“Yes, I remember,” said Nick, wondering. “A devoted friend of mine—one of your servants?”
“I refer to my table girl, who also serves me as a maid. You have, I am very sure, no more grateful and devoted an admirer. I will call her.”
Nick bowed and waited, still more deeply puzzled as to the girl’s identity.
Mrs. Darling touched a bell on the library table.[Pg 7]
Nick glanced again from one of the windows—and discovered another perplexing fact.
His touring car was standing where he had left it, but his chauffeur was missing. Danny Maloney had disappeared.
The quick, light steps of the approaching maid sounded in the hall. Turning in that direction just as she appeared at the open door, Nick beheld——
Nancy Nordeck.
CHAPTER II.
THE GIRL WHO WAS DOWN.
Suspicions were mingled with Nick Carter’s surprise at seeing Nancy Nordeck. They were perfectly natural, too, under the circumstances, and in view of the disclosures to which he had just listened. The presence of a girl with a criminal record in the home of a man whose death was shrouded in mystery, much more of a mystery than Mrs. Darling even imagined, though already keenly appreciated by the detective, might indeed be significant.