The Doctor's Stratagem

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 163, 10 July 1907, Page 10

The Doctor's Stratagem

By NICHOLAS CARTER

Author of « The Silent Partner," " Under Caver of the Law," "Sealed Orders," " Caught in a Web," " The Price of a Secret," etc.

CHAPTER V. OX THE TRAIL.

Despite one's wishes and sentiments, situations must be met as they are found. With the approach of daylight it became obvious that a further search in that locality could amount to nothing that the body of Etta Sheldon was temporarily lost; and upon the arrival of a tram by which they would return to New York, Doctor Lecraw and his companions had no wise alternative but to bow to the situation, and sadly return .to the city.

Nick Carter went with them in the character oi Mr Gaston, and he then had an admirable opportunity to* further study the elderly, and, in a degree, mysterious physician. Yet Nick could make no more of him now than before, arid he carefully concealed his instinctive misgivings. Half an hour before reaching New York, however, Nick found an opportunity to talk with Harvey Dane alone in the smoking compartment, and he asked a few questions he for some time had had in mind, yet which he refrained from asking in the presence of Doctor Lecraw x and Martha Marvin.

"Since we left the scene of the wreck, Harvey, I have been trying to form some reasonable theory in explanation of the Mysterious disappearance of this girl's body," he observed, by way of introduction. "Have you succeeded?" Dane dubiously asked, with a melancholy display of interest. "I cannot say that I have," replied Nick. "If the casket contained the body when it left Rangeley " , "Why do you say that?" Dane frowningly interrupted. "There is no 'if about it. I know it was in the casket at that time."

"You do, eh?" Nick lightly rejoined, not inclined to confide his misgivings to Dane while the latter was in his present disturbed and irritable state.

"Of course. I do." "Did you see it there when the casket •was closed?"

"Certainly I did. I was one. of the last to see it."

' "Who closed the casket and secured the cover?" ' "The undertaker." "What is his name?" "Henry Donald. His business place is in Harlem." Kick made a mental note of it. "Was the casket closed immediately before it was taken from the house?" he next asked. "Xp, not immediately. Perhaps ten minutes before it was removed." "Were you in the room with it during those ten minutes?" "No, not all the time."

"Where were you?"

"I went into the dining-room with Doctor Lecraw and Maria, to take a little lunch before we started for the train." "Did the undertaker lunch with you?" '.-. "He did not," replied Dane, now staring hard at Nick's inscrutable face. "He remained with the body, did he?"

"I think he went out to open-his waggon," said Dane. "You're not daffy enough to suspect that the body was not shipped from Rangeley, are you?" " No, not quite," replied Nick evasively. "Im bnly making dead sure of covering all the points of the case." "Oh. is that it?" " As a matter of fact, Harvey. I carefully examined the lining of the casket at daylight, and I could find no indications that weights cf any kind had been substituted for the body, as must have been the ease if it had been removed at any time prior to the wreck. An empty casket could not have been shipped on the train." " Empty — that's absurd'! " Dane growled derisively. " The body must ihave been in it." " I'm glad you feel so positive of it," said Nick, in a way that suggested none of his own misgivings. " I certainly do feel so." " Tour assurance enables mc to consider more seriously one theory that I have formed."

"What is that, Nick?" Dane iniquired, churlishly. " A theory relating to the spies said to have been seen at Rangeley."

"Do you think that they ma 3- be responsible for the loss of the body?" " There is a possibility of it, at least." " I don't see how." " Nevertheless, they may have accomplished the theft." " . " But what can they have wanted of Etta Sheldon's corpse?"

" That remains to be discovered, Harvey, assuming that they are really the guilty parties." Dane gravely shook his head. "I cannot seen how they could have planned to commit such a crime, oven If they wanted to secure the' remains," he said perplexidly.

" Did the servants at naugeiey know that the body was to be taken to Boston?" asked Nick. " I suppose they did." "And on what train it was to go?" "Very likely." "They may have 'talked about it among themselves, in that ease, either last evening, or at such a time and place that one of the spies overheard them. Then the rascals may have laid their plans to get possession of the body." "Do you mean, Nick, by causing this iwreek?"

" Exactly," nodded Dick. He was stating this theory»more with a design to hide his deeper suspicions, however, than with any great faith in it.

"But the wreck resulted, it is said, from the breaking- of one of the trucks," Dane gravely protested. "The breakage may have been caused by an obstruction placed on the track." "By the spies?" " Possibly."

