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HIDDEN FOES
HIDDEN FOES
OR, A FATAL MISCALCULATION BY NICHOLAS CARTER Author of the celebrated stories of Nick Carter’s adventures, which are published exclusively in the New Magnet Library , conceded to be among the best detective tales ever written. STREET & SMITH CORPORATION PUBLISHERS 79-89 Seventh Avenue, New York Copyright, 1917 By Street & Smith Corporation Hidden Foes (Printed in the United States of America) All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign languages, including th
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CHAPTER I. A MYSTERIOUS FATALITY.
CHAPTER I. A MYSTERIOUS FATALITY.
Nobody had heard the report of a pistol. There had been no disturbance; in fact, no audible altercation, no startling cry for help, or even a groan of sudden, terrible distress. The man lay there as motionless, nevertheless, as if felled by a thunderbolt. His life had been snuffed out like the flame of a candle by the fury of a whirlwind. Death had come upon him like a bolt from the blue. By slow degrees his face underwent a change—but it was not the change that ordinarily follows sudden death,
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CHAPTER II. NICK CARTER’S OPINION.
CHAPTER II. NICK CARTER’S OPINION.
Chief Gleason immediately turned and approached the rising physician, asking a bit brusquely: “Well, Doctor Doyle, what do you make of it? The man is dead?” “Yes, indeed, there is no question about that, Mr. Gleason.” “What was the cause?” “It appears to be a case of heart disease.” “Are you sure of it?” “One cannot be absolutely sure, Mr. Gleason, without performing an autopsy,” Doctor Doyle said blandly, while he wiped his fingers with his handkerchief. “I feel reasonably sure. There is no wou
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CHAPTER III. A FRIEND WORTH HAVING.
CHAPTER III. A FRIEND WORTH HAVING.
Nick Carter smiled amusedly when Frank Paulding, having fairly snatched the card and read it, straightened up in his chair and stared at him with almost ludicrous astonishment. “Nicholas Carter!” he exclaimed; “the New York detective! Good gracious!” “Is it so very amazing?” the detective asked dryly. “Yes, by Jove, it is,” said Paulding, pulling himself together. “I do, indeed, know you by name, and who does not? Let the circumstances be what they may, too, I am very glad to become acquainted w
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CHAPTER IV. THE MAN OF LAST RESORT.
CHAPTER IV. THE MAN OF LAST RESORT.
Nicholas Carter did not return to the Waldmere Chambers after his interview with Frank Paulding. It was not entirely due to his intuitive perception, or to any evidence definitely involving another, that had caused him to feel that Paulding had played no part in the killing of Gaston Todd, and that he might be possibly the victim of a carefully planned conspiracy. It was due in part to what Chief Gleason had told him earlier that morning, when they were discussing the business that had brought h
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CHAPTER V. ANOTHER STRANGE CASE.
CHAPTER V. ANOTHER STRANGE CASE.
The steeple bell of a church within a stone’s throw of Hamilton Square struck twelve. The successive strokes fell with monotonous reverberations on the midnight air, breaking with solemn resonance the quietude of that reputable residential section of Madison. For Hamilton Square, though not far from the business district, was in an attractive part of the city, to which the extensive tract of land had been donated years before, in part for a public square and the remainder for the site, park, and
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CHAPTER VI. DOCTOR DEVOLL.
CHAPTER VI. DOCTOR DEVOLL.
Patrolman Donovan drew a little nearer to the cot, that nothing said or done should escape him. The orderly had departed, and the announcement by the physician seemed to surprise and further mystify the reviving girl. “A hospital—in a hospital?” she repeated perplexedly. “Yes, you were brought here by this policeman, who found you on a seat in the hospital grounds,” Doctor Devoll informed her. “You appeared to have fainted or to have been drugged.” “I cannot believe that I fainted,” said the gir
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CHAPTER VII. GROUNDS FOR SUSPICION.
CHAPTER VII. GROUNDS FOR SUSPICION.
Sergeant Brady got in communication with Nicholas Carter that night just in time to prevent him from visiting the hospital, following the telephone talk he had with Chief Gleason, after the latter had been notified of this fourth mysterious case. Carter had not quite finished his breakfast the following morning, however, at which he was seated with Chick and Patsy in a private dining room of the Wilton House, when their waiter brought in a sealed missive, which the detective opened and read. It
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CHAPTER VIII. THE YELLOW COUPON.
CHAPTER VIII. THE YELLOW COUPON.
