T. Burton Potter was a slick individual, and he had the faculty of seeing all around him without appearing to stare. But, smart as he was, he did not perceive a man who had seen him come out of the house where the person in pajamas had threatened to shoot, and who was following him as closely as possible without being discovered.
“Gee! What luck! I knew he’d try to get through some of these houses if he made a get-away,” muttered this individual.
It may be hardly necessary to remark that the individual was none other than Patsy Garvan. It was, indeed, Nick Carter’s assistant.
He called it “luck” that he was on the trail of Potter when no one else was. But it was really shrewdness, reënforced by patience.
Patsy had figured out that when the raid came, the men would scatter in all directions if they could. The police would try to prevent this, of course. But some of the gang were liable to slip through their net, and it was Patsy’s opinion that, if any of them escaped, the slick T. Burton Potter would be one of them.
While the chief and Chick were in the Northwest, Patsy had been on another case, and had brought it to a successful issue. What this case was does not matter. But it is interesting to know that, as he followed it up, he got, just before the return of his chief and Chick, a side glance at T. Burton Potter. He had had his own suspicions that the rascal was mixed up in this counterfeiting affair.
Potter walked swiftly toward the river, but before he reached the ferryhouse he resolved that it would be too risky for him to cross the water that way, and he plunged into a district with which he was fairly well familiar, down among the wharves, to see if he could hire a boat without making anybody suspicious.
Nick had been quite right in his belief that Patsy had managed to pass himself off as the owner of the yawl in which he and Potter were rowing. That was exactly what he had done.
As they neared the place on the Manhattan side where Patsy had decided to land, Potter paid him the dollar he demanded for rowing him across, and darted out of sight while Patsy was putting the money in his pocket.
Patsy grinned, as he leaped upon the wharf right on the heels of his late passenger, and, after hiding behind some freight till Potter walked away, followed him until he had reached the street.