departs with him, you then may leave the couple to me. I'll be waiting
for them at the stage door."

"Right you are, Nick. So here goes!"

Shrewd deductions, indeed, those of Nick Carter.

Plainly enough, Garside was quite justified in his apprehension that
Rufus Venner had barked up the wrong tree.




CHAPTER V.

BEHIND THE SCENES.


Nick Carter had a double object in the work laid out for that night. If
Señora Cervera was indeed in league with the Kilgore gang, and in any
way responsible for the diamond robbery, Nick was resolved to secure
positive evidence of it.

While her letter to Venner appeared to implicate her, since it had taken
him from his store just at the time of the robbery, it seemed hardly
probable that this brilliant Spanish girl, whose extraordinary grace and
whirlwind dances had made her the talk of the town, could be identified
with a gang of criminals notorious the world over. Yet the bare
possibility existed, and Nick never ignored even the shadow of a clew.