"Nat Pinkerton, King Of Detectives - The Bloody Talisman" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pinkerton Nat)

The waiter said that as he was descending the stairs someone had grabbed him from behind and threw him to the floor. He had not even seen his opponent because he had been hit on the head.

The hotel owner telephoned the police; he could not explain the puzzling incident, but then he remembered that the day before the renowned detective Nat Pinkerton had visited the hotel and had asked that to be summoned immediately if anything unusual happened.

The owner phoned the detective right away, and he quickly responded.

The detective listened to the incoherent story and asked: "Are all your guests in?"

"I couldnТt wake everyone, that would cause a big misunderstanding!"

"Alright! Go up to Room 55 on the eighth floor and see if Karl Nefeldt, a young, blond German, is in. I have reason to think that misfortune has befallen him."

"IТll find out right away!"

The owner and several of his employees left for the eighth floor. The door to Room 55 turned out to be unlocked, and there was a stiflingly sweet odor.

The bed was empty, but one could see that the lodger had lain down on it, and on the night stand the barrels of two loaded revolvers glistened.

"Aha, a crime has been committed," exclaimed the owner excitedly. "Evidently our guest has disappeared without a trace! Not a word about this to anyone," he said to his employees, "or else weТll incur terrible losses! IТll inform Mr. Pinkerton right away and he, surely, will be able to explain this mystery and save that unfortunate man."

He returned to the telephone and informed the detective.

"We might have expected that," answered Pinkerton. "IТll be there in half an hour. Mr. Nefeldt has been taken from the hotel, he is now in the power of those scoundrels and will perish if the most energetic measures are not taken immediately!"

The hotel owner became even more worried. Wringing his hands, he ran back and forth through the room: if the incident gets publicity, his hotelТs reputation would be ruined. Merciful heavens, some scoundrels broke in during the night, kidnapped a man and nobody noticed! The poor man lost his head entirely. He would never have thought that such a thing could occur in a hotel full of people!

Half an hour later Nat Pinkerton appeared together with his assistant Bob Ruland and quickly went up to the eighth floor. When they entered Room 55 and noticed the cloying odor, the detective immediately opened the window and said: "Now we know how the rascals overcame their victim! They filled the room with gas! ItТs a Chinese invention thatТs often used in China. Without a doubt, the Chinese following Nefeldt were here!"

Pinkerton went over to the open window and looked down.

"Strange!" he muttered, "still I donТt understand how the slant-eyed devils contrived to carry him out? They set it up cleverly!"

He went to the back of the hotel and examined the courtyard framed by tall apartment buildings; it was unthinkable that the Chinese could cross here unnoticed with their load. It was likewise improbable that they had gone out to the street, which was busy all night long. Besides, Chinatown was far from the hotel, which in all probability made transporting the prisoner very difficult.

Pinkerton thought for a while.

"I donТt understand," he muttered, "those Chinese put together a devilishly clever plan!"

He began to go over the room thoroughly, but found nothing, establishing only that the Chinamen had let the suffocating gas in through the door.

He found a pinch of white powder on the floor, which he took with him in a piece of paper, and a spot left by some acid. But he could not determine how the Chinese had left the hotel building with their victim.

Since the porter was unconscious, the scoundrels could, itТs true, have left by the front, but the detective considered that impossible.

"If they had not had such a load," he told Bob, "they could have gone out on the street and concealed themselves in an alleyway. After all, they know how to hide themselves in an instant! But they could not have walked very quickly carrying a large man. The alarm would have gone out in a moment if passersby had seen several Chinamen carrying a man at night, or even something of that size. ThatТs whatТs complicating the story!"

The detective searched every floor, but he could find no clues. The criminals had planned everything subtly and walked barefoot through the hotel. The detective passed the trunks on the sixth floor. It did not even occur to him that Nefeldt might be in one of them.

The detective and the policeman who arrived right after him searched the hotel until morning.