“Leave that to me,” Nick replied, smiling again. “I shall be your chauffeur, Lady Deland, and your maid will be Patsy Garvan, my assistant, who can make up very cleverly as a girl in the twenties.”
“Oh, I now see at what you are driving,” cried Lady Deland, with countenance lighting.
“You must provide him with the necessary garments, however,” Nick added. “We have all else that will be required.”
“I will do so, Mr. Carter.”
“I also wish to take your butler’s place for a time, that I may determine whether any visitor warrants suspicion, and also take steps consistent with our design.”
“You may do so,” Lady Deland said readily. “I will give you all the assistance in my power.”
“We will make all of the necessary arrangements after my assistant arrives,” Nick rejoined. “I shall want a coat, cap, and gloves belonging to your chauffeur. We will put them in an adjoining room, where I can easily and quickly get them. I will wear a different disguise in the two characters I shall assume, and—ah, there is the doorbell. That should be Patsy. In half an hour, Lady Deland, we shall have completed our arrangements.”
CHAPTER X.
IN THE NICK OF TIME.
It was after two o’clock that afternoon when Nancy Selig, following instructions received from Andy Margate, rang the bell at the Deland residence and prepared, with all the nerve and effrontery of one of her class, to carry out the coercive design of her knavish confederate.
A butler answered the bell—but not the usual butler.