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 Kinematics and Dynamics
of Mechanical Systems
Implementation in MATLAB®
and Simmechanics®
 Kinematics and Dynamics
of Mechanical Systems
Implementation in MATLAB®
and Simmechanics®
Second Edition

Kevin Russell, Qiong Shen, Raj S. Sodhi

MATLAB ® and Simulink® are trademarks of The MathWorks, Inc. and are used with permission. The MathWorks
does not war- rant the accuracy of the text or exercises in this book. This book’s use or discussion of MATLAB® and
Simulink® software or related products does not constitute endorsement or sponsorship by The MathWorks of a par-
ticular pedagogical approach or particular use of the MATLAB ® and Simulink® software.

CRC Press
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Russell, Kevin (Mechanical engineer), author. | Shen, Qiong

(Mechanical engineer), author. | Sodhi, R. S. (Raj S.), author.
Title: Kinematics and dynamics of mechanical systems : implementation in
MATLAB and SimMechanics / Kevin Russell, Qiong Shen, Raj S. Sodhi.
Description: Boca Raton : CRC Press, Taylor & Francis, 2018. | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018022923 | ISBN 9781138584044 (hardback)
Subjects: LCSH: Machinery, Kinematics of--Computer simulation. | Machinery,
Dynamics of—Computer simulation. | MATLAB. | SimMechanics.
Classification: LCC TJ175 .R87 2018 | DDC 621.01/5311—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018022923

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Contents

Preface............................................................................................................................................ xiii
Authors......................................................................................................................................... xvii

1. Introduction to Kinematics...................................................................................................1
1.1 Kinematics.......................................................................................................................1
1.2 Kinematic Chains and Mechanisms...........................................................................2
1.3 Mobility, Planar, and Spatial Mechanisms.................................................................3
1.4 Types of Mechanism Motion........................................................................................5
1.5 Kinematic Synthesis......................................................................................................7
1.6 Units and Conversions..................................................................................................8
1.7 Software Resources........................................................................................................9
1.8 Summary.........................................................................................................................9
References................................................................................................................................ 10
Additional Reading................................................................................................................ 11

2. Mathematical Concepts in Kinematics............................................................................. 13

2.1 Introduction.................................................................................................................. 13
2.2 Complex Numbers and Operations.......................................................................... 13
2.2.1 Complex Number Forms............................................................................... 13
2.2.2 Complex Number Addition........................................................................... 15
2.2.3 Complex Number Multiplication and Differentiation.............................. 17
2.3 Vector and Point Representation............................................................................... 20
2.4 Linear Simultaneous Equations, Matrices, and Matrix Operations.....................22
2.4.1 Linear Simultaneous Equation Systems and Matrices..............................22
2.4.2 Matrix Transpose, Addition, Subtraction, and Multiplication................. 23
2.4.3 The Identity Matrix and Matrix Inversion.................................................. 26
2.5 Intermediate and Total Spatial Motion..................................................................... 29
2.6 General Transformation Matrix................................................................................. 33
2.7 Summary....................................................................................................................... 36
References................................................................................................................................ 37
Additional Reading................................................................................................................ 37
Problems................................................................................................................................... 37

3. Fundamental Concepts in Kinematics.............................................................................. 41

3.1 Types of Planar and Spatial Mechanisms................................................................ 41
3.1.1 Planar Four-Bar Mechanism......................................................................... 41
3.1.2 Slider-Crank Mechanism............................................................................... 41
3.1.3 Geared Five-Bar Mechanism.........................................................................42
3.1.4 Planar Multiloop Six-Bar Mechanisms........................................................44
3.1.5 Spatial Four-Bar Mechanisms....................................................................... 45
3.2 Links, Joints, and Mechanism Mobility.................................................................... 46
3.3 Number Synthesis........................................................................................................ 49
3.4 Grashof’s Criteria and Transmission Angle............................................................. 50
3.5 Circuit Defect................................................................................................................ 53

v
vi Contents

3.6 Mechanism Inversion..................................................................................................54

3.7 Passive Degree of Freedom and Paradoxes.............................................................. 55
3.8 Summary....................................................................................................................... 56
References................................................................................................................................ 57
Problems................................................................................................................................... 58

4. Kinematic Analysis of Planar Mechanisms.....................................................................63

4.1 Introduction..................................................................................................................63
4.2 Numerical Solution Method for Two Simultaneous Equations............................64
4.3 Link Velocity and Acceleration Components in Planar Space..............................64
4.4 Four-Bar Mechanism Analysis.................................................................................. 66
4.4.1 Displacement Equations................................................................................ 66
4.4.2 Velocity Equations.......................................................................................... 67
4.4.3 Acceleration Equations................................................................................... 68
4.4.4 Kinematics of Coupler Locations of Interest............................................... 70
4.4.5 Instant Center, Centrodes, and Centrode Generation............................... 76
4.5 Slider-Crank Mechanism Analysis...........................................................................80
4.5.1 Displacement Equations................................................................................80
4.5.2 Velocity Equations.......................................................................................... 81
4.5.3 Acceleration Equations...................................................................................83
4.5.4 Centrode Generation...................................................................................... 89
4.6 Geared Five-Bar Mechanism Analysis..................................................................... 91
4.6.1 Displacement Equations................................................................................ 91
4.6.2 Velocity Equations.......................................................................................... 92
4.6.3 Acceleration Equations................................................................................... 93
4.6.4 Kinematics of Intermediate Link Locations of Interest............................. 95
4.7 Watt II Mechanism Analysis...................................................................................... 97
4.8 Stephenson III Mechanism Analysis....................................................................... 100
4.8.1 Displacement Equations.............................................................................. 100
4.8.2 Velocity Equations........................................................................................ 103
4.8.3 Acceleration Equations................................................................................. 104
4.8.4 Kinematics of Intermediate Link Locations of Interest........................... 105
4.9 Time and Driver Angular Velocity.......................................................................... 108
4.10 Mechanism Configurations...................................................................................... 108
4.11 Constructing Cognates............................................................................................. 109
4.12 Planar Mechanism Kinematic Analysis and Modeling in Simmechanics®....... 112
4.13 Summary..................................................................................................................... 117
References.............................................................................................................................. 118
Additional Reading.............................................................................................................. 118
Problems................................................................................................................................. 118

5. Dimensional Synthesis...................................................................................................... 131

5.1 Introduction................................................................................................................ 131
5.2 Branch and Order Defects........................................................................................ 133
5.3 Planar Four-Bar Motion Generation: Three Precision Positions......................... 135
5.4 Order- and Branch-Defect Elimination.................................................................. 140
5.5 Path Generation versus Motion Generation........................................................... 144
5.6 Stephenson III Motion Generation: Three Precision Positions............................ 145
5.7 Planar Four-Bar Function Generation: Three Precision Points........................... 149
Contents vii

5.8  lanar Four-Bar Function Generation: FSPs and MSPs........................................ 153

P
5.9 Mechanism Dimensions: From Dimensional Synthesis to
Kinematic Analysis��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 158
5.10 Summary..................................................................................................................... 163
References.............................................................................................................................. 164
Additional Reading.............................................................................................................. 165
Problems................................................................................................................................. 165

6. Static Force Analysis of Planar Mechanisms................................................................. 175

6.1 Introduction................................................................................................................ 175
6.2 Static Loading in Planar Space................................................................................. 176
6.3 Four-Bar Mechanism Analysis................................................................................ 177
6.4 Slider-Crank Mechanism Analysis......................................................................... 182
6.5 Geared Five-Bar Mechanism Analysis................................................................... 185
6.6 Watt II Mechanism Analysis.................................................................................... 190
6.7 Stephenson III Mechanism Analysis....................................................................... 196
6.8 Planar Mechanism Static Force Analysis and Modeling in SimMechanics®..... 201
6.9 Summary..................................................................................................................... 204
References.............................................................................................................................. 205
Additional Reading.............................................................................................................. 206
Problems................................................................................................................................. 206

7. Dynamic Force Analysis of Planar Mechanisms..........................................................223

7.1 Introduction................................................................................................................223
7.2 Dynamic Loading in Planar Space.......................................................................... 224
7.3 Four-Bar Mechanism Analysis................................................................................ 224
7.4 Slider-Crank Mechanism Analysis......................................................................... 230
7.5 Geared Five-Bar Mechanism Analysis................................................................... 233
7.6 Watt II Mechanism Analysis.................................................................................... 238
7.7 Stephenson III Mechanism Analysis....................................................................... 243
7.8 Mass Moment of Inertia and Computer-Aided Design Software....................... 248
7.9 Planar Mechanism Dynamic Force Analysis and Modeling in
Simmechanics®���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 250
7.10 Summary..................................................................................................................... 256
References.............................................................................................................................. 256
Additional Reading.............................................................................................................. 256
Problems................................................................................................................................. 256

8. Design and Kinematic Analysis of Gears...................................................................... 271

8.1 Introduction................................................................................................................ 271
8.2 Gear Types.................................................................................................................. 272
8.3 SPUR-Gear Nomenclature and Relationships of Mating Gears......................... 274
8.3.1 Spur-Gear Nomenclature............................................................................ 274
8.3.2 Pressure Angle and Involute Tooth Profile............................................... 277
8.3.3 Gear Center Distance and Contact Ratio................................................... 280
8.3.4 Gear-Tooth Interference and Undercutting.............................................. 282
8.3.5 Backlash.......................................................................................................... 283
8.4 Helical-Gear Nomenclature.....................................................................................284
8.5 Gear Kinematics......................................................................................................... 287
viii Contents

