“Those are questions more easily asked than answered,” said Nick. “It is hard to say why Waldmere has been abducted.”
“You think, then, that he has been abducted?”
“The circumstances point strongly to that. Waldmere is not a man to be mixed in a mess with another woman.”
“That’s true,” Chick agreed. “The motive may have been revenge. Stuart Floyd is at large, you know, and he may have had it in for Waldmere because of those former cases, and for having put us on his track. He is capable of any kind of a knavish job.”
“There is nothing in speculations,” said Nick. “I’ll think it over in bed and we’ll discuss it in the morning.”
“That’s good judgment, in view of the hour,” Chick vouchsafed, rising. “There is a bare possibility, too, that Waldmere will have returned by that time.”
Nick did not reply to this, nor was it verified the following morning.
Ten o’clock found all three seated in the detective’s business office. Nick had been in communication with Mrs. Waldmere, also with Mr. Carrington, but only with negative results. The situation stood precisely where it had stood the previous night.
Nick Carter’s mind had been active in the meantime, however, and he had decided what steps must be taken.
“The motive for this crime is beyond conjecture,” said he, in reply to a question from Chick. “It can be learned only when we have identified Waldmere’s abductors, discovered what relations have existed between them, and unearthed additional evidence in the case. That is what next must be done.”