The sultan's Pearls

By Nicholas Carter and John Betancourt

On the trail of criminals, Nick finds himself headed to exotic Puerto Rico accompanied his team. A classic mystery!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wildside Press
• Release date: Jul 22, 2022
• ISBN: 9781667640020

Nicholas Carter

General Sir Nicholas Carter KCB, CBE, DSO, ADC Gen commissioned into The Royal Green Jackets in 1978. At Regimental Duty he has served in Northern Ireland, Cyprus, Germany, Bosnia, and Kosovo and commanded 2nd Battalion, The Royal Green Jackets, from 1998 to 2000. He attended Army Staff College, the Higher Command and Staff Course and the Royal College of Defence Studies. He was Military Assistant to the Assistant Chief of the General Staff, Colonel Army Personnel Strategy, spent a year at HQ Land Command writing the Collective Training Study, and was Director of Army Resources and Plans. He also served as Director of Plans within the US-led Combined Joint Task Force 180 in Afghanistan and spent three months in the Cross Government Iraq Planning Unit prior to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. General Carter commanded 20th Armoured Brigade in Iraq in 2004 and 6th Division in Afghanistan in 2009/10. He was then the Director General Land Warfare before becoming the Army 2020 Team Leader. He served as DCOM ISAF from October 2012 to August 2013, became Commander Land Forces in November 2013, and was appointed Chief of the General Staff in September 2014.

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Table of Contents

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

INTRODUCTION

THE SULTAN’S PEARLS, by Nicholas Carter

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

Copyright © 2022 by Wildside Press LLC.

Originally published June 5, 1915.

Published by Wildside Press LLC.

wildsidepress.com | bcmystery.com

INTRODUCTION

Nick Carter is a fictional character who began as a dime-novel private detective in 1886 and has appeared in a variety of formats over more than a century. He first appeared in the story paper New York Weekly (Vol. 41 No. 46, September 18, 1886) in a 13-week serial, The Old Detective’s Pupil; or, The Mysterious Crime of Madison Square.

The character was conceived by Ormond G. Smith, the son of one of the founders of Street & Smith, and realized by John R. Coryell. The character proved popular enough to headline its own magazine, Nick Carter Weekly. The serialized stories in Nick Carter Weekly were also reprinted as stand-alone titles under the New Magnet Library imprint.

By 1915, Nick Carter Weekly had ceased publication and Street & Smith had replaced it with Detective Story Magazine, which focused on a more varied cast of characters. There was a brief attempt at reviving Carter in 1924–27 in Detective Story Magazine, but it was not successful.

In the 1930s, due to the success of The Shadow and Doc Savage, Street & Smith revived Nick Carter in a pulp magazine (called Nick Carter Detective Magazine) that ran from 1933 to 1936. Since the Doc Savage character had basically been given Nick’s background, Nick Carter was now recast as a hard-boiled detective. Novels featuring Carter continued to appear through the 1950s, by which time there was also a popular radio show, Nick Carter, Master Detective, which aired on the Mutual Broadcasting System network from 1943 to 1955.

The Sultan’s Pearls; or, Nick Carter’s Puerto Rico Trail. (originally published June 5, 1915) has been lightly edited to modernize language and punctuation.

Enjoy!

—John Betancourt

Cabin John, Maryland

THE SULTAN’S PEARLS,

by Nicholas Carter

Or, Nick Carter’s Puerto Rico Trail

CHAPTER 1

THE MAN WHO WAS LOST

Man overboard!

Nick Carter—known to the captain and crew of the tramp steamer Cherokee as Sykes, the bos’n—heard this shout, taken up by man after man, as he lay stretched out on the foc’s’le head, in the early morning, just as the ship nosed her way into San Juan harbor, on the northern coast of Puerto Rico.

The thrilling warning that somebody has fallen into the sea, which always sends a shock through both crew and passengers whenever heard, does not permit any ordinary person to remain quietly dozing.

The famous detective was one of the first to rush over to the side of the ship when the alarm had been given.

Close by him were his two assistants, Chick and Patsy Garvan, who, in the rôles of common sailors, had come down to Puerto Rico to help him get back the fortune in jewels which had been stolen from Stephen Reed, the well-known New York millionaire.

Who is it, chief? asked Patsy, forcing his way to the front.

I haven’t heard.

One of the crew, I suppose? hazarded Chick.

No doubt. There is only one passenger on board now, Paul Clayton. It isn’t he, for there he is, behind you.

Meanwhile, under orders from Captain Bill Lawton himself, two life rings, each with some thirty fathoms of line attached, had been hurled over in the direction of where the drowning man might be expected to be.

It was too dark to make out plainly anything in the water, but a sharp lookout was kept for an hour, until the vessel reached her anchorage and the mud hooks were let go.

Well, we couldn’t do any better, grunted Captain Lawton, through his shaggy mustache, as he and his big, two-fisted first mate, Van Cross, stood together on the bridge. We might have a roll call of the crew. I don’t know who it was went over. I reckon it wasn’t anybody who might have become President of the United States, nor nothing like that.

The saturnine skipper gave vent to a husky Haw-haw! at his own joke, and Van Cross joined in with an equally raucous guffaw.

Nick Carter was the only person on board the Cherokee who thought of a certain possibility which would attach more importance to the falling off the vessel of the man than its commander had supposed.

Patsy! whispered Nick. Go to Mr. Clayton’s cabin and see if that suit case of his, containing the Reed jewelry, is safe.

I can’t see it unless Clayton is there, objected Patsy.

Naturally. But he is there. I saw him go down just now. You may tell him I sent you to inquire.

Who shall I say? Sykes?

"Of course. I have no other name on the Cherokee."

As Patsy Garvan disappeared to obey his chief, although without understanding what it all meant, Nick Carter beckoned to Chick, and the two went down a forward hatch.

What’s the idea, chief? asked Chick.

"I want to see that the prisoners are secure, Chick. It has always been difficult to keep John Garrison Rayne behind the bars—except when he is inside the stone walls of a State’s prison—and I have not much faith in the place they have him in on the Cherokee."

The same about his man French, I suppose?

French is an insignificant scoundrel, returned Nick. He is entirely under Rayne’s influence. I dare say he regrets that he ever was persuaded to come on this ship—to act as assistant engineer and to do what he could toward robbing Clayton of the Reed jewelry.

The whole case strikes me as curious, observed Chick. To begin with, the robbery of Stephen Reed was traced directly to Paul Clayton, the passenger they call Miles.

I know, Chick. But I don’t want that talked about.

Nobody’s talking about it, rejoined Chick. Except to you. Of course, I think enough of Clayton—and his sweetheart, Lethia Ford—to be glad you are letting him go. But that isn’t all. If there should be any hitch about the delivery of the loot to Stephen Reed, it might put you in a bad position.

Chick spoke with a gravity and directness that no one else would have ventured on with Nick Carter. But as the principal assistant of the great detective he had