As they passed through the circle of light cast by the fires, many of the men looked up lazily toward them; but beyond one stare, no attention was paid to them; and they passed on into the gloom beyond.
Here they traversed a narrow but well-beaten pathway through the thick growth of alders, and presently came out upon a second glade that was larger than the first; and higher and dryer, too.
But that was not what attracted the detective.
In the very centre of this patch of clearing was a house; or a cottage, it would more properly be called; but it was large, and apparently comfortable. Theroof extended down in front of it and over a wide piazza, where Nick could see that two men and a woman were seated.
But directly in front of the piazza, a man—one of the hoboes, without doubt, to judge from his appearance—was pacing regularly up and down, with the precision of a sentinel; and he carried a rifle in the hollow of his arm, which, as soon as Handsome and Nick appeared, he raised and pointed at them, while Nick could hear the click of the lock as he raised the hammer.
Handsome threw up both hands, holding them high over his head, and Nick did the same; and thereupon the gun was lowered, and, still with their hands held high, the two men advanced.
There was not a word spoken; the sentinel resumed his pacing up and down, as if there had been no interruption; and Nick's guide approached the edge of the piazza, still with his hands raised.
One of the men who were seated there rose and stepped forward; then he peered long and earnestly at the two men, and then he said:
"You may advance. Go inside."
And as they crossed the piazza, and stepped inside the house, the woman of the group rose and followed them, closing the door behind her; and Nick Carter wondered if Hobo Harry, the Beggar King, was a woman.
When Nick Carter gazed upon the woman who stood before them, with her hands clasped behind her, he thought that he had never seen another like her. She could not by any stretch of the imagination have been called beautiful; she was too masculine in her appearance for that—that is, the expression of her face, her manner, and the position she assumed were masculine; but the suggestion of it ended there.
She was as tall or taller than the detective, and her complexion was as dark as the hue to which he had stained his own. Her eyes were large, and round, and full, and fierce, and she held her head, with its crown of dead-black hair, as if she were monarch of all she surveyed. And the strangest part of it all was that she did not appear to be more than twenty years old.
With a steady stare she took in every detail of Nick's appearance, from the top of his head to the shoes he wore on his feet; and then she turned slowly to Handsome.
"Whom have we here?" she demanded.
"Dago John, he calls himself," was the reply.
"The man you spoke of?"
"Yes."
"Who is so strong that he could throw you over the fire into the bushes, and who did not harm you when he might have done so, after you had struck at him with your fist?"
"The same."
She turned her attention to Nick then.
"Who are you?" she demanded.
"Just what you see, missus; no more and no less," replied Nick, speaking boldly, for he deemed that to be the surest way to her favor.
"I see very little; nothing whatever that betokens the strength you are said to possess."
"You can't always tell what's inside of a crib before you crack it," was the reply; and the woman smiled.
"Where do you come from?" she asked.
"I ain't giving out my past history, lady, if it's all the same to you," said Nick coolly; and she frowned. Evidently she did not like this answer.
"What errand brought you to this part of the country, and finally induced you to make your camp in the woods out there?" she asked, smiling again.
"I suppose you want the plain truth, lady?"
"Yes," she replied, in an easy tone; "that is, if you put any value on your life."
"Well, the truth is this: I have heard, here and there, a good deal about a certain person who is known as Hobo Harry, the Beggar King. I have heard that he has gathered around him a lot of my kind, and Ireckoned that maybe he'd give me a show to be one of them. That's what I came here for, and that's why I camped out there in the woods."
"And who are the three men who came with you?"
"Nobody came with me. I came alone."
"There were three other men there when Handsome found you? No?"
"Yes."
"Who are they?"
"Handsome can tell you that as well, or better, than I. He did the questioning."
"Why do you want to join the forces of Hobo Harry?"
"Because I'm tired of going it alone, and because I have heard that he takes good care of his followers."
"What can you do?"
"I can do anything that I am told to, once I have acknowledged a chief."
"That is a good answer. It covers a good deal of ground. Now, who told you about Hobo Harry?"
"I have heard about him in a good many places."
"Who told you where to find him?"
"A gun friend of mine, who croaked down in Indianapolis, a month ago or more. Jimmy the Sly he was called." (It was true that there had been a Jimmy the Sly, who was one of the many of the band who had been arrested and imprisoned; and after his release he had gone to Indianapolis, and died there, ina hospital. Nick knew this from his interview with the railroad president, and therefore he was not afraid to make use of the name.)
"So you knew Jimmy the Sly, did you?"
"Yes."
"Describe him to me."
"He was tall and slender, with a pock-marked face, and the longest fingers I ever saw; and he had a wart on the side of his nose, and a——"
"That will do. That is sufficient. How comes it that Jimmy never mentioned you to me?"
"You'll have to ask Jimmy that, I reckon—and you might burn yourself if you undertook to do it. I reckon it's hot where Jimmy is, madam."
She smiled at this. Nick could see that he was making a good impression upon her. He was still wondering if she were indeed the chief, or if she were only his representative. It was certain that he had had no expectation of finding a woman in this place.
"And what do you wish me to do with you, now that you are here?"
"I reckon that I'll have to leave that to you. I didn't come with my eyes shut. I guessed pretty well what I was up against. But I came here to be made one of you, and I hope you will give me a chance."
"What do you know of Hobo Harry?"
"Nothing."
"What do you think he is?"
"The head gazabo of this bunch."
"What do you suppose he is like?"
"Just at present writing, madam, he looks to me very much like a beautiful woman who has the grace of a siren and the courage of a lion."
"You should be a Frenchman instead of an Italian."
