“No need of telling me that. I twice have taken advantage of our resemblance, and I framed up this job more than three months ago. The only difficulty lay in the fact that he had become much more fleshy than I, and that had to be overcome.”
“How overcome?”
“By reducing him to my weight, of course.”
“Evidently, Margate, that now has been done.”
“You bet it has, Garvan, and I’m the one who accomplished it,” Margate declared, still impelled with vicious pride. “I framed up the whole job. I took Dunbar into it and had him resign his position, only that I might become Clayton’s private secretary and make myself familiar with his home habits and every detail of his business.”
“What was the need of that?” inquired Patsy, though the audacious project now was becoming quite plain to him.
Margate laughed derisively.
“You now would see my scheme, Garvan, if you were not so thick-headed,” he replied. “I’m going to abduct Clayton for about a week, with the help of these good friends of mine. I shall take his place during that time, discarding my disguise and assuming not only most of his domestic duties, but also obtain complete control of his business affairs. A week will suffice, Garvan. I can in that time get away with all of the cash, bonds, and securities he possesses, which I already know aggregate more than a million. I can get all of them, Garvan, and turn them into cash within a week. Let me alone for that.”
“Oh, I see!” exclaimed Patsy. “Though Clayton is to be abducted, his private secretary is the one who will appear to have suddenly vanished.”
“Exactly,” nodded Margate. “I shall become Chester Clayton long enough to get in my work. Then I will completely vanish. You can safely gamble on that.”