“Leave it to me. I’ll turn the trick without being seen,” Chick predicted confidently.
“In the meantime, Patsy, you go at once to the Osgood Hospital and watch for any move by Doctor Devoll,” said Nick, abruptly turning to him. “My visit may, if my suspicions are warranted, alarm him into taking steps that would clinch them. Shadow him, if he goes out, and watch him constantly.”
“Enough said, chief,” cried Patsy, springing up to get his hat. “He’ll be a good one, indeed, if he gets by me with a move of any kind. I’ll soon have my lamps on him.”
Patsy did not wait for an answer. He was out and away almost as soon as the last was said.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE MAN WITH A MASK.
Nick Carter met with a surprise when he went down to dine with Chick, after the hurried departure of Patsy Garvan. The office clerk, seeing them going to the dining room, took a letter from a rack and beckoned to the detective, saying, when he approached:
“This appears to be for you, Mr. Blaisdell.”
Nick took it and glanced at the pen-written address—Mr. John Blaisdell, Wilton House.
He saw that it was not stamped, however, and wondered who had left a letter for him, instead of seeking a personal interview. Much more to his surprise, upon removing the inclosed sheet, he found that it bore no signature and was addressed, not fictitiously, but to—Mr. Nicholas Carter.