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Title: A Stolen Name The Man Who Defied Nick Carter Author: Nicholas Carter Release Date: December 27, 2020 [eBook #64147] Language: English Character set encoding: UTF-8 Produced by: David Edwards, Nahum Maso i Carcases, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A STOLEN NAME *** Transcriber’s Notes: The original spelling, hyphenation, and punctuation have been retained, with the exception of apparent typographical errors which have been corrected. For convenience, a table of contents, which is not present in the original, has been included. Cover CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. THE BEGINNING OF A PLOT. 5 II. BACK FROM THE DEAD. 20 III. JIMMY DURYEA’S DARING. 28 IV. THROWING THE GAUNTLET. 37 V. THE GHOST OF JIMMY. 46 VI. NICK MEETS DEFIANCE. 55 VII. WHEN A MAN IS DESPERATE. 65 VIII. PLOTTING AGAINST A PLOTTER. 74 IX. EXCITEMENT IN THE NIGHT. 83 X. A PLOT MOST FOUL 93 XI. THE DIAMOND NECKLACE. 103 XII. THE REVELATIONS OF NAN. 112 XIII. THE LAYING OF THE GHOST. 121 XIV. THE STOLEN IDENTITY. 129 XV. A WOMAN OF MYSTERY. 145 XVI. GOING AFTER JUNO. 154 XVII. JUNO. 163 XVIII. A DANGEROUS WOMAN. 172 XIX. TRAILED BY FATALITIES. 181 XX. THE SIREN EXERTS HER SKILL. 190 XXI. THE SIREN AT WORK. 199 XXII. A SECRET MISSION. 218 XXIII. THE WORK OF A SECRET AGENT. 234 XXIV. THE AMBASSADOR’S CABINET. 243 XXV. THE HOLLOW BEDPOST. 252 XXVI. THE WOMAN SPY. 261 XXVII. IN THE NET OF A SIREN. 270 XXVIII. A FIGHT IN THE STREET. 287 XXIX. MURDER. 296 XXX. BARE-FACED JIMMY’S DOUBLE. 305 NICK CARTER STORIES New Magnet Library Not a Dull Book in This List ALL BY NICHOLAS CARTER 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 troubles 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 901—A Weird Treasure 902—The Middle Link 903—To the Ends of the Earth 904—When Honors Pall 905—The Yellow Brand 906—A New Serpent in Eden 907—When Brave Men Tremble 908—A Test of Courage 909—Where Peril Beckons 910—The Gargoni Girdle 911—Rascals & Co. 912—Too Late to Talk 913—Satan’s Apt Pupil 914—The Girl Prisoner [i] 915—The Danger of Folly 916—One Shipwreck Too Many 917—Scourged by Fear 918—The Red Plague 919—Scoundrels Rampant 920—From Clew to Clew 921—When Rogues Conspire 922—Twelve in a Grave 923—The Great Opium Case 924—A Conspiracy of Rumors 925—A Klondike Claim 926—The Evil Formula 927—The Man of Many Faces 928—The Great Enigma 929—The Burden of Proof 930—The Stolen Brain 931—A Titled Counterfeiter 932—The Magic Necklace 933—’Round the World for a Quarter 934—Over the Edge of the World 935—In the Grip of Fate 936—The Case of Many Clews 937—The Sealed Door 938—Nick Carter and the Green Goods Men 939—The Man Without a Will 940—Tracked Across the Atlantic 941—A Clew from the Unknown 942—The Crime of a Countess 943—A Mixed-up Mess 944—The Great Money-order Swindle 945—The Adder’s Brood 946—A Wall Street Haul 947—For a Pawned Crown 948—Sealed Orders 949—The Hate that Kills 950—The American Marquis 951—The Needy Nine 952—Fighting Against Millions 953—Outlaws of the Blue 954—The Old Detective’s Pupil 955—Found in the Jungle 956—The Mysterious Mail Robbery 957—Broken Bars 958—A Fair Criminal 959—Won by Magic 960—The Piano Box Mystery 961—The Man They Held Back 962—A Millionaire Partner 963—A Pressing Peril 964—An Australian Klondike 965—The Sultan’s Pearls 966—The Double Shuffle Club 967—Paying the Price 968—A Woman’s Hand 969—A Network of Crime 970—At Thompson’s Ranch 971—The Crossed Needles 972—The Diamond Mine Case 973—Blood Will Tell 974—An Accidental Password 975—The Crook’s Double 976—Two Plus Two 977—The Yellow Label 978—The Clever Celestial 979—The Amphitheater Plot 980—Gideon Drexel’s Millions 981—Death in Life 982—A Stolen Identity 983—Evidence by Telephone 984—The Twelve Tin Boxes 985—Clew Against Clew 986—Lady Velvet 987—Playing a Bold Game 988—A Dead Man’s Grip 989—Snarled Identities 990—A Deposit Vault Puzzle 991—The Crescent Brotherhood 992—The Stolen Pay Train 993—The Sea Fox 994—Wanted by Two Clients 995—The Van Alstine Case 996—Check No. 777 997—Partners in Peril 998—Nick Carter’s Clever Protégé 999—The Sign of the Crossed Knives 1000—The Man Who Vanished 1001—A Battle for the Right 1002—A Game of Craft 1003—Nick Carter’s Retainer 1004—Caught in the Toils 1005—A Broken Bond 1006—The Crime of the French Café 1007—The Man Who Stole Millions 1008—The Twelve Wise Men 1009—Hidden Foes 1010—A Gamblers’ Syndicate 1011—A Chance Discovery 1012—Among the Counterfeiters 1013—A Threefold Disappearance 1014—At Odds with Scotland Yard 1015—A Princess of Crime 1016—Found on the Beach 1017—A Spinner of Death 1018—The Detective’s Pretty Neighbor 1019—A Bogus Clew 1020—The Puzzle of Five Pistols [ii] 1021—The Secret of the Marble Mantel 1022—A Bite of an Apple 1023—A Triple Crime 1024—The Stolen Race Horse 1025—Wildfire 1026—A Herald Personal 1027—The Finger of Suspicion 1028—The Crimson Clew 1029—Nick Carter Down East 1030—The Chain of Clews 1031—A Victim of Circumstances 1032—Brought to Bay 1033—The Dynamite Trap 1034—A Scrap of Black Lace 1035—The Woman of Evil 1036—A Legacy of Hate 1037—A Trusted Rogue 1038—Man Against Man 1039—The Demons of the Night 1040—The Brotherhood of Death 1041—At the Knife’s Point 1042—A Cry for Help 1043—A Stroke of Policy 1044—Hounded to Death 1045—A Bargain in Crime 1046—The Fatal Prescription 1047—The Man of Iron 1048—An Amazing Scoundrel 1049—The Chain of Evidence 1050—Paid with Death 1051—A Fight for a Throne 1052—The Woman of Steel 1053—The Seal of Death 1054—The Human Fiend 1055—A Desperate Chance 1056—A Chase in the Dark 1057—The Snare and the Game 1058—The Murray Hill Mystery 1059—Nick Carter’s Close Call 1060—The Missing Cotton King 1061—A Game of Plots 1062—The Prince of Liars 1063—The Man at the Window 1064—The Red League 1065—The Price of a Secret 1066—The Worst Case on Record 1067—From Peril to Peril 1068—The Seal of Silence 1069—Nick Carter’s Chinese Puzzle 1070—A Blackmailer’s Bluff 1071—Heard in the Dark 1072—A Checkmated Scoundrel 1073—The Cashier’s Secret 1074—Behind a Mask Title Page A STOLEN NAME OR The Man Who Defied Nick Carter [1] By NICHOLAS CARTER Author of “The Taxicab Riddle,” “Nick Carter’s Last Card,” “Bandits of the Air,” etc. Illustration STREET & SMITH PUBLICATIONS INCORPORATED 79-89 Seventh Avenue, New York Copyright, 1910 By STREET & SMITH A Stolen Name All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign languages, including the Scandinavian. Printed in the U.S.A. A STOLEN NAME. CHAPTER I. THE BEGINNING OF A PLOT. Bare-Faced Jimmy, so-called gentleman crook, expert cracksman, and a master criminal in any department of the underworld to which he cared to devote his attention, leaned backward in his chair until it tilted against the wall behind him, blew a cloud of Perfecto smoke ceilingward, and remarked: “It will be the easiest thing in the world, Juno. If the objective point were a fortune—even a moderate one; if the thing contemplated included the theft of a single dollar, in cash or in estate, it would be different; but it doesn’t. No, it does not. Really, Juno, if one pauses to think seriously about it, from that point of view, it is almost laughable.” “That is why I have been smiling at the idea ever since you mentioned it,” returned the woman, applying a lighted match to a cigarette with all the grace and abandon of one who had been long accustomed to the practice. “As a matter of fact,” Jimmy continued, as if he had not heard her remark, “if I do decide to undertake it, the only things that I steal will be a lot of debts; and who ever heard of stealing debts? Eh?” “There certainly is novelty in the thought,” was the quick reply. “If some gracious person had done you the honor to steal yours, long ago——” “Oh, yes, my dear; that is quite true; only we won’t go into the ‘long ago’ matters, just now, if you please.” The woman shrugged her shoulders and picked up from her lap a book that she had been reading. For a time she devoted her attention to the pages, and then her companion broke the silence again. “I think I’ll do it,” he said decidedly. “I see great possibilities in the adventure. Juno, will you be good enough to lay that book aside for a few moments, and to give me your undivided attention?” “Gladly,” she replied, “if you will condescend to speak out plainly, instead of confining [3] [5] [6] yourself to generalities.” “All right, my dear; here goes. In the State of Virginia, bordering on the Potomac River, and washed by the waters of two other streams—which by courtesy are also called rivers— lies an estate which consists of something more than eight hundred acres. The title to that estate is in the name of James Ledger Dinwiddie, who——” “Who, at the present moment lies dead in the adjoining room in this house,” she interrupted him; but he only chuckled as he responded: “On the contrary, he is seated here before you, now; he is talking with you; he is referring to that dear old plantation in dearer old Virginia which, ever since the days of Bushrod Washington, has been called by the name of Kingsgift—the Lord only knows why, unless some dead and forgotten king gave it as a present to the original Dinwiddie. Henceforth, my dear, I am Ledger Dinwiddie, owner of an estate in Virginia that is mortgaged for more than it was ever worth; for much more than it would ever bring at a forced sale. I am also the undisputed owner of a choice collection of debts, of an old colonial house that is now falling into ruins, of numerous other buildings that are in various stages of dilapidation, and of numerous other things of the same sort, all of which are not only entirely worthless, but are really much worse than worthless; and there you are.” “Will you tell me, Jimmy, just what you expect to gain, then, by this remarkable adventure, as you call it?” the woman asked quizzically. “Decidedly I will tell you. I gain the one thing I need most, just now—a name. My own— but I have never told you what my own really was, have I? No; and there is no use going into that, now—but my own name has been so long abandoned that I have forgotten the use of it; especially the application of it. The name that has been given me by the police of various localities, isn’t sufficiently high-sounding; and——” “No. Bare-Faced Jimmy is hardly a name to have engraved upon one’s cards,” she interrupted him. “——and, as I was saying, James Duryea, who has been called Bare-Faced Jimmy, is popularly supposed to lie buried on an island in the Sound, just off South Norwalk, Connecticut. I would much rather that the police should not be undeceived about that, and so we will let Jimmy Duryea, cracksman, lie there and rot; eh?” “If you please. I don’t mind. A rose by any other name, you know.” “Yes; I know. And that reminds me. In the future I will thank you to address me as Ledger. Eh? By Jove! Juno, that chap in there was the most unbalanced ledger I ever saw in my life. If he hadn’t sort of come to, during the last hours of his life, and told all he ever knew about himself and his people, this idea would never have occurred to me.” “It looks to me like a fool idea, anyhow,” she commented, with a toss of her beautiful and shapely head, crowned as it was with a wealth of raven-black hair. Juno was undeniably a beautiful woman—a fact of which she was perfectly well aware. “Fool idea?” he retorted. “Not much. It’s a splendid one. It is the idea of my life, and it is worth about three or four times as much as it would have been had the chap in there left a million in money and unencumbered estates behind him when he died. I would rather have his debts than a fortune that he might have left. Really, I don’t think that I would have undertaken the thing if he had left property that was worth anything.” “Why?” “Why, to what, Juno?” “Why is the name and the identity of that poor fellow worth more to you, so, than if he had left a fortune behind him?” “Why? Can