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NSX-T Logical
Routing
Fortify Your Understanding to Amplify
Your Success

Shashank Mohan
NSX-T Logical Routing
Fortify Your Understanding to Amplify
Your Success

Shashank Mohan
NSX-T Logical Routing: Fortify Your Understanding to Amplify Your Success
Shashank Mohan
ACT, Australia

ISBN-13 (pbk): 978-1-4842-7457-6 ISBN-13 (electronic): 978-1-4842-7458-3


https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-7458-3

Copyright © 2022 by Shashank Mohan


This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the
material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation,
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Printed on acid-free paper
“Dogs’ lives are too short. Their only fault, really.”
—Agnes Turnbull
This book is dedicated to my German shepherd, Sara,
who touched my life in ways that words cannot describe.
You will always be loved. Rest in peace.
Table of Contents
About the Author����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� ix

About the Technical Reviewers������������������������������������������������������������������������������� xi


Acknowledgments������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� xiii

Introduction�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������xv

Chapter 1: Introduction�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 1
The Modern-Day Software-Defined Data Center�������������������������������������������������������������������������� 1
Software-Defined Datacenter Architecture����������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 2
Consolidated Software-Defined Datacenter Architecture�������������������������������������������������������� 3
Standard Software-Defined Datacenter Architecture�������������������������������������������������������������� 5
VMware NSX-T: SDDC Networking������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 7
The Basics of NSX-T��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 7
Management Plane������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 8
Control Plane������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 11
Data Plane����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 11
Summary������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 14

Chapter 2: Tunnel Endpoints����������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 15


Overlay Networking��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 16
What Is a Network Overlay?�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 16
VLANs������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 16
Differences Between VXLAN and GENEVE����������������������������������������������������������������������������� 16
NSX-T Transport Node Communication��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 18
Transport Node Types������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 18
What Is a Tunnel Endpoint?��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 20
Tunnel Endpoint Communication������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 22

v
Table of Contents

Routed Transport VLANs�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 23


Overlay Communication on 2 pNIC Hosts������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 24
Overlay Communication on 4 pNIC Hosts������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 26
Inter-TEP Communication������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 28
Tunnel Endpoint Configuration���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 28
Tunnel Endpoint Configuration Prerequisites������������������������������������������������������������������������ 29
Host Transport Node and TEP Configuration�������������������������������������������������������������������������� 34
Edge Transport Node and TEP Configuration������������������������������������������������������������������������� 37
Tunnel Endpoint Packet Walk������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 41
Tunnel Endpoint Failure�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 47
Host TEP Failure�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 47
Edge TEP Failure�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 50
Summary������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 55

Chapter 3: Remote Tunnel Endpoints���������������������������������������������������������������������� 57


A Solution for Multiple Sites������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 57
NSX-T Federation Components��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 58
What Are Remote Tunnel Endpoints?������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 59
NSX-T Federation Prerequisites�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 61
Configuring RTEPs and NSX-T Federation����������������������������������������������������������������������������� 62
Verifying RTEP Interface Configuration���������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 64
Summary������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 67

Chapter 4: Logical Routing������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 69


What Is Logical Routing?������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 69
What Is an Optimally Configured Network?��������������������������������������������������������������������������� 70
NSX-T Logical Components�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 74
NSX-T Logical Routing Fundamentals����������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 77
Stateful Services������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 79
NSX-T Routing Principles������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 80

vi
Table of Contents

Logical Routing Architecture������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 80


Single-tiered Routing������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 81
Multi-tiered Routing�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 81
Packet Flow Within the NSX-T Fabric����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 82
East-West Logical Routing����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 82
North-­South Logical Routing����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 116
Logical Routing Between Sites�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 157
Summary���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 159

Chapter 5: Data Plane Availability������������������������������������������������������������������������ 161


Edge Cluster Deployment Considerations��������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 161
Defining Edge Nodes����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 162
Edge Node Logical Routing Components����������������������������������������������������������������������������� 162
Edge Node Wiring���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 163
Edge Failure Types�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 198
Edge Node Status���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 198
Service Router Uplink Failures�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 199
Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD)��������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 209
BFD Usage Within the NSX-T Fabric������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 210
BFD to the Physical Network Fabric������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 213
Equal Cost Multipathing (ECMP)������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 213
ECMP From the DR to SR����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 214
ECMP from Tier-0 SR to the Physical Network�������������������������������������������������������������������� 219
Summary���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 226

Chapter 6: Datacenter Routing����������������������������������������������������������������������������� 227


Chapter Objectives�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 227
Communication with the Physical Network������������������������������������������������������������������������� 228
NSX-T and BGP�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 230
NSX-T and OSPF������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 258

vii
Table of Contents

NSX-T and Static Routing���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 268


Deterministic Peering���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 270
Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD)��������������������������������������������������������������������������� 275
Unicast Reverse Path Forwarding (uRPF)���������������������������������������������������������������������������� 276
Summary����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 290

Index��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 291

viii
About the Author
Shashank Mohan (Shank) is the ANZ Professional Services
practice lead for networking at VMware. He brings over a
decade of experience in IT infrastructure and architecture,
with a specialization in networking, virtual cloud networking
(VCN), and VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF).
Shank is a VMware Advanced Professional in Network
Virtualization, a vExpert in NSX, Security, and NSX
Advanced Load Balancer (AVI), to name a few VMware
certifications. He is also CISCO and AWS certified.
Shank was born and raised in Sydney, Australia, but
now prefers the calm and cold capital city, Canberra.
Between firmware upgrades and breaking his home lab, he makes time for weight lifting,
gardening, and, most importantly, his family.
While Shank is a first-time author, he is a serial blogger. If you’d like to get in touch or
continue to learn about virtualization, look up www.lab2prod.com.au/.

