A DESPERATE GAME.
A sinister smile flashed over the white face of the man at the desk.
“There are many methods of executing the orders of the Great Diamond
Syndicate,” he said, “and there are forms of death calculated to break
the most obstinate will. Besides, the safety of your beloved Chick
ought to count for something with you.”
The detective strained at his bonds and ground his teeth in impotent
rage.
“I’d like to have half an hour with you with bare knuckles,” he said,
as the man at the desk gazed upon him in triumph. “I think I could
teach you a few points in humanity. Let me tell you now that the
American head of the Great Diamond Syndicate is not equal to his job.
In short, is a very cheap fool.”
“I am not a passionate person,” said the other. “Proceed.”
“If you were fit for the position,” continued Nick, “you would never
have permitted me to regain consciousness.”
“We are looking to you for help in securing your diamonds,” was the
cool reply.
“Then, having made this mistake, you should never have confided the
secrets of your syndicate to me.”
“We decided to bring you down a peg or two before your death, to show
you how little you were really capable of when pitted against men of
ability and courage.”
“To humiliate me, in fact?”
“To punish you.”
“What do you suppose I’ll do to your syndicate when I get out of here?”
asked Nick.
“You’ll never get out,” was the reply. “You are as good as dead now.”
Nick smiled and turned his face to the wall. He was listening intently
for some indication of the presence of his assistants. He had no idea
how they would get to him, but he was satisfied that get to him they
would.
Presently there came a ring at the door. Nick knew by the sound that he
was on the second floor of the house. He had little doubt that he was
still in the house occupied wholly or in part by the African fortune
teller. He was now convinced that the woman was a confederate of the
diamond thieves.
Nick listened with his heart beating wildly as he heard the front door
opened. He was naturally anxious about the safety of his assistants
and Joseph. He had not the least doubt that the thieves had actually
planned a robbery at his house. As fate would have it, there was no one
in the house save Joseph, if Chick and Patsy had obeyed his telephone
call. The thieves might really secure his diamonds, but that was not
the chief cause of his anxiety.
“There will be a long score to settle when I get out of this,” he
thought.
Presently the man arose from the desk and approached the door leading
into the hall. There were now loud voices out there, and Nick was
listening with all his senses alert. The man opened the door a trifle.
“What is coming off out there?” he demanded, in French.
“This fool servant won’t let me into the house,” came a voice which
sounded remarkably like that of the alleged reporter who had guided
Nick to the place. It was like the young fellow’s voice, and yet it was
not. There was a note in it which Nick recognized. He was satisfied
that it was Chick playing a desperate game.
“What is the matter, Maurice?” asked the man, standing in the doorway.
“He doesn’t make correct replies,” was the answer.
“I do, too! He’s a fool!”
“Bring him up here and keep a strong hold on him,” commanded the chief
of the diamond thieves.
“I’ll go up there, all right,” was the reply, “but if he touches me,
I’ll knock his head off. I ought to know all about this den, if I have
fuddled my head a bit with drink, and I have been with you longer than
he has.”
Nick saw the chief step back to his desk and grasp a revolver.
“That is a counterfeit,” he said, looking toward Nick with a smile. “It
is probably one of your men trying to break into the game. We’ll let
him up and see what he looks like; then we’ll settle him for good.”
As the chief stepped back to the door, Nick gave a sharp call of
warning, which he knew that Chick would understand. The chief turned
angrily in his direction for just an instant. In that instant there was
a quick, heavy blow below, and a fall. Then a cool breath of air from
the street swept through the hall and up the stairs to the room where
Nick lay.
The chief of the diamond thieves turned back into the room. There was a
look of brutal rage on his face.
“You were right,” he said. “I presumed too much on the competence of
our guards. You know too much to be allowed to leave this place alive.”
As he leveled his revolver at the helpless detective there came a rush
on the outer staircase, and he paused, as if uncertain whether it would
not be better to turn his weapon on the intruders.
At that critical moment there came a sharp call for help, seemingly
from the rear room, and he bounded in that direction.
“Help! I am being strangled.”
The voice appeared to be that of a woman.
The would-be murderer, when he reached the room whence the cry had
seemed to proceed, found it entirely unoccupied. With a muttered oath
he sprang back to the helpless detective on the couch, and again lifted
his weapon.
He was too late to accomplish the murder of his prisoner. Chick,
disguised as the young man who had played the part of the reporter,
swept into the room and struck down the revolver. The bullet buried
itself in the carpet. Behind Chick came Patsy and Danny, Nick’s
chauffeur, who had entered the lower hall when Chick had opened the
door, after putting the guard out with a blow.
The would-be murderer disappeared in the rear room before Chick could
lay hands on him, and closed the door in the faces of his pursuers.
They had the barrier open in a trice, but the chief of the diamond
thieves had disappeared. An open door showing a private staircase
leading to the basement revealed the manner of his flight.
While the other two hastened down the staircase in hot pursuit, Chick
turned back to his chief.
“Rather close call that,” he said. “It is a wonder the fellow did not
shoot before we could get into the room.”
“His attention was attracted elsewhere,” said Nick, with a smile, as
Chick released him from his bonds.
“I don’t understand,” said the assistant. “I surely thought it was all
off with you. What happened?”
“There was a call for help from the back room,” said Nick, with a grin.
“I see,” said Chick. “Some of your ventriloquism. Well, it saved your
life, all right. What next?”
In a few words he informed Chick of the situation.
“I must get home at once,” he said.
Just then Patsy and Danny made their appearance.
“It’s no use,” Patsy said. “The house is empty. I can’t understand how
they got away so handily.”
“Then the game is about played out so far as this place is concerned,”
said Nick, “and we may as well take our departure for the present.”
He made a quick inspection of the two desks, gathered the few papers
they held into a package, and turned to the door.
“Call the police,” he said to Chick, “and leave them in charge of the
building. We may have further use for some of the traps here. Wait!
Here is a phone.”
He called his private number and waited impatiently. At length the
voice of Joseph came over the wire.
“Have you had visitors to-night?” asked Nick.
“We certainly have,” came the reply, with a tinge of triumph in the
tones.
“Did they get into the house?” asked Nick anxiously.
“No, sir,” was the reply. “I made short work of the thieves. One was
wounded and taken to the hospital, and the others escaped.”
After some further conversation Nick hung up the receiver.
“This has been a bad night for the Great Diamond Syndicate,” he said.
“That is a new one on me,” said Chick, and in a few words Nick
explained the interview with the chief of the syndicate.
“Do you think he was telling the truth?” asked the assistant.
“He was certainly correct about the attempt to rob my house,” replied
Nick.
“But it does not seem possible that such a syndicate as he told of
could exist in this age of the world.”
“There are strange things connected with criminal life,” said the
detective. “I can see how such an organization as he described could
be made to pay large dividends, and there is no knowing what thieves
will do. London is headquarters for all manner of strange syndicates.
Nothing is impossible over there.”
“It sounds like romance,” said Chick.
“Anyway,” continued Nick, “we can soon learn the truth or falsity of
the fellow’s statements. He will give himself away before long, for
he is vain and proud of his skill in criminal work. Just imagine his
telling me all about his syndicate!”
“He only wanted to show you what could be done in spite of the officers
of the law,” said Chick. “Besides, he sought to make you look like
thirty cents, as the boys on the Bowery say.”
“They are a bold lot,” said Nick. “Think of their sending that young
man to the hotel to bring me here! However, their scheme worked to our
advantage rather than to their own. By the way, where did you get that
make-up?”
“I watched the fellow at the Wisconsin, and saw you go off with him,”
was the reply. “I saw what you were working, and followed on as you
directed. When you came in here, I ducked away and got this suit.
Pretty near correct, eh?”
“It is about the thing,” replied Nick. “Listen!”
There was an alarm of fire in the street, and then fire apparatus
stopped in front of the building. Chick opened the door to the hall and
looked out. The whole place was in flames. The detectives darted toward
the private staircase, seeking escape by way of the basement, but were
there met by a column of flame.
Nick threw open the windows, and fire ladders soon made their
appearance. It was clear that the lower part of the structure was
little better than a furnace.
“They hardly succeeded in burning us alive,” said Chick, as the four
men stood on the pavement below. “That was a fool trick, it seems to
me.”
“The idea,” said Nick, “was undoubtedly to destroy the papers and
identifying records of the Great Diamond Syndicate. In this they only
partially succeeded, for I have quite a mess of documents in my pocket.
The house, however, seems to be doomed to destruction.”
This was indeed the fact, for the building burned to the ground.
It was afterward discovered that the basement had been filled with
combustible material, for use in just such an emergency. It was clear
to the detectives that the Great Diamond Syndicate took due care of
its secrets. It is true that the chief, believing Nick Carter to be as
good as dead, had talked of the syndicate to him, but he had done this
principally through vanity, and with the purpose of showing how the
keenest detectives of the day had been outwitted by the superior wisdom
and courage of the mighty syndicate.