“Yes, that’s my name. But, really, I don’t recall you, neither your face nor your name.”

“Oh, yes, you do,” said Nick, with a rather impressive nod. “You just think a bit, and you’ll presently speak it.”

“Dear me, is that so?” queried the girl, in tones of insolence. “Ah, now that I look again, I believe I do. You are Detective Carter, are you not?”

“Right!”

“I saw you in Mr. Gilsey’s office yesterday, did I not?”

“Right again, Miss Braddon. And there’s a question I wish you to answer.”

“Indeed?”

“Why did you tell Moses Flood that Kendall was short in his accounts?”

Nick asked the question in a way that sent the color from the girl’s cheeks, and her eyes betrayed that he had hit the nail on the head.

Yet Miss Braddon flushed hotly after a moment and curtly said, with a resentful frown: