at down under a big tree. In a few minutes a
farmer's wagon came along. A young man, who looked like a farm laborer,
was riding beside the farmer. He did not ride far beyond the place where
Nick was sitting. In a few minutes they sat together under the tree. The
young farm laborer was Patsy.

"I got your message," said Patsy. "I took the chance to ride over from
the station with that fellow, and I've asked him a few questions about
the house where you want me to go on duty. It seems that there's no show
to get in there on any pretext. I'll have to camp around on the outside
like a grass-eater."

"That won't hurt you, Patsy, my lad," said Nick. "The weather's good.
You're to keep an eye on the whole household, but on Miss Stevens
especially.

"This is the way the case looks at present: The girl is doing the work
on this end in connection with some confederate concealed in Colonel
Richmond's house.

"You understand the game. It's to work the spirit racket on Colonel
Richmond until he buys the jewels from his daughter or her husband, and
gives them to Miss Stevens.

"You must watch for the system by which she communicates with her
confederate in Richmond's house. They work the mails, but there must be
some quicker means to use in emergencies.

"Try to snare a letter, or get a sight of the other party.

"And be sure not to jump at conclusions, Patsy. I've told you how the
case looks, but it may be any other way. I haven't begun to work down to
it yet."

Nick mounted his horse, and Patsy strolled away in the direction of the
Stevens house.

When the detective got back to Colonel Richmond's, it was well along in
the afternoon.

He spent the remainder of his day in exploring the secret recesses of
the old house. It was, indeed, a marvelous place, and Nick got a very
high opinion of the ingenuity of the man who had designed its mysterious
passages.

He got little else, however. One or two discoveries he certainly made.
They were important as indicating that somebody had recently been in the
secret passages.

There was nothing to show what that person had been doing there, but the
probability was, of course, that he had concealed himself in the old
part of the house while preparing for his operations in Mrs. Pond's
room, or while escaping from them.

These indications were very vague, and did not point to the principal in
this affair--that mysterious thief who worked invisibly and by such
strange methods.

A