“Do you know how to open this?” asked Nick.
“Yes. There is a tiny hole in the cover. Push the point of a pin in that, and the lid will fly up.”
Nick followed the directions, and discovered, as he had expected, a bundle of papers, also a gold chain and locket.
He opened the locket, and then uttered an exclamation of surprise.
“Sara Varney!” he cried.
“No,” replied Hatfield, “but Sara Varney's mother.”
“Then where is the daughter?”
“She is at this moment a prisoner in the house of Jasper Gregory, and what will surprise you still more is the fact that Gregory and I are brothers. He does not know it, for he thinks I died in infancy.”
“Ah! You haven't much love for your brother, I take it.”
“I hate him. He has always stood between me and success. There are papers enough in that lot there, Nick Carter, to hang him.