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-"T am_.afraid I don’t understand, Mr. Carter.”
:. “VIL show.you;. come, ahead.” __
The bench.was brought out and set down behind the
cabin. Then the body of the dead negro was placed upon’
it and covered with the canvas. sheet which they fastened
down securely over it, after which they returned to the
‘interior of the cabin. a :
- Darkness had fallen by the time this was accomplished,
and Nick at once closed and ‘securely fastened the door
and the shutters of board over the. only two windows
_ With which the cabin was provided.
-“We’ll smother. in here,” said Shaw.
“We won’t be here long. enough to smother,” replied
the detective. . “I noticed, when I was here before, that
~ Codman. had provided himself with aite a wartlrobe.”
“Clothes, you mean?”
“Yes; they hang’ behind that sheet over there.”
“What the dey
“Watch me.”
_Nick crossed to the sheet i in, question, which had been
tacked to a frame at the top, so it formed_a sort of closet
for the, Teception of: clothing, and, pulling it aside; dis-
, closed several suits of clothes,
Two of these he took down froin their hooks, after
which. he returned for the other and began, with these
last, to stuff one pair of trousers, at the same time direct-
_ ing: Shaw to do the same with a second pair. .
“Shaw. was beginning to understand now, and he lost
no time in complying.
There, were two bunks in the cabin, one above the
other, and when Nick had completed the stuffing of one
of the suits he carried it to one of the bunks and placed
it under the blankets. woe . on
He took: great care.in ‘arranging: it so that it would
appear as if a man were lying asleep under. the blanket
of the bunk; and then, with an old jacket, he manufac-
tured a fair representation of a man’s head, lying with
the. face to the wall, : .
“There, ” he said, studying what hethad accomplished.
“That will do very well if a light-is not thrown directly
upon it. _ Now for yours, Shaw.” .
“Mine is ready. I see. what you are up to now.”
“All right.” fo
_ Nick: took the second stuffed figure a and arranged it
in the remaining bunk as he had done with the first, and
when he had finished the task he stepped back again and
regarded them both with a smile on his face... --
’ NEW NICK CARTER WEEKLY.
“Tm hungry, aren’t you?” he asked Shaw then.
“Yes; and there seems to be plenty of food here, too.”
“Exactly,” replied Nick. “We will cook some of it,
too; but we won't eat it?
“Eh? Why not?”
“Because if we should do so we would doubtless fall
asleep in earnest.
has left it here purposely, and he has drugged it. If he
is watching and waiting anywhere around, he will smell
the cooking and will think we have eaten. 'T hen, after
a while, when all is quiet, he will think that his’ drugs
have taken effect, and he will make no bones about break-
ing into the cabin.” :
“By Jove,-Carter! And we
“We will-be outside, waiting for him to do it; and if
all works well, instead of his capturing us, we will cap-
ture him. Do you understand now ?” :
“You bet!”
—
CHAPTER IX.
AN ESCAPE FROM AN AWFUL FATE.
- Together they went through the ceremony of frying
bacon and other things, not one of which they dared to
eat. :
And oh, the smell of it all for two © hungry men! It
was almost maddening,
But Nick Carter knew the man with whom they had
to deal; he knew his subtlety, his craftiness, his unscrupu-
lousness, :
Don’t you understand? .The doctor ,
pre
There was no doubt whatever in the mind of the de- .
tective, since the disappearance of the horses rendered it
certain that Codman knew of their presence there, that
he had “doctored” every ‘morsel of food‘ that- was ‘con-
tained in that cabin, and he was positive that if they
should dare to partake of any of it they would be poi-
soned, or at least rendered unconscious and therefore an
easy prey for the madman,
And so the food, when cooked, was thrown into the
fire, and at last they extinguished the two lamps.they had
‘lighted, and prepared to make ficie escape from: the
cabin.
It might be asked why they did not wait inside, and |
there were two answers to this,
One was that the.night was exceedingly warm. There
was: no ventilation whatever in the cabin with the solid
shutters of the windows and the heavy deal door closed,