Nick Carter Stories No. 155, August 28, 1915: The Gordon Elopement

In Short

Published in August 1915 by Street & Smith as issue 155 of the dime-novel series, this dime weekly features legendary New York detective Nick Carter untangling a corporate theft and apparent murder. When Wall Street broker Arthur Gordon vanishes alongside tens of thousands in securities and his clerk Pauline Perrot, Gordon’s frantic fiancée calls in Carter. Accompanied by his assistants Chick and Patsy, Carter uncovers a staged elopement, unmasks master criminal Mortimer Deland, and restores order. The installment survives as a classic example of American pulp fiction, driven by rapid pacing, theatrical disguises, and colorful period filler.

The Story

The narrative opens in a fine Bronx residence where detective Nick Carter listens to the frantic pleas of Wilhelmina Strickland. Her fiancé, Wall Street broker Arthur Gordon, has disappeared overnight. Her uncle, Rudolph Strickland, reports that Gordon failed to return home or appear at his office, while rumors suggest he has eloped with his clerk, Pauline Perrot. Suspicion turns into an emergency when Gordon’s cashier, Beckwith, telephones to announce that sixty thousand dollars in cash, bonds, and securities are missing from the office vault, along with Perrot.

Carter takes the case and deploys his team. He sends his chief assistant, Chick, to inspect Gordon's Wall Street office, where Chick deduces that Perrot could have stolen the securities by hiding them in her skirts during business hours, aided by Gordon’s habit of leaving keys in his desk. Meanwhile, Carter and his associate Patsy search Perrot’s Fordham boarding house. They discover brand-new, unworn underwear left behind—a clue suggesting a staged departure rather than a genuine trip—and retrieve fragments of a French letter from her wastebasket.

The investigation shifts back toward the Bronx when a local rustic named Jim Henley approaches with his hound, Ginger. Henley claims the dog discovered bloodstained clothing near a secluded woodland pond. Carter, Patsy, and Henley inspect the site, finding Gordon’s shoes matching footprints in the mud alongside bloody bushes. Henley offers to let Ginger trail the scent, leading Carter directly into a secluded house where an ambush awaits.

Inside, Carter finds himself confronted by the gang, including a man named Dayton who claims Gordon’s office was wiped clean. Carter instantly penetrates Dayton's elaborate disguise—a fake wig, beard, and altered skin tone—unmasking him as the notorious master crook Mortimer Deland. Deland and his henchmen hold Carter at gunpoint, believing they have outsmarted the detective.

However, Carter has already outmaneuvered them. Anticipating the trap, he intentionally delayed their trek so Patsy could circle around the property. Outside, Patsy meets Chick, who followed Dayton from the city. The two assistants scale a veranda trellis, enter through a second-story window, and launch a surprise counter-attack, catching Deland’s gang off guard, rescuing Carter, and solving the conspiracy.

The issue concludes with a secondary short story featuring "The Camera Chap," a news photographer who uses a concealed pocket camera to expose a rival's trickery, followed by a miscellany of real-world 1915 news oddities, human interest notes, and quirky patents.

How It Unfolds

The missing fortune Wilhelmina Strickland begs Nick Carter to clear her fiancé, Arthur Gordon, who has vanished alongside sixty thousand dollars in bonds and his clerk, Pauline Perrot. Carter takes the case, dispatching Chick to the Wall Street firm while he investigates Perrot's local lodgings.

Clues in the trash Searching Perrot's room, Carter and Patsy find pristine, unworn clothing and torn French letter fragments in a wastebasket. Chick inspects the office vault, concluding Perrot used stolen keys to hide the loot under her skirts before fleeing.

The bloody pond A local named Henley and his hound, Ginger, lead Carter to a lonely pond where blood-soaked garments and matching footprints suggest a violent struggle. Henley offers to have his dog trail the suspect, leading Carter toward a nearby isolated residence.

Unmasking the mastermind Inside the house, Carter faces the gang and instantly sees through the leader's disguise of a fake beard and altered complexion. He reveals "Dayton" to be the criminal mastermind Mortimer Deland, who holds Carter at gunpoint.

