“What’s your scheme?”
“I want you, Patsy, to return to the Westgate in disguise,” said Nick. “Get next to Vernon, the head clerk, and confide your identity to him.”
“And then?”
“Then learn from him what persons now in the house have been permanent guests for the past three months, or since a week or two earlier, having arrived there about the time of Clayton’s abduction.”
“I see the point, chief,” Patsy quickly nodded.
“There probably are not many who have been there precisely that length of time, and the books will readily supply the information. Get a list of them from Vernon, and then proceed to look them up on the quiet. Sift out who cannot be reasonably suspected. Well-known persons, those of recognized integrity, any whose apartments are badly suited for such a job—there are many ways by which you can eliminate those not reasonably to be distrusted.”
“I’ve got you, chief, dead to rights.”
“We may discover by this eliminating process some who seriously warrant suspicion,” Nick added. “You then may go a step farther, Patsy, and see what you can learn about them.”
“Trust me for that, chief. I’ll get all that’s coming to me,” declared Patsy confidently.
“You may report in person, or by telephone.”