Chapter XXIV: Nick on Deck Again

Against beautiful Mercedes Danton and her family, as well as Nick Carter himself, Rogers had taken an awful oath of vengeance.

How terrible that oath was, how carefully he had considered it and planned for its fulfilment, we are soon to know.

There were two coincidences connected with the escape of Rogers. One was the arrival of Nick Carter at the Grand Central Station at nine o’clock on the same evening, and the other the incoming of the steamship _Oceanic_, which passed Fire Island at about the hour of the sensational events at the railroad station, and when the vessel docked the following morning among the passengers to come ashore were Mercedes Danton and her father and mother.

It was about half-past nine when Nick Carter reached his house that night, and as he was in the act of ascending the steps to his front door he heard his name called from the street, and, turning, observed, shambling toward him, a man who at first glance appeared to be a genuine specimen of the genus hobo.

He was certainly as repulsive a looking tramp as Nick Carter had ever beheld, to judge from his general appearance, and Nick somewhat impatiently asked him what he wanted.

“I want a word with you, sir, if I may have it,” was the reply. “My name is Tom Morgan. You’ll remember me best as ‘Red’ Morgan, I think. The last time you saw me was when you testified against me in court when the judge sent me away for five years for burglary.”

Nick suppressed a cry of amazement as he recognized Morgan, for he was still revolving in his mind the strange story of old Peter’s will. He controlled himself quickly as he said:

“You must have been having a hard time of it, to judge by your looks. Aren’t there any cribs left for you to crack? Out of prison three months and still broke is an unusual circumstance for you, isn’t it?”

“Oh, I’m not broke by a long shot, Carter.”

“Mr. Carter, if you please, Morgan. I can’t permit familiarity from people in your profession, no matter how much I may happen to admire their skill.”

“All right, Mr. Carter. No offense,” and the burglar laughed. “I’m not broke. This rig I’ve got on is a disguise. I can look the hobo, and play the part, too, to beat the band, when it happens to be of advantage for me to do so. I picked up the fact that you were out of town and were expected to arrive home yesterday or to-day, and so, as I wanted to catch you as soon as you appeared, and to do that had to hang around the vicinity of your doorstep until you came, I just adopted the hobo rig; see?”

“Yes; I see. But what for? Why did you wish to see me? I should suppose that I would be about the last person on top of earth whom you would wish to see.”

Morgan grinned.

“Well, Mr. Carter,” he said, “ordinarily that is the case; but there happened to be a reason or two why I thought you would appreciate my society just now.”

“How is that, Morgan? You haven’t turned stool-pigeon since your imprisonment, have you? You are the last crook in the city whom I would pick out for an informer against his kind.”

“Well, sir, I’m much obliged to you for that opinion--and it’s a correct one, too. Nobody ever accused Red Morgan of being a squealer--bet your life on that. All the same, that is about the size of my present contract.”

“Do you mean that you have come here to betray----”

“Hold on, please. That is a hard word for me to swallow, even though it does amount to a betrayal in one way. But, on the other hand, it isn’t a betrayal at all, for the guns I’m going to peach about are not pals of mine and never could be. It isn’t my fault that they made a lay for me and wanted me to get on board their machine with them. Can’t you take me inside, Mr. Carter? I’ve got a lot to tell you.”

Nick hesitated and Morgan continued:

“These clothes aren’t as bad as they look. You know that I’m rather a clean sort of a chap, and this rig is one I fixed up myself. There’s a lot about it that looks like filth, but it’s really good, clean dirt, gathered from a country roadside--and I won’t ask you to let me sit down. I didn’t come for that, and I probably won’t stay half an hour.”

“All right. Come in,” replied Nick.

A few moments later he had provided Morgan with a chair, and they were seated together in the reception-room.

“Now what is it all about?” asked Nick. “I know you well enough, Morgan, to believe that you would not take the risk of coming to see me unless you had something of importance on your mind. Let’s get down to business.”

“Well, it is important. I’m sorry, sir, that you did not get home about six hours sooner.”

“Indeed! Why?”

“Well, if you had, you could have prevented the whole thing that I have come to warn you about. You see, when you did not get here soon enough to prevent it, I was for going away and leaving the rest of it to take its own course; but when I thought it over I couldn’t do that, for when you came to find it all out later you would say that Red Morgan was a coward, and I’ve never been called that in my life.”

“No,” replied Nick. “I would not say that you are a coward, except on the general principle that any man who will steal must be a coward. However, we won’t discuss that. What was it that I did not get here soon enough to prevent?”

“The escape of Paul Rogers.”

“Eh? What is that? Has Paul Rogers escaped?”

“Well, I didn’t see him escape, and I haven’t been told that he has escaped, but I wouldn’t be afraid to bet a thousand to one that he has.”

“When?”

“At four o’clock this afternoon.”

“Where?”

“While they were taking him to the train at the Grand Central. I wasn’t there, and I haven’t heard anything about it since; but the plans were too well laid to have failed, and so you can bank on it that he is at liberty at this moment.”

“H’m! And you came here to warn me of it so that I could prevent it? Is that it?”

“That was my original intention; and I didn’t expect to tell you any more--then. But now I expect I’ll have to do so.”

“Tell me first why, when you found out that I would not get here in time to prevent it, you did not give the information to some other person who could have prevented it?”

“For the very simple reason, Mr. Carter, that while there may be a million coppers and police officers higher up on the fence who would keep faith with me in a matter of that kind, I never yet happened to make the acquaintance of any of them. Nick Carter was the only man I wanted to trust, for I knew that Nick Carter would keep his word with me with the same absolute certainty that he would keep faith with the President of the United States.”

“That is true, of course. But what do you want me to promise? I may not feel inclined to give promises, you know.”

“I don’t want you to promise anything, save that you will forget where you get the information I’m going to give you. Just for the sake of my own personal feelings in the matter, I don’t care to have it known ever, that I--well, that I peached.”

“I can promise you that nobody will ever get that information from me,” replied Nick. “But is that all you are going to ask? Aren’t you going to say, when you have told me all, that because you have done me a favor, you expect me to be a little light on you the next time my duty requires me to nail you?”

“Not on your life, Mr. Carter. A fair field and no favors is all I shall ask or expect at your hands, and I know that I’ll always get that,” replied Morgan.