CHAPTER IX.
THE MAN ON THE BED.
It was more than an hour previous to the episodes last described, when Chick Carter responded to Nick’s brief instructions from Mrs. Clayton’s residence, and then set out post-haste for the Hotel Westgate.
He did not know, of course, why Nick had been led to suspect Guelpa, nor anything about what Patsy had discovered and what had befallen him. That Nick suspected Guelpa, however, and very seriously, Chick had not a doubt.
It was not eight o’clock when he approached the huge hotel, and purely by a stroke of good luck, nearing a side entrance to the house, he discovered the very man he was seeking.
Doctor Guelpa had just emerged and was hurrying away.
“By Jove, fortune favors me,” thought Chick, with a thrill of satisfaction. “This is better than I could have hoped. There must be something in the wind, or he would not be in such a hurry. If he gives me the slip, however, I’ll eat my hat. I’d give something to know what Nick has on him.”
Chick knew, however, that he needed only to follow the directions given him.
With no great difficulty, he shadowed Guelpa to his office in Fifth Avenue, a walk of about six minutes, and[Pg 37] saw him enter the dark rooms, those on the first floor of a remodeled house.
Much to Chick’s surprise, however, after waiting and watching for several minutes, no light appeared at either of the windows.
“By gracious, that’s mighty strange,” he said to himself, then concealed in an opposite doorway. “Is he remaining in there in darkness? What’s his game, in that case, and why is he—great guns! there he is, now!”