Part 29 (2/2)

”Anything!” exclaimed Drew, recovering himself with a tossing shrug of his shoulders. ”Anything? Everything! The man we want is----”

”Found?” breathed Loris clutching Nichols' arm.

”Not yet--but _very_ soon!” said the detective with sanguine eyes. ”We want that trouble-hunter, Delaney,” he added gathering in the details for action as he spoke. ”You'll have to hurry right over to the address and see if you can round him up. If he isn't there--get him! I want him brought here at once. He's got much to explain!”

”I'll go right now,” said Delaney, starting toward the reception room.

”Wait,” said Drew.

Delaney turned at the portieres.

”Don't phone me here,” the detective warned. ”Don't do anything by telephone. We're on the trail of a man or men who can tap wires. He or they may have a confederate in this house. Be careful--get your suspect and bring him here. We'll try him with the footprints. We'll check up with the fingerprints. Then, if he don't cave in, we'll turn him over to Fosd.i.c.k and the Third Degree. I firmly believe that Albert, whom I saw in the library and who was in this house in the early afternoon of this day, is implicated in the murder. Strange that I never suspected him.”

”I'm going!” growled Delaney, tearing his eyes away from Loris and glancing through the curtains. ”I'm right after him, Chief. I won't stop till I get him, either.”

”If you don't make it in thirty minutes,” said Drew glancing sharply at his watch, ”if you don't make it by then--come back here. Perhaps something will have turned up in the meantime. Get that?”

”Sure, Chief! Good-by!”

Delaney had pa.s.sed through the portieres, crossed the reception room and pressed aside the tapestries leading to the hallways, before Drew stepped to the broad doorway and motioned for Loris and Nichols to take their former positions. He waited until they were seated with their faces in the shadow cast by the overhead silken hangings. He spoke then, and to the point.

”This case,” he said, thrusting his hands in his coat pockets and striding back and forth. ”This case is clearing clue by clue. The trouble-man, whom some one let into the house this afternoon, is the missing link in the chain of circ.u.mstance and applied deduction. Who let him in?”

”I did!”

Drew stopped in his stride. ”You, Nichols?” he questioned sharply. ”Why did you let him in?”

”Because I asked Harry to,” defended Loris with heat. ”I heard the bell ring. I sent the maid downstairs. She came back and told me that a man from the telephone company was waiting to look over the connections.

She said that he said that there was trouble with the wires.”

”I don't believe it!” exclaimed Drew; ”that is,” he added hastily, ”I don't believe there was anything the matter at all. In the light of what Delaney has told me, that fellow came here last night, when some one else named Frosby or Frisby was sent. Now why would he want to take another's place? For one reason only--the same reason that he came here this afternoon. This reason concerns your future health and security.

We had one death in this house which followed his first visit. We don't want anything to happen after his second visit.”

”You are right, Mr. Drew,” said Nichols. ”I was careless. I went down stairs and talked with the fellow. It was just a few minutes after I arrived from downtown. He seemed so plausible that I asked the Central Office Detective at the door, who gave the permission. It was all my fault, I guess.”

”Where did this fellow go? What did he do in the house?”

”He went into the library and tested the phone there. The connection seemed to be all right. Then he went down stairs and tested the butler's 'phone. The butler had been taken as a material witness by Fosd.i.c.k. I followed the man. He didn't do anything but test and then talk with Franklin Official--I think it was.”

”Are you sure he talked over the phone? It's ridiculously easy for a person to hold down the hook and make believe they are talking to most anybody.”

”I don't know about that, Mr. Drew,” said the captain, turning toward Loris. ”Did he talk to anybody when he used this 'phone, Miss Stockbridge?”

”I believe so, Harry. I really thought he did.”

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