“I shall be delighted to do anything to please you,” answered the detective. “Then I will say good-by.” Next day Nick went to headquarters and there found news which aroused his ire. Skip Brodie had found some means of communicating with a lawyer, and the latter had sworn out a writ of _habeas corpus_, by means of which Skip was released. “I didn’t know what we were going to hold this fellow on,” said the chief. “We could not prove that he had any hand in carrying off the banker, although we are sure he did. When we were asked for proofs we should have none to show.” Nick said nothing, but left headquarters. He was disgusted, but he was still determined to find the banker. He sauntered up Sixth Avenue and saw a lady whom he thought he recognized enter a dry-goods store on the corner of Fourteenth Street. Nick followed. She was for a moment lost sight of in the throng, but he again found her. It was the woman who had attempted his life, Louise Calhoun! CHAPTER VI. A DANGEROUS WOMAN. Nick Carter kept Louise Calhoun in sight, and when she left the store he followed. She walked down Fourteenth Street to Eighth Avenue, and turned up that thoroughfare. At the corner of Twenty-eighth Street the detective heard some one call him. He turned, and saw that it was Tambourine Jack. Crackers was with him. “I want to tell you a hull lot, Mister Carter,” said Jack. “I have no time to listen to you,” said the detective. “Do you see that woman ahead, in the long sealskin coat and the red hat?” “Yes.” “Well, I want you to follow her and come back and tell me where she stops,” commanded Nick. “She has looked back several times, and I am afraid she recognizes me.” “I know the lady; we have met before,” said Jack. “She is a friend of Elmer Greer.” The detective gave the little fellow money in case he should be obliged to take the cars. “Hurry after her, and don’t lose her,” the detective said. “I will wait for you in that drug store on the corner.” Tambourine Jack, after first turning Crackers over to Nick, hastened after Louise Calhoun. He was absent until very late in the afternoon, and Nick Carter became impatient. “Well?” the detective asked, when Jack returned. “She led me a terrible chase,” said the little fellow. “I don’t want to hear anything about that,” remarked Nick. “Where did you leave her?” “At No.--Madison Avenue,” replied Tambourine. Nick Carter was thunderstruck. “Are you sure you took the correct number of the house?” he asked. “I am certain.” Louise Calhoun was visiting the home of Hilton Field. “Jack,” said the detective, “I will meet you here at nine in the morning. You say you have something to tell me?” This new turn of events puzzled Nick greatly. He returned to his home to plan out his campaign. It was an old colored man who emerged from the detective’s house hardly three minutes after the latter had entered it.