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A STOLEN NAME
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. 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. Bare-Faced Jimmy, so-called gentleman crook, expert cracksman, and a master criminal
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CHAPTER I. THE BEGINNING OF A PLOT.
CHAPTER I. THE BEGINNING OF A PLOT.
“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
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CHAPTER II. BACK FROM THE DEAD.
CHAPTER II. BACK FROM THE DEAD.
“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 inc
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CHAPTER III. JIMMY DURYEA’S DARING.
CHAPTER III. JIMMY DURYEA’S DARING.
“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 l
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CHAPTER IV. THROWING THE GAUNTLET.
CHAPTER IV. THROWING THE GAUNTLET.
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. Pres
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CHAPTER V. THE GHOST OF JIMMY.
CHAPTER V. THE GHOST OF JIMMY.
“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
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CHAPTER VI. NICK MEETS DEFIANCE.
CHAPTER VI. NICK MEETS DEFIANCE.
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
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CHAPTER VII. WHEN A MAN IS DESPERATE.
CHAPTER VII. WHEN A MAN IS DESPERATE.
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.
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CHAPTER VIII. PLOTTING AGAINST A PLOTTER.
CHAPTER VIII. PLOTTING AGAINST A PLOTTER.
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 t
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CHAPTER IX. EXCITEMENT IN THE NIGHT.
CHAPTER IX. EXCITEMENT IN THE NIGHT.
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 suffic
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CHAPTER X. A PLOT MOST FOUL.
CHAPTER X. A PLOT MOST FOUL.
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, als
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CHAPTER XI. THE DIAMOND NECKLACE.
CHAPTER XI. THE DIAMOND NECKLACE.
“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 nic
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CHAPTER XII. THE REVELATIONS OF NAN.
CHAPTER XII. THE REVELATIONS OF NAN.
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 ne
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CHAPTER XIII. THE LAYING OF THE GHOST.
CHAPTER XIII. THE LAYING OF THE GHOST.
“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
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CHAPTER XIV. THE STOLEN IDENTITY.
CHAPTER XIV. THE STOLEN IDENTITY.
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 al
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CHAPTER XV. A WOMAN OF MYSTERY.
CHAPTER XV. A WOMAN OF MYSTERY.
“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,
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CHAPTER XVI. GOING AFTER JUNO.
CHAPTER XVI. GOING AFTER JUNO.
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 Dur
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CHAPTER XVII. JUNO.
CHAPTER XVII. JUNO.
“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 t
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CHAPTER XVIII. A DANGEROUS WOMAN.
CHAPTER XVIII. A DANGEROUS WOMAN.
“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 d
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CHAPTER XIX. TRAILED BY FATALITIES.
CHAPTER XIX. TRAILED BY FATALITIES.
“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 asce
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CHAPTER XX. THE SIREN EXERTS HER SKILL.
CHAPTER XX. THE SIREN EXERTS HER SKILL.
“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 brough
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CHAPTER XXI. THE SIREN AT WORK.
CHAPTER XXI. THE SIREN AT WORK.
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
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CHAPTER XXII. A SECRET MISSION.
CHAPTER XXII. A SECRET MISSION.
“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 y
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CHAPTER XXIII. THE WORK OF A SECRET AGENT.
CHAPTER XXIII. THE WORK OF A SECRET AGENT.
“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 rep
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CHAPTER XXIV. THE AMBASSADOR’S CABINET.
CHAPTER XXIV. THE AMBASSADOR’S CABINET.
“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
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CHAPTER XXV. THE HOLLOW BEDPOST.
CHAPTER XXV. THE HOLLOW BEDPOST.
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 dipl
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CHAPTER XXVI. THE WOMAN SPY.
CHAPTER XXVI. THE WOMAN SPY.
“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 compl
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CHAPTER XXVII. IN THE NET OF A SIREN.
CHAPTER XXVII. IN THE NET OF A SIREN.
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 adm
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CHAPTER XXVIII. A FIGHT IN THE STREET.
CHAPTER XXVIII. A FIGHT IN THE STREET.
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
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CHAPTER XXIX. MURDER.
CHAPTER XXIX. MURDER.
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
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CHAPTER XXX. BARE-FACED JIMMY’S DOUBLE.
CHAPTER XXX. BARE-FACED JIMMY’S DOUBLE.
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 t
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