“How strangely?” questioned Nick.[{19}]
“Well, as if she was worried or in trouble of some kind, as near as I could learn from one of Mr. Barstow’s clerks, who came here a short time ago to inform Mr. Garland.”
“You said that Garland is acquainted with her?”
“I think so.”
“Are you?”
“I know her only by sight and name.”
“What is her name?”
“Charlotte Trent,” said the girl. “She is more commonly called Lottie Trent.”
Nick Carter evinced no surprise upon hearing the name of the missing girl. It told him, nevertheless, in view of all of the circumstances, that the case was rapidly becoming more serious and complicated. He knew, recalling what Fallon had said that morning, that this same Lottie Trent must be the sister of Larry Trent, the crook confederate of Andy Margate in the recent theft of the government plans, a fact that at once increased the detective’s misgivings.
Nick did not then stop to consider the matter, however, nor to further question the stenographer. He saw that she could tell him nothing more definite. Without evincing any special interest in what he had heard, he now said to her: