The Doctor's Stratagem.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 164, 11 July 1907, Page 6

The Docto r's Stratagem.

By NICHOLAS CARTER Author of " The Silent Partner" " Under Cover ef. the Law,"" Sealed Orders? " Caught in a Web," " The Price of a Secret," etc.

CHAPTER VI. ' CHICK'S CURIOUS QCARBY. ! Before following the investigations made by Xiek Carter, who was somewhat surprised at learning that Chick was in Boston, the occasion of the latter's tele- : gram must b? noted, as well as his movements after parting from Kick in the woods back of Rangeley. As had been Kick's experience, Chick made no discovery until evening, lie patiently remained in concealment all the while, lest he should lay himself open to discovery by some spy more cautious than he. His foresight proved fortunate, moreover, and his weary vigil was finally rewarded. He suddenly heard the snap of a breaking twig a few rods away, and upon peering from his concealment he discovered two men stealing toward a break in the shrubbery, from which point they

1 halted at one of the pagodas near-by Ito purchase and light a cigar, remaining within easy hearing of the group. Luckily, .too, Chick was familiar with their language, for they spoke only in Italian. j "So you are here to meet u_, Derosa," 1 said Pasquale Gallo, the one who had j sent the telegram. "We were not ex- | pecting this." j "Why not, eh?" querried Derosa, in ■ subdued, sonorous tones. "We thought you'd meet the other." "He refers to the body," thought .Chick, furtively watching them, and I catching the sinister gleam in the speakI er's eyes. Derosa laughed deep in his throat. I "Xo need of that, Gallo," he replied. "I have learned where it is going." "You have?" said Gallo surprisedly. "Just where it will sleep." "For a time," put in the third.

evidently were aiming to obtain a better view of the house.

"That's right—for a time, Antonio," Derosa laughed again. "I'm glad, my

In the dusk of the early evening their looks were as evil as their actions. Both were men in the neighbourhood of 40, dark-featured, black-eyed fellows, tolerably well dressed; yet the countenance of each reflected a malevolence and sinister determination, the depth of which could not be mistaken. ''So, so! this looks like business," Chick grimly soliloquized, while he crouched lower and watched them. "There are spies about here, sure enough. Hangdog rascals, too, by their faces, notwithstanding they're decently clad. They look to mc like foreigners." The strangers, having halted back of the shrubbery, continued to watch the house. Chick continued to watch them, as quiet as a cat at a rat-hole. Half-an-hour passed, and the dusk was deepening into darkness, wiien the noise of wheels and hoofs on the front driveway, a portion of which was dimly visible, told of approaching teams —the hack, and undertaker's waggon. The two men left their position, and cautiously sought one from which .they could new the front door and verandah. Chick as cautiously followed tbem, and presently all three saw, as Nick had seen from the distant front street, the departure of the casket and the parties in the hackThen the spies held a whispered talk for several minutes, and presently picked their way toward the stceet, and started for the city. Chick Carter shadowed them to the Grand Central Station, and there they watched the departure of the train bearing the casket and the burial-party. He also saw Nick aboard the train, but he did not venture losing sight of his quarry by attempting to speak with ~im. "I'll keep these two coveys under my eye until 1 learn who they are, let the job take mc where it may." he said to himself, with grim determination. The next move of the two men was to _he telegraph-window, where one of them wrote a message to be sent. Chick approached, and wrote one at the same time—which he had no idea of

Gallo, that you brought Antonio Maggi with you. Perdita! but four will be none too many for our work." "You have planned for it?" "Bofh myself and Guiseppe Lepore," said Derosa, with a npd of his huge head. "We know the place, and have everything, ready." "Did you get my wire?" asked Gallo. "Yes, at the Felice. We will go there for the day and bury ourselves," said Derosa. "It will be safer for us not to be much seen abroad. Xight is our time, good brothers, a night as dark as the " Chick lost the last, for the burly Italian was leading his companions away. Yet Chick easily could supply, he conjectured, the remainder of the remark. "These rascals have some dark deed to do. that's plainly evident," he said to himself, while he followed them at a discreet distance. "They were talking of that girl's body, for one thing, and it's odds that they have designs upon it. By Jove, there must be a curious mystery back of this ease. There's a fourth man of their party, some brother rascal named Lepore, who is probably waiting for them at the Hotel Felice. They're going to bury themselves until night, eh? Well, well, that will give mc easy work for the day, let that of the night be what it may. I'll keep an eye on the swarthy rascals, never doubt that." Chick followed them into Deweysquare, thence through Federal and Dev-onshire-streets, and fiinally the three brought up in Lower Xorth-street, in the heart of the Italian quarter. They entered the office of a narrow, wooden hotel, an ancient and faded oh! structure, where Derosa approached the counter, and wrote the names of his two companions on a dog-eared register. They all three vanished into a rear room, Derosa taking a key from the rack on the wall as he passed it. "They have gone up to his room," thought Chick, who hatl been able to watch them from outside. "It's a safe bet that they will lie low till evening. In that case I have the day to my-

