Part 24 (1/2)

”For G.o.d's sake, what's the matter?” cried Morgan.

By this time Marsh had recovered his calm and easy manner. ”I had a visitor,” he said, smiling, and slipping his automatic back into his pocket. ”Come in.”

The two men pa.s.sed through to the living room and Marsh closed the door and followed.

”Where did he go?” asked Morgan, as Marsh entered the room.

”There it is,” said Marsh, contemptuously, nodding toward Newman.

Morgan and Tierney hurried to the man and straightened him out on his back. Newman was still too dazed to do more than roll his eyes at them.

”'Baldy' Newman!” exclaimed Morgan, looking up at Marsh. ”How did you get him?”

Marsh briefly explained the incident. ”And what beats me,” he concluded, ”is how he got by the policeman at the door.”

”By a well-laid plan, Marsh. We were talking about it to the patrolman when the shooting began. That was the first we realized what the scheme had been.”

”What was it?” inquired Marsh. ”I thought I heard a couple of shots sometime ago, but as nothing seemed to happen afterward, I concluded it was just somebody's tire.”

”You heard shots, all right,” returned Morgan. ”It seems that an auto stopped on Lawrence Avenue in front of the alleyway. Someone in the car fired two shots at the policeman on guard there. He immediately started for the car, and the man in front, who had also heard the shots, joined him. Naturally the car was out of sight before they had run half a block, and so they returned to their posts. They didn't even get the number of the license, although I suppose it would have been of little use if they had. When you look those things up you generally find that the car has been stolen from some respectable citizen.”

”Tierney and I arrived just after the patrolmen got back to the building, and the man in front told us about it. I was puzzled over just what the game was until we heard the shooting up here. Then I guessed that they had only drawn off the policemen so as to let someone get in, so Tierney and I beat it up the stairs as fast as we could. When you took so long to answer the door, we thought you were gone, sure.”

”Well, the little rat did have me wondering for a few minutes,”

admitted Marsh. ”If he had really come to kill me I think he could have got me, all right. But the fact was, he just came to warn me, and intended to use his gun only as a last resort. Under such circ.u.mstances, if you can only keep them talking long enough, they get careless. You can see what happened to 'Baldy' because he stayed too long.”

”He'll have a long stay somewhere else now,” commented Tierney, cheerfully.

”And we'll make him talk same more before we get through with him,”

declared Morgan.

”There is one thing I want to ask of you, Morgan,” said Marsh. ”Get him out of here as quietly as you can, and don't let the news get into the papers. We don't want the people who sent him to know exactly what has happened. Just let them wonder for a day or two.”

”I get your point,” answered Morgan. He then went to the telephone and called the patrol wagon, impressing upon the man at the other end of the wire, the need for secrecy, and instructing him to have the patrol drive up the alley back of the house.

”Now,” said Morgan, as he turned from the telephone, ”I suppose you want to hear about the information I was to get for you.”

”Yes,” replied Marsh. ”Were you able to get it?”

”All that's worth knowing,” returned Morgan. ”I turned Tierney loose on this man Nolan, and looked up Hunt myself. You can dismiss Nolan from the case at once. He has a job as chauffeur with a big business man in Milwaukee, and hasn't been in Chicago for a month. At one o'clock last Tuesday morning he was bringing this man and his wife home from an affair at the man's club. Someone simply impersonated Nolan.”

”Now, about Hunt. I found that he started to work for Merton as his confidential secretary about five years ago. Merton apparently thought a good deal of him, and gradually put more and more of his business into his hands. About a year ago, he made Hunt his general manager, and Hunt has practically been running the entire business ever since. People in the financial district seem to consider Hunt a fine fellow. What he was doing before he went with Merton I have been unable to find out in such a short time.”

”I cannot say that this information helps us out very much,” said Marsh. ”Your news about Nolan simply confirms the idea I already had--that the Nolan message was a trick. I dug up some information today which looks like the best clue we have had so far. I think that by tomorrow afternoon we'll close in on the men we want.

Telephone me at twelve o'clock tomorrow, Morgan, and I will tell you just what to do.”

At this moment they heard pounding on Marsh's back door.

”I guess that's the wagon, Tierney,” said Morgan. ”Let them in.”