Chick immediately recalled Nick's instructions--that the couple should
now be left to him.




CHAPTER VI.

A SHOT IN THE DARK.


It was nearly eleven o'clock when Rufus Venner and Cervera, the latter
enveloped in a voluminous black cloak, emerged from the stage door of
the theater.

As they made their way through the paved area leading out to the side
street, where a carriage was awaiting them, a sturdy, roughly clad
fellow in a red wig and croppy beard suddenly slouched out of a gloomy
corner near the stage stairway and followed them, with movements as
stealthy and silent as those of a cat.

As the carriage containing Venner and the dancer rapidly whirled away,
this rough fellow darted swiftly across the street, and approached a
waiting cab, the door of which stood open.

"After them, Patsy!" he softly cried, as he sprang in and closed the
door.

The driver of the cab was one of Nick Carter's youthful yet exceedingly
clever assistants, and the rough fellow was Nick himself.