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 speculate,” Carter interrupted.
“They shall pay dear for it, nevertheless, take my word for that. Is
there a physician in the house, Mr. Vernon?” he added, turning to the
astonished manager.
“Yes, there is,” was the hasty reply. “Doctor Percy. His suite is on
this floor.”
“Bring him as quickly as possible,” the detective directed. “Tell him
that stimulants will be needed to counteract a drug, but don’t create a
stir or cause any excitement. There is no occasion to arouse the house.
He soon can revive this man.”
Carter had no doubt of it after a hasty examination, and in a very
few minutes Doctor Percy came in and set to work over the unconscious
detective, applying such restoratives as the case seemed to require.
In the meantime, with Patsy at his elbow, Nick made a thorough
inspection of the several rooms. He found a window in the bedroom
unlocked, and on the platform of the fire escape he discovered, with
the help of his search light, the faint tracks left by the masked man
whom Chick had encountered about three hours before.
“How it was done, Patsy, now is quite obvious,” Carter said grimly.
“Some one, probably more than one, was here in advance of Carter or
entered about the same time. Chick was caught unawares, I think, and
overcome by the rascals.”
“But how could they have anticipated his visit?” questioned Patsy
perplexedly.
“They did not,” Nick replied. “They did, however, anticipate something
else.”
“What was that?”
“That I would search these rooms, Patsy, and the same farsighted rascal
who sent me the anonymous letter undertook to get in his work ahead of
me.”
“By Jove, I guess that’s right, chief.”
“He knew that I would seek for any evidence that Todd might have left
here, and he sent one or more of his gang to prevent me from getting
it. They have succeeded, too, if Todd really left anything, for they
have cleaned up completely.”
“Gee whiz! I should say so,” Patsy agreed. “They didn’t miss nook or
corner.”
“It was the work of the same gang, but other members of it than you
saw at the road house,” Carter added. “Their chief, or the director of
these various steps, is certainly an infernally keen and farsighted
knave. He not only discovered my identity and presence in Madison, but
also has contrived to anticipate and balk my every important move. But
I’ll finally get him and every mother’s son of them. We’ll not rest
until we have run down the entire gang and----Ah, by Jove, that was
Chick’s voice.”
They had been briefly talking in the bedroom, from which both hastened
upon hearing the familiar voice, and they found Chick propped up
against a chair, with his eyes open. He was responding rapidly to the
stimulants given him, and he soon was able to clearly describe his
encounter with the masked man.
Not until the following morning, however, being averse to discussing
his suspicions in the presence of Vernon and the physician, and knowing
that no further steps could be taken that night, did Carter express his
views on the subject. He then was at breakfast with Patsy and Chick,
the latter having entirely recovered from the effects of the drug.
“Your sudden collapse, Chick, and the sensations preceding it admit of
only one explanation,” said Carter. “Your assailant was provided with
a powerful storage battery, so ingeniously contrived and carried on
his person that he could impart an overwhelming shock to an antagonist
without incurring danger from the electric current.”
“That’s how I size it up,” Chick agreed. “The sensations were very
convincing.”
“It could be accomplished with an ingenious arrangement of wires,”
Carter added. “Having knocked you out, so to speak, and knowing you
soon would throw off the effects of the brief shock, he immediately
drugged you with a hypodermic injection, and then proceeded to
deliberately do what I had sent you there to accomplish.”
“He got the best of me, all right,” Chick admitted.
“All this is very significant, however,” Carter said more earnestly.
“The ingenuity displayed, this use of electricity, of drugs, of strange
poisonous gas, with a knowledge how it can be administered so as to
mysteriously cause death, as in Todd’s case, together with the similar
circumstances in the remarkable robberies committed here, also in the
cases of the four girls found unconscious in the hospital grounds--all
evince a profound knowledge of such things, that of the one man by whom
all of these crimes were devised and directed.”
“I agree with you,” Chick nodded, laying aside his napkin. “Only one
man would probably be so well informed and knavishly original.”
“He is either a criminal genius or a madman whose perverted mind has
turned to crime for profit and excitement. That man must be found,
though we turn heaven and earth to discover his identity.”
Though he still had Doctor Devoll in mind as being the one whom several
minor circumstances had led him to suspect, Carter did not once think
of Professor Karl Graff, whom he had seen only for a couple of minutes
when investigating the death of Gaston Todd, and whose appearance and
deportment were in no degree impressive, to say nothing of inviting
suspicion.
“Gee whiz!” Patsy exclaimed, replying. “It strikes me, chief, that that
motor car is a clew worth following. We know that one of the two men
at the road house killed Leary’s cat, and it’s dollars to fried rings
that he is the man we want to identify. In spite of the false number
plates used last night, I think I can run down that car, if I go on a
still hunt for it.”
