The Great Spy System | Page 9

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 contemplate, but all the same it is not the first time in my life when I have been in that predicament."
"I have no doubt of that."
"How far do we walk?"
"Approximately, two miles. In other words, to A Street northeast."
"Near the Capitol?"
"Not very far from it."
"Do we go to a house there?"
"Yes; there is a house there which I am making use of for this occasion. There is another one behind it which fronts upon the avenue. The two come almost together at the rear. I shall make use of both houses before we finish."
"I begin to guess at your plans a little."
"Possibly."
They turned east through H Street, but at Fourteenth they turned south to the avenue.
"This will be rather nearer," said the detective, "and, besides, you will be in less danger, senator."
"Are you considering me only, in this?" asked the statesman.
"I am certainly considering you. I don't want a dead or a wounded senator on my hands, to-night."
"It would make you a lot of bother, wouldn't it, Carter?" chuckled the senator.
"Yes. And annoy me as well. Now, have you noticed that we are followed?"
"No; and although I haven't exactly looked backward, I have been trying to discover if we were followed. I haven't done so yet."
"Did you notice those two men walking ahead of us, who continued on down H Street, when we turned into 14th?"
"Yes."
"They were part of the system. They will turn down 13th or 12th to the avenue. There are others behind us, to follow."
"May I look back?"
"Certainly."
"You don't care, then, if they know that you are onto them?"
"Not in the least. This is a case where I am playing in the open, and where my men are doing the secret work."
"I see four men following us," said the senator, after a moment. "Two are on this side of the street, and two are on the opposite side."
"And two more have gone around another way, while it is safe to say that there are at least two other somewhere else, ready to take up the trail or to lend a hand at any moment."
"They certainly do the thing up brown, Carter; placing eight men on our trail."
"Mustushimi realizes that he has got to