"When you knabbed me I was shadowing Mershone, who has made away with a prominent society young lady." "Oh, he has, has he ?" chuckled Big Bill, and his companion laughed so gleefully that he attracted Fogerty's attention to himself.
"Ah, I suppose you are one of the two men who lugged the girl off," he remarked; "and I must congratulate you on having made a good job of it.
Isn't it curious, by the way, that the fellow who stole and hid this girl should be the innocent means of revealing her biding place ?" The two men stared at him blankly.

The car, during this conversation, had moved steadily on, turning this and that corner in a way that might have confused anyone not perfectly acquainted with this section of the city.
"What d'ye mean by that talk, Fogerty ?" demanded Big Bill.
"Of course it was Mershone who stole the girl," explained the detective, calmly; "we know that.

But Mershone is a clever chap.

He knew he was watched, and so he has never made a movement to go to his prisoner.

But he grew restless in time, and when he met you, yesterday, fixed up a deal with you to carry me away, so he could escape." Big Bill looked uncomfortable.
"You know a lot, Fogerty," he said, doggedly.
"Yes; I've found that human nature is much the same the world over," replied the detective.