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If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: A Stolen Name - The Man Who Defied Nick Carter - -Author: Nicholas Carter - -Release Date: December 27, 2020 [eBook #64147] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: David Edwards, Nahum Maso i Carcases, and the Online - Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A STOLEN NAME *** - - - - - Transcriber’s Notes: - -The original spelling, hyphenation, and punctuation have been retained, -with the exception of apparent typographical errors which have been -corrected. - -Text in Italics is indicated between _underscores_. - -Text in Small Capitals has been replaced by regular uppercase text. - - * * * * * - - - - - NICK CARTER STORIES - - New Magnet Library - - _Not a Dull Book in This List_ - - ALL BY NICHOLAS CARTER - - -Nick Carter stands for an interesting detective story. The fact that -the books in this line are so uniformly good is entirely due to the -work of a specialist. The man who wrote these stories produced no -other type of fiction. His mind was concentrated upon the creation of -new plots and situations in which his hero emerged triumphantly from -all sorts of troubles and landed the criminal just where he should -be—behind the bars. - -The author of these stories knew more about writing detective stories -than any other single person. - -Following is a list of the best Nick Carter stories. They have been -selected with extreme care, and we unhesitatingly recommend each of -them as being fully as interesting as any detective story between cloth -covers which sells at ten times the price. - -If you do not know Nick Carter, buy a copy of any of the New Magnet -Library books, and get acquainted. He will surprise and delight you. - - - _ALL TITLES ALWAYS IN PRINT_ - - 901—A Weird Treasure - 902—The Middle Link - 903—To the Ends of the Earth - 904—When Honors Pall - 905—The Yellow Brand - 906—A New Serpent in Eden - 907—When Brave Men Tremble - 908—A Test of Courage - 909—Where Peril Beckons - 910—The Gargoni Girdle - 911—Rascals & Co. - 912—Too Late to Talk - 913—Satan’s Apt Pupil - 914—The Girl Prisoner - 915—The Danger of Folly - 916—One Shipwreck Too Many - 917—Scourged by Fear - 918—The Red Plague - 919—Scoundrels Rampant - 920—From Clew to Clew - 921—When Rogues Conspire - 922—Twelve in a Grave - 923—The Great Opium Case - 924—A Conspiracy of Rumors - 925—A Klondike Claim - 926—The Evil Formula - 927—The Man of Many Faces - 928—The Great Enigma - 929—The Burden of Proof - 930—The Stolen Brain - 931—A Titled Counterfeiter - 932—The Magic Necklace - 933—’Round the World for a Quarter - 934—Over the Edge of the World - 935—In the Grip of Fate - 936—The Case of Many Clews - 937—The Sealed Door - 938—Nick Carter and the Green Goods Men - 939—The Man Without a Will - 940—Tracked Across the Atlantic - 941—A Clew from the Unknown - 942—The Crime of a Countess - 943—A Mixed-up Mess - 944—The Great Money-order Swindle - 945—The Adder’s Brood - 946—A Wall Street Haul - 947—For a Pawned Crown - 948—Sealed Orders - 949—The Hate that Kills - 950—The American Marquis - 951—The Needy Nine - 952—Fighting Against Millions - 953—Outlaws of the Blue - 954—The Old Detective’s Pupil - 955—Found in the Jungle - 956—The Mysterious Mail Robbery - 957—Broken Bars - 958—A Fair Criminal - 959—Won by Magic - 960—The Piano Box Mystery - 961—The Man They Held Back - 962—A Millionaire Partner - 963—A Pressing Peril - 964—An Australian Klondike - 965—The Sultan’s Pearls - 966—The Double Shuffle Club - 967—Paying the Price - 968—A Woman’s Hand - 969—A Network of Crime - 970—At Thompson’s Ranch - 971—The Crossed Needles - 972—The Diamond Mine Case - 973—Blood Will Tell - 974—An Accidental Password - 975—The Crook’s Double - 976—Two Plus Two - 977—The Yellow Label - 978—The Clever Celestial - 979—The Amphitheater Plot - 980—Gideon Drexel’s Millions - 981—Death in Life - 982—A Stolen Identity - 983—Evidence by Telephone - 984—The Twelve Tin Boxes - 985—Clew Against Clew - 986—Lady Velvet - 987—Playing a Bold Game - 988—A Dead Man’s Grip - 989—Snarled Identities - 990—A Deposit Vault Puzzle - 991—The Crescent Brotherhood - 992—The Stolen Pay Train - 993—The Sea Fox - 994—Wanted by Two Clients - 995—The Van Alstine Case - 996—Check No. 777 - 997—Partners in Peril - 998—Nick Carter’s Clever Protégé - 999—The Sign of the Crossed Knives - 1000—The Man Who Vanished - 1001—A Battle for the Right - 1002—A Game of Craft - 1003—Nick Carter’s Retainer - 1004—Caught in the Toils - 1005—A Broken Bond - 1006—The Crime of the French Café - 1007—The Man Who Stole Millions - 1008—The Twelve Wise Men - 1009—Hidden Foes - 1010—A Gamblers’ Syndicate - 1011—A Chance Discovery - 1012—Among the Counterfeiters - 1013—A Threefold Disappearance - 1014—At Odds with Scotland Yard - 1015—A Princess of Crime - 1016—Found on the Beach - 1017—A Spinner of Death - 1018—The Detective’s Pretty Neighbor - 1019—A Bogus Clew - 1020—The Puzzle of Five Pistols - 1021—The Secret of the Marble Mantel - 1022—A Bite of an Apple - 1023—A Triple Crime - 1024—The Stolen Race Horse - 1025—Wildfire - 1026—A _Herald_ Personal - 1027—The Finger of Suspicion - 1028—The Crimson Clew - 1029—Nick Carter Down East - 1030—The Chain of Clews - 1031—A Victim of Circumstances - 1032—Brought to Bay - 1033—The Dynamite Trap - 1034—A Scrap of Black Lace - 1035—The Woman of Evil - 1036—A Legacy of Hate - 1037—A Trusted Rogue - 1038—Man Against Man - 1039—The Demons of the Night - 1040—The Brotherhood of Death - 1041—At the Knife’s Point - 1042—A Cry for Help - 1043—A Stroke of Policy - 1044—Hounded to Death - 1045—A Bargain in Crime - 1046—The Fatal Prescription - 1047—The Man of Iron - 1048—An Amazing Scoundrel - 1049—The Chain of Evidence - 1050—Paid with Death - 1051—A Fight for a Throne - 1052—The Woman of Steel - 1053—The Seal of Death - 1054—The Human Fiend - 1055—A Desperate Chance - 1056—A Chase in the Dark - 1057—The Snare and the Game - 1058—The Murray Hill Mystery - 1059—Nick Carter’s Close Call - 1060—The Missing Cotton King - 1061—A Game of Plots - 1062—The Prince of Liars - 1063—The Man at the Window - 1064—The Red League - 1065—The Price of a Secret - 1066—The Worst Case on Record - 1067—From Peril to Peril - 1068—The Seal of Silence - 1069—Nick Carter’s Chinese Puzzle - 1070—A Blackmailer’s Bluff - 1071—Heard in the Dark - 1072—A Checkmated Scoundrel - 1073—The Cashier’s Secret - 1074—Behind a Mask - - - - - A STOLEN NAME - - OR - - The Man Who Defied Nick Carter - - - By NICHOLAS CARTER - Author of “The Taxicab Riddle,” “Nick Carter’s Last Card,” - “Bandits of the Air,” etc. - - - [Illustration] - - - STREET & SMITH PUBLICATIONS - INCORPORATED - 79-89 Seventh Avenue, New York - - - - - Copyright, 1910 - By STREET & SMITH - - A Stolen Name - - - All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign - languages, including the Scandinavian. - - Printed in the U.S.A. - - - - - A STOLEN NAME. - - - - - CHAPTER I. - - THE BEGINNING OF A PLOT. - - -Bare-Faced Jimmy, so-called gentleman crook, expert cracksman, and -a master criminal in any department of the underworld to which he -cared to devote his attention, leaned backward in his chair until it -tilted against the wall behind him, blew a cloud of Perfecto smoke -ceilingward, and remarked: - -“It will be the easiest thing in the world, Juno. If the objective -point were a fortune—even a moderate one; if the thing contemplated -included the theft of a single dollar, in cash or in estate, it would -be different; but it doesn’t. No, it does not. Really, Juno, if one -pauses to think seriously about it, from that point of view, it is -almost laughable.” - -“That is why I have been smiling at the idea ever since you mentioned -it,” returned the woman, applying a lighted match to a cigarette with -all the grace and abandon of one who had been long accustomed to the -practice. - -“As a matter of fact,” Jimmy continued, as if he had not heard her -remark, “if I do decide to undertake it, the only things that I steal -will be a lot of debts; and who ever heard of stealing debts? Eh?” - -“There certainly is novelty in the thought,” was the quick reply. “If -some gracious person had done you the honor to steal yours, long ago——” - -“Oh, yes, my dear; that is quite true; only we won’t go into the ‘long -ago’ matters, just now, if you please.” - -The woman shrugged her shoulders and picked up from her lap a book -that she had been reading. For a time she devoted her attention to the -pages, and then her companion broke the silence again. - -“I think I’ll do it,” he said decidedly. “I see great possibilities in -the adventure. Juno, will you be good enough to lay that book aside for -a few moments, and to give me your undivided attention?” - -“Gladly,” she replied, “if you will condescend to speak out plainly, -instead of confining yourself to generalities.” - -“All right, my dear; here goes. In the State of Virginia, bordering on -the Potomac River, and washed by the waters of two other streams—which -by courtesy are also called rivers—lies an estate which consists of -something more than eight hundred acres. The title to that estate is in -the name of James Ledger Dinwiddie, who——” - -“Who, at the present moment lies dead in the adjoining room in this -house,” she interrupted him; but he only chuckled as he responded: - -“On the contrary, he is seated here before you, now; he is talking -with you; he is referring to that dear old plantation in dearer old -Virginia which, ever since the days of Bushrod Washington, has been -called by the name of Kingsgift—the Lord only knows why, unless -some dead and forgotten king gave it as a present to the original -Dinwiddie. Henceforth, my dear, I am Ledger Dinwiddie, owner of an -estate in Virginia that is mortgaged for more than it was ever worth; -for much more than it would ever bring at a forced sale. I am also the -undisputed owner of a choice collection of debts, of an old colonial -house that is now falling into ruins, of numerous other buildings that -are in various stages of dilapidation, and of numerous other things of -the same sort, all of which are not only entirely worthless, but are -really much worse than worthless; and there you are.” - -“Will you tell me, Jimmy, just what you expect to gain, then, by this -remarkable adventure, as you call it?” the woman asked quizzically. - -“Decidedly I will tell you. I gain the one thing I need most, just -now—a name. My own—but I have never told you what my own really was, -have I? No; and there is no use going into that, now—but my own -name has been so long abandoned that I have forgotten the use of it; -especially the application of it. The name that has been given me by -the police of various localities, isn’t sufficiently high-sounding; -and——” - -“No. Bare-Faced Jimmy is hardly a name to have engraved upon one’s -cards,” she interrupted him. - -“——and, as I was saying, James Duryea, who has been called Bare-Faced -Jimmy, is popularly supposed to lie buried on an island in the Sound, -just off South Norwalk, Connecticut. I would much rather that the -police should not be undeceived about that, and so we will let Jimmy -Duryea, cracksman, lie there and rot; eh?” - -“If you please. I don’t mind. A rose by any other name, you know.” - -“Yes; I know. And that reminds me. In the future I will thank you to -address me as Ledger. Eh? By Jove! Juno, that chap in there was the -most unbalanced ledger I ever saw in my life. If he hadn’t sort of come -to, during the last hours of his life, and told all he ever knew about -himself and his people, this idea would never have occurred to me.” - -“It looks to me like a fool idea, anyhow,” she commented, with a toss -of her beautiful and shapely head, crowned as it was with a wealth of -raven-black hair. Juno was undeniably a beautiful woman—a fact of which -she was perfectly well aware. - -“Fool idea?” he retorted. “Not much. It’s a splendid one. It is the -idea of my life, and it is worth about three or four times as much as -it would have been had the chap in there left a million in money and -unencumbered estates behind him when he died. I would rather have his -debts than a fortune that he might have left. Really, I don’t think -that I would have undertaken the thing if he had left property that was -worth anything.” - -“Why?” - -“Why, to what, Juno?” - -“Why is the name and the identity of that poor fellow worth more to -you, so, than if he had left a fortune behind him?” - -“Why? Can you, my dear, ask such a question as that?” - -“I do ask it.” - -“Then know this: Nobody will want what Dinwiddie has left behind him. -No one will be desirous of shouldering his debts; and consequently -nobody will step forward to dispute the rights that I shall assert -belong to me. Word will travel around the neighborhood, and throughout -the county, that Ledger Dinwiddie has come back; then there will be -a few convulsive shrugs of a few shoulders, a score or so of knowing -winks—and that will be about all. On the other hand, if there was -property, there would be a hundred disinterested persons, neighbors -and otherwise, who would find a chance to doubt if I were the real -Dinwiddie returned to what had once been his own.” - -“But what do you get out of it, Jimmy?” - -“I get a name, my dear; an old, old name; an older lineage, than -which there is none better in the Old Dominion; an ancestry that is -unimpeachable; a reputation which stands for gentility, and which has -stood for gentility for generations; a career, all made in a moment, -but which is, nevertheless, three centuries old; an established place -in the world which none can deny me—Heaven knows that I need one just -now; and a safe refuge in which I can hide myself for the rest of my -natural life, without the trouble of attempting to disguise my face, or -my mannerisms.” - -“All the same, Jimmy, there are plenty of people in the world, honest -men and crooks, policemen and judges on the bench, lawyers and -ex-convicts, who will quickly recognize the features of Jimmy Duryea, -if those features happen to be seen.” - -“Juno, that is just the point; they won’t. Ledger Dinwiddie will bear a -strong resemblance to the late lamented Bare-Faced Jimmy, to be sure, -but nobody will ever think of associating the two; never. Besides, -if the necessity should arise, Ledger Dinwiddie could establish his -identity beyond question. People could be found who knew him when he -was a boy.” - -“And you might even claim, if you choose, that the defunct Jimmy was a -distant relation who went to the bad in his early youth, and who had -been cast off by ‘the family,’” said Juno. - -“Precisely. Not at all a bad idea.” - -“Well, what then?” - -“Everything then, Juno. Like Monte Cristo, the world will be mine. -I will only have to reach out my two hands and take it. And with my -accomplishments I do not anticipate that it will be a difficult task to -do so.” - -“Probably not—with your accomplishments.” - -“It will never occur to any of those Virginians, up there, that a man -would be ass enough to lay claim to a worthless estate, encumbered by -unnumbered debts; to a broken fortune—and all that. They will accept me -on the spot, and without asking a question.” - -“Yet, Jimmy, you do not in the least resemble that dead man in there.” - -“I know it. What of it?” - -“There may be a few persons left alive, at or near Kingsgift, who will -remember the young man who left his home in Virginia, so long ago.” - -“Bah! Nonsense, my dear. They will look at me and exclaim. ‘How you -have changed!’ or, ‘You’re right smart altered since you went away, -Ledger.’ But to offset that, there will be dozens who do not remember -at all how Dinwiddie really looked, who will declare, ‘Why, boy, I’d -have known you anywhere. You ain’t a mite changed since you was a -leetle chap, so high.’ That is the way of the world, Juno.” - -“But what will you do with the name, and with the mortgaged estates, -when you get them?” Juno asked lightly. “Considering that part of it -as settled, for you generally accomplish whatever you undertake to do, -what will you do with it all?” - -“I’ll make your fortune and mine. I’ll square Dinwiddie with the people -around there, and tell them all what a great man I intend to make of -myself. I’ll pay off a year’s interest on the mortgages and other -debts, and make out new papers, just to give them confidence in me. -When that is done, I’ll be ready for the real work of—succeeding.” - -“Succeeding at what?” - -“At making a fortune.” - -“And you really think that you can do it?” - -“With such a name, such a lineage, such a reputation for gentility? Of -course I can do it.” - -“It doesn’t strike me that people will be any more eager to lend you -money——” - -“Lend me money? I don’t want them to do that.” - -“Then how——” - -“I shall take it. If they accept me, they must take the consequences.” - -“Do you mean that you will do it in the old way?” - -“Sure. What other way do I know?” - -“What if you should get caught at it, Jimmy?” - -“Caught at it? Ledger Dinwiddie caught at burglary? At thievery? What -an absurd idea! Oh, no, I won’t get caught at it. Not at all. And -the world will open itself wide, inviting me to take it. I’ll have a -winter home for you, in Washington; I’ll get those fools to send me to -Congress, and—— You’ll see!” - -Such was the beginning of the “Great Coup” undertaken by James Duryea, -alias Bare-Faced Jimmy, the gentleman crook, alias Howard Drummond, -one-time gentleman, graduate of Rugby and Cambridge, ex-officer in -the dragoons, and ex- a lot of other things which had come to him by -inheritance. - -But Jimmy had run the gamut of his short, but varied career. - -Nothing had been too swift for him to overtake it, to distance it, and -finally to wear out its usefulness, and finally his own, too. - -Once, according to Nick Carter’s records, the man had really tried -to reform; “had made a stab at it,” as he expressed it; but the old -temptations had been too strong for him; the “call of the contest” -had proved too alluring. The desire to pit his own wit against the -representatives of law and order had overcome the better self that -reposed somewhere within the strange complexity of this man, and he had -gone again, deliberately, into the life of the underworld. - -The woman who was seated upon the chair opposite, and to whom his -conversation was addressed, had proved herself to be the only person of -whom Jimmy had ever stood in the least in awe. - -The name by which Jimmy addressed her, was one that he had bestowed -upon her himself. - -She had never been known by that name to any other person than this -man who had just determined to steal a birthright, although there were -half a dozen aliases by which she had been known to the authorities of -Paris, Vienna, Berlin, St. Petersburg, and London; and under each one -of those half dozen aliases she had earned reputations which filled -pages of private but official records of the secret police of five -different nations. - -Her dossier had been written down in five languages—and more; and now, -as Juno, she had started out to carve a new career for herself, with -the aid of Jimmy, whom she respected for his wit, his daring, for his -past achievements and the promise he gave of attempting new and greater -ones. - -These two represented the masculine and the feminine of all that is -masterful in the life of rogues; they were the perfection of the -imperfect, if the expression may be used. - -Jimmy was a handsome man, and one who would be noticeable in any -company. He was distinguished in appearance, Chesterfieldian in his -manners, graceful in his motions—a somebody in everything that he did, -educated, refined by instinct and by early training; he was a graduated -crook in every part and branch of the “profession.” - -And Juno? Draw her picture for yourself. It cannot be too strongly, too -perfectly outlined. - -She was of that type of beauty which only the Latin races achieve, -and it had been vouchsafed to her in the superlative degree. Her hair -was black, beautiful, and there were masses of it. Her complexion -was almost fair, but there was just enough of the olive tint to give -to the red blood in her cheeks an added warmth. Her eyes were large, -luminous, dreamy, or ablaze with eagerness or passion as the case might -be. Her figure was perfect, her hands and her feet were “dreams for -the contemplation of an artist,” her every motion was lithe, lissome, -sinuous, catlike in the sense that she could not have been lacking in -grace had she made the effort. Indeed, there was something about Juno’s -every act which suggested the black leopard—and that was one of the -aliases by which she had one time been known in Paris. Reduced to five -words, Juno’s description was entirely comprehended by the expression: -She was a beautiful woman. - -Juno’s antecedents were no less aristocratic than Jimmy’s. - -She, too, had been born and bred within the exclusiveness of the -blue-blooded. Her father and her mother had worn titles of distinction; -she had been given all the “advantages” when she was a child, and a -young woman—she was that, still. She spoke many languages, and spoke -each one so perfectly that it was a matter of indifference to her which -one she made use of. - -In the long-ago, when both had been respectable children, she and Jimmy -had played together. Many years after that, when Jimmy had gone to the -bad, and Juno had achieved an international reputation in her various -lines, they met again—to drift apart as they had done in those early -days. - -After that there was another lapse of years during which Jimmy had -visited South Africa, had married, had drifted to New York with -his wife, had been sent to Sing Sing, had been divorced, and then, -according to official reports concerning him, had died and was buried -on an island in Long Island Sound. During these years Juno had served -the Nihilists of Russia, the Socialists of Germany, the secret -societies of other nations—during which she had been a spy, also, for -these several governments, and had won an international reputation, and -become almost everything that a beautiful woman should not be. - -But the continent of Europe, and the British Isles, had grown too -hot for her. She came to America—and almost the first person she -encountered after leaving the steamer that brought her here, was -Bare-Faced Jimmy. And this happened within the year that followed upon -his supposed death. - -“Two souls with but a single thought,” although by no means a -sentimental one, might well have applied to them; the single thought -being their desire to victimize the rest of mankind. - -“Let’s strike up a partnership, Juno,” Jimmy had said to her. -“Together, with your craftiness and my skill, nothing can stop us. -Let’s strike up a partnership;” and she had replied: - -“Very good, Jimmy; but a minister, not a lawyer, shall draw the -contract.” - -And so they were married—strangely enough, under their right names, too. - -Jimmy had more than twenty thousand dollars cached away in a secret -hiding place; Juno possessed half as much more. The marriage occurred -in the late fall, and they went South, to one of the Florida beaches, -where they secured a villa, and where they passed what was really a -honeymoon. - -When issuing from their cottage door one morning, they had found the -insensible form of a man upon their doorstep. - -One may be a crook, a burglar, and all that, and still possess much -kindness of heart; two may be so, and these two were. - -Together they carried their unconscious burden inside the cottage, -summoned the one servant who waited upon their wants, and attended to -the stricken man. - -They did not ask where he came from, nor how it happened that he had -fallen upon their doorstep in his present condition; and he could not -have informed them, then, if the questions had been asked. - -But they ministered to him; they kept him there and cared for him, -making no inquiries concerning him, since by doing so they would have -attracted attention to themselves, which was the one great thing they -desired to avoid. - -But the stricken man had arrived at the end of his journey. He had -fallen upon their doorstep to die, and die he did, after three weeks, -easily, painlessly, composedly, and tenderly cared for until the last, -by these two bits of flotsam. - -And there had been some hours of clearness of vision, of return to -memory, before death claimed its prize. He had told them his name, and -all about himself—and also that nowhere in the world did there remain -one person who was nearly enough related to him to care whether he -lived or died; that he was the last of his race, in the direct line, -and that he bore an old and honored name upon which there had never -been a blemish, save that one which poverty imposes. - -Ledger Dinwiddie died in the spare bedroom of that cottage inhabited by -these two products of the underworld, cared for during his last hours -by two as uncompromising crooks and rogues as ever lived to prey upon -mankind. - -And so, Ledger Dinwiddie did not die, but lived on again in the -person of Bare-Faced Jimmy, who adopted the name and the lineage of -his uninvited guest, and who went forth, presently, to assume all the -prerogatives which the possession of that name could bestow upon him. - - - - - CHAPTER II. - - BACK FROM THE DEAD. - - -“It was four years ago, wasn’t it, Chick, when Bare-Faced Jimmy kept us -guessing? You remember Jimmy Duryea, don’t you?” asked Nick Carter of -his first assistant, as he lighted a cigar immediately after breakfast, -one Monday morning. - -“Remember him? I should say I do!” replied Chick, as he selected a -cigar from the box on the table. “Bare-Faced Jimmy! The mere mention of -that name, Nick, calls up a great many recollections. And that reminds -me; I wonder what has become of Nan Nightingale. I have not seen a line -about her in any of the papers lately. Has she left the stage?” - -“I saw her last evening, at church or, rather, just as we were coming -out of church,” replied the detective. “That was why I asked the -question.” - -“You saw Nan?” - -“Yes; and talked with her.” - -“And her husband—Smathers was his name, wasn’t it—did you see him, too?” - -“No. Smathers—The Man of Many Faces, as he called himself on the -vaudeville stage—is dead. He died about a year and a half ago, Nan told -me. Jimmy Duryea was her first husband, you know. She got a divorce -from him when he was sent to prison, and afterward married Smathers. -Smathers has been dead more than a year, and Nan thinks that Jimmy is -still alive.” - -“Jimmy Duryea alive? Impossible.” - -“That is what I told her; but she insists that she saw him—or his -ghost.” - -“Then it must have been his ghost, Nick. Jimmy has been dead four -years. He died soon after you took him off that island in the Sound, -near South Norwalk, didn’t he?” - -“That was the supposition. That has always been my belief. Do you -remember that last stunt of his, Chick?” - -“The time he passed himself off as Paran Maxwell, do you mean?” - -“Yes.” - -“I think we all have cause to remember that incident. Bare-Faced Jimmy -was a remarkable chap, Nick, take it all in all.” - -“He certainly was. There was a great deal of good in Jimmy. You -remember there was a time when I thought he had entirely reformed. Then -he made that disappearing act of his from the steamship, and bobbed up, -long afterward, on that island. It would be strange if he should appear -again, after four years, wouldn’t it?” - -“It certainly would; but stranger things than that have happened in our -experiences, Nick.” - -“Yes. But, somehow, I can’t believe that Jimmy Duryea is alive, now; -although Nan is positive about it.” - -“Tell me what she said. Tell me about your talk with her. I always -liked Nan; and it is a cinch that she _could_ sing. You gave her the -right name when you called her Nightingale.” - -“Yes. Even Pettis said that.” - -“Why did she give up the stage?” - -“She didn’t tell me that. I was coming out of the church when some one -touched me on the arm, and turning about I saw that it was Nan. Of -course I was glad to see her, and I said so.” - -“Naturally. She is a sort of protégée of yours, you know. It was -through you, Nick, that she quit being a crook and became an honest -woman.” - -“Softly, Chick. Nan was never really a crook, you know. When she was -Jimmy Duryea’s wife he did force her into assisting him in some of his -crooked work; but she never had any heart in it. She hasn’t left the -stage permanently—only temporarily. She said she desired a rest for a -season, and that she had saved up enough money to take it. I guess that -is her only reason for not being on the boards at present.” - -“But what about Jimmy?” - -“It is rather an odd sort of story, but I will tell it to you just as -she told it to me and see what you think about it, Chick.” - -“All right.” - -“During her career on the stage these last four years, Nan has made -some splendid acquaintances. I am not referring to people in the -‘profession’ so much as to society people. Nan has become a welcome -guest at many an exclusive house, and among the members of the most -conservative set.” - -“I’m not surprised at that. She is a beautiful woman—there is not -another one on the stage who can hold a candle to her, if it comes down -to that.” - -“You’re right. She is a lady, through and through—to the manner born, -so to speak.” - -“Sure. And by the way, isn’t that what Jimmy used to say to -himself—that he was ‘born, bred, and raised a gentleman’?” - -“Yes. And it was true, too.” - -“Go ahead about Nan, Nick.” - -“Well, it was at the solicitation of some of her society friends that -she decided to take a rest for one season. She has saved up a lot of -money, as nearly as I can make out, and was invited on a yachting -cruise with some of her friends. After that she became the guest of -Mrs. Theodore Remsen—and that is where she is staying now.” - -“She did get into the ‘upper ten,’ didn’t she?” - -“Sure. There isn’t a more exclusive house in the city, or at Newport or -Lenox, than the Theodore Remsen’s.” - -“I know. Well?” - -“Perhaps you know that the Remsens also own a fine residence that -fronts on the Hudson River, eh? Not far from Fishkill?” - -“I didn’t know it; but that makes no difference. What about it?” - -“That is where they are staying just now; and Nan is there with them. -She is to be their guest until spring. I believe there is a whole -season of pleasure mapped out for Nan, and she is to be made quite the -lioness—and all that.” - -“I understand. But what has all that got to do with——” - -“I am coming to that, Chick. That is what brings me to the rather -remarkable tale that Nan told me.” - -“I see.” - -“To let you in on the ground floor of the story at once, a burglar -got into the house up the river, a few nights ago. Nan surprised the -burglar at work, made him give up his booty, agreed to say nothing -about it to the members of the household, and let him go. But, it -appears, that instead of relinquishing his booty and going away empty -handed, he only gave up what was in sight, and actually got away with -a diamond necklace and some other jewels that belonged to Mrs. Remsen, -and to some of her guests. Nan says that what was actually stolen -represented close to forty thousand dollars.” - -“Jimmy always was discriminating, when it came to a selection of -jewels,” said Chick, with a slow smile. - -“Right again. But because of the disappearance of those jewels, Nan -finds herself in a perplexity. Now, I’ll tell you the story just as it -is.” - -“All right.” - -“It happened last Thursday night. Nan had not been feeling up to the -mark that day. She had kept herself rather to herself, since morning. -During the day Mrs. Remsen told Nan that she was expecting another -guest that evening—a gentleman from the South, named Dinwiddie; Ledger -Dinwiddie, to be exact.” - -“Rather a high-sounding title, that; eh?” - -“Yes. Well, Nan didn’t go down to dinner that evening, so she did -not meet the guest, when he arrived. She retired early—that is, she -arranged herself in comfortable attire, and kept to her own room, -where she passed the time in reading. About eleven o’clock, she tried -to compose herself to sleep, but after an hour of vain effort in that -line, she decided that it was of no use, and sought another book. There -did not happen to be one handy which interested her, and so, garbed in -a wrapper, she descended the stairs to the library.” - -“It sounds like a chapter out of a book, Nick.” - -“It does, for a fact; but you haven’t got the real thing, yet.” - -“Go ahead, then.” - -“She had bed slippers on her feet, which made no sound as she walked. -She crossed the lower hall, after descending the stairs, and stepped -into the library, reaching around the jamb of the doorway, as she did -so, to switch on the electric lights—and she did it so quickly that she -failed to notice that there was a single light already burning in the -room.” - -“More and more like a novel, Nick.” - -“Yes. When she snapped on the lights, a man who had been seated at -the table in the middle of the room sprang to his feet—and she found -herself looking into the muzzle of a revolver.” - -“Well, it wasn’t the first time that Nan has done that. It might have -scared most women half to death; but Nan——” - -“I rather think that she was more surprised and startled by the -appearance of the man himself than by the weapon he held in his hand,” -said the detective, interrupting. “The man was Jimmy Duryea; Bare-Faced -Jimmy; at least she says it was—and is.” - -“And—_is_?” - -“Yes. I’m coming to that.” - -“All right.” - -“The room was, of course, in a blaze of light. In the man who -confronted her, Nan saw the face and features of Jimmy Duryea. On the -table where he had been seated was a confused heap of the spoil he had -stolen, and was engaged in sorting when Nan interrupted him.” - -“And she was looking into the muzzle of a gun,” commented Chick. - -“Yes. But it wasn’t that which startled her. It was the face and -appearance of the man; of a man whom she supposed to have been dead -four years, at least; of the man whom she had once married, and whom -she had tenderly loved, until she discovered that he was a crook, when -she deserted him and got a divorce.” - -“What did she do?” - -“What would nine out of ten women do, under like circumstances?” -retorted the detective. - -“Let out a yell, I suppose.” - -“Nan cried out his name. ‘Jimmy!’ she exclaimed; and he dropped the gun -to the floor, and called back, ‘Nan!’” - -“Tableau!” said Chick. - -“Precisely,” said Nick Carter. - - - - - CHAPTER III. - - JIMMY DURYEA’S DARING. - - -Chick chuckled softly to himself as he imagined the scene in the -library that Nick Carter had just described to him. - -“Hold on a minute, Nick,” he said. “Let me get the chronology of those -two straight in my mind. Jimmy, according to his own story, told to us -four years ago, was, originally, a born aristocrat, the second or third -son of somebody-or-other, wasn’t he?” - -“Yes. He would never tell who he was; but it is certain that he is well -born.” - -“So was Nan; and both were English, eh?” - -“Yes.” - -“Scapegrace Jimmy went to South Africa to finish the sowing of his -wild oats, and Nan went there as governess to the children of the -South African consul. They met there, and were married. Jimmy was a -burglar and a thief, and Nan didn’t suspect it until long after the -two had come to this country. Then she found it out, and for a time he -compelled her to assist him in his crooked work. Then he got caught, -and was sent away, to Sing Sing, and Nan got a divorce. Later, she -married Smathers, the man of many faces, and an actor. Then Jimmy got -out of prison, thought Nan had peached on him, threatened vengeance, -and all that, and intended to kill her, until it happened that you -showed him that Nan was not the one who had betrayed him. She wanted to -reform, and did so, and Jimmy agreed to let her alone. Then Jimmy got -caught, was sent back to England to answer charges against him there, -escaped, returned here, and supposedly died on an island in Long Island -Sound. That was four years ago. Almost two years ago, Smathers died—I -suppose he is really dead, isn’t he?” - -“Oh, yes, there is no doubt of that, Chick.” - -“And now Nan discovers her former husband, robbing a house where she is -a respected guest, and——” - -“And that isn’t all of it; not by a long shot.” - -“Go ahead, then.” - -“Well, it was a tableau for a moment, after the mutual discovery -in that library. There was a half mask on the table, which Jimmy -had removed while he was sorting the spoil. He always was a cool -proposition, you remember.” - -“Yes. That is how he got his name of Bare-Faced Jimmy.” - -“He didn’t lose his presence of mind, just then, either. He stooped -and picked up the gun from the floor, dropped it into one of his -pockets—and sat down again upon the chair where he had been seated -when she interrupted him.” - -“Just like him.” - -“The rest of the story I will tell just as Nan told it to me.” - -“All right.” - -“She said: ‘For a moment I didn’t know what to do. Until that instant -it had never occurred to me that Jimmy was alive. I had not a doubt -that he was dead. But there he was, as natural as ever, as handsome as -ever, as cool and self-contained as ever, and just as daring as he used -to be in the old days.’ - -“‘Sit down, Nan,’ he said to her; and she sat down. - -“‘I thought you were dead,’ she told him, and he laughed in his -pleasant way, and replied that he was as good as an army of dead men. -Then she pointed at the jewels on the table, and at the other things -that he had gotten together. - -“‘At your old tricks?’ she asked him, and he nodded. - -“‘Can’t keep away from it, Nan,’ he told her. ‘It is in my blood, I -guess. But what are you doing here? Are you up to the old game, too?’ - -“Then she told him all about herself, and they talked together for -quite a while. The upshot of it was that Jimmy agreed to take the risk -of returning all the things to the rooms from which he had taken them, -and she promised to wait where she was, until he had done so.” - -“That was like Jimmy. Think of the nerve of the fellow, in going back -to the rooms he had robbed, to return the jewels to the places where he -had found them.” - -“That is just the point, Chick; he didn’t.” - -“Oh; I see.” - -“He replaced a few of the things, but many of them he still kept. He -told her, when he came back, that he had returned them, and it wasn’t -till the following day that she discovered his deception.” - -“I think it is rather remarkable that she trusted him to do it at all.” - -“Jimmy could always make Nan believe that the moon was made of green -cheese. Well, she promised him that she would say nothing of having -found a man in the library, and much less would she mention to any -living person who that man really was. So they parted. Nan returned to -her room, and retired. Jimmy, presumably, left the house by the way he -had entered it.” - -“But he didn’t do that, either, eh?” - -“No. He didn’t do that, either.” - -“What did he do?” - -“He sat opposite Nan, at the breakfast table, the following morning, -and was introduced to her by their hostess as Mr. Ledger Dinwiddie.” - -“Gee!” - -“That’s what I said.” - -“Say, Nick, if I had heard this story without names being mentioned, -I’d have said that Jimmy Duryea would have done that very thing if he -were alive.” - -“So would I.” - -“What did Nan do, when the introduction took place?” - -“What could she do? Nothing more than acknowledge the introduction. She -couldn’t tell the story of what had happened during the night, with -much more credit to herself, than he could have done so; and, besides, -just then she supposed that all the stolen property had been returned. -It wasn’t till later in the day—some time in the afternoon—that she -knew the truth.” - -“And then?” - -“Then she laid for Jimmy. But he knew that, and avoided her, of course. -Finally, she went directly to him, and asked him to walk with her to -the stables, and he couldn’t very well refuse to do that. Halfway to -the stables, they found a secluded spot, and there she stopped him and -told him that unless he returned all the stolen property before the -following morning, she would denounce him, no matter what might happen -to her.” - -“And he made another promise, I suppose?” - -“Sure.” - -“And kept it in about the same manner?” - -“In precisely the same manner.” - -“That brings the time to Saturday morning, doesn’t it? The thing -happened Thursday night.” - -“Yes.” - -“What then?” - -“Saturday, she went for him again. He told her that there had been no -opportunity to replace the stolen jewels the preceding night, but that -he would do it that night—Saturday night. Yesterday morning she did not -see him at all, but she learned that the jewels had not been returned. -Mrs. Remsen asked her to take a motor ride, and she had to go. They -came to the city, and decided to remain till to-day—and that is how Nan -happened to be at church last night, when I met her.” - -“She was alone last night? Mrs. Remsen wasn’t with her?” - -“No; she was alone. Nan had been chewing on the thing all day. She -didn’t know what to do. She said that she had decided to telephone to -me, after church, when she discovered that I was among the members of -the congregation.” - -“In the meantime I suppose she hasn’t said a word to anybody but you.” - -“Not a word.” - -“What have you advised her to do?” - -“I haven’t advised her—yet. What I did do was to promise to become one -of the invited guests at ‘The Birches,’ as they call the Remsen place -on the Hudson.” - -“I see. So you are going up there, eh?” - -“Yes.” - -“When?” - -“In a couple of hours. I’m going to take the car, and drive there—and -you are going with me. Danny will do the driving.” - -“Oho! I see! Do you know the Remsens?” - -“No. I never met either of them; or any of the family; but Nan said -she could fix that part of it all right. Nan was to tell Mrs. Remsen, -this morning, that she met an old friend at church, who is to motor out -their way to-day, and that she invited him to stop at The Birches. That -is all there is to that.” - -“You intend to get Jimmy off to one side, and—what?” - -“I haven’t decided that point, as yet. You see, there is another -complication in the affair. Mrs. Remsen is Theodore Remsen’s second -wife. There are two stepchildren at The Birches, a son and a -daughter—and Ledger Dinwiddie is supposed to be the future husband of -Lenore Remsen. You see, Jimmy Duryea has an assured position at the -house, and in the family. He thinks, now, that Nan dare not denounce -him, because of the effect that such a denouncement would have upon -herself; but with me on the ground——” - -“I see. What do you propose to do?” - -“I don’t know, Chick, until I get on the ground. It is a queer case -all around. Nan is for compelling Jimmy to give up the plunder, and -to disappear, without doing anything to him at all. She believes that -I am the only person who can accomplish that with him—and, under the -circumstances, she is about right, Chick.” - -“Yes.” - -“So I promised her that I would go there this afternoon. She and Mrs. -Remsen—who is a beautiful woman of about Nan’s age—were to return this -morning; they are probably halfway there by this time.” - -“And you want me with you.” - -“Why, yes. I thought you’d like it. Jimmy will realize what he is up -against when he sees both of us there.” - -“He certainly ought to.” - -“I don’t know just what attitude Jimmy will take. You know as well -as I do that he never plans a thing of this sort without doing it -thoroughly. He is doubtless prepared at every turn, and he may have the -bareface to defy me.” - -“It wouldn’t surprise me if he did.” - -“Nor me, either, Chick.” - -“Then what?” - -“Oh, we won’t cross any bridges till we get to them.” - -“How soon will we start, Nick?” - -“In an hour or two.” - - - - - CHAPTER IV. - - THROWING THE GAUNTLET. - - -“The Birches,” one of the summer residences of Theodore Remsen, -multimillionaire, financier, Wall Street wizard, and one of the -recognized powers in the moneyed world, stood, and still stands, a -prominent landmark at the location already described. - -It stands upon a high bluff overlooking the Hudson, and is approached -from the main highway by a winding, macadamized road, which, from the -lodge gate to the mansion, is more than a mile in length, and shaded on -either side by a double row of white birches; hence its name. - -The lawn, directly in front of the house, is laid out in tennis courts, -and there Nick Carter and Chick discovered nearly all the guests of -the house assembled, when they drove beneath the porte-cochère at four -o’clock that Monday afternoon. - -Nancy Nightingale had evidently been watching for their arrival, for as -Nick stepped down from the car and gave Danny a few directions, he saw -her approaching. He went forward to meet her, followed by Chick. - -As the detective moved toward her he cast his eyes rapidly over the -assembled people—there was a score of them, all told—and thought he -saw Jimmy Duryea among them, engaged in an animated conversation with -a group of which he appeared to be the centre. But the man’s back was -turned, and Nick could not be certain. - -Nan, in an outing gown and coat of white flannel, with her black hair -and sparkling eyes, looked more beautiful than ever as she approached -the two detectives, and her smile of greeting was warmth itself. - -She conducted them directly toward the place where Mrs. Remsen was -seated, and presented them. She added, after she had done so: - -“I told Mrs. Remsen that I had invited you to stop here to call upon -us, and now she insists that you shall join our party for as long a -time as you can remain.” - -After that, with Nan on his arm, Nick passed from group to group on -the lawn, acknowledging introductions here and there as he went along. -Chick remained with the group that had formed around the hostess. - -Presently Nick and his companion approached that particular group -of which the man who called himself Ledger Dinwiddie, and whom Nan -believed to be Jimmy Duryea, formed one part. - -Nan purposely left the introduction to him, for the last of that -particular group; and then she said: - -“Mr. Dinwiddie, this is an old friend of mine—Mr. Carter;” and Duryea -turned about lazily, as if he had not noticed the arrival of a stranger -till that moment. - -“Glad to know you, Mr. Carter,” he said imperturbably, and with just -the faintest trace of a smile on his handsome features; and then he -turned back