ix
About the Technical Reviewers
Iwan Hoogendoorn (MSc) started his IT career in 1999 as a
helpdesk agent.
Soon after this, Iwan started to learn Microsoft products
that resulted in his MCP, MCSA, MCDBA, and MCSE
certification.
While working as a Microsoft Systems engineer, Iwan
gained an excellent basis to develop additional skills and
knowledge in computer networking. Networking became
a passion in his life. This passion resulted in learning
networking with Cisco products and achieving his CCIE
number on six different tracks.
Iwan is currently a staff consultant at VMware and is working on private and public
clouds and the related products that VMware developed to build the Software-Defined
Data Center (SDDC). He is certified on multiple VMware products, including NSX, and he
is actively working together with VMware certification to develop network-related exams
for VMware. Next to his VMware certifications, Iwan is also AWS and TOGAF certified.
Iwan is also the author of the two books that teach the basics of NSX-T:

1. Getting Started with NSX-T: Logical Routing and Switching

2. Multi-Site Network and Security Services with NSX-T

From high-school network administration through to


enterprise IT with global companies, Doug Scobie’s career
has spanned three decades.
For the last 10 years, he has been working for IT vendors,
specializing in datacenter technologies, cloud computing,
and software solutions for transforming customers.
Outside of work, Doug has a busy outdoor-focused
lifestyle with his wife and two daughters. He has a strong
affinity for the ocean, bush, and nature.

xi
About the Technical Reviewers

Luke Flemming is a veteran with over 15 years of IT


experience. Luke has been working at VMware for six
years, initially joining as a senior consultant in professional
services and currently as a technical account manager.
Prior to life at VMware, Luke worked for various managed
service providers within a number of federal government
departments. Upon first being introduced to VMware
technologies, he was amazed at the technology potential and
value that could be realized and went about specializing in
all things VMware.
Outside of work, Luke enjoys playing golf, watching
sports (golf, basketball, and rugby league), barbecuing and/
or smoking meat, and spending time with his wife and dog.

xii
Acknowledgments
To my best friend and wife, Nikki, thank you for taking care of everything so I could focus
on writing this book. Your optimism and belief in what I can achieve is invaluable. You
motivate me to keep learning, think outside the box, and be the best version of myself.
I am also very thankful for your creative influence on this book.
To my reviewers, Luke, Iwan, and Doug, thank you for sharing your time so
generously. Your brutal honesty and willingness to put up with my grammar will not be
forgotten. Iwan, I am also very grateful for your mentoring and friendship when I needed
it the most.
To my family, both Mohans and Iyers, thank you for your willingness to help
in any way you could, whether it was a hot meal on a cold day or uplifting virtual
encouragement (#lifeinlockdown). I deeply appreciate having each one of you in my
corner.
To my friends, extended family, colleagues, and associates around the world, thank
you for encouraging me, inspiring me, and forgiving long periods of silence from me.
Finally, I am grateful to the team at Apress Publishing for reaching out, taking a
chance on me, and converting a messy Word document into the book you now have.

xiii
Introduction
Have you ever felt like you can’t respond to a curveball question from a coworker or client?
Have you ever lacked confidence or conviction in your responses? Have you not really
understood how or why something functions the way it does?
I have. As a newbie to NSX-T, even with a relatively strong “traditional” networking
experience, I found myself constantly seeking help online and reaching out to
colleagues. I spent hours trying to find solutions that matched the exact situations that I
was in, but two situations are rarely the same.
Despite having spent countless hours on various aspects of the product, I still did not
have the answers on hand, and this irked me. I got frustrated with always being on the
back foot and decided to take some action to change that.
First, I invested in a home lab. This has been, without a doubt, one of the best
investments I have ever made. If you’d like, you can read about my “home lab”
(www.lab2prod.com.au/the-­lab).
Second, I started to replicate customer environments, situations, and issues in my
home lab. My lab is constantly evolving (and breaking), but this gave me a safe platform
to test possible solutions and start to unpack how things work and develop a deep
understanding of NSX-T.
Third, I started to document and share my experiences, as well as connect with peers
around the world to learn from their experiences.
As a result of these actions, I am now able to confidently vocalize my opinions,
repeatedly demonstrate my expertise in NSX-T, and maintain a strong reputation with
my clients and peers.
The purpose of this book is to save you hours of research by giving you everything
you need in one spot. It will equip you to figure out solutions to unique situations you
find yourself in every day and amplify your confidence and success!

xv
Introduction

Are you wondering why you should trust me or follow my advice?

As a NSX-T lead at VMware, I have custom-designed NSX-T to be integrated into complex


and bespoke client environments, deployed NSX-T in greenfield environments, and
advised IT infrastructure teams on networking and NSX-T best practices. These solutions
have been provided to multibillion-dollar organizations across defense, technology,
telecommunication, education, and public sector industries.
I have been involved with networks for a long time, and it’s more than just work to
me. It’s also something I have an insatiable curiosity for. This continued when I was
working as a lead engineer, where I often found myself exploring Software-Defined
Networking (SDN) solutions. As a result, I made the decision to join VMware and get
in-depth experience designing and deploying NSX-T solutions for some of the largest
organizations in Australia and New Zealand.
I am also deeply driven by a passion to help people learn and succeed. As the
VMware ANZ practice lead for networking, one of the main focuses of my job is people
enablement. I have conducted trainings, acted as a mentor and sounding board, and
offered my home lab as a sandbox.
As a vExpert, I have demonstrated my resolve to sharing knowledge and contributing
back to the community, beyond my day job. Some of the ways I have done so include
publishing blogs, participating in VMware communities, posting video blogs, staying
active on online tech forums, and, most recently, publishing this book.
The buck doesn’t stop here; you can get in touch with me or continue to learn and
explore virtualization through my blog (www.lab2prod.com.au/).
Now, let’s get down to business.
What is covered in this book?