The veranda raid Having secretly shadowed the group, Carter's assistants Chick and Patsy meet outside the hideout. They scale a porch trellis, slip through a second-story window, and drop in to overpower Deland's crew and clear Gordon's name.

The People

• Nick Carter: The famous master detective. Calm, observant, and impossible to deceive, he listens patiently to distraught clients, penetrates theatrical disguises instantly, and uses deliberate delays to let his assistants position themselves for a trap.
• Wilhelmina Strickland: Arthur Gordon’s fiercely loyal fiancée. She refuses to believe her lover is a thief or an adulterer, insisting he is the victim of a hideous plot.
• Arthur Gordon: A Wall Street broker who disappears under a cloud of suspicion. His habit of leaving key rings in desk locks makes his vault vulnerable to theft, enabling crooks to frame him for an elopement and robbery.
• Pauline Perrot: Gordon’s office clerk and accomplice in the theft. She uses her routine access to the vault to smuggle out cash and securities before staging her own disappearance.
• Mortimer Deland: A sinister, effeminate master criminal operating under the alias Dayton. He uses wigs, dye, and false eye-brows to hide his identity, directing Henley and other hirelings to plant blood evidence and frame Gordon.
• Chick Carter and Patsy: Carter’s reliable assistants. Chick handles city legwork and surveillance with cool efficiency, while Patsy provides nimble physical support, scaling roofs and forcing windows to execute rescues.
• Jim Henley: A cunning, narrow-eyed rural local who uses his hound, Ginger, to "discover" planted evidence and guide Carter directly into Deland’s ambush.

In Its Own Voice

“My faith in him is unshaken. He is incapable of such deceit, such cruelty, such terrible treachery.”

Distraught over her missing fiancé, Wilhelmina Strickland stoutly defends Arthur Gordon's honor to Nick Carter at the outset of the investigation.

“All of this underwear is new,” Nick pointed out. “Not a piece of it has been worn.”

Inspecting Pauline Perrot’s deserted room, Carter notices that her left-behind garments are completely fresh, alerting him that her sudden departure was staged.

“Fly your true colors, Mr. Mortimer Deland, and I’ll tell you what I am after and what I’ve been doing.”

Trapped in the rural hideout, Carter calmly confronts his captor, seeing right through the villain’s elaborate artificial beard and cosmetic disguise.

What It's Really About

Beneath its sensational plot of stolen bonds and blood-spattered bushes, the story explores the tension between surface appearances and underlying truth. Deland’s gang relies entirely on theatrical illusions—fake letters, planted shoes, staged blood, and elaborate cosmetics—to manufacture a believable story of adultery and murder that the public and police will instantly accept. They count on society's eagerness to believe the worst of a man based on circumstantial evidence. Countering this is absolute faith and logical deduction. Wilhelmina’s unwavering trust in her fiancé provides the initial resistance to the lie, while Carter’s methodical observation exposes the artificiality of the clues. The narrative argues that true justice requires looking past manufactured narratives to inspect the physical mechanics of a crime.

Why Read It Today

This issue offers a vivid, unfiltered look into American popular culture on the eve of the First World War. It captures the rapid pace and visual flair of early twentieth-century dime novels, where master detectives face off against theatrical villains in rural Bronx hideouts. Readers who enjoy vintage pulp, historical detective fiction, or the history of American publishing will appreciate its energetic storytelling and dramatic turns.

The prose is direct and unpretentious, designed for quick reading on a streetcar or train. It reflects the period's social landscape, complete with functional technology like wall-crank telephones, taxicabs, roll-top desks, and early pocket cameras. Modern readers may find the dialogue somewhat melodramatic and the plot turns reliant on convenient coincidences, but these elements are central to the genre's charm.

The inclusion of back-of-the-book news oddities—ranging from a court-martialed elephant in India to a Kansas bull chasing hikers in red sweaters—adds a fascinating layer of period flavor. It serves as a entertaining artifact of turn-of-the-century popular entertainment.