8.5.1 Spur Gears and Gear Trains........................................................................ 287

8.5.2 Planetary Gear Trains.................................................................................. 291
8.5.3 Rack and Pinion Gears................................................................................. 295
8.5.4 Helical Gears................................................................................................. 296
8.5.5 Bevel Gears.................................................................................................... 298
8.5.6 Worm Gears................................................................................................... 301
8.6 Summary.....................................................................................................................305
References..............................................................................................................................305
Additional Reading..............................................................................................................306
Problems.................................................................................................................................306

9. Design and Kinematic Analysis of Disk Cams............................................................. 311

9.1 Introduction................................................................................................................ 311
9.2 Follower Types............................................................................................................ 312
9.3 Follower Motion......................................................................................................... 313
9.3.1 Rise, Fall, and Dwell..................................................................................... 313
9.3.2 Displacement, Velocity, Acceleration, and Jerk......................................... 315
9.3.3 Constant Velocity Motion............................................................................ 315
9.3.4 Constant Acceleration Motion.................................................................... 317
9.3.5 Simple Harmonic Motion............................................................................ 320
9.3.6 Cycloidal Motion........................................................................................... 322
9.3.7 Polynomial Motion....................................................................................... 325
9.4 Disk Cam Design and Pressure Angle................................................................... 331
9.5 Summary..................................................................................................................... 336
References.............................................................................................................................. 337
Additional Reading.............................................................................................................. 337
Problems................................................................................................................................. 338

10. Kinematic Analysis of Spatial Mechanisms..................................................................343

10.1 Introduction................................................................................................................343
10.2 RRSS Mechanism Analysis......................................................................................344
10.2.1 Displacement Equations..............................................................................344
10.2.2 Velocity Equations........................................................................................346
10.2.3 Acceleration Equations................................................................................. 347
10.3 RSSR Mechanism Analysis....................................................................................... 350
10.3.1 Displacement Equations.............................................................................. 350
10.3.2 Velocity Equations........................................................................................ 351
10.3.3 Acceleration Equations................................................................................. 352
10.4 Four-Revolute Spherical Mechanism Analysis...................................................... 355
10.5 Planar Four-Bar Kinematic Analysis Using RRSS and RSSR Kinematic
Equations�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 359
10.6 Spatial Mechanism Kinematic Analysis and Modeling in Simmechanics®....... 362
10.7 Summary.....................................................................................................................364
References.............................................................................................................................. 365
Problems................................................................................................................................. 365

11. Introduction to Robotic Manipulators............................................................................ 373

11.1 Introduction................................................................................................................ 373
11.2 Terminology and Nomenclature............................................................................. 374
Contents ix

11.3 Robotic Manipulator Mobility and Types.............................................................. 375

11.4 The General Transformation Matrix....................................................................... 377
11.5 Forward Kinematics.................................................................................................. 381
11.5.1 Definition and Application.......................................................................... 381
11.5.2 P-P-P................................................................................................................ 381
11.5.3 R-P-P................................................................................................................ 383
11.5.4 R-R-P............................................................................................................... 385
11.5.5 R-R-R............................................................................................................... 387
11.5.6 R-R-C............................................................................................................... 389
11.6 Inverse Kinematics..................................................................................................... 392
11.6.1 Definition and Application.......................................................................... 392
11.6.2 P-P-P................................................................................................................ 392
11.6.3 R-P-P................................................................................................................ 394
11.6.4 R-R-P............................................................................................................... 396
11.6.5 R-R-R............................................................................................................... 397
11.6.6 R-R-C............................................................................................................... 399
11.7 Robotic Manipulator Kinematic Analysis and Modeling in
Simmechanics®��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 401
11.8 Summary..................................................................................................................... 402
References.............................................................................................................................. 402
Additional Reading.............................................................................................................. 403
Problems................................................................................................................................. 403
Appendix A: User Information and Instructions for MATLAB®..................................... 409
A.1 Required MATLAB Toolkits..................................................................................... 409
A.2 Description of MATLAB Operators and Functions.............................................. 409
A.3 Preparing and Running Files in MATLAB and Operations in
SimMechanics������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 409
A.4 Rerunning MATLAB and SimMechanics Files with Existing *.csv Files......... 413
A.5 Minimum Precision Requirement for Appendix File User Input....................... 413
Appendix B: User Instructions for Chapter 4 MATLAB® Files......................................... 415
B.1 Planar Four-Bar Mechanism.................................................................................... 415
B.2 Planar Four-Bar Fixed and Moving Centrode Generation.................................. 415
B.3 Slider-Crank Mechanism.......................................................................................... 417
B.4 Geared Five-Bar Mechanism (Two Gears).............................................................. 419
B.5 Geared Five-Bar Mechanism (Three Gears)........................................................... 419
B.6 Watt II Mechanism..................................................................................................... 420
B.7 Stephenson III Mechanism.......................................................................................422
Appendix C: User Instructions for Chapter 6 MATLAB® Files........................................425
C.1 Planar Four-Bar Mechanism....................................................................................425
C.2 Slider-Crank Mechanism..........................................................................................425
C.3 Geared Five-Bar Mechanism (Two Gears).............................................................. 428
C.4 Geared Five-Bar Mechanism (Three Gears)........................................................... 429
C.5 Watt II Mechanism.....................................................................................................430
C.6 Stephenson III Mechanism....................................................................................... 431
Appendix D: User Instructions for Chapter 7 MATLAB® Files........................................ 435
D.1 Planar Four-Bar Mechanism.................................................................................... 435
D.2 Slider-Crank Mechanism.......................................................................................... 435
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x Contents

D.3 G
 eared Five-Bar Mechanism (Two Gears).............................................................. 437
D.4 G
 eared Five-Bar Mechanism (Three Gears)........................................................... 438
D.5 W
 att II Mechanism..................................................................................................... 439
D.6 S
 tephenson III Mechanism....................................................................................... 441
Appendix E: User Instructions for Chapter 9 MATLAB® Files.........................................447
E.1 S, V Profile Generation and Cam Design: Constant Velocity Motion................ 447
E.2 S, V, A Profile Generation and Cam Design: Constant Acceleration
Motion����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 447
E.3 S, V, A, J Profile Generation and Cam Design: Simple Harmonic Motion......... 449
E.4 S, V, A, J Profile Generation and Cam Design: Cycloidal Motion....................... 451
E.5 S, V, A, J Profile Generation and Cam Design: 3-4-5 Polynomial Motion.......... 451
E.6 S, V, A, J Profile Generation and Cam Design: 4-5-6-7 Polynomial Motion...... 451
Appendix F: User Instructions for Chapter 10 MATLAB® Files....................................... 453
F.1 RRSS Mechanism....................................................................................................... 453
F.2 RSSR Mechanism....................................................................................................... 453
Appendix G: User Instructions for Chapter 11 MATLAB® Files...................................... 457
G.1 R-P-P Robotic Manipulator Forward Kinematics.................................................. 457
G.2 R-R-P Robotic Manipulator Forward Kinematics................................................. 457
G.3 R-R-R Robotic Manipulator Forward Kinematics................................................. 457
G.4 R-R-C Robotic Manipulator Forward Kinematics................................................. 459
G.5 R-P-P Robotic Manipulator Inverse Kinematics.................................................... 460
G.6 R-R-P Robotic Manipulator Inverse Kinematics.................................................... 460
G.7 R-R-R Robotic Manipulator Inverse Kinematics.................................................... 461
G.8 R-R-C Robotic Manipulator Inverse Kinematics................................................... 462
Appendix H: User Instructions for Chapter 4 MATLAB® and
SimMechanics® Files.......................................................................................................... 465
H.1 Planar Four-Bar Mechanism....................................................................................465
H.2 Slider-Crank Mechanism..........................................................................................465
H.3 G eared Five-Bar Mechanism (Two Gears).............................................................. 467
H.4 G eared Five-Bar Mechanism (Three Gears)........................................................... 469
H.5 W att II Mechanism..................................................................................................... 470
H.6 S tephenson III Mechanism....................................................................................... 472
Appendix I: User Instructions for Chapter 6 MATLAB® and SimMechanics® Files.........475
I.1 Planar Four-Bar Mechanism.................................................................................... 475
I.2 Slider-Crank Mechanism.......................................................................................... 475
I.3 Geared Five-Bar Mechanism (Two Gears).............................................................. 479
I.4 Geared Five-Bar Mechanism (Three Gears)........................................................... 479
I.5 Watt II Mechanism.....................................................................................................480
I.6 Stephenson III Mechanism....................................................................................... 482
Appendix J: User Instructions for Chapter 7 MATLAB® and SimMechanics® Files.........487
J.1 Planar Four-Bar Mechanism.................................................................................... 487
J.2 Slider-Crank Mechanism.......................................................................................... 488
J.3 Geared Five-Bar Mechanism (Two Gears).............................................................. 490
J.4 Geared Five-Bar Mechanism (Three Gears)........................................................... 494
J.5 Watt II Mechanism..................................................................................................... 494
J.6 Stephenson III Mechanism....................................................................................... 497
Contents xi

Appendix K: User Instructions for Chapter 10 MATLAB® and

SimMechanics® Files.......................................................................................................... 501
K.1 RRSS Mechanism....................................................................................................... 501
K.2 RSSR Mechanism....................................................................................................... 501
Appendix L: User Instructions for Chapter 11 MATLAB® and
SimMechanics® Files............................................................................................................ 505
L.1 R-P-P Robotic Manipulator Forward Kinematics.................................................. 505
L.2 R-R-P Robotic Manipulator Forward Kinematics.................................................505
L.3 R-R-R Robotic Manipulator Forward Kinematics................................................. 506
L.4 R-R-C Robotic Manipulator Forward Kinematics................................................. 507
Index.............................................................................................................................................. 509
Preface

