“It’s the melting pot, not for me, Chick, in reality, but for this priceless Waldmere plate--unless we can move quickly enough to prevent it.” “By gracious, chief, that must be what he meant!” cried Patsy, with countenance lighting. “But who is the man, Nick?” Chick demanded. “You have said nothing to me about meeting him.” “I thought it hardly worth while,” Nick replied. “The threats of such rascals have no weight with me. The man was Stuart Floyd.” “Great guns!” said Chick. “Is he in New York again?” “Very much here.” “Were you aware of it before?” “No.” “He must have been lying mighty low. I have not heard so much as a hint at it.” “All the same, Chick, he is the man behind the gun in this job,” Nick said confidently. “He has got back at Waldmere for that other affair in which he was put on the rocks?” “By Jove, the case seems to be shaping up.” “It is shaping up to that extent,” Nick went on. “But Floyd is much too keen and cautious to have figured openly in this robbery with such a girl as Minerva Grand. There is a go-between, either a girl friend, or a lover. That’s who we must find and get after.” “By Jove, I guess you are right,” Chick said, more gravely. “Sure thing!” put in Patsy. “We will take that chance,” Nick replied. “It is nearly a safe gamble, too, that Floyd, after holding up McLauren as a pretended detective, waited only for Bug Bannon to show up before he would release the truckman.” “That’s how I sized it up,” Chick agreed. “You think Bannon is in the job, chief?” questioned Patsy, who had lost part of what had been said in Waldmere’s library. “I do, Patsy.” “In what way?” “He probably was watching in the railway yard when the three cases were taken away by others of the gang,” Nick explained. “Bannon then flew up to Forty-eighth Street to covertly notify Floyd that the two men had got safely away with their plunder.” “Gee! that seems reasonable.” “Floyd then released McLauren,” added the detective. “I suspected all this when McLauren was telling his story.” “We’d better get after Bannon, then,” Chick suggested. “Both Bannon and Minerva Grand,” said Nick. “Both must be shadowed.” “That’s the stuff, chief.” “This is the girl’s afternoon and evening out, and she may have an appointment with the suspected go-between. The gang will have learned that we are on the case, of course, and may look to Minerva Grand to find out what we make of it.” “They’ll get fat, chief, on what she can tell them,” laughed Patsy. “You had better follow up the girl, Chick, and be governed by circumstances.” “That will suit me, Nick, all right,” Chick said agreeably. “Not having communicated openly with Floyd, and I having said nothing about this at the Waldmere residence, Bannon naturally will not fear that he is suspected,” Nick added. “Do you know him by sight, Patsy?” “Well, rather!” Patsy exclaimed expressively. “I know the face of every rat of his kind from Harlem to the Battery.”