“Just about.”
Thanking the woman for the information given him, and telling himself that he would be on hand to-morrow to meet this woman who had called on Miss Doane, he took his leave.
He went direct to the other place of residence, the address of which the girl had furnished him, but here as in the place he had just left he heard nothing but the best of character given Miss Doane. She had never gone out in the evening, was very circumspect and ladylike in all her actions, and had never received half a dozen visits from gentlemen during her stay there, and these had always been in the parlor and in the presence of other boarders.
“This beats the Dutch!” muttered the detective, as he left this place. “I don’t think it will pan out well to spend any further time in looking up the character of this girl. Everybody appears determined to speak well of her, and for the life of me I can’t attribute it to any gum game on her part, for each of these persons appears to speak from honest conviction.”
Walking briskly along, his footsteps now turned in the direction of his home, he mentally said:
“One of the next steps must be an attempt to find out something about Lorton.”
By this time the day was well spent.
CHAPTER XXII.
THE BIRTHMARK.
High noon was striking when Nick Carter entered Mr. Field’s palatial house the following day.