Nick Carter Stories No.

Title: Nick Carter Stories No. 145, June 19, 1915: An Unsolved Mystery; Or, Nick Carter's Goverment Case

Author: Nicholas Carter

C. C. Waddell

Release date: May 8, 2022 [eBook #68022] Most recently updated: October 18, 2024

Language: English

Original publication: United States: Street & Smaith, 1914

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/68022

Credits: David Edwards, Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (Northern Illinois University Digital Library)

{1}

Issued Weekly. Entered as Second-class Matter at the New York Post Office, by Street & Smith, 79-89 Seventh Ave., New York. Copyright, 1915, by Street & Smith. O. G. Smith and G. C. Smith, Proprietors.

Terms to NICK CARTER STORIES Mail Subscribers.

Issued Weekly. Entered as Second-class Matter at the New York Post Office, by Street & Smith, 79-89 Seventh Ave., New York. Copyright, 1915, by Street & Smith. O. G. Smith and G. C. Smith, Proprietors.

Statement of ownership, management, circulation, etc., of Nick Carter Stories, published weekly, at New York City, required by the Act of August 24, 1912.... Editor, W. E. Blackwell, 32 W. 75th Street, New York City.... Managing editors, business managers, publishers and owners, Street & Smith, 79-89 Seventh Avenue, New York City.... Known bondholders, mortgagees, and other security holders, holding 1 per cent. or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages, or other securities: None.... Signed by George C. Smith, for Street & Smith.... Sworn to and subscribed before me this 30th day of September, 1912, Chas. W. Ostertag, Notary Public No. 31, New York County (my commission expires March 30th, 1913).

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No. 145. NEW YORK, June 19, 1915. Price Five Cents.

AN UNSOLVED MYSTERY; Or, NICK CARTER’S GOVERNMENT CASE.

Edited by CHICKERING CARTER. {2}

CHAPTER I. A SECRET CONFERENCE.

The old gentleman passed the other two as if they were strangers. He jostled by them without so much as a glance. The most observing person in the throng then pouring out of the railway station, like a swarm of busy bees out of a colossal hive, would have detected no relation between them.

While passing the couple, nevertheless, the old gentleman said quickly to one of them, though scarce above his breath:

“Go to the new Willard. Register as directed, and get a suite, Wait there till I come.”

The man addressed heard him, but did not turn his head, nor evince the fact with the slightest change of countenance.

His companion, a natty, keen-eyed chap with a blond mustache twirled upward at the ends à la kaiser, appeared oblivious to what had occurred.

The scene of this trivial episode, which was far more portentous than one would suppose, having a bearing on no less tremendous an issue than the possible fate of a nation, was the new Union Station in the city of Washington, and the hour was two o’clock one fine afternoon in October.

The old gentleman hastened out with the throng into Massachusetts Avenue, seeking a trolley car and mingling with the crowd in a plebian sort of a way, as if business of no great importance had brought him to the nation’s capital.

He rode down Pennsylvania Avenue as far as Fourteenth Street, where he alighted and walked the remaining distance to the Treasury Building, entering one of the side doors with an air and display of interest often observed in the crowds of tourists to be seen in this vast building at {3}that hour of the day. No observer would have supposed him other than a sight-seeing stranger, viewing Uncle Sam’s great money box and financial institution for the first time in his life.

Something like five minutes later, nevertheless, he entered one of the numerous offices without the ceremony of knocking, and blandly addressed a clerk who turned from his desk to see who had entered.

“I suppose Chief Welden is inside?” he said inquiringly.

“Yes, sir,” bowed the clerk. “I will take in your card, or name, if——”

“Don’t trouble,” interrupted the old gentleman, smiling. “I am his uncle. He is expecting me. I will go right in.”

He did not wait for an objection, had any been forthcoming, but opened a near door and walked into an adjoining private office. It was quite large and elaborately furnished. But the only occupant was an attractive, clean-cut man seated at a large, roll-top desk.

“Don’t rise, Welden,” said the old gentleman, after closing the door. “Have a look at my card. It will supply the needed link. Even you are not likely to recognize me.”

