CHAPTER XVIII.
GORDON TACKLES NICK’S SAFE.
Green-eye Gordon stood looking at the safe that was built into the wall of Nick’s study, and, as he stared at it, his eyes were very greedy in expression.
For one thing, he felt certain that the famous detective kept money there—very likely a large sum—for, in Nick’s profession, it is often essential to lay one’s hands on plenty of cash at very short notice. Expensive journeys have to be undertaken on little warning, often at hours when the banks are closed, for instance, and there are many other ways in which ready money comes in handy. It remained to be seen, of course, whether the detective’s absence had made any difference in this respect.
This, however, was but a very small item in Gordon’s expectations.
As we have seen, he was after very much bigger game, in the shape of the secret records of Nick’s most important cases, records which he hoped would be the means of netting him a very much larger sum than that represented by the missing relief fund.
The rascal’s mouth fairly watered now as he thought of the possibilities. The possession of the papers he desired would mean a chance of blackmail, such as the world had never known. Until now, these papers had been perfectly safe in Nick Carter’s possession, but should they tail into Gordon’s hands, they would suddenly acquire a destructive power far more terrible than that of dynamite.
What a prospect! Aside from the enormous advantage which he expected to reap from it, Green Eye could conceive of no more effective retaliation for Nick’s part in sending him to prison.
“A fool would only think of killing Carter, or at most, of giving him a taste of physical torture,” thought the criminal. “But I can understand his point of view, and I know that the loss of such papers—and the use I shall make of them—will be infinitely worse than death itself in his eyes.”
Gordon started as he heard the front door open, and moved across the room. He felt sure that it was Mrs. Peters returning from her afternoon constitutional, and he wished to give her an order, but he paused, as he remembered the police dog. It would be better to have Prince out of the way before he sent for the housekeeper.
He waited ten minutes, therefore, before ringing the bell, and presently Mrs. Peters arrived, somewhat out of breath.
“If any one calls, say that I’m away,” the masquerader said sharply. “On no account am I to be disturbed by any one—by any one, mind you. If Joseph is about, tell him so, too.”
“Very well, sir,” Mrs. Peters answered. “Is that all?”
“Yes.”
Despite Green Eye’s eagerness to get at the safe, he remembered Prince’s alarming behavior, and narrowly watched the housekeeper’s face. He felt sure she could not deceive him. If she had the slightest suspicion that all was not as it should be, her face and manner would be sure to reveal the fact.
“No, she hasn’t tumbled to me,” he assured himself, as Mrs. Peters left the room. “It was not to be supposed that she would, but she must have thought the beast’s actions very peculiar. Thank Heaven, all of Carter’s assistants are away. I’ll have to keep the butler at a distance, too, as much as possible. I don’t believe he’s capable of seeing through the deception, but he’s a man, and he’s been with Carter for a good while. His eyes may be sharper than I think.”
He turned the key in the lock hurriedly, took off his coat, and began to roll up his sleeves.
“Now, where, does he keep the outfit?” he muttered, his pale, keen eyes darting about the room.
With quick steps he crossed to the cabinet and tried that, but, obviously, he did not find there what he sought, for he turned away from it with a snarl of impatience.
The desk was the next thing he examined, but it was not until he had picked the lock of one of the hitherto unopened drawers that he found what he sought—a small black bag.
When he had opened the latter, his lips curled into an ugly grin.
“What a burglar he would have made,” he muttered, as he emptied the contents of the bag carefully on the floor in front of the safe.
There were bits of various sizes, ordinary drills and wheel drills, jimmies, glass cutters, skeleton keys, acids—in fact, everything that goes to make up the outfit of the most up-to-date burglar.
Green-eye Gordon turned them over caressingly, but it was not for long that he was idle. He knelt before the safe, his eyes roving over it at close range. Soon he smiled with satisfaction.
It was scarcely as modern a safe as he would have expected Nick Carter to possess, but that was probably because the last thing in the world the famous detective expected was a burglary in his own house.
Among other accomplishments, most of which had brought him into conflict with the law, Ernest Gordon numbered safe-cracking, and, as he knelt before the massive steel door, with its shining nickel fittings, he had no doubt that he would be able to master this one in a comparatively short time.
After a brief examination of the lock, to make sure that he could not open the combination by ear, the masquerader picked up the powerful wheel drill, fitted a bit to it, and, pressing the other end against his stomach, set to work.
At first the bit seemed to make little impression upon the specially hardened metal, but presently a little hole appeared, and grew deeper and deeper as Gordon kept the wheel in motion.
For the time being, the criminal forgot the relief fund that he hoped to appropriate, forgot even the great, unique haul he counted on obtaining from that very safe, and was lost in the joy of being at his old trade again, and handling the old, familiar tools with undiminished skill.
Gh-r-rh!
Gordon paused to squirt oil into the deepening hole, as the note of the revolving bit changed and grew harsher. It was working smoothly again after a moment, and the particles of metal were rapidly accumulating.
Thus the work went on. One hole was sunk to the required depth, then another, and finally, after various deft operations, the inner secrets of the lock were disclosed, and the thick door swung back on noiseless hinges.
A little chuckle of satisfaction sounded as the door began to move, but, by the time it was wide open, a snarl of surprise and rage burst from the criminal’s lips.