CHAPTER III.

THE FIRST STEPS.

Nick related to his three aids, in the first place, his experiences of the night previous, when he had happened on the heels of the burglary.

This he followed by a statement of the information that had been given him by Mr. Herron, and, concluding, said:

“This promises to be a most interesting case. I am impressed with the straightforwardness of Mr. Herron. Still, there may be another side of his statement, or case, and he may not have been wholly frank with me, though I am inclined to believe he was. I shall immediately set out on that point.

“Under Mr. Herron’s statement, suspicion naturally turns to one of the parties anxious to obtain possession of that invention.”

“And to the widow,” said Ida.

“If not to the widow,” said Nick, “to some one representing her, or standing as a representative of her. But we must not lose sight of the fact that, after all, this may have been the commonest kind of a burglary and that the burglars took the case they found in the house simply because it was in their way to do so, and without the slightest knowledge of the value Mr. Herron and the others put upon it.

“To look after that end of it—that is, after those who actually did enter the house—must be Patsy’s work. It is a difficult job, Patsy, and I hardly know how to give you a starting point. But, if you will go to the neighborhood of Thirty-fifth Street and make careful inquiries,
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you may be able to find some one who saw something of those men and the carriage that will give you a starter.”

Patsy nodded, but seemed to be thinking of something else.

“Well?” asked Nick. “What is it, Patsy? You’ve got something on your mind. Out with it.”

“It’s this, chief,” replied Patsy. “Say, didn’t you say that his nibs, this Herron, had a case made to hold those papers?”

“Yes,” replied Nick.

“Well, then,” said Patsy, “the thing is whether anybody, except Herron, knew of this case.”

“You mean,” said Nick, “whether any of those who are opposing Mr. Herron knew that the models and papers were kept in a case especially made for them by Mr. Herron?”

“That’s what I mean,” said Patsy.

“It’s a very good point,” said Nick. “If they didn’t know, and if the knowledge of such a case was confined to Mr. Herron, it would go far toward throwing a doubt on his suspicions.”

“Yes,” said Chick, “it would raise a doubt; but, after all, there is that search through all the drawers and desks that you say was so plain and that made you think when you saw it that the thieves were looking for some one particular thing.”

“That’s just what I was thinking of,” said Ida. “If they were so strict in their search that they even looked behind pictures hanging on the walls, you may be sure that they didn’t leave any trunks, satchels, dress-suit cases or any other kind of cases unsearched, and, in doing that, might have hit upon this case, and, opening it and seeing the model, found just what they were after.”

“Nevertheless,” said Nick, “Patsy’s point is a good one,
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and, working on that line, he is quite likely to hit up against something. And so, Patsy, you would do well to see Mr. Herron, find that out and get from him the name of the person who made the case, and, perhaps, from that person you may find something of value. However, that is your line.”

Turning to Chick, he said:

“You take this list of promoters, Chick, and find out all you can about them—what sort of men they are and what their associations are.”

To Ida, he said:

“I want you to get acquainted with the widow and find out what you can. It is even hard to suggest what it is you are to find out. But if you get her confidence, she may tell you some things as to those who have made her offers that will be valuable in this inquiry. As for myself, I shall again go to the Thirty-fifth Street house to make a closer investigation, and I will take up the lawyer with whom Mr. Herron has consulted.

“Now, let us scatter and meet later in the day to compare notes and determine upon a plan of action in the light of more knowledge than we have now.”

Nick Carter’s first step was a visit to the house in Thirty-fifth Street, where he found Mr. Herron awaiting him.

“Since my return, I have carefully figured the value of the articles taken from the house,” he said to Nick. “All of the jewelry left in the safe in my wife’s room is missing. The value of that is about five thousand dollars. All of the plate that was genuine silver has also been taken. The value of that does not exceed twenty-five hundred dollars. Fortunately, Mrs. Herron had deposited in the safety deposit vaults the more valuable part of her jewelry some two weeks ago, as not being required for some months to come. Thus, the loss is figured down to
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about seven thousand five hundred dollars, apart from the case, concerning which I am so anxious.”

