The Doctor's Stratagem.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 162, 9 July 1907, Page 8

The Doctor's Stratagem.

By NICHOLAS CARTER

Author of " The Silent Partner," "Under Oner of the Law," " Sealed Orden," " Caught in a Wei,"" The Price of a Secret, ,, etc.

: CHAPTER IV. "r A VAIN SEARCH. Recovering from momentary amazement upon beholding Etta Sheldon's empty casket, Nick Carter's next thought was that, the corpse must have been dislodged by the violent collision, and the overturning of the two baggage - cars, and that it was now somewhere amid the confusion of trunks, express-packages, and broken woodwork of the cars. A glance about him had already revealed the character of the locality in which the wreck had occurred. A strip of open fields, a few scattered dwellings in the near distance, at the windows of which lights "were rapidly appearing, a cut between two rocky hills, against the out-most ledges of which the two forward cars had dashed, showed that the accident had occurred in a comparatively open country, and near the outskirt of some small village, or settlement. It afterwards appeared that the breaking of the forward trucks of the front baggage-car had occasioned the disaster, resulting in overturning the two cars mentioned, and derailing several others, and leaving them in angular disorder upon the road-bed. Amid the confusion of such a. scene as that which ensued, the rapid gathering of excited people, the rushing about oi train-hands with lanterns, the hurried work of rescuing injured men from the wrecked cars and attending to their wounds—amid all the noise, confusion, and excitement that followed, Nick Carter at oncq began a search for the missing corpse. That it could have been stolen and removed seemed utterly impossible, absolutely absurd; yet Nick realised that, owing to having been penned in the smoker, several minutes had passed after the collision before he arrived upon the immediate scene of the wreck. "I say!" he exclaimed, seizing the arm of a train-hand. "What's become of the dead body that was in the casket?" The man glared at him, white and breathless from his exertions. "How do I know?" he hoarsely growled. '•Haven't you seen it ?" "No." 'It must be here." "Suppose it is," snarled the man, impatient at being detained. "I wish to find it." ''Find it, then, and be blowed! I've enough to do to look after live bodies just now, not dead ones! The injured must be cared for first of all." Nick saw that there was more trutli than elegance in the speaker's response, and he let him go, and renewed the search on his own hook. Nowhere amid the scattered trunks and broken cars, however, could he find the slightest sign of the missing body, 'and the mystery of its disappearance appeared inexplicable, while that involving the strange case itself was augmented a hundredfold. "What are you looking for ?" demanded one of the passenegrs, who saw how Nick was engaged. "A body," replied Nick, hurriedly. "Whose?" "The one that was in yonder broken casket." "Relative of yours?" "Well, no, not that," Nick evasively replied. "But the body ought to be here." "Sure it had." "Yet I cannot find it." "I haven't seen it, sir, yet I was among the first to reach these cars after the wreck," declared the stranger. "It's very curious where it's gone, isn't it?" "More than curious," Nick dryly answered- "I cannot quite fathom it." "It may have been taken over to one of those dwellings," said a second passenger, who had overheard their remarks. "I have seen several of the injured train-hands carried over there." "While he spoke he pointed across a strip of meadow, toward two of the dwellings mentioned* in the direction of which one of the injured baggagemen was at that moment being carried. Nick's impulse now was to hasten over to the dwellings, but before he could act upon it he. heard the voice of Harvey Dane, and caught sight of him in the throng on and about the road-bed. 'It's horrible—horrible!" Dane was exclaiming to his companion. "The body must be here —it must! Heaven above, I'm nearly distracted!" Nick glanced at the man who was with Dane, and beheld—Doctor Lecraw. The faces of both were ghastly pale. seen in the flickering blare from the lanterns, and the light of the sinking moon. Obviously, both were terribly distressed, while Doctor Lecraw was nervously wringing his slender white hands, and at times groaning audibly. "Yes, yes it is dreadful—dreadful!" Nick heard him reply. "But what can we do—what more can we do at present? The confusion here is so great, and the crowd so dense, I am at my wits' end. Surely we must find the body with the coming of daylight." "Daylight! How in thunder can I wait until daylight?" Dane cried desperately. "The remains must be found, I tell you. I shall go mad, doctor, if left in this terrible uncertainty concerning them." In the noise and excitement prevailing, the distressful utterances of these two attracted no great attention, while the general search amid the wreckage completely obscured their individual efforts to discover the. missing body. Nick Carter saw that Dane was indeed bordering upon distraction; that he stood in need of a friendly hand just then, and the detective decided to make his presence known. Feeling sure that Doctor Lecraw would not recognise him in the disguise he now wore, he presently wormed his way through the crowd and reached the two men, halting at Dane's elbow. "Looking for a body that was in this casket?" he asked, touching Dane's arm after a moment. The latter swung quickly around with eyes lighting slightly. "Yes," he eagerly cried. "Do you know anything about it?" "I know it ought to be here, but " "Yes, yes. I know that. But have you seen it, or do you know anything about it?" & Nick now had succeeded in drawing the impetuous speaker somewhat apart from the physician, and he grasped his arm more firmly, dropping his voice to a> low, sharp command: "Easy, Harvey, and don't expose mc

