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TOYING WITH FATE; OR, Nick Carter’s Narrow Shave
TOYING WITH FATE; OR, Nick Carter’s Narrow Shave
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. NEW YORK STREET & SMITH, Publishers 79-89 Seventh Avenue TOYING WITH FATE....
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CHAPTER I. THE MYSTERIOUS OLD MAN.
CHAPTER I. THE MYSTERIOUS OLD MAN.
“Move on, old man, and go home!” It was the stern voice of one of New York’s finest policemen that uttered these words. “Home! I wonder where it is?” muttered the old man to whom the policeman had spoken, and a shudder ran through his frame, as he slowly moved down the street. As he reached the corner near old St. John’s Church, on Varick Street, he paused, rubbed his eyes and gazed dreamily around him. For some time before the policeman had addressed him he had been standing inside the church,
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CHAPTER II. SEARCHING FOR CLEWS.
CHAPTER II. SEARCHING FOR CLEWS.
Early on New Year’s morning Nicholas Carter, the famous detective, arrived in Jersey City on a train from Chicago, where he had been investigating a diamond case, which he had closed up successfully. Danny, his chauffeur, met him at the station, with his powerful touring car; and in a few minutes they were crossing the Hudson River on the downtown ferry over to Chambers Street. They had just landed and were beginning to get headway along that thoroughfare, when their attention was attracted by a
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CHAPTER III. THE IDENTIFICATION.
CHAPTER III. THE IDENTIFICATION.
Carter conducted Peter Wright upstairs to the attic room in which the body of the victim lay. The coroner was making an examination, but he stepped aside, so as to allow Mr. Wright to see the face of the murdered man. The former proprietor of the Red Dragon Inn looked at the ghastly white countenance long and intently. All of the persons in the room watched him in silence. Several times the old man shook his head back and forth and his brow became contracted. Finally he looked at Carter and shoo
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CHAPTER IV. A PECULIAR INTERVIEW.
CHAPTER IV. A PECULIAR INTERVIEW.
Carter lapsed into silence after the cabman had answered his last question. It was clear to him now that Lawrence had secured money at the Manhattan Safe Deposit Company. Did he get the money out of a box, which he owned, or from some one connected with the company? The detective proposed to find out. He happened to be acquainted with the cashier of the safe deposit company, so he ordered the cabman to drive him to the gentleman’s house. Fortunately, Carter found the cashier at home, and he was
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CHAPTER V. AN IMPORTANT PACKAGE.
CHAPTER V. AN IMPORTANT PACKAGE.
“This is the package,” Mr. Wright ejaculated, as he held up the bundle. “I have not opened it.” “What is the indorsement?” Carter asked. “Listen and I will read.” “Read.” “‘Papers relating to the Lawrence will case.’” “The deuce you say!” “Read for yourself.” Mr. Wright handed the package to the detective. Carter took hold of it and read the indorsement. “The writing is bold and clear,” he said. “No name signed to it.” “It is peculiar,” Mr. Wright rejoined. “It seems strange that this should tur
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CHAPTER VI. THE THREAT.
CHAPTER VI. THE THREAT.
Carter desired to learn something about Isabella Porter. Her appearance at this time and her anxiety to secure the papers which had been left in Mr. Wright’s possession so many years before seemed peculiar. As the detective reviewed the incidents, and recalled the record of Peters’ death to his mind, he was almost certain that the man had been attacked by some one who desired to put him out of the way. Was Peters’ death planned because he had in his possession these damaging papers? Carter ponde
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CHAPTER VII. EAVESDROPPING.
CHAPTER VII. EAVESDROPPING.
Carter did not act hastily. He waited until Darwin had turned the corner before he alighted from the car. Then he started after his quarry, whom he soon caught sight of hurrying along on the south side of Houston Street. The detective kept on the north side of the street. As he walked along, he made a few changes in his disguise, so that if he and Darwin were brought face to face again the man would not recognize him as the same person who had stood on the platform of the car with him. Darwin en
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CHAPTER VIII. A WOMAN SCORNED.
CHAPTER VIII. A WOMAN SCORNED.
