“We will make all of the necessary arrangements after my assistant arrives,” Nick rejoined. “I shall want a coat, cap, and gloves belonging to your chauffeur. We will put them in an adjoining room, where I can easily and quickly get them. I will wear a different disguise in the two characters I shall assume, and--ah, there is the doorbell. That should be Patsy. In half an hour, Lady Deland, we shall have completed our arrangements.” CHAPTER X. IN THE NICK OF TIME. It was after two o’clock that afternoon when Nancy Selig, following instructions received from Andy Margate, rang the bell at the Deland residence and prepared, with all the nerve and effrontery of one of her class, to carry out the coercive design of her knavish confederate. A butler answered the bell--but not the usual butler. “I would like an interview with Lady Deland,” said Nancy, bowing and smiling with affected gentility. “I will take in your card, madame,” Nick replied, with blank countenance. “Or if you will state what your business is, I will inform her of your request.” “She does not know me by name,” Nancy coolly announced. “I am soliciting contributions to a very worthy cause, and I was sent here by a friend of Lady Deland. Will you kindly tell her so, and say,” she added, quite pointedly, “that she may hear something greatly to her advantage.” Nick Carter needed to hear no more than that. He bowed and vanished. Two minutes later he returned, saying a bit stiffly: “Lady Deland will see you.” “I thought she would,” remarked Nancy, with covert dryness. Nick conducted her to the library and ushered her into the room. Lady Deland arose to receive her and pointed to a chair. Nancy Selig took it without the ghost of a suspicion. Nick withdrew and closed the door, then stepped noiselessly through the side hall and into the diplomat’s study. The first words that fell upon his ears from the library told him that Nancy Selig had lost no time in approaching the business engaging her. “You can safely admit it to me, since you say there is no one to hear us,” she was adding to what already had passed between them. “There is nothing in mincing matters. The question is--do you want to recover it?” “Assuming that you really know what you have stated, and that I have lost such an article as you suggest, I naturally would be anxious to recover it,” Lady Deland replied. “There’s just one way you can do it,” said Nancy. “How is that?” “By paying for it.” “Pay whom? Are you the person who has it?” “No. A man has it who----” “Send him here, then,” Lady Deland interrupted. “I will talk with him.” “Don’t be a fool,” Nancy said curtly. “And don’t pretend that the paper is of no great value to you. We know better than that, we who have it. You listen to me for half a minute and I’ll tell you just where you stand and what you must do.” Lady Deland’s eyes drifted toward the mirror for an instant and she received from the listening detective a signal of assent.