Driven from Cover

By Nicholas Carter and John Betancourt

When Nick Carter answers the phone, a woman's cry for help, followed by the sharp crack of a revolver being fired, launches the famous detective into his latest case.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wildside Press
• Release date: Aug 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781479478767

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

DRIVEN FROM COVER, by Nicholas Carter

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

DRIVEN FROM COVER,

by Nicholas Carter

or Nick Carter’s Double Ruse

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

Copyright © 2022 by Wildside Press LLC.

Originally published in Nick Carter Stories No. 159, September 25, 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.

Driven from Cover; or Nick Carter’s Double Ruse (originally published September 25, 1915) has been lightly edited to modernize language and punctuation.

Enjoy!

—John Betancourt

Cabin John, Maryland

CHAPTER 1

CAUSE FOR SUSPICION

Nick Carter waited, listening intently, listening vainly, with his desk telephone in his hand and the receiver at his ear.

Chick Carter, the celebrated detective’s chief assistant, sat watching him, noting each changing expression on his strong, clean-cut face, and wondering what occasioned it.

It was about nine o’clock one evening in October, and both detectives were seated in the library of Nick Carter’s spacious residence in Madison Avenue.

Hello! Nick now called quite sharply. Hello!

No answer.

What’s the trouble? Chick inquired. Don’t you get a reply?

No, Chick, and that’s not the worst of it, Nick said quite gravely.

Why so? What do you mean?

I heard my name called just as I removed the receiver from its hook, Nick explained. The voice sounded like that of a woman, though I am not positive about it. Then came a single sharp crack, like the report of a revolver, or as if the telephone had dropped from the speaker’s hand and crashed upon the floor. I suspect there is something wrong.

Can you hear anything now?

Not a sound.

Call central, Chick suggested. You may learn who rang you up.

Presently. I still am hoping to hear something of more definite significance.

One minute passed. It brought no sound over the wire.

The silence then was broken by a voice which Nick knew must be that of the exchange operator addressing the person who had rung him up.

Did you get him?

No answer.

Nick waited a moment longer, then cried abruptly:

Hello, central!

Well?

This is Nick Carter talking. I can get no reply from the party who rang me up. What’s the trouble?

There should be none. The circuit is not broken.

Did you hear any unusual sound after making the connection, as if the telephone had been dropped, or as if something occurred?

I did not. I will try to get the party.

Do so.

Nick waited and heard the operator cry repeatedly:

Hello! Hello! Hello!

No answer—still no answer.

No sound so much as suggesting what had occurred, what fateful deed had been done, or what horror might then be in progress, whence the mysterious telephone call had come.

The stillness over the wire was like that of death itself.

Had death, indeed, stilled the voice heard for a fleeting moment by the detective, the voice that had uttered his name, as if a cry of appeal had been cut short when it left the lips of the speaker?

The operator spoke again.

Mr. Carter.

Well?

There is something wrong. The circuit still is complete, but I can get no reply. The person who called you up evidently has left the telephone, but has not hung up the receiver.

Were you asked to hold the wire?

No.

Can you find out who called, what number, or where the telephone is located?

I will try.

Do so, please, and notify me immediately.

I will, sir.

Nick replaced his telephone on the library desk, then turned quickly to Chick.

Have Danny here with the touring car as soon as possible, he directed, referring to his chauffeur. You had better get ready to accompany me.

You are going—

To the residence, office, or whatever the quarters may be, of the party who telephoned, Nick interrupted. The circumstances are decidedly ominous. We’ll find out why the milk is in the coconut.

I’m with you, Chick declared, hastening to carry out the instructions given him.

Ten minutes brought the report Nick was awaiting. He then hurried through the hall, seizing his hat and overcoat, and rejoined Chick in the touring car, which had arrived at the curbing only a moment before.

Great guns! Chick exclaimed, upon hearing the terse directions Nick had given