CHAPTER I. AN OPEN QUESTION.

Nick Carter did not interrupt the sobbing girl. He listened patiently, grave and attentive, letting her run on in broken, desultory phrases, until her first paroxism of grief immediately following his arrival should abate sufficiently for her to tell him connectedly what had occurred.

“They may say what they will—what they will, Mr. Carter, but I cannot believe it, will not believe it,” she tearfully declared. “My faith in him is unshaken. He is incapable of such deceit, such cruelty, such terrible treachery. He is the victim of a plot, a hideous conspiracy, or some terrible crime—oh, I am sure of it! He would not betray me in this way, not for life itself! I know he would not. Arthur is above such duplicity, such terrible——”

Nick now checked her with a gesture.

“I agree with you, Miss Strickland,” he said kindly. “Arthur Gordon is, in my opinion, a thoroughly honorable man. As you are so sure of it, too, and that he is the victim of a conspiracy, you best can serve him by subduing your agitation, and telling me precisely what has occurred. I can do nothing, nor form any opinion of the case, until I know all of the circumstances.”

“Mr. Carter is right, Wilhelmina,” said her elderly uncle, Mr. Rudolph Strickland. “It is very kind of him to come out here, with his assistant, this morning. Dry your eyes, therefore, or let me talk with him. I can inform him, Mina, better than you.”

“Do so, Mr. Strickland,” said Nick, turning to him. “What has befallen Arthur Gordon, as far as you know?”

The scene of this interview, which was the beginning of one of the most extraordinary criminal cases in the career of the famous detective, was the library of a new and exceedingly fine wooden residence in one of the most beautiful rural sections of the Bronx.[Pg 3]

The hour was about ten o’clock, on a charming May morning, nearly seven months since Nick Carter first met these people, and recovered for Mr. Rudolph Strickland the costly art treasures stolen from the Fifth Avenue flat, in which he then resided, resulting also in the arrest of the notorious European crook, Mortimer Deland, together with a gang of local confederates.

Nick had frequently met Arthur Gordon since then, and he knew that this wealthy young banker and broker of Wall Street was contemplating matrimony, but he was ignorant of many of the particulars which Mr. Strickland hastened to impart.

“This is Mr. Gordon’s new house,” said he, “though he already has deeded the entire estate to Wilhelmina, who soon is to be his wife.”

“We were to be married next Wednesday evening,” put in the girl more calmly.

“This is to be their home, Mr. Carter, and I am to live with them,” Mr. Strickland continued. “Both insist that I shall dwell no longer alone in the flat I recently occupied.”

“You now are living here, I infer,” Nick remarked.

“Only Mina and I, aside from our several servants.”

“I see.”

“It was Arthur’s wish that the wedding should take place in the home he is to occupy. So he bought this fine estate of several acres and then built and furnished this beautiful residence. It was completed nearly three weeks ago.”

“It certainly is a fine place and a fine house,” Nick admitted, glancing around.

“I since have been living here with Mina, while she has been making preparations for the wedding,” Strickland went on. “Mr. Gordon has been living at home with his parents, in Riverside Drive, all the while, but he has been coming out here each afternoon after business hours[Pg 4] to direct the laborers who still are at work on various parts of the estate.”

“Was he here yesterday afternoon?” Nick inquired.

“Yes, until nearly six o’clock.”

“And then?”

“We supposed he would return to dinner at that time, as usual, and we sent one of the servants to call him from the golf links, where he went to supervise the work of some of the laborers. The servant returned in a few moments and stated that Mr. Gordon had gone.”

“Gone where?”

“That’s the question,” said Mr. Strickland. “I am stating the circumstances in the order they occurred, that you may be better able to determine whether——”

“Oh, you are too slow, Uncle Rudolph,” cried Wilhelmina, interrupting. “I cannot endure this suspense. Here, Mr. Carter, read this! It came by mail this morning. It will tell you, in a nutshell, what is said to have occurred; but I cannot believe it, will not believe it. They say—— Oh, Mr. Carter, they say that Arthur Gordon has deserted me, and eloped with his handsome stenographer!”

Nick had heard of such cases. He did not reply to the grief-stricken girl, nor make any comments. He took a letter which she, starting up while speaking, hurriedly brought from the library table and tendered with trembling hand.

