“Never mind. I’ll bring one down for you. You can fire it off, I suppose, if it should become necessary?�
“I can that,� laughed Mike. “And swing a club, too.�
At this moment two telegrams were handed to Nick Carter. One was from his assistant, Chick, saying he was on his way to Delaware, with the bloodhound, Captain, and the other came from Joseph, Nick Carter’s head man-servant in his Madison Avenue home. This latter message read:
“According your instructions, have sent black steel box labeled number four on third shelf to left of door in laboratory.�
The detective went up to his room and put on a serviceable business suit in place of his evening clothes, with a warm cap that he could pull well down over his eyes. He kicked off his light patent-leather pumps and substituted a pair of heavy waterproof shoes.
Finally he covered himself up in a long overcoat, in the pockets of which he dropped two automatic pistols, fully charged.
Before leaving his room he compared the wax matches he had got from the baroness in the restaurant with the burned match he had picked up in Mrs. van Dietrich’s room. They were the same kind exactly.
“I see you’re there, all right, Mike,� he remarked cheerily, as the head porter walked up to him in the lobby. “Wait a moment, while I go in to see Mr. Mallory and Mr. Savage.�
He found both partners in their office, and bringing out the burned wax match, he said, in a businesslike, brief manner:
“I should like you, please, to examine the baggage of Mrs. van Dietrich and find out whether there are in it any wax matches like this. Also ask her maid, Mary Cook, if she or Mrs. van D. ever used such matches.