“Then,” asked Nick, “apart from that case, what was taken was from the safe in Mrs. Herron’s room and from the dining-room safe?”

“That is all,” replied Mr. Herron. “Now, I want to say that, with that case out of my hands, there stands me, in an actual loss, about thirty-three thousand dollars. My anxiety to-day is to secure the return of that case and its contents. In securing that I secure what represents to me an outlay of twenty-five thousand dollars. I am quite willing to sacrifice the other valuables in order to get that case back again. Indeed, I am willing to spend more money, and, with this statement, I turn the matter over to you to do as you think best, pledging myself to respond to any demand you may make upon me.”

Nick looked at Mr. Herron very seriously for a moment or two, and then said:

“I presume you know, Mr. Herron, that there is such an offense in the eyes of the law as compounding a felony.”

Mr. Herron nodded his head rather doubtfully, as if he did not comprehend wholly the words of Nick. The detective went on:

“Your words might be tortured into the meaning of instructions to me to compound this felony.”

“I do not intend,” said Mr. Herron, “to do anything wrong. I want to impress you with the idea that my main desire is to recover that case and its contents intact, even if it be at a considerable cost to myself.”

To this Nick made no reply, merely bowing, and said:

“There was a young man in the house last night with whom I talked, Temple by name.”

“Yes,” replied Mr. Herron, “a nephew of mine—the son of a sister—who, though not living with us, is, never
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theless, very intimate in the house. He slept here during the absence of the family, at my request.”

“Do not think, Mr. Herron,” said Nick, “that I am pointing to, or giving expression to, any suspicions in the questions that I shall ask. I am seeking all sorts and every little bit of information in them. Now, then, you trust this young man?”

“Utterly.”

“What are his habits?”

“Excellent.”

“He does not dissipate?”

“No; not in any direction. If he is under any criticism as to his course of life, it is that he is too much devoted to athletic sports, and that they have the only interest he has outside of his business relations.”

“What are his business relations?”

“He is the secretary and treasurer of a small manufacturing concern, of which I am the chief owner, and he is my representative in that affair.”

“Now, as to his associations?”

“He is a member of an athletic club and spends most of his leisure hours with its members, and, I have inquired to learn, they are a very proper set of young men, whose chief aim is to bring their physical powers to as near a point of perfection as possible.”

“What is that organization?”

“The Grecian Athletic Club.”

Nick made a memorandum of this club, and turned his attention to the safe in the dining-room.

A close investigation satisfied him that, by some means, the combination had been found, and the safe opened without force. He also found what had not been observed by Mr. Herron—that the draperies in the parlor had been used to wrap up the plate taken from the safe.
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Going to the smaller safe in Mrs. Herron’s room, there were also indications that that safe had been opened in a like manner.

Mr. Herron had stood by silently while the detective was making these investigations, and when Nick turned from them he asked:

“Well?”

“I told you this morning,” said Nick, “that I believed skillful and professional burglars had been at work here. A second examination satisfies me that I was right in that statement, and I go further and say that a skillful lockman was at work.”

“Ah!”

Mr. Herron made this exclamation, but in a tone that suggested to Nick that he did not comprehend its significance.

“You do not take in all my meaning,” said Nick; “it means that I can narrow the search for the burglars to a comparatively small circle. There are not so many skillful lockmen among the burglars who are not pretty well known to the authorities.”

Nothing had been changed in the house since the arrival of Mr. Herron and his wife, and Nick again went over the work done by the burglars in searching the desks, drawers and other receptacles in the house.

Though he made no comment, he was satisfied that while an exhaustive search had been made for some particular thing, it had been made without method or purpose. In other words, the thieves had proceeded to a search without definite information as to the place wherein the thing sought was kept.

