“I would stake my reputation on that,” said Nick, with ominous intonation. “I eyed the man more closely than when I first saw him, Chick, and it was then that I vaguely felt that we had met before to-day. It came over me all of a sudden, a short time ago, just who he is and where we met him.” “A crook?” “The worst of crooks,” Nick grimly nodded. “The very man to have devised such a job as this and to have pulled it off successfully, most likely with the sanction of Jack Madison. His disguise was perfect, however, or so nearly that it blinded me for a time. I refer to the rascal who twice has committed crimes involving Arthur Gordon, and who----” “Gee whiz!” exclaimed Patsy, interrupting. “I’m on to your curves, chief. You mean Mortimer Deland.” “None other,” said Nick. “By Jove, that alone would clinch the theory you have formed,” said Chick. “If Deland is in this job, if you really are right----” “I know I am right,” Nick interposed. “I ought to have instantly recalled the eyes of that rascal, at least, as I since have done. It is nearly a year, however, since we last run him down and sent him to prison, from which he was afterward brought into court on a habeas-corpus writ and contrived to escape from the two officers in charge of him.” “I remember,” Chick nodded. “We decided that he had fled to Europe.” “That then seemed to be his most likely course,” Nick replied. “It now is ten to one, however, that he decided to lie low right here, and where he since has fallen in with Cora Cavendish. He may have learned from her about the Madison letters, and with her framed up this rascally job.” “By Jove, that now seems more than probable,” Chick said, with some enthusiasm. “You are weaving a net with fine meshes, Nick, for fair. No fish of Deland’s size could slip through it.” “Not if we can get him into it,” supplemented Patsy. “We will set about that without more delay,” Nick declared, rising abruptly. “You slip into a disguise, Patsy, and get after Cora Cavendish.” “Leave her to me, chief.” “Find out where she is and what she is doing, and with what man she has been chiefly friendly of late. It’s ten to one that the man, in whatever disguise you find him, will be Mortimer Deland.” “Shall I arrest him, chief, if sure of his identity?” asked Patsy, eagerly starting to prepare for his work. “No, not immediately,” Nick directed. “We want all of his confederates and positive evidence against them. Watch him, or the woman, until that can be obtained.” “I’ve got you, chief.” “In the meantime, Chick, we will get after Madison and find out with whom he is having covert relations,” Nick added. “You go to his law office, Chick, and see what you can learn.” “Leave him to me, Nick, in case he is there.”