NICK CARTER STORIES
New Magnet Library
PRICE, FIFTEEN CENTS
_Not a Dull Book in This List_
[Illustration]
Nick Carter stands for an interesting detective story. The fact that the
books in this line are so uniformly good is entirely due to the work of
a specialist. The man who wrote these stories produced no other type of
fiction. His mind was concentrated upon the creation of new plots and
situations in which his hero emerged triumphantly from all sorts of
trouble, and landed the criminal just where he should be--behind the
bars.
The author of these stories knew more about writing detective stories
than any other single person.
Following is a list of the best Nick Carter stories. They have been
selected with extreme care, and we unhesitatingly recommend each of them
as being fully as interesting as any detective story between cloth
covers which sells at ten times the price.
If you do not know Nick Carter, buy a copy of any of the New Magnet
Library books, and get acquainted. He will surprise and delight you.
_ALL TITLES ALWAYS IN PRINT_
850--Wanted: A Clew By Nicholas Carter
851--A Tangled Skein By Nicholas Carter
852--The Bullion Mystery By Nicholas Carter
853--The Man of Riddles By Nicholas Carter
854--A Miscarriage of Justice By Nicholas Carter
855--The Gloved Hand By Nicholas Carter
856--Spoilers and the Spoils By Nicholas Carter
857--The Deeper Game By Nicholas Carter
858--Bolts from Blue Skies By Nicholas Carter
859--Unseen Foes By Nicholas Carter
860--Knaves in High Places By Nicholas Carter
861--The Microbe of Crime By Nicholas Carter
862--In the Toils of Fear By Nicholas Carter
863--A Heritage of Trouble By Nicholas Carter
864--Called to Account By Nicholas Carter
865--The Just and the Unjust By Nicholas Carter
866--Instinct at Fault By Nicholas Carter
867--A Rogue Worth Trapping By Nicholas Carter
868--A Rope of Slender Threads By Nicholas Carter
869--The Last Call By Nicholas Carter
870--The Spoils of Chance By Nicholas Carter
871--A Struggle With Destiny By Nicholas Carter
872--The Slave of Crime By Nicholas Carter
873--The Crook’s Blind By Nicholas Carter
874--A Rascal of Quality By Nicholas Carter
875--With Shackles of Fire By Nicholas Carter
876--The Man Who Changed Faces By Nicholas Carter
877--The Fixed Alibi By Nicholas Carter
878--Out With the Tide By Nicholas Carter
879--The Soul Destroyers By Nicholas Carter
880--The Wages of Rascality By Nicholas Carter
881--Birds of Prey By Nicholas Carter
882--When Destruction Threatens By Nicholas Carter
883--The Keeper of Black Hounds By Nicholas Carter
884--The Door of Doubt By Nicholas Carter
885--The Wolf Within By Nicholas Carter
886--A Perilous Parole By Nicholas Carter
887--The Trail of the Fingerprints By Nicholas Carter
888--Dodging the Law By Nicholas Carter
889--A Crime in Paradise By Nicholas Carter
890--On the Ragged Edge By Nicholas Carter
891--The Red God of Tragedy By Nicholas Carter
892--The Man Who Paid By Nicholas Carter
893--The Blind Man’s Daughter By Nicholas Carter
894--One Object in Life By Nicholas Carter
895--As a Crook Sows By Nicholas Carter
896--In Record Time By Nicholas Carter
897--Held in Suspense By Nicholas Carter
898--The $100,000 Kiss By Nicholas Carter
899--Just One Slip By Nicholas Carter
900--On a Million-dollar Trail By Nicholas Carter
901--A Weird Treasure By Nicholas Carter
902--The Middle Link By Nicholas Carter
903--To the Ends of the Earth By Nicholas Carter
904--When Honors Pall By Nicholas Carter
905--The Yellow Brand By Nicholas Carter
906--A New Serpent in Eden By Nicholas Carter
907--When Brave Men Tremble By Nicholas Carter
908--A Test of Courage By Nicholas Carter
909--Where Peril Beckons By Nicholas Carter
910--The Gargoni Girdle By Nicholas Carter
911--Rascals & Co By Nicholas Carter
912--Too Late to Talk By Nicholas Carter
913--Satan’s Apt Pupil By Nicholas Carter
914--The Girl Prisoner By Nicholas Carter
915--The Danger of Folly By Nicholas Carter
916--One Shipwreck Too Many By Nicholas Carter
917--Scourged by Fear By Nicholas Carter
918--The Red Plague By Nicholas Carter
919--Scoundrels Rampant By Nicholas Carter
920--From Clew to Clew By Nicholas Carter
921--When Rogues Conspire By Nicholas Carter
922--Twelve in a Grave By Nicholas Carter
923--The Great Opium Case By Nicholas Carter
924--A Conspiracy of Rumors By Nicholas Carter
925--A Klondike Claim By Nicholas Carter
926--The Evil Formula By Nicholas Carter
927--The Man of Many Faces By Nicholas Carter
928--The Great Enigma By Nicholas Carter
929--The Burden of Proof By Nicholas Carter
930--The Stolen Brain By Nicholas Carter
931--A Titled Counterfeiter By Nicholas Carter
932--The Magic Necklace By Nicholas Carter
933--’Round the World for a Quarter By Nicholas Carter
934--Over the Edge of the World By Nicholas Carter
935--In the Grip of Fate By Nicholas Carter
936--The Case of Many Clews By Nicholas Carter
937--The Sealed Door By Nicholas Carter
938--Nick Carter and the Green Goods Men By Nicholas Carter
939--The Man Without a Will By Nicholas Carter
940--Tracked Across the Atlantic By Nicholas Carter
941--A Clew From the Unknown By Nicholas Carter
942--The Crime of a Countess By Nicholas Carter
943--A Mixed Up Mess By Nicholas Carter
944--The Great Money Order Swindle By Nicholas Carter
945--The Adder’s Brood By Nicholas Carter
946--A Wall Street Haul By Nicholas Carter
947--For a Pawned Crown By Nicholas Carter
948--Sealed Orders By Nicholas Carter
949--The Hate That Kills By Nicholas Carter
950--The American Marquis By Nicholas Carter
951--The Needy Nine By Nicholas Carter
952--Fighting Against Millions By Nicholas Carter
953--Outlaws of the Blue By Nicholas Carter
954--The Old Detective’s Pupil By Nicholas Carter
955--Found in the Jungle By Nicholas Carter
956--The Mysterious Mail Robbery By Nicholas Carter
957--Broken Bars By Nicholas Carter
958--A Fair Criminal By Nicholas Carter
959--Won by Magic By Nicholas Carter
960--The Piano Box Mystery By Nicholas Carter
961--The Man They Held Back By Nicholas Carter
962--A Millionaire Partner By Nicholas Carter
963--A Pressing Peril By Nicholas Carter
964--An Australian Klondyke By Nicholas Carter
965--The Sultan’s Pearls By Nicholas Carter
966--The Double Shuffle Club By Nicholas Carter
967--Paying the Price By Nicholas Carter
968--A Woman’s Hand By Nicholas Carter
969--A Network of Crime By Nicholas Carter
970--At Thompson’s Ranch By Nicholas Carter
971--The Crossed Needles By Nicholas Carter
972--The Diamond Mine Case By Nicholas Carter
973--Blood Will Tell By Nicholas Carter
974--An Accidental Password By Nicholas Carter
975--The Crook’s Bauble By Nicholas Carter
976--Two Plus Two By Nicholas Carter
977--The Yellow Label By Nicholas Carter
978--The Clever Celestial By Nicholas Carter
979--The Amphitheater Plot By Nicholas Carter
980--Gideon Drexel’s Millions By Nicholas Carter
981--Death in Life By Nicholas Carter
982--A Stolen Identity By Nicholas Carter
983--Evidence by Telephone By Nicholas Carter
984--The Twelve Tin Boxes By Nicholas Carter
985--Clew Against Clew By Nicholas Carter
986--Lady Velvet By Nicholas Carter
987--Playing a Bold Game By Nicholas Carter
988--A Dead Man’s Grip By Nicholas Carter
989--Snarled Identities By Nicholas Carter
990--A Deposit Vault Puzzle By Nicholas Carter
991--The Crescent Brotherhood By Nicholas Carter
992--The Stolen Pay Train By Nicholas Carter
993--The Sea Fox By Nicholas Carter
994--Wanted by Two Clients By Nicholas Carter
995--The Van Alstine Case By Nicholas Carter
996--Check No. 777 By Nicholas Carter
997--Partners in Peril By Nicholas Carter
998--Nick Carter’s Clever Protégé By Nicholas Carter
999--The Sign of the Crossed Knives By Nicholas Carter
1000--The Man Who Vanished By Nicholas Carter
1001--A Battle for the Right By Nicholas Carter
1002--A Game of Craft By Nicholas Carter
1003--Nick Carter’s Retainer By Nicholas Carter
1004--Caught in the Toils By Nicholas Carter
1005--A Broken Bond By Nicholas Carter
1006--The Crime of the French Café By Nicholas Carter
1007--The Man Who Stole Millions By Nicholas Carter
1008--The Twelve Wise Men By Nicholas Carter
1009--Hidden Foes By Nicholas Carter
1010--A Gamblers’ Syndicate By Nicholas Carter
1011--A Chance Discovery By Nicholas Carter
1012--Among the Counterfeiters By Nicholas Carter
1013--A Threefold Disappearance By Nicholas Carter
1014--At Odds With Scotland Yard By Nicholas Carter
1015--A Princess of Crime By Nicholas Carter
1016--Found on the Beach By Nicholas Carter
1017--A Spinner of Death By Nicholas Carter
1018--The Detective’s Pretty Neighbor By Nicholas Carter
1019--A Bogus Clew By Nicholas Carter
1020--The Puzzle of Five Pistols By Nicholas Carter
1021--The Secret of the Marble Mantel By Nicholas Carter
1022--A Bite of an Apple By Nicholas Carter
1023--A Triple Crime By Nicholas Carter
1024--The Stolen Race Horse By Nicholas Carter
1025--Wildfire By Nicholas Carter
1026--A _Herald_ Personal By Nicholas Carter
1027--The Finger of Suspicion By Nicholas Carter
1028--The Crimson Clue By Nicholas Carter
1029--Nick Carter Down East By Nicholas Carter
1030--The Chain of Clues By Nicholas Carter
1031--A Victim of Circumstances By Nicholas Carter
1032--Brought to Bay By Nicholas Carter
1033--The Dynamite Trap By Nicholas Carter
1034--A Scrap of Black Lace By Nicholas Carter
1035--The Woman of Evil By Nicholas Carter
1036--A Legacy of Hate By Nicholas Carter
1037--A Trusted Rogue By Nicholas Carter
1038--Man Against Man By Nicholas Carter
1039--The Demons of the Night By Nicholas Carter
1040--The Brotherhood of Death By Nicholas Carter
1041--At the Knife’s Point By Nicholas Carter
1042--A Cry for Help By Nicholas Carter
1043--A Stroke of Policy By Nicholas Carter
1044--Hounded to Death By Nicholas Carter
1045--A Bargain in Crime By Nicholas Carter
1046--The Fatal Prescription By Nicholas Carter
1047--The Man of Iron By Nicholas Carter
1048--An Amazing Scoundrel By Nicholas Carter
1049--The Chain of Evidence By Nicholas Carter
1050--Paid with Death By Nicholas Carter
1051--A Fight for a Throne By Nicholas Carter
1052--The Woman of Steel By Nicholas Carter
1053--The Seal of Death By Nicholas Carter
1054--The Human Fiend By Nicholas Carter
1055--A Desperate Chance By Nicholas Carter
1056--A Chase in the Dark By Nicholas Carter
1057--The Snare and the Game By Nicholas Carter
1058--The Murray Hill Mystery By Nicholas Carter
1059--Nick Carter’s Close Call By Nicholas Carter
1060--The Missing Cotton King By Nicholas Carter
1061--A Game of Plots By Nicholas Carter
1062--The Prince of Liars By Nicholas Carter
1063--The Man at the Window By Nicholas Carter
1064--The Red League By Nicholas Carter
1065--The Price of a Secret By Nicholas Carter
1066--The Worst Case on Record By Nicholas Carter
1067--From Peril to Peril By Nicholas Carter
1068--The Seal of Silence By Nicholas Carter
1069--Nick Carter’s Chinese Puzzle By Nicholas Carter
1070--A Blackmailer’s Bluff By Nicholas Carter
1071--Heard in the Dark By Nicholas Carter
1072--A Checkmated Scoundrel By Nicholas Carter
1073--The Cashier’s Secret By Nicholas Carter
1074--Behind a Mask By Nicholas Carter
1075--The Cloak of Guilt By Nicholas Carter
1076--Two Villains in One By Nicholas Carter
1077--The Hot Air Clue By Nicholas Carter
1078--Run to Earth By Nicholas Carter
1079--The Certified Check By Nicholas Carter
1080--Weaving the Web By Nicholas Carter
1081--Beyond Pursuit By Nicholas Carter
1082--The Claws of the Tiger By Nicholas Carter
1083--Driven From Cover By Nicholas Carter
1084--A Deal in Diamonds By Nicholas Carter
1085--The Wizard of the Cue By Nicholas Carter
1086--A Race for Ten Thousand By Nicholas Carter
1087--The Criminal Link By Nicholas Carter
1088--The Red Signal By Nicholas Carter
1089--The Secret Panel By Nicholas Carter
1090--A Bonded Villain By Nicholas Carter
1091--A Move in the Dark By Nicholas Carter
1092--Against Desperate Odds By Nicholas Carter
1093--The Telltale Photographs By Nicholas Carter
1094--The Ruby Pin By Nicholas Carter
1095--The Queen of Diamonds By Nicholas Carter
1096--A Broken Trail By Nicholas Carter
1097--An Ingenious Stratagem By Nicholas Carter
1098--A Sharper’s Downfall By Nicholas Carter
1099--A Race Track Gamble By Nicholas Carter
1100--Without a Clew By Nicholas Carter
1101--The Council of Death By Nicholas Carter
1102--The Hole in the Vault By Nicholas Carter
1103--In Death’s Grip By Nicholas Carter
1104--A Great Conspiracy By Nicholas Carter
1105--The Guilty Governor By Nicholas Carter
1106--A Ring of Rascals By Nicholas Carter
1107--A Masterpiece of Crime By Nicholas Carter
A Sharper’s Downfall
OR,
INTO THE NET
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.
[Illustration]
STREET & SMITH CORPORATION
PUBLISHERS
79-89 Seventh Avenue, New York
Copyright, 1903
By STREET & SMITH
A Sharper’s Downfall
(Printed in the United States of America)
All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign
languages, including the Scandinavian.
A SHARPER’S DOWNFALL.
CHAPTER I.
A SUCCESSFUL BURGLARY.
In Thirty-fifth Street, east of Fifth Avenue, there is a house
conspicuous among its neighbors in that it differs in construction by
being of the variety known as the English basement style.
Entrance to the house is secured through a door reached by one or two
steps from the pavement. The dining-room of the house is nearly on a
level with the street, while the parlors are on the second floor,
reached from the lower hall by a flight of stairs.
The front parlor is enlarged and the front of the house ornamented by a
bay window extending some three feet beyond the line of the house.
It was not so long ago that, at an early hour in the morning, a man
carefully and cautiously lifted a sash in this bay window, and,
thrusting out his head, sounded a low whistle as a signal.
Had any one been present on the opposite side of the street, or looking
from the windows of the houses opposite, they might have seen another
man cautiously come from a corner of the little courtyard in front, and,
after a careful look up and down the street, return the signal in the
same cautious manner.
Thereupon a bundle was let down from the bay window, which was quickly
detached, the rope drawn back and another bundle lowered, which, as the
other had been, was detached and the rope drawn up again, and this time
to lower what appeared to be a heavy box.
Immediately after, something was thrown from the window which in shape
looked like an old-fashioned portmanteau, but was smaller.
Then a man rapidly let himself down from the window until he was within
four feet of the ground, when he drew a knife, cutting the rope above
him.
This gave him a drop of at least four feet, but it left only a short end
of the rope dangling from the bay window at a height not likely to
attract the attention of a passer-by, the evident object of cutting the
rope.
In the meantime, the man below had shouldered the heavy box and rapidly
run down to the east, to the corner below, where he had been met by a
man who had come from a carriage standing around the corner.
This one took the box from him, and the man rapidly returned to pick up
one of the bundles concealed behind the fence and the article that had
been thrown from the window.
As rapidly he ran down the street as before, the while the other man,
who had come from the parlor floor by the rope, stationed himself across
the street and anxiously looked up and down as if standing ready to make
a signal.
As the man with the bundles disappeared around the corner, with no
interference, the other dashed across the street, and, seizing the last
bundle left, hurriedly ran to the east.
He had hardly shouldered this bundle and set out on his run when a man
came into view at the corner on the west, quickly catching sight of the
fellow running to the east.
He came from the west on a run, and, arriving opposite the house where
these strange things had occurred, stopped a brief instant to look. He
noted the open window and the dangling rope.
Without hesitation he hastily ran down the street to the east, but
reached the corner too late for any purpose except to see a carriage
some distance off, going at full speed.
This man was Nick Carter, the famous detective.
Nick immediately realized the folly of attempting to follow the
carriage, which had so great a lead, though he was satisfied that there
had been a robbery of the house and that the carriage contained the
booty as well as the thieves.
He contented himself with sounding an alarm, in the hope that the
attention of the policemen on the beats along which the carriage
traveled might be directed toward it and their suspicion excited.
But, so far as he was able to judge, the only result of his alarm was to
call to him a policeman from another direction than that in which the
carriage went.
“What is it, Mr. Carter?” asked the officer, coming up on a run, and
recognizing the famous detective.
“Robbery, I fancy,” replied Nick; “and that carriage contains the
thieves and what they’ve stolen.”
“We’d have to be race horses,” said the officer, looking after the
carriage now disappearing in the distance, “to overcome that lead.”
“No; it is useless to attempt to follow it,” replied Nick.
“Where was the job done?” asked the officer.
“Up there in Thirty-fifth Street,” replied Nick. “Is that your beat?”
“Yes, and I was over it half an hour ago.”
“They waited for that,” replied Nick. “Come with me and let us look at
the house.”
They went back to the house, where Nick pointed out the open bay window
and the short end of the rope dangling therefrom.
The officer went inside the little yard and found the rope that had been
cut off lying on the ground.
He picked it up, and, looking at the end, said:
“This rope has been cut with a sharp knife.”
Nick joined him, and, looking at the end, agreed with the officer, while
both wondered why it had been cut.
“Do you know who lives here?” asked Nick.
“Yes; the man’s name is Jacob Herron.”
“What is he?”
“A Wall Street man.”
“A broker or banker?”
“I don’t know what he is. A sort of speculator, I guess. Anyhow, he’s a
pretty big man.”
“Well,” said Nick, “we ought to arouse the family and make an
investigation.”
The two went to the front door, where the officer rang the bell several
times without securing a response.
Then he beat on the door with his night stick, sounding an alarm on the
stoop as well.
This finally aroused some one in the upper story, who raised a window to
ask what all the row was about.
“Come down and let us in,” replied the officer. “You have been robbed.”
“Who are you?” asked the voice above.
“A police officer, and Mr. Carter, the detective,” was the officer’s
reply.
The head was quickly withdrawn from the window, and, after the two on
the stoop had waited what seemed to them a long time, a light flashed up
in the hall and the door was immediately opened.
The two stepped in to see a young man of possibly twenty-six or
twenty-seven years of age standing there with neither coat nor vest and
his bare feet thrust into slippers.
“You say the house has been robbed?” asked the young man. “I see no
indications of it.”
“They are not likely to be found in the halls,” said Nick. “But I should
judge they are to be found in the parlor above.”
The young man without a word led the way up the stairs to a furnished
hallroom, into which the stairs opened. Here he lit one of the lights of
the chandelier, and Nick saw in a glance that the parlor in the front
communicated with this furnished hall, occupying the whole width of the
house.
They entered the parlor to discover little that was noteworthy. The
window was open in the bay, and they could see in the parlor, what was
not observable from the street, that a side window of the bay had been
raised sufficiently to permit a rope to pass under the sash, and that
the rope had been made fast around the division between the windows.
