick,
+reverting to his visitor.
+
+"No, sir. He declared to the officer that he did not."
+
+"What mention did he make of a package carried by the girl?"
+
+"He stated that Mary had what appeared to be a small, square box, done
+up in brown wrapping paper, and secured with a string."
+
+"Did he make any inquiries about it?"
+
+"He asked her what it was, and she told him it was for me."
+
+"Did she tell him where she got it?"
+
+"Yes, sir, she did; and I am quite mystified by it."
+
+"Please explain," said Nick. "What did the Barton girl say about the
+parcel?"
+
+"She said it was given to her by a woman whom she had met on Fifth
+Avenue a short time before."
+
+"An acquaintance?"
+
+"No, sir; a strange woman," continued Violet. "Yet the stranger must
+have known Mary, and that she lived with me, for she asked her if I was
+at home."
+
+"And then?"
+
+"When told that I was, she gave Mary the package and asked her to
+deliver it to me, into my hands only, as it was a gift from a friend."
+
+"Was the name of the friend mentioned?"
+
+"I think not, sir. The woman cautioned Mary against opening the package,
+stating in explanation that she wished me to be the first to see what it
+contained."
+
+"These are the facts which Mary Barton told to Harry Boyden, are they?"
+demanded Nick, with an ominous ring stealing into his voice.
+
+"Yes, sir, they are."
+
+"And the statements which Boyden, in turn, made to the officer by whom
+he was arrested at your home?"
+
+"That is right, sir. I heard them from Harry's own lips."
+
+"Did Mary Barton have any idea of the identity of the woman from whom
+she received the package?"
+
+"I think not, sir. She told Harry that the woman was veiled, and that
+she could not see her face. The incident seemed so strange, sir, that
+Mary gave Harry Boyden all of these particulars."
+
+"Did she describe the strange woman, her form or her attire?"
+
+"I think she stated that the woman was plainly clad. Nothing more
+definite that I know of."
+
+"In fact, Miss Page, you have now told me all that you know about the
+case, haven't you?"
+
+"Really, sir, I think I have," admitted Violet, with a look of anxious
+appeal.
+
+Nick drew out his watch and glanced quickly at it.
+
+"Ring for a carriage, Chick," said he abruptly. "We have no time to
+lose."
+
+"I'll call one at once," nodded Chick, as he sprang up and hastened from
+the room.
+
+"Am I to depart now, Detective Carter?" asked Violet, beginning to
+tremble. "Oh, sir, will you not give me some word of encouragement
+before I go? I am sure that Harry Boyden never committed--"
+
+"Hush!" interposed Nick, rising and taking her kindly by the hand.
+
+"I cannot at present tell you, Miss Page, what I think of this case. I
+will say this, however, if Harry Boyden is, as you so firmly believe,
+innocent of this crime, I will not rest until I have proved him
+guiltless."
+
+"Oh, Detective Carter, how am I to thank you?" cried the girl, with her
+tearful eyes raised to Nick's kindly face.
+
+"By not trying to do so," said he, smiling. "And by carefully following
+a few directions which I shall now give you."
+
+"I will follow them to the very letter, sir," cried the grateful girl.
+
+"First, then, go home and borrow no further trouble about young Boyden,"
+said Nick, impressively. "Second, disclose to no person that you have
+called upon me, or that I have any interest in the case. Third, say
+nothing about the jewel casket, and display no personal knowledge of the
+affair. Fourth, do not come here again unless I send for you. And,
+finally, rest assured that I will do all in my power to have young
+Boyden at liberty as soon as possible. To remain in custody a short
+time, however, will not seriously harm him, and in a way it may do me
+some service. Can you remember all that?"
+
+"Indeed I can, sir; and I will obey you in all!" cried Violet, with much
+feeling.
+
+"That's right," smiled Nick, as he escorted her to the door. "You shall
+not lose anything by so doing."
+
+"Ah, I am sure of that, sir. You are so very kind, and I am so glad that
+I came to you."
+
+"Well, well, we shall see," laughed Nick, with a paternal caress of her
+shapely white hand. "By the way, Miss Page, since I now happen to think
+of it," the crafty detective indifferently added, "wasn't there a Hindoo
+juggler, or snake charmer, or something of that sort, connected with
+your late vaudeville company?"
+
+"Oh, yes, sir! Pandu Singe."
+
+"Ah, that is his name, is it?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Is he still in the city?"
+
+"I am not sure, Mr. Carter; but I think that he may be, for he is signed
+with the company for next season."
+
+"Do you know where he has been living?"
+
+"Yes, sir. I have seen his house address on letters forwarded to the
+theater. Do you want it, sir?"
+
+"If you can recall it, yes," smiled Nick, producing his notebook. "I am
+making a study of the Hindoo language just at this time, and I would
+like to consult Pandu Singe about certain books on the subject."
+
+Miss Page did not suspect any duplicity in this, and she cheerfully gave
+Nick the address of the snake charmer, whereupon the detective
+graciously thanked her, and then escorted her to her waiting carriage.
+
+As it rolled rapidly away a second hack came bowling up to the curbstone
+in front of Nick's residence. It was the carriage for which Chick had
+sent a call.
+
+"Don't cover your horses, cabbie!" cried Nick, sharply. "Wait about
+three minutes, and we'll be with you."
+
+"Right, sir!"
+
+And Nick dashed back up the steps and into the house, meeting Chick in
+the hall.
+
+"What do you make of it, Nick?"
+
+"Make of it?" cried Nick, with a laugh. "It's a cinch, Chick, dead open
+and shut. Grab your hat and come with me. I'll explain in the carriage."
+
+"Good enough! I'm with you, old man!"
+
+"And we have no time to lose," cried Nick, "Now, then, we're off."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE CRIME AND THE MEANS.
+
+
+"Yes, Chick, it's as simple as two plus two, and we'll presently try to
+bag a part of our quarry. But first of all, I want a bit of
+corroborative evidence which I expect to get from that Hindoo snake
+charmer, Pandu Singe."
+
+"Going there first, Nick?"
+
+"Yes; it will not take long. Then I think we shall have the strands for
+a rope strong enough to hold that she-devil who murdered Mary Barton,"
+grimly added Nick.
+
+These remarks were made while the carriage containing the two detectives
+was speeding through the city streets, then bright with the light and
+life of the early evening.
+
+"What a dastardly crime it was, Nick," observed Chick.
+
+"It was the crime of a treacherous demon."
+
+"With jealousy the chief motive, eh?"
+
+"No doubt of it."
+
+"Yet her venomous arrow found the wrong mark."
+
+"That's just the size of it," said Nick. "In the light of what you saw
+and heard on the stage that night, it is plain that Cervera is
+passionately in love with Venner."
+
+"Surely."
+
+"You remember that you saw him talking with Violet Page, and then
+observed Cervera in the opposite wings, angrily watching something or
+somebody out of your range of view. Plainly enough, now, she was
+watching Venner and the singer."
+
+"No doubt of it," declared Chick. "And she looked fit to use a poniard
+then and there."
+
+"Jealousy," growled Nick. "She had been secretly watching Venner. She
+had discovered his love for Violet, and decided that the girl was a
+rival to be feared. Her fiery Spanish blood would shrink at nothing. She
+went the limit, and tried to murder her rival. In so doing, however, she
+but killed another."
+
+"She must have worked adroitly to have accomplished what she did."
+
+"It may not have been so very difficult," replied Nick. "She was on the
+stage each night, and also that infernal snake den. She quietly learned
+which of the venomous reptiles would best serve her deadly purpose, and
+then found an opportunity and a way by which to secretly steal it."
+
+"A hazardous job at that," muttered Chick.
+
+"The jealousy of such a woman fears nothing," Nick rejoined. "To lure
+the desired snake into a box, and then take it home and confine it in
+the jewel casket, may have been done quite easily."
+
+"It must have been done before the company closed its engagement."
+
+"No doubt," admitted Nick. "Then Cervera was too crafty to use it at
+once. She waited nearly a week. Then she dressed herself in cheap
+attire, put on a thick veil, and lay in wait for her rival's maid and
+companion, to whom she gave the package and her instructions regarding
+it."
+
+"What first led you to suspect the crime and the means, Nick?" inquired
+Chick, curiously.
+
+"Several facts," explained Nick. "The girl's sudden death seemed
+peculiar. The jewel casket beside her was empty, at once suggesting that
+something had been removed or fallen from it. Yet nothing was to be
+found."
+
+"That's true."
+
+"The paper wrapper was punctured with a pin in many places, the holes
+running even through the lining of the casket. That fact, too, was
+suggestive. People are not in the habit of doing up parcels and then
+punching them full of holes with a pin."
+
+"Well, hardly."
+
+"Cervera made those holes, Chick, in order that her venomous captive
+might not expire for want of air."
+
+"No doubt of it, Nick. But what do you think led Mary Barton to open the
+package after having been told not to do so?"
+
+"Curiosity, perhaps," replied Nick. "Or possibly she considered the
+circumstances to be so strange that she felt that she had a right to
+open it. Be that as it may, it is plain that Mary Barton sat down on the
+park seat, after leaving Boyden and there briefly considered the
+matter."
+
+"How do you arrive at that deduction, Nick?"
+
+"From the tiny tinge of fresh blood about one of the pinholes on the
+interior of the lining," explained Nick. "The stain must have come from
+the point of the pin, and when the pin was drawn out of the box, not
+when it was thrust into it. In the latter case the pin point would have
+been cleansed before passing through the lining, and the stain would
+have been on the outside rather than the inside."
+
+"Surely."
+
+"Then it at once became plain that Mary Barton, while sitting there, had
+thrust her hat pin through one of the previously made apertures,
+possibly aiming to discover in this way what the box contained, and in
+so doing she probably pricked the confined reptile."
+
+"Ah, I see," nodded Chick. "All this strongly indicated that something
+might have been confined in the casket."
+
+"Yes, certainly. Not thus learning what the box contained," continued
+Nick, "Mary Barton decided to open it. The moment she raised the lid the
+snake, probably angered by its wound and long confinement, instantly
+struck at her hand, snake-fashion, and buried its fangs in her wrist."
+
+"Hence the tiny, red spot which you so quickly discovered."
+
+"Precisely."
+
+"Very shrewd of you, Nick."
+
+"Greatly frightened, the girl probably fainted, and fell to the ground,"
+added Nick, in conclusion of the deductions by which he had solved the
+remarkable mystery. "The snake instantly scurried away through the
+grass, and left no trail behind him. Before the girl could recover from
+her swoon, the deadly poison had done its work. The venom of some of
+these India snakes is horribly rapid in its action."
+
+"That's true," cried Chick. "I saw one at the theater that evening, the
+venom of which would kill a man in ten seconds. A wee bit of a cuss at
+that."
+
+"Probably this was one of the same breed," said Nick, grimly. "At all
+events, I am sure that murder was the crime, and a snake the means."
+
+"And Sanetta Cervera the criminal."
+
+"Beyond the shadow of a doubt," declared Nick.
+
+"And what do you expect to learn from the Hindoo?"
+
+"I wish to know, in corroboration of my suspicions, whether Pandu Singe
+has missed any of his infernal reptiles."
+
+"Ah, I see."
+
+"If he has, my theory is surely correct, and we next must fix the guilt
+upon the guilty," said Nick, firmly. "I shall arrest Cervera this very
+night, providing the Hindoo informs me that-- Ah, here we are at his
+door. Come into the house with me, Chick, and we'll see what he has to
+say."
+
+They had stopped before an ordinary brick house on the East Side, and
+Nick quickly mounted the steps and rang the bell. The summons brought a
+corpulent English woman to the door, from whom Nick learned that the
+Hindoo and his interpreter were still there.
+
+"Doesn't Pandu Singe speak English?" inquired Nick.
+
+"Dear me, no!" exclaimed the landlady, with a mute yet visible
+laugh--visible in that her convolutions of flesh became observably
+agitated. "Not the first word, sir. He talks only a blooming jargon fit
+for snakes and spiders and that like."
+
+Nick laughed agreeably, having a request on his tongue's end.
+
+"He has moved his beastly den o' reptiles into my cellar to stay till
+next season, sir, a 'orror I'd not stand for a minute, so I wouldn't,
+only he pays me very 'andsome for the same."
+
+"Then he intends remaining here all summer, does he?"
+
+"He do," replied the woman, with startling terseness after the
+foregoing.
+
+"I wish to see him briefly on business," said Nick. "Go and ask him if
+he will receive us."
+
+The landlady complied, returning presently and inviting the two
+detectives into the house. She led the way to a rear room off the hall,
+at the door of which stood a swarthy foreigner, who bowed and smiled as
+the callers approached.
+
+"'E's the hinterpreter," vouchsafed the landlady, in a wheezy whisper.
+
+Nick nodded understandingly.
+
+Reading by the light of a lamp on a table in the room sat the Hindoo
+snake charmer himself, clad in a rich, loose robe of Oriental fashion.
+He arose with much deliberation and dignity when the detectives entered,
+and gravely bowed in greeting, while his interpreter hastened to place
+chairs for the visitors.
+
+Through the interpreter Nick quickly explained his business, and saw a
+look of surprise appear on the face of Pandu Singe when inquiries were
+made about the loss of a snake.
+
+It took Nick but a short time to learn what he desired. Precisely as he
+expected, the Hindoo had missed one of his snakes about ten days before,
+one of the most venomous and dangerous of the lot.
+
+Hearing no reports or complaints about the missing reptile, however,
+Pandu Singe had come to the conclusion that the snake had died in the
+den and then been devoured by one of his companions in captivity. So the
+Hindoo had let the matter drop, and had said nothing about it.
+
+Nick did not disclose the true occasion for his inquiries, but invented
+a satisfactory explanation, and at the end of a quarter of an hour the
+two detectives departed and entered their waiting carriage.
+
+"Rather a dignified chap, after all, that Pandu Singe," laughed Chick,
+as they settled themselves on the cushions.
+
+"True," admitted Nick, thoughtfully. "Do you think, Chick, that we could
+make up to pass for those two swarthy Orientals?"
+
+"Could we!" exclaimed Chick, promptly. "Well, Nick, I should say that we
+could."
+
+"I think so, too."
+
+"You could do the snake charmer, all right, and easily gabble a lingo
+that would pass for his."
+
+"Well, rather," laughed Nick.
+
+"And if I was wise to the game you wished to play I easily could act as
+the interpreter, and run the conversation correctly on my own hook."
+
+"No doubt of it."
+
+"Do it? Why, surely we could," repeated Chick "Why did you ask?"
+
+"I think it may yet become necessary or desirable to make a move of
+that kind," replied Nick.
+
+"Why so?"
+
+"Because, as I have suspected all along, I still think there is some big
+game in the wind, with the Kilgore gang back of it, and that the murder
+of this Barton girl may have some connection with it, or at least give
+us a clew to it."
+
+"Egad! I hope so, Nick."
+
+"We soon shall see."
+
+"Going after Cervera now?"
+
+"Yes; at once," said Nick, with grim austerity. "We shall find her at
+home, as usual. She'll not imagine that I can have got on her track as
+quickly as this, so no doubt I can easily land her. Before midnight I
+want bracelets on the white wrists of that Spanish dare-devil."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+CLOSING IN.
+
+
+There was, indeed, as Nick Carter shrewdly suspected, a mysterious bond
+between the several crimes thus far engaging his attention, and the
+secret operations for which David Kilgore and his gang had ventured into
+the city of New York.
+
+Nick had remarked, however, that the game would become as hazardous and
+stirring as one could desire, as soon as it was fairly driven from
+cover.
+
+And Nick began to drive it from cover that very night.
+
+Shortly before nine o'clock, and just as the two detectives were parting
+from the Hindoo snake charmer, Mr. Rufus Venner rang the bell at the
+door of Cervera's uptown residence.
+
+It was answered by Cervera herself, much to Venner's surprise.
+
+"Where's the butler to-night?" he abruptly demanded, as he entered and
+closed the door.
+
+"Gone," said Cervera, curtly.
+
+"Gone?"
+
+"I've sacked him along with all the rest."
+
+"Not discharged all of your servants?"
+
+"Nothing less."
+
+"But why?" demanded Venner, with a frown settling about his dark eyes.
+"You cannot remain here alone."
+
+"I don't intend to."
+
+"But what are you going to do? When are you going?"
+
+While thus speaking they had repaired to the library at the rear of the
+house, the room in which Nick had encountered the gang nearly a
+fortnight before. It was the only room then lighted. Even the hall
+through which they had passed was in darkness.
+
+Yet Cervera was dressed in an elaborate evening gown, fitted close to
+her lithe, nervous figure, and augmenting in a marked degree her
+dangerous, dark beauty.
+
+"You know where I am going--or should!" she replied, facing Venner, with
+an odd smile on her red lips.
+
+"Not to the diamond plant?" cried he, with a start.
+
+"To the diamond plant--yes!"
+
+"Impossible!"
+
+"You will find it's not impossible, Rufe," she retorted. "I generally go
+where I wish, and do what I undertake. I have already sent my own jewels
+and other valuables there by Pylotte. He was here this morning."
+
+"But consider, Sanetta," protested Venner, with a darker frown. "Think
+of what chances you are taking."
+
+"Of what?"
+
+"Suppose Nick Carter suspects you, and has a shadow on your movements--"
+
+"Bah!" interrupted Cervera, with a snap and flash of her black eyes. "I
+care nothing for Nick Carter. _Caramba!_ do you think I fear him? I will
+fool and foil Nick Carter as I have fooled and foiled his betters. I
+shall go to the plant to-morrow, and that settles it."
+
+"Stop a bit," insisted Venner, almost angrily. "Do you forget that
+Kilgore and all his gang are there? Do you forget that we are just
+about launching our gigantic enterprise? We now have nearly a million
+dollars' worth of diamonds manufactured, or in the process of making,
+and I already have begun to distribute them on the market at a fabulous
+profit."
+
+"Well, I know all that. What has it to do with my going there?"
+
+"Such a move on your part may give Carter a clew to our location,"
+declared Venner.
+
+"Oh, no, it won't," sneered Cervera, scornfully. "I'll look out for
+that."
+
+"Discovery would ruin all, and possibly land the whole gang behind
+prison bars."
+
+"Faugh! I'm as well at the plant as here, and there I am going. You let
+me alone to evade the Carters."
+
+"But why in thunder are you so determined to make this change?" demanded
+Venner.
+
+An amorous fire came stealing into the woman's resolute eyes, and she
+shrugged her shapely shoulders significantly.
+
+"You should know why without asking," she slowly answered, with her gaze
+fixed upon his changing countenance. "It is because I love you, Rufe,
+and wish to be where you spend so much of your time."
+
+"So much of my time?" echoed Venner, inquiringly.
+
+"So at least you tell me."
+
+"Do you doubt it?"
+
+"I know that five days and nights have passed since you came here to see
+me," cried Cervera, bitterly. "I have only your own word in explanation
+of your neglect."
+
+"That should be enough," said Venner, curtly.
+
+"Yet a man after a new love does not shrink from lying to an old,"
+retorted Cervera.
+
+"Pshaw! You are jealous again."
+
+"A woman who loves as I love is always jealous."
+
+"Of whom now?"
+
+"You know of whom."
+
+"I tell you I have not seen Violet Page since the theater closed."
+
+"I have only your word for it," repeated Cervera, with incredulity
+bright in her sensuous eyes. "You know what I told you, Rufe. I'll not
+tamely permit that pale-faced nightingale to come between you and me.
+You know what I told you. I would kill her as I would a--a snake!"
+
+Despite his own stiff nerves, Venner recoiled from the look on the
+woman's desperate face. Her voice had fallen to a hiss like that of the
+reptile mentioned.
+
+"You are mad, Sanetta," he cried, irritably. "You have no occasion for
+this jealousy and hatred."
+
+"I have had! You know that I have had--and your face shows it!"
+
+"You have none now--absolutely none now!"
+
+His emphatic declaration fell upon Cervera with an effect which Venner
+did not at first understand.
+
+She sprang quickly toward him, gripping him hard by the wrist, while her
+every nerve seemed stimulated with sudden agitation.
+
+"None now? None now--now?" she fiercely reiterated, in inquiring
+whispers. "Do you mean that--that it is done? that it is done?"
+
+"Done?" gasped Venner, amazedly. "Is what done? What the devil are you
+driving at?"
+
+She drew back, searching his eyes with hers, and hers were like those of
+a demon, in her momentary suspense.
+
+"Then it isn't--it isn't?" she hissed, through her white teeth. "I
+thought from what you said that it was. I thought--"
+
+"Good God! what do you mean?" cried Venner, aghast for a moment.
+
+Then, struck with a sudden recollection, he turned and snatched an
+evening paper from a pocket of his coat, which he had tossed on a chair.
+He had recalled certain leader lines which had caught his eye earlier in
+the evening, yet which he then had not had sufficient interest to
+follow.
+
+Now he hurriedly opened the paper and read the story, or so much of it
+as enabled him to guess the truth.
+
+It was the newspaper story of the girl found dead in Central Park that
+afternoon, with the mystery involving the sudden fatality, and the names
+of the murdered girl and her mistress, Violet Page.
+
+A half-smothered oath of horror and dismay broke from Venner, after a
+moment.
+
+It brought Cervera to his side, and she snatched the paper from him and
+read--the story of her own failure; the miscarriage of her own jealous
+and murderous design.
+
+She suppressed the shriek of mingled disappointment and fury that rose
+to her twitching lips, then passionately cast the paper upon the table.
+
+"Well, what do you make of it?" she demanded, glaring at Venner's
+colorless face.
+
+"No need to ask," he replied, hoarsely. "You know what I make of it."
+
+"You think I did it?"
+
+"I know you did it!"
+
+"And killed the wrong girl?"
+
+"And killed the wrong girl!"
+
+"Can you guess how?"
+
+"I don't care how. I know that you did it."
+
+"You will not betray me?" hissed Cervera, crouching before him, with
+eyes never leaving his.
+
+"I have no wish to betray you."
+
+"You dare not! you dare not!"
+
+"I shall not!"
+
+"If you do--"
+
+The woman checked her words for an instant, and ran her hand into the
+bosom of her dress. When she drew it forth it gripped a naked poniard,
+upon the polished blade of which the rays of light flashed with many a
+wicked gleam and glint.
+
+"If you do," she repeated, "I will send you after her, Rufus Venner! I
+will do even more! I will expose our whole game, and our whole gang!"
+
+"I have said that I shall not betray you, nor will I," cried Venner,
+signing for her to put up the weapon. "Yet you were mad, Sanetta. You
+had no grounds for such jealousy, no occasion for such a crime."
+
+"I had--and you know it! I told you I would do it."
+
+"Well, you have tried it, at least," growled Venner, forcing a smile to
+his gray lips.
+
+"And you dare not betray me," repeated Cervera, thrusting the glittering
+weapon within her dress. "I have not failed entirely, Rufe, since it
+makes the criminal tie between you and me all the stronger. It binds us
+together with links of steel, Rufe, and they are stronger far than any
+marriage contract."
+
+"Then you love me like that, eh?"
+
+"You know that I do."
+
+"Yet your infernal jealousy, and your determination to quit this house
+and go to the plant with the gang, may yet ruin us all. If Nick Carter
+were to get a clew--"
+
+"Bah!" Cervera fiercely interrupted. "I despise him, not fear him! I
+tell you again, I will fool and foil Nick Carter, as I have fooled and
+foiled his betters!"
+
+"His better as a detective never lived, Sanetta."
+
+"I care not! I defy him, and will yet show you that--"
+
+"Hush! Hark! A cab has stopped outside!"
+
+Cervera changed like a flash.
+
+With the bound of a leopard, one of those lightning moves with which she
+could electrify an audience from the stage, she crossed the adjoining
+room, which was in darkness, and reached the front window.
+
+One glance through the lace draperies was enough.
+
+Nick Carter was just alighting from his carriage.
+
+Cervera darted back and rejoined Venner.
+
+"It is Carter--Nick Carter himself!" she fiercely whispered, with all
+the fire of her passionate Spanish nature ablaze in her eyes.
+
+"Carter! Good God!"
+
+"Be off, Rufe, and leave him to me!"
+
+"To you alone?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"He already is on your track for this crime."
+
+"I'll foil him yet! Leave him to me alone!" Cervera fiercely cried. "Be
+off by the back stairs, then through the stable and the side alley. Go
+to your own home, and from there signal Kilgore to have the secret way
+to the plant open for me. Here--the paper! Take it away with you! I'll
+elude Carter--"
+
+"But he may arrest you at once," protested Venner, excitedly. "If he
+does--"
+
+"_Caramba!_ do you stop to question?" Cervera furiously interrupted. "If
+he takes me from this house he will take me--dead!"
+
+"But--"
+
+"Quick--he's at the door! Leave him to me alone, and do what I told you!
+Away! There's the bell!"
+
+Venner caught up his coat, darted down the back stairs and quickly
+departed by the way mentioned.
+
+At the same time, while Nick's summons was still echoing through the
+great house, Sanetta Cervera swept haughtily through the main hall,
+switched on the electric light, and then opened the front door.
+
+She appeared as cool and composed as if she had just arisen from her
+dinner.
+
+Yet in the vestibule stood the one man whom she had most cause to fear,
+the man who now held her fate in his hand--Nick Carter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+CRAFTY CERVERA.
+
+
+"Good-evening, Mr. Venner. Oh, it's not you!"
+
+"Oh, yes, 'tis!" said Nick, dryly. "It's I all right, and I'm it. You
+appear surprised at seeing me, Señora Cervera."
+
+Cervera had begun, then stopped, then uttered the startled exclamation;
+and all with the utmost coolness, with the air of one stirred only by
+genuine surprise, and as if without the slightest fear or dismay upon
+beholding Nick Carter in the vestibule.
+
+So perfectly natural was her artful assumption, that it rather deceived
+Nick for a short time.
+
+In response to his dry remarks, the artful jade now nodded and began to
+laugh.
+
+"Surprised? Well, rather!" she exclaimed, in animated tones. "I was
+expecting our mutual friend, dear Mr. Venner, and supposed it was he who
+rang. But I'm just as pleased to see you."
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"Surely! Come in, Detective Carter. You are very, very welcome. I shall
+be so glad to renew our brief acquaintance. In fact, Detective Carter, I
+am quite charmed to see you."
+
+"You'll not feel so chipper and charmed when you learn my business,"
+said Nick to himself, as he entered and followed her to the library.
+
+"Take a chair, Detective Carter, and try to feel perfectly at home,"
+laughed Cervera, with bantering vivacity. "You have been here before,
+you know."
+
+"Yes, indeed, I know," said Nick, dryly. "The night I had a taste of a
+choke pear, at the hands of your faithful guardians."
+
+"Ah! but you shall be better treated this time," smiled Cervera,
+dropping into a chair opposite the detective, and fixing her sensuous,
+dark eyes on Nick's calm, unreadable face.
+
+"I hope so, señora," he replied. "By the way, what has become of those
+two stalwart guardians of your treasures? Do you still retain them in
+your employ?"
+
+It was second nature to Nick to feel his way in this crafty fashion, yet
+he did not really expect any resistance in arresting Cervera, who now
+laughed and shook her head, replying:
+
+"No, I have let them go."
+
+"That so?"
+
+"I have no use for them at present."
+
+"Why is that?"
+
+"My engagement at the theater has closed, and I seldom have occasion to
+wear my diamonds. I have placed them all in a safe deposit vault."
+
+"Ah! I see."
+
+"So I have no need for my guardians, Detective Carter, with only myself
+here. Nobody would want me personally, you know," she added, with a bold
+laugh.
+
+Nick's firm lips drew a little closer.
+
+"On the contrary," said he, pointedly, "somebody does, want you
+personally."
+
+"Oh! is that so?" cried Cervera, as if amused.
+
+"Very much so, señora."
+
+"And who does me the honor, pray?"
+
+"I want you," said Nick, bluntly.
+
+"You, Detective Carter! Why, sir, what an idea! I wouldn't have believed
+it of you."
+
+"Yet it is true, nevertheless."
+
+"Well, well," repeated Cervera, with a pretty shrug, "I am really glad
+to hear you say so. For what do you want me, Detective Carter?"
+
+Not once had Nick's searching gaze left her brazen countenance, and
+despite her outward display of badinage, his steadfast and penetrating
+eyes were making her secretly uneasy.
+
+"I want you," said Nick, pointedly, "for that ugly 'Jack-in-the-box'
+trick which you perpetrated this afternoon."
+
+Cervera's eyes emitted a single swift, fiery gleam, and her red lips
+drew closer. Yet she cried, still pleasantly:
+
+"What do you mean by that, Detective Carter? Is it a joke?"
+
+"You'll find it no joke."
+
+"If it is, sir, I don't see the point."
+
+"You will have a chance to look for it at the Tombs," replied Nick, with
+grim quietude. "Señora Cervera, I want you to go along with me."
+
+"The Tombs! Go with you! What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean that you are now under arrest."
+
+"Arrest! For what?"
+
+"For the murder of a girl named Mary Barton," Nick bluntly rejoined,
+ignoring the woman's increasing display of amazement and resentment.
+
+"Mary Barton!" cried Cervera. "I never heard of the girl."
+
+"Nevertheless," said Nick, sternly, "you met her on Fifth Avenue this
+afternoon, and gave her a jewel casket containing a venomous snake,
+which you had stolen from the den of Pandu Singe, and by which means you
+inadvertently killed Mary Barton, instead of another for whom your
+infernal design was intended. I am aware of all of your late movements,
+señora, you see."
+
+"I see that you are a devil!" cried Cervera, with a sudden passionate
+outburst. "How dare you come here with such a story as that?"
+
+For a moment at least, the fact that Nick already had discovered nearly
+every detail of her infamous crime--though committed only a few hours
+before--almost completely unnerved her, and her changing countenance,
+her irrepressible outbreak, and the violent agitation of her lithe,
+nervous figure, were tokens of self-betrayal by no means unobserved by
+Nick.
+
+"You'll have a chance to refute the story before a judge and jury," Nick
+curtly answered. "At present you are in my custody, however, and you
+must go with me."
+
+Cervera rose to her feet, trembling visibly, and gripped the back of her
+chair as if for support.
+
+"There must be some terrible mistake, Detective Carter," she now cried,
+with well-feigned distress and alarm. "Surely you do not mean this,
+sir? Surely you do but jest?"
+
+"On the contrary, señora, I mean every word that I have said."
+
+"That I am under arrest?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And must go with you?"
+
+"Precisely."
+
+"To the Tombs?"
+
+"To the Tombs, señora."
+
+"Oh! this is dreadful--dreadful!" craftily moaned Cervera, with tears
+now filling her eyes.
+
+"I am sorry for you, señora, but I must do my duty," said Nick, rising.
+
+"I know you must--but, oh! what shall I do? To whom can I appeal? Oh! if
+Mr. Venner were only here!"
+
+"You can send a messenger for him later, or dispatch one of your
+servants from here," suggested Nick.
+
+"I have none here," sobbed Cervera. "They are all out, and I am alone. I
+have no one--"
+
+She suddenly stopped, then drew herself up with resentful dignity, and
+wiped the tears from her eyes.
+
+"I am a fool to be so weak!" she exclaimed, bitterly. "Detective Carter,
+I know nothing of the crime you mention. I never heard of Mary Barton.
+This arrest is an outrage, and I will appeal to the highest court in the
+land for vindication!"
+
+"That's your privilege," said Nick, shortly. "But at present you must go
+with me."
+
+"I cannot go as I am," declared Cervera, passionately stamping her
+foot. "I am in evening dress--attired to receive a caller. I shall take
+cold if I go out of doors in--"
+
+"Oh, you may change your dress," Nick curtly interrupted, the need of
+which was decidedly obvious. "I'll give you time for that."
+
+"How very kind," sneered Cervera, with a bitter flash of her black eyes.
+"You shall yet suffer for this affront, Detective Carter."
+
+"All right," said Nick. "But I have no time to speculate upon it now, so
+get yourself ready. Wait a bit, my lady! I'll go along with you!"
+
+"With me? You insult me!"
+
+"Oh, no, I don't. I want a look at your chamber before letting you out
+of my sight. I've seen rooms with more than one way out, and I don't
+intend that you shall elude me."
+
+"You're a suspicious coward, sir!"
+
+"Stow all that, señora, and lead the way," commanded Nick, bluntly.
+
+Pale and resentful, with a sneer on her lips, Cervera led the way
+through, the hall, playing her part so artfully that Nick, ignorant of
+her late interview with Rufus Venner, was not much inclined to suspect
+her of duplicity just then.
+
+Upon reaching the top of the hall stairs, Cervera switched on another
+light, and then that which illumined her chamber, into which she
+haughtily led the detective.
+
+"A fine affront to suffer," she bitterly exclaimed, throwing herself
+into a chair. "Your conduct is despicable! You are no gentleman!"
+
+"I am a detective," retorted Nick, "and I come pretty near knowing my
+business."
+
+"Oh! you do," sneered Cervera. "Plainly that is the limit of your
+knowledge. You may not be as wise as you think."
+
+Nick made no reply, but looked sharply about the room.
+
+It was a large, square chamber, and elaborately furnished. The two
+windows were well above the street, and offered no chance for escape.
+There were but two doors, that leading into the hall and the one leading
+into a large closet in the opposite wall.
+
+Nick opened the latter, and found the closet hung with Cervera's
+extensive wardrobe. He thrust his arm along the garments hanging at
+either side, and sounded the three walls, and then the closet floor, all
+of which appeared perfectly firm and solid.
+
+Even these precautions seemed quite needless to Nick, however, it being
+a rented house, and Cervera presumably uninformed of his coming.
+
+"Now, señora, you may have just ten minutes to make ready," said he, as
+he rejoined her. "I shall leave this chamber door open, and will wait
+for you in the adjoining hall. Can you whistle?"
+
+"Whistle?"
+
+"Yes, whistle! You know what it is to whistle, don't you?"
+
+The sneer on Cervera's red lips, as she arose from her chair, became
+almost a smile.
+
+"Yes, I can whistle after a fashion," she admitted.
+
+"Well, then, you keep whistling all the time you are alone here," Nick
+sternly commanded. "I will let you out of my sight to make these
+changes, but not out of my hearing."
+
+"Suspicious fool!"
+
+"Fool or not, you keep whistling," said Nick, bluntly. "If you let up
+for so long as a second, I'll come over yonder threshold in a way that
+you'll not fancy."
+
+"But suppose I want to brush my teeth?" inquired Cervera, with a
+vixenish light in her evil eyes. "I cannot whistle and brush my teeth,
+Detective Carter."
+
+"You'll have plenty of time to brush your teeth at the Tombs," said
+Nick, sharply. "Now look lively, mark you, and--keep whistling."
+
+Cervera at once began to whistle.
+
+Nick removed the key from the chamber door, and sauntered out into the
+hall, where he kept his ears constantly alert.
+
+Not for a moment did the whistling cease, nor was there the slightest
+change in tone or character.
+
+Nick could not have taken a more effective method to serve his present
+purpose.
+
+At the end of eight minutes the whistling ceased, and Cervera coldly
+cried:
+
+"Now you may come in, Detective Carter. I am about ready to go with
+you."
+
+Nick at once entered the chamber.
+
+Cervera had changed her evening dress for a complete suit of black, and
+was standing in the middle of the room.
+
+"I suppose," said she, staring icily at the detective, "that I ought to
+thank you for your consideration."
+
+"Don't trouble yourself," said Nick, curtly. "I have no time to waste."
+
+"Yet just one word, Detective Carter, before we go."
+
+"Let it be brief, then."
+
+"You are said to be a very clever man, and no doubt you think you have
+me dead to rights in this case," said Cervera, with a mocking curl of
+her thin lips.
+
+"Decidedly so."
+
+"Yet you will find, Detective Carter, that a clever woman can always
+fool and foil a clever man."
+
+"But you, my lady, are very far from being a clever woman," retorted
+Nick, with a gesture of impatience, signifying that he wished to leave
+with her at once.
+
+"Nevertheless, I shall beat you at the finish, make no mistake about
+that," cried Cervera, scornfully. "Now, sir, I will put on my wrap, and
+go with you where you please."
+
+With the last remark, she approached a peg in the open closet, as if to
+take down a dark shawl.
+
+Instead, she suddenly turned quickly around and cried, with a taunting
+laugh:
+
+"So long, Detective Carter! I really feel quite sorry to bid
+you--good-by!"
+
+Nick started like a man electrified.
+
+Cervera merely had pressed the peg on which the shawl hung, whereupon
+the whole back of the closet seemed to fall away instantly, disclosing a
+lighted passage beyond.
+
+Nick caught a glimpse of it, and of the woman darting toward it, and he
+followed her like a shot from a gun.
+
+As Cervera passed through the further opening and gained the lighted
+passage, she seized and threw a short lever just beyond the closet wall.
+
+At the same moment Nick's weight fell upon the closet floor behind her.
+
+It was like treading upon air.
+
+The lever, like the peg, did not work in an instant.
+
+
+Nick felt himself falling, and made a desperate clutch at the door
+jamb--only to miss it.
+
+Then the closet floor, with the detective upon it, went speeding down
+like an elevator cut loose from a top story.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+IN A WARM CORNER.
+
+
+The crash with which Nick Carter vaguely expected his career might be
+abruptly ended, as the floor upon which he had fallen prostrate rapidly
+descended, did not come.
+
+The terrific downward speed suddenly decreased, then became more
+gradual, all in the bare fraction of a second; and then the rushing
+sound of compressed air escaping through narrow crevices fell upon the
+detective's ears.
+
+Nick immediately guessed the truth.
+
+The falling closet floor was that of an elevator, no longer in use as
+such, yet which still worked on the slides of the elevator well, and
+evidently had been cleverly adjusted for just such an emergency as that
+depicted.
+
+Presently there came a heavy jar, and then the downward motion ceased.
+The close-fitting floor at first had fallen so swiftly that the confined
+air in the well beneath it had become so compressed as to form an air
+cushion, which finally let the floor completely down only after the air
+had gradually escaped. It was this escaping air Nick heard during the
+last moments of his fall.
+
+The entire episode began and ended in but little more than a moment,
+however. Though considerably jarred, Nick pulled himself together, and
+gazed up through the darkness at the bottom of the well.
+
+Cervera was peering down from the lighted passage three stories above
+him, Nick having made a clean drop into the cellar of the imposing
+residence.
+
+That this entire contrivance was the work of the Kilgore gang, devised
+while they masqueraded at Cervera's house, Nick was thoroughly
+convinced.
+
+"Hello!" Cervera suddenly cried, still gazing down into the darkness
+enveloping Nick. "Are you there, Mr. Carter?"
+
+Nick stared up at her, but made no answer.
+
+At the same time he felt quietly over the walls of the well, in the hope
+of finding some way of escape.
+
+It riled him not a little, the thought of having been so deftly caught
+in a trap, almost entirely owing to his having been overconfident, an
+assurance only very natural under the circumstances.
+
+The possibility that this woman might now elude him for a time was also
+a thorn in Nick's mind.
+
+"_Caramba!_" cried Cervera, with a mocking laugh. "Aren't you going to
+speak?"
+
+Still no answer.
+
+"Have you lost your tongue, Detective Carter? If you don't speak out,
+Mr. Smart Fellow, I shall drop something down that will light you up. I
+want a look at you, to know whether you're afoot or on horseback."
+
+Nick remained in perfect silence.
+
+Then Cervera disappeared.
+
+"The she-devil!" muttered the detective. "What move next, I wonder?"
+
+Again he felt quickly over the walls of the well, in the hope of finding
+some avenue of escape.
+
+With a thrill of satisfaction, he now discovered one of the vertical
+strips of iron which are attached to two opposite walls of an elevator
+well, to steady the car and serve as slides for it to run upon. These
+iron strips are usually regularly notched to the depth of an inch or
+more, for the admission of an automatic break in the event of the rope
+parting.
+
+"By Jove! this is not so bad," thought Nick. "It might serve for a
+ladder.
+
+"To climb three stories with the tips of one's fingers and toes,
+however, and by means of a notched iron on the bare face of a wall, is a
+herculean and hazardous undertaking."
+
+While he stood, measuring the altitude with his eyes, Nick heard Cervera
+returning.
+
+Then a great bunch of flaming paper came flying down the well, and the
+detective was forced to leap aside to escape it.
+
+She-devil, indeed, Cervera had set fire to a crumpled newspaper, with
+which to illuminate the bottom of the well.
+
+"Ah, there you are!" she exultingly cried, on discovering Nick in the
+glare of the light. "On your feet, eh? You were lucky to escape,
+Detective Carter."
+
+"And you'll be lucky if you escape Detective Carter," sternly retorted
+Nick, quickly stamping out the fire. "I'll finally land you, my crafty
+young woman, though I lie awake nights to devise a way."
+
+Cervera gave vent to a shrill, vindictive laugh.
+
+"Do you think you can do it?" she demanded, mockingly.
+
+"You'll find that I can."
+
+"Better men than you have tried--and failed."
+
+"Yet I shall succeed."
+
+"Do you feel quite sure of it?"
+
+"Absolutely."
+
+"Then I think I'd better see your finish this very night, since I now
+have you cornered!" cried Cervera, in taunting tones, "It may not be
+wise to defer it."
+
+Then Nick beheld a second burning newspaper coming his way.
+
+"Let up, you demon!" he shouted, angrily. "You'll set the house afire."
+
+"Wouldn't it be a shame! And what would become of you?"
+
+"Don't try it again, young woman, or worse may be your fate."
+
+"Oh! is that so?" sneered Cervera, maliciously. "We'll see."
+
+Down came another burning paper, and by the light of it Nick now
+discovered a closed door in one of the walls. It was directly under the
+closet door in Cervera's chamber, both of which evidently had once been
+used for entering the elevator.
+
+The fact chiefly observed by Nick, however, was that the sill of the
+door was wide enough to offer him a safe footing. Though it was fully
+eight feet above his head, Nick resolved to attempt to reach it by means
+of the notched iron on the side wall.
+
+Gripping the rough notches with his muscular fingers, and using those
+lower down for a foothold, as best he could, Nick hurriedly began the
+difficult ascent.
+
+By the light from a fragment of burning paper, Cervera perceived his
+design, and greeted it with a scream of derision.
+
+"I'll soon stop that, my fine fellow," she shouted, with vicious
+asperity. "Look out for yourself!"
+
+White speaking, she touched a match to one of her dresses, which hung
+from a near peg on the closet wall, and dropped it blazing down the
+well.
+
+Nick saw it coming, and was forced to drop back to the cellar floor.
+
+"You vicious demon!" he cried, angrily. "Let up! You'll have the house
+on fire!"
+
+"That's just what I intend doing--and you with it!" screamed Cervera,
+with a laugh. "I'll not leave you alive to get the best of me at some
+later day."
+
+Then she set fire to a silk skirt, and dropped it after the other.
+
+Nick had not yet been able to extinguish the first, and the situation
+was momentarily becoming more desperate. A cloud of smoke was filling
+the well, with no draft to carry it away, and the heat was already very
+oppressive.
+
+Crouching on the curb of the lighted passage three floors above him,
+Cervera was laughing wildly, with her handsome face reflecting the
+bitter hatred by which she was inspired, as she hurriedly set fire to a
+third garment and dropped it down the well.
+
+The smoke at the bottom had become so dense that Nick no longer could
+see her, but he felt quite sure that he could put an end to her present
+murderous game.
+
+He drew his revolver and fired two quick shots in her direction. One
+bullet crashed through the ceiling above her. The second clipped a lock
+of hair from over the vixen's ear.
+
+It brought a shriek of alarm to her lips, and she sprang quickly back
+from the curb over which she was stooping.
+
+"_Caramba!_" she yelled, excitedly. "That's your game, is it?"
+
+"You'll find it is, if you approach that opening again!" cried Nick,
+half choked with smoke, while he fiercely strove to extinguish the
+blazing garments.
+
+"Oh, I'll not give you another chance at me!" screamed Cervera. "I'll
+push over something heavier, and crush out your life with--"
+
+She suddenly stopped, then held her breath and listened.
+
+The crash of a breaking door reached her ears, then hurried footsteps
+began falling on the main stairway leading to her chamber.
+
+"Some one is coming!" she fiercely muttered. "Perhaps another detective!
+I must be off!"
+
+Yet so bitter was her hatred of Nick, and so intensely enjoyable to her
+the trick she had served him, that she lingered for an instant in the
+face of the impending danger, and screamed down the well, with a mocking
+laugh:
+
+"I'm obliged to leave you, Detective Carter! While I'm gone--keep
+whistling!"
+
+At the same moment Chick Carter rushed into the chamber and caught a
+glimpse of her through the wreathing smoke, as she fled through the
+lighted passage.
+
+One glance at the scene gave Chick the entire situation.
+
+He drew back, took a short run, and with a magnificent bound cleared the
+open well, and leaped squarely through the closet and into the lighted
+passage.
+
+Then the crash of a heavy door, suddenly closed, and the shooting of
+bolts, told him that Cervera had prevented pursuit for a time at least,
+and Chick swung round to the open well, to see if Nick needed him.
+
+"Hello, Nick!" he shouted. "The woman--"
+
+"Let her go!" roared Nick, still fiercely fighting the flames that
+threatened the woodwork of the well. "Let her go--we'll get her later!
+First save the house!"
+
+"How can I reach you?"
+
+"Through a door under the one in her chamber," shouted Nick. "Try that."
+
+Chick cleared the well with another leap, then dashed downstairs and
+into the parlor, which was lighted by the glare from both hall and
+library.
+
+He quickly discovered the door--only to find it locked and the key
+removed.
+
+Chick was promptly equal to so slight an emergency, however. Grasping a
+heavy stool near the piano, he swung it above his head, and with half a
+dozen rapid blows demolished most of the door, and forced it open.
+
+A cloud of smoke floated into the room, but a glance showed Chick that
+Nick now had the flames extinguished.
+
+"Are you all right, old man?" he demanded.
+
+"Only a little in need of fresh air," gasped Nick. "You cannot reach
+down to me."
+
+"Wait a bit, then. This will do the business!"
+
+Chick had turned and snatched off the thick cloth covering of the piano,
+which he quickly twisted and lowered over the doorsill, and then braced
+himself to sustain Nick's weight.
+
+"All right?" cried Nick.
+
+"Yes. Come on!"
+
+Nick drew himself up until he could grasp the sill of the door, then
+easily reached the floor and the clearer atmosphere of the parlor.
+
+"Well, here's a pretty mess!" he growled, in tones of self-condemnation.
+"If ever I was done by a crafty jade, I've been done by one this night."
+
+"How in thunder did it happen, Nick?" demanded Chick, with no little
+amazement.
+
+Nick very quickly told him, and explained the occasion of his own lack
+of distrust and caution.
+
+"It being a rented house, I did not look for any such trap as this,"
+said he. "Furthermore, I did not believe that Cervera had any warning of
+my coming, and I felt satisfied that she was alone here. Have you seen
+anything of Venner while waiting in the cab?"
+
+"Not a sign of him."
+
+"It's odds, then, that he was here when I arrived, and made his escape
+by a back door," growled Nick. "If so, it goes to show that he is in
+with her and the Kilgore push, and not a blind victim to their cunning.
+We now must get some proof of that, Chick, and force that gang and
+their game to light. We at least have made a beginning, and now for
+another move."
+
+"To-night?"
+
+"At once!" declared Nick. "Cervera must find shelter somewhere, and it's
+very likely she will go to Venner's house. That must be our next point,
+and we will lose no time. Possibly we yet may land her before she finds
+cover."
+
+"We can give it a try," cried Chick.
+
+"Help me extinguish these lights, and then we'll be off again."
+
+"I'm with you."
+
+"What sent you into the house so suddenly?"
+
+"The reports of your revolver," explained Chick. "I at once recognized
+its bark, and knew something was wrong."
+
+"Ah! I see."
+
+"I saw the light in the chamber, and supposed you might be letting the
+woman prepare to go with you," added Chick. "That was while I sat in the
+cab. But when I heard your gun, I smashed open the front door and bolted
+upstairs."
+
+"Very lucky, too," nodded Nick. "That she-devil would have burned the
+house, and me in the bargain. But the end is not yet."
+
+"Well, hardly!" laughed Chick, as they descended the front stairs and
+extinguished the last light.
+
+"We'll stop an officer, and send him here to watch the house," said
+Nick. "Then we'll have a look at Venner's dwelling. It's my opinion,
+Chick, that our work has now begun in good earnest."
+
+"Well, I reckon we shall prove equal to it," smiled Chick, rather
+grimly, as they hastened to enter the waiting carriage.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THE DIAMOND PLANT.
+
+
+"This does settle it!"
+
+"What do you mean, Dave?"
+
+"It must be done?"
+
+"We must get these Carters--that's what! If we don't get them,
+Spotty--you take my word for it--they'll get us!"
+
+"Do you really think so, Dave?"
+
+"Not think, but know so!" declared Kilgore, with emphasis. "I know these
+Carters, root and branch. They have now struck our trail, and they'll
+stick to it like bloodhounds till they run us down--unless we get them!
+It must be done, I say, and done promptly."
+
+"Put them down and out?"
+
+"Exactly. It's them--or us!"
+
+"And why do you think, all of a sudden, Dave, that Nick Carter is so hot
+on our heels?"
+
+"I'll tell you why, Spotty."
+
+And Mr. David Kilgore, chief of the notorious diamond gang bearing his
+name, and one of the keenest and coolest criminals in or out of prison
+walls, removed his pipe from his mouth and his heels from the edge of
+the table, and drew forward in his chair to explain.
+
+It was a curious place, that in which the speakers of the above were
+seated, in the bright glare of an electric light.
+
+It was inclosed with four solid stone walls, with not a window or
+aperture through which a ray of light could be detected from outside.
+
+Yet in one of the walls was a low, narrow door, also of stone, and so
+cleverly constructed and fitted that, when swung into place in the wall,
+it was comparatively beyond the detection of anybody ignorant of its
+existence. This door then stood open, but the aperture through the wall
+was heavily curtained.
+
+Three of these walls formed the original foundation of an old and
+extensive suburban mansion, the location, ownership and present use of
+which will presently appear. The fourth wall, that with the door, was of
+more recent construction, and was built squarely across the original
+cellar of the house. It had been made to mask this secret subterranean
+chamber in which the Kilgore gang was then gathered.
+
+The place was commodious, and contained some noteworthy objects. In one
+corner was a powerful hydraulic press. Near by was a splendid electrical
+furnace, capable of generating an extraordinary degree of heat. Against
+the adjoining wall were several barrels of sulphur, of which only one
+was unheaded. Near by was a large box of anthracite coal, black and
+glistening in the rays of the arc light.
+
+Parallel with the opposite wall was a workbench, laden with curious
+retorts, crucibles, test tubes, metal molds, and no end of tools, all of
+which plainly suggested the work of one versed both in chemistry and
+some mechanical art.
+
+In the middle of the room was a square deal table, at which Kilgore was
+seated, with Matt Stall and Spotty Dalton, the original three of the
+Kilgore gang.
+
+Two other persons were present, however, and they were engaged in
+examining some work on the bench mentioned.
+
+One of them was a tall, angular Frenchman, about sixty years of age,
+named Jean Pylotte. He had a slender figure, somewhat bowed; but his
+head was massive, in which his gleaming, gray eyes were deeply sunk,
+like those of a tireless student and hard worker.
+
+His companion at the bench just then was Sanetta Cervera, the Spanish
+dancer--the murderess of Mary Barton--the vicious dare-devil who had
+served Nick Carter one of her evil tricks that very evening.
+
+Cervera had arrived at the diamond plant less than an hour before, and
+had hurriedly told her confederates the whole story of her crime and her
+adventure with Nick.
+
+Crime was too common with these outlaws, however, and loyalty to one
+another too natural, for Kilgore to censure his only female confederate
+very severely. Yet as Kilgore now proceeded to explain, her crime had
+rendered their situation decidedly more alarming.
+
+"I'll tell you why these Carters are now to be seriously feared," said
+he, nodding grimly at his hearers. "This last move of Cervera has hurt
+us severely."
+
+"In what way?" demanded Spotty Dalton, the pock-marked chap who had
+relieved Venner's partner of the Hafferman diamonds about two weeks
+before. "I don't see just how, Dave."
+
+"No more do I," put in Matt Stall.
+
+"You'll see," replied Kilgore, "when I run over a few facts which led
+to our being here, and at work on our present game."
+
+"Well, Dave, we're listening."
+
+"One year ago we three were in Amsterdam, Holland, weren't we?"
+
+"Sure."
+
+"At work on a different kind of a game?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Only we three were then in the gang."
+
+"That's right, Dave. Now there are seven of us, counting Venner and his
+partner."
+
+"It was in Amsterdam that we first met her nibs," continued Kilgore,
+with a jerk of his thumb in the direction of Cervera, who was so engaged
+with Pylotte that neither heeded the talk at the table.
+
+"Yes, Dave, we met her just a year ago," nodded Dalton.
+
+"She was then doing her dances in a theater there, and we naturally got
+our peepers onto her diamonds," Kilgore went on to narrate. "You fellows
+already know the scheme by which we tried to relieve her of them, which
+we came so near doing."
+
+"Well, rather," grinned Dalton, as if the reminiscence was amusing.
+
+"Then we learned from her own lips, and greatly to our surprise, that
+her sparks were not the real thing," smiled Kilgore. "At first we could
+not believe it. The goods deceived even us, old hands though we are. It
+was only when she told us about Pylotte, and the secret process by
+which he makes such extraordinary imitations, that we could believe
+her."
+
+"That's right, Dave."
+
+"She had stumbled by chance upon this clever French chemist and diamond
+cutter, and was working him to the extent of her ability. She even had
+got wise to his secret, and he was loading her with his marvelous gems
+in return for her affection. But we at once saw the way to something
+much more profitable, a game for making millions out of Pylotte's great
+discovery."
+
+"Right again, Dave."
+
+"So we told them about it, and found them willing," continued Kilgore.
+"We rung them into our gang, and planned the whole deal. We knew it
+would be dead easy to work off such clever stones for genuine goods.
+With plenty of such sparks on hand, and one big and reputable jeweler to
+help us work the market, the distribution of our goods and their
+substitution for genuine stones would quickly throw a cool million or
+two our way."
+
+"Dead easy, Dave."
+
+"But we decided that New York was the best field for such a gigantic
+enterprise," added Kilgore. "So we came here. With the help of Cervera,
+we got our grip on Venner, and then on his avaricious partner, Garside,
+whose business happened to be on its last legs. So they snapped like
+hungry fish at this chance to square themselves, by secretly swindling
+their own customers, and shoving our manufactured diamonds upon the
+entire market."
+
+"Like hungry fish--h'm! that's no name for it," cried Matt Stall, with
+a mingled growl and laugh. "Rufe Venner was as ready to become a knave
+as any covey I ever crossed."
+
+"So we established this plant for Pylotte to do his clever work in,"
+continued Kilgore, disregarding the interruption. "Luckily, Venner
+already owned this old mansion, as well as that in which he lives; and
+fortunately, both places are somewhat secluded, with extensive grounds
+abutting. That enabled us to frame up a very snug and safe retreat."
+
+"Sure it did."
+
+"So we went to work," Kilgore proceeded, discursively. "We built our
+plant, placed our machinery, rigged a private telephone between this
+house and Venner's, and tapped the electric conduit with a secret wire,
+to give us light and feed our furnace."
+
+"That was my work," nodded Stall, with a touch of pride.
+
+"Right you are, Matt, and mighty good work, too," bowed Kilgore. "In a
+nutshell, boys, after two months' secret work, we have accomplished all
+we planned, and now have Venner sliding our goods upon the market at a
+fabulous profit. In a single year, barring these infernal Carters, every
+man of us should be a millionaire."
+
+"But why this sudden fear of the Carters?" growled Dalton, impatiently.
+
+"I'll now tell you why," cried Kilgore, with voice lowered, and an ugly
+gleam in his frowning eyes. "We cannot sack Cervera, nor put out her
+light, for she's too good and strong a card for us to lose. But in
+losing her head over Venner, and jealously doing up that girl to-day,
+she has given the Carters a clew by which to track us."
+
+"How so, Dave?" muttered Stall, growing a bit pale.
+
+"Through Venner, of course!" Kilgore forcibly argued. "Until this job of
+to-day, Carter has had no definite suspicion of Venner, a possibility
+which we headed off with that fake robbery. Now, however, since Cervera
+must lie low, and Carter knows of her relations with Venner, he will
+suspect the latter and make him a constant mark, in the hope of landing
+the girl."
+
+"By Heaven, that's so!" snarled Dalton, quickly seeing the point.
+
+"And that's not the worst of it," added Kilgore. "The moment he suspects
+Venner, Carter will connect him with us, and know that that robbery was
+a put-up job. Then he'll begin to seek us and our game."
+
+"But how can he locate us?"
+
+"Locate us?" sneered Kilgore, acidly. "You don't know Nick Carter! I'll
+tell you, Spotty, he can smell a rat further than any ferret that ever
+shoved his nose under a miller's barn. As sure as death and taxes, Nick
+Carter will run us down and land us, every mother's son of us--unless we
+can get him, and put him down and out."
+
+"By Heaven, I begin to think so myself," growled Stall. "If we--"
+
+"There are no ifs, ands or buts about it, Matt," interrupted Kilgore,
+decisively. "We must down them both, Nick and Chick Carter, or our game
+is as good as done for."
+
+"But how can we land them, Dave, and when?"
+
+"I already have a plan, and I think the first move may be made this
+very night."
+
+"What's the plan, Dave?"
+
+"To lure both detectives into Venner's house, and there do them up. If
+we can get them to come there voluntarily, their fate may never be
+learned, and our tracks will be better covered than by doing the job
+elsewhere."
+
+"That's true enough, since they're not likely to disclose their
+intentions, and if they come in disguise, no one about here will have
+recognized them."
+
+"That's just my theory."
+
+"But how can we lure them to Venner's house?"
+
+"With the help of Pylotte, whom they do not know, nor ever heard of.
+He's a brainy dog, moreover, and crafty enough to blind them."
+
+"But what's your scheme for to-night?" demanded Dalton.
+
+"After what has happened," replied Kilgore, "it's a safe gamble that the
+Carters are at this moment watching Venner's house. If they are--but
+wait a bit! First hear my whole plan."
+
+The three criminals drew their chairs closer, and in a very few minutes
+Kilgore had disclosed his entire design, a scheme so recklessly bold
+that it brought murmurs of amazement and misgivings from both his
+hearers, daring knaves though they were.
+
+"It strikes me, Dave, that it's too long a chance for us to take, this
+giving Nick Carter a genuine clew to our game," objected Dalton,
+doubtfully.
+
+"But no other clew will answer," declared Kilgore, forcibly. "You
+cannot fool Nick Carter with any false move or faked story; I'm already
+sure of that."
+
+"So am I," nodded Stall. "He's too wise a guy to fool with."
+
+"We are compelled to give him the real thing, and make him feel that he
+is up against a square deal, or no man among us can work the racket,"
+added Kilgore. "With my scheme, however, Pylotte is just the covey to do
+the job, and land both Carters where we want them."
+
+"And then?"
+
+"Then it's our ability against theirs," snarled Kilgore, "If we go lame,
+with the odds all in our favor, we deserve to be thrown down."
+
+"That's right, too," admitted Dalton.
+
+"Will Pylotte undertake this sort of a job, think you?" inquired Matt
+Stall.
+
+"Will he?" rejoined Kilgore, with an ugly gleam in his determined eyes.
+"He will, or--well, you know! Yes, Matt, he will; and he's just the man
+for the job."
+
+The vicious significance with which he spoke plainly indicated that,
+though Cervera may have ruled her own roost, there was but one chief of
+this gang, and that was Mr. David Kilgore.
+
+He turned sharply about in his chair, and cried:
+
+"Here you, Pylotte! Come and give us your ear! I have work for you
+to-night!"
+
+Both Pylotte and Cervera quickly turned and hastened to join the gang at
+the table.
+
+For twenty minutes Kilgore's project for outwitting and securing Nick
+Carter was earnestly discussed, and every detail of the plan carefully
+laid.
+
+Then the four men stole quietly out of the house in company.
+
+It then was a little after midnight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE CUNNING OF JEAN PYLOTTE.
+
+
+Kilgore had reasoned shrewdly, in so quickly suspecting that Nick Carter
+would lose no time in getting a line on the Venner residence. Even while
+the diamond gang were discussing the plan by which to capture the
+Carters, the two detectives were at times within a hundred yards of the
+secret plant.
+
+It was dark out of doors that night, with only a few stars in the
+clouded sky, and the wooded locality and neighboring streets were but
+poorly lighted.
+
+It was in a northern suburb of New York, a section not yet much
+encroached upon by the spreading city, and the dwelling owned and
+occupied by Rufus Venner was that in which three generations of his
+family had lived and died.
+
+It was a square, old house of brick, set fifty yards from the suburban
+street, and was flanked in either direction by extensive, ill-kept
+grounds, made damp and dark by the huge, old trees, which nearly covered
+the estate.
+
+Back of the house, and off to one side, was a large wooden stable, fast
+running to ruin; while a rusty iron fence, falling to fragments in
+places, skirted the dismal grounds in front.
+
+Beyond the trees, far to the rear, could be seen the roof and chimneys
+of an old, wooden mansion, fronting on another street, and having a very
+similar environment. There, too, the house and grounds were running to
+ruin and decay, both places being but crumbling monuments of former
+opulence and grandeur.
+
+It was upon this scene that Nick Carter and Chick arrived just before
+midnight, having left their carriage at a remote corner, to await their
+return.
+
+"Yonder is Venner's house, Chick," said Nick, as they picked their way
+along the unpaved sidewalk. "We'll vault this iron fence and steal
+across the grounds."
+
+"It doesn't look much as if our quarry was there," observed Chick, as
+they scaled the fence.
+
+"Their deeds are dark, and like seeks like," replied Nick. "They now may
+be making darkness their cover."
+
+"Not a light in the house, is there?"
+
+"None visible from this side. We'll steal between the house and stable,
+and have a look at the opposite elevation."
+
+"Not much danger of being seen. It's as dark as a nigger's pocket under
+these trees."
+
+"So much the better in case anyone is watching."
+
+"Who lives here with Venner?"
+
+"Only an elderly housekeeper, of whom I don't hear anything very good,"
+replied Nick. "Venner is here but part of the time, I am told. In fact,
+I don't quite fathom his habits."
+
+"Why so?"
+
+"I can't learn what takes him from home so much of the time. He does not
+leave the city, nor patronize any hotel that I can discover, yet he
+frequently is away from this house overnight."
+
+"Perhaps he secretly keeps another house, and is leading a double life."
+
+"Possibly," admitted Nick. "He is on friendly terms with numerous women,
+I learn, and other quarters may be essential to designs of some kind.
+Quietly, now, and we'll slip across the back lawn."
+
+Like shadows, as dark as the night itself, they silently reached a point
+from which they could view the north side of the house. Here they
+discovered that one of the lower rooms was lighted, with the curtain at
+the single window nearly drawn.
+
+"Somebody is up," murmured Chick.
+
+"We'll learn who, if possible."
+
+"Going to have a look?"
+
+"Yes. Come, if you like, but don't get into the glare from the curtain.
+Kilgore has a very wicked air gun, and if he and his gang are about
+here, we might invite a bullet."
+
+"I'll have a care."
+
+Stealing closer over the damp greensward, they approached the house and
+peered beneath the curtain mentioned. There was but one occupant of the
+room, which was a small library.
+
+In an easy-chair near the table, with a newspaper fallen across his
+knees, sat Rufus Venner, apparently sound asleep.
+
+This was only a part of the game, however, for Venner was wide awake.
+By means of their secret wire, he had been informed of Cervera's arrival
+at the diamond plant, and of Kilgore's designs upon Nick, and Venner at
+that moment suspected that he might be under the eye of the detective.
+
+For nearly half an hour Nick waited for some sign of this artifice, but
+Venner in no way betrayed it.
+
+Presently a clock on the mantel struck the half after one, and the sound
+appeared to awake him. He yawned, glanced at the clock, then took the
+lamp from the table and went up to bed. But never so much as a glance
+toward the window.
+
+Nick led Chick away, and they returned across the lawn to a point beyond
+the stable.
+
+"It rather looks as if Cervera had been here, doesn't it?" inquired
+Chick, with a grin.
+
+"Yes," admitted Nick. "Two facts are very significant of it. First, that
+Venner is at home on this particular night; and, second, that he should
+be asleep in his chair after midnight. It has a fishy look."
+
+"That's my idea, Nick, exactly."
+
+"Yet the way to prove it doesn't appear quite easy."
+
+"Not just yet. But who occupies that house over yonder, where the roof
+shows above the trees?"
+
+And Chick pointed to the distant dwelling, little dreaming that the
+diamond plant and the gang they sought were established under its
+many-gabled roof.
+
+This was not the first night Nick had watched Venner's house since the
+diamond robbery, the doubtful character of which he had suspected at the
+outset, and incidentally he had informed himself concerning Venner's
+neighbors.
+
+"One Dr. Magruder, I am told, a retired physician from Illinois," he
+replied. "He bought the place at a forced sale some little time ago."
+
+Nor did Nick, when thus replying, dream that Dr. Magruder and Rufus
+Venner were one and the same; or that, in attributing to him a double
+life of shameful iniquity, Chick had hit the nail squarely on the head.
+
+"Come this way," added Nick.
+
+"Where now?"
+
+"We'll go down to the corner of the grounds, and watch the house for a
+time."
+
+Before Nick's reply was fairly uttered, however, both detectives were
+startled by distant cries, which fell with frantic appeal on the
+midnight air.
+
+"Help! Help! Help!"
+
+The startling cry was thrice repeated, the last time as if choked in the
+speaker's throat, yet the direction of the sound was unmistakable.
+
+"Something's up!" muttered Nick. "This way!"
+
+With Chick at his heels, he tore across the wooded grounds and bounded
+over the iron fence at the street.
+
+Then the occasion of the outcry at once became apparent.
+
+Some two hundred yards away, in the yellow glare of one of the
+incandescent lights by which the little-frequented street was illumined,
+a man was battling desperately with three assailants, one of whom he
+had knocked to the ground.
+
+Without a word, both detectives rushed down the road to his assistance.
+
+As they drew nearer there came a flash of light, then the report of a
+pistol, followed by another shriek for help.
+
+Then Nick saw one of the ruffians reel a little, as if shot, while a
+second hurled their victim to the ground. The third leaped to his feet
+at the same moment, yelling wildly:
+
+"Look out! Scatter, boys! The cops are upon us!"
+
+"Kilgore's voice, or I'm a liar," muttered Nick, over his shoulder.
+
+Both detectives were still fifty yards from the scene of the furious
+conflict, and were running at the top of their speed along the rough
+road.
+
+Before they could come near enough to use a weapon, however, the three
+ruffians scattered like frightened cats, leaping the wall near an
+adjoining woodland, into the gloom of which they speedily vanished.
+
+It was obvious to Nick that pursuit would be vain, so he hastened to the
+side of the fallen man, who had been left prostrate in the road, and
+helped him to his feet.
+
+The man was Jean Pylotte.
+
+He was panting hard after the conflict, the fake character of which Nick
+could not then foresee. His coat was ripped up the back, his linen
+collar torn off, and he was deathly pale, with a smutch of blood across
+his cheek. In one hand he held a revolver, and in the other--a chunk of
+coal.
+
+"Are you wounded, stranger?" Nick quickly demanded, as he studied the
+man's pale face.
+
+"Not much--not badly, I think," gasped Pylotte, trembling violently.
+"But it's lucky you came. They'd surely have killed me."
+
+Nick noticed that he spoke with a slight foreign accent, and was a man
+of considerable physical prowess.
+
+"There's blood on your face," said he.
+
+"It came from one of them, I think," said Pylotte, drawing his sleeve
+across his cheek to remove the stain. "I must have wounded one of them."
+
+"It's a pity you did not kill him," said Nick, bluntly. "Was it you who
+fired the gun?"
+
+"Yes. I tried to fire again, but one of them struck me down before I
+could do so. The ruffians came upon me before I fairly realized it."
+
+"Do you know them?" inquired Chick.
+
+"Only one of them, a man named John David," replied Pylotte, now
+appearing to pull himself together.
+
+"John David, eh?" grunted Nick.
+
+"He has swindled me, and I--I saw him at a theater to-night, and
+afterward followed him out here."
+
+"For what? If he has swindled you, why didn't you have him arrested at
+the theater?" demanded Nick.
+
+"Well, I--I wanted to learn where he lives. He must have discovered
+that he was being followed, and then tried to do me up."
+
+Nick observed the speaker's faltering manner, and it increased his
+curiosity.
+
+"Why do you wish to know where he lives?" he demanded.
+
+Pylotte hesitated, and shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," said he, after a moment.
+
+"Not believe you?"
+
+"I hardly think so."
+
+"Suppose you tell me, and see," suggested Nick, with a faint smile.
+
+"I have no objection to telling you, none at all," Pylotte now replied.
+"The man I spoke of, John David, swindled me yesterday with two
+artificial diamonds."
+
+"Ah! is that so?" cried Nick, with a significant glance at Chick. "What
+is your name, my man?"
+
+"Jean Pylotte, sir."
+
+"Who are you, and where do you live?"
+
+"I am a Frenchman by birth, and arrived in New York only this week. My
+home is in Denver. I am a diamond cutter by trade, and came here to buy
+some gems for a Denver woman of wealth, who wishes to obtain a certain
+size and quality."
+
+"Then you are a judge of diamonds?"
+
+"One of the best," Pylotte modestly admitted, with a faint smile. "I am
+an expert judge of diamonds, and so it happened that I discovered the
+swindle of which I am a victim."
+
+"Then you bought a diamond of the man who said his name was John David,
+did you?"
+
+"I bought two, sir," nodded Pylotte. "They appeared like natural and
+very perfect stones when I first examined them, but after subjecting
+them to more careful tests, I found them to be the most extraordinary
+imitations I ever beheld."
+
+"Artificial diamonds, were they?"
+
+"Yes, artificial. But only the best of experts, and after the most rigid
+tests, could discover the fraud. I never saw such imitations. The stones
+are really almost as good as natural ones."
+
+"Have you them with you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You feel quite confident that they were manufactured, do you?"
+
+"Oh, I am positive of it," cried Pylotte, with emphasis. "That is why I
+was secretly following the swindler."
+
+"You wanted to discover his house, and learn how he made such perfect
+imitations, eh? Was that your motive, instead of having him arrested at
+the theater?"
+
+"Well, yes, it was," admitted Pylotte, with feigned reluctance.
+
+"Do you know any process for manufacturing diamonds?" Nick next
+demanded.
+
+"I am pretty well informed on the subject."
+
+"Quite an art, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes, it is."
+
+"And one that could be made very profitable, perhaps?"
+
+"I judge so."
+
+"Put up your revolver," said Nick, abruptly. "What's that black object
+you dropped just now?"
+
+Pylotte glanced down at his feet, then laughed faintly.
+
+"That's odd," said he. "It's a piece of coal. I must have seized it from
+the road, thinking to defend myself with it."
+
+"What is there odd in that?"
+
+Pylotte laughed again.
+
+"Diamonds may be made from coal," said he. "The fact that I should have
+got hold of a piece in the road here, while tracking that diamond
+swindler in search of his house, strikes me as being rather odd."
+
+"So it was," said Nick, a bit dryly, thinking of Venner's house in the
+near distance.
+
+Then he added, decisively:
+
+"Put up your gun, Mr. Pylotte. I want you to go with me. I think you are
+the very man I want."
+
+"Go with you!" exclaimed Pylotte, drawing back.
+
+"If you please," said Nick, politely. "I want, at least, to hear more of
+your story."
+
+"But who are you, sir?"
+
+"My name is Nick Carter."
+
+"Not the celebrated detective?" cried Pylotte, with feigned amazement.
+
+"Precisely."
+
+"That's quite sufficient, Mr. Carter!" the Frenchman now cried, with
+much bowing and scraping. "I'll go with you when and where you wish. If
+any man can run down these swindling ruffians, sir, you certainly are
+the man."
+
+"Thanks," said Nick, dryly. "I'll take you home with me for the night."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+THE GAME UNCOVERED.
+
+
+The following morning.
+
+The clock in Nick Carter's library was striking nine.
+
+Nick and Chick were seated at one side of the table, and Jean Pylotte
+occupied a chair at the opposite side.
+
+Upon the dark cloth top of the table between them lay two large
+diamonds, declared by Pylotte to have been artificially made, the two
+with which he claimed to have been swindled.
+
+Yet to the eyes of a layman they had all the qualities of natural gems,
+gleaming and glistening with magnificent fire in the cheerful sunlight
+of Nick's library.
+
+Pylotte had invented a very clever and consistent story about himself
+and his mission in New York, as well as about the meeting and being
+victimized by the counterfeit diamond shover, and Nick as yet saw no
+occasion for seriously distrusting him, or connecting him with the
+Kilgore gang.
+
+He rather suspected, in fact, that Pylotte had shadowed the swindler,
+whom Nick felt sure was Kilgore, with a view to learning just how the
+diamonds had been manufactured, and possibly with a design to turn the
+discovery to his own advantage.
+
+This was, indeed, the most natural deduction for Nick to arrive at,
+after considering all the circumstances.
+
+"So you are confident that these stones are works of art, rather than
+of nature, are you?" inquired Nick, who had been carefully examining the
+gems.
+
+"I am absolutely sure of it, Mr. Carter," declared Pylotte.
+
+"Have you any idea how such counterfeits can be made?"
+
+"Oh, yes."
+
+"By what process and means, Mr. Pylotte?"
+
+Pylotte hastened to explain.
+
+"A natural diamond, Mr. Carter, is pure carbon, crystallized under
+enormous heat and pressure in the bowels of the earth."
+
+"I am aware of that."
+
+"Charcoal and graphite are also pure carbon, but not in a crystallized
+condition," continued Pylotte. "If that condition could be imparted to
+the substances mentioned, we should have the artificial diamond."
+
+"How may that be done?" inquired Nick.
+
+"By subjecting the substance to the same condition under which the
+natural diamond was crystallized."
+
+"Heat and pressure?"
+
+"Precisely," bowed Pylotte. "Attempts to thus manufacture diamonds have
+frequently been made. A Mr. Acheson, of Pittsburg, while so engaged, and
+in obtaining graphite from coal by the heat of an electric furnace,
+discovered that combination of silicon and carbon now known as
+carborundum, which has commercial value as an abrasive."
+
+"I know about that," bowed Nick.
+
+"Now, then," continued Pylotte, with an unconscious display of
+enthusiasm; "while diamonds certainly have been made by artificial
+means, the great difficulty has been that of producing them at a low
+cost. Moissan, in my country, produced diamonds by heating charcoal and
+iron to a high degree, and letting the mixture cool under enormous
+pressure. He succeeded in obtaining very small crystals, or diamonds,
+but the cost of production made his method impracticable from a
+commercial standpoint."
+
+"Ah! I see."
+
+"In 1872 a chemist named Rose converted graphite into diamonds by a
+similar process, but with the same result."
+
+"The cost of production being too great?" observed Nick.
+
+"Precisely."
+
+"Do you think that difficulty has now been overcome?"
+
+"I am compelled to think so, Mr. Carter," cried Pylotte, pointing to the
+two diamonds on the table.
+
+"You purchased them at a price compelling that belief?"
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"Then you think the man of whom you got them has discovered a way to
+make such perfect artificial diamonds at a low price?"
+
+"I certainly do, Mr. Carter."
+
+"Have you any idea of the machinery and ingredients he might require?"
+asked Nick, with a view to getting points by which to locate the diamond
+plant.
+
+Pylotte could easily inform him, and he promptly did so, following the
+instructions given him by Dave Kilgore.
+
+"He would require an electric furnace and a hydraulic press," said he.
+"Also the tools for cutting the crude crystals. The ingredients used
+would depend upon the process he has discovered, probably coal or
+charcoal, and possibly some quantities of iron salts and sulphur."
+
+"In brief, then, Mr. Pylotte," said Nick, pointing to the diamonds on
+the table, "if those stones were made as cheaply as you think, the
+diamond market offers the manufacturers of them a field for a most
+gigantic swindle, does it not?"
+
+"Indeed it does!" exclaimed Pylotte, throwing up both hands. "Enormous!
+Enormous! Millions could be made by so unparalleled a fraud!"
+
+"It opens the way, in fact, to the most colossal swindle on record?"
+
+"Undoubtedly."
+
+Nick glanced significantly at Chick, then abruptly rose to his feet.
+That he had struck the big game which from the first he had suspected,
+he now had not a doubt.
+
+"I require no more of you at present, Mr. Pylotte," said he, with
+courteous firmness. "I shall do all in my power to remedy your loss by
+this swindle, and to secure the perpetrators of it."
+
+"Thank you, Detective Carter," bowed Pylotte, with a crafty display of
+appreciation and humility.
+
+"Meantime," added Nick, "you will please take no action in the case, but
+leave it entirely to me."
+
+"I will do so, sir."
+
+"If you will leave me your city address, or call here again in a few
+days, I shall have something to report to you."
+
+"I will call the day after to-morrow, Detective Carter," said Pylotte,
+promptly, too cunning to give Nick a fictitious address.
+
+"Very well," said Nick. "Call in the evening. And now, Mr. Pylotte, we
+will bid you good-morning, and get to work at once upon the case."
+
+Pylotte bowed very agreeably, taking his artificial diamonds from the
+table and replacing them in his pocket; and Nick then conducted him to
+the door, again assuring him that no efforts in his behalf should be
+spared.
+
+Pylotte once more expressed his thanks, bowing and smiling as he
+descended the steps, and Nick closed the door and returned to the
+library.
+
+"Well, Chick, the bag is open and the cat out," he cried, as he entered.
+
+"Right you are, Nick."
+
+"And a monstrous cat it is!"
+
+"Never a larger one," declared Chick, with a laugh. "By Jove! Nick, if
+Kilgore has really found a way to produce such perfect counterfeit
+diamonds, his gang could work the greatest swindle ever known, unless
+headed off."
+
+"That is their game, all right," said Nick. "From the very first I have
+suspected something extraordinary. They are not the stamp of criminals
+to dicker with petty jobs."
+
+"I should say not."
+
+"Far from it."
+
+"One thing is plain."
+
+"Namely?"
+
+"Where Cervera gets her diamonds, and of what they consist."
+
+"True. She certainly is one of the gang."
+
+"With such counterfeits as those worked upon Pylotte, and one big
+jewelry concern to help market the goods, they could clean up millions
+in a very short time."
+
+"No doubt of it. And they have their jewelry concern, all right."
+
+"Venner & Co.?"
+
+"Surely."
+
+"We must get absolute proof of it."
+
+"That's just what I intend doing, now that we have the game uncovered,"
+said Nick, grimly.
+
+"And then proceed to locate the plant where the goods are made, eh?"
+
+"Precisely."
+
+"What are your plans?"
+
+"We'll first get a line on Venner, and see to what it leads," replied
+Nick. "There now is a way by which we can call the turn on him, and get
+proof of his co-operation with Kilgore and his gang."
+
+"By getting him to sell us some diamonds?"
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"And then proving them to be artificial?"
+
+"That's the idea."
+
+"Can you get at him in a way to trap him?"
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"He may fight shy of us," suggested Chick, "in case he knows of
+Pylotte's scrap with the gang last night. He may fear that Pylotte has
+discovered the fraud, and reported it to the police."
+
+"There's not much danger of that," replied Nick. "So stupendous a fraud
+would at once be given publicity through the press."
+
+"That's true."
+
+"In either case," added Nick, abruptly, "there's a way by which we can
+fool him. I'll explain it on the way. Get your make-up box and prepare
+to go with me. Since we have the game uncovered, we'll lose no time in
+rounding up these accomplished rascals."
+
+"Good enough!" exclaimed Chick, as he hurriedly arose. "The sooner the
+better."
+
+"We may have ragged work before the job is completed," added Nick. "So
+provide yourself with a brace of guns. I'll be ready when you are."
+
+"Where first?"
+
+"To the house of Pandu Singe, the snake charmer."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+AT CROSS-PURPOSES.
+
+
+It was not quite noon when Nick Carter and Chick arrived at the house of
+the Hindoo snake charmer.
+
+They found Pandu Singe at home with his interpreter, and the two
+detectives were very cordially received.
+
+Nick quickly disclosed his business.
+
+"We wish to borrow your personalities for a short time, also some of
+your curious garments," he explained to Pandu Singe, through his
+interpreter, who also was a Hindoo of superior education.
+
+The snake charmer appeared greatly surprised at such a request, but Nick
+readily invented a very plausible story to serve his purpose, without
+disclosing the true occasion.
+
+He soon persuaded the foreigner to grant his request, moreover, and the
+amazement of Pandu Singe and the interpreter were redoubled when they
+beheld what followed.
+
+This was the extraordinary transformation of their visitors.
+
+Nick had already outlined his plans to Chick, and they at once began
+operations.
+
+First they placed the two Hindoos in chairs near the windows, where the
+light revealed every peculiarity of their swarthy features.
+
+Nick next adjusted a large mirror upon the table, and placed his make-up
+box near by.
+
+Using the interpreter for his pattern, Nick then set to work with
+grease paints, powders, false hair, and the like, and at the end of
+twenty minutes he had, with most artistic skill, converted himself into
+a startling likeness of his model.
+
+The addition of the garments already provided for him made the
+remarkable transformation absolutely complete.
+
+Chick had not been idle meantime, but with equally clever manipulation
+had made himself into a counterfeit presentment of Pandu Singe.
+
+The astonishment of the two Hindoos, and their delight as they beheld
+the progressive changes so artistically made, could scarcely find
+expression in words.
+
+At the end of an hour, when the two detectives stood robed in their
+strange Indian attire, one would readily have declared that four genuine
+Hindoos, rather than two, occupied the apartment.
+
+Having thus paved the way to his next move, Nick easily prevailed upon
+the Hindoos to remain indoors for a day or two, lest the deception
+should be discovered and his designs perverted.
+
+He and Chick then returned to their waiting carriage, and half an hour
+later it drew up at the Fifth Avenue store of Venner & Co.
+
+Chick alighted and led the way in.
+
+In order that he might do most of the talking, and shape his course by
+whatever might occur, Nick had decided to personate the interpreter.
+
+Yet both detectives had carefully noticed the peculiar characteristics
+of the Hindoo tongue, and believed that they could imitate it so
+cleverly as to prevent detection.
+
+Several facts, which Nick then had no way of knowing, however, operated
+very quickly to betray him and the crafty ruse he had adopted, when
+Venner personally met them at the store door.
+
+First, Kilgore had shrewdly reasoned that Nick's first move, after the
+disclosures made by Pylotte, would be that of thus getting positive
+evidence against Venner; and the crafty diamond swindler had warned
+Venner to be on the watch for the detective, and to handle him in a way
+to serve their own designs.
+
+Furthermore, when visiting the theater with Cervera, Venner frequently
+had heard Pandu Singe talking with his interpreter; and before Nick
+fairly had begun speaking, Venner penetrated his disguise and saw that
+he was up against the two detectives.
+
+Yet, despite the unexpected characters in which he now beheld them, the
+nerve of the polished knave did not weaken, nor his countenance in any
+way betray him. He at once proceeded to follow Kilgore's instructions.
+
+"Ah! yes, I recognize both you and your interpreter," said he, in reply
+to Nick's dignified greeting. "I have frequently seen Pandu Singe at the
+theater, where I am admitted to the stage with Señora Cervera, the
+famous Spanish dancer. Perhaps Pandu Singe may have seen me there."
+
+Nick gravely bowed, then pretended to interpret the remarks to Chick;
+who immediately began to bow and smile, at the same time glibly
+responding in a jargon that would have staggered a Chinese laundryman,
+yet which sounded as much like Hindoo as anything.
+
+Had his own situation been less serious, and the entire outlook less
+desperate, Venner would have laughed at the consummate dignity and
+soberness with which the two detectives co-operated in their exchange of
+unintelligible talk.
+
+"My employer, the great Pandu Singe," bowed Nick, "says he remembers the
+friend of the great Cervera."
+
+"Ah! I am glad to hear it," cried Venner, shaking hands with Chick.
+
+"He has seen the splendid diamonds of the great señora, and has heard
+that they came from your magnificent store," Nick then went on to
+explain.
+
+"That is quite right," bowed Venner. "Many of them did come from here.
+Is Pandu Singe looking for some diamonds?"
+
+Nick promptly bowed, and noted a gleam of satisfaction in the depths of
+Venner's eyes.
+
+"The great Pandu Singe soon returns to his own country," replied Nick.
+"He wishes to take with him, as a gift to her august excellency, the
+Empress of all the Indies, six fine jewels of equal weight and value. He
+calls here to learn if you can provide him with them."
+
+Venner plainly saw the game that was being attempted, and it suited him
+to the very letter.
+
+"Does the great Pandu Singe wish to purchase diamonds?" he asked,
+bowing.
+
+"Diamonds, yes! Are they not for the empress?"
+
+"I should have thought of that, certainly."
+
+"Only diamonds will answer."
+
+"Of large size and the first water?"
+
+"The great Pandu Singe would consider no other."
+
+"Alas, then, this is most unfortunate!" Venner now exclaimed, glancing
+about the store. "You see that we are making some repairs here, in the
+walls of our store and vault."
+
+"That is plain," bowed Nick. "But what has that to do with the
+diamonds?"
+
+"Only this," replied Venner, with feigned regret. "During these repairs
+I have removed all of my most valuable diamonds to a vault in my private
+residence."
+
+"For safer keeping?"
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"I will explain to Pandu Singe."
+
+"Wait a moment," Venner quickly interposed. "Tell him, also, that I have
+at my residence the very gems he desires, six magnificent diamonds,
+precisely alike in weight, purity and cutting. They cannot be equaled in
+New York City, if in the entire country."
+
+"Are they fit for an empress?"
+
+"They are fit for a goddess."
+
+"Ah! that will please Pandu Singe."
+
+"Tell him, also, that he can purchase them at a marvelously low price,"
+cried Venner. "Now, if Pandu Singe will come to my house, say early this
+evening, he may see the diamonds and examine them at his leisure. Tell
+him that, Mr. Interpreter, and say that I will send my carriage for him
+immediately after dinner. Say, too, that he may then see the diamonds
+both by daylight and lamplight, and so observe all the variety of their
+magnificent fire. Really, this will be greatly to the advantage of Pandu
+Singe."
+
+Nick gravely heard him to a finish, and with never a change of
+countenance.
+
+Yet, like a flash, one of those marvelous intuitions characteristic of
+this great detective, Nick Carter had suddenly grasped the whole truth.
+
+That conflict of the previous night, the flight of three of the diamond
+gang, Pylotte left comparatively uninjured in the road, his subsequent
+disclosures, his extensive knowledge of the diamond-making art, the
+hints he had imparted, and now this manifest eagerness of Venner to lure
+his ostensible customers to his suburban house--all combined to reveal
+to Nick's keen mind the shrewd game by which Kilgore was hoping to
+entrap him.
+
+Nick now knew that Venner recognized both Chick and himself, and was
+serving only the Kilgore gang.
+
+Yet Nick bowed without the slightest self-betrayal, and said, gravely:
+
+"I will explain the situation to Pandu Singe."
+
+For several minutes the two detectives maintained their curious game of
+talk.
+
+Then Nick, who had speedily planned his own counter-move, again turned
+to Rufus Venner.
+
+"The great Pandu Singe will do what you suggest," said he. "He wishes to
+see the diamonds, and will be pleased to come to your house."
+
+Venner had felt sure of this to start with, though he little dreamed
+that Nick had guessed the truth, and knew that he was recognized.
+
+"Let it be to-day, then," said he, quickly.
+
+"At your own pleasure," bowed Nick.
+
+"I will send my carriage far you at seven this evening," cried Venner,
+with secret exultation.
+
+Nick gravely tendered one of the snake charmer's cards.
+
+"The great Pandu Singe will not keep your carriage waiting!" said he,
+with a dryness to which Venner then was blind.
+
+"Well, Chick, what say you to that?" demanded Nick, as they were
+returning to the house of the snake charmer.
+
+Chick laughed grimly.
+
+"I say that we are now up against it."
+
+"Right! There's a mighty wicked crisis near at hand."
+
+"No doubt of it, Nick. Venner knew us all right."
+
+"But he does not suspect that we are aware that he knew us, and in that
+at least we have the best of him."
+
+"We'll turn it to a good account, too."
+
+"Do you see the game this Kilgore gang is playing?"
+
+"Plainly, Nick."
+
+"They aim to lure us both to Venner's house, and there trap us and do us
+up."
+
+"To which latter," said Chick, dryly, "we shall strenuously object."
+
+"Well, rather!" laughed Nick. "Still, I can see nothing in evading this
+question or in making a raid upon Venner's house. If the Kilgore gang
+are about to lay for us there, it is evident that their diamond plant is
+located elsewhere. They would not take chances of failing to down us,
+and then having their plant discovered in the house where they slipped
+up."
+
+"Surely not," admitted Chick. "Kilgore is too shrewd to take those
+chances."
+
+"Undoubtedly."
+
+For several minutes Nick calmly considered the situation, then bluntly
+observed:
+
+"Chick, I see but one course for us. We must go up against the game, and
+give this gang what rope they want."
+
+"That's just my idea, Nick."
+
+"In no other way can we make sure of nailing the entire gang, and also
+locating their plant. Raiding Venner's house would not accomplish it.
+Some of the gang might not be there, or possibly escape us, and we might
+search in vain for their plant. Then we should have most of our work to
+do over again."
+
+"That's right, Nick."
+
+"So we'll take the one sure way, Chick," said Nick, decisively. "We'll
+let this gang continue to think they are fooling us, and go up against
+them till we get the whole truth."
+
+"That's good enough for me, Nick," nodded Chick. "I'm with you."
+
+"It may prove to be a desperate game, but we'll take our chances. Before
+night I'll have laid such plans as will best serve us, and possibly
+circumvent these scoundrels. Here we are at the house of Pandu Singe."
+
+Nick dismissed their carriage, and entered the dwelling, where they
+decided to remain until evening. Meantime Nick perfected his plans and
+discussed them with Chick.
+
+Then a wire was sent to Patsy, the detective's younger assistant, with
+careful instructions.
+
+Seven o'clock came, then half-past seven, but no sign of Venner's
+carriage.
+
+Nick readily suspected the true reason for the delay.
+
+"They are waiting until dark," he observed to Chick. "They don't want
+our arrival at Venner's house to be observed. A crafty dog, this
+Kilgore!"
+
+"That he is."
+
+"Never mind. Darkness will serve us best, as well as them."
+
+"Hark! There's a carriage."
+
+Nick glanced from the front window.
+
+"A landau!" he muttered, with grim satisfaction. "Yes, and with Spotty
+Dalton on the seat. I know him, despite his disguise. Come on, Chick!
+There's rough work to be done in the next two hours."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+HANDS SHOWED DOWN.
+
+
+Spotty Dalton stood at the door of the open carriage when Nick and Chick
+emerged from the house, still clad in the character of Hindoos.
+
+"Are you sent here by Mr. Venner?" inquired Nick.
+
+Dalton touched the cloth cap drawn low over his brow, and stroked his
+dark, false beard as he replied:
+
+"Yes, sir," said he, half in his throat. "You're the interpreter, I take
+it."
+
+"At your service."
+
+"I'm a bit late, but it couldn't be helped. We'll not be long in getting
+there."
+
+"Time does not matter to the great Pandu Singe," replied Nick, as he
+followed Chick into the open landau. "The night is still long."
+
+"It'll be infernally long for you two meddlers," Dalton grimly said to
+himself, as he banged the carriage door and mounted to the box.
+
+Then they rolled rapidly away toward a northern suburb of the city.
+
+The dusk of evening was already deepening to darkness, a gloom more
+noticeable far up in the heavens than among the myriad of lights in the
+city streets. For not a star was visible in the murky sky, and away in
+the west huge banks of inky clouds were sweeping up toward the zenith,
+indicating the rapid approach of a sudden storm.
+
+"Do you think it is going to rain, driver?" called Nick, from the rear
+seat of the carriage.
+
+"Not soon," Dalton turned to answer; and then he added with grim
+significance, which he did not dream would be appreciated: "Whether it
+rains or not, you'll be brought back home in a closed carriage."
+
+"It's my private opinion that the boot will be on the other leg,"
+thought Nick, smiling faintly at the scoundrel's grim levity.
+
+For Dalton had implied that Nick would be brought back in a hearse.
+
+From that time but few words were spoken during the ride, though the
+detectives occasionally passed a remark in their meaningless lingo,
+merely to keep up appearances.
+
+At eight o'clock they had left the throbbing body of the city behind
+them, and at half-past eight they were speeding along the deserted
+suburban road leading to Venner's rather isolated homestead.
+
+Only the yellow glare of an incandescent lamp here and there now
+relieved the terrestrial gloom, but across the distant heavens
+intermittent flashes of light, followed by the low, sullen roll of
+thunder, told of the approaching storm.
+
+Soon the lighted windows of Venner's house came into view through the
+woodland, and Nick now murmured softly to Chick:
+
+"If I fail to rejoin you in ten minutes, you will know what to do."
+
+"You bet!" whispered Chick. "Trust me to do it, too!"
+
+"Here we are, sirs," cried Dalton, as he pulled up at the gate of the
+gravel walk. "You can go right in, while I wait to look after my
+horses."
+
+Chick--as Pandu Singe--pretended to give Nick a brief command, and Nick
+alone sprang out upon the sidewalk.
+
+"Wait here, driver," said he, curtly. "I will return for Pandu Singe in
+a few minutes."
+
+Dalton instantly became suspicious.
+
+"What's that for?" he abruptly demanded. "Why doesn't his nibs go in
+with you now?"
+
+"It is for me to obey the great Pandu Singe, not question his commands,"
+replied Nick, with an air of offended dignity. "I shall return for him
+when I have followed his instructions."
+
+"Hold on a bit! I want to know--"
+
+But Nick had already turned, and was striding up the long gravel walk
+leading to the front door of the house.
+
+Dalton then swung round and began to address Chick, who quickly
+signified that he could not understand; whereupon the puzzled scoundrel
+remained doubtfully on the box, growling under his breath, and quite at
+a loss just what he should do.
+
+Chick was now counting the seconds and minutes, until he should arrive
+at ten.
+
+Venner, who was waiting with the gang in the house, heard Nick's step on
+the wooden veranda, and he hastened to admit him.
+
+"What's this!" he at once exclaimed, starting. "Where is your master?
+You did not come here alone!"
+
+"No, not alone," replied Nick, entering the hall. "Pandu Singe waits in
+the carriage."
+
+"Waits in the carriage! For what?"
+
+"He fears the storm may break."
+
+"Fears the storm!" exclaimed Venner, with a blaze of suspicion leaping
+up in his dark eyes. "Surely, then, he will not remain out there."
+
+"You don't understand," coolly answered Nick, quickly sizing up
+everything in view.
+
+"Don't understand?"
+
+"Pandu Singe thinks of returning home before the storm shall break. He
+has first sent me in to see the diamonds, as I know just what he wants.
+If I think well of them, I am to return to the carriage and bring him in
+to see them."
+
+"Oh, that's it, eh?" cried Venner, with unabated misgivings.
+
+"Am I to see the stones?" demanded Nick. "Pandu Singe will not care to
+wait long."
+
+"Yes, yes," replied Venner, as perplexed as Dalton by Nick's unexpected
+move. "Come out this way, where I have them ready to show you."
+
+Nick bowed and followed him through the hall, and a glance into the two
+front rooms, both of which were well lighted, told him they were vacant.
+
+Nick knew that he was entering a trap, however, and possibly carried
+his life in his hand. Yet he had several shrewd designs in the plan of
+operations adopted.
+
+He aimed to prevent both Chick and himself being cornered, and possibly
+caught at the same time. Not wishing to evade this gang, and thus reveal
+his own knowledge and suspicions, he designed to leave Chick free to act
+in case of his own downfall.
+
+Nick knew that he alone could force Venner and the gang to show their
+hands, even if it resulted in his own capture. He rather invited the
+latter, in fact, for he knew that the gang would see the need of
+instantly removing him from Venner's house, at least until they could
+lay hands upon Chick. In this case Nick believed that they might be
+compelled to confine him at their diamond plant, the location of which
+he thus hoped to discover.
+
+For these reasons Nick was coolly taking very long chances, at the same
+time leaving Chick free to quickly get in his work, in case he himself
+went down at the outset.
+
+Yet there was not a sign of any person save Venner, as Nick followed him
+through the hall and into a side room near the rear of the house,
+evidently a dining room.
+
+Nick sized it up with a glance. Electric chandelier; two doors, one by
+which he had entered from the hall, and the other leading into a dark
+kitchen; two windows, with the curtains closely drawn; several chairs, a
+handsome sideboard, and in the middle of the room a large, square table,
+covered with a rich damask cloth hanging nearly to the floor.
+
+Upon the table was also spread a piece of black velvet, on which was
+displayed nearly a score of blazing diamonds--the most magnificent
+artificial stones ever born of man's restless genius.
+
+Nick rightly guessed their true character, yet he allowed an ejaculation
+of admiration to escape him.
+
+"Ah! Magnificent!"
+
+"Look them over," cried Venner, with a swift scrutiny of Nick's swarthy
+features. "You'll excuse me for a minute or two. I wish to make sure
+that my rear windows and doors are locked. Such gems are a terrible
+temptation to thieves."
+
+"True, sir," bowed Nick. "Take your time. Meanwhile I'll examine the
+diamonds. They are splendid! magnificent!"
+
+Nick rightly guessed that Venner wished to consult some of the gang. He
+saw that his entering the house without Chick had thrown their plans
+badly out of gear, as he had designed for it to do.
+
+Venner went into the dark kitchen, rattled a doorknob merely for a
+bluff, then crossed the hall and entered the library, closing the door
+behind him.
+
+The room was but dimly lighted, and on the floor stood Dave Kilgore and
+Matthew Stall, each with a drawn revolver.
+
+"What's the meaning of this, Rufe?" Kilgore instantly demanded, in
+passionate whispers.
+
+"How do I know?" Venner hurriedly rejoined, scarce above his breath.
+"You heard what he said?"
+
+"Yes, curse him, but I don't swallow it."
+
+"Nor I."
+
+"I can't see into his game."
+
+"That's just my trouble," cried Venner. "Can he have discovered that we
+recognize him?"
+
+"Impossible! Pylotte is too cunning to have betrayed us in any way."
+
+This was very true, in fact; but Venner himself had blindly done the
+betraying.
+
+"It doesn't matter, Rufe," Kilgore fiercely added. "We must get them
+both."
+
+"That's my idea."
+
+"And it's all the easier to get them one at a time."
+
+"Right you are, Dave."
+
+"Has he discovered Pylotte?"
+
+"Surely not!"
+
+"Go back there, then," hissed Kilgore. "Learn what his game is, if you
+can. Force him to show his hand."
+
+"Leave that to me."
+
+"Waste no time, however, and on no pretext let him leave the house to
+return to the carriage."
+
+"Not on our lives."
+
+"A warning whistle will start Pylotte, and we'll be on hand to do our
+part," added Kilgore, hurriedly. "Go back at once, and waste not a
+moment in getting at his game."
+
+"Trust me, Dave."
+
+"We must land Nick Carter and get him away from here before that
+running mate of his can make any move against us."
+
+"That's the stuff."
+
+"And then we'll plan to get the other. Away with you!"
+
+These forcible measures were precisely what Nick had felt sure would be
+adopted by the gang, and were the very steps to which he had so shrewdly
+planned to force them.
+
+Venner darted softly across the hall and returned to the dining room.
+
+Nick was still examining the diamonds.
+
+He stood near the table, at a point midway between the two open doors.
+He had selected this position for a very good reason. He was inviting
+capture and removal, which he knew must be preceded by an assault; and
+he therefore laid himself open from either side, aiming to be put down
+and out with as little violence as possible.
+
+He wanted all his resources for what he knew was very likely to follow.
+
+Nick was quite as anxious as the gang to force matters, moreover; for at
+the end of ten minutes, in case he did not return to the carriage, Chick
+was to begin getting in his work.
+
+Therefore the climax came quickly.
+
+Six minutes had already passed.
+
+"Well, sir, what do you think of them?" cried Venner, as he returned to
+the room.
+
+"The diamonds?" queried Nick, tossing several of them back upon the
+table.
+
+"Certainly. What else?"
+
+"They are all right, Mr. Venner."
+
+"I thought you would say so."
+
+"Yes, indeed. They are all right--for what they are!"
+
+"For what they are?"
+
+"Precisely."
+
+"What do you mean by that?"
+
+"You know what I mean."
+
+"I do?" snarled Venner, inquiringly, with his frowning eyes shrinking
+from Nick's steadfast gaze.
+
+"Certainly you do," declared Nick. "These diamonds are imitations, not
+natural stones. They are the most perfect and marvelous artificial
+diamonds ever made.
+
+"Artificial!" cried Venner, now drawing back. "You are mad, sir! Why,
+man, you are away off the track!"
+
+"Oh, no, I'm not."
+
+"You are!"
+
+"Not off the track at all, but very squarely on it," Nick now retorted,
+speaking in his own sternly resonant tones. "Hark you, Venner, I am the
+one to ask the meaning of this, not you!"
+
+Venner's hand went stealing toward his hip pocket.
+
+"So you are showing your true colors, are you?" he cried, with
+threatening significance. "By Heaven, you are no Hindoo!"
+
+"That's right, Venner, I am not," said Nick, quickly throwing off the
+loose robe that hid his own apparel, fearing it might impede his
+movements. "I am no Hindoo, but am--"
+
+"Nick Carter!"
+
+"Exactly!"
+
+"So this is your game, is it?" Venner fiercely began. "If you think--"
+
+"Stop right there, Venner," Nick sternly commanded. "Speaking of games,
+I am here to discover what sort of a rascally game you and this Kilgore
+gang are playing. I have learned enough to show me that you are a knave
+and a--"
+
+"By heavens, Carter--"
+
+"Stop!" thundered Nick. "Don't pull a gun! If you do, I'll end your--"
+
+But he got no further, for there the climax came.
+
+A single sharp whistle sounded from the kitchen.
+
+Instantly Nick felt a rope noose jerked taut around his ankles, nearly
+throwing him from his feet.
+
+From beneath the table, the hanging cover of which had effectually
+concealed him, Jean Pylotte had managed to adjust the noose upon the
+floor about Nick's legs. At the signal given him, he had quickly drawn
+it taut.
+
+At the same moment Kilgore and Matt Stall leaped upon Nick from the
+kitchen and hall doors, bearing him heavily to the floor, while Venner
+ran to clap a revolver to the detective's head.
+
+"Hang to his feet, Pylotte," cried Kilgore, fiercely.
+
+"I've got 'em fast," shouted the diamond maker, from under the table.
+
+"Quit, Carter, or I'll blow your brains out," commanded Venner, with his
+pistol at Nick's head.
+
+Nick had been making a great bluff at putting up an ugly fight, but now
+he very agreeably subsided.
+
+The affair was going precisely as he desired, yet for the sake of
+appearances he angrily snarled:
+
+"Let up, you dogs! So this is your game, is it? Turn that gun another
+way, Venner, you miscreant! It might go off, and I'm not fool enough to
+invite its contents. This dirty game that you've played--"
+
+"Dry up!" Kilgore sharply interrupted, while he and Stall quickly
+secured Nick's arms with a rope. "You'll not live to know the game that
+we have played, Nick Carter."
+
+"Won't I?"
+
+"Not if I live!" cried Kilgore, with vicious significance.
+
+"Well, maybe you'll not live long," retorted Nick.
+
+"I'll close that saucy trap of yours, at all events," sneered Kilgore.
+"Give me that gag, Matt--quick."
+
+Nick no longer resisted. A glance at the clock on the mantel told him
+that nearly ten minutes had passed since he left Chick. He suffered
+himself to be gagged, then raised to his feet, from which Pylotte now
+cast the line and emerged from under the table.
+
+Nick bestowed one look upon him, from which the rascal shrank and
+shuddered.
+
+Kilgore now turned quickly to Venner, and hurriedly cried:
+
+"You remain here, Rufe, and leave us to dispose of this fellow. We'll
+run him over yonder, and return as quickly as possible. It's not safe to
+keep him here until we have landed his running mate."
+
+"But--"
+
+"Don't stop for buts!" cried Kilgore, fiercely. "Go see if you can sight
+Chick Carter. If he is still in the carriage, we are all right up to
+now. In six or eight minutes go down there and give him to understand
+that his interpreter wants him to come in here. Before you reach this
+room with him, we three will be back to help you turn him down. Do you
+understand?"
+
+"Sure!" cried Venner, thrusting his weapon back in his pocket. "He
+cannot suspect that we have recognized Nick, and he'll come in, all
+right."
+
+"Go, then! We'll be back here in six minutes."
+
+Venner hastened to one of the front windows of the house and peered out
+toward the street. At that moment a flash of lightning, followed by the
+nearer roll of thunder, dispelled for an instant the intense gloom of
+the night.
+
+A growl of profound satisfaction broke from Venner while he gazed, and
+he muttered exultingly:
+
+"By Heaven! we're all right! He's waiting in the carriage, and Dalton is
+still on the box!"
+
+Nick was being pushed out of a back door of the house, meantime, and
+then across the lawn and through the dark stable.
+
+The ruffians who were hurrying him away did not stop there, however.
+Pylotte ran on ahead, while Kilgore and Matt Stall continued urging the
+detective across the grounds, making toward the old wooden mansion in
+which their secret plant was located.
+
+It seemed to them the safest place in which to confine Nick, pending the
+delay in getting hands upon Chick.
+
+Presently they came to a dry ditch, walled at each side, and originally
+built for draining the low meadows between the two estates. Into this
+they plunged, following it until they arrived near a wooden bulkhead in
+the foundation wall of the house. This was the secret way of entering,
+to which Cervera had referred the previous night.
+
+Pylotte already had opened it, and Nick was quickly forced through a
+dark cellar.
+
+"All right," cried Kilgore. "Let us in."
+
+Instantly the secret stone door was thrown open, and Nick was nearly
+blinded by the flood of light in the room into which he was abruptly
+thrust.
+
+He stood in the subterranean chamber of the diamond plant.
+
+And there, erect on the floor, with her evil countenance a picture of
+malicious triumph, stood his crafty combatant of the previous
+night--Sanetta Cervera.
+
+"_Caramba!_" she cried, shrilly, with a vicious laugh. "So you've got
+him! Well done, Dave! Well done!"
+
+"Yes, and we'll presently have the other," cried Kilgore, panting hard
+after his exertions.
+
+"Good for you, Dave," screamed Cervera, exultingly. "But this is the one
+I want most--this is the one!"
+
+"Look lively, Matt. Lend a hand here, and we'll bind him to yonder
+chair."
+
+"And leave Cervera to guard him, eh?"
+
+"That's the stuff."
+
+"Can she do it?"
+
+"Can she!" growled Kilgore, with derisive vehemence. "You let her alone
+for that."
+
+"Yes, yes, let me alone for that!"
+
+"We must get back to stand by Venner. That Chick Carter is nearly as
+tough a customer as this fellow."
+
+"I guess you'll find that that's no dream," said Nick to himself, as the
+ruffians bound him to the chair mentioned.
+
+Cervera was laughing and capering around as if about to have a fit--yet
+her laugh had a terrible and chilling ring.
+
+"Oh, yes, I'll guard him, Dave," she shrilly cried, with a frightful
+menace in her strained voice. "_Caramba_, yes! let me alone for that."
+
+"So I do," snarled Kilgore.
+
+"Knot the line fast, Matt--make sure of that," the woman fiercely added.
+"Yes, I'll keep him quiet--never doubt that, boys! He shall be like a
+baby taking milk. Perdition! but you shall have a sweet time, Mr. Nick,
+alone here with Sanetta Cervera!"
+
+Kilgore paid but little attention to any of this, and only now and then
+bestowed a glance upon the vicious woman.
+
+Within a minute after their arrival at the plant, the gang had Nick
+securely bound to a common wooden chair, when they condescended to
+remove the gag from his mouth.
+
+"He may shout himself hoarse here, if he likes," growled Kilgore. "There
+will be none to hear him."
+
+Then he hurried Pylotte and Matt Stall back to the Venner house, to
+land Chick Carter.
+
+Left alone with Nick, Cervera darted to the stone door in the solid
+wall, and secured it within.
+
+There was murder in her glittering eyes when she shot the heavy bolts
+into their iron sockets.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE BOOT ON THE OTHER LEG.
+
+
+In the heat of action and excitement ten minutes are as nothing.
+
+The time seems longer, however, when one sits waiting in a motionless
+carriage, enveloped in the gloom of night, with grim distrust and
+uncertainty acting like spurs in the sides of one's impatience.
+
+Before five minutes had fairly passed, after Nick's departure, Spotty
+Dalton had suffered his misgivings to the very limit of his endurance.
+
+Chick sat mentally counting the passing seconds, then scoring each
+departed minute with his fingers, of which he had exhausted four and a
+thumb, the entire complement of one hand; and all the while his eyes
+were riveted with intense vigilance upon the growling ruffian on the
+seat above him.
+
+Had Dalton ventured so much as a move to leave his perch, Chick would
+have been after him like a terrier after a rat.
+
+At the end of five minutes, however, Dalton made a preliminary move. He
+hitched the reins around the whipstock, then stared for a second or two
+toward Venner's house, fifty yards away through the surrounding park.
+
+Then he suddenly swung round on his seat, and growled ferociously at
+Chick, at the same time signifying with gestures the communication he
+imagined would not be verbally understood:
+
+"See here, you swarthy-faced snake fiend, I'm bound up yonder, to see
+what's going on! You sit where you are, d'ye hear, and I'll be back in a
+jiffy, if things are all right! If they're not, ---- you, I'll be back
+just the same--with a gun!"
+
+As if moved by a wish to understand him, Chick arose in the body of the
+carriage while Dalton was thus declaring himself. He heard and
+understood, all right, and it necessitated his getting in his work a
+little earlier than was planned. For Chick would take no such chances as
+this that Nick's operations in the house would be interfered with.
+
+As the last word left Dalton's lips, the arm of the detective shot out
+through the darkness, and closed with the grip of a vise around the
+ruffian's neck, throttling him to silence.
+
+"With a gun, eh?" Chick fiercely muttered, yanking Dalton backward into
+the body of the carriage. "You open your lips again for so much as a
+whisper, and I'll close them with six inches of cold steel."
+
+In the glare of a distant lightning flash, Dalton, though struggling
+furiously, caught the gleam of a polished blade at his throat, and a
+glimpse of the flaming eyes in the face above him.
+
+He shrank, gasping for breath, as the truth dawned upon him; and then
+the voice of another sounded close beside the open carriage.
+
+"Want any help, Chick?"
+
+Nick's youthful assistant, to whom a wire had been sent from the house
+of the snake charmer, had appeared like an apparition out of the
+roadside gloom.
+
+"Ah! you're here, Patsy!" muttered Chick. "Yes. Clap a gag into this
+cur's mouth. We'll choke off his pipes first of all."
+
+Dalton uttered a vicious growl, then felt the point of the knife pierce
+the skin at his throat, and he wisely relapsed into silence.
+
+For Patsy to fish out a gag, and bind it securely in the scoundrel's
+mouth, was the work of a few moments only.
+
+Then Chick jerked Dalton up from the rear cushion and out into the road,
+in far less time than is taken to record it.
+
+"Off with his coat and hat, Patsy," he hurriedly commanded. "Now the
+false beard, my lad. Now get into them yourself, as quickly as you can."
+
+"I'm all in, Chick," chuckled Patsy, working like a trooper.
+
+"Got all the traps with you?"
+
+"Sure!"
+
+"Clap the bracelets on him, then. Now give me a second pair, and a strip
+of line. That's the stuff."
+
+"Oh, I brought the whole shooting match," laughed Patsy.
+
+"Good for you! Now mount to the box, and leave this dog to me. I'll
+return in half a minute."
+
+Patsy climbed up to the seat from which Dalton had been so speedily
+snatched and overcome, and Chick now ran the rascal a rod or more into
+the woodland on the opposite side of the road.
+
+There he threw him to the ground beside a small oak, around the trunk of
+which he quickly twined Dalton's legs, and then fastened them at the
+ankles with a pair of irons.
+
+"I reckon you'll stay there quietly until I want you, barring that you
+pull up the tree," he grimly remarked, as he turned to hasten back to
+the carriage, in which he quickly resumed his seat.
+
+A moment later Venner peered from the distant window--and was satisfied
+with what he saw.
+
+Five minutes later he came striding down the walk and approached the
+carriage. Without a word to the driver, whom he supposed to be Dalton,
+he opened the carriage door and laid his hand on Chick's arm, at the
+same time pointing toward the house.
+
+Chick signified that he understood, and held out both hands, as if he
+wished to be helped to the sidewalk.
+
+Venner promptly raised both of his--only to suddenly hear a quick,
+metallic snap, and feel links of cold steel confining his wrists. Their
+icy chill went through him like a knife, and he reeled as if stricken a
+blow.
+
+"Good God!" he gasped, hoarsely. "What's this?"
+
+Chick and Patsy were already beside him.
+
+"This," said Chick, sternly, "is your wind-up!"
+
+"My--"
+
+"Stop! Not a loud word, Mr. Venner, or worse will be yours! Now tell me
+in whispers--where is Nick Carter?"
+
+The sight of a revolver thrust under his nose had a potent effect upon
+the dismayed man, yet even while he saw that he was cornered, he seized
+upon the hope that Kilgore and the gang might discover and release him.
+
+"Find him yourself, if you want him!" he hissed through his teeth, with
+an ugly frown. "I'm cursed if I'll inform you!"
+
+Chick did not delay for arguments or persuasion. With Patsy's help he
+speedily put Venner in the same helpless condition in which he had left
+Dalton, stretched upon the ground, within a rod of one another.
+
+Then he threw off his disguise, and shifted his revolvers to his side
+pockets.
+
+"Now for yonder house, Patsy, and to see what the remainder of this gang
+are at," said he. "Come with me, and have your guns ready."
+
+"I'm with you," cried Patsy, coolly. "Guns and all."
+
+A dash up the gravel walk brought them to the front door, which Venner
+had left partly open.
+
+There they paused and listened.
+
+Not a sound came from within the house; but overhead the tempest now was
+breaking, with frequent crashing peals of thunder, and flashes of
+lightning that illumined all the landscape. Rain, too, now began pelting
+down on the veranda roof.
+
+"We'll steal in and see what we can find," whispered Chick, drawing one
+of his revolvers.
+
+"Go it, then."
+
+He led the way, and Patsy followed. The silence in the house mystified
+them at first. It appeared to have been entirely deserted.
+
+When they reached the door of the dining room, however, Chick discovered
+on the floor the disguise which Nick had discarded.
+
+"I have it, Patsy," he cried, softly. "They have nailed Nick, just as he
+expected, and have taken him somewhere to confine him."
+
+"Perhaps in the cellar," suggested Patsy.
+
+"I hardly think so, yet we'll have a look."
+
+Moving as quietly as shadows, they entered the kitchen and easily
+located the cellar door. It was closed and locked, with the key
+remaining.
+
+"Evidently they're not down there," whispered Chick.
+
+"Let's try the upper floors," suggested Patsy. "They may be laying for
+us up there, but I reckon we're good for them."
+
+"We'll take the chance, surely. Come on."
+
+They crept through the hall again, and then mounted the broad stairway,
+which led to the next floor.
+
+There the utter silence and the semidarkness quickly convinced them that
+they were on the wrong track.
+
+"The stable," muttered Chick, suddenly. "We'll try the stable."
+
+"They certainly have vamosed this ranch," remarked Patsy.
+
+"Plainly. Come on, then, and we'll try the stable."
+
+Together they started downstairs.
+
+A moment later Kilgore, Pylotte and Matt Stall came flurrying into the
+house by the rear door.
+
+In the bright light of the broad hall each party discovered the other
+at precisely the same moment, and Kilgore instantly guessed the truth.
+
+With a cry of rage, he whipped out his revolver and fired point-blank at
+the two men on the stairs.
+
+"Down 'em, boys!" he yelled furiously. "Down 'em, or our game is done
+for!"
+
+His bullet glanced from the baluster rail near Chick, and buried itself
+in the wall behind him.
+
+"Drop them, Patsy!" he shouted, instantly. "Shoot to kill! It's them or
+us!"
+
+"Let her go, Gallagher!" roared Patsy, pulling both guns.
+
+Then, amid the tumult of the breaking tempest outside, there began a
+fusillade the thunder of which rivaled that of the night, and which,
+though comparatively brief, was as fast and furious as any man there had
+ever experienced.
+
+Pylotte went down at the first shot from Chick, however, with a bullet
+in his brain.
+
+Then shot followed shot with lightning rapidity.
+
+Both detectives sprang down several stairs to evade the rain of lead,
+for both Kilgore and Stall were rapidly emptying two revolvers.
+
+A bullet singed Patsy's ear.
+
+Another dislodged Chick's hat.
+
+Then Kilgore reeled with a slight wound in his left arm.
+
+A score of shots were fired and wasted, meantime, for all hands were
+dodging about the hall and stairs in an utterly indescribable fashion.
+
+It was the warmest kind of a fight for fully three minutes.
+
+Then Chick got a line on Matt Stall from behind the baluster post, and
+dropped him with a ragged wound in his hip.
+
+Stall fell with a yell of rage and pain, and Kilgore found himself
+alone, and against odds.
+
+He turned like a flash, and darted out of the rear door of the house.
+
+He knew that the game was up, his confederates done for, and his own
+chances of escape but small; and the situation stirred to their very
+depths the worst elements of this lifelong criminal.
+
+But one thought possessed him--that of revenge, that of destroying the
+chief cause of his downfall--Nick Carter.
+
+With this end in view, Kilgore tore like a madman through the blinding
+rain of that tempestuous night, and shaped his course back to the
+diamond plant.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+AN ONLY RESOURCE.
+
+
+Despite the corner in which he had placed himself, a situation far more
+desperate than he at first imagined, Nick Carter was congratulating
+himself upon the success of his ruse by which he had so quickly located
+the secret plant of the diamond swindlers, even at the sacrifice of his
+personal freedom.
+
+The fact that he now sat bound in a chair in the hidden stronghold of
+the gang, watched only by Cervera, did not seriously disturb the
+fearless detective.
+
+Nick had been in many a worse corner than this, or in corners believed
+to be worse, and he felt confident of pulling out of the scrape with a
+whole skin, and with most of the gang in custody.
+
+He had surveyed his surroundings with more than cursory interest,
+therefore, while Kilgore and his confederates were binding his arms to
+the rounds of the chair back, and his ankles to the legs of the same.
+
+The rough foundation walls of the house, the massive stone wall built
+across the cellar to mask the secret chamber, the elaborate electric
+furnace, the huge hydraulic press, the workbench and tools, the powerful
+arc light pendent from the ceiling--half an eye would have convinced
+Nick that he occupied the workroom of that master craftsman whose
+chemical knowledge and inventive genius had given birth to a most
+marvelous production, long, earnestly, yet vainly, sought by others--
+
+The production of an artificial diamond!
+
+Not until Nick heard the stone door forcibly closed, and its iron bolts
+shot violently into their sockets, did he pay serious attention to
+Cervera, the venomous Spanish vixen left to guard him.
+
+Then, as she swung round toward him, he took a sharper look at her
+darkly magnificent face, and was thrilled despite him by the
+extraordinary changes it had undergone.
+
+It had lost its beauty. Its olive flush had given place to a chalky
+whiteness. The radiance of her eyes had become a merciless glitter, like
+the glint cast from the eyes of a serpent. The reflection of a consuming
+passion for vengeance had transfigured her countenance, till it had
+become like the face of a fiend.
+
+Though Nick saw at a glance that his situation had taken on an
+unexpected and desperate phase, he suppressed any betrayal of it. He met
+the woman eye to eye, while she briefly paused and faced him, with a
+cruel smile curling her gray lips.
+
+"So I have you now, Nick Carter," she cried, with mocking significance.
+
+"Well, yes, in a way," admitted Nick, coolly.
+
+"I have you in my power," hissed Cervera, with a vicious display of
+satisfaction.
+
+"Ah! that's different," said Nick.
+
+"How different?"
+
+"That you have me in your power remains to be demonstrated."
+
+"Are we not alone here, you fool?"
+
+"Yes, very much alone."
+
+"And you helpless?"
+
+"Apparently."
+
+"If I wish, Nick Carter, I can kill you."
+
+"Then pray don't wish it," said Nick. "I am still too young to be
+heartlessly slain, even by so beautiful and accomplished a woman."
+
+"_Caramba!_ you mock me!" cried Cervera, darting toward him with eyes
+ablaze and her lithe figure quivering with passion. "You mock me!--you
+shall repent it! Perdition! you shall repent it!"
+
+"Is that so?"
+
+"You shall repent it, I say!"
+
+"In this world, or in the next?" inquired Nick, bent upon prolonging the
+scene as much as possible, with a hope that Chick might suddenly turn
+up.
+
+Cervera did not answer him immediately. She wheeled again and darted to
+the door, once more to make sure that she had secured its bolts.
+
+She was clad in the black dress in which she had escaped from Nick the
+previous night, the somber hue of which was relieved only by occasional
+flashes of her dainty white lace underskirts, as she swept quickly from
+place to place, with her lithe figure crouching at times, and her every
+movement as swift and impulsive as that of a startled leopard.
+
+As he sat watching her, Nick was reminded of her matchless work upon
+the stage, thrilling men and women alike with her wild grace and the
+fiery passion of her indescribable dances.
+
+She returned to confront him after a moment, crouching before him, with
+her glowing eyes fixed on his.
+
+"In the next world--not in this!" she now replied, with a voice that cut
+the air like the snap of a whip. "You'd have brief time for repentance
+in this."
+
+"So you've decided to do the job, have you?" Nick coolly demanded.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, I'm sorry to hear it."
+
+"Here is where we even up accounts."
+
+"Even them up, eh?"
+
+"You heard what I said."
+
+"But I wasn't aware that I have so very much the best of you."
+
+"You have."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"_Caramba!_ you know too much!"
+
+"Ah! you mean about that girl."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I see," nodded Nick, secretly working in vain to loose the ropes
+confining his arms. "Well, señora, as a matter of fact, I am rather
+likely to make things unpleasant for you one of these days."
+
+"It will be this day, or never. You'll not live to see another."
+
+"Possibly not."
+
+"_Caramba!_ do you doubt it?"
+
+She darted nearer to him, with her hand tearing open the waist of her
+dress, and then the gleam of a poniard met Nick's gaze. She swept it
+before his eyes with a wild gesture, and gave vent to a mocking laugh.
+
+"Do you doubt that I can slay you?"
+
+"Not at all," answered Nick. "It's very evident."
+
+"Or that I will?"
+
+"That appears equally manifest."
+
+"So it is!" hissed Cervera, with vicious intensity. "I intend to do it!
+Do you hear, Nick Carter? I intend to do it!"
+
+"Oh, yes, I hear you."
+
+"Why don't you shrink? Why don't you plead for mercy?"
+
+"What's the use?"
+
+She answered him with a laugh that made the room ring.
+
+"Besides," added Nick, "it's not my style to show the white feather."
+
+"We'll see! _Caramba!_ we will see!"
+
+She came nearer to him, crouching before him, so near that her breath
+fell hot upon his cheeks. Then, with a quick movement, she pressed the
+point of the blade through his clothing, till it pricked the flesh above
+his heart.
+
+With his arms bound, with his ankles secured to the legs of the chair,
+Nick appeared utterly at her mercy--of which she had none.
+
+Despite himself, Nick shrank slightly from the wound, and for the first
+time shuddered at the peril by which he was menaced, and from which
+there seemed to be no avenue of escape.
+
+Cervera laughed again, a laugh freighted with the terrible ring of
+madness.
+
+"Did it hurt you?" she screamed, with her glittering eyes raised to
+search his. "Perdition! I hope so! You have tortured me with a thousand
+fears. I'd like to repay you with a thousand pangs!"
+
+Nick's eyes took on an ugly gleam.
+
+"Why don't you do so, then?" he growled.
+
+"I would, if I had the time," cried Cervera, through her teeth.
+
+"You have all there is."
+
+"Ten thousand times I'd thrust it into you--thus! thus!"
+
+Nick set his jaws and met the blade without flinching.
+
+Twice the vicious demon thrust it through his clothing, and now two
+crimson stains of blood on his shirt front followed the withdrawal of
+the weapon.
+
+"See! see!" screamed Cervera, triumphantly, with her terrible face
+upturned to his gaze. "You're beginning to bleed! Did you know that the
+sight of blood affects me as it does a leopard? I thirst for more--if
+that of one I hate! When next I strike you, I shall strike deeper!"
+
+That she fully intended to murder him, Nick now, had not a doubt. The
+homicidal madness was in her eyes, in her every feature, her every
+motion, and it rang in every word that fell from her bloodless lips.
+
+Yet the inflexible nerve of the detective did not for a moment desert
+him.
+
+"Send the blade home at once, if you like," he said, with a scornful
+frown.
+
+"Not yet--not yet!" she cried, shrilly. "There'll be time for that."
+
+"Time and to spare," sneered Nick.
+
+"I first wish to torture you, as you've tortured me!"
+
+"Go ahead, then."
+
+"Once more! Are you ready?"
+
+"Let it come."
+
+Again she drew back the glittering blade, only to mock him with several
+pretended thrusts, hoping thus to create and prolong an agony of fear
+and suspense.
+
+A more viciously cruel and vindictive creature never drew the breath of
+life.
+
+She laughed again, and slowly pressed the weapon closer--and then, with
+a sudden startled cry, she drew back and leaped to her feet.
+
+A noise like that of a mighty cannonade seemed to shake even the solid
+walls of this buried chamber.
+
+It was the crash of thunder in the heavens overhead.
+
+It was Cervera's first intimation of the terrible tempest that had been
+gathering outside.
+
+At first she thought the sound was that of revolvers, and she darted to
+the door and listened, pressing her ear to the wall.
+
+The instant her back was turned, Nick made a desperate attempt to free
+himself, straining cords and muscles under the determined effort. It
+proved vain, however. The ropes held him as if made of twisted steel.
+
+Yet in his brief but desperate struggle his right arm came in contact
+with an object in the side pocket of his sack coat.
+
+The object was a box nearly filled with parlor matches--one of the most
+dangerous and treacherous creations of man's inventive genius.
+
+Like a sudden revelation, or a bolt out of the blue, there leaped up in
+Nick's mind a possible way of escape.
+
+He thought of Cervera's garments, of the fluffy lace skirts beneath her
+gown, to which a single flash of fire would instantly prove fatal.
+
+The resort to such means seemed horrible--yet Nick well knew it was the
+one and only resource left him.
+
+He glanced sharply at Cervera. She was still listening at the door, with
+her evil face a picture of intense suspense.
+
+With a quick turn of his wrist, Nick succeeded in extracting the box
+from his pocket. Then he forced it open, and with a move of his hand he
+scattered its entire contents over the floor around his chair. The tiny
+matches fell with scarce a sound, and Cervera, ten feet away, failed to
+hear them.
+
+Then Nick quietly worked his chair back a foot or two, in order to bring
+some of the fateful things upon the floor directly in front of him.
+
+A moment later Cervera turned from the door.
+
+"Thunder--it was thunder," she muttered, under her breath. "There's a
+storm outside."
+
+"Somebody coming?" queried Nick, with taunting accents.
+
+He now aimed to provoke her, to force the situation to a climax, lest
+any mischance should have befallen Chick, or perverted in any way his
+own designs upon Kilgore and the gang. His taunting remark proved
+effective, moreover.
+
+With a snarl of rage Cervera darted toward him, with eyes for him alone,
+never for the floor.
+
+"You dog!" she cried, through her white teeth.
+
+"Do you mock me again?"
+
+"Oh! no, of course not," sneered Nick.
+
+"You lie! You do! You think some one will come--that you will then
+escape me," screamed Cervera, quivering through and through with
+venomous passion.
+
+Nick watched her as a cat watches a mouse.
+
+Her face was ghastly and distorted, her breast heaving, her every nerve
+quivering, and her eyes were like balls of fire under their knitted
+brows.
+
+Still clutching the poniard, her jeweled fingers worked convulsively
+around its haft, like those of one who fain would strike a death blow,
+yet whose hand was briefly held by consuming horror.
+
+Suddenly she darted nearer, with a vicious snarl.
+
+"You think you'll escape me," she screamed, with bitter ferocity. "It
+shows in your eyes. I'll make sure that you don't. Let come who may, you
+shall be found--dead! Dead!--do you hear?"
+
+"Oh! yes, I hear."
+
+"Yet you do not fear? We'll see--we'll see!"
+
+She darted closer to him, with the weapon raised, above her head, and
+her knee touched Nick's knee. He swung quickly around toward her, and
+scraped his feet over the floor below her skirts.
+
+Then came a quick, furious snapping, like the noise of a miniature
+fusillade. A score of the matches had been ignited by Nick's swift move.
+
+Almost instantly a shriek of terror broke from Cervera's lips, and she
+reeled back, clutching wildly at her skirts.
+
+"My God! I'm on fire!--on fire!" she screamed, with a voice so intense
+in its agony as to have chilled a man of stone.
+
+A roar came from Nick as he sighted the flames under her gown.
+
+"Release me! Release me!" he thundered, furiously, with a voice that
+drowned her frightful screams. "Cut me loose--loose! It's your only
+hope--your only hope!"
+
+She heard him like one in a nightmare of agony and terror, and her
+instinct rather than her reason responded to his thundering commands.
+
+Still with the poniard in her jeweled hand, still shrieking wildly, she
+leaped to his side, and with a single sweep of the keen weapon severed
+the rope binding his arms.
+
+Then Nick snatched the poniard from her hand. With several swift cuts
+and slashes he released his limbs, and sprang quickly to his feet.
+
+He had already shaped his course. He had observed on the sulphur
+barrels, near the wall, a strip of matting, used as a cover for them.
+Nick snatched it from the barrels, and rushed to wrap it around the
+skirts and limbs of the terror-stricken woman.
+
+For several moments the result seemed doubtful, so doubtful that Nick
+finally threw Cervera heavily to the floor, the better to press the
+matting closely around her and so smother the flames. In this he
+presently succeeded, but not before she was so severely burned as to be
+rendered utterly helpless.
+
+When Nick arose to his feet Cervera remained lying prostrate on the
+floor, moaning with pain, yet in a state of semi-consciousness only. A
+glance told Nick that she could make no move to escape, and he now had
+other work than that of looking to her comfort.
+
+He ran to the stone door, threw the bolts, and quickly dragged it open.
+
+Even as he did so, from out of the gloom of the adjoining cellar, a man
+came into view, as if suddenly arisen from the ground.
+
+The man was Dave Kilgore.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+THE LAST TRICK.
+
+
+"Carter!"
+
+"Kilgore!"
+
+Each man uttered the name of the other, as if with the same breath. The
+meeting came so suddenly that, for the bare fraction of a second, both
+men were nonplused.
+
+Then both whipped out a weapon.
+
+Crack!
+
+Bang!
+
+They fired together, and both missed, Nick's usually accurate aim being
+spoiled by the gloom of the cellar.
+
+Kilgore instantly sprang further away in the darkness, and aimed again.
+
+The hammer of his weapon fell as usual, but there was no report. In his
+recent fight at the Venner house he had emptied both of his revolvers,
+save the one bullet that had just missed Nick Carter.
+
+Then Kilgore, failing to have found Nick at his mercy, thought only of
+making his own escape. He turned and ran toward the open door by which
+he had entered.
+
+At that moment Chick's ringing voice sounded from outside.
+
+"This way! this way, Patsy!" he cried, louder than the rolling thunder
+overhead. "I've found the rat hole!"
+
+"I'm with you," yelled Patsy.
+
+They were already at the door.
+
+By the frequent flashes of lightning they had, after the fight at
+Venner's, succeeded in following Kilgore across the meadows, and they
+well knew that he was headed to get even with Nick.
+
+Now Nick's voice rang through the cellar.
+
+"Look out for him, Chick," he commanded. "He's coming that way. Look out
+for his gun."
+
+"Hurrah!" roared Chick, the moment he heard Nick's voice. "Let him come,
+gun and all!"
+
+Kilgore saw his flight cut off in that direction, but he knew every inch
+of the house. He turned like a rat in the darkness, and made for the
+stairs leading to the floor above. Up these he hurriedly scrambled.
+
+Nick heard him through the gloom, and followed him, pitching headlong at
+the foot of the stairs just as Kilgore opened the door leading to the
+hall above.
+
+There the dim rays from a hall lamp revealed the man for an instant, and
+showed Nick the way. He was up again and after Kilgore like a hound
+after a fox.
+
+Kilgore dashed through the hall, but dared not take time to unlock and
+open the front door of the house. He had a profound respect for the
+revolver in the hand of his pursuer, who already had reached the hall.
+
+It was a flight for life, and Kilgore knew it.
+
+He turned like a flash and darted up the stairs, making for the second
+floor. Three at a stride he covered, and succeeded in reaching the
+corridor above before Nick could get a line on him.
+
+Nick followed, gun in hand.
+
+On the second floor Kilgore darted into a dark chamber, and then
+through that to one adjoining it, where he waited till he heard Nick
+plunging into the one first mentioned.
+
+Then Kilgore slipped out into the hall again, hoping to retrace his
+steps downstairs and escape by the front door.
+
+In the way of that, however, Chick and Patsy were now in the lower hall,
+the former shouting lustily up the stairs:
+
+"Run him down, Nick! Run him down! We'll cover this way of escape!"
+
+An involuntary oath broke from Kilgore's lips, and at the same moment a
+vivid flash of lightning from the inky heavens illumined all the house.
+
+From the chamber in which he stood, Nick again caught sight of his man,
+and was after him in an instant.
+
+Kilgore heard him coming, and again fled through the hall and up another
+flight of stairs.
+
+"You'd better throw up your hands," roared Nick, as he followed.
+
+The answer came back with a yell of defiance:
+
+"Not on your life!"
+
+"You're a lost dog," cried Nick, hoping to keep him replying.
+
+"You'll not get me alive!"
+
+"Then I'll get you dead!" cried Nick, as he mounted the stairs.
+
+"You haven't got me yet!"
+
+"Next door to it, my man."
+
+This brought no answer.
+
+In a moment Nick reached the second hall, where he briefly paused to
+listen. Save the rain beating on the roof of the house, only one sound
+reached his strained ears. It was like that of some one hammering
+against the side of the house with some heavy object. For a moment the
+detective was puzzled. He could not fathom the meaning of such a sound.
+
+Then a gust of damp night air rushed through the hall and swept Nick's
+cheek.
+
+"Ah! an open window!" he muttered. "That's easily located."
+
+He groped his way into one of the rear chambers. There the night air was
+sweeping in through an open window, to the sill of which Nick quickly
+sprang.
+
+Now the noise he had heard was instantly explained.
+
+Cornered like a rat, yet viciously resolute to the last, Kilgore had, in
+order to make his escape, resorted to a means from which a less cool and
+nervy scoundrel would have shrunk on such a night as that.
+
+He had, by reaching far out of the window, been able to grasp an
+old-fashioned lightning rod with which the ancient wooden mansion was
+provided, and by which he proposed to descend to the ground. Under the
+swindler's weight, the beating of this swaying rod against the side of
+the house was the sound Nick had heard.
+
+Kilgore, whose courage was worthy a far better cause, already was
+halfway to the ground.
+
+Yet Nick had no idea of letting the knave escape thus, and he raised his
+weapon to fire.
+
+There was no need for a bullet, however, for the hand of the Almighty
+did the work.
+
+From the black vault of the heavens a bolt of liquid fire suddenly shot
+earthward, with a crash of thunder that seemed to rend the entire
+firmament.
+
+The fiery bolt reached the earth--but it reached it through the rod to
+which Dave Kilgore was desperately clinging.
+
+Not a sound came from the doomed man as he went down--or if there was a
+sound, it was drowned by the deafening crash and successive
+reverberations of thunder.
+
+Before Nick had fairly recovered from the blinding light and terrific
+concussion, he heard the voice of Chick yelling loudly from below:
+
+"Nick, Nick, come down here! The house is afire. The whole house is
+afire!"
+
+Nick heard and darted for the stairs, at once realizing how well the
+lightning had done its terrific work. Before he could reach the lower
+hall, dense volumes of smoke were pouring through the house, and one
+entire side of the fated dwelling was in flames.
+
+Nick thought of the woman in the cellar below, and, with Chick and Patsy
+at his heels, he led the way to the diamond plant. The electric light
+had been extinguished by the lightning stroke, but Nick soon located the
+body of Cervera, and together the detectives brought her out and laid
+her upon the ground some rods away from the burning dwelling.
+
+"She's done for, poor wretch!" muttered Nick, as he looked at her
+bloodless face.
+
+He was right.
+
+Señora Cervera had danced her last dance--a terrible one it was! She
+had lapsed into a merciful unconsciousness, from which she never
+emerged.
+
+Next came Kilgore, and they easily found him. He lay stretched upon the
+ground, dead and scorched almost beyond recognition, at the base of the
+metallic rod through which he had met his fate.
+
+"Lend a hand here," said Nick. "We'll place him with his confederate
+until we can have them properly removed."
+
+"So be it," said Chick, gravely. "It's about the last we can do for
+them, and this nearly ends our work on this job."
+
+"You've got the others?"
+
+"Every man of them."
+
+"Well done!" nodded Nick, as they raised the lifeless form between them.
+"Behold the way of the transgressor."
+
+"Hark!" exclaimed Patsy. "There goes the fire alarm. In three minutes
+there'll be a mob about here."
+
+"Much good the firemen will do," rejoined Nick. "That house is doomed,
+and all that's in it."
+
+He was right. With the passing of the tempest, and the first sign of a
+star in the eastern sky, all that remained of the house above the
+diamond plant was a heap of red, smoldering embers, filling the cellar
+and the secret chamber--and blotting out, though perhaps not forever,
+the secret art of that misguided genius, Jean Pylotte, dead with a
+bullet in his brain, on the floor of Rufus Venner's hall.
+
+There remains but little to complete the record of this strange and
+stirring case.
+
+Before morning Nick had lodged Venner and Spotty Dalton in the Tombs,
+and had Garside arrested at his residence. The lifeless bodies of their
+three confederates,--Cervera having died at dawn--were taken to the
+Morgue.
+
+Early the following day, Harry Boyden, the young man arrested for the
+murder of Mary Barton, was discharged from custody, and hastened to the
+home of Violet Page, to make her happy with the news of his release and
+his story of Nick Carter's extraordinary work. Both called upon Nick a
+day or two later, and expressed their gratitude and affection in terms
+which here need no recital. Incidentally it may be added that they were
+married, as planned, the following summer.
+
+How strangely the circumstances and experiences of life are knit and
+bound together. But for the vicious crime of a jealous woman, Nick might
+have labored long, and possibly vainly, to run down the Kilgore gang and
+their extraordinary criminal project, in which Cervera so strongly
+figured. It was as Nick said, the two crimes seemed bound together as if
+with links of steel.
+
+In the trial which preceded the conviction and punishment of the three
+living members of the gang, Nick learned all of the facts of the case.
+
+Venner & Co., it appeared, were on their last legs, and went into the
+game to square themselves, the design being to market vast quantities of
+the artificial diamonds. With this project in view, Venner had purchased
+the house at the rear of his own, under the name of Dr. Magruder, and
+there had established the plant. How well the scheme would have
+succeeded, but for Nick Carter, will never be known.
+
+At all events, in the stock of Venner & Co. were found numerous stones
+which only the most proficient experts could prove to be artificial; and
+even to this day it is intimated that, among the bejeweled women of New
+York there are some unconsciously wearing the manufactured diamonds of
+Jean Pylotte. What matters, however, since where ignorance is bliss it
+is folly to be wise?
+
+Jean Pylotte: His art died with him, alas! For in the ruins of the
+diamond plant there could be found no evidence sufficient to reveal his
+great secret.
+
+Surely it had opened the way to a great swindle, the possibilities of
+which can hardly be conceived. But, fortunately, in the way of it had
+come--
+
+Nick Carter.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+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
+trouble, 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 Toils 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 Fingerprints        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
+890--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
+948--Sealed Orders                        By Nicholas Carter
+949--The Hate That Kills                  By Nicholas Carter
+950--The American Marquis                 By Nicholas Carter
+951--The Needy Nine                       By Nicholas Carter
+952--Fighting Against Millions            By Nicholas Carter
+953--Outlaws of the Blue                  By Nicholas Carter
+954--The Old Detective's Pupil            By Nicholas Carter
+955--Found in the Jungle                  By Nicholas Carter
+956--The Mysterious Mail Robbery          By Nicholas Carter
+957--Broken Bars                          By Nicholas Carter
+958--A Fair Criminal                      By Nicholas Carter
+959--Won by Magic                         By Nicholas Carter
+960--The Piano Box Mystery                By Nicholas Carter
+961--The Man They Held Back               By Nicholas Carter
+962--A Millionaire Partner                By Nicholas Carter
+963--A Pressing Peril                     By Nicholas Carter
+964--An Australian Klondyke               By Nicholas Carter
+965--The Sultan's Pearls                  By Nicholas Carter
+966--The Double Shuffle Club              By Nicholas Carter
+967--Paying the Price                     By Nicholas Carter
+968--A Woman's Hand                       By Nicholas Carter
+969--A Network of Crime                   By Nicholas Carter
+970--At Thompson's Ranch                  By Nicholas Carter
+971--The Crossed Needles                  By Nicholas Carter
+972--The Diamond Mine Case                By Nicholas Carter
+973--Blood Will Tell                      By Nicholas Carter
+974--An Accidental Password               By Nicholas Carter
+975--The Crook's Bauble                   By Nicholas Carter
+976--Two Plus Two                         By Nicholas Carter
+977--The Yellow Label                     By Nicholas Carter
+978--The Clever Celestial                 By Nicholas Carter
+979--The Amphitheater Plot                By Nicholas Carter
+980--Gideon Drexel's Millions             By Nicholas Carter
+981--Death in Life                        By Nicholas Carter
+982--A Stolen Identity                    By Nicholas Carter
+983--Evidence by Telephone                By Nicholas Carter
+984--The Twelve Tin Boxes                 By Nicholas Carter
+985--Clew Against Clew                    By Nicholas Carter
+986--Lady Velvet                          By Nicholas Carter
+987--Playing a Bold Game                  By Nicholas Carter
+988--A Dead Man's Grip                    By Nicholas Carter
+989--Snarled Identities                   By Nicholas Carter
+990--A Deposit Vault Puzzle               By Nicholas Carter
+991--The Crescent Brotherhood             By Nicholas Carter
+992--The Stolen Pay Train                 By Nicholas Carter
+993--The Sea Fox                          By Nicholas Carter
+994--Wanted by Two Clients                By Nicholas Carter
+995--The Van Alstine Case                 By Nicholas Carter
+996--Check No. 777                        By Nicholas Carter
+997--Partners in Peril                    By Nicholas Carter
+998--Nick Carter's Clever Protégé         By Nicholas Carter
+999--The Sign of the Crossed Knives       By Nicholas Carter
+1000--The Man Who Vanished                By Nicholas Carter
+1001--A Battle for the Right              By Nicholas Carter
+1002--A Game of Craft                     By Nicholas Carter
+1003--Nick Carter's Retainer              By Nicholas Carter
+1004--Caught in the Toils                 By Nicholas Carter
+1005--A Broken Bond                       By Nicholas Carter
+1006--The Crime of the French Café        By Nicholas Carter
+1007--The Man Who Stole Millions          By Nicholas Carter
+1008--The Twelve Wise Men                 By Nicholas Carter
+1009--Hidden Foes                         By Nicholas Carter
+1010--A Gamblers' Syndicate               By Nicholas Carter
+1011--A Chance Discovery                  By Nicholas Carter
+1012--Among the Counterfeiters            By Nicholas Carter
+1013--A Threefold Disappearance           By Nicholas Carter
+1014--At Odds With Scotland Yard          By Nicholas Carter
+1015--A Princess of Crime                 By Nicholas Carter
+1016--Found on the Beach                  By Nicholas Carter
+1017--A Spinner of Death                  By Nicholas Carter
+1018--The Detective's Pretty Neighbor     By Nicholas Carter
+1019--A Bogus Clew                        By Nicholas Carter
+1020--The Puzzle of Five Pistols          By Nicholas Carter
+1021--The Secret of the Marble Mantel     By Nicholas Carter
+1022--A Bite of an Apple                  By Nicholas Carter
+1023--A Triple Crime                      By Nicholas Carter
+1024--The Stolen Race Horse               By Nicholas Carter
+1025--Wildfire                            By Nicholas Carter
+1026--A _Herald_ Personal                 By Nicholas Carter
+1027--The Finger of Suspicion             By Nicholas Carter
+1028--The Crimson Clew                    By Nicholas Carter
+1029--Nick Carter Down East               By Nicholas Carter
+1030--The Chain of Clews                  By Nicholas Carter
+1031--A Victim of Circumstances           By Nicholas Carter
+1032--Brought to Bay                      By Nicholas Carter
+1033--The Dynamite Trap                   By Nicholas Carter
+1034--A Scrap of Black Lace               By Nicholas Carter
+1035--The Woman of Evil                   By Nicholas Carter
+1036--A Legacy of Hate                    By Nicholas Carter
+1037--A Trusted Rogue                     By Nicholas Carter
+1038--Man Against Man                     By Nicholas Carter
+1039--The Demons of the Night             By Nicholas Carter
+1040--The Brotherhood of Death            By Nicholas Carter
+1041--At the Knife's Point                By Nicholas Carter
+1042--A Cry for Help                      By Nicholas Carter
+1043--A Stroke of Policy                  By Nicholas Carter
+1044--Hounded to Death                    By Nicholas Carter
+1045--A Bargain in Crime                  By Nicholas Carter
+1046--The Fatal Prescription              By Nicholas Carter
+1047--The Man of Iron                     By Nicholas Carter
+1048--An Amazing Scoundrel                By Nicholas Carter
+1049--The Chain of Evidence               By Nicholas Carter
+1050--Paid with Death                     By Nicholas Carter
+1051--A Fight for a Throne                By Nicholas Carter
+1052--The Woman of Steel                  By Nicholas Carter
+1053--The Seal of Death                   By Nicholas Carter
+1054--The Human Fiend                     By Nicholas Carter
+1055--A Desperate Chance                  By Nicholas Carter
+1056--A Chase in the Dark                 By Nicholas Carter
+1057--The Snare and the Game              By Nicholas Carter
+1058--The Murray Hill Mystery             By Nicholas Carter
+1059--Nick Carter's Close Call            By Nicholas Carter
+1060--The Missing Cotton King             By Nicholas Carter
+1061--A Game of Plots                     By Nicholas Carter
+1062--The Prince of Liars                 By Nicholas Carter
+1063--The Man at the Window               By Nicholas Carter
+1064--The Red League                      By Nicholas Carter
+1065--The Price of a Secret               By Nicholas Carter
+1066--The Worst Case on Record            By Nicholas Carter
+1067--From Peril to Peril                 By Nicholas Carter
+1068--The Seal of Silence                 By Nicholas Carter
+1069--Nick Carter's Chinese Puzzle        By Nicholas Carter
+1070--A Blackmailer's Bluff               By Nicholas Carter
+1071--Heard in the Dark                   By Nicholas Carter
+1072--A Checkmated Scoundrel              By Nicholas Carter
+1073--The Cashier's Secret                By Nicholas Carter
+1074--Behind a Mask                       By Nicholas Carter
+1075--The Cloak of Guilt                  By Nicholas Carter
+1076--Two Villains in One                 By Nicholas Carter
+1077--The Hot Air Clew                    By Nicholas Carter
+1078--Run to Earth                        By Nicholas Carter
+1079--The Certified Check                 By Nicholas Carter
+1080--Weaving the Web                     By Nicholas Carter
+1081--Beyond Pursuit                      By Nicholas Carter
+1082--The Claws of the Tiger              By Nicholas Carter
+1083--Driven From Cover                   By Nicholas Carter
+1084--A Deal in Diamonds                  By Nicholas Carter
+1085--The Wizard of the Cue               By Nicholas Carter
+1086--A Race for Ten Thousand             By Nicholas Carter
+1087--The Criminal Link                   By Nicholas Carter
+1088--The Red Signal                      By Nicholas Carter
+1089--The Secret Panel                    By Nicholas Carter
+1090--A Bonded Villain                    By Nicholas Carter
+1091--A Move in the Dark                  By Nicholas Carter
+1092--Against Desperate Odds              By Nicholas Carter
+1093--The Telltale Photographs            By Nicholas Carter
+1094--The Ruby Pin                        By Nicholas Carter
+1095--The Queen of Diamonds               By Nicholas Carter
+1096--A Broken Trail                      By Nicholas Carter
+1097--An Ingenious Stratagem              By Nicholas Carter
+1098--A Sharper's Downfall                By Nicholas Carter
+1099--A Race Track Gamble                 By Nicholas Carter
+1100--Without a Clew                      By Nicholas Carter
+1101--The Council of Death                By Nicholas Carter
+1102--The Hole in the Vault               By Nicholas Carter
+1103--In Death's Grip                     By Nicholas Carter
+1104--A Great Conspiracy                  By Nicholas Carter
+1105--The Guilty Governor                 By Nicholas Carter
+1106--A Ring of Rascals                   By Nicholas Carter
+1107--A Masterpiece of Crime              By Nicholas Carter
+1108--A Blow For Vengeance                By Nicholas Carter
+1109--Tangled Threads                     By Nicholas Carter
+1110--The Crime of the Camera             By Nicholas Carter
+1111--The Sign of the Dagger              By Nicholas Carter
+1112--Nick Carter's Promise               By Nicholas Carter
+1113--Marked for Death                    By Nicholas Carter
+1114--The Limited Holdup                  By Nicholas Carter
+1115--When the Trap Was Sprung            By Nicholas Carter
+1116--Through the Cellar Wall             By Nicholas Carter
+1117--Under the Tiger's Claws             By Nicholas Carter
+1118--The Girl in the Case                By Nicholas Carter
+1119--Behind a Throne                     By Nicholas Carter
+1120--The Lure of Gold                    By Nicholas Carter
+1121--Hand to Hand                        By Nicholas Carter
+1122--From a Prison Cell                  By Nicholas Carter
+1123--Dr. Quartz, Magician                By Nicholas Carter
+1124--Into Nick Carter's Web              By Nicholas Carter
+1125--The Mystic Diagram                  By Nicholas Carter
+1126--The Hand That Won                   By Nicholas Carter
+1127--Playing a Lone Hand                 By Nicholas Carter
+1128--The Master Villain                  By Nicholas Carter
+1129--The False Claimant                  By Nicholas Carter
+1130--The Living Mask                     By Nicholas Carter
+1131--The Crime and the Motive            By Nicholas Carter
+1132--A Mysterious Foe                    By Nicholas Carter
+1133--A Missing Man                       By Nicholas Carter
+1134--A Game Well Played                  By Nicholas Carter
+1135--A Cigarette Clew                    By Nicholas Carter
+1136--The Diamond Trail                   By Nicholas Carter
+1137--The Silent Guardian                 By Nicholas Carter
+1138--The Dead Stranger                   By Nicholas Carter
+1140--The Doctor's Stratagem              By Nicholas Carter
+1141--Following a Chance Clew             By Nicholas Carter
+1142--The Bank Draft Puzzle               By Nicholas Carter
+1143--The Price of Treachery              By Nicholas Carter
+1144--The Silent Partner                  By Nicholas Carter
+1145--Ahead of the Game                   By Nicholas Carter
+1146--A Trap of Tangled Wire              By Nicholas Carter
+1147--In the Gloom of Night               By Nicholas Carter
+1148--The Unaccountable Crook             By Nicholas Carter
+1149--A Bundle of Clews                   By Nicholas Carter
+1150--The Great Diamond Syndicate         By Nicholas Carter
+1151--The Death Circle                    By Nicholas Carter
+1152--The Toss of a Penny                 By Nicholas Carter
+1153--One Step Too Far                    By Nicholas Carter
+1154--The Terrible Thirteen               By Nicholas Carter
+1155--A Detective's Theory                By Nicholas Carter
+1156--Nick Carter's Auto Trail            By Nicholas Carter
+1157--A Triple Identity                   By Nicholas Carter
+1158--A Mysterious Graft                  By Nicholas Carter
+1159--A Carnival of Crime                 By Nicholas Carter
+1160--The Bloodstone Terror               By Nicholas Carter
+
+
+10,000,000
+
+copies of the works of Nick Carter in the New Magnet Library have been
+sold. Millions more are going to be sold, not because the line
+represents forbidden literature, but because it fills a large and
+growing demand for recreational reading.
+
+Nick Carter is justly famous. He stands as one of America's foremost
+literary characters. He is the close companion of some of America's
+leading professional and business men. Statesmen of high and low degree
+have called him "Nick," and do not hesitate to say that he has given
+them more satisfaction and pleasure than any other character in fiction.
+
+The Nick Carter stories, therefore, hold a great deal for you. Any in
+the foregoing list are worth while.
+
+STREET & SMITH CORPORATION
+79 Seventh Avenue  New York City
+
+
+
+
+BOOKS FOR YOUNG MEN
+
+MERRIWELL SERIES
+
+Stories of Frank and Dick Merriwell
+
+PRICE, FIFTEEN CENTS
+
+_Fascinating Stories of Athletics_
+
+
+A half million enthusiastic followers of the Merriwell brothers will
+attest the unfailing interest and wholesomeness of these adventures of
+two lads of high ideals, who play fair with themselves, as well as with
+the rest of the world.
+
+These stories are rich in fun and thrills in all branches of sports and
+athletics. They are extremely high in moral tone, and cannot fail to be
+of immense benefit to every boy who reads them.
+
+They have the splendid quality of firing a boy's ambition to become a
+good athlete, in order that he may develop into a strong, vigorous
+right-thinking man.
+
+
+_ALL TITLES ALWAYS IN PRINT_
+
+
+1--Frank Merriwell's School Days          By Burt L. Standish
+2--Frank Merriwell's Chums                By Burt L. Standish
+3--Frank Merriwell's Foes                 By Burt L. Standish
+4--Frank Merriwell's Trip West            By Burt L. Standish
+5--Frank Merriwell Down South             By Burt L. Standish
+6--Frank Merriwell's Bravery              By Burt L. Standish
+7--Frank Merriwell's Hunting Tour         By Burt L. Standish
+8--Frank Merriwell in Europe              By Burt L. Standish
+9--Frank Merriwell at Yale                By Burt L. Standish
+10--Frank Merriwell's Sports Afield       By Burt L. Standish
+11--Frank Merriwell's Races               By Burt L. Standish
+12--Frank Merriwell's Party               By Burt L. Standish
+13--Frank Merriwell's Bicycle Tour        By Burt L. Standish
+14--Frank Merriwell's Courage             By Burt L. Standish
+15--Frank Merriwell's Daring              By Burt L. Standish
+16--Frank Merriwell's Alarm               By Burt L. Standish
+17--Frank Merriwell's Athletes            By Burt L. Standish
+18--Frank Merriwell's Skill               By Burt L. Standish
+19--Frank Merriwell's Champions           By Burt L. Standish
+20--Frank Merriwell's Return to Yale      By Burt L. Standish
+21--Frank Merriwell's Secret              By Burt L. Standish
+22--Frank Merriwell's Danger              By Burt L. Standish
+23--Frank Merriwell's Loyalty             By Burt L. Standish
+24--Frank Merriwell in Camp               By Burt L. Standish
+25--Frank Merriwell's Vacation            By Burt L. Standish
+26--Frank Merriwell's Cruise              By Burt L. Standish
+27--Frank Merriwell's Chase               By Burt L. Standish
+28--Frank Merriwell in Maine              By Burt L. Standish
+29--Frank Merriwell's Struggle            By Burt L. Standish
+30--Frank Merriwell's First Job           By Burt L. Standish
+31--Frank Merriwell's Opportunity         By Burt L. Standish
+32--Frank Merriwell's Hard Luck           By Burt L. Standish
+33--Frank Merriwell's Protégé             By Burt L. Standish
+34--Frank Merriwell on the Road           By Burt L. Standish
+35--Frank Merriwell's Own Company         By Burt L. Standish
+36--Frank Merriwell's Fame                By Burt L. Standish
+37--Frank Merriwell's College Chums       By Burt L. Standish
+38--Frank Merriwell's Problem             By Burt L. Standish
+39--Frank Merriwell's Fortune             By Burt L. Standish
+40--Frank Merriwell's New Comedian        By Burt L. Standish
+41--Frank Merriwell's Prosperity          By Burt L. Standish
+42--Frank Merriwell's Stage Hit           By Burt L. Standish
+43--Frank Merriwell's Great Scheme        By Burt L. Standish
+44--Frank Merriwell in England            By Burt L. Standish
+45--Frank Merriwell on the Boulevards     By Burt L. Standish
+46--Frank Merriwell's Duel                By Burt L. Standish
+47--Frank Merriwell's Double Shot         By Burt L. Standish
+48--Frank Merriwell's Baseball Victories  By Burt L. Standish
+49--Frank Merriwell's Confidence          By Burt L. Standish
+50--Frank Merriwell's Auto                By Burt L. Standish
+51--Frank Merriwell's Fun                 By Burt L. Standish
+52--Frank Merriwell's Generosity          By Burt L. Standish
+53--Frank Merriwell's Tricks              By Burt L. Standish
+54--Frank Merriwell's Temptation          By Burt L. Standish
+55--Frank Merriwell on Top                By Burt L. Standish
+56--Frank Merriwell's Luck                By Burt L. Standish
+57--Frank Merriwell's Mascot              By Burt L. Standish
+58--Frank Merriwell's Reward              By Burt L. Standish
+59--Frank Merriwell's Phantom             By Burt L. Standish
+60--Frank Merriwell's Faith               By Burt L. Standish
+61--Frank Merriwell's Victories           By Burt L. Standish
+62--Frank Merriwell's Iron Nerve          By Burt L. Standish
+63--Frank Merriwell in Kentucky           By Burt L. Standish
+64--Frank Merriwell's Power               By Burt L. Standish
+65--Frank Merriwell's Shrewdness          By Burt L. Standish
+66--Frank Merriwell's Set Back            By Burt L. Standish
+67--Frank Merriwell's Search              By Burt L. Standish
+68--Frank Merriwell's Club                By Burt L. Standish
+69--Frank Merriwell's Trust               By Burt L. Standish
+70--Frank Merriwell's False Friend        By Burt L. Standish
+71--Frank Merriwell's Strong Arm          By Burt L. Standish
+72--Frank Merriwell As Coach              By Burt L. Standish
+73--Frank Merriwell's Brother             By Burt L. Standish
+74--Frank Merriwell's Marvel              By Burt L. Standish
+75--Frank Merriwell's Support             By Burt L. Standish
+76--Dick Merriwell At Fardale             By Burt L. Standish
+77--Dick Merriwell's Glory                By Burt L. Standish
+78--Dick Merriwell's Promise              By Burt L. Standish
+79--Dick Merriwell's Rescue               By Burt L. Standish
+80--Dick Merriwell's Narrow Escape        By Burt L. Standish
+81--Dick Merriwell's Racket               By Burt L. Standish
+82--Dick Merriwell's Revenge              By Burt L. Standish
+83--Dick Merriwell's Ruse                 By Burt L. Standish
+84--Dick Merriwell's Delivery             By Burt L. Standish
+85--Dick Merriwell's Wonders              By Burt L. Standish
+86--Frank Merriwell's Honor               By Burt L. Standish
+87--Dick Merriwell's Diamond              By Burt L. Standish
+88--Frank Merriwell's Winners             By Burt L. Standish
+89--Dick Merriwell's Dash                 By Burt L. Standish
+90--Dick Merriwell's Ability              By Burt L. Standish
+91--Dick Merriwell's Trap                 By Burt L. Standish
+92--Dick Merriwell's Defense              By Burt L. Standish
+93--Dick Merriwell's Model                By Burt L. Standish
+94--Dick Merriwell's Mystery              By Burt L. Standish
+95--Frank Merriwell's Backers             By Burt L. Standish
+96--Dick Merriwell's Backstop             By Burt. L. Standish
+97--Dick Merriwell's Western Mission      By Burt L. Standish
+98--Frank Merriwell's Rescue              By Burt L. Standish
+99--Frank Merriwell's Encounter           By Burt L. Standish
+100--Dick Merriwell's Marked Money        By Burt L. Standish
+101--Frank Merriwell's Nomads             By Burt L. Standish
+102--Dick Merriwell on the Gridiron       By Burt L. Standish
+103--Dick Merriwell's Disguise            By Burt L. Standish
+104--Dick Merriwell's Test                By Burt L. Standish
+105--Frank Merriwell's Trump Card         By Burt L. Standish
+106--Frank Merriwell's Strategy           By Burt L. Standish
+107--Frank Merriwell's Triumph            By Burt L. Standish
+108--Dick Merriwell's Grit                By Burt L. Standish
+109--Dick Merriwell's Assurance           By Burt L. Standish
+110--Dick Merriwell's Long Slide          By Burt L. Standish
+111--Frank Merriwell's Rough Deal         By Burt L. Standish
+112--Dick Merriwell's Threat              By Burt L. Standish
+113--Dick Merriwell's Persistence         By Burt L. Standish
+114--Dick Merriwell's Day                 By Burt L. Standish
+115--Frank Merriwell's Peril              By Burt L. Standish
+116--Dick Merriwell's Downfall            By Burt L. Standish
+117--Frank Merriwell's Pursuit            By Burt L. Standish
+
+
+SPORTS
+
+There is a greater appreciation of athletic sports among Americans than
+among people of any other nationality.