you, my dear, ask such a question as that?” “I do ask it.” “Then know this: Nobody will want what Dinwiddie has left behind him. No one will be desirous of shouldering his debts; and consequently nobody will step forward to dispute the rights that I shall assert belong to me. Word will travel around the neighborhood, and throughout the county, that Ledger Dinwiddie has come back; then there will be a few convulsive shrugs of a few shoulders, a score or so of knowing winks—and that will be about all. On the other hand, if there was property, there would be a hundred disinterested persons, neighbors and otherwise, who would find a chance to doubt if I were the real Dinwiddie returned to what had once been his own.” “But what do you get out of it, Jimmy?” “I get a name, my dear; an old, old name; an older lineage, than which there is none better in the Old Dominion; an ancestry that is unimpeachable; a reputation which stands for gentility, and which has stood for gentility for generations; a career, all made in a moment, but [7] [8] [9] [10] which is, nevertheless, three centuries old; an established place in the world which none can deny me—Heaven knows that I need one just now; and a safe refuge in which I can hide myself for the rest of my natural life, without the trouble of attempting to disguise my face, or my mannerisms.” “All the same, Jimmy, there are plenty of people in the world, honest men and crooks, policemen and judges on the bench, lawyers and ex-convicts, who will quickly recognize the features of Jimmy Duryea, if those features happen to be seen.” “Juno, that is just the point; they won’t. Ledger Dinwiddie will bear a strong resemblance to the late lamented Bare-Faced Jimmy, to be sure, but nobody will ever think of associating the two; never. Besides, if the necessity should arise, Ledger Dinwiddie could establish his identity beyond question. People could be found who knew him when he was a boy.” “And you might even claim, if you choose, that the defunct Jimmy was a distant relation who went to the bad in his early youth, and who had been cast off by ‘the family,’” said Juno. “Precisely. Not at all a bad idea.” “Well, what then?” “Everything then, Juno. Like Monte Cristo, the world will be mine. I will only have to reach out my two hands and take it. And with my accomplishments I do not anticipate that it will be a difficult task to do so.” “Probably not—with your accomplishments.” “It will never occur to any of those Virginians, up there, that a man would be ass enough to lay claim to a worthless estate, encumbered by unnumbered debts; to a broken fortune— and all that. They will accept me on the spot, and without asking a question.” “Yet, Jimmy, you do not in the least resemble that dead man in there.” “I know it. What of it?” “There may be a few persons left alive, at or near Kingsgift, who will remember the young man who left his home in Virginia, so long ago.” “Bah! Nonsense, my dear. They will look at me and exclaim. ‘How you have changed!’ or, ‘You’re right smart altered since you went away, Ledger.’ But to offset that, there will be dozens who do not remember at all how Dinwiddie really looked, who will declare, ‘Why, boy, I’d have known you anywhere. You ain’t a mite changed since you was a leetle chap, so high.’ That is the way of the world, Juno.” “But what will you do with the name, and with the mortgaged estates, when you get them?” Juno asked lightly. “Considering that part of it as settled, for you generally accomplish whatever you undertake to do, what will you do with it all?” “I’ll make your fortune and mine. I’ll square Dinwiddie with the people around there, and tell them all what a great man I intend to make of myself. I’ll pay off a year’s interest on the mortgages and other debts, and make out new papers, just to give them confidence in me. When that is done, I’ll be ready for the real work of—succeeding.” “Succeeding at what?” “At making a fortune.” “And you really think that you can do it?” “With such a name, such a lineage, such a reputation for gentility? Of course I can do it.” “It doesn’t strike me that people will be any more eager to lend you money——” “Lend me money? I don’t want them to do that.” “Then how——” “I shall take it. If they accept me, they must take the consequences.” “Do you mean that you will do it in the old way?” “Sure. What other way do I know?” “What if you should get caught at it, Jimmy?” “Caught at it? Ledger Dinwiddie caught at burglary? At thievery? What an absurd idea! Oh, no, I won’t get caught at it. Not at all. And the world will open itself wide, inviting me to take it. I’ll have a winter home for you, in Washington; I’ll get those fools to send me to Congress, and—— You’ll see!” Such was the beginning of the “Great Coup” undertaken by James Duryea, alias Bare- Faced Jimmy, the gentleman crook, alias Howard Drummond, one-time gentleman, graduate of Rugby and Cambridge, ex-officer in the dragoons, and ex- a lot of other things which had come to him by inheritance. But Jimmy had run the gamut of his short, but varied career. Nothing had been too swift for him to overtake it, to distance it, and finally to wear out its [11] [12] [13] usefulness, and finally his own, too. Once, according to Nick Carter’s records, the man had really tried to reform; “had made a stab at it,” as he expressed it; but the old temptations had been too strong for him; the “call of the contest” had proved too alluring. The desire to pit his own wit against the representatives of law and order had overcome the better self that reposed somewhere within the strange complexity of this man, and he had gone again, deliberately, into the life of the underworld. The woman who was seated upon the chair opposite, and to whom his conversation was addressed, had proved herself to be the only person of whom Jimmy had ever stood in the least in awe. The name by which Jimmy addressed her, was one that he had bestowed upon her himself. She had never been known by that name to any other person than this man who had just determined to steal a birthright, although there were half a dozen aliases by which she had been known to the authorities of Paris, Vienna, Berlin, St. Petersburg, and London; and under each one of those half dozen aliases she had earned reputations which filled pages of private but official records of the secret police of five different nations. Her dossier had been written down in five languages—and more; and now, as Juno, she had started out to carve a new career for herself, with the aid of Jimmy, whom she respected for his wit, his daring, for his past achievements and the promise he gave of attempting new and greater ones. These two represented the masculine and the feminine of all that is masterful in the life of rogues; they were the perfection of the imperfect, if the expression may be used. Jimmy was a handsome man, and one who would be noticeable in any company. He was distinguished in appearance, Chesterfieldian in his manners, graceful in his motions—a somebody in everything that he did, educated, refined by instinct and by early training; he was a graduated crook in every part and branch of the “profession.” And Juno? Draw her picture for yourself. It cannot be too strongly, too perfectly outlined. She was of that type of beauty which only the Latin races achieve, and it had been vouchsafed to her in the superlative degree. Her hair was black, beautiful, and there were masses of it. Her complexion was almost fair, but there was just enough of the olive tint to give to the red blood in her cheeks an added warmth. Her eyes were large, luminous, dreamy, or ablaze with eagerness or passion as the case might be. Her figure was perfect, her hands and her feet were “dreams for the contemplation of an artist,” her every motion was lithe, lissome, sinuous, catlike in the sense that she could not have been lacking in grace had she made the effort. Indeed, there was something about Juno’s every act which suggested the black leopard—and that was one of the aliases by which she had one time been known in Paris. Reduced to five words, Juno’s description was entirely comprehended by the expression: She was a beautiful woman. Juno’s antecedents were no less aristocratic than Jimmy’s. She, too, had been born and bred within the exclusiveness of the blue-blooded. Her father and her mother had worn titles of distinction; she had been given all the “advantages” when she was a child, and a young woman—she was that, still. She spoke many languages, and spoke each one so perfectly that it was a matter of indifference to her which one she made use of. In the long-ago, when both had been respectable children, she and Jimmy had played together. Many years after that, when Jimmy had gone to the bad, and Juno had achieved an international reputation in her various lines, they met again—to drift apart as they had done in those early days. After that there was another lapse of years during which Jimmy had visited South Africa, had married, had drifted to New York with his wife, had been sent to Sing Sing, had been divorced, and then, according to official reports concerning him, had died and was buried on an island in Long Island Sound. During these years Juno had served the Nihilists of Russia, the Socialists of Germany, the secret societies of other nations—during which she had been a spy, also, for these several governments, and had won an international reputation, and become almost everything that a beautiful woman should not be. But the continent of Europe, and the British Isles, had grown too hot for her. She came to America—and almost the first person she encountered after leaving the steamer that brought her here, was Bare-Faced Jimmy. And this happened within the year that followed upon his supposed death. “Two souls with but a single thought,” although by no means a sentimental one, might well [14] [15] [16] [17] have applied to them; the single thought being their desire to victimize the rest of mankind. “Let’s strike up a partnership, Juno,” Jimmy had said to her. “Together, with your craftiness and my skill, nothing can stop us. Let’s strike up a partnership;” and she had replied: “Very good, Jimmy; but a minister, not a lawyer, shall draw the contract.” And so they were married—strangely enough, under their right names, too. Jimmy had more than twenty thousand dollars cached away in a secret hiding place; Juno possessed half as much more. The marriage occurred in the late fall, and they went South, to one of the Florida beaches, where they secured a villa, and where they passed what was really a honeymoon. When issuing from their cottage door one morning, they had found the insensible form of a man upon their doorstep. One may be a crook, a burglar, and all that, and still possess much kindness of heart; two may be so, and these two were. Together they carried their unconscious burden inside the cottage, summoned the one servant who waited upon their wants, and attended to the stricken man. They did not ask where he came from, nor how it happened that he had fallen upon their doorstep in his present condition; and he could not have informed them, then, if the questions had been asked. But they ministered to him; they kept him there and cared for him, making no inquiries concerning him, since by doing so they would have attracted attention to themselves, which was the one great thing they desired to avoid. But the stricken man had arrived at the end of his journey. He had fallen upon their doorstep to die, and die he did, after three weeks, easily, painlessly, composedly, and tenderly cared for until the last, by these two bits of flotsam. And there had been some hours of clearness of vision, of return to memory, before death claimed its prize. He had told them his name, and all about himself—and also that nowhere in the world did there remain one person who was nearly enough