Dora kept her eyes fastened on Darwin. There was a peculiar glitter in them. At first Darwin returned her gaze without flinching, but soon he commenced to move about uneasily. For some time neither spoke. A cynical smile played around the corners of Dora’s lips. “You are contemptible,” she sneered. “Really, I should feel sorry for you if I did not despise you so intensely!” “Really, Dora, I don’t understand you,” Darwin replied. “You don’t understand me? How can you sit there and say that? Where
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CHAPTER IX. MORE EVIDENCE.
CHAPTER IX. MORE EVIDENCE.
Dora was the first to speak and break the silence. “Mr. Carter,” she said, “I can see that Rich and Darwin are implicated in some affair which you are investigating. It may be a crime. It was committed on New Year’s Eve, or you would not be so particular about that date. I feel sure of that.” “You are a shrewd woman,” the detective remarked, with a smile. “I am not very shrewd, but I can read character, and I am able to form conclusions by putting two and two together. “You asked about Dick Darw
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CHAPTER X. LENA’S STORY.
CHAPTER X. LENA’S STORY.
Carter had entered the lower hall of the house without making any noise. The woman’s attention was not attracted toward him, so he stood back in the shadow and watched her. She reached the landing, and, stopping in front of the door of the back room, she inserted a key in the lock, opened the door and went in. Nick knocked on the door of the room. The woman opened the door. “What do you want?” she demanded, in surprise. “Is your name Lena Peters?” the detective asked. “It is.” “I want to talk wi
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CHAPTER XI. ACTING A PART.
CHAPTER XI. ACTING A PART.
Carter secured a disguise from the costumer. When he came out he looked like a typical tough. Nick had some plan in his mind. He was sure that he was on the right trail, and that, such being the case, it would not be long before he would have forged every link in the chain of evidence. While he was confident of success, still he did not know for a certainty who had committed the dastardly crime at the Red Dragon Inn, or what the real motive was. He had suspicions, and he had collected strong cir
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CHAPTER XII. CAUGHT IN A TRAP.
CHAPTER XII. CAUGHT IN A TRAP.
“I want to tell you one thing, Mugsey,” Brockey exclaimed suddenly, sitting bolt upright in his chair. “I’m not as deep in this affair of the Red Dragon Inn as you suspect.” “Don’ gi’ me any o’ dat,” Carter rejoined, blowing a cloud of smoke up in the air over his head. “Upon my honor, what I tell you is the truth.” Carter could not help smiling when Brockey spoke of his honor. Such a scoundrel as that does not know what honor is! The detective knew well that Brockey had no honor, that he would
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CHAPTER XIII. BLACKMAIL.
CHAPTER XIII. BLACKMAIL.
The cabman did not allow the grass to grow under his feet. It did not take him long to reach the Studio Building. “He’s a rascal,” Carter commented, as he tracked the cabman; “I can make use of him.” The detective was amused. That he had formulated some shrewd move was quite certain from the manner in which he was acting. The cabman entered the Studio Building. Carter was close behind him. Not for an instant did the man suspect that he was the person who had given Rich’s name and address to him.
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CHAPTER XIV. TIGHTENING THE COILS.
CHAPTER XIV. TIGHTENING THE COILS.
The cashier of the safe deposit company kept gazing in silence at Carter with open-mouthed astonishment. Nick’s countenance was illumined with an expression of triumph. He held in his hand damaging evidence against Simeon Rich. If Rich were innocent of the murder, how was it that he had in his possession one of the bills which the cashier of the safe deposit company had paid to the man who had been so cruelly murdered at the Red Dragon Inn? “This is a valuable clew,” the detective said, when the
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CHAPTER XV. MURDER IN HELL’S KITCHEN.
CHAPTER XV. MURDER IN HELL’S KITCHEN.
To understand the preliminaries of the case on which Chick Carter and Patsy had been working for their chief, we must go back to a time before Simeon Rich was tried and executed, before Darwin was sent back to England, where he afterward died in prison. To begin with, Old Mother Flintstone, well known in the neighborhood of Hell’s Kitchen, was dead. All people have to die, and the old woman had to follow the written law of all mankind; but, what was queer, her death was a subject for police inve
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CHAPTER XVI. THE MILLIONAIRE’S GUEST.
CHAPTER XVI. THE MILLIONAIRE’S GUEST.