Chief Welden, then the head of the United States secret service, glanced at the card the speaker displayed for a moment and then coolly returned to his own pocket.

It bore the name of the celebrated New York detective—Nick Carter.

Chief Welden laughed.

“Gracious!” said he, pointing to a chair with one hand and extending the other. “No, indeed; I would not recognize you. You’re the limit, Nick, when it comes to giving one a surprise. Why did you come in this rig?”

“A summons direct from the nation’s chief executive, Welden, must be occasioned by something of vast importance,” Nick replied, drawing up a chair and cordially shaking hands with the treasury official. “It imposes cor{4}responding circumspection upon one of my vocation. I decided to drop in here under cover and learn what is wanted of me.”

“I knew that the president had communicated with you and I was expecting you to show up during the day,” said Chief Welden, more gravely.

“I got the special-delivery letter this morning.”

“When did you arrive?”

“Half an hour ago.”

“Alone?”

“As you see,” said Nick evasively.

Chief Welden swung round in his swivel chair, so as to directly face the noted detective. There had been other times when the keen and clever men under his direction had been baffled by perplexing problems, resulting in an appeal to the famous New York detective; but judging from Welden’s expression at that moment, none could have been more important than that which had occasioned this summons of Nick Carter to Washington, an appeal direct from the president himself.

“I will tell you as briefly as possible what has occurred, Nick, and why it has been thought wise to employ you,” said Welden.

“Do so,” bowed the detective.

“To begin with, Carter, we have in the war department a young man named Harold Garland. He is about thirty, remarkably gifted along certain lines, and strictly reliable. Understand that at the outset; his integrity is above suspicion. I am absolutely sure of that.”

“Very good,” said Nick. “What about him?”

“He is a graduate from West Point, and is in the employ of the government as an expert engineer, in which capacity he is, as I have said, remarkably gifted. He unquestionably is without a peer in this country in his special line. He has an office in the war department, and I will presently send for him.”

“I shall be glad to meet him,” Nick observed.

“Now, to go back a little,” Chief Welden continued. “Something like eight months ago, Nick, I was informed by two of our secret-service agents abroad that foreign spies were known to be in Washington, said to be here on some secret mission, the nature of which was not definitely known. It was suspected, nevertheless, that they were here after information concerning elaborate coast defenses and fortifications contemplated by the government, which in some sections are under secret construction.”

“You received that information eight months ago?”

“Yes.”

“Were the reports verified? Were the spies identified?”

“Neither,” said Welden. “The suspicion could not be confirmed either here or abroad. The fact that the same report came at about the same time from two of our foreign agents, one then located in Vienna and the other in Paris, and there having been no communication between them, led me to give considerable credit to their report, much more than if there had been but one.”

“I see the point,” Nick nodded.

“We were not able to verify it, nevertheless, nor have we since succeeded in doing so. Nor have our agents abroad been able to add to the meager information obtained at the time. Under such circumstances, of course, having no confirmation of their reports, the matter became a little stale after eight months.”

“Naturally,” Nick allowed.{5}

“But it was brought up again very vividly three days ago,” Chief Welden pointedly added.

“How so?”

“I will explain in a nutshell.”

“I’m all attention.”

“For nearly a year, now, Garland has been collaborating with Captain Arthur Backas, a naval officer now stationed in Annapolis, and who also is a recognized expert along engineering lines.”

“I know him by name,” Nick bowed.

“For the past year these two government engineers have been secretly and exclusively at work on plans for elaborate coast-line defenses and fortifications extending from Chesapeake Bay to Sandy Hook. It is one section of a vast and for the most part secret coast-defense system contemplated by the government, and the first steps in the construction of which have already been taken.”

“I follow you, Welden.”

“And you know, of course, that secrecy is one of the absolute requirements in such work,” Chief Welden proceeded. “There is no occasion for me to enlarge upon that. Secrecy is imperative to adequate protection. If other nations were to learn——”

“I know all about that, Welden,” Nick interposed, checking him with a gesture. “It goes without saying. Come to the point.”

