“Well, I don’t like the looks of things up there,” said the assistant, “and I have an idea that they ought to be watched.”
“Of course,” said the chief. “You are to go back there and hang around with Charley Maynard as soon as we land these fellows on the train, or become convinced that they did not take a train back to the city.”
“There is a train leaves here at four o’clock in the morning,” said Chick, referring to a timetable. “They might have taken that.”
The fact was that Chick found himself not a little puzzled at the attitude of his chief in the case. Had he been permitted to have his own way, all the investigations would have been confined to the Maynard house.
He regarded the burglary as merely incidental, and would not have wasted a moment on it. As he explained to Nick, he did not see how the burglars could have committed the murder or stolen the gems, as they had penetrated into the house no farther than the rear room.
He determined that if he was left at the house, in charge of the case there, the inmates would have some pretty hard questions to answer.
Nick must have detected his intentions, for he said:
“Let the inmates of the house alone; let them say and do what they please, and go where they see fit; but keep your eyes on them. I want to know whom they see and what they do.”
“Very well,” said Chick, not a little disappointed.