Chapter XXIII: A Timely Shot

The girl had made a foolish mistake in throttling her engine, for the current was carrying her down to meet the desperate swimmer.

Nick’s men gasped involuntarily as they saw that Grantley could not fail to reach the power boat before the tug could overtake him, unless the frightened girl came to her senses and forged ahead again.

“Run for it, or he’ll board you!” shouted Chick through his cupped hands.

But the girl’s presence of mind seemed to have deserted her, or else she was torn between the desire for flight and some feminine notion that Grantley might be in distress and needed her help.

At any rate, she looked as if she did not know what to do, and she made no attempt to start the boat.

“Go, child, before it’s too late!” Nick called apprehensively. “If he gets control of your boat we can’t catch him--and he’s a fugitive from justice, who deserves nobody’s sympathy.”

But still she hesitated and looked about her wildly, while Chick and Jack Wise called to the police boat to hurry.

Grantley was within a few strokes of the power boat now, and both were too far from the detectives for the latter to do any good by jumping in.

“That’s a Simcoe Express,” Nick muttered to his first assistant, “and it’s good for at least twenty-five knots an hour to the police boat’s twelve or fourteen. We must go----”

He did not finish his sentence, for Grantley had already laid one hand on the power boat’s gunwale, and was preparing to pull himself over the side.

“Jump overboard, girl!” the detective shouted peremptorily. “We’ll take care of you.”

For a tense moment he feared that the girl would not profit by this advice, either, but her fears got the upper hand when the fugitive’s pale face and glaring eyes came into view above the gunwale.

With a cry of terror, she threw herself over the opposite rail.

“Thank Heaven!” exclaimed Nick, under his breath. “Now that she’s out of the way----”

Again he broke off abruptly, but the action which followed immediately left no doubt of his meaning.

He sank down on one knee, steadied his pistol arm on the other, and took careful aim at the figure which was climbing over the side of the racing craft.

The police tug was coming, approaching now at full speed, but it was at least fifty yards behind.

Doctor Grantley had proved that he was too dangerous a man to dally with. If he was not effectually stopped at once, before he started that blue streak of a speed boat, there was no telling when they would see him again. He was doubtless familiar with marine engines of that type, otherwise he would not have headed for the boat. As soon as he started the powerful motor, he would fade away up the Hudson with the speed of a projectile, and there was no craft at hand that could keep him in sight.

It was no time for halfway measures.

Grantley was climbing into the power boat from the other side. He exposed himself as little as possible as he came over the rail, but the target was big enough for Nick.

The detective’s automatic spoke just once, but the fugitive crumpled up over the gunwale, his legs in the water, his hands groping blindly over the rail of the craft.

A cheer went up from the boatmen, and Nick’s assistants joined in a sigh of relief. A moment later they were both in the water and swimming to the aid of the girl.

The police boat slid alongside the racer with reversed engines. Grantley was taken on board. It was found that he had been shot through the right breast. Nick had taken no chances.

The girl proved to be a good swimmer, but her fright had weakened her to an extent which made her very grateful for the young men’s assistance.

Chick and Jack helped her back to the boat, and, after the former had been transferred to the police tug, Jack piloted the racing craft back to the yacht club from which the girl had set out a short time before.

The wound was a clean one, and, in spite of his age, Doctor Grantley possessed a great deal of strength and endurance. He recovered rapidly, and in due time was put on trial. Doctor Siebold, Miss Rawlinson, the nurse, and Hoff, the German servant--the latter pair having been captured through the efforts of Patsy Garvan and Ida Jones--were arraigned with him as accomplices.

There was another accomplice, however, who shared the ordeal with them, and whose arrest had caused a tremendous sensation in financial and social circles.

The fifth prisoner was Felix Simmons, another of the Wall Street money kings, and J. Hackley Baldwin’s rival.

The tearing up of the check for the quarter of a million dollars had started Nick Carter’s suspicions off on a new line.

Had Grantley merely wanted money he could have earned that sum legitimately, or even more than that, by bringing his great skill to bear--as he had actually done--on the multimillionaire’s eyes.

The fact that he had not been content with that, but had gone on and committed a revolting crime by literally robbing Baldwin of part of his brain, indicated that revenge of some sort had been his motive.

But even so, there would have been no reason, from his unscrupulous standpoint, for his refusing to profit financially by the first operation. His act in destroying the check seemed to show that somebody else was paying for the crime, and that, such being the case, Grantley felt that he could afford the luxury of spurning Baldwin’s two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

And that, in its turn, implied that the surgeon must have hated Baldwin so intensely that, criminal though he was, he could not bear to touch any of the millionaire’s money if his own wants could be supplied in any other way.

There had been several difficulties about this new theory, notably the fact that Grantley had, apparently, been anxious to get hold of the check in the first place.

The more Nick puzzled over that, however, the more he became inclined to believe that the surgeon’s seeming eagerness to obtain the check had been due to pressure from a third person, his unknown backer.

If such a person existed, it would obviously have been to his interest to have Grantley obtain and seem to make use of the huge fee which Baldwin had promised, for that and Grantley’s own enmity toward the blind financier would supply a sufficient motive for the crime, and prevent the authorities from probing deep enough to discover the surgeon’s secret arrangement with this third person.