Kinematics is the study of motion without considering forces. In comparison to other

engineering design disciplines such as statics, where motion and governing loads are
considered according to Newton’s first law and dynamics, where motion and governing
loads are considered according to Newton’s second law, kinematics is the most funda-
mental engineering design discipline. Courses pertaining to the kinematics of mechani-
cal systems are core requirements of university undergraduate mechanical engineering
curricula.
While a central understanding of classical kinematics will continue to remain rel-
evant in engineering and subsequently, a necessary focus in undergraduate engi-
neering education, it is becoming increasingly important that an undergraduate also
acquire a central understanding of static and dynamic mechanism analysis. Such an
understanding prepares an undergraduate student to conduct more thorough analy-
ses and produce more relevant solutions in mechanism design. In addition, a central
understanding of the design and analysis of robotic manipulators has become essential in
modern-day undergraduate engineering education due to the expanding use of robotic
systems today.
It has become very efficient and extremely practical to utilize mathematical analysis
software to conduct engineering analyses in recent years. Of all the mathematical analysis
software options available (which are numerous), the authors chose MATLAB®. MATLAB
is a high-level language and interactive environment for numerical computation, visu-
alization, simulation and programming. Using MATLAB, one can analyze data, develop
algorithms, and create models and applications without data type checking, compiling and
linking (tasks common in programming languages such as C++ and Java). SimMechanics®,
a MATLAB toolbox, provides a graphical multi-body simulation environment for 2D and
3D mechanical systems including linkages, robots, cam systems and gear systems. The
user models the multi-body system (using blocks representing bodies, joints, constraints,
and motion/force actuator elements) and then SimMechanics formulates and solves the
governing equations of motion and force for the complete mechanical system. An auto-
matically generated 3D animation lets you visualize the system dynamics. MATLAB and
SimMechanics can be used for a broad range of applications including the kinematics,
synthesis, statics and dynamics of mechanical systems. Both MATLAB and SimMechanics
are well-established (and often the de facto standard for mathematical analysis and simula-
tion) in colleges and universities.
There is currently a variety of textbooks available in mechanism kinematics-each
book differing from the others primarily in terms of the breadth and depth of kinemat-
ics topics presented and the software packages used to implement the concepts and
methods presented. In light of the need to go beyond classical kinematics in under-
graduate engineering education and fill the gap between theory and the application of
theory for real-world problems, this textbook was produced. This textbook introduces
the fundamental concepts of mechanism kinematics, synthesis, statics and dynamics
for planar and spatial linkages, cam systems, gear systems and robotic manipulators by
realistic illustrations and practical problems. Also, the commercial software MATLAB
and its mechanical simulation toolbox SimMechanics are thoroughly integrated in the

xiii
xiv Preface

textbook for ease of concept implementation (both during and after one’s undergradu-
ate years).
In order to improve both the practicality of the concepts covered as well as the clarity
in their presentation, the second edition of Kinematics and Dynamics of Mechanical Systems:
Implementation in MATLAB and SimMechanics includes the following updates:

• the inclusion of gravity in static and dynamic force analysis of planar linkages
The equation systems, MATLAB files and SimMechanics files for Chapters 6
and 7 have been updated to enable the user to specify gravitational constants in
planar linkage static and dynamic force analyses. With this improvement, the user
can conduct accurate static and dynamic force analyses of planar four-bar, slider-
crank, geared five-bar, Watt II and Stephenson III mechanisms of any scale.
• the inclusion of force and torque equations for bevel gears
Chapter 8 has been updated to include force and torque equations for straight-
toothed bevel gears. With this new content, the user can conduct bevel gear force,
torque, work and power analyses of as they have been able to do for spur, helical
and worm gears in the prior textbook version.
• the inclusion of MATLAB and SimMechanics file input in textbook examples
Chapters 4–11 have been updated to include the example problem data input
formulated as input in the corresponding MATLAB and SimMechanics files. This
new content improves the clarity for the reader regarding example problem inter-
pretation and preparation for use in the library of MATLAB and SimMechanics
files that accompany this textbook (these files are available for download at https://
www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781498724937 and click the Downloads tab).

This textbook was written to accommodate students with no working knowledge of

MATLAB. In terms of MATLAB knowledge, the ideal user should know how to launch
MATLAB and have access to the MATLAB software package itself. Any version of MATLAB
post 2013 is suitable to run the MATLAB and SimMechanics files associated with this text-
book (provided all of the required toolkits listed in Appendix A.1 are installed).
The intended uses for this textbook are the following:

• as a sole text for an undergraduate course in mechanical system kinematics

• as a sole text for an undergraduate mechanical design course (where mecha-
nisms are then analyzed using Statics/Dynamics, Stress Analysis, Machine Design,
CAE, etc.).
• as a reference text for mechanical engineering research
• as a reference text for the application of MATLAB and SimMechanics in mechani-
cal engineering

Because our goal is to produce a textbook with sufficient breadth, depth and implemen-
tation resources to be an effective resource for 21st century undergraduate engineering
education, we look forward to any feedback you may have. For e-mail correspondence, we
can be reached at kevin.russell@njit.edu. We hope you enjoy utilizing this work as much as
we have enjoyed producing it.
The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of those who assisted in the
review and evaluation of this textbook. In particular we thank the students of ME-231
Preface xv

(Kinematics of Machinery) from the Fall 2014 to the Spring 2018 semesters at New Jersey
Institute of Technology.

Kevin Russell
Qiong Shen
Raj S. Sodhi

MATLAB® is a registered trademark of The MathWorks, Inc. For product information,

please contact:

The MathWorks, Inc.

3 Apple Hill Drive
Natick, MA 01760-2098 USA
Tel: 508 647 7000
Fax: 508-647-7001
E-mail: info@mathworks.com
Web: www.mathworks.com
Authors

Kevin Russell, Ph.D., P.E. is a member of the teaching faculty in the Department of
Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). At
NJIT, Dr. Russell teaches courses in kinematics, machine design and mechanical design.
Formerly, Dr. Russell was a Senior Mechanical Engineer at the U.S. Army Research,
Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC) at Picatinny, New Jersey. Dr. Russell’s
responsibilities at ARDEC included the utilization of computer-aided design and modeling
and simulation tools for small and medium-caliber weapon system improvement, concept
development and failure investigations. A fellow of the American Society of Mechanical
Engineers (ASME) and a registered Professional Engineer in New Jersey, Dr. Russell holds
several patents (and pending patents) for his design contributions relating to small and
medium-caliber weapon systems, linkage-based inspection systems and human prosthet-
ics. He has published extensively among mechanical engineering journals in areas such as
kinematic synthesis, theoretical kinematics and machine design.

Qiong Shen, Ph.D. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/qiong-shen-57212524/) is the founder

of Softalink LLC, a consulting company that applies cloud-computing and big data tech-
nologies to help automate and optimize business processes, transform traditional market-
ing and strategic planning into data-driven manner. Besides business activities, Dr. Shen
is also active, as an adjunct professor at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), in
preparing college students for ever-growing challenges in engineering and management.
Dr. Shen received Ph.D. degree from a joint program between Mechanical Engineering
and Electrical Engineering Departments at NJIT. He has made substantial contribu-
tions to researches in Robotics and Mechanism Synthesis by applying technologies from
Distributed Parallel Computing, Machine Learning, Visualization, and Simulation.

Raj S. Sodhi, Ph.D., P.E. is a Professor in the Department Mechanical and Industrial
Engineering at NJIT. He has over 30 years of experience in research and education related
to Mechanical Design, Mechanisms Synthesis and Manufacturing Engineering. Dr. Sodhi
is the author or co-author of over one hundred refereed papers in scientific journals and
conference proceedings. He was awarded the Society of Manufacturing Engineering’s
University Lead Award in recognition of leadership and excellence in the application and
development of computer integrated manufacturing. He also received the N. Watrous
Procter & Gamble Award from the Society of Applied Mechanisms and Robotics for sig-
nificant contributions to the science of mechanisms and robotics and the Ralph R. Teetor
New Engineering Educator Award from the Society of Automotive Engineers. Dr. Sodhi is a
registered Professional Engineer in Texas.

xvii
1
Introduction to Kinematics

CONCEPT OVERVIEW
In this chapter, the reader will gain a central understanding regarding

1. Kinematics and its use in engineering design

2. Distinctions between kinematic chains and mechanisms
3. Planar and spatial mechanism mobility
4. Types of mechanism motion
5. Distinctions between kinematic analysis and kinematic synthesis
6. Categories of kinematic synthesis

1.1 Kinematics
Kinematics is the study of motion without considering forces. In a kinematic analysis, posi-
tions, displacements, velocities and accelerations are calculated for mechanical system
components without regard to the loads that actually govern them. In comparison to
other engineering design studies such as statics, where motion and governing loads are
­considered according to Newton’s first law, and dynamics, where motion and governing
loads are considered according to Newton’s second law, kinematics is the most fundamen-
tal engineering design study. It is often necessary in the design of a mechanical system to
not only consider the motion of its components, but also the following:

• Static or dynamic loads acting on the components (considered in statics and

dynamics)
• Component material stress and strain responses to the loads (considered in stress
analysis)
• Required component dimensions for the working stresses (considered in machine
design)

Because of this, static, dynamic, stress, and machine design analyses often follow a
­ inematic analysis.
k
Figure 1.1 includes kinematics, statics and dynamics, stress analysis and machine design
in an ascending order of progression. This order follows the intended order of use of these
studies in mechanical design. After a mechanical system has first been determined to

1
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2 Kinematics and Dynamics of Mechanical Systems

Machine design

(motion without forces)

FIGURE 1.1
Kinematics in relation to other associated engineering design studies.

be kinematically feasible, the static or dynamic loads acting on the system components
are considered next. After static or dynamic feasibility has been achieved, the stresses
and strains produced in the mechanical system components are then considered. Lastly,
machine design principles and methodologies are employed to ensure the material and
dimensions of the mechanical system components (and subsequently the entire mechani-
cal system) are satisfactory for the known working stresses.*
As illustrated in Figure 1.1, kinematics is the most fundamental of the engineering design
study listed. When a design is not kinematically sound, evidence of this will often appear
in the other engineering design studies. For example, a discontinuous displacement ­profile
calculated in a kinematic analysis would be revealed as excessive acceleration in a dynamic
analysis, which, in turn, could produce excessive dynamic forces. These ­excessive dynamic
forces would likely produce high stresses. These high stresses may require a material selec-
tion or component dimensions that make the overall component design impractical for
the intended design application. Kinematic feasibility, therefore, must be established first
before considering the follow-on engineering design studies in Figure 1.1.

