The Great Spy System

The Great Spy System or, Nick Carter's Promise to the President
by a celebrated author
(New Nick Carter Weekly , No. 563)
New York: Street & Smith, (October 12, 1907)
NEW NICK CARTER WEEKLY
Issued Weekly. By subscription $2.50 Per year. Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1907 in the Office of the Librarian of Congress Washington, D. C. by STREET & SMITH, 79-89 Seventh Avenue, New York, N. Y.
No. 563. NEW YORK, October 12, 1907. Price Five Cents.
CHAPTER I.
NICK CARTER SEES THE PRESIDENT.
"Mustushimi did not leave the country when he was ordered."
"I did not believe he would do so," replied Nick Carter for the words were directed to him, and the speaker was the President of the United States, who had sent for the detective to come to Washington at once. "He did not strike me as being the sort of man, Mr. President, who could easily be made to abandon a work to which he had devoted so much of his talents as he had to the organization of the spy system."
"He was an oily little rascal, wasn't he, Mr. Carter?"
"Decidedly so, sir."
"I thought at the time that possibly you did not give him full credit for his talents," remarked the President dryly.
"You will pardon me, sir, but it was my impression at that time that I gave him rather more credit for his possibilities than you did."
"How so?"
"I don't think, if our positions had been reversed, that I would have let up on him so easily as you did."
"It was through no consideration for him that I did so, Mr. Carter; you may be sure of that."
"Oh, I was sure enough of that at the time, sir. But all the same it appeared to me that a punishment of some kind would have been about the thing for him, then. Instead of that, you merely dismissed him and warned him to leave the country and to take his followers with him. I thought then that he would slip out of it, and what you tell me now proves that he has not gone."
"No; he didn't go."
"And he has made himself active again?"
"Decidedly so; yes."
"Along the same lines?"
"Practically the same... Of course, there is a difference. I don't think that he wishes me to guess that he has remained here. He possibly believes that I will think it is the activity of another, and that he has gone, as I ordered him to do."
"But you are sure that it is Mustushimi?"
"I haven't a doubt of it, Mr. Carter."
"You have not seem him?" No.
"Nor heard directly from him?"
"No."
"Then in reality you have no reason other than the one that the spy system has been continued, to think that it is Mustushimi?"
"No; but I am satisfied that it is he."
"I am also; so I think we may go ahead on that principle."
"Yes."
"Now, Mr. President, will you tell me exactly what you wish to have me do this time? There is no more mystery concerning the means that are employed for observing, interviews. That one they did use, of reading lip-movement, like deaf and dumb people '. in order to understand conversations that could not be heard, is an old trick, and I only wonder that I did not remember it sooner, when I had that case."
"If Mustushimi is here-and I thoroughly believe he is here-I wish you to capture him and bring him before me once more. I want one more talk with the fellow."
"I don't think he will enjoy it," said Nick, laughing.
"I don't intend that he shall,"
"You will give him something to remember, this time, eh?"
"I certainly will."
"I suppose it was imperative that you should be lenient with him that other time, Sir?"
"I regarded it so-yes. You see, Mr. Carter, it wouldhave been a very easy matter to have affronted his country through him. It would have been the move of Japan to repudiate any association with his aims or connectionwith him. His activities would have been attributed tothe opposing political part in Japan, and the government would have disclaimed any knowledge of Mustushimi's acts, and probably rightly too."
"In which Japan has borrowed another spoke from the wheel of the effete West; eh?"
The President laughed heartily.
"Even so, Mr. Carter. We have always had agitators in this country, whose activities we have repudiated---but with reason."
"You have not told me yet, Mr. President, exactly what it is you desire me to do."
"Mr. Carter, I wish you to serve your country more than me, in this matter. You can serve it best by keeping from it all knowledge of this matter. We managed to keep the other affair a secret, and I am in hopes we can do the same with this one."
"Well, Sir?"
"I wish you-as I have already said-to capture Mustushimi in person, and to bring him here before me, just as