related to him to care whether he lived or died; that he was the last of his race, in the direct line, and that he bore an old and honored name upon which there had never been a blemish, save that one which poverty imposes. Ledger Dinwiddie died in the spare bedroom of that cottage inhabited by these two products of the underworld, cared for during his last hours by two as uncompromising crooks and rogues as ever lived to prey upon mankind. And so, Ledger Dinwiddie did not die, but lived on again in the person of Bare-Faced Jimmy, who adopted the name and the lineage of his uninvited guest, and who went forth, presently, to assume all the prerogatives which the possession of that name could bestow upon him. CHAPTER II. BACK FROM THE DEAD. “It was four years ago, wasn’t it, Chick, when Bare-Faced Jimmy kept us guessing? You remember Jimmy Duryea, don’t you?” asked Nick Carter of his first assistant, as he lighted a cigar immediately after breakfast, one Monday morning. “Remember him? I should say I do!” replied Chick, as he selected a cigar from the box on the table. “Bare-Faced Jimmy! The mere mention of that name, Nick, calls up a great many recollections. And that reminds me; I wonder what has become of Nan Nightingale. I have not seen a line about her in any of the papers lately. Has she left the stage?” “I saw her last evening, at church or, rather, just as we were coming out of church,” replied the detective. “That was why I asked the question.” “You saw Nan?” “Yes; and talked with her.” “And her husband—Smathers was his name, wasn’t it—did you see him, too?” “No. Smathers—The Man of Many Faces, as he called himself on the vaudeville stage— is dead. He died about a year and a half ago, Nan told me. Jimmy Duryea was her first husband, you know. She got a divorce from him when he was sent to prison, and afterward [18] [19] [20] [21] married Smathers. Smathers has been dead more than a year, and Nan thinks that Jimmy is still alive.” “Jimmy Duryea alive? Impossible.” “That is what I told her; but she insists that she saw him—or his ghost.” “Then it must have been his ghost, Nick. Jimmy has been dead four years. He died soon after you took him off that island in the Sound, near South Norwalk, didn’t he?” “That was the supposition. That has always been my belief. Do you remember that last stunt of his, Chick?” “The time he passed himself off as Paran Maxwell, do you mean?” “Yes.” “I think we all have cause to remember that incident. Bare-Faced Jimmy was a remarkable chap, Nick, take it all in all.” “He certainly was. There was a great deal of good in Jimmy. You remember there was a time when I thought he had entirely reformed. Then he made that disappearing act of his from the steamship, and bobbed up, long afterward, on that island. It would be strange if he should appear again, after four years, wouldn’t it?” “It certainly would; but stranger things than that have happened in our experiences, Nick.” “Yes. But, somehow, I can’t believe that Jimmy Duryea is alive, now; although Nan is positive about it.” “Tell me what she said. Tell me about your talk with her. I always liked Nan; and it is a cinch that she could sing. You gave her the right name when you called her Nightingale.” “Yes. Even Pettis said that.” “Why did she give up the stage?” “She didn’t tell me that. I was coming out of the church when some one touched me on the arm, and turning about I saw that it was Nan. Of course I was glad to see her, and I said so.” “Naturally. She is a sort of protégée of yours, you know. It was through you, Nick, that she quit being a crook and became an honest woman.” “Softly, Chick. Nan was never really a crook, you know. When she was Jimmy Duryea’s wife he did force her into assisting him in some of his crooked work; but she never had any heart in it. She hasn’t left the stage permanently—only temporarily. She said she desired a rest for a season, and that she had saved up enough money to take it. I guess that is her only reason for not being on the boards at present.” “But what about Jimmy?” “It is rather an odd sort of story, but I will tell it to you just as she told it to me and see what you think about it, Chick.” “All right.” “During her career on the stage these last four years, Nan has made some splendid acquaintances. I am not referring to people in the ‘profession’ so much as to society people. Nan has become a welcome guest at many an exclusive house, and among the members of the most conservative set.” “I’m not surprised at that. She is a beautiful woman—there is not another one on the stage who can hold a candle to her, if it comes down to that.” “You’re right. She is a lady, through and through—to the manner born, so to speak.” “Sure. And by the way, isn’t that what Jimmy used to say to himself—that he was ‘born, bred, and raised a gentleman’?” “Yes. And it was true, too.” “Go ahead about Nan, Nick.” “Well, it was at the solicitation of some of her society friends that she decided to take a rest for one season. She has saved up a lot of money, as nearly as I can make out, and was invited on a yachting cruise with some of her friends. After that she became the guest of Mrs. Theodore Remsen—and that is where she is staying now.” “She did get into the ‘upper ten,’ didn’t she?” “Sure. There isn’t a more exclusive house in the city, or at Newport or Lenox, than the Theodore Remsen’s.” “I know. Well?” “Perhaps you know that the Remsens also own a fine residence that fronts on the Hudson River, eh? Not far from Fishkill?” [22] [23] [24] “I didn’t know it; but that makes no difference. What about it?” “That is where they are staying just now; and Nan is there with them. She is to be their guest until spring. I believe there is a whole season of pleasure mapped out for Nan, and she is to be made quite the lioness—and all that.” “I understand. But what has all that got to do with——” “I am coming to that, Chick. That is what brings me to the rather remarkable tale that