“That’s one point,” said Carter. “So that, when discovered, she would surely be taken into the hospital—where Doctor Devoll would be the one to treat her.”
“You think——”
“One moment. Don’t force me ahead of my story. These circumstances require careful and thorough analysis.”
“Go ahead, then.”
“Bear in mind that Doctor Devoll treated all four of these cases. He treated them successfully. They did not appear to baffle him, or even mystify him, I suspect. Bear in mind, too, that he did not detain the girls, did not question them closely, or seek to learn their names, even, with the exception of Nellie Fielding. Remember, too, that the mysterious leather bag, which Sergeant Brady knows was taken into the wardroom, could not be found. Take it from me—Doctor Devoll was the one who got away with it.”
“By Jove! all that does appear deucedly suspicious,” Chick now declared. “It may explain, too, Devoll’s attitude this afternoon.”
“Exactly.”
“Exactly, chief, is right,” cried Patsy. “Gee! things are beginning to brighten up.”
“Let’s go a step farther,” Carter continued. “All of the mysterious robberies and holdups during the past three months, which we were called here to investigate, were of a very similar character, and all bore a striking likeness to what befell Nellie Fielding. The victims invariably were found unconscious after the crime, though afterward were quite easily restored, and all told the same story—that of being confronted by a person who, in some mysterious way, caused them to immediately lose consciousness and then deliberately robbed them.”
“You think all of these cases, then, were the work of the same gang of crooks.”