A WOMAN AT BAY
OR
A Fiend in Skirts
BY NICHOLAS CARTER
Author of "Out of Crime's Depths," "Reaping the Whirlwind," "An Artful Schemer," etc.
[Illustration]
STREET & SMITH CORPORATION PUBLISHERS 79-89 Seventh Avenue, New York
Copyright, 1907 By STREET & SMITH
A Woman at Bay
All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign languages, including the Scandinavian.
Printed in the U. S. A.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I THE KING OF THE YEGGMEN. 5 II THE YEGGMEN'S CAMP FIRE. 22 III THE "KING'S" LIEUTENANT. 31 IV THE OUTLAW'S HOME. 40 V NICK'S WONDERFUL STRENGTH. 49 VI NICK CARTER ROBS A BANK. 67 VII THE DETECTIVE'S PREDICAMENT. 76 VIII THE DETECTIVES FACE A CRISIS. 94 IX THE ESCAPE FROM THE SWAMP. 104 X ESCAPE OF THE HOBO QUEEN. 114 XI PATSY'S DANGEROUS MISSION. 121 XII BILL TURNER, THE WOODSMAN. 128 XIII BLACK MADGE'S LIEUTENANT. 146 XIV BLACK MADGE GIVES JUDGMENT. 165 XV NICK'S CLEVEREST CAPTURE. 182 XVI NICK MAKES BAD MEDICINE. 201 XVII A WHOLESALE ROUND-UP. 210 XVIII BLACK MADGE'S THREAT. 218 XIX THE BAND OF HATRED. 226 XX A CHAPTER OF ACCIDENTS. 241 XXI CURLY JOHN, THE BANK THIEF. 249 XXII AT MIKE GRINNEL'S DIVE. 257 XXIII BLACK MADGE'S DEFIANCE. 266 XXIV THE FLIGHT THROUGH THE CELLAR. 275 XXV THE MAN IN THE BED. 284 XXVI THE CRIMINAL'S COMPACT. 294 XXVII THE GLARE OF A MATCH. 303 XXVIII BLACK MADGE CAUGHT IN A TRAP. 311
A WOMAN AT BAY.
CHAPTER I.
THE KING OF THE YEGGMEN.
Four men were seated around a camp fire made of old railroad ties, over which a kettle was boiling merrily, where it hung from an improvised crane above the blaze.
Around, on the ground, were scattered a various assortment of tin cans, some of which had been hammered more or less straight to serve for plates, and it was evident from the general appearance of things around the camp that a meal had just been disposed of, and that the four men who had consumed it were now determined to make themselves as comfortable as possible. The kettle that boiled over the fire contained nothing but water--water with which one of the four men had jocularly said he intended to bathe.
Table of contents (by pages)
- 1: A Woman at Bay by Nicholas Carter
- 2: He is the king of all the yeggmen
- 3: There have been any number of hoboes and yeggmen arrested
- 4: Increase your vigilance on every side
- 5: Sometimes the yeggmen traveled in small groups
- 6: We must become hoboes ourselves
- 7: And Patsy turned then to Ten Ichi
- 8: Through the woodland and beyond it
- 9: With the four hoboes grouped around it
- 10: And Patsy wheeled like lightning
- 11: I hava da bunch uh banan in da tree ifa you want more chuck
- 12: The sudden coming of the eight yeggmen
- 13: This tableau if tableau it could be called
- 14: Handsome wheeled upon Chick then
- 15: He calls himself Hobo Harry that same
- 16: It will do as well as Dago John
- 17: Handsome laughed as if he were intensely amused
- 18: There are deep holes in that swamp
- 19: And Nick Carter wondered if Hobo Harry
- 20: She turned her attention to Nick then
- 21: What do you know of Hobo Harry
- 22: You have not been a yeggman always
- 23: As Nick leaped aside he also turned
- 24: They entered the scow without more words
- 25: They think only that she is Hobo Harry's wife
- 26: Nick recalled all that conversation now
- 27: And Nick was ordered to follow them
- 28: Beyond now and then a curt word uttered by Handsome
- 29: Nick evidently won over not only Handsome
- 30: And the burglars rushed forward
- 31: They found Madge on the doorstep
- 32: Cremation Mike has got it in Who
- 33: For he remembered again how perfectly he was disguised
- 34: But you have another name than Dago John
- 35: Goron did not shake hands with criminals
- 36: He recalled the fact that Goron
- 37: While she replaced the rug over the trapdoor
- 38: Two of them were plainly disguised
- 39: Chick nodded and he also smiled
- 40: And five minutes later Handsome reappeared with Patsy in tow
- 41: But you came here in search of Hobo Harry
- 42: We will throw him there Nick Carter
- 43: Which Ten Ichi had taught him to speak perfectly
