Stuart Floyd went back to prison and died there six months later.
Others engaged in the conspiracy were punished in accord with the law, and are behind prison bars to this day.
THE END.
“The Edge of a Crime; or, Nick Carter’s Trail of Mercy,” will be the title of the long, complete story which will be found in the next issue, No. 142, of the Nick Carter Stories, out May 29th. You will also find the usual interesting serial, short stories, and useful bits of information.
Where’s the Commandant?
By C. C. WADDELL.
(This interesting story was commenced in No. 140 of Nick Carter STORIES. Back numbers can always be obtained from your news dealer or the publishers.)
CHAPTER V.
THE SEVERED ROPES.
It was eight a. m. by the time Grail reached the fort, for he had stopped on the way to submit to a chemist an envelope containing the remnants of the decoy message. The chemist agreed with him thoroughly that its disintegration must have been accomplished by means of chemicals. He thought a mixture of certain acids, drying into the fiber of the paper, would cause it rapidly to disintegrate and crumble to dust, although he declined to commit himself definitely on the point until he had made a complete analysis.
His theory, however, was all that Grail really cared for, since it showed him that he was on the right track, and that the destruction of the note was due to no accident or mischance, but was part of a deliberate and premeditated plan—an incident to be duly reckoned with in any investigation of the colonel’s disappearance.
Too thoroughly did he recognize his own limitations even to consider the task of handling the business in person. But how was he to secure the aid he required at the fort? If the army post has ramparts of privacy against the world, there is little going on inside which does not become generally known, and Grail had no sooner set foot on the reservation than he sensed the same feeling of hostility and suspicion which had manifested itself in the manner of the officers who met him at the foundry the night before.