CHAPTER XXVTHE TRUTH AT LAST
While Chick and Patsy and Ida had been engaged on their various branches of the work, Nick had been busy in following up some clues that had drifted into his hands.
So that, with what his assistants had discovered and reported to him, he had come to learn the full story of the relation of Ellison to Mrs. Ladew and of Mrs. Ladew with Jimmy Lannigan. And, when Ida reported the results of her interview with Miss Rainforth, Nick realized that the rest of the story could be pieced out by Mrs. Ladew, if he could induce her to talk.
Without delay, then, he had hurried at once to Philadelphia, and had followed Mrs. Ladew to the department store where she met Lannigan.
Believing from what he had learned of Mrs. Ladew that she would not talk to him willingly, he had