"I am neither one nor the other. I'm just a—a yeggman."
"You were about to say something else."
"I was going to say—a crook."
"You have not been a yeggman always, have you?"
"I never knew anybody who had been, madam."
"You are not really a yeggman, or a hobo. Confess the truth now; aren't you under cover, and playing the rôle for the purpose of being out of sight for a time?"
"I'm willing to say yes, if it pleases you."
"What has been your line of work, Dago?"
"Well, I'm a fair penman; I'm a good mechanic; I could be a passable druggist if I tried, and I wouldn't shy at taking a hand at running a bank, if it was big enough for the risk."
"I begin to think that you are all right, Dago."
"You can betcher life that I'm all right, madam, if it comes to that. But I don't reckon that you'll take me on my say-so. You'll be wanting some sort of proof of me before you consent to take me into the fold."
"You are correct about that."
"I'm ready for anything."
"You have told me that you are a penman, which means that you could be a forger; you have said that you are a mechanic, which means that you could crack a crib if necessary; you called yourself a druggist, which means that you know how to use the chemicals, and the poisons, too, if necessary; and you would not refuse to tackle a bank job if one should come your way. Do you happen to have the mark of blood against you, too?"
"I don't suppose there is any mark that I haven't got."
"That doesn't answer my question."
"Well, I wouldn't stay in a house if I wanted to get out when a live man stood in my way, if that is what you mean."
The woman turned to Handsome quite suddenly.
"What time do you start?" she asked of him; and he replied, as if the question were a continuance of their conversation:
"I ought to start now—inside of ten minutes."
"Very good," she said. "Take Dago with you. Break him in. Let him have the worst of it. If he makes good, all right. If he doesn't—shoot him."
"All right," said Handsome cheerfully. "What about the others? There are two more out there near the tracks."
"I will attend to them. Go, now. Take this man with you. Give him all the rope he needs—but watch him. I'd sooner trust him with you than anybody else, anyhow—and I believe he is all right."
"Come!" said Handsome, seizing Nick by the arm; and he pulled him through the door after him. But all the way to the door, Nick kept his eyes upon the woman, who was looking at him strangely, and with a curious smile on her face.
Outside, when they had passed the sentinel, and were again in the part which led to the other glade, he stopped.
"Wait a minute, Handsome," he said. "I want to ask you a question."
"There isn't time now, Dago. Save it until later. We must get away from here at once. Do you remember where we left the boat?"
"Yes."
"Go there alone, and wait there for me. I won't be three minutes."
He did not await a reply, but darted off to one side as soon as they reached the glade, and Nick saw him disappear inside one of the cabins before referred to.
"I am in for it now, to the whole length of the tether," he told himself, as he stepped briskly forward toward the place where he knew the boat to be; and he was halfway across the glade when suddenly from one of the groups of men near a fire, one of themleaped up and confronted him, with his hands upon his hips, a cigar pointed at an angle in the corner of his mouth, and a leering grin upon his face.
"Where to now, my pal?" he demanded, standing in front of Nick, and thus stopping him.
Nick looked at the man, and smiled. He did not answer. He guessed instantly why Handsome had left him to find his way to the boat alone. This was doubtless one of their tricks—to see what a new recruit would do under these circumstances. Possibly, too, he thought, the woman wished to see an exhibition of his strength, and they had for that purpose pitted one of their best bullies against him.
He surveyed the fellow with a quick and comprehensive glance; and in that glance he saw that the man was a burly one, who evidently possessed great strength. But Nick did not care for that. He was only turning over in his mind in that instant what course it would be best for him to pursue. And the answer came to him when the bully repeated the question.
"Where to, pard?" he demanded again, still with the sarcastic leer on his dirty face.
"When you get back, I'll tell you!" exclaimed Nick; and at the same instant he darted a step forward and seized the man by the throat-and-hip hold of ju-jutsu, and the next instant had sent him whirling through the air as if he were a cartwheel.
He struck the ground ten feet away, and went rolling over and over among the bushes, where there happened to be a mass of cat brier, or creeping thorn; and the series of howls and curses he sent up was a wonder.
A roar of laughter from every side proved to Nick that all had been watching for the outcome of that episode; but he looked neither to the right nor the left, but strode onward toward the boat.
And then he heard a cry of warning from behind him, and he leaped aside just as the fellow he had thrown fired a bullet pointblank at him from close behind.
As it was, the missile pierced his coat sleeve inside his arm.
As Nick leaped aside he also turned.
The hobo who had fired the shot was already running toward him, and now he was endeavoring with every effort in his power to discharge the weapon again; but for some reason the mechanism of the lock refused to work, and in an instant more Nick had leaped upon him and grasped him a second time.
He was determined now that the fellow should have a lesson indeed; so while he held him at arm's length with one hand, he pummeled him with the other until his face was a mass of bruises; and then, when the yeggman was in a condition bordering upon insensibility, Nick raised him bodily from his feet, and holding him in his arms, ran with him down along the path toward the water.
And reaching the edge of the swamp, he threw him out into the muddy water, headfirst.
It was not deep, but it was filled with soft ooze, which filled the ears, and eyes, and nose, and mouth of the fellow, so that, when he rose to his feet, he was sputtering and spitting, and coughing and swearing when he could.
The detective left the man to make his way out of the water to dry land as best he could, and turned coolly away to rejoin Handsome, who approached at that moment, grinning.
"Well done, Dago," he said. "You served him just right. Come along."
They entered the scow without more words, and Handsome poled it away from the shore, and along the waterway through the almost impenetrable darkness—but there was never a word said about the use of the blindfold.