In another part of the city about the same time that witnessed these events a scene was being enacted which is destined to have an important bearing on Carter’s present case of mystery. This time it was not in the heart of that tough locality called Hell’s Kitchen, but in the haunts of the better classes, indeed, in what might be called the abode of wealth. Perry Lamont was a multimillionaire. He was a man of past fifty, but with very few gray hairs and a florid complexion. He was not engaged in
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CHAPTER XVII. BACK TO THE RED SPOT.
CHAPTER XVII. BACK TO THE RED SPOT.
When Carter and Mulberry Billy reached the street at the foot of Carter’s stairs the boy pointed toward a cab just driving away. “He must be in that,” said Billy. “I saw him talking to a man from the cab window just now——” “The man whose face you saw at the window of Mother Flintstone’s den, Billy?” “The same bloke.” The detective looked after the cab as it rounded a corner and then turned again to the boy. “But the man who was spoken to from the cab?” queried the detective. “He’s gone, too.” In
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CHAPTER XVIII. THE FATE OF A SPY.
CHAPTER XVIII. THE FATE OF A SPY.
Under the ground at last Mother Flintstone passed from the minds of many. The hovel she had occupied in Hell’s Kitchen got other tenants and the crime was forgotten. Not by everybody, however, for in the mind of more than one person the old woman whose life no one seemed to know beyond a few years was of some importance. Carter was on the trail, and he was destined to find it one of the strangest if not the most exciting of his varied career. Nick had just learned that Brockey Gann had been sent
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CHAPTER XIX. THE KNOCK-OUT DROPS.
CHAPTER XIX. THE KNOCK-OUT DROPS.
The man of many trails read the inscription on the wall more than once before he turned away. It meant him. There was not the least doubt of this, and for some time the detective stood rooted to the spot, as it were, and looked at what appeared to be a record of doom. At last he went over to the dead man in the chair, and, lifting the body, he knew what had terminated Jack Redmond’s career. The hands of some fiend had strangled him, and Nick seemed to inspect the marks on the throat for the time
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CHAPTER XX. AN INCORRUPTIBLE DETECTIVE.
CHAPTER XX. AN INCORRUPTIBLE DETECTIVE.
“Ha, ha,” laughed Nick to himself. “So Mr. Lamont is playing a nice little hand. We’ll see about it,” and then he turned his attention again to the man he had in tow. “He told you to dose me, did he?” Caddy nodded. “Did he say why?” “No.” “But he was anxious to have me drugged?” “He seemed so.” “Now, don’t you know where he took the girl?” The little barkeeper of the Trocadero shook his head in a solemn manner, and Carter felt that he was in earnest. “He hasn’t been back since?” he asked. The de
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CHAPTER XXI. THE CARD CLEW.
CHAPTER XXI. THE CARD CLEW.
Jack Redmond’s death promised to give the police of New York another job, but no one suspected that he was Carter’s spy. The woman who had seen the strange man go up to Redmond’s room had given her information to the detective alone, and Nick kept it to himself. He did not doubt that the crook had been put out of the way because he was on the right trail in the matter of spying, and as he—Carter—had set Jack to keep track of Claude Lamont, he resolved to turn his own attention to that young man.
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CHAPTER XXII. THE BIRD IN THE DEATH TRAP.
CHAPTER XXII. THE BIRD IN THE DEATH TRAP.
Leaving Carter, the shadow, in the net of doom, let us go back a little in our story of crime and see how fared one of our other characters. You will recollect Margie Marne’s visit to the Trocadero in answer to the mysterious note which had reached her, and how the detective discovered that the person whom she encountered vanished with her into the alley back of the café while the detective himself was coolly and cleverly drugged by Caddy. If the detective could have tracked the cab he would hav
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CHAPTER XXIII. CARTER AND HIS QUARRY.
CHAPTER XXIII. CARTER AND HIS QUARRY.
It looked like a diabolical plot to make way with the girl who had interested herself in the death of Mother Flintstone. Margie cried again for help, but none seemed to come. She heard the roar of flames just beyond the door, and knew that it was locked. Seconds seemed hours to the doomed maiden, and she felt her strength leave her. Suddenly there was a crash, and some one broke into the room. Margie tried to rise, but her powers could not stand the strain, and she fell back once more. She felt
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CHAPTER XXIV. STARTLING DEVELOPMENTS.
