In an easy-chair near the table, with a newspaper fallen across his knees, sat Rufus Venner, apparently sound asleep.
This was only a part of the game, however, for Venner was wide awake. By means of their secret wire, he had been informed of Cervera's arrival at the diamond plant, and of Kilgore's designs upon Nick, and Venner at that moment suspected that he might be under the eye of the detective.
For nearly half an hour Nick waited for some sign of this artifice, but Venner in no way betrayed it.
Presently a clock on the mantel struck the half after one, and the sound appeared to awake him. He yawned, glanced at the clock, then took the lamp from the table and went up to bed. But never so much as a glance toward the window.
Nick led Chick away, and they returned across the lawn to a point beyond the stable.
"It rather looks as if Cervera had been here, doesn't it?" inquired Chick, with a grin.
"Yes," admitted Nick. "Two facts are very significant of it. First, that Venner is at home on this particular night; and, second, that he should be asleep in his chair after midnight. It has a fishy look."
"That's my idea, Nick, exactly."
"Yet the way to prove it doesn't appear quite easy."
"Not just yet. But who occupies that house over yonder, where the roof shows above the trees?"