“Thank you,” Chick bowed, with a glance from one to the other. “I’m obliged to both of you.”
He lingered only to warn them not to communicate with the girl; then he shook hands with both and hurried from the theater.
“Now, by Jove, there’ll be something doing,” he said to himself, much as if he had thus far been idle. “I’ll mighty soon find out why the milk is in the coconut.”
CHAPTER IX.
SUSPICIONS VERIFIED.
Nicholas Carter and his assistants were never slow in beginning to weave a net in which to catch a culprit when the evidence and circumstances in a case convinced them that a crime had been committed.
Patsy Garvan, while Chick was engaged as described, was nearly as successful as the latter in picking up the first strands with which the net might be formed. Hastening to the brokerage office of Daly & Page, he introduced himself to the latter, the former then having gone to the local stock exchange, and requested a few facts concerning the history and character of Mr. Gaston Todd, whose very sudden death had greatly shocked his many friends in Madison.
“He was a fine fellow,” Page glibly informed him. “Genial, honest, and capable, devoted to our interests, and always at his desk in business hours. That’s pretty good, isn’t it? That’s all we require of a man.”
“That would seem to fill the bill, sir,” Patsy observed a bit dryly.
“It does,” said the broker. “And what such a man does out of business hours, of what his habits and deportment consist, are of little importance to us. Todd served us faithfully for ten years. We shall miss him. We shall, indeed!”