With a swift movement Nick released himself from his clinging antagonist, and sent him spinning after the broken bottle. The doctor recovered his balance, gasping for breath, and the two faced each other silently for a few moments. “Well,” Follansbee said presently, panting, “you didn’t connect with that bit of evidence after all, did you?” The detective shrugged his shoulders. “True,” he admitted. “I knew I was dealing with a cur, but I forgot that you weren’t muzzled. You needn’t pride yourself on your victory, however; the ink would have been a little further evidence against you, but I can very easily get along without it. But I didn’t come here to bandy words with you, or to fight with mad dogs. I came to find out where your latest victim is—Stone, I mean; and I’d advise you not to put any more obstacles in my way.” “What do I know about Stone?” “That’s what I want you to tell me. I heard you arrange to wait for him outside the bank, and I saw you leave the hotel for that performance. He hasn’t been back since, and the hotel people are beginning to worry about it. It is up to you to do a little explaining, if you don’t want to be accused of another crime.” “I know nothing about it,” the rascal insisted. “Stone came back here, it’s true. I brought him in my car, and he was here for some little time. It must have been something after three o’clock when he left, intending to walk back to the hotel. That’s the last I saw of him.” He spoke with the utmost assurance, and unfortunately Nick was not able to contradict him. The detective realized with a sinking of the heart that, in spite of Follansbee’s telltale flareups and partial or implied confessions, the man intended to fight doggedly every step of the way. For a moment he was at a loss to know how to proceed, and the Buzzard, seeing his hesitation, took advantage of that fact. “That’s all I have to tell you,” Follansbee went on triumphantly. “Make as much—or as little—of it as you can. Let me remind you of something else, too. Any charge you may try to bring against me will involve Stone and give a lot of undesirable publicity to his mental condition. It will involve you, too, for if he’s as dangerous as you claim he is, the newspapers and the public will ask why you allowed him to go about of his own free will, to live unmolested at a hotel, and all the rest of it. More than that, the revelations that will inevitably follow will make your friend Crawford very sore. He has stuck to Stone, I understand, through thick and thin. I don’t pretend to say what his motives have been, but I know enough to be sure that he won’t welcome the limelight when it’s thrown upon them.”