“Getting here!” echoed Minerva, evidently in nervous excitement. “The getting here cuts no ice. I could have got here long ago. It’s where I’m likely to get after leaving here. That’s what troubles me. I didn’t think you would serve me such a trick, Vera. On my word, I didn’t.” Vera Vantoon laughed a bit coarsely in cold and mirthless fashion. “So you are wise to it, now, are you?” she replied. “How can I help being wise to it? I’ll never forgive you, Vera, never!” “Don’t be foolish, Angel Face,” returned the woman, still clasping the girl’s hands. “I’ve done you the favor of your life. Think what you’re to gain.” “A prison cell, mebbe.” “Rats! Nothing of that kind, Angel Face, take my word for it.” “Your word ain’t much good. You didn’t tell me the truth.” “About what?” “Why you wanted that list of boxes, and why I was to keep you posted as to what the master and mistress were doing. I know all about it now. You were planning to rob them.” “H’m, just so,” thought Chick, listening intently. “It’s as Nick suspected. This simpleton has been lured blindly into the crime by a designing woman. It was child’s play for Vera Vantoon.” The woman laughed again and slipped her arm around the girl’s waist. “What of it?” she replied, with voice lowered. “Don’t be frightened at that. Think what you’re to gain by it. Do you want to be a servant and slave the whole of your life? This little job will put you in right as long as you live.” “But I’m scared out of my wits, Vera.” “Nonsense!” “I’m afraid we’ll be caught.” “Rats! How are you to be caught? Who would suspect you, Angel Face? Only a clairvoyant would ever guess that you had a hand in it.” “I’m not so sure.” “Tell me all about it,” said Vera, who evidently had a powerful influence over the girl. “That’s why I wanted you to meet me here to-night. Tell me the whole business, all that took place to-day in the house. I’ll see that nothing happens to you, Angel Face.” “You’ll have all you can do, you jade, to look out for yourself,” thought Chick, a bit grimly. Yielding to the woman’s persuasive tongue, Minerva then proceeded to state all that had transpired that morning in the Waldmere residence, in so far as she knew and had been able to determine what it signified. Vera Vantoon listened with knit brows and drawn lips, slipping in a question now and then, but for most part quietly absorbing all that the misguided girl imparted. “Humph!” she grunted contemptuously, after the girl had finished. “So Nick Carter is on the case, is he?” “That is the name of the man who questioned me,” nodded Minerva. “Well, we expected it,” sneered Vera. “He’ll get fat on this case.” “I’m afraid of him, Vera.” “You needn’t be,” said the woman. “He’ll never question you again. We’ll look out for that. You’ll never see him again, Angel Face, take my word for it.”