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Read Ebook: Nick Carter Stories No. 134 April 3 1915; The Secret of Shangore; Or Nick Carter Among the Spearmen by Carter Nicholas House Name
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Ebook has 776 lines and 61429 words, and 16 pages
Editor: Chickering Carter
Transcriber's Notes:
The original spelling, hyphenation, and punctuation have been retained, with the exception of apparent typographical errors which have been corrected.
NICK CARTER STORIES
Terms to NICK CARTER STORIES Mail Subscribers.
Single Copies or Back Numbers, 5c. Each.
THE SECRET OF SHANGORE;
Or, NICK CARTER AMONG THE SPEARMEN.
Edited by CHICKERING CARTER.
AN ECHO FROM THE FOE.
"No, Carter! I shall not go back until I have got my hands on that wretched crook, William Pike, and I don't care if it leads me into the very heart of this strange country where they say a white man never has come from alive."
The speaker was Jefferson Arnold, the multimillionaire shipowner and importer of Oriental goods, whose establishment was one of the best known of its kind in New York City.
His firm jaw came together with a snap, and his dark eyes sparkled with determination in the red light of the camp fire, as he looked at the world-renowned detective for approval of his determination.
"I am rather glad to hear you say that," was Nick Carter's calm reply.
Jefferson Arnold jumped up from the rock upon which he had been sitting and went around to shake the detective by the hand.
"I knew you would agree with me," he shouted. "We have found my son Leslie among these rascals, and we've driven them back, over the Himalayas all right. But that is not enough for me. I want to see what these mysteries are that we have heard so much about."
"Bully for you, Mr. Arnold!" cried Patsy Garvan. "That's the stuff. I want to lick one or two of those black brutes for what they did to us the last time we had a mix-up."
"What do you mean?" put in Chick. "I ask that as first lieutenant of the greatest detective in the world. We licked 'em, didn't we?"
"Sure we licked them!" agreed Patsy promptly. "But they blazed away at us with poisoned arrows and tried to dig holes in us with their spears. It wasn't their fault they did not lay out our whole bunch."
Nick Carter laughed heartily.
"When people get into a fight, Patsy," he reminded his young second assistant, "the object is understood to be to hurt the enemy as much as possible. You should not hold that against anybody who puts up a fair fight."
"That's all right!" conceded Patsy. "But this wasn't any fair fight--at least on the side of these Indians from the Land of the Golden--what is it?"
"The Land of the Golden Scarab," supplied Nick.
"All right! I'd forgotten that word. It's always a sticker to me," grumbled Patsy. "But, anyhow, when those fellows, with their white turbans and black faces, and their thin shirts and short pants, came surging from behind the rocks, trying to get us by surprise, I hadn't any use for them. What I want is a man to stand up before me and give me a fair-and-square give-and-take. Then I haven't any kick coming if I get the worst of it."
"When shall we start?" asked Jefferson Arnold impatiently.
"You mean you will not go down to Calcutta, to get re-enforcements, then?" asked Nick.
"No, indeed," returned the millionaire. "What would be the use of that? Here we are, right among the foothills of the Himalayas, and we know--or think we know--that this mysterious race of beings, who worship the Golden Scarab, are just on the other side of the range, in front of us."
"That's what I learned when those fellows were leading me along," put in Leslie Arnold, as he carelessly took from his belt the automatic revolver given to him by Nick Carter a short time before, and lovingly regarded the cartridges. "Ask Adil."
Adil--tall, dark, grave, and of the best type of Hindu--came forward from the shadows and made a salaam to the company in general.
"Adil is my friend," continued Leslie.
"Thy servant, sahib," corrected Adil respectfully.
"His valet, as we should say in New York," came from Jefferson Arnold. "Here in India they say body servant--except when they use an Indian word. It's all the same. Go ahead, Adil!"
"They were taking us to Bolongu, where the Golden Scarab is all powerful," explained Adil. "They said we should get there in another day. It was then that Sahib Leslie and I got away. So we did not go."
"You bet you didn't go," put in Patsy Garvan. "You ran into us, and we had a word or two to say."
"And that is all you know about it?" asked Jefferson Arnold, disregarding Patsy's interruption.
"We can go on with the force we have," remarked Nick Carter slowly. "Because, no matter how large a one we might take with us, they would count for little against the hordes of Bolongu."
"Do you mean that you don't think we can get hold of Pike, if he stands in with them?" asked Jefferson Arnold.
"No. What I mean is that we may have to depend more on strategy than on physical violence," smiled Nick Carter. "We shall have to pit our brains against theirs."
"That ought to be easy," snorted Patsy. "What do these Indian 'smokes' know?"
"The wisdom of the East is proverbial," returned Nick, in grave tones. "There is not the slightest doubt that the men of the Land of the Golden Scarab have more general knowledge than many white men."
"Wow!" howled Patsy, at what he regarded as a horrible reflection on his race. "If I didn't think I knew more than any of these black spear throwers we've met in India, I'd quit business and go to playing checkers the rest of my life."
"Well, that's all about that--isn't it?" interrupted Jefferson Arnold impatiently. "Let's get a move on."
"Well, this is something I didn't expect," remarked Chick, as the others moved from the fire, leaving him alone with Nick Carter. "We were lucky enough to rescue young Leslie, and we got his man Adil, too. That is all you were asked to do, wasn't it?"
"Yes," answered Nick. "We came to India to find Leslie Arnold. His father was in such pitiful distress, that I should have been disposed to lend him what help I could, even if he had not engaged me on a business basis."
"Of course you would," assented Chick, and he knew it was the exact truth. "But now that you have found Leslie, and he's all right, do you think it is worth while to go any farther?"
"Why not?" asked Nick dryly.
"Because, as you know, your desk in New York must be piled up with business by this time," returned Chick, with some warmth. "It is a question whether such a man as you, on whom so many persons depend when they are in trouble, has the right to stay away longer than he is absolutely obliged."
"Legal right--or moral?" smiled the famous detective.
"Moral, of course," was Chick's quick response. "And that has always had as much weight with you as the other kind. Therefore, I say that we ought to let Pike go. The Arnolds can find him without you. That is, if he can be found at all."
"Think so?"
"Anyhow, if they can't, it's none of our business. We are a long way from Madison Avenue, remember. It will take us many weeks to get home, even if we were to start to-night. We shall have to travel nearly half around the world."
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