“All right. Come in,” replied Nick.
A few moments later he had provided Morgan with a chair, and they were seated together in the reception-room.
“Now what is it all about?” asked Nick. “I know you well enough, Morgan, to believe that you would not take the risk of coming to see me unless you had something of importance on your mind. Let’s get down to business.”
“Well, it is important. I’m sorry, sir, that you did not get home about six hours sooner.”
“Indeed! Why?”
“Well, if you had, you could have prevented the whole thing that I have come to warn you about. You see, when you did not get here soon enough to prevent it, I was for going away and leaving the rest of it to take its own course; but when I thought it over I couldn’t do that, for when you came to find it all out later you would say that Red Morgan was a coward, and I’ve never been called that in my life.”
“No,” replied Nick. “I would not say that you are a coward, except on the general principle that any man who will steal must be a coward. However, we won’t discuss that. What was it that I did not get here soon enough to prevent?”
“The escape of Paul Rogers.”
“Eh? What is that? Has Paul Rogers escaped?”
“Well, I didn’t see him escape, and I haven’t been told that he has escaped, but I wouldn’t be afraid to bet a thousand to one that he has.”