Chapter VIII: Chick Carter’s Mishap

Knowing nothing about the discoveries made by Nick Carter since parting from him at the medical college, ignorant as to the identity of the woman mentioned by Margate, but knowing at least that the rascal was engaged in another felonious scheme, said to reach its culmination that very evening, and that he might accomplish even more by following Tony Selig than by attempting to arrest the three crooks then and there, which might have been difficult when undertaken; single-handed--these were Chick Carter’s reasons, for letting Margate and the woman depart, and for resuming his pursuit of Tony Selig.

The latter immediately started up the road in the direction from which Margate had come, and his actions plainly denoted that he had no thought of being followed.

Chick found it comparatively easy, therefore, to shadow him without being detected. He followed him for nearly a mile through the woodland road, passing only a solitary house on the way, despite that the road appeared to be one that was frequently traveled by motorists.

Twenty minutes brought Tony Selig to his destination. It proved to be an old wooden house back from the road, with a stable and outbuildings in the rear, all in a clearing dotted with numerous hencoops and countless hens and chickens, which denoted from what the occupants of the inferior place derived their living, perhaps in connection with other and more profitable ventures.

Chick stole to a point in the surrounding woods from which he could view the place. He saw two men and a large, rawboned woman emerge from the back door, toward which Tony had turned his steps, and all four then sat down on a platform outside and began an earnest discussion of the news Tony Selig evidently had brought them.

Chick rightly inferred that they were all of one family, but he was too far away to hear what passed between them during the next hour. He continues to watch them until four o’clock, however, when Margate returned alone in the runabout. All sprang up to greet him, to which he put a speedy end by saying, so forcibly that Chick heard him distinctly:

“Cut that out for something more important. I’ve set the ball rolling, and Nance knows just what to do. It’s up to us to do the rest. Get the lanterns, Zeke, you and Angus, and we’ll head for the Poplars. It will be dark in an hour, or a trifle more. The game might show up even earlier. We must be ready for her. I’ll get the documents, but we’ll leave the other plunder here. Be ready when I come out.”

Margate hurried into the house with the last, not waiting for an answer.

The two men addressed by name, evidently the father and brother of Tony Selig, hastened to the stable, from which they quickly emerged with three oil lanterns. They then returned to the house, from which the woman had in the meantime brought their coats and hats.

“By Jove, this does look like something doing,” thought Chick, stealing into a thicket some fifty yards back of the house. “The Poplars, eh? I wonder where that is, or they, if it refers only to trees. I’ll come pretty near finding out, by gracious, also to what documents that rascal refers. I wonder which way they’ll head.”

Chick had not long to wait, and it was not without misgivings that he saw the four men shape a course through the woods that took them within twenty feet of his concealment.

They passed without seeing him, however, and he then proceeded to cautiously keep them in view.

A tramp of half a mile through the woods brought into view another section of the road, also a large, old wooden house some fifty yards from the highway, with a stable and a long, open shed adjoining it, the whole shut in somewhat by a park of huge, old silver-leaf poplars, from which the house evidently derived its name.

Chick saw at a glance, nevertheless, that, the house was unoccupied. The curtains or blinds of most of the windows were closely drawn. The stable doors were closed and padlocked, while the ground in the driveway and shed was running to rank grass.

The character of the place also was apparent, and it afterward appeared that it had been closed by the authorities nearly a year before, and since had been unoccupied.

“An old road house,” thought Chick, sizing it up. “It has been vacant for some time. But why have these rascals come here? Why is he taking a chance of breaking into the house? By Jove, I think I have it.”

Margate, leading the way, was skillfully forcing open the back door of the deserted old road house.

“They want the expected interview in a house with which they are not identified, yet in which it can be safely held,” Chick rightly reasoned. “This isolated old place just serves them, and they feel sure of not being traced from it. I reckon that won’t be necessary, by Jove, if I can get in my work without a hitch.”

Margate had led the way into the house, followed by his three confederates.

Chick could see that they had left the door ajar, however, and it was obvious that not one of them feared having been watched, for not a curtain stirred at any of the windows, denoting the precaution of stealthily looking out.

“I’ll wait a few minutes and then take a chance,” Chick muttered. “I can slip in there unheard. I’ll wager I can thwart any knavery they have up their sleeves. It’s only twenty yards from the end of the open shed to that side of the house. It would be child’s play to reach the back door from that place.”

The sun had set and the dusk of the November afternoon was beginning to gather.

Chick looked around for another dwelling, or signs of persons traveling the road, but none met his searching gaze. He felt that he must tackle the task single-handed, and that a step taken at that time might be of later advantage.

