it is not necessary to give in detail here the record of nick carter’s trip, accompanied as he was by maxwell kane, to washington; and of his interview with the president very little need be said, save that the detective’s prophecy was fully fulfilled.
the dolphin was placed at their disposal at once, and there was no time lost in sailing. moreover, the state and navy departments were set in motion, and information concerning the pirate was despatched all over the world, so there could be little doubt that he could exist for a long time on the high seas without being captured.
the château cadillac was readily found when the detective and his friend arrived in the neighborhood.
it was an extremely old building, founded, no doubt, in the middle ages. it bore evidence that time after time it had sunk into ruins, only to be again reclaimed. no doubt it had been stormed and torn almost from its foundations early in its history; but now it looked merely what it was—a historic old pile of graystone, moss-grown and ivy-wreathed, with a huge, square tower at one end of it, which clung to the edge of an abrupt precipice jutting out over the sea, so that it seemed as if it must topple and fall into the rock-bound and turbulent waters.
but it had stood there through many ages, defiant of[173] storm and time alike; and it stood there now, as the two men approached it, grim, uninviting, repellant, gloomy, almost terrible.
nor was the approach to it more inviting than its appearance. it was situated at the apex of a neck of land which jutted out into the sea, and thus formed a treacherous-looking harbor on one side of it, while the endless water tossed and fumed, and threw spray hundreds of feet into the air on the other.
from the foundation of the old castle to the water below was a fall of a sheer hundred feet, and if you add to this ninety feet more, which was approximately the height of the tower itself, you will get some idea of its appearance.
small, oblong windows appeared at intervals along the height of the tower. their position was irregular, almost as if they were there merely to give light upon winding stairs, which ascended inside. back of the tower was a huge building, irregular in shape, and representing several periods in the history of the country. behind all this, the land stretched away, narrowing as it extended inland, until part of it which adjoined the mainland was little more than a causeway.
the dolphin had approached from the sea, early that morning, and the detective, from her deck, had taken a thorough view of the harbor and all the surrounding territory.
no sign whatever of the shadow had been discovered, and after standing on and off awhile, the dolphin had sailed away again, and disappeared from view from[174] the château, if, indeed, she had been seen from there at all.
but, nevertheless, the dolphin had not gone far.
three miles away a place had been discovered where the detective and his friend could be put ashore, and they had left the despatch-boat—really a vessel of war under that name—and embarked for the balance of their adventure on foot.
but the dolphin was not to desert them. she was to stand on and off until she was signaled from the shore; and there was a code of signals arranged between her commander and the detective which made it possible for them to communicate in the night, as well as during the day.
as the two approached the causeway together, it was impossible to tell whether the castle was deserted or not. there certainly was no outward sign of life about the building, and already each of them had decided in his own mind that their search here would probably be fruitless.
however, the dolphin had paused long enough before she arrived off the château cadillac for nick to go ashore and communicate with the american ambassador in paris, and by that means he had discovered that nothing whatever had been heard of miss harlan, or of her daring abductor, or, indeed, of the vessel in which she had been stolen away.
“i am afraid we are on the wrong scent, nick,” said kane, as they crossed the causeway together.
“wrong or right, we will know one thing or the other for a certainty before we search elsewhere,” replied the[175] detective. “i cannot disabuse my mind of the idea that he would bring bessie here. cadillac was no fool. he would know that the navies of the world would be after him since his exploit in capturing her. he would realize that you would report the matter at washington, and that the cables would be kept hot about him. he could not hope to escape with the shadow. pirates cannot rove the seas now as they used to do, old man.”
“i know that.”
“then you can bank upon it that he has brought bessie here. you can make up your mind that the shadow is somewhere at the bottom of that little harbor, waiting until cadillac has further need of her. remember that he can sink her at will. remember that those steel masts of hers are nothing more or less than means by which she can be approached and her pumps set to work to raise her after she has been immersed and abandoned for a long time. i do not know, but i have no doubt that he could leave her there for the better part of a year and then raise her again at will.”
“and what shall we do now, nick?”
“do? why go to the castle.”
“but how are we to get inside?”
“i do not know that—yet.”
“the thing doesn’t look as if we could ever get inside of it, if those who are already there should choose to keep us out.”
“max, i never saw a house in my life which i could not find a way to enter, if i started out to do it.”
[176]
“great scott! you don’t call that thing a house, do you?”
“well, it’s a house, all right, so far as my remark goes. i’ll find a way to get inside.”
“there is one thing in our favor.”
“what is that?”
“if there happens to be anybody there, on the watch, they won’t be apt to see our approach. these rocks along here shelter us, you know.”
“i wouldn’t be too sure of that. better keep out of sight as much as possible.”
the time was late in the afternoon. it was now approaching dark, in fact. the day had been a cloudy one, and now a drizzling rain was falling. taken all in all, the time for their descent upon the castle could not have been a more propitious one.
the two strode on silently, side by side, for some distance, when kane spoke again.
“are you going to tackle the front door and demand admittance?” he asked, while he paused a moment for breath.
“not on your life!” was the reply.
“eh? what are you going to do?”
“i’m going to get inside the place secretly, if possible.”
“but——”
“look here, max. we have got to work on the principle that bessie is a prisoner inside that old pile of stones, haven’t we?”
“yes.”
“very well. we will start out on the proposition that[177] that is a fact. now, if cadillac is there, he probably considers himself more or less safe, for a time at least. he does not suppose that we would have tracked him here quite so suddenly. you see, he will have argued that we have considered him as having returned to the pirate business for good, and will, therefore, search the seas, and, perhaps, a few islands in the seas, for him.”
“well?”
“in the meantime he has come here with the shadow. he has sunk her under water somewhere inside that harbor, where, by the way, she will be a good deal safer than she would on top of it, for it looks like a treacherous spot to me.”
“and what then?”
“why, then he has taken his captive ashore. he has had her conducted to the castle. he has fastened her away in some great room, probably in the tower, given her servants to wait upon her, and, in fact, done everything on earth for her comfort, save the one thing of giving her back her liberty.”
“humph!” said kane. “i’m not half so sure of that as i pretended to be when we were discussing it in the presence of my wife and her mother.”
“never mind. that is my idea, just the same. and, anyhow, if she is there, and if he is there, you can rest assured that if we went to the door of the place and demanded admittance, it would doubtless be granted us, but, all the same, we would see no sign of the people we are looking for, and we would be told that the count is in america.”
[178]
“and all the time the count would be nicely hidden somewhere in the old building. is that what you mean?”
“yes.”
“so you propose to make the search without anybody being put wise to the fact that you are doing it, eh?”
“exactly. you see, i have started on the proposition that the count will consider himself safe here, at least for a time; on the proposition that he has not yet begun to keep very strict watch along this causeway we have just crossed.”
“but he has probably watched the sea, nick,” interrupted kane.
“i presume so.”
“then he saw the dolphin this morning.”
“well, suppose he did so? there is nothing strange in seeing a vessel approach the coast and sail away again, is there? she showed no flag; and you don’t suppose he would know the dolphin by sight, do you?”
“he is a sailor, and a good one. he would know that she was american.”
“he might at that. but, even so, he would still be watching the sea for her return, and not paying much attention to the land approach. there, kane; let us stop here. it will be dark now in a quarter of an hour, and then we can approach without any danger of being discovered.”
“can you find your way, nick, among all these rocks and pools, and along this slippery cliff, in the dark?”
“indeed i can. i have taken all my bearings, max.[179] and now, there is nothing to prevent us from enjoying a smoke while we wait.”
they found a shelter under a shelving rock, where they were protected from the storm, and there they seated themselves, lighted their cigars, and disposed themselves to such comfort as they could find while they awaited the time to advance.
“under ordinary circumstances, max,” said the detective, “i should prefer to undertake this business to-night alone. i don’t suppose you care to be left outside, do you?”
“not in a thousand years, nick! no, no! i’m in this thing to a finish. and, besides, it is more than likely that you will run into some sort of a scrap inside that old rookery. if you should, you will need help, and i want to be on hand.”
