Patsy was quick enough to see all it meant, in case he was correct in his immediate conjecture. Sandy Hyde, who had paused a moment to get a drink of water at the kitchen sink, now hastened to reply to Badger’s question. “Wrong at headquarters? I should say so!” he cried. “I have just got wise to something, less than an hour ago. Who’s that chap?” “Never mind him at present,” cried Badger, with terrific impatience. “What have you learned?” “Nick Carter has an assistant here on this case,” replied Hyde. “Not Chick Carter!” “Yes.” “Have you seen him?” “Sure! He was at headquarters about five o’clock.” “For what?” “He was trying to locate Nick.” “We’ve got Nick, all right,” sneered Badger, with a chuckle of derision. “But this other, this Chick Carter, of whom I have frequently heard, I don’t know him by sight.” “Nor do I,” put in Conley, frowning near-by. “You’re sure this is not he?” “Dead sure,” cried Hyde, with a glance at Patsy. “I don’t know this chap.” “Then he is not one of the Boston force,” declared Vic, more hopefully. “He did not lie about that.” Badger turned again to Patsy, lowering and dark, and Patsy gained a point by saying quickly: “Sure I didn’t lie about it. I wouldn’t lie to ladies and gents like you.” “No, this fellow is not a Boston detective, I’ll swear to that,” Hyde now declared. “I know them all.” “But Chick Carter——” began Badger. “Oh, he doesn’t look like this chap,” interrupted Hyde. “He doesn’t, eh?” “Not a bit! Chick Carter is older, a sturdy, well-built young man, with smooth, clean-cut features and——” “Stop!” screamed Vic Clayton, suddenly leaping out of her chair. “Well?” “How was he dressed when you saw him at five o’clock?” “Why, he said he was going to your office,” cried Hyde, now getting back to the business that had brought him out there. “He had on a plaid suit, a polka-dotted cravat——” “Henderson!” screamed Vic, all of a quiver with excitement. “That man Henderson, Amos, was Chick Carter!” “Not a doubt of it!” gasped Claudia Badger, as white as the knot of lace at her throat. “And that’s why he inquired after Nick Carter,” declared Badger, now beginning to see that a network might already be closing around him. “That’s what, Amos.” “Do you know where Chick Carter went after leaving your rooms, Vic?” “Of course not. How should I?” “He might have said.” “He said he was going to Carter’s hotel.” “Bosh!” “I’ll tell you what I do know, however,” cried Vic, hit with an afterthought. “What’s that?” “I know that this young devil must have got into that hamper while Chick Carter was in my rooms, Amos, and it’s a hundred to one that the two were at work on this case together.” “Gee! she’s hit me good and hard this time,” thought Patsy, wishing he might have throttled her to silence. “Now there will be something doing, I’ll go the limit on that.” He read aright the faces of those around him. The significance of Vic Clayton’s declaration was utterly irresistible.