Handing the servant his card he waited in the hall, and presently she came back asking him to step into the library.
This the detective did, and in a few moments he stood face to face with Lamont.
He had seen the nabob on several occasions, but he seemed to have greatly aged in a short time and his face looked haggard and pale.
Lamont looked up at his visitor and tried to place him, but failed.
“I don’t know you,” said he, glancing down at the detective’s card, which he held in his hand.
Carter, who had taken a chair opposite the man, said in his peculiar tones:
“I am a detective. I have come here on a matter of business which may concern you.”
“I am at a loss to know how.”
“In the first place, sir, are we alone?”
“Entirely so.”