A VOICE BY WIRE.
Five o’clock that afternoon found Nick Carter and Patsy seated in Mr.
John Madden’s handsomely furnished library in the Fifth Avenue residence
mentioned, in front of which the detective’s touring car then was
standing.
Their only companion was Mr. Madden himself, who arrived soon after Nick
was admitted by the butler, and the detective already had stated the
distressing circumstances.
Arriving in the meantime, Patsy could make only a negative report.
Despite his energetic efforts for upward of half an hour, he could find
no trace of the unknown lad, or the missing girl, nor any person who
could add to the information already obtained.
Mr. Madden, though a man of nearly seventy, had received the terrible
news with characteristic fortitude and habitual dignity and composure.
He had figured in too many serious situations, and suffered too many
domestic afflictions, for his self-possession to be easily overcome.
He was not less deeply affected, nevertheless, for, as the nurse had
said, his two children were his only joy and comfort. He had no others.
He had lost his first wife thirty years before. His second, a beautiful
girl much younger than himself, had died shortly after the birth of her
second child.
Since then, though he had retained his magnificent residence and several
of his faithful and devoted servants, Mr. John Madden had found but
little enjoyment in life beyond that derived from the two pretty
children a loving wife had left him.
He sat gazing at Nick Carter at five o’clock that afternoon, with tears
in his eyes and his hands gripping his knees--a portly, smoothly shaved
man with gray hair and a remarkably attractive countenance, despite the
shadow of sorrow that never left him. He was saying deliberately, with a
voice rendered steady only by the strength of a superior will:
“I agree with you, Nick, in that Lucy is not at fault. That would be
very unlike her. She has been faithful, always cautious and careful,
during the five years she has been in my service. No, I will not censure
her.”
“It really would be very unjust,” Nick said earnestly. “She did
perfectly right in acting upon her impulse to aid a woman said to be in
distress, and she cannot reasonably be blamed for not suspecting that
she was the victim of a put-up job. Even with all of my experience, Mr.
Madden, I did not at first suspect it.”
“Do you now feel sure of it?” Mr. Madden gravely questioned.
“Yes, absolutely,” said the detective. “The circumstances admit of no
other interpretation. This whole business was cut and dried, carefully
planned, and cleverly executed.”
“You reason that----”
“It may be told in a nutshell,” Nick interposed. “No such lad as Lucy
Sloan described would have remained to watch the two children while she
ran to aid a fainting woman. A well-bred boy, accustomed to obey his
elders, might have done so, but not a lad of the streets. He, boylike,
would have returned to learn how the woman fared and to see all that
occurred.”
“Sure!” put in Patsy expressively. “I know. I’ve been there.”
“In view of what occurred, moreover, the almost immediate recovery of
the woman shows that she was only feigning. That is confirmed, too, by
her speedy disappearance. She had to make a quick get-away before the
absence of Amy was discovered. She got a move on, I remember, the moment
the nurse started to return to the children.”
“You do not believe, then, that her name is Margaret Hanson?”
“Not for a moment,” said Nick. “That was only a blind. She is a very
cool and clever woman, Mr. Madden, and one of an equally clever gang by
whom your daughter has been abducted. The circumstances admit of no
other conclusion.”
“My Lord, this is terrible!” Mr. Madden said, with a groan.
“I do not think, however, that the child is in any immediate personal
peril,” Nick quickly added. “She probably has been abducted with a view
to bleeding you out of a large sum of money.”
“I will pay any sum, Nick, to have her safely restored to me.”
“No, no, don’t do that,” Nick protested. “Surely not at present. It may
become necessary, of course, after we have exhausted all other
resources, but not until then. You owe it to the community, as well as
to yourself, to defer yielding to such knavery as long as you can
consistently do so. In the meantime I will devote all of my energies to
running down the crooks and finding the child.”
“But they may kill her, or----”
“Not at present,” Nick insisted. “Not as long as they see a ghost of a
chance of forcing you to comply with their demands. That would be the
worst step they could take. Have no fear of it, Mr. Madden. They will
not kill the goose from which they hope to get a golden egg.”
“What do you advise?” Mr. Madden asked gravely.
