“Harry Boyden!  The clerk employed by Thomas Hafferman, the dealer in diamonds!”

CHAPTER IX.

Nick strikes A startling clew.

The mind of Nick Carter was, as he had remarked to Chick, stirred with a flood of questions not easily or quickly answered.

Who was this girl found dead in Central Park?

Had she, indeed, been foully murdered?  If so, by what mysterious means? 
What had been the object?  Who the perpetrator of the crime?

Or, on the other hand, was the evidence itself misleading, and had the unfortunate girl selected that sequestered seat in the park, and there deliberately committed suicide?  Even then, by what means had the deed been accomplished?  What had been the occasion?

What, moreover, had become of her companion at just that time?  Why had he deserted her?  What signified the pin-punctured wrapping paper, and the empty jewel casket, in the dead girl’s possession?

Had the casket contained jewels of great value?  Had the girl been robbed of them, and then foully murdered in some mysterious way?

Was Harry Boyden, the clerk employed by Hafferman, the last to leave the girl that fateful afternoon?  Was he responsible for her death?  Was robbery the incentive to the crime?

Or, on the other hand, had Boyden left the girl alive and well, and was the crime the work of another?

Or, finally, was there some strange and startling connection between this park murder and the robbery committed at Venner’s store?  Was there, between the two crimes, some extraordinary bond yet to be discovered—­some tie uniting the two misdeeds as if with links of steel?

These were some of the conflicting questions that occurred to Nick Carter that afternoon, and in order to consider them before taking any decided action in the matter, Nick had kept to himself his startling discoveries, and left Officer Fogarty to take the customary steps in the affair.

At seven o’clock that evening, while Nick and Chick were seated at dinner, and still engaged in discussing the conflicting circumstances, a message was received from police headquarters, informing Nick that the girl had been identified, and that Harry Boyden had been found and arrested.

“Very good,” observed Nick.  “We shall now get something to work upon.  I will go and question Boyden as soon as I finish my dinner.”

“By all means,” nodded Chick.

“Do you know,” said Nick, “I am seriously impressed that there is some strange connection between this girl’s death and that robbery at Venner’s store.  I believe that we have struck the very clew, or are about to strike it, that we so long have been vainly seeking.”

“To the Kilgore gang?”

“Exactly.”

“Egad, I hope so,” laughed Chick, with a grimace.  “I am beastly tired of nosing about on a scentless trail.”