“I’ve come in to arrest you,” quietly answered the old detective, as he showed his badge.  “I’m a detective, as you can plainly see, and the man I inquired about is a fugitive smuggler.  As you are aiding him to escape, by withholding the information I want, you must be an accessory of his.  As such, you’ll have to go to jail!”

The man wilted.

All his lordly, overbearing manners vanished.

Turning as pale as death and trembling like an aspen, he gasped tremulously: 

“For pity’s sake don’t lock me up.  I didn’t know the circumstances.”

“You’re an unmannerly dog.”

“I know it, sir.  I’m sorry if I offended you.”

“Promise me to act more civilly in future.”

“Yes.  Yes.  Certainly I shall.”

“Then I’ll let you go.  Let this be a lesson to you.  Now, where did he go?”

“He bought a ticket to New York.”

“Why didn’t you save all this bother by saying so in the first place?”

“I—­I—­I don’t know,” stammered the fellow in subdued tones.

Giving him a look of contempt, Old King Brady purchased a ticket for New York, and said in angry tones: 

“For two pins I’d notify the company what a brute you are, and have a gentleman put here in your place.”

And with this rebuke he departed.

He went to a telegraph office and flashed a message to the authorities of various stations along the line to New York, asking them to hold La Croix if they caught him on the cars.

He had to wait an hour for a train to Buffalo, and sent Harry a message telling where he was going.

Finally he was carried away in his train.

The old detective stopped off at every station to which he telegraphed, but in every instance he received the same answer, that nothing was seen of a man answering La Croix’s description.

That set the detective thinking.

“La Croix was probably keen-witted enough to suspect that we would find his trail and pursue him.  In order to conceal his identity he has doubtless disguised himself and thus passed through unrecognized.  He has got to dispose of that big lot of diamonds yet.  Carrying such a huge amount will of course attract a great deal of attention.  Therefore it should be an easy matter to find out where he is operating when he reaches New York.”

On the following day Old King Brady reached the city.

He instituted inquiries about La Croix at once in the jewelry district, but no one seemed to have seen him yet.

That did not worry Old King Brady.

He was too astute a man to be discouraged by a trifling rebuff.

“The villain is keeping shady,” was the conclusion he arrived at.  “He is going to let the fuss blow over before he exposes his stock.  Very foxy, no doubt, but I’m bound to land on him sooner or later.”

He did not relax his hunt.

Nor did he let on to the authorities that he was in town again.