“Good again.”
“Yet I’m infernally mystified——”
“Oh, I’ll explain all a little later, my boy.”
“Then we’ll dust from here at once, sir, for Gerry——”
“Stop a bit,” said Nick. “Not too fast. I wish it to appear that you have fled, as you very likely would have done if you were guilty of Kendall’s murder. No, no, don’t stop to question me. I’ll make it clear enough to you by and by.”
“Very well, sir,” cried Royal, now glad enough to comply. “You just tell me what to do, Detective Carter, and I’ll do it.”
“First put things in shape here, as if you had hurriedly departed,” said Nick. “It will be very easy for Gerry and the police to assume that you had some hand in the crime, and that you have now jumped the country. I’ll loan you this disguise, that you may not be recognized as we go out, and then we’ll make a bee-line for my residence. Once there, my boy, we may discuss the situation without fear of intruders. Come, come, look lively. The sooner we are away, lad, the better.”
Not much time was required for preparing the indications of hurried flight which Nick wished the room to present, and at the end of a quarter of an hour the two men left the Carleton Chambers building, Royal in the disguise with which Nick had provided him, and together they at once proceeded to the detective’s residence.
Upon entering his office with Royal, Nick met with a slight surprise, not entirely unexpected, yet not anticipated quite so soon.
With a significant wink, Chick received him with the remark: