A BID FOR FORTUNE
DR. NIKOLA'S VENDETTA
By GUY BOOTHBY
Author of "Dr. Nikola," "The Beautiful White Devil," etc., etc.
WARD, LOCK & CO., LIMITED LONDON, MELBOURNE AND TORONTO 1918
[Illustration: "Again she turned her face from me."]
CONTENTS.
Part I.
PROLOGUE--Dr. Nikola
CHAPTER I. I determine to take a Holiday,--Sydney, and what Befel me there
CHAPTER II. London
CHAPTER III. I Visit my Relations
CHAPTER IV. I Save an Important Life
CHAPTER V. Mystery
CHAPTER VI. I Meet Dr. Nikola again
CHAPTER VII. Port Said, and what Befel us there
CHAPTER VIII. Our Imprisonment and Attempt at Escape
CHAPTER IX. Dr. Nikola permits us a Free Passage
Part II.
CHAPTER I. We reach Australia, and the Result
CHAPTER II. On the Trail
CHAPTER III. Lord Beckenham's Story
CHAPTER IV. Following up a Clue
CHAPTER V. The Islands, and what we found there
CHAPTER VI. Conclusion
A BID FOR FORTUNE
_PART I_
PROLOGUE
DR. NIKOLA
The manager of the new Imperial Restaurant on the Thames Embankment went into his luxurious private office and shut the door. Having done so, he first scratched his chin reflectively, and then took a letter from the drawer in which it had reposed for more than two months and perused it carefully. Though he was not aware of it, this was the thirtieth time he had read it since breakfast that morning. And yet he was not a whit nearer understanding it than he had been at the beginning. He turned it over and scrutinized the back, where not a sign of writing was to be seen; he held it up to the window, as if he might hope to discover something from the water-mark; but there was nothing in either of these places of a nature calculated to set his troubled mind at rest. Then he took a magnificent repeater watch from his waistcoat pocket and glanced at the dial; the hands stood at half-past seven. He immediately threw the letter on the table, and as he did so his anxiety found relief in words.
"It's really the most extraordinary affair I ever had to do with," he remarked. "And as I've been in the business just three-and-thirty years at eleven a.m. next Monday morning, I ought to know something about it. I only hope I've done right, that's all."
As he spoke, the chief bookkeeper, who had the treble advantage of being tall, pretty, and just eight-and-twenty years of age, entered the room. She noticed the open letter and the look upon her chief's face, and her curiosity was proportionately excited.
Table of contents (by pages)
- 1: A Bid for Fortune by Guy Boothby
- 2: You see it is written from Cuyaba
- 3: Dressed in a decidedly clerical garb
- 4: Eastover has been more fortunate
- 5: Was clean cut as chiselled silver
- 6: But Brownlow was no longer faithful
- 7: Nikola did not reply for a moment
- 8: So that I could go pearling on my own account
- 9: Of the luggers dancing to the breeze in the harbour
- 10: I'll call a hansom and wait for you in it
- 11: And were evidently preparing some plan for accosting her
- 12: May I see you safely to your carriage
- 13: Next morning I donned my best suit again
- 14: Asked Miss Wetherell with a little laugh
- 15: When Miss Wetherell came up and took her place beside me
- 16: This time turning her sweet face towards me
- 17: My arm lay beside hers upon the bulwarks
- 18: Wetherell was destined to be the prelude
- 19: Every day I waited eagerly for a letter from my sweetheart
- 20: Isn't it sufficient that I do love you
- 21: Whenever you look at that ring
- 22: Two were playing chess at a side table
- 23: And the taller of the two players
- 24: The name of Edward Braithwaite
- 25: I forget my companion and the previous conjuring trick
- 26: On their way back to Australia
- 27: Then Squire Jasper and his son
- 28: Having thrown the reins to an ostler
- 29: Monotonous voice he bade me welcome
- 30: My father was James Dymoke Hatteras
- 31: Is parson a hard man with a cruel tongue
- 32: Tell you wife to bring Miss Gwendoline to us
- 33: He's afraid you'll frighten her
- 34: I walked straight across to the rectory
- 35: Would have supplied me with a villa in Bournemouth
- 36: We tacked slowly across the bay
- 37: I sang out to the boy to come aft and take the tiller
- 38: I'd like to set my eyes upon your tutor
- 39: I brought the dinghy alongside
- 40: Was pampered and flattered far beyond what was good for me
- 41: And I heard him murmur Poor Jim
- 42: And the thunder of the surf upon the reef
- 43: And go a cruising down the New Guinea coast
- 44: Now Baxter had only just left the building
- 45: Prompted me to say And the Andamans
- 46: He was going to despatch another telegram