+
+We have had definite proof of this in the correspondence occasioned by
+our publication of the adventures of Frank and Dick Merriwell. These two
+boys are active athletes. They are proficient in every line of sport,
+and they play fair or not at all.
+
+This last feature of the Merriwell stories fills our daily mail with
+letters from readers who say that they appreciate the integrity and
+fairness of the Merriwells more than words can tell.
+
+These books, while of greatest interest to the right-thinking boy are
+educational and make for the development of a character which will
+enable the average boy to meet his fellows fairly and squarely in the
+battle of life.
+
+STREET & SMITH CORPORATION
+79 Seventh Avenue  New York City
+
+
+
+
+Bill Cody
+
+
+At a rough estimate there are 400 million civilized human beings who
+have heard of Bill Cody, not under his real name, but by the name
+everybody called him, "Buffalo Bill."
+
+His character made him an outstanding figure during a period of the
+development of America when a strong character was a matter of vital
+necessity.
+
+We doubt, however, whether the man's work is fully appreciated, or ever
+has been. In the rush and bustle that followed the introduction of the
+railroad to the West, the results of Buffalo Bill's work were more or
+less overlooked, but a time is coming when this remarkable man's
+achievements will be fully appreciated.
+
+This is the character whose adventures are dealt with in Buffalo Bill's
+Border Stories.
+
+Read them. You will find them of true historical value.
+
+STREET & SMITH CORPORATION
+79 Seventh Avenue  New York City
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14096 ***
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+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14096 ***</div>
+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, With Links of Steel, by Nicholas Carter</h1>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>E-text prepared Steven desJardins<br />
+    and Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>NEW MAGNET LIBRARY No. 1164</h3>
+
+<h1>With Links of Steel</h1>
+
+<h4>OR</h4>
+
+<h3>The Peril of the Unknown</h3>
+
+<h2>by Nicholas Carter</h2>
+
+<div class="toc">
+<span>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.</span>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 425px; margin-top: 1em;">
+<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="425" height="600" alt="Cover of With Links of Steel" title="" />
+</div>
+
+
+<h6>STREET &amp; SMITH CORPORATION<br />
+PUBLISHERS<br />
+79-89 Seventh Avenue, New York</h6>
+<h5>1904</h5>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="toc">
+<span>CHAPTER I      <a href="#CHAPTER_I">A CRAFTY ROBBERY.</a></span><br />
+<span>CHAPTER II     <a href="#CHAPTER_II">CONCERNING SE&Ntilde;ORA CERVERA.</a></span><br />
+<span>CHAPTER III    <a href="#CHAPTER_III">THE KILGORE DIAMOND GANG.</a></span><br />
+<span>CHAPTER IV     <a href="#CHAPTER_IV">GETTING DOWN TO WORK.</a></span><br />
+<span>CHAPTER V      <a href="#CHAPTER_V">BEHIND THE SCENES.</a></span><br />
+<span>CHAPTER VI     <a href="#CHAPTER_VI">A SHOT IN THE DARK.</a></span><br />
+<span>CHAPTER VII    <a href="#CHAPTER_VII">A STRATEGIC MOVE.</a></span><br />
+<span>CHAPTER VIII <a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">FOUND DEAD.</a></span><br />
+<span>CHAPTER IX <a href="#CHAPTER_IX">NICK STRIKES A STARTLING CLEW.</a></span><br />
+<span>CHAPTER X <a href="#CHAPTER_X">ON THE TRAIL.</a></span><br />
+<span>CHAPTER XI <a href="#CHAPTER_XI">THE CRIME AND THE MEANS.</a></span><br />
+<span>CHAPTER XII <a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CLOSING IN.</a></span><br />
+<span>CHAPTER XIII <a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CRAFTY CERVERA.</a></span><br />
+<span>CHAPTER XIV <a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">IN A WARM CORNER.</a></span><br />
+<span>CHAPTER XV <a href="#CHAPTER_XV">THE DIAMOND PLANT.</a></span><br />
+<span>CHAPTER XVI <a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">THE CUNNING OF JEAN PYLOTTE.</a></span><br />
+<span>CHAPTER XVII <a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">THE GAME UNCOVERED.</a></span><br />
+<span>CHAPTER XVIII <a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">AT CROSS-PURPOSES.</a></span><br />
+<span>CHAPTER XIX <a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">HANDS SHOWED DOWN.</a></span><br />
+<span>CHAPTER XX <a href="#CHAPTER_XX">THE BOOT ON THE OTHER LEG.</a></span><br />
+<span>CHAPTER XXI <a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">AN ONLY RESOURCE.</a></span><br />
+<span>CHAPTER XXII <a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">THE LAST TRICK.</a></span>
+</div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h2><a name="WITH_LINKS_OF_STEEL" id="WITH_LINKS_OF_STEEL" />WITH LINKS OF STEEL</h2>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I" />CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+<h3>A CRAFTY ROBBERY.</h3>
+
+
+<p>"Mr. Venner, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Venner&mdash;yes, certainly. You will find him in his private
+office&mdash;that way, sir. The door to the right. Venner is in his private
+office, Joseph, is he not?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think so, Mr. Garside, unless he has just returned. I saw him
+go out some time ago."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that so? Wait a moment, young man."</p>
+
+<p>The young man halted, and then turned back to face Mr. Garside, with an
+inquiring look in his frank, brown eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Not here, sir, do I understand?" he asked, politely.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Garside shook his head. He was a tall, slender man of forty, and was
+the junior partner of the firm of Rufus Venner &amp; Co., a large retail
+jewelry house in New York City, with a handsome store on Fifth Avenue,
+not far from Madison Square.</p>
+
+<p>It was in their store that this introductory scene occurred, and proved
+to be the initiatory step of one of the shrewdest and most cleverly
+executed robberies on record.</p>
+
+<p>It was about eleven o'clock one April morning. The sun was shining
+brightly outside, and at the curbing in front of the store were several
+handsome private carriages, with stiff-backed, motionless coachmen, in
+bottle-green livery, perched on their boxes, all of which plainly
+indicated the very desirable patronage accorded the firm mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>In the store the glare of sun was subdued by partly drawn yellow
+curtains, which lent a soft, amber light to the deep interior, and
+enhanced the dazzling beauty of the merchandise there displayed.</p>
+
+<p>The store was a rather narrow one, but quite deep, with a long-counter
+on each side, back of which were numerous clerks, some engaged in
+waiting upon the several customers then present.</p>
+
+<p>At the rear of the store was an office inclosure, with a partition of
+plate glass; while at either side of this inclosure was a smaller room,
+entirely secluded, these being the private offices of the two members of
+the firm.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Garside was standing about in the middle of the store when the young
+man entered and inquired for Mr. Venner. As he turned from the clerk who
+had informed him of Venner's absence, he added, half in apology, to his
+visitor:</p>
+
+<p>"I was mistaken, young man. My clerk tells me that Mr. Venner is out
+just now. Do you know where he has gone, Joseph?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir, I do not."</p>
+
+<p>"I think he will presently return," said Garside, again reverting to the
+caller. "Is there anything that I can do for you? Or will you wait
+until Mr. Venner comes in?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will not wait, Mr. Garside, since you are one of the firm, and
+probably know about this matter," replied the young man, drawing a small
+cloth-covered package from his breast pocket. "Here are the ten diamonds
+for which Mr. Venner sent us an order this morning. I come from Thomas
+Hafferman, sir, and will leave the stones with you."</p>
+
+<p>The man mentioned was also a jeweler, and a large importer of diamonds
+and costly gems.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Garside's countenance took on an expression of mild surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"From Hafferman? An order from Venner?" he murmured, inquiringly. "I was
+not aware that Venner sent out any order for diamonds this morning."</p>
+
+<p>"One of your clerks brought the order, sir, and requested Mr. Hafferman
+to send the stones here as soon as convenient," replied the messenger.
+"Mr. Hafferman did not know your clerk personally, so I was sent here to
+deliver the stones."</p>
+
+<p>"What is your name, young man?"</p>
+
+<p>"Harry Boyden, sir. I have worked for Mr. Hafferman for nearly five
+years. I think you will find that the order was properly sent."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait just a moment, Mr. Boyden," suggested Garside, smiling.</p>
+
+<p>Then he hastened to the rear of the store, and spoke through the open
+window near the cashier's desk.</p>
+
+<p>"Do any of you know of an order sent out by Mr. Venner this morning?"
+he inquired, addressing the several clerks at work in the office. "An
+order to Thomas Hafferman for ten diamonds."</p>
+
+<p>Only a girl stenographer, seated at a typewriter near the office door,
+replied:</p>
+
+<p>"I think Mr. Venner sent Spaulding out about half an hour ago, sir," she
+replied. "I saw him give Spaulding several letters."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, doubtless it's all right enough," bowed Garside; "yet I wonder that
+I had heard nothing about it. Joseph, has Spaulding been here within a
+few minutes?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir," replied the clerk, the same who had at first been questioned.
+"I saw him go out just before Mr. Venner departed, and he has not yet
+returned."</p>
+
+<p>Garside had now reached the middle of the store again, where Boyden was
+still waiting.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you quite sure that the order came from Mr. Venner?" he again
+inquired. "How long ago was the messenger at your store?"</p>
+
+<p>"About half an hour ago, sir," Boyden readily answered. "The order was,
+I presume, signed by Mr. Venner."</p>
+
+<p>"Was it our man Spaulding who delivered the order? Do you know him by
+sight?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not, sir. Joseph Maynard, yonder, is the only clerk here with whom
+I am acquainted, and I think he will vouch for me," said Boyden, now
+beginning to smile at Garside's manifest caution over receiving the
+diamonds. "Surely, sir, no harm can come from your keeping the stones
+until Mr. Venner returns, since I am willing to leave them with you," he
+added, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, no&mdash;I wasn't thinking of that," Garside quickly answered. "I
+wished only to avoid the needless trouble of returning them, in case the
+order did not come from us."</p>
+
+<p>"I think the order was all right, Mr. Garside. Besides, sir, I saw Mr.
+Venner yesterday at our store, examining some diamonds. Doubtless these
+are the same."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, if that's the case, leave them, by all means," Garside cried. "I
+was not aware that he had called there. Probably they are for some order
+of which he has personal charge. Yes, yes, Mr. Boyden, leave them,
+certainly. Here, Joseph, place the package in one of the vault drawers,
+and hand it to Mr. Venner when he returns. Sorry to have detained you so
+long, Mr. Boyden. Had you begun by stating that Venner called yesterday
+upon Mr. Hafferman, I should not have demurred over the matter."</p>
+
+<p>"There's no harm done, Mr. Garside, none whatever," replied Boyden,
+bowing and smiling. "I appreciate your caution, sir. If there proves to
+have been any mistake in ordering them, you can easily return the
+stones. Good-morning, sir."</p>
+
+<p>Garside replied with a nod over his shoulder, having turned to hand the
+parcel to his clerk back of the counter, and Boyden immediately
+departed.</p>
+
+<p>"Is that young man an acquaintance of yours, Maynard?" inquired Mr.
+Garside.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir. He has been with Hafferman for several years."</p>
+
+<p>"Doubtless it's all right, then. Odd, though, that Venner should have
+made no mention to me of this order. Hand him the package as soon as he
+comes in."</p>
+
+<p>"I will, sir, at once."</p>
+
+<p>Maynard had already placed the small parcel in a drawer of the huge
+steel vault back of the counter, and he now resumed the work at which he
+had been engaged.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Garside sauntered toward the front of the store, and presently
+greeted a lady who entered.</p>
+
+<p>Twenty minutes passed, and the incident of the diamonds was almost
+forgotten by both employer and clerk.</p>
+
+<p>Soon both were reminded of it, however, by the entrance of another
+man&mdash;a smooth-featured young fellow, with pale blue eyes, a sallow
+complexion, slightly pock-marked. He was of medium height, and well put
+together, and was clad in a neat business suit of fashionable
+appearance.</p>
+
+<p>Quickly approaching Mr. Garside, who was then disengaged, he tendered
+one of Thomas Hafferman's business cards, and said, glibly, while bowing
+and laughing lightly:</p>
+
+<p>"Excuse me, Mr. Garside, but we rather owe you an apology. Our Mr.
+Boyden left some diamonds with you a short time ago, which should have
+been delivered to Tiffany &amp; Co. Mr. Hafferman read the order without his
+spectacles, and it's rather a good joke on him, for he thought it was
+signed Venner &amp; Co. The blunder was partly owing to the fact, no doubt,
+that Mr. Venner called to see him yesterday about some diamonds."</p>
+
+<p>"There!" exclaimed Garside, as if quite pleased to discover that he had
+been so nearly right. "I knew well enough that Venner had not sent out
+any order without mentioning it to me. Yes, your Mr. Boyden left the
+stones here. For Tiffany &amp; Co., eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir, and they should have been delivered long ago," was the reply,
+with a conventional laugh. "If you please, I'll leave them there on my
+way back. Deucedly stupid blunder on Hafferman's part, I'm sure; and I
+hope&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, there's no harm done, I guess, and but little time lost,"
+interrupted Garside, joining in the other's laugh. "You will deliver
+them, you say?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you please."</p>
+
+<p>"Here, Joseph, hand me that package of diamonds left here by Boyden.
+They were sent to us by mistake. I knew it well enough at the time. Here
+you are, Mr. &mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Raymond, sir. I am cashier at Hafferman's. Many thanks. Sorry to have
+troubled you&mdash;very sorry."</p>
+
+<p>"No trouble at all," laughed Garside, accompanying Mr. Raymond toward
+the street door. "The trouble has been all yours, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"That's quite true," smiled Raymond, as he bowed himself out with the
+package of diamonds in his hand. "But now the pleasure is all mine!" he
+added to himself, upon reaching the sidewalk.</p>
+
+<p>Then he strode rapidly away, quickly losing himself in the midday
+stream of people thronging the famous New York thoroughfare.</p>
+
+<p>Less than five minutes later, before any misgivings had crept into the
+mind of Mr. Garside, the senior member of the firm came hurrying into
+the store.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I say, Venner!" exclaimed his partner, stopping him near the office
+door. "What diamonds are you thinking of buying of Hafferman?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of Hafferman?" echoed Venner, with a look of surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"Weren't you looking at some stones there yesterday?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, certainly. Some very choice diamonds. I want ten of the first
+water, a little larger and more perfectly matched than any we have in
+stock at present. But how did you learn that I had called there?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Garside quickly informed him of the several incidents of the past
+half hour, when, to his consternation and dismay a look of sudden
+apprehension swept over Venner's face.</p>
+
+<p>"Raymond&mdash;the name of Hafferman's cashier!" he cried. "Nothing of the
+sort, Philip. Their cashier is named Briggs. I know him well."</p>
+
+<p>"Briggs! Briggs!"</p>
+
+<p>"Briggs&mdash;yes, Briggs!" reiterated Mr. Venner, excitedly. "By Heaven,
+there must be something wrong here!"</p>
+
+<p>"Dear me! If this Raymond was an impostor, we are done out of&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Wait&mdash;wait!"</p>
+
+<p>Checking his partner with an impulsive gesture, Venner rushed into his
+private office and seized his desk telephone, quickly calling up the
+firm by which the diamonds had been sent.</p>
+
+<p>Garside followed him into the room, only to hear the questions hurriedly
+asked over the wire by his excited partner, who presently dropped the
+telephone and leaped to his feet, crying loudly, so loudly that his
+voice filled the entire store, and brought all hands hurrying in his
+direction:</p>
+
+<p>"There's no doubt of it, Garside, none whatever. You have been
+duped&mdash;swindled&mdash;robbed of four thousand dollars' worth of gems! Raymond
+was an impostor&mdash;a crook&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Venner&mdash;hush! You are losing your head," protested Garside, white with
+dismay. "It's enough that we have lost the stones, so at least keep your
+head. Waste not a moment. Notify the police. Telephone at once for men
+from the central office."</p>
+
+<p>"Blast the police! The central office be hanged!" cried Venner, choking
+down an oath of wrathful contempt. "I'll have none of your police&mdash;none
+of your central office men! I want a detective&mdash;not an effigy of one!"</p>
+
+<p>"Rufus&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Silence, Garside, and leave this affair to me," Venner harshly
+interrupted. "You've had fingers enough in it already."</p>
+
+<p>With which rebuke Mr. Rufus Venner strode passionately out of the office
+and into the store proper, shouting loudly to the clerk previously
+mentioned:</p>
+
+<p>"Maynard&mdash;here you, Maynard! Call a cab at once and go for Nick Carter!
+Lose not a moment! Don't wait to ask questions, you blockhead! Away with
+you, at once! Bring Nick Carter here with the least possible delay!"</p>
+
+<p>Maynard had already seized his coat and hat, and was hurrying out of the
+store.</p>
+
+<p>And thus began one of the most stirring and extraordinary criminal cases
+that ever fell within the broad experience of the famous New York
+detective mentioned.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II" />CHAPTER II.</h2>
+
+<h3>CONCERNING SEÑORA CERVERA.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Joseph Maynard arrived at Nick Carter's residence just as the famous New
+York detective was about preparing for lunch, and quickly stated his
+mission, disclosing the superficial features of the crime.</p>
+
+<p>Nick Carter habitually looked below the surface of things, however, and
+in trifles he invariably discovered more than the ordinary man. Before
+Maynard had fairly outlined the case Nick keenly discerned that the
+robbery could not have been committed by any common criminals, and he at
+once decided not only that he would take the case, but also that it gave
+promise of something far more startling than then appeared aboveboard.</p>
+
+<p>Yet even Nick's keen discernment utterly failed, at this early stage of
+the affair, to anticipate its actual magnitude and tragic possibilities.</p>
+
+<p>Having consented to accompany Maynard to the scene of the crime, Nick
+turned to Chick Carter, his reliable chief assistant, who also had been
+an attentive listener to Maynard's disclosures.</p>
+
+<p>"You had better come with me, Chick," said he. "This affair has rather a
+bad look, and in case quick work is imperative, I may need your
+assistance."</p>
+
+<p>"Go with you it is, Nick," Chick heartily cried, hastening to put on his
+coat and hat.</p>
+
+<p>"From the circumstances disclosed by Maynard, however," added Nick, "I
+am inclined to think that these rats have very carefully covered their
+tracks, and that a still hunt for their trail may prove to be our stunt.
+Yet you had better go along with me."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm ready when you are, Nick."</p>
+
+<p>"Very good. Come on, Mr. Maynard. I see you have a carriage at the door.
+We will not delay even for lunch, but will snatch a bite later."</p>
+
+<p>Together the three men left the house, and it was precisely one o'clock
+when Nick was ushered into the private office of Venner &amp; Co., where the
+two members of the firm then were seated, apparently still engaged in
+discussing the audacious robbery.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Rufus Venner, it may be here stated, was a man of about forty years
+of age, and was a very well-known man about town. Darkly handsome, with
+an erect and imposing figure, an <i>habitu&eacute;</i> of the best clubs, a man
+still unmarried, yet of whom hints were frequently dropped that he was
+very popular with the fair sex, whom he was known to lavishly entertain
+at times&mdash;this was the senior member of the firm of Venner &amp; Co., and
+the man who, quickly arose to greet Nick Carter and Chick when the two
+detectives entered.</p>
+
+<p>"Your clerk has already given me the main facts of the case, Mr. Venner,
+so we will dispense with any rehearsal of them, and get right down to
+business," Nick crisply observed, immediately after their greeting.
+"There are a few questions I wish to ask you, and concise replies may
+expedite matters."</p>
+
+<p>"I will respond as briefly as possible, Mr. Carter," Venner quickly
+rejoined, as they took chairs around the office table. "I do not fancy
+being robbed in this scurvy fashion, sir, and you may go to any
+reasonable expense to discover and arrest the thieves. Now, Detective
+Carter, your questions?"</p>
+
+<p>"To begin with," asked Nick, with a steadfast scrutiny of Venner's
+darkly attractive face, "what is the value of the stolen diamonds?"</p>
+
+<p>"About four thousand dollars."</p>
+
+<p>"Ten in number, I was told."</p>
+
+<p>"Precisely."</p>
+
+<p>"Are they of uniform value?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nearly so. They are splendid gems, and perfectly matched, and are worth
+about four hundred dollars each. I wanted them for a special purpose,
+which&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Which I will presently arrive at," Nick courteously interposed. "I
+understand, Mr. Venner, that you called yesterday at the store of Thomas
+Hafferman and made some inquiries about these stones?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did, and also examined them."</p>
+
+<p>"In what part of Hafferman's store were you at the time?"</p>
+
+<p>"In his private office."</p>
+
+<p>"Were any of the clerks present?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not any&mdash;Stay! One of the clerks brought in the diamonds to Mr.
+Hafferman, but he did not remain. Only Mr. Hafferman himself remained
+with me while we discussed the matter."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know the clerk's name?"</p>
+
+<p>"Boyden, I think, he was called."</p>
+
+<p>"The same who brought the diamonds here this morning," put in Mr.
+Garside. "His name is Harry Boyden."</p>
+
+<p>Nick made a note of it in a small book which he drew from his pocket.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you make any deal at that time regarding the diamonds?" he
+inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"I only had them reserved for me a day or two, stating that I would
+either call again or send an order for them, if I decided to purchase
+them," replied Venner.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you quite sure that only Mr. Hafferman heard you make that
+statement?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure only in that the office door was closed, and that he alone was
+with me. If there were any eavesdroppers about I did not suspect it."</p>
+
+<p>"Naturally not," smiled Nick. "Now, then, for what special purpose did
+you want those particular diamonds? I think you referred to one."</p>
+
+<p>A slight tinge of red appeared in Venner's cheeks when he replied, a
+change which by no means escaped Nick's observation.</p>
+
+<p>"I wanted the stones, or then thought I might, for a customer who
+contemplated giving me an order for a valuable diamond cross, to be worn
+upon the stage. We happen to have in stock no diamonds perfectly adapted
+to her requirements, and so I called upon Hafferman to learn if he could
+supply me."</p>
+
+<p>"Who is the customer, Mr. Venner?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not see how her identity can be at all essential to the
+investigation of this affair, yet I have no objection to disclosing it,"
+said Venner, frowning slightly.</p>
+
+<p>"Why demur over it, then?" demanded Nick, bluntly.</p>
+
+<p>"Only because of an aversion to bringing the lady into the case, of
+which she, of course, knows nothing," retorted Venner. "I expected the
+order from Se&ntilde;ora Cervera, the Spanish dancer."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! Is she not a member of the Mammoth Vaudeville Troupe, which has
+been playing here to packed houses for several months?"</p>
+
+<p>"She is, yes."</p>
+
+<p>"I have heard that she makes a great display of diamonds."</p>
+
+<p>"That is true, Mr. Carter. She possesses a magnificent collection of
+jewels, and wears them with an abandon against which I frequently have
+cautioned her."</p>
+
+<p>"By way of explanation," put in Mr. Garside, with an odd smile, "Venner
+might add that he enjoys quite friendly relations with the Spanish
+se&ntilde;ora."</p>
+
+<p>"I see no occasion, Garside, for comments upon my interest in Sanetta
+Cervera," declared Venner, with a frown at his partner. "My relations
+with her, Detective Carter, are only those of a friend and a gentleman.
+She called here several weeks ago to have some diamonds reset, when I
+met her personally, and was deeply impressed with her extraordinary
+grace and beauty. I since have shown her some attention."</p>
+
+<p>"Quite natural, I am sure," observed Nick, smiling indifferently. "As
+you remarked, however, none of that appears to be material. I
+understand, Mr. Venner, that you were absent when Boyden brought the
+diamonds here this morning."</p>
+
+<p>"I was," bowed Venner. "I received a note from Se&ntilde;ora Cervera this
+morning, asking me to call upon her at eleven o'clock at her rooms, and
+to bring with me a diamond pendant which we have in stock, and which I
+had the pleasure of showing her a few days ago."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, I see."</p>
+
+<p>"She stated in her note that if I would call upon her at the hour
+mentioned, she would decide whether to purchase the pendant, or have us
+make the diamond cross for her."</p>
+
+<p>"You complied with her request, Mr. Venner, and went to call upon her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is she quartered?"</p>
+
+<p>"She rents a furnished house uptown."</p>
+
+<p>"Does she live alone?"</p>
+
+<p>"With her servants only."</p>
+
+<p>"How many?"</p>
+
+<p>"She keeps a butler, a male cook, and two housemaids. Also a girl to
+look after her wardrobe and act as her dresser at the theater."</p>
+
+<p>"Evidently Se&ntilde;ora Cervera is wealthy," said Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, not exactly wealthy," rejoined Venner. "She is the popular craze
+just now, and from her professional work she derives a very large income
+which she scatters as if dollars were dead leaves. In a word, Detective
+Carter, Se&ntilde;ora Cervera is an arrant spendthrift."</p>
+
+<p>"So I have heard," nodded Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"You have?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes!" laughed the detective. "That appears to surprise you. It
+will not, when I tell you that there are very few public characters in
+New York of whose general habits I am not tolerably well informed. Of
+course, Mr. Venner, you have no doubt of this Spanish dancer's honesty?"
+Nick added, bluntly.</p>
+
+<p>Venner flushed deeply, and instantly shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Most assuredly not," he cried, with some feeling. "Se&ntilde;ora Cervera
+dishonest? Impossible!"</p>
+
+<p>"Improbable, Mr. Venner, no doubt; but not impossible."</p>
+
+<p>"It is, sir," declared Venner, positively. "I know her well. Such an
+idea is absurd. Drop it at once, Detective Carter. Indeed, sir, if I
+thought her name was to be dragged into this affair, or her reputation
+to be in any way imperiled, I would quietly suffer the loss of these
+diamonds, and cease this investigation at once."</p>
+
+<p>Nick laughed softly, and suppressed the response that, nearly rose to
+his lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't do it, Mr. Venner," said he, complacently. "My observation was
+not intended to cast any reflection upon Se&ntilde;ora Cervera. I have no doubt
+that she is perfectly honest."</p>
+
+<p>"I should hope not, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"By the way, have you the note she sent to you this morning?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Here it is."</p>
+
+<p>"By mail, or a messenger?"</p>
+
+<p>"A messenger brought it."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" murmured Nick, briefly studying the written page. "Plainly a
+foreign hand. Very firm and forceful. It indicates a strong and
+determined character. I should say that Se&ntilde;ora Cervera is a woman of
+rare qualities."</p>
+
+<p>"That is perfectly correct, sir. She is a woman of rare qualities."</p>
+
+<p>"What did she decide to do about the diamonds, Mr. Venner?"</p>
+
+<p>"She gave me an order for the cross, Detective Carter, to be made and
+delivered as soon as possible."</p>
+
+<p>"This was during your call upon her this morning?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly."</p>
+
+<p>"You had previously sent no order to Hafferman for the stones?"</p>
+
+<p>"Surely not."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet a written order was received by him, or he would not have delivered
+the goods."</p>
+
+<p>"In which case, then, it was a forgery."</p>
+
+<p>"No doubt of it," Nick readily admitted. "Chick."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Nick."</p>
+
+<p>"Take a carriage and go at once and interview Hafferman. See what you
+can learn from him. Get the written order received by him, and bring it
+here. Have a look at young Boyden, and see what you make of him. Also
+get the written signature of Mr. Hafferman, and that of each person
+employed in his store. Understand?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure thing!" nodded Chick, already seeing clearly the line Nick's
+investigation was taking, though neither Venner nor his partner yet
+perceived it. "I will return as quickly as possible."</p>
+
+<p>"You will find me here," nodded Nick. "Wait a moment!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well?"</p>
+
+<p>"Also get a description of the party who delivered the written order at
+Hafferman's store. Inquire what he said at the time, and why he did not
+attempt securing the diamonds then and there."</p>
+
+<p>"Probably he was not known there, and knew he could not get them,"
+observed Venner, by way of explanation.</p>
+
+<p>Nick made no reply to this, however, and Chick hurriedly departed.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III" />CHAPTER III.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE KILGORE DIAMOND GANG.</h3>
+
+
+<p>"Now, gentlemen, only a few more questions, and I then shall be ready to
+go at this case in a more energetic fashion," said Nick Carter,
+immediately after Chick's departure. "Were any of your clerks absent
+from the store, Mr. Venner, at the time of this robbery?"</p>
+
+<p>"As I was absent myself, I cannot say," replied Venner, rather dryly.
+"How about it, Garside?&mdash;you were here."</p>
+
+<p>"Only one clerk, a young man named Spaulding, was out of the store."</p>
+
+<p>"Was he out on business?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, under my instructions," Venner quickly explained. "We have
+numerous old accounts on our books, and just before I went uptown I sent
+Spaulding out to try to make a few collections. I think he has returned
+by this time."</p>
+
+<p>"It does not matter, since he was out under your instructions," said
+Nick, closing his notebook. "Now, Mr. Venner, who among your employees
+knew you thought of buying this lot of diamonds from Hafferman, or that
+you had called at his store to examine them?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not a soul," was the prompt reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you sure of that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Absolutely. I had said nothing of the matter, even to my partner, there
+being nothing definite about it before I saw Se&ntilde;ora Cervera this
+morning. I am sure that none of my clerks had any idea of my
+intentions."</p>
+
+<p>Nick was not so sure of it, yet he did not say so. He arose and took
+from Venner's desk a block of plain paper, which he laid upon the table.</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen," said he, "I want the signature of your firm, in the
+handwriting of each of you. Kindly let me have this."</p>
+
+<p>"What's that for?" demanded Venner, abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish to make a comparison with the forged order which my assistant
+will presently bring from Mr. Hafferman," Nick coolly explained. "I
+would suggest that you do not delay me."</p>
+
+<p>Venner made no reply, but took a pen and signed the firm's name upon the
+blank paper.</p>
+
+<p>"Now yours, Mr. Garside."</p>
+
+<p>"Mine also, Detective Carter?" queried Garside, with a look of surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"If you please."</p>
+
+<p>"Surely," cried Venner, with some resentment, "you do not suspect that
+Mr. Garside or myself&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me!" Nick bluntly interrupted. "I am not in the habit of
+discussing my suspicions. That I should suspect either of you, however,
+is utterly absurd."</p>
+
+<p>"I should say so!"</p>
+
+<p>"Therefore do not argue with me over an absurdity. If I am to continue
+this investigation, gentlemen, I must do it in my own way. Either that,
+or I shall drop the case at once. Your signature, Mr. Garside."</p>
+
+<p>Garside hastened to take the pen, and dashed off the firm's signature
+below that of his partner. Nick tore the page from the block, then
+handed the latter to Venner.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Mr. Venner," said he, "have each of your employees, from first to
+last, write his name with pen and ink upon this paper. Don't overlook
+one of them, not one, from your bookkeeper down to your office boy. If
+Spaulding is still out, get his signature later, and send it to me by
+mail. I will wait here while you are thus engaged."</p>
+
+<p>Venner now vaguely perceived Nick's suspicions and design, and he could
+not consistently offer any remonstrance. Yet he plainly resented the
+idea that any of his clerks could have been guilty of co-operation with
+the criminals who had committed the robbery that morning, and his dark
+features wore a grim and sullen expression when he took the block of
+paper and repaired to his main office.</p>
+
+<p>Nick Carter sat and waited, silently sizing up the case as he then saw
+it.</p>
+
+<p>Just as Venner returned with the numerous signatures, Chick also put in
+an appearance again, bringing with him the forged order which had been
+left at Hafferman's store. Nick merely glanced at it, then thrust it
+into his pocket.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you see Boyden?" he inquired of Chick.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and spoke with him," nodded Chick.</p>
+
+<p>"What about him?"</p>
+
+<p>"He looks all right."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you get the signatures of Hafferman and his clerks?"</p>
+
+<p>"They are on this paper."</p>
+
+<p>"Good enough. Let me have those of your employees, Mr. Venner. Are they
+all here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, all of them."</p>
+
+<p>"Very good," said Nick, putting the several papers into his pocket.
+"Now, Chick, what of the man who visited Hafferman's store with the
+forged order?"</p>
+
+<p>"He merely left the order and asked that the diamonds should be sent
+here at once."</p>
+
+<p>"What sort of a man?"</p>
+
+<p>"Dark, about fifty, with a heavy mustache and wavy hair," said Chick,
+glibly. "Quite a big fellow, Hafferman states."</p>
+
+<p>"H'm!" ejaculated Nick, with a significant nod. "Now, Mr. Garside,
+describe the man to whom you delivered the diamonds."</p>
+
+<p>"Raymond?"</p>
+
+<p>"If that is the name he gave you."</p>
+
+<p>"He is a well-built, smoothly shaven fellow, of about thirty years, with
+a sallow complexion, slightly pock-marked&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, I thought so!" Nick curtly interrupted. "That's quite sufficient,
+Mr. Garside."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean, Carter?" quickly demanded Venner. "Do you already
+recognize these criminals?"</p>
+
+<p>"I recognize their work."</p>
+
+<p>"And the men?"</p>
+
+<p>"I've them in mind from the outset."</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible!"</p>
+
+<p>"Not so, Mr. Venner," Nick now declared, with emphasis. "Without a
+shadow of doubt, sir, you have been victimized by the notorious Kilgore
+diamond gang, a trio of the shrewdest and most daring scoundrels that
+ever stood in leather."</p>
+
+<p>"You amaze me."</p>
+
+<p>"Do I?" inquired Nick, smiling softly. "Well, sir, if I were to tell you
+the history of these rascals, you would be more than amazed&mdash;you would
+be astounded. No crime is too desperate, no knavery too hazardous, no
+villainy too despicable, for them to attempt, and too often successfully
+execute. They have perpetrated their crimes over two continents, and are
+known to the police the world over."</p>
+
+<p>"That is not very complimentary to the police," said Venner, dryly. "I
+marvel that such distinguished scoundrels are still at large."</p>
+
+<p>"A fact which stamps them no ordinary criminals," replied Nick,
+pointedly. "Nor are they, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you know of them, Detective Carter?"</p>
+
+<p>"David Kilgore, the chief of the gang, is one of the shrewdest and most
+daring of knaves, a man of splendid education, polished manners and
+broad experience. He possesses nerves of steel, the cunning of a fox,
+and would not shrink even from murder, if his designs required it. Yet
+he invariably covers his tracks so cleverly, or so quickly vanishes when
+hard pressed, that thus far he has successfully eluded the police.
+That's David Kilgore, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"And what of his associates?" inquired Venner. "I think you spoke of a
+trio."</p>
+
+<p>"His confederates are scamps of the same sort, and nearly his equal in
+craft and daring," replied Nick. "Perry Dalton is one&mdash;the smooth,
+pock-marked rascal whom you, Mr. Garside, had the pleasure of meeting
+this morning. He is nicknamed Spotty Dalton, because of his slight
+disfigurement."</p>
+
+<p>"And the other?"</p>
+
+<p>"Is a man named Matthew Stall, more commonly called Matt Stall. He is a
+Western man, a graduate of a California university, and is an expert
+electrician. Oh, I know all about them," laughed Nick, "although this is
+the first time I have been up against them personally. I am rather glad
+to discover that they are here in New York."</p>
+
+<p>"Why so, Detective Carter?" Venner carelessly inquired, with a subtle
+gleam in the depths of his dark eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Because I have long wanted to match my talents against those of Dave
+Kilgore and his rascally push," declared Nick, with grim austerity. "The
+last I knew of them they were in Amsterdam, Holland, where some of the
+finest work in diamond cutting is done, as you doubtless know."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, yes."</p>
+
+<p>"They probably had to jump that country for obvious reasons, and very
+likely the European continent," added Nick. "They have long avoided New
+York, and the fact that they are now here is significant of&mdash;well, well,
+we shall see! That's all, gentlemen!"</p>
+
+<p>"But what do you intend doing about this case?" demanded Venner, as Nick
+abruptly rose to go.</p>
+
+<p>"All that can be done, sir," the famous detective bluntly rejoined. "I
+accept the case, Mr. Venner, and will do my best with it. When I have
+anything to report, you shall hear from me."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"There really is nothing more to be said, gentlemen, and the sooner I
+get to work the better," Nick gravely interposed.</p>
+
+<p>"But will you advise me of any steps that you may take?" persisted
+Venner, briefly detaining him by the arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Very probably," nodded Nick, though really he probably would do nothing
+of the kind. "And now good-day, gentlemen. If reporters call upon you,
+you may give them all of the facts, and state that Nick Carter is at
+work on the case. I want this Kilgore diamond gang to know at the outset
+that I am after them&mdash;and fully resolved to land them where they
+belong."</p>
+
+<p>"Behind prison bars, eh?" inquired Venner, with an odd smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir! Behind prison bars!" declared Nick, forcibly. "Again,
+gentlemen, good-day. You will hear from me later."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Rufus Venner, with his partner at his elbow, stood in the office
+door and silently watched the two celebrated detectives as they strode
+quickly through the elegant store, from which they presently vanished
+into Fifth Avenue.</p>
+
+<p>There was a smile of subtle cunning, combined with cruel and malicious
+determination, on Venner's dark face and he muttered under his breath,
+as the store door closed upon Nick's imposing figure:</p>
+
+<p>"Hear from you later, eh? Very good. Very good, indeed, Mr. Detective
+Carter! Hear from you again&mdash;that is precisely what I want! Early and
+often, Detective Carter; early and often, if you please! It is precisely
+for what the little robbery of this April morning was invented!"</p>
+
+<p>"But was it necessary&mdash;was it really necessary, Rufus?" whispered
+Garside, who alone had overheard, and whose paler face and tremulous
+figure betrayed fears which his swarthy senior partner would have
+scorned to feel. "This Carter is a most artful and discerning man. I am
+so afraid you have barked up the wrong tree. Was it necessary, really
+necessary, Rufus?"</p>
+
+<p>Venner turned upon him with a half-smothered snarl of contempt.</p>
+
+<p>"Bah! You'd be afraid of your own shadow, Garside, if left alone with
+it," he sneered, between his white, even teeth. "Necessary&mdash;of course it
+was necessary! Otherwise, I should not have adopted the ruse. We are
+about to attempt a big game&mdash;an infernally big game! When it matures,
+when it is finally launched, the very first concern that finds itself
+bitten will rush to Nick Carter for aid."</p>
+
+<p>"There is no doubt of that, Rufus."</p>
+
+<p>"Surely no doubt of it! He is the greatest detective in the country&mdash;and
+the greatest will be none too clever, nor too expensive, for those who
+find themselves duped by our unparalleled design."</p>
+
+<p>"I should say so."</p>
+
+<p>"What will be the result, Philip?&mdash;what will be the result?" added
+Venner, with a curious mingling of exultation and asperity. "If our
+victims appeal to Nick Carter for help&mdash;are we not also already in his
+good graces? Have we not insured his confidence in us by this little
+move of to-day? Will he not reveal himself and his suspicions to us,
+just as I have designed, and keep us posted about his every move, and so
+forewarned and forearmed? Of course he will&mdash;to be sure he will!"</p>
+
+<p>"But he is such a crafty and daring&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Bah! Is he more crafty than Dave Kilgore?" demanded Venner,
+significantly. "Is he more daring than Spotty Dalton, or more determined
+than anyone of the Kilgore gang? Not by a long chalk, Philip, and I know
+of them of whom I speak. Ay, as much and more of them than does
+Detective Nick Carter."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps you are right, Rufus," murmured Garside, nodding. "We certainly
+are about launching a tremendous, an utterly unparalleled, swindle. The
+like of it was never, never known. There should be millions in it. Yes,
+yes, Rufus, you are right. It was wise to preface our gigantic
+operations by getting well in touch with Nick Carter."</p>
+
+<p>"To be sure, it was wise, Philip, or I should not have taken the trouble
+to do so," said Venner, with much less acrimony. "So be a man always,
+Philip, and never a flunky. You have played your part admirably this
+morning. Let it be played as well, Philip, even to the finish&mdash;even to
+the last ditch!"</p>
+
+<p>Philip Garside's color had returned, and he smiled confidently and
+nodded in approval.</p>
+
+<p>Plainly enough, this hushed yet emphatic intercourse between these two
+indicated one fact&mdash;that Detective Nick Carter was up against a far
+deeper game than he then imagined.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV" />CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+
+<h3>GETTING DOWN TO WORK.</h3>
+
+
+<p>"Well, Nick, old man, what have you made of it?"</p>
+
+<p>The question came from Chick Carter, in his familiar and cheerful
+fashion, several hours after the interview held by the two detectives
+with Rufus Venner and his partner in their Fifth Avenue store.</p>
+
+<p>It was now about six o'clock in the evening, and Chick had just returned
+from having a confidential talk with one of the stage hands of the
+theater in which the then famous attraction, the mammoth European and
+American vaudeville troupe, of which Se&ntilde;ora Cervera was a star
+attraction, had for several months been playing to crowded houses.</p>
+
+<p>Chick found Nick seated at the table in his library, with a powerful
+magnifying glass in his hand, while the table was strewn with the papers
+he that morning had brought from the office of Venner &amp; Co.</p>
+
+<p>Nick looked up with a laugh, and knocked the ashes from his cigar.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, there's no doubt about it, Chick," he replied. "We are finally up
+against them."</p>
+
+<p>"The Kilgore diamond gang?"</p>
+
+<p>"Precisely."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm glad of it, Nick, as you remarked this morning."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I've not changed my mind since then. So am I."</p>
+
+<p>"We shall now find out whether they are as crafty and desperate as they
+have been painted."</p>
+
+<p>"I guess there is no doubt about it, Chick."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if we fail to throw them down, Nick, my money shall go on Kilgore
+from that moment," declared Chick, with a grin. "What have you dug out
+of that mess of papers, Nick? Have you arrived at any conclusions?"</p>
+
+<p>"Rather!" smiled Nick, significantly. "Did you ever know me to study for
+five hours over anything of this kind without arriving at some
+conclusion?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never!" laughed Chick. "And the best of it is, Nick, your conclusions
+nearly always prove to be correct. What's the verdict, old man?"</p>
+
+<p>Nick glanced at the French clock on the mantel.</p>
+
+<p>"Sit down and light up," he replied. "We have half an hour before
+getting down to work against this push. I will devote it to informing
+you of the case as it now appears."</p>
+
+<p>"Good enough!" exclaimed Chick, drawing up a chair and lighting a cigar.
+"Let her go, Nick. I am all ears, as the donkey said to the deacon."</p>
+
+<p>"To begin with," began Nick, more gravely, "this order sent to
+Hafferman, for the diamonds which he delivered at Venner's store, is
+merely a forgery. Neither Venner nor Garside wrote it, that's as plain
+as the nose on an elephant's face."</p>
+
+<p>"Which is plain enough, surely," nodded Chick.</p>
+
+<p>"Furthermore," continued Nick, "the forgery was not the work of any
+clerk employed in either store. I have compared the writing of each and
+every clerk with that of the forged order, and I will stake my
+reputation upon my conclusion. The forgery was committed by some outside
+party."</p>
+
+<p>Nick was an expert chirographist. To have deceived him with a disguised
+handwriting would have been utterly impossible, and none knew it better
+than Chick, who now nodded approvingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Some outside party, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is no doubt of it, Chick. And this conclusion at once suggests
+two very natural questions," Nick went on. "First, was one of the
+Kilgore gang in Hafferman's store when Venner went there yesterday, and
+did he overhear enough of what passed between them to enable him to plan
+the job done this morning?"</p>
+
+<p>"Possibly."</p>
+
+<p>"In opposition to that theory, however, is the fact that the forged
+order is written on one of Venner's printed letter sheets."</p>
+
+<p>"By a little adroit work, Nick, one of the gang could have obtained a
+sheet of Venner's office paper."</p>
+
+<p>"That is very true," admitted Nick. "But since this is a theory founded
+only upon conjecture, with no positive evidence to back it up, the
+stronger probability is rather to the contrary."</p>
+
+<p>"Right, Nick, as far as that goes."</p>
+
+<p>"I think so."</p>
+
+<p>"And what is the second theory suggested?"</p>
+
+<p>"That some clerk in one of the stores got wind of Venner's contemplated
+purchase, and revealed the fact to one of the Kilgore gang, by whom I
+am confident&mdash;bear in mind&mdash;that the crime was committed."</p>
+
+<p>"That theory seems plausible," nodded Chick. "There is young Boyden, you
+know, at Hafferman's. He may have got wise to Venner's intentions.
+Garside remarked that he appeared quite anxious to leave the diamonds
+until Venner should return. That would have been very natural on his
+part, in case he was then co-operating with the party who finally
+secured them."</p>
+
+<p>"The same objection again arises, however," argued Nick. "Boyden is not
+employed at Venner's, and therefore has not access to his letter paper.
+Furthermore, Venner's visit was made only yesterday afternoon, less than
+twenty-four hours before the robbery occurred. It seems hardly probable
+that Boyden was already in league with the Kilgore gang; and, if he was
+not, it is even less probable that he so quickly got in touch with
+them."</p>
+
+<p>"By Jove! that's so," cried Chick. "As a matter of fact, then, neither
+of these theories has a reliable leg to stand upon."</p>
+
+<p>"That's exactly my conclusion," laughed Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"And what then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Concerning that side of the affair," replied Nick, "several
+irresistible convictions are therefore forced upon me. One of the
+Kilgore gang certainly knew of Venner's visit, and of the request he
+made Hafferman regarding the diamonds. Otherwise he could not have
+planned the job so neatly. Somebody must have informed him. Somebody
+must have provided him with one of Venner's letter sheets. If we
+eliminate the clerks, and the members of both firms, we are left very
+much in the dark."</p>
+
+<p>"I should say so," rejoined Chick. "The affair becomes a dense mystery."</p>
+
+<p>"It becomes a mystery that I don't quite fancy," declared Nick, with a
+significant nod. "In fact, Chick, I'm not at all favorably impressed
+with this robbery. To me it has a mighty fishy look."</p>
+
+<p>"Why so, Nick?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is not like this Kilgore gang, mark you, to have been dickering with
+a dirty little job of this kind, netting them only a few thousands at
+the best; yet a job in which they incurred as much danger of detection,
+Chick, as in one infinitely greater."</p>
+
+<p>"By Jove! that's so. There's no getting away from that argument, Nick."</p>
+
+<p>"Instead of trying to get away from it, Chick, I'm going to stay with
+it," continued Nick, with emphasis. "I am beginning to suspect that this
+paltry little robbery may in some way make a far deeper and darker game.
+At all events, Chick, we'll not wind ourselves in a search for those
+diamonds, at least not before we have sifted these side issues a little
+finer."</p>
+
+<p>"Good enough!" cried Chick, heartily. "I agree with you on every point.
+Only your long head, Nick, old man, could have deduced such shrewd
+conclusions; and I believe, by Jove! that you have hit the nail on the
+head."</p>
+
+<p>"If I have," rejoined Nick, grimly, "we'll drive the nail home a little
+later, and home to stay."</p>
+
+<p>"That we will."</p>
+
+<p>"There remains one other feature of the case," added Nick, "and,
+starting from that, we will begin work upon the affair this very night."</p>
+
+<p>"You refer to that Spanish dancer, Cervera?"</p>
+
+<p>"Precisely."</p>
+
+<p>"And the fact that she requested Venner to call at her house this
+morning?"</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly," nodded Nick. "She fixed the hour, mind you, probably knowing
+that Venner would comply with her request. Hence there exists a
+possibility that she designed to get him away from his store at just
+that time, in order that the robbery could be successfully executed."</p>
+
+<p>"In which case, Nick, we necessarily must figure her in with the Kilgore
+gang, despite Venner's declaration of her honesty."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly we must, Chick, in case her note to Venner was written for
+the purpose mentioned," nodded Nick. "Of that, however, we have no
+positive evidence. It may have been purely accidental that her note was
+sent to-day, and mentioned the very hour when the theft was committed.
+Obviously, in that case, the thief outside was waiting for some
+opportunity when Venner should be away from his store. Cervera would
+then be out of the affair, as far as any criminal intent is concerned."</p>
+
+<p>"Very probably."</p>
+
+<p>"So there you are!" exclaimed Nick, with another glance at the clock.
+"Our half hour is up. You now have my measure of the case, and next we
+will get down to business. We will drop this fishy-looking robbery for
+the present, Chick, and first of all make a move to learn something
+about Se&ntilde;ora Cervera, and her relations with Rufus Venner."</p>
+
+<p>"A good scheme, Nick, and I'm with you."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you been at the theater?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and fixed things with Busby."</p>
+
+<p>"You can get in upon the stage to-night?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure thing, as I told you," laughed Chick. "Busby is the boss scene
+shifter there, and he consented to work me in as a stage hand."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! very good."</p>
+
+<p>"I have got to make up for the part, however, and must soon be about it.
+I am due there at half-past seven."</p>
+
+<p>"Get at it, then," said Nick, rising. "See what you can learn about
+Cervera, and what you make of her from observation. In case Venner is
+about there, keep your ears alert, so that you can overhear."</p>
+
+<p>"You trust me for that, Nick," cried Chick, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"Meantime, Chick, I'll have a look at the show from the front," added
+Nick. "And after Cervera does her turn, in case Venner is there, and she
+departs with him, you then may leave the couple to me. I'll be waiting
+for them at the stage door."</p>
+
+<p>"Right you are, Nick. So here goes!"</p>
+
+<p>Shrewd deductions, indeed, those of Nick Carter.</p>
+
+<p>Plainly enough, Garside was quite justified in his apprehension that
+Rufus Venner had barked up the wrong tree.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V" />CHAPTER V.</h2>
+
+<h3>BEHIND THE SCENES.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Nick Carter had a double object in the work laid out for that night. If
+Se&ntilde;ora Cervera was indeed in league with the Kilgore gang, and in any
+way responsible for the diamond robbery, Nick was resolved to secure
+positive evidence of it.</p>
+
+<p>While her letter to Venner appeared to implicate her, since it had taken
+him from his store just at the time of the robbery, it seemed hardly
+probable that this brilliant Spanish girl, whose extraordinary grace and
+whirlwind dances had made her the talk of the town, could be identified
+with a gang of criminals notorious the world over. Yet the bare
+possibility existed, and Nick never ignored even the shadow of a clew.</p>
+
+<p>He further reasoned that, in case Cervera was in league with the
+suspected gang, one or more of them might visit the theater in which she
+was performing, and Nick decided to have a look at the audience that
+evening. He was sure he could identify Kilgore or any of his gang, even
+if disguised, as would be very probable.</p>
+
+<p>Nick's second object was that of learning the exact relations between
+Se&ntilde;ora Cervera and Rufus Venner, and a part of that work he confided to
+Chick. With himself in the front of the house, and Chick on the stage,
+Nick believed that nothing worth seeing would escape them.</p>
+
+<p>His own search early in the evening, however, proved futile. It was the
+last week but one of the mammoth vaudeville attraction, and the theater
+was densely crowded. Though Nick watched the lobbies and the smoking
+room, and also made a systematic study of the auditorium, he could
+discover no sign of the parties he was seeking.</p>
+
+<p>About nine o'clock he returned to his chair in the orchestra, and
+settled himself to have a look at Cervera, whose act was one of the last
+on the program.</p>
+
+<p>Just at that time Chick Carter, in the overalls and blouse of a scene
+shifter, made his first pertinent discovery&mdash;that Rufus Venner, clad in
+immaculate evening dress, and carrying an Inverness topcoat on his arm,
+had arrived upon the stage.</p>
+
+<p>"He seems to be at home behind the scenes," soliloquized Chick,
+furtively watching him. "Evidently he has some kind of a pull with the
+manager, or he could not get admission to the stage. Probably through
+his friend, the Spanish se&ntilde;ora."</p>
+
+<p>Venner was then in one of the left wings, apparently indulging in small
+talk with a handsome girl of about twenty, who had just finished her
+turn upon the stage. She was rather simply clad, but was strikingly
+pretty and modest appearing; and upon consulting a program with which he
+had provided himself, Chick learned that her stage name was Violet
+Marduke; and that she was cast as a singer of ballads.</p>
+
+<p>"Evidently employed to fill in," thought Chick, who had not been much
+impressed with her songs, though he decided that the girl herself was a
+beauty. "And by his admiring glances, Venner also thinks pretty well of
+her," Chick mentally added.</p>
+
+<p>"Room here, mister," growled a voice at his elbow. "Make room for the
+reptiles."</p>
+
+<p>Chick turned quickly about, and then involuntarily recoiled from the
+startling object that met his gaze.</p>
+
+<p>In front of a scene then set in the second grooves of the Stage, the
+continuous performance was still in progress. Meantime, several of the
+stage hands were wheeling to the center of the stage, back of the scene,
+the properties of the next performer on the program&mdash;and grewsome
+properties they were.</p>
+
+<p>The object beheld by Chick was a huge, cagelike den, mounted on low
+wheels, and having a broad front of plate glass. Inside of this den were
+several wicker baskets, some of which were open, while others were
+covered and locked.</p>
+
+<p>In the open baskets, or writhing freely about the floor of the den, were
+fully fifty serpents of various sizes, many being only a foot or two
+long, while several were as many yards in length.</p>
+
+<p>A more repulsive and blood-curdling sight Chick had never experienced,
+and the stage hand who had asked him to move laughed at his look of
+mingled horror and repugnance.</p>
+
+<p>"Ever seen any like 'em after a jamboree?" he inquired, good-naturedly.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, hardly," said Chick, subduing his aversion. "If I were to go on a
+drunk and see anything like them, I'd sign the pledge the next morning."</p>
+
+<p>"A good scheme, too."</p>
+
+<p>"I should say so."</p>
+
+<p>"Some o' the crawling divils are as bad as they look," added the stage
+hand, while he helped to place the snake den squarely on the stage.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?" inquired Chick, still gingerly surveying them.</p>
+
+<p>"Pizen!"</p>
+
+<p>"Venomous?"</p>
+
+<p>"You bet! Durn 'em, I wouldn't touch one of them for the wealth of
+Rockefeller."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean that some of them still have their fangs and poison bags?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure! D'ye see that little copper-colored cuss down there in the
+corner, not more'n a foot long? If he got a crack at you, you'd not live
+ten seconds."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I will take deuced good care that he gets no nip at me," declared
+Chick, with a grin. "Why do they have such dangerous things around?"</p>
+
+<p>"H'm! What would be the excitement, or the credit of snake charming, if
+the wriggling beasts were made harmless by pulling out their fangs?"
+demanded the stage hand. "It would be like a dog fight, with the dogs
+muzzled. These belong to that heathen Hindoo, the snake charmer. He
+shows next."</p>
+
+<p>"Pandu Singe?" inquired Chick, glancing at the name on the program.</p>
+
+<p>"Sure. He handles 'em like so many babies. There he is now, just coming
+from his dressing room. He looks a bit like a snake himself."</p>
+
+<p>Chick turned and gazed curiously at the approaching foreigner.</p>
+
+<p>Pandu Singe was a tall, swarthy man, with straight, black hair, an
+Indian cast of features, and a pair of intensely black and piercing
+eyes. Their glitter was indeed like that in the eyes of a snake, yet the
+Hindoo, approaching without a word to anybody, or a glance to either
+side, was not without a certain sort of savage dignity.</p>
+
+<p>He wore a red turban around his head, while a loose, black robe, belted
+around his waist, reached nearly to his ankles. With a gesture he signed
+the several men away from his hideous den of reptiles, and Chick retired
+up the stage.</p>
+
+<p>The detective had barely made his change, when he heard the low voice of
+Busby near by, the friend who had smuggled him upon the stage that
+evening.</p>
+
+<p>"Hist! There she is, Chick!"</p>
+
+<p>"Cervera?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Down yonder, just to the right of the electric switchboard. Slip
+in back of this wood wing, and you can have a good look at her."</p>
+
+<p>"All right, Busby, old man," whispered Chick. "Don't you pay too much
+attention to me, or it may be noticed. I'll see all there is to be seen,
+old boy."</p>
+
+<p>Busby winked understandingly, and Chick stepped back of the scenery
+mentioned, through a portion of which he could easily watch Cervera
+unobserved.</p>
+
+<p>That she was a daughter of sunny Spain no man would have doubted. Her
+wavy hair was as dark as night, and her eyes were as radiant as the
+night stars. Her rich, olive complexion was much rouged, adding to the
+brilliancy of her splendid beauty.</p>
+
+<p>She appeared to be about twenty-five, and was clad in her stage costume,
+which combined all the bright hues of the rainbow, and was enlivened by
+a myriad of dazzling jewels and diamonds.</p>
+
+<p>The costume served to display to advantage her matchless figure,
+however, and Chick was fain to admit that he had never seen a much more
+striking beauty.</p>
+
+<p>"She's a bird, all right, and no mistake," he said to himself, while
+intently regarding her handsome face and jewel-bedecked figure. "Yet she
+has a bad eye, despite her beauty, and a cruel mouth. She certainly
+would put up a wicked fight, if once aroused. Yes, a deucedly bad eye!
+What in thunder is she staring at, to look like that!"</p>
+
+<p>From her position near one of the lower wings, Sanetta Cervera was
+gazing steadfastly across the stage at something which Chick could not
+see.</p>
+
+<p>The dark eyes of the Spanish dancer had taken on a threatening glare.
+Her curved brows had drooped and knit, until they formed a straight line
+below her forehead, and her red lips were drawn and firmly compressed.</p>
+
+<p>Before Chick could discover any occasion for this mute display of
+feeling, the performance in front of the set scene concluded, and the
+act of the snake charmer was due to begin.</p>
+
+<p>Then came a rapid change of scenery, during which Chick was again
+obliged to change his position, and for a time he lost sight of Cervera
+in the stir and confusion of the busy stage.</p>
+
+<p>He did not succeed in locating her again until she began her
+performance, when a full stage was given her for the marvelously
+graceful and impassioned dances of which her act consisted, and which
+had fairly turned half the heads in the city.</p>
+
+<p>In the white glare of the limelight, she certainly presented a wild and
+dazzling picture. Her beauty was indescribably accentuated. She appeared
+like a being ablaze with diamonds. Her every attitude was one of
+seductive grace, her every movement as swift and light as those of a
+startled leopard.</p>
+
+<p>At its conclusion her act evoked thunders of applause, and then Chick
+saw her hastening toward her dressing room, flushed with excitement and
+panting for breath.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly she halted and her smile vanished.</p>
+
+<p>Then Chick saw her turn abruptly toward one of the wing scenes, where
+she met Venner face to face.</p>
+
+<p>The wealthy Fifth Avenue jeweler laughed and extended his hand to greet
+her, but she frowned and hesitated before accepting it; and Chick made a
+quick move and stole back of the scenery, near which the two briefly
+remained standing.</p>
+
+<p>He arrived in time to overhear only a few words, however, of which he
+could make nothing bearing upon the diamond robbery, or relating to the
+Kilgore gang.</p>
+
+<p>"Pshaw! You are entirely wrong, Sanetta," Venner was expostulating, with
+voice lowered. "Your eyes have deceived you."</p>
+
+<p>The woman replied through her teeth, with a hiss like that of a snake.</p>
+
+<p>"My eyes deceived me? Never! You lie! I know what I see!" she fiercely
+answered, with but a slight foreign accent.</p>
+
+<p>"You are wrong, Cervera," protested Venner. "I&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I am not! I see&mdash;and I know!"</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Caramba!</i> I say you shall go with me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, certainly, if you wish it. Am I not here for that?"</p>
+
+<p>"You know that I wish it&mdash;and you shall go."</p>
+
+<p>"Whenever you are ready, Sanetta," replied Venner. "Yet your infernal&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Silence! You shall wait here till I have changed my suit. Then we will
+go&mdash;we will go together. You shall wait here."</p>
+
+<p>"Go and make the change, then," said Venner, bluntly. "I will be here
+when you return."</p>
+
+<p>"H'm!" thought Chick, as he heard Cervera move quickly away. "Evidently
+there is something amiss between them, but what the dickens is it?"</p>
+
+<p>Still watching, he soon saw Cervera return in her street attire, when
+Venner quickly gave her his arm, and they departed by the stairs leading
+to the stage door.</p>
+
+<p>Chick immediately recalled Nick's instructions&mdash;that the couple should
+now be left to him.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI" />CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+
+<h3>A SHOT IN THE DARK.</h3>
+
+
+<p>It was nearly eleven o'clock when Rufus Venner and Cervera, the latter
+enveloped in a voluminous black cloak, emerged from the stage door of
+the theater.</p>
+
+<p>As they made their way through the paved area leading out to the side
+street, where a carriage was awaiting them, a sturdy, roughly clad
+fellow in a red wig and croppy beard suddenly slouched out of a gloomy
+corner near the stage stairway and followed them, with movements as
+stealthy and silent as those of a cat.</p>
+
+<p>As the carriage containing Venner and the dancer rapidly whirled away,
+this rough fellow darted swiftly across the street, and approached a
+waiting cab, the door of which stood open.</p>
+
+<p>"After them, Patsy!" he softly cried, as he sprang in and closed the
+door.</p>
+
+<p>The driver of the cab was one of Nick Carter's youthful yet exceedingly
+clever assistants, and the rough fellow was Nick himself.</p>
+
+<p>He had left the theater the moment Cervera concluded her performance,
+and since had completed a perfect disguise in the cab, which he had had
+in waiting, with all the properties for effecting the change mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>That Patsy would constantly keep their quarry in view, and without being
+suspected, Nick had not a doubt. Nor was he mistaken. At the end of
+twenty minutes the clever young driver slowed down upon approaching an
+uptown corner, and signaled Nick to get out.</p>
+
+<p>The detective alighted from the door on the side from which he had
+received the signal, yet the cab did not stop. Nick trotted along beside
+the vehicle for a rod or two, keeping it between him and the side street
+into which Patsy quickly signed that the hack had turned.</p>
+
+<p>"Fourth house on the right," he softly cried. "I saw them pull up at it
+just as I reached the corner, so I kept right on up the avenue. They've
+not gone in yet."</p>
+
+<p>"Good enough," replied Nick, approvingly. "Take home the traps I have
+left in the cab."</p>
+
+<p>"Sure thing. You don't want any help to-night against this push, do
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, indeed. There'll be but little doing to-night, I imagine. Remember
+the house, however, in case I fail to show up."</p>
+
+<p>"You may gamble on that, sir. I have it down pat."</p>
+
+<p>They had now passed the upper corner of the side street, and Nick felt
+sure that he had not been seen leaving the cab. He darted quickly back
+of the vehicle and gained the sidewalk, then stole back and peered
+around the corner.</p>
+
+<p>Cervera and her companion were just mounting the steps of an imposing
+stone residence, entirely separate from its neighbors, and their
+carriage was driving rapidly away.</p>
+
+<p>Nick waited until the couple had entered the house, then he crossed to
+the gloom of a doorway on the opposite side and had a look at the
+dwelling.</p>
+
+<p>From basement to roof there was no sign of a light. Even the hall
+appeared to be in darkness, and Nick waited and watched for several
+minutes, expecting to see at least one of the rooms lighted.</p>
+
+<p>Not a glimmer or gleam, however, appeared from any quarter.</p>
+
+<p>"H'm!" he presently muttered, a little perplexed. "Either they are
+remaining in darkness, or else they have all of those windows heavily
+curtained. If the latter is the case, I must discover for what reason.</p>
+
+<p>"Possibly they are entirely alone in there, and have gone to some room
+at the rear of the house. Or maybe they have suspected an espionage, and
+are now watching from the gloom of one of those front windows. I'll fool
+them if that is so, and will also have a look at the rear of the house.
+There is something out of the ordinary here, that's certain."</p>
+
+<p>Keeping well in the gloom of the block of dwellings near by, Nick
+retraced his steps to the corner, then crossed the street and presently
+approached a paved driveway leading to a small stable at the rear of the
+suspected house.</p>
+
+<p>The high gate, composed of sharp iron pickets, was securely closed and
+locked; so Nick returned to an alley which he had just passed, and which
+ran back of a block of dwellings fronting on the avenue where he had
+left the cab.</p>
+
+<p>Stealing into the alley, Nick quickly scaled the high, wooden fence,
+crossed two adjoining back yards, and thus reached a wall near the
+stable mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>To mount the wall and drop back of the stable was equally feasible, and
+Nick then had the rear of Cervera's dwelling plainly in view.</p>
+
+<p>Then his searching gaze was rewarded. One of the rear rooms was brightly
+lighted, with only the lace draperies at the two windows preventing
+observation from outside.</p>
+
+<p>"Evidently a rear sitting room, or library," thought Nick, calculating
+the arrangement of the house. "I will at least learn who is in there."</p>
+
+<p>He listened briefly for any sound in or about the stable, then stole
+quickly across the gloomy, paved yard and approached the house.</p>
+
+<p>The windows of the lighted room were two feet or more above his head;
+but having reached a position just below one of them, he sprang up and
+seized the stone coping outside, and drew himself up to peer into the
+room.</p>
+
+<p>Then, just as his head rose into the glow of light from within, clearly
+revealing his location, Nick heard a sound the deadly nature of which he
+instantly recognized.</p>
+
+<p>Ping!</p>
+
+<p>It was the short, sharp, peculiar song of a flying bullet&mdash;once heard,
+always remembered.</p>
+
+<p>Then came the dull thud when the leaden ball beat itself shapeless
+against the stone wall beside him.</p>
+
+<p>The bullet had passed within an inch of Nick's ribs, and he knew at once
+that he was now a mark for hidden foes.</p>
+
+<p>Yet there had been no revolver report to suggest their location, and
+Nick instantly surmised that the ball must have been discharged with an
+air gun.</p>
+
+<p>He knew that it must have come from some quarter behind him, however.
+And he knew, too, how to bring his murderous assailants from their
+secret cover.</p>
+
+<p>As quick as a flash, the instant the ball smote the wall beside him,
+Nick let go his hold upon the stone coping and dropped into the darkness
+below the window, falling prostrate upon his back.</p>
+
+<p>As he lay there his hand touched something hot, and he drew it nearer to
+examine it.</p>
+
+<p>It was the battered chunk of lead which had come within an inch of
+ending his life.</p>
+
+<p>"They meant business, for sure," he said to himself, while waiting for
+his quick-witted ruse to operate. "I'm blessed if this affair is not
+taking on a new and lively interest. I reckon there'll be more doing
+to-night than I gave Patsy to believe.</p>
+
+<p>"Ha, ha! The scoundrels are already breaking cover!"</p>
+
+<p>His alert ears had detected a sound from the direction of the stable,
+and now he silently drew his revolver and held it gripped by his side.</p>
+
+<p>Presently the stable door was cautiously opened. Then a momentary beam
+of light, evidently from a bull's-eye lantern, shot across the paved
+area, and lingered for an instant upon Nick's prostrate figure.</p>
+
+<p>Nick remained as motionless as a corpse.</p>
+
+<p>Then two men, both large and powerful fellows, and both heavily bearded,
+came quickly from the stable and hastened toward him.</p>
+
+<p>"Done for with a single shot," remarked one, as they approached.</p>
+
+<p>"Looks like it, Dave," was the reply. "When I piped his head in the
+light from the window, I felt sure I could drop him."</p>
+
+<p>"Well done. 'Twas a good shot. Shove your hand inside his vest, and see
+if his heart is beating. Then we shall know for sure whether he's down
+and out. If not, we must&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Throw up your hands, instead, both of you!" Nick sternly interrupted,
+half rising with weapon leveled. "At the first move by either, I will
+shoot to kill!"</p>
+
+<p>Nick had foreseen that his foxy strategy must be very quickly detected,
+and he had resolved to take the bull by the horns, and attempt to arrest
+both of his cowardly assailants.</p>
+
+<p>That he was up against uncommon men, however, men of extraordinary nerve
+and reckless daring, appeared in what instantly followed, even under the
+very muzzle of the detective's revolver.</p>
+
+<p>As quick as a flash, before Nick's threatening command was fairly out of
+his mouth, the man called Dave made a kick at the detective's uplifted
+arm, so swift and accurate and forceful that Nick felt the bones of his
+wrist fairly crack under the blow, and the fingers of his hand gripping
+the weapon turned numb and tingling as if from an electric shock.</p>
+
+<p>"At him!" snarled the ruffian, even while he kicked. "At him, I say!
+Quick&mdash;the pear!"</p>
+
+<p>It was plain that these men were not doing such desperate work together
+for the first time. Both fell upon Nick like wolves upon a stricken elk,
+yet they found the detective waiting for them.</p>
+
+<p>Nick hurled one aside, unable to use his revolver, and grappled with the
+second, both falling heavily to the pavement.</p>
+
+<p>Then number one was at him again, and got him by the throat, with a grip
+from which Nick thrice wrenched himself free, at the same time fiercely
+banging the head of the other upon the stones upon which the terrific
+combat was being waged.</p>
+
+<p>An oath of vicious rage broke from the latter, and then he fiercely
+cried again:</p>
+
+<p>"The pear! D&mdash;&mdash; you, be quick! The pear!&mdash;the pear!"</p>
+
+<p>As if in response to this, Nick, who was panting under his violent
+efforts to overcome both powerful men, suddenly felt something thrust
+forcibly into his mouth.</p>
+
+<p>Still manfully battling with his opponents, Nick tried to eject the
+object, opening his jaws wider in the effort.</p>
+
+<p>The object, which was shaped like a solid pear, instantly expanded, and
+Nick could not close his jaws.</p>
+
+<p>Again he tried, opening them still wider, and again the pear-shaped
+object expanded and held them rigid.</p>
+
+<p>Then Nick guessed the truth.</p>
+
+<p>While struggling with might and main to beat these ruffians, he had been
+made the victim of an infernal instrument but seldom seen in these days,
+and one of the most agonizing and diabolical devices of man's perverted
+ingenuity.</p>
+
+<p>The object in Nick's mouth was a "choke pear!"</p>
+
+<p>This vicious instrument of torture dates back to the time of Palioly,
+the notorious French robber and renegade, when it was very worthily
+called "the pear of anguish."</p>
+
+<p>It consists of a solid gag, so to speak, yet it is so constructed, with
+interior springs, that, once thrust into a person's mouth, it expands as
+fast as the mouth is opened, and rigidly distends the victim's jaws.</p>
+
+<p>The more widely the victim gapes to eject the "choke pear," or to cry
+out for aid, the larger the hideous object becomes, until torture,
+suffocation and death speedily ensue.</p>
+
+<p>Had this infernal device been generally available to modern criminals,
+Nick would have been warned by the significant words he had heard, and
+would have guarded himself against it.</p>
+
+<p>As it was, however, he had been caught; and in the mouth of any ordinary
+man the "choke pear" would have been irresistible.</p>
+
+<p>But the muscles of Nick Carter's jaws were like fibers of steel, and the
+instant he realized his situation he opened his mouth no wider. Instead,
+while hands and arms were still engaged in the furious conflict with his
+assailants, he brought his jaws together as if with superhuman power,
+and with a force that crushed the infernal device between them, much as
+if it had been little more than an eggshell.</p>
+
+<p>One of the ruffians heard the snapping crunch, and uttered a cry of
+amazement.</p>
+
+<p>The cry was echoed by hurried footsteps in the house.</p>
+
+<p>Then a rear door was suddenly thrown open by Rufus Venner, and a flood
+of light revealed the struggling men, still battling furiously on the
+pavement.</p>
+
+<p>Nick now had both opponents down, and within another minute he would
+have had them at his mercy, a fact which Venner instantly perceived.</p>
+
+<p>He sprang nearer, drew his revolver, and dealt the detective a single
+swinging blow upon the head.</p>
+
+<p>Nick dropped like an ox struck down in the shambles.</p>
+
+<p>The darkness of night was as nothing to the darkness that instantly fell
+upon him.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII" />CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+<h3>A STRATEGIC MOVE.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Nick Carter had a head that was used to hard knocks, and it required
+more than one to put him down and out for any considerable period.</p>
+
+<p>The great detective recovered consciousness within half an hour after
+the blow received from Rufus Venner, and he fell to taking the measure
+of his situation the moment the cobwebs began to clear from his brain.</p>
+
+<p>He found himself bound hand and foot with ropes, and lying upon the
+floor of a dark room. That he was in the dwelling occupied by the
+Spanish dancer, Nick had not a doubt.</p>
+
+<p>As his mind became clearer and his eyes accustomed to the darkness, Nick
+discovered a narrow thread of light some yards away and close to the
+floor, and presently the sound of lowered voices faintly reached his
+ears.</p>
+
+<p>"A light in the next room," he said to himself. "Probably the whole gang
+is out there, sizing up my case, and deciding what to do with me. If
+they are there, I must get a better look at those two ruffians. I owe
+them something for their work of to-night, and I always mean to pay such
+debts.</p>
+
+<p>"One of them was called Dave, and it may have been Dave Kilgore himself.
+In which case, by Jove! I was right in thinking that this diamond
+robbery only masks some deeper and bigger game.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder if they suspect my identity. If not, what sort of a game have
+they been playing here to-night?"</p>
+
+<p>Nick very quickly measured the various possibilities of the unusual
+situation.</p>
+
+<p>If the man whose name he had heard was indeed David Kilgore, then Rufus
+Venner, as well as Cervera, might be in league with the diamond gang,
+and the pretended robbery only a move made with some secret design.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, Venner might be entirely ignorant of Kilgore's
+identity, and without any serious suspicions of Cervera, being himself a
+blind victim of these notorious criminals.</p>
+
+<p>"If the latter is the case," reasoned Nick, "the gang may stand in fear
+of me, and perhaps are afraid that I shall foil some scheme they have in
+operation, or are about to undertake. Then they to-night may have aimed
+only to discover the extent and nature of my suspicions.</p>
+
+<p>"If that is the case, plainly it will become me to be a little foxy. I
+will see if I can contrive to overhear anything from out yonder."</p>
+
+<p>Bent upon wriggling nearer the closed door revealed by the thread of
+light near the floor, Nick quietly turned upon his side and cautiously
+worked his way over the carpet.</p>
+
+<p>He had covered scarce a yard, however, when the sharp, metallic ring of
+Cervera's voice fell plainly on his ears.</p>
+
+<p>"Look again, one of you," she curtly commanded. "See if that vagabond
+has come to himself."</p>
+
+<p>"That's your humble servant!" thought Nick.</p>
+
+<p>He quickly rolled back to his former position on the floor, and prepared
+to play the fox.</p>
+
+<p>In a moment the door was thrown open, admitting a flood of light, and a
+man strode into the room and dropped to his knee beside the motionless
+detective.</p>
+
+<p>"I say!" he harshly growled, shaking Nick roughly by the shoulder.
+"Brace up, you dog! Brace up, d'ye hear?"</p>
+
+<p>Nick groaned deeply, then slowly opened his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my head&mdash;my poor head!" he muttered, like one dazed and in pain.</p>
+
+<p>"Your poor head, eh?" sneered the other. "You're dead lucky to have a
+head left you. Pull yourself together, do you hear?"</p>
+
+<p>"Let me be! Where am I?"</p>
+
+<p>"You'll soon find out where you are. Sit up here!"</p>
+
+<p>"What do you say?" cried Venner, from the next room. "Has he come to?"</p>
+
+<p>The man at Nick's side turned his head to reply, and Nick then obtained
+a clear view of his profile.</p>
+
+<p>"Humph!" he mentally ejaculated. "Matthew Stall in disguise! One of the
+diamond gang, sure enough, and I now know I am on the right track."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, he's finally coming to time," cried Stall, in reply to Venner. "He
+will be all right in a minute."</p>
+
+<p>"Bring him out here," commanded Cervera, sharply. "Get the wretch up,
+and bring him out here."</p>
+
+<p>This was precisely what Nick wanted.</p>
+
+<p>Stall immediately bent lower, and released the detective's ankles.</p>
+
+<p>"Get up, you varlet!" he then growled. "Get up, I say!"</p>
+
+<p>Still groaning, and incoherently muttering, Nick permitted himself to be
+raised to his feet, and Stall then supported him and urged him out
+through the open doorway and into the adjoining room.</p>
+
+<p>In his red wig and croppy head, together with his rough attire and dazed
+aspect, Nick certainly presented a wretched appearance. He blinked
+confusedly, glanced down at his bound wrists, yet at the same time took
+in every feature of the brightly lighted room.</p>
+
+<p>It plainly was the library of the house, and both Rufus Venner and
+Cervera were seated near a handsome center table. Upon it lay most of
+the woman's jewels and diamonds, evidently lately removed, and
+presenting in the rays of light from the chandelier above a dazzling
+temptation to such a fellow as Nick then appeared to be.</p>
+
+<p>In an easy-chair, near the wall, sat the man called Dave, at the time
+Nick was thought to be dead outside. Now, in the bright light of the
+room, Nick instantly recognized him to be David Kilgore, despite a heavy
+disguise which the criminal obviously believed to be impenetrable.</p>
+
+<p>Nick gave no sign of the recognition, however, being content to await
+developments, and to shape his own course accordingly.</p>
+
+<p>From that moment, however, the name of neither criminal was once
+mentioned; and Nick was compelled to infer that Venner might indeed be
+entirely ignorant of their true identity and knavish character.</p>
+
+<p>The eyes of all were upon the detective, as he stood swaying slightly
+on the floor; and Cervera sharply demanded, with a threatening frown:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you vile miscreant, what can you say for yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>"Me?" queried Nick, pretending to pull himself together. "Nothing at
+all."</p>
+
+<p>"I guess that's right."</p>
+
+<p>"What should I say? Why have you got me here, and tied up in this
+fashion?"</p>
+
+<p>"You'll soon find out," cried Cervera, with vicious asperity. "What were
+you doing out back of my house?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing much," Nick evasively growled, waiting to learn which way the
+cat was about to jump.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing much!" sneered Cervera. "You'll find that will not go down with
+us."</p>
+
+<p>"I was looking for a chance to sleep in your stable," muttered Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"You lie, you dog!" cried Kilgore, fiercely. "You were at the back
+window."</p>
+
+<p>"Was I?"</p>
+
+<p>"And your game was to rob me of my jewels," Cervera angrily added, with
+her eyes emitting a gleam as fiery as the blazing gems at which she
+pointed. "That was your game, you renegade!"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think so?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know so!"</p>
+
+<p>Nick hoped she did.</p>
+
+<p>"And all I regret is," added the vixenish Spaniard, "that the bullet of
+my watchman did not end your villainous life."</p>
+
+<p>"We can end it now, se&ntilde;ora, if you say the word," put in Matthew Stall,
+with grim readiness.</p>
+
+<p>Nick never accepted such scenes as this at their face value, for he had
+witnessed many a similar game of bluff. This one might be all right and
+on the level, he reasoned, yet there still existed the possibility that
+he was recognized, and that these remarks implying the contrary were
+only a part of some well-laid plan.</p>
+
+<p>"If you think I'm a thief, why don't you hand me over to the police?" he
+shrewdly demanded.</p>
+
+<p>The ruse worked. For a moment Cervera was caught with no ready reply,
+and Nick promptly decided that he was known, hence could not well be
+given to the police.</p>
+
+<p>Yet these parties so obviously aimed to hide the fact that he was known
+to be Nick Carter, that Nick quickly resolved to let them have all the
+rope they wanted, and to meet them with a counter-move&mdash;that of boldly
+declaring his own identity, and so disarming them of any misgiving that
+he had recognized Kilgore and Matthew Stall, or even had any suspicions
+of Se&ntilde;ora Cervera.</p>
+
+<p>It was a very clever counter, and Nick went at it cleverly.</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't you give me to the police, if you think I'm a thief?" he
+repeated, when Cervera made no reply.</p>
+
+<p>"The police?&mdash;bah!" she now cried, with a sneer. "For what? That you may
+square yourself in some way, or make your escape, and then come back
+here to attempt the job again?"</p>
+
+<p>"H'm!" thought Nick. "They don't want to let me go before learning what
+I suspect. I won't do a thing but fool them in that."</p>
+
+<p>"Police be hanged!" Cervera quickly added. "In my country we have a
+surer way of removing such villains as you."</p>
+
+<p>"What way?" queried Nick, coolly.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Caramba!</i> The garrote!"</p>
+
+<p>"Choke 'em off, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Or the poniard!"</p>
+
+<p>"A stab between the ribs, I take it."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes! It is what you deserve."</p>
+
+<p>"But you will not try it on me," declared Nick, confidently.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you be too sure of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'm sure enough of it."</p>
+
+<p>"The law would never reach us&mdash;don't think that," cried Cervera, with a
+passionate sneer. "<i>Caramba!</i> we'd plant your miserable bones where
+they'd never be found. Don't think, you wretch, that we fear to do it."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet I don't fear that you will."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not I, Se&ntilde;ora Cervera."</p>
+
+<p>"How dare you utter my name with your foul mouth?" screamed the dancer,
+with a vicious display of scornful resentment. "Not kill you? I've a
+mind to order it done at once, you wretch! I hate such reptiles as you!"</p>
+
+<p>Nick laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"If you were to order it done, se&ntilde;ora, and the knife were at my throat,"
+said he, "your order would certainly be countermanded."</p>
+
+<p>"What! By whom?" cried Cervera, with her passionate, dark eyes fiercely
+blazing. "I'll have you know that I rule here&mdash;and not here alone!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yet your command would be revoked, se&ntilde;ora."</p>
+
+<p>"For what reason, villain?"</p>
+
+<p>"It would be revoked at the request of our mutual friend, Mr. Rufus
+Venner, to whom I presently shall explain my conduct, and also implore
+your own pardon, se&ntilde;ora, for having made you the mark of my very
+unworthy suspicions," cried Nick, with a sudden dramatic display of
+dignity and confidence.</p>
+
+<p>It brought Venner sharply to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>"Good heavens!" he cried. "What do you mean, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, what do you mean?" roared Kilgore, bracing straight up in his chair
+and reaching for his gun&mdash;a move Nick pretended he did not see.</p>
+
+<p>"I only mean, gentlemen, that I am no burglar," cried Nick, in his
+natural voice, at the same time raising his bound hands to remove his
+disguise. "Allow me, Mr. Venner, to present myself in proper person."</p>
+
+<p>"The devil and all his followers!" yelled Venner. "You're&mdash;you're Nick
+Carter!"</p>
+
+<p>"None other," bowed Nick, smiling and tossing his disguise upon the
+table. "Plainly, Venner, you are greatly surprised at seeing me&mdash;and I
+do not wonder at it."</p>
+
+<p>Yet for all that Nick did wonder a little, since he could not yet
+determine just how much of this scene was on the level.</p>
+
+<p>The faces of Kilgore and Matthew Stall, however, betrayed more secret
+exultation than surprise. Plainly enough both were now convinced that
+Nick did not recognize them, nor even suspect that he himself had been
+recognized&mdash;and these were precisely the two convictions Nick had aimed
+to convey by his masterly move in thus disclosing himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Se&ntilde;ora Cervera," he hastened to add, before any of the startled
+group could speak, "I owe you a profound apology. I did you the
+injustice to suspect you, not only of being a thief, but also of being
+identified with the notorious Kilgore gang, three of the cleverest and
+most dangerous swindlers in the world."</p>
+
+<p>"Perdition!" gasped Cervera. "You astound me."</p>
+
+<p>"I was led to suspect you, se&ntilde;ora, because your letter to Venner took
+him from his store just at the time of the robbery," Nick quickly went
+on to explain, thus putting his own strategy on a solid basis. "I
+shadowed you from the theater to-night, intending to watch you and your
+house, a design which has nearly cost me my life at the hands of your
+faithful watchman.</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad to add, se&ntilde;ora, that I now have completely changed my views,
+and I trust that you will bear in mind that you were a stranger to me,
+and so pardon my unworthy misgivings. It is impossible that you, Se&ntilde;ora
+Cervera, could be guilty of any evil, or know aught of so accomplished a
+knave as David Kilgore, or any of his clever gang."</p>
+
+<p>A shrewder move could scarce have been conceived. That Nick would thus
+have declared himself in the very presence of Kilgore, if known to him,
+seemed utterly absurd; and the eyes of both Kilgore and Matt Stall were
+aglow with a vicious amusement and satisfaction much too genuine to be
+entirely concealed.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Mr. Carter," cried Venner, now hastening to release the
+defective's hands, "you certainly have had a close call, and are lucky
+to come out of it with a whole skin. These two men are employed by
+se&ntilde;ora to guard her house at night, and they naturally mistook you for a
+burglar."</p>
+
+<p>Despite his keen discernment, Nick could not determine whether this man
+was lying, or was really as blind as his words implied. Content to await
+further discoveries, however, Nick laughed quickly, and replied:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well, Mr. Venner; I am quite accustomed to close calls and hard
+knocks, and I assure you that I bear the se&ntilde;ora's watchmen no ill will
+for having done their duty as they saw it. Se&ntilde;ora Cervera is to be
+congratulated upon having secured the services of two such faithful
+fellows."</p>
+
+<p>Kilgore had all he could do to keep from laughing aloud, so blinded was
+he by Nick's artful duplicity.</p>
+
+<p>"And when I inform you, se&ntilde;ora," cried Venner, "that Detective Carter is
+in my employ, and is really a royal good friend, I am sure that you will
+pardon him for having been so misled by your letter of this morning."</p>
+
+<p>Se&ntilde;ora Cervera was blushing now, yet to Nick it appeared a little
+forced, and there was in her evil, black eyes a gleam he did not like.
+Yet she at once arose and came to shake the detective by the hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, if my dear friend, Mr. Venner, says it is all right, I am sure it
+must be so," she cried, smiling up at Nick. "But I am afraid, Detective
+Carter, that you will now think me dreadfully severe, and my two
+watchmen more brutal than bulldogs."</p>
+
+<p>Nick laughed deeply, and glanced at the display of diamonds on the
+table.</p>
+
+<p>"When one has such valuable toys as those in her house, se&ntilde;ora, bold men
+and vigilant bulldogs are both essential," said he, heartily.</p>
+
+<p>"That's true, sir; indeed, it is."</p>
+
+<p>"And with your permission, se&ntilde;ora, I will shake hands with your two
+watchmen also, to show them I bear no resentment. After which I will
+take myself home, to nurse my little tokens of their vigilance and
+prowess."</p>
+
+<p>This brought a laugh from all, and Nick, ever shrewd and crafty, now
+shook hands with the two criminals he fully intended to finally land
+behind prison bars. Then he bowed himself out of the room, and was
+accompanied by Rufus Venner to the front door of the house, where he
+bade him a genial good-night and departed.</p>
+
+<p>When Venner returned to the room, he found Dave Kilgore seated on the
+edge of the table, with his false beard in his hand, and a look of
+intense distrust on his evil, forceful face.</p>
+
+<p>"Crafty&mdash;infernally crafty!" he cried, as Venner entered. "I tell you,
+Rufe, that man must be watched. He is a man to be feared&mdash;constantly
+feared! I'm cursed if I can tell whether he gave us that on the level or
+not."</p>
+
+<p>"Pshaw!" sneered Venner, contemptuously. "Of course it was on the
+level."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not so sure of it&mdash;not so sure of it!" reiterated Kilgore, with
+clouded brow. "I tell you, Venner, that he must be watched, and we must
+be guarded. We have too much at stake to suffer Nick Carter to queer our
+game."</p>
+
+<p>"There is one sure way of preventing it," cried Cervera, with passionate
+vehemence.</p>
+
+<p>"Kill him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes! Take his life!" hissed the dancer, through her gleaming white
+teeth. "You were fools to have missed it to-night. Even the law would
+have acquitted you."</p>
+
+<p>"There are nights to come!" Kilgore grimly retorted.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII" />CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>FOUND DEAD.</h3>
+
+
+<p>"What's the trouble yonder, Nick?"</p>
+
+<p>"Where?"</p>
+
+<p>"In the park."</p>
+
+<p>"Humph! Something wrong, evidently. Come on, Chick, and we'll see."</p>
+
+<p>It was nearly sunset one Monday afternoon, and almost two weeks
+subsequent to the incidents last depicted.</p>
+
+<p>That at least one of Dave Kilgore's suggestions had been adopted, and he
+and his gang had become rigorously guarded, appears in that the Carters
+had utterly failed to accomplish anything against them in the interval
+mentioned. Despite constant vigilance and incessant work on the case,
+neither Nick nor Chick had been able to secure an additional clew.</p>
+
+<p>Kilgore and Matt Stall had vanished as if the earth had swallowed them.</p>
+
+<p>The mammoth vaudeville troupe had completed its engagement, and was now
+disbanded for the season.</p>
+
+<p>Se&ntilde;ora Cervera still retained her uptown house, and frequently received
+Venner as a visitor; but never a sign of the diamond gang, or of any
+stranger, could the detectives discover, in or about her place.</p>
+
+<p>Rufus Venner was attending to his business as usual, and appeared all
+aboveboard. Now and then he called upon Nick about the stolen diamonds,
+expressing a hope that they would be recovered; but in no way did he
+lay himself open to further suspicions than Nick had at first conceived.</p>
+
+<p>Yet Nick was too shrewd to press him with questions, and so perhaps
+betray his own hand. As a matter of fact, the famous detective was in
+quite a quandary over the case, because of his conviction that some big
+game was secretly afoot, and his utter inability to strike any tangible
+clew to it.</p>
+
+<p>Such a state of affairs was very unusual, and Nick chafed under it. It
+indicated that he was up against men as good as himself, and his vain
+work of the past ten days served only to aggravate him, and embitter his
+grim and inflexible determination to unearth the whole business.</p>
+
+<p>This Monday afternoon, as Nick and Chick were passing Central Park, the
+attention of the latter was drawn toward a group of men in one of the
+park walks, somewhat removed from the street. A policeman was among
+them, and they appeared to be gazing at something upon the ground.</p>
+
+<p>"It looks like the figure of a woman," said Nick, as he and Chick
+entered the park. "Officer Fogarty is there, and&mdash;yes, by Jove! it is
+the form of a woman."</p>
+
+<p>The two detectives quickly reached the scene, and the park officer at
+once recognized Nick, respectfully touching his helmet.</p>
+
+<p>"What's amiss here, Fogarty?" inquired Nick.</p>
+
+<p>Fogarty pointed to the motionless form upon the ground.</p>
+
+<p>"Dead!" said he, tersely. "We've just found her."</p>
+
+<p>"Keep those people further away, Fogarty," said Nick, with a toss of
+his head toward half a score of men gathered near by. "I will see what I
+make of the case."</p>
+
+<p>The figure was that of a girl, rather than a woman, apparently about
+eighteen years of age. She was lying partly upon her side upon the
+greensward, and evidently had fallen from one of the park seats upon
+which she had been resting, and upon which her straw shade hat was still
+lying. She was neatly clad in a suit of dark blue, and her girlish face
+indicated some culture and refinement.</p>
+
+<p>Near her, upon the grass, lay a piece of brown wrapping paper, and a
+yard of two of string, evidently removed from a small, square box, which
+she had dropped and partly fallen upon when stricken with sudden death.</p>
+
+<p>A mere glance gave Nick these superficial features, and he quickly knelt
+beside the girl, and felt her hand and wrist.</p>
+
+<p>"Dead as a doornail," he murmured to Chick, who also had approached. "I
+find her hand still warm, however. She can have been dead only a few
+minutes."</p>
+
+<p>"Heart failure, perhaps," suggested Chick.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think so."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"She doesn't look it. Her form is plump, her cheeks full, and she
+appears to have been in perfect health."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet she is dead."</p>
+
+<p>"No doubt of it."</p>
+
+<p>"A pretty girl, too."</p>
+
+<p>"Very. See if there is any writing on that brown paper."</p>
+
+<p>"No, Nick; not a line."</p>
+
+<p>"Here, here, let me see it! What's this? It is punctured with tiny
+holes, evidently made with a pin."</p>
+
+<p>"So it is, by Jove!"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps she made them with her hat pin, while sitting there on the
+seat. See, Chick, there is the pin still in the hat."</p>
+
+<p>"I see it, Nick. What now?"</p>
+
+<p>Still kneeling beside the girl, Nick was holding the sheet of paper
+between himself and the sky.</p>
+
+<p>"No, the punctures are not uniform," said he. "I thought that they
+possibly had been made with some design, and perhaps formed some word or
+sentence that would give us a clew to the mystery."</p>
+
+<p>"None such, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not a sign of it. Evidently she jabbed the pin through the paper only
+in idleness."</p>
+
+<p>"She is lying on a box of some kind, from which she probably had taken
+this wrapping paper."</p>
+
+<p>"So I see," nodded Nick. "Lend me a hand, Chick, and we'll have a look
+at the box."</p>
+
+<p>With gentle hands the two detectives moved the girl's lifeless form, and
+Nick then took up the box mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>It was about four inches square, and was made of silver, with an open
+work design of vines and leaves, which displayed a blue silk lining
+through the metal apertures. Plainly enough it was a lady's jewel
+casket, and one of considerable value; but it was entirely empty, and it
+bore no name or inscription.</p>
+
+<p>For several moments Nick Carter examined it very intently, with his
+brows gradually knitting closer and closer; and all the while Officer
+Fogarty, and the group of men in the gravel walk a few yards distant,
+mutely gazed and wondered.</p>
+
+<p>Chick Carter, however, who could read Nick's every change of expression,
+saw at once that the great detective not only was making some startling
+discoveries, but also was arriving at deductions far too subtle and
+significant to have been reached by any less keen and practiced
+observer.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you make of it, Nick?" whispered Chick, dropping to his knee
+beside his companion.</p>
+
+<p>Nick also lowered his voice, and for several minutes the two conversed
+in rapid whispers.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a jewel case, Chick; and quite a valuable one."</p>
+
+<p>"So I see."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think it belonged to this girl. She looks as if she were the
+maid, or possibly the companion, of some woman of wealth or distinction.
+Her attire also indicates that. Hence so valuable a toy can hardly have
+belonged to the girl, but more likely was the property of her mistress."</p>
+
+<p>"No name on it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not even an initial. Not a mark of any kind."</p>
+
+<p>"It is empty."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Can the girl have been robbed of its contents, here and in broad
+daylight?"</p>
+
+<p>"Worse, Chick!" whispered Nick, between his teeth. "Worse even than
+that."</p>
+
+<p>"Good heavens, Nick! What do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Chick, this girl was foully murdered!"</p>
+
+<p>"Murdered!" echoed Chick, with an involuntary gasp. "Can it be
+possible?"</p>
+
+<p>"It certainly appears so to me."</p>
+
+<p>"But the means?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is the mystery."</p>
+
+<p>"There are no signs of violence."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a bit. Notice her right wrist, just back of the thumb and near the
+pulse. Notice that tiny red spot, barely observable. It might have been
+made with the point of a pin. Do you see, it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, now that you call my attention to it."</p>
+
+<p>"It means something. I am convinced of that."</p>
+
+<p>"Others are not likely to discover it."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope they may not, Chick," Nick hurriedly rejoined. "I am flooded
+with ideas and suspicions, which I wish to consider and put in order
+before too much of this mystery leaks out. I'll explain later."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps her hat pin is poisoned," suggested Chick.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think that."</p>
+
+<p>"Or possibly&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a moment. Look at this box."</p>
+
+<p>"Well?"</p>
+
+<p>"That wrapper was punctured while still on the box," explained Nick.
+"Notice that the pin went through the spaces in this metal design, and
+then through the silk lining inside."</p>
+
+<p>"Plainly enough, Nick."</p>
+
+<p>"Notice this particular puncture in the interior of the lining."</p>
+
+<p>"By Jove! there's a faint tinge of red around it."</p>
+
+<p>"Left when the pin was withdrawn," whispered Nick, significantly.
+"Chick, it's a tinge of blood!"</p>
+
+<p>"I believe you're right, Nick."</p>
+
+<p>"I am convinced of it. Also that there's a mystery here which cannot be
+solved in a moment," said Nick, impressively. "I wish to conceal these
+discoveries until after I have considered them more fully, and also
+identified this girl. See if you can find her purse, or anything that
+will reveal her name."</p>
+
+<p>While Chick was thus engaged, Nick arose and glanced sharply around in
+search of any evidence indicating that such a crime could have been
+committed unobserved in so public a place.</p>
+
+<p>The seat which the girl had occupied stood on the greensward, about
+eight feet from the gravel walk. By several clusters of shrubbery some
+feet away at either side, the seat was somewhat obscured from the view
+of persons approaching along the walk from either direction. Several
+trees cast shadows nearly over the spot, which was one very likely to
+have been selected by a couple desirous of being somewhat alone while
+resting from an afternoon stroll.</p>
+
+<p>Nick quickly noted these several features, then glanced at Chick and
+asked:</p>
+
+<p>"Do you find anything?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing by which to identify her."</p>
+
+<p>"Her purse?"</p>
+
+<p>"It contains only a few pieces of silver. No cards, nor so much as a
+scrap of paper. Other than her purse, there is only a latchkey in her
+pocket, and a perfectly plain handkerchief. Her identification must come
+later."</p>
+
+<p>"I guess we have missed nothing here," nodded Nick. "I'll have just a
+word with Fogarty, and then we'll go along."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you make of it, Detective Carter?" inquired the officer, as
+Nick approached.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not prepared to say," replied Nick, ignoring the startled glances
+of the several men who heard his name and now beheld the great detective
+for the first time.</p>
+
+<p>"The girl is dead, sir, isn't she?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes; there is no doubt of that," bowed Nick. "It may be a case of
+heart failure. You had better take the proper steps for the removal of
+the body. This box and wrapping paper, however, I am going to take with
+me, and will be responsible for them."</p>
+
+<p>"All right, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"By the way, Fogarty, how long ago did you discover the body?"</p>
+
+<p>"Scarce a minute before you came, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Were you the first to see it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Had you seen the girl about here before during the afternoon?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you see anybody leaving here just before you arrived and discovered
+the body?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did not, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"That's all, Fogarty. I'll get any other particulars later."</p>
+
+<p>Thereupon, as Nick was about to turn away, a young man in the crowd came
+suddenly forth, and exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>"One moment, Detective Carter, if you please! I saw that girl, about
+half an hour ago, walking this way with a gentleman."</p>
+
+<p>Nick turned abruptly to the speaker.</p>
+
+<p>"What is your name?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Tom Jenkins, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"And your address?"</p>
+
+<p>"I live at the Hotel North, and am employed by Hentz Brothers, in Broad
+Street."</p>
+
+<p>"You say that you saw the girl walking this way with a gentleman?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Did they appear to be on good terms?"</p>
+
+<p>"Excellent, sir. They were talking and laughing, and seemed to be
+enjoying themselves."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know the girl's name, or where she lives?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not, sir; nor anything about her."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know anything about her companion, the gentleman you saw with
+her?"</p>
+
+<p>For the bare fraction of a second Jenkins hesitated, as one might do who
+was loath to bring trouble upon another. Then he replied, in faltering
+tones:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, yes, sir, I know the name of the man who was with her."</p>
+
+<p>"State it, please."</p>
+
+<p>"His name, sir, is Harry Boyden."</p>
+
+<p>Nick felt his blood start slightly, yet his countenance did not change
+by so much as a shadow.</p>
+
+<p>He glanced at Chick, however, and the same thought was in the mind of
+each.</p>
+
+<p>"Harry Boyden! The clerk employed by Thomas Hafferman, the dealer in
+diamonds!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX" />CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+
+<h3>NICK STRIKES A STARTLING CLEW.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The mind of Nick Carter was, as he had remarked to Chick, stirred with a
+flood of questions not easily or quickly answered.</p>
+
+<p>Who was this girl found dead in Central Park?</p>
+
+<p>Had she, indeed, been foully murdered? If so, by what mysterious means?
+What had been the object? Who the perpetrator of the crime?</p>
+
+<p>Or, on the other hand, was the evidence itself misleading, and had the
+unfortunate girl selected that sequestered seat in the park, and there
+deliberately committed suicide? Even then, by what means had the deed
+been accomplished? What had been the occasion?</p>
+
+<p>What, moreover, had become of her companion at just that time? Why had
+he deserted her? What signified the pin-punctured wrapping paper, and
+the empty jewel casket, in the dead girl's possession?</p>
+
+<p>Had the casket contained jewels of great value? Had the girl been robbed
+of them, and then foully murdered in some mysterious way?</p>
+
+<p>Was Harry Boyden, the clerk employed by Hafferman, the last to leave the
+girl that fateful afternoon? Was he responsible for her death? Was
+robbery the incentive to the crime?</p>
+
+<p>Or, on the other hand, had Boyden left the girl alive and well, and was
+the crime the work of another?</p>
+
+<p>Or, finally, was there some strange and startling connection between
+this park murder and the robbery committed at Venner's store? Was there,
+between the two crimes, some extraordinary bond yet to be
+discovered&mdash;some tie uniting the two misdeeds as if with links of steel?</p>
+
+<p>These were some of the conflicting questions that occurred to Nick
+Carter that afternoon, and in order to consider them before taking any
+decided action in the matter, Nick had kept to himself his startling
+discoveries, and left Officer Fogarty to take the customary steps in the
+affair.</p>
+
+<p>At seven o'clock that evening, while Nick and Chick were seated at
+dinner, and still engaged in discussing the conflicting circumstances, a
+message was received from police headquarters, informing Nick that the
+girl had been identified, and that Harry Boyden had been found and
+arrested.</p>
+
+<p>"Very good," observed Nick. "We shall now get something to work upon. I
+will go and question Boyden as soon as I finish my dinner."</p>
+
+<p>"By all means," nodded Chick.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know," said Nick, "I am seriously impressed that there is some
+strange connection between this girl's death and that robbery at
+Venner's store. I believe that we have struck the very clew, or are
+about to strike it, that we so long have been vainly seeking."</p>
+
+<p>"To the Kilgore gang?"</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly."</p>
+
+<p>"Egad, I hope so," laughed Chick, with a grimace. "I am beastly tired of
+nosing about on a scentless trail."</p>
+
+<p>Nick joined in the laugh of his invariably cheerful associate.</p>
+
+<p>"Odds blood, Nick, as they say in the play," added Chick. "I'd welcome
+any sort of stir and danger, in preference to this chasing a
+will-o'-the-wisp."</p>
+
+<p>"There'll be enough doing, Chick, take my word for it, as soon as we
+once more get on the track of Kilgore and his push."</p>
+
+<p>"Let it come, and God speed it," grinned Chick. "What's your idea,
+Nick?"</p>
+
+<p>"This empty jewel casket, the possibility that it contained diamonds, of
+which the girl was robbed and then murdered, and the fact that Harry
+Boyden is the clerk who brought the stolen diamonds to Venner's
+store&mdash;certainly the circumstances seem to point to some strange
+relation between the two crimes."</p>
+
+<p>While Nick was thus expressing his views, a rapidly driven carriage
+approached the residence of the famous detective, and a servant
+presently entered the dining room and informed Nick that a lady wished
+to see him.</p>
+
+<p>Nick glanced at her card.</p>
+
+<p>"Violet Page," he muttered. "I know no lady named Violet Page. Is she
+young or old?"</p>
+
+<p>"Young, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you admit her?"</p>
+
+<p>"She is in the library, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well. I will see her presently. Request her to wait a few
+moments."</p>
+
+<p>Nick delayed only to finish his dinner, then repaired to the library. As
+he entered the attractively furnished room his visitor quickly arose
+from one of the easy-chairs and hastened to approach him.</p>
+
+<p>Nick beheld a young lady of exquisite beauty and modest bearing, and
+though her sweet face, then very pale and distressed, struck him as one
+he had previously seen, he at first could not place her.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you Mr. Carter&mdash;Detective Carter?" she hurriedly, inquired, in
+tremulous accents of appeal.</p>
+
+<p>Nick had a warm place in his heart for one so timid and distressed as
+this girl appeared, and he bowed very kindly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Miss Page," said he. "What can I do for you? You appear to be in
+trouble."</p>
+
+<p>"I am in trouble&mdash;terrible trouble, sir," cried the girl, with a
+half-choked sob. "Oh, Mr. Carter, I come to you in despair, a girl
+without friends or advisers, and who knows not whither to turn. I have
+been told that you have a kind heart, and that you are the one man able
+to solve the dreadful mystery which&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Nick checked her pathetic flood of words with a kindly gesture.</p>
+
+<p>"Calm yourself, Miss Page," said he, in a sort of paternal way. "Resume
+your chair, please. Though I am somewhat pressed for time just now I
+will give you at least a few moments."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, thank you, sir!"</p>
+
+<p>"Be calm, however, in order that we may accomplish all the more."</p>
+
+<p>"I will, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"To what mystery do you refer? What is the occasion of your terrible
+distress?"</p>
+
+<p>Violet Page subdued her agitation and hastened to reply.</p>
+
+<p>"My maid and companion, a girl named Mary Barton," said she, "was found
+dead in Central Park late this afternoon. Nor is that all, Detective
+Carter. A very dear friend of mine, named Harry Boyden, has been
+arrested, under suspicion of having killed her. Oh, sir, that could not
+be possible!"</p>
+
+<p>Nick felt an immediate increase of interest.</p>
+
+<p>He decided that Miss Violet Page was the very person he wanted to
+interview, and while he did not then exhibit any knowledge of the case,
+he proceeded to question her with his own ends in view, at the same time
+ringing a signal for Chick to join him, which the latter presently did.</p>
+
+<p>"Where do you live, Miss Page?" inquired Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"I board in Forty-second Street, sir. I have no living relatives, and
+for about two years have employed a maid, or, I might better call her, a
+companion."</p>
+
+<p>"The girl mentioned?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir. Her parents also are dead. The fact that we both are orphans
+created a bond of sympathy between us."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you a person of much means, Miss Page?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, sir. I earn my living on the stage. I was a member of the big
+vaudeville troupe, which lately disbanded for the season. My stage name
+is Violet Marduke."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! now I remember," remarked Nick. "I thought I had seen you before. I
+happened to hear you sing one evening about two weeks ago."</p>
+
+<p>"I recognized her when I entered," observed Chick, who had taken a
+chair near by.</p>
+
+<p>Nick came back to business.</p>
+
+<p>"Why are you so confident, Miss Page, that Boyden cannot have killed
+Mary Barton?" he demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"Because, sir, Harry Boyden is a gentle, brave and honest man, and
+utterly incapable of committing such a crime," cried Violet, with much
+feeling. "Besides, sir, he can have had no possible reason for wishing
+her dead."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you sure of that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Absolutely!"</p>
+
+<p>"What are your relations with Boyden?"</p>
+
+<p>"We are lovers, sir," admitted Violet, with a tinge of red dispelling
+the paleness of her pretty cheeks. "We expect to be married the coming
+summer."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! I see," murmured Nick, thoughtfully. "How long have you been
+acquainted with Boyden?"</p>
+
+<p>"For ten years, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you have been able to form quite a reliable opinion of his
+character."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, sir, I have!" cried Violet, warmly. "Detective Carter, I know
+that Harry Boyden is far above any dishonorable action. I would trust
+him with my life."</p>
+
+<p>Of the honesty of the girl herself Nick had not a doubt. It showed in
+her eyes, sounded in her voice, and was pictured in her ever changing
+expression. Nick was inclined to feel that her opinion of Boyden was
+worthy of very serious consideration, despite that circumstances seemed
+to implicate the young man in no less than two crimes.</p>
+
+<p>"Is the fact that you are engaged to Boyden generally known, Miss
+Page?" Nick next asked.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not, sir. We have said nothing about it."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, that opens the way for conjectures," cried Nick. "Is there any
+person who knows of the engagement, or who suspects it, that would
+jealously aim to injure Boyden by implicating him in a crime?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I cannot think so, sir!" said Violet, with a look of horror. "I
+certainly know of no such person."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you been accepting the attentions of any other young man?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir," smiled Violet. "That is not my style."</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad to hear you say so, yet I really might have known it,"
+laughed Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Detective Carter," bowed the girl, blushing warmly. Then she
+hastened to add: "Still, I am not a prude, sir&mdash;don't think I mean that.
+In my profession one is obliged to be on friendly terms with a great
+many persons, both men and women. At the theater, for instance, I meet
+many men and form many acquaintances, both agreeable and the reverse."</p>
+
+<p>"And sometimes have the attentions of men fairly forced upon you, I
+imagine?" said Nick, inquiringly, with a brighter gleam lighting his
+earnest eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir; sometimes," Violet demurely admitted.</p>
+
+<p>Nick drew forward in his chair, and Chick saw that he had caught up the
+thread at that moment suggested to himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Page," said Nick, more impressively, "I now want you to answer me
+without the slightest reserve."</p>
+
+<p>"I will, sir," bowed Violet, with a startled look.</p>
+
+<p>"Has any man of the late vaudeville company, or one connected with the
+theater, endeavored to force his love upon you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir; not one."</p>
+
+<p>"Or any visitor admitted to the stage?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well&mdash;yes, sir," faltered Violet, quite timidly. "Since you press me
+thus gravely, I must admit that I have been obliged to repel the
+affection of a certain man. Yet, please don't infer, sir, that he has
+ever been ungentlemanly. He even has done me the honor, if one can so
+term an undesired proposal, to protest that he wished to make me his
+wife."</p>
+
+<p>"What is that man's name?" demanded Nick, quite bluntly.</p>
+
+<p>Yet both Nick and Chick already anticipated it.</p>
+
+<p>"Must I tell you his name, sir?" faltered Violet.</p>
+
+<p>"You may do so confidentially, Miss Page."</p>
+
+<p>"His name, sir, is Rufus Venner."</p>
+
+<p>"One more question, Miss Page," cried Nick, quickly, "Was there any
+member of the vaudeville company who knew of Venner's proposal?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think so, sir. At least I know of none."</p>
+
+<p>Nick glanced at Chick and dryly remarked:</p>
+
+<p>"All under the surface, Chick."</p>
+
+<p>"Not a doubt of it, Nick."</p>
+
+<p>Violet looked surprised and alarmed at this, and hastened to ask:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Mr. Carter, is there something of which I am ignorant? Or have I
+done wrong in any way?"</p>
+
+<p>Nick turned to her and gravely answered:</p>
+
+<p>"No, Miss Page, you have done nothing wrong&mdash;far from it! But there is
+considerable of which you are ignorant."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, sir, what do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Wait just one moment, and I then may be able to tell you," said Nick,
+rising. "I have something here that I wish to show you."</p>
+
+<p>He went to his library desk and took from a drawer the silver jewel
+casket which he had brought from Central Park.</p>
+
+<p>When he turned he held it in his extended hand, and the eyes of the girl
+suddenly fell upon it.</p>
+
+<p>Instantly she leaped to her feet, as pale as death itself.</p>
+
+<p>Then a scream, as of sudden, ungovernable terror, rose from her lips and
+rang with piercing shrillness through the house.</p>
+
+<p>"Catch her, Chick&mdash;she's fainting!" yelled Nick, with eyes ablaze. "By
+Heaven! we've struck the trail at last!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X" />CHAPTER X.</h2>
+
+<h3>ON THE TRAIL.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Nick Carter was a little perplexed.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Violet Page had recovered from her sudden swoon, and although still
+very pale she sat gazing calmly at the silver jewel casket, which Nick
+was again displaying.</p>
+
+<p>Somewhat to Nick's surprise, considering the girl's abrupt collapse upon
+first beholding the casket, Miss Page had just declared that she had
+never seen it before that evening.</p>
+
+<p>"You never saw it before?" exclaimed Nick, almost incredulously.</p>
+
+<p>"Never until you produced it from your desk a few minutes ago,"
+reiterated Violet.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, then, were you so overcome upon seeing it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will tell you why, Detective Carter, yet I fear that you will think
+me very weak and foolish to have been so seriously affected."</p>
+
+<p>"No; I think not."</p>
+
+<p>"I had a terrible dream last night, sir," Violet now explained. "I
+dreamed that I was alone in an enormous graveyard at midnight, with a
+full moon revealing the dismal surroundings, the dark tombs, the
+staring, white headstones and the silent graves."</p>
+
+<p>"Not very cheerful&mdash;certainly," smiled Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"What followed was infinitely more terrible," continued Violet, with an
+irrepressible shudder.</p>
+
+<p>"What was that?"</p>
+
+<p>"I dreamed that I saw a grave near which I was standing suddenly begin
+to open, as if a living being were pushing up the ground from within.
+Then I saw a fleshless hand appear above the disturbed sods. Then a
+sightless human skull thrust itself forth, and presently, filling me
+with a terror I cannot describe, the entire skeleton emerged from the
+partly open grave, and arose and approached me."</p>
+
+<p>"A grewsome dream, indeed," remarked Nick. "But what of the casket?"</p>
+
+<p>"This of the casket, sir," concluded Violet. "In the skeleton's right
+hand, which was extended straight toward me while he approached, was a
+silver box&mdash;the exact likeness of the one you hold, and which you so
+abruptly showed me a short time ago."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, I see," nodded Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"In my present nervous condition, Detective Carter, the sight of the
+real casket, after so horrible a dream, was more than I could sustain.
+Fairly before I knew it, I had fainted."</p>
+
+<p>"A curious dream and a startling sequence," said Nick. "Evidently coming
+events have been casting their shadows before. I am sorry to have
+shocked you so severely."</p>
+
+<p>"Pray don't speak of it, Mr. Carter," protested Violet. "I am now quite
+recovered."</p>
+
+<p>"Then we will at once proceed to business again," said Nick. "Am I to
+infer, Miss Page, that you know nothing at all about this casket?"</p>
+
+<p>"Absolutely nothing, sir," declared Violet.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you ever heard your maid, Mary Barton, speak of possessing such a
+jewel box?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Nevertheless," said Nick, pointedly, "this casket was found beside her
+dead body in Central Park this afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>A half-suppressed cry broke from Violet upon hearing this.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, sir, then that must have been the package mentioned by Harry
+Boyden," she cried, excitedly.</p>
+
+<p>"What's that?" demanded Nick. "Have you seen Boyden since his arrest?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"When and where?"</p>
+
+<p>"He was arrested at my home about half-past six, sir. When I learned for
+what and heard the particulars, I was advised by my landlady to appeal
+at once to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you come directly here?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did, sir; as fast as a carriage could bring me."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, now we shall get at it," declared Nick. "Tell me, Miss Page, just
+what Boyden said about Mary Barton."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, sir, he said he left her alive and well about half-past five."</p>
+
+<p>"Where?"</p>
+
+<p>"On her way through the park," replied Violet. "He had met her about
+five o'clock, and they walked about in the park for a short time. Then
+he told her that he had an errand to do, after which he was coming to
+call upon me. Then Mary laughed and replied that she would see him
+later."</p>
+
+<p>"That doesn't smack very strongly of suicide, Chick," remarked Nick,
+with a glance at the former.</p>
+
+<p>"I should say not," replied Chick, with a shrug of his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"Did Boyden know where Mary went after he left her?" inquired Nick,
+reverting to his visitor.</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir. He declared to the officer that he did not."</p>
+
+<p>"What mention did he make of a package carried by the girl?"</p>
+
+<p>"He stated that Mary had what appeared to be a small, square box, done
+up in brown wrapping paper, and secured with a string."</p>
+
+<p>"Did he make any inquiries about it?"</p>
+
+<p>"He asked her what it was, and she told him it was for me."</p>
+
+<p>"Did she tell him where she got it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir, she did; and I am quite mystified by it."</p>
+
+<p>"Please explain," said Nick. "What did the Barton girl say about the
+parcel?"</p>
+
+<p>"She said it was given to her by a woman whom she had met on Fifth
+Avenue a short time before."</p>
+
+<p>"An acquaintance?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir; a strange woman," continued Violet. "Yet the stranger must
+have known Mary, and that she lived with me, for she asked her if I was
+at home."</p>
+
+<p>"And then?"</p>
+
+<p>"When told that I was, she gave Mary the package and asked her to
+deliver it to me, into my hands only, as it was a gift from a friend."</p>
+
+<p>"Was the name of the friend mentioned?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think not, sir. The woman cautioned Mary against opening the package,
+stating in explanation that she wished me to be the first to see what it
+contained."</p>
+
+<p>"These are the facts which Mary Barton told to Harry Boyden, are they?"
+demanded Nick, with an ominous ring stealing into his voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir, they are."</p>
+
+<p>"And the statements which Boyden, in turn, made to the officer by whom
+he was arrested at your home?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is right, sir. I heard them from Harry's own lips."</p>
+
+<p>"Did Mary Barton have any idea of the identity of the woman from whom
+she received the package?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think not, sir. She told Harry that the woman was veiled, and that
+she could not see her face. The incident seemed so strange, sir, that
+Mary gave Harry Boyden all of these particulars."</p>
+
+<p>"Did she describe the strange woman, her form or her attire?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think she stated that the woman was plainly clad. Nothing more
+definite that I know of."</p>
+
+<p>"In fact, Miss Page, you have now told me all that you know about the
+case, haven't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Really, sir, I think I have," admitted Violet, with a look of anxious
+appeal.</p>
+
+<p>Nick drew out his watch and glanced quickly at it.</p>
+
+<p>"Ring for a carriage, Chick," said he abruptly. "We have no time to
+lose."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll call one at once," nodded Chick, as he sprang up and hastened from
+the room.</p>
+
+<p>"Am I to depart now, Detective Carter?" asked Violet, beginning to
+tremble. "Oh, sir, will you not give me some word of encouragement
+before I go? I am sure that Harry Boyden never committed&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Hush!" interposed Nick, rising and taking her kindly by the hand.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot at present tell you, Miss Page, what I think of this case. I
+will say this, however, if Harry Boyden is, as you so firmly believe,
+innocent of this crime, I will not rest until I have proved him
+guiltless."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Detective Carter, how am I to thank you?" cried the girl, with her
+tearful eyes raised to Nick's kindly face.</p>
+
+<p>"By not trying to do so," said he, smiling. "And by carefully following
+a few directions which I shall now give you."</p>
+
+<p>"I will follow them to the very letter, sir," cried the grateful girl.</p>
+
+<p>"First, then, go home and borrow no further trouble about young Boyden,"
+said Nick, impressively. "Second, disclose to no person that you have
+called upon me, or that I have any interest in the case. Third, say
+nothing about the jewel casket, and display no personal knowledge of the
+affair. Fourth, do not come here again unless I send for you. And,
+finally, rest assured that I will do all in my power to have young
+Boyden at liberty as soon as possible. To remain in custody a short
+time, however, will not seriously harm him, and in a way it may do me
+some service. Can you remember all that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed I can, sir; and I will obey you in all!" cried Violet, with much
+feeling.</p>
+
+<p>"That's right," smiled Nick, as he escorted her to the door. "You shall
+not lose anything by so doing."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, I am sure of that, sir. You are so very kind, and I am so glad that
+I came to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well, we shall see," laughed Nick, with a paternal caress of her
+shapely white hand. "By the way, Miss Page, since I now happen to think
+of it," the crafty detective indifferently added, "wasn't there a Hindoo
+juggler, or snake charmer, or something of that sort, connected with
+your late vaudeville company?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, sir! Pandu Singe."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, that is his name, is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Is he still in the city?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am not sure, Mr. Carter; but I think that he may be, for he is signed
+with the company for next season."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know where he has been living?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir. I have seen his house address on letters forwarded to the
+theater. Do you want it, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you can recall it, yes," smiled Nick, producing his notebook. "I am
+making a study of the Hindoo language just at this time, and I would
+like to consult Pandu Singe about certain books on the subject."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Page did not suspect any duplicity in this, and she cheerfully gave
+Nick the address of the snake charmer, whereupon the detective
+graciously thanked her, and then escorted her to her waiting carriage.</p>
+
+<p>As it rolled rapidly away a second hack came bowling up to the curbstone
+in front of Nick's residence. It was the carriage for which Chick had
+sent a call.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't cover your horses, cabbie!" cried Nick, sharply. "Wait about
+three minutes, and we'll be with you."</p>
+
+<p>"Right, sir!"</p>
+
+<p>And Nick dashed back up the steps and into the house, meeting Chick in
+the hall.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you make of it, Nick?"</p>
+
+<p>"Make of it?" cried Nick, with a laugh. "It's a cinch, Chick, dead open
+and shut. Grab your hat and come with me. I'll explain in the carriage."</p>
+
+<p>"Good enough! I'm with you, old man!"</p>
+
+<p>"And we have no time to lose," cried Nick, "Now, then, we're off."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI" />CHAPTER XI.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE CRIME AND THE MEANS.</h3>
+
+
+<p>"Yes, Chick, it's as simple as two plus two, and we'll presently try to
+bag a part of our quarry. But first of all, I want a bit of
+corroborative evidence which I expect to get from that Hindoo snake
+charmer, Pandu Singe."</p>
+
+<p>"Going there first, Nick?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; it will not take long. Then I think we shall have the strands for
+a rope strong enough to hold that she-devil who murdered Mary Barton,"
+grimly added Nick.</p>
+
+<p>These remarks were made while the carriage containing the two detectives
+was speeding through the city streets, then bright with the light and
+life of the early evening.</p>
+
+<p>"What a dastardly crime it was, Nick," observed Chick.</p>
+
+<p>"It was the crime of a treacherous demon."</p>
+
+<p>"With jealousy the chief motive, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"No doubt of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet her venomous arrow found the wrong mark."</p>
+
+<p>"That's just the size of it," said Nick. "In the light of what you saw
+and heard on the stage that night, it is plain that Cervera is
+passionately in love with Venner."</p>
+
+<p>"Surely."</p>
+
+<p>"You remember that you saw him talking with Violet Page, and then
+observed Cervera in the opposite wings, angrily watching something or
+somebody out of your range of view. Plainly enough, now, she was
+watching Venner and the singer."</p>
+
+<p>"No doubt of it," declared Chick. "And she looked fit to use a poniard
+then and there."</p>
+
+<p>"Jealousy," growled Nick. "She had been secretly watching Venner. She
+had discovered his love for Violet, and decided that the girl was a
+rival to be feared. Her fiery Spanish blood would shrink at nothing. She
+went the limit, and tried to murder her rival. In so doing, however, she
+but killed another."</p>
+
+<p>"She must have worked adroitly to have accomplished what she did."</p>
+
+<p>"It may not have been so very difficult," replied Nick. "She was on the
+stage each night, and also that infernal snake den. She quietly learned
+which of the venomous reptiles would best serve her deadly purpose, and
+then found an opportunity and a way by which to secretly steal it."</p>
+
+<p>"A hazardous job at that," muttered Chick.</p>
+
+<p>"The jealousy of such a woman fears nothing," Nick rejoined. "To lure
+the desired snake into a box, and then take it home and confine it in
+the jewel casket, may have been done quite easily."</p>
+
+<p>"It must have been done before the company closed its engagement."</p>
+
+<p>"No doubt," admitted Nick. "Then Cervera was too crafty to use it at
+once. She waited nearly a week. Then she dressed herself in cheap
+attire, put on a thick veil, and lay in wait for her rival's maid and
+companion, to whom she gave the package and her instructions regarding
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"What first led you to suspect the crime and the means, Nick?" inquired
+Chick, curiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Several facts," explained Nick. "The girl's sudden death seemed
+peculiar. The jewel casket beside her was empty, at once suggesting that
+something had been removed or fallen from it. Yet nothing was to be
+found."</p>
+
+<p>"That's true."</p>
+
+<p>"The paper wrapper was punctured with a pin in many places, the holes
+running even through the lining of the casket. That fact, too, was
+suggestive. People are not in the habit of doing up parcels and then
+punching them full of holes with a pin."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, hardly."</p>
+
+<p>"Cervera made those holes, Chick, in order that her venomous captive
+might not expire for want of air."</p>
+
+<p>"No doubt of it, Nick. But what do you think led Mary Barton to open the
+package after having been told not to do so?"</p>
+
+<p>"Curiosity, perhaps," replied Nick. "Or possibly she considered the
+circumstances to be so strange that she felt that she had a right to
+open it. Be that as it may, it is plain that Mary Barton sat down on the
+park seat, after leaving Boyden and there briefly considered the
+matter."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you arrive at that deduction, Nick?"</p>
+
+<p>"From the tiny tinge of fresh blood about one of the pinholes on the
+interior of the lining," explained Nick. "The stain must have come from
+the point of the pin, and when the pin was drawn out of the box, not
+when it was thrust into it. In the latter case the pin point would have
+been cleansed before passing through the lining, and the stain would
+have been on the outside rather than the inside."</p>
+
+<p>"Surely."</p>
+
+<p>"Then it at once became plain that Mary Barton, while sitting there, had
+thrust her hat pin through one of the previously made apertures,
+possibly aiming to discover in this way what the box contained, and in
+so doing she probably pricked the confined reptile."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, I see," nodded Chick. "All this strongly indicated that something
+might have been confined in the casket."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, certainly. Not thus learning what the box contained," continued
+Nick, "Mary Barton decided to open it. The moment she raised the lid the
+snake, probably angered by its wound and long confinement, instantly
+struck at her hand, snake-fashion, and buried its fangs in her wrist."</p>
+
+<p>"Hence the tiny, red spot which you so quickly discovered."</p>
+
+<p>"Precisely."</p>
+
+<p>"Very shrewd of you, Nick."</p>
+
+<p>"Greatly frightened, the girl probably fainted, and fell to the ground,"
+added Nick, in conclusion of the deductions by which he had solved the
+remarkable mystery. "The snake instantly scurried away through the
+grass, and left no trail behind him. Before the girl could recover from
+her swoon, the deadly poison had done its work. The venom of some of
+these India snakes is horribly rapid in its action."</p>
+
+<p>"That's true," cried Chick. "I saw one at the theater that evening, the
+venom of which would kill a man in ten seconds. A wee bit of a cuss at
+that."</p>
+
+<p>"Probably this was one of the same breed," said Nick, grimly. "At all
+events, I am sure that murder was the crime, and a snake the means."</p>
+
+<p>"And Sanetta Cervera the criminal."</p>
+
+<p>"Beyond the shadow of a doubt," declared Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"And what do you expect to learn from the Hindoo?"</p>
+
+<p>"I wish to know, in corroboration of my suspicions, whether Pandu Singe
+has missed any of his infernal reptiles."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, I see."</p>
+
+<p>"If he has, my theory is surely correct, and we next must fix the guilt
+upon the guilty," said Nick, firmly. "I shall arrest Cervera this very
+night, providing the Hindoo informs me that&mdash; Ah, here we are at his
+door. Come into the house with me, Chick, and we'll see what he has to
+say."</p>
+
+<p>They had stopped before an ordinary brick house on the East Side, and
+Nick quickly mounted the steps and rang the bell. The summons brought a
+corpulent English woman to the door, from whom Nick learned that the
+Hindoo and his interpreter were still there.</p>
+
+<p>"Doesn't Pandu Singe speak English?" inquired Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear me, no!" exclaimed the landlady, with a mute yet visible
+laugh&mdash;visible in that her convolutions of flesh became observably
+agitated. "Not the first word, sir. He talks only a blooming jargon fit
+for snakes and spiders and that like."</p>
+
+<p>Nick laughed agreeably, having a request on his tongue's end.</p>
+
+<p>"He has moved his beastly den o' reptiles into my cellar to stay till
+next season, sir, a 'orror I'd not stand for a minute, so I wouldn't,
+only he pays me very 'andsome for the same."</p>
+
+<p>"Then he intends remaining here all summer, does he?"</p>
+
+<p>"He do," replied the woman, with startling terseness after the
+foregoing.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish to see him briefly on business," said Nick. "Go and ask him if
+he will receive us."</p>
+
+<p>The landlady complied, returning presently and inviting the two
+detectives into the house. She led the way to a rear room off the hall,
+at the door of which stood a swarthy foreigner, who bowed and smiled as
+the callers approached.</p>
+
+<p>"'E's the hinterpreter," vouchsafed the landlady, in a wheezy whisper.</p>
+
+<p>Nick nodded understandingly.</p>
+
+<p>Reading by the light of a lamp on a table in the room sat the Hindoo
+snake charmer himself, clad in a rich, loose robe of Oriental fashion.
+He arose with much deliberation and dignity when the detectives entered,
+and gravely bowed in greeting, while his interpreter hastened to place
+chairs for the visitors.</p>
+
+<p>Through the interpreter Nick quickly explained his business, and saw a
+look of surprise appear on the face of Pandu Singe when inquiries were
+made about the loss of a snake.</p>
+
+<p>It took Nick but a short time to learn what he desired. Precisely as he
+expected, the Hindoo had missed one of his snakes about ten days before,
+one of the most venomous and dangerous of the lot.</p>
+
+<p>Hearing no reports or complaints about the missing reptile, however,
+Pandu Singe had come to the conclusion that the snake had died in the
+den and then been devoured by one of his companions in captivity. So the
+Hindoo had let the matter drop, and had said nothing about it.</p>
+
+<p>Nick did not disclose the true occasion for his inquiries, but invented
+a satisfactory explanation, and at the end of a quarter of an hour the
+two detectives departed and entered their waiting carriage.</p>
+
+<p>"Rather a dignified chap, after all, that Pandu Singe," laughed Chick,
+as they settled themselves on the cushions.</p>
+
+<p>"True," admitted Nick, thoughtfully. "Do you think, Chick, that we could
+make up to pass for those two swarthy Orientals?"</p>
+
+<p>"Could we!" exclaimed Chick, promptly. "Well, Nick, I should say that we
+could."</p>
+
+<p>"I think so, too."</p>
+
+<p>"You could do the snake charmer, all right, and easily gabble a lingo
+that would pass for his."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, rather," laughed Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"And if I was wise to the game you wished to play I easily could act as
+the interpreter, and run the conversation correctly on my own hook."</p>
+
+<p>"No doubt of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Do it? Why, surely we could," repeated Chick "Why did you ask?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think it may yet become necessary or desirable to make a move of
+that kind," replied Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"Why so?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because, as I have suspected all along, I still think there is some big
+game in the wind, with the Kilgore gang back of it, and that the murder
+of this Barton girl may have some connection with it, or at least give
+us a clew to it."</p>
+
+<p>"Egad! I hope so, Nick."</p>
+
+<p>"We soon shall see."</p>
+
+<p>"Going after Cervera now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; at once," said Nick, with grim austerity. "We shall find her at
+home, as usual. She'll not imagine that I can have got on her track as
+quickly as this, so no doubt I can easily land her. Before midnight I
+want bracelets on the white wrists of that Spanish dare-devil."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII" />CHAPTER XII.</h2>
+
+<h3>CLOSING IN.</h3>
+
+
+<p>There was, indeed, as Nick Carter shrewdly suspected, a mysterious bond
+between the several crimes thus far engaging his attention, and the
+secret operations for which David Kilgore and his gang had ventured into
+the city of New York.</p>
+
+<p>Nick had remarked, however, that the game would become as hazardous and
+stirring as one could desire, as soon as it was fairly driven from
+cover.</p>
+
+<p>And Nick began to drive it from cover that very night.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly before nine o'clock, and just as the two detectives were parting
+from the Hindoo snake charmer, Mr. Rufus Venner rang the bell at the
+door of Cervera's uptown residence.</p>
+
+<p>It was answered by Cervera herself, much to Venner's surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"Where's the butler to-night?" he abruptly demanded, as he entered and
+closed the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Gone," said Cervera, curtly.</p>
+
+<p>"Gone?"</p>
+
+<p>"I've sacked him along with all the rest."</p>
+
+<p>"Not discharged all of your servants?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing less."</p>
+
+<p>"But why?" demanded Venner, with a frown settling about his dark eyes.
+"You cannot remain here alone."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't intend to."</p>
+
+<p>"But what are you going to do? When are you going?"</p>
+
+<p>While thus speaking they had repaired to the library at the rear of the
+house, the room in which Nick had encountered the gang nearly a
+fortnight before. It was the only room then lighted. Even the hall
+through which they had passed was in darkness.</p>
+
+<p>Yet Cervera was dressed in an elaborate evening gown, fitted close to
+her lithe, nervous figure, and augmenting in a marked degree her
+dangerous, dark beauty.</p>
+
+<p>"You know where I am going&mdash;or should!" she replied, facing Venner, with
+an odd smile on her red lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Not to the diamond plant?" cried he, with a start.</p>
+
+<p>"To the diamond plant&mdash;yes!"</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible!"</p>
+
+<p>"You will find it's not impossible, Rufe," she retorted. "I generally go
+where I wish, and do what I undertake. I have already sent my own jewels
+and other valuables there by Pylotte. He was here this morning."</p>
+
+<p>"But consider, Sanetta," protested Venner, with a darker frown. "Think
+of what chances you are taking."</p>
+
+<p>"Of what?"</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose Nick Carter suspects you, and has a shadow on your movements&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Bah!" interrupted Cervera, with a snap and flash of her black eyes. "I
+care nothing for Nick Carter. <i>Caramba!</i> do you think I fear him? I will
+fool and foil Nick Carter as I have fooled and foiled his betters. I
+shall go to the plant to-morrow, and that settles it."</p>
+
+<p>"Stop a bit," insisted Venner, almost angrily. "Do you forget that
+Kilgore and all his gang are there? Do you forget that we are just
+about launching our gigantic enterprise? We now have nearly a million
+dollars' worth of diamonds manufactured, or in the process of making,
+and I already have begun to distribute them on the market at a fabulous
+profit."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I know all that. What has it to do with my going there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Such a move on your part may give Carter a clew to our location,"
+declared Venner.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, it won't," sneered Cervera, scornfully. "I'll look out for
+that."</p>
+
+<p>"Discovery would ruin all, and possibly land the whole gang behind
+prison bars."</p>
+
+<p>"Faugh! I'm as well at the plant as here, and there I am going. You let
+me alone to evade the Carters."</p>
+
+<p>"But why in thunder are you so determined to make this change?" demanded
+Venner.</p>
+
+<p>An amorous fire came stealing into the woman's resolute eyes, and she
+shrugged her shapely shoulders significantly.</p>
+
+<p>"You should know why without asking," she slowly answered, with her gaze
+fixed upon his changing countenance. "It is because I love you, Rufe,
+and wish to be where you spend so much of your time."</p>
+
+<p>"So much of my time?" echoed Venner, inquiringly.</p>
+
+<p>"So at least you tell me."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you doubt it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know that five days and nights have passed since you came here to see
+me," cried Cervera, bitterly. "I have only your own word in explanation
+of your neglect."</p>
+
+<p>"That should be enough," said Venner, curtly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yet a man after a new love does not shrink from lying to an old,"
+retorted Cervera.</p>
+
+<p>"Pshaw! You are jealous again."</p>
+
+<p>"A woman who loves as I love is always jealous."</p>
+
+<p>"Of whom now?"</p>
+
+<p>"You know of whom."</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you I have not seen Violet Page since the theater closed."</p>
+
+<p>"I have only your word for it," repeated Cervera, with incredulity
+bright in her sensuous eyes. "You know what I told you, Rufe. I'll not
+tamely permit that pale-faced nightingale to come between you and me.
+You know what I told you. I would kill her as I would a&mdash;a snake!"</p>
+
+<p>Despite his own stiff nerves, Venner recoiled from the look on the
+woman's desperate face. Her voice had fallen to a hiss like that of the
+reptile mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>"You are mad, Sanetta," he cried, irritably. "You have no occasion for
+this jealousy and hatred."</p>
+
+<p>"I have had! You know that I have had&mdash;and your face shows it!"</p>
+
+<p>"You have none now&mdash;absolutely none now!"</p>
+
+<p>His emphatic declaration fell upon Cervera with an effect which Venner
+did not at first understand.</p>
+
+<p>She sprang quickly toward him, gripping him hard by the wrist, while her
+every nerve seemed stimulated with sudden agitation.</p>
+
+<p>"None now? None now&mdash;now?" she fiercely reiterated, in inquiring
+whispers. "Do you mean that&mdash;that it is done? that it is done?"</p>
+
+<p>"Done?" gasped Venner, amazedly. "Is what done? What the devil are you
+driving at?"</p>
+
+<p>She drew back, searching his eyes with hers, and hers were like those of
+a demon, in her momentary suspense.</p>
+
+<p>"Then it isn't&mdash;it isn't?" she hissed, through her white teeth. "I
+thought from what you said that it was. I thought&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Good God! what do you mean?" cried Venner, aghast for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>Then, struck with a sudden recollection, he turned and snatched an
+evening paper from a pocket of his coat, which he had tossed on a chair.
+He had recalled certain leader lines which had caught his eye earlier in
+the evening, yet which he then had not had sufficient interest to
+follow.</p>
+
+<p>Now he hurriedly opened the paper and read the story, or so much of it
+as enabled him to guess the truth.</p>
+
+<p>It was the newspaper story of the girl found dead in Central Park that
+afternoon, with the mystery involving the sudden fatality, and the names
+of the murdered girl and her mistress, Violet Page.</p>
+
+<p>A half-smothered oath of horror and dismay broke from Venner, after a
+moment.</p>
+
+<p>It brought Cervera to his side, and she snatched the paper from him and
+read&mdash;the story of her own failure; the miscarriage of her own jealous
+and murderous design.</p>
+
+<p>She suppressed the shriek of mingled disappointment and fury that rose
+to her twitching lips, then passionately cast the paper upon the table.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what do you make of it?" she demanded, glaring at Venner's
+colorless face.</p>
+
+<p>"No need to ask," he replied, hoarsely. "You know what I make of it."</p>
+
+<p>"You think I did it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know you did it!"</p>
+
+<p>"And killed the wrong girl?"</p>
+
+<p>"And killed the wrong girl!"</p>
+
+<p>"Can you guess how?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't care how. I know that you did it."</p>
+
+<p>"You will not betray me?" hissed Cervera, crouching before him, with
+eyes never leaving his.</p>
+
+<p>"I have no wish to betray you."</p>
+
+<p>"You dare not! you dare not!"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall not!"</p>
+
+<p>"If you do&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The woman checked her words for an instant, and ran her hand into the
+bosom of her dress. When she drew it forth it gripped a naked poniard,
+upon the polished blade of which the rays of light flashed with many a
+wicked gleam and glint.</p>
+
+<p>"If you do," she repeated, "I will send you after her, Rufus Venner! I
+will do even more! I will expose our whole game, and our whole gang!"</p>
+
+<p>"I have said that I shall not betray you, nor will I," cried Venner,
+signing for her to put up the weapon. "Yet you were mad, Sanetta. You
+had no grounds for such jealousy, no occasion for such a crime."</p>
+
+<p>"I had&mdash;and you know it! I told you I would do it."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you have tried it, at least," growled Venner, forcing a smile to
+his gray lips.</p>
+
+<p>"And you dare not betray me," repeated Cervera, thrusting the glittering
+weapon within her dress. "I have not failed entirely, Rufe, since it
+makes the criminal tie between you and me all the stronger. It binds us
+together with links of steel, Rufe, and they are stronger far than any
+marriage contract."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you love me like that, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"You know that I do."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet your infernal jealousy, and your determination to quit this house
+and go to the plant with the gang, may yet ruin us all. If Nick Carter
+were to get a clew&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Bah!" Cervera fiercely interrupted. "I despise him, not fear him! I
+tell you again, I will fool and foil Nick Carter, as I have fooled and
+foiled his betters!"</p>
+
+<p>"His better as a detective never lived, Sanetta."</p>
+
+<p>"I care not! I defy him, and will yet show you that&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Hush! Hark! A cab has stopped outside!"</p>
+
+<p>Cervera changed like a flash.</p>
+
+<p>With the bound of a leopard, one of those lightning moves with which she
+could electrify an audience from the stage, she crossed the adjoining
+room, which was in darkness, and reached the front window.</p>
+
+<p>One glance through the lace draperies was enough.</p>
+
+<p>Nick Carter was just alighting from his carriage.</p>
+
+<p>Cervera darted back and rejoined Venner.</p>
+
+<p>"It is Carter&mdash;Nick Carter himself!" she fiercely whispered, with all
+the fire of her passionate Spanish nature ablaze in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Carter! Good God!"</p>
+
+<p>"Be off, Rufe, and leave him to me!"</p>
+
+<p>"To you alone?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"He already is on your track for this crime."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll foil him yet! Leave him to me alone!" Cervera fiercely cried. "Be
+off by the back stairs, then through the stable and the side alley. Go
+to your own home, and from there signal Kilgore to have the secret way
+to the plant open for me. Here&mdash;the paper! Take it away with you! I'll
+elude Carter&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But he may arrest you at once," protested Venner, excitedly. "If he
+does&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Caramba!</i> do you stop to question?" Cervera furiously interrupted. "If
+he takes me from this house he will take me&mdash;dead!"</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Quick&mdash;he's at the door! Leave him to me alone, and do what I told you!
+Away! There's the bell!"</p>
+
+<p>Venner caught up his coat, darted down the back stairs and quickly
+departed by the way mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time, while Nick's summons was still echoing through the
+great house, Sanetta Cervera swept haughtily through the main hall,
+switched on the electric light, and then opened the front door.</p>
+
+<p>She appeared as cool and composed as if she had just arisen from her
+dinner.</p>
+
+<p>Yet in the vestibule stood the one man whom she had most cause to fear,
+the man who now held her fate in his hand&mdash;Nick Carter.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII" />CHAPTER XIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>CRAFTY CERVERA.</h3>
+
+
+<p>"Good-evening, Mr. Venner. Oh, it's not you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, 'tis!" said Nick, dryly. "It's I all right, and I'm it. You
+appear surprised at seeing me, Se&ntilde;ora Cervera."</p>
+
+<p>Cervera had begun, then stopped, then uttered the startled exclamation;
+and all with the utmost coolness, with the air of one stirred only by
+genuine surprise, and as if without the slightest fear or dismay upon
+beholding Nick Carter in the vestibule.</p>
+
+<p>So perfectly natural was her artful assumption, that it rather deceived
+Nick for a short time.</p>
+
+<p>In response to his dry remarks, the artful jade now nodded and began to
+laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Surprised? Well, rather!" she exclaimed, in animated tones. "I was
+expecting our mutual friend, dear Mr. Venner, and supposed it was he who
+rang. But I'm just as pleased to see you."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes?"</p>
+
+<p>"Surely! Come in, Detective Carter. You are very, very welcome. I shall
+be so glad to renew our brief acquaintance. In fact, Detective Carter, I
+am quite charmed to see you."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll not feel so chipper and charmed when you learn my business,"
+said Nick to himself, as he entered and followed her to the library.</p>
+
+<p>"Take a chair, Detective Carter, and try to feel perfectly at home,"
+laughed Cervera, with bantering vivacity. "You have been here before,
+you know."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed, I know," said Nick, dryly. "The night I had a taste of a
+choke pear, at the hands of your faithful guardians."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! but you shall be better treated this time," smiled Cervera,
+dropping into a chair opposite the detective, and fixing her sensuous,
+dark eyes on Nick's calm, unreadable face.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope so, se&ntilde;ora," he replied. "By the way, what has become of those
+two stalwart guardians of your treasures? Do you still retain them in
+your employ?"</p>
+
+<p>It was second nature to Nick to feel his way in this crafty fashion, yet
+he did not really expect any resistance in arresting Cervera, who now
+laughed and shook her head, replying:</p>
+
+<p>"No, I have let them go."</p>
+
+<p>"That so?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have no use for them at present."</p>
+
+<p>"Why is that?"</p>
+
+<p>"My engagement at the theater has closed, and I seldom have occasion to
+wear my diamonds. I have placed them all in a safe deposit vault."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! I see."</p>
+
+<p>"So I have no need for my guardians, Detective Carter, with only myself
+here. Nobody would want me personally, you know," she added, with a bold
+laugh.</p>
+
+<p>Nick's firm lips drew a little closer.</p>
+
+<p>"On the contrary," said he, pointedly, "somebody does, want you
+personally."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! is that so?" cried Cervera, as if amused.</p>
+
+<p>"Very much so, se&ntilde;ora."</p>
+
+<p>"And who does me the honor, pray?"</p>
+
+<p>"I want you," said Nick, bluntly.</p>
+
+<p>"You, Detective Carter! Why, sir, what an idea! I wouldn't have believed
+it of you."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet it is true, nevertheless."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well," repeated Cervera, with a pretty shrug, "I am really glad
+to hear you say so. For what do you want me, Detective Carter?"</p>
+
+<p>Not once had Nick's searching gaze left her brazen countenance, and
+despite her outward display of badinage, his steadfast and penetrating
+eyes were making her secretly uneasy.</p>
+
+<p>"I want you," said Nick, pointedly, "for that ugly 'Jack-in-the-box'
+trick which you perpetrated this afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>Cervera's eyes emitted a single swift, fiery gleam, and her red lips
+drew closer. Yet she cried, still pleasantly:</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean by that, Detective Carter? Is it a joke?"</p>
+
+<p>"You'll find it no joke."</p>
+
+<p>"If it is, sir, I don't see the point."</p>
+
+<p>"You will have a chance to look for it at the Tombs," replied Nick, with
+grim quietude. "Se&ntilde;ora Cervera, I want you to go along with me."</p>
+
+<p>"The Tombs! Go with you! What do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"I mean that you are now under arrest."</p>
+
+<p>"Arrest! For what?"</p>
+
+<p>"For the murder of a girl named Mary Barton," Nick bluntly rejoined,
+ignoring the woman's increasing display of amazement and resentment.</p>
+
+<p>"Mary Barton!" cried Cervera. "I never heard of the girl."</p>
+
+<p>"Nevertheless," said Nick, sternly, "you met her on Fifth Avenue this
+afternoon, and gave her a jewel casket containing a venomous snake,
+which you had stolen from the den of Pandu Singe, and by which means you
+inadvertently killed Mary Barton, instead of another for whom your
+infernal design was intended. I am aware of all of your late movements,
+se&ntilde;ora, you see."</p>
+
+<p>"I see that you are a devil!" cried Cervera, with a sudden passionate
+outburst. "How dare you come here with such a story as that?"</p>
+
+<p>For a moment at least, the fact that Nick already had discovered nearly
+every detail of her infamous crime&mdash;though committed only a few hours
+before&mdash;almost completely unnerved her, and her changing countenance,
+her irrepressible outbreak, and the violent agitation of her lithe,
+nervous figure, were tokens of self-betrayal by no means unobserved by
+Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll have a chance to refute the story before a judge and jury," Nick
+curtly answered. "At present you are in my custody, however, and you
+must go with me."</p>
+
+<p>Cervera rose to her feet, trembling visibly, and gripped the back of her
+chair as if for support.</p>
+
+<p>"There must be some terrible mistake, Detective Carter," she now cried,
+with well-feigned distress and alarm. "Surely you do not mean this,
+sir? Surely you do but jest?"</p>
+
+<p>"On the contrary, se&ntilde;ora, I mean every word that I have said."</p>
+
+<p>"That I am under arrest?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"And must go with you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Precisely."</p>
+
+<p>"To the Tombs?"</p>
+
+<p>"To the Tombs, se&ntilde;ora."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! this is dreadful&mdash;dreadful!" craftily moaned Cervera, with tears
+now filling her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry for you, se&ntilde;ora, but I must do my duty," said Nick, rising.</p>
+
+<p>"I know you must&mdash;but, oh! what shall I do? To whom can I appeal? Oh! if
+Mr. Venner were only here!"</p>
+
+<p>"You can send a messenger for him later, or dispatch one of your
+servants from here," suggested Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"I have none here," sobbed Cervera. "They are all out, and I am alone. I
+have no one&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She suddenly stopped, then drew herself up with resentful dignity, and
+wiped the tears from her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I am a fool to be so weak!" she exclaimed, bitterly. "Detective Carter,
+I know nothing of the crime you mention. I never heard of Mary Barton.
+This arrest is an outrage, and I will appeal to the highest court in the
+land for vindication!"</p>
+
+<p>"That's your privilege," said Nick, shortly. "But at present you must go
+with me."</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot go as I am," declared Cervera, passionately stamping her
+foot. "I am in evening dress&mdash;attired to receive a caller. I shall take
+cold if I go out of doors in&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you may change your dress," Nick curtly interrupted, the need of
+which was decidedly obvious. "I'll give you time for that."</p>
+
+<p>"How very kind," sneered Cervera, with a bitter flash of her black eyes.
+"You shall yet suffer for this affront, Detective Carter."</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said Nick. "But I have no time to speculate upon it now, so
+get yourself ready. Wait a bit, my lady! I'll go along with you!"</p>
+
+<p>"With me? You insult me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, I don't. I want a look at your chamber before letting you out
+of my sight. I've seen rooms with more than one way out, and I don't
+intend that you shall elude me."</p>
+
+<p>"You're a suspicious coward, sir!"</p>
+
+<p>"Stow all that, se&ntilde;ora, and lead the way," commanded Nick, bluntly.</p>
+
+<p>Pale and resentful, with a sneer on her lips, Cervera led the way
+through, the hall, playing her part so artfully that Nick, ignorant of
+her late interview with Rufus Venner, was not much inclined to suspect
+her of duplicity just then.</p>
+
+<p>Upon reaching the top of the hall stairs, Cervera switched on another
+light, and then that which illumined her chamber, into which she
+haughtily led the detective.</p>
+
+<p>"A fine affront to suffer," she bitterly exclaimed, throwing herself
+into a chair. "Your conduct is despicable! You are no gentleman!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am a detective," retorted Nick, "and I come pretty near knowing my
+business."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! you do," sneered Cervera. "Plainly that is the limit of your
+knowledge. You may not be as wise as you think."</p>
+
+<p>Nick made no reply, but looked sharply about the room.</p>
+
+<p>It was a large, square chamber, and elaborately furnished. The two
+windows were well above the street, and offered no chance for escape.
+There were but two doors, that leading into the hall and the one leading
+into a large closet in the opposite wall.</p>
+
+<p>Nick opened the latter, and found the closet hung with Cervera's
+extensive wardrobe. He thrust his arm along the garments hanging at
+either side, and sounded the three walls, and then the closet floor, all
+of which appeared perfectly firm and solid.</p>
+
+<p>Even these precautions seemed quite needless to Nick, however, it being
+a rented house, and Cervera presumably uninformed of his coming.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, se&ntilde;ora, you may have just ten minutes to make ready," said he, as
+he rejoined her. "I shall leave this chamber door open, and will wait
+for you in the adjoining hall. Can you whistle?"</p>
+
+<p>"Whistle?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, whistle! You know what it is to whistle, don't you?"</p>
+
+<p>The sneer on Cervera's red lips, as she arose from her chair, became
+almost a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I can whistle after a fashion," she admitted.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, you keep whistling all the time you are alone here," Nick
+sternly commanded. "I will let you out of my sight to make these
+changes, but not out of my hearing."</p>
+
+<p>"Suspicious fool!"</p>
+
+<p>"Fool or not, you keep whistling," said Nick, bluntly. "If you let up
+for so long as a second, I'll come over yonder threshold in a way that
+you'll not fancy."</p>
+
+<p>"But suppose I want to brush my teeth?" inquired Cervera, with a
+vixenish light in her evil eyes. "I cannot whistle and brush my teeth,
+Detective Carter."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll have plenty of time to brush your teeth at the Tombs," said
+Nick, sharply. "Now look lively, mark you, and&mdash;keep whistling."</p>
+
+<p>Cervera at once began to whistle.</p>
+
+<p>Nick removed the key from the chamber door, and sauntered out into the
+hall, where he kept his ears constantly alert.</p>
+
+<p>Not for a moment did the whistling cease, nor was there the slightest
+change in tone or character.</p>
+
+<p>Nick could not have taken a more effective method to serve his present
+purpose.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of eight minutes the whistling ceased, and Cervera coldly
+cried:</p>
+
+<p>"Now you may come in, Detective Carter. I am about ready to go with
+you."</p>
+
+<p>Nick at once entered the chamber.</p>
+
+<p>Cervera had changed her evening dress for a complete suit of black, and
+was standing in the middle of the room.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose," said she, staring icily at the detective, "that I ought to
+thank you for your consideration."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't trouble yourself," said Nick, curtly. "I have no time to waste."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet just one word, Detective Carter, before we go."</p>
+
+<p>"Let it be brief, then."</p>
+
+<p>"You are said to be a very clever man, and no doubt you think you have
+me dead to rights in this case," said Cervera, with a mocking curl of
+her thin lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Decidedly so."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet you will find, Detective Carter, that a clever woman can always
+fool and foil a clever man."</p>
+
+<p>"But you, my lady, are very far from being a clever woman," retorted
+Nick, with a gesture of impatience, signifying that he wished to leave
+with her at once.</p>
+
+<p>"Nevertheless, I shall beat you at the finish, make no mistake about
+that," cried Cervera, scornfully. "Now, sir, I will put on my wrap, and
+go with you where you please."</p>
+
+<p>With the last remark, she approached a peg in the open closet, as if to
+take down a dark shawl.</p>
+
+<p>Instead, she suddenly turned quickly around and cried, with a taunting
+laugh:</p>
+
+<p>"So long, Detective Carter! I really feel quite sorry to bid
+you&mdash;good-by!"</p>
+
+<p>Nick started like a man electrified.</p>
+
+<p>Cervera merely had pressed the peg on which the shawl hung, whereupon
+the whole back of the closet seemed to fall away instantly, disclosing a
+lighted passage beyond.</p>
+
+<p>Nick caught a glimpse of it, and of the woman darting toward it, and he
+followed her like a shot from a gun.</p>
+
+<p>As Cervera passed through the further opening and gained the lighted
+passage, she seized and threw a short lever just beyond the closet wall.</p>
+
+<p>At the same moment Nick's weight fell upon the closet floor behind her.</p>
+
+<p>It was like treading upon air.</p>
+
+<p>The lever, like the peg, did not work in an instant.</p>
+
+
+<p>Nick felt himself falling, and made a desperate clutch at the door
+jamb&mdash;only to miss it.</p>
+
+<p>Then the closet floor, with the detective upon it, went speeding down
+like an elevator cut loose from a top story.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV" />CHAPTER XIV.</h2>
+
+<h3>IN A WARM CORNER.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The crash with which Nick Carter vaguely expected his career might be
+abruptly ended, as the floor upon which he had fallen prostrate rapidly
+descended, did not come.</p>
+
+<p>The terrific downward speed suddenly decreased, then became more
+gradual, all in the bare fraction of a second; and then the rushing
+sound of compressed air escaping through narrow crevices fell upon the
+detective's ears.</p>
+
+<p>Nick immediately guessed the truth.</p>
+
+<p>The falling closet floor was that of an elevator, no longer in use as
+such, yet which still worked on the slides of the elevator well, and
+evidently had been cleverly adjusted for just such an emergency as that
+depicted.</p>
+
+<p>Presently there came a heavy jar, and then the downward motion ceased.