"How is this?" Nick asked, after a little. "Aren't you going to tie that handkerchief over my face again?"
"No. I ought to do it, I suppose, but it's too much trouble. Besides, you're all right. I can tell a man when I see one."
"All right," said Nick. "It's your funeral; notmine. Only if the lady should raise a kick—what then?"
"She would raise a kick, too, if she knew about it," replied Handsome dubiously. "But how is she going to know it? You are not likely to tell her, and I won't."
"No," said Nick, "I won't tell her."
"Well, then we'll dispense with the handkerchief."
They poled on in silence for a time after that; but presently Nick asked:
"What's the lay to-night, Handsome?"
"I can't tell you that, Dago. You'll have to wait, and find out; and you'll have to do your own part, too; for if you flunk by so much as a hair, it's my duty to kill you."
"Which I suppose you would do, eh?"
"Sure I'd do it—why not? If you ain't what you seem to be, I'd as soon put a hole in you as dip this pole into the water. You hear me!"
"Sure thing."
"And that notwithstanding I like you. I reckon you're all right, and I'm going a great way toward proving what I think about it by not binding that handkerchief over your eyes now."
"Are there any others in this thing with us, Handsome?"
"You'll find out soon enough. The best way foryou is not to ask too many questions, but to be satisfied to do as you're told."
They lapsed into silence after that, and there was no more said until after they had arrived at the bank where the scow was to be left.
"I suppose I can ask about those other guns that we left in the woods to-night, without giving offense, can't I?" asked Nick then.
"That depends on what you want to ask about 'em," was the reply; they were now hurrying in the direction of the tracks.
"I want to know if Hobo Harry is going to send for them?"
"Didn't you hear her say so?" was the rejoinder; and then, when Nick laughed softly, Handsome turned on him with fury, and would have seized him had he not suddenly recalled the fact that his own strength was no match for that of the man beside him.
But his anger disappeared as quickly as it came, and he joined in the laugh.
"I gave it away that time, didn't I?" he said. "You were too cute for me, Dago. But it is dangerous knowledge, Dago. I'll tell you that."
"You didn't give it away," replied Nick. "Any fool would have known that the woman was Hobo Harry."
"Then there are a lot of fools in the outfit. You're wrong, Dago. Lots of 'em don't suspect it. Theythink only that she is Hobo Harry's wife, or sister, or sweetheart, or something like that. There isn't half a dozen of us who really know for certain that Black Madge is Hobo Harry. And there! I've let the cat out of the bag again. But you're all right. It won't do no harm to tell you."
"Not a mite," replied Nick; but he chuckled noiselessly all the same. That last admission made by Handsome was worth hearing.
"Black Madge, eh?" he was thinking to himself. "Now I know why it was that there was something so strikingly familiar about the woman. Black Madge, eh? Well, well, who would have supposed that?"
For Black Madge was a character well known in the criminal world, and to the police, although very little was known about her really. There was a picture in the Rogues' Gallery in New York that purported to be of her; but Nick knew now that it was not.
Nevertheless, he remembered that once upon a time he had seen Black Madge, who was the daughter of a Frenchwoman by an Italian father; Black Madge, who had already made an unenviable record for herself on both sides of the ocean.
It was a long time before that when Nick Carter saw her. She was only a grown-up child at that time, but she was already a hardened criminal, nevertheless;and he recalled now the circumstance of his meeting with her.
It was in Paris. He had gone to the prefecture of police to see the chief of the secret service, who was awaiting him, and had found the girl in the room with the chief, who was engaged in questioning her closely in reference to a crime that had been committed, and because it was thought that she knew the parties concerned. But she had given no information, and had been allowed to go; and after her departure the chief had said to Nick:
"Monsieur Carter, some day that young woman will appear on your side of the water. I hope you thought to take a good look at her face."
"I did," replied the detective.
"Remember it, for some day you will have cause to do so, I do not doubt. She is a terror, and she has brains. The worst kind of a criminal. She should have been a man, for she has a man's daring, a man's recklessness, and a man's way of doing things. Black Madge, we call her here."
Nick recalled all that conversation now, plunged into a reverie about it by Handsome's use of the name. All the time he had been in the room with her in that house in the swamp, he had felt that he ought to remember where he had seen those eyes before. Now, he counted the years that had passed since he saw her, and, to his astonishment, they were five.
"She was seventeen then, the chief told me," he thought, "that would make her twenty-two by now."
And then it came back to him how strangely she had looked at him while he was leaving her presence, and he wondered if her recollection for faces was as good or even better than his own.
"But," he argued, "it could not be possible that she would remember me from that one short glance she must have had of me at that time. And, besides, I was not disguised at all, and now I look no more like myself than—well, than she does."
"What the devil are you so silent about?" demanded Handsome. They had reached the fence at the railroad track, and Handsome was leaning against it.
"I was trying to figure out in my mind what sort of a lay we are on to-night," replied Nick. "I'm not used to starting out without knowing where I am going. I feel like a horse—with you for a driver."
"Well"—Handsome laughed—"I won't use the whip unless you get skittish."
"What are we waiting here for?"
"We are waiting for our chauffeur with the automobile," grinned Handsome. "Nice road for an auto, isn't it?—bumping over those ties."
"Hark!" said Nick.
"I'm harking, my gun."
"It does sound like an automobile, sure enough," said Nick.
"Didn't I tell you that we are waiting for one. Come on."
He leaped the fence, and Nick followed him over; then they climbed the grade, and paused beside the track.
And then, while they stood there, and the droning sound peculiar to automobiles came momentarily nearer and nearer, the detective began thoroughly to realize for the fist time that something really serious was afoot for the night.