1.2 Kinematic Chains and Mechanisms

This textbook focuses primarily on the kinematic analysis and kinematic synthesis of
mechanical systems or mechanisms, as they are commonly called.† A kinematic chain, an
overarching classification that includes mechanisms, is an assembly of links intercon-
nected by joints where the motion of one link compels the motion of another link (which
compels the motion of another link, and so on depending on the number of mechanism
links).‡ Complex mechanical systems, such as an automobile engine, for example, can be
comprised of multiple kinematic chains, while a single kinematic chain can constitute an
entire mechanical system in the case of a simple tool. Figure 1.2 illustrates a commonly

* In addition to engineering design factors pertaining to kinematics, statics, dynamics, and machine design—
also called traditional engineering factors—nontraditional or modern engineering factors (including producibil-
ity, cost, environmental impact, disposal, aesthetics, ergonomics, and human factors) are often equally important.
† The distinctions between kinematic analysis and kinematic synthesis are first presented in Section 1.5.
‡ Because a mechanism is an assembly of links, it is also called a linkage. Links are generally assumed to be

nondeforming or rigid in kinematics.

Introduction to Kinematics 3

L1

L2

L4
L3

(a) (b)

FIGURE 1.2
Pliers in (a) open and (b) closed positions.

used kinematic chain: a pair of pliers. Moving the lower handle (link L 3) toward the upper
handle (link L1) or vice versa compels the motion of the remaining links, including the
lower grip (link L 4), which produces a gripping action. Having links compel the motion of
each other link in a controlled manner is important because the fundamental objective in
the design of a mechanical system is to provide a controlled output motion in response to
a supplied input motion.
One characteristic that distinguishes mechanisms from other kinematic chains is that
the former has at least one “grounded” link [1]. A grounded link is one that is attached
to a particular frame of reference. Some mechanisms have links that are permanently
grounded through friction, gravity, or fastening members (e.g., bolts, screws, and welds),
whereas with our pliers example, the grounded link can be established according to one’s
own preferences.

1.3 Mobility, Planar, and Spatial Mechanisms

The mobility or the number of degrees of freedom of a mechanism is the number of indepen-
dent parameters required to uniquely define its position in space. Knowing the mobility of
a mechanism is particularly important when formulating equation systems for the kine-
matic analysis or synthesis of the mechanism. This is because the equation systems must
include enough parameters to fully define the motion of each mechanism component. To
fully define the position of a body in two-dimensional or planar space at an instant in time
requires three independent parameters. To demonstrate this principle, we will consider
the parking automobile example in Figure 1.3a where the X-Y coordinate frame is affixed to
the parking space. At any instant in time, the position of the automobile can be measured
with respect to the X-Y coordinate frame given three independent parameters. The X and
Y coordinates of any point on the automobile are two of the three parameters required to
define the planar position of a body. Because the parking automobile also rotates in the
coordinate frame, its angular position is also required to fully define its position in the X-Y
coordinate frame. Therefore, the three parameters required to define a planar position are
the X and Y coordinates of a location on the body and the orientation angle of the body.
Because three independent parameters are required to define the position of the body in the X-Y
plane, an individual mechanism link restricted to planar motion can have a mobility of up to three
or up to three degrees of freedom.
4 Kinematics and Dynamics of Mechanical Systems

(a)

Yaw

Roll

(b)

FIGURE 1.3
(a) Parking automobile and (b) aircraft in flight.

To fully define the position of a body in three-dimensional space at an instant in time

requires six independent parameters. To demonstrate this principle, we will consider the
flying aircraft example in Figure 1.3b where the X-Y-Z coordinate frame is affixed in space.
At any instant in time, the position of the aircraft can be measured with respect to the
X-Y-Z coordinate frame given six independent parameters. The X, Y, and Z coordinates
of any point on the aircraft are three of the six parameters required to define the spatial
position of a body. Because the aircraft also rotates about each coordinate frame axis, these
three angular positions are also required to fully define its position in the X-Y-Z coordinate
frame.* Therefore, the six parameters required to define a spatial position are the X, Y, and
Z coordinates of a location on the body and the orientation angles of the body about the
X, Y, and Z axes. Because six independent parameters are required to define the position
of the body in X-Y-Z space, an individual mechanism link restricted to spatial motion can
have a mobility of up to six, or up to six degrees of freedom.
Figure 1.4a illustrates a pair of pliers. As indicated by the overlapping plane, the motion
exhibited by this mechanism is restricted to 2D space. A pair of pliers is an example of
a commonly used planar mechanism. Each link in this particular mechanism has a sin-
gle degree of freedom—which is consistent with the previously stated condition that a
­maximum mobility of three is possible with a body in planar motion.
In comparison to the pair of pliers, Figure 1.4b illustrates a particular type of robotic
manipulator— the RPP robotic manipulator (presented in Chapter 11). As indicated by the
overlapping cylindrical volume, this mechanism can exhibit motion in 3D space.† Robotic
manipulators are examples of commonly used spatial mechanisms. Each link in this par-
ticular robotic manipulator has a single degree of freedom—which is also consistent with
the previously stated condition that a maximum mobility of six is possible with a body in
spatial motion.

* As shown in Figure 1.3b, the three aircraft rotation angles are called the roll, pitch, and yaw angles and are
about the X, Y, and Z axes, respectively.
† The space (2D or 3D) that encompasses all of the possible positions achieved by a mechanism is called its

workspace.
Introduction to Kinematics 5

Y
X

(a) (b)

FIGURE 1.4
(a) Pliers in plane and (b) robotic manipulator in spatial workspace.

1.4 Types of Mechanism Motion

The motion exhibited by any mechanism link in 2D or 3D space can be classified as one
of four types of motion. These four types are illustrated in Figure 1.5. In pure rotation
(Figure 1.5a), a link rotates at a constant radius about a fixed axis. A link travels along a
linear path in pure translation (Figure 1.5b).* Complex motion is a type of planar motion that
includes both link rotations and translations simultaneously (Figure 1.5c). Any two spatial
link positions can be expressed as a rotation about and a translation along a spatial axis
(called a screw axis). This type of spatial motion is called screw motion (Figure 1.5d). Pure
rotation and translation can be exhibited by mechanisms in both 2D and 3D space while
only mechanisms in 2D space can exhibit complex motion and only mechanisms in 3D
space can exhibit screw motion.
Pure rotation and pure translation are commonly called circular motion and linear
motion, respectively. As the names imply, circular motion is exhibited about a circular
path and linear motion is exhibited along a linear path. The conversion of circular motion
to linear motion (and vice versa) is commonly required for the operation of mechanical
systems. Sometimes we are given a circular motion (e.g., from a hand crank, engine, or
electric motor) and we desire a linear output motion. On the other hand, we may be given a
linear motion and we desire a circular output motion. The circular and linear motion may
be constant, oscillatory, or even intermittent.
Several of the noted linear and circular input–output motion combinations appear in
the valve train assembly illustrated in Figure 1.6.† The valve train assembly is comprised of
four major components: the cam, rod, rocker, and valve (Figure 1.6a). Figure 1.6b includes the
motion produced by these four components. The initial input in this assembly is produced
by the cam.‡ The constantly rotating cam produces an oscillating translational rod motion.
The oscillating translational rod motion produces an oscillating rotational rocker motion
(as the name “rocker” implies). Lastly, the oscillating rotational rocker motion produces an

* Pure rotation at a radius of infinity becomes pure translation.

† The valve train assembly is an integral assembly in the internal combustion engine.
‡ The kinematics and design of radial cam systems are introduced in Chapter 9.
6 Kinematics and Dynamics of Mechanical Systems

Rotation

Translation

Rotation axis

(a) (b)

Screw axis
Rotation

Translation

(c) (d)

FIGURE 1.5
Links in (a) pure rotation, (b) pure translation, (c) complex, and (d) screw motion.

oscillating translational valve motion. It is the oscillating valve motion that governs the
timing in which air and fuel are brought into an internal combustion engine and exhaust
products are removed from the engine.

Rotation–oscillation
Transation–oscillation

Transation–oscillation

r
c ke
Ro

V
al
ve
Ro
d

Cam
(a) (b)

FIGURE 1.6
(a) Valve train assembly and (b) motion of assembly components.
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 CHAPTER II.

TO THE CREDIT OF THE CATBOAT.

