TOYING WITH FATE; OR, Nick Carter’s Narrow Shave 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] NEW YORK STREET & SMITH, PUBLISHERS 79-89 SEVENTH AVENUE Copyright, 1903 By STREET & SMITH Toying With Fate All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign languages, including the Scandinavian. _The Best of Everything!_ Our experience with the American reading public has taught us that it expects better reading than readers of any other nationality. Why? Because Americans, as a rule, are better educated and more intelligent. We make it a point to cater to all classes of readers with our paper-covered novels. If a man likes adventure or detective stories, he can find more and better ones in the S. & S. novel list than he can among the cloth books. If a woman wants love, society, or mystery stories, the S. & S. catalogue again contains just what she wants at the lowest possible price. If a boy wants up-to-date baseball, athletic, or treasure-hunt stories, he cannot get anything that will please him so much as the books in the MEDAL and NEW MEDAL LIBRARIES, no matter how much he has to spend for his reading matter. Here are a few suggestions: BOOKS FOR MEN. The Nick Carter stories in the NEW MAGNET LIBRARY. The Howard W. Erwin stories in the FAR WEST LIBRARY. The William Wallace Cook stories in the NEW FICTION LIBRARY. The Dumas stories in the SELECT LIBRARY. BOOKS FOR WOMEN. The Mrs. Georgie Sheldon stories in the NEW EAGLE SERIES. The Charles Garvice stories in the NEW EAGLE SERIES. The Bertha Clay stories in the BERTHA CLAY LIBRARY. The Southworth stories in the SOUTHWORTH LIBRARY. The Mrs. Mary J. Holmes stories in the EAGLE and SELECT LIBRARIES. BOOKS FOR BOYS. The Burt L. Standish stories in the NEW MEDAL LIBRARY. The Horatio Alger stories in the MEDAL and NEW MEDAL LIBRARIES. The Oliver Optic stories in the MEDAL and NEW MEDAL LIBRARIES. The Edward C. Taylor stories in the NEW MEDAL LIBRARY. Send for our complete catalogue and look these stories up. It will pay you. STREET & SMITH, _Publishers_, NEW YORK Why Take a Chance? Most everybody thinks that the public library is a mighty fine institution--teaches people to read, and all that. Well, so it does, but does any one ever think of the great risk that a person, who takes a book out of a public library, runs of catching some contagious disease? Every time a bacteriological examination is made of the public-library book, germs of every known disease are found among its pages. Probably, from your own experience, you know that lots of people never think of taking a book from the public library, until some one in their family is sick and wants something to read.