There had been little, if any, disturbance of the furniture. On a sofa
in the corner lay a silver mug.
Nick pointed to the mug, without making comment upon it, however.
“What room is that at the rear of the house?” he asked.
“I suppose it might be called the library,” replied the young man,
“since all the books that are in the house are there. It is the largest
room in the house, and is occupied by the family in the evenings when
the folks are at home.”
“Then the family is not at home?” asked Nick.
“No, Mr. Herron has gone to Chicago, and took his wife and daughter with
him as a sort of a pleasure trip for them.”
“Who are you?”
“I am George Temple, a nephew of Mr. Herron.”
“Are you a member of this family?”
“In a way,” replied the young man Temple. “I am very intimate here, but
I am here now only because the family are away. Uncle Jacob asked me to
sleep here and guard their house in his absence.”
“Well,” replied Nick, “it doesn’t seem as if you guarded it much.”
“No,” laughed the young man, “I never heard anything until I heard the
sound of the officer’s club on the door.”
“Take us into that rear room.”
Temple led the way across the hall to this room, which occupied the
whole width of the house, lighting a jet of the chandelier.
If there had been no indications of a robbery elsewhere, there were
plenty to be seen in this room.
Two handsome desks had been forcibly opened and rifled, the contents
being scattered on the floor; that is to say, such as had not been
carried away.
The drawers of the bookcases had been pulled out, their contents hastily
pulled over, much having been thrown on the floor.
In a hasty glance about the room it did appear as if every object in it
had passed under the hands of the thieves.
There was not a picture hanging straight on the walls, and there were
many in the room.
“Mr. Temple,” asked Nick, “did your uncle keep anything of special value
in this room?”
“What do you mean by special value?” asked Mr. Temple.
“Something which your uncle especially valued, was very careful of and
generally kept hidden.”
“I know of nothing of the kind,” replied Temple. “Why do you ask that
particular question?”
Nick pointed to the pictures, saying:
“It would look as if the thieves, in hunting for some special things
which they did not find, had hunted behind every picture in the room.
The inference is that they knew that some object of value, which they
were anxious to obtain, was concealed somewhere within this room.”
The young man, Temple, looked curiously at the detective, as if the
remark of Nick indicated a shrewdness not known to him, but he made no
reply.
“Do you miss anything from this room?” asked Nick.
The young man closely examined the room, and, completing his
investigation, came back to Nick to say:
“I miss two rather valuable bits of bronze that my uncle picked up
abroad. However, it may be that before leaving on this journey these
bronzes and other valuable things were picked up and locked away. You
see, I only stay at the house occasionally, and though I am here nearly
daily, I am yet not as familiar with it as if I was living here all the
time.”
“What room were you occupying when we aroused you?”
“The front room on the fourth story.”
“Were there any servants in the house?”
“No; you see I only sleep here, and Uncle Jacob gave his servants a sort
of vacation until his return.”
“The rooms on the floor above, who are they occupied by?” asked Nick.
“The front room by Uncle Jacob and his wife; the rear room by his
daughter; and the room between as a nursery.”
“Take us to those rooms.”
The three mounted to the third floor, and on entering the front room
the first thing that attracted Nick’s attention was a little house safe
in the corner.
The door stood wide open and the safe itself was empty.
Nick examined the lock and saw that it was of the combination order.
Apparently the safe had been opened by one familiar with the
combination.
“What was kept in this safe?” asked Nick.
“I don’t know; I never knew the safe was here. I have not been in this
room in a long time.”
It was clear that every drawer and receptacle in the room had been
rifled in great haste, articles having been thrown upon the floor in the
most reckless manner.
Investigation showed that the daughter’s room in the rear had been
treated in the same manner.
The little party now went down to the first floor, and, entering the
dining-room, saw that it had been literally stripped of its plate.
“Was it valuable?” said Nick.
“On my word,” replied Temple, “I couldn’t tell you whether it was
genuine silver or merely plated ware. My impression is that there was a
great deal of silver here.”
“When will Mr. Herron be back?” asked Nick.
“He’s expected back to-morrow.”
Nick turned away after saying to the policeman that he had no further
business there, and that the officer should make his report to the
station house as quickly as he could.
He then left the house.