Nick did not reply, but hastened out to the car in which Patsy and Frank Mantell were waiting. “To your residence,” he directed, addressing the latter. “Let her go at top speed, chauffeur. Minutes count.” CHAPTER IV. A STARTLING DISCOVERY. It was nearly noon when the touring car containing Nick Carter and his companions sped up the broad driveway and stopped under the porte-cochère of the magnificent Mantell mansion overlooking the Hudson. “We shall not find my father at home, Nick,” Mantell remarked, while alighting from the car. “He still is engaged in settling up the affairs of our defunct department store, wrecked by the knavery of his junior partner, that treacherous miscreant, Gaston Goulard. No need to tell you of that rascal, Nick, whom you so quickly pulled up to the ringbolt after taking on the case.” “No need, indeed,” Nick replied, a bit grimly. “It was deucedly unfortunate, though, that he slipped through the meshes of the legal net and eluded the punishment he deserved.” “Decidedly so.” “His being a partner in the business was all that saved him,” Nick added. “It enabled a clever criminal lawyer to pull him out of the fire, on grounds that either of the partners had a legal right to dispose at will of the property of the firm. It was a hard fight, and the rascal got away without punishment, barring the penalty he had brought upon himself, that of financial ruin and hopeless dishonor.” “Right in both respects,” Mantell nodded. “Gaston Goulard is down and out forever.” “By the way, Mantell, do you ever see him?” Nick inquired. “Yes, occasionally,” was the reply. “I never see him, however, that he does not threaten to get even with me for the past.” “Humph!” Nick ejaculated contemptuously. “Get even, indeed!” Mantell bitterly added. “The boot should be on the other leg. He hates me for having won and married Helen Bailey, Nick, to whose hand he had aspirations even while engaged in his treacherous robberies. I saw him about ten days ago, looking seedy enough, Nick, and as if dissipation was making inroads upon his health.” “Threatened you, Mantell, has he?” questioned Nick, with brows knitting slightly. “Repeatedly,” Mantell nodded, as they mounted the steps. “I somehow fear the rascal, Nick, for he is capable of any degree of knavery, and is a desperate dog when crossed. I expect trouble from him, in fact, and for that reason am constantly alert.” “I predicted after his exposure and arrest that he would go to the bad,” said Nick. “Ah, this is a pleasure, indeed, Mrs. Mantell.” Having entered the handsomely furnished house while speaking, where they were met in the hall by Mantell’s charming young wife, the beautiful girl whom Nick first had seen at a telephone switchboard, under circumstances that revealed her lofty and heroic character, as well as which enabled him to be of great service to her. She hastened to shake hands with both him and Patsy, saying feelingly: