Won by Magic and On a Dark Stage

CHAPTER I.
THE COMING OF JAI SINGH.

"Message for Mr. Carter!"

The wireless operator of the steamship Marathon, in the linen clothes and pith helmet ordinarily worn by white people in the tropics, came along the steamer deck with a slip of paper in his hand and stopped in front of a row of steamer chairs under an awning.

"Where's it from?" asked the occupant of one of the chairs, springing to his feet.

"From shore, sir-Calcutta."

Nick Carter, who was holding out his hand even as he got up from his chair, took the paper quickly and glanced at the few words it contained:

"Get up to Nepal quickly."

That was all. There was no signature, and the operator could not say who had sent it.

"It came from the main office of the telegraph company in Calcutta," he explained. "The operator told me a native man brought it in and paid for it. He said there would be no answer, and his own name did not matter."

"It is many years since I was in Calcutta last," observed Nick Carter, to his companions, as the operator went back to the wireless room. "Then it was only for a few days, and I did not make many acquaintances."

A tall, middle-aged man, whose square face and straight-seeing dark eyes, as well as his decided manner of speech, were all suggestive of the successful American business man, got up from one of the chairs and looked over Nick Carter's shoulder at the telegram he still held open in one hand.

"Get up to Nepal quickly," he read. "Does that mean that my boy is there, do you think, Carter?"

"We don't know that the telegram has anything to do with what has brought us to India," replied the detective.

"What else could it be?" demanded the other sharply.

Nick Carter shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, Mr. Arnold, you are known here-by name, at least-as owner of several ships, including the Marathon, and your agent, William Pike, has vanished, in a rather mysterious way, from your office in Calcutta. Perhaps the telegram may be from somebody who has seen Pike up in Nepal."

"It may be, although I don't know what Pike could want up in the back country, away from civilization. He isn't that kind of man, from what I know of him. He is more likely to go over to Europe, or, if not, to get to some other big city in India-Rangoon, Lucknow, Cawnpur, or Hyderabad-where he can spend his money and be moderately out of the way of arrest."

"At all events, this message agrees with our own ideas of the direction taken by Leslie," said Nick Carter.

Jefferson Arnold did not speak for a few moments. He was not a demonstrative man, and although his heart was wrung by the strange disappearance of his only son, his face was as impassive as it generally was when putting through some great business deal in New York, with perhaps millions of dollars involved.

Here, on the deck of the finest steamer of his fleet of merchant vessels, with the gently rolling waters of the Bay of Bengal scuffing up under the prow, and the engines, at half speed, gradually bringing the ship nearer and nearer to the wharves of Calcutta, he might have seemed to strangers to be a man to be envied.

Yet, tearing at his heart was the greatest anxiety he ever had known-the question whether his boy, whom he loved better than himself, was dead or living.

The scene was as beautiful a one as nature can produce in her most happy mood. The blue waves, with their lacy-white crests, the panorama of mountain and forest in the distance-still hazy, as the mists of early morning hung before them-and the big city of Calcutta in the foreground, its white buildings glistening fairylike in the glorious sunlight, all combined to make the approach to this famous Asiatic port one of the most fascinating in the world.

"What's that boat coming out?" suddenly exclaimed Jefferson Arnold. "Couldn't wait for us to get alongside the wharf, eh! We're five miles from shore, if not more. What do you make of it, captain?" he added, in a louder tone to the skipper of the Marathon, who stood on the bridge just over their heads.

"Don't know, Mr. Arnold," replied Captain Southern. "Perhaps they're crowded for room at the wharf. Looks like it."

The commander had been gazing at the oncoming boat, as well as at the distant shore line, through his binoculars, and, almost mechanically, he gave orders to drop the anchors fore and aft.

"Going to stop, captain?" asked the millionaire ship owner.

"Yes. It will do no harm. And I want to see what these fellows in the boat are after."

"I'll come up on the bridge. I guess," grunted Arnold. "Come on, Carter!"

The sacred bridge of a steamer is not going to be profaned by the feet of an uninvited person unless he happens to be the owner or some one of equal importance.

