It was this man in the brown derby whom Nick had cast for the part of a shadow, and hence Chick’s instructions to “shadow the shadow.”
The one uncertain element of the situation was Ramsay, or Yasmar, but Nick was depending on Patsy to take care of the Westerner.
Could Nick have been made familiar with the contents of a certain note, at that moment lying on his desk at home, there would have been a decided change in the plan of operations.
Gillman appeared to be very well satisfied with himself, for he carried a cane and swung it jauntily as he walked.
He paid no attention to the ground behind him, and that might mean one of two things—either he did not think he was followed, or did not care.
At Sixth Avenue he hailed a downtown car.
It was an open car, and Nick got aboard three seats behind him.
The man in the brown derby followed the car in a hansom, a difficult but not impossible task considering the slow speed at which the car had to travel in that part of the city and at that busy hour.
The hardest part of the work fell to Chick.
He could not very well get aboard the car with Gillman and Nick, and, as there was no cab in sight which he could hire, he slipped a five-dollar bill to an expressman and told him to keep the hansom in sight.