Library 
A CURIOUS CLEW.
Nick Carter lost no time in seeking evidence that would prove conclusively that Margate’s body had really been stolen. He followed Fink through an interior room in which numerous coffins and caskets were displayed in casements of the walls, and adjoining which was the back room in which the body had lain.
It was about twelve feet square. Two windows overlooked a small back yard, from which a narrow alley led out to a side street. The yard was some six feet lower than the avenue on which the building fronted, and below the back room was a basement used for a workroom and storage purposes. A door led from the basement into the yard.
The bare bier stood nearly in the middle of the room.
The blinds of one of the windows was open, the others closed.
A sheet with which the body had been covered was missing.
The garments removed from the corpse the previous night hung on hooks in one of the walls.
Nick quickly took in these features of the scene, and he speedily learned from Fink that both blinds had been closed the night before, that one window was open a few inches, that a door leading to the basement stairs
{7}
was both locked and bolted, as was true of the lower one leading into the yard. Neither of them appeared to have been opened by the crooks.
“Are these all of the garments removed from the body?” Nick inquired, glancing at them.
“Yes, sir, every piece,” Fink declared.
“The remains were covered, you say?”
“Yes, sir; with a sheet, but that is gone,” said the undertaker.
“It certainly looks like a genuine case of body snatching,” Chick remarked. “Assuming that your misgivings are warranted, Nick, and that Margate tricked us with a drug and afterward revived, he surely would have put on his clothing before departing. He would not have left here unclad, or wrapped only in the missing sheet.”
“Drug be hanged!” Doctor Nolan said derisively. “That’s nonsense. That theory hasn’t feet to stand on.”
“It does seem highly improbable,” added Chief Hadley, gravely shaking his head. “I see no reasonable grounds for such a suspicion. It appears dead open and shut that the corpse was stolen.”
“We must, then, find positive evidence of it,” Nick replied. “The crooks must have left their tracks. It won’t do to remain in any uncertainty concerning the death of Margate. This matter must be positively settled.”
“Settled!” Doctor Nolan scornfully blurted. “It already is settled. There’s no question about it.”
Nick Carter did not reply. He saw nothing to be gained by an argument in support of his seemingly absurd suspicions.
Taking a powerful lens from his pocket, Nick fell to inspecting the floor, the sill of the open window, and the outside of the faded green blinds.
On the floor near the bier were particles of dry dirt, as if tracked in on soiled shoes. The dust on the stone outside of the window had recently been disturbed, while that on the slats of the blinds plainly showed the marks of fingers, evidently thrust between them in order to pull open the blinds.
Glancing down into the unpaved yard, Nick then discovered two quite deep holes in the damp ground, some three feet from the wall and directly opposite the window. He called Chick’s attention to them, remarking quietly:
“There was a short ladder set up against this window.”
“I see. Surely.”
“The indications are, indeed, that Margate was really dead and that his body was stolen. Either that, Chick, or he had confederates who removed and afterward revived him.”
“But how could they have learned that he was brought here?” Chick questioned doubtfully. “It was nearly midnight when we rounded him up, and he was brought directly here from the building in which we cornered him. Who could have learned about it, and how, between half past one and daylight, to say nothing of having framed up and pulled off such a job?”
“That remains to be learned,” Nick replied. “Nor will that alone be sufficient. His body must be traced and found. Go down with me to the yard. We’ll have a look in the alley.”
Fink led the way and unlocked the doors.
“All of you except Chick remain in the basement,” Nick directed, when the others followed him down the stairs. “If there are any footprints to be found outside,
{8}
or evidence of any kind, I don’t want them obliterated. They may prove to be of value.”
“Ah!” Doctor Nolan exclaimed. “I take it, Mr. Carter, that you are coming to my way of thinking.”
“There is evidence in support of your belief,” Nick frankly admitted, disregarding the tinge of sarcasm with which the physician had spoken.