+The close-fitting floor at first had fallen so swiftly that the confined
+air in the well beneath it had become so compressed as to form an air
+cushion, which finally let the floor completely down only after the air
+had gradually escaped. It was this escaping air Nick heard during the
+last moments of his fall.</p>
+
+<p>The entire episode began and ended in but little more than a moment,
+however. Though considerably jarred, Nick pulled himself together, and
+gazed up through the darkness at the bottom of the well.</p>
+
+<p>Cervera was peering down from the lighted passage three stories above
+him, Nick having made a clean drop into the cellar of the imposing
+residence.</p>
+
+<p>That this entire contrivance was the work of the Kilgore gang, devised
+while they masqueraded at Cervera's house, Nick was thoroughly
+convinced.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello!" Cervera suddenly cried, still gazing down into the darkness
+enveloping Nick. "Are you there, Mr. Carter?"</p>
+
+<p>Nick stared up at her, but made no answer.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time he felt quietly over the walls of the well, in the hope
+of finding some way of escape.</p>
+
+<p>It riled him not a little, the thought of having been so deftly caught
+in a trap, almost entirely owing to his having been overconfident, an
+assurance only very natural under the circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>The possibility that this woman might now elude him for a time was also
+a thorn in Nick's mind.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Caramba!</i>" cried Cervera, with a mocking laugh. "Aren't you going to
+speak?"</p>
+
+<p>Still no answer.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you lost your tongue, Detective Carter? If you don't speak out,
+Mr. Smart Fellow, I shall drop something down that will light you up. I
+want a look at you, to know whether you're afoot or on horseback."</p>
+
+<p>Nick remained in perfect silence.</p>
+
+<p>Then Cervera disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>"The she-devil!" muttered the detective. "What move next, I wonder?"</p>
+
+<p>Again he felt quickly over the walls of the well, in the hope of finding
+some avenue of escape.</p>
+
+<p>With a thrill of satisfaction, he now discovered one of the vertical
+strips of iron which are attached to two opposite walls of an elevator
+well, to steady the car and serve as slides for it to run upon. These
+iron strips are usually regularly notched to the depth of an inch or
+more, for the admission of an automatic break in the event of the rope
+parting.</p>
+
+<p>"By Jove! this is not so bad," thought Nick. "It might serve for a
+ladder.</p>
+
+<p>"To climb three stories with the tips of one's fingers and toes,
+however, and by means of a notched iron on the bare face of a wall, is a
+herculean and hazardous undertaking."</p>
+
+<p>While he stood, measuring the altitude with his eyes, Nick heard Cervera
+returning.</p>
+
+<p>Then a great bunch of flaming paper came flying down the well, and the
+detective was forced to leap aside to escape it.</p>
+
+<p>She-devil, indeed, Cervera had set fire to a crumpled newspaper, with
+which to illuminate the bottom of the well.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, there you are!" she exultingly cried, on discovering Nick in the
+glare of the light. "On your feet, eh? You were lucky to escape,
+Detective Carter."</p>
+
+<p>"And you'll be lucky if you escape Detective Carter," sternly retorted
+Nick, quickly stamping out the fire. "I'll finally land you, my crafty
+young woman, though I lie awake nights to devise a way."</p>
+
+<p>Cervera gave vent to a shrill, vindictive laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think you can do it?" she demanded, mockingly.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll find that I can."</p>
+
+<p>"Better men than you have tried&mdash;and failed."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet I shall succeed."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you feel quite sure of it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Absolutely."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I think I'd better see your finish this very night, since I now
+have you cornered!" cried Cervera, in taunting tones, "It may not be
+wise to defer it."</p>
+
+<p>Then Nick beheld a second burning newspaper coming his way.</p>
+
+<p>"Let up, you demon!" he shouted, angrily. "You'll set the house afire."</p>
+
+<p>"Wouldn't it be a shame! And what would become of you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't try it again, young woman, or worse may be your fate."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! is that so?" sneered Cervera, maliciously. "We'll see."</p>
+
+<p>Down came another burning paper, and by the light of it Nick now
+discovered a closed door in one of the walls. It was directly under the
+closet door in Cervera's chamber, both of which evidently had once been
+used for entering the elevator.</p>
+
+<p>The fact chiefly observed by Nick, however, was that the sill of the
+door was wide enough to offer him a safe footing. Though it was fully
+eight feet above his head, Nick resolved to attempt to reach it by means
+of the notched iron on the side wall.</p>
+
+<p>Gripping the rough notches with his muscular fingers, and using those
+lower down for a foothold, as best he could, Nick hurriedly began the
+difficult ascent.</p>
+
+<p>By the light from a fragment of burning paper, Cervera perceived his
+design, and greeted it with a scream of derision.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll soon stop that, my fine fellow," she shouted, with vicious
+asperity. "Look out for yourself!"</p>
+
+<p>White speaking, she touched a match to one of her dresses, which hung
+from a near peg on the closet wall, and dropped it blazing down the
+well.</p>
+
+<p>Nick saw it coming, and was forced to drop back to the cellar floor.</p>
+
+<p>"You vicious demon!" he cried, angrily. "Let up! You'll have the house
+on fire!"</p>
+
+<p>"That's just what I intend doing&mdash;and you with it!" screamed Cervera,
+with a laugh. "I'll not leave you alive to get the best of me at some
+later day."</p>
+
+<p>Then she set fire to a silk skirt, and dropped it after the other.</p>
+
+<p>Nick had not yet been able to extinguish the first, and the situation
+was momentarily becoming more desperate. A cloud of smoke was filling
+the well, with no draft to carry it away, and the heat was already very
+oppressive.</p>
+
+<p>Crouching on the curb of the lighted passage three floors above him,
+Cervera was laughing wildly, with her handsome face reflecting the
+bitter hatred by which she was inspired, as she hurriedly set fire to a
+third garment and dropped it down the well.</p>
+
+<p>The smoke at the bottom had become so dense that Nick no longer could
+see her, but he felt quite sure that he could put an end to her present
+murderous game.</p>
+
+<p>He drew his revolver and fired two quick shots in her direction. One
+bullet crashed through the ceiling above her. The second clipped a lock
+of hair from over the vixen's ear.</p>
+
+<p>It brought a shriek of alarm to her lips, and she sprang quickly back
+from the curb over which she was stooping.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Caramba!</i>" she yelled, excitedly. "That's your game, is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"You'll find it is, if you approach that opening again!" cried Nick,
+half choked with smoke, while he fiercely strove to extinguish the
+blazing garments.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'll not give you another chance at me!" screamed Cervera. "I'll
+push over something heavier, and crush out your life with&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She suddenly stopped, then held her breath and listened.</p>
+
+<p>The crash of a breaking door reached her ears, then hurried footsteps
+began falling on the main stairway leading to her chamber.</p>
+
+<p>"Some one is coming!" she fiercely muttered. "Perhaps another detective!
+I must be off!"</p>
+
+<p>Yet so bitter was her hatred of Nick, and so intensely enjoyable to her
+the trick she had served him, that she lingered for an instant in the
+face of the impending danger, and screamed down the well, with a mocking
+laugh:</p>
+
+<p>"I'm obliged to leave you, Detective Carter! While I'm gone&mdash;keep
+whistling!"</p>
+
+<p>At the same moment Chick Carter rushed into the chamber and caught a
+glimpse of her through the wreathing smoke, as she fled through the
+lighted passage.</p>
+
+<p>One glance at the scene gave Chick the entire situation.</p>
+
+<p>He drew back, took a short run, and with a magnificent bound cleared the
+open well, and leaped squarely through the closet and into the lighted
+passage.</p>
+
+<p>Then the crash of a heavy door, suddenly closed, and the shooting of
+bolts, told him that Cervera had prevented pursuit for a time at least,
+and Chick swung round to the open well, to see if Nick needed him.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello, Nick!" he shouted. "The woman&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Let her go!" roared Nick, still fiercely fighting the flames that
+threatened the woodwork of the well. "Let her go&mdash;we'll get her later!
+First save the house!"</p>
+
+<p>"How can I reach you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Through a door under the one in her chamber," shouted Nick. "Try that."</p>
+
+<p>Chick cleared the well with another leap, then dashed downstairs and
+into the parlor, which was lighted by the glare from both hall and
+library.</p>
+
+<p>He quickly discovered the door&mdash;only to find it locked and the key
+removed.</p>
+
+<p>Chick was promptly equal to so slight an emergency, however. Grasping a
+heavy stool near the piano, he swung it above his head, and with half a
+dozen rapid blows demolished most of the door, and forced it open.</p>
+
+<p>A cloud of smoke floated into the room, but a glance showed Chick that
+Nick now had the flames extinguished.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you all right, old man?" he demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"Only a little in need of fresh air," gasped Nick. "You cannot reach
+down to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a bit, then. This will do the business!"</p>
+
+<p>Chick had turned and snatched off the thick cloth covering of the piano,
+which he quickly twisted and lowered over the doorsill, and then braced
+himself to sustain Nick's weight.</p>
+
+<p>"All right?" cried Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Come on!"</p>
+
+<p>Nick drew himself up until he could grasp the sill of the door, then
+easily reached the floor and the clearer atmosphere of the parlor.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, here's a pretty mess!" he growled, in tones of self-condemnation.
+"If ever I was done by a crafty jade, I've been done by one this night."</p>
+
+<p>"How in thunder did it happen, Nick?" demanded Chick, with no little
+amazement.</p>
+
+<p>Nick very quickly told him, and explained the occasion of his own lack
+of distrust and caution.</p>
+
+<p>"It being a rented house, I did not look for any such trap as this,"
+said he. "Furthermore, I did not believe that Cervera had any warning of
+my coming, and I felt satisfied that she was alone here. Have you seen
+anything of Venner while waiting in the cab?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not a sign of him."</p>
+
+<p>"It's odds, then, that he was here when I arrived, and made his escape
+by a back door," growled Nick. "If so, it goes to show that he is in
+with her and the Kilgore push, and not a blind victim to their cunning.
+We now must get some proof of that, Chick, and force that gang and
+their game to light. We at least have made a beginning, and now for
+another move."</p>
+
+<p>"To-night?"</p>
+
+<p>"At once!" declared Nick. "Cervera must find shelter somewhere, and it's
+very likely she will go to Venner's house. That must be our next point,
+and we will lose no time. Possibly we yet may land her before she finds
+cover."</p>
+
+<p>"We can give it a try," cried Chick.</p>
+
+<p>"Help me extinguish these lights, and then we'll be off again."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm with you."</p>
+
+<p>"What sent you into the house so suddenly?"</p>
+
+<p>"The reports of your revolver," explained Chick. "I at once recognized
+its bark, and knew something was wrong."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! I see."</p>
+
+<p>"I saw the light in the chamber, and supposed you might be letting the
+woman prepare to go with you," added Chick. "That was while I sat in the
+cab. But when I heard your gun, I smashed open the front door and bolted
+upstairs."</p>
+
+<p>"Very lucky, too," nodded Nick. "That she-devil would have burned the
+house, and me in the bargain. But the end is not yet."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, hardly!" laughed Chick, as they descended the front stairs and
+extinguished the last light.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll stop an officer, and send him here to watch the house," said
+Nick. "Then we'll have a look at Venner's dwelling. It's my opinion,
+Chick, that our work has now begun in good earnest."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I reckon we shall prove equal to it," smiled Chick, rather
+grimly, as they hastened to enter the waiting carriage.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV" />CHAPTER XV.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE DIAMOND PLANT.</h3>
+
+
+<p>"This does settle it!"</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean, Dave?"</p>
+
+<p>"It must be done?"</p>
+
+<p>"We must get these Carters&mdash;that's what! If we don't get them,
+Spotty&mdash;you take my word for it&mdash;they'll get us!"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you really think so, Dave?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not think, but know so!" declared Kilgore, with emphasis. "I know these
+Carters, root and branch. They have now struck our trail, and they'll
+stick to it like bloodhounds till they run us down&mdash;unless we get them!
+It must be done, I say, and done promptly."</p>
+
+<p>"Put them down and out?"</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly. It's them&mdash;or us!"</p>
+
+<p>"And why do you think, all of a sudden, Dave, that Nick Carter is so hot
+on our heels?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell you why, Spotty."</p>
+
+<p>And Mr. David Kilgore, chief of the notorious diamond gang bearing his
+name, and one of the keenest and coolest criminals in or out of prison
+walls, removed his pipe from his mouth and his heels from the edge of
+the table, and drew forward in his chair to explain.</p>
+
+<p>It was a curious place, that in which the speakers of the above were
+seated, in the bright glare of an electric light.</p>
+
+<p>It was inclosed with four solid stone walls, with not a window or
+aperture through which a ray of light could be detected from outside.</p>
+
+<p>Yet in one of the walls was a low, narrow door, also of stone, and so
+cleverly constructed and fitted that, when swung into place in the wall,
+it was comparatively beyond the detection of anybody ignorant of its
+existence. This door then stood open, but the aperture through the wall
+was heavily curtained.</p>
+
+<p>Three of these walls formed the original foundation of an old and
+extensive suburban mansion, the location, ownership and present use of
+which will presently appear. The fourth wall, that with the door, was of
+more recent construction, and was built squarely across the original
+cellar of the house. It had been made to mask this secret subterranean
+chamber in which the Kilgore gang was then gathered.</p>
+
+<p>The place was commodious, and contained some noteworthy objects. In one
+corner was a powerful hydraulic press. Near by was a splendid electrical
+furnace, capable of generating an extraordinary degree of heat. Against
+the adjoining wall were several barrels of sulphur, of which only one
+was unheaded. Near by was a large box of anthracite coal, black and
+glistening in the rays of the arc light.</p>
+
+<p>Parallel with the opposite wall was a workbench, laden with curious
+retorts, crucibles, test tubes, metal molds, and no end of tools, all of
+which plainly suggested the work of one versed both in chemistry and
+some mechanical art.</p>
+
+<p>In the middle of the room was a square deal table, at which Kilgore was
+seated, with Matt Stall and Spotty Dalton, the original three of the
+Kilgore gang.</p>
+
+<p>Two other persons were present, however, and they were engaged in
+examining some work on the bench mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>One of them was a tall, angular Frenchman, about sixty years of age,
+named Jean Pylotte. He had a slender figure, somewhat bowed; but his
+head was massive, in which his gleaming, gray eyes were deeply sunk,
+like those of a tireless student and hard worker.</p>
+
+<p>His companion at the bench just then was Sanetta Cervera, the Spanish
+dancer&mdash;the murderess of Mary Barton&mdash;the vicious dare-devil who had
+served Nick Carter one of her evil tricks that very evening.</p>
+
+<p>Cervera had arrived at the diamond plant less than an hour before, and
+had hurriedly told her confederates the whole story of her crime and her
+adventure with Nick.</p>
+
+<p>Crime was too common with these outlaws, however, and loyalty to one
+another too natural, for Kilgore to censure his only female confederate
+very severely. Yet as Kilgore now proceeded to explain, her crime had
+rendered their situation decidedly more alarming.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell you why these Carters are now to be seriously feared," said
+he, nodding grimly at his hearers. "This last move of Cervera has hurt
+us severely."</p>
+
+<p>"In what way?" demanded Spotty Dalton, the pock-marked chap who had
+relieved Venner's partner of the Hafferman diamonds about two weeks
+before. "I don't see just how, Dave."</p>
+
+<p>"No more do I," put in Matt Stall.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll see," replied Kilgore, "when I run over a few facts which led
+to our being here, and at work on our present game."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Dave, we're listening."</p>
+
+<p>"One year ago we three were in Amsterdam, Holland, weren't we?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure."</p>
+
+<p>"At work on a different kind of a game?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Only we three were then in the gang."</p>
+
+<p>"That's right, Dave. Now there are seven of us, counting Venner and his
+partner."</p>
+
+<p>"It was in Amsterdam that we first met her nibs," continued Kilgore,
+with a jerk of his thumb in the direction of Cervera, who was so engaged
+with Pylotte that neither heeded the talk at the table.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Dave, we met her just a year ago," nodded Dalton.</p>
+
+<p>"She was then doing her dances in a theater there, and we naturally got
+our peepers onto her diamonds," Kilgore went on to narrate. "You fellows
+already know the scheme by which we tried to relieve her of them, which
+we came so near doing."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, rather," grinned Dalton, as if the reminiscence was amusing.</p>
+
+<p>"Then we learned from her own lips, and greatly to our surprise, that
+her sparks were not the real thing," smiled Kilgore. "At first we could
+not believe it. The goods deceived even us, old hands though we are. It
+was only when she told us about Pylotte, and the secret process by
+which he makes such extraordinary imitations, that we could believe
+her."</p>
+
+<p>"That's right, Dave."</p>
+
+<p>"She had stumbled by chance upon this clever French chemist and diamond
+cutter, and was working him to the extent of her ability. She even had
+got wise to his secret, and he was loading her with his marvelous gems
+in return for her affection. But we at once saw the way to something
+much more profitable, a game for making millions out of Pylotte's great
+discovery."</p>
+
+<p>"Right again, Dave."</p>
+
+<p>"So we told them about it, and found them willing," continued Kilgore.
+"We rung them into our gang, and planned the whole deal. We knew it
+would be dead easy to work off such clever stones for genuine goods.
+With plenty of such sparks on hand, and one big and reputable jeweler to
+help us work the market, the distribution of our goods and their
+substitution for genuine stones would quickly throw a cool million or
+two our way."</p>
+
+<p>"Dead easy, Dave."</p>
+
+<p>"But we decided that New York was the best field for such a gigantic
+enterprise," added Kilgore. "So we came here. With the help of Cervera,
+we got our grip on Venner, and then on his avaricious partner, Garside,
+whose business happened to be on its last legs. So they snapped like
+hungry fish at this chance to square themselves, by secretly swindling
+their own customers, and shoving our manufactured diamonds upon the
+entire market."</p>
+
+<p>"Like hungry fish&mdash;h'm! that's no name for it," cried Matt Stall, with
+a mingled growl and laugh. "Rufe Venner was as ready to become a knave
+as any covey I ever crossed."</p>
+
+<p>"So we established this plant for Pylotte to do his clever work in,"
+continued Kilgore, disregarding the interruption. "Luckily, Venner
+already owned this old mansion, as well as that in which he lives; and
+fortunately, both places are somewhat secluded, with extensive grounds
+abutting. That enabled us to frame up a very snug and safe retreat."</p>
+
+<p>"Sure it did."</p>
+
+<p>"So we went to work," Kilgore proceeded, discursively. "We built our
+plant, placed our machinery, rigged a private telephone between this
+house and Venner's, and tapped the electric conduit with a secret wire,
+to give us light and feed our furnace."</p>
+
+<p>"That was my work," nodded Stall, with a touch of pride.</p>
+
+<p>"Right you are, Matt, and mighty good work, too," bowed Kilgore. "In a
+nutshell, boys, after two months' secret work, we have accomplished all
+we planned, and now have Venner sliding our goods upon the market at a
+fabulous profit. In a single year, barring these infernal Carters, every
+man of us should be a millionaire."</p>
+
+<p>"But why this sudden fear of the Carters?" growled Dalton, impatiently.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll now tell you why," cried Kilgore, with voice lowered, and an ugly
+gleam in his frowning eyes. "We cannot sack Cervera, nor put out her
+light, for she's too good and strong a card for us to lose. But in
+losing her head over Venner, and jealously doing up that girl to-day,
+she has given the Carters a clew by which to track us."</p>
+
+<p>"How so, Dave?" muttered Stall, growing a bit pale.</p>
+
+<p>"Through Venner, of course!" Kilgore forcibly argued. "Until this job of
+to-day, Carter has had no definite suspicion of Venner, a possibility
+which we headed off with that fake robbery. Now, however, since Cervera
+must lie low, and Carter knows of her relations with Venner, he will
+suspect the latter and make him a constant mark, in the hope of landing
+the girl."</p>
+
+<p>"By Heaven, that's so!" snarled Dalton, quickly seeing the point.</p>
+
+<p>"And that's not the worst of it," added Kilgore. "The moment he suspects
+Venner, Carter will connect him with us, and know that that robbery was
+a put-up job. Then he'll begin to seek us and our game."</p>
+
+<p>"But how can he locate us?"</p>
+
+<p>"Locate us?" sneered Kilgore, acidly. "You don't know Nick Carter! I'll
+tell you, Spotty, he can smell a rat further than any ferret that ever
+shoved his nose under a miller's barn. As sure as death and taxes, Nick
+Carter will run us down and land us, every mother's son of us&mdash;unless we
+can get him, and put him down and out."</p>
+
+<p>"By Heaven, I begin to think so myself," growled Stall. "If we&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"There are no ifs, ands or buts about it, Matt," interrupted Kilgore,
+decisively. "We must down them both, Nick and Chick Carter, or our game
+is as good as done for."</p>
+
+<p>"But how can we land them, Dave, and when?"</p>
+
+<p>"I already have a plan, and I think the first move may be made this
+very night."</p>
+
+<p>"What's the plan, Dave?"</p>
+
+<p>"To lure both detectives into Venner's house, and there do them up. If
+we can get them to come there voluntarily, their fate may never be
+learned, and our tracks will be better covered than by doing the job
+elsewhere."</p>
+
+<p>"That's true enough, since they're not likely to disclose their
+intentions, and if they come in disguise, no one about here will have
+recognized them."</p>
+
+<p>"That's just my theory."</p>
+
+<p>"But how can we lure them to Venner's house?"</p>
+
+<p>"With the help of Pylotte, whom they do not know, nor ever heard of.
+He's a brainy dog, moreover, and crafty enough to blind them."</p>
+
+<p>"But what's your scheme for to-night?" demanded Dalton.</p>
+
+<p>"After what has happened," replied Kilgore, "it's a safe gamble that the
+Carters are at this moment watching Venner's house. If they are&mdash;but
+wait a bit! First hear my whole plan."</p>
+
+<p>The three criminals drew their chairs closer, and in a very few minutes
+Kilgore had disclosed his entire design, a scheme so recklessly bold
+that it brought murmurs of amazement and misgivings from both his
+hearers, daring knaves though they were.</p>
+
+<p>"It strikes me, Dave, that it's too long a chance for us to take, this
+giving Nick Carter a genuine clew to our game," objected Dalton,
+doubtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"But no other clew will answer," declared Kilgore, forcibly. "You
+cannot fool Nick Carter with any false move or faked story; I'm already
+sure of that."</p>
+
+<p>"So am I," nodded Stall. "He's too wise a guy to fool with."</p>
+
+<p>"We are compelled to give him the real thing, and make him feel that he
+is up against a square deal, or no man among us can work the racket,"
+added Kilgore. "With my scheme, however, Pylotte is just the covey to do
+the job, and land both Carters where we want them."</p>
+
+<p>"And then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Then it's our ability against theirs," snarled Kilgore, "If we go lame,
+with the odds all in our favor, we deserve to be thrown down."</p>
+
+<p>"That's right, too," admitted Dalton.</p>
+
+<p>"Will Pylotte undertake this sort of a job, think you?" inquired Matt
+Stall.</p>
+
+<p>"Will he?" rejoined Kilgore, with an ugly gleam in his determined eyes.
+"He will, or&mdash;well, you know! Yes, Matt, he will; and he's just the man
+for the job."</p>
+
+<p>The vicious significance with which he spoke plainly indicated that,
+though Cervera may have ruled her own roost, there was but one chief of
+this gang, and that was Mr. David Kilgore.</p>
+
+<p>He turned sharply about in his chair, and cried:</p>
+
+<p>"Here you, Pylotte! Come and give us your ear! I have work for you
+to-night!"</p>
+
+<p>Both Pylotte and Cervera quickly turned and hastened to join the gang at
+the table.</p>
+
+<p>For twenty minutes Kilgore's project for outwitting and securing Nick
+Carter was earnestly discussed, and every detail of the plan carefully
+laid.</p>
+
+<p>Then the four men stole quietly out of the house in company.</p>
+
+<p>It then was a little after midnight.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI" />CHAPTER XVI.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE CUNNING OF JEAN PYLOTTE.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Kilgore had reasoned shrewdly, in so quickly suspecting that Nick Carter
+would lose no time in getting a line on the Venner residence. Even while
+the diamond gang were discussing the plan by which to capture the
+Carters, the two detectives were at times within a hundred yards of the
+secret plant.</p>
+
+<p>It was dark out of doors that night, with only a few stars in the
+clouded sky, and the wooded locality and neighboring streets were but
+poorly lighted.</p>
+
+<p>It was in a northern suburb of New York, a section not yet much
+encroached upon by the spreading city, and the dwelling owned and
+occupied by Rufus Venner was that in which three generations of his
+family had lived and died.</p>
+
+<p>It was a square, old house of brick, set fifty yards from the suburban
+street, and was flanked in either direction by extensive, ill-kept
+grounds, made damp and dark by the huge, old trees, which nearly covered
+the estate.</p>
+
+<p>Back of the house, and off to one side, was a large wooden stable, fast
+running to ruin; while a rusty iron fence, falling to fragments in
+places, skirted the dismal grounds in front.</p>
+
+<p>Beyond the trees, far to the rear, could be seen the roof and chimneys
+of an old, wooden mansion, fronting on another street, and having a very
+similar environment. There, too, the house and grounds were running to
+ruin and decay, both places being but crumbling monuments of former
+opulence and grandeur.</p>
+
+<p>It was upon this scene that Nick Carter and Chick arrived just before
+midnight, having left their carriage at a remote corner, to await their
+return.</p>
+
+<p>"Yonder is Venner's house, Chick," said Nick, as they picked their way
+along the unpaved sidewalk. "We'll vault this iron fence and steal
+across the grounds."</p>
+
+<p>"It doesn't look much as if our quarry was there," observed Chick, as
+they scaled the fence.</p>
+
+<p>"Their deeds are dark, and like seeks like," replied Nick. "They now may
+be making darkness their cover."</p>
+
+<p>"Not a light in the house, is there?"</p>
+
+<p>"None visible from this side. We'll steal between the house and stable,
+and have a look at the opposite elevation."</p>
+
+<p>"Not much danger of being seen. It's as dark as a nigger's pocket under
+these trees."</p>
+
+<p>"So much the better in case anyone is watching."</p>
+
+<p>"Who lives here with Venner?"</p>
+
+<p>"Only an elderly housekeeper, of whom I don't hear anything very good,"
+replied Nick. "Venner is here but part of the time, I am told. In fact,
+I don't quite fathom his habits."</p>
+
+<p>"Why so?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can't learn what takes him from home so much of the time. He does not
+leave the city, nor patronize any hotel that I can discover, yet he
+frequently is away from this house overnight."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps he secretly keeps another house, and is leading a double life."</p>
+
+<p>"Possibly," admitted Nick. "He is on friendly terms with numerous women,
+I learn, and other quarters may be essential to designs of some kind.
+Quietly, now, and we'll slip across the back lawn."</p>
+
+<p>Like shadows, as dark as the night itself, they silently reached a point
+from which they could view the north side of the house. Here they
+discovered that one of the lower rooms was lighted, with the curtain at
+the single window nearly drawn.</p>
+
+<p>"Somebody is up," murmured Chick.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll learn who, if possible."</p>
+
+<p>"Going to have a look?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Come, if you like, but don't get into the glare from the curtain.
+Kilgore has a very wicked air gun, and if he and his gang are about
+here, we might invite a bullet."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll have a care."</p>
+
+<p>Stealing closer over the damp greensward, they approached the house and
+peered beneath the curtain mentioned. There was but one occupant of the
+room, which was a small library.</p>
+
+<p>In an easy-chair near the table, with a newspaper fallen across his
+knees, sat Rufus Venner, apparently sound asleep.</p>
+
+<p>This was only a part of the game, however, for Venner was wide awake.
+By means of their secret wire, he had been informed of Cervera's arrival
+at the diamond plant, and of Kilgore's designs upon Nick, and Venner at
+that moment suspected that he might be under the eye of the detective.</p>
+
+<p>For nearly half an hour Nick waited for some sign of this artifice, but
+Venner in no way betrayed it.</p>
+
+<p>Presently a clock on the mantel struck the half after one, and the sound
+appeared to awake him. He yawned, glanced at the clock, then took the
+lamp from the table and went up to bed. But never so much as a glance
+toward the window.</p>
+
+<p>Nick led Chick away, and they returned across the lawn to a point beyond
+the stable.</p>
+
+<p>"It rather looks as if Cervera had been here, doesn't it?" inquired
+Chick, with a grin.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," admitted Nick. "Two facts are very significant of it. First, that
+Venner is at home on this particular night; and, second, that he should
+be asleep in his chair after midnight. It has a fishy look."</p>
+
+<p>"That's my idea, Nick, exactly."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet the way to prove it doesn't appear quite easy."</p>
+
+<p>"Not just yet. But who occupies that house over yonder, where the roof
+shows above the trees?"</p>
+
+<p>And Chick pointed to the distant dwelling, little dreaming that the
+diamond plant and the gang they sought were established under its
+many-gabled roof.</p>
+
+<p>This was not the first night Nick had watched Venner's house since the
+diamond robbery, the doubtful character of which he had suspected at the
+outset, and incidentally he had informed himself concerning Venner's
+neighbors.</p>
+
+<p>"One Dr. Magruder, I am told, a retired physician from Illinois," he
+replied. "He bought the place at a forced sale some little time ago."</p>
+
+<p>Nor did Nick, when thus replying, dream that Dr. Magruder and Rufus
+Venner were one and the same; or that, in attributing to him a double
+life of shameful iniquity, Chick had hit the nail squarely on the head.</p>
+
+<p>"Come this way," added Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"Where now?"</p>
+
+<p>"We'll go down to the corner of the grounds, and watch the house for a
+time."</p>
+
+<p>Before Nick's reply was fairly uttered, however, both detectives were
+startled by distant cries, which fell with frantic appeal on the
+midnight air.</p>
+
+<p>"Help! Help! Help!"</p>
+
+<p>The startling cry was thrice repeated, the last time as if choked in the
+speaker's throat, yet the direction of the sound was unmistakable.</p>
+
+<p>"Something's up!" muttered Nick. "This way!"</p>
+
+<p>With Chick at his heels, he tore across the wooded grounds and bounded
+over the iron fence at the street.</p>
+
+<p>Then the occasion of the outcry at once became apparent.</p>
+
+<p>Some two hundred yards away, in the yellow glare of one of the
+incandescent lights by which the little-frequented street was illumined,
+a man was battling desperately with three assailants, one of whom he
+had knocked to the ground.</p>
+
+<p>Without a word, both detectives rushed down the road to his assistance.</p>
+
+<p>As they drew nearer there came a flash of light, then the report of a
+pistol, followed by another shriek for help.</p>
+
+<p>Then Nick saw one of the ruffians reel a little, as if shot, while a
+second hurled their victim to the ground. The third leaped to his feet
+at the same moment, yelling wildly:</p>
+
+<p>"Look out! Scatter, boys! The cops are upon us!"</p>
+
+<p>"Kilgore's voice, or I'm a liar," muttered Nick, over his shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>Both detectives were still fifty yards from the scene of the furious
+conflict, and were running at the top of their speed along the rough
+road.</p>
+
+<p>Before they could come near enough to use a weapon, however, the three
+ruffians scattered like frightened cats, leaping the wall near an
+adjoining woodland, into the gloom of which they speedily vanished.</p>
+
+<p>It was obvious to Nick that pursuit would be vain, so he hastened to the
+side of the fallen man, who had been left prostrate in the road, and
+helped him to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>The man was Jean Pylotte.</p>
+
+<p>He was panting hard after the conflict, the fake character of which Nick
+could not then foresee. His coat was ripped up the back, his linen
+collar torn off, and he was deathly pale, with a smutch of blood across
+his cheek. In one hand he held a revolver, and in the other&mdash;a chunk of
+coal.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you wounded, stranger?" Nick quickly demanded, as he studied the
+man's pale face.</p>
+
+<p>"Not much&mdash;not badly, I think," gasped Pylotte, trembling violently.
+"But it's lucky you came. They'd surely have killed me."</p>
+
+<p>Nick noticed that he spoke with a slight foreign accent, and was a man
+of considerable physical prowess.</p>
+
+<p>"There's blood on your face," said he.</p>
+
+<p>"It came from one of them, I think," said Pylotte, drawing his sleeve
+across his cheek to remove the stain. "I must have wounded one of them."</p>
+
+<p>"It's a pity you did not kill him," said Nick, bluntly. "Was it you who
+fired the gun?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I tried to fire again, but one of them struck me down before I
+could do so. The ruffians came upon me before I fairly realized it."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know them?" inquired Chick.</p>
+
+<p>"Only one of them, a man named John David," replied Pylotte, now
+appearing to pull himself together.</p>
+
+<p>"John David, eh?" grunted Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"He has swindled me, and I&mdash;I saw him at a theater to-night, and
+afterward followed him out here."</p>
+
+<p>"For what? If he has swindled you, why didn't you have him arrested at
+the theater?" demanded Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I&mdash;I wanted to learn where he lives. He must have discovered
+that he was being followed, and then tried to do me up."</p>
+
+<p>Nick observed the speaker's faltering manner, and it increased his
+curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you wish to know where he lives?" he demanded.</p>
+
+<p>Pylotte hesitated, and shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," said he, after a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"Not believe you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hardly think so."</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose you tell me, and see," suggested Nick, with a faint smile.</p>
+
+<p>"I have no objection to telling you, none at all," Pylotte now replied.
+"The man I spoke of, John David, swindled me yesterday with two
+artificial diamonds."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! is that so?" cried Nick, with a significant glance at Chick. "What
+is your name, my man?"</p>
+
+<p>"Jean Pylotte, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Who are you, and where do you live?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am a Frenchman by birth, and arrived in New York only this week. My
+home is in Denver. I am a diamond cutter by trade, and came here to buy
+some gems for a Denver woman of wealth, who wishes to obtain a certain
+size and quality."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you are a judge of diamonds?"</p>
+
+<p>"One of the best," Pylotte modestly admitted, with a faint smile. "I am
+an expert judge of diamonds, and so it happened that I discovered the
+swindle of which I am a victim."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you bought a diamond of the man who said his name was John David,
+did you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I bought two, sir," nodded Pylotte. "They appeared like natural and
+very perfect stones when I first examined them, but after subjecting
+them to more careful tests, I found them to be the most extraordinary
+imitations I ever beheld."</p>
+
+<p>"Artificial diamonds, were they?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, artificial. But only the best of experts, and after the most rigid
+tests, could discover the fraud. I never saw such imitations. The stones
+are really almost as good as natural ones."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you them with you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"You feel quite confident that they were manufactured, do you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I am positive of it," cried Pylotte, with emphasis. "That is why I
+was secretly following the swindler."</p>
+
+<p>"You wanted to discover his house, and learn how he made such perfect
+imitations, eh? Was that your motive, instead of having him arrested at
+the theater?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, yes, it was," admitted Pylotte, with feigned reluctance.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know any process for manufacturing diamonds?" Nick next
+demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"I am pretty well informed on the subject."</p>
+
+<p>"Quite an art, isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it is."</p>
+
+<p>"And one that could be made very profitable, perhaps?"</p>
+
+<p>"I judge so."</p>
+
+<p>"Put up your revolver," said Nick, abruptly. "What's that black object
+you dropped just now?"</p>
+
+<p>Pylotte glanced down at his feet, then laughed faintly.</p>
+
+<p>"That's odd," said he. "It's a piece of coal. I must have seized it from
+the road, thinking to defend myself with it."</p>
+
+<p>"What is there odd in that?"</p>
+
+<p>Pylotte laughed again.</p>
+
+<p>"Diamonds may be made from coal," said he. "The fact that I should have
+got hold of a piece in the road here, while tracking that diamond
+swindler in search of his house, strikes me as being rather odd."</p>
+
+<p>"So it was," said Nick, a bit dryly, thinking of Venner's house in the
+near distance.</p>
+
+<p>Then he added, decisively:</p>
+
+<p>"Put up your gun, Mr. Pylotte. I want you to go with me. I think you are
+the very man I want."</p>
+
+<p>"Go with you!" exclaimed Pylotte, drawing back.</p>
+
+<p>"If you please," said Nick, politely. "I want, at least, to hear more of
+your story."</p>
+
+<p>"But who are you, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"My name is Nick Carter."</p>
+
+<p>"Not the celebrated detective?" cried Pylotte, with feigned amazement.</p>
+
+<p>"Precisely."</p>
+
+<p>"That's quite sufficient, Mr. Carter!" the Frenchman now cried, with
+much bowing and scraping. "I'll go with you when and where you wish. If
+any man can run down these swindling ruffians, sir, you certainly are
+the man."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks," said Nick, dryly. "I'll take you home with me for the night."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII" />CHAPTER XVII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE GAME UNCOVERED.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The following morning.</p>
+
+<p>The clock in Nick Carter's library was striking nine.</p>
+
+<p>Nick and Chick were seated at one side of the table, and Jean Pylotte
+occupied a chair at the opposite side.</p>
+
+<p>Upon the dark cloth top of the table between them lay two large
+diamonds, declared by Pylotte to have been artificially made, the two
+with which he claimed to have been swindled.</p>
+
+<p>Yet to the eyes of a layman they had all the qualities of natural gems,
+gleaming and glistening with magnificent fire in the cheerful sunlight
+of Nick's library.</p>
+
+<p>Pylotte had invented a very clever and consistent story about himself
+and his mission in New York, as well as about the meeting and being
+victimized by the counterfeit diamond shover, and Nick as yet saw no
+occasion for seriously distrusting him, or connecting him with the
+Kilgore gang.</p>
+
+<p>He rather suspected, in fact, that Pylotte had shadowed the swindler,
+whom Nick felt sure was Kilgore, with a view to learning just how the
+diamonds had been manufactured, and possibly with a design to turn the
+discovery to his own advantage.</p>
+
+<p>This was, indeed, the most natural deduction for Nick to arrive at,
+after considering all the circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>"So you are confident that these stones are works of art, rather than
+of nature, are you?" inquired Nick, who had been carefully examining the
+gems.</p>
+
+<p>"I am absolutely sure of it, Mr. Carter," declared Pylotte.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you any idea how such counterfeits can be made?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes."</p>
+
+<p>"By what process and means, Mr. Pylotte?"</p>
+
+<p>Pylotte hastened to explain.</p>
+
+<p>"A natural diamond, Mr. Carter, is pure carbon, crystallized under
+enormous heat and pressure in the bowels of the earth."</p>
+
+<p>"I am aware of that."</p>
+
+<p>"Charcoal and graphite are also pure carbon, but not in a crystallized
+condition," continued Pylotte. "If that condition could be imparted to
+the substances mentioned, we should have the artificial diamond."</p>
+
+<p>"How may that be done?" inquired Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"By subjecting the substance to the same condition under which the
+natural diamond was crystallized."</p>
+
+<p>"Heat and pressure?"</p>
+
+<p>"Precisely," bowed Pylotte. "Attempts to thus manufacture diamonds have
+frequently been made. A Mr. Acheson, of Pittsburg, while so engaged, and
+in obtaining graphite from coal by the heat of an electric furnace,
+discovered that combination of silicon and carbon now known as
+carborundum, which has commercial value as an abrasive."</p>
+
+<p>"I know about that," bowed Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, then," continued Pylotte, with an unconscious display of
+enthusiasm; "while diamonds certainly have been made by artificial
+means, the great difficulty has been that of producing them at a low
+cost. Moissan, in my country, produced diamonds by heating charcoal and
+iron to a high degree, and letting the mixture cool under enormous
+pressure. He succeeded in obtaining very small crystals, or diamonds,
+but the cost of production made his method impracticable from a
+commercial standpoint."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! I see."</p>
+
+<p>"In 1872 a chemist named Rose converted graphite into diamonds by a
+similar process, but with the same result."</p>
+
+<p>"The cost of production being too great?" observed Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"Precisely."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think that difficulty has now been overcome?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am compelled to think so, Mr. Carter," cried Pylotte, pointing to the
+two diamonds on the table.</p>
+
+<p>"You purchased them at a price compelling that belief?"</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you think the man of whom you got them has discovered a way to
+make such perfect artificial diamonds at a low price?"</p>
+
+<p>"I certainly do, Mr. Carter."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you any idea of the machinery and ingredients he might require?"
+asked Nick, with a view to getting points by which to locate the diamond
+plant.</p>
+
+<p>Pylotte could easily inform him, and he promptly did so, following the
+instructions given him by Dave Kilgore.</p>
+
+<p>"He would require an electric furnace and a hydraulic press," said he.
+"Also the tools for cutting the crude crystals. The ingredients used
+would depend upon the process he has discovered, probably coal or
+charcoal, and possibly some quantities of iron salts and sulphur."</p>
+
+<p>"In brief, then, Mr. Pylotte," said Nick, pointing to the diamonds on
+the table, "if those stones were made as cheaply as you think, the
+diamond market offers the manufacturers of them a field for a most
+gigantic swindle, does it not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed it does!" exclaimed Pylotte, throwing up both hands. "Enormous!
+Enormous! Millions could be made by so unparalleled a fraud!"</p>
+
+<p>"It opens the way, in fact, to the most colossal swindle on record?"</p>
+
+<p>"Undoubtedly."</p>
+
+<p>Nick glanced significantly at Chick, then abruptly rose to his feet.
+That he had struck the big game which from the first he had suspected,
+he now had not a doubt.</p>
+
+<p>"I require no more of you at present, Mr. Pylotte," said he, with
+courteous firmness. "I shall do all in my power to remedy your loss by
+this swindle, and to secure the perpetrators of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Detective Carter," bowed Pylotte, with a crafty display of
+appreciation and humility.</p>
+
+<p>"Meantime," added Nick, "you will please take no action in the case, but
+leave it entirely to me."</p>
+
+<p>"I will do so, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"If you will leave me your city address, or call here again in a few
+days, I shall have something to report to you."</p>
+
+<p>"I will call the day after to-morrow, Detective Carter," said Pylotte,
+promptly, too cunning to give Nick a fictitious address.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," said Nick. "Call in the evening. And now, Mr. Pylotte, we
+will bid you good-morning, and get to work at once upon the case."</p>
+
+<p>Pylotte bowed very agreeably, taking his artificial diamonds from the
+table and replacing them in his pocket; and Nick then conducted him to
+the door, again assuring him that no efforts in his behalf should be
+spared.</p>
+
+<p>Pylotte once more expressed his thanks, bowing and smiling as he
+descended the steps, and Nick closed the door and returned to the
+library.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Chick, the bag is open and the cat out," he cried, as he entered.</p>
+
+<p>"Right you are, Nick."</p>
+
+<p>"And a monstrous cat it is!"</p>
+
+<p>"Never a larger one," declared Chick, with a laugh. "By Jove! Nick, if
+Kilgore has really found a way to produce such perfect counterfeit
+diamonds, his gang could work the greatest swindle ever known, unless
+headed off."</p>
+
+<p>"That is their game, all right," said Nick. "From the very first I have
+suspected something extraordinary. They are not the stamp of criminals
+to dicker with petty jobs."</p>
+
+<p>"I should say not."</p>
+
+<p>"Far from it."</p>
+
+<p>"One thing is plain."</p>
+
+<p>"Namely?"</p>
+
+<p>"Where Cervera gets her diamonds, and of what they consist."</p>
+
+<p>"True. She certainly is one of the gang."</p>
+
+<p>"With such counterfeits as those worked upon Pylotte, and one big
+jewelry concern to help market the goods, they could clean up millions
+in a very short time."</p>
+
+<p>"No doubt of it. And they have their jewelry concern, all right."</p>
+
+<p>"Venner &amp; Co.?"</p>
+
+<p>"Surely."</p>
+
+<p>"We must get absolute proof of it."</p>
+
+<p>"That's just what I intend doing, now that we have the game uncovered,"
+said Nick, grimly.</p>
+
+<p>"And then proceed to locate the plant where the goods are made, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Precisely."</p>
+
+<p>"What are your plans?"</p>
+
+<p>"We'll first get a line on Venner, and see to what it leads," replied
+Nick. "There now is a way by which we can call the turn on him, and get
+proof of his co-operation with Kilgore and his gang."</p>
+
+<p>"By getting him to sell us some diamonds?"</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly."</p>
+
+<p>"And then proving them to be artificial?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's the idea."</p>
+
+<p>"Can you get at him in a way to trap him?"</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"He may fight shy of us," suggested Chick, "in case he knows of
+Pylotte's scrap with the gang last night. He may fear that Pylotte has
+discovered the fraud, and reported it to the police."</p>
+
+<p>"There's not much danger of that," replied Nick. "So stupendous a fraud
+would at once be given publicity through the press."</p>
+
+<p>"That's true."</p>
+
+<p>"In either case," added Nick, abruptly, "there's a way by which we can
+fool him. I'll explain it on the way. Get your make-up box and prepare
+to go with me. Since we have the game uncovered, we'll lose no time in
+rounding up these accomplished rascals."</p>
+
+<p>"Good enough!" exclaimed Chick, as he hurriedly arose. "The sooner the
+better."</p>
+
+<p>"We may have ragged work before the job is completed," added Nick. "So
+provide yourself with a brace of guns. I'll be ready when you are."</p>
+
+<p>"Where first?"</p>
+
+<p>"To the house of Pandu Singe, the snake charmer."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII" />CHAPTER XVIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>AT CROSS-PURPOSES.</h3>
+
+
+<p>It was not quite noon when Nick Carter and Chick arrived at the house of
+the Hindoo snake charmer.</p>
+
+<p>They found Pandu Singe at home with his interpreter, and the two
+detectives were very cordially received.</p>
+
+<p>Nick quickly disclosed his business.</p>
+
+<p>"We wish to borrow your personalities for a short time, also some of
+your curious garments," he explained to Pandu Singe, through his
+interpreter, who also was a Hindoo of superior education.</p>
+
+<p>The snake charmer appeared greatly surprised at such a request, but Nick
+readily invented a very plausible story to serve his purpose, without
+disclosing the true occasion.</p>
+
+<p>He soon persuaded the foreigner to grant his request, moreover, and the
+amazement of Pandu Singe and the interpreter were redoubled when they
+beheld what followed.</p>
+
+<p>This was the extraordinary transformation of their visitors.</p>
+
+<p>Nick had already outlined his plans to Chick, and they at once began
+operations.</p>
+
+<p>First they placed the two Hindoos in chairs near the windows, where the
+light revealed every peculiarity of their swarthy features.</p>
+
+<p>Nick next adjusted a large mirror upon the table, and placed his make-up
+box near by.</p>
+
+<p>Using the interpreter for his pattern, Nick then set to work with
+grease paints, powders, false hair, and the like, and at the end of
+twenty minutes he had, with most artistic skill, converted himself into
+a startling likeness of his model.</p>
+
+<p>The addition of the garments already provided for him made the
+remarkable transformation absolutely complete.</p>
+
+<p>Chick had not been idle meantime, but with equally clever manipulation
+had made himself into a counterfeit presentment of Pandu Singe.</p>
+
+<p>The astonishment of the two Hindoos, and their delight as they beheld
+the progressive changes so artistically made, could scarcely find
+expression in words.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of an hour, when the two detectives stood robed in their
+strange Indian attire, one would readily have declared that four genuine
+Hindoos, rather than two, occupied the apartment.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus paved the way to his next move, Nick easily prevailed upon
+the Hindoos to remain indoors for a day or two, lest the deception
+should be discovered and his designs perverted.</p>
+
+<p>He and Chick then returned to their waiting carriage, and half an hour
+later it drew up at the Fifth Avenue store of Venner &amp; Co.</p>
+
+<p>Chick alighted and led the way in.</p>
+
+<p>In order that he might do most of the talking, and shape his course by
+whatever might occur, Nick had decided to personate the interpreter.</p>
+
+<p>Yet both detectives had carefully noticed the peculiar characteristics
+of the Hindoo tongue, and believed that they could imitate it so
+cleverly as to prevent detection.</p>
+
+<p>Several facts, which Nick then had no way of knowing, however, operated
+very quickly to betray him and the crafty ruse he had adopted, when
+Venner personally met them at the store door.</p>
+
+<p>First, Kilgore had shrewdly reasoned that Nick's first move, after the
+disclosures made by Pylotte, would be that of thus getting positive
+evidence against Venner; and the crafty diamond swindler had warned
+Venner to be on the watch for the detective, and to handle him in a way
+to serve their own designs.</p>
+
+<p>Furthermore, when visiting the theater with Cervera, Venner frequently
+had heard Pandu Singe talking with his interpreter; and before Nick
+fairly had begun speaking, Venner penetrated his disguise and saw that
+he was up against the two detectives.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, despite the unexpected characters in which he now beheld them, the
+nerve of the polished knave did not weaken, nor his countenance in any
+way betray him. He at once proceeded to follow Kilgore's instructions.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! yes, I recognize both you and your interpreter," said he, in reply
+to Nick's dignified greeting. "I have frequently seen Pandu Singe at the
+theater, where I am admitted to the stage with Se&ntilde;ora Cervera, the
+famous Spanish dancer. Perhaps Pandu Singe may have seen me there."</p>
+
+<p>Nick gravely bowed, then pretended to interpret the remarks to Chick;
+who immediately began to bow and smile, at the same time glibly
+responding in a jargon that would have staggered a Chinese laundryman,
+yet which sounded as much like Hindoo as anything.</p>
+
+<p>Had his own situation been less serious, and the entire outlook less
+desperate, Venner would have laughed at the consummate dignity and
+soberness with which the two detectives co-operated in their exchange of
+unintelligible talk.</p>
+
+<p>"My employer, the great Pandu Singe," bowed Nick, "says he remembers the
+friend of the great Cervera."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! I am glad to hear it," cried Venner, shaking hands with Chick.</p>
+
+<p>"He has seen the splendid diamonds of the great se&ntilde;ora, and has heard
+that they came from your magnificent store," Nick then went on to
+explain.</p>
+
+<p>"That is quite right," bowed Venner. "Many of them did come from here.
+Is Pandu Singe looking for some diamonds?"</p>
+
+<p>Nick promptly bowed, and noted a gleam of satisfaction in the depths of
+Venner's eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"The great Pandu Singe soon returns to his own country," replied Nick.
+"He wishes to take with him, as a gift to her august excellency, the
+Empress of all the Indies, six fine jewels of equal weight and value. He
+calls here to learn if you can provide him with them."</p>
+
+<p>Venner plainly saw the game that was being attempted, and it suited him
+to the very letter.</p>
+
+<p>"Does the great Pandu Singe wish to purchase diamonds?" he asked,
+bowing.</p>
+
+<p>"Diamonds, yes! Are they not for the empress?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should have thought of that, certainly."</p>
+
+<p>"Only diamonds will answer."</p>
+
+<p>"Of large size and the first water?"</p>
+
+<p>"The great Pandu Singe would consider no other."</p>
+
+<p>"Alas, then, this is most unfortunate!" Venner now exclaimed, glancing
+about the store. "You see that we are making some repairs here, in the
+walls of our store and vault."</p>
+
+<p>"That is plain," bowed Nick. "But what has that to do with the
+diamonds?"</p>
+
+<p>"Only this," replied Venner, with feigned regret. "During these repairs
+I have removed all of my most valuable diamonds to a vault in my private
+residence."</p>
+
+<p>"For safer keeping?"</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly."</p>
+
+<p>"I will explain to Pandu Singe."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a moment," Venner quickly interposed. "Tell him, also, that I have
+at my residence the very gems he desires, six magnificent diamonds,
+precisely alike in weight, purity and cutting. They cannot be equaled in
+New York City, if in the entire country."</p>
+
+<p>"Are they fit for an empress?"</p>
+
+<p>"They are fit for a goddess."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! that will please Pandu Singe."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell him, also, that he can purchase them at a marvelously low price,"
+cried Venner. "Now, if Pandu Singe will come to my house, say early this
+evening, he may see the diamonds and examine them at his leisure. Tell
+him that, Mr. Interpreter, and say that I will send my carriage for him
+immediately after dinner. Say, too, that he may then see the diamonds
+both by daylight and lamplight, and so observe all the variety of their
+magnificent fire. Really, this will be greatly to the advantage of Pandu
+Singe."</p>
+
+<p>Nick gravely heard him to a finish, and with never a change of
+countenance.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, like a flash, one of those marvelous intuitions characteristic of
+this great detective, Nick Carter had suddenly grasped the whole truth.</p>
+
+<p>That conflict of the previous night, the flight of three of the diamond
+gang, Pylotte left comparatively uninjured in the road, his subsequent
+disclosures, his extensive knowledge of the diamond-making art, the
+hints he had imparted, and now this manifest eagerness of Venner to lure
+his ostensible customers to his suburban house&mdash;all combined to reveal
+to Nick's keen mind the shrewd game by which Kilgore was hoping to
+entrap him.</p>
+
+<p>Nick now knew that Venner recognized both Chick and himself, and was
+serving only the Kilgore gang.</p>
+
+<p>Yet Nick bowed without the slightest self-betrayal, and said, gravely:</p>
+
+<p>"I will explain the situation to Pandu Singe."</p>
+
+<p>For several minutes the two detectives maintained their curious game of
+talk.</p>
+
+<p>Then Nick, who had speedily planned his own counter-move, again turned
+to Rufus Venner.</p>
+
+<p>"The great Pandu Singe will do what you suggest," said he. "He wishes to
+see the diamonds, and will be pleased to come to your house."</p>
+
+<p>Venner had felt sure of this to start with, though he little dreamed
+that Nick had guessed the truth, and knew that he was recognized.</p>
+
+<p>"Let it be to-day, then," said he, quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"At your own pleasure," bowed Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"I will send my carriage far you at seven this evening," cried Venner,
+with secret exultation.</p>
+
+<p>Nick gravely tendered one of the snake charmer's cards.</p>
+
+<p>"The great Pandu Singe will not keep your carriage waiting!" said he,
+with a dryness to which Venner then was blind.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Chick, what say you to that?" demanded Nick, as they were
+returning to the house of the snake charmer.</p>
+
+<p>Chick laughed grimly.</p>
+
+<p>"I say that we are now up against it."</p>
+
+<p>"Right! There's a mighty wicked crisis near at hand."</p>
+
+<p>"No doubt of it, Nick. Venner knew us all right."</p>
+
+<p>"But he does not suspect that we are aware that he knew us, and in that
+at least we have the best of him."</p>
+
+<p>"We'll turn it to a good account, too."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you see the game this Kilgore gang is playing?"</p>
+
+<p>"Plainly, Nick."</p>
+
+<p>"They aim to lure us both to Venner's house, and there trap us and do us
+up."</p>
+
+<p>"To which latter," said Chick, dryly, "we shall strenuously object."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, rather!" laughed Nick. "Still, I can see nothing in evading this
+question or in making a raid upon Venner's house. If the Kilgore gang
+are about to lay for us there, it is evident that their diamond plant is
+located elsewhere. They would not take chances of failing to down us,
+and then having their plant discovered in the house where they slipped
+up."</p>
+
+<p>"Surely not," admitted Chick. "Kilgore is too shrewd to take those
+chances."</p>
+
+<p>"Undoubtedly."</p>
+
+<p>For several minutes Nick calmly considered the situation, then bluntly
+observed:</p>
+
+<p>"Chick, I see but one course for us. We must go up against the game, and
+give this gang what rope they want."</p>
+
+<p>"That's just my idea, Nick."</p>
+
+<p>"In no other way can we make sure of nailing the entire gang, and also
+locating their plant. Raiding Venner's house would not accomplish it.
+Some of the gang might not be there, or possibly escape us, and we might
+search in vain for their plant. Then we should have most of our work to
+do over again."</p>
+
+<p>"That's right, Nick."</p>
+
+<p>"So we'll take the one sure way, Chick," said Nick, decisively. "We'll
+let this gang continue to think they are fooling us, and go up against
+them till we get the whole truth."</p>
+
+<p>"That's good enough for me, Nick," nodded Chick. "I'm with you."</p>
+
+<p>"It may prove to be a desperate game, but we'll take our chances. Before
+night I'll have laid such plans as will best serve us, and possibly
+circumvent these scoundrels. Here we are at the house of Pandu Singe."</p>
+
+<p>Nick dismissed their carriage, and entered the dwelling, where they
+decided to remain until evening. Meantime Nick perfected his plans and
+discussed them with Chick.</p>
+
+<p>Then a wire was sent to Patsy, the detective's younger assistant, with
+careful instructions.</p>
+
+<p>Seven o'clock came, then half-past seven, but no sign of Venner's
+carriage.</p>
+
+<p>Nick readily suspected the true reason for the delay.</p>
+
+<p>"They are waiting until dark," he observed to Chick. "They don't want
+our arrival at Venner's house to be observed. A crafty dog, this
+Kilgore!"</p>
+
+<p>"That he is."</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind. Darkness will serve us best, as well as them."</p>
+
+<p>"Hark! There's a carriage."</p>
+
+<p>Nick glanced from the front window.</p>
+
+<p>"A landau!" he muttered, with grim satisfaction. "Yes, and with Spotty
+Dalton on the seat. I know him, despite his disguise. Come on, Chick!
+There's rough work to be done in the next two hours."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX" />CHAPTER XIX.</h2>
+
+<h3>HANDS SHOWED DOWN.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Spotty Dalton stood at the door of the open carriage when Nick and Chick
+emerged from the house, still clad in the character of Hindoos.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you sent here by Mr. Venner?" inquired Nick.</p>
+
+<p>Dalton touched the cloth cap drawn low over his brow, and stroked his
+dark, false beard as he replied:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir," said he, half in his throat. "You're the interpreter, I take
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"At your service."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm a bit late, but it couldn't be helped. We'll not be long in getting
+there."</p>
+
+<p>"Time does not matter to the great Pandu Singe," replied Nick, as he
+followed Chick into the open landau. "The night is still long."</p>
+
+<p>"It'll be infernally long for you two meddlers," Dalton grimly said to
+himself, as he banged the carriage door and mounted to the box.</p>
+
+<p>Then they rolled rapidly away toward a northern suburb of the city.</p>
+
+<p>The dusk of evening was already deepening to darkness, a gloom more
+noticeable far up in the heavens than among the myriad of lights in the
+city streets. For not a star was visible in the murky sky, and away in
+the west huge banks of inky clouds were sweeping up toward the zenith,
+indicating the rapid approach of a sudden storm.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think it is going to rain, driver?" called Nick, from the rear
+seat of the carriage.</p>
+
+<p>"Not soon," Dalton turned to answer; and then he added with grim
+significance, which he did not dream would be appreciated: "Whether it
+rains or not, you'll be brought back home in a closed carriage."</p>
+
+<p>"It's my private opinion that the boot will be on the other leg,"
+thought Nick, smiling faintly at the scoundrel's grim levity.</p>
+
+<p>For Dalton had implied that Nick would be brought back in a hearse.</p>
+
+<p>From that time but few words were spoken during the ride, though the
+detectives occasionally passed a remark in their meaningless lingo,
+merely to keep up appearances.</p>
+
+<p>At eight o'clock they had left the throbbing body of the city behind
+them, and at half-past eight they were speeding along the deserted
+suburban road leading to Venner's rather isolated homestead.</p>
+
+<p>Only the yellow glare of an incandescent lamp here and there now
+relieved the terrestrial gloom, but across the distant heavens
+intermittent flashes of light, followed by the low, sullen roll of
+thunder, told of the approaching storm.</p>
+
+<p>Soon the lighted windows of Venner's house came into view through the
+woodland, and Nick now murmured softly to Chick:</p>
+
+<p>"If I fail to rejoin you in ten minutes, you will know what to do."</p>
+
+<p>"You bet!" whispered Chick. "Trust me to do it, too!"</p>
+
+<p>"Here we are, sirs," cried Dalton, as he pulled up at the gate of the
+gravel walk. "You can go right in, while I wait to look after my
+horses."</p>
+
+<p>Chick&mdash;as Pandu Singe&mdash;pretended to give Nick a brief command, and Nick
+alone sprang out upon the sidewalk.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait here, driver," said he, curtly. "I will return for Pandu Singe in
+a few minutes."</p>
+
+<p>Dalton instantly became suspicious.</p>
+
+<p>"What's that for?" he abruptly demanded. "Why doesn't his nibs go in
+with you now?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is for me to obey the great Pandu Singe, not question his commands,"
+replied Nick, with an air of offended dignity. "I shall return for him
+when I have followed his instructions."</p>
+
+<p>"Hold on a bit! I want to know&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But Nick had already turned, and was striding up the long gravel walk
+leading to the front door of the house.</p>
+
+<p>Dalton then swung round and began to address Chick, who quickly
+signified that he could not understand; whereupon the puzzled scoundrel
+remained doubtfully on the box, growling under his breath, and quite at
+a loss just what he should do.</p>
+
+<p>Chick was now counting the seconds and minutes, until he should arrive
+at ten.</p>
+
+<p>Venner, who was waiting with the gang in the house, heard Nick's step on
+the wooden veranda, and he hastened to admit him.</p>
+
+<p>"What's this!" he at once exclaimed, starting. "Where is your master?
+You did not come here alone!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, not alone," replied Nick, entering the hall. "Pandu Singe waits in
+the carriage."</p>
+
+<p>"Waits in the carriage! For what?"</p>
+
+<p>"He fears the storm may break."</p>
+
+<p>"Fears the storm!" exclaimed Venner, with a blaze of suspicion leaping
+up in his dark eyes. "Surely, then, he will not remain out there."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't understand," coolly answered Nick, quickly sizing up
+everything in view.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't understand?"</p>
+
+<p>"Pandu Singe thinks of returning home before the storm shall break. He
+has first sent me in to see the diamonds, as I know just what he wants.
+If I think well of them, I am to return to the carriage and bring him in
+to see them."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that's it, eh?" cried Venner, with unabated misgivings.</p>
+
+<p>"Am I to see the stones?" demanded Nick. "Pandu Singe will not care to
+wait long."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes," replied Venner, as perplexed as Dalton by Nick's unexpected
+move. "Come out this way, where I have them ready to show you."</p>
+
+<p>Nick bowed and followed him through the hall, and a glance into the two
+front rooms, both of which were well lighted, told him they were vacant.</p>
+
+<p>Nick knew that he was entering a trap, however, and possibly carried
+his life in his hand. Yet he had several shrewd designs in the plan of
+operations adopted.</p>
+
+<p>He aimed to prevent both Chick and himself being cornered, and possibly
+caught at the same time. Not wishing to evade this gang, and thus reveal
+his own knowledge and suspicions, he designed to leave Chick free to act
+in case of his own downfall.</p>
+
+<p>Nick knew that he alone could force Venner and the gang to show their
+hands, even if it resulted in his own capture. He rather invited the
+latter, in fact, for he knew that the gang would see the need of
+instantly removing him from Venner's house, at least until they could
+lay hands upon Chick. In this case Nick believed that they might be
+compelled to confine him at their diamond plant, the location of which
+he thus hoped to discover.</p>
+
+<p>For these reasons Nick was coolly taking very long chances, at the same
+time leaving Chick free to quickly get in his work, in case he himself
+went down at the outset.</p>
+
+<p>Yet there was not a sign of any person save Venner, as Nick followed him
+through the hall and into a side room near the rear of the house,
+evidently a dining room.</p>
+
+<p>Nick sized it up with a glance. Electric chandelier; two doors, one by
+which he had entered from the hall, and the other leading into a dark
+kitchen; two windows, with the curtains closely drawn; several chairs, a
+handsome sideboard, and in the middle of the room a large, square table,
+covered with a rich damask cloth hanging nearly to the floor.</p>
+
+<p>Upon the table was also spread a piece of black velvet, on which was
+displayed nearly a score of blazing diamonds&mdash;the most magnificent
+artificial stones ever born of man's restless genius.</p>
+
+<p>Nick rightly guessed their true character, yet he allowed an ejaculation
+of admiration to escape him.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! Magnificent!"</p>
+
+<p>"Look them over," cried Venner, with a swift scrutiny of Nick's swarthy
+features. "You'll excuse me for a minute or two. I wish to make sure
+that my rear windows and doors are locked. Such gems are a terrible
+temptation to thieves."</p>
+
+<p>"True, sir," bowed Nick. "Take your time. Meanwhile I'll examine the
+diamonds. They are splendid! magnificent!"</p>
+
+<p>Nick rightly guessed that Venner wished to consult some of the gang. He
+saw that his entering the house without Chick had thrown their plans
+badly out of gear, as he had designed for it to do.</p>
+
+<p>Venner went into the dark kitchen, rattled a doorknob merely for a
+bluff, then crossed the hall and entered the library, closing the door
+behind him.</p>
+
+<p>The room was but dimly lighted, and on the floor stood Dave Kilgore and
+Matthew Stall, each with a drawn revolver.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the meaning of this, Rufe?" Kilgore instantly demanded, in
+passionate whispers.</p>
+
+<p>"How do I know?" Venner hurriedly rejoined, scarce above his breath.
+"You heard what he said?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, curse him, but I don't swallow it."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor I."</p>
+
+<p>"I can't see into his game."</p>
+
+<p>"That's just my trouble," cried Venner. "Can he have discovered that we
+recognize him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible! Pylotte is too cunning to have betrayed us in any way."</p>
+
+<p>This was very true, in fact; but Venner himself had blindly done the
+betraying.</p>
+
+<p>"It doesn't matter, Rufe," Kilgore fiercely added. "We must get them
+both."</p>
+
+<p>"That's my idea."</p>
+
+<p>"And it's all the easier to get them one at a time."</p>
+
+<p>"Right you are, Dave."</p>
+
+<p>"Has he discovered Pylotte?"</p>
+
+<p>"Surely not!"</p>
+
+<p>"Go back there, then," hissed Kilgore. "Learn what his game is, if you
+can. Force him to show his hand."</p>
+
+<p>"Leave that to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Waste no time, however, and on no pretext let him leave the house to
+return to the carriage."</p>
+
+<p>"Not on our lives."</p>
+
+<p>"A warning whistle will start Pylotte, and we'll be on hand to do our
+part," added Kilgore, hurriedly. "Go back at once, and waste not a
+moment in getting at his game."</p>
+
+<p>"Trust me, Dave."</p>
+
+<p>"We must land Nick Carter and get him away from here before that
+running mate of his can make any move against us."</p>
+
+<p>"That's the stuff."</p>
+
+<p>"And then we'll plan to get the other. Away with you!"</p>
+
+<p>These forcible measures were precisely what Nick had felt sure would be
+adopted by the gang, and were the very steps to which he had so shrewdly
+planned to force them.</p>
+
+<p>Venner darted softly across the hall and returned to the dining room.</p>
+
+<p>Nick was still examining the diamonds.</p>
+
+<p>He stood near the table, at a point midway between the two open doors.
+He had selected this position for a very good reason. He was inviting
+capture and removal, which he knew must be preceded by an assault; and
+he therefore laid himself open from either side, aiming to be put down
+and out with as little violence as possible.</p>
+
+<p>He wanted all his resources for what he knew was very likely to follow.</p>
+
+<p>Nick was quite as anxious as the gang to force matters, moreover; for at
+the end of ten minutes, in case he did not return to the carriage, Chick
+was to begin getting in his work.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore the climax came quickly.</p>
+
+<p>Six minutes had already passed.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, sir, what do you think of them?" cried Venner, as he returned to
+the room.</p>
+
+<p>"The diamonds?" queried Nick, tossing several of them back upon the
+table.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly. What else?"</p>
+
+<p>"They are all right, Mr. Venner."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you would say so."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed. They are all right&mdash;for what they are!"</p>
+
+<p>"For what they are?"</p>
+
+<p>"Precisely."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean by that?"</p>
+
+<p>"You know what I mean."</p>
+
+<p>"I do?" snarled Venner, inquiringly, with his frowning eyes shrinking
+from Nick's steadfast gaze.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly you do," declared Nick. "These diamonds are imitations, not
+natural stones. They are the most perfect and marvelous artificial
+diamonds ever made.</p>
+
+<p>"Artificial!" cried Venner, now drawing back. "You are mad, sir! Why,
+man, you are away off the track!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, I'm not."</p>
+
+<p>"You are!"</p>
+
+<p>"Not off the track at all, but very squarely on it," Nick now retorted,
+speaking in his own sternly resonant tones. "Hark you, Venner, I am the
+one to ask the meaning of this, not you!"</p>
+
+<p>Venner's hand went stealing toward his hip pocket.</p>
+
+<p>"So you are showing your true colors, are you?" he cried, with
+threatening significance. "By Heaven, you are no Hindoo!"</p>
+
+<p>"That's right, Venner, I am not," said Nick, quickly throwing off the
+loose robe that hid his own apparel, fearing it might impede his
+movements. "I am no Hindoo, but am&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Nick Carter!"</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly!"</p>
+
+<p>"So this is your game, is it?" Venner fiercely began. "If you think&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Stop right there, Venner," Nick sternly commanded. "Speaking of games,
+I am here to discover what sort of a rascally game you and this Kilgore
+gang are playing. I have learned enough to show me that you are a knave
+and a&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"By heavens, Carter&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Stop!" thundered Nick. "Don't pull a gun! If you do, I'll end your&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But he got no further, for there the climax came.</p>
+
+<p>A single sharp whistle sounded from the kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>Instantly Nick felt a rope noose jerked taut around his ankles, nearly
+throwing him from his feet.</p>
+
+<p>From beneath the table, the hanging cover of which had effectually
+concealed him, Jean Pylotte had managed to adjust the noose upon the
+floor about Nick's legs. At the signal given him, he had quickly drawn
+it taut.</p>
+
+<p>At the same moment Kilgore and Matt Stall leaped upon Nick from the
+kitchen and hall doors, bearing him heavily to the floor, while Venner
+ran to clap a revolver to the detective's head.</p>
+
+<p>"Hang to his feet, Pylotte," cried Kilgore, fiercely.</p>
+
+<p>"I've got 'em fast," shouted the diamond maker, from under the table.</p>
+
+<p>"Quit, Carter, or I'll blow your brains out," commanded Venner, with his
+pistol at Nick's head.</p>
+
+<p>Nick had been making a great bluff at putting up an ugly fight, but now
+he very agreeably subsided.</p>
+
+<p>The affair was going precisely as he desired, yet for the sake of
+appearances he angrily snarled:</p>
+
+<p>"Let up, you dogs! So this is your game, is it? Turn that gun another
+way, Venner, you miscreant! It might go off, and I'm not fool enough to
+invite its contents. This dirty game that you've played&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Dry up!" Kilgore sharply interrupted, while he and Stall quickly
+secured Nick's arms with a rope. "You'll not live to know the game that
+we have played, Nick Carter."</p>
+
+<p>"Won't I?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not if I live!" cried Kilgore, with vicious significance.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, maybe you'll not live long," retorted Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll close that saucy trap of yours, at all events," sneered Kilgore.
+"Give me that gag, Matt&mdash;quick."</p>
+
+<p>Nick no longer resisted. A glance at the clock on the mantel told him
+that nearly ten minutes had passed since he left Chick. He suffered
+himself to be gagged, then raised to his feet, from which Pylotte now
+cast the line and emerged from under the table.</p>
+
+<p>Nick bestowed one look upon him, from which the rascal shrank and
+shuddered.</p>
+
+<p>Kilgore now turned quickly to Venner, and hurriedly cried:</p>
+
+<p>"You remain here, Rufe, and leave us to dispose of this fellow. We'll
+run him over yonder, and return as quickly as possible. It's not safe to
+keep him here until we have landed his running mate."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't stop for buts!" cried Kilgore, fiercely. "Go see if you can sight
+Chick Carter. If he is still in the carriage, we are all right up to
+now. In six or eight minutes go down there and give him to understand
+that his interpreter wants him to come in here. Before you reach this
+room with him, we three will be back to help you turn him down. Do you
+understand?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure!" cried Venner, thrusting his weapon back in his pocket. "He
+cannot suspect that we have recognized Nick, and he'll come in, all
+right."</p>
+
+<p>"Go, then! We'll be back here in six minutes."</p>
+
+<p>Venner hastened to one of the front windows of the house and peered out
+toward the street. At that moment a flash of lightning, followed by the
+nearer roll of thunder, dispelled for an instant the intense gloom of
+the night.</p>
+
+<p>A growl of profound satisfaction broke from Venner while he gazed, and
+he muttered exultingly:</p>
+
+<p>"By Heaven! we're all right! He's waiting in the carriage, and Dalton is
+still on the box!"</p>
+
+<p>Nick was being pushed out of a back door of the house, meantime, and
+then across the lawn and through the dark stable.</p>
+
+<p>The ruffians who were hurrying him away did not stop there, however.
+Pylotte ran on ahead, while Kilgore and Matt Stall continued urging the
+detective across the grounds, making toward the old wooden mansion in
+which their secret plant was located.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed to them the safest place in which to confine Nick, pending the
+delay in getting hands upon Chick.</p>
+
+<p>Presently they came to a dry ditch, walled at each side, and originally
+built for draining the low meadows between the two estates. Into this
+they plunged, following it until they arrived near a wooden bulkhead in
+the foundation wall of the house. This was the secret way of entering,
+to which Cervera had referred the previous night.</p>
+
+<p>Pylotte already had opened it, and Nick was quickly forced through a
+dark cellar.</p>
+
+<p>"All right," cried Kilgore. "Let us in."</p>
+
+<p>Instantly the secret stone door was thrown open, and Nick was nearly
+blinded by the flood of light in the room into which he was abruptly
+thrust.</p>
+
+<p>He stood in the subterranean chamber of the diamond plant.</p>
+
+<p>And there, erect on the floor, with her evil countenance a picture of
+malicious triumph, stood his crafty combatant of the previous
+night&mdash;Sanetta Cervera.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Caramba!</i>" she cried, shrilly, with a vicious laugh. "So you've got
+him! Well done, Dave! Well done!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and we'll presently have the other," cried Kilgore, panting hard
+after his exertions.</p>
+
+<p>"Good for you, Dave," screamed Cervera, exultingly. "But this is the one
+I want most&mdash;this is the one!"</p>
+
+<p>"Look lively, Matt. Lend a hand here, and we'll bind him to yonder
+chair."</p>
+
+<p>"And leave Cervera to guard him, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's the stuff."</p>
+
+<p>"Can she do it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Can she!" growled Kilgore, with derisive vehemence. "You let her alone
+for that."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes, let me alone for that!"</p>
+
+<p>"We must get back to stand by Venner. That Chick Carter is nearly as
+tough a customer as this fellow."</p>
+
+<p>"I guess you'll find that that's no dream," said Nick to himself, as the
+ruffians bound him to the chair mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>Cervera was laughing and capering around as if about to have a fit&mdash;yet
+her laugh had a terrible and chilling ring.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, I'll guard him, Dave," she shrilly cried, with a frightful
+menace in her strained voice. "<i>Caramba</i>, yes! let me alone for that."</p>
+
+<p>"So I do," snarled Kilgore.</p>
+
+<p>"Knot the line fast, Matt&mdash;make sure of that," the woman fiercely added.
+"Yes, I'll keep him quiet&mdash;never doubt that, boys! He shall be like a
+baby taking milk. Perdition! but you shall have a sweet time, Mr. Nick,
+alone here with Sanetta Cervera!"</p>
+
+<p>Kilgore paid but little attention to any of this, and only now and then
+bestowed a glance upon the vicious woman.</p>
+
+<p>Within a minute after their arrival at the plant, the gang had Nick
+securely bound to a common wooden chair, when they condescended to
+remove the gag from his mouth.</p>
+
+<p>"He may shout himself hoarse here, if he likes," growled Kilgore. "There
+will be none to hear him."</p>
+
+<p>Then he hurried Pylotte and Matt Stall back to the Venner house, to
+land Chick Carter.</p>
+
+<p>Left alone with Nick, Cervera darted to the stone door in the solid
+wall, and secured it within.</p>
+
+<p>There was murder in her glittering eyes when she shot the heavy bolts
+into their iron sockets.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX" />CHAPTER XX.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE BOOT ON THE OTHER LEG.</h3>
+
+
+<p>In the heat of action and excitement ten minutes are as nothing.</p>
+
+<p>The time seems longer, however, when one sits waiting in a motionless
+carriage, enveloped in the gloom of night, with grim distrust and
+uncertainty acting like spurs in the sides of one's impatience.</p>
+
+<p>Before five minutes had fairly passed, after Nick's departure, Spotty
+Dalton had suffered his misgivings to the very limit of his endurance.</p>
+
+<p>Chick sat mentally counting the passing seconds, then scoring each
+departed minute with his fingers, of which he had exhausted four and a
+thumb, the entire complement of one hand; and all the while his eyes
+were riveted with intense vigilance upon the growling ruffian on the
+seat above him.</p>
+
+<p>Had Dalton ventured so much as a move to leave his perch, Chick would
+have been after him like a terrier after a rat.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of five minutes, however, Dalton made a preliminary move. He
+hitched the reins around the whipstock, then stared for a second or two
+toward Venner's house, fifty yards away through the surrounding park.</p>
+
+<p>Then he suddenly swung round on his seat, and growled ferociously at
+Chick, at the same time signifying with gestures the communication he
+imagined would not be verbally understood:</p>
+
+<p>"See here, you swarthy-faced snake fiend, I'm bound up yonder, to see
+what's going on! You sit where you are, d'ye hear, and I'll be back in a
+jiffy, if things are all right! If they're not, &mdash;&mdash; you, I'll be back
+just the same&mdash;with a gun!"</p>
+
+<p>As if moved by a wish to understand him, Chick arose in the body of the
+carriage while Dalton was thus declaring himself. He heard and
+understood, all right, and it necessitated his getting in his work a
+little earlier than was planned. For Chick would take no such chances as
+this that Nick's operations in the house would be interfered with.</p>
+
+<p>As the last word left Dalton's lips, the arm of the detective shot out
+through the darkness, and closed with the grip of a vise around the
+ruffian's neck, throttling him to silence.</p>
+
+<p>"With a gun, eh?" Chick fiercely muttered, yanking Dalton backward into
+the body of the carriage. "You open your lips again for so much as a
+whisper, and I'll close them with six inches of cold steel."</p>
+
+<p>In the glare of a distant lightning flash, Dalton, though struggling
+furiously, caught the gleam of a polished blade at his throat, and a
+glimpse of the flaming eyes in the face above him.</p>
+
+<p>He shrank, gasping for breath, as the truth dawned upon him; and then
+the voice of another sounded close beside the open carriage.</p>
+
+<p>"Want any help, Chick?"</p>
+
+<p>Nick's youthful assistant, to whom a wire had been sent from the house
+of the snake charmer, had appeared like an apparition out of the
+roadside gloom.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! you're here, Patsy!" muttered Chick. "Yes. Clap a gag into this
+cur's mouth. We'll choke off his pipes first of all."</p>
+
+<p>Dalton uttered a vicious growl, then felt the point of the knife pierce
+the skin at his throat, and he wisely relapsed into silence.</p>
+
+<p>For Patsy to fish out a gag, and bind it securely in the scoundrel's
+mouth, was the work of a few moments only.</p>
+
+<p>Then Chick jerked Dalton up from the rear cushion and out into the road,
+in far less time than is taken to record it.</p>
+
+<p>"Off with his coat and hat, Patsy," he hurriedly commanded. "Now the
+false beard, my lad. Now get into them yourself, as quickly as you can."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm all in, Chick," chuckled Patsy, working like a trooper.</p>
+
+<p>"Got all the traps with you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure!"</p>
+
+<p>"Clap the bracelets on him, then. Now give me a second pair, and a strip
+of line. That's the stuff."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I brought the whole shooting match," laughed Patsy.</p>
+
+<p>"Good for you! Now mount to the box, and leave this dog to me. I'll
+return in half a minute."</p>
+
+<p>Patsy climbed up to the seat from which Dalton had been so speedily
+snatched and overcome, and Chick now ran the rascal a rod or more into
+the woodland on the opposite side of the road.</p>
+
+<p>There he threw him to the ground beside a small oak, around the trunk of
+which he quickly twined Dalton's legs, and then fastened them at the
+ankles with a pair of irons.</p>
+
+<p>"I reckon you'll stay there quietly until I want you, barring that you
+pull up the tree," he grimly remarked, as he turned to hasten back to
+the carriage, in which he quickly resumed his seat.</p>
+
+<p>A moment later Venner peered from the distant window&mdash;and was satisfied
+with what he saw.</p>
+
+<p>Five minutes later he came striding down the walk and approached the
+carriage. Without a word to the driver, whom he supposed to be Dalton,
+he opened the carriage door and laid his hand on Chick's arm, at the
+same time pointing toward the house.</p>
+
+<p>Chick signified that he understood, and held out both hands, as if he
+wished to be helped to the sidewalk.</p>
+
+<p>Venner promptly raised both of his&mdash;only to suddenly hear a quick,
+metallic snap, and feel links of cold steel confining his wrists. Their
+icy chill went through him like a knife, and he reeled as if stricken a
+blow.</p>
+
+<p>"Good God!" he gasped, hoarsely. "What's this?"</p>
+
+<p>Chick and Patsy were already beside him.</p>
+
+<p>"This," said Chick, sternly, "is your wind-up!"</p>
+
+<p>"My&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Stop! Not a loud word, Mr. Venner, or worse will be yours! Now tell me
+in whispers&mdash;where is Nick Carter?"</p>
+
+<p>The sight of a revolver thrust under his nose had a potent effect upon
+the dismayed man, yet even while he saw that he was cornered, he seized
+upon the hope that Kilgore and the gang might discover and release him.</p>
+
+<p>"Find him yourself, if you want him!" he hissed through his teeth, with
+an ugly frown. "I'm cursed if I'll inform you!"</p>
+
+<p>Chick did not delay for arguments or persuasion. With Patsy's help he
+speedily put Venner in the same helpless condition in which he had left
+Dalton, stretched upon the ground, within a rod of one another.</p>
+
+<p>Then he threw off his disguise, and shifted his revolvers to his side
+pockets.</p>
+
+<p>"Now for yonder house, Patsy, and to see what the remainder of this gang
+are at," said he. "Come with me, and have your guns ready."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm with you," cried Patsy, coolly. "Guns and all."</p>
+
+<p>A dash up the gravel walk brought them to the front door, which Venner
+had left partly open.</p>
+
+<p>There they paused and listened.</p>
+
+<p>Not a sound came from within the house; but overhead the tempest now was
+breaking, with frequent crashing peals of thunder, and flashes of
+lightning that illumined all the landscape. Rain, too, now began pelting
+down on the veranda roof.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll steal in and see what we can find," whispered Chick, drawing one
+of his revolvers.</p>
+
+<p>"Go it, then."</p>
+
+<p>He led the way, and Patsy followed. The silence in the house mystified
+them at first. It appeared to have been entirely deserted.</p>
+
+<p>When they reached the door of the dining room, however, Chick discovered
+on the floor the disguise which Nick had discarded.</p>
+
+<p>"I have it, Patsy," he cried, softly. "They have nailed Nick, just as he
+expected, and have taken him somewhere to confine him."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps in the cellar," suggested Patsy.</p>
+
+<p>"I hardly think so, yet we'll have a look."</p>
+
+<p>Moving as quietly as shadows, they entered the kitchen and easily
+located the cellar door. It was closed and locked, with the key
+remaining.</p>
+
+<p>"Evidently they're not down there," whispered Chick.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's try the upper floors," suggested Patsy. "They may be laying for
+us up there, but I reckon we're good for them."</p>
+
+<p>"We'll take the chance, surely. Come on."</p>
+
+<p>They crept through the hall again, and then mounted the broad stairway,
+which led to the next floor.</p>
+
+<p>There the utter silence and the semidarkness quickly convinced them that
+they were on the wrong track.</p>
+
+<p>"The stable," muttered Chick, suddenly. "We'll try the stable."</p>
+
+<p>"They certainly have vamosed this ranch," remarked Patsy.</p>
+
+<p>"Plainly. Come on, then, and we'll try the stable."</p>
+
+<p>Together they started downstairs.</p>
+
+<p>A moment later Kilgore, Pylotte and Matt Stall came flurrying into the
+house by the rear door.</p>
+
+<p>In the bright light of the broad hall each party discovered the other
+at precisely the same moment, and Kilgore instantly guessed the truth.</p>
+
+<p>With a cry of rage, he whipped out his revolver and fired point-blank at
+the two men on the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>"Down 'em, boys!" he yelled furiously. "Down 'em, or our game is done
+for!"</p>
+
+<p>His bullet glanced from the baluster rail near Chick, and buried itself
+in the wall behind him.</p>
+
+<p>"Drop them, Patsy!" he shouted, instantly. "Shoot to kill! It's them or
+us!"</p>
+
+<p>"Let her go, Gallagher!" roared Patsy, pulling both guns.</p>
+
+<p>Then, amid the tumult of the breaking tempest outside, there began a
+fusillade the thunder of which rivaled that of the night, and which,
+though comparatively brief, was as fast and furious as any man there had
+ever experienced.</p>
+
+<p>Pylotte went down at the first shot from Chick, however, with a bullet
+in his brain.</p>
+
+<p>Then shot followed shot with lightning rapidity.</p>
+
+<p>Both detectives sprang down several stairs to evade the rain of lead,
+for both Kilgore and Stall were rapidly emptying two revolvers.</p>
+
+<p>A bullet singed Patsy's ear.</p>
+
+<p>Another dislodged Chick's hat.</p>
+
+<p>Then Kilgore reeled with a slight wound in his left arm.</p>
+
+<p>A score of shots were fired and wasted, meantime, for all hands were
+dodging about the hall and stairs in an utterly indescribable fashion.</p>
+
+<p>It was the warmest kind of a fight for fully three minutes.</p>
+
+<p>Then Chick got a line on Matt Stall from behind the baluster post, and
+dropped him with a ragged wound in his hip.</p>
+
+<p>Stall fell with a yell of rage and pain, and Kilgore found himself
+alone, and against odds.</p>
+
+<p>He turned like a flash, and darted out of the rear door of the house.</p>
+
+<p>He knew that the game was up, his confederates done for, and his own
+chances of escape but small; and the situation stirred to their very
+depths the worst elements of this lifelong criminal.</p>
+
+<p>But one thought possessed him&mdash;that of revenge, that of destroying the
+chief cause of his downfall&mdash;Nick Carter.</p>
+
+<p>With this end in view, Kilgore tore like a madman through the blinding
+rain of that tempestuous night, and shaped his course back to the
+diamond plant.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI" />CHAPTER XXI.</h2>
+
+<h3>AN ONLY RESOURCE.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Despite the corner in which he had placed himself, a situation far more
+desperate than he at first imagined, Nick Carter was congratulating
+himself upon the success of his ruse by which he had so quickly located
+the secret plant of the diamond swindlers, even at the sacrifice of his
+personal freedom.</p>
+
+<p>The fact that he now sat bound in a chair in the hidden stronghold of
+the gang, watched only by Cervera, did not seriously disturb the
+fearless detective.</p>
+
+<p>Nick had been in many a worse corner than this, or in corners believed
+to be worse, and he felt confident of pulling out of the scrape with a
+whole skin, and with most of the gang in custody.</p>
+
+<p>He had surveyed his surroundings with more than cursory interest,
+therefore, while Kilgore and his confederates were binding his arms to
+the rounds of the chair back, and his ankles to the legs of the same.</p>
+
+<p>The rough foundation walls of the house, the massive stone wall built
+across the cellar to mask the secret chamber, the elaborate electric
+furnace, the huge hydraulic press, the workbench and tools, the powerful
+arc light pendent from the ceiling&mdash;half an eye would have convinced
+Nick that he occupied the workroom of that master craftsman whose
+chemical knowledge and inventive genius had given birth to a most
+marvelous production, long, earnestly, yet vainly, sought by others&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>The production of an artificial diamond!</p>
+
+<p>Not until Nick heard the stone door forcibly closed, and its iron bolts
+shot violently into their sockets, did he pay serious attention to
+Cervera, the venomous Spanish vixen left to guard him.</p>
+
+<p>Then, as she swung round toward him, he took a sharper look at her
+darkly magnificent face, and was thrilled despite him by the
+extraordinary changes it had undergone.</p>
+
+<p>It had lost its beauty. Its olive flush had given place to a chalky
+whiteness. The radiance of her eyes had become a merciless glitter, like
+the glint cast from the eyes of a serpent. The reflection of a consuming
+passion for vengeance had transfigured her countenance, till it had
+become like the face of a fiend.</p>
+
+<p>Though Nick saw at a glance that his situation had taken on an
+unexpected and desperate phase, he suppressed any betrayal of it. He met
+the woman eye to eye, while she briefly paused and faced him, with a
+cruel smile curling her gray lips.</p>
+
+<p>"So I have you now, Nick Carter," she cried, with mocking significance.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, yes, in a way," admitted Nick, coolly.</p>
+
+<p>"I have you in my power," hissed Cervera, with a vicious display of
+satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! that's different," said Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"How different?"</p>
+
+<p>"That you have me in your power remains to be demonstrated."</p>
+
+<p>"Are we not alone here, you fool?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, very much alone."</p>
+
+<p>"And you helpless?"</p>
+
+<p>"Apparently."</p>
+
+<p>"If I wish, Nick Carter, I can kill you."</p>
+
+<p>"Then pray don't wish it," said Nick. "I am still too young to be
+heartlessly slain, even by so beautiful and accomplished a woman."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Caramba!</i> you mock me!" cried Cervera, darting toward him with eyes
+ablaze and her lithe figure quivering with passion. "You mock me!&mdash;you
+shall repent it! Perdition! you shall repent it!"</p>
+
+<p>"Is that so?"</p>
+
+<p>"You shall repent it, I say!"</p>
+
+<p>"In this world, or in the next?" inquired Nick, bent upon prolonging the
+scene as much as possible, with a hope that Chick might suddenly turn
+up.</p>
+
+<p>Cervera did not answer him immediately. She wheeled again and darted to
+the door, once more to make sure that she had secured its bolts.</p>
+
+<p>She was clad in the black dress in which she had escaped from Nick the
+previous night, the somber hue of which was relieved only by occasional
+flashes of her dainty white lace underskirts, as she swept quickly from
+place to place, with her lithe figure crouching at times, and her every
+movement as swift and impulsive as that of a startled leopard.</p>
+
+<p>As he sat watching her, Nick was reminded of her matchless work upon
+the stage, thrilling men and women alike with her wild grace and the
+fiery passion of her indescribable dances.</p>
+
+<p>She returned to confront him after a moment, crouching before him, with
+her glowing eyes fixed on his.</p>
+
+<p>"In the next world&mdash;not in this!" she now replied, with a voice that cut
+the air like the snap of a whip. "You'd have brief time for repentance
+in this."</p>
+
+<p>"So you've decided to do the job, have you?" Nick coolly demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'm sorry to hear it."</p>
+
+<p>"Here is where we even up accounts."</p>
+
+<p>"Even them up, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"You heard what I said."</p>
+
+<p>"But I wasn't aware that I have so very much the best of you."</p>
+
+<p>"You have."</p>
+
+<p>"How so?"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Caramba!</i> you know too much!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! you mean about that girl."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"I see," nodded Nick, secretly working in vain to loose the ropes
+confining his arms. "Well, se&ntilde;ora, as a matter of fact, I am rather
+likely to make things unpleasant for you one of these days."</p>
+
+<p>"It will be this day, or never. You'll not live to see another."</p>
+
+<p>"Possibly not."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Caramba!</i> do you doubt it?"</p>
+
+<p>She darted nearer to him, with her hand tearing open the waist of her
+dress, and then the gleam of a poniard met Nick's gaze. She swept it
+before his eyes with a wild gesture, and gave vent to a mocking laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you doubt that I can slay you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all," answered Nick. "It's very evident."</p>
+
+<p>"Or that I will?"</p>
+
+<p>"That appears equally manifest."</p>
+
+<p>"So it is!" hissed Cervera, with vicious intensity. "I intend to do it!
+Do you hear, Nick Carter? I intend to do it!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, I hear you."</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't you shrink? Why don't you plead for mercy?"</p>
+
+<p>"What's the use?"</p>
+
+<p>She answered him with a laugh that made the room ring.</p>
+
+<p>"Besides," added Nick, "it's not my style to show the white feather."</p>
+
+<p>"We'll see! <i>Caramba!</i> we will see!"</p>
+
+<p>She came nearer to him, crouching before him, so near that her breath
+fell hot upon his cheeks. Then, with a quick movement, she pressed the
+point of the blade through his clothing, till it pricked the flesh above
+his heart.</p>
+
+<p>With his arms bound, with his ankles secured to the legs of the chair,
+Nick appeared utterly at her mercy&mdash;of which she had none.</p>
+
+<p>Despite himself, Nick shrank slightly from the wound, and for the first
+time shuddered at the peril by which he was menaced, and from which
+there seemed to be no avenue of escape.</p>
+
+<p>Cervera laughed again, a laugh freighted with the terrible ring of
+madness.</p>
+
+<p>"Did it hurt you?" she screamed, with her glittering eyes raised to
+search his. "Perdition! I hope so! You have tortured me with a thousand
+fears. I'd like to repay you with a thousand pangs!"</p>
+
+<p>Nick's eyes took on an ugly gleam.</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't you do so, then?" he growled.</p>
+
+<p>"I would, if I had the time," cried Cervera, through her teeth.</p>
+
+<p>"You have all there is."</p>
+
+<p>"Ten thousand times I'd thrust it into you&mdash;thus! thus!"</p>
+
+<p>Nick set his jaws and met the blade without flinching.</p>
+
+<p>Twice the vicious demon thrust it through his clothing, and now two
+crimson stains of blood on his shirt front followed the withdrawal of
+the weapon.</p>
+
+<p>"See! see!" screamed Cervera, triumphantly, with her terrible face
+upturned to his gaze. "You're beginning to bleed! Did you know that the
+sight of blood affects me as it does a leopard? I thirst for more&mdash;if
+that of one I hate! When next I strike you, I shall strike deeper!"</p>
+
+<p>That she fully intended to murder him, Nick now, had not a doubt. The
+homicidal madness was in her eyes, in her every feature, her every
+motion, and it rang in every word that fell from her bloodless lips.</p>
+
+<p>Yet the inflexible nerve of the detective did not for a moment desert
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"Send the blade home at once, if you like," he said, with a scornful
+frown.</p>
+
+<p>"Not yet&mdash;not yet!" she cried, shrilly. "There'll be time for that."</p>
+
+<p>"Time and to spare," sneered Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"I first wish to torture you, as you've tortured me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Go ahead, then."</p>
+
+<p>"Once more! Are you ready?"</p>
+
+<p>"Let it come."</p>
+
+<p>Again she drew back the glittering blade, only to mock him with several
+pretended thrusts, hoping thus to create and prolong an agony of fear
+and suspense.</p>
+
+<p>A more viciously cruel and vindictive creature never drew the breath of
+life.</p>
+
+<p>She laughed again, and slowly pressed the weapon closer&mdash;and then, with
+a sudden startled cry, she drew back and leaped to her feet.</p>
+
+<p>A noise like that of a mighty cannonade seemed to shake even the solid
+walls of this buried chamber.</p>
+
+<p>It was the crash of thunder in the heavens overhead.</p>
+
+<p>It was Cervera's first intimation of the terrible tempest that had been
+gathering outside.</p>
+
+<p>At first she thought the sound was that of revolvers, and she darted to
+the door and listened, pressing her ear to the wall.</p>
+
+<p>The instant her back was turned, Nick made a desperate attempt to free
+himself, straining cords and muscles under the determined effort. It
+proved vain, however. The ropes held him as if made of twisted steel.</p>
+
+<p>Yet in his brief but desperate struggle his right arm came in contact
+with an object in the side pocket of his sack coat.</p>
+
+<p>The object was a box nearly filled with parlor matches&mdash;one of the most
+dangerous and treacherous creations of man's inventive genius.</p>
+
+<p>Like a sudden revelation, or a bolt out of the blue, there leaped up in
+Nick's mind a possible way of escape.</p>
+
+<p>He thought of Cervera's garments, of the fluffy lace skirts beneath her
+gown, to which a single flash of fire would instantly prove fatal.</p>
+
+<p>The resort to such means seemed horrible&mdash;yet Nick well knew it was the
+one and only resource left him.</p>
+
+<p>He glanced sharply at Cervera. She was still listening at the door, with
+her evil face a picture of intense suspense.</p>
+
+<p>With a quick turn of his wrist, Nick succeeded in extracting the box
+from his pocket. Then he forced it open, and with a move of his hand he
+scattered its entire contents over the floor around his chair. The tiny
+matches fell with scarce a sound, and Cervera, ten feet away, failed to
+hear them.</p>
+
+<p>Then Nick quietly worked his chair back a foot or two, in order to bring
+some of the fateful things upon the floor directly in front of him.</p>
+
+<p>A moment later Cervera turned from the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Thunder&mdash;it was thunder," she muttered, under her breath. "There's a
+storm outside."</p>
+
+<p>"Somebody coming?" queried Nick, with taunting accents.</p>
+
+<p>He now aimed to provoke her, to force the situation to a climax, lest
+any mischance should have befallen Chick, or perverted in any way his
+own designs upon Kilgore and the gang. His taunting remark proved
+effective, moreover.</p>
+
+<p>With a snarl of rage Cervera darted toward him, with eyes for him alone,
+never for the floor.</p>
+
+<p>"You dog!" she cried, through her white teeth.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mock me again?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! no, of course not," sneered Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"You lie! You do! You think some one will come&mdash;that you will then
+escape me," screamed Cervera, quivering through and through with
+venomous passion.</p>
+
+<p>Nick watched her as a cat watches a mouse.</p>
+
+<p>Her face was ghastly and distorted, her breast heaving, her every nerve
+quivering, and her eyes were like balls of fire under their knitted
+brows.</p>
+
+<p>Still clutching the poniard, her jeweled fingers worked convulsively
+around its haft, like those of one who fain would strike a death blow,
+yet whose hand was briefly held by consuming horror.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly she darted nearer, with a vicious snarl.</p>
+
+<p>"You think you'll escape me," she screamed, with bitter ferocity. "It
+shows in your eyes. I'll make sure that you don't. Let come who may, you
+shall be found&mdash;dead! Dead!&mdash;do you hear?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! yes, I hear."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet you do not fear? We'll see&mdash;we'll see!"</p>
+
+<p>She darted closer to him, with the weapon raised, above her head, and
+her knee touched Nick's knee. He swung quickly around toward her, and
+scraped his feet over the floor below her skirts.</p>
+
+<p>Then came a quick, furious snapping, like the noise of a miniature
+fusillade. A score of the matches had been ignited by Nick's swift move.</p>
+
+<p>Almost instantly a shriek of terror broke from Cervera's lips, and she
+reeled back, clutching wildly at her skirts.</p>
+
+<p>"My God! I'm on fire!&mdash;on fire!" she screamed, with a voice so intense
+in its agony as to have chilled a man of stone.</p>
+
+<p>A roar came from Nick as he sighted the flames under her gown.</p>
+
+<p>"Release me! Release me!" he thundered, furiously, with a voice that
+drowned her frightful screams. "Cut me loose&mdash;loose! It's your only
+hope&mdash;your only hope!"</p>
+
+<p>She heard him like one in a nightmare of agony and terror, and her
+instinct rather than her reason responded to his thundering commands.</p>
+
+<p>Still with the poniard in her jeweled hand, still shrieking wildly, she
+leaped to his side, and with a single sweep of the keen weapon severed
+the rope binding his arms.</p>
+
+<p>Then Nick snatched the poniard from her hand. With several swift cuts
+and slashes he released his limbs, and sprang quickly to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>He had already shaped his course. He had observed on the sulphur
+barrels, near the wall, a strip of matting, used as a cover for them.
+Nick snatched it from the barrels, and rushed to wrap it around the
+skirts and limbs of the terror-stricken woman.</p>
+
+<p>For several moments the result seemed doubtful, so doubtful that Nick
+finally threw Cervera heavily to the floor, the better to press the
+matting closely around her and so smother the flames. In this he
+presently succeeded, but not before she was so severely burned as to be
+rendered utterly helpless.</p>
+
+<p>When Nick arose to his feet Cervera remained lying prostrate on the
+floor, moaning with pain, yet in a state of semi-consciousness only. A
+glance told Nick that she could make no move to escape, and he now had
+other work than that of looking to her comfort.</p>
+
+<p>He ran to the stone door, threw the bolts, and quickly dragged it open.</p>
+
+<p>Even as he did so, from out of the gloom of the adjoining cellar, a man
+came into view, as if suddenly arisen from the ground.</p>
+
+<p>The man was Dave Kilgore.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII" />CHAPTER XXII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE LAST TRICK.</h3>
+
+
+<p>"Carter!"</p>
+
+<p>"Kilgore!"</p>
+
+<p>Each man uttered the name of the other, as if with the same breath. The
+meeting came so suddenly that, for the bare fraction of a second, both
+men were nonplused.</p>
+
+<p>Then both whipped out a weapon.</p>
+
+<p>Crack!</p>
+
+<p>Bang!</p>
+
+<p>They fired together, and both missed, Nick's usually accurate aim being
+spoiled by the gloom of the cellar.</p>
+
+<p>Kilgore instantly sprang further away in the darkness, and aimed again.</p>
+
+<p>The hammer of his weapon fell as usual, but there was no report. In his
+recent fight at the Venner house he had emptied both of his revolvers,
+save the one bullet that had just missed Nick Carter.</p>
+
+<p>Then Kilgore, failing to have found Nick at his mercy, thought only of
+making his own escape. He turned and ran toward the open door by which
+he had entered.</p>
+
+<p>At that moment Chick's ringing voice sounded from outside.</p>
+
+<p>"This way! this way, Patsy!" he cried, louder than the rolling thunder
+overhead. "I've found the rat hole!"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm with you," yelled Patsy.</p>
+
+<p>They were already at the door.</p>
+
+<p>By the frequent flashes of lightning they had, after the fight at
+Venner's, succeeded in following Kilgore across the meadows, and they
+well knew that he was headed to get even with Nick.</p>
+
+<p>Now Nick's voice rang through the cellar.</p>
+
+<p>"Look out for him, Chick," he commanded. "He's coming that way. Look out
+for his gun."</p>
+
+<p>"Hurrah!" roared Chick, the moment he heard Nick's voice. "Let him come,
+gun and all!"</p>
+
+<p>Kilgore saw his flight cut off in that direction, but he knew every inch
+of the house. He turned like a rat in the darkness, and made for the
+stairs leading to the floor above. Up these he hurriedly scrambled.</p>
+
+<p>Nick heard him through the gloom, and followed him, pitching headlong at
+the foot of the stairs just as Kilgore opened the door leading to the
+hall above.</p>
+
+<p>There the dim rays from a hall lamp revealed the man for an instant, and
+showed Nick the way. He was up again and after Kilgore like a hound
+after a fox.</p>
+
+<p>Kilgore dashed through the hall, but dared not take time to unlock and
+open the front door of the house. He had a profound respect for the
+revolver in the hand of his pursuer, who already had reached the hall.</p>
+
+<p>It was a flight for life, and Kilgore knew it.</p>
+
+<p>He turned like a flash and darted up the stairs, making for the second
+floor. Three at a stride he covered, and succeeded in reaching the
+corridor above before Nick could get a line on him.</p>
+
+<p>Nick followed, gun in hand.</p>
+
+<p>On the second floor Kilgore darted into a dark chamber, and then
+through that to one adjoining it, where he waited till he heard Nick
+plunging into the one first mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>Then Kilgore slipped out into the hall again, hoping to retrace his
+steps downstairs and escape by the front door.</p>
+
+<p>In the way of that, however, Chick and Patsy were now in the lower hall,
+the former shouting lustily up the stairs:</p>
+
+<p>"Run him down, Nick! Run him down! We'll cover this way of escape!"</p>
+
+<p>An involuntary oath broke from Kilgore's lips, and at the same moment a
+vivid flash of lightning from the inky heavens illumined all the house.</p>
+
+<p>From the chamber in which he stood, Nick again caught sight of his man,
+and was after him in an instant.</p>
+
+<p>Kilgore heard him coming, and again fled through the hall and up another
+flight of stairs.</p>
+
+<p>"You'd better throw up your hands," roared Nick, as he followed.</p>
+
+<p>The answer came back with a yell of defiance:</p>
+
+<p>"Not on your life!"</p>
+
+<p>"You're a lost dog," cried Nick, hoping to keep him replying.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll not get me alive!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then I'll get you dead!" cried Nick, as he mounted the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>"You haven't got me yet!"</p>
+
+<p>"Next door to it, my man."</p>
+
+<p>This brought no answer.</p>
+
+<p>In a moment Nick reached the second hall, where he briefly paused to
+listen. Save the rain beating on the roof of the house, only one sound
+reached his strained ears. It was like that of some one hammering
+against the side of the house with some heavy object. For a moment the
+detective was puzzled. He could not fathom the meaning of such a sound.</p>
+
+<p>Then a gust of damp night air rushed through the hall and swept Nick's
+cheek.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! an open window!" he muttered. "That's easily located."</p>
+
+<p>He groped his way into one of the rear chambers. There the night air was
+sweeping in through an open window, to the sill of which Nick quickly
+sprang.</p>
+
+<p>Now the noise he had heard was instantly explained.</p>
+
+<p>Cornered like a rat, yet viciously resolute to the last, Kilgore had, in
+order to make his escape, resorted to a means from which a less cool and
+nervy scoundrel would have shrunk on such a night as that.</p>
+
+<p>He had, by reaching far out of the window, been able to grasp an
+old-fashioned lightning rod with which the ancient wooden mansion was
+provided, and by which he proposed to descend to the ground. Under the
+swindler's weight, the beating of this swaying rod against the side of
+the house was the sound Nick had heard.</p>
+
+<p>Kilgore, whose courage was worthy a far better cause, already was
+halfway to the ground.</p>
+
+<p>Yet Nick had no idea of letting the knave escape thus, and he raised his
+weapon to fire.</p>
+
+<p>There was no need for a bullet, however, for the hand of the Almighty
+did the work.</p>
+
+<p>From the black vault of the heavens a bolt of liquid fire suddenly shot
+earthward, with a crash of thunder that seemed to rend the entire
+firmament.</p>
+
+<p>The fiery bolt reached the earth&mdash;but it reached it through the rod to
+which Dave Kilgore was desperately clinging.</p>
+
+<p>Not a sound came from the doomed man as he went down&mdash;or if there was a
+sound, it was drowned by the deafening crash and successive
+reverberations of thunder.</p>
+
+<p>Before Nick had fairly recovered from the blinding light and terrific
+concussion, he heard the voice of Chick yelling loudly from below:</p>
+
+<p>"Nick, Nick, come down here! The house is afire. The whole house is
+afire!"</p>
+
+<p>Nick heard and darted for the stairs, at once realizing how well the
+lightning had done its terrific work. Before he could reach the lower
+hall, dense volumes of smoke were pouring through the house, and one
+entire side of the fated dwelling was in flames.</p>
+
+<p>Nick thought of the woman in the cellar below, and, with Chick and Patsy
+at his heels, he led the way to the diamond plant. The electric light
+had been extinguished by the lightning stroke, but Nick soon located the
+body of Cervera, and together the detectives brought her out and laid
+her upon the ground some rods away from the burning dwelling.</p>
+
+<p>"She's done for, poor wretch!" muttered Nick, as he looked at her
+bloodless face.</p>
+
+<p>He was right.</p>
+
+<p>Se&ntilde;ora Cervera had danced her last dance&mdash;a terrible one it was! She
+had lapsed into a merciful unconsciousness, from which she never
+emerged.</p>
+
+<p>Next came Kilgore, and they easily found him. He lay stretched upon the
+ground, dead and scorched almost beyond recognition, at the base of the
+metallic rod through which he had met his fate.</p>
+
+<p>"Lend a hand here," said Nick. "We'll place him with his confederate
+until we can have them properly removed."</p>
+
+<p>"So be it," said Chick, gravely. "It's about the last we can do for
+them, and this nearly ends our work on this job."</p>
+
+<p>"You've got the others?"</p>
+
+<p>"Every man of them."</p>
+
+<p>"Well done!" nodded Nick, as they raised the lifeless form between them.
+"Behold the way of the transgressor."</p>
+
+<p>"Hark!" exclaimed Patsy. "There goes the fire alarm. In three minutes
+there'll be a mob about here."</p>
+
+<p>"Much good the firemen will do," rejoined Nick. "That house is doomed,
+and all that's in it."</p>
+
+<p>He was right. With the passing of the tempest, and the first sign of a
+star in the eastern sky, all that remained of the house above the
+diamond plant was a heap of red, smoldering embers, filling the cellar
+and the secret chamber&mdash;and blotting out, though perhaps not forever,
+the secret art of that misguided genius, Jean Pylotte, dead with a
+bullet in his brain, on the floor of Rufus Venner's hall.</p>
+
+<p>There remains but little to complete the record of this strange and
+stirring case.</p>
+
+<p>Before morning Nick had lodged Venner and Spotty Dalton in the Tombs,
+and had Garside arrested at his residence. The lifeless bodies of their
+three confederates,&mdash;Cervera having died at dawn&mdash;were taken to the
+Morgue.</p>
+
+<p>Early the following day, Harry Boyden, the young man arrested for the
+murder of Mary Barton, was discharged from custody, and hastened to the
+home of Violet Page, to make her happy with the news of his release and
+his story of Nick Carter's extraordinary work. Both called upon Nick a
+day or two later, and expressed their gratitude and affection in terms
+which here need no recital. Incidentally it may be added that they were
+married, as planned, the following summer.</p>
+
+<p>How strangely the circumstances and experiences of life are knit and
+bound together. But for the vicious crime of a jealous woman, Nick might
+have labored long, and possibly vainly, to run down the Kilgore gang and
+their extraordinary criminal project, in which Cervera so strongly
+figured. It was as Nick said, the two crimes seemed bound together as if
+with links of steel.</p>
+
+<p>In the trial which preceded the conviction and punishment of the three
+living members of the gang, Nick learned all of the facts of the case.</p>
+
+<p>Venner &amp; Co., it appeared, were on their last legs, and went into the
+game to square themselves, the design being to market vast quantities of
+the artificial diamonds. With this project in view, Venner had purchased
+the house at the rear of his own, under the name of Dr. Magruder, and
+there had established the plant. How well the scheme would have
+succeeded, but for Nick Carter, will never be known.</p>
+
+<p>At all events, in the stock of Venner &amp; Co. were found numerous stones
+which only the most proficient experts could prove to be artificial; and
+even to this day it is intimated that, among the bejeweled women of New
+York there are some unconsciously wearing the manufactured diamonds of
+Jean Pylotte. What matters, however, since where ignorance is bliss it
+is folly to be wise?</p>
+
+<p>Jean Pylotte: His art died with him, alas! For in the ruins of the
+diamond plant there could be found no evidence sufficient to reveal his
+great secret.</p>
+
+<p>Surely it had opened the way to a great swindle, the possibilities of
+which can hardly be conceived. But, fortunately, in the way of it had
+come&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Nick Carter.</p>
+
+
+<h5>THE END.</h5>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h3><a name="NICK_CARTER_STORIES" id="NICK_CARTER_STORIES" />NICK CARTER STORIES</h3>
+
+<h2>New Magnet Library</h2>
+
+<h3>PRICE, FIFTEEN CENTS</h3>
+
+<h4><i>Not a Dull Book in This List</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>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
+trouble, and landed the criminal just where he should be&mdash;behind the
+bars.</p>
+
+<p>The author of these stories knew more about writing detective stories
+than any other single person.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<h4><i>ALL TITLES ALWAYS IN PRINT</i></h4>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='left'>850&mdash;Wanted: A Clew</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>851&mdash;A Tangled Skein</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>852&mdash;The Bullion Mystery</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>853&mdash;The Man of Riddles</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>854&mdash;A Miscarriage of Justice</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>855&mdash;The Gloved Hand</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>856&mdash;Spoilers and the Spoils</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>857&mdash;The Deeper Game</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>858&mdash;Bolts from Blue Skies</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>859&mdash;Unseen Foes</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>860&mdash;Knaves in High Places</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>861&mdash;The Microbe of Crime</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>862&mdash;In the Toils of Fear</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>863&mdash;A Heritage of Trouble</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>864&mdash;Called to Account</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>865&mdash;The Just and the Unjust</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>866&mdash;Instinct at Fault</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>867&mdash;A Rogue Worth Trapping</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>868&mdash;A Rope of Slender Threads</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>869&mdash;The Last Call</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>870&mdash;The Spoils of Chance</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>871&mdash;A Struggle With Destiny</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>872&mdash;The Slave of Crime</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>873&mdash;The Crook's Blind</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>874&mdash;A Rascal of Quality</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>875&mdash;With Shackles of Fire</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>876&mdash;The Man Who Changed Faces</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>877&mdash;The Fixed Alibi</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>878&mdash;Out With the Tide</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>879&mdash;The Soul Destroyers</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>880&mdash;The Wages of Rascality</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>881&mdash;Birds of Prey</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>882&mdash;When Destruction Threatens</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>883&mdash;The Keeper of Black Hounds</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>884&mdash;The Door of Doubt</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>885&mdash;The Wolf Within</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>886&mdash;A Perilous Parole</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>887&mdash;The Trail of the Fingerprints</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>888&mdash;Dodging the Law</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>889&mdash;A Crime in Paradise</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>890&mdash;On the Ragged Edge</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>891&mdash;The Red God of Tragedy</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>892&mdash;The Man Who Paid</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>893&mdash;The Blind Man's Daughter</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>894&mdash;One Object in Life</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>895&mdash;As a Crook Sows</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>896&mdash;In Record Time</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>897&mdash;Held in Suspense</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>898&mdash;The $100,000 Kiss</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>890&mdash;Just One Slip</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>900&mdash;On a Million-dollar Trail</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>901&mdash;A Weird Treasure</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>902&mdash;The Middle Link</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>903&mdash;To the Ends of the Earth</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>904&mdash;When Honors Pall</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>905&mdash;The Yellow Brand</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>906&mdash;A New Serpent in Eden</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>907&mdash;When Brave Men Tremble</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>908&mdash;A Test of Courage</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>909&mdash;Where Peril Beckons</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>910&mdash;The Gargoni Girdle</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>911&mdash;Rascals &amp; Co.</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>912&mdash;Too Late to Talk</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>913&mdash;Satan's Apt Pupil</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>914&mdash;The Girl Prisoner</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>915&mdash;The Danger of Folly</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>916&mdash;One Shipwreck Too Many</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>917&mdash;Scourged by Fear</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>918&mdash;The Red Plague</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>919&mdash;Scoundrels Rampant</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>920&mdash;From Clew to Clew</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>921&mdash;When Rogues Conspire</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>922&mdash;Twelve in a Grave</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>923&mdash;The Great Opium Case</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>924&mdash;A Conspiracy of Rumors</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>925&mdash;A Klondike Claim</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>926&mdash;The Evil Formula</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>927&mdash;The Man of Many Faces</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>928&mdash;The Great Enigma</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>929&mdash;The Burden of Proof</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>930&mdash;The Stolen Brain</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>931&mdash;A Titled Counterfeiter</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>932&mdash;The Magic Necklace</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>933&mdash;'Round the World for a Quarter</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>934&mdash;Over the Edge of the World</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>935&mdash;In the Grip of Fate</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>936&mdash;The Case of Many Clews</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>937&mdash;The Sealed Door</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>938&mdash;Nick Carter and the Green Goods Men</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>939&mdash;The Man Without a Will</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>940&mdash;Tracked Across the Atlantic</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>941&mdash;A Clew From the Unknown</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>942&mdash;The Crime of a Countess</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>943&mdash;A Mixed Up Mess</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>944&mdash;The Great Money Order Swindle</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>945&mdash;The Adder's Brood</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>946&mdash;A Wall Street Haul</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>947&mdash;For a Pawned Crown</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>948&mdash;Sealed Orders</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>949&mdash;The Hate That Kills</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>950&mdash;The American Marquis</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>951&mdash;The Needy Nine</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>952&mdash;Fighting Against Millions</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>953&mdash;Outlaws of the Blue</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>954&mdash;The Old Detective's Pupil</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>955&mdash;Found in the Jungle</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>956&mdash;The Mysterious Mail Robbery</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>957&mdash;Broken Bars</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>958&mdash;A Fair Criminal</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>959&mdash;Won by Magic</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>960&mdash;The Piano Box Mystery</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>961&mdash;The Man They Held Back</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>962&mdash;A Millionaire Partner</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>963&mdash;A Pressing Peril</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>964&mdash;An Australian Klondyke</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>965&mdash;The Sultan's Pearls</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>966&mdash;The Double Shuffle Club</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>967&mdash;Paying the Price</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>968&mdash;A Woman's Hand</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>969&mdash;A Network of Crime</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>970&mdash;At Thompson's Ranch</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>971&mdash;The Crossed Needles</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>972&mdash;The Diamond Mine Case</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>973&mdash;Blood Will Tell</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>974&mdash;An Accidental Password</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>975&mdash;The Crook's Bauble</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>976&mdash;Two Plus Two</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>977&mdash;The Yellow Label</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>978&mdash;The Clever Celestial</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>979&mdash;The Amphitheater Plot</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>980&mdash;Gideon Drexel's Millions</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>981&mdash;Death in Life</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>982&mdash;A Stolen Identity</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>983&mdash;Evidence by Telephone</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>984&mdash;The Twelve Tin Boxes</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>985&mdash;Clew Against Clew</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>986&mdash;Lady Velvet</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>987&mdash;Playing a Bold Game</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>988&mdash;A Dead Man's Grip</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>989&mdash;Snarled Identities</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>990&mdash;A Deposit Vault Puzzle</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>991&mdash;The Crescent Brotherhood</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>992&mdash;The Stolen Pay Train</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>993&mdash;The Sea Fox</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>994&mdash;Wanted by Two Clients</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>995&mdash;The Van Alstine Case</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>996&mdash;Check No. 777</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>997&mdash;Partners in Peril</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>998&mdash;Nick Carter's Clever Prot&eacute;g&eacute;</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>999&mdash;The Sign of the Crossed Knives</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1000&mdash;The Man Who Vanished</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1001&mdash;A Battle for the Right</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1002&mdash;A Game of Craft</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1003&mdash;Nick Carter's Retainer</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1004&mdash;Caught in the Toils</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1005&mdash;A Broken Bond</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1006&mdash;The Crime of the French Caf&eacute;</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1007&mdash;The Man Who Stole Millions</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1008&mdash;The Twelve Wise Men</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1009&mdash;Hidden Foes</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1010&mdash;A Gamblers' Syndicate</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1011&mdash;A Chance Discovery</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1012&mdash;Among the Counterfeiters</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1013&mdash;A Threefold Disappearance</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1014&mdash;At Odds With Scotland Yard</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1015&mdash;A Princess of Crime</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1016&mdash;Found on the Beach</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1017&mdash;A Spinner of Death</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1018&mdash;The Detective's Pretty Neighbor</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1019&mdash;A Bogus Clew</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1020&mdash;The Puzzle of Five Pistols</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1021&mdash;The Secret of the Marble Mantel</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1022&mdash;A Bite of an Apple</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1023&mdash;A Triple Crime</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1024&mdash;The Stolen Race Horse</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1025&mdash;Wildfire</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1026&mdash;A <i>Herald</i> Personal</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1027&mdash;The Finger of Suspicion</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1028&mdash;The Crimson Clew</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1029&mdash;Nick Carter Down East</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1030&mdash;The Chain of Clews</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1031&mdash;A Victim of Circumstances</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1032&mdash;Brought to Bay</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1033&mdash;The Dynamite Trap</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1034&mdash;A Scrap of Black Lace</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1035&mdash;The Woman of Evil</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1036&mdash;A Legacy of Hate</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1037&mdash;A Trusted Rogue</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1038&mdash;Man Against Man</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1039&mdash;The Demons of the Night</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1040&mdash;The Brotherhood of Death</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1041&mdash;At the Knife's Point</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1042&mdash;A Cry for Help</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1043&mdash;A Stroke of Policy</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1044&mdash;Hounded to Death</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1045&mdash;A Bargain in Crime</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1046&mdash;The Fatal Prescription</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1047&mdash;The Man of Iron</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1048&mdash;An Amazing Scoundrel</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1049&mdash;The Chain of Evidence</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1050&mdash;Paid with Death</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1051&mdash;A Fight for a Throne</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1052&mdash;The Woman of Steel</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1053&mdash;The Seal of Death</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1054&mdash;The Human Fiend</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1055&mdash;A Desperate Chance</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1056&mdash;A Chase in the Dark</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1057&mdash;The Snare and the Game</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1058&mdash;The Murray Hill Mystery</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1059&mdash;Nick Carter's Close Call</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1060&mdash;The Missing Cotton King</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1061&mdash;A Game of Plots</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1062&mdash;The Prince of Liars</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1063&mdash;The Man at the Window</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1064&mdash;The Red League</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1065&mdash;The Price of a Secret</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1066&mdash;The Worst Case on Record</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1067&mdash;From Peril to Peril</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1068&mdash;The Seal of Silence</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1069&mdash;Nick Carter's Chinese Puzzle</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1070&mdash;A Blackmailer's Bluff</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1071&mdash;Heard in the Dark</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1072&mdash;A Checkmated Scoundrel</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1073&mdash;The Cashier's Secret</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1074&mdash;Behind a Mask</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1075&mdash;The Cloak of Guilt</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1076&mdash;Two Villains in One</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1077&mdash;The Hot Air Clew</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1078&mdash;Run to Earth</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1079&mdash;The Certified Check</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1080&mdash;Weaving the Web</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1081&mdash;Beyond Pursuit</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1082&mdash;The Claws of the Tiger</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1083&mdash;Driven From Cover</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1084&mdash;A Deal in Diamonds</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1085&mdash;The Wizard of the Cue</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1086&mdash;A Race for Ten Thousand</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1087&mdash;The Criminal Link</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1088&mdash;The Red Signal</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1089&mdash;The Secret Panel</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1090&mdash;A Bonded Villain</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1091&mdash;A Move in the Dark</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1092&mdash;Against Desperate Odds</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1093&mdash;The Telltale Photographs</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1094&mdash;The Ruby Pin</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1095&mdash;The Queen of Diamonds</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1096&mdash;A Broken Trail</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1097&mdash;An Ingenious Stratagem</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1098&mdash;A Sharper's Downfall</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1099&mdash;A Race Track Gamble</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1100&mdash;Without a Clew</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1101&mdash;The Council of Death</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1102&mdash;The Hole in the Vault</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1103&mdash;In Death's Grip</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1104&mdash;A Great Conspiracy</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1105&mdash;The Guilty Governor</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1106&mdash;A Ring of Rascals</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1107&mdash;A Masterpiece of Crime</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1108&mdash;A Blow For Vengeance</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1109&mdash;Tangled Threads</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1110&mdash;The Crime of the Camera</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1111&mdash;The Sign of the Dagger</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1112&mdash;Nick Carter's Promise</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1113&mdash;Marked for Death</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1114&mdash;The Limited Holdup</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1115&mdash;When the Trap Was Sprung</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1116&mdash;Through the Cellar Wall</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1117&mdash;Under the Tiger's Claws</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1118&mdash;The Girl in the Case</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1119&mdash;Behind a Throne</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1120&mdash;The Lure of Gold</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1121&mdash;Hand to Hand</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1122&mdash;From a Prison Cell</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1123&mdash;Dr. Quartz, Magician</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1124&mdash;Into Nick Carter's Web</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1125&mdash;The Mystic Diagram</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1126&mdash;The Hand That Won</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1127&mdash;Playing a Lone Hand</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1128&mdash;The Master Villain</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1129&mdash;The False Claimant</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1130&mdash;The Living Mask</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1131&mdash;The Crime and the Motive</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1132&mdash;A Mysterious Foe</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1133&mdash;A Missing Man</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1134&mdash;A Game Well Played</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1135&mdash;A Cigarette Clew</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1136&mdash;The Diamond Trail</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1137&mdash;The Silent Guardian</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1138&mdash;The Dead Stranger</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1140&mdash;The Doctor's Stratagem</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1141&mdash;Following a Chance Clew</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1142&mdash;The Bank Draft Puzzle</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1143&mdash;The Price of Treachery</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1144&mdash;The Silent Partner</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1145&mdash;Ahead of the Game</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1146&mdash;A Trap of Tangled Wire</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1147&mdash;In the Gloom of Night</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1148&mdash;The Unaccountable Crook</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1149&mdash;A Bundle of Clews</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1150&mdash;The Great Diamond Syndicate</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1151&mdash;The Death Circle</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1152&mdash;The Toss of a Penny</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1153&mdash;One Step Too Far</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1154&mdash;The Terrible Thirteen</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1155&mdash;A Detective's Theory</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1156&mdash;Nick Carter's Auto Trail</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1157&mdash;A Triple Identity</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1158&mdash;A Mysterious Graft</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1159&mdash;A Carnival of Crime</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1160&mdash;The Bloodstone Terror</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<h2>10,000,000</h2>
+
+<p>copies of the works of Nick Carter in the New Magnet Library have been
+sold. Millions more are going to be sold, not because the line
+represents forbidden literature, but because it fills a large and
+growing demand for recreational reading.</p>
+
+<p>Nick Carter is justly famous. He stands as one of America's foremost
+literary characters. He is the close companion of some of America's
+leading professional and business men. Statesmen of high and low degree
+have called him "Nick," and do not hesitate to say that he has given
+them more satisfaction and pleasure than any other character in fiction.</p>
+
+<p>The Nick Carter stories, therefore, hold a great deal for you. Any in
+the foregoing list are worth while.</p>
+
+<h4>STREET &amp; SMITH CORPORATION</h4>
+<h5>79 Seventh Avenue  New York City</h5>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h3><a name="BOOKS_FOR_YOUNG_MEN" id="BOOKS_FOR_YOUNG_MEN" />BOOKS FOR YOUNG MEN</h3>
+
+<h2>MERRIWELL SERIES</h2>
+
+<h4>Stories of Frank and Dick Merriwell</h4>
+
+<h3>PRICE, FIFTEEN CENTS</h3>
+
+<h4><i>Fascinating Stories of Athletics</i></h4>
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<p>A half million enthusiastic followers of the Merriwell brothers will
+attest the unfailing interest and wholesomeness of these adventures of
+two lads of high ideals, who play fair with themselves, as well as with
+the rest of the world.</p>
+
+<p>These stories are rich in fun and thrills in all branches of sports and
+athletics. They are extremely high in moral tone, and cannot fail to be
+of immense benefit to every boy who reads them.</p>
+
+<p>They have the splendid quality of firing a boy's ambition to become a
+good athlete, in order that he may develop into a strong, vigorous
+right-thinking man.</p>
+
+
+<h5><i>ALL TITLES ALWAYS IN PRINT</i></h5>
+
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='left'>1&mdash;Frank Merriwell's School Days</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>2&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Chums</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>3&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Foes</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>4&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Trip West</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>5&mdash;Frank Merriwell Down South</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>6&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Bravery</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>7&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Hunting Tour</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>8&mdash;Frank Merriwell in Europe</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>9&mdash;Frank Merriwell at Yale</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>10&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Sports Afield</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>11&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Races</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>12&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Party</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>13&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Bicycle Tour</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>14&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Courage</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>15&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Daring</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>16&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Alarm</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>17&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Athletes</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>18&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Skill</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>19&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Champions</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>20&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Return to Yale</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>21&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Secret</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>22&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Danger</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>23&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Loyalty</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>24&mdash;Frank Merriwell in Camp</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>25&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Vacation</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>26&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Cruise</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>27&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Chase</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>28&mdash;Frank Merriwell in Maine</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>29&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Struggle</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>30&mdash;Frank Merriwell's First Job</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>31&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Opportunity</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>32&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Hard Luck</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>33&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Prot&eacute;g&eacute;</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>34&mdash;Frank Merriwell on the Road</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>35&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Own Company</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>36&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Fame</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>37&mdash;Frank Merriwell's College Chums</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>38&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Problem</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>39&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Fortune</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>40&mdash;Frank Merriwell's New Comedian</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>41&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Prosperity</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>42&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Stage Hit</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>43&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Great Scheme</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>44&mdash;Frank Merriwell in England</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>45&mdash;Frank Merriwell on the Boulevards</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>46&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Duel</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>47&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Double Shot</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>48&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Baseball Victories</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>49&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Confidence</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>50&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Auto</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>51&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Fun</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>52&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Generosity</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>53&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Tricks</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>54&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Temptation</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>55&mdash;Frank Merriwell on Top</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>56&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Luck</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>57&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Mascot</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>58&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Reward</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>59&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Phantom</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>60&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Faith</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>61&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Victories</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>62&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Iron Nerve</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>63&mdash;Frank Merriwell in Kentucky</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>64&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Power</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>65&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Shrewdness</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>66&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Set Back</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>67&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Search</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>68&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Club</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>69&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Trust</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>70&mdash;Frank Merriwell's False Friend</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>71&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Strong Arm</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>72&mdash;Frank Merriwell As Coach</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>73&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Brother</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>74&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Marvel</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>75&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Support</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>76&mdash;Dick Merriwell At Fardale</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>77&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Glory</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>78&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Promise</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>79&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Rescue</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>80&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Narrow Escape</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>81&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Racket</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>82&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Revenge</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>83&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Ruse</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>84&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Delivery</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>85&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Wonders</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>86&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Honor</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>87&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Diamond</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>88&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Winners</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>89&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Dash</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>90&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Ability</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>91&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Trap</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>92&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Defense</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>93&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Model</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>94&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Mystery</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>95&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Backers</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>96&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Backstop</td><td align='left'>By Burt. L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>97&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Western Mission</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>98&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Rescue</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>99&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Encounter</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>100&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Marked Money</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>101&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Nomads</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>102&mdash;Dick Merriwell on the Gridiron</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>103&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Disguise</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>104&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Test</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>105&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Trump Card</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>106&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Strategy</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>107&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Triumph</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>108&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Grit</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>109&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Assurance</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>110&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Long Slide</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>111&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Rough Deal</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>112&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Threat</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>113&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Persistence</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>114&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Day</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>115&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Peril</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>116&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Downfall</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>117&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Pursuit</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<h2>SPORTS</h2>
+
+<p>There is a greater appreciation of athletic sports among Americans than
+among people of any other nationality.</p>
+
+<p>We have had definite proof of this in the correspondence occasioned by
+our publication of the adventures of Frank and Dick Merriwell. These two
+boys are active athletes. They are proficient in every line of sport,
+and they play fair or not at all.</p>
+
+<p>This last feature of the Merriwell stories fills our daily mail with
+letters from readers who say that they appreciate the integrity and
+fairness of the Merriwells more than words can tell.</p>
+
+<p>These books, while of greatest interest to the right-thinking boy are
+educational and make for the development of a character which will
+enable the average boy to meet his fellows fairly and squarely in the
+battle of life.</p>
+
+<h3>STREET &amp; SMITH CORPORATION</h3>
+<h4>79 Seventh Avenue  New York City</h4>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Bill_Cody" id="Bill_Cody" />Bill Cody</h2>
+
+
+<p>At a rough estimate there are 400 million civilized human beings who
+have heard of Bill Cody, not under his real name, but by the name
+everybody called him, "Buffalo Bill."</p>
+
+<p>His character made him an outstanding figure during a period of the
+development of America when a strong character was a matter of vital
+necessity.</p>
+
+<p>We doubt, however, whether the man's work is fully appreciated, or ever
+has been. In the rush and bustle that followed the introduction of the
+railroad to the West, the results of Buffalo Bill's work were more or
+less overlooked, but a time is coming when this remarkable man's
+achievements will be fully appreciated.</p>
+
+<p>This is the character whose adventures are dealt with in Buffalo Bill's
+Border Stories.</p>
+
+<p>Read them. You will find them of true historical value.</p>
+
+<h3>STREET &amp; SMITH CORPORATION</h3>
+<h4>79 Seventh Avenue  New York City</h4>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14096 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
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+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
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+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #14096 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14096)
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, With Links of Steel, by Nicholas Carter
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: With Links of Steel
+
+Author: Nicholas Carter
+
+Release Date: November 19, 2004  [eBook #14096]
+Most recently updated July 28, 2011
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WITH LINKS OF STEEL***
+
+
+E-text prepared Steven desJardins and Project Gutenberg Distributed
+Proofreaders
+
+
+
+WITH LINKS OF STEEL
+
+Or, The Peril of the Unknown
+
+New Magnet Library No. 1164
+
+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.
+
+Street & Smith Corporation Publishers
+79-89 Seventh Avenue, New York
+
+1904
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Cover of With Links of Steel]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I      A CRAFTY ROBBERY.
+CHAPTER II     CONCERNING SEÑORA CERVERA.
+CHAPTER III    THE KILGORE DIAMOND GANG.
+CHAPTER IV     GETTING DOWN TO WORK.
+CHAPTER V      BEHIND THE SCENES.
+CHAPTER VI     A SHOT IN THE DARK.
+CHAPTER VII    A STRATEGIC MOVE.
+CHAPTER VIII   FOUND DEAD.
+CHAPTER IX     NICK STRIKES A STARTLING CLEW.
+CHAPTER X      ON THE TRAIL.
+CHAPTER XI     THE CRIME AND THE MEANS.
+CHAPTER XII    CLOSING IN.
+CHAPTER XIII   CRAFTY CERVERA.
+CHAPTER XIV    IN A WARM CORNER.
+CHAPTER XV     THE DIAMOND PLANT.
+CHAPTER XVI    THE CUNNING OF JEAN PYLOTTE.
+CHAPTER XVII   THE GAME UNCOVERED.
+CHAPTER XVIII  AT CROSS-PURPOSES.
+CHAPTER XIX    HANDS SHOWED DOWN.
+CHAPTER XX     THE BOOT ON THE OTHER LEG.
+CHAPTER XXI    AN ONLY RESOURCE.
+CHAPTER XXII   THE LAST TRICK.
+
+
+
+
+WITH LINKS OF STEEL
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+A CRAFTY ROBBERY.
+
+
+"Mr. Venner, sir?"
+
+"Mr. Venner--yes, certainly. You will find him in his private
+office--that way, sir. The door to the right. Venner is in his private
+office, Joseph, is he not?"
+
+"I don't think so, Mr. Garside, unless he has just returned. I saw him
+go out some time ago."
+
+"Is that so? Wait a moment, young man."
+
+The young man halted, and then turned back to face Mr. Garside, with an
+inquiring look in his frank, brown eyes.
+
+"Not here, sir, do I understand?" he asked, politely.
+
+Mr. Garside shook his head. He was a tall, slender man of forty, and was
+the junior partner of the firm of Rufus Venner & Co., a large retail
+jewelry house in New York City, with a handsome store on Fifth Avenue,
+not far from Madison Square.
+
+It was in their store that this introductory scene occurred, and proved
+to be the initiatory step of one of the shrewdest and most cleverly
+executed robberies on record.
+
+It was about eleven o'clock one April morning. The sun was shining
+brightly outside, and at the curbing in front of the store were several
+handsome private carriages, with stiff-backed, motionless coachmen, in
+bottle-green livery, perched on their boxes, all of which plainly
+indicated the very desirable patronage accorded the firm mentioned.
+
+In the store the glare of sun was subdued by partly drawn yellow
+curtains, which lent a soft, amber light to the deep interior, and
+enhanced the dazzling beauty of the merchandise there displayed.
+
+The store was a rather narrow one, but quite deep, with a long-counter
+on each side, back of which were numerous clerks, some engaged in
+waiting upon the several customers then present.
+
+At the rear of the store was an office inclosure, with a partition of
+plate glass; while at either side of this inclosure was a smaller room,
+entirely secluded, these being the private offices of the two members of
+the firm.
+
+Mr. Garside was standing about in the middle of the store when the young
+man entered and inquired for Mr. Venner. As he turned from the clerk who
+had informed him of Venner's absence, he added, half in apology, to his
+visitor:
+
+"I was mistaken, young man. My clerk tells me that Mr. Venner is out
+just now. Do you know where he has gone, Joseph?"
+
+"No, sir, I do not."
+
+"I think he will presently return," said Garside, again reverting to the
+caller. "Is there anything that I can do for you? Or will you wait
+until Mr. Venner comes in?"
+
+"I will not wait, Mr. Garside, since you are one of the firm, and
+probably know about this matter," replied the young man, drawing a small
+cloth-covered package from his breast pocket. "Here are the ten diamonds
+for which Mr. Venner sent us an order this morning. I come from Thomas
+Hafferman, sir, and will leave the stones with you."
+
+The man mentioned was also a jeweler, and a large importer of diamonds
+and costly gems.
+
+Mr. Garside's countenance took on an expression of mild surprise.
+
+"From Hafferman? An order from Venner?" he murmured, inquiringly. "I was
+not aware that Venner sent out any order for diamonds this morning."
+
+"One of your clerks brought the order, sir, and requested Mr. Hafferman
+to send the stones here as soon as convenient," replied the messenger.
+"Mr. Hafferman did not know your clerk personally, so I was sent here to
+deliver the stones."
+
+"What is your name, young man?"
+
+"Harry Boyden, sir. I have worked for Mr. Hafferman for nearly five
+years. I think you will find that the order was properly sent."
+
+"Wait just a moment, Mr. Boyden," suggested Garside, smiling.
+
+Then he hastened to the rear of the store, and spoke through the open
+window near the cashier's desk.
+
+"Do any of you know of an order sent out by Mr. Venner this morning?"
+he inquired, addressing the several clerks at work in the office. "An
+order to Thomas Hafferman for ten diamonds."
+
+Only a girl stenographer, seated at a typewriter near the office door,
+replied:
+
+"I think Mr. Venner sent Spaulding out about half an hour ago, sir," she
+replied. "I saw him give Spaulding several letters."
+
+"Ah, doubtless it's all right enough," bowed Garside; "yet I wonder that
+I had heard nothing about it. Joseph, has Spaulding been here within a
+few minutes?"
+
+"No, sir," replied the clerk, the same who had at first been questioned.
+"I saw him go out just before Mr. Venner departed, and he has not yet
+returned."
+
+Garside had now reached the middle of the store again, where Boyden was
+still waiting.
+
+"Are you quite sure that the order came from Mr. Venner?" he again
+inquired. "How long ago was the messenger at your store?"
+
+"About half an hour ago, sir," Boyden readily answered. "The order was,
+I presume, signed by Mr. Venner."
+
+"Was it our man Spaulding who delivered the order? Do you know him by
+sight?"
+
+"I do not, sir. Joseph Maynard, yonder, is the only clerk here with whom
+I am acquainted, and I think he will vouch for me," said Boyden, now
+beginning to smile at Garside's manifest caution over receiving the
+diamonds. "Surely, sir, no harm can come from your keeping the stones
+until Mr. Venner returns, since I am willing to leave them with you," he
+added, laughing.
+
+"Oh, no, no--I wasn't thinking of that," Garside quickly answered. "I
+wished only to avoid the needless trouble of returning them, in case the
+order did not come from us."
+
+"I think the order was all right, Mr. Garside. Besides, sir, I saw Mr.
+Venner yesterday at our store, examining some diamonds. Doubtless these
+are the same."
+
+"Oh, if that's the case, leave them, by all means," Garside cried. "I
+was not aware that he had called there. Probably they are for some order
+of which he has personal charge. Yes, yes, Mr. Boyden, leave them,
+certainly. Here, Joseph, place the package in one of the vault drawers,
+and hand it to Mr. Venner when he returns. Sorry to have detained you so
+long, Mr. Boyden. Had you begun by stating that Venner called yesterday
+upon Mr. Hafferman, I should not have demurred over the matter."
+
+"There's no harm done, Mr. Garside, none whatever," replied Boyden,
+bowing and smiling. "I appreciate your caution, sir. If there proves to
+have been any mistake in ordering them, you can easily return the
+stones. Good-morning, sir."
+
+Garside replied with a nod over his shoulder, having turned to hand the
+parcel to his clerk back of the counter, and Boyden immediately
+departed.
+
+"Is that young man an acquaintance of yours, Maynard?" inquired Mr.
+Garside.
+
+"Yes, sir. He has been with Hafferman for several years."
+
+"Doubtless it's all right, then. Odd, though, that Venner should have
+made no mention to me of this order. Hand him the package as soon as he
+comes in."
+
+"I will, sir, at once."
+
+Maynard had already placed the small parcel in a drawer of the huge
+steel vault back of the counter, and he now resumed the work at which he
+had been engaged.
+
+Mr. Garside sauntered toward the front of the store, and presently
+greeted a lady who entered.
+
+Twenty minutes passed, and the incident of the diamonds was almost
+forgotten by both employer and clerk.
+
+Soon both were reminded of it, however, by the entrance of another
+man--a smooth-featured young fellow, with pale blue eyes, a sallow
+complexion, slightly pock-marked. He was of medium height, and well put
+together, and was clad in a neat business suit of fashionable
+appearance.
+
+Quickly approaching Mr. Garside, who was then disengaged, he tendered
+one of Thomas Hafferman's business cards, and said, glibly, while bowing
+and laughing lightly:
+
+"Excuse me, Mr. Garside, but we rather owe you an apology. Our Mr.
+Boyden left some diamonds with you a short time ago, which should have
+been delivered to Tiffany & Co. Mr. Hafferman read the order without his
+spectacles, and it's rather a good joke on him, for he thought it was
+signed Venner & Co. The blunder was partly owing to the fact, no doubt,
+that Mr. Venner called to see him yesterday about some diamonds."
+
+"There!" exclaimed Garside, as if quite pleased to discover that he had
+been so nearly right. "I knew well enough that Venner had not sent out
+any order without mentioning it to me. Yes, your Mr. Boyden left the
+stones here. For Tiffany & Co., eh?"
+
+"Yes, sir, and they should have been delivered long ago," was the reply,
+with a conventional laugh. "If you please, I'll leave them there on my
+way back. Deucedly stupid blunder on Hafferman's part, I'm sure; and I
+hope--"
+
+"Oh, there's no harm done, I guess, and but little time lost,"
+interrupted Garside, joining in the other's laugh. "You will deliver
+them, you say?"
+
+"If you please."
+
+"Here, Joseph, hand me that package of diamonds left here by Boyden.
+They were sent to us by mistake. I knew it well enough at the time. Here
+you are, Mr. ----"
+
+"Raymond, sir. I am cashier at Hafferman's. Many thanks. Sorry to have
+troubled you--very sorry."
+
+"No trouble at all," laughed Garside, accompanying Mr. Raymond toward
+the street door. "The trouble has been all yours, sir."
+
+"That's quite true," smiled Raymond, as he bowed himself out with the
+package of diamonds in his hand. "But now the pleasure is all mine!" he
+added to himself, upon reaching the sidewalk.
+
+Then he strode rapidly away, quickly losing himself in the midday
+stream of people thronging the famous New York thoroughfare.
+
+Less than five minutes later, before any misgivings had crept into the
+mind of Mr. Garside, the senior member of the firm came hurrying into
+the store.
+
+"Oh, I say, Venner!" exclaimed his partner, stopping him near the office
+door. "What diamonds are you thinking of buying of Hafferman?"
+
+"Of Hafferman?" echoed Venner, with a look of surprise.
+
+"Weren't you looking at some stones there yesterday?"
+
+"Yes, certainly. Some very choice diamonds. I want ten of the first
+water, a little larger and more perfectly matched than any we have in
+stock at present. But how did you learn that I had called there?"
+
+Mr. Garside quickly informed him of the several incidents of the past
+half hour, when, to his consternation and dismay a look of sudden
+apprehension swept over Venner's face.
+
+"Raymond--the name of Hafferman's cashier!" he cried. "Nothing of the
+sort, Philip. Their cashier is named Briggs. I know him well."
+
+"Briggs! Briggs!"
+
+"Briggs--yes, Briggs!" reiterated Mr. Venner, excitedly. "By Heaven,
+there must be something wrong here!"
+
+"Dear me! If this Raymond was an impostor, we are done out of--"
+
+"Wait--wait!"
+
+Checking his partner with an impulsive gesture, Venner rushed into his
+private office and seized his desk telephone, quickly calling up the
+firm by which the diamonds had been sent.
+
+Garside followed him into the room, only to hear the questions hurriedly
+asked over the wire by his excited partner, who presently dropped the
+telephone and leaped to his feet, crying loudly, so loudly that his
+voice filled the entire store, and brought all hands hurrying in his
+direction:
+
+"There's no doubt of it, Garside, none whatever. You have been
+duped--swindled--robbed of four thousand dollars' worth of gems! Raymond
+was an impostor--a crook--"
+
+"Venner--hush! You are losing your head," protested Garside, white with
+dismay. "It's enough that we have lost the stones, so at least keep your
+head. Waste not a moment. Notify the police. Telephone at once for men
+from the central office."
+
+"Blast the police! The central office be hanged!" cried Venner, choking
+down an oath of wrathful contempt. "I'll have none of your police--none
+of your central office men! I want a detective--not an effigy of one!"
+
+"Rufus--"
+
+"Silence, Garside, and leave this affair to me," Venner harshly
+interrupted. "You've had fingers enough in it already."
+
+With which rebuke Mr. Rufus Venner strode passionately out of the office
+and into the store proper, shouting loudly to the clerk previously
+mentioned:
+
+"Maynard--here you, Maynard! Call a cab at once and go for Nick Carter!
+Lose not a moment! Don't wait to ask questions, you blockhead! Away with
+you, at once! Bring Nick Carter here with the least possible delay!"
+
+Maynard had already seized his coat and hat, and was hurrying out of the
+store.
+
+And thus began one of the most stirring and extraordinary criminal cases
+that ever fell within the broad experience of the famous New York
+detective mentioned.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+CONCERNING SEÑORA CERVERA.
+
+
+Joseph Maynard arrived at Nick Carter's residence just as the famous New
+York detective was about preparing for lunch, and quickly stated his
+mission, disclosing the superficial features of the crime.
+
+Nick Carter habitually looked below the surface of things, however, and
+in trifles he invariably discovered more than the ordinary man. Before
+Maynard had fairly outlined the case Nick keenly discerned that the
+robbery could not have been committed by any common criminals, and he at
+once decided not only that he would take the case, but also that it gave
+promise of something far more startling than then appeared aboveboard.
+
+Yet even Nick's keen discernment utterly failed, at this early stage of
+the affair, to anticipate its actual magnitude and tragic possibilities.
+
+Having consented to accompany Maynard to the scene of the crime, Nick
+turned to Chick Carter, his reliable chief assistant, who also had been
+an attentive listener to Maynard's disclosures.
+
+"You had better come with me, Chick," said he. "This affair has rather a
+bad look, and in case quick work is imperative, I may need your
+assistance."
+
+"Go with you it is, Nick," Chick heartily cried, hastening to put on his
+coat and hat.
+
+"From the circumstances disclosed by Maynard, however," added Nick, "I
+am inclined to think that these rats have very carefully covered their
+tracks, and that a still hunt for their trail may prove to be our stunt.
+Yet you had better go along with me."
+
+"I'm ready when you are, Nick."
+
+"Very good. Come on, Mr. Maynard. I see you have a carriage at the door.
+We will not delay even for lunch, but will snatch a bite later."
+
+Together the three men left the house, and it was precisely one o'clock
+when Nick was ushered into the private office of Venner & Co., where the
+two members of the firm then were seated, apparently still engaged in
+discussing the audacious robbery.
+
+Mr. Rufus Venner, it may be here stated, was a man of about forty years
+of age, and was a very well-known man about town. Darkly handsome, with
+an erect and imposing figure, an _habitué_ of the best clubs, a man
+still unmarried, yet of whom hints were frequently dropped that he was
+very popular with the fair sex, whom he was known to lavishly entertain
+at times--this was the senior member of the firm of Venner & Co., and
+the man who, quickly arose to greet Nick Carter and Chick when the two
+detectives entered.
+
+"Your clerk has already given me the main facts of the case, Mr. Venner,
+so we will dispense with any rehearsal of them, and get right down to
+business," Nick crisply observed, immediately after their greeting.
+"There are a few questions I wish to ask you, and concise replies may
+expedite matters."
+
+"I will respond as briefly as possible, Mr. Carter," Venner quickly
+rejoined, as they took chairs around the office table. "I do not fancy
+being robbed in this scurvy fashion, sir, and you may go to any
+reasonable expense to discover and arrest the thieves. Now, Detective
+Carter, your questions?"
+
+"To begin with," asked Nick, with a steadfast scrutiny of Venner's
+darkly attractive face, "what is the value of the stolen diamonds?"
+
+"About four thousand dollars."
+
+"Ten in number, I was told."
+
+"Precisely."
+
+"Are they of uniform value?"
+
+"Nearly so. They are splendid gems, and perfectly matched, and are worth
+about four hundred dollars each. I wanted them for a special purpose,
+which--"
+
+"Which I will presently arrive at," Nick courteously interposed. "I
+understand, Mr. Venner, that you called yesterday at the store of Thomas
+Hafferman and made some inquiries about these stones?"
+
+"I did, and also examined them."
+
+"In what part of Hafferman's store were you at the time?"
+
+"In his private office."
+
+"Were any of the clerks present?"
+
+"Not any--Stay! One of the clerks brought in the diamonds to Mr.
+Hafferman, but he did not remain. Only Mr. Hafferman himself remained
+with me while we discussed the matter."
+
+"Do you know the clerk's name?"
+
+"Boyden, I think, he was called."
+
+"The same who brought the diamonds here this morning," put in Mr.
+Garside. "His name is Harry Boyden."
+
+Nick made a note of it in a small book which he drew from his pocket.
+
+"Did you make any deal at that time regarding the diamonds?" he
+inquired.
+
+"I only had them reserved for me a day or two, stating that I would
+either call again or send an order for them, if I decided to purchase
+them," replied Venner.
+
+"Are you quite sure that only Mr. Hafferman heard you make that
+statement?"
+
+"Sure only in that the office door was closed, and that he alone was
+with me. If there were any eavesdroppers about I did not suspect it."
+
+"Naturally not," smiled Nick. "Now, then, for what special purpose did
+you want those particular diamonds? I think you referred to one."
+
+A slight tinge of red appeared in Venner's cheeks when he replied, a
+change which by no means escaped Nick's observation.
+
+"I wanted the stones, or then thought I might, for a customer who
+contemplated giving me an order for a valuable diamond cross, to be worn
+upon the stage. We happen to have in stock no diamonds perfectly adapted
+to her requirements, and so I called upon Hafferman to learn if he could
+supply me."
+
+"Who is the customer, Mr. Venner?"
+
+"I do not see how her identity can be at all essential to the
+investigation of this affair, yet I have no objection to disclosing it,"
+said Venner, frowning slightly.
+
+"Why demur over it, then?" demanded Nick, bluntly.
+
+"Only because of an aversion to bringing the lady into the case, of
+which she, of course, knows nothing," retorted Venner. "I expected the
+order from Señora Cervera, the Spanish dancer."
+
+"Ah! Is she not a member of the Mammoth Vaudeville Troupe, which has
+been playing here to packed houses for several months?"
+
+"She is, yes."
+
+"I have heard that she makes a great display of diamonds."
+
+"That is true, Mr. Carter. She possesses a magnificent collection of
+jewels, and wears them with an abandon against which I frequently have
+cautioned her."
+
+"By way of explanation," put in Mr. Garside, with an odd smile, "Venner
+might add that he enjoys quite friendly relations with the Spanish
+señora."
+
+"I see no occasion, Garside, for comments upon my interest in Sanetta
+Cervera," declared Venner, with a frown at his partner. "My relations
+with her, Detective Carter, are only those of a friend and a gentleman.
+She called here several weeks ago to have some diamonds reset, when I
+met her personally, and was deeply impressed with her extraordinary
+grace and beauty. I since have shown her some attention."
+
+"Quite natural, I am sure," observed Nick, smiling indifferently. "As
+you remarked, however, none of that appears to be material. I
+understand, Mr. Venner, that you were absent when Boyden brought the
+diamonds here this morning."
+
+"I was," bowed Venner. "I received a note from Señora Cervera this
+morning, asking me to call upon her at eleven o'clock at her rooms, and
+to bring with me a diamond pendant which we have in stock, and which I
+had the pleasure of showing her a few days ago."
+
+"Ah, I see."
+
+"She stated in her note that if I would call upon her at the hour
+mentioned, she would decide whether to purchase the pendant, or have us
+make the diamond cross for her."
+
+"You complied with her request, Mr. Venner, and went to call upon her?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Where is she quartered?"
+
+"She rents a furnished house uptown."
+
+"Does she live alone?"
+
+"With her servants only."
+
+"How many?"
+
+"She keeps a butler, a male cook, and two housemaids. Also a girl to
+look after her wardrobe and act as her dresser at the theater."
+
+"Evidently Señora Cervera is wealthy," said Nick.
+
+"Well, not exactly wealthy," rejoined Venner. "She is the popular craze
+just now, and from her professional work she derives a very large income
+which she scatters as if dollars were dead leaves. In a word, Detective
+Carter, Señora Cervera is an arrant spendthrift."
+
+"So I have heard," nodded Nick.
+
+"You have?"
+
+"Oh, yes!" laughed the detective. "That appears to surprise you. It
+will not, when I tell you that there are very few public characters in
+New York of whose general habits I am not tolerably well informed. Of
+course, Mr. Venner, you have no doubt of this Spanish dancer's honesty?"
+Nick added, bluntly.
+
+Venner flushed deeply, and instantly shook his head.
+
+"Most assuredly not," he cried, with some feeling. "Señora Cervera
+dishonest? Impossible!"
+
+"Improbable, Mr. Venner, no doubt; but not impossible."
+
+"It is, sir," declared Venner, positively. "I know her well. Such an
+idea is absurd. Drop it at once, Detective Carter. Indeed, sir, if I
+thought her name was to be dragged into this affair, or her reputation
+to be in any way imperiled, I would quietly suffer the loss of these
+diamonds, and cease this investigation at once."
+
+Nick laughed softly, and suppressed the response that, nearly rose to
+his lips.
+
+"Don't do it, Mr. Venner," said he, complacently. "My observation was
+not intended to cast any reflection upon Señora Cervera. I have no doubt
+that she is perfectly honest."
+
+"I should hope not, sir."
+
+"By the way, have you the note she sent to you this morning?"
+
+"Yes. Here it is."
+
+"By mail, or a messenger?"
+
+"A messenger brought it."
+
+"Ah!" murmured Nick, briefly studying the written page. "Plainly a
+foreign hand. Very firm and forceful. It indicates a strong and
+determined character. I should say that Señora Cervera is a woman of
+rare qualities."
+
+"That is perfectly correct, sir. She is a woman of rare qualities."
+
+"What did she decide to do about the diamonds, Mr. Venner?"
+
+"She gave me an order for the cross, Detective Carter, to be made and
+delivered as soon as possible."
+
+"This was during your call upon her this morning?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"You had previously sent no order to Hafferman for the stones?"
+
+"Surely not."
+
+"Yet a written order was received by him, or he would not have delivered
+the goods."
+
+"In which case, then, it was a forgery."
+
+"No doubt of it," Nick readily admitted. "Chick."
+
+"Yes, Nick."
+
+"Take a carriage and go at once and interview Hafferman. See what you
+can learn from him. Get the written order received by him, and bring it
+here. Have a look at young Boyden, and see what you make of him. Also
+get the written signature of Mr. Hafferman, and that of each person
+employed in his store. Understand?"
+
+"Sure thing!" nodded Chick, already seeing clearly the line Nick's
+investigation was taking, though neither Venner nor his partner yet
+perceived it. "I will return as quickly as possible."
+
+"You will find me here," nodded Nick. "Wait a moment!"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Also get a description of the party who delivered the written order at
+Hafferman's store. Inquire what he said at the time, and why he did not
+attempt securing the diamonds then and there."
+
+"Probably he was not known there, and knew he could not get them,"
+observed Venner, by way of explanation.
+
+Nick made no reply to this, however, and Chick hurriedly departed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE KILGORE DIAMOND GANG.
+
+
+"Now, gentlemen, only a few more questions, and I then shall be ready to
+go at this case in a more energetic fashion," said Nick Carter,
+immediately after Chick's departure. "Were any of your clerks absent
+from the store, Mr. Venner, at the time of this robbery?"
+
+"As I was absent myself, I cannot say," replied Venner, rather dryly.
+"How about it, Garside?--you were here."
+
+"Only one clerk, a young man named Spaulding, was out of the store."
+
+"Was he out on business?"
+
+"Yes, under my instructions," Venner quickly explained. "We have
+numerous old accounts on our books, and just before I went uptown I sent
+Spaulding out to try to make a few collections. I think he has returned
+by this time."
+
+"It does not matter, since he was out under your instructions," said
+Nick, closing his notebook. "Now, Mr. Venner, who among your employees
+knew you thought of buying this lot of diamonds from Hafferman, or that
+you had called at his store to examine them?"
+
+"Not a soul," was the prompt reply.
+
+"Are you sure of that?"
+
+"Absolutely. I had said nothing of the matter, even to my partner, there
+being nothing definite about it before I saw Señora Cervera this
+morning. I am sure that none of my clerks had any idea of my
+intentions."
+
+Nick was not so sure of it, yet he did not say so. He arose and took
+from Venner's desk a block of plain paper, which he laid upon the table.
+
+"Gentlemen," said he, "I want the signature of your firm, in the
+handwriting of each of you. Kindly let me have this."
+
+"What's that for?" demanded Venner, abruptly.
+
+"I wish to make a comparison with the forged order which my assistant
+will presently bring from Mr. Hafferman," Nick coolly explained. "I
+would suggest that you do not delay me."
+
+Venner made no reply, but took a pen and signed the firm's name upon the
+blank paper.
+
+"Now yours, Mr. Garside."
+
+"Mine also, Detective Carter?" queried Garside, with a look of surprise.
+
+"If you please."
+
+"Surely," cried Venner, with some resentment, "you do not suspect that
+Mr. Garside or myself--"
+
+"Pardon me!" Nick bluntly interrupted. "I am not in the habit of
+discussing my suspicions. That I should suspect either of you, however,
+is utterly absurd."
+
+"I should say so!"
+
+"Therefore do not argue with me over an absurdity. If I am to continue
+this investigation, gentlemen, I must do it in my own way. Either that,
+or I shall drop the case at once. Your signature, Mr. Garside."
+
+Garside hastened to take the pen, and dashed off the firm's signature
+below that of his partner. Nick tore the page from the block, then
+handed the latter to Venner.
+
+"Now, Mr. Venner," said he, "have each of your employees, from first to
+last, write his name with pen and ink upon this paper. Don't overlook
+one of them, not one, from your bookkeeper down to your office boy. If
+Spaulding is still out, get his signature later, and send it to me by
+mail. I will wait here while you are thus engaged."
+
+Venner now vaguely perceived Nick's suspicions and design, and he could
+not consistently offer any remonstrance. Yet he plainly resented the
+idea that any of his clerks could have been guilty of co-operation with
+the criminals who had committed the robbery that morning, and his dark
+features wore a grim and sullen expression when he took the block of
+paper and repaired to his main office.
+
+Nick Carter sat and waited, silently sizing up the case as he then saw
+it.
+
+Just as Venner returned with the numerous signatures, Chick also put in
+an appearance again, bringing with him the forged order which had been
+left at Hafferman's store. Nick merely glanced at it, then thrust it
+into his pocket.
+
+"Did you see Boyden?" he inquired of Chick.
+
+"Yes, and spoke with him," nodded Chick.
+
+"What about him?"
+
+"He looks all right."
+
+"Did you get the signatures of Hafferman and his clerks?"
+
+"They are on this paper."
+
+"Good enough. Let me have those of your employees, Mr. Venner. Are they
+all here?"
+
+"Yes, all of them."
+
+"Very good," said Nick, putting the several papers into his pocket.
+"Now, Chick, what of the man who visited Hafferman's store with the
+forged order?"
+
+"He merely left the order and asked that the diamonds should be sent
+here at once."
+
+"What sort of a man?"
+
+"Dark, about fifty, with a heavy mustache and wavy hair," said Chick,
+glibly. "Quite a big fellow, Hafferman states."
+
+"H'm!" ejaculated Nick, with a significant nod. "Now, Mr. Garside,
+describe the man to whom you delivered the diamonds."
+
+"Raymond?"
+
+"If that is the name he gave you."
