The detective said, “Why, no. That’s just it. I closed my eyes for a second because I thought they were deceiving me. When I opened them again, he was gone.”
“Now isn’t that the worst of luck,” said Paul. “He is just the man we are looking for.”
“What did he do?” asked Walters. “What do you want him for?”
“We need him to clear up the mystery of the white card. We think he is the missing link in the puzzle.”
“That’s right,” remarked the detective. “I think I remember you telling me something about this white card mystery. Did you do anything about it?”
“No. And that is why we are looking for this man.”
“How do you mean?”
“Well, our original clues led up to our following this man. But we got him mixed up with the government agent and that is how we happened to come upon the counterfeit gang. Well, sir, after all that was cleared up, we questioned Mr. Wilson but he didn’t know anything about the white card and then we knew we were up the wrong tree.”
“In other words,” said the detective, “as far as I can figure it out, you are back where you started and now you are looking for him again.”
“That’s right.”