Nan told me.” “I see.” “To let you in on the ground floor of the story at once, a burglar got into the house up the river, a few nights ago. Nan surprised the burglar at work, made him give up his booty, agreed to say nothing about it to the members of the household, and let him go. But, it appears, that instead of relinquishing his booty and going away empty handed, he only gave up what was in sight, and actually got away with a diamond necklace and some other jewels that belonged to Mrs. Remsen, and to some of her guests. Nan says that what was actually stolen represented close to forty thousand dollars.” “Jimmy always was discriminating, when it came to a selection of jewels,” said Chick, with a slow smile. “Right again. But because of the disappearance of those jewels, Nan finds herself in a perplexity. Now, I’ll tell you the story just as it is.” “All right.” “It happened last Thursday night. Nan had not been feeling up to the mark that day. She had kept herself rather to herself, since morning. During the day Mrs. Remsen told Nan that she was expecting another guest that evening—a gentleman from the South, named Dinwiddie; Ledger Dinwiddie, to be exact.” “Rather a high-sounding title, that; eh?” “Yes. Well, Nan didn’t go down to dinner that evening, so she did not meet the guest, when he arrived. She retired early—that is, she arranged herself in comfortable attire, and kept to her own room, where she passed the time in reading. About eleven o’clock, she tried to compose herself to sleep, but after an hour of vain effort in that line, she decided that it was of no use, and sought another book. There did not happen to be one handy which interested her, and so, garbed in a wrapper, she descended the stairs to the library.” “It sounds like a chapter out of a book, Nick.” “It does, for a fact; but you haven’t got the real thing, yet.” “Go ahead, then.” “She had bed slippers on her feet, which made no sound as she walked. She crossed the lower hall, after descending the stairs, and stepped into the library, reaching around the jamb of the doorway, as she did so, to switch on the electric lights—and she did it so quickly that she failed to notice that there was a single light already burning in the room.” “More and more like a novel, Nick.” “Yes. When she snapped on the lights, a man who had been seated at the table in the middle of the room sprang to his feet—and she found herself looking into the muzzle of a revolver.” “Well, it wasn’t the first time that Nan has done that. It might have scared most women half to death; but Nan——” “I rather think that she was more surprised and startled by the appearance of the man himself than by the weapon he held in his hand,” said the detective, interrupting. “The man was Jimmy Duryea; Bare-Faced Jimmy; at least she says it was—and is.” “And—is?” “Yes. I’m coming to that.” “All right.” “The room was, of course, in a blaze of light. In the man who confronted her, Nan saw the face and features of Jimmy Duryea. On the table where he had been seated was a confused heap of the spoil he had stolen, and was engaged in sorting when Nan interrupted him.” “And she was looking into the muzzle of a gun,” commented Chick. “Yes. But it wasn’t that which startled her. It was the face and appearance of the man; of a man whom she supposed to have been dead four years, at least; of the man whom she had once married, and whom she had tenderly loved, until she discovered that he was a crook, when she deserted him and got a divorce.” “What did she do?” [25] [26] [27] “What would nine out of ten women do, under like circumstances?” retorted the detective. “Let out a yell, I suppose.” “Nan cried out his name. ‘Jimmy!’ she exclaimed; and he dropped the gun to the floor, and called back, ‘Nan!’” “Tableau!” said Chick. “Precisely,” said Nick Carter. CHAPTER III. JIMMY DURYEA’S DARING. Chick chuckled softly to himself as he imagined the scene in the library that Nick Carter had just described to him. “Hold on a minute, Nick,” he said. “Let me get the chronology of those two straight in my mind. Jimmy, according to his own story, told to us four years ago, was, originally, a born aristocrat, the second or third son of somebody-or-other, wasn’t he?” “Yes. He would never tell who he was; but it is certain that he is well born.” “So was Nan; and both were English, eh?” “Yes.” “Scapegrace Jimmy went to South Africa to finish the sowing of his wild oats, and Nan went there as governess to the children of the South African consul. They met there, and were married. Jimmy was a burglar and a thief, and Nan didn’t suspect it until long after the two had come to this country. Then she found it out, and for a time he compelled her to assist him in his crooked work. Then he got caught, and was sent away, to Sing Sing, and Nan got a divorce. Later, she married Smathers, the man of many faces, and an actor. Then Jimmy got out of prison, thought Nan had peached on him, threatened vengeance, and all that, and intended to kill her, until it happened that you showed him that Nan was not the one who had betrayed him. She wanted to reform, and did so, and Jimmy agreed to let her alone. Then Jimmy got caught, was sent back to England to answer charges against him there, escaped, returned here, and supposedly died on an island in Long Island Sound. That was four years ago. Almost two years ago, Smathers died—I suppose he is really dead, isn’t he?” “Oh, yes, there is no doubt of that, Chick.” “And now Nan discovers her former husband, robbing a house where she is a respected guest, and——” “And that isn’t all of it; not by a long shot.” “Go ahead, then.” “Well, it was a tableau for a moment, after the mutual discovery in that library. There was a half mask on the table, which Jimmy had removed while he was sorting the spoil. He always was a cool proposition, you remember.” “Yes. That is how he got his name of Bare-Faced Jimmy.” “He didn’t lose his presence of mind, just then, either. He stooped and picked up the gun from the floor, dropped it into one of his pockets—and sat down again upon the chair where he had been seated when she interrupted him.” “Just like him.” “The rest of the story I will tell just as Nan told it to me.” “All right.” “She said: ‘For a moment I didn’t know what to do. Until that instant it had never occurred to me that Jimmy was alive. I had not a doubt that he was dead. But there he was, as natural as ever, as handsome as ever, as cool and self-contained as ever, and just as daring as he used to be in the old days.’ “‘Sit down, Nan,’ he said to her; and she sat down. “‘I thought you were dead,’ she told him, and he laughed in his pleasant way, and replied that he was as good as an army of dead men. Then she pointed at the jewels on the table, and at the other things that he had gotten together. “‘At your old tricks?’ she asked him, and he nodded. “‘Can’t keep away from it, Nan,’ he told her. ‘It is in my blood, I guess. But what are [28] [29] [30] you doing here? Are you up to the old game, too?’ “Then she told him all about herself, and they talked together for quite a while. The upshot of it was that Jimmy agreed to take the risk of returning all the things to the rooms from which he had taken them, and she promised to wait where she was, until he had done so.” “That was like Jimmy. Think of the nerve of the fellow, in going back to the rooms he had robbed, to return the jewels to the places where he had found them.” “That is just the point, Chick; he didn’t.” “Oh; I see.” “He replaced a few of the things, but many of them he still kept. He told her, when he came back, that he had returned them, and it wasn’t till the following day that she discovered his deception.” “I think it is rather remarkable that she trusted him to do it at all.” “Jimmy could always make Nan believe that the moon was made of green cheese. Well, she promised him that she would say nothing of having found a man in the library, and much less would she mention to any living person who that man really was. So they parted. Nan returned to her room, and retired. Jimmy, presumably, left the house by the way he had entered it.” “But he didn’t do that, either, eh?” “No. He didn’t do that, either.” “What did he do?” “He sat opposite Nan, at the breakfast table, the following morning, and was introduced to her by their hostess as Mr. Ledger Dinwiddie.” “Gee!” “That’s what I said.” “Say, Nick, if I had heard this story without names being mentioned, I’d have said that Jimmy Duryea would have done that very thing if he were alive.” “So would I.” “What did Nan do, when the introduction took place?” “What could she do? Nothing more than acknowledge the introduction. She couldn’t tell the story of what had happened during the night, with much more credit to herself, than he could have done so; and, besides, just then she supposed that all the stolen property had been returned. It wasn’t till later in the day—some time in the afternoon—that she knew the truth.” “And then?” “Then she laid for Jimmy. But he knew that, and avoided her, of course. Finally, she went directly to him, and asked him to walk with her to the stables, and he couldn’t very well refuse to do that. Halfway to the stables, they found a secluded spot, and there she stopped him and told him that unless he returned all the stolen property before the following morning, she would denounce him, no matter what might happen to her.” “And he made another promise, I suppose?” “Sure.” “And kept it in about the same manner?” “In precisely the same manner.” “That brings the time to Saturday morning, doesn’t it? The thing happened Thursday night.” “Yes.” “What then?” “Saturday, she went for him again. He told her that there had been no opportunity to replace the stolen jewels the preceding night, but that he would do it that night—Saturday night. Yesterday morning she did not see him at all, but she learned that the jewels had not been returned. Mrs. Remsen asked her to take a motor ride, and she had to go. They came to the city, and decided to remain till to-day—and that is how Nan happened to be at church last night, when I met her.” “She was alone last night? Mrs. Remsen wasn’t with her?” “No; she was alone. Nan had been chewing on the thing all day. She didn’t know what to do. She said that she had decided to telephone to me, after church, when she discovered that I was among the members of the congregation.” “In the meantime I suppose she hasn’t said a word to anybody but you.” [31] [32] [33] [34] “Not a word.” “What have you advised her to do?” “I haven’t advised her—yet. What I did do was to promise to become one of the invited guests at ‘The Birches,’ as they call the Remsen place on the Hudson.” “I see. So you are going up there, eh?” “Yes.” “When?” “In a couple of hours. I’m going to take the car, and drive there—and you are going with me. Danny will do the driving.” “Oho! I see! Do you know the Remsens?” “No. I never met either of them; or any of the family; but Nan said she could fix that part of it all right. Nan was to tell Mrs. Remsen, this morning, that she met an old friend at church, who is to motor out their way to-day, and that she invited him to stop at The Birches. That is all there is to that.” “You intend to get Jimmy off to one side, and—what?” “I haven’t decided that point, as yet. You see, there is another complication in the affair. Mrs. Remsen is Theodore Remsen’s second wife. There are two stepchildren at The Birches, a son and a daughter—and Ledger Dinwiddie is supposed to be the future husband of Lenore Remsen. You see, Jimmy Duryea has an assured position at the house, and in the family. He thinks, now, that Nan dare not denounce him, because of the effect that such a denouncement would have upon herself; but with me on the ground——” “I see. What do you propose to do?” “I don’t know, Chick, until I get on the ground. It is a queer case all around. Nan is for compelling