“Gee whiz! that looks dead right to me,” put in Patsy. “Mr. Strickland would give up handsomely for the sake of his niece and Mr. Gordon.”
“Undoubtedly, under such circumstances,” Nick nodded. “He would, moreover, be a very easy mark. By the way, Chick, did you verify Beckwith’s statements by talking with Dayton?”
“Yes, of course,” said Chick. “He corroborated what Beckwith had told me.”
“And he is the one man, the only one, who saw Gordon departing with a suit case, eh?”
“What do you make of that?” questioned Chick, noting Nick’s subtle intonation.
“Another devil’s gapway,” Nick dryly declared. “It was thought necessary by Deland to have it appear that Gordon carried away the money and bonds in a suit case.”
“Ah, I see, now.”
“With that object in view, Pauline Perrot artfully detained him in his office until all others had gone. If Gordon knew nothing about this foul business, however, it is safe to say that he had no suit case when he left his office. We know that he had none when he arrived here, or Miss Strickland would have informed us.”
“Holy smoke!” cried Patsy. “In that case, then, Dayton must be one of Deland’s confederates.”
“That’s the very point, Patsy,” said Nick.