"Then my first visit must be to headquarters. While I am away, Patsy, you will mingle with the people and pick up crumbs, if there are any."
The secret service men, as well as the local police, of the capital had taken hold of the case, and from the superintendent Nick obtained a list of the valuables stolen, as far as the same could be ascertained. He was also put into possession of an item which imbued with new and strange interest the remarks made by Chick at the opening of this chapter.
"About a hundred yards from the spot where the body was found," said the superintendent, "a crumpled one-hundred-dollar bank-note was picked up. It may have been the property of the dead man, or it may have belonged to the murderer, who dropped it while replenishing his pocketbook after the robbery."
Nick looked at the note. It was upon a Chicago bank, and the number corresponded with a number on a list of bank-notes which he had carried away from St. Louis. Every number on the list was burned into his memory, for they were the notes stolen from the body of Cora Reesey.
It was plain, therefore, that if this bank-note which the detective held in his hand was not filched from the pocket of James Playfair, but had been stowed away in the pocket of the murderer, then the murderer was the St. Louis robber.
And who was he?
Nick had the glimmer of an idea, but that was all.
CHAPTER XI.
FEVERSHAM'S STRANGE DISCOVERY.
Having possessed himself of all the facts the local detectives were able to give, Nick Carter had dinner and then went to his rooms to await reports from Chick and Patsy.