The fires were now burning brightly in the great detective’s eyes.  
“I’m of the opinion that this note isn’t more than a few hours old,” he said, tapping the paper signed by Stone. “The ink is still fresh, and, besides, there’s the date—the twenty-fifth.”
 
“What of that?” demanded the cashier. “The check is also dated to-day.”
 
“But it wasn’t made out to-day.”
 
“Still, I don’t see what you’re driving at. The check may have been dated ahead, and when the time approached for presenting it, Follansbee might have asked for the note to present along with it.”
 
“Doubtless that’s what happened, but what I’m getting at is this:
 
“This note purports to have been written at the Hotel Windermere on the twenty-fifth—to-day. I happen to know, however, that Stone hasn’t been at the hotel since about three o’clock this morning, and I’m pretty well aware of the manner in which he was occupied while he was there. It isn’t likely that he wrote this note between midnight and three o’clock, and even if he did do so, it isn’t probable that he would have dated it to-day. Under such circumstances a man would jot down the date of the day before, nine times out of ten.”
 
“Then you think that the note was written after he left the hotel?”
 
“I do, and I believe that the paper was thoughtfully given to him for the purpose, after having previously been removed from the hotel. That in itself is suspicious. It suggests a plot, and it, together with the character of the writing, hints that the note was written under pressure, or that Stone was not himself when he scribbled it. You can see the difference between the note, signature and all, and the signature on the check. The latter is big and bold and careless, but the note, although obviously written in the same hand, is tremulous and betrays agitation.”
 
Expert as he was, Carter was a little astray there. He was not in a position to know that the agitation revealed had been due not to any threats of Follansbee’s, but to the fact that Stone had been sane once more when he wrote it, and was suffering from the effects of his recent alarm and remorse.
 
As for his reasoning concerning the date on the note, it was sound enough in general, but the fact was the note had been written at Follansbee’s, and that one of the doctor’s servants, before retiring for the night, had torn off the sheet on the top of the pad calendar on the desk. That bearing the date of the[168] twenty-fourth, had consequently gone into the waste basket, and the following date had been revealed in anticipation of the next day. Stone had glanced at this, and mechanically copied it.
 
“Then you think that this check and note were written under undue influence?” queried the cashier.
 
Nick nodded emphatically.
 
“There isn’t the slightest doubt about it,” he answered. “As a matter of fact, Stone has been suffering for months from some obscure mental trouble, and that is what took him to Doctor Follansbee.”
 
“Is it possible!” whispered the bank official. “That’s very unfortunate. We couldn’t be expected to know that, though; and, after all, I hardly see what other course we could have followed.”
 
“Oh, that’s all right,” Nick assured him. “The bank can’t be blamed. It was an unusual proceeding, but you had ample justification for honoring the check, and you did what you could to get hold of Stone or his partner before doing so.”
 
A relieved look spread over the cashier’s face.
 
“I’m glad to hear you say that, Mr. Carter,” he declared gravely. “Both the president and vice president are out of town, and this thing is up to me. As a matter of fact, it seems to me that Mr. Stone oughtn’t to have been allowed to handle so much money if he’s in the state you say he is. We’re not alienists, and we would never have expected such a thing. Besides, the check would not have been honored had it not been made out to a man of such prominence who personally vouched for the proceeding, as he did over the telephone.”
 
“I understand,” Nick said consolingly. “Don’t worry about your end of it. I think I can promise you that there won’t be any comeback. It’s up to me, though, to repair the damage, if I can. I had come to fear something of this sort in the last few hours, but Follansbee has stolen a march on me. I don’t think his methods do any very great credit to his undoubted shrewdness, though, and the evidence you have to offer ought to be enough to make it hot for him.”
 
He left a few minutes later, after promising to keep the bank informed of developments.
 
“Follansbee has made the haul of his life,” Nick thought, as he paced along the busy street on his way back to the hotel; “and evidently Crawford wasn’t his only victim.”
 
When he reached the Windermere, his first act was to inquire if Stone had returned or if anything had been heard from him.
 
“Nothing doing,” was the clerk’s answer. “We’re somewhat alarmed, Mr. Mortimer. We don’t see how he could have left his room without the knowledge of the floor clerk.”
 
Nick looked about and saw there was no one else within earshot. He leane............