But he was not long left in doubt as to the character of the approaching vehicle, for in a moment more it swept around a curve in the railroad, and came to a stop immediately in front of them.
And, strangely enough, it was an automobile arrangement, only that it was equipped with car wheels instead of with rubber tires; wheels that had flanges to fit the tracks. But it was provided with a gasoline engine, and Nick knew from the appearance of the apparatus that it was capable of great speed.
When it came to a stop Nick saw that it already contained two men, one of whom was driving; but he got down from the seat under the steering wheel, and climbed into the rear of the machine, while Handsome took his place.
"New man; Dago for a handle," said Handsome briefly, by way of introducing Nick to the others.What their names might be he evidently did not deem it important to mention.
"Try-out?" asked one of the men, while Nick was climbing into the box of the machine.
Handsome nodded curtly—and that was all that was said at the moment.
It was significant, however, to Nick, for it meant a lot. It meant that these other men entirely comprehended the situation, and that all three of them were prepared to shoot him in the back at any moment when his conduct of the business in hand did not entirely satisfy them.
But Nick was resolved not to be shot in the back that night. Whatever the business might prove to be upon which they were engaged, he was resolved to see it through to a finish, even to the extent of helping them burglarize a bank, if that was the lay.
"To do a great right, do a little wrong," he muttered to himself. Whatever might be stolen or whatever damage might be done that night, he would charge up in his expenses, and see to it that the railroad people made it good later on, when his work should be done.
In the meantime the railroad automobile had been gathering speed, and now it seemed to Nick to be little less than wonderful that it remained on the tracks at all, for if he was any judge of speed, he knew that they must be flying along at much more than a mile aminute—and he wondered what would happen if the headlight of a locomotive should loom suddenly before them—and then, just as the thought occurred to him, they rounded a short curve, and came to a sudden stop.
The instant the strange machine was brought to a stop—and it was done wonderfully soon, considering the speed at which they had been traveling—the three men leaped to the ground beside the track, and Nick was ordered to follow them.
He did so, and then he was told to bear a hand; and, following directions that were given him, he seized hold of the boxlike tonneau.
Almost in a twinkling of time after that the machine was lifted from the track in sections, and finally, still in sections, was carried to a highway near at hand, where it was put together again, minus the iron wheels. But there were other wheels concealed in that commodious body, and these were quickly taken out and adjusted.
Within twenty minutes of the time when they came to a stop on the track, after rounding the curve, the machine was fitted with regular automobile wheels, and was ready to proceed along the highway.
Nick saw in this arrangement much that had puzzled other men who had been on the job. He had no doubt from what he knew of automobiles that this machine was capable of sixty miles an hour, or even more thanthat, on the highway; and, if that was true, it, of course, could make a half greater speed than that on rails.
But he made no comment. That was not expected of him, and would have been resented had he attempted to do so; but he climbed to his place when he was told, and again they sped away toward some destination, the nature of which he did not know.
Once he ventured to ask the man nearest him what time it was, and received a curt "Shut up!" by way of reply; so he remained silent after that.
And after a while—less than half an hour—they drove into a village, and presently ran the machine around behind a church, where it was placed in one of the stalls of a shed.
And still his three companions worked in utter silence. Beyond now and then a curt word uttered by Handsome, who seemed to be in command of the expedition, nothing at all was said.
Nevertheless, each man there seemed to know exactly what to do; as if every move they made had been nicely planned out for them—and such Nick believed to be the case.
When the machine was stored away, the men fell into line, Nick being shoved into position directly behind Handsome, and then, in Indian file, they moved silently forward toward a high fence that was near at hand.
They went over this one by one, Handsome waiting with patience until the last one was over, and then the march was taken up again.
They passed now through the rear of a large yard, and before them loomed a brick building, which Nick figured must be a courthouse; and after a moment they made a half circuit around, and came to a stop between two buildings of brick, one of them being that one already mentioned.
The night was dark now, for the moon had gone down, and there were no street lamps in that village evidently; or, if there were, they were not burned on nights when there was supposed to be a moon.
But there was light enough for Nick to discover that they were close to the main street of the village; he could see the store windows on the opposite side; and it suddenly came to him that the building that was next to them—the second one—was a bank, and that they were about to rob it.
He knew now what was expected of him; and again he determined to see the thing through to the end.
It was not to prevent one robbery that he was engaged; but to prevent many. It was not to apprehend the participants in a minor job like this one promised to be, but to capture the head that directed many such robberies, and so stop them altogether.
And still no word—not even a whisper—was spoken between the men. They worked on in utter silence, asif their plans had been thoroughly conned until they were learned absolutely by heart.
Nor did they pause in the yard next to the bank. There was scarcely a halt there; but they passed to the rear of the building, and followed one another over the high fence that was there, to the rear of the bank building.
Keeping themselves well in the shadows, they crept forward silently to a rear door of the building, and here Handsome paused for a moment, and put down a canvas bag that he had been carrying all the way; and now he whispered in Nick's ear:
"There are the tools, Dago. Let's see what kind of a cracksman you are."
Nick did not need a second bidding. Having determined upon his course, he did not hesitate, but he seized the bag, pulled open the mouth of it, and, having selected such tools as he wanted, he applied himself to the task that had been set for him.
A professional burglar of long experience could not have gotten that huge oak door open more quickly and silently than Nick Carter did, and Handsome gave him an approving pat on the shoulder.
He was the first to enter the bank, Nick following, and the others coming behind them; and presently, after forcing another door, they stood crouching inside the bank itself.