Evidently, all that was known was that Mr. Herron kept these drawings and models within his dwelling-house, and that information might have come from Mr. Herron himself.
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Nick questioned Mr. Herron on this point, but, when the gentleman could not recollect that he had ever told any one the fact, neither could he assert that he had not mentioned it.

As a matter of fact, the second examination of the house had not added to the great detective’s knowledge, although it had confirmed him in certain beliefs.

“This house was entered by professional burglars,” he said to himself. “Whether they entered simply for the purpose of burglary, and, finding the case, carried it away with them, or whether they were employed to enter this house to obtain that case, and took the plate and jewelry because they could do so easily, are questions which I cannot determine on this showing.”

He was in Mrs. Herron’s room when he said this to himself, and, thinking it over, he went to the front window and looked out.

On the opposite side of the street, seated on the lower step of a house immediately opposite, was Patsy, talking to an ill-favored specimen of a man similarly seated.

A single glance assured Nick that Patsy was not idling his time, but was there for a purpose.

Whether he was watching for him or not, Nick could not tell, but he drew the curtains aside and placed himself close to the window.

Patsy saw him at once and made a series of rapid signals to Nick.

They meant to Nick that Patsy had hit upon a man important in their search, that he wanted the man followed while he, Patsy, could make a change in his appearance.

Telling Mr. Herron that he had no more business in the house and would at once begin the search, Nick descended the stairs, and, opening the front door, stood
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a moment within the vestibule, where he signaled to Patsy with his hands that he had understood him.

Patsy immediately got up, and, after a word or two with the fellow beside him, walked off in the direction of the west without looking behind.

The fellow slouched down the street to the east and Nick went after him at a safe distance, taking the precaution to cross the street, so as to be on the same side with him.

Nick did not know the purpose of the shadow, but he had confidence enough in Patsy to take up the lines suggested blindly.

The man led Nick to Third Avenue, where he turned to the right, or, toward Thirty-fourth Street. Here Nick made a mark in red chalk on the corner, which should indicate to Patsy the direction in which they turned.

At the corner of Thirty-fourth Street, the fellow crossed to Third Avenue and stationed himself against a pillar of the elevated railroad, from which point he could keep an eye on each of the four corners. He watched each of these corners as if he were waiting for some one.

Nick put himself out of sight, after he had made a mark on the pavement with red chalk, that would tell Patsy, on his return, that he was there, and waited.

But he did not wait long, for Patsy, in an excellent make-up of an east-side tough, slouched up.

Seeing the mark on the pavement, he looked about, first to locate the man followed, and then for his chief.

Nick beckoned to him from a doorway, and Patsy went to him.

“What is it, Patsy?” asked Nick.

“He’s a crook,” said Patsy. “I’ve known him this long time. He wasn’t in the Thirty-fifth Street job, but he’s on to it and is doing a little fly-cop work himself.”

“I don’t catch your meaning,” said Nick.
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“It’s this way: The fellow is Spike Thomas. He suspects that two men that he has worked with sometimes, had a job last night. He suspects that that job was the Thirty-fifth Street house. He’s wanting to get on straight, so as to get into the divvy. He tumbled to me as being on your staff and he tumbled to you at the door. He knows we’re working on the case, and he tried to put it over me to find out how much we’d found out.”

“What did you tell him?”

“That we had found out nothing and suspected nobody. And that was dead right, for we don’t, yet.”

“Did you find out whom he suspects?”

“Oh, no. He’s too fly for that. But I’m certain he’s laying for the two that he thinks did it.”

“He probably thinks right,” said Nick. “He makes a starter for you, Patsy.”

“That’s what I thought,” said Patsy. “Anyhow, I’ll stick to him and see who he talks to and how he talks.”

“That’s right,” said Nick, “and I’ll leave it to you, while I go on other lines.”

Nick went away, and Patsy placed himself for a long watch.

Spike Thomas still stood at the corner, keeping a sharp eye on all who passed or appeared on any of the four corners.
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