Nick Carter was right as to Chick’s condition. He had seen at a glance that he was not dead. He quickly noticed, too, the sleeve drawn up above his right wrist, exposing part of the arm, and he immediately joined Patsy and pointed to a tiny puncture in the white skin.

“He has been drugged,” said he, with an indignant ring in his subdued voice. “That’s the prick of a hypodermic needle.”

“Surely,” muttered Patsy. “But how did they contrive to get him and the——”

“Don’t ask me how. It’s useless to speculate,” Carter interrupted. “They shall pay dear for it, nevertheless, take my word for that. Is there a physician in the house, Mr. Vernon?” he added, turning to the astonished manager.

“Yes, there is,” was the hasty reply. “Doctor Percy. His suite is on this floor.”

“Bring him as quickly as possible,” the detective directed. “Tell him that stimulants will be needed to counteract a drug, but don’t create a stir or cause any excitement. There is no occasion to arouse the house. He soon can revive this man.”

Carter had no doubt of it after a hasty examination, and in a very few minutes Doctor Percy came in and set to work over the unconscious detective, applying such restoratives as the case seemed to require.

In the meantime, with Patsy at his elbow, Nick made a thorough inspection of the several rooms. He found a window in the bedroom unlocked, and on the platform of the fire escape he discovered, with the help of his search light, the faint tracks left by the masked man whom Chick had encountered about three hours before.

“How it was done, Patsy, now is quite obvious,” Carter said grimly. “Some one, probably more than one, was here in advance of Carter or entered about the same time. Chick was caught unawares, I think, and overcome by the rascals.”

“But how could they have anticipated his visit?” questioned Patsy perplexedly.

“They did not,” Nick replied. “They did, however, anticipate something else.”

“What was that?”

“That I would search these rooms, Patsy, and the same farsighted rascal who sent me the anonymous letter undertook to get in his work ahead of me.”

“By Jove, I guess that’s right, chief.”

“He knew that I would seek for any evidence that Todd might have left here, and he sent one or more of his gang to prevent me from getting it. They have succeeded, too, if Todd really left anything, for they have cleaned up completely.”

“Gee whiz! I should say so,” Patsy agreed. “They didn’t miss nook or corner.”

“It was the work of the same gang, but other members of it than you saw at the road house,” Carter added. “Their chief, or the director of these various steps, is certainly an infernally keen and farsighted knave. He not only discovered my identity and presence in Madison, but also has contrived to anticipate and balk my every important move. But I’ll finally get him and every mother’s son of them. We’ll not rest until we have run down the entire gang and——Ah, by Jove, that was Chick’s voice.”

They had been briefly talking in the bedroom, from which both hastened upon hearing the familiar voice, and they found Chick propped up against a chair, with his eyes open. He was responding rapidly to the stimulants given him, and he soon was able to clearly describe his encounter with the masked man.

Not until the following morning, however, being averse to discussing his suspicions in the presence of Vernon and the physician, and knowing that no further steps could be taken that night, did Carter express his views on the subject. He then was at breakfast with Patsy and Chick, the latter having entirely recovered from the effects of the drug.

“Your sudden collapse, Chick, and the sensations preceding it admit of only one explanation,” said Carter. “Your assailant was provided with a powerful storage battery, so ingeniously contrived and carried on his person that he could impart an overwhelming shock to an antagonist without incurring danger from the electric current.”

“That’s how I size it up,” Chick agreed. “The sensations were very convincing.”

“It could be accomplished with an ingenious arrangement of wires,” Carter added. “Having knocked you out, so to speak, and knowing you soon would throw off the effects of the brief shock, he immediately drugged you with a hypodermic injection, and then proceeded to deliberately do what I had sent you there to accomplish.”

“He got the best of me, all right,” Chick admitted.

“All this is very significant, however,” Carter said more earnestly. “The ingenuity displayed, this use of electricity, of drugs, of strange poisonous gas, with a knowledge how it can be administered so as to mysteriously cause death, as in Todd’s case, together with the similar circumstances in the remarkable robberies committed here, also in the cases of the four girls found unconscious in the hospital grounds—all evince a profound knowledge of such things, that of the one man by whom all of these crimes were devised and directed.”

“I agree with you,” Chick nodded, laying aside his napkin. “Only one man would probably be so well informed and knavishly original.”

“He is either a criminal genius or a madman whose perverted mind has turned to crime for profit and excitement. That man must be found, though we turn heaven and earth to discover his identity.”

Though he still had Doctor Devoll in mind as being the one whom several minor circumstances had led him to suspect, Carter did not once think of Professor Karl Graff, whom he had seen only for a couple of minutes when investigating the death of Gaston Todd, and whose appearance and deportment were in no degree impressive, to say nothing of inviting suspicion.

