“When?”
“At four o’clock this afternoon.”
“Where?”
“While they were taking him to the train at the Grand Central. I wasn’t there, and I haven’t heard anything about it since; but the plans were too well laid to have failed, and so you can bank on it that he is at liberty at this moment.”
“H’m! And you came here to warn me of it so that I could prevent it? Is that it?”
“That was my original intention; and I didn’t expect to tell you any more—then. But now I expect I’ll have to do so.”
“Tell me first why, when you found out that I would not get here in time to prevent it, you did not give the information to some other person who could have prevented it?”
“For the very simple reason, Mr. Carter, that while there may be a million coppers and police officers higher up on the fence who would keep faith with me in a matter of that kind, I never yet happened to make the acquaintance of any of them. Nick Carter was the only man I wanted to trust, for I knew that Nick Carter would keep his word with me with the same absolute certainty that he would keep faith with the President of the United States.”
“That is true, of course. But what do you want me to promise? I may not feel inclined to give promises, you know.”
“I don’t want you to promise anything, save that you will forget where you get the information I’m going to give you. Just for the sake of my own personal feelings in the matter, I don’t care to have it known ever, that I—well, that I peached.”