into Fifth Avenue.

There was a smile of subtle cunning, combined with cruel and malicious
determination, on Venner's dark face and he muttered under his breath,
as the store door closed upon Nick's imposing figure:

"Hear from you later, eh? Very good. Very good, indeed, Mr. Detective
Carter! Hear from you again--that is precisely what I want! Early and
often, Detective Carter; early and often, if you please! It is precisely
for what the little robbery of this April morning was invented!"

"But was it necessary--was it really necessary, Rufus?" whispered
Garside, who alone had overheard, and whose paler face and tremulous
figure betrayed fears which his swarthy senior partner would have
scorned to feel. "This Carter is a most artful and discerning man. I am
so afraid you have barked up the wrong tree. Was it necessary, really
necessary, Rufus?"

Venner turned upon him with a half-smothered snarl of contempt.

"Bah! You'd be afraid of your own shadow, Garside, if left alone with
it," he sneered, between his white, even teeth. "Necessary--of course it
was necessary! Otherwise, I should not have adopted the ruse. We are
about to attempt a big game--an infernally big game! When it matures,
when it is finally launched, the very first concern that finds itself
bitten will rush to Nick Carter for aid."

"There is no doubt of that, Rufus."

"Surely no doubt of it! He is the greatest detective in the country--and