+
+"He is a well-built, smoothly shaven fellow, of about thirty years, with
+a sallow complexion, slightly pock-marked--"
+
+"Ah, I thought so!" Nick curtly interrupted. "That's quite sufficient,
+Mr. Garside."
+
+"What do you mean, Carter?" quickly demanded Venner. "Do you already
+recognize these criminals?"
+
+"I recognize their work."
+
+"And the men?"
+
+"I've them in mind from the outset."
+
+"Impossible!"
+
+"Not so, Mr. Venner," Nick now declared, with emphasis. "Without a
+shadow of doubt, sir, you have been victimized by the notorious Kilgore
+diamond gang, a trio of the shrewdest and most daring scoundrels that
+ever stood in leather."
+
+"You amaze me."
+
+"Do I?" inquired Nick, smiling softly. "Well, sir, if I were to tell you
+the history of these rascals, you would be more than amazed--you would
+be astounded. No crime is too desperate, no knavery too hazardous, no
+villainy too despicable, for them to attempt, and too often successfully
+execute. They have perpetrated their crimes over two continents, and are
+known to the police the world over."
+
+"That is not very complimentary to the police," said Venner, dryly. "I
+marvel that such distinguished scoundrels are still at large."
+
+"A fact which stamps them no ordinary criminals," replied Nick,
+pointedly. "Nor are they, sir."
+
+"What do you know of them, Detective Carter?"
+
+"David Kilgore, the chief of the gang, is one of the shrewdest and most
+daring of knaves, a man of splendid education, polished manners and
+broad experience. He possesses nerves of steel, the cunning of a fox,
+and would not shrink even from murder, if his designs required it. Yet
+he invariably covers his tracks so cleverly, or so quickly vanishes when
+hard pressed, that thus far he has successfully eluded the police.
+That's David Kilgore, sir."
+
+"And what of his associates?" inquired Venner. "I think you spoke of a
+trio."
+
+"His confederates are scamps of the same sort, and nearly his equal in
+craft and daring," replied Nick. "Perry Dalton is one--the smooth,
+pock-marked rascal whom you, Mr. Garside, had the pleasure of meeting
+this morning. He is nicknamed Spotty Dalton, because of his slight
+disfigurement."
+
+"And the other?"
+
+"Is a man named Matthew Stall, more commonly called Matt Stall. He is a
+Western man, a graduate of a California university, and is an expert
+electrician. Oh, I know all about them," laughed Nick, "although this is
+the first time I have been up against them personally. I am rather glad
+to discover that they are here in New York."
+
+"Why so, Detective Carter?" Venner carelessly inquired, with a subtle
+gleam in the depths of his dark eyes.
+
+"Because I have long wanted to match my talents against those of Dave
+Kilgore and his rascally push," declared Nick, with grim austerity. "The
+last I knew of them they were in Amsterdam, Holland, where some of the
+finest work in diamond cutting is done, as you doubtless know."
+
+"Indeed, yes."
+
+"They probably had to jump that country for obvious reasons, and very
+likely the European continent," added Nick. "They have long avoided New
+York, and the fact that they are now here is significant of--well, well,
+we shall see! That's all, gentlemen!"
+
+"But what do you intend doing about this case?" demanded Venner, as Nick
+abruptly rose to go.
+
+"All that can be done, sir," the famous detective bluntly rejoined. "I
+accept the case, Mr. Venner, and will do my best with it. When I have
+anything to report, you shall hear from me."
+
+"But--"
+
+"There really is nothing more to be said, gentlemen, and the sooner I
+get to work the better," Nick gravely interposed.
+
+"But will you advise me of any steps that you may take?" persisted
+Venner, briefly detaining him by the arm.
+
+"Very probably," nodded Nick, though really he probably would do nothing
+of the kind. "And now good-day, gentlemen. If reporters call upon you,
+you may give them all of the facts, and state that Nick Carter is at
+work on the case. I want this Kilgore diamond gang to know at the outset
+that I am after them--and fully resolved to land them where they
+belong."
+
+"Behind prison bars, eh?" inquired Venner, with an odd smile.
+
+"Yes, sir! Behind prison bars!" declared Nick, forcibly. "Again,
+gentlemen, good-day. You will hear from me later."
+
+Mr. Rufus Venner, with his partner at his elbow, stood in the office
+door and silently watched the two celebrated detectives as they strode
+quickly through the elegant store, from which they presently vanished
+into Fifth Avenue.
+
+There was a smile of subtle cunning, combined with cruel and malicious
+determination, on Venner's dark face and he muttered under his breath,
+as the store door closed upon Nick's imposing figure:
+
+"Hear from you later, eh? Very good. Very good, indeed, Mr. Detective
+Carter! Hear from you again--that is precisely what I want! Early and
+often, Detective Carter; early and often, if you please! It is precisely
+for what the little robbery of this April morning was invented!"
+
+"But was it necessary--was it really necessary, Rufus?" whispered
+Garside, who alone had overheard, and whose paler face and tremulous
+figure betrayed fears which his swarthy senior partner would have
+scorned to feel. "This Carter is a most artful and discerning man. I am
+so afraid you have barked up the wrong tree. Was it necessary, really
+necessary, Rufus?"
+
+Venner turned upon him with a half-smothered snarl of contempt.
+
+"Bah! You'd be afraid of your own shadow, Garside, if left alone with
+it," he sneered, between his white, even teeth. "Necessary--of course it
+was necessary! Otherwise, I should not have adopted the ruse. We are
+about to attempt a big game--an infernally big game! When it matures,
+when it is finally launched, the very first concern that finds itself
+bitten will rush to Nick Carter for aid."
+
+"There is no doubt of that, Rufus."
+
+"Surely no doubt of it! He is the greatest detective in the country--and
+the greatest will be none too clever, nor too expensive, for those who
+find themselves duped by our unparalleled design."
+
+"I should say so."
+
+"What will be the result, Philip?--what will be the result?" added
+Venner, with a curious mingling of exultation and asperity. "If our
+victims appeal to Nick Carter for help--are we not also already in his
+good graces? Have we not insured his confidence in us by this little
+move of to-day? Will he not reveal himself and his suspicions to us,
+just as I have designed, and keep us posted about his every move, and so
+forewarned and forearmed? Of course he will--to be sure he will!"
+
+"But he is such a crafty and daring--"
+
+"Bah! Is he more crafty than Dave Kilgore?" demanded Venner,
+significantly. "Is he more daring than Spotty Dalton, or more determined
+than anyone of the Kilgore gang? Not by a long chalk, Philip, and I know
+of them of whom I speak. Ay, as much and more of them than does
+Detective Nick Carter."
+
+"Perhaps you are right, Rufus," murmured Garside, nodding. "We certainly
+are about launching a tremendous, an utterly unparalleled, swindle. The
+like of it was never, never known. There should be millions in it. Yes,
+yes, Rufus, you are right. It was wise to preface our gigantic
+operations by getting well in touch with Nick Carter."
+
+"To be sure, it was wise, Philip, or I should not have taken the trouble
+to do so," said Venner, with much less acrimony. "So be a man always,
+Philip, and never a flunky. You have played your part admirably this
+morning. Let it be played as well, Philip, even to the finish--even to
+the last ditch!"
+
+Philip Garside's color had returned, and he smiled confidently and
+nodded in approval.
+
+Plainly enough, this hushed yet emphatic intercourse between these two
+indicated one fact--that Detective Nick Carter was up against a far
+deeper game than he then imagined.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+GETTING DOWN TO WORK.
+
+
+"Well, Nick, old man, what have you made of it?"
+
+The question came from Chick Carter, in his familiar and cheerful
+fashion, several hours after the interview held by the two detectives
+with Rufus Venner and his partner in their Fifth Avenue store.
+
+It was now about six o'clock in the evening, and Chick had just returned
+from having a confidential talk with one of the stage hands of the
+theater in which the then famous attraction, the mammoth European and
+American vaudeville troupe, of which Señora Cervera was a star
+attraction, had for several months been playing to crowded houses.
+
+Chick found Nick seated at the table in his library, with a powerful
+magnifying glass in his hand, while the table was strewn with the papers
+he that morning had brought from the office of Venner & Co.
+
+Nick looked up with a laugh, and knocked the ashes from his cigar.
+
+"Well, there's no doubt about it, Chick," he replied. "We are finally up
+against them."
+
+"The Kilgore diamond gang?"
+
+"Precisely."
+
+"I'm glad of it, Nick, as you remarked this morning."
+
+"Well, I've not changed my mind since then. So am I."
+
+"We shall now find out whether they are as crafty and desperate as they
+have been painted."
+
+"I guess there is no doubt about it, Chick."
+
+"Well, if we fail to throw them down, Nick, my money shall go on Kilgore
+from that moment," declared Chick, with a grin. "What have you dug out
+of that mess of papers, Nick? Have you arrived at any conclusions?"
+
+"Rather!" smiled Nick, significantly. "Did you ever know me to study for
+five hours over anything of this kind without arriving at some
+conclusion?"
+
+"Never!" laughed Chick. "And the best of it is, Nick, your conclusions
+nearly always prove to be correct. What's the verdict, old man?"
+
+Nick glanced at the French clock on the mantel.
+
+"Sit down and light up," he replied. "We have half an hour before
+getting down to work against this push. I will devote it to informing
+you of the case as it now appears."
+
+"Good enough!" exclaimed Chick, drawing up a chair and lighting a cigar.
+"Let her go, Nick. I am all ears, as the donkey said to the deacon."
+
+"To begin with," began Nick, more gravely, "this order sent to
+Hafferman, for the diamonds which he delivered at Venner's store, is
+merely a forgery. Neither Venner nor Garside wrote it, that's as plain
+as the nose on an elephant's face."
+
+"Which is plain enough, surely," nodded Chick.
+
+"Furthermore," continued Nick, "the forgery was not the work of any
+clerk employed in either store. I have compared the writing of each and
+every clerk with that of the forged order, and I will stake my
+reputation upon my conclusion. The forgery was committed by some outside
+party."
+
+Nick was an expert chirographist. To have deceived him with a disguised
+handwriting would have been utterly impossible, and none knew it better
+than Chick, who now nodded approvingly.
+
+"Some outside party, eh?"
+
+"There is no doubt of it, Chick. And this conclusion at once suggests
+two very natural questions," Nick went on. "First, was one of the
+Kilgore gang in Hafferman's store when Venner went there yesterday, and
+did he overhear enough of what passed between them to enable him to plan
+the job done this morning?"
+
+"Possibly."
+
+"In opposition to that theory, however, is the fact that the forged
+order is written on one of Venner's printed letter sheets."
+
+"By a little adroit work, Nick, one of the gang could have obtained a
+sheet of Venner's office paper."
+
+"That is very true," admitted Nick. "But since this is a theory founded
+only upon conjecture, with no positive evidence to back it up, the
+stronger probability is rather to the contrary."
+
+"Right, Nick, as far as that goes."
+
+"I think so."
+
+"And what is the second theory suggested?"
+
+"That some clerk in one of the stores got wind of Venner's contemplated
+purchase, and revealed the fact to one of the Kilgore gang, by whom I
+am confident--bear in mind--that the crime was committed."
+
+"That theory seems plausible," nodded Chick. "There is young Boyden, you
+know, at Hafferman's. He may have got wise to Venner's intentions.
+Garside remarked that he appeared quite anxious to leave the diamonds
+until Venner should return. That would have been very natural on his
+part, in case he was then co-operating with the party who finally
+secured them."
+
+"The same objection again arises, however," argued Nick. "Boyden is not
+employed at Venner's, and therefore has not access to his letter paper.
+Furthermore, Venner's visit was made only yesterday afternoon, less than
+twenty-four hours before the robbery occurred. It seems hardly probable
+that Boyden was already in league with the Kilgore gang; and, if he was
+not, it is even less probable that he so quickly got in touch with
+them."
+
+"By Jove! that's so," cried Chick. "As a matter of fact, then, neither
+of these theories has a reliable leg to stand upon."
+
+"That's exactly my conclusion," laughed Nick.
+
+"And what then?"
+
+"Concerning that side of the affair," replied Nick, "several
+irresistible convictions are therefore forced upon me. One of the
+Kilgore gang certainly knew of Venner's visit, and of the request he
+made Hafferman regarding the diamonds. Otherwise he could not have
+planned the job so neatly. Somebody must have informed him. Somebody
+must have provided him with one of Venner's letter sheets. If we
+eliminate the clerks, and the members of both firms, we are left very
+much in the dark."
+
+"I should say so," rejoined Chick. "The affair becomes a dense mystery."
+
+"It becomes a mystery that I don't quite fancy," declared Nick, with a
+significant nod. "In fact, Chick, I'm not at all favorably impressed
+with this robbery. To me it has a mighty fishy look."
+
+"Why so, Nick?"
+
+"It is not like this Kilgore gang, mark you, to have been dickering with
+a dirty little job of this kind, netting them only a few thousands at
+the best; yet a job in which they incurred as much danger of detection,
+Chick, as in one infinitely greater."
+
+"By Jove! that's so. There's no getting away from that argument, Nick."
+
+"Instead of trying to get away from it, Chick, I'm going to stay with
+it," continued Nick, with emphasis. "I am beginning to suspect that this
+paltry little robbery may in some way make a far deeper and darker game.
+At all events, Chick, we'll not wind ourselves in a search for those
+diamonds, at least not before we have sifted these side issues a little
+finer."
+
+"Good enough!" cried Chick, heartily. "I agree with you on every point.
+Only your long head, Nick, old man, could have deduced such shrewd
+conclusions; and I believe, by Jove! that you have hit the nail on the
+head."
+
+"If I have," rejoined Nick, grimly, "we'll drive the nail home a little
+later, and home to stay."
+
+"That we will."
+
+"There remains one other feature of the case," added Nick, "and,
+starting from that, we will begin work upon the affair this very night."
+
+"You refer to that Spanish dancer, Cervera?"
+
+"Precisely."
+
+"And the fact that she requested Venner to call at her house this
+morning?"
+
+"Exactly," nodded Nick. "She fixed the hour, mind you, probably knowing
+that Venner would comply with her request. Hence there exists a
+possibility that she designed to get him away from his store at just
+that time, in order that the robbery could be successfully executed."
+
+"In which case, Nick, we necessarily must figure her in with the Kilgore
+gang, despite Venner's declaration of her honesty."
+
+"Certainly we must, Chick, in case her note to Venner was written for
+the purpose mentioned," nodded Nick. "Of that, however, we have no
+positive evidence. It may have been purely accidental that her note was
+sent to-day, and mentioned the very hour when the theft was committed.
+Obviously, in that case, the thief outside was waiting for some
+opportunity when Venner should be away from his store. Cervera would
+then be out of the affair, as far as any criminal intent is concerned."
+
+"Very probably."
+
+"So there you are!" exclaimed Nick, with another glance at the clock.
+"Our half hour is up. You now have my measure of the case, and next we
+will get down to business. We will drop this fishy-looking robbery for
+the present, Chick, and first of all make a move to learn something
+about Señora Cervera, and her relations with Rufus Venner."
+
+"A good scheme, Nick, and I'm with you."
+
+"Have you been at the theater?"
+
+"Yes, and fixed things with Busby."
+
+"You can get in upon the stage to-night?"
+
+"Sure thing, as I told you," laughed Chick. "Busby is the boss scene
+shifter there, and he consented to work me in as a stage hand."
+
+"Ah! very good."
+
+"I have got to make up for the part, however, and must soon be about it.
+I am due there at half-past seven."
+
+"Get at it, then," said Nick, rising. "See what you can learn about
+Cervera, and what you make of her from observation. In case Venner is
+about there, keep your ears alert, so that you can overhear."
+
+"You trust me for that, Nick," cried Chick, laughing.
+
+"Meantime, Chick, I'll have a look at the show from the front," added
+Nick. "And after Cervera does her turn, in case Venner is there, and she
+departs with him, you then may leave the couple to me. I'll be waiting
+for them at the stage door."
+
+"Right you are, Nick. So here goes!"
+
+Shrewd deductions, indeed, those of Nick Carter.
+
+Plainly enough, Garside was quite justified in his apprehension that
+Rufus Venner had barked up the wrong tree.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+BEHIND THE SCENES.
+
+
+Nick Carter had a double object in the work laid out for that night. If
+Señora Cervera was indeed in league with the Kilgore gang, and in any
+way responsible for the diamond robbery, Nick was resolved to secure
+positive evidence of it.
+
+While her letter to Venner appeared to implicate her, since it had taken
+him from his store just at the time of the robbery, it seemed hardly
+probable that this brilliant Spanish girl, whose extraordinary grace and
+whirlwind dances had made her the talk of the town, could be identified
+with a gang of criminals notorious the world over. Yet the bare
+possibility existed, and Nick never ignored even the shadow of a clew.
+
+He further reasoned that, in case Cervera was in league with the
+suspected gang, one or more of them might visit the theater in which she
+was performing, and Nick decided to have a look at the audience that
+evening. He was sure he could identify Kilgore or any of his gang, even
+if disguised, as would be very probable.
+
+Nick's second object was that of learning the exact relations between
+Señora Cervera and Rufus Venner, and a part of that work he confided to
+Chick. With himself in the front of the house, and Chick on the stage,
+Nick believed that nothing worth seeing would escape them.
+
+His own search early in the evening, however, proved futile. It was the
+last week but one of the mammoth vaudeville attraction, and the theater
+was densely crowded. Though Nick watched the lobbies and the smoking
+room, and also made a systematic study of the auditorium, he could
+discover no sign of the parties he was seeking.
+
+About nine o'clock he returned to his chair in the orchestra, and
+settled himself to have a look at Cervera, whose act was one of the last
+on the program.
+
+Just at that time Chick Carter, in the overalls and blouse of a scene
+shifter, made his first pertinent discovery--that Rufus Venner, clad in
+immaculate evening dress, and carrying an Inverness topcoat on his arm,
+had arrived upon the stage.
+
+"He seems to be at home behind the scenes," soliloquized Chick,
+furtively watching him. "Evidently he has some kind of a pull with the
+manager, or he could not get admission to the stage. Probably through
+his friend, the Spanish señora."
+
+Venner was then in one of the left wings, apparently indulging in small
+talk with a handsome girl of about twenty, who had just finished her
+turn upon the stage. She was rather simply clad, but was strikingly
+pretty and modest appearing; and upon consulting a program with which he
+had provided himself, Chick learned that her stage name was Violet
+Marduke; and that she was cast as a singer of ballads.
+
+"Evidently employed to fill in," thought Chick, who had not been much
+impressed with her songs, though he decided that the girl herself was a
+beauty. "And by his admiring glances, Venner also thinks pretty well of
+her," Chick mentally added.
+
+"Room here, mister," growled a voice at his elbow. "Make room for the
+reptiles."
+
+Chick turned quickly about, and then involuntarily recoiled from the
+startling object that met his gaze.
+
+In front of a scene then set in the second grooves of the Stage, the
+continuous performance was still in progress. Meantime, several of the
+stage hands were wheeling to the center of the stage, back of the scene,
+the properties of the next performer on the program--and grewsome
+properties they were.
+
+The object beheld by Chick was a huge, cagelike den, mounted on low
+wheels, and having a broad front of plate glass. Inside of this den were
+several wicker baskets, some of which were open, while others were
+covered and locked.
+
+In the open baskets, or writhing freely about the floor of the den, were
+fully fifty serpents of various sizes, many being only a foot or two
+long, while several were as many yards in length.
+
+A more repulsive and blood-curdling sight Chick had never experienced,
+and the stage hand who had asked him to move laughed at his look of
+mingled horror and repugnance.
+
+"Ever seen any like 'em after a jamboree?" he inquired, good-naturedly.
+
+"Well, hardly," said Chick, subduing his aversion. "If I were to go on a
+drunk and see anything like them, I'd sign the pledge the next morning."
+
+"A good scheme, too."
+
+"I should say so."
+
+"Some o' the crawling divils are as bad as they look," added the stage
+hand, while he helped to place the snake den squarely on the stage.
+
+"What do you mean?" inquired Chick, still gingerly surveying them.
+
+"Pizen!"
+
+"Venomous?"
+
+"You bet! Durn 'em, I wouldn't touch one of them for the wealth of
+Rockefeller."
+
+"Do you mean that some of them still have their fangs and poison bags?"
+
+"Sure! D'ye see that little copper-colored cuss down there in the
+corner, not more'n a foot long? If he got a crack at you, you'd not live
+ten seconds."
+
+"Well, I will take deuced good care that he gets no nip at me," declared
+Chick, with a grin. "Why do they have such dangerous things around?"
+
+"H'm! What would be the excitement, or the credit of snake charming, if
+the wriggling beasts were made harmless by pulling out their fangs?"
+demanded the stage hand. "It would be like a dog fight, with the dogs
+muzzled. These belong to that heathen Hindoo, the snake charmer. He
+shows next."
+
+"Pandu Singe?" inquired Chick, glancing at the name on the program.
+
+"Sure. He handles 'em like so many babies. There he is now, just coming
+from his dressing room. He looks a bit like a snake himself."
+
+Chick turned and gazed curiously at the approaching foreigner.
+
+Pandu Singe was a tall, swarthy man, with straight, black hair, an
+Indian cast of features, and a pair of intensely black and piercing
+eyes. Their glitter was indeed like that in the eyes of a snake, yet the
+Hindoo, approaching without a word to anybody, or a glance to either
+side, was not without a certain sort of savage dignity.
+
+He wore a red turban around his head, while a loose, black robe, belted
+around his waist, reached nearly to his ankles. With a gesture he signed
+the several men away from his hideous den of reptiles, and Chick retired
+up the stage.
+
+The detective had barely made his change, when he heard the low voice of
+Busby near by, the friend who had smuggled him upon the stage that
+evening.
+
+"Hist! There she is, Chick!"
+
+"Cervera?"
+
+"Yes. Down yonder, just to the right of the electric switchboard. Slip
+in back of this wood wing, and you can have a good look at her."
+
+"All right, Busby, old man," whispered Chick. "Don't you pay too much
+attention to me, or it may be noticed. I'll see all there is to be seen,
+old boy."
+
+Busby winked understandingly, and Chick stepped back of the scenery
+mentioned, through a portion of which he could easily watch Cervera
+unobserved.
+
+That she was a daughter of sunny Spain no man would have doubted. Her
+wavy hair was as dark as night, and her eyes were as radiant as the
+night stars. Her rich, olive complexion was much rouged, adding to the
+brilliancy of her splendid beauty.
+
+She appeared to be about twenty-five, and was clad in her stage costume,
+which combined all the bright hues of the rainbow, and was enlivened by
+a myriad of dazzling jewels and diamonds.
+
+The costume served to display to advantage her matchless figure,
+however, and Chick was fain to admit that he had never seen a much more
+striking beauty.
+
+"She's a bird, all right, and no mistake," he said to himself, while
+intently regarding her handsome face and jewel-bedecked figure. "Yet she
+has a bad eye, despite her beauty, and a cruel mouth. She certainly
+would put up a wicked fight, if once aroused. Yes, a deucedly bad eye!
+What in thunder is she staring at, to look like that!"
+
+From her position near one of the lower wings, Sanetta Cervera was
+gazing steadfastly across the stage at something which Chick could not
+see.
+
+The dark eyes of the Spanish dancer had taken on a threatening glare.
+Her curved brows had drooped and knit, until they formed a straight line
+below her forehead, and her red lips were drawn and firmly compressed.
+
+Before Chick could discover any occasion for this mute display of
+feeling, the performance in front of the set scene concluded, and the
+act of the snake charmer was due to begin.
+
+Then came a rapid change of scenery, during which Chick was again
+obliged to change his position, and for a time he lost sight of Cervera
+in the stir and confusion of the busy stage.
+
+He did not succeed in locating her again until she began her
+performance, when a full stage was given her for the marvelously
+graceful and impassioned dances of which her act consisted, and which
+had fairly turned half the heads in the city.
+
+In the white glare of the limelight, she certainly presented a wild and
+dazzling picture. Her beauty was indescribably accentuated. She appeared
+like a being ablaze with diamonds. Her every attitude was one of
+seductive grace, her every movement as swift and light as those of a
+startled leopard.
+
+At its conclusion her act evoked thunders of applause, and then Chick
+saw her hastening toward her dressing room, flushed with excitement and
+panting for breath.
+
+Suddenly she halted and her smile vanished.
+
+Then Chick saw her turn abruptly toward one of the wing scenes, where
+she met Venner face to face.
+
+The wealthy Fifth Avenue jeweler laughed and extended his hand to greet
+her, but she frowned and hesitated before accepting it; and Chick made a
+quick move and stole back of the scenery, near which the two briefly
+remained standing.
+
+He arrived in time to overhear only a few words, however, of which he
+could make nothing bearing upon the diamond robbery, or relating to the
+Kilgore gang.
+
+"Pshaw! You are entirely wrong, Sanetta," Venner was expostulating, with
+voice lowered. "Your eyes have deceived you."
+
+The woman replied through her teeth, with a hiss like that of a snake.
+
+"My eyes deceived me? Never! You lie! I know what I see!" she fiercely
+answered, with but a slight foreign accent.
+
+"You are wrong, Cervera," protested Venner. "I--"
+
+"I am not! I see--and I know!"
+
+"But--"
+
+"_Caramba!_ I say you shall go with me!"
+
+"Why, certainly, if you wish it. Am I not here for that?"
+
+"You know that I wish it--and you shall go."
+
+"Whenever you are ready, Sanetta," replied Venner. "Yet your infernal--"
+
+"Silence! You shall wait here till I have changed my suit. Then we will
+go--we will go together. You shall wait here."
+
+"Go and make the change, then," said Venner, bluntly. "I will be here
+when you return."
+
+"H'm!" thought Chick, as he heard Cervera move quickly away. "Evidently
+there is something amiss between them, but what the dickens is it?"
+
+Still watching, he soon saw Cervera return in her street attire, when
+Venner quickly gave her his arm, and they departed by the stairs leading
+to the stage door.
+
+Chick immediately recalled Nick's instructions--that the couple should
+now be left to him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+A SHOT IN THE DARK.
+
+
+It was nearly eleven o'clock when Rufus Venner and Cervera, the latter
+enveloped in a voluminous black cloak, emerged from the stage door of
+the theater.
+
+As they made their way through the paved area leading out to the side
+street, where a carriage was awaiting them, a sturdy, roughly clad
+fellow in a red wig and croppy beard suddenly slouched out of a gloomy
+corner near the stage stairway and followed them, with movements as
+stealthy and silent as those of a cat.
+
+As the carriage containing Venner and the dancer rapidly whirled away,
+this rough fellow darted swiftly across the street, and approached a
+waiting cab, the door of which stood open.
+
+"After them, Patsy!" he softly cried, as he sprang in and closed the
+door.
+
+The driver of the cab was one of Nick Carter's youthful yet exceedingly
+clever assistants, and the rough fellow was Nick himself.
+
+He had left the theater the moment Cervera concluded her performance,
+and since had completed a perfect disguise in the cab, which he had had
+in waiting, with all the properties for effecting the change mentioned.
+
+That Patsy would constantly keep their quarry in view, and without being
+suspected, Nick had not a doubt. Nor was he mistaken. At the end of
+twenty minutes the clever young driver slowed down upon approaching an
+uptown corner, and signaled Nick to get out.
+
+The detective alighted from the door on the side from which he had
+received the signal, yet the cab did not stop. Nick trotted along beside
+the vehicle for a rod or two, keeping it between him and the side street
+into which Patsy quickly signed that the hack had turned.
+
+"Fourth house on the right," he softly cried. "I saw them pull up at it
+just as I reached the corner, so I kept right on up the avenue. They've
+not gone in yet."
+
+"Good enough," replied Nick, approvingly. "Take home the traps I have
+left in the cab."
+
+"Sure thing. You don't want any help to-night against this push, do
+you?"
+
+"No, indeed. There'll be but little doing to-night, I imagine. Remember
+the house, however, in case I fail to show up."
+
+"You may gamble on that, sir. I have it down pat."
+
+They had now passed the upper corner of the side street, and Nick felt
+sure that he had not been seen leaving the cab. He darted quickly back
+of the vehicle and gained the sidewalk, then stole back and peered
+around the corner.
+
+Cervera and her companion were just mounting the steps of an imposing
+stone residence, entirely separate from its neighbors, and their
+carriage was driving rapidly away.
+
+Nick waited until the couple had entered the house, then he crossed to
+the gloom of a doorway on the opposite side and had a look at the
+dwelling.
+
+From basement to roof there was no sign of a light. Even the hall
+appeared to be in darkness, and Nick waited and watched for several
+minutes, expecting to see at least one of the rooms lighted.
+
+Not a glimmer or gleam, however, appeared from any quarter.
+
+"H'm!" he presently muttered, a little perplexed. "Either they are
+remaining in darkness, or else they have all of those windows heavily
+curtained. If the latter is the case, I must discover for what reason.
+
+"Possibly they are entirely alone in there, and have gone to some room
+at the rear of the house. Or maybe they have suspected an espionage, and
+are now watching from the gloom of one of those front windows. I'll fool
+them if that is so, and will also have a look at the rear of the house.
+There is something out of the ordinary here, that's certain."
+
+Keeping well in the gloom of the block of dwellings near by, Nick
+retraced his steps to the corner, then crossed the street and presently
+approached a paved driveway leading to a small stable at the rear of the
+suspected house.
+
+The high gate, composed of sharp iron pickets, was securely closed and
+locked; so Nick returned to an alley which he had just passed, and which
+ran back of a block of dwellings fronting on the avenue where he had
+left the cab.
+
+Stealing into the alley, Nick quickly scaled the high, wooden fence,
+crossed two adjoining back yards, and thus reached a wall near the
+stable mentioned.
+
+To mount the wall and drop back of the stable was equally feasible, and
+Nick then had the rear of Cervera's dwelling plainly in view.
+
+Then his searching gaze was rewarded. One of the rear rooms was brightly
+lighted, with only the lace draperies at the two windows preventing
+observation from outside.
+
+"Evidently a rear sitting room, or library," thought Nick, calculating
+the arrangement of the house. "I will at least learn who is in there."
+
+He listened briefly for any sound in or about the stable, then stole
+quickly across the gloomy, paved yard and approached the house.
+
+The windows of the lighted room were two feet or more above his head;
+but having reached a position just below one of them, he sprang up and
+seized the stone coping outside, and drew himself up to peer into the
+room.
+
+Then, just as his head rose into the glow of light from within, clearly
+revealing his location, Nick heard a sound the deadly nature of which he
+instantly recognized.
+
+Ping!
+
+It was the short, sharp, peculiar song of a flying bullet--once heard,
+always remembered.
+
+Then came the dull thud when the leaden ball beat itself shapeless
+against the stone wall beside him.
+
+The bullet had passed within an inch of Nick's ribs, and he knew at once
+that he was now a mark for hidden foes.
+
+Yet there had been no revolver report to suggest their location, and
+Nick instantly surmised that the ball must have been discharged with an
+air gun.
+
+He knew that it must have come from some quarter behind him, however.
+And he knew, too, how to bring his murderous assailants from their
+secret cover.
+
+As quick as a flash, the instant the ball smote the wall beside him,
+Nick let go his hold upon the stone coping and dropped into the darkness
+below the window, falling prostrate upon his back.
+
+As he lay there his hand touched something hot, and he drew it nearer to
+examine it.
+
+It was the battered chunk of lead which had come within an inch of
+ending his life.
+
+"They meant business, for sure," he said to himself, while waiting for
+his quick-witted ruse to operate. "I'm blessed if this affair is not
+taking on a new and lively interest. I reckon there'll be more doing
+to-night than I gave Patsy to believe.
+
+"Ha, ha! The scoundrels are already breaking cover!"
+
+His alert ears had detected a sound from the direction of the stable,
+and now he silently drew his revolver and held it gripped by his side.
+
+Presently the stable door was cautiously opened. Then a momentary beam
+of light, evidently from a bull's-eye lantern, shot across the paved
+area, and lingered for an instant upon Nick's prostrate figure.
+
+Nick remained as motionless as a corpse.
+
+Then two men, both large and powerful fellows, and both heavily bearded,
+came quickly from the stable and hastened toward him.
+
+"Done for with a single shot," remarked one, as they approached.
+
+"Looks like it, Dave," was the reply. "When I piped his head in the
+light from the window, I felt sure I could drop him."
+
+"Well done. 'Twas a good shot. Shove your hand inside his vest, and see
+if his heart is beating. Then we shall know for sure whether he's down
+and out. If not, we must--"
+
+"Throw up your hands, instead, both of you!" Nick sternly interrupted,
+half rising with weapon leveled. "At the first move by either, I will
+shoot to kill!"
+
+Nick had foreseen that his foxy strategy must be very quickly detected,
+and he had resolved to take the bull by the horns, and attempt to arrest
+both of his cowardly assailants.
+
+That he was up against uncommon men, however, men of extraordinary nerve
+and reckless daring, appeared in what instantly followed, even under the
+very muzzle of the detective's revolver.
+
+As quick as a flash, before Nick's threatening command was fairly out of
+his mouth, the man called Dave made a kick at the detective's uplifted
+arm, so swift and accurate and forceful that Nick felt the bones of his
+wrist fairly crack under the blow, and the fingers of his hand gripping
+the weapon turned numb and tingling as if from an electric shock.
+
+"At him!" snarled the ruffian, even while he kicked. "At him, I say!
+Quick--the pear!"
+
+It was plain that these men were not doing such desperate work together
+for the first time. Both fell upon Nick like wolves upon a stricken elk,
+yet they found the detective waiting for them.
+
+Nick hurled one aside, unable to use his revolver, and grappled with the
+second, both falling heavily to the pavement.
+
+Then number one was at him again, and got him by the throat, with a grip
+from which Nick thrice wrenched himself free, at the same time fiercely
+banging the head of the other upon the stones upon which the terrific
+combat was being waged.
+
+An oath of vicious rage broke from the latter, and then he fiercely
+cried again:
+
+"The pear! D---- you, be quick! The pear!--the pear!"
+
+As if in response to this, Nick, who was panting under his violent
+efforts to overcome both powerful men, suddenly felt something thrust
+forcibly into his mouth.
+
+Still manfully battling with his opponents, Nick tried to eject the
+object, opening his jaws wider in the effort.
+
+The object, which was shaped like a solid pear, instantly expanded, and
+Nick could not close his jaws.
+
+Again he tried, opening them still wider, and again the pear-shaped
+object expanded and held them rigid.
+
+Then Nick guessed the truth.
+
+While struggling with might and main to beat these ruffians, he had been
+made the victim of an infernal instrument but seldom seen in these days,
+and one of the most agonizing and diabolical devices of man's perverted
+ingenuity.
+
+The object in Nick's mouth was a "choke pear!"
+
+This vicious instrument of torture dates back to the time of Palioly,
+the notorious French robber and renegade, when it was very worthily
+called "the pear of anguish."
+
+It consists of a solid gag, so to speak, yet it is so constructed, with
+interior springs, that, once thrust into a person's mouth, it expands as
+fast as the mouth is opened, and rigidly distends the victim's jaws.
+
+The more widely the victim gapes to eject the "choke pear," or to cry
+out for aid, the larger the hideous object becomes, until torture,
+suffocation and death speedily ensue.
+
+Had this infernal device been generally available to modern criminals,
+Nick would have been warned by the significant words he had heard, and
+would have guarded himself against it.
+
+As it was, however, he had been caught; and in the mouth of any ordinary
+man the "choke pear" would have been irresistible.
+
+But the muscles of Nick Carter's jaws were like fibers of steel, and the
+instant he realized his situation he opened his mouth no wider. Instead,
+while hands and arms were still engaged in the furious conflict with his
+assailants, he brought his jaws together as if with superhuman power,
+and with a force that crushed the infernal device between them, much as
+if it had been little more than an eggshell.
+
+One of the ruffians heard the snapping crunch, and uttered a cry of
+amazement.
+
+The cry was echoed by hurried footsteps in the house.
+
+Then a rear door was suddenly thrown open by Rufus Venner, and a flood
+of light revealed the struggling men, still battling furiously on the
+pavement.
+
+Nick now had both opponents down, and within another minute he would
+have had them at his mercy, a fact which Venner instantly perceived.
+
+He sprang nearer, drew his revolver, and dealt the detective a single
+swinging blow upon the head.
+
+Nick dropped like an ox struck down in the shambles.
+
+The darkness of night was as nothing to the darkness that instantly fell
+upon him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+A STRATEGIC MOVE.
+
+
+Nick Carter had a head that was used to hard knocks, and it required
+more than one to put him down and out for any considerable period.
+
+The great detective recovered consciousness within half an hour after
+the blow received from Rufus Venner, and he fell to taking the measure
+of his situation the moment the cobwebs began to clear from his brain.
+
+He found himself bound hand and foot with ropes, and lying upon the
+floor of a dark room. That he was in the dwelling occupied by the
+Spanish dancer, Nick had not a doubt.
+
+As his mind became clearer and his eyes accustomed to the darkness, Nick
+discovered a narrow thread of light some yards away and close to the
+floor, and presently the sound of lowered voices faintly reached his
+ears.
+
+"A light in the next room," he said to himself. "Probably the whole gang
+is out there, sizing up my case, and deciding what to do with me. If
+they are there, I must get a better look at those two ruffians. I owe
+them something for their work of to-night, and I always mean to pay such
+debts.
+
+"One of them was called Dave, and it may have been Dave Kilgore himself.
+In which case, by Jove! I was right in thinking that this diamond
+robbery only masks some deeper and bigger game.
+
+"I wonder if they suspect my identity. If not, what sort of a game have
+they been playing here to-night?"
+
+Nick very quickly measured the various possibilities of the unusual
+situation.
+
+If the man whose name he had heard was indeed David Kilgore, then Rufus
+Venner, as well as Cervera, might be in league with the diamond gang,
+and the pretended robbery only a move made with some secret design.
+
+On the other hand, Venner might be entirely ignorant of Kilgore's
+identity, and without any serious suspicions of Cervera, being himself a
+blind victim of these notorious criminals.
+
+"If the latter is the case," reasoned Nick, "the gang may stand in fear
+of me, and perhaps are afraid that I shall foil some scheme they have in
+operation, or are about to undertake. Then they to-night may have aimed
+only to discover the extent and nature of my suspicions.
+
+"If that is the case, plainly it will become me to be a little foxy. I
+will see if I can contrive to overhear anything from out yonder."
+
+Bent upon wriggling nearer the closed door revealed by the thread of
+light near the floor, Nick quietly turned upon his side and cautiously
+worked his way over the carpet.
+
+He had covered scarce a yard, however, when the sharp, metallic ring of
+Cervera's voice fell plainly on his ears.
+
+"Look again, one of you," she curtly commanded. "See if that vagabond
+has come to himself."
+
+"That's your humble servant!" thought Nick.
+
+He quickly rolled back to his former position on the floor, and prepared
+to play the fox.
+
+In a moment the door was thrown open, admitting a flood of light, and a
+man strode into the room and dropped to his knee beside the motionless
+detective.
+
+"I say!" he harshly growled, shaking Nick roughly by the shoulder.
+"Brace up, you dog! Brace up, d'ye hear?"
+
+Nick groaned deeply, then slowly opened his eyes.
+
+"Oh, my head--my poor head!" he muttered, like one dazed and in pain.
+
+"Your poor head, eh?" sneered the other. "You're dead lucky to have a
+head left you. Pull yourself together, do you hear?"
+
+"Let me be! Where am I?"
+
+"You'll soon find out where you are. Sit up here!"
+
+"What do you say?" cried Venner, from the next room. "Has he come to?"
+
+The man at Nick's side turned his head to reply, and Nick then obtained
+a clear view of his profile.
+
+"Humph!" he mentally ejaculated. "Matthew Stall in disguise! One of the
+diamond gang, sure enough, and I now know I am on the right track."
+
+"Yes, he's finally coming to time," cried Stall, in reply to Venner. "He
+will be all right in a minute."
+
+"Bring him out here," commanded Cervera, sharply. "Get the wretch up,
+and bring him out here."
+
+This was precisely what Nick wanted.
+
+Stall immediately bent lower, and released the detective's ankles.
+
+"Get up, you varlet!" he then growled. "Get up, I say!"
+
+Still groaning, and incoherently muttering, Nick permitted himself to be
+raised to his feet, and Stall then supported him and urged him out
+through the open doorway and into the adjoining room.
+
+In his red wig and croppy head, together with his rough attire and dazed
+aspect, Nick certainly presented a wretched appearance. He blinked
+confusedly, glanced down at his bound wrists, yet at the same time took
+in every feature of the brightly lighted room.
+
+It plainly was the library of the house, and both Rufus Venner and
+Cervera were seated near a handsome center table. Upon it lay most of
+the woman's jewels and diamonds, evidently lately removed, and
+presenting in the rays of light from the chandelier above a dazzling
+temptation to such a fellow as Nick then appeared to be.
+
+In an easy-chair, near the wall, sat the man called Dave, at the time
+Nick was thought to be dead outside. Now, in the bright light of the
+room, Nick instantly recognized him to be David Kilgore, despite a heavy
+disguise which the criminal obviously believed to be impenetrable.
+
+Nick gave no sign of the recognition, however, being content to await
+developments, and to shape his own course accordingly.
+
+From that moment, however, the name of neither criminal was once
+mentioned; and Nick was compelled to infer that Venner might indeed be
+entirely ignorant of their true identity and knavish character.
+
+The eyes of all were upon the detective, as he stood swaying slightly
+on the floor; and Cervera sharply demanded, with a threatening frown:
+
+"Well, you vile miscreant, what can you say for yourself?"
+
+"Me?" queried Nick, pretending to pull himself together. "Nothing at
+all."
+
+"I guess that's right."
+
+"What should I say? Why have you got me here, and tied up in this
+fashion?"
+
+"You'll soon find out," cried Cervera, with vicious asperity. "What were
+you doing out back of my house?"
+
+"Nothing much," Nick evasively growled, waiting to learn which way the
+cat was about to jump.
+
+"Nothing much!" sneered Cervera. "You'll find that will not go down with
+us."
+
+"I was looking for a chance to sleep in your stable," muttered Nick.
+
+"You lie, you dog!" cried Kilgore, fiercely. "You were at the back
+window."
+
+"Was I?"
+
+"And your game was to rob me of my jewels," Cervera angrily added, with
+her eyes emitting a gleam as fiery as the blazing gems at which she
+pointed. "That was your game, you renegade!"
+
+"Do you think so?"
+
+"I know so!"
+
+Nick hoped she did.
+
+"And all I regret is," added the vixenish Spaniard, "that the bullet of
+my watchman did not end your villainous life."
+
+"We can end it now, señora, if you say the word," put in Matthew Stall,
+with grim readiness.
+
+Nick never accepted such scenes as this at their face value, for he had
+witnessed many a similar game of bluff. This one might be all right and
+on the level, he reasoned, yet there still existed the possibility that
+he was recognized, and that these remarks implying the contrary were
+only a part of some well-laid plan.
+
+"If you think I'm a thief, why don't you hand me over to the police?" he
+shrewdly demanded.
+
+The ruse worked. For a moment Cervera was caught with no ready reply,
+and Nick promptly decided that he was known, hence could not well be
+given to the police.
+
+Yet these parties so obviously aimed to hide the fact that he was known
+to be Nick Carter, that Nick quickly resolved to let them have all the
+rope they wanted, and to meet them with a counter-move--that of boldly
+declaring his own identity, and so disarming them of any misgiving that
+he had recognized Kilgore and Matthew Stall, or even had any suspicions
+of Señora Cervera.
+
+It was a very clever counter, and Nick went at it cleverly.
+
+"Why don't you give me to the police, if you think I'm a thief?" he
+repeated, when Cervera made no reply.
+
+"The police?--bah!" she now cried, with a sneer. "For what? That you may
+square yourself in some way, or make your escape, and then come back
+here to attempt the job again?"
+
+"H'm!" thought Nick. "They don't want to let me go before learning what
+I suspect. I won't do a thing but fool them in that."
+
+"Police be hanged!" Cervera quickly added. "In my country we have a
+surer way of removing such villains as you."
+
+"What way?" queried Nick, coolly.
+
+"_Caramba!_ The garrote!"
+
+"Choke 'em off, eh?"
+
+"Or the poniard!"
+
+"A stab between the ribs, I take it."
+
+"Yes! It is what you deserve."
+
+"But you will not try it on me," declared Nick, confidently.
+
+"Don't you be too sure of it."
+
+"Oh, I'm sure enough of it."
+
+"The law would never reach us--don't think that," cried Cervera, with a
+passionate sneer. "_Caramba!_ we'd plant your miserable bones where
+they'd never be found. Don't think, you wretch, that we fear to do it."
+
+"Yet I don't fear that you will."
+
+"You don't?"
+
+"Not I, Señora Cervera."
+
+"How dare you utter my name with your foul mouth?" screamed the dancer,
+with a vicious display of scornful resentment. "Not kill you? I've a
+mind to order it done at once, you wretch! I hate such reptiles as you!"
+
+Nick laughed.
+
+"If you were to order it done, señora, and the knife were at my throat,"
+said he, "your order would certainly be countermanded."
+
+"What! By whom?" cried Cervera, with her passionate, dark eyes fiercely
+blazing. "I'll have you know that I rule here--and not here alone!"
+
+"Yet your command would be revoked, señora."
+
+"For what reason, villain?"
+
+"It would be revoked at the request of our mutual friend, Mr. Rufus
+Venner, to whom I presently shall explain my conduct, and also implore
+your own pardon, señora, for having made you the mark of my very
+unworthy suspicions," cried Nick, with a sudden dramatic display of
+dignity and confidence.
+
+It brought Venner sharply to his feet.
+
+"Good heavens!" he cried. "What do you mean, sir?"
+
+"Ay, what do you mean?" roared Kilgore, bracing straight up in his chair
+and reaching for his gun--a move Nick pretended he did not see.
+
+"I only mean, gentlemen, that I am no burglar," cried Nick, in his
+natural voice, at the same time raising his bound hands to remove his
+disguise. "Allow me, Mr. Venner, to present myself in proper person."
+
+"The devil and all his followers!" yelled Venner. "You're--you're Nick
+Carter!"
+
+"None other," bowed Nick, smiling and tossing his disguise upon the
+table. "Plainly, Venner, you are greatly surprised at seeing me--and I
+do not wonder at it."
+
+Yet for all that Nick did wonder a little, since he could not yet
+determine just how much of this scene was on the level.
+
+The faces of Kilgore and Matthew Stall, however, betrayed more secret
+exultation than surprise. Plainly enough both were now convinced that
+Nick did not recognize them, nor even suspect that he himself had been
+recognized--and these were precisely the two convictions Nick had aimed
+to convey by his masterly move in thus disclosing himself.
+
+"Yes, Señora Cervera," he hastened to add, before any of the startled
+group could speak, "I owe you a profound apology. I did you the
+injustice to suspect you, not only of being a thief, but also of being
+identified with the notorious Kilgore gang, three of the cleverest and
+most dangerous swindlers in the world."
+
+"Perdition!" gasped Cervera. "You astound me."
+
+"I was led to suspect you, señora, because your letter to Venner took
+him from his store just at the time of the robbery," Nick quickly went
+on to explain, thus putting his own strategy on a solid basis. "I
+shadowed you from the theater to-night, intending to watch you and your
+house, a design which has nearly cost me my life at the hands of your
+faithful watchman.
+
+"I am glad to add, señora, that I now have completely changed my views,
+and I trust that you will bear in mind that you were a stranger to me,
+and so pardon my unworthy misgivings. It is impossible that you, Señora
+Cervera, could be guilty of any evil, or know aught of so accomplished a
+knave as David Kilgore, or any of his clever gang."
+
+A shrewder move could scarce have been conceived. That Nick would thus
+have declared himself in the very presence of Kilgore, if known to him,
+seemed utterly absurd; and the eyes of both Kilgore and Matt Stall were
+aglow with a vicious amusement and satisfaction much too genuine to be
+entirely concealed.
+
+"Well, Mr. Carter," cried Venner, now hastening to release the
+defective's hands, "you certainly have had a close call, and are lucky
+to come out of it with a whole skin. These two men are employed by
+señora to guard her house at night, and they naturally mistook you for a
+burglar."
+
+Despite his keen discernment, Nick could not determine whether this man
+was lying, or was really as blind as his words implied. Content to await
+further discoveries, however, Nick laughed quickly, and replied:
+
+"Well, well, Mr. Venner; I am quite accustomed to close calls and hard
+knocks, and I assure you that I bear the señora's watchmen no ill will
+for having done their duty as they saw it. Señora Cervera is to be
+congratulated upon having secured the services of two such faithful
+fellows."
+
+Kilgore had all he could do to keep from laughing aloud, so blinded was
+he by Nick's artful duplicity.
+
+"And when I inform you, señora," cried Venner, "that Detective Carter is
+in my employ, and is really a royal good friend, I am sure that you will
+pardon him for having been so misled by your letter of this morning."
+
+Señora Cervera was blushing now, yet to Nick it appeared a little
+forced, and there was in her evil, black eyes a gleam he did not like.
+Yet she at once arose and came to shake the detective by the hand.
+
+"Oh, if my dear friend, Mr. Venner, says it is all right, I am sure it
+must be so," she cried, smiling up at Nick. "But I am afraid, Detective
+Carter, that you will now think me dreadfully severe, and my two
+watchmen more brutal than bulldogs."
+
+Nick laughed deeply, and glanced at the display of diamonds on the
+table.
+
+"When one has such valuable toys as those in her house, señora, bold men
+and vigilant bulldogs are both essential," said he, heartily.
+
+"That's true, sir; indeed, it is."
+
+"And with your permission, señora, I will shake hands with your two
+watchmen also, to show them I bear no resentment. After which I will
+take myself home, to nurse my little tokens of their vigilance and
+prowess."
+
+This brought a laugh from all, and Nick, ever shrewd and crafty, now
+shook hands with the two criminals he fully intended to finally land
+behind prison bars. Then he bowed himself out of the room, and was
+accompanied by Rufus Venner to the front door of the house, where he
+bade him a genial good-night and departed.
+
+When Venner returned to the room, he found Dave Kilgore seated on the
+edge of the table, with his false beard in his hand, and a look of
+intense distrust on his evil, forceful face.
+
+"Crafty--infernally crafty!" he cried, as Venner entered. "I tell you,
+Rufe, that man must be watched. He is a man to be feared--constantly
+feared! I'm cursed if I can tell whether he gave us that on the level or
+not."
+
+"Pshaw!" sneered Venner, contemptuously. "Of course it was on the
+level."
+
+"I'm not so sure of it--not so sure of it!" reiterated Kilgore, with
+clouded brow. "I tell you, Venner, that he must be watched, and we must
+be guarded. We have too much at stake to suffer Nick Carter to queer our
+game."
+
+"There is one sure way of preventing it," cried Cervera, with passionate
+vehemence.
+
+"Kill him?"
+
+"Yes! Take his life!" hissed the dancer, through her gleaming white
+teeth. "You were fools to have missed it to-night. Even the law would
+have acquitted you."
+
+"There are nights to come!" Kilgore grimly retorted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+FOUND DEAD.
+
+
+"What's the trouble yonder, Nick?"
+
+"Where?"
+
+"In the park."
+
+"Humph! Something wrong, evidently. Come on, Chick, and we'll see."
+
+It was nearly sunset one Monday afternoon, and almost two weeks
+subsequent to the incidents last depicted.
+
+That at least one of Dave Kilgore's suggestions had been adopted, and he
+and his gang had become rigorously guarded, appears in that the Carters
+had utterly failed to accomplish anything against them in the interval
+mentioned. Despite constant vigilance and incessant work on the case,
+neither Nick nor Chick had been able to secure an additional clew.
+
+Kilgore and Matt Stall had vanished as if the earth had swallowed them.
+
+The mammoth vaudeville troupe had completed its engagement, and was now
+disbanded for the season.
+
+Señora Cervera still retained her uptown house, and frequently received
+Venner as a visitor; but never a sign of the diamond gang, or of any
+stranger, could the detectives discover, in or about her place.
+
+Rufus Venner was attending to his business as usual, and appeared all
+aboveboard. Now and then he called upon Nick about the stolen diamonds,
+expressing a hope that they would be recovered; but in no way did he
+lay himself open to further suspicions than Nick had at first conceived.
+
+Yet Nick was too shrewd to press him with questions, and so perhaps
+betray his own hand. As a matter of fact, the famous detective was in
+quite a quandary over the case, because of his conviction that some big
+game was secretly afoot, and his utter inability to strike any tangible
+clew to it.
+
+Such a state of affairs was very unusual, and Nick chafed under it. It
+indicated that he was up against men as good as himself, and his vain
+work of the past ten days served only to aggravate him, and embitter his
+grim and inflexible determination to unearth the whole business.
+
+This Monday afternoon, as Nick and Chick were passing Central Park, the
+attention of the latter was drawn toward a group of men in one of the
+park walks, somewhat removed from the street. A policeman was among
+them, and they appeared to be gazing at something upon the ground.
+
+"It looks like the figure of a woman," said Nick, as he and Chick
+entered the park. "Officer Fogarty is there, and--yes, by Jove! it is
+the form of a woman."
+
+The two detectives quickly reached the scene, and the park officer at
+once recognized Nick, respectfully touching his helmet.
+
+"What's amiss here, Fogarty?" inquired Nick.
+
+Fogarty pointed to the motionless form upon the ground.
+
+"Dead!" said he, tersely. "We've just found her."
+
+"Keep those people further away, Fogarty," said Nick, with a toss of
+his head toward half a score of men gathered near by. "I will see what I
+make of the case."
+
+The figure was that of a girl, rather than a woman, apparently about
+eighteen years of age. She was lying partly upon her side upon the
+greensward, and evidently had fallen from one of the park seats upon
+which she had been resting, and upon which her straw shade hat was still
+lying. She was neatly clad in a suit of dark blue, and her girlish face
+indicated some culture and refinement.
+
+Near her, upon the grass, lay a piece of brown wrapping paper, and a
+yard of two of string, evidently removed from a small, square box, which
+she had dropped and partly fallen upon when stricken with sudden death.
+
+A mere glance gave Nick these superficial features, and he quickly knelt
+beside the girl, and felt her hand and wrist.
+
+"Dead as a doornail," he murmured to Chick, who also had approached. "I
+find her hand still warm, however. She can have been dead only a few
+minutes."
+
+"Heart failure, perhaps," suggested Chick.
+
+"I don't think so."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"She doesn't look it. Her form is plump, her cheeks full, and she
+appears to have been in perfect health."
+
+"Yet she is dead."
+
+"No doubt of it."
+
+"A pretty girl, too."
+
+"Very. See if there is any writing on that brown paper."
+
+"No, Nick; not a line."
+
+"Here, here, let me see it! What's this? It is punctured with tiny
+holes, evidently made with a pin."
+
+"So it is, by Jove!"
+
+"Perhaps she made them with her hat pin, while sitting there on the
+seat. See, Chick, there is the pin still in the hat."
+
+"I see it, Nick. What now?"
+
+Still kneeling beside the girl, Nick was holding the sheet of paper
+between himself and the sky.
+
+"No, the punctures are not uniform," said he. "I thought that they
+possibly had been made with some design, and perhaps formed some word or
+sentence that would give us a clew to the mystery."
+
+"None such, eh?"
+
+"Not a sign of it. Evidently she jabbed the pin through the paper only
+in idleness."
+
+"She is lying on a box of some kind, from which she probably had taken
+this wrapping paper."
+
+"So I see," nodded Nick. "Lend me a hand, Chick, and we'll have a look
+at the box."
+
+With gentle hands the two detectives moved the girl's lifeless form, and
+Nick then took up the box mentioned.
+
+It was about four inches square, and was made of silver, with an open
+work design of vines and leaves, which displayed a blue silk lining
+through the metal apertures. Plainly enough it was a lady's jewel
+casket, and one of considerable value; but it was entirely empty, and it
+bore no name or inscription.
+
+For several moments Nick Carter examined it very intently, with his
+brows gradually knitting closer and closer; and all the while Officer
+Fogarty, and the group of men in the gravel walk a few yards distant,
+mutely gazed and wondered.
+
+Chick Carter, however, who could read Nick's every change of expression,
+saw at once that the great detective not only was making some startling
+discoveries, but also was arriving at deductions far too subtle and
+significant to have been reached by any less keen and practiced
+observer.
+
+"What do you make of it, Nick?" whispered Chick, dropping to his knee
+beside his companion.
+
+Nick also lowered his voice, and for several minutes the two conversed
+in rapid whispers.
+
+"It is a jewel case, Chick; and quite a valuable one."
+
+"So I see."
+
+"I don't think it belonged to this girl. She looks as if she were the
+maid, or possibly the companion, of some woman of wealth or distinction.
+Her attire also indicates that. Hence so valuable a toy can hardly have
+belonged to the girl, but more likely was the property of her mistress."
+
+"No name on it?"
+
+"Not even an initial. Not a mark of any kind."
+
+"It is empty."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Can the girl have been robbed of its contents, here and in broad
+daylight?"
+
+"Worse, Chick!" whispered Nick, between his teeth. "Worse even than
+that."
+
+"Good heavens, Nick! What do you mean?"
+
+"Chick, this girl was foully murdered!"
+
+"Murdered!" echoed Chick, with an involuntary gasp. "Can it be
+possible?"
+
+"It certainly appears so to me."
+
+"But the means?"
+
+"That is the mystery."
+
+"There are no signs of violence."
+
+"Wait a bit. Notice her right wrist, just back of the thumb and near the
+pulse. Notice that tiny red spot, barely observable. It might have been
+made with the point of a pin. Do you see, it?"
+
+"Yes, now that you call my attention to it."
+
+"It means something. I am convinced of that."
+
+"Others are not likely to discover it."
+
+"I hope they may not, Chick," Nick hurriedly rejoined. "I am flooded
+with ideas and suspicions, which I wish to consider and put in order
+before too much of this mystery leaks out. I'll explain later."
+
+"Perhaps her hat pin is poisoned," suggested Chick.
+
+"I don't think that."
+
+"Or possibly--"
+
+"Wait a moment. Look at this box."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"That wrapper was punctured while still on the box," explained Nick.
+"Notice that the pin went through the spaces in this metal design, and
+then through the silk lining inside."
+
+"Plainly enough, Nick."
+
+"Notice this particular puncture in the interior of the lining."
+
+"By Jove! there's a faint tinge of red around it."
+
+"Left when the pin was withdrawn," whispered Nick, significantly.
+"Chick, it's a tinge of blood!"
+
+"I believe you're right, Nick."
+
+"I am convinced of it. Also that there's a mystery here which cannot be
+solved in a moment," said Nick, impressively. "I wish to conceal these
+discoveries until after I have considered them more fully, and also
+identified this girl. See if you can find her purse, or anything that
+will reveal her name."
+
+While Chick was thus engaged, Nick arose and glanced sharply around in
+search of any evidence indicating that such a crime could have been
+committed unobserved in so public a place.
+
+The seat which the girl had occupied stood on the greensward, about
+eight feet from the gravel walk. By several clusters of shrubbery some
+feet away at either side, the seat was somewhat obscured from the view
+of persons approaching along the walk from either direction. Several
+trees cast shadows nearly over the spot, which was one very likely to
+have been selected by a couple desirous of being somewhat alone while
+resting from an afternoon stroll.
+
+Nick quickly noted these several features, then glanced at Chick and
+asked:
+
+"Do you find anything?"
+
+"Nothing by which to identify her."
+
+"Her purse?"
+
+"It contains only a few pieces of silver. No cards, nor so much as a
+scrap of paper. Other than her purse, there is only a latchkey in her
+pocket, and a perfectly plain handkerchief. Her identification must come
+later."
+
+"I guess we have missed nothing here," nodded Nick. "I'll have just a
+word with Fogarty, and then we'll go along."
+
+"What do you make of it, Detective Carter?" inquired the officer, as
+Nick approached.
+
+"I am not prepared to say," replied Nick, ignoring the startled glances
+of the several men who heard his name and now beheld the great detective
+for the first time.
+
+"The girl is dead, sir, isn't she?"
+
+"Oh, yes; there is no doubt of that," bowed Nick. "It may be a case of
+heart failure. You had better take the proper steps for the removal of
+the body. This box and wrapping paper, however, I am going to take with
+me, and will be responsible for them."
+
+"All right, sir."
+
+"By the way, Fogarty, how long ago did you discover the body?"
+
+"Scarce a minute before you came, sir."
+
+"Were you the first to see it?"
+
+"I was, sir."
+
+"Had you seen the girl about here before during the afternoon?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Did you see anybody leaving here just before you arrived and discovered
+the body?"
+
+"I did not, sir."
+
+"That's all, Fogarty. I'll get any other particulars later."
+
+Thereupon, as Nick was about to turn away, a young man in the crowd came
+suddenly forth, and exclaimed:
+
+"One moment, Detective Carter, if you please! I saw that girl, about
+half an hour ago, walking this way with a gentleman."
+
+Nick turned abruptly to the speaker.
+
+"What is your name?" he asked.
+
+"Tom Jenkins, sir."
+
+"And your address?"
+
+"I live at the Hotel North, and am employed by Hentz Brothers, in Broad
+Street."
+
+"You say that you saw the girl walking this way with a gentleman?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Did they appear to be on good terms?"
+
+"Excellent, sir. They were talking and laughing, and seemed to be
+enjoying themselves."
+
+"Do you know the girl's name, or where she lives?"
+
+"I do not, sir; nor anything about her."
+
+"Do you know anything about her companion, the gentleman you saw with
+her?"
+
+For the bare fraction of a second Jenkins hesitated, as one might do who
+was loath to bring trouble upon another. Then he replied, in faltering
+tones:
+
+"Well, yes, sir, I know the name of the man who was with her."
+
+"State it, please."
+
+"His name, sir, is Harry Boyden."
+
+Nick felt his blood start slightly, yet his countenance did not change
+by so much as a shadow.
+
+He glanced at Chick, however, and the same thought was in the mind of
+each.
+
+"Harry Boyden! The clerk employed by Thomas Hafferman, the dealer in
+diamonds!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+NICK STRIKES A STARTLING CLEW.
+
+
+The mind of Nick Carter was, as he had remarked to Chick, stirred with a
+flood of questions not easily or quickly answered.
+
+Who was this girl found dead in Central Park?
+
+Had she, indeed, been foully murdered? If so, by what mysterious means?
+What had been the object? Who the perpetrator of the crime?
+
+Or, on the other hand, was the evidence itself misleading, and had the
+unfortunate girl selected that sequestered seat in the park, and there
+deliberately committed suicide? Even then, by what means had the deed
+been accomplished? What had been the occasion?
+
+What, moreover, had become of her companion at just that time? Why had
+he deserted her? What signified the pin-punctured wrapping paper, and
+the empty jewel casket, in the dead girl's possession?
+
+Had the casket contained jewels of great value? Had the girl been robbed
+of them, and then foully murdered in some mysterious way?
+
+Was Harry Boyden, the clerk employed by Hafferman, the last to leave the
+girl that fateful afternoon? Was he responsible for her death? Was
+robbery the incentive to the crime?
+
+Or, on the other hand, had Boyden left the girl alive and well, and was
+the crime the work of another?
+
+Or, finally, was there some strange and startling connection between
+this park murder and the robbery committed at Venner's store? Was there,
+between the two crimes, some extraordinary bond yet to be
+discovered--some tie uniting the two misdeeds as if with links of steel?
+
+These were some of the conflicting questions that occurred to Nick
+Carter that afternoon, and in order to consider them before taking any
+decided action in the matter, Nick had kept to himself his startling
+discoveries, and left Officer Fogarty to take the customary steps in the
+affair.
+
+At seven o'clock that evening, while Nick and Chick were seated at
+dinner, and still engaged in discussing the conflicting circumstances, a
+message was received from police headquarters, informing Nick that the
+girl had been identified, and that Harry Boyden had been found and
+arrested.
+
+"Very good," observed Nick. "We shall now get something to work upon. I
+will go and question Boyden as soon as I finish my dinner."
+
+"By all means," nodded Chick.
+
+"Do you know," said Nick, "I am seriously impressed that there is some
+strange connection between this girl's death and that robbery at
+Venner's store. I believe that we have struck the very clew, or are
+about to strike it, that we so long have been vainly seeking."
+
+"To the Kilgore gang?"
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"Egad, I hope so," laughed Chick, with a grimace. "I am beastly tired of
+nosing about on a scentless trail."
+
+Nick joined in the laugh of his invariably cheerful associate.
+
+"Odds blood, Nick, as they say in the play," added Chick. "I'd welcome
+any sort of stir and danger, in preference to this chasing a
+will-o'-the-wisp."
+
+"There'll be enough doing, Chick, take my word for it, as soon as we
+once more get on the track of Kilgore and his push."
+
+"Let it come, and God speed it," grinned Chick. "What's your idea,
+Nick?"
+
+"This empty jewel casket, the possibility that it contained diamonds, of
+which the girl was robbed and then murdered, and the fact that Harry
+Boyden is the clerk who brought the stolen diamonds to Venner's
+store--certainly the circumstances seem to point to some strange
+relation between the two crimes."
+
+While Nick was thus expressing his views, a rapidly driven carriage
+approached the residence of the famous detective, and a servant
+presently entered the dining room and informed Nick that a lady wished
+to see him.
+
+Nick glanced at her card.
+
+"Violet Page," he muttered. "I know no lady named Violet Page. Is she
+young or old?"
+
+"Young, sir."
+
+"Did you admit her?"
+
+"She is in the library, sir."
+
+"Very well. I will see her presently. Request her to wait a few
+moments."
+
+Nick delayed only to finish his dinner, then repaired to the library. As
+he entered the attractively furnished room his visitor quickly arose
+from one of the easy-chairs and hastened to approach him.
+
+Nick beheld a young lady of exquisite beauty and modest bearing, and
+though her sweet face, then very pale and distressed, struck him as one
+he had previously seen, he at first could not place her.
+
+"Are you Mr. Carter--Detective Carter?" she hurriedly, inquired, in
+tremulous accents of appeal.
+
+Nick had a warm place in his heart for one so timid and distressed as
+this girl appeared, and he bowed very kindly.
+
+"Yes, Miss Page," said he. "What can I do for you? You appear to be in
+trouble."
+
+"I am in trouble--terrible trouble, sir," cried the girl, with a
+half-choked sob. "Oh, Mr. Carter, I come to you in despair, a girl
+without friends or advisers, and who knows not whither to turn. I have
+been told that you have a kind heart, and that you are the one man able
+to solve the dreadful mystery which--"
+
+Nick checked her pathetic flood of words with a kindly gesture.
+
+"Calm yourself, Miss Page," said he, in a sort of paternal way. "Resume
+your chair, please. Though I am somewhat pressed for time just now I
+will give you at least a few moments."
+
+"Oh, thank you, sir!"
+
+"Be calm, however, in order that we may accomplish all the more."
+
+"I will, sir."
+
+"To what mystery do you refer? What is the occasion of your terrible
+distress?"
+
+Violet Page subdued her agitation and hastened to reply.
+
+"My maid and companion, a girl named Mary Barton," said she, "was found
+dead in Central Park late this afternoon. Nor is that all, Detective
+Carter. A very dear friend of mine, named Harry Boyden, has been
+arrested, under suspicion of having killed her. Oh, sir, that could not
+be possible!"
+
+Nick felt an immediate increase of interest.
+
+He decided that Miss Violet Page was the very person he wanted to
+interview, and while he did not then exhibit any knowledge of the case,
+he proceeded to question her with his own ends in view, at the same time
+ringing a signal for Chick to join him, which the latter presently did.
+
+"Where do you live, Miss Page?" inquired Nick.
+
+"I board in Forty-second Street, sir. I have no living relatives, and
+for about two years have employed a maid, or, I might better call her, a
+companion."
+
+"The girl mentioned?"
+
+"Yes, sir. Her parents also are dead. The fact that we both are orphans
+created a bond of sympathy between us."
+
+"Are you a person of much means, Miss Page?"
+
+"Oh, no, sir. I earn my living on the stage. I was a member of the big
+vaudeville troupe, which lately disbanded for the season. My stage name
+is Violet Marduke."
+
+"Ah! now I remember," remarked Nick. "I thought I had seen you before. I
+happened to hear you sing one evening about two weeks ago."
+
+"I recognized her when I entered," observed Chick, who had taken a
+chair near by.
+
+Nick came back to business.
+
+"Why are you so confident, Miss Page, that Boyden cannot have killed
+Mary Barton?" he demanded.
+
+"Because, sir, Harry Boyden is a gentle, brave and honest man, and
+utterly incapable of committing such a crime," cried Violet, with much
+feeling. "Besides, sir, he can have had no possible reason for wishing
+her dead."
+
+"Are you sure of that?"
+
+"Absolutely!"
+
+"What are your relations with Boyden?"
+
+"We are lovers, sir," admitted Violet, with a tinge of red dispelling
+the paleness of her pretty cheeks. "We expect to be married the coming
+summer."
+
+"Ah! I see," murmured Nick, thoughtfully. "How long have you been
+acquainted with Boyden?"
+
+"For ten years, sir."
+
+"Then you have been able to form quite a reliable opinion of his
+character."
+
+"Indeed, sir, I have!" cried Violet, warmly. "Detective Carter, I know
+that Harry Boyden is far above any dishonorable action. I would trust
+him with my life."
+
+Of the honesty of the girl herself Nick had not a doubt. It showed in
+her eyes, sounded in her voice, and was pictured in her ever changing
+expression. Nick was inclined to feel that her opinion of Boyden was
+worthy of very serious consideration, despite that circumstances seemed
+to implicate the young man in no less than two crimes.
+
+"Is the fact that you are engaged to Boyden generally known, Miss
+Page?" Nick next asked.
+
+"It is not, sir. We have said nothing about it."
+
+"Ah, that opens the way for conjectures," cried Nick. "Is there any
+person who knows of the engagement, or who suspects it, that would
+jealously aim to injure Boyden by implicating him in a crime?"
+
+"Oh, I cannot think so, sir!" said Violet, with a look of horror. "I
+certainly know of no such person."
+
+"Have you been accepting the attentions of any other young man?"
+
+"No, sir," smiled Violet. "That is not my style."
+
+"I am glad to hear you say so, yet I really might have known it,"
+laughed Nick.
+
+"Thank you, Detective Carter," bowed the girl, blushing warmly. Then she
+hastened to add: "Still, I am not a prude, sir--don't think I mean that.
+In my profession one is obliged to be on friendly terms with a great
+many persons, both men and women. At the theater, for instance, I meet
+many men and form many acquaintances, both agreeable and the reverse."
+
+"And sometimes have the attentions of men fairly forced upon you, I
+imagine?" said Nick, inquiringly, with a brighter gleam lighting his
+earnest eyes.
+
+"Yes, sir; sometimes," Violet demurely admitted.
+
+Nick drew forward in his chair, and Chick saw that he had caught up the
+thread at that moment suggested to himself.
+
+"Miss Page," said Nick, more impressively, "I now want you to answer me
+without the slightest reserve."
+
+"I will, sir," bowed Violet, with a startled look.
+
+"Has any man of the late vaudeville company, or one connected with the
+theater, endeavored to force his love upon you?"
+
+"No, sir; not one."
+
+"Or any visitor admitted to the stage?"
+
+"Well--yes, sir," faltered Violet, quite timidly. "Since you press me
+thus gravely, I must admit that I have been obliged to repel the
+affection of a certain man. Yet, please don't infer, sir, that he has
+ever been ungentlemanly. He even has done me the honor, if one can so
+term an undesired proposal, to protest that he wished to make me his
+wife."
+
+"What is that man's name?" demanded Nick, quite bluntly.
+
+Yet both Nick and Chick already anticipated it.
+
+"Must I tell you his name, sir?" faltered Violet.
+
+"You may do so confidentially, Miss Page."
+
+"His name, sir, is Rufus Venner."
+
+"One more question, Miss Page," cried Nick, quickly, "Was there any
+member of the vaudeville company who knew of Venner's proposal?"
+
+"I don't think so, sir. At least I know of none."
+
+Nick glanced at Chick and dryly remarked:
+
+"All under the surface, Chick."
+
+"Not a doubt of it, Nick."
+
+Violet looked surprised and alarmed at this, and hastened to ask:
+
+"Oh, Mr. Carter, is there something of which I am ignorant? Or have I
+done wrong in any way?"
+
+Nick turned to her and gravely answered:
+
+"No, Miss Page, you have done nothing wrong--far from it! But there is
+considerable of which you are ignorant."
+
+"Oh, sir, what do you mean?"
+
+"Wait just one moment, and I then may be able to tell you," said Nick,
+rising. "I have something here that I wish to show you."
+
+He went to his library desk and took from a drawer the silver jewel
+casket which he had brought from Central Park.
+
+When he turned he held it in his extended hand, and the eyes of the girl
+suddenly fell upon it.
+
+Instantly she leaped to her feet, as pale as death itself.
+
+Then a scream, as of sudden, ungovernable terror, rose from her lips and
+rang with piercing shrillness through the house.
+
+"Catch her, Chick--she's fainting!" yelled Nick, with eyes ablaze. "By
+Heaven! we've struck the trail at last!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+ON THE TRAIL.
+
+
+Nick Carter was a little perplexed.
+
+Miss Violet Page had recovered from her sudden swoon, and although still
+very pale she sat gazing calmly at the silver jewel casket, which Nick
+was again displaying.
+
+Somewhat to Nick's surprise, considering the girl's abrupt collapse upon
+first beholding the casket, Miss Page had just declared that she had
+never seen it before that evening.
+
+"You never saw it before?" exclaimed Nick, almost incredulously.
+
+"Never until you produced it from your desk a few minutes ago,"
+reiterated Violet.
+
+"Why, then, were you so overcome upon seeing it?"
+
+"I will tell you why, Detective Carter, yet I fear that you will think
+me very weak and foolish to have been so seriously affected."
+
+"No; I think not."
+
+"I had a terrible dream last night, sir," Violet now explained. "I
+dreamed that I was alone in an enormous graveyard at midnight, with a
+full moon revealing the dismal surroundings, the dark tombs, the
+staring, white headstones and the silent graves."
+
+"Not very cheerful--certainly," smiled Nick.
+
+"What followed was infinitely more terrible," continued Violet, with an
+irrepressible shudder.
+
+"What was that?"
+
+"I dreamed that I saw a grave near which I was standing suddenly begin
+to open, as if a living being were pushing up the ground from within.
+Then I saw a fleshless hand appear above the disturbed sods. Then a
+sightless human skull thrust itself forth, and presently, filling me
+with a terror I cannot describe, the entire skeleton emerged from the
+partly open grave, and arose and approached me."
+
+"A grewsome dream, indeed," remarked Nick. "But what of the casket?"
+
+"This of the casket, sir," concluded Violet. "In the skeleton's right
+hand, which was extended straight toward me while he approached, was a
+silver box--the exact likeness of the one you hold, and which you so
+abruptly showed me a short time ago."
+
+"Ah, I see," nodded Nick.
+
+"In my present nervous condition, Detective Carter, the sight of the
+real casket, after so horrible a dream, was more than I could sustain.
+Fairly before I knew it, I had fainted."
+
+"A curious dream and a startling sequence," said Nick. "Evidently coming
+events have been casting their shadows before. I am sorry to have
+shocked you so severely."
+
+"Pray don't speak of it, Mr. Carter," protested Violet. "I am now quite
+recovered."
+
+"Then we will at once proceed to business again," said Nick. "Am I to
+infer, Miss Page, that you know nothing at all about this casket?"
+
+"Absolutely nothing, sir," declared Violet.
+
+"Have you ever heard your maid, Mary Barton, speak of possessing such a
+jewel box?"
+
+"Never, sir."
+
+"Nevertheless," said Nick, pointedly, "this casket was found beside her
+dead body in Central Park this afternoon."
+
+A half-suppressed cry broke from Violet upon hearing this.
+
+"Oh, sir, then that must have been the package mentioned by Harry
+Boyden," she cried, excitedly.
+
+"What's that?" demanded Nick. "Have you seen Boyden since his arrest?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"When and where?"
+
+"He was arrested at my home about half-past six, sir. When I learned for
+what and heard the particulars, I was advised by my landlady to appeal
+at once to you."
+
+"Did you come directly here?"
+
+"I did, sir; as fast as a carriage could bring me."
+
+"Ah, now we shall get at it," declared Nick. "Tell me, Miss Page, just
+what Boyden said about Mary Barton."
+
+"Why, sir, he said he left her alive and well about half-past five."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"On her way through the park," replied Violet. "He had met her about
+five o'clock, and they walked about in the park for a short time. Then
+he told her that he had an errand to do, after which he was coming to
+call upon me. Then Mary laughed and replied that she would see him
+later."
+
+"That doesn't smack very strongly of suicide, Chick," remarked Nick,
+with a glance at the former.
+
+"I should say not," replied Chick, with a shrug of his shoulders.
+
+"Did Boyden know where Mary went after he left her?" inquired Nick,
+reverting to his visitor.
+
+"No, sir. He declared to the officer that he did not."
+
+"What mention did he make of a package carried by the girl?"
+
+"He stated that Mary had what appeared to be a small, square box, done
+up in brown wrapping paper, and secured with a string."
+
+"Did he make any inquiries about it?"
+
+"He asked her what it was, and she told him it was for me."
+
+"Did she tell him where she got it?"
+
+"Yes, sir, she did; and I am quite mystified by it."
+
+"Please explain," said Nick. "What did the Barton girl say about the
+parcel?"
+
+"She said it was given to her by a woman whom she had met on Fifth
+Avenue a short time before."
+
+"An acquaintance?"
+
+"No, sir; a strange woman," continued Violet. "Yet the stranger must
+have known Mary, and that she lived with me, for she asked her if I was
+at home."
+
+"And then?"
+
+"When told that I was, she gave Mary the package and asked her to
+deliver it to me, into my hands only, as it was a gift from a friend."
+
+"Was the name of the friend mentioned?"
+
+"I think not, sir. The woman cautioned Mary against opening the package,
+stating in explanation that she wished me to be the first to see what it
+contained."
+
+"These are the facts which Mary Barton told to Harry Boyden, are they?"
+demanded Nick, with an ominous ring stealing into his voice.
+
+"Yes, sir, they are."
+
+"And the statements which Boyden, in turn, made to the officer by whom
+he was arrested at your home?"
+
+"That is right, sir. I heard them from Harry's own lips."
+
+"Did Mary Barton have any idea of the identity of the woman from whom
+she received the package?"
+
+"I think not, sir. She told Harry that the woman was veiled, and that
+she could not see her face. The incident seemed so strange, sir, that
+Mary gave Harry Boyden all of these particulars."
+
+"Did she describe the strange woman, her form or her attire?"
+
+"I think she stated that the woman was plainly clad. Nothing more
+definite that I know of."
+
+"In fact, Miss Page, you have now told me all that you know about the
+case, haven't you?"
+
+"Really, sir, I think I have," admitted Violet, with a look of anxious
+appeal.
+
+Nick drew out his watch and glanced quickly at it.
+
+"Ring for a carriage, Chick," said he abruptly. "We have no time to
+lose."
+
+"I'll call one at once," nodded Chick, as he sprang up and hastened from
+the room.
+
+"Am I to depart now, Detective Carter?" asked Violet, beginning to
+tremble. "Oh, sir, will you not give me some word of encouragement
+before I go? I am sure that Harry Boyden never committed--"
+
+"Hush!" interposed Nick, rising and taking her kindly by the hand.
+
+"I cannot at present tell you, Miss Page, what I think of this case. I
+will say this, however, if Harry Boyden is, as you so firmly believe,
+innocent of this crime, I will not rest until I have proved him
+guiltless."
+
+"Oh, Detective Carter, how am I to thank you?" cried the girl, with her
+tearful eyes raised to Nick's kindly face.
+
+"By not trying to do so," said he, smiling. "And by carefully following
+a few directions which I shall now give you."
+
+"I will follow them to the very letter, sir," cried the grateful girl.
+
+"First, then, go home and borrow no further trouble about young Boyden,"
+said Nick, impressively. "Second, disclose to no person that you have
+called upon me, or that I have any interest in the case. Third, say
+nothing about the jewel casket, and display no personal knowledge of the
+affair. Fourth, do not come here again unless I send for you. And,
+finally, rest assured that I will do all in my power to have young
+Boyden at liberty as soon as possible. To remain in custody a short
+time, however, will not seriously harm him, and in a way it may do me
+some service. Can you remember all that?"
+
+"Indeed I can, sir; and I will obey you in all!" cried Violet, with much
+feeling.
+
+"That's right," smiled Nick, as he escorted her to the door. "You shall
+not lose anything by so doing."
+
+"Ah, I am sure of that, sir. You are so very kind, and I am so glad that
+I came to you."
+
+"Well, well, we shall see," laughed Nick, with a paternal caress of her
+shapely white hand. "By the way, Miss Page, since I now happen to think
+of it," the crafty detective indifferently added, "wasn't there a Hindoo
+juggler, or snake charmer, or something of that sort, connected with
+your late vaudeville company?"
+
+"Oh, yes, sir! Pandu Singe."
+
+"Ah, that is his name, is it?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Is he still in the city?"
+
+"I am not sure, Mr. Carter; but I think that he may be, for he is signed
+with the company for next season."
+
+"Do you know where he has been living?"
+
+"Yes, sir. I have seen his house address on letters forwarded to the
+theater. Do you want it, sir?"
+
+"If you can recall it, yes," smiled Nick, producing his notebook. "I am
+making a study of the Hindoo language just at this time, and I would
+like to consult Pandu Singe about certain books on the subject."
+
+Miss Page did not suspect any duplicity in this, and she cheerfully gave
+Nick the address of the snake charmer, whereupon the detective
+graciously thanked her, and then escorted her to her waiting carriage.
+
+As it rolled rapidly away a second hack came bowling up to the curbstone
+in front of Nick's residence. It was the carriage for which Chick had
+sent a call.
+
+"Don't cover your horses, cabbie!" cried Nick, sharply. "Wait about
+three minutes, and we'll be with you."
+
+"Right, sir!"
+
+And Nick dashed back up the steps and into the house, meeting Chick in
+the hall.
+
+"What do you make of it, Nick?"
+
+"Make of it?" cried Nick, with a laugh. "It's a cinch, Chick, dead open
+and shut. Grab your hat and come with me. I'll explain in the carriage."
+
+"Good enough! I'm with you, old man!"
+
+"And we have no time to lose," cried Nick, "Now, then, we're off."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE CRIME AND THE MEANS.
+
+
+"Yes, Chick, it's as simple as two plus two, and we'll presently try to
+bag a part of our quarry. But first of all, I want a bit of
+corroborative evidence which I expect to get from that Hindoo snake
+charmer, Pandu Singe."
+
+"Going there first, Nick?"
+
+"Yes; it will not take long. Then I think we shall have the strands for
+a rope strong enough to hold that she-devil who murdered Mary Barton,"
+grimly added Nick.
+
+These remarks were made while the carriage containing the two detectives
+was speeding through the city streets, then bright with the light and
+life of the early evening.
+
+"What a dastardly crime it was, Nick," observed Chick.
+
+"It was the crime of a treacherous demon."
+
+"With jealousy the chief motive, eh?"
+
+"No doubt of it."
+
+"Yet her venomous arrow found the wrong mark."
+
+"That's just the size of it," said Nick. "In the light of what you saw
+and heard on the stage that night, it is plain that Cervera is
+passionately in love with Venner."
+
+"Surely."
+
+"You remember that you saw him talking with Violet Page, and then
+observed Cervera in the opposite wings, angrily watching something or
+somebody out of your range of view. Plainly enough, now, she was
+watching Venner and the singer."
+
+"No doubt of it," declared Chick. "And she looked fit to use a poniard
+then and there."
+
+"Jealousy," growled Nick. "She had been secretly watching Venner. She
+had discovered his love for Violet, and decided that the girl was a
+rival to be feared. Her fiery Spanish blood would shrink at nothing. She
+went the limit, and tried to murder her rival. In so doing, however, she
+but killed another."
+
+"She must have worked adroitly to have accomplished what she did."
+
+"It may not have been so very difficult," replied Nick. "She was on the
+stage each night, and also that infernal snake den. She quietly learned
+which of the venomous reptiles would best serve her deadly purpose, and
+then found an opportunity and a way by which to secretly steal it."
+
+"A hazardous job at that," muttered Chick.
+
+"The jealousy of such a woman fears nothing," Nick rejoined. "To lure
+the desired snake into a box, and then take it home and confine it in
+the jewel casket, may have been done quite easily."
+
+"It must have been done before the company closed its engagement."
+
+"No doubt," admitted Nick. "Then Cervera was too crafty to use it at
+once. She waited nearly a week. Then she dressed herself in cheap
+attire, put on a thick veil, and lay in wait for her rival's maid and
+companion, to whom she gave the package and her instructions regarding
+it."
+
+"What first led you to suspect the crime and the means, Nick?" inquired
+Chick, curiously.
+
+"Several facts," explained Nick. "The girl's sudden death seemed
+peculiar. The jewel casket beside her was empty, at once suggesting that
+something had been removed or fallen from it. Yet nothing was to be
+found."
+
+"That's true."
+
+"The paper wrapper was punctured with a pin in many places, the holes
+running even through the lining of the casket. That fact, too, was
+suggestive. People are not in the habit of doing up parcels and then
+punching them full of holes with a pin."
+
+"Well, hardly."
+
+"Cervera made those holes, Chick, in order that her venomous captive
+might not expire for want of air."
+
+"No doubt of it, Nick. But what do you think led Mary Barton to open the
+package after having been told not to do so?"
+
+"Curiosity, perhaps," replied Nick. "Or possibly she considered the
+circumstances to be so strange that she felt that she had a right to
+open it. Be that as it may, it is plain that Mary Barton sat down on the
+park seat, after leaving Boyden and there briefly considered the
+matter."
+
+"How do you arrive at that deduction, Nick?"
+
+"From the tiny tinge of fresh blood about one of the pinholes on the
+interior of the lining," explained Nick. "The stain must have come from
+the point of the pin, and when the pin was drawn out of the box, not
+when it was thrust into it. In the latter case the pin point would have
+been cleansed before passing through the lining, and the stain would
+have been on the outside rather than the inside."
+
+"Surely."
+
+"Then it at once became plain that Mary Barton, while sitting there, had
+thrust her hat pin through one of the previously made apertures,
+possibly aiming to discover in this way what the box contained, and in
+so doing she probably pricked the confined reptile."
+
+"Ah, I see," nodded Chick. "All this strongly indicated that something
+might have been confined in the casket."
+
+"Yes, certainly. Not thus learning what the box contained," continued
+Nick, "Mary Barton decided to open it. The moment she raised the lid the
+snake, probably angered by its wound and long confinement, instantly
+struck at her hand, snake-fashion, and buried its fangs in her wrist."
+
+"Hence the tiny, red spot which you so quickly discovered."
+
+"Precisely."
+
+"Very shrewd of you, Nick."
+
+"Greatly frightened, the girl probably fainted, and fell to the ground,"
+added Nick, in conclusion of the deductions by which he had solved the
+remarkable mystery. "The snake instantly scurried away through the
+grass, and left no trail behind him. Before the girl could recover from
+her swoon, the deadly poison had done its work. The venom of some of
+these India snakes is horribly rapid in its action."
+
+"That's true," cried Chick. "I saw one at the theater that evening, the
+venom of which would kill a man in ten seconds. A wee bit of a cuss at
+that."
+
+"Probably this was one of the same breed," said Nick, grimly. "At all
+events, I am sure that murder was the crime, and a snake the means."
+
+"And Sanetta Cervera the criminal."
+
+"Beyond the shadow of a doubt," declared Nick.
+
+"And what do you expect to learn from the Hindoo?"
+
+"I wish to know, in corroboration of my suspicions, whether Pandu Singe
+has missed any of his infernal reptiles."
+
+"Ah, I see."
+
+"If he has, my theory is surely correct, and we next must fix the guilt
+upon the guilty," said Nick, firmly. "I shall arrest Cervera this very
+night, providing the Hindoo informs me that-- Ah, here we are at his
+door. Come into the house with me, Chick, and we'll see what he has to
+say."
+
+They had stopped before an ordinary brick house on the East Side, and
+Nick quickly mounted the steps and rang the bell. The summons brought a
+corpulent English woman to the door, from whom Nick learned that the
+Hindoo and his interpreter were still there.
+
+"Doesn't Pandu Singe speak English?" inquired Nick.
+
+"Dear me, no!" exclaimed the landlady, with a mute yet visible
+laugh--visible in that her convolutions of flesh became observably
+agitated. "Not the first word, sir. He talks only a blooming jargon fit
+for snakes and spiders and that like."
+
+Nick laughed agreeably, having a request on his tongue's end.
+
+"He has moved his beastly den o' reptiles into my cellar to stay till
+next season, sir, a 'orror I'd not stand for a minute, so I wouldn't,
+only he pays me very 'andsome for the same."
+
+"Then he intends remaining here all summer, does he?"
+
+"He do," replied the woman, with startling terseness after the
+foregoing.
+
+"I wish to see him briefly on business," said Nick. "Go and ask him if
+he will receive us."
+
+The landlady complied, returning presently and inviting the two
+detectives into the house. She led the way to a rear room off the hall,
+at the door of which stood a swarthy foreigner, who bowed and smiled as
+the callers approached.
+
+"'E's the hinterpreter," vouchsafed the landlady, in a wheezy whisper.
+
+Nick nodded understandingly.
+
+Reading by the light of a lamp on a table in the room sat the Hindoo
+snake charmer himself, clad in a rich, loose robe of Oriental fashion.
+He arose with much deliberation and dignity when the detectives entered,
+and gravely bowed in greeting, while his interpreter hastened to place
+chairs for the visitors.
+
+Through the interpreter Nick quickly explained his business, and saw a
+look of surprise appear on the face of Pandu Singe when inquiries were
+made about the loss of a snake.
+
+It took Nick but a short time to learn what he desired. Precisely as he
+expected, the Hindoo had missed one of his snakes about ten days before,
+one of the most venomous and dangerous of the lot.
+
+Hearing no reports or complaints about the missing reptile, however,
+Pandu Singe had come to the conclusion that the snake had died in the
+den and then been devoured by one of his companions in captivity. So the
+Hindoo had let the matter drop, and had said nothing about it.
+
+Nick did not disclose the true occasion for his inquiries, but invented
+a satisfactory explanation, and at the end of a quarter of an hour the
+two detectives departed and entered their waiting carriage.
+
+"Rather a dignified chap, after all, that Pandu Singe," laughed Chick,
+as they settled themselves on the cushions.
+
+"True," admitted Nick, thoughtfully. "Do you think, Chick, that we could
+make up to pass for those two swarthy Orientals?"
+
+"Could we!" exclaimed Chick, promptly. "Well, Nick, I should say that we
+could."
+
+"I think so, too."
+
+"You could do the snake charmer, all right, and easily gabble a lingo
+that would pass for his."
+
+"Well, rather," laughed Nick.
+
+"And if I was wise to the game you wished to play I easily could act as
+the interpreter, and run the conversation correctly on my own hook."
+
+"No doubt of it."
+
+"Do it? Why, surely we could," repeated Chick "Why did you ask?"
+
+"I think it may yet become necessary or desirable to make a move of
+that kind," replied Nick.
+
+"Why so?"
+
+"Because, as I have suspected all along, I still think there is some big
+game in the wind, with the Kilgore gang back of it, and that the murder
+of this Barton girl may have some connection with it, or at least give
+us a clew to it."
+
+"Egad! I hope so, Nick."
+
+"We soon shall see."
+
+"Going after Cervera now?"
+
+"Yes; at once," said Nick, with grim austerity. "We shall find her at
+home, as usual. She'll not imagine that I can have got on her track as
+quickly as this, so no doubt I can easily land her. Before midnight I
+want bracelets on the white wrists of that Spanish dare-devil."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+CLOSING IN.
+
+
+There was, indeed, as Nick Carter shrewdly suspected, a mysterious bond
+between the several crimes thus far engaging his attention, and the
+secret operations for which David Kilgore and his gang had ventured into
+the city of New York.
+
+Nick had remarked, however, that the game would become as hazardous and
+stirring as one could desire, as soon as it was fairly driven from
+cover.
+
+And Nick began to drive it from cover that very night.
+
+Shortly before nine o'clock, and just as the two detectives were parting
+from the Hindoo snake charmer, Mr. Rufus Venner rang the bell at the
+door of Cervera's uptown residence.
+
+It was answered by Cervera herself, much to Venner's surprise.
+
+"Where's the butler to-night?" he abruptly demanded, as he entered and
+closed the door.
+
+"Gone," said Cervera, curtly.
+
+"Gone?"
+
+"I've sacked him along with all the rest."
+
+"Not discharged all of your servants?"
+
+"Nothing less."
+
+"But why?" demanded Venner, with a frown settling about his dark eyes.
+"You cannot remain here alone."
+
+"I don't intend to."
+
+"But what are you going to do? When are you going?"
+
+While thus speaking they had repaired to the library at the rear of the
+house, the room in which Nick had encountered the gang nearly a
+fortnight before. It was the only room then lighted. Even the hall
+through which they had passed was in darkness.
+
+Yet Cervera was dressed in an elaborate evening gown, fitted close to
+her lithe, nervous figure, and augmenting in a marked degree her
+dangerous, dark beauty.
+
+"You know where I am going--or should!" she replied, facing Venner, with
+an odd smile on her red lips.
+
+"Not to the diamond plant?" cried he, with a start.
+
+"To the diamond plant--yes!"
+
+"Impossible!"
+
+"You will find it's not impossible, Rufe," she retorted. "I generally go
+where I wish, and do what I undertake. I have already sent my own jewels
+and other valuables there by Pylotte. He was here this morning."
+
+"But consider, Sanetta," protested Venner, with a darker frown. "Think
+of what chances you are taking."
+
+"Of what?"
+
+"Suppose Nick Carter suspects you, and has a shadow on your movements--"
+
+"Bah!" interrupted Cervera, with a snap and flash of her black eyes. "I
+care nothing for Nick Carter. _Caramba!_ do you think I fear him? I will
+fool and foil Nick Carter as I have fooled and foiled his betters. I
+shall go to the plant to-morrow, and that settles it."
+
+"Stop a bit," insisted Venner, almost angrily. "Do you forget that
+Kilgore and all his gang are there? Do you forget that we are just
+about launching our gigantic enterprise? We now have nearly a million
+dollars' worth of diamonds manufactured, or in the process of making,
+and I already have begun to distribute them on the market at a fabulous
+profit."
+
+"Well, I know all that. What has it to do with my going there?"
+
+"Such a move on your part may give Carter a clew to our location,"
+declared Venner.
+
+"Oh, no, it won't," sneered Cervera, scornfully. "I'll look out for
+that."
+
+"Discovery would ruin all, and possibly land the whole gang behind
+prison bars."
+
+"Faugh! I'm as well at the plant as here, and there I am going. You let
+me alone to evade the Carters."
+
+"But why in thunder are you so determined to make this change?" demanded
+Venner.
+
+An amorous fire came stealing into the woman's resolute eyes, and she
+shrugged her shapely shoulders significantly.
+
+"You should know why without asking," she slowly answered, with her gaze
+fixed upon his changing countenance. "It is because I love you, Rufe,
+and wish to be where you spend so much of your time."
+
+"So much of my time?" echoed Venner, inquiringly.
+
+"So at least you tell me."
+
+"Do you doubt it?"
+
+"I know that five days and nights have passed since you came here to see
+me," cried Cervera, bitterly. "I have only your own word in explanation
+of your neglect."
+
+"That should be enough," said Venner, curtly.
+
+"Yet a man after a new love does not shrink from lying to an old,"
+retorted Cervera.
+
+"Pshaw! You are jealous again."
+
+"A woman who loves as I love is always jealous."
+
+"Of whom now?"
+
+"You know of whom."
+
+"I tell you I have not seen Violet Page since the theater closed."
+
+"I have only your word for it," repeated Cervera, with incredulity
+bright in her sensuous eyes. "You know what I told you, Rufe. I'll not
+tamely permit that pale-faced nightingale to come between you and me.
+You know what I told you. I would kill her as I would a--a snake!"
+
+Despite his own stiff nerves, Venner recoiled from the look on the
+woman's desperate face. Her voice had fallen to a hiss like that of the
+reptile mentioned.
+
+"You are mad, Sanetta," he cried, irritably. "You have no occasion for
+this jealousy and hatred."
+
+"I have had! You know that I have had--and your face shows it!"
+
+"You have none now--absolutely none now!"
+
+His emphatic declaration fell upon Cervera with an effect which Venner
+did not at first understand.
+
+She sprang quickly toward him, gripping him hard by the wrist, while her
+every nerve seemed stimulated with sudden agitation.
+
+"None now? None now--now?" she fiercely reiterated, in inquiring
+whispers. "Do you mean that--that it is done? that it is done?"
+
+"Done?" gasped Venner, amazedly. "Is what done? What the devil are you
+driving at?"
+
+She drew back, searching his eyes with hers, and hers were like those of
+a demon, in her momentary suspense.
+
+"Then it isn't--it isn't?" she hissed, through her white teeth. "I
+thought from what you said that it was. I thought--"
+
+"Good God! what do you mean?" cried Venner, aghast for a moment.
+
+Then, struck with a sudden recollection, he turned and snatched an
+evening paper from a pocket of his coat, which he had tossed on a chair.
+He had recalled certain leader lines which had caught his eye earlier in
+the evening, yet which he then had not had sufficient interest to
+follow.
+
+Now he hurriedly opened the paper and read the story, or so much of it
+as enabled him to guess the truth.
+
+It was the newspaper story of the girl found dead in Central Park that
+afternoon, with the mystery involving the sudden fatality, and the names
+of the murdered girl and her mistress, Violet Page.
+
+A half-smothered oath of horror and dismay broke from Venner, after a
+moment.
+
+It brought Cervera to his side, and she snatched the paper from him and
+read--the story of her own failure; the miscarriage of her own jealous
+and murderous design.
+
+She suppressed the shriek of mingled disappointment and fury that rose
+to her twitching lips, then passionately cast the paper upon the table.
+
+"Well, what do you make of it?" she demanded, glaring at Venner's
+colorless face.
+
+"No need to ask," he replied, hoarsely. "You know what I make of it."
+
+"You think I did it?"
+
+"I know you did it!"
+
+"And killed the wrong girl?"
+
+"And killed the wrong girl!"
+
+"Can you guess how?"
+
+"I don't care how. I know that you did it."
+
+"You will not betray me?" hissed Cervera, crouching before him, with
+eyes never leaving his.
+
+"I have no wish to betray you."
+
+"You dare not! you dare not!"
+
+"I shall not!"
+
+"If you do--"
+
+The woman checked her words for an instant, and ran her hand into the
+bosom of her dress. When she drew it forth it gripped a naked poniard,
+upon the polished blade of which the rays of light flashed with many a
+wicked gleam and glint.
+
+"If you do," she repeated, "I will send you after her, Rufus Venner! I
+will do even more! I will expose our whole game, and our whole gang!"
+
+"I have said that I shall not betray you, nor will I," cried Venner,
+signing for her to put up the weapon. "Yet you were mad, Sanetta. You
+had no grounds for such jealousy, no occasion for such a crime."
+
+"I had--and you know it! I told you I would do it."
+
+"Well, you have tried it, at least," growled Venner, forcing a smile to
+his gray lips.
+
+"And you dare not betray me," repeated Cervera, thrusting the glittering
+weapon within her dress. "I have not failed entirely, Rufe, since it
+makes the criminal tie between you and me all the stronger. It binds us
+together with links of steel, Rufe, and they are stronger far than any
+marriage contract."
+
+"Then you love me like that, eh?"
+
+"You know that I do."
+
+"Yet your infernal jealousy, and your determination to quit this house
+and go to the plant with the gang, may yet ruin us all. If Nick Carter
+were to get a clew--"
+
+"Bah!" Cervera fiercely interrupted. "I despise him, not fear him! I
+tell you again, I will fool and foil Nick Carter, as I have fooled and
+foiled his betters!"
+
+"His better as a detective never lived, Sanetta."
+
+"I care not! I defy him, and will yet show you that--"
+
+"Hush! Hark! A cab has stopped outside!"
+
+Cervera changed like a flash.
+
+With the bound of a leopard, one of those lightning moves with which she
+could electrify an audience from the stage, she crossed the adjoining
+room, which was in darkness, and reached the front window.
+
+One glance through the lace draperies was enough.
+
+Nick Carter was just alighting from his carriage.
+
+Cervera darted back and rejoined Venner.
+
+"It is Carter--Nick Carter himself!" she fiercely whispered, with all
+the fire of her passionate Spanish nature ablaze in her eyes.
+
+"Carter! Good God!"
+
+"Be off, Rufe, and leave him to me!"
+
+"To you alone?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"He already is on your track for this crime."
+
+"I'll foil him yet! Leave him to me alone!" Cervera fiercely cried. "Be
+off by the back stairs, then through the stable and the side alley. Go
+to your own home, and from there signal Kilgore to have the secret way
+to the plant open for me. Here--the paper! Take it away with you! I'll
+elude Carter--"
+
+"But he may arrest you at once," protested Venner, excitedly. "If he
+does--"
+
+"_Caramba!_ do you stop to question?" Cervera furiously interrupted. "If
+he takes me from this house he will take me--dead!"
+
+"But--"
+
+"Quick--he's at the door! Leave him to me alone, and do what I told you!
+Away! There's the bell!"
+
+Venner caught up his coat, darted down the back stairs and quickly
+departed by the way mentioned.
+
+At the same time, while Nick's summons was still echoing through the
+great house, Sanetta Cervera swept haughtily through the main hall,
+switched on the electric light, and then opened the front door.
+
+She appeared as cool and composed as if she had just arisen from her
+dinner.
+
+Yet in the vestibule stood the one man whom she had most cause to fear,
+the man who now held her fate in his hand--Nick Carter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+CRAFTY CERVERA.
+
+
+"Good-evening, Mr. Venner. Oh, it's not you!"
+
+"Oh, yes, 'tis!" said Nick, dryly. "It's I all right, and I'm it. You
+appear surprised at seeing me, Señora Cervera."
+
+Cervera had begun, then stopped, then uttered the startled exclamation;
+and all with the utmost coolness, with the air of one stirred only by
+genuine surprise, and as if without the slightest fear or dismay upon
+beholding Nick Carter in the vestibule.
+
+So perfectly natural was her artful assumption, that it rather deceived
+Nick for a short time.
+
+In response to his dry remarks, the artful jade now nodded and began to
+laugh.
+
+"Surprised? Well, rather!" she exclaimed, in animated tones. "I was
+expecting our mutual friend, dear Mr. Venner, and supposed it was he who
+rang. But I'm just as pleased to see you."
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"Surely! Come in, Detective Carter. You are very, very welcome. I shall
+be so glad to renew our brief acquaintance. In fact, Detective Carter, I
+am quite charmed to see you."
+
+"You'll not feel so chipper and charmed when you learn my business,"
+said Nick to himself, as he entered and followed her to the library.
+
+"Take a chair, Detective Carter, and try to feel perfectly at home,"
+laughed Cervera, with bantering vivacity. "You have been here before,
+you know."
+
+"Yes, indeed, I know," said Nick, dryly. "The night I had a taste of a
+choke pear, at the hands of your faithful guardians."
+
+"Ah! but you shall be better treated this time," smiled Cervera,
+dropping into a chair opposite the detective, and fixing her sensuous,
+dark eyes on Nick's calm, unreadable face.
+
+"I hope so, señora," he replied. "By the way, what has become of those
+two stalwart guardians of your treasures? Do you still retain them in
+your employ?"
+
+It was second nature to Nick to feel his way in this crafty fashion, yet
+he did not really expect any resistance in arresting Cervera, who now
+laughed and shook her head, replying:
+
+"No, I have let them go."
+
+"That so?"
+
+"I have no use for them at present."
+
+"Why is that?"
+
+"My engagement at the theater has closed, and I seldom have occasion to
+wear my diamonds. I have placed them all in a safe deposit vault."
+
+"Ah! I see."
+
+"So I have no need for my guardians, Detective Carter, with only myself
+here. Nobody would want me personally, you know," she added, with a bold
+laugh.
+
+Nick's firm lips drew a little closer.
+
+"On the contrary," said he, pointedly, "somebody does, want you
+personally."
+
+"Oh! is that so?" cried Cervera, as if amused.
+
+"Very much so, señora."
+
+"And who does me the honor, pray?"
+
+"I want you," said Nick, bluntly.
+
+"You, Detective Carter! Why, sir, what an idea! I wouldn't have believed
+it of you."
+
+"Yet it is true, nevertheless."
+
+"Well, well," repeated Cervera, with a pretty shrug, "I am really glad
+to hear you say so. For what do you want me, Detective Carter?"
+
+Not once had Nick's searching gaze left her brazen countenance, and
+despite her outward display of badinage, his steadfast and penetrating
+eyes were making her secretly uneasy.
+
+"I want you," said Nick, pointedly, "for that ugly 'Jack-in-the-box'
+trick which you perpetrated this afternoon."
+
+Cervera's eyes emitted a single swift, fiery gleam, and her red lips
+drew closer. Yet she cried, still pleasantly:
+
+"What do you mean by that, Detective Carter? Is it a joke?"
+
+"You'll find it no joke."
+
+"If it is, sir, I don't see the point."
+
+"You will have a chance to look for it at the Tombs," replied Nick, with
+grim quietude. "Señora Cervera, I want you to go along with me."
+
+"The Tombs! Go with you! What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean that you are now under arrest."
+
+"Arrest! For what?"
+
+"For the murder of a girl named Mary Barton," Nick bluntly rejoined,
+ignoring the woman's increasing display of amazement and resentment.
+
+"Mary Barton!" cried Cervera. "I never heard of the girl."
+
+"Nevertheless," said Nick, sternly, "you met her on Fifth Avenue this
+afternoon, and gave her a jewel casket containing a venomous snake,
+which you had stolen from the den of Pandu Singe, and by which means you
+inadvertently killed Mary Barton, instead of another for whom your
+infernal design was intended. I am aware of all of your late movements,
+señora, you see."
+
+"I see that you are a devil!" cried Cervera, with a sudden passionate
+outburst. "How dare you come here with such a story as that?"
+
+For a moment at least, the fact that Nick already had discovered nearly
+every detail of her infamous crime--though committed only a few hours
+before--almost completely unnerved her, and her changing countenance,
+her irrepressible outbreak, and the violent agitation of her lithe,
+nervous figure, were tokens of self-betrayal by no means unobserved by
+Nick.
+
+"You'll have a chance to refute the story before a judge and jury," Nick
+curtly answered. "At present you are in my custody, however, and you
+must go with me."
+
+Cervera rose to her feet, trembling visibly, and gripped the back of her
+chair as if for support.
+
+"There must be some terrible mistake, Detective Carter," she now cried,
+with well-feigned distress and alarm. "Surely you do not mean this,
+sir? Surely you do but jest?"
+
+"On the contrary, señora, I mean every word that I have said."
+
+"That I am under arrest?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And must go with you?"
+
+"Precisely."
+
+"To the Tombs?"
+
+"To the Tombs, señora."
+
+"Oh! this is dreadful--dreadful!" craftily moaned Cervera, with tears
+now filling her eyes.
+
+"I am sorry for you, señora, but I must do my duty," said Nick, rising.
+
+"I know you must--but, oh! what shall I do? To whom can I appeal? Oh! if
+Mr. Venner were only here!"
+
+"You can send a messenger for him later, or dispatch one of your
+servants from here," suggested Nick.
+
+"I have none here," sobbed Cervera. "They are all out, and I am alone. I
+have no one--"
+
+She suddenly stopped, then drew herself up with resentful dignity, and
+wiped the tears from her eyes.
+
+"I am a fool to be so weak!" she exclaimed, bitterly. "Detective Carter,
+I know nothing of the crime you mention. I never heard of Mary Barton.
+This arrest is an outrage, and I will appeal to the highest court in the
+land for vindication!"
+
+"That's your privilege," said Nick, shortly. "But at present you must go
+with me."
+
+"I cannot go as I am," declared Cervera, passionately stamping her
+foot. "I am in evening dress--attired to receive a caller. I shall take
+cold if I go out of doors in--"
+
+"Oh, you may change your dress," Nick curtly interrupted, the need of
+which was decidedly obvious. "I'll give you time for that."
+
+"How very kind," sneered Cervera, with a bitter flash of her black eyes.
+"You shall yet suffer for this affront, Detective Carter."
+
+"All right," said Nick. "But I have no time to speculate upon it now, so
+get yourself ready. Wait a bit, my lady! I'll go along with you!"
+
+"With me? You insult me!"
+
+"Oh, no, I don't. I want a look at your chamber before letting you out
+of my sight. I've seen rooms with more than one way out, and I don't
+intend that you shall elude me."
+
+"You're a suspicious coward, sir!"
+
+"Stow all that, señora, and lead the way," commanded Nick, bluntly.
+
+Pale and resentful, with a sneer on her lips, Cervera led the way
+through, the hall, playing her part so artfully that Nick, ignorant of
+her late interview with Rufus Venner, was not much inclined to suspect
+her of duplicity just then.
+
+Upon reaching the top of the hall stairs, Cervera switched on another
+light, and then that which illumined her chamber, into which she
+haughtily led the detective.
+
+"A fine affront to suffer," she bitterly exclaimed, throwing herself
+into a chair. "Your conduct is despicable! You are no gentleman!"
+
+"I am a detective," retorted Nick, "and I come pretty near knowing my
+business."
+
+"Oh! you do," sneered Cervera. "Plainly that is the limit of your
+knowledge. You may not be as wise as you think."
+
+Nick made no reply, but looked sharply about the room.
+
+It was a large, square chamber, and elaborately furnished. The two
+windows were well above the street, and offered no chance for escape.
+There were but two doors, that leading into the hall and the one leading
+into a large closet in the opposite wall.
+
+Nick opened the latter, and found the closet hung with Cervera's
+extensive wardrobe. He thrust his arm along the garments hanging at
+either side, and sounded the three walls, and then the closet floor, all
+of which appeared perfectly firm and solid.
+
+Even these precautions seemed quite needless to Nick, however, it being
+a rented house, and Cervera presumably uninformed of his coming.
+
+"Now, señora, you may have just ten minutes to make ready," said he, as
+he rejoined her. "I shall leave this chamber door open, and will wait
+for you in the adjoining hall. Can you whistle?"
+
+"Whistle?"
+
+"Yes, whistle! You know what it is to whistle, don't you?"
+
+The sneer on Cervera's red lips, as she arose from her chair, became
+almost a smile.
+
+"Yes, I can whistle after a fashion," she admitted.
+
+"Well, then, you keep whistling all the time you are alone here," Nick
+sternly commanded. "I will let you out of my sight to make these
+changes, but not out of my hearing."
+
+"Suspicious fool!"
+
+"Fool or not, you keep whistling," said Nick, bluntly. "If you let up
+for so long as a second, I'll come over yonder threshold in a way that
+you'll not fancy."
+
+"But suppose I want to brush my teeth?" inquired Cervera, with a
+vixenish light in her evil eyes. "I cannot whistle and brush my teeth,
+Detective Carter."
+
+"You'll have plenty of time to brush your teeth at the Tombs," said
+Nick, sharply. "Now look lively, mark you, and--keep whistling."
+
+Cervera at once began to whistle.
+
+Nick removed the key from the chamber door, and sauntered out into the
+hall, where he kept his ears constantly alert.
+
+Not for a moment did the whistling cease, nor was there the slightest
+change in tone or character.
+
+Nick could not have taken a more effective method to serve his present
+purpose.
+
+At the end of eight minutes the whistling ceased, and Cervera coldly
+cried:
+
+"Now you may come in, Detective Carter. I am about ready to go with
+you."
+
+Nick at once entered the chamber.
+
+Cervera had changed her evening dress for a complete suit of black, and
+was standing in the middle of the room.
+
+"I suppose," said she, staring icily at the detective, "that I ought to
+thank you for your consideration."
+
+"Don't trouble yourself," said Nick, curtly. "I have no time to waste."
+
+"Yet just one word, Detective Carter, before we go."
+
+"Let it be brief, then."
+
+"You are said to be a very clever man, and no doubt you think you have
+me dead to rights in this case," said Cervera, with a mocking curl of
+her thin lips.
+
+"Decidedly so."
+
+"Yet you will find, Detective Carter, that a clever woman can always
+fool and foil a clever man."
+
+"But you, my lady, are very far from being a clever woman," retorted
+Nick, with a gesture of impatience, signifying that he wished to leave
+with her at once.
+
+"Nevertheless, I shall beat you at the finish, make no mistake about
+that," cried Cervera, scornfully. "Now, sir, I will put on my wrap, and
+go with you where you please."
+
+With the last remark, she approached a peg in the open closet, as if to
+take down a dark shawl.
+
+Instead, she suddenly turned quickly around and cried, with a taunting
+laugh:
+
+"So long, Detective Carter! I really feel quite sorry to bid
+you--good-by!"
+
+Nick started like a man electrified.
+
+Cervera merely had pressed the peg on which the shawl hung, whereupon
+the whole back of the closet seemed to fall away instantly, disclosing a
+lighted passage beyond.
+
+Nick caught a glimpse of it, and of the woman darting toward it, and he
+followed her like a shot from a gun.
+
+As Cervera passed through the further opening and gained the lighted
+passage, she seized and threw a short lever just beyond the closet wall.
+
+At the same moment Nick's weight fell upon the closet floor behind her.
+
+It was like treading upon air.
+
+The lever, like the peg, did not work in an instant.
+
+
+Nick felt himself falling, and made a desperate clutch at the door
+jamb--only to miss it.
+
+Then the closet floor, with the detective upon it, went speeding down
+like an elevator cut loose from a top story.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+IN A WARM CORNER.
+
+
+The crash with which Nick Carter vaguely expected his career might be
+abruptly ended, as the floor upon which he had fallen prostrate rapidly
+descended, did not come.
+
+The terrific downward speed suddenly decreased, then became more
+gradual, all in the bare fraction of a second; and then the rushing
+sound of compressed air escaping through narrow crevices fell upon the
+detective's ears.
+
+Nick immediately guessed the truth.
+
+The falling closet floor was that of an elevator, no longer in use as
+such, yet which still worked on the slides of the elevator well, and
+evidently had been cleverly adjusted for just such an emergency as that
+depicted.
+
+Presently there came a heavy jar, and then the downward motion ceased.
+The close-fitting floor at first had fallen so swiftly that the confined
+air in the well beneath it had become so compressed as to form an air
+cushion, which finally let the floor completely down only after the air
+had gradually escaped. It was this escaping air Nick heard during the
+last moments of his fall.
+
+The entire episode began and ended in but little more than a moment,
+however. Though considerably jarred, Nick pulled himself together, and
+gazed up through the darkness at the bottom of the well.
+
+Cervera was peering down from the lighted passage three stories above
+him, Nick having made a clean drop into the cellar of the imposing
+residence.
+
+That this entire contrivance was the work of the Kilgore gang, devised
+while they masqueraded at Cervera's house, Nick was thoroughly
+convinced.
+
+"Hello!" Cervera suddenly cried, still gazing down into the darkness
+enveloping Nick. "Are you there, Mr. Carter?"
+
+Nick stared up at her, but made no answer.
+
+At the same time he felt quietly over the walls of the well, in the hope
+of finding some way of escape.
+
+It riled him not a little, the thought of having been so deftly caught
+in a trap, almost entirely owing to his having been overconfident, an
+assurance only very natural under the circumstances.
+
+The possibility that this woman might now elude him for a time was also
+a thorn in Nick's mind.
+
+"_Caramba!_" cried Cervera, with a mocking laugh. "Aren't you going to
+speak?"
+
+Still no answer.
+
+"Have you lost your tongue, Detective Carter? If you don't speak out,
+Mr. Smart Fellow, I shall drop something down that will light you up. I
+want a look at you, to know whether you're afoot or on horseback."
+
+Nick remained in perfect silence.
+
+Then Cervera disappeared.
+
+"The she-devil!" muttered the detective. "What move next, I wonder?"
+
+Again he felt quickly over the walls of the well, in the hope of finding
+some avenue of escape.
+
+With a thrill of satisfaction, he now discovered one of the vertical
+strips of iron which are attached to two opposite walls of an elevator
+well, to steady the car and serve as slides for it to run upon. These
+iron strips are usually regularly notched to the depth of an inch or
+more, for the admission of an automatic break in the event of the rope
+parting.
+
+"By Jove! this is not so bad," thought Nick. "It might serve for a
+ladder.
+
+"To climb three stories with the tips of one's fingers and toes,
+however, and by means of a notched iron on the bare face of a wall, is a
+herculean and hazardous undertaking."
+
+While he stood, measuring the altitude with his eyes, Nick heard Cervera
+returning.
+
+Then a great bunch of flaming paper came flying down the well, and the
+detective was forced to leap aside to escape it.
+
+She-devil, indeed, Cervera had set fire to a crumpled newspaper, with
+which to illuminate the bottom of the well.
+
+"Ah, there you are!" she exultingly cried, on discovering Nick in the
+glare of the light. "On your feet, eh? You were lucky to escape,
+Detective Carter."
+
+"And you'll be lucky if you escape Detective Carter," sternly retorted
+Nick, quickly stamping out the fire. "I'll finally land you, my crafty
+young woman, though I lie awake nights to devise a way."
+
+Cervera gave vent to a shrill, vindictive laugh.
+
+"Do you think you can do it?" she demanded, mockingly.
+
+"You'll find that I can."
+
+"Better men than you have tried--and failed."
+
+"Yet I shall succeed."
+
+"Do you feel quite sure of it?"
+
+"Absolutely."
+
+"Then I think I'd better see your finish this very night, since I now
+have you cornered!" cried Cervera, in taunting tones, "It may not be
+wise to defer it."
+
+Then Nick beheld a second burning newspaper coming his way.
+
+"Let up, you demon!" he shouted, angrily. "You'll set the house afire."
+
+"Wouldn't it be a shame! And what would become of you?"
+
+"Don't try it again, young woman, or worse may be your fate."
+
+"Oh! is that so?" sneered Cervera, maliciously. "We'll see."
+
+Down came another burning paper, and by the light of it Nick now
+discovered a closed door in one of the walls. It was directly under the
+closet door in Cervera's chamber, both of which evidently had once been
+used for entering the elevator.
+
+The fact chiefly observed by Nick, however, was that the sill of the
+door was wide enough to offer him a safe footing. Though it was fully
+eight feet above his head, Nick resolved to attempt to reach it by means
+of the notched iron on the side wall.
+
+Gripping the rough notches with his muscular fingers, and using those
+lower down for a foothold, as best he could, Nick hurriedly began the
+difficult ascent.
+
+By the light from a fragment of burning paper, Cervera perceived his
+design, and greeted it with a scream of derision.
+
+"I'll soon stop that, my fine fellow," she shouted, with vicious
+asperity. "Look out for yourself!"
+
+White speaking, she touched a match to one of her dresses, which hung
+from a near peg on the closet wall, and dropped it blazing down the
+well.
+
+Nick saw it coming, and was forced to drop back to the cellar floor.
+
+"You vicious demon!" he cried, angrily. "Let up! You'll have the house
+on fire!"
+
+"That's just what I intend doing--and you with it!" screamed Cervera,
+with a laugh. "I'll not leave you alive to get the best of me at some
+later day."
+
+Then she set fire to a silk skirt, and dropped it after the other.
+
+Nick had not yet been able to extinguish the first, and the situation
+was momentarily becoming more desperate. A cloud of smoke was filling
+the well, with no draft to carry it away, and the heat was already very
+oppressive.
+
+Crouching on the curb of the lighted passage three floors above him,
+Cervera was laughing wildly, with her handsome face reflecting the
+bitter hatred by which she was inspired, as she hurriedly set fire to a
+third garment and dropped it down the well.
+
+The smoke at the bottom had become so dense that Nick no longer could
+see her, but he felt quite sure that he could put an end to her present
+murderous game.
+
+He drew his revolver and fired two quick shots in her direction. One
+bullet crashed through the ceiling above her. The second clipped a lock
+of hair from over the vixen's ear.
+
+It brought a shriek of alarm to her lips, and she sprang quickly back
+from the curb over which she was stooping.
+
+"_Caramba!_" she yelled, excitedly. "That's your game, is it?"
+
+"You'll find it is, if you approach that opening again!" cried Nick,
+half choked with smoke, while he fiercely strove to extinguish the
+blazing garments.
+
+"Oh, I'll not give you another chance at me!" screamed Cervera. "I'll
+push over something heavier, and crush out your life with--"
+
+She suddenly stopped, then held her breath and listened.
+
+The crash of a breaking door reached her ears, then hurried footsteps
+began falling on the main stairway leading to her chamber.
+
+"Some one is coming!" she fiercely muttered. "Perhaps another detective!
+I must be off!"
+
+Yet so bitter was her hatred of Nick, and so intensely enjoyable to her
+the trick she had served him, that she lingered for an instant in the
+face of the impending danger, and screamed down the well, with a mocking
+laugh:
+
+"I'm obliged to leave you, Detective Carter! While I'm gone--keep
+whistling!"
+
+At the same moment Chick Carter rushed into the chamber and caught a
+glimpse of her through the wreathing smoke, as she fled through the
+lighted passage.
+
+One glance at the scene gave Chick the entire situation.
+
+He drew back, took a short run, and with a magnificent bound cleared the
+open well, and leaped squarely through the closet and into the lighted
+passage.
+
+Then the crash of a heavy door, suddenly closed, and the shooting of
+bolts, told him that Cervera had prevented pursuit for a time at least,
+and Chick swung round to the open well, to see if Nick needed him.
+
+"Hello, Nick!" he shouted. "The woman--"
+
+"Let her go!" roared Nick, still fiercely fighting the flames that
+threatened the woodwork of the well. "Let her go--we'll get her later!
+First save the house!"
+
+"How can I reach you?"
+
+"Through a door under the one in her chamber," shouted Nick. "Try that."
+
+Chick cleared the well with another leap, then dashed downstairs and
+into the parlor, which was lighted by the glare from both hall and
+library.
+
+He quickly discovered the door--only to find it locked and the key
+removed.
+
+Chick was promptly equal to so slight an emergency, however. Grasping a
+heavy stool near the piano, he swung it above his head, and with half a
+dozen rapid blows demolished most of the door, and forced it open.
+
+A cloud of smoke floated into the room, but a glance showed Chick that
+Nick now had the flames extinguished.
+
+"Are you all right, old man?" he demanded.
+
+"Only a little in need of fresh air," gasped Nick. "You cannot reach
+down to me."
+
+"Wait a bit, then. This will do the business!"
+
+Chick had turned and snatched off the thick cloth covering of the piano,
+which he quickly twisted and lowered over the doorsill, and then braced
+himself to sustain Nick's weight.
+
+"All right?" cried Nick.
+
+"Yes. Come on!"
+
+Nick drew himself up until he could grasp the sill of the door, then
+easily reached the floor and the clearer atmosphere of the parlor.
+
+"Well, here's a pretty mess!" he growled, in tones of self-condemnation.
+"If ever I was done by a crafty jade, I've been done by one this night."
+
+"How in thunder did it happen, Nick?" demanded Chick, with no little
+amazement.
+
+Nick very quickly told him, and explained the occasion of his own lack
+of distrust and caution.
+
+"It being a rented house, I did not look for any such trap as this,"
+said he. "Furthermore, I did not believe that Cervera had any warning of
+my coming, and I felt satisfied that she was alone here. Have you seen
+anything of Venner while waiting in the cab?"
+
+"Not a sign of him."
+
+"It's odds, then, that he was here when I arrived, and made his escape
+by a back door," growled Nick. "If so, it goes to show that he is in
+with her and the Kilgore push, and not a blind victim to their cunning.
+We now must get some proof of that, Chick, and force that gang and
+their game to light. We at least have made a beginning, and now for
+another move."
+
+"To-night?"
+
+"At once!" declared Nick. "Cervera must find shelter somewhere, and it's
+very likely she will go to Venner's house. That must be our next point,
+and we will lose no time. Possibly we yet may land her before she finds
+cover."
+
+"We can give it a try," cried Chick.
+
+"Help me extinguish these lights, and then we'll be off again."
+
+"I'm with you."
+
+"What sent you into the house so suddenly?"
+
+"The reports of your revolver," explained Chick. "I at once recognized
+its bark, and knew something was wrong."
+
+"Ah! I see."
+
+"I saw the light in the chamber, and supposed you might be letting the
+woman prepare to go with you," added Chick. "That was while I sat in the
+cab. But when I heard your gun, I smashed open the front door and bolted
+upstairs."
+
+"Very lucky, too," nodded Nick. "That she-devil would have burned the
+house, and me in the bargain. But the end is not yet."
+
+"Well, hardly!" laughed Chick, as they descended the front stairs and
+extinguished the last light.
+
+"We'll stop an officer, and send him here to watch the house," said
+Nick. "Then we'll have a look at Venner's dwelling. It's my opinion,
+Chick, that our work has now begun in good earnest."
+
+"Well, I reckon we shall prove equal to it," smiled Chick, rather
+grimly, as they hastened to enter the waiting carriage.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THE DIAMOND PLANT.
+
+
+"This does settle it!"
+
+"What do you mean, Dave?"
+
+"It must be done?"
+
+"We must get these Carters--that's what! If we don't get them,
+Spotty--you take my word for it--they'll get us!"
+
+"Do you really think so, Dave?"
+
+"Not think, but know so!" declared Kilgore, with emphasis. "I know these
+Carters, root and branch. They have now struck our trail, and they'll
+stick to it like bloodhounds till they run us down--unless we get them!
+It must be done, I say, and done promptly."
+
+"Put them down and out?"
+
+"Exactly. It's them--or us!"
+
+"And why do you think, all of a sudden, Dave, that Nick Carter is so hot
+on our heels?"
+
+"I'll tell you why, Spotty."
+
+And Mr. David Kilgore, chief of the notorious diamond gang bearing his
+name, and one of the keenest and coolest criminals in or out of prison
+walls, removed his pipe from his mouth and his heels from the edge of
+the table, and drew forward in his chair to explain.
+
+It was a curious place, that in which the speakers of the above were
+seated, in the bright glare of an electric light.
+
+It was inclosed with four solid stone walls, with not a window or
+aperture through which a ray of light could be detected from outside.
+
+Yet in one of the walls was a low, narrow door, also of stone, and so
+cleverly constructed and fitted that, when swung into place in the wall,
+it was comparatively beyond the detection of anybody ignorant of its
+existence. This door then stood open, but the aperture through the wall
+was heavily curtained.
+
+Three of these walls formed the original foundation of an old and
+extensive suburban mansion, the location, ownership and present use of
+which will presently appear. The fourth wall, that with the door, was of
+more recent construction, and was built squarely across the original
+cellar of the house. It had been made to mask this secret subterranean
+chamber in which the Kilgore gang was then gathered.
+
+The place was commodious, and contained some noteworthy objects. In one
+corner was a powerful hydraulic press. Near by was a splendid electrical
+furnace, capable of generating an extraordinary degree of heat. Against
+the adjoining wall were several barrels of sulphur, of which only one
+was unheaded. Near by was a large box of anthracite coal, black and
+glistening in the rays of the arc light.
+
+Parallel with the opposite wall was a workbench, laden with curious
+retorts, crucibles, test tubes, metal molds, and no end of tools, all of
+which plainly suggested the work of one versed both in chemistry and
+some mechanical art.
+
+In the middle of the room was a square deal table, at which Kilgore was
+seated, with Matt Stall and Spotty Dalton, the original three of the
+Kilgore gang.
+
+Two other persons were present, however, and they were engaged in
+examining some work on the bench mentioned.
+
+One of them was a tall, angular Frenchman, about sixty years of age,
+named Jean Pylotte. He had a slender figure, somewhat bowed; but his
+head was massive, in which his gleaming, gray eyes were deeply sunk,
+like those of a tireless student and hard worker.
+
+His companion at the bench just then was Sanetta Cervera, the Spanish
+dancer--the murderess of Mary Barton--the vicious dare-devil who had
+served Nick Carter one of her evil tricks that very evening.
+
+Cervera had arrived at the diamond plant less than an hour before, and
+had hurriedly told her confederates the whole story of her crime and her
+adventure with Nick.
+
+Crime was too common with these outlaws, however, and loyalty to one
+another too natural, for Kilgore to censure his only female confederate
+very severely. Yet as Kilgore now proceeded to explain, her crime had
+rendered their situation decidedly more alarming.
+
+"I'll tell you why these Carters are now to be seriously feared," said
+he, nodding grimly at his hearers. "This last move of Cervera has hurt
+us severely."
+
+"In what way?" demanded Spotty Dalton, the pock-marked chap who had
+relieved Venner's partner of the Hafferman diamonds about two weeks
+before. "I don't see just how, Dave."
+
+"No more do I," put in Matt Stall.
+
+"You'll see," replied Kilgore, "when I run over a few facts which led
+to our being here, and at work on our present game."
+
+"Well, Dave, we're listening."
+
+"One year ago we three were in Amsterdam, Holland, weren't we?"
+
+"Sure."
+
+"At work on a different kind of a game?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Only we three were then in the gang."
+
+"That's right, Dave. Now there are seven of us, counting Venner and his
+partner."
+
+"It was in Amsterdam that we first met her nibs," continued Kilgore,
+with a jerk of his thumb in the direction of Cervera, who was so engaged
+with Pylotte that neither heeded the talk at the table.
+
+"Yes, Dave, we met her just a year ago," nodded Dalton.
+
+"She was then doing her dances in a theater there, and we naturally got
+our peepers onto her diamonds," Kilgore went on to narrate. "You fellows
+already know the scheme by which we tried to relieve her of them, which
+we came so near doing."
+
+"Well, rather," grinned Dalton, as if the reminiscence was amusing.
+
+"Then we learned from her own lips, and greatly to our surprise, that
+her sparks were not the real thing," smiled Kilgore. "At first we could
+not believe it. The goods deceived even us, old hands though we are. It
+was only when she told us about Pylotte, and the secret process by
+which he makes such extraordinary imitations, that we could believe
+her."
+
+"That's right, Dave."
+
+"She had stumbled by chance upon this clever French chemist and diamond
+cutter, and was working him to the extent of her ability. She even had
+got wise to his secret, and he was loading her with his marvelous gems
+in return for her affection. But we at once saw the way to something
+much more profitable, a game for making millions out of Pylotte's great
+discovery."
+
+"Right again, Dave."
+
+"So we told them about it, and found them willing," continued Kilgore.
+"We rung them into our gang, and planned the whole deal. We knew it
+would be dead easy to work off such clever stones for genuine goods.
+With plenty of such sparks on hand, and one big and reputable jeweler to
+help us work the market, the distribution of our goods and their
+substitution for genuine stones would quickly throw a cool million or
+two our way."
+
+"Dead easy, Dave."
+
+"But we decided that New York was the best field for such a gigantic
+enterprise," added Kilgore. "So we came here. With the help of Cervera,
+we got our grip on Venner, and then on his avaricious partner, Garside,
+whose business happened to be on its last legs. So they snapped like
+hungry fish at this chance to square themselves, by secretly swindling
+their own customers, and shoving our manufactured diamonds upon the
+entire market."
+
+"Like hungry fish--h'm! that's no name for it," cried Matt Stall, with
+a mingled growl and laugh. "Rufe Venner was as ready to become a knave
+as any covey I ever crossed."
+
+"So we established this plant for Pylotte to do his clever work in,"
+continued Kilgore, disregarding the interruption. "Luckily, Venner
+already owned this old mansion, as well as that in which he lives; and
+fortunately, both places are somewhat secluded, with extensive grounds
+abutting. That enabled us to frame up a very snug and safe retreat."
+
+"Sure it did."
+
+"So we went to work," Kilgore proceeded, discursively. "We built our
+plant, placed our machinery, rigged a private telephone between this
+house and Venner's, and tapped the electric conduit with a secret wire,
+to give us light and feed our furnace."
+
+"That was my work," nodded Stall, with a touch of pride.
+
+"Right you are, Matt, and mighty good work, too," bowed Kilgore. "In a
+nutshell, boys, after two months' secret work, we have accomplished all
+we planned, and now have Venner sliding our goods upon the market at a
+fabulous profit. In a single year, barring these infernal Carters, every
+man of us should be a millionaire."
+
+"But why this sudden fear of the Carters?" growled Dalton, impatiently.
+
+"I'll now tell you why," cried Kilgore, with voice lowered, and an ugly
+gleam in his frowning eyes. "We cannot sack Cervera, nor put out her
+light, for she's too good and strong a card for us to lose. But in
+losing her head over Venner, and jealously doing up that girl to-day,
+she has given the Carters a clew by which to track us."
+
+"How so, Dave?" muttered Stall, growing a bit pale.
+
+"Through Venner, of course!" Kilgore forcibly argued. "Until this job of
+to-day, Carter has had no definite suspicion of Venner, a possibility
+which we headed off with that fake robbery. Now, however, since Cervera
+must lie low, and Carter knows of her relations with Venner, he will
+suspect the latter and make him a constant mark, in the hope of landing
+the girl."
+
+"By Heaven, that's so!" snarled Dalton, quickly seeing the point.
+
+"And that's not the worst of it," added Kilgore. "The moment he suspects
+Venner, Carter will connect him with us, and know that that robbery was
+a put-up job. Then he'll begin to seek us and our game."
+
+"But how can he locate us?"
+
+"Locate us?" sneered Kilgore, acidly. "You don't know Nick Carter! I'll
+tell you, Spotty, he can smell a rat further than any ferret that ever
+shoved his nose under a miller's barn. As sure as death and taxes, Nick
+Carter will run us down and land us, every mother's son of us--unless we
+can get him, and put him down and out."
+
+"By Heaven, I begin to think so myself," growled Stall. "If we--"
+
+"There are no ifs, ands or buts about it, Matt," interrupted Kilgore,
+decisively. "We must down them both, Nick and Chick Carter, or our game
+is as good as done for."
+
+"But how can we land them, Dave, and when?"
+
+"I already have a plan, and I think the first move may be made this
+very night."
+
+"What's the plan, Dave?"
+
+"To lure both detectives into Venner's house, and there do them up. If
+we can get them to come there voluntarily, their fate may never be
+learned, and our tracks will be better covered than by doing the job
+elsewhere."
+
+"That's true enough, since they're not likely to disclose their
+intentions, and if they come in disguise, no one about here will have
+recognized them."
+
+"That's just my theory."
+
+"But how can we lure them to Venner's house?"
+
+"With the help of Pylotte, whom they do not know, nor ever heard of.
+He's a brainy dog, moreover, and crafty enough to blind them."
+
+"But what's your scheme for to-night?" demanded Dalton.
+
+"After what has happened," replied Kilgore, "it's a safe gamble that the
+Carters are at this moment watching Venner's house. If they are--but
+wait a bit! First hear my whole plan."
+
+The three criminals drew their chairs closer, and in a very few minutes
+Kilgore had disclosed his entire design, a scheme so recklessly bold
+that it brought murmurs of amazement and misgivings from both his
+hearers, daring knaves though they were.
+
+"It strikes me, Dave, that it's too long a chance for us to take, this
+giving Nick Carter a genuine clew to our game," objected Dalton,
+doubtfully.
+
+"But no other clew will answer," declared Kilgore, forcibly. "You
+cannot fool Nick Carter with any false move or faked story; I'm already
+sure of that."
+
+"So am I," nodded Stall. "He's too wise a guy to fool with."
+
+"We are compelled to give him the real thing, and make him feel that he
+is up against a square deal, or no man among us can work the racket,"
+added Kilgore. "With my scheme, however, Pylotte is just the covey to do
+the job, and land both Carters where we want them."
+
+"And then?"
+
+"Then it's our ability against theirs," snarled Kilgore, "If we go lame,
+with the odds all in our favor, we deserve to be thrown down."
+
+"That's right, too," admitted Dalton.
+
+"Will Pylotte undertake this sort of a job, think you?" inquired Matt
+Stall.
+
+"Will he?" rejoined Kilgore, with an ugly gleam in his determined eyes.
+"He will, or--well, you know! Yes, Matt, he will; and he's just the man
+for the job."
+
+The vicious significance with which he spoke plainly indicated that,
+though Cervera may have ruled her own roost, there was but one chief of
+this gang, and that was Mr. David Kilgore.
+
+He turned sharply about in his chair, and cried:
+
+"Here you, Pylotte! Come and give us your ear! I have work for you
+to-night!"
+
+Both Pylotte and Cervera quickly turned and hastened to join the gang at
+the table.
+
+For twenty minutes Kilgore's project for outwitting and securing Nick
+Carter was earnestly discussed, and every detail of the plan carefully
+laid.
+
+Then the four men stole quietly out of the house in company.
+
+It then was a little after midnight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE CUNNING OF JEAN PYLOTTE.
+
+
+Kilgore had reasoned shrewdly, in so quickly suspecting that Nick Carter
+would lose no time in getting a line on the Venner residence. Even while
+the diamond gang were discussing the plan by which to capture the
+Carters, the two detectives were at times within a hundred yards of the
+secret plant.
+
+It was dark out of doors that night, with only a few stars in the
+clouded sky, and the wooded locality and neighboring streets were but
+poorly lighted.
+
+It was in a northern suburb of New York, a section not yet much
+encroached upon by the spreading city, and the dwelling owned and
+occupied by Rufus Venner was that in which three generations of his
+family had lived and died.
+
+It was a square, old house of brick, set fifty yards from the suburban
+street, and was flanked in either direction by extensive, ill-kept
+grounds, made damp and dark by the huge, old trees, which nearly covered
+the estate.
+
+Back of the house, and off to one side, was a large wooden stable, fast
+running to ruin; while a rusty iron fence, falling to fragments in
+places, skirted the dismal grounds in front.
+
+Beyond the trees, far to the rear, could be seen the roof and chimneys
+of an old, wooden mansion, fronting on another street, and having a very
+similar environment. There, too, the house and grounds were running to
+ruin and decay, both places being but crumbling monuments of former
+opulence and grandeur.
+
+It was upon this scene that Nick Carter and Chick arrived just before
+midnight, having left their carriage at a remote corner, to await their
+return.
+
+"Yonder is Venner's house, Chick," said Nick, as they picked their way
+along the unpaved sidewalk. "We'll vault this iron fence and steal
+across the grounds."
+
+"It doesn't look much as if our quarry was there," observed Chick, as
+they scaled the fence.
+
+"Their deeds are dark, and like seeks like," replied Nick. "They now may
+be making darkness their cover."
+
+"Not a light in the house, is there?"
+
+"None visible from this side. We'll steal between the house and stable,
+and have a look at the opposite elevation."
+
+"Not much danger of being seen. It's as dark as a nigger's pocket under
+these trees."
+
+"So much the better in case anyone is watching."
+
+"Who lives here with Venner?"
+
+"Only an elderly housekeeper, of whom I don't hear anything very good,"
+replied Nick. "Venner is here but part of the time, I am told. In fact,
+I don't quite fathom his habits."
+
+"Why so?"
+
+"I can't learn what takes him from home so much of the time. He does not
+leave the city, nor patronize any hotel that I can discover, yet he
+frequently is away from this house overnight."
+
+"Perhaps he secretly keeps another house, and is leading a double life."
+
+"Possibly," admitted Nick. "He is on friendly terms with numerous women,
+I learn, and other quarters may be essential to designs of some kind.
+Quietly, now, and we'll slip across the back lawn."
+
+Like shadows, as dark as the night itself, they silently reached a point
+from which they could view the north side of the house. Here they
+discovered that one of the lower rooms was lighted, with the curtain at
+the single window nearly drawn.
+
+"Somebody is up," murmured Chick.
+
+"We'll learn who, if possible."
+
+"Going to have a look?"
+
+"Yes. Come, if you like, but don't get into the glare from the curtain.
+Kilgore has a very wicked air gun, and if he and his gang are about
+here, we might invite a bullet."
+
+"I'll have a care."
+
+Stealing closer over the damp greensward, they approached the house and
+peered beneath the curtain mentioned. There was but one occupant of the
+room, which was a small library.
+
+In an easy-chair near the table, with a newspaper fallen across his
+knees, sat Rufus Venner, apparently sound asleep.
+
+This was only a part of the game, however, for Venner was wide awake.
+By means of their secret wire, he had been informed of Cervera's arrival
+at the diamond plant, and of Kilgore's designs upon Nick, and Venner at
+that moment suspected that he might be under the eye of the detective.
+
+For nearly half an hour Nick waited for some sign of this artifice, but
+Venner in no way betrayed it.
+
+Presently a clock on the mantel struck the half after one, and the sound
+appeared to awake him. He yawned, glanced at the clock, then took the
+lamp from the table and went up to bed. But never so much as a glance
+toward the window.
+
+Nick led Chick away, and they returned across the lawn to a point beyond
+the stable.
+
+"It rather looks as if Cervera had been here, doesn't it?" inquired
+Chick, with a grin.
+
+"Yes," admitted Nick. "Two facts are very significant of it. First, that
+Venner is at home on this particular night; and, second, that he should
+be asleep in his chair after midnight. It has a fishy look."
+
+"That's my idea, Nick, exactly."
+
+"Yet the way to prove it doesn't appear quite easy."
+
+"Not just yet. But who occupies that house over yonder, where the roof
+shows above the trees?"
+
+And Chick pointed to the distant dwelling, little dreaming that the
+diamond plant and the gang they sought were established under its
+many-gabled roof.
+
+This was not the first night Nick had watched Venner's house since the
+diamond robbery, the doubtful character of which he had suspected at the
+outset, and incidentally he had informed himself concerning Venner's
+neighbors.
+
+"One Dr. Magruder, I am told, a retired physician from Illinois," he
+replied. "He bought the place at a forced sale some little time ago."
+
+Nor did Nick, when thus replying, dream that Dr. Magruder and Rufus
+Venner were one and the same; or that, in attributing to him a double
+life of shameful iniquity, Chick had hit the nail squarely on the head.
+
+"Come this way," added Nick.
+
+"Where now?"
+
+"We'll go down to the corner of the grounds, and watch the house for a
+time."
+
+Before Nick's reply was fairly uttered, however, both detectives were
+startled by distant cries, which fell with frantic appeal on the
+midnight air.
+
+"Help! Help! Help!"
+
+The startling cry was thrice repeated, the last time as if choked in the
+speaker's throat, yet the direction of the sound was unmistakable.
+
+"Something's up!" muttered Nick. "This way!"
+
+With Chick at his heels, he tore across the wooded grounds and bounded
+over the iron fence at the street.
+
+Then the occasion of the outcry at once became apparent.
+
+Some two hundred yards away, in the yellow glare of one of the
+incandescent lights by which the little-frequented street was illumined,
+a man was battling desperately with three assailants, one of whom he
+had knocked to the ground.
+
+Without a word, both detectives rushed down the road to his assistance.
+
+As they drew nearer there came a flash of light, then the report of a
+pistol, followed by another shriek for help.
+
+Then Nick saw one of the ruffians reel a little, as if shot, while a
+second hurled their victim to the ground. The third leaped to his feet
+at the same moment, yelling wildly:
+
+"Look out! Scatter, boys! The cops are upon us!"
+
+"Kilgore's voice, or I'm a liar," muttered Nick, over his shoulder.
+
+Both detectives were still fifty yards from the scene of the furious
+conflict, and were running at the top of their speed along the rough
+road.
+
+Before they could come near enough to use a weapon, however, the three
+ruffians scattered like frightened cats, leaping the wall near an
+adjoining woodland, into the gloom of which they speedily vanished.
+
+It was obvious to Nick that pursuit would be vain, so he hastened to the
+side of the fallen man, who had been left prostrate in the road, and
+helped him to his feet.
+
+The man was Jean Pylotte.
+
+He was panting hard after the conflict, the fake character of which Nick
+could not then foresee. His coat was ripped up the back, his linen
+collar torn off, and he was deathly pale, with a smutch of blood across
+his cheek. In one hand he held a revolver, and in the other--a chunk of
+coal.
+
+"Are you wounded, stranger?" Nick quickly demanded, as he studied the
+man's pale face.
+
+"Not much--not badly, I think," gasped Pylotte, trembling violently.
+"But it's lucky you came. They'd surely have killed me."
+
+Nick noticed that he spoke with a slight foreign accent, and was a man
+of considerable physical prowess.
+
+"There's blood on your face," said he.
+
+"It came from one of them, I think," said Pylotte, drawing his sleeve
+across his cheek to remove the stain. "I must have wounded one of them."
+
+"It's a pity you did not kill him," said Nick, bluntly. "Was it you who
+fired the gun?"
+
+"Yes. I tried to fire again, but one of them struck me down before I
+could do so. The ruffians came upon me before I fairly realized it."
+
+"Do you know them?" inquired Chick.
+
+"Only one of them, a man named John David," replied Pylotte, now
+appearing to pull himself together.
+
+"John David, eh?" grunted Nick.
+
+"He has swindled me, and I--I saw him at a theater to-night, and
+afterward followed him out here."
+
+"For what? If he has swindled you, why didn't you have him arrested at
+the theater?" demanded Nick.
+
+"Well, I--I wanted to learn where he lives. He must have discovered
+that he was being followed, and then tried to do me up."
+
+Nick observed the speaker's faltering manner, and it increased his
+curiosity.
+
+"Why do you wish to know where he lives?" he demanded.
+
+Pylotte hesitated, and shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," said he, after a moment.
+
+"Not believe you?"
+
+"I hardly think so."
+
+"Suppose you tell me, and see," suggested Nick, with a faint smile.
+
+"I have no objection to telling you, none at all," Pylotte now replied.
+"The man I spoke of, John David, swindled me yesterday with two
+artificial diamonds."
+
+"Ah! is that so?" cried Nick, with a significant glance at Chick. "What
+is your name, my man?"
+
+"Jean Pylotte, sir."
+
+"Who are you, and where do you live?"
+
+"I am a Frenchman by birth, and arrived in New York only this week. My
+home is in Denver. I am a diamond cutter by trade, and came here to buy
+some gems for a Denver woman of wealth, who wishes to obtain a certain
+size and quality."
+
+"Then you are a judge of diamonds?"
+
+"One of the best," Pylotte modestly admitted, with a faint smile. "I am
+an expert judge of diamonds, and so it happened that I discovered the
+swindle of which I am a victim."
+
+"Then you bought a diamond of the man who said his name was John David,
+did you?"
+
+"I bought two, sir," nodded Pylotte. "They appeared like natural and
+very perfect stones when I first examined them, but after subjecting
+them to more careful tests, I found them to be the most extraordinary
+imitations I ever beheld."
+
+"Artificial diamonds, were they?"
+
+"Yes, artificial. But only the best of experts, and after the most rigid
+tests, could discover the fraud. I never saw such imitations. The stones
+are really almost as good as natural ones."
+
+"Have you them with you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You feel quite confident that they were manufactured, do you?"
+
+"Oh, I am positive of it," cried Pylotte, with emphasis. "That is why I
+was secretly following the swindler."
+
+"You wanted to discover his house, and learn how he made such perfect
+imitations, eh? Was that your motive, instead of having him arrested at
+the theater?"
+
+"Well, yes, it was," admitted Pylotte, with feigned reluctance.
+
+"Do you know any process for manufacturing diamonds?" Nick next
+demanded.
+
+"I am pretty well informed on the subject."
+
+"Quite an art, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes, it is."
+
+"And one that could be made very profitable, perhaps?"
+
+"I judge so."
+
+"Put up your revolver," said Nick, abruptly. "What's that black object
+you dropped just now?"
+
+Pylotte glanced down at his feet, then laughed faintly.
+
+"That's odd," said he. "It's a piece of coal. I must have seized it from
+the road, thinking to defend myself with it."
+
+"What is there odd in that?"
+
+Pylotte laughed again.
+
+"Diamonds may be made from coal," said he. "The fact that I should have
+got hold of a piece in the road here, while tracking that diamond
+swindler in search of his house, strikes me as being rather odd."
+
+"So it was," said Nick, a bit dryly, thinking of Venner's house in the
+near distance.
+
+Then he added, decisively:
+
+"Put up your gun, Mr. Pylotte. I want you to go with me. I think you are
+the very man I want."
+
+"Go with you!" exclaimed Pylotte, drawing back.
+
+"If you please," said Nick, politely. "I want, at least, to hear more of
+your story."
+
+"But who are you, sir?"
+
+"My name is Nick Carter."
+
+"Not the celebrated detective?" cried Pylotte, with feigned amazement.
+
+"Precisely."
+
+"That's quite sufficient, Mr. Carter!" the Frenchman now cried, with
+much bowing and scraping. "I'll go with you when and where you wish. If
+any man can run down these swindling ruffians, sir, you certainly are
+the man."
+
+"Thanks," said Nick, dryly. "I'll take you home with me for the night."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+THE GAME UNCOVERED.
+
+
+The following morning.
+
+The clock in Nick Carter's library was striking nine.
+
+Nick and Chick were seated at one side of the table, and Jean Pylotte
+occupied a chair at the opposite side.
+
+Upon the dark cloth top of the table between them lay two large
+diamonds, declared by Pylotte to have been artificially made, the two
+with which he claimed to have been swindled.
+
+Yet to the eyes of a layman they had all the qualities of natural gems,
+gleaming and glistening with magnificent fire in the cheerful sunlight
+of Nick's library.
+
+Pylotte had invented a very clever and consistent story about himself
+and his mission in New York, as well as about the meeting and being
+victimized by the counterfeit diamond shover, and Nick as yet saw no
+occasion for seriously distrusting him, or connecting him with the
+Kilgore gang.
+
+He rather suspected, in fact, that Pylotte had shadowed the swindler,
+whom Nick felt sure was Kilgore, with a view to learning just how the
+diamonds had been manufactured, and possibly with a design to turn the
+discovery to his own advantage.
+
+This was, indeed, the most natural deduction for Nick to arrive at,
+after considering all the circumstances.
+
+"So you are confident that these stones are works of art, rather than
+of nature, are you?" inquired Nick, who had been carefully examining the
+gems.
+
+"I am absolutely sure of it, Mr. Carter," declared Pylotte.
+
+"Have you any idea how such counterfeits can be made?"
+
+"Oh, yes."
+
+"By what process and means, Mr. Pylotte?"
+
+Pylotte hastened to explain.
+
+"A natural diamond, Mr. Carter, is pure carbon, crystallized under
+enormous heat and pressure in the bowels of the earth."
+
+"I am aware of that."
+
+"Charcoal and graphite are also pure carbon, but not in a crystallized
+condition," continued Pylotte. "If that condition could be imparted to
+the substances mentioned, we should have the artificial diamond."
+
+"How may that be done?" inquired Nick.
+
+"By subjecting the substance to the same condition under which the
+natural diamond was crystallized."
+
+"Heat and pressure?"
+
+"Precisely," bowed Pylotte. "Attempts to thus manufacture diamonds have
+frequently been made. A Mr. Acheson, of Pittsburg, while so engaged, and
+in obtaining graphite from coal by the heat of an electric furnace,
+discovered that combination of silicon and carbon now known as
+carborundum, which has commercial value as an abrasive."
+
+"I know about that," bowed Nick.
+
+"Now, then," continued Pylotte, with an unconscious display of
+enthusiasm; "while diamonds certainly have been made by artificial
+means, the great difficulty has been that of producing them at a low
+cost. Moissan, in my country, produced diamonds by heating charcoal and
+iron to a high degree, and letting the mixture cool under enormous
+pressure. He succeeded in obtaining very small crystals, or diamonds,
+but the cost of production made his method impracticable from a
+commercial standpoint."
+
+"Ah! I see."
+
+"In 1872 a chemist named Rose converted graphite into diamonds by a
+similar process, but with the same result."
+
+"The cost of production being too great?" observed Nick.
+
+"Precisely."
+
+"Do you think that difficulty has now been overcome?"
+
+"I am compelled to think so, Mr. Carter," cried Pylotte, pointing to the
+two diamonds on the table.
+
+"You purchased them at a price compelling that belief?"
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"Then you think the man of whom you got them has discovered a way to
+make such perfect artificial diamonds at a low price?"
+
+"I certainly do, Mr. Carter."
+
+"Have you any idea of the machinery and ingredients he might require?"
+asked Nick, with a view to getting points by which to locate the diamond
+plant.
+
+Pylotte could easily inform him, and he promptly did so, following the
+instructions given him by Dave Kilgore.
+
+"He would require an electric furnace and a hydraulic press," said he.
+"Also the tools for cutting the crude crystals. The ingredients used
+would depend upon the process he has discovered, probably coal or
+charcoal, and possibly some quantities of iron salts and sulphur."
+
+"In brief, then, Mr. Pylotte," said Nick, pointing to the diamonds on
+the table, "if those stones were made as cheaply as you think, the
+diamond market offers the manufacturers of them a field for a most
+gigantic swindle, does it not?"
+
+"Indeed it does!" exclaimed Pylotte, throwing up both hands. "Enormous!
+Enormous! Millions could be made by so unparalleled a fraud!"
+
+"It opens the way, in fact, to the most colossal swindle on record?"
+
+"Undoubtedly."
+
+Nick glanced significantly at Chick, then abruptly rose to his feet.
+That he had struck the big game which from the first he had suspected,
+he now had not a doubt.
+
+"I require no more of you at present, Mr. Pylotte," said he, with
+courteous firmness. "I shall do all in my power to remedy your loss by
+this swindle, and to secure the perpetrators of it."
+
+"Thank you, Detective Carter," bowed Pylotte, with a crafty display of
+appreciation and humility.
+
+"Meantime," added Nick, "you will please take no action in the case, but
+leave it entirely to me."
+
+"I will do so, sir."
+
+"If you will leave me your city address, or call here again in a few
+days, I shall have something to report to you."
+
+"I will call the day after to-morrow, Detective Carter," said Pylotte,
+promptly, too cunning to give Nick a fictitious address.
+
+"Very well," said Nick. "Call in the evening. And now, Mr. Pylotte, we
+will bid you good-morning, and get to work at once upon the case."
+
+Pylotte bowed very agreeably, taking his artificial diamonds from the
+table and replacing them in his pocket; and Nick then conducted him to
+the door, again assuring him that no efforts in his behalf should be
+spared.
+
+Pylotte once more expressed his thanks, bowing and smiling as he
+descended the steps, and Nick closed the door and returned to the
+library.
+
+"Well, Chick, the bag is open and the cat out," he cried, as he entered.
+
+"Right you are, Nick."
+
+"And a monstrous cat it is!"
+
+"Never a larger one," declared Chick, with a laugh. "By Jove! Nick, if
+Kilgore has really found a way to produce such perfect counterfeit
+diamonds, his gang could work the greatest swindle ever known, unless
+headed off."
+
+"That is their game, all right," said Nick. "From the very first I have
+suspected something extraordinary. They are not the stamp of criminals
+to dicker with petty jobs."
+
+"I should say not."
+
+"Far from it."
+
+"One thing is plain."
+
+"Namely?"
+
+"Where Cervera gets her diamonds, and of what they consist."
+
+"True. She certainly is one of the gang."
+
+"With such counterfeits as those worked upon Pylotte, and one big
+jewelry concern to help market the goods, they could clean up millions
+in a very short time."
+
+"No doubt of it. And they have their jewelry concern, all right."
+
+"Venner & Co.?"
+
+"Surely."
+
+"We must get absolute proof of it."
+
+"That's just what I intend doing, now that we have the game uncovered,"
+said Nick, grimly.
+
+"And then proceed to locate the plant where the goods are made, eh?"
+
+"Precisely."
+
+"What are your plans?"
+
+"We'll first get a line on Venner, and see to what it leads," replied
+Nick. "There now is a way by which we can call the turn on him, and get
+proof of his co-operation with Kilgore and his gang."
+
+"By getting him to sell us some diamonds?"
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"And then proving them to be artificial?"
+
+"That's the idea."
+
+"Can you get at him in a way to trap him?"
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"He may fight shy of us," suggested Chick, "in case he knows of
+Pylotte's scrap with the gang last night. He may fear that Pylotte has
+discovered the fraud, and reported it to the police."
+
+"There's not much danger of that," replied Nick. "So stupendous a fraud
+would at once be given publicity through the press."
+
+"That's true."
+
+"In either case," added Nick, abruptly, "there's a way by which we can
+fool him. I'll explain it on the way. Get your make-up box and prepare
+to go with me. Since we have the game uncovered, we'll lose no time in
+rounding up these accomplished rascals."
+
+"Good enough!" exclaimed Chick, as he hurriedly arose. "The sooner the
+better."
+
+"We may have ragged work before the job is completed," added Nick. "So
+provide yourself with a brace of guns. I'll be ready when you are."
+
+"Where first?"
+
+"To the house of Pandu Singe, the snake charmer."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+AT CROSS-PURPOSES.
+
+
+It was not quite noon when Nick Carter and Chick arrived at the house of
+the Hindoo snake charmer.
+
+They found Pandu Singe at home with his interpreter, and the two
+detectives were very cordially received.
+
+Nick quickly disclosed his business.
+
+"We wish to borrow your personalities for a short time, also some of
+your curious garments," he explained to Pandu Singe, through his
+interpreter, who also was a Hindoo of superior education.
+
+The snake charmer appeared greatly surprised at such a request, but Nick
+readily invented a very plausible story to serve his purpose, without
+disclosing the true occasion.
+
+He soon persuaded the foreigner to grant his request, moreover, and the
+amazement of Pandu Singe and the interpreter were redoubled when they
+beheld what followed.
+
+This was the extraordinary transformation of their visitors.
+
+Nick had already outlined his plans to Chick, and they at once began
+operations.
+
+First they placed the two Hindoos in chairs near the windows, where the
+light revealed every peculiarity of their swarthy features.
+
+Nick next adjusted a large mirror upon the table, and placed his make-up
+box near by.
+
+Using the interpreter for his pattern, Nick then set to work with
+grease paints, powders, false hair, and the like, and at the end of
+twenty minutes he had, with most artistic skill, converted himself into
+a startling likeness of his model.
+
+The addition of the garments already provided for him made the
+remarkable transformation absolutely complete.
+
+Chick had not been idle meantime, but with equally clever manipulation
+had made himself into a counterfeit presentment of Pandu Singe.
+
+The astonishment of the two Hindoos, and their delight as they beheld
+the progressive changes so artistically made, could scarcely find
+expression in words.
+
+At the end of an hour, when the two detectives stood robed in their
+strange Indian attire, one would readily have declared that four genuine
+Hindoos, rather than two, occupied the apartment.
+
+Having thus paved the way to his next move, Nick easily prevailed upon
+the Hindoos to remain indoors for a day or two, lest the deception
+should be discovered and his designs perverted.