CHAPTER XXIV. STARTLING DEVELOPMENTS.
Just what the millionaire’s son was doing in that part of the city at that hour Carter could not conceive, but that his mission was not of the most honest kind he did not doubt. The carriage was out of sight in a few moments, and the detective was alone with the patrolman. Seeing that it was not worth while trying to find Richmond in that locality, the detective made his way to his own quarters near Broadway. The moment he opened the door he was surprised to see Billy, the street waif, spring fr
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CHAPTER XXV. A TERRIBLE COMPACT.
CHAPTER XXV. A TERRIBLE COMPACT.
Perry Lamont, the millionaire, stood underneath the brilliant chandelier in his luxurious library, apparently waiting for some one. He looked anxiously toward the door, and when it opened his eyes glittered. The person who entered the room was his son. For half a second father and son stood face to face, and then the former waved the other to a chair. Claude, looking a little worse for the night out, complied, and waited for his father to speak. “Who is this man Richmond?” asked Lamont, senior.
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CHAPTER XXVI. THE DARK JAILERESS AGAIN.
CHAPTER XXVI. THE DARK JAILERESS AGAIN.
It was a cool compact. Perry Lamont made answer to his son with all the cleverness of a practiced villain, and Claude accepted it in the same manner. “I want this man silenced,” continued the millionaire. “He must not possess this secret.” “Just as you say,” said Claude, picking up a cigar and coolly lighting it. “He must not, I say. You’ve agreed to finish him, and when you’ve done so the money is yours.” “Couldn’t you give me a little check now?” asked the son. Perry Lamont took a check book f
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CHAPTER XXVII. FOUND IN THE TIDE.
CHAPTER XXVII. FOUND IN THE TIDE.
After the scene the detective had witnessed through Bristol Clara’s assistance he made his way to another part of the city and entered a little house, where he was confronted by Billy, the street rat. The detective wanted to ascertain if the boy had picked up anything new, and his first words startled him. “They didn’t burn her up, Mr. Carter.” “Didn’t burn who up, Billy?” “Margie, you know.” The detective as yet had heard nothing of the fire at which Margie Marne nearly lost her life, and he lo
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CHAPTER XXVIII. A FAIR FOE.
CHAPTER XXVIII. A FAIR FOE.
The detective followed the young man until he lost him beyond the doors of a well-known café, and then he turned away. Nora, alias Mag Maginnis, had ended her life in the cold waters of the river, and the detective believed that Claude Lamont was morally responsible. “Now for another visit to the lion’s den,” said Carter, as he made his way to another part of the city and rang the bell attached to the millionaire’s mansion. It was not the hour for a social call, but he found the money king at ho
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CHAPTER XXIX. THE BACK TRAIL.
CHAPTER XXIX. THE BACK TRAIL.
All this time the carriage which had carried Opal and Carter to the house had waited for the girl just around the nearest corner. When Opal emerged from the place no excitement was noticed about her. She walked as gayly as if she had not sent a man to his doom, and when she stepped into the carriage there was a smile on her lips. She knew what she had done, and the secret was hers. The vehicle went straight to the Lamont mansion, and the girl dismissed it at the door. She entered the house and p
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CHAPTER XXX. THE MASTER DETECTIVE’S LITTLE GAME.
CHAPTER XXX. THE MASTER DETECTIVE’S LITTLE GAME.
“Empty? That house?” again cried Opal, from the depths of the chair. “I cannot believe it.” “It is true. I just came from the place,” answered Claude. “What did you do there, sis?” “I shot him.” “Not the detective?” “Yes; Carter. I lured him to the place. He was here again, playing his hand. I could not stand it. He was in our way. I wanted him removed. Father was helpless, and the desperate scheme came into my head. I lured him to the Cedar Street house and leaned over the banister, shooting hi
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CHAPTER XXXI. IN MOTHER FLINTSTONE’S DEN AGAIN.
CHAPTER XXXI. IN MOTHER FLINTSTONE’S DEN AGAIN.