A dim light burned in a gas jet in the centre of thelarge room, which was divided only by the wire screen which separated the customers' side of the rail from the clerks; and almost beneath the light, exactly where it could shine full upon the steel doors, was the huge safe of the institution.
A person might not stand in front of that safe for a moment without being in full view from the street should any one happen to pass there. Nick saw that at a glance; but nevertheless Handsome silently placed a drill and a bottle of liquid in his hand, and motioned that he was to begin the dangerous part of the work.
"Didn't you bring a screen with you, you chump?" demanded Nick, in a whisper. "If you had told me what the lay was, I'd have made one."
Handsome nodded, evidently well pleased; and at the same time he produced a roll from under his coat, and gave it to the detective. Nick unrolled it, and found that it was merely a piece of burlap, rather more than a yard long, and about two feet in width, and with a roll of cord attached to each corner of it.
He knew what that was intended for readily enough, and, taking it in his hands, he crept forward without another word, and quickly attached the four strings to objects which he selected as being situated about right for his purposes.
In two minutes the screen was in place, and it afforded a perfect shelter from view from the street, and just the sort of one that would never be noticedfrom the outside at all, unless a person stopped at the window and deliberately peered inside—and that nobody was likely to do, unless something else first attracted attention.
In fixing the screen in place so quickly and perfectly, Nick evidently won over not only Handsome, but the others; and now there was no more question of his doing the drilling alone. Each man took his own part of the work in silence, as if Nick had always been one of them; and, besides, now there was no time to be lost.
Drilling through the steel doors of a safe is not an easy task, and it is not done quickly, although expert burglars carry tools these days which will cut anything.
They took their turns at the drill, as they took them also with the acids and oil; and the work went on merrily until the holes were ready for the charges.
And here again it seemed that Handsome was determined to try Nick out to the last, for he bent forward and whispered in his ear:
"Prove one thing more, Dago, and you're made."
"Want me to do the blowing?" asked Nick.
Handsome nodded.
"All right," said Nick. "Light out, then."
"But——"
"Get out, I say. If I do the blowing I'm boss for the time being. Git!"
They did; and again, with the implements and the explosives at hand, Nick went to work; and, as before he worked rapidly and well—as if he were an experienced hand at that sort of employment.
And then, when the charge was ready, Nick pulled up the heavy rope matting from the floor, and after doubling it again and again until there was a huge wad of it, he braced it with desks and chairs against the front of the safe; and when all that was done to his satisfaction, he lighted the fuse, and ran back to the rear hallway, where the others were watching and waiting.
They had not long to wait after that. There was a lapse of perhaps a minute and a half, and then a dull, booming roar shook the building, and the burglars rushed forward.
Now was the time when they were compelled to work rapidly, if ever.
It was true that Nick had so muffled the sound of the explosion that it was hardly possible that the noise of it had roused anybody at all; but there was always a chance of somebody near at hand being wakeful or watchful.
At any moment they might be interrupted—and no burglar likes to be interrupted. It always means a fight, in which somebody is likely to get killed, and burglars rarely do any killing unless they have to in order to escape.
They rushed forward together; but now Nick purposely kept in the background. He had no idea of being taken himself if they should be interrupted; nor did he wish to give his companions an opportunity to kill any person who might interrupt them. It was all right from his standpoint to participate in the burglary, in order that he might ultimately catch all the thieves; but he did not wish to be a party to any fight that might come of it.
But he was made to hold one of the bags while Handsome filled it from the inside of the safe.
They pried open the inner compartments, and threw them indiscriminately upon the floor as soon as they were emptied; they jimmied open the steel boxes as readily as if they had been made of softest pine—and in twenty minutes after the explosion they were stealthily climbing the fence again, into the courthouse yard.
And, so far as they could see, not a soul in the village had been awakened or alarmed.
They returned to the shed, where they had left the automobile, by the same route they had covered in approaching the bank; the machine was backed out; they entered it, turned on the power, and sped away through the silent streets as they had come, with nobody the wiser for what they had done, the havoc they had wrought, and the wealth they had stolen.
Down beside the road where they had made thechange before, from the track of the railway to the highway, they paused long enough to secure the iron wheels, and here the change was made back to a railway machine. The car was lifted in sections to the tracks, and with everything adjusted they were soon flying down the shining rails at a frightful rate of speed, and in silence—for it seemed to be a rule among these men that there should be no talking.
Mile after mile they covered in this way, and then the machine was slowed down, and came to a stop at the point where it had picked up Handsome and Nick at first, and here they got down, and, having taken out the plunder, stood beside the track until the machine had disappeared from view.
"Now, Dago, help me with the swag," said Handsome; and together they picked it up, and once more started for the outlaws' retreat in the middle of the impassable swamp.
When they were in the boat, and almost ready to land where Nick had thrown the man into the water, Handsome turned to him, and whispered:
"You're all right, Dago. I'll tell Madge so, too!"
When Nick Carter was shown a place to sleep that night—or, rather, that morning, for it was well toward daylight by the time Handsome and he returned to the outlaws' camp—he tumbled upon the bunk that was shown him, and he lost no time in doing so; nor did he open his eyes again until he felt a hand shaking him lustily, and a voice crying out to him:
"Wake up, Dago! You're wanted!"
He sprang up instantly; and, because he had laid himself down with nearly all his clothing still upon his person, he was not long in making himself ready. To have insulted the profession he had adopted by washing his face was not to be thought of.
"Gee! But I'm hungry!" he said to Handsome, who was standing near, waiting for him.
"Madge will give you something to eat. She is at her breakfast now," was the whispered reply. "She wants you."
