CHAPTER I.
NICK CARTER SEES THE PRESIDENT.
"Mustushimi did not leave the country when he was ordered."
"I did not believe he would do so," replied Nick Carter for the words were directed to him, and the speaker was the President of the United States, who had sent for the detective to come to Washington at once. "He did not strike me as being the sort of man, Mr. President, who could easily be made to abandon a work to which he had devoted so much of his talents as he had to the organization of the spy system."
"He was an oily little rascal, wasn't he, Mr. Carter?"
"Decidedly so, sir."
"I thought at the time that possibly you did not give him full credit for his talents," remarked the President dryly.
"You will pardon me, sir, but it was my impression at that time that I gave him rather more credit for his possibilities than you did."
"How so?"
"I don't think, if our positions had been reversed, that I would have let up on him so easily as you did."