“Think you can, eh?” queried Carter tersely.
“I sure do,” said Patsy confidently.
“There are about a thousand cars of that type in Madison. You’ll do
good work, Patsy, if you round up that particular one.”
“Good work is my long suit, chief,” Patsy earnestly argued. “You ought
to know that.”
“So I do, Patsy.”
“Let me try, then. I’ll bet I can make good.”
“Very well,” Carter abruptly decided. “Set to work as soon as you like.
In the meantime, Chick, I will see Chief Gleason and get cards for
to-night. I want you to accompany me. If this master criminal, whoever
he is, can put one over on us and get away with Mrs. Thurlow’s pearls,
I’ll chuck my vocation and start a peanut stand.”
Nick arose from the table with the last, all having finished their
breakfast, and Patsy was so eager to be off on the work he had
voluntarily assumed and the outcome of which he had so confidently
predicted that he hurried up to their suite in advance of the others,
getting such articles as he required and leaving the house without
further instructions.
Nick Carter sauntered into police headquarters about ten o’clock that
morning, and found Chief Gleason in his private office.
“Too busy to see me?” he inquired carelessly when the chief looked up
and then swung quickly around in his swivel chair.
“Too busy? I should say not!” he exclaimed, with a perceptible frown.
“I was expecting to see you.”
“That so?” queried Nick, while he drew up a chair.
“Very much so,” Gleason said brusquely. “See here, Carter, what are you
putting over on me?”
“Putting over on you?” Nick’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“Exactly.”
“I don’t quite get you, Gleason.”
“You ought to get me. Why haven’t I seen you since yesterday morning?
Why haven’t you reported? In other words, Carter, what are you doing
about this Todd murder and these other cases?”
“Oh, that’s it, is it?” said Nick, who had been wondering what was
coming. “I had begun to fear there was something wrong. Putting over on
you, eh? Did you really expect me, Gleason, to run in here every hour
or two and report the progress of my work? That’s not my way of doing
business.”
“I know, Carter; I know,” Gleason more quietly protested, warned by a
subtle ring in the detective’s voice. “But we really have nothing on
Paulding, nothing at all definite, nothing that warrants holding him in
custody. It was upon your advice that we arrested him.”
“I guess you have made no mistake.”
“But----”
“He has not kicked against it, has he?”
“No, no, not exactly, yet----”
“Stop a moment,” Nick interrupted. “How long were you and your score
of subordinates at work on these mysterious crimes before you sent for
me?”
“Why, several months, as you know.”
“And accomplished nothing.”
“Why, nothing material.”
“Several months and nothing accomplished,” said Nick pointedly. “I have
been in Madison only two days, Gleason, yet you expect me to begin
turning in reports and possibly to have solved the problem that has
baffled you for months. Don’t be foolish, Gleason. Rome was not built
in a day.”
“But you might at least keep me informed now and then as to----”
“Nonsense!” Nick cut in again. “I’ll report, Gleason, when I have
anything worth reporting, and not until then. If that doesn’t satisfy
the Madison chief of police, I’ll chuck the whole business and hike
back to New York.”
“No, no, don’t say that,” Chief Gleason quickly entreated. “I may have
been a bit impatient, Carter, but only because of my anxiety concerning
Paulding, who really is a very decent fellow. I don’t want to put him
in wrong, you know.”
“I am the one who has done the putting, Gleason, and I will take all
of the responsibility,” Nick replied. “But do not be impatient or
needlessly anxious. There will be something doing sooner or later, and
you shall know all about it.”
“Well, well, that ought to satisfy me, I suppose, coming from you,”
Gleason said more agreeably. “I should have known better than to have
questioned your judgment. Have you discovered anything worthy of
mention?”
“Not yet, but I’m on the way,” the detective said evasively. “I can
tell you nothing definite at present. Incidentally, however, I wish to
attend the reception and ball of the National Guards this evening. I
suppose you have been called upon to take the customary precautions.”
“Yes, indeed,” Gleason quickly nodded. “Ten of my men are to be there
in plain clothes. It will be a swell affair, with much costly jewelry
worn, no doubt, and we are taking unusual precautions.”
“Quite right,” Carter said approvingly. “I want you to get me two
tickets and the necessary cards.”
“I can give them to you now.” Gleason opened a drawer in his desk. “I
was supplied with a dozen, but need only ten. Here are the other two.”
“Good enough.” Nick slipped them into his pocket. “Say nothing about my
going, by the way, for I don’t want that generally known. After this
ball, Gleason, I may have something to report,” he said significantly,
while he arose to go.