to Leeraw," he said. "Walk this way a step or two further." Dane peered sharply at him, not recognising the detective at that moment in his employ. "What do you mean?" he demanded. "Careful!" # . . . "Who are you?" "Nick Carter." '"Good heavens!" gasped Dane, stag-, gering. "You here, Nick?" ''"Very much.here," said.Nick drily. "With what object?" "I'm still on the case." "But why have you followed us, and "Hush!" cautioned Nick. "Remember my instructions. This is no time or place for explanations. Be governed by my advice at present, and trust mc to do what is best." "You are right, Nick, and I will," Dane now said, more quietly. "Thank Heaven you are here." "You need a cool head and a steady nerve to aid you." "You are right. What shall I do?" Nick saw that his counsel had been effective, that Dane was now comparatively calm, and the detective quietly replied: H * "Doctor Leeraw' will think mc a stranger. Introduce mc to him as a friend met by chance, and one who has offered to assist you." "I'll do so at once." "Then leave mc to do the rest," added Nick significantly. Harvey Dane hastened to comply, and introduced Nick as Mr Gaston. The latter, after having greeted the physician, took the ribbons in hand by saying in a friendly, yet business-like way: '"There's a bad mess, here, Doctor Leeraw, one that is not likely to be cleared before daylight. It's lucky, however, that so few of the train hands were seriously injured and none of the passengers killed." "Yet we have lost, Mr Gaston, the remains of " "Yes, yes, my friend Dane has told mc of your strange misfortune, and 1 have volunteered to assist him," Nick heartily interrupted. "That's very good of you." "We will take every step that can be taken, Doctor Leeraw, and will at once begin a systematic search. Have you any friends on the train, sir, in a way depending upon you!" "One lady, Mr Gaston. One young lady named Marvin." "I would suggest that you rejoin her, doctor, and do what you can to comfort her, leaving Dane and mc to look for the lost body. We can accomplish just as much, you know, and you appear hardly able to stand the racket as well as we younger men." Doctor Leeraw gazed with a sort of piteous helplessness at Dane for a moment, then asked, brokenly, still wringing his hands: "What do you think about it, Harvey?" "I think you had better follow Gaston's advice," said Dane, in the kindly way with which he invariably addressed the physician. "He is a cool, levelheaded man, doctor, and we shall lose no time in getting to work. You had better rejoin Maria and stay with her •until we come." "Perhaps you are right." "I feel sure of it. doctor." "Well, I will do so—yes, I will di so." "Shall I go with you, and put you or. the right car?" "No, no, I can find my way. Thank you very much, Harvey, but I can find thf car. I'll wait there with Maria until you come." Doctor Leeraw turned and moved tremulously away as he uttered the last remark. Nick Carter gazed after him, at his slender, slightly bowed figure and grey head, and wondered at the man. la the light of certain suspicions which he had already formed., for which he felt sure there was a good basis, yet which were given the lie by -the pathetic aspect of the departing man, Nick began to feel that Doctor Leonidas Leeraw was as much of a mystery as the case itself. "What shall we do first?" demanded Dane, the moment the physician was fairly out of, the way. Nick again glanced over the scene of the wreck. Already signs of its being cleared were manifest, and order was beginning to take the place of chaos. "One thing is sure, Harvey." he bluntly answered after a moment. •'What is that?" "The body of Etta Sheldon is not here, where it should he." "That is painfully obvious." "There is the broken casket, and yoader lie portions of the outer box in which it was contained, but there is no sign of the corpse,, nor have I been able to find any person who saw it after the wreck." "Were you seeking for it when I arrived here?" ' "Yea, certainly." "I got out of the parlour-car as quickly as I could," explained Dane. "The passage adjoining the smoking compartment was blocked, and I was delayed several minutes." "Was Doctor Leeraw with you then?" "No." "Where was he?" "He was in the smoking compartment when the accident occurred." Nick remembered having seen him there only a short time before, which explained their separation; yet he now. asked rather pointedly: "Where was he when you joined him?" "I found him on the road-bed when I left the car," said Dane, not observing Nick's tone. "Had he just left the car?" "I suppose so, Nick." "You did not ask him?" "No. I was greatly excited, and anxious about the body." "Quite naturally," Nick admitted. "Surely," added Dane, now frowning doubtfully, "you don't suspect Doctor Leeraw,of any crooked work?" "No, no, not at all/ Nick evasively answered. "I only wondered where you both were. I had some difficulty, too, in of my car." "All of them are badly damaged." "Just as I heard your voice," added Nick 5 "I was about to visit those dwellings yonder, to which most of the injured men have been taken. It is barely possible that the corpse has been carried over there." 'Terdition! I should have thought of

thai," cried Bane, impetnously. 'It's a hundred to one tha± we gliaTl fi-nri it there." Let's go at once." Ttibugh hasring no eueh confidence ac his companion."tad expressed, Nick readily complied, the two men now hurried across the damp meadows and approached the dwellings mentioned. . There .the search, proved equally vain, however. The injured -were being tenderly cared for, the simple country people. having provided the best they possessed; but in none of the-dwellings, nor about the wreck, nor in any direction, could there be found a trace of the dead body of Etta Sheldon, nor any. person who had seen it since the moment of the disaster. Deeper and darker grew the mystery —and deeper and darker it was destined to grow. (To be continued dally.)