The day following these exciting events George Richmond might have been seen bending over a manuscript in a small room some distance from Claude Lamont’s apartments. He had been diligently at work upon the document for some hours, now and then refreshing himself from a bottle on the table. The chirography was not his own. It looked for all the world like the writing of an old person taken with the palsy, and the man at work smiled every now and then as he looked at his job. “It’s good for the tw
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CHAPTER XXXII. MULBERRY BILLY’S “FIND.”
CHAPTER XXXII. MULBERRY BILLY’S “FIND.”
Margie Marne came out of the hospital shortly after her terrible experience in the house guarded by Nora. Her escape had bordered on the miraculous, and the girl was glad to get back to the humble home she occupied. Her first thought was of the woman who had been her jaileress and she wondered if Nora herself had escaped the flames. Having a fair acquaintance with Billy, the street Arab, she sought out the boy, and fortunately found him. Billy had heard of Nora’s suicide, and he at once posted M
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CHAPTER XXXIII. THE COST OF A SECRET.
CHAPTER XXXIII. THE COST OF A SECRET.
George Richmond found himself suddenly free from his antagonist in Mother Flintstone’s den. The battle ended sooner than he thought, for his enemy gave a lurch which disengaged them, and when George recovered he was the sole occupant of the place. “Who was he?” the astonished man asked himself. The reply came from his imagination, and he sprang to the door and looked out. No one there. “I accused him of being Carter, the detective, but he did not reply,” he went on. “Years ago I was in Carter’s
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CHAPTER XXXIV. BETWEEN THE WALLS OF DOOM.
CHAPTER XXXIV. BETWEEN THE WALLS OF DOOM.
Shrewd as the detective was, he was destined to meet one who was almost his equal in dexterity and cunning before the hour set for closing in on his quarry came around. When he quitted Bristol Clara’s abode he proceeded to his own quarters, where he desired, for the time, to be alone. The secrets of the trail he kept to himself. If he knew the hand which struck Mother Flintstone down he did not reveal it by word or deed, and, like the experienced tracker, he was silent. Several hours later the d
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CHAPTER XXXV. A COMPLETE KNOCK-OUT.
CHAPTER XXXV. A COMPLETE KNOCK-OUT.
Meanwhile, Margie Marne was having an adventure of her own, to which we will now recur. In another part of the city, and about the same hour that witnessed the strange explosion in the dungeon where Carter was confined, the girl sat in her little room. She was quite alone, but all the time she was watched by a pair of eyes that did not lose sight of her. These eyes glittered in the head of a man on the floor above, and he was enabled to watch the girl through a hole deftly cut in the floor. All
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CHAPTER XXXVI. THE PARRICIDE.
CHAPTER XXXVI. THE PARRICIDE.
“You’d better not try it.” “Why not?” snarled Richmond. “She may be dangerous.” “That chit? Pshaw!” “Just try it. See here. You don’t want to be too gay just now. Don’t you know you’re a dead man?” “So I am.” “Well, be a little careful. What if Carter gets on to our game?” “Carter mustn’t do that.” “Of course not, but we must see that he cannot.” Ten minutes longer the two men, watched by Bristol Clara, the tenant in the next house, remained in the room, and then Richmond bade Claude good night.
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CHAPTER XXXVII. CARTER’S ESCAPE.
CHAPTER XXXVII. CARTER’S ESCAPE.
We left Carter in durance in the dungeon where the strange explosion had taken place. Truly the detective was in the direst straits, and he could not forget the writing on the wall. He did not know who “Lewis Newell” was, and he did not stop to inquire. The sentence said that Opal Lamont, the fair daughter of the millionaire, was responsible for the prisoner’s fate, and this set the detective to thinking. Perhaps the house to which he had been decoyed belonged to Perry Lamont, like another house
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CHAPTER XXXVIII. JUSTICE’S ROUND-UP.
CHAPTER XXXVIII. JUSTICE’S ROUND-UP.
Opal Lamont seemed to grow into a statue before the detective. She did not move a muscle, but her face grew white, and the detective thought she would sink to the floor. But suddenly she started up and calmly invited Carter into the parlor. The detective accepted and watched her like a hawk, for had not she once faced him with a revolver, and was not this the woman named by “Lewis Newell” on the wall of the dungeon? Opal Lamont seemed calm now. She faced the man of many trails and even smiled. “
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