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is a marvel of its kind. They are high-class tales, not of the
“blood-and-thunder” order, but with plausible plots which hold
the reader fairly captivated with breathless expectation. Among
these are the stories of the adventures of Nick Carter and his
clever assistants; of “Old Spicer,” the clever private detective,
whose exploits are among the most remarkable ever performed by
any detective. If you are in search of good, interesting matter,
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purchase a few of these titles. They will not only please and
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PUBLISHED EVERY WEEK
To be Published During April
441--The Ring of Iron By Inspector Stark
440--The Lure of Gold By Nicholas Carter
439--The “L” Mystery By Dick Stewart
438--Behind a Throne By Nicholas Carter
To be Published During March
437--A King Among Crooks By J. K. Stafford
436--Under the Tiger’s Claws By Nicholas Carter
435--The Great Green Diamond By Inspector Stark
434--Through the Cellar Wall By Nicholas Carter
To be Published During February
433--The Human Cat By Dick Stewart
432--The “Limited” Hold-Up By Nicholas Carter
431--Shot From Above By J. K. Stafford
430--Marked for Death By Nicholas Carter
To be Published During January
429--On the Trail of “Big Finger” By Scott Campbell
428--Below the Dead Line By Scott Campbell
427--The Sign of the Dagger By Nicholas Carter
426--The Western Ferret By Inspector Stark
425--The Crime of the Camera By Nicholas Carter
* * * * *
424--The Belrox Mystery By Dick Stewart
423--The Terrible Thirteen By Nicholas Carter
422--The Crimson Blind By Fred M. White
421--A Triple Identity By Nicholas Carter
420--The Nitroglycerin League By Inspector Stark
419--The Bloodstone Terror By Nicholas Carter
418--The Man Who Hid By Dick Stewart
417--A Victim of Deceit By Nicholas Carter
416--The Broken Pen By J. K. Stafford
415--The Key Ring Clew By Nicholas Carter
414--A Modern Sorceress By Inspector Stark
413--The Four-Fingered Glove By Nicholas Carter
412--Checkmating a Countess By Dick Stewart
411--The Boulevard Mutes By Nicholas Carter
410--Shadowed ’Round the World By J. K. Stafford
409--Nick Carter’s Double Catch By Nicholas Carter
408--Only a Headless Nail By Dick Stewart
407--The Pretty Stenographer Mystery By Nicholas Carter
406--The Eye of Gold By Inspector Stark
405--The Plot That Failed By Nicholas Carter
404--The Red Stain By Scott Campbell
403--The Marked Hand By Nicholas Carter
402--The Albert Gate Affair By Louis Tracy
401--The Fatal Legacy By Louis Tracy
400--The Living Mask By Nicholas Carter
399--An Oath of Vengeance By John K. Stafford
398--Under a Black Veil By Nicholas Carter
397--A Crime Without a Name By Dick Stewart
396--A Baffled Oath By Nicholas Carter
395--A Kentucky Moonshiner By Inspector Stark
394--Playing for a Fortune By Nicholas Carter
393--The Convent Mystery By John K. Stafford
392--With Links of Steel By Nicholas Carter
THE GREAT GREEN DIAMOND;
OR,
THIEF AGAINST THIEF
BY
INSPECTOR STARK
AUTHOR OF
“A Deed of Darkness,” “The Mafia’s Victim,” “The Telegraph Clew,”
“The Shadow of an Assassin,” “A Kentucky Moonshiner,” etc.