- 47: Why had he asked that question about Australia
- 48: Lying in the land locked harbour of Cairns
- 49: The Yarraman 's officers and I were old friends
- 50: Jostled each other on the pavements with scant ceremony
- 51: It was the voice of Baxter himself
- 52: When the door closed upon him Nikola turned to me
- 53: How had Nikola first learned my name
- 54: The handwriting of the second envelope was bold
- 55: Here was the young Marquis of Beckenham
- 56: Nikola took the basket before mentioned on his knee
- 57: But what the drug and poison were
- 58: For the Marquis of Beckenham and Mr
- 59: Baxter had left us and gone below
- 60: And satisfied myself that Nikola was not aboard
- 61: Baxter doesn't think it could possibly hurt me
- 62: The mosque was certainly a fine building
- 63: The mob outside was growing every moment more impatient
- 64: And one glance told us we were looking into the Casino
- 65: I observed a young man putting down his stake upon the board
- 66: He was evidently still unconscious
- 67: Informed him of my meeting with Nikola
- 68: And sticking out into the room
- 69: Here is a stiff piece of straw
- 70: And invariably rejected as impracticable
- 71: The same cripple went down the street
- 72: That night I caught another mouse
- 73: When I was tired Beckenham put his strength to it
- 74: Beckenham was beside me helping me to rise
- 75: New Guinea head catching implements
- 76: Nikola looked up from the work upon which he was engaged
- 77: In sheer despair I turned to Nikola
- 78: To find Beckenham doing the same
- 79: And came within an ace of being also left behind
- 80: He telegraphs to Nikola 'The train is laid
- 81: Beckenham shuddered as I mentioned the Doctor's name
- 82: And even many of the bays and harbours
- 83: Including the Marquis of Beckenham
- 84: And I accordingly reported my discovery to Beckenham
- 85: When I reached home again Beckenham was out
- 86: Hoping to find Beckenham safely returned and at his dinner
- 87: Wetherell seated in a low chair opposite the fire
- 88: But my gout would not permit me
- 89: Wetherell stopped him almost angrily
- 90: Wetherell turned from him with a deep sigh
- 91: The policemen did as they were ordered
- 92: I drove Miss Wetherell to Government 'Ouse
- 93: Wetherell rose to accompany us
- 94: Asked the barman of the Inspector
- 95: Asked the astonished Inspector
- 96: Maxwell's shop in Ipswell Street
- 97: Podgers ran his finger down the list
- 98: The Inspector jumped into the room
- 99: Having done so he turned to Beckenham and said Now
- 100: Was filled with curios and weapons
- 101: Nikola dropped into a chair and spoke for him
- 102: And both Nikola and Draper rose
- 103: Look at this rope and this pad
- 104: Wetherell bowed gravely and held out his hand
- 105: Wetherell sat down again and covered his face with his hands
- 106: If it were the place where Beckenham had been drugged
- 107: Miss Tiffins bade us be seated
- 108: I got to know a man named Draper
- 109: And the last time there was some fuss made over his schooner
- 110: Wetherell had thrown it into the waste paper basket
- 111: The footman thereupon left the room
- 112: Wetherell nodded his head approvingly
- 113: Wetherell taking the yoke lines in the stern
- 114: 'Do you want to earn a sufring
- 115: We then drew up alongside the police boat
- 116: Wetherell as he put the letter down on the table
- 117: Wetherell saw that something had happened
- 118: A dirty clay pipe in her mouth
- 119: The younger remarked spitefully
- 120: And then take our departure for Pipa Lannu
- 121: And on learning that my name was Hatteras
- 122: Had the bigger man the man who went up to Bourke
- 123: Now shall we go and see McMurtough
- 124: I gather that you are the son of James Dymoke Hatteras
- 125: This afternoon I am leaving Sydney
- 126: You want to know how it is that I am so frightened of Nikola
- 127: Only two feeble lights showed themselves
- 128: 'He's the sixth Chinkie I've landed that way since dark
- 129: Next day China Pete was buried
- 130: And took out the little stick China Pete had given me
- 131: Nikola had described it I felt certain
- 132: If it is the stick Nikola is after
- 133: If they are detaining Miss Wetherell there
- 134: Do you think Nikola will show fight
- 135: Signing to Beckenham to accompany me
- 136: Beckenham assisting her on the other side
- 137: It was not a large beach on this side
- 138: He was playing with a big black cat
- 139: Mayford came towards me and drew me into the drawing room
- 140: Where the brougham was waiting
- 141: The possession of which proved so fatal to Wetherell