Nick Carter Detective Library, No. 1 | Page 8

shot out and his fist landed with terrific force squarely on the fellow's nose.
Now was the detective's time, if ever.
He turned, and with one bound reached the hatchway.
It was closed and fastened, but again his strength proved too great for ordinary opposition.
In an instant he tore the hatch open and leaped out into the darkness, followed by the report of two revolvers and the ringing of a couple of bullets in his ears.
But he was unhurt.
The night was as black as Erebus as he bounded forward and crouched behind a small boat that was overturned upon the sloop's deck.
The men rushed upon the deck in their eager haste to capture him.
One of them had been thoughtful enough to seize a bull's-eye lantern which was already lighted, and with it he searched the water around the sloop as far as the rays ,would reach.
Of course he could see nothing of Nick.
"Let's search the deck," said one of them. "Mebby he didn't go overboard."
"Bah! d'ye think held stay here? Not much!"
"He's a terror, ain't he?"
"Lightnin's nothin' to that feller."
"Who is he?"
"Look here, Tony, there's only one man in New York who could do what he did, an' that's the young devil they call Nick Carter."
"Ah! the little giant.
"That's him, an' he's, got to be done up."
The man called Tony chuckled audibly.
"A job for me, eh, Morgan?" he said; and Nick was conscious of a shiver when he heard the exultation in the man's voice.
"Yes-you an' yer string."
"I am never without it, Morgan. The time I spent in India wasn't lost, and there is nothing like the string for making a corpse. Do you remember Red Mike?"
"B-i-r-r-r!" said Morgan. "You give me the horrors, Tony. I kin stand knifin' a man, or puttin' a chunk o' cold lead into him, but when it comes to windin' that cord o' yourn 'round a feller's throat, and a-makin' his tongue an' his eyeballs stick out like fingers, I ain't in it."
A low laugh was Tony's reply, and then the men began a search of the deck.
But they had no idea that Nick remained aboard of the sloop, and not expecting to find their man, the search was only a half-hearted one, so that the detective had no difficulty in keeping out of their way by dodging around the boat.
The light thrown by a bull's-eye lantern reaches only the point at which it is directed, and renders the surrounding darkness much greater by contrast.
This fact was a great advantage to Nick, and he did not fail to make the most of it.
When he had first heard, the word string mentioned in connection with killing he had become greatly interested in the conversation, and from the subsequent remarks made by the men it became evident that Tony was a strangler.
His reference to India as the place where he had learned the art of using his peculiar yet terrible weapon was full of meaning.
Everybody knows of that strange wild sect The are as stealthy as a cat, as determined as Fate, and as deadly as a cobra.
Eugenie La Verde was strangled to death. Could it be possible that there was any connection between her murder and this gang of men who made a sloop in New York Bay their place of rendezvous?
Had Nick stumbled upon a clew to the crime in Forty-seventh street, where he least expected it?
At all events he resolved to have a good look at the man Tony, and to learn more concerning the purposes of these five men.
CHAPTER VII.
THE STRANGLER'S THREAT.
After satisfying themselves that the detective had made good his escape, the three men, Tony, Morgan and their companion, who was known among them as Crofty, returned to the cabin of the sloop.
Nick followed them closely, and reached the hatchway in time to hear all that was said.
"Well?" demanded the captain when the three men returned from the deck.
"Skipped," replied Morgan, laconically.
"How?"
"Flew away, I guess. There was not a sign of him."
"See!" and the captain held up his right arm, the wrist of which Nick had broken in the struggle. "My wrist is broken. He must pay for it. Do you know who it was, Tony?"
"Morgan told me."
"What did he say?"
"The little giant."
"Right. He could have been none other. I have heard of him often, but have never seen him before. Tony, he must die."
"At my hands?"
"Yes."
"When?"
"At once. the sooner, the better."
"Tomorrow, then."
"Bah! If you get him foul within a week, I will give you a thousand dollars."
"Done, cap. He's a dead man. My string never failed me yet. More than one has gone down beneath it, and oh, how I love to see them gasp for breath."
"How is the wind?" asked the captain, curtly.
"None at all," replied Morgan, "The rain has knocked it all out. We could not reach the nest to-night if