CHAPTER VII.
THE DEEPER MYSTERY.Nick Carter was puzzled.
His interview with Madame Victoria had, in a way, left him on the rocks.
He could not account for the knowledge which, in indirect and equivocal terms, she had displayed. It plainly indicated that she had from some source received information concerning him and his business designs, as well as about the losses he had suffered in his encounter with the highwayman.
Had this information really been derived through the occult powers of which the woman claimed to be possessed?
Nick Carter was not ready to believe that it had, for he had but little faith in the supernatural.
On the other hand, any natural explanation seemed equally difficult.
“My intended visit to her rooms was known to only three persons by whom she could have been