Chapter 1: The book begins by exploring Software-Defined Data Centers and how
NSX-T is incorporated within them. It introduces the basics of NSX-T, including the
management, control, data plane, and the various components that these constructs are
made up of.
Chapter 2: This chapter explores the difference between underlays and overlays.
It then dives deep into tunnel endpoints including configuration practices, tunnel
endpoint communication, and tunnel endpoint failure behavior.
Chapter 3: This chapter briefly discusses remote tunnel endpoints, their uses,
configuration, and cross-site communication using NSX-T Federation.

xvi
Introduction

Chapter 4: The focus of this book is Logical Routing, and this chapter defines all
components that are utilized in the NSX-T fabric. It covers differences between single
and multi-tiered Logical Routing. It displays packet walks covering different scenarios
and illustrates how packets are routed through the NSX-T data plane.
Chapter 5: This chapter demonstrates how NSX-T handles failures at various layers
and provides high availability. This is a critical subject and one that all adopters of
NSX-T should be familiar with. The chapter concludes with an introduction to equal cost
multipathing and how it is utilized at various layers in NSX-T.
Chapter 6: The final chapter explores NSX-T integration with the datacenter
network. It covers NSX-T’s implementation of dynamic and static routing and how it
operates with the physical network. The chapter also introduces deterministic peering
and BFD with the physical network. The book concludes with an explanation of unicast
reverse path forwarding behavior in NSX-T in various scenarios.

xvii
Random documents with unrelated
content Scribd suggests to you:
The woman sat down at the opposite side of a small center table, near
which Nick had seated himself. She did not reply for a moment. Resting
both elbows on the table and gazing across it at him, she then said, with
seeming indifference:
“Yes, I am alone here. Contrary to what you say, however, I have not the
slightest idea, Mr. Goulard, why you want to meet me.”
“Why, then, did you consent to see me?” asked Nick pointedly.
“Curiosity,” asserted Sadie tersely. “I wondered what you wanted and
what you were like.”
“You had no other reason?”
“None whatever. You are a total stranger to me, Mr. Goulard.”
“Very true,” Nick admitted, and he was glad to do so. “Let’s become
friends, then, instead of total strangers. It will be to your advantage.”
“Why to my advantage?” questioned Sadie, with brows drooping.
“Because of what occurred last night.”
“Occurred where?”
“In a house in Manhattanville,” said Nick. “Don’t you know? Didn’t Moll
Damon give you a hint?”
Sadie scowled impatiently, banging her palms on the top of the table.
“See here, Mr. Goulard, I’m not dealing in hints,” she cried, with some
asperity. “If you’ve got anything of importance to say to me, hand it out
straight from the shoulder. I’m no riddle guesser. What do you mean?”
Nick saw plainly that the woman was suspicious and inclined to evade
him. He was equally sure, on the other hand, that fear alone had impelled her
to yield to Moll Damon, which convinced him that she not only knew all
about the murders of the previous night, but also was more or less involved
in them.
Nick now took her at her word, therefore, and replied, a bit curtly:
“I mean the fight in the house mentioned, a fight in which one of your
friends was killed.”
“One of my friends? I guess not!” declared Sadie, still with affected
ignorance.
“You’ve got another guess, Miss Badger,” Nick said, more forcibly. “You
may as well guess right, too, and hand me straight goods. I’ve not come here
to be bluffed, and a bluff won’t get you anything. You know what I mean
and the man I mean. Batty Lang is his name.”
“Batty Lang killed, eh?”
“You know he was killed,” insisted Nick, with an affected display of
impatience. “I know, too, that he was a friend of yours and of your brother,
Ben Badger; also that he was one of the gang of which you two are the big
fingers.”
“Is that so?” questioned Sadie tentatively, frowning more darkly.
“Yes, that’s so,” Nick went on, with increasing vehemence. “And that’s
not all. I know that Lang and some of your gang got wise to a job I was
going to pull off in that house, and that some of you got in there to queer it
and get the best of me.”
“We did, eh?”
“Yes. You did it all right, too, as far as that goes, but you’re not going to
get fat from it,” Nick forcibly informed her. “I’ve got that finely fixed, you
can bet on it, or I wouldn’t be here. It’s safety first for mine, always.”
As may be inferred from all this, Nick was banking on the correctness of
his suspicions and deductions, aiming to so impress Sadie Badger that she
would enter into a discussion with him and ultimately expose all she knew
about the crimes.
Only a detective of Nick Carter’s confidence, one having absolute faith in
his own discernment and deductions, would have ventured such a subterfuge
as this. It seemed likely, nevertheless, to prove as profitable as he had
anticipated.
For Sadie Badger now straightened up in her chair and replied, smiling a
bit scornfully:
“You seem to be a wise gazabo, Mr. Goulard.”
“I know what I’m talking about, all right,” Nick informed her.
“You sure are some wise gink,” nodded Sadie sarcastically. “If you know
all this and have got things as finely fixed as you say, why have you come
here to spiel with me about it? You really think that our gang put up a job on
you, do you?”
“I don’t think,” snapped Nick; “I know you did.”
“And we’re not going to get fat from it, eh?”
“No, you’re not—barring you come to terms with me.”
“What terms do you mean, Mr. Goulard?”
“I want a fair share of the plunder.”
“What plunder is that?” asked Sadie coldly.
“Oh, cut that out,” Nick again protested, plainly seeing that he was
gradually gaining his point. “You, or some of your gang, have got that
Mexican in your clutches, along with the stuff he had in his suit case. Don’t
hand me any denial. I know all about it. You got him out through the back
door of the house, and Batty Lang was shot while trying to prevent me and
my friends from following him, after he had stabbed my pal, Connie
Taggart. You got away with Padillo and the stuff he brought from Mexico. I
know all about it—and I’m going to have a fair share of it.”
Sadie Badger’s darker frowns showed how deeply she was impressed.
She no longer responded angrily, however, but with the earnestness and
covert cunning of a woman bent upon learning just what her visitor had up
his sleeve. She drew nearer the table, bending over it and saying:
“You do seem to know, Goulard, what you are talking about. Admitting
that you do—what do you mean by having things finely fixed?”
“In case anything happens to me while here,” Nick informed her, with
unmistakable significance.
“Oh, that’s what you mean, eh?”
“That’s what I mean, all right.”
“But suppose you don’t get what you’re after?” questioned Sadie,
narrowly eying him.
“You’ll get yours, then, and the rest of your gang,” Nick declared. “Take
my word for that.”
“Explain. I don’t quite get you.”
“That’s done with few words,” Nick went on. “You’ve got this Mexican
on your hands. You’ve got to put him away in order to safely keep that
plunder. You can’t let him go. He’d have the guns after you within an hour.”
“We might compromise with him,” said Sadie, further convincing Nick
that he was shooting straight at the mark.
“That’s not like you, nor any of your gang,” Nick returned.
“As well compromise with him, Goulard, as with you,” Sadie pointedly
asserted.
“Not by a long chalk.”
“Why not?”
“Because you know I’ll keep my trap closed,” said Nick. “You couldn’t
feel sure of him.”
“Yes, we could,” said Sadie, with an expressive nod. “He wouldn’t dare
to squeal. It was he who killed Connie Taggart, and we know it. You’ve
overlooked that, Goulard, haven’t you?”
The woman laughed derisively.
Nick silenced her laugh, however, by retorting pointedly:
“No, nothing of the kind. You’ve got nothing on Padillo for stabbing
Taggart. He did it in self-defense to protect his property. He had a legal right
to do that.”
“Hang it, that’s too true for a joke,” frowned Sadie, biting her lips.
“You see,” Nick added; “you’ll do much better to put the Mexican away
and compromise with me.”
“Mebbe so, Goulard, after all,” admitted the woman reluctantly.
“Besides, there is another reason why you should do so.”
“What is that?”
“I am the man who made the job possible,” Nick forcibly argued. “If it
hadn’t been for Taggart and me, your gang would never have laid hands on
the stuff.”
“That’s true, Goulard, I admit,” nodded Sadie.
“Do you think, then, now that Taggart’s lamp has been put out, that I’m
going to be buncoed out of my share of the stuff?” Nick demanded. “Not
much! Your gang has got to come across with part of it, or I’ll give the dicks
a tip that will make trouble for you. I can do it, Sadie, all right. I can do it
and make a safe get-away for my part of the job. That’s what I’ll do, too,
unless——”
“Something prevents! Get him, pals! Don’t give him a look in!”
Nick turned quickly.
The first face he beheld, of several, was that of—Gaston Goulard.
CHAPTER VI.

