CHAPTER IX.
CHANCE PLAYS INTO GORDON’S HANDS.The newspaper proprietor nodded gloomily in response to Gordon’s question.
“Yes,” he answered, “Simpson disappeared four days ago.”
“Has he a family?”
“A wife.”
“And she knows nothing about him, or professes to know nothing?”
“I feel sure she’s as much in the dark as we are.”
“Perhaps—perhaps not,” murmured the bogus detective, joining the tips of his fingers as he had seen Nick do. “Please tell me now how the fellow managed to get hold of the money, to get it out of the bank or banks in which it had been deposited to the credit of the fund. Surely, his wasn’t the only signature required, was it? The checks drawn against the fund must have been countersigned by some one else?”
“They were—by Mr. Driggs, the vice president of our organizat