“The moment I struck the cool water it brought all my senses back with
a rush.
“I kept myself afloat, and was picked up by two young men in a catboat.
These young men were members of a fishing club that had a boathouse on
the Sound, and were out for an all-night sail.
“They were close at hand when the steamer passed, and I was hurled into
the water.”
“I see. You do not want your uncle to invest your money in the mine, and
he is determined to do it.”
“That’s it. Yasmar is a glib talker, and uncle Horace is entirely carried
away with him.”
“Could you not get a restraining order from the court and thus prevent
your uncle from using the money?”
“Under my mother’s will, Mr. Carter, my guardian has a free hand. I will
do Mr. Montgomery the credit of saying that he has gone into the matter in
good faith, and he is usually level-headed. In this instance, however, he is
playing directly into Yasmar’s hands.”
“It was Monday night when you were picked up by the young men in the
catboat. This is Wednesday morning. Where have you been in the
meantime?”
“At the boathouse on Long Island, where I gave a fictitious name.”
“You wish to make it appear to Yasmar that you are dead?”
“Yes. I feel that I can fight him better in that way.”
“That’s rather clever in one way, Mr. Lansing. In another way, however,
it may be a very foolish move.”
“How so?”
“If you went to your uncle and told him how the villain had attempted
your life, you would at once convince him that the Western man was a
fraud, and thus prevent the investment in the Royal Ophir.”
 “You do not know my uncle, Mr. Carter. He is investigating the mining
proposition, and, if he is satisfied with the result of his investigations, the
money will be invested.”
“Headstrong, is he?”
“Yes, sir; very much set in his way.”
“How did you happen to be on the same steamer with Yasmar?”
“I was going to Boston to interview some capitalists there, who are also
intending to put money into the mine. By chance, he was on the same boat.”
“How is your uncle investigating the Royal Ophir mine?”
“The Boston men sent an expert in whom they have the utmost
confidence to Montana to take a sample of ore from the Royal Ophir.
“That sample was not out of the expert’s hands, day or night, from the
moment it was taken until, in a sealed bag, it was deposited in a New York
bank.
“The Boston men and my uncle, accompanied by the expert, will call for
the ore this afternoon, take it to an assayer, and have it assayed.
“On the result of that assay hangs the investment of a round million of
dollars.”
“Who is to do the assaying?”
“Cruse & Cupell, near Sixth Avenue and Twenty-third Street.”
“Who is the expert?”
“Orlando G. Bates.”
“I know Bates, and he’s as straight as a string. The assayers are all right,
too. Will Yasmar be present during the assaying?”
“No; no one but Mr. Bates, my uncle and the Boston men. Will you take
the case for me, Mr. Carter?”
“It’s hardly a ‘case,’ Mr. Lansing. You want me to prove to your uncle
that the Royal Ophir mine has been ‘salted,’ as the saying is.”
“That’s it. I’m sure the mine has been ‘salted,’ and I’m also sure that
neither the expert nor my uncle nor the Boston men are clever enough to
discover it. You are the only one who can do that, Mr. Carter.”
The detective smiled at the young man’s confidence.
Before he could answer Lansing’s question, another rap fell on the door,
and the servant handed in a card bearing the following name:
“Adolphus Yasmar.”
 CHAPTER III.

A FAMILIAR FACE.

“Bring him up,” said Nick, to the servant.

When the servant had gone, the detective opened the door of an
adjoining apartment.
“You will have to step in here for a few minutes, Mr. Lansing,” said he.
“Your man Yasmar has come to see me.”
“Yasmar!” exclaimed Lansing.
“Yes. Step in, quick. Be quiet, and do not come back until I open the
door.”
“But what can he want?” murmured the astounded youth, passing into
the other room.
“I shall find out very soon.”
Nick closed the door, and was seated at his desk, writing, when his
second caller entered the study.
“Mr. Carter?”
Nick dropped his pen, whirled around in his chair, and got up.
He saw before him a man of forty, or thereabouts, tall, muscular, smooth
shaven and wearing a long frock coat, dark trousers, patent leather shoes
and a flowing necktie.
In his left hand he held a black “slouch” hat. His right hand was
extended and an amiable smile wreathed his face.
Nick took the extended hand, and was surprised to find the palm hard, as
though roughened with manual labor.
For a “promoter,” dressed as this man was, the fact might have been
significant.
“What can I do for you, Mr. Yasmar?” asked Nick, when they were both
seated.
“I have a case, and there is no one in the city, except yourself, whom I
desire to handle it.”
 “Excuse me a moment while I finish this letter, and then I will give you
my attention.”
Yasmar nodded, picked up the paper Nick had recently laid down, and
the detective touched a bell.
“Send Patsy to me,” he said to the servant.
He scribbled away for a few seconds, folded the sheet and put it in an
envelope, sealed the envelope and wrote the following:
“Look at this man well. He may be Ramsay, but I’m not sure. Shadow
him.”
Patsy stood beside the desk when Nick faced around, the letter in his
hand.
“Here’s a letter, Patsy, which I wish you to deliver immediately. You
know the party, I think?”
The assistant studied the writing on the envelope.
“No, Nick,” he answered, “I don’t know him; but I know the address.”
“You’ll attend to it?”
“Sure.”
Patsy left.
“Now, Mr. Yasmar,” said Nick, “I’m at leisure for a few minutes.”
“I only read this morning that you were expected back from your trip
West, and I hate to trouble you, but the matter is very important. Have you
seen to-day’s paper?”
“Yes.”
“Then perhaps you recall my name in connection with the disappearance
of young John Lansing.”
“Oh! Are you the Adolphus Yasmar mentioned in that account?”
“I am. And it is in relation to John Lansing that I have called on you this
morning.”
“You want me to find the young man?”
“Yes. I want you to go to Boston by first train and begin a search for
him. Lansing’s sister and uncle are very much worked up over the young
man’s disappearance, and I told them I would call here and put you on the
case—providing I could get you.”
 “I’m very sorry,” said Nick, “but I could not take the case for two or
three days. As you say, I have just returned from the West, and you can
easily understand how work has accumulated during my absence.”
“You will be well paid——”
“That is a minor consideration. In two or three days, if you like, I will
——”
“That will be too late. In cases of this kind, as you perhaps know, little
time should be lost.”
“Exactly. For that reason it is strange that you allowed Tuesday to pass
without coming to me.”
“I knew you had not returned home, sir; and, besides, I was in Boston
Tuesday, Mr. Carter.”
“There are detectives in Boston—good ones.”
“But Nick Carter doesn’t live in Boston,” said Yasmar, with a flattering
smile. “The police there are doing their best. Still, the young man’s relatives
would feel better to know that you had taken the case.”
“That is out of the question, unless you wait for two or three days.”
“Would not a large retainer tempt you to lay aside your other work and
give your immediate attention to this matter?”
“No, sir.”
Yasmar got up.
“Then I suppose there is nothing else for it but for me to wait.”
“Or get some one else,” added Nick.
“Who shall I go to?”
“The New York chief of police.”
“I’ll think about it. Good-morning, Mr. Carter.”
He left.
When the front door had closed, the detective admitted John Lansing
from the other room.
“The infernal scoundrel!” cried Lansing. “He dared to come here to you
to get you to look for me—a man whom he believes he murdered.”
“He’s a pretty smooth rascal,” said the detective.
“Will you help me out in the mine matter, Mr. Carter?”
 “Yes.”
“Good! My sister’s money and mine is as good as saved. I thank you
very much, and your bill will be met as soon as presented.”
“That will come later. For the present, carry out your present policy—
keep in the background, and don’t go about the city very much. Do not even
communicate with your sister. Leave that part of it to me, and I will see that
she does not worry about you. Where will I be able to communicate with
you?”
Lansing wrote his address on a card.
Then, after thanking Nick again, he left the house.
The detective lighted a cigar and threw himself into a chair.
“He certainly had his nerve with him, to call on me as he has done,”
thought Nick.
“It’s plain that he wants to get me out of town, and at once.
“I wonder if he knows Nick Carter never forgets a face?
“I have seen his face before—but whether that is the face of the tough-
looking Westerner called Ramsay, who is ‘wanted’ in Montana, I can’t say
for certain.”
 CHAPTER IV.

THE ROLL-TOP DESK.

