The Great Diamond Syndicate; Or, The Hardest Crew on Record

“When the news that the diamonds were coming reached the house,” began Nick, “Anton, being without money and in debt, began figuring how the inheritance of his cousin by marriag...

Nick knew very well what that meant. The sailor was to be beaten, and imprisoned, and drugged, and frightened, until he became crazed; and then turned out into the world again....

That evening, while Chick sat in comfort on the north porch at the Maynard house, strong in the belief that his chief had gone to New York in quest of a murderer and thief who w...

The Booth Dramatic Club was holding rehearsal at its rooms on West Fourteenth Street. The rooms were on the top floor of an old-fashioned house, and were nicely fitted up with s...

Nick did not wait to make reply. He rushed the thicket whence the shots had come, but arrived too late to find the would-be murderer there. When Chick reached the spot, he found...

“They did not,” was the hesitating reply. “To tell the truth, they were not on good terms with each other last night. That makes this affair all the more terrible for mother.”

The speaker, Charley Maynard, was greatly excited. He was a young man who had arrived at legal age only a few months before. Almost from boyhood he had been a friend of the man...

Chick saw that the girl was antagonistic, but he did not show what his thoughts were. The only way to secure information from the girl would be to make friends with her. He asked:

“I am in hope,” said Nick, “that it will lead again to the headquarters of the Great Diamond Syndicate. I have an idea that I would like a short talk with the man I met in the H...

“No,” was the reply. “As the coroner said, the verdict will be that Maynard came to his death at the hands of some person or persons unknown. I want the formalities through with...

The Dominion had for years been the resort of thieves and murderers, and it would not be strange if something of the kind should exist in the room where, he had no doubt, many p...

“There are many methods of executing the orders of the Great Diamond Syndicate,” he said, “and there are forms of death calculated to break the most obstinate will. Besides, the...

“Do you mean that you have with you over half a million dollars in diamonds—here on the Bowery at midnight?” asked Townsend, one night as they sat in a popular café in the Bowery.

A waiter approached, a tall, dark, slim fellow, with evident traces of African blood in his veins. He stepped impudently in front of the detectives as they followed Julius and t...

The young man rang the bell, and in a moment the door was opened, showing the interior of a plainly furnished hallway from which a flight of stairs led to a floor above. The pla...

He was almost a giant, and carried himself with the air of a fighter. The muscles on his arms and neck stood out like cords, and there was an ugly leer on his face.

While Maynard was cheered by the presence of the great detective, he realized that Nick’s willingness to respond to his call meant that the detective feared more than the loss o...

“We have no proof, yet I have been thinking that same thing,” replied Nick, “and that is why I went to the Townsend home, to see if it were possible to get a line on the fellow....

During the absence of the detective the red-headed young man moved swiftly about the room. To Maynard he seemed to be looking for something. He hung constantly in the vicinity o...

“The alleged reporter,” said Nick, “was probably waiting about the house. He knew that a murder had been committed, and his orders probably were to get a line on what was being...

“In five minutes’ time,” he said, “release Carrie, and see that she leaves by the side door of the saloon. I will be there to pick her up. Then leave the policemen here to guard...

“Dumond has a reputation for keeping his mouth shut,” he said, “and that is the reason he has built up such a profitable business. Go to him to-morrow with this suit, trade-mark...

“I did not,” was the reply, “but a woman who was passing said it was thrown from the second window on the right of the entrance, third floor. She said she saw a head and an arm...

“But there is another, where the smaller fry hang out, as this record shows,” replied Nick again, referring to the paper. “To be sure, there are only the little fellows left; bu...

The clerk passed out of the room with an offended air. He was loath to leave the presence of the great detective without gaining some notion as to his course of action in the mu...

There was a short silence, during which the detectives crept noiselessly up the stairs. In a moment Nick could feel the woman’s skirt by reaching over Chick’s shoulders. The gan...

As Nick thought over, word for word, the talk of the diamond thief, he could not see that his communications had much injured the syndicate. He had informed the detective that t...