again to the companion with whom he had been talking, and -who happened to be the daughter of the house, Miss Lenore Remsen, who -was not more than two years younger than her beautiful stepmother. - -There was not the slightest trace of recognition in the eyes of Jimmy -Duryea when he acknowledged that introduction, although he must have -known Nick Carter at once—and he could not have prepared for the sudden -appearance of the detective there, unless he had guessed that Nan might -communicate with the detective while she was in the city. - -Nick was equally reticent. It was no part of his present purpose to -force matters; at least he did not intend to do so until the proper -moment should arrive; but he did desire to get the gentleman cracksman -into conversation, to see how far the assurance of the man would carry -him. - -Presently he found an opportunity. - -It was when Duryea turned to make some general remark to those near -him, and Nick chose to reply directly to it. - -“I quite agree with you, Mr. Dinwiddie,” he said. “Stolen jewels are -difficult things to trace. That is the subject you were discussing, I -believe?” - -“Yes,” said Nan, before Duryea could reply. “A most remarkable thing -happened here, during the night of last Thursday. A necklace, and other -jewels, disappeared most mysteriously from the rooms of the owners. -But—shhh—we have all agreed to keep very still about it, for the -present.” - -Duryea laughed softly. - -“Perhaps, Miss Nightingale,” he said, “this gentleman will be able to -make some valuable suggestions in regard to those missing jewels. He -has a namesake in New York who is said to be one of the smartest of -living detectives. Isn’t that so, Carter? Eh?” - -“Quite so,” replied Nick, looking him directly in the eye. “Only the -gentleman to whom you refer is not a namesake. I happen to be the -person mentioned myself.” - -Duryea’s brows went upward in well-feigned surprise; a chorus of -exclamations arose from every side; Nan bit her lips, for she had not -intended that Nick should announce himself quite in that manner. - -Lenore Remsen turned at once to the detective, and exclaimed: - -“Really, Mr. Carter, are you the detective?” - -“Yes, Miss Remsen, I really am.” - -“Oh, I am so glad. Then you can assist us to recover our jewels.” - -“I can try, if it is your wish that I should do so,” replied Nick -calmly. “Were you a victim of the robberies, Miss Remsen?” - -“Yes, indeed. It was my diamond necklace that was the most valuable -thing taken. I must admit that I was very careless about it that night. -Instead of putting it away, as usual, I merely dropped it into my jewel -box. In the morning it was gone. Don’t you think, Mr. Carter, that it -is remarkable how a burglar could get into the house, and go through -the rooms as that one did, without leaving a trace of any sort behind -him?” - -“It does seem so; yes.” - -“There wasn’t a trace. Not one; anywhere.” - -“Was no one in the house suspected?” asked Nick quietly. - -“No one in the——Oh, you mean one of the servants, of course. No; -really. The staff of servants that we have in this house are, all of -them, old retainers; every one of them has been a long time with us. -You know this is the one place which we really call home. We always -speak of ‘coming home,’ when we come here. Oh, no, indeed, we could not -suspect one of the servants.” - -“What is your opinion on the subject, Mr. Dinwiddie?” asked the -detective, turning fairly toward Duryea. - -The latter smiled, showing his white and even teeth; he twirled his -mustache for a moment before he replied, and when he did so it was with -deliberation. - -“Really,” he said, “you know I am not an authority, Mr. Carter—such -as yourself, for example. Still—er—I think I have an opinion, -nevertheless. We are all apt to form opinions in such cases, don’t you -think, Mr. Carter?” - -“Yes. What is yours? You interest me.” - -“Do I? Really! You confess yourself to be the great and only Nick -Carter, and then do me the honor to care for my opinion!” - -“In the hope that it might prove to be an expert one—yes,” replied the -detective. - -“Expert? Oh, dear, no; not at all expert. Just an opinion.” - -“Well, what is it?” - -“I shall shock all the ladies present—and some who are not immediately -present in this group—when I mention it.” - -“Nevertheless——” - -“Oh, nevertheless, I shall not hesitate—even at the risk of giving -offense. I should venture it as my opinion that the thief in this -instance is a woman, whether she happens to be a servant—or one of the -guests. There! Have I shocked all of you?” - -He laughed easily when he asked the question, as if to take away the -sting of it, and he turned his speaking eyes from one to another of the -group until he had gone the rounds—and, somehow, he managed to create -the impression that he was merely indulging in a joke at their expense. - -But there was an uneasy laugh around him, nevertheless. - -Lenore Remsen started to her feet, and exclaimed: - -“I think that was horrid of you, Ledger! Horrid! The idea of saying -such a thing! We shall all be looking askance at each other, from now -on. What do you think about it, Miss Nightingale?” - -“I should sooner incline to the opinion that the thief was a man, and -a guest,” was the deliberate reply; and she added, not without intent, -for she was angry, seeing exactly what Duryea had intended to convey to -her: “One of the lately arrived guests, at that.” - -Lenore clapped her hands. - -“That is where you get it back, Ledger,” she exclaimed. “But, really, -that was horrid of you, to say such a thing.” - -“Who are the lately arrived guests, Miss Nightingale?” asked the -detective, without turning his head; and she replied, without -hesitation: - -“Mr. Dinwiddie is himself the most lately arrived one.” - -Duryea laughed aloud. - -“Good!” he said. “That is right, too. I arrived that very evening. -Now, I wonder if it could have been me? I used to walk in my sleep -when I was a child, although I don’t remember that I had the habit of -purloining necklaces when I did so. But, then, one never can tell.” - -“Indeed one cannot,” retorted Nan. And then, assuming the air of one -who was joking, she added: “I should advise a close inspection into -your past record, Mr. Dinwiddie, if it is true that you formerly were -in the habit of prowling about houses in the night.” - -“Gladly!” he exclaimed, joining in the general laugh that followed. -“Will you give us the benefit of searching yours, also, Miss -Nightingale?” - -A slow flush stole into the cheeks and brow of Nan Nightingale, but she -was equal to the occasion. She replied: - -“It will not be necessary that you should search. Fortunately there is -one who has known me many years. Mr. Carter can supply all particulars -that may be required.” - -“I am afraid,” said Duryea, “that what was intended as a joke all -around has taken a serious turn. Let us drop it before we begin to -indulge in personalities. Nevertheless, Miss Nightingale, it is well to -have a person so renowned as Nick Carter to vouch for one. I only wish -that he could perform the same service for me.” - -“Perhaps, Mr. Dinwiddie, I might be able to do that, also,” replied -Nick quietly. “It is my profession to know something about a great many -people who do not suppose that I know them at all. However, as you say, -the conversation is taking too serious a turn. I will propose a game of -tennis with you, Mr. Dinwiddie; what do you say?” - -“Gladly. Come along. Singles?” - -“Yes. Singles. There is a vacant court.” - -“All right. You’re on. But I warn you, Mr. Carter, I am considered an -expert.” - -“So much the better. I think I just suggested that about you in quite -another line, did I not?” - - - - - CHAPTER V. - - THE GHOST OF JIMMY. - - -The game of tennis was over. - -There were indications of a shower, and the spectators had scampered -toward the wide verandas for shelter, so that Nick Carter and the -so-called Ledger Dinwiddie stood alone near one end of the net. It was -the opportunity which Nick wanted. - -“Well, Jimmy, this is a bolder game than usual, that you are playing, -isn’t it?” he asked smilingly. - -Duryea raised his eyes to the detective’s without a trace of resentment -in them, and also without a vestige of surprise visible. He also raised -his brows interrogatively. - -“Now, I wonder where in the world you hit upon that name?” he said, -in reply, and his expression denoted nothing more nor less than -wonderment. “That is what my dear old dad used to call me, Jimmy! James -Ledger Dinwiddie is my full name. How’d you hit upon the Jimmy part of -it?” - -“Oh, come, Jimmy, don’t try to play it out with me. You know it won’t -work. You are Jimmy Duryea, all right—and the climate of The Birches -isn’t good for you, just now.” - -“What the blazes do you mean?” was the indignant ejaculation; and then: -“I say, we’ll get caught in that shower, old chap. Come along!” - -He seized his racket from the ground and started toward the house; but -he had not taken two steps before Nick Carter seized him by the arm and -propelled him toward a summerhouse that was near at hand. - -“This place will shelter us, Jimmy,” he said coldly. “You come along -with me. If you attempt to resist, I shall take you there anyhow, so if -you don’t want a scene here on the lawn, come.” - -“This is a high-handed——” began Duryea; but the detective interrupted -him. - -“It’ll be higher-handed if you don’t do as I say,” he remarked; and -then the big, advance raindrops began to fall, and they ran together -beneath the shelter of the summerhouse. - -“Now, what the deuce——” - -“Drop it, Jimmy. If you don’t, I’ll put the handcuffs on you now, and -take you away with me through this storm. You know that I can do it.” - -Bare-Faced Jimmy shrugged his shoulders. Then he laughed. He dropped -his lithe and graceful length upon one of the rustic settees, thrust -his hands deeply into his pockets, and replied: - -“Well, speak your piece, Mr. Carter, since you seem bound to do so. I -can listen, and the storm prevents my leaving you. Besides, there is no -one to hear us.” - -“No; there isn’t any one to overhear us. That is why I pulled you into -this place.” - -“Extremely kind and thoughtful of you, I’m sure; only, you’d have done -better if you had not ventured to thrust yourself upon me at all, -wouldn’t you? What the blazes is the matter with you, anyway?” - -“Drop it, I say, Jimmy.” - -“Gladly—if you’ll tell me what it is that you want me to drop,” was -the cool reply. He removed his hands from his pockets long enough to -abstract a cigarette case from another one, and to light a cigarette. -“Have one? No? Too bad. They’re Russian.” - -“Drop the play acting with me, Jimmy.” - -“Say, look here, mister man, it was all right for you to make a play -with that name that my dad used to call me—at first; but it’s getting -tiresome,” exclaimed Duryea, with a fine show of rancour. “I’m Jimmy, -all right, only nobody calls me by that name now. I’m Mr. Dinwiddie, -particularly to strangers, if you don’t mind. I’ll thank you to address -me by that name. What kind of a game are you up to, anyway? Blackmail?” - -The effrontery of the man was phenomenal. - -Instead of being offended by it, Nick Carter was amused; and he could -not resist a small sense of admiration, too, for Duryea’s pluck, -under the circumstances. He resolved to meet him on the ground he had -selected. - -“All right, Mr. Dinwiddie,” he said, smiling. “It is my wish to discuss -a certain person whom we both knew in the past. If you prefer to speak -of that person in the third person, I see no reason for not humoring -you. But, before we continue with the subject, I wish to warn you that -I am about through with your pose. I will talk in the third person -about that other man, but you’ve got to talk—or something will happen.” - -“How melodramatic. Look here, Carter, what are you driving at?” - -“I’m driving at one Bare-Faced Jimmy Duryea.” - -“Oh; you are! And who might he be? Or who might he have been? Is he a -dead one, or is he alive, Mr. Carter? You interest me. Really, you do.” - -“He has long since been supposed to be dead, but just now he seems to -be very much alive.” - -“That’s where you are dead wrong, Carter. Believe me, you are. Dead men -do not return. Neither do they discuss tales of themselves. Bare-Faced -Jimmy, eh? What a name!” - -“It was never more appropriate than at this moment, Jimmy, for if you -are not the most barefaced reprobate out of prison, I’ll eat my hat; -and that’s quite a compliment.” - -“I suppose so. Anyway, I choose to take it so, rather than be offended. -But you said he was supposed to be dead—this Bare-Faced Jimmy, as you -call him. Why not let him lie? What is the use of stirring up the dead?” - -“He has been stealing jewels, that’s all.” - -“Oh; has he?” - -“Yes. He can stay dead just as long as he pleases if he returns those -jewels, and then disappears again, at once.” - -“I see. It must be his ghost that you are talking about, Carter.” - -“Yes; we’ll call it that. The ghost of Bare-Faced Jimmy.” - -“What has he got to do besides return the jewels he has stolen?” - -“Beat it. Skip. Get out. Disappear.” - -“What! All four, and all at once? Really. Say! Suppose the ghost -refuses to walk?” - -“He won’t refuse when he realizes just what he is up against.” - -“Won’t he? Maybe you wrong him there. Perhaps you do not do this ghost -full justice.” - -“Perhaps not; but I think I do.” - -“Say, Carter, honest, did you ever hear of a ghost that got caught? A -real ghost?” - -“I don’t think I ever did.” - -“Well, you don’t hear of this one’s getting caught, either. If the -ghost of Jimmy Duryea stole the jewels you are talking about, the ghost -of Jimmy Duryea intends to keep them, and it will go hard with the man -or woman—or shall I say the man and woman—who attempts to deprive the -ghost of them.” - -Nick Carter’s reply was a smile. - -“There aren’t any witnesses to this conversation, Carter,” Duryea went -on, “so I don’t mind being more or less plain with you for just a -moment.” - -“I am glad that you have arrived at that conclusion, Jimmy.” - -“I’ll tell you this: If anybody has got to ‘drop it,’ as you suggested -just now, you are the one to do it. You have bitten off more than you -can chew. You just now said that Mr. James Duryea is dead. Let him lie. -Mr. Ledger Dinwiddie stands before you, and Mr. Ledger Dinwiddie can -prove his descent for generations back, and that without the slightest -trouble. If Jimmy Duryea’s ghost walks, Nick Carter won’t be the man to -lay it. You can bet your last dollar on that.” - -“All the same, I think he will; and to prove it to you, I’ll just clap -the irons upon you right now, Jimmy, and as soon as this storm is past -I’ll take you where you belong.” - -As the detective spoke he produced a pair of handcuffs from one of -his pockets, and he held them, jingling before Duryea’s eyes, looking -straight at the man. - -But Duryea only laughed. - -“Put ’em away, Carter,” he said. “You won’t use them; not on me; not -to-day, at least.” - -“Why not?” - -“Because you won’t. That’s reason enough. What do you think would -happen, if you should be ass enough to do what you threaten?” - -“I think it would be Sing Sing for yours, Jimmy.” - -“Not on your life; not much.” - -“Why not?” - -“Oh, I’ll admit, for the sake of argument, that you may have enough -against the aforesaid James Duryea to send him up for the rest of his -life; but—you know the old receipt for roasting a hare, don’t you?” - -“Well?” - -“First catch your hare, Carter. In this case, first catch the man—or -shall I say the ghost?” - -“Say what you please; it does not alter the circumstance.” - -“Doesn’t it? You would find that it did. Admitting that the ghost of -Jimmy Duryea is now standing before you, you have already agreed that a -ghost was never caught. Do you suppose—you who claim to know me—that I -would be fool enough, if I were the man you believe me to be, to stand -here and defy you unless I knew exactly what I was doing?” - -“You’ve got cheek enough to do almost anything, Jimmy.” - -“Yes, and I have got brains enough to have prepared for all the -emergencies that might arise, too. I asked you a moment ago if you -realized what would happen if you should clap those irons onto me and -take me away. You haven’t replied to that question, yet.” - -“You answer it, then.” - -“You would make a charge against me—as James Duryea. I would establish -the fact that I am not James Duryea. All the pictures in the world, no -matter whether they are in a rogues’ gallery or not, would have any -effect upon the proof that I would be able to offer. I have a long -line of ancestry to fall back upon. Ledger Dinwiddie is a personality, -widely known in a certain locality where his home is—now. Jimmy Duryea -is dead, and buried, and his bones can be dug up, if necessary. Nick -Carter, the great detective, would make himself the laughingstock of -the whole country.” - -“Nick Carter isn’t a bit afraid of doing that, Jimmy.” - -“And then, again, you heard my opinion—the one I gave out there on the -lawn—about the personality of the thief who stole the jewels. I need -only suggest to you that if you should enter that house now, and make -a search, you might find the jewels, and you might not; but if you did -find them, you would find that everything would point to the identity -of the thief as I named it out there.” - -“You scoundrel! Do you mean to say——” - -“I mean what I have said—no more, no less. You cannot crush me, Carter; -you haven’t got it in your power to do so, just now. I would rise, like -a phœnix from the ashes, and laugh at you.” - -“You think so.” - -“No; I know so. I know exactly how thoroughly I have builded this -edifice in which I am now living. And so, Mr. Nicholas Carter, the -ghost of Bare-Faced Jimmy defies you!” - -He stopped and then laughed mockingly. - - - - - CHAPTER VI. - - NICK MEETS DEFIANCE. - - -It might occur to the reader to ask: Why did not Nick Carter seize upon -his man then and there, put the irons on him, and take him away? The -answer is obvious. - -The detective knew the man with whom he had to deal, too well. - -He realized that Jimmy Duryea would never have placed himself in the -present position unless he had been very sure of his ground. - -There was no doubt in Nick’s mind that when Jimmy found that Nan had -gone to the city, he suspected at once that she would notify Nick -Carter of all that had happened at The Birches. The fact that Jimmy had -awaited with calmness the arrival of the detective upon the scene was -sufficient proof that the former burglar was fairly positive of the -ground upon which he stood. - -Jimmy denied his identity while admitting it—by implication. - -He called himself the ghost of Bare-Faced Jimmy with an irony that was -inimitable. - -He had stated that Ledger Dinwiddie, the man whom he claimed to be, -could establish his identity, with a long line of ancestry, without a -doubt, and with very little trouble; and he had asserted that the bones -of Jimmy Duryea might be dug up, if necessary, to prove that Jimmy -Duryea was really dead. - -There is just where the rub came. Jimmy might be bluffing, but again he -might be entirely in earnest. Jimmy was a careful one in preparing his -coups, and there could be no doubt that he had prepared this one from -every available standpoint. - -And again, until that meeting with Nan, at the church, Nick Carter -himself had believed that Duryea was long since dead and buried. - -Nevertheless, Nick Carter was not one to be driven aside from a -determination upon which he had studied and decided; and he had decided -that this was Jimmy Duryea, and that he must not only give up the -stolen property, but must also disappear. If the detective at times -appeared to hesitate, it was only because he wished to make himself -more sure of his own ground. - -“Jimmy,” he said, after a short pause which followed the burglar’s last -remark, which was in the nature of a defiance, “you can’t bluff me, and -you know you can’t.” - -“That is precisely why I am not attempting to do so,” was the quick -retort. “You will find, if you persevere far enough, that this is no -bluff. I’m in dead earnest. Jimmy Duryea is dead, buried, and gone; -Ledger Dinwiddie is very much alive, and is here on the spot, ready -to do business. Ledger Dinwiddie owns estates in the South, heavily -mortgaged, to be sure; but his, nevertheless. He can prove who he -is, and every statement he makes about himself. If you should place -me under arrest, you would cause me great inconvenience, to be sure; -but you would cause others more than you would me—yourself among the -number. Now, you can take that, or leave it.” - -“You are covertly making a threat against Nan Nightingale.” - -“I am not covertly threatening anybody; but I openly threaten every -person, no matter who it is, who attempts to connect me with the former -Jimmy Duryea. Now you’ve got it, straight from the shoulder.” - -“Jimmy, I’ve got three questions to ask you.” - -“Fire away.” - -“I won’t go into the details of them till I have asked all of them.” - -“Just as you please. I don’t want to hurry you. The storm is almost -over, and as soon as it is past I shall deny myself the pleasure of -your company, and go to the house.” - -“We’ll see about that—when the storm is over.” - -“We will see. Now, what are your questions?” - -“The first one is this: Will you return those jewels you stole last -Thursday night?” - -“I have not stolen any jewels, and therefore I cannot return any. Next?” - -“Will you, after the jewels are returned to the proper owners, leave -this place, and the United States as well, never to return, on -condition that I let you go away unmolested?” - -“Since I cannot—or will not, if you prefer it so—return the jewels, -that last question requires no answer; but I will answer it by saying -that I shall remain a guest at this place just so long as it pleases me -to do so.” - -“The third and last question, is this: Will you promise me never to -communicate with Lenore Remsen again, after to-day?” - -One quick flash of keen resentment crossed the face of Duryea, when -that question was asked; but it was gone as quickly as it appeared. He -laughed outright, flicking away the stub of a cigarette as he did so, -and producing another one. - -“Don’t be an ass, Carter,” he said, rising and turning to cross the -summerhouse toward the door through which they could see the people on -the veranda of the mansion. - -Instantly Nick Carter leaped from the seat he had been occupying, and -sprang upon him. He seized him by the arms, pulled his hands behind -him, and snapped the handcuffs upon his wrists in that position; and -then Nick pulled him away from the door so that there was no chance of -being seen from the house. - -Beyond the first impulse of resistance, Jimmy made none at all; and -when the detective thrust him back again upon the chair where he had -been seated before, he looked up with a quiet smile, as if he rather -enjoyed the proceeding. - -“Jimmy,” said Nick, “I’m not going to monkey with you. You are past all -that. You have laid your plans, and you think they will work out to the -end. But they won’t. They might do so with some people, but they won’t -with me. Now, I offer you your liberty upon those three conditions, and -I do it for Nan’s sake, not for yours.” - -“Why don’t you marry her, Carter?” was the cool response. “You’re a -widower, and she is twice a widow. Why don’t you marry her? You seem to -be mightily stuck on her.” - -“I am, in the sense that I thoroughly respect a good woman, Jimmy, and -Nan is that.” - -“She was good enough to go to you and give things away up here, when -she supposed that she had the kibosh on me,” sneered Jimmy. - -“She did not come to me and give you away, Jimmy. I met her by -accident; and even then it was after you had broken your solemn word -given to her that night. What has changed you so, Jimmy? You used to be -a man of your word, even though you were a crook.” - -“I’m not Jimmy, I tell you. Jimmy is dead. Nothing of him -remains—unless it is that ghost we have been talking about. Come, -Carter, take these irons off me. You can only make trouble for Nan, if -I am found in this predicament. She would be the one to suffer; not I.” - -“You think so.” - -“I know so, Carter. I know whereof I speak. I don’t do things halfway, -and you know I do not. I intend to carry off this plan I have laid out, -Nick Carter to the contrary, notwithstanding.” - -“What does that plan include, Jimmy?” - -“If I should tell you, you would know.” - -“Do you mean that you would have married that girl, if fortune had not -gone against you in the way it has?” - -“I intend to marry her, as it is. I have got a name to perpetuate, -Carter; the name of Dinwiddie. There is not an older or a better one in -this benighted country of yours.” - -“Perhaps you will tell me how you came by that name,” suggested the -detective; and he was surprised when Duryea laughed aloud. - -“I’d like to tell you; by Jove, I would, and no mistake, Carter. It is -almost too good to keep. But that would be throwing altogether too much -information in your way—and it cannot be done. Look here, Carter, I’ll -tell you what I’ll do.” - -“Well?” - -This was what Nick had been hoping for. He had now got his man to a -point where he was tacitly admitting his position, and was doing his -share of the talking. - -“We’ll admit, for the sake of the circumstance, that I am the ghost of -Bare-Faced Jimmy, or at least that I represent the ghost. We’ll admit -that the ghost got the diamonds. We’ll admit that the ghost can return -them. See?” - -“Yes.” - -“Well, I’ll confess to you that I badly need those diamonds, in order -to carry out my plans, for I am short of money. Nevertheless, since you -make such a point of it, I’ll get the ghost to return them to their -proper owners—on a condition.” - -“What is the condition?” - -“Wait. Don’t go off half cocked.” - -“What is the condition?” - -“I’ll return the diamonds, I’ll forget, as long as I live, that I ever -saw Nan Nightingale in my life—provided you’ll go away from here and -forget that such a person as Jimmy Duryea ever existed.” - -For a moment the detective stared at Jimmy; then he laughed shortly. - -“Have you so small an opinion of me as that, Duryea?” he asked. “Do you -suppose that I would permit a man like you to ruin the life of that -girl, as you would do, if she became your wife?” - -“I wouldn’t ruin it; I would make her happy. I would——” - -“That’s enough of that. Do you know, I have more than half a notion -to call your bluff about your being able to prove yourself to be a -Dinwiddie, and take you in right now?” - -“Try it on, if you think it will work, Carter.” - -Nick started to his feet as if he intended to do so. He was more -than half inclined to do it, and probably might have done so, had -it not been that at that moment he heard voices, as if persons were -approaching the summerhouse. - -He stepped quickly to the vine-shaded doorway, and looked out. - -The storm had passed, and halfway across the lawn from the house, -coming toward him, was Lenore Remsen, accompanied by two of the young -women guests at the mansion. - -Nick realized instantly that this was no time for the dénouement. - -One glance, and the thought that accompanied it, satisfied him that the -time was not yet ripe, and he wheeled and returned quickly to the side -of Duryea. - -Then, without a word, he quickly unlocked the manacles and removed -them, dropping them into a pocket out of sight. - -“Thanks. Thanks, awfully,” drawled Duryea, and yawned. “You’re really -quite a bore, Carter—sometimes.” - -“People are coming, Jimmy,” said Nick, speaking rapidly. “You are free, -now, for the moment, but it won’t be for long. I am not sparing you, -just now; I am sparing that poor girl, whom you are deceiving. But -I’ll tell you right now, Duryea, that from this moment, no matter what -happens, I do not leave your trail until you are behind the bars of a -prison, condemned under the name that belongs to you. I’ll add that the -offer I made a little while ago, to let you escape on conditions, is -withdrawn. That’s all. You have defied me, Duryea, and you will have to -take the consequences. Maybe you know what that means when I say it. If -you do not, there are people up at Sing Sing who could tell you.” - -The first tinge of uneasiness that Duryea had shown, appeared in his -face for an instant; and then the summerhouse door was darkened by the -young women whom Nick had seen approaching, and he started to his feet -with a smile and an exclamation of greeting. A moment later they were -all walking together toward the mansion. - - - - - CHAPTER VII. - - WHEN A MAN IS DESPERATE. - - -During what remained of that day, through the dinner hour, and in the -evening when the entire company of guests thronged the big rooms, Nick -Carter and Duryea kept as far apart as they conveniently could. Nick -had an object in carrying out his part of that unspoken arrangement: He -wished Jimmy to understand that he had not yet decided what to do. - -It has always been one of the detective’s theories that if you leave a -criminal well enough alone, he will presently become uneasy under the -restraint of inaction, and do something himself. Nick had a notion that -Jimmy would attempt some sort of move before another day came around, -if only he were left severely to himself; that is, as far as the -detective was concerned. - -But Nick found an opportunity to make Chick thoroughly acquainted with -all that had happened; and he also had it arranged to take Nan in to -dinner, and so secured an opportunity to talk with her. - -He noticed, while at the dinner table, that Jimmy, who was seated -nearly opposite, kept a furtive eye upon him and Nan, and noted that -they were whispering together. No doubt the cracksman would think that -they were hatching some sort of a plot against him. That was precisely -what Nick wished to have him think. - -Nick did not believe that Jimmy would have the pluck to hold his -ground, and really attempt to marry the girl; for he must know that -Nick Carter would never permit that. - -No, it was plain to the detective that the bluff on Jimmy’s part was -directed at some other effort, since that one must now be abandoned. - -There was a time after dinner when Nick and Nan found themselves alone -together, at a corner of the veranda. Nick was seated upon the rail, -and Nan stood beside him, picking apart the leaves of a wilted rose -that she held in her hand. - -It was the first chance that Nick had had to tell her about what -happened in the summerhouse; there had been no opportunity to do so at -the dinner table. - -“You and Jimmy were a long time in the summerhouse together, during the -storm,” she said to him, in a low tone. “What happened?” - -“A great deal happened, and very little happened,” he replied, smiling. - -“Tell me about it, Mr. Carter,” she asked. - -“Jimmy is a great bluffer,” replied Nick. “He is also a brave man, for -one in his position. To tell you the truth, Nan, if what he says is -half the truth, he holds trumps at the present moment. Can you guess -what he would do if I were to arrest him now?” - -“Deny his identity, of course.” - -“More than that. He has got another identity established. That name -he is wearing is more than a mere name which he has assumed for his -present purposes.” - -“What do you mean by that statement?” - -“I mean that somehow he has managed to establish a new identity. I -don’t know how he has accomplished it, but if I read him correctly, he -has practically made himself over into a new being, and established -beyond a doubt—that is, a present doubt—that he is that person.” - -“But how could he do that?” - -“I don’t know—at the present time; but some day I shall make it my -business to look into the matter; after we have got the present -predicament off our hands.” - -“You admit, then, that it is a predicament?” - -“Decidedly so.” - -“Will you tell me in just what way it is a predicament?” - -“Jimmy has practically defied me. Out there in the summerhouse I -actually put the handcuffs on him, thinking that he might weaken; but -not a bit of it. He was as cool as a cucumber. He not only insisted -that he could prove the death of Jimmy Duryea, but that he could prove -his own identity as Ledger Dinwiddie. He actually dared me to arrest -him—and under the circumstances I thought it best not to do so—till -later. Nan, where is the room you occupy in this house?” - -“I have a suite of three rooms. They are in the south wing. Why?” - -“I want to go to them. I want to examine them—thoroughly.” - -“Why?” - -“Because I think that Jimmy has hidden those jewels there.” - -“What; in my rooms?” - -“Yes.” - -“Why should he do that?” - -“Can’t you guess?” - -“I’m afraid not. I——” - -“When he found that you had gone to the city with Mrs. Remsen, his -first thought must have been one of panic, for he guessed that you -would go straight to me with the story about him. The fact that he -remained here, was perfectly cool when I arrived, and thoroughly the -master of himself, is proof to anybody who knows Jimmy that he had -prepared to strike back, and strike hard, if anything happened after -your return.” - -She nodded, and Nick continued: - -“When you returned, nothing happened; but there is no doubt that he -expected me, and was not in the least surprised when I appeared on the -scene. Do you remember what he said when we were discussing the theft -of the jewels?” - -“Yes. About a woman having taken them? He meant me, did he not?” - -“Surely. I understood it at the time, but he made it more plain, later -on, in the summerhouse. He almost openly threatened you, in case -anything happened to him.” - -“With a revelation of my past, do you mean?” - -“Worse than that. With accusing you directly with stealing the jewels, -and proving it.” - -“By finding them in my possession? Do you mean that?” - -“Yes.” - -“That is why you would like to search my rooms?” - -“Yes.” - -“Do you really think that he would have taken the risk of hiding them -in my rooms?” - -“Nan, Jimmy Duryea will stop at nothing to carry his point. He has -come here, resolved to marry Theodore Remsen’s daughter. He has made -that daughter fall in love with him, and he can render himself a most -lovable chap, if he has the mind to do so.” - -“That is only too true, Mr. Carter. Even now I find myself trying to -make excuses for him. In the old days, when he made me assist him in -his burglaries, and finally when I actually stole things under his -direction, there was no resisting him.” - -“I know.” - -“But what——” - -“Nan, Lenore Remsen will have a dowry of more than a million. This -house, with the estate upon which it stands, will go to her. He regards -that as a prize worth winning, no matter what the effort. He stole the -jewels merely to provide himself with ready cash when the time comes -for him to leave here to prepare for the wedding. The wedding itself is -the great goal.” - -“I am aware of that.” - -“Therefore, when he decided that you had gone to New York to warn me, -and possibly to bring me back with you, he realized that he must make -his position unassailably strong, or else abandon it altogether.” - -“But, how——” - -“Now, if the worst should come to the worst, he could tell what you -used to be—and he knows that you could not and would not deny that. -He also knows that you and I, both, will do anything in our power to -prevent the necessity of such a revelation.” - -“Yes,” she said. - -“So it remains—at least it is apparent to me—that he has found a place -inside of your rooms to conceal those stolen jewels; a place where he -could find them by accident, or where some other person would find them -seemingly by accident, in case a search should be made for them. Where -would you be then, Nan?” - -She smiled wistfully; and then, with an attempt at playfulness, replied: - -“I’d be in a bad fix, wouldn’t I?” - -“You certainly would.” - -“But, Mr. Carter, he must know that he cannot carry off that marriage, -with you and I both at hand to prevent it. He must know that we would -not permit it to take place, no matter what the consequences might be.” - -“One would think so; but—well, perhaps he intends, somehow, to -forestall us.” - -“Forestall us? How could he do that?” - -“Oh, I don’t know; only, perhaps, if the marriage had actually taken -place, and there was no help for it, you and I might both think that -it would be the better way to leave things alone. While we might, and -would, prevent such a thing, if we had the time and the opportunity, we -might both of us feel disinclined to interfere after it had actually -happened.” - -“I understand what you mean.” - -“Well, just what do you think I mean?” - -“That he was only playing you to gain time, and that he will, if he can -do it, induce Lenore to run away with him, and be married. Only there -wouldn’t be any earthly reason for such a thing as that, when he is -already the accepted suitor. No; it isn’t that. It is something else, -and I think I can guess what it is.” - -“What, then?” - -“Remember, I have been his wife. I have lived with him and I know him, -even better than you do.” - -“Yes.” - -“A little while ago, you called him a brave man. Well, if physical -courage is bravery, then he can certainly lay claim to that quality. -James Duryea is not afraid of anything.” - -“I know it.” - -“Once he has made up his mind to do a certain thing, he will do that -thing, though the heavens fall.” - -“I understand that quality about him, too.” - -“It is evident that he has made up his mind to marry Lenore.” - -“Yes, I think so.” - -“And the only obstacles that are in his way at the present moment stand -right here; they are Nick Carter and Nan Nightingale. Is that correct?” - -“Admitted—if you put aside a small one that I see at the other end of -the veranda, who is called Chick.” - -“True; I had forgotten Chick. But that does not alter what I was about -to say.” - -“What was that?” - -“In the past, whenever obstacles got in the way of Jimmy’s designs, he -broke them down, put them aside, or destroyed them. That is what he -will attempt to do now.” - -“Nan, my dear girl, do you mean murder?” - -“Yes. That is just what I do mean. He would not hesitate.” - -“Perhaps not, if there were opportunity. But here there is none.” - -“Then he will make one. I am afraid, Nick Carter! I am afraid!” - - - - - CHAPTER VIII. - - PLOTTING AGAINST A PLOTTER. - - -It should be permitted us to look inside the brain of Bare-Faced Jimmy -Duryea for a moment, in order that we can see just how he was working -out the existing situation. It will help us better to understand -the events which followed; although, of course, the one who reads -must understand that no such privilege could have been afforded the -detective at that time. - -He had to form his judgments as to what Jimmy might determine to do -next, from his past knowledge of the man, and that, he decided wisely, -was to his credit. - -We cannot relate here just how it happened that Jimmy appeared at the -summer residence of Theodore Remsen in the character of a Southerner -named Ledger Dinwiddie, and was prepared to establish that character, -and the reputation that went with it, to all comers. That is another -story. - -But that Jimmy Duryea never entered upon any task without having -thoroughly prepared himself to meet all the emergencies that might -arise has already been made sufficiently clear. - -His presence in that house as an accepted suitor for the hand of -Lenore Remsen was the result of careful study and preparation, and the -step had been taken with due recognition of all the risks that had to -be met and overcome. - -The encounter with Nan, in that house, and the manner of it, as related -by her to Nick Carter, were, of course, unforeseen; they could not have -been anticipated. - -When Jimmy met Nan that night in the library, while he was sorting over -the jewels he had stolen, it came in the nature of a surprise to him. -He was absolutely unprepared for it. - -Nevertheless, he had met it with his customary aplomb and coolness. We -already know the consequences of that encounter. - -Jimmy had no intention of keeping his promise to her, when he agreed -to return the jewels to their rightful owners; and that was because he -really needed the cash that the jewels would supply, rather than any -reluctance he felt to keeping his word with her. - -In order to carry out his plans to the end, he did really require more -money, and a considerable amount at that; else he would never have gone -to the extent of robbing the visitors at the house where he was himself -a guest; of actually robbing his expected bride of her necklace. - -But, so far as that was concerned, he merely argued to himself that it -was only anticipating the future. That he was taking only what he had a -right to take—or would have a right to take later on. - -But, when he did not keep his word, and Nan threatened him with -exposure, he came very near being desperate. - -He had arrived at that position where this was the last play out of the -pack, so to speak. He had thrown aside every other chance he had in his -career, for this one effort—to win a position in the world, a bride, -and a fortune, all at one cast. - -Jimmy Duryea was never a murderer at heart; never had he been cruelly -inclined. He would go out of his way to do a kindness to another, if it -in no way interfered with his own successes. - -But that same characteristic worked to the opposite extreme, as well. - -Woe betide the circumstance or the person who stood in the way of -his success. He was thoroughly implacable in that respect. So, when -that Friday night came, and he had not returned the jewels, and Nan -threatened him—and when, the following morning, he discovered that Nan -had gone to the city with Mrs. Remsen, causing him to believe that -she would seek out Nick Carter and tell him all before her return—he -realized that he was “up against it hard,” and that he was confronting -the struggle of his life. - -And so, as Nick Carter had just told Nan, the coming of the detective -to the house that Monday afternoon was no surprise to Jimmy Duryea. It -was only a confirmation of his expectation. - -He had decided, long before Nick Carter appeared, just how he would -conduct himself when that incident happened; and we have seen how he -did it. - -Naturally he could not foresee that interview in the summerhouse; he -was not entirely prepared for that; but he met it, when it came, with -all the cool effrontery that was a part of him. - -If Nick Carter knew and understood Jimmy Duryea, no less did Jimmy -Duryea know and understand the detective. - -At least he knew that Nick Carter could not be bluffed. - -Jimmy’s trump card was Nan—and Nan’s position was precarious; and Jimmy -knew that the detective would stand for Nan, and protect her, just as -far as it was possible to do so. - -But, after the interview in the summerhouse, Jimmy was thoughtful. He -knew that the truce that had been declared when Nick took the irons off -his wrists was only a temporary arrangement, and that the detective -would lose no time in drawing the coils about the interloper, and so -tightly that there would be no way of escape left open. - -Jimmy realized that in order to succeed now he must play what remained -of the game with supreme boldness—and that he must rely upon his -established position in that house to see him through it to the end. - -At dinner, as has been said, he watched his two active enemies, -covertly, all the time. He gave very little thought to Chick, although -he recognized the fact that the assistant was there, prepared to render -aid whenever it should become necessary to do so. - -After dinner, Jimmy kept his eyes open and his wits on the alert, and -he saw Nick and Nan when they withdrew to one corner of the veranda, -and entered upon that intimate interview. - -What Jimmy would have been willing to sacrifice could he have overheard -that conversation need not be estimated upon; and the longer he watched -it from a distance, the more anxious he became concerning what it might -portend. - -When he could stand it no longer, he drew Lenore aside from the group -with which she had mingled, and with her on his arm sauntered toward -Nick and Nan, arriving at their secluded corner of the veranda just at -the moment when Nan had said to Nick: - -“I am afraid, Nick Carter! I am afraid!” - -Low as the words had been uttered, they were overheard. Jimmy -and Lenore both heard them, although they understood them quite -differently. - -Jimmy believed that he thoroughly comprehended the meaning that was -conveyed; Lenore was only puzzled that Nan Nightingale should be afraid -of anything, and should give voice to her fears in exactly that tone. -As she stopped before them, she exclaimed: - -“Afraid, Nan? Of what are you afraid?” - -“Of the consequences of her misdeeds, doubtless,” interjected Jimmy, -before Nan could reply; and he added, with deeper meaning than Lenore -could understand: “Fear is a wholesome thing, at times, when it conveys -a warning of things that are likely to happen, under given conditions. -It leads one to avoid those conditions, eh, Mr. Carter?” and he laughed. - -“Unless the fear is entirely misplaced, and unnecessary, Mr. -Dinwiddie,” replied the detective. - -Nick looked across the veranda at that moment, and managed to catch the -eyes of Chick, to whom he signaled. A moment later, Chick joined the -little party in the corner. - -“I’m going to ask you to take my place here for a time, Chick,” said -the detective. “Mr. Dinwiddie has begun a discourse on the quality of -Fear, used as a proper noun, and I will leave it to you to answer him. -Pray, do not let him escape, Chick, without having first given a good -reason for his last statement.” - -The detective bowed, and withdrew. Nan laughed aloud. Jimmy Duryea -scowled. Lenore, unsuspecting the byplay that was contained in the -sentence Nick Carter had just uttered, smiled encouragingly upon Chick. - -But by those words Chick and Nan both understood that they were to keep -Jimmy Duryea under surveillance for a time at least, while Nick Carter -should occupy himself elsewhere; but what was more to the point, Jimmy -understood them, also. - -Nick Carter stepped aside, and passed into the house through one of the -open French windows; then he disappeared. - -He had been quite sincere when he had expressed a desire to see the -inside of the rooms that Nan occupied, and he wished to see them at -once. He believed that no better opportunity could offer than the one -already at hand, and so he