“That’s true, but if you feel this way about it, I’ll consider him first hereafter. You can’t take part in it in person, though. I must insist upon your keeping out of it. Remember your position, Crawford. You’re supposed to have been infected by that injection, and you’re also supposed to know nothing about it. You can’t admit any knowledge of the hypodermic without letting the cat out of the bag and putting Follansbee on his guard against me.” “That’s true,” murmured the miner. “I was forgetting that. What can I do, then?” “You’ll have to keep your hands off and trust me to manage the affair.” “I will, if you’ll promise not to have Jimmy locked up, if you can possibly avoid it; and, above all, not to charge him with this latest mad attempt against my life. As I told you before, nobody else is in any danger from him. I’m sure of that, and I’m still willing to take any risk in order to shield him, even after what happened last night. If you can get him away from Follansbee, and put him in the care of some conscientious physician—some one who won’t hustle him off to an asylum the first thing—I shall be satisfied.” The detective smiled grimly. “That’s all very well,” he said; “but what about Follansbee? Don’t you realize that if we let one of them off, both will necessarily go free?” “I suppose so,” confessed Crawford. “I’d give anything to see that scoundrel get all that’s coming to him, but you understand my position. I can’t and won’t consent to sacrifice my old partner for the sake of punishing his accomplice. That’s out of the question. Follansbee is as dangerous as they make them, I’ll admit, but I’m afraid you’ll have to find some way of getting around it—of reaching him without involving Stone.” “You make my task a very hard one,” Nick told him gravely. “In the face of such a condition, Follansbee seems to be beyond reach; but perhaps he isn’t. We’ll have to wait and see. He may make a false step before we get through, and if he does——” He did not finish the sentence, but the way in which he said the words boded no good to Doctor Stephen Follansbee. Crawford had only to look at the detective at that moment to realize why Nick Carter was called “the man who never lets go.” CHAPTER XXXIII. WILL HE SCORE? Winthrop Crawford was not satisfied, however. His anxiety was centered about the welfare of his old friend, and he could not lose sight of Stone’s continued absence from the Windermere. “But what are you going to do about Jimmy?” he asked eagerly. “Don’t delay, man. Hunt him up as soon as possible, even if you have to defy Follansbee, and mess things up generally in order to do so.”