“That may be done with few words,” Chief Welden replied. “Last Friday, three days ago, Garland had occasion to confer with Captain Backas about a very important part of their mutual plans, and he went to Annapolis for that purpose.”

“I see.”

“He took the plans with him in a leather portfolio. He spent most of the day with Captain Backas, returning alone to Washington in the early evening. He was met at the Union Station by two young women, one the only daughter of Senator Barclay, the other a Miss Verona Warren, an intimate friend of Miss Barclay, and with whom Garland is deeply in love. The girls knew he was to arrive from Annapolis at seven o’clock, and they met him with Senator Barclay’s touring car, driven by his chauffeur. They at once took Garland to his apartments, where they dropped him and returned home.”

“Garland, I infer, brought back the plans taken to Annapolis,” Nick observed.

“He put them in the portfolio before leaving the office in which he had talked with Captain Backas. Their conference had been strictly private. The portfolio did not leave Garland’s hands from that time until he entered his apartments in the Grayling, where he has a safe in which to lock them. He opened the portfolio to inclose a memorandum relating to the plans—and found them gone.”

“The plans?”

“Yes. The portfolio contained, instead, a quantity of blank paper resembling them in size and thickness.”

“I disagree with you,” said Nick, after listening with scarce a change of countenance. “You have made one wrong statement.”

“Namely?”

“You said the portfolio did not leave Garland’s hands after he had placed the plans in it,” said Nick. “It did leave them, Welden, or there could not have been a substitution of worthless paper for such tremendously important plans.{6}”

Chief Welden smiled and nodded.

“That goes without saying,” he admitted. “As a matter of fact, Nick, it was not the same portfolio.”

“The whole business had been substituted?”

“Exactly. The substituted portfolio was so like his own, however, that he did not detect the difference until after he had opened it,” said Welden. “His own was nearly new and his name was written with ink on the inside of a flap that closes it, and which is secured with two small straps and buckles. There was no name in the substituted portfolio. It was slightly defaced, moreover, so like his own that he detected no difference.”

“Which plainly denotes that whoever turned the trick, or planned and directed the job, was perfectly familiar with Garland’s portfolio,” said Nick.

“That is obvious, of course,” Chief Welden agreed.

Nick Carter took up the matter as if it were merely a petty theft, instead of one threatening the nation. No need to tell him, nevertheless, of the terrible danger from further construction in accord with the stolen plans, or of the vast expense and innumerable difficulties in changing them, they presumably having been made to the best advantages discernible to the expert government engineers in charge of that part of the work. One scarce could conceive of a more serious and possibly far-reaching loss.

Nick gazed at Chief Welden for a moment, then asked tersely:

“Any clew?”

“None, so far,” was the reply.

“You suspect it was the work of the spies mentioned?”

“Naturally.”

“Who is on the case?”

“Several of my best men,” said Welden. “I have talked with the president, who is much disturbed by the matter, and we realize that these men may be known by sight and that they are connected with the secret service. We have thought wise, therefore, to employ you on the case, assuming that you are not known and can work to greater advantage. There is this much to it, Carter,” he forcibly added: “Those plans must be recovered. They must be found before copies can be made, or——”

“One moment,” Nick interposed. “I appreciate all that is involved. It is bad, terribly bad, but I will do my best to meet the situation. Send for Garland. I wish to question him.”

“I think I can answer any questions that——”

“You won’t do,” Nick again interrupted. “I might ask questions that you could not possibly answer. I shall want them answered. Send for Garland. I wish to talk with him.”

Chief Welden turned to his desk and rang for the clerk in the outer office.

CHAPTER II. THE GOVERNMENT ENGINEER.

Nick Carter was a keen physiognomist. He no sooner saw the face of the young man who entered Chief Welden’s office a little later, than he was sure of his lofty character and sterling integrity, as Welden already had asserted.

He was tall and erect, with the carriage of a soldier and set up like an athlete. His smoothly shaved face was of a classical cast, with clean-cut, regular features,{7} a fair complexion, and frank blue eyes, with a broad brow and wavy brown hair.