- 44: Before Chick and Ten Ichi were carried to the quicksand pit
- 45: Chick and Ten Ichi dashed out of the woods and helped him
- 46: And Black Madge was locked up in the jail at Calamont
- 47: Calamont is a village of about three thousand inhabitants
- 48: The jail had been gutted literally gutted
- 49: Old Bill Turner if he would go
- 50: I think I can get around Handsome
- 51: Is there any particular game afoot with the hoboes just now
- 52: When Nick Carter arrived at Calamont
- 53: Me want find ze man named Beel Turner
- 54: But the dogs hev got old like me
- 55: Will you take for your whiskers
- 56: And once he helped me a leetle
- 57: That's all only he said he was a hobo
- 58: When you leave here if you start from Calamont
- 59: And it communicates with the cave
- 60: The beard was divided into tufts of hair
- 61: As Turner was in the habit of doing
- 62: For a moment he stood there near the balsams
- 63: And then he asked suddenly Turner
- 64: It's a sort of sasser in the mountings
- 65: I ain't heerd nothin' about his bein' sent for
- 66: Old Bill Turner is eighty four
- 67: Divil a wan of me can tell that same
- 68: They were sent to the quicksand pit
- 69: Who got 'em out of that quicksand pit
- 70: But Madge was plainly tired of the amusement already
- 71: Patsy would be murdered at sunrise the following morning
- 72: Nick knew in which cabin Patsy was a prisoner
- 73: Nick turned his attention to Cremation Mike
- 74: With Patsy following closely behind him
- 75: Madge interrupted the conversation here
- 76: Before Nick could make any reply
- 77: For the extra two were Madge and Handsome
- 78: Nick led his party back into the cave again
- 79: And Patsy was ready and fully prepared
- 80: Madge was glaring at him venomously all this time
- 81: Then Handsome called out Madge
- 82: And said You are Nick Carter again
- 83: While Patsy was making the change
- 84: Nick knew of Madge's fondness for trapdoors
- 85: And from there he produced a large bottle of laudanum
- 86: Help me make this extra pail of punch
- 87: Nick said to them Stretch out
- 88: Including Black Madge and her first lieutenant
- 89: Is only another kind of boasting
- 90: People whom you have pursued as you have pursued me
- 91: Chick flicked the ashes from his cigar
- 92: And behind this table was Black Madge
- 93: What have you got against Nick Carter
- 94: Wants to bring Nick Carter my way
- 95: I've heard what Surly Bob had to say
- 96: To which this man Nick Carter sent me
- 97: And now Madge stood up behind the table
- 98: And had not heard anybody in the vestibule
- 99: Joseph took the package in his hand
- 100: When Joseph appeared to receive it
- 101: And that it is located somewhere in Rivington Street
- 102: The inspector could only stare his amazement
- 103: Curly scratched his head some more
- 104: And that many of them know Chick as well
- 105: So long as Curly John vouched for them
- 106: But Madge was there without question
- 107: And now my lay is to get square with Nick Carter
- 108: And seized Curly by the shoulder
- 109: When Madge uttered the threat to him
- 110: But Curly was distinctly in a quandary
- 111: Instead of Nick Carter being in her power
- 112: His chair was overturned backward
- 113: The instant that he seized upon Madge
- 114: Nick did not despair of finding one
- 115: Fastened with a spring lock on the inside
- 116: That Mike Grinnel was thoroughly incensed
- 117: Struck Grinnel squarely on the chest
- 118: Awaiting the return of Grinnel
- 119: The head day bartender downstairs
- 120: Madge has got something up her sleeve
- 121: Exclaimed the bartender in astonishment
- 122: When you know what has become of Chick
- 123: When the bartender had taken his departure
- 124: The walls along the hallway were not plastered
- 125: The detective could hear Grinnel chuckle and then reply Yes
- 126: Was standing directly behind Chick
- 127: The detective turned to Curly again
- 128: Nick had no fear whatever of the result
- 129: We shall go away quietly with Madge
- 130: If you do not know Nick Carter
- 131: Read the STREET SMITH NOVELS