AT FACE VALUE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 134, 8 June 1910, Page 10

AT FACE VALUE.

BY NICHOLAS CARTER, iufhex of "A Fatal Falsehood," "Xend rick's Pledge," "An Elusive Knave," "The Crime of a Countess," "Sealed Orders," etc

CHAPTER XX. ■PLANS SLISCAKRIED.

Chick Carter's situation was nerveicking.

There was no way to relieve it, no oophole of escape. Lying ilat on the I arrow portion, with his right arm be- ■- ween him and the wall of the house, gainst which he was forced to press to Void rolling off, he could not reach his '.. 3volver. j to relax his grip on the . Dntice over t.he near wind-0v.% by winch :. .c was supporting- himself with his left -and, was to precipitate disaster, in that ' c mast inevitably fall on the very leads 1 the giirijr tien on the steps. ' ~ "With nerves tense and every muscle -trained, therefore. Chick stack to his erch like a tree-t-oad to a wet branch, all ■he while watching and listening, knownir that what he heard, while it served -0 partly clear up the mysterious case, - fould probably cost him his life if lie .' ' ••There are other steps to be taken. Bal-' ister, as well as this," said Carrigan, rhen the others came out and joined dm. ; J "What steps V Ballister quickly inj 'Tiired. jlfi "The avenue by which we secured the ilunder ought to be permanently closed. . iow that the trk-k is turned." '"It's a≤ pood as closed. Nobody can I Liscover it." "Not unless Xiek Carter happens to J nspect our game, and that we " I "Bah!" Ballister sharply ejaculated. jYou are shrinking from shadows. Are '.- -' y ou losing your nerve, that you're so ; ' ;fraid of him?" ; : "Xo, not at all. I've got nerve enough. 7 ' "We can get him as we got the others, t t-ell you, and then can wipe out the i VVhole lot. Block the passage after that s done, if you like, but not while it en- :] ...ibles mc to get the best of that infernal Jeuth. Besides, we may need it in more vays than one before this affair is entire- . y cleaned up."

"By gracious, Nick is right," thought 3hiek. ""There's a way by which this -ascal overheard the plans he confided :o Horton. That enabled him to seeui'e Patsy and Ida. and he is now relying on .t to corner Kick and mc. It may be ■precisely -what Nick suspects, and he nay suceed in finding " -

• Chick's momentary soliloquy was interrupted by the pert, caustic voice of Gertie Lodge, who was then standing at the foot of the steps. "Things would have been all right, Ballisier, and if you had stuck to your plans md used the passage only for the purpose intended," she curtly said, with a resentment she made no attempt to bide.

: Ballister turned on her like a flash. '"Is that so?" he retorted, with ominous juiecudL".

L "Yes, and you know it," the girl snapped hack at him.

Chick could see their .faces in the glow shed out from the lighted hall. Both were frowning darkly, and he saw at once that there was had blood between fcftem.

£ "Wejl, don't you get your hammer but, jay_girl," rJJallister slowly said. .

"Oh, I'm not knocking;"'sneered Gertie, "with a toss of her head. 'Tin only sayLng -what's true."

"Instead, you'd better be thanking your lucky stars" that you're not wearing a wooden raincoat."

. — "Stars" be hanged! It was only my hick to be "

■ "Out of your own bed—that's right!" ■ BaUbater interrupted her with a sudden wolfish snarl, then strode down the steps and seized the girl by the shoulder.

The wliir of its motor was sounding on the night air. In another moment it emerged like a thing of life—a monster with' glaring eyes and sullen gro-wl. It sped in a sweeping curve toward the side door of the house and the group of rascals gathered on the steps. With his heart in his throat, Chick Carter watched the moving stream of light. It shot out across the clearing, threw into relief the nearest bank of woods, swerved across the open grounds and patches of rank grass and shrubs glistening with dew, fell for an instant squarely on the side of the house, and oh the cowering figure on the portico, and the D—it left all in a deeper darkness because of the contrast.