"Then," said Nick, "if I am going into the presence of a lady, and am expected to eat with her, I'll have to wash my face and hands. Show me where."
Handsome laughed.
"I do it myself once in a while," he said. "Come with me."
And he led Nick to a place along a path through the swamp where he succeeded in giving himself a good wash—for Nick had the satisfaction of knowing that the stain he had used was of such a quality that it would defy water. Alcohol alone would remove it.
They found Madge on the doorstep, awaiting them; but Handsome paused at the edge of the clearing, and muttered:
"I leave you here, Dago. I'm not in this. You're to have this interview alone."
"All right," replied the detective, and was about to move on, when Handsome detained him by a gesture.
"Put in a good word for me, Dago, if you get the chance," he whispered. "I have already said many a good one for you—and I made it as easy for you as I could all around."
"All right," said Nick again.
"And one more word, Dago. I forgot to tell you——"
"What?"
"Cremation Mike has got it in——"
"Who?"
"Cremation Mike—he worked in a crematory once—has got it in for you. He's the chap you chucked into the soup, you know. He sneaked away after youleft last night, so I'm told, and he swore black and blue that he would have your life for that act. He will, too. He's sure bad medicine, that fellow. He's a bad member, too. I just thought I'd give you the pointer."
Handsome turned away then, and Nick went on alone to the piazza, where Black Madge was awaiting him.
He stopped just before he put his foot upon the veranda, and waited for her to make some sign; and she approached quite near to him, looking him straight in the eyes.
"Good morning, Dago," she said, smiling.
"Good morning, madam," he replied gravely.
"You look quite like a gentleman this morning," she continued, laughing lightly. "Or, no, rather like a mountain bandit of Italy."
"I could be either if I chose," he replied again, as gravely as he had spoken before.
"I do not doubt it. I have been giving you considerable thought since I talked with you here last night. Come inside. You haven't had your breakfast, I suppose?"
"No, madam."
"Then you shall breakfast with me. I was about to eat mine when I remembered you, and sent for you."
"Madam is most kind."
She led the way into the house, where a table wasspread with good things, well cooked, too, they appeared to be; and she pointed toward a chair at the opposite side of the table.
"Sit there," she said. "I declare, we are quite domestic."
"So it would appear, madam. I am afraid that you are doing me too much honor, for one who has been so short a time among you."
"Bah! I am glad to have somebody who can talk decently near me. I tire of all these ragamuffins who are my men. Sometimes I kill one of them just for the mere fun of ridding myself of the vermin."
"Madam is incautious, perhaps."
"Why so?"
"Some day one of them might take it into his head to kill madam."
"Then somebody will have to be mighty quick about it. I'm not so easily killed as all that. Tell me—have you guessed who I am?"
"I am not a good guesser, madam."
"On the contrary, I should suppose you to be a good one—an exceptionally good one. Answer me: Have you guessed who I am?"
"I might make a guess now, madam."
"Oh, drop that madam. I don't want you to madam me all the time. Who do you suppose I am?"
"If I am to make a guess, I should suppose that youare that distinguished and elusive person whom the outside world refers to as Hobo Harry."
She laughed long and heartily, stirring her coffee vigorously the while.
"Upon my word, you are a good one," she said, still with laughter in her voice. "Yes, I am that distinguished and elusive person. There is no doubt about that. I have spent a long time in bringing this organization to perfection, Dago. What do you think of it?"
"I think it is a wonder."
"Right you are, my man! It is a wonder. For example, what did you think of the operation that was performed last night?"
"I thought it was carried out very perfectly. The men must have been a long time in laying their plans."
She laughed again.
"Not one of those men—not even Handsome—had ever seen that place before. They only obeyed my orders; nothing more. I made the plans myself. I told them exactly what to do, and when, and how to do it. It is all a question of mathematics, and of obeying orders."
"It was perfectly done, madam."
"There you go again. By the way, Handsome gives me an excellent report of you."
"I had supposed as much, else I would not be here breakfasting with you."
"That is not why I sent for you; that has nothing to do with last night."
"No?"
"I want you to tell me where I have seen you before—and where you have met me before," she said swiftly, and with a sudden and dangerous narrowing of her eyes.
If Nick had not had himself perfectly in hand he must have given a start then that would have betrayed him; as it was, he answered instantly, and as if the subject had also occurred to him:
"For the life of me, madam, I cannot remember. I have tried to recall the time and place ever since I saw you last night; but it eludes me. I cannot tell."
"It is well that you have answered as you have," she said, with a threatening cadence in her voice.
"Why so, madam?"
"Because I saw plainly in your eyes last night that you remembered to have seen me somewhere before that time. Had you denied it, you would have lied to me; and it is not healthy for people to tell me lies."
"I can imagine that, madam. But since I have no reason to do so——"
"Tell me what there is about me that is familiar to you, Dago."
"It must be your great beauty that I remem——"
"That will be about enough of that, thank you," sheinterrupted him coldly. "I know all about my beauty, and don't in the least need to be told about it."
"One could not very well remember you at all without remembering your beauty," insisted Nick boldly. "It is the first thing about you that strikes one; and the second is——"
"Well—what? Possibly I will be more interested in that."
"The fear you inspire, I think. You have what the French call a 'way' about you."
She started perceptibly.
"What do you know about the French?" she demanded; and Nick saw instantly that he had made a mistake in reminding her of her career in Paris. Now it was possible that she might recall where she had seen him.
But he dismissed the idea as soon as it came to him, for he remembered again how perfectly he was disguised, and how impossible it should be for her to remember him after all these years, through the disguise.