It was a typewritten letter, on paper bearing the printed business heading of the missing banker, also the date of the previous day. It read as follows:

“My Dear Mina: I am writing you a few lines before leaving my office, on a subject which, though I am to see you within an hour, I have not the heart or courage to discuss with you in person.

“This is a late day, indeed, for me to discover that it is best for us to part permanently; that I would do you a far greater wrong in making you my wife, than in taking the step I am about to take. Conditions have arisen that make it imperative, however, and I can see no wise, or even possible, alternative. I shall be far away when you read this, and it is my intention never to return. I cannot ask you to forgive me. My only hope is that you can forget me, and in time find one more worthy of you.

“You already have the deed of the new place, which, with all it contains, I hope you will keep in part amendment of the wrong I have done you. Do please try to forget me.

Arthur Gordon.”

Nick Carter’s grave, clean-cut face, on which Mina Strickland’s tearful blue eyes were anxiously riveted, underwent no change while he read the letter. He handed it to Patsy Garvan, his junior assistant, who had accompanied him there, saying quietly:

“Read it, Patsy. The case evidently is one that we must investigate.”

Patsy obeyed, without replying.

“Please tell me at once, Mr. Carter,” Mina pleaded. “Do you think that——”

“That Arthur Gordon wrote it?” Nick interposed, turning to her.

“Yes.”

“Frankly, Miss Strickland, I do not.”

“Oh, thank Heaven for that!” cried the girl. “Your opinion is worth more to me than that of all the world. It must be, then, that he is the victim of[Pg 5]——”

“Stop a moment,” Nick again interrupted. “My opinion will be worth more after I know all of the circumstances. It now is based only upon the fact that all this is very unlike Arthur Gordon.”

“It is, indeed.”

“Let me question you. That will be the quickest way to bring out the salient points,” said Nick. “Answer as briefly as possible. You received the letter this morning?”

“Yes, sir,” said Mina, eager to proceed.

“The written signature is like Gordon’s?”

“Precisely.”

“You have had other letters from him, of course?”

“Yes, many, Mr. Carter.”

“Were they usually typewritten?”

“No, no, very rarely. He nearly always used a pen.”

“Do you know whether he can use a typewriter skillfully, or even easily?”

“I don’t think so,” said Mina. “I think he dictates all of his typewritten letters.”

“I doubt very much, nevertheless, that he would have dictated such a letter as this,” said Nick, when Patsy returned it to him.

“That’s true, chief, for fair.”

“Bear in mind, Mr. Carter, that it would have been dictated to the girl with whom he is said to have eloped,” put in Mr. Strickland suggestively.

“Admitting that, even, he would have been much more likely to have written so personal and private a letter,” Nick replied. “Who is his stenographer?”

“Her name is Pauline Perrot,” said Mina.

“A French girl?”

“Of French extraction, I think.”

“You have seen her?”

“Yes. She has been out here twice in the past ten days with Mr. Gordon. She boards in Fordham, through which he passes when coming out here with his touring car. He has, for that reason, frequently taken her home from his office when on his way here.”

“Is she a very attractive girl?” Nick inquired.

“I don’t think so,” said Mina, with brows knitting. “She is tall and dark, with black hair, and eyes that frighten me. I tremble when she looks at me. She fills me with awe, and—— Oh, Mr. Carter, I have felt sure there was something wrong, some calamity coming, though I could not imagine what. A cloud has been hanging over me ever since I first saw Pauline Perrot.”

“How long has she been in Gordon’s employ?”

“Four or five months, I think.”

“Have you suspected her of other than business relations with him?”

“Not for a moment,” cried Mina. “Nor do I now believe him guilty of anything wrong. I feel sure he is the victim of a plot, a conspiracy, or——”

“One moment,” said Nick. “Did he come out here with his touring car yesterday afternoon?”

“He did, but sent his chauffeur home with it. I wondered at that, Mr. Carter, for he never had done so before, nor did he offer any explanation.”

“And you did not question him?”

“No, sir.”

“Did he appear as usual?”

“Not quite,” Wilhelmina admitted.

“In what way was he different?”

“He was more serious and self-absorbed, as if he had something on his mind. He remained with us only a[Pg 6] short time, then said he was going out to see how the work on the links was progressing. He added that he would return a little later. That was the last I saw of him,” Mina concluded, with a sob.

“There is much more to this, Mr. Carter,” said Mr. Strickland. “I went out to seek him, or make further inquiries concerning him, after our servant stated that he had gone.”