“I want you to give me entire charge of the case.”
“I would demur over it, Nick, if that proposition came from any other
man. Coming from you--well, I know I cannot do better than accept it.”
“I think so, too.”
“That settles it, then.”
“Very good,” said Nick. “You must, therefore, take no steps beyond what
I may direct. In imposing that condition, Mr. Madden, I have only a word
to add. I will do all that you could do, or the entire metropolitan
police, to trace and recover your daughter. I will also accomplish it
before she suffers any serious harm, even though I am finally forced to
throw up my hands and pay a ransom for her safe return.”
“I understand, Nick, and have absolute faith in your judgment,” Mr.
Madden said feelingly. “I give you entire charge of the case. You
evidently think, I infer, that we shall hear from her abductors.”
“Hear from them!” Nick exclaimed, smiling. “Don’t you doubt that for a
moment, Mr. Madden. You will hear from them much sooner than you expect,
providing I have sized up the case correctly.”
“Well, possibly.”
“What would you do,” Nick added, “if you were engaged in such knavery?
Your first step would be to prevent too much publicity, too great
activity by the police, both of which could best be insured by
communicating promptly with an anxious parent and stating the precise
situation. You will hear from these rascals within an hour, unless I am
much mistaken, either by telephone or----”
Nick’s prediction was verified even while he was speaking. The bell of a
telephone on the library table interrupted him. He laughed in somewhat
sinister fashion, and held up his hand.
“Keep your seat, Mr. Madden,” said he. “I will see what’s doing. This
may be the first gun on the skirmish line.”
“Gee! My money goes on that,” put in Patsy.
Nick turned and picked up the telephone while speaking. Removing the
receiver, he called hurriedly, almost perfectly imitating Mr. Madden’s
voice:
“Hello! Hello!”
A woman’s voice came over the wire. It was a cold, curt, sinister voice,
with a ring of metallic hardness denoting will power, decision, and a
sort of bulldog aggressiveness:
“I want Mr. John Madden. Is he at home?”
“Where in thunder have I heard that voice?”
The question flashed through the detective’s mind the instant he heard
it. Still imitating that of the venerable millionaire, Nick quickly
answered:
“I am he. John Madden is talking. Who are you?”
The response came with more threatening intonation:
“Never mind who I am. You keep your trap closed, and let me do the
talking. If you butt in with any questions, I’ll hang up the receiver.
Do you get me?”
“Yes,” said Nick.
“Listen, then, and don’t butt in,” continued the woman. “It’s about a
piece of live stock that you must have missed by this time. I’ve got the
lamb, and she’s all right. Whether she’ll come home all right, wagging
her tail behind her, depends on yourself. You’ll get a letter to-morrow
morning stating the conditions. It will be mailed to your business
office--and it will mean business, too; you can bet on that.”
“Tell me----”
“You keep quiet,” snapped the woman. “I’ll do all the telling that’s
necessary. You do the listening.”
“Go on.”
“The letter you will receive to-morrow morning will explain all. In the
meantime the lost lamb will not be harmed, and you must not take steps
to find her. If you do, mind you, we will surely fleece her instead of
you. Don’t publish the facts. Don’t inform the police. Don’t kick up a
stir of any kind. Do you get me?”
“Yes,” Nick repeated simply.
“Mark this, too; don’t you employ Nick Carter in this affair, as you
have in others, or it will be all over but the shouting--and the burial.
We’ll return her to you in a wooden raincoat. That goes, mind you, and
that’s all for the present. Beware of any deviations from these
instructions. Wait for your letter to-morrow morning.”
Nick heard the quick click of the hook on the distant telephone when the
threatening speaker hung up the receiver, and he knew that any attempt
to prolong the interview would be utterly futile. He replaced the
telephone on the library table, then turned and told his companions all
that he had heard.
The pale, anxious face of the noted money king became a little brighter
while he listened. He found a grain of comfort and encouragement in
knowing, at least, that his missing child was in no immediate danger.
“You were right, Nick,” he declared. “The scoundrels have hastened to
communicate with me.”
“I felt sure of that, Mr. Madden.”
“But I have made one terrible mistake.”
“What is that?”