“Gee whiz!” Patsy exclaimed, replying. “It strikes me, chief, that that motor car is a clew worth following. We know that one of the two men at the road house killed Leary’s cat, and it’s dollars to fried rings that he is the man we want to identify. In spite of the false number plates used last night, I think I can run down that car, if I go on a still hunt for it.”

“Think you can, eh?” queried Carter tersely.

“I sure do,” said Patsy confidently.

“There are about a thousand cars of that type in Madison. You’ll do good work, Patsy, if you round up that particular one.”

“Good work is my long suit, chief,” Patsy earnestly argued. “You ought to know that.”

“So I do, Patsy.”

“Let me try, then. I’ll bet I can make good.”

“Very well,” Carter abruptly decided. “Set to work as soon as you like. In the meantime, Chick, I will see Chief Gleason and get cards for to-night. I want you to accompany me. If this master criminal, whoever he is, can put one over on us and get away with Mrs. Thurlow’s pearls, I’ll chuck my vocation and start a peanut stand.”

Nick arose from the table with the last, all having finished their breakfast, and Patsy was so eager to be off on the work he had voluntarily assumed and the outcome of which he had so confidently predicted that he hurried up to their suite in advance of the others, getting such articles as he required and leaving the house without further instructions.

Nick Carter sauntered into police headquarters about ten o’clock that morning, and found Chief Gleason in his private office.

“Too busy to see me?” he inquired carelessly when the chief looked up and then swung quickly around in his swivel chair.

“Too busy? I should say not!” he exclaimed, with a perceptible frown. “I was expecting to see you.”

“That so?” queried Nick, while he drew up a chair.

“Very much so,” Gleason said brusquely. “See here, Carter, what are you putting over on me?”

“Putting over on you?” Nick’s eyes narrowed slightly.

“Exactly.”

“I don’t quite get you, Gleason.”

“You ought to get me. Why haven’t I seen you since yesterday morning? Why haven’t you reported? In other words, Carter, what are you doing about this Todd murder and these other cases?”

“Oh, that’s it, is it?” said Nick, who had been wondering what was coming. “I had begun to fear there was something wrong. Putting over on you, eh? Did you really expect me, Gleason, to run in here every hour or two and report the progress of my work? That’s not my way of doing business.”

“I know, Carter; I know,” Gleason more quietly protested, warned by a subtle ring in the detective’s voice. “But we really have nothing on Paulding, nothing at all definite, nothing that warrants holding him in custody. It was upon your advice that we arrested him.”

“I guess you have made no mistake.”

“But——”

“He has not kicked against it, has he?”

“No, no, not exactly, yet——”

“Stop a moment,” Nick interrupted. “How long were you and your score of subordinates at work on these mysterious crimes before you sent for me?”

“Why, several months, as you know.”

“And accomplished nothing.”

“Why, nothing material.”

“Several months and nothing accomplished,” said Nick pointedly. “I have been in Madison only two days, Gleason, yet you expect me to begin turning in reports and possibly to have solved the problem that has baffled you for months. Don’t be foolish, Gleason. Rome was not built in a day.”

“But you might at least keep me informed now and then as to——”

“Nonsense!” Nick cut in again. “I’ll report, Gleason, when I have anything worth reporting, and not until then. If that doesn’t satisfy the Madison chief of police, I’ll chuck the whole business and hike back to New York.”

“No, no, don’t say that,” Chief Gleason quickly entreated. “I may have been a bit impatient, Carter, but only because of my anxiety concerning Paulding, who really is a very decent fellow. I don’t want to put him in wrong, you know.”

“I am the one who has done the putting, Gleason, and I will take all of the responsibility,” Nick replied. “But do not be impatient or needlessly anxious. There will be something doing sooner or later, and you shall know all about it.”

“Well, well, that ought to satisfy me, I suppose, coming from you,” Gleason said more agreeably. “I should have known better than to have questioned your judgment. Have you discovered anything worthy of mention?”

“Not yet, but I’m on the way,” the detective said evasively. “I can tell you nothing definite at present. Incidentally, however, I wish to attend the reception and ball of the National Guards this evening. I suppose you have been called upon to take the customary precautions.”

“Yes, indeed,” Gleason quickly nodded. “Ten of my men are to be there in plain clothes. It will be a swell affair, with much costly jewelry worn, no doubt, and we are taking unusual precautions.”

“Quite right,” Carter said approvingly. “I want you to get me two tickets and the necessary cards.”

“I can give them to you now.” Gleason opened a drawer in his desk. “I was supplied with a dozen, but need only ten. Here are the other two.”

“Good enough.” Nick slipped them into his pocket. “Say nothing about my going, by the way, for I don’t want that generally known. After this ball, Gleason, I may have something to report,” he said significantly, while he arose to go.