Part 27 (1/2)

”I don't know--you see, it's this way. Gladwin and I only found it out this afternoon--quite by accident. And we decided to save her.”

”That's enough--stop!” cried Mrs. Burton. ”You're talking all this nonsense to detain us. But I won't stay a minute longer. Come, Sadie, we will go to the police station. I'll never rest until I have that monster in jail.”

And with another dagger glance at Barnes she swept her niece and herself out of the room and out of the house to the waiting automobile.

Barnes gripped his forehead in both hands to steady his reeling brain.

”Isn't that just like a woman,” he complained. ”After explaining explicitly she's going to have him arrested. But, by Jove! I must find Travers and warn him that the police are on his track.”

Seizing his hat and stick he rushed out into the night, just in time to see Mrs. Burton's--or rather Jabez Hogg's--big car glide away from the curb and shoot down the avenue like a vast projectile.

CHAPTER XXV.

PHELAN MEETS HIS UNIFORM AGAIN.

About the time the Gladwin mansion was ringing with the shrill staccato outbursts of Mrs. Elvira Burton, the owner of that luxurious dwelling was leaning against the Central Park wall a few blocks away engaged in earnest conversation with a small boy.

”You ought to be in bed,” the young man was saying, severely, looking down at the lad and noting how thinly he was clad and yet how little he appeared to suffer from the sting of the chill night air.

”Bed nuttin',” responded the boy, curtly. ”I'm lookin' fer me dog. Did yez seen him go by--he's a t'oroughbred an' lost one ear battlin' with a bull.”

”Oh, so you're her brother, then,” laughed Gladwin.

”Who's brudder?” asked the boy, suspiciously.

”May's,” said Gladwin, ”or I should say the brother of Miss May Henny.”

”Hully gee!” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the boy. ”Did dat kid skin out too after me an' the old man tellin' her to stay in bed an' shut up her bellerin?”

”Yes,” said Gladwin, ”and the young lady, with my aid, found the valuable animal you are searching for--a black dog with a white spot over the right eye and no tail.”

”Hully gee!” cried the boy, ecstatically. ”She found him, eh? Well, who'd a-t'ought it, an' me lookin' fer him tree hours. Where did she find him, officer? His name's Mike--named after me old man's boss what bites nails.”

”We found him in the park in company with a disreputable friend,” said Gladwin.

”A yaller mut?” asked the boy, with a contemptuous emphasis on the _mut_. ”Dat's the janitor's dog an' he's nottin' but a tramp. I wisht he'd fall in de river an' get et by a catfish.”

”I wouldn't wish him all that hard luck,” laughed Gladwin, ”for he had a large bone he was sharing with Mike. I was watching them over the park wall when May came along. I sent them all, and the bone, home in a taxicab.”

”In a which?” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the boy, while his eyes popped.

”In a taxi,” said Gladwin, lightly.

”Aw, say,” and the little chap's jaw fell, ”now I know you're kiddin'.

Where'd May git the price of a taxi, an'”----

”Oh, I arranged all that,” the uniformed mystery explained rea.s.suringly, ”and if you'd like I'll call one for you. You look pretty tired. I guess you've walked a good many miles on the trail of Mike.”

The youngster tried to speak, but could not. The very thought of a ride in a taxicab froze his brain. Gladwin took him by the hand and led him to the curb.