Patsy was less surprised, for he was quick to detect the bitter feelings that impelled the rascal. Nor did he object, of course, for he was more than willing for him to continue. Margate did so without hardly a moment’s hesitation. “I have a good cause to hate him, Garvan, as you very well know, but I do not fear him,” he went on, with icy asperity. “Nick Carter never saw the day that he could throw me down and keep me down. I now see through his scheme of to-night. He suspects me of the Thorpe murder. He feared that I would play the eavesdropper this evening, knowing that he was closeted with Clayton, and he left you to watch me, Garvan, while he cleared out as if void of suspicion.” “That calls the turn, Margate, all right,” said Patsy, seeing nothing to be lost by admitting it, and aiming to lead him on. “It was one of Carter’s crafty tricks, a ruse I ought to have suspected. But it’s booked to fall flat. For having got you, Garvan, he shall never know what you have learned, nor what becomes of you.” “I can see my finish, all right,” Patsy dryly allowed. “You are not the only one booked for a finish,” Margate quickly asserted. “It’s Nick Carter’s fault, not mine, that your death and theirs have become necessary. I could have played my game without that, if he had kept out of it.” “You’re out to get part of Clayton’s fortune, are you?” “Most of it, Garvan, would hit nearer the mark.” “How can that be done?” “It can be done, all right, in spite of Nick Carter and the slip-up of three nights ago,” Margate curtly predicted. “My likeness to Clayton makes it possible. It can be done like breaking sticks.” “You look precisely like him, all right,” nodded Patsy. “No need of telling me that. I twice have taken advantage of our resemblance, and I framed up this job more than three months ago. The only difficulty lay in the fact that he had become much more fleshy than I, and that had to be overcome.” “How overcome?” “By reducing him to my weight, of course.” “Evidently, Margate, that now has been done.” “You bet it has, Garvan, and I’m the one who accomplished it,” Margate declared, still impelled with vicious pride. “I framed up the whole job. I took Dunbar into it and had him resign his position, only that I might become Clayton’s private secretary and make myself familiar with his home habits and every detail of his business.” “What was the need of that?” inquired Patsy, though the audacious project now was becoming quite plain to him. Margate laughed derisively.