took advantage of it. - -He had only a vague idea of the plan of the house, judging it from -the outside view he had been able to obtain of the mansion when he -approached it in the automobile, and from the few words that Nan had -uttered regarding the location of her rooms. - -He passed through the library, into the hall, and up the wide stairway -to the second floor, and so found his way, with comparatively no -difficulty, to Nan’s suite of rooms. - -The door was open, and he could see that there was no one inside the -room into which he peered; Nan’s maid was evidently taking advantage -of the evening hour, to gossip with the other servants of the house. - -The detective passed inside and closed the door after him. Then he -stopped, and began, from that point of vantage immediately inside the -closed door, to make a systematic survey of his surroundings. - -Nick Carter’s method under such circumstances has been too often -described to need repetition here. He stood in that one spot on the -floor, and permitted his eyes to travel slowly from floor to ceiling, -and back again to floor, carefully covering every inch of space that -was before him, with that searching gaze. - -There were just three points upon which Nick Carter was certain since -that conversation with Jimmy Duryea in the summerhouse; two of them -were dependent upon the first one, but Jimmy had as good as stated the -first one for a fact. - -First, then, Jimmy had hidden those stolen jewels somewhere within the -rooms occupied by Nan Nightingale—had hidden them somewhere, so that -when discovered, apparently by accident or otherwise, the conclusion -would be self-evident that Nan had, herself, hidden them there. - -Second, they would necessarily have to be hidden where searchers would -come upon them more by accident than by design. - -Third, they could not, therefore, be under lock and key, put away in -a drawer or a trunk; but must have been placed in some receptacle into -which a stranger might peer, quite naturally, to discover them. - -Although Nick Carter, during the half hour that he spent inside those -rooms, searched every possible place where the jewels might have been -hidden, he turned at last toward the door, profitless from the search. - -He had peered into every vase, into every possible receptacle that -stood in sight, and had found no trace of them—and so much time had -elapsed that he did not dare to remain longer away from the other -members of the house party. - -So he turned toward the door which opened upon the hall, opened it, and -found himself looking into the face of Jimmy Duryea. - -But Jimmy did not come within reach. He only laughed, and turned -hastily away. - -“I thought so,” he said. “I thought so;” and then he ran down the -stairs, before Nick could make an effort to detain him. - - - - - CHAPTER IX. - - EXCITEMENT IN THE NIGHT. - - -Nick Carter was seated alone in the room that had been assigned to him. - -It was rather more than an hour after midnight, and the guests of the -house had retired to their respective rooms, and it so happened that -Chick had been roomed in an entirely different part of the house from -Nick. - -The detective was uneasy in his mind. The atmosphere, somehow, seemed -filled with portent of some sinister kind, and he could not define just -the feeling that was upon him. - -No further opportunity had been obtained for conversation with Nan -Nightingale since that talk in the corner of the veranda; indeed, when -Nick returned downstairs, after his inspection of Nan’s rooms, and -the encounter, at the door of them, with Jimmy, the party had divided -itself into groups, some of which were playing cards, and others were -indulging in music and the usual occupations of an evening of that sort. - -But Nick was uneasy about Nan. - -He realized that Jimmy could protect himself only by casting suspicion -upon the songbird of the stage, and Nick knew that Jimmy would not -hesitate to do that very thing—if it happened that the opportunity was -offered him. - -The detective’s own impotency, so far as Jimmy was concerned, was -apparent, and the reader must understand that, too. - -Put yourself in his place for a moment. - -Nick Carter could not arrest Ledger Dinwiddie and charge him with being -Bare-Faced Jimmy Duryea, without the ability to produce proofs of the -assertion—and Jimmy was undoubtedly prepared to meet and to refute -all such charges; was prepared to prove his claim to the name and -reputation of Ledger Dinwiddie, and therefore to establish a sufficient -alibi to whatever charge the detective might bring against him. - -Nick Carter could not charge Ledger Dinwiddie with the theft of the -jewels, because there was absolutely no evidence against him to support -such a theory; there was only the statement of Nan, that she had seen -him with them in his possession, in the library, during the night when -they were stolen. That would be the unsupported word of one person -against another—and Jimmy, as Ledger Dinwiddie, would not come off -second best in such a scene. Nan could not, or at least would not, deny -her past history, if it came to a show-down, and Jimmy would have to -deny only that he was Jimmy, and to bring forward his proofs that he -was, in reality, Dinwiddie. - -Nick had had no opportunity to find out the exact location of Chick’s -room. Rooms had not been assigned to either of them until it was too -late to do that. - -“It is a remarkable circumstance,” the detective told himself, in -thought. “Here is a case where I know to a certainty the identity of -the thief, and yet have no means of establishing the fact; a case where -I know, approximately, where the stolen property is concealed, and yet -I dare not make an open search for them; a case where the criminal -is in a position to look me in the eyes and defy me, simply because -his own proofs are far better and more convincing than any that I can -supply.” - -It was a remarkable circumstance. - -The detective was cogitating upon these conditions when there came a -low tapping against the panel of his door, and he sprang to his feet, -snapped off the electric lights, and opened the door. - -The hall outside was only dimly lighted, and Nick discovered, as he -opened the door, the figure of a woman, clothed in a silken princess -wrapper, and with a large veil, such as are worn in automobiles, thrown -over her head, gliding rapidly toward the top of the stairs. - -Nick followed swiftly, having not a doubt that the figure was Nan’s, -and that she was conducting him to one of the rooms on the parlor floor -for the purposes of further conversation; but she was so far in advance -of him that he could not see her distinctly, and he did not dare to -call to her lest he should arouse other members of the household. - -But the figure ahead of the detective did not approach the library door -when it reached the parlor floor of the house; it passed the door, -still keeping far in advance of Nick. - -It hastened to the rear of the house, it opened a door that was there, -which gave upon a back porch—and instantly, when that happened, the air -was filled with the ringing of gongs, and the house itself—all of it, -it seemed—was flooded with light. - -Nick Carter realized at once, if too late, just what had happened. - -The opening of that rear door had set off the burglar alarms in the -house. Automatically it had switched on the lights in the house—and -Nick understood that it was not Nan Nightingale he had followed, but -Jimmy Duryea. Jimmy, in a woman’s wrapper and with the veil over his -head, so that in the dim light, and with the hasty glance through the -partial darkness, Nick Carter would not be able to recognize him. - -When that rear door opened, and the figure passed through it; when -the lights flashed on, and the ringing of the alarm gongs began their -din, Nick Carter leaped forward toward the open door; but only to trip -and fall headlong in the hall before he had taken three more steps. He -had tripped over a rope that had been stretched across the hallway, -purposely to catch him. - -As he fell, he heard the whir of an automobile engine, and the -chug-chug of the machine as it started forward. As he sprang to his -feet again, he not only knew that he was too late to overtake it, but -he realized that he had fallen into a trap of some sort that had been -carefully prepared by Jimmy Duryea. - -Men think quickly in emergencies like that one; and Nick’s first -thought as he leaped to his feet was that the crux of the occasion -remained inside the house, and that the apparent escape from it could -be nothing more than a blind. - -Of course the house was instantly in an uproar. - -Doors opened and closed. Heads and shoulders were thrust over the -balustrades. Voices called from above, demanding to know what was -the matter. Men and women appeared from every conceivable quarter, -in all stages of dress, and undress. Foremost among them, incased in -a bathrobe which he was tying around his person, was Jimmy Duryea, -otherwise Mr. Ledger Dinwiddie. - -Behind him appeared the owner of the house, Theodore Remsen. He was -followed by Mrs. Remsen, and by Lenore. Other guests, in various -conditions, so far as clothing was concerned, appeared on the stairs, -all demanding with one voice, almost, to know what had happened. - -Nick Carter was the only person in that motley group who was fully -clothed; but even as he turned to face those who were rushing toward -him he noticed that there were two absentees. - -Nan Nightingale and Chick were nowhere to be seen. - -Because Nan was not there, Nick instantly felt undefined misgivings; -because Chick was not present, Nick experienced a certain amount of -assurance, for he knew that unless Chick were otherwise employed, he -would have been among the first to put in an appearance. - -It was Jimmy Duryea who gave expression to the first coherent thought, -in the midst of that scene. He exclaimed: - -“Really, Mr. Carter, if it is a part of the practice of your profession -to scare us all to death, you might have given us some warning of it.” - -“There has been a burglar in the house!” shouted one of the women. - -“Some one entered my room, and stole——” - -“Oh dear, I never was so frightened in my life. I——” - -“Did he get away?” - -“It was a woman. I saw her. She ran out at that——” - -“Where is Miss Nightingale? She isn’t here. Perhaps she has been -murdered in her sleep. Oh, it is horrible. I wish——” - -And so on, and so on, ad libitum, ad infinitum. Half-finished -sentences, all of them. Excitement everywhere, and then a general -rush toward Nan Nightingale’s rooms to find why she was not among -them. Hysterical cries from the women; reassuring expressions from the -men. Expressions of wonder at the din of the alarm, and at the sudden -appearance of the lights—and then, the interior of Nan’s suite of rooms. - -Nan Nightingale was not there. - -Everywhere within those rooms were evidences of disorder, but Nan -Nightingale, herself, had disappeared. - -More than that, it was discovered, presently, that many of her effects -had disappeared with her. In one of the rooms, where the maid slept, -the maid herself was discovered, deep in the stupor of a drug which was -supposed to be chloroform. - -One by one the house guests crowded into the parlor of Nan’s suite. -Some of them remained standing; some of the men perched themselves upon -the arms of chairs, or upon the edges of tables; the women dropped -upon chairs, or upon hassocks, and without exception they gazed at -one another in utter consternation. Then, one by one, they began the -recounting of the experiences of the night, which was still young, for -it was not yet two o’clock. - -Chick was not there, and, strangely enough, nobody seemed to have -noticed his absence. - -Without giving in detail all that was said at that informal meeting in -Nan’s boudoir, suffice it to say that there was not a woman present who -was not willing to swear that she had seen or heard some person in her -room; and in the midst of it all Lenore Remsen exclaimed: - -“But why should a burglar have carried Nan away?” - -Every one was silent; then the voice of Duryea: - -“Little goose! She wasn’t carried away. She ran away.” - -“But why? Why?” - -“My dear, there could be only one reason. Carter was right behind her. -She had to escape, or get caught, and she took the former course. -I caught a glimpse of her as she ran through the rear doorway, and -apparently jumped into a motor car. That must have been held there -by an accomplice who was waiting to take away the spoils; the swag, -I believe they call it? Eh? Carter? You’re a detective. You ought to -know.” - -Every eye in the room was turned upon Nick Carter then. - -The situation was a clever one, adroitly arranged by Jimmy Duryea. - -Nick met their looks calmly, and he replied quietly: - -“I ran after a person, but it was not a woman. It was not Miss -Nightingale. Of that, I am certain.” - -“Oh, come, Carter, what’s the use of all that?” exclaimed Duryea. “I -saw her, too. She wore some sort of a red wrapper, and an automobile -veil, and——” - -“And trousers under the wrapper, and a mustache under the veil,” the -detective interrupted him. - -“Then where is Nan Nightingale?” demanded Theodore Remsen, stepping -forward. - -“She has been abducted,” replied the detective coolly. - -“Abducted? Nonsense! By whom?” - -“By a scoundrel named Jimmy Duryea, known to the police as Bare-Faced -Jimmy, all-around crook and expert cracksman. Just now the man is -posing under another name, and is imposing upon certain confiding -people, who believe all that he tells them. But, Mr. Remsen, the time -has come to denounce him, and now——” - -He stopped suddenly. A figure had appeared in the doorway, and all -turned to follow Nick Carter’s glance. - -It was Nan Nightingale who stood there, facing them. - - - - - CHAPTER X. - - A PLOT MOST FOUL. - - -But it was Nan Nightingale, fully dressed as she had been when the -members of this oddly assorted group had parted with her at retiring -time, not arrayed in a red wrapper, and with an automobile veil thrown -around her head, who faced them all. - -She was strangely composed, too, although a trifle pale, as she entered -the room and paused beside Nick Carter. - -“Will some one please tell me what has happened?” she asked. The -question was a general one, addressed to all alike, but she looked at -the detective when she uttered it. And, she added, speaking directly to -him this time: “I heard only the latter part of what you were saying. -You said that the time had come to denounce some one. Who was it?” - -She was outwardly calm and collected, though exceedingly pale. Nick -realized that Nan was trying to convey some sort of intelligence to -him, with her eyes; but he could not read it, for truth to tell he was -as greatly amazed as were the others by her sudden appearance among -them. - -Before he could reply, Duryea took the centre of the stage, so to -speak. He thrust himself forward, into the limelight, if the expression -may be used here, and with a smiling sneer on his handsome face, -confronted Nan and Nick, both. - -“I will tell you who it was, Miss Nightingale—and I call upon all who -are here to let me finish what I have to say. If there are others -here who have comments to make upon my statements, let them be made -afterward.” - -He paused an instant. No one spoke. Nick Carter believed that it was -best to let the man have his head at that moment. The detective had -not seen through the plot, as yet, and it was necessary that he should -see and know more about it before he continued with the denouncement -he had intended to make. The things that Duryea intended to say might -have some effect upon what Nick Carter would say in reply. Nick Carter -waited; and he placed a restraining hand upon the arm of Nan, to bid -her wait, also. - -“What is it, Ledger? What have you to say about this?” asked Theodore -Remsen, turning to him. “Do you mean to tell us that you know something -about it?” - -“I certainly do, Mr. Remsen,” was the reply. “It was because I already -knew something, and believed that we would yet catch the thief who -stole Lenore’s necklace and the other jewels, that I advised the -repairs to the burglar alarm, which worked so perfectly to-night. I -anticipated precisely this result.” - -“Go on; go on, Ledger. Come to the point. Don’t beat about the bush!” -exclaimed Lenore’s father. - -Jimmy deliberately turned his back upon Nan and Nick; he faced the -other members of the company. - -Pausing just long enough to give emphasis to what he would next say, he -continued: - -“I arrived here last Thursday, as you will remember. I made my first -appearance before you at the dinner table. There was one guest who was -in the house at that time, and who is present now, in this room, who -did not appear at the dinner table that night. I did not then know that -that guest was here. - -“Many of you will remember that we passed a pleasant evening, and that -the guest to whom I have referred did not come downstairs at all during -it. Also, that we parted early and that I complained of being very -tired with my long ride.” - -There were nods in the affirmative, around the room. - -“Notwithstanding the fact that I was greatly fatigued,” he continued, -“I could not go to sleep. Some time during the middle of the night I -left my bed, partly dressed myself, and descended to the library to -obtain a book, intending to read myself to sleep; but, as I stepped -into the library, I discovered that it was occupied, and that one of -the persons who was there was the guest to whom I have referred, and -who was not present at the dinner table. - -“That guest, as you may have surmised, was a woman. She was not alone -when I discovered her in the library. There was a man there, with -her, and they were bending across the library tables, conversing in -whispers, so low that I could not hear what was said. At the moment -I did not suspect more than a clandestine meeting—and, inasmuch as I -recognized the aforesaid guest as an old acquaintance, and knew a great -deal about her, I was not surprised. - -“I withdrew, as silently as I had gone there; and as I did so I heard -just one remark that passed between the two. It was made by the man, -to the woman, and he said: ‘Very well, then. I will return here next -Monday night.’” - -Jimmy paused a moment to permit his words to take full effect. - -“The day following, which was Friday,” he continued, “I was duly -presented to the woman in question. She did not remember me, or if she -did, succeeded in concealing the fact from me, as well as from others. -Some years have passed since I saw her, and at that time she was—well, -she was associated with the notorious character whose name has been -mentioned by Detective Carter to-night; with the notorious Bare-Faced -Jimmy Duryea, who is now dead, although Mr. Carter seems not to know -that fact. I will say one word more about that man, although it pains -me to do so. He was a burglar, a thief, everything that was bad and -low, but he was my cousin, and his real name was the same as mine. -Moreover, there was a personal resemblance between us. I can tell more -about him when the proper time comes.” - -Again he came to a pause, and found this during it to glance exultingly -around toward the detective. Then he continued: - -“That day, Friday, it became known that certain jewels had been stolen -from this house. I was instantly convinced that the woman had stolen -them; also that she had taken them after the hour when she met the -man in the library, because there had not been time, or opportunity, -then. But I said nothing to anybody, until to-day, on the lawn, when, -in a conversation that happened after the arrival of the detective, I -ventured the opinion that the thief was a woman. But I determined to -keep careful watch to-night. - -“Now I am coming down to the explanation of present circumstances. I -went to my room, determined to keep watch; but I half undressed, and -I was sleepy. I fell asleep in my big chair. I was aroused from that -sleep by the clanging of the burglar alarm, which I advised Mr. Remsen -to have fixed, and which was done yesterday. I rushed into the hall, -and down the stairs. I saw that same woman to whom I have referred -passing rapidly through the lower hall, and directly behind her was -Nick Carter, evidently in pursuit. But as I looked the detective -tripped over something, and fell. The woman ran out at the rear door, -which had been opened for her escape, and which act set off the alarm, -thus enabling me to discover her. - -“She sprang into a motor car. She wore a red wrapper and an automobile -veil; but I recognized her, nevertheless. Nick Carter thinks it was a -man in disguise, or he says he does. But I know it was a woman, and -that woman stands—_there_!” - -He wheeled and pointed an accusing finger at Nan Nightingale, who -shrank away from him as from a loathsome thing. - -“Deny it if you can Nan Nightingale, alias Nan Drummond, and alias many -other names!” he cried out. “And you, Nick Carter, deny if you can that -you knew this woman when she was Nan Drummond, a thief, and the wife of -Bare-Faced Jimmy Duryea, the crook.” - -It was a clever statement, cleverly devised, cleverly delivered. - -It had all the effect that Jimmy anticipated. - -The women in the room shrank away from Nan, and looked at her -askance. It was evident that it did not occur to them to doubt Ledger -Dinwiddie’s statement. - -“I will hear all of your remarkable story, Jimmy, before I reply to -it,” said the detective quietly. “That isn’t all, is it?” He put -out one hand and grasped Nan’s arm, holding her firmly, to give her -courage, for he did not want her to faint just then. - -“No; it isn’t all,” said Jimmy, as coolly, in return. “There is more.” -He turned again toward the others. “Nick Carter knows the history of -Nan Drummond, who calls herself Nan Nightingale, as well, or better -than I do. He secured her a position on the stage, when she gave up -thievery. He has been her sponsor ever since; and now I can see just -how she has played upon his belief in her. When she went to the city, -Saturday, and remained over Sunday with Mrs. Remsen, she must have -looked him up. She must have told him—not that I was here, but that -Jimmy Duryea, the burglar, was alive, and here under an assumed name. I -have mentioned the fact that we were cousins, and resembled one another. - -“The proof of my assumption is that when I was in the summerhouse alone -with Nick Carter, during the shower of this afternoon, he actually -charged me with being that same Bare-Faced Jimmy, here under disguise, -and he demanded that I leave this place at once, and forever forego -my hopes of making this beautiful girl, here, my wife. That I laughed -at him goes without saying; that he did not mention what had passed -between us to others is sufficient proof that he had made a mistake. - -“Now, two things more: I do not know what part of this woman’s plot it -is to have returned here now, as she has done, fully dressed, after -having made her escape with a wrapper on and a veil over her head, but -she will probably tell you some cock-and-bull story in regard to it, in -order to establish her innocence. - -“The other thing is this: Those jewels that she stole, unless she has -had opportunity to-night to pass them on to her confederates, are -concealed somewhere in these rooms, without a doubt. That is all, my -friends. Now, Nan Drummond, do you deny that you are Nan Drummond?” - -“Don’t reply to him, Nan,” said Nick, speaking quickly. - -“Do you dare, woman, to deny that you were once the wife of Bare-Faced -Jimmy Duryea, the crook and burglar?” thundered the supposed Dinwiddie, -still addressing Nan, who shrank away from him until she rested her -body against Nick Carter. - -“Don’t answer,” said Nick, again. - -“Then you answer for her!” cried Jimmy, wheeling upon the detective, -and playing his part to a finish. “You answer for her. You know all -about her. You know that she was Nan Drummond. You know that she was -once a thief. You know that she was everything else that was low and——” - -Jimmy got no farther than that. - -Somewhere, in the past, we have said that Nick Carter rarely let his -temper act for him. But, like all men, he has a temper, and Jimmy -Duryea had tried it sorely, in more ways than one, since Nick’s arrival -at The Birches. - -It cannot be said that Nick exactly lost it at just that moment, but it -is certain that he permitted it to act just long enough to stop Jimmy’s -mouth, and to stop it effectually, too. - -The detective stepped forward, loosening his grasp upon Nan’s arm. - -For just an instant he peered into the face of Jimmy Duryea, and then -he acted. - -His right fist shot forward, and it struck Jimmy squarely upon the jaw; -and Jimmy went down like a clod of earth that is thrown from a shovel. - -Some of the women there cried out. The men uttered various -exclamations, and several of them rushed forward at once. There was a -commotion outside, in the hall, and the local constable, with two or -three men to assist him, rushed into the room. Evidently they had been -brought there for the occasion by Jimmy Duryea. - -But they halted at the aspect of Nick Carter, who stood facing them, -directly over the figure of the prostrate man on the floor. - - - - - CHAPTER XI. - - THE DIAMOND NECKLACE. - - -“Stand back, all of you!” said Nick Carter, facing them all. “This man -on the floor is my prisoner, and the one among you who attempts to -interfere with me now will be sorry.” - -The constable and his assistants halted; they hesitated; and then Mr. -Remsen pressed forward toward Nick. - -“Mr. Carter; Mr. Carter,” he expostulated, “you are going beyond your -authority. You had no right to strike Mr. Dinwiddie. You——” - -“One moment, Mr. Remsen. As an officer, I admit that I had not the -right to strike him in the way I did; but as a man, I not only had -every right, but it was my duty. He was defaming a good woman, and -doing it in a shamefaced manner that long ago earned him the title he -bears—for, in spite of all that he has said, this man is none other -than that very Bare-Faced Jimmy he has been talking about.” - -“Oh, you brute! you brute!” cried Lenore, striving in vain to escape -from her mother’s detaining arms. - -Nick merely glanced at her and murmured, “Poor girl!” then he went on, -addressing the constable, who was still reluctant to perform what he -considered to be his duty. - -“Where did you come from?” Nick demanded of the constable. - -“From the village,” was the reply. “What is that to you, anyhow?” - -“You’ll find out what it is to me presently. Who asked you to come -here?” - -“Mr. Dinwiddie; that man there, whom you knocked down.” - -“And why did he ask you to come here?” - -“He told me that there had been a jewel robbery, and that if I was on -hand at this hour to-night, he would expose the thief, and that I would -get the credit for the arrest.” - -“I thought so. He had it all nicely arranged, didn’t he? When did he -tell you all that, Mr. Constable?” - -“He didn’t tell me; he sent a letter by one of the grooms. But he had -seen me yesterday, and had given me an inkling of what would happen. -And, now stand aside. I want that woman whom he has exposed. I arrest -her——” - -“No you don’t. You won’t arrest anybody, Mr. Constable, unless you have -a warrant, which I doubt; and if you have one, and serve it, you’ll -regret it as long as you live. You won’t make any arrest, just now, -unless I direct it, constable.” - -“Who says I won’t? I——” - -“I say so. I have the warrant, constable.” - -Duryea was beginning to move; he was recovering, and quick as a flash -Nick Carter bent forward and snapped handcuffs on his wrists. - -“Stop that!” cried Mr. Remsen. “You cannot arrest that man, here, -Mr. Carter. He is my guest, and you are my guest. You are abusing my -hospitality—and besides, just now you said that no arrests could be -made without a warrant.” - -Nick Carter turned to Remsen. He spoke quietly, and in a kindly tone. - -“Mr. Remsen,” he said, “I have two duties to perform here to-night, and -one of them, in particular, supersedes all the claims that might be -made in the name of hospitality. I am doing you a very great service -in saving your daughter from that man on the floor. He is as vile a -scoundrel as ever went unhung. He is Bare-Faced Jimmy, the crook. He is -the one who stole the jewels, and who has now tried to charge it upon -a defenseless woman, after slandering her in a way that requires no -answer. That is why I told Miss Nightingale not to speak.” - -“But the warrant! The warrant!” - -“I have it here, Mr. Remsen. I secured it before I left the city. It is -a bench warrant and is good anywhere in the State—and it directs me to -arrest and to hold the person of James Duryea, alias Ledger Dinwiddie, -alias Bare-Faced Jimmy. Here it is. Are you satisfied as to that?” - -“Y-yes,” reluctantly. - -“He told you partly the truth, regarding that scene in the summerhouse, -for he did have the face to defy me. I offered him his liberty, if he -would leave the country, after returning the jewels he had stolen; but -he dared to face me; to claim that he could prove that he is Ledger -Dinwiddie, and not James Duryea.” - -“But where is the man who was in the library with Miss——” - -“He is there, on the floor,” replied Nick, interrupting. “The real -circumstance is just the reverse from the manner in which he told it. -It was Miss Nightingale who found him there. He had the jewels in his -possession at the time. She saw them. That was why she asked me to -come out here to-day—and even you will admit that I came here upon her -invitation.” - -“Why doesn’t Nick Carter produce the jewels, since he seems to know so -much about them, Mr. Remsen?” said a drawling voice from the floor, and -then they saw the fallen Ledger Dinwiddie draw himself to a sitting -posture, and attempt to caress his bruised jaw with his manacled hands. - -“I think I can do that, too, now that the time has come,” said the -detective, smiling. He turned to Mrs. Remsen, who had drawn nearer to -Nan, and was now holding her by the hand. - -“Madam,” he said, “I wish to ask you a few questions about the interior -arrangements of your house; that is, about some of its ornamentations. -Will you indulge me?” - -“Certainly, sir. What is it?” - -“Before I ask the questions, I wish to make a statement for all of -you—and if you interrupt me, Jimmy, before I have done, I’ll put a gag -in your mouth. Just for the present, I am running this show, as you may -have noticed.” - -“Go ahead and run it, then. I’ll do my talking after you have exploded -all your detective theories.” - -“The statement is this, Mrs. Remsen. During that scene in the -summerhouse with this scoundrel on the floor, I suspected that he -had concealed the jewels somewhere in the rooms of Miss Nightingale, -because he openly threatened to accuse her of the theft. - -“This evening after dinner, I came to these rooms and examined them, -hoping that I could find where he had concealed them; but I was unable -to do that. I was not able to discover anything that suggested a -possible hiding place, although I searched as thoroughly as I could do -so, while I was here. When I went out, I encountered the real thief in -the hall, waiting for me. - -“He ran away before I was able to stop him. He descended the stairs -ahead of me; but a very few minutes later, he was missing from the -rooms downstairs, and I suspected that he had returned here. I -concluded, in fact, that when I saw him in the hall, as I went out of -these rooms, he had not followed me there, and did not suspect that I -was there, but had gone there on some errand of his own. - -“Now, madam, I have not been inside of these rooms since then, -but nevertheless, in the short time that I have been here, I have -discovered a certain change in the ornamentation of this particular -room. I will ask you to look carefully about you, and to tell me if you -perceive any change. Please do so. You, also, Nan.” - -Both women turned. - -Everybody else in the room, including the nonplused constable and his -three men, did the same. - -Nan and Mrs. Remsen searched with care, using their eyes, but both of -them presently shook their heads negatively. - -“I see no change, Mr. Carter,” said Mrs. Remsen. - -“And you, Nan, do you observe none?” asked Nick. - -“No,” she replied. “What do you mean, Mr. Carter?” - -He did not reply to her. He turned again to Mrs. Remsen. - -“Madam,” he said, “I have observed, since I have been a guest in your -home, that you are evidently a collector of rare vases. Is that true?” - -“Oh, yes; it has always been a hobby with me. But what——” - -“In every room that I have entered, there are several, but in no case -have I noticed two that are exactly alike. Will you tell me if you have -two vases that are precisely alike, now in your possession?” - -“Why, yes, now that you speak of it, there are two. But——” - -“Pardon me, but will you tell me where those two vases are, now? Is one -of them in this room? Don’t squirm, Jimmy. We’re getting warm, I know, -but please remember that you are not to interrupt unless you want a gag -in your mouth. Madam, is one of the vases, of which you have two alike, -now in this room?” - -“Yes.” Mrs. Remsen pointed toward a vase that stood upon a bracket in -one corner of the room. “That one, there.” - -“Precisely. That is what I thought. Now, will you tell us where the -other one—the one that is precisely like this one—is located at the -present moment, to the best of your knowledge?” - -“Why, it is—or at least it should be—in the parlor of the red suite.” - -“And who occupies the so-called red suite of rooms?” - -“Mr. Dinwiddie.” - -“Precisely. Now, I have not been inside the rooms occupied by Mr. -Dinwiddie, as you call Jimmy, here, so I will have to ask you if those -two vases are, in reality, precisely alike. Has not one of them been -broken at some time, and mended?” - -“Why, yes, as a matter of fact, one has. That is how I came to have two -of them. A gentleman who was staying with us last fall broke one, but -he found another like it and sent it to me after I had had the broken -one mended.” - -“Madam, did it happen that the gentleman referred to was Mr. Dinwiddie?” - -“Y-yes, sir. It was Mr. Dinwiddie.” - -“And the broken vase—the one that was mended, I mean—is it now in the -red suite that has been occupied by Mr. Dinwiddie since last Thursday?” - -“No,” she replied, pleased that he had asked the first question that -called for a negative reply. “I thought he deserved to have the good -one in his room, so I put it there, and brought the one that had been -broken to this room. There it is now.” - -“Thank you. Will you be so good as to examine it more closely, so that -you can assure yourself that you have made no mistake in regard to it?” - -Mrs. Remsen crossed the room to the vase. She raised it from the -bracket, and held it in her hand for a moment. Then she exclaimed: - -“Why, this is strange. This is the vase that was broken; and there is -something inside of it that I never noticed before.” - -“The jewels, Mrs. Remsen, by any chance?” - -“No. Something white. It looks like plaster of Paris. It——” - -“Permit me to see for myself,” said Nick, interrupting her, and he -crossed the room with quick strides. - -One glance into the vase was enough. He saw what had been done, on the -instant. - -He raised his eyes to Mrs. Remsen; he turned as if to speak to her; and -then, as if it were done entirely by accident, he permitted the vase to -fall crashing to the floor, where, weakened as it was by reason of a -former fracture, it fell apart into three pieces. The diamond necklace -that was Lenore Remsen’s property was exposed to view. - - - - - CHAPTER XII. - - THE REVELATIONS OF NAN. - - -“Found it, didn’t you?” exclaimed Jimmy, with a return of his old -assurance. He had managed to raise himself to a sitting posture, and -to turn about so that he had a full and uninterrupted view of the -exposure, when it happened. When nobody replied to him, but remained -staring in more or less stupid wonder at what had taken place, he -added: “Now, I wonder how in the world you knew it was there, Carter? -Did Miss Nightingale tell you where she had hidden it?” - -Nick made no reply—in words. - -But he did take a hasty stride or two across the floor, pulling his -handkerchief from his pocket as he did so, and the next instant Jimmy’s -jaws were forced apart, and the soft linen of the handkerchief was -introduced between them. - -“I told you that I would gag you if you interrupted,” said the -detective; and then, as Lenore attempted to rush forward toward her -lover, the detective restrained her. - -“Young lady,” he said, “I honor you for your loyalty. You are ready to -fight for, and to defend with your last breath, the man who has been -your accepted sweetheart. It is hard for you to believe that he is not -the man he has pretended to be.” - -“I won’t believe it. I will never believe it!” she cried out. “You are -no better than a brute to treat him so, Nick Carter. I hate you!” - -Nick smiled down upon her, somewhat sadly. - -“Some day you will thank me,” he told her. “In the meantime, you must -be patient. But, tell me. Do you also hate Miss Nightingale?” - -“Hate Nan? No; I love her. But she has had nothing to do with this——” -she stopped; and again the detective looked at her and smiled. Then, in -a low tone, he spoke to her again. - -“Do you believe that Nan stole your necklace?” he asked, so that the -others, who were now examining it, could not hear. - -“No; I don’t.” - -“You would never believe that of your friend Nan, would you?” - -“Indeed I would not.” - -“But somebody did steal the necklace. Now, who do you suppose it was?” - -“I should sooner think that you did it than that he did,” she retorted. - -At that point they were interrupted by Mrs. Remsen, and as that lady -spoke, all the others in the room turned and looked squarely at Nick -Carter. - -“Mr. Carter,” she said, “I would like you to tell me, if you please, -how you knew that the necklace was inside that vase?” - -The question was a cold one. It was not reassuring. Nick saw that the -spectators of the scene were now regarding him with suspicion. - -“I did not know that it was there,” he replied. “I only suspected it. -As I stated before we discovered it, I was satisfied, by things that -the thief said to me, that he had concealed the necklace in these -rooms, or that he intended to do so. It was part of his plan.” - -“But——” - -“One moment, please. When I came here to search for a hiding place -for the jewels, the necklace had not yet been concealed here. I doubt -if I would have discovered it, if it had been. But, as I left the -room, I met him. He turned and ran away. I followed him quickly, but -nevertheless I remembered, afterward—while I was seated in my own room -to-night, in fact—that in leaving this room I saw on the mantel at the -opposite side of the hall a vase that had not been there before. I -saw it, and noticed it, only from force of habit in taking particular -notice of the furnishings of every place where I happen to be. - -“I could not have told you what vase it was. I could not have described -it. I was merely conscious of the fact that such a thing was there—and -that, later, when I came to the hallway out there particularly to look -for that extra vase, to see if it was still in the place where I had -seen it, it had disappeared. - -“And so, madam, when we all entered this room a little while ago, I -used my eyes in looking at vases. I saw that the vase that was just -now broken was not in the position that it was when I supposed I had -seen it last. It was not exposed to view in precisely the same way; and -while I was talking, I changed my position somewhat, so that I could -see behind it. - -“It was then, madam, that I noticed the fact that this vase here had -been broken, and mended; also that it was a long time since it had been -mended. _I knew that the vase that was here when I came to this room -earlier had not been broken and mended._ - -“Do you see the deduction? - -“There must have been two vases just alike, one of which had been -broken and mended—and the one that had been broken and mended, had -been, during that short time, exchanged for the perfect one. - -“It was only necessary, then, to establish the point that the other -vase had been kept in the room occupied by Jimmy Duryea, or Mr. -Dinwiddie as you know him. Your answers to my questions established -that fact. - -“A moment later, when you said that there was something white inside -the vase that had not been there before—something resembling plaster -of Paris—the solution of what remained of the problem was apparent. - -“Some years ago there was a great robbery in a jewelry store, in Paris. -Afterward those jewels were discovered, imbedded in plaster of Paris, -at the bottom of two huge vases that were ornaments in that store. That -robbery was committed by the scapegrace younger son of a good family in -England, whose people hushed the thing up and permitted him to go to -South Africa on condition that he would never return. In South Africa, -he changed his name to James Duryea; afterward he came to this country, -and was known here as Bare-Faced Jimmy; still later, he wormed his way -into your household under the name of Ledger Dinwiddie.” - -Mrs. Remsen came nearer to the detective. - -“Mr. Carter,” she said slowly, “I have heard many good things said of -you. Are you sufficiently positive of all that you have said to swear -to me that you know it to be true—all of it?” - -“Yes, madam.” - -“Nan,” Mrs. Remsen turned to her as she spoke, “will you explain now -how it happened that you were outside the house, and returned here just -when you did?” - -“Yes,” replied Nan. “I will explain. I hope you will believe me.” - -“I see no reason why I should not do so.” - -Nan hesitated for a moment. Then she turned so that she faced the -assembled company. - -“It is necessary that I explain to all of you,” she said falteringly. -“For a little while I have hoped that the necessity for it might be -escaped; but now I see that it is essential.” - -“No, no, Nan, it is not essential. It need not be,” said Nick Carter. - -“Yes it is,” she replied. “Let me have my way about it.” - -“Very well. Proceed.” - -Again Nan hesitated. Then, before she spoke, she half turned about and -opened her arms toward Lenore. When Lenore hesitated, she said: - -“Come here, dear. I want you near me when I speak, for you, above all -others, must believe what I will tell you now. Come, dear.” - -Slowly Lenore moved forward. She seemed to sense the truth of what was -coming, and a dark scowl crossed the face of Jimmy Duryea. Had it not -been for the gag in his mouth, he doubtless would have interrupted -them, then; but he could not speak, and nobody offered to relieve him -of the impediment to speech. - -“You must hear all of the truth, now, all of you,” said Nan, then, with -one arm tightly around the quivering form of Lenore Remsen; “and in -order to explain the circumstance that Mrs. Remsen had asked about, it -is necessary that I should tell other things, first. - -“That man there”—she pointed an accusing finger at Jimmy—“told a great -deal that was true, when he talked to you a little while ago, accusing -me; but he did not tell all the truth about one part of it, and he told -much less than the truth about another part of it. - -“He is not an American. He never had any right whatever to the name of -Dinwiddie, and how he possessed himself of it I do not know. He is an -Englishman. His real name is James Howard Drummond. He is the younger -son of a titled family in England. I knew him when I was a girl. I have -known him all my life. As a girl I fell in love with him. As a girl and -woman I still loved him, and finally I became his wife. - -“Hush, Lenore. I am not his wife now. I secured a divorce from him when -he was sent to prison eight years and more ago. Later, I married again. -But I was his wife, and I am the Nan Drummond he referred to—his wife, -then, when I bore that name. - -“It was this way: My family became impoverished. I sought a position -as governess, and went to South Africa with the family of an army -officer. Later, Howard Drummond came there, also sent out by his family -matters, as he informed me. My old love for him revived, and we were -married. - -“Then we came to this country. All the while he was a thief and a -cracksman, and I did not know it—until later. - -“After the discovery, my life seemed an utter wreck. I permitted myself -to be led into crime by that man. I was afraid of him. He threatened -my life if I did not obey him. Then he was caught and sent to prison, -and I escaped him. And then Mr. Carter found me, held out hope to -me, secured me a position on the stage, and so helped me back to an -honorable life. - -“I married a Mr. Smathers, an actor, and he has since died. Howard -Drummond was supposed to be dead, also. Mr. Carter believed him -dead; everybody who had known him thought the same. I did not know -differently until last Thursday night, in the middle of the night, when -I went to the library of this house to get a book to read, and found -him there with Lenore’s necklace and the other stolen jewels on the -table before him. - -“The recognition between us was mutual in an instant. - -“He threatened me with a pistol. He even tried to make love to me -again, believing that his old influence over me still existed. But he -found that it did not. - -“We were there, in the library, a long time. At the end of the scene, -he promised me that he would return the stolen property, and that he -would leave here for good and all. Formerly he possessed one virtue; he -would keep his word; so I believed him then. - -“But he did not restore the stolen property, and I threatened him with -exposure. - -“Then I went to New York with Mrs. Remsen. I encountered Mr. Carter by -accident. I told him everything, because I knew that there, at least, -was one man who knew the truth about me, and in whom I could trust. - -“And now I come to what took me out of the house to-night, and so the -explanation of my return here at an unexpected moment—for it was not -expected that I would return—at the least, not until that scoundrel had -won the victory he anticipated. - -“Have any of you happened to notice the absence of one guest from this -room? Mr. Carter, will you call your first assistant, Chick? He is -outside waiting. His presence will help me to explain fully.” - - - - - CHAPTER XIII. - - THE LAYING OF THE GHOST. - - -Nick Carter stepped to the doorway, and called aloud: - -“Ho, Chick! Come here!” - -A moment later there were steps along the lower hall, and Chick entered -the room where now all were eagerly awaiting him. - -“Thank you for waiting so patiently, Chick,” said Nan; then she turned -to the others again. - -“Please remember what I have just told you about finding Howard -Drummond, alias Bare-Faced Jimmy, and all the other names he has passed -under, in the library, with the jewels in his possession. Remember that -he had promised to restore those jewels, and that he did not keep his -word, and that I induced Mr. Carter to come here to help me get them. - -“When Mr. Carter appeared here, Jimmy, as he is called, tried to brazen -it out, and Mr. Carter told me about it. I was of the opinion then that -the villain would try to kill me, or Mr. Carter, or both of us, but -Mr. Carter did not think so when we talked it over on the veranda last -evening. Mr. Carter told me then that he was coming to my rooms to see -if the thief had concealed the jewels here. The thief saw us talking -together, and evidently decided that he must act quickly, if at all. - -“Later in the evening he sought me, when Mr. Carter was not near. He -managed to draw me aside, and although he detained me only a moment, he -managed to say in effect that since his interview with the detective -in the summerhouse he had decided to abandon his entire plan here, -and take Nick Carter at his word; that he had decided to give up the -jewels, and go. - -“He agreed to return them to me, with a written confession that would -state the case plainly, if I would meet him at half-past one o’clock -to-night, in the summerhouse where he had talked with Mr. Carter. The -condition was that I was not to inform Mr. Carter about it until I -could put the jewels into his hands. - -“I agreed to that, for I did not think that the man would dare to do me -harm, now that Mr. Carter was here on the spot. But I did not promise -not to inform Nick Carter’s assistant—this gentleman here, who is Mr. -Chickering Carter. - -“I told Chick all about it, and asked his advice. He advised me to see -the thing through to the end, and said that he would be near at hand if -danger threatened. - -“At half-past one o’clock to-night, I let myself out of the house -silently. There were no burglar alarms that sounded then, showing that -somebody must have turned off the power from them to permit me to go -outside. - -“I went to the summerhouse, and entered it. There was no one there, but -after a moment two men sprang upon me from the darkness, I was seized, -my hands were tied, and I was told that if I uttered a sound I would -be killed. Then my feet were tied together and my own handkerchief was -thrust into my mouth to gag me; and I was left there. - -“But it was only for a moment. - -“When those men stepped from the doorway of the summerhouse they were -both knocked flat, handcuffs were put on them, and Chick came into the -summerhouse and set me free. Then he made use of certain persuasive -arguments which induced the men to talk and tell all they knew, with -the result that we understood that they were to drive an automobile -they had with them, to the rear door, and wait there until a woman in a -red wrapper ran out of the house, when they were to start the car and -go away about their business. - -“I remained in the summerhouse, standing guard over the two handcuffed -men, with a revolver, while Chick used the automobile as the men had -been directed to use it. Just what the plan was, neither of us knew, -but Chick decided to be on the spot when it happened. - -“Now, you know when the woman, supposed to be me, but who was in -reality that man there on the floor, disguised in a wrapper that he -had taken from my room, rushed from the house, don’t you? He dashed -out at the door, and sprang into the car; Chick started the car ahead, -according to the directions that the two captured men had received; but -the disguised man in the tonneau leaped from the car when it started, -seized a rope ladder that hung from one of the windows of the red -suite, occupied by Ledger Dinwiddie, ran up it like a squirrel, and -disappeared into the house. A moment later, it appears that he was -here, on the stairs, tying the cord of a bath robe around him. That was -the man of many names, who lies there, a prisoner now. - -“Chick leaped from the car and came to me in the summerhouse. He tied -up the two men so that they could not escape—and then we came here -together. - -“But we did not enter the house at once. - -“Neither Chick nor I could understand just what the plot was, or -exactly how the thief intended to have it work out. - -“The instructions given to the men were to leave me in the summerhouse, -bound and gagged, and the supposition is that it was part of -Bare-Faced Jimmy’s plan to go there later, and release me, permitting -me to return to the house, where, if I told the story of what had -really happened, I would not be believed. - -“For don’t you see, he had made it appear that it was I who had escaped -from the house, pursued by Nick Carter, who was tripped and thrown by a -rope which Jimmy had stretched in the hallway for that purpose. How Mr. -Carter saw him and gave chase, I do not——” - -“He tapped at my door,” said Nick. “That was probably a part of his -plan. The necklace was to be discovered in your room, and he was -foolish enough to suppose that even I would believe that you were more -or less implicated.” - -“No, Mr. Carter,” replied Nan, “he knew that you would never believe -that; but he did hope to implicate me so deeply that you would be -discredited. Perhaps he did not intend to free me, unless you compelled -him to do so. I do not know. - -“Well, when Chick and I returned to the house, you had all entered -here. I came up the stairs alone, telling Chick that I would call him -when he was needed. He thought that it was better that he should remain -outside for a time. - -“My unlooked-for return threw Jimmy entirely out of his reckoning. He -had not expected that. All his plans threatened to go wrong at once. -He was made desperate by the circumstance. He saw no other way than to -make the bold charge he did against me. - -“He knew that I would not deny that I had been Nan Drummond. - -“He dared even to make use of the name of Bare-Faced Jimmy, claiming -cousinship, in order to render his story the more plausible. - -“He told near enough to the truth to give everything he said the -appearance of reality. Once again he has earned the right to his title -of barefaced, for such a barefaced scoundrel and falsifier, never lived -or dared to live before.” - -Nan paused a moment, and then turned again to her friend Mrs. Remsen. - -“That, my dear, is all of my story,” she said. “Much of it you have -heard before, for I thank Heaven that before I came into your house to -live here as your friend, and to love the stepdaughter who is as dear -to you as if she were your own, I told you all of that unhappy past -history of mine. I did not come here under false pretenses.” - -“No, indeed you did not,” cried Mrs. Remsen, putting her arms around -Nan. - -Lenore was quietly sobbing her heart out on Nan’s shoulder, and now -Nan, with one backward glance toward all who were in the room, led -Lenore through a doorway into an adjoining room, and closed the door -behind them. - -“I have got just a word to say, right here,” said Chick. - -“Go ahead, Chick,” said the detective. “We are all expecting to hear -from you.” - -“Well, I didn’t remain outside the house all the time things were -happening in this room. I went upstairs, and visited the red suite—the -rooms that were assigned to Mr. Ledger Dinwiddie.” - -He paused, stepped to the door, passed out, was gone a moment, and -returned. - -“I found these things in that room,” he said. “They were under the bed, -but I found them. There they are. Look at them.” - -He threw the heap to the floor, and all who were there saw the red -wrapper, the big automobile veil, and the ladder of rope up which Jimmy -had clambered in order to return to his own room in time to be on the -scene. - -“More than that,” Chick continued, “I have got a full confession from -one of the men I captured in the summerhouse, when they attacked Nan. - -“Nick,” he turned to his chief, “one of those men is the chap who used -to live on that island where Jimmy Duryea was supposed to have died. -His name is Griggs. Do you remember him?” - -“Perfectly.” - -“Well, he can supply the truth that Jimmy Duryea did not die up there. -He has already told it to me, and he will tell it again, whenever he is -called upon to do so.” - -Again Chick turned about, facing the assembled guests again. - -“There is just one more thing to tell you,” he said. “I found a few -other things while I was searching that red suite of rooms. I found -these.” - -He thrust a hand into his pocket, and drew it forth filled with jewels. - -“Here,” he said, “is, I think, all the stolen property. If it is not -there, the rest of it will doubtless be found in those rooms.” - - * * * * * - -“Jimmy,” said the detective, a little later, “do you want to make any -confession in regard to the Dinwiddie game you have been playing?” - -“When I do, I’ll send for you,” replied Jimmy. “Maybe you haven’t got -me quite so dead to rights as you think you have.” - -“Oh, yes, I have,” replied the detective. “You’ll get all that’s coming -to you, James, before I get through with you.” - -But the detective had somewhat underrated the resourcefulness of -Bare-Faced Jimmy. - - - - - CHAPTER XIV. - - THE STOLEN IDENTITY. - - -It was several weeks after the arrest of Jimmy Duryea that Nick Carter -one morning laid aside the newspaper he had been reading and gave his -attention to the hearty breakfast that had just been put before him. -He made no remark, although Chick, who was seated at the table at his -right, and Patsy Garvan, his second assistant, who was at his left, and -Adelina—the wife of Patsy—who was opposite him, all raised their eyes -inquiringly to his face, as if they had confidently expected some sort -of a statement from their chief. - -But the detective ate his breakfast in silence; and the three persons -who were closest to him in point of intimacy respected that silence, -and preserved it on their own several parts. - -Never, in the house of Nick Carter, had there been a more wordless meal. - -The two assistants knew what their chief was thinking about; Adelina’s -intuitiveness made her aware of Nick Carter’s desire for silence. All -knew that presently, when he had thoroughly digested the thoughts -induced by the reading of that article in the paper, he would say -something upon the subject that so strangely interested each of them. - -But he had pushed away the breakfast things and had carefully selected -a cigar from his case, before he broke that unusual silence; and then -he said, addressing no one in particular, but all of them generally: - -“I don’t care a hang what that supreme court judge says, or how much -proof has been brought to sustain the contention of Bare-Faced Jimmy; -not a hang. I know that the man is Bare-Faced Jimmy Duryea, otherwise -Howard Drummond, and what is more, I am going to chuck everything else -aside until I have proved it. I won’t let that fellow beat me.” - -Chick and Patsy glanced across the table at each other, and nodded. -Adelina replied: - -“Nobody has ever supposed that you would permit such a thing,” she said. - -“The thing about it that hurts,” said Nick, “is the fact that my -testimony and all that Nan Nightingale swore to, went for nothing. -I wonder if that judge thinks me a fool? One would suppose that -my reputation would stand for something; and yet—— Listen to this -paragraph from the learned opinion.” - -The detective seized the paper, and read aloud: - - “‘It is one of the most remarkable cases of mistaken identity that - has ever been brought to the attention of this court. The testimony - of Nicholas Carter, the detective, of his assistant, and of Miss - Nancy Nightingale, would seem to be conclusive, if the evidence they - gave were not so entirely overwhelmed by the voluminous testimony - in contradiction. But where a whole community comes forward, as in - this instance, and offers what must stand as irrefutable testimony - concerning the identity of the appellant, Mr. Ledger Dinwiddie, the - duty of the court is obvious. Men and women of advanced years, who - have known Ledger Dinwiddie since his birth, swear to his identity—and - there can be no gainsaying them. Men and women of approximately his - own age, who knew him in his childhood and youth, who attended school - with him, swear to his identity—and there can be no question of their - entire sincerity. A negro woman who nursed him in his babyhood, and - who watched him grow to young manhood, swears to his identity, and - demonstrates her fondness for him, now—and her love for him speaks in - his favor even stronger than her words. On the other hand, the proof - offered, establishing the death of the man called James Duryea, seems - incontrovertible. There is only one conclusion at which this court can - arrive, namely, that Ledger Dinwiddie has sufficiently established his - identity. - - “‘The judgment of the lower court is affirmed. - - “‘All concur.’” - -“Now, what do you think of that?” the detective asked, turning his -glance from one to another of his companions at the table. - -“It sounds to me,” replied Patsy, who was always plainspoken and who -was apt to call things by their right names, “as if the judge meant -to let you down as easily as possible, chief, but that he evidently -believes you to be one of two things; a——” - -“A liar, or a jackass,” Nick interrupted his second assistant. - -“Well, that is putting it rather strong, chief. I didn’t mean to say -exactly that. In the first part of that lengthy opinion, he cites case -after case of mistaken identity, and tries to show that he hasn’t the -slightest doubt of your sincerity; but all the same he implies that -your zeal has got the better of your judgment—and that is what hurts -most, isn’t it?” - -“Yes,” replied Nick, nodding. - -“Anyhow,” said Chick, smiling a bit grimly, “Jimmy seems to be on top -at the present moment. He has established his legal right to the name -of Dinwiddie; he has placed on record, legally, the death of Bare-Faced -Jimmy Duryea. He has won out.” - -“For the present—yes.” - -“But,” volunteered Adelina, “there is still the charge against him of -the theft of the diamond necklace, and the other jewels; and there -is the unpleasant fact that he posed as a single man, and affianced -himself to Lenore Remsen from whom he stole the necklace, when all the -time he was a married man. That——” - -Nick Carter shrugged his shoulders so significantly that Adelina -stopped. Then she asked: - -“What will he do about those charges?” - -“He will manage to slip away from them,” replied the detective; “and, -for the present, I am quite content to let him do so. In fact, I would -rather he would succeed, for the moment.” - -“Isn’t it an unfortunate circumstance,” asked Patsy, “that the Remsens -should have started away for an unlimited stay in Europe, the moment -after they had given their testimony?” - -“Yes; and no. The additional testimony they might have given would have -done little or no good to our side of the case; at least, it would not -have injured Jimmy. He would have succeeded in establishing himself -just as firmly as he has now done, if they had remained. And, when all -is said, one cannot blame them for wishing to get out of the country. -It isn’t a very pleasant experience for people in their position to -have had their only daughter engaged to be married to a man who is even -suspected of having been the sort of crook that Bare-Faced Jimmy was, -to say nothing of the fact that he was already married.” - -“I suppose that is why Theodore Remsen came out in that interview in -the paper and stated over his own signature that the report of his -daughter’s engagement to Jimmy was all a mistake; was not true, and -that there had never been the slightest foundation for the report.” - -“Of course. Wouldn’t you do the same under like circumstances?” - -“I don’t know but I would, at that.” - -“We will not concern ourselves about that part of the affair,” said -the detective. “It is not vital to what I wish to accomplish in this -matter, whether Jimmy posed as a single man or not, or whether he -became engaged to Lenore Remsen, while he already had a wife living, -or not. It is not particularly vital whether he stole those jewels, or -not—save only from one standpoint.” - -“What is that one?” Adelina asked him. - -“That one standpoint is Nan Nightingale,” replied the detective. - -The others were silent and waited for the detective to proceed with -what he was saying. - -“The fact of the matter is right here,” Nick continued. “Up there at -the Remsen residence—The Birches—all of Nan’s previous history was -brought out. She confessed it all herself. She was all right after that -confession—so far as those who were present and heard it are concerned; -but she was not, and is not, all right in the estimation of thousands -of others who have had only the reports in the newspapers to direct -their thought.” - -“I see,” said Adelina. - -“Aside from those who were present in that house at the time of the -finding of the jewels, when I put the irons on Jimmy, nine out of ten -people believe to this day that Nan Nightingale knew more about the -disappearance of that necklace and the other jewels than any other -person. So you see for Nan’s sake, if for no other, the fact that -Ledger Dinwiddie is not Ledger Dinwiddie, but is really Bare-Faced -Jimmy, must be established. It is the only thing that can be done -to set her right, for, in doing it, we also prove that he was, -unquestionably, the thief.” - -Patsy got upon his feet and crossed to the window. He stood there -for a moment and then turned about, delivering himself of an opinion -which was by no means original, since it has been voiced since time -immemorial by thousands of others. He said: - -“I’m no lawyer, and I’m glad that I am not; but I do want to say this: -I think that many of the rules practiced in a court, governing the -admission of evidence, are far from right.” - -“Why?” asked the detective, smiling. - -“Because, as in this affair, every bit of testimony we relied on -relating to the engagement between Lenore Remsen and Jimmy was ruled -out; every question that Jimmy was asked relating to this wife of his, -who is said to have been a countess, or a duchess, or something of the -sort, was ruled out. We don’t know a thing about that, officially.” - -“Has it ever occurred to you, Chick, or you, Patsy, to ask who and what -that woman, who is now Jimmy’s wife, has been in the past?” - -“It had not—until this moment,” confessed Chick. - -“I thought of her only as another possible victim of Jimmy’s,” said -Patsy. - -“Well,” said the detective slowly, “in my opinion you will find that -she is a product of the underworld, just as Jimmy is one. This whole -thing was a conspiracy planned and hatched between those two. This -wife consented to leave him, for the time being, that there might be -no obstacle in the way of his marrying the millions that Lenore Remsen -would have brought to him. - -“After Jimmy had succeeded in getting his clutches upon the aforesaid -millions by divorcing the wife who has been called Juno, and marrying -Lenore for her money, Lenore would have been put out of the way -quietly, and then Jimmy and Juno would have come together again to -remarry and enjoy the great fortune which could be obtained only by -sacrificing the life and happiness of a sweet girl.” - -“Gee, Nick!” said Chick. “If I thought that——” - -“I think it, Chick; and it is because I think it, and also for the sake -of Nan Nightingale, that I am determined to search this affair to the -bottom and to explore the whole rotten business. - -“The weak point in Jimmy’s case is the woman, Juno,” said Nick. - -“Just how do you mean that?” Chick asked his chief. - -“I’ll give you a left-handed answer to that question,” replied the -detective. “I am not going to waste my time in trying to search out -what Jimmy has done and where he has been since he was supposed to have -died on that island in the Sound.” - -“Why not?” - -“Because the chances are about ten thousand to one that Jimmy has -covered up his tracks so thoroughly that there would be no tracing him. -He’s an adept at that sort of thing, as you know.” - -“Yes.” - -“There never was a craftier villain on earth than Jimmy; there never -was a more far-seeing one; there never was a man so well adapted to -throwing others off the scent as Jimmy has proved himself to be ever -since I have known anything about him.” - -“Well?” - -“And, to begin with, we already know that salient fact about him and -his present situation; but the point is, we cannot prove anything.” - -“I know.” - -“So does he know. And all the time he is laughing in his sleeve at us. -He knows that we know—and he doesn’t care a rap.” - -“That is true enough.” - -“And why? Simply because he knows also that we cannot establish -evidence that would be upheld in a court of law. That has been tried. -Jimmy has ceased to be Jimmy and has become Dinwiddie. His position -from that point is unassailable.” - -“I guess you are right about that.” - -“But, Chick, there never yet was a fortress so impregnable that it did -not have its one weak spot; just as the speed of a fleet is determined -by the slowest vessel in it, so is the strength of a fort established -by its weakest spot; and so is the invulnerability of evidence made -vulnerable.” - -“And you look upon this woman, Juno, as being the weak spot in the -armor?” - -“Precisely.” - -“Have you ever seen her?” - -“Not that I know of. The name means nothing, suggests nothing, to me; -but a name is of no importance.” - -“No; the woman may have had a dozen names.” - -“Well, Chick, I am going to look up that woman. The very circumstance -of her being so decidedly in the background just now, when Jimmy was -trying to marry that little Remsen girl, assures me that Juno was as -deeply concerned in the plot, as Jimmy. If she was as deep in the mud -as he was in the mire of it, it follows as naturally as two-plus-two, -that Juno not only knew Jimmy before she married him, but that she had -lived the same sort of life as he had. I’m going after that woman.” - -“At once?” - -“Yes. I’m going to leave Jimmy severely alone and trace the woman; but, -first, I’ve got to see her; to have a look at her; to make a sketch of -her face.” - -“What am I to do in the case, Nick?” - -“I’m going to give you the part that is really most difficult, because -it will be less likely to be productive of results,” replied the -detective. - -“Well?” - -“I’m going to send you out on Jimmy’s track. I want you to start at the -island.” - -Chick nodded. - -“I understand,” he said. “You want me to go there and see what can be -found concerning the supposed death and burial of Jimmy.” - -“Exactly. When the time comes to bring forward the proofs which I am -confident that we shall find—the stronger we are in that quarter the -better it will be for us.” - -“I see. I’m to keep on that lay, no matter whether I succeed in digging -up anything or not.” - -“Exactly. Patsy will go with you and assist you.” - -“You mean that you will work alone?” - -“Not entirely alone. I think I will call upon Nan for assistance. But I -want you and Chick to bear in mind just one thing.” - -“What is that?” - -“No matter what comes to the office in the way of cases, everything -is to be turned down and put aside until this one is finished. Every -energy of this office, yours, Patsy’s, and mine, is to be devoted to -putting Bare-Faced Jimmy behind the bars. Understand that?” - -“Yes. Thoroughly.” - -“Well, with that understanding, go ahead. Be your own master. Do as you -want to do. Do not wait to ask a question of me. I shall go away this -afternoon. I won’t be back here in this office until I have solved this -case and am ready to put Jimmy where he belongs. It may take me six -days, and it may take me six months—but if it takes me a year to do it, -it shall be done just the same.” - -It was only a few hours later when Nick Carter was seated in the parlor -of the little apartment which Nan Nightingale called home, in Riverside -Drive, and presently Nan entered the room and hurried toward him with -extended hand. - -“I know what has brought you here, Mr. Carter,” she said, as she took -a seat opposite him. “I have read the morning papers containing the -report of that decision—and also an edition of one of the afternoon -papers, which is just out. I was finishing that article just as you -were announced.” - -“Something in one of the afternoon papers?” returned Nick. “What is -that? I have not seen it.” - -“I have it here. I will show it to you in a moment. Don’t you think it -is a remarkable thing that Jimmy should so thoroughly have established -himself that he was able to satisfy the court that he is Ledger -Dinwiddie and has not been Bare-Faced Jimmy?” - -“Remarkable? Of course it is remarkable. It only goes to show what -a thorough plotter the fellow is. He had prepared himself for every -emergency before he started on this affair.” - -“Yes. He was not so far wrong when he defied you up there at The -Birches, was he?” - -“No; and he did defy me, too. He said that he could prove that he was -Dinwiddie, even while he did not hesitate to admit to me that he was -Jimmy. But what about that article in the afternoon paper? Tell me -about that.” - -“Shall I tell you about it, or would you prefer to read it for -yourself?” - -“Tell me about it. I am satisfied that you have gleaned all there is in -it.” - -“Oh, it isn’t much; only one of Jimmy’s old tricks.” - -“Old tricks? How is that?” - -“Why, he has condescended to permit a reporter to interview him—about -his wife.” - -“Ah! There ought to be some meat in that—for me.” - -“I think there is. That is why I was so interested in it.” - -“Tell me about it.” - -“There is more than a column and a half in the story that the reporter -tells about the interview.” - -“Yes? Well?” - -“The account starts in by giving a resumé of the case. It tells -how Mr. Ledger Dinwiddie, the last of his race, broken in fortune, -land-poor, left his home in despair before he was seventeen, and had -never been heard of since then until a short time ago, when he suddenly -reappeared, bringing with him a beautiful wife.” - -“Yes.” - -“It tells how old friends of the family would never permit the lands of -the Dinwiddies to be sold for taxes, and how Jimmy paid up the interest -on the mortgages when he returned, and paid off the taxes. Then it -recites the remarkable case of his being mistaken for a criminal, -and how readily he proved that he was not—and goes into quite a long -explanation of a distant relationship existing between that dead -criminal and Ledger Dinwiddie, which accounts for the resemblance.” - -“Oh, yes. Never mind all that, Nan. Get down to the part about the -wife. That is what interests me most just now.” - -“In the interview Jimmy explains to the reporter that the alleged -engagement between him and Miss Remsen was in the nature of a joke. He -admits that there was some foundation for the report, but says it was -given out at the request of Miss Remsen herself—and, by the way, there -is a printed cablegram from Theodore Remsen which says that the stated -version of it is substantially correct.” - -“Of course Remsen would say that. It lets him down easy and stops -gossip. Go on.” - -“The impression that Jimmy succeeds in giving is to the effect -that Lenore Remsen’s father wanted her to marry a man she did not -admire—whose name is not mentioned.” - -“Naturally, since there was no such man. But, go on.” - -“And that it was a put-up job between Jimmy and Lenore that they -should pretend to be in love with each other in order that she might -escape the other man. That is all there is to it, save that Jimmy -speaks at length about his wife, whom he calls Juno.” - -“Yes. Well, that is the part of it that I want to hear.” - -“He says that soon after he left his home in Virginia he made the -acquaintance of the young woman, who is now his wife. That he fell in -love with her at once, but that because he had no means with which to -support a wife, he did not ask her to marry him until about a year -ago. And then, he states, it developed that she had been in love with -him all the time—and so they were married. A real love match. He says -that he adores his wife and that she is equally fond of him, and that -he makes this statement to the reporter in order that the world may -understand exactly how things stand, and may not misjudge him, or her, -ever again.” - -“The cheek of the fellow is monumental, Nan.” - -“It certainly is,” she replied. - - - - - CHAPTER XV. - - A WOMAN OF MYSTERY. - - -“Where does Jimmy say that his wife is staying?” asked Nick, after a -pause. - -“He does not say—more than that she happens to be absent. He insinuates -that she is out of the country—visiting relatives in her own country, -in fact, although he does not state where that is, or who the relatives -are.” - -“I see. At all events she is not in evidence just now, Nan. Is that the -idea?” - -“Yes.” - -“That is significant, Nan.” - -“Is it? Why so?” - -“It suggests to me that there is some reason why she prefers to keep -out of sight at the moment when so much attention is directed toward -her.” - -“That is very possible.” - -“That brings me to the point about which I wished particularly to -question you.” - -“What is that, Mr. Carter?” - -“Nan, do you remember the occasion of our first meeting?” - -“As if I ever would forget it!” she said reproachfully. - -“Oh, I don’t mean the part of it that you are referring to, Nan. What I -did then, in assisting you to put behind you forever the life you had -been leading with that man, I would have done for anybody. I would be -glad to do it again for any other woman, circumstanced as you were.” - -“I know that; but it does not render me the less grateful, for all -that.” - -“Possibly not. But, Jimmy was just out of Sing Sing, then, after -serving the best part of a four years’ sentence.” - -“Oh, yes, I remember it quite well.” - -“You told me then, and in subsequent conversation, that you had known -Jimmy when you were children; that both of you came from good families -in England; that you had gone to South Africa as governess in the -family of an army officer; that a considerable time afterward Jimmy -drifted to that part of the world also; that your acquaintance, and -your childhood’s romance was renewed, and that you married him. Then -you came to this country together, and it was not until long afterward -that you discovered what his real occupation in life was. That is -substantially correct, isn’t it?” - -“Yes.” - -“Well, Nan, I never knew any of the particulars of that old life of -yours—I refer to the time when you and Jimmy were children. Will you -tell me about that now?” - -“Must I?” - -“I think so.” - -“Why?” - -“Because I think that this new woman in the case—this Juno who is now -his wife—also had to do with that old life.” - -Nan shook her head in a decided manner. - -“No,” she said, “I do not think that.” - -“Nevertheless, it may be so. The woman is some one who has known all -about Jimmy, what he has been and what he is now. She did not marry -him, thinking he was Ledger Dinwiddie; she married him knowing who he -was, and helped him to carry out the deception—or, if the plot arose -after they were married, it is all the more proof that she is of his -own kind; a crook like he is.” - -“Oh, yes, I agree to that. But—she might have known him after he went -to the bad, and I should assume that it is more likely that she did.” - -“Nevertheless, tell me something about that old life.” - -“No, Mr. Carter; please don’t ask me. At the risk of offending you I -must refuse. I am not the person I was then. That girl is dead; I will -not bring her to life. I am Nan Nightingale now, and no other. Even if -Jimmy should escape his just deserts, because of my reticence, I would -not speak.” - -“Very well. Will you do another thing?” - -“What is that?” - -“Will you go with me and help to run Jimmy down?” - -“Yes. Anywhere.” - -“And for the sake of what I want to accomplish, will you become one of -my assistants for a time?” - -“Yes.” - -“Then that is settled.” - -“Wait just a moment, Mr. Carter.” - -“Well?” - -“I don’t want you to think unkindly of me because I will not discuss my -girlhood, will you?” - -“No. Certainly not.” - -“I will say this much: My father and mother bore a title. By rights I -should have one now; but I am supposed to have died, and the title that -is mine is now borne by another—and I would not deprive her of it under -any circumstances. Also, there was an episode in my life then which I -do not care to have raked up again, now, that it is forgotten.” - -“Then let it rest.” - -“You are sure that you will not think me ungrateful?” - -“Quite sure, Nan. Forget it.” - -“Thank you. One thing more. You know that Jimmy’s real name is Howard -Drummond; you know that that is one of the proudest family names in -England.” - -“Yes.” - -“Well, if in searching and bringing to justice Bare-Faced Jimmy it -should develop to your understanding, will you keep my secret and never -talk about it?” - -“Yes. I promise.” - -“In that case I will assist you all I can.” - -“Good. Now let us talk for a moment about this woman who is called -Juno, and who seems to be Jimmy’s present wife.” - -“Yes.” - -“Does the name she bears—Juno—suggest anything to you?” - -“Do you mean that I may have known her in the past? No; it does not.” - -“Nor her description?” - -“I have not heard that. Describe her.” - -“First, she seems to be a woman of extraordinary beauty, and of an -uncommon type I should say, from all that I have heard.” - -“Light or dark?” - -“A pronounced brunette—rather of the Spanish type, I should say, from -what I have been told; or the Italian.” - -“No; it suggests nothing. Perhaps if I should see her, or a picture of -her, it might suggest something; but at the present moment I have no -information to offer.” - -“When you were a child you were—as children are so—practically in love -with Jimmy, were you not?” - -“Yes. I never got over it, either, until I discovered that he was a -professional criminal.” - -“Was there not another young woman, or girl, at that time, who——” - -She held up a hand and stopped him. - -“Yes,” she said, “there was such a girl. It was to her that I referred -when I said that there was an episode in that past life of mine, when I -was a girl, which I did not care to recall.” - -“I see. Tell me something about that girl.” - -“Why? With the idea that she may be this Juno?” - -“Yes.” - -“That is impossible.” - -“Why so?” - -“Because that girl is—dead.” - -“My dear Nan, the fact that one is reported dead does not make that -person dead. We have sufficient proof of that in the present existence -of Jimmy Duryea.” - -“But I saw this girl in her coffin.” - -“I supposed that I saw Jimmy in his coffin. You have not forgotten -that, have you?” - -“No.” - -“Nor that you were there on that island where he was supposed to have -died, just before his death was reported? That you, in person, attended -what was supposed to be Jimmy’s funeral?” - -“No. I haven’t forgotten any of that. But this case is different.” - -“How is it different? Tell me that.” - -“Because in a way I was responsible for the death of that girl. Oh, I -do not want to go into it at all, please.” - -“Well, never mind that part of it, then. Tell me something about the -girl herself. You can have no objections to that, can you?” - -“No; only it pains me to speak of it at all. She lived near to where I -did, and where Jimmy did—or Howard, as I called him in those days.” - -“Yes.” - -“She was two years younger than I, but was more developed, and looked -and appeared that much my elder. She was a beauty, and, strangely -enough, since you will have it so, she was a pronounced brunette. Need -I tell you her name?” - -“Only her given name, at the present time, and unless there is need of -it, I will not ask for the other one.” - -“Her given name was Sarah, and that name became changed to Siren, which -was appropriate in every way. Everybody who knew her called her Siren, -and even the servants addressed her as the Lady Siren. I suppose, -really it came from that fact that the average cockney English servant -pronounce the letter A like the letter I. They say tyke for take, and -sy for say, and so they called her Lady Syra, for Lady Sarah, and Lady -Syra became Lady Siren. That is the only way in which I can explain it.” - -“I think it a very reasonable explanation. She was beautiful as a -child?” - -“Wondrously so. But I don’t see why we need speak of her at all.” - -“Only because I have the notion that this woman, who is now Jimmy’s -wife, is associated in some manner with that early life of his. I may -be all wrong as to that view of it, but at least I want to try it out.” - -“But this particular girl cannot be, I tell you. She is dead—more than -ten years.” - -“And Jimmy has been dead—how long? Yet he is alive. I will ask you -just one more question about this Siren, and if you can reply to it -satisfactorily, I will drop the subject. The question is this: Did she -die in quite a natural manner, and at her home, or——” - -Nan raised one hand as if to ward off a blow; then she replied: - -“No. She did not. I see that I must tell you about it.” - -“Please,” replied the detective. - - - - - CHAPTER XVI. - - GOING AFTER JUNO. - - -The tale that Nan told to the detective was given without names, or -localities, more than those already given here; and the story need not -be repeated in detail. - -It was the story of a highborn girl, left motherless at her birth, -and fatherless within a few years thereafter, who is left to the care -of governess and servants, and allowed to run wild and to develop a -thoroughly willful nature to its fullest extent. - -Who, from being ungovernable, became unmanageable; from being reckless, -became a wild thing; who developed a terrible temper; who did things -that no well-bred girl should have done; who insisted upon having her -own way in everything, and who cared not a whit for the opinions or the -criticisms of others—and who came to the ultimate consequence of such -an ungoverned, non-regulated life, and finally disappeared from her -home. - -Nan’s story told how this girl, months afterward, was found in London, -by relatives of the family, in a hospital, where she was dying. Soon -after she died, and was taken to the house of her ancestors and buried -in the family plot. - -That was practically all of the sad story that need be developed here, -and Nick Carter listened to it without comment. - -There was no earthly reason why he should suppose that the Juno in whom -he was interested at that moment was the girl who had been called Siren -in her youth. - -Yet, he had that intuitive feeling that they were the same—and without -a reason. - -“Nan,” he said, at the conclusion of the tale, “I have asked you to -assist me in this matter. I had intended to take you to Virginia with -me, believing that there might be a something about the appearance of -this Juno to associate her with the past of Jimmy Duryea. But I have -thought better of taking you down there. I will go to Virginia alone.” - -“Oh, thank you. I do not care to go.” - -“But,” he continued, with a smile, “I shall ask you to do a more -difficult thing; and unless you can and will do it for me, I shall be -compelled to do it for myself.” - -“What is it?” she asked, somewhat startled by his manner. - -“Wait a moment. Have you ever been back among those scenes of your -childhood since you left them to go to South Africa?” - -“No,” she replied. - -“Well, I want you to go back there and——” - -“Oh, no, no, no!” - -“Either you must go there, or I shall.” - -“What is it that you would have me do there?” - -“You need not, necessarily, go to the old home. Your search will be -in London, rather than in that neighborhood. But I want you to search -out the career of that girl from the time she left home until it was -reported that she had died in a London hospital.” - -“Must I do that, Mr. Carter?” - -“Unless you prefer to leave it for me to do. But you are in possession -of facts which will aid you materially in such a search, and you can -make it more quickly, because you will know exactly where to go in -doing it. I would lose valuable time in getting those facts together, -unless you related them to me, and you are reluctant to do that. So go -there and make the search in your own way. I do not require of you all -the names and particulars; all I wish to know is the result.” - -“And you? What will you be doing in the meantime?” - -“I shall go to Virginia. I start this evening. I am convinced that the -only weak spot in the armor of Bare-Faced Jimmy is through that woman, -Juno. I shall search her out in some way. I shall follow on her back -track—if there is one. It may be that my search and yours will bring -us face to face in the end—and it may not be. Nobody can tell as to -that.” - -“No; nobody can tell as to that.” - -“So, you will do as I ask?” - -“Yes, since you insist upon it.” - -“Then you will sail for England to-morrow. I will see that your passage -is engaged on one of the fast steamers. Chick will come here with the -tickets, and will take you to the steamer. At London you will stop -at Gray’s Hotel, in Dover Street, Piccadilly, at which place I will -communicate with you. You will address me at my house, and I will -arrange so that any message from you will be forwarded to me at once.” - -“What sort of information must I send to you?” she asked. - -“You need send none at all unless it is to the point. If you find, for -instance, that the report of the death of Siren was not true—if you -should become convinced that the report was a subterfuge of the family, -to put a stop to gossip and to preserve a good name, you are to inform -me of that.” - -“But how will that be of any assistance to you?” - -“It will assist me only in the dénouement. In order to compel those -two plotters who have stolen the name of Dinwiddie, to confess their -crimes, I must corner them. The only way in which it can be done is to -threaten them with complete exposure. I think that even now you are -almost in a position to make that threat, if you would do it. I must -attain to that position. That is all, Nan.” - -Nan smiled up at him, sadly. - -“Oh, if Jimmy had only died, really, when it was supposed he did,” she -said. - -“Yes; or if that girl, Siren, had not left home when she did. What is -the use of all that sort of reasoning, Nan? None at all. You will go?” - -“Yes.” - -“And try your best to do all that I have asked?” - -“Yes.” - -“And make reports to me, as I have outlined?” - -“Yes.” - -“Then good-by. I shall be in Virginia in the morning.” - -Nevertheless, it was the following evening, at dark, when Nick Carter -arrived in the little village where the supposed Ledger Dinwiddie had -been received with such acclaim upon his return to “his own,” and with -a wife. - -The detective knew that Jimmy was still in New York, and that was one -reason why he hastened his movements. He wished to be there on the -ground, at Kingsgift, before the supposed heir to it returned. - -I wonder if any of the readers realize how entirely remote from the -news of the day some portions of the State of Virginia are, right now? - -It is a fact that of two letters deposited in a mail box in the City -of New York, at the same time, one addressed to Denver, Colorado, and -the other to Hague, Virginia, the former will arrive first at its -destination—for the Hague is sixty miles from the nearest railway -station, and the river boats do not carry the mails. And this fact will -suffice to explain how it was that nothing was known in that locality -of the strange doings of Ledger Dinwiddie, in New York. - -But Nick drove a span of horses from Fredericksburg, sixty miles away; -he arrived at Hague at dark; he drove on straight through the one -street of the village, and out toward Kingsgift, which is eight miles -farther. - -Hospitality is a watchword through all that part of Virginia. - -There are no hotels, or inns, or anything of the sort, save only in the -larger towns, and they are remote from one another. - -If a traveler is caught upon the road at dinner time and wants a meal -he has only to approach the nearest house, which may stand a mile away -from the highway, and ask for it. He gets it, and he must not offer to -pay for it, either. - -The same unwritten law applies to the matter of a night’s lodging—and -Nick Carter intended to make the most of it upon his arrival at -Kingsgift, and had timed himself accordingly. - -It was after eight o’clock in the evening when he drove upon the -estate, and had still another mile to drive before he could reach the -house. In due time he stopped his horses before the door, got down -and tied them—and by that time a negro servant was at hand, ready to -receive him. - -“Hello, uncle,” said the detective. “I suppose your master can put me -up for the night, can’t he?” - -“I reckon so, sah,” was the reply. “Mistur Dinwiddie ain’t to home, -sah, but dat don’ make no sort uh diff’ence, sah. You is welcome, jes -de same. Whar you done come from, sah?” - -“I am from the North, uncle.” - -“Hush, chile! Is you, now! Dat mus’ be a won’ful country up dar, sah, -from all I hearn tell about it. Jes you walk right into de house, sah; -I’ll take care of the hosses—an’ they sure is fine ones. Looks to me -like they done come from Fredericksburg. Reckon I’s seen ’em afore, -sah.” - -“Perhaps you have. Is your mistress at home, uncle?” - -“Well, sah, she ain’t rightly at home, nohow; but den she am at home, -too.” - -“How is that, uncle? I’m afraid I don’t understand.” - -“It’s dissaway, sah. She says to me, ‘Uncle Henery’—dat’s my name, -sah—‘Uncle Henery,’ she says, ‘if any pusson done ask fo’ me, you tol -’em dat I is not at home, ceptin’ it’s sure-nuff home folks what asks, -an’ in dat case you can say dat I is at home.’ Dat’s de way in, sah; -right dar. Yo’ jes rap on dat do’ and my ol woman’ll opin it fo’ you.” - -Nick stood still until the negro had led the horses toward the stable, -and then he mounted the steps of the wide veranda, and rapped with the -metal knocker against the door. - -There was a long wait before it was opened, and then a negress, as -black as the proverbial ace of spades, appeared so suddenly that Nick -was startled, for he had not heard her approach. She peered out at him -after throwing the door widely ajar. - -“Hello, auntie!” he exclaimed. “Can you take in a traveler, and give -him something to eat, and a bed for the night?” - -“I reckon so. Yassir. Come right in. You is welcome. Dar ain’t nobody -home ‘ceptin’ me an’ dat good-for-nothin’ nigger, Henery, but I reckon -we can make you comfortable; yassir.” - -“Isn’t your mistress at home?” asked Nick, remembering what Henry had -said on that point. - -“No, sah. We is de onliest ones to home, jes now. Come in, sah. Mistuh -Dinwiddie, he’s in de Norf somewheres—I dunno whar—and de missus she’s -in de Souf somewheres—I can’t jes’ tell you where, and we is de onliest -ones yere; dat’s a fact.” - -“But Uncle Henery said that Mrs. Dinwiddie was at home,” said Nick, -entering the house. - -“Huh! You mustn’t mind what dat lyin’ nigger done tell you, sah. He’s -suttinly de biggest liah dis side uh de Rappahannock, dat’s what he is. -Now, sah, you jes’ make yo’self comftil till I rustles yo’ somethin’ to -eat.” - -Before the detective could say another word she had taken herself off, -leaving him alone in the room into which he had been ushered, where a -single kerosene lamp, heavily shaded, burned upon a centre table. - -“So,” he mused to himself, “Juno is at home; and Juno is not at home. -Well, we will see about that, presently.” - - - - - CHAPTER XVII. - - JUNO. - - -The house remained silent while Nick Carter waited. - -Indeed there was barely a sound to be heard at all, even from without, -so remote was the place, for Kingsgift, comprising more than eight -hundred acres of land, much of it forest, was bounded on three sides -by water, and on the fourth by a narrow neck of land only, so that -the nearest neighbor, save for the negro tenants, lived several miles -distant. - -While the time passed during which the negress was preparing food -for the detective, he amused himself by inspecting the room in which -he waited. It was evidently a reception room, used only for the -accommodations of people like Nick Carter, who appeared there without -any definite purpose—apparently—and presently went on their ways again, -never to be heard of more. - -After a time the negress reappeared and invited him to follow her; and -he was conducted to the spacious dining room where Liza had spread food -enough for three hungry men. - -“It’s on’y jes’ a cold snack, honey,” she said apologetically, “but -it sure was de bestes’ I cud do on so short notice. Dar ain many -strangers what gits in h’yere from de main road. It suttinly is -clar-to-goodnes clean off’n de trabbled road.” - -“So your master isn’t at home, eh?” said the detective, helping himself -to the good things before him. - -“No, sah, dat he ain’t.” - -“And your mistress is away, too?” - -“Yassir; yassir. She done gone away, too.” - -“It is rather strange that uncle should have said she was here.” - -“Say, ain’t I done tol yo’ dat my ol man is de hugest-most liah in de -worl’? My, my, yo’ don’ wanttuh go for to b’lieve wat dat man tells -yo’. Tain’t safe, nohow. He suttinly is de onliest man I know what -can’t tell de truth; he suttinly is.” - -“Well, auntie, maybe you can tell me how to go from here to Hague. I -want to go there in the morning, after breakfast.” - -“In de mawnin’? Yo’ jes’ drives ’long de road. Dere ain’t nothin’ else -to do. Reckon yo’ must ha’ come straight through Hague when you done -come yere. When you is quite finished eatin’, sah, I’ll show you to -your room whar you is to sleep, and you kin go to baid jes’ as soon as -yo’ is a mind to.” - -“Oh, I won’t go to bed right away, auntie. I’ll sit out there on the -veranda and smoke,” said the detective, rising, for he had eaten his -fill. “You can show me where the room is, if you wish, and I will go -to it after I have smoked my cigar.” - -“Lord bless yo’, sah, you is welcome to smoke right in yo’ room, all -yo’ pleases,” said the woman hastily. So hastily that Nick decided at -once that she wished to get him stowed away immediately. He was just -turning over in his mind the question as to why the woman desired that, -when he heard the sound of horses’ hoofs on the roadway, and then a -musical voice called from the darkness: - -“Lize! Lize! Oh, uncle! Here I am!” - -The negro woman looked appealingly toward the detective, as if she -wished that he would hide himself away somewhere. Nick stepped quickly -to the door, threw it ajar, and then stood there, framed in the -opening, with the light of the room behind him so that it fell full -upon the face and figure of a woman who had pulled her saddle horse -close to the stepping block, and was just gathering the reins in her -hand preparatory to dismounting. - -She straightened quickly when she saw Nick, and for an instant it -seemed to him as if she was on the point of urging the horse away -again. But if she felt the impulse, she controlled it; and she said -coolly: - -“Good evening, sir.” Then she called past Nick to the negress, adding: -“Where is your mistress, Liza? I rode over to make a call upon her.” - -“She done gone out, missy, jes’ a lil’ while ago, for sure,” the -negress replied quickly, and the detective could not repress a smile -at the transparency of the falsehood, or, rather, at the attempt to -deceive. - -It was evident that the woman on the horse’s back saw the expression on -Nick Carter’s face, and read it correctly, for she instantly broke into -a laugh, and exclaimed: - -“Oh, dear, it isn’t the slightest use to tell Aunt Liza to say that I’m -not at home. She cannot understand how a person can be not at home and -in the house at the same time. But I won’t try to deceive you, sir. I -am Mrs. Dinwiddie, and if you are a stranger, you are welcome to such -hospitality as I can provide.” - -She started to dismount, and Nick stepped forward to assist her; but -with a quick, light spring, she was out of the saddle before he could -touch her. - -There was no mistaking the accent of the woman when she spoke, or -rather, there could be no two opinions in regard to her enunciation. -It was decidedly English, and yet with so faint a trace of it that she -probably thought, herself, that she spoke it like an American. - -It has been said that the real English sing their words, and she sang -hers, certainly, and with a voice that sounded capable of singing -anything. - -“I found myself in this neighborhood a little while ago, and made bold -to ask for accommodation,” explained the detective, approaching nearer -to her; and he perceived that she answered very well indeed to the -meager description he had of her. - -There was no denying her beauty, or that it belonged to a class by -itself. - -She was the brunette that had been partly described to him; the woman -with the luminous eyes, with the perfect figure, the dark hair, the -olive complexion, which was yet too fair to be olive. She was Juno; he -was assured of that; and hence was the woman with whom he wished to -converse. - -As soon as she dismounted and after replying to his statement with a -word or two, she led the way into the house, and to a sitting room -which Nick had not seen before. - -“You are a stranger in this part of the country?” she said inquiringly, -after indicating a chair for him to occupy, and disposing of her own -person on a low rocker. “Kingsgift is such an out of the way place that -strangers rarely honor us; still, you are welcome. It is unfortunate -that my husband is absent, else he would entertain you.” - -“Madam, thank you,” replied Nick, accepting the proffered chair. “You -are very kind. The truth is, I was informed that you, also, were -absent.” - -Again she indulged in that musical laugh of hers, which was almost -contagious. - -“That is a little story of mine,” she said, “but I cannot make Liza -keep to it. Since my husband went away, I have preferred to keep to -myself, and I permitted it to be thought around here that I had gone -with him—or in another direction. But it makes no difference. I believe -that you have not yet told me your name, sir.” - -“I am Mr. Carter, from New York,” he replied, giving his own name in -spite of the fact that he was partly disguised. He wished now that he -was not. - -“Then you are a long way from home, are you not?” - -“A very long way; yes, indeed; and my horses were about played out when -I arrived here. I doubt if they could have gone three miles farther.” - -“And you were bound for——” she stopped with the rising inflection. - -“In the morning I will go to a place called Hague, if some one here -will direct me.” - -“Did you come from the north?” - -“I drove from Fredericksburg.” - -“Indeed? And arrived here? Why, you must have gone directly through -Hague, unless you took the wrong road and came by a very devious -course.” - -“People who drive along strange highways at night are apt to take the -wrong road, are they not?” he replied, smiling. “But, madam, since -your husband is not at home, I will go on again as soon as my horses -are rested, if you prefer it,” he added. - -“Oh, no; there is no reason why you should do that, sir. Make yourself -as comfortable as you can while you are here. You will excuse me, of -course—and, as I probably will not be up when you leave in the morning, -I will also say good-by.” - -She inclined her head, and was gone before he could venture a protest. - -He had hoped that she would be inclined to remain and talk with him -for a while, but such a proceeding was evidently furthest from her -thoughts. And so Nick Carter found himself alone, almost as soon as the -purpose of his visit was achieved. - -For he had accomplished the purpose of that visit, almost as soon as he -saw Juno and heard her speak. - -He had satisfied himself of two things; one was that he had never seen -her before, and the other was that he would be able to recognize her -again under any circumstances. - -For a time after she left him he remained standing where he had risen -to bid her good night, watching the closed door by which she had passed -from the room. He was thinking to himself: - -“A wonderful woman! Truly a remarkable woman—and as beautiful as she is -remarkable. No person who has ever seen her face and looked into her -eyes could forget either; no one who has ever heard the sound of her -voice could forget it. She has a wonderful charm; a quick intelligence; -a keen perception.” - -He stopped at that expression, “a keen perception.” - -He asked himself if by any possibility her perceptions were -sufficiently keen to have suggested to her the explanation of his call -there; and he replied to his own thought: - -“If she is the sort of woman I have believed her to be she would not be -deceived by the explanation I offered of my presence here. She would -know at once that I did not come here by accident.” - -However, if Juno knew or guessed such a thing, she did not show it at -all. - -She had acted throughout in a perfectly natural manner. The most -critical could have had no fault to find with her conduct, or with her -manner of receiving the detective. - -The negress, Liza, entered the room a moment later, evidently sent -there by her mistress, and the detective followed her to the room that -had been assigned to him. - -An old-fashioned teester bed, surmounted by a resplendent canopy, -waited there to receive him, and he was tired enough to have taken -advantage of its comforts at once; but another duty demanded his -attention first. - -From the lining of his coat, where he had cut a place to receive it, -he drew forth several sheets of drawing paper; from another pocket, -pencils; and then he drew forward under the light the drop leaf -mahogany table, and set himself to work on a reproduction of the -features of the beautiful woman who had entertained him so short a time. - -He made a profile; he made a full view drawing; he made a -three-quarters. He drew a picture of her standing; another sketch -represented her in the saddle, as he had first seen her. Still another -showed her seated in the low rocker in the sitting room where she had -talked with him only a few moments. - -In all he made eight sketches of Juno, for it was an art which his -father had compelled him to acquire when he was learning to be a -detective—to draw with great accuracy from memory. - -When he had finished them and raised them before his eyes for his own -inspection he nodded his head, well satisfied with the result he had -achieved. He had eight fairly good likenesses of Juno to work with. - - - - - CHAPTER XVIII. - - A DANGEROUS WOMAN. - - -“Without a doubt,” said the chief of the secret police of Paris, taking -the several drawings from the desk in front of him and examining them -one by one. - -They were greatly improved since that night when Nick Carter made them -in the room he was occupying at Kingsgift, in Virginia. - -With those original sketches as guides he had made on the way across -the ocean, several finished drawings of Juno, and these were what he -now exhibited to the chief. Two weeks, lacking one day, had passed -since then, and Nick was in Paris. - -He had already visited London and Scotland Yard, where no information -was obtainable—that is, such information as he sought; but he had -determined to visit every capital in Europe before he returned to the -United States. - -The detective was convinced—as he had been convinced all along—that -Juno had a history somewhere in Europe, and that if he searched for it -he would find it. - -He had arrived that morning in Paris and had lost no time in -presenting himself to the chief of the secret police, who was an old -acquaintance. As soon as he was received in the private office of that -great man, he had said: - -“Chief”—we use a free translation of all that passed between them—“I -have here a few drawings, made by myself, of a woman whom I wish to -identify. I think it more than likely that you will know her. Will you -look at them?” - -“Assuredly.” - -Then the detective had passed out one of the drawings, putting it face -upward on the desk in front of the chief; and the latter had exclaimed -at once: - -“‘The Leopard!’ Of course it is ‘The Leopard.’” And then he had added -as we have noted it down here. “Without a doubt.” - -Nick Carter raised his brows, interrogatively. - -“‘The Leopard?’” he repeated questioningly. - -“Yes. That is the name by which she is best known, Carter. She had a -different name for use in each one of the capitals of Europe, but ‘The -Leopard’ is the one by which she is best known, and more generally -recognized. I had been wondering what had become of her.” - -“So you know all about her, chief?” - -“All about her? No, indeed; very little about her, as a matter of -fact—and a very great deal about her, too.” - -“Isn’t that statement of yours rather ambiguous?” - -“Yes, it is; but it comprehends precisely what I wished to say.” - -“Would you mind being more direct about it?” - -“I’ll be as direct as I can. What do you desire to know about her?” - -“Everything.” - -“Ah, my dear friend, Carter, but that is impossible.” - -“Then all that you can tell me about her.” - -“That is different. Yet—if you were to give me the precise line -concerning which you wish information we might get at it sooner.” - -“Why? What is the matter with general information concerning her?” - -“There is no such thing as general information concerning her. She is -not ‘general’ in any sense of the word. She is a many-sided woman. -Young, you will say? Yes; but not so young as she appears to be. -Beautiful? Ah, as a witch! Fascinating? She is an houri. There are no -words to describe her accurately. What is the circumstance which leads -you to make inquiries concerning her, my friend?” - -The detective hesitated a moment; then he said: - -“She is just now engaged, in company with a man whom we know on our -side of the water as Bare-Faced Jimmy, in rather a large scheme. Jimmy -has stolen the identity of a young Virginian who is doubtless dead—it -isn’t unlikely that Jimmy murdered him and that this woman helped him -do it. ‘The Leopard,’ as you call her, has married Jimmy——” - -“Wait, wait, wait! Married, you say? Impossible!” - -“Eh? Why impossible?” - -“Because, why should she have married a criminal, when she could have -had her pick of titles over here many times?” - -“That is a question I cannot answer; only there is no doubt that she is -married to Jimmy.” - -The chief of the secret police of Paris shook his head with emphasis. - -“Impossible!” he said again, with conviction. - -“Why?” repeated the detective. - -“Because—ah, who can give a reason for what women do, or refuse to do? -Not I, although I have been studying them for years.” - -“But you have a reason for such a decided opinion, chief.” - -“Assuredly. Of course, Carter. There is a reason. We have it set down -in our _dossier_ of her in the books; there it is a cut and dried -opinion; just a practical one. Perhaps that is the answer you want to -your question.” - -“Perhaps it is. Let me hear it.” - -“Wait. I will send for the book.” - -“No. Tell me about it, and her, first. I would rather have your version -of it. Later, if you will permit it I will read the _dossier_.” - -“Assuredly you shall read it.” - -“Now, what is that cut and dried reason? Tell me that. I have an idea -that it will supply some sort of a pointer in the investigation I am -making.” - -“Possibly. Who knows? I have just told you that she might have had her -pick of titles, here in France; or Austria; or Germany; or Italy; or -even in Russia. Everybody who came in contact with her fell in love -with her. She has been the ruin of a score of good men in the secret -police of several countries. Two of my own men committed suicide -because of her. She led them to betray their trusts, and so, dishonored -them. Ah, she is a wonder, that woman! That leopard!” - -“But that is not the reason you spoke about for her not marrying.” - -“No, it is this. There was a Duc de Luvois—a rich man with an honored -name, which he offered to bestow upon her, together with his fortune. -He laid them both at her feet, and she refused them and him. It was her -reply to him that is used now in the _dossier_, as the reason why she -will never marry.” - -“Good. What was that reply, chief?” - -“The duke repeated it to a friend of his before he shot himself after -her refusal. ‘She told me,’ he said to his friend, ‘that there is only -one name in all the world which she will ever consent to bear, and that -as there is small chance of that name ever being offered to her is not -likely that she would ever marry.’ Now you have it, Carter. That is the -cut and dried reason. Cannot you read between the words all that they -imply?” - -“Yes; I think so. Still, I would like to have your version, chief.” - -“You shall, then.” - -“Thank you.” - -“I told you a moment ago that while we know a great deal about her, we -know, in fact, a very little. When I made that remark I meant that we -know absolutely nothing concerning her history before she arrived at -womanhood. In other words, we know everything about her, for the past -eight years—and we know absolutely nothing concerning her before that -time. We do not know where she came from or what her country is. Have -you got that in your mind?” - -“Yes.” - -“Well, now refer again to what she told the duke when he asked her to -be his wife.” - -“I do.” - -“There can be only one explanation of that expression. It meant, if -it meant anything at all, that once, before we knew anything about -her, she loved a man who was the cause, directly or indirectly, of her -entering upon a career that brought her to the notice of the police. It -meant that the man is still alive, and that he might yet offer her his -name, and that if he did so, she would accept it; and that if he failed -to do so, she would never accept any other name. I know that I am a -romantic Frenchman, but that is the way I read that answer she made to -the Duc de Luvois.” - -“Very well, chief, I accept your version.” - -“Yet you say that she is married.” - -“Yes; there is no doubt of it.” - -“But you suggest that the man she has married is a criminal.” - -“He is one.” - -“Then I do not believe——” - -“Wait, chief.” - -“Well?” - -“Suppose that the man was not always a criminal? Suppose that once upon -a time he bore a splendid name, and was in line to succeed to a title? -Suppose——” - -The chief half started from his chair, then sank back again into its -depths. - -“You mean that she has married the only man she would give her liberty -to—the man to whom she referred in that talk with the duke?” - -“Yes.” - -“And that he is now a criminal, and that you are on his track—and hers?” - -“Yes, again.” - -“By Jove, Carter, I cannot believe it! Do you know who she is?” - -“No.” - -“But you are on the track of finding out?” - -“Yes; if you will assist me, chief.” - -“You may be sure that I will do that, Carter, to the extent of my -ability; and of everything that this office can supply. Where is she -now? In America?” - -“Yes.” - -“Look here, Carter; before you go more deeply into this affair I should -tell you one thing about the woman.” - -“Well?” - -“Although she has been the cause of many a crime, and is responsible -for the sudden taking off of many men, although she has filled a large -place in our records for a long time, there is not, to-day, a thing -against her for which she could be arrested, with the least chance -of conviction. It has even been said of her that she has lived a -spotlessly moral life, and so far as my own knowledge goes, it is the -truth. But, she is none the less a dangerous woman.” - -“I know. I have seen her.” - -“Ah; then you do know. Why, my friend, she even tried her wiles upon -me—and I nearly fell. It was chance that saved me, rather than my own -good sense.” - -“And you are more than half in love with her yet, chief. I could see -that when you looked at her picture.” - -“No; I am not in love with her; not in the least. But I am fascinated -by her. And there is a difference, Carter.” - - - - - CHAPTER XIX. - - TRAILED BY FATALITIES. - - -Although the detective had been in London before he visited Paris, he -had not sought Nan, who was in that city on the quest he had given her; -just now, in talking with the chief, he half wished that he had done so. - -But he was satisfied that he had not made a mistake in his conjectures -concerning Juno. - -She had been a dangerous woman always. According to the conversation -the detective had had with Nan—always provided that this woman was the -same who had once been Siren—she had begun to scatter danger around -her, even when she was still a child. The peril of her propinquity had -grown greater with the physical development until now even the chief of -the secret police of Paris acknowledged that he had nearly been one of -her victims. - -While the detective was studying the chief, the chief was contemplating -him. It was the latter who spoke first. - -“I wish, Carter, that you would take me more into your confidence,” he -said. “If I was made aware of precisely what you want, it might be that -I could help you. Or, will you have a look at the _dossier_ first?” - -“The _dossier_, please; after that I will try to be quite frank. But, -first—you assure me that this woman has no criminal record?” - -“None that could be designated as such. You will discover all that when -you read the _dossier_.” - -“Will you tell me just why she has made herself so prominently a figure -for the police to study?” - -“Ah! That is different. ‘The Leopard’ has been what you might call ‘a -near-criminal’ ever since she first came to our notice; but she has -never been quite one, that we can ascertain, or prove.” - -“I see. Will you tell me how she first attracted the attention of the -police of Paris? That might be interesting.” - -“Yes. That was a curious case. There was a certain Prince Turnieff -here in Paris as a diplomatic agent of the Russian government. We -were keeping half an eye upon the prince, not being quite sure of his -status, and we noticed that he was frequently seen in the company of a -beautiful young woman who was a stranger to us.” - -“And that woman was Juno?” - -“Eh? Who?” - -“The woman you call ‘The Leopard.’ I know her by the name of Juno.” - -“Ah; an apt name. It fits her. Yes; that woman was—Juno.” - -“Well?” - -“It was known that the prince was a very rich man in his own right. -Whatever his capacity was here in representing his government, he lived -in regal style, spent money lavishly, possessed a fortune in jewels and -precious stones, and did what in your country you would call cutting a -wide swath. He was also a handsome man, young and gifted. Just the sort -of a man that the average woman would admire. See?” - -“Perfectly.” - -“He lived in a palace in the Faubourg St. Germain, which he had leased, -furnished; he maintained a retinue of servants and lived like royalty. -One day, at four o’clock in the afternoon, he was found dead in the -library of that palace. There was a bullet hole in his right temple, -and he had died instantly. - -“But, Carter, there seemed to be no doubt that he had killed himself. -Everything in the room bore evidence of that, even to a half-written -note that he had left on the table near where the body was discovered. - -“But the last person who was known to have been with him was the -woman you call Juno, and whom I call ‘The Leopard.’ She was arrested, -questioned, subjected to every art that the French police employ to -force her to tell all she knew of the circumstances, but we might just -as well have left her alone, so far as any result was obtained from -her. She smiled at us, defied us, bewitched us, fascinated all of us. -That was the time when I so nearly fell under her spell myself. She was -permitted to go; but ever after that we felt it our duty to keep her -under close surveillance. - -“But that is not all of the story, as it relates to Prince Turnieff. - -“I have said that he made a great display of wealth; that he had in his -possession several fortunes in jewels. I should have added that he did -no business at the banks, and that because of that, it was assumed that -he had brought with him all the cash he required. - -“It was estimated that he must have had a million francs or more in -cash in his house at the time of his death, to say nothing of the -jewels. When I tell you that after his death there was no trace found -of either cash or jewels, and that none of it has ever been seen -since, you will understand how it was that Juno, as you call her, was -suspected.” - -The detective nodded. - -“Still,” continued the chief, “there was nothing against the woman. It -could not even be established that she had been other than a friend and -a companion of the rich prince. On that day when he killed himself—or -was presumed to have done so—she had been with him in his library -only a short time, and it was not until more than two hours after her -departure that the body was discovered. - -“You wished to know what it was that brought her first to our -attention; that was the circumstance.” - -“And the next one? What was that?” - -“It happened to be another victim—if I may use the term. This time it -was an Austrian. We did not know till after his death that he was a spy -in the service of Austria, but that developed later.” - -“Did the Austrian also kill himself?” - -“No; he was murdered in cold blood. But it happened more than an hour -after he had parted with your Juno, and there was not a thing to -connect her with the crime, save that she had been with him an hour -previously—and that all his money and valuables had disappeared at the -time of his death. He was killed while he was the occupant of a closed -carriage in which they had been riding together; the carriage stopped -at the door where she lived to put her down, and the driver testified -that the man was alive after she left him. - -“He was a diplomatic agent, also; and, as in the other case, it -was said that papers of great value, as well as other things, had -disappeared from his person. - -“I could give you other incidents of the same sort, Carter, that have -happened in her career. The police of St. Petersburg could do the same. -Vienna, Berlin, and other centres of activity could each add a quota; -and there you are. Now, I will ask you to read her _dossier_, and -after that we will discuss her further, if you desire it.” - -The chief touched a button and gave a direction; and, presently, with -an open volume before him, Nick withdrew into a corner and passed half -an hour in studying what had been written down in it under the name of -“The Leopard.” - -At the end of that time he closed the volume and drew his chair forward. - -“The _dossier_ tells me nothing new,” he said to the chief. “It gives -me no further information than that already supplied by you, save that -it goes into details rather more particularly.” - -“Exactly.” - -“I find that the part which interests me most is in that sentence -already quoted, used by her in her rejection of the suit of the Duc -de Luvois. I believe, chief, that I can establish the identity of the -woman, through an agent of mine who is now in London. I think that I -can do so, but I am not certain as yet.” - -“Then you will accomplish more than all my force has been able to do, -Carter.” - -“Through an accident, believe me; not through lack of zeal, or because -of deficient ability on the part of your men.” - -“That’s as it may be. Are you willing to tell me who you think she is?” - -“Unless you insist, I would rather keep that to myself until I am -certain.” - -“Very well. I cannot blame you for that. Does the woman know that you -are on her track? Does she suspect that you are searching out her -record?” - -“She suspects; I do not think she knows.” - -“You are positive that she suspects?” - -“No; I am not positive; but I suppose she does suspect. I am morally -certain of it.” - -“Carter, have you read that _dossier_ very carefully?” - -“Yes.” - -“Have you taken careful account of the number of fatalities to others -that have followed in her wake wherever she has gone?” - -“Yes.” - -“Very well. There is one thing which is not written down in words upon -that record, and it is to that I now call your attention.” - -“What is it, chief?” - -“I have said that we have never been able to prove anything against -your Juno. The principle reason for that is that in every case where -it has been supposed that she could no longer escape us, death by -violence, self-inflicted, or otherwise, has removed the person, or -persons, whose testimony might have convicted her. Does that statement -convey an idea to you, Carter?” - -“Yes. You mean to tell me, in that roundabout fashion, that if Juno -suspects that I am on her track my own life is in danger. Is that it?” - -“My dear fellow, I am speaking only in generalities; you may call it -superstition if you like; but fatalities have pursued those who have -been inimical to the peace and liberty of that woman. Whether it is the -result of coincidence or of design, I am not prepared to say; but if I -were on that woman’s trail and had unearthed anything which could be -used against her, and knew that she suspected it, I would make my will -and all arrangements for a sudden taking off, confidently expecting -that death might overtake me at any moment.” - -“You would make Juno out a murderer, chief.” - -“I would make her out what she is called, a leopard, who destroys. -Whether she strikes the necessary blows herself or has them delivered -for her—who can say? If she plots the fatalities and arranges them—who -can tell? If the fiend himself protects her and drives men mad and -makes them kill themselves—who can determine? The facts remain. Those -who are hostile to that woman die. There you are.” - -“I have lived rather a long time, chief, and I am not dead yet.” - -“No; but if that woman suspects that you are on her trail with any -chance of doing her a permanent injury, I wouldn’t give a centime for -your life; not one.” - -The detective shrugged his shoulders and smiled; but he made no further -comment. - -Then the chief took the receiver from the telephone hook, in answer to -a call that came in at that moment. - - - - - CHAPTER XX. - - THE SIREN EXERTS HER SKILL. - - -Had the detective known that Juno was in Paris at that moment he might -possibly have paid more attention to the remarks of the chief of police. - -But he was soon to know it. - -When the chief took down the telephone, Nick picked up a paper that was -lying on the desk and was scanning the front page, when an ejaculation -from his companion caused him to turn his head and regard the man -attentively. - -“Very well,” he heard the chief say over the phone, in French, “let -nothing throw you off the scent, Mouquin. Keep me informed. Let me know -everything concerning her with the least possible delay. It is vitally -important, just at this time.” - -He replaced the receiver on its hook and turned to Nick Carter. - -“My friend,” he said, “you will admit that perhaps I am not an unwise -prophet. You are here in Paris on the trail of The Leopard; The Leopard -is here in Paris on your trail. I am so informed by one of my best men, -Mouquin by name. What will you?” - -“Do you mean to tell me that Juno is in Paris?” asked Nick, interested. - -“She has only just left the train at the _gare du nord_,” was the reply. - -“Are you sure that there can be no mistake, chief?” - -“Perfectly.” - -“And she has entered the city openly? Without any attempt at disguise?” - -“Yes. Why should she disguise herself? There is nothing for which we -can apprehend the woman. She knows that every footstep she takes while -she is here will be watched. She has known that for a long time. I -think she rather likes it; so why should she not come here openly?” - -“What has brought her here, I wonder?” mused the detective. - -“You have brought her here, my friend,” replied the chief. - -“But, why should she follow me here? I know why she would like to have -me out of the way—dead, if you will—but——” - -“Listen here, Mr. Carter. On the other side of the water, in your own -country, you are something of a celebrity. Murder is as common there -as here, but it is done differently, as a rule. Believe me, you are -a dangerous man to that woman, and, being dangerous, she desires to -overcome that danger. Very well; there is no place on earth where she -would rather see you just now, than here in Paris. In coming here you -have played directly into her hands.” - -“Well, admitting that it is so, what then?” - -“What then? He asks me, what then? Death, then, my friend!” - -“And you, the chief of the secret police of Paris, sit here, in your -chair, in your own private office, and tell me that? And you still -permit such a woman to run at large in the streets of your city!” - -Nick smiled when he made that remark; smiled tauntingly. - -The chief hunched his shoulders, spread out his hands, palms upward, -screwed his face into an indescribable expression, and replied: - -“What can I do? What could you do, in my position? Nothing. Nothing at -all.” - -“I could at least keep the woman under such close surveillance that she -would not make a move that I did not know about. She would not——” - -“Ah! Ah! Ah! Well, I will do that. I have already given directions to -that effect. But I have done it before, times without number—and it has -always been the same.” - -“The same what? Do you mean that she gives you the slip?” - -“I mean that, although my men believe that they can put their hands -upon her at any moment of the day or night, while they watch her, -yet—yet the things that I have attempted to describe, happen.” - -“Who is the man who telephoned to you just now, chief?” - -“Louis Mouquin; one of my best men. There is no better detective in -Paris to-day, and not another one who is as good at shadowing.” - -“He has shadowed her before, has he not?” - -“Yes. Many times.” - -“Then you can rely upon it she is ‘onto his curves,’ all right.” - -“She is—what?” - -“She knows the man and his methods. No matter how good he is, he is no -good so far as she is concerned.” - -“What, then, would you do, Carter? I am quite willing to take any -suggestion from you that you can make.” - -“Very well, then, I will make this one. I’ll take the job of trailing -that woman myself.” - -“You, Carter?” - -“Yes.” - -“For me? For this department?” - -“Certainly; only, if I do that—for you, and not wholly for myself—you -must call off your own men and leave it all to me alone.” - -For the fraction of a moment the chief hesitated. Then a quiet smile -stole across his face, and he replied: - -“Very well. It shall be done. I appoint you—without pay; eh?” - -“Certainly. I am now a special, under your orders; but there is one -other thing I must have, chief.” - -“What is that?” - -“Authority.” - -“Eh? What sort of authority?” - -“A written appointment over your signature; a badge; anything. I don’t -care what it is, so long as it bestows the authority I want and gives -me the command over any of your men whom I may chance to meet.” - -“You shall have that. I will give you the badge which will place you -next in authority to me. That place happens to be vacant just now. It -shall be yours so long as you remain in Paris. And I will send you to -Mouquin. He will show you to what place——” - -“Pardon me, chief, but I would prefer it in another way.” - -“Well? As you please. What, then?” - -“I will sit right here until Mouquin telephones to this office again. -When he does so, you will tell him to bring The Leopard here to you. If -she should hesitate to come——” - -“Oh, she will not do that. She will probably be delighted to come here.” - -“Indeed? Well, I will remain here till she arrives. I will see her -here.” - -“And then——” - -“Chief, you and I work on different plans and by different methods; but -we work to the same ends.” - -“Assuredly.” - -“In the case of a person like this woman something new and entirely -original has to be undertaken. There are circumstances where I think it -is best to play your cards, face up, on the table, and this is one of -them. When she arrives here you will see what I mean.” - -“Do you intend to let her know that you are to take the trail after -her, and that——” - -“Exactly, chief. But, wait until she arrives. You have other business -to attend to now. I will amuse myself with these books here until -Mouquin telephones. After that, he will not be long in bringing the -woman here, will he?” - -“No. Very well. As you say, my friend.” - -It was an hour later when Mouquin called again and notified the chief -of the street and number to which Juno had betaken herself; and then he -received his orders to bring her to the private office of the chief -without delay. When another half hour had passed she was ushered into -the room. - -Nick had felt no doubt that Juno was aware of his presence in Paris, -but he did expect her to manifest some surprise at finding him in that -office in consultation with the chief of the secret police. - -But, quite on the contrary, her eyes sought him at once after she had -greeted the chief, and she turned to him with a smile and exclaimed, -quite as if she had confidently expected to see him: - -“How do you do, Mr. Carter? We meet again, in a strange place, after -our last interview; is it not so?” - -“I must confess that I did not expect to find Mrs. Dinwiddie in Paris -so soon,” replied the detective, rising and stepping toward her. Then, -addressing the chief, he added: “Chief, I wish to present you to -madam by her true name; a name which I fancy you have not known—Mrs. -Dinwiddie, of Virginia.” - -She laughed, and with a gayety which did not appear to be assumed. - -“I am a respectable married woman now, chief,” she said. “I am, indeed, -Mrs. Ledger Dinwiddie, of Virginia, and if you are perhaps wondering -why I am here, or in Paris at all, I will enlighten you without delay. -Mr. Carter, as you doubtless know, is that famous detective whom all -America praises. He is supposed to be exceptionally great in his -class, and his profession has brought about a strange circumstance. - -“Notwithstanding the great ability of Mr. Carter, he has committed a -grievous error. He has mistaken my husband for a man who was once a -criminal, but who is now dead. The highest court in the State of New -York has adjudged that criminal to be dead and accepted the proofs of -identity offered by my husband. Yet Mr. Carter persists in asserting -that Ledger Dinwiddie is that dead criminal. Remarkable, isn’t it?” - -The chief did not reply. He preferred not to commit himself. He waited; -but, in the meantime, he devoured the beauty of the woman with his -eyes. It was quite true that she had brought with her into that obscure -office a radiance, a fascination, and an atmosphere of influence which -affected every person there. - -It was not her beauty alone; it was a certain magnetism which seemed -to shed energy around her like the particles that spring spontaneously -from radium. - -As no one spoke, she continued: - -“Not long ago, Mr. Carter appeared, during an evening, at my home in -Virginia. He did not say that he was a detective, then; and I did not -suspect it till after he had gone away. I remembered that Mr. Carter -possessed an international reputation, and thought it not unlikely that -he knew something about me, as you have known me here. I followed him -to New York when he returned there—and then I followed him here.” - -She paused for a moment and turned squarely toward Nick Carter. Then -she spoke directly to him. - -“I have followed you here, Mr. Carter, for my own protection,” she -said, using her eyes with all the art she possessed, and lowering her -voice until it purred like the animal for which the Paris police had -named her. “The chief will tell you that I am not a criminal, and that -there is nothing against me, although many ugly things have been said -about me. - -“Mr. Carter, I do not want to have all these matters discussed over -there in your country, where I have married, and am happy, so I have -come here after you to plead with you to spare me. Surely that is not -a great boon to ask at your hands. I ask you now to come with me to my -hotel so that I may tell you the story of my chequered life—so that I -may prevail upon you to become my champion instead of my traducer. Will -you go there with me?” - - - - - CHAPTER XXI. - - THE SIREN AT WORK. - - -“Madam,” said Nick Carter, “let us understand each other. I came here -to trace out the career you have pursued, not because I expected to -make you the victim of my researches, but because I believed that -through you I would be able to prove the identity of Bare-Faced Jimmy -Duryea. That is the reply to your request for me to tell you why I am -in Paris. I will add this: My work here is already finished. I have -found the information that I expected to find.” He looked at his watch. -“In three hours from now I shall leave for London.” - -They were seated opposite each other in the parlor of the suite she had -taken on her arrival in the city, where he had accompanied her from the -office of the chief. - -Nick had placed no confidence whatever in her stated wish to reveal -her life history to him, but he had thought that she might say or -do something to betray herself, or to give him the cue he needed in -following out his plans. So he had accepted her proposal that he should -go with her. - -She left her chair and crossed the door toward him. He arose as she did -so and stood facing her. - -He knew her to be a dangerous woman; he believed her to be a -treacherous one; he had no doubt that just now she was a desperate one. - -To what ends she might dare to venture in this interview with him he -had no idea, but he was thoroughly on his guard. That she would dare -to attempt violence of any sort was farthest from his thoughts, for -they had gone there together with the full knowledge of the chief of -police—and that they had been trailed from the office of the chief Nick -did not for a moment doubt. - -But he did expect that she would try her feminine wiles upon him. - -He knew that to be her most effective weapon. He had heard enough to -understand that she did not hesitate to make use of it when occasion -demanded. - -There are women in the world who have been gifted wondrously, and she -was the personification of them all. - -The word beautiful does not describe her. She was alluring. She drew -men to her as a charged magnet draws particles of steel. Once amenable -to her influence, they were apparently as powerless to resist her as -those same bits of steel are helpless under that attraction. - -She halted directly in front of him. - -Her eyes, luminously bright, glowed upon him. He felt the thrill of -them. He realized that there was something more than mere magnetism in -that gaze, too. There was a quality about it that was hypnotic. He knew -that at that moment she was exerting all the latent powers within her -to bring him under the spell of her charms. - -Nick Carter had anticipated something of this sort, and he was prepared -for it. - -He had suggested to the chief that there were occasions when it was -well to play one’s cards face up on the table, and up to this point -he had done that very thing. He had purposely thrust himself in this -woman’s way in order that she might have all the opportunity she -desired to exert her powers of fascination—for Nick Carter intended all -along to appear to yield to them. - -That was the game he had intended, from the moment her presence in -Paris was known to him, to play. He meant to let her suppose that he -was the same sort of weakling as the others had been, who were inimical -to her interests. - -In a word, _he meant to appear to become her willing victim_. - -He realized that he had an extremely difficult part to play. He knew -what her intelligence was and that she would be as shrewd as he in -every move that she might make—unless her supreme confidence in her -own powers, so many times successful with others, should lead her -astray. - -But egotism, too much self-confidence, is the rock upon which many a -one has foundered. Nick Carter believed it to be the one which would -be the undoing of this brilliant woman, who had so successfully defied -the police departments of all of Europe, and, figuratively, snapped her -fingers at them. - -As she approached him across the floor he arose and faced her. - -When she smiled into his eyes he compelled his own to glow with an -answering fire. - -When she reached out one hand toward him, in a half pathetic, half -pleading gesture, he extended both his own and took it between them and -held it there. - -“Mr. Carter,” she said. - -“Yes?” he replied. - -“You will spare me, won’t you?” - -“Spare you? From what?” - -“From the consequences of the investigation you are making. See, I -throw myself upon your mercy; I plead with you; I am pleading with you -now.” - -She held his eyes with her own. Her other hand reached forward and -joined the first one resting upon both of his. They were standing in -the middle of the room. They were very close together. Juno’s eyes -were glowing strangely, and Nick, playing his part, wondered if, after -all, he had not dared too much. - -She was alluring. She was fascinating. She had the power of casting a -spell, and already he was cognizant of the force of it. - -Her eyes never left his face. He knew that she was exerting all the -hypnotic power she possessed to subject him to her will. - -He had no doubt that she had cultivated that power to the utmost for -years, under competent teachers, until she had become a master in its -use. The power of exerting hypnotic influence is an attainment which is -the consequence of study and practice; it is not a gift. One may learn -it just as one may learn to be a doctor, or a lawyer, or a dentist. - -Here, then, was the secret of what this woman had been able to -accomplish in her defiance of authority and in her undoing of the men -who had stood in her way in the past. - -Her weapon had been hypnotism, and with it she had lured that Russian -prince, that Duc de Luvois, that Austrian, and others to their death. - -Slowly that free hand of hers stroked the backs of his. - -Brightly, almost with a suggestion of living fire, her big eyes burned -into his. - -He felt a tightening at his throat. There was a sensation as if a -rubber band wound tightly around his brows; but he controlled himself. -He managed to fix his mind upon the object of his presence there, and -he felt that he could resist her, even unto the end. - -Her victims had not suspected this quality in her. They had been men -who had thought that she was succumbing to them rather than they to her. - -He forced his eyes to express all that she wished to show, or to -give out that lack of expression which would assure her that she was -succeeding. - -All the while that they stood there, facing each other, with their -hands clasped, she kept on murmuring to him in a low voice, but -uttering words that would have been meaningless under any other -circumstances. - -It was the droning of her voice, the soft cadences of it, that tided -in what she had undertaken to do. She was so accustomed to success, -so entirely unfamiliar with failure, that she could not see that her -effort was failing, and that Nick Carter was just as much the master of -himself now as when he entered the parlor with her. - -In the struggle that Nick had with himself when she first began to -attempt the exertion of her power, beads of perspiration came out -upon his brow. The effort with his own will brought to his face that -strained expression which she had expected to see there as a result of -her own influence. - -Presently she drew him toward one of the large armchairs that were in -the room. She forced him gently down upon it, standing before him, -holding his eyes still, and now stroking his forehead with her velvety -touch. - -Nick knew then why other men had become her willing victims. - -He realized the depth of the pitfall that had been spread out for them, -and how entirely willing they had been to cast themselves into it. - -He appeared to struggle against her power for a time, and then he -permitted his eyes to close, as if he were indeed hypnotized—and then -he heard a quick sigh of satisfaction escape her. - -She drew away from him. He heard her cross the room, but he did not -dare to peer at her between his lashes, lest she should be watching and -see him do it. - -He knew that she sank upon a chair, and rested there for a time, -breathing heavily, as if the effort to which she had put herself had -fatigued her greatly. After a time, when she seemed entirely to have -recovered, she approached him again. - -This time she spoke commandingly, as if she were ordering some menial -to do her will. - -“Nicholas Carter!” she said sharply. “Answer me!” - -“Yes,” he replied dully. - -“You are my slave, are you not? Answer.” - -“Yes. I am your slave.” - -“You will do my will, as I direct? Answer.” - -“I will do your will—as you direct,” he replied. - -“Hereafter, when I raise my hand—so—open your eyes that you may see me -now—when I raise my hand, so, you will lose the power of resisting me. -Answer.” - -“Hereafter, when you raise your hand, so, I will lose the power of -resisting you,” he repeated in a sing-song voice. - -Again she walked away from him, crossing the room to one of the -windows, and this time, as the detective’s eyes were open, he could -watch her. - -He saw her stand there for a time looking out upon the street, and he -heard her murmur broken sentences to herself. - -“To think that this man should also succumb to me! He seemed too -strong, at first. I have overpowered him. When will it all end.” And -more to that effect; then, with a deep sigh she turned about again and -went to him. - -“Nick Carter,” she said, standing in front of him. - -“Yes?” he replied. - -“I am about to awaken you now. You will forget that you have slept. -You will remember, only, a belief that I shall give you now.” - -“Yes.” - -“You will believe that you have held me tightly in your arms; that my -head has been pillowed upon your breast; that you have told me of your -love for me; that I have confessed my love for you. You will implicitly -believe all that, when you awaken.” - -“Yes. I will believe all that.” - -“And, when you are seemingly in your right mind, you will look your -love for me; you will feel it, too, through all your being—but you will -make no effort to demonstrate it. You will not so much as touch me with -your hands. You will be the slave to my will. You will love me with all -your strength, and you will believe that I return that love—poor fool. -And now, awake! I command it! Awake, Nick Carter!” - -But it was no part of Nick Carter’s policy to wake up just then. He -believed there was more to be learned if Juno believed him to be in -the hypnotic trance, and he realized that there would never be another -opportunity like the present one for learning things that he wished to -know about. So, instead of starting fully awake, as she had commanded -him to do, he sprang up only half alive to things about him, seemingly; -and he did the very thing which he knew would compel her to reduce him -again, as she would suppose, to the hypnotic trance. - -He seized her in his arms. - -For just one instant of time she did not resist him. Then she jerked -herself away, out of his grasp, and he made no effort to prevent her -doing so. He sank backward upon his chair as if he were again fully -under her influence. - -He saw that for a moment she turned her back to him, and that she -seemed to struggle with herself—and in that instant he recalled the -brief interval of hesitation on her part when he had seized her in his -arms. He thought no more of it then, although there was to come another -time when he would remember it. But that is another story. - -She turned toward him again, and between his eyelids he could see that -she was very pale. She raised her hands and made passes over him, and -he permitted himself to sink into a state which had every appearance of -being a deep, hypnotic sleep. - -Having reduced him, as she supposed, to that utterly unconscious and -helpless state, she crossed again to the window and looked out. Nick -watched her furtively, suddenly possessed with the idea that she was -expecting somebody. - -He saw her start, glance hurriedly toward him, then hasten from the -room. - -Nick remained quietly where he was, not making a move, and in a -moment she was back again—but not alone. The identity of the man who -accompanied her, notwithstanding the disguise he wore, was instantly -apparent to the detective. - -Jimmy Duryea—Bare-Faced Jimmy—stood just inside the door beside her; -Jimmy, perfectly made up to represent a man long past middle age, -and French, at that; but, Jimmy, nevertheless. Jimmy was looking -down upon the detective with an ironical smile upon his lips, and a -self-satisfied air that made the detective long to leap to his feet and -seize the fellow. - -“Look at him,” said Juno, indicating Nick. “I have done what you could -not do; I captured Nick Carter. I have made him my slave. I could -command him to start for the far North pole, and he would awake and -start, nor would he turn back.” - -“Then for goodness’ sake, Juno, command him to go and drown himself in -the Seine,” was the quick reply. “The world will be well rid of him—and -I will be able to live in peace. Could you do that, Juno?” - -“I could.” - -“And would he obey you?” - -“He would.” - -“Then do it. Do it, and we will go to Havre to-night and catch the -French line steamer that steams away to-morrow. We will be in New York -in six days. Do it. Do it. I have been sorry ever since I arrived that -I came here at all. It is too close to old times. I’m not healthy, or -healthful, here. I seem to feel a string around my neck, and to see a -huge knife falling from above. I am going back, anyhow, whether you go -or not, so do it, Juno; do it.” - -For a moment she was silent. Then she replied: - -“Go over there and stand near the window, then. Stand with your back -this way. Help me, yourself, by saying over and over to yourself, -‘Obey! Obey! Obey! Obey!’ Will you do that, Jimmy?” - -“Yes. Go ahead.” - -Jimmy crossed to the window, and Nick could see that she kept her eyes -upon him as he did so. Nick dared to peep between his eyelids toward -her, and he was amazed to see that she had tiptoed half the distance to -the window behind Jimmy, and was making passes in the air toward the -man she had married; not toward Nick Carter. - -In his amazement the detective opened his eyes wider. He could see -that Juno’s whole mental effort was at that moment concentrated upon -Bare-Faced Jimmy, and he was utterly astounded by it. - -But a greater astonishment followed when he saw Jimmy’s arms suddenly -fall limply at his sides, after which the man turned slowly around on -his heels and faced Juno, every vestige of expression gone from his -face. - -“Come nearer to me, Howard Drummond!” she commanded him; and he obeyed, -drawing nearer to her, keeping his eyes riveted upon hers. Nick knew -that she had accomplished this control of the man merely by having -induced him to concentrate his mind upon one thing when she asked him -to repeat over and over again the word, obey. But why had she done it? -Nick was soon to know. - -For a moment she sank back against a chair, half exhausted, but keeping -her eyes upon Jimmy. Then Nick heard her muttering words to herself, -and yet toward Jimmy. They were: - -“You had the thought; fulfill it. You spoke of the Seine; go there. You -talked of drowning; drown yourself.” - -Suddenly she wheeled toward the detective, who managed to close his -eyes again before she discovered that they had been unclosed. - -“And you, Nick Carter,” she said, half fiercely, “go with him. Jump -into the river with him. Seize him in your arms and hold him so that -neither of you can unclasp from that embrace. Leap into the river -together; drown together. Go, go, go, go! I will be well rid of both of -you!” - -Nick was so amazed by the turn that affairs had taken that he did not -move, although Jimmy turned obediently toward the door. She cried out -at him again, “Go, go, go!” and he pretended to obey. - -He started to his feet and moved toward the door after Jimmy, who was -already passing the threshold. Juno darted after Nick, seized him, -held him for an instant, pulled his head partly around, and whispered -another command into his ear. - -“Jump into the river with him, but do not drown yourself,” she -commanded in a whisper. “See to it that he dies beneath the water, but -save yourself. Save yourself, Nick Carter, and then—return here to me. -I have other work for you. Obey me.” - -She thrust him through the now open doorway. She closed the door upon -him. Jimmy, under her influence, was already halfway to the street. For -a moment the detective hesitated. Then, realizing that she had ordered -him to return there, he followed slowly after Jimmy, not doubting that -he would find Juno when he did choose to return, and realizing that he -must keep this other man from throwing himself into the river Seine. - -The hour was late in the afternoon. Darkness was falling. - -They passed up the street and Nick seized Jimmy by one arm and guided -him around the first corner they came to—and there, as he had half -suspected would be the case, he encountered the detective, Mouquin, who -had taken Juno to the office of the chief. Mouquin had been sent after -Nick to keep watch over him, for the chief of the secret police of -Paris feared “The Leopard.” - -“Mouquin,” said the detective sternly, “you know that I am temporarily -in authority over you. Here is the badge of authority given to me by -the chief. Here, also, is some money; sufficient for your needs. Now, -listen to my orders, and obey them, literally.” - -“At your service,” was the calm reply. - -“This man here”—Nick had seized Jimmy by the arm and was holding -him—“is under a hypnotic trance, or spell. He has been ordered to jump -into the Seine, but you must lead him to the river Thames, instead; to -London. All rivers will be the same to him, and that one will do as -well as another. Speak soothingly to him; tell him that you are taking -him to the Seine, and he will go with you quietly enough. Wait for me -in London at Gray’s hotel, in Dover Street. I may be there as soon as -you are.” - -“Am I to put him into the river? Did you mean that?” asked Mouquin. - -“No. Wait for me at Gray’s. Go, now. If you have to address the man by -name, call him Jimmy. Can you pronounce it? Good. Go, now.” - -Nick stood there and watched Mouquin and his charge until they were -out of sight. After that—and there had been a lapse of a quarter of -an hour—he hurried back again to the house and the room where he had -parted with Juno. - -But Juno was no longer there; instead, upon the centre table, where -it instantly caught his eye, was a written message which she had left -there for him. He could not repress a smile as he read it. It was—— - - “NICK CARTER: Immersion in the water will restore you to full - consciousness. I have willed it so, only consciousness will not - return soon enough for you to save the life of Howard Drummond, alias - Bare-Faced Jimmy, and many other names. He will have drowned before - you can save him. I have willed it so, and I am an expert pupil of the - master who taught me. But I have spared your life; perhaps some day - you may remember it and spare me. Possibly I have been foolish; I do - not know as to that. - - “I could not send you to your death. But what I could do, and did - do, was to use you, and him, as a means for my own escape. This will - afford me the only hour I have ever enjoyed in the city of Paris when - I have been free from surveillance. I shall make use of the time to - disappear, so that even the chief cannot find me. If you care to do me - a favor, in return for what I have spared you, forget me, and do not - seek me. You may make use of this letter wherever it will do you the - most good. - - “Tell that judge in New York, and others, that the real Ledger - Dinwiddie died a natural death in a cottage called ‘The Willows,’ at - Palmetto Peach, in Florida, and is buried in the churchyard of the - village of Tyrone, under the name of John Brown; that the man who - represented himself as Ledger Dinwiddie is really the James Duryea you - claimed he was—Bare-Faced Jimmy, etc.; that I assisted in the plot by - which Jimmy passed himself off as Dinwiddie; that sufficient proof of - all this is buried in a cigar box behind the small headstone of that - grave, where I placed it, secretly. - - “I sign myself, for the sake of this message, - - “JUNO DINWIDDIE.” - -The detective caught the same boat from Calais to Dover that Mouquin -had taken with his charge, and he rode up to London with them; but -before leaving Paris he called again upon the chief of the secret -police and showed him the letter that Juno had written. - -“Let her go,” said the chief. “She will not remain in Paris, and what -she does elsewhere I do not care. She was more considerate of you than -she has been of others, Carter. Beware of her if you come in contact -with her again.” - -At Gray’s hotel, in London, Nick found Nan Nightingale awaiting him. - -“You were right, Mr. Carter,” she told him, when they met. “The girl, -Sarah, who was called Siren, did not die. I have proof of it here. -She became a diplomatic spy, and has served many governments as such. -Her reputation is not savory, but there is nothing said against her -personal purity. Throughout Europe she is known by a name that was -bestowed upon her by the French police—‘The Leopard.’ She is the Juno -who married Jimmy; and Jimmy—you know who he is.” - -“Yes. I know now,” was the reply. - -Jimmy had, in fact, proven entirely practicable, and continued to do so -as long as he was assured that he was being taken to the Seine. In that -belief he took passage with Nick Carter for New York; arrived there in -due time and was permitted to plunge head foremost into the swimming -pool of a Turkish bath. He came out of it, presently, clothed in his -right mind, with the spell of hypnotism gone from him, entirely. - -If there was ever a madder man in the United States than Bare-Faced -Jimmy, when he discovered all that had happened to him since that -moment in the parlor with Juno when he was cast under the spell she -imposed upon him, Nick Carter has never succeeded in finding him. - -He was taken from that Turkish-bath plunge straight to the Tombs; -and this time there was no difficulty in proving him to be the real -Bare-Faced Jimmy, for in addition to the proof that Nick was able to -produce, Chick and Patsy had found sufficient evidence that James -Duryea did not die, and, therefore, was not buried, on the island in -the Sound. - -Nan Nightingale did not return to America at once. - -Acting upon the advice of Nick Carter, she went into Hertfordshire, -England, determined to make peace, if possible, with certain relatives -who still lived there. And Nick Carter returned at once to New York. - - - - - CHAPTER XXII. - - A SECRET MISSION. - - -It was not long after the detective’s return from abroad that Joseph, -his major domo, ushered a stranger into the library, bowed to him, and -said: - -“Mr. Carter is engaged for the moment, sir, but he will be at liberty -presently. I will tell him that you have arrived.” - -The stranger nodded his head and stood like a wooden image until Joseph -had left the room. Then his tall and soldierly figure relapsed upon -a chair, and he stared across the room at nothing during the entire -interval of waiting. - -Above stairs in the study when Joseph presented himself there, with the -card of the stranger, Nick Carter received it, glanced at it, nodded to -Joseph, who passed from the room again, then turned to Chick, who was -near the window, and said: - -“Go down to the library, Chick. Look the fellow over for me. Tell him -that I’ll be down presently. Then come back here and tell me what you -think of him.” - -Chick left the study in obedience to this direction, and the moment he -was gone the detective picked up an opened letter that was on the desk -in front of him and read it once more, from beginning to end. It was -typewritten, on a letter head of the Russian embassy, in Washington, -and after the usual superscription, it said: - - “I hope you will regard this letter in the light of a personal matter, - not intended to be at all official in its character. When it is - possible to enjoy a personal interview with you, I will explain fully - that point, and all the others that are connected with this affair. I - have not had the honor to make your acquaintance, but I need only say - to you that it is a mutual friend of ours who has induced me to make - a demand upon your services, and that I do so acting solely upon his - advice. - - “And of your services in a matter of extreme delicacy, I stand greatly - in need, so I beg that you will come to Washington—since it is utterly - impossible as well as impolitic for me to go to you—as soon as you - can make it convenient to do so. The direct purpose of this letter - is to prepare you for the reception of a gentleman of my staff whom - I have sent to you with credentials, and who will explain, in part, - the dilemma in which I have unfortunately become involved. Please - understand that I make no charge against the gentleman mentioned, but - his position and his relations with me and with my household have been - such that I would be glad if you take this opportunity of studying him - somewhat. - - “I have the honor to remain, my dear sir, - - “Your most obedient and humble”—etc., etc., etc. - -The letter was signed by the ambassador in person. It had arrived at -Nick Carter’s house during the afternoon of the preceding day. It was -now approaching eleven o’clock in the forenoon of the first day in June. - -Nick Carter, during his varied career, had had more or less experience -with matters diplomatic, and was accustomed to the somewhat stilted -phrases and mannerisms which all ambassadors and ministers regard it as -necessary to employ; but it was unusual that an ambassador should so -far commit himself as to make a covert charge against one of his own -household. - -For the detective could read the letter in no other way than that the -gentleman—he had been so described—now waiting in the library to see -him was under suspicion. - -But suspicion of what? - -Nick Carter had no idea as to that. Something had gone wrong with -the Russian ambassador, which required the services of an expert -investigator, and for some reason not given, it had not been deemed -advisable to call in the services of the regular Secret Service of the -United States Government. - -Somebody as yet unknown to the detective, but doubtless a person -high in authority in Washington, had recommended Nick Carter to the -ambassador; hence the letter. - -Chick returned while the detective was turning these things over in -his mind, and he raised his eyes expectantly when his first assistant -entered the room. - -“There is nothing remarkable, or even interesting, about the chap that -I can discover,” said Chick, in reply to the interrogative glance. “He -is just a plain, common type of the Russian army officer who has been -appointed military attaché to this country through influence at court. -He is less than thirty years old and more than six feet tall. I should -say that he is not overburdened with brains. - -“He belongs to the type that gets into no end of trouble through -ignorance, stupidity, pride, arrogance, and all that sort of thing, but -does not seem malicious at all. He is fair-headed, blue-eyed, rather -good-looking—some women would call him handsome—and all in all, is -rather a likable chap, I imagine. He ranks as colonel in the Russian -army, and the card he sent up to you is not his own, which fact he took -pains to explain the minute I entered the library where he is waiting.” - -“This card is not his own?” said Nick, picking it up and glancing at it -again. He had barely noticed it when Joseph gave it to him. - -“No. His name is——” - -“Why did he send me a card not his own?” - -“He said it was done by mistake, and that he did not discover it until -Joseph had left the room to take it to you. I think he told the truth -about that. He spoke as if it were the truth.” - -“Very likely. The name on this card means nothing at all to me—or to -him probably. No name was mentioned in the letter from the ambassador. -What is his name?” - -“He is Colonel Alexis Turnieff.” - -“Turnieff? Turnieff? Now, where have I——Oh! I know. I say, Chick, that -is rather an odd circumstance. Turnieff, eh? And Alexis Turnieff, at -that. You say he is not more than thirty years old?” - -“Rather less than that, I should say.” - -“Humph! Oh, well, I don’t suppose the name has any significance in this -matter, but it is rather a strange coincidence, just the same, that it -should recur just at this time.” - -“Then the name does mean something to you?” asked Chick. - -“No; not really. It recalled my last trip to the other side, that -is all. It is the name of one of the supposed victims—the first one -that was known about, if I remember correctly—of Juno, otherwise ‘The -Leopard’.” - -“It isn’t likely that Juno has anything to do with this matter, is it?” -Chick asked. - -“No. It isn’t likely, I suppose. But the affair is Russian. Anyway, I -haven’t the least notion what it is all about. The name struck me, that -is all. Well, I will go down and see Colonel Turnieff. Wait here till I -return.” - -The detective left the room and presently entered the library, where -the Russian official rose from the chair to greet him. - -“Prince Alexis Turnieff, I believe?” said the detective, as he advanced -toward his caller. He made the remark quite naturally, putting it in -the form of a question. He spoke as if he had always known the man, and -had always been fully aware that he was a Russian prince. - -“Yes. I am Prince Alexis Turnieff; but I was not aware that I mentioned -my title to the person who was just here with me, sir.” - -“The person to whom you refer, prince, was Mr. Chickering Carter, my -first and chief assistant. He is not a servant, as your words might -imply was your belief.” - -“I beg your pardon, Mr. Carter. I had no intention to give offense.” - -“None is taken, prince. None at all.” - -“Would you do me the favor, Mr. Carter, to call me colonel instead of -prince?” the Russian asked, while another flush rose to his cheeks and -forehead. - -“Certainly, sir; the more readily, because in this country there are no -hereditary titles.” - -“Will you tell me, please, how you knew me to be Prince Alexis -Turnieff?” - -“Certainly.” This was precisely the point at which the detective had -wished to arrive. “My assistant informed me that you sent up the wrong -card by mistake. Also that your name is Alexis Turnieff, and that you -are a colonel in the Russian army. Just now, I assume you to be in the -diplomatic service attached to the Russian embassy. That is correct, is -it not?” - -“Quite so.” - -“Very well; I am more or less familiar with many Russian names and -titles. Not so very long ago I knew of a gentleman by your name, who -was also a prince. He would be old enough to be your father, if he were -living. I assumed that he was your father, and being aware that he is -dead, I also assumed that you had succeeded to his title. So”—with a -smile—“you will observe that it was not strange that I should make use -of the title in addressing you.” - -“I quite understand. Thank you.” - -“And now, colonel, if you are ready we will come to the business of -your call upon me,” said the detective. - -“At once. Yes, sir. You have doubtless been informed that I am here -at the request of the ambassador for the czar, but that my errand is -unofficial, and——” - -“Pardon me, colonel; my information is solely to the effect that a -gentleman from the Russian embassy would call upon me,” said Nick. - -Colonel Turnieff fidgeted for a moment in his chair. Then with some -abruptness he said: - -“Will you pardon me, Mr. Carter, if I mention another subject first? -I wish to do so because our conversation, since you entered the room, -has suggested that what I wish now to speak about may have some bearing -upon my errand here to-day.” - -“Speak as you please, Colonel Turnieff,” replied Nick. “I will tell -you that I don’t know a thing about your errand here. I have been -instructed that a gentleman would call upon me, sent here by the -Russian ambassador; farther than that my information does not extend. -If you were to talk about the North Pole, or the South Pole, it would -be all the same to me—save only that I would like to get at the real -purpose of your visit as soon as possible.” - -“Certainly. I was about to refer again to my father.” - -“Yes? Well?” - -“Did you, perhaps, know him personally?” - -“No. I never met him or saw him. All that I know about him refers to -his unfortunate death, in Paris, some time ago.” - -“Do you know any of the particulars in relation to his—death?” - -“Only such as were related to me by the chief of the secret police of -Paris, when I was in that city on quite another matter. The subject of -your father came up between us, and it was mentioned; that is all.” - -“You were told that he—that he killed himself?” - -“If it is a painful subject to you, colonel, why continue it? Yes, I -was so informed.” - -“Were you also informed of the circumstances associated with his -death?” the Russian persisted. - -“Yes. Of some of them, at least. I did not go into the subject -definitely. It was not of especial interest to me at the time.” - -“Will you tell me what was told to you?” - -“Really, colonel——” - -“Pardon me, sir, I know that this seems entirely beside the subject of -my call here, but possibly it may not appear so later on. If you will -be patient with me, I will be your debtor.” - -“Very well, sir.” - -“Will you tell me what was told to you in regard to the death of my -father?” - -The detective hesitated. What had been told to him was, in a way, a -privileged communication imparted in confidence. Presently he replied: - -“I will tell you as much about it as I think I may with discretion. The -main points of my information are these: Your father, Prince Turnieff, -was sent to Paris on a secret mission of some sort for his government. -He took there with him a very large sum of money presumably his own. -Also while there he made a great display of valuable jewels, though why -he did so does not appear.” - -“Your information is entirely correct so far, Mr. Carter. I will add to -it in that particular. He had with him the equivalent of two hundred -thousand dollars in cash in your money. He also had in his possession -at that time certain jewels which were the property—or had been—of a -family that had suffered exile. Those jewels had been forfeited to the -crown together with other possessions, and——” - -“My dear sir, what has all this to do with our matters?” - -“Bear with me a moment, please.” - -“Go on, then.” - -“The jewels which my father displayed with seeming recklessness were of -very great value—they were worth another sum equal to the amount he had -with him in cash. My father was not a person given to needless display, -and so you may assume that there was a definite purpose in his conduct -in making a display of them, and in his reckless expenditure of money -also. All that formed a part of his mission there.” - -“I understand you. Well?” - -“Now, will you tell me what more you heard about his death?” - -“No. I will not say any more on the subject now.” - -“Then I will tell you—for I perceive that you hesitate only to spare my -feelings, and I honor you for it. While in Paris, he was very much in -the company of a woman who had at that time, and has since had, many -names. To the police she was known as ‘The Leopard.’ Am I correct?” - -“Quite so.” - -“My father made his home in a palace which he had taken, furnished, -in the Faubourg St. Germain. He was found dead in the library of that -palace one afternoon, with a bullet hole in his brain. There was a -pistol beside him, and a partly written note on the table near him, -telling that he had decided to kill himself. The last person who was in -his company before that happened was ‘The Leopard,’ the beautiful young -woman in whose company he had been seen so often. - -“But she had been gone from the house a long time before the shooting -was supposed to have taken place, and although she was taken to the -prefecture of police and closely questioned, not a thing could be -determined against her. Is that substantially what was told to you by -the chief, Mr. Carter?” - -“Yes.” - -“Did he inform you also that not one centime of the money, and not one -trace of the jewels, could be found after the death of my father?” - -“Yes.” - -“Thank you. That is all I care to ask you about the circumstance at the -present moment; but I wish to add to it one statement of my own.” - -“Well?” - -“My father went to Paris on a secret mission in which there was almost -no hope of success; a secret mission in which his life was at stake -from the moment he departed from St. Petersburg. The display of the -jewels was a necessary part of his enterprise. The possession of a -great sum of money, and the lavish expenditure of that money, was -another necessary part of it. The woman known as ‘The Leopard,’ was -supposed at that time to be also in the service of Russia, but it has -been thought—not determined, mind you, but only suspected—since then, -that she was all the while in the actual service of another government. -It was because she was ostensibly in the service of Russia, that she -was seen so much with my father. That was another definite part of the -enterprise.” - -“I understand.” - -“My own opinion—and it is only an opinion, not knowledge—is that -she was all the time working against my father in Paris. If she -did not actually murder him, she was nevertheless the direct cause -of his death. Well, sir, now I come to the point toward which this -conversation has tended.” - -“Yes?” - -“That woman—‘The Leopard’—is now in the city of Washington. She lives -there openly, supposedly the possessor of a large fortune. She occupies -a large house in one of the fashionable streets of the capital where -she entertains lavishly. She is a woman of most remarkable beauty and -attractiveness. She is a creature of many fascinations. All who go near -her fall under the spell she casts about her.” - -“You surprise me, colonel,” said the detective. And indeed it was so. -Nick Carter was surprised that Juno had ventured to return to the -United States so soon. “But assuredly she does not call herself ‘The -Leopard,’ in Washington society, does she?” - -“No, indeed. She is now the Countess Juno Narnine—Countess Narnine—and -Narnine happens to be the name of one of the branches of my own family. -I can positively assure you that she is in no manner related to them, -notwithstanding the fact that this woman has succeeded in establishing -herself beyond question; and supplied credentials which cannot be -denied. Now, sir, I will get down to the purpose of my visit here.” - -“Wait a moment. Why have you chosen to tell me about this countess? We -will call her so, since she has succeeded in establishing her right to -use the name.” - -“Because she has something to do with the purpose of my call upon you—I -think.” - -“Oh. You think so. You are not sure of it, then?” - -“Nobody has ever been sure of anything connected with that woman, sir.” - -“I see. You regard her much as the chief over in Paris did.” - -“I am not informed concerning his regard for her, nor as to what his -estimate of her character may have been; but speaking for myself, I -can say that she is at once the most compelling creature, the most -attractive woman, the most fascinating personality, and the most -beautiful human creation that God ever put into the world. At the same -time she is the most dangerous. All the objections to her are summed up -in that one word dangerous, Mr. Carter.” - -“One more question, colonel.” - -“Yes, sir.” - -“If I had not addressed you as prince, and hence, had not called up the -unpleasant recollections of your father, would you have mentioned this -woman in connection with the matter that sent you to me?” - -“I should have mentioned her, but not in the manner I have now chosen. -Her name would have been mentioned, but not in just the way I have done -it.” - -“Would you have told me this story about your father, and his relations -with her, if the subject had not been brought about in the manner it -was?” - -“No. I should not have done that—now.” - -“But later you might have done so?” - -“Yes. Later I am certain that I would have done so.” - -“Why? I would like to know that before we proceed. You see you are -somewhat ambiguous, Colonel Turnieff.” - -“I don’t know that I can explain why, unless it arises from the natural -inclination to clear up the mystery of my father’s death. That is -human—and filial—isn’t it?” - -“Decidedly.” - -“Now, shall we get at the object of my mission here to you?” - -“Yes.” - -“May I ask you, first, if you are at all familiar with the methods -employed in diplomatic affairs, where the thing to be done is a -secret one and bears no direct relations to the official duties of an -ambassador?” - -“Your question is somewhat involved. I will reply to it generally. Yes; -I know that a representative of royalty, no matter where stationed, -is supposed to take his orders without question, and to execute them -literally, no matter what the consequences, or what means it may be -necessary to employ.” - -“Very well, sir. My chief, whom I now represent unofficially, has -been engaged upon an affair of great delicacy for his royal master. -Concerned in that affair are papers of the vastest importance -imaginable—of such supreme value that their loss cannot be estimated -in words or in figures. Mr. Carter, one-half of those papers have -disappeared absolutely. They must be recovered at any cost. In the -meantime the remaining half of them must be safeguarded so thoroughly -that there can be no chance that they will follow after the others.” - - - - - CHAPTER XXIII. - - THE WORK OF A SECRET AGENT. - - -“It seems to be your pleasure to speak in enigmas, colonel,” said the -detective. - -“In enigmas? How so, sir?” was the reply. - -“You speak of certain important papers which are of untold value, -and announce that one-half of those papers have disappeared; as if -the papers were a melon, or an apple that one might cut into two -parts—dividing them equally. Be good enough to explain what you mean.” - -“Ah; I made the announcement just as it came to me; but I did not -intend to puzzle you, Mr. Carter.” - -“Well?” - -“Perhaps it will be the pleasure of the ambassador, when you talk -with him, to explain to you exactly what those papers are; but I have -not permission to do so. In fact I am not entirely informed upon the -subject myself. I know only so much about them as it was necessary for -me to know, to carry out my part of the work.” - -“I understand.” - -“Let me endeavor to explain in this way: His majesty, the czar, is -interested in accomplishing a certain purpose that is well defined -in his own mind, and in the minds of his counselors, which relates to -another government—not the United States. You understand that, Mr. -Carter?” - -“I think so.” - -“I was instructed to assure you that you would not be asked to do -anything that you could not conscientiously perform as a loyal citizen -of the United States.” - -“Very well. Go on.” - -“The ambassador whom I represent was directed to carry on the secret -work of that affair, and to direct it from his embassy, in Washington. -He has done so. In carrying on the work a mass of documents has -collected. They are entirely apart from his regular official duties as -ambassador to the United States.” - -“I already understand that, sir.” - -“Among those documents which have collected, there are certain papers -which, if placed upon this table in one package, might be contained in -a rubber band, and might be deposited within the space contained in -your greatcoat pocket. As I have stated, those documents—those to which -I am referring just now—are of vast importance.” - -“I think I am sufficiently well assured of that, colonel.” - -“As a means of safety, these papers were not only written in cipher, -but they were then redrawn, in halves, and the originals were -destroyed. They were drawn up and written in such a manner that neither -half of them could be deciphered without the other half. Do you follow -me?” - -“Perfectly.” - -“Those two halves, each necessary to the other half, were concealed, -hidden away for safe-keeping, by the ambassador in person, in places -known only to himself supposedly; in localities widely different. -Understand that they were not yet complete, or they would have been -forwarded to St. Petersburg before now. That is what was to be done -with them as soon as they were completed.” - -“Yes.” - -“They would, each half by itself, have been sent to St. Petersburg—and -by entirely different routes. For example, I might have been dispatched -there with one-half of them in my charge, ignorant of what I carried -with me, save only that they were documents of importance to be -delivered exactly as directed.” - -“Yes.” - -“I might have been sent with them by way of China; the other half might -have been sent direct by another person. Each of us would have known -nothing of the other one. Understand?” - -“Yes. But what has that to do with their disappearance?” - -“I am merely endeavoring to impress upon you the care with which they -were guarded, and would have been guarded to the end.” - -“Very well. I understand that.” - -“The documents were nearly complete, but not quite so. There remained -one matter of importance to be accomplished, before the documents were -forwarded, as I have described, to St. Petersburg.” - -“Yes.” - -“Well, sir, one of the halves of those prepared documents has -disappeared from the place where the package was concealed. The -ambassador instructed me to tell you that, so far as he is aware, no -person other than himself knew where either of those packages was -concealed. He wishes to have you go to Washington, to consult with him -on the matter without delay, and he desires to impose entire secrecy -concerning the affair upon you.” - -“Is that all?” - -“That, Mr. Carter, is the purport of my mission here. I was to tell you -that much. I could not tell you more than that, for the reason that my -own knowledge goes no farther. Whatever else there is to be told to -you, the ambassador will tell you in person.” - -“You have no idea where the papers were concealed, colonel?” - -“Beyond the surmise that they were somewhere within the embassy, I -have not even an idea concerning them; and even that much is only a -surmise.” - -“Colonel Alexis Turnieff, in a matter of this kind, one has to ask -plain questions—so plain that they are sometimes offensive,” said the -detective, fixing his eyes upon the face of the man before him. - -“Yes, sir. I can understand the necessity for that. I am not -thin-skinned, Mr. Carter. If your statement in any manner applies to -me, I will say that you are at liberty to put any questions to me that -occur to you. But I must assure you again that I have absolutely no -knowledge as to the contents of those papers.” - -“But you do know that name of the government, other than the Russian -government, that they concerned; eh?” - -“Yes; although I am not at liberty to tell you that. The ambassador——” - -“I don’t care to know it at the present time. What I do want to -know—and this is one of the questions which might be offensive; -particularly if you are entirely loyal to your chief—is this: Could the -ambassador serve his own purposes, personal or otherwise, by making it -appear that those papers had disappeared when in reality they had not -done so?” - -“Do you mean, would he steal them himself?” demanded Turnieff, in -amazement. - -“Words to that effect; yes.” - -“Impossible!” - -“Now, if you had discovered where one of those packages was -concealed—in making use of the pronoun, I refer not alone to yourself -in person, but to every other member of the official household of the -ambassador—would it have advantaged you or any other person within that -household to have abstracted one of those packages?” - -“I cannot conceive how it would have done so, Mr. Carter.” - -“I do not mean that papers so taken would necessarily be used, or -passed on to other persons; but would it have been to the interest of -any person of your knowledge to repress those papers?” - -“The question, Mr. Carter, is beyond me. Remember, I am utterly -ignorant of their contents.” - -“But knowing the country besides your own that they concern, you, being -in the diplomatic service, could make a shrewd guess regarding the -purport of them, could you not?” - -“No. Really, Mr. Carter, I could not. I have known enough about what -has been going on, to have drawn conclusions several times; conclusions -which I thought at the time were quite satisfactory, but which -inevitably have proven to be entirely and utterly erroneous.” - -“How long a time have those papers been in preparation?” - -“I do not know.” - -“How long a time have you been attached to the embassy at Washington?” - -“Two years; rather more than that.” - -“They have been in preparation since you have been there?” - -“Yes.” - -“And before that time?” - -“I have reason to suppose so.” - -“Who would be chiefly interested in stealing papers of the sort you -suppose them to be, colonel?” - -“Ah; now you ask me a question which I can answer. Not directly; I -don’t mean that; but in a general way.” - -“Well?” - -“I am only young in the service, Mr. Carter, but I have been -sufficiently long engaged in it to know that whenever there is a -diplomatic movement on foot, inimical to another country or government, -the government which it threatens is pretty apt to have an inkling of -the matter, or at least a suspicion.” - -“Yes. I should suppose so.” - -“We will say, then, that this affair threatens the government of -Siam—which is preposterous, of course; I suggest it only by way of -illustration.” - -“Yes.” - -“If the government of Siam were one of the first or second rate -powers, it would have diplomatic representatives at every capital -in the world. It would have secret agents all over the world. You -understand that?” - -“I do.” - -“Now, if it suspected that Russia was plotting some antagonistic move, -it would watch Russia, not alone at St. Petersburg, but all over -the world. It would consider carefully who the man might be in the -diplomatic service of Russia, who would be most likely to be given the -operation of such a delicate affair, and who could be entirely trusted -with it; who possessed the brain capacity to carry it out; who was in -every way competent.” - -“I understand you. Well?” - -“Suppose that in such a case Siam decided that the ambassador to the -United States was that man. Siam would at once dispatch a horde of -secret agents to this country. Some of them would