“He seems to be going out again,” the detective commented mentally. “And in that case, I’d better go ahead again.”
He stepped back from the window, hurriedly snapped on the electric lights, and secured his own hat and walking stick. That done, he left the room, locked the door behind him, and made for the stairs. No one followed, and he concluded that something had delayed Stone.
The detective slowed down and leisurely entered the lobby. He seated himself there after buying a paper at the news stand; but ten minutes passed without any sign of James Stone.
“What is keeping him?” he wondered. “Can it be that he sneaked out through one of the other entrances?”
The thought was a disagreeable one, and Nick decided to put it to the test at once, without further delay. He climbed the stairs once more, hurriedly entered his own room, and crossed to the window.
A glance to the right told him that his suspicion was well founded. There was no light in Stone’s room now, and it was obvious that the tall miner had left.
An exclamation of annoyance broke from Nick Carter’s lips.
“I didn’t give him credit for so much cunning,” he thought. “But hanged if I see why he should have felt it necessary to skulk away in that fashion. It can’t be possible that he suspects me, and I don’t know of any reason why Crawford should not know of his going out.”
He concluded on the whole that it was probably an evidence of the instinctive slyness of the mentally affected, and nothing more. Further, he concluded that Stone had probably turned along the corridor in the other direction, used the servants’ stairs, and left by one of the side exits. Of course, it was possible that his demented brain had urged him on to the use of the fire escape. The more he thought about it, the more he became convinced that the latter supposition was nearer the truth. It would be just like a man in Stone’s condition to resort to such a ruse.
The miner’s disappearance had been a great disappointment to the detective. When he had discovered from the shadows on the drawn shade that Stone was going out, his hopes had risen. He had counted on following the man and getting some line on his movements, but now that was out of the question.