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Issued Weekly. Entered as Second-class Matter at the New York PostOffice, by Street & Smith, 79-89 Seventh Ave., New York.
Copyright, 1915, by Street & Smith. O. G. Smith and G. C. Smith,Proprietors.
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No. 123. NEW YORK, January 16, 1915 Price Five Cents.
HALF A MILLION RANSOM;
Or, NICK CARTER AND THE NEEDY NINE.
Edited by CHICKERING CARTER.
CHAPTER I.
THE WOMAN WHO FAINTED.
Nick Carter caught sight of the couple only by chance. His touring car,in which he was seated with his chauffeur and Patsy Garvan, his juniorassistant, was speeding through one of the winding driveways in CentralPark, New York, and heading for Fifty-ninth Street.
“Hold on! Slow down, Danny!” he cried to his chauffeur. “That woman hasfainted, or is in a fit.”
The woman was lying on the greensward near a diverging driveway, andsome fifty yards from where Danny Maloney, startled by the detective’ssudden sharp commands, brought the touring car to a quick stop.
A girl in a white apron and a starched linen cap was bending over thewoman and gazing around affrightedly, uncertain what to do. Seeing thecar stop and the detectives alighting, she suppressed a scream for helpand awaited their approach.
“She is down and out, chief, for fair,” said Patsy, while they rantoward the couple.
“Fainted, most likely,” said Nick tersely. “If more serious, we’ll rushher to the nearest physician, or call an ambulance.”
“By Jove, she’s getting up!” cried Patsy. “It’s not so bad, chief, afterall. She’s not completely in the soup.”
They were rapidly approaching the couple while speaking.
The nurse, or governess, for such the young woman appeared to be, hadarisen and was assisting the other to her feet.
She was a well-dressed woman of thirty-five, with an abundance of wavyauburn hair and rather thin features, fairly prepossessing, but thenquite pale. She was wiping a white froth from her lips, and appeared...