Seeking the best excuse he could, he left the two and went over to the Bowery. In doing so, his purpose was to take one of the uptown lines of cars and then cross to the west side, but on reaching the corner of Bond Street, and the Bowery, he saw some one on the opposite side of the street that looked to him very much like the one he had seen on the corner of Thirty-fourth Street and who the Chicago detective had told him was Lannigan. The distance across the Bowery at that point was long, and he hurried across it in order to be certain that he was right. He had so crossed the Bowery as to come up behind Lannigan, and as he stepped up on the sidewalk a hand was laid on his shoulder. He turned and saw Chick. “What is it, youngster?” asked Chick. “Are you following that man?” asked Patsy. “Lannigan? Yes.” “Then, it is Lannigan?” asked Patsy. “Yes,” replied Chick. “But where are your men?” “Over here in a saloon nearby.” “Lannigan is looking for them,” said Chick. “The deuce! What for?” “To put holes in them,” laughed Chick. “What does he want to do that for?” asked Patsy. “He thinks they stole that case of the drawings from him,” said Chick. “Say!” exclaimed Patsy, “where’s the chief?” “He’s right here,” said Chick. “Here!” said Patsy. “Show me where he is--quick!” Seeing that Patsy was unusually earnest, Chick gave the signal, which brought Nick into sight in an instant. As he came up Chick said: “Patsy’s got something on his mind and wants to talk.” “Chick, you keep your eye on Lannigan, and I’ll see what Patsy has to say,” returned Nick. He then turned to Patsy, asking what had excited him. “Well,” said Patsy, “I hardly know where to begin, but I’ve been following Spike Thomas and Bally Morris all day. I’ve been thinking that Spike had put up a job with Lannigan to get the most money he could for those drawings, but Chick tells me that Lannigan has been robbed of them that he thinks Spike did it.” “Well, Patsy,” said Nick, “tell me the whole story and we’ll see how it fits in with what we know.” Patsy then recited to Nick all that had occurred between himself, Spike and Bally Morris, from the time they had met in Thirty-fourth Street up to the time they had been traced by him to Avenue A, their brief disappearance, the row he had had in the house in Avenue A, the surprising appearance of the two from a direction he least expected them, his tracing them to Spike’s home, with the subsequent interview which he had just had with Spike in the saloon in Bond Street. Patsy told this rapidly, but clearly, and Nick was an attentive listener. On his part, Nick related to Patsy all that had occurred from the time they had parted on the corner of Forty-second Street and Third Avenue, including, of course, the astonishing theft from Lannigan of the contents of the leather case, concluding with the statement that Chick and he had followed Lannigan in the belief that the cracksman was hunting for Spike Thomas and Bally Morris.