Nick Carter Stories No. 147, July 3, 1915: On Death's Trail; or, Nick Carter's Strangest CaseCarter, Nicholas (House name)
General
Nick Carter Stories No. 147, July 3, 1915: On Death's Trail; or, Nick Carter's Strangest Case
Carter, Nicholas (House name)
Detective and mystery stories, American -- Periodicals; Popular literature -- Periodicals
Chick rode on about thirty yards, then sprang from the moving car and
stepped quickly toward the scrubby trees and shrubbery filling the apex
of the angle formed by the two roads. Flanking the opposite side of that
which the car was following, scattered dwellings could be seen in the
distance, but the road to the right appeared to be unsettled.
Somewhat to Chick’s surprise, after stealing in among the low trees to a
point enabling him to see the latter road, he discovered his quarry
seated on a rock at one side and gazing up the deserted way.
“He has an appointment with some one,” Chick reasoned, noting the man’s
expectant expression. “He is going to wait, and it’s up to me to do the
same, also to crawl near enough to overhear what may be said. That ought
to be easily accomplished, if I can avoid snapping a twig.”
The suspect had unfolded his second newspaper and was beginning to read
it.
Chick dropped upon his hands and knees and crept within thirty feet of
the man, then settled himself in a thicket that effectively concealed
him, though through the twigs and foliage he could plainly see the
waiting man.
He could see, too, that he was much amused by what he was reading, and
Chick was not slow in suspecting the nature of it.
Twenty minutes passed, also several motor cars, at each of which the
suspect gazed sharply when he heard it approaching. He sprang up at
length, hearing and seeing another, and Chick felt a thrill of
satisfaction, when an inferior, two-seated runabout containing a man and
a woman came to a stop near his quarry.
“All three cannot ride away in that trap,” he said to himself. “I can
keep an eye on one of them, at least.”
Even before a word came from one of them, moreover, confirming his
immediate suspicions, Chick had sized up the couple in the car.
The woman was somewhat showily clad, about thirty years old, and quite
attractive, barring her rouged cheeks and indications of dissipation in
her sharp gray eyes.
Her companion was a bearded man in an ill-fitting black suit with a
frock coat, and with a gray slouch hat on his head. The instant Chick
saw him and his garments, he was sure of the man’s identity, despite his
facial disguise.
“Margate himself!” flashed up in his mind. “Andy Margate, as sure as I’m
a foot high.”
This was confirmed almost immediately by the intercourse that began as
soon as the woman, who was driving the runabout, brought it to a stop at
one side of the road.
“Ah!” she exclaimed. “You’re here ahead of us, Tony.”
“Sure I’m here,” said the man in baggy brown. “I’ve been waiting twenty
minutes.”
“Well, what have you learned, Selig?” Margate demanded, with manifest
interest. “You keep quiet, Nance, and let me do the talking.”
“Tony Selig,” thought Chick; then, he rightly inferred: “By their
resemblance, too, this woman should be his sister. Nance Selig, eh?”
The man in the road drew nearer the car, replying, with a laugh:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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