The Doctor's Stratagem.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 161, 8 July 1907, Page 6

The Doctor's Stratagem.

By NICHOLAS CARTER

Author of " The Silent Partner? » Under Cover of the Law," "Sealed Orders," « Caught m a Wei, « The Price of a Secret," etc.

CHAPTER 111. THE ACME OF MYSTEKIES.

two moves for which he had approached the casket.

With a view to all of the possibilities involved, Kick Cartsr surveyed the approach to Rangeley with more than ordinary interest.

First, he thrust a needle, drawn from his coat, deep into the neck of the corpse. I hen he withdrew it, and waited until he was sure that no sign of blood would appear on the hueless skin near the tinr puncture.

A sparsely settled locality, a considerable park, only partially cleared, a narrow strip of woodland of which it had formed a part, a handsome frame residence, with a broad verandah on the front and south side, a stable several rods to the rear, both structures being fully fifty yard-s from the newly laid out front street, a view of the Hudson in the near distance, the roofs of a fewdwellings considerably removed, the nearest fully an eighth of a mile away —these wore the general features that met Dick's gaze, and he could easily appreciate the isolation and quietudes which were said to have appealed so strongly to the tastes of Etta Sheldon and Doctor Leonidas Lecraw. Chick had been dropped well out of view from the place, and was left to use his own judgment a? to the best methods for following Kick's instructions. As the carriage rolled up the long driveway. Kick saw that the house appeared like one visited with the shadow of death. Many of the blinds were closed, and the shades at the other windows were drawn down. The stable was closed, and none of the servants

Second, with an adroit move of his hand, he held a small round mirror above the grey lips, till sure that no change in its glittering surface would reveal a breath from the still, mute form. Satisfied after a moment, Kick rnised his hand as if to stroke his brow, without turning from the position he had taken. He had palmed the mirror, however, so holding it that he could see the persons behind him, unsuspected by them; and he discovered—Doctor Lecraw watching him as a cat watches a. mouse! There was a slight frown about his eyes, both of which now gleamed with that peculiarly intense and searching light previously mentioned, yet most rarely observed in them.

Kick Carter- only noted the circumstances mentally, however, and presently turned toward the group, and said, with considerable feeling:

"A sad, sad case, indeed! I grieve with you, Harvej 7 , poor fellow! You have met with a sorrow no words can assuage."

Harvey Dane had partly subdued his agitation, and he now approached the casket.

were visib'.p. > The only person in sight was a lad lounging on the stat of an undertaker's waggon, which was standing at the foot of the stairs leading to the front verandah and the main entrance.

Kick entered into quiet conversation with Doctor Lecraw and Miss Marvin entirely conventional, and waited patiently until his friend was readj- to depart.

The undertaker came out w'aile Kick was gazing, and at once drove away, making room for the carriage containing the detective and his companion. In another moment both were entering the house, admitted by the butler.

They left the house after remaining about half an hour, and presently were out" of view from, the dwelling.

Then Kick surprised his companion by saying, quite abruptly:

"You must ride to town alone. Ear vey. I'm going to leave you here."

Dr. Lecraw at once emerged from the drawing-room, a slender, slightly-bowed man of sixty, with grey hair and clear blue eyes, habitually soft of expression, yet capable of a peculiarly intense, searching light, as X'ick casually noticed when the physician's gaze fell upon him. Yet he appeared like a delicate, winsome man. this Doctor Lecraw, with hi 3 grave, intellectual face and subdued manner, and Kick was rather favourably impressed with him.

"Good heavens!" exel-ahaed Dane. "For whst?"

"Don"t ask any questions at present." replied Kick. "I have nothing to say, When I have discovered anything definite, or worth telling, I will surely inform you." ''I hope so, Kick." '"Remember my instructions, however. Xot a word about mc to any person."

'" 1 have been expecting you, Harvey/ he said quietly, while he pressed Dane's hand affectionately. " You said last evening that you would come out before we left for Boston. I see you have brought a companion."

"Only a friend whose sympathy I find helpful," explained Dane, with voice lowered. "Mr. Cathcart, doctor;* I think you have heard mc mention him. And you, Joe, 1 think you have heard mc speak of Dr. Lecraw. I wish you might have met under less sorrowful conditions."'

Kick accepted the slender white hand extended by the physician, and pressed it gently.

"I wish that, too, yet I am glad to meet you, doctor,' , he said kindly. "Harvey has told mc of your great bereavement, and I beg to express my sympathy for all of you."'

"You are good, verj- good, Mr Cathcart,'' murmured Doctor Lecraw, bowing gravely, while his lips trembled noticeably, and tears rose in his soft Hue ejes.

"Yes. we are in deep sorrow, sir, so profound that we scarcely can sustain it. -, '•Has the undertaker completed his duties?"' asked Dane, observing the physician's agitation, and aiming to divert him.

"All except taking the body to the train.' . Doctor Lecraw replied, more calmly. "It has been placed in the casket, v. hich has been left open."

■"Trust mc to be silent." "That's enough for the present, then. Good-by till we meet again." Kick had already alighted, and he signed for the haekman to drive on. By a circuitous way he returned toward Ranjrelcy, and. after a considerable search, he discovered Chick concealed in the strip of woods mentioned, yet within easy view of the house. "Seen anybody?" Kick briefly asked, as he joined him. "Not yet," replied Chick. "In case yon do, Chick, don't lose track of him till you have him down pat." "Trust mc to run him down." "I've made my little call at the house." "Learned anything?"' "Xothing definite,"' replied Xiek. "I can make neither head nor tail of the case as yet. Nevertheless, I'm sure some mystery exists." "What steps are you going to take?" "Fill going to watch the house from in front. Chick, until the body is taken away. Then I'm going to shadow both that and the to Boston." "For what?" "I wish to see what occurs, also to locate the. precise spot where the body is buried." "Dane could tell you that, couldn't he?" "'I prefer to rely upon my own eyes," said Kick. "The burial is to be tomorrow morning. I'll leave you now, and wire you if anything requires it."

1 am g-'iad of that.

"We shall take a last look at our dear loved one this afternoon, Harvey, for the casket will not be opened at the grave. I could not bear to have the remains exposed after they have undergone those changes which so long a journey is sure to produce."'

"Good enough! I'll have something to report when you return from 'Boston. "'

Nick picked his way out of the woods, and soon after found a concealment, from which he could watch both the front and side doors of the Rangeley residence.

Not until eight o'clock in the evening was his vigil rewarded. Then the undertaker's team arrived, followed by a single hack. By the light in the vestibule Kick saw the casket brought out and placed in the waggon, and Harvey Dane, accompanied by Doctor Lecraw and Miss Marvin, presenf.v entered the hack. Then both vehicles left Jtang'eley, ■and started for the station.

"I think you are wise," Harvey Dane gravely assented. ''It will be far better for us to remember the dear, dead face in its present perfect purity and repose/ "I think so—yes, I think so,"' reiterated Doctor Lecraw, with a half-suppres- % sed sob. "Here is Maria, Harrey. Poor dear, she is heartbroken."

Not wishing to appear intrusive, Nick glanced only furtively at the woman who was approaching through the hall, a tall, well-built woman of thirty, with brown hair and eyes, a strong, yet prepossessing face, and the bearing of one of considerable grace and culture. She was clad in black, accentuating her paleness, and her eyes were red with weeping.

bhe greeted Harvey Lane in low tones, and the latter presently drew her nearer to Nick, saying quietly: "This is *Miss Marvin, Joe. My friend, Mr Cathcart, Maria."'

Having made a change in his disguise, Nick boarded the train taken by these people, the night-express, and occupied a seat in the smoker. At New Haven, feeling sure that he would not be recognised, he walked through the train and located his quarry in the second parlourcar. Harvey Dane was talking with Miss Marvin, but Doctor Lecraw was moodily pufling a cigar in the smokingcompartment.

Nick decided that they required no further attention until the train arrived in Boston, and he returned to hia seat in the smoker. TheTe he fell to thinking about the case, the parties involved in it, the seemingly natural circumstances, yet which he instinctively felt were unnatural. Finally, his thoughts drifted toward the cold, still form of the beautiful girl he that morning had viewed in the rich grey casket, now speeding eastward in the forward bag-gage-car. Over what strange mysteries of the past had she so carefully drawn the veil ?

