CHAPTER VII.
NICK LIES IN WAIT.
It may be explained at once that Nick Carter was not in his bedroom in the Hotel Amsterdam when the baroness saw the light through the transom. The detective did not want anybody to speculate on his whereabouts that night, and he argued that if a light was seen in the room of Colonel Pearson, it would be assumed that the colonel was inside.
He had determined to find out what the mysterious abductors had done with Harvey L. Drago, who had vanished into thin air, in broad daylight.
After playing a sane and deliberate game of golf, it[Pg 25] was not to be credited that Mr. Drago had made away with himself. Nick brushed that aside as soon as it came to his mind.
The wealthy young American had been kidnaped by somebody, no doubt, and the object of that somebody could hardly be anything else than to exact a large ransom.
It had occurred to Nick Carter, when told that Mrs. van Dietrich had melted away from her bedroom in the night, that perhaps an aëroplane had been employed. But all the conditions were against that.
Neither could an automobile have been used without its being seen.
After turning everything over in his mind, including the possibility of Drago having been hidden in the woods, he could not make that theory apply to his own satisfaction in the case of Mrs. van Dietrich.
The dear lady was rather large, and she would surely be hysterical when she came to herself.
No, it would be too risky to keep that eminent leader of society among a lot of trees and expect to keep her quiet.