“There is something more!” she hissed, with suppressed ferocity. “Have you been constantly watchful at headquarters?” “Have I? That’s a fat question for you to ask me,” said Hyde. “You should know that I have.” “So I do—so I do, Sandy, dear!” Vic hurriedly exclaimed, in assuasive tones. “But there is one thing more. Is Nick Carter alone in this case?” “Yes.” “Are you sure of it—dead sure of it?” demanded Vic, with a voice and aspect that plainly betrayed the murderous design that inspired this precautionary question. “Certainly I’m sure of it.” “It will do us no good to down him, mind you, if others at work with him are to rise up out of his ashes and confound us with the same evidence that he may possess.” “There are no others,” protested Hyde confidently. “If there were, Vic, I’d have told you.” “Providing you knew it.” “Oh, I’d have known it, all right,” declared Sandy. “I’m never out of the office except to eat and sleep, and I’d have been wise to it by this time if Carter had brought on any of his assistants from New York.” “You have heard none mentioned?” “Not one.” “This shows me the way, then—the one and only way,” muttered the woman, staring for a moment at the floor. “If it must be him or us—it shall not be us!” “Carter has been at the chief’s office only twice, both times alone,” added Hyde assuringly. “You may safely gamble on it, Vic, that he’s still alone on the case.” Again, with her vengeful countenance lighting for a moment, she slipped her arm about the spy’s neck and kissed him. “Go, now, Sandy, and leave the rest to me,” she repeated. “But come out to Badger’s place after dark to-night.” “To-night, Vic?” “Yes.” “Shall I find you there?” queried Hyde, with wistful gaze. “Yes, you’ll find me there—and another with me!” “Not Nick Carter?” The woman’s brows knit again and her eyes gleamed venomously. “Nick Carter—yes!” she rejoined, with suppressed ferocity. “Nick Carter—or what there is left of him!” CHAPTER XII. THE ROAD TO CANTON. It was precisely two o’clock when Nick Carter arrived at Vic Clayton’s rooms in Tremont Street. Naturally, Nick did not so much as dream that she had been informed of his designs against her. That treachery existed at police headquarters was farthest from his thoughts. In asking Vic Clayton to take him to the place where she and Claudia Badger claimed to have been robbed, Nick had several motives. To begin with, he wished to see if she would willingly consent to do so. Nick reasoned that, in case she readily consented, it would indicate a bare possibility that he in some way had misinterpreted the curious features that he had detected in the photograph, and that the picture might not be as incriminating in its significance as he had inferred. While even this remote doubt existed, Nick felt that he could not wisely make any very aggressive move in the case, and he took this method to remove the doubt.