"How do you know any one is down in the well?" the detective asked, as a dim suspicion crossed his mind.
"I heard his groans as I came toward the well," she replied, with every appearance of earnestness and sincerity; "and the groans stopped just before you came up."
Chick was but half-satisfied with this statement. Kneeling down, he looked and listened intently. There was not a sound from below. He struck a match and was in the act of using the light thus afforded to ascertain what, if anything, the well contained, when a shove given with all the force Nellie Mannion was capable of exerting—and she was anything but a weak woman—tumbled the brave detective into the well. There was a heavy thud, one groan, and then silence.
On her feet, her heart beating like a trip-hammer and her face, lighted up but a moment before with murderous fire, now pale with the first touches of remorse, Nellie Mannion listened for a few moments; then, taking up her bundle from the ground, hastened, with shaking limbs, from the scene of her crime.
Nick Carter waited until midnight for the return of his assistant. Then, in no equable frame of mind, he sought his couch.
The morning came, and no Chick. Noon arrived, and still Chick had not made his appearance. During the forenoon Patsy had been on a hunt for the missing detective, and Nick had made a search on his own account, beginning with Craven's house. There he learned, somewhat to his alarm, that Mrs. Mannion had been away since the preceding afternoon. Her father showed anxiety, though it was his opinion that his daughter had gone to join her husband, of whose hiding-place she must be cognizant.
At noon Patsy reported the presence of two boats on the Uniontown side of the Anacosta, and the tracks of a man and a woman on the shore and bank. He had followed the tracks until they were lost in the grass.
In the afternoon Nick and Patsy made an attempt to pursue the clue which Patsy had discovered. The grounds of the deserted house attracted the great detective's attention, and he was proceeding in the direction of the well, when he came face to face with Nellie Mannion.
"Are you Nick Carter?" she asked eagerly.
Under other circumstances, the identity might have been denied. Nick now saw fit to give an affirmative answer.