[Illustration: Colophon]
NEW YORK
STREET & SMITH, Publishers
79-89 SEVENTH AVENUE
Copyright, 1906
By STREET & SMITH
The Great Green Diamond
CONTENTS
PAGE
I. HENRY STOLBURST’S FEARS. 5
II. PRINCESS ZULIMA. 12
III. STOLBURST’S VISITOR. 19
IV. MIKE QUICK’S DIVE. 26
V. ENOCH COOK AND HIS PAL. 33
VI. AJEEB’S NEW ALLY. 39
VII. TRAPPED. 47
VIII. AN UNEXPECTED MEETING. 54
IX. A TERRIBLE SURPRISE. 62
X. ZULIMA AND THE DETECTIVE. 70
XI. AJEEB SEES BURT. 74
XII. COOK AND KIDD. 80
XIII. MIKE QUICK’S MISSION. 86
XIV. BURT KNOCKED OUT. 93
XV. AJEEB’S GRIM HUMOR. 100
XVI. A WISE BARTENDER. 107
XVII. AT MONTE MURPHY’S. 114
XVIII. MURPHY’S DEATH. 120
XIX. BURT’S NEW ALLY. 126
XX. IN AJEEB’S CLUTCHES. 134
XXI. FRANK HARE’S MISSION. 143
XXII. DETH KILLED BY ENOCH. 151
XXIII. THE BIRD FLOWN. 158
XXIV. HARE’S DISGUISE PENETRATED. 167
XXV. ZULIMA BREAKS DOWN. 176
XXVI. BULL BLAIR’S ESCAPE 184
XXVII. BILLY BARRY, OF LONDON. 191
XXVIII. MIKE QUICK GIVEN A SHOCK. 198
XXIX. PIERRE JACQUET’S REVENGE. 204
XXX. THE PRINCESS VISITS STOLBURST. 212
XXXI. CONCLUSION. 218
THE GREAT GREEN DIAMOND
CHAPTER I.
HENRY STOLBURST’S FEARS.
Up the dingy flights of stairs in an old-fashioned down-town office
building, Mr. Henry Stolburst mounted with a vigor and energy that
belied the signs of age in his visage. Tall, spare, handsome, with
remarkably bright and keen eyes, he yet looked older than his
thirty-five years. This appearance of age was due to his heavily
lined face and his white hair. But close observation would have
revealed the fact that the lines on his face were those of care and
worry, rather than of age, and the color of his hair was of such a
peculiar shade of white that the observer would have felt perplexed
by the conflicting evidences of age and youthful vigor.
With never a thought of his appearance, however, Henry Stolburst
rapidly climbed the stairs until he stood before a door on which
appeared the simple inscription:
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| |
| |
| BURT CROMWELL |
| |
| |
| SPECIAL AGENT |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
Pausing but a moment, Stolburst opened the door and entered. Burt,
although this was but a branch office of his agency, happened to
be seated at the desk, and glanced up as his visitor crossed the
threshold.
“Mr. Cromwell?” asked the newcomer interrogatively.
“That’s my name.”
The stranger handed Burt his card.
“What!” said the latter, “are you Mr. Henry Stolburst, the African
explorer?”
“Yes.”
“I listened to one of your lectures on the Dark Continent with a good
deal of interest the other evening.”
“Yes,” smiled Stolburst, “I do know a few interesting facts about
Africa.”
“Can I serve you in any way?” asked the detective.
“I trust you can.”
“What do you require?”
“That you save my life.”
Burt looked at his visitor in considerable surprise. Was the man
crazy? That thought struck him at once. Having seen Stolburst on
the lecture platform, he knew his visitor to be none other than the
explorer.
The latter interpreted the other’s inquiring glance.
“You think me bereft of sense?” he quietly asked.
“No,” said Burt; “but how can your life be possibly in danger while
you are in a large community like this?”
“Nevertheless, it is. I have fought against savage tribes, and not
more savage beasts. Several times have I barely escaped assassination
by poison, knife, and other weapons; but never, in the jungles of
Africa, was my life in more danger than at the present moment. I am
not surprised you should think my statement a very rash one, yet it
is true, nevertheless.”
As he spoke, the explorer and lecturer became pale even to the lips.
“Perhaps if I heard your story,” said Burt, “I might more readily
understand whether your peril is fancied or not.”
“Would to God it were the former,” said Stolburst, and he gave a
great start as he concluded speaking.
“What’s the matter?”
“Nothing; I only fancied I saw his greenish, snaky eyes looking into
mine.”
“Whose eyes?”
“Those of Ajeeb.”
“You don’t mean the chess automaton?”
“This is no jesting matter. The eyes I speak of belong to a living
creature.”
“I’m, as yet, in the dark as to this person’s identity.”
“Let me tell you there is in Abyssinia an order known as that of
the Blue Nile. It is secretly abetted by the priests, and even the
king, who fears it, is a member. This society is ruled by religious
fanatics, to whom murder is simply a pastime. The Order of the Blue
Nile has command of almost untold riches.
“I incurred the anger of these men, and they have sent right here to
this country some of their members, I know not how many, to strike me
down.”
“You have not said a single word about this Ajeeb,” remarked the
detective.
“He is in New York.”
“Is he any more to be feared than the others?” asked Burt.
“Ajeeb is the head of the society,” replied the traveler.
“You have seen him?”
