“There, what say you to that, Carter?” Kate Crandall demanded, with her nerve and courage reviving. “You have been barking up the wrong tree. You admit that you were wrong now, I guess.”
Nick did not trouble himself to assert that Conroy’s statements were false. Pretending to be impressed by them, on the contrary, and with no apparent interest in the weapon lying on the table, Nick had been keeping a constant eye on the man, waiting only to catch him with his attention so diverted from the revolver that it could not be instantly seized, if he should venture a sudden aggressive move.
Instead of replying to the woman’s taunting remark, Nick continued his talk with the man.
“You suspected nothing crooked, eh?”
“Certainly not,” said Conroy, shaking his head. “But I now know, of course, that he must have been framing up this abduction.”
“Is that all you know about it?”
“Not by a long chalk!”
“What do you mean? What else do you know?”
“I can tell you who are with Duffy in the job.”
“His confederates?”