The pedestrian was Cooper Silwood, alias James Russell, but it was in the latter character he now appeared.
"What is he doing here?" Silwood asked himself. "Is it a mere accident, or has he discovered something? I must follow him and see where he goes—that may afford an indication of his business here."
And as he shadowed Gilbert from a safe distance, and pondered the reason for his being in St. Paul, his keen intelligence told him more and more insistently that Gilbert's visit to St. Paul was concerned with him. Any doubt he had was dissipated when he saw Gilbert enter the building in which were situated the offices of Hankey's Private Detective Agency.
"How much does he know?" wondered Silwood. "How does he know it? What mistake have I made? what loophole left? I believed myself absolutely safe; but now.... Well, St. Paul is no place any longer for me. I must leave it at once, and go on to Winnipeg, and hide myself somewhere on the prairies of the North-West."
After a very short time, Gilbert reappeared and retraced his steps to the Merchant's Hotel, whither Silwood, still at a safe distance, followed him.
"This is where he is stopping," thought Silwood, as he observed Gilbert pass into the hotel.
Then Silwood walked rapidly away.
Gilbert had met with a second disappointment. On calling at Hankey's Agency, he had been told Hankey himself had that morning been summoned on urgent business to Minneapolis, and would not return till the evening, when he would make a point of coming round to the Merchant's. There was therefore nothing for it but to wait.
Late in the evening Hankey came.
"I am sorry I am so late, but I could not help it!" he exclaimed. "I have come straight to you from Minneapolis, without going to my office first, as I knew you must be anxious to see me. Sorry I could not come sooner, but it was an important case—defaulting bank president and cashier."