CHAPTER I.
THE VANISHING THIEF.
Nick Carter's friends often ask him whether, in the course of his remarkable experience as a detective, he has ever encountered anything which could not have been the work of human hands.
Few people, nowadays, will own that they believe in ghosts. Yet most of us would be less sure about it in a grave-yard at midnight than on Broadway at noon.
A man who can tell a reasonable story about having seen a ghost may not find many believers, but he will get plenty of listeners, for we are all eager to hear about such things.
So Nick, who always likes to oblige his friends, does not deny the existence of spirits when he is asked whether he ever saw any. On the contrary, if he has the time to spare, he usually tells the following story:
A broad-shouldered, square-jawed, bright-eyed young man called on Nick one afternoon, and was ushered into the study.
His card had gone up ahead of him, and it bore the name—Horace G. Richmond.
Nick ran his eye over his visitor, and decided that he was a fellow who knew the world and was getting everything out of it that there is in it.
He met Nick's eye with the air of a man who is going to do something unusual, and wants to announce at the start that he can back it up.