. •\Now tou listen to mc/ J he cdded, with a look from which she involuntarily recoiled. "You were let into this job only to serve as a spy in the Horton house. Tou filled the bill up to the time

Chick Carter breathed again—he had escaped detection! The car hardly stopped at the side steps, for Ballister waved Dick Vose from the driver's seat and quickly took his place. In another half minute the moving car, the solitary occupant, the glare of light—all were lost in the depths of the nearer woods. Chick Carter began to congratulate himself. He felt that he had the case pretty well cleared up, felt sure that Patsy and Ida were under guard of the manhe had seen in the cellar, sure that the Ordway girl was also confined in the house, that Ballister would return a little later with the fruits of the great robbery, and that the rounding-up of these rascals and the rescue of their captives would require only a moderate amount of energy and tact.

started for Stark's quarters, to tell us "■what the Carters suspected and were ; .doing. As luck would have it, ne knew something that you had failed to discover . I —thai the house was watched that night. mat any woman who left it would be "shadowed, and that the identity of some ■ } of v≤ might be discovered, if you went .■ to Stark's house, as planned. To prejcveat that, we Tvaylaid you and pretended ±o abduct you in a hack—and while in it yon showed your hand." '.. "My haaia?" '""You thought you had mc on the hip, .the robbery having been committed. You L-were nursing an idea that you could be- • -come a lady instead of a lady's maid, by insisting that I should marry you, and jou. threatened to expose us unless I consented. Xou had forgotten the oath '. iina± binds us, that deaiK!" shall be the : rprice of treachery. I did consent, you jade, but I would have slain you that - very nighi, isarring the fatal mishap that . another my victim. Now, you mark -■this! ibare Trill be no mistake next time. '.lA± the iirst sign of farther treachery, or ; a threat to that effect, TO end you without warning."

In fact, Chick was feeling remarkably good over the favourable turn of affairs —despite that four men and a jade who had downed Patsy still lingered on the steps.

Though he spoke calmly and coldly, there was a ring in Banister's voice that lad silenced every heaxer. Peering down I at Mm, Chick never had seen a more ■desperate face, more evil eyes. Even -.Gertie Lodge stood awed and mute for Bjß moment, then answered huskily:

"He can't make the trip in an hour," Dick Vose remarked critically, when the light of the car no longer could be seen.

'"That's straight enough for mc, Tom, yet you ought to have known I wouldn't squeal"

"If he makes it in two and brings the stuff, that ought to be good enough," growled Andy Stark. "I'll feel a good deal easier with my share of it in my jeans." "Mc, too," snapped Gertie a bit inelegantly. "You're taking chances, my girl, when you cross Ballister in the way you've been doing," Cole said "While I don't think for a moment tha-t you would betray us, you take that tip from mc." "Oh, I'm not so much afraid of him," Gertie pertly replied. She shrugged her shoulders and tossed her head while she spoke, and in tossing it —looked up.

She was then standing, by chance, where Chick could not see her. She saw him at once, but did not cry out when she saw him —trust a woman to hold her tongue when, by so doing, she can make trouble for a man.

Instead, stepping nearer to her confederates, she pointed upward silently, with a look that could not be mistaken. On the instant, every man of the four whipped out a revolver and drew back down the steps. Chick noticed the momentary silence, and then caught sight of them and their weapons. He knew that he was cornered, knew that his cramped muscles would fail him in a fight against such odds, or that a bullet might end his career before he could so much as start a scuffle. Though bitterly regretting this abrupt change of fortune, he promptly came to the scratch and seized the horns of his dilemma. He gazed down at the four rascals lined up at the foot of the steps, each evein" him over a revolver, and remarked with cheerful effrontery:— "Hello, down there!" "Hello, you!" Cole answered, with threatening" irony. '-"What are you doing there?"

