The Great Spy System | Page 9

here?"
"It is more than likely. I hope so."
"It looks as if we might get a little fun out of this thing before we are
through."
"It does, certainly."

"Do you have an idea that they will attempt any of that assassination
business to-night?"
"They are likely to attempt it at any moment. It would not surprise me
if a bullet should come through this window at us, at any moment."
The senator moved back a little and the detective laughed.
"Do you think they are such poor marksmen that they couldn't hit you,
sitting there in full view?" asked the senator.
"No. That is not what I think."
"What then?"
"I have got to take the chance. I always take chances, senator. We have
to do so in my business. I did not mean to say that I really think they
would dare to shoot through the window at us, but that they might do
so. The chances are that they will not. But it wouldn't do for me to
appear as if I feared it: Besides, I have a wholesome belief in my own
luck."
"I guess there is no doubt of that."
"There isn't."
"How long have you been in the city, Carter?"
"Since about five o'clock."
"And you have made all these arrangements since that time, besides
doing the other things you had to do?"
"The arrangements were easy, for you must remember that Washington
is an old stamping-ground of mine. I had only to tell my assistants what
to do--and I did that before we left New York. Then I went on about
my business. They did not come here on the same train that I did."
"I don't suppose you will want to use me again, will you, as you did

before?"
"No, senator, it will not be necessary this time. I shall work out the case
in another way entirely."
"How soon are you going to start out to see that captured spy?"
"In a few minutes more. I wish to give all the other parties plenty of
time."
"To arrange for the assassination?" asked the senator, grimly.
"To arrange for the attempt at it-if they dare such a thing. But I have
made my plans carefully, senator. I don't think you need fear the
outcome of them."
"Oh, I don't. Not in the least."
"But you are getting impatient; eh?"
"Yes. I admit it."
"Curb your impatience, then. We will start presently. Before we go I
wish to tell you something."
"Well?"
"I do so more to kill time than anything else."
"Yes."
"I knew, of course, when I was sent for, that it must be this same man
Mustushimi I would be up against. I knew him to be a master at his
trade, although personally a coward, and, physically, of no account
whatever. I had him handicapped at the start by knowing that he is
afraid of me."
"That is a sure thing."

"So I figured it out whatever I accomplished against him must be done
in a hurry, or he would find a way to get away from me. If I should
consume two or three days in trying to capture him, he would have
ample time to lay his plans to outwit me somehow, and while I might
get many of his men, and might break up his present organization, I
would not get him. And he is the root and stem of the whole thing."
"Of course."
"So I figured it out to draw his fire at once. To force him into the open,
so to speak, at the very beginning, believing, as I now do believe, that I
can get my claws upon him before the light of another day; and
knowing, as I think I know, that if I do not succeed in doing that, he
will somehow elude me, personally. The case won't be worth a cent
unless I capture the man himself. Do you understand now?"
"Yes. I think so."
"I made up my mind, when I took the train for Washington, that Baron
Mustushimi should be my prisoner before morning. Now, let us see
how well I calculated,"
"Good! I'm with you. Are you ready?"
"Yes. Come on."
CHAPTER V.
NICK CARTER'S STRATEGIC PREPARATIONS.
As they stepped down from the entrance to the hotel upon the pavement,
the detective said to the senator:
"You must have your nerve with you now."
"That is all right, Carter. I've got it. I always take it with me," was the
quiet reply.

"I am purposely seeking to be followed. That is part of my present
object, senator."
"I understand that."
"And at any moment we may be attacked from behind. Do you realize
that?"
"Yes."
"Or be shot at from behind, which is worse."
"It isn't pleasant to