On leaving Nick Carter’s house, Yasmar walked rapidly off down the
street.
At the first corner he passed a typical East Side tough, leaning against a
lamp-post, rolling a huge cigar between his teeth.
Stepping out into the street, Yasmar hailed an open electric car.
As he got aboard, well forward, the tough jumped on the rear and took
one of the seats reserved for smokers.
At Canal Street the Western man changed to a cross-town car, getting off
again at Vestry Street.
He had not looked behind him, or displayed any nervousness whatever.
But, nevertheless, it seemed as if he had an idea he might be followed.
Vestry and Canal meet at an acute angle, forming a “V” shaped point.
Yasmar walked down Vestry Street for a few doors, then hastily turned to
the right, mounted a short flight of steps and vanished through a dingy
doorway.
The tough was close after him.
Passing through a long, dark hall, he made an exit through a door
opening on Canal Street.
The tough, apparently, did not come out of the building.
The man who did follow Yasmar out onto Canal Street looked more like
a laborer than he did like a tough.
The Westerner, walking leisurely, made his way to the next block and
halted in front of a four-story building.
There was a moving van backed to the curb in front, and at the very top
of the building two men were engaged in rigging a block and tackle.
Yasmar came to a halt before a door leading into a hallway, and from
there, for the first time, he took a survey of the street behind him.
The laborer, his hands in his pockets and a corncob pipe in his mouth,
was watching the riggers at work on the roof.
 There was nothing suspicious about the laborer, and Yasmar passed into
the building and started upstairs.
When he reached the head of the first flight, the laborer was in the
doorway.
Something had been shouted by one of the men on the roof.
“All right,” the laborer called back, “I’ll bring it up to ye.”
Thereupon Patsy—for, of course, the supposed laborer was none other
than Nick Carter’s assistant—rushed upstairs with a coil of rope.
He passed Yasmar on the second flight.
At the top of the third flight, he waited and listened until he heard the
Westerner start up from the foot.
That was Patsy’s signal to make for the narrow passage leading to the
skylight and the roof.
“There ye are,” he said, as he tossed the coil of rope to the riggers.
Then, without loss of a moment, he returned to the fourth floor.
A door was just closing down the hall as Patsy stepped out of the
passage.
The detective was too late to see the man who entered the room, but he
was fairly certain it was Yasmar.
Proceeding noiselessly to the door, he halted and listened.
Voices, pitched in a low key, reached him.
It was impossible to distinguish the spoken words, although Patsy
strained his ears in the attempt.
He was anxious to overhear something which would make it absolutely
sure that he was on the right trail.
Stooping, he tried the old-fashioned trick of looking through the
keyhole, but found that a hat had been hung from the knob inside,
effectually covering the small aperture.
Raising himself erect, Patsy made a quick survey to left and right.
Instinctively, he came to the conclusion that the door to the right of the
one before which he was standing was more promising than the one on the
left.
He went to the door and tried it, but found it locked.
 A skeleton key admitted him with very little trouble, and he found
himself in an empty room.
A door led from this room into the one which Yasmar had entered, but it
was closed and probably fastened.
Again Patsy tried to look through the keyhole, but this time he found the
opening stuffed with paper.
“It’s dead sure they do things in that room they don’t want people to get
onto,” thought Patsy, “and that proves, in a way, that my man is there. Still,
I’d like to get a fair and square look at him.”
Sinking down on his knees, he laid his ear against the crack at the edge
of the door.
The talkers were still guarded in their tones, and he could hear nothing.
He remained on his knees, however, and presently he heard a movement
as of some one rising.
Steps crossed the floor.
“This is getting infernally tiresome,” said a voice. “Gillman is slow in
keeping his appointment.”
“Something has happened to detain him,” said another voice.
“Let’s go out and get a drink. Probably he’ll be here by the time we get
back.”
“I’m with you, old man.”
Some one else arose and crossed the floor.
Then the door was unlocked, opened, closed and locked again, and steps
could be heard passing down the hall.
Rising quickly, Patsy went to a window overlooking the street, raised it,
and looked down.
He was rewarded by seeing Yasmar come out, accompanied by a short,
thickset man with an iron-gray mustache.
The second man looked like another Westerner.
“Bully!” exclaimed Patsy, withdrawing and closing the window. “When
Gillman gets here, I must be in that other room.”
He went back to the door communicating with the other room.
A few moments’ work with a knife blade sufficed to pick out the paper,
and a skeleton key did the rest.
 After closing and locking the door from the other side, Patsy carefully
replaced the paper in the keyhole and turned for a look at the room he was
then in.
It was almost as bare as the apartment he had just left.
A huge roll-top desk was in evidence, and three common chairs—
nothing more.
The roll-top of the desk was pushed half up.
Patsy pushed it all the way and looked into the pigeon-holes.
They were empty.
He opened the drawers.
They were empty, too.
“It looks as though this might be moving day,” thought the detective,
thinking of the van he had seen out in front. “Gee, but that’s a regular
granddaddy desk. They never got it in through the hall door, and I’ll bet on
it.”
While he stood there, taking in the situation, his quick ear caught the
sound of footsteps on the stairs.
The Westerners were coming back.
The detective looked around for a place to conceal himself.
Opposite the door by which he had entered there was another, leading
into the room on the other side.
But even if that door was unlocked, and he could get into that room, he
would be no better off than he was a little while before.
He flashed another inquiring look around.
There was absolutely no place in which he could hide himself, unless
——
He looked at the desk, and then measured himself with his eyes.
The steps were coming along the hall, now, and it was too late for him to
use the skeleton key and get out of the room, even if he had wanted to.
Without pausing another instant, he crawled into the desk and pulled at
the roll-top until he got it down.
It was a tight squeeze, and when the roll-top descended the lock
snapped.
But Patsy did not care for that.
 The only thing that worried him was that one of the two men might
notice that the roll-top was shut, and not half open.
That was not a very long chance, however, and, anyway, Patsy had to
take it.
 CHAPTER V.

BETWEEN EARTH AND SKY.

The door was unlocked, opened, and the men came in.
From the footfalls alone, Patsy’s keen ear could tell that there were three
men instead of two.
“We were up here waiting for you, Gillman,” said a voice.
“If I had come any sooner, I’d have missed that highball,” answered a
second voice.
“When you turn the key, Ramsay,” observed a third voice, “don’t neglect
to hang that slouch of yours over the knob.”
The wearer of the slouch hat was the man Patsy was shadowing, so he
had learned the fellow’s true name.
The key scraped in the lock.
“There you are, Starlick,” answered Ramsay. “The key fills up the hole
enough, I should think. Besides, we won’t keep Gillman over two minutes.”
“Long enough to give me a retainer,” chuckled Gillman.
“How much of a retainer do you want?”
“Five hundred. After that, and before these capitalists turn over their
good money, I want forty-five hundred more.”
“That’s big pay for fifteen minutes’ work.”
“It’s no pay at all for the risk I run.”
“Well, well, never mind. Here’s your five hundred.”
“Thanks. And the cigarettes?”
“Here; two boxes of them.”
“Heavens, man! How many do you expect me to smoke during that
fifteen minutes?”
“As many as you can. The more the better.”
“Where do I get the forty-five hundred?”
“At Boucicault’s, Hamilton Street, Brooklyn.”
 “Don’t try any of your Montana tricks with me, you two. I won’t stand
for it, and I’ll queer your game if it lands me in the pen.”
“Don’t squeal till we throw you down,” put in Starlick.
“Bring a duplicate assay certificate, Gillman,” said Ramsay, “and you’ll
get your bonus without any question.”
“Then I’ll pull out. You fellows may depend on me.”
“If you queer this deal, without our throwing you down, you’ll never live
to queer another.”
“Don’t worry about me. I’m out for the stuff, and this looks like easy
money. What time shall I be at Boucicault’s?”
“Be there at ten.”
“Good!”
Gillman went away, and Ramsay and Starlick continued their
conversation.
“I’m scared all the while I’m in New York, Starlick,” said Ramsay.
“On account of this deal?”
“Thunder, no. On account of Nick Carter. He only saw me for about a
minute, some time ago, and a clean shave and these clothes have changed
me. Besides, I introduced myself as Yasmar, not as Ramsay. I’d be willing
to take my oath that he never recognized me when I called on him this
morning, and yet——”
He paused.
“Yet what?” urged Starlick.
“I’m losing my nerve, I reckon. But you never can tell what Carter
thinks, or what he’s going to do. If I could have got him out of town for the
next forty-eight hours, I’d be feeling easier, this minute. Hello! What’s
that?”
A hand tried the door. Failing to gain entrance, the same hand banged on
the panel.
“It’s all right,” answered Starlick. “No need putting your hand to your
hip, old man.”
Patsy heard the door open and a gruff voice from the hall:
“We’ve got the riggin’ fixed and are all ready ter lower the desk.”
“All right. There it is.”
 “Any idea how long it’ll be kept in storage?”
“No. A year, perhaps.”
Patsy was doing some hard thinking.
He had no desire to spend a year in storage, and it was necessary for
him, somehow, to separate himself from the desk.
To do it then was out of the question.
The workmen went to the windows and took out the sash.
Patsy could hear them, and he could also hear Ramsay and Starlick
moving about the room.
Finally the workmen came to the desk, took hold of it, and shoved it
across the room.
“Empty, boss?” queried one of the men.
“Yes,” answered Starlick.
“Mighty heavy for an empty desk.”
“It’s an old-fashioned roll-top, and that’s the reason.”
“I guess the riggin’ll hold it, all right, but I didn’t figger on havin’ quite
so much heft.”
“Better be sure, my man. I wouldn’t want the desk smashed.”
“I’ll risk it. If it’s smashed, it comes out o’ my pay.”
There were other things that couldn’t come out of the man’s pay, if the
rigging let go, and Patsy was as near in a flutter as his nerve ever allowed
him to be.
A hawser was put around the desk both ways.
Then Patsy heard a hook made fast.
A moment later one of the men went down.
In three minutes, the big roll-top desk was out of the window, swinging
in mid air.
The rope creaked and something gave so that the piece of furniture
dropped a foot.
“Steady!” whooped the man whose pay was to be docked in case of
accident.
“Yes, for Heaven’s sake,” muttered Patsy.
 Down went the desk, the man inside breathing only when necessary until
it safely rested on the walk.
To load the desk in the wagon did not take much time, and the van
hadn’t gone a block before Patsy had exerted sufficient pressure to break
the lock.
The rattle of the vehicle drowned the noise he had to make, and he
pushed up the top, slipped to the floor of the van, and dropped out.
The two men on the seat of the van drove on, all unconscious of what
had happened, and Patsy, the moment he struck the sidewalk, drew a sleeve
across his dripping forehead.
“That was a corker!” he muttered. “I wonder if I’ve lost the trail?”
He had lost the trail, as he quickly found, for Ramsay and Starlick had
vanished from the building in which they had been but a few minutes
before.
“I’ll slide around to the house and tell Nick about it,” said Patsy to
himself. “He may want to give me fresh instructions.”
Nick Carter was not at the house, however, nor was Chick.
They had gone out together, Patsy was told.
He waited a long time for one or the other to return, but they did not
come.
“I’ll have to go to Boucicault’s,” thought Patsy; “and I can’t wait any
longer for Nick.”
Before he went, he left the following memorandum on Nick’s desk:
“Yasmar’s real name is Ramsay. Latter name used by his pals. Guess he
is one of the two men you want. Ramsay and his side partner, Starlick, are
to meet a man named Gillman in Boucicault’s place, Hamilton Street,
Brooklyn, at ten to-night. Look out for a couple of boxes of doped
cigarettes.
Patsy.”
 CHAPTER VI.

A SMOOTH GAME.

