When he could stand it no longer, he drew Lenore aside from the group with which she had mingled, and with her on his arm sauntered toward Nick and Nan, arriving at their secluded corner of the veranda just at the moment when Nan had said to Nick:
“I am afraid, Nick Carter! I am afraid!”
Low as the words had been uttered, they were overheard. Jimmy and Lenore both heard them, although they understood them quite differently.
Jimmy believed that he thoroughly comprehended the meaning that was conveyed; Lenore was only puzzled that Nan Nightingale should be afraid of anything, and should give voice to her fears in exactly that tone. As she stopped before them, she exclaimed:
“Afraid, Nan? Of what are you afraid?”
“Of the consequences of her misdeeds, doubtless,” interjected Jimmy, before Nan could reply; and he added, with deeper meaning than Lenore could understand: “Fear is a wholesome thing, at times, when it conveys a warning of things that are likely to happen, under given conditions. It leads one to avoid those conditions, eh, Mr. Carter?” and he laughed.
“Unless the fear is entirely misplaced, and unnecessary, Mr. Dinwiddie,” replied the detective.
Nick looked across the veranda at that moment, and managed to catch the eyes of Chick, to whom he signaled. A moment later, Chick joined the little party in the corner.
“I’m going to ask you to take my place here for a time, Chick,” said the detective. “Mr. Dinwiddie has begun a discourse on the quality of Fear, used as a proper noun, and I will leave it to you to answer him. Pray, do not let him escape, Chick, without having first given a good reason for his last statement.”