“Have you looked at the papers?” asked Chick.
“Just enough to discover that they really deal with the doings of some powerful syndicate,” was the reply. “Unless I am very much mistaken, we shall get no names or incriminating facts from them.”
“What’s the next move?” asked Chick.
“I shall go to the office until morning,” was the reply. “I have some work to do there, and I can get a short sleep on the couch.”
“It is almost morning now.”
“Well, we’ll meet at the office at eight o’clock,” said Nick.
And at eight o’clock Nick, Chick, and Patsy sat in the private room of the downtown office which Nick had lately taken with the object of having two headquarters from which to work.
“Now,” said Nick, turning to his first assistant, “the chief thief mentioned last night by name four diamond collections which have been stolen by the syndicate. I remember the main features of the crimes, but of course I know nothing of the details. What I want you to do is to take up these cases and learn all about them. It may be that the hands of the syndicate’s agents may show in some of the deals. It may be that you can trace the finger marks of one person through all the robberies. Locate all the persons, high and low, who might have taken the diamonds in each case.”
Chick made a hasty note on his private memorandum, and said:
“Have you been to the Wisconsin this morning?”