“What did you learn?”

“I was told by one of the workmen that he left the links about five o’clock. When last seen by them he was walking south toward a woodland road in that locality. I continued my search in that direction, and I soon met two women who had seen him.”

“Women you knew?”

“Yes, two sisters, Mary and Ellen Dawson. They could not be mistaken, for both were employed here by Mr. Gordon to help clean and settle this house.”

“Ah, I see,” Nick nodded. “When and where did they see him?”

“About ten minutes before, at the juncture of a crossroad half a mile from where I met them,” Mr. Strickland went on. “He then was talking with Pauline Perrot. Both of the Dawson women have seen her here, and both immediately recognized her.”

“There evidently was a rendezvous,” said Nick.

“I think so,” Mr. Strickland agreed. “Gordon then had a leather suit case, but the women did not know whether it belonged to him or his companion. She was clad in a dark-green traveling costume. When Gordon saw the two women approaching, he hurried away with Miss Perrot, as if anxious to avoid recognition.”

“In which direction did they go?”

“East, through the crossroad.”

“Did you continue your search?”

“I did not, Mr. Carter, for I supposed that Arthur had unexpected business to look after, having been sought by his stenographer, as I then inferred, and that he would return during the evening, or telephone to us.”

“Have you telephoned to his residence this morning?”

“Yes, indeed. He was not at home last night, nor can his parents explain his absence. They supposed he spent the night here.”

“Have you telephoned to his Wall Street office?”

“I have, of course—about half an hour ago,” said Mr. Strickland.

“With what result?”

“Only two of the clerks then were there. They could give me no information, but I directed them to call me up at once, if Mr. Gordon came in. I have no hope of that, however, in view of the letter Mina has received.”

“It does not, indeed, seem probable,” Nick allowed.

“Added to all this,” said Mr. Strickland, “there now are rumors, probably resulting from the gossip of the Dawson women, that Gordon has eloped with Pauline Perrot. If she is not in his office at her customary hour, ten o’clock, I shall begin to fear——”

Mr. Strickland was interrupted by the ringing of a telephone on a stand in one corner, and Wilhelmina uttered a cry, and ran to the instrument.

“Wait!” Nick exclaimed. “Let me answer it.”

The girl obeyed without a remonstrance, if not quite willingly.

“Well?” queried Nick over the wire.

The response came in quick, agitated tones:[Pg 7]

“Hello! I want Mr. Gordon, if he is there, or Mr. Strickland. Hurry!”

“Mr. Gordon is not here. Who are you?”

“Mr. Beckwith, his cashier. Where can I communicate with Mr. Gordon? Do you know? He was not at home last night. I have just called up his residence. I must find him, or——”

“One moment, Mr. Beckwith,” Nick interrupted. “This is Nick Carter talking.”

“Nick Carter! Good heavens! What has occurred out there?”

“Tell me, instead, what is wrong in Gordon’s office, that you are so disturbed.”

“Wrong enough!” came the quick reply. “Cash, bonds, and securities, aggregating sixty thousand dollars, are missing from the vault. Unless Mr. Gordon removed them——”

“Wait!” Nick commanded a bit sharply. “Is Pauline Perrot there?”

“She is not. She has not come in yet.”

Nick glanced at a French clock on the mantel.

It struck the half hour at that moment, a single stroke, like a sudden death knell—the half after ten.

CHAPTER II. THE MAN WHO ESCAPED.

Nick Carter decided instantly what must be done, also not done. He continued talking with Beckwith without a perceptible pause.

Nick questioned him briefly, obtained Pauline Perrot’s Fordham address, and he then directed him to give no publicity to the matter, but to await the arrival of Chick Carter, his chief assistant, whom he would immediately send to Gordon’s office to investigate the case.

Nick then called up the library in his Madison Avenue house and talked with Chick. He gave him a brief outline of the circumstances, together with such instructions as were necessary, and he then directed him to report in person at Gordon’s residence in the Bronx.

“It will take him a couple of hours at least,” he remarked to Patsy, after hanging up the receiver. “We can get in our work elsewhere, in the meantime, and return before he arrives.”

Naturally, of course, several pertinent questions had arisen in Nick’s mind, and which could not consistently be ignored, in spite of his high opinion of Arthur Gordon.

Was he really the writer of the letter received by Mina Strickland? Had conditions really arisen which made imperative the course he said he was about to shape?

