“Of course he’s right,” put in Patsy. “He’s always right. It seems to me that you had a lot of nerve to tell him he wasn’t.”
“That will do,” interposed Nick, smiling. “I can’t afford to have my two men—both of them the most loyal lieutenants a man could have—arguing over me.”
“But he said——” blurted out Patsy.
“I know what he said, and he was right, in a way. But there are circumstances that make it desirable that Howard Milmarsh should take possession of his estate with as little fuss as possible. I promised his father that I would see he was allowed to do so, and that’s what I have to do.”
* * * * *
It was three months after that exciting night at the great Milmarsh mansion on the hill. Another night of an exciting nature may be mentioned. The excitement this time was of a much more pleasant kind, however. The wedding of Howard Milmarsh and Bessie Silvius had just taken place.
Nick Carter, Chick, and Patsy were all there, together with Billings—who wore evening clothes, for the first and only time in his life. Chick had been the best man at the ceremony, and a niece of Captain Brown’s was the bridesmaid.
Among the guests were all the people who had been swindled over the Paradise City land project. They had got back their money, with a large bonus to each person in addition, and now were there to cheer the finest man who ever had lived in that part of the country, in their opinion, Howard Milmarsh.
“That’s all right, so far as it goes,” remarked Patsy Garvan to Chick, sotto voce, “but where would Howard Milmarsh have been to-day if it were not for the chief?”