+
+He and Chick then returned to their waiting carriage, and half an hour
+later it drew up at the Fifth Avenue store of Venner & Co.
+
+Chick alighted and led the way in.
+
+In order that he might do most of the talking, and shape his course by
+whatever might occur, Nick had decided to personate the interpreter.
+
+Yet both detectives had carefully noticed the peculiar characteristics
+of the Hindoo tongue, and believed that they could imitate it so
+cleverly as to prevent detection.
+
+Several facts, which Nick then had no way of knowing, however, operated
+very quickly to betray him and the crafty ruse he had adopted, when
+Venner personally met them at the store door.
+
+First, Kilgore had shrewdly reasoned that Nick's first move, after the
+disclosures made by Pylotte, would be that of thus getting positive
+evidence against Venner; and the crafty diamond swindler had warned
+Venner to be on the watch for the detective, and to handle him in a way
+to serve their own designs.
+
+Furthermore, when visiting the theater with Cervera, Venner frequently
+had heard Pandu Singe talking with his interpreter; and before Nick
+fairly had begun speaking, Venner penetrated his disguise and saw that
+he was up against the two detectives.
+
+Yet, despite the unexpected characters in which he now beheld them, the
+nerve of the polished knave did not weaken, nor his countenance in any
+way betray him. He at once proceeded to follow Kilgore's instructions.
+
+"Ah! yes, I recognize both you and your interpreter," said he, in reply
+to Nick's dignified greeting. "I have frequently seen Pandu Singe at the
+theater, where I am admitted to the stage with Señora Cervera, the
+famous Spanish dancer. Perhaps Pandu Singe may have seen me there."
+
+Nick gravely bowed, then pretended to interpret the remarks to Chick;
+who immediately began to bow and smile, at the same time glibly
+responding in a jargon that would have staggered a Chinese laundryman,
+yet which sounded as much like Hindoo as anything.
+
+Had his own situation been less serious, and the entire outlook less
+desperate, Venner would have laughed at the consummate dignity and
+soberness with which the two detectives co-operated in their exchange of
+unintelligible talk.
+
+"My employer, the great Pandu Singe," bowed Nick, "says he remembers the
+friend of the great Cervera."
+
+"Ah! I am glad to hear it," cried Venner, shaking hands with Chick.
+
+"He has seen the splendid diamonds of the great señora, and has heard
+that they came from your magnificent store," Nick then went on to
+explain.
+
+"That is quite right," bowed Venner. "Many of them did come from here.
+Is Pandu Singe looking for some diamonds?"
+
+Nick promptly bowed, and noted a gleam of satisfaction in the depths of
+Venner's eyes.
+
+"The great Pandu Singe soon returns to his own country," replied Nick.
+"He wishes to take with him, as a gift to her august excellency, the
+Empress of all the Indies, six fine jewels of equal weight and value. He
+calls here to learn if you can provide him with them."
+
+Venner plainly saw the game that was being attempted, and it suited him
+to the very letter.
+
+"Does the great Pandu Singe wish to purchase diamonds?" he asked,
+bowing.
+
+"Diamonds, yes! Are they not for the empress?"
+
+"I should have thought of that, certainly."
+
+"Only diamonds will answer."
+
+"Of large size and the first water?"
+
+"The great Pandu Singe would consider no other."
+
+"Alas, then, this is most unfortunate!" Venner now exclaimed, glancing
+about the store. "You see that we are making some repairs here, in the
+walls of our store and vault."
+
+"That is plain," bowed Nick. "But what has that to do with the
+diamonds?"
+
+"Only this," replied Venner, with feigned regret. "During these repairs
+I have removed all of my most valuable diamonds to a vault in my private
+residence."
+
+"For safer keeping?"
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"I will explain to Pandu Singe."
+
+"Wait a moment," Venner quickly interposed. "Tell him, also, that I have
+at my residence the very gems he desires, six magnificent diamonds,
+precisely alike in weight, purity and cutting. They cannot be equaled in
+New York City, if in the entire country."
+
+"Are they fit for an empress?"
+
+"They are fit for a goddess."
+
+"Ah! that will please Pandu Singe."
+
+"Tell him, also, that he can purchase them at a marvelously low price,"
+cried Venner. "Now, if Pandu Singe will come to my house, say early this
+evening, he may see the diamonds and examine them at his leisure. Tell
+him that, Mr. Interpreter, and say that I will send my carriage for him
+immediately after dinner. Say, too, that he may then see the diamonds
+both by daylight and lamplight, and so observe all the variety of their
+magnificent fire. Really, this will be greatly to the advantage of Pandu
+Singe."
+
+Nick gravely heard him to a finish, and with never a change of
+countenance.
+
+Yet, like a flash, one of those marvelous intuitions characteristic of
+this great detective, Nick Carter had suddenly grasped the whole truth.
+
+That conflict of the previous night, the flight of three of the diamond
+gang, Pylotte left comparatively uninjured in the road, his subsequent
+disclosures, his extensive knowledge of the diamond-making art, the
+hints he had imparted, and now this manifest eagerness of Venner to lure
+his ostensible customers to his suburban house--all combined to reveal
+to Nick's keen mind the shrewd game by which Kilgore was hoping to
+entrap him.
+
+Nick now knew that Venner recognized both Chick and himself, and was
+serving only the Kilgore gang.
+
+Yet Nick bowed without the slightest self-betrayal, and said, gravely:
+
+"I will explain the situation to Pandu Singe."
+
+For several minutes the two detectives maintained their curious game of
+talk.
+
+Then Nick, who had speedily planned his own counter-move, again turned
+to Rufus Venner.
+
+"The great Pandu Singe will do what you suggest," said he. "He wishes to
+see the diamonds, and will be pleased to come to your house."
+
+Venner had felt sure of this to start with, though he little dreamed
+that Nick had guessed the truth, and knew that he was recognized.
+
+"Let it be to-day, then," said he, quickly.
+
+"At your own pleasure," bowed Nick.
+
+"I will send my carriage far you at seven this evening," cried Venner,
+with secret exultation.
+
+Nick gravely tendered one of the snake charmer's cards.
+
+"The great Pandu Singe will not keep your carriage waiting!" said he,
+with a dryness to which Venner then was blind.
+
+"Well, Chick, what say you to that?" demanded Nick, as they were
+returning to the house of the snake charmer.
+
+Chick laughed grimly.
+
+"I say that we are now up against it."
+
+"Right! There's a mighty wicked crisis near at hand."
+
+"No doubt of it, Nick. Venner knew us all right."
+
+"But he does not suspect that we are aware that he knew us, and in that
+at least we have the best of him."
+
+"We'll turn it to a good account, too."
+
+"Do you see the game this Kilgore gang is playing?"
+
+"Plainly, Nick."
+
+"They aim to lure us both to Venner's house, and there trap us and do us
+up."
+
+"To which latter," said Chick, dryly, "we shall strenuously object."
+
+"Well, rather!" laughed Nick. "Still, I can see nothing in evading this
+question or in making a raid upon Venner's house. If the Kilgore gang
+are about to lay for us there, it is evident that their diamond plant is
+located elsewhere. They would not take chances of failing to down us,
+and then having their plant discovered in the house where they slipped
+up."
+
+"Surely not," admitted Chick. "Kilgore is too shrewd to take those
+chances."
+
+"Undoubtedly."
+
+For several minutes Nick calmly considered the situation, then bluntly
+observed:
+
+"Chick, I see but one course for us. We must go up against the game, and
+give this gang what rope they want."
+
+"That's just my idea, Nick."
+
+"In no other way can we make sure of nailing the entire gang, and also
+locating their plant. Raiding Venner's house would not accomplish it.
+Some of the gang might not be there, or possibly escape us, and we might
+search in vain for their plant. Then we should have most of our work to
+do over again."
+
+"That's right, Nick."
+
+"So we'll take the one sure way, Chick," said Nick, decisively. "We'll
+let this gang continue to think they are fooling us, and go up against
+them till we get the whole truth."
+
+"That's good enough for me, Nick," nodded Chick. "I'm with you."
+
+"It may prove to be a desperate game, but we'll take our chances. Before
+night I'll have laid such plans as will best serve us, and possibly
+circumvent these scoundrels. Here we are at the house of Pandu Singe."
+
+Nick dismissed their carriage, and entered the dwelling, where they
+decided to remain until evening. Meantime Nick perfected his plans and
+discussed them with Chick.
+
+Then a wire was sent to Patsy, the detective's younger assistant, with
+careful instructions.
+
+Seven o'clock came, then half-past seven, but no sign of Venner's
+carriage.
+
+Nick readily suspected the true reason for the delay.
+
+"They are waiting until dark," he observed to Chick. "They don't want
+our arrival at Venner's house to be observed. A crafty dog, this
+Kilgore!"
+
+"That he is."
+
+"Never mind. Darkness will serve us best, as well as them."
+
+"Hark! There's a carriage."
+
+Nick glanced from the front window.
+
+"A landau!" he muttered, with grim satisfaction. "Yes, and with Spotty
+Dalton on the seat. I know him, despite his disguise. Come on, Chick!
+There's rough work to be done in the next two hours."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+HANDS SHOWED DOWN.
+
+
+Spotty Dalton stood at the door of the open carriage when Nick and Chick
+emerged from the house, still clad in the character of Hindoos.
+
+"Are you sent here by Mr. Venner?" inquired Nick.
+
+Dalton touched the cloth cap drawn low over his brow, and stroked his
+dark, false beard as he replied:
+
+"Yes, sir," said he, half in his throat. "You're the interpreter, I take
+it."
+
+"At your service."
+
+"I'm a bit late, but it couldn't be helped. We'll not be long in getting
+there."
+
+"Time does not matter to the great Pandu Singe," replied Nick, as he
+followed Chick into the open landau. "The night is still long."
+
+"It'll be infernally long for you two meddlers," Dalton grimly said to
+himself, as he banged the carriage door and mounted to the box.
+
+Then they rolled rapidly away toward a northern suburb of the city.
+
+The dusk of evening was already deepening to darkness, a gloom more
+noticeable far up in the heavens than among the myriad of lights in the
+city streets. For not a star was visible in the murky sky, and away in
+the west huge banks of inky clouds were sweeping up toward the zenith,
+indicating the rapid approach of a sudden storm.
+
+"Do you think it is going to rain, driver?" called Nick, from the rear
+seat of the carriage.
+
+"Not soon," Dalton turned to answer; and then he added with grim
+significance, which he did not dream would be appreciated: "Whether it
+rains or not, you'll be brought back home in a closed carriage."
+
+"It's my private opinion that the boot will be on the other leg,"
+thought Nick, smiling faintly at the scoundrel's grim levity.
+
+For Dalton had implied that Nick would be brought back in a hearse.
+
+From that time but few words were spoken during the ride, though the
+detectives occasionally passed a remark in their meaningless lingo,
+merely to keep up appearances.
+
+At eight o'clock they had left the throbbing body of the city behind
+them, and at half-past eight they were speeding along the deserted
+suburban road leading to Venner's rather isolated homestead.
+
+Only the yellow glare of an incandescent lamp here and there now
+relieved the terrestrial gloom, but across the distant heavens
+intermittent flashes of light, followed by the low, sullen roll of
+thunder, told of the approaching storm.
+
+Soon the lighted windows of Venner's house came into view through the
+woodland, and Nick now murmured softly to Chick:
+
+"If I fail to rejoin you in ten minutes, you will know what to do."
+
+"You bet!" whispered Chick. "Trust me to do it, too!"
+
+"Here we are, sirs," cried Dalton, as he pulled up at the gate of the
+gravel walk. "You can go right in, while I wait to look after my
+horses."
+
+Chick--as Pandu Singe--pretended to give Nick a brief command, and Nick
+alone sprang out upon the sidewalk.
+
+"Wait here, driver," said he, curtly. "I will return for Pandu Singe in
+a few minutes."
+
+Dalton instantly became suspicious.
+
+"What's that for?" he abruptly demanded. "Why doesn't his nibs go in
+with you now?"
+
+"It is for me to obey the great Pandu Singe, not question his commands,"
+replied Nick, with an air of offended dignity. "I shall return for him
+when I have followed his instructions."
+
+"Hold on a bit! I want to know--"
+
+But Nick had already turned, and was striding up the long gravel walk
+leading to the front door of the house.
+
+Dalton then swung round and began to address Chick, who quickly
+signified that he could not understand; whereupon the puzzled scoundrel
+remained doubtfully on the box, growling under his breath, and quite at
+a loss just what he should do.
+
+Chick was now counting the seconds and minutes, until he should arrive
+at ten.
+
+Venner, who was waiting with the gang in the house, heard Nick's step on
+the wooden veranda, and he hastened to admit him.
+
+"What's this!" he at once exclaimed, starting. "Where is your master?
+You did not come here alone!"
+
+"No, not alone," replied Nick, entering the hall. "Pandu Singe waits in
+the carriage."
+
+"Waits in the carriage! For what?"
+
+"He fears the storm may break."
+
+"Fears the storm!" exclaimed Venner, with a blaze of suspicion leaping
+up in his dark eyes. "Surely, then, he will not remain out there."
+
+"You don't understand," coolly answered Nick, quickly sizing up
+everything in view.
+
+"Don't understand?"
+
+"Pandu Singe thinks of returning home before the storm shall break. He
+has first sent me in to see the diamonds, as I know just what he wants.
+If I think well of them, I am to return to the carriage and bring him in
+to see them."
+
+"Oh, that's it, eh?" cried Venner, with unabated misgivings.
+
+"Am I to see the stones?" demanded Nick. "Pandu Singe will not care to
+wait long."
+
+"Yes, yes," replied Venner, as perplexed as Dalton by Nick's unexpected
+move. "Come out this way, where I have them ready to show you."
+
+Nick bowed and followed him through the hall, and a glance into the two
+front rooms, both of which were well lighted, told him they were vacant.
+
+Nick knew that he was entering a trap, however, and possibly carried
+his life in his hand. Yet he had several shrewd designs in the plan of
+operations adopted.
+
+He aimed to prevent both Chick and himself being cornered, and possibly
+caught at the same time. Not wishing to evade this gang, and thus reveal
+his own knowledge and suspicions, he designed to leave Chick free to act
+in case of his own downfall.
+
+Nick knew that he alone could force Venner and the gang to show their
+hands, even if it resulted in his own capture. He rather invited the
+latter, in fact, for he knew that the gang would see the need of
+instantly removing him from Venner's house, at least until they could
+lay hands upon Chick. In this case Nick believed that they might be
+compelled to confine him at their diamond plant, the location of which
+he thus hoped to discover.
+
+For these reasons Nick was coolly taking very long chances, at the same
+time leaving Chick free to quickly get in his work, in case he himself
+went down at the outset.
+
+Yet there was not a sign of any person save Venner, as Nick followed him
+through the hall and into a side room near the rear of the house,
+evidently a dining room.
+
+Nick sized it up with a glance. Electric chandelier; two doors, one by
+which he had entered from the hall, and the other leading into a dark
+kitchen; two windows, with the curtains closely drawn; several chairs, a
+handsome sideboard, and in the middle of the room a large, square table,
+covered with a rich damask cloth hanging nearly to the floor.
+
+Upon the table was also spread a piece of black velvet, on which was
+displayed nearly a score of blazing diamonds--the most magnificent
+artificial stones ever born of man's restless genius.
+
+Nick rightly guessed their true character, yet he allowed an ejaculation
+of admiration to escape him.
+
+"Ah! Magnificent!"
+
+"Look them over," cried Venner, with a swift scrutiny of Nick's swarthy
+features. "You'll excuse me for a minute or two. I wish to make sure
+that my rear windows and doors are locked. Such gems are a terrible
+temptation to thieves."
+
+"True, sir," bowed Nick. "Take your time. Meanwhile I'll examine the
+diamonds. They are splendid! magnificent!"
+
+Nick rightly guessed that Venner wished to consult some of the gang. He
+saw that his entering the house without Chick had thrown their plans
+badly out of gear, as he had designed for it to do.
+
+Venner went into the dark kitchen, rattled a doorknob merely for a
+bluff, then crossed the hall and entered the library, closing the door
+behind him.
+
+The room was but dimly lighted, and on the floor stood Dave Kilgore and
+Matthew Stall, each with a drawn revolver.
+
+"What's the meaning of this, Rufe?" Kilgore instantly demanded, in
+passionate whispers.
+
+"How do I know?" Venner hurriedly rejoined, scarce above his breath.
+"You heard what he said?"
+
+"Yes, curse him, but I don't swallow it."
+
+"Nor I."
+
+"I can't see into his game."
+
+"That's just my trouble," cried Venner. "Can he have discovered that we
+recognize him?"
+
+"Impossible! Pylotte is too cunning to have betrayed us in any way."
+
+This was very true, in fact; but Venner himself had blindly done the
+betraying.
+
+"It doesn't matter, Rufe," Kilgore fiercely added. "We must get them
+both."
+
+"That's my idea."
+
+"And it's all the easier to get them one at a time."
+
+"Right you are, Dave."
+
+"Has he discovered Pylotte?"
+
+"Surely not!"
+
+"Go back there, then," hissed Kilgore. "Learn what his game is, if you
+can. Force him to show his hand."
+
+"Leave that to me."
+
+"Waste no time, however, and on no pretext let him leave the house to
+return to the carriage."
+
+"Not on our lives."
+
+"A warning whistle will start Pylotte, and we'll be on hand to do our
+part," added Kilgore, hurriedly. "Go back at once, and waste not a
+moment in getting at his game."
+
+"Trust me, Dave."
+
+"We must land Nick Carter and get him away from here before that
+running mate of his can make any move against us."
+
+"That's the stuff."
+
+"And then we'll plan to get the other. Away with you!"
+
+These forcible measures were precisely what Nick had felt sure would be
+adopted by the gang, and were the very steps to which he had so shrewdly
+planned to force them.
+
+Venner darted softly across the hall and returned to the dining room.
+
+Nick was still examining the diamonds.
+
+He stood near the table, at a point midway between the two open doors.
+He had selected this position for a very good reason. He was inviting
+capture and removal, which he knew must be preceded by an assault; and
+he therefore laid himself open from either side, aiming to be put down
+and out with as little violence as possible.
+
+He wanted all his resources for what he knew was very likely to follow.
+
+Nick was quite as anxious as the gang to force matters, moreover; for at
+the end of ten minutes, in case he did not return to the carriage, Chick
+was to begin getting in his work.
+
+Therefore the climax came quickly.
+
+Six minutes had already passed.
+
+"Well, sir, what do you think of them?" cried Venner, as he returned to
+the room.
+
+"The diamonds?" queried Nick, tossing several of them back upon the
+table.
+
+"Certainly. What else?"
+
+"They are all right, Mr. Venner."
+
+"I thought you would say so."
+
+"Yes, indeed. They are all right--for what they are!"
+
+"For what they are?"
+
+"Precisely."
+
+"What do you mean by that?"
+
+"You know what I mean."
+
+"I do?" snarled Venner, inquiringly, with his frowning eyes shrinking
+from Nick's steadfast gaze.
+
+"Certainly you do," declared Nick. "These diamonds are imitations, not
+natural stones. They are the most perfect and marvelous artificial
+diamonds ever made.
+
+"Artificial!" cried Venner, now drawing back. "You are mad, sir! Why,
+man, you are away off the track!"
+
+"Oh, no, I'm not."
+
+"You are!"
+
+"Not off the track at all, but very squarely on it," Nick now retorted,
+speaking in his own sternly resonant tones. "Hark you, Venner, I am the
+one to ask the meaning of this, not you!"
+
+Venner's hand went stealing toward his hip pocket.
+
+"So you are showing your true colors, are you?" he cried, with
+threatening significance. "By Heaven, you are no Hindoo!"
+
+"That's right, Venner, I am not," said Nick, quickly throwing off the
+loose robe that hid his own apparel, fearing it might impede his
+movements. "I am no Hindoo, but am--"
+
+"Nick Carter!"
+
+"Exactly!"
+
+"So this is your game, is it?" Venner fiercely began. "If you think--"
+
+"Stop right there, Venner," Nick sternly commanded. "Speaking of games,
+I am here to discover what sort of a rascally game you and this Kilgore
+gang are playing. I have learned enough to show me that you are a knave
+and a--"
+
+"By heavens, Carter--"
+
+"Stop!" thundered Nick. "Don't pull a gun! If you do, I'll end your--"
+
+But he got no further, for there the climax came.
+
+A single sharp whistle sounded from the kitchen.
+
+Instantly Nick felt a rope noose jerked taut around his ankles, nearly
+throwing him from his feet.
+
+From beneath the table, the hanging cover of which had effectually
+concealed him, Jean Pylotte had managed to adjust the noose upon the
+floor about Nick's legs. At the signal given him, he had quickly drawn
+it taut.
+
+At the same moment Kilgore and Matt Stall leaped upon Nick from the
+kitchen and hall doors, bearing him heavily to the floor, while Venner
+ran to clap a revolver to the detective's head.
+
+"Hang to his feet, Pylotte," cried Kilgore, fiercely.
+
+"I've got 'em fast," shouted the diamond maker, from under the table.
+
+"Quit, Carter, or I'll blow your brains out," commanded Venner, with his
+pistol at Nick's head.
+
+Nick had been making a great bluff at putting up an ugly fight, but now
+he very agreeably subsided.
+
+The affair was going precisely as he desired, yet for the sake of
+appearances he angrily snarled:
+
+"Let up, you dogs! So this is your game, is it? Turn that gun another
+way, Venner, you miscreant! It might go off, and I'm not fool enough to
+invite its contents. This dirty game that you've played--"
+
+"Dry up!" Kilgore sharply interrupted, while he and Stall quickly
+secured Nick's arms with a rope. "You'll not live to know the game that
+we have played, Nick Carter."
+
+"Won't I?"
+
+"Not if I live!" cried Kilgore, with vicious significance.
+
+"Well, maybe you'll not live long," retorted Nick.
+
+"I'll close that saucy trap of yours, at all events," sneered Kilgore.
+"Give me that gag, Matt--quick."
+
+Nick no longer resisted. A glance at the clock on the mantel told him
+that nearly ten minutes had passed since he left Chick. He suffered
+himself to be gagged, then raised to his feet, from which Pylotte now
+cast the line and emerged from under the table.
+
+Nick bestowed one look upon him, from which the rascal shrank and
+shuddered.
+
+Kilgore now turned quickly to Venner, and hurriedly cried:
+
+"You remain here, Rufe, and leave us to dispose of this fellow. We'll
+run him over yonder, and return as quickly as possible. It's not safe to
+keep him here until we have landed his running mate."
+
+"But--"
+
+"Don't stop for buts!" cried Kilgore, fiercely. "Go see if you can sight
+Chick Carter. If he is still in the carriage, we are all right up to
+now. In six or eight minutes go down there and give him to understand
+that his interpreter wants him to come in here. Before you reach this
+room with him, we three will be back to help you turn him down. Do you
+understand?"
+
+"Sure!" cried Venner, thrusting his weapon back in his pocket. "He
+cannot suspect that we have recognized Nick, and he'll come in, all
+right."
+
+"Go, then! We'll be back here in six minutes."
+
+Venner hastened to one of the front windows of the house and peered out
+toward the street. At that moment a flash of lightning, followed by the
+nearer roll of thunder, dispelled for an instant the intense gloom of
+the night.
+
+A growl of profound satisfaction broke from Venner while he gazed, and
+he muttered exultingly:
+
+"By Heaven! we're all right! He's waiting in the carriage, and Dalton is
+still on the box!"
+
+Nick was being pushed out of a back door of the house, meantime, and
+then across the lawn and through the dark stable.
+
+The ruffians who were hurrying him away did not stop there, however.
+Pylotte ran on ahead, while Kilgore and Matt Stall continued urging the
+detective across the grounds, making toward the old wooden mansion in
+which their secret plant was located.
+
+It seemed to them the safest place in which to confine Nick, pending the
+delay in getting hands upon Chick.
+
+Presently they came to a dry ditch, walled at each side, and originally
+built for draining the low meadows between the two estates. Into this
+they plunged, following it until they arrived near a wooden bulkhead in
+the foundation wall of the house. This was the secret way of entering,
+to which Cervera had referred the previous night.
+
+Pylotte already had opened it, and Nick was quickly forced through a
+dark cellar.
+
+"All right," cried Kilgore. "Let us in."
+
+Instantly the secret stone door was thrown open, and Nick was nearly
+blinded by the flood of light in the room into which he was abruptly
+thrust.
+
+He stood in the subterranean chamber of the diamond plant.
+
+And there, erect on the floor, with her evil countenance a picture of
+malicious triumph, stood his crafty combatant of the previous
+night--Sanetta Cervera.
+
+"_Caramba!_" she cried, shrilly, with a vicious laugh. "So you've got
+him! Well done, Dave! Well done!"
+
+"Yes, and we'll presently have the other," cried Kilgore, panting hard
+after his exertions.
+
+"Good for you, Dave," screamed Cervera, exultingly. "But this is the one
+I want most--this is the one!"
+
+"Look lively, Matt. Lend a hand here, and we'll bind him to yonder
+chair."
+
+"And leave Cervera to guard him, eh?"
+
+"That's the stuff."
+
+"Can she do it?"
+
+"Can she!" growled Kilgore, with derisive vehemence. "You let her alone
+for that."
+
+"Yes, yes, let me alone for that!"
+
+"We must get back to stand by Venner. That Chick Carter is nearly as
+tough a customer as this fellow."
+
+"I guess you'll find that that's no dream," said Nick to himself, as the
+ruffians bound him to the chair mentioned.
+
+Cervera was laughing and capering around as if about to have a fit--yet
+her laugh had a terrible and chilling ring.
+
+"Oh, yes, I'll guard him, Dave," she shrilly cried, with a frightful
+menace in her strained voice. "_Caramba_, yes! let me alone for that."
+
+"So I do," snarled Kilgore.
+
+"Knot the line fast, Matt--make sure of that," the woman fiercely added.
+"Yes, I'll keep him quiet--never doubt that, boys! He shall be like a
+baby taking milk. Perdition! but you shall have a sweet time, Mr. Nick,
+alone here with Sanetta Cervera!"
+
+Kilgore paid but little attention to any of this, and only now and then
+bestowed a glance upon the vicious woman.
+
+Within a minute after their arrival at the plant, the gang had Nick
+securely bound to a common wooden chair, when they condescended to
+remove the gag from his mouth.
+
+"He may shout himself hoarse here, if he likes," growled Kilgore. "There
+will be none to hear him."
+
+Then he hurried Pylotte and Matt Stall back to the Venner house, to
+land Chick Carter.
+
+Left alone with Nick, Cervera darted to the stone door in the solid
+wall, and secured it within.
+
+There was murder in her glittering eyes when she shot the heavy bolts
+into their iron sockets.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE BOOT ON THE OTHER LEG.
+
+
+In the heat of action and excitement ten minutes are as nothing.
+
+The time seems longer, however, when one sits waiting in a motionless
+carriage, enveloped in the gloom of night, with grim distrust and
+uncertainty acting like spurs in the sides of one's impatience.
+
+Before five minutes had fairly passed, after Nick's departure, Spotty
+Dalton had suffered his misgivings to the very limit of his endurance.
+
+Chick sat mentally counting the passing seconds, then scoring each
+departed minute with his fingers, of which he had exhausted four and a
+thumb, the entire complement of one hand; and all the while his eyes
+were riveted with intense vigilance upon the growling ruffian on the
+seat above him.
+
+Had Dalton ventured so much as a move to leave his perch, Chick would
+have been after him like a terrier after a rat.
+
+At the end of five minutes, however, Dalton made a preliminary move. He
+hitched the reins around the whipstock, then stared for a second or two
+toward Venner's house, fifty yards away through the surrounding park.
+
+Then he suddenly swung round on his seat, and growled ferociously at
+Chick, at the same time signifying with gestures the communication he
+imagined would not be verbally understood:
+
+"See here, you swarthy-faced snake fiend, I'm bound up yonder, to see
+what's going on! You sit where you are, d'ye hear, and I'll be back in a
+jiffy, if things are all right! If they're not, ---- you, I'll be back
+just the same--with a gun!"
+
+As if moved by a wish to understand him, Chick arose in the body of the
+carriage while Dalton was thus declaring himself. He heard and
+understood, all right, and it necessitated his getting in his work a
+little earlier than was planned. For Chick would take no such chances as
+this that Nick's operations in the house would be interfered with.
+
+As the last word left Dalton's lips, the arm of the detective shot out
+through the darkness, and closed with the grip of a vise around the
+ruffian's neck, throttling him to silence.
+
+"With a gun, eh?" Chick fiercely muttered, yanking Dalton backward into
+the body of the carriage. "You open your lips again for so much as a
+whisper, and I'll close them with six inches of cold steel."
+
+In the glare of a distant lightning flash, Dalton, though struggling
+furiously, caught the gleam of a polished blade at his throat, and a
+glimpse of the flaming eyes in the face above him.
+
+He shrank, gasping for breath, as the truth dawned upon him; and then
+the voice of another sounded close beside the open carriage.
+
+"Want any help, Chick?"
+
+Nick's youthful assistant, to whom a wire had been sent from the house
+of the snake charmer, had appeared like an apparition out of the
+roadside gloom.
+
+"Ah! you're here, Patsy!" muttered Chick. "Yes. Clap a gag into this
+cur's mouth. We'll choke off his pipes first of all."
+
+Dalton uttered a vicious growl, then felt the point of the knife pierce
+the skin at his throat, and he wisely relapsed into silence.
+
+For Patsy to fish out a gag, and bind it securely in the scoundrel's
+mouth, was the work of a few moments only.
+
+Then Chick jerked Dalton up from the rear cushion and out into the road,
+in far less time than is taken to record it.
+
+"Off with his coat and hat, Patsy," he hurriedly commanded. "Now the
+false beard, my lad. Now get into them yourself, as quickly as you can."
+
+"I'm all in, Chick," chuckled Patsy, working like a trooper.
+
+"Got all the traps with you?"
+
+"Sure!"
+
+"Clap the bracelets on him, then. Now give me a second pair, and a strip
+of line. That's the stuff."
+
+"Oh, I brought the whole shooting match," laughed Patsy.
+
+"Good for you! Now mount to the box, and leave this dog to me. I'll
+return in half a minute."
+
+Patsy climbed up to the seat from which Dalton had been so speedily
+snatched and overcome, and Chick now ran the rascal a rod or more into
+the woodland on the opposite side of the road.
+
+There he threw him to the ground beside a small oak, around the trunk of
+which he quickly twined Dalton's legs, and then fastened them at the
+ankles with a pair of irons.
+
+"I reckon you'll stay there quietly until I want you, barring that you
+pull up the tree," he grimly remarked, as he turned to hasten back to
+the carriage, in which he quickly resumed his seat.
+
+A moment later Venner peered from the distant window--and was satisfied
+with what he saw.
+
+Five minutes later he came striding down the walk and approached the
+carriage. Without a word to the driver, whom he supposed to be Dalton,
+he opened the carriage door and laid his hand on Chick's arm, at the
+same time pointing toward the house.
+
+Chick signified that he understood, and held out both hands, as if he
+wished to be helped to the sidewalk.
+
+Venner promptly raised both of his--only to suddenly hear a quick,
+metallic snap, and feel links of cold steel confining his wrists. Their
+icy chill went through him like a knife, and he reeled as if stricken a
+blow.
+
+"Good God!" he gasped, hoarsely. "What's this?"
+
+Chick and Patsy were already beside him.
+
+"This," said Chick, sternly, "is your wind-up!"
+
+"My--"
+
+"Stop! Not a loud word, Mr. Venner, or worse will be yours! Now tell me
+in whispers--where is Nick Carter?"
+
+The sight of a revolver thrust under his nose had a potent effect upon
+the dismayed man, yet even while he saw that he was cornered, he seized
+upon the hope that Kilgore and the gang might discover and release him.
+
+"Find him yourself, if you want him!" he hissed through his teeth, with
+an ugly frown. "I'm cursed if I'll inform you!"
+
+Chick did not delay for arguments or persuasion. With Patsy's help he
+speedily put Venner in the same helpless condition in which he had left
+Dalton, stretched upon the ground, within a rod of one another.
+
+Then he threw off his disguise, and shifted his revolvers to his side
+pockets.
+
+"Now for yonder house, Patsy, and to see what the remainder of this gang
+are at," said he. "Come with me, and have your guns ready."
+
+"I'm with you," cried Patsy, coolly. "Guns and all."
+
+A dash up the gravel walk brought them to the front door, which Venner
+had left partly open.
+
+There they paused and listened.
+
+Not a sound came from within the house; but overhead the tempest now was
+breaking, with frequent crashing peals of thunder, and flashes of
+lightning that illumined all the landscape. Rain, too, now began pelting
+down on the veranda roof.
+
+"We'll steal in and see what we can find," whispered Chick, drawing one
+of his revolvers.
+
+"Go it, then."
+
+He led the way, and Patsy followed. The silence in the house mystified
+them at first. It appeared to have been entirely deserted.
+
+When they reached the door of the dining room, however, Chick discovered
+on the floor the disguise which Nick had discarded.
+
+"I have it, Patsy," he cried, softly. "They have nailed Nick, just as he
+expected, and have taken him somewhere to confine him."
+
+"Perhaps in the cellar," suggested Patsy.
+
+"I hardly think so, yet we'll have a look."
+
+Moving as quietly as shadows, they entered the kitchen and easily
+located the cellar door. It was closed and locked, with the key
+remaining.
+
+"Evidently they're not down there," whispered Chick.
+
+"Let's try the upper floors," suggested Patsy. "They may be laying for
+us up there, but I reckon we're good for them."
+
+"We'll take the chance, surely. Come on."
+
+They crept through the hall again, and then mounted the broad stairway,
+which led to the next floor.
+
+There the utter silence and the semidarkness quickly convinced them that
+they were on the wrong track.
+
+"The stable," muttered Chick, suddenly. "We'll try the stable."
+
+"They certainly have vamosed this ranch," remarked Patsy.
+
+"Plainly. Come on, then, and we'll try the stable."
+
+Together they started downstairs.
+
+A moment later Kilgore, Pylotte and Matt Stall came flurrying into the
+house by the rear door.
+
+In the bright light of the broad hall each party discovered the other
+at precisely the same moment, and Kilgore instantly guessed the truth.
+
+With a cry of rage, he whipped out his revolver and fired point-blank at
+the two men on the stairs.
+
+"Down 'em, boys!" he yelled furiously. "Down 'em, or our game is done
+for!"
+
+His bullet glanced from the baluster rail near Chick, and buried itself
+in the wall behind him.
+
+"Drop them, Patsy!" he shouted, instantly. "Shoot to kill! It's them or
+us!"
+
+"Let her go, Gallagher!" roared Patsy, pulling both guns.
+
+Then, amid the tumult of the breaking tempest outside, there began a
+fusillade the thunder of which rivaled that of the night, and which,
+though comparatively brief, was as fast and furious as any man there had
+ever experienced.
+
+Pylotte went down at the first shot from Chick, however, with a bullet
+in his brain.
+
+Then shot followed shot with lightning rapidity.
+
+Both detectives sprang down several stairs to evade the rain of lead,
+for both Kilgore and Stall were rapidly emptying two revolvers.
+
+A bullet singed Patsy's ear.
+
+Another dislodged Chick's hat.
+
+Then Kilgore reeled with a slight wound in his left arm.
+
+A score of shots were fired and wasted, meantime, for all hands were
+dodging about the hall and stairs in an utterly indescribable fashion.
+
+It was the warmest kind of a fight for fully three minutes.
+
+Then Chick got a line on Matt Stall from behind the baluster post, and
+dropped him with a ragged wound in his hip.
+
+Stall fell with a yell of rage and pain, and Kilgore found himself
+alone, and against odds.
+
+He turned like a flash, and darted out of the rear door of the house.
+
+He knew that the game was up, his confederates done for, and his own
+chances of escape but small; and the situation stirred to their very
+depths the worst elements of this lifelong criminal.
+
+But one thought possessed him--that of revenge, that of destroying the
+chief cause of his downfall--Nick Carter.
+
+With this end in view, Kilgore tore like a madman through the blinding
+rain of that tempestuous night, and shaped his course back to the
+diamond plant.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+AN ONLY RESOURCE.
+
+
+Despite the corner in which he had placed himself, a situation far more
+desperate than he at first imagined, Nick Carter was congratulating
+himself upon the success of his ruse by which he had so quickly located
+the secret plant of the diamond swindlers, even at the sacrifice of his
+personal freedom.
+
+The fact that he now sat bound in a chair in the hidden stronghold of
+the gang, watched only by Cervera, did not seriously disturb the
+fearless detective.
+
+Nick had been in many a worse corner than this, or in corners believed
+to be worse, and he felt confident of pulling out of the scrape with a
+whole skin, and with most of the gang in custody.
+
+He had surveyed his surroundings with more than cursory interest,
+therefore, while Kilgore and his confederates were binding his arms to
+the rounds of the chair back, and his ankles to the legs of the same.
+
+The rough foundation walls of the house, the massive stone wall built
+across the cellar to mask the secret chamber, the elaborate electric
+furnace, the huge hydraulic press, the workbench and tools, the powerful
+arc light pendent from the ceiling--half an eye would have convinced
+Nick that he occupied the workroom of that master craftsman whose
+chemical knowledge and inventive genius had given birth to a most
+marvelous production, long, earnestly, yet vainly, sought by others--
+
+The production of an artificial diamond!
+
+Not until Nick heard the stone door forcibly closed, and its iron bolts
+shot violently into their sockets, did he pay serious attention to
+Cervera, the venomous Spanish vixen left to guard him.
+
+Then, as she swung round toward him, he took a sharper look at her
+darkly magnificent face, and was thrilled despite him by the
+extraordinary changes it had undergone.
+
+It had lost its beauty. Its olive flush had given place to a chalky
+whiteness. The radiance of her eyes had become a merciless glitter, like
+the glint cast from the eyes of a serpent. The reflection of a consuming
+passion for vengeance had transfigured her countenance, till it had
+become like the face of a fiend.
+
+Though Nick saw at a glance that his situation had taken on an
+unexpected and desperate phase, he suppressed any betrayal of it. He met
+the woman eye to eye, while she briefly paused and faced him, with a
+cruel smile curling her gray lips.
+
+"So I have you now, Nick Carter," she cried, with mocking significance.
+
+"Well, yes, in a way," admitted Nick, coolly.
+
+"I have you in my power," hissed Cervera, with a vicious display of
+satisfaction.
+
+"Ah! that's different," said Nick.
+
+"How different?"
+
+"That you have me in your power remains to be demonstrated."
+
+"Are we not alone here, you fool?"
+
+"Yes, very much alone."
+
+"And you helpless?"
+
+"Apparently."
+
+"If I wish, Nick Carter, I can kill you."
+
+"Then pray don't wish it," said Nick. "I am still too young to be
+heartlessly slain, even by so beautiful and accomplished a woman."
+
+"_Caramba!_ you mock me!" cried Cervera, darting toward him with eyes
+ablaze and her lithe figure quivering with passion. "You mock me!--you
+shall repent it! Perdition! you shall repent it!"
+
+"Is that so?"
+
+"You shall repent it, I say!"
+
+"In this world, or in the next?" inquired Nick, bent upon prolonging the
+scene as much as possible, with a hope that Chick might suddenly turn
+up.
+
+Cervera did not answer him immediately. She wheeled again and darted to
+the door, once more to make sure that she had secured its bolts.
+
+She was clad in the black dress in which she had escaped from Nick the
+previous night, the somber hue of which was relieved only by occasional
+flashes of her dainty white lace underskirts, as she swept quickly from
+place to place, with her lithe figure crouching at times, and her every
+movement as swift and impulsive as that of a startled leopard.
+
+As he sat watching her, Nick was reminded of her matchless work upon
+the stage, thrilling men and women alike with her wild grace and the
+fiery passion of her indescribable dances.
+
+She returned to confront him after a moment, crouching before him, with
+her glowing eyes fixed on his.
+
+"In the next world--not in this!" she now replied, with a voice that cut
+the air like the snap of a whip. "You'd have brief time for repentance
+in this."
+
+"So you've decided to do the job, have you?" Nick coolly demanded.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, I'm sorry to hear it."
+
+"Here is where we even up accounts."
+
+"Even them up, eh?"
+
+"You heard what I said."
+
+"But I wasn't aware that I have so very much the best of you."
+
+"You have."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"_Caramba!_ you know too much!"
+
+"Ah! you mean about that girl."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I see," nodded Nick, secretly working in vain to loose the ropes
+confining his arms. "Well, señora, as a matter of fact, I am rather
+likely to make things unpleasant for you one of these days."
+
+"It will be this day, or never. You'll not live to see another."
+
+"Possibly not."
+
+"_Caramba!_ do you doubt it?"
+
+She darted nearer to him, with her hand tearing open the waist of her
+dress, and then the gleam of a poniard met Nick's gaze. She swept it
+before his eyes with a wild gesture, and gave vent to a mocking laugh.
+
+"Do you doubt that I can slay you?"
+
+"Not at all," answered Nick. "It's very evident."
+
+"Or that I will?"
+
+"That appears equally manifest."
+
+"So it is!" hissed Cervera, with vicious intensity. "I intend to do it!
+Do you hear, Nick Carter? I intend to do it!"
+
+"Oh, yes, I hear you."
+
+"Why don't you shrink? Why don't you plead for mercy?"
+
+"What's the use?"
+
+She answered him with a laugh that made the room ring.
+
+"Besides," added Nick, "it's not my style to show the white feather."
+
+"We'll see! _Caramba!_ we will see!"
+
+She came nearer to him, crouching before him, so near that her breath
+fell hot upon his cheeks. Then, with a quick movement, she pressed the
+point of the blade through his clothing, till it pricked the flesh above
+his heart.
+
+With his arms bound, with his ankles secured to the legs of the chair,
+Nick appeared utterly at her mercy--of which she had none.
+
+Despite himself, Nick shrank slightly from the wound, and for the first
+time shuddered at the peril by which he was menaced, and from which
+there seemed to be no avenue of escape.
+
+Cervera laughed again, a laugh freighted with the terrible ring of
+madness.
+
+"Did it hurt you?" she screamed, with her glittering eyes raised to
+search his. "Perdition! I hope so! You have tortured me with a thousand
+fears. I'd like to repay you with a thousand pangs!"
+
+Nick's eyes took on an ugly gleam.
+
+"Why don't you do so, then?" he growled.
+
+"I would, if I had the time," cried Cervera, through her teeth.
+
+"You have all there is."
+
+"Ten thousand times I'd thrust it into you--thus! thus!"
+
+Nick set his jaws and met the blade without flinching.
+
+Twice the vicious demon thrust it through his clothing, and now two
+crimson stains of blood on his shirt front followed the withdrawal of
+the weapon.
+
+"See! see!" screamed Cervera, triumphantly, with her terrible face
+upturned to his gaze. "You're beginning to bleed! Did you know that the
+sight of blood affects me as it does a leopard? I thirst for more--if
+that of one I hate! When next I strike you, I shall strike deeper!"
+
+That she fully intended to murder him, Nick now, had not a doubt. The
+homicidal madness was in her eyes, in her every feature, her every
+motion, and it rang in every word that fell from her bloodless lips.
+
+Yet the inflexible nerve of the detective did not for a moment desert
+him.
+
+"Send the blade home at once, if you like," he said, with a scornful
+frown.
+
+"Not yet--not yet!" she cried, shrilly. "There'll be time for that."
+
+"Time and to spare," sneered Nick.
+
+"I first wish to torture you, as you've tortured me!"
+
+"Go ahead, then."
+
+"Once more! Are you ready?"
+
+"Let it come."
+
+Again she drew back the glittering blade, only to mock him with several
+pretended thrusts, hoping thus to create and prolong an agony of fear
+and suspense.
+
+A more viciously cruel and vindictive creature never drew the breath of
+life.
+
+She laughed again, and slowly pressed the weapon closer--and then, with
+a sudden startled cry, she drew back and leaped to her feet.
+
+A noise like that of a mighty cannonade seemed to shake even the solid
+walls of this buried chamber.
+
+It was the crash of thunder in the heavens overhead.
+
+It was Cervera's first intimation of the terrible tempest that had been
+gathering outside.
+
+At first she thought the sound was that of revolvers, and she darted to
+the door and listened, pressing her ear to the wall.
+
+The instant her back was turned, Nick made a desperate attempt to free
+himself, straining cords and muscles under the determined effort. It
+proved vain, however. The ropes held him as if made of twisted steel.
+
+Yet in his brief but desperate struggle his right arm came in contact
+with an object in the side pocket of his sack coat.
+
+The object was a box nearly filled with parlor matches--one of the most
+dangerous and treacherous creations of man's inventive genius.
+
+Like a sudden revelation, or a bolt out of the blue, there leaped up in
+Nick's mind a possible way of escape.
+
+He thought of Cervera's garments, of the fluffy lace skirts beneath her
+gown, to which a single flash of fire would instantly prove fatal.
+
+The resort to such means seemed horrible--yet Nick well knew it was the
+one and only resource left him.
+
+He glanced sharply at Cervera. She was still listening at the door, with
+her evil face a picture of intense suspense.
+
+With a quick turn of his wrist, Nick succeeded in extracting the box
+from his pocket. Then he forced it open, and with a move of his hand he
+scattered its entire contents over the floor around his chair. The tiny
+matches fell with scarce a sound, and Cervera, ten feet away, failed to
+hear them.
+
+Then Nick quietly worked his chair back a foot or two, in order to bring
+some of the fateful things upon the floor directly in front of him.
+
+A moment later Cervera turned from the door.
+
+"Thunder--it was thunder," she muttered, under her breath. "There's a
+storm outside."
+
+"Somebody coming?" queried Nick, with taunting accents.
+
+He now aimed to provoke her, to force the situation to a climax, lest
+any mischance should have befallen Chick, or perverted in any way his
+own designs upon Kilgore and the gang. His taunting remark proved
+effective, moreover.
+
+With a snarl of rage Cervera darted toward him, with eyes for him alone,
+never for the floor.
+
+"You dog!" she cried, through her white teeth.
+
+"Do you mock me again?"
+
+"Oh! no, of course not," sneered Nick.
+
+"You lie! You do! You think some one will come--that you will then
+escape me," screamed Cervera, quivering through and through with
+venomous passion.
+
+Nick watched her as a cat watches a mouse.
+
+Her face was ghastly and distorted, her breast heaving, her every nerve
+quivering, and her eyes were like balls of fire under their knitted
+brows.
+
+Still clutching the poniard, her jeweled fingers worked convulsively
+around its haft, like those of one who fain would strike a death blow,
+yet whose hand was briefly held by consuming horror.
+
+Suddenly she darted nearer, with a vicious snarl.
+
+"You think you'll escape me," she screamed, with bitter ferocity. "It
+shows in your eyes. I'll make sure that you don't. Let come who may, you
+shall be found--dead! Dead!--do you hear?"
+
+"Oh! yes, I hear."
+
+"Yet you do not fear? We'll see--we'll see!"
+
+She darted closer to him, with the weapon raised, above her head, and
+her knee touched Nick's knee. He swung quickly around toward her, and
+scraped his feet over the floor below her skirts.
+
+Then came a quick, furious snapping, like the noise of a miniature
+fusillade. A score of the matches had been ignited by Nick's swift move.
+
+Almost instantly a shriek of terror broke from Cervera's lips, and she
+reeled back, clutching wildly at her skirts.
+
+"My God! I'm on fire!--on fire!" she screamed, with a voice so intense
+in its agony as to have chilled a man of stone.
+
+A roar came from Nick as he sighted the flames under her gown.
+
+"Release me! Release me!" he thundered, furiously, with a voice that
+drowned her frightful screams. "Cut me loose--loose! It's your only
+hope--your only hope!"
+
+She heard him like one in a nightmare of agony and terror, and her
+instinct rather than her reason responded to his thundering commands.
+
+Still with the poniard in her jeweled hand, still shrieking wildly, she
+leaped to his side, and with a single sweep of the keen weapon severed
+the rope binding his arms.
+
+Then Nick snatched the poniard from her hand. With several swift cuts
+and slashes he released his limbs, and sprang quickly to his feet.
+
+He had already shaped his course. He had observed on the sulphur
+barrels, near the wall, a strip of matting, used as a cover for them.
+Nick snatched it from the barrels, and rushed to wrap it around the
+skirts and limbs of the terror-stricken woman.
+
+For several moments the result seemed doubtful, so doubtful that Nick
+finally threw Cervera heavily to the floor, the better to press the
+matting closely around her and so smother the flames. In this he
+presently succeeded, but not before she was so severely burned as to be
+rendered utterly helpless.
+
+When Nick arose to his feet Cervera remained lying prostrate on the
+floor, moaning with pain, yet in a state of semi-consciousness only. A
+glance told Nick that she could make no move to escape, and he now had
+other work than that of looking to her comfort.
+
+He ran to the stone door, threw the bolts, and quickly dragged it open.
+
+Even as he did so, from out of the gloom of the adjoining cellar, a man
+came into view, as if suddenly arisen from the ground.
+
+The man was Dave Kilgore.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+THE LAST TRICK.
+
+
+"Carter!"
+
+"Kilgore!"
+
+Each man uttered the name of the other, as if with the same breath. The
+meeting came so suddenly that, for the bare fraction of a second, both
+men were nonplused.
+
+Then both whipped out a weapon.
+
+Crack!
+
+Bang!
+
+They fired together, and both missed, Nick's usually accurate aim being
+spoiled by the gloom of the cellar.
+
+Kilgore instantly sprang further away in the darkness, and aimed again.
+
+The hammer of his weapon fell as usual, but there was no report. In his
+recent fight at the Venner house he had emptied both of his revolvers,
+save the one bullet that had just missed Nick Carter.
+
+Then Kilgore, failing to have found Nick at his mercy, thought only of
+making his own escape. He turned and ran toward the open door by which
+he had entered.
+
+At that moment Chick's ringing voice sounded from outside.
+
+"This way! this way, Patsy!" he cried, louder than the rolling thunder
+overhead. "I've found the rat hole!"
+
+"I'm with you," yelled Patsy.
+
+They were already at the door.
+
+By the frequent flashes of lightning they had, after the fight at
+Venner's, succeeded in following Kilgore across the meadows, and they
+well knew that he was headed to get even with Nick.
+
+Now Nick's voice rang through the cellar.
+
+"Look out for him, Chick," he commanded. "He's coming that way. Look out
+for his gun."
+
+"Hurrah!" roared Chick, the moment he heard Nick's voice. "Let him come,
+gun and all!"
+
+Kilgore saw his flight cut off in that direction, but he knew every inch
+of the house. He turned like a rat in the darkness, and made for the
+stairs leading to the floor above. Up these he hurriedly scrambled.
+
+Nick heard him through the gloom, and followed him, pitching headlong at
+the foot of the stairs just as Kilgore opened the door leading to the
+hall above.
+
+There the dim rays from a hall lamp revealed the man for an instant, and
+showed Nick the way. He was up again and after Kilgore like a hound
+after a fox.
+
+Kilgore dashed through the hall, but dared not take time to unlock and
+open the front door of the house. He had a profound respect for the
+revolver in the hand of his pursuer, who already had reached the hall.
+
+It was a flight for life, and Kilgore knew it.
+
+He turned like a flash and darted up the stairs, making for the second
+floor. Three at a stride he covered, and succeeded in reaching the
+corridor above before Nick could get a line on him.
+
+Nick followed, gun in hand.
+
+On the second floor Kilgore darted into a dark chamber, and then
+through that to one adjoining it, where he waited till he heard Nick
+plunging into the one first mentioned.
+
+Then Kilgore slipped out into the hall again, hoping to retrace his
+steps downstairs and escape by the front door.
+
+In the way of that, however, Chick and Patsy were now in the lower hall,
+the former shouting lustily up the stairs:
+
+"Run him down, Nick! Run him down! We'll cover this way of escape!"
+
+An involuntary oath broke from Kilgore's lips, and at the same moment a
+vivid flash of lightning from the inky heavens illumined all the house.
+
+From the chamber in which he stood, Nick again caught sight of his man,
+and was after him in an instant.
+
+Kilgore heard him coming, and again fled through the hall and up another
+flight of stairs.
+
+"You'd better throw up your hands," roared Nick, as he followed.
+
+The answer came back with a yell of defiance:
+
+"Not on your life!"
+
+"You're a lost dog," cried Nick, hoping to keep him replying.
+
+"You'll not get me alive!"
+
+"Then I'll get you dead!" cried Nick, as he mounted the stairs.
+
+"You haven't got me yet!"
+
+"Next door to it, my man."
+
+This brought no answer.
+
+In a moment Nick reached the second hall, where he briefly paused to
+listen. Save the rain beating on the roof of the house, only one sound
+reached his strained ears. It was like that of some one hammering
+against the side of the house with some heavy object. For a moment the
+detective was puzzled. He could not fathom the meaning of such a sound.
+
+Then a gust of damp night air rushed through the hall and swept Nick's
+cheek.
+
+"Ah! an open window!" he muttered. "That's easily located."
+
+He groped his way into one of the rear chambers. There the night air was
+sweeping in through an open window, to the sill of which Nick quickly
+sprang.
+
+Now the noise he had heard was instantly explained.
+
+Cornered like a rat, yet viciously resolute to the last, Kilgore had, in
+order to make his escape, resorted to a means from which a less cool and
+nervy scoundrel would have shrunk on such a night as that.
+
+He had, by reaching far out of the window, been able to grasp an
+old-fashioned lightning rod with which the ancient wooden mansion was
+provided, and by which he proposed to descend to the ground. Under the
+swindler's weight, the beating of this swaying rod against the side of
+the house was the sound Nick had heard.
+
+Kilgore, whose courage was worthy a far better cause, already was
+halfway to the ground.
+
+Yet Nick had no idea of letting the knave escape thus, and he raised his
+weapon to fire.
+
+There was no need for a bullet, however, for the hand of the Almighty
+did the work.
+
+From the black vault of the heavens a bolt of liquid fire suddenly shot
+earthward, with a crash of thunder that seemed to rend the entire
+firmament.
+
+The fiery bolt reached the earth--but it reached it through the rod to
+which Dave Kilgore was desperately clinging.
+
+Not a sound came from the doomed man as he went down--or if there was a
+sound, it was drowned by the deafening crash and successive
+reverberations of thunder.
+
+Before Nick had fairly recovered from the blinding light and terrific
+concussion, he heard the voice of Chick yelling loudly from below:
+
+"Nick, Nick, come down here! The house is afire. The whole house is
+afire!"
+
+Nick heard and darted for the stairs, at once realizing how well the
+lightning had done its terrific work. Before he could reach the lower
+hall, dense volumes of smoke were pouring through the house, and one
+entire side of the fated dwelling was in flames.
+
+Nick thought of the woman in the cellar below, and, with Chick and Patsy
+at his heels, he led the way to the diamond plant. The electric light
+had been extinguished by the lightning stroke, but Nick soon located the
+body of Cervera, and together the detectives brought her out and laid
+her upon the ground some rods away from the burning dwelling.
+
+"She's done for, poor wretch!" muttered Nick, as he looked at her
+bloodless face.
+
+He was right.
+
+Señora Cervera had danced her last dance--a terrible one it was! She
+had lapsed into a merciful unconsciousness, from which she never
+emerged.
+
+Next came Kilgore, and they easily found him. He lay stretched upon the
+ground, dead and scorched almost beyond recognition, at the base of the
+metallic rod through which he had met his fate.
+
+"Lend a hand here," said Nick. "We'll place him with his confederate
+until we can have them properly removed."
+
+"So be it," said Chick, gravely. "It's about the last we can do for
+them, and this nearly ends our work on this job."
+
+"You've got the others?"
+
+"Every man of them."
+
+"Well done!" nodded Nick, as they raised the lifeless form between them.
+"Behold the way of the transgressor."
+
+"Hark!" exclaimed Patsy. "There goes the fire alarm. In three minutes
+there'll be a mob about here."
+
+"Much good the firemen will do," rejoined Nick. "That house is doomed,
+and all that's in it."
+
+He was right. With the passing of the tempest, and the first sign of a
+star in the eastern sky, all that remained of the house above the
+diamond plant was a heap of red, smoldering embers, filling the cellar
+and the secret chamber--and blotting out, though perhaps not forever,
+the secret art of that misguided genius, Jean Pylotte, dead with a
+bullet in his brain, on the floor of Rufus Venner's hall.
+
+There remains but little to complete the record of this strange and
+stirring case.
+
+Before morning Nick had lodged Venner and Spotty Dalton in the Tombs,
+and had Garside arrested at his residence. The lifeless bodies of their
+three confederates,--Cervera having died at dawn--were taken to the
+Morgue.
+
+Early the following day, Harry Boyden, the young man arrested for the
+murder of Mary Barton, was discharged from custody, and hastened to the
+home of Violet Page, to make her happy with the news of his release and
+his story of Nick Carter's extraordinary work. Both called upon Nick a
+day or two later, and expressed their gratitude and affection in terms
+which here need no recital. Incidentally it may be added that they were
+married, as planned, the following summer.
+
+How strangely the circumstances and experiences of life are knit and
+bound together. But for the vicious crime of a jealous woman, Nick might
+have labored long, and possibly vainly, to run down the Kilgore gang and
+their extraordinary criminal project, in which Cervera so strongly
+figured. It was as Nick said, the two crimes seemed bound together as if
+with links of steel.
+
+In the trial which preceded the conviction and punishment of the three
+living members of the gang, Nick learned all of the facts of the case.
+
+Venner & Co., it appeared, were on their last legs, and went into the
+game to square themselves, the design being to market vast quantities of
+the artificial diamonds. With this project in view, Venner had purchased
+the house at the rear of his own, under the name of Dr. Magruder, and
+there had established the plant. How well the scheme would have
+succeeded, but for Nick Carter, will never be known.
+
+At all events, in the stock of Venner & Co. were found numerous stones
+which only the most proficient experts could prove to be artificial; and
+even to this day it is intimated that, among the bejeweled women of New
+York there are some unconsciously wearing the manufactured diamonds of
+Jean Pylotte. What matters, however, since where ignorance is bliss it
+is folly to be wise?
+
+Jean Pylotte: His art died with him, alas! For in the ruins of the
+diamond plant there could be found no evidence sufficient to reveal his
+great secret.
+
+Surely it had opened the way to a great swindle, the possibilities of
+which can hardly be conceived. But, fortunately, in the way of it had
+come--
+
+Nick Carter.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+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
+trouble, 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 Toils 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 Fingerprints        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
+890--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
+948--Sealed Orders                        By Nicholas Carter
+949--The Hate That Kills                  By Nicholas Carter
+950--The American Marquis                 By Nicholas Carter
+951--The Needy Nine                       By Nicholas Carter
+952--Fighting Against Millions            By Nicholas Carter
+953--Outlaws of the Blue                  By Nicholas Carter
+954--The Old Detective's Pupil            By Nicholas Carter
+955--Found in the Jungle                  By Nicholas Carter
+956--The Mysterious Mail Robbery          By Nicholas Carter
+957--Broken Bars                          By Nicholas Carter
+958--A Fair Criminal                      By Nicholas Carter
+959--Won by Magic                         By Nicholas Carter
+960--The Piano Box Mystery                By Nicholas Carter
+961--The Man They Held Back               By Nicholas Carter
+962--A Millionaire Partner                By Nicholas Carter
+963--A Pressing Peril                     By Nicholas Carter
+964--An Australian Klondyke               By Nicholas Carter
+965--The Sultan's Pearls                  By Nicholas Carter
+966--The Double Shuffle Club              By Nicholas Carter
+967--Paying the Price                     By Nicholas Carter
+968--A Woman's Hand                       By Nicholas Carter
+969--A Network of Crime                   By Nicholas Carter
+970--At Thompson's Ranch                  By Nicholas Carter
+971--The Crossed Needles                  By Nicholas Carter
+972--The Diamond Mine Case                By Nicholas Carter
+973--Blood Will Tell                      By Nicholas Carter
+974--An Accidental Password               By Nicholas Carter
+975--The Crook's Bauble                   By Nicholas Carter
+976--Two Plus Two                         By Nicholas Carter
+977--The Yellow Label                     By Nicholas Carter
+978--The Clever Celestial                 By Nicholas Carter
+979--The Amphitheater Plot                By Nicholas Carter
+980--Gideon Drexel's Millions             By Nicholas Carter
+981--Death in Life                        By Nicholas Carter
+982--A Stolen Identity                    By Nicholas Carter
+983--Evidence by Telephone                By Nicholas Carter
+984--The Twelve Tin Boxes                 By Nicholas Carter
+985--Clew Against Clew                    By Nicholas Carter
+986--Lady Velvet                          By Nicholas Carter
+987--Playing a Bold Game                  By Nicholas Carter
+988--A Dead Man's Grip                    By Nicholas Carter
+989--Snarled Identities                   By Nicholas Carter
+990--A Deposit Vault Puzzle               By Nicholas Carter
+991--The Crescent Brotherhood             By Nicholas Carter
+992--The Stolen Pay Train                 By Nicholas Carter
+993--The Sea Fox                          By Nicholas Carter
+994--Wanted by Two Clients                By Nicholas Carter
+995--The Van Alstine Case                 By Nicholas Carter
+996--Check No. 777                        By Nicholas Carter
+997--Partners in Peril                    By Nicholas Carter
+998--Nick Carter's Clever Protégé         By Nicholas Carter
+999--The Sign of the Crossed Knives       By Nicholas Carter
+1000--The Man Who Vanished                By Nicholas Carter
+1001--A Battle for the Right              By Nicholas Carter
+1002--A Game of Craft                     By Nicholas Carter
+1003--Nick Carter's Retainer              By Nicholas Carter
+1004--Caught in the Toils                 By Nicholas Carter
+1005--A Broken Bond                       By Nicholas Carter
+1006--The Crime of the French Café        By Nicholas Carter
+1007--The Man Who Stole Millions          By Nicholas Carter
+1008--The Twelve Wise Men                 By Nicholas Carter
+1009--Hidden Foes                         By Nicholas Carter
+1010--A Gamblers' Syndicate               By Nicholas Carter
+1011--A Chance Discovery                  By Nicholas Carter
+1012--Among the Counterfeiters            By Nicholas Carter
+1013--A Threefold Disappearance           By Nicholas Carter
+1014--At Odds With Scotland Yard          By Nicholas Carter
+1015--A Princess of Crime                 By Nicholas Carter
+1016--Found on the Beach                  By Nicholas Carter
+1017--A Spinner of Death                  By Nicholas Carter
+1018--The Detective's Pretty Neighbor     By Nicholas Carter
+1019--A Bogus Clew                        By Nicholas Carter
+1020--The Puzzle of Five Pistols          By Nicholas Carter
+1021--The Secret of the Marble Mantel     By Nicholas Carter
+1022--A Bite of an Apple                  By Nicholas Carter
+1023--A Triple Crime                      By Nicholas Carter
+1024--The Stolen Race Horse               By Nicholas Carter
+1025--Wildfire                            By Nicholas Carter
+1026--A _Herald_ Personal                 By Nicholas Carter
+1027--The Finger of Suspicion             By Nicholas Carter
+1028--The Crimson Clew                    By Nicholas Carter
+1029--Nick Carter Down East               By Nicholas Carter
+1030--The Chain of Clews                  By Nicholas Carter
+1031--A Victim of Circumstances           By Nicholas Carter
+1032--Brought to Bay                      By Nicholas Carter
+1033--The Dynamite Trap                   By Nicholas Carter
+1034--A Scrap of Black Lace               By Nicholas Carter
+1035--The Woman of Evil                   By Nicholas Carter
+1036--A Legacy of Hate                    By Nicholas Carter
+1037--A Trusted Rogue                     By Nicholas Carter
+1038--Man Against Man                     By Nicholas Carter
+1039--The Demons of the Night             By Nicholas Carter
+1040--The Brotherhood of Death            By Nicholas Carter
+1041--At the Knife's Point                By Nicholas Carter
+1042--A Cry for Help                      By Nicholas Carter
+1043--A Stroke of Policy                  By Nicholas Carter
+1044--Hounded to Death                    By Nicholas Carter
+1045--A Bargain in Crime                  By Nicholas Carter
+1046--The Fatal Prescription              By Nicholas Carter
+1047--The Man of Iron                     By Nicholas Carter
+1048--An Amazing Scoundrel                By Nicholas Carter
+1049--The Chain of Evidence               By Nicholas Carter
+1050--Paid with Death                     By Nicholas Carter
+1051--A Fight for a Throne                By Nicholas Carter
+1052--The Woman of Steel                  By Nicholas Carter
+1053--The Seal of Death                   By Nicholas Carter
+1054--The Human Fiend                     By Nicholas Carter
+1055--A Desperate Chance                  By Nicholas Carter
+1056--A Chase in the Dark                 By Nicholas Carter
+1057--The Snare and the Game              By Nicholas Carter
+1058--The Murray Hill Mystery             By Nicholas Carter
+1059--Nick Carter's Close Call            By Nicholas Carter
+1060--The Missing Cotton King             By Nicholas Carter
+1061--A Game of Plots                     By Nicholas Carter
+1062--The Prince of Liars                 By Nicholas Carter
+1063--The Man at the Window               By Nicholas Carter
+1064--The Red League                      By Nicholas Carter
+1065--The Price of a Secret               By Nicholas Carter
+1066--The Worst Case on Record            By Nicholas Carter
+1067--From Peril to Peril                 By Nicholas Carter
+1068--The Seal of Silence                 By Nicholas Carter
+1069--Nick Carter's Chinese Puzzle        By Nicholas Carter
+1070--A Blackmailer's Bluff               By Nicholas Carter
+1071--Heard in the Dark                   By Nicholas Carter
+1072--A Checkmated Scoundrel              By Nicholas Carter
+1073--The Cashier's Secret                By Nicholas Carter
+1074--Behind a Mask                       By Nicholas Carter
+1075--The Cloak of Guilt                  By Nicholas Carter
+1076--Two Villains in One                 By Nicholas Carter
+1077--The Hot Air Clew                    By Nicholas Carter
+1078--Run to Earth                        By Nicholas Carter
+1079--The Certified Check                 By Nicholas Carter
+1080--Weaving the Web                     By Nicholas Carter
+1081--Beyond Pursuit                      By Nicholas Carter
+1082--The Claws of the Tiger              By Nicholas Carter
+1083--Driven From Cover                   By Nicholas Carter
+1084--A Deal in Diamonds                  By Nicholas Carter
+1085--The Wizard of the Cue               By Nicholas Carter
+1086--A Race for Ten Thousand             By Nicholas Carter
+1087--The Criminal Link                   By Nicholas Carter
+1088--The Red Signal                      By Nicholas Carter
+1089--The Secret Panel                    By Nicholas Carter
+1090--A Bonded Villain                    By Nicholas Carter
+1091--A Move in the Dark                  By Nicholas Carter
+1092--Against Desperate Odds              By Nicholas Carter
+1093--The Telltale Photographs            By Nicholas Carter
+1094--The Ruby Pin                        By Nicholas Carter
+1095--The Queen of Diamonds               By Nicholas Carter
+1096--A Broken Trail                      By Nicholas Carter
+1097--An Ingenious Stratagem              By Nicholas Carter
+1098--A Sharper's Downfall                By Nicholas Carter
+1099--A Race Track Gamble                 By Nicholas Carter
+1100--Without a Clew                      By Nicholas Carter
+1101--The Council of Death                By Nicholas Carter
+1102--The Hole in the Vault               By Nicholas Carter
+1103--In Death's Grip                     By Nicholas Carter
+1104--A Great Conspiracy                  By Nicholas Carter
+1105--The Guilty Governor                 By Nicholas Carter
+1106--A Ring of Rascals                   By Nicholas Carter
+1107--A Masterpiece of Crime              By Nicholas Carter
+1108--A Blow For Vengeance                By Nicholas Carter
+1109--Tangled Threads                     By Nicholas Carter
+1110--The Crime of the Camera             By Nicholas Carter
+1111--The Sign of the Dagger              By Nicholas Carter
+1112--Nick Carter's Promise               By Nicholas Carter
+1113--Marked for Death                    By Nicholas Carter
+1114--The Limited Holdup                  By Nicholas Carter
+1115--When the Trap Was Sprung            By Nicholas Carter
+1116--Through the Cellar Wall             By Nicholas Carter
+1117--Under the Tiger's Claws             By Nicholas Carter
+1118--The Girl in the Case                By Nicholas Carter
+1119--Behind a Throne                     By Nicholas Carter
+1120--The Lure of Gold                    By Nicholas Carter
+1121--Hand to Hand                        By Nicholas Carter
+1122--From a Prison Cell                  By Nicholas Carter
+1123--Dr. Quartz, Magician                By Nicholas Carter
+1124--Into Nick Carter's Web              By Nicholas Carter
+1125--The Mystic Diagram                  By Nicholas Carter
+1126--The Hand That Won                   By Nicholas Carter
+1127--Playing a Lone Hand                 By Nicholas Carter
+1128--The Master Villain                  By Nicholas Carter
+1129--The False Claimant                  By Nicholas Carter
+1130--The Living Mask                     By Nicholas Carter
+1131--The Crime and the Motive            By Nicholas Carter
+1132--A Mysterious Foe                    By Nicholas Carter
+1133--A Missing Man                       By Nicholas Carter
+1134--A Game Well Played                  By Nicholas Carter
+1135--A Cigarette Clew                    By Nicholas Carter
+1136--The Diamond Trail                   By Nicholas Carter
+1137--The Silent Guardian                 By Nicholas Carter
+1138--The Dead Stranger                   By Nicholas Carter
+1140--The Doctor's Stratagem              By Nicholas Carter
+1141--Following a Chance Clew             By Nicholas Carter
+1142--The Bank Draft Puzzle               By Nicholas Carter
+1143--The Price of Treachery              By Nicholas Carter
+1144--The Silent Partner                  By Nicholas Carter
+1145--Ahead of the Game                   By Nicholas Carter
+1146--A Trap of Tangled Wire              By Nicholas Carter
+1147--In the Gloom of Night               By Nicholas Carter
+1148--The Unaccountable Crook             By Nicholas Carter
+1149--A Bundle of Clews                   By Nicholas Carter
+1150--The Great Diamond Syndicate         By Nicholas Carter
+1151--The Death Circle                    By Nicholas Carter
+1152--The Toss of a Penny                 By Nicholas Carter
+1153--One Step Too Far                    By Nicholas Carter
+1154--The Terrible Thirteen               By Nicholas Carter
+1155--A Detective's Theory                By Nicholas Carter
+1156--Nick Carter's Auto Trail            By Nicholas Carter
+1157--A Triple Identity                   By Nicholas Carter
+1158--A Mysterious Graft                  By Nicholas Carter
+1159--A Carnival of Crime                 By Nicholas Carter
+1160--The Bloodstone Terror               By Nicholas Carter
+
+
+10,000,000
+
+copies of the works of Nick Carter in the New Magnet Library have been
+sold. Millions more are going to be sold, not because the line
+represents forbidden literature, but because it fills a large and
+growing demand for recreational reading.
+
+Nick Carter is justly famous. He stands as one of America's foremost
+literary characters. He is the close companion of some of America's
+leading professional and business men. Statesmen of high and low degree
+have called him "Nick," and do not hesitate to say that he has given
+them more satisfaction and pleasure than any other character in fiction.
+
+The Nick Carter stories, therefore, hold a great deal for you. Any in
+the foregoing list are worth while.
+
+STREET & SMITH CORPORATION
+79 Seventh Avenue  New York City
+
+
+
+
+BOOKS FOR YOUNG MEN
+
+MERRIWELL SERIES
+
+Stories of Frank and Dick Merriwell
+
+PRICE, FIFTEEN CENTS
+
+_Fascinating Stories of Athletics_
+
+
+A half million enthusiastic followers of the Merriwell brothers will
+attest the unfailing interest and wholesomeness of these adventures of
+two lads of high ideals, who play fair with themselves, as well as with
+the rest of the world.
+
+These stories are rich in fun and thrills in all branches of sports and
+athletics. They are extremely high in moral tone, and cannot fail to be
+of immense benefit to every boy who reads them.
+
+They have the splendid quality of firing a boy's ambition to become a
+good athlete, in order that he may develop into a strong, vigorous
+right-thinking man.
+
+
+_ALL TITLES ALWAYS IN PRINT_
+
+
+1--Frank Merriwell's School Days          By Burt L. Standish
+2--Frank Merriwell's Chums                By Burt L. Standish
+3--Frank Merriwell's Foes                 By Burt L. Standish
+4--Frank Merriwell's Trip West            By Burt L. Standish
+5--Frank Merriwell Down South             By Burt L. Standish
+6--Frank Merriwell's Bravery              By Burt L. Standish
+7--Frank Merriwell's Hunting Tour         By Burt L. Standish
+8--Frank Merriwell in Europe              By Burt L. Standish
+9--Frank Merriwell at Yale                By Burt L. Standish
+10--Frank Merriwell's Sports Afield       By Burt L. Standish
+11--Frank Merriwell's Races               By Burt L. Standish
+12--Frank Merriwell's Party               By Burt L. Standish
+13--Frank Merriwell's Bicycle Tour        By Burt L. Standish
+14--Frank Merriwell's Courage             By Burt L. Standish
+15--Frank Merriwell's Daring              By Burt L. Standish
+16--Frank Merriwell's Alarm               By Burt L. Standish
+17--Frank Merriwell's Athletes            By Burt L. Standish
+18--Frank Merriwell's Skill               By Burt L. Standish
+19--Frank Merriwell's Champions           By Burt L. Standish
+20--Frank Merriwell's Return to Yale      By Burt L. Standish
+21--Frank Merriwell's Secret              By Burt L. Standish
+22--Frank Merriwell's Danger              By Burt L. Standish
+23--Frank Merriwell's Loyalty             By Burt L. Standish
+24--Frank Merriwell in Camp               By Burt L. Standish
+25--Frank Merriwell's Vacation            By Burt L. Standish
+26--Frank Merriwell's Cruise              By Burt L. Standish
+27--Frank Merriwell's Chase               By Burt L. Standish
+28--Frank Merriwell in Maine              By Burt L. Standish
+29--Frank Merriwell's Struggle            By Burt L. Standish
+30--Frank Merriwell's First Job           By Burt L. Standish
+31--Frank Merriwell's Opportunity         By Burt L. Standish
+32--Frank Merriwell's Hard Luck           By Burt L. Standish
+33--Frank Merriwell's Protégé             By Burt L. Standish
+34--Frank Merriwell on the Road           By Burt L. Standish
+35--Frank Merriwell's Own Company         By Burt L. Standish
+36--Frank Merriwell's Fame                By Burt L. Standish
+37--Frank Merriwell's College Chums       By Burt L. Standish
+38--Frank Merriwell's Problem             By Burt L. Standish
+39--Frank Merriwell's Fortune             By Burt L. Standish
+40--Frank Merriwell's New Comedian        By Burt L. Standish
+41--Frank Merriwell's Prosperity          By Burt L. Standish
+42--Frank Merriwell's Stage Hit           By Burt L. Standish
+43--Frank Merriwell's Great Scheme        By Burt L. Standish
+44--Frank Merriwell in England            By Burt L. Standish
+45--Frank Merriwell on the Boulevards     By Burt L. Standish
+46--Frank Merriwell's Duel                By Burt L. Standish
+47--Frank Merriwell's Double Shot         By Burt L. Standish
+48--Frank Merriwell's Baseball Victories  By Burt L. Standish
+49--Frank Merriwell's Confidence          By Burt L. Standish
+50--Frank Merriwell's Auto                By Burt L. Standish
+51--Frank Merriwell's Fun                 By Burt L. Standish
+52--Frank Merriwell's Generosity          By Burt L. Standish
+53--Frank Merriwell's Tricks              By Burt L. Standish
+54--Frank Merriwell's Temptation          By Burt L. Standish
+55--Frank Merriwell on Top                By Burt L. Standish
+56--Frank Merriwell's Luck                By Burt L. Standish
+57--Frank Merriwell's Mascot              By Burt L. Standish
+58--Frank Merriwell's Reward              By Burt L. Standish
+59--Frank Merriwell's Phantom             By Burt L. Standish
+60--Frank Merriwell's Faith               By Burt L. Standish
+61--Frank Merriwell's Victories           By Burt L. Standish
+62--Frank Merriwell's Iron Nerve          By Burt L. Standish
+63--Frank Merriwell in Kentucky           By Burt L. Standish
+64--Frank Merriwell's Power               By Burt L. Standish
+65--Frank Merriwell's Shrewdness          By Burt L. Standish
+66--Frank Merriwell's Set Back            By Burt L. Standish
+67--Frank Merriwell's Search              By Burt L. Standish
+68--Frank Merriwell's Club                By Burt L. Standish
+69--Frank Merriwell's Trust               By Burt L. Standish
+70--Frank Merriwell's False Friend        By Burt L. Standish
+71--Frank Merriwell's Strong Arm          By Burt L. Standish
+72--Frank Merriwell As Coach              By Burt L. Standish
+73--Frank Merriwell's Brother             By Burt L. Standish
+74--Frank Merriwell's Marvel              By Burt L. Standish
+75--Frank Merriwell's Support             By Burt L. Standish
+76--Dick Merriwell At Fardale             By Burt L. Standish
+77--Dick Merriwell's Glory                By Burt L. Standish
+78--Dick Merriwell's Promise              By Burt L. Standish
+79--Dick Merriwell's Rescue               By Burt L. Standish
+80--Dick Merriwell's Narrow Escape        By Burt L. Standish
+81--Dick Merriwell's Racket               By Burt L. Standish
+82--Dick Merriwell's Revenge              By Burt L. Standish
+83--Dick Merriwell's Ruse                 By Burt L. Standish
+84--Dick Merriwell's Delivery             By Burt L. Standish
+85--Dick Merriwell's Wonders              By Burt L. Standish
+86--Frank Merriwell's Honor               By Burt L. Standish
+87--Dick Merriwell's Diamond              By Burt L. Standish
+88--Frank Merriwell's Winners             By Burt L. Standish
+89--Dick Merriwell's Dash                 By Burt L. Standish
+90--Dick Merriwell's Ability              By Burt L. Standish
+91--Dick Merriwell's Trap                 By Burt L. Standish
+92--Dick Merriwell's Defense              By Burt L. Standish
+93--Dick Merriwell's Model                By Burt L. Standish
+94--Dick Merriwell's Mystery              By Burt L. Standish
+95--Frank Merriwell's Backers             By Burt L. Standish
+96--Dick Merriwell's Backstop             By Burt. L. Standish
+97--Dick Merriwell's Western Mission      By Burt L. Standish
+98--Frank Merriwell's Rescue              By Burt L. Standish
+99--Frank Merriwell's Encounter           By Burt L. Standish
+100--Dick Merriwell's Marked Money        By Burt L. Standish
+101--Frank Merriwell's Nomads             By Burt L. Standish
+102--Dick Merriwell on the Gridiron       By Burt L. Standish
+103--Dick Merriwell's Disguise            By Burt L. Standish
+104--Dick Merriwell's Test                By Burt L. Standish
+105--Frank Merriwell's Trump Card         By Burt L. Standish
+106--Frank Merriwell's Strategy           By Burt L. Standish
+107--Frank Merriwell's Triumph            By Burt L. Standish
+108--Dick Merriwell's Grit                By Burt L. Standish
+109--Dick Merriwell's Assurance           By Burt L. Standish
+110--Dick Merriwell's Long Slide          By Burt L. Standish
+111--Frank Merriwell's Rough Deal         By Burt L. Standish
+112--Dick Merriwell's Threat              By Burt L. Standish
+113--Dick Merriwell's Persistence         By Burt L. Standish
+114--Dick Merriwell's Day                 By Burt L. Standish
+115--Frank Merriwell's Peril              By Burt L. Standish
+116--Dick Merriwell's Downfall            By Burt L. Standish
+117--Frank Merriwell's Pursuit            By Burt L. Standish
+
+
+SPORTS
+
+There is a greater appreciation of athletic sports among Americans than
+among people of any other nationality.
+
+We have had definite proof of this in the correspondence occasioned by
+our publication of the adventures of Frank and Dick Merriwell. These two
+boys are active athletes. They are proficient in every line of sport,
+and they play fair or not at all.
+
+This last feature of the Merriwell stories fills our daily mail with
+letters from readers who say that they appreciate the integrity and
+fairness of the Merriwells more than words can tell.
+
+These books, while of greatest interest to the right-thinking boy are
+educational and make for the development of a character which will
+enable the average boy to meet his fellows fairly and squarely in the
+battle of life.
+
+STREET & SMITH CORPORATION
+79 Seventh Avenue  New York City
+
+
+
+
+Bill Cody
+
+
+At a rough estimate there are 400 million civilized human beings who
+have heard of Bill Cody, not under his real name, but by the name
+everybody called him, "Buffalo Bill."
+
+His character made him an outstanding figure during a period of the
+development of America when a strong character was a matter of vital
+necessity.
+
+We doubt, however, whether the man's work is fully appreciated, or ever
+has been. In the rush and bustle that followed the introduction of the
+railroad to the West, the results of Buffalo Bill's work were more or
+less overlooked, but a time is coming when this remarkable man's
+achievements will be fully appreciated.
+
+This is the character whose adventures are dealt with in Buffalo Bill's
+Border Stories.
+
+Read them. You will find them of true historical value.
+
+STREET & SMITH CORPORATION
+79 Seventh Avenue  New York City
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WITH LINKS OF STEEL***
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+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, With Links of Steel, by Nicholas Carter</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: With Links of Steel</p>
+<p>Author: Nicholas Carter</p>
+<p>Release Date: November 19, 2004  [eBook #14096]<br />
+Most recently updated July 28, 2011</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WITH LINKS OF STEEL***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>E-text prepared Steven desJardins<br />
+    and Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>NEW MAGNET LIBRARY No. 1164</h3>
+
+<h1>With Links of Steel</h1>
+
+<h4>OR</h4>
+
+<h3>The Peril of the Unknown</h3>
+
+<h2>by Nicholas Carter</h2>
+
+<div class="toc">
+<span>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.</span>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 425px; margin-top: 1em;">
+<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="425" height="600" alt="Cover of With Links of Steel" title="" />
+</div>
+
+
+<h6>STREET &amp; SMITH CORPORATION<br />
+PUBLISHERS<br />
+79-89 Seventh Avenue, New York</h6>
+<h5>1904</h5>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="toc">
+<span>CHAPTER I      <a href="#CHAPTER_I">A CRAFTY ROBBERY.</a></span><br />
+<span>CHAPTER II     <a href="#CHAPTER_II">CONCERNING SE&Ntilde;ORA CERVERA.</a></span><br />
+<span>CHAPTER III    <a href="#CHAPTER_III">THE KILGORE DIAMOND GANG.</a></span><br />
+<span>CHAPTER IV     <a href="#CHAPTER_IV">GETTING DOWN TO WORK.</a></span><br />
+<span>CHAPTER V      <a href="#CHAPTER_V">BEHIND THE SCENES.</a></span><br />
+<span>CHAPTER VI     <a href="#CHAPTER_VI">A SHOT IN THE DARK.</a></span><br />
+<span>CHAPTER VII    <a href="#CHAPTER_VII">A STRATEGIC MOVE.</a></span><br />
+<span>CHAPTER VIII <a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">FOUND DEAD.</a></span><br />
+<span>CHAPTER IX <a href="#CHAPTER_IX">NICK STRIKES A STARTLING CLEW.</a></span><br />
+<span>CHAPTER X <a href="#CHAPTER_X">ON THE TRAIL.</a></span><br />
+<span>CHAPTER XI <a href="#CHAPTER_XI">THE CRIME AND THE MEANS.</a></span><br />
+<span>CHAPTER XII <a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CLOSING IN.</a></span><br />
+<span>CHAPTER XIII <a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CRAFTY CERVERA.</a></span><br />
+<span>CHAPTER XIV <a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">IN A WARM CORNER.</a></span><br />
+<span>CHAPTER XV <a href="#CHAPTER_XV">THE DIAMOND PLANT.</a></span><br />
+<span>CHAPTER XVI <a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">THE CUNNING OF JEAN PYLOTTE.</a></span><br />
+<span>CHAPTER XVII <a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">THE GAME UNCOVERED.</a></span><br />
+<span>CHAPTER XVIII <a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">AT CROSS-PURPOSES.</a></span><br />
+<span>CHAPTER XIX <a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">HANDS SHOWED DOWN.</a></span><br />
+<span>CHAPTER XX <a href="#CHAPTER_XX">THE BOOT ON THE OTHER LEG.</a></span><br />
+<span>CHAPTER XXI <a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">AN ONLY RESOURCE.</a></span><br />
+<span>CHAPTER XXII <a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">THE LAST TRICK.</a></span>
+</div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h2><a name="WITH_LINKS_OF_STEEL" id="WITH_LINKS_OF_STEEL" />WITH LINKS OF STEEL</h2>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I" />CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+<h3>A CRAFTY ROBBERY.</h3>
+
+
+<p>"Mr. Venner, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Venner&mdash;yes, certainly. You will find him in his private
+office&mdash;that way, sir. The door to the right. Venner is in his private
+office, Joseph, is he not?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think so, Mr. Garside, unless he has just returned. I saw him
+go out some time ago."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that so? Wait a moment, young man."</p>
+
+<p>The young man halted, and then turned back to face Mr. Garside, with an
+inquiring look in his frank, brown eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Not here, sir, do I understand?" he asked, politely.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Garside shook his head. He was a tall, slender man of forty, and was
+the junior partner of the firm of Rufus Venner &amp; Co., a large retail
+jewelry house in New York City, with a handsome store on Fifth Avenue,
+not far from Madison Square.</p>
+
+<p>It was in their store that this introductory scene occurred, and proved
+to be the initiatory step of one of the shrewdest and most cleverly
+executed robberies on record.</p>
+
+<p>It was about eleven o'clock one April morning. The sun was shining
+brightly outside, and at the curbing in front of the store were several
+handsome private carriages, with stiff-backed, motionless coachmen, in
+bottle-green livery, perched on their boxes, all of which plainly
+indicated the very desirable patronage accorded the firm mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>In the store the glare of sun was subdued by partly drawn yellow
+curtains, which lent a soft, amber light to the deep interior, and
+enhanced the dazzling beauty of the merchandise there displayed.</p>
+
+<p>The store was a rather narrow one, but quite deep, with a long-counter
+on each side, back of which were numerous clerks, some engaged in
+waiting upon the several customers then present.</p>
+
+<p>At the rear of the store was an office inclosure, with a partition of
+plate glass; while at either side of this inclosure was a smaller room,
+entirely secluded, these being the private offices of the two members of
+the firm.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Garside was standing about in the middle of the store when the young
+man entered and inquired for Mr. Venner. As he turned from the clerk who
+had informed him of Venner's absence, he added, half in apology, to his
+visitor:</p>
+
+<p>"I was mistaken, young man. My clerk tells me that Mr. Venner is out
+just now. Do you know where he has gone, Joseph?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir, I do not."</p>
+
+<p>"I think he will presently return," said Garside, again reverting to the
+caller. "Is there anything that I can do for you? Or will you wait
+until Mr. Venner comes in?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will not wait, Mr. Garside, since you are one of the firm, and
+probably know about this matter," replied the young man, drawing a small
+cloth-covered package from his breast pocket. "Here are the ten diamonds
+for which Mr. Venner sent us an order this morning. I come from Thomas
+Hafferman, sir, and will leave the stones with you."</p>
+
+<p>The man mentioned was also a jeweler, and a large importer of diamonds
+and costly gems.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Garside's countenance took on an expression of mild surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"From Hafferman? An order from Venner?" he murmured, inquiringly. "I was
+not aware that Venner sent out any order for diamonds this morning."</p>
+
+<p>"One of your clerks brought the order, sir, and requested Mr. Hafferman
+to send the stones here as soon as convenient," replied the messenger.
+"Mr. Hafferman did not know your clerk personally, so I was sent here to
+deliver the stones."</p>
+
+<p>"What is your name, young man?"</p>
+
+<p>"Harry Boyden, sir. I have worked for Mr. Hafferman for nearly five
+years. I think you will find that the order was properly sent."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait just a moment, Mr. Boyden," suggested Garside, smiling.</p>
+
+<p>Then he hastened to the rear of the store, and spoke through the open
+window near the cashier's desk.</p>
+
+<p>"Do any of you know of an order sent out by Mr. Venner this morning?"
+he inquired, addressing the several clerks at work in the office. "An
+order to Thomas Hafferman for ten diamonds."</p>
+
+<p>Only a girl stenographer, seated at a typewriter near the office door,
+replied:</p>
+
+<p>"I think Mr. Venner sent Spaulding out about half an hour ago, sir," she
+replied. "I saw him give Spaulding several letters."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, doubtless it's all right enough," bowed Garside; "yet I wonder that
+I had heard nothing about it. Joseph, has Spaulding been here within a
+few minutes?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir," replied the clerk, the same who had at first been questioned.
+"I saw him go out just before Mr. Venner departed, and he has not yet
+returned."</p>
+
+<p>Garside had now reached the middle of the store again, where Boyden was
+still waiting.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you quite sure that the order came from Mr. Venner?" he again
+inquired. "How long ago was the messenger at your store?"</p>
+
+<p>"About half an hour ago, sir," Boyden readily answered. "The order was,
+I presume, signed by Mr. Venner."</p>
+
+<p>"Was it our man Spaulding who delivered the order? Do you know him by
+sight?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not, sir. Joseph Maynard, yonder, is the only clerk here with whom
+I am acquainted, and I think he will vouch for me," said Boyden, now
+beginning to smile at Garside's manifest caution over receiving the
+diamonds. "Surely, sir, no harm can come from your keeping the stones
+until Mr. Venner returns, since I am willing to leave them with you," he
+added, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, no&mdash;I wasn't thinking of that," Garside quickly answered. "I
+wished only to avoid the needless trouble of returning them, in case the
+order did not come from us."</p>
+
+<p>"I think the order was all right, Mr. Garside. Besides, sir, I saw Mr.
+Venner yesterday at our store, examining some diamonds. Doubtless these
+are the same."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, if that's the case, leave them, by all means," Garside cried. "I
+was not aware that he had called there. Probably they are for some order
+of which he has personal charge. Yes, yes, Mr. Boyden, leave them,
+certainly. Here, Joseph, place the package in one of the vault drawers,
+and hand it to Mr. Venner when he returns. Sorry to have detained you so
+long, Mr. Boyden. Had you begun by stating that Venner called yesterday
+upon Mr. Hafferman, I should not have demurred over the matter."</p>
+
+<p>"There's no harm done, Mr. Garside, none whatever," replied Boyden,
+bowing and smiling. "I appreciate your caution, sir. If there proves to
+have been any mistake in ordering them, you can easily return the
+stones. Good-morning, sir."</p>
+
+<p>Garside replied with a nod over his shoulder, having turned to hand the
+parcel to his clerk back of the counter, and Boyden immediately
+departed.</p>
+
+<p>"Is that young man an acquaintance of yours, Maynard?" inquired Mr.
+Garside.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir. He has been with Hafferman for several years."</p>
+
+<p>"Doubtless it's all right, then. Odd, though, that Venner should have
+made no mention to me of this order. Hand him the package as soon as he
+comes in."</p>
+
+<p>"I will, sir, at once."</p>
+
+<p>Maynard had already placed the small parcel in a drawer of the huge
+steel vault back of the counter, and he now resumed the work at which he
+had been engaged.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Garside sauntered toward the front of the store, and presently
+greeted a lady who entered.</p>
+
+<p>Twenty minutes passed, and the incident of the diamonds was almost
+forgotten by both employer and clerk.</p>
+
+<p>Soon both were reminded of it, however, by the entrance of another
+man&mdash;a smooth-featured young fellow, with pale blue eyes, a sallow
+complexion, slightly pock-marked. He was of medium height, and well put
+together, and was clad in a neat business suit of fashionable
+appearance.</p>
+
+<p>Quickly approaching Mr. Garside, who was then disengaged, he tendered
+one of Thomas Hafferman's business cards, and said, glibly, while bowing
+and laughing lightly:</p>
+
+<p>"Excuse me, Mr. Garside, but we rather owe you an apology. Our Mr.
+Boyden left some diamonds with you a short time ago, which should have
+been delivered to Tiffany &amp; Co. Mr. Hafferman read the order without his
+spectacles, and it's rather a good joke on him, for he thought it was
+signed Venner &amp; Co. The blunder was partly owing to the fact, no doubt,
+that Mr. Venner called to see him yesterday about some diamonds."</p>
+
+<p>"There!" exclaimed Garside, as if quite pleased to discover that he had
+been so nearly right. "I knew well enough that Venner had not sent out
+any order without mentioning it to me. Yes, your Mr. Boyden left the
+stones here. For Tiffany &amp; Co., eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir, and they should have been delivered long ago," was the reply,
+with a conventional laugh. "If you please, I'll leave them there on my
+way back. Deucedly stupid blunder on Hafferman's part, I'm sure; and I
+hope&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, there's no harm done, I guess, and but little time lost,"
+interrupted Garside, joining in the other's laugh. "You will deliver
+them, you say?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you please."</p>
+
+<p>"Here, Joseph, hand me that package of diamonds left here by Boyden.
+They were sent to us by mistake. I knew it well enough at the time. Here
+you are, Mr. &mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Raymond, sir. I am cashier at Hafferman's. Many thanks. Sorry to have
+troubled you&mdash;very sorry."</p>
+
+<p>"No trouble at all," laughed Garside, accompanying Mr. Raymond toward
+the street door. "The trouble has been all yours, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"That's quite true," smiled Raymond, as he bowed himself out with the
+package of diamonds in his hand. "But now the pleasure is all mine!" he
+added to himself, upon reaching the sidewalk.</p>
+
+<p>Then he strode rapidly away, quickly losing himself in the midday
+stream of people thronging the famous New York thoroughfare.</p>
+
+<p>Less than five minutes later, before any misgivings had crept into the
+mind of Mr. Garside, the senior member of the firm came hurrying into
+the store.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I say, Venner!" exclaimed his partner, stopping him near the office
+door. "What diamonds are you thinking of buying of Hafferman?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of Hafferman?" echoed Venner, with a look of surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"Weren't you looking at some stones there yesterday?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, certainly. Some very choice diamonds. I want ten of the first
+water, a little larger and more perfectly matched than any we have in
+stock at present. But how did you learn that I had called there?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Garside quickly informed him of the several incidents of the past
+half hour, when, to his consternation and dismay a look of sudden
+apprehension swept over Venner's face.</p>
+
+<p>"Raymond&mdash;the name of Hafferman's cashier!" he cried. "Nothing of the
+sort, Philip. Their cashier is named Briggs. I know him well."</p>
+
+<p>"Briggs! Briggs!"</p>
+
+<p>"Briggs&mdash;yes, Briggs!" reiterated Mr. Venner, excitedly. "By Heaven,
+there must be something wrong here!"</p>
+
+<p>"Dear me! If this Raymond was an impostor, we are done out of&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Wait&mdash;wait!"</p>
+
+<p>Checking his partner with an impulsive gesture, Venner rushed into his
+private office and seized his desk telephone, quickly calling up the
+firm by which the diamonds had been sent.</p>
+
+<p>Garside followed him into the room, only to hear the questions hurriedly
+asked over the wire by his excited partner, who presently dropped the
+telephone and leaped to his feet, crying loudly, so loudly that his
+voice filled the entire store, and brought all hands hurrying in his
+direction:</p>
+
+<p>"There's no doubt of it, Garside, none whatever. You have been
+duped&mdash;swindled&mdash;robbed of four thousand dollars' worth of gems! Raymond
+was an impostor&mdash;a crook&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Venner&mdash;hush! You are losing your head," protested Garside, white with
+dismay. "It's enough that we have lost the stones, so at least keep your
+head. Waste not a moment. Notify the police. Telephone at once for men
+from the central office."</p>
+
+<p>"Blast the police! The central office be hanged!" cried Venner, choking
+down an oath of wrathful contempt. "I'll have none of your police&mdash;none
+of your central office men! I want a detective&mdash;not an effigy of one!"</p>
+
+<p>"Rufus&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Silence, Garside, and leave this affair to me," Venner harshly
+interrupted. "You've had fingers enough in it already."</p>
+
+<p>With which rebuke Mr. Rufus Venner strode passionately out of the office
+and into the store proper, shouting loudly to the clerk previously
+mentioned:</p>
+
+<p>"Maynard&mdash;here you, Maynard! Call a cab at once and go for Nick Carter!
+Lose not a moment! Don't wait to ask questions, you blockhead! Away with
+you, at once! Bring Nick Carter here with the least possible delay!"</p>
+
+<p>Maynard had already seized his coat and hat, and was hurrying out of the
+store.</p>
+
+<p>And thus began one of the most stirring and extraordinary criminal cases
+that ever fell within the broad experience of the famous New York
+detective mentioned.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II" />CHAPTER II.</h2>
+
+<h3>CONCERNING SEÑORA CERVERA.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Joseph Maynard arrived at Nick Carter's residence just as the famous New
+York detective was about preparing for lunch, and quickly stated his
+mission, disclosing the superficial features of the crime.</p>
+
+<p>Nick Carter habitually looked below the surface of things, however, and
+in trifles he invariably discovered more than the ordinary man. Before
+Maynard had fairly outlined the case Nick keenly discerned that the
+robbery could not have been committed by any common criminals, and he at
+once decided not only that he would take the case, but also that it gave
+promise of something far more startling than then appeared aboveboard.</p>
+
+<p>Yet even Nick's keen discernment utterly failed, at this early stage of
+the affair, to anticipate its actual magnitude and tragic possibilities.</p>
+
+<p>Having consented to accompany Maynard to the scene of the crime, Nick
+turned to Chick Carter, his reliable chief assistant, who also had been
+an attentive listener to Maynard's disclosures.</p>
+
+<p>"You had better come with me, Chick," said he. "This affair has rather a
+bad look, and in case quick work is imperative, I may need your
+assistance."</p>
+
+<p>"Go with you it is, Nick," Chick heartily cried, hastening to put on his
+coat and hat.</p>
+
+<p>"From the circumstances disclosed by Maynard, however," added Nick, "I
+am inclined to think that these rats have very carefully covered their
+tracks, and that a still hunt for their trail may prove to be our stunt.
+Yet you had better go along with me."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm ready when you are, Nick."</p>
+
+<p>"Very good. Come on, Mr. Maynard. I see you have a carriage at the door.
+We will not delay even for lunch, but will snatch a bite later."</p>
+
+<p>Together the three men left the house, and it was precisely one o'clock
+when Nick was ushered into the private office of Venner &amp; Co., where the
+two members of the firm then were seated, apparently still engaged in
+discussing the audacious robbery.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Rufus Venner, it may be here stated, was a man of about forty years
+of age, and was a very well-known man about town. Darkly handsome, with
+an erect and imposing figure, an <i>habitu&eacute;</i> of the best clubs, a man
+still unmarried, yet of whom hints were frequently dropped that he was
+very popular with the fair sex, whom he was known to lavishly entertain
+at times&mdash;this was the senior member of the firm of Venner &amp; Co., and
+the man who, quickly arose to greet Nick Carter and Chick when the two
+detectives entered.</p>
+
+<p>"Your clerk has already given me the main facts of the case, Mr. Venner,
+so we will dispense with any rehearsal of them, and get right down to
+business," Nick crisply observed, immediately after their greeting.
+"There are a few questions I wish to ask you, and concise replies may
+expedite matters."</p>
+
+<p>"I will respond as briefly as possible, Mr. Carter," Venner quickly
+rejoined, as they took chairs around the office table. "I do not fancy
+being robbed in this scurvy fashion, sir, and you may go to any
+reasonable expense to discover and arrest the thieves. Now, Detective
+Carter, your questions?"</p>
+
+<p>"To begin with," asked Nick, with a steadfast scrutiny of Venner's
+darkly attractive face, "what is the value of the stolen diamonds?"</p>
+
+<p>"About four thousand dollars."</p>
+
+<p>"Ten in number, I was told."</p>
+
+<p>"Precisely."</p>
+
+<p>"Are they of uniform value?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nearly so. They are splendid gems, and perfectly matched, and are worth
+about four hundred dollars each. I wanted them for a special purpose,
+which&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Which I will presently arrive at," Nick courteously interposed. "I
+understand, Mr. Venner, that you called yesterday at the store of Thomas
+Hafferman and made some inquiries about these stones?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did, and also examined them."</p>
+
+<p>"In what part of Hafferman's store were you at the time?"</p>
+
+<p>"In his private office."</p>
+
+<p>"Were any of the clerks present?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not any&mdash;Stay! One of the clerks brought in the diamonds to Mr.
+Hafferman, but he did not remain. Only Mr. Hafferman himself remained
+with me while we discussed the matter."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know the clerk's name?"</p>
+
+<p>"Boyden, I think, he was called."</p>
+
+<p>"The same who brought the diamonds here this morning," put in Mr.
+Garside. "His name is Harry Boyden."</p>
+
+<p>Nick made a note of it in a small book which he drew from his pocket.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you make any deal at that time regarding the diamonds?" he
+inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"I only had them reserved for me a day or two, stating that I would
+either call again or send an order for them, if I decided to purchase
+them," replied Venner.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you quite sure that only Mr. Hafferman heard you make that
+statement?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure only in that the office door was closed, and that he alone was
+with me. If there were any eavesdroppers about I did not suspect it."</p>
+
+<p>"Naturally not," smiled Nick. "Now, then, for what special purpose did
+you want those particular diamonds? I think you referred to one."</p>
+
+<p>A slight tinge of red appeared in Venner's cheeks when he replied, a
+change which by no means escaped Nick's observation.</p>
+
+<p>"I wanted the stones, or then thought I might, for a customer who
+contemplated giving me an order for a valuable diamond cross, to be worn
+upon the stage. We happen to have in stock no diamonds perfectly adapted
+to her requirements, and so I called upon Hafferman to learn if he could
+supply me."</p>
+
+<p>"Who is the customer, Mr. Venner?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not see how her identity can be at all essential to the
+investigation of this affair, yet I have no objection to disclosing it,"
+said Venner, frowning slightly.</p>
+
+<p>"Why demur over it, then?" demanded Nick, bluntly.</p>
+
+<p>"Only because of an aversion to bringing the lady into the case, of
+which she, of course, knows nothing," retorted Venner. "I expected the
+order from Se&ntilde;ora Cervera, the Spanish dancer."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! Is she not a member of the Mammoth Vaudeville Troupe, which has
+been playing here to packed houses for several months?"</p>
+
+<p>"She is, yes."</p>
+
+<p>"I have heard that she makes a great display of diamonds."</p>
+
+<p>"That is true, Mr. Carter. She possesses a magnificent collection of
+jewels, and wears them with an abandon against which I frequently have
+cautioned her."</p>
+
+<p>"By way of explanation," put in Mr. Garside, with an odd smile, "Venner
+might add that he enjoys quite friendly relations with the Spanish
+se&ntilde;ora."</p>
+
+<p>"I see no occasion, Garside, for comments upon my interest in Sanetta
+Cervera," declared Venner, with a frown at his partner. "My relations
+with her, Detective Carter, are only those of a friend and a gentleman.
+She called here several weeks ago to have some diamonds reset, when I
+met her personally, and was deeply impressed with her extraordinary
+grace and beauty. I since have shown her some attention."</p>
+
+<p>"Quite natural, I am sure," observed Nick, smiling indifferently. "As
+you remarked, however, none of that appears to be material. I
+understand, Mr. Venner, that you were absent when Boyden brought the
+diamonds here this morning."</p>
+
+<p>"I was," bowed Venner. "I received a note from Se&ntilde;ora Cervera this
+morning, asking me to call upon her at eleven o'clock at her rooms, and
+to bring with me a diamond pendant which we have in stock, and which I
+had the pleasure of showing her a few days ago."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, I see."</p>
+
+<p>"She stated in her note that if I would call upon her at the hour
+mentioned, she would decide whether to purchase the pendant, or have us
+make the diamond cross for her."</p>
+
+<p>"You complied with her request, Mr. Venner, and went to call upon her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is she quartered?"</p>
+
+<p>"She rents a furnished house uptown."</p>
+
+<p>"Does she live alone?"</p>
+
+<p>"With her servants only."</p>
+
+<p>"How many?"</p>
+
+<p>"She keeps a butler, a male cook, and two housemaids. Also a girl to
+look after her wardrobe and act as her dresser at the theater."</p>
+
+<p>"Evidently Se&ntilde;ora Cervera is wealthy," said Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, not exactly wealthy," rejoined Venner. "She is the popular craze
+just now, and from her professional work she derives a very large income
+which she scatters as if dollars were dead leaves. In a word, Detective
+Carter, Se&ntilde;ora Cervera is an arrant spendthrift."</p>
+
+<p>"So I have heard," nodded Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"You have?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes!" laughed the detective. "That appears to surprise you. It
+will not, when I tell you that there are very few public characters in
+New York of whose general habits I am not tolerably well informed. Of
+course, Mr. Venner, you have no doubt of this Spanish dancer's honesty?"
+Nick added, bluntly.</p>
+
+<p>Venner flushed deeply, and instantly shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Most assuredly not," he cried, with some feeling. "Se&ntilde;ora Cervera
+dishonest? Impossible!"</p>
+
+<p>"Improbable, Mr. Venner, no doubt; but not impossible."</p>
+
+<p>"It is, sir," declared Venner, positively. "I know her well. Such an
+idea is absurd. Drop it at once, Detective Carter. Indeed, sir, if I
+thought her name was to be dragged into this affair, or her reputation
+to be in any way imperiled, I would quietly suffer the loss of these
+diamonds, and cease this investigation at once."</p>
+
+<p>Nick laughed softly, and suppressed the response that, nearly rose to
+his lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't do it, Mr. Venner," said he, complacently. "My observation was
+not intended to cast any reflection upon Se&ntilde;ora Cervera. I have no doubt
+that she is perfectly honest."</p>
+
+<p>"I should hope not, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"By the way, have you the note she sent to you this morning?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Here it is."</p>
+
+<p>"By mail, or a messenger?"</p>
+
+<p>"A messenger brought it."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" murmured Nick, briefly studying the written page. "Plainly a
+foreign hand. Very firm and forceful. It indicates a strong and
+determined character. I should say that Se&ntilde;ora Cervera is a woman of
+rare qualities."</p>
+
+<p>"That is perfectly correct, sir. She is a woman of rare qualities."</p>
+
+<p>"What did she decide to do about the diamonds, Mr. Venner?"</p>
+
+<p>"She gave me an order for the cross, Detective Carter, to be made and
+delivered as soon as possible."</p>
+
+<p>"This was during your call upon her this morning?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly."</p>
+
+<p>"You had previously sent no order to Hafferman for the stones?"</p>
+
+<p>"Surely not."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet a written order was received by him, or he would not have delivered
+the goods."</p>
+
+<p>"In which case, then, it was a forgery."</p>
+
+<p>"No doubt of it," Nick readily admitted. "Chick."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Nick."</p>
+
+<p>"Take a carriage and go at once and interview Hafferman. See what you
+can learn from him. Get the written order received by him, and bring it
+here. Have a look at young Boyden, and see what you make of him. Also
+get the written signature of Mr. Hafferman, and that of each person
+employed in his store. Understand?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure thing!" nodded Chick, already seeing clearly the line Nick's
+investigation was taking, though neither Venner nor his partner yet
+perceived it. "I will return as quickly as possible."</p>
+
+<p>"You will find me here," nodded Nick. "Wait a moment!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well?"</p>
+
+<p>"Also get a description of the party who delivered the written order at
+Hafferman's store. Inquire what he said at the time, and why he did not
+attempt securing the diamonds then and there."</p>
+
+<p>"Probably he was not known there, and knew he could not get them,"
+observed Venner, by way of explanation.</p>
+
+<p>Nick made no reply to this, however, and Chick hurriedly departed.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III" />CHAPTER III.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE KILGORE DIAMOND GANG.</h3>
+
+
+<p>"Now, gentlemen, only a few more questions, and I then shall be ready to
+go at this case in a more energetic fashion," said Nick Carter,
+immediately after Chick's departure. "Were any of your clerks absent
+from the store, Mr. Venner, at the time of this robbery?"</p>
+
+<p>"As I was absent myself, I cannot say," replied Venner, rather dryly.
+"How about it, Garside?&mdash;you were here."</p>
+
+<p>"Only one clerk, a young man named Spaulding, was out of the store."</p>
+
+<p>"Was he out on business?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, under my instructions," Venner quickly explained. "We have
+numerous old accounts on our books, and just before I went uptown I sent
+Spaulding out to try to make a few collections. I think he has returned
+by this time."</p>
+
+<p>"It does not matter, since he was out under your instructions," said
+Nick, closing his notebook. "Now, Mr. Venner, who among your employees
+knew you thought of buying this lot of diamonds from Hafferman, or that
+you had called at his store to examine them?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not a soul," was the prompt reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you sure of that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Absolutely. I had said nothing of the matter, even to my partner, there
+being nothing definite about it before I saw Se&ntilde;ora Cervera this
+morning. I am sure that none of my clerks had any idea of my
+intentions."</p>
+
+<p>Nick was not so sure of it, yet he did not say so. He arose and took
+from Venner's desk a block of plain paper, which he laid upon the table.</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen," said he, "I want the signature of your firm, in the
+handwriting of each of you. Kindly let me have this."</p>
+
+<p>"What's that for?" demanded Venner, abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish to make a comparison with the forged order which my assistant
+will presently bring from Mr. Hafferman," Nick coolly explained. "I
+would suggest that you do not delay me."</p>
+
+<p>Venner made no reply, but took a pen and signed the firm's name upon the
+blank paper.</p>
+
+<p>"Now yours, Mr. Garside."</p>
+
+<p>"Mine also, Detective Carter?" queried Garside, with a look of surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"If you please."</p>
+
+<p>"Surely," cried Venner, with some resentment, "you do not suspect that
+Mr. Garside or myself&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me!" Nick bluntly interrupted. "I am not in the habit of
+discussing my suspicions. That I should suspect either of you, however,
+is utterly absurd."</p>
+
+<p>"I should say so!"</p>
+
+<p>"Therefore do not argue with me over an absurdity. If I am to continue
+this investigation, gentlemen, I must do it in my own way. Either that,
+or I shall drop the case at once. Your signature, Mr. Garside."</p>
+
+<p>Garside hastened to take the pen, and dashed off the firm's signature
+below that of his partner. Nick tore the page from the block, then
+handed the latter to Venner.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Mr. Venner," said he, "have each of your employees, from first to
+last, write his name with pen and ink upon this paper. Don't overlook
+one of them, not one, from your bookkeeper down to your office boy. If
+Spaulding is still out, get his signature later, and send it to me by
+mail. I will wait here while you are thus engaged."</p>
+
+<p>Venner now vaguely perceived Nick's suspicions and design, and he could
+not consistently offer any remonstrance. Yet he plainly resented the
+idea that any of his clerks could have been guilty of co-operation with
+the criminals who had committed the robbery that morning, and his dark
+features wore a grim and sullen expression when he took the block of
+paper and repaired to his main office.</p>
+
+<p>Nick Carter sat and waited, silently sizing up the case as he then saw
+it.</p>
+
+<p>Just as Venner returned with the numerous signatures, Chick also put in
+an appearance again, bringing with him the forged order which had been
+left at Hafferman's store. Nick merely glanced at it, then thrust it
+into his pocket.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you see Boyden?" he inquired of Chick.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and spoke with him," nodded Chick.</p>
+
+<p>"What about him?"</p>
+
+<p>"He looks all right."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you get the signatures of Hafferman and his clerks?"</p>
+
+<p>"They are on this paper."</p>
+
+<p>"Good enough. Let me have those of your employees, Mr. Venner. Are they
+all here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, all of them."</p>
+
+<p>"Very good," said Nick, putting the several papers into his pocket.
+"Now, Chick, what of the man who visited Hafferman's store with the
+forged order?"</p>
+
+<p>"He merely left the order and asked that the diamonds should be sent
+here at once."</p>
+
+<p>"What sort of a man?"</p>
+
+<p>"Dark, about fifty, with a heavy mustache and wavy hair," said Chick,
+glibly. "Quite a big fellow, Hafferman states."</p>
+
+<p>"H'm!" ejaculated Nick, with a significant nod. "Now, Mr. Garside,
+describe the man to whom you delivered the diamonds."</p>
+
+<p>"Raymond?"</p>
+
+<p>"If that is the name he gave you."</p>
+
+<p>"He is a well-built, smoothly shaven fellow, of about thirty years, with
+a sallow complexion, slightly pock-marked&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, I thought so!" Nick curtly interrupted. "That's quite sufficient,
+Mr. Garside."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean, Carter?" quickly demanded Venner. "Do you already
+recognize these criminals?"</p>
+
+<p>"I recognize their work."</p>
+
+<p>"And the men?"</p>
+
+<p>"I've them in mind from the outset."</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible!"</p>
+
+<p>"Not so, Mr. Venner," Nick now declared, with emphasis. "Without a
+shadow of doubt, sir, you have been victimized by the notorious Kilgore
+diamond gang, a trio of the shrewdest and most daring scoundrels that
+ever stood in leather."</p>
+
+<p>"You amaze me."</p>
+
+<p>"Do I?" inquired Nick, smiling softly. "Well, sir, if I were to tell you
+the history of these rascals, you would be more than amazed&mdash;you would
+be astounded. No crime is too desperate, no knavery too hazardous, no
+villainy too despicable, for them to attempt, and too often successfully
+execute. They have perpetrated their crimes over two continents, and are
+known to the police the world over."</p>
+
+<p>"That is not very complimentary to the police," said Venner, dryly. "I
+marvel that such distinguished scoundrels are still at large."</p>
+
+<p>"A fact which stamps them no ordinary criminals," replied Nick,
+pointedly. "Nor are they, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you know of them, Detective Carter?"</p>
+
+<p>"David Kilgore, the chief of the gang, is one of the shrewdest and most
+daring of knaves, a man of splendid education, polished manners and
+broad experience. He possesses nerves of steel, the cunning of a fox,
+and would not shrink even from murder, if his designs required it. Yet
+he invariably covers his tracks so cleverly, or so quickly vanishes when
+hard pressed, that thus far he has successfully eluded the police.
+That's David Kilgore, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"And what of his associates?" inquired Venner. "I think you spoke of a
+trio."</p>
+
+<p>"His confederates are scamps of the same sort, and nearly his equal in
+craft and daring," replied Nick. "Perry Dalton is one&mdash;the smooth,
+pock-marked rascal whom you, Mr. Garside, had the pleasure of meeting
+this morning. He is nicknamed Spotty Dalton, because of his slight
+disfigurement."</p>
+
+<p>"And the other?"</p>
+
+<p>"Is a man named Matthew Stall, more commonly called Matt Stall. He is a
+Western man, a graduate of a California university, and is an expert
+electrician. Oh, I know all about them," laughed Nick, "although this is
+the first time I have been up against them personally. I am rather glad
+to discover that they are here in New York."</p>
+
+<p>"Why so, Detective Carter?" Venner carelessly inquired, with a subtle
+gleam in the depths of his dark eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Because I have long wanted to match my talents against those of Dave
+Kilgore and his rascally push," declared Nick, with grim austerity. "The
+last I knew of them they were in Amsterdam, Holland, where some of the
+finest work in diamond cutting is done, as you doubtless know."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, yes."</p>
+
+<p>"They probably had to jump that country for obvious reasons, and very
+likely the European continent," added Nick. "They have long avoided New
+York, and the fact that they are now here is significant of&mdash;well, well,
+we shall see! That's all, gentlemen!"</p>
+
+<p>"But what do you intend doing about this case?" demanded Venner, as Nick
+abruptly rose to go.</p>
+
+<p>"All that can be done, sir," the famous detective bluntly rejoined. "I
+accept the case, Mr. Venner, and will do my best with it. When I have
+anything to report, you shall hear from me."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"There really is nothing more to be said, gentlemen, and the sooner I
+get to work the better," Nick gravely interposed.</p>
+
+<p>"But will you advise me of any steps that you may take?" persisted
+Venner, briefly detaining him by the arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Very probably," nodded Nick, though really he probably would do nothing
+of the kind. "And now good-day, gentlemen. If reporters call upon you,
+you may give them all of the facts, and state that Nick Carter is at
+work on the case. I want this Kilgore diamond gang to know at the outset
+that I am after them&mdash;and fully resolved to land them where they
+belong."</p>
+
+<p>"Behind prison bars, eh?" inquired Venner, with an odd smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir! Behind prison bars!" declared Nick, forcibly. "Again,
+gentlemen, good-day. You will hear from me later."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Rufus Venner, with his partner at his elbow, stood in the office
+door and silently watched the two celebrated detectives as they strode
+quickly through the elegant store, from which they presently vanished
+into Fifth Avenue.</p>
+
+<p>There was a smile of subtle cunning, combined with cruel and malicious
+determination, on Venner's dark face and he muttered under his breath,
+as the store door closed upon Nick's imposing figure:</p>
+
+<p>"Hear from you later, eh? Very good. Very good, indeed, Mr. Detective
+Carter! Hear from you again&mdash;that is precisely what I want! Early and
+often, Detective Carter; early and often, if you please! It is precisely
+for what the little robbery of this April morning was invented!"</p>
+
+<p>"But was it necessary&mdash;was it really necessary, Rufus?" whispered
+Garside, who alone had overheard, and whose paler face and tremulous
+figure betrayed fears which his swarthy senior partner would have
+scorned to feel. "This Carter is a most artful and discerning man. I am
+so afraid you have barked up the wrong tree. Was it necessary, really
+necessary, Rufus?"</p>
+
+<p>Venner turned upon him with a half-smothered snarl of contempt.</p>
+
+<p>"Bah! You'd be afraid of your own shadow, Garside, if left alone with
+it," he sneered, between his white, even teeth. "Necessary&mdash;of course it
+was necessary! Otherwise, I should not have adopted the ruse. We are
+about to attempt a big game&mdash;an infernally big game! When it matures,
+when it is finally launched, the very first concern that finds itself
+bitten will rush to Nick Carter for aid."</p>
+
+<p>"There is no doubt of that, Rufus."</p>
+
+<p>"Surely no doubt of it! He is the greatest detective in the country&mdash;and
+the greatest will be none too clever, nor too expensive, for those who
+find themselves duped by our unparalleled design."</p>
+
+<p>"I should say so."</p>
+
+<p>"What will be the result, Philip?&mdash;what will be the result?" added
+Venner, with a curious mingling of exultation and asperity. "If our
+victims appeal to Nick Carter for help&mdash;are we not also already in his
+good graces? Have we not insured his confidence in us by this little
+move of to-day? Will he not reveal himself and his suspicions to us,
+just as I have designed, and keep us posted about his every move, and so
+forewarned and forearmed? Of course he will&mdash;to be sure he will!"</p>
+
+<p>"But he is such a crafty and daring&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Bah! Is he more crafty than Dave Kilgore?" demanded Venner,
+significantly. "Is he more daring than Spotty Dalton, or more determined
+than anyone of the Kilgore gang? Not by a long chalk, Philip, and I know
+of them of whom I speak. Ay, as much and more of them than does
+Detective Nick Carter."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps you are right, Rufus," murmured Garside, nodding. "We certainly
+are about launching a tremendous, an utterly unparalleled, swindle. The
+like of it was never, never known. There should be millions in it. Yes,
+yes, Rufus, you are right. It was wise to preface our gigantic
+operations by getting well in touch with Nick Carter."</p>
+
+<p>"To be sure, it was wise, Philip, or I should not have taken the trouble
+to do so," said Venner, with much less acrimony. "So be a man always,
+Philip, and never a flunky. You have played your part admirably this
+morning. Let it be played as well, Philip, even to the finish&mdash;even to
+the last ditch!"</p>
+
+<p>Philip Garside's color had returned, and he smiled confidently and
+nodded in approval.</p>
+
+<p>Plainly enough, this hushed yet emphatic intercourse between these two
+indicated one fact&mdash;that Detective Nick Carter was up against a far
+deeper game than he then imagined.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV" />CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+
+<h3>GETTING DOWN TO WORK.</h3>
+
+
+<p>"Well, Nick, old man, what have you made of it?"</p>
+
+<p>The question came from Chick Carter, in his familiar and cheerful
+fashion, several hours after the interview held by the two detectives
+with Rufus Venner and his partner in their Fifth Avenue store.</p>
+
+<p>It was now about six o'clock in the evening, and Chick had just returned
+from having a confidential talk with one of the stage hands of the
+theater in which the then famous attraction, the mammoth European and
+American vaudeville troupe, of which Se&ntilde;ora Cervera was a star
+attraction, had for several months been playing to crowded houses.</p>
+
+<p>Chick found Nick seated at the table in his library, with a powerful
+magnifying glass in his hand, while the table was strewn with the papers
+he that morning had brought from the office of Venner &amp; Co.</p>
+
+<p>Nick looked up with a laugh, and knocked the ashes from his cigar.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, there's no doubt about it, Chick," he replied. "We are finally up
+against them."</p>
+
+<p>"The Kilgore diamond gang?"</p>
+
+<p>"Precisely."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm glad of it, Nick, as you remarked this morning."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I've not changed my mind since then. So am I."</p>
+
+<p>"We shall now find out whether they are as crafty and desperate as they
+have been painted."</p>
+
+<p>"I guess there is no doubt about it, Chick."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if we fail to throw them down, Nick, my money shall go on Kilgore
+from that moment," declared Chick, with a grin. "What have you dug out
+of that mess of papers, Nick? Have you arrived at any conclusions?"</p>
+
+<p>"Rather!" smiled Nick, significantly. "Did you ever know me to study for
+five hours over anything of this kind without arriving at some
+conclusion?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never!" laughed Chick. "And the best of it is, Nick, your conclusions
+nearly always prove to be correct. What's the verdict, old man?"</p>
+
+<p>Nick glanced at the French clock on the mantel.</p>
+
+<p>"Sit down and light up," he replied. "We have half an hour before
+getting down to work against this push. I will devote it to informing
+you of the case as it now appears."</p>
+
+<p>"Good enough!" exclaimed Chick, drawing up a chair and lighting a cigar.
+"Let her go, Nick. I am all ears, as the donkey said to the deacon."</p>
+
+<p>"To begin with," began Nick, more gravely, "this order sent to
+Hafferman, for the diamonds which he delivered at Venner's store, is
+merely a forgery. Neither Venner nor Garside wrote it, that's as plain
+as the nose on an elephant's face."</p>
+
+<p>"Which is plain enough, surely," nodded Chick.</p>
+
+<p>"Furthermore," continued Nick, "the forgery was not the work of any
+clerk employed in either store. I have compared the writing of each and
+every clerk with that of the forged order, and I will stake my
+reputation upon my conclusion. The forgery was committed by some outside
+party."</p>
+
+<p>Nick was an expert chirographist. To have deceived him with a disguised
+handwriting would have been utterly impossible, and none knew it better
+than Chick, who now nodded approvingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Some outside party, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is no doubt of it, Chick. And this conclusion at once suggests
+two very natural questions," Nick went on. "First, was one of the
+Kilgore gang in Hafferman's store when Venner went there yesterday, and
+did he overhear enough of what passed between them to enable him to plan
+the job done this morning?"</p>
+
+<p>"Possibly."</p>
+
+<p>"In opposition to that theory, however, is the fact that the forged
+order is written on one of Venner's printed letter sheets."</p>
+
+<p>"By a little adroit work, Nick, one of the gang could have obtained a
+sheet of Venner's office paper."</p>
+
+<p>"That is very true," admitted Nick. "But since this is a theory founded
+only upon conjecture, with no positive evidence to back it up, the
+stronger probability is rather to the contrary."</p>
+
+<p>"Right, Nick, as far as that goes."</p>
+
+<p>"I think so."</p>
+
+<p>"And what is the second theory suggested?"</p>
+
+<p>"That some clerk in one of the stores got wind of Venner's contemplated
+purchase, and revealed the fact to one of the Kilgore gang, by whom I
+am confident&mdash;bear in mind&mdash;that the crime was committed."</p>
+
+<p>"That theory seems plausible," nodded Chick. "There is young Boyden, you
+know, at Hafferman's. He may have got wise to Venner's intentions.
+Garside remarked that he appeared quite anxious to leave the diamonds
+until Venner should return. That would have been very natural on his
+part, in case he was then co-operating with the party who finally
+secured them."</p>
+
+<p>"The same objection again arises, however," argued Nick. "Boyden is not
+employed at Venner's, and therefore has not access to his letter paper.
+Furthermore, Venner's visit was made only yesterday afternoon, less than
+twenty-four hours before the robbery occurred. It seems hardly probable
+that Boyden was already in league with the Kilgore gang; and, if he was
+not, it is even less probable that he so quickly got in touch with
+them."</p>
+
+<p>"By Jove! that's so," cried Chick. "As a matter of fact, then, neither
+of these theories has a reliable leg to stand upon."</p>
+
+<p>"That's exactly my conclusion," laughed Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"And what then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Concerning that side of the affair," replied Nick, "several
+irresistible convictions are therefore forced upon me. One of the
+Kilgore gang certainly knew of Venner's visit, and of the request he
+made Hafferman regarding the diamonds. Otherwise he could not have
+planned the job so neatly. Somebody must have informed him. Somebody
+must have provided him with one of Venner's letter sheets. If we
+eliminate the clerks, and the members of both firms, we are left very
+much in the dark."</p>
+
+<p>"I should say so," rejoined Chick. "The affair becomes a dense mystery."</p>
+
+<p>"It becomes a mystery that I don't quite fancy," declared Nick, with a
+significant nod. "In fact, Chick, I'm not at all favorably impressed
+with this robbery. To me it has a mighty fishy look."</p>
+
+<p>"Why so, Nick?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is not like this Kilgore gang, mark you, to have been dickering with
+a dirty little job of this kind, netting them only a few thousands at
+the best; yet a job in which they incurred as much danger of detection,
+Chick, as in one infinitely greater."</p>
+
+<p>"By Jove! that's so. There's no getting away from that argument, Nick."</p>
+
+<p>"Instead of trying to get away from it, Chick, I'm going to stay with
+it," continued Nick, with emphasis. "I am beginning to suspect that this
+paltry little robbery may in some way make a far deeper and darker game.
+At all events, Chick, we'll not wind ourselves in a search for those
+diamonds, at least not before we have sifted these side issues a little
+finer."</p>
+
+<p>"Good enough!" cried Chick, heartily. "I agree with you on every point.
+Only your long head, Nick, old man, could have deduced such shrewd
+conclusions; and I believe, by Jove! that you have hit the nail on the
+head."</p>
+
+<p>"If I have," rejoined Nick, grimly, "we'll drive the nail home a little
+later, and home to stay."</p>
+
+<p>"That we will."</p>
+
+<p>"There remains one other feature of the case," added Nick, "and,
+starting from that, we will begin work upon the affair this very night."</p>
+
+<p>"You refer to that Spanish dancer, Cervera?"</p>
+
+<p>"Precisely."</p>
+
+<p>"And the fact that she requested Venner to call at her house this
+morning?"</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly," nodded Nick. "She fixed the hour, mind you, probably knowing
+that Venner would comply with her request. Hence there exists a
+possibility that she designed to get him away from his store at just
+that time, in order that the robbery could be successfully executed."</p>
+
+<p>"In which case, Nick, we necessarily must figure her in with the Kilgore
+gang, despite Venner's declaration of her honesty."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly we must, Chick, in case her note to Venner was written for
+the purpose mentioned," nodded Nick. "Of that, however, we have no
+positive evidence. It may have been purely accidental that her note was
+sent to-day, and mentioned the very hour when the theft was committed.
+Obviously, in that case, the thief outside was waiting for some
+opportunity when Venner should be away from his store. Cervera would
+then be out of the affair, as far as any criminal intent is concerned."</p>
+
+<p>"Very probably."</p>
+
+<p>"So there you are!" exclaimed Nick, with another glance at the clock.
+"Our half hour is up. You now have my measure of the case, and next we
+will get down to business. We will drop this fishy-looking robbery for
+the present, Chick, and first of all make a move to learn something
+about Se&ntilde;ora Cervera, and her relations with Rufus Venner."</p>
+
+<p>"A good scheme, Nick, and I'm with you."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you been at the theater?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and fixed things with Busby."</p>
+
+<p>"You can get in upon the stage to-night?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure thing, as I told you," laughed Chick. "Busby is the boss scene
+shifter there, and he consented to work me in as a stage hand."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! very good."</p>
+
+<p>"I have got to make up for the part, however, and must soon be about it.
+I am due there at half-past seven."</p>
+
+<p>"Get at it, then," said Nick, rising. "See what you can learn about
+Cervera, and what you make of her from observation. In case Venner is
+about there, keep your ears alert, so that you can overhear."</p>
+
+<p>"You trust me for that, Nick," cried Chick, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"Meantime, Chick, I'll have a look at the show from the front," added
+Nick. "And after Cervera does her turn, in case Venner is there, and she
+departs with him, you then may leave the couple to me. I'll be waiting
+for them at the stage door."</p>
+
+<p>"Right you are, Nick. So here goes!"</p>
+
+<p>Shrewd deductions, indeed, those of Nick Carter.</p>
+
+<p>Plainly enough, Garside was quite justified in his apprehension that
+Rufus Venner had barked up the wrong tree.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V" />CHAPTER V.</h2>
+
+<h3>BEHIND THE SCENES.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Nick Carter had a double object in the work laid out for that night. If
+Se&ntilde;ora Cervera was indeed in league with the Kilgore gang, and in any
+way responsible for the diamond robbery, Nick was resolved to secure
+positive evidence of it.</p>
+
+<p>While her letter to Venner appeared to implicate her, since it had taken
+him from his store just at the time of the robbery, it seemed hardly
+probable that this brilliant Spanish girl, whose extraordinary grace and
+whirlwind dances had made her the talk of the town, could be identified
+with a gang of criminals notorious the world over. Yet the bare
+possibility existed, and Nick never ignored even the shadow of a clew.</p>
+
+<p>He further reasoned that, in case Cervera was in league with the
+suspected gang, one or more of them might visit the theater in which she
+was performing, and Nick decided to have a look at the audience that
+evening. He was sure he could identify Kilgore or any of his gang, even
+if disguised, as would be very probable.</p>
+
+<p>Nick's second object was that of learning the exact relations between
+Se&ntilde;ora Cervera and Rufus Venner, and a part of that work he confided to
+Chick. With himself in the front of the house, and Chick on the stage,
+Nick believed that nothing worth seeing would escape them.</p>
+
+<p>His own search early in the evening, however, proved futile. It was the
+last week but one of the mammoth vaudeville attraction, and the theater
+was densely crowded. Though Nick watched the lobbies and the smoking
+room, and also made a systematic study of the auditorium, he could
+discover no sign of the parties he was seeking.</p>
+
+<p>About nine o'clock he returned to his chair in the orchestra, and
+settled himself to have a look at Cervera, whose act was one of the last
+on the program.</p>
+
+<p>Just at that time Chick Carter, in the overalls and blouse of a scene
+shifter, made his first pertinent discovery&mdash;that Rufus Venner, clad in
+immaculate evening dress, and carrying an Inverness topcoat on his arm,
+had arrived upon the stage.</p>
+
+<p>"He seems to be at home behind the scenes," soliloquized Chick,
+furtively watching him. "Evidently he has some kind of a pull with the
+manager, or he could not get admission to the stage. Probably through
+his friend, the Spanish se&ntilde;ora."</p>
+
+<p>Venner was then in one of the left wings, apparently indulging in small
+talk with a handsome girl of about twenty, who had just finished her
+turn upon the stage. She was rather simply clad, but was strikingly
+pretty and modest appearing; and upon consulting a program with which he
+had provided himself, Chick learned that her stage name was Violet
+Marduke; and that she was cast as a singer of ballads.</p>
+
+<p>"Evidently employed to fill in," thought Chick, who had not been much
+impressed with her songs, though he decided that the girl herself was a
+beauty. "And by his admiring glances, Venner also thinks pretty well of
+her," Chick mentally added.</p>
+
+<p>"Room here, mister," growled a voice at his elbow. "Make room for the
+reptiles."</p>
+
+<p>Chick turned quickly about, and then involuntarily recoiled from the
+startling object that met his gaze.</p>
+
+<p>In front of a scene then set in the second grooves of the Stage, the
+continuous performance was still in progress. Meantime, several of the
+stage hands were wheeling to the center of the stage, back of the scene,
+the properties of the next performer on the program&mdash;and grewsome
+properties they were.</p>
+
+<p>The object beheld by Chick was a huge, cagelike den, mounted on low
+wheels, and having a broad front of plate glass. Inside of this den were
+several wicker baskets, some of which were open, while others were
+covered and locked.</p>
+
+<p>In the open baskets, or writhing freely about the floor of the den, were
+fully fifty serpents of various sizes, many being only a foot or two
+long, while several were as many yards in length.</p>
+
+<p>A more repulsive and blood-curdling sight Chick had never experienced,
+and the stage hand who had asked him to move laughed at his look of
+mingled horror and repugnance.</p>
+
+<p>"Ever seen any like 'em after a jamboree?" he inquired, good-naturedly.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, hardly," said Chick, subduing his aversion. "If I were to go on a
+drunk and see anything like them, I'd sign the pledge the next morning."</p>
+
+<p>"A good scheme, too."</p>
+
+<p>"I should say so."</p>
+
+<p>"Some o' the crawling divils are as bad as they look," added the stage
+hand, while he helped to place the snake den squarely on the stage.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?" inquired Chick, still gingerly surveying them.</p>
+
+<p>"Pizen!"</p>
+
+<p>"Venomous?"</p>
+
+<p>"You bet! Durn 'em, I wouldn't touch one of them for the wealth of
+Rockefeller."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean that some of them still have their fangs and poison bags?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure! D'ye see that little copper-colored cuss down there in the
+corner, not more'n a foot long? If he got a crack at you, you'd not live
+ten seconds."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I will take deuced good care that he gets no nip at me," declared
+Chick, with a grin. "Why do they have such dangerous things around?"</p>
+
+<p>"H'm! What would be the excitement, or the credit of snake charming, if
+the wriggling beasts were made harmless by pulling out their fangs?"
+demanded the stage hand. "It would be like a dog fight, with the dogs
+muzzled. These belong to that heathen Hindoo, the snake charmer. He
+shows next."</p>
+
+<p>"Pandu Singe?" inquired Chick, glancing at the name on the program.</p>
+
+<p>"Sure. He handles 'em like so many babies. There he is now, just coming
+from his dressing room. He looks a bit like a snake himself."</p>
+
+<p>Chick turned and gazed curiously at the approaching foreigner.</p>
+
+<p>Pandu Singe was a tall, swarthy man, with straight, black hair, an
+Indian cast of features, and a pair of intensely black and piercing
+eyes. Their glitter was indeed like that in the eyes of a snake, yet the
+Hindoo, approaching without a word to anybody, or a glance to either
+side, was not without a certain sort of savage dignity.</p>
+
+<p>He wore a red turban around his head, while a loose, black robe, belted
+around his waist, reached nearly to his ankles. With a gesture he signed
+the several men away from his hideous den of reptiles, and Chick retired
+up the stage.</p>
+
+<p>The detective had barely made his change, when he heard the low voice of
+Busby near by, the friend who had smuggled him upon the stage that
+evening.</p>
+
+<p>"Hist! There she is, Chick!"</p>
+
+<p>"Cervera?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Down yonder, just to the right of the electric switchboard. Slip
+in back of this wood wing, and you can have a good look at her."</p>
+
+<p>"All right, Busby, old man," whispered Chick. "Don't you pay too much
+attention to me, or it may be noticed. I'll see all there is to be seen,
+old boy."</p>
+
+<p>Busby winked understandingly, and Chick stepped back of the scenery
+mentioned, through a portion of which he could easily watch Cervera
+unobserved.</p>
+
+<p>That she was a daughter of sunny Spain no man would have doubted. Her
+wavy hair was as dark as night, and her eyes were as radiant as the
+night stars. Her rich, olive complexion was much rouged, adding to the
+brilliancy of her splendid beauty.</p>
+
+<p>She appeared to be about twenty-five, and was clad in her stage costume,
+which combined all the bright hues of the rainbow, and was enlivened by
+a myriad of dazzling jewels and diamonds.</p>
+
+<p>The costume served to display to advantage her matchless figure,
+however, and Chick was fain to admit that he had never seen a much more
+striking beauty.</p>
+
+<p>"She's a bird, all right, and no mistake," he said to himself, while
+intently regarding her handsome face and jewel-bedecked figure. "Yet she
+has a bad eye, despite her beauty, and a cruel mouth. She certainly
+would put up a wicked fight, if once aroused. Yes, a deucedly bad eye!
+What in thunder is she staring at, to look like that!"</p>
+
+<p>From her position near one of the lower wings, Sanetta Cervera was
+gazing steadfastly across the stage at something which Chick could not
+see.</p>
+
+<p>The dark eyes of the Spanish dancer had taken on a threatening glare.
+Her curved brows had drooped and knit, until they formed a straight line
+below her forehead, and her red lips were drawn and firmly compressed.</p>
+
+<p>Before Chick could discover any occasion for this mute display of
+feeling, the performance in front of the set scene concluded, and the
+act of the snake charmer was due to begin.</p>
+
+<p>Then came a rapid change of scenery, during which Chick was again
+obliged to change his position, and for a time he lost sight of Cervera
+in the stir and confusion of the busy stage.</p>
+
+<p>He did not succeed in locating her again until she began her
+performance, when a full stage was given her for the marvelously
+graceful and impassioned dances of which her act consisted, and which
+had fairly turned half the heads in the city.</p>
+
+<p>In the white glare of the limelight, she certainly presented a wild and
+dazzling picture. Her beauty was indescribably accentuated. She appeared
+like a being ablaze with diamonds. Her every attitude was one of
+seductive grace, her every movement as swift and light as those of a
+startled leopard.</p>
+
+<p>At its conclusion her act evoked thunders of applause, and then Chick
+saw her hastening toward her dressing room, flushed with excitement and
+panting for breath.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly she halted and her smile vanished.</p>
+
+<p>Then Chick saw her turn abruptly toward one of the wing scenes, where
+she met Venner face to face.</p>
+
+<p>The wealthy Fifth Avenue jeweler laughed and extended his hand to greet
+her, but she frowned and hesitated before accepting it; and Chick made a
+quick move and stole back of the scenery, near which the two briefly
+remained standing.</p>
+
+<p>He arrived in time to overhear only a few words, however, of which he
+could make nothing bearing upon the diamond robbery, or relating to the
+Kilgore gang.</p>
+
+<p>"Pshaw! You are entirely wrong, Sanetta," Venner was expostulating, with
+voice lowered. "Your eyes have deceived you."</p>
+
+<p>The woman replied through her teeth, with a hiss like that of a snake.</p>
+
+<p>"My eyes deceived me? Never! You lie! I know what I see!" she fiercely
+answered, with but a slight foreign accent.</p>
+
+<p>"You are wrong, Cervera," protested Venner. "I&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I am not! I see&mdash;and I know!"</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Caramba!</i> I say you shall go with me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, certainly, if you wish it. Am I not here for that?"</p>
+
+<p>"You know that I wish it&mdash;and you shall go."</p>
+
+<p>"Whenever you are ready, Sanetta," replied Venner. "Yet your infernal&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Silence! You shall wait here till I have changed my suit. Then we will
+go&mdash;we will go together. You shall wait here."</p>
+
+<p>"Go and make the change, then," said Venner, bluntly. "I will be here
+when you return."</p>
+
+<p>"H'm!" thought Chick, as he heard Cervera move quickly away. "Evidently
+there is something amiss between them, but what the dickens is it?"</p>
+
+<p>Still watching, he soon saw Cervera return in her street attire, when
+Venner quickly gave her his arm, and they departed by the stairs leading
+to the stage door.</p>
+
+<p>Chick immediately recalled Nick's instructions&mdash;that the couple should
+now be left to him.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI" />CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+
+<h3>A SHOT IN THE DARK.</h3>
+
+
+<p>It was nearly eleven o'clock when Rufus Venner and Cervera, the latter
+enveloped in a voluminous black cloak, emerged from the stage door of
+the theater.</p>
+
+<p>As they made their way through the paved area leading out to the side
+street, where a carriage was awaiting them, a sturdy, roughly clad
+fellow in a red wig and croppy beard suddenly slouched out of a gloomy
+corner near the stage stairway and followed them, with movements as
+stealthy and silent as those of a cat.</p>
+
+<p>As the carriage containing Venner and the dancer rapidly whirled away,
+this rough fellow darted swiftly across the street, and approached a
+waiting cab, the door of which stood open.</p>
+
+<p>"After them, Patsy!" he softly cried, as he sprang in and closed the
+door.</p>
+
+<p>The driver of the cab was one of Nick Carter's youthful yet exceedingly
+clever assistants, and the rough fellow was Nick himself.</p>
+
+<p>He had left the theater the moment Cervera concluded her performance,
+and since had completed a perfect disguise in the cab, which he had had
+in waiting, with all the properties for effecting the change mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>That Patsy would constantly keep their quarry in view, and without being
+suspected, Nick had not a doubt. Nor was he mistaken. At the end of
+twenty minutes the clever young driver slowed down upon approaching an
+uptown corner, and signaled Nick to get out.</p>
+
+<p>The detective alighted from the door on the side from which he had
+received the signal, yet the cab did not stop. Nick trotted along beside
+the vehicle for a rod or two, keeping it between him and the side street
+into which Patsy quickly signed that the hack had turned.</p>
+
+<p>"Fourth house on the right," he softly cried. "I saw them pull up at it
+just as I reached the corner, so I kept right on up the avenue. They've
+not gone in yet."</p>
+
+<p>"Good enough," replied Nick, approvingly. "Take home the traps I have
+left in the cab."</p>
+
+<p>"Sure thing. You don't want any help to-night against this push, do
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, indeed. There'll be but little doing to-night, I imagine. Remember
+the house, however, in case I fail to show up."</p>
+
+<p>"You may gamble on that, sir. I have it down pat."</p>
+
+<p>They had now passed the upper corner of the side street, and Nick felt
+sure that he had not been seen leaving the cab. He darted quickly back
+of the vehicle and gained the sidewalk, then stole back and peered
+around the corner.</p>
+
+<p>Cervera and her companion were just mounting the steps of an imposing
+stone residence, entirely separate from its neighbors, and their
+carriage was driving rapidly away.</p>
+
+<p>Nick waited until the couple had entered the house, then he crossed to
+the gloom of a doorway on the opposite side and had a look at the
+dwelling.</p>
+
+<p>From basement to roof there was no sign of a light. Even the hall
+appeared to be in darkness, and Nick waited and watched for several
+minutes, expecting to see at least one of the rooms lighted.</p>
+
+<p>Not a glimmer or gleam, however, appeared from any quarter.</p>
+
+<p>"H'm!" he presently muttered, a little perplexed. "Either they are
+remaining in darkness, or else they have all of those windows heavily
+curtained. If the latter is the case, I must discover for what reason.</p>
+
+<p>"Possibly they are entirely alone in there, and have gone to some room
+at the rear of the house. Or maybe they have suspected an espionage, and
+are now watching from the gloom of one of those front windows. I'll fool
+them if that is so, and will also have a look at the rear of the house.
+There is something out of the ordinary here, that's certain."</p>
+
+<p>Keeping well in the gloom of the block of dwellings near by, Nick
+retraced his steps to the corner, then crossed the street and presently
+approached a paved driveway leading to a small stable at the rear of the
+suspected house.</p>
+
+<p>The high gate, composed of sharp iron pickets, was securely closed and
+locked; so Nick returned to an alley which he had just passed, and which
+ran back of a block of dwellings fronting on the avenue where he had
+left the cab.</p>
+
+<p>Stealing into the alley, Nick quickly scaled the high, wooden fence,
+crossed two adjoining back yards, and thus reached a wall near the
+stable mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>To mount the wall and drop back of the stable was equally feasible, and
+Nick then had the rear of Cervera's dwelling plainly in view.</p>
+
+<p>Then his searching gaze was rewarded. One of the rear rooms was brightly
+lighted, with only the lace draperies at the two windows preventing
+observation from outside.</p>
+
+<p>"Evidently a rear sitting room, or library," thought Nick, calculating
+the arrangement of the house. "I will at least learn who is in there."</p>
+
+<p>He listened briefly for any sound in or about the stable, then stole
+quickly across the gloomy, paved yard and approached the house.</p>
+
+<p>The windows of the lighted room were two feet or more above his head;
+but having reached a position just below one of them, he sprang up and
+seized the stone coping outside, and drew himself up to peer into the
+room.</p>
+
+<p>Then, just as his head rose into the glow of light from within, clearly
+revealing his location, Nick heard a sound the deadly nature of which he
+instantly recognized.</p>
+
+<p>Ping!</p>
+
+<p>It was the short, sharp, peculiar song of a flying bullet&mdash;once heard,
+always remembered.</p>
+
+<p>Then came the dull thud when the leaden ball beat itself shapeless
+against the stone wall beside him.</p>
+
+<p>The bullet had passed within an inch of Nick's ribs, and he knew at once
+that he was now a mark for hidden foes.</p>
+
+<p>Yet there had been no revolver report to suggest their location, and
+Nick instantly surmised that the ball must have been discharged with an
+air gun.</p>
+
+<p>He knew that it must have come from some quarter behind him, however.
+And he knew, too, how to bring his murderous assailants from their
+secret cover.</p>
+
+<p>As quick as a flash, the instant the ball smote the wall beside him,
+Nick let go his hold upon the stone coping and dropped into the darkness
+below the window, falling prostrate upon his back.</p>
+
+<p>As he lay there his hand touched something hot, and he drew it nearer to
+examine it.</p>
+
+<p>It was the battered chunk of lead which had come within an inch of
+ending his life.</p>
+
+<p>"They meant business, for sure," he said to himself, while waiting for
+his quick-witted ruse to operate. "I'm blessed if this affair is not
+taking on a new and lively interest. I reckon there'll be more doing
+to-night than I gave Patsy to believe.</p>
+
+<p>"Ha, ha! The scoundrels are already breaking cover!"</p>
+
+<p>His alert ears had detected a sound from the direction of the stable,
+and now he silently drew his revolver and held it gripped by his side.</p>
+
+<p>Presently the stable door was cautiously opened. Then a momentary beam
+of light, evidently from a bull's-eye lantern, shot across the paved
+area, and lingered for an instant upon Nick's prostrate figure.</p>
+
+<p>Nick remained as motionless as a corpse.</p>
+
+<p>Then two men, both large and powerful fellows, and both heavily bearded,
+came quickly from the stable and hastened toward him.</p>
+
+<p>"Done for with a single shot," remarked one, as they approached.</p>
+
+<p>"Looks like it, Dave," was the reply. "When I piped his head in the
+light from the window, I felt sure I could drop him."</p>
+
+<p>"Well done. 'Twas a good shot. Shove your hand inside his vest, and see
+if his heart is beating. Then we shall know for sure whether he's down
+and out. If not, we must&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Throw up your hands, instead, both of you!" Nick sternly interrupted,
+half rising with weapon leveled. "At the first move by either, I will
+shoot to kill!"</p>
+
+<p>Nick had foreseen that his foxy strategy must be very quickly detected,
+and he had resolved to take the bull by the horns, and attempt to arrest
+both of his cowardly assailants.</p>
+
+<p>That he was up against uncommon men, however, men of extraordinary nerve
+and reckless daring, appeared in what instantly followed, even under the
+very muzzle of the detective's revolver.</p>
+
+<p>As quick as a flash, before Nick's threatening command was fairly out of
+his mouth, the man called Dave made a kick at the detective's uplifted
+arm, so swift and accurate and forceful that Nick felt the bones of his
+wrist fairly crack under the blow, and the fingers of his hand gripping
+the weapon turned numb and tingling as if from an electric shock.</p>
+
+<p>"At him!" snarled the ruffian, even while he kicked. "At him, I say!
+Quick&mdash;the pear!"</p>
+
+<p>It was plain that these men were not doing such desperate work together
+for the first time. Both fell upon Nick like wolves upon a stricken elk,
+yet they found the detective waiting for them.</p>
+
+<p>Nick hurled one aside, unable to use his revolver, and grappled with the
+second, both falling heavily to the pavement.</p>
+
+<p>Then number one was at him again, and got him by the throat, with a grip
+from which Nick thrice wrenched himself free, at the same time fiercely
+banging the head of the other upon the stones upon which the terrific
+combat was being waged.</p>
+
+<p>An oath of vicious rage broke from the latter, and then he fiercely
+cried again:</p>
+
+<p>"The pear! D&mdash;&mdash; you, be quick! The pear!&mdash;the pear!"</p>
+
+<p>As if in response to this, Nick, who was panting under his violent
+efforts to overcome both powerful men, suddenly felt something thrust
+forcibly into his mouth.</p>
+
+<p>Still manfully battling with his opponents, Nick tried to eject the
+object, opening his jaws wider in the effort.</p>
+
+<p>The object, which was shaped like a solid pear, instantly expanded, and
+Nick could not close his jaws.</p>
+
+<p>Again he tried, opening them still wider, and again the pear-shaped
+object expanded and held them rigid.</p>
+
+<p>Then Nick guessed the truth.</p>
+
+<p>While struggling with might and main to beat these ruffians, he had been
+made the victim of an infernal instrument but seldom seen in these days,
+and one of the most agonizing and diabolical devices of man's perverted
+ingenuity.</p>
+
+<p>The object in Nick's mouth was a "choke pear!"</p>
+
+<p>This vicious instrument of torture dates back to the time of Palioly,
+the notorious French robber and renegade, when it was very worthily
+called "the pear of anguish."</p>
+
+<p>It consists of a solid gag, so to speak, yet it is so constructed, with
+interior springs, that, once thrust into a person's mouth, it expands as
+fast as the mouth is opened, and rigidly distends the victim's jaws.</p>
+
+<p>The more widely the victim gapes to eject the "choke pear," or to cry
+out for aid, the larger the hideous object becomes, until torture,
+suffocation and death speedily ensue.</p>
+
+<p>Had this infernal device been generally available to modern criminals,
+Nick would have been warned by the significant words he had heard, and
+would have guarded himself against it.</p>
+
+<p>As it was, however, he had been caught; and in the mouth of any ordinary
+man the "choke pear" would have been irresistible.</p>
+
+<p>But the muscles of Nick Carter's jaws were like fibers of steel, and the
+instant he realized his situation he opened his mouth no wider. Instead,
+while hands and arms were still engaged in the furious conflict with his
+assailants, he brought his jaws together as if with superhuman power,
+and with a force that crushed the infernal device between them, much as
+if it had been little more than an eggshell.</p>
+
+<p>One of the ruffians heard the snapping crunch, and uttered a cry of
+amazement.</p>
+
+<p>The cry was echoed by hurried footsteps in the house.</p>
+
+<p>Then a rear door was suddenly thrown open by Rufus Venner, and a flood
+of light revealed the struggling men, still battling furiously on the
+pavement.</p>
+
+<p>Nick now had both opponents down, and within another minute he would
+have had them at his mercy, a fact which Venner instantly perceived.</p>
+
+<p>He sprang nearer, drew his revolver, and dealt the detective a single
+swinging blow upon the head.</p>
+
+<p>Nick dropped like an ox struck down in the shambles.</p>
+
+<p>The darkness of night was as nothing to the darkness that instantly fell
+upon him.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII" />CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+<h3>A STRATEGIC MOVE.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Nick Carter had a head that was used to hard knocks, and it required
+more than one to put him down and out for any considerable period.</p>
+
+<p>The great detective recovered consciousness within half an hour after
+the blow received from Rufus Venner, and he fell to taking the measure
+of his situation the moment the cobwebs began to clear from his brain.</p>
+
+<p>He found himself bound hand and foot with ropes, and lying upon the
+floor of a dark room. That he was in the dwelling occupied by the
+Spanish dancer, Nick had not a doubt.</p>
+
+<p>As his mind became clearer and his eyes accustomed to the darkness, Nick
+discovered a narrow thread of light some yards away and close to the
+floor, and presently the sound of lowered voices faintly reached his
+ears.</p>
+
+<p>"A light in the next room," he said to himself. "Probably the whole gang
+is out there, sizing up my case, and deciding what to do with me. If
+they are there, I must get a better look at those two ruffians. I owe
+them something for their work of to-night, and I always mean to pay such
+debts.</p>
+
+<p>"One of them was called Dave, and it may have been Dave Kilgore himself.
+In which case, by Jove! I was right in thinking that this diamond
+robbery only masks some deeper and bigger game.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder if they suspect my identity. If not, what sort of a game have
+they been playing here to-night?"</p>
+
+<p>Nick very quickly measured the various possibilities of the unusual
+situation.</p>
+
+<p>If the man whose name he had heard was indeed David Kilgore, then Rufus
+Venner, as well as Cervera, might be in league with the diamond gang,
+and the pretended robbery only a move made with some secret design.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, Venner might be entirely ignorant of Kilgore's
+identity, and without any serious suspicions of Cervera, being himself a
+blind victim of these notorious criminals.</p>
+
+<p>"If the latter is the case," reasoned Nick, "the gang may stand in fear
+of me, and perhaps are afraid that I shall foil some scheme they have in
+operation, or are about to undertake. Then they to-night may have aimed
+only to discover the extent and nature of my suspicions.</p>
+
+<p>"If that is the case, plainly it will become me to be a little foxy. I
+will see if I can contrive to overhear anything from out yonder."</p>
+
+<p>Bent upon wriggling nearer the closed door revealed by the thread of
+light near the floor, Nick quietly turned upon his side and cautiously
+worked his way over the carpet.</p>
+
+<p>He had covered scarce a yard, however, when the sharp, metallic ring of
+Cervera's voice fell plainly on his ears.</p>
+
+<p>"Look again, one of you," she curtly commanded. "See if that vagabond
+has come to himself."</p>
+
+<p>"That's your humble servant!" thought Nick.</p>
+
+<p>He quickly rolled back to his former position on the floor, and prepared
+to play the fox.</p>
+
+<p>In a moment the door was thrown open, admitting a flood of light, and a
+man strode into the room and dropped to his knee beside the motionless
+detective.</p>
+
+<p>"I say!" he harshly growled, shaking Nick roughly by the shoulder.