Nick acknowledged the introduction, and made a few conventional remarks, after which Dane invited him into the drawing-room, where the body of Etta Sheldon was lying. "I wish you to see my lost love, , ' he said huskily. "I would to God you might have seen her living, rather than only this cold, cold clay! Heaven help mc. doctor, how can I bear my burden!' The bereaved lover broke down in sobs and tears the moment his gaze fell upon the rich grey casket and the upturned face within." Utterly unable to govern his emotion, he turned away, and both Doctor Lecraw aDd Miss Martin drew him toward an alcove window near by, to try to comfort him.

Kick asked himself the question again and again, and while vainly striving to answer it to his satisfaction, he dozed, and fell sound asleep.

This was just such an opportunity as Nick hoped would present itself. Knowing that there might not be another, he availed himself of it. He stepped close to the casket, yet for several seconds his furtive gaze was upon Dane's two companions, till he saw that their tendomess and consolation were too genuine to be distrusted.

He was awkened by the crash, a jar and recoil of the train that threw him out of his seat.

Then came a single sharp whistle, a furious grinding of wheels and brakes, a horrible jolting over the railway-ties, all mingled with the screams" and shouts of terrified passengers, and the noise of fallen men scrambling to their feet.

Despite all this, however. Kick was not blind to a certain atmosphere of mystery about the case, and there were a fsw moves he wished to secretly nmk e - The richly furnished room, the subdued light, the grey casket, bedecked with flowers, the dead form -.vithiu, statuesque in its rigid repose, with a face of classical beauty even in death, a marblelike brow, ,with waves of glistening black hair combed to either side, a straight nose, a perfect mouth, and firm chin, such a face as art might bestow upon a Juno or Diana —in none of these details had Nick Carter more than a swift and cursory interest. Without delay, and standing s° that they could not be detected, he made the

Then every leaser sound was drowned by the sivrful crash of a collision, followed by tlrat of cars jammed together with trrific violence, and then there was a single instant of comparative silence.

'"Good heavens!" thought .Nick, prostrate oa the floor. "The train has been wrecked!"

The smoker had not left the rails, however, and he scrambled up, and hurried to the forward door. He could not open it. The had been jammed so violently againS tb* next one that the door of neither wa§ available.

Forcing his way through the excited crowd, Nick reached the rear door of the smoking-car after something like five minutes, and then succeeded in getting out npon the road-bed.

The night was clear, with a half-moon, and he saw at a glance what bad happened. By some accident a forward portion of the train, including the two baggage-cars, the postal, and expresscar, and two of the parlour-cars, had left the rails.

After jolting over the ties for a short •distance, the two baggage-cars had plunged from the road-bed and dashed themselves almost to splinters against a ledge of rocks to the right of the track. Both cars were overturned, and & portion of their contents scattered over the ground.

Xα lives were lost, as Xiek soon learned; but several passengers were more or less injured. In the station there was one poor fellow with his head bandaged, and a lady ministering to him; while a woman suffering irom snook and bruises was being led through the doorway. The detective's next thought was of the body of Etta Sheldon, which was in one of the almost demolished ear.-;.

Running forward through the throng of people pouring from the motionless parlour-car?, Nick soon reached the worst part of the wreck.

One of the first objects to meet his gaze, amid all the confusion of men and trunks and broken woodwork, was the object he scu^lit —Ktta .Sheldon's casket. In the awful collision with the led??, the top and side of the oii'ter box had been torn off, and the grey casket had been cast some yards away from the more compactly stowed trunks that were in the car, and it was lying in some sand and gravel at one side of the track. It had fallen upon its side, however, and Nick at once ran to turn it properly and remove it, calling upon others to help him. As he bent above it, however, he discovered that one end and the top of the casket, as well as those of the outer box, had been broken and torn away. Horrified for a moment, he gripped the edge, and gently turned it over. Then, as Up stared down at it, a cry of utterly indo-cribable amazement broke from him. "Good Rod! What's the meaning of this? Is it the seme of mysteries?" Weil might he ask? The casket wai empty. (To be continued daily.)