But now she was looking steadily at him, and for the moment she had forgotten to eat.
"Who are you, Dago?" she demanded suddenly. "You are not what you seem."
"Few of us are," returned the detective evasively.
"Who are you?"
"I have told you, madam, as much as it is possibleto tell. You do not demand the past records of your followers. All that you insist upon is that they shall be faithful in the future."
"Who are you?" she repeated again.
"I am Dago John, madam, at your service."
"But you have another name than Dago John."
"I had another—once."
"What was it?"
"Madam does not suppose, when she asks the question, that it will be answered, does she?" Nick inquired boldly.
"By Heaven, sir, do you dare to defy me?"
"Not at all. I merely feel sure that madam asked the question as a joke, knowing that it could not be answered."
For a moment it seemed as if she did not know whether to be angry at him for his cool effrontery, or to laugh the matter off entirely, in admiration of his bravery. She decided upon the latter course evidently, for she did laugh—in a way that was not quite pleasant to hear, however; and she said:
"Try to think where you have seen me before. Help me to remember. I want to recall it."
"It is impossible, madam. I have already tried."
"Is the memory that is associated with me pleasant or otherwise?"
"It could not be but pleasant, since it was—you,"he ventured; and she frowned. It was plain that she did not relish such compliments.
And now she sat with her eyes fixed upon him, idly stirring her second cup of coffee, and seeming to look him through and through, while she cast her memory back over the storms of her life, not yet more than twenty-three years, all told, and attempted with all her strength of will to call up for recognition the ghost which his appearance had conjured.
After a little she leaned forward, nearer to him, and her eyes, coal black, and blazing, fairly burned into his own; but he held his gaze steadily upon her, never once flinching from the scrutiny.
And then, so suddenly that it startled him, she leaped to her feet, knocking her coffee to the floor, and she stood over him—but whether in anger or only in astonishment that she had remembered, he could not have told.
"By all the gods!" she cried out. "I remember you now. It is your eyes that have haunted me, and now I remember where I have seen them. I remember. It was in Paris. It was at the prefecture of police. I was there. I was only a girl. I had just finished with the chief when you entered the room. I did not notice your name when it was announced, but now I remember you—at the prefecture of police in Paris! Tell me—tell me, I say, what you were doing there!"
The detective knew that it would be folly to deny the charge that she made. He knew that she remembered now, perfectly well, and that nothing could disabuse her mind of the determination it had reached.
Acting upon the impulse of the instant, therefore, and determined now to play out his rôle as it should appear, Nick pretended instantly to be as greatly astonished as she was at the recollection, and the strangeness of it.
He, too, leaped to his feet, imitating an astonishment as great as her own. He did not tip over his coffee, but he did manage to upset his chair, so that it fell backward on the floor; and then for the space of a moment they stood staring into each other's eyes, both—from all appearances—speechless with astonishment.
And then, very slowly, she subsided into her chair again, still keeping her eyes upon him, and still evidently taxing her memory to the utmost to recall all the incidents of that meeting at the prefecture in Paris.
"I remember now," she murmured at last, more to herself than to him. "It all comes back to me, bit by bit. Monsieur Goron was chief at the time—no? Yes. I remember. There had been a sudden death in the house where I lived—it was on the floor just beneath me—and Goron sent for me to question me about it. It was thought at first that Lucie had beenmurdered, and Goron thought that perhaps I would know about it. He had just finished questioning me when you entered the room—ah!"
Her eyes blazed with a sudden fire of anger, and her lips tightened over her teeth.
"When you entered the room Goron rose and shook hands with you. Why did he do that? Goron did not shake hands with criminals!"
"Nor with his police spies, did he?" asked Nick, smiling and shrugging his shoulders.
"But why did he shake hands with you?"
"Because we were old acquaintances, madam."
"And he called you by name. What was that name?"
"Madam, for some time past I have deemed it best to forget it."
"Nevertheless you shall remember it now."
Nick shrugged his shoulders, and did not reply.
"What was that name?" she demanded again.
"I have told madam that I——"
She started from her chair, and ran across the room so suddenly that Nick was interrupted in what he was about to say; and she seized a rope that hung from the ceiling and stood with her hand upon it, grasping it.
"If I pull this rope," she said coldly, "as many of my followers as hear it will rush to this place. You know what is likely to happen then if I loose them upon you. They are all like wild beasts, or like dogs,ready to tear each other at the slightest provocation. If I should point my finger at you—so—and say to them, 'Take him; he is yours,' your life would not be worth as much as the dregs in your coffee cup. Tell me, what that name was, or I will summon the men."
The detective shrugged his shoulders, and leaned back in his chair, smiling.
"It would be a foolish and a useless proceeding," he said calmly. "I should not tell them that name any more than I tell it to you. I will not tell it. It is of no moment here. It could do you no good to hear it, and to mention it might do me harm; therefore, I shall not mention it, no matter how often you order me to do so. It pains me to disobey you, madam, but you force me into the alternative, and I have no choice. Pull the rope if you will."
Instead of pulling it, she released it, still staring at him, and she returned slowly to her chair.
"You are a strange man," she murmured, "and a brave one. There is not another who would dare to defy me as you have done."
"Perhaps there is not another who has so much at stake," he replied quietly, but with perfect truth, as the reader knows.
Again she knit her brows in perplexity; again the detective knew that she was concentrating her mind upon that incident at the prefecture, trying with all her power to recall the merest detail of it.
Nick remembered that his name had been mentioned aloud at that time; he recalled the fact that Goron, in rising to shake hands with him, had called him by name plainly enough. It was evident that she also remembered that much of the facts, and was now straining every energy she possessed to recall what that name was.
