CHAPTER II.
A NOVEL TIMEKEEPER.
It was about four o’clock in the morning when Nick and the New York chief of police sat down together in the latter’s house to discuss the events of the night. What had happened in the meantime the reader will hear in Nick’s own words.
He had rapidly described the events with which the reader is familiar and had come to the scene in the hall.
“I went directly to No. 349,” Nick proceeded, “and there I found evidence which convinced me that Helstone’s gang had made the house its headquarters.
“I got no information from the people in the house. They only knew that a ‘club’ of some kind had hired one of the upper apartments.
“Of course it was empty. The gang had taken the alarm. But I saw the work of Helstone’s carpenter.
“You remember that when the central office men arrived just too late at Helstone’s place on East Tenth Street, they found the rooms full of concealed panels and secret cupboards—the cleverest things of the kind that had ever been seen in New York.
“Well, there was the same work over here, but the rooms were entirely deserted. The gang had got away. The last man hadn’t been gone an hour.”
“Can that be proved?”
“I could swear to it,” said Nick, smiling. “There is running water in one of the rooms. Under the faucet was a pewter drinking cup.