Chick reached the side door just in time, moreover, to hear Guelpa shout his hurried directions to the chauffeur.
“Great Scott!” he muttered, pausing. “To Nick’s residence! Why the dickens is he going there? By Jove, I have it! He has discovered that Nick suspects him and he now is out to get him. He reasons that he can fool the old war horse and get by as Clayton.
“I may be wrong, but I’ll wager that he will get well fooled himself. It’s now a thousand to one that he went to some house near his office, probably the one back of it, in order to make arrangements for holding up the chief. By gracious, that’s good enough for me to take a chance on. I’ll hike back there and await developments. There would be nothing in nailing that rascal alone. If I am right, which seems more than probable, we can get the whole gang by this other course.”
Chick knew, of course, assuming that his theory was correct, that some little time must elapse before Guelpa could return in company with Nick. He did not hurry his investigation, therefore.
He returned to Fifth Avenue and had another look at Doctor Guelpa’s business quarters.
They were in darkness, as before, with no sign of life within.
“I’ll see what I can discover around the corner,” Chick said to himself. “The rat went out that way, I’ll wager.”
His investigations in that direction took him much[Pg 38] longer. He could find no way of getting to the rear of the house to which Nick was later brought. It had, as a matter of fact, been boarded up by the rascals.
Chick then went back and picked the lock of Guelpa’s door, entering and seeking the rear exit.
He then found that it led to the rear door of the other house.