“all right. now, see if you can refrain from talking for about five minutes, while i do a little thinking. after that it will be time for us to start on.”
“midnight would be about the proper time for burglarious enterprises, wouldn’t it?”
the detective did not reply, and kane also lapsed into silence. so the moments passed, until, at last, suddenly the detective rose to his feet, stretched himself, yawned, threw away the stump of his cigar, and said:
“come on, max.”
“going?”
“yes.”
“i’m right behind you, old chap, and i’ll continue right[180] behind you until the end of the chapter, if anybody should ask you.”
the walls of the castle loomed in front of them as they advanced, like the outlines of some great, historic beast. the night was much too dark for them to see anything distinctly, but their eyes had not been blinded by exposure to light of any kind, and so, in effect, they were enabled to see quite clearly as they advanced.
once the detective paused and seemed for a moment to hesitate.
“i only wish,” he said presently, “that it were possible for us to make a circuit of the old pile.”
“why?” asked kane.
“there must be a light in one or more of the windows, somewhere. say, max, i think i can get around the thing if i try. will you wait here for me if i promise faithfully to return to this spot after you before i attempt to enter the building?”
“what are you going to try to do? go around it, looking for lights?”
“yes.”
“then what is the matter with me going one way while you go the other? we would meet at the other side, you know.”
“all right. you go that way,” and nick pointed with his finger in the direction he wished kane to take. “do you remember,” he added, “the long, low, galleylike building we noticed from the deck of the dolphin? the one which stretches out like a two-story stone bowling-alley,[181] from that wing of the castle to the edge of the cliff?”
“yes.”
“i hardly think you will be able to get past that. wait for me there.”
“well, if i can’t get past it, you can’t. how are we going to get together?”
“leave that to me. will you wait for me there?”
“yes.”
“then skip along. if you discover a window with a light in it, make a mark on your memory so that you can locate it later.”
“sure.”
“keep a sharp eye out for everything that might be important.”
“i’ll do that; but suppose i run against a man, or a dog, or anything of that kind; eh?”
“you will have to decide what to do when the emergency arises. i would much rather you would not kill anybody, or be obliged, even, to shoot your gun; but all the same, don’t take any chances. so long. i’ll meet you where i said.”
the route which the detective selected for himself was, of course, the one which he regarded as the most dangerous one.
he had, during the day, both from the deck of the dolphin and also from the land, later, studied the outward appearance of the castle with great care.
from the sea it had seemed to him that it was impossible to skirt the base of the tower without falling from[182] the cliff into the sea; but from the land side, as they approached the building, before they reached the causeway, he had decided differently.
nevertheless, he knew that a path around there would be narrow and dangerous, and he preferred to take the risk himself rather than have kane attempt it. as he made his way forward now, he steadily approached nearer and nearer to the walls of the huge building—that is, the main building; that part of it which extended backward away from the tower and along the neck of land.
the walls rose beside him, grim, silent, forbidding.
he hurried along close to them, and on his left he could hear the roar of the sea, where it dashed against the rocks a hundred feet below him. the edge of that precipice, he knew, was not more than ten feet from him, and the darkness had now become so intense under the walls of the castle that he could barely discern the ground on which he trod.
suddenly he came to an abrupt stop, face to face with a second wall, which seemed for a moment to bar his further progress; but he quickly discovered that it was merely a buttress of the castle, and he speedily made his way around it, although in doing so he was compelled to approach so near to the edge of the cliff that the slightest misstep would have precipitated him into the abyss below.
then on again, however, without accident.
at last, after he had passed two more such buttresses, and each with more danger of falling than the last, he arrived at the tower.
[183]
there he paused a moment; and then, as he was on the point of starting forward again, he was suddenly held spellbound in his tracks by the sound of a voice which seemed to be calling to him from among the clouds; and he was amazed and almost unbelieving when he recognized in the words that were uttered his own name.
“nick carter! nick carter!”
twice he heard it, and then all was silent again, save for the pounding of the waves against the rocks below.
