This girl at Mr. Field’s house bore that name; Helen Doane she called herself.
And the description of this other Helen, who had passed as the wife of Demas Lorton, suited her in every particular!
From the detective’s standpoint the sequence was plain.
Helen Lorton and Helen Doane were apparently one and the same person.
The girl who played so innocent, and who had taken the stand of not wishing to remain and claim her place as Mr. Field’s daughter, for fear that somebody might think her claim a fraudulent one, was merely a very clever actress, and a decidedly dangerous woman, who ought to be shut up as speedily as possible for the welfare of the community at large.
Thanking Chick for his information, Nick left his office much pleased with the result of his investigations thus far.
His reflections ran in this channel:
“It is a fortunate thing that Barnes happened to remember Lorton’s name, as it gave me possession of a most valuable clew. As to Lorton’s being out of the city I think it is all bosh! Of course, he would try to keep shady if he was working a game, so it is rather to be expected than otherwise that even his boon companions should not know that he was here. I consider it dead sure that Lorton has a hand in this mysterious affair, and I must try to-night to locate him in some of his old haunts.”
On his way uptown to the house where this mystery had been evolved, he went over what he had discovered, in doing which he was constantly seeking for some new light in which to view what he had learned thus far.
He mused thus: