Chapter IX: A Thief Robs a Thief

The result of the investigation of Chick within the barroom, and of Nick without the house, was to show that there were two entrances to the upper story.

One was by the outside staircase at the rear, which had evidently been used by the four, and the other by a hallway, the door of which was on the avenue.

Nick had tried and found that the door at the front of the house was locked and bolted on the other side.

Chick had found that there was a door at the rear of the barroom which opened into this hall from which a flight of stairs ran up to the second floor.

Chick joined Nick in the cross street near the rear door that led from the street into the barroom. They exchanged their information, and Nick said:

“We will go into the barroom, Chick, and while there I will manage in some way to divert the attention of the barkeeper so that you can slip through that door into the hall and unbolt the front door.

“Our plan shall be that I will enter from the rear and climb those outside stairs while you shall enter the front door, bolt it behind you and bolt the door leading into the barroom. Then going up the stairs from the front, we will take them front and rear.”

Entering the saloon, it did not take Nick long to get the barkeeper so engrossed in conversation that Chick slipped through the door into the hall unseen, unbolted the front door, turning the key he found there so as to unlock it, and was back again in the barroom beside Nick before his absence had been noticed.

Having tipped the wink to Nick that it was all arranged, the two passed out and separated at the door, after having agreed upon a signal that should inform each that they were in their proper places.

Seizing a favorable opportunity when no one was looking, Nick passed the door in the fence and went to the rear of the outside staircase.

He met with a temporary check.

The staircase was closed at the bottom by a door bolted from within.

Having no tools with him and seeing nothing by which he could open the door or force it, he took the chances of being heard and, placing his shoulder against the part where he thought the bolt was--that is to say, just above the lock--he gradually applied his strength until he forced it in.

The door was not strong and, as a matter of fact, gave way quite easily under the pressure he could apply.

Waiting a brief instant to see whether he had attracted attention, and becoming satisfied that he had not, he swung the door back to see that the stairway was covered with a cheap carpet.

Cautiously ascending the steps he found himself on a landing which was below a door closed and, as he quickly found, locked.

A trial of it satisfied him that it was not bolted, and as the lock was of the ordinary kind he had no difficulty in picking it.

In this it differed from the one at the foot of the stairs, which had no keyhole on the outside.

Cautiously opening this door, he found that he was in a small-sized entry--so small, indeed, that it was almost impossible to stand within it, and shut the door again. On his right was another door, which was doubtless always opened before the outer door was closed.

But by dint of squeezing himself into the corner Nick succeeded in closing the door and with his pick relocking it.

Then he cautiously opened the door before him to find that it was a bedroom, and vacant.

Stepping within it lightly, he listened and heard voices in the room in front. There were two doors in this room, one clearly communicating with the front room, and the other, Nick thought, might open into a closet. But, on trying it, he found it opened into the hall of the second story, and saw Chick standing at the head of the stairs waiting to give the signal which should announce his presence there.

Nick beckoned to Chick, who came stealthily to the door.

“They are in that front room on this floor, chief,” said Chick. “There is nobody upstairs, for I have been through that floor. I have barricaded the top of the stairs so they cannot escape that way.”

“All right,” said Nick. “Now take your stand at that door leading from the bedroom. I will leave this door open and when you hear me mew like a cat, burst into the room.”

Chick went to his position and Nick to his.

Nick was about to give the signal, when he heard the voice of Lannigan saying:

“I suppose I’ve got to take it this way.”

“I don’t see how else it is to be done,” said Elwell. “The paper is drawn in such a way as to show that the fifty thousand dollars due you is for value received. You must rely upon me to get the proper acknowledgment of this when you bring the paper to me to-morrow. I will do that and have it properly indorsed by responsible people, who will give a bond for the faithful execution of the requirements of this paper by Seaman. It is the best I can do. We have had business before together and you have found me a man of my word. That ought to stand for something now.”

“I s’pose it must go,” returned Lannigan, in a doubtful and dissatisfied tone. “I suppose I must take my chance that you’re acting on the level.”

“I’m on the level,” said Seaman. “You wouldn’t want me to bring my bondsman here, would you?”

“Not on your life,” said Lannigan. “Anyhow, I’ll take the chance. I may be done out of the money and you may not make the bond good to-morrow, but if you don’t----”

He stopped talking suddenly and there was a pause that lasted some time. Then Elwell spoke:

“There’s no use of your making such threats as that, Lannigan. They are not pleasant.”

“No,” laughed Lannigan, bitterly, “and they won’t be pleasant for either you or Seaman here, if I carry them out.”

There was another silence, during which there was the rustling of paper. Then Elwell spoke again:

“There, Lannigan, is the paper signed by Seaman and witnessed by me. Bring it to me to-morrow as agreed and I will see that it is acknowledged and the bond given to you.”

“Very well,” said Lannigan. “Now about the five thou.”

“Here it is,” said Seaman.

“Let me count it,” said Lannigan.

“You can see me count it. There are fifty one-hundred-dollar bills here.”

Again there was a brief silence, during which the rustling of paper was heard.

“Hand it over,” said Lannigan. “It’s all right.”

“Produce the goods first,” said Seaman, with a laugh.

“Oh, they’re here all right,” Lannigan said. “I’ll get it.”

Again there was a brief silence, during which the steps of some one across the floor could be heard.

Nick got ready to give the signal, for he believed that the point was at hand when the burst into the room should be made, to find before them the very article that was the object of their search.

“Open it,” said the voice of Seaman, “and let us see that it’s all right.”

