“I mean that there never is any knowing what Nick Carter thinks and suspects, however he may carry himself,” Badger petulantly replied. “He is one thing on the surface, another under it. There is no telling anything about him, and I’m infernally sorry that Weston has brought him over here.” “Bah!” cried his wife contemptuously. “He can accomplish no more than the Boston detectives have done.” “I’m not so sure of it.” “We can fool him as we have fooled the others.” “Yet he asked some deucedly ugly questions,” declared Badger, with a doubtful shake of his head. “And I more than half-fear that he already suspects our trick.” “Suspects that you were only feigning illness?” “Possibly.” “Nonsense! He cannot have got wise to that, nor to anything else that seriously affects us.” Badger turned quickly away, and hailed the man in the driveway. “Come in here, Jerry,” he commanded. “I want to speak to you.” Conley dropped his work and hastened into the house, following Badger and his wife into the library. “What d’ye want, Amos?” he inquired, with a familiarity plainly indicating that he was something more than a menial about the place. “I want to I know just what Carter said to you,” replied Badger, throwing himself into a chair. “He only asked if I’d seen an auto go along the road below here.” “Nothing more?” “Not a thing.” “I thought I heard him say something about me, Conley, and the cut of my jib.” “Oh, that was only because he couldn’t learn anything from me, and he didn’t fancy the jolly I was giving him,” replied Conley, with a grin. “Devil a thing did I tell him, Amos, and I was only keeping him on a string till I was dead sure that you and Claudy were out of your auto rigs and into the togs in which he found you.” “Are you sure he didn’t get sight of the other machine?” demanded Badger apprehensively. “The one you used when you held him up?” “Yes, certainly.” “Oh, I’m dead sure that he didn’t see that,” cried Conley confidently. “I had that in the secret cover a good five minutes before he showed up in the runabout.” “And you were at work on the other when he arrived?” “Yes, long before he arrived.” “Pshaw! he couldn’t have seen the Peerless when he got here, Amos,” supplemented Claudia decidedly. “We left that runabout behind us as if it had been tied to a stake.” “I know all that,” growled Badger; “but I want to feel sure that the infernal detective got no line on us after he reached here. I’ll tell you both, he’s a man to be feared, and we cannot be too careful in case he undertakes to round us up.” “Faugh!” snarled Conley, with a scowl rising about his crafty eyes. “If he gets wise, and presses us too hard, there’s one thing we can do.” “Put him out of the way?” “Sure.” “It will have to be done,” said Badger, with a nod. “Yet I don’t fancy running my neck into a noose if it can be avoided.” “It can be done without that,” said Conley, with grim significance.