“Then one day, having by some means learned that Blanche was befriending a poor family, he enticed her to go to see that poor family at a certain house. “When she entered the house the poor family was not there, but Masson was, and he was alone. “Then he told her that she was compromised by entering that house, for every one in the neighborhood knew that a bachelor lived there, and had seen her enter. “Blanche only got out of the house by drawing her revolver and fighting her way out. “One day, when Blanche was giving a reception, for which she had issued cards, five or six most notorious women entered, having received cards, to scandalize her, and one acknowledged that she had been hired by Masson to go there. “Then, when Blanche sent for him and threatened him with arrest and prosecution if he continued the persecutions, he declared that he would continue them until she married him; that if she wanted to live it could only be as his wife——” “Now,” said Nick, springing to his feet, “we have something substantial to go upon. I knew there was something back of all this indefinite suspicion of Mrs. Constant. “It required Edith’s sympathy to get it out. “What an infernal scoundrel the fellow is! “What is true,” he continued, “is that we have for the first time knowledge of a threat on the part of Masson to kill Mrs. Constant. “That becomes serious. Now we have a new motive for work. “Patsy, you must be at the Grand Central Station to see your friends, Crummie and Graff, off to Chicago. Let them go, thinking that nobody suspects them. “Then take up Masson’s shadow. That is to be your work for the present. “In the meantime, I am growing alarmed about Ida. She was to wire me before this from Philadelphia.” “Don’t worry, chief,” said Chick. “Ida knows how to take care of herself. If she has not wired you, it is because she means to turn up from that city this evening.” “I hope so,” said Nick, uneasily. Then the four went to dinner. CHAPTER XVI. IDA IN TROUBLE. When Patsy set out to be present at the departure for Chicago of his two new acquaintances, Crummie and Graff, Nick and Chick accompanied him to the station, in order that they might become familiar with the appearance of Masson. Under Edith’s recital of the tale told her by Blanche Constant of Masson’s persecutions, the latter person had assumed a new importance in Nick’s eye. Arriving at the station, Patsy quickly espied the two East Side toughs. They were roaming about the large room, evidently looking for some one, and not finding him. “It begins to look,” said Patsy, “as if Masson had thrown ’em down.” “Yet,” said Nick, “when you heard him talking to them, he seemed to be most anxious to have them get out of town, didn’t he?” “Yes,” replied Patsy. “It was his idea. He proposed it to them.” “There may have been a new turn in the game,” said Nick.