But it was empty. The waiting caller had left without a word.
Nick, calling the servant, inquired if she had seen the caller leave, but she had not, nor could she give any information.
Pursuing his inquiries, all that he could learn was that a moment after Mrs. Carter was seen to enter the front door an elderly-appearing man had darted from it and had gone down the street, hastily, to the west.
Satisfied that a spurious Mr. Cary had called on him that morning, and that the genuine Mr. Cary had accosted his wife in the drug store, Nick returned to his room to await the arrival of his assistants, Chick, Patsy and Ida.
CHAPTER II.
THE WAY OF THE ROBIN.
Nick’s passage to the Zetler Bank to see the real Mr. Alpheus Cary was in the nature of a procession.
He had been impressed with the idea that the caller who had announced himself as Mr. Alpheus Cary, had, by some means, come to know that the real Mr. Cary was in the neighborhood, and had fled because of that.
His fleeing seemed to Nick to suggest that in some way this person was either the Brown Robin or some one connected with that person.
The audacity of the effort to impersonate Cary in an interview with Nick further suggested that the person had much confidence in his own skill, and was rather conceited about it.
He thought it probable that he would be put under observation in his next attempt to leave the house.