Nick Carter Detective Library, No. 1 | Page 5

have been here long enough and
we have other work to do. It is dark now. Come."
They rose quickly and left the place, and upon the instant Nick decided
to shadow them.
CHAPTER IV.
SHADOWING.
Nick did not rush from the saloon as soon as the two men left, but
sauntered carelessly to the bar, paid for what he had eaten and drank,
and then went slowly out.
As he had suspected, they were not far away. They were standing upon
the curbstone apparently engaged in earnest conversation, but in reality
waiting to see if they would be followed.
The fact that they were so cautious, gave added zest to the chase.
Nick sauntered carelessly past them, to the avenue which was only
about two hundred feet farther on.
A hall-way door between two stores stood conveniently ajar on the
opposite side, and he entered it with the air of one who lived there.

Pausing in the dark hall-way, he began a rapid change in his disguise,
and presently he looked like an old man in poor circumstances who
worked hard all day, and took an airing and a glass or two of toddy in
the evening.
Five or ten minutes passed, and then the two men suddenly separated,
the one called John going away rapidly in the opposite direction, and
the captain jumped upon a car that was passing at that moment.
He took his stand upon the rear platform with his back toward the car,
as though he thought that he might be followed.
A car was coming up the avenue. It had to pass between Nick and the
car that the captain had boarded.
For a moment, Nick would be screened from view from the platform of
the down-town car.
He utilized that moment to the best advantage.
He leaped nimbly into the street and succeeded in getting two doors
away before the cars had passed each other.
When they had passed, he was standing idly before the door of a
"gin-mill" leisurely picking his teeth, as though he had just come out.
Presently he walked down the street, rather rapidly, to be sure, but not
fast enough to excite the suspicion that he was following anybody.
Soon a second car overtook him, and he got upon the front platform.
The two cars were less than a block apart, and the detective could see
his man easily.
At Fourteenth street the captain turned and abruptly entered the car on
which he was riding and passed out upon the front platform.
Here the spasmodic flashing of a match presently denoted that he was
lighting a cigar.

Then, with a quick run, Nick left his car and overtook the one in which
the captain was a passenger, and going inside, seated himself at the
forward end.
"This is more comfortable," he thought. "It is much less work to watch
him from here."
Block after block was passed, but the captain showed no sign of
leaving the car, nor did he, until it reached the end of the route at the
Astor House.
Then he stepped off and boarded a south-bound Broadway car, upon
which he remained until it reached South Ferry.
There the captain took the Hamilton Ferry boat, landed in Brooklyn,
and started away down the street along the water-front.
Nick followed for a mile or more, when suddenly the captain turned
and went out upon a pier.
"He will stop and look around when he gets out there," thought Nick,
"so I will wait here."
He dodged into a deep shadow close to the water's edge, just where a
boat was tied by a rope to a cleat upon the dock.
"The very thing!" thought Nick.
In an instant he had untied the rope and seized one of the oars; the next,
he was sculling the little craft rapidly and silently along in the shadow
of the pier.
Suddenly the man whom he was following, paused. Then turning, he
came to the edge of the pier and looked over, full at Nick.
CHAPTER V.
TRAPPED.

"Hey, there!" said the captain, in a voice loud enough for Nick to hear,
and yet with considerable caution.
Nick ceased sculling, but did not reply.
"Do you want to earn a dollar or two?" was the first question.
"Sure!" was Nick's laconic reply.
"Take me aboard, then."
"What fur?"
"I want to go down the bay a little way."
"Ye've struck the wrong party, boss. I ain't on that kind of a lay."
"I'll make it five."
"Haw fur d'ye wanter go?"
"About half a mile."
"What fur?"
"That's my business. Come, will you take me or won't you? I can't
stand here arguing all night."
"Cops after you, boss?"
The man shrugged his shoulders and turned away.
"I'll take ye ef it