+"Brace up, you dog! Brace up, d'ye hear?"</p>
+
+<p>Nick groaned deeply, then slowly opened his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my head&mdash;my poor head!" he muttered, like one dazed and in pain.</p>
+
+<p>"Your poor head, eh?" sneered the other. "You're dead lucky to have a
+head left you. Pull yourself together, do you hear?"</p>
+
+<p>"Let me be! Where am I?"</p>
+
+<p>"You'll soon find out where you are. Sit up here!"</p>
+
+<p>"What do you say?" cried Venner, from the next room. "Has he come to?"</p>
+
+<p>The man at Nick's side turned his head to reply, and Nick then obtained
+a clear view of his profile.</p>
+
+<p>"Humph!" he mentally ejaculated. "Matthew Stall in disguise! One of the
+diamond gang, sure enough, and I now know I am on the right track."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, he's finally coming to time," cried Stall, in reply to Venner. "He
+will be all right in a minute."</p>
+
+<p>"Bring him out here," commanded Cervera, sharply. "Get the wretch up,
+and bring him out here."</p>
+
+<p>This was precisely what Nick wanted.</p>
+
+<p>Stall immediately bent lower, and released the detective's ankles.</p>
+
+<p>"Get up, you varlet!" he then growled. "Get up, I say!"</p>
+
+<p>Still groaning, and incoherently muttering, Nick permitted himself to be
+raised to his feet, and Stall then supported him and urged him out
+through the open doorway and into the adjoining room.</p>
+
+<p>In his red wig and croppy head, together with his rough attire and dazed
+aspect, Nick certainly presented a wretched appearance. He blinked
+confusedly, glanced down at his bound wrists, yet at the same time took
+in every feature of the brightly lighted room.</p>
+
+<p>It plainly was the library of the house, and both Rufus Venner and
+Cervera were seated near a handsome center table. Upon it lay most of
+the woman's jewels and diamonds, evidently lately removed, and
+presenting in the rays of light from the chandelier above a dazzling
+temptation to such a fellow as Nick then appeared to be.</p>
+
+<p>In an easy-chair, near the wall, sat the man called Dave, at the time
+Nick was thought to be dead outside. Now, in the bright light of the
+room, Nick instantly recognized him to be David Kilgore, despite a heavy
+disguise which the criminal obviously believed to be impenetrable.</p>
+
+<p>Nick gave no sign of the recognition, however, being content to await
+developments, and to shape his own course accordingly.</p>
+
+<p>From that moment, however, the name of neither criminal was once
+mentioned; and Nick was compelled to infer that Venner might indeed be
+entirely ignorant of their true identity and knavish character.</p>
+
+<p>The eyes of all were upon the detective, as he stood swaying slightly
+on the floor; and Cervera sharply demanded, with a threatening frown:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you vile miscreant, what can you say for yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>"Me?" queried Nick, pretending to pull himself together. "Nothing at
+all."</p>
+
+<p>"I guess that's right."</p>
+
+<p>"What should I say? Why have you got me here, and tied up in this
+fashion?"</p>
+
+<p>"You'll soon find out," cried Cervera, with vicious asperity. "What were
+you doing out back of my house?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing much," Nick evasively growled, waiting to learn which way the
+cat was about to jump.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing much!" sneered Cervera. "You'll find that will not go down with
+us."</p>
+
+<p>"I was looking for a chance to sleep in your stable," muttered Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"You lie, you dog!" cried Kilgore, fiercely. "You were at the back
+window."</p>
+
+<p>"Was I?"</p>
+
+<p>"And your game was to rob me of my jewels," Cervera angrily added, with
+her eyes emitting a gleam as fiery as the blazing gems at which she
+pointed. "That was your game, you renegade!"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think so?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know so!"</p>
+
+<p>Nick hoped she did.</p>
+
+<p>"And all I regret is," added the vixenish Spaniard, "that the bullet of
+my watchman did not end your villainous life."</p>
+
+<p>"We can end it now, se&ntilde;ora, if you say the word," put in Matthew Stall,
+with grim readiness.</p>
+
+<p>Nick never accepted such scenes as this at their face value, for he had
+witnessed many a similar game of bluff. This one might be all right and
+on the level, he reasoned, yet there still existed the possibility that
+he was recognized, and that these remarks implying the contrary were
+only a part of some well-laid plan.</p>
+
+<p>"If you think I'm a thief, why don't you hand me over to the police?" he
+shrewdly demanded.</p>
+
+<p>The ruse worked. For a moment Cervera was caught with no ready reply,
+and Nick promptly decided that he was known, hence could not well be
+given to the police.</p>
+
+<p>Yet these parties so obviously aimed to hide the fact that he was known
+to be Nick Carter, that Nick quickly resolved to let them have all the
+rope they wanted, and to meet them with a counter-move&mdash;that of boldly
+declaring his own identity, and so disarming them of any misgiving that
+he had recognized Kilgore and Matthew Stall, or even had any suspicions
+of Se&ntilde;ora Cervera.</p>
+
+<p>It was a very clever counter, and Nick went at it cleverly.</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't you give me to the police, if you think I'm a thief?" he
+repeated, when Cervera made no reply.</p>
+
+<p>"The police?&mdash;bah!" she now cried, with a sneer. "For what? That you may
+square yourself in some way, or make your escape, and then come back
+here to attempt the job again?"</p>
+
+<p>"H'm!" thought Nick. "They don't want to let me go before learning what
+I suspect. I won't do a thing but fool them in that."</p>
+
+<p>"Police be hanged!" Cervera quickly added. "In my country we have a
+surer way of removing such villains as you."</p>
+
+<p>"What way?" queried Nick, coolly.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Caramba!</i> The garrote!"</p>
+
+<p>"Choke 'em off, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Or the poniard!"</p>
+
+<p>"A stab between the ribs, I take it."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes! It is what you deserve."</p>
+
+<p>"But you will not try it on me," declared Nick, confidently.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you be too sure of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'm sure enough of it."</p>
+
+<p>"The law would never reach us&mdash;don't think that," cried Cervera, with a
+passionate sneer. "<i>Caramba!</i> we'd plant your miserable bones where
+they'd never be found. Don't think, you wretch, that we fear to do it."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet I don't fear that you will."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not I, Se&ntilde;ora Cervera."</p>
+
+<p>"How dare you utter my name with your foul mouth?" screamed the dancer,
+with a vicious display of scornful resentment. "Not kill you? I've a
+mind to order it done at once, you wretch! I hate such reptiles as you!"</p>
+
+<p>Nick laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"If you were to order it done, se&ntilde;ora, and the knife were at my throat,"
+said he, "your order would certainly be countermanded."</p>
+
+<p>"What! By whom?" cried Cervera, with her passionate, dark eyes fiercely
+blazing. "I'll have you know that I rule here&mdash;and not here alone!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yet your command would be revoked, se&ntilde;ora."</p>
+
+<p>"For what reason, villain?"</p>
+
+<p>"It would be revoked at the request of our mutual friend, Mr. Rufus
+Venner, to whom I presently shall explain my conduct, and also implore
+your own pardon, se&ntilde;ora, for having made you the mark of my very
+unworthy suspicions," cried Nick, with a sudden dramatic display of
+dignity and confidence.</p>
+
+<p>It brought Venner sharply to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>"Good heavens!" he cried. "What do you mean, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, what do you mean?" roared Kilgore, bracing straight up in his chair
+and reaching for his gun&mdash;a move Nick pretended he did not see.</p>
+
+<p>"I only mean, gentlemen, that I am no burglar," cried Nick, in his
+natural voice, at the same time raising his bound hands to remove his
+disguise. "Allow me, Mr. Venner, to present myself in proper person."</p>
+
+<p>"The devil and all his followers!" yelled Venner. "You're&mdash;you're Nick
+Carter!"</p>
+
+<p>"None other," bowed Nick, smiling and tossing his disguise upon the
+table. "Plainly, Venner, you are greatly surprised at seeing me&mdash;and I
+do not wonder at it."</p>
+
+<p>Yet for all that Nick did wonder a little, since he could not yet
+determine just how much of this scene was on the level.</p>
+
+<p>The faces of Kilgore and Matthew Stall, however, betrayed more secret
+exultation than surprise. Plainly enough both were now convinced that
+Nick did not recognize them, nor even suspect that he himself had been
+recognized&mdash;and these were precisely the two convictions Nick had aimed
+to convey by his masterly move in thus disclosing himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Se&ntilde;ora Cervera," he hastened to add, before any of the startled
+group could speak, "I owe you a profound apology. I did you the
+injustice to suspect you, not only of being a thief, but also of being
+identified with the notorious Kilgore gang, three of the cleverest and
+most dangerous swindlers in the world."</p>
+
+<p>"Perdition!" gasped Cervera. "You astound me."</p>
+
+<p>"I was led to suspect you, se&ntilde;ora, because your letter to Venner took
+him from his store just at the time of the robbery," Nick quickly went
+on to explain, thus putting his own strategy on a solid basis. "I
+shadowed you from the theater to-night, intending to watch you and your
+house, a design which has nearly cost me my life at the hands of your
+faithful watchman.</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad to add, se&ntilde;ora, that I now have completely changed my views,
+and I trust that you will bear in mind that you were a stranger to me,
+and so pardon my unworthy misgivings. It is impossible that you, Se&ntilde;ora
+Cervera, could be guilty of any evil, or know aught of so accomplished a
+knave as David Kilgore, or any of his clever gang."</p>
+
+<p>A shrewder move could scarce have been conceived. That Nick would thus
+have declared himself in the very presence of Kilgore, if known to him,
+seemed utterly absurd; and the eyes of both Kilgore and Matt Stall were
+aglow with a vicious amusement and satisfaction much too genuine to be
+entirely concealed.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Mr. Carter," cried Venner, now hastening to release the
+defective's hands, "you certainly have had a close call, and are lucky
+to come out of it with a whole skin. These two men are employed by
+se&ntilde;ora to guard her house at night, and they naturally mistook you for a
+burglar."</p>
+
+<p>Despite his keen discernment, Nick could not determine whether this man
+was lying, or was really as blind as his words implied. Content to await
+further discoveries, however, Nick laughed quickly, and replied:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well, Mr. Venner; I am quite accustomed to close calls and hard
+knocks, and I assure you that I bear the se&ntilde;ora's watchmen no ill will
+for having done their duty as they saw it. Se&ntilde;ora Cervera is to be
+congratulated upon having secured the services of two such faithful
+fellows."</p>
+
+<p>Kilgore had all he could do to keep from laughing aloud, so blinded was
+he by Nick's artful duplicity.</p>
+
+<p>"And when I inform you, se&ntilde;ora," cried Venner, "that Detective Carter is
+in my employ, and is really a royal good friend, I am sure that you will
+pardon him for having been so misled by your letter of this morning."</p>
+
+<p>Se&ntilde;ora Cervera was blushing now, yet to Nick it appeared a little
+forced, and there was in her evil, black eyes a gleam he did not like.
+Yet she at once arose and came to shake the detective by the hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, if my dear friend, Mr. Venner, says it is all right, I am sure it
+must be so," she cried, smiling up at Nick. "But I am afraid, Detective
+Carter, that you will now think me dreadfully severe, and my two
+watchmen more brutal than bulldogs."</p>
+
+<p>Nick laughed deeply, and glanced at the display of diamonds on the
+table.</p>
+
+<p>"When one has such valuable toys as those in her house, se&ntilde;ora, bold men
+and vigilant bulldogs are both essential," said he, heartily.</p>
+
+<p>"That's true, sir; indeed, it is."</p>
+
+<p>"And with your permission, se&ntilde;ora, I will shake hands with your two
+watchmen also, to show them I bear no resentment. After which I will
+take myself home, to nurse my little tokens of their vigilance and
+prowess."</p>
+
+<p>This brought a laugh from all, and Nick, ever shrewd and crafty, now
+shook hands with the two criminals he fully intended to finally land
+behind prison bars. Then he bowed himself out of the room, and was
+accompanied by Rufus Venner to the front door of the house, where he
+bade him a genial good-night and departed.</p>
+
+<p>When Venner returned to the room, he found Dave Kilgore seated on the
+edge of the table, with his false beard in his hand, and a look of
+intense distrust on his evil, forceful face.</p>
+
+<p>"Crafty&mdash;infernally crafty!" he cried, as Venner entered. "I tell you,
+Rufe, that man must be watched. He is a man to be feared&mdash;constantly
+feared! I'm cursed if I can tell whether he gave us that on the level or
+not."</p>
+
+<p>"Pshaw!" sneered Venner, contemptuously. "Of course it was on the
+level."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not so sure of it&mdash;not so sure of it!" reiterated Kilgore, with
+clouded brow. "I tell you, Venner, that he must be watched, and we must
+be guarded. We have too much at stake to suffer Nick Carter to queer our
+game."</p>
+
+<p>"There is one sure way of preventing it," cried Cervera, with passionate
+vehemence.</p>
+
+<p>"Kill him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes! Take his life!" hissed the dancer, through her gleaming white
+teeth. "You were fools to have missed it to-night. Even the law would
+have acquitted you."</p>
+
+<p>"There are nights to come!" Kilgore grimly retorted.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII" />CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>FOUND DEAD.</h3>
+
+
+<p>"What's the trouble yonder, Nick?"</p>
+
+<p>"Where?"</p>
+
+<p>"In the park."</p>
+
+<p>"Humph! Something wrong, evidently. Come on, Chick, and we'll see."</p>
+
+<p>It was nearly sunset one Monday afternoon, and almost two weeks
+subsequent to the incidents last depicted.</p>
+
+<p>That at least one of Dave Kilgore's suggestions had been adopted, and he
+and his gang had become rigorously guarded, appears in that the Carters
+had utterly failed to accomplish anything against them in the interval
+mentioned. Despite constant vigilance and incessant work on the case,
+neither Nick nor Chick had been able to secure an additional clew.</p>
+
+<p>Kilgore and Matt Stall had vanished as if the earth had swallowed them.</p>
+
+<p>The mammoth vaudeville troupe had completed its engagement, and was now
+disbanded for the season.</p>
+
+<p>Se&ntilde;ora Cervera still retained her uptown house, and frequently received
+Venner as a visitor; but never a sign of the diamond gang, or of any
+stranger, could the detectives discover, in or about her place.</p>
+
+<p>Rufus Venner was attending to his business as usual, and appeared all
+aboveboard. Now and then he called upon Nick about the stolen diamonds,
+expressing a hope that they would be recovered; but in no way did he
+lay himself open to further suspicions than Nick had at first conceived.</p>
+
+<p>Yet Nick was too shrewd to press him with questions, and so perhaps
+betray his own hand. As a matter of fact, the famous detective was in
+quite a quandary over the case, because of his conviction that some big
+game was secretly afoot, and his utter inability to strike any tangible
+clew to it.</p>
+
+<p>Such a state of affairs was very unusual, and Nick chafed under it. It
+indicated that he was up against men as good as himself, and his vain
+work of the past ten days served only to aggravate him, and embitter his
+grim and inflexible determination to unearth the whole business.</p>
+
+<p>This Monday afternoon, as Nick and Chick were passing Central Park, the
+attention of the latter was drawn toward a group of men in one of the
+park walks, somewhat removed from the street. A policeman was among
+them, and they appeared to be gazing at something upon the ground.</p>
+
+<p>"It looks like the figure of a woman," said Nick, as he and Chick
+entered the park. "Officer Fogarty is there, and&mdash;yes, by Jove! it is
+the form of a woman."</p>
+
+<p>The two detectives quickly reached the scene, and the park officer at
+once recognized Nick, respectfully touching his helmet.</p>
+
+<p>"What's amiss here, Fogarty?" inquired Nick.</p>
+
+<p>Fogarty pointed to the motionless form upon the ground.</p>
+
+<p>"Dead!" said he, tersely. "We've just found her."</p>
+
+<p>"Keep those people further away, Fogarty," said Nick, with a toss of
+his head toward half a score of men gathered near by. "I will see what I
+make of the case."</p>
+
+<p>The figure was that of a girl, rather than a woman, apparently about
+eighteen years of age. She was lying partly upon her side upon the
+greensward, and evidently had fallen from one of the park seats upon
+which she had been resting, and upon which her straw shade hat was still
+lying. She was neatly clad in a suit of dark blue, and her girlish face
+indicated some culture and refinement.</p>
+
+<p>Near her, upon the grass, lay a piece of brown wrapping paper, and a
+yard of two of string, evidently removed from a small, square box, which
+she had dropped and partly fallen upon when stricken with sudden death.</p>
+
+<p>A mere glance gave Nick these superficial features, and he quickly knelt
+beside the girl, and felt her hand and wrist.</p>
+
+<p>"Dead as a doornail," he murmured to Chick, who also had approached. "I
+find her hand still warm, however. She can have been dead only a few
+minutes."</p>
+
+<p>"Heart failure, perhaps," suggested Chick.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think so."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"She doesn't look it. Her form is plump, her cheeks full, and she
+appears to have been in perfect health."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet she is dead."</p>
+
+<p>"No doubt of it."</p>
+
+<p>"A pretty girl, too."</p>
+
+<p>"Very. See if there is any writing on that brown paper."</p>
+
+<p>"No, Nick; not a line."</p>
+
+<p>"Here, here, let me see it! What's this? It is punctured with tiny
+holes, evidently made with a pin."</p>
+
+<p>"So it is, by Jove!"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps she made them with her hat pin, while sitting there on the
+seat. See, Chick, there is the pin still in the hat."</p>
+
+<p>"I see it, Nick. What now?"</p>
+
+<p>Still kneeling beside the girl, Nick was holding the sheet of paper
+between himself and the sky.</p>
+
+<p>"No, the punctures are not uniform," said he. "I thought that they
+possibly had been made with some design, and perhaps formed some word or
+sentence that would give us a clew to the mystery."</p>
+
+<p>"None such, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not a sign of it. Evidently she jabbed the pin through the paper only
+in idleness."</p>
+
+<p>"She is lying on a box of some kind, from which she probably had taken
+this wrapping paper."</p>
+
+<p>"So I see," nodded Nick. "Lend me a hand, Chick, and we'll have a look
+at the box."</p>
+
+<p>With gentle hands the two detectives moved the girl's lifeless form, and
+Nick then took up the box mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>It was about four inches square, and was made of silver, with an open
+work design of vines and leaves, which displayed a blue silk lining
+through the metal apertures. Plainly enough it was a lady's jewel
+casket, and one of considerable value; but it was entirely empty, and it
+bore no name or inscription.</p>
+
+<p>For several moments Nick Carter examined it very intently, with his
+brows gradually knitting closer and closer; and all the while Officer
+Fogarty, and the group of men in the gravel walk a few yards distant,
+mutely gazed and wondered.</p>
+
+<p>Chick Carter, however, who could read Nick's every change of expression,
+saw at once that the great detective not only was making some startling
+discoveries, but also was arriving at deductions far too subtle and
+significant to have been reached by any less keen and practiced
+observer.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you make of it, Nick?" whispered Chick, dropping to his knee
+beside his companion.</p>
+
+<p>Nick also lowered his voice, and for several minutes the two conversed
+in rapid whispers.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a jewel case, Chick; and quite a valuable one."</p>
+
+<p>"So I see."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think it belonged to this girl. She looks as if she were the
+maid, or possibly the companion, of some woman of wealth or distinction.
+Her attire also indicates that. Hence so valuable a toy can hardly have
+belonged to the girl, but more likely was the property of her mistress."</p>
+
+<p>"No name on it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not even an initial. Not a mark of any kind."</p>
+
+<p>"It is empty."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Can the girl have been robbed of its contents, here and in broad
+daylight?"</p>
+
+<p>"Worse, Chick!" whispered Nick, between his teeth. "Worse even than
+that."</p>
+
+<p>"Good heavens, Nick! What do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Chick, this girl was foully murdered!"</p>
+
+<p>"Murdered!" echoed Chick, with an involuntary gasp. "Can it be
+possible?"</p>
+
+<p>"It certainly appears so to me."</p>
+
+<p>"But the means?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is the mystery."</p>
+
+<p>"There are no signs of violence."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a bit. Notice her right wrist, just back of the thumb and near the
+pulse. Notice that tiny red spot, barely observable. It might have been
+made with the point of a pin. Do you see, it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, now that you call my attention to it."</p>
+
+<p>"It means something. I am convinced of that."</p>
+
+<p>"Others are not likely to discover it."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope they may not, Chick," Nick hurriedly rejoined. "I am flooded
+with ideas and suspicions, which I wish to consider and put in order
+before too much of this mystery leaks out. I'll explain later."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps her hat pin is poisoned," suggested Chick.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think that."</p>
+
+<p>"Or possibly&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a moment. Look at this box."</p>
+
+<p>"Well?"</p>
+
+<p>"That wrapper was punctured while still on the box," explained Nick.
+"Notice that the pin went through the spaces in this metal design, and
+then through the silk lining inside."</p>
+
+<p>"Plainly enough, Nick."</p>
+
+<p>"Notice this particular puncture in the interior of the lining."</p>
+
+<p>"By Jove! there's a faint tinge of red around it."</p>
+
+<p>"Left when the pin was withdrawn," whispered Nick, significantly.
+"Chick, it's a tinge of blood!"</p>
+
+<p>"I believe you're right, Nick."</p>
+
+<p>"I am convinced of it. Also that there's a mystery here which cannot be
+solved in a moment," said Nick, impressively. "I wish to conceal these
+discoveries until after I have considered them more fully, and also
+identified this girl. See if you can find her purse, or anything that
+will reveal her name."</p>
+
+<p>While Chick was thus engaged, Nick arose and glanced sharply around in
+search of any evidence indicating that such a crime could have been
+committed unobserved in so public a place.</p>
+
+<p>The seat which the girl had occupied stood on the greensward, about
+eight feet from the gravel walk. By several clusters of shrubbery some
+feet away at either side, the seat was somewhat obscured from the view
+of persons approaching along the walk from either direction. Several
+trees cast shadows nearly over the spot, which was one very likely to
+have been selected by a couple desirous of being somewhat alone while
+resting from an afternoon stroll.</p>
+
+<p>Nick quickly noted these several features, then glanced at Chick and
+asked:</p>
+
+<p>"Do you find anything?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing by which to identify her."</p>
+
+<p>"Her purse?"</p>
+
+<p>"It contains only a few pieces of silver. No cards, nor so much as a
+scrap of paper. Other than her purse, there is only a latchkey in her
+pocket, and a perfectly plain handkerchief. Her identification must come
+later."</p>
+
+<p>"I guess we have missed nothing here," nodded Nick. "I'll have just a
+word with Fogarty, and then we'll go along."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you make of it, Detective Carter?" inquired the officer, as
+Nick approached.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not prepared to say," replied Nick, ignoring the startled glances
+of the several men who heard his name and now beheld the great detective
+for the first time.</p>
+
+<p>"The girl is dead, sir, isn't she?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes; there is no doubt of that," bowed Nick. "It may be a case of
+heart failure. You had better take the proper steps for the removal of
+the body. This box and wrapping paper, however, I am going to take with
+me, and will be responsible for them."</p>
+
+<p>"All right, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"By the way, Fogarty, how long ago did you discover the body?"</p>
+
+<p>"Scarce a minute before you came, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Were you the first to see it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Had you seen the girl about here before during the afternoon?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you see anybody leaving here just before you arrived and discovered
+the body?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did not, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"That's all, Fogarty. I'll get any other particulars later."</p>
+
+<p>Thereupon, as Nick was about to turn away, a young man in the crowd came
+suddenly forth, and exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>"One moment, Detective Carter, if you please! I saw that girl, about
+half an hour ago, walking this way with a gentleman."</p>
+
+<p>Nick turned abruptly to the speaker.</p>
+
+<p>"What is your name?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Tom Jenkins, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"And your address?"</p>
+
+<p>"I live at the Hotel North, and am employed by Hentz Brothers, in Broad
+Street."</p>
+
+<p>"You say that you saw the girl walking this way with a gentleman?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Did they appear to be on good terms?"</p>
+
+<p>"Excellent, sir. They were talking and laughing, and seemed to be
+enjoying themselves."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know the girl's name, or where she lives?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not, sir; nor anything about her."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know anything about her companion, the gentleman you saw with
+her?"</p>
+
+<p>For the bare fraction of a second Jenkins hesitated, as one might do who
+was loath to bring trouble upon another. Then he replied, in faltering
+tones:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, yes, sir, I know the name of the man who was with her."</p>
+
+<p>"State it, please."</p>
+
+<p>"His name, sir, is Harry Boyden."</p>
+
+<p>Nick felt his blood start slightly, yet his countenance did not change
+by so much as a shadow.</p>
+
+<p>He glanced at Chick, however, and the same thought was in the mind of
+each.</p>
+
+<p>"Harry Boyden! The clerk employed by Thomas Hafferman, the dealer in
+diamonds!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX" />CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+
+<h3>NICK STRIKES A STARTLING CLEW.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The mind of Nick Carter was, as he had remarked to Chick, stirred with a
+flood of questions not easily or quickly answered.</p>
+
+<p>Who was this girl found dead in Central Park?</p>
+
+<p>Had she, indeed, been foully murdered? If so, by what mysterious means?
+What had been the object? Who the perpetrator of the crime?</p>
+
+<p>Or, on the other hand, was the evidence itself misleading, and had the
+unfortunate girl selected that sequestered seat in the park, and there
+deliberately committed suicide? Even then, by what means had the deed
+been accomplished? What had been the occasion?</p>
+
+<p>What, moreover, had become of her companion at just that time? Why had
+he deserted her? What signified the pin-punctured wrapping paper, and
+the empty jewel casket, in the dead girl's possession?</p>
+
+<p>Had the casket contained jewels of great value? Had the girl been robbed
+of them, and then foully murdered in some mysterious way?</p>
+
+<p>Was Harry Boyden, the clerk employed by Hafferman, the last to leave the
+girl that fateful afternoon? Was he responsible for her death? Was
+robbery the incentive to the crime?</p>
+
+<p>Or, on the other hand, had Boyden left the girl alive and well, and was
+the crime the work of another?</p>
+
+<p>Or, finally, was there some strange and startling connection between
+this park murder and the robbery committed at Venner's store? Was there,
+between the two crimes, some extraordinary bond yet to be
+discovered&mdash;some tie uniting the two misdeeds as if with links of steel?</p>
+
+<p>These were some of the conflicting questions that occurred to Nick
+Carter that afternoon, and in order to consider them before taking any
+decided action in the matter, Nick had kept to himself his startling
+discoveries, and left Officer Fogarty to take the customary steps in the
+affair.</p>
+
+<p>At seven o'clock that evening, while Nick and Chick were seated at
+dinner, and still engaged in discussing the conflicting circumstances, a
+message was received from police headquarters, informing Nick that the
+girl had been identified, and that Harry Boyden had been found and
+arrested.</p>
+
+<p>"Very good," observed Nick. "We shall now get something to work upon. I
+will go and question Boyden as soon as I finish my dinner."</p>
+
+<p>"By all means," nodded Chick.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know," said Nick, "I am seriously impressed that there is some
+strange connection between this girl's death and that robbery at
+Venner's store. I believe that we have struck the very clew, or are
+about to strike it, that we so long have been vainly seeking."</p>
+
+<p>"To the Kilgore gang?"</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly."</p>
+
+<p>"Egad, I hope so," laughed Chick, with a grimace. "I am beastly tired of
+nosing about on a scentless trail."</p>
+
+<p>Nick joined in the laugh of his invariably cheerful associate.</p>
+
+<p>"Odds blood, Nick, as they say in the play," added Chick. "I'd welcome
+any sort of stir and danger, in preference to this chasing a
+will-o'-the-wisp."</p>
+
+<p>"There'll be enough doing, Chick, take my word for it, as soon as we
+once more get on the track of Kilgore and his push."</p>
+
+<p>"Let it come, and God speed it," grinned Chick. "What's your idea,
+Nick?"</p>
+
+<p>"This empty jewel casket, the possibility that it contained diamonds, of
+which the girl was robbed and then murdered, and the fact that Harry
+Boyden is the clerk who brought the stolen diamonds to Venner's
+store&mdash;certainly the circumstances seem to point to some strange
+relation between the two crimes."</p>
+
+<p>While Nick was thus expressing his views, a rapidly driven carriage
+approached the residence of the famous detective, and a servant
+presently entered the dining room and informed Nick that a lady wished
+to see him.</p>
+
+<p>Nick glanced at her card.</p>
+
+<p>"Violet Page," he muttered. "I know no lady named Violet Page. Is she
+young or old?"</p>
+
+<p>"Young, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you admit her?"</p>
+
+<p>"She is in the library, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well. I will see her presently. Request her to wait a few
+moments."</p>
+
+<p>Nick delayed only to finish his dinner, then repaired to the library. As
+he entered the attractively furnished room his visitor quickly arose
+from one of the easy-chairs and hastened to approach him.</p>
+
+<p>Nick beheld a young lady of exquisite beauty and modest bearing, and
+though her sweet face, then very pale and distressed, struck him as one
+he had previously seen, he at first could not place her.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you Mr. Carter&mdash;Detective Carter?" she hurriedly, inquired, in
+tremulous accents of appeal.</p>
+
+<p>Nick had a warm place in his heart for one so timid and distressed as
+this girl appeared, and he bowed very kindly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Miss Page," said he. "What can I do for you? You appear to be in
+trouble."</p>
+
+<p>"I am in trouble&mdash;terrible trouble, sir," cried the girl, with a
+half-choked sob. "Oh, Mr. Carter, I come to you in despair, a girl
+without friends or advisers, and who knows not whither to turn. I have
+been told that you have a kind heart, and that you are the one man able
+to solve the dreadful mystery which&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Nick checked her pathetic flood of words with a kindly gesture.</p>
+
+<p>"Calm yourself, Miss Page," said he, in a sort of paternal way. "Resume
+your chair, please. Though I am somewhat pressed for time just now I
+will give you at least a few moments."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, thank you, sir!"</p>
+
+<p>"Be calm, however, in order that we may accomplish all the more."</p>
+
+<p>"I will, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"To what mystery do you refer? What is the occasion of your terrible
+distress?"</p>
+
+<p>Violet Page subdued her agitation and hastened to reply.</p>
+
+<p>"My maid and companion, a girl named Mary Barton," said she, "was found
+dead in Central Park late this afternoon. Nor is that all, Detective
+Carter. A very dear friend of mine, named Harry Boyden, has been
+arrested, under suspicion of having killed her. Oh, sir, that could not
+be possible!"</p>
+
+<p>Nick felt an immediate increase of interest.</p>
+
+<p>He decided that Miss Violet Page was the very person he wanted to
+interview, and while he did not then exhibit any knowledge of the case,
+he proceeded to question her with his own ends in view, at the same time
+ringing a signal for Chick to join him, which the latter presently did.</p>
+
+<p>"Where do you live, Miss Page?" inquired Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"I board in Forty-second Street, sir. I have no living relatives, and
+for about two years have employed a maid, or, I might better call her, a
+companion."</p>
+
+<p>"The girl mentioned?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir. Her parents also are dead. The fact that we both are orphans
+created a bond of sympathy between us."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you a person of much means, Miss Page?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, sir. I earn my living on the stage. I was a member of the big
+vaudeville troupe, which lately disbanded for the season. My stage name
+is Violet Marduke."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! now I remember," remarked Nick. "I thought I had seen you before. I
+happened to hear you sing one evening about two weeks ago."</p>
+
+<p>"I recognized her when I entered," observed Chick, who had taken a
+chair near by.</p>
+
+<p>Nick came back to business.</p>
+
+<p>"Why are you so confident, Miss Page, that Boyden cannot have killed
+Mary Barton?" he demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"Because, sir, Harry Boyden is a gentle, brave and honest man, and
+utterly incapable of committing such a crime," cried Violet, with much
+feeling. "Besides, sir, he can have had no possible reason for wishing
+her dead."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you sure of that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Absolutely!"</p>
+
+<p>"What are your relations with Boyden?"</p>
+
+<p>"We are lovers, sir," admitted Violet, with a tinge of red dispelling
+the paleness of her pretty cheeks. "We expect to be married the coming
+summer."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! I see," murmured Nick, thoughtfully. "How long have you been
+acquainted with Boyden?"</p>
+
+<p>"For ten years, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you have been able to form quite a reliable opinion of his
+character."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, sir, I have!" cried Violet, warmly. "Detective Carter, I know
+that Harry Boyden is far above any dishonorable action. I would trust
+him with my life."</p>
+
+<p>Of the honesty of the girl herself Nick had not a doubt. It showed in
+her eyes, sounded in her voice, and was pictured in her ever changing
+expression. Nick was inclined to feel that her opinion of Boyden was
+worthy of very serious consideration, despite that circumstances seemed
+to implicate the young man in no less than two crimes.</p>
+
+<p>"Is the fact that you are engaged to Boyden generally known, Miss
+Page?" Nick next asked.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not, sir. We have said nothing about it."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, that opens the way for conjectures," cried Nick. "Is there any
+person who knows of the engagement, or who suspects it, that would
+jealously aim to injure Boyden by implicating him in a crime?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I cannot think so, sir!" said Violet, with a look of horror. "I
+certainly know of no such person."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you been accepting the attentions of any other young man?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir," smiled Violet. "That is not my style."</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad to hear you say so, yet I really might have known it,"
+laughed Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Detective Carter," bowed the girl, blushing warmly. Then she
+hastened to add: "Still, I am not a prude, sir&mdash;don't think I mean that.
+In my profession one is obliged to be on friendly terms with a great
+many persons, both men and women. At the theater, for instance, I meet
+many men and form many acquaintances, both agreeable and the reverse."</p>
+
+<p>"And sometimes have the attentions of men fairly forced upon you, I
+imagine?" said Nick, inquiringly, with a brighter gleam lighting his
+earnest eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir; sometimes," Violet demurely admitted.</p>
+
+<p>Nick drew forward in his chair, and Chick saw that he had caught up the
+thread at that moment suggested to himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Page," said Nick, more impressively, "I now want you to answer me
+without the slightest reserve."</p>
+
+<p>"I will, sir," bowed Violet, with a startled look.</p>
+
+<p>"Has any man of the late vaudeville company, or one connected with the
+theater, endeavored to force his love upon you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir; not one."</p>
+
+<p>"Or any visitor admitted to the stage?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well&mdash;yes, sir," faltered Violet, quite timidly. "Since you press me
+thus gravely, I must admit that I have been obliged to repel the
+affection of a certain man. Yet, please don't infer, sir, that he has
+ever been ungentlemanly. He even has done me the honor, if one can so
+term an undesired proposal, to protest that he wished to make me his
+wife."</p>
+
+<p>"What is that man's name?" demanded Nick, quite bluntly.</p>
+
+<p>Yet both Nick and Chick already anticipated it.</p>
+
+<p>"Must I tell you his name, sir?" faltered Violet.</p>
+
+<p>"You may do so confidentially, Miss Page."</p>
+
+<p>"His name, sir, is Rufus Venner."</p>
+
+<p>"One more question, Miss Page," cried Nick, quickly, "Was there any
+member of the vaudeville company who knew of Venner's proposal?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think so, sir. At least I know of none."</p>
+
+<p>Nick glanced at Chick and dryly remarked:</p>
+
+<p>"All under the surface, Chick."</p>
+
+<p>"Not a doubt of it, Nick."</p>
+
+<p>Violet looked surprised and alarmed at this, and hastened to ask:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Mr. Carter, is there something of which I am ignorant? Or have I
+done wrong in any way?"</p>
+
+<p>Nick turned to her and gravely answered:</p>
+
+<p>"No, Miss Page, you have done nothing wrong&mdash;far from it! But there is
+considerable of which you are ignorant."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, sir, what do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Wait just one moment, and I then may be able to tell you," said Nick,
+rising. "I have something here that I wish to show you."</p>
+
+<p>He went to his library desk and took from a drawer the silver jewel
+casket which he had brought from Central Park.</p>
+
+<p>When he turned he held it in his extended hand, and the eyes of the girl
+suddenly fell upon it.</p>
+
+<p>Instantly she leaped to her feet, as pale as death itself.</p>
+
+<p>Then a scream, as of sudden, ungovernable terror, rose from her lips and
+rang with piercing shrillness through the house.</p>
+
+<p>"Catch her, Chick&mdash;she's fainting!" yelled Nick, with eyes ablaze. "By
+Heaven! we've struck the trail at last!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X" />CHAPTER X.</h2>
+
+<h3>ON THE TRAIL.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Nick Carter was a little perplexed.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Violet Page had recovered from her sudden swoon, and although still
+very pale she sat gazing calmly at the silver jewel casket, which Nick
+was again displaying.</p>
+
+<p>Somewhat to Nick's surprise, considering the girl's abrupt collapse upon
+first beholding the casket, Miss Page had just declared that she had
+never seen it before that evening.</p>
+
+<p>"You never saw it before?" exclaimed Nick, almost incredulously.</p>
+
+<p>"Never until you produced it from your desk a few minutes ago,"
+reiterated Violet.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, then, were you so overcome upon seeing it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will tell you why, Detective Carter, yet I fear that you will think
+me very weak and foolish to have been so seriously affected."</p>
+
+<p>"No; I think not."</p>
+
+<p>"I had a terrible dream last night, sir," Violet now explained. "I
+dreamed that I was alone in an enormous graveyard at midnight, with a
+full moon revealing the dismal surroundings, the dark tombs, the
+staring, white headstones and the silent graves."</p>
+
+<p>"Not very cheerful&mdash;certainly," smiled Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"What followed was infinitely more terrible," continued Violet, with an
+irrepressible shudder.</p>
+
+<p>"What was that?"</p>
+
+<p>"I dreamed that I saw a grave near which I was standing suddenly begin
+to open, as if a living being were pushing up the ground from within.
+Then I saw a fleshless hand appear above the disturbed sods. Then a
+sightless human skull thrust itself forth, and presently, filling me
+with a terror I cannot describe, the entire skeleton emerged from the
+partly open grave, and arose and approached me."</p>
+
+<p>"A grewsome dream, indeed," remarked Nick. "But what of the casket?"</p>
+
+<p>"This of the casket, sir," concluded Violet. "In the skeleton's right
+hand, which was extended straight toward me while he approached, was a
+silver box&mdash;the exact likeness of the one you hold, and which you so
+abruptly showed me a short time ago."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, I see," nodded Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"In my present nervous condition, Detective Carter, the sight of the
+real casket, after so horrible a dream, was more than I could sustain.
+Fairly before I knew it, I had fainted."</p>
+
+<p>"A curious dream and a startling sequence," said Nick. "Evidently coming
+events have been casting their shadows before. I am sorry to have
+shocked you so severely."</p>
+
+<p>"Pray don't speak of it, Mr. Carter," protested Violet. "I am now quite
+recovered."</p>
+
+<p>"Then we will at once proceed to business again," said Nick. "Am I to
+infer, Miss Page, that you know nothing at all about this casket?"</p>
+
+<p>"Absolutely nothing, sir," declared Violet.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you ever heard your maid, Mary Barton, speak of possessing such a
+jewel box?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Nevertheless," said Nick, pointedly, "this casket was found beside her
+dead body in Central Park this afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>A half-suppressed cry broke from Violet upon hearing this.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, sir, then that must have been the package mentioned by Harry
+Boyden," she cried, excitedly.</p>
+
+<p>"What's that?" demanded Nick. "Have you seen Boyden since his arrest?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"When and where?"</p>
+
+<p>"He was arrested at my home about half-past six, sir. When I learned for
+what and heard the particulars, I was advised by my landlady to appeal
+at once to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you come directly here?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did, sir; as fast as a carriage could bring me."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, now we shall get at it," declared Nick. "Tell me, Miss Page, just
+what Boyden said about Mary Barton."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, sir, he said he left her alive and well about half-past five."</p>
+
+<p>"Where?"</p>
+
+<p>"On her way through the park," replied Violet. "He had met her about
+five o'clock, and they walked about in the park for a short time. Then
+he told her that he had an errand to do, after which he was coming to
+call upon me. Then Mary laughed and replied that she would see him
+later."</p>
+
+<p>"That doesn't smack very strongly of suicide, Chick," remarked Nick,
+with a glance at the former.</p>
+
+<p>"I should say not," replied Chick, with a shrug of his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"Did Boyden know where Mary went after he left her?" inquired Nick,
+reverting to his visitor.</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir. He declared to the officer that he did not."</p>
+
+<p>"What mention did he make of a package carried by the girl?"</p>
+
+<p>"He stated that Mary had what appeared to be a small, square box, done
+up in brown wrapping paper, and secured with a string."</p>
+
+<p>"Did he make any inquiries about it?"</p>
+
+<p>"He asked her what it was, and she told him it was for me."</p>
+
+<p>"Did she tell him where she got it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir, she did; and I am quite mystified by it."</p>
+
+<p>"Please explain," said Nick. "What did the Barton girl say about the
+parcel?"</p>
+
+<p>"She said it was given to her by a woman whom she had met on Fifth
+Avenue a short time before."</p>
+
+<p>"An acquaintance?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir; a strange woman," continued Violet. "Yet the stranger must
+have known Mary, and that she lived with me, for she asked her if I was
+at home."</p>
+
+<p>"And then?"</p>
+
+<p>"When told that I was, she gave Mary the package and asked her to
+deliver it to me, into my hands only, as it was a gift from a friend."</p>
+
+<p>"Was the name of the friend mentioned?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think not, sir. The woman cautioned Mary against opening the package,
+stating in explanation that she wished me to be the first to see what it
+contained."</p>
+
+<p>"These are the facts which Mary Barton told to Harry Boyden, are they?"
+demanded Nick, with an ominous ring stealing into his voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir, they are."</p>
+
+<p>"And the statements which Boyden, in turn, made to the officer by whom
+he was arrested at your home?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is right, sir. I heard them from Harry's own lips."</p>
+
+<p>"Did Mary Barton have any idea of the identity of the woman from whom
+she received the package?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think not, sir. She told Harry that the woman was veiled, and that
+she could not see her face. The incident seemed so strange, sir, that
+Mary gave Harry Boyden all of these particulars."</p>
+
+<p>"Did she describe the strange woman, her form or her attire?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think she stated that the woman was plainly clad. Nothing more
+definite that I know of."</p>
+
+<p>"In fact, Miss Page, you have now told me all that you know about the
+case, haven't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Really, sir, I think I have," admitted Violet, with a look of anxious
+appeal.</p>
+
+<p>Nick drew out his watch and glanced quickly at it.</p>
+
+<p>"Ring for a carriage, Chick," said he abruptly. "We have no time to
+lose."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll call one at once," nodded Chick, as he sprang up and hastened from
+the room.</p>
+
+<p>"Am I to depart now, Detective Carter?" asked Violet, beginning to
+tremble. "Oh, sir, will you not give me some word of encouragement
+before I go? I am sure that Harry Boyden never committed&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Hush!" interposed Nick, rising and taking her kindly by the hand.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot at present tell you, Miss Page, what I think of this case. I
+will say this, however, if Harry Boyden is, as you so firmly believe,
+innocent of this crime, I will not rest until I have proved him
+guiltless."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Detective Carter, how am I to thank you?" cried the girl, with her
+tearful eyes raised to Nick's kindly face.</p>
+
+<p>"By not trying to do so," said he, smiling. "And by carefully following
+a few directions which I shall now give you."</p>
+
+<p>"I will follow them to the very letter, sir," cried the grateful girl.</p>
+
+<p>"First, then, go home and borrow no further trouble about young Boyden,"
+said Nick, impressively. "Second, disclose to no person that you have
+called upon me, or that I have any interest in the case. Third, say
+nothing about the jewel casket, and display no personal knowledge of the
+affair. Fourth, do not come here again unless I send for you. And,
+finally, rest assured that I will do all in my power to have young
+Boyden at liberty as soon as possible. To remain in custody a short
+time, however, will not seriously harm him, and in a way it may do me
+some service. Can you remember all that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed I can, sir; and I will obey you in all!" cried Violet, with much
+feeling.</p>
+
+<p>"That's right," smiled Nick, as he escorted her to the door. "You shall
+not lose anything by so doing."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, I am sure of that, sir. You are so very kind, and I am so glad that
+I came to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well, we shall see," laughed Nick, with a paternal caress of her
+shapely white hand. "By the way, Miss Page, since I now happen to think
+of it," the crafty detective indifferently added, "wasn't there a Hindoo
+juggler, or snake charmer, or something of that sort, connected with
+your late vaudeville company?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, sir! Pandu Singe."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, that is his name, is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Is he still in the city?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am not sure, Mr. Carter; but I think that he may be, for he is signed
+with the company for next season."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know where he has been living?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir. I have seen his house address on letters forwarded to the
+theater. Do you want it, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you can recall it, yes," smiled Nick, producing his notebook. "I am
+making a study of the Hindoo language just at this time, and I would
+like to consult Pandu Singe about certain books on the subject."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Page did not suspect any duplicity in this, and she cheerfully gave
+Nick the address of the snake charmer, whereupon the detective
+graciously thanked her, and then escorted her to her waiting carriage.</p>
+
+<p>As it rolled rapidly away a second hack came bowling up to the curbstone
+in front of Nick's residence. It was the carriage for which Chick had
+sent a call.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't cover your horses, cabbie!" cried Nick, sharply. "Wait about
+three minutes, and we'll be with you."</p>
+
+<p>"Right, sir!"</p>
+
+<p>And Nick dashed back up the steps and into the house, meeting Chick in
+the hall.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you make of it, Nick?"</p>
+
+<p>"Make of it?" cried Nick, with a laugh. "It's a cinch, Chick, dead open
+and shut. Grab your hat and come with me. I'll explain in the carriage."</p>
+
+<p>"Good enough! I'm with you, old man!"</p>
+
+<p>"And we have no time to lose," cried Nick, "Now, then, we're off."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI" />CHAPTER XI.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE CRIME AND THE MEANS.</h3>
+
+
+<p>"Yes, Chick, it's as simple as two plus two, and we'll presently try to
+bag a part of our quarry. But first of all, I want a bit of
+corroborative evidence which I expect to get from that Hindoo snake
+charmer, Pandu Singe."</p>
+
+<p>"Going there first, Nick?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; it will not take long. Then I think we shall have the strands for
+a rope strong enough to hold that she-devil who murdered Mary Barton,"
+grimly added Nick.</p>
+
+<p>These remarks were made while the carriage containing the two detectives
+was speeding through the city streets, then bright with the light and
+life of the early evening.</p>
+
+<p>"What a dastardly crime it was, Nick," observed Chick.</p>
+
+<p>"It was the crime of a treacherous demon."</p>
+
+<p>"With jealousy the chief motive, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"No doubt of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet her venomous arrow found the wrong mark."</p>
+
+<p>"That's just the size of it," said Nick. "In the light of what you saw
+and heard on the stage that night, it is plain that Cervera is
+passionately in love with Venner."</p>
+
+<p>"Surely."</p>
+
+<p>"You remember that you saw him talking with Violet Page, and then
+observed Cervera in the opposite wings, angrily watching something or
+somebody out of your range of view. Plainly enough, now, she was
+watching Venner and the singer."</p>
+
+<p>"No doubt of it," declared Chick. "And she looked fit to use a poniard
+then and there."</p>
+
+<p>"Jealousy," growled Nick. "She had been secretly watching Venner. She
+had discovered his love for Violet, and decided that the girl was a
+rival to be feared. Her fiery Spanish blood would shrink at nothing. She
+went the limit, and tried to murder her rival. In so doing, however, she
+but killed another."</p>
+
+<p>"She must have worked adroitly to have accomplished what she did."</p>
+
+<p>"It may not have been so very difficult," replied Nick. "She was on the
+stage each night, and also that infernal snake den. She quietly learned
+which of the venomous reptiles would best serve her deadly purpose, and
+then found an opportunity and a way by which to secretly steal it."</p>
+
+<p>"A hazardous job at that," muttered Chick.</p>
+
+<p>"The jealousy of such a woman fears nothing," Nick rejoined. "To lure
+the desired snake into a box, and then take it home and confine it in
+the jewel casket, may have been done quite easily."</p>
+
+<p>"It must have been done before the company closed its engagement."</p>
+
+<p>"No doubt," admitted Nick. "Then Cervera was too crafty to use it at
+once. She waited nearly a week. Then she dressed herself in cheap
+attire, put on a thick veil, and lay in wait for her rival's maid and
+companion, to whom she gave the package and her instructions regarding
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"What first led you to suspect the crime and the means, Nick?" inquired
+Chick, curiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Several facts," explained Nick. "The girl's sudden death seemed
+peculiar. The jewel casket beside her was empty, at once suggesting that
+something had been removed or fallen from it. Yet nothing was to be
+found."</p>
+
+<p>"That's true."</p>
+
+<p>"The paper wrapper was punctured with a pin in many places, the holes
+running even through the lining of the casket. That fact, too, was
+suggestive. People are not in the habit of doing up parcels and then
+punching them full of holes with a pin."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, hardly."</p>
+
+<p>"Cervera made those holes, Chick, in order that her venomous captive
+might not expire for want of air."</p>
+
+<p>"No doubt of it, Nick. But what do you think led Mary Barton to open the
+package after having been told not to do so?"</p>
+
+<p>"Curiosity, perhaps," replied Nick. "Or possibly she considered the
+circumstances to be so strange that she felt that she had a right to
+open it. Be that as it may, it is plain that Mary Barton sat down on the
+park seat, after leaving Boyden and there briefly considered the
+matter."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you arrive at that deduction, Nick?"</p>
+
+<p>"From the tiny tinge of fresh blood about one of the pinholes on the
+interior of the lining," explained Nick. "The stain must have come from
+the point of the pin, and when the pin was drawn out of the box, not
+when it was thrust into it. In the latter case the pin point would have
+been cleansed before passing through the lining, and the stain would
+have been on the outside rather than the inside."</p>
+
+<p>"Surely."</p>
+
+<p>"Then it at once became plain that Mary Barton, while sitting there, had
+thrust her hat pin through one of the previously made apertures,
+possibly aiming to discover in this way what the box contained, and in
+so doing she probably pricked the confined reptile."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, I see," nodded Chick. "All this strongly indicated that something
+might have been confined in the casket."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, certainly. Not thus learning what the box contained," continued
+Nick, "Mary Barton decided to open it. The moment she raised the lid the
+snake, probably angered by its wound and long confinement, instantly
+struck at her hand, snake-fashion, and buried its fangs in her wrist."</p>
+
+<p>"Hence the tiny, red spot which you so quickly discovered."</p>
+
+<p>"Precisely."</p>
+
+<p>"Very shrewd of you, Nick."</p>
+
+<p>"Greatly frightened, the girl probably fainted, and fell to the ground,"
+added Nick, in conclusion of the deductions by which he had solved the
+remarkable mystery. "The snake instantly scurried away through the
+grass, and left no trail behind him. Before the girl could recover from
+her swoon, the deadly poison had done its work. The venom of some of
+these India snakes is horribly rapid in its action."</p>
+
+<p>"That's true," cried Chick. "I saw one at the theater that evening, the
+venom of which would kill a man in ten seconds. A wee bit of a cuss at
+that."</p>
+
+<p>"Probably this was one of the same breed," said Nick, grimly. "At all
+events, I am sure that murder was the crime, and a snake the means."</p>
+
+<p>"And Sanetta Cervera the criminal."</p>
+
+<p>"Beyond the shadow of a doubt," declared Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"And what do you expect to learn from the Hindoo?"</p>
+
+<p>"I wish to know, in corroboration of my suspicions, whether Pandu Singe
+has missed any of his infernal reptiles."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, I see."</p>
+
+<p>"If he has, my theory is surely correct, and we next must fix the guilt
+upon the guilty," said Nick, firmly. "I shall arrest Cervera this very
+night, providing the Hindoo informs me that&mdash; Ah, here we are at his
+door. Come into the house with me, Chick, and we'll see what he has to
+say."</p>
+
+<p>They had stopped before an ordinary brick house on the East Side, and
+Nick quickly mounted the steps and rang the bell. The summons brought a
+corpulent English woman to the door, from whom Nick learned that the
+Hindoo and his interpreter were still there.</p>
+
+<p>"Doesn't Pandu Singe speak English?" inquired Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear me, no!" exclaimed the landlady, with a mute yet visible
+laugh&mdash;visible in that her convolutions of flesh became observably
+agitated. "Not the first word, sir. He talks only a blooming jargon fit
+for snakes and spiders and that like."</p>
+
+<p>Nick laughed agreeably, having a request on his tongue's end.</p>
+
+<p>"He has moved his beastly den o' reptiles into my cellar to stay till
+next season, sir, a 'orror I'd not stand for a minute, so I wouldn't,
+only he pays me very 'andsome for the same."</p>
+
+<p>"Then he intends remaining here all summer, does he?"</p>
+
+<p>"He do," replied the woman, with startling terseness after the
+foregoing.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish to see him briefly on business," said Nick. "Go and ask him if
+he will receive us."</p>
+
+<p>The landlady complied, returning presently and inviting the two
+detectives into the house. She led the way to a rear room off the hall,
+at the door of which stood a swarthy foreigner, who bowed and smiled as
+the callers approached.</p>
+
+<p>"'E's the hinterpreter," vouchsafed the landlady, in a wheezy whisper.</p>
+
+<p>Nick nodded understandingly.</p>
+
+<p>Reading by the light of a lamp on a table in the room sat the Hindoo
+snake charmer himself, clad in a rich, loose robe of Oriental fashion.
+He arose with much deliberation and dignity when the detectives entered,
+and gravely bowed in greeting, while his interpreter hastened to place
+chairs for the visitors.</p>
+
+<p>Through the interpreter Nick quickly explained his business, and saw a
+look of surprise appear on the face of Pandu Singe when inquiries were
+made about the loss of a snake.</p>
+
+<p>It took Nick but a short time to learn what he desired. Precisely as he
+expected, the Hindoo had missed one of his snakes about ten days before,
+one of the most venomous and dangerous of the lot.</p>
+
+<p>Hearing no reports or complaints about the missing reptile, however,
+Pandu Singe had come to the conclusion that the snake had died in the
+den and then been devoured by one of his companions in captivity. So the
+Hindoo had let the matter drop, and had said nothing about it.</p>
+
+<p>Nick did not disclose the true occasion for his inquiries, but invented
+a satisfactory explanation, and at the end of a quarter of an hour the
+two detectives departed and entered their waiting carriage.</p>
+
+<p>"Rather a dignified chap, after all, that Pandu Singe," laughed Chick,
+as they settled themselves on the cushions.</p>
+
+<p>"True," admitted Nick, thoughtfully. "Do you think, Chick, that we could
+make up to pass for those two swarthy Orientals?"</p>
+
+<p>"Could we!" exclaimed Chick, promptly. "Well, Nick, I should say that we
+could."</p>
+
+<p>"I think so, too."</p>
+
+<p>"You could do the snake charmer, all right, and easily gabble a lingo
+that would pass for his."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, rather," laughed Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"And if I was wise to the game you wished to play I easily could act as
+the interpreter, and run the conversation correctly on my own hook."</p>
+
+<p>"No doubt of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Do it? Why, surely we could," repeated Chick "Why did you ask?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think it may yet become necessary or desirable to make a move of
+that kind," replied Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"Why so?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because, as I have suspected all along, I still think there is some big
+game in the wind, with the Kilgore gang back of it, and that the murder
+of this Barton girl may have some connection with it, or at least give
+us a clew to it."</p>
+
+<p>"Egad! I hope so, Nick."</p>
+
+<p>"We soon shall see."</p>
+
+<p>"Going after Cervera now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; at once," said Nick, with grim austerity. "We shall find her at
+home, as usual. She'll not imagine that I can have got on her track as
+quickly as this, so no doubt I can easily land her. Before midnight I
+want bracelets on the white wrists of that Spanish dare-devil."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII" />CHAPTER XII.</h2>
+
+<h3>CLOSING IN.</h3>
+
+
+<p>There was, indeed, as Nick Carter shrewdly suspected, a mysterious bond
+between the several crimes thus far engaging his attention, and the
+secret operations for which David Kilgore and his gang had ventured into
+the city of New York.</p>
+
+<p>Nick had remarked, however, that the game would become as hazardous and
+stirring as one could desire, as soon as it was fairly driven from
+cover.</p>
+
+<p>And Nick began to drive it from cover that very night.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly before nine o'clock, and just as the two detectives were parting
+from the Hindoo snake charmer, Mr. Rufus Venner rang the bell at the
+door of Cervera's uptown residence.</p>
+
+<p>It was answered by Cervera herself, much to Venner's surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"Where's the butler to-night?" he abruptly demanded, as he entered and
+closed the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Gone," said Cervera, curtly.</p>
+
+<p>"Gone?"</p>
+
+<p>"I've sacked him along with all the rest."</p>
+
+<p>"Not discharged all of your servants?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing less."</p>
+
+<p>"But why?" demanded Venner, with a frown settling about his dark eyes.
+"You cannot remain here alone."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't intend to."</p>
+
+<p>"But what are you going to do? When are you going?"</p>
+
+<p>While thus speaking they had repaired to the library at the rear of the
+house, the room in which Nick had encountered the gang nearly a
+fortnight before. It was the only room then lighted. Even the hall
+through which they had passed was in darkness.</p>
+
+<p>Yet Cervera was dressed in an elaborate evening gown, fitted close to
+her lithe, nervous figure, and augmenting in a marked degree her
+dangerous, dark beauty.</p>
+
+<p>"You know where I am going&mdash;or should!" she replied, facing Venner, with
+an odd smile on her red lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Not to the diamond plant?" cried he, with a start.</p>
+
+<p>"To the diamond plant&mdash;yes!"</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible!"</p>
+
+<p>"You will find it's not impossible, Rufe," she retorted. "I generally go
+where I wish, and do what I undertake. I have already sent my own jewels
+and other valuables there by Pylotte. He was here this morning."</p>
+
+<p>"But consider, Sanetta," protested Venner, with a darker frown. "Think
+of what chances you are taking."</p>
+
+<p>"Of what?"</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose Nick Carter suspects you, and has a shadow on your movements&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Bah!" interrupted Cervera, with a snap and flash of her black eyes. "I
+care nothing for Nick Carter. <i>Caramba!</i> do you think I fear him? I will
+fool and foil Nick Carter as I have fooled and foiled his betters. I
+shall go to the plant to-morrow, and that settles it."</p>
+
+<p>"Stop a bit," insisted Venner, almost angrily. "Do you forget that
+Kilgore and all his gang are there? Do you forget that we are just
+about launching our gigantic enterprise? We now have nearly a million
+dollars' worth of diamonds manufactured, or in the process of making,
+and I already have begun to distribute them on the market at a fabulous
+profit."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I know all that. What has it to do with my going there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Such a move on your part may give Carter a clew to our location,"
+declared Venner.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, it won't," sneered Cervera, scornfully. "I'll look out for
+that."</p>
+
+<p>"Discovery would ruin all, and possibly land the whole gang behind
+prison bars."</p>
+
+<p>"Faugh! I'm as well at the plant as here, and there I am going. You let
+me alone to evade the Carters."</p>
+
+<p>"But why in thunder are you so determined to make this change?" demanded
+Venner.</p>
+
+<p>An amorous fire came stealing into the woman's resolute eyes, and she
+shrugged her shapely shoulders significantly.</p>
+
+<p>"You should know why without asking," she slowly answered, with her gaze
+fixed upon his changing countenance. "It is because I love you, Rufe,
+and wish to be where you spend so much of your time."</p>
+
+<p>"So much of my time?" echoed Venner, inquiringly.</p>
+
+<p>"So at least you tell me."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you doubt it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know that five days and nights have passed since you came here to see
+me," cried Cervera, bitterly. "I have only your own word in explanation
+of your neglect."</p>
+
+<p>"That should be enough," said Venner, curtly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yet a man after a new love does not shrink from lying to an old,"
+retorted Cervera.</p>
+
+<p>"Pshaw! You are jealous again."</p>
+
+<p>"A woman who loves as I love is always jealous."</p>
+
+<p>"Of whom now?"</p>
+
+<p>"You know of whom."</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you I have not seen Violet Page since the theater closed."</p>
+
+<p>"I have only your word for it," repeated Cervera, with incredulity
+bright in her sensuous eyes. "You know what I told you, Rufe. I'll not
+tamely permit that pale-faced nightingale to come between you and me.
+You know what I told you. I would kill her as I would a&mdash;a snake!"</p>
+
+<p>Despite his own stiff nerves, Venner recoiled from the look on the
+woman's desperate face. Her voice had fallen to a hiss like that of the
+reptile mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>"You are mad, Sanetta," he cried, irritably. "You have no occasion for
+this jealousy and hatred."</p>
+
+<p>"I have had! You know that I have had&mdash;and your face shows it!"</p>
+
+<p>"You have none now&mdash;absolutely none now!"</p>
+
+<p>His emphatic declaration fell upon Cervera with an effect which Venner
+did not at first understand.</p>
+
+<p>She sprang quickly toward him, gripping him hard by the wrist, while her
+every nerve seemed stimulated with sudden agitation.</p>
+
+<p>"None now? None now&mdash;now?" she fiercely reiterated, in inquiring
+whispers. "Do you mean that&mdash;that it is done? that it is done?"</p>
+
+<p>"Done?" gasped Venner, amazedly. "Is what done? What the devil are you
+driving at?"</p>
+
+<p>She drew back, searching his eyes with hers, and hers were like those of
+a demon, in her momentary suspense.</p>
+
+<p>"Then it isn't&mdash;it isn't?" she hissed, through her white teeth. "I
+thought from what you said that it was. I thought&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Good God! what do you mean?" cried Venner, aghast for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>Then, struck with a sudden recollection, he turned and snatched an
+evening paper from a pocket of his coat, which he had tossed on a chair.
+He had recalled certain leader lines which had caught his eye earlier in
+the evening, yet which he then had not had sufficient interest to
+follow.</p>
+
+<p>Now he hurriedly opened the paper and read the story, or so much of it
+as enabled him to guess the truth.</p>
+
+<p>It was the newspaper story of the girl found dead in Central Park that
+afternoon, with the mystery involving the sudden fatality, and the names
+of the murdered girl and her mistress, Violet Page.</p>
+
+<p>A half-smothered oath of horror and dismay broke from Venner, after a
+moment.</p>
+
+<p>It brought Cervera to his side, and she snatched the paper from him and
+read&mdash;the story of her own failure; the miscarriage of her own jealous
+and murderous design.</p>
+
+<p>She suppressed the shriek of mingled disappointment and fury that rose
+to her twitching lips, then passionately cast the paper upon the table.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what do you make of it?" she demanded, glaring at Venner's
+colorless face.</p>
+
+<p>"No need to ask," he replied, hoarsely. "You know what I make of it."</p>
+
+<p>"You think I did it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know you did it!"</p>
+
+<p>"And killed the wrong girl?"</p>
+
+<p>"And killed the wrong girl!"</p>
+
+<p>"Can you guess how?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't care how. I know that you did it."</p>
+
+<p>"You will not betray me?" hissed Cervera, crouching before him, with
+eyes never leaving his.</p>
+
+<p>"I have no wish to betray you."</p>
+
+<p>"You dare not! you dare not!"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall not!"</p>
+
+<p>"If you do&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The woman checked her words for an instant, and ran her hand into the
+bosom of her dress. When she drew it forth it gripped a naked poniard,
+upon the polished blade of which the rays of light flashed with many a
+wicked gleam and glint.</p>
+
+<p>"If you do," she repeated, "I will send you after her, Rufus Venner! I
+will do even more! I will expose our whole game, and our whole gang!"</p>
+
+<p>"I have said that I shall not betray you, nor will I," cried Venner,
+signing for her to put up the weapon. "Yet you were mad, Sanetta. You
+had no grounds for such jealousy, no occasion for such a crime."</p>
+
+<p>"I had&mdash;and you know it! I told you I would do it."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you have tried it, at least," growled Venner, forcing a smile to
+his gray lips.</p>
+
+<p>"And you dare not betray me," repeated Cervera, thrusting the glittering
+weapon within her dress. "I have not failed entirely, Rufe, since it
+makes the criminal tie between you and me all the stronger. It binds us
+together with links of steel, Rufe, and they are stronger far than any
+marriage contract."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you love me like that, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"You know that I do."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet your infernal jealousy, and your determination to quit this house
+and go to the plant with the gang, may yet ruin us all. If Nick Carter
+were to get a clew&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Bah!" Cervera fiercely interrupted. "I despise him, not fear him! I
+tell you again, I will fool and foil Nick Carter, as I have fooled and
+foiled his betters!"</p>
+
+<p>"His better as a detective never lived, Sanetta."</p>
+
+<p>"I care not! I defy him, and will yet show you that&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Hush! Hark! A cab has stopped outside!"</p>
+
+<p>Cervera changed like a flash.</p>
+
+<p>With the bound of a leopard, one of those lightning moves with which she
+could electrify an audience from the stage, she crossed the adjoining
+room, which was in darkness, and reached the front window.</p>
+
+<p>One glance through the lace draperies was enough.</p>
+
+<p>Nick Carter was just alighting from his carriage.</p>
+
+<p>Cervera darted back and rejoined Venner.</p>
+
+<p>"It is Carter&mdash;Nick Carter himself!" she fiercely whispered, with all
+the fire of her passionate Spanish nature ablaze in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Carter! Good God!"</p>
+
+<p>"Be off, Rufe, and leave him to me!"</p>
+
+<p>"To you alone?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"He already is on your track for this crime."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll foil him yet! Leave him to me alone!" Cervera fiercely cried. "Be
+off by the back stairs, then through the stable and the side alley. Go
+to your own home, and from there signal Kilgore to have the secret way
+to the plant open for me. Here&mdash;the paper! Take it away with you! I'll
+elude Carter&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But he may arrest you at once," protested Venner, excitedly. "If he
+does&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Caramba!</i> do you stop to question?" Cervera furiously interrupted. "If
+he takes me from this house he will take me&mdash;dead!"</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Quick&mdash;he's at the door! Leave him to me alone, and do what I told you!
+Away! There's the bell!"</p>
+
+<p>Venner caught up his coat, darted down the back stairs and quickly
+departed by the way mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time, while Nick's summons was still echoing through the
+great house, Sanetta Cervera swept haughtily through the main hall,
+switched on the electric light, and then opened the front door.</p>
+
+<p>She appeared as cool and composed as if she had just arisen from her
+dinner.</p>
+
+<p>Yet in the vestibule stood the one man whom she had most cause to fear,
+the man who now held her fate in his hand&mdash;Nick Carter.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII" />CHAPTER XIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>CRAFTY CERVERA.</h3>
+
+
+<p>"Good-evening, Mr. Venner. Oh, it's not you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, 'tis!" said Nick, dryly. "It's I all right, and I'm it. You
+appear surprised at seeing me, Se&ntilde;ora Cervera."</p>
+
+<p>Cervera had begun, then stopped, then uttered the startled exclamation;
+and all with the utmost coolness, with the air of one stirred only by
+genuine surprise, and as if without the slightest fear or dismay upon
+beholding Nick Carter in the vestibule.</p>
+
+<p>So perfectly natural was her artful assumption, that it rather deceived
+Nick for a short time.</p>
+
+<p>In response to his dry remarks, the artful jade now nodded and began to
+laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Surprised? Well, rather!" she exclaimed, in animated tones. "I was
+expecting our mutual friend, dear Mr. Venner, and supposed it was he who
+rang. But I'm just as pleased to see you."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes?"</p>
+
+<p>"Surely! Come in, Detective Carter. You are very, very welcome. I shall
+be so glad to renew our brief acquaintance. In fact, Detective Carter, I
+am quite charmed to see you."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll not feel so chipper and charmed when you learn my business,"
+said Nick to himself, as he entered and followed her to the library.</p>
+
+<p>"Take a chair, Detective Carter, and try to feel perfectly at home,"
+laughed Cervera, with bantering vivacity. "You have been here before,
+you know."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed, I know," said Nick, dryly. "The night I had a taste of a
+choke pear, at the hands of your faithful guardians."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! but you shall be better treated this time," smiled Cervera,
+dropping into a chair opposite the detective, and fixing her sensuous,
+dark eyes on Nick's calm, unreadable face.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope so, se&ntilde;ora," he replied. "By the way, what has become of those
+two stalwart guardians of your treasures? Do you still retain them in
+your employ?"</p>
+
+<p>It was second nature to Nick to feel his way in this crafty fashion, yet
+he did not really expect any resistance in arresting Cervera, who now
+laughed and shook her head, replying:</p>
+
+<p>"No, I have let them go."</p>
+
+<p>"That so?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have no use for them at present."</p>
+
+<p>"Why is that?"</p>
+
+<p>"My engagement at the theater has closed, and I seldom have occasion to
+wear my diamonds. I have placed them all in a safe deposit vault."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! I see."</p>
+
+<p>"So I have no need for my guardians, Detective Carter, with only myself
+here. Nobody would want me personally, you know," she added, with a bold
+laugh.</p>
+
+<p>Nick's firm lips drew a little closer.</p>
+
+<p>"On the contrary," said he, pointedly, "somebody does, want you
+personally."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! is that so?" cried Cervera, as if amused.</p>
+
+<p>"Very much so, se&ntilde;ora."</p>
+
+<p>"And who does me the honor, pray?"</p>
+
+<p>"I want you," said Nick, bluntly.</p>
+
+<p>"You, Detective Carter! Why, sir, what an idea! I wouldn't have believed
+it of you."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet it is true, nevertheless."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well," repeated Cervera, with a pretty shrug, "I am really glad
+to hear you say so. For what do you want me, Detective Carter?"</p>
+
+<p>Not once had Nick's searching gaze left her brazen countenance, and
+despite her outward display of badinage, his steadfast and penetrating
+eyes were making her secretly uneasy.</p>
+
+<p>"I want you," said Nick, pointedly, "for that ugly 'Jack-in-the-box'
+trick which you perpetrated this afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>Cervera's eyes emitted a single swift, fiery gleam, and her red lips
+drew closer. Yet she cried, still pleasantly:</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean by that, Detective Carter? Is it a joke?"</p>
+
+<p>"You'll find it no joke."</p>
+
+<p>"If it is, sir, I don't see the point."</p>
+
+<p>"You will have a chance to look for it at the Tombs," replied Nick, with
+grim quietude. "Se&ntilde;ora Cervera, I want you to go along with me."</p>
+
+<p>"The Tombs! Go with you! What do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"I mean that you are now under arrest."</p>
+
+<p>"Arrest! For what?"</p>
+
+<p>"For the murder of a girl named Mary Barton," Nick bluntly rejoined,
+ignoring the woman's increasing display of amazement and resentment.</p>
+
+<p>"Mary Barton!" cried Cervera. "I never heard of the girl."</p>
+
+<p>"Nevertheless," said Nick, sternly, "you met her on Fifth Avenue this
+afternoon, and gave her a jewel casket containing a venomous snake,
+which you had stolen from the den of Pandu Singe, and by which means you
+inadvertently killed Mary Barton, instead of another for whom your
+infernal design was intended. I am aware of all of your late movements,
+se&ntilde;ora, you see."</p>
+
+<p>"I see that you are a devil!" cried Cervera, with a sudden passionate
+outburst. "How dare you come here with such a story as that?"</p>
+
+<p>For a moment at least, the fact that Nick already had discovered nearly
+every detail of her infamous crime&mdash;though committed only a few hours
+before&mdash;almost completely unnerved her, and her changing countenance,
+her irrepressible outbreak, and the violent agitation of her lithe,
+nervous figure, were tokens of self-betrayal by no means unobserved by
+Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll have a chance to refute the story before a judge and jury," Nick
+curtly answered. "At present you are in my custody, however, and you
+must go with me."</p>
+
+<p>Cervera rose to her feet, trembling visibly, and gripped the back of her
+chair as if for support.</p>
+
+<p>"There must be some terrible mistake, Detective Carter," she now cried,
+with well-feigned distress and alarm. "Surely you do not mean this,
+sir? Surely you do but jest?"</p>
+
+<p>"On the contrary, se&ntilde;ora, I mean every word that I have said."</p>
+
+<p>"That I am under arrest?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"And must go with you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Precisely."</p>
+
+<p>"To the Tombs?"</p>
+
+<p>"To the Tombs, se&ntilde;ora."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! this is dreadful&mdash;dreadful!" craftily moaned Cervera, with tears
+now filling her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry for you, se&ntilde;ora, but I must do my duty," said Nick, rising.</p>
+
+<p>"I know you must&mdash;but, oh! what shall I do? To whom can I appeal? Oh! if
+Mr. Venner were only here!"</p>
+
+<p>"You can send a messenger for him later, or dispatch one of your
+servants from here," suggested Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"I have none here," sobbed Cervera. "They are all out, and I am alone. I
+have no one&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She suddenly stopped, then drew herself up with resentful dignity, and
+wiped the tears from her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I am a fool to be so weak!" she exclaimed, bitterly. "Detective Carter,
+I know nothing of the crime you mention. I never heard of Mary Barton.
+This arrest is an outrage, and I will appeal to the highest court in the
+land for vindication!"</p>
+
+<p>"That's your privilege," said Nick, shortly. "But at present you must go
+with me."</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot go as I am," declared Cervera, passionately stamping her
+foot. "I am in evening dress&mdash;attired to receive a caller. I shall take
+cold if I go out of doors in&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you may change your dress," Nick curtly interrupted, the need of
+which was decidedly obvious. "I'll give you time for that."</p>
+
+<p>"How very kind," sneered Cervera, with a bitter flash of her black eyes.
+"You shall yet suffer for this affront, Detective Carter."</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said Nick. "But I have no time to speculate upon it now, so
+get yourself ready. Wait a bit, my lady! I'll go along with you!"</p>
+
+<p>"With me? You insult me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, I don't. I want a look at your chamber before letting you out
+of my sight. I've seen rooms with more than one way out, and I don't
+intend that you shall elude me."</p>
+
+<p>"You're a suspicious coward, sir!"</p>
+
+<p>"Stow all that, se&ntilde;ora, and lead the way," commanded Nick, bluntly.</p>
+
+<p>Pale and resentful, with a sneer on her lips, Cervera led the way
+through, the hall, playing her part so artfully that Nick, ignorant of
+her late interview with Rufus Venner, was not much inclined to suspect
+her of duplicity just then.</p>
+
+<p>Upon reaching the top of the hall stairs, Cervera switched on another
+light, and then that which illumined her chamber, into which she
+haughtily led the detective.</p>
+
+<p>"A fine affront to suffer," she bitterly exclaimed, throwing herself
+into a chair. "Your conduct is despicable! You are no gentleman!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am a detective," retorted Nick, "and I come pretty near knowing my
+business."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! you do," sneered Cervera. "Plainly that is the limit of your
+knowledge. You may not be as wise as you think."</p>
+
+<p>Nick made no reply, but looked sharply about the room.</p>
+
+<p>It was a large, square chamber, and elaborately furnished. The two
+windows were well above the street, and offered no chance for escape.
+There were but two doors, that leading into the hall and the one leading
+into a large closet in the opposite wall.</p>
+
+<p>Nick opened the latter, and found the closet hung with Cervera's
+extensive wardrobe. He thrust his arm along the garments hanging at
+either side, and sounded the three walls, and then the closet floor, all
+of which appeared perfectly firm and solid.</p>
+
+<p>Even these precautions seemed quite needless to Nick, however, it being
+a rented house, and Cervera presumably uninformed of his coming.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, se&ntilde;ora, you may have just ten minutes to make ready," said he, as
+he rejoined her. "I shall leave this chamber door open, and will wait
+for you in the adjoining hall. Can you whistle?"</p>
+
+<p>"Whistle?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, whistle! You know what it is to whistle, don't you?"</p>
+
+<p>The sneer on Cervera's red lips, as she arose from her chair, became
+almost a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I can whistle after a fashion," she admitted.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, you keep whistling all the time you are alone here," Nick
+sternly commanded. "I will let you out of my sight to make these
+changes, but not out of my hearing."</p>
+
+<p>"Suspicious fool!"</p>
+
+<p>"Fool or not, you keep whistling," said Nick, bluntly. "If you let up
+for so long as a second, I'll come over yonder threshold in a way that
+you'll not fancy."</p>
+
+<p>"But suppose I want to brush my teeth?" inquired Cervera, with a
+vixenish light in her evil eyes. "I cannot whistle and brush my teeth,
+Detective Carter."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll have plenty of time to brush your teeth at the Tombs," said
+Nick, sharply. "Now look lively, mark you, and&mdash;keep whistling."</p>
+
+<p>Cervera at once began to whistle.</p>
+
+<p>Nick removed the key from the chamber door, and sauntered out into the
+hall, where he kept his ears constantly alert.</p>
+
+<p>Not for a moment did the whistling cease, nor was there the slightest
+change in tone or character.</p>
+
+<p>Nick could not have taken a more effective method to serve his present
+purpose.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of eight minutes the whistling ceased, and Cervera coldly
+cried:</p>
+
+<p>"Now you may come in, Detective Carter. I am about ready to go with
+you."</p>
+
+<p>Nick at once entered the chamber.</p>
+
+<p>Cervera had changed her evening dress for a complete suit of black, and
+was standing in the middle of the room.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose," said she, staring icily at the detective, "that I ought to
+thank you for your consideration."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't trouble yourself," said Nick, curtly. "I have no time to waste."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet just one word, Detective Carter, before we go."</p>
+
+<p>"Let it be brief, then."</p>
+
+<p>"You are said to be a very clever man, and no doubt you think you have
+me dead to rights in this case," said Cervera, with a mocking curl of
+her thin lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Decidedly so."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet you will find, Detective Carter, that a clever woman can always
+fool and foil a clever man."</p>
+
+<p>"But you, my lady, are very far from being a clever woman," retorted
+Nick, with a gesture of impatience, signifying that he wished to leave
+with her at once.</p>
+
+<p>"Nevertheless, I shall beat you at the finish, make no mistake about
+that," cried Cervera, scornfully. "Now, sir, I will put on my wrap, and
+go with you where you please."</p>
+
+<p>With the last remark, she approached a peg in the open closet, as if to
+take down a dark shawl.</p>
+
+<p>Instead, she suddenly turned quickly around and cried, with a taunting
+laugh:</p>
+
+<p>"So long, Detective Carter! I really feel quite sorry to bid
+you&mdash;good-by!"</p>
+
+<p>Nick started like a man electrified.</p>
+
+<p>Cervera merely had pressed the peg on which the shawl hung, whereupon
+the whole back of the closet seemed to fall away instantly, disclosing a
+lighted passage beyond.</p>
+
+<p>Nick caught a glimpse of it, and of the woman darting toward it, and he
+followed her like a shot from a gun.</p>
+
+<p>As Cervera passed through the further opening and gained the lighted
+passage, she seized and threw a short lever just beyond the closet wall.</p>
+
+<p>At the same moment Nick's weight fell upon the closet floor behind her.</p>
+
+<p>It was like treading upon air.</p>
+
+<p>The lever, like the peg, did not work in an instant.</p>
+
+
+<p>Nick felt himself falling, and made a desperate clutch at the door
+jamb&mdash;only to miss it.</p>
+
+<p>Then the closet floor, with the detective upon it, went speeding down
+like an elevator cut loose from a top story.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV" />CHAPTER XIV.</h2>
+
+<h3>IN A WARM CORNER.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The crash with which Nick Carter vaguely expected his career might be
+abruptly ended, as the floor upon which he had fallen prostrate rapidly
+descended, did not come.</p>
+
+<p>The terrific downward speed suddenly decreased, then became more
+gradual, all in the bare fraction of a second; and then the rushing
+sound of compressed air escaping through narrow crevices fell upon the
+detective's ears.</p>
+
+<p>Nick immediately guessed the truth.</p>
+
+<p>The falling closet floor was that of an elevator, no longer in use as
+such, yet which still worked on the slides of the elevator well, and
+evidently had been cleverly adjusted for just such an emergency as that
+depicted.</p>
+
+<p>Presently there came a heavy jar, and then the downward motion ceased.
+The close-fitting floor at first had fallen so swiftly that the confined
+air in the well beneath it had become so compressed as to form an air
+cushion, which finally let the floor completely down only after the air
+had gradually escaped. It was this escaping air Nick heard during the
+last moments of his fall.</p>
+
+<p>The entire episode began and ended in but little more than a moment,
+however. Though considerably jarred, Nick pulled himself together, and
+gazed up through the darkness at the bottom of the well.</p>
+
+<p>Cervera was peering down from the lighted passage three stories above
+him, Nick having made a clean drop into the cellar of the imposing
+residence.</p>
+
+<p>That this entire contrivance was the work of the Kilgore gang, devised
+while they masqueraded at Cervera's house, Nick was thoroughly
+convinced.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello!" Cervera suddenly cried, still gazing down into the darkness
+enveloping Nick. "Are you there, Mr. Carter?"</p>
+
+<p>Nick stared up at her, but made no answer.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time he felt quietly over the walls of the well, in the hope
+of finding some way of escape.</p>
+
+<p>It riled him not a little, the thought of having been so deftly caught
+in a trap, almost entirely owing to his having been overconfident, an
+assurance only very natural under the circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>The possibility that this woman might now elude him for a time was also
+a thorn in Nick's mind.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Caramba!</i>" cried Cervera, with a mocking laugh. "Aren't you going to
+speak?"</p>
+
+<p>Still no answer.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you lost your tongue, Detective Carter? If you don't speak out,
+Mr. Smart Fellow, I shall drop something down that will light you up. I
+want a look at you, to know whether you're afoot or on horseback."</p>
+
+<p>Nick remained in perfect silence.</p>
+
+<p>Then Cervera disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>"The she-devil!" muttered the detective. "What move next, I wonder?"</p>
+
+<p>Again he felt quickly over the walls of the well, in the hope of finding
+some avenue of escape.</p>
+
+<p>With a thrill of satisfaction, he now discovered one of the vertical
+strips of iron which are attached to two opposite walls of an elevator
+well, to steady the car and serve as slides for it to run upon. These
+iron strips are usually regularly notched to the depth of an inch or
+more, for the admission of an automatic break in the event of the rope
+parting.</p>
+
+<p>"By Jove! this is not so bad," thought Nick. "It might serve for a
+ladder.</p>
+
+<p>"To climb three stories with the tips of one's fingers and toes,
+however, and by means of a notched iron on the bare face of a wall, is a
+herculean and hazardous undertaking."</p>
+
+<p>While he stood, measuring the altitude with his eyes, Nick heard Cervera
+returning.</p>
+
+<p>Then a great bunch of flaming paper came flying down the well, and the
+detective was forced to leap aside to escape it.</p>
+
+<p>She-devil, indeed, Cervera had set fire to a crumpled newspaper, with
+which to illuminate the bottom of the well.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, there you are!" she exultingly cried, on discovering Nick in the
+glare of the light. "On your feet, eh? You were lucky to escape,
+Detective Carter."</p>
+
+<p>"And you'll be lucky if you escape Detective Carter," sternly retorted
+Nick, quickly stamping out the fire. "I'll finally land you, my crafty
+young woman, though I lie awake nights to devise a way."</p>
+
+<p>Cervera gave vent to a shrill, vindictive laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think you can do it?" she demanded, mockingly.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll find that I can."</p>
+
+<p>"Better men than you have tried&mdash;and failed."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet I shall succeed."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you feel quite sure of it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Absolutely."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I think I'd better see your finish this very night, since I now
+have you cornered!" cried Cervera, in taunting tones, "It may not be
+wise to defer it."</p>
+
+<p>Then Nick beheld a second burning newspaper coming his way.</p>
+
+<p>"Let up, you demon!" he shouted, angrily. "You'll set the house afire."</p>
+
+<p>"Wouldn't it be a shame! And what would become of you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't try it again, young woman, or worse may be your fate."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! is that so?" sneered Cervera, maliciously. "We'll see."</p>
+
+<p>Down came another burning paper, and by the light of it Nick now
+discovered a closed door in one of the walls. It was directly under the
+closet door in Cervera's chamber, both of which evidently had once been
+used for entering the elevator.</p>
+
+<p>The fact chiefly observed by Nick, however, was that the sill of the
+door was wide enough to offer him a safe footing. Though it was fully
+eight feet above his head, Nick resolved to attempt to reach it by means
+of the notched iron on the side wall.</p>
+
+<p>Gripping the rough notches with his muscular fingers, and using those
+lower down for a foothold, as best he could, Nick hurriedly began the
+difficult ascent.</p>
+
+<p>By the light from a fragment of burning paper, Cervera perceived his
+design, and greeted it with a scream of derision.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll soon stop that, my fine fellow," she shouted, with vicious
+asperity. "Look out for yourself!"</p>
+
+<p>White speaking, she touched a match to one of her dresses, which hung
+from a near peg on the closet wall, and dropped it blazing down the
+well.</p>
+
+<p>Nick saw it coming, and was forced to drop back to the cellar floor.</p>
+
+<p>"You vicious demon!" he cried, angrily. "Let up! You'll have the house
+on fire!"</p>
+
+<p>"That's just what I intend doing&mdash;and you with it!" screamed Cervera,
+with a laugh. "I'll not leave you alive to get the best of me at some
+later day."</p>
+
+<p>Then she set fire to a silk skirt, and dropped it after the other.</p>
+
+<p>Nick had not yet been able to extinguish the first, and the situation
+was momentarily becoming more desperate. A cloud of smoke was filling
+the well, with no draft to carry it away, and the heat was already very
+oppressive.</p>
+
+<p>Crouching on the curb of the lighted passage three floors above him,
+Cervera was laughing wildly, with her handsome face reflecting the
+bitter hatred by which she was inspired, as she hurriedly set fire to a
+third garment and dropped it down the well.</p>
+
+<p>The smoke at the bottom had become so dense that Nick no longer could
+see her, but he felt quite sure that he could put an end to her present
+murderous game.</p>
+
+<p>He drew his revolver and fired two quick shots in her direction. One
+bullet crashed through the ceiling above her. The second clipped a lock
+of hair from over the vixen's ear.</p>
+
+<p>It brought a shriek of alarm to her lips, and she sprang quickly back
+from the curb over which she was stooping.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Caramba!</i>" she yelled, excitedly. "That's your game, is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"You'll find it is, if you approach that opening again!" cried Nick,
+half choked with smoke, while he fiercely strove to extinguish the
+blazing garments.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'll not give you another chance at me!" screamed Cervera. "I'll
+push over something heavier, and crush out your life with&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She suddenly stopped, then held her breath and listened.</p>
+
+<p>The crash of a breaking door reached her ears, then hurried footsteps
+began falling on the main stairway leading to her chamber.</p>
+
+<p>"Some one is coming!" she fiercely muttered. "Perhaps another detective!
+I must be off!"</p>
+
+<p>Yet so bitter was her hatred of Nick, and so intensely enjoyable to her
+the trick she had served him, that she lingered for an instant in the
+face of the impending danger, and screamed down the well, with a mocking
+laugh:</p>
+
+<p>"I'm obliged to leave you, Detective Carter! While I'm gone&mdash;keep
+whistling!"</p>
+
+<p>At the same moment Chick Carter rushed into the chamber and caught a
+glimpse of her through the wreathing smoke, as she fled through the
+lighted passage.</p>
+
+<p>One glance at the scene gave Chick the entire situation.</p>
+
+<p>He drew back, took a short run, and with a magnificent bound cleared the
+open well, and leaped squarely through the closet and into the lighted
+passage.</p>
+
+<p>Then the crash of a heavy door, suddenly closed, and the shooting of
+bolts, told him that Cervera had prevented pursuit for a time at least,
+and Chick swung round to the open well, to see if Nick needed him.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello, Nick!" he shouted. "The woman&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Let her go!" roared Nick, still fiercely fighting the flames that
+threatened the woodwork of the well. "Let her go&mdash;we'll get her later!
+First save the house!"</p>
+
+<p>"How can I reach you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Through a door under the one in her chamber," shouted Nick. "Try that."</p>
+
+<p>Chick cleared the well with another leap, then dashed downstairs and
+into the parlor, which was lighted by the glare from both hall and
+library.</p>
+
+<p>He quickly discovered the door&mdash;only to find it locked and the key
+removed.</p>
+
+<p>Chick was promptly equal to so slight an emergency, however. Grasping a
+heavy stool near the piano, he swung it above his head, and with half a
+dozen rapid blows demolished most of the door, and forced it open.</p>
+
+<p>A cloud of smoke floated into the room, but a glance showed Chick that
+Nick now had the flames extinguished.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you all right, old man?" he demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"Only a little in need of fresh air," gasped Nick. "You cannot reach
+down to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a bit, then. This will do the business!"</p>
+
+<p>Chick had turned and snatched off the thick cloth covering of the piano,
+which he quickly twisted and lowered over the doorsill, and then braced
+himself to sustain Nick's weight.</p>
+
+<p>"All right?" cried Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Come on!"</p>
+
+<p>Nick drew himself up until he could grasp the sill of the door, then
+easily reached the floor and the clearer atmosphere of the parlor.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, here's a pretty mess!" he growled, in tones of self-condemnation.
+"If ever I was done by a crafty jade, I've been done by one this night."</p>
+
+<p>"How in thunder did it happen, Nick?" demanded Chick, with no little
+amazement.</p>
+
+<p>Nick very quickly told him, and explained the occasion of his own lack
+of distrust and caution.</p>
+
+<p>"It being a rented house, I did not look for any such trap as this,"
+said he. "Furthermore, I did not believe that Cervera had any warning of
+my coming, and I felt satisfied that she was alone here. Have you seen
+anything of Venner while waiting in the cab?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not a sign of him."</p>
+
+<p>"It's odds, then, that he was here when I arrived, and made his escape
+by a back door," growled Nick. "If so, it goes to show that he is in
+with her and the Kilgore push, and not a blind victim to their cunning.
+We now must get some proof of that, Chick, and force that gang and
+their game to light. We at least have made a beginning, and now for
+another move."</p>
+
+<p>"To-night?"</p>
+
+<p>"At once!" declared Nick. "Cervera must find shelter somewhere, and it's
+very likely she will go to Venner's house. That must be our next point,
+and we will lose no time. Possibly we yet may land her before she finds
+cover."</p>
+
+<p>"We can give it a try," cried Chick.</p>
+
+<p>"Help me extinguish these lights, and then we'll be off again."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm with you."</p>
+
+<p>"What sent you into the house so suddenly?"</p>
+
+<p>"The reports of your revolver," explained Chick. "I at once recognized
+its bark, and knew something was wrong."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! I see."</p>
+
+<p>"I saw the light in the chamber, and supposed you might be letting the
+woman prepare to go with you," added Chick. "That was while I sat in the
+cab. But when I heard your gun, I smashed open the front door and bolted
+upstairs."</p>
+
+<p>"Very lucky, too," nodded Nick. "That she-devil would have burned the
+house, and me in the bargain. But the end is not yet."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, hardly!" laughed Chick, as they descended the front stairs and
+extinguished the last light.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll stop an officer, and send him here to watch the house," said
+Nick. "Then we'll have a look at Venner's dwelling. It's my opinion,
+Chick, that our work has now begun in good earnest."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I reckon we shall prove equal to it," smiled Chick, rather
+grimly, as they hastened to enter the waiting carriage.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV" />CHAPTER XV.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE DIAMOND PLANT.</h3>
+
+
+<p>"This does settle it!"</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean, Dave?"</p>
+
+<p>"It must be done?"</p>
+
+<p>"We must get these Carters&mdash;that's what! If we don't get them,
+Spotty&mdash;you take my word for it&mdash;they'll get us!"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you really think so, Dave?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not think, but know so!" declared Kilgore, with emphasis. "I know these
+Carters, root and branch. They have now struck our trail, and they'll
+stick to it like bloodhounds till they run us down&mdash;unless we get them!
+It must be done, I say, and done promptly."</p>
+
+<p>"Put them down and out?"</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly. It's them&mdash;or us!"</p>
+
+<p>"And why do you think, all of a sudden, Dave, that Nick Carter is so hot
+on our heels?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell you why, Spotty."</p>
+
+<p>And Mr. David Kilgore, chief of the notorious diamond gang bearing his
+name, and one of the keenest and coolest criminals in or out of prison
+walls, removed his pipe from his mouth and his heels from the edge of
+the table, and drew forward in his chair to explain.</p>
+
+<p>It was a curious place, that in which the speakers of the above were
+seated, in the bright glare of an electric light.</p>
+
+<p>It was inclosed with four solid stone walls, with not a window or
+aperture through which a ray of light could be detected from outside.</p>
+
+<p>Yet in one of the walls was a low, narrow door, also of stone, and so
+cleverly constructed and fitted that, when swung into place in the wall,
+it was comparatively beyond the detection of anybody ignorant of its
+existence. This door then stood open, but the aperture through the wall
+was heavily curtained.</p>
+
+<p>Three of these walls formed the original foundation of an old and
+extensive suburban mansion, the location, ownership and present use of
+which will presently appear. The fourth wall, that with the door, was of
+more recent construction, and was built squarely across the original
+cellar of the house. It had been made to mask this secret subterranean
+chamber in which the Kilgore gang was then gathered.</p>
+
+<p>The place was commodious, and contained some noteworthy objects. In one
+corner was a powerful hydraulic press. Near by was a splendid electrical
+furnace, capable of generating an extraordinary degree of heat. Against
+the adjoining wall were several barrels of sulphur, of which only one
+was unheaded. Near by was a large box of anthracite coal, black and
+glistening in the rays of the arc light.</p>
+
+<p>Parallel with the opposite wall was a workbench, laden with curious
+retorts, crucibles, test tubes, metal molds, and no end of tools, all of
+which plainly suggested the work of one versed both in chemistry and
+some mechanical art.</p>
+
+<p>In the middle of the room was a square deal table, at which Kilgore was
+seated, with Matt Stall and Spotty Dalton, the original three of the
+Kilgore gang.</p>
+
+<p>Two other persons were present, however, and they were engaged in
+examining some work on the bench mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>One of them was a tall, angular Frenchman, about sixty years of age,
+named Jean Pylotte. He had a slender figure, somewhat bowed; but his
+head was massive, in which his gleaming, gray eyes were deeply sunk,
+like those of a tireless student and hard worker.</p>
+
+<p>His companion at the bench just then was Sanetta Cervera, the Spanish
+dancer&mdash;the murderess of Mary Barton&mdash;the vicious dare-devil who had
+served Nick Carter one of her evil tricks that very evening.</p>
+
+<p>Cervera had arrived at the diamond plant less than an hour before, and
+had hurriedly told her confederates the whole story of her crime and her
+adventure with Nick.</p>
+
+<p>Crime was too common with these outlaws, however, and loyalty to one
+another too natural, for Kilgore to censure his only female confederate
+very severely. Yet as Kilgore now proceeded to explain, her crime had
+rendered their situation decidedly more alarming.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell you why these Carters are now to be seriously feared," said
+he, nodding grimly at his hearers. "This last move of Cervera has hurt
+us severely."</p>
+
+<p>"In what way?" demanded Spotty Dalton, the pock-marked chap who had
+relieved Venner's partner of the Hafferman diamonds about two weeks
+before. "I don't see just how, Dave."</p>
+
+<p>"No more do I," put in Matt Stall.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll see," replied Kilgore, "when I run over a few facts which led
+to our being here, and at work on our present game."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Dave, we're listening."</p>
+
+<p>"One year ago we three were in Amsterdam, Holland, weren't we?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure."</p>
+
+<p>"At work on a different kind of a game?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Only we three were then in the gang."</p>
+
+<p>"That's right, Dave. Now there are seven of us, counting Venner and his
+partner."</p>
+
+<p>"It was in Amsterdam that we first met her nibs," continued Kilgore,
+with a jerk of his thumb in the direction of Cervera, who was so engaged
+with Pylotte that neither heeded the talk at the table.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Dave, we met her just a year ago," nodded Dalton.</p>
+
+<p>"She was then doing her dances in a theater there, and we naturally got
+our peepers onto her diamonds," Kilgore went on to narrate. "You fellows
+already know the scheme by which we tried to relieve her of them, which
+we came so near doing."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, rather," grinned Dalton, as if the reminiscence was amusing.</p>
+
+<p>"Then we learned from her own lips, and greatly to our surprise, that
+her sparks were not the real thing," smiled Kilgore. "At first we could
+not believe it. The goods deceived even us, old hands though we are. It
+was only when she told us about Pylotte, and the secret process by
+which he makes such extraordinary imitations, that we could believe
+her."</p>
+
+<p>"That's right, Dave."</p>
+
+<p>"She had stumbled by chance upon this clever French chemist and diamond
+cutter, and was working him to the extent of her ability. She even had
+got wise to his secret, and he was loading her with his marvelous gems
+in return for her affection. But we at once saw the way to something
+much more profitable, a game for making millions out of Pylotte's great
+discovery."</p>
+
+<p>"Right again, Dave."</p>
+
+<p>"So we told them about it, and found them willing," continued Kilgore.
+"We rung them into our gang, and planned the whole deal. We knew it
+would be dead easy to work off such clever stones for genuine goods.
+With plenty of such sparks on hand, and one big and reputable jeweler to
+help us work the market, the distribution of our goods and their
+substitution for genuine stones would quickly throw a cool million or
+two our way."</p>
+
+<p>"Dead easy, Dave."</p>
+
+<p>"But we decided that New York was the best field for such a gigantic
+enterprise," added Kilgore. "So we came here. With the help of Cervera,
+we got our grip on Venner, and then on his avaricious partner, Garside,
+whose business happened to be on its last legs. So they snapped like
+hungry fish at this chance to square themselves, by secretly swindling
+their own customers, and shoving our manufactured diamonds upon the
+entire market."</p>
+
+<p>"Like hungry fish&mdash;h'm! that's no name for it," cried Matt Stall, with
+a mingled growl and laugh. "Rufe Venner was as ready to become a knave
+as any covey I ever crossed."</p>
+
+<p>"So we established this plant for Pylotte to do his clever work in,"
+continued Kilgore, disregarding the interruption. "Luckily, Venner
+already owned this old mansion, as well as that in which he lives; and
+fortunately, both places are somewhat secluded, with extensive grounds
+abutting. That enabled us to frame up a very snug and safe retreat."</p>
+
+<p>"Sure it did."</p>
+
+<p>"So we went to work," Kilgore proceeded, discursively. "We built our
+plant, placed our machinery, rigged a private telephone between this
+house and Venner's, and tapped the electric conduit with a secret wire,
+to give us light and feed our furnace."</p>
+
+<p>"That was my work," nodded Stall, with a touch of pride.</p>
+
+<p>"Right you are, Matt, and mighty good work, too," bowed Kilgore. "In a
+nutshell, boys, after two months' secret work, we have accomplished all
+we planned, and now have Venner sliding our goods upon the market at a
+fabulous profit. In a single year, barring these infernal Carters, every
+man of us should be a millionaire."</p>
+
+<p>"But why this sudden fear of the Carters?" growled Dalton, impatiently.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll now tell you why," cried Kilgore, with voice lowered, and an ugly
+gleam in his frowning eyes. "We cannot sack Cervera, nor put out her
+light, for she's too good and strong a card for us to lose. But in
+losing her head over Venner, and jealously doing up that girl to-day,
+she has given the Carters a clew by which to track us."</p>
+
+<p>"How so, Dave?" muttered Stall, growing a bit pale.</p>
+
+<p>"Through Venner, of course!" Kilgore forcibly argued. "Until this job of
+to-day, Carter has had no definite suspicion of Venner, a possibility
+which we headed off with that fake robbery. Now, however, since Cervera
+must lie low, and Carter knows of her relations with Venner, he will
+suspect the latter and make him a constant mark, in the hope of landing
+the girl."</p>
+
+<p>"By Heaven, that's so!" snarled Dalton, quickly seeing the point.</p>
+
+<p>"And that's not the worst of it," added Kilgore. "The moment he suspects
+Venner, Carter will connect him with us, and know that that robbery was
+a put-up job. Then he'll begin to seek us and our game."</p>
+
+<p>"But how can he locate us?"</p>
+
+<p>"Locate us?" sneered Kilgore, acidly. "You don't know Nick Carter! I'll
+tell you, Spotty, he can smell a rat further than any ferret that ever
+shoved his nose under a miller's barn. As sure as death and taxes, Nick
+Carter will run us down and land us, every mother's son of us&mdash;unless we
+can get him, and put him down and out."</p>
+
+<p>"By Heaven, I begin to think so myself," growled Stall. "If we&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"There are no ifs, ands or buts about it, Matt," interrupted Kilgore,
+decisively. "We must down them both, Nick and Chick Carter, or our game
+is as good as done for."</p>
+
+<p>"But how can we land them, Dave, and when?"</p>
+
+<p>"I already have a plan, and I think the first move may be made this
+very night."</p>
+
+<p>"What's the plan, Dave?"</p>
+
+<p>"To lure both detectives into Venner's house, and there do them up. If
+we can get them to come there voluntarily, their fate may never be
+learned, and our tracks will be better covered than by doing the job
+elsewhere."</p>
+
+<p>"That's true enough, since they're not likely to disclose their
+intentions, and if they come in disguise, no one about here will have
+recognized them."</p>
+
+<p>"That's just my theory."</p>
+
+<p>"But how can we lure them to Venner's house?"</p>
+
+<p>"With the help of Pylotte, whom they do not know, nor ever heard of.
+He's a brainy dog, moreover, and crafty enough to blind them."</p>
+
+<p>"But what's your scheme for to-night?" demanded Dalton.</p>
+
+<p>"After what has happened," replied Kilgore, "it's a safe gamble that the
+Carters are at this moment watching Venner's house. If they are&mdash;but
+wait a bit! First hear my whole plan."</p>
+
+<p>The three criminals drew their chairs closer, and in a very few minutes
+Kilgore had disclosed his entire design, a scheme so recklessly bold
+that it brought murmurs of amazement and misgivings from both his
+hearers, daring knaves though they were.</p>
+
+<p>"It strikes me, Dave, that it's too long a chance for us to take, this
+giving Nick Carter a genuine clew to our game," objected Dalton,
+doubtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"But no other clew will answer," declared Kilgore, forcibly. "You
+cannot fool Nick Carter with any false move or faked story; I'm already
+sure of that."</p>
+
+<p>"So am I," nodded Stall. "He's too wise a guy to fool with."</p>
+
+<p>"We are compelled to give him the real thing, and make him feel that he
+is up against a square deal, or no man among us can work the racket,"
+added Kilgore. "With my scheme, however, Pylotte is just the covey to do
+the job, and land both Carters where we want them."</p>
+
+<p>"And then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Then it's our ability against theirs," snarled Kilgore, "If we go lame,
+with the odds all in our favor, we deserve to be thrown down."</p>
+
+<p>"That's right, too," admitted Dalton.</p>
+
+<p>"Will Pylotte undertake this sort of a job, think you?" inquired Matt
+Stall.</p>
+
+<p>"Will he?" rejoined Kilgore, with an ugly gleam in his determined eyes.
+"He will, or&mdash;well, you know! Yes, Matt, he will; and he's just the man
+for the job."</p>
+
+<p>The vicious significance with which he spoke plainly indicated that,
+though Cervera may have ruled her own roost, there was but one chief of
+this gang, and that was Mr. David Kilgore.</p>
+
+<p>He turned sharply about in his chair, and cried:</p>
+
+<p>"Here you, Pylotte! Come and give us your ear! I have work for you
+to-night!"</p>
+
+<p>Both Pylotte and Cervera quickly turned and hastened to join the gang at
+the table.</p>
+
+<p>For twenty minutes Kilgore's project for outwitting and securing Nick
+Carter was earnestly discussed, and every detail of the plan carefully
+laid.</p>
+
+<p>Then the four men stole quietly out of the house in company.</p>
+
+<p>It then was a little after midnight.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI" />CHAPTER XVI.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE CUNNING OF JEAN PYLOTTE.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Kilgore had reasoned shrewdly, in so quickly suspecting that Nick Carter
+would lose no time in getting a line on the Venner residence. Even while
+the diamond gang were discussing the plan by which to capture the
+Carters, the two detectives were at times within a hundred yards of the
+secret plant.</p>
+
+<p>It was dark out of doors that night, with only a few stars in the
+clouded sky, and the wooded locality and neighboring streets were but
+poorly lighted.</p>
+
+<p>It was in a northern suburb of New York, a section not yet much
+encroached upon by the spreading city, and the dwelling owned and
+occupied by Rufus Venner was that in which three generations of his
+family had lived and died.</p>
+
+<p>It was a square, old house of brick, set fifty yards from the suburban
+street, and was flanked in either direction by extensive, ill-kept
+grounds, made damp and dark by the huge, old trees, which nearly covered
+the estate.</p>
+
+<p>Back of the house, and off to one side, was a large wooden stable, fast
+running to ruin; while a rusty iron fence, falling to fragments in
+places, skirted the dismal grounds in front.</p>
+
+<p>Beyond the trees, far to the rear, could be seen the roof and chimneys
+of an old, wooden mansion, fronting on another street, and having a very
+similar environment. There, too, the house and grounds were running to
+ruin and decay, both places being but crumbling monuments of former
+opulence and grandeur.</p>
+
+<p>It was upon this scene that Nick Carter and Chick arrived just before
+midnight, having left their carriage at a remote corner, to await their
+return.</p>
+
+<p>"Yonder is Venner's house, Chick," said Nick, as they picked their way
+along the unpaved sidewalk. "We'll vault this iron fence and steal
+across the grounds."</p>
+
+<p>"It doesn't look much as if our quarry was there," observed Chick, as
+they scaled the fence.</p>
+
+<p>"Their deeds are dark, and like seeks like," replied Nick. "They now may
+be making darkness their cover."</p>
+
+<p>"Not a light in the house, is there?"</p>
+
+<p>"None visible from this side. We'll steal between the house and stable,
+and have a look at the opposite elevation."</p>
+
+<p>"Not much danger of being seen. It's as dark as a nigger's pocket under
+these trees."</p>
+
+<p>"So much the better in case anyone is watching."</p>
+
+<p>"Who lives here with Venner?"</p>
+
+<p>"Only an elderly housekeeper, of whom I don't hear anything very good,"
+replied Nick. "Venner is here but part of the time, I am told. In fact,
+I don't quite fathom his habits."</p>
+
+<p>"Why so?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can't learn what takes him from home so much of the time. He does not
+leave the city, nor patronize any hotel that I can discover, yet he
+frequently is away from this house overnight."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps he secretly keeps another house, and is leading a double life."</p>
+
+<p>"Possibly," admitted Nick. "He is on friendly terms with numerous women,
+I learn, and other quarters may be essential to designs of some kind.
+Quietly, now, and we'll slip across the back lawn."</p>
+
+<p>Like shadows, as dark as the night itself, they silently reached a point
+from which they could view the north side of the house. Here they
+discovered that one of the lower rooms was lighted, with the curtain at
+the single window nearly drawn.</p>
+
+<p>"Somebody is up," murmured Chick.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll learn who, if possible."</p>
+
+<p>"Going to have a look?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Come, if you like, but don't get into the glare from the curtain.
+Kilgore has a very wicked air gun, and if he and his gang are about
+here, we might invite a bullet."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll have a care."</p>
+
+<p>Stealing closer over the damp greensward, they approached the house and
+peered beneath the curtain mentioned. There was but one occupant of the
+room, which was a small library.</p>
+
+<p>In an easy-chair near the table, with a newspaper fallen across his
+knees, sat Rufus Venner, apparently sound asleep.</p>
+
+<p>This was only a part of the game, however, for Venner was wide awake.
+By means of their secret wire, he had been informed of Cervera's arrival
+at the diamond plant, and of Kilgore's designs upon Nick, and Venner at
+that moment suspected that he might be under the eye of the detective.</p>
+
+<p>For nearly half an hour Nick waited for some sign of this artifice, but
+Venner in no way betrayed it.</p>
+
+<p>Presently a clock on the mantel struck the half after one, and the sound
+appeared to awake him. He yawned, glanced at the clock, then took the
+lamp from the table and went up to bed. But never so much as a glance
+toward the window.</p>
+
+<p>Nick led Chick away, and they returned across the lawn to a point beyond
+the stable.</p>
+
+<p>"It rather looks as if Cervera had been here, doesn't it?" inquired
+Chick, with a grin.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," admitted Nick. "Two facts are very significant of it. First, that
+Venner is at home on this particular night; and, second, that he should
+be asleep in his chair after midnight. It has a fishy look."</p>
+
+<p>"That's my idea, Nick, exactly."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet the way to prove it doesn't appear quite easy."</p>
+
+<p>"Not just yet. But who occupies that house over yonder, where the roof
+shows above the trees?"</p>
+
+<p>And Chick pointed to the distant dwelling, little dreaming that the
+diamond plant and the gang they sought were established under its
+many-gabled roof.</p>
+
+<p>This was not the first night Nick had watched Venner's house since the
+diamond robbery, the doubtful character of which he had suspected at the
+outset, and incidentally he had informed himself concerning Venner's
+neighbors.</p>
+
+<p>"One Dr. Magruder, I am told, a retired physician from Illinois," he
+replied. "He bought the place at a forced sale some little time ago."</p>
+
+<p>Nor did Nick, when thus replying, dream that Dr. Magruder and Rufus
+Venner were one and the same; or that, in attributing to him a double
+life of shameful iniquity, Chick had hit the nail squarely on the head.</p>
+
+<p>"Come this way," added Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"Where now?"</p>
+
+<p>"We'll go down to the corner of the grounds, and watch the house for a
+time."</p>
+
+<p>Before Nick's reply was fairly uttered, however, both detectives were
+startled by distant cries, which fell with frantic appeal on the
+midnight air.</p>
+
+<p>"Help! Help! Help!"</p>
+
+<p>The startling cry was thrice repeated, the last time as if choked in the
+speaker's throat, yet the direction of the sound was unmistakable.</p>
+
+<p>"Something's up!" muttered Nick. "This way!"</p>
+
+<p>With Chick at his heels, he tore across the wooded grounds and bounded
+over the iron fence at the street.</p>
+
+<p>Then the occasion of the outcry at once became apparent.</p>
+
+<p>Some two hundred yards away, in the yellow glare of one of the
+incandescent lights by which the little-frequented street was illumined,
+a man was battling desperately with three assailants, one of whom he
+had knocked to the ground.</p>
+
+<p>Without a word, both detectives rushed down the road to his assistance.</p>
+
+<p>As they drew nearer there came a flash of light, then the report of a
+pistol, followed by another shriek for help.</p>
+
+<p>Then Nick saw one of the ruffians reel a little, as if shot, while a
+second hurled their victim to the ground. The third leaped to his feet
+at the same moment, yelling wildly:</p>
+
+<p>"Look out! Scatter, boys! The cops are upon us!"</p>
+
+<p>"Kilgore's voice, or I'm a liar," muttered Nick, over his shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>Both detectives were still fifty yards from the scene of the furious
+conflict, and were running at the top of their speed along the rough
+road.</p>
+
+<p>Before they could come near enough to use a weapon, however, the three
+ruffians scattered like frightened cats, leaping the wall near an
+adjoining woodland, into the gloom of which they speedily vanished.</p>
+
+<p>It was obvious to Nick that pursuit would be vain, so he hastened to the
+side of the fallen man, who had been left prostrate in the road, and
+helped him to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>The man was Jean Pylotte.</p>
+
+<p>He was panting hard after the conflict, the fake character of which Nick
+could not then foresee. His coat was ripped up the back, his linen
+collar torn off, and he was deathly pale, with a smutch of blood across
+his cheek. In one hand he held a revolver, and in the other&mdash;a chunk of
+coal.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you wounded, stranger?" Nick quickly demanded, as he studied the
+man's pale face.</p>
+
+<p>"Not much&mdash;not badly, I think," gasped Pylotte, trembling violently.
+"But it's lucky you came. They'd surely have killed me."</p>
+
+<p>Nick noticed that he spoke with a slight foreign accent, and was a man
+of considerable physical prowess.</p>
+
+<p>"There's blood on your face," said he.</p>
+
+<p>"It came from one of them, I think," said Pylotte, drawing his sleeve
+across his cheek to remove the stain. "I must have wounded one of them."</p>
+
+<p>"It's a pity you did not kill him," said Nick, bluntly. "Was it you who
+fired the gun?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I tried to fire again, but one of them struck me down before I
+could do so. The ruffians came upon me before I fairly realized it."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know them?" inquired Chick.</p>
+
+<p>"Only one of them, a man named John David," replied Pylotte, now
+appearing to pull himself together.</p>
+
+<p>"John David, eh?" grunted Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"He has swindled me, and I&mdash;I saw him at a theater to-night, and
+afterward followed him out here."</p>
+
+<p>"For what? If he has swindled you, why didn't you have him arrested at
+the theater?" demanded Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I&mdash;I wanted to learn where he lives. He must have discovered
+that he was being followed, and then tried to do me up."</p>
+
+<p>Nick observed the speaker's faltering manner, and it increased his
+curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you wish to know where he lives?" he demanded.</p>
+
+<p>Pylotte hesitated, and shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," said he, after a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"Not believe you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hardly think so."</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose you tell me, and see," suggested Nick, with a faint smile.</p>
+
+<p>"I have no objection to telling you, none at all," Pylotte now replied.
+"The man I spoke of, John David, swindled me yesterday with two
+artificial diamonds."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! is that so?" cried Nick, with a significant glance at Chick. "What
+is your name, my man?"</p>
+
+<p>"Jean Pylotte, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Who are you, and where do you live?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am a Frenchman by birth, and arrived in New York only this week. My
+home is in Denver. I am a diamond cutter by trade, and came here to buy
+some gems for a Denver woman of wealth, who wishes to obtain a certain
+size and quality."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you are a judge of diamonds?"</p>
+
+<p>"One of the best," Pylotte modestly admitted, with a faint smile. "I am
+an expert judge of diamonds, and so it happened that I discovered the
+swindle of which I am a victim."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you bought a diamond of the man who said his name was John David,
+did you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I bought two, sir," nodded Pylotte. "They appeared like natural and
+very perfect stones when I first examined them, but after subjecting
+them to more careful tests, I found them to be the most extraordinary
+imitations I ever beheld."</p>
+
+<p>"Artificial diamonds, were they?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, artificial. But only the best of experts, and after the most rigid
+tests, could discover the fraud. I never saw such imitations. The stones
+are really almost as good as natural ones."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you them with you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"You feel quite confident that they were manufactured, do you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I am positive of it," cried Pylotte, with emphasis. "That is why I
+was secretly following the swindler."</p>
+
+<p>"You wanted to discover his house, and learn how he made such perfect
+imitations, eh? Was that your motive, instead of having him arrested at
+the theater?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, yes, it was," admitted Pylotte, with feigned reluctance.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know any process for manufacturing diamonds?" Nick next
+demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"I am pretty well informed on the subject."</p>
+
+<p>"Quite an art, isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it is."</p>
+
+<p>"And one that could be made very profitable, perhaps?"</p>
+
+<p>"I judge so."</p>
+
+<p>"Put up your revolver," said Nick, abruptly. "What's that black object
+you dropped just now?"</p>
+
+<p>Pylotte glanced down at his feet, then laughed faintly.</p>
+
+<p>"That's odd," said he. "It's a piece of coal. I must have seized it from
+the road, thinking to defend myself with it."</p>
+
+<p>"What is there odd in that?"</p>
+
+<p>Pylotte laughed again.</p>
+
+<p>"Diamonds may be made from coal," said he. "The fact that I should have
+got hold of a piece in the road here, while tracking that diamond
+swindler in search of his house, strikes me as being rather odd."</p>
+
+<p>"So it was," said Nick, a bit dryly, thinking of Venner's house in the
+near distance.</p>
+
+<p>Then he added, decisively:</p>
+
+<p>"Put up your gun, Mr. Pylotte. I want you to go with me. I think you are
+the very man I want."</p>
+
+<p>"Go with you!" exclaimed Pylotte, drawing back.</p>
+
+<p>"If you please," said Nick, politely. "I want, at least, to hear more of
+your story."</p>
+
+<p>"But who are you, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"My name is Nick Carter."</p>
+
+<p>"Not the celebrated detective?" cried Pylotte, with feigned amazement.</p>
+
+<p>"Precisely."</p>
+
+<p>"That's quite sufficient, Mr. Carter!" the Frenchman now cried, with
+much bowing and scraping. "I'll go with you when and where you wish. If
+any man can run down these swindling ruffians, sir, you certainly are
+the man."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks," said Nick, dryly. "I'll take you home with me for the night."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII" />CHAPTER XVII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE GAME UNCOVERED.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The following morning.</p>
+
+<p>The clock in Nick Carter's library was striking nine.</p>
+
+<p>Nick and Chick were seated at one side of the table, and Jean Pylotte
+occupied a chair at the opposite side.</p>
+
+<p>Upon the dark cloth top of the table between them lay two large
+diamonds, declared by Pylotte to have been artificially made, the two
+with which he claimed to have been swindled.</p>
+
+<p>Yet to the eyes of a layman they had all the qualities of natural gems,
+gleaming and glistening with magnificent fire in the cheerful sunlight
+of Nick's library.</p>
+
+<p>Pylotte had invented a very clever and consistent story about himself
+and his mission in New York, as well as about the meeting and being
+victimized by the counterfeit diamond shover, and Nick as yet saw no
+occasion for seriously distrusting him, or connecting him with the
+Kilgore gang.</p>
+
+<p>He rather suspected, in fact, that Pylotte had shadowed the swindler,
+whom Nick felt sure was Kilgore, with a view to learning just how the
+diamonds had been manufactured, and possibly with a design to turn the
+discovery to his own advantage.</p>
+
+<p>This was, indeed, the most natural deduction for Nick to arrive at,
+after considering all the circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>"So you are confident that these stones are works of art, rather than
+of nature, are you?" inquired Nick, who had been carefully examining the
+gems.</p>
+
+<p>"I am absolutely sure of it, Mr. Carter," declared Pylotte.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you any idea how such counterfeits can be made?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes."</p>
+
+<p>"By what process and means, Mr. Pylotte?"</p>
+
+<p>Pylotte hastened to explain.</p>
+
+<p>"A natural diamond, Mr. Carter, is pure carbon, crystallized under
+enormous heat and pressure in the bowels of the earth."</p>
+
+<p>"I am aware of that."</p>
+
+<p>"Charcoal and graphite are also pure carbon, but not in a crystallized
+condition," continued Pylotte. "If that condition could be imparted to
+the substances mentioned, we should have the artificial diamond."</p>
+
+<p>"How may that be done?" inquired Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"By subjecting the substance to the same condition under which the
+natural diamond was crystallized."</p>
+
+<p>"Heat and pressure?"</p>
+
+<p>"Precisely," bowed Pylotte. "Attempts to thus manufacture diamonds have
+frequently been made. A Mr. Acheson, of Pittsburg, while so engaged, and
+in obtaining graphite from coal by the heat of an electric furnace,
+discovered that combination of silicon and carbon now known as
+carborundum, which has commercial value as an abrasive."</p>
+
+<p>"I know about that," bowed Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, then," continued Pylotte, with an unconscious display of
+enthusiasm; "while diamonds certainly have been made by artificial
+means, the great difficulty has been that of producing them at a low
+cost. Moissan, in my country, produced diamonds by heating charcoal and
+iron to a high degree, and letting the mixture cool under enormous
+pressure. He succeeded in obtaining very small crystals, or diamonds,
+but the cost of production made his method impracticable from a
+commercial standpoint."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! I see."</p>
+
+<p>"In 1872 a chemist named Rose converted graphite into diamonds by a
+similar process, but with the same result."</p>
+
+<p>"The cost of production being too great?" observed Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"Precisely."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think that difficulty has now been overcome?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am compelled to think so, Mr. Carter," cried Pylotte, pointing to the
+two diamonds on the table.</p>
+
+<p>"You purchased them at a price compelling that belief?"</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you think the man of whom you got them has discovered a way to
+make such perfect artificial diamonds at a low price?"</p>
+
+<p>"I certainly do, Mr. Carter."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you any idea of the machinery and ingredients he might require?"
+asked Nick, with a view to getting points by which to locate the diamond
+plant.</p>
+
+<p>Pylotte could easily inform him, and he promptly did so, following the
+instructions given him by Dave Kilgore.</p>
+
+<p>"He would require an electric furnace and a hydraulic press," said he.
+"Also the tools for cutting the crude crystals. The ingredients used
+would depend upon the process he has discovered, probably coal or
+charcoal, and possibly some quantities of iron salts and sulphur."</p>
+
+<p>"In brief, then, Mr. Pylotte," said Nick, pointing to the diamonds on
+the table, "if those stones were made as cheaply as you think, the
+diamond market offers the manufacturers of them a field for a most
+gigantic swindle, does it not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed it does!" exclaimed Pylotte, throwing up both hands. "Enormous!
+Enormous! Millions could be made by so unparalleled a fraud!"</p>
+
+<p>"It opens the way, in fact, to the most colossal swindle on record?"</p>
+
+<p>"Undoubtedly."</p>
+
+<p>Nick glanced significantly at Chick, then abruptly rose to his feet.
+That he had struck the big game which from the first he had suspected,
+he now had not a doubt.</p>
+
+<p>"I require no more of you at present, Mr. Pylotte," said he, with
+courteous firmness. "I shall do all in my power to remedy your loss by
+this swindle, and to secure the perpetrators of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Detective Carter," bowed Pylotte, with a crafty display of
+appreciation and humility.</p>
+
+<p>"Meantime," added Nick, "you will please take no action in the case, but
+leave it entirely to me."</p>
+
+<p>"I will do so, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"If you will leave me your city address, or call here again in a few
+days, I shall have something to report to you."</p>
+
+<p>"I will call the day after to-morrow, Detective Carter," said Pylotte,
+promptly, too cunning to give Nick a fictitious address.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," said Nick. "Call in the evening. And now, Mr. Pylotte, we
+will bid you good-morning, and get to work at once upon the case."</p>
+
+<p>Pylotte bowed very agreeably, taking his artificial diamonds from the
+table and replacing them in his pocket; and Nick then conducted him to
+the door, again assuring him that no efforts in his behalf should be
+spared.</p>
+
+<p>Pylotte once more expressed his thanks, bowing and smiling as he
+descended the steps, and Nick closed the door and returned to the
+library.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Chick, the bag is open and the cat out," he cried, as he entered.</p>
+
+<p>"Right you are, Nick."</p>
+
+<p>"And a monstrous cat it is!"</p>
+
+<p>"Never a larger one," declared Chick, with a laugh. "By Jove! Nick, if
+Kilgore has really found a way to produce such perfect counterfeit
+diamonds, his gang could work the greatest swindle ever known, unless
+headed off."</p>
+
+<p>"That is their game, all right," said Nick. "From the very first I have
+suspected something extraordinary. They are not the stamp of criminals
+to dicker with petty jobs."</p>
+
+<p>"I should say not."</p>
+
+<p>"Far from it."</p>
+
+<p>"One thing is plain."</p>
+
+<p>"Namely?"</p>
+
+<p>"Where Cervera gets her diamonds, and of what they consist."</p>
+
+<p>"True. She certainly is one of the gang."</p>
+
+<p>"With such counterfeits as those worked upon Pylotte, and one big
+jewelry concern to help market the goods, they could clean up millions
+in a very short time."</p>
+
+<p>"No doubt of it. And they have their jewelry concern, all right."</p>
+
+<p>"Venner &amp; Co.?"</p>
+
+<p>"Surely."</p>
+
+<p>"We must get absolute proof of it."</p>
+
+<p>"That's just what I intend doing, now that we have the game uncovered,"
+said Nick, grimly.</p>
+
+<p>"And then proceed to locate the plant where the goods are made, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Precisely."</p>
+
+<p>"What are your plans?"</p>
+
+<p>"We'll first get a line on Venner, and see to what it leads," replied
+Nick. "There now is a way by which we can call the turn on him, and get
+proof of his co-operation with Kilgore and his gang."</p>
+
+<p>"By getting him to sell us some diamonds?"</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly."</p>
+
+<p>"And then proving them to be artificial?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's the idea."</p>
+
+<p>"Can you get at him in a way to trap him?"</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"He may fight shy of us," suggested Chick, "in case he knows of
+Pylotte's scrap with the gang last night. He may fear that Pylotte has
+discovered the fraud, and reported it to the police."</p>
+
+<p>"There's not much danger of that," replied Nick. "So stupendous a fraud
+would at once be given publicity through the press."</p>
+
+<p>"That's true."</p>
+
+<p>"In either case," added Nick, abruptly, "there's a way by which we can
+fool him. I'll explain it on the way. Get your make-up box and prepare
+to go with me. Since we have the game uncovered, we'll lose no time in
+rounding up these accomplished rascals."</p>
+
+<p>"Good enough!" exclaimed Chick, as he hurriedly arose. "The sooner the
+better."</p>
+
+<p>"We may have ragged work before the job is completed," added Nick. "So
+provide yourself with a brace of guns. I'll be ready when you are."</p>
+
+<p>"Where first?"</p>
+
+<p>"To the house of Pandu Singe, the snake charmer."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII" />CHAPTER XVIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>AT CROSS-PURPOSES.</h3>
+
+
+<p>It was not quite noon when Nick Carter and Chick arrived at the house of
+the Hindoo snake charmer.</p>
+
+<p>They found Pandu Singe at home with his interpreter, and the two
+detectives were very cordially received.</p>
+
+<p>Nick quickly disclosed his business.</p>
+
+<p>"We wish to borrow your personalities for a short time, also some of
+your curious garments," he explained to Pandu Singe, through his
+interpreter, who also was a Hindoo of superior education.</p>
+
+<p>The snake charmer appeared greatly surprised at such a request, but Nick
+readily invented a very plausible story to serve his purpose, without
+disclosing the true occasion.</p>
+
+<p>He soon persuaded the foreigner to grant his request, moreover, and the
+amazement of Pandu Singe and the interpreter were redoubled when they
+beheld what followed.</p>
+
+<p>This was the extraordinary transformation of their visitors.</p>
+
+<p>Nick had already outlined his plans to Chick, and they at once began
+operations.</p>
+
+<p>First they placed the two Hindoos in chairs near the windows, where the
+light revealed every peculiarity of their swarthy features.</p>
+
+<p>Nick next adjusted a large mirror upon the table, and placed his make-up
+box near by.</p>
+
+<p>Using the interpreter for his pattern, Nick then set to work with
+grease paints, powders, false hair, and the like, and at the end of
+twenty minutes he had, with most artistic skill, converted himself into
+a startling likeness of his model.</p>
+
+<p>The addition of the garments already provided for him made the
+remarkable transformation absolutely complete.</p>
+
+<p>Chick had not been idle meantime, but with equally clever manipulation
+had made himself into a counterfeit presentment of Pandu Singe.</p>
+
+<p>The astonishment of the two Hindoos, and their delight as they beheld
+the progressive changes so artistically made, could scarcely find
+expression in words.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of an hour, when the two detectives stood robed in their
+strange Indian attire, one would readily have declared that four genuine
+Hindoos, rather than two, occupied the apartment.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus paved the way to his next move, Nick easily prevailed upon
+the Hindoos to remain indoors for a day or two, lest the deception
+should be discovered and his designs perverted.</p>
+
+<p>He and Chick then returned to their waiting carriage, and half an hour
+later it drew up at the Fifth Avenue store of Venner &amp; Co.</p>
+
+<p>Chick alighted and led the way in.</p>
+
+<p>In order that he might do most of the talking, and shape his course by
+whatever might occur, Nick had decided to personate the interpreter.</p>
+
+<p>Yet both detectives had carefully noticed the peculiar characteristics
+of the Hindoo tongue, and believed that they could imitate it so
+cleverly as to prevent detection.</p>
+
+<p>Several facts, which Nick then had no way of knowing, however, operated
+very quickly to betray him and the crafty ruse he had adopted, when
+Venner personally met them at the store door.</p>
+
+<p>First, Kilgore had shrewdly reasoned that Nick's first move, after the
+disclosures made by Pylotte, would be that of thus getting positive
+evidence against Venner; and the crafty diamond swindler had warned
+Venner to be on the watch for the detective, and to handle him in a way
+to serve their own designs.</p>
+
+<p>Furthermore, when visiting the theater with Cervera, Venner frequently
+had heard Pandu Singe talking with his interpreter; and before Nick
+fairly had begun speaking, Venner penetrated his disguise and saw that
+he was up against the two detectives.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, despite the unexpected characters in which he now beheld them, the
+nerve of the polished knave did not weaken, nor his countenance in any
+way betray him. He at once proceeded to follow Kilgore's instructions.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! yes, I recognize both you and your interpreter," said he, in reply
+to Nick's dignified greeting. "I have frequently seen Pandu Singe at the
+theater, where I am admitted to the stage with Se&ntilde;ora Cervera, the
+famous Spanish dancer. Perhaps Pandu Singe may have seen me there."</p>
+
+<p>Nick gravely bowed, then pretended to interpret the remarks to Chick;
+who immediately began to bow and smile, at the same time glibly
+responding in a jargon that would have staggered a Chinese laundryman,
+yet which sounded as much like Hindoo as anything.</p>
+
+<p>Had his own situation been less serious, and the entire outlook less
+desperate, Venner would have laughed at the consummate dignity and
+soberness with which the two detectives co-operated in their exchange of
+unintelligible talk.</p>
+
+<p>"My employer, the great Pandu Singe," bowed Nick, "says he remembers the
+friend of the great Cervera."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! I am glad to hear it," cried Venner, shaking hands with Chick.</p>
+
+<p>"He has seen the splendid diamonds of the great se&ntilde;ora, and has heard
+that they came from your magnificent store," Nick then went on to
+explain.</p>
+
+<p>"That is quite right," bowed Venner. "Many of them did come from here.
+Is Pandu Singe looking for some diamonds?"</p>
+
+<p>Nick promptly bowed, and noted a gleam of satisfaction in the depths of
+Venner's eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"The great Pandu Singe soon returns to his own country," replied Nick.
+"He wishes to take with him, as a gift to her august excellency, the
+Empress of all the Indies, six fine jewels of equal weight and value. He
+calls here to learn if you can provide him with them."</p>
+
+<p>Venner plainly saw the game that was being attempted, and it suited him
+to the very letter.</p>
+
+<p>"Does the great Pandu Singe wish to purchase diamonds?" he asked,
+bowing.</p>
+
+<p>"Diamonds, yes! Are they not for the empress?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should have thought of that, certainly."</p>
+
+<p>"Only diamonds will answer."</p>
+
+<p>"Of large size and the first water?"</p>
+
+<p>"The great Pandu Singe would consider no other."</p>
+
+<p>"Alas, then, this is most unfortunate!" Venner now exclaimed, glancing
+about the store. "You see that we are making some repairs here, in the
+walls of our store and vault."</p>
+
+<p>"That is plain," bowed Nick. "But what has that to do with the
+diamonds?"</p>
+
+<p>"Only this," replied Venner, with feigned regret. "During these repairs
+I have removed all of my most valuable diamonds to a vault in my private
+residence."</p>
+
+<p>"For safer keeping?"</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly."</p>
+
+<p>"I will explain to Pandu Singe."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a moment," Venner quickly interposed. "Tell him, also, that I have
+at my residence the very gems he desires, six magnificent diamonds,
+precisely alike in weight, purity and cutting. They cannot be equaled in
+New York City, if in the entire country."</p>
+
+<p>"Are they fit for an empress?"</p>
+
+<p>"They are fit for a goddess."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! that will please Pandu Singe."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell him, also, that he can purchase them at a marvelously low price,"
+cried Venner. "Now, if Pandu Singe will come to my house, say early this
+evening, he may see the diamonds and examine them at his leisure. Tell
+him that, Mr. Interpreter, and say that I will send my carriage for him
+immediately after dinner. Say, too, that he may then see the diamonds
+both by daylight and lamplight, and so observe all the variety of their
+magnificent fire. Really, this will be greatly to the advantage of Pandu
+Singe."</p>
+
+<p>Nick gravely heard him to a finish, and with never a change of
+countenance.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, like a flash, one of those marvelous intuitions characteristic of
+this great detective, Nick Carter had suddenly grasped the whole truth.</p>
+
+<p>That conflict of the previous night, the flight of three of the diamond
+gang, Pylotte left comparatively uninjured in the road, his subsequent
+disclosures, his extensive knowledge of the diamond-making art, the
+hints he had imparted, and now this manifest eagerness of Venner to lure
+his ostensible customers to his suburban house&mdash;all combined to reveal
+to Nick's keen mind the shrewd game by which Kilgore was hoping to
+entrap him.</p>
+
+<p>Nick now knew that Venner recognized both Chick and himself, and was
+serving only the Kilgore gang.</p>
+
+<p>Yet Nick bowed without the slightest self-betrayal, and said, gravely:</p>
+
+<p>"I will explain the situation to Pandu Singe."</p>
+
+<p>For several minutes the two detectives maintained their curious game of
+talk.</p>
+
+<p>Then Nick, who had speedily planned his own counter-move, again turned
+to Rufus Venner.</p>
+
+<p>"The great Pandu Singe will do what you suggest," said he. "He wishes to
+see the diamonds, and will be pleased to come to your house."</p>
+
+<p>Venner had felt sure of this to start with, though he little dreamed
+that Nick had guessed the truth, and knew that he was recognized.</p>
+
+<p>"Let it be to-day, then," said he, quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"At your own pleasure," bowed Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"I will send my carriage far you at seven this evening," cried Venner,
+with secret exultation.</p>
+
+<p>Nick gravely tendered one of the snake charmer's cards.</p>
+
+<p>"The great Pandu Singe will not keep your carriage waiting!" said he,
+with a dryness to which Venner then was blind.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Chick, what say you to that?" demanded Nick, as they were
+returning to the house of the snake charmer.</p>
+
+<p>Chick laughed grimly.</p>
+
+<p>"I say that we are now up against it."</p>
+
+<p>"Right! There's a mighty wicked crisis near at hand."</p>
+
+<p>"No doubt of it, Nick. Venner knew us all right."</p>
+
+<p>"But he does not suspect that we are aware that he knew us, and in that
+at least we have the best of him."</p>
+
+<p>"We'll turn it to a good account, too."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you see the game this Kilgore gang is playing?"</p>
+
+<p>"Plainly, Nick."</p>
+
+<p>"They aim to lure us both to Venner's house, and there trap us and do us
+up."</p>
+
+<p>"To which latter," said Chick, dryly, "we shall strenuously object."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, rather!" laughed Nick. "Still, I can see nothing in evading this
+question or in making a raid upon Venner's house. If the Kilgore gang
+are about to lay for us there, it is evident that their diamond plant is
+located elsewhere. They would not take chances of failing to down us,
+and then having their plant discovered in the house where they slipped
+up."</p>
+
+<p>"Surely not," admitted Chick. "Kilgore is too shrewd to take those
+chances."</p>
+
+<p>"Undoubtedly."</p>
+
+<p>For several minutes Nick calmly considered the situation, then bluntly
+observed:</p>
+
+<p>"Chick, I see but one course for us. We must go up against the game, and
+give this gang what rope they want."</p>
+
+<p>"That's just my idea, Nick."</p>
+
+<p>"In no other way can we make sure of nailing the entire gang, and also
+locating their plant. Raiding Venner's house would not accomplish it.
+Some of the gang might not be there, or possibly escape us, and we might
+search in vain for their plant. Then we should have most of our work to
+do over again."</p>
+
+<p>"That's right, Nick."</p>
+
+<p>"So we'll take the one sure way, Chick," said Nick, decisively. "We'll
+let this gang continue to think they are fooling us, and go up against
+them till we get the whole truth."</p>
+
+<p>"That's good enough for me, Nick," nodded Chick. "I'm with you."</p>
+
+<p>"It may prove to be a desperate game, but we'll take our chances. Before
+night I'll have laid such plans as will best serve us, and possibly
+circumvent these scoundrels. Here we are at the house of Pandu Singe."</p>
+
+<p>Nick dismissed their carriage, and entered the dwelling, where they
+decided to remain until evening. Meantime Nick perfected his plans and
+discussed them with Chick.</p>
+
+<p>Then a wire was sent to Patsy, the detective's younger assistant, with
+careful instructions.</p>
+
+<p>Seven o'clock came, then half-past seven, but no sign of Venner's
+carriage.</p>
+
+<p>Nick readily suspected the true reason for the delay.</p>
+
+<p>"They are waiting until dark," he observed to Chick. "They don't want
+our arrival at Venner's house to be observed. A crafty dog, this
+Kilgore!"</p>
+
+<p>"That he is."</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind. Darkness will serve us best, as well as them."</p>
+
+<p>"Hark! There's a carriage."</p>
+
+<p>Nick glanced from the front window.</p>
+
+<p>"A landau!" he muttered, with grim satisfaction. "Yes, and with Spotty
+Dalton on the seat. I know him, despite his disguise. Come on, Chick!
+There's rough work to be done in the next two hours."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX" />CHAPTER XIX.</h2>
+
+<h3>HANDS SHOWED DOWN.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Spotty Dalton stood at the door of the open carriage when Nick and Chick
+emerged from the house, still clad in the character of Hindoos.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you sent here by Mr. Venner?" inquired Nick.</p>
+
+<p>Dalton touched the cloth cap drawn low over his brow, and stroked his
+dark, false beard as he replied:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir," said he, half in his throat. "You're the interpreter, I take
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"At your service."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm a bit late, but it couldn't be helped. We'll not be long in getting
+there."</p>
+
+<p>"Time does not matter to the great Pandu Singe," replied Nick, as he
+followed Chick into the open landau. "The night is still long."</p>
+
+<p>"It'll be infernally long for you two meddlers," Dalton grimly said to
+himself, as he banged the carriage door and mounted to the box.</p>
+
+<p>Then they rolled rapidly away toward a northern suburb of the city.</p>
+
+<p>The dusk of evening was already deepening to darkness, a gloom more
+noticeable far up in the heavens than among the myriad of lights in the
+city streets. For not a star was visible in the murky sky, and away in
+the west huge banks of inky clouds were sweeping up toward the zenith,
+indicating the rapid approach of a sudden storm.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think it is going to rain, driver?" called Nick, from the rear
+seat of the carriage.</p>
+
+<p>"Not soon," Dalton turned to answer; and then he added with grim
+significance, which he did not dream would be appreciated: "Whether it
+rains or not, you'll be brought back home in a closed carriage."</p>
+
+<p>"It's my private opinion that the boot will be on the other leg,"
+thought Nick, smiling faintly at the scoundrel's grim levity.</p>
+
+<p>For Dalton had implied that Nick would be brought back in a hearse.</p>
+
+<p>From that time but few words were spoken during the ride, though the
+detectives occasionally passed a remark in their meaningless lingo,
+merely to keep up appearances.</p>
+
+<p>At eight o'clock they had left the throbbing body of the city behind
+them, and at half-past eight they were speeding along the deserted
+suburban road leading to Venner's rather isolated homestead.</p>
+
+<p>Only the yellow glare of an incandescent lamp here and there now
+relieved the terrestrial gloom, but across the distant heavens
+intermittent flashes of light, followed by the low, sullen roll of
+thunder, told of the approaching storm.</p>
+
+<p>Soon the lighted windows of Venner's house came into view through the
+woodland, and Nick now murmured softly to Chick:</p>
+
+<p>"If I fail to rejoin you in ten minutes, you will know what to do."</p>
+
+<p>"You bet!" whispered Chick. "Trust me to do it, too!"</p>
+
+<p>"Here we are, sirs," cried Dalton, as he pulled up at the gate of the
+gravel walk. "You can go right in, while I wait to look after my
+horses."</p>
+
+<p>Chick&mdash;as Pandu Singe&mdash;pretended to give Nick a brief command, and Nick
+alone sprang out upon the sidewalk.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait here, driver," said he, curtly. "I will return for Pandu Singe in
+a few minutes."</p>
+
+<p>Dalton instantly became suspicious.</p>
+
+<p>"What's that for?" he abruptly demanded. "Why doesn't his nibs go in
+with you now?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is for me to obey the great Pandu Singe, not question his commands,"
+replied Nick, with an air of offended dignity. "I shall return for him
+when I have followed his instructions."</p>
+
+<p>"Hold on a bit! I want to know&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But Nick had already turned, and was striding up the long gravel walk
+leading to the front door of the house.</p>
+
+<p>Dalton then swung round and began to address Chick, who quickly
+signified that he could not understand; whereupon the puzzled scoundrel
+remained doubtfully on the box, growling under his breath, and quite at
+a loss just what he should do.</p>
+
+<p>Chick was now counting the seconds and minutes, until he should arrive
+at ten.</p>
+
+<p>Venner, who was waiting with the gang in the house, heard Nick's step on
+the wooden veranda, and he hastened to admit him.</p>
+
+<p>"What's this!" he at once exclaimed, starting. "Where is your master?
+You did not come here alone!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, not alone," replied Nick, entering the hall. "Pandu Singe waits in
+the carriage."</p>
+
+<p>"Waits in the carriage! For what?"</p>
+
+<p>"He fears the storm may break."</p>
+
+<p>"Fears the storm!" exclaimed Venner, with a blaze of suspicion leaping
+up in his dark eyes. "Surely, then, he will not remain out there."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't understand," coolly answered Nick, quickly sizing up
+everything in view.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't understand?"</p>
+
+<p>"Pandu Singe thinks of returning home before the storm shall break. He
+has first sent me in to see the diamonds, as I know just what he wants.
+If I think well of them, I am to return to the carriage and bring him in
+to see them."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that's it, eh?" cried Venner, with unabated misgivings.</p>
+
+<p>"Am I to see the stones?" demanded Nick. "Pandu Singe will not care to
+wait long."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes," replied Venner, as perplexed as Dalton by Nick's unexpected
+move. "Come out this way, where I have them ready to show you."</p>
+
+<p>Nick bowed and followed him through the hall, and a glance into the two
+front rooms, both of which were well lighted, told him they were vacant.</p>
+
+<p>Nick knew that he was entering a trap, however, and possibly carried
+his life in his hand. Yet he had several shrewd designs in the plan of
+operations adopted.</p>
+
+<p>He aimed to prevent both Chick and himself being cornered, and possibly
+caught at the same time. Not wishing to evade this gang, and thus reveal
+his own knowledge and suspicions, he designed to leave Chick free to act
+in case of his own downfall.</p>
+
+<p>Nick knew that he alone could force Venner and the gang to show their
+hands, even if it resulted in his own capture. He rather invited the
+latter, in fact, for he knew that the gang would see the need of
+instantly removing him from Venner's house, at least until they could
+lay hands upon Chick. In this case Nick believed that they might be
+compelled to confine him at their diamond plant, the location of which
+he thus hoped to discover.</p>
+
+<p>For these reasons Nick was coolly taking very long chances, at the same
+time leaving Chick free to quickly get in his work, in case he himself
+went down at the outset.</p>
+
+<p>Yet there was not a sign of any person save Venner, as Nick followed him
+through the hall and into a side room near the rear of the house,
+evidently a dining room.</p>
+
+<p>Nick sized it up with a glance. Electric chandelier; two doors, one by
+which he had entered from the hall, and the other leading into a dark
+kitchen; two windows, with the curtains closely drawn; several chairs, a
+handsome sideboard, and in the middle of the room a large, square table,
+covered with a rich damask cloth hanging nearly to the floor.</p>
+
+<p>Upon the table was also spread a piece of black velvet, on which was
+displayed nearly a score of blazing diamonds&mdash;the most magnificent
+artificial stones ever born of man's restless genius.</p>
+
+<p>Nick rightly guessed their true character, yet he allowed an ejaculation
+of admiration to escape him.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! Magnificent!"</p>
+
+<p>"Look them over," cried Venner, with a swift scrutiny of Nick's swarthy
+features. "You'll excuse me for a minute or two. I wish to make sure
+that my rear windows and doors are locked. Such gems are a terrible
+temptation to thieves."</p>
+
+<p>"True, sir," bowed Nick. "Take your time. Meanwhile I'll examine the
+diamonds. They are splendid! magnificent!"</p>
+
+<p>Nick rightly guessed that Venner wished to consult some of the gang. He
+saw that his entering the house without Chick had thrown their plans
+badly out of gear, as he had designed for it to do.</p>
+
+<p>Venner went into the dark kitchen, rattled a doorknob merely for a
+bluff, then crossed the hall and entered the library, closing the door
+behind him.</p>
+
+<p>The room was but dimly lighted, and on the floor stood Dave Kilgore and
+Matthew Stall, each with a drawn revolver.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the meaning of this, Rufe?" Kilgore instantly demanded, in
+passionate whispers.</p>
+
+<p>"How do I know?" Venner hurriedly rejoined, scarce above his breath.
+"You heard what he said?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, curse him, but I don't swallow it."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor I."</p>
+
+<p>"I can't see into his game."</p>
+
+<p>"That's just my trouble," cried Venner. "Can he have discovered that we
+recognize him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible! Pylotte is too cunning to have betrayed us in any way."</p>
+
+<p>This was very true, in fact; but Venner himself had blindly done the
+betraying.</p>
+
+<p>"It doesn't matter, Rufe," Kilgore fiercely added. "We must get them
+both."</p>
+
+<p>"That's my idea."</p>
+
+<p>"And it's all the easier to get them one at a time."</p>
+
+<p>"Right you are, Dave."</p>
+
+<p>"Has he discovered Pylotte?"</p>
+
+<p>"Surely not!"</p>
+
+<p>"Go back there, then," hissed Kilgore. "Learn what his game is, if you
+can. Force him to show his hand."</p>
+
+<p>"Leave that to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Waste no time, however, and on no pretext let him leave the house to
+return to the carriage."</p>
+
+<p>"Not on our lives."</p>
+
+<p>"A warning whistle will start Pylotte, and we'll be on hand to do our
+part," added Kilgore, hurriedly. "Go back at once, and waste not a
+moment in getting at his game."</p>
+
+<p>"Trust me, Dave."</p>
+
+<p>"We must land Nick Carter and get him away from here before that
+running mate of his can make any move against us."</p>
+
+<p>"That's the stuff."</p>
+
+<p>"And then we'll plan to get the other. Away with you!"</p>
+
+<p>These forcible measures were precisely what Nick had felt sure would be
+adopted by the gang, and were the very steps to which he had so shrewdly
+planned to force them.</p>
+
+<p>Venner darted softly across the hall and returned to the dining room.</p>
+
+<p>Nick was still examining the diamonds.</p>
+
+<p>He stood near the table, at a point midway between the two open doors.
+He had selected this position for a very good reason. He was inviting
+capture and removal, which he knew must be preceded by an assault; and
+he therefore laid himself open from either side, aiming to be put down
+and out with as little violence as possible.</p>
+
+<p>He wanted all his resources for what he knew was very likely to follow.</p>
+
+<p>Nick was quite as anxious as the gang to force matters, moreover; for at
+the end of ten minutes, in case he did not return to the carriage, Chick
+was to begin getting in his work.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore the climax came quickly.</p>
+
+<p>Six minutes had already passed.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, sir, what do you think of them?" cried Venner, as he returned to
+the room.</p>
+
+<p>"The diamonds?" queried Nick, tossing several of them back upon the
+table.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly. What else?"</p>
+
+<p>"They are all right, Mr. Venner."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you would say so."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed. They are all right&mdash;for what they are!"</p>
+
+<p>"For what they are?"</p>
+
+<p>"Precisely."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean by that?"</p>
+
+<p>"You know what I mean."</p>
+
+<p>"I do?" snarled Venner, inquiringly, with his frowning eyes shrinking
+from Nick's steadfast gaze.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly you do," declared Nick. "These diamonds are imitations, not
+natural stones. They are the most perfect and marvelous artificial
+diamonds ever made.</p>
+
+<p>"Artificial!" cried Venner, now drawing back. "You are mad, sir! Why,
+man, you are away off the track!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, I'm not."</p>
+
+<p>"You are!"</p>
+
+<p>"Not off the track at all, but very squarely on it," Nick now retorted,
+speaking in his own sternly resonant tones. "Hark you, Venner, I am the
+one to ask the meaning of this, not you!"</p>
+
+<p>Venner's hand went stealing toward his hip pocket.</p>
+
+<p>"So you are showing your true colors, are you?" he cried, with
+threatening significance. "By Heaven, you are no Hindoo!"</p>
+
+<p>"That's right, Venner, I am not," said Nick, quickly throwing off the
+loose robe that hid his own apparel, fearing it might impede his
+movements. "I am no Hindoo, but am&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Nick Carter!"</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly!"</p>
+
+<p>"So this is your game, is it?" Venner fiercely began. "If you think&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Stop right there, Venner," Nick sternly commanded. "Speaking of games,
+I am here to discover what sort of a rascally game you and this Kilgore
+gang are playing. I have learned enough to show me that you are a knave
+and a&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"By heavens, Carter&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Stop!" thundered Nick. "Don't pull a gun! If you do, I'll end your&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But he got no further, for there the climax came.</p>
+
+<p>A single sharp whistle sounded from the kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>Instantly Nick felt a rope noose jerked taut around his ankles, nearly
+throwing him from his feet.</p>
+
+<p>From beneath the table, the hanging cover of which had effectually
+concealed him, Jean Pylotte had managed to adjust the noose upon the
+floor about Nick's legs. At the signal given him, he had quickly drawn
+it taut.</p>
+
+<p>At the same moment Kilgore and Matt Stall leaped upon Nick from the
+kitchen and hall doors, bearing him heavily to the floor, while Venner
+ran to clap a revolver to the detective's head.</p>
+
+<p>"Hang to his feet, Pylotte," cried Kilgore, fiercely.</p>
+
+<p>"I've got 'em fast," shouted the diamond maker, from under the table.</p>
+
+<p>"Quit, Carter, or I'll blow your brains out," commanded Venner, with his
+pistol at Nick's head.</p>
+
+<p>Nick had been making a great bluff at putting up an ugly fight, but now
+he very agreeably subsided.</p>
+
+<p>The affair was going precisely as he desired, yet for the sake of
+appearances he angrily snarled:</p>
+
+<p>"Let up, you dogs! So this is your game, is it? Turn that gun another
+way, Venner, you miscreant! It might go off, and I'm not fool enough to
+invite its contents. This dirty game that you've played&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Dry up!" Kilgore sharply interrupted, while he and Stall quickly
+secured Nick's arms with a rope. "You'll not live to know the game that
+we have played, Nick Carter."</p>
+
+<p>"Won't I?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not if I live!" cried Kilgore, with vicious significance.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, maybe you'll not live long," retorted Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll close that saucy trap of yours, at all events," sneered Kilgore.
+"Give me that gag, Matt&mdash;quick."</p>
+
+<p>Nick no longer resisted. A glance at the clock on the mantel told him
+that nearly ten minutes had passed since he left Chick. He suffered
+himself to be gagged, then raised to his feet, from which Pylotte now
+cast the line and emerged from under the table.</p>
+
+<p>Nick bestowed one look upon him, from which the rascal shrank and
+shuddered.</p>
+
+<p>Kilgore now turned quickly to Venner, and hurriedly cried:</p>
+
+<p>"You remain here, Rufe, and leave us to dispose of this fellow. We'll
+run him over yonder, and return as quickly as possible. It's not safe to
+keep him here until we have landed his running mate."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't stop for buts!" cried Kilgore, fiercely. "Go see if you can sight
+Chick Carter. If he is still in the carriage, we are all right up to
+now. In six or eight minutes go down there and give him to understand
+that his interpreter wants him to come in here. Before you reach this
+room with him, we three will be back to help you turn him down. Do you
+understand?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure!" cried Venner, thrusting his weapon back in his pocket. "He
+cannot suspect that we have recognized Nick, and he'll come in, all
+right."</p>
+
+<p>"Go, then! We'll be back here in six minutes."</p>
+
+<p>Venner hastened to one of the front windows of the house and peered out
+toward the street. At that moment a flash of lightning, followed by the
+nearer roll of thunder, dispelled for an instant the intense gloom of
+the night.</p>
+
+<p>A growl of profound satisfaction broke from Venner while he gazed, and
+he muttered exultingly:</p>
+
+<p>"By Heaven! we're all right! He's waiting in the carriage, and Dalton is
+still on the box!"</p>
+
+<p>Nick was being pushed out of a back door of the house, meantime, and
+then across the lawn and through the dark stable.</p>
+
+<p>The ruffians who were hurrying him away did not stop there, however.
+Pylotte ran on ahead, while Kilgore and Matt Stall continued urging the
+detective across the grounds, making toward the old wooden mansion in
+which their secret plant was located.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed to them the safest place in which to confine Nick, pending the
+delay in getting hands upon Chick.</p>
+
+<p>Presently they came to a dry ditch, walled at each side, and originally
+built for draining the low meadows between the two estates. Into this
+they plunged, following it until they arrived near a wooden bulkhead in
+the foundation wall of the house. This was the secret way of entering,
+to which Cervera had referred the previous night.</p>
+
+<p>Pylotte already had opened it, and Nick was quickly forced through a
+dark cellar.</p>
+
+<p>"All right," cried Kilgore. "Let us in."</p>
+
+<p>Instantly the secret stone door was thrown open, and Nick was nearly
+blinded by the flood of light in the room into which he was abruptly
+thrust.</p>
+
+<p>He stood in the subterranean chamber of the diamond plant.</p>
+
+<p>And there, erect on the floor, with her evil countenance a picture of
+malicious triumph, stood his crafty combatant of the previous
+night&mdash;Sanetta Cervera.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Caramba!</i>" she cried, shrilly, with a vicious laugh. "So you've got
+him! Well done, Dave! Well done!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and we'll presently have the other," cried Kilgore, panting hard
+after his exertions.</p>
+
+<p>"Good for you, Dave," screamed Cervera, exultingly. "But this is the one
+I want most&mdash;this is the one!"</p>
+
+<p>"Look lively, Matt. Lend a hand here, and we'll bind him to yonder
+chair."</p>
+
+<p>"And leave Cervera to guard him, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's the stuff."</p>
+
+<p>"Can she do it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Can she!" growled Kilgore, with derisive vehemence. "You let her alone
+for that."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes, let me alone for that!"</p>
+
+<p>"We must get back to stand by Venner. That Chick Carter is nearly as
+tough a customer as this fellow."</p>
+
+<p>"I guess you'll find that that's no dream," said Nick to himself, as the
+ruffians bound him to the chair mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>Cervera was laughing and capering around as if about to have a fit&mdash;yet
+her laugh had a terrible and chilling ring.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, I'll guard him, Dave," she shrilly cried, with a frightful
+menace in her strained voice. "<i>Caramba</i>, yes! let me alone for that."</p>
+
+<p>"So I do," snarled Kilgore.</p>
+
+<p>"Knot the line fast, Matt&mdash;make sure of that," the woman fiercely added.
