“It’s my business to find a way,” Nick interrupted, “and I think I have.”
“How?” Stone eagerly demanded.
“By keeping this fact in mind,” the chief explained: “Follansbee isn’t going to bite off his nose to spite his face. He says that everything will come out, but that’s nonsense, and he knows it. We have a clear case against him, and we can press it without lugging in anything that we don’t want to be spread on the records. All the judge and jury need to know is that you went to Follansbee for professional advice and treatment—it doesn’t matter for what. His lawyers will know that the case is going against him, anyway, and all their energies will be directed toward obtaining as light a sentence as possible. That being so, they will be very careful to keep quiet about the nature of the trouble that brought you to him.”
“I don’t see why,” confessed Stone.
“It’s perfectly obvious,” Nick insisted. “Any decent lawyer would know that Follansbee would get a much more severe sentence if it came out that he had attempted to victimize an irresponsible man; to swindle one who was temporarily incompetent, and take away practically his entire fortune. That would be the last straw.”
“I see!” Stone cried excitedly. “It would be even more to the interest of the defense to keep dark on that subject than it would for the prosecution.”
“Then you will get satisfaction, as well as your money back,” Nick told him confidently; and then added to the cowed wretch at his side: “The jig is up, Follansbee. I won’t lock you up until you turn over your loot; but you may as well write out your resignation as head of St. Swithin’s, and your millionaire patients will have to hunt for some one else to doctor them. You will find it inconvenient to discharge your professional duties in a cell.”
Apparently the detective plucked a pair of handcuffs from the air, and, before Follansbee knew what was happening, they were snapped on his wrists.
A few hours later—some time after midnight—two bronzed men met and clasped hands in Nick Carter’s study. They did not say much at first, but the detective’s heart swelled as he watched them.