CHAPTER X.
THE ANCHOR TO WINDWARD.As he had stated to his assistants before leaving the Adams House that morning, Nick Carter hastened down to State Street to see what he could learn about Amos Badger.
With his wide acquaintance and friendly relations with the bankers and brokers, both in New York and Boston, it was an easy matter for Nick to ascertain, without disclosing his motives, the facts which he aimed to discover.
He learned from perfectly reliable sources that Badger, who had no partner in business, was heavily long of stocks in the market, a market that had been steadily declining for months; also, that his loan-account on this class of collateral had been repeatedly subjected to calls for additional margins, which were known to have been met only with considerable difficulty
