“Why do you think so?”
“For two reasons,” said Nick. “First, because of something she said when she entered Mademoiselle Falloni’s suite immediately after learning about the robbery. I already have told you the circumstances.”
“But not what she said, Nick.”
“In reply to an assertion by Clayton that the robbery had been committed by some man so like him as to escape detection, she cried with a gasp, catching up only two words—‘like you! So like you that—that’—and there she collapsed, Chick, unable to finish the response she had in mind, and down she crashed upon the floor in a dead faint.”
“And you deduce from that?” Chick questioned.
“Merely that Mrs. Julia Clayton knows of some man who bears a very close likeness to her son.”
“By Jove, there may be something in that.”
“It listens good to me, all right,” put in Patsy.
“But what did she say, Nick, when she revived?”
“That is where my second reason comes in,” said Nick. “She did not volunteer to say anything about it, nor to explain her sudden collapse. She listened to Clayton’s statement of the circumstances, and appeared to feel relieved, but not a word of explanation came from her.”