It was half past nine when Chick sauntered across Hamilton Square and sized up the buildings and grounds of the Osgood Hospital. He had learned from his chief the general lay of the land, so to speak, and continued around the extensive park and grounds, seeking the rear gate through which Mabel Smith, so called, had either entered or been carried into the place. He was not long in finding the gate, and he then discovered a gardener at work near by with a lawn mower. Entering with an air of curso
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CHAPTER IX. SUSPICIONS VERIFIED.
CHAPTER IX. SUSPICIONS VERIFIED.
Nicholas Carter and his assistants were never slow in beginning to weave a net in which to catch a culprit when the evidence and circumstances in a case convinced them that a crime had been committed. Patsy Garvan, while Chick was engaged as described, was nearly as successful as the latter in picking up the first strands with which the net might be formed. Hastening to the brokerage office of Daly & Page, he introduced himself to the latter, the former then having gone to the local stoc
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CHAPTER X. THE DEEPER MYSTERY.
CHAPTER X. THE DEEPER MYSTERY.
Nick Carter returned to the Wilton House at one o’clock. He found Chick and Patsy waiting for him, both of whom quickly told him what they had learned that morning, and then heard his own brief report of the inquest. “By Jove, you were right!” Chick then said seriously. “It now is a cinch that Todd was murdered.” “I felt reasonably sure of it from the first,” the detective replied. “But who killed him?” put in Patsy. “That’s the question. You say you are sure, chief, that Paulding did not do it.
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CHAPTER XI. THE ANGLE OF REFLECTION.
CHAPTER XI. THE ANGLE OF REFLECTION.
Doctor David Devoll, whose will and word were law in the Osgood Hospital, gazed intently at the card brought in by his personal attendant. He was seated at a broad, flat desk in the middle of his private room, a sanctuary into which few would have dared to intrude after having once offended in that way. For of all the rules and regulations of this institution, there was none more inflexible, none more rigorously enforced, than that forbidding intrusion upon the privacy of Doctor David Devoll. An
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CHAPTER XII. NICK CARTER’S DEDUCTIONS.
CHAPTER XII. NICK CARTER’S DEDUCTIONS.
It was six o’clock when Nick Carter returned to the Wilton House. Daylight was deepening to dusk. The last editions of the local newspapers were out, and the shrill voices of juvenile venders could be heard from all directions. The detective glanced at the papers, which in headline luridness proclaimed: “Leading Lawyer Suspected in Todd Murder! Frank Paulding Arrested! Chief Gleason Sure of His Man!” Nick Carter smiled faintly, but with a more threatening gleam and glitter deep down in his eyes,
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CHAPTER XIII. THE MAN WITH A MASK.
CHAPTER XIII. THE MAN WITH A MASK.
Nick Carter met with a surprise when he went down to dine with Chick, after the hurried departure of Patsy Garvan. The office clerk, seeing them going to the dining room, took a letter from a rack and beckoned to the detective, saying, when he approached: “This appears to be for you, Mr. Blaisdell.” Nick took it and glanced at the pen-written address—Mr. John Blaisdell, Wilton House. He saw that it was not stamped, however, and wondered who had left a letter for him, instead of seeking a persona
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CHAPTER XIV. A MARATHON PURSUIT.
CHAPTER XIV. A MARATHON PURSUIT.
Patsy Garvan arrived at the Osgood Hospital soon after six o’clock that evening, more than two hours before Chick encountered the masked man in Gaston Todd’s apartments. It then was dark, the sky clouded, with no stars to reveal his stealthy movements to chance observers. Only the scattered street lamps and the numerous lighted windows of the great building, with those of a few more distant dwellings, relieved the prevailing gloom. It was even darker in the deserted grounds, and Patsy took advan
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CHAPTER XV. PROFESSOR KARL GRAFF.
CHAPTER XV. PROFESSOR KARL GRAFF.
Patsy Garvan’s disappointment was as deep and bitter as one could imagine. He scarce could contain it, in fact, and his first impulse was to bolt from his concealment and demand of the chauffeur where he had left Doctor David Devoll. Brief reflection, however, convinced Patsy that that would be a fatal mistake, that the chauffeur might be in league with the physician, after all, and that this stranger who had unexpectedly alighted from the motor car might also be one of Doctor Devoll’s confedera
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CHAPTER XVI. VAIN INQUIRIES.
CHAPTER XVI. VAIN INQUIRIES.
Patsy Garvan had been waiting and watching about fifteen minutes, the circumstances precluding any further action, when he saw the two men come out of the road house. They hurried down the steps and entered the motor car. Toby Monk, the chauffeur, also saw them, and ran to resume his seat at the wheel. They were away within half a minute, departing with very significant haste and returning to Madison at a rate of speed precluding pursuit, but leaving Patsy gazing with an ominous frown after the
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CHAPTER XVII. CRAFT AND FORESIGHT.
