New Nick Carter Weekly, No. 8 — page 13: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

\ ~~ WEW NICK CARTER WEEKLY. snealiala anything that is offensive as yet,’’? muttered his highness. _**Well, I’m coming to that,’’ exclaimed Schruggs, rather impatiently. _ **VYou asked” me if I hadn’t any conf- dence in you, and I tell you my confidence is considerably shaken; and why shouldn’t it be? Your scheme has entirely failed, most of our men x ‘‘You mean Tigers.’’ ‘“Rxcuse me—yes, Tigers. Most of them have bern captured and you and J are fugitives. ’ ‘*t am obliged to admit all that,’’ said his highness, “but I should think that you would feel that the man who conld plan such a scheme and carry it sonear to execution would be able to make things safe for you. “Don’t you think that this tunnel from headquarters, the extent of which you never dreamed of, is a pretty fair inven- tion ?”” “Ves; but what does it lead to? Where ll “Well, let me recall one or two poiuts. ‘“We didn’t take to the tunnel until we were certain that the plan for the capture of the steamer with Deever and Pember- ton on board had failed. iL ‘‘It became certain that you and I had got to run for it. We worked the panel door in our house, went down the steps and got to the bottom of the well, didn’t we?” ‘*We did.”’ ‘Then doyou remember that I stopped and did something ?”’ Wes, be] “What I did was to fix the steps so that they leaned away from the top of the well, and then I pulled down the trap that ‘would make the closet seem like an ordinary one.”’ ‘*“What was that for?’’ ‘‘It was to serve as a bait for any clever detective, American or otherwise, who should try to investigate that well. ‘‘l made up my mind that young Car- are we now? What are we going to do?|ter would come to the house, and felt cer- _ Where shall we go? How shall I, whose picture is in the Rogues’ Gallery, go to avoid arrest ? _.*The trouble is, your highness, that with all your clever planning you have met your equal, and, pardon me, perhaps your superior. ’’ This was | followed by a short interval of silence, after which his highness said, ae _“ Perhaps Ihave. I suppose you refer _American detective who got epee eeniestior by getting Khe best » jin tain that as he had once-seen the panel door open he would try to get it open again. ‘IT believed that he would have his curiosity so much aroused by the discov- ery of a solid floor where formerly he had seen an-empty well that he would some- how force that floor open. ‘‘T believed he would see the lever at the top of the door that worked the’ trap. I rather hoped that he would pull that lever, fall down the well, and smash his brains out. He didn’t do just that.”’ **Whatdo you mean?’ cried Schruggs great excitement. *‘Has young Carter mec 1 gone to the house?’ _- ‘ iu Yes. ‘That. was what I ran back to | find out.”? - > “Great — heavens!’ cried Schruggs. ce om|‘‘You don’t mean to say that Carter got \ that trap open and didn’t fall down?” _“T do mean to say exactly that. Some- how or other, the shrewd fellow managed to save his life at that point.”’ | “Then we are lost!’ . a 10, we're not.’” iy de is in the tunnel at this Z ;