On the other hand, if Grantley were shown to have had a quarter of a million, as good as in his grasp, and to have failed to take full advantage of his opportunities, no mere motive of private vengeance would be likely to be accepted as an adequate explanation, and in that case the prosecution would probably attempt to dig up additional facts, to the great embarrassment of Grantley’s principal, or silent, partner.

Supposing such an individual to exist, that was the way the detective pictured him as reasoning. But it was hardly probable that any one of Baldwin’s financial enemies would have been willing to pay Grantley for the crime, and, at the same time, allow the surgeon to carry off a quarter of a million of the victim’s money in addition.

Therefore, it looked as if Grantley’s backer must have prevailed upon him to obtain the check, partly as a blind, but with the understanding that it was to be turned over to him after the transaction had been covered up in some way.

If that were the explanation, it was plain that Grantley had proved false to the bargain. He had not only destroyed the check--which seemed to confirm Nick’s theory that he was not entitled to it, but was expected to pass it on to some one else--but he had, also, by sending the fragments to Nick, given the detective a broad hint that he was looking elsewhere for his pay.

Nick did not believe that Grantley had meant to do any more than indulge in a dramatic defiance, but that was the effect his act had had.

As for his apparent breaking of faith with his unknown confederate, that presented no great difficulties. Grantley would have been quite capable of such an act if he had already received his pay from that quarter. It would have meant neither financial loss nor physical danger to himself, and that was all that would have deterred him.

To make a long story short, the great detective had set to work along this line. With Grantley and his known accomplices safely in custody, he had ample time to carry the investigation as far as necessary.

It is enough to say that it confirmed his theories one after another.

First, he discovered that Doctor Grantley’s original motive had been one of private revenge, of a twofold character. The surgeon’s real name was not Grantley at all, but Standish. He had inherited quite a large sum of money, and, in their younger days, he and Baldwin had both loved the same girl. She had married the future financier and died a few years later.

Standish had foolishly blamed Baldwin for the girl’s preference, and had never forgiven him. He had subsequently changed his name to Grantley, which explained the fact that Baldwin had not suspected his identity.

Years afterward, Grantley, as he then called himself, had invested heavily in a certain copper company, not knowing that the corporation was secretly controlled by the blind financier. The venture happened to be one of Baldwin’s few failures, and Grantley had lost his entire investment.

Afterward, when he had learned of Baldwin’s connection with the punctured bubble, he had gone nearly mad with rage and the thirst for vengeance.

He had bided his time, however. After his sensational trial on the charge of manslaughter, he had decided that the time was ripe. His practice was already ruined, and he had little more to lose, whatever happened.

There was something else to be considered, however.

His income had long been dwindling and his trial had been expensive. He was badly in need of money, and, although he believed he could restore Baldwin’s sight, and thus technically earn a big fee, there were two difficulties in the way:

The first was that he rebelled at the thought of using his enemy’s money, after all that had happened, even though he considered Baldwin responsible for the loss of a small fortune of his own.

The second was that, even if he could bring himself to accept such a fee, his contemplated revenge on the financier would almost certainly prove an effectual barrier between him and the collection of the fee.

While in this quandary, Grantley had thought of Felix Simmons. The latter was Baldwin’s greatest rival in the financial world, and he was personally known to Grantley.

The surgeon had treated him in a professional way some years before, and had reasons to know that Simmons was thoroughly unscrupulous whenever there appeared to be no chance of his being found out.

Accordingly, Grantley had approached Simmons on the sly, and a deal had resulted.

It would be worth millions to Simmons to have Baldwin eliminated from the financial game, and, therefore, he readily agreed to pay Grantley a very large sum--the exact amount was never established--if he could bring about that result.

There must be no suspicion, however, that Simmons had anything to do with the matter, and, to that end, Grantley was to appear anxious to obtain the fee which Baldwin had promised. This fee, however, was to be turned over to Simmons in such a way that his relations with the surgeon should not be disclosed.

In that manner the shrewd Grantley had made sure of a new fortune, irrespective of the success of the operation on Baldwin’s eyes, or his ability to realize on that before the crash of discovery came.

The operations had been performed and the crime committed. Simmons, in disguise, had managed to evade the watchful detectives, and had seen for himself that Grantley had carried out his part of the compact.

He had thereupon paid him the sum agreed upon, in gold, so that there would be no possibility of its being traced to him. Being constitutionally crooked, however, Grantley had failed to carry out his agreement in regard to Baldwin’s check.

His hatred of Baldwin prevented him from trying to realize on it himself. Moreover, he had good reason to fear that Nick Carter would not let him do so, in any case.

But when it came down to it, he could not endure the thought of turning it over to Simmons, for that would be reimbursing Simmons for the amount he had spent on Grantley, and in that case the crooked financier would be paying nothing for the great advantage that would come to him through Baldwin’s withdrawal from the game.

In short, Grantley decided to double cross his powerful confederate, feeling sure that Simmons was not in a position to expose him.

He had not dreamed of the use to which Nick Carter would put the destruction of the check, but even if he had, it is more than likely that he would have persisted. Misery likes company, they say, and it is certain that, when Grantley found himself in the toils, he was glad to see Felix Simmons in a similar plight.

Nick established enough of these facts to convict all of the criminals, and they were sent to prison for long terms.