“It was none of my business. I picked out several pieces of the paper from the wastebasket, nevertheless, after he had quit and gone to bed. I found only some printed letters on them, instead of written, but I could make nothing out of what little I found. I did not suppose, of course, that he was engaged in anything crooked.” Conroy told this story glibly and with an air of genuine veracity. “There, what say you to that, Carter?” Kate Crandall demanded, with her nerve and courage reviving. “You have been barking up the wrong tree. You admit that you were wrong now, I guess.” Nick did not trouble himself to assert that Conroy’s statements were false. Pretending to be impressed by them, on the contrary, and with no apparent interest in the weapon lying on the table, Nick had been keeping a constant eye on the man, waiting only to catch him with his attention so diverted from the revolver that it could not be instantly seized, if he should venture a sudden aggressive move. Instead of replying to the woman’s taunting remark, Nick continued his talk with the man. “You suspected nothing crooked, eh?” “Certainly not,” said Conroy, shaking his head. “But I now know, of course, that he must have been framing up this abduction.” “Is that all you know about it?” “Not by a long chalk!” “What do you mean? What else do you know?” “I can tell you who are with Duffy in the job.” “His confederates?” “Surest thing you know.” “Why are you so sure of it?” “Because I now recall certain circumstances that did not, at the time of their occurrence, impress me as being suspicious,” Conroy explained. “They now have a very different look.” “What circumstances, Mr. Conroy?” Nick inquired. “To begin with,” Conroy proceeded, “Duffy has been visited several times during the past month by a fellow named Kennedy. They have held private discussions out in the garage. I knew they were private, all right, for both made it a point to get rid of me whenever I showed up.” “I see. What more?” “Three days ago I saw both of them talking privately with Duffy’s wife, Maggie, and I wondered at the expression on her face,” Conroy continued. “I now know they must have been talking about this abduction, and I afterward saw Maggie giving her red-headed boy some very careful instructions. He’s a cute kid, Carter, and he also may have figured in the job.” “Quite likely,” Nick allowed. “That’s how I now size it up, Carter, and it’s a hundred to one that Kennedy and Duffy, with Maggie Duffy and possibly the kid, are the ones who stole the missing child. But Kate was not in the job, Carter, I’ll swear to that,” Conroy forcibly insisted. “I know all about her, mind you, and that she has been a little off color in the past; but she certainly had no hand in this job.” “That’s true, Carter, on the level,” Kate glibly asserted. Nick ignored her again, but not the man, for an instant. Addressing him, he inquired: “Is there anything more you can tell me?”