“Don’t ask me what I intend doing,” Nick interrupted. “I don’t know myself, at present, save that I must see Lady Deland without needless delay.”
Senator Barclay hastened to write the desired note, saying while he gave it to the detective:
“Do you really mean, Nick, that I must do nothing more in this matter?”
“Absolutely nothing until you have heard from me,” Nick said impressively. “I now know positively that Andy Margate lives, and I’m out to get him. In getting him, Senator Barclay, I shall probably get the letter and document that are of such vast importance to you. Whether it can be done in time to avert the peril that threatens you and Lady Deland remains to be seen. It certainly cannot be accomplished by prolonging this discussion. I must hasten to see Lady Deland.”
CHAPTER VII.
SUSPICIONS VERIFIED.
Chick Carter, following the instructions Nick had given him, readily obtained from Doctor Nolan the vial from which Andy Margate had swallowed most of the supposed poison with which he was thought to have committed suicide when cornered by the detectives, yet which evidently had resulted in the extraordinary case brought to Nick’s notice early the following morning, and the true inwardness of which he had been so quick to suspect.
To prove it, however, despite the surrounding circumstances, and to locate and corner Margate again, to say nothing of doing so in time to save the reputations of Senator Barclay and the impulsive American girl who had put herself in a position that threatened to ruin the remaining years of her life—all this was an entirely different proposition.
The discernment of Nick Carter, nevertheless, as well as the wisdom of the course he had shaped, appeared in part in the visit of Chick Carter to the laboratory of the eminent Washington chemist, and in what immediately followed his departure.
It was nearly noon when Chick introduced himself to Professor Arden and stated his mission. He met with a cordial reception, and the chemist soon began an examination of the small quantity of fluid still remaining in the vial.
Chick waited in an adjoining room for more than an hour. Most of this time was passed in reading a magazine found on the table. Ending an article in which he[{26}] had become interested, Chick replaced the book on the table and glanced incidentially through one of the screened windows overlooking the grounds without and an adjoining side street.