Nick Carter read the sign over the jeweler’s store on Eighth Avenue and stopped to glance critically at the place.

He noticed that the regulator indicated midnight. His thoughts flew back to another midnight earlier in the week, when Lusker’s store had been cleaned out by burglars. The robbery had been charged to a mysterious crook known as Doc Helstone, who was supposed to be the leader of a clever gang of lawbreakers.

Nick had been asked to break up this gang, which had baffled some of the best men of Inspector McLaughlin’s staff. A proposition had been made to him that day, and he had promised an answer on the morrow. Probably he would have decided to refuse the job, for he had a lot of work on hand; but, as he strolled up the avenue on that September night, an adventure was waiting for him which was to alter his purpose, and set him upon the track of a remarkable scoundrel.