arry is going to send for them?"

"Didn't you hear her say so?" was the rejoinder; and then, when Nick
laughed softly, Handsome turned on him with fury, and would have seized
him had he not suddenly recalled the fact that his own strength was no
match for that of the man beside him.

But his anger disappeared as quickly as it came, and he joined in the
laugh.

"I gave it away that time, didn't I?" he said. "You were too cute for
me, Dago. But it is dangerous knowledge, Dago. I'll tell you that."

"You didn't give it away," replied Nick. "Any fool would have known that
the woman was Hobo Harry."

"Then there are a lot of fools in the outfit. You're wrong, Dago. Lots
of 'em don't suspect it. They think only that she is Hobo Harry's wife,
or sister, or sweetheart, or something like that. There isn't half a
dozen of us who really know for certain that Black Madge is Hobo Harry.
And there! I've let the cat out of the bag again. But you're all right.
It won't do no harm to tell you."

"Not a mite," replied Nick; but he chuckled noiselessly all the same.
That last admission made by Handsome was worth hearing.

"Black Madge, eh?" he was thinking to himself. "Now I know why it was
that there was something so strikingly familiar about the woman. Black
Madge, eh? Well, well, who would have supposed that?"

For Black Madge was a character well known in the criminal world, and to
the police, although very little was known about her really. There was a
picture in the Rogues' Gallery in New York that purported to be of her;
but Nick knew now that it was not.

Nevertheless, he remembered that once upon a time he had seen Black
Madge, who was the daughter of a Frenchwoman by an Italian father; Black
Madge, who had already made an unenviable record for herself on both
sides of the ocean.

It was a long time before that when Nick Carter saw her. She was only a
grown-up child at that time, but she was already a hardened criminal,
nevertheless; and he recalled now the circumstance of his meeting with
her.

It was in Paris. He had gone to the prefecture of police to see the
chief of the secret service, who was awaiting him, and had found the
girl in the room with the chief, who was engaged in questioning her
closely in reference to a crime that had been committed, and because it
was thought that she knew the parties concerned. But she had given no
information, and had been allowed to go; and after her departure the
chief had sa