be Siamese, but the -majority of them would be of other nationalities. They would belong to -that class which become international spies through choice, and have -little care what governments they serve; who go from the service of -one to the service of another as readily as you or I would change our -clothing.” - -“And it is your opinion, then, that Siam—we will keep up the fiction -for the moment—has many secret agents in Washington now, and that one -of them has managed to get his hands on those papers.” - -“Or her hands; yes. That is the idea.” - -“I understand you. Now—could one of those secret agents for the other -power, by any possibility, become a member of the official family of -your ambassador?” - -“Why not, Mr. Carter?” - - - - - CHAPTER XXIV. - - THE AMBASSADOR’S CABINET. - - -Nick Carter was seated in the private cabinet at the embassy, facing -the ambassador. - -He had just been conducted to that room, and the ambassador, a -tall, stately gentleman of the inscrutable school, every inch the -representative of his czar, was still standing beside his desk, with -one hand resting upon it, while he bent a little forward toward the -detective, devouring him with his piercing eyes. - -And they were eyes which had been accustomed for years to read the -characters of men of all nationalities, and of every walk in life. - -Nick Carter felt at once that this tall gentleman was a power within -himself, and that nothing short of an explosion of dynamite at his feet -could move him out of his habitual calm. - -“I have heard very satisfactory things about you, Mr. Carter, if you -will pardon me for using that expression,” the ambassador said slowly, -picking his words, and still keeping his keen eyes upon the detective, -while he retained that same attitude beside the desk. “I will not -hesitate to say that the statements were made by no less a person than -the present incumbent of the White House.” - -“Indeed?” replied the detective. “That is gratifying.” - -“Do not misunderstand me, Mr. Carter. He was not aware that I needed -the services of a gentleman of your qualifications. Nobody has been -made aware of that, save the man who went to New York to induce you to -come here—and myself.” - -The detective bowed his head. He made no other reply. - -“I suppose you are more or less well known in Washington?” the -ambassador asked; and he passed around the desk to his chair. - -“I suppose so.” - -“I apprehended that your personality is, also, more or less well known; -and by that I refer also to your profession?” - -“I suppose so,” Nick replied again. - -“That is why I made the appointment with you for this hour—midnight. I -desired that as few persons as possible should know of your visit to -this house.” - -“In that case, prince,” replied the detective, smiling, “you should -have made the appointment at noonday, instead of at midnight. One is -less noticeable, if one arrives among others, than if one goes by -oneself to a place of appointment. The best place to hold a secret -conference is in the midst of a crowd; at least that has been my -experience.” - -The prince—for he was one, although his title was rarely used in -Washington—shrugged his shoulders. - -“After all,” he said, “the matter of the secrecy of your present -employment is one that is entirely your own affair. I assume that if -you are competent to take this matter in hand for me you are also -perfectly capable of guarding the minor details connected with it.” - -“I think so.” - -“This city at the present time is filled with secret agents of another -government than mine or yours—and those secret agents have been chiefly -interested in watching me for a long time. I have no doubt that your -presence here at the embassy is already known to them.” - -“More than likely it is.” - -“Nevertheless, Mr. Carter, it might be inferred that you have come here -to see me on matters entirely your own; or at least not mine. It is -quite as logical that you should represent one government as another.” - -“Yes; or none at all, prince.” - -“True.” - -“Before we go into the particulars of my visit here, prince, I would -like you to tell me the name of that government whose spies swarm in -the city at the present time.” - -“Oh, I shall not permit you to work in the dark, Mr. Carter. I have -had no such intention, for that would thwart the very purpose of your -employment.” - -The ambassador bent forward, selected a piece of paper and a pencil, -wrote something on the paper, passed it over to the detective, and said: - -“That is the name of the government whose spies are chiefly interested -in the subject which we will presently discuss, Mr. Carter; but, if you -please, we will not mention it to each other, even in a whisper or by -so much as an innuendo.” - -“Certainly not.” - -“Walls have ears, you know; and sometimes eyes as well.” - -“I know. While I was talking with Colonel Turnieff, he had occasion -to draw a simile, and he made use of the name of Siam. Suppose in -referring to this country, the name of which you have written down -here, we call it Siam.” - -“Good! A capital idea.” - -“And now, sir, I return this paper to you in order that you may destroy -it yourself.” - -“Mr. Carter, I like your methods.” - -“Thank you. Now, prince, if you will get down to business——” - -“At once. But first, how much did Turnieff tell you, and what -conclusions did you draw from his manner of telling it?” - -“Prince, so far as the information which you will tell me is concerned, -he has told me nothing; and his manner made no impression upon me one -way or another.” - -The ambassador smiled. - -“You should have gone into the diplomatic service, Mr. Carter,” he said. - -“I seem to be in it now, prince,” was the reply. - -“True. But I perceive that you prefer not to commit yourself to any -opinion until you have formed a positive one. I entirely approve of -that course.” - -“Thank you. And now, prince, one matter before we proceed.” - -“Yes.” - -“You have taken it for granted since my arrival here, that I will -accept the commission you wish to give me. I will say that I am quite -ready to accept it, and that it is the sort of thing that I like to do. -But nevertheless there are conditions which I must make before I agree -to take this matter in hand.” - -“Oh, as to that, Mr. Carter, your recompense——” - -“I had not even thought of that part of it. When the work is done, you -will receive a bill for my services, which I will expect you to pay. I -shall supply the money for my own expenses, and make them as liberal as -seems necessary. But I was not referring to that subject.” - -“To what one, then?” - -“To the matter in hand. I cannot take your case and carry it through -to an end, depending upon half confidences, or only part confidences. -I must be intrusted with full and entire confidence, otherwise we must -let the matter drop where it is.” - -“You mean—just what do you mean, Mr. Carter?” - -“I mean that I must know _all_ of the story; not merely a part of it.” - -“I understand you, but I doubt——” - -“Pardon me, prince, but if you doubt, let the matter stop where it -is. There is absolutely no use continuing it. I must have your entire -confidence, or none at all.” - -“To give you my full confidence in the manner you imply, Mr. Carter, I -must betray the secrets of my sovereign, which are, in part, at least, -reposed in me alone.” - -“Even so, sir, I cannot qualify what I have said. I cannot perform the -service for you, if I am like the horse of a picador when it enters -the bull ring; blindfolded. I must be able to see; and unless you can -intrust me with the secrets of your sovereign, as well as with your -own, I am not worthy to be trusted at all.” - -The ambassador was silent, tapping the top of the desk with his pencil. - -But after a moment he raised his eyes and said: - -“So be it, Mr. Carter. I will not caval with you; you are right. In -order to carry out this matter to a successful issue, you must know as -much as I do about it.” - -“Just so, prince.” - -“But bear in mind our agreement to refer to that unnamed country as -Siam.” - -“I do.” - -“I will begin, then, by stating that some years ago I was ambassador -to—er—Siam. Really, I will have to accustom myself to that form of -expression, for upon my word I was never anywhere near Siam in my life.” - -“Never mind a small detail like that one, prince.” - -“No, indeed. Well, when I represented his majesty there, certain -matters arose which led me to make a suggestion to my august master, -which I believed would redound to the credit, and greatly to the -aggrandizement also, of my own country.” - -“And that matter was—what?” - -“I will go into all of that presently, Mr. Carter. It is not my purpose -now to keep anything back from you; but permit me to get over the main -point of the matter first.” - -“As you please.” - -“When I first proposed it, I was smiled at; then I scored. Heed was at -last taken of my suggestions, and I was directed to begin work on the -idea. That, I may say, happened ten years ago.” - -“It is not a new thing, then.” - -“From the point of time, it is not.” - -“Well, sir?” - -“I remained in—er—Siam three years longer. Then I suggested that, in -order to prosecute the work upon which I had begun action, it would be -well to place another man there, and to send me to the court of St. -James. I figured that I could work from there, with less chance of my -purpose being discovered than from Siam itself.” - -“I understand you.” - -“Two years after that, I again suggested a change, and I came here.” - -“So you have actually been engaged upon it five years here in -Washington.” - -“Yes.” - -“Well, sir?” - -“Until I came here to Washington, I had reason to suppose that entire -secrecy had been preserved; but almost at once after my establishment -here, I became convinced that a suggestion of what I was doing, or -trying to do, had reached the government of—er—Siam. In a short time I -was sure of it. Spies from there began to appear. Of course I have a -sufficient staff of spies at my own command, and it was not difficult -for me to know that Siam was largely represented here. I put two and -two together, and made up my mind that I and my work was the cause, or -rather the reason of their presence.” - -“Naturally.” - -“Nevertheless, I have worked on confident in my ability to control -affairs—until now; but at last they have succeeded in sending some -person here, who has proved to be too keen for me. Certain of my -papers, which I have safeguarded with the greatest care, have been -stolen. Those papers must be found and restored; not because I cannot -replace them, for I can do that; but because they must not be permitted -to betray what I am doing.” - - - - - CHAPTER XXV. - - THE HOLLOW BEDPOST. - - -It was twelve o’clock when Nick Carter entered the cabinet of the -ambassador; it was past four in the morning when he went out of it, and -even then he did not leave the embassy itself, but was conducted to a -room by his host where he said he would take about three hours’ sleep. - -The particulars of the conversation between them we need not give -here. The facts of the case, so far as they concern the relation of -this story, have been already given; but of one thing be assured: Nick -Carter had his way in regard to the detailed confidence of the matters, -and before parting with the ambassador he was in possession of all the -secret. - -The thing was a stupendous undertaking on the part of Russia, and had -it been permitted to succeed, would have altered the map of the world -to a considerable extent. - -But the point of the case was this: - -Important papers of vital interest to the Russian government—and of -still more vital interest to the ambassador himself, so far as his -reputation was concerned—had been mysteriously taken from the place -where he had concealed them. - -He did not believe that they would prove of any immediate value to that -government which he disguised under the name of Siamese, because, as -he assured the detective, it would be impossible to read even the half -that had been stolen without the presence of the remaining half, which -was still in his possession. - -One word as to how the papers had been hidden away by the ambassador. - -In the first place it must be understood that all the writing was upon -exceedingly thin paper, such as is used by diplomatic agents the world -over, because it has so little bulk that much of it can be put away -within a very small space. - -There were twenty-two of those thin sheets of paper in the stolen lot, -and they had been rolled together tightly as one would roll a scroll or -map. Then they had been put inside a tin cylinder that was less than an -inch in diameter, and the cylinder itself, with the contents—now, where -do you suppose a practical man like the ambassador would hide such an -affair as that? - -In his safe? Not at all. - -Would he deposit them in a box at a safe-deposit institution? That -would seem at first to be the logical place; but safe-deposit vaults -have been opened before now, through subterfuge, and in other ways. - -Moreover, it was necessary to hide them where they could be reached -quickly, in case he should want them. - -Well, the ambassador had selected a place most simple, after all. - -Remember that the very set of papers of which the stolen ones formed -one-half, had been a long time in preparation when the ambassador first -came to the United States, and that the necessity for concealing them -had already arisen. - -One day at about that time, the ambassador, in riding through the -country, across the river in Virginia, had passed, in his automobile, a -place where an auction of household furniture was in progress. - -He had stopped and turned back. While he looked on at the scene, more -in amusement than with interest, an old-fashioned bedstead had been -offered for sale. - -It was a big four-poster, with canopy top and all; it was a handsome -old thing, of the best mahogany—and the ambassador purchased it, -suddenly possessed with an idea. - -That idea he had carried into execution before the bed was delivered at -the embassy; and it consisted in having a hollow receptacle bored into -each of the legs of the bedstead. - -Now stop a moment and consider just what this meant. - -Remember that each of the legs of the bed held a caster; that the -caster had to be affixed to a plug which would fit into the bottom of -the hole, before it could do its duty. Remember that the foot-end -of that bedstead was so heavy that three ordinary men could not have -lifted it from the floor after it was in place, to remove the caster, -and to get at the receptacles which they concealed. - -Well, that was the condition. - -The holes were bored into the legs of the bedstead, before the bedstead -was delivered; the casters were arranged so they could be removed. -After that, the ambassador simply kept an automobile jack in one of -the closets of his room—and so you see, he was able to jack up the bed -at any time he so desired, remove the caster, and to get at his tin -cylinders. - -And here the ambassador had been cute again. - -Although there was a receptacle in each one of the legs of the -bedstead, he made use of only one of them; but that one was bored to -twice the length of the tin cylinder, and, instead of hiding the two -cylinders he wished to conceal inside two of the hollows, he put them -both in the same one; one above the other, affixing the top one in its -place by sticking it there with a piece of wax, so that it would cling, -but yet could be easily dislodged. - -That fact had saved one of the cylinders when the other had been stolen. - -Doubtless it had not occurred to the thief that both cylinders were in -the same cavity, and probably they had searched all four of them; but -it remained that one of them had not been taken. - -The problem was, how had any person been able to discover the hiding -place? - -The ambassador assured Nick Carter that no other person than himself -was aware of the hiding place; that he had never taken any person into -his confidence, not even his wife or his daughter. - -The room was his own room, which he occupied alone; the bed was so huge -an affair that it was never moved from its position. How, then, had any -person determined where the hiding place had been arranged? - -The ambassador asked the detective all these questions; and to them -Nick replied: - -“It does not interest us to know how the hiding place was discovered, -unless that was the quickest way of recovering the lost papers; but it -is not. The only thing for us is the fact that they were taken—and it -is a clear and logical deduction that whoever took them has passed them -on to another person.” - -“That is undoubtedly true,” the ambassador replied. - -“What excuse have you made for keeping that automobile jack in your -room?” - -“None at all. I simply kept it there.” - -“How often was it your habit to remove those papers from their hiding -place?” - -“Not once in six months. Only when there was something to be added to -them.” - -“When was the last time that you had them out, before you discovered -the loss?” - -“Rather more than a month ago.” - -“How did it happen that you discovered the loss?” - -“Very simply. I found the jack in the middle of the floor. The sight of -it there alarmed me. I closed the door, pulled the curtains, examined -the hollow post, and discovered what had happened.” - -“Now, just when was that?” - -“Exactly one week ago to-night.” - -“What time of day or night was it when you made the discovery?” - -“It was two o’clock in the morning. The papers were stolen between -nine o’clock that night and then. I had been inside of my room at nine -o’clock in the evening, and everything was in order then. I passed the -evening at a theatre, and accompanied some friends to supper after it. -It was two when I entered my room and made the discovery.” - -So much for the manner of the loss. - -Concerning the papers themselves, Nick had asked the following -questions: - -“You have referred to the swarm of spies for that other government, who -are now in the city, presumably for the sole purpose of watching you. -How many of them do you know, or, how many of them have you knowledge -about?” - -“Just an even dozen.” - -“Have you reason to believe that there are more than that number here?” - -“There may be another dozen, or a score more of them, for all I know.” - -“How could they, or any of them, discover the existence of the papers -in the first place?” - -“Merely by conjecture; but it was a natural conclusion. They must know -that it has been necessary, during all these years since I have been -engaged on the matter, to keep very careful data. My memory could not -be depended upon in a matter so vital. Hence, it has been a perfectly -natural assumption that such papers existed. The thing was, to discover -the hiding place—and it was discovered.” - -“Have you reason to suppose that any other effort than this one has -even been made to steal the papers?” - -“Certainly. There have been seven or eight attempts during the ten -years, or, rather, during the last seven of them; all but one during -the last five.” - -“What was done at those attempts?” - -“Oh, burglars have entered my house. Thieves of the sneak-thief order -have ransacked my rooms at one time and another, notwithstanding my -watchfulness. A box at a safe-deposit institution was opened through -subterfuge—but nothing was taken from it, and I would not have -discovered that strange hands had been inside it, had not the manager -mentioned something about the man I had sent there.” - -There was one other point concerning which we will repeat some of the -conversation between the detective and the ambassador. - -“Of the dozen spies whom you know to be in this city, keeping watch on -you, and of whom you have given me a list, which are the ones you deem -most competent to have carried this theft into effect?” - -“Either of the first two on the list. The man, Rafael Delorme, and the -woman, Dolores Delorme, his wife. They are unquestionably at the head -of the system of spies, which we call Siamese; the others are only -their puppets.” - -“Do they know that you are aware of their business here?” - -“They would be very poor spies indeed if they were not aware of it—and -they are the slickest of their kind.” - -“There is no other one among the twelve whom you think is clever enough -to have done this thing?” - -“Any one of them is clever enough, if directed by either of the -Delormes; but with the possible exception of Jules Legrande, who is -really a Greek, notwithstanding his French name, I don’t think any one -of them could have carried it off alone.” - -“Now, outside of this dozen on the list, is there any other person -in Washington, man or woman, toward whom your suspicions have been -directed, believing that he or she might be a spy in the service of -Siam?” - -“Yes. There is one.” - -“Who is that one, prince?” - -“She is called Countess Narnine. She acknowledges the given name of -Juno. In Paris, St. Petersburg, Vienna, and other cities of Europe, she -was long known as ‘The Leopard.’ And I wish to assure you, Mr. Carter, -that she is more dangerous than all the others put together—if she is -a—er—Siamese spy.” - - - - - CHAPTER XXVI. - - THE WOMAN SPY. - - -“Juno again,” the detective had mused, when he heard that statement; -but he did not say it aloud, although he did question the ambassador on -one more point which the mention of her name had brought to his mind. - -“Your letter to me implied that you had some reason to suspect -Turnieff; if not of the theft itself, then of something. What was it, -and why did you select him?” he asked. - -“I do not suspect Turnieff, and I do not wish to be so understood. My -belief in him is as thorough as it can be, and I would require positive -proof to convince me of his disloyalty. Yet, Mr. Carter, in a case of -this kind, one suspects everybody.” - -“Well, go on, please. Tell me exactly why you mentioned him to me in -your letter, in the manner you used; why you thought it necessary to -write a special letter to me about it.” - -“I had two reasons,” the ambassador replied, without hesitation. “I -will give them to you exactly as they occurred to me.” - -“Please.” - -“There is no one in this household who is so near to me in a -confidential capacity as Turnieff—not even my secretary. I have always, -ever since he has been with me, intended to employ him as one of the -messengers, when the time should come to send the documents to my -august master.” - -“Well?” - -“It has been necessary that one member of my household should know -that I had a secret mission, in addition to my regular one. Turnieff -does not know, has not known, and would never know until after its -completion, what that mission is. But he does know what the name of -the country is which you and I have designated by the name of Siam. -Now, that is one point, and it is every bit as far as it goes. It would -break Turnieff’s heart if he believed that I had suggested that much -about him.” - -“But there is more?” - -“Yes; on an entirely different basis.” - -“Well, what is it?” - -“It refers to that woman who has purchased the title, or has married -it, or has procured it in some way that makes it hers, and gives her a -right to use it—Countess Narnine.” - -“Juno,” said Nick. - -“Yes. That is the first name she claims. I never heard that it is -hers, more than many of the others she has made use of in the past.” - -“In what way do you associate Turnieff with her? Why should any -association with her by him give rise to suspicion against him?” - -“I have said that it does not amount to suspicion against him; only -that I must search in every direction around me, Mr. Carter.” - -“Yes. I understand.” - -“Well, I will speak of the woman first before I refer to him in -connection with her.” - -“Very well.” - -“Once upon a time, to my certain knowledge, that woman served Russia in -the capacity of secret agent. On that occasion she was sent to Paris, -in company with the father of Turnieff. There were strange things that -happened there. The woman evidently sold out to others, although it -could never be established that she did so—and actually she finally -succeeded in proving the charge against another. You may rest assured -that that other person died very suddenly—as she would have done, had -she not established her innocence.” - -“I don’t go in for assassination, prince.” - -“Nor I. But sudden deaths happen frequently among traitors in the -secret-agent business, nevertheless. The woman has been in the service -of other countries since then, we have reason to think, although we do -not know it. Just now she appears to have somehow succeeded to great -wealth, and to be living on her income, which seems large. There is not -a thing or a circumstance to disprove that view. Nevertheless, she is -here, and there is no reason on earth why she should be here, unless it -is in the interests of Siam.” - -“Well?” - -“She is cleverer than the cleverest. She is almost uncanny in her -abilities and profound astuteness. While I haven’t a thing to bear me -out in what I say, I haven’t a doubt on earth that she is, at this -moment, a Siamese spy.” - -“And as such——” - -“Wait; I haven’t quite got to that yet. During that Paris experience of -hers, to which I just now referred, when she was an aid to my friend -Alexis Turnieff, the father of my military aide, he was killed. It was -said that he shot himself. Circumstances surrounding the affair upheld -that view of the matter; but those who knew the man personally knew -then, and know now, that he was not the man to have taken his own life. -He was the soul of honor and uprightness. A large fortune in cash and -jewels disappeared at the time of his death, and was stolen—if it can -be said that things are stolen when they are taken by the people to -whom they really belong. - -“But that money and the jewels had been forfeited to the throne. -Ah, well! That is political history, and has nothing to do with the -things I am telling you; only I wished to say that the jewels and money -probably found its way to just the hands where Russia did not wish it -to go. - -“Now, Mr. Carter, I have always believed, and I believe now, that ‘The -Leopard’ caused the death of Prince Turnieff, if she did not actually -shoot him herself—and I more than half believe that.” - -“And you are attempting to tell me that young Turnieff believes that -view of the case also.” - -“I am attempting to tell you more than that. What I started to say was -that ever since Countess Narnine appeared here, Turnieff has been a -devotee at her shrine. He has fluttered around her like a moth around a -candle flame. He has been in her train constantly. He goes nightly to -her house; or, when he is not there, he is an attendant at functions -where he knows she will be present.” - -“Do you mean to tell me that he is in love with her?” - -“No; not unless love and hate are akin. He is bent on vengeance for the -untimely death of his father. That is why he pursues her.” - -“Then how do you find a cause for suspicion against him in this matter, -because of his intimacy with the countess?” - -“Ah; there you have me again. I do not know. I cannot answer that -question save in a most general way.” - -“Well, in a general way, then.” - -“I know that woman’s possibilities; I know her capabilities—or at least -some of them. Wherever she is concerned, I am afraid; not for myself, -for I think I am above and beyond her wiles; but for others.” - -“Just what do you mean to imply, prince?” - -“That Turnieff would be as clay in her hands, if she chose to exert -herself against him; that she would play with him as a tigress might -play with a tiny mouse—or as her namesake, the leopard, might toy with -a kitten. With her, he is as a child in the hands of a giant.” - -“Still I do not see——” - -“No, nor do I. But I have heard it said that she has great powers of -fascination; that strong men have gone down beneath her wiles; that she -molds men as potters mold clay. May it not be that she has found a way -to mold him, and to turn him into a traitor to me and to his emperor?” - -“That is going rather far, isn’t it, prince?” - -“Yes; too far. I admit that. But I try to look on every side. Mr. -Carter, I would like to make a suggestion, if you will permit it. I -have said that you should go your own way entirely about this case, -but all the same there is one suggestion that I would like to make.” - -“What is it? Make it by all means.” - -“Go and see that woman. Manage to be introduced to her in such a way -that she will be forced to receive you. Interest her. Study her. Try to -read her. Try to fathom the unsounded depths of her. Then come to me -and tell me about her.” - -“You seem to have entire confidence that I may not become one of her -many victims,” the detective remarked, with a smile. - -“I had not thought of it; really. It had not occurred to me. Perhaps, -after all, you had best keep away from her.” - -The detective laughed outright. - -“I observe, prince, that you do fear her. But I think that you need -have no fear for me. I will confess to you that I have already seen her -and know her. I have met her and talked with her, twice, in fact.” - -“You have?” - -“Yes; once in this country, when she happened to be a Mrs. Ledger -Dinwiddie; once again in Paris—after that. But the fact remains that I -can claim an old acquaintanceship with her, and that I do not think she -will be inclined to deny it to me.” - -“Ah! That is good—perhaps.” - -“I think it is very good; for I entirely agree with you that she is -in this city in the interests of Siam; that she has been sent here to -discover your secrets; that she, and not the Delormes, husband and -wife, engineered the theft of those papers—and that now she will be -more eager than ever to get possession of the other half of them.” - -“Then you will seek her?” - -“I will.” - -“Beware of her, Mr. Carter.” - -“Forewarned is forearmed, you know, prince,” laughed the detective. -“But that reminds me of something that I must say to you on that point.” - -“Well?” - -“I know the habits of you gentlemen, when a man like myself is engaged -in your service. You have one of your regular spies watch that man. I -will have none of that, prince. If I discover that it is done in my -case—and I shall discover it if it is done—I will throw up your case on -the instant, and have nothing more to do with it.” - -“It shall not be done, Mr. Carter, I promise you.” - -“Another thing: If you should get reports from any person that I seem -to be worshiping at the shrine of the countess, along with Turnieff, -you are to understand that it is a part of the game, and that I am -doing it with my eyes wide open, although they may have the appearance -of being closed all the time.” - -“I will understand.” - -“In the meantime let Turnieff continue as he has started out. Let him -have his head and go as far as he likes. I may use him as a foil in -what I intend to do.” - -“But you are going to probe into the life of that woman; eh?” - -“Yes; and so deeply that she will wince. So thoroughly that if she -stole those documents we will recover possession of them; and that, -too, very soon.” - -“I wish I could be assured of that, Mr. Carter.” - - - - - CHAPTER XXVII. - - IN THE NET OF A SIREN. - - -Nick Carter paused just inside the doorway. - -The scene before him was a resplendent one, and not to be duplicated -in the city of Washington, so rumor had said; certainly, the hostess -who presided over it all was not to be duplicated anywhere else in the -world. - -For the scene upon which the detective looked was that of a formal -function at the home of Countess Juno Narnine and the countess herself -defied vocabularies, when an adequate description of her was sought. - -The detective had thought it best to wear no disguise at all; to appear -there in his own proper person; to come upon the hostess suddenly and -without announcement, and so to surprise her, if that were possible, -although he had not a doubt that she had been informed of his presence -in the city. - -He had managed purposely to arrive at the house rather late, and -already the parlors were thronged with guests, for hers was one of the -most popular houses in the capital—not alone because of the beauty of -the hostess, but because of the entertainment one found there, and the -people one met there. - -As Nick halted he drew backward a little, screening himself for a -moment behind other persons who were only too eager to crowd ahead -of him, for he wished to study the scene for a time before he thrust -himself directly into it. - -He saw her at the far end of the room, the centre of a throng that had -gathered around her chair; for she sat like an enthroned queen, upon a -raised dais, the better to receive her guests—and the moment had not -yet come for her to leave it and to mingle with them. - -The admiration that was given to her was not stinted; and it was due, -moreover, for the detective confessed to himself then and there that -never had he seen a more beautiful human creature. - -Brightness, vivacity, wit—every attribute that goes to adorn beauty and -make it a compelling factor were hers. - -Statesmen, professional men, persons of prominence in every walk of -life were grouped around her, each vying with all the others to do -homage to her charms. - -Such was the scene upon which Nick Carter gazed as he paused just -inside the doorway and studied the environment. - -“A wonderful woman, truly,” he told himself, with just the suggestion -of a shrug, and he withdrew still farther into the background, waiting -for a better opportunity to present himself. - -The moment came at last. - -He saw that she was about to leave her raised chair and to mingle with -her guests. He discerned an uneasy movement around her which told him -that; and just at the instant when he believed that he would be in -time, he moved forward and stood before her. - -She had been talking with a man who stood beside her, and did not -notice his approach; did not realize that another guest had approached -until he stood directly before her. Then she raised her eyes and saw -him. - -A person standing near them and watching her would not have noticed -that her expression changed at all; but Nick Carter saw that it did. - -There was just the slightest narrowing of the eyes; just an added -depth to them; just the suggestion of a slight start in her attitude, -unobservable to others, but plainly noted by the detective, although it -endured not more than the fraction of an instant. - -Then, her face beamed. A bright smile, which was also glad in its -expression, illumined her eyes and her features. You would have said -that she was unqualifiedly delighted to discover him there. - -She did what she had not done to another guest that evening. She -started from her chair and extended her hand in cordial greeting; and -she followed that hand with the other one, thus signally honoring him -by giving him both. He took them both, and for a moment held them, -looking down into her eyes as he did so, with an expression which the -spectators took to be one of intense admiration, if not more; with an -expression which she must have seen, and noted, and wondered about, -too, in her inmost heart. - -The murmurs about them became hushed for the instant. - -It seemed as if all eyes in the room were fixed upon those two; and yet -no one stood quite near enough to them to hear her low-toned greeting, -or his reply to it. - -“You have not forgotten?” she murmured, with that bewitching smile -which could not have been counterfeited by another. - -“I am here; that should be your answer,” he returned, and he smiled -back at her. - -She did another thing then that was not in accordance with her usual -custom. She took his arm deliberately when she knew that a dozen others -were waiting near, to have that very honor bestowed upon them—and among -them it may be said that Colonel Alexis Turnieff was one—and she said: - -“It is my habit to rest for a few moments in the conservatory, after -the fatigue of the reception. Take me there, please.” - -The others drew backward, away from them. A lane was formed through -the throng, and Nick walked through it with Juno clinging to his arm, -the envied of every man in the room. - -No one could surmise why she had signaled him out for this especial -honor. Nick Carter would have found it difficult to have told the -reason himself; perhaps she had none, and it was only a whim and -impulse. - -But nevertheless Nick asked himself if she had in mind the last scene -between them, in the parlor of her suite of rooms in Paris, when she -had believed that she hypnotized him. The detective caught himself -wondering if she had discovered since then the fraud that he had -practiced upon her. - -“She must have discovered it,” he told himself. “She knows that the -orders she gave me when she supposed me to be under the hypnotic spell -were not carried out. She knows that Bare-Faced Jimmy was brought back -to this country, and tried, and convicted. She must know all of that.” - -But these thoughts found no outward expression on the part of the -detective. He walked along beside her, with her arm clinging to his, -and so they passed among the guests, and at last went through a draped -doorway and entered upon a spacious conservatory. - -Others were there, to be sure; but there was one seat which was sacred -to the hostess, and it was an unwritten law of the house that when she -occupied it with another she was not to be disturbed, save by her -expressed wish. - -She guided the detective toward it, seated herself, and motioned Nick -to a place beside her. - -“Now,” she said to him, “we are as isolated here as if we were -behind closed doors with a substantial guard at every outlet. No one -approaches me when I am here, unless I request it, so we can converse -for a time undisturbed.” - -“Isn’t it an unusual honor that you do me, countess?” the detective -asked, replying to her. - -“No; not particularly. I always bring a companion here with me, after -the fatigue of receiving for two hours on that raised dais. Now—why are -you here?” - -“Can you ask that, countess?” - -“I do ask it,” she smiled back at him. - -“I am here because I had the impulse to come. I have not forgotten our -last interview.” - -“No? I had hoped that you might forget it—at least, a part of it.” - -“Perhaps it is the part you would have me forget that I best remember,” -he replied softly. - -“I beg, Mr. Carter, that you will not be like all the others, and -begin by making love to me offhand, as if I expected it as my due. Be -original at least, for I know that you are not in the least in that -condition.” - -“What does not exist, may be made to exist, countess. Love commands -most people, but it seems to me that you have transposed the rule, and -that you command love.” - -She shrugged her white shoulders and laughed softly; she also flushed, -and turned her matchless eyes full upon him for a moment, remaining -silent while she did so. Then she replied with studied deliberation: - -“No; I do not command love. If I could, I would do so now. Do you -regard that as rather a bald statement, my friend? Perhaps it is so; -but nevertheless it is true. Have you ever walked past beautiful -grounds that surrounded a mansion which attracted you, and have you -said to yourself, in passing it, ‘If I could enter and claim it as -mine, I would throw open the gate and enter’?” - -“Perhaps. I have not thought of it in exactly that way.” - -“No? I will draw the simile a bit farther. You see in that place a -haven where you might, if you would, enter and be happy and content -forevermore; but you look a second time and discover that the gate is -locked against you—so you pass on your way. You remember the garden of -flowers, and the mansion only vaguely, yet knowing that you could have -been content had you entered there. Do you understand me?” - -“I am afraid not, countess.” - -“You do, but you will not admit it. Well, I will be more explicit. The -atmosphere around you, Mr. Carter, is the garden of flowers; you are -the mansion; but the gate is locked against me, and I may not enter. -Sometimes, my friend, we pass such scenes too late in life to know -where to search for the key.” - -She was still looking into his eyes. - -She had bent nearer to him. There was a deeper flush upon her cheeks -and brow, and her eyes were glowing with a light which must, in her -early life, have given her the name of Siren. - -She reached out one hand tentatively, and permitted it to fall upon -the back of one of his hands. Her fingers tightened upon it, almost -imperceptibly, yet they tightened, and they clung there. - -The detective felt the thrill of her; realized the magnetism of the -woman; knew the danger he courted; understood that she was openly -making a bid for his admiration—perhaps for something more. - -He found himself returning her gaze; he saw her lips, dimly, as through -a haze, and he knew that they were protected from the view of others -by the screen of leaves that shaded them—and then he saw one of her -white arms steal softly upward toward him, and he knew that in another -instant it would wind itself around his neck. - -Still he did not move. - -He caught the wrist of that white arm just in time, and gently but -firmly he forced it back again upon her lap, although he did not -attempt to remove her other hand, where it was resting on the back of -one of his. - -“You refuse me the key?” she murmured, so low that it was almost a -whisper. “You keep the gate locked against me? You shut me out, leave -me in the cold? Are you wise to do that, my friend?” - -“Who shall tell what wisdom is, Juno?” he replied to her. “When we deem -ourselves the wisest, we are often the most stupid. But you are right, -nevertheless. The gate is locked—only there are two gates instead of -one, and that one behind which you are sheltered is an impregnable one. -I would not dare to open it if I could do so, and I doubt if I could.” - -“You charge me with insincerity, my friend?” - -“Ah, that term is also ambiguous, countess. You are sincere enough so -far as your purpose is concerned; but that purpose is not what you -would have me think it is.” - -She drew her hand away from his. For a time she was silent, and Nick, -watching her, saw that she was thinking deeply. He waited, wondering -what would be the fruit of that thought. - -At last she turned to him, and looked into his eyes again; but now her -expression had changed greatly; there was a depth to it which he had -not seen there before. - -“Will you believe me if I speak to you with entire frankness?” she -asked him. - -“Yes, countess. At least I will try to do so.” - -“I will be, for once at least, entirely sincere.” - -“I believe that you mean what you say.” - -“Then listen. This scene between us outrages all precedent, does it -not?” - -“In a way it does; yes.” - -“I invited you to come here with me to this secluded corner of -my conservatory. I drew you down upon the seat beside me. I have -deliberately made love to you, and I have as deliberately, by my -actions, given you permission to take me into your arms—I, who have the -power to command the love of almost any man in those rooms yonder. That -is true, isn’t it, my friend?” - -“Quite true.” - -“I did not begin, as I would have done if I were playing at love, did -I, by inviting you to make love to me, by using coy glances, and all -the little arts that a woman is master of—I did not do any of that.” - -“No.” - -“Well, I will tell you why I have outraged precedent. It is because, -when I drew that comparison between you and the mansion with its -garden of flowers, I spoke the truth. You have attracted me strangely, -Nick Carter; not as other men might do, but as only you could do, -and have done it. I can see in you the possibilities of supreme -content—and Heaven knows that I long for content, as we all long for -the unattainable. I do not love you—but I could love you. You are -not necessary to me—but you could be so. One does not fall into love -blindly—at least not one like I am, or like you are, possessed of brain -and of judgment. I wonder if you understand me now?” - -“I think so.” - -“You know who I am. I know that you do know; and yet you have kept the -secret. You are aware that I was born to better things; that no woman -in the world is better connected than I am. Yet in my youth I threw -that all away from me and went out into the world, driven there by one -foolish act, and I have been in that world ever since buffeted by it; -maligned by it. In that outer world there is no content anywhere. - -“I am like other women in that I long for content. I am like other -women in that I have a heart for love. I am like other women in that I -am loyal to one thing at least, and that is to myself. I am like other -women after all, and it is only those who do not know my real self who -think me different. Can you understand that?” - -“Yes. I think so.” - -“You have the key to content, if you will give it to me. I hate this -life of mine, in which there is nothing that is true and real. I crave -the real things of life—and, my friend, all the real things of life -depend upon just one quality—love. - -“Wait, my friend, bear with me just a moment longer. Now that I have -begun—and I have never talked frankly to any person before now—I have -the wish to complete what I began to say.” - -“Yes, countess.” - -“When the sinner, moved by the exhortations of the revivalist, goes -down in front and falls upon his knees and is converted, that sinner -becomes a changed being. All the black past is forgotten. Redemption -has been found. Do you understand?” - -“Yes.” - -“Well, I am that sinner. All that has gone before in my checkered life -could be forever forgotten, and my soul might be saved—with that key to -the gate of content which you could hold out to me—if you would.” - -“Countess, I——” - -“And you and I together—ah, what could we not accomplish? You in your -profession, and I helping you, assisting you, working for you and with -you! Think of it! Think of the perfection of it! The beauty of it! -But—the gate is closed and locked.” - -“The gate is closed and locked,” he replied soberly. - -“And yet, Nick Carter, I am a good woman. You doubt it, but it is true. -I have not been good perhaps in the little things of life, but in the -great ones I have been so. No man lives who can point his finger at -me in scorn; no man who is dead might have ever done so. I have never -committed a crime in my life, or abetted one, although I have been -accused of many