" Then they must he desperate men."

"There hangs about this case, Harvey, an atmosphere of desperation that v/arrants theories such as these," Nick pointedly answered. "It appears in tha fact that spies were seen at Kangeley—in the fact that such a mystery shrouds all of these people—in the f-iet that Etta Sheldon carried secrets stie could not confide even to you, whom she admitted she loved, and was willing io marry—and in the fact that her con■duct indicates that she lived "in fear of being seen and recognised, a fear that has shaped the p»st three years of her life."

>_. "I cannot deny those facts, Nick," Said Dane soberly. i_>"lt is possible, then, that desperate • to..:wreck the:. : ... "Ron getting awa y Etta Sheldon's

body in the darkness, confusion and excitement that would follow the disaster."

" But the scoundrels might have sacrificed many other lives! "

Desperate men, with a sufficient object to attain, do not consider the li.-es of others," replied Nick, with a n- r i ra emphasis. "One thing is sure. Harvey —there was an incentive to the ri<nd secrecy of Etta Sheldon, and there was an incentive to the appearance of spies at Rangeley; and it is now imperative that we discover the nature and occasion of both."

" That is true, Nick," said Dane, sadly shaking his head.

'•This work cannot be done in a day, however," Nick added. ," It will require time and persistency, and much labour must be secretly done. Therefore, you must continue to follow my instructions Harvey, leaving the investigation entirely to mc."

" I will do so, Nick."

'■'That's all for the present, then." " You will keep mc informed ? " " Yes." '* And call upon mc, if I can aid you?" " Certainly."

" When shall I see you again ? " " I do not know," said Kick. " I shall leave your party as soon as we reach the station. You may call mc by telephone at any time, but I would advise you not to come to my house." " Why „ot ? "

"You may be watched."

"With what object?" " I cannot say, nor that you will be, yet I wish to head off the work of any possible spy upon you," eplained Nick. "1 see."

"So do precisely what I have commanded, no more, nor less, and leave the case to mc," concluded Nick. "We will now rejoin Dr. Lecraw and Miss Marvin, lest our absence should be mis-, ■interpreted."

If Doctor Lecraw felt any misgivings lie did not betray them. Grave and gentle most of the time, yet very firm when an occasion arose, evincing in the depths of his nature a quality that might not wisely be provoked over a certain limit, he bore, himself like a man burdened with what had occurred, yet with becoming dignity and composure all the wbile.

Nick parted from his companions at the Grand. Central station, leaving Harvey Dane to accompany his friends to Rangeley. Bent upon learning the result of Chick's espionage at the place, Nick now hastened home, only to be met by Patsy, another of his assistants, and to be informed that Chick had not returned. "Not returned!" exclaimed Nick, in surprise. "Then he has discovered something worthy of this attention, or he may be on the track of the supposed spies." '"He has not sent any message," said Patsy. "lie may not have thought it necessary," replied Nick. Then he added, quite bluntly, after a moment's thought: "Get into a disguise. I want you to go out to Rangele}-." "Good enough!" declared Patsy, to whom the case had already been outlined. ''I'm glad to mix into this affair. What shall I do out there?" ".Shadow the- place," said Kick, a bit curtly. "Make sure you a: c not seen, but keep an eye on all that occurs there." "Let mc aloDe for that."

'Report here not later than midnight." The instructions were explicit, if brief, and Nick knew they would be properly executed. Without Waiting to add "to them, he at once left the house, hastened to the nearest elevated station, and boarded a train for Harlem. •

"I'll next tackle that undertaker," he said to himself. "I'll solve .this extraordinary mystery now that I've accepted, the case, or I'll turn Heaven and earth in the attempt."

The question uppermost in Kick's mind, despite his talk with Harvey Dane, was whether the body of Etta Sheldon had really left Rangeley.

The main circumstances indicated that it had not, for the theft of a corpse, even in the confusion of a railway wreck, is not an easy task.

On the other hand, however, there were minor circumstances indicating that the body had been shipped. A weight of some kind must have been in the casket, or the absence of it would have been detected. Yet Nick had carefully examined the lining of it before leaving the scene of the wreck, and he found that it was not injured

or defaced by any foreign substance, such as might have been caused by weights of some kind.

Upbn the ground near-by, moreover, he could find no weighty objects, which might have served for substitutes for the body, and fallen out after the collision. That the body could not have been stolen from the train, furthermore, or in transportation from Rangeley to the station, Nick felt absolutely sure.