THE LAIR OF THE WOLF.

Nick Carter was not caught napping. Not for a moment since entering the
house had he ceased to be alert, with eyes watchful and ears bent upon
catching the slightest ominous sound.
Nick had reasoned, too, and very naturally, that Gaston Goulard would
visit the house in the ordinary way, by ringing the bell and presenting
himself at the front door. Not a word to the contrary had passed between
Sadie Badger and Moll Damon.
When Nick Carter turned, nevertheless, upon hearing the threatening
interruption, he beheld Gaston Goulard and three men rushing into the room
with weapons drawn.
Nick recognized all three, moreover—Ben Badger, one Henry Freeland,
known as Knocker Freeland, and a Jack Glidden—all members of the
notorious Badger gang.
Nick did not ask himself where they came from, nor how he had thus
been caught. Nor was it in his nature to yield submissively to such a
situation. As quick as a flash, starting up, he reached for his revolver.
He was not more quick than Sadie Badger, however, who realized on the
instant that her earlier suspicions were correct, and that there was something
wrong.
She lurched forward before Nick was fairly out of his chair, throwing all
of her weight and strength against the edge of the table.
She upset it on the instant, forcing it with desperate energy against the
back and hips of the detective, just as he was drawing the revolver from his
pocket.
The weapon exploded.
A bullet tore a hole in the floor.
Nick lost his footing and pitched backward over the falling table, nearly
into the arms of Sadie Badger.
She was ready for him and threw him to one side, and Nick fell to the
floor with a crash that shook its timbers.
In another instant, though the entire sensational episode occupied hardly
more than that, Goulard and Ben Badger, with their two confederates, were
upon the prostrate form of the detective, crushing his arms and legs to the
floor and holding him powerless.
“You lie still, blast you, or I’ll fix you so there’ll be no need of telling you
to do so,” Goulard cried fiercely, pressing the muzzle of a revolver to Nick’s
head.
“If he don’t, I will,” supplemented Badger, with a knife at the detective’s
throat.
Nick gazed up at their threatening faces and permitted his vainly strained
muscles to relax. None yet had recognized him, despite that his false
mustache had been partly torn from his lips and was dangling over one ear.
Yielding to the inevitable, therefore, for no mortal man could have
overcome such odds and such a disadvantage, Nick said coolly:
“Don’t hurry, gentlemen! There’ll be time enough to settle this matter in a
decent way. I’m not fool enough to oppose such a bunch of blacklegs. Take
your time. I’ll keep quiet.”
Nick had, in fact, more than one reason for doing so.
Goulard snarled an oath, adding quickly:
“By Heaven, this man is Nick Carter!”
“Right,” said Nick; “perfectly right, Gaston Goulard.”
Sadie Badger stared down at him as if dealt a blow. She seemed unable to
realize how completely she had been duped, how completely she had
exposed herself and her confederates.
“Get his bracelets,” growled Badger, who was the coolest of the gang.
“It’s the dick, all right. Run your duke under his coat, Knocker, and get his
irons. We’ll soon fix him so he can wag nothing more dangerous than his
tongue.”
Freeland hastened to obey, dragging Nick’s handcuffs from his pocket,
also the revolver he had partly drawn. He thrust the weapon into his own
pocket. Then, with the help of the others, he quickly snapped the handcuffs
on the detective’s wrists.
“Now, Glidden, bring a piece of rope,” Badger commanded. “No halfway
work for mine. I know this dick from way back. Having got him, I’ll make
dead sure to keep him.”
“That’s more wisdom, Badger, than you ordinarily display,” Nick dryly
declared, looking up at his swarthy, sinister face. “Make a good job of it, by
all means, while you’re about it.”
“I’ll do that, all right, Carter, and I have ample means at my command,”
Badger retorted.
“We shall see how ample they are.”
“Is that so?” Badger turned like a flash. “Watch out from the back
window, Freeland,” he commanded. “This dick may have more on us than
we know for. Make sure you are not seen.”
“That last ain’t necessary,” said Freeland, with a growl while he hurried
into one of the back rooms.
Glidden returned at that moment, bringing a piece of rope, and the rascals
then proceeded to bind Nick so securely that self-liberation was next to
impossible.
Sadie Badger coolly set up the table in the meantime and replaced the
articles that had fallen to the floor. She no longer appeared disturbed over
learning that this man by whom she had been duped was none other than
Nick Carter. She seemed to feel, like her notorious brother, that he had
invited his finish.
That none of the gang viewed the matter in any other way, appeared in
the freedom with which they began to discuss the situation, without the
slightest regard for the presence of the detective and what he might, by some
remote possibility, accomplish.
“Now, Sadie, give it to me straight,” said Badger, after Nick had been
securely bound. “How did the dick fool you?”
Sadie Badger told him, concealing nothing.
“I’ve exposed the whole layout, Ben, and the bumper that queers the
wheel,” she said, when concluding. “There’s nothing to it. We’re up against
it.”
“Up against it be hanged,” Badger declared, with a growl. “You’ve told
me nothing that cuts any ice. He’s got nothing on us for the job. We’ve got
no blood on our hands, nor likely to have any, barring we put the greaser
away to get his baubles. See here——”
Badger swung sharply around and confronted Gaston Goulard, who had
been grimly listening to the disclosures the woman had made.
“What do you want of us?” he demanded. “Why are you here? What have
you got up your sleeve?”
Nick laughed audibly, in spite of his threatening situation, causing Badger
to turn and glare at him.
“That’s a funny question,” said Nick. “Haven’t you any brains?”
“Brains?”
“Do you suppose I haven’t sized up this business correctly?” Nick went
on. “I can tell you what that rascal wants. He wants precisely what I have
pretended to want from the woman. He will tell you precisely what I have
told her. I deduced the truth and the probable move that that rascal would
make, and I got in my work ahead of him. That’s all there is to it—barring
that you caught me in the act. But there’ll be another side to the story,” Nick
pointedly added.
“What do you mean by another side?” Badger demanded, scowling.
“Wait and see!”
“You’ll never see the other side of it,” Badger returned, with a growl.
“We’ve got you for keeps.”
“Better men than you have threatened me,” Nick retorted.
“They would have made good, too, with as much at stake as we have,”
snapped Badger.
“That’s right,” Goulard now put in coolly. “There is only one way to
settle this business.”
“What way is that—wait!” Badger broke off abruptly. “You come with
us, Sadie. Look after the dick, Glidden, and see that he serves us no trick. I’ll
find out where we stand. I’ll darn soon find out where we stand.”
Nick could not hear the discussion that ensued in the back room. That it
was along lines already indicated, however, which had shaped his own
course and brought about his unexpected situation, he had not the slightest
doubt.
Ten minutes had passed when the crooks returned, and it at once was
obvious to Nick that they had come to an agreement with Goulard that was
satisfactory to all concerned.
The face of the whilom merchant, who had been steadily going to the bad
since his financial and social downfall, wore a look of mingled malevolence
and exultation that spoke louder than words.
“Now, Carter, my turn has come,” he declared, confronting the detective.
“You’ve had your inning, and I’m going to have mine. You did all in your
power to down me, but you have accomplished less than what I will hand to
you. May the devil get me, body and soul, if I don’t wipe you out of
existence.”
“As you did Batty Lang!” snapped Nick, so sharply that Goulard recoiled
as if dealt a blow. “Ah, that hits the nail on the head, I see!”
“Little good it will do you to see that,” snarled Goulard, pulling himself
together.
“As for the devil getting you,” Nick curtly added; “he’ll get you, Goulard,
whatever you do to me.”
“Not before I have balanced my account with you and sent you to——”
“Cut that!” Badger sharply interrupted, turning after a brief talk with
Sadie. “There’ll be time enough for that after a shift to safer quarters. We
must get the infernal dick out of this house. If his running mates know as
much as he has stated, they may come looking for us.”
“That’s right, too, Ben,” put in Sadie. “Shift him from this crib, and be
quick about it.”
“Get a move on, Glidden,” Badger added, turning to the other. “Run over
to the shed and see Jimmy. Send him with the truck. We’ll have the dick
ready in five minutes.”
“And we’ll have the truck here in less time,” Glidden nodded, hastening
from the room.
“Fix him so he can’t yip, Knocker, while I open the way.”
Badger also hurried from the room with the last, and Nick heard his
receding steps on a back stairway.
With the help of Goulard, who appeared eager for a hand in any outrage
upon the detective, Freeland hastened to gag and blindfold Nick, a
proceeding viewed with malicious satisfaction by Sadie Badger.
Nick appeared entirely unconcerned, however, and offered no resistance.
He wondered where he was to be taken. He knew from the remarks he had
heard that it could be to no great distance, and he recalled the several old
wooden buildings he had noticed between the house and the river.
“It must be to one of them,” he said to himself. “Probably a more secret
retreat of the gang, used in case of need, or a raid by the police. By Jove, I
don’t yet fathom how Goulard showed up so suddenly and in company with
Badger. Nothing said by the two women denoted anything of that kind.
Something must have come off to which I did not get wise. Possibly, Chick
or Patsy will succeed in doing so.”
Nick had not long to wait for the contemplated move. He heard Badger
returning, and a moment later he was seized by the three men and carried
down the stairway mentioned.
The afternoon then was waning. The dusk of early evening was beginning
to gather. Another half hour would bring darkness—and what more Nick
could only conjecture.
Presently he heard the opening of a door and felt a breath of air from
outside. He scented the odor of burlap, a quantity of which was quickly
thrown over him, covering him completely, and he again was raised from the
floor on which he had been briefly placed.
Nick then was carried only a few steps, however, when he felt himself
deposited on a low truck. He could feel it sway slightly on its iron wheels.
Then he felt it moving, gliding quickly away, leaving behind him the house
into which he had ventured so confidently less than an hour before.
CHAPTER VII.