“In putting you on the case. If that woman’s threat----”
“That will not be executed,” Nick interrupted, resuming his seat. “The
rascals must know that you may have notified the police by this time, or
even have appealed to me. That threat was only a bluff. Take it from me,
Mr. Madden, they will not harm the child at present, do what you will.
They have not abducted her for that purpose.”
“That’s a good safe gamble,” supplemented Patsy. “They are out for the
coin, Mr. Madden, and nothing else. There may be a second woman in the
case, chief, or Margaret Hanson, so called, did not recognize you. If
she had, they already would know you are on the case.”
“There is a second woman,” Nick replied. “Furthermore, Patsy, she is
some crook with whom I am acquainted.”
“You recognized her voice?”
“Positively! But I cannot tell whose voice. I am absolutely sure,
nevertheless, that I have heard it before.”
“Not Margaret Hanson’s voice?”
“No.”
“Some other woman, then, may have got away with the child. It may have
been her voice.”
“That is precisely what I suspect,” said Nick. “Is Amy a child, Mr.
Madden, who would readily go with a stranger?”
“No, no; quite the contrary,” Mr. Madden quickly assured him. “She is
very shy of strangers, and has been repeatedly cautioned against having
anything to do with them out of doors.”
“That may help us materially,” said Nick.
“How so?”
“It would have been exceedingly risky to have abducted her by force,”
Nick explained. “A scream from the child would have been heard in half a
dozen directions. It is ten to one, therefore, that she was abducted by
some person with whom she is acquainted, perhaps of whom she is fond,
even, and by whom she could easily have been influenced. Do you know of
any woman, Mr. Madden, who would be guilty of such a crime?”
“No, indeed, I do not,” he replied, after racking his brain for several
moments. “Bear in mind, Nick, that Amy is only six years of age, also
that my wife has been dead nearly two years, and that I since have had
very few women visitors. I really know of none by whom the child could
have been lured away--surely none capable of committing such a crime.”
“Your servants are trustworthy?”
“Absolutely.”
“Have you ever discharged one with whom the child was familiar, and who
may be seeking revenge, as well as money?”
“No. I feel sure of that, Nick, also.”
“I think we have covered all of the ground, then, for the present,” Nick
announced. “We will await further developments. I shall take no steps
until to-morrow, after seeing the letter you are to receive in your
morning mail. I will call at your business office at nine o’clock.”
“Will it not be better, instead, for me to bring the letter to your
office?” Mr. Madden earnestly questioned.
“Lest the rascals may discover that I call on you and am on the case?”
“Exactly.”
“Don’t let that worry you,” said Nick significantly. “I will call on you
in disguise. As a matter of fact, however, I don’t much care if they do
learn that I am after them. It may draw them from cover and into making
some move that will prove disastrous to them. You leave it all to me,
Mr. Madden, and meet me in your business office at nine to-morrow
morning.”
Nick arose with the last and took his hat from the table.
“I will send in a card bearing a fictitious name,” he added. “Henderson
Black.”
“Henderson Black,” repeated the banker. “I will remember it.”
It was nearly six o’clock when Nick departed with Patsy. Half an hour
later both were seated at dinner in the detective’s Madison Avenue
residence, in company with his chief assistant, Chick Carter, who had
been fully informed of the case.
“There are several obvious points, Nick, at least,” he remarked. “The
crooks must have known that Lucy Sloan was in the habit of taking the
two children to the park each afternoon, also where she would be at a
certain time, and just how the job could be safely done.”
“True,” Nick agreed. “That goes without saying.”
“And that familiarity with her daily doings, together with the fact that
they got away with the child so quickly and without any outcry, are very
significant,” Chick added. “The child must have known her abductor, and
the latter must have known that the child could be easily and quickly
enticed away.”
“Certainly. That also is obvious.”
“Who is the woman, then, or man, as the case may be, who has been so
friendly with the child to have felt sure of being able to successfully
pull off such a job?”
Nick laughed a bit grimly.
“That is a pertinent question, Chick, more easily asked than answered,”
he replied. “It is useless to speculate upon it at this stage of the
game. We will await the promised letter from the rascals. We then may
find the answer between the lines.”