“How else would I know that he is in this city? He visited me this
morning.”
“Did he threaten you?”
A sad smile passed over the face of the man who had so often faced
death in many forms.
“No,” he replied, “it was not necessary to threaten me; I know what
his pursuit of me means.”
“Tell me all about it, and then I may discover a way to circumvent
your enemies.”
“First, I wish you to promise not to disclose any revelations I shall
make now or at any other time.”
“Willingly.”
“Well,” said the traveler, “in a jungle near the city of Gondar,
which is the chief and capital city of Abyssinia, stands a temple,
the existence of which is known to few outside the members of this
Order of the Blue Nile. In this temple is an immense wooden idol
named Jobu. I never saw a more hideous-looking object than this same
idol. His followers say Jobu is over a thousand years old.
“According to their belief, one day or another this monstrosity will
be endowed with life, and help his devotees to capture all Africa.
“No European is allowed to gaze upon this idol, in front of whom a
fire of perfumed herbs is kept burning night and day. The richest
garments and jewels cover the inanimate Jobu. I saw the idol by
bribing one of his watchers, for, mind you, Jobu has quite a suite of
servants.
“In some way or another the high priest, Ajeeb, heard of the
watcher’s infidelity. They have but one manner of punishing their
unfortunate victims.
“They are slowly tortured to death!”
Stolburst shivered from head to foot as he finished.
“Why,” said the detective, “they cannot possibly desire to put you to
death simply because you gazed upon their idol?”
“No.”
“Other Europeans beside you must have seen Jobu.”
“For that matter,” said the explorer, “I had two white men with me
when I visited the infidel shrine.”
“You have not, then, finished your story,” remarked Burt.
“The part most interesting to me is to come,” said Stolburst.
“I am all attention.”
“In the eye of this idol,” continued the explorer, “was a diamond
having, queer to say, a distinctively greenish tint. The stone is
larger and certainly more valuable than the great British crown
jewel. It is claimed I stole the jewel.”
“Did you?” asked the detective.
Stolburst changed color.
“I purchased it,” he said, after a pause, “from the man in charge.”
“You must have known he had no right to dispose of it.”
“People do not have much scruple when they deal with untutored
barbarians,” replied Stolburst.
“It is because of the theft you fear Ajeeb?” asked Burt.
“Yes; could I return the stone all would be well.”
“Then you have disposed of it?”
“No.”
“Did you lose it?”
“The diamond was stolen from me by one of my servants, a man named
Dick Kidd.”
Burt smiled.
“Kidd,” he said, “seems a peculiarly fitting name for a thief.”
“Now,” said Stolburst, not minding the interruption, “I want you to
find this man, and make him give up the stone.”
“Does he know it was stolen?” asked the detective.
“I believe not.”
“If he does,” remarked Burt, “he will refuse to give it up. By the
way, is the man in this part of the country?”
“I think both he and his fellow servant, Sam Henry, are here in New
York. It was here I engaged them before making my last trip into
Africa.”
“How am I to know the pair?”
“I have provided for that.”
Stolburst took from his pocket two photographs, which he handed to
the detective.
Burt looked at the photographs attentively.
“I know that fellow; that is, I used to know him. He was a schoolmate
of mine, but he went to the bad upon reaching manhood.”
“That,” said the explorer, “is Sam Henry. Do you know the other?”
“No.”
“If you can run across Henry, I guess you’ll find Kidd not far off.”
“I have your word for it that if the diamond eye of the idol is
recovered and given you it will be turned over to its proper
custodians?”
“Yes. Why do you ask?”
“Because if the promise were not given I would not move in the
matter. Now as to the man you know as Sam Henry, if he is the same
party I take him to be, his correct name is Enoch Cook.”
“Do you think you can find him?” asked Stolburst.
“If he is in New York I can.”
“Both he and Kidd are very desperate men. I have seen their courage
proven more than a score of times.”
“I never yet saw the man I feared,” remarked Burt, with quiet
dignity. “As a boy Enoch Cook was a great boaster. How long was he in
your employ?”
“Henry was with me two years.”
“I have missed Enoch from New York just about that length of time.”
“I hope the men are identical; it will make your work so much easier.”
“Did you promise Ajeeb to return the diamond?”
“No,” replied the explorer, with some hesitation.
“Why not?”
“I thought it better to deny ever having had the accursed gem in my
possession.”
“Then,” said the detective, “you may have made a fatal mistake.”