PATSY’S TRAIL.

As now must be inferred, of course, after his interview with Sadie


Badger, in which appeared most of the conclusions at which he had arrived,
Nick Carter had started out to locate the suspected gang after the discoveries
made while in the Mantell residence. He also had assigned Chick and Patsy
the task of hunting up Gaston Goulard, in which they were engaged while
Nick was busy as described.
Nick had felt reasonably sure, in fact, that these several parties, whom he
knew must have been in the Manhattanville house the previous night, and
presumably under the circumstances which he shrewdly suspected—he knew
they would come together sooner or later. His first move was to hunt them
up, therefore, before they could learn how much he had discovered and
suspected, and guard themselves against the steps he naturally would take.
The latter part of the afternoon found Chick and Patsy, both in a disguise
of a rather sinister character, completing a round through several East Side
stuss houses, known to be frequented at times by Connie Taggart, the
murdered cracksman.
They were not seeking him, of course, but were looking for the man now
known to have been one of the confederates the previous night—Gaston
Goulard.
They reasoned, also, that they might discover others, or hear some
remarks dropped that would supply a clew to the whereabouts of Goulard. In
each of the stuss houses visited, therefore, both detectives had played briefly
at one or more of the tables, while sizing up the other players and listening to
what was said.
They were thus engaged about half past four, in the stuss house then run
by Karl Ritchie, known to be a favorite haunt of ex-convicts and denizens of
the underworld.
“There’s one of them, now,” Chick whispered to Patsy, when entering the
place. “He has done time twice for holdup jobs.”
“You mean Slugger Sloan?” questioned Patsy, glancing toward the table
at which the gambler was seated.
“Yes, of course,” Chick muttered. “There’s a vacant chair next to him.”
“I see.”
“I’ll take it, Patsy, while you play at one of the other tables. We’ll look
the place over very thoroughly, and then get out.”
“I’m on,” nodded Patsy, sauntering to another part of the room.
Very little attention was paid to either of them by the other players, and
the man mentioned by Chick hardly noticed him when he took the next chair
and began his play.
He was a stocky, muscular chap in the twenties, with a countenance
evincing depravity and vice, also a taciturn and surly nature. The latter had
plunged him into numerous fights, which had earned for him the nickname
he was bearing, that of Slugger Sloan.
Chick had been playing less than ten minutes, however, and was
apprehending no profitable results, when something occurred that quickly
reversed his opinion.
He felt a hand touch the back of his chair, and then a woman who had just
hurried into the place, bent between him and Sloan, to whom she whispered,
yet not so low but that Chick heard her:
“Quit the game, Slugger. I’ve fixed it.”
Sloan turned his shifty gray eyes upon her, but did not stir from his chair.
The gambler’s passion was the strongest in his evil nature.
“Will she see him?” he asked, scarce above his breath.
“Yes.”
“When?”
“As soon as he can get there.”
“Her crib, Moll?”
“Yes. Get a move on,” Moll Damon whispered impatiently. “It’s more
important than this piking business. Go and send him up there. You know
where to find him.”
Sloan pushed his chips toward the dealer to be cashed.
“You hike home and stay there,” he muttered to the woman. “I’ll see him
and set him going. Leave it to me.”
Chick caught Patsy’s eye and signaled for him to shadow the woman.
Half a minute later he followed Slugger Sloan from the house. Moll Damon
was waiting outside, on a corner, for the crook. They met again and talked
for several moments.
Chick and Patsy watched them from the stuss-house doorway, the former
stating what he had overheard.
“Why are you banking so strong on it?” Patsy questioned.
“Because I happen to know that Sloan and Taggart were good friends,”
said Chick.
“Gee! it may be then that Sloan was in the job last night.”
“That’s the very point.”
“But whom is he going to see, and why——”
“Wait! We’ll find out.”
The couple had moved on and were crossing the street.
The detectives shadowed them to a house in the next block, which both
entered.
Five minutes later both emerged, in company with—Gaston Goulard.
“Eureka!” Chick quietly exclaimed. “I was right, Patsy. They’re our
men.”
“It’s Goulard, all right, as sure as blazes,” chuckled Patsy. “The game
certainly is breaking cover.”
“They’re going to separate. Goulard is going to leave them.”
The three crooks were lingering briefly at the foot of the steps.
“Shall we shadow him?” questioned Patsy.
“You do so,” Chick directed. “I’ll follow Sloan and the woman. They
may have more up their sleeves. They’re a bad pair.”
“Have you any suspicion where Goulard is going?” Patsy asked.
“A suspicion only,” Chick nodded. “He is going to the home of some
woman, judging from what that jade said to Sloan. It may be to the home of
Sadie Badger.”
“In that case——”
“He’s off,” Chick interrupted. “Don’t lose sight of him.”
Gaston Goulard had abruptly left the couple and was hurrying away.
“So long!” nodded Patsy. “If I lose sight of him, Chick, I’ll chuck my
job.”
Goulard was hastening toward Third Avenue, where he boarded a north-
bound elevated train.
Patsy Garvan occupied the same car.
Twenty minutes later, without the slightest idea that he was the subject of
an espionage, Goulard left the train and walked rapidly east. He brought up
in the low section on the water front in which Nick Carter had arrived not
more than half an hour before.
There were comparatively few people in the street, which made it
necessary for Patsy to proceed quite cautiously. He crossed to the opposite
side from Goulard, remaining some thirty yards behind him, and noted, with
some surprise, that he began to appear suspicious when approaching the
lower end of the street. He was on the same side as the long wooden block,
of which Sadie Badger occupied the last dwelling.
Goulard was glancing sharply at the house, and once back over his
shoulder. Upon arriving at the last door, moreover, he merely glanced at it
and walked on, not stopping until he came to the river wall, and opposite a
two-story building, on which was the lime sign previously mentioned.
“Gee! I wonder what that signifies,” thought Patsy. “He’s got something
on his mind. He seems to fear that the house may be watched.”
That, as a matter of fact, was precisely what Goulard feared, and he
resolved not to enter the front door—which was the one and only reason
why Nick Carter was discovered and caught by the gang a little later.
CHAPTER VIII.