+"Yes, I'll keep him quiet&mdash;never doubt that, boys! He shall be like a
+baby taking milk. Perdition! but you shall have a sweet time, Mr. Nick,
+alone here with Sanetta Cervera!"</p>
+
+<p>Kilgore paid but little attention to any of this, and only now and then
+bestowed a glance upon the vicious woman.</p>
+
+<p>Within a minute after their arrival at the plant, the gang had Nick
+securely bound to a common wooden chair, when they condescended to
+remove the gag from his mouth.</p>
+
+<p>"He may shout himself hoarse here, if he likes," growled Kilgore. "There
+will be none to hear him."</p>
+
+<p>Then he hurried Pylotte and Matt Stall back to the Venner house, to
+land Chick Carter.</p>
+
+<p>Left alone with Nick, Cervera darted to the stone door in the solid
+wall, and secured it within.</p>
+
+<p>There was murder in her glittering eyes when she shot the heavy bolts
+into their iron sockets.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX" />CHAPTER XX.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE BOOT ON THE OTHER LEG.</h3>
+
+
+<p>In the heat of action and excitement ten minutes are as nothing.</p>
+
+<p>The time seems longer, however, when one sits waiting in a motionless
+carriage, enveloped in the gloom of night, with grim distrust and
+uncertainty acting like spurs in the sides of one's impatience.</p>
+
+<p>Before five minutes had fairly passed, after Nick's departure, Spotty
+Dalton had suffered his misgivings to the very limit of his endurance.</p>
+
+<p>Chick sat mentally counting the passing seconds, then scoring each
+departed minute with his fingers, of which he had exhausted four and a
+thumb, the entire complement of one hand; and all the while his eyes
+were riveted with intense vigilance upon the growling ruffian on the
+seat above him.</p>
+
+<p>Had Dalton ventured so much as a move to leave his perch, Chick would
+have been after him like a terrier after a rat.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of five minutes, however, Dalton made a preliminary move. He
+hitched the reins around the whipstock, then stared for a second or two
+toward Venner's house, fifty yards away through the surrounding park.</p>
+
+<p>Then he suddenly swung round on his seat, and growled ferociously at
+Chick, at the same time signifying with gestures the communication he
+imagined would not be verbally understood:</p>
+
+<p>"See here, you swarthy-faced snake fiend, I'm bound up yonder, to see
+what's going on! You sit where you are, d'ye hear, and I'll be back in a
+jiffy, if things are all right! If they're not, &mdash;&mdash; you, I'll be back
+just the same&mdash;with a gun!"</p>
+
+<p>As if moved by a wish to understand him, Chick arose in the body of the
+carriage while Dalton was thus declaring himself. He heard and
+understood, all right, and it necessitated his getting in his work a
+little earlier than was planned. For Chick would take no such chances as
+this that Nick's operations in the house would be interfered with.</p>
+
+<p>As the last word left Dalton's lips, the arm of the detective shot out
+through the darkness, and closed with the grip of a vise around the
+ruffian's neck, throttling him to silence.</p>
+
+<p>"With a gun, eh?" Chick fiercely muttered, yanking Dalton backward into
+the body of the carriage. "You open your lips again for so much as a
+whisper, and I'll close them with six inches of cold steel."</p>
+
+<p>In the glare of a distant lightning flash, Dalton, though struggling
+furiously, caught the gleam of a polished blade at his throat, and a
+glimpse of the flaming eyes in the face above him.</p>
+
+<p>He shrank, gasping for breath, as the truth dawned upon him; and then
+the voice of another sounded close beside the open carriage.</p>
+
+<p>"Want any help, Chick?"</p>
+
+<p>Nick's youthful assistant, to whom a wire had been sent from the house
+of the snake charmer, had appeared like an apparition out of the
+roadside gloom.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! you're here, Patsy!" muttered Chick. "Yes. Clap a gag into this
+cur's mouth. We'll choke off his pipes first of all."</p>
+
+<p>Dalton uttered a vicious growl, then felt the point of the knife pierce
+the skin at his throat, and he wisely relapsed into silence.</p>
+
+<p>For Patsy to fish out a gag, and bind it securely in the scoundrel's
+mouth, was the work of a few moments only.</p>
+
+<p>Then Chick jerked Dalton up from the rear cushion and out into the road,
+in far less time than is taken to record it.</p>
+
+<p>"Off with his coat and hat, Patsy," he hurriedly commanded. "Now the
+false beard, my lad. Now get into them yourself, as quickly as you can."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm all in, Chick," chuckled Patsy, working like a trooper.</p>
+
+<p>"Got all the traps with you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure!"</p>
+
+<p>"Clap the bracelets on him, then. Now give me a second pair, and a strip
+of line. That's the stuff."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I brought the whole shooting match," laughed Patsy.</p>
+
+<p>"Good for you! Now mount to the box, and leave this dog to me. I'll
+return in half a minute."</p>
+
+<p>Patsy climbed up to the seat from which Dalton had been so speedily
+snatched and overcome, and Chick now ran the rascal a rod or more into
+the woodland on the opposite side of the road.</p>
+
+<p>There he threw him to the ground beside a small oak, around the trunk of
+which he quickly twined Dalton's legs, and then fastened them at the
+ankles with a pair of irons.</p>
+
+<p>"I reckon you'll stay there quietly until I want you, barring that you
+pull up the tree," he grimly remarked, as he turned to hasten back to
+the carriage, in which he quickly resumed his seat.</p>
+
+<p>A moment later Venner peered from the distant window&mdash;and was satisfied
+with what he saw.</p>
+
+<p>Five minutes later he came striding down the walk and approached the
+carriage. Without a word to the driver, whom he supposed to be Dalton,
+he opened the carriage door and laid his hand on Chick's arm, at the
+same time pointing toward the house.</p>
+
+<p>Chick signified that he understood, and held out both hands, as if he
+wished to be helped to the sidewalk.</p>
+
+<p>Venner promptly raised both of his&mdash;only to suddenly hear a quick,
+metallic snap, and feel links of cold steel confining his wrists. Their
+icy chill went through him like a knife, and he reeled as if stricken a
+blow.</p>
+
+<p>"Good God!" he gasped, hoarsely. "What's this?"</p>
+
+<p>Chick and Patsy were already beside him.</p>
+
+<p>"This," said Chick, sternly, "is your wind-up!"</p>
+
+<p>"My&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Stop! Not a loud word, Mr. Venner, or worse will be yours! Now tell me
+in whispers&mdash;where is Nick Carter?"</p>
+
+<p>The sight of a revolver thrust under his nose had a potent effect upon
+the dismayed man, yet even while he saw that he was cornered, he seized
+upon the hope that Kilgore and the gang might discover and release him.</p>
+
+<p>"Find him yourself, if you want him!" he hissed through his teeth, with
+an ugly frown. "I'm cursed if I'll inform you!"</p>
+
+<p>Chick did not delay for arguments or persuasion. With Patsy's help he
+speedily put Venner in the same helpless condition in which he had left
+Dalton, stretched upon the ground, within a rod of one another.</p>
+
+<p>Then he threw off his disguise, and shifted his revolvers to his side
+pockets.</p>
+
+<p>"Now for yonder house, Patsy, and to see what the remainder of this gang
+are at," said he. "Come with me, and have your guns ready."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm with you," cried Patsy, coolly. "Guns and all."</p>
+
+<p>A dash up the gravel walk brought them to the front door, which Venner
+had left partly open.</p>
+
+<p>There they paused and listened.</p>
+
+<p>Not a sound came from within the house; but overhead the tempest now was
+breaking, with frequent crashing peals of thunder, and flashes of
+lightning that illumined all the landscape. Rain, too, now began pelting
+down on the veranda roof.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll steal in and see what we can find," whispered Chick, drawing one
+of his revolvers.</p>
+
+<p>"Go it, then."</p>
+
+<p>He led the way, and Patsy followed. The silence in the house mystified
+them at first. It appeared to have been entirely deserted.</p>
+
+<p>When they reached the door of the dining room, however, Chick discovered
+on the floor the disguise which Nick had discarded.</p>
+
+<p>"I have it, Patsy," he cried, softly. "They have nailed Nick, just as he
+expected, and have taken him somewhere to confine him."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps in the cellar," suggested Patsy.</p>
+
+<p>"I hardly think so, yet we'll have a look."</p>
+
+<p>Moving as quietly as shadows, they entered the kitchen and easily
+located the cellar door. It was closed and locked, with the key
+remaining.</p>
+
+<p>"Evidently they're not down there," whispered Chick.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's try the upper floors," suggested Patsy. "They may be laying for
+us up there, but I reckon we're good for them."</p>
+
+<p>"We'll take the chance, surely. Come on."</p>
+
+<p>They crept through the hall again, and then mounted the broad stairway,
+which led to the next floor.</p>
+
+<p>There the utter silence and the semidarkness quickly convinced them that
+they were on the wrong track.</p>
+
+<p>"The stable," muttered Chick, suddenly. "We'll try the stable."</p>
+
+<p>"They certainly have vamosed this ranch," remarked Patsy.</p>
+
+<p>"Plainly. Come on, then, and we'll try the stable."</p>
+
+<p>Together they started downstairs.</p>
+
+<p>A moment later Kilgore, Pylotte and Matt Stall came flurrying into the
+house by the rear door.</p>
+
+<p>In the bright light of the broad hall each party discovered the other
+at precisely the same moment, and Kilgore instantly guessed the truth.</p>
+
+<p>With a cry of rage, he whipped out his revolver and fired point-blank at
+the two men on the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>"Down 'em, boys!" he yelled furiously. "Down 'em, or our game is done
+for!"</p>
+
+<p>His bullet glanced from the baluster rail near Chick, and buried itself
+in the wall behind him.</p>
+
+<p>"Drop them, Patsy!" he shouted, instantly. "Shoot to kill! It's them or
+us!"</p>
+
+<p>"Let her go, Gallagher!" roared Patsy, pulling both guns.</p>
+
+<p>Then, amid the tumult of the breaking tempest outside, there began a
+fusillade the thunder of which rivaled that of the night, and which,
+though comparatively brief, was as fast and furious as any man there had
+ever experienced.</p>
+
+<p>Pylotte went down at the first shot from Chick, however, with a bullet
+in his brain.</p>
+
+<p>Then shot followed shot with lightning rapidity.</p>
+
+<p>Both detectives sprang down several stairs to evade the rain of lead,
+for both Kilgore and Stall were rapidly emptying two revolvers.</p>
+
+<p>A bullet singed Patsy's ear.</p>
+
+<p>Another dislodged Chick's hat.</p>
+
+<p>Then Kilgore reeled with a slight wound in his left arm.</p>
+
+<p>A score of shots were fired and wasted, meantime, for all hands were
+dodging about the hall and stairs in an utterly indescribable fashion.</p>
+
+<p>It was the warmest kind of a fight for fully three minutes.</p>
+
+<p>Then Chick got a line on Matt Stall from behind the baluster post, and
+dropped him with a ragged wound in his hip.</p>
+
+<p>Stall fell with a yell of rage and pain, and Kilgore found himself
+alone, and against odds.</p>
+
+<p>He turned like a flash, and darted out of the rear door of the house.</p>
+
+<p>He knew that the game was up, his confederates done for, and his own
+chances of escape but small; and the situation stirred to their very
+depths the worst elements of this lifelong criminal.</p>
+
+<p>But one thought possessed him&mdash;that of revenge, that of destroying the
+chief cause of his downfall&mdash;Nick Carter.</p>
+
+<p>With this end in view, Kilgore tore like a madman through the blinding
+rain of that tempestuous night, and shaped his course back to the
+diamond plant.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI" />CHAPTER XXI.</h2>
+
+<h3>AN ONLY RESOURCE.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Despite the corner in which he had placed himself, a situation far more
+desperate than he at first imagined, Nick Carter was congratulating
+himself upon the success of his ruse by which he had so quickly located
+the secret plant of the diamond swindlers, even at the sacrifice of his
+personal freedom.</p>
+
+<p>The fact that he now sat bound in a chair in the hidden stronghold of
+the gang, watched only by Cervera, did not seriously disturb the
+fearless detective.</p>
+
+<p>Nick had been in many a worse corner than this, or in corners believed
+to be worse, and he felt confident of pulling out of the scrape with a
+whole skin, and with most of the gang in custody.</p>
+
+<p>He had surveyed his surroundings with more than cursory interest,
+therefore, while Kilgore and his confederates were binding his arms to
+the rounds of the chair back, and his ankles to the legs of the same.</p>
+
+<p>The rough foundation walls of the house, the massive stone wall built
+across the cellar to mask the secret chamber, the elaborate electric
+furnace, the huge hydraulic press, the workbench and tools, the powerful
+arc light pendent from the ceiling&mdash;half an eye would have convinced
+Nick that he occupied the workroom of that master craftsman whose
+chemical knowledge and inventive genius had given birth to a most
+marvelous production, long, earnestly, yet vainly, sought by others&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>The production of an artificial diamond!</p>
+
+<p>Not until Nick heard the stone door forcibly closed, and its iron bolts
+shot violently into their sockets, did he pay serious attention to
+Cervera, the venomous Spanish vixen left to guard him.</p>
+
+<p>Then, as she swung round toward him, he took a sharper look at her
+darkly magnificent face, and was thrilled despite him by the
+extraordinary changes it had undergone.</p>
+
+<p>It had lost its beauty. Its olive flush had given place to a chalky
+whiteness. The radiance of her eyes had become a merciless glitter, like
+the glint cast from the eyes of a serpent. The reflection of a consuming
+passion for vengeance had transfigured her countenance, till it had
+become like the face of a fiend.</p>
+
+<p>Though Nick saw at a glance that his situation had taken on an
+unexpected and desperate phase, he suppressed any betrayal of it. He met
+the woman eye to eye, while she briefly paused and faced him, with a
+cruel smile curling her gray lips.</p>
+
+<p>"So I have you now, Nick Carter," she cried, with mocking significance.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, yes, in a way," admitted Nick, coolly.</p>
+
+<p>"I have you in my power," hissed Cervera, with a vicious display of
+satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! that's different," said Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"How different?"</p>
+
+<p>"That you have me in your power remains to be demonstrated."</p>
+
+<p>"Are we not alone here, you fool?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, very much alone."</p>
+
+<p>"And you helpless?"</p>
+
+<p>"Apparently."</p>
+
+<p>"If I wish, Nick Carter, I can kill you."</p>
+
+<p>"Then pray don't wish it," said Nick. "I am still too young to be
+heartlessly slain, even by so beautiful and accomplished a woman."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Caramba!</i> you mock me!" cried Cervera, darting toward him with eyes
+ablaze and her lithe figure quivering with passion. "You mock me!&mdash;you
+shall repent it! Perdition! you shall repent it!"</p>
+
+<p>"Is that so?"</p>
+
+<p>"You shall repent it, I say!"</p>
+
+<p>"In this world, or in the next?" inquired Nick, bent upon prolonging the
+scene as much as possible, with a hope that Chick might suddenly turn
+up.</p>
+
+<p>Cervera did not answer him immediately. She wheeled again and darted to
+the door, once more to make sure that she had secured its bolts.</p>
+
+<p>She was clad in the black dress in which she had escaped from Nick the
+previous night, the somber hue of which was relieved only by occasional
+flashes of her dainty white lace underskirts, as she swept quickly from
+place to place, with her lithe figure crouching at times, and her every
+movement as swift and impulsive as that of a startled leopard.</p>
+
+<p>As he sat watching her, Nick was reminded of her matchless work upon
+the stage, thrilling men and women alike with her wild grace and the
+fiery passion of her indescribable dances.</p>
+
+<p>She returned to confront him after a moment, crouching before him, with
+her glowing eyes fixed on his.</p>
+
+<p>"In the next world&mdash;not in this!" she now replied, with a voice that cut
+the air like the snap of a whip. "You'd have brief time for repentance
+in this."</p>
+
+<p>"So you've decided to do the job, have you?" Nick coolly demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'm sorry to hear it."</p>
+
+<p>"Here is where we even up accounts."</p>
+
+<p>"Even them up, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"You heard what I said."</p>
+
+<p>"But I wasn't aware that I have so very much the best of you."</p>
+
+<p>"You have."</p>
+
+<p>"How so?"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Caramba!</i> you know too much!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! you mean about that girl."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"I see," nodded Nick, secretly working in vain to loose the ropes
+confining his arms. "Well, se&ntilde;ora, as a matter of fact, I am rather
+likely to make things unpleasant for you one of these days."</p>
+
+<p>"It will be this day, or never. You'll not live to see another."</p>
+
+<p>"Possibly not."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Caramba!</i> do you doubt it?"</p>
+
+<p>She darted nearer to him, with her hand tearing open the waist of her
+dress, and then the gleam of a poniard met Nick's gaze. She swept it
+before his eyes with a wild gesture, and gave vent to a mocking laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you doubt that I can slay you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all," answered Nick. "It's very evident."</p>
+
+<p>"Or that I will?"</p>
+
+<p>"That appears equally manifest."</p>
+
+<p>"So it is!" hissed Cervera, with vicious intensity. "I intend to do it!
+Do you hear, Nick Carter? I intend to do it!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, I hear you."</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't you shrink? Why don't you plead for mercy?"</p>
+
+<p>"What's the use?"</p>
+
+<p>She answered him with a laugh that made the room ring.</p>
+
+<p>"Besides," added Nick, "it's not my style to show the white feather."</p>
+
+<p>"We'll see! <i>Caramba!</i> we will see!"</p>
+
+<p>She came nearer to him, crouching before him, so near that her breath
+fell hot upon his cheeks. Then, with a quick movement, she pressed the
+point of the blade through his clothing, till it pricked the flesh above
+his heart.</p>
+
+<p>With his arms bound, with his ankles secured to the legs of the chair,
+Nick appeared utterly at her mercy&mdash;of which she had none.</p>
+
+<p>Despite himself, Nick shrank slightly from the wound, and for the first
+time shuddered at the peril by which he was menaced, and from which
+there seemed to be no avenue of escape.</p>
+
+<p>Cervera laughed again, a laugh freighted with the terrible ring of
+madness.</p>
+
+<p>"Did it hurt you?" she screamed, with her glittering eyes raised to
+search his. "Perdition! I hope so! You have tortured me with a thousand
+fears. I'd like to repay you with a thousand pangs!"</p>
+
+<p>Nick's eyes took on an ugly gleam.</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't you do so, then?" he growled.</p>
+
+<p>"I would, if I had the time," cried Cervera, through her teeth.</p>
+
+<p>"You have all there is."</p>
+
+<p>"Ten thousand times I'd thrust it into you&mdash;thus! thus!"</p>
+
+<p>Nick set his jaws and met the blade without flinching.</p>
+
+<p>Twice the vicious demon thrust it through his clothing, and now two
+crimson stains of blood on his shirt front followed the withdrawal of
+the weapon.</p>
+
+<p>"See! see!" screamed Cervera, triumphantly, with her terrible face
+upturned to his gaze. "You're beginning to bleed! Did you know that the
+sight of blood affects me as it does a leopard? I thirst for more&mdash;if
+that of one I hate! When next I strike you, I shall strike deeper!"</p>
+
+<p>That she fully intended to murder him, Nick now, had not a doubt. The
+homicidal madness was in her eyes, in her every feature, her every
+motion, and it rang in every word that fell from her bloodless lips.</p>
+
+<p>Yet the inflexible nerve of the detective did not for a moment desert
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"Send the blade home at once, if you like," he said, with a scornful
+frown.</p>
+
+<p>"Not yet&mdash;not yet!" she cried, shrilly. "There'll be time for that."</p>
+
+<p>"Time and to spare," sneered Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"I first wish to torture you, as you've tortured me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Go ahead, then."</p>
+
+<p>"Once more! Are you ready?"</p>
+
+<p>"Let it come."</p>
+
+<p>Again she drew back the glittering blade, only to mock him with several
+pretended thrusts, hoping thus to create and prolong an agony of fear
+and suspense.</p>
+
+<p>A more viciously cruel and vindictive creature never drew the breath of
+life.</p>
+
+<p>She laughed again, and slowly pressed the weapon closer&mdash;and then, with
+a sudden startled cry, she drew back and leaped to her feet.</p>
+
+<p>A noise like that of a mighty cannonade seemed to shake even the solid
+walls of this buried chamber.</p>
+
+<p>It was the crash of thunder in the heavens overhead.</p>
+
+<p>It was Cervera's first intimation of the terrible tempest that had been
+gathering outside.</p>
+
+<p>At first she thought the sound was that of revolvers, and she darted to
+the door and listened, pressing her ear to the wall.</p>
+
+<p>The instant her back was turned, Nick made a desperate attempt to free
+himself, straining cords and muscles under the determined effort. It
+proved vain, however. The ropes held him as if made of twisted steel.</p>
+
+<p>Yet in his brief but desperate struggle his right arm came in contact
+with an object in the side pocket of his sack coat.</p>
+
+<p>The object was a box nearly filled with parlor matches&mdash;one of the most
+dangerous and treacherous creations of man's inventive genius.</p>
+
+<p>Like a sudden revelation, or a bolt out of the blue, there leaped up in
+Nick's mind a possible way of escape.</p>
+
+<p>He thought of Cervera's garments, of the fluffy lace skirts beneath her
+gown, to which a single flash of fire would instantly prove fatal.</p>
+
+<p>The resort to such means seemed horrible&mdash;yet Nick well knew it was the
+one and only resource left him.</p>
+
+<p>He glanced sharply at Cervera. She was still listening at the door, with
+her evil face a picture of intense suspense.</p>
+
+<p>With a quick turn of his wrist, Nick succeeded in extracting the box
+from his pocket. Then he forced it open, and with a move of his hand he
+scattered its entire contents over the floor around his chair. The tiny
+matches fell with scarce a sound, and Cervera, ten feet away, failed to
+hear them.</p>
+
+<p>Then Nick quietly worked his chair back a foot or two, in order to bring
+some of the fateful things upon the floor directly in front of him.</p>
+
+<p>A moment later Cervera turned from the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Thunder&mdash;it was thunder," she muttered, under her breath. "There's a
+storm outside."</p>
+
+<p>"Somebody coming?" queried Nick, with taunting accents.</p>
+
+<p>He now aimed to provoke her, to force the situation to a climax, lest
+any mischance should have befallen Chick, or perverted in any way his
+own designs upon Kilgore and the gang. His taunting remark proved
+effective, moreover.</p>
+
+<p>With a snarl of rage Cervera darted toward him, with eyes for him alone,
+never for the floor.</p>
+
+<p>"You dog!" she cried, through her white teeth.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mock me again?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! no, of course not," sneered Nick.</p>
+
+<p>"You lie! You do! You think some one will come&mdash;that you will then
+escape me," screamed Cervera, quivering through and through with
+venomous passion.</p>
+
+<p>Nick watched her as a cat watches a mouse.</p>
+
+<p>Her face was ghastly and distorted, her breast heaving, her every nerve
+quivering, and her eyes were like balls of fire under their knitted
+brows.</p>
+
+<p>Still clutching the poniard, her jeweled fingers worked convulsively
+around its haft, like those of one who fain would strike a death blow,
+yet whose hand was briefly held by consuming horror.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly she darted nearer, with a vicious snarl.</p>
+
+<p>"You think you'll escape me," she screamed, with bitter ferocity. "It
+shows in your eyes. I'll make sure that you don't. Let come who may, you
+shall be found&mdash;dead! Dead!&mdash;do you hear?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! yes, I hear."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet you do not fear? We'll see&mdash;we'll see!"</p>
+
+<p>She darted closer to him, with the weapon raised, above her head, and
+her knee touched Nick's knee. He swung quickly around toward her, and
+scraped his feet over the floor below her skirts.</p>
+
+<p>Then came a quick, furious snapping, like the noise of a miniature
+fusillade. A score of the matches had been ignited by Nick's swift move.</p>
+
+<p>Almost instantly a shriek of terror broke from Cervera's lips, and she
+reeled back, clutching wildly at her skirts.</p>
+
+<p>"My God! I'm on fire!&mdash;on fire!" she screamed, with a voice so intense
+in its agony as to have chilled a man of stone.</p>
+
+<p>A roar came from Nick as he sighted the flames under her gown.</p>
+
+<p>"Release me! Release me!" he thundered, furiously, with a voice that
+drowned her frightful screams. "Cut me loose&mdash;loose! It's your only
+hope&mdash;your only hope!"</p>
+
+<p>She heard him like one in a nightmare of agony and terror, and her
+instinct rather than her reason responded to his thundering commands.</p>
+
+<p>Still with the poniard in her jeweled hand, still shrieking wildly, she
+leaped to his side, and with a single sweep of the keen weapon severed
+the rope binding his arms.</p>
+
+<p>Then Nick snatched the poniard from her hand. With several swift cuts
+and slashes he released his limbs, and sprang quickly to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>He had already shaped his course. He had observed on the sulphur
+barrels, near the wall, a strip of matting, used as a cover for them.
+Nick snatched it from the barrels, and rushed to wrap it around the
+skirts and limbs of the terror-stricken woman.</p>
+
+<p>For several moments the result seemed doubtful, so doubtful that Nick
+finally threw Cervera heavily to the floor, the better to press the
+matting closely around her and so smother the flames. In this he
+presently succeeded, but not before she was so severely burned as to be
+rendered utterly helpless.</p>
+
+<p>When Nick arose to his feet Cervera remained lying prostrate on the
+floor, moaning with pain, yet in a state of semi-consciousness only. A
+glance told Nick that she could make no move to escape, and he now had
+other work than that of looking to her comfort.</p>
+
+<p>He ran to the stone door, threw the bolts, and quickly dragged it open.</p>
+
+<p>Even as he did so, from out of the gloom of the adjoining cellar, a man
+came into view, as if suddenly arisen from the ground.</p>
+
+<p>The man was Dave Kilgore.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII" />CHAPTER XXII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE LAST TRICK.</h3>
+
+
+<p>"Carter!"</p>
+
+<p>"Kilgore!"</p>
+
+<p>Each man uttered the name of the other, as if with the same breath. The
+meeting came so suddenly that, for the bare fraction of a second, both
+men were nonplused.</p>
+
+<p>Then both whipped out a weapon.</p>
+
+<p>Crack!</p>
+
+<p>Bang!</p>
+
+<p>They fired together, and both missed, Nick's usually accurate aim being
+spoiled by the gloom of the cellar.</p>
+
+<p>Kilgore instantly sprang further away in the darkness, and aimed again.</p>
+
+<p>The hammer of his weapon fell as usual, but there was no report. In his
+recent fight at the Venner house he had emptied both of his revolvers,
+save the one bullet that had just missed Nick Carter.</p>
+
+<p>Then Kilgore, failing to have found Nick at his mercy, thought only of
+making his own escape. He turned and ran toward the open door by which
+he had entered.</p>
+
+<p>At that moment Chick's ringing voice sounded from outside.</p>
+
+<p>"This way! this way, Patsy!" he cried, louder than the rolling thunder
+overhead. "I've found the rat hole!"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm with you," yelled Patsy.</p>
+
+<p>They were already at the door.</p>
+
+<p>By the frequent flashes of lightning they had, after the fight at
+Venner's, succeeded in following Kilgore across the meadows, and they
+well knew that he was headed to get even with Nick.</p>
+
+<p>Now Nick's voice rang through the cellar.</p>
+
+<p>"Look out for him, Chick," he commanded. "He's coming that way. Look out
+for his gun."</p>
+
+<p>"Hurrah!" roared Chick, the moment he heard Nick's voice. "Let him come,
+gun and all!"</p>
+
+<p>Kilgore saw his flight cut off in that direction, but he knew every inch
+of the house. He turned like a rat in the darkness, and made for the
+stairs leading to the floor above. Up these he hurriedly scrambled.</p>
+
+<p>Nick heard him through the gloom, and followed him, pitching headlong at
+the foot of the stairs just as Kilgore opened the door leading to the
+hall above.</p>
+
+<p>There the dim rays from a hall lamp revealed the man for an instant, and
+showed Nick the way. He was up again and after Kilgore like a hound
+after a fox.</p>
+
+<p>Kilgore dashed through the hall, but dared not take time to unlock and
+open the front door of the house. He had a profound respect for the
+revolver in the hand of his pursuer, who already had reached the hall.</p>
+
+<p>It was a flight for life, and Kilgore knew it.</p>
+
+<p>He turned like a flash and darted up the stairs, making for the second
+floor. Three at a stride he covered, and succeeded in reaching the
+corridor above before Nick could get a line on him.</p>
+
+<p>Nick followed, gun in hand.</p>
+
+<p>On the second floor Kilgore darted into a dark chamber, and then
+through that to one adjoining it, where he waited till he heard Nick
+plunging into the one first mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>Then Kilgore slipped out into the hall again, hoping to retrace his
+steps downstairs and escape by the front door.</p>
+
+<p>In the way of that, however, Chick and Patsy were now in the lower hall,
+the former shouting lustily up the stairs:</p>
+
+<p>"Run him down, Nick! Run him down! We'll cover this way of escape!"</p>
+
+<p>An involuntary oath broke from Kilgore's lips, and at the same moment a
+vivid flash of lightning from the inky heavens illumined all the house.</p>
+
+<p>From the chamber in which he stood, Nick again caught sight of his man,
+and was after him in an instant.</p>
+
+<p>Kilgore heard him coming, and again fled through the hall and up another
+flight of stairs.</p>
+
+<p>"You'd better throw up your hands," roared Nick, as he followed.</p>
+
+<p>The answer came back with a yell of defiance:</p>
+
+<p>"Not on your life!"</p>
+
+<p>"You're a lost dog," cried Nick, hoping to keep him replying.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll not get me alive!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then I'll get you dead!" cried Nick, as he mounted the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>"You haven't got me yet!"</p>
+
+<p>"Next door to it, my man."</p>
+
+<p>This brought no answer.</p>
+
+<p>In a moment Nick reached the second hall, where he briefly paused to
+listen. Save the rain beating on the roof of the house, only one sound
+reached his strained ears. It was like that of some one hammering
+against the side of the house with some heavy object. For a moment the
+detective was puzzled. He could not fathom the meaning of such a sound.</p>
+
+<p>Then a gust of damp night air rushed through the hall and swept Nick's
+cheek.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! an open window!" he muttered. "That's easily located."</p>
+
+<p>He groped his way into one of the rear chambers. There the night air was
+sweeping in through an open window, to the sill of which Nick quickly
+sprang.</p>
+
+<p>Now the noise he had heard was instantly explained.</p>
+
+<p>Cornered like a rat, yet viciously resolute to the last, Kilgore had, in
+order to make his escape, resorted to a means from which a less cool and
+nervy scoundrel would have shrunk on such a night as that.</p>
+
+<p>He had, by reaching far out of the window, been able to grasp an
+old-fashioned lightning rod with which the ancient wooden mansion was
+provided, and by which he proposed to descend to the ground. Under the
+swindler's weight, the beating of this swaying rod against the side of
+the house was the sound Nick had heard.</p>
+
+<p>Kilgore, whose courage was worthy a far better cause, already was
+halfway to the ground.</p>
+
+<p>Yet Nick had no idea of letting the knave escape thus, and he raised his
+weapon to fire.</p>
+
+<p>There was no need for a bullet, however, for the hand of the Almighty
+did the work.</p>
+
+<p>From the black vault of the heavens a bolt of liquid fire suddenly shot
+earthward, with a crash of thunder that seemed to rend the entire
+firmament.</p>
+
+<p>The fiery bolt reached the earth&mdash;but it reached it through the rod to
+which Dave Kilgore was desperately clinging.</p>
+
+<p>Not a sound came from the doomed man as he went down&mdash;or if there was a
+sound, it was drowned by the deafening crash and successive
+reverberations of thunder.</p>
+
+<p>Before Nick had fairly recovered from the blinding light and terrific
+concussion, he heard the voice of Chick yelling loudly from below:</p>
+
+<p>"Nick, Nick, come down here! The house is afire. The whole house is
+afire!"</p>
+
+<p>Nick heard and darted for the stairs, at once realizing how well the
+lightning had done its terrific work. Before he could reach the lower
+hall, dense volumes of smoke were pouring through the house, and one
+entire side of the fated dwelling was in flames.</p>
+
+<p>Nick thought of the woman in the cellar below, and, with Chick and Patsy
+at his heels, he led the way to the diamond plant. The electric light
+had been extinguished by the lightning stroke, but Nick soon located the
+body of Cervera, and together the detectives brought her out and laid
+her upon the ground some rods away from the burning dwelling.</p>
+
+<p>"She's done for, poor wretch!" muttered Nick, as he looked at her
+bloodless face.</p>
+
+<p>He was right.</p>
+
+<p>Se&ntilde;ora Cervera had danced her last dance&mdash;a terrible one it was! She
+had lapsed into a merciful unconsciousness, from which she never
+emerged.</p>
+
+<p>Next came Kilgore, and they easily found him. He lay stretched upon the
+ground, dead and scorched almost beyond recognition, at the base of the
+metallic rod through which he had met his fate.</p>
+
+<p>"Lend a hand here," said Nick. "We'll place him with his confederate
+until we can have them properly removed."</p>
+
+<p>"So be it," said Chick, gravely. "It's about the last we can do for
+them, and this nearly ends our work on this job."</p>
+
+<p>"You've got the others?"</p>
+
+<p>"Every man of them."</p>
+
+<p>"Well done!" nodded Nick, as they raised the lifeless form between them.
+"Behold the way of the transgressor."</p>
+
+<p>"Hark!" exclaimed Patsy. "There goes the fire alarm. In three minutes
+there'll be a mob about here."</p>
+
+<p>"Much good the firemen will do," rejoined Nick. "That house is doomed,
+and all that's in it."</p>
+
+<p>He was right. With the passing of the tempest, and the first sign of a
+star in the eastern sky, all that remained of the house above the
+diamond plant was a heap of red, smoldering embers, filling the cellar
+and the secret chamber&mdash;and blotting out, though perhaps not forever,
+the secret art of that misguided genius, Jean Pylotte, dead with a
+bullet in his brain, on the floor of Rufus Venner's hall.</p>
+
+<p>There remains but little to complete the record of this strange and
+stirring case.</p>
+
+<p>Before morning Nick had lodged Venner and Spotty Dalton in the Tombs,
+and had Garside arrested at his residence. The lifeless bodies of their
+three confederates,&mdash;Cervera having died at dawn&mdash;were taken to the
+Morgue.</p>
+
+<p>Early the following day, Harry Boyden, the young man arrested for the
+murder of Mary Barton, was discharged from custody, and hastened to the
+home of Violet Page, to make her happy with the news of his release and
+his story of Nick Carter's extraordinary work. Both called upon Nick a
+day or two later, and expressed their gratitude and affection in terms
+which here need no recital. Incidentally it may be added that they were
+married, as planned, the following summer.</p>
+
+<p>How strangely the circumstances and experiences of life are knit and
+bound together. But for the vicious crime of a jealous woman, Nick might
+have labored long, and possibly vainly, to run down the Kilgore gang and
+their extraordinary criminal project, in which Cervera so strongly
+figured. It was as Nick said, the two crimes seemed bound together as if
+with links of steel.</p>
+
+<p>In the trial which preceded the conviction and punishment of the three
+living members of the gang, Nick learned all of the facts of the case.</p>
+
+<p>Venner &amp; Co., it appeared, were on their last legs, and went into the
+game to square themselves, the design being to market vast quantities of
+the artificial diamonds. With this project in view, Venner had purchased
+the house at the rear of his own, under the name of Dr. Magruder, and
+there had established the plant. How well the scheme would have
+succeeded, but for Nick Carter, will never be known.</p>
+
+<p>At all events, in the stock of Venner &amp; Co. were found numerous stones
+which only the most proficient experts could prove to be artificial; and
+even to this day it is intimated that, among the bejeweled women of New
+York there are some unconsciously wearing the manufactured diamonds of
+Jean Pylotte. What matters, however, since where ignorance is bliss it
+is folly to be wise?</p>
+
+<p>Jean Pylotte: His art died with him, alas! For in the ruins of the
+diamond plant there could be found no evidence sufficient to reveal his
+great secret.</p>
+
+<p>Surely it had opened the way to a great swindle, the possibilities of
+which can hardly be conceived. But, fortunately, in the way of it had
+come&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Nick Carter.</p>
+
+
+<h5>THE END.</h5>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h3><a name="NICK_CARTER_STORIES" id="NICK_CARTER_STORIES" />NICK CARTER STORIES</h3>
+
+<h2>New Magnet Library</h2>
+
+<h3>PRICE, FIFTEEN CENTS</h3>
+
+<h4><i>Not a Dull Book in This List</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>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
+trouble, and landed the criminal just where he should be&mdash;behind the
+bars.</p>
+
+<p>The author of these stories knew more about writing detective stories
+than any other single person.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<h4><i>ALL TITLES ALWAYS IN PRINT</i></h4>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='left'>850&mdash;Wanted: A Clew</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>851&mdash;A Tangled Skein</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>852&mdash;The Bullion Mystery</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>853&mdash;The Man of Riddles</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>854&mdash;A Miscarriage of Justice</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>855&mdash;The Gloved Hand</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>856&mdash;Spoilers and the Spoils</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>857&mdash;The Deeper Game</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>858&mdash;Bolts from Blue Skies</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>859&mdash;Unseen Foes</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>860&mdash;Knaves in High Places</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>861&mdash;The Microbe of Crime</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>862&mdash;In the Toils of Fear</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>863&mdash;A Heritage of Trouble</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>864&mdash;Called to Account</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>865&mdash;The Just and the Unjust</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>866&mdash;Instinct at Fault</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>867&mdash;A Rogue Worth Trapping</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>868&mdash;A Rope of Slender Threads</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>869&mdash;The Last Call</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>870&mdash;The Spoils of Chance</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>871&mdash;A Struggle With Destiny</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>872&mdash;The Slave of Crime</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>873&mdash;The Crook's Blind</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>874&mdash;A Rascal of Quality</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>875&mdash;With Shackles of Fire</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>876&mdash;The Man Who Changed Faces</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>877&mdash;The Fixed Alibi</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>878&mdash;Out With the Tide</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>879&mdash;The Soul Destroyers</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>880&mdash;The Wages of Rascality</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>881&mdash;Birds of Prey</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>882&mdash;When Destruction Threatens</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>883&mdash;The Keeper of Black Hounds</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>884&mdash;The Door of Doubt</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>885&mdash;The Wolf Within</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>886&mdash;A Perilous Parole</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>887&mdash;The Trail of the Fingerprints</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>888&mdash;Dodging the Law</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>889&mdash;A Crime in Paradise</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>890&mdash;On the Ragged Edge</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>891&mdash;The Red God of Tragedy</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>892&mdash;The Man Who Paid</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>893&mdash;The Blind Man's Daughter</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>894&mdash;One Object in Life</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>895&mdash;As a Crook Sows</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>896&mdash;In Record Time</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>897&mdash;Held in Suspense</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>898&mdash;The $100,000 Kiss</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>890&mdash;Just One Slip</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>900&mdash;On a Million-dollar Trail</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>901&mdash;A Weird Treasure</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>902&mdash;The Middle Link</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>903&mdash;To the Ends of the Earth</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>904&mdash;When Honors Pall</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>905&mdash;The Yellow Brand</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>906&mdash;A New Serpent in Eden</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>907&mdash;When Brave Men Tremble</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>908&mdash;A Test of Courage</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>909&mdash;Where Peril Beckons</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>910&mdash;The Gargoni Girdle</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>911&mdash;Rascals &amp; Co.</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>912&mdash;Too Late to Talk</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>913&mdash;Satan's Apt Pupil</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>914&mdash;The Girl Prisoner</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>915&mdash;The Danger of Folly</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>916&mdash;One Shipwreck Too Many</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>917&mdash;Scourged by Fear</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>918&mdash;The Red Plague</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>919&mdash;Scoundrels Rampant</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>920&mdash;From Clew to Clew</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>921&mdash;When Rogues Conspire</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>922&mdash;Twelve in a Grave</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>923&mdash;The Great Opium Case</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>924&mdash;A Conspiracy of Rumors</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>925&mdash;A Klondike Claim</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>926&mdash;The Evil Formula</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>927&mdash;The Man of Many Faces</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>928&mdash;The Great Enigma</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>929&mdash;The Burden of Proof</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>930&mdash;The Stolen Brain</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>931&mdash;A Titled Counterfeiter</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>932&mdash;The Magic Necklace</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>933&mdash;'Round the World for a Quarter</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>934&mdash;Over the Edge of the World</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>935&mdash;In the Grip of Fate</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>936&mdash;The Case of Many Clews</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>937&mdash;The Sealed Door</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>938&mdash;Nick Carter and the Green Goods Men</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>939&mdash;The Man Without a Will</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>940&mdash;Tracked Across the Atlantic</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>941&mdash;A Clew From the Unknown</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>942&mdash;The Crime of a Countess</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>943&mdash;A Mixed Up Mess</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>944&mdash;The Great Money Order Swindle</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>945&mdash;The Adder's Brood</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>946&mdash;A Wall Street Haul</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>947&mdash;For a Pawned Crown</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>948&mdash;Sealed Orders</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>949&mdash;The Hate That Kills</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>950&mdash;The American Marquis</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>951&mdash;The Needy Nine</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>952&mdash;Fighting Against Millions</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>953&mdash;Outlaws of the Blue</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>954&mdash;The Old Detective's Pupil</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>955&mdash;Found in the Jungle</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>956&mdash;The Mysterious Mail Robbery</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>957&mdash;Broken Bars</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>958&mdash;A Fair Criminal</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>959&mdash;Won by Magic</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>960&mdash;The Piano Box Mystery</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>961&mdash;The Man They Held Back</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>962&mdash;A Millionaire Partner</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>963&mdash;A Pressing Peril</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>964&mdash;An Australian Klondyke</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>965&mdash;The Sultan's Pearls</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>966&mdash;The Double Shuffle Club</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>967&mdash;Paying the Price</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>968&mdash;A Woman's Hand</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>969&mdash;A Network of Crime</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>970&mdash;At Thompson's Ranch</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>971&mdash;The Crossed Needles</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>972&mdash;The Diamond Mine Case</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>973&mdash;Blood Will Tell</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>974&mdash;An Accidental Password</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>975&mdash;The Crook's Bauble</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>976&mdash;Two Plus Two</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>977&mdash;The Yellow Label</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>978&mdash;The Clever Celestial</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>979&mdash;The Amphitheater Plot</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>980&mdash;Gideon Drexel's Millions</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>981&mdash;Death in Life</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>982&mdash;A Stolen Identity</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>983&mdash;Evidence by Telephone</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>984&mdash;The Twelve Tin Boxes</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>985&mdash;Clew Against Clew</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>986&mdash;Lady Velvet</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>987&mdash;Playing a Bold Game</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>988&mdash;A Dead Man's Grip</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>989&mdash;Snarled Identities</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>990&mdash;A Deposit Vault Puzzle</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>991&mdash;The Crescent Brotherhood</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>992&mdash;The Stolen Pay Train</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>993&mdash;The Sea Fox</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>994&mdash;Wanted by Two Clients</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>995&mdash;The Van Alstine Case</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>996&mdash;Check No. 777</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>997&mdash;Partners in Peril</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>998&mdash;Nick Carter's Clever Prot&eacute;g&eacute;</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>999&mdash;The Sign of the Crossed Knives</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1000&mdash;The Man Who Vanished</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1001&mdash;A Battle for the Right</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1002&mdash;A Game of Craft</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1003&mdash;Nick Carter's Retainer</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1004&mdash;Caught in the Toils</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1005&mdash;A Broken Bond</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1006&mdash;The Crime of the French Caf&eacute;</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1007&mdash;The Man Who Stole Millions</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1008&mdash;The Twelve Wise Men</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1009&mdash;Hidden Foes</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1010&mdash;A Gamblers' Syndicate</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1011&mdash;A Chance Discovery</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1012&mdash;Among the Counterfeiters</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1013&mdash;A Threefold Disappearance</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1014&mdash;At Odds With Scotland Yard</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1015&mdash;A Princess of Crime</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1016&mdash;Found on the Beach</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1017&mdash;A Spinner of Death</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1018&mdash;The Detective's Pretty Neighbor</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1019&mdash;A Bogus Clew</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1020&mdash;The Puzzle of Five Pistols</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1021&mdash;The Secret of the Marble Mantel</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1022&mdash;A Bite of an Apple</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1023&mdash;A Triple Crime</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1024&mdash;The Stolen Race Horse</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1025&mdash;Wildfire</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1026&mdash;A <i>Herald</i> Personal</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1027&mdash;The Finger of Suspicion</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1028&mdash;The Crimson Clew</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1029&mdash;Nick Carter Down East</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1030&mdash;The Chain of Clews</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1031&mdash;A Victim of Circumstances</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1032&mdash;Brought to Bay</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1033&mdash;The Dynamite Trap</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1034&mdash;A Scrap of Black Lace</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1035&mdash;The Woman of Evil</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1036&mdash;A Legacy of Hate</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1037&mdash;A Trusted Rogue</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1038&mdash;Man Against Man</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1039&mdash;The Demons of the Night</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1040&mdash;The Brotherhood of Death</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1041&mdash;At the Knife's Point</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1042&mdash;A Cry for Help</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1043&mdash;A Stroke of Policy</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1044&mdash;Hounded to Death</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1045&mdash;A Bargain in Crime</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1046&mdash;The Fatal Prescription</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1047&mdash;The Man of Iron</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1048&mdash;An Amazing Scoundrel</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1049&mdash;The Chain of Evidence</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1050&mdash;Paid with Death</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1051&mdash;A Fight for a Throne</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1052&mdash;The Woman of Steel</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1053&mdash;The Seal of Death</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1054&mdash;The Human Fiend</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1055&mdash;A Desperate Chance</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1056&mdash;A Chase in the Dark</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1057&mdash;The Snare and the Game</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1058&mdash;The Murray Hill Mystery</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1059&mdash;Nick Carter's Close Call</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1060&mdash;The Missing Cotton King</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1061&mdash;A Game of Plots</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1062&mdash;The Prince of Liars</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1063&mdash;The Man at the Window</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1064&mdash;The Red League</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1065&mdash;The Price of a Secret</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1066&mdash;The Worst Case on Record</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1067&mdash;From Peril to Peril</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1068&mdash;The Seal of Silence</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1069&mdash;Nick Carter's Chinese Puzzle</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1070&mdash;A Blackmailer's Bluff</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1071&mdash;Heard in the Dark</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1072&mdash;A Checkmated Scoundrel</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1073&mdash;The Cashier's Secret</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1074&mdash;Behind a Mask</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1075&mdash;The Cloak of Guilt</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1076&mdash;Two Villains in One</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1077&mdash;The Hot Air Clew</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1078&mdash;Run to Earth</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1079&mdash;The Certified Check</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1080&mdash;Weaving the Web</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1081&mdash;Beyond Pursuit</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1082&mdash;The Claws of the Tiger</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1083&mdash;Driven From Cover</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1084&mdash;A Deal in Diamonds</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1085&mdash;The Wizard of the Cue</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1086&mdash;A Race for Ten Thousand</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1087&mdash;The Criminal Link</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1088&mdash;The Red Signal</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1089&mdash;The Secret Panel</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1090&mdash;A Bonded Villain</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1091&mdash;A Move in the Dark</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1092&mdash;Against Desperate Odds</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1093&mdash;The Telltale Photographs</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1094&mdash;The Ruby Pin</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1095&mdash;The Queen of Diamonds</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1096&mdash;A Broken Trail</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1097&mdash;An Ingenious Stratagem</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1098&mdash;A Sharper's Downfall</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1099&mdash;A Race Track Gamble</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1100&mdash;Without a Clew</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1101&mdash;The Council of Death</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1102&mdash;The Hole in the Vault</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1103&mdash;In Death's Grip</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1104&mdash;A Great Conspiracy</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1105&mdash;The Guilty Governor</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1106&mdash;A Ring of Rascals</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1107&mdash;A Masterpiece of Crime</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1108&mdash;A Blow For Vengeance</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1109&mdash;Tangled Threads</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1110&mdash;The Crime of the Camera</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1111&mdash;The Sign of the Dagger</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1112&mdash;Nick Carter's Promise</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1113&mdash;Marked for Death</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1114&mdash;The Limited Holdup</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1115&mdash;When the Trap Was Sprung</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1116&mdash;Through the Cellar Wall</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1117&mdash;Under the Tiger's Claws</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1118&mdash;The Girl in the Case</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1119&mdash;Behind a Throne</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1120&mdash;The Lure of Gold</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1121&mdash;Hand to Hand</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1122&mdash;From a Prison Cell</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1123&mdash;Dr. Quartz, Magician</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1124&mdash;Into Nick Carter's Web</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1125&mdash;The Mystic Diagram</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1126&mdash;The Hand That Won</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1127&mdash;Playing a Lone Hand</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1128&mdash;The Master Villain</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1129&mdash;The False Claimant</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1130&mdash;The Living Mask</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1131&mdash;The Crime and the Motive</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1132&mdash;A Mysterious Foe</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1133&mdash;A Missing Man</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1134&mdash;A Game Well Played</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1135&mdash;A Cigarette Clew</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1136&mdash;The Diamond Trail</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1137&mdash;The Silent Guardian</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1138&mdash;The Dead Stranger</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1140&mdash;The Doctor's Stratagem</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1141&mdash;Following a Chance Clew</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1142&mdash;The Bank Draft Puzzle</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1143&mdash;The Price of Treachery</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1144&mdash;The Silent Partner</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1145&mdash;Ahead of the Game</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1146&mdash;A Trap of Tangled Wire</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1147&mdash;In the Gloom of Night</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1148&mdash;The Unaccountable Crook</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1149&mdash;A Bundle of Clews</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1150&mdash;The Great Diamond Syndicate</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1151&mdash;The Death Circle</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1152&mdash;The Toss of a Penny</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1153&mdash;One Step Too Far</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1154&mdash;The Terrible Thirteen</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1155&mdash;A Detective's Theory</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1156&mdash;Nick Carter's Auto Trail</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1157&mdash;A Triple Identity</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1158&mdash;A Mysterious Graft</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1159&mdash;A Carnival of Crime</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1160&mdash;The Bloodstone Terror</td><td align='left'>By Nicholas Carter</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<h2>10,000,000</h2>
+
+<p>copies of the works of Nick Carter in the New Magnet Library have been
+sold. Millions more are going to be sold, not because the line
+represents forbidden literature, but because it fills a large and
+growing demand for recreational reading.</p>
+
+<p>Nick Carter is justly famous. He stands as one of America's foremost
+literary characters. He is the close companion of some of America's
+leading professional and business men. Statesmen of high and low degree
+have called him "Nick," and do not hesitate to say that he has given
+them more satisfaction and pleasure than any other character in fiction.</p>
+
+<p>The Nick Carter stories, therefore, hold a great deal for you. Any in
+the foregoing list are worth while.</p>
+
+<h4>STREET &amp; SMITH CORPORATION</h4>
+<h5>79 Seventh Avenue  New York City</h5>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h3><a name="BOOKS_FOR_YOUNG_MEN" id="BOOKS_FOR_YOUNG_MEN" />BOOKS FOR YOUNG MEN</h3>
+
+<h2>MERRIWELL SERIES</h2>
+
+<h4>Stories of Frank and Dick Merriwell</h4>
+
+<h3>PRICE, FIFTEEN CENTS</h3>
+
+<h4><i>Fascinating Stories of Athletics</i></h4>
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<p>A half million enthusiastic followers of the Merriwell brothers will
+attest the unfailing interest and wholesomeness of these adventures of
+two lads of high ideals, who play fair with themselves, as well as with
+the rest of the world.</p>
+
+<p>These stories are rich in fun and thrills in all branches of sports and
+athletics. They are extremely high in moral tone, and cannot fail to be
+of immense benefit to every boy who reads them.</p>
+
+<p>They have the splendid quality of firing a boy's ambition to become a
+good athlete, in order that he may develop into a strong, vigorous
+right-thinking man.</p>
+
+
+<h5><i>ALL TITLES ALWAYS IN PRINT</i></h5>
+
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='left'>1&mdash;Frank Merriwell's School Days</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>2&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Chums</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>3&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Foes</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>4&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Trip West</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>5&mdash;Frank Merriwell Down South</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>6&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Bravery</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>7&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Hunting Tour</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>8&mdash;Frank Merriwell in Europe</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>9&mdash;Frank Merriwell at Yale</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>10&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Sports Afield</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>11&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Races</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>12&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Party</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>13&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Bicycle Tour</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>14&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Courage</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>15&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Daring</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>16&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Alarm</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>17&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Athletes</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>18&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Skill</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>19&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Champions</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>20&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Return to Yale</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>21&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Secret</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>22&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Danger</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>23&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Loyalty</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>24&mdash;Frank Merriwell in Camp</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>25&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Vacation</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>26&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Cruise</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>27&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Chase</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>28&mdash;Frank Merriwell in Maine</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>29&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Struggle</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>30&mdash;Frank Merriwell's First Job</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>31&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Opportunity</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>32&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Hard Luck</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>33&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Prot&eacute;g&eacute;</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>34&mdash;Frank Merriwell on the Road</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>35&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Own Company</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>36&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Fame</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>37&mdash;Frank Merriwell's College Chums</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>38&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Problem</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>39&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Fortune</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>40&mdash;Frank Merriwell's New Comedian</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>41&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Prosperity</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>42&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Stage Hit</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>43&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Great Scheme</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>44&mdash;Frank Merriwell in England</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>45&mdash;Frank Merriwell on the Boulevards</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>46&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Duel</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>47&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Double Shot</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>48&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Baseball Victories</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>49&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Confidence</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>50&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Auto</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>51&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Fun</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>52&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Generosity</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>53&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Tricks</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>54&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Temptation</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>55&mdash;Frank Merriwell on Top</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>56&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Luck</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>57&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Mascot</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>58&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Reward</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>59&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Phantom</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>60&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Faith</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>61&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Victories</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>62&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Iron Nerve</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>63&mdash;Frank Merriwell in Kentucky</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>64&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Power</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>65&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Shrewdness</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>66&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Set Back</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>67&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Search</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>68&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Club</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>69&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Trust</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>70&mdash;Frank Merriwell's False Friend</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>71&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Strong Arm</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>72&mdash;Frank Merriwell As Coach</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>73&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Brother</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>74&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Marvel</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>75&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Support</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>76&mdash;Dick Merriwell At Fardale</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>77&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Glory</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>78&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Promise</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>79&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Rescue</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>80&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Narrow Escape</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>81&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Racket</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>82&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Revenge</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>83&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Ruse</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>84&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Delivery</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>85&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Wonders</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>86&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Honor</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>87&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Diamond</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>88&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Winners</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>89&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Dash</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>90&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Ability</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>91&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Trap</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>92&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Defense</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>93&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Model</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>94&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Mystery</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>95&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Backers</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>96&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Backstop</td><td align='left'>By Burt. L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>97&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Western Mission</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>98&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Rescue</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>99&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Encounter</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>100&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Marked Money</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>101&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Nomads</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>102&mdash;Dick Merriwell on the Gridiron</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>103&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Disguise</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>104&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Test</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>105&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Trump Card</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>106&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Strategy</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>107&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Triumph</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>108&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Grit</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>109&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Assurance</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>110&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Long Slide</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>111&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Rough Deal</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>112&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Threat</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>113&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Persistence</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>114&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Day</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>115&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Peril</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>116&mdash;Dick Merriwell's Downfall</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>117&mdash;Frank Merriwell's Pursuit</td><td align='left'>By Burt L. Standish</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<h2>SPORTS</h2>
+
+<p>There is a greater appreciation of athletic sports among Americans than
+among people of any other nationality.</p>
+
+<p>We have had definite proof of this in the correspondence occasioned by
+our publication of the adventures of Frank and Dick Merriwell. These two
+boys are active athletes. They are proficient in every line of sport,
+and they play fair or not at all.</p>
+
+<p>This last feature of the Merriwell stories fills our daily mail with
+letters from readers who say that they appreciate the integrity and
+fairness of the Merriwells more than words can tell.</p>
+
+<p>These books, while of greatest interest to the right-thinking boy are
+educational and make for the development of a character which will
+enable the average boy to meet his fellows fairly and squarely in the
+battle of life.</p>
+
+<h3>STREET &amp; SMITH CORPORATION</h3>
+<h4>79 Seventh Avenue  New York City</h4>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Bill_Cody" id="Bill_Cody" />Bill Cody</h2>
+
+
+<p>At a rough estimate there are 400 million civilized human beings who
+have heard of Bill Cody, not under his real name, but by the name
+everybody called him, "Buffalo Bill."</p>
+
+<p>His character made him an outstanding figure during a period of the
+development of America when a strong character was a matter of vital
+necessity.</p>
+
+<p>We doubt, however, whether the man's work is fully appreciated, or ever
+has been. In the rush and bustle that followed the introduction of the
+railroad to the West, the results of Buffalo Bill's work were more or
+less overlooked, but a time is coming when this remarkable man's
+achievements will be fully appreciated.</p>
+
+<p>This is the character whose adventures are dealt with in Buffalo Bill's
+Border Stories.</p>
+
+<p>Read them. You will find them of true historical value.</p>
+
+<h3>STREET &amp; SMITH CORPORATION</h3>
+<h4>79 Seventh Avenue  New York City</h4>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WITH LINKS OF STEEL***</p>
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, With Links of Steel, by Nicholas Carter
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: With Links of Steel
+
+Author: Nicholas Carter
+
+Release Date: November 19, 2004  [eBook #14096]
+Most recently updated July 28, 2011
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WITH LINKS OF STEEL***
+
+
+E-text prepared Steven desJardins and Project Gutenberg Distributed
+Proofreaders
+
+
+
+WITH LINKS OF STEEL
+
+Or, The Peril of the Unknown
+
+New Magnet Library No. 1164
+
+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.
+
+Street & Smith Corporation Publishers
+79-89 Seventh Avenue, New York
+
+1904
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Cover of With Links of Steel]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I      A CRAFTY ROBBERY.
+CHAPTER II     CONCERNING SENORA CERVERA.
+CHAPTER III    THE KILGORE DIAMOND GANG.
+CHAPTER IV     GETTING DOWN TO WORK.
+CHAPTER V      BEHIND THE SCENES.
+CHAPTER VI     A SHOT IN THE DARK.
+CHAPTER VII    A STRATEGIC MOVE.
+CHAPTER VIII   FOUND DEAD.
+CHAPTER IX     NICK STRIKES A STARTLING CLEW.
+CHAPTER X      ON THE TRAIL.
+CHAPTER XI     THE CRIME AND THE MEANS.
+CHAPTER XII    CLOSING IN.
+CHAPTER XIII   CRAFTY CERVERA.
+CHAPTER XIV    IN A WARM CORNER.
+CHAPTER XV     THE DIAMOND PLANT.
+CHAPTER XVI    THE CUNNING OF JEAN PYLOTTE.
+CHAPTER XVII   THE GAME UNCOVERED.
+CHAPTER XVIII  AT CROSS-PURPOSES.
+CHAPTER XIX    HANDS SHOWED DOWN.
+CHAPTER XX     THE BOOT ON THE OTHER LEG.
+CHAPTER XXI    AN ONLY RESOURCE.
+CHAPTER XXII   THE LAST TRICK.
+
+
+
+
+WITH LINKS OF STEEL
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+A CRAFTY ROBBERY.
+
+
+"Mr. Venner, sir?"
+
+"Mr. Venner--yes, certainly. You will find him in his private
+office--that way, sir. The door to the right. Venner is in his private
+office, Joseph, is he not?"
+
+"I don't think so, Mr. Garside, unless he has just returned. I saw him
+go out some time ago."
+
+"Is that so? Wait a moment, young man."
+
+The young man halted, and then turned back to face Mr. Garside, with an
+inquiring look in his frank, brown eyes.
+
+"Not here, sir, do I understand?" he asked, politely.
+
+Mr. Garside shook his head. He was a tall, slender man of forty, and was
+the junior partner of the firm of Rufus Venner & Co., a large retail
+jewelry house in New York City, with a handsome store on Fifth Avenue,
+not far from Madison Square.
+
+It was in their store that this introductory scene occurred, and proved
+to be the initiatory step of one of the shrewdest and most cleverly
+executed robberies on record.
+
+It was about eleven o'clock one April morning. The sun was shining
+brightly outside, and at the curbing in front of the store were several
+handsome private carriages, with stiff-backed, motionless coachmen, in
+bottle-green livery, perched on their boxes, all of which plainly
+indicated the very desirable patronage accorded the firm mentioned.
+
+In the store the glare of sun was subdued by partly drawn yellow
+curtains, which lent a soft, amber light to the deep interior, and
+enhanced the dazzling beauty of the merchandise there displayed.
+
+The store was a rather narrow one, but quite deep, with a long-counter
+on each side, back of which were numerous clerks, some engaged in
+waiting upon the several customers then present.
+
+At the rear of the store was an office inclosure, with a partition of
+plate glass; while at either side of this inclosure was a smaller room,
+entirely secluded, these being the private offices of the two members of
+the firm.
+
+Mr. Garside was standing about in the middle of the store when the young
+man entered and inquired for Mr. Venner. As he turned from the clerk who
+had informed him of Venner's absence, he added, half in apology, to his
+visitor:
+
+"I was mistaken, young man. My clerk tells me that Mr. Venner is out
+just now. Do you know where he has gone, Joseph?"
+
+"No, sir, I do not."
+
+"I think he will presently return," said Garside, again reverting to the
+caller. "Is there anything that I can do for you? Or will you wait
+until Mr. Venner comes in?"
+
+"I will not wait, Mr. Garside, since you are one of the firm, and
+probably know about this matter," replied the young man, drawing a small
+cloth-covered package from his breast pocket. "Here are the ten diamonds
+for which Mr. Venner sent us an order this morning. I come from Thomas
+Hafferman, sir, and will leave the stones with you."
+
+The man mentioned was also a jeweler, and a large importer of diamonds
+and costly gems.
+
+Mr. Garside's countenance took on an expression of mild surprise.
+
+"From Hafferman? An order from Venner?" he murmured, inquiringly. "I was
+not aware that Venner sent out any order for diamonds this morning."
+
+"One of your clerks brought the order, sir, and requested Mr. Hafferman
+to send the stones here as soon as convenient," replied the messenger.
+"Mr. Hafferman did not know your clerk personally, so I was sent here to
+deliver the stones."
+
+"What is your name, young man?"
+
+"Harry Boyden, sir. I have worked for Mr. Hafferman for nearly five
+years. I think you will find that the order was properly sent."
+
+"Wait just a moment, Mr. Boyden," suggested Garside, smiling.
+
+Then he hastened to the rear of the store, and spoke through the open
+window near the cashier's desk.
+
+"Do any of you know of an order sent out by Mr. Venner this morning?"
+he inquired, addressing the several clerks at work in the office. "An
+order to Thomas Hafferman for ten diamonds."
+
+Only a girl stenographer, seated at a typewriter near the office door,
+replied:
+
+"I think Mr. Venner sent Spaulding out about half an hour ago, sir," she
+replied. "I saw him give Spaulding several letters."
+
+"Ah, doubtless it's all right enough," bowed Garside; "yet I wonder that
+I had heard nothing about it. Joseph, has Spaulding been here within a
+few minutes?"
+
+"No, sir," replied the clerk, the same who had at first been questioned.
+"I saw him go out just before Mr. Venner departed, and he has not yet
+returned."
+
+Garside had now reached the middle of the store again, where Boyden was
+still waiting.
+
+"Are you quite sure that the order came from Mr. Venner?" he again
+inquired. "How long ago was the messenger at your store?"
+
+"About half an hour ago, sir," Boyden readily answered. "The order was,
+I presume, signed by Mr. Venner."
+
+"Was it our man Spaulding who delivered the order? Do you know him by
+sight?"
+
+"I do not, sir. Joseph Maynard, yonder, is the only clerk here with whom
+I am acquainted, and I think he will vouch for me," said Boyden, now
+beginning to smile at Garside's manifest caution over receiving the
+diamonds. "Surely, sir, no harm can come from your keeping the stones
+until Mr. Venner returns, since I am willing to leave them with you," he
+added, laughing.
+
+"Oh, no, no--I wasn't thinking of that," Garside quickly answered. "I
+wished only to avoid the needless trouble of returning them, in case the
+order did not come from us."
+
+"I think the order was all right, Mr. Garside. Besides, sir, I saw Mr.
+Venner yesterday at our store, examining some diamonds. Doubtless these
+are the same."
+
+"Oh, if that's the case, leave them, by all means," Garside cried. "I
+was not aware that he had called there. Probably they are for some order
+of which he has personal charge. Yes, yes, Mr. Boyden, leave them,
+certainly. Here, Joseph, place the package in one of the vault drawers,
+and hand it to Mr. Venner when he returns. Sorry to have detained you so
+long, Mr. Boyden. Had you begun by stating that Venner called yesterday
+upon Mr. Hafferman, I should not have demurred over the matter."
+
+"There's no harm done, Mr. Garside, none whatever," replied Boyden,
+bowing and smiling. "I appreciate your caution, sir. If there proves to
+have been any mistake in ordering them, you can easily return the
+stones. Good-morning, sir."
+
+Garside replied with a nod over his shoulder, having turned to hand the
+parcel to his clerk back of the counter, and Boyden immediately
+departed.
+
+"Is that young man an acquaintance of yours, Maynard?" inquired Mr.
+Garside.
+
+"Yes, sir. He has been with Hafferman for several years."
+
+"Doubtless it's all right, then. Odd, though, that Venner should have
+made no mention to me of this order. Hand him the package as soon as he
+comes in."
+
+"I will, sir, at once."
+
+Maynard had already placed the small parcel in a drawer of the huge
+steel vault back of the counter, and he now resumed the work at which he
+had been engaged.
+
+Mr. Garside sauntered toward the front of the store, and presently
+greeted a lady who entered.
+
+Twenty minutes passed, and the incident of the diamonds was almost
+forgotten by both employer and clerk.
+
+Soon both were reminded of it, however, by the entrance of another
+man--a smooth-featured young fellow, with pale blue eyes, a sallow
+complexion, slightly pock-marked. He was of medium height, and well put
+together, and was clad in a neat business suit of fashionable
+appearance.
+
+Quickly approaching Mr. Garside, who was then disengaged, he tendered
+one of Thomas Hafferman's business cards, and said, glibly, while bowing
+and laughing lightly:
+
+"Excuse me, Mr. Garside, but we rather owe you an apology. Our Mr.
+Boyden left some diamonds with you a short time ago, which should have
+been delivered to Tiffany & Co. Mr. Hafferman read the order without his
+spectacles, and it's rather a good joke on him, for he thought it was
+signed Venner & Co. The blunder was partly owing to the fact, no doubt,
+that Mr. Venner called to see him yesterday about some diamonds."
+
+"There!" exclaimed Garside, as if quite pleased to discover that he had
+been so nearly right. "I knew well enough that Venner had not sent out
+any order without mentioning it to me. Yes, your Mr. Boyden left the
+stones here. For Tiffany & Co., eh?"
+
+"Yes, sir, and they should have been delivered long ago," was the reply,
+with a conventional laugh. "If you please, I'll leave them there on my
+way back. Deucedly stupid blunder on Hafferman's part, I'm sure; and I
+hope--"
+
+"Oh, there's no harm done, I guess, and but little time lost,"
+interrupted Garside, joining in the other's laugh. "You will deliver
+them, you say?"
+
+"If you please."
+
+"Here, Joseph, hand me that package of diamonds left here by Boyden.
+They were sent to us by mistake. I knew it well enough at the time. Here
+you are, Mr. ----"
+
+"Raymond, sir. I am cashier at Hafferman's. Many thanks. Sorry to have
+troubled you--very sorry."
+
+"No trouble at all," laughed Garside, accompanying Mr. Raymond toward
+the street door. "The trouble has been all yours, sir."
+
+"That's quite true," smiled Raymond, as he bowed himself out with the
+package of diamonds in his hand. "But now the pleasure is all mine!" he
+added to himself, upon reaching the sidewalk.
+
+Then he strode rapidly away, quickly losing himself in the midday
+stream of people thronging the famous New York thoroughfare.
+
+Less than five minutes later, before any misgivings had crept into the
+mind of Mr. Garside, the senior member of the firm came hurrying into
+the store.
+
+"Oh, I say, Venner!" exclaimed his partner, stopping him near the office
+door. "What diamonds are you thinking of buying of Hafferman?"
+
+"Of Hafferman?" echoed Venner, with a look of surprise.
+
+"Weren't you looking at some stones there yesterday?"
+
+"Yes, certainly. Some very choice diamonds. I want ten of the first
+water, a little larger and more perfectly matched than any we have in
+stock at present. But how did you learn that I had called there?"
+
+Mr. Garside quickly informed him of the several incidents of the past
+half hour, when, to his consternation and dismay a look of sudden
+apprehension swept over Venner's face.
+
+"Raymond--the name of Hafferman's cashier!" he cried. "Nothing of the
+sort, Philip. Their cashier is named Briggs. I know him well."
+
+"Briggs! Briggs!"
+
+"Briggs--yes, Briggs!" reiterated Mr. Venner, excitedly. "By Heaven,
+there must be something wrong here!"
+
+"Dear me! If this Raymond was an impostor, we are done out of--"
+
+"Wait--wait!"
+
+Checking his partner with an impulsive gesture, Venner rushed into his
+private office and seized his desk telephone, quickly calling up the
+firm by which the diamonds had been sent.
+
+Garside followed him into the room, only to hear the questions hurriedly
+asked over the wire by his excited partner, who presently dropped the
+telephone and leaped to his feet, crying loudly, so loudly that his
+voice filled the entire store, and brought all hands hurrying in his
+direction:
+
+"There's no doubt of it, Garside, none whatever. You have been
+duped--swindled--robbed of four thousand dollars' worth of gems! Raymond
+was an impostor--a crook--"
+
+"Venner--hush! You are losing your head," protested Garside, white with
+dismay. "It's enough that we have lost the stones, so at least keep your
+head. Waste not a moment. Notify the police. Telephone at once for men
+from the central office."
+
+"Blast the police! The central office be hanged!" cried Venner, choking
+down an oath of wrathful contempt. "I'll have none of your police--none
+of your central office men! I want a detective--not an effigy of one!"
+
+"Rufus--"
+
+"Silence, Garside, and leave this affair to me," Venner harshly
+interrupted. "You've had fingers enough in it already."
+
+With which rebuke Mr. Rufus Venner strode passionately out of the office
+and into the store proper, shouting loudly to the clerk previously
+mentioned:
+
+"Maynard--here you, Maynard! Call a cab at once and go for Nick Carter!
+Lose not a moment! Don't wait to ask questions, you blockhead! Away with
+you, at once! Bring Nick Carter here with the least possible delay!"
+
+Maynard had already seized his coat and hat, and was hurrying out of the
+store.
+
+And thus began one of the most stirring and extraordinary criminal cases
+that ever fell within the broad experience of the famous New York
+detective mentioned.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+CONCERNING SENORA CERVERA.
+
+
+Joseph Maynard arrived at Nick Carter's residence just as the famous New
+York detective was about preparing for lunch, and quickly stated his
+mission, disclosing the superficial features of the crime.
+
+Nick Carter habitually looked below the surface of things, however, and
+in trifles he invariably discovered more than the ordinary man. Before
+Maynard had fairly outlined the case Nick keenly discerned that the
+robbery could not have been committed by any common criminals, and he at
+once decided not only that he would take the case, but also that it gave
+promise of something far more startling than then appeared aboveboard.
+
+Yet even Nick's keen discernment utterly failed, at this early stage of
+the affair, to anticipate its actual magnitude and tragic possibilities.
+
+Having consented to accompany Maynard to the scene of the crime, Nick
+turned to Chick Carter, his reliable chief assistant, who also had been
+an attentive listener to Maynard's disclosures.
+
+"You had better come with me, Chick," said he. "This affair has rather a
+bad look, and in case quick work is imperative, I may need your
+assistance."
+
+"Go with you it is, Nick," Chick heartily cried, hastening to put on his
+coat and hat.
+
+"From the circumstances disclosed by Maynard, however," added Nick, "I
+am inclined to think that these rats have very carefully covered their
+tracks, and that a still hunt for their trail may prove to be our stunt.
+Yet you had better go along with me."
+
+"I'm ready when you are, Nick."
+
+"Very good. Come on, Mr. Maynard. I see you have a carriage at the door.
+We will not delay even for lunch, but will snatch a bite later."
+
+Together the three men left the house, and it was precisely one o'clock
+when Nick was ushered into the private office of Venner & Co., where the
+two members of the firm then were seated, apparently still engaged in
+discussing the audacious robbery.
+
+Mr. Rufus Venner, it may be here stated, was a man of about forty years
+of age, and was a very well-known man about town. Darkly handsome, with
+an erect and imposing figure, an _habitue_ of the best clubs, a man
+still unmarried, yet of whom hints were frequently dropped that he was
+very popular with the fair sex, whom he was known to lavishly entertain
+at times--this was the senior member of the firm of Venner & Co., and
+the man who, quickly arose to greet Nick Carter and Chick when the two
+detectives entered.
+
+"Your clerk has already given me the main facts of the case, Mr. Venner,
+so we will dispense with any rehearsal of them, and get right down to
+business," Nick crisply observed, immediately after their greeting.
+"There are a few questions I wish to ask you, and concise replies may
+expedite matters."
+
+"I will respond as briefly as possible, Mr. Carter," Venner quickly
+rejoined, as they took chairs around the office table. "I do not fancy
+being robbed in this scurvy fashion, sir, and you may go to any
+reasonable expense to discover and arrest the thieves. Now, Detective
+Carter, your questions?"
+
+"To begin with," asked Nick, with a steadfast scrutiny of Venner's
+darkly attractive face, "what is the value of the stolen diamonds?"
+
+"About four thousand dollars."
+
+"Ten in number, I was told."
+
+"Precisely."
+
+"Are they of uniform value?"
+
+"Nearly so. They are splendid gems, and perfectly matched, and are worth
+about four hundred dollars each. I wanted them for a special purpose,
+which--"
+
+"Which I will presently arrive at," Nick courteously interposed. "I
+understand, Mr. Venner, that you called yesterday at the store of Thomas
+Hafferman and made some inquiries about these stones?"
+
+"I did, and also examined them."
+
+"In what part of Hafferman's store were you at the time?"
+
+"In his private office."
+
+"Were any of the clerks present?"
+
+"Not any--Stay! One of the clerks brought in the diamonds to Mr.
+Hafferman, but he did not remain. Only Mr. Hafferman himself remained
+with me while we discussed the matter."
+
+"Do you know the clerk's name?"
+
+"Boyden, I think, he was called."
+
+"The same who brought the diamonds here this morning," put in Mr.
+Garside. "His name is Harry Boyden."
+
+Nick made a note of it in a small book which he drew from his pocket.
+
+"Did you make any deal at that time regarding the diamonds?" he
+inquired.
+
+"I only had them reserved for me a day or two, stating that I would
+either call again or send an order for them, if I decided to purchase
+them," replied Venner.
+
+"Are you quite sure that only Mr. Hafferman heard you make that
+statement?"
+
+"Sure only in that the office door was closed, and that he alone was
+with me. If there were any eavesdroppers about I did not suspect it."
+
+"Naturally not," smiled Nick. "Now, then, for what special purpose did
+you want those particular diamonds? I think you referred to one."
+
+A slight tinge of red appeared in Venner's cheeks when he replied, a
+change which by no means escaped Nick's observation.
+
+"I wanted the stones, or then thought I might, for a customer who
+contemplated giving me an order for a valuable diamond cross, to be worn
+upon the stage. We happen to have in stock no diamonds perfectly adapted
+to her requirements, and so I called upon Hafferman to learn if he could
+supply me."
+
+"Who is the customer, Mr. Venner?"
+
+"I do not see how her identity can be at all essential to the
+investigation of this affair, yet I have no objection to disclosing it,"
+said Venner, frowning slightly.
+
+"Why demur over it, then?" demanded Nick, bluntly.
+
+"Only because of an aversion to bringing the lady into the case, of
+which she, of course, knows nothing," retorted Venner. "I expected the
+order from Senora Cervera, the Spanish dancer."
+
+"Ah! Is she not a member of the Mammoth Vaudeville Troupe, which has
+been playing here to packed houses for several months?"
+
+"She is, yes."
+
+"I have heard that she makes a great display of diamonds."
+
+"That is true, Mr. Carter. She possesses a magnificent collection of
+jewels, and wears them with an abandon against which I frequently have
+cautioned her."
+
+"By way of explanation," put in Mr. Garside, with an odd smile, "Venner
+might add that he enjoys quite friendly relations with the Spanish
+senora."
+
+"I see no occasion, Garside, for comments upon my interest in Sanetta
+Cervera," declared Venner, with a frown at his partner. "My relations
+with her, Detective Carter, are only those of a friend and a gentleman.
+She called here several weeks ago to have some diamonds reset, when I
+met her personally, and was deeply impressed with her extraordinary
+grace and beauty. I since have shown her some attention."
+
+"Quite natural, I am sure," observed Nick, smiling indifferently. "As
+you remarked, however, none of that appears to be material. I
+understand, Mr. Venner, that you were absent when Boyden brought the
+diamonds here this morning."
+
+"I was," bowed Venner. "I received a note from Senora Cervera this
+morning, asking me to call upon her at eleven o'clock at her rooms, and
+to bring with me a diamond pendant which we have in stock, and which I
+had the pleasure of showing her a few days ago."
+
+"Ah, I see."
+
+"She stated in her note that if I would call upon her at the hour
+mentioned, she would decide whether to purchase the pendant, or have us
+make the diamond cross for her."
+
+"You complied with her request, Mr. Venner, and went to call upon her?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Where is she quartered?"
+
+"She rents a furnished house uptown."
+
+"Does she live alone?"
+
+"With her servants only."
+
+"How many?"
+
+"She keeps a butler, a male cook, and two housemaids. Also a girl to
+look after her wardrobe and act as her dresser at the theater."
+
+"Evidently Senora Cervera is wealthy," said Nick.
+
+"Well, not exactly wealthy," rejoined Venner. "She is the popular craze
+just now, and from her professional work she derives a very large income
+which she scatters as if dollars were dead leaves. In a word, Detective
+Carter, Senora Cervera is an arrant spendthrift."
+
+"So I have heard," nodded Nick.
+
+"You have?"
+
+"Oh, yes!" laughed the detective. "That appears to surprise you. It
+will not, when I tell you that there are very few public characters in
+New York of whose general habits I am not tolerably well informed. Of
+course, Mr. Venner, you have no doubt of this Spanish dancer's honesty?"
+Nick added, bluntly.
+
+Venner flushed deeply, and instantly shook his head.
+
+"Most assuredly not," he cried, with some feeling. "Senora Cervera
+dishonest? Impossible!"
+
+"Improbable, Mr. Venner, no doubt; but not impossible."
+
+"It is, sir," declared Venner, positively. "I know her well. Such an
+idea is absurd. Drop it at once, Detective Carter. Indeed, sir, if I
+thought her name was to be dragged into this affair, or her reputation
+to be in any way imperiled, I would quietly suffer the loss of these
+diamonds, and cease this investigation at once."
+
+Nick laughed softly, and suppressed the response that, nearly rose to
+his lips.
+
+"Don't do it, Mr. Venner," said he, complacently. "My observation was
+not intended to cast any reflection upon Senora Cervera. I have no doubt
+that she is perfectly honest."
+
+"I should hope not, sir."
+
+"By the way, have you the note she sent to you this morning?"
+
+"Yes. Here it is."
+
+"By mail, or a messenger?"
+
+"A messenger brought it."
+
+"Ah!" murmured Nick, briefly studying the written page. "Plainly a
+foreign hand. Very firm and forceful. It indicates a strong and
+determined character. I should say that Senora Cervera is a woman of
+rare qualities."
+
+"That is perfectly correct, sir. She is a woman of rare qualities."
+
+"What did she decide to do about the diamonds, Mr. Venner?"
+
+"She gave me an order for the cross, Detective Carter, to be made and
+delivered as soon as possible."
+
+"This was during your call upon her this morning?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"You had previously sent no order to Hafferman for the stones?"
+
+"Surely not."
+
+"Yet a written order was received by him, or he would not have delivered
+the goods."
+
+"In which case, then, it was a forgery."
+
+"No doubt of it," Nick readily admitted. "Chick."
+
+"Yes, Nick."
+
+"Take a carriage and go at once and interview Hafferman. See what you
+can learn from him. Get the written order received by him, and bring it
+here. Have a look at young Boyden, and see what you make of him. Also
+get the written signature of Mr. Hafferman, and that of each person
+employed in his store. Understand?"
+
+"Sure thing!" nodded Chick, already seeing clearly the line Nick's
+investigation was taking, though neither Venner nor his partner yet
+perceived it. "I will return as quickly as possible."
+
+"You will find me here," nodded Nick. "Wait a moment!"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Also get a description of the party who delivered the written order at
+Hafferman's store. Inquire what he said at the time, and why he did not
+attempt securing the diamonds then and there."
+
+"Probably he was not known there, and knew he could not get them,"
+observed Venner, by way of explanation.
+
+Nick made no reply to this, however, and Chick hurriedly departed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE KILGORE DIAMOND GANG.
+
+
+"Now, gentlemen, only a few more questions, and I then shall be ready to
+go at this case in a more energetic fashion," said Nick Carter,
+immediately after Chick's departure. "Were any of your clerks absent
+from the store, Mr. Venner, at the time of this robbery?"
+
+"As I was absent myself, I cannot say," replied Venner, rather dryly.
+"How about it, Garside?--you were here."
+
+"Only one clerk, a young man named Spaulding, was out of the store."
+
+"Was he out on business?"
+
+"Yes, under my instructions," Venner quickly explained. "We have
+numerous old accounts on our books, and just before I went uptown I sent
+Spaulding out to try to make a few collections. I think he has returned
+by this time."
+
+"It does not matter, since he was out under your instructions," said
+Nick, closing his notebook. "Now, Mr. Venner, who among your employees
+knew you thought of buying this lot of diamonds from Hafferman, or that
+you had called at his store to examine them?"
+
+"Not a soul," was the prompt reply.
+
+"Are you sure of that?"
+
+"Absolutely. I had said nothing of the matter, even to my partner, there
+being nothing definite about it before I saw Senora Cervera this
+morning. I am sure that none of my clerks had any idea of my
+intentions."
+
+Nick was not so sure of it, yet he did not say so. He arose and took
+from Venner's desk a block of plain paper, which he laid upon the table.
+
+"Gentlemen," said he, "I want the signature of your firm, in the
+handwriting of each of you. Kindly let me have this."
+
+"What's that for?" demanded Venner, abruptly.
+
+"I wish to make a comparison with the forged order which my assistant
+will presently bring from Mr. Hafferman," Nick coolly explained. "I
+would suggest that you do not delay me."
+
+Venner made no reply, but took a pen and signed the firm's name upon the
+blank paper.
+
+"Now yours, Mr. Garside."
+
+"Mine also, Detective Carter?" queried Garside, with a look of surprise.
+
+"If you please."
+
+"Surely," cried Venner, with some resentment, "you do not suspect that
+Mr. Garside or myself--"
+
+"Pardon me!" Nick bluntly interrupted. "I am not in the habit of
+discussing my suspicions. That I should suspect either of you, however,
+is utterly absurd."
+
+"I should say so!"
+
+"Therefore do not argue with me over an absurdity. If I am to continue
+this investigation, gentlemen, I must do it in my own way. Either that,
+or I shall drop the case at once. Your signature, Mr. Garside."
+
+Garside hastened to take the pen, and dashed off the firm's signature
+below that of his partner. Nick tore the page from the block, then
+handed the latter to Venner.
+
+"Now, Mr. Venner," said he, "have each of your employees, from first to
+last, write his name with pen and ink upon this paper. Don't overlook
+one of them, not one, from your bookkeeper down to your office boy. If
+Spaulding is still out, get his signature later, and send it to me by
+mail. I will wait here while you are thus engaged."
+
+Venner now vaguely perceived Nick's suspicions and design, and he could
+not consistently offer any remonstrance. Yet he plainly resented the
+idea that any of his clerks could have been guilty of co-operation with
+the criminals who had committed the robbery that morning, and his dark
+features wore a grim and sullen expression when he took the block of
+paper and repaired to his main office.
+
+Nick Carter sat and waited, silently sizing up the case as he then saw
+it.
+
+Just as Venner returned with the numerous signatures, Chick also put in
+an appearance again, bringing with him the forged order which had been
+left at Hafferman's store. Nick merely glanced at it, then thrust it
+into his pocket.
+
+"Did you see Boyden?" he inquired of Chick.
+
+"Yes, and spoke with him," nodded Chick.
+
+"What about him?"
+
+"He looks all right."
+
+"Did you get the signatures of Hafferman and his clerks?"
+
+"They are on this paper."
+
+"Good enough. Let me have those of your employees, Mr. Venner. Are they
+all here?"
+
+"Yes, all of them."
+
+"Very good," said Nick, putting the several papers into his pocket.
+"Now, Chick, what of the man who visited Hafferman's store with the
+forged order?"
+
+"He merely left the order and asked that the diamonds should be sent
+here at once."
+
+"What sort of a man?"
+
+"Dark, about fifty, with a heavy mustache and wavy hair," said Chick,
+glibly. "Quite a big fellow, Hafferman states."
+
+"H'm!" ejaculated Nick, with a significant nod. "Now, Mr. Garside,
+describe the man to whom you delivered the diamonds."
+
+"Raymond?"
+
+"If that is the name he gave you."
+
+"He is a well-built, smoothly shaven fellow, of about thirty years, with
+a sallow complexion, slightly pock-marked--"
+
+"Ah, I thought so!" Nick curtly interrupted. "That's quite sufficient,
+Mr. Garside."
+
+"What do you mean, Carter?" quickly demanded Venner. "Do you already
+recognize these criminals?"
+
+"I recognize their work."
+
+"And the men?"
+
+"I've them in mind from the outset."
+
+"Impossible!"
+
+"Not so, Mr. Venner," Nick now declared, with emphasis. "Without a
+shadow of doubt, sir, you have been victimized by the notorious Kilgore
+diamond gang, a trio of the shrewdest and most daring scoundrels that
+ever stood in leather."
+
+"You amaze me."
+
+"Do I?" inquired Nick, smiling softly. "Well, sir, if I were to tell you
+the history of these rascals, you would be more than amazed--you would
+be astounded. No crime is too desperate, no knavery too hazardous, no
+villainy too despicable, for them to attempt, and too often successfully
+execute. They have perpetrated their crimes over two continents, and are
+known to the police the world over."
+
+"That is not very complimentary to the police," said Venner, dryly. "I
+marvel that such distinguished scoundrels are still at large."
+
+"A fact which stamps them no ordinary criminals," replied Nick,
+pointedly. "Nor are they, sir."
+
+"What do you know of them, Detective Carter?"
+
+"David Kilgore, the chief of the gang, is one of the shrewdest and most
+daring of knaves, a man of splendid education, polished manners and
+broad experience. He possesses nerves of steel, the cunning of a fox,
+and would not shrink even from murder, if his designs required it. Yet
+he invariably covers his tracks so cleverly, or so quickly vanishes when
+hard pressed, that thus far he has successfully eluded the police.
+That's David Kilgore, sir."
+
+"And what of his associates?" inquired Venner. "I think you spoke of a
+trio."
+
+"His confederates are scamps of the same sort, and nearly his equal in
+craft and daring," replied Nick. "Perry Dalton is one--the smooth,
+pock-marked rascal whom you, Mr. Garside, had the pleasure of meeting
+this morning. He is nicknamed Spotty Dalton, because of his slight
+disfigurement."
+
+"And the other?"
+
+"Is a man named Matthew Stall, more commonly called Matt Stall. He is a
+Western man, a graduate of a California university, and is an expert
+electrician. Oh, I know all about them," laughed Nick, "although this is
+the first time I have been up against them personally. I am rather glad
+to discover that they are here in New York."
+
+"Why so, Detective Carter?" Venner carelessly inquired, with a subtle
+gleam in the depths of his dark eyes.
+
+"Because I have long wanted to match my talents against those of Dave
+Kilgore and his rascally push," declared Nick, with grim austerity. "The
+last I knew of them they were in Amsterdam, Holland, where some of the
+finest work in diamond cutting is done, as you doubtless know."
+
+"Indeed, yes."
+
+"They probably had to jump that country for obvious reasons, and very
+likely the European continent," added Nick. "They have long avoided New
+York, and the fact that they are now here is significant of--well, well,
+we shall see! That's all, gentlemen!"
+
+"But what do you intend doing about this case?" demanded Venner, as Nick
+abruptly rose to go.
+
+"All that can be done, sir," the famous detective bluntly rejoined. "I
+accept the case, Mr. Venner, and will do my best with it. When I have
+anything to report, you shall hear from me."
+
+"But--"
+
+"There really is nothing more to be said, gentlemen, and the sooner I
+get to work the better," Nick gravely interposed.
+
+"But will you advise me of any steps that you may take?" persisted
+Venner, briefly detaining him by the arm.
+
+"Very probably," nodded Nick, though really he probably would do nothing
+of the kind. "And now good-day, gentlemen. If reporters call upon you,
+you may give them all of the facts, and state that Nick Carter is at
+work on the case. I want this Kilgore diamond gang to know at the outset
+that I am after them--and fully resolved to land them where they
+belong."
+
+"Behind prison bars, eh?" inquired Venner, with an odd smile.
+
+"Yes, sir! Behind prison bars!" declared Nick, forcibly. "Again,
+gentlemen, good-day. You will hear from me later."
+
+Mr. Rufus Venner, with his partner at his elbow, stood in the office
+door and silently watched the two celebrated detectives as they strode
+quickly through the elegant store, from which they presently vanished
+into Fifth Avenue.
+
+There was a smile of subtle cunning, combined with cruel and malicious
+determination, on Venner's dark face and he muttered under his breath,
+as the store door closed upon Nick's imposing figure:
+
+"Hear from you later, eh? Very good. Very good, indeed, Mr. Detective
+Carter! Hear from you again--that is precisely what I want! Early and
+often, Detective Carter; early and often, if you please! It is precisely
+for what the little robbery of this April morning was invented!"
+
+"But was it necessary--was it really necessary, Rufus?" whispered
+Garside, who alone had overheard, and whose paler face and tremulous
+figure betrayed fears which his swarthy senior partner would have
+scorned to feel. "This Carter is a most artful and discerning man. I am
+so afraid you have barked up the wrong tree. Was it necessary, really
+necessary, Rufus?"
+
+Venner turned upon him with a half-smothered snarl of contempt.
+
+"Bah! You'd be afraid of your own shadow, Garside, if left alone with
+it," he sneered, between his white, even teeth. "Necessary--of course it
+was necessary! Otherwise, I should not have adopted the ruse. We are
+about to attempt a big game--an infernally big game! When it matures,
+when it is finally launched, the very first concern that finds itself
+bitten will rush to Nick Carter for aid."
+
+"There is no doubt of that, Rufus."
+
+"Surely no doubt of it! He is the greatest detective in the country--and
+the greatest will be none too clever, nor too expensive, for those who
+find themselves duped by our unparalleled design."
+
+"I should say so."
+
+"What will be the result, Philip?--what will be the result?" added
+Venner, with a curious mingling of exultation and asperity. "If our
+victims appeal to Nick Carter for help--are we not also already in his
+good graces? Have we not insured his confidence in us by this little
+move of to-day? Will he not reveal himself and his suspicions to us,
+just as I have designed, and keep us posted about his every move, and so
+forewarned and forearmed? Of course he will--to be sure he will!"
+
+"But he is such a crafty and daring--"
+
+"Bah! Is he more crafty than Dave Kilgore?" demanded Venner,
+significantly. "Is he more daring than Spotty Dalton, or more determined
+than anyone of the Kilgore gang? Not by a long chalk, Philip, and I know
+of them of whom I speak. Ay, as much and more of them than does
+Detective Nick Carter."
+
+"Perhaps you are right, Rufus," murmured Garside, nodding. "We certainly
+are about launching a tremendous, an utterly unparalleled, swindle. The
+like of it was never, never known. There should be millions in it. Yes,
+yes, Rufus, you are right. It was wise to preface our gigantic
+operations by getting well in touch with Nick Carter."
+
+"To be sure, it was wise, Philip, or I should not have taken the trouble
+to do so," said Venner, with much less acrimony. "So be a man always,
+Philip, and never a flunky. You have played your part admirably this
+morning. Let it be played as well, Philip, even to the finish--even to
+the last ditch!"
+
+Philip Garside's color had returned, and he smiled confidently and
+nodded in approval.
+
+Plainly enough, this hushed yet emphatic intercourse between these two
+indicated one fact--that Detective Nick Carter was up against a far
+deeper game than he then imagined.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+GETTING DOWN TO WORK.
+
+
+"Well, Nick, old man, what have you made of it?"
+
+The question came from Chick Carter, in his familiar and cheerful
+fashion, several hours after the interview held by the two detectives
+with Rufus Venner and his partner in their Fifth Avenue store.
+
+It was now about six o'clock in the evening, and Chick had just returned
+from having a confidential talk with one of the stage hands of the
+theater in which the then famous attraction, the mammoth European and
+American vaudeville troupe, of which Senora Cervera was a star
+attraction, had for several months been playing to crowded houses.
+
+Chick found Nick seated at the table in his library, with a powerful
+magnifying glass in his hand, while the table was strewn with the papers
+he that morning had brought from the office of Venner & Co.
+
+Nick looked up with a laugh, and knocked the ashes from his cigar.
+
+"Well, there's no doubt about it, Chick," he replied. "We are finally up
+against them."
+
+"The Kilgore diamond gang?"
+
+"Precisely."
+
+"I'm glad of it, Nick, as you remarked this morning."
+
+"Well, I've not changed my mind since then. So am I."
+
+"We shall now find out whether they are as crafty and desperate as they
+have been painted."
+
+"I guess there is no doubt about it, Chick."
+
+"Well, if we fail to throw them down, Nick, my money shall go on Kilgore
+from that moment," declared Chick, with a grin. "What have you dug out
+of that mess of papers, Nick? Have you arrived at any conclusions?"
+
+"Rather!" smiled Nick, significantly. "Did you ever know me to study for
+five hours over anything of this kind without arriving at some
+conclusion?"
+
+"Never!" laughed Chick. "And the best of it is, Nick, your conclusions
+nearly always prove to be correct. What's the verdict, old man?"
+
+Nick glanced at the French clock on the mantel.
+
+"Sit down and light up," he replied. "We have half an hour before
+getting down to work against this push. I will devote it to informing
+you of the case as it now appears."
+
+"Good enough!" exclaimed Chick, drawing up a chair and lighting a cigar.
+"Let her go, Nick. I am all ears, as the donkey said to the deacon."
+
+"To begin with," began Nick, more gravely, "this order sent to
+Hafferman, for the diamonds which he delivered at Venner's store, is
+merely a forgery. Neither Venner nor Garside wrote it, that's as plain
+as the nose on an elephant's face."
+
+"Which is plain enough, surely," nodded Chick.
+
+"Furthermore," continued Nick, "the forgery was not the work of any
+clerk employed in either store. I have compared the writing of each and
+every clerk with that of the forged order, and I will stake my
+reputation upon my conclusion. The forgery was committed by some outside
+party."
+
+Nick was an expert chirographist. To have deceived him with a disguised
+handwriting would have been utterly impossible, and none knew it better
+than Chick, who now nodded approvingly.
+
+"Some outside party, eh?"
+
+"There is no doubt of it, Chick. And this conclusion at once suggests
+two very natural questions," Nick went on. "First, was one of the
+Kilgore gang in Hafferman's store when Venner went there yesterday, and
+did he overhear enough of what passed between them to enable him to plan
+the job done this morning?"
+
+"Possibly."
+
+"In opposition to that theory, however, is the fact that the forged
+order is written on one of Venner's printed letter sheets."
+
+"By a little adroit work, Nick, one of the gang could have obtained a
+sheet of Venner's office paper."
+
+"That is very true," admitted Nick. "But since this is a theory founded
+only upon conjecture, with no positive evidence to back it up, the
+stronger probability is rather to the contrary."
+
+"Right, Nick, as far as that goes."
+
+"I think so."
+
+"And what is the second theory suggested?"
+
+"That some clerk in one of the stores got wind of Venner's contemplated
+purchase, and revealed the fact to one of the Kilgore gang, by whom I
+am confident--bear in mind--that the crime was committed."
+
+"That theory seems plausible," nodded Chick. "There is young Boyden, you
+know, at Hafferman's. He may have got wise to Venner's intentions.
+Garside remarked that he appeared quite anxious to leave the diamonds
+until Venner should return. That would have been very natural on his
+part, in case he was then co-operating with the party who finally
+secured them."
+
+"The same objection again arises, however," argued Nick. "Boyden is not
+employed at Venner's, and therefore has not access to his letter paper.
+Furthermore, Venner's visit was made only yesterday afternoon, less than
+twenty-four hours before the robbery occurred. It seems hardly probable
+that Boyden was already in league with the Kilgore gang; and, if he was
+not, it is even less probable that he so quickly got in touch with
+them."
+
+"By Jove! that's so," cried Chick. "As a matter of fact, then, neither
+of these theories has a reliable leg to stand upon."
+
+"That's exactly my conclusion," laughed Nick.
+
+"And what then?"
+
+"Concerning that side of the affair," replied Nick, "several
+irresistible convictions are therefore forced upon me. One of the
+Kilgore gang certainly knew of Venner's visit, and of the request he
+made Hafferman regarding the diamonds. Otherwise he could not have
+planned the job so neatly. Somebody must have informed him. Somebody
+must have provided him with one of Venner's letter sheets. If we
+eliminate the clerks, and the members of both firms, we are left very
+much in the dark."
+
+"I should say so," rejoined Chick. "The affair becomes a dense mystery."
+
+"It becomes a mystery that I don't quite fancy," declared Nick, with a
+significant nod. "In fact, Chick, I'm not at all favorably impressed
+with this robbery. To me it has a mighty fishy look."
+
+"Why so, Nick?"
+
+"It is not like this Kilgore gang, mark you, to have been dickering with
+a dirty little job of this kind, netting them only a few thousands at
+the best; yet a job in which they incurred as much danger of detection,
+Chick, as in one infinitely greater."
+
+"By Jove! that's so. There's no getting away from that argument, Nick."
+
+"Instead of trying to get away from it, Chick, I'm going to stay with
+it," continued Nick, with emphasis. "I am beginning to suspect that this
+paltry little robbery may in some way make a far deeper and darker game.
+At all events, Chick, we'll not wind ourselves in a search for those
+diamonds, at least not before we have sifted these side issues a little
+finer."
+
+"Good enough!" cried Chick, heartily. "I agree with you on every point.
+Only your long head, Nick, old man, could have deduced such shrewd
+conclusions; and I believe, by Jove! that you have hit the nail on the
+head."
+
+"If I have," rejoined Nick, grimly, "we'll drive the nail home a little
+later, and home to stay."
+
+"That we will."
+
+"There remains one other feature of the case," added Nick, "and,
+starting from that, we will begin work upon the affair this very night."
+
+"You refer to that Spanish dancer, Cervera?"
+
+"Precisely."
+
+"And the fact that she requested Venner to call at her house this
+morning?"
+
+"Exactly," nodded Nick. "She fixed the hour, mind you, probably knowing
+that Venner would comply with her request. Hence there exists a
+possibility that she designed to get him away from his store at just
+that time, in order that the robbery could be successfully executed."
+
+"In which case, Nick, we necessarily must figure her in with the Kilgore
+gang, despite Venner's declaration of her honesty."
+
+"Certainly we must, Chick, in case her note to Venner was written for
+the purpose mentioned," nodded Nick. "Of that, however, we have no
+positive evidence. It may have been purely accidental that her note was
+sent to-day, and mentioned the very hour when the theft was committed.
+Obviously, in that case, the thief outside was waiting for some
+opportunity when Venner should be away from his store. Cervera would
+then be out of the affair, as far as any criminal intent is concerned."
+
+"Very probably."
+
+"So there you are!" exclaimed Nick, with another glance at the clock.
+"Our half hour is up. You now have my measure of the case, and next we
+will get down to business. We will drop this fishy-looking robbery for
+the present, Chick, and first of all make a move to learn something
+about Senora Cervera, and her relations with Rufus Venner."
+
+"A good scheme, Nick, and I'm with you."
+
+"Have you been at the theater?"
+
+"Yes, and fixed things with Busby."
+
+"You can get in upon the stage to-night?"
+
+"Sure thing, as I told you," laughed Chick. "Busby is the boss scene
+shifter there, and he consented to work me in as a stage hand."
+
+"Ah! very good."
+
+"I have got to make up for the part, however, and must soon be about it.
+I am due there at half-past seven."
+
+"Get at it, then," said Nick, rising. "See what you can learn about
+Cervera, and what you make of her from observation. In case Venner is
+about there, keep your ears alert, so that you can overhear."
+
+"You trust me for that, Nick," cried Chick, laughing.
+
+"Meantime, Chick, I'll have a look at the show from the front," added
+Nick. "And after Cervera does her turn, in case Venner is there, and she
+departs with him, you then may leave the couple to me. I'll be waiting
+for them at the stage door."
+
+"Right you are, Nick. So here goes!"
+
+Shrewd deductions, indeed, those of Nick Carter.
+
+Plainly enough, Garside was quite justified in his apprehension that
+Rufus Venner had barked up the wrong tree.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+BEHIND THE SCENES.
+
+
+Nick Carter had a double object in the work laid out for that night. If
+Senora Cervera was indeed in league with the Kilgore gang, and in any
+way responsible for the diamond robbery, Nick was resolved to secure
+positive evidence of it.
+
+While her letter to Venner appeared to implicate her, since it had taken
+him from his store just at the time of the robbery, it seemed hardly
+probable that this brilliant Spanish girl, whose extraordinary grace and
+whirlwind dances had made her the talk of the town, could be identified
+with a gang of criminals notorious the world over. Yet the bare
+possibility existed, and Nick never ignored even the shadow of a clew.
+
+He further reasoned that, in case Cervera was in league with the
+suspected gang, one or more of them might visit the theater in which she
+was performing, and Nick decided to have a look at the audience that
+evening. He was sure he could identify Kilgore or any of his gang, even
+if disguised, as would be very probable.
+
+Nick's second object was that of learning the exact relations between
+Senora Cervera and Rufus Venner, and a part of that work he confided to
+Chick. With himself in the front of the house, and Chick on the stage,
+Nick believed that nothing worth seeing would escape them.
+
+His own search early in the evening, however, proved futile. It was the
+last week but one of the mammoth vaudeville attraction, and the theater
+was densely crowded. Though Nick watched the lobbies and the smoking
+room, and also made a systematic study of the auditorium, he could
+discover no sign of the parties he was seeking.
+
+About nine o'clock he returned to his chair in the orchestra, and
+settled himself to have a look at Cervera, whose act was one of the last
+on the program.
+
+Just at that time Chick Carter, in the overalls and blouse of a scene
+shifter, made his first pertinent discovery--that Rufus Venner, clad in
+immaculate evening dress, and carrying an Inverness topcoat on his arm,
+had arrived upon the stage.
+
+"He seems to be at home behind the scenes," soliloquized Chick,
+furtively watching him. "Evidently he has some kind of a pull with the
+manager, or he could not get admission to the stage. Probably through
+his friend, the Spanish senora."
+
+Venner was then in one of the left wings, apparently indulging in small
+talk with a handsome girl of about twenty, who had just finished her
+turn upon the stage. She was rather simply clad, but was strikingly
+pretty and modest appearing; and upon consulting a program with which he
+had provided himself, Chick learned that her stage name was Violet
+Marduke; and that she was cast as a singer of ballads.
+
+"Evidently employed to fill in," thought Chick, who had not been much
+impressed with her songs, though he decided that the girl herself was a
+beauty. "And by his admiring glances, Venner also thinks pretty well of
+her," Chick mentally added.
+
+"Room here, mister," growled a voice at his elbow. "Make room for the
+reptiles."
+
+Chick turned quickly about, and then involuntarily recoiled from the
+startling object that met his gaze.
+
+In front of a scene then set in the second grooves of the Stage, the
+continuous performance was still in progress. Meantime, several of the
+stage hands were wheeling to the center of the stage, back of the scene,
+the properties of the next performer on the program--and grewsome
+properties they were.
+
+The object beheld by Chick was a huge, cagelike den, mounted on low
+wheels, and having a broad front of plate glass. Inside of this den were
+several wicker baskets, some of which were open, while others were
+covered and locked.
+
+In the open baskets, or writhing freely about the floor of the den, were
+fully fifty serpents of various sizes, many being only a foot or two
+long, while several were as many yards in length.
+
+A more repulsive and blood-curdling sight Chick had never experienced,
+and the stage hand who had asked him to move laughed at his look of
+mingled horror and repugnance.
+
+"Ever seen any like 'em after a jamboree?" he inquired, good-naturedly.
+
+"Well, hardly," said Chick, subduing his aversion. "If I were to go on a
+drunk and see anything like them, I'd sign the pledge the next morning."
+
+"A good scheme, too."
+
+"I should say so."
+
+"Some o' the crawling divils are as bad as they look," added the stage
+hand, while he helped to place the snake den squarely on the stage.
+
+"What do you mean?" inquired Chick, still gingerly surveying them.
+
+"Pizen!"
+
+"Venomous?"
+
+"You bet! Durn 'em, I wouldn't touch one of them for the wealth of
+Rockefeller."
+
+"Do you mean that some of them still have their fangs and poison bags?"
+
+"Sure! D'ye see that little copper-colored cuss down there in the
+corner, not more'n a foot long? If he got a crack at you, you'd not live
+ten seconds."
+
+"Well, I will take deuced good care that he gets no nip at me," declared
+Chick, with a grin. "Why do they have such dangerous things around?"
+
+"H'm! What would be the excitement, or the credit of snake charming, if
+the wriggling beasts were made harmless by pulling out their fangs?"
+demanded the stage hand. "It would be like a dog fight, with the dogs
+muzzled. These belong to that heathen Hindoo, the snake charmer. He
+shows next."
+
+"Pandu Singe?" inquired Chick, glancing at the name on the program.
+
+"Sure. He handles 'em like so many babies. There he is now, just coming
+from his dressing room. He looks a bit like a snake himself."
+
+Chick turned and gazed curiously at the approaching foreigner.
+
+Pandu Singe was a tall, swarthy man, with straight, black hair, an
+Indian cast of features, and a pair of intensely black and piercing
+eyes. Their glitter was indeed like that in the eyes of a snake, yet the
+Hindoo, approaching without a word to anybody, or a glance to either
+side, was not without a certain sort of savage dignity.
+
+He wore a red turban around his head, while a loose, black robe, belted
+around his waist, reached nearly to his ankles. With a gesture he signed
+the several men away from his hideous den of reptiles, and Chick retired
+up the stage.
+
+The detective had barely made his change, when he heard the low voice of
+Busby near by, the friend who had smuggled him upon the stage that
+evening.
+
+"Hist! There she is, Chick!"
+
+"Cervera?"
+
+"Yes. Down yonder, just to the right of the electric switchboard. Slip
+in back of this wood wing, and you can have a good look at her."
+
+"All right, Busby, old man," whispered Chick. "Don't you pay too much
+attention to me, or it may be noticed. I'll see all there is to be seen,
+old boy."
+
+Busby winked understandingly, and Chick stepped back of the scenery
+mentioned, through a portion of which he could easily watch Cervera
+unobserved.
+
+That she was a daughter of sunny Spain no man would have doubted. Her
+wavy hair was as dark as night, and her eyes were as radiant as the
+night stars. Her rich, olive complexion was much rouged, adding to the
+brilliancy of her splendid beauty.
+
+She appeared to be about twenty-five, and was clad in her stage costume,
+which combined all the bright hues of the rainbow, and was enlivened by
+a myriad of dazzling jewels and diamonds.
+
+The costume served to display to advantage her matchless figure,
+however, and Chick was fain to admit that he had never seen a much more
+striking beauty.
+
+"She's a bird, all right, and no mistake," he said to himself, while
+intently regarding her handsome face and jewel-bedecked figure. "Yet she
+has a bad eye, despite her beauty, and a cruel mouth. She certainly
+would put up a wicked fight, if once aroused. Yes, a deucedly bad eye!
+What in thunder is she staring at, to look like that!"
+
+From her position near one of the lower wings, Sanetta Cervera was
+gazing steadfastly across the stage at something which Chick could not
+see.
+
+The dark eyes of the Spanish dancer had taken on a threatening glare.
+Her curved brows had drooped and knit, until they formed a straight line
+below her forehead, and her red lips were drawn and firmly compressed.
+
+Before Chick could discover any occasion for this mute display of
+feeling, the performance in front of the set scene concluded, and the
+act of the snake charmer was due to begin.
+
+Then came a rapid change of scenery, during which Chick was again
+obliged to change his position, and for a time he lost sight of Cervera
+in the stir and confusion of the busy stage.
+
+He did not succeed in locating her again until she began her
+performance, when a full stage was given her for the marvelously
+graceful and impassioned dances of which her act consisted, and which
+had fairly turned half the heads in the city.
+
+In the white glare of the limelight, she certainly presented a wild and
+dazzling picture. Her beauty was indescribably accentuated. She appeared
+like a being ablaze with diamonds. Her every attitude was one of
+seductive grace, her every movement as swift and light as those of a
+startled leopard.
+
+At its conclusion her act evoked thunders of applause, and then Chick
+saw her hastening toward her dressing room, flushed with excitement and
+panting for breath.
+
+Suddenly she halted and her smile vanished.
+
+Then Chick saw her turn abruptly toward one of the wing scenes, where
+she met Venner face to face.
+
+The wealthy Fifth Avenue jeweler laughed and extended his hand to greet
+her, but she frowned and hesitated before accepting it; and Chick made a
+quick move and stole back of the scenery, near which the two briefly
+remained standing.
+
+He arrived in time to overhear only a few words, however, of which he
+could make nothing bearing upon the diamond robbery, or relating to the
+Kilgore gang.
+
+"Pshaw! You are entirely wrong, Sanetta," Venner was expostulating, with
+voice lowered. "Your eyes have deceived you."
+
+The woman replied through her teeth, with a hiss like that of a snake.
+
+"My eyes deceived me? Never! You lie! I know what I see!" she fiercely
+answered, with but a slight foreign accent.
+
+"You are wrong, Cervera," protested Venner. "I--"
+
+"I am not! I see--and I know!"
+
+"But--"
+
+"_Caramba!_ I say you shall go with me!"
+
+"Why, certainly, if you wish it. Am I not here for that?"
+
+"You know that I wish it--and you shall go."
+
+"Whenever you are ready, Sanetta," replied Venner. "Yet your infernal--"
+
+"Silence! You shall wait here till I have changed my suit. Then we will
+go--we will go together. You shall wait here."
+
+"Go and make the change, then," said Venner, bluntly. "I will be here
+when you return."
+
+"H'm!" thought Chick, as he heard Cervera move quickly away. "Evidently
+there is something amiss between them, but what the dickens is it?"
+
+Still watching, he soon saw Cervera return in her street attire, when
+Venner quickly gave her his arm, and they departed by the stairs leading
+to the stage door.
+
+Chick immediately recalled Nick's instructions--that the couple should
+now be left to him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+A SHOT IN THE DARK.
+
+
+It was nearly eleven o'clock when Rufus Venner and Cervera, the latter
+enveloped in a voluminous black cloak, emerged from the stage door of
+the theater.
+
+As they made their way through the paved area leading out to the side
+street, where a carriage was awaiting them, a sturdy, roughly clad
+fellow in a red wig and croppy beard suddenly slouched out of a gloomy
+corner near the stage stairway and followed them, with movements as
+stealthy and silent as those of a cat.
+
+As the carriage containing Venner and the dancer rapidly whirled away,
+this rough fellow darted swiftly across the street, and approached a
+waiting cab, the door of which stood open.
+
+"After them, Patsy!" he softly cried, as he sprang in and closed the
+door.
+
+The driver of the cab was one of Nick Carter's youthful yet exceedingly
+clever assistants, and the rough fellow was Nick himself.
+
+He had left the theater the moment Cervera concluded her performance,
+and since had completed a perfect disguise in the cab, which he had had
+in waiting, with all the properties for effecting the change mentioned.
+
+That Patsy would constantly keep their quarry in view, and without being
+suspected, Nick had not a doubt. Nor was he mistaken. At the end of
+twenty minutes the clever young driver slowed down upon approaching an
+uptown corner, and signaled Nick to get out.
+
+The detective alighted from the door on the side from which he had
+received the signal, yet the cab did not stop. Nick trotted along beside
+the vehicle for a rod or two, keeping it between him and the side street
+into which Patsy quickly signed that the hack had turned.
+
+"Fourth house on the right," he softly cried. "I saw them pull up at it
+just as I reached the corner, so I kept right on up the avenue. They've
+not gone in yet."
+
+"Good enough," replied Nick, approvingly. "Take home the traps I have
+left in the cab."
+
+"Sure thing. You don't want any help to-night against this push, do
+you?"
+
+"No, indeed. There'll be but little doing to-night, I imagine. Remember
+the house, however, in case I fail to show up."
+
+"You may gamble on that, sir. I have it down pat."
+
+They had now passed the upper corner of the side street, and Nick felt
+sure that he had not been seen leaving the cab. He darted quickly back
+of the vehicle and gained the sidewalk, then stole back and peered
+around the corner.
+
+Cervera and her companion were just mounting the steps of an imposing
+stone residence, entirely separate from its neighbors, and their
+carriage was driving rapidly away.
+
+Nick waited until the couple had entered the house, then he crossed to
+the gloom of a doorway on the opposite side and had a look at the
+dwelling.
+
+From basement to roof there was no sign of a light. Even the hall
+appeared to be in darkness, and Nick waited and watched for several
+minutes, expecting to see at least one of the rooms lighted.
+
+Not a glimmer or gleam, however, appeared from any quarter.
+
+"H'm!" he presently muttered, a little perplexed. "Either they are
+remaining in darkness, or else they have all of those windows heavily
+curtained. If the latter is the case, I must discover for what reason.
+
+"Possibly they are entirely alone in there, and have gone to some room
+at the rear of the house. Or maybe they have suspected an espionage, and
+are now watching from the gloom of one of those front windows. I'll fool
+them if that is so, and will also have a look at the rear of the house.
+There is something out of the ordinary here, that's certain."
+
+Keeping well in the gloom of the block of dwellings near by, Nick
+retraced his steps to the corner, then crossed the street and presently
+approached a paved driveway leading to a small stable at the rear of the
+suspected house.
+
+The high gate, composed of sharp iron pickets, was securely closed and
+locked; so Nick returned to an alley which he had just passed, and which
+ran back of a block of dwellings fronting on the avenue where he had
+left the cab.
+
+Stealing into the alley, Nick quickly scaled the high, wooden fence,
+crossed two adjoining back yards, and thus reached a wall near the
+stable mentioned.
+
+To mount the wall and drop back of the stable was equally feasible, and
+Nick then had the rear of Cervera's dwelling plainly in view.
+
+Then his searching gaze was rewarded. One of the rear rooms was brightly
+lighted, with only the lace draperies at the two windows preventing
+observation from outside.
+
+"Evidently a rear sitting room, or library," thought Nick, calculating
+the arrangement of the house. "I will at least learn who is in there."
+
+He listened briefly for any sound in or about the stable, then stole
+quickly across the gloomy, paved yard and approached the house.
+
+The windows of the lighted room were two feet or more above his head;
+but having reached a position just below one of them, he sprang up and
+seized the stone coping outside, and drew himself up to peer into the
+room.
+
+Then, just as his head rose into the glow of light from within, clearly
+revealing his location, Nick heard a sound the deadly nature of which he
+instantly recognized.
+
+Ping!
+
+It was the short, sharp, peculiar song of a flying bullet--once heard,
+always remembered.
+
+Then came the dull thud when the leaden ball beat itself shapeless
+against the stone wall beside him.
+
+The bullet had passed within an inch of Nick's ribs, and he knew at once
+that he was now a mark for hidden foes.
+
+Yet there had been no revolver report to suggest their location, and
+Nick instantly surmised that the ball must have been discharged with an
+air gun.
+
+He knew that it must have come from some quarter behind him, however.
+And he knew, too, how to bring his murderous assailants from their
+secret cover.
+
+As quick as a flash, the instant the ball smote the wall beside him,
+Nick let go his hold upon the stone coping and dropped into the darkness
+below the window, falling prostrate upon his back.
+
+As he lay there his hand touched something hot, and he drew it nearer to
+examine it.
+
+It was the battered chunk of lead which had come within an inch of
+ending his life.
+
+"They meant business, for sure," he said to himself, while waiting for
+his quick-witted ruse to operate. "I'm blessed if this affair is not
+taking on a new and lively interest. I reckon there'll be more doing
+to-night than I gave Patsy to believe.
+
+"Ha, ha! The scoundrels are already breaking cover!"
+
+His alert ears had detected a sound from the direction of the stable,
+and now he silently drew his revolver and held it gripped by his side.
+
+Presently the stable door was cautiously opened. Then a momentary beam
+of light, evidently from a bull's-eye lantern, shot across the paved
+area, and lingered for an instant upon Nick's prostrate figure.
+
+Nick remained as motionless as a corpse.
+
+Then two men, both large and powerful fellows, and both heavily bearded,
+came quickly from the stable and hastened toward him.
+
+"Done for with a single shot," remarked one, as they approached.
+
+"Looks like it, Dave," was the reply. "When I piped his head in the
+light from the window, I felt sure I could drop him."
+
+"Well done. 'Twas a good shot. Shove your hand inside his vest, and see
+if his heart is beating. Then we shall know for sure whether he's down
+and out. If not, we must--"
+
+"Throw up your hands, instead, both of you!" Nick sternly interrupted,
+half rising with weapon leveled. "At the first move by either, I will
+shoot to kill!"
+
+Nick had foreseen that his foxy strategy must be very quickly detected,
+and he had resolved to take the bull by the horns, and attempt to arrest
+both of his cowardly assailants.
+
+That he was up against uncommon men, however, men of extraordinary nerve
+and reckless daring, appeared in what instantly followed, even under the
+very muzzle of the detective's revolver.
+
+As quick as a flash, before Nick's threatening command was fairly out of
+his mouth, the man called Dave made a kick at the detective's uplifted
+arm, so swift and accurate and forceful that Nick felt the bones of his
+wrist fairly crack under the blow, and the fingers of his hand gripping
+the weapon turned numb and tingling as if from an electric shock.
+
+"At him!" snarled the ruffian, even while he kicked. "At him, I say!
+Quick--the pear!"
+
+It was plain that these men were not doing such desperate work together
+for the first time. Both fell upon Nick like wolves upon a stricken elk,
+yet they found the detective waiting for them.
+
+Nick hurled one aside, unable to use his revolver, and grappled with the
+second, both falling heavily to the pavement.
+
+Then number one was at him again, and got him by the throat, with a grip
+from which Nick thrice wrenched himself free, at the same time fiercely
+banging the head of the other upon the stones upon which the terrific
+combat was being waged.
+
+An oath of vicious rage broke from the latter, and then he fiercely
+cried again:
+
+"The pear! D---- you, be quick! The pear!--the pear!"
+
+As if in response to this, Nick, who was panting under his violent
+efforts to overcome both powerful men, suddenly felt something thrust
+forcibly into his mouth.
+
+Still manfully battling with his opponents, Nick tried to eject the
+object, opening his jaws wider in the effort.
+
+The object, which was shaped like a solid pear, instantly expanded, and
+Nick could not close his jaws.
+
+Again he tried, opening them still wider, and again the pear-shaped
+object expanded and held them rigid.
+
+Then Nick guessed the truth.
+
+While struggling with might and main to beat these ruffians, he had been
+made the victim of an infernal instrument but seldom seen in these days,
+and one of the most agonizing and diabolical devices of man's perverted
+ingenuity.
+
+The object in Nick's mouth was a "choke pear!"
+
+This vicious instrument of torture dates back to the time of Palioly,
+the notorious French robber and renegade, when it was very worthily
+called "the pear of anguish."
+
+It consists of a solid gag, so to speak, yet it is so constructed, with
+interior springs, that, once thrust into a person's mouth, it expands as
+fast as the mouth is opened, and rigidly distends the victim's jaws.
+
+The more widely the victim gapes to eject the "choke pear," or to cry
+out for aid, the larger the hideous object becomes, until torture,
+suffocation and death speedily ensue.
+
+Had this infernal device been generally available to modern criminals,
+Nick would have been warned by the significant words he had heard, and
+would have guarded himself against it.
+
+As it was, however, he had been caught; and in the mouth of any ordinary
+man the "choke pear" would have been irresistible.
+
+But the muscles of Nick Carter's jaws were like fibers of steel, and the
+instant he realized his situation he opened his mouth no wider. Instead,
+while hands and arms were still engaged in the furious conflict with his
+assailants, he brought his jaws together as if with superhuman power,
+and with a force that crushed the infernal device between them, much as
+if it had been little more than an eggshell.
+
+One of the ruffians heard the snapping crunch, and uttered a cry of
+amazement.
+
+The cry was echoed by hurried footsteps in the house.
+
+Then a rear door was suddenly thrown open by Rufus Venner, and a flood
+of light revealed the struggling men, still battling furiously on the
+pavement.
+
+Nick now had both opponents down, and within another minute he would
+have had them at his mercy, a fact which Venner instantly perceived.
+
+He sprang nearer, drew his revolver, and dealt the detective a single
+swinging blow upon the head.
+
+Nick dropped like an ox struck down in the shambles.
+
+The darkness of night was as nothing to the darkness that instantly fell
+upon him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+A STRATEGIC MOVE.
+
+
+Nick Carter had a head that was used to hard knocks, and it required
+more than one to put him down and out for any considerable period.
+
+The great detective recovered consciousness within half an hour after
+the blow received from Rufus Venner, and he fell to taking the measure
+of his situation the moment the cobwebs began to clear from his brain.
+
+He found himself bound hand and foot with ropes, and lying upon the
+floor of a dark room. That he was in the dwelling occupied by the
+Spanish dancer, Nick had not a doubt.
+
+As his mind became clearer and his eyes accustomed to the darkness, Nick
+discovered a narrow thread of light some yards away and close to the
+floor, and presently the sound of lowered voices faintly reached his
+ears.
+
+"A light in the next room," he said to himself. "Probably the whole gang
+is out there, sizing up my case, and deciding what to do with me. If
+they are there, I must get a better look at those two ruffians. I owe
+them something for their work of to-night, and I always mean to pay such
+debts.
+
+"One of them was called Dave, and it may have been Dave Kilgore himself.
+In which case, by Jove! I was right in thinking that this diamond
+robbery only masks some deeper and bigger game.
+
+"I wonder if they suspect my identity. If not, what sort of a game have
+they been playing here to-night?"
+
+Nick very quickly measured the various possibilities of the unusual
+situation.
+
+If the man whose name he had heard was indeed David Kilgore, then Rufus
+Venner, as well as Cervera, might be in league with the diamond gang,
+and the pretended robbery only a move made with some secret design.
+
+On the other hand, Venner might be entirely ignorant of Kilgore's
+identity, and without any serious suspicions of Cervera, being himself a
+blind victim of these notorious criminals.
+
+"If the latter is the case," reasoned Nick, "the gang may stand in fear
+of me, and perhaps are afraid that I shall foil some scheme they have in
+operation, or are about to undertake. Then they to-night may have aimed
+only to discover the extent and nature of my suspicions.
+
+"If that is the case, plainly it will become me to be a little foxy. I
+will see if I can contrive to overhear anything from out yonder."
+
+Bent upon wriggling nearer the closed door revealed by the thread of
+light near the floor, Nick quietly turned upon his side and cautiously
+worked his way over the carpet.
+
+He had covered scarce a yard, however, when the sharp, metallic ring of
+Cervera's voice fell plainly on his ears.
+
+"Look again, one of you," she curtly commanded. "See if that vagabond
+has come to himself."
+
+"That's your humble servant!" thought Nick.
+
+He quickly rolled back to his former position on the floor, and prepared
+to play the fox.
+
+In a moment the door was thrown open, admitting a flood of light, and a
+man strode into the room and dropped to his knee beside the motionless
+detective.
+
+"I say!" he harshly growled, shaking Nick roughly by the shoulder.
+"Brace up, you dog! Brace up, d'ye hear?"
+
+Nick groaned deeply, then slowly opened his eyes.
+
+"Oh, my head--my poor head!" he muttered, like one dazed and in pain.
+
+"Your poor head, eh?" sneered the other. "You're dead lucky to have a
+head left you. Pull yourself together, do you hear?"
+
+"Let me be! Where am I?"
+
+"You'll soon find out where you are. Sit up here!"
+
+"What do you say?" cried Venner, from the next room. "Has he come to?"
+
+The man at Nick's side turned his head to reply, and Nick then obtained
+a clear view of his profile.
+
+"Humph!" he mentally ejaculated. "Matthew Stall in disguise! One of the
+diamond gang, sure enough, and I now know I am on the right track."
+
+"Yes, he's finally coming to time," cried Stall, in reply to Venner. "He
+will be all right in a minute."
+
+"Bring him out here," commanded Cervera, sharply. "Get the wretch up,
+and bring him out here."
+
+This was precisely what Nick wanted.
+
+Stall immediately bent lower, and released the detective's ankles.
+
+"Get up, you varlet!" he then growled. "Get up, I say!"
+
+Still groaning, and incoherently muttering, Nick permitted himself to be
+raised to his feet, and Stall then supported him and urged him out
+through the open doorway and into the adjoining room.
+
+In his red wig and croppy head, together with his rough attire and dazed
+aspect, Nick certainly presented a wretched appearance. He blinked
+confusedly, glanced down at his bound wrists, yet at the same time took
+in every feature of the brightly lighted room.
+
+It plainly was the library of the house, and both Rufus Venner and
+Cervera were seated near a handsome center table. Upon it lay most of
+the woman's jewels and diamonds, evidently lately removed, and
+presenting in the rays of light from the chandelier above a dazzling
+temptation to such a fellow as Nick then appeared to be.
+
+In an easy-chair, near the wall, sat the man called Dave, at the time
+Nick was thought to be dead outside. Now, in the bright light of the
+room, Nick instantly recognized him to be David Kilgore, despite a heavy
+disguise which the criminal obviously believed to be impenetrable.
+
+Nick gave no sign of the recognition, however, being content to await
+developments, and to shape his own course accordingly.
+
+From that moment, however, the name of neither criminal was once
+mentioned; and Nick was compelled to infer that Venner might indeed be
+entirely ignorant of their true identity and knavish character.
+
+The eyes of all were upon the detective, as he stood swaying slightly
+on the floor; and Cervera sharply demanded, with a threatening frown:
+
+"Well, you vile miscreant, what can you say for yourself?"
+
+"Me?" queried Nick, pretending to pull himself together. "Nothing at
+all."
+
+"I guess that's right."
+
+"What should I say? Why have you got me here, and tied up in this
+fashion?"
+
+"You'll soon find out," cried Cervera, with vicious asperity. "What were
+you doing out back of my house?"
+
+"Nothing much," Nick evasively growled, waiting to learn which way the
+cat was about to jump.
+
+"Nothing much!" sneered Cervera. "You'll find that will not go down with
+us."
+
+"I was looking for a chance to sleep in your stable," muttered Nick.
+
+"You lie, you dog!" cried Kilgore, fiercely. "You were at the back
+window."
+
+"Was I?"
+
+"And your game was to rob me of my jewels," Cervera angrily added, with
+her eyes emitting a gleam as fiery as the blazing gems at which she
+pointed. "That was your game, you renegade!"
+
+"Do you think so?"
+
+"I know so!"
+
+Nick hoped she did.
+
+"And all I regret is," added the vixenish Spaniard, "that the bullet of
+my watchman did not end your villainous life."
+
+"We can end it now, senora, if you say the word," put in Matthew Stall,
+with grim readiness.
+
+Nick never accepted such scenes as this at their face value, for he had
+witnessed many a similar game of bluff. This one might be all right and
+on the level, he reasoned, yet there still existed the possibility that
+he was recognized, and that these remarks implying the contrary were
+only a part of some well-laid plan.
+
+"If you think I'm a thief, why don't you hand me over to the police?" he
+shrewdly demanded.
+
+The ruse worked. For a moment Cervera was caught with no ready reply,
+and Nick promptly decided that he was known, hence could not well be
+given to the police.
+
+Yet these parties so obviously aimed to hide the fact that he was known
+to be Nick Carter, that Nick quickly resolved to let them have all the
+rope they wanted, and to meet them with a counter-move--that of boldly
+declaring his own identity, and so disarming them of any misgiving that
+he had recognized Kilgore and Matthew Stall, or even had any suspicions
+of Senora Cervera.
+
+It was a very clever counter, and Nick went at it cleverly.
+
+"Why don't you give me to the police, if you think I'm a thief?" he
+repeated, when Cervera made no reply.
+
+"The police?--bah!" she now cried, with a sneer. "For what? That you may
+square yourself in some way, or make your escape, and then come back
+here to attempt the job again?"
+
+"H'm!" thought Nick. "They don't want to let me go before learning what
+I suspect. I won't do a thing but fool them in that."
+
+"Police be hanged!" Cervera quickly added. "In my country we have a
+surer way of removing such villains as you."
+
+"What way?" queried Nick, coolly.
+
+"_Caramba!_ The garrote!"
+
+"Choke 'em off, eh?"
+
+"Or the poniard!"
+
+"A stab between the ribs, I take it."
+
+"Yes! It is what you deserve."
+
+"But you will not try it on me," declared Nick, confidently.
+
+"Don't you be too sure of it."
+
+"Oh, I'm sure enough of it."
+
+"The law would never reach us--don't think that," cried Cervera, with a
+passionate sneer. "_Caramba!_ we'd plant your miserable bones where
+they'd never be found. Don't think, you wretch, that we fear to do it."
+
+"Yet I don't fear that you will."
+
+"You don't?"
+
+"Not I, Senora Cervera."
+
+"How dare you utter my name with your foul mouth?" screamed the dancer,
+with a vicious display of scornful resentment. "Not kill you? I've a
+mind to order it done at once, you wretch! I hate such reptiles as you!"
+
+Nick laughed.
+
+"If you were to order it done, senora, and the knife were at my throat,"
+said he, "your order would certainly be countermanded."
+
+"What! By whom?" cried Cervera, with her passionate, dark eyes fiercely
+blazing. "I'll have you know that I rule here--and not here alone!"
+
+"Yet your command would be revoked, senora."
+
+"For what reason, villain?"
+
+"It would be revoked at the request of our mutual friend, Mr. Rufus
+Venner, to whom I presently shall explain my conduct, and also implore
+your own pardon, senora, for having made you the mark of my very
+unworthy suspicions," cried Nick, with a sudden dramatic display of
+dignity and confidence.
+
+It brought Venner sharply to his feet.
+
+"Good heavens!" he cried. "What do you mean, sir?"
+
+"Ay, what do you mean?" roared Kilgore, bracing straight up in his chair
+and reaching for his gun--a move Nick pretended he did not see.
+
+"I only mean, gentlemen, that I am no burglar," cried Nick, in his
+natural voice, at the same time raising his bound hands to remove his
+disguise. "Allow me, Mr. Venner, to present myself in proper person."
+
+"The devil and all his followers!" yelled Venner. "You're--you're Nick
+Carter!"
+
+"None other," bowed Nick, smiling and tossing his disguise upon the
+table. "Plainly, Venner, you are greatly surprised at seeing me--and I
+do not wonder at it."
+
+Yet for all that Nick did wonder a little, since he could not yet
+determine just how much of this scene was on the level.
+
+The faces of Kilgore and Matthew Stall, however, betrayed more secret
+exultation than surprise. Plainly enough both were now convinced that
+Nick did not recognize them, nor even suspect that he himself had been
+recognized--and these were precisely the two convictions Nick had aimed
+to convey by his masterly move in thus disclosing himself.
+
+"Yes, Senora Cervera," he hastened to add, before any of the startled
+group could speak, "I owe you a profound apology. I did you the
+injustice to suspect you, not only of being a thief, but also of being
+identified with the notorious Kilgore gang, three of the cleverest and
+most dangerous swindlers in the world."
+
+"Perdition!" gasped Cervera. "You astound me."
+
+"I was led to suspect you, senora, because your letter to Venner took
+him from his store just at the time of the robbery," Nick quickly went
+on to explain, thus putting his own strategy on a solid basis. "I
+shadowed you from the theater to-night, intending to watch you and your
+house, a design which has nearly cost me my life at the hands of your
+faithful watchman.
+
+"I am glad to add, senora, that I now have completely changed my views,
+and I trust that you will bear in mind that you were a stranger to me,
+and so pardon my unworthy misgivings. It is impossible that you, Senora
+Cervera, could be guilty of any evil, or know aught of so accomplished a
+knave as David Kilgore, or any of his clever gang."
+
+A shrewder move could scarce have been conceived. That Nick would thus
+have declared himself in the very presence of Kilgore, if known to him,
+seemed utterly absurd; and the eyes of both Kilgore and Matt Stall were
+aglow with a vicious amusement and satisfaction much too genuine to be
+entirely concealed.
+
+"Well, Mr. Carter," cried Venner, now hastening to release the
+defective's hands, "you certainly have had a close call, and are lucky
+to come out of it with a whole skin. These two men are employed by
+senora to guard her house at night, and they naturally mistook you for a
+burglar."
+
+Despite his keen discernment, Nick could not determine whether this man
+was lying, or was really as blind as his words implied. Content to await
+further discoveries, however, Nick laughed quickly, and replied:
+
+"Well, well, Mr. Venner; I am quite accustomed to close calls and hard
+knocks, and I assure you that I bear the senora's watchmen no ill will
+for having done their duty as they saw it. Senora Cervera is to be
+congratulated upon having secured the services of two such faithful
+fellows."
+
+Kilgore had all he could do to keep from laughing aloud, so blinded was
+he by Nick's artful duplicity.
+
+"And when I inform you, senora," cried Venner, "that Detective Carter is
+in my employ, and is really a royal good friend, I am sure that you will
+pardon him for having been so misled by your letter of this morning."
+
+Senora Cervera was blushing now, yet to Nick it appeared a little
+forced, and there was in her evil, black eyes a gleam he did not like.
+Yet she at once arose and came to shake the detective by the hand.
+
+"Oh, if my dear friend, Mr. Venner, says it is all right, I am sure it
+must be so," she cried, smiling up at Nick. "But I am afraid, Detective
+Carter, that you will now think me dreadfully severe, and my two
+watchmen more brutal than bulldogs."
+
+Nick laughed deeply, and glanced at the display of diamonds on the
+table.
+
+"When one has such valuable toys as those in her house, senora, bold men
+and vigilant bulldogs are both essential," said he, heartily.
+
+"That's true, sir; indeed, it is."
+
+"And with your permission, senora, I will shake hands with your two
+watchmen also, to show them I bear no resentment. After which I will
+take myself home, to nurse my little tokens of their vigilance and
+prowess."
+
+This brought a laugh from all, and Nick, ever shrewd and crafty, now
+shook hands with the two criminals he fully intended to finally land
+behind prison bars. Then he bowed himself out of the room, and was
+accompanied by Rufus Venner to the front door of the house, where he
+bade him a genial good-night and departed.
+
+When Venner returned to the room, he found Dave Kilgore seated on the
+edge of the table, with his false beard in his hand, and a look of
+intense distrust on his evil, forceful face.
+
+"Crafty--infernally crafty!" he cried, as Venner entered. "I tell you,
+Rufe, that man must be watched. He is a man to be feared--constantly
+feared! I'm cursed if I can tell whether he gave us that on the level or
+not."
+
+"Pshaw!" sneered Venner, contemptuously. "Of course it was on the
+level."
+
+"I'm not so sure of it--not so sure of it!" reiterated Kilgore, with
+clouded brow. "I tell you, Venner, that he must be watched, and we must
+be guarded. We have too much at stake to suffer Nick Carter to queer our
+game."
+
+"There is one sure way of preventing it," cried Cervera, with passionate
+vehemence.
+
+"Kill him?"
+
+"Yes! Take his life!" hissed the dancer, through her gleaming white
+teeth. "You were fools to have missed it to-night. Even the law would
+have acquitted you."
+
+"There are nights to come!" Kilgore grimly retorted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+FOUND DEAD.
+
+
+"What's the trouble yonder, Nick?"
+
+"Where?"
+
+"In the park."
+
+"Humph! Something wrong, evidently. Come on, Chick, and we'll see."
+
+It was nearly sunset one Monday afternoon, and almost two weeks
+subsequent to the incidents last depicted.
+
+That at least one of Dave Kilgore's suggestions had been adopted, and he
+and his gang had become rigorously guarded, appears in that the Carters
+had utterly failed to accomplish anything against them in the interval
+mentioned. Despite constant vigilance and incessant work on the case,
+neither Nick nor Chick had been able to secure an additional clew.
+
+Kilgore and Matt Stall had vanished as if the earth had swallowed them.
+
+The mammoth vaudeville troupe had completed its engagement, and was now
+disbanded for the season.
+
+Senora Cervera still retained her uptown house, and frequently received
+Venner as a visitor; but never a sign of the diamond gang, or of any
+stranger, could the detectives discover, in or about her place.
+
+Rufus Venner was attending to his business as usual, and appeared all
+aboveboard. Now and then he called upon Nick about the stolen diamonds,
+expressing a hope that they would be recovered; but in no way did he
+lay himself open to further suspicions than Nick had at first conceived.
+
+Yet Nick was too shrewd to press him with questions, and so perhaps
+betray his own hand. As a matter of fact, the famous detective was in
+quite a quandary over the case, because of his conviction that some big
+game was secretly afoot, and his utter inability to strike any tangible
+clew to it.
+
+Such a state of affairs was very unusual, and Nick chafed under it. It
+indicated that he was up against men as good as himself, and his vain
+work of the past ten days served only to aggravate him, and embitter his
+grim and inflexible determination to unearth the whole business.
+
+This Monday afternoon, as Nick and Chick were passing Central Park, the
+attention of the latter was drawn toward a group of men in one of the
+park walks, somewhat removed from the street. A policeman was among
+them, and they appeared to be gazing at something upon the ground.
+
+"It looks like the figure of a woman," said Nick, as he and Chick
+entered the park. "Officer Fogarty is there, and--yes, by Jove! it is
+the form of a woman."
+
+The two detectives quickly reached the scene, and the park officer at
+once recognized Nick, respectfully touching his helmet.
+
+"What's amiss here, Fogarty?" inquired Nick.
+
+Fogarty pointed to the motionless form upon the ground.
+
+"Dead!" said he, tersely. "We've just found her."
+
+"Keep those people further away, Fogarty," said Nick, with a toss of
+his head toward half a score of men gathered near by. "I will see what I
+make of the case."
+
+The figure was that of a girl, rather than a woman, apparently about
+eighteen years of age. She was lying partly upon her side upon the
+greensward, and evidently had fallen from one of the park seats upon
+which she had been resting, and upon which her straw shade hat was still
+lying. She was neatly clad in a suit of dark blue, and her girlish face
+indicated some culture and refinement.
+
+Near her, upon the grass, lay a piece of brown wrapping paper, and a
+yard of two of string, evidently removed from a small, square box, which
+she had dropped and partly fallen upon when stricken with sudden death.
+
+A mere glance gave Nick these superficial features, and he quickly knelt
+beside the girl, and felt her hand and wrist.
+
+"Dead as a doornail," he murmured to Chick, who also had approached. "I
+find her hand still warm, however. She can have been dead only a few
+minutes."
+
+"Heart failure, perhaps," suggested Chick.
+
+"I don't think so."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"She doesn't look it. Her form is plump, her cheeks full, and she
+appears to have been in perfect health."
+
+"Yet she is dead."
+
+"No doubt of it."
+
+"A pretty girl, too."
+
+"Very. See if there is any writing on that brown paper."
+
+"No, Nick; not a line."
+
+"Here, here, let me see it! What's this? It is punctured with tiny
+holes, evidently made with a pin."
+
+"So it is, by Jove!"
+
+"Perhaps she made them with her hat pin, while sitting there on the
+seat. See, Chick, there is the pin still in the hat."
+
+"I see it, Nick. What now?"
+
+Still kneeling beside the girl, Nick was holding the sheet of paper
+between himself and the sky.
+
+"No, the punctures are not uniform," said he. "I thought that they
+possibly had been made with some design, and perhaps formed some word or
+sentence that would give us a clew to the mystery."
+
+"None such, eh?"
+
+"Not a sign of it. Evidently she jabbed the pin through the paper only
+in idleness."
+
+"She is lying on a box of some kind, from which she probably had taken
+this wrapping paper."
+
+"So I see," nodded Nick. "Lend me a hand, Chick, and we'll have a look
+at the box."
+
+With gentle hands the two detectives moved the girl's lifeless form, and
+Nick then took up the box mentioned.
+
+It was about four inches square, and was made of silver, with an open
+work design of vines and leaves, which displayed a blue silk lining
+through the metal apertures. Plainly enough it was a lady's jewel
+casket, and one of considerable value; but it was entirely empty, and it
+bore no name or inscription.
+
+For several moments Nick Carter examined it very intently, with his
+brows gradually knitting closer and closer; and all the while Officer
+Fogarty, and the group of men in the gravel walk a few yards distant,
+mutely gazed and wondered.
+
+Chick Carter, however, who could read Nick's every change of expression,
+saw at once that the great detective not only was making some startling
+discoveries, but also was arriving at deductions far too subtle and
+significant to have been reached by any less keen and practiced
+observer.
+
+"What do you make of it, Nick?" whispered Chick, dropping to his knee
+beside his companion.
+
+Nick also lowered his voice, and for several minutes the two conversed
+in rapid whispers.
+
+"It is a jewel case, Chick; and quite a valuable one."
+
+"So I see."
+
+"I don't think it belonged to this girl. She looks as if she were the
+maid, or possibly the companion, of some woman of wealth or distinction.
+Her attire also indicates that. Hence so valuable a toy can hardly have
+belonged to the girl, but more likely was the property of her mistress."
+
+"No name on it?"
+
+"Not even an initial. Not a mark of any kind."
+
+"It is empty."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Can the girl have been robbed of its contents, here and in broad
+daylight?"
+
+"Worse, Chick!" whispered Nick, between his teeth. "Worse even than
+that."
+
+"Good heavens, Nick! What do you mean?"
+
+"Chick, this girl was foully murdered!"
+
+"Murdered!" echoed Chick, with an involuntary gasp. "Can it be
+possible?"
+
+"It certainly appears so to me."
+
+"But the means?"
+
+"That is the mystery."
+
+"There are no signs of violence."
+
+"Wait a bit. Notice her right wrist, just back of the thumb and near the
+pulse. Notice that tiny red spot, barely observable. It might have been
+made with the point of a pin. Do you see, it?"
+
+"Yes, now that you call my attention to it."
+
+"It means something. I am convinced of that."
+
+"Others are not likely to discover it."
+
+"I hope they may not, Chick," Nick hurriedly rejoined. "I am flooded
+with ideas and suspicions, which I wish to consider and put in order
+before too much of this mystery leaks out. I'll explain later."
+
+"Perhaps her hat pin is poisoned," suggested Chick.
+
+"I don't think that."
+
+"Or possibly--"
+
+"Wait a moment. Look at this box."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"That wrapper was punctured while still on the box," explained Nick.
+"Notice that the pin went through the spaces in this metal design, and
+then through the silk lining inside."
+
+"Plainly enough, Nick."
+
+"Notice this particular puncture in the interior of the lining."
+
+"By Jove! there's a faint tinge of red around it."
+
+"Left when the pin was withdrawn," whispered Nick, significantly.
+"Chick, it's a tinge of blood!"
+
+"I believe you're right, Nick."
+
+"I am convinced of it. Also that there's a mystery here which cannot be
+solved in a moment," said Nick, impressively. "I wish to conceal these
+discoveries until after I have considered them more fully, and also
+identified this girl. See if you can find her purse, or anything that
+will reveal her name."
+
+While Chick was thus engaged, Nick arose and glanced sharply around in
+search of any evidence indicating that such a crime could have been
+committed unobserved in so public a place.
+
+The seat which the girl had occupied stood on the greensward, about
+eight feet from the gravel walk. By several clusters of shrubbery some
+feet away at either side, the seat was somewhat obscured from the view
+of persons approaching along the walk from either direction. Several
+trees cast shadows nearly over the spot, which was one very likely to
+have been selected by a couple desirous of being somewhat alone while
+resting from an afternoon stroll.
+
+Nick quickly noted these several features, then glanced at Chick and
+asked:
+
+"Do you find anything?"
+
+"Nothing by which to identify her."
+
+"Her purse?"
+
+"It contains only a few pieces of silver. No cards, nor so much as a
+scrap of paper. Other than her purse, there is only a latchkey in her
+pocket, and a perfectly plain handkerchief. Her identification must come
+later."
+
+"I guess we have missed nothing here," nodded Nick. "I'll have just a
+word with Fogarty, and then we'll go along."
+
+"What do you make of it, Detective Carter?" inquired the officer, as
+Nick approached.
+
+"I am not prepared to say," replied Nick, ignoring the startled glances
+of the several men who heard his name and now beheld the great detective
+for the first time.
+
+"The girl is dead, sir, isn't she?"
+
+"Oh, yes; there is no doubt of that," bowed Nick. "It may be a case of
+heart failure. You had better take the proper steps for the removal of
+the body. This box and wrapping paper, however, I am going to take with
+me, and will be responsible for them."
+
+"All right, sir."
+
+"By the way, Fogarty, how long ago did you discover the body?"
+
+"Scarce a minute before you came, sir."
+
+"Were you the first to see it?"
+
+"I was, sir."
+
+"Had you seen the girl about here before during the afternoon?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Did you see anybody leaving here just before you arrived and discovered
+the body?"
+
+"I did not, sir."
+
+"That's all, Fogarty. I'll get any other particulars later."
+
+Thereupon, as Nick was about to turn away, a young man in the crowd came
+suddenly forth, and exclaimed:
+
+"One moment, Detective Carter, if you please! I saw that girl, about
+half an hour ago, walking this way with a gentleman."
+
+Nick turned abruptly to the speaker.
+
+"What is your name?" he asked.
+
+"Tom Jenkins, sir."
+
+"And your address?"
+
+"I live at the Hotel North, and am employed by Hentz Brothers, in Broad
+Street."
+
+"You say that you saw the girl walking this way with a gentleman?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Did they appear to be on good terms?"
+
+"Excellent, sir. They were talking and laughing, and seemed to be
+enjoying themselves."
+
+"Do you know the girl's name, or where she lives?"
+
+"I do not, sir; nor anything about her."
+
+"Do you know anything about her companion, the gentleman you saw with
+her?"
+
+For the bare fraction of a second Jenkins hesitated, as one might do who
+was loath to bring trouble upon another. Then he replied, in faltering
+tones:
+
+"Well, yes, sir, I know the name of the man who was with her."
+
+"State it, please."
+
+"His name, sir, is Harry Boyden."
+
+Nick felt his blood start slightly, yet his countenance did not change
+by so much as a shadow.
+
+He glanced at Chick, however, and the same thought was in the mind of
+each.
+
+"Harry Boyden! The clerk employed by Thomas Hafferman, the dealer in
+diamonds!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+NICK STRIKES A STARTLING CLEW.
+
+
+The mind of Nick Carter was, as he had remarked to Chick, stirred with a
+flood of questions not easily or quickly answered.
+
+Who was this girl found dead in Central Park?
+
+Had she, indeed, been foully murdered? If so, by what mysterious means?
+What had been the object? Who the perpetrator of the crime?
+
+Or, on the other hand, was the evidence itself misleading, and had the
+unfortunate girl selected that sequestered seat in the park, and there
+deliberately committed suicide? Even then, by what means had the deed
+been accomplished? What had been the occasion?
+
+What, moreover, had become of her companion at just that time? Why had
+he deserted her? What signified the pin-punctured wrapping paper, and
+the empty jewel casket, in the dead girl's possession?
+
+Had the casket contained jewels of great value? Had the girl been robbed
+of them, and then foully murdered in some mysterious way?
+
+Was Harry Boyden, the clerk employed by Hafferman, the last to leave the
+girl that fateful afternoon? Was he responsible for her death? Was
+robbery the incentive to the crime?
+
+Or, on the other hand, had Boyden left the girl alive and well, and was
+the crime the work of another?
+
+Or, finally, was there some strange and startling connection between
+this park murder and the robbery committed at Venner's store? Was there,
+between the two crimes, some extraordinary bond yet to be
+discovered--some tie uniting the two misdeeds as if with links of steel?
+
+These were some of the conflicting questions that occurred to Nick
+Carter that afternoon, and in order to consider them before taking any
+decided action in the matter, Nick had kept to himself his startling
+discoveries, and left Officer Fogarty to take the customary steps in the
+affair.
+
+At seven o'clock that evening, while Nick and Chick were seated at
+dinner, and still engaged in discussing the conflicting circumstances, a
+message was received from police headquarters, informing Nick that the
+girl had been identified, and that Harry Boyden had been found and
+arrested.
+
+"Very good," observed Nick. "We shall now get something to work upon. I
+will go and question Boyden as soon as I finish my dinner."
+
+"By all means," nodded Chick.
+
+"Do you know," said Nick, "I am seriously impressed that there is some
+strange connection between this girl's death and that robbery at
+Venner's store. I believe that we have struck the very clew, or are
+about to strike it, that we so long have been vainly seeking."
+
+"To the Kilgore gang?"
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"Egad, I hope so," laughed Chick, with a grimace. "I am beastly tired of
+nosing about on a scentless trail."
+
+Nick joined in the laugh of his invariably cheerful associate.
+
+"Odds blood, Nick, as they say in the play," added Chick. "I'd welcome
+any sort of stir and danger, in preference to this chasing a
+will-o'-the-wisp."
+
+"There'll be enough doing, Chick, take my word for it, as soon as we
+once more get on the track of Kilgore and his push."
+
+"Let it come, and God speed it," grinned Chick. "What's your idea,
+Nick?"
+
+"This empty jewel casket, the possibility that it contained diamonds, of
+which the girl was robbed and then murdered, and the fact that Harry
+Boyden is the clerk who brought the stolen diamonds to Venner's
+store--certainly the circumstances seem to point to some strange
+relation between the two crimes."
+
+While Nick was thus expressing his views, a rapidly driven carriage
+approached the residence of the famous detective, and a servant
+presently entered the dining room and informed Nick that a lady wished
+to see him.
+
+Nick glanced at her card.
+
+"Violet Page," he muttered. "I know no lady named Violet Page. Is she
+young or old?"
+
+"Young, sir."
+
+"Did you admit her?"
+
+"She is in the library, sir."
+
+"Very well. I will see her presently. Request her to wait a few
+moments."
+
+Nick delayed only to finish his dinner, then repaired to the library. As
+he entered the attractively furnished room his visitor quickly arose
+from one of the easy-chairs and hastened to approach him.
+
+Nick beheld a young lady of exquisite beauty and modest bearing, and
+though her sweet face, then very pale and distressed, struck him as one
+he had previously seen, he at first could not place her.
+
+"Are you Mr. Carter--Detective Carter?" she hurriedly, inquired, in
+tremulous accents of appeal.
+
+Nick had a warm place in his heart for one so timid and distressed as
+this girl appeared, and he bowed very kindly.
+
+"Yes, Miss Page," said he. "What can I do for you? You appear to be in
+trouble."
+
+"I am in trouble--terrible trouble, sir," cried the girl, with a
+half-choked sob. "Oh, Mr. Carter, I come to you in despair, a girl
+without friends or advisers, and who knows not whither to turn. I have
+been told that you have a kind heart, and that you are the one man able
+to solve the dreadful mystery which--"
+
+Nick checked her pathetic flood of words with a kindly gesture.
+
+"Calm yourself, Miss Page," said he, in a sort of paternal way. "Resume
+your chair, please. Though I am somewhat pressed for time just now I
+will give you at least a few moments."
+
+"Oh, thank you, sir!"
+
+"Be calm, however, in order that we may accomplish all the more."
+
+"I will, sir."
+
+"To what mystery do you refer? What is the occasion of your terrible
+distress?"
+
+Violet Page subdued her agitation and hastened to reply.
+
+"My maid and companion, a girl named Mary Barton," said she, "was found
+dead in Central Park late this afternoon. Nor is that all, Detective
+Carter. A very dear friend of mine, named Harry Boyden, has been
+arrested, under suspicion of having killed her. Oh, sir, that could not
+be possible!"
+
+Nick felt an immediate increase of interest.
+
+He decided that Miss Violet Page was the very person he wanted to
+interview, and while he did not then exhibit any knowledge of the case,
+he proceeded to question her with his own ends in view, at the same time
+ringing a signal for Chick to join him, which the latter presently did.
+
+"Where do you live, Miss Page?" inquired Nick.
+
+"I board in Forty-second Street, sir. I have no living relatives, and
+for about two years have employed a maid, or, I might better call her, a
+companion."
+
+"The girl mentioned?"
+
+"Yes, sir. Her parents also are dead. The fact that we both are orphans
+created a bond of sympathy between us."
+
+"Are you a person of much means, Miss Page?"
+
+"Oh, no, sir. I earn my living on the stage. I was a member of the big
+vaudeville troupe, which lately disbanded for the season. My stage name
+is Violet Marduke."
+
+"Ah! now I remember," remarked Nick. "I thought I had seen you before. I
+happened to hear you sing one evening about two weeks ago."
+
+"I recognized her when I entered," observed Chick, who had taken a
+chair near by.
+
+Nick came back to business.
+
+"Why are you so confident, Miss Page, that Boyden cannot have killed
+Mary Barton?" he demanded.
+
+"Because, sir, Harry Boyden is a gentle, brave and honest man, and
+utterly incapable of committing such a crime," cried Violet, with much
+feeling. "Besides, sir, he can have had no possible reason for wishing
+her dead."
+
+"Are you sure of that?"
+
+"Absolutely!"
+
+"What are your relations with Boyden?"
+
+"We are lovers, sir," admitted Violet, with a tinge of red dispelling
+the paleness of her pretty cheeks. "We expect to be married the coming
+summer."
+
+"Ah! I see," murmured Nick, thoughtfully. "How long have you been
+acquainted with Boyden?"
+
+"For ten years, sir."
+
+"Then you have been able to form quite a reliable opinion of his
+character."
+
+"Indeed, sir, I have!" cried Violet, warmly. "Detective Carter, I know
+that Harry Boyden is far above any dishonorable action. I would trust
+him with my life."
+
+Of the honesty of the girl herself Nick had not a doubt. It showed in
+her eyes, sounded in her voice, and was pictured in her ever changing
+expression. Nick was inclined to feel that her opinion of Boyden was
+worthy of very serious consideration, despite that circumstances seemed
+to implicate the young man in no less than two crimes.
+
+"Is the fact that you are engaged to Boyden generally known, Miss
+Page?" Nick next asked.
+
+"It is not, sir. We have said nothing about it."
+
+"Ah, that opens the way for conjectures," cried Nick. "Is there any
+person who knows of the engagement, or who suspects it, that would
+jealously aim to injure Boyden by implicating him in a crime?"
+
+"Oh, I cannot think so, sir!" said Violet, with a look of horror. "I
+certainly know of no such person."
+
+"Have you been accepting the attentions of any other young man?"
+
+"No, sir," smiled Violet. "That is not my style."
+
+"I am glad to hear you say so, yet I really might have known it,"
+laughed Nick.
+
+"Thank you, Detective Carter," bowed the girl, blushing warmly. Then she
+hastened to add: "Still, I am not a prude, sir--don't think I mean that.
+In my profession one is obliged to be on friendly terms with a great
+many persons, both men and women. At the theater, for instance, I meet
+many men and form many acquaintances, both agreeable and the reverse."
+
+"And sometimes have the attentions of men fairly forced upon you, I
+imagine?" said Nick, inquiringly, with a brighter gleam lighting his
+earnest eyes.
+
+"Yes, sir; sometimes," Violet demurely admitted.
+
+Nick drew forward in his chair, and Chick saw that he had caught up the
+thread at that moment suggested to himself.
+
+"Miss Page," said Nick, more impressively, "I now want you to answer me
+without the slightest reserve."
+
+"I will, sir," bowed Violet, with a startled look.
+
+"Has any man of the late vaudeville company, or one connected with the
+theater, endeavored to force his love upon you?"
+
+"No, sir; not one."
+
+"Or any visitor admitted to the stage?"
+
+"Well--yes, sir," faltered Violet, quite timidly. "Since you press me
+thus gravely, I must admit that I have been obliged to repel the
+affection of a certain man. Yet, please don't infer, sir, that he has
+ever been ungentlemanly. He even has done me the honor, if one can so
+term an undesired proposal, to protest that he wished to make me his
+wife."
+
+"What is that man's name?" demanded Nick, quite bluntly.
+
+Yet both Nick and Chick already anticipated it.
+
+"Must I tell you his name, sir?" faltered Violet.
+
+"You may do so confidentially, Miss Page."
+
+"His name, sir, is Rufus Venner."
+
+"One more question, Miss Page," cried Nick, quickly, "Was there any
+member of the vaudeville company who knew of Venner's proposal?"
+
+"I don't think so, sir. At least I know of none."
+
+Nick glanced at Chick and dryly remarked:
+
+"All under the surface, Chick."
+
+"Not a doubt of it, Nick."
+
+Violet looked surprised and alarmed at this, and hastened to ask:
+
+"Oh, Mr. Carter, is there something of which I am ignorant? Or have I
+done wrong in any way?"
+
+Nick turned to her and gravely answered:
+
+"No, Miss Page, you have done nothing wrong--far from it! But there is
+considerable of which you are ignorant."
+
+"Oh, sir, what do you mean?"
+
+"Wait just one moment, and I then may be able to tell you," said Nick,
+rising. "I have something here that I wish to show you."
+
+He went to his library desk and took from a drawer the silver jewel
+casket which he had brought from Central Park.
+
+When he turned he held it in his extended hand, and the eyes of the girl
+suddenly fell upon it.
+
+Instantly she leaped to her feet, as pale as death itself.
+
+Then a scream, as of sudden, ungovernable terror, rose from her lips and
+rang with piercing shrillness through the house.
+
+"Catch her, Chick--she's fainting!" yelled Nick, with eyes ablaze. "By
+Heaven! we've struck the trail at last!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+ON THE TRAIL.
+
+
+Nick Carter was a little perplexed.
+
+Miss Violet Page had recovered from her sudden swoon, and although still
+very pale she sat gazing calmly at the silver jewel casket, which Nick
+was again displaying.
+
+Somewhat to Nick's surprise, considering the girl's abrupt collapse upon
+first beholding the casket, Miss Page had just declared that she had
+never seen it before that evening.
+
+"You never saw it before?" exclaimed Nick, almost incredulously.
+
+"Never until you produced it from your desk a few minutes ago,"
+reiterated Violet.
+
+"Why, then, were you so overcome upon seeing it?"
+
+"I will tell you why, Detective Carter, yet I fear that you will think
+me very weak and foolish to have been so seriously affected."
+
+"No; I think not."
+
+"I had a terrible dream last night, sir," Violet now explained. "I
+dreamed that I was alone in an enormous graveyard at midnight, with a
+full moon revealing the dismal surroundings, the dark tombs, the
+staring, white headstones and the silent graves."
+
+"Not very cheerful--certainly," smiled Nick.
+
+"What followed was infinitely more terrible," continued Violet, with an
+irrepressible shudder.
+
+"What was that?"
+
+"I dreamed that I saw a grave near which I was standing suddenly begin
+to open, as if a living being were pushing up the ground from within.
+Then I saw a fleshless hand appear above the disturbed sods. Then a
+sightless human skull thrust itself forth, and presently, filling me
+with a terror I cannot describe, the entire skeleton emerged from the
+partly open grave, and arose and approached me."
+
+"A grewsome dream, indeed," remarked Nick. "But what of the casket?"
+
+"This of the casket, sir," concluded Violet. "In the skeleton's right
+hand, which was extended straight toward me while he approached, was a
+silver box--the exact likeness of the one you hold, and which you so
+abruptly showed me a short time ago."
+
+"Ah, I see," nodded Nick.
+
+"In my present nervous condition, Detective Carter, the sight of the
+real casket, after so horrible a dream, was more than I could sustain.
+Fairly before I knew it, I had fainted."
+
+"A curious dream and a startling sequence," said Nick. "Evidently coming
+events have been casting their shadows before. I am sorry to have
+shocked you so severely."
+
+"Pray don't speak of it, Mr. Carter," protested Violet. "I am now quite
+recovered."
+
+"Then we will at once proceed to business again," said Nick. "Am I to
+infer, Miss Page, that you know nothing at all about this casket?"
+
+"Absolutely nothing, sir," declared Violet.
+
+"Have you ever heard your maid, Mary Barton, speak of possessing such a
+jewel box?"
+
+"Never, sir."
+
+"Nevertheless," said Nick, pointedly, "this casket was found beside her
+dead body in Central Park this afternoon."
+
+A half-suppressed cry broke from Violet upon hearing this.
+
+"Oh, sir, then that must have been the package mentioned by Harry
+Boyden," she cried, excitedly.
+
+"What's that?" demanded Nick. "Have you seen Boyden since his arrest?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"When and where?"
+
+"He was arrested at my home about half-past six, sir. When I learned for
+what and heard the particulars, I was advised by my landlady to appeal
+at once to you."
+
+"Did you come directly here?"
+
+"I did, sir; as fast as a carriage could bring me."
+
+"Ah, now we shall get at it," declared Nick. "Tell me, Miss Page, just
+what Boyden said about Mary Barton."
+
+"Why, sir, he said he left her alive and well about half-past five."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"On her way through the park," replied Violet. "He had met her about
+five o'clock, and they walked about in the park for a short time. Then
+he told her that he had an errand to do, after which he was coming to
+call upon me. Then Mary laughed and replied that she would see him
+later."
+
+"That doesn't smack very strongly of suicide, Chick," remarked Nick,
+with a glance at the former.
+
+"I should say not," replied Chick, with a shrug of his shoulders.
+
+"Did Boyden know where Mary went after he left her?" inquired Nick,
+reverting to his visitor.
+
+"No, sir. He declared to the officer that he did not."
+
+"What mention did he make of a package carried by the girl?"
+
+"He stated that Mary had what appeared to be a small, square box, done
+up in brown wrapping paper, and secured with a string."
+
+"Did he make any inquiries about it?"
+
+"He asked her what it was, and she told him it was for me."
+
+"Did she tell him where she got it?"
+
+"Yes, sir, she did; and I am quite mystified by it."
+
+"Please explain," said Nick. "What did the Barton girl say about the
+parcel?"
+
+"She said it was given to her by a woman whom she had met on Fifth
+Avenue a short time before."
+
+"An acquaintance?"
+
+"No, sir; a strange woman," continued Violet. "Yet the stranger must
+have known Mary, and that she lived with me, for she asked her if I was
+at home."
+
+"And then?"
+
+"When told that I was, she gave Mary the package and asked her to
+deliver it to me, into my hands only, as it was a gift from a friend."
+
+"Was the name of the friend mentioned?"
+
+"I think not, sir. The woman cautioned Mary against opening the package,
+stating in explanation that she wished me to be the first to see what it
+contained."
+
+"These are the facts which Mary Barton told to Harry Boyden, are they?"
+demanded Nick, with an ominous ring stealing into his voice.
+
+"Yes, sir, they are."
+
+"And the statements which Boyden, in turn, made to the officer by whom
+he was arrested at your home?"
+
+"That is right, sir. I heard them from Harry's own lips."
+
+"Did Mary Barton have any idea of the identity of the woman from whom
+she received the package?"
+
+"I think not, sir. She told Harry that the woman was veiled, and that
+she could not see her face. The incident seemed so strange, sir, that
+Mary gave Harry Boyden all of these particulars."
+
+"Did she describe the strange woman, her form or her attire?"
+
+"I think she stated that the woman was plainly clad. Nothing more
+definite that I know of."
+
+"In fact, Miss Page, you have now told me all that you know about the
+case, haven't you?"
+
+"Really, sir, I think I have," admitted Violet, with a look of anxious
+appeal.
+
+Nick drew out his watch and glanced quickly at it.
+
+"Ring for a carriage, Chick," said he abruptly. "We have no time to
+lose."
+
+"I'll call one at once," nodded Chick, as he sprang up and hastened from
+the room.
+
+"Am I to depart now, Detective Carter?" asked Violet, beginning to
+tremble. "Oh, sir, will you not give me some word of encouragement
+before I go? I am sure that Harry Boyden never committed--"
+
+"Hush!" interposed Nick, rising and taking her kindly by the hand.
+
+"I cannot at present tell you, Miss Page, what I think of this case. I
+will say this, however, if Harry Boyden is, as you so firmly believe,
+innocent of this crime, I will not rest until I have proved him
+guiltless."
+
+"Oh, Detective Carter, how am I to thank you?" cried the girl, with her
+tearful eyes raised to Nick's kindly face.
+
+"By not trying to do so," said he, smiling. "And by carefully following
+a few directions which I shall now give you."
+
+"I will follow them to the very letter, sir," cried the grateful girl.
+
+"First, then, go home and borrow no further trouble about young Boyden,"
+said Nick, impressively. "Second, disclose to no person that you have
+called upon me, or that I have any interest in the case. Third, say
+nothing about the jewel casket, and display no personal knowledge of the
+affair. Fourth, do not come here again unless I send for you. And,
+finally, rest assured that I will do all in my power to have young
+Boyden at liberty as soon as possible. To remain in custody a short
+time, however, will not seriously harm him, and in a way it may do me
+some service. Can you remember all that?"
+
+"Indeed I can, sir; and I will obey you in all!" cried Violet, with much
+feeling.
+
+"That's right," smiled Nick, as he escorted her to the door. "You shall
+not lose anything by so doing."
+
+"Ah, I am sure of that, sir. You are so very kind, and I am so glad that
+I came to you."
+
+"Well, well, we shall see," laughed Nick, with a paternal caress of her
+shapely white hand. "By the way, Miss Page, since I now happen to think
+of it," the crafty detective indifferently added, "wasn't there a Hindoo
+juggler, or snake charmer, or something of that sort, connected with
+your late vaudeville company?"
+
+"Oh, yes, sir! Pandu Singe."
+
+"Ah, that is his name, is it?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Is he still in the city?"
+
+"I am not sure, Mr. Carter; but I think that he may be, for he is signed
+with the company for next season."
+
+"Do you know where he has been living?"
+
+"Yes, sir. I have seen his house address on letters forwarded to the
+theater. Do you want it, sir?"
+
+"If you can recall it, yes," smiled Nick, producing his notebook. "I am
+making a study of the Hindoo language just at this time, and I would
+like to consult Pandu Singe about certain books on the subject."