crimes.” - -“And yet, countess——” - -“Ah!” she interrupted him. “I know what you would say. You would charge -me with things that the chief of police in Paris told you about. You -would say that I had lured men to their death. It is not true. You -would say that men have killed themselves because of me. It is not true -in so far as it was a studied fault of mine, or that I led them to it, -or was willfully responsible for it. - -“My life has been a strange one, my friend. One may cleave closely to -the awful precipices, and yet avoid them. That is true, is it not?” - -“Yes; it is quite true.” - -“Nicholas Carter, I would at least have you judge me fairly—and the day -will come when you will do so.” - -She stopped suddenly, laughed in a low tone, and half turned away. - -“And now,” she said, with an entire change of tone, “let us return to -present things and to the life we really live, not the one which we -would like to live. The life we do live is false, hollow, filled with -deceits, subterfuges, lies! The life I long to live in is true, sound, -upright, filled with fairness and frankness and honesty. Now again—why -are you here to-night?” - -“I came here to this house, countess, expressly to see you and to talk -with you.” - -“Then you have accomplished your desire. Why are you in Washington?” - -“I am here in pursuit of my profession.” - -“Ah; that is frankness, at least—and we were not to be frank with each -other any more, were we?” - -“You must follow your own bent in that particular, countess, and permit -me to follow mine.” - -She arose from the seat she had been occupying, and he rose also and -stood near her. - -“I will return frankness with frankness—for this once,” she said, with -one of her inscrutable smiles. “I know why you are here. I will tell -you enough to assure you that I do know it; enough to assure you that -I am aware of your own shrewdness, and therefore am perfectly assured -of what you suspect me.” - -“Well?” - -“You came to Washington at the invitation of the ambassador for Russia. -That invitation was taken to you in person by colonel, the Prince -Alexis Turnieff—who believes that I murdered his father, or at least -was the cause of his death. You have become convinced that I am in -the service of a country which, at this time, believes it has reason -to keep a sharp watch upon the things that Russia is doing, or is -attempting to do, and you have taken it upon yourself to watch me. -Isn’t that true?” - -“Since you believe it, countess, it seems a waste of words to say that -it is, or that it is not true. Have it so, if you wish.” - -“Ah; you will not be quite frank with me.” - -“Perhaps it is best, countess, that we meet on the common ground of -distrust.” - -She started away from him. The remark stung her, and he could see that -it had done so, although he had not intended to hurt her by what he -said. - -For a moment she stared at him, hard-eyed, suddenly cold, and he caught -a glimpse of the other side of this woman’s character. - -“We meet on the common ground of distrust,” she repeated after him. “So -be it. I was not minded to have it so; but so be it. The common ground -of distrust, say you! So be it. Mr. Carter, I must become willfully -guilty of a grave breach of courtesy. I must tell you to your face that -your presence here in my home is not congenial. I must ask you to leave -it. I must inform you that your presence will not be tolerated here -again.” - -The detective stared at her in amazement. - -He had not expected this; had not anticipated anything of the kind. -Truly hers was a many-sided character. - -While he stared, she smiled ironically upon him. Then she raised her -two hands and clapped them together loudly. - -Instantly in response to the signal, many who were in the conservatory -came toward them, and two servants hastened forward also, as if the -clapping of her hands were a well-known signal to them. - -Juno did not speak again until many of her guests and the servants were -quite near. - -Then she turned and spoke again, directly to the detective. - -“Mr. Carter,” she said, and there was no mistaking tone and air of -offense which she managed to introduce into her voice and manner, “my -servants will show you the way out. I believe that is all.” - -With a gesture that was worthy of an offended queen, she turned away -from him, while the guests who had been observers of the scene stood -and stared. One of the two servants moved forward. - -“This way if you please, sir,” he said. He had received his orders and -he meant to execute them. - -Alexis Turnieff strode forward to the centre of the group. His face was -white and drawn with concentrated passion. - -“One moment——” he began; but by a gesture Juno stopped him. - -“Not another word, Alexis,” she said sharply. “Your arm, if you -please.” And then: “My servants will show this man the way out. Come.” - - - - - CHAPTER XXVIII. - - A FIGHT IN THE STREET. - - -Nick Carter stopped at the corner just below the house to consider what -had happened. - -Unceremoniously he had been ejected from the home of the countess. -Undeniably she had defied him, and she had managed to do it in the -presence of many others among her guests. There was no doubt whatever -that the affair would be the talk of the town by another day, and it -would be surprising indeed if the whole thing were not a column long, -or more in the morning papers. - -The detective had been placed in many trying positions during the -course of his experience, but never had he met with one which had been -quite so original as this one. - -Why had she done it, he asked himself as he stood there in thought, at -the corner. - -Was it because when she found she could not make a puppet of him she -had resorted to the other extremity? - -Had she really intended to make a puppet of him, or had she been -sincere during those moments in the conservatory? - -Who could tell? She had appeared sincere enough; but who could tell? - -What was the detective to do now? It was out of the question that he -should return to her house in any guise whatever. Juno read a part of -his character well, in realizing that, driven thus from her house, Nick -Carter would not return to it under any circumstances—unless, indeed, -it were to make an arrest. - -But it went without saying that he could not go there again as a guest, -even in disguise. A detective has to do many things which are not -congenial, but he does not have to do ungentlemanly or dishonorable -things. This woman had seemed to know that in forcing him out of her -house in the manner she had done, she had rid herself of his presence -there for good. - -And to arrest her was out of the question. - -That could not be done under any circumstances, even if he could -provide himself with proof positive that she had gone in person to the -house of the ambassador, had entered it with burglarious intent, and -had stolen the tin cylinder with its contents. - -That would constitute a theft, of course; and the breaking and entering -would be burglary under the law; but to accuse her, arrest her, or -attempt to prosecute her for it, would be to defeat the ends at which -his effort was aimed. - -It would be also to nullify and destroy every effect of the -ambassador’s labors for ten years. - -Another man in Nick Carter’s place in that conservatory might have -permitted Juno to twine her arms around his neck, and might have seized -her in his arms and embraced her—might have made the most of that -opportunity which she offered, and have traded upon that chance to -accomplish what he wished to do. - -Not so Nick Carter. - -Another man might have gone far in succumbing to her, and might well -have considered the case upon which he was engaged well lost—and all -the world of self-respect with it—to have won Juno’s love. - -Not so Nick Carter. - -Without egotism, he believed that she had been sincere to a certain -extent in outlining her longing for content, and in her belief that -with such a man as he she might find it; nor could he deny to himself -that Juno possessed a powerful attraction for him. - -But that terrible _if_. - -If Juno had been different; if circumstances had not been just what -they were; if the world had wagged differently. - -“Bosh!” he ejaculated aloud, and started to move on. Instantly he was -conscious that a heavy hand fell upon his shoulder, and he heard a -voice exclaim: - -“Wait a moment, sir!” - -The detective turned about. Before him, tall and straight with his -military manner, stood Alexis Turnieff. - -“Ah, colonel——” he began; but the Russian stepped forward nearer to the -detective. - -He uttered an epithet. His arm swung outward and around, and if it had -been permitted to continue upon its course, the open palm of Turnieff’s -right hand must have been brought into sharp contact with Nick Carter’s -cheek. - -The detective saw the blow coming and met it halfway. - -He caught the swinging wrist, twisted it, wheeled around and drew it -down sharply across his shoulder, bent forward, exerted his strength, -jerked—and sent Turnieff flying over his head and over the low iron -fence near where they stood, so that the Russian landed on the soft -green sod beyond it. - -It was a jujutsu trick that the detective made use of, and although it -badly jarred the recipient of it, the man was not injured. - -Turnieff leaped to his feet again with a cry of rage, and with a curse -on his lips rushed forward toward the fence which separated them. - -But the fence stopped him, and so did Nick Carter, for he reached out -one hand and seized the Russian by the collar and held him so, pulling -him tightly up against the iron pickets in such a way that he could not -escape. - -And he held him there. - -“Don’t be an ass, Turnieff!” he said. “I am in the humor just now to -box somebody’s ears, and yours would serve as well as another’s. What -is the matter with you, anyhow? Why did you attack me?” - -“Release me if you are not a coward!” stormed Turnieff. - -“I’m not a coward; neither will I release you. Big as you are, -Turnieff, you are only a child in my grasp. You must realize that now. -Why did you attack me?” - -“You insulted the countess, you——” - -“There, there, now! Colonel Turnieff, I have never insulted a woman in -my life, much less one who was my hostess. Did she say that I insulted -her? Did she tell you that?” - -“No; but her actions——” - -“Ah! Her actions. I see. You have no other reason for attacking me than -what you saw in the conservatory?” - -“No; but that was sufficient, heaven knows.” - -“My dear fellow, you have been misled. The countess was offended, I’ll -admit; but it was because I would not do things which no man of honor -could do; not because I affronted her in any manner, for I did not. Do -you believe me?” - -“No.” - -“Turnieff, if I did not feel a certain degree of pity for you, I would -chuck you back on the grass and leave you. As it is, I am sorry for -you. You have been endeavoring to hate this woman whom you believe -killed your father, or caused his death, and instead you are in love -with her. You have gone into her presence time after time, deceiving -yourself into the idea that you were seeking vengeance, when in reality -you were only a moth playing around a flame which, unless you break -away, will consume you utterly. Believe me, it is true.” - -“Release me, I say! Let me go.” - -“What will you do if I let you go?” - -“I will strike you in the face to discover if there is any fight in -you.” - -“Listen to me a moment, colonel, and then I will let you go. Do you -realize that I am now in the service of your country, and am acting -under the direct commands of your ambassador? Do you understand that -you are jeopardizing your whole career at this moment? If I should -report to the ambassador what you have done, you would be sent back to -St. Petersburg at once. For what are you so conducting yourself?” - -The man struggled fiercely, but Nick Carter held him; and the detective -saw that he was coming to his senses, too. - -“I shall release you now, Turnieff,” he said, and suited the action to -the word. “There is a gate yonder; pass through it. We will walk down -the avenue together while we talk. I only hope for your own sake that -no person has seen this affair.” - -But Turnieff did not reply. Neither did he follow the advice of the -detective and go to the gate. He stood quite still, staring at Nick, -evidently impressed by what had been said to him, but too stubborn to -do as was suggested. - -And Nick, half disgusted by all of the events of the night, turned away. - -“I shall say nothing of this affair to the ambassador,” he said. “From -me, he will be made no wiser concerning what has occurred between you -and me to-night, and I advise you to be silent on the subject, also. -In the morning when your temper has cooled, we will discuss it. Good -night.” - -He moved on down the thoroughfare, which happened to be Connecticut -Avenue. - -Turnieff stung to madness by the coolness, not unmixed with contempt of -the detective, leaped the pickets of the iron fence and rushed after -him. - -“You will fight. I will make you fight,” he exclaimed. “If you won’t -meet me as gentlemen should meet, then have it this way,” and he struck -wildly at the detective again. - -Nick turned in time to ward off the blow, but not soon enough to -prevent the savage rush of the Russian having its effect. - -For Turnieff was no weakling, although Nick Carter was greatly the -stronger of the two. The Russian clinched, winding his long arms around -the detective’s body with such tenacity that it was all that Nick could -do to escape the consequences of it. - -They struggled for a moment there in the middle of the sidewalk; but -at the end of that moment Nick threw Turnieff away from him with such -force that the man staggered backward, and finally fell to his knees on -the cement flagging. - -As he did so three men rushed forward out of the darkness, coming -apparently from nowhere, for Nick had not suspected their nearness. - -They reached the fallen man ere he could get upon his feet and they -seized upon him, evidently to assist him—that was how Nick regarded -their intentions. - -As they grasped Turnieff, as if to assist him to his feet, the Russian -uttered a sharp cry; he collapsed in their hands; something fell to the -pavement with a clatter; and then one of the three men cried out in -accents of horror: - -“Good heaven, the fellow has stabbed him! The man has been stabbed!” - -They dropped their burden and rushed at Nick. As if by magic, two -more men appeared, and they also rushed forward. They surrounded the -detective—and he, taken entirely unawares, startled by the accusation -that had been made, was seized by them before he realized what had -happened. - -Then, as the five men lifted their voices in outcries of “Murder!” -“Help!” “Police!” and kindred words, Nick Carter’s wit told him what -must be the explanation of the scene. He realized that he would be a -helpless member of the community indeed if he should be caught there in -such a predicament with these five witnesses against him. - -Instantly he laid about him with his arms and fists. He called into -play every ounce of strength that he possessed. He scattered those five -men about him as if they were so many straws. He piled them into a heap -beside the fallen Turnieff—and then he permitted discretion to control -him, and, hearing answering shouts of men approaching, he tore himself -loose finally and fled. - -Under the circumstances, as he now understood them, it was the only -thing to do. - - - - - CHAPTER XXIX. - - MURDER. - - -All Washington was excited the following morning, anent the murder of -Colonel Alexis Turnieff. - -There were extras of the morning papers on the streets, in which the -full particulars were given, and summed up into one paragraph, an -epitome of the accounts of the crime was about like this: - -Turnieff had been one of the guests at the reception given last night -by Countess Narnine, at her home in K Street. There had been another -guest there who had arrived and departed within less than an hour. -That guest had been seen by many persons, but was not personally -known to any of them save the countess herself. That he passed under -the name of Carter, was admitted, but no first name was given, and -the countess asserted that she did not remember it. It was said that -the man called Carter had in some way given offense to the countess, -although she utterly refused to discuss that point with any person. It -was sufficient, however, that she had asked him to leave her house, and -a servant had shown the man to the door. - -Colonel Alexis Turnieff, supposed to have been a witness to the -affront offered the countess and avowedly in love with her, although -hopelessly so, had followed the stranger from the house. The two had -met in the street outside; there had been words and a hand-to-hand -struggle. At the end of it, Turnieff had fallen to the pavement, -stabbed to the heart, and he had never spoken again. - -Three men—their names were given—passing along the avenue at the -opposite side had seen the beginning and the end of the struggle. -At first they had not thought to interfere, but finally had rushed -forward, just at the moment when Turnieff had fallen, stabbed to death -by the man with whom he had been fighting. - -Even then the three men had not suspected what had happened. They -supposed that Turnieff had merely been knocked down and had rushed -to his assistance; but on attempting to lift him to his feet, they -discovered that he had received his death wound. - -They had called for help. Two other men, unknown to them till then, -had rushed to their assistance, and the five together had endeavored -to hold the murderer. But the strength of the man had proven to be -prodigious. He had torn himself away from them. He had piled them into -a heap upon the pavement. He had made his escape. - -Then other men came to the rescue, among them two policemen. They had -pursued the murderer; but that terrible man had made good his escape -and disappeared. - -The city was being scoured for him. Every nook and corner of it was -being searched. A fairly good description of him had been obtained, -and the chief of police gave it as his opinion that the fellow would -quickly be apprehended. - -In the meantime the “murderer”—that terrible fellow who had thrown -five men into an ignominious heap on the pavement _had_ made good his -escape, although for a time it seemed that it might be impossible for -him to do so. - -Nick Carter had never been in quite such a predicament as that one, -and he realized on the instant that he decided to run for it, that his -reputation would not save him. His life, or at least his liberty, would -be sworn away by those five hired assassins who had taken advantage of -the opportunity offered to rid the principals who hired them, of a man -who had become obnoxious. - -For so Nick Carter read the truth of the incident. - -Doubtless the life of Turnieff had already been sworn away by the spies -of that unnamed country, which, for the purpose of this story, had been -called Siam, but which, of course, was not Siam. - -Doubtless it had already been decreed that Turnieff should die that -night, after he came away from the reception at the home of the -countess. More than likely the five men who appeared so opportunely -for their own purposes upon the scene would have murdered the Russian -anyway, before he reached his own home. In the quarrel with Nick Carter -they had seen an opportunity not only to accomplish what they had been -ordered to do, but to cast the blame of it upon another. - -Nick regarded it merely as a coincidence that that other should have -been himself. He did not associate the murder with that other incident -of the night, at the house of the countess. He did not connect her with -it, although there were moments when he thought of doing so. - -The thing that the crime did tell the detective was this: That Turnieff -had been in some way instrumental in the theft of the tin cylinder with -its contents, from the house of the ambassador, and that his usefulness -was over. Considering him a weakling who might at any time betray them, -he had been sacrificed. - -And yet—the matter was most opportune. - -There was always the possibility that the countess had seen in -Turnieff’s anger at Nick Carter for the supposed affront an opportunity -of ridding herself of two dangerous men—Turnieff and Nick Carter. - -But Nick knew that even if he could ultimately establish his own -innocence, there was sure to be much inconvenience and trouble -connected with it. He realized when he saw through the thing that -the best way for him to do was to get out of sight, and to keep out -of sight until he could clear up the mystery and apprehend the real -murderers. - -That was why he ran away. - -That was why, after he had made good his escape, he directed his steps -straight for the embassy and roused the ambassador from his slumbers. - -For the detective had been provided with a means of entering that house -at any hour of the day or night without calling upon the servants to -admit him. When he entered it that night, he took himself straight -to the room where the big teester bed was located, and where the -ambassador slept. - -Nobody saw the detective enter the house; nobody but the ambassador was -aware of his presence there; and Nick’s first words to the Russian were -a shock to him. He said: - -“Turnieff has been sacrificed, prince. I do not know that he is dead, -but I fear that he is.” - -“My God!” cried the ambassador. - -And then with deliberation Nick recounted all that occurred at the -house of the countess, the quarrel in the street that followed it—and -the crime. - -“You had the forethought to escape,” said the ambassador, when he was -able to speak after he had heard the story. “Heavens, Mr. Carter, think -of the fix you would be in if you had been captured.” - -The detective smiled, though sadly. - -“I have thought of it,” he said. “I thought of it then, and I had -to think very quickly, too. On the whole, I believe that those men -were not sorry to have me get away from them, since it saved them the -necessity of swearing away the life of an innocent man; although I have -very little idea that they would have hesitated at that.” - -“Hesitated? Not at all. Poor Turnieff! First the father; now the son. -It is awful! But, Mr. Carter, I see men fall about me all the time. The -life of a man is not considered where the schemes of a government are -at stake. What a terrible woman!” - -“Eh? Why do you say that, prince?” - -“Because there can be no doubt, not the slightest, that she set those -men upon you.” - -The detective shook his head in a positive negative. - -“No,” he said, “I do not think so.” - -“You do not? Why not?” - -“For several reasons, the chief one being because it would have been -bad policy on her part. Then there are minor reasons. For example, -there was not time for her to arrange it. She could not know that I -would stop on the corner near her house, puzzled by the experiences of -the night, and that Turnieff would overtake me there. For if I had not -stopped there for five minutes or more, he would not have found me and -there would have been no quarrel.” - -“And he would still be among the living.” - -“No; I do not think so.” - -“You do not? Why?” - -“Prince, hasn’t it occurred to you that in order that this affair could -happen just as it did, those men must have been there on the watch?” - -“Yes. But——” - -“Wait. If they were there on the watch, they saw me leave the house, -did they not?” - -“Supposedly so.” - -“Well, they permitted me to go my way unmolested. If they had received -instructions concerning me, they would hardly have done that. No, -they were watching and waiting for Turnieff, intending that he should -die—intending to kill him. I had no place in that plot. It was -hatched—it must have been—without considering me, and only because -they deemed it expedient to get him out of the way. He would have been -killed just the same—only it would have been a mysterious crime, and no -person would have been directly charged with it.” - -“I see what you mean.” - -“If I had not stopped at that corner, where I remained certainly five -minutes if not longer before Turnieff overtook me, he would not have -found me at all. I should have gone around the next corner.” - -“Perhaps you are right; and yet——” - -“Well?” - -“It does look to me like the work of that woman’s craft.” - -“It looks so on the face of it; yes. But when one stops to analyze it, -it does not. She could not have arranged it in the time allowed, even -if it had occurred to her—and honestly, I do not think that she knew of -the attack that was to be made on Turnieff. It was necessary that she -should have known of that in order to have involved me in it.” - -“You are defending her, Carter.” - -“No; I am merely being just to her.” - -“But poor Turnieff is dead, and he has been killed by the men with whom -she is working.” - -“We surmise that; but we do not know it. Even if it is so, it does not -follow that she is in any way accountable for his murder, or that she -knew that it was decreed.” - -“I think it does. Anyhow I shall act on that belief.” - -“As you please, prince.” - -“But, Carter, what are you to do now?” - -“I am to work this case out to the end, I believe; and incidentally, I -shall seek and find the men who murdered Turnieff, and who would have -charged me with the crime.” - -“Good. I believe you will do it. But how? You are a suspected man, -Carter. You cannot go abroad in the streets now as you would have done. -The papers will be filled with talk about you.” - -“I know it. I am anxious to see them. But I shall go about in the -streets just the same, prince. I have not studied the art of disguising -myself for nothing. Really, the case has just begun.” - - - - - CHAPTER XXX. - - BARE-FACED JIMMY’S DOUBLE. - - -Nick Carter, after he escaped from his pursuers that night, and could -take it more easily for the remainder of the distance he wished to go, -had thought deeply. Even before he had the interview which followed -with the ambassador, he had determined upon his future course of action. - -Since Turnieff had been murdered, evidently in cold blood, and merely -to get rid of him, the detective was convinced that the Russian colonel -had been the real instrument in the theft of the tin cylinder and its -contents. - -Whether Juno had engineered and directed the affair or not was a mere -incident in the matter. There was no longer any doubt in the mind of -Nick Carter that Turnieff had been the really guilty one. - -And that Turnieff had had it in his power to betray those whom he -had served in performing the act—and might have done so, if driven -to it—was sufficient cause for his untimely taking off, from the -standpoint of those who had ordered his assassination. - -Again Turnieff was really the only person who could have had access to -the sleeping room of the ambassador, and who could have gone through -the corridors of the house toward it, or have returned through them -from it, without exciting suspicion. After all, the ambassador had been -wiser than he realized in directing the detective to study the man -thoroughly and well. - -But Juno, “The Leopard,” where was she in the matter? - -During that conversation with Nick in the conservatory, she had said -enough to make it plain to him that she was really in the service of -that country which they had agreed to call Siam. - -Practically she had admitted as much when she charged him with being in -the employ of Russia. - -Nevertheless, Nick could not bring himself to the belief that she had -taken any part in the assassination of Turnieff, actively or passively, -or that she had knowledge of the intention to kill him. - -He believed that in that respect she had been maligned. He believed -the statements she had made in regard to herself at the time of that -conservatory conversation, and he looked upon her now as not half so -bad as she had been painted, or as she had permitted others to believe -her. - -Her conduct toward him when she drove him away from her home left no -sting after it, for, after all, that was part of the game, and it -was up to her to take all the tricks she could take. Aside from the -assassination, Nick had a notion that the country Juno was serving had -more of right on its side than Russia did. - -Nevertheless, Nick had pledged himself to recover those secret -documents for the ambassador, and he meant to do so; and now that -Turnieff had been killed, he had promised himself that the assassins -should be caught. - -“Whether Juno is the person sought in this case or not, she is the real -key to the situation,” he told himself; and believing that, he made -arrangements for the next move. - -He had determined now to move quickly. The murder of Turnieff should -not go unpunished, nor would he consent that he should himself be -thought guilty of such a crime if it could be avoided. - -By the time he had finished his talk with the ambassador, morning -had come; and the ambassador, at the detective’s request, arose much -earlier than usual, and went forth to make some purchases for Nick, -since it was not safe at that time to trust another with the errand. - -The things he wanted were the necessities for the disguise he had -determined to wear when night should fall again, and in the meantime he -intended to keep very quiet indeed within the house of the ambassador. - -When the prince returned with the articles needed, he brought with him -several of the morning papers, and Nick learned from their contents the -exact status of affairs at that time. After he had discussed the matter -to some further extent with the ambassador, he shut himself in a room -and began to make the transformation in his appearance which now seemed -so necessary. - -“Once there was a man who called himself Bare-Faced Jimmy,” he said to -himself with a smile as he regarded his own reflection in the mirror of -the room, “and now I shall proceed to bring that man—although he is in -Sing Sing prison at the present moment—into this room for my especial -benefit.” - -Much had been said about the ability of Nick Carter in the way of -disguises. It was an art that his father had taught him, and which he -had studied in all its branches ever since then, at every time and -place where opportunity offered. One of the things that Nick Carter -could do, and do well, was to make himself like another person, -provided that stature and physical development were approximately the -same. - -Nick’s first occupation in arranging the present disguise was to make a -careful drawing of Jimmy, and this, when he began to manufacture the -actual disguise, he pinned against the wall beside the mirror. - -Midnight found the detective in the vicinity of the home of Juno, -Countess Narnine. He studied the dwelling for a time, and then walked -away from it, satisfied that he would have no difficulty in carrying -his design into execution. - -He satisfied himself on another point also, and that was that Juno was -not only at home, but that she had denied herself to all callers; for -he saw several persons approach the door of her home, only to be turned -away again by the servants. - -“I shouldn’t wonder if the murder of Turnieff and the hue and cry after -me, as a consequence of the crime, has got on her nerves,” he told -himself. - -At two in the morning he was back again near the house. This time, -watching for his opportunity, he sprang over the fence, for the -house was a detached one, crept through the shrubbery, and presently -approached a side door which he had selected for the beginning of his -operations. - -He did not know that, during his absence between midnight and two -o’clock, three men had called there, had been admitted, and were even -at that moment in consultation with Juno in the library of her home. - -Perhaps, if he had known it, it would only have rendered him the more -eager to proceed with the undertaking in hand; at all events, he did -go ahead with it. - -It consisted, first, in using his picklock upon that side door; a small -instrument of his own invention of which he often had occasion to make -use. - -A chain bolt inside the door was quickly snipped through by nippers he -had brought with him for that purpose, and he stood inside the home of -Juno shortly after two o’clock in the morning. - -His pocket flashlight showed him the way around. He pressed the button -of it long enough to determine his course, and went ahead slowly and -cautiously, and so he arrived in the main hallway at the front of the -house, from which point he knew his way fairly well. - -There was more light burning in the hall than he had expected to find -there, and he decided that Juno might not have retired as yet. As he -bent his head to listen he could plainly hear the murmur of voices from -some place not far away, which he rightly judged to be the library. - -Nick knew the location of the library from his visit to the house the -preceding night. He knew that it communicated with one of the parlors -of the house which was directly in front of it, and so he passed -through the hall to the parlor door and entered that room. - -At once the voices became more distinct, though as yet he could not -determine words of the conversation. He crept forward and drew the -heavy curtain a trifle aside from the doorway that connected the two -rooms. - -As he did so, he started back so suddenly that he almost betrayed -himself, for Juno at that moment, expressing something about the -closeness of the room, left her chair, came directly toward him, and -with a quick motion pulled the curtain all the way back. - -It was a miracle that she did not discover him, but she did not, -and Nick understood the reason why. It was because she was greatly -exercised with the matter she had in hand at the moment. - -She wheeled about where she stood, facing the others in the room, who -were seated at a table whereon were bottles, glasses, and cigars. There -were three men there, and Juno faced them from the curtained doorway, -standing with one of her hands still grasping the curtain. She was -angry. Nick could see that at once. - -“There is absolutely no use in discussing the matter further,” she -told them in a tone which was emphatic. “I will not countenance what -has happened, and I will have nothing more to do with you or with your -crowd of assassins. You may go your ways. That is final. I am sorry -that I ever came here at all.” - -“Beware, my purring leopard,” said one of the men in reply, with a -short and not pleasant laugh. “You may find that you call us assassins -to some purpose.” - -“You threaten me?” she demanded, her lips curling with contempt. - -“Yes, countess, I threaten you.” - -“You would murder me, doubtless, as you murdered poor Turnieff.” - -“Very likely,” replied the man coolly. “Very certainly, if you defy us.” - -“Bah! As if I feared you! You—was it you who struck the blow, Delorme? -Was it you who stabbed Turnieff to death? You would stab me also; eh?” - -“Yes. It was I. His death was necessary, and if it should happen that -you were in the way, my fair one, you could die quite as easily.” - -She laughed at him deliberately, mockingly. She bent forward toward -him, still holding her grasp upon the curtain. - -“You are a brute and a coward, Maurice Delorme!” she exclaimed. -“But—have you forgotten the tin cylinder with its contents? What would -you do without that? Offer to do me the least harm, and I will return -it to the Russian ambassador.” - -“By heaven, you shall give it up now!” cried Delorme, leaping to his -feet and starting toward her; but he had not taken the second step -in that direction when Juno was seized from behind, pulled backward -through the open doorway and Maurice Delorme found himself facing a man -instead of a woman. The man was coolly pointing a pistol at his heart -and commanding him to throw up his hands or take the consequences. - -Nick Carter had not anticipated any such development as this, when he -determined to enter the house of the Countess Narnine as a burglar -would. He had intended, then, merely to personate Jimmy, to surprise -Juno, and if possible to force a confession of some sort from her. - -But here was a gathering of the very men he wanted to find, at her -house. And here she was resenting what they had done in murdering the -Russian officer; defying them to their faces, and admitting in his -hearing that she could place her hand upon the papers he was seeking. -And more, here was the confessed murderer of Turnieff, with two of his -accomplices. - -Nor would Nick have interrupted the scene just when he did had he not -realized the necessity of immediate action. - -He had seen enough to know that Delorme was ugly, and to understand -that the man was quite capable of killing Juno then and there. - -Indeed, Delorme afterward confessed that the countess would not have -lived a moment longer had Nick Carter not appeared when he did. - -Nick saw the flame in the man’s eyes; he saw the temper the fellow was -in. The detective realized that he must act at once, and so he snatched -Juno out of danger, whipped out his own weapons and took her place, -getting the “drop” on all of the three men at once. - -And they did not know him. - -Had he been Nick Carter in proper person, they would have done so; but -in his character of Bare-Faced Jimmy, he was a stranger to them. - -More than that, when he seized Juno, dragged her back away from -Delorme, and took her place, they heard her cry out in evident -consternation: - -“_Jimmy!_” - -They were frightened. - -They did not dare to move, and doubtless they supposed that it would be -possible to temporize. - -In obedience to the stern command that the detective uttered, they -raised their hands high above their heads and held them there, staring. -The two revolvers he held, one in either hand, with the muzzles -wavering from one to another and keeping each of them constantly -covered, confirmed a sufficiently convincing argument. - -“Juno?” said Nick without turning his head, and for the moment -forgetting to imitate the voice of James Duryea. - -She stared for a moment without replying. Then she moved forward until -she stood near him, still staring. - -“Yes?” she replied. And then as if impelled by a second thought she -added: “What is it, Jimmy?” - -Nick chuckled. He knew from the manner of her reply that he had already -betrayed himself, but that she preferred to accept the deception as -fact. Then he spoke calmly. - -“I want you to know,” he said, still keeping the pistols wavering so -that they covered all three of the men, “that I believe all that you -said to me in that last interview we had. And now will you help me to -do something? Will you, Juno?” - -“Yes. I will help. You want me to disarm those men?” - -“Yes. Tell them that you know me; that if they make the slightest move -I’ll drop every one of them with a bullet; not dead, you understand; -just maimed. I’ll shoot one knee out from under each one of them. -Now go ahead, Juno. Be careful there, mister man, you who are called -Maurice Delorme. - -“You look ugly and you would commit murder if you had an opportunity; -but you won’t get one. Did you ever happen to hear of Bare-Faced Jimmy, -the gentleman burglar? Well, that’s me. I came here just in time, -didn’t I? I happened to see you—all three of you—when you killed that -Russian colonel last night, so you didn’t have to make that confession -we just heard. Have you got ’em all, Juno?” - -“Yes.” - -“Every one of them? Are you sure that you have not overlooked a knife -or a pistol, or a bottle of acid, or poison?” - -“Quite sure,” she smiled back at him. - -“Good! Now, my festive assassins, turn around. Your backs are more -agreeable than your faces. That’s right. Juno, take one of these -pistols; I’ll keep the other. Now, you three cutthroats, stand still. -If you move it means a broken knee for each of you. Juno, I regret the -necessity for taking down some of these pictures on the walls, but I -need the wire.” - -Five minutes after that, bound hand and foot with wire picture cord, -the three men were lying on their back on the floor of the library. -Then, and not till then, Juno stepped forward demurely and gave the -pistol back to Nick Carter. - -“We will leave those fellows where they are for the present, Juno,” the -detective said. “They can’t get away. That wire cord is too strong for -them, and I am too good an expert in its use. Have you another room to -which you can take me, countess?” - -“Yes,” she replied. “Come with me.” - -He followed her and she led him through the hall and up the broad -stairway to the parlor of her own private suite. There she turned about -and faced him. - -“Why did you make yourself so like Jimmy?” she demanded. It was the -last thing he expected her to say. - -“Because I realized the necessity of another interview with you, and -because I thought that for a few moments at least I could deceive you.” - -“You might have done so indeed, for a moment; but not for long. But why -did you wish to do it?” - -“Juno, every wish that I had was built upon the desire to recover -possession of the tin cylinder, which I was sure you held in your -possession. To-night I have heard you admit that you have it. I want -it, Juno.” - -“Suppose I should refuse it?” - -“In that case I would keep on searching till I discovered it; that is -all.” - -She came a step nearer to him. - -“You saved my life to-night, Nick Carter. Do you realize that? That man -would have killed me. You appeared on the scene just in time.” - -“That is why I appeared,” he replied. - -“I owe you something for that, my friend. But first of all, I owe you -an apology—for what I said and did when you were here at my reception. -Will you forgive me?” - -“Oh, that is all in the game, Juno. I think I admired you when you did -it. It was a very plucky thing to do.” - -“No. That is a mistake. It was not a plucky thing to do; it was a -despicable thing for me to do. Will you forgive it? Say yes, if you -mean it.” - -“Yes. Wholly. Entirely. And now——” - -“Before we refer to the tin cylinder and the papers it contains, will -you do me a favor, please?” she interrupted him. - -“I think so. What is it?” - -“That door opens into a lavatory. Go in there and remove the disguise. -Let me talk to you as Nick Carter; not as what you appear to be.” - -Without a word he turned away. Five minutes later he was back again, -and stood before her with not a trace of the disguise left upon him. He -noticed that she was holding in one of her hands the tin cylinder about -which so much had been done, and which had been the cause of so many -things happening. - -With only a few words of comment, she placed it in his hands. - -“Take it,” she said. “I hate it and all that is connected with it. -Somehow I feel as if I were responsible for the death of poor -Turnieff, although I swear to you——” - -“You need not, Juno. I am already convinced of that much.” - -“But I had nothing to do with the theft of it. I did not even ask -him to get it for me or if it was in his power to get it. Once I did -mention those papers to him, and say that if I could get possession of -them my fortune would be made. Then one day he brought them to me—and -I hated him for it; hated him for the weakling he was. I did not come -here in the service of that country that wanted the papers. It was only -after I arrived here that I was induced to take part in their affairs; -but I swear to you that I have never done one single thing for them, or -abetted one of their acts, which could reflect upon me in the slightest -degree. Oh, please believe me, Nick Carter.” - -“I do believe you, Juno.” - -“One more thing and I have done. I want to swear to you again that I -had nothing to do with the death of Turnieff’s father. Maurice Delorme -did that, too, I believe, although I do not know. The money and the -jewels that were stolen from the old prince I never saw out of his -possession, although I think that Delorme could explain about that part -of it, too. And now, now——” - -She turned her back to him for a moment, and waited. After a little -she turned about again, and raising her head proudly, asked: - -“What are you going to do with me?” - -“I am going to give you a bit of advice, Juno; that is all. It is that -you give up the life of an international spy, and of a diplomatic -agent, and live the life that will make you happy. That is all.” - - * * * * * - -After a time she asked him: - -“What will you do with those men downstairs, Nick Carter?” - -“I have been thinking about that,” he replied to her. “It would not do -for them to be taken to jail from your home. I will telephone for the -ambassador from here. He will send a closed carriage. We will bundle -these men into it—and, unless I greatly mistake, he will know how to -handle the situation.” - -And the ambassador did know. - -Just how it was done nobody ever discovered, but the men made a full -confession, and ultimately they suffered the extreme penalty of the law -in such cases. - -Another thing: Bare-Faced Jimmy Duryea, with the many aliases, died -that same night in the prison where he was confined. - - - THE END. - -No. 1288 of the NEW MAGNET LIBRARY will be entitled “A Play for -Millions.” This story by Nicholas Carter holds many thrills and -surprises for the reader. - - - - - Everybody Reads - - The Street & Smith Novel - - -High-brow public opinion has changed radically during the past few -years, so far as placing a proper valuation on paper-covered reading -matter is concerned. - -In the old days, anything between paper covers was a dime novel and, -therefore, to be avoided as cheap and contaminating. - -Since men like Frank O’Brien have pointed out to the world the fact -that some of the best literature in the English language first appeared -between paper covers, such books are welcomed in the best of families. - -The STREET & SMITH NOVELS are clean, interesting, and up-to-date. -There are hundreds of different titles, and we invite your careful -consideration of them from a standpoint of value and of literary -excellence. - - - Street & Smith Publications - INCORPORATED - - 79 Seventh Avenue New York, N.Y. - - Printed in the U.S.A. - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A STOLEN NAME *** - -***** This file should be named 64147-0.txt or 64147-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - https://www.gutenberg.org/6/4/1/4/64147/ - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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