THE TURNING TIDE.

Patsy Garvan was right, as stated, in his interpretation of Gaston


Goulard’s movements, and he remained concealed in the doorway to watch
him.
Goulard turned back after viewing the river and the near-by lime shed for
several moments. He retraced his steps with the air of a man having no
special business in that locality. But upon approaching the entrance to a
narrow alley making in between the end of the block and an old wooden
building, and seeing no sign of any person observing him, he darted quickly
into the alley and disappeared.
“Gee! that does settle it,” thought Patsy, at first impelled to follow him.
“He thinks the Badger house is being watched. It must be that end house in
the block, for he looked at that door when passing, but at no other. He must
have decided to go in the back way. In that case—no, by gracious, I’ll not
follow him. I’ll try to get that woman to help me.”
The woman had just appeared at the basement dining-room windows of
the next house. She had opened one of them and was setting a bucket of
water on the ground outside, evidently intending to wash the window. She
turned almost immediately and seated herself on the sill, with her feet in the
room, and fished out two pieces of cloth from within.
Patsy made a short detour and crossed the street, then sauntered toward
her. He judged from her looks that she was not a servant, also that she was
possessed of no great means, which he thought would be to his advantage.
He stepped to the window on the sill of which she was seated, touching his
hat and saying politely:
“Pardon me, madam! Will you tell me who lives in this last house?”
The woman, thin-featured and careworn, turned and regarded him
curiously.
“Certainly, sir,” she replied. “A man and woman named Badger.”
“Are you acquainted with them?”
The woman shook her head and smiled significantly.
“No, sir,” she said. “I don’t think I would care to be. Their reputation is
not very good.”
Patsy now saw plainly that the woman could be safely trusted. He drew a
little nearer to her, displaying his detective badge and saying quietly:
“I am aware of it. In fact, madam, I know all about them. I am a
detective, as you may see, and I am anxious to watch the doings of a man
who, I think, is going into the back door of that house. Would you like to
earn five dollars without lifting your finger?”
The woman laughed softly, with eyes lighting.
“I could use five dollars very nicely,” she replied. “I don’t often get an
opportunity to earn as much so easily. I infer that you want something of
me.”
“I merely wish to use your second-floor back windows for the purpose of
watching the man and that side of the house,” Patsy informed her.
“Ah, I see.”
“I give you my word that I will disturb nothing, and that no one will ever
be the wiser,” he added. “I will pay you in advance. Here is the money.” He
tendered it with the last, and the woman accepted it.
“I’m glad to get it so easily,” she said, after thanking him. “As a matter of
fact, sir, I would like to see those people cleaned out of the house. High jinks
take place in there some nights.”
“I think they soon will occupy other quarters,” smiled Patsy significantly.
“May I go in at once?”
“Certainly, sir.”
“You need not come to the door. Just move a little to one side, and I will
step by you and get in the window. Keep on with your work, please, so that
nothing may be suspected.”
“I will, sir.”
Patsy easily passed the woman, stepping through the low window, and he
then hastened up to a back room on the next floor, from a window of which
he cautiously peered.
This crafty move was a wise one on his part, in that Glidden failed to
discover the spy a little later.
Supposing, of course, that Goulard had gone into the house by that time,
Patsy took a swift look at the surroundings outside.
There was a yard back of the Badger house, partly occupied by a wooden
porch, the door of which was accessible from the alley mentioned. Beyond
the alley was a narrow passageway between the rear walls of the near
buildings, a passage running in the direction of the river, and through which
he could see a bit of the faded side wall of the lime dealer’s building.
“Gee whiz! there’s the rat, now,” flashed suddenly through Patsy’s mind.
“He has not gone in, after all. He still is watching the house.”
Patsy had caught sight of Goulard’s head, thrust cautiously around the
corner of a shed in the near distance. He was gazing at the windows of the
Badger house.
Presently, after glancing sharply around, Goulard emerged from his
concealment and approached the entrance to the porch mentioned.
At the same moment, giving Patsy a second surprise, he caught sight of a
man coming rapidly through the passageway from the lime shed.
“Great guns! that’s Ben Badger himself, the king-pin of his knavish
gang,” he said to himself, instantly recognizing the notorious gangster. “He’s
bound to meet Goulard in the alley. I wonder if that’s been fixed.”
That it had not been fixed was speedily apparent.
The two men nearly collided a moment later, plainly seen by Patsy, and
the manner and looks with which both recoiled convinced him that the
meeting was purely accidental.
Their surprise and consternation was of brief duration, however, for they
quickly began to converse in low tones, though Patsy could only conjecture
what they were discussing.
They talked in the alley for about five minutes, and Badger then led the
way to the porch, where Patsy no longer could see them.
As a matter of fact, however, quietly entering the basement door of the
house, Badger caught the sound of Nick Carter’s voice, in discussion with
Sadie, and the nature of the detective’s remarks, coupled with the arrival of
Goulard and what he had just stated, speedily exposed Nick’s subterfuge and
designs.