“I thought you would find it.”
“I may find something more, perhaps, before I end my work in this case.”
Nick’s voice took on a more subtle ring when he replied, stepping out into the yard with his chief assistant.
There in the damp earth they found numerous hardly discernible footprints, most of them near the two holes Nick had observed from the window, or leading toward a gate opening into the alley. All of them were so intermingled and partly effaced, however, that they were of little value. After carefully inspecting them, nevertheless, Nick said quietly:
“Three men have been here. I think that was the number, judging from these faint imprints. One of them held a short ladder while the others entered that window. They brought out the body, whether dead or alive, and got away with it.”
“You still suspect trickery on Margate’s part?” questioned Chick.
“I do,” said Nick. “I believe there is something more than a coincidence in the theft of this man’s body so soon after his supposed suicide. We must go deeper, however, before I can form a more definite opinion. Let’s have a look in the alley.”
Nick found the gate unbolted and called Chick’s attention to it.
“They did not delay to fasten it,” he remarked. “Ah, here is something of more significance! The body was taken away in a box.”
“By Jove, that’s as true as death and taxes,” Chick agreed, after following Nick through the gate. “It also indicates, at least, that the persons who stole the body supposed Margate to be dead.”
“It does appear so.”
The earth in the alley was more damp than in the yard, and was of a grayish clay that readily retained an imprint.
That which at once had caught Nick’s eye was that of a long box, such as caskets are inclosed in for burial. It had been placed on the ground, into which it had sunk just enough to leave a perfectly definite impression of its outlines, presumably when a heavy body was placed in it.
Through the alley leading to the side street, moreover, were numerous footprints; but these were so intermingled and partly obliterated, like those in the yard, as to be of no great value.
Crouching upon the ground, however, Nick made a discovery that would have escaped the observation of most men. It was hardly perceptible, but the keen eyes of the famous detective seldom missed anything out of the ordinary.
“By Jove, here’s a remarkable clew,” said he, suddenly looking up. “I remember none like it.”
“What do you mean?”
“Look closer.”
Nick pointed to the rectangular surface contained within the plainly discernible outlines of the box.
{9}
“By gracious! there are some more faint marks on the damp clay,” said Chick, bending nearer.
“Exactly,” Nick nodded.
“What do you make of them?”
“That side of the box that came next to the ground was marked with the ordinary ink and brush such as shippers use. There probably was an address marked on the box.”
“And transferred to the clay?”
“Precisely. The damp clay moistened the ink and has retained parts of some of the more heavily marked letters, chiefly the capital letters.”
“I see.”
“They are faint and much blurred, however, as well as reversed in position; but—yes, I am right. Here are two at the end of an address marked on the box.”
“They look like two small letters, a ‘g’ and an ‘e,’” said Chick, twisting so as to view them better.
“That’s correct,” said Nick, using his lens. “They are the final letters of the word college. Here is the loop of one ‘l’, also the larger curve of the capital ‘C.’”
“By Jove, that’s very significant,” said Chick. “This may have been the crime of medical students who wanted a body for dissection.”
“I begin to think so.”
“Can you determine any of the other letters?”
“Only three capitals,” said Nick, still scrutinizing the blurred marks with his lens. “There appears to be two quite long words preceding the word ‘college’.”
“That immediately preceding it begins with ‘M.’ It may be medical.” Chick quickly suggested.
“I am quite sure of that.”
“What are the others?”
“There seems to be two words preceding that, or one very long one,” said Nick. “They are so blurred that I cannot read them. The first capital in the address, however, is a ‘D.’”
“It evidently is the name of a medical college.”
“I think so.”
“The location is not legible?”
“No. Only a capital ‘S,’ evidently that of the word ‘street.’ No numerals are discernible.”
“The box must originally have contained something that was shipped to a local medical college,” said Chick. “With the initial to aid us, and the fact that it is in one of the city streets, not an avenue, the directory should enable us to identify it.”