On Wednesday afternoon a prosperous-looking gentleman, of apparently

about fifty years of age, entered the private offices of Cruse & Cupell, on
Twenty-Third Street.
“Mr. Cruse?” he asked, halting at a desk.
“Mr. Cruse is out,” answered a man at the desk. “I’m Mr. Cupell.”
“My card.”
The caller handed over a bit of pasteboard bearing the name, “Mr.
Jefferson Jones.”
“I’m from Albany,” went on Mr. Jones, “and I have run down to be
present at the assay of the Royal Ophir ore.”
“Ah,” murmured Mr. Cupell. “Won’t you sit down, Mr. Jones? There’s a
paper at your elbow. I expect Mr. Bates and the other gentlemen at any
moment.”
Jefferson Jones took the chair and the paper.
In a few minutes the expert entered with three other gentlemen, the
expert carrying a small bag, bound with a cord and sealed in half a dozen
different places.
Cupell welcomed the party, and then presented Jefferson Jones.
Jones did not pay much attention to the Boston men, nor to Bates, the
expert, but he gave more than casual attention to Mr. Horace Montgomery.
“Why do you wish to see this assay, Mr. Jones?” asked Montgomery.
“Merely to satisfy myself as to the value of the Royal Ophir mine.”
“With a view to investing?”
“That remains to be seen.”
“I don’t think there will be any chance for you. The Royal Ophir, I am
satisfied, is a good thing, and myself and these other two gentlemen want it
all to ourselves.”
A slight smile wreathed about the lips of Jefferson Jones.
“I suppose you won’t object to letting me see the assay made?” he asked.
 “Certainly not; only don’t deceive yourself with false hopes, that’s all.”
Bates, the expert, here interjected a few remarks.
“This is the Royal Ophir ore, gentlemen,” said he. “I took a fair sample
from the main vein of the mine, sacked and sealed it on the spot, and the
sample was not out of my hands until deposited in the bank, from which we
just took it.
“I will take an oath that it has not been tampered with in any way. On the
result of this assay I assure you that you can spend one million, or ten
millions, and be perfectly confident that you are going into the deal with
your eyes open.
“There, Mr. Cupell.” The expert handed the sack to the assayer. “It is
understood that we are all to be present during the assaying.”
“That is my understanding,” said Cupell. “This way, gentlemen.”
He opened a door leading into one of the workrooms.
A dark-faced young man of twenty or thereabouts, wearing a white
apron and smoking a cigarette, was busying himself about the room.
On an iron slab Cupell opened the ore sack and emptied the pieces of ore
out on the slab for general inspection.
Jefferson Jones, Montgomery and the two Boston men began to look at
the samples.
“I don’t think you ought to touch this rock, gentlemen,” said Cupell.
Examination of the ore was instantly stopped.
“I don’t think any of us would put ‘salt’ into this proposition,” said
Montgomery.
But, even as he spoke, he cast a suspicious look at Jones, of Albany.
Jones looked innocent enough.
Humming to himself and holding his hands behind him, he was giving
his attention to the strange instruments arranged around the room.
Suddenly he asked if there was any drinking water about the place.
Cupell told him he would find a water cooler in the office.
Jones sauntered into the office, took a drink, and then passed into the
hall.
“Here, Chick,” he said to somebody who was waiting there, “take this to
Clarkson, around the corner on Sixth Avenue, and have him rush the assay
through.”
“Sure.”
“Then wait for me downstairs.”
“I’ll be there.”
Nick—for, of course, “Jones” was none other than the detective—gave
his assistant two small pieces of Royal Ophir ore.
Chick went away, and Nick returned to the workroom, drying his lips on
a handkerchief.
The ore was being put through a small crusher by the young man who
wore the apron and was smoking the cigarette.
Cupell watched every move of the young man with eagle-eyed vigilance.
“That’s fine enough, Gillman,” said Cupell; “now use your muller.”
The “muller” was a heavy, iron roller that worked on the slab.
Gillman took the crushed ore, held it on the slab, and then went over it
again and again with the roller.
This part of the operation took some time, and Gillman smoked three
cigarettes.
Nick noticed that he never removed a cigarette from his mouth, after
once lighting it, until it was smoked almost to the gold tip.
When the ashes accumulated, he gave his head a shake and they fell into
the ore he was crushing.
“You’ll smoke yourself to death, Gillman,” said Cupell.
“I expect so,” was the lugubrious answer. “I’ve formed the habit, though,
and I can’t break myself.”
“I haven’t any patience with a cigarette smoker,” said one of the Boston
men, with a shudder.
“Give me a cigar, every time,” said the other Boston man.
“Oh, I don’t know,” said Nick; “I enjoy a cigarette now and then myself.
If Gillman would oblige me with one, I believe I’d keep him company.”
“Certainly,” answered Gillman, readily enough.
Taking the cigarette box from his pocket, he handed it to Nick.
Nick took one of the “paper pipes,” lighted it, and returned the box.
 A moment later the detective sat down, a little way from the group
around the muller-board.
When ready to knock the ashes from the cigarette, he brought out a
silver match case, emptied it of matches, and carefully deposited the ashes
inside.
When he had finished the cigarette, Gillman was “quartering down” the
sample.
The powdered ore was then mixed with fluxes, put into little,
earthenware dishes, and shoved into a furnace.
When the dishes were drawn from the furnace, there was a drop of
bullion in each one.
This drop was put into a glass parting flask with nitric acid, the flask was
heated, and the gold in the drop of bullion was separated from the other
metals.
All that then remained was to weigh it.
This was done on a pair of scales so finely adjusted that they would
weigh a pencil mark on a scrap of paper.
In two hours’ time Cupell had signed the assay certificates, and
Montgomery and the Boston men were wildly jubilant.
The assay ran nine hundred and sixty dollars to the ton!
 CHAPTER VII.

SHIFTING THE RESPONSIBILITY.

“There’s a five-foot vein of that rock!” declared Bates, “and it’s a true
fissure—which means that it will ‘go down’ and get better with every foot.”
“I wonder if I could get a little of that good thing?” Nick inquired.
“No, sir, never!” cried Montgomery.
“We want it all for ourselves,” said one of the Boston men.
“Sure thing,” averred the other.
“We’ll close the deal to-morrow at ten o’clock, at my house,” said
Montgomery. “You’ll be there, gentlemen?”
“Certainly we will,” answered the first Boston man.
“And bring our certified checks with us,” added the other.
The capitalists went away, Bates soon followed, and Nick sat down in
Cupell’s private office.
“A great mine, that, Mr. Jones,” said Cupell.
“Looks like it,” returned Nick. “Could you do a little assaying for me,
Mr. Cupell?”
“Why, yes, certainly. I’ll have Gillman——”
“No, not Gillman. I want you to attend to it personally and send Gillman
out somewhere while it’s being done.”
“It isn’t possible you suspect there is anything wrong with that assay?”
“It’s immaterial what I suspect, Mr. Cupell.” The detective walked close
to the assayer and bent over him. “My real name is not Jones but Carter
——”
“Nick Carter?”
“Yes.”
“And you were here to watch and see that the assay was properly
made?”
“I was here for a purpose. How long will it take you to make the assay?”
“Is it an assay of ore?”
 “Of cigarette ashes.”
Cupell jumped from his chair.
“Great heavens!” he exclaimed. “Can it be possible that—— No, no!
You are wrong, Mr. Carter. Gillman has worked for me for two years and
he’s as straight as a string.”
“How long will it take you to make the assay?”
“An hour.”
“Then send Gillman out somewhere for an hour. Be sure and have him
come back here this afternoon, however, and don’t give him cause to think
that there is anything wrong. Understand?”
“I understand.”
“All right. I will return presently.”
Nick put the silver match case in the assayer’s hands and left the office.
Downstairs, near the edge of the sidewalk, a shabbily dressed man was
selling some mechanical toys that ran by clockwork.
Nick kicked over one of the toys as it ran in front of him.
“Ain’t you got no eyes?” blustered the curbstone merchant. “That’ll
stand ye in fifty cents.”
Nick picked up the broken toy and saw a folded paper inside of it.
He deftly abstracted the paper and tossed the tin automobile at Chick’s
feet.
“Here’s your money,” he said, tendering a bill. “There’s no sense in
running those things all over the walk.”
Chick dived into his pocket for change.
“There’s a man in a brown derby and gray clothes around the corner
keeping track of this doorway,” said Chick, in a low tone.
“Tall?”
“No, short and thickset.”
“Keep your eye on him. Also take a good look at that young man who’s
just coming out of the doorway now.”
Gillman came out and Chick took his measure.
Nick walked back into the building and was soon in the assay office.
On his way he looked at the assay certificate brought by Chick.
 “No trace of metal,” read the certificate.
Nick gave a whistle as he dropped into a chair in Cruse & Cupell’s
office.
“Salted for a million,” he muttered. “It’s a smooth game.”
In a little while Cupell rushed into the office excitedly.
“What’s the result?” asked Nick, calmly.
“Those cigarette ashes assay close to fifty thousand to the ton!” declared
the assayer.
“I wish I had a few tons,” remarked Nick, with a dry laugh.
“To think that I have been bamboozled by that assistant of ours! I must
call in those assay certificates and——”
“Do nothing of the kind, just yet,” cut in Nick.
“But are you aware of the position it places me in? Every assay
certificate is vouched for by us the moment it is signed. And then, to have
the hocus-pocus worked right in our own office—— But, by Jove, it was
clever!”
“Certainly it was,” said Nick, “and Gillman was only a tool and not the
leader in the swindling game. What I want to do is to get the whole gang. If
you’ll lay back on your oars a little while, I shall succeed.”
“But to-morrow morning at ten o’clock a million dollars will be paid
over to these swindlers for the Royal Ophir mine.”
“It won’t be paid over,” averred Nick.
“You assure me of that?”
“Yes. What I want you to do is to keep this to yourself. Don’t let Gillman
suspect that you know what he has done. Keep him here until five o’clock
and then let him go.”
“But my responsibility——”
“I’ll take your responsibility on my own shoulders.”
“Very well, Mr. Carter, I will do as you say.”
Nick went away.
“The young fellow had a talk with the man in the brown derby,” Chick
said, as his chief walked slowly past.
“Stay here and watch,” Nick returned. “I’ll be back in an hour. You’ll
recognize me. I’m going to shadow the young fellow, and if the man in the
brown derby follows me you follow him.”
Nick went to police headquarters and made a few changes in his
disguise.
When he came out he looked at least twenty years younger.
There was a cigar store opposite the building in which Cruse & Cupell
had their assay office, and Nick stepped in there, bought a weed, and stood
leaning on the counter, smoking and watching the doorway across the street.
It was five o’clock and time for Gillman to show himself.
Nick had not long to wait.
The clerk came briskly out and Nick went after him.
Just beyond the corner a man in a brown derby dropped in behind Nick.
Chick, keenly alive to the situation, picked up the single tin automobile
that he had left, pushed it into his pocket, and trailed along in the rear of the
man in the brown derby.
From the opposite side of the street a neatly dressed man in a sack suit
and black Fedora hat took in the situation and gave vent to a muttered oath.
“I like the layout, Mr. Nick Carter,” he said to himself. “Keep on after
Gillman and you’ll find yourself in a hornet’s nest. You’ll never live to put
those Boston men next to my game, or to bring me to book for that
Montana job. Now for Hamilton Street.”
 CHAPTER VIII.