Patsy, waiting and watching, then saw Badger emerge from the porch and
run at top speed through the passageway, and then disappear into the lime
shed.
Half a minute later he returned posthaste, and followed by two men,
whom he evidently had gone to get—Knocker Freeland and Jack Glidden.
All vanished hurriedly into the house.
“Gee! there’s something doing, all right,” thought Patsy, not for a
moment supposing that Nick was in the house. “Badger got the gang
together for some reason. It now is a hundred to one that all of them were in
the Manhattanville house last night, and that some sort of a deal is to be
made with Goulard. I’ll wait here a while longer, at all events, and see what
follows.”
Patsy waited, constantly watching, but he did not hear the report of
Nick’s revolver, nor any sounds of the brief struggle that ensued.
He saw nothing more, in fact, until Glidden issued from the porch about
twenty minutes later and rushed away to the lime shed.
“There goes one of them again,” Patsy muttered. “There must be
something doing over in that building, also, if the haste of that rat counts for
anything. I’ll wait and see whether he returns.”
Patsy had not long to wait.
Glidden reappeared in about a minute, in company with a slender man in
a blouse and overalls, both pushing a low truck.
“Gee! that’s Jimmy Dakin, known as Quicklime Jimmy,” thought Patsy,
who knew most of the gangsters by sight. “He must be the rascal who runs
that lime business. But what in thunder are they going to do with that truck?
Have they killed Goulard? Are they going to truck him to the shed and then
dump him into the river?”
Patsy remained to find out, if possible. He saw them bring the truck to the
porch door, after which he could see neither them nor the truck, the porch
cutting off his view.
Five minutes passed.
Patsy then saw them troop back to the lime shed—Badger, Goulard,
Dakin, Freeland, and Glidden, hurrying like evil shadows through the
narrow passageway.
Patsy saw, too, that they were dragging the low truck—with a long object
on it, covered with burlap. He watched it—but did not see it move.
Within a minute all had disappeared into the lime dealer’s building.
“Holy smoke!” thought Patsy, lingering only briefly. “Was that a corpse?
If so—whose corpse? By Jove, I’ve got to make a bid to find out.”
Hurrying downstairs, Patsy found that the woman had just finished
washing her windows. He thanked her again for her kindness, cautioned her
to say nothing about his visit, and then he hurried from the house.
As he emerged from under the front steps, where the basement-hall door
was located, he walked almost into the arms of—Chick Carter.
“Great Scott! here’s a stroke of luck,” Patsy said impulsively. “What sent
you here?”
Chick was nearly as much surprised as Patsy, seeing him come from the
second house.
“I shadowed Slugger Sloan up here,” he replied. “He left Moll Damon
and came up here alone.”
“Do you know for what, Chick?” Patsy asked eagerly.
“Not yet. He took a long look at this house and then went down and sized
up that building with a lime sign on it.”
“Gee! we must be in right. Where is he, now?”
“In a barroom around the corner. What did you learn in that house? You
seem to have something on your mind.”
Patsy hurriedly told his story, and Chick’s countenance took on a more
serious expression.
“By Jove, it may be that Nick was in that house,” said he. “He may have
got wise to something that sent him there.”
“That’s just what I think,” Patsy declared. “I can see no other way of
looking at it.”
“There is only one course for us to shape, I reckon,” said Chick, after a
moment’s thought.
“What’s that?”
“We’ll begin with arresting Slugger Sloan. He may throw up a squeal that
will clinch our suspicions.”
“My idea exactly,” Patsy agreed.
“Come on. We’ll lose no time in discussing it. We’ll nail him at once.”
They hastened around the corner mentioned, then sauntered into the
barroom, as if with no more aggressive intent than to buy a couple of drinks.
Slugger Sloan was leaning against the bar with a glass of whisky in front
of him.
Chick and Patsy pretended to be about to pass him, then the former
turned quickly and seized the crook’s arms, confining them to either side.
Patsy whipped out his revolver at the same moment and thrust it under
the gunman’s nose.
“Don’t get gay, Slugger,” he advised coolly. “We want you!”
Sloan scowled defiantly at both, but made no resistance.
“What’s it all about?” he asked, with affected indifference, while Chick
handcuffed him and removed a revolver from his pocket.
“What are you doing out here?” he asked, confronting him.
“Nothing special. Do I have to have a ticket to come here?”
“There is nothing in that kind of a bluff. This is Chick Carter talking to
you, Sloan, and you’d better make a clean breast of it. What do you know
about that Manhattanville murder?”
“Nothing at all about it,” Sloan declared, but every vestige of color left
his sinister face.
“Your looks give your words the lie, Slugger,” Chick said sternly. “You
were out there last night, and you had a hand in the job.”
“You’ve got another guess, Carter,” Sloan coldly asserted.
“Why were you sizing up Badger’s house, then, and Dakin’s lime
building?”
“Was I doing that?”
“I saw you doing it. We know, too, that they were in the job.”
“You’re a couple of wise ginks,” Sloan observed, with a sneer.
“You’re not going to open up, eh?” Chick questioned.
“Not so you’ll notice it.”
“That’s final, Slugger, is it?”
“What I say always goes,” scowled the gunman.
Chick turned abruptly and pointed to a telephone on one of the walls.
“Get next, Patsy,” he commanded shortly. “Call up the precinct station.
Get a wagon and a dozen men here as quickly as possible. We’ll raid that
house and building on the jump.”

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