Had this information really been derived through the occult powers of which the woman claimed to be possessed?
Nick Carter was not ready to believe that it had, for he had but little faith in the supernatural.
On the other hand, any natural explanation seemed equally difficult.
“My intended visit to her rooms was known to only three persons by whom she could have been informed, and they were Badger and his wife, and Grady,” Nick perplexedly reasoned. “I know positively that Grady did not inform her. Assuming even that the Badgers did so by communicating with her by telephone, they cannot possibly have guessed that I would call upon her in disguise. My make-up, together with the fictitious name I gave, certainly should have blinded her to my identity. Yet I do not believe she could have guessed, merely by chance, all of the facts that she imparted, and I’m blessed if I can quite fathom the mystery.”
The more Nick thought about it the more positive he became that there existed some crooked work under the surface, and this made him even the more determined to ferret out what it was.
“I’ll telegraph to Chick and Patsy to come here,” he abruptly decided, as he returned to the Adams House, at which he had registered. “I shall need them to assist me in locating these road robbers, whom I am now fully resolved to run down. After sending a message to Chick I will have another bout with the fortune-teller. I’m blessed if I’ll let her throw me down in this fashion—not and keep me down!”
It was but a short walk to the hotel, and there Nick sent a telegram to Chick Carter, his chief assistant, ordering him and Patsy, one of his younger detectives, to come to Boston by the first train and join him at the Adams House.
Nick knew that both would arrive late that evening, and before then he hoped to have solved that portion of the mystery relating to the Tremont Street fortune-teller.
After spending half an hour at lunch, Nick went up to his room and examined his disguise, which he had not removed.
“It is perfect in every detail,” he mentally declared, while surveying himself in the mirror. “She cannot possibly have detected the make-up, and there must be some other explanation of her insinuations. I’ll take it off and visit her this time in proper person.”