He then looked white and drawn, however, as men look who have aged years in as many days under some terrible experience. Mental distress of the most poignant kind was reflected in his face, and Nick rightly inferred, as Chief Welden also perceived, that the young man apprehended further direful disclosures and additional misery from this unexpected summons to the chief’s office.

Welden hastened to reassure him, however, by saying, with sympathetic voice and a smile:

“Draw up a chair, Garland, and shake hands with this gentleman. We have brought him from New York to pull you out of this affair. I think he may succeed in doing so, for he rarely fails, if ever, in what he seriously undertakes. His own mother would not know him just now, however. Shake hands with Nick Carter.”

Garland’s face lighted as if a ray of sunshine had fallen on it. He clasped Nick’s hand, felt its cordial and sympathetic pressure, and his voice choked despite himself.

“I’m awfully glad to know you, Mr. Carter, and ten thousand times more so in knowing that you are to look into this matter,” he said feelingly; then, with a quick glance at the chief: “Why have I not been told of this, Chief Welden? You know what horrible anguish and anxiety I am undergoing.”

“Very true, Garland,” said Welden, smiling significantly. “But we did not know positively that Carter would be in a position to comply with the president’s request. What good to have extended you false hopes? Sit down, now, and have a talk with Mr. Carter. He wants to ask you a few questions.”

Garland hastened to comply, while Nick said, in a more businesslike fashion:

“Welden has told me all of the superficial circumstances, Mr. Garland, and I’ll do what I can for you. Let’s waste no time in getting right at the matter, for time is always valuable. Steady yourself and answer my questions as quickly and concisely as possible.”

“I will do so, Mr. Carter,” said Garland eagerly.

“To begin with, then, who else occupies your office in the war department? Are there any clerks, or others, in the employ of the government?”

“No, indeed,” said Garland. “I have a private room and an outer office resembling these. I employ only a girl stenographer, who has a desk in the outer office.”

“Does she know on what work you have been engaged?”

“No, sir. That is known only to Captain Backas and the heads of the department.”

“All of whom are, of course, perfectly reliable,” said Nick. “I now am aiming only to pick up a clew, Garland, to the identity of the person who could have had the information necessary to have framed up this job. Did your stenographer know you were going to Annapolis last Friday?”

“Yes, sir. I told her I was going the day before.”

“Did you tell her for what?”

“No.”

“Let’s make a jump, then,” said Nick. “Whom did you see in Annapolis, who might by any means have learned of your mission?”

“Only Captain Backas,” said Garland emphatically. “I went directly to his office, where I remained until I left for my train to Washington.{8}”

“Who else was in the office during your conference with Captain Backas?”

“Nobody. We were alone.”

“Did any one enter while you were talking with him?”

“No, sir. I am sure of that.”

“And you are sure you placed the missing plans in the portfolio before leaving, and that it was not substituted for another before you left?”

“Yes, sir; absolutely sure.”

“How did you go to the station?”

“In a taxicab.”

“Alone?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Very good,” said Nick. “Where did you ride in the train?”

“In the smoking car,” said Garland. “I occupied a seat alone.”

“Where was the portfolio?”

“I placed it between me and the wall of the car, next to the window, where my arm could rest on it during the ride. I was reading a book in the meantime.”

“Could the portfolio have been removed by a person in the seat behind you without your knowing it?” Nick inquired.

“No, sir, absolutely,” said Garland. “When I placed it there, Mr. Carter, I made sure there was no space between the end of the seat and the wall, through which the portfolio could slip. Naturally, sir, knowing the vast importance of its contents, I was exceedingly careful and constantly alert. It would have been utterly impossible for any person to have removed my portfolio and substituted another on the train.”

“We will go a step farther, then,” said Nick. “When you arrived in Washington and came from the Union Station, what did you do?”

“I hastened to find my friends who promised to meet me, Miss Barclay and Miss Warren,” said Garland. “I found them nearly opposite the main exit. I got into the automobile with them and they——”

“One moment,” Nick interposed. “Was it a limousine or an ordinary touring car?”

“A touring car.”

“Top up?”

“No, sir.”

“Who was in the car?”