Jefferson Arnold and his friends, of course, had the privilege.

One of two young men who had been sitting in steamer chairs with Arnold and Nick Carter seemed to have some idea of following them to the bridge. But the elder of the pair shook his head.

"It wouldn't do, Patsy," he whispered. "Old Captain Southern is a crank about some things, and he looks on his bridge as a sort of private office. Let the chief size it up and tell us afterward."

"I guess we'll have to, Chick," was the disgusted response. "But when I'm working on a case I like to see all I can from every angle."

"Regular angleworm, ain't you, Patsy?" chuckled Chick.

"Oh, come off with the laughing-gas stuff! Better send that to the funny papers," snorted Patsy Garvan. "I'm talking serious business. I tell you there's more in young Leslie Arnold beating it out of Calcutta this way than people think."

Chickering Carter, principal assistant of Nick Carter, stared for a moment at Patsy Garvan, who was only next in importance to Chick himself on the great detective's staff-as if trying to get his comrade's point of view. Then he shook his head, as if he feared there was a great deal in Patsy's opinion.

"What do you think of William Pike?" he asked, as he glanced around to make sure neither Nick Carter or Jefferson Arnold overheard the question.

"What do I think?" blurted out Patsy. "I believe he's the guy responsible for it all. From what I hear, he always was as crooked as a pig's tail. Leslie Arnold was a good-tempered sort of kid, and it wouldn't be hard for this slippery Pike to make him do anything."

"And there was nearly a hundred thousand dollars in gold went with one or the other of them," observed Chick thoughtfully. "If Leslie Arnold went up into the hill country to shoot tigers, he would hardly load himself down with all that money."

"Who believes young Arnold went to shoot tigers?" asked Patsy scornfully.

"That's all Jefferson Arnold has been able to hear about his boy," was Chick's answer. "He told that to the chief when he persuaded him to come all this distance to look into the matter."

"Well, I'm glad he came, anyhow," observed Patsy. "I've never seen India before, and it was a good thing he brought us both along. And old Captain, too. Gee! I didn't think he'd let the good old dog come. But he may be mighty useful before we get through. You never can tell how you may be able to use a trained bloodhound-especially such a good one as ours."

Patsy stopped to pat an immense dog who lay stretched out on the hot deck under the awning, too languid to move, except to let his great eyeballs roll lazily in their sockets in appreciation of Patsy Garvan's caresses.

Meanwhile, Nick Carter, Jefferson Arnold, and Captain Southern were taking the strong, double marine glasses in turn to inspect the boat which was working its way through the surf toward the Marathon.

The four men at the oars were low-caste Hindus. They would not have been doing this kind of work otherwise.

They were picturesque-looking rascals.

Naked to their waists, their brown skin glistened in the sunlight like the top of a German loaf. Each wore the white turban that is part of the costume of every Hindu, and on the wrists of some of them could be seen heavy brass rings.

In the stern of the boat-which was a wide, heavy craft, well able to stand the tossing of the surf and to make good time before the steady pulling of the oarsmen-stood a tall native who looked very different from the others.

This man wore a turban like the oarsmen, but there was a jewel fastened in the front of the folds of snowy cloth that glistened like the lens of a powerful flash lamp.

While it was not easy to make out his feature at that distance, Nick Carter saw, with admiration, that the limbs were lean and muscular, and that every movement of the lithe brown body indicated strength and activity.

That this man in the stern was in command could be told in more ways than one. He carried in his right hand a long lance, or spear, such as is used by some of the Indian cavalry regiments, but without the pennon which is generally attached.

Occasionally he emphasized his orders to the crew by giving one or other of them a rap across the bare shoulders with the staff of the spear, always accompanying it with a roaring command. Nick told this from the opening of his mouth, although he could not hear the sound.

For a few minutes longer Nick Carter stared through the binocular glass at the boat and its gigantic commander, while the captain and Jefferson Arnold talked apart.

Suddenly the big Hindu caused his boat to swing around as it approached the...