“Let’s walk that way,” said Nick. “It’s barely possible that your wife will have been dropped at the boarding house before we reach it. How long before you appealed to me did this incident occur?”
“Not more than three or four minutes. We were about three blocks below here.”
Nick remembered having seen a taxicab speeding up the avenue noticeably faster than usual at about that time. He had not observed it particularly, however, nor could he recall anything distinctive about it.
There were other reasons than that, moreover, for the interest he was taking in this stranger. He regarded the episode quite as seriously as the young Englishman himself. He knew much better than the other what daring and audacious crimes are committed in New York, and he began to suspect that this might be one of them.
Nick had decided to look at least a little deeper into the matter, therefore, and it was with that object in view that he suggested going to the Englishman’s lodging house, which was only a few blocks south of where the two men had met.
Nick continued to question him while they walked briskly down the avenue.
“How long have you been in New York?” he inquired.
“I have been here only two weeks, Mr. Carter, this time,” was the reply.
“Your second visit?”
“Yes. I was here about two months ago for the first time. I have been out in the bally Cripple Creek country to invest in some mines. Deucedly rough section, old top, with a beastly lot of bally bounders, but they dig out a jolly quantity of rich ore. ’Pon my word, I——”