BOUCICAULT’S.

At certain times Nick Carter had intuitions that amounted almost to

positive knowledge.
It was the “detective instinct,” amplified by years of intelligent practice.
In the present instance he believed that he would be shadowed, and he
even figured out to himself the successive links in the chain that brought the
conclusion.
Gillman had suspected him and had conveyed his suspicions to the man
in the brown derby at the same time that he had reported the result of the
assay.
It was this man in the brown derby whom Nick had cast for the part of a
shadow, and hence Chick’s instructions to “shadow the shadow.”
The one uncertain element of the situation was Ramsay, or Yasmar, but
Nick was depending on Patsy to take care of the Westerner.
Could Nick have been made familiar with the contents of a certain note,
at that moment lying on his desk at home, there would have been a decided
change in the plan of operations.
Gillman appeared to be very well satisfied with himself, for he carried a
cane and swung it jauntily as he walked.
He paid no attention to the ground behind him, and that might mean one
of two things—either he did not think he was followed, or did not care.
At Sixth Avenue he hailed a downtown car.
It was an open car, and Nick got aboard three seats behind him.
The man in the brown derby followed the car in a hansom, a difficult but
not impossible task considering the slow speed at which the car had to
travel in that part of the city and at that busy hour.
The hardest part of the work fell to Chick.
He could not very well get aboard the car with Gillman and Nick, and, as
there was no cab in sight which he could hire, he slipped a five-dollar bill to
an expressman and told him to keep the hansom in sight.
 Thus Gillman, virtually shadowed by three, made his way to his
destination, which proved to be a restaurant in the lower part of the town—
a place famous for the low price of its “table d’hote dinner with wine.”
There he and Nick had dinner, the man in the brown derby remaining on
the walk outside and Chick watching from across the street.
The meal over, the tactics were continued, Gillman leading the chase to
Brooklyn, crossing by ferry and winding up at Boucicault’s on Hamilton
Street.
It was between eight and nine in the evening, and Hamilton Street was
just “waking up.”
A sleepy and quiet thoroughfare by day, it is anything but sleepy and
quiet under the gas and electric lights.
“Speak-easies” and other haunts of vice abound, and not the least among
the lawless resorts was Boucicault’s.
There were three stories to the building, and Boucicault’s occupied all
three, in addition to a good-sized basement.
Of the basement more will be said hereafter.
The main floor was given up to a saloon and restaurant.
The floors above constituted the hotel part of the establishment, and here
many a drunken victim had been plucked by the human harpies who made
the place their rendezvous.
If darker crimes than robbery were meditated, the intended victim was
conducted to the gloomy and vault-like regions under the saloon.
A long, low bar ran along the left-hand wall; off to the right were half a
dozen tables; in the rear were four or five small rooms partitioned off.
When Gillman entered the dive it was half filled with a roaring
complement of sailormen, every one in the lot considerably more than “half
seas over.”
The air was thick with tobacco smoke, heavy with the fumes of cheap
beer, and resounding with sea songs—every song pitched in a different key
and sung in a different language.
Nick Carter had established his case and was ready to arrest his man.
What he wanted, however, was to make a clean haul of the entire gang,
and to this end he had shadowed Gillman.
 He was now certain that Boucicault’s was the rendezvous of the
swindlers, and he followed Gillman through the fog of smoke, and saw him
vanish into one of the rear rooms.
The time had come when the detective thought it would be as well to
bring matters to an issue with the assayer’s clerk, to find out what he could
from him, and then turn him over to the police for safe-keeping.
Advancing to the door of the room entered by Gillman, Nick tried the
knob.
The door was locked, and he applied his knuckles to the panel.
“Who’s there?” called a voice.
“Yasmar.”
“What do you want to give that name for? Haven’t you got another?”
asked the voice, anxiously.
Nick saw that Gillman was very suspicious.
He felt, too, that he must act quickly. He had already guessed that
Yasmar’s true name was Ramsay, but had never verified it. Now he was
face to face with the question.
He took a long chance, and called out:
“Ramsay.”
To his delight he heard the bolts being drawn back, and the door was
thrown open.
“You know, Ram——” Gillman began, then he stopped dead, for the
man who had entered was not Ramsay, but Nick Carter.
Without taking his eyes off Gillman, Nick closed the door and locked it.
The room was about ten feet square, had paneled side walls and
contained a table and four chairs.
It was lighted by an incandescent bulb, pendant from the ceiling.
Gillman showed a good deal of surprise when he discovered that the
newcomer was not Ramsay.
“Well, well!” he exclaimed, his right hand groping under his coat. “Who
are you and what’s your game?”
“My game is to call yours, Gillman,” answered Nick, sternly, his right
hand in his coat pocket. “Bring that hand out in front of you! I’m covering
you with a gun.”
 Gillman brought the hand slowly to the required position.
“You’ve been crowding me pretty close for the last hour or two,” said he.
“What do you want, anyhow?”
“I want you.”
With his left hand Nick brought out a pair of handcuffs.
“What do you want me for?” queried Gillman, sweeping his eyes shiftily
around the room.
“For smoking that brand of gold-filled cigarettes this afternoon.”
That was the point where Gillman began to lose his nerve.
“I—I don’t understand,” he stammered.
“Yes, you do,” answered Nick. “Put up your wrists.”
“Don’t you do it, Gillman!”
This counter-command came from the side of the room.
Out of the corners of his eyes Nick could see that a panel in the wall had
slid noiselessly back.
A square opening was revealed, framing a man’s head and shoulders.
The man wore a brown derby hat and held a revolver, whose point was
leveled at the detective’s breast.
A triumphant smile began to show itself on Gillman’s face; but the smile
vanished as a second head appeared in the opening and another voice
echoed sharply through the room.
“Put on the darbies, Nick! If this fellow tries to pull the trigger it will be
all over with him.”
It was Chick.
He was behind the other man, and was pressing the muzzle of a revolver
against the back of his head.
A baffled oath broke from the man in the derby hat.
Nick, realizing that there was no time to be lost, was about to adjust the
handcuffs.
Before he could do it, however, a rap fell on the door.
Silence followed.
The rap was repeated more emphatically.
 “Ask who’s there, Gillman,” whispered Nick, bringing the weapon out of
his pocket and making a significant movement with it.
“Who’s there?” inquired Gillman.
“Ramsay.”
Quick as lightning. Nick put away the handcuffs and developed a second
revolver.
Covering Gillman with the gun in his right hand, Nick turned partly
around.
“Tell him to come in,” he whispered again.
As Gillman carried out the order, Nick pushed back the bolt with the
muzzle of the weapon held in his right hand.
Then two things happened, and happened simultaneously.
The incandescent light was turned off, leaving the room in total
darkness, and a rush of heavy feet followed the bursting in of the door.
Nick discharged his revolvers, but the rush of his enemies was not
stayed.
He was assailed from all sides, and when he found the quarters too close
for revolver work, he gripped the weapons by the barrel and clubbed them
to right and left.
But the odds were overwhelming.
In the midst of his desperate struggle, a savage blow on the head sent
him down.
The shouts and curses of his assailants died away in his ears, he felt them
piling on top of him, and then he remembered nothing more.
 CHAPTER IX.

THE DEATH CHAMBER.

Nick opened his eyes in darkness.

Not a ray of light could be seen at any point in the surrounding gloom,
and a silence as of the grave reigned all around.
Under him was a hard stone floor, and from the dank, moldy smell of the
place he thought he must be in a cellar—presumably the basement under
Boucicault’s.
His head was throbbing painfully, and he was lying on his bound arms
and wrists.
His ankles were also bound.
“Well, here’s a go!” he exclaimed, aloud.
The words echoed hollowly through the place, and had hardly left Nick’s
lips before another voice came from a little distance.
“Hello! Is that you, Nick?”
“Chick! What are you doing here?”
“Not a thing. Can’t.”
“Trussed up?”
“Wrist and ankle.”
“The same gang that laid me out took care of you.”
“We had an enemy in our rear, and he set the longshoremen onto us.”
“The enemy in the rear was Ramsay.”
“Sure,” said Chick. “And that’s one good thing about this little adventure
—we have learned that Yasmar is really Ramsay. He has shaved off his
beard since we knew him in the West.”
“Where was Patsy that he couldn’t take care of Ramsay?” asked Nick.
“Something may have happened to the boy. These Westerners weren’t
born yesterday.”
“They’re clever in their way; but they overshot the mark when they put
you and me in the same cell.”