“You’ll be bolted in other quarters, you rascal, unless I am much mistaken,” thought Chick, still on the stairway. “By Jove, I don’t quite fathom this business.”
The conversation that followed shed a ray of light upon it, but only a ray, as far as the listening detective was concerned.
“You feel sure the woman will pay, do you?” Zeke Selig inquired.
“Pay—you bet she’ll pay,” said Margate confidently. “Her letter to Barclay shows that. What else can she do? She’s got to have the document before her husband shows up, or—well, she knows what the finish would be.”
“When will he show up?”
“The letter don’t say. It says only that she must have the document to-day. I would nail Barclay, too, only he’s likely to call on Nick Carter for aid after informing the woman of his loss. I’ll take a chance that we can bleed her before Carter gets to work there. Just now, you know, he must have his hands full looking after my body.”
“But what in thunder is the document?” asked Tony, after lighting the lanterns.
“I cannot just make it out,” replied Margate. “It’s a foreign agreement of some kind and is signed by a bunch of diplomats.
“H’m, I see,” thought Chick, listening intently. “Senator Barclay evidently is in wrong with some woman.”
“I know enough, however, to be sure we could nail no one else for anything,” Margate added. “The woman is the only one in our clutches, since the trick must be turned immediately. She’ll come across with the coin, all right, and may show up here with Nance at any moment. I’ll fix the front door so we can let her in. By the way, one of you lock and bolt the back door.”