He easily found the undertaker's warerooms, and met the man in his office., to whom he introduced himself.

"I want you to answer a few questions, Mr Donald, and then forget that I* have asked them.," he said pointedly.

"You must not, under any circumstances, disclose the fact that I have called here."

"Your name, Detective Carter, is sufficient to ensure my obedience," was the reply.

Mr Henry Donald was a grave man in middle life, and Nick rightly judged that he could be safely trusted.

"My inquiries relate to the body of Miss Etta Sheldon, who died last Saturday. You were employed to care for the corpse, and provide a casket."

"That is true, sir," bowed Donald. "The body was sent to Boston last night. I took it to the station." "It never reached Boston," said Nick. "There was a railway wreck, in which the casket was broken and hurled from the car. The body, however, could not be found." "Could not o*e found!" echoed Donald, in amazement none could have distrusted. "I have no time to impart any ot the details." said Nick. "I wish tn know whether you are positive that you removed the body from Rangeley." "I certainly am, Detective Carter." "Yet you may be mistaken." "Impossible." "Let us see whether the circumstances were such as to have made a mistake absolutely impossible," replied Nick. "Yoa called for the body about eight o'clock in . the: evening. Did you personally close the casket and take it put

to your waggon?" ; "I did, sir." "The body was in it." "It was. I'll swear to that." "Could you have been deceived by a wax figure substituted for the corpse?" "No, sir," declared Donald emphatically. "That would have been impossible. There was a bright light in the room when I closed the casket, and before putting on the cover I made, as is my custom, a last examination of the corpse. I have been in the business too long, Detective Carter, to be deceived by a wax figure. I 'know that the body of Miss Etta Sheldon was in the casket when I closed it."

"Very good." said Nick. "Were you then alone in the room?"

"I was not. Two male servants were there, who afterwards helped mc take the casket to my waggon."

"Did you leave the room before re moving the closed casket?"

'Why, yes. now that you question mc so closely, I recall that I did," the undertaker gravely admitted. "I went out to open the back of my waggon, and 1 removed some articles from the body of it to the seat."

"How long were you out there, Mr Donald?"

"Not longer than six or eight mm utes."

"That interval would have been sufficient for removing the body from the casket, and substituting something heavy in the place of it," said Nick pointedly. "So you see you may have been mistaken, after all, Mr Donald, about removing the body from Rangeley."

The undertaker appeared abashed for a moment, then gravely shook his head. "I now admit it, Detective Carter," said he. "I did not, however, figure upon such contingencies as you mention." "Naturally not." smiled Nick. "I wanted to know the exact circumstances, however. Now another question. Was "the body embalmed?" "No, sir." "Was it omitted for any reason?" "Doctor T.eeraw tolrl mc not to embalm it. He said that Miss Sheldon had, anion;; other requests made just before her death, desired that her remains should not be embalmed. He insisted that her wish should be respected." "Quite properly, no doubt," Nick drily observed. "Now one more question, Mr Donald. Did you subject the body to any death-test?" "I did not." "You did not think it necessary?" "No, sir. I had no doubt of the woman's death." "That's all Mr Donald, and I am obliged to you." said Nick. "Remember, however, to forget that I have called here."

"Have no fear of indiscretion on my part." bowed the undertaker. "I shall speak of this to no one."

Nick withdrew and headed for home, well satisfied with having established one pomt —that there had been a brief opportunity for the /secret removal of Etta Sheldon's body before the casket loft Rangeley. and that it might have been done without the knowledge of Harvey Dane, who went into the din-ing-room for lunch 'immediately after the undertaker had closed the casket.

"Yet this one point establishes only a possibility," reasoned Nick, while returning home. "If the body was removed at. Rangeley, who removed it. and what was substituted in place of it? And what became of the contents of the casket at the scene of the wreck? By Jove, it's a curious case! A most extraordinary game of some kind is being played—and being pretty well played, too! I'd give something to know what would have transpired in Boston if there had been no railway wreck. There's a vast field here for theories and conjectures, but 1 reckon the solution of these mysteries will depend upon good, hard work. 1 wonder what the next feature of the rase will be?"

It proved to be a telegram from Chick, which Nick found on arriving at his residence. Somewhat to his surprise, it had been sent from Boston, and it was couched with Chick's characteristic brevity:

"Struck trail and am shadowing quarry. Report later."

(To be continued dally.)