“I am banking on that, Patsy, and that he will attempt to take advantage of my supposed ignorance. He will know, too, that any move to blackmail Lady Deland must be made immediately, both on my account and the fact that the document must be restored to her before to-morrow, when it will become useless as a lever to blackmail her.”
“I see both points, chief,” nodded Patsy.
“I have a countermove framed up in my mind,” Nick added.
“What’s that, chief?”
“I will inform you a little later. You go to the Willard as quickly as possible, now, and bring our make-up box to the Deland residence, wearing a disguise. I have one in my pocket that will enable me to go there without being recognized, assuming that the house is being watched, which I hardly think is probable. We’ll take no chances, however. Rejoin me there as soon as possible.”
“You can bank on that, chief,” declared Patsy, as he turned and hurried away.
Ten minutes later, and precisely ten minutes after Tony Selig ceased watching the Deland residence, Nick alighted in the disguise of an elderly man from his taxicab and rang the doorbell of the imposing stone mansion. The summons was answered by the butler, Hawley, to whom Nick said tentatively:
“Is Sir Edward Deland at home?”
“No, sir,” Hawley politely informed him. “He is in New York to-day. He is expected here to-morrow.”
“Lady Deland, then?[{35}]”