Not a sound came from within the house, nor a sign of the men who had entered it.

Starting abruptly when the dusk, began to deepen, Chick crept back of the long shed, quickly picking his way to that end of it nearest the house. He then waited and listened briefly, and he could hear the intermittent blows of a hammer.

“That does settle it,” he said to himself. “They evidently are busy, so here’s my chance.”

Darting quickly to the back steps, Chick crouched and listened again, still hearing the hammer, and he then pushed the door open a few inches. The dim hall was deserted. It ran straight through the house to the front door.

Chick now could hear the four men in one of the side rooms. He stepped noiselessly into the hall, leaving the door as he had found it, and he then sought concealment on a bare back stairway leading to the second floor.

“I may find it of advantage to steal up there,” he said to himself. “I must overhear just what comes off in this crib, and also learn how many I am finally up against.”

The hammer ceased at that moment, and he heard Margate say gruffly, addressing the elder Selig:

“That’s good enough, Zeke. Good enough.”

“It strikes me so, Andy.”

“Sure. Not a ray of light can get through the blankets, to say nothing of the curtains and blinds. We’ll be safe enough from detection.”

“They have been tacking blankets over the windows,” thought Chick.

“Light the lanterns, Angus,” Margate now commanded. “It’s getting infernally dark here, but not as dark as I found it last night, nor anything like as cold. That was a close call, if ever a man had one.”

“Close call is right, Andy,” Tony Selig vouchsafed.

“But the meds did me a good turn, at that,” Margate added. “They forced me into seeking other garments than my own, and put me in a way to pull off this job. We’ll clean up handsomely from the whole business, you can bank on that, and there’ll be no clew left to show who turned the trick, after I have bolted with Nance for South America.”

“You’ll be bolted in other quarters, you rascal, unless I am much mistaken,” thought Chick, still on the stairway. “By Jove, I don’t quite fathom this business.”

The conversation that followed shed a ray of light upon it, but only a ray, as far as the listening detective was concerned.

“You feel sure the woman will pay, do you?” Zeke Selig inquired.

“Pay--you bet she’ll pay,” said Margate confidently. “Her letter to Barclay shows that. What else can she do? She’s got to have the document before her husband shows up, or--well, she knows what the finish would be.”

“When will he show up?”

“The letter don’t say. It says only that she must have the document to-day. I would nail Barclay, too, only he’s likely to call on Nick Carter for aid after informing the woman of his loss. I’ll take a chance that we can bleed her before Carter gets to work there. Just now, you know, he must have his hands full looking after my body.”

“But what in thunder is the document?” asked Tony, after lighting the lanterns.

“I cannot just make it out,” replied Margate. “It’s a foreign agreement of some kind and is signed by a bunch of diplomats.

“H’m, I see,” thought Chick, listening intently. “Senator Barclay evidently is in wrong with some woman.”

“I know enough, however, to be sure we could nail no one else for anything,” Margate added. “The woman is the only one in our clutches, since the trick must be turned immediately. She’ll come across with the coin, all right, and may show up here with Nance at any moment. I’ll fix the front door so we can let her in. By the way, one of you lock and bolt the back door.”

Both Zeke and Angus Selig started to do so, striding out of the room at Margate’s heels, and all three appeared almost immediately in the hall, then lighted by the rays from the lanterns.

Chick heard them coming and knew that he must be seen if he remained on the stairway, about half of which he had ascended. He drew back quickly from the plain wooden rail on the outer side, intending to steal quietly up to the second floor.

When he trod on the next bare stair, however, the projecting edge of the footboard, weakened with age and dampness in the closed house, broke under his weight.

Chick lost his footing and his balance.

He fell heavily against the rail, seizing it to prevent falling backward down the stairs.

The startling noise brought a roar from Margate:

“What’s that?”

The question was instantly answered--but not verbally.

The stairway rail snapped and broke under the detective’s weight.

Instead of falling backward down the stairway, Chick pitched headlong over the side of it, straight down six feet to the hall floor, on which he landed with a crash that seemed to shake the house.

The three men saw him as plainly as they had heard him, and another roar came from Andy Margate.

“A spy! One of the Carters, boys, or I’m a liar. Get him! Lend me a hand.”

Chick heard them, though severely shaken and stunned, and he tried to rise.

Margate leaped upon him like a wolf on a lamb, however, forcing him back upon the floor and dealing him a blow on the head, at the same time shouting:

“Out with a gun! Shoot him, Zeke, if he stirs. Bring a rope, Tony, and be quick about it. Cut one of the window cords.”