Again there was a brief instant of silence, when there was a sudden start, followed by an unusual commotion, cries and oaths, above which rang the voice of Lannigan, crying:

“The game’s up!”

“What trick is this?” cried Seaman, angrily.

“We’ve been robbed!” cried Lannigan and the unknown together.

Seaman laughed loud and bitterly, and said:

“It’s a plant. A dirty plant. Now I suppose you’ll undertake to rob me of this five thousand.”

“Before Heaven!” cried Lannigan, most earnestly, “it’s no plant. I tell you we’ve been robbed and since we left here this afternoon to meet you.”

“Nick Carter!” exclaimed a voice that had not yet been heard in all the talk.

“Do you think so?” asked Elwell.

“Who else? Who knew of it being here but Lannigan and I,” said the same voice.

“Has everything been taken out?” asked Elwell.

“Every blessed scrap of paper,” replied Lannigan. “And a lot of newspapers put in their place.”

“Lannigan,” said Elwell, “I believe that both you and your friend are square in this matter. I believe that you have really been robbed. This makes it all the more serious. For we now do not know in whose hands they are.”

“Nick Carter’s, I tell you!” exclaimed the strange voice again.

“Perhaps,” said Elwell. “If they are, then we are all of us done.”

“Beat to a finish,” said Seaman.

“He’ll die for it if he has swiped them,” almost shouted Lannigan, wild in his anger.

“Pshaw!” exclaimed Elwell. “You may think yourself a bad man, Lannigan; but you had better keep out of the way of Nick Carter. If he has tracked that case here and got possession of the things within it, the next thing will be that he’ll have the handcuffs on you. He fears no mortal man and he has captured single-handed half a dozen men, each one worse than you. But I don’t think Nick Carter has got those papers.”

“Why?”

“Let me ask you first, whether when you last saw these, they were all in this case and the case locked?”

“Yes; every blessed paper and the models as well.”

“Well, then, if Nick Carter had entered the room in search of that case and had found it, he would not have stopped to take the things out and substitute papers in their place, but would have taken out of the house the case and all.”

“That’s sense,” said Seaman.

“Let me ask you another question,” said Elwell. “Did any one besides Seaman and myself know that you had this case and its contents?”

“No--stop--yes--hold on! It’s not quite that way. There are two men who thought we had it. They thought we had cracked that crib in Thirty-fifth Street and, that being so, they knew that we had the case. But we never let on to them that we did the job. They only thought so.”

“Who are those men?” asked Elwell.

“Never you mind who they are,” said Lannigan, ferociously. “Before the lights go out to-night, I’ll know whether they’ve got that case, or what was in it, or I’ll have their lives.”

Again there was silence of speech, but there was a movement as if the party had risen to their feet.

Nick slipped to the open door leading into the hall and, beckoning to Chick, said to him when they met:

“Did you hear?”

“Plainly.”

“The drawings have disappeared.”

“Yes. There’s no use of making a raid now.”

“You’re right; get out of the house by the front way as quick as you can and get on the watch. I’ll go down by the way I came.”

Chick slipped down the stairs and out of the front door, while Nick, crossing the bedroom, picked the lock of the outer door again, closed the door leading into the bedroom behind him, closed the outer door and locked it, and slipped down the outer stairs and so into the street, where he went into concealment to watch for the men to come out.

He did not wait long before Elwell and Seaman came down the stairs, passed out of the door in the fence and went up the street to Third Avenue and disappeared at the corner.

“No use to follow them,” muttered Nick, “for I can find them when I want them.”

It was a longer wait, however, for the other two, and Nick was made aware of their coming by a string of oaths from inside the fence which he knew to be from Lannigan.

Straining his ears he found that Lannigan was swearing over the door at the foot of the stairs.

He was attributing the broken door to the thieves who had robbed him, assuming that that was the way in which they had gotten in.

To have heard him swear and talk one would have supposed that he was an honest man and there had never been such an outrage before, or so dishonest a thing, as that of robbing him of what he had robbed Mr. Herron.

Nick, laughing at this, nevertheless by a long whistle gave Chick the signal to be on the alert, as their birds were coming.

The next instant Lannigan and the unknown stepped out into the street and hurried in the direction of Third Avenue.

Nick hung back, fearing that he was known by one or both of the two, and signaled to Chick to take up the shadow.

Chick promptly appeared at the corner and, seeing the two men now pretty nearly at the other end of the block, hurried along past Nick and heard Nick say that he would follow behind him.

Thus the four went to Third Avenue, where the two men, Lannigan and the unknown, boarded a street car.

A coach and pair stood at the corner, and Nick, calling to Chick, sprang in after telling the driver he should have double fare if he kept the passing car in sight.

It was a somewhat difficult matter, but when Thirty-fourth Street was reached they were near enough for Nick to see Lannigan and the unknown descend from the car and go down Thirty-fourth Street.

“They are going to the place Patsy told about,” said Chick.

“Then,” said Nick, “they are looking after the two Patsy calls his assistants.”

“Spike Thomas and Bally Morris?”

“Yes. And----”

“They are the two Lannigan suspects of robbing him,” quickly put in Chick.

“That is the only conclusion.”

All this time Nick and Chick had been rapidly following the two down Thirty-fourth Street.

Reaching the last block they drew aside to watch the two, and saw them searching every one of the numerous saloons on that block without finding, apparently, what they sought for.

Having found nothing, they retraced their steps and again hurried in the direction of Third Avenue.

As they stepped out, Nick said to Chick:

“They have not found their men here and are going to try somewhere else.”

Then they set out to follow.