“Pshaw!” exclaimed Elwell. “You may think yourself a bad man, Lannigan; but you had better keep out of the way of Nick Carter. If he has tracked that case here and got possession of the things within it, the next thing will be that he’ll have the handcuffs on you. He fears no mortal man and he has captured single-handed half a dozen men, each one worse than you. But I don’t think Nick Carter has got those papers.” “Why?” “Let me ask you first, whether when you last saw these, they were all in this case and the case locked?” “Yes; every blessed paper and the models as well.” “Well, then, if Nick Carter had entered the room in search of that case and had found it, he would not have stopped to take the things out and substitute papers in their place, but would have taken out of the house the case and all.” “That’s sense,” said Seaman. “Let me ask you another question,” said Elwell. “Did any one besides Seaman and myself know that you had this case and its contents?” “No--stop--yes--hold on! It’s not quite that way. There are two men who thought we had it. They thought we had cracked that crib in Thirty-fifth Street and, that being so, they knew that we had the case. But we never let on to them that we did the job. They only thought so.” “Who are those men?” asked Elwell. “Never you mind who they are,” said Lannigan, ferociously. “Before the lights go out to-night, I’ll know whether they’ve got that case, or what was in it, or I’ll have their lives.” Again there was silence of speech, but there was a movement as if the party had risen to their feet. Nick slipped to the open door leading into the hall and, beckoning to Chick, said to him when they met: “Did you hear?” “Plainly.” “The drawings have disappeared.” “Yes. There’s no use of making a raid now.” “You’re right; get out of the house by the front way as quick as you can and get on the watch. I’ll go down by the way I came.” Chick slipped down the stairs and out of the front door, while Nick, crossing the bedroom, picked the lock of the outer door again, closed the door leading into the bedroom behind him, closed the outer door and locked it, and slipped down the outer stairs and so into the street, where he went into concealment to watch for the men to come out. He did not wait long before Elwell and Seaman came down the stairs, passed out of the door in the fence and went up the street to Third Avenue and disappeared at the corner. “No use to follow them,” muttered Nick, “for I can find them when I want them.” It was a longer wait, however, for the other two, and Nick was made aware of their coming by a string of oaths from inside the fence which he knew to be from Lannigan. Straining his ears he found that Lannigan was swearing over the door at the foot of the stairs. He was attributing the broken door to the thieves who had robbed him, assuming that that was the way in which they had gotten in.