It was just barely audible, but the quick ears of Nick Carter heard it.
“I wonder what there is so funny in that?” Nick asked himself. “I suppose that the woman thinks that Block is going to pull the wool over my eyes. Well, here is where I will fool them.”
Nick concluded that the best thing he could do was to play on the vanity of the woman.
“Of course, with all respect to you, Mr. Block, I suppose that you leave all the thinking that you have to do to your cousin, Miss Sallie, who seems to be very quick in grasping the meaning of the questions that I have asked.”
Sallie simpered and looked as pleased as her vinegar-like features would allow her.
“Didn’t I tell you that I always was much smarter than you are?” she said to her cousin.
“Didn’t Jack Weeden ever do any work for you or your cousin?” asked Nick, of the woman.
“Yes, he has done work for me two or three times; he fixed the wheels of my bicycle, but each time that he did it he kept it so long that I thought that perhaps he sent it into town to have it done there. He didn’t seem to know exactly what to do with it when I took it to him, and he said that he would have to have one of his men fix it, as he had several other jobs on hand,” was her reply.
“When automobiles have come to his shop to be repaired, who generally did the work?” asked Nick.
“One of his men usually did, while he either looked on or else went into the shop and pretended to be fixing the forge.”