Had he realized at that late day, indeed, that he was not as deeply in love with Wilhelmina as he had supposed? Had he, too, become helplessly infatuated with Pauline Perrot, and as an only desperate resort determined to desert Miss Strickland and elope with the stenographer?

Was it he, in that case, who had taken the cash, bonds, and securities from the vault in his office? Had he sacrificed all but that small part of his fortune, to say nothing of character, friends, and family, for a mad love for another woman?

In view of the fact that Gordon had been acting voluntarily, and in a measure had deceived the Stricklands as to his intentions the previous afternoon, Nick could not but give the foregoing questions serious con[Pg 8]sideration. He had, as observed before, known of such cases. They were common enough, in fact, and what man has done, man may do.

Nick’s face reflected none of his thoughts, however, when he turned from the telephone and stated what he had learned; and the effect upon Wilhelmina was about what he was anticipating.

“Good heavens, is it possible?” she exclaimed, ghastly with increasing apprehensions. “All that money gone from his vault? Don’t keep me in suspense, Mr. Carter. Tell me just what you think about it. Tell me——”

“I must look deeper into the matter, Miss Strickland, before I can tell you anything definite,” Nick interposed evasively. “I have not changed my opinion, such as it was, and I will lose no time in sifting the matter to the bottom. Try to be patient until I have done so.”

“I will try, Mr. Carter, at least,” she replied. “But all this must be the culmination of the terrible secret dread I have been feeling.”

“Secret dread?”

“I say that only because I have not mentioned it to any one, being unable to ascribe a definite cause for it,” Mina explained. “But it has been hanging over me like a depressing cloud ever since I first saw Pauline Perrot—ever since, in fact, the escape of that terrible criminal, Mortimer Deland, from the prison hospital.”

“Yes, I remember,” said Nick, regarding her more intently.

“You were employed by Arthur, you remember, to run him down,” she went on. “I have heard that Mortimer Deland never forgets, nor ever forgives. Since that extraordinary escape, Mr. Carter, I have lived in fear of him, for fear that he might attempt to kill Mr. Gordon, or in some terrible way avenge——”

“Pshaw!” Nick checked her kindly. “Put Deland out of your head. It is unfortunate, of course, that he fooled the hospital guards, and contrived to give them the slip.”

“Unfortunate, indeed.”

“But as far as seeking vengeance goes, it is much more probable that he immediately fled to Europe, whence he came,” Nick added. “Besides, I am the man he would seek, and not Gordon, for it was I who cornered and convicted him. There is no occasion for those apprehensions, Miss Strickland.”

“I hope not, I’m sure,” said Mina. “You are going?”

Nick had taken his hat from a table on which he had placed it.

“Yes,” he replied. “I will return in a couple of hours, however, and Chick may arrive in the meantime. We will leave no stone unturned to ferret out the truth.”

He led the way out to his touring car, in which Danny, his chauffeur, had been waiting in front of the house.

“To Fordham, Danny,” he directed. “Let her go lively.”

“Why to Fordham, chief?” questioned Patsy, when both were seated in the tonneau and the car was speeding down the long driveway to the rural road.

“To inspect Pauline Perrot’s apartments and interview her landlady,” said Nick, with rather ominous intonation.

“Do you suspect her of being a crook?”

“I think she is back of this whole business, Patsy, of whatever it consists.”

“Gee, that looks like a cinch!” declared Patsy. “Either she is playing a deep game, chief, and working it out[Pg 9] with wonderful success, or Gordon has lost his head completely and bolted with the woman.”

“The last may possibly be true, since other men have been equally foolish,” said Nick. “I find it hard to believe of Arthur Gordon, however.”

“That goes, too.”

“I doubt very much that he would have gone so far as to buy a big estate, build and furnish a fine residence, and then bolt with a girl he has known less than six months.”

“But he evidently met her voluntarily yesterday afternoon.”

“She may have wheedled him into doing so.”

“But how, if Gordon did not remove them, could she have got the bonds and securities from his vault?”

“Chick will try to find out. I have left that to him, and given him all of the necessary points. It is useless for us to speculate upon it.”

“Gee, it’s surely some case, chief, and likely to become a difficult one,” said Patsy. “It’s odd, too, that Miss Strickland has felt so apprehensive of deviltry by Mortimer Deland since his escape.”

“That’s like a girl of her sensitive nature.”