CHAPTER XVII. CRAFT AND FORESIGHT.
Nick Carter’s strong, clean-cut face took on a more serious expression while he listened. It was half past eight when Patsy returned, just as Nick was about leaving the Wilton House, and only half an hour after Chick set forth to search the apartments of Gaston Todd. “That’s all, chief,” said Patsy, when ending his report. “As far as I can see, it lets Doctor Devoll out of the circle of suspicion and rings in another, no less than three, in fact—the chauffeur, his elderly passenger, and the man
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CHAPTER XVIII. NICK DECLARES HIMSELF.
CHAPTER XVIII. NICK DECLARES HIMSELF.
Nick Carter was right as to Chick’s condition. He had seen at a glance that he was not dead. He quickly noticed, too, the sleeve drawn up above his right wrist, exposing part of the arm, and he immediately joined Patsy and pointed to a tiny puncture in the white skin. “He has been drugged,” said he, with an indignant ring in his subdued voice. “That’s the prick of a hypodermic needle.” “Surely,” muttered Patsy. “But how did they contrive to get him and the——” “Don’t ask me how. It’s useless to s
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CHAPTER XIX. PATSY ON THE TRAIL.
CHAPTER XIX. PATSY ON THE TRAIL.
“Good work is right. It sure will be some stunt to find that particular car, as the chief said, but there’s more than one way to kill a cat. I’ll find it, by gracious, or lose a leg.” These were Patsy Garvan’s mental declarations when he left the Wilton House at nine o’clock that morning, not only determined to find the motor car he had seen the previous night, but also to identify its chauffeur and his two passengers. “I’ll go the whole hog,” he added to himself. “If I discover the chauffeur, I
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CHAPTER XX. BIRDS OF PREY.
CHAPTER XX. BIRDS OF PREY.
The trail picked up by Patsy Garvan was becoming so hot, indeed, as he had expressed it, that he now had absolutely no idea of quitting it. He followed the two suspects through Prince Street, noting that they were engaged in a subdued and very earnest discussion, with Shannon doing most of the talking, but Patsy did not venture to attempt overhearing them. “I could pick up only a word or two at the most, and must take a chance of being seen and suspected,” he rightly reasoned. “That would put th
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CHAPTER XXI. STOLEN PEARLS.
CHAPTER XXI. STOLEN PEARLS.
Nick Carter wore a worried look at eight o’clock that evening. Both he and Chick then were dressing for the elaborate reception and ball tendered to the local National Guards, generally admitted to be the chief social event slated for that season in Madison, and during which the unknown crook whom the detectives were so anxious to identify had threatened to commit the crime the latter were grimly determined to prevent. Nick Carter’s anxiety, however, was not because his life also had been threat
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CHAPTER XXII. WHERE THE TIDE TURNED.
CHAPTER XXII. WHERE THE TIDE TURNED.
Nick Carter did not attempt to stop the fleeing crooks. He saw that the avenue was unobstructed, that the motor car already was attaining high speed, that a shot from his revolver would probably be wasted, and that pursuit was utterly out of the question. He turned back and hastened to rejoin Chick—just as Jack Dorson returned from the ballroom, bringing a glass of water. Chick was the first to see him, and, having at once suspected him of aiding the crooks, he impulsively started to call him do
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CHAPTER XXIII. THE WHEEL WITHIN.
CHAPTER XXIII. THE WHEEL WITHIN.
Nick Carter finished his breakfast at eight o’clock the following morning. He needed no one to tell him that Patsy Garvan, who still was absent, had fallen into the hands of the remarkably clever and thus far successful gang he was seeking. It was only half an hour later when Carter entered the Osgood Hospital, where he was received in the business office by Jim Shannon, then in his customary livery. “Doctor Devoll is not here, sir,” he said respectfully, in reply to the detective’s question. “H
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CHAPTER XXIV. THE LAST RESORT.
CHAPTER XXIV. THE LAST RESORT.
Chick was not idle that morning while his chief was engaged as described. He was not without equally serious misgivings concerning Patsy Garvan and the wisdom of Carter’s going alone to interview Doctor Devoll. Chick’s anxiety was materially increased, moreover, when the Wilton House clerk brought him a letter to the smoking room about an hour after the chief’s departure, saying inquiringly: “This may be important, and perhaps you would care to open it, though it is addressed to Mr. Blaisdell. I
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