sending. The moment the two men departed, however, Chick displayed his detective's badge, and said to the operator: "Let mc see that message, instantly. 1 must read it, yet not lose sight of those fellows." The operator appreciated the situation, and quickly displayed the message. Chick took a copy of it in less than 30 seconds. It was addressed to Sanetta Derosa, Hotel Felice, North-street, Boston, Mass. The message contained only a few words, however, as follows: "Boxed goods on nine o'clock train. Will follow on the midnight." This rather significant message was signed Pasquale Gallo. ■'H'm." Chick mentally ejaculated, while copying it. "Italian names, both of them. These fellows are foreigners, as I thought. The Hotel Felice, North-street, must be a house run and patronised by Italians. It is in the Italian quarter. "Boxed goods evidently refers to the casket and contents. These two fellows have wired Derosa that the body was shipped on the nine o'clock train, and that they will follow in the midnight. There's going to be something doing in Boston when the body gets there, that's evident, and I—well, I'll gamble 1 get there in time to pipe it off." These thoughts passed rapidly through Chick's mind while he copied the message and thrust the slip of paper into his pocket. That he was right in one of his deductions, at least, was speedily manifest; for Gallo upon leaving the telegraph-window at once went with his companion to the main ticket-office, where he bought two tickets for Boston, and secured berths in a sleeping-car. Chick had not lost sight of them, and presently he appeared at the same office, learned what they had bought, and promptly purchased a ticket for himself, securing a berth in the same sleeper. • The two Italians were then leaving the station, and Chick shadowed them across Forty-second-street, and info the Grand Union Hotel. There they bought a drink at the bar, then sauntered into the cafe, and sat down to lunch. In no respect would their conduct have invited suspicion, and they appeared as respectable as one might reasonably require. Very little conversation passed between them, and that evidently was of a conventional nature; so evident that Chick took no chano, of incurring their suspicions by attempting to overhear it. "They have completed their secret business here, and dropped it entirely until to-morrow, when they reach Boston," he said to himself, after watching them tor some time. "Whatever it consists of, they are shrewd enough not to discuss it in a public place. That's plain enough in their actions, so I reckon I'd better bide my time."

self." ! He sauntered away from the house ! and walked over to Hanover-street, to I avoid being seen by chance, and suspected, and for a time he carefully considered the situation, and what he j had better do. He decided that he would not venture into the house, neither for the purpose of making inquiries, nor that of attempting to hear what the suspected men might be saying; for the venture might result in nothing lo his advantage, but rather lay him liable to suspicion, aud pervert the designs of the rascals, nearly every inmate of the house being Italian, among whom he would appear as a stranger. "I'll let them have a free rope until evening, when I'll be on hand again." he finally said to himself. "I'll not attempt to thwart their game, however, till I have learned what it is, and who thenars. Nick ought to be in Boston today, moreover, if he shadowed that body ail the way, and I'll presently try to locate him. In case he returned home for any reason, however. I'll send lib l , a wire, and let him know where I am." A little later Chick sent the message which Nick received after his retur-i from interviewing the Harlem undertaker. Chick next obtained a Boston directory, and looked for the name of each of the four Italians, but he faikd to find either. "They are strangers in Boston, or their names are fictitious," he then re.v_o.ul. "I'll see what kind of a trick they turn to-night, which ought to give mc a clue to the game they are playing. It looks to mc as if they mean to rob the Sheldon girl's grave, and make off with the body. In that case I will shadow them to the place where they take it after which it .should be easy to rounS them up." If Chick had known what had befallen the casket he had seen put on the train, he would have known both that his designs must prove futile, and also that Nick was not then in Boston. He would have reasoned, furthermore, that the Italians could not have learned of the railway disaster, that the body had not reached Boston, and that they were relying upon information previously obtained in some way, and were about executing plans that had been based upon it. Having done all that the case seeme" to require that morning, Chick next visited police headquarters in Pembertonsquare, where he knew Nick would be likely to go if he was in the city and had any spare time. His quest there proved equally vain, however, and after a brief call he departed. He made it a point to say nothing about his mission in Boston, moreover, lest the local authorities should take a hand in the matter, a step that might in some way have perverted Nick's designs. Long before dark that evening T_Mck had the Hotel Felice under his eye, and for hour after hour he waited and* watched without seeing a sign of his quarry. Yet North-street and the neighbouring streets were alive with Italians. They were grouped on every corner, perched on every curbstone, and the steps and doorways of every dwelling and tenement were occupied by an army of chattering women and girls of the poorer class, though some were in Might raiment and of dark Southern beauty. The beer-saloons were going at full blast. Here and there the strains of music issued from a dance-hall, and the entire scene was characteristic of the people and the locality. (.hick Carter had no interest in it, however, beyond, the Hotel Telice, and its

He did not lose sight of the two men, however, and at midnight all three were on the Boston-bound express. Having seen them in their berths, which convinced him that they were settled for the night, Chick also retired and slept soundly until morning. It was half-past sis when the express arrived at the South Station, und Chick was upon the heels of the two Italians when they left the train.

In the vast mall outside the guardgates they were met by another, a muscular, heavily bearded man, with keen black eyes, and a commanding air, a man whose looks and actions indicated that he exercised some authority over the others.

The greeting that passed between them was cordial, however, and Chick

lighted office. It was approaching ten o'clock when his vigil was rewa-rded. Then the powerful figure of Derosa appeared in the hotel office, presently followed by Gallo and Maggi, and a moment later the three men 'left the house and started up-town.

"Xow the dance begins," thought Chick cheerfully, as he started after them.

He shadowed them to the subway station in Haymarket-square, where they boarded a Dudley-street elevated train, and rode to Dorchester.

(To be continued daily.)