Nick Carter Stories No. 147, July 3, 1915: On Death's Trail; or, Nick Carter's Strangest Case

In a fog‑shrouded Washington night, a lone beam of moonlight falls on a solitary, marble‑white figure in an otherwise empty room, hinting at a hidden presence that unsettles the silence. By dawn, that unease has turned into a summons for the city's most celebrated detective, who is roused from his morning routine by a frantic call from the police chief. A notorious crook, Andy Margate, had been laid out in an undertaker’s back room, only to vanish before the coroner could examine him.

Nick Carter, his sharp‑witted partner Chickering, and the quick‑thinking Patsy Garvan race to the morgue, where the missing body raises more questions than answers. The mystery deepens as they confront the possibility that a dead man might still be pulling the strings behind a fresh wave of crime. As they begin to untangle the clues, the case promises a tangled trail of deception, danger, and the kind of cunning that only Carter’s “strangest” investigations can survive.