+
+Miss Page did not suspect any duplicity in this, and she cheerfully gave
+Nick the address of the snake charmer, whereupon the detective
+graciously thanked her, and then escorted her to her waiting carriage.
+
+As it rolled rapidly away a second hack came bowling up to the curbstone
+in front of Nick's residence. It was the carriage for which Chick had
+sent a call.
+
+"Don't cover your horses, cabbie!" cried Nick, sharply. "Wait about
+three minutes, and we'll be with you."
+
+"Right, sir!"
+
+And Nick dashed back up the steps and into the house, meeting Chick in
+the hall.
+
+"What do you make of it, Nick?"
+
+"Make of it?" cried Nick, with a laugh. "It's a cinch, Chick, dead open
+and shut. Grab your hat and come with me. I'll explain in the carriage."
+
+"Good enough! I'm with you, old man!"
+
+"And we have no time to lose," cried Nick, "Now, then, we're off."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE CRIME AND THE MEANS.
+
+
+"Yes, Chick, it's as simple as two plus two, and we'll presently try to
+bag a part of our quarry. But first of all, I want a bit of
+corroborative evidence which I expect to get from that Hindoo snake
+charmer, Pandu Singe."
+
+"Going there first, Nick?"
+
+"Yes; it will not take long. Then I think we shall have the strands for
+a rope strong enough to hold that she-devil who murdered Mary Barton,"
+grimly added Nick.
+
+These remarks were made while the carriage containing the two detectives
+was speeding through the city streets, then bright with the light and
+life of the early evening.
+
+"What a dastardly crime it was, Nick," observed Chick.
+
+"It was the crime of a treacherous demon."
+
+"With jealousy the chief motive, eh?"
+
+"No doubt of it."
+
+"Yet her venomous arrow found the wrong mark."
+
+"That's just the size of it," said Nick. "In the light of what you saw
+and heard on the stage that night, it is plain that Cervera is
+passionately in love with Venner."
+
+"Surely."
+
+"You remember that you saw him talking with Violet Page, and then
+observed Cervera in the opposite wings, angrily watching something or
+somebody out of your range of view. Plainly enough, now, she was
+watching Venner and the singer."
+
+"No doubt of it," declared Chick. "And she looked fit to use a poniard
+then and there."
+
+"Jealousy," growled Nick. "She had been secretly watching Venner. She
+had discovered his love for Violet, and decided that the girl was a
+rival to be feared. Her fiery Spanish blood would shrink at nothing. She
+went the limit, and tried to murder her rival. In so doing, however, she
+but killed another."
+
+"She must have worked adroitly to have accomplished what she did."
+
+"It may not have been so very difficult," replied Nick. "She was on the
+stage each night, and also that infernal snake den. She quietly learned
+which of the venomous reptiles would best serve her deadly purpose, and
+then found an opportunity and a way by which to secretly steal it."
+
+"A hazardous job at that," muttered Chick.
+
+"The jealousy of such a woman fears nothing," Nick rejoined. "To lure
+the desired snake into a box, and then take it home and confine it in
+the jewel casket, may have been done quite easily."
+
+"It must have been done before the company closed its engagement."
+
+"No doubt," admitted Nick. "Then Cervera was too crafty to use it at
+once. She waited nearly a week. Then she dressed herself in cheap
+attire, put on a thick veil, and lay in wait for her rival's maid and
+companion, to whom she gave the package and her instructions regarding
+it."
+
+"What first led you to suspect the crime and the means, Nick?" inquired
+Chick, curiously.
+
+"Several facts," explained Nick. "The girl's sudden death seemed
+peculiar. The jewel casket beside her was empty, at once suggesting that
+something had been removed or fallen from it. Yet nothing was to be
+found."
+
+"That's true."
+
+"The paper wrapper was punctured with a pin in many places, the holes
+running even through the lining of the casket. That fact, too, was
+suggestive. People are not in the habit of doing up parcels and then
+punching them full of holes with a pin."
+
+"Well, hardly."
+
+"Cervera made those holes, Chick, in order that her venomous captive
+might not expire for want of air."
+
+"No doubt of it, Nick. But what do you think led Mary Barton to open the
+package after having been told not to do so?"
+
+"Curiosity, perhaps," replied Nick. "Or possibly she considered the
+circumstances to be so strange that she felt that she had a right to
+open it. Be that as it may, it is plain that Mary Barton sat down on the
+park seat, after leaving Boyden and there briefly considered the
+matter."
+
+"How do you arrive at that deduction, Nick?"
+
+"From the tiny tinge of fresh blood about one of the pinholes on the
+interior of the lining," explained Nick. "The stain must have come from
+the point of the pin, and when the pin was drawn out of the box, not
+when it was thrust into it. In the latter case the pin point would have
+been cleansed before passing through the lining, and the stain would
+have been on the outside rather than the inside."
+
+"Surely."
+
+"Then it at once became plain that Mary Barton, while sitting there, had
+thrust her hat pin through one of the previously made apertures,
+possibly aiming to discover in this way what the box contained, and in
+so doing she probably pricked the confined reptile."
+
+"Ah, I see," nodded Chick. "All this strongly indicated that something
+might have been confined in the casket."
+
+"Yes, certainly. Not thus learning what the box contained," continued
+Nick, "Mary Barton decided to open it. The moment she raised the lid the
+snake, probably angered by its wound and long confinement, instantly
+struck at her hand, snake-fashion, and buried its fangs in her wrist."
+
+"Hence the tiny, red spot which you so quickly discovered."
+
+"Precisely."
+
+"Very shrewd of you, Nick."
+
+"Greatly frightened, the girl probably fainted, and fell to the ground,"
+added Nick, in conclusion of the deductions by which he had solved the
+remarkable mystery. "The snake instantly scurried away through the
+grass, and left no trail behind him. Before the girl could recover from
+her swoon, the deadly poison had done its work. The venom of some of
+these India snakes is horribly rapid in its action."
+
+"That's true," cried Chick. "I saw one at the theater that evening, the
+venom of which would kill a man in ten seconds. A wee bit of a cuss at
+that."
+
+"Probably this was one of the same breed," said Nick, grimly. "At all
+events, I am sure that murder was the crime, and a snake the means."
+
+"And Sanetta Cervera the criminal."
+
+"Beyond the shadow of a doubt," declared Nick.
+
+"And what do you expect to learn from the Hindoo?"
+
+"I wish to know, in corroboration of my suspicions, whether Pandu Singe
+has missed any of his infernal reptiles."
+
+"Ah, I see."
+
+"If he has, my theory is surely correct, and we next must fix the guilt
+upon the guilty," said Nick, firmly. "I shall arrest Cervera this very
+night, providing the Hindoo informs me that-- Ah, here we are at his
+door. Come into the house with me, Chick, and we'll see what he has to
+say."
+
+They had stopped before an ordinary brick house on the East Side, and
+Nick quickly mounted the steps and rang the bell. The summons brought a
+corpulent English woman to the door, from whom Nick learned that the
+Hindoo and his interpreter were still there.
+
+"Doesn't Pandu Singe speak English?" inquired Nick.
+
+"Dear me, no!" exclaimed the landlady, with a mute yet visible
+laugh--visible in that her convolutions of flesh became observably
+agitated. "Not the first word, sir. He talks only a blooming jargon fit
+for snakes and spiders and that like."
+
+Nick laughed agreeably, having a request on his tongue's end.
+
+"He has moved his beastly den o' reptiles into my cellar to stay till
+next season, sir, a 'orror I'd not stand for a minute, so I wouldn't,
+only he pays me very 'andsome for the same."
+
+"Then he intends remaining here all summer, does he?"
+
+"He do," replied the woman, with startling terseness after the
+foregoing.
+
+"I wish to see him briefly on business," said Nick. "Go and ask him if
+he will receive us."
+
+The landlady complied, returning presently and inviting the two
+detectives into the house. She led the way to a rear room off the hall,
+at the door of which stood a swarthy foreigner, who bowed and smiled as
+the callers approached.
+
+"'E's the hinterpreter," vouchsafed the landlady, in a wheezy whisper.
+
+Nick nodded understandingly.
+
+Reading by the light of a lamp on a table in the room sat the Hindoo
+snake charmer himself, clad in a rich, loose robe of Oriental fashion.
+He arose with much deliberation and dignity when the detectives entered,
+and gravely bowed in greeting, while his interpreter hastened to place
+chairs for the visitors.
+
+Through the interpreter Nick quickly explained his business, and saw a
+look of surprise appear on the face of Pandu Singe when inquiries were
+made about the loss of a snake.
+
+It took Nick but a short time to learn what he desired. Precisely as he
+expected, the Hindoo had missed one of his snakes about ten days before,
+one of the most venomous and dangerous of the lot.
+
+Hearing no reports or complaints about the missing reptile, however,
+Pandu Singe had come to the conclusion that the snake had died in the
+den and then been devoured by one of his companions in captivity. So the
+Hindoo had let the matter drop, and had said nothing about it.
+
+Nick did not disclose the true occasion for his inquiries, but invented
+a satisfactory explanation, and at the end of a quarter of an hour the
+two detectives departed and entered their waiting carriage.
+
+"Rather a dignified chap, after all, that Pandu Singe," laughed Chick,
+as they settled themselves on the cushions.
+
+"True," admitted Nick, thoughtfully. "Do you think, Chick, that we could
+make up to pass for those two swarthy Orientals?"
+
+"Could we!" exclaimed Chick, promptly. "Well, Nick, I should say that we
+could."
+
+"I think so, too."
+
+"You could do the snake charmer, all right, and easily gabble a lingo
+that would pass for his."
+
+"Well, rather," laughed Nick.
+
+"And if I was wise to the game you wished to play I easily could act as
+the interpreter, and run the conversation correctly on my own hook."
+
+"No doubt of it."
+
+"Do it? Why, surely we could," repeated Chick "Why did you ask?"
+
+"I think it may yet become necessary or desirable to make a move of
+that kind," replied Nick.
+
+"Why so?"
+
+"Because, as I have suspected all along, I still think there is some big
+game in the wind, with the Kilgore gang back of it, and that the murder
+of this Barton girl may have some connection with it, or at least give
+us a clew to it."
+
+"Egad! I hope so, Nick."
+
+"We soon shall see."
+
+"Going after Cervera now?"
+
+"Yes; at once," said Nick, with grim austerity. "We shall find her at
+home, as usual. She'll not imagine that I can have got on her track as
+quickly as this, so no doubt I can easily land her. Before midnight I
+want bracelets on the white wrists of that Spanish dare-devil."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+CLOSING IN.
+
+
+There was, indeed, as Nick Carter shrewdly suspected, a mysterious bond
+between the several crimes thus far engaging his attention, and the
+secret operations for which David Kilgore and his gang had ventured into
+the city of New York.
+
+Nick had remarked, however, that the game would become as hazardous and
+stirring as one could desire, as soon as it was fairly driven from
+cover.
+
+And Nick began to drive it from cover that very night.
+
+Shortly before nine o'clock, and just as the two detectives were parting
+from the Hindoo snake charmer, Mr. Rufus Venner rang the bell at the
+door of Cervera's uptown residence.
+
+It was answered by Cervera herself, much to Venner's surprise.
+
+"Where's the butler to-night?" he abruptly demanded, as he entered and
+closed the door.
+
+"Gone," said Cervera, curtly.
+
+"Gone?"
+
+"I've sacked him along with all the rest."
+
+"Not discharged all of your servants?"
+
+"Nothing less."
+
+"But why?" demanded Venner, with a frown settling about his dark eyes.
+"You cannot remain here alone."
+
+"I don't intend to."
+
+"But what are you going to do? When are you going?"
+
+While thus speaking they had repaired to the library at the rear of the
+house, the room in which Nick had encountered the gang nearly a
+fortnight before. It was the only room then lighted. Even the hall
+through which they had passed was in darkness.
+
+Yet Cervera was dressed in an elaborate evening gown, fitted close to
+her lithe, nervous figure, and augmenting in a marked degree her
+dangerous, dark beauty.
+
+"You know where I am going--or should!" she replied, facing Venner, with
+an odd smile on her red lips.
+
+"Not to the diamond plant?" cried he, with a start.
+
+"To the diamond plant--yes!"
+
+"Impossible!"
+
+"You will find it's not impossible, Rufe," she retorted. "I generally go
+where I wish, and do what I undertake. I have already sent my own jewels
+and other valuables there by Pylotte. He was here this morning."
+
+"But consider, Sanetta," protested Venner, with a darker frown. "Think
+of what chances you are taking."
+
+"Of what?"
+
+"Suppose Nick Carter suspects you, and has a shadow on your movements--"
+
+"Bah!" interrupted Cervera, with a snap and flash of her black eyes. "I
+care nothing for Nick Carter. _Caramba!_ do you think I fear him? I will
+fool and foil Nick Carter as I have fooled and foiled his betters. I
+shall go to the plant to-morrow, and that settles it."
+
+"Stop a bit," insisted Venner, almost angrily. "Do you forget that
+Kilgore and all his gang are there? Do you forget that we are just
+about launching our gigantic enterprise? We now have nearly a million
+dollars' worth of diamonds manufactured, or in the process of making,
+and I already have begun to distribute them on the market at a fabulous
+profit."
+
+"Well, I know all that. What has it to do with my going there?"
+
+"Such a move on your part may give Carter a clew to our location,"
+declared Venner.
+
+"Oh, no, it won't," sneered Cervera, scornfully. "I'll look out for
+that."
+
+"Discovery would ruin all, and possibly land the whole gang behind
+prison bars."
+
+"Faugh! I'm as well at the plant as here, and there I am going. You let
+me alone to evade the Carters."
+
+"But why in thunder are you so determined to make this change?" demanded
+Venner.
+
+An amorous fire came stealing into the woman's resolute eyes, and she
+shrugged her shapely shoulders significantly.
+
+"You should know why without asking," she slowly answered, with her gaze
+fixed upon his changing countenance. "It is because I love you, Rufe,
+and wish to be where you spend so much of your time."
+
+"So much of my time?" echoed Venner, inquiringly.
+
+"So at least you tell me."
+
+"Do you doubt it?"
+
+"I know that five days and nights have passed since you came here to see
+me," cried Cervera, bitterly. "I have only your own word in explanation
+of your neglect."
+
+"That should be enough," said Venner, curtly.
+
+"Yet a man after a new love does not shrink from lying to an old,"
+retorted Cervera.
+
+"Pshaw! You are jealous again."
+
+"A woman who loves as I love is always jealous."
+
+"Of whom now?"
+
+"You know of whom."
+
+"I tell you I have not seen Violet Page since the theater closed."
+
+"I have only your word for it," repeated Cervera, with incredulity
+bright in her sensuous eyes. "You know what I told you, Rufe. I'll not
+tamely permit that pale-faced nightingale to come between you and me.
+You know what I told you. I would kill her as I would a--a snake!"
+
+Despite his own stiff nerves, Venner recoiled from the look on the
+woman's desperate face. Her voice had fallen to a hiss like that of the
+reptile mentioned.
+
+"You are mad, Sanetta," he cried, irritably. "You have no occasion for
+this jealousy and hatred."
+
+"I have had! You know that I have had--and your face shows it!"
+
+"You have none now--absolutely none now!"
+
+His emphatic declaration fell upon Cervera with an effect which Venner
+did not at first understand.
+
+She sprang quickly toward him, gripping him hard by the wrist, while her
+every nerve seemed stimulated with sudden agitation.
+
+"None now? None now--now?" she fiercely reiterated, in inquiring
+whispers. "Do you mean that--that it is done? that it is done?"
+
+"Done?" gasped Venner, amazedly. "Is what done? What the devil are you
+driving at?"
+
+She drew back, searching his eyes with hers, and hers were like those of
+a demon, in her momentary suspense.
+
+"Then it isn't--it isn't?" she hissed, through her white teeth. "I
+thought from what you said that it was. I thought--"
+
+"Good God! what do you mean?" cried Venner, aghast for a moment.
+
+Then, struck with a sudden recollection, he turned and snatched an
+evening paper from a pocket of his coat, which he had tossed on a chair.
+He had recalled certain leader lines which had caught his eye earlier in
+the evening, yet which he then had not had sufficient interest to
+follow.
+
+Now he hurriedly opened the paper and read the story, or so much of it
+as enabled him to guess the truth.
+
+It was the newspaper story of the girl found dead in Central Park that
+afternoon, with the mystery involving the sudden fatality, and the names
+of the murdered girl and her mistress, Violet Page.
+
+A half-smothered oath of horror and dismay broke from Venner, after a
+moment.
+
+It brought Cervera to his side, and she snatched the paper from him and
+read--the story of her own failure; the miscarriage of her own jealous
+and murderous design.
+
+She suppressed the shriek of mingled disappointment and fury that rose
+to her twitching lips, then passionately cast the paper upon the table.
+
+"Well, what do you make of it?" she demanded, glaring at Venner's
+colorless face.
+
+"No need to ask," he replied, hoarsely. "You know what I make of it."
+
+"You think I did it?"
+
+"I know you did it!"
+
+"And killed the wrong girl?"
+
+"And killed the wrong girl!"
+
+"Can you guess how?"
+
+"I don't care how. I know that you did it."
+
+"You will not betray me?" hissed Cervera, crouching before him, with
+eyes never leaving his.
+
+"I have no wish to betray you."
+
+"You dare not! you dare not!"
+
+"I shall not!"
+
+"If you do--"
+
+The woman checked her words for an instant, and ran her hand into the
+bosom of her dress. When she drew it forth it gripped a naked poniard,
+upon the polished blade of which the rays of light flashed with many a
+wicked gleam and glint.
+
+"If you do," she repeated, "I will send you after her, Rufus Venner! I
+will do even more! I will expose our whole game, and our whole gang!"
+
+"I have said that I shall not betray you, nor will I," cried Venner,
+signing for her to put up the weapon. "Yet you were mad, Sanetta. You
+had no grounds for such jealousy, no occasion for such a crime."
+
+"I had--and you know it! I told you I would do it."
+
+"Well, you have tried it, at least," growled Venner, forcing a smile to
+his gray lips.
+
+"And you dare not betray me," repeated Cervera, thrusting the glittering
+weapon within her dress. "I have not failed entirely, Rufe, since it
+makes the criminal tie between you and me all the stronger. It binds us
+together with links of steel, Rufe, and they are stronger far than any
+marriage contract."
+
+"Then you love me like that, eh?"
+
+"You know that I do."
+
+"Yet your infernal jealousy, and your determination to quit this house
+and go to the plant with the gang, may yet ruin us all. If Nick Carter
+were to get a clew--"
+
+"Bah!" Cervera fiercely interrupted. "I despise him, not fear him! I
+tell you again, I will fool and foil Nick Carter, as I have fooled and
+foiled his betters!"
+
+"His better as a detective never lived, Sanetta."
+
+"I care not! I defy him, and will yet show you that--"
+
+"Hush! Hark! A cab has stopped outside!"
+
+Cervera changed like a flash.
+
+With the bound of a leopard, one of those lightning moves with which she
+could electrify an audience from the stage, she crossed the adjoining
+room, which was in darkness, and reached the front window.
+
+One glance through the lace draperies was enough.
+
+Nick Carter was just alighting from his carriage.
+
+Cervera darted back and rejoined Venner.
+
+"It is Carter--Nick Carter himself!" she fiercely whispered, with all
+the fire of her passionate Spanish nature ablaze in her eyes.
+
+"Carter! Good God!"
+
+"Be off, Rufe, and leave him to me!"
+
+"To you alone?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"He already is on your track for this crime."
+
+"I'll foil him yet! Leave him to me alone!" Cervera fiercely cried. "Be
+off by the back stairs, then through the stable and the side alley. Go
+to your own home, and from there signal Kilgore to have the secret way
+to the plant open for me. Here--the paper! Take it away with you! I'll
+elude Carter--"
+
+"But he may arrest you at once," protested Venner, excitedly. "If he
+does--"
+
+"_Caramba!_ do you stop to question?" Cervera furiously interrupted. "If
+he takes me from this house he will take me--dead!"
+
+"But--"
+
+"Quick--he's at the door! Leave him to me alone, and do what I told you!
+Away! There's the bell!"
+
+Venner caught up his coat, darted down the back stairs and quickly
+departed by the way mentioned.
+
+At the same time, while Nick's summons was still echoing through the
+great house, Sanetta Cervera swept haughtily through the main hall,
+switched on the electric light, and then opened the front door.
+
+She appeared as cool and composed as if she had just arisen from her
+dinner.
+
+Yet in the vestibule stood the one man whom she had most cause to fear,
+the man who now held her fate in his hand--Nick Carter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+CRAFTY CERVERA.
+
+
+"Good-evening, Mr. Venner. Oh, it's not you!"
+
+"Oh, yes, 'tis!" said Nick, dryly. "It's I all right, and I'm it. You
+appear surprised at seeing me, Senora Cervera."
+
+Cervera had begun, then stopped, then uttered the startled exclamation;
+and all with the utmost coolness, with the air of one stirred only by
+genuine surprise, and as if without the slightest fear or dismay upon
+beholding Nick Carter in the vestibule.
+
+So perfectly natural was her artful assumption, that it rather deceived
+Nick for a short time.
+
+In response to his dry remarks, the artful jade now nodded and began to
+laugh.
+
+"Surprised? Well, rather!" she exclaimed, in animated tones. "I was
+expecting our mutual friend, dear Mr. Venner, and supposed it was he who
+rang. But I'm just as pleased to see you."
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"Surely! Come in, Detective Carter. You are very, very welcome. I shall
+be so glad to renew our brief acquaintance. In fact, Detective Carter, I
+am quite charmed to see you."
+
+"You'll not feel so chipper and charmed when you learn my business,"
+said Nick to himself, as he entered and followed her to the library.
+
+"Take a chair, Detective Carter, and try to feel perfectly at home,"
+laughed Cervera, with bantering vivacity. "You have been here before,
+you know."
+
+"Yes, indeed, I know," said Nick, dryly. "The night I had a taste of a
+choke pear, at the hands of your faithful guardians."
+
+"Ah! but you shall be better treated this time," smiled Cervera,
+dropping into a chair opposite the detective, and fixing her sensuous,
+dark eyes on Nick's calm, unreadable face.
+
+"I hope so, senora," he replied. "By the way, what has become of those
+two stalwart guardians of your treasures? Do you still retain them in
+your employ?"
+
+It was second nature to Nick to feel his way in this crafty fashion, yet
+he did not really expect any resistance in arresting Cervera, who now
+laughed and shook her head, replying:
+
+"No, I have let them go."
+
+"That so?"
+
+"I have no use for them at present."
+
+"Why is that?"
+
+"My engagement at the theater has closed, and I seldom have occasion to
+wear my diamonds. I have placed them all in a safe deposit vault."
+
+"Ah! I see."
+
+"So I have no need for my guardians, Detective Carter, with only myself
+here. Nobody would want me personally, you know," she added, with a bold
+laugh.
+
+Nick's firm lips drew a little closer.
+
+"On the contrary," said he, pointedly, "somebody does, want you
+personally."
+
+"Oh! is that so?" cried Cervera, as if amused.
+
+"Very much so, senora."
+
+"And who does me the honor, pray?"
+
+"I want you," said Nick, bluntly.
+
+"You, Detective Carter! Why, sir, what an idea! I wouldn't have believed
+it of you."
+
+"Yet it is true, nevertheless."
+
+"Well, well," repeated Cervera, with a pretty shrug, "I am really glad
+to hear you say so. For what do you want me, Detective Carter?"
+
+Not once had Nick's searching gaze left her brazen countenance, and
+despite her outward display of badinage, his steadfast and penetrating
+eyes were making her secretly uneasy.
+
+"I want you," said Nick, pointedly, "for that ugly 'Jack-in-the-box'
+trick which you perpetrated this afternoon."
+
+Cervera's eyes emitted a single swift, fiery gleam, and her red lips
+drew closer. Yet she cried, still pleasantly:
+
+"What do you mean by that, Detective Carter? Is it a joke?"
+
+"You'll find it no joke."
+
+"If it is, sir, I don't see the point."
+
+"You will have a chance to look for it at the Tombs," replied Nick, with
+grim quietude. "Senora Cervera, I want you to go along with me."
+
+"The Tombs! Go with you! What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean that you are now under arrest."
+
+"Arrest! For what?"
+
+"For the murder of a girl named Mary Barton," Nick bluntly rejoined,
+ignoring the woman's increasing display of amazement and resentment.
+
+"Mary Barton!" cried Cervera. "I never heard of the girl."
+
+"Nevertheless," said Nick, sternly, "you met her on Fifth Avenue this
+afternoon, and gave her a jewel casket containing a venomous snake,
+which you had stolen from the den of Pandu Singe, and by which means you
+inadvertently killed Mary Barton, instead of another for whom your
+infernal design was intended. I am aware of all of your late movements,
+senora, you see."
+
+"I see that you are a devil!" cried Cervera, with a sudden passionate
+outburst. "How dare you come here with such a story as that?"
+
+For a moment at least, the fact that Nick already had discovered nearly
+every detail of her infamous crime--though committed only a few hours
+before--almost completely unnerved her, and her changing countenance,
+her irrepressible outbreak, and the violent agitation of her lithe,
+nervous figure, were tokens of self-betrayal by no means unobserved by
+Nick.
+
+"You'll have a chance to refute the story before a judge and jury," Nick
+curtly answered. "At present you are in my custody, however, and you
+must go with me."
+
+Cervera rose to her feet, trembling visibly, and gripped the back of her
+chair as if for support.
+
+"There must be some terrible mistake, Detective Carter," she now cried,
+with well-feigned distress and alarm. "Surely you do not mean this,
+sir? Surely you do but jest?"
+
+"On the contrary, senora, I mean every word that I have said."
+
+"That I am under arrest?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And must go with you?"
+
+"Precisely."
+
+"To the Tombs?"
+
+"To the Tombs, senora."
+
+"Oh! this is dreadful--dreadful!" craftily moaned Cervera, with tears
+now filling her eyes.
+
+"I am sorry for you, senora, but I must do my duty," said Nick, rising.
+
+"I know you must--but, oh! what shall I do? To whom can I appeal? Oh! if
+Mr. Venner were only here!"
+
+"You can send a messenger for him later, or dispatch one of your
+servants from here," suggested Nick.
+
+"I have none here," sobbed Cervera. "They are all out, and I am alone. I
+have no one--"
+
+She suddenly stopped, then drew herself up with resentful dignity, and
+wiped the tears from her eyes.
+
+"I am a fool to be so weak!" she exclaimed, bitterly. "Detective Carter,
+I know nothing of the crime you mention. I never heard of Mary Barton.
+This arrest is an outrage, and I will appeal to the highest court in the
+land for vindication!"
+
+"That's your privilege," said Nick, shortly. "But at present you must go
+with me."
+
+"I cannot go as I am," declared Cervera, passionately stamping her
+foot. "I am in evening dress--attired to receive a caller. I shall take
+cold if I go out of doors in--"
+
+"Oh, you may change your dress," Nick curtly interrupted, the need of
+which was decidedly obvious. "I'll give you time for that."
+
+"How very kind," sneered Cervera, with a bitter flash of her black eyes.
+"You shall yet suffer for this affront, Detective Carter."
+
+"All right," said Nick. "But I have no time to speculate upon it now, so
+get yourself ready. Wait a bit, my lady! I'll go along with you!"
+
+"With me? You insult me!"
+
+"Oh, no, I don't. I want a look at your chamber before letting you out
+of my sight. I've seen rooms with more than one way out, and I don't
+intend that you shall elude me."
+
+"You're a suspicious coward, sir!"
+
+"Stow all that, senora, and lead the way," commanded Nick, bluntly.
+
+Pale and resentful, with a sneer on her lips, Cervera led the way
+through, the hall, playing her part so artfully that Nick, ignorant of
+her late interview with Rufus Venner, was not much inclined to suspect
+her of duplicity just then.
+
+Upon reaching the top of the hall stairs, Cervera switched on another
+light, and then that which illumined her chamber, into which she
+haughtily led the detective.
+
+"A fine affront to suffer," she bitterly exclaimed, throwing herself
+into a chair. "Your conduct is despicable! You are no gentleman!"
+
+"I am a detective," retorted Nick, "and I come pretty near knowing my
+business."
+
+"Oh! you do," sneered Cervera. "Plainly that is the limit of your
+knowledge. You may not be as wise as you think."
+
+Nick made no reply, but looked sharply about the room.
+
+It was a large, square chamber, and elaborately furnished. The two
+windows were well above the street, and offered no chance for escape.
+There were but two doors, that leading into the hall and the one leading
+into a large closet in the opposite wall.
+
+Nick opened the latter, and found the closet hung with Cervera's
+extensive wardrobe. He thrust his arm along the garments hanging at
+either side, and sounded the three walls, and then the closet floor, all
+of which appeared perfectly firm and solid.
+
+Even these precautions seemed quite needless to Nick, however, it being
+a rented house, and Cervera presumably uninformed of his coming.
+
+"Now, senora, you may have just ten minutes to make ready," said he, as
+he rejoined her. "I shall leave this chamber door open, and will wait
+for you in the adjoining hall. Can you whistle?"
+
+"Whistle?"
+
+"Yes, whistle! You know what it is to whistle, don't you?"
+
+The sneer on Cervera's red lips, as she arose from her chair, became
+almost a smile.
+
+"Yes, I can whistle after a fashion," she admitted.
+
+"Well, then, you keep whistling all the time you are alone here," Nick
+sternly commanded. "I will let you out of my sight to make these
+changes, but not out of my hearing."
+
+"Suspicious fool!"
+
+"Fool or not, you keep whistling," said Nick, bluntly. "If you let up
+for so long as a second, I'll come over yonder threshold in a way that
+you'll not fancy."
+
+"But suppose I want to brush my teeth?" inquired Cervera, with a
+vixenish light in her evil eyes. "I cannot whistle and brush my teeth,
+Detective Carter."
+
+"You'll have plenty of time to brush your teeth at the Tombs," said
+Nick, sharply. "Now look lively, mark you, and--keep whistling."
+
+Cervera at once began to whistle.
+
+Nick removed the key from the chamber door, and sauntered out into the
+hall, where he kept his ears constantly alert.
+
+Not for a moment did the whistling cease, nor was there the slightest
+change in tone or character.
+
+Nick could not have taken a more effective method to serve his present
+purpose.
+
+At the end of eight minutes the whistling ceased, and Cervera coldly
+cried:
+
+"Now you may come in, Detective Carter. I am about ready to go with
+you."
+
+Nick at once entered the chamber.
+
+Cervera had changed her evening dress for a complete suit of black, and
+was standing in the middle of the room.
+
+"I suppose," said she, staring icily at the detective, "that I ought to
+thank you for your consideration."
+
+"Don't trouble yourself," said Nick, curtly. "I have no time to waste."
+
+"Yet just one word, Detective Carter, before we go."
+
+"Let it be brief, then."
+
+"You are said to be a very clever man, and no doubt you think you have
+me dead to rights in this case," said Cervera, with a mocking curl of
+her thin lips.
+
+"Decidedly so."
+
+"Yet you will find, Detective Carter, that a clever woman can always
+fool and foil a clever man."
+
+"But you, my lady, are very far from being a clever woman," retorted
+Nick, with a gesture of impatience, signifying that he wished to leave
+with her at once.
+
+"Nevertheless, I shall beat you at the finish, make no mistake about
+that," cried Cervera, scornfully. "Now, sir, I will put on my wrap, and
+go with you where you please."
+
+With the last remark, she approached a peg in the open closet, as if to
+take down a dark shawl.
+
+Instead, she suddenly turned quickly around and cried, with a taunting
+laugh:
+
+"So long, Detective Carter! I really feel quite sorry to bid
+you--good-by!"
+
+Nick started like a man electrified.
+
+Cervera merely had pressed the peg on which the shawl hung, whereupon
+the whole back of the closet seemed to fall away instantly, disclosing a
+lighted passage beyond.
+
+Nick caught a glimpse of it, and of the woman darting toward it, and he
+followed her like a shot from a gun.
+
+As Cervera passed through the further opening and gained the lighted
+passage, she seized and threw a short lever just beyond the closet wall.
+
+At the same moment Nick's weight fell upon the closet floor behind her.
+
+It was like treading upon air.
+
+The lever, like the peg, did not work in an instant.
+
+
+Nick felt himself falling, and made a desperate clutch at the door
+jamb--only to miss it.
+
+Then the closet floor, with the detective upon it, went speeding down
+like an elevator cut loose from a top story.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+IN A WARM CORNER.
+
+
+The crash with which Nick Carter vaguely expected his career might be
+abruptly ended, as the floor upon which he had fallen prostrate rapidly
+descended, did not come.
+
+The terrific downward speed suddenly decreased, then became more
+gradual, all in the bare fraction of a second; and then the rushing
+sound of compressed air escaping through narrow crevices fell upon the
+detective's ears.
+
+Nick immediately guessed the truth.
+
+The falling closet floor was that of an elevator, no longer in use as
+such, yet which still worked on the slides of the elevator well, and
+evidently had been cleverly adjusted for just such an emergency as that
+depicted.
+
+Presently there came a heavy jar, and then the downward motion ceased.
+The close-fitting floor at first had fallen so swiftly that the confined
+air in the well beneath it had become so compressed as to form an air
+cushion, which finally let the floor completely down only after the air
+had gradually escaped. It was this escaping air Nick heard during the
+last moments of his fall.
+
+The entire episode began and ended in but little more than a moment,
+however. Though considerably jarred, Nick pulled himself together, and
+gazed up through the darkness at the bottom of the well.
+
+Cervera was peering down from the lighted passage three stories above
+him, Nick having made a clean drop into the cellar of the imposing
+residence.
+
+That this entire contrivance was the work of the Kilgore gang, devised
+while they masqueraded at Cervera's house, Nick was thoroughly
+convinced.
+
+"Hello!" Cervera suddenly cried, still gazing down into the darkness
+enveloping Nick. "Are you there, Mr. Carter?"
+
+Nick stared up at her, but made no answer.
+
+At the same time he felt quietly over the walls of the well, in the hope
+of finding some way of escape.
+
+It riled him not a little, the thought of having been so deftly caught
+in a trap, almost entirely owing to his having been overconfident, an
+assurance only very natural under the circumstances.
+
+The possibility that this woman might now elude him for a time was also
+a thorn in Nick's mind.
+
+"_Caramba!_" cried Cervera, with a mocking laugh. "Aren't you going to
+speak?"
+
+Still no answer.
+
+"Have you lost your tongue, Detective Carter? If you don't speak out,
+Mr. Smart Fellow, I shall drop something down that will light you up. I
+want a look at you, to know whether you're afoot or on horseback."
+
+Nick remained in perfect silence.
+
+Then Cervera disappeared.
+
+"The she-devil!" muttered the detective. "What move next, I wonder?"
+
+Again he felt quickly over the walls of the well, in the hope of finding
+some avenue of escape.
+
+With a thrill of satisfaction, he now discovered one of the vertical
+strips of iron which are attached to two opposite walls of an elevator
+well, to steady the car and serve as slides for it to run upon. These
+iron strips are usually regularly notched to the depth of an inch or
+more, for the admission of an automatic break in the event of the rope
+parting.
+
+"By Jove! this is not so bad," thought Nick. "It might serve for a
+ladder.
+
+"To climb three stories with the tips of one's fingers and toes,
+however, and by means of a notched iron on the bare face of a wall, is a
+herculean and hazardous undertaking."
+
+While he stood, measuring the altitude with his eyes, Nick heard Cervera
+returning.
+
+Then a great bunch of flaming paper came flying down the well, and the
+detective was forced to leap aside to escape it.
+
+She-devil, indeed, Cervera had set fire to a crumpled newspaper, with
+which to illuminate the bottom of the well.
+
+"Ah, there you are!" she exultingly cried, on discovering Nick in the
+glare of the light. "On your feet, eh? You were lucky to escape,
+Detective Carter."
+
+"And you'll be lucky if you escape Detective Carter," sternly retorted
+Nick, quickly stamping out the fire. "I'll finally land you, my crafty
+young woman, though I lie awake nights to devise a way."
+
+Cervera gave vent to a shrill, vindictive laugh.
+
+"Do you think you can do it?" she demanded, mockingly.
+
+"You'll find that I can."
+
+"Better men than you have tried--and failed."
+
+"Yet I shall succeed."
+
+"Do you feel quite sure of it?"
+
+"Absolutely."
+
+"Then I think I'd better see your finish this very night, since I now
+have you cornered!" cried Cervera, in taunting tones, "It may not be
+wise to defer it."
+
+Then Nick beheld a second burning newspaper coming his way.
+
+"Let up, you demon!" he shouted, angrily. "You'll set the house afire."
+
+"Wouldn't it be a shame! And what would become of you?"
+
+"Don't try it again, young woman, or worse may be your fate."
+
+"Oh! is that so?" sneered Cervera, maliciously. "We'll see."
+
+Down came another burning paper, and by the light of it Nick now
+discovered a closed door in one of the walls. It was directly under the
+closet door in Cervera's chamber, both of which evidently had once been
+used for entering the elevator.
+
+The fact chiefly observed by Nick, however, was that the sill of the
+door was wide enough to offer him a safe footing. Though it was fully
+eight feet above his head, Nick resolved to attempt to reach it by means
+of the notched iron on the side wall.
+
+Gripping the rough notches with his muscular fingers, and using those
+lower down for a foothold, as best he could, Nick hurriedly began the
+difficult ascent.
+
+By the light from a fragment of burning paper, Cervera perceived his
+design, and greeted it with a scream of derision.
+
+"I'll soon stop that, my fine fellow," she shouted, with vicious
+asperity. "Look out for yourself!"
+
+White speaking, she touched a match to one of her dresses, which hung
+from a near peg on the closet wall, and dropped it blazing down the
+well.
+
+Nick saw it coming, and was forced to drop back to the cellar floor.
+
+"You vicious demon!" he cried, angrily. "Let up! You'll have the house
+on fire!"
+
+"That's just what I intend doing--and you with it!" screamed Cervera,
+with a laugh. "I'll not leave you alive to get the best of me at some
+later day."
+
+Then she set fire to a silk skirt, and dropped it after the other.
+
+Nick had not yet been able to extinguish the first, and the situation
+was momentarily becoming more desperate. A cloud of smoke was filling
+the well, with no draft to carry it away, and the heat was already very
+oppressive.
+
+Crouching on the curb of the lighted passage three floors above him,
+Cervera was laughing wildly, with her handsome face reflecting the
+bitter hatred by which she was inspired, as she hurriedly set fire to a
+third garment and dropped it down the well.
+
+The smoke at the bottom had become so dense that Nick no longer could
+see her, but he felt quite sure that he could put an end to her present
+murderous game.
+
+He drew his revolver and fired two quick shots in her direction. One
+bullet crashed through the ceiling above her. The second clipped a lock
+of hair from over the vixen's ear.
+
+It brought a shriek of alarm to her lips, and she sprang quickly back
+from the curb over which she was stooping.
+
+"_Caramba!_" she yelled, excitedly. "That's your game, is it?"
+
+"You'll find it is, if you approach that opening again!" cried Nick,
+half choked with smoke, while he fiercely strove to extinguish the
+blazing garments.
+
+"Oh, I'll not give you another chance at me!" screamed Cervera. "I'll
+push over something heavier, and crush out your life with--"
+
+She suddenly stopped, then held her breath and listened.
+
+The crash of a breaking door reached her ears, then hurried footsteps
+began falling on the main stairway leading to her chamber.
+
+"Some one is coming!" she fiercely muttered. "Perhaps another detective!
+I must be off!"
+
+Yet so bitter was her hatred of Nick, and so intensely enjoyable to her
+the trick she had served him, that she lingered for an instant in the
+face of the impending danger, and screamed down the well, with a mocking
+laugh:
+
+"I'm obliged to leave you, Detective Carter! While I'm gone--keep
+whistling!"
+
+At the same moment Chick Carter rushed into the chamber and caught a
+glimpse of her through the wreathing smoke, as she fled through the
+lighted passage.
+
+One glance at the scene gave Chick the entire situation.
+
+He drew back, took a short run, and with a magnificent bound cleared the
+open well, and leaped squarely through the closet and into the lighted
+passage.
+
+Then the crash of a heavy door, suddenly closed, and the shooting of
+bolts, told him that Cervera had prevented pursuit for a time at least,
+and Chick swung round to the open well, to see if Nick needed him.
+
+"Hello, Nick!" he shouted. "The woman--"
+
+"Let her go!" roared Nick, still fiercely fighting the flames that
+threatened the woodwork of the well. "Let her go--we'll get her later!
+First save the house!"
+
+"How can I reach you?"
+
+"Through a door under the one in her chamber," shouted Nick. "Try that."
+
+Chick cleared the well with another leap, then dashed downstairs and
+into the parlor, which was lighted by the glare from both hall and
+library.
+
+He quickly discovered the door--only to find it locked and the key
+removed.
+
+Chick was promptly equal to so slight an emergency, however. Grasping a
+heavy stool near the piano, he swung it above his head, and with half a
+dozen rapid blows demolished most of the door, and forced it open.
+
+A cloud of smoke floated into the room, but a glance showed Chick that
+Nick now had the flames extinguished.
+
+"Are you all right, old man?" he demanded.
+
+"Only a little in need of fresh air," gasped Nick. "You cannot reach
+down to me."
+
+"Wait a bit, then. This will do the business!"
+
+Chick had turned and snatched off the thick cloth covering of the piano,
+which he quickly twisted and lowered over the doorsill, and then braced
+himself to sustain Nick's weight.
+
+"All right?" cried Nick.
+
+"Yes. Come on!"
+
+Nick drew himself up until he could grasp the sill of the door, then
+easily reached the floor and the clearer atmosphere of the parlor.
+
+"Well, here's a pretty mess!" he growled, in tones of self-condemnation.
+"If ever I was done by a crafty jade, I've been done by one this night."
+
+"How in thunder did it happen, Nick?" demanded Chick, with no little
+amazement.
+
+Nick very quickly told him, and explained the occasion of his own lack
+of distrust and caution.
+
+"It being a rented house, I did not look for any such trap as this,"
+said he. "Furthermore, I did not believe that Cervera had any warning of
+my coming, and I felt satisfied that she was alone here. Have you seen
+anything of Venner while waiting in the cab?"
+
+"Not a sign of him."
+
+"It's odds, then, that he was here when I arrived, and made his escape
+by a back door," growled Nick. "If so, it goes to show that he is in
+with her and the Kilgore push, and not a blind victim to their cunning.
+We now must get some proof of that, Chick, and force that gang and
+their game to light. We at least have made a beginning, and now for
+another move."
+
+"To-night?"
+
+"At once!" declared Nick. "Cervera must find shelter somewhere, and it's
+very likely she will go to Venner's house. That must be our next point,
+and we will lose no time. Possibly we yet may land her before she finds
+cover."
+
+"We can give it a try," cried Chick.
+
+"Help me extinguish these lights, and then we'll be off again."
+
+"I'm with you."
+
+"What sent you into the house so suddenly?"
+
+"The reports of your revolver," explained Chick. "I at once recognized
+its bark, and knew something was wrong."
+
+"Ah! I see."
+
+"I saw the light in the chamber, and supposed you might be letting the
+woman prepare to go with you," added Chick. "That was while I sat in the
+cab. But when I heard your gun, I smashed open the front door and bolted
+upstairs."
+
+"Very lucky, too," nodded Nick. "That she-devil would have burned the
+house, and me in the bargain. But the end is not yet."
+
+"Well, hardly!" laughed Chick, as they descended the front stairs and
+extinguished the last light.
+
+"We'll stop an officer, and send him here to watch the house," said
+Nick. "Then we'll have a look at Venner's dwelling. It's my opinion,
+Chick, that our work has now begun in good earnest."
+
+"Well, I reckon we shall prove equal to it," smiled Chick, rather
+grimly, as they hastened to enter the waiting carriage.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THE DIAMOND PLANT.
+
+
+"This does settle it!"
+
+"What do you mean, Dave?"
+
+"It must be done?"
+
+"We must get these Carters--that's what! If we don't get them,
+Spotty--you take my word for it--they'll get us!"
+
+"Do you really think so, Dave?"
+
+"Not think, but know so!" declared Kilgore, with emphasis. "I know these
+Carters, root and branch. They have now struck our trail, and they'll
+stick to it like bloodhounds till they run us down--unless we get them!
+It must be done, I say, and done promptly."
+
+"Put them down and out?"
+
+"Exactly. It's them--or us!"
+
+"And why do you think, all of a sudden, Dave, that Nick Carter is so hot
+on our heels?"
+
+"I'll tell you why, Spotty."
+
+And Mr. David Kilgore, chief of the notorious diamond gang bearing his
+name, and one of the keenest and coolest criminals in or out of prison
+walls, removed his pipe from his mouth and his heels from the edge of
+the table, and drew forward in his chair to explain.
+
+It was a curious place, that in which the speakers of the above were
+seated, in the bright glare of an electric light.
+
+It was inclosed with four solid stone walls, with not a window or
+aperture through which a ray of light could be detected from outside.
+
+Yet in one of the walls was a low, narrow door, also of stone, and so
+cleverly constructed and fitted that, when swung into place in the wall,
+it was comparatively beyond the detection of anybody ignorant of its
+existence. This door then stood open, but the aperture through the wall
+was heavily curtained.
+
+Three of these walls formed the original foundation of an old and
+extensive suburban mansion, the location, ownership and present use of
+which will presently appear. The fourth wall, that with the door, was of
+more recent construction, and was built squarely across the original
+cellar of the house. It had been made to mask this secret subterranean
+chamber in which the Kilgore gang was then gathered.
+
+The place was commodious, and contained some noteworthy objects. In one
+corner was a powerful hydraulic press. Near by was a splendid electrical
+furnace, capable of generating an extraordinary degree of heat. Against
+the adjoining wall were several barrels of sulphur, of which only one
+was unheaded. Near by was a large box of anthracite coal, black and
+glistening in the rays of the arc light.
+
+Parallel with the opposite wall was a workbench, laden with curious
+retorts, crucibles, test tubes, metal molds, and no end of tools, all of
+which plainly suggested the work of one versed both in chemistry and
+some mechanical art.
+
+In the middle of the room was a square deal table, at which Kilgore was
+seated, with Matt Stall and Spotty Dalton, the original three of the
+Kilgore gang.
+
+Two other persons were present, however, and they were engaged in
+examining some work on the bench mentioned.
+
+One of them was a tall, angular Frenchman, about sixty years of age,
+named Jean Pylotte. He had a slender figure, somewhat bowed; but his
+head was massive, in which his gleaming, gray eyes were deeply sunk,
+like those of a tireless student and hard worker.
+
+His companion at the bench just then was Sanetta Cervera, the Spanish
+dancer--the murderess of Mary Barton--the vicious dare-devil who had
+served Nick Carter one of her evil tricks that very evening.
+
+Cervera had arrived at the diamond plant less than an hour before, and
+had hurriedly told her confederates the whole story of her crime and her
+adventure with Nick.
+
+Crime was too common with these outlaws, however, and loyalty to one
+another too natural, for Kilgore to censure his only female confederate
+very severely. Yet as Kilgore now proceeded to explain, her crime had
+rendered their situation decidedly more alarming.
+
+"I'll tell you why these Carters are now to be seriously feared," said
+he, nodding grimly at his hearers. "This last move of Cervera has hurt
+us severely."
+
+"In what way?" demanded Spotty Dalton, the pock-marked chap who had
+relieved Venner's partner of the Hafferman diamonds about two weeks
+before. "I don't see just how, Dave."
+
+"No more do I," put in Matt Stall.
+
+"You'll see," replied Kilgore, "when I run over a few facts which led
+to our being here, and at work on our present game."
+
+"Well, Dave, we're listening."
+
+"One year ago we three were in Amsterdam, Holland, weren't we?"
+
+"Sure."
+
+"At work on a different kind of a game?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Only we three were then in the gang."
+
+"That's right, Dave. Now there are seven of us, counting Venner and his
+partner."
+
+"It was in Amsterdam that we first met her nibs," continued Kilgore,
+with a jerk of his thumb in the direction of Cervera, who was so engaged
+with Pylotte that neither heeded the talk at the table.
+
+"Yes, Dave, we met her just a year ago," nodded Dalton.
+
+"She was then doing her dances in a theater there, and we naturally got
+our peepers onto her diamonds," Kilgore went on to narrate. "You fellows
+already know the scheme by which we tried to relieve her of them, which
+we came so near doing."
+
+"Well, rather," grinned Dalton, as if the reminiscence was amusing.
+
+"Then we learned from her own lips, and greatly to our surprise, that
+her sparks were not the real thing," smiled Kilgore. "At first we could
+not believe it. The goods deceived even us, old hands though we are. It
+was only when she told us about Pylotte, and the secret process by
+which he makes such extraordinary imitations, that we could believe
+her."
+
+"That's right, Dave."
+
+"She had stumbled by chance upon this clever French chemist and diamond
+cutter, and was working him to the extent of her ability. She even had
+got wise to his secret, and he was loading her with his marvelous gems
+in return for her affection. But we at once saw the way to something
+much more profitable, a game for making millions out of Pylotte's great
+discovery."
+
+"Right again, Dave."
+
+"So we told them about it, and found them willing," continued Kilgore.
+"We rung them into our gang, and planned the whole deal. We knew it
+would be dead easy to work off such clever stones for genuine goods.
+With plenty of such sparks on hand, and one big and reputable jeweler to
+help us work the market, the distribution of our goods and their
+substitution for genuine stones would quickly throw a cool million or
+two our way."
+
+"Dead easy, Dave."
+
+"But we decided that New York was the best field for such a gigantic
+enterprise," added Kilgore. "So we came here. With the help of Cervera,
+we got our grip on Venner, and then on his avaricious partner, Garside,
+whose business happened to be on its last legs. So they snapped like
+hungry fish at this chance to square themselves, by secretly swindling
+their own customers, and shoving our manufactured diamonds upon the
+entire market."
+
+"Like hungry fish--h'm! that's no name for it," cried Matt Stall, with
+a mingled growl and laugh. "Rufe Venner was as ready to become a knave
+as any covey I ever crossed."
+
+"So we established this plant for Pylotte to do his clever work in,"
+continued Kilgore, disregarding the interruption. "Luckily, Venner
+already owned this old mansion, as well as that in which he lives; and
+fortunately, both places are somewhat secluded, with extensive grounds
+abutting. That enabled us to frame up a very snug and safe retreat."
+
+"Sure it did."
+
+"So we went to work," Kilgore proceeded, discursively. "We built our
+plant, placed our machinery, rigged a private telephone between this
+house and Venner's, and tapped the electric conduit with a secret wire,
+to give us light and feed our furnace."
+
+"That was my work," nodded Stall, with a touch of pride.
+
+"Right you are, Matt, and mighty good work, too," bowed Kilgore. "In a
+nutshell, boys, after two months' secret work, we have accomplished all
+we planned, and now have Venner sliding our goods upon the market at a
+fabulous profit. In a single year, barring these infernal Carters, every
+man of us should be a millionaire."
+
+"But why this sudden fear of the Carters?" growled Dalton, impatiently.
+
+"I'll now tell you why," cried Kilgore, with voice lowered, and an ugly
+gleam in his frowning eyes. "We cannot sack Cervera, nor put out her
+light, for she's too good and strong a card for us to lose. But in
+losing her head over Venner, and jealously doing up that girl to-day,
+she has given the Carters a clew by which to track us."
+
+"How so, Dave?" muttered Stall, growing a bit pale.
+
+"Through Venner, of course!" Kilgore forcibly argued. "Until this job of
+to-day, Carter has had no definite suspicion of Venner, a possibility
+which we headed off with that fake robbery. Now, however, since Cervera
+must lie low, and Carter knows of her relations with Venner, he will
+suspect the latter and make him a constant mark, in the hope of landing
+the girl."
+
+"By Heaven, that's so!" snarled Dalton, quickly seeing the point.
+
+"And that's not the worst of it," added Kilgore. "The moment he suspects
+Venner, Carter will connect him with us, and know that that robbery was
+a put-up job. Then he'll begin to seek us and our game."
+
+"But how can he locate us?"
+
+"Locate us?" sneered Kilgore, acidly. "You don't know Nick Carter! I'll
+tell you, Spotty, he can smell a rat further than any ferret that ever
+shoved his nose under a miller's barn. As sure as death and taxes, Nick
+Carter will run us down and land us, every mother's son of us--unless we
+can get him, and put him down and out."
+
+"By Heaven, I begin to think so myself," growled Stall. "If we--"
+
+"There are no ifs, ands or buts about it, Matt," interrupted Kilgore,
+decisively. "We must down them both, Nick and Chick Carter, or our game
+is as good as done for."
+
+"But how can we land them, Dave, and when?"
+
+"I already have a plan, and I think the first move may be made this
+very night."
+
+"What's the plan, Dave?"
+
+"To lure both detectives into Venner's house, and there do them up. If
+we can get them to come there voluntarily, their fate may never be
+learned, and our tracks will be better covered than by doing the job
+elsewhere."
+
+"That's true enough, since they're not likely to disclose their
+intentions, and if they come in disguise, no one about here will have
+recognized them."
+
+"That's just my theory."
+
+"But how can we lure them to Venner's house?"
+
+"With the help of Pylotte, whom they do not know, nor ever heard of.
+He's a brainy dog, moreover, and crafty enough to blind them."
+
+"But what's your scheme for to-night?" demanded Dalton.
+
+"After what has happened," replied Kilgore, "it's a safe gamble that the
+Carters are at this moment watching Venner's house. If they are--but
+wait a bit! First hear my whole plan."
+
+The three criminals drew their chairs closer, and in a very few minutes
+Kilgore had disclosed his entire design, a scheme so recklessly bold
+that it brought murmurs of amazement and misgivings from both his
+hearers, daring knaves though they were.
+
+"It strikes me, Dave, that it's too long a chance for us to take, this
+giving Nick Carter a genuine clew to our game," objected Dalton,
+doubtfully.
+
+"But no other clew will answer," declared Kilgore, forcibly. "You
+cannot fool Nick Carter with any false move or faked story; I'm already
+sure of that."
+
+"So am I," nodded Stall. "He's too wise a guy to fool with."
+
+"We are compelled to give him the real thing, and make him feel that he
+is up against a square deal, or no man among us can work the racket,"
+added Kilgore. "With my scheme, however, Pylotte is just the covey to do
+the job, and land both Carters where we want them."
+
+"And then?"
+
+"Then it's our ability against theirs," snarled Kilgore, "If we go lame,
+with the odds all in our favor, we deserve to be thrown down."
+
+"That's right, too," admitted Dalton.
+
+"Will Pylotte undertake this sort of a job, think you?" inquired Matt
+Stall.
+
+"Will he?" rejoined Kilgore, with an ugly gleam in his determined eyes.
+"He will, or--well, you know! Yes, Matt, he will; and he's just the man
+for the job."
+
+The vicious significance with which he spoke plainly indicated that,
+though Cervera may have ruled her own roost, there was but one chief of
+this gang, and that was Mr. David Kilgore.
+
+He turned sharply about in his chair, and cried:
+
+"Here you, Pylotte! Come and give us your ear! I have work for you
+to-night!"
+
+Both Pylotte and Cervera quickly turned and hastened to join the gang at
+the table.
+
+For twenty minutes Kilgore's project for outwitting and securing Nick
+Carter was earnestly discussed, and every detail of the plan carefully
+laid.
+
+Then the four men stole quietly out of the house in company.
+
+It then was a little after midnight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE CUNNING OF JEAN PYLOTTE.
+
+
+Kilgore had reasoned shrewdly, in so quickly suspecting that Nick Carter
+would lose no time in getting a line on the Venner residence. Even while
+the diamond gang were discussing the plan by which to capture the
+Carters, the two detectives were at times within a hundred yards of the
+secret plant.
+
+It was dark out of doors that night, with only a few stars in the
+clouded sky, and the wooded locality and neighboring streets were but
+poorly lighted.
+
+It was in a northern suburb of New York, a section not yet much
+encroached upon by the spreading city, and the dwelling owned and
+occupied by Rufus Venner was that in which three generations of his
+family had lived and died.
+
+It was a square, old house of brick, set fifty yards from the suburban
+street, and was flanked in either direction by extensive, ill-kept
+grounds, made damp and dark by the huge, old trees, which nearly covered
+the estate.
+
+Back of the house, and off to one side, was a large wooden stable, fast
+running to ruin; while a rusty iron fence, falling to fragments in
+places, skirted the dismal grounds in front.
+
+Beyond the trees, far to the rear, could be seen the roof and chimneys
+of an old, wooden mansion, fronting on another street, and having a very
+similar environment. There, too, the house and grounds were running to
+ruin and decay, both places being but crumbling monuments of former
+opulence and grandeur.
+
+It was upon this scene that Nick Carter and Chick arrived just before
+midnight, having left their carriage at a remote corner, to await their
+return.
+
+"Yonder is Venner's house, Chick," said Nick, as they picked their way
+along the unpaved sidewalk. "We'll vault this iron fence and steal
+across the grounds."
+
+"It doesn't look much as if our quarry was there," observed Chick, as
+they scaled the fence.
+
+"Their deeds are dark, and like seeks like," replied Nick. "They now may
+be making darkness their cover."
+
+"Not a light in the house, is there?"
+
+"None visible from this side. We'll steal between the house and stable,
+and have a look at the opposite elevation."
+
+"Not much danger of being seen. It's as dark as a nigger's pocket under
+these trees."
+
+"So much the better in case anyone is watching."
+
+"Who lives here with Venner?"
+
+"Only an elderly housekeeper, of whom I don't hear anything very good,"
+replied Nick. "Venner is here but part of the time, I am told. In fact,
+I don't quite fathom his habits."
+
+"Why so?"
+
+"I can't learn what takes him from home so much of the time. He does not
+leave the city, nor patronize any hotel that I can discover, yet he
+frequently is away from this house overnight."
+
+"Perhaps he secretly keeps another house, and is leading a double life."
+
+"Possibly," admitted Nick. "He is on friendly terms with numerous women,
+I learn, and other quarters may be essential to designs of some kind.
+Quietly, now, and we'll slip across the back lawn."
+
+Like shadows, as dark as the night itself, they silently reached a point
+from which they could view the north side of the house. Here they
+discovered that one of the lower rooms was lighted, with the curtain at
+the single window nearly drawn.
+
+"Somebody is up," murmured Chick.
+
+"We'll learn who, if possible."
+
+"Going to have a look?"
+
+"Yes. Come, if you like, but don't get into the glare from the curtain.
+Kilgore has a very wicked air gun, and if he and his gang are about
+here, we might invite a bullet."
+
+"I'll have a care."
+
+Stealing closer over the damp greensward, they approached the house and
+peered beneath the curtain mentioned. There was but one occupant of the
+room, which was a small library.
+
+In an easy-chair near the table, with a newspaper fallen across his
+knees, sat Rufus Venner, apparently sound asleep.
+
+This was only a part of the game, however, for Venner was wide awake.
+By means of their secret wire, he had been informed of Cervera's arrival
+at the diamond plant, and of Kilgore's designs upon Nick, and Venner at
+that moment suspected that he might be under the eye of the detective.
+
+For nearly half an hour Nick waited for some sign of this artifice, but
+Venner in no way betrayed it.
+
+Presently a clock on the mantel struck the half after one, and the sound
+appeared to awake him. He yawned, glanced at the clock, then took the
+lamp from the table and went up to bed. But never so much as a glance
+toward the window.
+
+Nick led Chick away, and they returned across the lawn to a point beyond
+the stable.
+
+"It rather looks as if Cervera had been here, doesn't it?" inquired
+Chick, with a grin.
+
+"Yes," admitted Nick. "Two facts are very significant of it. First, that
+Venner is at home on this particular night; and, second, that he should
+be asleep in his chair after midnight. It has a fishy look."
+
+"That's my idea, Nick, exactly."
+
+"Yet the way to prove it doesn't appear quite easy."
+
+"Not just yet. But who occupies that house over yonder, where the roof
+shows above the trees?"
+
+And Chick pointed to the distant dwelling, little dreaming that the
+diamond plant and the gang they sought were established under its
+many-gabled roof.
+
+This was not the first night Nick had watched Venner's house since the
+diamond robbery, the doubtful character of which he had suspected at the
+outset, and incidentally he had informed himself concerning Venner's
+neighbors.
+
+"One Dr. Magruder, I am told, a retired physician from Illinois," he
+replied. "He bought the place at a forced sale some little time ago."
+
+Nor did Nick, when thus replying, dream that Dr. Magruder and Rufus
+Venner were one and the same; or that, in attributing to him a double
+life of shameful iniquity, Chick had hit the nail squarely on the head.
+
+"Come this way," added Nick.
+
+"Where now?"
+
+"We'll go down to the corner of the grounds, and watch the house for a
+time."
+
+Before Nick's reply was fairly uttered, however, both detectives were
+startled by distant cries, which fell with frantic appeal on the
+midnight air.
+
+"Help! Help! Help!"
+
+The startling cry was thrice repeated, the last time as if choked in the
+speaker's throat, yet the direction of the sound was unmistakable.
+
+"Something's up!" muttered Nick. "This way!"
+
+With Chick at his heels, he tore across the wooded grounds and bounded
+over the iron fence at the street.
+
+Then the occasion of the outcry at once became apparent.
+
+Some two hundred yards away, in the yellow glare of one of the
+incandescent lights by which the little-frequented street was illumined,
+a man was battling desperately with three assailants, one of whom he
+had knocked to the ground.
+
+Without a word, both detectives rushed down the road to his assistance.
+
+As they drew nearer there came a flash of light, then the report of a
+pistol, followed by another shriek for help.
+
+Then Nick saw one of the ruffians reel a little, as if shot, while a
+second hurled their victim to the ground. The third leaped to his feet
+at the same moment, yelling wildly:
+
+"Look out! Scatter, boys! The cops are upon us!"
+
+"Kilgore's voice, or I'm a liar," muttered Nick, over his shoulder.
+
+Both detectives were still fifty yards from the scene of the furious
+conflict, and were running at the top of their speed along the rough
+road.
+
+Before they could come near enough to use a weapon, however, the three
+ruffians scattered like frightened cats, leaping the wall near an
+adjoining woodland, into the gloom of which they speedily vanished.
+
+It was obvious to Nick that pursuit would be vain, so he hastened to the
+side of the fallen man, who had been left prostrate in the road, and
+helped him to his feet.
+
+The man was Jean Pylotte.
+
+He was panting hard after the conflict, the fake character of which Nick
+could not then foresee. His coat was ripped up the back, his linen
+collar torn off, and he was deathly pale, with a smutch of blood across
+his cheek. In one hand he held a revolver, and in the other--a chunk of
+coal.
+
+"Are you wounded, stranger?" Nick quickly demanded, as he studied the
+man's pale face.
+
+"Not much--not badly, I think," gasped Pylotte, trembling violently.
+"But it's lucky you came. They'd surely have killed me."
+
+Nick noticed that he spoke with a slight foreign accent, and was a man
+of considerable physical prowess.
+
+"There's blood on your face," said he.
+
+"It came from one of them, I think," said Pylotte, drawing his sleeve
+across his cheek to remove the stain. "I must have wounded one of them."
+
+"It's a pity you did not kill him," said Nick, bluntly. "Was it you who
+fired the gun?"
+
+"Yes. I tried to fire again, but one of them struck me down before I
+could do so. The ruffians came upon me before I fairly realized it."
+
+"Do you know them?" inquired Chick.
+
+"Only one of them, a man named John David," replied Pylotte, now
+appearing to pull himself together.
+
+"John David, eh?" grunted Nick.
+
+"He has swindled me, and I--I saw him at a theater to-night, and
+afterward followed him out here."
+
+"For what? If he has swindled you, why didn't you have him arrested at
+the theater?" demanded Nick.
+
+"Well, I--I wanted to learn where he lives. He must have discovered
+that he was being followed, and then tried to do me up."
+
+Nick observed the speaker's faltering manner, and it increased his
+curiosity.
+
+"Why do you wish to know where he lives?" he demanded.
+
+Pylotte hesitated, and shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," said he, after a moment.
+
+"Not believe you?"
+
+"I hardly think so."
+
+"Suppose you tell me, and see," suggested Nick, with a faint smile.
+
+"I have no objection to telling you, none at all," Pylotte now replied.
+"The man I spoke of, John David, swindled me yesterday with two
+artificial diamonds."
+
+"Ah! is that so?" cried Nick, with a significant glance at Chick. "What
+is your name, my man?"
+
+"Jean Pylotte, sir."
+
+"Who are you, and where do you live?"
+
+"I am a Frenchman by birth, and arrived in New York only this week. My
+home is in Denver. I am a diamond cutter by trade, and came here to buy
+some gems for a Denver woman of wealth, who wishes to obtain a certain
+size and quality."
+
+"Then you are a judge of diamonds?"
+
+"One of the best," Pylotte modestly admitted, with a faint smile. "I am
+an expert judge of diamonds, and so it happened that I discovered the
+swindle of which I am a victim."
+
+"Then you bought a diamond of the man who said his name was John David,
+did you?"
+
+"I bought two, sir," nodded Pylotte. "They appeared like natural and
+very perfect stones when I first examined them, but after subjecting
+them to more careful tests, I found them to be the most extraordinary
+imitations I ever beheld."
+
+"Artificial diamonds, were they?"
+
+"Yes, artificial. But only the best of experts, and after the most rigid
+tests, could discover the fraud. I never saw such imitations. The stones
+are really almost as good as natural ones."
+
+"Have you them with you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You feel quite confident that they were manufactured, do you?"
+
+"Oh, I am positive of it," cried Pylotte, with emphasis. "That is why I
+was secretly following the swindler."
+
+"You wanted to discover his house, and learn how he made such perfect
+imitations, eh? Was that your motive, instead of having him arrested at
+the theater?"
+
+"Well, yes, it was," admitted Pylotte, with feigned reluctance.
+
+"Do you know any process for manufacturing diamonds?" Nick next
+demanded.
+
+"I am pretty well informed on the subject."
+
+"Quite an art, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes, it is."
+
+"And one that could be made very profitable, perhaps?"
+
+"I judge so."
+
+"Put up your revolver," said Nick, abruptly. "What's that black object
+you dropped just now?"
+
+Pylotte glanced down at his feet, then laughed faintly.
+
+"That's odd," said he. "It's a piece of coal. I must have seized it from
+the road, thinking to defend myself with it."
+
+"What is there odd in that?"
+
+Pylotte laughed again.
+
+"Diamonds may be made from coal," said he. "The fact that I should have
+got hold of a piece in the road here, while tracking that diamond
+swindler in search of his house, strikes me as being rather odd."
+
+"So it was," said Nick, a bit dryly, thinking of Venner's house in the
+near distance.
+
+Then he added, decisively:
+
+"Put up your gun, Mr. Pylotte. I want you to go with me. I think you are
+the very man I want."
+
+"Go with you!" exclaimed Pylotte, drawing back.
+
+"If you please," said Nick, politely. "I want, at least, to hear more of
+your story."
+
+"But who are you, sir?"
+
+"My name is Nick Carter."
+
+"Not the celebrated detective?" cried Pylotte, with feigned amazement.
+
+"Precisely."
+
+"That's quite sufficient, Mr. Carter!" the Frenchman now cried, with
+much bowing and scraping. "I'll go with you when and where you wish. If
+any man can run down these swindling ruffians, sir, you certainly are
+the man."
+
+"Thanks," said Nick, dryly. "I'll take you home with me for the night."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+THE GAME UNCOVERED.
+
+
+The following morning.
+
+The clock in Nick Carter's library was striking nine.
+
+Nick and Chick were seated at one side of the table, and Jean Pylotte
+occupied a chair at the opposite side.
+
+Upon the dark cloth top of the table between them lay two large
+diamonds, declared by Pylotte to have been artificially made, the two
+with which he claimed to have been swindled.
+
+Yet to the eyes of a layman they had all the qualities of natural gems,
+gleaming and glistening with magnificent fire in the cheerful sunlight
+of Nick's library.
+
+Pylotte had invented a very clever and consistent story about himself
+and his mission in New York, as well as about the meeting and being
+victimized by the counterfeit diamond shover, and Nick as yet saw no
+occasion for seriously distrusting him, or connecting him with the
+Kilgore gang.
+
+He rather suspected, in fact, that Pylotte had shadowed the swindler,
+whom Nick felt sure was Kilgore, with a view to learning just how the
+diamonds had been manufactured, and possibly with a design to turn the
+discovery to his own advantage.
+
+This was, indeed, the most natural deduction for Nick to arrive at,
+after considering all the circumstances.
+
+"So you are confident that these stones are works of art, rather than
+of nature, are you?" inquired Nick, who had been carefully examining the
+gems.
+
+"I am absolutely sure of it, Mr. Carter," declared Pylotte.
+
+"Have you any idea how such counterfeits can be made?"
+
+"Oh, yes."
+
+"By what process and means, Mr. Pylotte?"
+
+Pylotte hastened to explain.
+
+"A natural diamond, Mr. Carter, is pure carbon, crystallized under
+enormous heat and pressure in the bowels of the earth."
+
+"I am aware of that."
+
+"Charcoal and graphite are also pure carbon, but not in a crystallized
+condition," continued Pylotte. "If that condition could be imparted to
+the substances mentioned, we should have the artificial diamond."
+
+"How may that be done?" inquired Nick.
+
+"By subjecting the substance to the same condition under which the
+natural diamond was crystallized."
+
+"Heat and pressure?"
+
+"Precisely," bowed Pylotte. "Attempts to thus manufacture diamonds have
+frequently been made. A Mr. Acheson, of Pittsburg, while so engaged, and
+in obtaining graphite from coal by the heat of an electric furnace,
+discovered that combination of silicon and carbon now known as
+carborundum, which has commercial value as an abrasive."
+
+"I know about that," bowed Nick.
+
+"Now, then," continued Pylotte, with an unconscious display of
+enthusiasm; "while diamonds certainly have been made by artificial
+means, the great difficulty has been that of producing them at a low
+cost. Moissan, in my country, produced diamonds by heating charcoal and
+iron to a high degree, and letting the mixture cool under enormous
+pressure. He succeeded in obtaining very small crystals, or diamonds,
+but the cost of production made his method impracticable from a
+commercial standpoint."
+
+"Ah! I see."
+
+"In 1872 a chemist named Rose converted graphite into diamonds by a
+similar process, but with the same result."
+
+"The cost of production being too great?" observed Nick.
+
+"Precisely."
+
+"Do you think that difficulty has now been overcome?"
+
+"I am compelled to think so, Mr. Carter," cried Pylotte, pointing to the
+two diamonds on the table.
+
+"You purchased them at a price compelling that belief?"
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"Then you think the man of whom you got them has discovered a way to
+make such perfect artificial diamonds at a low price?"
+
+"I certainly do, Mr. Carter."
+
+"Have you any idea of the machinery and ingredients he might require?"
+asked Nick, with a view to getting points by which to locate the diamond
+plant.
+
+Pylotte could easily inform him, and he promptly did so, following the
+instructions given him by Dave Kilgore.
+
+"He would require an electric furnace and a hydraulic press," said he.
+"Also the tools for cutting the crude crystals. The ingredients used
+would depend upon the process he has discovered, probably coal or
+charcoal, and possibly some quantities of iron salts and sulphur."
+
+"In brief, then, Mr. Pylotte," said Nick, pointing to the diamonds on
+the table, "if those stones were made as cheaply as you think, the
+diamond market offers the manufacturers of them a field for a most
+gigantic swindle, does it not?"
+
+"Indeed it does!" exclaimed Pylotte, throwing up both hands. "Enormous!
+Enormous! Millions could be made by so unparalleled a fraud!"
+
+"It opens the way, in fact, to the most colossal swindle on record?"
+
+"Undoubtedly."
+
+Nick glanced significantly at Chick, then abruptly rose to his feet.
+That he had struck the big game which from the first he had suspected,
+he now had not a doubt.
+
+"I require no more of you at present, Mr. Pylotte," said he, with
+courteous firmness. "I shall do all in my power to remedy your loss by
+this swindle, and to secure the perpetrators of it."
+
+"Thank you, Detective Carter," bowed Pylotte, with a crafty display of
+appreciation and humility.
+
+"Meantime," added Nick, "you will please take no action in the case, but
+leave it entirely to me."
+
+"I will do so, sir."
+
+"If you will leave me your city address, or call here again in a few
+days, I shall have something to report to you."
+
+"I will call the day after to-morrow, Detective Carter," said Pylotte,
+promptly, too cunning to give Nick a fictitious address.
+
+"Very well," said Nick. "Call in the evening. And now, Mr. Pylotte, we
+will bid you good-morning, and get to work at once upon the case."
+
+Pylotte bowed very agreeably, taking his artificial diamonds from the
+table and replacing them in his pocket; and Nick then conducted him to
+the door, again assuring him that no efforts in his behalf should be
+spared.
+
+Pylotte once more expressed his thanks, bowing and smiling as he
+descended the steps, and Nick closed the door and returned to the
+library.
+
+"Well, Chick, the bag is open and the cat out," he cried, as he entered.
+
+"Right you are, Nick."
+
+"And a monstrous cat it is!"
+
+"Never a larger one," declared Chick, with a laugh. "By Jove! Nick, if
+Kilgore has really found a way to produce such perfect counterfeit
+diamonds, his gang could work the greatest swindle ever known, unless
+headed off."
+
+"That is their game, all right," said Nick. "From the very first I have
+suspected something extraordinary. They are not the stamp of criminals
+to dicker with petty jobs."
+
+"I should say not."
+
+"Far from it."
+
+"One thing is plain."
+
+"Namely?"
+
+"Where Cervera gets her diamonds, and of what they consist."
+
+"True. She certainly is one of the gang."
+
+"With such counterfeits as those worked upon Pylotte, and one big
+jewelry concern to help market the goods, they could clean up millions
+in a very short time."
+
+"No doubt of it. And they have their jewelry concern, all right."
+
+"Venner & Co.?"
+
+"Surely."
+
+"We must get absolute proof of it."
+
+"That's just what I intend doing, now that we have the game uncovered,"
+said Nick, grimly.
+
+"And then proceed to locate the plant where the goods are made, eh?"
+
+"Precisely."
+
+"What are your plans?"
+
+"We'll first get a line on Venner, and see to what it leads," replied
+Nick. "There now is a way by which we can call the turn on him, and get
+proof of his co-operation with Kilgore and his gang."
+
+"By getting him to sell us some diamonds?"
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"And then proving them to be artificial?"
+
+"That's the idea."
+
+"Can you get at him in a way to trap him?"
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"He may fight shy of us," suggested Chick, "in case he knows of
+Pylotte's scrap with the gang last night. He may fear that Pylotte has
+discovered the fraud, and reported it to the police."
+
+"There's not much danger of that," replied Nick. "So stupendous a fraud
+would at once be given publicity through the press."
+
+"That's true."
+
+"In either case," added Nick, abruptly, "there's a way by which we can
+fool him. I'll explain it on the way. Get your make-up box and prepare
+to go with me. Since we have the game uncovered, we'll lose no time in
+rounding up these accomplished rascals."
+
+"Good enough!" exclaimed Chick, as he hurriedly arose. "The sooner the
+better."
+
+"We may have ragged work before the job is completed," added Nick. "So
+provide yourself with a brace of guns. I'll be ready when you are."
+
+"Where first?"
+
+"To the house of Pandu Singe, the snake charmer."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+AT CROSS-PURPOSES.
+
+
+It was not quite noon when Nick Carter and Chick arrived at the house of
+the Hindoo snake charmer.
+
+They found Pandu Singe at home with his interpreter, and the two
+detectives were very cordially received.
+
+Nick quickly disclosed his business.
+
+"We wish to borrow your personalities for a short time, also some of
+your curious garments," he explained to Pandu Singe, through his
+interpreter, who also was a Hindoo of superior education.
+
+The snake charmer appeared greatly surprised at such a request, but Nick
+readily invented a very plausible story to serve his purpose, without
+disclosing the true occasion.
+
+He soon persuaded the foreigner to grant his request, moreover, and the
+amazement of Pandu Singe and the interpreter were redoubled when they
+beheld what followed.
+
+This was the extraordinary transformation of their visitors.
+
+Nick had already outlined his plans to Chick, and they at once began
+operations.
+
+First they placed the two Hindoos in chairs near the windows, where the
+light revealed every peculiarity of their swarthy features.
+
+Nick next adjusted a large mirror upon the table, and placed his make-up
+box near by.
+
+Using the interpreter for his pattern, Nick then set to work with
+grease paints, powders, false hair, and the like, and at the end of
+twenty minutes he had, with most artistic skill, converted himself into
+a startling likeness of his model.
+
+The addition of the garments already provided for him made the
+remarkable transformation absolutely complete.
+
+Chick had not been idle meantime, but with equally clever manipulation
+had made himself into a counterfeit presentment of Pandu Singe.
+
+The astonishment of the two Hindoos, and their delight as they beheld
+the progressive changes so artistically made, could scarcely find
+expression in words.
+
+At the end of an hour, when the two detectives stood robed in their
+strange Indian attire, one would readily have declared that four genuine
+Hindoos, rather than two, occupied the apartment.
+
+Having thus paved the way to his next move, Nick easily prevailed upon
+the Hindoos to remain indoors for a day or two, lest the deception
+should be discovered and his designs perverted.
+
+He and Chick then returned to their waiting carriage, and half an hour
+later it drew up at the Fifth Avenue store of Venner & Co.
+
+Chick alighted and led the way in.
+
+In order that he might do most of the talking, and shape his course by
+whatever might occur, Nick had decided to personate the interpreter.
+
+Yet both detectives had carefully noticed the peculiar characteristics
+of the Hindoo tongue, and believed that they could imitate it so
+cleverly as to prevent detection.
+
+Several facts, which Nick then had no way of knowing, however, operated
+very quickly to betray him and the crafty ruse he had adopted, when
+Venner personally met them at the store door.
+
+First, Kilgore had shrewdly reasoned that Nick's first move, after the
+disclosures made by Pylotte, would be that of thus getting positive
+evidence against Venner; and the crafty diamond swindler had warned
+Venner to be on the watch for the detective, and to handle him in a way
+to serve their own designs.
+
+Furthermore, when visiting the theater with Cervera, Venner frequently
+had heard Pandu Singe talking with his interpreter; and before Nick
+fairly had begun speaking, Venner penetrated his disguise and saw that
+he was up against the two detectives.
+
+Yet, despite the unexpected characters in which he now beheld them, the
+nerve of the polished knave did not weaken, nor his countenance in any
+way betray him. He at once proceeded to follow Kilgore's instructions.
+
+"Ah! yes, I recognize both you and your interpreter," said he, in reply
+to Nick's dignified greeting. "I have frequently seen Pandu Singe at the
+theater, where I am admitted to the stage with Senora Cervera, the
+famous Spanish dancer. Perhaps Pandu Singe may have seen me there."
+
+Nick gravely bowed, then pretended to interpret the remarks to Chick;
+who immediately began to bow and smile, at the same time glibly
+responding in a jargon that would have staggered a Chinese laundryman,
+yet which sounded as much like Hindoo as anything.
+
+Had his own situation been less serious, and the entire outlook less
+desperate, Venner would have laughed at the consummate dignity and
+soberness with which the two detectives co-operated in their exchange of
+unintelligible talk.
+
+"My employer, the great Pandu Singe," bowed Nick, "says he remembers the
+friend of the great Cervera."
+
+"Ah! I am glad to hear it," cried Venner, shaking hands with Chick.
+
+"He has seen the splendid diamonds of the great senora, and has heard
+that they came from your magnificent store," Nick then went on to
+explain.
+
+"That is quite right," bowed Venner. "Many of them did come from here.
+Is Pandu Singe looking for some diamonds?"
+
+Nick promptly bowed, and noted a gleam of satisfaction in the depths of
+Venner's eyes.
+
+"The great Pandu Singe soon returns to his own country," replied Nick.
+"He wishes to take with him, as a gift to her august excellency, the
+Empress of all the Indies, six fine jewels of equal weight and value. He
+calls here to learn if you can provide him with them."
+
+Venner plainly saw the game that was being attempted, and it suited him
+to the very letter.
+
+"Does the great Pandu Singe wish to purchase diamonds?" he asked,
+bowing.
+
+"Diamonds, yes! Are they not for the empress?"
+
+"I should have thought of that, certainly."
+
+"Only diamonds will answer."
+
+"Of large size and the first water?"
+
+"The great Pandu Singe would consider no other."
+
+"Alas, then, this is most unfortunate!" Venner now exclaimed, glancing
+about the store. "You see that we are making some repairs here, in the
+walls of our store and vault."
+
+"That is plain," bowed Nick. "But what has that to do with the
+diamonds?"
+
+"Only this," replied Venner, with feigned regret. "During these repairs
+I have removed all of my most valuable diamonds to a vault in my private
+residence."
+
+"For safer keeping?"
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"I will explain to Pandu Singe."
+
+"Wait a moment," Venner quickly interposed. "Tell him, also, that I have
+at my residence the very gems he desires, six magnificent diamonds,
+precisely alike in weight, purity and cutting. They cannot be equaled in
+New York City, if in the entire country."
+
+"Are they fit for an empress?"
+
+"They are fit for a goddess."
+
+"Ah! that will please Pandu Singe."
+
+"Tell him, also, that he can purchase them at a marvelously low price,"
+cried Venner. "Now, if Pandu Singe will come to my house, say early this
+evening, he may see the diamonds and examine them at his leisure. Tell
+him that, Mr. Interpreter, and say that I will send my carriage for him
+immediately after dinner. Say, too, that he may then see the diamonds
+both by daylight and lamplight, and so observe all the variety of their
+magnificent fire. Really, this will be greatly to the advantage of Pandu
+Singe."
+
+Nick gravely heard him to a finish, and with never a change of
+countenance.
+
+Yet, like a flash, one of those marvelous intuitions characteristic of
+this great detective, Nick Carter had suddenly grasped the whole truth.
+
+That conflict of the previous night, the flight of three of the diamond
+gang, Pylotte left comparatively uninjured in the road, his subsequent
+disclosures, his extensive knowledge of the diamond-making art, the
+hints he had imparted, and now this manifest eagerness of Venner to lure
+his ostensible customers to his suburban house--all combined to reveal
+to Nick's keen mind the shrewd game by which Kilgore was hoping to
+entrap him.
+
+Nick now knew that Venner recognized both Chick and himself, and was
+serving only the Kilgore gang.
+
+Yet Nick bowed without the slightest self-betrayal, and said, gravely:
+
+"I will explain the situation to Pandu Singe."
+
+For several minutes the two detectives maintained their curious game of
+talk.
+
+Then Nick, who had speedily planned his own counter-move, again turned
+to Rufus Venner.
+
+"The great Pandu Singe will do what you suggest," said he. "He wishes to
+see the diamonds, and will be pleased to come to your house."
+
+Venner had felt sure of this to start with, though he little dreamed
+that Nick had guessed the truth, and knew that he was recognized.
+
+"Let it be to-day, then," said he, quickly.
+
+"At your own pleasure," bowed Nick.
+
+"I will send my carriage far you at seven this evening," cried Venner,
+with secret exultation.
+
+Nick gravely tendered one of the snake charmer's cards.
+
+"The great Pandu Singe will not keep your carriage waiting!" said he,
+with a dryness to which Venner then was blind.
+
+"Well, Chick, what say you to that?" demanded Nick, as they were
+returning to the house of the snake charmer.
+
+Chick laughed grimly.
+
+"I say that we are now up against it."
+
+"Right! There's a mighty wicked crisis near at hand."
+
+"No doubt of it, Nick. Venner knew us all right."
+
+"But he does not suspect that we are aware that he knew us, and in that
+at least we have the best of him."
+
+"We'll turn it to a good account, too."
+
+"Do you see the game this Kilgore gang is playing?"
+
+"Plainly, Nick."
+
+"They aim to lure us both to Venner's house, and there trap us and do us
+up."
+
+"To which latter," said Chick, dryly, "we shall strenuously object."
+
+"Well, rather!" laughed Nick. "Still, I can see nothing in evading this
+question or in making a raid upon Venner's house. If the Kilgore gang
+are about to lay for us there, it is evident that their diamond plant is
+located elsewhere. They would not take chances of failing to down us,
+and then having their plant discovered in the house where they slipped
+up."
+
+"Surely not," admitted Chick. "Kilgore is too shrewd to take those
+chances."
+
+"Undoubtedly."
+
+For several minutes Nick calmly considered the situation, then bluntly
+observed:
+
+"Chick, I see but one course for us. We must go up against the game, and
+give this gang what rope they want."
+
+"That's just my idea, Nick."
+
+"In no other way can we make sure of nailing the entire gang, and also
+locating their plant. Raiding Venner's house would not accomplish it.
+Some of the gang might not be there, or possibly escape us, and we might
+search in vain for their plant. Then we should have most of our work to
+do over again."
+
+"That's right, Nick."
+
+"So we'll take the one sure way, Chick," said Nick, decisively. "We'll
+let this gang continue to think they are fooling us, and go up against
+them till we get the whole truth."
+
+"That's good enough for me, Nick," nodded Chick. "I'm with you."
+
+"It may prove to be a desperate game, but we'll take our chances. Before
+night I'll have laid such plans as will best serve us, and possibly
+circumvent these scoundrels. Here we are at the house of Pandu Singe."
+
+Nick dismissed their carriage, and entered the dwelling, where they
+decided to remain until evening. Meantime Nick perfected his plans and
+discussed them with Chick.
+
+Then a wire was sent to Patsy, the detective's younger assistant, with
+careful instructions.
+
+Seven o'clock came, then half-past seven, but no sign of Venner's
+carriage.
+
+Nick readily suspected the true reason for the delay.
+
+"They are waiting until dark," he observed to Chick. "They don't want
+our arrival at Venner's house to be observed. A crafty dog, this
+Kilgore!"
+
+"That he is."
+
+"Never mind. Darkness will serve us best, as well as them."
+
+"Hark! There's a carriage."
+
+Nick glanced from the front window.
+
+"A landau!" he muttered, with grim satisfaction. "Yes, and with Spotty
+Dalton on the seat. I know him, despite his disguise. Come on, Chick!
+There's rough work to be done in the next two hours."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+HANDS SHOWED DOWN.
+
+
+Spotty Dalton stood at the door of the open carriage when Nick and Chick
+emerged from the house, still clad in the character of Hindoos.
+
+"Are you sent here by Mr. Venner?" inquired Nick.
+
+Dalton touched the cloth cap drawn low over his brow, and stroked his
+dark, false beard as he replied:
+
+"Yes, sir," said he, half in his throat. "You're the interpreter, I take
+it."
+
+"At your service."
+
+"I'm a bit late, but it couldn't be helped. We'll not be long in getting
+there."
+
+"Time does not matter to the great Pandu Singe," replied Nick, as he
+followed Chick into the open landau. "The night is still long."
+
+"It'll be infernally long for you two meddlers," Dalton grimly said to
+himself, as he banged the carriage door and mounted to the box.
+
+Then they rolled rapidly away toward a northern suburb of the city.
+
+The dusk of evening was already deepening to darkness, a gloom more
+noticeable far up in the heavens than among the myriad of lights in the
+city streets. For not a star was visible in the murky sky, and away in
+the west huge banks of inky clouds were sweeping up toward the zenith,
+indicating the rapid approach of a sudden storm.
+
+"Do you think it is going to rain, driver?" called Nick, from the rear
+seat of the carriage.
+
+"Not soon," Dalton turned to answer; and then he added with grim
+significance, which he did not dream would be appreciated: "Whether it
+rains or not, you'll be brought back home in a closed carriage."
+
+"It's my private opinion that the boot will be on the other leg,"
+thought Nick, smiling faintly at the scoundrel's grim levity.
+
+For Dalton had implied that Nick would be brought back in a hearse.
+
+From that time but few words were spoken during the ride, though the
+detectives occasionally passed a remark in their meaningless lingo,
+merely to keep up appearances.
+
+At eight o'clock they had left the throbbing body of the city behind
+them, and at half-past eight they were speeding along the deserted
+suburban road leading to Venner's rather isolated homestead.
+
+Only the yellow glare of an incandescent lamp here and there now
+relieved the terrestrial gloom, but across the distant heavens
+intermittent flashes of light, followed by the low, sullen roll of
+thunder, told of the approaching storm.
+
+Soon the lighted windows of Venner's house came into view through the
+woodland, and Nick now murmured softly to Chick:
+
+"If I fail to rejoin you in ten minutes, you will know what to do."
+
+"You bet!" whispered Chick. "Trust me to do it, too!"
+
+"Here we are, sirs," cried Dalton, as he pulled up at the gate of the
+gravel walk. "You can go right in, while I wait to look after my
+horses."
+
+Chick--as Pandu Singe--pretended to give Nick a brief command, and Nick
+alone sprang out upon the sidewalk.
+
+"Wait here, driver," said he, curtly. "I will return for Pandu Singe in
+a few minutes."
+
+Dalton instantly became suspicious.
+
+"What's that for?" he abruptly demanded. "Why doesn't his nibs go in
+with you now?"
+
+"It is for me to obey the great Pandu Singe, not question his commands,"
+replied Nick, with an air of offended dignity. "I shall return for him
+when I have followed his instructions."
+
+"Hold on a bit! I want to know--"
+
+But Nick had already turned, and was striding up the long gravel walk
+leading to the front door of the house.
+
+Dalton then swung round and began to address Chick, who quickly
+signified that he could not understand; whereupon the puzzled scoundrel
+remained doubtfully on the box, growling under his breath, and quite at
+a loss just what he should do.
+
+Chick was now counting the seconds and minutes, until he should arrive
+at ten.
+
+Venner, who was waiting with the gang in the house, heard Nick's step on
+the wooden veranda, and he hastened to admit him.
+
+"What's this!" he at once exclaimed, starting. "Where is your master?
+You did not come here alone!"
+
+"No, not alone," replied Nick, entering the hall. "Pandu Singe waits in
+the carriage."
+
+"Waits in the carriage! For what?"
+
+"He fears the storm may break."
+
+"Fears the storm!" exclaimed Venner, with a blaze of suspicion leaping
+up in his dark eyes. "Surely, then, he will not remain out there."
+
+"You don't understand," coolly answered Nick, quickly sizing up
+everything in view.
+
+"Don't understand?"
+
+"Pandu Singe thinks of returning home before the storm shall break. He
+has first sent me in to see the diamonds, as I know just what he wants.
+If I think well of them, I am to return to the carriage and bring him in
+to see them."
+
+"Oh, that's it, eh?" cried Venner, with unabated misgivings.
+
+"Am I to see the stones?" demanded Nick. "Pandu Singe will not care to
+wait long."
+
+"Yes, yes," replied Venner, as perplexed as Dalton by Nick's unexpected
+move. "Come out this way, where I have them ready to show you."
+
+Nick bowed and followed him through the hall, and a glance into the two
+front rooms, both of which were well lighted, told him they were vacant.
+
+Nick knew that he was entering a trap, however, and possibly carried
+his life in his hand. Yet he had several shrewd designs in the plan of
+operations adopted.
+
+He aimed to prevent both Chick and himself being cornered, and possibly
+caught at the same time. Not wishing to evade this gang, and thus reveal
+his own knowledge and suspicions, he designed to leave Chick free to act
+in case of his own downfall.
+
+Nick knew that he alone could force Venner and the gang to show their
+hands, even if it resulted in his own capture. He rather invited the
+latter, in fact, for he knew that the gang would see the need of
+instantly removing him from Venner's house, at least until they could
+lay hands upon Chick. In this case Nick believed that they might be
+compelled to confine him at their diamond plant, the location of which
+he thus hoped to discover.
+
+For these reasons Nick was coolly taking very long chances, at the same
+time leaving Chick free to quickly get in his work, in case he himself
+went down at the outset.
+
+Yet there was not a sign of any person save Venner, as Nick followed him
+through the hall and into a side room near the rear of the house,
+evidently a dining room.
+
+Nick sized it up with a glance. Electric chandelier; two doors, one by
+which he had entered from the hall, and the other leading into a dark
+kitchen; two windows, with the curtains closely drawn; several chairs, a
+handsome sideboard, and in the middle of the room a large, square table,
+covered with a rich damask cloth hanging nearly to the floor.
+
+Upon the table was also spread a piece of black velvet, on which was
+displayed nearly a score of blazing diamonds--the most magnificent
+artificial stones ever born of man's restless genius.
+
+Nick rightly guessed their true character, yet he allowed an ejaculation
+of admiration to escape him.
+
+"Ah! Magnificent!"
+
+"Look them over," cried Venner, with a swift scrutiny of Nick's swarthy
+features. "You'll excuse me for a minute or two. I wish to make sure
+that my rear windows and doors are locked. Such gems are a terrible
+temptation to thieves."
+
+"True, sir," bowed Nick. "Take your time. Meanwhile I'll examine the
+diamonds. They are splendid! magnificent!"
+
+Nick rightly guessed that Venner wished to consult some of the gang. He
+saw that his entering the house without Chick had thrown their plans
+badly out of gear, as he had designed for it to do.
+
+Venner went into the dark kitchen, rattled a doorknob merely for a
+bluff, then crossed the hall and entered the library, closing the door
+behind him.
+
+The room was but dimly lighted, and on the floor stood Dave Kilgore and
+Matthew Stall, each with a drawn revolver.
+
+"What's the meaning of this, Rufe?" Kilgore instantly demanded, in
+passionate whispers.
+
+"How do I know?" Venner hurriedly rejoined, scarce above his breath.
+"You heard what he said?"
+
+"Yes, curse him, but I don't swallow it."
+
+"Nor I."
+
+"I can't see into his game."
+
+"That's just my trouble," cried Venner. "Can he have discovered that we
+recognize him?"
+
+"Impossible! Pylotte is too cunning to have betrayed us in any way."
+
+This was very true, in fact; but Venner himself had blindly done the
+betraying.
+
+"It doesn't matter, Rufe," Kilgore fiercely added. "We must get them
+both."
+
+"That's my idea."
+
+"And it's all the easier to get them one at a time."
+
+"Right you are, Dave."
+
+"Has he discovered Pylotte?"
+
+"Surely not!"
+
+"Go back there, then," hissed Kilgore. "Learn what his game is, if you
+can. Force him to show his hand."
+
+"Leave that to me."
+
+"Waste no time, however, and on no pretext let him leave the house to
+return to the carriage."
+
+"Not on our lives."
+
+"A warning whistle will start Pylotte, and we'll be on hand to do our
+part," added Kilgore, hurriedly. "Go back at once, and waste not a
+moment in getting at his game."
+
+"Trust me, Dave."
+
+"We must land Nick Carter and get him away from here before that
+running mate of his can make any move against us."
+
+"That's the stuff."
+
+"And then we'll plan to get the other. Away with you!"
+
+These forcible measures were precisely what Nick had felt sure would be
+adopted by the gang, and were the very steps to which he had so shrewdly
+planned to force them.
+
+Venner darted softly across the hall and returned to the dining room.
+
+Nick was still examining the diamonds.
+
+He stood near the table, at a point midway between the two open doors.
+He had selected this position for a very good reason. He was inviting
+capture and removal, which he knew must be preceded by an assault; and
+he therefore laid himself open from either side, aiming to be put down
+and out with as little violence as possible.
+
+He wanted all his resources for what he knew was very likely to follow.
+
+Nick was quite as anxious as the gang to force matters, moreover; for at
+the end of ten minutes, in case he did not return to the carriage, Chick
+was to begin getting in his work.
+
+Therefore the climax came quickly.
+
+Six minutes had already passed.
+
+"Well, sir, what do you think of them?" cried Venner, as he returned to
+the room.
+
+"The diamonds?" queried Nick, tossing several of them back upon the
+table.
+
+"Certainly. What else?"
+
+"They are all right, Mr. Venner."
+
+"I thought you would say so."
+
+"Yes, indeed. They are all right--for what they are!"
+
+"For what they are?"
+
+"Precisely."
+
+"What do you mean by that?"
+
+"You know what I mean."
+
+"I do?" snarled Venner, inquiringly, with his frowning eyes shrinking
+from Nick's steadfast gaze.
+
+"Certainly you do," declared Nick. "These diamonds are imitations, not
+natural stones. They are the most perfect and marvelous artificial
+diamonds ever made.
+
+"Artificial!" cried Venner, now drawing back. "You are mad, sir! Why,
+man, you are away off the track!"
+
+"Oh, no, I'm not."
+
+"You are!"
+
+"Not off the track at all, but very squarely on it," Nick now retorted,
+speaking in his own sternly resonant tones. "Hark you, Venner, I am the
+one to ask the meaning of this, not you!"
+
+Venner's hand went stealing toward his hip pocket.
+
+"So you are showing your true colors, are you?" he cried, with
+threatening significance. "By Heaven, you are no Hindoo!"
+
+"That's right, Venner, I am not," said Nick, quickly throwing off the
+loose robe that hid his own apparel, fearing it might impede his
+movements. "I am no Hindoo, but am--"
+
+"Nick Carter!"
+
+"Exactly!"
+
+"So this is your game, is it?" Venner fiercely began. "If you think--"
+
+"Stop right there, Venner," Nick sternly commanded. "Speaking of games,
+I am here to discover what sort of a rascally game you and this Kilgore
+gang are playing. I have learned enough to show me that you are a knave
+and a--"
+
+"By heavens, Carter--"
+
+"Stop!" thundered Nick. "Don't pull a gun! If you do, I'll end your--"
+
+But he got no further, for there the climax came.
+
+A single sharp whistle sounded from the kitchen.
+
+Instantly Nick felt a rope noose jerked taut around his ankles, nearly
+throwing him from his feet.
+
+From beneath the table, the hanging cover of which had effectually
+concealed him, Jean Pylotte had managed to adjust the noose upon the
+floor about Nick's legs. At the signal given him, he had quickly drawn
+it taut.
+
+At the same moment Kilgore and Matt Stall leaped upon Nick from the
+kitchen and hall doors, bearing him heavily to the floor, while Venner
+ran to clap a revolver to the detective's head.
+
+"Hang to his feet, Pylotte," cried Kilgore, fiercely.
+
+"I've got 'em fast," shouted the diamond maker, from under the table.
+
+"Quit, Carter, or I'll blow your brains out," commanded Venner, with his
+pistol at Nick's head.
+
+Nick had been making a great bluff at putting up an ugly fight, but now
+he very agreeably subsided.
+
+The affair was going precisely as he desired, yet for the sake of
+appearances he angrily snarled:
+
+"Let up, you dogs! So this is your game, is it? Turn that gun another
+way, Venner, you miscreant! It might go off, and I'm not fool enough to
+invite its contents. This dirty game that you've played--"
+
+"Dry up!" Kilgore sharply interrupted, while he and Stall quickly
+secured Nick's arms with a rope. "You'll not live to know the game that
+we have played, Nick Carter."
+
+"Won't I?"
+
+"Not if I live!" cried Kilgore, with vicious significance.
+
+"Well, maybe you'll not live long," retorted Nick.
+
+"I'll close that saucy trap of yours, at all events," sneered Kilgore.
+"Give me that gag, Matt--quick."
+
+Nick no longer resisted. A glance at the clock on the mantel told him
+that nearly ten minutes had passed since he left Chick. He suffered
+himself to be gagged, then raised to his feet, from which Pylotte now
+cast the line and emerged from under the table.
+
+Nick bestowed one look upon him, from which the rascal shrank and
+shuddered.
+
+Kilgore now turned quickly to Venner, and hurriedly cried:
+
+"You remain here, Rufe, and leave us to dispose of this fellow. We'll
+run him over yonder, and return as quickly as possible. It's not safe to
+keep him here until we have landed his running mate."
+
+"But--"
+
+"Don't stop for buts!" cried Kilgore, fiercely. "Go see if you can sight
+Chick Carter. If he is still in the carriage, we are all right up to
+now. In six or eight minutes go down there and give him to understand
+that his interpreter wants him to come in here. Before you reach this
+room with him, we three will be back to help you turn him down. Do you
+understand?"
+
+"Sure!" cried Venner, thrusting his weapon back in his pocket. "He
+cannot suspect that we have recognized Nick, and he'll come in, all
+right."
+
+"Go, then! We'll be back here in six minutes."
+
+Venner hastened to one of the front windows of the house and peered out
+toward the street. At that moment a flash of lightning, followed by the
+nearer roll of thunder, dispelled for an instant the intense gloom of
+the night.
+
+A growl of profound satisfaction broke from Venner while he gazed, and
+he muttered exultingly:
+
+"By Heaven! we're all right! He's waiting in the carriage, and Dalton is
+still on the box!"
+
+Nick was being pushed out of a back door of the house, meantime, and
+then across the lawn and through the dark stable.
+
+The ruffians who were hurrying him away did not stop there, however.
+Pylotte ran on ahead, while Kilgore and Matt Stall continued urging the
+detective across the grounds, making toward the old wooden mansion in
+which their secret plant was located.
+
+It seemed to them the safest place in which to confine Nick, pending the
+delay in getting hands upon Chick.
+
+Presently they came to a dry ditch, walled at each side, and originally
+built for draining the low meadows between the two estates. Into this
+they plunged, following it until they arrived near a wooden bulkhead in
+the foundation wall of the house. This was the secret way of entering,
+to which Cervera had referred the previous night.
+
+Pylotte already had opened it, and Nick was quickly forced through a
+dark cellar.
+
+"All right," cried Kilgore. "Let us in."
+
+Instantly the secret stone door was thrown open, and Nick was nearly
+blinded by the flood of light in the room into which he was abruptly
+thrust.
+
+He stood in the subterranean chamber of the diamond plant.
+
+And there, erect on the floor, with her evil countenance a picture of
+malicious triumph, stood his crafty combatant of the previous
+night--Sanetta Cervera.
+
+"_Caramba!_" she cried, shrilly, with a vicious laugh. "So you've got
+him! Well done, Dave! Well done!"
+
+"Yes, and we'll presently have the other," cried Kilgore, panting hard
+after his exertions.
+
+"Good for you, Dave," screamed Cervera, exultingly. "But this is the one
+I want most--this is the one!"
+
+"Look lively, Matt. Lend a hand here, and we'll bind him to yonder
+chair."
+
+"And leave Cervera to guard him, eh?"
+
+"That's the stuff."
+
+"Can she do it?"
+
+"Can she!" growled Kilgore, with derisive vehemence. "You let her alone
+for that."
+
+"Yes, yes, let me alone for that!"
+
+"We must get back to stand by Venner. That Chick Carter is nearly as
+tough a customer as this fellow."
+
+"I guess you'll find that that's no dream," said Nick to himself, as the
+ruffians bound him to the chair mentioned.
+
+Cervera was laughing and capering around as if about to have a fit--yet
+her laugh had a terrible and chilling ring.
+
+"Oh, yes, I'll guard him, Dave," she shrilly cried, with a frightful
+menace in her strained voice. "_Caramba_, yes! let me alone for that."
+
+"So I do," snarled Kilgore.
+
+"Knot the line fast, Matt--make sure of that," the woman fiercely added.
+"Yes, I'll keep him quiet--never doubt that, boys! He shall be like a
+baby taking milk. Perdition! but you shall have a sweet time, Mr. Nick,
+alone here with Sanetta Cervera!"
+
+Kilgore paid but little attention to any of this, and only now and then
+bestowed a glance upon the vicious woman.
+
+Within a minute after their arrival at the plant, the gang had Nick
+securely bound to a common wooden chair, when they condescended to
+remove the gag from his mouth.
+
+"He may shout himself hoarse here, if he likes," growled Kilgore. "There
+will be none to hear him."
+
+Then he hurried Pylotte and Matt Stall back to the Venner house, to
+land Chick Carter.
+
+Left alone with Nick, Cervera darted to the stone door in the solid
+wall, and secured it within.
+
+There was murder in her glittering eyes when she shot the heavy bolts
+into their iron sockets.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE BOOT ON THE OTHER LEG.
+
+
+In the heat of action and excitement ten minutes are as nothing.
+
+The time seems longer, however, when one sits waiting in a motionless
+carriage, enveloped in the gloom of night, with grim distrust and
+uncertainty acting like spurs in the sides of one's impatience.
+
+Before five minutes had fairly passed, after Nick's departure, Spotty
+Dalton had suffered his misgivings to the very limit of his endurance.
+
+Chick sat mentally counting the passing seconds, then scoring each
+departed minute with his fingers, of which he had exhausted four and a
+thumb, the entire complement of one hand; and all the while his eyes
+were riveted with intense vigilance upon the growling ruffian on the
+seat above him.
+
+Had Dalton ventured so much as a move to leave his perch, Chick would
+have been after him like a terrier after a rat.
+
+At the end of five minutes, however, Dalton made a preliminary move. He
+hitched the reins around the whipstock, then stared for a second or two
+toward Venner's house, fifty yards away through the surrounding park.
+
+Then he suddenly swung round on his seat, and growled ferociously at
+Chick, at the same time signifying with gestures the communication he
+imagined would not be verbally understood:
+
+"See here, you swarthy-faced snake fiend, I'm bound up yonder, to see
+what's going on! You sit where you are, d'ye hear, and I'll be back in a
+jiffy, if things are all right! If they're not, ---- you, I'll be back
+just the same--with a gun!"
+
+As if moved by a wish to understand him, Chick arose in the body of the
+carriage while Dalton was thus declaring himself. He heard and
+understood, all right, and it necessitated his getting in his work a
+little earlier than was planned. For Chick would take no such chances as
+this that Nick's operations in the house would be interfered with.
+
+As the last word left Dalton's lips, the arm of the detective shot out
+through the darkness, and closed with the grip of a vise around the
+ruffian's neck, throttling him to silence.
+
+"With a gun, eh?" Chick fiercely muttered, yanking Dalton backward into
+the body of the carriage. "You open your lips again for so much as a
+whisper, and I'll close them with six inches of cold steel."
+
+In the glare of a distant lightning flash, Dalton, though struggling
+furiously, caught the gleam of a polished blade at his throat, and a
+glimpse of the flaming eyes in the face above him.
+
+He shrank, gasping for breath, as the truth dawned upon him; and then
+the voice of another sounded close beside the open carriage.
+
+"Want any help, Chick?"
+
+Nick's youthful assistant, to whom a wire had been sent from the house
+of the snake charmer, had appeared like an apparition out of the
+roadside gloom.
+
+"Ah! you're here, Patsy!" muttered Chick. "Yes. Clap a gag into this
+cur's mouth. We'll choke off his pipes first of all."
+
+Dalton uttered a vicious growl, then felt the point of the knife pierce
+the skin at his throat, and he wisely relapsed into silence.
+
+For Patsy to fish out a gag, and bind it securely in the scoundrel's
+mouth, was the work of a few moments only.
+
+Then Chick jerked Dalton up from the rear cushion and out into the road,
+in far less time than is taken to record it.
+
+"Off with his coat and hat, Patsy," he hurriedly commanded. "Now the
+false beard, my lad. Now get into them yourself, as quickly as you can."
+
+"I'm all in, Chick," chuckled Patsy, working like a trooper.
+
+"Got all the traps with you?"
+
+"Sure!"
+
+"Clap the bracelets on him, then. Now give me a second pair, and a strip
+of line. That's the stuff."
+
+"Oh, I brought the whole shooting match," laughed Patsy.
+
+"Good for you! Now mount to the box, and leave this dog to me. I'll
+return in half a minute."
+
+Patsy climbed up to the seat from which Dalton had been so speedily
+snatched and overcome, and Chick now ran the rascal a rod or more into
+the woodland on the opposite side of the road.
+
+There he threw him to the ground beside a small oak, around the trunk of
+which he quickly twined Dalton's legs, and then fastened them at the
+ankles with a pair of irons.
+
+"I reckon you'll stay there quietly until I want you, barring that you
+pull up the tree," he grimly remarked, as he turned to hasten back to
+the carriage, in which he quickly resumed his seat.
+
+A moment later Venner peered from the distant window--and was satisfied
+with what he saw.
+
+Five minutes later he came striding down the walk and approached the
+carriage. Without a word to the driver, whom he supposed to be Dalton,
+he opened the carriage door and laid his hand on Chick's arm, at the
+same time pointing toward the house.
+
+Chick signified that he understood, and held out both hands, as if he
+wished to be helped to the sidewalk.
+
+Venner promptly raised both of his--only to suddenly hear a quick,
+metallic snap, and feel links of cold steel confining his wrists. Their
+icy chill went through him like a knife, and he reeled as if stricken a
+blow.
+
+"Good God!" he gasped, hoarsely. "What's this?"
+
+Chick and Patsy were already beside him.
+
+"This," said Chick, sternly, "is your wind-up!"
+
+"My--"
+
+"Stop! Not a loud word, Mr. Venner, or worse will be yours! Now tell me
+in whispers--where is Nick Carter?"
+
+The sight of a revolver thrust under his nose had a potent effect upon
+the dismayed man, yet even while he saw that he was cornered, he seized
+upon the hope that Kilgore and the gang might discover and release him.
+
+"Find him yourself, if you want him!" he hissed through his teeth, with
+an ugly frown. "I'm cursed if I'll inform you!"
+
+Chick did not delay for arguments or persuasion. With Patsy's help he
+speedily put Venner in the same helpless condition in which he had left
+Dalton, stretched upon the ground, within a rod of one another.
+
+Then he threw off his disguise, and shifted his revolvers to his side
+pockets.
+
+"Now for yonder house, Patsy, and to see what the remainder of this gang
+are at," said he. "Come with me, and have your guns ready."
+
+"I'm with you," cried Patsy, coolly. "Guns and all."
+
+A dash up the gravel walk brought them to the front door, which Venner
+had left partly open.
+
+There they paused and listened.
+
+Not a sound came from within the house; but overhead the tempest now was
+breaking, with frequent crashing peals of thunder, and flashes of
+lightning that illumined all the landscape. Rain, too, now began pelting
+down on the veranda roof.
+
+"We'll steal in and see what we can find," whispered Chick, drawing one
+of his revolvers.
+
+"Go it, then."
+
+He led the way, and Patsy followed. The silence in the house mystified
+them at first. It appeared to have been entirely deserted.
+
+When they reached the door of the dining room, however, Chick discovered
+on the floor the disguise which Nick had discarded.
+
+"I have it, Patsy," he cried, softly. "They have nailed Nick, just as he
+expected, and have taken him somewhere to confine him."
+
+"Perhaps in the cellar," suggested Patsy.
+
+"I hardly think so, yet we'll have a look."
+
+Moving as quietly as shadows, they entered the kitchen and easily
+located the cellar door. It was closed and locked, with the key
+remaining.
+
+"Evidently they're not down there," whispered Chick.
+
+"Let's try the upper floors," suggested Patsy. "They may be laying for
+us up there, but I reckon we're good for them."
+
+"We'll take the chance, surely. Come on."
+
+They crept through the hall again, and then mounted the broad stairway,
+which led to the next floor.
+
+There the utter silence and the semidarkness quickly convinced them that
+they were on the wrong track.
+
+"The stable," muttered Chick, suddenly. "We'll try the stable."
+
+"They certainly have vamosed this ranch," remarked Patsy.
+
+"Plainly. Come on, then, and we'll try the stable."
+
+Together they started downstairs.
+
+A moment later Kilgore, Pylotte and Matt Stall came flurrying into the
+house by the rear door.
+
+In the bright light of the broad hall each party discovered the other
+at precisely the same moment, and Kilgore instantly guessed the truth.
+
+With a cry of rage, he whipped out his revolver and fired point-blank at
+the two men on the stairs.
+
+"Down 'em, boys!" he yelled furiously. "Down 'em, or our game is done
+for!"
+
+His bullet glanced from the baluster rail near Chick, and buried itself
+in the wall behind him.
+
+"Drop them, Patsy!" he shouted, instantly. "Shoot to kill! It's them or
+us!"
+
+"Let her go, Gallagher!" roared Patsy, pulling both guns.
+
+Then, amid the tumult of the breaking tempest outside, there began a
+fusillade the thunder of which rivaled that of the night, and which,
+though comparatively brief, was as fast and furious as any man there had
+ever experienced.
+
+Pylotte went down at the first shot from Chick, however, with a bullet
+in his brain.
+
+Then shot followed shot with lightning rapidity.
+
+Both detectives sprang down several stairs to evade the rain of lead,
+for both Kilgore and Stall were rapidly emptying two revolvers.
+
+A bullet singed Patsy's ear.
+
+Another dislodged Chick's hat.
+
+Then Kilgore reeled with a slight wound in his left arm.
+
+A score of shots were fired and wasted, meantime, for all hands were
+dodging about the hall and stairs in an utterly indescribable fashion.
+
+It was the warmest kind of a fight for fully three minutes.
+
+Then Chick got a line on Matt Stall from behind the baluster post, and
+dropped him with a ragged wound in his hip.
+
+Stall fell with a yell of rage and pain, and Kilgore found himself
+alone, and against odds.
+
+He turned like a flash, and darted out of the rear door of the house.
+
+He knew that the game was up, his confederates done for, and his own
+chances of escape but small; and the situation stirred to their very
+depths the worst elements of this lifelong criminal.
+
+But one thought possessed him--that of revenge, that of destroying the
+chief cause of his downfall--Nick Carter.
+
+With this end in view, Kilgore tore like a madman through the blinding
+rain of that tempestuous night, and shaped his course back to the
+diamond plant.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+AN ONLY RESOURCE.
+
+
+Despite the corner in which he had placed himself, a situation far more
+desperate than he at first imagined, Nick Carter was congratulating
+himself upon the success of his ruse by which he had so quickly located
+the secret plant of the diamond swindlers, even at the sacrifice of his
+personal freedom.
+
+The fact that he now sat bound in a chair in the hidden stronghold of
+the gang, watched only by Cervera, did not seriously disturb the
+fearless detective.
+
+Nick had been in many a worse corner than this, or in corners believed
+to be worse, and he felt confident of pulling out of the scrape with a
+whole skin, and with most of the gang in custody.
+
+He had surveyed his surroundings with more than cursory interest,
+therefore, while Kilgore and his confederates were binding his arms to
+the rounds of the chair back, and his ankles to the legs of the same.
+
+The rough foundation walls of the house, the massive stone wall built
+across the cellar to mask the secret chamber, the elaborate electric
+furnace, the huge hydraulic press, the workbench and tools, the powerful
+arc light pendent from the ceiling--half an eye would have convinced
+Nick that he occupied the workroom of that master craftsman whose
+chemical knowledge and inventive genius had given birth to a most
+marvelous production, long, earnestly, yet vainly, sought by others--
+
+The production of an artificial diamond!
+
+Not until Nick heard the stone door forcibly closed, and its iron bolts
+shot violently into their sockets, did he pay serious attention to
+Cervera, the venomous Spanish vixen left to guard him.
+
+Then, as she swung round toward him, he took a sharper look at her
+darkly magnificent face, and was thrilled despite him by the
+extraordinary changes it had undergone.
+
+It had lost its beauty. Its olive flush had given place to a chalky
+whiteness. The radiance of her eyes had become a merciless glitter, like
+the glint cast from the eyes of a serpent. The reflection of a consuming
+passion for vengeance had transfigured her countenance, till it had
+become like the face of a fiend.
+
+Though Nick saw at a glance that his situation had taken on an
+unexpected and desperate phase, he suppressed any betrayal of it. He met
+the woman eye to eye, while she briefly paused and faced him, with a
+cruel smile curling her gray lips.
+
+"So I have you now, Nick Carter," she cried, with mocking significance.
+
+"Well, yes, in a way," admitted Nick, coolly.
+
+"I have you in my power," hissed Cervera, with a vicious display of
+satisfaction.
+
+"Ah! that's different," said Nick.
+
+"How different?"
+
+"That you have me in your power remains to be demonstrated."
+
+"Are we not alone here, you fool?"
+
+"Yes, very much alone."
+
+"And you helpless?"
+
+"Apparently."
+
+"If I wish, Nick Carter, I can kill you."
+
+"Then pray don't wish it," said Nick. "I am still too young to be
+heartlessly slain, even by so beautiful and accomplished a woman."
+
+"_Caramba!_ you mock me!" cried Cervera, darting toward him with eyes
+ablaze and her lithe figure quivering with passion. "You mock me!--you
+shall repent it! Perdition! you shall repent it!"
+
+"Is that so?"
+
+"You shall repent it, I say!"
+
+"In this world, or in the next?" inquired Nick, bent upon prolonging the
+scene as much as possible, with a hope that Chick might suddenly turn
+up.
+
+Cervera did not answer him immediately. She wheeled again and darted to
+the door, once more to make sure that she had secured its bolts.
+
+She was clad in the black dress in which she had escaped from Nick the
+previous night, the somber hue of which was relieved only by occasional
+flashes of her dainty white lace underskirts, as she swept quickly from
+place to place, with her lithe figure crouching at times, and her every
+movement as swift and impulsive as that of a startled leopard.
+
+As he sat watching her, Nick was reminded of her matchless work upon
+the stage, thrilling men and women alike with her wild grace and the
+fiery passion of her indescribable dances.
+
+She returned to confront him after a moment, crouching before him, with
+her glowing eyes fixed on his.
+
+"In the next world--not in this!" she now replied, with a voice that cut
+the air like the snap of a whip. "You'd have brief time for repentance
+in this."
+
+"So you've decided to do the job, have you?" Nick coolly demanded.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, I'm sorry to hear it."
+
+"Here is where we even up accounts."
+
+"Even them up, eh?"
+
+"You heard what I said."
+
+"But I wasn't aware that I have so very much the best of you."
+
+"You have."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"_Caramba!_ you know too much!"
+
+"Ah! you mean about that girl."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I see," nodded Nick, secretly working in vain to loose the ropes
+confining his arms. "Well, senora, as a matter of fact, I am rather
+likely to make things unpleasant for you one of these days."
+
+"It will be this day, or never. You'll not live to see another."
+
+"Possibly not."
+
+"_Caramba!_ do you doubt it?"
+
+She darted nearer to him, with her hand tearing open the waist of her
+dress, and then the gleam of a poniard met Nick's gaze. She swept it
+before his eyes with a wild gesture, and gave vent to a mocking laugh.
+
+"Do you doubt that I can slay you?"
+
+"Not at all," answered Nick. "It's very evident."
+
+"Or that I will?"
+
+"That appears equally manifest."
+
+"So it is!" hissed Cervera, with vicious intensity. "I intend to do it!
+Do you hear, Nick Carter? I intend to do it!"
+
+"Oh, yes, I hear you."
+
+"Why don't you shrink? Why don't you plead for mercy?"
+
+"What's the use?"
+
+She answered him with a laugh that made the room ring.
+
+"Besides," added Nick, "it's not my style to show the white feather."
+
+"We'll see! _Caramba!_ we will see!"
+
+She came nearer to him, crouching before him, so near that her breath
+fell hot upon his cheeks. Then, with a quick movement, she pressed the
+point of the blade through his clothing, till it pricked the flesh above
+his heart.
+
+With his arms bound, with his ankles secured to the legs of the chair,
+Nick appeared utterly at her mercy--of which she had none.
+
+Despite himself, Nick shrank slightly from the wound, and for the first
+time shuddered at the peril by which he was menaced, and from which
+there seemed to be no avenue of escape.
+
+Cervera laughed again, a laugh freighted with the terrible ring of
+madness.
+
+"Did it hurt you?" she screamed, with her glittering eyes raised to
+search his. "Perdition! I hope so! You have tortured me with a thousand
+fears. I'd like to repay you with a thousand pangs!"
+
+Nick's eyes took on an ugly gleam.
+
+"Why don't you do so, then?" he growled.
+
+"I would, if I had the time," cried Cervera, through her teeth.
+
+"You have all there is."
+
+"Ten thousand times I'd thrust it into you--thus! thus!"
+
+Nick set his jaws and met the blade without flinching.
+
+Twice the vicious demon thrust it through his clothing, and now two
+crimson stains of blood on his shirt front followed the withdrawal of
+the weapon.
+
+"See! see!" screamed Cervera, triumphantly, with her terrible face
+upturned to his gaze. "You're beginning to bleed! Did you know that the
+sight of blood affects me as it does a leopard? I thirst for more--if
+that of one I hate! When next I strike you, I shall strike deeper!"
+
+That she fully intended to murder him, Nick now, had not a doubt. The
+homicidal madness was in her eyes, in her every feature, her every
+motion, and it rang in every word that fell from her bloodless lips.
+
+Yet the inflexible nerve of the detective did not for a moment desert
+him.
+
+"Send the blade home at once, if you like," he said, with a scornful
+frown.
+
+"Not yet--not yet!" she cried, shrilly. "There'll be time for that."
+
+"Time and to spare," sneered Nick.
+
+"I first wish to torture you, as you've tortured me!"
+
+"Go ahead, then."
+
+"Once more! Are you ready?"
+
+"Let it come."
+
+Again she drew back the glittering blade, only to mock him with several
+pretended thrusts, hoping thus to create and prolong an agony of fear
+and suspense.
+
+A more viciously cruel and vindictive creature never drew the breath of
+life.
+
+She laughed again, and slowly pressed the weapon closer--and then, with
+a sudden startled cry, she drew back and leaped to her feet.
+
+A noise like that of a mighty cannonade seemed to shake even the solid
+walls of this buried chamber.
+
+It was the crash of thunder in the heavens overhead.
+
+It was Cervera's first intimation of the terrible tempest that had been
+gathering outside.
+
+At first she thought the sound was that of revolvers, and she darted to
+the door and listened, pressing her ear to the wall.
+
+The instant her back was turned, Nick made a desperate attempt to free
+himself, straining cords and muscles under the determined effort. It
+proved vain, however. The ropes held him as if made of twisted steel.
+
+Yet in his brief but desperate struggle his right arm came in contact
+with an object in the side pocket of his sack coat.
+
+The object was a box nearly filled with parlor matches--one of the most
+dangerous and treacherous creations of man's inventive genius.
+
+Like a sudden revelation, or a bolt out of the blue, there leaped up in
+Nick's mind a possible way of escape.
+
+He thought of Cervera's garments, of the fluffy lace skirts beneath her
+gown, to which a single flash of fire would instantly prove fatal.
+
+The resort to such means seemed horrible--yet Nick well knew it was the
+one and only resource left him.
+
+He glanced sharply at Cervera. She was still listening at the door, with
+her evil face a picture of intense suspense.
+
+With a quick turn of his wrist, Nick succeeded in extracting the box
+from his pocket. Then he forced it open, and with a move of his hand he
+scattered its entire contents over the floor around his chair. The tiny
+matches fell with scarce a sound, and Cervera, ten feet away, failed to
+hear them.
+
+Then Nick quietly worked his chair back a foot or two, in order to bring
+some of the fateful things upon the floor directly in front of him.
+
+A moment later Cervera turned from the door.
+
+"Thunder--it was thunder," she muttered, under her breath. "There's a
+storm outside."
+
+"Somebody coming?" queried Nick, with taunting accents.
+
+He now aimed to provoke her, to force the situation to a climax, lest
+any mischance should have befallen Chick, or perverted in any way his
+own designs upon Kilgore and the gang. His taunting remark proved
+effective, moreover.
+
+With a snarl of rage Cervera darted toward him, with eyes for him alone,
+never for the floor.
+
+"You dog!" she cried, through her white teeth.
+
+"Do you mock me again?"
+
+"Oh! no, of course not," sneered Nick.
+
+"You lie! You do! You think some one will come--that you will then
+escape me," screamed Cervera, quivering through and through with
+venomous passion.
+
+Nick watched her as a cat watches a mouse.
+
+Her face was ghastly and distorted, her breast heaving, her every nerve
+quivering, and her eyes were like balls of fire under their knitted
+brows.
+
+Still clutching the poniard, her jeweled fingers worked convulsively
+around its haft, like those of one who fain would strike a death blow,
+yet whose hand was briefly held by consuming horror.
+
+Suddenly she darted nearer, with a vicious snarl.
+
+"You think you'll escape me," she screamed, with bitter ferocity. "It
+shows in your eyes. I'll make sure that you don't. Let come who may, you
+shall be found--dead! Dead!--do you hear?"
+
+"Oh! yes, I hear."
+
+"Yet you do not fear? We'll see--we'll see!"
+
+She darted closer to him, with the weapon raised, above her head, and
+her knee touched Nick's knee. He swung quickly around toward her, and
+scraped his feet over the floor below her skirts.
+
+Then came a quick, furious snapping, like the noise of a miniature
+fusillade. A score of the matches had been ignited by Nick's swift move.
+
+Almost instantly a shriek of terror broke from Cervera's lips, and she
+reeled back, clutching wildly at her skirts.
+
+"My God! I'm on fire!--on fire!" she screamed, with a voice so intense
+in its agony as to have chilled a man of stone.
+
+A roar came from Nick as he sighted the flames under her gown.
+
+"Release me! Release me!" he thundered, furiously, with a voice that
+drowned her frightful screams. "Cut me loose--loose! It's your only
+hope--your only hope!"
+
+She heard him like one in a nightmare of agony and terror, and her
+instinct rather than her reason responded to his thundering commands.
+
+Still with the poniard in her jeweled hand, still shrieking wildly, she
+leaped to his side, and with a single sweep of the keen weapon severed
+the rope binding his arms.
+
+Then Nick snatched the poniard from her hand. With several swift cuts
+and slashes he released his limbs, and sprang quickly to his feet.
+
+He had already shaped his course. He had observed on the sulphur
+barrels, near the wall, a strip of matting, used as a cover for them.
+Nick snatched it from the barrels, and rushed to wrap it around the
+skirts and limbs of the terror-stricken woman.
+
+For several moments the result seemed doubtful, so doubtful that Nick
+finally threw Cervera heavily to the floor, the better to press the
+matting closely around her and so smother the flames. In this he
+presently succeeded, but not before she was so severely burned as to be
+rendered utterly helpless.
+
+When Nick arose to his feet Cervera remained lying prostrate on the
+floor, moaning with pain, yet in a state of semi-consciousness only. A
+glance told Nick that she could make no move to escape, and he now had
+other work than that of looking to her comfort.
+
+He ran to the stone door, threw the bolts, and quickly dragged it open.
+
+Even as he did so, from out of the gloom of the adjoining cellar, a man
+came into view, as if suddenly arisen from the ground.
+
+The man was Dave Kilgore.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+THE LAST TRICK.
+
+
+"Carter!"
+
+"Kilgore!"
+
+Each man uttered the name of the other, as if with the same breath. The
+meeting came so suddenly that, for the bare fraction of a second, both
+men were nonplused.
+
+Then both whipped out a weapon.
+
+Crack!
+
+Bang!
+
+They fired together, and both missed, Nick's usually accurate aim being
+spoiled by the gloom of the cellar.
+
+Kilgore instantly sprang further away in the darkness, and aimed again.
+
+The hammer of his weapon fell as usual, but there was no report. In his
+recent fight at the Venner house he had emptied both of his revolvers,
+save the one bullet that had just missed Nick Carter.
+
+Then Kilgore, failing to have found Nick at his mercy, thought only of
+making his own escape. He turned and ran toward the open door by which
+he had entered.
+
+At that moment Chick's ringing voice sounded from outside.
+
+"This way! this way, Patsy!" he cried, louder than the rolling thunder
+overhead. "I've found the rat hole!"
+
+"I'm with you," yelled Patsy.
+
+They were already at the door.
+
+By the frequent flashes of lightning they had, after the fight at
+Venner's, succeeded in following Kilgore across the meadows, and they
+well knew that he was headed to get even with Nick.
+
+Now Nick's voice rang through the cellar.
+
+"Look out for him, Chick," he commanded. "He's coming that way. Look out
+for his gun."
+
+"Hurrah!" roared Chick, the moment he heard Nick's voice. "Let him come,
+gun and all!"
+
+Kilgore saw his flight cut off in that direction, but he knew every inch
+of the house. He turned like a rat in the darkness, and made for the
+stairs leading to the floor above. Up these he hurriedly scrambled.
+
+Nick heard him through the gloom, and followed him, pitching headlong at
+the foot of the stairs just as Kilgore opened the door leading to the
+hall above.
+
+There the dim rays from a hall lamp revealed the man for an instant, and
+showed Nick the way. He was up again and after Kilgore like a hound
+after a fox.
+
+Kilgore dashed through the hall, but dared not take time to unlock and
+open the front door of the house. He had a profound respect for the
+revolver in the hand of his pursuer, who already had reached the hall.
+
+It was a flight for life, and Kilgore knew it.
+
+He turned like a flash and darted up the stairs, making for the second
+floor. Three at a stride he covered, and succeeded in reaching the
+corridor above before Nick could get a line on him.
+
+Nick followed, gun in hand.
+
+On the second floor Kilgore darted into a dark chamber, and then
+through that to one adjoining it, where he waited till he heard Nick
+plunging into the one first mentioned.
+
+Then Kilgore slipped out into the hall again, hoping to retrace his
+steps downstairs and escape by the front door.
+
+In the way of that, however, Chick and Patsy were now in the lower hall,
+the former shouting lustily up the stairs:
+
+"Run him down, Nick! Run him down! We'll cover this way of escape!"
+
+An involuntary oath broke from Kilgore's lips, and at the same moment a
+vivid flash of lightning from the inky heavens illumined all the house.
+
+From the chamber in which he stood, Nick again caught sight of his man,
+and was after him in an instant.
+
+Kilgore heard him coming, and again fled through the hall and up another
+flight of stairs.
+
+"You'd better throw up your hands," roared Nick, as he followed.
+
+The answer came back with a yell of defiance:
+
+"Not on your life!"
+
+"You're a lost dog," cried Nick, hoping to keep him replying.
+
+"You'll not get me alive!"
+
+"Then I'll get you dead!" cried Nick, as he mounted the stairs.
+
+"You haven't got me yet!"
+
+"Next door to it, my man."
+
+This brought no answer.
+
+In a moment Nick reached the second hall, where he briefly paused to
+listen. Save the rain beating on the roof of the house, only one sound
+reached his strained ears. It was like that of some one hammering
+against the side of the house with some heavy object. For a moment the
+detective was puzzled. He could not fathom the meaning of such a sound.
+
+Then a gust of damp night air rushed through the hall and swept Nick's
+cheek.
+
+"Ah! an open window!" he muttered. "That's easily located."
+
+He groped his way into one of the rear chambers. There the night air was
+sweeping in through an open window, to the sill of which Nick quickly
+sprang.
+
+Now the noise he had heard was instantly explained.
+
+Cornered like a rat, yet viciously resolute to the last, Kilgore had, in
+order to make his escape, resorted to a means from which a less cool and
+nervy scoundrel would have shrunk on such a night as that.
+
+He had, by reaching far out of the window, been able to grasp an
+old-fashioned lightning rod with which the ancient wooden mansion was
+provided, and by which he proposed to descend to the ground. Under the
+swindler's weight, the beating of this swaying rod against the side of
+the house was the sound Nick had heard.
+
+Kilgore, whose courage was worthy a far better cause, already was
+halfway to the ground.
+
+Yet Nick had no idea of letting the knave escape thus, and he raised his
+weapon to fire.
+
+There was no need for a bullet, however, for the hand of the Almighty
+did the work.
+
+From the black vault of the heavens a bolt of liquid fire suddenly shot
+earthward, with a crash of thunder that seemed to rend the entire
+firmament.
+
+The fiery bolt reached the earth--but it reached it through the rod to
+which Dave Kilgore was desperately clinging.
+
+Not a sound came from the doomed man as he went down--or if there was a
+sound, it was drowned by the deafening crash and successive
+reverberations of thunder.
+
+Before Nick had fairly recovered from the blinding light and terrific
+concussion, he heard the voice of Chick yelling loudly from below:
+
+"Nick, Nick, come down here! The house is afire. The whole house is
+afire!"
+
+Nick heard and darted for the stairs, at once realizing how well the
+lightning had done its terrific work. Before he could reach the lower
+hall, dense volumes of smoke were pouring through the house, and one
+entire side of the fated dwelling was in flames.
+
+Nick thought of the woman in the cellar below, and, with Chick and Patsy
+at his heels, he led the way to the diamond plant. The electric light
+had been extinguished by the lightning stroke, but Nick soon located the
+body of Cervera, and together the detectives brought her out and laid
+her upon the ground some rods away from the burning dwelling.
+
+"She's done for, poor wretch!" muttered Nick, as he looked at her
+bloodless face.
+
+He was right.
+
+Senora Cervera had danced her last dance--a terrible one it was! She
+had lapsed into a merciful unconsciousness, from which she never
+emerged.
+
+Next came Kilgore, and they easily found him. He lay stretched upon the
+ground, dead and scorched almost beyond recognition, at the base of the
+metallic rod through which he had met his fate.
+
+"Lend a hand here," said Nick. "We'll place him with his confederate
+until we can have them properly removed."
+
+"So be it," said Chick, gravely. "It's about the last we can do for
+them, and this nearly ends our work on this job."
+
+"You've got the others?"
+
+"Every man of them."
+
+"Well done!" nodded Nick, as they raised the lifeless form between them.
+"Behold the way of the transgressor."
+
+"Hark!" exclaimed Patsy. "There goes the fire alarm. In three minutes
+there'll be a mob about here."
+
+"Much good the firemen will do," rejoined Nick. "That house is doomed,
+and all that's in it."
+
+He was right. With the passing of the tempest, and the first sign of a
+star in the eastern sky, all that remained of the house above the
+diamond plant was a heap of red, smoldering embers, filling the cellar
+and the secret chamber--and blotting out, though perhaps not forever,
+the secret art of that misguided genius, Jean Pylotte, dead with a
+bullet in his brain, on the floor of Rufus Venner's hall.
+
+There remains but little to complete the record of this strange and
+stirring case.
+
+Before morning Nick had lodged Venner and Spotty Dalton in the Tombs,
+and had Garside arrested at his residence. The lifeless bodies of their
+three confederates,--Cervera having died at dawn--were taken to the
+Morgue.
+
+Early the following day, Harry Boyden, the young man arrested for the
+murder of Mary Barton, was discharged from custody, and hastened to the
+home of Violet Page, to make her happy with the news of his release and
+his story of Nick Carter's extraordinary work. Both called upon Nick a
+day or two later, and expressed their gratitude and affection in terms
+which here need no recital. Incidentally it may be added that they were
+married, as planned, the following summer.
+
+How strangely the circumstances and experiences of life are knit and
+bound together. But for the vicious crime of a jealous woman, Nick might
+have labored long, and possibly vainly, to run down the Kilgore gang and
+their extraordinary criminal project, in which Cervera so strongly
+figured. It was as Nick said, the two crimes seemed bound together as if
+with links of steel.
+
+In the trial which preceded the conviction and punishment of the three
+living members of the gang, Nick learned all of the facts of the case.
+
+Venner & Co., it appeared, were on their last legs, and went into the
+game to square themselves, the design being to market vast quantities of
+the artificial diamonds. With this project in view, Venner had purchased
+the house at the rear of his own, under the name of Dr. Magruder, and
+there had established the plant. How well the scheme would have
+succeeded, but for Nick Carter, will never be known.
+
+At all events, in the stock of Venner & Co. were found numerous stones
+which only the most proficient experts could prove to be artificial; and
+even to this day it is intimated that, among the bejeweled women of New
+York there are some unconsciously wearing the manufactured diamonds of
+Jean Pylotte. What matters, however, since where ignorance is bliss it
+is folly to be wise?
+
+Jean Pylotte: His art died with him, alas! For in the ruins of the
+diamond plant there could be found no evidence sufficient to reveal his
+great secret.
+
+Surely it had opened the way to a great swindle, the possibilities of
+which can hardly be conceived. But, fortunately, in the way of it had
+come--
+
+Nick Carter.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+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
+trouble, 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 Toils 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 Fingerprints        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
+890--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
+948--Sealed Orders                        By Nicholas Carter
+949--The Hate That Kills                  By Nicholas Carter
+950--The American Marquis                 By Nicholas Carter
+951--The Needy Nine                       By Nicholas Carter
+952--Fighting Against Millions            By Nicholas Carter
+953--Outlaws of the Blue                  By Nicholas Carter
+954--The Old Detective's Pupil            By Nicholas Carter
+955--Found in the Jungle                  By Nicholas Carter
+956--The Mysterious Mail Robbery          By Nicholas Carter
+957--Broken Bars                          By Nicholas Carter
+958--A Fair Criminal                      By Nicholas Carter
+959--Won by Magic                         By Nicholas Carter
+960--The Piano Box Mystery                By Nicholas Carter
+961--The Man They Held Back               By Nicholas Carter
+962--A Millionaire Partner                By Nicholas Carter
+963--A Pressing Peril                     By Nicholas Carter
+964--An Australian Klondyke               By Nicholas Carter
+965--The Sultan's Pearls                  By Nicholas Carter
+966--The Double Shuffle Club              By Nicholas Carter
+967--Paying the Price                     By Nicholas Carter
+968--A Woman's Hand                       By Nicholas Carter
+969--A Network of Crime                   By Nicholas Carter
+970--At Thompson's Ranch                  By Nicholas Carter
+971--The Crossed Needles                  By Nicholas Carter
+972--The Diamond Mine Case                By Nicholas Carter
+973--Blood Will Tell                      By Nicholas Carter
+974--An Accidental Password               By Nicholas Carter
+975--The Crook's Bauble                   By Nicholas Carter
+976--Two Plus Two                         By Nicholas Carter
+977--The Yellow Label                     By Nicholas Carter
+978--The Clever Celestial                 By Nicholas Carter
+979--The Amphitheater Plot                By Nicholas Carter
+980--Gideon Drexel's Millions             By Nicholas Carter
+981--Death in Life                        By Nicholas Carter
+982--A Stolen Identity                    By Nicholas Carter
+983--Evidence by Telephone                By Nicholas Carter
+984--The Twelve Tin Boxes                 By Nicholas Carter
+985--Clew Against Clew                    By Nicholas Carter
+986--Lady Velvet                          By Nicholas Carter
+987--Playing a Bold Game                  By Nicholas Carter
+988--A Dead Man's Grip                    By Nicholas Carter
+989--Snarled Identities                   By Nicholas Carter
+990--A Deposit Vault Puzzle               By Nicholas Carter
+991--The Crescent Brotherhood             By Nicholas Carter
+992--The Stolen Pay Train                 By Nicholas Carter
+993--The Sea Fox                          By Nicholas Carter
+994--Wanted by Two Clients                By Nicholas Carter
+995--The Van Alstine Case                 By Nicholas Carter
+996--Check No. 777                        By Nicholas Carter
+997--Partners in Peril                    By Nicholas Carter
+998--Nick Carter's Clever Protege         By Nicholas Carter
+999--The Sign of the Crossed Knives       By Nicholas Carter
+1000--The Man Who Vanished                By Nicholas Carter
+1001--A Battle for the Right              By Nicholas Carter
+1002--A Game of Craft                     By Nicholas Carter
+1003--Nick Carter's Retainer              By Nicholas Carter
+1004--Caught in the Toils                 By Nicholas Carter
+1005--A Broken Bond                       By Nicholas Carter
+1006--The Crime of the French Cafe        By Nicholas Carter
+1007--The Man Who Stole Millions          By Nicholas Carter
+1008--The Twelve Wise Men                 By Nicholas Carter
+1009--Hidden Foes                         By Nicholas Carter
+1010--A Gamblers' Syndicate               By Nicholas Carter
+1011--A Chance Discovery                  By Nicholas Carter
+1012--Among the Counterfeiters            By Nicholas Carter
+1013--A Threefold Disappearance           By Nicholas Carter
+1014--At Odds With Scotland Yard          By Nicholas Carter
+1015--A Princess of Crime                 By Nicholas Carter
+1016--Found on the Beach                  By Nicholas Carter
+1017--A Spinner of Death                  By Nicholas Carter
+1018--The Detective's Pretty Neighbor     By Nicholas Carter
+1019--A Bogus Clew                        By Nicholas Carter
+1020--The Puzzle of Five Pistols          By Nicholas Carter
+1021--The Secret of the Marble Mantel     By Nicholas Carter
+1022--A Bite of an Apple                  By Nicholas Carter
+1023--A Triple Crime                      By Nicholas Carter
+1024--The Stolen Race Horse               By Nicholas Carter
+1025--Wildfire                            By Nicholas Carter
+1026--A _Herald_ Personal                 By Nicholas Carter
+1027--The Finger of Suspicion             By Nicholas Carter
+1028--The Crimson Clew                    By Nicholas Carter
+1029--Nick Carter Down East               By Nicholas Carter
+1030--The Chain of Clews                  By Nicholas Carter
+1031--A Victim of Circumstances           By Nicholas Carter
+1032--Brought to Bay                      By Nicholas Carter
+1033--The Dynamite Trap                   By Nicholas Carter
+1034--A Scrap of Black Lace               By Nicholas Carter
+1035--The Woman of Evil                   By Nicholas Carter
+1036--A Legacy of Hate                    By Nicholas Carter
+1037--A Trusted Rogue                     By Nicholas Carter
+1038--Man Against Man                     By Nicholas Carter
+1039--The Demons of the Night             By Nicholas Carter
+1040--The Brotherhood of Death            By Nicholas Carter
+1041--At the Knife's Point                By Nicholas Carter
+1042--A Cry for Help                      By Nicholas Carter
+1043--A Stroke of Policy                  By Nicholas Carter
+1044--Hounded to Death                    By Nicholas Carter
+1045--A Bargain in Crime                  By Nicholas Carter
+1046--The Fatal Prescription              By Nicholas Carter
+1047--The Man of Iron                     By Nicholas Carter
+1048--An Amazing Scoundrel                By Nicholas Carter
+1049--The Chain of Evidence               By Nicholas Carter
+1050--Paid with Death                     By Nicholas Carter
+1051--A Fight for a Throne                By Nicholas Carter
+1052--The Woman of Steel                  By Nicholas Carter
+1053--The Seal of Death                   By Nicholas Carter
+1054--The Human Fiend                     By Nicholas Carter
+1055--A Desperate Chance                  By Nicholas Carter
+1056--A Chase in the Dark                 By Nicholas Carter
+1057--The Snare and the Game              By Nicholas Carter
+1058--The Murray Hill Mystery             By Nicholas Carter
+1059--Nick Carter's Close Call            By Nicholas Carter
+1060--The Missing Cotton King             By Nicholas Carter
+1061--A Game of Plots                     By Nicholas Carter
+1062--The Prince of Liars                 By Nicholas Carter
+1063--The Man at the Window               By Nicholas Carter
+1064--The Red League                      By Nicholas Carter
+1065--The Price of a Secret               By Nicholas Carter
+1066--The Worst Case on Record            By Nicholas Carter
+1067--From Peril to Peril                 By Nicholas Carter
+1068--The Seal of Silence                 By Nicholas Carter
+1069--Nick Carter's Chinese Puzzle        By Nicholas Carter
+1070--A Blackmailer's Bluff               By Nicholas Carter
+1071--Heard in the Dark                   By Nicholas Carter
+1072--A Checkmated Scoundrel              By Nicholas Carter
+1073--The Cashier's Secret                By Nicholas Carter
+1074--Behind a Mask                       By Nicholas Carter
+1075--The Cloak of Guilt                  By Nicholas Carter
+1076--Two Villains in One                 By Nicholas Carter
+1077--The Hot Air Clew                    By Nicholas Carter
+1078--Run to Earth                        By Nicholas Carter
+1079--The Certified Check                 By Nicholas Carter
+1080--Weaving the Web                     By Nicholas Carter
+1081--Beyond Pursuit                      By Nicholas Carter
+1082--The Claws of the Tiger              By Nicholas Carter
+1083--Driven From Cover                   By Nicholas Carter
+1084--A Deal in Diamonds                  By Nicholas Carter
+1085--The Wizard of the Cue               By Nicholas Carter
+1086--A Race for Ten Thousand             By Nicholas Carter
+1087--The Criminal Link                   By Nicholas Carter
+1088--The Red Signal                      By Nicholas Carter
+1089--The Secret Panel                    By Nicholas Carter
+1090--A Bonded Villain                    By Nicholas Carter
+1091--A Move in the Dark                  By Nicholas Carter
+1092--Against Desperate Odds              By Nicholas Carter
+1093--The Telltale Photographs            By Nicholas Carter
+1094--The Ruby Pin                        By Nicholas Carter
+1095--The Queen of Diamonds               By Nicholas Carter
+1096--A Broken Trail                      By Nicholas Carter
+1097--An Ingenious Stratagem              By Nicholas Carter
+1098--A Sharper's Downfall                By Nicholas Carter
+1099--A Race Track Gamble                 By Nicholas Carter
+1100--Without a Clew                      By Nicholas Carter
+1101--The Council of Death                By Nicholas Carter
+1102--The Hole in the Vault               By Nicholas Carter
+1103--In Death's Grip                     By Nicholas Carter
+1104--A Great Conspiracy                  By Nicholas Carter
+1105--The Guilty Governor                 By Nicholas Carter
+1106--A Ring of Rascals                   By Nicholas Carter
+1107--A Masterpiece of Crime              By Nicholas Carter
+1108--A Blow For Vengeance                By Nicholas Carter
+1109--Tangled Threads                     By Nicholas Carter
+1110--The Crime of the Camera             By Nicholas Carter
+1111--The Sign of the Dagger              By Nicholas Carter
+1112--Nick Carter's Promise               By Nicholas Carter
+1113--Marked for Death                    By Nicholas Carter
+1114--The Limited Holdup                  By Nicholas Carter
+1115--When the Trap Was Sprung            By Nicholas Carter
+1116--Through the Cellar Wall             By Nicholas Carter
+1117--Under the Tiger's Claws             By Nicholas Carter
+1118--The Girl in the Case                By Nicholas Carter
+1119--Behind a Throne                     By Nicholas Carter
+1120--The Lure of Gold                    By Nicholas Carter
+1121--Hand to Hand                        By Nicholas Carter
+1122--From a Prison Cell                  By Nicholas Carter
+1123--Dr. Quartz, Magician                By Nicholas Carter
+1124--Into Nick Carter's Web              By Nicholas Carter
+1125--The Mystic Diagram                  By Nicholas Carter
+1126--The Hand That Won                   By Nicholas Carter
+1127--Playing a Lone Hand                 By Nicholas Carter
+1128--The Master Villain                  By Nicholas Carter
+1129--The False Claimant                  By Nicholas Carter
+1130--The Living Mask                     By Nicholas Carter
+1131--The Crime and the Motive            By Nicholas Carter
+1132--A Mysterious Foe                    By Nicholas Carter
+1133--A Missing Man                       By Nicholas Carter
+1134--A Game Well Played                  By Nicholas Carter
+1135--A Cigarette Clew                    By Nicholas Carter
+1136--The Diamond Trail                   By Nicholas Carter
+1137--The Silent Guardian                 By Nicholas Carter
+1138--The Dead Stranger                   By Nicholas Carter
+1140--The Doctor's Stratagem              By Nicholas Carter
+1141--Following a Chance Clew             By Nicholas Carter
+1142--The Bank Draft Puzzle               By Nicholas Carter
+1143--The Price of Treachery              By Nicholas Carter
+1144--The Silent Partner                  By Nicholas Carter
+1145--Ahead of the Game                   By Nicholas Carter
+1146--A Trap of Tangled Wire              By Nicholas Carter
+1147--In the Gloom of Night               By Nicholas Carter
+1148--The Unaccountable Crook             By Nicholas Carter
+1149--A Bundle of Clews                   By Nicholas Carter
+1150--The Great Diamond Syndicate         By Nicholas Carter
+1151--The Death Circle                    By Nicholas Carter
+1152--The Toss of a Penny                 By Nicholas Carter
+1153--One Step Too Far                    By Nicholas Carter
+1154--The Terrible Thirteen               By Nicholas Carter
+1155--A Detective's Theory                By Nicholas Carter
+1156--Nick Carter's Auto Trail            By Nicholas Carter
+1157--A Triple Identity                   By Nicholas Carter
+1158--A Mysterious Graft                  By Nicholas Carter
+1159--A Carnival of Crime                 By Nicholas Carter
+1160--The Bloodstone Terror               By Nicholas Carter
+
+
+10,000,000
+
+copies of the works of Nick Carter in the New Magnet Library have been
+sold. Millions more are going to be sold, not because the line
+represents forbidden literature, but because it fills a large and
+growing demand for recreational reading.
+
+Nick Carter is justly famous. He stands as one of America's foremost
+literary characters. He is the close companion of some of America's
+leading professional and business men. Statesmen of high and low degree
+have called him "Nick," and do not hesitate to say that he has given
+them more satisfaction and pleasure than any other character in fiction.
+
+The Nick Carter stories, therefore, hold a great deal for you. Any in
+the foregoing list are worth while.
+
+STREET & SMITH CORPORATION
+79 Seventh Avenue  New York City
+
+
+
+
+BOOKS FOR YOUNG MEN
+
+MERRIWELL SERIES
+
+Stories of Frank and Dick Merriwell
+
+PRICE, FIFTEEN CENTS
+
+_Fascinating Stories of Athletics_
+
+
+A half million enthusiastic followers of the Merriwell brothers will
+attest the unfailing interest and wholesomeness of these adventures of
+two lads of high ideals, who play fair with themselves, as well as with
+the rest of the world.
+
+These stories are rich in fun and thrills in all branches of sports and
+athletics. They are extremely high in moral tone, and cannot fail to be
+of immense benefit to every boy who reads them.
+
+They have the splendid quality of firing a boy's ambition to become a
+good athlete, in order that he may develop into a strong, vigorous
+right-thinking man.
+
+
+_ALL TITLES ALWAYS IN PRINT_
+
+
+1--Frank Merriwell's School Days          By Burt L. Standish
+2--Frank Merriwell's Chums                By Burt L. Standish
+3--Frank Merriwell's Foes                 By Burt L. Standish
+4--Frank Merriwell's Trip West            By Burt L. Standish
+5--Frank Merriwell Down South             By Burt L. Standish
+6--Frank Merriwell's Bravery              By Burt L. Standish
+7--Frank Merriwell's Hunting Tour         By Burt L. Standish
+8--Frank Merriwell in Europe              By Burt L. Standish
+9--Frank Merriwell at Yale                By Burt L. Standish
+10--Frank Merriwell's Sports Afield       By Burt L. Standish
+11--Frank Merriwell's Races               By Burt L. Standish
+12--Frank Merriwell's Party               By Burt L. Standish
+13--Frank Merriwell's Bicycle Tour        By Burt L. Standish
+14--Frank Merriwell's Courage             By Burt L. Standish
+15--Frank Merriwell's Daring              By Burt L. Standish
+16--Frank Merriwell's Alarm               By Burt L. Standish
+17--Frank Merriwell's Athletes            By Burt L. Standish
+18--Frank Merriwell's Skill               By Burt L. Standish
+19--Frank Merriwell's Champions           By Burt L. Standish
+20--Frank Merriwell's Return to Yale      By Burt L. Standish
+21--Frank Merriwell's Secret              By Burt L. Standish
+22--Frank Merriwell's Danger              By Burt L. Standish
+23--Frank Merriwell's Loyalty             By Burt L. Standish
+24--Frank Merriwell in Camp               By Burt L. Standish
+25--Frank Merriwell's Vacation            By Burt L. Standish
+26--Frank Merriwell's Cruise              By Burt L. Standish
+27--Frank Merriwell's Chase               By Burt L. Standish
+28--Frank Merriwell in Maine              By Burt L. Standish
+29--Frank Merriwell's Struggle            By Burt L. Standish
+30--Frank Merriwell's First Job           By Burt L. Standish
+31--Frank Merriwell's Opportunity         By Burt L. Standish
+32--Frank Merriwell's Hard Luck           By Burt L. Standish
+33--Frank Merriwell's Protege             By Burt L. Standish
+34--Frank Merriwell on the Road           By Burt L. Standish
+35--Frank Merriwell's Own Company         By Burt L. Standish
+36--Frank Merriwell's Fame                By Burt L. Standish
+37--Frank Merriwell's College Chums       By Burt L. Standish
+38--Frank Merriwell's Problem             By Burt L. Standish
+39--Frank Merriwell's Fortune             By Burt L. Standish
+40--Frank Merriwell's New Comedian        By Burt L. Standish
+41--Frank Merriwell's Prosperity          By Burt L. Standish
+42--Frank Merriwell's Stage Hit           By Burt L. Standish
+43--Frank Merriwell's Great Scheme        By Burt L. Standish
+44--Frank Merriwell in England            By Burt L. Standish
+45--Frank Merriwell on the Boulevards     By Burt L. Standish
+46--Frank Merriwell's Duel                By Burt L. Standish
+47--Frank Merriwell's Double Shot         By Burt L. Standish
+48--Frank Merriwell's Baseball Victories  By Burt L. Standish
+49--Frank Merriwell's Confidence          By Burt L. Standish
+50--Frank Merriwell's Auto                By Burt L. Standish
+51--Frank Merriwell's Fun                 By Burt L. Standish
+52--Frank Merriwell's Generosity          By Burt L. Standish
+53--Frank Merriwell's Tricks              By Burt L. Standish
+54--Frank Merriwell's Temptation          By Burt L. Standish
+55--Frank Merriwell on Top                By Burt L. Standish
+56--Frank Merriwell's Luck                By Burt L. Standish
+57--Frank Merriwell's Mascot              By Burt L. Standish
+58--Frank Merriwell's Reward              By Burt L. Standish
+59--Frank Merriwell's Phantom             By Burt L. Standish
+60--Frank Merriwell's Faith               By Burt L. Standish
+61--Frank Merriwell's Victories           By Burt L. Standish
+62--Frank Merriwell's Iron Nerve          By Burt L. Standish
+63--Frank Merriwell in Kentucky           By Burt L. Standish
+64--Frank Merriwell's Power               By Burt L. Standish
+65--Frank Merriwell's Shrewdness          By Burt L. Standish
+66--Frank Merriwell's Set Back            By Burt L. Standish
+67--Frank Merriwell's Search              By Burt L. Standish
+68--Frank Merriwell's Club                By Burt L. Standish
+69--Frank Merriwell's Trust               By Burt L. Standish
+70--Frank Merriwell's False Friend        By Burt L. Standish
+71--Frank Merriwell's Strong Arm          By Burt L. Standish
+72--Frank Merriwell As Coach              By Burt L. Standish
+73--Frank Merriwell's Brother             By Burt L. Standish
+74--Frank Merriwell's Marvel              By Burt L. Standish
+75--Frank Merriwell's Support             By Burt L. Standish
+76--Dick Merriwell At Fardale             By Burt L. Standish
+77--Dick Merriwell's Glory                By Burt L. Standish
+78--Dick Merriwell's Promise              By Burt L. Standish
+79--Dick Merriwell's Rescue               By Burt L. Standish
+80--Dick Merriwell's Narrow Escape        By Burt L. Standish
+81--Dick Merriwell's Racket               By Burt L. Standish
+82--Dick Merriwell's Revenge              By Burt L. Standish
+83--Dick Merriwell's Ruse                 By Burt L. Standish
+84--Dick Merriwell's Delivery             By Burt L. Standish
+85--Dick Merriwell's Wonders              By Burt L. Standish
+86--Frank Merriwell's Honor               By Burt L. Standish
+87--Dick Merriwell's Diamond              By Burt L. Standish
+88--Frank Merriwell's Winners             By Burt L. Standish
+89--Dick Merriwell's Dash                 By Burt L. Standish
+90--Dick Merriwell's Ability              By Burt L. Standish
+91--Dick Merriwell's Trap                 By Burt L. Standish
+92--Dick Merriwell's Defense              By Burt L. Standish
+93--Dick Merriwell's Model                By Burt L. Standish
+94--Dick Merriwell's Mystery              By Burt L. Standish
+95--Frank Merriwell's Backers             By Burt L. Standish
+96--Dick Merriwell's Backstop             By Burt. L. Standish
+97--Dick Merriwell's Western Mission      By Burt L. Standish
+98--Frank Merriwell's Rescue              By Burt L. Standish
+99--Frank Merriwell's Encounter           By Burt L. Standish
+100--Dick Merriwell's Marked Money        By Burt L. Standish
+101--Frank Merriwell's Nomads             By Burt L. Standish
+102--Dick Merriwell on the Gridiron       By Burt L. Standish
+103--Dick Merriwell's Disguise            By Burt L. Standish
+104--Dick Merriwell's Test                By Burt L. Standish
+105--Frank Merriwell's Trump Card         By Burt L. Standish
+106--Frank Merriwell's Strategy           By Burt L. Standish
+107--Frank Merriwell's Triumph            By Burt L. Standish
+108--Dick Merriwell's Grit                By Burt L. Standish
+109--Dick Merriwell's Assurance           By Burt L. Standish
+110--Dick Merriwell's Long Slide          By Burt L. Standish
+111--Frank Merriwell's Rough Deal         By Burt L. Standish
+112--Dick Merriwell's Threat              By Burt L. Standish
+113--Dick Merriwell's Persistence         By Burt L. Standish
+114--Dick Merriwell's Day                 By Burt L. Standish
+115--Frank Merriwell's Peril              By Burt L. Standish
+116--Dick Merriwell's Downfall            By Burt L. Standish
+117--Frank Merriwell's Pursuit            By Burt L. Standish
+
+
+SPORTS
+
+There is a greater appreciation of athletic sports among Americans than
+among people of any other nationality.
+
+We have had definite proof of this in the correspondence occasioned by
+our publication of the adventures of Frank and Dick Merriwell. These two
+boys are active athletes. They are proficient in every line of sport,
+and they play fair or not at all.
+
+This last feature of the Merriwell stories fills our daily mail with
+letters from readers who say that they appreciate the integrity and
+fairness of the Merriwells more than words can tell.
+
+These books, while of greatest interest to the right-thinking boy are
+educational and make for the development of a character which will
+enable the average boy to meet his fellows fairly and squarely in the
+battle of life.
+
+STREET & SMITH CORPORATION
+79 Seventh Avenue  New York City
+
+
+
+
+Bill Cody
+
+
+At a rough estimate there are 400 million civilized human beings who
+have heard of Bill Cody, not under his real name, but by the name
+everybody called him, "Buffalo Bill."
+
+His character made him an outstanding figure during a period of the
+development of America when a strong character was a matter of vital
+necessity.
+
+We doubt, however, whether the man's work is fully appreciated, or ever
+has been. In the rush and bustle that followed the introduction of the
+railroad to the West, the results of Buffalo Bill's work were more or
+less overlooked, but a time is coming when this remarkable man's
+achievements will be fully appreciated.
+
+This is the character whose adventures are dealt with in Buffalo Bill's
+Border Stories.
+
+Read them. You will find them of true historical value.
+
+STREET & SMITH CORPORATION
+79 Seventh Avenue  New York City
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WITH LINKS OF STEEL***
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