“We will see after going a step farther,” replied Nick, rising and replacing his lens in his pocket. “I wish to inspect this side street.”
He led the way while speaking, and paused on the curbing of the sidewalk. The street was a narrow, unpaved one, flanked on both sides with inferior stores with dwelling apartments above, a street that was only dimly lighted after the early hours of the evening.
The ground was somewhat muddy from recent rain, and near the curbing were plainly discernible the tracks of a wagon and the footprints of the horses attached to it.
“A team stopped here last night,” said Nick, pointing. “There was a fourth man in the gang.”
“Why do you think so?”
“Because here are four tracks of tires close to the curbing. There would be only two, those of the front and rear wheels, if there had been only one stop made.”
“That’s true.
{10}
”
“I am sure there were three men who took the body from the back room,” Nick added. “No less could have accomplished it without being heard. They would not have dared to leave their team standing here all the while. The fourth man drove away and returned to get his confederates and their burden. That’s why we find four tracks here, instead of only two.”
“Surely,” Chick agreed. “There’s no getting around it.”
“The wagon had rubber tires, moreover, and—yes, by Jove, one of them was patched, or mended. Here are the marks left in two places by a seam, or where some new rubber was vulcanized to the old. This will help some, I think.”
“We can bank on that, Nick, all right.”
“Say nothing about this to others,” Nick directed. “We will follow up these clews and see to what they lead, Chick, before making any disclosures.”
“That’s good judgment.”
“Come. We’ll return to the shop.”
As they retraced their steps through the alley, Nick obliterated the evidence found there, treading out the imprint of the box with his boots.
“Well, what have you learned?” Chief Hadley asked, when the two detectives entered and rejoined the group in the basement. “You have been gone long enough to have discovered something.”
“Enough to further confirm Doctor Nolan’s opinion,” Nick replied, a bit dryly. “The body was taken away by four men who came in a wagon.”
“Ah!” Doctor Nolan exclaimed. “I was reasonably sure of it.”
“There is no other evidence worthy of mention,” Nick added. “It may be well, chief, to have an officer inquire at the dwellings in the side street. The crooks possibly were heard, or even seen, without the truth being suspected.”
“I will attend to it,” Hadley nodded, while they returned to the office of the undertaker.
“There is nothing more to be learned here,” said Nick. “I will look deeper into the case, however, and will report to you later.”
“Do so, Nick, by all means.”
“Regarding that vial, Doctor Nolan. I want you to let Chick take it for a few hours,” Nick added, turning to the physician. “I want an analysis of its contents, or the nature of it to be positively determined. I will be responsible for its safe return.”
“That’s good enough for me, Carter,” Doctor Nolan readily assented.
“Chick will call at your office for it later in the day.”
“Very well.”
Nick did not defer his departure to further discuss the matter. He left Chief Hadley and the coroner to proceed as they saw fit, and Herman Fink in quite abject consternation over the gruesome calamity that had befallen him.
“We now will hunt up a directory,” Nick remarked, walking up the street with Chick and Patsy. “I decided not to consult the one in Fink’s office.”
“It would have led Hadley to suspect that we are wise to something,” smiled Chick.
“Surely.”
“What have you picked up?” questioned Patsy, surprised.
{11}
Chick informed him, ending just as they arrived at a corner drug store, into which Nick led the way.
A city directory supplied him with the information he was seeking.
“Here we have it,” said he, while Chick and Patsy eagerly read the address to which he pointed. “The Dabney Private Medical College.”
“By Jove, there is no question about it,” Chick declared.
“Private—that was the word that bothered me,” Nick added. “The first two words looked like a single exceedingly long one. This certainly does settle it. Come on. We’ll not wait for breakfast. We’ll find out what’s doing in this Dabney Private Medical College. There shall be nothing too private for us to butt into, Chick, take my word for that.”
Comments (0)