"I know that no one among us will ; ; squeal—and live!" "That's right enough, and as it should .-''be," muttered the girl, shrinking from IMs terrible stare at her. 'Til never - yip, never! All I -want is my share of B the plunder." Totrll get that—or anything else 1 i £hst you deserve!" sadd Ballister, releas- | ing her while he fired this last signiiiC -cant shot. Then, turning quickly to the three : . men oa.tie steps, he added pointedly: *\tt's not hard to guess who put you V-31J) to this, but you are lame in doubt- - ing mc. Til make good as long as -there's a fighting chance. Our game 8 snurt be played to a finish. The Carters I cannot have discovered the truth. ■ It's I absurd to fear that. Even as matters now stand, if we get rid of- : the three : nov,- hi our hands, the truth of the robfterv can never be discovered, and the .;;. murder finally will -be attributed to tiie j; missing girl. It will become a mystery B too deep even -for -Nick-Carter.?- ---,•;.' "You may be : ' Cole grimly nodded. "Well fight it out. - at all events, and take the chances." I 1 j '"Here comes Vc-se -with the "car. -PI I go after the plunder aria." return Tn thi I course of an hour." — .—_.'.. '■■'" Thtotsgh the broad doorway of thi :" stables had leaped the stream df'Jigfr : -from-^li&.lantfr ll^^:? 1, tajse "famingsaj

m^

'Been taking a nap," Chick said dryly. "I dropped asleep." "Well, don't move, or you'll take more than a nap," said Cole. "You'll go to sleep forever, and drop down here with a thud."

"I believe your story, mister, in case those guns go off. Are those all you've

with a crash into the very arms of his captors, with his feet tied, his disguise displaced, and the fateful plans still clutched in his hand. Instantly a revolver was clapped to his head, and Chick stood powerless among them, well aware that he had played and lost the game for the time being, at least. "By Heaven, it's Chick Carter!" Carrigan excitedly cried the moment his gaze fell on the detective's face. "Then what are these?" came from Cole, as he snached the folded papers from the detective's hand. "Bring him in here—bring him in here at once! There's something in the wind, for he was trying to get rid of Oh, by thunder, here's a plan of Horton's cellar!, I see it all, boys! The trick's off! We're up against it!" The rascal had rushed into the lighted hall while speaking, spreading open the plans to examine them, wild-eyed and excited the moment he saw them. As Chick Carter had foreseen, the truth -was instantly suspected, and thus, to repeat, the "wny \* <*s pa/cod for the tragic episodes that followed the entrance of Nick Carter into the home of Tom Ballister. (To be continued daily.)

got?" "They are enough to do the business. Run into the house, Gertie, and bring out a piece of rope. There's some in the kitchen." "Going to string mc up?" Chick coolly asked a≤ the girl .hurried into the house." "Not until we find out who you are and what you are doing here." "That ought to be dead easy. I can

tell you in a nutshell." "You'll work no shell game on us," Cole quickly retorted. "We'll find out for ourselves when, we get you down here." "Pni not so sure that I'll come down," said Chick, with provoking indifference. "You'll come, all right, when I say the word." "Mebbe so. I'll take a chance that you'll go tongue-tied, However, before you can speak it." "And I'll risk that." '•'Here's the rope," Carrigan put in with a. growl, -when he saw Gertie returning. "Be quick, Martin; time may >c of value." "Two of you keep him covered," Cole commanded. "Plug him at once if he shows fight. You tie his feet Dick, when he lowex-s them. Now, you rascal, come down feet first, and hang on with your Hands until I tell you to let go." "All right, old man: but don y t hurry mc," Chick glibly replied. "It's a ticklish place up here, and I migjht slip off and light on your head. I'fl come, all right, on such a pressing invitation." He saw the folly of resistance. He knew that his identity would be discovered, that he had fallen into the same boat with Patsy and Ida, and he was not without an object in assuming the air of indifference he had thus far displayed. He was playing only for an opportunity, in fact, to get rid of the plans then in his pocket. He knew that, if tbev were found by these rascals, tiey would at once suggest the nature of Nick's suspicions, and that such a discovery might be greatly to his disadvantage. Twisting awkwardly around on the narrow portico, Chick pretended to have some difficulty in lowering himself over the edge. At the same' time, while he felt his fent grasped and a rope passed Quickly around his ankles, he drew the folded plans from his breast pocket and tried to slip them under one of the shingles on the portico roof. Before Chick could accomplish this, however, the ugly disposition of Andy °k«-k again asserted itself. He drew Uhick downward with so sudden a jerk that the detective lost Ms hold on the eoge amj down