“With a view to averting suspicion and throwing them off the right track,” added Chick.
“Precisely.”
“By thunder, that was a crafty scheme!” declared Patsy, rather pleased with the originality of it.
“Yes, it was crafty enough,” assented Nick. “But the rascals overleaped their mount, Patsy, in not anticipating the deductions I have mentioned. All this sheds a new and very bright light upon the case,” the speaker added, as he tossed the photograph upon the table.
“I should say so,” nodded Chick, resuming his chair and lighting a cigar. “It indicates that those two women, who claim to have been robbed, may be in league with this gang of thieves.”
“Even more than that, Chick.”
“What more, Nick?”
“It suggests that Badger himself may be one of the gang, if not the chief figure in it, and that their headquarters may be at that isolated suburban place of his.”
“By Jove, that may be so!”
“Let’s look a little deeper, Chick, and see how far some of the other facts sustain this theory. I was held up when on my way out there Tuesday morning,” continued Nick. “That may have been merely a coincidence, the scamps possibly having been laying in wait for some victim, though there still remains a chance of something even more than that under the surface.”