Out of Death's Shadow
OR
A CASE WITHOUT A PRECEDENT
By
NICHOLAS CARTER
Author of "Nick Carter's Fall," "Captain Sparkle, Pirate,""The Boulevard Mutes," etc.
STREET & SMITH CORPORATION
PUBLISHERS
79-89 Seventh Avenue, New York
Copyright, 1905
By STREET & SMITH
Out of Death's Shadow
All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreignlanguages, including the Scandinavian.
Printed in the U. S. A.
OUT OF DEATH'S SHADOW.
CHAPTER I.
A MAN WITHOUT A SECRET.
On the shady veranda of an old-fashioned Southern house, on theoutskirts of St. Louis, two men in the prime of life were enjoyingtheir cigars one fine morning.
One, the younger, with a fair, full face and honest, gray eyes, after along period of silence, said:
"To-morrow will decide her fate, Nick. You have worked up a strong caseagainst her, but I am afraid of the jury."
"The jury is all right. We have seen to that, John. Conviction iscertain. It has been an easy case for me."
The woman to whose trial reference had been made had killed herhusband, but the deed had not been witnessed, and it was due to NickCarter's efforts that a complete case for the prosecution had been madeout.
"Murder is a secret of such awful weight," said Nick, "that there arefew men, to say nothing of women, who are able successfully to carryit."
"It will out some time or other, eh?"
"In the majority of cases, yes. Of course, there are[6] instances wherethe crime of taking human life has remained an unsolved and seeminglyinsoluble mystery, but such instances have, in my opinion, resultedeither through a chain of accidents, impossible to foresee, or throughthe negligence or inefficiency of the officers of the law, whose dutyit was to use all possible skill and diligence in arriving at thefacts. In this woman's case we have, I think, exercised all necessaryskill and diligence. To-morrow the end will come, and the next day Ishall be on my way to New York."
"You have been here but a week, Nick, and yet I feel as if I had knownyou a lifetime. When you introduced yourself as an old friend of mymother, I knew in a moment that I had myself found a friend, and oneafter my own heart."
The young fellow's earnestness and feeling warmed the cockles of thegreat detective's heart. He liked John Dashwood and he took no painsto conceal the fact. A portly, well-groomed man of sixty, with aself-satisfied smile on his keen, smoothly shaven face, who had comeout of the house and approached unperceived, now broke in with theremark:
"I'll bet it's a secret you are discussing."
"What makes you think so?" asked John Dashwood quickly.
"The expression of your face. There is certainly something about theposition of your lips, your eyes are slightly narrowed, your head isbowed in a suspicious manner, your——"
"Might we not have been exchanging simple confidences?" put in Nick,with a smile.
"Possibly. But confidences are secrets, you know."
The speaker leaned against the railing in front of the two friend