Jimmy to give up the plunder, and to disappear, without doing anything to him at all. She believes that I am the only person who can accomplish that with him—and, under the circumstances, she is about right, Chick.” “Yes.” “So I promised her that I would go there this afternoon. She and Mrs. Remsen—who is a beautiful woman of about Nan’s age—were to return this morning; they are probably halfway there by this time.” “And you want me with you.” “Why, yes. I thought you’d like it. Jimmy will realize what he is up against when he sees both of us there.” “He certainly ought to.” “I don’t know just what attitude Jimmy will take. You know as well as I do that he never plans a thing of this sort without doing it thoroughly. He is doubtless prepared at every turn, and he may have the bareface to defy me.” “It wouldn’t surprise me if he did.” “Nor me, either, Chick.” “Then what?” “Oh, we won’t cross any bridges till we get to them.” “How soon will we start, Nick?” “In an hour or two.” CHAPTER IV. THROWING THE GAUNTLET. “The Birches,” one of the summer residences of Theodore Remsen, multimillionaire, financier, Wall Street wizard, and one of the recognized powers in the moneyed world, stood, and still stands, a prominent landmark at the location already described. It stands upon a high bluff overlooking the Hudson, and is approached from the main highway by a winding, macadamized road, which, from the lodge gate to the mansion, is more than a mile in length, and shaded on either side by a double row of white birches; hence its name. The lawn, directly in front of the house, is laid out in tennis courts, and there Nick Carter and Chick discovered nearly all the guests of the house assembled, when they drove beneath [35] [36] [37] the porte-cochère at four o’clock that Monday afternoon. Nancy Nightingale had evidently been watching for their arrival, for as Nick stepped down from the car and gave Danny a few directions, he saw her approaching. He went forward to meet her, followed by Chick. As the detective moved toward her he cast his eyes rapidly over the assembled people— there was a score of them, all told—and thought he saw Jimmy Duryea among them, engaged in an animated conversation with a group of which he appeared to be the centre. But the man’s back was turned, and Nick could not be certain. Nan, in an outing gown and coat of white flannel, with her black hair and sparkling eyes, looked more beautiful than ever as she approached the two detectives, and her smile of greeting was warmth itself. She conducted them directly toward the place where Mrs. Remsen was seated, and presented them. She added, after she had done so: “I told Mrs. Remsen that I had invited you to stop here to call upon us, and now she insists that you shall join our party for as long a time as you can remain.” After that, with Nan on his arm, Nick passed from group to group on the lawn, acknowledging introductions here and there as he went along. Chick remained with the group that had formed around the hostess. Presently Nick and his companion approached that particular group of which the man who called himself Ledger Dinwiddie, and whom Nan believed to be Jimmy Duryea, formed one part. Nan purposely left the introduction to him, for the last of that particular group; and then she said: “Mr. Dinwiddie, this is an old friend of mine—Mr. Carter;” and Duryea turned about lazily, as if he had not noticed the arrival of a stranger till that moment. “Glad to know you, Mr. Carter,” he said imperturbably, and with just the faintest trace of a smile on his handsome features; and then he turned back again to the companion with whom he had been talking, and who happened to be the daughter of the house, Miss Lenore Remsen, who was not more than two years younger than her beautiful stepmother. There was not the slightest trace of recognition in the eyes of Jimmy Duryea when he acknowledged that introduction, although he must have known Nick Carter at once—and he could not have prepared for the sudden appearance of the detective there, unless he had guessed that Nan might communicate with the detective while she was in the city. Nick was equally reticent. It was no part of his present purpose to force matters; at least he did not intend to do so until the proper moment should arrive; but he did desire to get the gentleman cracksman into conversation, to see how far the assurance of the man would carry him. Presently he found an opportunity. It was when Duryea turned to make some general remark to those near him, and Nick chose to reply directly to it. “I quite agree with you, Mr. Dinwiddie,” he said. “Stolen jewels are difficult things to trace. That is the subject you were discussing, I believe?” “Yes,” said Nan, before Duryea could reply. “A most remarkable thing happened here, during the night of last Thursday. A necklace, and other jewels, disappeared most mysteriously from the rooms of the owners. But—shhh—we have all agreed to keep very still about it, for the present.” Duryea laughed softly. “Perhaps, Miss Nightingale,” he said, “this gentleman will be able to make some valuable suggestions in regard to those missing jewels. He has a namesake in New York who is said to be one of the smartest of living detectives. Isn’t that so, Carter? Eh?” “Quite so,” replied Nick, looking him directly in the eye. “Only the gentleman to whom you refer is not a namesake. I happen to be the person mentioned myself.” Duryea’s brows went upward in well-feigned surprise; a chorus of exclamations arose from every side; Nan bit her lips, for she had not intended that Nick should announce himself quite in that manner. Lenore Remsen turned at once to the detective, and exclaimed: “Really, Mr. Carter, are you the detective?” “Yes, Miss Remsen, I really am.” “Oh, I am so glad. Then you can assist us to recover our jewels.” “I can try, if it is your wish that I should do so,” replied Nick calmly. “Were you a victim [38] [39] [40] [41]