They were men of standing and reputation.
He did find out that these four had banded together in a new offer to the widow if she could obtain possession of the drawings and models again to deliver to them, and that this offer was made peculiarly advantageous to her in order to induce her to stronger efforts to regain them from Mr. Herron.
As to the fifth, whose name was Mortimer Seaman, Chick was by no means so well satisfied.
He found by inquiry that Seaman was regarded by those who knew him best as a keen, sharp, unscrupulous man, who was reckless in his methods and who, more than once in his career, had trod so near the line dividing honesty from dishonesty that he had barely escaped punishment.
He was charged, in more than one instance, of having robbed inventors of the fruits of their labors and discoveries, and had, in one case, openly boasted of the shrewdness with which he had secured certain patent rights without paying for the same.
Indeed, a cloud of scandal and doubt and suspicion seemed to surround the man, and Chick also learned that his credit at the banks and other financial institutions was by no means of the best.
Pursuing his inquiries into his private life, he found that Seaman had two sides therein. One, that he was interested in athletic sports, and the other, a rather rapid side, since he was much given to gambling.
In short, in the daytime he was a projector of commercial schemes and a promoter of stock companies, while at night he was a man about town familiarly known in the Tenderloin.
“If any one undertook such desperate means to secure those papers as hiring burglars,” said Chick, to himself, “Mortimer Seaman is the man.”
He went to Nick Carter to report his inquiries to his chief.