And while she thought so deeply, her face gradually assumed an expressionless cast. She closed her lips firmly together. Her eyes became sombre. She seemed oblivious of his presence, and of her surroundings. For the moment she was back again in Paris, at the prefecture, in the presence of Goron, five years ago.
After a little, without another change of expression, she shrugged her shoulders, and rose from her chair, and then, with an assumption of carelessness, she passed from the room upon the piazza, saying as she went:
"Come. We will not bother any more about this for the present. We will take up the subject again another time, after we have both had opportunity to think it over. If you care for a cigar, Dago, there are some in that cupboard yonder. Help yourself."
Now, it happened that Nick did care for a cigar. He had not had one in many a day, but had forced himself to be content with an old pipe. The prospect of a cigar was enticing, and so he took her at her word,and helped himself—turning his back to her as he did so, and so he did not see the strange smile which crossed her face as she passed through the door upon the piazza.
He was a bit puzzled by this sudden change in her attitude and manner. He could not exactly account for it. Had she remembered? He could not tell.
He realized, however, that he was in a predicament—that his position was precarious; for if she should remember—if she should recall the name of Nick Carter as connected with that incident, he knew that his own life would not be worth the snap of a finger, no matter how bravely he might fight, or how many of the foe he should overcome in the contest that would inevitably follow.
For, scattered about in that stronghold in the swamp, there were no less than a hundred of her followers, and there was not one among them who would not kill at her bidding.
She was standing upon the piazza, looking away through the woods, when he came out, and, without turning her head, she said to him:
"Take that chair, and remain there until you have smoked your cigar. The men might take it into their heads to be jealous if you should go among them with it, and they should know that you, a new arrival, had breakfasted with me. I will return in a moment."
She left him then, entering the house; and with nothought of immediate danger in his mind, Nick followed her suggestion, and leaned back in the chair, tilting it against the house, determined to enjoy that smoke to the utmost.
After that it was difficult to tell exactly what did happen.
He remembered afterward that he smoked on in enjoyment of the cigar for some minutes, and that he thought it somewhat rank, notwithstanding the fact that it had the appearance of being of excellent quality.
And then suddenly the cigar flashed, exactly as if there had been three or four grains of gunpowder wrapped in it—and he was instantly conscious of an intensely bitter taste in his mouth.
And then it seemed to him almost as if somebody had struck him, so strange were his sensations—and from that instant memory left him entirely.
The woman had been watching him narrowly from the doorway; she was waiting for that flash from the end of his cigar, and when it came she passed out through the door swiftly, and caught him as he was about to fall from his chair to the floor of the piazza; caught him, and held him, and then deftly raised him to his feet, and half carried him inside the house before anybody—had a person been observant of the scene—could have realized that anything was wrong.
She possessed great strength, this remarkable woman; for the instant she was inside the door, heavyas he was, she raised him in her arms, and carried him into an adjoining room, where she closed the door behind her, and deposited him upon a couch.
And then, still working with great rapidity, she pulled aside a rug that was on the floor, and, having lifted a trapdoor, she again took him in her arms, and descended through the opening in the floor to the depths beneath it.
After a little she reappeared, and this time there was a grim smile upon her face, while she replaced the rug over the trapdoor, and otherwise rendered the room the same as it had been before the incident happened.
She passed coolly out upon the piazza, and for a time strode up and down it in deep thought; but at last she raised her head quickly, and called sharply to the sentinel who was pacing up and down in front of the cottage.
"Send Handsome to me!" she ordered; and then she continued her pacing until Handsome appeared.
Handsome belied his name terribly in the light of day, for an uglier-looking chap could not be imagined; and yet, withal, there was a gleam of humor in his eyes and at the corners of his mouth. She turned to him abruptly.
"Where are the others of that bunch who were found with Dago?" she asked sharply.
"Yonder," replied Handsome, jerking his thumb over his shoulder toward the glade beyond them.
"What do you think about them, Handsome?" she asked again.
"I haven't thought much about them," he replied. "They are about the usual sort, I believe; no better and perhaps no worse."
"I am not so sure of that."
"No?" he asked, vaguely surprised.
"Handsome, I want you to take them, one by one, to the pool in the woods, strip them, and scrub them with soap, and water, and sand, if necessary. I want you to make sure that there is no suggestion of disguise about any of the three. Do it at once—and when it is done, no matter whether there is a question of disguise about any of them or not, bring them to me."
Handsome departed without a word. It was plain that Black Madge was accustomed to obedience. It was plain also that her suspicions were thoroughly aroused; for now she paced up and down again restlessly, and continued so to pace until almost an hour later Handsome stood before her again.
"Well?" she demanded.
"Two of them were plainly disguised," he replied.
"And the other?" she demanded, frowning.
"The other, as plainly was not disguised."
"And the two who were disguised—what of them?"
"I cannot tell if they are known to each other.I cannot tell whether they are spies or not, only it is quite likely that they are."
"And the third one? The one who wore no disguise?"
"I think he is all right. He is the one called Pat. When he realized that the others who had been with him were in disguise, he flew at one of them, thinking that he had been followed himself, and I think would have killed the fellow if I had not been there to prevent it."
Madge listened, with a shrug of her shoulders; then she said briefly:
"Bring them here, Handsome. Bring the two who were disguised, first. Leave the other one alone until I send for him. What are the supposed names of these two?"
"One is called Tenstrike, and the other calls himself the Chicago Chicken."
"The Chicago Chicken," she said slowly. "Chick, for short, is it not? I think we are on the right track, Handsome. Bring that one here alone—first."