“Good enough!” exclaimed Badger, with eyes dilating curiously. “Of what does it consist, Mr. Carter?”
Nick was then reaching into his breast pocket, and did not observe the speaker’s quickened interest, which had not been betrayed in his husky voice.
“A photograph,” he replied, producing it. “The one taken by you, Mrs. Badger, at the time you were robbed.”
“Oh, you are mistaken about that, Detective Carter,” Claudia quickly exclaimed.
“Mistaken?”
“I took no photograph, sir.”
“Yet——”
“It was taken by my sister, Miss Clayton,” interrupted Mrs. Badger. “Dear me, I couldn’t have done it for my life. I was so unnerved by the terrible episode and sight of the robber’s revolver that I had no power to see or do anything except what he commanded.”
“Yet one of them was a woman,” smiled Nick.
“I admit that, sir, but she had a revolver, and the mere sight of a weapon has always terrified me,” explained Claudia, with a shudder.