“I don’t know, but we will find out.”
“We?”
“You and I. That is why I said you must not go with them to New York to-morrow. I want you, in their absence, to go with me and make a search of their house.”
“And yet I am not blind, nor a fool!” ejaculated Abbott.
“Do you still think it is beyond belief?”
“No. The only thing which is almost beyond belief now, is that I should have been so easily deceived.”
CHAPTER XXVII.
THE PADDED SECRET PRISON.
Abbott and Nick Carter remained locked up together in earnest conversation nearly all that night. A train left Elmwood for New York at a few minutes after five o’clock in the morning, and it carried away the famous detective on his return to the city.
He went at once to his own house, where he was fortunate in finding his two assistants, Chick and Patsy.
His first move, after having dispatched a hearty breakfast, was to take Chick up to his “den” and remove his disguise as Wylie Ketchum, the lawyer. Then he proceeded to assist Chick in assuming the same character, until another Wylie Ketchum stood forth.